See yellow highlighted passage in newsletter below: In nearby Richmond, CA, Councilmember Tom Butt has been actively engaging his constituents on the digital billboard issue, and the responses he's received have showed that citizens are overwhelmingly opposed to them....

More than eight months after entering into a highly controversial and contentious agreement with Mortgage Resolution Partners, LLC (MRP) to bail out underwater home owners with eminent domain mortgage seizures, the Richmond City Council will finally implement the...

Mayor and Members of the City Council: This is the weekly report for the two weeks ending March 28th, 2014. Meeting Notes The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1st beginning with a Closed Session at 5:30 PM, followed by a meeting of the Housing...

You can access the staff report at the hyperlink below. I recommend you read it very carefully. ADOPT a resolution reauthorizing the Authority's Executive Director to submit an Inventory Removal Application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for...

Lawsuit Filed Over Fracked Oil Trains In The Bay Area After KPIX 5 Report March 28, 2014 12:02 AM Share on email ? View Comments Related Tags: Bakken, Bakken Crude, Bakken Shale, Christin Ayers, Fracked Oil, Fracking, Kinder Morgan, KPIX 5 Investigates, Oil, Richmond...

This is a good article that validates a lot of what I have been saying but until now with little support. First Bates and then Booze have been the City Council liaisons to the Housing Advisory Commission for years. The Commission’s duty is to bring issues to the City...

The agenda/packet for the Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Regular Richmond City Council Meeting is on the web. Follow the link below to view: http://sireweb.ci.richmond.ca.us/sirepub/meet.aspx

While I probably would have supported some version of the minimum wage ordinance, I voted against it because the City Council made an 11th hour decision to change it from a ballot item to an ordinance and to waive the staff evaluation. I asked for a little more time...

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, the WCCUSD Board of Education awarded a $7.6 million contract to Arntz Builders for repairs and improvements of the Richmond Swim Center located on the Kennedy High School Campus. The project is expected to be completed in June 2015. The...

Although I have been concentrating on finding a way to abate the illegal LED sign at Pacific East Mall, the proposed sign at Hilltop looms in the future. It would require either a variance or an amendment to our existing ordinance to incorporate LED into it. I haven’t...

Richmond calls on Congress to halt crude oil transport through Bay Area By Robert Rogers Contra Costa Times Posted: 03/25/2014 11:38:51 PM PDT1 Comment | Updated: 50 min. ago Related Stories · Mar 25: · Berkeley: Council votes to oppose rail shipments of crude oil...

Because of the overwhelming public support for the removal of the illegal electronic LED sign at Pacific East Mall, I have placed the resolution below on the April 1 City Council Agenda. For background, see: · Readers Prefer Removal of Pacific East Mall LED Sign,...

The agenda/packet for the Tuesday, March 25, 2014, Special Richmond City Council Meeting is on the web. Follow the link below to view: http://sireweb.ci.richmond.ca.us/sirepub/meet.aspx Want to receive TOM BUTT E-FORUM and other action alerts on Richmond political and...

I have agendized a measure for the April 1 City Council meeting that would provide a compromise between applause proponents and opponents that is intended to expedite City Council meetings without depriving anyone of their First Amendment rights. The resolution is at...

RPD Update Spring 2014 Chris Magnus, Chief of Police CRIME UPDATE We are pleased with the crime reductions in Richmond during 2013, as well as during the first months of 2014. As of March 1, violent crime was down 21% compared to the same period last year, and...

Bay Area quilt show stitches WWII Home Front history By Kathryn Loosli Pritchett Correspondent Posted: 03/13/2014 12:00:00 PM PDT1 Comment Former World War II Home Front worker Marian McKey Sousa, who drafted blueprints at the Richmond Shipyards, smiles while aboard...

I have previously described Tom Barnidge facetiously as the “curmudgeon-in-chief” of the Contra Costa Times for his journalistic style, but this time he has redeemed himself. He is the first journalist I know of to move past the Center for Investigative Reporting...

See To Clap or Not to Clap, March 19, 2014. So far, the anti-clappers are ahead of the pro-clappers 14-3. Interestingly, two of the three pro-clappers seemed to be more concerned with equal opportunity to disrupt rather than getting rid of it entirely. One responder...

For background, see the following: · Richmond Residents Overwhelmingly Reject LED Billboards, March 11, 2014 · LED Billboards Coming to Richmond Highways and Byways? March 10, 2014 · LED Billboard at Pacific East Mall, March 17, 2014 Fifty-one people responded to my...

At last night’s City Council meeting, the Open Forum began with 28 speakers, mostly construction trades representatives and other advocates urging a fair and speedy certification of the Draft EIR for the Chevron Modernization Project. The chamber was packed, so much...