Category Archives: Benicia elections

Vote Christina Gilpin-Hayes for Benicia City Council

Christina Gilpin-Hayes, endorsed candidate for Benicia City Council. | Campaign photo.

 

My name is Christina Gilpin-Hayes, and as you may have heard, I’m running for Benicia City Council. Before I tell you about my qualifications and why I’m asking for your vote, let me say that it has truly been an honor to run for Council. I have enjoyed every moment of this election season so far—meeting neighbors who have become friends, knocking on doors, and being welcomed into homes to listen to concerns and engage with our community members. It has been a rewarding experience that reinforces my commitment to serving our community.

I find joy in this process. Even neighbors who may not agree with me or are voting for another candidate have shared their stories and experiences with me. This is what community means to me. Even when we don’t agree, there is an opportunity to communicate.

Now, a bit more about me: I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Communication and Organizational Behavior, along with a background in law and finance. I was previously employed as a corporate paralegal supporting startup companies and large technology firms. I eventually moved into a leadership role at a large firm, managing a team of approximately 100. After a brief stint at an investment bank, I returned to law firm life, where I now manage a team developing legal tech software to make legal services more efficient and, hopefully, less expensive. In my professional life, I’vemanaged people and budgets, and I have experience making tough decisions when necessary. In my opinion, all of these responsibilities can be fulfilled with empathy, care, and creativity.

Personally, I am passionate about community organizing. I am the founder of the Benicia LGBTQIA Network and an avid animal rescuer. My wife and I moved to Benicia in early 2021 and instantly fell in love with this community; we knew it was home for us. I’ve always been politically and socially active, volunteering for multiple local, state, and federal campaigns over the years, including working on the legal Election Protection Team for two presidential elections to ensure voters had access to the polls across the country. I believe in the democratic process, and that’s just one of the reasons I’m running for Benicia City Council. I’d like to answer some of the questions I’ve encountered on the campaign trail in Benicia.


WHERE DO I STAND ON THE ISSUES?

I am in favor of Measures F, G, and H.

Measure F

I know our community is experiencing tax fatigue, and the city is asking us to contribute more. I understand; I really don’t want to pay more taxes either. However, with Measure F, we can contribute a small amount when dining out or purchasing items, which will help address some of our road issues. For an $80 dinner at Baxter’s, one of my favorite Benicia restaurants, the tax I will pay on that meal will increase from $7.30 to $7.70. I am comfortable paying the additional $0.40 to help the city start making a dent in the backlog of roads that badly need repair and repaving. I also appreciate that there will be a community oversight committee to ensure that this money is used as intended by voters. Additionally, even if Measure F passes, our tax rate will still be lower than many of our neighboring communities.

Measures G and H:

There is a lot of misinformation floating around about these measures, leading to confusion. I’ve met homeowners who thought that voting in favor of these measures would result in immediate reassessments of their homes. To be clear, that is not accurate. First, Measure H cannot be implemented without Measure G. A General Law City, which is what Benicia currently is, cannot implement a city transfer tax. If Measure H is approved, together with Measure G, it means real property sales will be assessed a city transfer tax, and while I understand the frustration with being asked to contribute more, this measure will enable the city to plan for the future. I’ve heard questions like, “Why didn’t the city anticipate this?” or “Why didn’t the previous council do something to ensure we could collect on X, Y, or Z?” This measure provides the city with that opportunity. It means when new developments occur, the city will receive a transfer tax, ensuring that new residents contribute to our beautiful community to fund city needs, such as necessary infrastructure, police, and fire. Additionally, if any commercial properties—yes, including Valero—ever sell, the city will receive funding from those sales. We want to avoid a situation where, in 2, 5, or 10 years, sales occur from new housing developments or a large commercial property, and the city has not planned for it.

What about budget cuts?

One thing is certain: we cannot cut our way to a balanced budget. This community has made its priorities clear, and public safety is a top concern. This means maintaining staffing levels for police and fire. To achieve this, we must compensate our public safety staff at a level consistent with neighboring communities. In my conversation with the Police Chief, he indicated that we have already lost five police officers in 2024 alone. While there will be opportunities to reduce staff in certain departments in the coming years, that alone will not bridge the budget gap.

We also cannot cut consultant fees as a way to balance the budget. Consultants provide efficient and cost-effective services without the long-term obligations that permanent employees require. Hired city staff require benefits and pension contributions. Consultants can be brought in when needed without those long-term commitments. Moreover, many items on the consultant list are supported by this community, such as automated license plate readers and the goats for vegetation management, among others. We could eliminate all of those and save quite a bit of money, but then would we hire full-time shepherds and purchase a herd of goats to cancel that contract, or do away with the Automated License Plate Readers that assist our Police Department, or even hire a team of full-time city attorneys with the appropriate specialties to replace our contracted City Attorney, which would also come with benefits and pensions? Additionally, some of the consultants the city has engaged over the past two years have helped ensure compliance with state housing requirements. The city does not maintain full-time staff to manage all of its needs, as doing so would inflate the budget far beyond the consultant fees we currently pay.

Relying on the termination of consultant contracts to find money to balance the budget or fix our roads is short-sighted and unrealistic.

Our Budget/Long-Term Economic Goals

These tax measures are not a magic solution; they are merely a starting point. We must continue to make significant plans, regardless of whether these measures pass. We need to focus on attracting new commercial opportunities, which means city leaders must identify ways to leverage relationships and encourage businesses to consider Benicia. This may involve collaborating with commercial property owners to assist in identifying potential businesses for vacant properties, particularly those that would generate sales tax revenue. Warehouses do not typically generate revenue for the city. My focus would initially be on our industrial park. While Main Street is the crown jewel of Benicia, it accounts for only about 7% of our total sales tax revenue. We should continue to support all our Main Street businesses, but initially, we should prioritize new commercial opportunities in the industrial park. This won’t be easy, but it can be achieved if we work together—city leaders, city staff, the Benicia Industrial Park Association, and the community at large. The time for the City Council to act is now. We must focus on what’s next for Benicia to diversify our revenue streams, which is essential for our city’s long-term financial health, and we must engage every voice to do what’s right for Benicia.

The Industrial Safety Ordinance

I believe we need a strong Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO). We are the only refinery city in the Bay Area without one. City leaders would be doing a disservice to the community if they did not ensure Benicia’s long-term environmental safety in all industrial settings. I have read the draft ISO, the community comments, Valero’s comments, as well as Solano County’s comments. I hope the ISO can be implemented without litigation and that all interested parties can agree to prioritize the environment and public safety.

Other Issues

While these issues don’t necessarily touch the city directly, I think it’s important for you, the Benicia voter, to know where I stand:

  • I am pro-choice. Since I turned 18, I have actively advocated for and defended a woman’s right to control her own body and decisions.
  • I support marriage equality. I campaigned and canvassed with Equality California to overturn Prop 8 and am emphatically voting for Proposition 3, which will finally repeal Prop 8 language from the California constitution.
  • I advocate for a living wage and will be voting “yes” on the state minimum wage proposition.
  • While this isn’t necessarily a city, county, or state issue, as mentioned, I am an avid animal rescuer, and if you have a dog, I’m more than likely going to greet your dog first.

In Closing

Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Terry Scott, and Council Member Kari Birdseye have provided invaluable information and support throughout this process, and I’m a better candidate for it. I am truly grateful for all of the current and former leaders of this city, as well as long-time Benicians, who have been willing to invite me into their homes and lives, talk to me, and share information.

If you watched the Benicia Chamber of Commerce candidate forum or attended any of my campaign events, you’ll know I don’t take myself too seriously. I smile a lot and genuinely find joy in my work, my life, and this campaign process. You might wonder if I have the chops to do this job if I’m cracking jokes. I assure you, I do. I am a leader in my industry and my community, and when it’s time to get down to business, I do so with ease—but always with a smile on my face.

I will champion Benicia and remain accessible to hear your concerns, even if we don’t agree. I hope you’ll take some time to get to know me, and I ask for your vote on November 5th or via your mail-in ballot.

Christina Gilpin-Hayes
christinaforbenicia.com
info@christinaforbenicia.com


The Benicia Independent and its Founder/Editor Emeritus, Roger Straw, have also wholeheartedly endorsed Christina Gilpin-Hayes for Benicia City Council. Her genuine passion for our amazing community, combined with her ability to connect with residents and listen to their concerns, truly sets her apart as the best candidate in this field. Christina is the right leader for Benicia.

This ad was first published in the Benicia Herald on October 19, 2024. The Herald does not have an online edition. Supporting local journalism is crucial for ensuring communities are informed and facilitates transparency and accountability during important local events like this one. You can subscribe to the Herald by email at beniciacirculation@gmail.com or by phone at 707-745-6838.

Courage, Judgment, Steve Young for Mayor and Gilpin-Hayes and Macenski for City Council

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

By Stephen Golub, first published in the Benicia Herald on October 13, 2024

When we think about courage, the kinds of things that come to mind are police taking on violent criminals or firefighters rushing into burning buildings. We don’t think of city officials poring over spreadsheets and budget documents.

But when it comes to this year’s mayoral and City Council elections, there’s an admirable element of courage at play. This is a central  reason I’m endorsing Mayor Steve Young for reelection, as well as Christina Gilpin-Hayes and (current Council Member) Trevor Macenski for City Council.

They all also merit support for additional reasons that go beyond our budget crisis, including the initiative and energy they’ll bring to these (largely uncompensated) jobs. But with respect to that crisis, they’ve earned respect by biting the bullet and backing the three revenue-enhancing measures on the Benicia ballot, involving a small sales tax increase for road repair and introduction of a modest real estate transfer tax for more general purposes.

Retiring Benicia Council Member Tom Campbell has endorsed Gilpin-Hayes for City Council, along with Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Terry Scott, and Council Member Kari Birdseye. | City of Benicia.

Regrettably, as demonstrated by retiring Council Member Tom Cambell in his October 9 letter to the Herald, the responsibility shown by Young, Gilpin-Hayes and Macenski sharply contrasts with an erroneous budgetary approach taken by a twice-defeated (and once victorious) current Council candidate, Republican Lionel Largaespada. Not one to mince words, Campbell describes Largaespada’s number-juggling in terms of “voodoo math.”

As ably analyzed by Campbell, Largaespada’s misleading approach includes incorrectly claiming that he’s “found” enough existing City money to cover road repair and identifying supposedly excessive spending on outside contracting services – even though such services in fact are essential or even crucial to Benicia (and, I’d add, would most likely be more expensive if carried out by City personnel).

Campbell further explains that “Largaespada never talked to anyone in the [City’s] finance department or the City Manager’s department about his plan.” Finally, demonstrating some fine institutional memory, Campbell points to the video of a specific Council meeting to assert  that in 2019, while on the Council( before being defeated in 2022),  Largaespada backed a higher sales tax than the one candidate Largaespada now opposes. He was apparently for that kind of tax  before he was against it.

All this worries me in three ways.

First, with 44 percent of the City budget going to fire and police protection, there seems no way to adopt Largaespada’s apparent voodoo math without cutting that essential protection. It could  also mean deteriorating roads and other City services, as well as  a failure to repair City buildings and facilities, such as the Police headquarters, the Senior Center, the Swim Center, the library and a host of other structures.

Second, Campbell does not stand alone in his refutation of Largaespada’s math. His critique  is part of a broad consensus of criticism that I’ve heard from responsible Benicians across the political spectrum, ranging from business-centric to progressive circles.

Finally, if Largaespada brings this questionable  approach to the budget, one must wonder about his judgment in handling  other pressing issues Benicia faces – not least safety and health challenges presented by Texas-based Valero, who’s dangerous crude-by-rail “bomb train” plan he backed several years ago and which has massively, indirectly supported him through political action committee spending over the years – often through misleading ads that unfairly attack his opponents.

I don’t like criticizing Largaespada in these pages. He is a good, bright person. But I don’t like the possibility of gutting City services hanging over our heads either, especially when Campbell and many other experts refute his calculations.

Back to courage and judgment: It’s hard to tell people we need additional taxes. It’s harder still to put one’s political career on the line to do so. But Mayor Young has led the way in dedicating much of his campaign to that, in order to right the City’s fiscal ship for now and into the future.

The Benicia Save Our Streets Committee are fighting to pass Measure F to fix out streets.

Thus, he’s backing Ballot Measure F, the product of a citizen initiative that gathered over 2,000 signatures, which will increase the sales tax on non-grocery items by a small amount (to still less than a number of other Bay Area communities) in order to ensure that road repair is fully funded.

He’s similarly backing Measures G and H, which together will allow the City to raise funds to help close our looming budget deficits via a modest transfer tax on real estate sales – with key exceptions such as no tax in the case of inheritance or divorce.

A real value of G and H  is that with state-mandated additions of housing to Benicia, other possible housing developments on the horizon and the possibility of Valero selling its refinery down the line, large chunks of revenue could be generated by the transfer tax without imposing any costs on current Benicia residents.

I won’t delve into the pros and cons of these three measures beyond very briefly addressing certain frequently heard counter-arguments.

For instance, aren’t City employees overpaid or isn’t  the City overstaffed? No. In fact, sometimes Benicia does not even match the going rate for some jobs in other municipalities, which has  meant  losing valuable staff to them and the resulting expense of recruiting and hiring replacements. And Benicia has made staff consolidations to streamline its operations.

Or, why can’t we renegotiate employee pensions? Because we’re bound by law to honor them.

For these reasons and many more, all three measures have the support of Benicia’s public safety unions, the Solano County Association of Realtors, the County’s Democratic Party and many other organizations and individuals across the political spectrum.

The budget crisis isn’t at all the only reason I’m backing Steve Young for Mayor. He displays an even keel in leading the City, as evidenced by the calm stewardship he showed during the pandemic. He offers various sensible plans and projects to enhance our business climate and quality of life. Such initiatives  will yield additional revenues down the line without imposing additional taxes.

I have not addressed Macenski’s candidacy much because, as a popular incumbent, he does not seem to need the same level of discussion as newcomer Gilpin-Hayes, whom I’ve previously, enthusiastically endorsed. Suffice to say that he is a very sharp individual who brings great knowledge to consideration of many city issues.

Smoke from the Valero Benicia refinery during a 2017 incident. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

There is, however, one regard in which I wish Gilpin-Hayes, Macenski and especially Young were stronger: the proposed Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) that Vice Mayor Scott, Council Member Birdseye and several other individuals  have labored over for the past year. All three have cautiously endorsed aspects of it in principle, which is understandable. But as  a matter of leadership and legacy, and of safety and health, stronger and clearer support would be welcome in the lead-up to the election – especially  in contrast with the eventual unsupportive stance we might expect from Largaespada in view of his past backing by Texas-based Valero.

I have not addressed the candidacies of Kevin Kirby for Mayor and (former Valero and Exxon Mobil employee) Franz Rosenthal for City Council because, while they both came across as nice folks in a recent forum organized by the Benicia High School debate team, neither have matched the focus or knowledge of Young, Gilpin-Hayes, Macenski or Largaespada– whether at that forum or online – regarding  the crucial issues confronting Benicia. The one exception is former Valero and Exxon Mobil employee Rosenthal’s clear opposition to the ISO.

In addition, given Rosenthal’s apparent extremely late entry into the race, one wonders whether, as the other new face in the Council contest, he’ll counterproductively take votes away from the energetic and well-qualified newcomer Gilpin-Hayes.

To sum up: For their courage, judgement and many more reasons, I hope that Benicians will work for, donate to and above all vote for Young, Gilpin-Hayes and Macenski for Mayor and City Council Members. Benicia needs the sound, responsible, energetic approaches they bring to the table.

[Note: I have donated to the Young and Gilpin-Hayes campaigns.]


The BenIndy has also endorsed Christina Gilpin-Hayes for City Council. Learn more about her campaign by clicking the image below and visiting her website

 

Stephen Golub: For City Council, Back Democrat Gilpin-Hayes Over Republican Largaespada

A Breath of Fresh Air: For City Council, Back Democrat Gilpin-Hayes Over Republican Largaespada

Christina Gilpin-Hayes, Benicia City Council Candidate. | Campaign photo.
Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

By Stephen Golub, originally published in the Benicia Herald on October 7, 2024

Images added by BenIndy.

While four candidates are vying for two Benicia City Council slots this November, the key race (for reasons I’ll explain in a subsequent column) is really between Democrat Christina Gilpin-Hayes and Republican Lionel Largaespada. They’re both good, smart people, with backgrounds in business and public service. They both love Benicia.

But they differ in crucial ways, which is why Gilpin-Hayes is by far the better choice.

Energy and Perspective

Gilpin-Hayes is a breath of fresh air with creative ideas on everything from addressing the budgetary crisis that threatens our city services to better community outreach that will keep us updated about vital government deliberations and decisions.

In contrast, Largaespada is on his fourth run for City Council in eight years. The one time he won, in 2018 (before losing again in 2022), he wore the mantle of supposed fiscal responsibility – yet sat on the Council during a crucial period when our budget crisis intensified and went unaddressed.

Endorsements

Moderate Democrat Gilpin-Hayes has endorsements stretching across much of Benicia’s and Solano County’s political spectrums. They include Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Terry Scott, Council Members Kari Birdseye and Tom Campbell, former Mayors Jerry Hayes and Elizabeth Patterson, Solano County Supervisors Monica Brown and Wanda Williams, Supervisor-elect Cassandra James, State Senate candidate Christopher Cabaldon and, last but not least, the Solano County Democratic Party.

To his credit, conservative Republican Largaespada has secured labor endorsements, including from our police and fire unions – though that does not mean those groups or individual members necessarily oppose Gilpin-Hayes. On the other hand, the largest though indirect backing he’s received over the years has come from Texas-based Valero Energy, through political action committees (PACs) that have spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting him and/or attacking his opponents in misleading and mean ways.

Our Budget Crisis and Credibility

Along with Mayor Young, other Council members and other leading Benicians across the political spectrum who have made courageous decisions to back steps to balance our budget, Gilpin-Hayes supports Ballot Measures F, G and H, which will help repair our decaying roads and more generally shore up the City’s finances.

She also favors revenue-enhancing initiatives that will increase Benicia’s appeal as a place to visit and spend money and to make it easier to do business here, without sacrificing our community’s charming, small-town character.

Former Benicia City Council Member Lionel Largaespada grimaces as he considers his position.
Former Benicia City Council Member Lionel Largaespada, pictured at a 2022 candidate forum in Benicia, CA. | Vallejo Sun / Scott Morris.

Largaespada agrees that Benicia needs to be more business-friendly. But he opposes the three tax-oriented measures without proposing effective alternatives for maintaining our police, fire, parks, public works and other services. Instead, he promises apparently illusory savings: e.g., from the $9 million of spending that the City currently contracts out annually. In doing so, he overlooks the fact that such contracted-out expenditures could be even more burdensome if they instead involved hiring additional City personnel, in view of City employees’ benefits, pensions and other accompanying costs. In this and other instances, he seems to juggle budget categories without providing sound solutions.

What’s more, such services are by and large for crucial public works and public safety needs, ranging from protecting our water supply to employing the license plate readers that have helped keep Benicia safe. We can’t simply cut them.

One has to wonder, again, where was fiscal conservative Largaespada when he served on the Council in 2018-22 as our current fiscal crisis overtook the City, and why his return to the Council would prove more effective this time around.

Public Safety and Health

Gilpin-Hayes takes a responsible position in backing full funding and support for Benicia’s Police and Fire Departments. She favors a strong industrial safety ordinance (ISO), while also taking account of Valero’s financial and other contributions to the community and what she feels are at least a couple of legitimate concerns it raises about a draft ISO prepared by a Council subcommittee.

Valero’s Benicia Refinery during a flaring event. | Pat Toth-Smith.

I do not trust Valero and I feel that Vice Mayor Scott and Council Member Birdseye have done a fine job in spearheading that draft, which among other things could prevent Valero from again pouring tremendous toxic emissions into our air for at least 15 years without informing us – as it finally was forced to do in 2022. But I also respect Gilpin-Hayes’ position in staking out (along with Mayor Young and Council Member Trevor Macenski) a moderate middle ground that hopefully will still yield a strong ordinance.

Contrast this with Valero’s indirect but massive and often misleading campaign backing for Largaespada over the years, and what this might portend for future industrial safety-and-health challenges. Consider too his unfounded suggestion that the proposed ISO would duplicate the work of a rather toothless Solano County agency.

I’m not questioning his integrity at all here; but I am wondering about why the Texas-based oil giant has chosen to make such a political investment in him. Maybe it has something to do with his supporting its extremely dangerous but fortunately unsuccessful crude-by-rail project several years ago or potentially aligning with the corporation on other hazardous initiatives down the line.

I’m also concerned about whether our Police and Fire Departments, which consume a large chunk of Benicia’s budget, could continue to function well despite the inevitable City cutbacks that Largaespada’s opposition to additional revenues entails. I’ll equally admit to uneasiness about his stance opposing a mask mandate back when Covid raged, as well as his apparently solicitous stance toward the Solano County public health director, whose questionable advice at the time starkly contrasted with that of most other public health authorities, including throughout the Bay Area.

Finally, let’s note Gilpin-Hayes’ dedicated, longstanding involvement with rescue services for endangered and abandoned dogs. That won’t necessarily make her a City Council star. But as a fellow dog lover, to me it marks her as someone with a big heart.

Christina Gilpin-Hayes has my vote for Benicia City Council.

[Note: I have donated to the Gilpin-Hayes campaign.]


The BenIndy has also endorsed Christina Gilpin-Hayes for City Council. Learn more about her campaign by clicking the image below and visiting her website.

  

Stephen Golub: A Question of Trust – Safety, Health, Toxins and Explosions

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

 

By Stephen Golub, originally published in the Benicia Herald on September 29, 2024

Images added by BenIndy.

Benicia has two big votes coming up this fall. The more prominent one is our Nov. 5 general election vote for city officials and on city tax measures. But around that time, the City Council will also vote on an Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) that will enable us, for the first time, to directly address the threats to our safety and health repeatedly posed by the Texas-based Valero Energy Corporation’s Benicia refinery.

Right now, we’re the only Bay Area community that hosts a refinery but does not have an ISO. Adopting one means a role for Benicia in monitoring, investigating and if necessary fining Valero’s inadequately informing us about its accidents, incidents, violations and operations.

What’s more, various regulatory agencies have left us out of the loop when it comes to such matters vital to our own safety and health. An ISO gives us a seat at the table and greater incentives for Valero to keep us informed.

Black clouds from the Valero Benicia Refinery billowed over residential neighborhoods during a 2017 incident. Despite a shaky record of failing to disclose accidental releases and emissions, including the 15 years toxic emissions hundreds of times the legal limits were released into Benicia air, Valero insists oversight measures already in place are sufficient to ensure Benicia residents are kept safe and informed .  | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Unfortunately, in both public meetings and public comments on a draft ISO prepared by a Council subcommittee, Valero has voiced resistance, hostility and even implicit legal threats toward the kind of ordinance that the other Bay Area refineries survive and thrive with.

The need for an ISO boils down to a question of trust – in Valero itself and in our elected officials. Unfortunately,  one City Council candidate in particular, Republican Lionel Largaespada, triggers doubts about where he stands.

I’ll emphasize that distrusting Valero doesn’t mean doubting the integrity, hard work and dedication of its employees and contractors, many of whom are our wonderful neighbors and friends.

I’ll add that I don’t doubt Mr. Largaespada’s commitment to Benicia. I salute him for his participation in community affairs and the civil manner in which he conducts himself – and kudos to other recent Council candidates and members as well. In these troubled political times, we need all the civility we can get.

But major corporate decisions are made at corporate headquarters – in this case, San Antonio.

And participation and civility don’t necessarily translate into adequate emphasis on public safety and health.

So let’s consider some salient facts.

Lionel Largaespada (center), who supported “Crude By Rail” and opposes Benicia adopting an ISO, is pictured here at a February 13, 2019,  Solano Transportation Authority (STA) Board Meeting. | Solano Transportation Authority.

With Mr. Largaespada’s support, for years Valero tried to bulldoze its dangerous “crude-by-rail” proposal to adoption by the City Council, only to thankfully fail in 2016. Amazingly, this push started at around the same time as the infamous 2013 Lac-Megantic disaster occurred. That tragedy, named for the small Quebec City that it decimated and where it claimed 47 lives, took place when an oil train derailed, caught fire and exploded.

That incident is by no means the only time that potentially deadly derailments and resulting fires and/or massive oil leaks have taken place in North America. By one count, there were 21 such accidents in the subsequent eight years, including two just up the coast in Oregon and Washington.

The Benicia refinery’s own list of violations, accidents and incidents is far too long for me to recount here, as is a similar list of Valero transgressions across the country. So I’ll just remind readers of this 2022 revelation by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District: For well over 15 years Valero released toxic emissions, hundreds of times the legal limits, into our air without informing Benicia.

As summarized in 2022 by a top Air District official, “The Air District is saying that that Valero knew or should have known that these emissions should have been reported and they knew or should have known that these emissions should have been minimized.”

(Note, by the way, that it took nearly three years for the Air District itself to tell the City of these violations even after it became aware of them in 2019 – yet another reason why Benicia needs a seat at the table, to avoid being left in the lurch.)

Benicia resident Kathy Kerridge speaks out at a Benicians for Clean Elections rally in 2022. Benicians for Clean Elections was founded to daylight special-interest overspending by a Valero-funded PAC in Benicia elections. | Constance Beutel.

Then there’s Valero’s spending many hundreds of thousands of dollars on political action committees (PACs) during several recent election cycles to advance its interests, often through misleading ads that boosted Mr. Largaespada as recently as 2022 during his unsuccessful campaign or that trashed other candidates in mean and misleading ways. While he has commendably disassociated himself from such tactics, we should not be blind to the fact that Valero has decided who is most likely to butter its bread.

Against this backdrop, it’s additionally disappointing that the one ISO-related matter Mr. Largaespada chose to highlight in his September 25 letter to the Herald’s Forum page is the comments on the draft ISO by the Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA). If you haven’t heard of this county agency, which is supposed to help protect us against hazardous materials, there’s a reason: It’s proven rather toothless, at least when it comes to Valero.

Yet rather than seeking to partner with Benicia in advancing public safety and health, CUPA’s comments fret about overlap. That’s unfortunate. Mr. Largaespada’s focus on that rather than Valero’s questionable track record, the benefits of an ISO or the support of the Air District and many other authorities for an ISO is equally regrettable.

So what can concerned Benicians do?

 

Contact the current City Council members to voice support for a strong ISO and for a vote to take place on it before the November 5 election. Though the Council unanimously backed this in principle nearly a year ago, the process has dragged for so long that getting a vote done by that date is now in doubt.

Similarly contact all Council candidates to ask that they all support a strong ISO and its effective implementation, and that they declare that support before the election. They know enough about what the ISO will entail to get them to commit to it. Benicians have a right to know where they stand.

Be on the lookout for yet more massive, misleading PAC spending by Valero, once again designed to pollute our politics, through mailings and other advertisements that mask its support for Mr. Largaespada and other allies or that trash their opponents . Past Valero-funded PACs have used such names as “Progress for Benicia” and “Working Families for a Strong Benicia.” Hopefully, Valero has learned its lesson and will refrain from repeating its misleading efforts. But if not, look for such ads’ small print, which will reveal their funding.

Finally, for more information about the ISO or to support the effort to get it adopted, please go to the private, citizen-organized site for Benicia Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance. You can also go to the City’s useful site, Engage Benicia, though be aware that comments there are now closed. 

For more on Valero’s political track record in Benicia, please go to the Benicians for Clean Elections site.

Once again, I respect Valero’s fine employees and Mr. Largaespada. Hopefully, Valero can adopt a constructive rather than combative attitude toward Benicia’s simply seeking to better protect our safety and health via the ISO, and for the first time in years stay out of our elections. But our recent history with this Texas-based multinational – as well as the experience of other communities across the country with it – teaches us too many lessons about the tiger not changing its stripes.

There’s also broader political dimension here: Why would Texas-based Valero take a hostile stance toward the ISO when the potential next President of the United States weighed in as California Attorney General to help defeat its crude-by-rail plan and when that dispute garnered national attention? Ongoing opposition to better protecting Benicia’s safety and health has the makings of another nationally prominent issue.

But let’s just get back to the local: All that Benicia wants via this ISO is simply a seat at the table and a City Council devoted to making that seat meaningful. Hopefully, this fall’s votes will make those things happen.