Went with fellow Humane Society of the North Bay volunteers Carlene Coury and Linda Overton. Linda is also on the Board with me. We got to see a lot of people we knew and schmooze with many of the Solano County movers and shakers.

The Benicia Chamber of Commerce, which HSNB has been a member of for 27 years, hosted the event in an amazing space called the Benicia Clock Tower. There are a bunch of art galleries in the area which appears to have been an old military complex and still serves as a shipping yard for big ships that deliver freight, including private automobiles, with its port at the mouth of the Sacramento Delta at the beginning of the Carquinez Strait.

My friend, neighbor and fellow activist Miguel Castillo joined me at this town hall. While I voted “No” for the regressive nature of this measure, it did win. I will always support spending money in my city and otherwise spending locally, but when I voted for it, I had no assurance of its proportion, planning, prioritization or accountability. This meeting addressed some of that, and I know my councilperson Mina Loera-Diaz wants the same transparency I do about the estimated extra $18M in revenue that the City of Vallejo is likely to get as a result of this measure’s passage.