24 Apr Richmond City Manager to Retire; City Eyes Data Center Ban

Shasa Curl, right, will soon leave her post as city manager of Richmond. Next to her at Tuesday’s City Council meeting is Shannon Moore, the interim city attorney. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl is retiring once three key park renovation projects are complete, she announced this week.

Curl said briefly at the City Council meeting Tuesday that she planned to step down from her position once projects at Booker T. Anderson, Boorman and Wendell parks are complete.

“I also want to let the City Council and community know that when our three park renovation projects are completed, I will be retiring from the city of Richmond,” said Curl following her regular city manager report.

Curl has been in the position since 2022, after having served on an interim basis since November of the previous year. She first started with the city in 2003, holding positions such as deputy city manager and community and economic development director.

In recent months, Curl has faced public criticism from the Richmond Police Officers Association for her alleged handling of contract negotiations and not returning three officers to duty who were involved in two separate police shootings that killed two men.

Benjamin Therriault, president of the union, said ahead of the closed session meeting that he wanted officials to implement a “360-degree evaluation process” for Curl that includes confidential input from labor unions and the public.

“There are actually people and department heads who have looked elsewhere in this city, a lot of us all talk, a lot of us have worked here a long time, and the pattern of micromanagement from the city manager’s office that has undermined operational decision-making, demoralized some in staff and created confusion where there should be clarity,” said Therriault.

Therriault and other officers have rallied behind their colleagues, Officers Colton Stocking, Nicholas Remick and Brandon Hodges, at meetings.

Stocking and Remick fatally shot Angel Montaño in August 2025, while Montaño was experiencing what appeared to be a mental health crisis. The two were found to have used reasonable force in the situation, a report from the District Attorney’s Office said.

Then, in January, Hodges shot and killed Luis Angel Torres Rivera on Interstate 80. The state Department of Justice is investigating that incident due to a state law that requires an investigation into police shootings of unarmed civilians.

Curl said she wouldn’t “be bullied by RPOA,” adding that a meeting scheduled for April 17 with the union was also canceled by them.

“We currently have 14 items that we’re seeking to address with them outside of regular negotiations, and it’s really disappointing when we have time calendared to meet with them that they cancel at the last minute,” said Curl. “We are endeavoring to continue to negotiate in good faith and in order to do so they have to be at the table.”

Data Center Ban

As artificial intelligence booms across the Bay Area and inches into the city, Richmond leaders are eyeing an opportunity to become the latest local officials to slow at least some of the technology’s spread.

City Council members at Tuesday’s meeting asked staff to draft an ordinance that would ban data centers from being built within the city. There are no current data center applications, but Curl, Director of Community Development Lina Velasco, Planning Manager Avery Stark and interim City Attorney Shannon Moore said in their report to officials that a moratorium would give them time to evaluate the environmental impacts of allowing their development.

It comes as the city welcomes OpenAI, a company that researches AI and the creator of the chatbot ChatGPT, into a more than 202,000-square-foot warehouse. The company signed a lease for 1141 Harbour Way, the site of the Portside Commerce Center, last month.

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That OpenAI site won’t be a data center, according to Richmondside; Business Insider reported in January that the company was planning to open a humanoid robotics lab in the city.

The City Council vote, which was done alongside others on the consent agenda without discussion, also comes a week after the Oakley City Council put in place the Bay Area’s first ban on data centers over the same concerns, albeit a temporary one.

Oakley’s ban was prompted by a now-approved project that listed a data center as a possibility, drawing a crowd of opposition from residents. The developer dropped the chance of a data center from the project, eventually winning approval from the Oakley City Council.

Data centers use large amounts of energy and water. According to a report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a mid-sized data center can use the same amount of water needed for a smaller city.

The city of Pittsburg approved the site of a proposed future data center, which Mayor Dionne Adams previously told The Pulse the city is interested in exploring. But other Contra Costa cities have so far stayed out of the industry.

It’s unclear when the ordinance could come back for formal consideration.