Category Archives: Stephen Golub

Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Benicia city staff, Christina Gilpin-Hayes, Elizabeth Patterson, Stephen Golub, Tom Campbell

Stephen Golub: Public Service in Troubled Times

[BenIndy: This post was first published in the Benicia Herald (to subscribe to the Herald, scroll to the end to find instructions). You can find more from Steve not only on the BenIndy but also at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country, where he blogs about domestic and international politics and policy, including lessons that the United States can learn from other nations. If interested, you may sign up for future posts by subscribing to the blog.]

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

By Stephen Golub, originally published in the Benicia Herald, August 11, 2024

Though the presidential campaign is already reaching full steam, things will get even hotter once we hit Labor Day and the attacks, counterattacks, hard truths, big lies, TV ads, online snipes and everything else really kick in.

Which brings me to praising Benicia’s public servants.

It’s never been easy to be an elected, appointed or contracted city official. I’m no expert, but decades ago I worked in the New York City Council President’s office and then on an anti-poverty program in one of the Big Apple’s sprawling bureaucracies. In both jobs, the work was exciting, challenging, difficult and stressful.

Benicia is about as far from New York City as you can get, in terms of being a far more pleasant place to live and work (though I’ll endlessly praise to high heaven NYC pizza and delis, and still get a tremendous charge out of visiting there). But in terms of American society and government, we live in far more distressing times in 2024 than we did when I started my government work way back when, particularly as the current presidential race inevitably turns ugly. And that comes on top of the everyday hassles and even harshness that government personnel can experience.

So please, let’s bear in mind that especially for Benicia’s elected officials governing can sometimes be a thankless task for which the main compensation is certainly not financial, relative to the tremendous time and effort they put in. That compensation comprises a small monthly stipend, plus health care coverage of which some can’t or won’t avail.

The true compensation instead, I would think, is the  satisfaction of doing some good in some ways. A price they pay involves significant amounts of time away from family and friends, for endless meetings and other commitments.

They also experience frequent requests, demands, carping and even condemnation from folks who may mean well but don’t walk in the Mayor’s or City Councilmembers’ shoes. True, such matters come with the territory. But when they become all too frequent they can be burdensome. (I got a brief taste of this a while ago when I was apparently mistaken for Mayor Steve Young by a fellow I was introduced to at an apolitical social gathering. The guy’s first words to me were along the lines of, “I want to talk to you about lights on the tennis courts.”)

This is by no means an argument against criticism of our elected officials or city staff. The freedom and ability to do so is part of what effective democracy is all about.

Nor am I saying that all officials everywhere should be held in high esteem. We can look to other localities and the national scene to find folks who’ve violated the public trust, and perhaps to Benicia’s earlier years before its modern era.

And I’m certainly not suggesting that our city officials are flawless saints. They’re human, just like you and me.

But one of the many things that keeps Benicia special is that by and large (and I know there have been exceptions to this rule) these officials and the rest of us keep things civil and functional.

This civility is especially important as the national discourse turns nasty. The next three months will be rough. Unfortunately, post-election disputes may be even rougher. I’ll continue to voice my own strong thoughts and feelings about what may well transpire in the presidential campaign.

But this column, today, fundamentally focuses on Benicia. I’m thankful that the city is led by Steve Young, one of the most even-keeled individuals I’ve ever met. We may well need his calm leadership here during the troubled times ahead nationally.

I’m also thankful for our current Council as a whole for its service, as praised by retiring Councilmember Tom Campbell.

And for folks such as former Mayor Elizabeth Patterson and former Councilmember Lionel Largaespada, spanning much of Benicia’s political spectrum, with whom I may disagree on some matters but for whom I have considerable respect for their own service.

And for community leader Christina Gilpin-Hayes, who recently tossed her hat into the City Council electoral ring for November, as well as for others for similarly seeking office here this year.

And for the city staff who keep Benicia running and thriving.

In some ways, we’re in the calm before the national electoral storm right now. Let’s be grateful for what we have as our local campaigns unfold, and for the chance to make Benicia even better.

[The Benicia 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 and initiatives. You can subscribe to the Herald by email at beniciacirculation@gmail.com or by phone at 707-745-6838.

#PresidentHarris2024, 2024 General Election, Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris for President, Stephen Golub, Vice President Kamala Harris

Stephen Golub: Fly Me to the Moon (A Hopeful Film Resonates as Kamala’s Campaign Takes Off)

[Note from BenIndy: This post was first published on Stephen Golub’s blog, A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country. There, Steve blogs about domestic and international politics and policy, including lessons that the United States can learn from other nations. If interested, you may sign up for future posts by subscribing to the blog.]

In a blast from the past, a hopeful film resonates as Kamala’s campaign takes off.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

A Promised Land, by Stephen Golub, August 4, 2024

For a fun, relaxing time the other day, my wife and I went to see Fly Me to the Moon, the lighthearted Scarlett Johansson/Channing Tatum flick about an attempt at faking the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. Despite the enjoyable escapism, I couldn’t help comparing it with our troubled times.

A Time of Darkness, Division, Promise and Progress

I’ll start, though, by acknowledging that 1969 was far from untroubled. We were in the depths of the Vietnam war, wreaking havoc on that country while absorbing over 50,000 deaths of our own. The war and a host of other issues bitterly divided the United States. President Richard Nixon was hardly a unifying figure.

Still, if 1969 was far from an innocent time, it at least offered signs of hope and progress, starting with the massively moving  accomplishment of the moon landing itself. The seeds of the women’s rights and environmental movements had already been planted, with progress soon to flower in both fields.

And for all of Nixon’s sins, insecurities and instability, which became even clearer as the Watergate scandal came crashing down on him a few years later, some of his proposals (such as a guaranteed annual income) and achievements (the launching of the Environmental Protection Agency) would be considered progressive today in Democratic circles and anathema to Republicans.

That era also merits comparison with today in other respects. There was no Fox “News” or social media to pervasively present a perverse, fact-resistant version of reality to Americans. Which in turn meant that senior Republicans could and would force Nixon to step down when the actual reality of Watergate made that a necessity. Contrast that with today’s craven Republican leaders caving to Trump even after he sought to extort Ukraine’s president and distort U.S. foreign policy for political gain, and even after he chose to  support insurrectionists intent on tearing apart the Capitol and the Constitution.

Hope

Speaking of today… Fly Me to the Moon is by no means a great movie. But underlying the mix of humor, goofiness, romance, drama, cynicism  and commercialism marking the film, there’s an underlying spirit of hope. And hope, despite the darkness and craziness of 2024, is what many of us now feel for the first time in some time.

It started, obviously, with the leaders of the one flawed but functional major political party we have left persuading a diminished, unpopular president that his time had gone, that for the good of the party and the country he needed to step aside. It continued with his accepting that verdict, as painful as it was, and doing the right thing.

It’s culminated, for the moment, with the impressive rocket launch of Kamala’s campaign. In the wake of her debacle of a race four years ago, the first doubt about her could have been whether she could even run for president competently. The three months ahead will truly be trying, with lots of difficulties. But she’s off to an inspiring start.

What I find most promising is that she seems to have learned valuable lessons from that campaign, as well as from those of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. Those lessons include tacking toward the center somewhat, given the realities of winning the crucial, centrist swing states necessary to win the Electoral College, which is all that matters in a presidential campaign. That in turn involves playing up her prosecutorial credentials, as opposed to  previously playing them down.

Her strong start also involves standing steadfast on vital matters of principle (as well as political advantage), especially a woman’s right to an abortion and women’s rights in general; triggering an organic online buzz that might sway younger voters; and bringing on senior advisors from the successful Obama campaigns.

She’s smoothly parrying Trump’s ugly, racist, misogynist, nativist thrusts, most recently by not getting dragged into his pigsty over whether she’s Asian or Black. (Though I wonder how J.D. and Usha Vance feel about what Trump’s either/or attacks mean for their mixed-race kids.)

There’s another president Harris merits comparison with: Ronald Reagan. For all their dozens of differences, she’s coming across as her own kind of Reaganesque “happy warrior”: a blend of strong, stern, sunny, cheerful and hopeful. It’s a winning combination if one can pull it off. So far, she is.

Triumphing Despite the Troubled Skies

Inevitable troubles lie ahead, ranging from potentially legitimate negative stories to attacks on Kamala’s policy positions to Trump lying about  her at every nasty turn.

Which is where we all come in. By voting, donating and working for Harris. By influencing others to do the same. By holding on to hope, even during those days when things look dark.

Triumphing in November is all very doable. After all, we’re not talking about shooting for the moon.

2024 General Election, A Promised Land, Donald Trump, Gun violence, Stephen Golub

Stephen Golub: A Dark Day

[Note from BenIndy: This post was first published on Stephen Golub’s blog, A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country. There, Steve blogs about domestic and international politics and policy, including lessons that the United States can learn from other nations. If interested, you may sign up for future posts by subscribing to the blog.]

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

By Stephen Golub, July 15, 2024

The Trump assassination attempt and its possible aftermath are so horrific on so many levels. For what it’s worth, here are two excerpts from my interview with the Indian TV station WION (World Is One News) a few hours after the attack. As you might imagine, they capture just a slice of my views on the matter. The American woman who’s also contributing is WION’s U.S. correspondent – with whom, you might note, I disagree on a couple of points.

In one of the clips, I refer to a Washington Post article that ironically appeared earlier in the day, on Trump-supporting, violence-advocating Christian nationalists. In its own way, it’s just as frightening as the shooting.

The days just seem to be getting darker lately. But let’s not give up on our creating light down the road.

MORE POSTS FROM STEPHEN GOLUB’S BLOG, A PROMISED LAND:

Benicia, Benicia City Council, Benicia's Budget Crisis, Stephen Golub

Stephen Golub: Kudos to the Council on the Potential Transfer Tax

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

By Stephen Golub,  June 18, 2024

On June 11, the City Council took the first step in a multi-stage process to put on the November ballot a vote on whether Benicia should adopt a Real Property Transfer Tax (RPTT) for the sale of real estate, be it residential, commercial or industrial.

Kudos to the Council for both biting the bullet on this significant step to close the City’s budget gap and conducting its discussion and initial community input in a collegial way. Thanks too to City Manager Mario Giuliani and the City staff for undertaking the grunt work to date (as summarized by a “Policy Direction” memo from Mr. Giuliani to the Council in preparation for the June 11 meeting, and for further figuring out over the next several weeks optimal options for the Council to consider regarding this potential tax.

If adopted, the transfer tax will levy a fee on the sale of real estate. Among the many matters the City staff and Council need to address are how high the fee should be. One figure being considered is one percent (i.e., $10 for every $1,000 in sales price, or $8,000 on an $800,000 house). As per the Policy Direction memo I mentioned, that $10 rate – which is actually lower than the $12  mean for many other Bay Area cities – would generate an additional $2.1million for the City annually at this point. Presumably, that figure would rise over the years as housing prices escalate.

Some initial thoughts on the matter:

  1. Pardon the cliché, but there’s still no such thing as a free lunch. As Mayor Steve Young, City Manager Giuliani and others have consistently pointed out, the City is taking multiple cost-saving and revenue enhancing steps toward putting our finances on stable footing going forward. But there’s still much to do if we want to keep Benicia the pretty, pleasant, enjoyable, safe, special place we love. With the building of new housing mandated by state law, a potential generational turnover in housing ownership due to our aging population and other conceivable developments coming down the pike, the transfer tax makes sense as big way of closing our budget gap.
  1. This need not affect most or any current Benicia residents at all in the near or medium terms or even permanently. For one thing, most of us won’t be selling our homes in the foreseeable future. Even more importantly, the City could mandate or at least strongly push for the tax to be paid by property buyers – rather than by sellers or by the two splitting the cost. (Admittedly, whether it could mandate who’d pay the tax was not clear from Tuesday’s discussion, but some sort of “Sense of the Council” suggestion might at least nudge realtors’ arrangements in the right direction.)
  1. This approach would ensure that buyers enjoying the pleasure of moving into our wonderful town would pay the additional price for doing so, rather than sellers – who may need to maximize their finances on the way out – bearing that burden. Plus, it’s an investment of sorts by the buyers: In paying that price, they would help ensure a balanced Benicia budget that enables it to provide services that in turn increase their property values over the years.
  1. The additional cost is relatively manageable. While I don’t want to dismiss the significance of a buyer taking on, say, an additional $8,000 of debt due to the RPTT, that works out to less than $50 per month for a 30-year, six percent loan. It’s not a deal-breaker, in other words, particularly given the overbidding that has come to characterize parts of Benicia’s housing market.
  1. I’m also plugging for the Council and realtors alike to push for the buyers to pay the tax because, frankly, it’s more politically palatable (as well as substantively sustainable) to point out to current residents that they won’t bear the burden of the RPTT.
  1. The Council discussed, and the staff will explore varying the transfer tax rates according to the size or nature of the transaction. Thus, hypothetically, the tax might be only $5 per $10,000 sale for lower-priced homes and $15 or more for more expensive houses, commercial properties and/or industrial concerns. This approach seems fairest in that it burdens lower priced transactions less. I want to emphasize the “hypothetical” here, however – this all remains to be sorted out in the process that will unfold.
  1. So what is that process? As I mentioned, in the next several weeks the staff will get back to the Council (and public) with further reporting on options for moving forward. On July 16, there will be another Council meeting on the transfer tax and on the crucial related matter of the City amending its Charter so as to allow the tax. On August 6, the Council may vote on whether to put the two related measures – the Charter change and the RPTT – on the November ballot; the deadline for ballot submissions is August 9.

I’m seeking to summarize a lot here; I’m unavoidably leaving out even more. For instance, there may well be all sorts of exceptions to the potential RPPT rule, including intra-family transfers, division of property in case of divorce, etc. For more on this matter, keep track of future messages from Mayor Young and City Manager Giuliani, as well as postings at the City site.

And spice up your summer by circling the July 16 and August 6 Council meetings on your calendar!

[Steve Golub also blogs about U.S. politics, international developments and lessons America can learn from other countries at his site, A Promised Land, apromisedland.org]