Looking for a new job or a change in career? The City of Benicia Human Resources Division is accepting applications for the following positions:
Community Preservation Officer
Facility Attendant II (Part Time)
Human Resources Assistant – Limited Duration NEW
Lifeguard
Management Analyst I/II – Climate Action Coordinator – Limited Duration NEW(Editor: for details click here, including MANAGEMENT ANALYST I/II – CLIMATE ACTION….first review of applications scheduled for June 28, 2021. This limited duration position is anticipated to last approximately 12 months and is in the Economic Development Department. Full Time $5,697.08 – $7,617.56 Monthly)
Parks Landscape Building Maintenance Worker (Parks Division) NEW
Police Officer – Academy/Non-Lateral
Police Officer – Lateral (Currently Working)
Recreation Specialist
Reserve Officer (Volunteer)
Seasonal Senior Lead Park Worker (Part Time)
To apply for any of these positions, the application and supplemental forms may be found online, then click the job title. Employment applications may also be obtained from, and must be returned to, Human Resources at 250 East L Street, Benicia. Sign up with Job Interest Cards to be notified of future position openings when they occur.
Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record offers private and secure access to vaccination information
Users receive a QR code to maintain privacy, security, and ease of access to COVID-19 vaccine record Media Contact CDPH: CDPHpress@cdph.ca.gov Media Contact CDT: Newsroom@state.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO – On June 18, the California Department of Public Health and California Department of Technology announced a new Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record for Californians, available at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov. The tool is a convenient option for Californians who received a COVID-19 vaccination to access their record from the state’s immunization registry systems.
“While CDPH recommends that vaccinated Californians keep their paper CDC card in a safe and secure place, we recognize that some people might prefer an electronic version,” said California State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan. “And if one of the state’s nearly 20 million vaccinated Californians misplaces their paper card, the Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record provides a convenient backup.”
California’s Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record follows national standards for security and privacy, is built by the state, and provides Californians a way to view and save their vaccine record.
“We worked with CDPH, tech industry leaders, and consulted with California’s top businesses, service and event purveyors to create a system that works well for all sectors,” said Amy Tong, State CIO and Director of the California Department of Technology. “We achieved our goal to quickly produce an intuitive portal that offers Californians another way, and an easier way, to access their own COVID-19 immunization history.”
The Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record is easy to use: a person enters their name, date of birth, and an email or mobile phone number associated with their vaccine record. After creating a 4-digit PIN, the user receives a link to their vaccine record that will open upon re-entry of the PIN.
The record shows the same information as the paper CDC vaccine card: name, date of birth, date of vaccinations, and vaccine manufacturer. It also includes a QR code that makes these same details readable by a QR scanner. Once the digital record is received, individuals are encouraged to screenshot the information and save it to their phone files or camera roll.
By embracing the open-source SMART Health Card Framework, California joins a growing consortium of public and private organizations – like UC Health, EPIC, and Cerner – empowering individuals to access official copies of their immunization data records. The VCI.org coalition is dedicated to improving privacy and security of patient information, making medical records portable and reducing healthcare fraud. Businesses that incorporate QR scanning into their own systems must adhere to the SMART Health Card Framework developed by VCI™.
“Empowering all individuals with the opportunity and choice of managing their personal vaccination records securely and conveniently is the hallmark of the VCI coalition and The SMART Health Card Framework,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, Chief Digital Physician at MITRE and a Co-founder of VCI. “The framework allows individuals to control their personal health information and how they share that record.”
For more information about the Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record, visit covid19.ca.gov. Californians can correct or update their immunization record at cdph.ca.gov/covidvaccinerecord.
On June 19th, 2021, Benicia Black Lives Matter hosted the first City proclaimed Juneteenth Event in Benicia, California. The event was held at the Benicia Historical Museum.
Shortened version, 23 minutes
Full length version, 1 hour
[Editor: See also VIDEO footage by Benicia’s own Constance Beutel.]
Benicia’s first Juneteenth Celebration ‘huge’
Vallejo Times-Herald, by Richard Freedman, June 19, 2021
The Omega Gents perform a step routine during the City of Benicia Inaugural Juneteenth Program at the Camel Barns on Saturday in Benicia. (Chris Riley—Times-Herald)
Benicia Mayor Steve Young graduated from Burbank High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley and a master of arts degree in urban policy and administration from San Francisco State.
Not one class discussed Juneteenth. No mention. Nothing.
“It’s something we never learned … Juneteenth and the Tulsa Massacre, the things an educated person like myself should have learned a long time ago,” Young said, minutes before presenting a “Juneteenth Freedom Day” proclamation Saturday at the City of Benicia Inaugural Juneteenth Celebration at the Camel Barn Museum.
Featuring a dozen Black-owned businesses, speeches, poetry reading and the singing of the Negro National Anthem, the significance of the first Juneteenth in Benicia — complemented by Juneteenth as a new federal holiday — “indicates that we’ve made progress and, though we have a long way to go, what it means for the history of this country is very significant,” Young said.
The Benicia Juneteenth Celebration “is huge,” said Brandon Greene of the event-sponsoring Benicia Black Lives Matter, especially coming on the heels of raising the Freedom Flag in Benicia “which had never been done.”
Greene, 38, a seven-year Benician, grew up in Las Vegas after his family left the Deep South in the Great Migration west.
Co-founder of the Benicia Black Lives Matter movement, Brandon Greene, speaks to the crowd Saturday as the Juneteenth flag floats in the foreground during the City of Benicia Inaugural Juneteenth Program at the Camel Barns. (Chris Riley—Times-Herald)
“I was fortunate that my grandparents knew their history and taught our history to me,” Greene said, happy that “the federal government has finally recognized Juneteenth” as President Joe Biden signed off on it Thursday.
“President Obama always did proclamations, but never had the ability to pass it through Congress to make it a federal holiday,” Greene said, calling it “a reckoning on how we teach history in this country.”
Greene added that the fruits of Black Lives Matter’s labor in creating the Camel Barn event was worth it as the venue filled even before the official 11 a.m. start.
“This is amazing … the energy … and being able to see all the Black vendors,” Greene said.
Another Benicia Black Lives Matter activist, 19-year Benicia resident Nimat Shakoor-Grantham, acknowledged that a Juneteenth Celebration is a big step in educating the town’s residences.
“Even in my beginning of trying to organize Benicia Black Lives Matter, I was told by so many white people, ‘Why are you trying to cause dissension in our town. We don’t need this,’” Shakoor-Grantham said. “I’ve had my son called racist names. I’ve been called racist names and stopped by police asking me, ‘Where do you live?’”
Black people in the predominantly White city “need to be respected,” continued Shakoor-Grantham, emphasizing that the new holiday “is a reminder that America had slaves and slaves actually built this country under toil, bondage and free labor. Juneteenth shows how resilient we are and that there’s no reason to treat us like second-class citizens. Making it a federal holiday is long overdue.”
Shakoor-Grantham said she was “surprised” at the big turn-out at the Camel Barn.
“I’m happy. My heart is full. There are so many people that want to know the true history, so many that feel it’s time for Black people to be treated equally,” she said.
Incorporating Black history into the Benicia school curricula is in the works, Shakoor-Grantham said, which would help “make it better for Black people to live here.”
Daniel Halyard, 73, ran the NAACP information table with his wife, Betty, and said Juneteeth “is freedom day for us” and, though grateful it’s now a federal holiday, “a lot more needs to be done. Reparations, better jobs, better opportunities.”
A 12-year-Benician, Gethsemane Moss, said the Juneteenth Celebration “is really important to our residents in not only understanding the history. I hope it’s an annual event we do and continues to grow. ”
She hopes the locals get educated and no longer “go with the false narratives, with a lack of understanding generation after generation. It’s an epic fail.”
Dr. Maliika Chambers, Benicia’s Equity Diversity Inclusion Manager, said the city’s first Juneteenth Celebration “is huge. It’s amazing,” emphasizing the event was “pro-active” and not “re-active.”
The new holiday, Juneteenth National Independence Day, “is like people knowing it’s your birthday and finally celebrating it,” Chambers said. “It raises the conversation around the contribution of African Americans. It’s one more step in the conversation.”
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