“With Benicia at a crossroads…

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, October 11, 2026

With Benicia at a crossroads, facing both daunting challenges and exciting opportunities, our city needs sound, committed leadership. City Council incumbents and Democrats Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott offer exactly that. Their challenger, Republican-endorsed Justin Zollars, seems like he has a sincere interest in similarly helping Benicia move forward. But for reasons I’ll broach in a bit, he does not merit support.

Just one logistical note, to be clear: We each can vote for two Council candidates this year. So, Scott and Birdseye are not running against each other. In fact, they’ve endorsed each other. I enthusiastically suggest that you vote for both.

Deep Community Roots, Valuable Experience and Commendable Track Records

Both Birdseye and Scott bring to the table deep community roots, as well as  a wealth of valuable experience and track records that demonstrate successful commitments to Benicia’s well-being. Both have been part of a City Council that, often unanimously, has undertaken initiatives to help secure Benicia’s road repairs, parks improvement, a financial future that ensures police and fire protection, and other progress for our quality of life.

These long-standing Benicia residents have done this against a backdrop of challenges imposed by state housing mandates and the loss of Valero-linked revenue. Their experience and dedication also enable them to help seize opportunities presented by the transition of the 900-acre Valero refinery property into residential, commercial and clean industrial parcels and by Benicia’s enviable (and beautiful waterside) position as a transportation, shipping and recreational hub.

Both have led successful fights to keep Benicia’s air, water, kids, seniors and all citizens safe. Both are committed to both business development and affordable housing development for Benicia.

Individual Accomplishments and Contributions

Having said all that, I certainly don’t want to present these two powerful personalities as peas in a pod.

Kari Birdseye

For starters, Kari Birdseye [votekaribirdseye.com] can justifiably boast of an array of accomplishments and contributions to Benicia. These include but are no means limited to: chairing the Planning Commission for over a decade; chairing the City Council’s task force on the future of Benicia’s Industrial Park; successfully fighting Valero’s plan a decade ago to bring dangerous crude oil “bomb trains” through town; and being honored as a 2025 Woman of the Year by Congressman John Garamendi and as a 2025 Blue Rivet Award winner for her environmental and public health leadership. Speaking of her being Woman of the Year: There’s a lot to be said to having a woman on the Council (and hopefully more than one down the line), for the perspective Birdseye brings.

Even if you don’t consider yourself an environmentalist, you might still value Birdseye’s environmental expertise and leadership, a product of not just her Benicia engagement but of her current public affairs position at the Natural Resources Defense Council. That deep-seated knowledge stands her in good stead as our city transitions to cleaner air and cleaner businesses and as we grapple with looming climate change challenges.

Terry Scott

For his part, Terry Scott [terryscott2026.com] brings a diverse wealth of expertise to the Council, ranging from decades of practical, corporate business experience to leadership in Benicia’s thriving arts-and-culture scene (which in turn yields our town concrete economic benefits). His own accomplishments and contributions to Benicia include: serving as a founder and Executive Director of the philanthropic Benicia Community Foundation; chairing the Benicia Arts and Culture Commission and the Public Art Committee; enriching First Street life through introducing the public pianos and similar innovations there; participation in Benicia’s Tax Oversight Commission; and leading (along with Birdseye) the Council task force that established Benicia’s Industrial Safety Commission.

Given Scott’s devotion to the arts, it’s easy to overlook his business background and what it means to the city. As a former senior vice president at Hasbro, he brings hard-headed corporate experience to dealing with the local, national and international dimensions of bringing job-creating and revenue-enhancing investments to Benicia, ranging from the Industrial Park to First Street to the Valero  property transition.

An Abundance of Endorsements

Now, don’t just take my word about these two. Both Birdseye and Scott have garnered an abundance of endorsements, adding up to lists too long to fully detail here. But they include U.S. Congressman John Garamendi, State Senator Christopher Cabaldon, Solano County Supervisor Wanda Williams, Solano County Supervisor Cassandra James, Mayor Steve Young, former City Council Member Tom Campbell, the Solano Association of Realtors, the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee and the Solano County Democratic Central Committee.

Scott’s additional endorsements include City Council member Lionel Largespadea, former  Benicia Mayor Jerry Hayes, former Council Member Christina Strawbridge, former  Benicia City Council Member Pepe Arteaga, the Napa-Solano Labor Council, the North Coast Carpenters Union and Black Women Organized for Political Action. Birdseye’s include the Sierra Club Solano Group.

A Newcomer Candidate

Like Birdseye and Scott, relative newcomer Justin Zollars [votejz.com] brings a dedication to Benicia to his candidacy for City Council. He seems like a bright, nice fellow. And as with Scott and Birdseye (and their fellow current and former fellow Council members), I have to admire anyone who’s willing to stick their neck out to seek and serve in public office – particularly in our nasty social media age.

Nonetheless, there are reasons to doubt how positive or effective Zollars would be as a Council member. For starters, there’s his endorsement by the Solano County Republican Central Committee, something that seems salient but which he does not mention at his campaign website. Together with his repeated, caustic references to a so-called “Detroit Model” at a recent League of Women Voters candidates’ forum, this seems to indicate a political outlook that bears scrutiny – not to mention how different tiny Benicia’s challenges are from those of tremendous Detroit.

At that same LWV forum, Zollars also made a number of comments that indicated inadequate familiarity with Benicia’s opportunities and issues. For instance, he suggested that Benicia’s affordable housing challenges would take care of themselves, as Boomers age out and move out (one way or another), so that we’d somehow supposedly come to resemble Japan with an excess of housing. This does not seem to take account of the scale and complexity of such challenges, even with new developments down the road.

Zollars also admitted to a lack of knowledge of Benicia’s arts scene. Now, that may be true of many Benicians. But given the arts community’s contributions to tourism, our economy and our town’s vibrance, this is the kind of thing a Council candidate should be familiar with.

Even as I disagree with him, I’ll give Zollars begrudging but considerable credit for his zeal regarding his top issue: challenging the Flock Safety firm’s automatic license plate readers, which our police department (along with many other communities) uses to deter crime and detect alleged criminals coming to town. This is a complex matter of public safety versus alleged privacy breaches.

With all due respect for Zollars’ anti-Flock stance, my  own take is this: Until I see proof of significant misuse of the system here in Benicia, I favor Flock for the public safety factor. (I do wonder whether he’s actually led the local fight against Flock, as his campaign website claims.)

Summing Up: Scott and Birdseye for Benicia

All this is a way of saying that while I appreciate Justin Zollars throwing his hat in the ring and I certainly welcome new political blood in Benicia, I don’t believe he knows Benicia well enough yet to serve on the Council. Much more importantly, I question many of the stands he’s taking.

Most importantly of all, I heartily endorse Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye for City Council, for the reasons I’ve sketched here and for many more. I strongly suggest you give them your vote.

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Stephen Golub writes about democracy and politics, both in America and abroad, at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country.

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

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