Brenda Wants Vallejo to Be No. 1

Brenda Plechaty loves the city of Vallejo but thinks it can be better. That’s why she’s thrown her name in the mix for Vallejo City Council’s District 1 spot in the 2024 election.

District 1 — East Vallejo — is currently run by Rozzana Verder-Aliga, but her term runs out in 2025. Plechaty decided in January to run for her seat.

“I filled out the paperwork in January, but it didn’t feel all that different once that was done,” Plechaty said. “In December I talked to some people who were on council or had been on the council just to find out for sure what I was getting myself into. But once I commit to something I’m committed all the way, so nothing really changed once I filed the paperwork.”

Plechaty — named one of Solano County’s Hometown Heroes in 2023 — is no stranger to Vallejo. She has been involved in the community as the Vice-Chair Commissioner on the City of Vallejo’s Civil Service Committee, and the Chair for the City of Vallejo’s Marina Advisory Committee.

But it’s her work with traumatic brain injury survivors that really stands out.

She founded a Traumatic Brain Injury Caregiver’s Support Group in 2018 after her her life partner suffered a serious accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. She was frustrated that she wasn’t getting the answers she needed on how to deal with the difficult situation so she took things into her own hands and created a support group for family members who are current caregivers to traumatic brain injury survivors.

Many people in her situation admired her work — including Kaiser Permanente.

“Kaiser called, telling me they had heard about what I was doing,” Plechaty said in November. “They said, ‘How can we support you?’ I was like, ‘Holy (expletive) this is amazing. They gave me a place to meet people and all the access one could have to help everyone.

“I found out quickly there was a lot of people like me out there, we all just didn’t know how to reach each other,” Plechaty continued. “When I first started out the hospitals were telling me they would take care of me while I took care of my partner, but there was nothing. I had to figure out a lot on my own. There seemed to be nobody I could ask questions about. People would tell me my partner was medically fine, but they weren’t all the way fine. I still needed help.”

Plechaty was also recognized by U.S. Rep. John Garamendi recently as one of the top 53 women in Solano County that is making a difference.

Now she wants to do the same on a higher scale.

“I absolutely love the city of Vallejo in every possible way. It’s such a hidden gem of a city, but it can do so much better,” Plechaty said on Tuesday. “It’s a city that can’t seem to pull itself up by its bootstraps. I want to see Vallejo go more on the upward trend instead of the mess it’s been in lately.”

Plechaty said working in her other roles in Vallejo “opened her eyes” to how things work.

“The city of Vallejo needs to be very transparent,” Plechaty said. “The communication going back and forth isn’t as good as it can be. I don’t think it’s the city purposely hiding anything, and a lot of the lack of communication is due to a lack of staff members.”

Plechaty tried to be transparent on Sunday when she held her first meet-and-greet event at Hiddenbrooke Park. This came a day after she helped the community on Earth Day at Wardlaw Park.

“It went well I believe because my main question to the community was asking them what there main concerns were,” she said.

So what is the biggest concern for District 1?

“Safety,” Plechaty said, without hesitation. “Most people don’t shop in Vallejo anymore because they don’t feel safe there. The perception of Vallejo has turned so bad. I want to try and put more positive things out there and highlight more of the city’s positive aspects. People don’t feel safe in Vallejo, but they also don’t want to move.”

Plechaty also said her work with a nonprofit has made her want to get all the nonprofits working closely together to help each other out.

“I get wanting to have the spotlight once in a while, but let’s have the spotlight hit more groups,” she said. “Also I want the public more involved. I want people hunting for grants and the grant writers I need to be more involved. How many times has the city of Vallejo missed out on something because we missed the deadline of a grant? Vallejo has a lot of great, smart people. Let’s use them.” - Courtesy of the Vallejo Times-Herald