Benicia City Attorney opposes half of the recommendations – citizens must speak up at January 7 Council meeting
[BenIndy Editor: The Benicia Open Government Commission is bringing recommendations to better monitor campaign finances and to counter smear campaigns and push polls like the ones orchestrated by Valero against Kari Birdseye in the 2018 election. This is serious stuff – pay attention! – R.S.]
Benicia City Council to review proposed changes to city’s campaign laws
BENICIA — The City Council will get its first look at several proposed amendments to the city’s campaign-related laws and regulations during its Jan. 7 meeting. [Agenda here.]
The council will meet at 7 p.m., inside the Benicia City Hall Council Chambers, 250 East L St.
The city’s Open Government Commission is recommending at least 10 different changes to three chapters contained within the Benicia Municipal Code: Voluntary Code of Fair Campaign Practices, Disclosure of Contributions and Expenditures in Candidate and Ballot Measure Elections, and Contribution and Voluntary Spending Limits.
Proposed changes include requiring the mayor and city council candidates to disclose their top financial contributors, adding regulations regarding push polls, which requires a person, entity, committee or candidate sponsoring or conducting the push poll to submit a disclosure statement within 24 hours of completion of the poll.
Almost half of the proposed amendments are opposed by City Attorney Benjamin Stock. He said an amendment requiring unions and membership organizations to disclose whether endorsements for mayoral or council candidates were voted upon by the entire membership “could run afoul of various constitutionally protected interests.”
Stock said two additional proposed amendments, prohibiting public officials and city employees from using city resources to support/oppose candidates and ballot measures, and prohibiting city officials and city employees from using social media for campaign purposes if the public official’s or employee’s title are used, are not needed since state law already establishes the prohibitions.
Stock also opposes requiring candidates to “conduct civil, issue-oriented campaigns and provide opponents the opportunity to respond to claims about their positions or qualifications.”
“The City cannot expressly require a candidate to comply with the Voluntary Code of Fair Campaign Practices, including section 1.36.010(F), as candidates for public office have a right to pursue independent campaign strategies,” Stock wrote.
[Editor: The report below, “Losing the News,” is a really important work for our times. My home town of Benicia, California, population around 28,000, has suffered cutbacks in all of our local news providers. Our Benicia Herald is limping along with very little staff, prints on only 3 days per week. Our next door neighbor, Vallejo, California, population around 122,000, was unable to sustain a Benicia reporter several years ago, and rarely covers news in Benicia. The Contra Costa Times / East Bay Times quit covering Benicia and other small Bay Area communities long ago. “News Deserts” are appearing all across the country. “Losing the News” is a formidable analysis of the phenomenon, including important “big picture solutions” and recommendations. The report is copyrighted and can’t be reproduced here. Check out the contents below and click to read the report at https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Losing-the-News-The-Decimation-of-Local-Journalism-and-the-Search-for-Solutions-Report.pdf – R.S.]
LOSING THE NEWS
The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solutions
LETTER 4
INTRODUCTION 5
WHAT IS A LOCAL NEWS ECOSYSTEM? 7
WHY LOCAL NEWS MATTERS 8
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM SOUTHEASTERN N. CAROLINA 18
THE DECIMATION OF LOCAL NEWS 24
SYSTEMIC INEQUITY IN U.S. NEWS MEDIA 33
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DETROIT 37
INDUSTRY ADAPTATION AND INNOVATION 43
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DENVER 49
BIG PICTURE SOLUTIONS 56
RECOMMENDATIONS 76
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 80
ENDNOTES 81
After 161 years of publishing, the Martinez News-Gazette — among the longest-running papers in California, if not the longest — plans to print its final edition on Sunday, a painful end for one of the only news agencies committed to covering the city of nearly 40,000, which serves as the seat of Contra Costa County.
“We were told we were losing money, and I don’t doubt that,” said Jones, who has served as the paper’s editor for about five years as one of two full-time employees. “We knew it was coming.”
It’s uncertain whether the news outlet will continue publishing online, Jones said. Owners of the paper, he said, haven’t responded to his requests for more information on what comes next. What is certain, however, is that the journalism industry remains under threat in the Bay Area and across the country.
A study published last month by PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting free expression through the written word, found that total newsroom employment across the country — newspapers, TV, radio and digital — fell roughly 25% from 2008 to 2018, while almost half of all newspaper newsroom jobs, 47%, were eliminated.
Production editor Scott Baba lays out his pages. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle
Edward Wasserman, dean of UC Berkeley’s journalism school, said people can turn to the internet to share and exchange opinions with others who have the same enthusiasm for something, but it’s not the same as looking at the same paper every morning and reading about hyper-local stories on politics and crime, as well as announcements and features specific to life in Martinez.
“There’s not really a replacement institution emerging,” Wasserman said. “It’s not the same thing as having a paper that chronicles a shared reality for a given community.”
The News-Gazette began publishing in September 1858 and is said to have endorsed Abraham Lincoln’s presidential bid. Former state Sen. William Sharkey bought the paper in 1906 and combined it with another local paper, calling it the Contra Costa Gazette, according to the former owner’s 89-year-old grandson, Bill Sharkey III.
In the middle of the 20th century, the paper had about 50 employees and covered the county and city of Martinez, while also offering national and international news through the Associated Press and United Press International wires.
“We were a local newspaper with all the services,” Sharkey III said.
Advertising revenue began to dwindle in the 1960s, so the family sold the newspaper to former state Sen. Luther Gibson in 1963, said Sharkey III, who was managing editor at the time. Since then, the newspaper has continued to reduce its staff.
The News-Gazette, which dates to 1858 and is said to have endorsed Abraham Lincoln, keeps its archives in binders in the newsroom attic. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle
Sharkey III, who has written a column in recent years and will have penned more than 350 by the end of 2019, saw the decline from a five-day-a-week publication to the more recent twice-a-week schedule.
“I hate to see it,” said Mayor Rob Schroder, who also writes a column for the paper. “We had at least one dedicated reporter all the time, and they’ve gone away in the last five years.”
Journalism serves a watchdog role in any community, Schroder said, but in a city like Martinez the paper also acted as a conduit between residents and their local representatives. The News-Gazette was among the first outlets to report on a man who allegedly attempted a citizen’s arrest on Schroder this month, leading to a kerfuffle with the mayor and another man on Main Street.
“I think we are going to lose some connection to our community,” Schroder said. “Journalism ties us all together a little bit.”
The paper also reported last month on officials green-lighting a recreational marijuana shop near a school, infuriating two school officials.
“Who is going to get those things out to the public?” Jones asked.
Weeks after news of the paper’s demise was announced — in a corner of the front page of a November edition, a small box declared in all caps: “MARTINEZ NEWS-GAZETTE TO CLOSE” — concern has spread among loyal readers.
Production editor Scott Baba leaves for the day. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle
Gibson Publishing, which owns the paper, has not given any details on the future to staff, Jones said.
A relative of David Payne, the chief executive of Gibson Publishing and Westamerica Bancorporation, said the family would not comment on the News-Gazette.
Ramona Lappier, who’s been a reader for about 25 years, recalled yelling in her living room when she read the brief note about the shuttering. She remembered unfurling the paper over the years. Despite a typo or two that would make her and her mother laugh, the paper was still informative.
A newspaper, just like a school, is part of the fabric of a community, Lappier said.
“When those pieces are pulled out, it’s like a house of cards — what do you have left?” she wondered.
Jones said a few people expressed interest in purchasing the paper, but none have been successful in reaching the current owner. Jones said he has not been able to contact the owner, either.
“For the most part, there is no one covering the news in Martinez,” he said. “There is going to be a void there.”
The paper’s staff shrank in recent years, and essential staffers who left, such as an ads salesperson, were never replaced, Jones said.
“We do nothing to gain new subscribers, and we are not selling ads,” he said.
But life in Martinez will continue, even if the paper does not.
“It’s like a member of the family is going to be gone,” Sharkey III said. “After all these years, it’s suddenly not going to be there.”
A bitterly divided House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump. Here’s what your representatives had to say.
By Maggie Fusek, Benicia CA Patch,
United States President Donald Trump Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, became the third American president in history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. (Shutterstock)
BENICIA, CA — The congressional representative for Benicia, Democrat Mike Thompson, voted with his party on Wednesday’s U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to approve two articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump and charge him with abusing his office and obstructing Congress.
The nation’s 45th president became just the third person in the office to be impeached. He now faces trial in the Senate and the unlikely possibility of being removed from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Last week, a bitterly divided House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment accusing Trump of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress. However, given the Senate is controlled by Republicans, it’s considered highly unlikely.
Impeachment is not a conviction, rather the rough equivalent of a grand jury issuing indictments. Senators act as judge and jury.
California has 55 members of Congress and 48 of those members belong to the Democratic Party.
Here’s how lawmakers for Benicia and nearby communities voted on both articles of impeachment, as well as what they had to say about it:
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, Fifth District
Thompson, a Democrat who represents Napa County and parts of Solano County — including Benicia and Vallejo — along with parts of Lake, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties, said he voted in favor of both articles of impeachment in part because “Trump jeopardized our national security.”
Here is Thompson’s full statement:
“Impeachment is a solemn duty outlined in the Constitution and one that I do not take lightly. I did not run for Congress to impeach this President, but rather to help our community get ahead and to serve the country I love. Unfortunately, the President brought this on himself by putting his own personal and political interests above those of the people he serves. This jeopardized our national security.
“The two articles I voted to pass today outline serious breaches of the public trust committed by the President, rising to the bar of high crimes and misdemeanors spelled out in our Constitution. As a combat veteran and having served eight years on the Intelligence Committee, I understand the threat that foreign actors can play in our elections. Every elected official must dedicate themselves to protecting our democracy. No one should invite a foreign country to interfere with our most sacred act of voting. It was a severe abuse of power for the President to ask a foreign nation to interfere in our election to benefit his personal and political interest and to condition bipartisan and Congressionally-approved aid on that interference. And it was an unacceptable obstruction of Congress for the President to order his officials to defy legally-issued subpoenas.
“Unchecked, these actions could lead us down a path that will unravel the fabric of our nation. I am saddened to have had to vote in favor of these articles of impeachment. But, in the interest of defending our nation, I was compelled to vote to ensure our country holds the same values for our children and for generations to come. Ben Franklin, one of our most influential Founding Fathers, wrote that we have ‘a Republic, if you can keep it.’ I believe we must fight to keep it.”
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, Third District
Garamendi, a Democrat whose district includes Yolo County and parts of Solano County including Dixon and Suisun City, said he voted in favor of both articles of impeachment to “preserve and protect our Constitution and my promise to my constituents to carefully analyze all issues before me.”
Here is Garamendi’s full statement:
“Impeaching a President is one of the most solemn and consequential decisions the United States Congress can make. It is not an action I, or my fellow House colleagues, take lightly. Impeachment exists to protect our democracy. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, the impeachment clause in the Constitution exists to address ‘the misconduct of public men,’ which involves ‘the abuse or violation of some public trust.’
“The investigations and hearings conducted by the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees provide overwhelming evidence that President Trump abused his power of office and endangered our national security when he coerced the president of Ukraine into investigating his likely rival in the 2020 presidential election by withholding $391 million in critical military aid and a White House meeting from the Ukrainian government. Withholding this military assistance to Ukraine as it enters the fifth year of its deadly war against Russia endangers Ukraine’s sovereignty and safety as well as the United States’ national security interests.
“President Trump has also issued a blanket order prohibiting all executive office personnel from testifying in Congressional impeachment hearings, responding to subpoenas, and turning over documents. Therefore, he has obstructed the legitimate and Constitutional obligation Congress has to conduct an impeachment inquiry when there is evidence of wrongdoing by the President.
No one is above the law. The President’s actions leave me no choice. President Trump has violated his oath to ‘faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States,’ and to, ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.’ Now I will uphold my oath of office to preserve and protect our Constitution and my promise to my constituents to carefully analyze all issues before me. I will vote in favor of both articles of impeachment against President Donald John Trump.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, Second District
Huffman, a Democrat who represents Marin County, part of Petaluma and parts of Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte counties, voted in favor of impeachment. Huffman said Trump “compromised national security to cheat his way to re-election.”
Here is Huffman’s full statement:
“Madam Speaker, as we take this solemn, necessary step of impeaching President Trump, my Republican colleagues have made up their minds; we can’t persuade them to do the right thing. So, I address my remarks to the future. Because today’s vote will be judged by future generations including my precious children Abby and Nathan. Maybe grandkids.
“Historians will study what members of this Congress did when our democracy was tested like never before by a President who put personal interests above country; who compromised national security to cheat his way to re-election; and when caught, not only lied and refused to admit wrongdoing, but flouted Congress’ authority. He even called the Constitutional impeachment mechanism ‘unconstitutional.’
“Historians will marvel how some members continued to stand by this man; how they put blind partisan loyalty – or fear of Donald Trump – above their duty to defend the Constitution; how they made absurd partisan arguments and tried to obstruct these proceedings; and how, instead of pushing back when their party fell under a dark spell of authoritarianism, they embraced it – as if the Constitution, the rule of law, and our Oath of Office mean nothing.
“So, Madam Speaker, for our future generations, our children, and the judgment of history, let me be clear: I stand with our Constitution, with the rule of law, and our democracy. I’ll be voting ‘yes’ to impeach Donald J. Trump.”
U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, 11th District
DeSaulnier, a Democrat whose district encompasses Concord and Pleasant Hill and parts of Martinez and Contra Costa County, voted in favor of impeachment, saying in part that failing to hold Trump “accountable for his actions will lead to more violations.”
Here is DeSaulnier’s full statement:
“The reality and urgency of this moment could not be more consequential to American democracy. President Trump violated the law by soliciting foreign interference in our elections.
“With the President’s pattern of escalating behavior, failing to hold him accountable for his actions will lead to more violations. This President is a threat to our national security. That is why today I voted to defend our democracy, uphold our oath of office and the Constitution, and impeach President Trump.”
Rick Jones anticipated the end, but it still shocked him when it arrived.
You must be logged in to post a comment.