Justin Zollars for Benicia City Council
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Justin Zollars

About

I'm a Benicia homeowner and civic advocate.

I've spent fifteen years building technology at companies including Adobe and Veracyte, where I work today as a software engineer in cancer genomics. I'm also a startup founder, with hands-on experience managing work and budgets between disparate parties: engineers, partners, and customers.

In 2008, I represented my community as an elected delegate to a presidential nominating convention, pledged to a candidate who would go on to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.

On weekends, I sail.

An isometric ballot card for Benicia City Council with the box beside Justin Zollars marked with a green check.

Priorities

Prioritize New Business

Valero paid for a large share of this city, and that revenue is gone. You do not close a gap that size with fees, not with higher costs on the small businesses of First Street, and not by charging homeowners more to live in the town they already pay for. Those fees land on the people who are already carrying Benicia.

The answer is a new tax base. Benicia is a genuine value: deep-water access, rail, one of Northern California's largest industrial parks, room to build, and a quality of life no other Bay Area address matches at our cost of entry. I'll treat recruiting employers as core Council work, going after technology, clean energy, life sciences and advanced manufacturing alongside the Solano Economic Development Corporation and our own businesses already here. Growth pays the bills. Fees just move them onto Main Street.

An isometric business district: the Arsenal clocktower on the high ground, a glass technology campus with rooftop solar, a wind turbine with solar arrays and battery storage, a row of Main Street storefronts, a tower crane raising the steel frame of the next building, and a waterfront pier on the strait with a small freighter alongside.

Parks, roads, and budgets

The unglamorous work is the work that matters. Maintained parks, paved roads, and a budget that is honest about what the city can afford are what make Benicia a beautiful place to live. I will keep Council focused there.

An isometric city park: lawn with mown stripes, two crossing walkways meeting at a fountain plaza, a pond, trees, flower beds, benches and a bandstand.

Growth that keeps Benicia, Benicia

Post-World War II suburban development is a financial failure. I envision improvement through urban planning concepts like walkability, mixed-use zoning, and infill development. This is an idea in which low-density, car-dependent, highway-oriented growth looks prosperous in the short-term but is actually a slow-motion insolvency trap for municipalities. What do we want Benicia to be in 100 years? or 1000 years? Benicia's small-town character is worth protecting as we grow.

An isometric Benicia: the Carquinez Strait and a public dock with a sailboat, a row of small First Street storefronts along the main street, the old Capitol with its cupola and flag, and Victorians on the hill side.

Face the post-Valero budget honestly

Valero has shut down. That is not a future risk anymore. It is Benicia's biggest fiscal reality, and it happened on this Council's watch. I'll push for a clear, public accounting of what it means for city revenue, and for real plans rather than vague reassurances about how we replace it. Residents deserve straight answers, not another surprise.

An isometric hillside with three wind turbines, their rotors turning, above a solar array of tilted panels.

Oppose California Forever

Benicia doesn't benefit from this project. We'll have added traffic, competition for our limited water resources and strain on our already strained County budgets.

An isometric stretch of Solano County open space: golden rolling hills with scattered oaks, a stock pond, a ranch trail winding over a ridge, and cloud shadows drifting across the flat.

Remove the Flock license plate cameras

I led local opposition to Flock Safety's automated license plate reader cameras in Benicia. These cameras track every driver's movements and store the data indefinitely. That data can be subject to warrantless federal demands, potentially handing your every movement to ICE, with no accountability to Benicia residents.

The spirit of this kind of deployment is dystopian and deeply pessimistic: un-American, and much closer to what you would expect in unfree, heavily surveilled societies. I will remove these cameras from Benicia.

See where they are ↓

An isometric California license plate reading VT JZ 2026, with DEC and 2026 registration stickers and a red scanner line sweeping the length of the plate.

The map

51 Flock cameras are mapped inside Benicia city limits. Every one of them reads and timestamps the plate of every car that passes. This data could potentially be shared with ICE

License plate reader

Camera locations from OpenStreetMap contributors, collected by the volunteer DeFlock project and snapshotted on August 7, 2026. Community-reported, so treat it as a close estimate rather than an official inventory.

Frequently asked questions

How many Flock cameras are in Benicia?

The city contracted for 51 camera sites. Fifty of them are built. The last one is stuck in a years-long permit dispute with Caltrans, and the city was billed for it anyway.

Who else can see Benicia's data?

Eighty-two outside agencies hold letters granting them access to Benicia's plate data. Those are one-page self-certifications, not negotiated agreements. Another 56 agencies requested access with no acknowledgment letter on file at all, and 15 asked for video rather than just plate reads.

In November 2025 residents were told a signed memorandum of understanding is required before data is shared. The department's own records indicate none exist.

What data does Flock have about me?

Flock creates a record of vehicle movements captured by its cameras, including where and when a vehicle was seen. Even if your license plate isn't visible, Flock says its cameras can identify a vehicle using characteristics such as its make, model, color, and distinctive features like scratches or bumper stickers - even your face. Taken together, these records can reveal a detailed log of your travels across the United States.

Benicia Police frequently search this database. In 2026, officers have conducted more than 10,000 searches of Flock's data.

Could this data reach ICE or federal agencies?

Yes. Benicia's Police Chief confirmed that the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center has Benicia's data, and that the department could not determine where it went next.

That matters because San Francisco audited the same intermediary in May 2025 and found NCRIC had queried SFPD's Flock network on behalf of federal and out-of-state agencies — 299 improper inquiries in roughly a year, routed through the Western States Information Network. SFPD terminated NCRIC's access. Benicia has not run the equivalent audit of who has searched its network.

How did Benicia buy Flock Cameras without competitive bidding?

The city skipped competitive bidding on a sole-source justification. Public records show that justification was drafted by Flock itself, the vendor it was used to award. Flock also supplied other cities' staff reports as templates, and was working inside the city before it had sold anything.

Police officers must enter a reason before searching the Flock license plate database. But does that actually protect us from abuse?

Officers are instructed to log only a case number when searching license plate records, without explanatory language, because outside groups review the search logs. A case number is not a reason to violate your right to privacy.

Don't the cameras reduce crime?

No. There is no evidence of this.

How do I help remove the Flock Cameras?

Vote for Justin Zollars. He is committed to protecting your 4th Amendment Rights. He is against Government overreach - from the Right and the Left. And he will comprehensively review the process that led to our small American town procuring an East German style Stasi like technology. What poor judgment led to this outcome?

Where do the incumbents stand?

I have committed to removing the Flock cameras from Benicia. As of August 13, 2026, neither Terry Scott nor Kari Birdseye has made that commitment.

Figures on this page come from Benicia's own records, obtained under the California Public Records Act and published by Benicia Watch, whose 19 findings and 560-document archive are public. If you think any of it is wrong, read the documents and tell me.

I'd be honored to earn your vote.