The Richmond City Council is the governing body for the city of Richmond, California. The council consists of the Mayor of Richmond and six other city council members, one designated Vice Mayor. The council members are all elected from the whole city; no members are elected by district or ward. The council members are elected to four-year terms, as opposed to the previous six-year terms. They are not all elected at once. The council members meet every first and third Tuesday of the month and, if necessary, hold special meetings on the remaining Tuesdays. Presently the entire city council is Democratic.
History Controversies
After Gayle McLaughlin's victory in 2006, the council appointed Harpreet Sandhu who had been the city's Human Relations Director to her vacant city council person seat. The fact that public input was not considered and that the candidates were not revealed to the public outraged many in the community. This led to the passage of an ordinance allowing anyone who can obtain 20 registered voters to sign a petition in their favor to be able to register with the city for a vacant seat. The petition was added to get the vote of council member Nate Bates, who considered passing the law without such a requirement would turn the city council appointments into an American Idol style circus.
Mayor McLaughlin voted against this measure since she thought the city needed to overhaul the process entirely to make it more democratic. Her campaign manager and vocal community activist Juan Reardon called the new ordinance a "travesty."Council shifts way it fills seats, Contra Costa Times, by Joshua Geluardi, March 11, 2007; retrieved May 25, 2007
The council has been noted in the media for frivolous and unproductive bickering, especially between Tom Butt and María Viramontes.Strife doesn't throw council off course: Despite setbacks, Richmond's leaders say, city has regained respect and its bond rating, by John Geluardi, Contra Costa Times, posted online August 18, 2007, retrieved August 23, 2007. The council has been noted for having two distinct and opposing factions consisting of: Viramontes, López, Sandhu and sometimes Bates which conflicts with the remaining fellowship of McGlaughlin, Butt, Ritterman, and sometimes Rogers.
2010s
In 2015, Thomas K. Butt was elected mayor. The vice mayor is Ben Choi. They serve alongside councilmen Nathanial Bates, Eduardo Martinez, Demnlus Johnson, Jael Myrick, and Melvin Willis
In 2010, the council passed an ordinance approving of unlimited cannabis dispensaries. This was supported by Nat Bates, Gayle McGlaughlin, Jim Rogers, and Jeff Ritterman, while opposed by Myrna López, María Viramontes, and Tom Butt. The majority stated that they liked the idea of more but smaller operations decentralizing the activity in the city. Also in 2010, the council ponied up 1.5 million US dollars to keep John F. Kennedy High School and two elementary schools from being closed due to lack of funding. This was supported by Myrna López
In 2011, the council voted in its majority with Nat Bates and Jim Rogers dissenting to cancel the Point Molate casino project and give the developer and tribe 120 days to propose an alternate use for the former Navy site.Richmond Council Cancels Point Molate Casino Deal, Janna Brancolini, The Berkeley Daily Planet
2014 saw the continuing strength of the Richmond Progressive Alliance's candidates winning a majority of the council for its third straight election.Despite the Best Efforts of the Democratic Party, Some Good Candidates Won in Berkeley and Richmond, Becky O'Malley, The Berkeley Daily Planet
In 2018, the city finally resolved the matter of the former Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, approving mostly housing and some businesses on 30% of the land and open space/parks on the remaining 70% after years of litigation regarding a proposed Las Vegas-style casino proposed by the Guideville Band of Pomo Indians.Richmond Successfully Resolves Point Molate Litigation, The Berkeley Daily Planet
In the 2018 elections, the Richmond Progressive Alliance whose candidates form the left wing position on the council lost their supermajority. The other half of the council is typically made up of Richmond Chevron Refinery backed candidates, also Democrats, but more to the right. The reasons cited were Gayle McLaughlin and Jovanka Beckles running for statewide office and Ada Recinos falling to sixth place in the election. In 2019 the city council was mulling a ban on coal and petroleum coke storage that is frequently stored in boxcars along the industrial city's myriad train tracks off-gassing potential contaminants to the city's urban population possibly contributing to respiratory illnesses.Richmond city council to consider ban on coal storage, Kathleen Kirkwood, KTVU
In 2019, the city was mulling (and expected to pass) banning coal storage in box cars and at its Levin Terminal giving the business 3 years to transition to alternate business practices whilst not banning the transport of coal through the city itself.'Showdown' Over Richmond Coal Storage Set For This Week, El Cerrito Patch It amounts to blocking 25% of the United States coal exports from the West Coast worldwide, mostly to China and other Asian countries.Coal Exports Choked by Green-Minded Towns on U.S. West Coast, Will Wade, Bloomberg It was opposed by the coal and storage industries but supported by a petition of 600 residents citing health concerns from the 1 million tons of coal, nearly 268 thousand tons of petcoke and nearly 156 thousand tons of scrap metal shipped and stored in the city in 2018.Richmond City Council to consider coal storage ban, Kathleen Kirkwood, SFBACA.com
Also this year, the city fired its city manager by a vote of 4–3Richmond City Council Haplessly Fires City Manager, John Geluardi, East Bay Times Carlos Martinez citing "unfair labor practices" and the ire of the city's unions.Richmond city manager fired after less than a year, Ali Tadayon, East Bay Times
Ben Choi Ben Choi has been the vice mayor and a city councilman of Richmond, California since 2019.Richmond councilmembers to be sworn in tonight, Richmond Standard
2000s
The 2000s saw the rise and fall of pro-Chevron and anti-Chevron camps on the city council and the formation of the Richmond Progressive Alliance co-founded by Andres Soto. It was also the time during which Richmond was transformed from city with high gun violence and homicides to one with renewable energy and new schools built by a progressive Green Party mayor - Gayle McLaughlin who replaced Irma Anderson.
For the beginning of the decade the city council lineup was as follows: mayor Irma L. Anderson with vice mayor Jim Rogers and councilpersons Nathaniel Bates, Thomas K. Butt, Richard L. Griffin, John Márquez, Gayle McLaughlin, Mindell L. Penn, and María Viramontes.
During this decade the city managed to dig itself out of a 35 million US dollar deficit with crippling cuts to city services and 200 city job layoffs to a nearly 105 million US dollar renovation of the Richmond Civic Center.Environmentalists Take Lead in East Bay Land Disputes, Richard Brenneman, The Berkeley Daily Planet
2004 saw the city's council majority endorsement of a casino at Point Molate.Richmond Council Endorses Casino Plan For Point Molate Site, Richard Brenneman, The Berkeley Daily Planet In 2006 the city council voted to drop its membership in the Richmond City Council.Richmond Council Drops Chamber Membership, Judith Scherr, The Berkeley Daily Planet Richmond was the first city in California to do so, and in the country second behind only Chicago. Mentioning the word "reparations", this story was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle and carried in papers in Salt Lake City, Utah and Bluffton, South Carolina.
As part of the "Consent calendar" at the 1 March 2005 meeting, the city council adopted an ordinance, sponsored by Mindell Penn and María Viramontes, to divest city funds from financial institutions linked to slavery.
In 2009 the council was reduced in size from nine to seven seats in order to save the city salary costs.McLaughlin Takes Office Tuesday, Richard Brenneman, The Berkeley Daily Planet
Myrna López From 2006 to 2010 Ludmyrna "Myrna" López was on the city council, she was criticized as a rubber stamp for Chevron and the developers such as the Point Molate Casino by Andrés Soto while she promoted jobs and education for the most part. She criticized the Richmond Progressive Alliance for not accepting corporate donations while not interfering with mass mailers sent out in opposition to Measure U an advisory ballot measure to approve of or disapprove of an Indian gaming casino at the former Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot.
Mindell Penn
Mindell Lewis Penn was a city council member in the city of Richmond, California between 1999 and 2005. is a graduate of the UC Davis Financial School of Management, and is affiliated with the "powerful" Bay Area group Black Women Organized For Political Action.Finances, Jobs, Safety Top Issues in Richmond Race, J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, Berkeley Daily Planet, 20-08-2004, access date 23-12-2011 She served on the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park project committee. Mindell Penn was succeeded by Tony K. Thurmond, who was appointed upon her resignation.Finances, Jobs, Safety Top Issues in Richmond Race, Douglas Allen Taylor, The Berkeley Daily Planet
John Márquez
John Márquez is an American Democratic politician and activist who has held various positions in Richmond, California city government over a span twenty-three years in addition to further years of service before and after in the West County Area.Contra Costa Community College District , Home, John E. Márquez - Secretary, 2012, access date 27-04-2012 This includes eighteen years as a city councilman and a stint as vice mayor. He was the first Latino to serve on the Richmond City Council. Originally he was an appointee to the council in 1985 and won an election to that seat in 1987, he subsequently lost his second bid in 1991.John E. Márquez, City of Richmond website (c/o wayback machine), 03-09-2007, access date 27-04-2012 However he was elected again in 1993 and twice more in 1997 and 2004. In 1990 and 1998 he also served as vice mayor. Márquez was defeated for re-election in 2008, and also lost a mayoral bid in 2001 to Green Gayle McLaughlin.
Jeff Ritterman Jeff Ritterman is a cardiologist, politician, and activist from Richmond, California. He is currently vice president of the board of for the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social ResponsibilityJeff Ritterman, MD, Huffpost.com
From 1981 to 2010 he worked at Kaiser Permanente's Richmond Medical Center where he rose to the position of chief cardiologist. From 2008 to 2012 he was a city councilman for the Richmond City Council, where he proposed a soda tax ballot measure, to combat childhood diabetes, that eventually failed to pass.Richmond's soda tax campaigner, Carolyn Jones, SFGate
Jim Rogers
Jim Rogers popularly known as "The People's Lawyer", was a city councilmember for the city of Richmond, California. He was first elected in 2002, and his final term expired in January 2015. He is a Democrat. From 1994 to 1998 he was a member of the board of supervisors of Contra Costa County, California.Supervisors to Choose New Chairman of Board, San Francisco Chronicle, January 1, 1999
Harpreet Sandhu