Antioch Mayor Wade Harper is coming under fire from constituents for being “MIA” when it comes to addressing the city’s crime problem.
Two residents lambasted the mayor at a recent council meeting for avoiding the spotlight when it's focused on crime and called for his resignation.
"I'm not happy," longtime resident Rich Buongiorno told Wade Harper. "Mr. Mayor, when it comes to the bad stuff, you're not there. I just don't see you.”
The mayor noted during the meeting that residents often aren't aware of what he does behind the scenes.
Buongiorno threatened other councilmembers at the meeting, holding recall petitions aloft as he addressed them.
"City Council members be prepared -- you may have one or two of these forms waiting for you, too," he said.
Resident Ken Turnage also faulted the mayor for not being a strong leader and suggested that he step down.
"That won't happen," Harper interjected.
Meanwhile, several fast-food restaurants near Deer Valley High School are shuttering their doors after school in an area where teenagers -- sometimes numbering in the hundreds -- have been loitering and fighting.
Three fast-food restaurants near the school say they are closing their dining rooms on school days from 3 to 4:30 p.m.,
"I think it's a community issue, to be honest with you," Joseph Franco, a Burger King employee, said Thursday as police officers and security guards patrolled the shopping center nearby. "It's management's way of trying to deter the delinquent behavior."