Posts Tagged ‘Gary Bell’
Council to discuss filling Richmond’s vacant seat
A council seat opened up when former Councilmember Tom Butt was sworn in as mayor earlier this year. By last Tuesday, 18 applicants had submitted statements to fill the vacancy. The council now must appoint one of them, and they may do so as soon as Tuesday night. Richmond Confidential asked all the councilmembers, including…
Read MoreEmpty city council seat has 18 contenders
Before the Tuesday night deadline, 18 candidates from diverse backgrounds filed applications to fill the empty seat. The council majority will only choose one of them.
Read MoreCouncil names Booze vice mayor
Tuesday night’s Richmond City Council meeting was short on substance but long on drama. Despite an agenda that included few controversial items, councilmembers and the public traded barbs and accusations deep into the night. In the nearly six-hour meeting, the council’s only decision was to choose a vice-mayor. Councilmember Corky Booze and Mayor Gayle McLaughlin…
Read MoreSpecial meeting to discuss vacant City Council seat this Thursday
After running out of time to officially declare the council seat left by Gary Bell as vacant at last week’s city council meeting, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin announced a special meeting to be held this Thursday at City Hall to discuss the issue. The time for the meeting has not been specified yet. “This process is…
Read MoreRichmond city council fails to announce Bell vacancy as meeting ends in stalemate
A meeting that began with warm sentiments as the city council praised Salute restaurant owner Menbre Akililu for her Thanksgiving Day meal giveaway for the homeless quickly spiraled into arguing, showmanship and—at the very end—confusion. As the time ticked down for the meeting—which according to city bylaws officially ends at 11 pm, unless a majority…
Read MoreRift emerges in Richmond as Bell seat falls vacant
An empty chair sat on the dais of Richmond City Hall Tuesday night during the inauguration of re-elected councilmembers Tom Butt and Nat Bates. Outpourings of well wishes for its intended occupant, Gary Bell—who won the November race but is in a medically induced coma following a bacterial sinus infection—dominated public speeches and the hushed conversations in the gallery.
Read MoreRichmond City Council welcomes back Nat Bates, Tom Butt with swearing-in ceremony
Political differences were—mostly—set aside Tuesday night during the celebratory swearing-in of re-elected city council members Nat Bates and Tom Butt. But beneath the congratulatory speeches for Bates and Butt, and the appreciative acknowledgments of outgoing councilmember Jeff Ritterman, were concerns for councilmember-elect Gary Bell and worries about the council’s potential make-up now that Bell’s seat…
Read MoreRichmond Councilman-elect Gary Bell will not take office January 8 due to illness
Councilmember-elect Gary Bell will not take office next week due to complications from a bacterial sinus infection, which was previously misreported in news accounts as a meningitis infection, according to a press release sent out Thursday night by Bell’s family. Next Tuesday, January 8, is the swearing in ceremony for the new councilmembers. Councilmember Nat…
Read MoreMaps show support for City Council winners
More than 31,300 voters in Richmond cast a ballot this year, a 10 percent decrease from the last presidential election, according to numbers updated on the Contra Costa County’s election division site on Nov. 17. In 2008, more than 35,000 voters in the city cast a ballot, which was 84 percent of registered voters. This…
Read MoreCouncil looks forward after election
The City Council returned to business – with the meeting going into the next morning and the occasional spat between councilmembers — at its first post-election meeting Tuesday night. Before the meeting started, audience members were told to wait outside while fire and police officials responded to a carbon monoxide leak in the council chambers…
Read MoreElection recap: Voters seek familiar faces
When the official returns came in on Wednesday morning, Richmond voters had decided that after the most expensive campaign in city history, what they wanted was familiar faces. Incumbents Nat Bates and Tom Butt were re-elected to the City Council, and Gary Bell, who will return to the dais after an eight-year hiatus, will take…
Read MoreBates, Butt and Bell win council race
In a hotly contested City Council election, with millions of dollars at play and a recent push into the national spotlight, Richmond voters have elected Nat Bates, Tom Butt and Gary Bell to the three open seats on the council dais. The two RPA candidates, Eduardo Martinez and Marilyn Langlois, finished just outside the top…
Read MoreCitizens Outspent: Inside Richmond’s $4m Election Campaign
Take your pick: naïve anarchists, or corporate puppets. This is the face of Richmond’s hotly contested race for three council seats in the November 2012 election, at least going by the massive billboards and glossy mailers that have dominated the campaign season in this city of 100,000 residents. The majority of candidates running for council…
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