Richmond City Council (Richmond, California)
Encyclopedia
Richmond City Council is the governing body for the city of Richmond, California
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The council members meet every first and third Tuesday of the month and, if necessary, hold special meetings on the remaining Tuesdays.
Presently, there are eight Democrats, one member of the Green Party, and no Republicans.
The city council had met at the Richmond Civic Center at City Hall for decades, but due to seismic instability the council started meeting at an alternative site in the Marina Bay
neighborhood. Some of the council favored a permanent move to this site, which is newer and in one of the more affluent neighborhoods. However, the majority of the populace was against this action as it would move City Hall from a central location to a rather isolated one. The city council has now returned to meeting downtown with the reconstruction of the Richmond Civic Center.
In the 2006 city election
, Gayle McLaughlin of the Green Party was elected mayor of Richmond after a close race with Democrats Irma Anderson and Gary Bell.
Richmond Medical Center
.
The council has been noted in the media for frivolous and unproductive bickering, especially between Tom Butt and María Viramontes. 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.
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
.
Background
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, there are eight Democrats, one member of the Green Party, and no Republicans.
The city council had met at the Richmond Civic Center at City Hall for decades, but due to seismic instability the council started meeting at an alternative site in the Marina Bay
Marina Bay, Richmond, California
Marina Bay is located in Richmond's protected Inner Harbor. It was developed in the mid 1980s in an effort to clean up what had been up to that point the defunct WWII-era Kaiser Shipyards. The has been planned as an upper-scale residential waterfront community with apartments, condominiums,...
neighborhood. Some of the council favored a permanent move to this site, which is newer and in one of the more affluent neighborhoods. However, the majority of the populace was against this action as it would move City Hall from a central location to a rather isolated one. The city council has now returned to meeting downtown with the reconstruction of the Richmond Civic Center.
In the 2006 city election
2006 Richmond, California city election
The Richmond, California 2006 city election decided the mayor, four council members, and one measure submitted to the voters of Richmond, California on November 7, 2007. The election also elected the first Green Party mayor of this city, and made Richmond the largest city in the United States to...
, Gayle McLaughlin of the Green Party was elected mayor of Richmond after a close race with Democrats Irma Anderson and Gary Bell.
| City Councilmembershttp://ca-richmond.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=149 | |
| 1 | Gayle McLaughlin Gayle McLaughlin Gayle McLaughlin is a California politician. She is a member of the Green Party and, since 2006, the mayor of Richmond, California and a member of Richmond's City Council. McLaughlin was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 279-vote margin over incumbent mayor Irma A. Anderson... , (G) Mayor |
| 2 | Jeff Ritterman, (D) Vice Mayor |
| 3 | Courtland "Corky" Boozé, (D) Vice Mayor |
| 4 | Nathaniel "Nat" Bates Nathanial Bates Nathanial "Nat" Bates is a former Democratic African American two-term mayor of Richmond, California from 1971 to 1972 and again from 1976–1977 and current city councilmember of Richmond, California. He was the second African-American mayor of Richmond after George B... , (D) |
| 5 | Tom Butt Tom Butt Thomas K. "Tom" Butt is a former vice-mayor and a present city council member from Richmond, California. He is a Democrat. He has been on the Richmond City Council since 1995.... , (D) |
| 6 | Jovanka Beckles, (D) |
| 7 | Jim Rogers, (D) |
Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman
Jeff Ritterman is chief cardiologist at Kaiser PermanenteKaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield...
Richmond Medical Center
Richmond Medical Center
Richmond Medical Center is a large Kaiser Permanente hospital in downtown Richmond, California which serves 77,000 members registered under its medical plans.-History:...
.
Courtland "Corky" Boozé
Ran for city council for ten consecutive elections, often coming in second place and finally elected for the first time in 2010.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."The council has been noted in the media for frivolous and unproductive bickering, especially between Tom Butt and María Viramontes. 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.