Posts Tagged ‘city council’
Limit on campaign contributions may be increasing the spending of outside groups
The City Council’s attempt earlier this year to limit campaign contributions to council candidates seems to be working, last Thursday’s campaign finance deadline shows. But the limits might also be increasing the spending of outside groups on the election. Under the ordinance passed this summer, candidates must not accept more than $40,000 in campaign contributions…
Read MoreCity Council Election 2012: Tom Butt
In March 1970, Tom Butt, fresh out of serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vietnam, chose to be discharged there. He mainly wanted to visit Angkor Wat, an architectural wonder in nearby Cambodia. Butt then continued a long “odyssey” back to the United States through Southeast Asia, across the Trans-Siberian Railway in…
Read MoreCity Council Election 2012: Gary Bell
Gary Bell was the first person in his family to go to college, a star football player, and the youngest city council member ever elected in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. But don’t ask the Richmond City Council candidate about his defeats. “Did you just use the defeated word with me?” he asks, his eyebrows…
Read MoreCity Council Election 2012: Bea Roberson
There’s one outcome for the City Council election that Bea Roberson says she can’t let happen, and it’s the reason the first-time candidate decided to put her name on the ballot to begin with. “We cannot let the [Richmond Progressive Alliance] win again,” Roberson said, standing near the dais in the city chambers after a…
Read MoreCity Council Election 2012: Mark Wassberg
Mark Wassberg finishes the knot with his teeth and steps back from the chain-link fence. He stands quietly for a moment and inspects his work as a wave of cars passes by. It’s a warm cloudless afternoon a month before Election Day and two posters emblazoned with the message MARK WASSBERG 4 CITY COUNCIL gleam…
Read MoreIn Richmond politics, the Obama family brand resonates with the community
Nat Bates was elected for a record seventh time in 2008 and one of his campaign signs featured his face next to the face of another man looking to make history in the same election. This year, Bates’ reelection signs once again link him to the same man. A blue sign in the window of…
Read MoreA Richmond council hopeful who dances to a different drum
Mike “Raccoon Eyes” Kinney is not a typical candidate for Richmond city council. He wears 17 medicine bags around his neck and a beret on his head. Ask the lifelong Richmond resident why he’s running for office for the first time, and expect an impassioned soliloquy, with pitched intonations and kinetic gestures that cut through…
Read MoreTop McLaughlin aide resigns, joins 2012 electoral field in Richmond
The race for Richmond City Council 2012 just got more interesting. Longtime mayoral aide and local activist Marilyn Langlois has resigned her post in Gayle McLaughlin’s office to run for a chance to govern beside her former boss. “I will still be very close with the mayor and volunteering in the community,” Langlois said by…
Read MoreCity Council moves forward with soda tax
The City Council voted 5-2 last Tuesday to support placing a soda tax on the ballot next November – a measure that proposes a 1-cent charge for every ounce of sugary beverages sold in Richmond. In a second measure, the city proposes to use the revenues from this tax to fight childhood obesity in Richmond.
Read MoreCivil rights lawsuit against city, police chief drags on
The City Council approved $900,000 Tuesday to continue to defend the city in two civil rights lawsuits filed by a group of high-ranking Richmond police officers, adding to a legal battle that has already gone on for five years and cost $3.4 million.
Read MoreCyberTran: Small start-up has big dreams
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…
Read MoreCity Hall fistfight catalyst for debate between Office of Neighborhood Safety and critics
Long-standing rifts between the Office of Neighborhood Safety and its critics have broken open following a fight last week involving youth from rival neighborhoods who had gathered inside City Hall.
Read MoreCity attorney Randy Riddle will step down
Richmond City Attorney Randy Riddle — who became the city’s attorney after a protracted search that ended in 2007 — will be leaving his position early next year. The city has hired an executive search firm to find a replacement. “Randy has been a great city attorney,” Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay said on Tuesday. “He…
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