Richmond Mayor, City Council End Stalemate

RICHMOND, CA —Several months of controversy came to a close at a Richmond City Council meeting Tuesday night when five of six councilmen voted to support Mayor Tom Butt's full slate of nominees for the planning commission and other boards after previously insisting controversial picks be evaluated on an individual basis.

Butt has maintained that these appointments are solely his prerogative and the city charter limits the role of the council to either approving his selections or voting against them.

He also argues the precedent for "bundling" them into a single motion before the council dates back to a previous mayoral administration.

His position sparked conflict in early April when the bundle included an appointee criticized for her choice in language when discussing immigrants online, Catherine Montalbo.

The mayor threatened to withhold any further appointments for the duration of his term of office if the council voted Montalbo down. That left the council in a stalemate over appointments to the police commission, the planning commission and the rent board -- which went unbroken until Tuesday night.

"This didn't really need to be a thing," Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association, said during public comment prior to the vote.

"It's unfortunate, it's not productive," he said. "We definitely need a full police commission."

He also stated that he hoped the council and the mayor could reach some sort of "grand bargain" -- which they did.
Some councilmen criticized, or openly chastised, Butt for his role in the stalemate.

"You're the one who has held up every single vote," Councilman Eduardo Martinez said.

"You have been the sole cause of this problem," he added.

In the end, however, Martinez voted for Butt's slate -- as did Councilman Melvin Willis.

"I'm still not happy with how all this went down because it's manipulation at its best," Willis said.

"It's time for one of us to be the bigger person," he added.

The vote was almost unanimous, with Councilman Nat Bates abstaining.

As a result, Alana Grice Conner has been appointed to the rent board, Brandon Evans to the planning commission, and the community police review commission has four new members including: Porschea Brown, Christopher Whitmore, Randy Joseph and Steven Lacy.

The motion also included reappointments of existing commissioners and board members on all three bodies.

— Bay City News

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