William Emes Jr., the newest candidate to enter the Benicia City Council race, sees his experience as different from anyone on the council. The 25-year resident and retired journeyman carpenter hopes to use that to his advantage to bring new ideas to the elected body.

“What we’re witnessing in the world today is an incredible amount of divisiveness,” he said. “Our world, at every level on every scale is being paralyzed, crippled and destroyed by divisiveness. More and more, we can’t agree. More and more, people are retreating to extremes when that is an extreme. For me, I see this going on in Benicia.”

“I would like to reduce the amount of divisiveness that I see in Benicia,” he added.

Emes, 66, was student body president at Clayton Valley High School. He attended Stanford University for four quarters but felt he was not a good fit for the school at the time. He held a series of jobs that included being a groundskeeper at the local cemetery, a construction laborer and summer jobs with East Bay Regional Parks.

“I kind of got a taste of what it was like to be a public employee,” he said.

Around 1977, Emes lived with a relative and became a handyman where he did remodeling work. That same year, he asked his girlfriend Sharon to marry him and they moved into a condemned home to save money.

“We not only made that home livable, but we built a home that we expected to live a very, very long period of time,” he said.

During this period, Emes decided he preferred to work for other people. He started working as a carpenter and joined the Carpenters Local Union 152 in Martinez. He was also a recording secretary for the unions in Richmond and El Sobrante and worked on the docks as a ship carpenter for American President Lines for a year.

“I have a union background, and I am proud of that,” he said.

In 1989, he began working as a maintenance carpenter with Contra Costa County, which he said gave him good government experience. Unfortunately, during this time, Emes’ family was forced to move out of their home due to deteriorating property conditions within the community.

“We had to abandon the home,” he said. “It was not a very nice thing to have to do.”

Luckily, Emes said, his family was able to make enough money from selling the home to move to Benicia.

“That was the only good thing about that situation,” he said.

Emes said the issue gave him a new perspective on deteriorating property, which is a prime concern in his campaign.

Upon moving to Benicia in 1993, Emes’ wife Sharon became a paraprofessional working with emotionally disabled students, and their son Matthew attended BUSD schools for virtually all of his schooling.

“We’re very much a Benicia family,” he said.

Emes retired from carpentry in 2005 and has spent much of that time since doing creative writing and keeping up with local civic affairs.

One aspect that Emes is pushing for is a more cooperative council that reaches consensus on certain issues, but each individual is still their own person.

“What I’d like to see a little bit more is that everybody brings something to the table that the other party does not have,” he said. “You’re building something. That’s the kind of consensus that I’d like to see.”

Such differences, he said, would allow councilmembers to understand the other side as much as possible.

“If you understand the other party, then it’s gonna work better,” he said.

In regards to the discussions over water and sewer rate increases, Emes said conserving water could save residents money.

“As a citizen, we don’t need to walk around with our hand out,” he said. “The question is ‘What can I do as a citizen?’ Well, that’s the answer. What can I do about the high water rates? I can conserve more.”

Emes concurred with Councilmember Alan Schwartzman that if Valero makes good on its promise to install additional monitors, then an Industrial Safety Ordinance would not be needed.

“If they don’t do that, then I would move ahead with the alternative, which is what had been proposed (under the ISO).”

Emes’ top three priorities if elected would be public safety, sustainability and voluntary code enforcement.

“City staff is overwhelmed,” he said. “The council can’t go to (properties) with a handout and say ‘What are you doing with all these problems? With code enforcement, the residents can take care of that themselves. Maybe it could be the beginning of coming together on other issues.”

Emes suggested maybe establishing another committee to come up with desirable city code.

Overall, Emes hopes the election has a beneficial outcome.

“Whatever I do, I am committed to seeing that this election is a decisive one and that our city moves forward in a positive direction,” he said.

The other council candidates are Planning Commission Chair Kari Birdseye, Economic Development Board Chair Lionel Largaespada and former Councilmember Christina Strawbridge.