Company Town
Around two hundred people gathered Friday at the Richmond BART for a rally in celebration of Earth Day. During the event, organized by Occupy Richmond, protestors carried signs, sang songs and chanted slogans against Chevron.
As the County Assessor’s Appeals Board prepares to meet to decide on Chevron’s tax assessment appeal value for 2010 and 2011, Richmond Confidential searched for other some US cities where other oil refineries are also appealing their local property tax assessments or have appealed them over the past five years.
Where do you go to protest wealth inequality? For about 30 people, many Richmond residents, the answer was simple on Tuesday: Go to the million-dollar-plus Lafayette estate of Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson. About 30 protesters stood in the rain in front of Watson’s home, criticizing the CEO as an example of what they called “corporate welfare” and undue influence of the richest Californians on the state’s tax code. “In the city of Richmond where I live, where most of…
On Monday morning, the County Assessor’s Appeals Board denied Chevron’s appeal of its tax assessment value for the years 2007 – 2009. Representatives from the oil giant had argued that the county had overvalued the property taxes due from the company’s Richmond oil refinery, and that it was owed a refund of up to $73 million. The appeal was the largest in the county’s history, according to County Assessor Gus Kramer.
A Note From the Editor: The letter contained below was submitted to RichmondConfidential.org by Richmond City Councilman Nat Bates. In the interest of fulfilling our role as a source for information and perspectives for the benefit of Richmond community members, we agreed to publish it. RichmondConfidential.org is always open to written submissions from the community, and its elected leaders, regarding matters of public importance. _______________ I wish to apologize to the citizen of Richmond for my combative behavior with…
About 50 protesters, including some top Richmond elected officials, demonstrated outside county government buildings in Martinez Thursday before filing into a hearing aimed at resolving a tax dispute between Chevron and the Contra Costa County Assessor’s office.
Chevron announced $1 million in grants for six local initiatives in job training and science education on Monday. Recipients include the West Contra Costa Unified School District and Contra Costa College. “[We’re] happy to contribute a total of $1 million – that’s easy to say, $1 million,” said refinery General Manager Nigel Hearne at a reception for the winners. The grant announcement was Hearne’s first public act since taking over from former general manager Mike Coyle in September. About a…
For Eugene Nishinaga, the chief technical officer at CyberTran International, ultralight rail is nothing short of a spiritual awakening. “I was actually driving on the highway, right outside the [Richmond] field station,” he said, “totally coincidence — and I felt the call of God.” The call was the impetus for a major shift in Nishinaga’s life. At the time, he was a respected research and development manager for BART with nearly 40 years experience in transit. But in 2008, Nishinaga,…
Chevron will present its case for a $58 million tax refund before an appeals board on Monday, as the company seeks to prove that it overpaid property taxes on its Richmond refinery between 2007 and 2009. Chevron believes the county has overvalued its Richmond refinery by nearly $2 billion per year.
If the company succeeds in its appeal, it would create a “brutal situation” for the county and cities, Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said.