Eye on the East Bay: Mr. Gangsta
Contra Costa Times
Posted:   09/16/2012 12:00:00 AM PDT
Mr. Gangsta: If you believe what a few people have been saying lately, there is a "gangsta" prowling Richmond's power corridors. He has white hair and a weakness for tan khakis. He's quick on the draw -- with his smartphone -- and he likes to post pictures and pithy comments on Facebook.
The "gangsta" is a 68-year-old grandfather who works as an architect by day and a City Councilman by night. His name is Tom Butt.
"Tom Butt is a gangsta," said fellow councilman and frequent antagonist Corky Booze, chuckling and jabbing his left index finger toward the opposite wing of the dais on Tuesday. Butt sat back with a wry smile.
The term, a blend of disparagement and admiration, has been used several times in recent months to describe the longtime councilman, mostly by Booze but also by some residents.
A YouTube video titled "Tom Butt the Gangsta" is nearing 1,000 views, and it shows the bespectacled senior issuing a verbal smackdown to a colleague during a council meeting.
But it's more than rough talk. To opponents, Butt is the master of Richmond's legislative branch, a man whose support is so solid and tactics so deft that his approval is all but a guarantee of legal and fiscal support in this town.
On Tuesday night, Booze, Councilman Nat Bates and others howled again that they had been bested by Butt, this time in a rancorous tilt over where to spend settlement money from the Cosco Busan oil spill. Booze wanted money for railing on the pier at Point Molate, but Butt and his coalition weren't having it.
In the end, Butt sewed it up his way.
Asked to comment on his reputation, Butt was customarily blunt.
"At this point in my life, that stuff doesn't bother me a bit," Butt said. "I don't take any of this bull at the council meetings seriously."
Staff writers Craig Lazzeretti, Paul Burgarino and Robert Rogers contributed to this report.