A BENEFIT CONCERT for area musician Donna Plummer, whose instruments were stolen on Christmas day, was held before a packed house Thursday at the Bay Terrace Theater in Vallejo. Money is still coming in but a preliminary tally Friday showed organizers raised more than $2,300 for Plummer. Photos by Rhonda Lucile Hicks

CITY MANAGER Brad Kilger speaks to the Finance Committee and Treasurer Bob Langston on Friday. Donna Beth Weilenman/Staff

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia Finance Committee endorsed the city’s latest audit and midyear General Fund budget forecasts Friday — not because it liked everything it saw but because the reports shed more light on the city’s fiscal situation.

In fact, while revenue and expenditure forecasts are generally positive, both documents suggested the city has more work ahead, particularly in coping with three accounts that are in the red — the marina, transit services and the Housing Authority’s Casa de Vilarrasa.

Discussion of those accounts began when Katherine Yuen, a partner of auditors Maze and Associates, reached a page that referred to Benicia Harbor Corporation, the company contracted annually to dredge the Benicia Marina common area.

The company hadn’t met its commitment, claiming the city hadn’t gotten a dredging permit “in a timely manner.” The auditors, using language from past documents, suggested the city and the company’s owners were in talks “and anticipate a favorable outcome by March 2012.”

Councilmember Tom Campbell disagreed. “I’m worried about this. What looks like an achievable problem, isn’t. And it’s not presented here.”

City Manager Brad Kilger said the city “needs to get a handle” on the three accounts, and Interim Finance Director Bill Zenoni concurred. “These deficits will be discussed by the Council this year,” Zenoni said.

Yuen explained that the auditors couldn’t put an editorial stamp on the document, but said the firm had identified problems with the marina. Her company elaborated further in a memorandum that addressed the city’s internal control over its financial reporting.

During Fiscal Year 2008-9, the city made an advance of $160,321 from its General Fund to the Benicia Marina Fund to pay for modifications to the city’s storm water system that impacted the Benicia Marina Basin, the memorandum said. “The advance was to accrue interest at the portfolio earnings rate at the time, and was to be fully repaid by 2028,” it said.

The Marina fund’s outstanding balance was $164,826 by June 30, 2010. But during Fiscal Year 2010-11, the advance was written off in action begun by city staff.

“That’s not a good policy,” Yuen told the committee. “There should be some kind of approval by Council.”

Zenoni, who was not part of the city’s finance department at the time, said city staff “is not authorized to not authorize” the writeoff, and that the decision was made last spring after staff realized the advance would not be repaid.

However, he concurred with Yuen and said future writeoffs would be submitted for Council approval. “It has come to our attention there are no rules,” Kilger said of the writeoffs — something that will change as he and Zenoni draft a formal policy they’ll present to the committee and the Council.

The Marina fund is an enterprise fund, Zenoni said. “It’s supposed to be self-supporting and generate its own revenue. We need to look at fixing it, or it’s not an enterprise fund. It’s not performing like one.”

Staff also wrote off $344,641, part of a $1.4 million loan extended in 2006, and an additional $119,309 made in 2009-10 to the Benicia Housing Authority for the Casa de Vilarrasa housing project.

Assistant Finance Director Abby Urrutia said in both cases, the money exchange originally was documented as transfers; later they were described as loans.

“This is another one that’s been fun to learn about,” Kilger said. “They can’t make the payment, so the city made the payment on their behalf.” However, the city picked up the tab with the understanding that in Fiscal Year 2014-15, the Housing Authority would refinance the loan.

Kilger said it isn’t unusual for a city to have a housing project, but allow its housing authority to handle its operations. He said as with the marina fund, city staff “will go back to the beginning” and research the history of the accounts before presenting alternative solutions.

The third account with problems is Benicia’s Transit Enterprise Fund, which by June 30, 2011, had a recorded outstanding liability of $714,977 after the transit systems of Vallejo and Benicia were consolidated through a Joint Powers Authority Agreement. But Benicia, unlike Vallejo, stopped receiving operations funding from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Unlike the other two accounts, no decision has been made whether any owed money should be written off. That matter will be decided by City Council.

“We need a policy,” stressed Chairman Dennis Lowry. “We could craft some of that.”

Lowry said the city hasn’t had a central repository for all its financial policies, either, though it’s something he said a city manager, finance director and auditor would appreciate.

Lowry praised the auditor for airing the concerns in the memorandum.

Maze & Associates succeeded Mayer Hoffman McCann after that company was terminated last year. State Controller John Chiang had ordered a peer review of MHM, which once audited the books of Bell, a Southern California city that saw several of its officials arrested and charged in a pay scandal. Mayer Hoffman McCann passed that review.

But Benicia’s Finance Committee expressed its own dissatisfaction with responses by representatives of the firm’s Northern California office, though they weren’t associated with the office that had audited Bell’s books.

“The previous auditor didn’t bring it up,” Lowry said Friday after the panel discussed Maze’s memorandum and audit. “The thoroughness of what we got is better than in previous years.”

The audit was described as a one-day snapshot of the city’s financial status on the last day of the 2010-11 fiscal year. The document is available on the city’s website.

It shows the city had total governmental fund assets of $33,049.272 and liabilities of $10,634,307. The city’s General Fund received $30,676,102 by June 30, 2011, from property taxes, sales taxes, utility users taxes, fees, charges, donations and other sources. Other governmental funds received $6.758,652 in revenues.

The city spent $29,753,107 from its General Fund, primarily on salaries and other compensation, but also on capital outlay. It transferred in $80,842, but transferred out $1,549,766 for city operations, capital improvement projects and debt service and deficits.

Besides the General Fund, the city has the Energy Conservation Capital Project Fund, dedicated to the construction of energy conservation projects, such as the installation of a citywide photovoltaic array and the retrofit of certain lighting systems.

It also has a Wastewater Fund for transport, treatment and disposal of wastewater for homes and businesses; Water Fund for distributing water to local customers; the Benicia Marina Fund; and the Transit Fund and two fiduciary funds — a trust fund benefiting the city’s affordable housing, and an agency funds account for certain district assets held by the city.

The General Fund ended the year with a balance of $5,399,543; the energy conservation Capital Project Fund ended 2011 with $10,685,519; and the city’s other governmental funds showed a year-end tally of $6,329,903.

Lowry said the committee had not been prepared to spend nearly 75 percent of its meeting time solely on the audit, “but it was the right thing to do.”

But that wasn’t the only matter before the panel Friday. It also examined and approved a midyear General Fund overview that gave the committee a bit of optimism.

Drawing on a board, Kilger said the past, steep financial downturn Benicia has been experiencing has slowed. However, he warned against expecting the economic environment to swing the other way.

Instead, he drew a wavy plateau to illustrate his expectations that the city would face more, but less severe, bumps ahead.

In fact, the city’s current budget revenue projections “appear to be very accurate,” the report said. Benicia may take in up to $200,000 more in revenue than it expected, some from better-than-anticipated property taxes.

Zenoni said he would be calling on Comcast, which has paid only $32,890 so far of its expected 2011-12 utility users tax. Gas and electric utility users tax revenue may have been projected a little optimistically, he said, and he’s recommending cutting expectations from $1,204,825 to $1,100,000.

Business licenses were expected to drop from last fiscal year to this, but Zenoni said they actually may exceed not only the anticipated $462,000 but could climb to $485,000, or $3,000 more than in the previous budget.

Though investment earnings are down and may end up at $60,000 rather than the hoped-for $220,000, transient occupancy taxes, based on hotel revenues, are expected to bring in $35,000 more than predicted.

When taken in total, “the bottom line revenues are pretty close,” Lowry said.

Most of the city’s projected expenditures are on track as well.

As of Dec. 31, the city has spent 48 percent of its operating budget, and departments are operating within their own financial limits, Zenoni said. Police is expected to spend $45,000 it hadn’t anticipated in leave payouts because of retirements; it’s spent $7,180 in workshops, and $35,320 in shift differentials and night shift premiums were left out of the budget.

The City Council will review the budget and audit Feb. 7. In March and April, employees will be briefed on budget matters and department heads will have their own budget meetings. Staff will analyze Fiscal Year 2012-13 revenues and expenditures and work on a funding strategy.

The Finance Committee will see a third quarter report April 27, and the Council will get the same report with committee comments May 1. The committee also will get a look at the mid-cycle review May 25; the Council will see it June 5.

Another matter before the committee was Administrative Services Director Anne Cardwell’s explanation of Assemby Bill 646.

That bill, now law, lets a union request a period of fact-finding before a contract is imposed on the union’s employees, should an impasse in labor negotiations be declared.

The employees’ group may trigger the fact-finding period, she said. A panel would be chosen to hear evidence and read briefs on the disputed issues.

Cardwell said the new procedures, including selecting mediators and fact-finding panels, could add 100 days to negotiations.

PROPERTY OWNER Mike Potter, right, speaks to Historic Preservation and Review Commission members on Thursday. Donna Beth Weilenman/Staff

❒ Panel decides moves won’t impact historic nature of Arsenal property

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

One of the owners of the Arsenal’s 135-year-old Carpenter Shop building received Historic Preservation and Review Commission approval Thursday for his landscaping plans for the property.

But the applicant, Mike Potter, an owner of the building, said he won’t be making those changes right away because the project is taking longer than he had anticipated, and he’s having to pay for more permits than he anticipated.

His plans to upgrade the historic building and remove a shed that was added in the 1940s requires more than just the $350 design review approval from HPRC, he told the panel, including a permit from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

He said he had hoped to start the project right away, but permitting costs have delayed the project.

“I thought my contractor would do this,” he said, admitting that he had little experience in obtaining a series of permits. “I’m learning.”

At its Dec. 15, 2011, meeting, HPRC members approved Potter’s request to remove the shed, but asked for additional information on the proposed landscaping modifications for the site at 938 Tyler St.

Potter received permission Thursday night to build a wall of concrete and finish it with stucco the color and texture of sandstone, a common building material used when the Arsenal was built by the U.S. Army.

A white wood railing would be added to the top of the retaining wall. The work requires removal of an overgrown shrub, and Potter said he would plant tall, red Japanese maples as a replacement.

“The intention is to make the building look more original, and better, and to accommodate more parking up top,” he said.

The panel also okayed a design request for the installation of three new antennas, six new radio remote units, a surge suppressor, a geopositioning receiver and other equipment at the city-owned water tank, 1471 Park Road.

But it wasn’t happy with a draft of a document applicants could use to ask for exemption from design review if their property is in either the downtown or Arsenal historic districts, and the panel’s discussion may lead them to examine how to make the city’s Downtown Historic Conservation Plan align more closely with Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Preservation and the California Environmental Quality Act.

Mark Rhoades, interim land use and engineering manager, reminded the panel that the words in the application had been taken directly from the city’s own Downtown Historic Conservation Plan.

The application was developed after the HPRC’s decision on windows for a historic district contributor home was overturned by the Planning Commission.

Part of the controversy about that case was whether city staff had been told before issuing the over-the-counter permit that the applicant would be replacing front wood-framed windows with those of vinyl.

Staff began drafting the new application before the Planning Commission heard the appeal, to improve documentation of applicants’ descriptions and to avoid similar incidents from happening in the future.

Rhoades said he would consider revising the application and present the new draft to the commission at a future meeting, though Commissioner Tony Haughey asked, “Why do you need this?”

She suggested instead that an applicant describe the project in detail, after which a city employee would make a site visit before the permit is issued. “One problem is, nobody wants to go out of the building to look at the property,” she said.

Changes to windows and doors typically are given over-the-counter permits by staff unless there is a materials change, Rhoades said.

“If you have ugly vinyl windows, and you want nice wood ones, you have to go to the HPRC,” he said.

Vice Chairperson Leanne Taagepera said the application’s language wasn’t consistent with the Secretary of Interior standards or CEQA.

“It points out our own plan is not consistent with the standards and CEQA. It needs to match,” she said.

DO YOU REMEMBER THE 1984 SUPER BOWL?

That was the year the Raiders played the Washington Redskins down in sunny Florida. I was in the service at the time and stationed in far less sunny Washington, D.C. — home of the ’Skins.

I grew up in the Bay Area and the Raiders were my team. In my neighborhood in Morgan Hill, we kids loved the Raiders and they seemed to like us pretty good, too. Players like linebacker Phil Villapiano and wide receiver Freddy Biletnikoff would actually come to play in basketball fundraisers for our local Police Athletic League. I’m not one to use the saying “those were the days” very often, but dang it, those were the days.

You can imagine how hard it was for a dyed-in-the-wool Raiders fan to be in D.C. in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. The fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” seemed to be on every jukebox in town, getting more play than “Take This Job and Shove It” after quittin’ time in a honkytonk.

My buddy Dave Clancy, also not a Redskins fan, was as fed up as I with the ’Skins bandwagon everyone was jumping on. So one night over a few beers we agreed on a plan to make our stand for the Raiders.

We were going to change the base movie theater marquee to read “Go Raiders.”

I don’t remember what movie was listed up there, but whatever it was, there were sufficient letters with which to form our rebellious statement. After waiting for dark and climbing onto the marquee, it only took us about 15 minutes to pull down the letters and rearrange them into our new message.

Apparently 15 minutes was also all it took for the base police to learn of our malfeasance and speed their way to the theater parking lot. As Dave and I finished, two cop cars pulled up just below the marquee and shined their spotlights on us.

Dave and I quickly agreed on another (expletive-laden) plan and took off running — him in one direction and me in the other — straight off the marquee. That thing must’ve been 10 feet in the air but neither of us missed a stride as we sprinted off either side and ran in separate directions so that we’d be harder to catch.

I have to hand it to those base cops — they sure showed a tenacious persistence. I left base over the fence and came back on near my barracks and Dave hid in a Dumpster half the night, but the cops were a step ahead of us. They figured out which barracks we were from and simply circled it for hours on end waiting for us to show our faces.

That was back in the days where I had, shall we say, a less accurate moral compass. I didn’t really have a set of rules I lived by other than to have fun and try not to get caught. But there comes a time in our lives when we get a little wiser, when we grow a little smarter and we realize that a good set of rules on how to live can save us a lot of heartache and trouble.

There’s a set of rules I’ve come across lately that has helped me immeasurably in my life. I’m confident these rules, while perhaps crafted for a larger purpose, can also be applied to dating and relationships.

The rules are known as The Four Agreements.

The Four Agreements come to us from the Toltec culture of ancient Mexico. Recently restated in book form in 1997 by Don Miguel Ruiz, the agreements are a sort of road map to an authentic and fulfilling life and, when followed, free us from the doubt that we and others can mire ourselves in.

The first Agreement is Be Impeccable With Your Word. If you’re starting a relationship, tell your partner exactly what you are looking for. If they’re looking for something different, don’t be afraid to speak up. Our fears can overtake us at such times — we worry that if we’re honest, our different aspirations can divide us. Be honest and open and you might be surprised at the good things it leads to. Also, don’t speak ill of your partner — I know this sounds basic, but it’s a rule that’s often violated. And if your partner is someone who, because of their actions, compels you to say unflattering things about them, then that is a facet of your relationship you should act on because it indicates that something’s not right.

The second Agreement is Don’t Take Anything Personally. This Agreement goes on to say that nothing others do is done because of you. That is sometimes contrary to how our minds work — I mean, how often do we catch ourselves trying to divine the meaning of something someone has said or done to us? We often assume there is a deeper meaning to the things that go on around us and take the (somewhat selfish) view that they all have to do with us. They do not. Get over yourself — and get over putting on yourself the blame of a guy who lost interest in you. He stopped calling for any of 100 different reasons — don’t go crazy trying to figure out exactly what happened. And don’t take it personally.

The third agreement is Don’t Make Assumptions. This Agreement speaks of communication. It tells us to talk about how things are going with our partner rather than just figuring that because she or he is not saying anything, things must be OK. I am personally guilty of this one. Last summer, I dated a woman with whom I’d agreed to keep open the lines of communications — and then didn’t. I assumed things were OK because she wasn’t saying much otherwise. By the time we actually did check in with each other we found that we’d created so much distance between ourselves we were unable to build a bridge long enough to span it.

The fourth Agreement is Always Do Your Best. For a guy as lazy as I can be, this is the easy one, because if you follow the previous three it pretty much takes care of itself. If your words are impeccable, if you don’t take things others do personally and if you stop making assumptions, then you are doing your best. And if you’re doing your best, then your relationship is being given its best opportunity to succeed — which I hope you achieve. But even if you don’t achieve it you’ll have the knowledge that you tried to make things work in the best way you were able — and that knowledge is a great remedy for preventing regrets.

I have no regrets about getting up on the marquee that night with Dave. Things turned out OK because we were both fast enough to sprint into our dorm when the cop cars drove around the other side. But you know what? I’m not that fast anymore — so I think it’s time to follow a set of rules that steer me clear of trouble in the first place.

John Gavin, a divorced father of two boys, lives in Benicia and has dabbled with dating sites to varying degrees of success. Email him at DearCoachJohn@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @OnlineDtngCoach.

WE HAD A MOST INVIGORATING WEEKEND. Susan and I attended the second annual Nevada County Sustainable Food and Farm Conference in Grass Valley. We spent two days growing. On Saturday we heard talks from four highly accomplished speakers in the food freedom movement — Patrick Holden, Nicolette Hahn Niman, Michael Ableman, and Joel Salatin — and on Sunday we attended workshops run by the same presenters. The Saturday events ran 10 hours. The two-day cost: $30.

Patrick Holden owns the longest established organic dairy in Wales with 70 head of Ayrshires. He’s biodynamic, a Rudy Steiner head. His farm is a unified organism, and as such is self-sustaining, creating its own food, flora and fertilizer. He led a discussion on how a farm could survive if the world around it went to hell.

You may know Nicolette Hahn Niman from her book, “The Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms.” Or you may have purchased a few cuts of their humanely raised, drug-free, on-line beef, pork, ham, burgers, franks, and sausages from Niman Ranch.

Nicolette first told the crowd of 400 about her experiences as an attorney for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental group, the Waterkeeper. She was assigned to cover hog manure. It wasn’t the leafy green career she had imagined, being a vegetarian who had just sold her Michigan house, given away most of her possessions and moved to New York City.

However, when she got her first assignment, to investigate the hog CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) in the mid-west and North Carolina, she was hooked. When she saw and smelled the countless manure lagoons polluting rivers, water tables and air space; when she heard the horror stories of billions of animals being born, raised, and butchered indoors, packed together without regard for their natural instincts, that was when she realized this was the most important work she could be doing. She fought the pigs in the hog industry.

Michael Ableman is known for raising $1 million and building the Center for Urban Agriculture in Southern California, a massive farm that hosts 5,000 people a year for tours, classes, and festivals.

Now he runs Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island in Canada where he heads his new Center for Arts, Ecology, and Agriculture. He makes the lion’s share of his income selling produce at farmers’ markets. He gave some most excellent tips to vendors, like stomping on garlic in front of your booth.

The key presenter, the most familiar name, was Joel Salatin, a life-long farmer, author and activist whose fame spread when his Polyface Farm in Virginia appeared in the popular documentary, “Food, Inc.”

The camera gave Joel a chance to speak to millions, and people liked his message.

To paraphrase the way he put it this weekend, “The officials in charge of food are crazy and we have to resist them. They’ll break us and make us sick. We have to do what’s right about our food regardless of regulations.”

In one of his books, “Everything I Want to Do is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front,” he gives a few examples. If a little girl decides to bake corn muffins and sell them at church, she’s breaking the law somewhere. If an apartment dweller makes excellent burritos in his kitchen and sells them to his neighbors, he’s in violation. If Polyface sells jelly from another farm, they’re in violation.

One time his poultry inspector retired and a new guy came in; suddenly everything that was once OK was now in violation. It took him and his family months, money, time and lawyers to end up winning on every point and returning to farming as usual. He felt harassed.

A prevailing concern felt by Salatin and many of the people in attendance is that there’s a silent war against sustainability because it results in reduced profit margins. People who take care of their needs in-house seldom shop; when they do shop, they buy from each other.

Politicians talk the good talk, but they continue to support restrictions preventing farmers from feeding people. They enforce expensive permits, inspections, and contracts required to do business. Fat companies can absorb the hit. It runs most small farmers into the ground they plow.

There is a movement afoot called Local Food Freedom that has helped 20 counties adopt food ordinances to protect their small farmers. One audience member stood up and urged attendees to converge on Placerville City Hall the following Tuesday to push for an El Dorado County food ordinance. Santa Cruz County was a recent success. Here is a quote from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund newsletter:

“On September 12 (2011) the Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz County, California adopted a ‘Resolution Recognizing the Rights of Individuals to Grow and Consume Their Own Food and to Enter into Private Contracts with Other Individuals to Board Animals for Food.’ The resolution was adopted in response to warning letters sent by county district attorneys and the California Department of Food and Agriculture to several California farmers operating shareholder dairies.”

Anyhow, Susan and I had a great time. We arrived on Friday night. When I ordered the tickets I informed promoters that I was coming as a journalist more than a farmer. Thus, we were invited to a private Friday gathering with the presenters and organizers.

We got to sit and chat at length, one to one. I asked everyone the same question: “Are we winning?”

Steve Gibbs teaches at Benicia High School and has written a column for The Herald for 25 years.

OUTSIDE PAPPAS on the big night. Courtesy Iona Morgan

Lights, camera, dinner during two-day grand re-opening guided by TV chef

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Take some wood slats and add some chicken wire, and what do you get? New lights at Pappas Restaurant.

Those lights, fresh blue and white paint and a vintage cash register caught the eyes of some of the patrons who had reservations Wednesday night for the grand reopening of Mike Anestasios’s Greek restaurant at 1654 East Second St.

It all came about after a whirlwind makeover courtesy the Food Network TV show, “Restaurant: Impossible.”

Guests at the restaurant’s first grand re-opening — another, strictly local event was held Thursday — were told the Benicia episode is expected to air in late March or early April.

Debbie Norman, owner of Bohnet Engraving and Awards, a local company, is a fan of the prime-time series that charges the chef, Robert Irvine, and his support team with making changes at a troubled restaurant in less than two days — and on a budget of just $10,000.

Changes remain a secret until the work is finished, unveiled at the restaurant’s showcase dinner.

Norman made reservations for Wednesday’s dinner, but was among those lined at the restaurant’s fence line earlier that day to watch some of the filming of the show.

She even got to meet Irvine, the show’s star. “He talked with everybody. We were able to meet and take pictures.”

Irvine is known for yelling during the show, but he gave a different kind of shout-out Wednesday night — telling Anestasios to be kind to his employees and urging customers to be generous tippers.

Norman said even the show’s crew members were friendly. She also met Tom Bury, the construction manager. “He talked to a lot of people … he said everything went well.”

She was impressed with the openness of the renovated restaurant. “It’s fresh, and up to date,” she said. Even the restaurant’s staff had a renewed energy, even though they worked late into the night, she said.

Norman and her daughter particularly liked the light fixtures. “They were on a budget,” she said, but if the unusual lights were made inexpensively, they didn’t look cheap.

Those who made reservations for the evening meal had to wait outside before being allowed to enter the restaurant, said Nannette Hardy, owner of A Perfect Ten salon. But she echoed Norman, saying the wait was worth it.

Customers weren’t seated for nearly two hours as the show’s crews finished their work, though most of those in the line used the time to chat with each other and watch as the television crews finished their jobs.

“They were still doing things,” Hardy said. She saw some of the crew carrying out paint buckets and others cleaning up after the renovation.

Anestasios and his family had not been participants in the makeover. They handed over the keys to Irvine, then left for a day and a half.

Hardy is a fan of the show, too, but she said she held her breath when Anestasios got his first glimpse at Pappas’s new look.

First, the Anestasios family was filmed outside the building. “I couldn’t hear the interview,” Hardy said, but she realized Anestasios and his family were being encouraged to look at each other, rather than the camera, as they answered questions.

Then Anestasios was led up to the restaurant’s front door and was told to close his eyes until the door was opened.

“I couldn’t see his expression. He went in, then came out and got the rest of the family and showed them the restaurant,” Hardy said.

“My heart was racing for them. I was hoping they’d like it and that they’d be so excited.”

Hardy said she liked the changes.

“They opened up the bar. It felt like it all flowed,” she said. “It’s brighter.”

She noticed the fabric and trimming treatment on the wall. “That added a nice touch, and added color to the room.”

Another detail she noticed: “You can’t see into the kitchen anymore.” Instead, bamboo and blue screen off the cooking area.

Norman went with her daughter, Brandy Shelton, a teacher, and their friend, Iona Amie Morgan, all of Benicia.

What surprised them first were the new lights.

“We liked the lights made out of what looked like chicken wire and thin pieces of wood slats,” Morgan said. “Pretty clever!”

She also liked the new look of the restaurant’s bar. “The old-fashioned cash register was pretty cool,” she said.

“It’s really cute, and very Benicia — not too much,” she said. “Diners were definitely star-struck and as far as the restaurant improvements go.”

Morgan also liked that Anestasios took time to greet the customers and accomodate a youngster who wanted chocolate chips in his meal, even as the night grew late. “He’s a sweet man,” she said.

Benician Ola Peters also attended the gala event, joining six other friends who call themselves “The Bag Ladies.” They had received special invitations from Anestasios because the Bag Ladies — about a dozen friends who like to shop together — usually have Wednesday night dinner at the restaurant.

Anestasios greeted the women with hugs Wednesday night.

“He’s humbled by the outpouring of Benicia residents. He was overwhelmed,” Peters said.

“The décor is gorgeous: cornflower blue and white.”

She said the décor had a Mediterranean look that supports the restaurant’s renewed emphasis on Greek food on its dinner menu.

“They pulled the carpet,” she noticed, replacing it with taupe laminated flooring.

As for the food, Peters had calamari stuffed with olives, which she described as some of the best she’s ever had.

Others at her table had chicken lemon rice soup, strip steak and a classic Greek dish, spanakopita, a phyllo pie made with spinach and feta cheese.

“They were really impressed with the quality of the food, and how quickly it was served,” Peters said.

Hardy said the camera crews focused on Benicia officials, such as Councilmember Alan Schwartzman, City Attorney Heather McLaughlin and Interim Economic Development Manager Mario Giuliani, as Irvine asked how they liked the meal.

He also took time to describe to diners what had taken place at Pappas over the preceding 48 hours, she said.

Irvine decided to end the event with a traditional Greek custom, breaking a plate — though Hardy said it took two takes for the chef to be satisfied with the effect of the shattering china.

Norman said getting a national spotlight is important to a local business. As the owner of a Benicia company herself, she said, “I know how important it is to stay and shop in Benicia. … This will put new life into the restaurant.”

“I hope this puts Benicia back on the map, and gets people into the restaurant,” Hardy said. Like Norman, she recognized that sometimes residents overlook the stores and restaurants in their home town. “They get forgotten,” she said.

“It’s a big thing for Benicia,” Peters said, echoing Hardy’s thoughts.

“I believe this will put Benicia on the map for tourism and put us in a positive light.”

Fliers in hand, diners formed lines all day Tuesday to get a bite to eat at First Street Café and help raise money to save Benicia’s two state parks at the same time.

In exchange for the handbill, the restaurant’s owner, Mark Krull, contributed 20 percent of the diner’s bill to the Benicia State Parks Association.

“It was very successful,” Carol Berman, president of the association, said of the event. She could tell: She had breakfast, bought take-out lunch and returned for dinner at the restaurant at 440 First St. — and each time the place was full, and sometimes she saw lines going out the door.

“People were waiting for tables,” Berman said. “They were full for lunch. And for dinner, they were full for two and a half seatings.”

The parks association is raising money and seeking members as it works toward participating in a multi-agency goal of keeping the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park and Benicia State Recreation Area open. Both are among the 70 on California’s parks closure list, scheduled to be shuttered some time this year.

Berman said she won’t have totals from the fundraiser until Krull’s bookkeeper returns, perhaps by early next week.

Berman praised Krull for participating in the program, and for expanding the BPSA share of the diners’ money. “Originally, Mark said 10 percent,” she said. Later he doubled the contribution.

And while it was the first time Krull used First Street Café to help the parks association, it won’t be the last. “Mark offered to do it bimonthly,” Berman said. “He’s a great person.” A March date hasn’t been selected, but Berman said she expects that event will take place early in the month.

The association, a registered nonprofit, is accepting memberships. Tax-deductible memberships are $10 for students, $12 for seniors, $25 for individuals, $40 for couples and families, $50 for contributors, $100 for supporters, $200 for sponsors, $500 for patrons, and $1,000 for curators, and can be sent to BSPA at P.O. Box 404, Benicia, 94510-1625.

LES OVERLOCK and the owls of Java Point Café. Keri Luiz/Staff

■ Java Point hosts new exhibit

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

One of the most appreciated things about Benicia is the likelihood of walking into a downtown establishment and finding on display some work by a local artist.

Java Point Café on First Street is one of those places. Walk in there today and you’ll see displayed on one wall some artwork from Bonnie Weidel’s kids’ art classes. On the other will be several small paintings of owls created by local artist and Herald contributor Les Overlock.

Overlock’s portraits are part of an ongoing, ever-changing exhibit he will continue to add to as he creates the paintings.

For him, the owls are also part of a journey.

“Take a little square out of an artist’s canvas and see if you can identify the artist by his mark,” he said. “Just enough to get a little bit of a flavor.”

From the beginning, Overlock has had his mark. “It always used to give me a very good feeling because people used to say, ‘Oh, this is yours.’ Not like it was a Van Gogh or brilliant or anything, but it had my mark on it.”

The former teacher always encouraged his students to develop their mark, too — to answer the question, “What is your signature?”

“Mine stays very consistent, whether I’m drawing or painting or anything else,” he said — or whether his paintings depict African themes or, most recently, owls.

“This is owl awareness year for me,” Overlock said. He is embarking on a personal study of owls in Benicia, and painting them along the way, with help from people who have shared their stories of hearing owls in their yard or seeing them flying around at night.

Owls, Overlock said, “bring out a certain spirit in people.”

That spirit has also informed Overlock’s art therapy work at the Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Martinez. He recently brought in a lot of black-and-white pictures of owls to show the patients, and “after they did their owls, I had them give their owl a name.”

The work made the veterans look inside themselves, he said, using the owl as a focus. “Then on the back of the owl, they had to write down some word of wisdom that either they knew or made up on the spot,” he said.

“When you are looking into the eye of an owl, you are looking into that reflection of that part of us that needs to contemplate, deal with the dark, and realize that the dark is not a place of fear,” he said. “And that the darkness is a different world.”

Overlock plans to add to the owl paintings on display at Java Point as he continues to learn more about them, which he hopes Benicians will help him do by contacting him at lesartist@yahoo.com.

“This is a little niche. Those owls are just nesting at Java (Point). They’re not anywhere else, they’re not out there as art. They’re just kind of in the corner there.”

If You Go
Les Overlock’s owl paintings can be seen at Java Point Café, 366 First St. Java Point is open daily until 5 p.m. Call 707-745-1449 for more information.

Benicia police said an armed robber entered a Southampton business Thursday afternoon and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.

No one was injured in the holdup at Check Into Cash, 806 Southampton Road, police said.

The lone suspect, armed with a handgun, entered the business around 4:48 p.m. and approached two female clerks and demanded money, police said.

Given cash, the suspect then reportedly fled the area on foot before police were notified. Benicia officers and detectives responded to the reported robbery but were unable to locate the suspect, according to a news release.

Police reported that witnesses described the suspect as a black male, between 18-25 years old, of medium height and with a thin build.

Police said detectives are following possible leads in the case. Those with information may call Benicia police at 707-745-3411.

BENICIAN SHANNA ROSSI. Courtesy photo

Benician creates winning style for rising country singer

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Shanna Rossi loves horseback riding and she loves design. A chance to bring the two together has brought her recognition — and maybe shown her a potential career path.

Rossi, a 2008 graduate of Benicia High School, recently won an online contest to design a pair of Justin brand cowboy boots for country singer Lauren Alaina, the 2011 runner-up on “American Idol,” as part of Alaina’s promotional effort for her new album “Wildflower.”

For Rossi, 21, currently enrolled at Sacramento State University, it all started with a “Why not?” moment.

An avid horseback rider, she visited the Facebook page of Justin Boots and hit the “Like” button. “A pop-up came up saying, ‘You have a chance to enter into a contest for Justin Boots,’” she told The Herald on Wednesday.

Rossi clicked the link, and it took her to the website of Talenthouse, a site geared toward artists with a focus on film, fashion, music, design and photography. Talenthouse offers opportunities for collaborations and contests in many different media.

She registered a Talenthouse profile and signed up for the contest. Given an outline of the boots to work with and told the boots should thematically adhere to the title of Alaina’a album, Rossi went to work.

“I was pretty excited about it,” she said. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ It’s free, I could win, and I could easily get my name out there.”

Because Rossi was familiar with the way Justin represents its boots — “they’re not the most flashy kind of boots, they’re more of a rugged work boot,” she said — she had a bit of an advantage.

But she also “wanted to represent (Alaina).” So, using Adobe Illustrator, she elected to go with a two-tone design, with blue roses and vines on the calf of the boot, embellished with silver studs. “It took a lot of time, but it came out great. Nobody else that entered did anything like it,” she said.

Rossi’s design was voted among the top three, and Alaina was to pick the winner. That’s all Rossi was told.

Then she received an email telling her she was among the top three, and contest organizers wanted to do a Skype interview with her.

“I didn’t know I was the only one that had a Skype interview,” she said.

“I woke up at nine in the morning, got on Skype, and started talking to them.” That was when she found out they had tricked her — she had actually won the contest.

Rossi’s winning design is being made into a pair of boots Alaina will wear at an undetermined date, and the designer will get a pair, too. Eventually she’ll also receive the pair worn by Alaina, autographed, along with a couple autographed copies of Alaina’s CD.

“I’m excited to see the final product,” Rossi said. And she’s excited about the recognition. “Being recognized on multiple websites as a designer, it gets my name out there for companies and even celebrities to see it,” she said. “Anything could happen.”

In particular she hopes the contest win helps her get into the Sacramento State graphic design program. “They have an awesome program. Only 40 people get into that program,” she said.