A segment of Park Road that would be widened to accommodate automobile, heavy vehicle and bicycle traffic under the proposed Park Road improvement project. (Photo courtesy of Benicia Public Works Department)

At its regular meeting Tuesday, the city council presented a number of awards and heard an update on the application for a grant to fund the Park Road improvement project, among other items.
Mayor Elizabeth Patterson presented three Eco-awards on behalf of Republic Services, Benicia’s waste management company, and Community Development Director Christina Ratcliffe reported on Benicia’s full complement of Beacon awards.
Marie Knudsen of Republic Services was present to congratulate award recipients Benicia High School, Bay Area Coffee, Inc. and Dunlop Manufacturing for their successful efforts toward reducing waste and conserving water. In addition, it was noted that Benicia High was the first entity in Benicia to adopt food waste recycling, which in this instance included the creation of a composting system. It was also noted that Dunlop Manufacturing, which produces guitar wire, has diverted more than 6,000 pounds of wire from landfills to date, by implementing a recycling program there.

Beacon awards
The Beacon award is a program of the California Institute for Local Government that provides a framework for local governments to share best practices that create healthier, more vibrant and sustainable communities. The program honors voluntary efforts by local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy and adopt policies that promote sustainability. This year, Beacon awards were presented to only eight of a total of 96 California cities participating in the program. Benicia received silver level and higher awards in all five categories.
Christina Ratcliffe presented a report on the Beacon awards. The program, she said, is funded by California utility customers through the California Public Utilities Commission. As Ratcliffe explained it, the program seeks to recognize public agencies’ holistic approach to addressing climate change.
Benicia won awards at silver or higher levels in all five categories, including agency energy savings of 18 percent which is a gold level award; agency natural gas savings of 10 percent for a silver award; agency greenhouse gas reductions of 21 percent for a platinum award; community-wide greenhouse gas reduction of six percent, a silver; and sustainability best practices for another platinum level award. Benicia also won a spotlight award for community greenhouse gas reduction. Ratcliffe noted that the awards are a result of the hard work of the city’s sustainability commission and the community as a whole in implementing the city’s Climate Action Plan.

Park Road improvement project
At its meeting on Sept. 14 of this year, the Solano Transportation Authority board announced a call for new project applications as Phase Two of the One Bay Area grant program. Phase Two covered projects over the past five years and the current, Phase Two covers projects for the coming five years. Public Works Director Graham Wadsworth told the council that the Phase Two awards will allocate a total of $4.6 million, on a competitive basis.
The grant, Wadsworth explained, is looking at projects for the fifth year of the award period. Eligible projects include traffic congestion management and air quality improvement. The Park Road improvement project meets these criteria. It also addresses traffic circulation needs that were identified in Benicia’s previous development plan, which was funded by a One Bay Area grant during Phase One.
The Park Road project seeks to repair and widen Park Road between Interstate 780 and Bayshore Road, in order to provide sustainable access for automobile and heavy vehicle traffic as well as bicycle and pedestrian access. The approximately one mile of road will intersect with bike routes, the Bay Trail and the Ridge Trail, closing some gaps in those access paths. Its aim is ultimately to improve safety for all uses.
The report concludes that Benicia could potentially receive $2 to $3 million in grant funding if the project is approved.

Grand Jury Report and participatory budgeting
Mayor Patterson requested that one item to be pulled from the consent calendar. Items on the consent calendar are generally approved without discussion, unless any member of the council or the public requests that a particular item be pulled for discussion.
The item in question was the city’s response to the 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report on homelessness. Mayor Patterson referred specifically to the portion that requested a response from the mayors of each Solano County city, regarding adequate funding.
According to Mayor Patterson, the report recommends that Solano County and cities consider adopting a process of participatory budgeting.
“The response (drafted by city staff) describes our outreach efforts,” Mayor Patterson cited, “but it misses the mark on defining participatory budgeting.”
The mayor requested that the language in the city’s response be changed to indicate that the city is aware of the difference between public outreach and participatory budgeting and that the city would be amenable to considering participatory budgeting as a potential tool toward addressing the homeless issue.
Councilmember Alan Schwartzman disagreed.
“I am not ready to be looking at participatory budgeting,” he told the mayor.
“I believe the grand jury is satisfied with what we are doing. I am satisfied with it,” he argued.
Mayor Patterson reiterated that a distinction needed to be made between “public outreach” and participatory budgeting in the city’s response.
Vice Mayor Mark Hughes expressed his concurrence with Schwartzman’s input.
“I am not willing to add language to this that states we will or will not consider (participatory budgeting),” he said. “If we want to discuss it, we need to go through the two-step process (to agendize the item for a future council meeting).”
“This is labeled as a response from the mayor,” Mayor Patterson emphasized. “We may determine that it would not make much difference, (but) this would tell the grand jury that we will have that discussion.”
The mayor pointed out that Solano County was cited as having 33 homeless cases, many of those being families, and that Solano County and Benicia in particular are cited in the Grand Jury report as lagging far behind in addressing the issue.
“This is a first step at trying to get Solano County cities to work together to have an effective program for homeless people and families,” she stated.
Vice Mayor Hughes concluded, “We can agree to disagree. I am satisfied with the language as it’s written right now.”
Mayor Patterson made a motion to approve the consent calendar with a modification to indicate that “this is not a response by the mayor. That it is an answer by the council. The other mayor responses can stand, as I don’t have any changes to those.”
The motion was approved by unanimous vote.

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