Moderators include Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, NBC Bay Area’s Candice Nguyen
Citizens will have opportunity to be a party to political leaders discussing sexual assault prevention and survivor empowerment
Zoom – This town hall is to allow survivors, politicians, and non-profit leaders to engage and brainstorm tangible policy changes and actions to support survivors. We look forward to holding a space to hear potent testimonies of the struggles victims have endured post attack, to listen to the demands of victims, and to address the flaws in our criminal justice system. This will be a platform for a conversation and a chance for leaders to reflect on the direct impact they could have on victims’ lives through their policy decisions.
“I knew we needed to get the people who can make change happen in the same room,” said The Yellow Heart Committee Founder N’dea Johnson. “Getting people together, especially during COVID, is never easy. But the work we’re doing, and the education we’re spreading, it’s just too important to wait.”
The virtual town hall is scheduled for October 17th, 2020 at 4 PM PST/7 PM EST. It consists of three panels: Urgency of the Issue, Reimagining Support for Survivors, and Addressing Necessary Policy Changes. In addition, there will be testimonials from survivors, and a panel of political figures. They are listed below.
Speakers:
US Congressman Eric Swalwell
US Congressman Mike Thompson
CA State Assemblymember Rob Bonta
CA State Assemblymember Shirley Weber
Panelists:
CA State Assemblymember Tim Grayson
SC State House Candidate Dr. Jermaine Johnson
Antioch City Council Member Monica Wilson
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan
President of Alliance For Hope International Casey Gwinn
CEO of Love Never Fails Vanessa Russell
President of SF Pride Carolyn Wysinger
Moderators
CA State Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
NBC Investigative Reporter and Survivor Candice Nguyen
Suisun City Vice Mayor Wanda Williams
Event Details:
What: Virtual Zoom Town Hall
When: Saturday, October 17, 2020
Where: Zoom. Register Here: https://bit.ly/3mJ9yiv
For any additional information, please contact us at yellowheartcommittee@gmail.com
The Yellow Heart Committee is an organization that is mobilizing to help survivors of trauma through policy making and community outreach. For more information, please visit and get involved at https://www.yellowheartcommittee.com/
Read MorePLEASE JOIN US.
Supervisor Federal Glover was there for our firefighters and our residents during the massive fires we experienced the last couple of years. We wholeheartedly support Supervisor Glover’s re-election and look forward to working closely with him for another term.
Read MoreBy Daniel Borsuk
The opening of the Contra Costa Health Department thirteenth Covid-19 testing site in Bay Point has helped the county ramp up test, the county’s chief goal in turning the tide on COVID-19, Contra Costa Public Health Director Anna Roth told the board of supervisors on Tuesday.
“Testing is one area of focus as over 45,000 tests have been given in our county to date,” Roth told supervisors when she also informed the elected officials via teleconference about the opening this week of a COVID-19 testing site at 215 Pacifica Ave. in Bay Point, one of the county’s major underserved areas.
“This week’s opening of aa new test site in Bay Point has drawn a lot of good feedback,” Roth said. As of Tuesday, Contra Costa County had 17,728 COVID-19 cases and 230 deaths had been recorded since flu struck in March.
Before the opening of the Bay Point test site, the county was giving 3,200 tests a day at 12 sites and the goal is to eventually boost the frequency rate to 4,500 with the Bay Point location.
Roth also reported that the county has an overall COVID-19 positivity rate of 2.4 percent, which is a major improvement from a 6 percent positive rate that the county had bothered county health officials during the earlier months of the pandemic.
In Other Board Action:
At the meeting, the elected officials approved three abatement cases located in Crockett, Richmond and Bethel Island.
Supervisors assessed a $28,307.15 tax bill on the property at 232 Kendell Ave. in Crockett for removal of debris. The Crockett property is owned by Mark Noonan. Supervisors charged a $14,481.70 bill to Donald Hampton for clean up and debris removal costs related to his property at 319 Chesley Ave. in Richmond. Supervisors also assessed a $9,309 clean-up bill to Darlene Joy Gargulio for abatement action taken at her property at 2600 Dutch Slough Road in Oakley.
“I know neighbors are gratified for the abatement action,” Supervisor Diane Burgis of Oakley said after the vote. No one spoke on behalf of the property owners.
Supervisors approved their 2021 schedule which includes 30 regular board meetings, 12 fire commission meetings and five housing authority commission meetings.
Without discussion, supervisors approved as a consent item the fiscal year 2020-2021 secured property tax rates will generate more than $2.5 billion in property tax revenue to be apportioned to the county, cities, and other eligible agencies.
Read MoreGrand Opening Thursday through Saturday
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc. is opening a new location in Brentwood, CA this month. The store is located at 5491 Lone Tree Way near Trade Joe’s, Petco and Kohl’s. The Grand Opening is scheduled for October 15-17, 2020.
“We are glad to welcome Sportsman’s Warehouse to Brentwood,” said Vice Mayor Joel Bryant. “The quality products they offer and variety will be great for Brentwood and East County residents, and fill a gap in what people and want and need to enjoy the great outdoors. The store also fills retail space that’s been empty for awhile, adding to our city’s sales tax base, and providing more, local jobs.”
Since 1986, Sportsman’s Warehouse has been providing outdoor enthusiasts with quality merchandise in a friendly, low-key shopping environment.
“We are excited to open our new store in Brentwood and become a part of the community. We look forward to hiring local experts to serve you and outfit your next adventure,” said Jon Barker, Sportsman’s Warehouse CEO.
Like all Sportsman’s Warehouse locations, the Brentwood store will adhere to mandated COVID-19 cleaning and social distancing guidelines.
Read More![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/No-Coal-In-Richmond-rally-10-13-20.jpg)
About 35 people participated in the No Coal In Richmond rally on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020. Photo by David Sharples of ACCE.
Organized by No Coal in Richmond, other environmental groups and SEIU Local 1021
By Janet Johnson
A public rally was held Oct. 13 at 4 p.m. in front City Hall in Richmond to oppose the Terminal and allied groups’ attempts to buy seats on the Richmond City Council. It was attended by about 35 people. The Levin-Richmond Terminal Corporation has so far donated $25,000 to city council candidates – including Vinay Pimplé, Eleanor Thompson, and Ahmad Anderson – whom it hopes will vote to overturn the ordinance phasing out coal and petroleum coke storage and handling at the Terminal. In addition, the company gave the maximum allowable contribution directly to Anderson’s campaign. The current city council adopted the ordinance after a successful two-year campaign by No Coal in Richmond, health professionals, and other environmental and community groups. Now, the Levin-Richmond Terminal has joined developers and others in trying to buy seats on the Richmond City Council.
Election buying in Richmond is nothing new. The city has suffered for decades as big industries have poured money into campaigns for candidates who will support their interests, including Chevron’s unsuccessful attempt to buy 2014 city races. However, No Coal in Richmond and allies from Alliance of Californians for Community Action (ACCE Action) the Sunflower Alliance, Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action (APEN Action), Communities for a Better Environment Action (CBE Action), and SEIU Local 1021 are actively opposing this attempt to subvert the political process.
According to the No Coal in Richmond website: “Toxic dust from coal and petroleum coke (pet coke) is polluting our neighborhoods. Richmond CA residents living and working near the Levin-Richmond Terminal see this dust outside on our cars and windowsills. What we don’t see are the microscopic harmful substances going deep into our lungs. They’re in the air we breathe, in our homes, and where we work and play.
Richmond residents and workers cannot continue to be exposed to high levels of toxic coal and pet coke dust. We already suffer from elevated levels of asthma, heart disease, and other health problems caused by bad air quality.
To make Richmond a healthier place to live, we need to end the storage and handling of coal and pet coke at the Levin-Richmond Terminal.
The Richmond Coal Ordinance establishes a fair process, gradually phasing out coal and poisonous petroleum coke and relying on the city’s legal authority to protect us.”
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Plus, Regional Early Voting Sites will be offered beginning Friday, Oct. 30
By Allen Payton
For those who want to vote in person at a polling place and not mail in their ballot, there’s good news. The Contra Costa Elections Division is providing both 150 polling places throughout the county, and 17 Regional Early Voting Sites, beginning Friday, Oct. 30, as well.
“The model that we’re using for polling places in the November election is the same as in the March election and the November 2018 election,” said Contra Costa County Assistant Registrar of Voters, Scott Konopasek. “The locations may have moved around a bit based on the availability of sites for the polling places.”
“If a voter wants to know where to go to vote at the polls, they can visit our website at cocovote.us, click on Am I Registered, then in the search box type in their name and birthdate and it will tell you everything you need to know about the election,” he continued. (Or click here.)
There will also be Regional Early Voting Sites the weekend before Election Day, beginning Friday, Oct. 30.
“You’re not assigned to any particular one and you can vote at any of them, using the exact ballot for you,” Konopasek added.
Regional Early Voting Sites *Outdoors in Event Tent
Friday, October 30 11am – 7pm | Saturday, October 31 9am – 5pm | Monday, November 2 11am – 7pm |
REV Sites | ||
Building Name | Address | City |
Stone Valley Rd Chapel* | 2949 Stone Valley Rd | Alamo |
Antioch Water Park | 4701 Lone Tree Way | Antioch |
Somersville Town Center* | 2550 Somersville Rd | Antioch |
Ambrose Community Center | 3105 Willow Pass Rd | Bay Point |
Cornerstone Fellowship* | 6641 Lone Tree Way | Brentwood |
Clarion Hotel | 1050 Burnett Ave | Concord |
El Rancho Restaurant* | 1450 Monument Blvd | Concord |
St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church* | 1955 Kirker Pass Rd | Concord |
El Cerrito Community Center | 7007 Moeser Ln | El Cerrito |
Veterans Memorial Building* | 3780 Mt Diablo Blvd | Lafayette |
Moraga Library* | 1500 Saint Marys Rd | Moraga |
Best Western Plus Delta Inn* | 5549 Bridgehead Rd | Oakley |
Hyatt House Pleasant Hill | 2611 Contra Costa Blvd | Pleasant Hill |
Hilltop Mall Parking Lot* | 2200 Hilltop Mall Rd. | Richmond |
Richmond Memorial Auditorium | 403 Civic Center Plaza | Richmond |
Amador Rancho Community Center | 1998 Rancho Park Loop | San Ramon |
Heather Farms Park* | 301 N San Carlos Drive | Walnut Creek |
Currently, voters can drop off their ballot at multiple locations throughout the county at both 24-hour sites and indoor sites during business hours.
Contra Costa County Indoor Drop Boxes Available During Business Hours* | |||
Clayton City Hall | 6000 Heritage Trail, Floor 3 | Clayton | Mon – Fri, 9am-5pm |
Pittsburg City Hall | 65 Civic Avenue | Pittsburg | Mon – Fri, 8am-5pm |
San Pablo Library | 13751 San Pablo Ave | San Pablo | Tues, 1pm-8pm Wed-Thurs, 11am-6pm Fri-Sat, 10am-5pm |
San Ramon City Hall | 7000 Bollinger Canyon Rd | San Ramon | Mon – Fri, 8:30am-5pm |
Alcosta Senior and Community Center | 9300 Alcosta Blvd | San Ramon | Mon-Fri, 8:30am-5pm |
San Ramon Permit Center | 2401 Crow Canyon Road | San Ramon | Mon-Fri, 8:30am-5pm |
*Hours shown may vary. Check directly with the location for current hours.
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I find it interesting that Jovita Mendoza routinely misrepresents Councilmember Claudette Staton’s positions on the important issues in our neighborhood.
Councilmember Staton voted, along with all the other council members, to put Measure L on the ballot to let the voters decide whether or not to proceed with the development and I think Ms. Mendoza would be happy that the voters rejected the development.
Ms. Mendoza knows – because she received an opinion on it – that per the California Political Reform Act, Councilmember Staton has to recuse herself from deliberations and votes on the proposed oil and gas drilling and the Bridal Gate development and recent zoning decisions. Bridal Gate will come before the Council in Feb. 2021.
Councilwoman Staton, as a private citizen, has stated that she is opposed to the oil and gas drilling.
If Ms. Mendoza continues to misrepresent facts how can we trust her on council?
JoAnn Klement
Brentwood
Read MoreSearch begins for his replacement
![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Randell-Iwasaki.jpg)
Randy Iwasaki. From LinkedIn.
Randell H. Iwasaki, the Executive Director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority announced recently, his intention to retire from the agency. Following is a statement from the Board Chair Julie Pierce.
“It is with a range of mixed emotions that I announce Randell Iwasaki’s (Randy) retirement from his successful and accomplished career at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA). I am sad Randy will retire as CCTA’s Executive Director effective December 26, 2020; yet, I am immensely proud of the goals, recognition and innovations CCTA achieved in the ten years Randy has been at the helm of the Authority, and extremely grateful for the leadership Randy has demonstrated while managing this agency. His vision, as well as his ability to create, guide and inspire a remarkable workforce resulted in a small but mighty team who has made significant advances to improve mobility in Contra Costa County.
Randy and his staff have delivered on our promise to the public by completing major infrastructure improvements such as Highway 4 and the Caldecott Fourth Bore projects, while simultaneously pursuing innovative ways to improve mobility in the future. During Randy’s tenure, CCTA has become a leader in advancing new technology to solve real challenges faced by our residents. Notable achievements include establishing the nation’s largest secure, connected and automated vehicle proving grounds, securing legislation to pilot the first low-speed, multi-passenger, shared autonomous vehicles that are not equipped with a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator or operator on public roads in California, and more recently winning two nationally competitive grants to deploy innovative transportation technology from the United States Department of Transportation.
Throughout his tenure as Executive Director, Randy has ensured CCTA remains a responsible and prudent steward of public funds. For eight years in a row the agency’s management of sales tax dollars has been recognized with the coveted “Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting” from the Government Finance Officers Association. Last year, the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association also honored CCTA with a Silver Medal Award for Good Government.
On behalf of the CCTA Board, I’d like to express our gratitude for Randy’s extraordinary role in delivering so many projects aimed to strengthen the economy, protect the environment and enhance Contra Costa County’s transportation system. In the ten years he has served as Executive Director, he has accomplished much to improve the quality of life for our residents. We thank Randy for his dedication to this agency, and wish him all the best in his new adventures.”
The CCTA Board has appointed a sub-committee of the Board to lead the search for the agency’s next Executive Director.”
Iwasaki is the former Executive Director of CalTrans, the state Department of Transportation, said he plans to work in the private sector following his retirement in December.
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The Forensic Services Division of the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff was awarded $408,853.00 in grant funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The funding will be used to purchase a Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS/MS).
The new equipment can detect illegal drugs, prescription drugs, and over-the-counter drugs commonly found in driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) and drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) cases. The addition of this equipment will enable the Sheriff’s Crime Laboratory to provide a higher level of service to the agencies in Contra Costa County and the criminal justice system.
“We are pleased to receive this grant from the Office of Traffic Safety,” said Contra Costa County Sheriff David O. Livingston. “This will increase our efficiency and enable us to provide rapid results to law enforcement and prosecutors on DUID cases in Contra Costa County.”
The purchase of the new instrument, training, and method validation are anticipated to take up to one year. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Read More![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Homeless-lady-walking-shoeless-firefighters-fire-1024x256.jpg)
Homeless woman walking barefoot, with firefighters who were there to extinguish the fire in the tunnel beneath Hwy 4. Photos by Art Ray.
Firefighters extinguish fire in tunnel where she’s been living.
By Art Ray
It’s starting to get cooler at night if you have a place to sleep, you can thank God.
I responded to. a working fire in the underpass beneath Highway 4 at Century Blvd. in Pittsburg. When I got there, I saw a young, homeless woman, and I do mean young. She was laying down on a nasty mattress behind some metal bars. The arriving firemen grabbed a saw and cut the gate open so they could put a hose on the fire.
What got me was that the young woman remained on the mattress with smoke pouring out of the tunnel. She didn’t have the capacity to get away from the smoke or fire. Finally, she walked out of the tunnel bare foot stepping on glass, rocks and all kinds of dangerous things. As she passed by me, I asked “where are your shoes?” to which she replied she didn’t have any.
The point of this story is not that I went and got her a pair of shoes from the store but that she has some demons that has her early, 20-year-old self, homeless and living under a highway. She didn’t even have the mental capacity to follow my directions and to walk the one block down to the store to meet me to get the new shoes.
![](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Painting-lighter-garbage-firefighter-at-fenced-off-entrance-1024x241.jpg)
Homeless woman painting her lighter with nail polish, the mattress where she slept surrounded by garbage in the tunnel, and a firefighter at the gated entrance to one side of the tunnel below Hwy 4. Photos by Art Ray.
I had to go driving around to find her. When I did find her, she was sitting on the ground painting a cigarette lighter with fingernail polish. When I walked up to her with the shoe bag she never even looked up to me when I gave her the new blue shoes she was fixated on the nail polish and lighter. That’s when I realized that’s there are bigger issues than being homeless. There are thousands of homeless people that are not thinking straight.
After dropping off the shoes I went to meet with the county’s homeless advocate to see if they could help the young sister. He told me he would leave his office and go find her as soon as he got done checking in another homeless person into the newly opened homeless residence the state just bought from Motel 6.
I’m saying all of this to encourage everyone to find a way they can help another human being instead of just complaining about the homeless problem.
Most police departments and counties have resources you can plug into. Maybe you have a warm coat or shoes you don’t wear anymore. Be a part of the homeless solution not a person that finds pleasure in complaining about the homeless. Trust this. Many of the homeless have issues they are battling in their heads. It’s getting cold out. Are you willing to find a way to get involved? Perhaps it’s through your church. Like they say, it takes a village. We are all our brother’s, or in this case, our sister’s keeper.
This is a story that I needed to photograph and tell. I included a picture of the nasty mattress in the filth someone’s daughter or sister was laying on when I arrived. Notice I didn’t include her face so she could retain some kind of dignity.
Art Ray is owner of Bay News Video providing video footage to Bay Area news stations and online media.
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