On Monday, after more than 5 hours of discussions the resulted in just $1.8 million in cuts, the Antioch City Council accepted to move forward with a $12.5 million deficit for fiscal year 2026.
Seeking a balanced budget and facing a long-term structural deficit, the city council is tasked with making difficult spending cuts with an attempt not to use its reserves and budget stabilization funds as a strategy. According to the draft Fiscal Year 2026 budget, Antioch has a $14.69 million spending deficit while Fiscal Year 2027 stands at a $15.89 million spending deficit. Combined, Antioch must cut nearly $30.58 million from its budget over the next two years.
On Monday, however, the council focused on Fiscal Year 2026 which carried a $14.69 million deficit where after the going through an exercise for reductions, eliminated just $1.89 million before it was suggested by Vice Mayor Louie Rocha that they use $5 million from the budget stabilization fund (a savings account)–dropping the estimated deficit from $12.5 million to $7.5 million.
Editors Note – within the decisions Monday, the council avoided layoffs and furloughs, but did little to address deficit spending and keeps them on the course towards going broke by 2028. In fairness, however, the council will likley come back at mid-year and make more cuts and adjustments to further cut spending.
Here is a rundown/overview (but not everything done)
Antioch Police Officer Allocation Drops
Antioch will move to phased hiring for budget purposes and under the plan, will drop the allocated number of officers from 117 to 105 in Fiscal Year 2026. And up to 117 in Fiscal Year 2027 for full staffing.
Freitas said they needed to be “realistic” on number of officers they could truly hire for budget allocation purposed. He said it wasn’t realistic to get to 117 officers but 105 may be realistic.
“My perspective, police services is our number one priority, but we need to be realistic in the budget so I think if we went from our sworn officers from 115 and we go up in 2026 we go to 105 and then following year to 117, it would help us. Right now, I am assuming the 117 number is exasperating part of the budget,” stated Freitas.
Merchant agreed (Note, by dropping allocation from 117 to 105, it creates budget savings for officers they are not going to hire anyway, freeing up funding for other areas).
Antioch is currently staffed around 90 officers with a goal of approximately 101 total officers by years end according to Captain Bittner. He said 105 would be great for them to target by next June. With updated allocations, Antioch is looking at 60-65 patrol officers for Fiscal Year 2026.
According to Merchant, this is vacancy savings versus freezing positions.
Overall Staffing:
Bernal noted that in 2020, they had 366 full-time staff, now they have 423 – which is 63 new positions since 2020. Bernal says with new staff, its added to budget issues.
Angelo Quinto Crisis Response Funding Reduced
According to Captain Bitner, Angelo Quinto Crisis Response will be cut back to 12-hours from 12:00 pm to 12:00 am. In 2026, cost is $1.4 million and in 2027, $1.08 million is allocated. Some ARPA money is still being used which stretches over the next two-years. Council agreed to the reduction.
Antioch Animal Services
Antioch and Contra Costa County Animal Services are having conversations to reduce costs—approximately 30% reduction.
Freitas cautioned if there is conversations around Antioch Animal Services, the community/outside programs should be alerted given it as previously on the ballot.
Scott says item will return in the future when more information from the county is provided and costs are determined.
Tidbits:
- $5 million in budget stabilization funds to be used.
- Finance: hold-off on 2 buyer positions ($331k) for a year.
- Measure 0 Funds: Brings in $2.21 million each year
- Cannabis funds: $2.1 million but is declining
- Downtown Security: reduced from $162k to $100k
- Banner Program/Marketing: Staff wanted to increase to $259k, council kept it at current levels of approx. $75k.
- PIO/Branding/Marketing: Council seeks more information on firms working for city and looking to drop costs in future.
- Forensic Audit: Cost estimated up to $150k, will bring back at future date (2027)
- WBA Contract (Chief Addington): Cost jumps to $450k. Council questions cost however, city still dealing with Federal DOJ, two other investigations in process and possibly a California DOJ, plus a class action lawsuit. Staff argued a lot of unknowns and still need consultant firm. Council to revisit.
- Council to approve all city travel going forward.
Photo: East Bay Regional Park District
Antioch Water Park/Contra Loma Swim Lagoon
Monica Wilson asked about the water park, pools at the swim lagoon and called for a regional approach with Supervisor Diane Burgis. She wanted a partnership with Antioch Unified School District on using school pools if they could figure out the insurance. She wanted a regional approach and look into Contra Loma Lagoon.
Freitas said the project was 4-years away at Contra Loma, but agreed Antioch should look into obligations in agreements for the lagoon and it’s already been closed for several years.
“This shows a bias, again in the urban core and us out here. We are definitely getting the short end of the stick,” said Freitas. “It is not acceptable, and it has been very important for us and for families who do not have the financial means to go to Disneyland. I do think this is something that should be addressed.”
Wilson wanted Antioch to be part of the conversation while Fretias said, “if it was Tilden Park or one of the others, I can assure you it would be fixed already.”
Budget Nearly Finalized
By 10:20 pm, the Antioch City Council was accepting a $7.5 million deficit for FY 2026 and bring it back later in the month to adopt with some adjustments to see if more savings could occur. At one point in the meeting, after the council had worked to get the deficit around $7.5 million, Mayor Pro Tem Louie Rocha suggested city manager Bessie Scott and finance director Dawn Merchant go back and figure out the remainder of the cuts.
To close out the meeting, Freitas called the budget “balanced” and suggested they need to focus on articulating that to the public.
“Some people in the community are going to say oh my goodness, the city budget has $7 million. It is a balanced budget and there is a differentiation so maybe when you present this in the narrative, we can clearly articulate what the difference is,” explained Freitas. “We have cut $24 million from this fiscal year and next fiscal year, and we just now reduced $15 million deficit to $7 million, yes, by using $5 million from budget stabilization fund, but we know what our responsibility is, and we are going to move forward in a prudent and fiscally responsible manner. So that is what needs to be underscored because people are going to be glom on to that word and start to persecute the council and staff.”
He added he thought it was “extraordinary” they have gotten to this point saying he would like to see a zero budget, but they will continue working on it as they go forward.
Mayor Ron Bernal was a bit more optimistic that more cuts could occur saying he would like to see what they worked on tonight in the budget and get the $7.5 million down to nearly $4 million saying with the stabilization, their deficit is still $12 million.
Merchant said now they know there is a $7 million deficit that now they could work on it monthly to bring it down over time—the goal being get it down as much as possible before fiscal year 2027.
Freitas again stated his preference would be “zero but we cannot get there.”
City Manager Bessie Scott meanwhile urged the council to be considerate of staff time given the amount of effort and bandwidth with this that now the normal operations are in a functional deficit. She asked the council to temper requests because they are unable to produce work products outside the emergent response of the budget crisis.
Staff Report – click here
Previous
- June 9 – Antioch Looks to Cut $30.58 Million From Budget
- June 6 – Editorial: Antioch Budget Fix Requires Gut Check, Not Gimmicks
- May 23 – Antioch Agrees to Move Forward with HomeKey Application
- May 19 – Antioch Looks to Immediately Cut $10.4 Million From Budget
