All posts by Editor

Air monitoring, Air quality, Benicia City Council

Benicia staff report on air monitoring – to be discussed at January 5 Council meeting

Benicia Independent, by Roger Straw, December 30, 2020

The City of Benicia released its City Council agenda for January 5, including an important discussion of air monitoring in our refinery town.

Local environmental activists (including me) are hailing this effort on the part of City staff as a show of responsiveness to years of citizen requests for more and better access to real-time air quality information.

Your thoughts are being sought by Benicia elected officials and staff.  Please read the staff report, and plan to attend the zoom Council meeting on January 5.

Staff Report: STATUS UPDATE: Benicia Air Monitoring and Improvements to the City’s Community Emergency Notifications

Agenda: (including instructions for virtual attendance and how to comment) Benicia City Council virtual meeting January 5, AGENDA

Napa/Solano Central Labor Council, Vallejo Education Association

Vallejo Education Association “outs” Jon Riley and quits the right-wing Labor Council

Vallejo Times Herald, Letters, December 13, 2020 (as posted in the Benicia Independent)

A matter of values

On Nov. 12 at our representative council, the Vallejo Education Association unanimously voted to leave the Napa Solano Labor Council effective immediately. This was not an easy decision — we have collaborated on many projects and campaigns in the past but we have come to determine that the NSCLC no longer shares our values. Our values, as stated by the California Teachers’ Association Mission Statement, are “to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education for all students; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.

Over the past few years, the VEA and the NSCLC and its executive director did not see eye to eye on many issues, including supporting politicians that advocate for charter schools, pushing to endorse a candidate who stated they would cross a union picket line, the use of misogynistic and homophobic language by its executive director, condoning attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement by member institutions and seeking to discipline those who criticized police and fire unions when they publicly and privately attacked our CTA members who ran for public office along with many other issues.

Although we have parted from the Napa Solano Labor Council, the Vallejo Education Association remains committed to supporting and engaging its members on issues of social justice and improving the lives of our students and teachers, as our students’ learning conditions are our working conditions. We will welcome partnerships and collaborations with any institutions that remain committed to improving quality public education for our students.

Steven Quinlan
Former Trustee, Napa Solano Labor Council
Political Action Chair Vallejo Education Association

Racial justice, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

INVITATION: Six-week study and action series on racial justice in Benicia

Members and friends of PDB:

In Chief Erik Upson’s recent City of Benicia News update as Interim City Manager, he announced that the Benicia Library is partnering with Benicia Black Lives Matter and the Bay Area Chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) for a six-week series of classes on racial justice. This course is free to the public but classes are limited to 30 members for each of the two sessions available – one to be held on Tuesdays beginning Jan. 12, and a second session on Saturdays beginning Jan. 16. (See REGISTRATION, below.)

ABOUT SURJ AND THE STUDY/ACTION SERIES:

SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Bay Area is part of a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice, with passion and accountability.

SURJ Study & Action is a community of learners committed to examining the histories of white supremacy and resistance movements and building our abilities to effectively take action in support of Black and Brown-led organizations fighting for racial justice.

…We are responding to Black peoples’ long-standing call for white people, in large numbers, to talk, study and take action with each other so we can confront white supremacy in our workplaces, schools, with our families and throughout our lives.

Learning in community makes our movements strong. We train up, so we can show up!

FROM RALPH DENNIS, PDB CHAIR: I strongly recommend that white PDB members and friends look in a mirror and consider the benefits that attending these classes will provide. No matter how much we who are white think we are “aware of” and fight against racial prejudices and discrimination, and/or that “I’m not racist,” none of us can know how it feels to be black in a white-dominated culture. And, all of us need to acknowledge the history and systemic nature of racism in our country, and here in Benicia, and learn how to address it and become anti-racist in actions and deeds. These classes are a path towards beginning that journey in Benicia.

Here’s more information from Chief Upson and how to register for the classes.

Showing Up for Racial Justice – Study & Action Course

(From City of Benicia this week, Message from the Interim City Manager 11/30/20)

The Benicia Public Library and Benicia Black Lives Matter are teaming up to offer a free series of classes for the community, cosponsored by the Bay Area chapter of Stand Up for Racial Justice (SURJ).

Participants are asked to:

  • commit to attending all 6 sessions of this intensive program in order to hold accountability to the group, build community, and get the most out of the series;
  • allow enough time in your schedules to read the weekly assignments, about 2.5-4 hours per week;
  • commit to participating in at least 3 racial justice actions during the course of the Intensive. Facilitators will suggest actions to be a part of at each weekly meeting.

Two six session courses are available, one series held on Tuesdays beginning January 12 (registration deadline Dec. 29), the other held on Saturdays beginning January 16 (registration deadline Jan. 2). Please choose either Tuesdays or Saturdays. There are 30 spaces available in each series. All meetings are held on Zoom.

REGISTRATION

For Tuesday Classes: Register Online

For Saturday Classes: Register Online

Questions? Please contact Nancy.

More information is available at https://benicialibrary.org/standing-up-racial-justice.