On November 27, 2022, KQED published an interview with mayor-elect Eduardo Martinez, providing some insight as to how he perceives himself and his future plans as mayor.

In the interview, Martinez comes off like he has a mandate, but exactly the opposite is true. He only received 39 percent of the vote, while 61 percent voted against him. When asked, “And when you think about what that map looks like for you as the new mayor of Richmond, what do you see as your first steps to making that happen?” Martinez states, “Well, as any good leader, follow the lead of your constituents.”

That begs the question, who are his “constituents” – the 39 percent who elected him or the 61 percent who didn’t? What is glaringly missing from Martinez’ interview responses is how, if at all, he intends to seek common ground between the minority who supported him (and Doria Robinson) and the majority who didn’t. Two of the three other RPA member elected to the City Council in 2020 also had unconvincing majorities with less than 51 percent of the vote.

Martinez will start out with a supermajority of RPA members and RPA supporters on the City Council, meaning that they will have unprecedented power to take the City of Richmond anywhere they want to. Will he seek to resolve differences, or will he follow the RPA scorched earth policies of the past?

Here is a clue. What we did not hear from Martinez is any interest at all in bridging the gap between polarized interests in Richmond. Instead, he dismissed the fact that there even is polarization. Asked, “Is there anything you'd like to say about your new position and what you see as the future of Richmond before we sign off? Martinez replied, “Yeah, you know, I think we need to start seeing each other as one community.” Unfortunately, that is not the reality in Richmond. It is not one community; it is a community deeply divided by multiple factions. Some want fewer cops; some want more cops. Some are renters, and some are landlords. Some are businesses are just trying to survive, and some want to tax business until it hurts. Some are willing to put up with Chevron because that’s where their fuel comes from, and some want Chevron gone tomorrow. Some want nothing but a park at Point Molate, and some want a mixed-use community with a preserved Winehaven. Some think sideshows and illegal fireworks are okay, and some want them to go away. Some want their streets swept with parking enforcement, and some are too lazy to move their cars. Some want sidewalks preserved for walking, and some want to park on the sidewalk in front of their homes. And so on.

Martinez dismisses his and RPA detractors as. “…generally older voters who can be swayed by narratives of fear. You know, not enough police, high crime, dangerous place to live ...” Not a propitious start.

One of the sources of the acrimony that has plagued the City Council the last two years is the lack of either interest or ability of the RPA City Council members to compromise or seek common ground on anything. While they clearly have the power to do it, a more statesmanlike approach would be to seek consensus rather than powering through their often unpopular and poorly conceived agenda.

In Martinez’ idealized “one community,” there should be accommodations and compromises that forge consensuses, but that is not the way the RPA works. The RPA City Council members are egotistical and narcissistic, venal and vengeful. There are only two ways, the RPA way and the wrong way. In 27 years on the City Council, I’ve had my share of disagreements with other councilmembers, some that might even be characterized as bitter. But until the RPA councilmembers took charge, there was still an underpinning of collegiality among councilmembers that no longer exists. The RPA councilmembers executed a personal attack on me that is unprecedented in 117 years of Richmond history. They voted twice to condemn me and once to censure me. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds to investigate me and sue me – all to no avail. They rejected my last three commission and board appointments only on the grounds that I am in my final two months. Incidentally, Gayle McLaughlin made four appointments after the 2014 election, one as late as December 16, all of which were approved unanimously, including my vote. They took away mayor’s powers that Gayle McLaughlin enjoyed, such as the authority to cancel a City Council meeting. Make no mistake, these are not just competing politicians; they are malevolent, mean spirited, hateful, and spiteful people who use their power to destroy those who disagree with them.

A glaring omission form Martinez’ interview was any mention of business or the business community. Like the other RPA Four, Martinez has only contempt for the business community. At a preelection forum, speaking of business concerns about Measure U, he said, If you can’t run a business and pay your fair share, you need to learn how to run a business.” Although Martinez has never been in business and has gone through personal bankruptcy (Richmond Confidential, November 13, 2014), he sees himself and the RPA as more fiscally astute than his predecessors: When asked, “So you mentioned affordable housing and environmental justice as it relates to Chevron. Are there any other top priorities you have as you approach your new role as mayor?”  Martinez answered, “Fiscal responsibility. We've had issues with staff presenting questionable policies that the City Council has voted on. And it wasn't until we got an RPA majority that we started asking questions.”

Martinez has already written off the Chevron refinery (“Well, when Chevron is decommissioned, we're not just going to leave a big mess there. It needs to be taken apart and cleaned up”), but he has no plans for how its energy products or revenue will be replaced. Nor is he or other RPA City Council members leading by example. As far as I know, neither Martinez nor the other RPA City Council members drive zero emission vehicles or rely on public transportation. They drive fossil fueled vehicles that add to pollution, and some probably buy here gas from Chevron. Is that hypocrisy, or what?

Martinez professes to favor more housing (“Well, we have the issue of housing, and we need to have more housing, but we need affordable housing”), but he has joined the RPA Four in killing or trying to kill more housing, including affordable housing, than has been built in Richmond in the last decade. He buys into the RPA narrative on Point Molate that the RPA not only saved Point Molate; they saved to the City from bankruptcy by killing the SunCal project. The reality is that they sold it for $400 and totally lost control of its future. Martinez has no idea how to deal with Pont Molate in the future. Like his RPA buddies, he is good at tearing down but not at building.

You rarely, if ever, see criticism of Martinez or the RPA in any media. They are like Teflon. But when they do get criticized, as in my Facebook post about the Martinez interview, the RPA trolls are quick to leap to the defense, describing my opinions and motivations using terms like “cronyism and nepotism” (Jack Scheiman), “petty” and “bitter” (Dennis Muldoon, “like alcoholism” (Richard Sugarman), “mean, bitter and nasty” (Dora Ann), “twisting the truth, ungracious” (Sue Boudreau), and “crony ties” (Pat Lake).” It’s no wonder so few are willing to go public with RPA criticisms.

Annelise Finney
Nov 27

Then-Council member (and current Mayor-Elect) Eduardo Martinez walks the picket line along with striking Chevron employees and their supporters during a strike for worker safety in front of Gate 14 at the Richmond refinery on April 7, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

The recent midterm elections signaled big changes for local government in Richmond. Mayor-Elect Eduardo Martinez is the first Latino to hold the office, after a close-fought campaign against runner-up Shawn Dunning. A member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance and a City Council member of nearly eight years, Martinez will replace outgoing mayor Tom Butt in January when Butt’s second term expires, ending nearly three decades on the City Council, the last eight of those years as mayor.

The election of Martinez, a second-generation Mexican American, and the rise to prominence of the Richmond Progressive Alliance in city government, heralds what many consider to be the start of a new chapter, if not a new era, in Richmond politics. Martinez recently talked to KQED's Annelise Finney about what his plans are and where his priorities lie come Jan. 10 when he takes office.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

ANNELISE FINNEY: So just to get started, I know that you are part of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, and the alliance in this election has really cemented its majority within the City Council and now the mayorship as well. I wonder if you can tell me a little bit about what this moment tells us about Richmond politics.

EDUARDO MARTINEZ: I believe what it says is that the young voters are beginning to make their presence felt. The people who are against the RPA are generally older voters who can be swayed by narratives of fear. You know, not enough police, high crime, dangerous place to live ... Whereas the young people are looking at Richmond as a place to change, to create a new society, I believe. That's why we have a lot of young people in organizations like Rich City Rides, Urban Tilth, ACCE, Communities for a Better Environment.

One thing that I've heard you speak a lot about is visioning for a Richmond without the Chevron refinery. Can you describe how you plan to make that a reality?

I think the community is already doing that. We have an umbrella organization called [Richmond Our Power Coalition], and they're a conglomerate of a lot of the organizations that I've already mentioned. And they're in the process of putting together an outline and a game plan for making a just transition from fossil fuels to renewables. And I think it's essential because as we all know, fossil fuels won't last forever. And unless we start planning now, we'll end up scuttling to find solutions as opposed to having a well-thought-out map for moving from one to the other.

And when you think about what that map looks like for you as the new mayor of Richmond, what do you see as your first steps to making that happen?

Well, as any good leader, follow the lead of your constituents. I think I want to initiate conversations with Chevron. And if Chevron the corporation doesn't want to have that conversation, I'd like to have a conversation with Chevron, the workers. We supported them during their strike and I plan to continue supporting them in whatever capacity I can, because I see the workers as community, and the community needs to stick together.

I know that during the strike there were a number of workers who talked about wanting to push for the refinery to pay fair wages and to provide safe working conditions. But a lot of people still expressed seeing the refinery as an important source of jobs in Richmond. How do you square that with the desire to maybe deal differently with an industry that has brought so much environmental and health harm to the community?

Well, when Chevron is decommissioned, we're not just going to leave a big mess there. It needs to be taken apart and cleaned up. And the best people to do that are the people who work there now, who are the people who know the plant, know how it's put together, who will know how to take it apart. So I see continued work for them doing that as they train for other types of renewable jobs.

So outside of the refinery, what are some of your top priorities as you approach this new mayorship?

Well, we have the issue of housing and we need to have more housing, but we need affordable housing. Most of the housing in the developments that we've catered to are high-end, especially considering the wages and the economic level that our residents are living at. So I would like to have more affordable housing. And I would like to have it infilled, so that we have higher density.
And the higher density will also promote small business within the city. If you go down Macdonald Avenue, which used to be the main street — and you still have a Main Street Initiative — it's practically dead. You don't see that many people walking the streets. So if we build housing so that there's high density, you'll see more people on the streets and more people means more customers. More customers means more stores throughout. There's other streets that [also] need to be revitalized, such as Cutting Blvd., 23rd, San Pablo ... But I also have a vision of creating what I called "community commercial nodes" so that every community will have an area where they can walk to and do their shopping or stop and have a cup of coffee and relate to their neighbors.

There's a store in North Richmond that is a mom-and-pop. It used to be a problem, but the store only took out alcohol and tobacco. And now people just go there for groceries, and [the owner] told me that by having the store there, he's gotten to know everyone who lives there. So it's more like a community than not. I would like to have places like that all over Richmond.

What do you see as potential challenges to building more affordable housing in Richmond, and how will you tackle them?

It's always finances. You know, building quality housing on the cheap is almost impossible. But I believe that the city can work with developers to work out some way to fix it, to make it happen. We're in conversation with developers, you know, and hopefully we can come to some kind of working solution.

The way I've seen that play out in other places usually involves providing tax breaks to the developer or other types of incentives, especially since affordable housing generally is less profitable for the developer.

Right. But we've also considered doing land trusts, you know, like if the developer doesn't have to buy the property and the property can be put into a land trust that belongs not to the developer but to the citizens of Richmond, then the developer immediately doesn't have to consider the price of the property. And, like you said, tax breaks. There's a lot of instruments — fiscal instruments — that can be used to make something work.

So you mentioned affordable housing and environmental justice as it relates to Chevron. Are there any other top priorities you have as you approach your new role as mayor?

Fiscal responsibility. We've had issues with staff presenting questionable policies that the City Council has voted on. And it wasn't until we got a RPA majority that we started asking questions. And they were pushing what are called swap trades [and] with the swap trades that we had, we ended up paying $60 million in penalty fees. So they were trying to get us to do a swap trade to pay off the swap trade with the penalty. And we basically said "no way." You know, it's time to change the way we borrow money. And so we no longer have swap trades.

And we'll have to worry about those penalty fees that the city's been plagued with. But, you know, fiscal responsibility in terms of making sure that we have enough incoming money. And that's one of the reasons why I've supported Measure U, which will bring the money in that we need in order to do the things that we want to do. A lot of people, in terms of public safety, keep saying we need more police. But they never ask, where is the money coming from?

You know, so the same people who want more police don't want Measure U. So there's a big disconnect between what you want and what the city can afford to do. Already public safety is taking over practically half of the city budget. So if we get more police, then we end up having a larger deficit and end up having to defund Parks and Rec, and defund maintenance.

Yeah. I know something I've heard you talk about in the past is wanting to staff up the city and fill some of the vacant city worker positions. Right now many cities around the Bay are struggling with this. For example, San Francisco has a ton of open vacancies and has been struggling to provide the wages that would draw people to those jobs. How do you square the need to fill the city roles with the need to be fiscally responsible?

Well, we're doing a comp study now to figure out what fair wages are for the staff, and we hope to be able to provide those wages. But I think in order to have buy-in from everyone, we need to have a conversation with the unions — and not with the unions separately, but with the unions together.

I think we need to bring all of the forces that make up the city together to have that conversation. I know several years ago we had a budget deficit, and [newly elected Richmond City Council member] Melvin Willis and I called for a conversation with the unions and with staff to figure out how to find the money in the budget. And we were able to do that. We were able to balance the budget, but it took a group effort to do that.

And I believe that we can continue working that way in order to make Richmond not only a better place to live but a happier place to live, where people aren't trying to take a bigger bite of the budget than the city can actually afford.

I think of your election as a huge change within Richmond politics, especially since Mayor Butt has held the position for the last eight years. I wonder how you see your election. You've said you're the first Latino to be elected mayor of Richmond, so how do you understand that distinction and what this transition means for the city at large?

Well, the demographics of the city of Richmond is trending to the Latinx community, and we have about 40% Latinx. And I think my election mirrors that. I also think that most of the people who voted for me are young people.

And I've actually had some constituents say that I may be old, but I think young. So, I hope that's true. But I do want to think differently. I want to think positively, hopefully. And I want to be innovative. I would like the city of Richmond to become a model for other cities in terms of forming a Blue/Green New Deal where everyone is working together on the just transition.

I think we can do it and it will depend on a lot of creativity, a lot of thinking outside the box. But I think the people of Richmond have that. We just need to find a catalyst to bring it all together and watch it grow.

Is there anything you'd like to say about your new position and what you see as the future of Richmond before we sign off?

Yeah, you know, I think we need to start seeing each other as one community. [Former Richmond City Council member and current AC Transit Director, Ward 1] Jovanka Beckles always said that about Richmond, but it didn't seem that most people agreed with that. It's changing.

You know, I think that we will have one Richmond and that it's the young people who are going to bring it about. I feel very, very hopeful. And I think my style is relaxed, is calm, is thoughtful, and I think that it will project onto the City Council, and our City Council's meetings hopefully will be much more productive and much more amicable.