GREAT NEWS… MANDATORY MASK ORDER PASSED UNANIMOUSLY IN BENICIA ! (UPDATE – FINAL DRAFT OF RESOLUTION)
By Pat Toth-Smith, Benicia resident, June 17, 2020
Benicia city council did the right thing last night after much discussion and overwhelming support came from many callers and letters.
Congratulations to all who worked hard on getting this passed! Benicia is now a safe place to shop and be !!!!!! ????????????????❤️❤️
Thank you council member Steve Young and Mayor Elizabeth Patterson for taking the lead, doing the right and hard thing for our citizens early. And thank you city staff and police chief Upson for your work on this. Thank you council member, Tom Campbell for coming around quickly during the meeting to vote for it, you got the ball rolling. And lastly, thank you to council members Largaespada and Strawbridge for also doing the right thing in the end for us citizens even if you maybe didn’t agree with all of it.
The following business item is on the Benicia City Council agenda for Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Below you will find instructions for sending your comment to staff and council members.
14.A – RESOLUTION REQUIRING THE WEARING OF FACE COVERINGS IN BENICIA (Assistant City Manager)
At the May 26, 2020 City Council study session, the City Council deliberated the merits of mandating the wearing of face coverings in Benicia. Council directed staff to collect data on COVID-19 infections and prepare a resolution requiring the public to wear face coverings indoors and in enclosed public spaces in Benicia. Staff has returned to Council with the requested data and resolution.
Recommendation:
Move to adopt a resolution (Attachment 1) requiring the wearing of face coverings in indoor and enclosed public spaces in Benicia.
ALL THE INFO YOU NEED TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR NEXT CITY COUNCIL MEETING, TUESDAY, JUNE 16th @ 7pm!
**They’ll be voting on the mask mandate, so send in your comments and explain why it is so important!!
-View live broadcast Ch 27, Tuesday, 6/16 at 7:00pm
-Watch Online at http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/agenda
-Re-broadcasts on Ch 27: Thurs & Tues following the meeting, 8:30am
SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS BY EMAIL
(copy the below email group and paste into “To:” field of email)
You may choose to identify yourself, or remain anonymous. Briefly state which issue you will be speaking to. Limit submission to 750 words, or about 5 minutes reading length for clerk. ** Emails received PRIOR to 3pm on the meeting day will be distributed to council members, read privately, and recorded. Emails received AFTER 3pm & BEFORE 7pm on the meeting day will be collected by the clerk and read out loud during the council meeting broadcast.
SHARE COMMENTS VIA TELEPHONE DIAL-IN
Call in via Zoom: (669) 900-9128
Follow prompts, Meeting ID: 826 4906 6719 — Password: 440887
You will be placed in a virtual waiting room/queue. You will be prompted by the city clerk when it is your turn to share your comments. You will only have five minutes to speak (hard stop, no exceptions). Once complete, you will be muted to the council.
MAIL IN COMMENTS VIA USPS
Comments may be submitted by letter via the postal service. Standard postage will apply.
MAIL TO: City Clerk, Lisa Wolfe, 250 E L. Street, Benicia, CA 94510
Mailed comments must be received by end of business day on the day of the meeting and a copy will be distributed to each attendee.
For questions re: agenda, how to connect, submissions, contact:
City Clerk, Lisa Wolfe
250 E. L. Street, Benicia, CA 94510
LWolfe@ci.benicia.ca.us or (707) 746-4200
Business office hours 8am – 5pm.
[Other City Officials that may Attend}
Lisa Wolfe – City Clerk
Lori Tinfow – City Manager
Alan Shear – Asst City Manager
Ben Stock – City Attorney
mgiuliani@ci.benicia.ca.us – Economic Dev, Mario Giuliani
police@ci.benicia.ca.us – Police Chief Erik Upson
JChadwick@ci.benicia.ca.us – Fire Chief, Josh Chadwick
mdotson@ci.benicia.ca.us – Parks & Community, Mike Dotson
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a serious impact on our City’s finances. The Benicia City Council will discuss a staff report with financial forecasts at its May 5 videoconferencing Council meeting.
From the staff report’s introduction: “This financial forecast provides an initial update to the General Fund revenues and expenses due to the sudden impact of the coronavirus pandemic on local revenues. At this time, the projected shortfall for the General Fund for 2019-20 is approximately $2.5 million and for 2020-21 the projected shortfall is approximately $8.5 million.”
The staff report and detailed financial forecasts are included in the May 5 agenda packet (see links below).
14.B – GENERAL FUND FINANCIAL FORECAST IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC (Finance Director)
Staff has reviewed the City’s General Fund budget and created an initial financial forecast in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and its estimated impacts on the City’s local economy. The forecast focuses primarily on the City’s revenues and incorporates information sourced from economic experts as well as financial trend analysis based on the City’s economic history.
Due to the quick-changing nature of information and action from both the State and City in response to COVID-19, staff prepared this forecast to present a potential scenario based on the best available information available at the time it was prepared. The purpose of the forecast is to review and discuss the potential budgetary impacts, with the intent to adjust the budget when staff returns with a mid-cycle budget update in June 2020.
There is no action or budget adjustment associated with this report.
Recommendation:
Move to accept the General Fund Financial Forecast for Fiscal Years 2019-2021 as shown in Attachment 1.
It’s time to update the City of Benicia’s 10-year-old Climate Action plan. This is especially important in 2019 in consideration of:
hugely consequential recent international and U.S. scientific findings on climate change (see links below), and
new California laws and target dates for meeting climate and pollution goals (links below).
Updating the Climate Action Plan could be initiated by City staff and the Community Sustainability Commission. The Commission could consider this as part of its work plan for the next year (2019).
Barriers to this could be budget issues, possible lack of council support and staff capacity. The way the Commission overcame the lack of staff 10 years ago was through the working groups that provided invaluable insight, work products and so forth. From 2012-2014, we also had a staff Climate Action Coordinator, who, if restored, could provide invaluable service for this effort.
Note in addition, Benicia has a 2016 Climate Change Adaptation Plan. If I understand correctly, this is one strategy as a subset of our overall Climate Action Plan.
Links on recent scientific findings:
Groundbreaking new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Oct. 1, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5 °C
By Pat Toth-Smith, Benicia resident, June 17, 2020
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