Richmond’s mayor avoided a censorship vote Tuesday after his allies on the city council were accused of running out the clock by prioritizing other topics and not extending the meeting.
The meeting, which had some twists and turns that left some council members looking visibly shocked, featured dueling measures on the agenda, one by Cesar Zepeda recommending that Mayor Eduardo Martinez be censured for “antisemitic rhetoric” and another by Martinez outlining his own atonement plan.
While reviewing the agenda at the start of the meeting Martinez and his Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) allies on the council voted down attempts by Zepeda and censure co-sponsor Jamelia Brown to discuss the measure at the beginning of the meeting. Later in the meeting, the same allies thwarted Zepeda and Brown from trying to piggyback their censure resolution onto the mayor’s atonement measure.
The council ultimately chose to first hear Martinez’s State of the City address, which was postponed from December, a presentation on the Richmond Port’s finances and a report related to the Richmond Fund for Children and Youth before addressing the mayor’s atonement proposal shortly after 9 p.m.
Tuesday night was slated to be the crescendo in what many are considering a pivotal political moment during Martinez’s first term as mayor.
The controversy erupted in December over LinkedIn posts he shared that perpetuated conspiracy theories about the Bondi Beach massacre insinuating that the incident was a false-flag operation. The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Bay Area chapter issued a Dec. 18 open letter calling for his resignation.
Martinez, who when introducing his acknowledgement resolution Tuesday night said he has made multiple apologies and that it has been difficult because there are “people who aren’t ready to accept an apology,” then emailed out a written apology on official city letterhead at about 9 p.m.
“In this instance, I failed to meet the responsibility that my position requires. I reposted content online that included antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, which have long been used to dehumanize Jewish people and justify violence against them,” Martinez wrote. “I was wrong to share them, and I take full responsibility for the harm I caused. I regret the content I reposted, and I am deeply sorry.”
Martinez’s email said that he has met with Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller of Temple Beth Hillel, the only synagogue within city limits, and said that he has also met with two other rabbis: Yitzchok Wagner of Chabad of Richmond, which has said it plans to establish a temple in Richmond, and Cat Zavis of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in Berkeley.
In similar fashion to the Jan. 6 council meeting when the topic was first discussed, about 66 commenters spoke, with just over half in favor of accepting the mayor’s apology plan while the rest called for his resignation — though there were significantly fewer speakers.
Saxe-Taller, who spoke during public comment, said she appreciated the mayor for the “beginning of the process to address antisemitism and to address the way it is being increasingly and more baldly used to target Jews as well as to justify attacks on other communities.”
Joe Puleo, a Richmond Progressive Alliance member and Richmond resident, quoted a famous political saying that “politics make strange bedfellows” — referring to the various alliances which have formed around supporting or criticizing the mayor.
“We have seen and heard some strange bedfellows, most of whom do not live in Richmond,” Puleo said, seemingly referring to Zepeda. “They have aligned themselves with the forces of oppression.”
Cesar Zepeda surprises colleagues by trying to combine dueling censure measures
At about 10:45 p.m., as the council was nearing its legally mandated end time, Zepeda, to the visible surprise of his fellow council members, attempted to add the censure measure to the mayor’s atonement measure because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough time to discuss it separately.
“It’s because we have 15 minutes and will likely not hear Q4 (the censure resolution),” Zepeda said.
Brown and Vice Mayor Doria Robinson, who was appointed to her new role on Tuesday night, voted in favor of adding the censure language (a surprise given that Robinson often votes in tandem with RPA-affiliated council members) but the amendment was defeated, with Martinez, RPA-aligned Districts 5 and 6 council members Sue Wilson and Claudia Jimenez and, unexpectedly, District 4 council member Soheila Bana voting “no.”
Bana has often found herself at odds with the mayor and the RPA on the dais since her 2022 election though, also unexpectedly, earlier in the meeting, she was nominated by the mayor for the vice mayor role. The nomination was shut down by Martinez’s allies in favor of Robinson.
The mayor’s atonement acknowledgement was eventually accepted by the council by a 6-1 vote, with Brown casting the lone “no” vote.
Zepeda then requested that his censure resolution be “pulled from the agenda for an undisclosed amount of time.”
Brown, who co-sponsored the censure item with Zepeda, expressed her displeasure with that.
“I don’t agree, personally, to continue this item … I don’t believe that it should be put off for a later date that’s unknown,” she said. “This is a complete embarrassment as a city council member that we will stand in solidarity and say that this was antisemitic conduct and behavior yet we don’t want to formalize it and put it on record. It’s very cowardly behavior and I’m just going to go ahead with whatever ya’ll are talking about because it’s very strategic.”
Brown told Richmondside Wednesday that it was “disheartening” to see the council’s politics exposed on the dais.
She said she believes that the RPA-aligned trio of Martinez, Wilson and Jimenez, flanked by Robinson, flexed their muscles to run out the clock so that the censure item would not be heard.
Robinson, though not formally a member of the organization, received its endorsement in her 2022 campaign and has been a crucial ally since Brown defeated longtime RPA member Melvin Willis in the 2024 election.
Since her election, Brown has been a vocal RPA critic, saying that she feels the progressive-minded group does not speak for the majority of Richmonders.
“It was so disheartening to be up there to witness that in real time. The energy was so off-putting,” Brown said. “Coming out of closed session everything was so strategically placed. It just was rehearsed. A stage play almost.”
Brown said she was shocked by Bana’s vote in favor of the atonement plan and by Zepeda’s move to push the censure item to an undisclosed date but reiterated that she was mostly disappointed that it wasn’t heard due to how many speakers were signed up to address the topic. Prior to the close of the meeting, City Clerk Pamela Christian saidthere were more than 50 people hoping to address the council about the censure.
For Brown, the meeting shows that as long as the mayor and RPA-endorsed council members have a four-vote majority, the group can by default dictate its priorities.
“What last night showed me is that as long as you can count to four you don’t have to be accountable for anything. He (Martinez) can go out and do what he pleases,” Brown said. “All of this stuff they (Martinez and the RPA) are doing is in our face.”
Martinez told Richmondside on Wednesday that he took issue with Brown’s characterization that council members were attempting to run out the clock.
“I told everyone at the beginning (of the meeting) that we have limited time,” Martinez said. “We had five items. Let’s see if we can get through things and I think I was trying to keep things moving and it was difficult.”
Martinez added that he was frustrated with Zepeda’s attempt to add the censure measure to his acknowledgement resolution, saying that by doing so Zepeda was shutting out those who wanted to address the council on that topic.
“It was a separate item and if it had gone the way it was supposed to have (gone) then they would have been able to speak,” he said. “Democracy is messy.”
Jimenez, the lone council member on the RPA’s Steering Committee, told Richmondside on Wednesday that council business is organized on the agenda by the mayor and city staff and not council members.
“I don’t know what she means,” Jimenez said. “I was surprised by the two presentations at the beginning because it didn’t leave any time for the other (items).”
Jimenez said she hopes that the censure item does not return so that the council can focus on “city business.”
A least the Richmond City Council passed a Ceasefire Resolution re: Gaza back when with an understanding of mass murder in GAZA. Here in Berkeley, we had no such justice for Palestinians. Shame on the Berkeley City Council for finking out.. esp. now when Palestinians are still being murdered despite a pretensive ceasefire. (member Jewish Voices for Peace) Oakland also passed a Ceasefire Resolution as did SF.
I reject Councilmember Brown’s statement that progressive policies don’t align with the Richmond community.
Since electing this progressive Council and mayor, Richmond has significantly improved. We are in good fiscal standing, homicide rates are at historic lows, and we have won settlement money from the biggest company polluting our environment.
The Mayor has apologized and is making amends. I say let the voters decide and make their voices heard— stop trying to silence our voices with this censure.
Also, Richmondside, really? You can include in this article who endorsed whom, but not mention that Councilmember Brown hosted a campaign party for a candidate running against the current mayor and district 3 council member?
This is conspiracy-mongering, not journalism. It reads almost like an opinion piece penned by Jamelia Brown, the most extreme and bitter opponent of the progressive majority on the council. The majority of actual Richmond residents and voters who spoke Tuesday night supported the Mayor’s atonement plan and opposed the resolution to censure him, which would have been defeated if heard. #sourgrapes
For the record, as someone who was there, the overwhelming majority of people who self-identified as Richmond residents spoke in favor of the Mayor or made neutral comments like Rabbi Saxe-Taller’s more general remarks on antisemitism.
Unlike the January 6th meeting, where all city matters were postponed to address the Mayor’s controversy, the first few items on this week’s agenda rightly focused on city business. The balance between demanding accountability for the Mayor’s antisemitic reposts and moving forward with other important city matters has not been successfully minded. Richmond can’t and shouldn’t halt official business indefinitely to address this one issue. A hastily drawn censure put forth by Zepeda/Brown on January 6th inadvertently stretched the issue across multiple town meetings. An issue that should have been heard and resolved in one meeting cycle. The entire debacle spiraled into a prolonged spectacle that appeared more like an attempt to kneecap Mayor Martinez by his political foes than a genuine, honest attempt to stand against bigotry and disinformation. Cesar Zepeda and Jamelia Brown both have political ambitions for higher office. Brown, in particular, as highlighted in this article, has a bone to pick with the RPA in general. It was an embarrassing mess on all sides, from Martinez’s ridiculous LinkedIn reposts to the political circus his adversaries spun the controversy into. As a Jewish person and long-term resident of Richmond, I find the mayor’s resolution perfectly acceptable. I am happy the rest of the council (sans Brown?) will participate in antisemitism training and I genuinely hope this concludes the drama, allowing our elected officials to return focus on Richmond and Richmond residents.
Without having the mayor recuse himself from chairing part of the meeting accusing him of antisemitism is a travesty. The RPA has gone too far. It sounds like Trump’s group.
Most of us are well educated about the horrors of the Holocaust, but few of us are aware of the horrors of the Nakba in which Jewish terrorist groups forced 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.
I hope this narrative is included in the proposed antisemite training for council members. It is crucial to the understanding of modern-day antisemitism.
Forrest Cioppa
How in God’s name was Martinez allowed to vote to excuse himself from what he said and did.
Why didn’t the council , the city attorney and the city clerk suggest he recuse ?
This happens all the time. Robinson votes her “non-profit” hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars, while at the same time NOT supporting accountability measures. Same with Jimenez. This is nothing less than socialist TRUMP.