Ahmad Anderson, a lifelong resident of Richmond, believes that he is the right candidate to shake up the current state of city politics — one which has seen Richmond Progressive Alliance-endorsed candidates winning a majority of seats on the city council.
Since 2020, the RPA-supported council members have often voted as a unit,passing policies in line with the group’s values on public safety, the environment and small businesses.
He believes that the group, which has touted itself as the voice for the voiceless, has not been truly representative of Richmond residents.
“The same group, the RPA, who wanted to push back on Chevron, who wanted to really speak for the people, who really wanted to talk about immigrants, people of color and how they’re being treated, and really be the voice of the people to get rid of the status quo, it appears to me that the RPA has become the status quo,” Ahmad said.
It was of no surprise to many in Richmond that Anderson chose to run after longtime Richmond political figure Gayle McLaughlin decided earlier this year not seek to keep the District 5 seat she has held since 2020.
“Everybody and their mother always asks me two things: ‘Are you going to be a minister?’ and then the other thing was — ‘Well, you sound like your dad and have that compassion like your mother, are you running for office?’ No one’s surprised Ahmad is running,” he said, speaking of himself in the third-person as he sometimes does at public events.
Anderson first ran unsuccessfully for city council in 1985 when he was 25 and then again for the newly formed District 5 seat in 2020. He also ran for a seat on the BART District 7 board in 1992, losing by just 129 votes.
Meet D5 Richmond City Council candidate Ahmad Anderson
WHO: Ahmad Anderson
PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS: Economic development, crime and public safety.
WHAT HE SAID: “I have that history and background in which I understand this community and the trials and tribulations from economic downfall based on some racism and lack of community policing that we are all seeking today. I’ve lived that life for real, and I am truly the native son of Richmond.”
WHO HE IS RUNNING AGAINST: Read about Sue Wilson.
This is among a series of profiles of the seven candidates running for seats in three Richmond City Council districts. Visit our local elections guide for more stories.
The Richmond City Council District 5 candidates are Ahmad Anderson (left) and Sue Wilson. They are pictured at a Richmondside co-hosted meet-the-candidates night held at Easter Hill Methodist Church. Credit: Kelly Sullivan
Anderson has iconic family history in Richmond
Anderson comes from an iconic Richmond family with historic ties to city hall. His father, the Rev. Booker T. Anderson (for whom the Panhandle Annex community center and park were named after) was on the council and served as mayor from 1973 to 1974 while his mother, Irma Anderson, was mayor from 2001 to 2006 and was the first Black woman mayor to be elected to a city of Richmond’s size in California.
“When I ran when I was 25 I was still wet behind the ears, Similac on my breath,” he said, adding that since then he has gained public service experience working behind the scenes on various commissions and making connections he lacked in previous election attempts.
He acknowledged his opponent, RPA-endorsed Sue Wilson, has great ideas but questioned if she is ready for the position, similarly to how he wasn’t ready in 1985.
“I’m ready,” he told Richmondside during an interview at his Laurel Park home. “I know this community, not just here (in Laurel Park) but I’ve lived on the south side. I know the city but also the region.”
District 5 is comprised of various neighborhoods along the city’s southern portion including Marina Bay, the Richmond Annex, Eastshore, Cortez/Stege, the Panhandle Annex, Parkview, Laurel Park and Southwest Annex.
Pointing to his experience serving from 2020 till 2023 on the city’s Economic Development Commission and his 25 years working in human resource roles, Anderson said he is equipped to help lead a transparent, community-centered process as Richmond prepares how to distribute what will eventually be $550 million paid out by Chevron.
“I said this before everyone. (Start an) oversight committee and then follow it to be able to explain and walk us through the process from the implementation to the administration,” Anderson said, adding that newly elected council members should be given an “HR for Dummies” book” to ensure they know their fiduciary responsibilities.
As a 60-year resident of Richmond, Anderson has seen how things have changed in a city that once had a burgeoning, Black community in a racially-segregated, post-World War II era.
Anderson saw a Richmond that was developing in a similar vein to west Oakland and San Francisco’s Fillmore District.
“Even in those particular cases, west Oakland and Fillmore were still expensive. There were more opportunities for jobs (in Richmond) because it was still uncharted,” he said.
During his childhood, Anderson said he lived all over south Richmond and what later became city council District 5, growing up on South 18th Street, South 17th Street, and the Santa Fe and Panhandle Annex neighborhoods. He vividly remembers when racism became a focus for the city’s Black residents.
“My father was the regional public relations guy for the Southern Christian Leadership under Martin Luther King Jr.,” he said, showing Richmondside a picture of his father with the legendary Civil Rights leader. “I keep that with me (as a reminder) because that was my first real experience of what economics, jobs and justice looked like in America.”
Although Richmond was miles away from the open racism in the South, Anderson said that the city was not immune to the same conversations about race happening around the country at that time, such as a lack of adequate police services for his community. He pointed out that it wasn’t just the Hilltop Mall construction that drove businesses out of downtown but the racial riots that happened in the late-1960s.
“It was the inability to call the police (during the riots) who were supposed to protect and serve you to really protect and serve you when they were also doing a lot of the things that were happening in the South,” he said.
Having an understanding of the cultural context of the city, he said, benefits him as a candidate because he still sees many of the same issues affecting Richmond today — problems such as public safety and a lack of community policing, economic development, affordable housing and mental health services.
“I have that history and background in which I understand this community and the trials and tribulations from economic downfall based on some racism and lack of community policing that we are all seeking today,” he said. “I’ve lived that life for real, and I am truly the native son of Richmond.”
Currently, Anderson works as the director of people and culture for the Gardens of Golden Gate Park. He previously has worked in human resources positions at FedEx, UPS, DHL and Goodwill.
Having briefly lived in other areas, including Marin County, Boston and New York City, Anderson said that he always carried Richmond with him.
“I always came back home. Never changed my voting (registration) and always voted absentee ballot so I could have an impact here,” he said. “It’s not about talking about it. I walk the walk and talk the talk. Voting for me is about taking action.”
Economic development as vehicle for change
In talking to residents during his campaign, Anderson said he believes the biggest issues facing residents in District 5 are crime and public safety.
Solving those issues intersects with fostering a vibrant business-friendly community, he said, pointing out that businesses can’t succeed in an unsafe environment.
“You can put together an economic strategy, but in order for this to be an open door, a welcoming red carpet, (you need to) tell folks you’re open for not just business but also housing,” Anderson said. “We need money to do that. Economic development provides tax revenue and is the engine for workforce development and paving the way for the future.”
Harkening back to the days of inadequate policing in the Black community, Anderson said that the current state of the Richmond Police Department concerns him.
Recently, a stolen car crashed on Cutting Boulevard into a retaining wall near his home. He saw the responding officer later in the day handling an incident in Point Richmond.
“I asked him, ‘Do you cover from Point Richmond to there?’ and he said ‘Yes.’ I asked ‘What does that look like at night?’ He said ‘Crazy.’ ”
Anderson believes officers are spread too thin and are overworked, saying a 2021 City Council decision to reallocate money from the police department to crime and crisis prevention programs has sent the wrong message to residents and has drawn the attention of out-of-town criminals looking to make a quick score.
During that 2021 meeting, the council voted to reallocate funds that would have been spent hiring 12 officers to preventative programs: YouthWORKS; the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), which works to reduce gun violence, unhoused intervention services through SOS Richmond; and the Community Crisis Response Program (CCRP, now known as “ROCK”).
“We know that Blacks and Browns have said they never wanted to really defund the police. We just wanted respect,” he said, adding that crimes impact communities regardless of police staffing.
Voters don’t have to travel far, Anderson said, if they want to envision the kind of economic future he hopes he can create in Richmond. He points to the San Pablo Avenue corridor, which stretches from Oakland to Rodeo, and economic templates created by cities such as Pinole, Hercules, San Pablo and El Cerrito.
“What are we doing?” he said. “No shovels in the ground. Yet we have a (city budget) deficit and, if you look over the last 10 years, what revenue have we brought in? Nothing substantial to that end.”
Anderson criticized the RPA-affiliated council members for the Chevron settlement, saying that although their candidates say they don’t take corporate donations they still needed the oil corporation’s money to shore up the city financially.
“It appears to me the same organization — RPA — who pushed back on corporate money just got paid by corporate America,” he said. “You may say you don’t take corporate money, but you just did.”
When asked how he would be able to work alongside RPA-endorsed candidates if he gets elected, Anderson said one can have working relationships with people they disagree with.
“At the League of Women Voters forum, I sat next to (District 1 candidate) Melvin (Willis), and we’re chopping it up, laughing. Claudia (Jimenez, D1 candidate) and (councilmember) Cesar (Zepeda) sat at my family table at the memorial for my mom,” he said. “I’m about being real with folks.”
So Ahmad Anderson is documented as being a “principal officer” of Richmond Business PAC (Rich PAC). Rich PAC has paid for billboards around Richmond for their candidates. Mr. Anderson seems to be using this Political Action Committee for his own benefit. Both Mr. Andersons campaign Committee and Rich PAC have failed to file the required reporting of where the money came from and who got paid to do the work of designing and renting the billboards.