Over the next several months, the City of Antioch will work its way through its budget development for its 2025-27 budget.
The council will have to make several difficult decisions as many programs were funded by 1-time monies through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) while also needing to work an additional $1.9 million into the budget for DOJ compliance for the Antioch Police Department. The budget also shows the prior city council was staying afloat due to utilizing budget stabilization funds to balance the budget while also being assisted with many unfillled positions that also helped present a better budget than it appeared—meaning the as positions get filled, program funding will have to be reduced. Approximately 90 positions remain unfilled.
The true deficit is anticipated to be $1,418,515 after accounting for the budget rollover. The transfer from the Budget Stabilization Fund is being reduced $3,198,628 from the budget of $4,617,143 due to the inflow of ARPA funds in the current fiscal year reducing the need from the Budget Stabilization Fund to balance the budget.
The council will now have to decide on how to fund crisis response and homeless services moving forward– back in June 2023, then Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe floating a ballot measure to fund them in the future.
Without funding:
- Crisis Response – Ends October 31, 2025.
- Homeless Hotel – Ends April 25, 2025.
- Review budget documents – click here
At the meeting, it was requested by councilmember Don Freitas to simplify the budget so anyone with a high school diploma could understand it—money in vs. money out and what the reserves were in simplest form. At the request of Mayor Ron Bernal, the council will also look at creating a policy of how/when reserve funds could be used in the future.
Recap of the Budget Study Session
Crisis Response: Felton Institute, Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team, $5.7M contract ending October 31, 2025. The fiscal year 2023 cost of services for 6 months was $862,172 and the fiscal year 2024 cost was $1,548,039 for the full year.
Since this was one-time monies, Freitas questioned how the city would come up with $6 million to continue. Staff shared it was working with the county and potentially neighboring cities while also searching for grants to ensure little impact to the general fund.
Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker explained it was always understood it would not be funded by the general fund because it was not sustainable—options would be working with the county and going after grants.
Freitas confirmed that without new funding or partnerships, by October 31, 2025, the crisis response team would end.
“This crisis response team has been a great benefit,” stated Torres-Walker noting its freed-up police officers. She said the priority was to find ways to fund it outside the general fund. “If we are not committed to finding those funds, it will absolutely go away in October this year.”
Freitas called having a crisis response team “good”, but they needed the ability to fund it.”
According to Tasha Johnson, Safety and Community Resources Director, shared they were looking at grants while noting the benefit of the program while working to sustain it with outside funding.
Editors Note
- Aug 5, 2024 – Antioch Police Oversight to Talk Safety, Military Equipment and Crisis Response: The data was very limited and not well defined what exactly classified as a call or actual service.
- Service Call Descriptions:
- Party/ Noise Complaints
- Welfare Checks
- Unwanted Guests, Trespassing, Public Nuisance, Loitering
- Mental Health Response Needed
- Initiated 5150
- Medical Response Needed
- Disputes, Fights, Public Health and Safety Concern
- Uncontrolled youth, Truant Juvenile, Services involving a minor
- Services involving traffic, Muni code violation
- Missing Persons
- Suspicious Person
- Fire/ Ambulance information provided or partnership
- Vandalism/ Crime reported
- Oct 2022 – Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Team approved: accepted a proposal by the Felton Institute to provide non-police community crisis intervention services at a cost of up to $2.2 million per year. The two-year pilot program, design forecasted by Urban Strategies Council, is estimated to cost between $1.8 and $2.2 million per year. The funding will come from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and funding has been allocated at $3.6 million
Opportunity Village
Without funding, this program will run out of funds on April 25.
Johnson shared they have Encampment Resolution Funds that they recently secured $7 million, These funds are sorely for a population of encampments that is at Sunset and Devpar – those individuals will have outreach through CORE, placed in Transitional housing and placed into permanent housing.
Moving forward, Johnson said, it’s a conversation of what the focus will be.
Freitas again confirmed the end date for Opportunity Village as of April 25. Johnson confirmed the end date.
Bernal also confirmed that Opportunity Village served all of Antioch while the new grant will only serve those 30-50 people on Devpar. By not funding passed April 30, they are now losing the ability to help the entire city.
Freitas suggested media outreach so no one is shocked by the closure.
Editors Notes:
- In February 2024, the city council touted a 82% success rate with its homeless program. Bay Area Community Services (BACS) also shared they were having an 82% success rate at Opportunity Village while noting Delta Landing in the City of Pittsburg was only at a 74% success rate. – the presentation was limited and lacked data while many questioned how Antioch had the highest success rate in the state.
- April 2023 – Opportunity Village Opens with an estimated 135 people to be services each year.
- In August 2022, Antioch City Council Approves Homeless Hotel Lease and Providing Services. The 2-year lease is estimated at $1,168,000 per year for a total not to exceed value of $2,336,000, to be paid from the allocation of $2.6M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA funds)
- Back in May 2022, the Antioch City Council agreed to pursue a $12.3 million homeless motel program over a 5-year period in a 3-1-1 vote. This was for 32 rooms—or $82k per room per year.
CalVIP Grant funds
The City was awarded $1,794,118 from the Board of State and Community Corrections under the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) grant program. The purpose of the grant is to improve public health and safety by supporting effective violence reduction initiatives in communities that are disproportionately impact by violence. The grant ends June 30, 2026.
Johnson said the work has been started by identifying various individuals who were perpetrators of gun violence or on the verge of being perpetrators –offering services to stabilize work.
“There are 13 fellows in the program” with the operator being One Day at a Time. The program is estimated at $250k to $1 million noting this program was approximately $800k per year for the city of Antioch. Johnson said they were looking to grow the program and looking at the next round of funding calling it
Bernal clarified what the general fund match would be which is 50%… originally 100%. Johnson said in the next round, there is no match required.
Freitas clarified the number of fellows while Johnson reminded the council the application said 10-15 participants for $800k per year. He called for more details in a future presentation.
Torres-Walker explained Antioch could have received more funding, but first they needed a pilot program to test it. The new opportunity would double the amount—noting City of Richmond has been doing it for 20-years and received $6 million. Without it being a match, it then takes burden off staff. She continued, they could increase public/private partnership to reduce violence
Freitas closed by stating during the future presentation, what were the goals, measurable goals and how they measured success of this program.
Editors Note
- May 2023 – Council approved CALVIP Program in 5-0 vote with One Day at a Time (ODAT). This came after an application was submitted in February 2022.
- according to the CALVIP COHORT 4 Project Summaries, City of Antioch The City of Antioch will develop an evidence-based public health approach to reducing gun violence by providing street outreach and case management to those identified as highest risk of gun violence.
Council Slush Fund Eliminated
Without much discussion, the council agreed to eliminate its $20k slush fund to each councilmember—a total of $100k. Funds may be reallocated to the community in some form.
Mayors Apprenticeship Program Name Changed
Bernal requested it be renamed to the Antioch Apprenticeship Program.
Future Meeting
The next budget meeting will be March 4 with Bernal asking for the Capital Improvement Program go before the council sooner in the process. He also requested police and department of public safety and community resources come back at the next meeting—requested detailed presentation. They also wanted to include the vacancies being filled and the impact it has on the budget.
To watch the meeting, click here.