The over-the-top rhetoric that is being spewed out during Antioch City Council Meetings has just become silly and nothing short of a train wreck.
On Friday night, a special city council meeting was to discuss the performance, discipline, dismissal or release of a city employee–rumored to be the city attorney. In response, members of the public spent nearly 30-minutes prior to the council going into closed session attacking, belittling, attempting to embarrass, name call and intimidate members of the city council. Mostly, it’s the same repetitive nonsense we have heard over the years but last night felt different, it was over the top and foul—just like Tuesdays meeting when “f—bombs” were being dropped while heckling occurred when Velma Wilson sang the Black National Anthem to even an activist giving a “shout out to the racists in the building”.
Comments have again crossed a line! Which is why many in the public refuse to attend and participate due to activists hijacking council chambers with accusations of racism flowing–no one wants to deal with it and I can’t blame them.
Still, its wild to me that accusations of “racism” are being thrown out without acknowledging the reasons why a majority of the council was voted out to begin with — it was the direction of the city from a rise in crime, failure to execute tasks to poor job performance. Contrary to what some want you to believe because they are stuck on a narrative, it has nothing to do with color of ones skin or where someone is from.
Yes, everyone has a right to their opinion and can say what they wish under a public comment, but when one does it, please have a point and attempt to be thought provocative and solution driven with an end result—not just speak from the hip while ranting on with nonsense
So to recap, public comments went something like this below nearly 30-minutes Friday. These are paraphrased version of what was said:
- Kathryn Wade – continued to speak about police abusing the public while blaming the current city council for past issues and also suggesting Mayor Ron Bernal does drugs.
- Tiki Flow – accused Ron Bernal, Don Freitas, and Louie Rocha all have some sort of “past chaos”. She accused the city of racism noting any African American candidate or elected as being “attacked”. She says “racism is taking man’s job” referring to possible termination of city attorney. She called on Don Freitas, Louie Rocha both needed to be “evaluated”.
- Eddie Gums – called the city attorney a “life saver” for the city. Spoke on the racism and how Ron Bernal was on the same lines of Donald Trump, blamed Bernal for allowing it to stand. He called the “old time stuff” as being over. Told Freitas to stop acting like the mayor and told Bernal to act like a mayor.
- Tachina Garrett – called the meeting “shenanigans” while noting Ron Bernal and Don Freitas as responsible for today’s Antioch issues. Called the games “BS” and they were not going back.
- Patricia Granados – continued to speak on harm and trauma by the police department while city council needs to be held accountable. Says council is going to deploy “militia” with “back the blue” supporters. Says African American elected officials have been targeted and that is what the councils supporters and voters support “domestic terrorists”. Spoke about Antioch Text Message Scandal and deaths caused by Antioch Police Department—while promoting Mike Mallone. Said Ron Bernal and Tammany Brooks both retired ahead of FBI investigation. Says Louie Rocha bullied kids in the schools, accusing his mom, Mary Rocha of doing the same thing.
- Leslie May – essentially accused Bernal of being a “pretend Christian” and suggested ex-mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe allowed Bernal to quietly retire ahead of text messaging scandal to not smear his name. Accused white men of pitting two black women against each other, like they did back during slavery putting “field n—a” vs. “field n—a”. Accused council of dividing community and called Bernal a “disgrace” and put Bernal, Fretias and Rocha on notice while stating “indictments were coming”
- Nichole Gardner – shared how the city attorney jump started her advocacy work when he shared “we don’t want to criminalize homelessness” while stating her uncle was illegally arrested by Antioch Police and has sued the city. She said what tonight’s meeting looked like was racism due to lack of transparency.
- Gavin Payton – asked whether it was racism or actions that have happened. Wanted to ensure what may transpire was based on actions versus someone’s skin tone—says voters need to know actual facts. Says they are tired of being sick and tired.
Truthfully, I do agree with very small parts of what Gardner and Payton stated, a very small part, but others lost me as they entered “crazy town” with gibberish and stretched truths with irrational conclusions to go along with rewritten history.
Take for instance, these individuals now comparing Ron Bernal to Donald Trump, and Councilmember Don Freitas to Elon Musk. Depending on where you stand politically, it’s either comical or ridiculous. I don’t see the comparison. But, if we are playing that game, I guess since I have this publication and platform, I volunteer to play Mark Zuckerberg as folks often like to blame this publication for their life’s problems. At least I am in good company with Bernal and Freitas.
Look, characters change every election and regardless of what roles people play today, the voters overwhelmingly have spoken and have a right to urge change for the direction of their city. Perhaps they characters change in two more years, but today Antioch wanted change for many reasons. Sadly, for the public speakers who are stuck on irresponsible rhetoric, race had NOTHING to do with it. Again, the city was failing residents from its budget, crime, blight, homeless, mental health, staffing, to a dozen other issues–including failure to address the youth, seniors and socioeconomic issues.
And what is even more wild, I actually am beginning to believe Bessie M. Scott may be the right person for city manager because she has seen this all play out during her time in Seattle. From what I have observed, she is very sharp, likeable, building relationships with community stakeholders, task oriented, professional and wanting to bring people together versus this continued focus by members of the public to segregate the community all in the name of “activism”. Again, I don’t have to like how Ms. Scott was hired, but she is here, I will give her a chance, and I am becoming a believer that she may be the right person for the job after all, time will tell.
At the end of the day, this adversarial tone during public comments is neither appropriate, constructive or helpful towards bringing people across Antioch together to find legitimate solutions on some major issues. If we have learned one thing over the past few mayoral cycles in Antioch is that neither side is right and the answer lays somewhere in the middle.
We should all stop putting our foot down and being so unmovable towards compromise. That is how we stay divided, divisive and fail to move forward. Perhaps we should all stop being so unreasonable and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Toning down the rhetoric at public meetings could be a nice start as no one wants to waste time with the unreasonable.
Correction: in the original story, May was quoted as saying “n—er”. It has been updated to reflect she said “n—a”
Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
burk@contracosta.news
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