September 12, 2022

Dear Community Members,

As I write this on the anniversary of 9/11, my thoughts are with our first responders whose courage always leads them into harm’s way when need calls them to protect our communities. As many of you may be aware, we currently have six firefighters battling the Mosquito Fire up in Placer County. Nine other firefighters recently returned from deployments at the Oak Fire, McKinney Fire, Yeti Fire, the SRF Lightning Complex and a Preposition/Mobilization crew in Napa. We were just getting ready to recognize them when this new crew was called to action. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re incredibly fortunate to have such a robust mutual aid system in California…really one of the best mutual aid systems in the world. And given my experiences dealing with the State as a City Manager, one of the few things the State does well. Unfortunately, we’ve have to put that system to the absolute test over the last few years as we face massive fire after massive fire. This system, which relies on being able to call resources from every agency in the state, reimbursing them for costs after the fact, has shown to be incredibly powerful. However, there is a cost beyond the money, as local firefighters (such as ours) are called away from their families for weeks at a time, put into incredibly dangerous situations…and really, they can’t just take a day off from that to catch a kid’s game or an important family event. Families have to deal not just with missing their loved ones, but also the stress and angst of knowing they are in harm’s way. Please take a moment to recognize your local first responders for their sacrifices. Sacrifices they make for the greater California Community.

Speaking of things the State doesn’t do well, I just returned from the League of Cities conference which I attended along with Councilmember Macenski. Much of the focus of the conference was related to the challenges of the avalanche of housing legislations local jurisdictions have been facing, taking away local control in so many respects. Along with losing local control, we also find ourselves facing a raft of legislation that is entirely unfunded and poorly crafted, leaving local jurisdictions to carry the weight. Fortunately, we have an excellent Mayor and Council, who are tackling these issues full on and doing their very best to serve the best interests of the community. Councilmember Macenski has been an especially great resource on Council during these challenging times with his very deep knowledge of the housing issues and law.

On a more positive note, Special Olympics ‘Bike the Bridges’ will be taking place on October 1st. This is our first year as a City hosting this event and we want to make Benicia the ‘go-to’ location for this event in the future. For those of you not familiar with the work of Special Olympics, I have been involved since first being a timer at a Special Olympics event in Richland, Washington in 1987. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked on supporting these amazing athletes. Just one time, watching the light and love in an athlete’s eyes when they compete, and you will be hooked for life as well. The pandemic has been particularly hard on our Special Olympics athletes, so it is so critical that we support them now so we can come back stronger than ever in our support of some of our most inspiring community members. We already have over 400 riders signed up, but we really need sponsors. Please consider being a sponsor for this event, and for sure come on down to the Green! I’ve included links and contacts below. Potential sponsors can also reach out directly to the coordinator, Randy Young, at RandyY@sonc.org or at 916-296-5088. 

Our own Benicia Unified School District recently brought Unified Sports to the high school. This important new initiative is dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition experiences. I don’t think anyone who has been touched by this program has not left a better person. If you need some motivation, please watch these powerful videos linked below, which includes great discussion about Unified Sports: 


For more information about the event please go to TheBridgeRide.com.


Erik Upson
City Manager