To the editor:

We were deeply disappointed to see Mr. Payton’s article on the “Gay History Bill” in your August 2011 issue. While this is not Mr. Payton’s first display of negativity toward the gay and lesbian community, it was extremely unfortunate to see this published as if it were an actual article based on fact as opposed to an “opinion piece” more suitable to an editorial page.

At a time when we are seeing an increase in the bullying of gay and lesbian youth as well as suicides, for Mr. Payton to refer to homosexuality as a “choice” is tragic. If homosexuality were a choice like choosing between chocolate and vanilla ice cream, why would so many of our youth take their life if it were just a simple choice? Why would anyone “choose” a lifestyle that continues to subject them to ridicule, discrimination and acts of violence?

It’s ironic this article appeared in the issue that included the appointment of our new police chief. My partner and I were subjected to ongoing harassment from a neighbor as a result of our sexual orientation and the members of the Antioch Police Department were more than supportive whenever we dealt with them. We have no doubt that compassion will continue.

At a time when people are struggling to simply keep their lives together, promoting discrimination and discord is the last thing that we should be doing. My partner and I have been together almost 15 years. We get up and go to work, pay our taxes, participate in our local community and are fortunate to have supportive, loving families. Other than the fact that we are lesbians, don’t we wish everyone could say the same?

Susan Kennedy and Stephanie Bonham
Antioch

To the Editor:

Re: “Bonilla and DeSaulnier Vote for Controversial New ‘Gay’ History Law,” this is an editorial which the publisher tries to disguise as “reporting.”

“Controversial?” Every law is controversial unless it is unanimously agreed on. This is just a prejudicial term as used here.

“Even as young as age 5” is loaded, not balanced reporting. We teach five-year-olds lots of things, why not this?

“There is no opt-out” is similarly loaded. Cherry-picking for prejudicial factors.

“Now, not only…” At this point Mr. Payton abandons any pretense at reporting and lays on his views.

“… those who have chosen that lifestyle and the behavior that it includes.” Rubbish. Homosexuality is no more a choice than being ugly, or being stupid, or being only 4′ 10″ tall. It happens. And has our good publisher a list of the “behavior” — bad behavior, naturally — that has occurred among the gay population of this city?

No, I’m not gay, or, as Mr. Payton puts it in quotes, “Gay,” as if the word were not part of the language yet. But I respect good journalism, and this is not journalism. So don’t pretend to be a newspaper, just let it all hang out.

Of course, we have to take a shot at the two Democratic legislators who voted their conscience. Meanwhile I’m sure the publisher, who I’m sure just hates laws and regulations like a good right-winger, takes full advantage of the postal service’s generosity in having the paper delivered to my mailbox, without even an address, at minimum cost, while it costs me $.44 to mail a letter.

Frank Scalpone
Antioch

By Don Gill
Superintendent, Antioch Unified School District

It has been a great year for Dozier-Libbey Medical High School. In the short span of three years since this high school opened its doors they have amassed an impressive array of awards and recognitions. Dozier-Libbey Medical High School is a school that is the product of the collaborative efforts of the Antioch Unified School District and its affiliated administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, businesses, and elected officials. The results of their efforts show the depth of their commitment to this school’s success.

The most recent recognition bestowed upon Dozier Libbey Medical High School occurred July 11th when the Antioch Unified School District was informed that this Academy earned the distinction of becoming an official Linked Learning Certified Pathway Program high school. This certification was granted to Dozier-Libbey Medical High School as a result of a two day site visitation by the Linked Learning Pathway Quality Review Team on March 30-31, 2011. According to Arlene P. LaPlante, Director, ConnectEd Network and Linked Learning Certification Coordinator, “The review team took special note of the strong spirit of collaboration, support, and leadership that is reflected in student outcomes.”

Nancie Castro, Principal of Dozier-Libbey Medical High School and her team of dedicated teachers and staff members need to be commended for their work in building such a strong connection with the students and families that attend this outstanding school. Nancie has worked very closely with Antioch Unified School District Executive Director of Programs & Intervention, Robin Schmitt, and the larger local and regional business community. They have worked as a team in support of promoting the Linked Learning initiative at this school which helps students pursue pathways to careers by combining rigorous academics with demanding technical education, work based learning, and academic interventions.

In addition to receiving the Linked Learning Pathway Quality Review Certification, Dozier-Libbey Medical High School recently joined 97 other exemplary California public secondary schools that were selected as 2011 California Distinguished Schools. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson stated “These schools are recognized for attaining high levels of performance and sustained growth and for making significant progress in closing the academic achievement gap.” He went on to state, “Becoming a distinguished school is a direct reflection of the dedication, hard work, and vision of each school’s education community. They have succeeded despite a bleak economic environment and have endeavored to maintain their momentum and focus.” As an added bonus, Dozier-Libbey Medical High School also earned the honor of receiving the Exemplary Career Technical Education Program award of which only five were granted this year.

Thanks to the generous and committed support of ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, which is funded through the James Irvine Foundation, the Antioch Unified School District has been the recipient of $2.5 million in grant funding to support the District’s efforts to promote Linked Learning academies such as Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, Deer Valley Delta Academy for the Performing Arts, Deer Valley High School Law Academy, and Antioch High School’s Engineering and Designing for a Green Environment Academy. In addition, other smaller learning communities are active in their pursuit of connecting students to multiple pathways such as the Business Academy and Science and Research Academy both of which are located on the Deer Valley High School campus.

The Antioch Unified School District Board of Education is committed to preparing its students to meet the challenges that they face as they assume the roles and responsibilities expected of them upon their graduation from all the District’s high schools. The evidence mounts each year that this comprehensive approach to multiple pathways can raise achievement, reduce the dropout rate, and increase post-secondary persistence and career success. The District looks forward to continued expansion of its Linked Learning and Career Academies and is appreciative of the $2.5 million grant funding from ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, through the James Irvine Foundation, and the $2.5 million Smaller Learning Communities federal grant that was recently awarded to Antioch High School. These funds will continue to move the District forward in preparing students to meet the challenges of a fast changing world.

The economic impact and opportunity of ensuring that students graduate from high school with the necessary academic skills to assume high wage careers and post-secondary education are critical to our region. As stated in the Gateways Regional Cradle to Career Education & Workforce Partnership 2010 Annual Report to the community, the California Department of Education estimates, for example, that if just 1,000 more students completed high School in Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties, they would earn $20 million in additional income each year, purchase an additional $66 million of housing by the midpoint of the careers, support 100 new jobs in the region, increase the gross regional product by $24 million, and add $2.9 million to state and local government coffers.

The Antioch Unified School District is committed to replicate the successes that have been achieved at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in their short history. This includes the Linked Learning academies and Smaller Learning Communities at both Deer Valley High School and Antioch High School. We see our District as a vital part of building local and regional pathways to prosperity, social cohesion, and equal access to opportunity. If you wish to be a part of the expansion of this exciting work, please contact Mr. Robin Schmitt at robinschmitt@antioch.k12.ca.us.

The Antioch Animal Shelter was established in 1978 when voters approved the following ballot measure: “The city of Antioch shall re-establish, maintain and operate a City Pound and Animal Shelter. Funds therefore shall be appropriated by the City Council annually. The City Pound and Animal Shelter shall be self-supporting to the extent that the fees for dog licenses and charges made for animal care shall be paid or credited to its operating budget. Such fees and other income shall no longer be part of the General Fund of Antioch.”

In January 2008, when the shelter subsidy was approximately only 1% of the General Fund budget, the city spent $50,000 for a consultant to prepare a study in regard to turning the Antioch Animal Shelter operation over to a nonprofit corporation. That never happened, and the shelter has continued to meet residents’ needs although its hours of operation have been cut and it remains underfunded and understaffed.

Although a lot of us love our pets (note the photo of my boxer Hootch), many residents don’t license their dogs or neuter their pets, which leads to the shelter’s high euthanization rates.

We all should give a warm welcome to the new animal rescue group in Antioch, Delta Animals Safe Haven (DASH). According to their website http://deltaanimalssafehaven.org, it was established to provide an additional and alternative co-operative adoption center for homeless animals in the Sacramento River Delta Area, thereby reducing overcrowding in the only animal shelter in East Contra Costa, the Antioch Animal Shelter.

Delta Animals Safe Haven, which received its tax exempt status from the IRS in June, had a booth at the annual Ramble hosted by HALO (Homeless Animals Lifeline Organization). and is hosting a meet and greet at 4 p.m. on August 20th. Call 925-219-0150 or email info@deltaanimals.org to receive address and directions info.

Good news: PG&E has announced its intention to apply to the Public Utilities Commission to close five older, higher polluting power plants – two in Pittsburg, two in Antioch and one in Bay Point, operated by GWF Energy LLC of Pittsburg.

The plants, all located along the waterfront, have been operating since the late 1980s. The plants burn petroleum coke, an oil refinery byproduct, and use water taken from the San Joaquin river, and return the waste into the water. At the time the plants were proposed, GWF had only one such petroleum coke burning plan in operation, which was in Torrance, CA.

GWF was in a rush in those days to get the plants on line in order to benefit from an energy crisis, which obligated PG&E to purchase the power under the PUC Policies Act of 1978. (PG&E would be released from this obligation if the plants didn’t start operation by December 1989.) Sale of the energy generated by the plants to PG&E was considered so favorable that it was anticipated GWF would recoup their investment within five years.

In reply to my inquiry about the project to a PG&E executive, I received the following statement ”As you know, our customers pay for fuel costs and purchased power costs directly because our rate structure allows these costs to be flowed through (without profit or loss) to the ratepayer. Since other, less costly, sources of power are available in the short run, your impression that power purchases from these kinds of projects can be uneconomical for our customer is correct.”

There was heavy public opposition when the project was presented to the Antioch Planning Commission by GWF consultant Eric Hasseltine, a former county supervisor. The three-hour hearing before a standing room only crowd of 180 people ended in a 4-3 vote denying the project. GWF immediately appealed the decision to the City Council.

Although speaker after speaker argued against construction of the plant during GWF’s appeal to the council, causing the council to postpone discussion of giving further indirect financial assistance to Roger Morgan‘s ferryboat San Diego restaurant project, which ultimately cost the city about $2.7 million, the council approved the deal.

Guess all those company donations – e.g., $117,000 for construction of a Little League baseball diamond, $10,00 for the East County Hospice program and $100,000 for the Delta Learning Center for whom the company secured a $100,000 interest-free construction loan and financial support for several of the City’s leisure events – paid off, as did donations to several council members.

It was disillusioning to learn that shortly after approval of the project, the husband of council member Mary Rocha, who had received a $250 donation from GWF, was hired as a maintenance worker at the plant – one of only 15 permanent positions.

Responding to inquiries by the press, GWF’s Chief Operating Officer Marion Horna , who took charge of the five plants in East County in 1989, stated “I’m sure locally the people are going to say there was a conflict but there was no impropriety. He applied for the job and went through the interviews. The only difference is Mary knew we were needing jobs. That’s the only inside track he had. We promised to hire locally. He was a local citizen and, as a matter of fact, a minority.” Mr. Horna resigned from GWF in 1991.

What will the Antioch City Council do now that it has the authority to decide what to do with the $2 million of Mello-Roos money left after construction of the combination Community Center, police substation and library on Lone Tree Way? The windfall was a result of a competitive bidding climate in the ongoing nationwide economic slowdown.

Before passing the baton to the council, the Antioch Mello-Roos Board, consisting of two Antioch Unified School District representatives, two city council representatives and three members of the community appointed by the other four board members (none required to actually live in the Mello Roos District), recently held two public meetings soliciting citizen input as to what to do with the money. Public input was also solicited via the Antioch Herald online survey.

Thirty-three percent of respondents said the money should be returned to shorten the payoff of the bond used to fund the construction, and 67 percent want the money spent on another public project, which doesn’t surprise me. It’s just another example of why our country is in debt as taxpayers continue to elect the same old tax-and-spend legislators.

I’m a long-term observer of the many games public entities play with taxpayer funds in addition to pension spiking, e.g. management spotting leftover monies in a department’s budget towards year end and, rather than crediting the funds to next year’s projected budget, spending the money on a new project, which will incur future operational costs.

It’s not the Antioch City Council that should be making the decision in regard to the unexpected windfall. It’s the 11,400 Mello -Roos homeowners who were taxed to pay for the project who should do so.

The Antioch Unified School District has hired Ken Gardner as the new principal for Deer Valley High School. Don’t know the man but the fact that, in addition to spending the past 12 years in the education field, he is a former Air Force major and a police lieutenant is reassuring.

It will take a good communicator as well as one willing to implement tough discipline policies to steer Deer Valley High off rocky shoals. It was just this past April 14th that fights broke out in different areas of the campus after lunch. When a teacher jumped in to stop one of the assaults, the teacher was hit and kicked by students as was another teacher, bringing the total to five teachers and two staff members assaulted by students during the school year.

Teachers have been complaining about a communication gap and expressing safety concerns since 2009 when former Superintendent Dr. Deborah Sims abolished teacher representation on the District Curriculum Task Force Committee and instituted a weakened discipline policy, which led to a significant reduction in appropriate suspensions and expulsions. (Sims later resigned amid a storm of controversy.)

Regrettably, unless Ken Gardner can get newly appointed Superintendent Donald Gill and school trustees, who live in fear of lawsuits, to address problems with the district’s current discipline policy, he’s got a hard row to hoe. Assaulting a teacher verbally or physically should lead to instant expulsion, no ifs and or buts about it. And the assault should be reported to the Antioch Police Department immediately. Negligent parents should be cited as well as their children.

Inasmuch as the AUSD has expressed considerable concern for possible funding cutbacks by the state (87 percent of the General Fund budget being utilized for salary and benefits of district personnel), school district Trustees Diane Gibson-Gray, Claire Smith, Walter Ruehling, Gary Hack and Joy Motta should advise administrators to stop throwing money at numerous “educational consultants” who run programs such as the recent “I Understand” training for teachers and staff.

They should also rethink their decision to put a bond measure to modernize Antioch High School on next year’s ballot. Ongoing maintenance of facilities is supposed to come out of district operating funds – districts being required to dedicate 3 percent of their General Fund budget for this purpose.

Just three years ago trustees put a $61 million bond measure on the ballot stating that the tax was needed to fund improvements at older non Mello-Roos Schools, e.g. Belshaw, Fremont, Kimball, Marsh, Mission, Muir, Sutter and Turner elementary schools as well as Antioch and Park Middle Schools, Antioch, Bidwell Continuation, Live Oaks and Prospects High School.

Due to how the prior bond measure was structured, the bond only required 55 percent approval to pass, as would the proposed new bond. (Six other school bond measures were on the ballot at the same time as Measure C and all had exemptions for senior citizens except for the AUSD bond measure.)

There’s an old saying “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Putting a bond measure on next year’s ballot sounds like a loser to me.

By Walter Ruehlig
President, Antioch Mello-Roos Advisory Board

Tracing back to 1989, Mello-Roos has been a long and winding road. So where are we at?

The Antioch Mello-Roos Board recently had a second public meeting soliciting citizen input on what to do with a remaining two million dollars left in the kitty after the last construction. Additionally, some 250 people answered the Antioch Herald’s online survey. And others responded to a daily newspaper’s weekly e-view question.

The Mello-Roos Board is now passing on these collected suggestions to the City Council, which has the ultimate authority for disbursement. Remember, the citizen board comprised of two City Council members, two School Board trustees and three at-large citizens is merely an oversight agency. It facilitates a citizen voice and oversees, but doesn’t dictate, expenditures.

So what, pray tell, did we learn from engaging the public sounding board? Not surprisingly, a healthy 38% asked for the return of the money, which would equate to, on rough average, $115 a household. That shortens the bond payoff, now projected to end in 2016, about a month.

62%, though, wanted the money spent. Turf athletic fields led the nearest other choices (a tie between building a golf disc course and a library extension) by 3-1. Tallying only a few votes were a dog park, BMX track, and lazy river feature on the existing pool. An eleventh hour suggestion was for solar panels.

One other suggestion was for enrichment classes, but by law the bond must be spent on capital construction, not operating expenses. Legally, any expenditure must also be used within the confines of the eight designated schools or for Prewett, not for street landscaping as someone mentioned.

The turf proponents, incidentally, argued that Antioch is the only town far and wide without turf and that thousands of kids suffer unsafe conditions or get denied playing time during the rainy season. They also argue that turf would not only, pardon the pun, level the playing field but would buff our city image and generate tens of thousands of dollars in tournament fees and restaurant business.

So it’s now up to our City Fathers to weigh the options and either refund or build something. If they do in fact build, the citizens’ board encouraged them to attempt leveraging through perhaps naming rights, matching grants or corporate donors.

Of course, in addition to the recent public suggestions the Council, if they opt not to refund, can also consider any of the remaining items on the original wish list sketched out in 1989. That vision includes a meadow, lagoon, central plaza, Olympic pool, enhanced walking trails, cafe, and outdoor basketball or volleyball courts.

The estimated cost for that short list is 9 million dollars; obviously money not at hand. Not in play, too, is the originally dreamed-for full 40,000 square-foot library, now a distant reality with a formidable 30 million dollar price tag.

Before we run off with checkbook in hand, then, it must be noted that intertwined in any building consideration is cost of maintenance and staffing. As well, the remaining grounds have the worst of the never construction-friendly Prewett area slope and soil. To further muddy the mix, parking and lighting may be issues, as well as mitigation to the burrowing owls. Though a turf field generally costs 1.2 to 1.5 million dollars the remaining two million might not, in fact, accomplish that.

The heartening news is that, due to favorable state hardship deals on the schools, we benefited from better than expected matching funds. We’re, in fact, some nine years ahead of our once estimated bond payoff. We also saved several million on the community center due to the competitive bidding climate caused by the building slowdown.

Thanks, then, to the 11,400 sacrificing Mello-Roos taxpaying families, we can boast 8 gorgeous schools, a splendid water park, a state-of-the-art community center, gymnasium, police sub-station, amphitheatre, library annex, technology center, kid’s learning area and kitchen. Prewett is, unarguably, a well appointed place and it is hopping with activity, far exceeding projected attendance at banquets, conferences and library and gym use.

We now have some new certified jewels to go along with our other causes of city pride: Black Diamond Mines, the Delta, Contra Loma Park, Lone Tree Golf Course and Event Center, the El Campanil, the Antioch Historical Museum, the police headquarters, 27 city parks, our vibrantly diverse population, places of worship and career-based academies.

We’ve entered the last major bend on this now 22-year journey, with all its ups and downs. The Mello-Roos Board has facilitated and passed on public input. Now public attention needs go to the City Council to encourage Solomon wisdom as they navigate last curves.

Be heard. Democracy works, but only if we, the citizenry, work at it.