The Richmond Monitor

City Council — Tuesday, 27 October 2026

From the KCRT video of the special and regular meetings (about 6½ hours) and its captions, checked against the Council agenda, Oct 27. Minutes are not yet posted. The certified consent-calendar resolutions (Nos. 173-26 to 179-26), posted October 30, were checked on 31 October 2026. Clock times are approximate.

Attendance

• Special meeting (about 4:12 p.m.): Councilmembers Brown, Jimenez, and Wilson and Mayor Martinez present at roll call. Councilmembers Bana and Zepeda absent at roll call; both took part later. The clerk announced that Vice Mayor Robinson would be absent for the entire meeting.
• Regular meeting (about 6:54 p.m., nearly an hour after its noticed 6:00 p.m. start): six members present; Vice Mayor Robinson absent.
• No conflicts of interest were declared at either meeting.

F — Richmond Fund for Children and Youth, 2025 evaluation (special meeting; about 4:14–5:28 p.m.)

• The Department of Children and Youth and its evaluator, WestEd, presented the calendar-year 2025 evaluation required by Charter Article XV. Figures stated: $6.7 million allocated through 37 new grants in 2025; $15.8 million invested since fiscal year 2021; more than 29,000 hours of programming at 107 program sites. Current grants run three years, through the end of 2027.
• Staff said a contract has been executed for a financial audit of the fund from its beginning to date, that requests for proposals are under way for a client data system and for an investment-plan consultant, and that nine of the oversight board’s 15 seats are filled.
• One public speaker. Received; no vote.

G — Air District, preliminary Health Risk Assessment of the Chevron refinery (special meeting; about 5:28–6:53 p.m.)

• Introduced by City staff, who said the City is reviewing the assessment and considering whether to comment. Supervisor John Gioia opened as a member of the Air District board; he said this is the first assessment completed under the District’s Rule 11-18.
• District staff said the assessment models one representative year (2021) of routine operations. Estimated cancer risk at the maximally exposed residential location, south of the refinery in Point Richmond, is 37 in a million, against a risk action level of 10 in a million. Fugitive emissions, storage tanks, and generators account for more than 70 percent of it. The acute (one-hour) hazard index is 1.2, against an action level of 1.0; more than 80 percent comes from the bioreactor in the refinery’s wastewater treatment system, chiefly benzene, with the maximum point in a parking lot of an adjacent industrial facility. The District’s health officer said the findings involve 10 of 266 sources.
• Comment period: August 25 to November 23, 5:00 p.m. If the final assessment stays above the action levels, the refinery has 180 days after notice to submit a draft risk reduction plan, which will also be posted for comment. The District enforces its own rule.
• District staff said the presentation was the one given at the September community meeting and was not changed for the October 22 odor incident.
• Two public speakers (one in person, one online). Received; no vote.

Agenda review (regular meeting)

• S.3 (23rd Street safety measures) and S.4 (citywide traffic-safety plan) were moved to November 17, when, the Council was told, Public Works Director Daniel Chavarria will present on traffic safety. A councilmember asked for an action plan rather than another data presentation; staff committed that Public Works would return with proposals and an action plan. A motion and second were heard; the Council then proceeded by consensus. No roll call was heard. S.3 has now been on three agendas (October 6, October 20, October 27) without being heard.
• Asked about Q.7.b, the City Attorney said the Macdonald Avenue Corridor Task Force is a Brown Act body because it includes members of the public, and that its Council membership must stay below a quorum (three members).

Closed session

• None held; the City Attorney’s report was skipped.

City Manager’s report (about 7:01 p.m.)

• The interim City Manager announced public input sessions with the recruiter for the permanent City Manager: Wednesday, October 28, 2:00–3:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers, and Thursday, October 29, 10:00–11:00 a.m., on Zoom (link from Human Resources). He said the application deadline is November 1.

Commendations and proclamations (about 7:03–8:27 p.m.)

• O.1: the American Public Works Association’s Northern California chapter presented its 2026 Public Works Leader of the Year (municipality) award to Public Works Director Daniel Chavarria.
• O.2: proclamation honoring the firefighters who responded to the August 18 structure fires on 15th Street.
• O.3: proclamation recognizing eight police officers for the September 3 incident, with special recognition of Officer Justin Church, who was wounded. Police Chief Tim Simmons spoke. About 20 speakers addressed the item; most were police officers and police association representatives asking the Council for an armored rescue vehicle. A SWAT team leader said the department had requested the county’s armored vehicle nearly 30 times this year. (An armored-vehicle grant item was withdrawn from the October 20 agenda.)
• O.4: proclamation honoring Soulful Softball Sunday and its founder.

Open forum (about 8:27 p.m.)

• No items were removed from consent. Six in-person speakers. Topics included staff vacancies and recruitment, the Proposition 64 grant (Q.2.a) and who receives its money, speed bumps on Garvin Avenue (Q.9.d), refinery hazards and evacuation routes, parking, and the election.

Consent calendar (about 8:43 p.m.)

• Approved on the roll call; the clerk announced “the motion passes with Vice Mayor Robinson absent.” Moved by Councilmember Brown and seconded by Councilmember Jiménez; not every response was audible on the video. The certified resolutions record the vote as 6–0: Councilmembers Bana, Brown, Jimenez, Wilson and Zepeda and Mayor Martinez aye, Vice Mayor Robinson absent.
• Items $100,000 and up as agendized: Q.2.a, accept and appropriate a $3,674,258 state Proposition 64 grant (ROOT CARE), including $982,795 for the Office of Neighborhood Safety and a $25,000 audit, with contracts for RYSE (up to $966,463), Advance Peace (up to $1,500,000), and Evident Change (up to $200,000); Q.9.b, three as-needed mulch contracts, up to $1,500,000 each over three years; Q.9.d, CSWST2, Neighborhood Complete Streets design, up to $890,492; Q.9.e, LEHR emergency-vehicle outfitting, +$1,500,000 to a total of $3,000,000; Q.6.a, Kaia Badger Consulting, +$286,000 to $296,000; Q.5.a and Q.5.b, a side letter and a successor agreement with the Richmond Fire Management Association (July 1, 2025, to December 31, 2028; no cost stated on the agenda).
• Also on consent: a Contra Costa senior nutrition agreement ($45,000), nine FlashCAM cameras ($80,000, funded by I Heart Richmond), a CCW software amendment ($9,600), garbage-service liens, the Macdonald Avenue Corridor Task Force extension to December 31, 2028, appointments to the Design Review Board and the Richmond-Shimada Friendship Commission, Economic Development Commission reports, the September abatement report, the vacancies report, and two proclamations.

R.1 — Industrial Safety Ordinance amendment, first reading (public hearing; about 8:44–9:00 p.m.)

• Community Development Director Lina Velasco, Supervisor Gioia, and Contra Costa County Fire Protection District officers presented. The county moved its hazardous materials programs from Contra Costa Health to the Fire Protection District effective July 1, 2026; the amendment replaces the references, makes clean-up edits, and adds an American Petroleum Institute reference in the tank terminal section. Four tank terminals fall under the ordinance.
• Mayor Martinez asked about section 6.43.150(b), which vests arrest authority in the City Manager, City Attorney, and fire chief; staff said it was added in 2024 and has not been used. He asked for a later study session on the ordinance.
• One public speaker. Ordinance introduced; the clerk announced the motion passed with Vice Mayor Robinson absent. Mover and second not identified on the video. A second reading is required.

S.1 — Professor Jason Corburn on the Office of Neighborhood Safety (about 9:01–10:15 p.m.)

• Sponsored by Councilmembers Jimenez and Wilson. Professor Corburn and a doctoral student presented their August 31 JAMA Network Open paper: compared with a synthetic control built from 15 U.S. cities, the Peacemaker Fellowship was associated with a 61 percent reduction in firearm homicides and injury shootings from 2010 to 2024 (49 percent in the early period, 66 percent from 2017 to 2024). They also presented the Office’s own program counts and a return-on-investment estimate built on cost figures from another organization.
• Four public speakers. A police association representative questioned the study’s method, including the absence of police staffing and arrest data. One speaker raised a conflict-of-interest objection to Councilmember Jimenez; she later said she had been in a UC Berkeley program in which Professor Corburn taught, before joining the Council, and that this was not a conflict.
• Councilmembers asked about the comparison cities, other possible causes (policing, demographic change, displacement to other cities), whether the savings accrue to the City, and license plate readers. The presenters said the study did not examine those other factors. Office of Neighborhood Safety Director Sam Vaughn answered questions.
• Meeting extension (about 9:55 p.m.) to finish the item: passed on the roll call with Vice Mayor Robinson absent. Mover and second not identified.
• Received; no vote.

Not reached

• S.2, the appointment of Crescent Diamond to the Community Police Review Commission (continued from October 20).
• T, reports of officers.

Adjournment

• About 10:15 p.m. In the last minute, Councilmember Wilson clarified a remark about license plate readers; Councilmember Jamelia Brown then asked to correct the record, and the Mayor adjourned the meeting without taking up her request.

Not yet confirmed

• All votes other than consent, pending minutes (consent is confirmed by the certified resolutions). Individual roll-call responses on R.1 and the extension were not all audible in the captions.
• Movers and seconds on R.1, the extension, and the S.3/S.4 continuance, and whether the continuance was put to a formal vote.
• Spellings of presenters’ names taken from the captions.

Sources

• KCRT video and captions, Council Oct 27
• Council agenda, Oct 27
• Certified resolutions, Oct 27: 173-26 · 174-26 · 175-26 · 176-26 · 177-26 · 178-26 · 179-26
• Council minutes archive (no Oct 27 minutes yet)
• Granicus meeting video archive

The adopted minutes control. Check names, votes and figures against them.

All meeting digests