Federal Glover has represented Contra Costa County’s District 5 on the Board of Supervisors for the entire 21st century so far, but he is retiring and an election next month could decide his replacement.
The former Pittsburg mayor became the board’s first and only African American supervisor when he was elected in 2000. He is currently serving out his last year as board chair — his fifth stint heading up the board.
District 5 spans the north shore of Contra Costa County and includes part of Antioch, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Martinez, Rodeo, Crockett, Hercules and Hercules, as well as unincorporated areas such as Clyde, Alhambra Valley, Briones, and Reliez Valley.
Four people are vying to replace him in the March 5 election: Antioch City Councilmember Mike Barbanica, Pittsburg City Councilmember Jelani Killings and his colleague Shanelle Scales-Preston, and Iztaccuauhtli Gonzalez, a Pittsburg insurance agent and loan and real estate broker.
If none of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the two with the most votes head to a runoff in November.
Jelani Killings
According to his campaign site, Killings is an ordained minister who “is a champion for government accountability, public safety, and economic development.”
Killings works as an analyst for Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission and counts among his accomplishments his spearheading of a performance management system in Pittsburg to track city goals, drafting a city subcommittee restructure reducing the number of city subcommittees from 19 to five, and implementing quarterly police reports to the council from the police chief on use of force and internal investigations.
Shanelle Scales-Preston
Scales-Preston has served for more than two decades as a top aide to Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and his predecessor, George Miller, both of whom support her. She has also been endorsed by Glover and multiple Contra Costa labor unions.
Scales-Preston says on her website that her priorities are creating housing for people of all income levels, investing in infrastructure and exploring new modes of public transportation, more youth services and economic growth, and “collaboration between law enforcement and the community and investing in tactical and anti-bias police training to foster trust and cooperation.”
Mike Barbanica
Barbanica is a member of the Antioch City Council and a former Pittsburg police officer. He’s also a real estate broker. Much of his support comes from police officers’ associations and law enforcement officials, including Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston. Heis often in the minority on the Antioch council, as opposed to Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe’s frequent three-person majority.
Barbanica says on his campaign site that public safety is his first priority. He touts his record of voting to put more police in neighborhoods, being against defunding police and supporting safety improvements to cut down on traffic fatalities.
Barbanica was against Antioch putting homeless people in motels. He says he is working with public/private housing leaders and community organizations to provide more affordable housing for the unhoused or those about to lose their housing. He’s also an advocate for better policing, including more bodycams and dashcams and more school resource officers. He also said, while a police supervisor in Pittsburg, he was involved with the prosecution of eight officers accused of crimes.
Iztaccuauhtli Gonzalez
Gonzalez said on his campaign site that he is past president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Contra Costa County. He supports more inclusive, efficient and effective government.
Gonzalez says on his site he wants to prosecute more crime and vandalism and encourage more neighborhood watch programs and more video cameras to identify and locate perpetrators. He also supports changing laws that minimize sentences of theft and vandalism.
Gonzalez also says he wants more affordable housing and wants to ensure county tax dollars are distributed equally to the county’s most “vulnerable” residents. He also wants the county to keep a database of unhoused people to help them address their needs.
More information about this year’s elections in Contra Costa County is available on the county website.