Tag Archives: Local elections

Vicki Byrum Dennis: Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council

Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council

Leadership, Listening, Balance and Commitment

By Vicki Byrum Dennis, July 29, 2022

Vicki Byrum Dennis, Benicia

I support Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council. She will be an excellent member of our city’s leadership team. She will bring a vision for Benicia that balances economic growth and the health and safety of our citizens, with a commitment to preserve Benicia’s small-town appeal, our unique place in California’s history, and our reputation as an arts destination.

I know Kari as a highly professional woman of principle, a believer in Benicia, and as someone who has stepped up again and again to help our community reach its full potential.

I’ve seen this soft-spoken woman in action and recognize that beneath her calm words and quiet demeanor lies a core of strength and commitment, a passionate determination to make life better for everyone in Benicia.

I have found her to be truly unique. She actually listens to what you say. She looks you in the eye as you speak. She listens and she connects with what you are saying. No interruptions, no side glances. She is with you in that moment.

And she doesn’t forget what you have said. Because she is also a woman of action. She has served for more than 10 years on the Benicia Planning Commission which has given her the ability to see and act on the critical issues facing our city. She withstood the attacks by various PACs in the previous election. A strong woman indeed.

As a former communications professional myself, I appreciate Kari’s skill as a seasoned communicator, especially on environmental issues. After an 11-year career with CNN  as Executive News Producer (and winning an Emmy as part of the frontline production team for the coverage of the Olympic Park bombing), Kari turned her skills to helping non-profit groups including her work with Earthjustice’s inaugural Healthy Communities campaign goals of lessening harmful pesticide impacts on farmworkers. She currently is Senior  Strategic Communications Director of the Natural Defense Resources Council whose work on environmental issues has made it a critical resource for all who work to preserve our earth.

But today I am a one of Benicia’s many working artists. And I also know Kari as a lover of the arts, a collector of local art and a supporter and promoter of our strong arts community. Kari understands the economic impact the arts and the artists have on Benicia and is committed to supporting and expanding the arts community.

Kari will bring all her professional experience, volunteer efforts, her commitment to Benicia, and her unique manner of listening to the critical job of Benicia City Council member. And she will be terrific. I am proud to vote for Kari Birdseye, and I hope you will join with me in supporting and voting for her.

Vicki Byrum Dennis
Benicia

More letters, news & links about Kari here on the BenIndy


And best of all – Kari’s website!

Kari Birdseye For Benicia City Council 2022
https://karibirdseyeforbenicia.com

Constance Beutel: Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council

Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council

Background, Experience and Commitment

By Constance Beutel, Benicia resident, July 17, 2022

Constance Beutel, Benicia CA

I strongly support Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council.  Ms. Birdseye has exceptional professional qualifications and civic service that are essential to our community.

  • She is a working professional with wide corporate and nonprofit experience.
  • She has served as Matthew Turner elementary school PTA President.
  • She has served on Benicia’s Planning Commission since 2015 and currently is the Chair of the Commission.

With her background and experience she has demonstrated a commitment to invite community participation, respectfully listen and deeply research community issues.  Further, she is unafraid to put community interests over outside influence.

Her commitment to Benicia’s economic vibrancy, historic character, and clear focus on our health and safety relating to air and water quality make her an ideal and steadfast City Council candidate.

I’m voting for Benicia’s future and Kari Birdseye; I hope you will too.

Constance Beutel, EdD
Benicia


More letters, news & links about Kari here on the BenIndy


And best of all – Kari’s website!

Kari Birdseye For Benicia City Council 2022
https://karibirdseyeforbenicia.com

Betty Lucas: She’s Got What It Takes

She’s Got What It Takes

Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council

By Betty Lucas, Benicia resident, July 3, 2022

Betty Lucas, Benicia CA

As a Benicia newbie, moving to this wonderful city in 2019, I recall being shocked by the negative advertising filling my mailbox during the 2020 city council campaign. The tone of such a small-town election seemed to be the antithesis of living in such a welcoming community, where drivers downtown stop for you, even if you are not in a crosswalk.

I was later appalled to learn this negative advertising was from a Political Action Committee (PAC) most of its nearly $250,000 coming from Valero. The PAC seemed dedicated to attacking nominees they want to keep out of Benicia’s city council, and flooding our community with praise for the candidates they want.

Fast forward to 2022 and the same thing seems like it will happen again. Continue reading Betty Lucas: She’s Got What It Takes

Roger Straw: Kari Birdseye for My Kind of World

Kari Birdseye for My Kind of World

A warrior for wellness and an anchor for hope

By Roger Straw, Benicia resident, June 19, 2022

Roger Straw, The Benicia Independent

I’ve given my life to causes of freedom, justice, peace and public health. In the years after my retirement, that last cause, public health, has expanded to an understand that human health is totally dependent on the health of this big blue ball of a planet that we call home. The earth itself is sick, and it threatens to get worse.

Also in the years since my retirement, I’ve increasingly understood the critical importance of thinking globally and acting locally.

For me, this means I am already hard at work to elect Kari Birdseye for Benicia’s City Council this November.

Kari’s professional life has been stellar in seeking the good of our planet and the security of all life that shares air, water, time and space here. She is a warrior for wellness and an anchor for hope.

You don’t get too many like that in your own small town.

Kari is a kind and gentle soul. She is a mom and loving spouse, a longtime resident of Benicia, a trusted friend to many in our community, and a tireless worker for our schools.

Kari is chair of Benicia’s Planning Commission, serving on that Commission for 7 years. She showed leadership on that most important of our city’s appointed bodies when Benicians rallied against Valero’s dangerous and dirty plan to bring crude oil by train across California’s mountains and into our small town. The Commission studied the issue in depth, listened to the concerns of the public, and stood Goliath to the massive influence of Texas billionaires. I believe Kari was a key factor in stopping crude by rail here in our hometown.

Speaking of Texas… as of right now, the so called “Working Families” Political Action Committee (PAC) reports that it has a fund of $232,386.88 which it will spend here in Benicia to elect its favored candidates to our City Council. We can’t stop that. Federal law permits corporate Texas giants to spend as much as it wants on whatever it wants. The PAC’s $232K is nearly 7 times what a Benicia candidate can spend under Benicia’s voluntary campaign expenditure limit. And the PAC will surely be expanding its war chest beyond that $232K, as it did in 2020 when it spent over a quarter million dollars.

Big Oil will try again to buy our 2022 election – will try. But Benicia voters will have the last word, because THIS is a cause of freedom, justice, peace and public health, right here in “B Town”. We will think globally, and act, very much locally.

Make a commitment today. Sign up now to endorse, place a yard sign, contribute financially and volunteer. Visit KariBirdseyeForBenicia.com.

Roger Straw
Benicia


More letters, news & links about Kari here on the BenIndy


And best of all – Kari’s website!

Kari Birdseye For Benicia City Council 2022
https://karibirdseyeforbenicia.com