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City of Benicia · Statewide General Election

Benicia City Council

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person would hold one of two at-large seats up this cycle on Benicia's 5-member City Council -- the citywide budget, land use, and oversight of city staff for this Solano County city of 27,131 residents (2020 Census), alongside a directly elected Mayor who is not part of this race. A professional city manager runs day-to-day operations.

Three candidates are running for two at-large seats on Benicia's City Council: incumbents Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye against challenger Justin Zollars. Vote for up to two -- no primary.

Council seats are elected at-large and citywide, alongside a directly elected Mayor (Steve Young, re-elected 2024) who is not part of this race -- Benicia is one of the Solano County cities in this dataset's shard where voters elect the Mayor separately rather than the Council choosing one of its own. Winners join the rest of Benicia's 5-member Council -- the city budget, land use, and oversight of city staff for this Solano County city of 27,131 residents (2020 Census) -- while a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. Council seats carry 4-year terms: both incumbents in this race were elected in November 2022, and Scott's own filed statement independently describes the seat as a coming "four years."

With two incumbents and one challenger competing for two seats, the practical question is whether either sitting Councilmember should be replaced by Zollars, or whether Scott and Birdseye continue together. Both incumbents filed official statements and received dedicated coverage from Benicia Independent, a local news site, describing specific records and platforms; Zollars is a first-time candidate for city office whose filed statement is the only source this pass found describing his background, centered on his opposition to the city's use of Flock Safety license-plate-reader cameras. All three candidates' terms would begin against the backdrop of Valero's refinery closure and the resulting city revenue gap, a theme every candidate's statement addresses in some form.

Terry Scott

Terry Scott is the Council's incumbent and former Vice Mayor; his filed ballot designation is "Incumbent." He is a businessman and philanthropist who spent 14 years as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Brand Creative Services at Hasbro Inc., leading more than 700 employees and a $1.7 billion budget, before retiring to Benicia; he co-founded the Benicia Community Foundation and holds a B.S. from Kent State University plus executive studies at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. He chairs SolTrans (the regional transit agency board) and sits on the Solano County housing roundtable. His campaign centers on a six-point platform: closing the roughly $7 million revenue gap left by Valero's closure through disciplined budgeting and business recruitment; streamlining city permitting and technology; directing the $82 million Bay Area Air Quality Management District settlement with Valero toward home energy assistance, school air quality, and health investments; using his regional relationships to secure transportation and economic-development funding; protecting services for seniors and vulnerable residents; and investing in parks, schools, and safe streets.

Strengths

A full term as sitting Councilmember and three terms chairing SolTrans, relevant to his transportation-funding priority.

Trade-offs

His $7M revenue-gap and $82M settlement figures are his own account; no independent budget reporting was found to check them.

Keep in mind

As an incumbent, a vote for him is partly a referendum on the sitting Council's post-Valero record.

Kari Birdseye

Kari Birdseye is the Council's incumbent; her filed ballot designation is "Incumbent." She has lived in Benicia for 26 years with her husband James and their two children, Julia and Joey. She holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State, and spent 11 years as a CNN journalist -- part of an Emmy Award-winning team covering the 1996 Olympic Park bombing -- before moving into nonprofit communications work, including for the Wine Institute, Earthjustice, and currently the Natural Resources Defense Council. In Benicia, she served on the city's Human Services Board starting in 2012 and was later appointed to, and chaired, the Planning Commission, including during its 2016 rejection of Valero's crude-by-rail proposal. On the current Council she says she helped lead the city's Industrial Health and Safety Ordinance and chaired a task force coordinating the Benicia Industrial Park and the Port of Benicia on the refinery site's transition, including exploring offshore wind manufacturing. Her platform centers on guiding redevelopment of the former refinery site, protecting Benicia's air and water, and stabilizing city finances for the long term.

Strengths

Over a decade of appointed city service (Human Services Board, then Planning Commission chair) before her Council term.

Trade-offs

Her account of Council accomplishments is her own statement's description; no independent reporting was found to check it against.

Keep in mind

Like Scott, a vote for her is partly a referendum on the sitting Council's record; her platform emphasizes environmental oversight.

Justin Zollars

Justin Zollars is a software engineer and the race's only challenger; his filed ballot designation is "Software Engineer." His statement describes him as a Benicia homeowner and civic advocate who has spent 15 years in technology at companies including Adobe and Veracyte, where he currently works as a software engineer in cancer genomics; he describes himself as a startup founder with experience managing budgets across engineers, partners, and customers. He states he was an elected delegate to a 2008 presidential nominating convention. His statement centers on having led local opposition to the Benicia Police Department's use of Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader cameras, which he describes as tracking drivers' movements indefinitely with potential exposure to warrantless federal data requests; he pledges to remove the cameras from Benicia if elected. He also states he would focus on parks, roads, and budgets, and on protecting the city's small-town character as it grows.

Strengths

A specific, independently reported local campaign (opposing Flock Safety license-plate cameras), unlike the incumbents' broader platforms.

Trade-offs

No prior city role, campaign site, dedicated news coverage, or FPPC-registered committee was found, unlike both incumbents.

Keep in mind

As the only non-incumbent, he's the only candidate whose win changes the Council's makeup rather than continuing it.

Source review: Strong (80/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Kari Birdseye's own campaign site (votekaribirdseye.com): self-authored biography and platform, plus a self-disclosed FPPC filer number (#1403514) for her own committee. and Terry Scott's own campaign site (terryscott2026.com): self-authored biography and platform, plus a self-disclosed FPPC filer number (#1444533) and committee name ("Committee to Elect Terry Scott for Benicia City Council 2026"). may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • content.solanocounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Solano County Registrar of Voters -- official "Candidate Filed Log -- November 3, 2026 General Election" (as of 8/20/2026): its "CITY OF BENICIA" section lists exactly one contest, Councilmember (Vote for 2, voted at-large), with three candidates -- incumbents Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye plus challenger Justin Zollars -- the identical document cited by the county-level shard's own "solano-candidate-log-2026," re-downloaded fresh this session and confirmed unchanged against the county's own live current-election page
  • content.solanocounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Solano County Registrar of Voters -- "November 3, 2026 General Election Candidate Guide," its own countywide incumbent table: lists "City of Benicia Councilmember -- Terry Scott" and "...Kari Birdseye," each unmarked (an elected, not appointed, incumbent), and lists no separate City of Benicia Mayor row at all -- independently corroborating the candidate log's own incumbent flags and that the Mayor's own seat is not up this cycle
  • content.solanocounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Solano County Registrar of Voters -- November 2026 Voter Information Guide, Ballot Type 17 (the booklet covering City of Benicia races): carries the official, filed Statement of Candidate for all three Benicia Council candidates under Elections Code 13307 -- the candidates' own words on background and platform, for the entire field
  • ci.benicia.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Benicia's own official site (ci.benicia.ca.us/citycouncil): lists Mayor Steve Young (re-elected 2024) as directly and separately elected from four at-large Councilmembers -- Vice Mayor Trevor Macenski, Kari Birdseye, Lionel Largaespada, and Terry Scott -- five total seats; its reference to a City Manager department indicates a council-manager government; Birdseye and Scott were both elected in November 2022, corroborating a 4-year term for the seats up this cycle
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Benicia, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (27,131); does not itself describe the government structure or cover the 2026 election
  • beniciaindependent.com (opens in a new tab)Benicia Independent -- "Kari Birdseye Announces Campaign for Reelection to Benicia City Council" (2026-08-01): hyperlocal news coverage of her candidacy, giving biography, career background (NRDC, CNN, Wine Institute, Earthjustice), and platform priorities beyond her filed statement alone
  • beniciaindependent.com (opens in a new tab)Benicia Independent -- "Terry Scott Announces Bid for Re-Election to Benicia City Council" (2026-07-11): hyperlocal news coverage of his candidacy, giving biography, career background (Hasbro, Benicia Community Foundation), and his six-point platform beyond his filed statement alone
  • votekaribirdseye.com (opens in a new tab)Kari Birdseye's own campaign site (votekaribirdseye.com): self-authored biography and platform, plus a self-disclosed FPPC filer number (#1403514) for her own committee
  • terryscott2026.com (opens in a new tab)Terry Scott's own campaign site (terryscott2026.com): self-authored biography and platform, plus a self-disclosed FPPC filer number (#1444533) and committee name ("Committee to Elect Terry Scott for Benicia City Council 2026")
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- the site's own Incapsula bot-protection challenge blocked every automated query attempted this session before any of the three Benicia Council candidates' names could actually be searched against the state's own database -- the same documented technical access gap encountered by every other Solano County city shard built this session (Fairfield, Suisun City); Birdseye's and Scott's own campaign sites separately self-disclose FPPC filer numbers not independently confirmed against Cal-Access this pass, and no financial disclosure of any kind was found for Justin Zollars

Last updated September 1, 2026.