SOLANO COUNTY – While several candidates on the Vallejo City Council and the school boards were up for reelection this year, many of them declined to run again, clearing the way for some fresh faces to join after the Nov. 3 election.

On the Vallejo City Council, Councilmember Peter Bregenzer declined to run and three new candidates are running for his seat. And on the school board, Trustees Carlos Flores and Glenn Amboy also declined to run, and five candidates are running for the two seats.

In Benicia, two school board members also declined reelection, and two candidates are running for one of the seats. Two other Benicia school board races are uncontested.

And on the Benicia City Council, Councilmembers Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye are both seeking reelection, and will be challenged by software engineer Justin Zollars. 

Here’s a preview of what’s on the ballot in November.

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Vallejo City Council

Three City Council seats are up for election in Vallejo in November, but in District 2, which represents North Vallejo, Councilmember Diosdado "JR" Matulac is running unopposed.

District 4, Mare Island and Downtown 

• Charles Palmares is Vallejo’s current councilmember for District 4 During his term he supported the installation of traffic calming devices to reduce the speed of vehicles exiting Sonoma Boulevard into the St. Vincent Hill neighborhood. He is a Senior Operations Manager for the U.S. Army. 
• Brianna Rogers  is a Senior Officer with the San Francisco Foundation where she focuses on a Bay Area program designed to improve economic conditions for working people. She is a Vallejo Housing and Community Development Commissioner and earned a master's degree in policy management from Georgetown University. Rogers serves on the board of directors for the Solano Community Foundation and the East Oakland Youth Development Center. She is also the Community Outreach Chair for the Napa/Solano chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action.
• Chris Platzer is a former Vallejo Planning Commissioner, a U.C. Coast Guard-licensed Deck Officer and sailing instructor. He has advocated for greater fiscal responsibility and improvements to infrastructure. In 2020, he resigned from the Planning Commission after he was seen drinking beer and threw his cat during a public Zoom meeting. Platzer is a regular patron of the Vallejo farmers’ market.

District 5, Central Vallejo 

• Tara Beasley-Stansberry currently serves Vallejo as a Planning Commissioner and as a member of the Vallejo Police Chief’s Advisory Board. She came in second in her 2022 bid for City Council in a field of five candidates. Her platform is to revitalize Vallejo with cleaner streets, safer public spaces, faster response to blight and broken infrastructure, support for small businesses and stronger local hiring. As Planning Commissioner she has advocated for neighborhood mixed-use designation as a way to increase affordable housing supply. 
• Tanya Hall is a lifetime resident of District 5. She is vice-chair of the Architectural Heritage Landmarks Commission, has worked as a Vallejo City Unified School District college and career advisor and is a founding member of the African American Parent Network. She has also been an Inter Tribal Council member and a Participatory Budgeting delegate. Hall came in third in her 2022 bid for City Council. Her mission is to strengthen neighborhoods, support local businesses, create economic opportunities, and ensure every resident has access to the resources needed to succeed and thrive. .
• Rebekah Truemper is a 26-year Vallejo resident, McCune Commission chair, and an active organizer in a District 5 neighborhood group. She joined with parents and teachers to help start Vallejo's first K-8 model school. She aims to continue progress on public safety, make a real plan for economic development, provide better opportunities for young people, take decisive action and options for the unhoused, assure that  housing is affordable for working families, and improve safety for women, children, and other vulnerable people.

Vallejo Board of Education

Incumbents Glenn Amboy and Carlos Flores have declined to run for reelection for the Vallejo school board and three candidates are running for Flores’ seat and two for Amboys. In Trustee Area 5, incumbent John Fox is running unopposed.

Trustee Area 1, Mare Island and Downtown

• Reba Jill Brown is a tax preparer and parent. She said in a candidate statement that, “Providing support for our school employees is the foundation of our students’ future success.” 
• Clarence John Martin Jr.  is the owner of Community Tow, which serves Vallejo and surrounding areas. He has been a regular volunteer at Vallejo schools attended by his two sons and has served in officer roles for school site councils and parent teacher organizations.
• Judith Lerner has been a special education teacher in Vallejo for 25 years. “I know firsthand the importance of high standards and the tyranny of low expectations,” she wrote in her candidate statement.

Trustee Area 3, Hiddenbrooke

• Rizal “Riz” Verder Aliga is the son of former Vallejo Councilmember Rozzana Verder-Aliga, and retired U.S. Army Colonel Nestor Aliga. He served on the Greater Vallejo Recreation District Board of Directors from 2021 to 2025. His LinkedIn page states that he is currently a tennis coach at Napa Valley Unified School District in American Canyon, and an outreach intern with California Forever. 
• Irene Reynolds is running on a platform of improved student achievement, school safety, and transparency in school funding. Her LinkedIn profile shows that she worked as safety and risk manager for the Vallejo school district from 2021 to 2026 and as senior executive director of nutrition services at Oakland Unified School District from 2019 to 2021. She also serves as president of the Northern California Chapter of the California School Nutrition Association from 2016 to 2017.

Benicia City Council

All Benicia City Councilmembers are elected at large, meaning they are elected by the entire city. Councilmembers Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye are both up for reelection and facing a challenge from software engineer Justin Zollars. The top two vote getters will be on the council next year.

• Kari Birdseye was elected to the Benicia City Council in 2022. She began her service in Benicia city government in 2012 at the Benicia Human Services Board and was most recently the chairperson of Benicia’s Planning Commission. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Solano County Fair Board Association and the Benicia-Vallejo Chapter of the American Association of University Women Executive Board. 
• Terry Scott was elected to City Council in November 2022. He is a 12-year resident of Benicia who has served as chair of the Arts and Culture Commission, Public Art Committee, participated with several local organizations, and has helped form several community philanthropic groups. 
• Justin Zollars is a software engineer for Veracyte, a South San Francisco company that develops testing technology to support cancer care. He has expressed opposition to Flock license place readers, supports growth that maintains Benicia’s small town feel and pledges to support transparency in budget processes.

Benicia Unified School District 

For the Benicia school board, incumbents Sheri Zada and Mark Maselli are not running for reelection. Two candidates are seeking to take Zada’s place, while district parent Erin Fernandez is running unopposed for Trustee Area 2 and incumbent Amy Hirsch is running unopposed for Trustee Area 3.

Trustee Area 1

• Dan Smith is a journalist and teacher who served on the Benicia City Council from 2001 to 2005. He was elected in 2001 but was not re-elected in 2005 or 2011. He formerly served as Economic Development Board member and chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission.
• Barbara Jones is a retired elementary school and middle school teacher. 

U.S. Congress District 8

• John Garamendi (Democrat) is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Previously he was state Insurance commissioner, lieutenant governor and deputy U.S. Secretary of the Interior. He is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness. Throughout his years in Congress he has advocated for veterans and servicemembers and has worked to maintain Social Security and Medicare benefits. 
• Rudy Recile (Republican) is a retired U.S. Army major and holds a master’s degree in quality systems management. He has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a data manager and now runs a small web design, hosting and internet service business. Recile has expressed support for California farmers, veterans, and traditional energy sources.  

State Assembly District 11

• Assemblymember Lori Wilson (Democrat) was previously mayor of Suisun City and the city’s Parks and Recreation commissioner before she was elected to the state Assembly in 2022. She was reelected to the state Assembly in 2024. Since then, she has authored several bills that have become law in California, including AB 2319, which requires all childbirth and prenatal caregivers to receive implicit bias training to reduce the much higher maternal mortality rate for women of color. She also authored Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 8 (2024), which prohibits the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from disciplining any incarcerated person for refusing a work assignment.  
• Jenny Callison (No Party Preference) unsuccessfully ran for California State Assembly District 11 in 2022, advocating for education, mental health access and maternal care improvements. She served in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2006. Callison worked for the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee of the California State Assembly as a secretary and consultant from 2011-2022 and as chief consultant for the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee of the California State Senate from 2023-2025.

Benicia Measures

• Measure X: Benicia Business License taxes. Measure X would restructure he city’s business license taxes to be calculated by the types of business, such as retail, contractor, or industrial.It would exempt businesses with $100,000 or less in annual receipts, and set tax rates by business category ranging from $0.25 to $1.25 per $1,000 in receipts, capping those annual taxes at $1,500 in the first year with 10% annual increases until the cap is $25,000. TheMarine Terminal rate of $3 per $100 in receipts would generate approximately $1.6 million in the first year.
• Measure Y would establish the City of Benicia as a charter city in order to  pass a property transfer tax through Measure Z.
• Measure Z would impose a property transfer tax within the city of Benicia. Residential property built before January 1, 2027, and sold for less than $2 million will not be taxed under this measure. All other property would be taxed at a rate of four-tenths of a percent of a sale price under $2 million, six-tenths of a percent of a sale price between $2 million and $10 million and eight-tenths of a percent of a sale price over $10 million. 

Solano County Measures

• Measure E would update Solano county’s business license tax to include data centers taxed at $5 per square foot, commercial solar energy systems taxed at $0.00008 per kWh, battery energy storage systems taxed at $1.50 per MWh and it will raise the existing tax on commercial wind turbines from $0.00003 to $0.00008 per kWh. The measure is expected to generate $353,000 in additional revenue annually. 
• Measure H would increase Solano County’s Transient Occupancy Tax from a rate of 5% to 12% of rents charged at hotels and other temporary lodging facilities in unincorporated areas of the county. The tax does apply within city boundaries. This measure is expected to generate $58,500 in revenue annually.