Tag Archives: Benicia City Council

#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia City Council, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

KRON4 Bay Area News: Benicia considers mask mandate

Benicia considers implementing mask mandate

KRON4 Bay Area News, by: Amanda Hari, Aug 22, 2021

BENICIA, Calif. (KRON) – One city is taking matters into its own hands when it comes to masking.

Solano County is the only county in the Bay Area without a mask mandate, but Benicia is considering implementing one.

On Tuesday, city council will be voting on a resolution to require face masks in indoor settings.

Mariana Moore has lived in the city for more than 40 years.

She says she loves it here but thinks they need to do more to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“If you follow the news at all and you follow the science you have to wear masks. I have kids in school and they’re wearing masks. The teachers are wearing masks.”

Mayor Steve Young tells KRON4 he’s been hearing similar calls for a mask mandate from other Benicia residents – and since the county isn’t going to implement one, he’s looking to do it on the city level.

“It’s frustrating to feel like on one hand we’re out of step with the rest of the county but perhaps another way to look at it is Solano County is out of step with the larger Bay Area community.”

Mayor Young says back at the beginning of the pandemic, the city had to institute a mask mandate on their own as well because health leaders wouldn’t do it on the county level.

“We are more likely to follow the lead of what we perceive to be the scientific consensus on masks.”

Moore says she hopes to see the county put this into effect this week.

“I just hope everyone thinks about how to not only take care of their own needs and their own desires but what we can do as a community. That’s what we have to do to beat this.”

The resolution to requiring masks was just introduced last week and it will be voted on this Tuesday at the city council meeting.

The mayor says they need three votes to pass the resolution.

He told KRON4 News he will be voting for it, the vice mayor will also be voting in favor, so they only need one more vote. He says based on conversations he’s had, he believes they’ll get it.

#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia City Council, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

ABC7 News: Benicia could go against Solano County and implement indoor mask mandate for all

East Bay city could go against Solano County and implement indoor mask mandate for all

ABC7 Bay Area News, By J.R. Stone, August 22, 2021


BENICIA, Calif. (KGO) — This week the City of Benicia, which is in Solano County, could go against county recommendations and implement an indoor mask mandate.

It’s something that all other Bay Area counties have already done but Solano County has not and the move would be a rare one, with the city going against their county recommendations.

“I think the feeling on the City Council is, despite Solano County’s unwillingness to move in this direction, that we have an obligation to try to further protect health and safety,” says Benicia Mayor Steve Young.

Young telling us that this week the city council will look at implementing an indoor mask mandate for everyone, including those vaccinated, due to rising COVID-19 numbers, something Solano County has not done.

“If wearing the mask inside is what we need to do to bring the rates back down and keep us all safe, I think it’s what we need to do,” says Virginia Barrazi who was walking through downtown Benicia Sunday.

Earlier this month we spoke with the Solano County Health Officer who explained why they chose not to implement indoor masking.

“The data don’t support the need for such a mandate. This disease in our county is very clearly spreading during/through social events, people who are going to parties, barbecues, picnics, campouts,” said Dr. Bela Matyas.

While many here are now supportive of an indoor mask mandate.

“I think it’s important to wear a mask inside, especially when people are not getting vaccinated, there’s young kids to think about,” said Ankita Saxena who was wearing her mask outside when we spoke with her.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of issue with people not wanting to wear a mask inside the store,” said Lisa Bellini of the Angel Heart 4 You store in downtown Benicia.

Some though are totally against it.

“If the mandate goes into effect, will you wear a mask?” we asked one man in Benicia to which he replied, “Hell no, hell no, it’s complete garbage, the virus is up here one minute and down here the next minute,” said Rick Chase who is against mask wearing, vaccinations, and doesn’t believe that COVID-19 is what it’s made out to be.

Mayor Young says he knows that some are against an indoor mask mandate but believes it is the right thing to do at this time. Even saying that he believes the City of Vallejo may soon look at an indoor mask mandate too.

“For a lot of us the individual right stops when public health is impacted by that and I think that’s where we are,” says Mayor Young.

The Benicia City Council will take up the possibility of an indoor mask mandate for all in their meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Mandatory face coverings

Benicia Author Stephen Golub: Open Letter to Benicia City Council on Indoor Mask Mandate

Eight good reasons to enact the strongest policy possible

Benicia resident, Stephen Golub

Dear Mayor Young, Vice Mayor Campbell, and Council Members Strawbridge, Largaespada and Macenski:

I am writing to urge that:

  1. consistent with the eight other Bay Area counties, the City Council adopt a very strong indoor mask mandate for Benicia when it considers a resolution regarding this matter at its August 24, 2021 meeting;
  2. it take into account the overwhelming evidence in favor of masks, as exemplified by a compilation of 49 (mostly) peer reviewed studies (a few of which in turn reviewed hundreds of other studies) documenting the effectiveness of masks against Covid-19;
  3. the Council consider the guidance from many authorities regarding this matter – not least that of the CDC, which “advise[s] that all individuals — including vaccinated ones — wear masks indoors in areas with ‘high’ and ‘substantial’ COVID-19 transmission,” since Solano and the other Bay Area counties fall into those two categories;
  4. conversely, the Council view with appropriate skepticism testimony from Solano County Health Officer Bela T. Matyas, should he weigh in against the mandate, given that
    1. for much of the pandemic, his office has apparently ignored or discounted the expertise of the eight other Bay Area counties’ health departments as well as the CDC and many other experts regarding Covid-19 policies and
    2. that Solano’s Covid case and hospitalization rates are substantially higher than those of the other eight counties;
  5. the Council similarly view skeptically Dr. Matyas’ claim that “the transmission that is occurring, that is causing this surge, is all in people’s homes, backyards, parties, camping, and is not in the environment where these masking recommendations are going to apply,” given
    1. the sweeping nature of that claim (all transmission occurs in private settings, including outdoor ones, rather than indoor public settings?),
    2. the rapidly evolving reality imposed by the highly infectious Delta variant, which greatly increases risks, uncertainty and cause for caution,
    3. the threat of “long Covid” (for which symptoms can persist for many months or perhaps permanently, even for individuals with mild or asymptomatic cases),
    4. Solano’s being consistently out of step with other Bay Area counties, the CDC and many experts, and
    5. Solano’s (perhaps resultantly) poor case and hospitalization track record relative to those other counties;
  6. it consider the strong possibility that the failure to adopt a mask mandate could undercut Benicia businesses, tourism and even property values, as many individuals and families who might consider shopping or moving here could look askance at a city that rejects a policy adopted throughout the Bay Area, in many other California and U.S. cities, and even in such parts of the country as Louisiana;
  7. the Council appreciate that an indoor mask mandate will make life easier and safer for the many Benicians staffing or considering returning to work in our stores and restaurants, including the young woman who thanked me for wearing a mask in her shop despite the sign outside saying that vaccinated persons (such as myself) need not do so; and
  8. the Council decides in favor of protecting all of us, particularly but not only the immunocompromised and children too young to be vaccinated.

I am not a health professional. But as a concerned Benician, it seems clear that the indoor mask mandate will help save Benicians’ health and conceivably even their lives.

So, please adopt the strongest policy possible. If you reject the mandate, your legacy could well be, “They voted for Covid.”

Sincerely,
Stephen Golub

Stephen Golub, Benicia – A Promised Land: Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.

Benicia resident Stephen Golub offers excellent perspective on his blog, A Promised Land:  Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.

To access his other posts or subscribe, please go to his blog site, A Promised Land.

#Masks4All, #wearamask, Benicia City Council, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Coronavirus variant, Covid 19, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

KTVU News coverage – Benicia City Council to Consider Renewing Mask Mandate on Tues. Aug. 24

Benicia considering indoor mask mandate

KTVU News, By Greg Liggins, August 22, 2021

BENICIA, Calif. – A city in Solano County will soon decide whether to bring back its indoor mask mandate.

Solano County has been an outlier throughout much of the pandemic and recently decided not to join other Bay Area counties in requiring masks indoors for everyone.

Without such county guidance, cities are forced to make up their own rules, and that’s what the City Council of Benicia will be considering next week.

The council may bring back the indoor mask mandate that ended in June.

And if it does so, it will be taking action the County Health Director is against.

Lots of people are currently donning masks voluntarily in Benicia.

Masks are not currently required, even indoors, because the county health director has gone on the record saying the data doesn’t support it, and it could be bad for business.

But Benicia may go ahead and make it a requirement anyway.

“I think the majority of the council, I guess we’ll see, but I think the majority of the community is of the opinion that the direction the county is taking is not necessarily in the long-term health and safety interest of our community,” said Benicia Mayor, Steve Young.

Benicia dropped its indoor mask mandate in June when the state opened up and Covid appeared to be on its way out.

The Delta variant, however, is prompting a potential pivot.

The council will decide Tuesday whether to be the first city in its county to reprise an indoor mask mandate in public spaces, like retail and restaurant, a move already made at the county level in most of the Bay Area.

A business owner says a uniform policy in Benicia would make things easier on establishments that can only put up recommendation signs they really can’t enforce.

“It is what it is. I mean, you really can’t. We just have to trust people. That’s really all we can do,” said Cecilia Climaco, owner of Succulents and More.

A recent cancer survivor says she’s onboard with her city joining the majority of the Bay Area.

“I think since most of the Bay Area is requiring it we ought to too,” said Margaret Linderman.

Another resident also supports the city mandating masks, but doesn’t take issue with different places doing their own thing.

“I think because different areas have different problems with Covid, so I think it should be up to each city to make their own rules,” said Alicia Gallagher.

The Mayor says it’s potentially unsafe to have unmasked, unvaccinated people interacting closely indoors with workers that really don’t have a choice.

It’s also unfortunate, he says, that cities and counties are again having to consider requiring behaviors people could well do on their own.

It’s personally frustrating because if everybody had been vaccinated, if everybody was wearing a mask, we wouldn’t be here, but that’s clearly not the case,” said Mayor Young.

The City Council will vote on the ordinance at their meeting Tuesday and need just three of five members to approve.

The Mayor says the Health Director will be phoning-in to argue against approval.

If passed, the mandate would be temporary, perhaps 90 days, but could also be extended or rescinded sooner, all depending on what the Delta variant is doing.