BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
Vol. 20, No. 42
YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
City takes Making an Alpine beer run on parking shortage
October 19, 2018
Family Looks For Answers
by Kyle Szymanski Staff Writer
A transportation consultant recently made wide-ranging recommendations to Brentwood officials to alleviate the downtown parking shortage. Now the city council will put those suggestions in motion in hopes that the problems will soon move out of town. The scheduled improvements include restructuring existing parking spots on Third, Pine and Maple streets to accommodate additional vehicles; increased signage; ramped-up parking enforcement; and implementation of new residential parking regulations on Second, Third and Fourth streets. “The goal is to develop a plan to improve existing parking while also preparing for fusee Parking page 34
The murder of Emily Courchesne remains unsolved – police are asking for public’s help. Page 5
Halloween Hauntings Photo by Tony Kukulich
Adriana Encinas ran the beer stein obstacle race during OktoberFEST 2018, sponsored by the Downtown Brentwood Coalition and held in Brentwood, Saturday, Oct. 13. The event featured live music, German beer and events such as a weiner dog parade. To view a slideshow of the event, visit www.thepress.net/multimedia/slideshows
The growing cost of officer overtime “ Overtime is an expected cost
by Aly Brown Staff Writer
With populations in cities throughout East County on the rise, crime rates are often placed in the spotlight along with the cost to put officer boots on the streets. Brentwood, Oakley and Antioch each saw their share of overtime pay to police departments in 2017. According to Transparent California, a public pay and pension database, 49 officers in Brentwood (population of about 61,000) brought home a total of $468,000 in overtime. Twenty-four officers in Oakley (population: 41,000) accrued a little over $269,000. Overtime in Antioch (population: 111,000) was about $1.6 million for the listed 78 officers. “Overtime is an expected cost for a variety of different reasons … and the dollar amount is generally based on total number of staff and salaries,” said Brentwood Police Department Lt. Walter O’Grodnick. “We rely heavily on our supervisors and administra-
for a variety of different reasons … and the dollar amount is generally based on total number of staff and salaries.
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Lt. Walter O’Grodnick, Brentwood Police Department tors to manage the overtime budget, and our staff participates in periodic budget review meetings to help us stay on point. The current overtime budget cap (for the Brentwood Police Department) is $618,000.” O’Grodnick further stated his force is authorized 66 sworn positions and currently has one vacancy. Over in the Oakley Police Department, Chief Chris Thorsen said his force also monitors overtime closely. “Each week our patrol captain and ad-
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ministrative sergeant review each hour of overtime spent and the reason for the overtime and whether we had an alternative to spending the hours,” Thorsen explained. “If there was a ‘better way,’ adjustments are made in the following week. Overtime expenditures can be a moving target and are based upon many factors.” Thorsen said the Oakley Police Department is fully staffed with 34 total sworn personnel with the most recent officer sworn in last month and scheduled to complete training. “When we have short-term vacancies, we do things like use a traffic officer to fill a beat position or use our problem oriented policing officer to backfill,” said Thorsen. “This works well in the short term, but we are keenly aware that filling a beat with a specialty officer (i.e. having a traffic officer fill a beat) means we run short in our traffic unit. Thus the duties typically handled by the traffic unit are
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see Overtime page 34
Election 2018
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Voting is underway for the November 2018 General Midterm Elections.
It’s the season of tricks and treats. Check out all the spooky happenings in East County. Page 7
Serving Up Victory
Liberty girls’ volleyball team has clinched BVAL title and is looking toward playoffs. Page 23 Calendar................................35 Classifieds.............................29 Cop Logs................................33 Election Updates ...............18 Entertainment.....................13 Food........................................12 Milestones............................15 Opinion..................................22 Pets.........................................28 Sports.....................................23
Holiday Joy
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Operation Christmas Child at Golden Hills Church is gearing up for the season.