The candidates debated in a lively forum in Benicia moderated by the Solano County Black Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee. | Ryan Gellar / Vallejo Sun.
The candidates debated in a lively forum in Benicia moderated by the Solano County Black Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee.
BENICIA – Candidates for the District 2 seat on the Solano County Board of Supervisors exchanged barbs and trumpeted platform points as they answered questions in a forum moderated by the Solano County Black Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee at the Benicia Veterans Hall Monday night.
Incumbent Monica Brown and challengers Rochelle Sherlock and Nora Dizon responded to individual questions posed for each candidate by the forum moderators, PAC chair Charles Lee and local business owner Tara Beasley-Stansbury. Candidates were allowed short responses to their opponents’ answers.
Sherlock, a business management consultant who previously ran against Brown in 2020, took her first opportunity to challenge Brown’s record by saying that Brown had voted to dissolve several advisory committees, including the Agricultural Advisory Board, the Alcohol and Drug Advisory Committee and the Solano County Historical Records Commission.
The issue came up a second time when moderators read questions collected from an audience of about 40 people. One attendee asked if candidates would work to reinstate the commissions.
Brown said that the board had valid reasons to dissolve the committees. She said that the Alcohol and Drug Advisory Board was folded into the Behavioral Health Department to fit the statewide model and the board felt that Farm Bureau was a better fit to represent agricultural interests.
In regards to the Historical Records Commission, Brown said that the county received very few requests for records from the archive and they wanted to devote staff time to more widely used services.
But Sherlock fired back, saying that the dissolution of the committees was an assault on democracy. “I’m going to do everything I can to restore those advisory committees,” she said. “If the county Board of Supervisors are making major decisions and they are not getting input from the people that those decisions are impacting then we have got a problem.”
Sherlock said that the committees had served an important role in monitoring the effectiveness of county programs and tracking the use of county funds. She said that she would work to build greater collaboration and citizen participation at both the city and county levels of government.
The Progressive Democrats of Benicia to Host Zoom Candidate Forum Tuesday, January 9, at 7pm
The Progressive Dems are hosting a virtual candidate forum for District 2 Supervisor Candidates tomorrow evening. All are welcome to attend and the event is free.
Monica Brown (left) and Rochelle Sherlock, Democratic candidates for Board of Supervisors in District 2, will speak.* The club asked the candidates to answer a few questions, and what answers they have received are now available on the Progressive Democrats of Benicia website, with the specific page linked below:
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,86273821941#,,,,*528756# US (San Jose)
* Per PDB’s by-laws and as required by chartering authorities, the club may only endorse registered Democrats for office. Candidates registered to other parties are not eligible for the club’s endorsement. You may learn about all the candidates for this office, including non-Democrats, at the Vallejo Sun’s excellent article covering all candidates in the March 5 Primary Election.
Click the image to be redirected to the Eventbrite page with more information and tickets.
With apologies for the late notice, here is your first opportunity to hear from and learn more about the candidates for District 2 Supervisor – and let them know what you want to see in Solano County in the next few years. The Democratic candidates for supervisor are Monica Brown (incumbent) and Rochelle Sherlock. Nora Dizon is a third candidate. (We were unable to find Supervisor Brown’s campaign webpage.) Supervisor District 2 covers Benicia, parts of Vallejo, and parts of Fairfield. This is a free event that appears to be open to the public, although it looks like you can get tickets at the Eventbrite page.
Click the image to be redirected to the Eventbrite page with more information and tickets.
[Disclaimer: the BenIndy was not asked to promote these events and is not affiliated with the PAC that is hosting them in any way. This simply seems like a good opportunity for voters to learn more about the candidates.]
They are now resorting to what amounts to bribery disguised as philanthropy.
The initially anonymous investor group operating under the generic name of Flannery Associates—which now calls itself California Forever—generated widespread suspicion during the five years it purchased more than $800 million worth of largely agricultural land in Solano County.
As anyone outside Silicon Valley could have foreseen, the billionaires sowed considerable ill will when they filed a $510 million antitrust suit against those who balked at accepting even an inflated price for farmland that has been in their families for generations.
The result was a series of decidedly negative receptions at six town halls that California Forever CEO Jan Sramek began hosting in late November. As Sramek has acknowledged, the project will need voter approval to build on land that is now zoned solely for agriculture.
In a cynical ploy at the final town hall meeting Monday, Sramek announced that California Forever is accepting applications for $500,000 in “community grants” to local nonprofits.
“For too long, nonprofits in Solano County have received far less funding when compared to other Bay Area counties,” Sramek said. “The California Forever project wants to help narrow that funding gap.”
Sramek was citing a United Way study, which found that Solano County has 6 percent of the Bay Area’s population, but gets less than 1 percent of the funding for nonprofits. He spoke as if California Forever is seeking to right a wrong in the county where it is wagering nearly $1 billion that it can change local use laws and make the super-rich even richer.
But where were Sramek and his deep-pocketed billionaires before they decided they needed to buy votes along with more than 60,000 acres? They could have donated to Solano groups at any point if they were so concerned about the disparity. California Forever did not respond to a Daily Beast request for comment.
A 22-year-old named Aiden Mayhood, whose family has been farming in the county for seven generations, was at Monday’s meeting. He later told The Daily Beast that many of those in attendance recognized Sramek’s offer for what it was.
“A lot of people I think viewed it as almost like bribing,” Mayhood said.
Sramek named six “initial recipients” of the grants, among them the Solano Land Trust. For the county’s conservation organization to have accepted a grant from California Forever implied some measure of approval. And farmers such as Al Medvitz, who have conservation easement arrangements with the Trust, were concerned.
“That creates some consternation for us,” Medvitz told The Daily Beast.
But Medvitz reassured himself that he and the other farmers should still trust the Trust even when billionaires were involved
“Money is pretty powerful, but it isn’t all-powerful,” he said.
As it turns out, Sramek’s performance at the town hall meeting was misleading. The Solano Land Trust says it neither sought nor received funding from California Forever.
“No, we haven’t applied for a grant,” the trust’s executive director, Nicole Braddock, told The Daily Beast.
Braddock said the trust received a personal, anonymous donation that turned out to be from Sramek and his wife for its Put a Child on The Land program, in which school kids visit pristine undeveloped spaces such as Lynch Canyon.
“We’re learning that the donor no longer considers it anonymous, which is why I can talk to you about it,” she said.
She also said, “We never take money from individuals or businesses that require endorsement support, favors influence or quid pro quo. That wasn’t part of this or any other donation that we take. And we also have taken no position on the plans of Flannery/California Forever.”
A road sign is posted near a parcel of land purchased by Flannery Associates near Rio Vista, California. | Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty.
The donation from Sramek and his wife was made at the Solano Land Trust’s annual Sunday Supper in October. The fundraiser was also attended by Maryn Anderson, a 34-year-old high school teacher whose father is a fourth-generation Solano County farmer and has refused to sell. She introduced herself to Sramek.
“I said, ‘Hi, my name’s Maryn Anderson,’ and he immediately knew who I was,” she recalled. “And I said, ‘You are suing me and my family and my community for $510 million.’”
She later told The Daily Beast, “My main message to him was, ‘You have big amends to make in this county if you really want to go forward with this project. I don’t want you to be successful, but I’m telling you, if you do want to go forward, you have amends to make, specifically with how you’ve treated many of the farmers.”
She concluded that Sramek does not understand that most of the people who did sell to him are no longer active farmers and were only leasing their property to those who are. Many active farmers have a deep attachment to the land that seems beyond Sramek’s comprehension.
“He just can’t see why we wouldn’t sell,” she recalled.
Of the California Forever crew, she says, “It was like we confused them when we said, ‘No, there’s not really an amount of money that we would sell for. We care about what we do. We believe in what we do. We believe in agriculture.’ They would just look at you like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ You know, it doesn’t compute that money couldn’t buy something.”
Anderson saw Sramek again at a town hall in Rio Vista on Dec. 5. She rose to speak and offered him a way to make amends.
“Will you commit to dropping the lawsuit against the local farmers who are not aligned with your vision, in a goodwill attempt to change the way that you are interacting with our community?” she asked.
Sramek seemed to believe that the farmers who did not sell were conspiring to hold out for more.
“Illegal and criminal,” he said.
California Forever has pressed ahead with the lawsuit even as Ian Anderson and his co-defendants filed a pending motion to dismiss on the grounds there was no wrongdoing. The mounting legal bills are enough to ruin a farmer.
“They, they want us to get in line or get outta the way, and they’re happy to… crush you in order to get what they want,” Anderson said.
And now that its disgraceful behavior leaves it in need of currying favor with voters, billionaire-backed California Forever suddenly says it wants to ensure Solano County’s nonprofits get their fair share.
The nerve of these people.
More about California Forever on the Benicia Independent:
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