The following is a letter from Antioch Mayor Wade Harper who had seven days to respond after being served with a Petition to Recall him from office. He is asking the community to reject the recall effort and instead fight together to improve the city.
During the October 14 City Council Meeting, Rich Buongiorno, a 66-year Antioch resident, told the Mayor that he was given the opportunity to resign and did not so he was being recalled.
“Mr. Mayor you are being recalled,” said Buongiorno. “I know that is not pleasant and I certainly understand that and I know right now you are probably ready to lash out. I know you are more of a man than that. I think you really should do what is good for the city of Antioch. And that is to step down.”
The mayor responded during the Mayors Comment portion of the meeting with an 11-minute explanation of his accomplishments. The transcript can be read in full by clicking here.
Mayor Harpers Response to Recall Petition
As your Mayor and retired Police Lieutenant, reducing crime is my top priority. Our families deserve to feel safe, that’s why I led the effort to approve Measure C – so Antioch would have funds to hire more police officers.
Our community united and we hired 10 officers (Mike Perez, Kyle Smith, JB Hulleman, Marcos Torres, Kenneth Krein, Scott Duggar, Amel Sahnic, Takkeo-Vann, Ben Padilla, and Matt Allendorph), with 4 more currently in the academy- a total of 14 new crime-fighting officers.
The cost of this recall may be up to $198,944.50 which could fund another 2 officers to make our streets safer.
Under my leadership, our Police Department conducts weekly crime suppression operations – one which resulted in 87 arrests in just a five-day period. Nothing is more important than keeping our neighborhoods and children safe. But to achieve that goal, its going to take all of us working together. It time to end divisiveness.
I respectfully ask the Antioch community to ban together, to reject this recall, so we can continue to fight together.
Mayor Wade Harper.
Below is the official letter – note, we have hidden the Mayors home address.
5 comments
I am not a fan of the recall, but under his leadership it did take him two years to figure out crime was a problem to begin these weekly details. He also was on the council prior to becoming Mayor.
Seems like without ECT, crime would never have been an issue with the council. Only after the public saw it, they responded.
A recall is a waste of time and money, these people trying to recall would be better off grooming their own candidate to replace the mayor or work to find a candidate.
How the heck does he figure it would cost that much money for the recall? As far as I can tell the recall is already begun and all that matters is getting somebody else to replace his seat. It would cost that much to elect a new person anyhow. Keep in mind the key word he used is “may” cost “up to”.
Isn’t it interesting how he finally speaks up after he’s been served recall papers?
Isn’t it interesting how he’s always flashing his badge around every time he wants to get the public to like him? Does anyone remember his many billboard ads claiming “zero tolerance for crime? “. A lot of good that has done Antioch.
Anyone remember the fiasco behind measure C? Remember the whole miscommunication by the mayor and council regarding the baseline of how many officers Antioch should have? Conveniently Harper didn’t include how many total officers we have. That’s because we are still under and let me say it again, we are still under the right amount of officers we need for our crime rate in Antioch. Hence, measure C hasn’t improved our quality-of-life.
Don’t let him dupe you again. I regret voting for Harper. He lied to me and I won’t let him dupe me again.
The petition to even hold a vote is what the proponents will be passing around within the next couple of weeks. If they do not gather enough signatures, there will be no ballot, everything remains the same. If they do gather enough signatures there’s a special election (which is the part that costs money) you will vote whether or not to recall the Mayor and elect his replacement all on the same ballot. Things to consider: When ever someone says something could cost “up to” a certain amount, that’s the most it will likely cost. Chances are that it could also cost less.
Only the county can say how much it will cost and it will determined by the number of registered voters Antioch has. Make it easy Mr Harper and step down.
Excellent point.
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