With 34 days left to go, Monday night, October 1, may have been the last formal forum for Richmond City Council candidates (see Richmond Confidential story below).

I would like to bring you up to date on our campaign, with particular attention to a group of endorsements remarkably more diverse than any other candidate.

• We have support from both of Richmond’s public safety organizations, Firefighters Local 188 and Richmond Police Officers Association. This is a first time for me to have this support after five campaigns. Public safety workers understand that my approach to building a healthy economy in Richmond is the key to bringing in the tax revenue that enables us to support a fully staffed police department and a fully qualified fire department that responds to both fire and medical emergencies.
• We have support from all of our elected officials that represent Richmond at the federal, state and county level, including George Miller, Loni Hancock, Nancy Skinner and John Gioia. They appreciate that I am a team player and work with them on regional projects that also benefit Richmond.
• We are still gaining endorsements from the construction trades, including Operating Engineers Local 3, Carpenters Local 152, Laborers Local 324, Boilermakers Local 549 and Iron Workers Local 378. Because  as an architect, I am a part of the construction industry, these organizations know that I am in a unique position to understand their issues.
• The United Teachers of Richmond endorsed me because they remember back to 1991 when I successfully sued the State of California to keep Richmond’s schools open and avoid bankruptcy. They also know that I support public education, that my children attended WCCUSD public schools, that I was a PTA president, and that I joined other City Council members in providing funds to keep three neighborhood schools in Richmond open.
• The Contra Costa Times endorsed me because they recognize my history of fiscal responsibility and believe I have the experience and the motivation to keep the City of Richmond in the black in the future.
• Environmental organization, including the Sierra Club and the East Bay League of Conservation Voters endorsed me because I have proven that sustainability and preservation of natural resources can also be good business and create jobs, particularly in the California economy.

Moving Richmond forward is always a work in progress, and my efforts have made a positive difference. Richmond is in a better place than it was when I was first elected. It is safer, cleaner, healthier, quieter and greener. It is more equitable and livable, has a more diversified economy and a growing reputation as a city where “We can do it!”

I will continue to communicate with and represent you in the way you have come to expect. www.tombutt.com.

• If you want to support our campaign, click on http://www.tombutt.com/contribute.htm.
• If you want a yard sign, email  my campaign assistant Gina Rango at Gina.Rango@intres.com, or call her at 510/236-7435.
• Campaign mailers are going to the Post Office. If you want a preview, see http://www.tombutt.com/pdf/Tom_Butt_Campaign_2012_Brochure.pdf and http://www.tombutt.com/pdf/Tom_Butt_Campaign_2012_Brochure_2.pdf.

At City Chambers, council candidates occupy seats they hope to fill this November

 

Ten of the 11 candidates attended the forum, moderated by the League of Women Voters and the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council. (Photo By: Rachel Witte)
By Rachel de LeonPosted October 2, 2012 11:30 am
Residents got a glimpse at what this year’s City Council candidates would look like on the dais in the City Council Chambers at a candidate forum Monday night.
Ten of the 11 candidates attended the forum, moderated by the League of Women Voters and the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council. Anthony Green was absent.
“It amazes me that there’s so many candidates for three seats,” resident Karen Leong Fenton said.
Fenton said watching the forum helped since she normally depends on newspaper coverage to understand City Council dynamics.
“And I haven’t made up my mind,” Fenton said. “So [the forum] was eye-opening.”
The audience turnout wasn’t as robust as most city council meetings, with rows of chairs empty in the chamber, but the taken seats were filled with several familiar faces.
Usual-goers Wesley Ellis, Don Gosney, Andres Soto, and Jackie Thompson—who recently resigned as a volunteer for Councilmember Corky Booze—were in attendance.
Current Councilmembers Jeff Ritterman, Booze, and Jovanka Beckles sat on the other side of the dais during the forum, unseen and unheard until the mediators opened up for questions.
Jovanka Beckles asked candidate Marilyn Langlois to address a campaign mailer sent this week that accused Langlois of failing to pay her federal taxes during the years of 2007 and 2008.
The mailer was sent by Moving Forward, a coalition of businesses, labor unions, and other associations, which also created a website opposing Langlois’ election.
Langlois confirmed during the meeting and in a released statement on Monday that she did refuse to pay her federal taxes in a “war tax resistance as a symbolic gesture to protest the use of federal tax dollars for the illegal and destructive Iraq war.”
As with previous forums in the Richmond Senior Center and Point Richmond, Chevron’s future with the city was discussed and was used by residents and council members as a way to distinguish candidates from one another.
Along with Beckles, Ritterman posed a question to Langlois, asking if she thought there’s a danger to having city councilmembers who are beholden to Chevron, naming Nat Bates, Gary Bell, and Bea Roberson as those who the company is paying to become elected.
Langlois said it’s important candidates remain separate from corporations and hold Chevron accountable.
Bell clarified that he hasn’t received funding from Chevron after a resident asked him if he would recuse himself from voting on items related to the company.
Monday’s discussion included the newest development with refinery, which is the decision to appeal a ruling on its tax assessments. In April, the County Assessor’s Appeals Board denied Chevron’s tax assessment appeal for the years 2007-2009, when the company says it was over-taxed by up to $73 million.
“You would think that what happened August 6,and the bypassed pipe, and pure PR would tell [Chevron], ‘OK, we’re going to wait before we try to do this, and insult them again by trying to take money,’” candidate Jael Myrick said.
The next candidate forum will be held this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at St. Peter C.M.E. Church in El Cerrito.
Candidates turn to social media as election nears

Jael Myrick speaks during a debate in Richmond last week. (Photo by: Tawanda Kanhema)
By Tawanda KanhemaPosted October 1, 2012 5:21 pm
With a month left to the November 6 election, City Council candidates are turning to video and social media to engage voters and gather voter feedback.  
Candidates Nat Bates and Mike Wassberg last week released a campaign video attacking the Richmond Progressive Alliance for its support of the city’s plans to build bicycle paths in Richmond, saying only 2 percent of Richmond residents use bicycles.
The 12-minute video, produced by Wassberg, is presented in the format of a talk show between Wassberg and Bates, titled ”Tell it Like it Is”.
“This is the most dysfunctional city council I have served on in my career,” Bates says in response to a question from Wassberg about the divisions among councilmembers. “Basically it’s about gamesmanship and power plays. Usually when you have a council they try to make it inclusive of everyone, but this council can care less about having a unanimous vote.”
In the video, Bates accuses the RPA of trying to impose a “plantation mentality” on Richmond residents.
”That’s just a very poor use of city resources,” Bates says of the city’s plans to build bike paths. “They don’t go out and consult the community, there is less than 2 percent of bicycle users in the city of Richmond and we’re devoting $14 million when we have potholes.”
Bates compared the bike paths to the controversial measure N. Bates says obesity is a national problem that should be solved through education.
The RPA’s Mike Parker responded to Bates at the council meeting last week, dismissing Bates’ statement that the RPA was trying to impose its values on the community.
“Talking about the so called ‘plantation mentality’, it is the beverage industry that is practicing plantation politics in Richmond, that is where the divisions are coming from,” Parker said, “Do you think that they are spending millions of dollars because they care about the people of Richmond?”
Wassberg said he had produced the ”Bates for City Council” video free of charge for Bates’ campaign – even though they’re both running. “I want the people of Richmond to know who to vote for and who not to vote for,” he said.
Other candidates have used social media to spread campaign messages, with RPA candidates using Facebook to promote their positions on measures and propositions on the ballot. Marilyn Langlois, one of the RPA candidates, said her campaign had generated a lot of conversations on Facebook, but her campaign has focused more on person-to-person interactions with voters.
Tom Butt said his primary campaign tool was his website and widely circulated e-forums, through which he updates residents on the daily goings on at City Hall.
Eduardo Martinez, a retired teacher who got his first cell phone as a birthday gift two years ago, says his campaign strategy is based on in-person interactions with voters, many of whom know him from his days as a schoolteacher in Richmond.
“It’s new to me,” Martinez said. “I have been Twittering and have a Facebook page but I get stopped by people all the time while putting up my campaign posters and I have found that people are more likely to vote for you if you do things for them personally.”
Anthony Greene said his campaign was setting up a social media platform in the coming week. Jael Myrick, an independent candidate, has also been using videos for his campaign, which is centered on his efforts to unify the divided city council. “What Richmond needs is a leader who can cultivate that sense of unity,” Myrick says in his campaign video.