As I prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday, my decisions have finally been made. Not all were difficult to make: it’s of historic importance that we NOT elect Donald Trump. I will be voting for our first woman president, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
My vote for Kamala Harris for Senate is a no-brainer: as California Attorney General, Harris was our highest-ranking ally in the David and Goliath battle against oil trains here in Benicia! (With many thanks to Deputy AG Scott Lichtig.)
Mariko Yamada will need every one of our votes if she is to beat the money-machine of her opponent, Bill Dodd. Dodd only recently became a Democrat, has accepted huge donations, and benefited from independent expenditures by big corporate interests, including the oil and gas industries. I’ve known Mariko for years – she is to be trusted. I once told her I’d vote for her for President of the U.S.!
At the Solano County Supervisor level, it gets a bit hairy for me. I respect, know and like both Mike Ioakimedes and Monica Brown. I share progressive Democratic values with both of them. Earlier, I endorsed Mike when he weighed in against Valero’s crude by rail proposal. As an influential longtime Benicia leader, his added voice was highly significant at that time when we were facing into a final City Council vote on crude by rail. Monica strongly opposed Valero’s proposal, too, but when I’m forced to mark my ballot, I’ve decided I’ll vote for Mike Ioakimedes. Sorry, Monica.
My focus has been almost exclusively on local Benicia races. I am actively supporting Mayor Elizabeth Patterson’s re-election, and Planning Commissioner Steve Young for City Council. I like several of the other candidates for City Council, but I’m focusing entirely on electing Steve. Here are my previous posts on Elizabeth and Steve:
Unlike THE DONALD and many of his right-wing cohorts, you and I will accept the outcome of a fair and impartial election and join forces with our newly elected leaders, working for a better future. See you on the other side of election day!
By Katy St. Clair, 11/05/16, 3:45 PM PDT
Elizabeth Patterson
Elizabeth Patterson has been the mayor of Benicia since 2007 and is seeking re-election on Tuesday.
When asked her favorite thing about Benicia, she had a lot to say. “How can you compare a sunset in Benicia, a favorite thing, to the Peddler’s Fair, another favorite thing, to Art Walk or Wine Walk or the Coastal Cleanup?” She also mentioned restaurants, opening days for soccer and little league, the Blessing of the Fleet, and “just quiet time.”
“The whole of it is my favorite thing,” she said.
Her inspiration for governance comes from “courageous” people and she strives to do the same thing, she said. “At the end of the day, my affirmed duty is to protect public health, safety, and welfare, and I am committed to that above all.”
The most pressing issue facing Benicia is its water supply, she said.
“Benicia is 85 percent dependent on the State Water Project which cut our water deliveries in 2014 to only 5 percent,” she said.
Addressing the problem will require diversifying the city’s water portfolio to include things like recycled water, rainwater capture, use contracts with other entities, and conservation, she said.
Benicia will also have to face a looming budget deficit unless more businesses open up shop here, she said. In order to attract new business, affordable high speed internet needs to come to the Industrial Park. “Without this investment, we will not be competitive for new business including clean tech which is providing over one-third of job growth in California,” she said.
The Seeno Property northeast of town is a large area zoned for business that has yet to be developed. Patterson wants to see it “add value to economic activities associated with the existing Industrial Park,” she said. “The site is not suitable for residential development because it is far from city services, close to the refinery with health and safety issues, and would add traffic and increased water needs.”
Patterson calls the city’s need for affordable housing a “complicated” issue. Federal funds for affordable housing have decreased by 80 percent over the last 30 years, she said, and “local politics make it nearly impossible to do infill housing.” “Infill” refers to areas that are not developed, like vacant lots.
“The most effective way to provide affordable housing is to work with local communities and neighborhoods to reach an understanding of what is affordable housing, who are the people — in other words, put a face to “affordable housing” — and keep the neighborhood in the loop of decision making rather than being reactive,” she said.
Valero’s proposal to off-load oil in the crude-by-rail project was a big issue this year for Benicia. Patterson led the “no” vote. She opposed it for many reasons, most of which were environmental. “I breathe the air here and it should not get dirtier,” she said. Patterson also feels that the federal oversight of public railroads is poor. “They have failed miserably in providing public safety,” she said.
Her worry was that it was too unsafe. “The proposed off loading oil terminal is too close to existing oil tanks and the proposed shipment of oil made the process of off loading even more dangerous,” she said.
She also opposed the project because it would have blocked traffic to the Industrial Park and would be a “potential blight for future business” she said.
Patterson discussed her accomplishments as mayor.
“I have brought and fostered clean, open, and civil governance,” she said. “I provided public participation to add value to our decision making.”
She also points to keeping Meals on Wheels active amid a recession, being the “voice of climate change solutions,” and bringing “millions of dollars” to Benicia, she said.
“My leadership is based on taking initiatives to further our quality of life, and should be judged on vision, courage, and heart,” she said.
[Editor: Benicians are expressing themselves in letters to the editor of our local print newspaper, the Benicia Herald. But the Herald doesn’t publish letters in its online editions – and many Benician’s don’t subscribe. We are posting certain letters here for wider distribution. (This letter also appeared in the Vallejo Times-Herald print edition on November 6.) – RS]
Follow the money – Steve Young keeps it local
By Beverly Edmonds
October 23, 2016
Beverly Edmonds
Do you think it matters, who contributes to the different candidates running for office here in Benicia? If you are like me, you want to know where the money is coming from.
You might find it interesting to know that, according to the latest official filings, while Steve Young has received almost 90 percent of his donations from local, individual Benicians, his opponents, Christina Strawbridge and Lionel Largaspaeda, have received nearly half of their contributions from unions, PACs and/or people who do not live here.
Personally, I want my councilmember representing the grassroots community, not the special interests. If you agree, vote for Steve!
Repost from the Benicia Herald [Editor: This is an incredibly important look at Benicia’s past and future: “For multiple historic and geographic reasons, the city has basically missed the Bay Area’s burgeoning prosperity. While the town’s leaders pushed back against the insanity of bringing in Bakken crude by 50-car trains, no one has yet confronted the reality that the refinery and its wealth and subsequent tax revenue has peaked.” Cooke endorses Mayor Elizabeth Patterson and Steve Young for City Council. – RS]
Benicia’s future at stake in local election
By Grant Cooke, November 4, 2016
Grant Cooke
In August, I wrote a column about Benicia’s future, the New Economy and why Elizabeth Patterson, Steve Young, and Tom Campbell were the best choices to led our city as mayor and councilmembers respectively.
At the time, I was disheartened by the majority of council members’ lack of political will to put a halt to Valero’s Crude-By-Rail (CBR) project. Subsequent events in September, when the council majority reconsidered that position and rejected Valero’s CBR permit, did much to rekindle my belief that American small towns offer the best in representative democracy. I tip my hat to Christina Strawbridge in particular for her forthrightness and to Mark Hughes and Alan Schwartzman for their project reassessment.
I believe that Sept. 20 council meeting marked a turning point in Benicia’s history-a small step away from the overwhelming influences that the carbon-intensive industries have had on the city for the last half century.
Such decisive moments can be scary, both in municipal as well as personal life. Make no mistake, the refinery and the carbon-intensive industries have contributed the bulk of the city’s tax revenues for decades. Biting the hand that feeds, while momentarily liberating, invariably comes with consequences.
Heavy carbon and the extraction industries, coat-tailed by speculative developers like the Republican presidential nominee, provided the great bulk of U.S. wealth from about the mid-1800s to the late 1900s, or roughly about a century and a half. This Old Economy created oligarchs like the infamous John D. Rockefeller and powerful empires like Standard Oil. Modern day oil oligarchs like Charles and David Koch still stalk the land, spewing anti-science and pro-carbon, environmentally destructive ideology.
These industries and the folks who are enriched by them, are the ones to blame for the multi-layers of U.S. tax and political policies that have created the chasm in American life between the wealthy and the rest, the very rich over the middle class. That so many members of the middle class feel disenfranchised, and are willing supporters of a tax-dodging billionaire for president is one of the nation’s greatest historic ironies.
However, back to Benicia. After World War II, while most of the nation’s economic engine was relying on the wealth of the carbon and extraction industries, California and the Bay Area were discovering technology and the beginnings of the digital renaissance. Scientists from the declining defense industries mixed with the wizards from UC Berkeley and Stanford University. Sprinkling a few geniuses from the area’s national laboratories into this mix created the most extraordinary cornucopia of science and technological advances since Galileo and Da Vinci.
Now in early 21st century, the Green Industrial Revolution with all its digital age splendors and cutting edge science has taken a hold on the U.S. economy, dislodging the old extraction wealth with the new knowledge-based economy. Except for the Republican presidential nominee, many of the rapacious real estate developers have retired or were crushed by the interest-only, credit-swap craziness of the 2008 Great Recession. McMansions with dual HVAC systems have given way to Zero Net Energy housing and solar panels. Even Texas has become a major supplier of renewable energy-and Valero too, is invested in wind and cellulosic ethanol – something I never thought to see.
So where does that leave Benicia, the little Bay Area town that is heavily dependent on Valero and the carbon-intensive industries for tax revenues? For multiple historic and geographic reasons, the city has basically missed the Bay Area’s burgeoning prosperity. While the town’s leaders pushed back against the insanity of bringing in Bakken crude by 50-car trains, no one has yet confronted the reality that the refinery and its wealth and subsequent tax revenue has peaked.
Future city budgets face a hard slog. Safety personnel are jockeying for substantial raises, city employees want raises also, PERS retirement liabilities increase, and service costs continue to go up. At the same time, the residential population ages, capping incomes and reducing their willingness to support new taxes.
Time is ticking on the city’s economic model, and what to do about it is the pressing question. Benicia badly needs to reexamine its tax revenue and business development models. Serious thought and deep consideration need to apply, unvarnished assessments need to happen, and intelligent far-reaching planning needs to take place.
The last is probably the most important. How does a city plan to replace a declining carbon-intensive revenue stream? How can Benicia join the rest of the Bay Area’s Green Industrial Revolution and share in its prosperity? If the city fails to attend these issues, the eventual results will be regionalism and the city gives up its independence and self-determination.
I respect our current councilmembers. They all seem decent, honest and pleasant. Goodness knows I thank them for the time and work they have done on our behalf, and I wish them well in their endeavors. It’s just clear to me that some currently on the council lack the foresight and clarity of vision that Benicia so desperately requires to transition to a new future.
On the other hand, Elizabeth Patterson and Steve Young have extensive experience in planning and meeting transitional challenges. Further, they have an understanding of current realities, and a vision that encompasses a new economic model. Benicia’s future will be marginalized if it doesn’t join the rest of the Bay Area in the new knowledge-based economy, and we need leaders who can move us toward it. That is why I’m voting to re-elect Elizabeth Patterson for mayor, and elect Steve Young for City Council.
Grant Cooke is a long-time Benicia resident, CEO of Sustainable Energy Associates, and principal of DewH20. He is also an author and has written several books about the Green Industrial Revolution.
You must be logged in to post a comment.