by Edi Birsan

Courtesy of HalfwaytoConcord.com

The mayors of Oakley ( Jim Frazier), Brentwood ( Robert “Bob” Taylor) and Antioch (Jim Davis) joined with the Vice Mayor of Pittsburg (Ben Johnson) at the Antioch City Council Chambers, in a recent non-partisan forum hosted by the East County Democrats for Action club.

Questions asked from the audience covered the following topics:

1. Brentwood has a substantial kids shadow government program where the kids spend time with council members and city staff. It took a few years to develop but the kids have come around to incorporate it into the education culture of the city.

2. Both Oakley and Brentwood have substantial financial reserves 29-30%

3. Oakley recently cut all its building fees by 50%

4. Frazier of Oakley is looking forward to the development of its $1 billion state power plant that has committed sizeable contributions to the city’s income base. He was also very involved in Highway 4 improvements.

5. Antioch and Pittsburg have several Council members involved in direct meetings with respective school boards.

6. Antioch has an Academy program to help you based on a Tennessee model, the details of which were not given.

7. Davis of Antioch said he had to be careful in answering about Section Eight impacts on his city because of pending lawsuits, but said he holds the position that the program has to be a “hand up not a hand-out” approach.

8. Redistricting was very interesting because of my own interest in the matter, with Frazier, Davis and Taylor all echoing the positions of wanting an East county district. Brentwood emphasized its association with Oakley and Antioch. Johnson of Pittsburg simply said they were happy with Glover an opening not taken by the others, nor did he talk about any association with Antioch. I suspect that Frazier and Davis are far more interested in the Redistricting than the two other representatives which may give us some indication of future moves.

9. Taylor of Brentwood came back repeatedly that much of their problems come from higher levels of government including Sacramento and Washington including the White House.

10. There were various comments about Mayor Taylor’s Turkey routine where he dresses up as a turkey to raise money for turkey’s to be donated at Thanksgiving. There was mention of over 750 turkeys’ that were raised and he apparently gave 200 plus to Oakley folks.

11. Frazier was very proud of La Clinica Raza coming to Oakley to help the community’s needy. He said he has donated half his salary to them with other chunks going to various charities.

The audience included East County Supervisor Mary Piepho, Councilmember Rocha from Antioch, as well as other organization leaders such as Chuck Carpenter, Chairman of the Democrat Central Committee.

The event was the first of its kind for the club and it is expected to be held annually.

CCC Board of Supervisors Draft Redistricting Proposal 17 (6A)

CCC Board of Supervisors Draft Redistricting Proposal 16 (12A)

CCC Board of Supervisors Draft Redistricting Proposal 15 (9A)

By Ed Diokno, Policy Analyst, Office of Supervisor Federal Glover

Redistricting is the redrawing or adjusting of electoral district boundaries following the federal Census to account for population shifts and growth during the previous decade. The redistricting process is governed by the U.S. Constitution, State and federal law.

California Elections Code § 21500 requires the County Board of Supervisors to adjust the Supervisorial district boundaries every ten years following the federal Census so that the districts are as “nearly equal in population as may be” and comply with the Voting Rights Act. This year, the Board of Supervisors is required to redistrict the five Supervisorial districts using 2010 Census data. The County’s redistricting process will include broad opportunity for public review and input.

Contra Costa County is committed to an open and transparent redistricting process by hosting community workshops throughout the County, providing all maps and data on-line, and potentially the ability to create redistricting options on-line.

The 2010 Census revealed that Contra Costa County has 1,049,025 residents. Extracts of the data for California, counties, places (incorporated cities and Census Designated Placed or CDP) and census tracts are available on the Demographic Research Unit website.

American FactFinder will also provide on-line access to more Census 2010 results.

July 12, 2011: Continuation of Board of Supervisors Public Hearing on Map Proposals.
The Board of Supervisors will continue the Public Hearing to Consider Proposal to adjust the boundaries of county supervisorial districts based on the 2010 Census at 11:15 am on July 12, 2011.

These are the 3 options being considered for the new Contra Costa County supervisors’ districts. Most likely there will be further revisions and proposals.

Proposal 15:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F15%2Epdf
Proposal 16:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F16%2Epdf
Proposal 17:
http://64.166.146.155/docs/2011/BOS/20110712_154/8406%5FDraft%5F11x17%5FProposal%5F17%2Epdf

The Redistricting Board item is listed as D.4 on the Agenda. Please follow the link to view the Board’s Agenda. http://64.166.146.155/agenda_publish.cfm#ReturnTo0. You may also find this information on the website at www.ccredistricting.org

Publisher’s Note: You can view the Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force plan, labeled Concept 6, which garnered the most support throughout the recent public process, by clicking  here and the data for the map by clicking here.

Proposed new congressional district map for Antioch and far East County

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission released their first draft maps of state legislative, congressional and Board of Equalization district maps during a press conference on Friday, June 10 and no one was completely pleased. That could mean they probably did something right.

It could mean most of Antioch and far East County will get new representation in Washington, D.C., because the proposed maps include Antioch in a northern San Joaquin County congressional district where no member of Congress currently lives.

While leaving most of the cities and communities in Contra Costa County whole, they split the county into four congressional districts, four Assembly districts and three State Senate Districts. The congressional districts must be equal in population of either 702,904 or 702,905 (since the state’s total population of 37,253,956 isn’t evenly divisable by 53). But a one percent (1%) deviation has been allowed by the Commission for the Assembly districts (which have an equal population of 465,675) and State Senate districts (which have an equal population of 931,349).

The proposed congressional district map combines Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Knightsen and Byron in Contra Costa County, with Mountain House, Stockton, Lathrop, Lodi and most of the rest of the communities in San Joaquin County to the north, connecting the two areas by Highways 4 and 12. Just like the current congressional districts, the line is split at the Antioch-Pittsburg city limits, except for a small section of Antioch, in the southwest part of the city, with a population of about 4,800 residents, that was cut off from the rest of the city along Somersville Road.

In order to recombine that area with the rest of the city, other parts of the proposed district need to move into an adjacent district. If it’s not the same district from where the population was transferred, then a domino effect takes place and changes to multiple districts must be done by the mappers.

The good news is, following the press conference, a variety of the Commissioners stated that if the population shifts can be made and the districts remain balanced (that is equal in population), then they will consider alternative maps. So changes to the proposed maps are still possible, before the Commission must make its final decision by August 15.

The proposed State Assembly map for Antioch.

The proposed State Assembly district map keeps Antioch with Pittsburg and Bay Point, as well as combines it with Brentwood, Concord, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pacheco and Clayton. However it splits off Oakley, Discovery Bay and the other far East County communities and combines them in a district with Galt in Sacramento County, Lodi in San Joaquin County, most of Solano County, plus Woodland and Willows in Yolo County.

Nesting is the final criteria on the list in Proposition 11, which the voters passed in 2008 that created the commission and gave it the responsibility for redrawing the state legislative district lines (Proposition 20, which voters passed last November, added the congressional districts to the commission’s process). That places two Assembly districts inside a State Senate district, since there are 80 Assembly districts and 40 Senate districts.

The Commission’s proposed map takes the Assembly district in which Antioch was placed and combines it with the adjacent district which includes Lamorinda, Walnut Creek, the San Ramon Valley and the Tri Valley cities of Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore in Eastern Alameda County.

The proposed State Senate district for Antioch and most of Contra Costa County.

The Commission will hold hearings in the Bay Area and Northern California over the next two weeks, in Stockton, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento to receive input on the draft maps. They will then direct their consultants to draw the 2nd draft maps for which they’ll receive written and emailed input before deciding on the final maps.  For more information visit the Commission’s website at www.wedrawthelines.com.

This past week, Congressman John Garamendi, who represents Antioch in the U.S. House of Representatives, was interviewed by irreverent funny man Stephen Colbert during his Comedy Central television show, the Colbert Report.

It was one of the many “Better Know A District” segments on the satirical show that pokes fun at politics.

Click here to watch the funny, bizarre and, at times uncomfortable, excerpt.

I just read a column written by Samuel Walton and Michelle Romero, dated February 15, 2011 and published in an independent, Southern California newspaper, the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley Journal, regarding this year’s redistricting process and felt it necessary to respond to the vitriolic diatribe.

The commentary contained some seriously egregious, fallacious allegations, full of fear tactics. For example, one statement made is: “State legislatures in many states have used redistricting to minimize and/or deny racial and ethnic minorities their right to representation. They do this by drawing lines through a given community to disable that group’s collective voting power, or by packing them into as few districts as possible to ensure their voice is small in Sacramento and Washington. In these cases, we end up not much better off than when we didn’t have the right to vote at all.”

While that may have happened in the past in other states, and perhaps might still, unfortunately be happening this year, can the writers cite when the last time it was done in California?

The writers then stated “In California, Propositions 11 and 20 recognized the abuses by the California Legislature and reassigned the responsibility for legislative and congressional redistricting to an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.”

That was not the reason those propositions were written. It was because of the gaming by the Democrat majority over the Republican minority and all other minor parties in this state, to gerrymander districts to pack as many Republicans into as few districts as possible to ensure their voice is small in Sacramento and Washington.

For example, the 1981 redistricting process, Bruce Cain, the U.C. Berkeley professor and co-owner of Q2, the contractor that the Commission hired this year, (although he was specifically required to be separated from his partner, Karin MacDonald, and prevented from being involved in their company’s work during the process), was brought in by the Democrat leadership to draw lines to minimize the number of Republicans in the State Legislature.

It was only in 1991 that we had a fair redistricting, in the time I’ve been voting. That was because Governor Wilson, whether you like him or not, vetoed the Democrats’ gerrymandered redistricting plan and the responsibility to redraw the new district lines was handed off to three retired judges know as “the Three Masters”.

But, then the Democrats in the legislature drew some seriously gerrymandered districts again, in 2001 and Governor Grey Davis signed it into law. Just look at the current map of State Assembly, State Senate and Congressional districts. They’re ridiculous in their shapes, with one that looks like a seahorse and others like a Rorschach test.

Prop’s 11 and 20 are all about letting the people choose their representatives, not the other way around and the Commission agrees. They all nodded their heads in agreement when I made that statement at their hearing on February 26 in Sacramento. Yes, the criteria in Prop 11 contains the criteria that the new districts “Comply with Federal Voting Rights Act” , which ranks second in order, that’s only one of six criteria, which also includes (in rank order): 1. Equal Population, 3. District Contiguity, 4. Keep cities, communities and neighborhoods intact as much as possible, 5. Compactness, 6. Nesting (applies to State Assembly inside Senate Districts).

The column then made an even more outlandish, fear-based statement: “Think about what might happen to our communities if we were to be silenced again. If low and moderate income voters were silenced, politicians could stop funding public education, affordable housing, or social services altogether.”

In California? Does anyone seriously believe that?

Then the icing on the cake was the writers’ statement: “Or imagine what could happen to Latinos if their communities were divided and their votes no longer counted. We could have an Arizona-style ‘papers please’ law in a heartbeat, turning anyone who looks ‘foreign’ into second-class citizens. Or perhaps politicians’ pandering to public fear would have them all put into concentration camps. That may sound far-fetched, but it actually happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.”

Like they say during the “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live – Really? I mean really? In California, where no racial group has a majority?

As a member of my local NAACP branch, I recognize there are still challenges facing both the black community and other racial minorities, today that need watchdogs and vigilance. But what was written in that column is not the kind of baseless argument that’s needed to rally those of us concerned about fair representation, and equal rights and opportunity. Providing people with the facts, not false fear, is the way to responsibly get people involved.

So, be involved in the redistricting process, this year, to ensure the number one voting principle of our democratic republic is respected, and that is “one person, one vote” which is why equal population is the top criteria in the process. But, let’s also ensure the VRA is respected as well as the rest of the criteria from the propositions that we the people passed.

For more information, please read the RedistrictingCA Pocket Guide which can be downloaded from their site at http://www.redistrictingca.org/more-info/ It’s published by an Alliance of non-profit organizations funded by The James Irvine Foundation to ensure the 2011 redistricting is fair and inclusive. The 12 organizations are: Asian Pacific American Legal Center, California Common Cause, California NAACP, Center for Governmental Studies, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, League of Women Voters of California, Los Angeles Urban League, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Statewide Database at Berkeley, and the Greenlining Institute.

To read the entire column, click here.

For more information on the state redistricting process visit www.wedrawthelines.com.

Allen Payton, Publisher

Chairman, Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force

A variety of workshops will be held throughout the county seeking community input on how to redraw the county district boundaries to reflect the county’s eastward population shift.

Antioch is currently in the county's 5th supervisorial district.

By Dave Roberts

Antioch and far East County’s philosophical break with Pittsburg over transportation projects may soon become a geopolitical break as well if Antioch’s council members get their wish to no longer share a county supervisorial district with Pittsburg.

On Tuesday night the Antioch council unanimously agreed to leave the county’s 5th supervisorial district, which has included Bethel Island, Oakley, Pittsburg and Bay Point, when new county district lines are drawn to reflect the county’s population shift eastward in the last decade.

Antioch would prefer to be in the 3rd District with far East County. Concept by county staff.

Instead Antioch’s council prefers to join a proposed District 3 alignment that would include Oakley, Bethel Island, Knightsen, Brentwood, Discovery Bay and Byron.

That would place Antioch in a district with a far East County group that has pretty much seen eye-to-eye on funding for transportation projects such as the Highway 4 Bypass, Vasco Road safety improvements, the widening of Highway 4 through Antioch and the extension of an eBART line in the highway median.

That group has also agreed to sue Pittsburg, which has withheld funding for those projects. Pittsburg officials argue that the money should instead go for a western extension of James Donlon Boulevard.

If Antioch’s redistricting wish is granted, it will also portend a significant political change for Antioch residents and their politically ambitious leaders.

District 5 has been governed since 2000 by Supervisor Federal Glover. Now in his third term, Glover, of Pittsburg, has beaten off challenges by Antioch Councilwoman Mary Rocha in 2000, former Oakley Planning Commissioner Erik Nunn in 2004 and Antioch Councilman Gary Agopian in 2008.

District 3 is governed by Mary Nejedly Piepho, of Discovery Bay, who won office in 2004 over the incumbent, Millie Greenberg, and beat off a challenge in 2008 by former Assemblyman Guy Houston. It remains to be seen whether Piepho will run for a third term next year, and if so, whether she’ll be challenged by Agopian or perhaps Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor or Oakley Mayor Jim Frazier, assuming the 3rd District is redrawn the way Antioch prefers.

Antioch Councilman Brian Kalinowski, who also may have supervisorial ambitions, having run last year unsuccessfully for county sheriff, and who represents Antioch on Transplan, cited the transportation funding agreements with far East County cities as a reason to join them in District 3.

“The transportation improvements and projects that we see over the next 10 years fall largely within that geography,” he said. “We also know that Pittsburg in the transportation world doesn’t want to be a regional partner. You want to be partners on regional issues. That makes sense to me.”

Kalinowski and other council members agreed that it also makes geographical sense for Pittsburg to be in a northern county district that extends west to Martinez, Port Costa and Crockett, sharing the waterfront.

The council was also presented with maps developed by the Contra Costa Citizens Redistricting Task Force, chaired by the publisher of the Herald, Allen Payton.  He pointed out that their plan, labeled A2, is the only one that keeps 18 of the 19 cities and 52 of the 53 Census Designated Places, such as Alamo, Bethel Island and Bay Point, whole. Only Concord, the county’s largest city, is split.  He also told the council that the Board of Supervisors, earlier that day, had voted to include the group’s plan in the presentations at the public workshops to be held throughout the county, starting next week.

Antioch’s meeting will be held on Monday, May 23 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Antioch Community Center at Prewett Park in Community Hall C, 4703 Lone Tree Way, across from Deer Valley High.

Agopian said he appreciated the citizen involvement and that any of the proposed maps, whether it be Concept 4 or the citizens’ plan, that places Antioch in an East County district would be acceptable.

On a unanimous vote the council directed staff to send a letter to the Board of Supervisors expressing their desires to keep Antioch whole and in a district with other East County communities of Oakley, Brentwood and Discovery Bay, as Concept 4 and the citizens task force map show. (To view the task force’s map and all four of the county staff’s concept maps,  they’re can be downloaded at the county’s redistricting website, www.ccredistricting.org. Click on either Maps or Public Input).

In other action, the council:

• Agreed to limit funding for arts and cultural activities to the $18,000 (perhaps less) that comes in from the hotel tax, eliminate funding for watering the lawn at the Antioch Historical Society Museum and to meet with the Lone Tree Golf Course nonprofit board to discuss the $391,000 debt that the board owes and for which the city is obligated.

• Approved federal Community Development Block Grant funding for a variety of local nonprofit social service organizations.

• Gave the thumbs up to an 85-unit senior affordable housing project at James Donlon Boulevard and Tabora Drive.