By Bob Livesay
Special to the Herald

As we approach the Labor Day holiday, the City Council election scramble starts to move very fast. Signs will be out all over town and residents can expect in-home endorsement meetings, venue meetings, mailers, newspaper ads, social media overtaken by comments and more. For this article, I will be discussing endorsements.
Let’s talk about personal endorsements, such as important individuals and elected officials. They can be important, but we must remember current and former elected officials in most cases offset each other. If you are a Democrat, you will fight with other Democratic candidates to see who gets the most important past and present elected officials. Almost all California state and national representatives are Democrats, so just how important is that? Not very much. Is a supervisor important? I do not think so. What is important are past and present local councilmembers. The divide will be two present councilmembers in favor of one candidate and possibly three in favor of two candidates. The latter is important because of their time-in grade and the issues they have been involved in over the past 10 to 15 years. Their judgment on many issues is well-respected. On the other hand, an endorsement with limited time-in grade and has only one notable issue  is very limited. Also, someone in office for 15 years and considered an agenda-driven politician is much less valuable.
Private citizens can be important, especially if they are active in the community, such as teachers, business owners and any other community figures that are supportive of the community and the residents. Personal endorsements that follow one trick ponies are not valuable, which simply means the same old thing over and over again. That is not what the residents want. They want action ,not words of personal agenda ideals.
This next one is also not important at all. The Progressive Democrats of Benicia (PDB) is not a powerful endorsement in a non-partisan election.  Think of the first word: progressive. Does the remind you of someone who ran for president in 2016 and calls himself a progressive Democratic socialist? That first word “progressive” is not good.  Even if they think of themselves as Democrats first, progressivism has come to represents a very far left-leaning socialist agenda. That is not what non-partisan elections are all about. They are about what is good for the residents of this very fine city, which also means those whose agendas are motivated by personal ideals do not get it.
The Solano County Democratic Central Committee’s endorsements are also unimportant. Why would I say that? Simple, two members of that committee which represent the Benicia area are very involved in this City Council election: one as councilmember candidate the other as vice mayor of Benicia. The latter supports the candidate.  Both served on the Planning Commission together, so they are birds in the same nest. During the Aug. 18 presentation by Democratic candidates running for offices in all the Solano County cities, both of these people were present to vote and stayed as a competitor made their presentation. Even the vice mayor had questions to the opposing Benicia City Council candidate. Can you imagine how much of a conflict of interest that is? They should have both voluntarily recused themselves whether they had to or not. This was very unfair and made it seem like they will vote for their own.
The Solano County Democratic Central Committee endorsed Kari Birdseye. It appears Benicia and also the county Democratic groups are very anti-union, seeing as Birdseye did not get the Napa-Solano Central Labor Council’s endorsement. Anti-union in Benicia and Solano County is not a good call on both of those groups. I do not like to say this, but it appears in this very fine city of 28,000, this City Council election is turning into a show of lack of moral and ethical principles. When the candidate and vice mayor who respectively were and are both on the steering committee of the Progressive Democrats of Benicia and both represent District 2 of the Solano County Democratic Central Committee which represents Benicia are this areas representative, it does not pass the smell test. I understand Birdseye has stepped down from the PDB’s steering committee for the duration of the campaign to avoid a conflict of interest, but she was still on it. Both did not recuse themselves from the voting process. In fact, the vice mayor openly asked the opposing candidate a question about the Seeno property.
Yes, it is turning into a very unethical and immoral campaign. I sure hope the voters see this and now know who not to vote for. I will be watching.

Bob Livesay is a Benicia resident.

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