26 Jun Richmond Council Approves $645.4 Million Budget

(Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

The end of the budget season for the Richmond City Council included funding sources for gender-based violence and the Black Resiliency Project, $48 million the council will hold onto just in case federal funding is taken, and a “no” for — and from — council member Soheila Bana. 

Council members on Tuesday approved a $645.4 million operating budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year that includes a $58 million revenue increase. The general fund is made up of revenues at $308.55 million and $260.05 million in expenditures.  

Bana used her “no” when voting on the budget approval after other members — Doria Robinson and Mayor Eduardo Martinez — pushed back against her request that funding go towards the El Sobrante Stroll and Cheese Park. 

Bana requested $2,000 for the El Sobrante Stroll. However, the event is located within an unincorporated area of the county. 

Other council member requests made it through with the rest of the budget. Council member Sue Wilson’s request to receive a quarterly report from staff regarding vacant full time positions and Robinson’s to first fund the $1.5 million Black Resiliency Project using the vehicle fleet fund. (Staff made this recommendation in their report to council, but only used $500,000 from the vehicle fleet fund.)

But those funding asks are pennies compared to the $48 million council members are holding off on using. Andrea Miller, director of finance, said the city will “closely monitor” economic uncertainties. 

“City staff will evaluate various options for investing the principal of new limited-term revenue to optimize interest earnings,” the staff report said. 

At the end of May, Richmond and other Bay Area cities popped up on a “sanctuary jurisdictions” list in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s website. That was after President Donald Trump, who has long made threats to withhold federal funding from jurisdictions for not cooperating with his calls for immigration crackdowns, signed an executive order threatening that funding. 

The order, which named 16 other jurisdictions but not Richmond, was blocked by a federal judge in April because the threat causes “irreparable injury in the form of budgetary uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights, and undermining trust between the Cities and Counties and the communities they serve.” 

However, council members were able to make a commitment to where the money would come from for the Harbour 8 Park project and for gender-based violence. 

To fund $100,000 for gender-based violence, the council approved using the vehicle fleet budget. The recently approved $3 million for the Harbour 8 Park will come from redirecting the HVAC budget funding. 

Training coming to police oversight commission

Almost a year after the Community Police Review Commission’s former investigator Jerry Threet said, among other things, that commissioners needed additional training, it’s happening. 

Council members approved an item brought forward by City Attorney Dave Aleshire and CPRC attorney Floy Andrews that establishes a training program for commissioners. 

Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda and council members Jamelia Brown and Bana voted against the item because they believed training should take place before commissioners participate in hearings. 

The training, which is estimated to cost $15,000 until a permanent investigator is hired, is the result of an April recommendation from commissioners that called on council members to require new commissioners to receive training. 

The permanent investigator that will be hired will conduct the training once onboard and the cost will be reduced to zero. 

But the item, which was initially placed on the consent calendar, gave commissioners too much time — up to six months — to get the training, Brown said as reasoning for pulling it for discussion. 

Brown suggested that the time to receive training should be much less because of the impact the commission has on the community. Instead, she said commissioners should receive training within 30 or 60 days. 

The proposal gained support from the council and some community members who spoke, but, at the motion of council member Claudia Jimenez, will give commissioners up to three months to complete their training. 

City staff will also explore offering stipends for commissioners to complete the mandatory eight hours of training. 

The move comes over a month after Zepeda, Brown and Bana blocked Martinez’s appointments to an ad-hoc committee that would have reviewed CPRC policy recommendations. Martinez proposed the committee to be made up of himself, council members Claudia Jimenez and Sue Wilson, Police Chief Bisa French and a CPRC representative.

Bana, who was instrumental in blocking the appointments, largely pointed to Threet’s allegations that commissioners were biased and unethical. 

Though commissioners have denied allegations of bias and unethical conduct, they’ve agreed that more training was needed. At a May meeting, Jimenez said that a CPRC recommendation to increase training had already been underway when Threet made the allegations. 

The proposed annual training includes learning about the police department’s policies; practices procedures on all automatic triggers for review; the department’s de-escalation tactics, the fundamentals of procedure, evidence, and due process, implicit biases; and constitutional rights and civil liberties.