California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) issued a $400 fine to Richmond city council member Doria Robinson for not properly citing a conflict of interest involving her nonprofit Urban Tilth during a 2023 council meeting.
The violation stemmed from a complaint former Mayor Tom Butt filed in 2024 about an Oct. 3, 2023 council meeting Robinson attended during her first year on the dais.
During the portion of the meeting when council members state conflicts of interest, Robinson said she had a conflict related to an item on the consent agenda, Urban Tilth’s contract with the city to be a part of the $35 million Transformative Communities Climate (TCC) grant, but she did not state her affiliation or what the conflict of interest was financially.
Robinson stepped away from the dais and did not vote on the item, which was ultimately passed by the council.
However, the FPPC has found that she did not state her conflict of interest properly.
The ruling came on July 8, according to a letter Robinson posted on the “Everybody’s Richmond California” Facebook page on Wednesday.
“The Enforcement Division has completed its investigation and found insufficient evidence that you made, participated in, or influenced a governmental decision in which you had a financial interest,” the letter reads. “However, the investigation found that you failed to properly recuse yourself on October 3, 2023. Specifically, you were required to state, on the record, your financial interest in Urban Tlth, in addition to leaving the room, when the City considered a contract between Urban Tilth and the City of Richmond.”
Robinson said in the post that the complaint by Butt, the third of its kind, ended in similar fashion to the others, with “insufficient evidence.”
“At the time I did not have clear legal guidance that informed me of the exact words I would need to say to be fully compliant,” Robinson wrote. “After that instance, I received legal advice and have clearly stated my conflict. As I have always stated, I do all I can to follow the law at all times. Over four years I made one error in the very beginning before I knew the exact words to say. I have been cited, (and) paid the fine.”
Robinson reiterated to Richmondside on Wednesday evening that she was fined for a “technical error” in not being clear enough during her recusal and supported the insufficient evidence finding by the commission.
“This is the third appeal investigation instigated by Tom Butt, all investigations have found I have not illegally influenced a decision where I have a conflict of interest,” Robinson said. “And I have recused and left the room but this particular time I did not say all of the words needed to make. clear what my conflict was.”
The $400 fine is part of the FPPC’s Streamline Settlement Program, which does not entail holding a full, contested hearing. The fines depend on the violation and are issued for missteps including anything from a late economic-interest disclosure and unreported lobbying to gift-limit violations. Each of the violations have either a “tier one/tier two” severity level. In recusal violations, however, the FPPC sets a single fee range of $400 to $800 per incident.
Under FPPC regulations, a recusal case can qualify for this streamlined track when an official did identify a conflict and step aside but failed to either publicly state the specific financial interests in enough detail for the public to understand it or properly leave the room until the matter was finished.
FPPC ruling is latest in a number of disputes between Butt and Robinson
The ruling is the latest chapter in the ongoing public rift between Butt, who left office in 2022 after two terms as mayor, and Robinson, who has served as a council member in District 3 since her election in 2022 and reelection earlier this year during the city’s first primary.
On Wednesday morning, Butt sent out an email blast from his longstanding e-forum saying that his 2025 re-filed complaint against Robinson was “resolved.” The initial FPPC complaint Butt had filed against Robinson in 2024 was rejected by the FPPC for lack of evidence to which Butt submitted 53 pages worth. The FPPC sent back a response in January 2025 to which Butt re-submitted the complaint.
“There will be a modest payment penalty, but that was never the point,” Butt wrote on Wednesday. “Robinson has held herself to be above the law for a long time, and she has been protected by elected and appointed officials at all levels, but now the truth is clear. She broke the law, she agrees she broke the law, and she will be penalized for it.”
Butt’s 53-page complaint in 2024 that took aim at Robinson’s role at Urban Tilth and the organization’s fiscal sponsorship of her partner, Najari Smith’s organization Rich City Rides.
In the nonprofit world, fiscal sponsorship is when an established 501(c)3 nonprofit organization agrees to let a smaller group or organization operate under it and, by doing so, the smaller organization does not have to become its own registered 501(c)3. Fiscal sponsors are legally and financially responsible for the money that flows through the sponsee’s organization.
Ultimately, Butt made a number of allegations against Robinson, Smith and the relationship between both their organizations including implying that their romantic relationship has led to a co-mingling of funds between the organizations and that Robinson has received favorable treatment from county and state officials that have “shielded” her from scrutiny.
Also, the former mayor’s son, Daniel Butt, was the attorney who represented Smith’s Rich City Rides bike shop business partner Roshni “Taye” Felonte McGee, who filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging multiple violations of Richmond’s tenant laws after he was evicted from a commercial property on Marina Way South. The lawsuit named Robinson, Smith, Urban Tilth and Charles Patterson, who owned the rental property.
In 2025, McGee settled his case with Robinson, Smith and Patterson for an unspecified amount due to a non-disclosure agreement, according to Daniel Butt.
Earlier this year, Rich City Rides sold the building on Macdonald Avenue, according to real estate records, and the building has been transformed into a new market, Casa Latina Supermercado, that opened last week.
Tom Butt has labored long and hard to smear Doria. He has failed. Doria properly recused herself and left the council chambers before the vote but failed to state why she did so. Big Deal!
Butt’s seething jealousy is quite the motivator. That he and his cabal have attacked Doria relentlessly, while CM Robinson rises above it is the greatest answer to the flailing Butt dynasty. (Emphasis on the nasty.)
The projection here is comical. Butt was the key protector of Veolia when they spewed pollution into the surrounding neighborhoods. Guess who got hella donations from Veolia? But no, dude failed to recuse, constantly, and held himself out as an expert. Guess who changed his tune when the FBI got interested, and the DA brought charges?