07 May Antioch Places City Manager on Leave, Appoints Acting Replacement

Antioch City Manager Bessie Scott, with civil rights attorney John Burris, signs paperwork in 2025 for a legal settlement involving the Police Department. (Andres Jimenez Larios / Bay City News)

By Samantha Kennedy

In a special meeting reminiscent of another that preceded the resignation of a top city official last year, around a dozen pointed the finger at Antioch’s mayor for what they believed would be the firing of the city manager.

That was about three hours before City Council members announced Tuesday that Ana Cortez, the director of human resources, would serve as acting city manager, replacing Bessie Marie Scott who was put on a paid leave of absence.

Council members voted 4-0, with Tamisha Torres-Walker abstaining, to approve the leave in closed session, according to City Attorney Lori Asuncion.

It’s unclear why Scott was placed on leave. But public commenters, many of whom held a press conference beforehand to urge the city to retain Scott, blasted Mayor Ron Bernal and Mayor Pro Tem Don Freitas ahead of the session for allegedly pushing Scott out.

The move comes about a year after residents rallied behind then-City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith, the city’s first Black city attorney, as he faced a potential firing that they said was rooted in racism. Smith resigned that same day.

Scott, the first Black woman to serve in the role, has seemingly faced an uphill battle to earn the trust of officials and residents since beginning almost two years ago, which has included allegations of racism and political disagreements.

Scott was appointed in 2024 by the then-progressive council majority, after some of her previous social media posts about systemic racism brought several people to protest her hiring with their own claims of racism.

Once Bernal and Freitas were elected that November, Scott faced an almost immediate call to have her employment reconsidered because the new council majority — Freitas, Bernal and Louie Rocha — did not have a say in the process.

Those calls died down publicly, with some who once opposed her hiring coming to her side at Tuesday’s meeting. Melissa Case, a resident, was one of them.

“I was not a pro-Bessie fan, but I am 1,000% right now,” said Case. “She’s been responsive; she’s been transparent — more than any of this council at times.”

Scott most recently clashed with Bernal over the disbursement of tens of thousands of dollars in economic development grants in November, raising claims of bullying by the mayor against the city manager.

Like in that meeting, public speakers at the special meeting Tuesday suggested that Scott’s race was a factor in her treatment.

“We are tired of your macroaggressive behavior against Black highly educated and intelligent [individuals] with success proven track records in Antioch,” said former police oversight commissioner Leslie May.

Cortez has spent over 20 years working with the city, where she’s served as an administrative analyst and human resources technician. She was acting city manager in early 2023.

Scott’s leave marks the end of her tenure as the longest continuously serving city manager since Cornelius Johnson was placed on administrative leave after just over a year, and when Bernal retired in 2021 following over four years in the position.