Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Terry Scott, and City Council Members Tom Campbell, Trevor Macenski, and Kari Birdseye have endorsed YES votes on Measures F, G and H for Benicia’s future. They are joined by the Napa-Solano Central Labor Council, Solano County Democratic Party, Benicia Police Officers’ Association, Benicia Dispatchers’ Association, the Fire people, and the Solano Association of Relators. | Images from City of Benicia and organizations’ sites.
November 3, 2024
Dear Benicia Voters,
As your City Council, we are unified in supporting Measures F, G, and H, which represent a lasting investment in Benicia’s future—strengthening our roads, enhancing infrastructure, and preserving essential services that safeguard our quality of life.
These measures weren’t proposed lightly. They reflect thoughtful planning and a vision to secure a stable, vibrant Benicia for generations to come.
While new taxes can be challenging, they’re a pathway to achieving a resilient city that thrives.
The strength of this vision is reflected in the broad support we’ve received from the Benicia Police Officers Association, Benicia Dispatchers Association, Benicia Fire Association, Solano County Association of Realtors, Napa-Solano Labor Council, California Democratic Party, and many other organizations. With these measures, we’re building a legacy of excellence and reliability that our city deserves.
Let’s come together and Believe in Benicia’s bright future.
Here’s what each measure will accomplish:
Measure F – Street Repair Sales Tax
A citizen-initiative 0.5% (half-cent) sales tax
Dedicated exclusively to street repair
Includes oversight by an independent citizens committee
Revenue cannot be used for any other purpose
Measure G – Limited Charter City Status
Establishes Benicia as a Limited Charter City
Limited and Sole purpose is to enable implementation of the Real Property Transfer Tax (Measure H).
Measure H – Real Property Transfer Tax (RPTT)
Applies to residential and commercial property sales
Includes important exemptions:
Family transfers (spouse, children, parents, grandparents)
Property transfers into trusts
Mortgage refinancing
Creates a sustainable revenue source as Benicia grows with new housing development.
RPTT is a one-time tax (closing cost) only affecting sale of residential and commercial property and can be paid by either party or negotiated.
We strongly believe these Measures will significantly improve Benicia’s future.
While we encourage your support, we most appreciate your thoughtful consideration of both supporting and opposing arguments. Your engagement in this process ensures that the outcome truly reflects our community’s will.
Thank you for your participation in this crucial decision-making process.
Sincerely,
The Benicia City Council
Mayor Steve Young
Vice Mayor Terry Scott
Council Member Trevor Macenski
Council Member Kari Birdseye
Council Member Tom Campbell
Valero’s Benicia Refinery, January 25, 2024.. | Galen Kusic.
Who’s monitoring our air monitors? Not Valero, apparently
Opinion by BenIndy’s Editorial Board, March 6, 2024
Most Benicia residents will agree that when it comes to our health and safety, timely, clear disclosure of dangers to our community’s health is paramount to helping us make good decisions. In the context of keeping our families safe when industrial accidents or violations occur, “good decisions” may include evacuation or sheltering in place at one end of the spectrum, with closing windows, keeping vulnerable seniors and kids indoors, and discussing as a community how we feel about our biggest industrial neighbor, Valero, on the other end.
But the latest on Benicia City Council’s efforts to adopting an Industrial Safety Ordinance serves as a stark reminder of the many challenges and complexities we must face as we seek meaningful community oversight for industrial activity in Benicia.
At last night’s Benicia City Council meeting, Fire Chief Josh Chadwick’s status report on the City’s march to drafting, adopting, and implementing a Benicia Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO or BISHO) was a highlight of the meeting, demonstrating a step in the right direction towards enhanced public safety measures. The Fire Department’s efforts to improve and quickly deliver clear notifications to the public also received well-deserved recognition, with many commending its recent efforts as a significant improvement from past practices.
However, the presentation took a disturbing turn with the revelation that, to the best of our present knowledge, it is unclear who or what is actively monitoring the town’s air monitors and exactly what the process to notify the community is, so we know when we are in danger.
File photo of Valero’s Benicia Refinery. This image does not show the recent accident. | Pat Toth-Smith.
Complaints triggered investigation into hydrogen sulfide accident, not air monitor spikes
As many of you know, there was an accident at Valero’s Benicia Refinery last weekend that released hydrogen sulfide, a neurotoxin, into our air. The spill prompted questions and caused residents to call the Air District, Benicia Fire Department, and even Valero with complaints of a rotten egg smell, ultimately resulting in residents receiving a text alert about the odor through Alert Solano.
Until Valero’s 30-day mandated Investigation Report with a root-cause analysis is released, Benicia leadership as well as residents are in the dark as to the exact cause and impact of the release. But even without this report available, several concerns emerged regarding both this recent accident at the Benicia Refinery and Valero’s response to it during Tuesday’s presentation.
According to Chief Chadwick, monitors detected spikes in hydrogen sulfide levels starting at 4 am on the day of the release, yet there was a delay of at least two hours in notifying the community. This delay suggests a lack of active monitoring.
Furthermore, Chief Chadwick revealed on Tuesday that it was the Fire Department that first made contact with Valero about the odor after staff noticed it on an unrelated call, not the other way around. This indicates that Valero did not proactively inform the Fire Department about either the accident or the community complaints the refinery had apparently received.
While there may be good reasons why refinery staff should investigate the source of an odor before alerting the community, this recent release and Valero’s subsequent response exposes serious flaws in the existing cooperation agreement between Valero and the City – the cooperation agreement that is supposed to serve as the framework for incident response and notification protocols (more on this below).
As we reflect on the discussions and outcomes of the City Council meeting, the question “Who monitors the monitors?” resonates most deeply. It highlights the imperative for a comprehensive system with clearly defined standards and expectations, to ensure that the systems we rely on for our health and safety are not just in place, but are also actively and effectively monitored so timely and clear notification in emergencies can occur.
The path forward must include rectifying this oversight to prevent any lapses that could compromise public safety and our environmental surrounds.
Valero Benicia Refinery’s Community Relations director’s response demonstrates failure to relate to our community
Another disturbing revelation that the Benicia Herald reported on last week emerged when Editor Galen Kusic asked Valero’s Benicia Refinery Director of Community Relations and Government Affairs why the community was finally notified at 7:40 am when H2S was detected as early as 4 or 4:30 am, depending on reports.
In order to answer the question, “I suggest that [Mr. Kusic] review the Public Information Bank website along with that policy which defines the requirements of notifications,” the director responded. The policy the director referred to is Valero’s existing cooperation agreement with Benicia. At Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Steve Young questioned the delay as well.
Here, BenIndy’s Editorial Board offers two opinions and two speculations. The first opinion of this Board is that this was a wholly unacceptable response. Our first speculation is that this response exposed that the director was either unprepared or refused to answer Mr. Kusic’s question.
The second opinion is that if this is what Valero considers to be appropriate “community relations,” it is clearer than ever that there is an immediate need for an Benicia ISO that can define, respond to, and deliver on expectations of a safe and healthy community.
Finally, we speculate that Valero will not be a willing partner, let alone a good-faith leader, in the effort to design and provide one.
It is up to our City to lead instead
Vice Mayor Terry Scott and City Council Member Kari Birdseye, who have been at the forefront of advocating for a robust ISO for Benicia despite attacks and opposition, joined Chief Chadwick in acknowledging the community’s interest in oversight. As the three members of Benicia City Council’s ISO Subcommittee, their determination in pushing for common sense safety measures to reduce accidents and improve notifications to our community is a breath of the freshest air.
But while progress is certainly being made in the right direction, the journey towards a more responsive and transparent notification system is ongoing, and may be uphill. It is incumbent upon all stakeholders in this process to remain vigilant, proactive, and collaborative in acknowledging and navigating the challenges that lie ahead, especially if Valero decides to dig in its heels.
This post was updated on March 7 to reflect that, at Tuesday’s meeting, Chief Josh Chadwick indicated that it was the Fire Department that made initial contact with Valero’s Benicia Refinery to report the smell, only to discover that the refinery had already received complaints but had not yet shared this fact with the City. The post was also updated to better clarify the nature of the City’s cooperation agreement with Valero’s Benicia Refinery.
The opinions above represent those of BenIndy’s editors and no other groups or individuals, but we will share that you can follow this conversation by becoming a Supporter of the BISHO Working Group at BISHO.org.
The Benicia Fire Department has a public page regarding incidents at the Valero Benicia Refinery. These are the uploaded documents regarding the February 2024 Valero Refinery Odor Incident:
Smoke from the Valero Benicia refinery during a 2017 incident. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub
By Stephen Golub, first published in the Benicia Herald on November 10, 2023
At 4 a.m. on June 21, 2019, a series of massive fires and explosions at a Philadelphia refinery sent both large amounts of toxic chemicals and huge chunks of debris into the air. One 19-ton fragment landed across the Schuylkill River, 2,000 feet away.
The cause of all this? According to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, a corroded ruptured pipe. Apparently, it had been poorly maintained.
The Philadelphia debacle is but one of many refinery and similar disasters that have occurred across the country in recent years. Many of us recall the Chevron fire in Richmond, just over a decade ago.
And just this week, a chemical plant explosion in east Texas triggered large fires, a shelter-in-place order for a five-mile radius around the facility and, even after that order was lifted, official caution “that residents should still avoid spending unnecessary time outdoors, and young children or people with respiratory illnesses and other health issues should stay inside.”
Against this backdrop, and in view of ongoing toxic pollution hazards presented by the presence of Texas-based Valero’s Benicia refinery, a proposal by Vice Mayor Terry Scott and City Council Member Kari Birdseye comes as a breath of fresh air. In a June 10 letter published in the Benicia Herald and through other outlets, the two describe reasons for Benicia adopting a new law that would make our wonderful city safer and healthier for our kids, our older adults and all of us.
Among other things, the ordinance would improve the monitoring of the refinery’s operations and the flow of information from Valero when documented or apparent emissions and violations occur. In these and other regards, it would improve on the rather toothless Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the City currently has with the giant Texas corporation. It would similarly improve on the MOU’s associated community advisory panel that rarely meets publicly, that most of us have never heard of and, most importantly, that Valero substantially controls.
Now, does Valero’s track record indicate that Benicia needs a strong ordinance rather than the weak MOU?
Consider what a top official of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) said about the fact that for well over a decade the refinery released into Benicia’s air 138 tons of toxic contaminants hundreds of times the legal limits without informing BAAQMD, the City or any of us – something we only learned of last year:
“We have a situation here where you’ve got a facility who’s [sic] taking samples of emissions from this vent to control and verify refinery processes. They’re doing that from 2003 onwards. And they knew or should have known that those emissions should have been reported. It’s that simple…”
Or consider these realities:
Despite the Memorandum of Understanding, we did not learn of other serious, longstanding Valero violations, which triggered a federal Environmental Protection Agency investigation, until the EPA announced major fines earlier this year.
Despite the MOU, Valero has committed hundreds of other violations over the past several years.
Despite the MOU, Valero did not report or adequately address the 2022 event in which approximately 200 Benicia households were impacted by an oily, airborne residue that fell onto yards, children’s play equipment, solar panels and other neighborhood facilities.
Despite the MOU, earlier this month air monitoring devices in the vicinity of the refinery detected the presence of the dangerous neurotoxin hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the air, quite possibly emanating from the facility, even as Benicians reported smelling something like rotten eggs – the odor of H2S – in several parts of town.
In addition, let’s be realistic about where the ultimate responsibility for the Benicia refinery’s safety, health and other decisions rests: at the company’s Texas headquarters. Its track record compares unfavorably even with other petrochemical corporations, as indicated by a leading Texas environmental activist’s assessment and a lawsuit filed against the corporation by the Texas Attorney General (normally an ally of the oil industry) over a Valero Texas refinery’s continuing “poor operational, maintenance and design practices.” That same refinery’s 2017 fire poured nearly a million pounds of potentially dangerous pollutants into the air, “including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds,” according to Valero’s own estimates.
Finally, consider the fact that the Valero facility is the only refinery in the North Bay that is not governed by an industrial safety ordinance (ISO).
None of this is to criticize the hard work and efforts of our fine Fire Department, which does its best to monitor actual and potential Valero hazards under the MOU, despite financial and technical constraints. As always, we should all appreciate its service. But we need more than that.
Also, I’m sure we value the jobs, economic impact and other benefits that the company brings to the area, as well as the wonderful current and former Valero employees who are our friends and neighbors. But if Valero itself wants to be a good neighbor, it needs to cooperate with the City as we move on from the MOU, which expires in 2025. In fact, one great feature of the Scott-Birdseye proposal is that it aims for a cooperative, consultative process.
So what’s next? As per the proposal, at its December 19 meeting the Council will vote on whether to instruct city government staff to examine what the next steps are, including a possible ordinance.
To be clear: This will not be a vote on an ordinance itself; it merely authorizes careful examination of options, in cooperation with Valero, the broader business community and of course all of us.
To read the Scott-Birdseye letter or show support for this initiative, please go to https://www.bisho.org/. You could also weigh in by emailing the Council members with your thoughts. You can access their emails by going to this page at the City website.
In addition, you could attend the December 19 Council meeting, whether in person or via Zoom. The link for the latter will be shared by the City Manager (whom you also should feel free to contact about this) down the line.
This process is well worth getting involved with. The safety, health and lives we save could be our own.
There is a group of concerned citizens of Benicia who also support the adoption of a Benicia Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance (BISHO). To learn more about the effort and add your support, visit www.bisho.org.
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