BENICIA – Three candidates are running for two councilmember seats on the Benicia City Council this year.
Incumbents Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye, who were both elected in 2022, are being challenged by software engineer Justin Zollars. The remainder of the seats, including mayor, vice mayor, and one other councilmember, are not up for election until 2028.
Unlike Vallejo, Benicia does not have council districts, and all councilmembers are elected by the entire city. The top two candidates who receive the most votes will be elected.
How to vote: Ballots will be mailed to voters this week, and the completed ballots must be signed and postmarked before the polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Voters can also vote in person on Nov. 3, Election Day.
How we reported this story: We solicited questions from our audience and attended community forums to find out what questions mattered most to Benicia voters. We then interviewed each of the candidates to learn more about their positions and what they plan to do in office. You can find out more about how we cover elections on our FAQ.
Terry Scott
Terry Scott moved to Benicia 14 years ago, after a 20-year corporate career at Hasbro Inc., where he served as senior vice president, managing 700 employees and a $1.7 million budget. Soon after settling in Benicia, he looked for ways to volunteer and serve the city.
“I was raised by my grandparents, who were incredibly philanthropic, and I watched them participate in civic discourse and in politics,” Scott said. “So it was ingrained in me.”
He chaired the Arts and Culture Commission for six years and was executive director of the Benicia Community Foundation.
“Then I learned how politics operated in a small town, and that if you really want to get things done, City Hall is the way to make a difference every day,” he said.
In 2022, he was elected to Benicia City Council. Scott highlighted the council’s financial accomplishments that he contributed to during his current tenure: the city balanced its budget, reorganized and consolidated departments, and identified new revenue streams.
He’s now seeking re-election, he said, because the job to get Benicia in optimal fiscal standing is not yet finished.
Scott’s three main goals if reelected are: financial security for the city, a more responsive and effective government, and building the foundation for tomorrow, including mentoring the next generation of leaders.
He said housing projects like Signature Development at the Benicia refinery, Rose Estates, and Jefferson Ridge are opportunities to “mold a new Benicia while still maintaining small town values.”
He said there is “an affordable housing component in all of these developments” and it’s important for the city to “provide affordable housing for our workers, whether it be our teachers, our policemen, our firemen, seniors, and those who are disadvantaged.”
Some constituents have expressed concerns about Benicia expanding and losing its small town charm, but Scott sees it differently. “We are not growing outside of our boundary,” he said. “We are growing in the last vestiges of underdeveloped land in our area, so it is a greater Benicia.”
The key to keeping the small town charm and social connectivity, Scott said, is building developments that include retail environments and recreational facilities, and to create a system of public microtransit so people will stay in Benicia instead of going to Concord or Martinez.
These developments would bring significant new tax revenue to Benicia, but in the short term, the City Council is still facing an $8 million budget shortfall due to Valero leaving.
To balance the budget, Scott said he supports two local tax measures on the November ballot: Measure X, a business license tax, and Measure Z — a real property transfer tax.
Scott said the business license tax hasn’t been modernized since 2003, and the measure wouldn't affect small businesses that have receipts of less than $100,000. The remaining businesses, he said, would be taxed on a sliding scale with a cap. “It also gives us the opportunity to put a tax on ships using the Benicia port and the Valero marine terminal, storage tanks and pipelines, and that will be additional revenue,” he said.
The real property tax would be targeted at commercial sales and new homes coming into the city, Scott said. “We need to keep the city funded, so this is about the future.”
Aside from those revenue sources, Scott emphasized economic development and the importance of the air district grant. “A large part will be going to projects that are green and sustainable, for example, buying electric police vehicles or firetrucks, but it will also help create economic resilience,” he said.
A point of contention among Benicia citizens is the use of Flock Safety cameras. Scott believes they serve a purpose but need to be closely monitored. “I trust implicitly that the Benicia Police Department will not misuse the system,” he said. “The minute I hear that the system has been misused or ICE has tapped into it, it’s the time we pull the plug on Flock.”
He added that judging by the thousands of emails he receives weekly, the majority of people support the use of Flock cameras because they feel safe and crime has gone down.
Regarding data centers, he said they would need to prove that they are not “bad for the environment, bad for people and just bad for business. And I don’t think they will be able to prove that.”
- Endorsements: Terry Scott has been endorsed by State Senator Chris Cabaldon, State Assembly Member Lori Wilson, Supervisors Cassandra James, Monica Brown and Wanda Williams, and Mayor Steve Young.
- Fundraising: As of Aug. 6, Terry Scott’s campaign has raised a total of $3,299.86.
You can read more about Terry Scott’s campaign on his website and reach out to him at TerryscottforBenicia@gmail.com.
Kari Birdseye
Councilmember Kari Birdseye moved to Benicia almost 26 years ago and raised two kids in the city. “Benicia has been very good to my family, and it’s incredibly rewarding to serve this community,” she said.
Birdseye has a bachelor's degree in journalism and worked for CNN for 11 years. She also has a master’s degree in environmental management. Currently, she is Regional Media and Public Affairs Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Birdseye emphasized three accomplishments since she was elected in 2022.
The first was passing a structurally balanced budget for the first time in more than a decade.
The second was planning how to fill the financial gap created by Valero’s departure and applying for the air district grant. The grant money, she said, will go towards financing and reinforcing the existing solar panel structure, electrifying some of the city vehicles, and getting away from fossil fuel in public buildings.
And third, she said, in the first 18 months of her tenure, the council passed the local industrial safety ordinance.
“Now, with Valero’s departure, any industry that wants to do business in Benicia and handles hazardous materials will find a code and a law that they will need to abide by,” she said.
Birdseye decided to run for reelection, she said, because Benicia is going through a crucial transition.
Ensuring that the Valero refinery is cleaned up properly and redeveloped in a smart and thoughtful way that fits the community “is not only a huge opportunity, but a really important responsibility,” she said.“I feel like I have the right qualifications to make the right decisions for future generations, because what we do the next four years is going to define who we are for the next 50 years.”
If elected, Birdseye’s top three goals are: professionally handling the four housing development proposals the city is considering, which includes 100 units for seniors in downtown Benicia; prioritizing a safe and healthy transition for the city by ensuring that the police and fire departments have enough resources; and remaining a problem solver for the community.
“That’s really what I love to do: connect people with solutions,” Birdseye said.
She was confident the new housing developments could be done while supporting green spaces. “I am going to put smart growth front and center,” she said. “Ensuring that our community has that small town charm while increasing our tax revenue and diversifying our tax base has been done in other communities, and with this council, with this leadership, we are uniquely qualified to do that well.”
Birdseye supports Measures X and Z. “The business tax initiative is going to ensure that some 1,800 small businesses will not pay anything and that businesses that want to come to Benicia are taxed fairly and properly,” she said.
“For the real property transfer tax,” she added, “that’s about ensuring that all of this new development pays the fair proper tax to Benicia, so the city can fund infrastructure and public services for these new parts of our community.” She said that the tax applies strictly to residential properties built after January 2027, or existing properties that sell for $1.5 million or more.
Regarding Flock cameras, Birdseye said that, even though she trusts that the Benicia Police Department has strong guidelines to protect citizens’ data, reevaluating the relationship with the company should be considered in the next few months.
Birdseye is in favor of a temporary moratorium on data centers in Benicia, because she said there is not enough understanding of the impacts.
- Endorsements: Kari Birdseye is endorsed by the Solano County Democratic Central Committee, Solano County Orderly Growth Committee, ex-congressman Mike Johnson, Mayor Steve Young, Supervisors Wanda Williams and Cassandra James, and councilmember Tom Campbell.
- Fundraising: As of Aug. 6, Kari Birdseye’s campaign has raised a total of $525.50.
You can learn more about Kari Birdseye’s campaign on her website and reach out to her at kari@votekaribirdseye.com.
Justin Zollars
Justin Zollars, a 44-year-old software development engineer at Veracyte, Inc., moved to Benicia from San Francisco three years ago. This is Zollars’ first time running a city council campaign, but he has had previous political experience.
“I was a 2008 elected Hillary Rodham Clinton delegate from Ohio,” he said. “I had to campaign for that, and I had to win a caucus.”
He decided to run for the Benicia City Council primarily because he has privacy concerns related to Flock Safety cameras.
“You see issues in the news, ICE cooperating with the federal government and companies like Palantir, and another is Flock Safety,” he said.
The city of Benicia has a contract with Flock Safety that states that Flock will not share the data it collects. But Zollars worries that “Flock themselves could be issued a national security letter, where they could demand to subpoena the data with a gag order.”
His second priority is fixing the budget gap created by the closure of Valero. “I’d bring greater transparency around budget issues,” he said. He added that some Valero workers told him they were not certain about the closure, so he’s not sure if the refinery will really shut down.
His third priority is changing how the city views housing developments and suburban sprawl. His philosophy around housing, he said, has been influenced by the book “The Geography of Nowhere,” which critiques how America transitioned from mixed-use, walkable communities to isolated, car-dependent suburbs.
“I don’t think Benicia’s budget problems are going to be solved by expanding the suburbs, because there’s infrastructure that isn’t properly accounted for,” Zollars said. “Suburbia is very expensive. I prefer infill sort of development. I think there’s room to grow up rather than expand out.”
Zollars said he would prioritize attracting new businesses over new housing.
“I really question the idea that there is a huge pent-up demand for housing right now,” he said. “The houses on the market are sitting there longer than ever.”
He added that there will be many houses available in the coming years because “the baby boomers, especially in Benicia, will be moving out of their giant homes and into smaller homes.”
Zollars said that he cannot endorse Measure Y, the limited city charter proposal, because he finds it confusing.“I think I’d need legal counsel to analyze that,” Zollars said.
But he supports Measure Z, a tax on property sold or gifted, because “it taxes the very top of the bracket, and I have no problem with that,” he said.
Measure Y must be passed in order to enact Measure Z. Unless the city changes to a limited city charter, it cannot levy any real property transfer taxes higher than the current cap of $0.55 per $1,000 of the sale price.
Zollars said he opposes Measure X, a business license tax. “I found it taxes gross receipts, not profit,” he said. Medium-sized businesses like plumbers, a coin shop or an HVAC company, he said, may have big gross receipts but may not make much profit.
He added that the tax is capped at $25,000. “So if you are a giant corporation, you’re only being taxed at $25,000, so it’s unfair,” he said. “It unfairly taxes the middle portion of the population.”
Zollars said he’s qualified to be a councilmember because being a software engineer makes him a very good analyst, but he also would listen to different interest groups.
“I think the bigger question is, what does it mean to be an American? Do we want to, for the convenience of a little lower crime rate, have surveillance, or do we want to enjoy privacy and freedom?” he said. “I think these questions are important, and I’m sure I have the experience to navigate the short-term problems of our budget.”
- Endorsements: At the time of this interview, Zollars’ campaign was only 19 days old, and he said he didn’t have any endorsements yet.
- Fundraising: There was no campaign finance statement available for Zollars at the time of this interview.
You can read more about Justin Zollars’ campaign on his website and reach out to him at Justin.Zollars@gmail.com.
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