In the second of three Richmondside candidate forums for the city’s first local primary election, the District 3 city council candidates were put on the spot by voters about some of the city’s hot-button issues.
More than 30 Richmond residents gathered in-person Thursday evening at Easter Hill United Methodist Church, with more watching the livestream online, to hear incumbent Doria Robinson and challenger Brandon Evans discuss the Chevron settlement, public safety and how they would grade the city on its response to homelessness.
Matthew Singh, who had appeared at other candidate forums as a potential write-in candidate, bowed out after formally announcing he was ending his campaign.
As the June 2 primary nears, Robinson has received a number of high-profile endorsements.
Three of the city’s four employee unions (SEIU Local 1021, IFPTE Local 21 and the Richmond firefighters union) are supporting her. She’s also receiving large independent expenditures from East Bay Working Families, a political action committee (PAC) comprised of a number of those unions and environmental and housing nonprofits, including Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and ACCE Action. (Read more city council campaign finance reporting details here.)
Chevron settlement: ‘If you could wave a wand…’
The forum began with a simple question framing what’s likely the city’s most talked about topic: The $550 million Chevron settlement, often described by elected officials as a “once-in-a-lifetime” windfall.
Moderator Annie Sciacca, co-director of the Contra Costa College Journalism and Communication Department, asked, “If you could wave a wand and spend this money on three things for your district, what would they be?”
Robinson, who was one of three city council members who negotiated the historic settlement in 2024, said her wish would be to immediately change the way residents view it.
“I would wave a wand so that everyone can hear how important it is to understand that this is a once in a generation, lifetime, opportunity,” she answered. “That the $50 million that we have already received is sitting in the bank raising more money.” (The $550 million is being paid out in annual installments over 10 years.)
By leaving that money in the bank, Robinson said the city stands to earn an estimated $50,000 a month in interest, funds that could help pay for some of the city’s immediate needs.
Evans said his magic wand wish would focus on “building capacity” by hiring city staff to take care of “quality of life” issues.
“It’s our streets department, our abatement department and our parks department,” Evans said, describing the city divisions that impact residents’ lives the most.
He added that he also believes Chevron settlement funds should directly benefit residents in District 3 refinery fenceline neighborhoods, such as Atchinson Village, suggesting that the city could provide direct cash payments, as was once done in compensation for refinery fires.
“I myself was a benefactor of ‘18 money,’ which if you grew up here in Richmond and lived through those early refinery explosions, when you turned 18 you had a check waiting for you,” he said.
Are Richmond’s approaches to public safety and the unhoused working?
Although Richmond had a historic-low number of murders in 2025, candidates were asked to evaluate the city’s approach to public safety and policing alternatives.
Evans said he believes it is too “early to tell” whether preventative programs such as ROCK, the Reach Out with Compassion and Kindness crisis team, are paying off.
“We talk about historical rates of gun violence in District 3. I, myself, came up in the city’s most violent period,” Evans said, referencing the violent 2000s. “I’ll say that we need both. This is not an either/or. We need public safety, traditional, and we need these new alternatives.”
Richmondside candidate forums
- District 4 council forum: May 13, De Anza High School library, 5000 Valley View Road, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6 p.m.) RSVP here.
- District 3 council forum: Watch the recording here.
- Mayoral forum: Watch it here and read more about it.
Robinson emphasized the historic 2025 homicide rate, saying “something’s working,” but added that “it isn’t enough.”
“We need to do more. We need to do everything we can do because lives are worth it,” she said. “I am a big fan of continuing to double down on prevention because I don’t want to see our young people put into the criminal justice system. I’d rather prevent it if we can and if we can’t we need to stop those who are creating harm.”
The candidates were also asked to give a letter grade evaluating the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness and blight.
Robinson, who didn’t specify a grade, said she believes the city has “risen” to the occasion by not leaving homeless encampment interventions solely up to the county, something some residents say creates redundancies between the two government entities.
“We have not listened to those critics who have said to ‘leave it to the county’ because we have seen the county is not doing enough,” she said. “We’ve put money toward it and also have gone after a number of grants for different solutions and we’ve learned a lot.”
She pointed to abatement grants and the Homekey grant as examples of that but added that gaps remain.
“It’s not enough because we are facing a statewide housing crisis,” Robinson said. “It’s a regional crisis. We are doing what we can and need to work more collaboratively with the county and I look forward to doing that.”
Evans gave the city a “D,” grade, saying he believes that the current council lacks “vision” to deal with ongoing homelessness.
“Instead of creating a safe sleeping village to allow individuals to sleep in their cars, they kind of just passed the buck. No one wanted it in their backyard,” Evans said, referring to the city’s issues resolving unhoused residents living inside vehicles along Rydin Road earlier this decade. “When we talk about strategy, yes, the council has had a number of encampment resolution grants from the state of California but that has resulted in individuals being housed in our hotels at Hilltop for a number of years.”
Evans said while some of those people have transitioned to permanent housing but he believes more needs to be done.
“We do have shelter capacity. We do have opportunities to help with the Bay Area Rescue Mission and GRIP to increase capacity but we aren’t doing enough,” Evans added.
Audience eager to ask candidates questions about Flock cameras, other topics
Forum audience members submitted nearly a dozen questions on 3-x-5 cards on topics including the Chevron settlement; what they think about engaging with neighborhood councils and Flock license plate readers.
Attendee Samantha Fentress took the mic to find out the exact status of the city’s Flock cameras.
Robinson recapped the recent saga surrounding the cameras, which had been turned off after a data exposure problem and were reinstated in March.
“Do you intend to install additional cameras throughout the city to address recent thefts? We’ve seen an increase in car thefts in our neighborhoods?” Fentress asked.
Robinson said that police Chief Timothy Simmons has said there are Flock ALPR cameras at all the major intersections and that there is no need for more at the moment.
“I follow what the chief says because he’s the expert,” Robinson said, though she stressed that she does not trust Flock as a vendor and expected the city will seek a new provider when the company’s contract is up at the end of the year.
Evans said that Flock opponents were trying to characterize the company as “surveilling our residents” but that it is not the case.
He added that the police department is understaffed and the tools that Flock provides, like the ALPR cameras, the CCTV cameras and drones, are essential.
“We talk about a department that is understaffed and short-handed,” he said, saying the technology can be leveraged to combat that.
But he noted that he was told each camera has to be manually switched back on and that the process has been taking awhile.
