Tag Archives: Benicia City Council

#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Solano COVID report – more of the same, 115 new infections, SUBSTANTIAL community transmission

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Monday, October 25, 2021  [Note: Benicia City Council may weaken mask mandate on Nov. 16 – click to scroll down.  – R.S>]

Monday, October 25: Solano County reports 115 new infections over the weekend, and remains in the CDC’s SUBSTANTIAL 7-day transmission rate.  Benicia also remains in SUBSTANTIAL community transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  The County has reported 45 COVID deaths since Sept 1.  A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 115 new COVID cases over the weekend, 38 per day.  AGES: 26 of these 115 cases were youth and children under 18.  61 were age 18-49, 22 were age 50-64, and only 5 were 65+.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 245 new cases.  Good news is that this is down from 278 on Friday.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we will need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 323 ACTIVE cases is down from Friday’s 348, but still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Monday, October 25:

    • Benicia added only 3 new cases today, a total of 1,522 cases since the outbreak began.  TRANSMISSION RATE: SUBSTANTIAL.  Benicia has seen 15 new cases over the last 7 days, just above the CDC’s definition of MODERATE community transmission (MODERATE is defined as fewer than 14 cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW).  [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

    • Dixon added 2 new cases today, total of 2,531 cases.
    • Fairfield added 35 new cases today, total of 12,198 cases.
    • Rio Vista reported at 5 new cases today, total of 603 cases.
    • Suisun City added 8 new cases today, total of 3,223 cases.
    • Vacaville added 33 new cases today, a total of 11,950 cases.
    • Vallejo added 28 new cases today, a total of 13,336 cases.
    • Unincorporated added 1 new case today, a total of 140 cases (population figures not available).

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day average percent positivity rate was 4.5% today, down from Friday’s 5.5%.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 1.5%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down slightly today from 37 to 36 persons, but still far above the range we saw during last summer.

ICU Bed Availability is at 39% today, up from 32% on Friday.  We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability is up today from 66% to 70%, getting better.

TOTAL hospitalizations: Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  The County did not update its hospitalizations charts today.  Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.

ALERT! Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16

On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level.  Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now.  The mandate went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  On Tuesday, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16.  Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms.  Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.”  He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.

Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Recent Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 on my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).

>>The data on this page is from the Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 4 or 5pm.  On the County’s dashboard, you can hover a mouse or click on an item for more information.  Note the tabs at top for “Summary, Demographics” and “Vaccines.”  Click here to go to today’s Solano County Dashboard.

Sources
#wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Face coverings, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine, Vaccine mandate

Benicia City Council will consider amendments to local mask mandate

NOTE: The information below is not the latest.  CLICK HERE for today’s latest information.
By Roger Straw, Friday, October 22, 2021  [Breaking news: Benicia City Council may weaken mask mandate – click here to scroll down.  – R.S>]

Friday, October 22: Solano County reports 79 new infections and remains in the CDC’s SUBSTANTIAL 7-day transmission rate.  Benicia also remains in SUBSTANTIAL community transmission.

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Solano reported no new COVID-related deaths today.  The County has reported 45 COVID deaths just since Sept 1.  A total of 315 Solano residents have died of COVID or COVID-related causes over the course of the pandemic.

CASES: The County reported 79 new COVID cases since Wednesday, 40 per day.  AGES: 18 of these 79 cases were youth and children under 18.  37 were age 18-49, 19 were age 50-64, and only 5 were 65+.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen SUBSTANTIAL community transmission, with 278 new cases.  Good news is that this is down from 430 on Wednesday.  CDC FORMULA: Based on Solano County’s population, 450 cases in 7 days would move Solano up into the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH transmission rate, and we would need to drop below 225 cases in 7 days to rate as having only MODERATE community transmission.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 348 ACTIVE cases is up slightly from Wednesday’s 342, and still far above our summer rates.

CASES BY CITY on Friday, October 22:

    • Benicia added only 3 new cases today, a total of 1,519 cases since the outbreak began.  TRANSMISSION RATE: SUBSTANTIAL.  Benicia has seen 23 new cases over the last 7 days, remaining below the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission (defined as 28 or more cases, based on Benicia population – SEE CHART BELOW).  [Note above that Solano County is currently experiencing SUBSTANTIAL transmission.

    • Dixon added 4 new cases today, total of 2,529 cases.
    • Fairfield added 21 new cases today, total of 12,163 cases.
    • Rio Vista reported at 1 new case today, total of 597 cases.
    • Suisun City added 10 new cases today, total of 3,215 cases.
    • Vacaville added 23 new cases today, a total of 11,917 cases.
    • Vallejo added 17 new cases today, a total of 13,308 cases.
    • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 139 cases (population figures not available).

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Solano’s 7-day average percent positivity rate was 5.5% today, up from Wednesday’s 4.6%.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 1.4% and today’s U.S. rate is 4.9%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracking Center]

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 44 to 37 persons, but still far above the range we saw during last summer.

ICU Bed Availability is at 37% today, back in the green safe zone and up from only 11% on Monday and 20% on Wednesday.  We remain in the worrisome range we saw during last winter’s surge.

Ventilator Availability is up today from 57% to 66%, getting better.

TOTAL hospitalizations: Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  The County did not update its hospitalizations charts today.  Total COVID hospitalizations in Solano remain at 2,838 since the beginning of the outbreak.

BREAKING NEWS: FACE MASKS… Benicia’s mask mandate may be weakened by City Council on Nov 16

On Tuesday, October 19, Benicia City Council reviewed our CDC-defined 7-day community transmission rate for September-October, which has yet to dip below the SUBSTANTIAL level.  Because of this poor data and according to City Resolution 21-88, Council left in place Benicia’s citywide indoors mask mandate for now.  The mandate went into effect on August 24 and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  On Tuesday, Councilmember Largaespada convinced other Councilmembers and staff to bring consideration of amending the mandate back to Council on November 16.  Largaespada suggested amendments that could weaken the mandate with various exceptions, possibly including no indoor mask requirements in restaurants, bars and gyms.  Largaespada would “Limit the mask mandate to the most essential businesses in town.”  He added that groceries, pharmacies, banks and City Hall might be considered essential.

Vallejo also passed an indoors mask mandate on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against a mask mandate for public indoors spaces.

SOLANO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS failed to consider an agendized proposal for a countywide MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Recent Bay Area news put Solano in a sad light: all other county health officers issued a joint statement offering details on when they would be able to lift mask mandates (not likely soon).  TV news anchors had to point out that Solano would not be considering such a move since our health officer had not been able to “justify” a mask mandate in the first place.  The Solano Board of Supervisors has joined with Dr. Bela Matyas in officially showing poor leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic.

HOW DOES TODAY’S REPORT COMPARE?  See recent reports and others going back to April 20, 2020 on my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).

>>The data on this page is from the Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 4 or 5pm.  On the County’s dashboard, you can hover a mouse or click on an item for more information.  Note the tabs at top for “Summary, Demographics” and “Vaccines.”  Click here to go to today’s Solano County Dashboard.

Sources
Benicia City Council, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Benicia Open Government Commission, Campaign finance, Local elections, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail, Valero PAC

KQED News: Benicia considers strengthening campaign finance ordinance against lies and misinformation

Benicia Considers Proposal for City Hall to Fact-Check Political Ads During Elections

KQED News, by Ted Goldberg, October 18
Valero’s oil refinery in the Solano County city of Benicia. (Craig Miller/KQED)

Benicia lawmakers are considering a proposal that could eventually require the city to fact-check political campaign advertisements — a novel response to alleged election misinformation that could face legal scrutiny.

The ordinance comes after a political action committee funded by Valero, the oil giant that runs a refinery in town, tried to influence voters in the last two city council elections. The company’s involvement in city politics also came as the Valero plant experienced two of the region’s worst refinery accidents in the last four years.

The ordinance was co-authored by Mayor Steve Young, whom the Valero PAC opposed in the last election. He said the committee put out ads that manipulated photos of him and distorted his record.

RELATED POSTS

Now, Young said, the city should consider whether its campaign regulations “can be amended to prohibit digital or voice manipulation of images and whether any lying can be prohibited.”

The PAC, dubbed Working Families for a Strong Benicia, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 2018 and 2020 city council elections. Both votes revived debate between some city officials and environmentalists on one side, who want more regulations on the refinery, and oil executives and unionized refinery workers on the other, who say they fear the city’s real motivation is to shut the plant down.

In 2018, two candidates backed by the PAC, which is also funded by several labor organizations allied with the refinery, won seats on the Benicia City Council. Another candidate, an environmentalist who was opposed by the committee, lost.

Last year, Young won the mayor’s race despite the PAC’s opposition to his candidacy. The ads said that he was against affordable housing and that he didn’t need a job because he receives a pension from previous local government work.

The mayor said he does want cheaper housing and there’s nothing wrong with receiving a pension. He said Valero’s opposition to him began in 2016, when the Benicia Planning Commission, which Young was a member of, voted to reject the company’s crude-by-rail proposal.

“Steve Young wants to turn Benicia into a place where young families can’t afford to live and work,” one flier stated. “Who would vote against kids playing at the ballpark? Steve Young did,” another one said.

Young and the proposal’s co-author, Councilmember Tom Campbell, said the ads mean the city should do a better job of making sure future elections are fair and honest.

But turning the government into a fact-checking body would be ripe for a legal challenge, according to Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Marymount University professor specializing in election law.

“We know the First Amendment does in fact protect lies,” Levinson said in an interview. “I think this is absolutely open to a legal challenge the second they pass it, if they do.”

“Who decides what’s an embellishment, what’s misleading, what’s just an omission versus what’s actually a lie?” Levinson asked.

Since the 2016 election and the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency, misinformation has become one of the biggest issues in American politics, said Levinson.

“We are tackling a situation where there are more lies and there’s more technology that allows us to lie than for sure the framers every dreamed of,” she added.

At the same time, the local news industry, which traditionally acts like a fact-checking body, has been decimated. Benicia gets some news coverage but is often overshadowed by larger Bay Area cities like San Francisco and Oakland.

“One of the things that keeps me up at night is not just misinformation and disinformation and the fact that people believe it, but the fact that we have a dwindling press corps and particularly in smaller jurisdictions,” Levinson said.

The details over how the city would fact-check political ads has yet to be worked out. The proposal, set to go before the city council on Tuesday, would forward the issue to Benicia’s Open Government Commission, a body that would consider changing the city’s election campaign regulations. The commission would work on new rules and forward them to the city council next April.

Valero fought with the city’s last mayor, Elizabeth Patterson, after she called for more regulations to be placed on the refinery following a May 2017 power outage that led to a major release of toxic sulfur dioxide and prompted emergency shelter-in-place orders. Less than two years later, the plant had a series of malfunctions that led to another significant pollution release.

Jason Kaune, the PAC’s treasurer and head of political law at Nielsen Merksamer, a Sacramento-based lobbying firm, declined to comment. Representatives for Valero and unions that supported the committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Benicia City Council, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Mandatory face coverings, Tom Campbell

Benicia will review mask mandate in 6 weeks – here’s how

Benicia COVID cases have risen to the CDC’s most dangerous “High Transmission level” since August 11 – well over the CDC’s “Substantial Transmission level.”

By Roger Straw, August 27, 2021  [UPDATED – note new information about the requirement of 30 days below substantial transmission level.]

Benicia’s new mask mandate refers to the CDC transmission levels as its standard for reviewing whether to continue the mask mandate.

The mandate will remain in place for 6 weeks, after which Council will review the order (on October 5).  The order will “remain in effect until the City is not in a substantial or high transmission of COVID 19 as defined by the CDC for a thirty-day period.” (From Resolution 21-88, adopted August 24)

The CDC’s formula for calculating level of transmission looks complicated, but it’s actually rather simple.  First, here is the CDC’s complicated presentation.  I’ll simplify after that….

TABLE. CDC core indicators of and thresholds for community transmission levels of SARS-CoV-2
Indicator Transmission level
Low Moderate Substantial High
New cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days* 0–9.99 10.00–49.99 50.00–99.99 ≥100.00
Percentage of positive nucleic acid amplification tests in the past 7 days† <5.00 5.00–7.99 8.00–9.99 ≥10.00

* Number of new cases in the county (or other administrative level) in the past 7 days divided by the population in the county (or other administrative level) multiplied by 100,000.
† Number of positive tests in the county (or other administrative level) during the past 7 days divided by the total number of tests performed in the county (or other administrative level) during the past 7 days. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/calculating-percent-positivity.html

In the Benicia City Council discussions, only new cases per 100,000 was mentioned as a factor for review (unless I missed something).  Councilmember Tom Campbell did the math on the spot, and indicated that Benicia’s number would be 13 cases (later amended to 14) over the last 7 days.

Simply put, >>based on our population, when the County reports 14 or more new Benicia cases over the last 7 days, the CDC classifies us as having a level of “substantial transmission.”  If we see 28 cases over the last 7 days we are in an area of “high transmission.”  The mask mandate will continue until we have been below 14 new cases per week for at least 30 days.

The bad news… Here is a chart showing Benicia’s 7-day case levels per 100K over the past several weeks.  Clearly, we have been in Substantial or High since mid-July.

Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard – ARCHIVE
https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67 
Date Total Confirmed Cases, Solano County Δ Total Confirmed Cases, Benicia Δ Cases previous 7 days per 100K  (CDC Substantial: Benicia 14+)
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 33,651 15 1,010 3 8
Thursday, June 17, 2021 33,673 22 1,012 2 9
Friday, June 18, 2021 33,707 34 1,015 3 12
Monday, June 21, 2021 33,762 55 1,017 2 11
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 33,797 35 1,021 4 11
Friday, June 25, 2021 33,846 49 1,025 4 10
Monday, June 28, 2021 33,898 52 1,029 4 12
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 33,973 75 1,029 0 8
Friday, July 2, 2021 34,044 71 1,030 1 5
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 34,149 105 1,038 8 9
Friday, July 9, 2021 34240 91 1,040 2 11
Monday, July 12, 2021 34377 137 1,045 5 15
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 34461 84 1,048 3 10
Friday, July 16, 2021 34630 169 1,056 8 16
Monday, July 19, 2021 34761 131 1,062 6 17
Wednesday, July 21, 2021 34885 124 1,070 8 22
Friday, July 23, 2021 35193 308 1,084 14 28
Monday, July 26, 2021 35482 289 1,092 8 30
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 35703 221 1,102 10 32
Friday, July 30, 2021 36004 301 1,110 8 26
Monday, August 2, 2021 36249 245 1,115 5 23
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 36525 276 1,125 10 23
Friday, August 6, 2021 36848 323 1,132 7 22
Monday, August 9, 2021 37056 208 1,141 9 26
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 37350 294 1,153 12 28
Friday, August 13, 2021 37664 314 1,167 14 35
Monday, August 16, 2021 37914 250 1,177 10 36
Wednesday, August 18, 2021 38294 380 1,187 10 34
Friday, August 20, 2021 38764 470 1,205 18 38
Monday, August 23, 2021 39002 238 1,216 11 39
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 39329 327 1,224 8 37
More CDC Resources: