Tag Archives: Kari Birdseye

Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Benicia city staff, Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO), Keeping Watch on Earth News, Valero Benicia Refinery

Ask City Council to protect Benicia’s health and safety at the Dec. 19 Council Meeting

A Message from the Benicia ISO Working Group:

The crucial City Council meeting on whether Benicia should consider an Industrial Safety Ordinance will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 6 pm at the City Council Chambers at City Hall, 230 East L Street, It is vital that supporters of a strong ISO attend and voice our support. Valero is gearing up to oppose this and may bring personnel to the meeting to voice opposition.

By attending and offering comments, you can offer support for the proposal by Vice Mayor Scott and Councilmember Birdseye, to be voted on by the Council on Dec. 19, instructing City staff to look into the possibility of Benicia adopting an ISO.

In addition, please voice support for not just the Scott-Birdseye proposal but for a strong ISO. This has become very important because of a highly problematic and highly unusual Benicia City staff report issued a few days ago. We will be in touch with more details in the next 24 hours.

If at all possible, your showing up early can help ensure that supporters of a strong ISO are near the front of the audience. But even if you can’t make it until later, that will be ok since other agenda items may take up some time.

Also, participation by Zoom is an option. You can find the link that explains how to access the meeting here: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/benicia/5f807fdd4c4cce692977198f6f31acd30.pdf. 

Thanks very much for considering all this and for any support you can show for making Benicia safer and healthier for our kids, our older adults and all of us.

See www.bisho.org for more information.

Benicia elections, Kari Birdseye, Terry Scott

Birdseye and Scott take oath of office as members of Benicia’s City Council

New Benicia Councilmembers sworn in

A new era begins as newly elected Councilmember Kari Birdseye and Vice Mayor Terry Scott were sworn in at the council meeting on Dec. 6. Photo: Jennifer Hanley

Benicia Herald, December 16, 2022

BENICIA – At the December 6 City Council meeting, newly elected Councilmembers Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye were sworn in to serve the next four years.

Former Councilmembers Lionel Largaespada and Christina Strawbridge were honored for their service to the City and gave speeches thanking the community, fellow councilmembers and City staff for all of their hard work and collaboration.

The Council is now made up of Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Scott, Tom Campbell, Trevor Macenski and Birdseye.

Benicia City Council on December 6, 2022, (l to r) Campbell, Birdseye, Young, Scott, Macenski. Photo: Jennifer Hanley
Benicia elections, Kari Birdseye, Local measures, Terry Scott

Benicia Election: Solano County certifies final results

Scott and Birdseye elected to Council, Measure K Open Space passes, Measure R Funding for Local Road Repair & Infrastructure fails

By Roger Straw, November 30, 2022

Today, the Solano County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Tim Flanagan certified the final official results of our November 8 General Election. I will detail the Benicia results below. For the full Solano County report check out these official Solano links:
November 8, 2022 General Election

OFFICIAL RESULTS – 11/30/2022 – 1:11 p.m.
Vote by Mail Ballots Issued – 260,409
Vote by Mail Ballots Processed – 112,378
In-Person Ballots Cast – 18,141
Official Election Results – Summary
Official Election Results – Precinct Report
Official Election Results – District Report
Official Results Backup Site

Benicia City Council vote

Benicia voters elected Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye for City Council 4 year terms. Both had run for Council and lost by narrow margins in recent years, but mounted strong and positive campaigns with backing from a wide variety of electeds, community leaders and local groups. For more about our new Councilmembers, see TerryScottForBenicia2022.org and KariBirdseyeForBenicia.com.

The two incumbents, Christina Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada, ran their own campaigns, but were independently backed by a massive outlay of spending by Valero’s Benicia Refinery and some local labor groups. That PAC interference in our local elections became an issue in the campaign, and may have contributed to the incumbents’ failure to win re-election.

Detailed breakdown of City Council voting:
Scott received 235 more votes than Birdseye, who received 152 more votes than Largaespada, who received 456 votes more than Strawbridge, who received 3,160 votes more than Innes.

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Percentages of total vote:
Scott 24.78%. Birdseye 23.75%. Largaespada 23.09%. Strawbridge 21.10%.  Innes 7.29%.

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Measure K – Overwhelming support
By an 82% to 18% margin, Benicia residents passed Measure K, renewing the City’s Urban Growth Boundary for another 20 years. The area beyond our UGB will now be protected from development for 20 years. This means that the hills north of Lake Herman Road will be protected from development until 2043!
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Measure R – Narrowly defeated
Measure R was the Benicia Local Road Repair & Infrastructure Measure, which would have provided the necessary funding to fix and maintain, our roads, increasing the sales tax on certain purchases made in Benicia by 3/4 of 1 cent. The measure failed by a 49% to 51% margin. Vote by mail voters approved Measure R by a narrow margin, but election day voters were strongly opposed.
Click image to enlarge.
Previous election updates on the BenIndy:
Benicia City Council, Benicia elections, Kari Birdseye, Terry Scott

Benicia Council election: Scott and Birdseye are in

Solano County shows “no outstanding ballots to process” – final result is unofficial, but election is all but complete

By Roger Straw, November 18, 2022

Day by day vote results Nov 8-18
Click chart to enlarge.
All ballots counted, handful of exceptions…
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ALL mail-in ballots and provisional ballots have now been counted. The Registrar of Voters can still receive ballots dropped off at other counties, and signature cure letters can be received until November 28th. The Registrar of Voters expects to certify the final result by November 30.

Previous election updates on the BenIndy: