Freitas Calls on Termination of Antioch City Attorney, Requests Other Items

On Tuesday, Antioch Councilmember Don Freitas called for the city to terminate the contract with the city attorney.

The move came during council communications and future agenda items where Freitas made several recommendations after stating the November 5 election was an overwhelming mandate for change.

His future agenda item requests include:

• Citing non-compliance of the city manager contract after just two months, he wants to set goals and measurables. Then review performance in April 2025.
• Line by line Budget Review/Audit
• Joint Community Meeting with Antioch Unified School District
• Police Chief Hiring and Department Head Hiring
• City Attorney Termination

Here is a transcript of his remarks:

“John Fitzgerald Kennedy said change is the law of life. And those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future. Every election, political commentators argue if there was a mandate from the voters. Ladies and gentlemen, there absolutely can be no question about the election results on November 5. It was an overwhelming mandate for change. Power ultimately rests with the voters. They were clear, they were decisive and they do want change.

As of 1:30 am on November 6 without half the votes counted, there was absolutely no question a new majority was elected to the Antioch City Council. The results give all of us hope that we can work together with prior council and this council to move Antioch forward.

Frankly, there has been too much anger, too much chaos, too much fear, and too much division that has polarized this community and it has to end. Our mandate is change. Saul Alinsky, an American community activist, stated, change means movement, movement means friction, make no mistake about it, people will resist changes but I do believe that by working together we can move forward in a very positive, constructive, inclusive direction. As some of the campaigns indicate, change starts today. So in that regard,  I realize people think 4 years is a long time, in government it isn’t. Its very difficult to institute change so I believe we have to begin working now. So I have several request for this city council. This city council needs to create its own team which starts with all 5 of us, the city manager and the city attorney.

Already in Non-Compliance with City Manager Contract

“Now I did not support the hiring of the new city manager until after the November 5 election, but its been done. I did review the employment contract of Miss Scott and found that we are already in non-compliance within 2-months of her being on the job, in section 2 it says her job began on October 7. In section 10, it states that for the city manager to respond to its needs and to grow in the performance of the city managers job, the city manager needs to know how the city council members evaluate the city managers performance to assure that the city manager gets this feedback, the city council shall evaluate the city manager performance on or about 6-months anniversary of the initial term of the agreement, which would be April 7. Later on in section 10, it states the city council, the prior, and the city council shall jointly establish written performance goals and objectives within the first 30-days of the initial term of this agreement. We are now within the first 60-days. I ask the city manager, did you do it, no. I asked the city attorney, was this done. No. I have to believe the burden falls on this city council,  and I hope we immediately begin that dialogue with the city manager to articulate what the goals and objectives are going to be so that we may do an honest, transparent evaluation of her 4-months from now. It’s fair to her. It’s fair to us. And it’s fair to the community. That is my first request that very shortly we do that and get into compliance with this contract.”

Antioch budget provided in the staff report

City Budget Review

“We are creating a new team. I am very concerned about the finances and I have spent a lot of time looking at them. I would request that this city council in January, starting in January 2025, conduct an exhaustive public review of our finances and literally examine every item in the budget in order to establish our priorities and our ability to pay for those priorities. I feel like some things have been instigated in our city without any real consideration on how it will be financed in the future and that is wrong. I believe government can be run efficiently am it needs to run efficiently. I think this this council, this new manager and this community its absolutely critical that we spend the time going item by item until we all understand where we are at, what we have, and where we are going.”

Joint Community Meeting with Antioch Unified School District

“I would like to request a joint meeting between ourselves and the joint Board of Education for the Antioch Unified School District and that it be arranged in January. I think its important that the Antioch city council and school board come together and discuss various needs that we have. I want to go back to the resource officers as one of those topics that we discuss. Unfortunately, I have not seen that dialogue on a council, school board basis since I was mayor and I think its lacking and school board members need to educate us and we need to educate them and most importantly, that the public be involved in this dialogue.”

Police Chief Hiring and Department Head Hirings

“The council and public receive regular updates on the hiring of the chief of police and how the vacant department head positions will be filled with a plan of action prepared by the city manager in the next several weeks. This team has been functioning, but not functioning at full speed. We need to have permanent city manager, assistant city manager, chief of police, public works director and community development director. The public has a right to criticize the city when its not functioning and it has not functioned well for years. We need to reverse that.

City Attorney Termination

“The other I realize may be controversial. When I talk about developing the team between the city council, city manager, and city attorney, I believe that Mr. Smith has served the city well for 6 years, but I would recommend we terminate the city attorney and go out and recruit and hire a city attorney that all five of us have a say in.”

*Note: Freitas misspoke, he originally said city manager, but meant to say city attorney which is corrected in the above paragraph.