On October 25th, the Antioch City Council will hold a public hearing in regard to several important matters.

First, consideration is to change the city’s priority for infrastructure – streets and sidewalks – from medium to high priority in the 2010-2015 Contra Costa Consortium Consolidated Plan, a document submitted to HUD that details needs and priorities for funding with federal funds.

The City will also consider amending the 2011-1012 Action Plan to include funding code enforcement in lower income areas with Community Dedevelopment Block Grant (CDBG) funding.

Note: The State of California provides annual funding to local law enforcement agencies to supplement law enforcement services. Monies are received by counties and disseminated to local jurisdictions. For the 2011/2012 allocation Antioch will receive an estimated $100,000 that will fund a percentage of one community Police Officer position.

Additionally, Council will make recommendations on 1) finalizing priority needs for funding in fiscal year 2012-2014 and 2) acceptance of the fiscal year 2010-2011 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report (CAPER) detailing the use of community block grant and Antioch Development Agency funds. Note these items were moved from a proposed public hearing on September 27 to the above date.

The primary purpose of the CDBG program is to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunities principally for persons of lower income. Funds are not given to individuals directly. The money funds nonprofit and public agencies to provide services and improvements.

It behooves Council to be wary of the agencies they grant money to. Just this week we learned about a elderly Pittsburg resident who unknowingly signed away control of her money and medical decisions to a caretaker referred to her by a small Antioch-based nonprofit called A-Maze-Ing.

To the editor:

I’m writing to express my thanks and gratitude to the community and organizations that came out in support for our “Hometown Hero” Wounded in Action Ssgt. Daniel Fye. The Fye family from Antioch would also like to express their gratitude, the love and support for their son, his wife and 4 children.

Ssgt. Fye has a long road in recovery and rehabilitation. He has been fitted with his prosthesis and is working hard at the Intrepid for Wounded Warriors in Texas with his wife and children. His Mother, father, sister and brother continue to go help out when they can. Thank you also to the newspapers and reporters for taking the interest in the Fye family, helping get the word out for support.

Thank you: VFW Post – 6435 Antioch, VFW Post 202 Brentwood, ALR – Post 161 Antioch, Lions Club – Antioch. The Winners Circle Western Wear – Sue & Fred Pederson, HUGO’s Bar, Roddy Ranch Golf Course, DJ Luna, Strumming for Vets. Vendors: Stella & Dot, AVON, & Michelle’s Photography. The Golden Hills Community Church, Orale Restaurant, Trader Joe’s, Melo’s Pizza, Road Kill Roy & cooking team, Mark Sanchez’s Ink’d up Tattoos, Markstein Beverage Co. & Raley’s. Donations of desserts and side dishes (too many to name). Mayor James & Susan Davis, Councilmember Gary & Robin Agopian, Representative Iris Obrigon, for Assemblymember Joan Bucahnan.

Thank you to all the many volunteers from East County Military Families & East County Veterans. Please continue to pray and support this family, Janis hopes that they will not forget the sacrifice that her son has made and all the other Troops fighting for our freedoms. Thank you, Antioch, there is greatness among us. Seek out the good and continue serving those who serve.

Respectfully,
Josie Monaghan
Founder ~ Director
East County Military Families & Friends

To the editor:

Businesses and organizations from all over California strongly support AB 361 (Huffman) Benefit Corporation legislation.

Benefit Corporation Legislation enables the development of a growing sector of the economy comprised of innovative businesses that seek to create benefit for society in addition to profit for shareholders. Business leaders in this new economy want the legal protection, currently not afforded under the California corporate code, to pursue a higher corporate purpose than simply maximizing shareholder value.

Importantly, companies seek to do far more than simply pick a single charity or environmental task to improve their image (often called “green washing”), but rather seek to improve the world we work in by creating high quality jobs that improve quality of life in our communities. Benefit Corporation Legislation contains the general public benefit provisions that ensure that consumers, investors, and policy makers can clearly distinguish companies who are pursuing a higher corporate purpose from those that are doing something more narrow for marketing purposes.

Benefit Corporation Legislation also provides additional accountability to shareholders by redefining the fiduciary duty of directors, requiring them to consider the impact of their decisions on the long term interests of society, not just the short term interests of shareholders, even when considering a sale of the business. To ensure increased transparency to shareholders and the public, Benefit Corporations are also required to assess their overall social and environmental performance against a third party standard.

By doing so, the company and all its stakeholders are made aware of how well the Benefit Corporation is doing relative to independent, credible, transparent, and comparable standards. Markets thrive on clarity and transparency, and these third party standards provisions create a level playing field and a more efficient and effective marketplace. They prevent the bad actors from simply cherry picking a few facts that are favorable for their image.

Benefit Corporation Legislation is now law in Maryland, Vermont, Virginia and New Jersey. Benefit Corporation Legislation has been introduced and is progressing rapidly in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Hawaii. It has attracted strong bipartisan support in every state, because it is entirely voluntary and has no budget impact
for more information and a short list of some companies supporting AB361 visit http://www.hansonbridgett.com/docs/practices_industries/Support_CA_Benefit_Corp_Legislation.pdf.

Join me and my friends. Let Gov. Jerry Brown and your Ca. Senator know you are in favor of AB361. I’m not often involved in state politics on this level. but this could bring about a paradigm shift in all of our quality of life. I believe in this!

Bob Driskell

To the editor:

The media is to be commended for continuing coverage of the thefts at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church. The church now suffers the dubious distinction of four copper-related incidents in two months. The irony is that the Parochial Administrator is the Chaplain for the Antioch P.D.

As is, the cameras have been stolen and thousands of dollars have been lost to air conditioners being cannibalized for copper residuals. Twice now, 500 feet of wire surrounding the building were taken; surge detectors and computer equipment damaged, this indignity on top of the wiring replacement If this were war, and it seems like it is, we’d call it collateral damage.

The rub of this all is that though St. Ignatius has taken more than its share of criminal abuse, there is a regional, if not national, epidemic of this thieving malady. Before we proceed, it must be noted that the first two quarter crime statistics were presented to the Antioch City Council last week by Police Chief Allan Cantando.

To everyone but the dregs of society, we are happy to see Antioch went down in homicides, armed robbery, aggravated assaults, auto thefts, etc. Every barometer, save one, burglary, showed progress. Some measures declined double-digit, despite a 30% drop in uniformed manpower. The Chief and our men and women in blue are doing extraordinary work. That good news and kudos needs to resound as well as a thank you to Antioch citizens who have risen to the occasion and been better eyes and ears of suspicious activity.

Burglary, then, is our current nemesis. It is clear that we live in tough times with extraordinarily desperate people in abundance. It is also clear that we are living in a brave new world with a moral landscape where schools and even churches are no longer sacrosanct.

Witness this: in just my informal comings and goings about town I have personally heard of four other Antioch churches that have been hit recently, three for copper, one, repeatedly, for their van battery and, lately, even for siphoned gas. This is not to mention the rash of churches that have been getting cars broken into during service, or the possible stories of scores of other churches I have not talked to.

As for schools, the Antioch suffered $78,000 in total loss and damage this summer due to copper thefts. That’s lost funding for a guidance counselor. Our deductible is $5,000 per incident so we generally eat the bill. Pittsburg Adult School, the site of my day job, lost three air conditioner units and had their security cameras ripped out – so this is becoming a broken record.

Frankly, it’s beginning to remind me of a third world country, When I lived in the Philippines you would pay someone to watch your parked car. That was a double insurance policy; covering for theft and insuring not getting keyed by the watcher themselves.

Talking about insurance, maybe we should follow what they do in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos were so often victims of kidnapping that many paid an insurance policy of sorts where they would pay gangs NOT to be kidnapped, sort of a pre-abduction plan. Here, the thieves get a measly few hundred dollars, at best, of copper while destroying costly air conditioners and wreaking electrical havoc. Maybe we should just pre-pay them, but excuse my jest. It’s gallows humor in a grisly situation where you gotta laugh or you’re gonna cry.

So what are we doing for prevention? Well at St. Ignatius, where I am a parishioner, we have been going through the permit cycle for an electric gated fence. Hopefully, the regulatory red tape quickly moves along. Now there are those who argue does a church want to look like a prison? I, for one, am not sure that if we choose an ornamental fence we’re talking prison aesthetics but, at this point, who cares? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs puts security first.

We, as others, are considering the full range of options: caged air conditioner units to slow the thieves down; increased patrols, alarmed cameras, recessed equipment, more sophisticated videoing devices, recording redundancy, camcorders hooking to home monitoring computers, underground cable.

As to the community; we need your help. Parents need to teach their kids good from bad. Neighbors need to be vigilant. If you live next to someone who is going out at strange hours and recycling, it’s worth a friendly call to the police. Most of these robberies occur between 3 to 5 a.m, so beware of strange occurrences. And as for recycling and salvage plants, shame on you if for the almighty dollar you are not checking sources.

If I weren’t such an eternal optimist I’d think America had gone to hell in a hand basket. Certainly, it has hit new moral lows as these acts are despicable. Not that robbery is ever excusable, but this is not General Motors the thugs are hitting. The damage done to houses of worship and to our kids’ schools for the measly return is sickening.

We know crime doesn’t pay. Eventually, the law of averages results in hooligans getting caught. I, for one, think, though, there is a worse reckoning coming that is not temporal, but divine. Science tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Good returns good, evil returns evil. Call it the eastern concept of karma or the western Judaic-Christian dictum that as you sow so shall you reap.

Biblical verse says “the wicked have no peace.” Evil-doers are always looking over their shoulder for the inevitable consequence, the cosmic boomerang. Thieves, recompense is inevitable. How foolish to sell your soul for gold– and to think, in this case, you are bartering your salvation for trivial copper.

By Walter Ruehlig
Antioch

In July, the Antioch City Council sent a letter to county Assessor Gus Kramer audaciously asking him to appear in person to explain why the latest property valuations show the city’s projected property tax revenues to be $850,000 less than expected. (Councilman Agopian queried why Brentwood values dropped 4.5% while Antioch’s dropped 7%.)

If I were Mr. Kramer, I would politely reply to their correspondence, but I would not appear in person. Here are some of the explanations I’d provide.

Proposition 8 mandated that homes’ assessed value must be temporarily reduced to their current market value during downturns. Certain areas of the state were harder hit than others. Compared with coastal areas with job centers, unemployment in our county remains high and all foreclosure activity for August was up by 9% from July.

As for the Brentwood vs. Antioch property values:

Fact is, a property’s value to a prospective buyer depends on 1) the condition of the property 2) the appearance of the neighborhood 3) proximity to retail, commercial and mass transit and the local school districts’ progress on the statewide Academic Performance Index (Antioch’s 2011 score was 731 vs. Brentwood Union’s 843).

Home values in Brentwood are higher than Antioch’s because the word is out – the Antioch Police force is understaffed and the city no longer has a code enforcement department due to the city’s anticipated decline in property tax revenues and sales tax revenues for the next fiscal year.

Because 70% of the city’s General Fund revenues go primarily toward personnel costs, the city implemented furloughs and layoffs, and negotiated concessions with employee bargaining groups (Antioch Police Officer Association situation still not resolved satisfactorily), all of which diminished services to the public. That’s just not appealing to folks looking to buy a home.

It may be hard for council to admit that Brentwood’s property values have held up better than Antioch, but facts tell otherwise. Sure, our city has assets that Brentwood doesn’t have, e.g., an underdeveloped waterfront with great potential and an e-BART station. However, our shopping centers, like the Safeway center on Deer Valley Road have numerous vacant stores, and I know for a fact that many of the business were purloined by the City of Brentwood.

As for those of us who have been able to hold onto our homes in this stagnant economy, we’ve appreciated the temporary decline in our property tax bills. We’re having to pay more for food, etc. despite government telling us the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which they revised, has not risen since the last cost of living adjustment was determined in 2008! Who are they kidding?

Letter to the Editor

Accountability, whose is it? Our school district is facing five areas of responsibility to our students and their parents. The area we cannot effectively control is the legislature. While it is out of control, however there are four areas we can have input on: the board of education, the district administration, the teachers and the students.

The board is elected to select the best qualified to run the district, hire teachers and guide the district through its accumulated experience in real world business, teaching models and overseeing operations. If our board doesn’t handle these functions well the whole district suffers.

Our input can be applied by voting in the best possible candidates and attending meetings where agendas of interest are held and speaking out. If our voices are not heard how can we expect to see change?

The district administration holds the responsibility to produce a curriculum that satisfies the Federal, state and local entities. They are responsible for teacher qualifications and upgrading them to stay current. The administration is supposed to be an efficient, on-budget operation that trims all the fat to produce a leaner profile.

The administration also assigns its principals and teachers to the schools where needed, but sometimes thinking that a good middle school administrator might bail out a high school, only find that administrator overwhelmed causing stress and perhaps the loss of a capable administrator.

Teachers hold the unique responsibility of forming our students’ minds and learning habits that will set them for life. In our current economic turmoil teachers are looking over their shoulders to see if they are next to be let go, perhaps at the expense of the “art” of teaching, that is to inspire their students. Teachers are not built-in baby-sitters but are to help build character and self esteem.

The students have their own responsibilities like being on time, doing homework, and focusing on the material being taught, not their neighborhood challenges. They need to learn to respect themselves when no one else does. They also need to know that there are other avenues to careers that don’t need college to start but, only their imaginations.

The responsibility for our students’ education is ultimately in our hands and we should be asking those who direct it, why doesn’t the system work any more?

Jack Yeager
Candidate AUSD

Life has a biological way of giving you do-overs. Like this summer when I was asked to be an environmental science camp counselor. I immediately asked if I qualified since I just about failed biology, chemistry and physiology in high school over 30 years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved those courses and loved my teachers Mr. Cornejos and Mr. Bandar even more. I just didn’t test well, and okay, didn’t study well either. Whatmatters now is I’m back in the biological game.

The camp leader told me my lack of science skills would not be a problem, since the kids would do most of the work and I would be more like a facilitator or something real important like that.

I said yes to the job and, to my surprise, I survived the week without burning sulfur through the floor, didn’t have to take any tests – well, except for nitrate, pH, turbidity and sulfide in water samples. And best of all, I didn’t have to work with the chemical Phenolphthalein, otherwise known as C20H14O4 – even though the haunting high school memories of chem lab would find me drifting at times.

No, see environmental science focused primarily on the environment and how we humans are messing it up big time, scientifically speaking.

I learned that all of the plastics we’ve made are still present on planet earth in some form or another, living happily in landfills and at the bottom of oceans (basically everywhere) and won’t decompose in our lifetime. I learned that we are 100% dependent on our beautiful Delta for our water source, and that Southern California wants it too.

And most importantly, that the Delta is considered to be the most invaded estuary in the world! I had no idea that more than 250 alien aquatic and plant species have invaded the Delta. And at least 185 of these species have gained a foothold and are currently inhabiting (and altering) the Delta’s ecosystem. Bad, bad water hyacinth – I don’t care how pretty you look.

I also learned (on the first day mind you) to do a headcount of all those (including teachers) who ride the bus back home, instead of leaving someone behind to fend for transportation on their own.

The five-day camp was held at California State University East Bay’s Concord site. During the week we took mini field trips to Dow Chemical’s 450-acre wetland in Pittsburg, Ralph D. Bollman Water Treatment Plant in Concord, and Delta Diablo Sanitation District in Antioch – a somewhat “crappy” job, but someone has to do it, right?

I should also mention that this day camp, in conjunction with Contra Costa Economic Partnership, was largely sponsored by Chevron. Which, by the way, is making incredible efforts to develop efficient facility projects that reduce energy costs, benefit the environment and ensure clean, reliable power for education, government and businesses. And no, they did not pay me for this plug.

Also as a camp counselor, I was versed in reinforcing 10 work-ready essential skills with the students in order to promote such job qualities as professionalism and ethics, creativity and innovation, collaboration and communication and more.

I thought I did a pretty good job of that all week long, sans day one when I forgot about the teacher who needed to ride the bus home with us. Thank goodness for Starbucks gift cards. The teacher forgave me, and I decided to give her an award called, “No Teacher Left Behind.”

If you’re interested in the 2012 camp series, visit www.cceconptnr.org. I know I’m going back!

If you call the Antioch Animal Shelter, as I did on Tuesday September 6th (the day AFTER Labor Day), you will hear a recording which includes the the statement “the shelter is open to the public Tuesday thru Thursdays and Saturday from 10 AM to 5PM, closed Mondays, Fridays and major holidays.

The reason I called was because a friend had stopped by the shelter that morning morning to inquire about a dog up for adoption and found the shelter closed.

Seeking an explanation I emailed Jim Jakel, the Antioch City Manager to inquire. Receiving no reply, I emailed Allen Cantando, Chief of Police who oversees the operation of the animal shelter. Here’s my email and the reply: Why wasn’t the animal shelter open Tuesday morning. Their hours say closed Mondays and Fridays, open Tues thru Thurs and Saturday from 10 – 5? His succinct illogical reply was “because Monday was a holiday” left me scratching my head.

I later discovered, by clicking on the animal shelter web site that a note had been posted stating that the shelter would be closed Monday AND Tuesday in celebration of the Labor Day holiday. Guess someone forgot to change the recording to reflect the web posting.

Add Note: The new hours for the Antioch Police Records unit and the public counter are Mondays thru Thursday 9 AM to 1 PM, closed Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Wonder if they were open Tuesday morning?