Nobody in Richmond elected Norman LaForce. In fact, when he recently ran for the East Bay Regional Parks District Ward 1 director position representing Richmond, he was soundly defeated.

Figure 1 - Noman LaForce has his hands in your pockets

Unelected as he is, LaForce continues to have his hands in your Richmond pockets, siphoning away hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be used productively to pave streets, clean up trash, increase police patrols help small businesses recover from COVID-19.

LaForce is a resident of El Cerrito and has never lived in Richmond. He heads up two organizations that routinely sue Richmond. LaForce is the CEO of Sustainability, Park, Recycling and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund (SPRAWDEF) and he shares control of Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) with former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean. Neither organization is located in Richmond. CESP is in Albany, and SPRAWLDEF is in El Cerrito.

Yet, both SPRAWLDEF and CESP have an unnatural obsession with trying to control planning and economic development decisions in Richmond, and it’s costing Richmond taxpayers a lot of money.

When the City of Richmond entered into a settlement agreement involving Point Molate litigation in 2018, CESP and SPRAWLDEF sued, claiming the City violated the Brown Act. On November 20, 2020, the United States District Court, Northern District of California finally dismissed the CESP and SPRAWLDEF litigation, with prejudice. In the formal legal world, a court case that is dismissed with prejudice means that it is dismissed permanently. A case dismissed with prejudice is over and done with, once and for all, and can't be brought back to court. (See SPRAWLDEF Point Molate Litigation Dismissed, November 21, 2020)

So, case dismissed? What’s the problem?

The problem is that the City of Richmond spent nearly $650,000 successfully defending the frivolous CESP and SPRAWLDEF lawsuit. As a Richmond taxpayer, that means three fewer cops on your beat, mountains of trash not picked up or a mile of streets not repaved. That hurts, and the people who did that to you live somewhere else and don’t really care.

In fact, they are doubling down with another lawsuit trying to stop Point Molate.