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Concord dodged a bullet two years ago when voters unseated an incumbent and saved the city from a troubling development deal for the massive Concord Naval Weapons Station project.
This year, voters should replace another member who supported that deal, which put the interests of a local developer and labor unions ahead of the city and its residents.
In District 4, voters should replace 12-year incumbent Edi Birsan with Pablo Benavente, a member of the city Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission who works as a government relations manager for a car-sharing company.
In District 2, voters should stick with incumbent Carlyn Obringer, who was part of the new council majority that extracted the city from the problematic deal.
The multibillion-dollar weapons station development, for which planning began two decades ago, will reshape the city.
Planned for 3.5 square miles, an area half the size of the neighboring city of Pleasant Hill, it will provide 12,272 residential units and more than 6 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space.
By the 2022 election, the city had already twice selected a master developer — each time in a process tainted by controversy.
The 2016 selection of Lennar Urban was stained by improper lobbying efforts and meddling by councilmembers. But Lennar bailed in 2020, citing council-imposed labor requirements that made the project financially infeasible.
In 2021, the City Council, on a 3-2 vote, selected Concord First Partners, a three-party consortium that included Albert D. Seeno III’s Discovery Builders, over two other development teams.
It was a controversial pick because Seeno III had pleaded guilty in 2016 to bank fraud on behalf of his home sales company. And the Seeno family building empire had a history of environmental violations.
The consortium agreed to the labor requirements that had killed the prior deal but a year later said it could not fulfill the terms without increasing the number of housing units by 34%.
That left the City Council to decide two months after the 2022 election whether to approve more units or seek a third master developer. By then, Laura Nakamura had unseated Councilmember Tim McGallian, leaving the consortium without majority council support.
And Seeno III’s father, prominent developer Albert Seeno Jr., was suing his son, trying to oust him as CEO of five of the father’s firms. That litigation contained concerning allegations about Seeno III’s management, debt to and deception of his own father, and treatment of employees.
Councilmembers Obringer, Nakamura and Laura Hoffmeister wisely voted to end the deal with Concord First Partners. Birsan and Councilmember Dominic Aliano voted no.
The council later unanimously selected the third master developer, Brookfield Properties, a global real estate firm, which agreed to essentially the same terms that the Seeno consortium said it could not fulfill.
The project is finally moving forward without major controversy. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2028.
Beyond the weapons station project drama, Concord has generally been a well-run city, with a tradition of solid long-range financial planning. That said, its pension plans for city workers are badly underfunded with debt payments likely to strain future city finances.
Between the financial challenges and the need to keep the weapons station development on track, this moment calls for thoughtful and steady city leadership.
District 2: Carlyn Obringer
Carlyn Obringer (Photo courtesy of Carlyn Obringer)
Obringer, seeking her third term, has not received our endorsement previously.
However, she voted in 2021 against the selection of the Seeno consortium as the second master developer and in 2023 to seek a new developer when the consortium tried to renegotiate its original deal.
Those were wise and significant votes. In addition, Obringer is well-versed about city finances. Those two points prompt us to support her this year.
Her opponent, Eric Antonick, a construction project manager, says that if elected “he will go in there and disrupt things.” But he comes unprepared and makes sweeping, often inaccurate, statements.
District 4: Pablo Benavente
Pablo Benavente (Photo courtesy Pablo Benavente)
Incumbent Birsan not only voted in 2021 for the Seeno consortium and in 2023 against dropping the group, he also played a troubling role in the 2016 selection of Lennar.
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As an independent city-commissioned investigation revealed, Birsan, a backer of Lennar, was one of three councilmembers who pressured the city manager to withhold a staff recommendation that favored Lennar’s competitor.
It’s long past time for Birsan to go.
Fortunately, there is a solid alternative. Benavente ran for City Council once before, in 2016, when he was just 25 and a union political organizer. He has since left labor advocacy to work for a tech firm. He supports the Brookfield selection as the weapons station master developer. And he has a solid handle on city finances.
The third candidate in District 4, Myles Burks, the owner of two Concord restaurants, might have a political future, but he’s not prepared to serve now.