Concord City Council Welcomes New Member, Selects Mayor

CONCORD, CA—The Concord City Council welcomed a new member, selected a mayor for 2025, and bid farewell to the outgoing mayor at its meeting Tuesday.

Councilmember Carlyn Obringer was sworn into her third term and Councilmember Pablo Benavente took the oath of office for his first term.

Obringer and Benavente ran in contested races in the Nov. 5 general election. Obringer was re-elected to Council by over 75 percent of District 2 voters. Benavente represents District 4 after a tight four-way race that pitted him against incumbent Councilmember Edi Birsan, who most recently served as mayor, and two other candidates, Myles Burks and Matthew Dashner.

The final election results showed Benavente leading Birsan by 109 votes. Benavente received 35.25 percent of votes, Birsan was close behind with 34.24 percent, Burks had 19.56 percent, and Dashner garnered 10.95 percent.

Tuesday night, all council members and several people from the community recognized and thanked Birsan for his 12 years of service on the City Council and for his leadership as mayor.

The newly seated Council selected Obringer as mayor and District 5 Councilmember Laura Nakamura as vice mayor for the year ahead.

Mayor Obringer highlighted the work ahead for the five-person City Council, which is rounded out by District 3 Councilmember Dominic Aliano and District 1 Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister.

"We have a variety of areas where we’ve made progress, but there is much more work to do," Obringer said.

The top priorities in 2025 include roadway improvements, public safety, addressing homelessness, economic development, and the redevelopment of the former Concord Naval weapons station.

Obringer Serves As Mayor For Second Time

Obringer was first elected to the Concord City Council in November 2016 and was re-elected in 2020 and 2024. She served as mayor in 2019 and as vice mayor in 2018 and 2024.

Before her election to City Council, Obringer served as chair of the Planning Commission and as a member of the city’s Design Review Board.

Obringer is a regional leader who chairs the East Bay Regional Park District Parks Advisory Committee and is a founding Diablo Valley Tech Initiative member. She serves on the Contra Costa Airport Land Use Committee and represents the Contra Costa Mayors Conference on the East Bay Economic Development Alliance and the Innovate 680 Policy Advisory Committee. Obringer has also served as the chairperson for TRANSPAC, a Central County regional transportation planning body.

Welcoming Council's Newest Member

Benavente grew up in Concord and attended local schools. He continued his education at California State University East Bay, earning a bachelor's degree in political science.

Benavente has been involved in the community as a volunteer with organizations such as the Economic Opportunity Council of Contra Costa and as chair of the Board of Monument Impact, a community-based nonprofit focused on immigrant, refugee and low-income communities in Concord.

Benavente is a technology industry-government relations professional. He previously worked for the Service Employees International Union —SEIU —and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers — IFPTE —Local 21.

He served on Concord’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Committee before his election to the City Council.

Mayor's Community Service Award

Every year the outgoing mayor honors someone who has gone above and beyond for the Concord community. During the Dec. 10 meeting, Mayor Birsan recognized Mary Rae Lehman and former Concord Mayor Michael Pastrick with the Mayor’s 2024 Community Service Award for their work leading the nonprofit Concord Ambassadors organization, which manages the city’s relationship with its sister city, Kitakami, Japan.

For over a year, Lehman, Pastrick, the Concord Ambassadors volunteers, and a committee of community members worked to organize the 50th anniversary of the sister-city relationship. This culminated in a four-day visit by a delegation from Kitakami in October. The visit included a tour of Concord and the greater Bay Area, multiple social events and a formal dinner.

"For the unbelievable amount of work they did, they have been the heart and soul of the Kitakami sister city effort," Birsan said. "They are totally deserving of all our recognition and our thanks. They made it possible for us to be reminded that we are not alone; we are part of an international network called the human race."