The Ubiquitous They — Mark Hughes

How long have you lived in Benicia? My wife and I have lived in Benicia for 30 years practically. We both grew up in San Francisco, got married and started looking for a place to settle down…we started looking for a city with good grade schools, a strong focus on public safety…and just an overall family-oriented town that would be within a reasonable commute to San Francisco. My sister and brother-in-law actually lived here and we used to visit them. We found that Benicia offered all the things we were looking for, including, at the time, affordable housing. I’ve traveled to many cities throughout the United States and still haven’t found a better place to live. It’s been terrific.

What made you decide to run for City Council? It probably started when I was volunteering for Little League. I was on the Little League board of directors for about 10 years. Somewhere along the way, an opening came up on the Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Commission, and I expressed interest, turned in an application, and was appointed to that position. I was reappointed twice, so I spent 12 years on (that) commission. It really gave me some insight as to how government worked. At that time I was also watching and attending some of the City Council meetings, and it seemed like my background might be a good fit for the City Council. It seemed like they needed a little more business expertise and business background. So I threw my hat in the ring and was elected in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. It’s been very, very rewarding. Most of the job, I would say 80 percent of the job, is really good, and 20 percent is more challenging than you’d probably like.

What was the biggest surprise once you joined City Council?  My biggest surprise was how long it takes to actually make decisions and get things done. To this day it’s still frustrating for me…with the city, the big difference is you need to involve many more stakeholders, and at a minimum you have to convince two other council members to agree with your idea or your position.  I’m not critical of why we do things…but it just moves so slowly and I’m not a move slowly kind of guy...I think that’s a frustrating thing for the citizens, too, that things move so slowly.

Besides the budget, what would you like to change in your capacity as a member of City Council? I would like Benicia to realize tremendous success in the area of economic development. What I mean by that is attracting a lot of new businesses to town, and more tourists to town (so) we would be at capacity downtown and in the industrial park.  I think we need to be very flexible in what businesses we bring into the city. That said, I think they need to be businesses that offer services and products that our citizens really need.