If there’s any doubt there’s a lot of great things happening in Antioch, go no further than this edition of the City Report. With all the positive stories you’ll read about, we know there is so much more we will do as a City to thrive. Many people demand government change, and for the better. Unfortunately, some residents feel that city government was mismanaged by previous administrations. 2017 gave our citizens change and a new leadership team. With the swearing in of a new Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and incumbent Council Member, Antioch saw one of the most significant changes in leadership in recent years with the addition of a new City Manager and Police Chief. This team has taken steps to improve fiscal and government transparency, with a commitment to restoring confidence and trust. We want to give you and all Antioch residents the positive, accountable momentum needed to move us forward.
We are committed to improving the services you expect and deserve. These investments in our community allow us to provide better services to what matters most to our residents. Last year’s quality of life community survey indicated that many shared concerns about crime, homelessness, blight and the local economy. Of highest importance to those surveyed were public safety, water quality, financial stability, gang prevention, and economic development. We hear the message loud and clear; Antioch residents want City leaders to do a better job protecting, maintaining and enhancing the community’s quality of life to reach the City’s full potential as a safe, clean, beautiful place to live.
We are committed to improving the services you expect and deserve.
- Among other items, we have:
- Expanded Community Development counter hours. Our staff is available to assist the public daily Monday-Friday.
- The City’s overall goal of attracting and retaining Antioch businesses as a top priority.
- Increased the number of sworn police officers to 103 in 2017 and 104 in 2018.
- Adding two additional Code Enforcement Officers to promote and maintain a safe and desirable living and working. environment throughout our City.
- Expanded Antioch Library hours for an extra day per week.
City of Antioch staff welcomes you to the 3rd issue of the City Report. The City Report gives us an opportunity to connect with you and let you know all the great things that are happening within the City. The City continues to make positive improvements, and there will be more to come. We feel it’s important to share as much information as possible so you stay connected to City services, programming, departments, and information. All of the information included has been provided by City staff. Last year we added Instagram, a community-based website called, Antioch On the Move, and a survey – Join the Conversation to help better understand how we can improve and maintain our City together. These tools and more information are included in this issue. We hope you enjoy our 3rd Edition!
Expanded Hours
The Community Development Department is now open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, to serve the public. The Community Development Department is located on the second floor of the main City Hall building at 200 “H” Street in Downtown Antioch. If you have questions or need to submit applications for planning, engineering or building permits, or if you need to speak with a Code Enforcement representative, we would be happy to assist you! Please see us or give us a call at (925) 779-7035.
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR CITY MANAGER
Dear Antioch Community,
We’ve seen a year with a renewed, determined focus toward doing what’s most important to you, our citizens and customers. Our new City Council leadership is committed to investing in our community and seeing progress in our goals of crime reduction, clean, reliable water, robust youth programs and a business-friendly atmosphere at City Hall. The result of these efforts will be more quality jobs for our residents, things for our youth to do after school and cleaner safer community.
With over 115,000 residents, Antioch finds itself as the second largest city in Contra Costa County and largest in East Contra Costa County. With more residential housing development, our goal is to provide quality housing and neighborhoods for many new residents who find themselves priced out of the Bay Area housing market. Along with these new residents, will come a workforce that would love to work closer to home. Two to three-hour commutes are detrimental to what we’re trying to develop: better quality of life. An increase in local jobs will help families to stay closer together with more time and opportunity for what’s important in life. Recent sales of buildings, exciting new businesses like Best Buy and the sale of Humphrey’s Restaurant to a new owner/operator are all promising opportunities. The opening of the Antioch/Hillcrest BART Station in May 2018 is another catalyst to not only reducing stressful commutes for folks heading west but, providing better rapid transit to the Hillcrest Specific Plan Area and East Contra Costa County. The impact of these improvements will only aid our growing economy and future prospects.
For our City Council and staff to make this community the best it can be, we need to hear from you. Our Quality of Life Survey on our City website is a great place to let us know what you think.
The We Want To Hear From You – Join The Conversation button will allow you to take our online survey. You can also print out, complete and return back to us. This information will help the City Council determine priorities as we improve Antioch’s well being. Really what we’re all after is a better quality of life for all who call Antioch home. To take the survey simply go to web page: www.ci.antioch.ca.us/join-the-conversation.htm.
Please contact me directly at [email protected] or call (925) 779-7011 to provide me your thoughts, feedback or if you have any questions.
OUR BART
The BART to Antioch extension is expected to begin carrying riders in May of 2018. The new service between the Pittsburg Bay Point Station and Antioch is 10 miles long, adds two new stations, and provides much-needed congestion relief on State Route 4. The extension will use a different type of train called a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU). These trains are state-ofthe-art, clean, and comfortable. They are environmentally friendly, meet the US Government’s strictest emissions standards, and use renewable diesel from hydrogenated vegetable oil.
The DMUs run on their own tracks in the median of State Route 4 and connect with the existing BART system at a Transfer Platform just outside of the Pittsburg Bay Point Station. Riders simply exit one train and walk across the platform to board the other train. The Transfer Platform is only reachable by train. The Antioch Station entrance is located at 1600 Slatten Ranch Road in Antioch. Take SR4 to Hillcrest Ave. and head north then head east on Slatten Ranch Road.
BART has over 1000 parking spaces at this station, and it is well served by Tri-Delta Transit. Passengers may purchase Clipper cards using vending machines at either station or can use a paper ticket that was purchased elsewhere in the BART system.
Environmental Benefits
- Removes cars from highway and roads
- Reduces vehicle miles traveled by 99 million per year
- Carries as many people as an additional lane of Highway 4
- Improves freeway operations
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 260,000 lbs per day
- Reduces consumption of energy and petroleum
BART’s new building and jobs in Antioch
The facilities building is a LEED-certified building. 5 BART officers and four community officers will be assigned to the area. New cars are diesel with a capacity to hold 200 riders in each section. These modern trains are quiet with most of the mechanics on top or side panels of the train for easy maintenance. 70 people will be staffed to operate multiple shifts with a 22 hour, 7 days a week operation based out of the Antioch facility building.
GET TO KNOW YOUR POLICE CHIEF
On May 14, 2017, Tammany Brooks III became the 11th Police Chief in the City’s history.
Chief Tammany Brooks (or “T” as he is known by many), was born in San Francisco, CA. His family eventually moved to Pittsburg in 1979, where he attended Parkside Elementary, Hillview Junior High, and Pittsburg High School. When his parents divorced in 1985, he moved with his mother and siblings into an apartment on Sycamore Drive in Antioch. Chief Brooks briefly attended Antioch High School until, in his own words, he made one of the biggest mistakes in his life by dropping out of school to begin working full-time. Before becoming a police officer, Chief Brooks worked for RoundTable Pizza, Delta Paint Supply, and Tosco Avon Refinery.
It was not until his soon to be wife suggested law enforcement as a career that he even gave it any consideration. After more than a year of trying, he was hired to be an Antioch police officer in 1995. Early in his career Chief Brooks knew he wanted to rise up through the ranks of the department, but knew he could not do so as a high school dropout. With that in mind, Chief Brooks started attending night classes at DVC. He continued his schooling, eventually earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s Degree in Leadership from St. Mary’s College.
Since being with the Antioch Police Department, Chief Brooks has worked in a variety of assignments and capacities, including: Patrol, Community Policing Team, Investigations, Field Training Officer, Defensive Tactics Instructor, TASER Instructor, Hostage Negotiator, Dispatch Supervisor, Public Information Officer, Corporal, Sergeant, Internal Affairs, Lieutenant, and Captain. Chief Brooks is a graduate of the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police, the FBI National Academy, and was also one of the first recipients to ever receive certification from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as a Crisis Communications Specialist
City of Antioch , Water Desalination Grant Program
ANTIOCH IS ONE OF ONLY THREE CALIFORNIA CITIES AWARDED A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE, $10,000,000 STATE WATER QUALITY GRANT
The City of Antioch announced its award as only one of three California cities to receive ten million dollars in grant funding to establish a ground-breaking, first-of-its-kind local desalination water treatment facility. This facility will allow the City to generate its own clean, safe, quality water. Many prominent cities and water agencies including Santa Barbara and Carlsbad competed for the highly-sought after grants to fund drinking water production and other uses.
“Antioch is leading statewide innovation on these clean water quality and local water control issues,” said City Manager Ron Bernal. “With so many high-profile cities and water agencies competing for these grant awards, I couldn’t be more pleased that our City’s innovation, creativity, and leadership was recognized by the awards panel—making our City successful in securing Antioch’s fair share of these state funds.” Said Antioch Mayor Sean Wright, “Creating millions of gallons of clean, reliable, quality water allows our community to protect our city residents and businesses from fluctuating water costs and water shortages in the long-term.” The highly competitive Prop 1 State grant will help establish a local water desalination facility within the City’s current water treatment plant. We will have the ability to turn salty river water into 6,000,000 gallons per day of clean drinking water, using a safe, secure treatment system and positioning the City as a local and regional clean water provider and statewide innovator.
“Establishing Antioch’s local water plan allows our City to treat and store our water locally, expanding our ability to be self-reliant; keep water costs down; and attract industries that need a reliable local water supply,” continued Mayor Wright. City Manager Bernal, adds “This is a tremendous economic development engine which allows Antioch to competitively attract and retain all manner of businesses and industries who need a reliable local water supply. Antioch is one of the few communities in the State able to offer this benefit to our residents and business stakeholders.”
PARKS & RECREATION
Did you know that more than one-quarter of Antioch’s population is under the age of 18? And many of our local parents commute to work daily. The City is committed to providing the programs that keep our young people off the streets and out of trouble, and our seniors engaged and healthy.
There are six fundamental beliefs that parks and recreation programs provide all generations of residents with play, exercise, nature, positive spaces, gathering places and lifetime memories. Antioch has been building and expanding upon these beliefs more and more as the community rebounds from the downturn. New play structures and park repairs breathe new life into a neighborhood. They make parks and facilities more inviting for youth and families, which increases park use and park safety.
With many of our local parents commuting to work daily the City is committed to providing the programs that keep our young people off the streets and out of the trouble, and our seniors engaged and healthy.
Recreation programs and activities are a part of the community solution towards good health for children, adults, and seniors. Classes are affordable and always fun! The Antioch Water Park plays a vital role in drowning prevention, providing swimming lessons for all ages and summer water fun for the whole family. Water aerobics is an excellent form of exercise, and it doesn’t create the impacts on the body that other kinds of fitness activities may.
Remember to look for the Recreation Guild at the beginning of every new season – late August, December, and March. It is mailed to every Antioch household. In just one year there have been more than twenty-four new programs and events offered for all ages and groups; cooking classes for adults, innovative art instruction for young teens, open gym for middle-schoolers, more basketball camps and leagues, and a whole host of programs for youth. Recreation Expanding Recreational Experiences Benefits for all Generations of Antioch Residents www.ci.antioch.ca.us/antiochrecreation
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT TEAM (CET)
Nothing is more important to us than your safety…
That’s why we want to keep the community informed about our latest efforts to engage you—the resident—in our services and vision. The CET team was developed in January 2017 to address ongoing public safety issues in Antioch. The CET team is staffed by two police officers and a police sergeant. CET Officers are veteran police officers with extensive experience in community policing, problem-solving and crisis intervention.
We’ve heard countless times from the community that you would like us to increase investment in a variety of services, including code enforcement and cleaning up blight. The CET team works closely with patrol, code enforcement, parking enforcement, mental health services, veteran services, and the public to find longterm resolutions to the issues facing our community.
The foremost objective of the CET team has been addressing homelessness and the similar concerns of panhandling, trespassing, blight, and littering. They are also tasked with enforcing the newly established shopping cart ordinance, which has resulted in the removal of hundreds of abandoned shopping carts from the streets of Antioch.
The CET team works with homeless individuals (who are willing) by connecting them with services that many are not aware exist or are in need of help accessing. By taking this approach, opposed to strictly enforcing criminal violations, the CET team has been successful in breaking the cycle of homelessness for some, reducing the homeless population in Antioch, and improving the lives of many.
An essential element to reducing homeless related complaints is working closely with the community. CET officers have educated local business and property owners on how to reduce the attractiveness of their property to the homeless. CET officers inform people who have good intentions that giving directly to panhandlers only perpetuates homelessness, deters them from seeking services, and does nothing long term to better their situation. Chronic trespassers and panhandlers who refuse repeat warnings and services may eventually be arrested, but this action is viewed as a last resort.
The CET Team has received extremely positive feedback from the community for their progress so far, especially in the downtown and waterfront area. Their compassion and approach to homelessness have had a positive impact on the community and business environment as a whole.
The City prepares a two-year budget that outlines spending plans for the various funds and accounts of the City based on projected revenues available. The 2017-19 budget was adopted by City Council in June 2017. The first year of the two-year budget cycle will end June 30, 2018. The General Fund is the primary operating fund of the City, and the adopted budget reflects moderate growth in the City’s primary revenue sources of property and sales taxes as well as the City’s commitment to public safety resources with 71% of the current fiscal year General Fund operating budget dedicated to Police Services.
The FY2017-18 General Fund operating budget projects revenues at $54.4 million and expenditures at $54.3 million, representing a balanced budget with an approximate $100,000 surplus to add to fund balance. This budget builds in a $1.7M increase in expenditures over FY2016-17. The City Council prioritized community investment with the adoption of this budget and approval of additional overtime for the Police Department for proactive details including funding for a Community Service Officer, an extra 7 hours per week at the W 18th Street library, 4th of July fireworks, the Holiday DeLites event, and additional landscape work. The General Fund FY2017-18 operating budget also incorporates a $1.1 million operating subsidy for the City’s Recreation Programs and a $579,000 subsidy for the City’s Animal Shelter.
Business Watch
It has long been the belief at the Antioch Police Department that the best way to impact crime and improve the quality of life here in Antioch is to work collaboratively with citizens who live and work in this great city. Not taking away from any of the excellent work done day in and day out by the outstanding officers of this department, we realize that for us to be successful as a law enforcement agency, we cannot do it alone. We know that we must partner with every facet of our community to bring about positive, worthwhile, and lasting change in our city. This core belief is expressed in the first line of our agency’s own Mission Statement, and it continues to be the driving principle behind many of our community partnerships.
In keeping with the mission of our department, in late 2016 and early 2017, in cooperation with the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, APD and the Police Crime Prevention Commission we began the Business Watch Program here in Antioch.
Like traditional Neighborhood Watch, this program empowers those who work in Antioch to take an active role in combating crime and securing the safety of our community. This programs helps business owners and employees crime prevention techniques and strategies. It also encourages communication between neighboring businesses, and establishing points of contact at the Police Department through the Police Crime Prevention Commission. The goal of Business Watch is to reduce business-related crime and improve the business environment across Antioch. By doing so, we can all work together to reach our goal of retaining and supporting current businesses, while attracting new companies to Antioch.
ANTIOCH MARINA
Since the program was first introduced, there are already two Business Watch Groups that are organized and active with a third close behind. It continues to be the Police Department’s objective to enhance the level of communication and cooperation between our agency and the community, and Business Watch is one of the means for us to accomplish this vital goal. We hope this program will continue to expand until it reaches every corner of our great city, bringing with it further positive momentum to our thriving business community.
The Antioch Municipal Marina has added kayak launches to enjoy and explore the Delta! Recently the City was awarded a grant by the San Francisco Bay Water Trail to enhance non-motorized boat facilities along the City’s waterfront. The $32,000 grant application was written by Sandra Kelly, City Parks Commissioner and Marina Volunteers, along with James Pflueger, Marina Lead/Property Manager. Among the amenities is a 24-hour accessible kayak launch located adjacent to the boat launch docks already in use. Located within the Marina grounds are storage racks for kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, second dual-lane launch dock and canoes.
Launch facilities are free for cartop boats, and the Marina serves visiting kayak clubs and groups, as well as the general public. Special introductory day and monthly Marina rates allow access to the variety of amenities offered at our facility including access to private restrooms, picnic grounds, and exclusive gate access. To read more about Antioch Marina’s designated status on the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail, visit Antioch Marina Trailhead Information Website at: http://sfbaywatertrail.org/trailhead/antioch-marina/.
The City is also pleased to announce that the Marina is hosting kayak tours and classes. Lessons are available through the City’s Recreation Department.
For more information on these unique opportunities check out the Antioch Recreation Guide page: www.ci.antioch.ca.us/Recreation/recguide.asp.
For any questions contact the Marina email: [email protected] or call (925) 779- 6957. Website: www.ci.antioch.ca.us/antioch-marina/
Enjoy launching your kayak from your local marina free of charge and remember Safety First when you are out on the river or around the docks.
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