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Richmond Leaders Plan To Confront Mayor Over 'Failure' To Make Police Review Appointments

RICHMOND (CBS SF) - Members of the Richmond City Council are planning to confront Mayor Tom Butt on Tuesday evening over what's being referred to as his "failure" to make appointments to the Community Police Review Commission.

"You can't affirm anyone unless there's an appointment, and I will guarantee you that I will not appoint another person to the police commission until my term is over ... if the council doesn't support this," Butt told the rest of the council during a contentious April 2 meeting just before they refused to confirm his nominee, Catherine Montalbo, who critics had blasted for using problematic language about immigrants online.

"You guys make your choice," Butt said.

And the council did, voting against him 5-2, with only Councilman Nathaniel Bates supporting the mayor's motion.

"His threat was not taken seriously because the council believed dereliction of duty was below the performance of the Mayor," Councilman Eduardo Martinez and city staff wrote in a report for Tuesday night's meeting.

"He has since shown the council that he intends to not put forward any names for consideration, thereby hindering the effectiveness of the commission which has much work to do," Martinez wrote.

Concerns have been raised over whether the commission will be able to reliably establish a quorum, or have the minimum number of commissioners in attendance required to take official action, without filling some of the now empty seats.

Since that does not seem to be an option at this juncture, the council is seeking to reduce the number of commissioners required for a quorum.

Martinez has proposed establishing a "floating quorum" for the commission, based on assembling a majority of the commission appointed at any given time.

"If eight members are currently appointed, the quorum is five, if seven members are currently appointed, the quorum is four; if only six members are appointed, the quorum is four, if five members are currently appointed, the quorum is three," the report said.

Martinez hopes to ensure that a quorum can be met, despite any "extenuating circumstances," so that the commission can go about the work of investigating complaints about misconduct by Richmond police.

In a message sent out May 22 on his "E-Forum" newsletter, Butt maintained that an appointee cannot be confirmed without his support.

"The mayor cannot override the City Council, but he or she can choose not to appoint, thus motivating the City Council to accept some appointments they otherwise don't favor," Butt wrote. "In this case, there may be compromises where each party gets some but not all of what they want.

"In the more than four years I have been mayor, I have made plenty of compromises on appointments, perhaps more than any previous mayor, but I'm not sure the City Council has made any," Butt wrote.

Alex Knox, Butt's chief of staff, said in an email Monday afternoon that there are some functional issues with the language Martinez has put forward, although he's confident that city staff and attorneys will be able to navigate that.

Knox also said that under the bylaws of the police review commission, members can change their own quorum requirements internally without the City Council's insistence.

Tuesday's meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the council chamber at 440 Civic Center Plaza. The meeting will be broadcast live on the city's website at http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/719/Streaming-Video.

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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