Candidate for
Mayor; City of Benicia

Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson - Biography

Mayor Patterson served on the Benicia City Council from 2003 until her election as Mayor in 2007. She served on the Benicia Planning Commission (1998-2000) and was Chair of the General Plan Oversight Committee (GPOC) for three years from beginning to end (1995-1998). Ms. Patterson has been or currently serves on City committees including People Using Resources Efficiently (PURE), Sunshine (open government), Solano Economic Development Corporation, ABAG, BCDC (alternate), and Sky Valley Open Space.

Ms. Patterson was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. She moved to Northern California in 1968, lived and worked on a ranch in San Luis Obispo and then moved to Ithaca, New York to work as a librarian, before returning to the Bay Area. Elizabeth has lived in Benicia since 1983 where she raised two girls and one large dog.

Ms. Patterson became a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1991 and has been a Planning Director for two Bay Area towns. Elizabeth has been involved in several regional and local issues using conflict resolution to reach a consensus for planning and managing urban and natural resource assets. She was Executive Director of the Partnership for Regional Livability, a project for the White House Task Force on Livable Communities during the Clinton/Gore administration.

Elizabeth is most proud of her work on the Delta Protection Commission while she was at the California State Lands Commission. Ms. Patterson has worked before and within the State Senate as staff to Senator Thompson. She is currently a staff environmental scientist (retired) working on the California Water Plan for the Department of Water Resources.

Ms. Patterson's other memberships in organizations include:

• American Association of University Women
• Arts Benicia
• Benicia Community Arts
• Benicia Soroptimists International
• Benicia League of Women Voters
• Benicia Historical Society
• Benicia Historical Museum
• Friends of the Library
• California Native Plant Society, Wills L. Jepson, Benicia Chapter
• Association of Environmental Professionals
• Center For Natural Land Management (former Board Member)
• Friends of the Estuary (Vice Chair)
• Sierra Club, Mt. Diablo Regional Group, (past) Conservation Chair (Bay Chapter, Conservationist of Year Award 1980)
• Greenbelt Alliance, (past) Executive Committee
• Soil Conservation Society of America, San Francisco Chapter
• Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, (past) Associate Board Member