During a standing-room-only event at city hall, outgoing Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe gave his final address this week and awarded various city leaders keys to the city.
Hernandez-Thorpe spoke about each of the recipients on Monday, noting their contributions to the city of Antioch, especially during his challenging four-year mayoral term that included a global pandemic, numerous death threats to him, and an FBI investigation of the city’s police department that led to multiple federal indictments and state charges of police officers.
When introducing one recipient — interim Chief of Police Brian Addington, a retired Pittsburg chief of police who stepped into an interim leadership role in February this year — Hernandez-Thorpe thanked him for taking on the “monumental task.”
“He does not have to be here. He could be on a beach somewhere,” said the mayor. “But he saw it fit to join us and help us navigate one of the worst aspects of the FBI investigation dealing with the racist text messaging scandal, and we needed people to hold folks accountable and not sway one way or another and be fair in the process, and he got us through that effort.”
Addington said that over the last 10 months, he came to love the people who live in and work for the city of Antioch.
“I am very humbled to be receiving this with all the other department heads who have been here much longer than I have, and I probably do speak for all of them when I say we really do stand on the shoulders of those who work for us,” Addington said. “I know there still are outstanding men and women in the Antioch Police Department that are going out there every day, working to keep this community safe, and we have more officers coming.”
Hernandez-Thorpe called Christina Garcia, assistant city clerk, the “soft voice of reason” within the city and shared a story of how she urged him to reconsider mandating vaccinations across the board for city employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Garcia, he said, told him to think about the staff’s diverse religious backgrounds and anxiety about the new vaccine, which ultimately led to a policy that gave employees the choice between vaccination or regular COVID-19 testing.
“This is one of the many, many examples of leaders who lead from behind and still have an impact and influence,” Hernandez-Thorpe said.
Garcia thanked her fellow coworkers.
“I leave in the same way I started in 2016, with a heart filled with gratitude for the people of Antioch and the unsung heroes of city hall who make our city work and those who fought for me to be right here in this place at this moment right now.”
Outgoing Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe
“I love that we all are able to work together to do what’s best for the city of Antioch,” Garcia said.
Those honored were Thomas Lloyd Smith, city attorney; Kwame Reed, economic development director, who wasn’t present; Brad Helfenberger, parks and recreation director; Ana Cortez, human resources director; Dawn Merchant, finance director; Alan Barton, information systems director; Garcia, assistant city clerk; Addington, interim chief of police; Scott Buenting, acting public works director; Kevin Scudero, acting community development director; Tasha Johnson, public safety and community resources director, whose husband accepted the award on her behalf; and the late Barbara Sobalvarro, Founder of Friends of Antioch Animal Services, who passed away just last month at 83.
Elected officials who joined the ceremony included outgoing Contra Costa County District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover, who will retire after 23 years on the board, along with his replacement, Shanelle Scales-Preston, who won her seat this election with 52.16% of the vote over opponent Mike Barbanica, an Antioch council member. Oakley Mayor Anissa Williams, Oakley Vice Mayor Shannon Shaw and Patt Young, the director of the Contra Costa Water District, were also present for the Antioch mayor’s final address.
Hernandez-Thorpe first joined the Antioch City Council in 2016 as a council member before he was elected as mayor in 2020 with 19,792 votes representing 44.44% of the vote. This year, his number of votes dropped to 12,783, representing 30.72% of the votes against the incoming mayor, Ron Bernal, who previously served as an Antioch city manager and gained 25,791 votes, or 61.98%.
“So tomorrow,” Hernandez-Thorpe said, “I leave in the same way I started in 2016, with a heart filled with gratitude for the people of Antioch and the unsung heroes of city hall who make our city work and those who fought for me to be right here in this place at this moment right now.”