RICHMOND — Top city officials and elected leaders here have visions of overhauling operations and improving conditions for residents, but before those goals can be achieved they first needed to set clear ground rules around collaboration and expectations.
At a special meeting this week, they discussed having more effective communication — or being more thoughtful to each other — a discussion that comes on the heels of tense council discussions.
“There was clearly an inherited dynamic,” Richmond Councilmember Doria Robinson said of historically contentious relationships between leadership. “I don’t think anybody wanted to function that way. We want to function more as a team and move in a way more respectful way.”
For starters, the City Council asked that staff provide more frank communication and realistic timelines on various initiatives, noting the updates are also for the public. City department heads, meanwhile, asked council to recognize they’re doing the best they can with limited resources and largely new teams, and stressed restraint in adding more tasks to their plates.
Some discussions during recent council meetings have grown tense at times between the council and staff. Most recently, Councilmember Soheila Bana and City Manager Shasa Curl were heard speaking over each other and growing visually frustrated while discussing street safety measures during an April 16 meeting. Mayor Eduardo Martinez, Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez and Robinson said Tuesday that respectful collaboration among top city officials is getting better.
City Manager Shasa Curl agreed. While calling municipalities “dynamic places” she said she ultimately feels supported by the seven-member council, referring to them as her bosses.
“Things ebb and flow,” Curl said. “Overall, the council is extremely supportive of myself and staff.”
As evidence conditions in the city are improving, Curl pointed to the city’s crime rates. Homicides dropped in 2023, with eight killing compared to the 18 reported in both 2022 and 2021 and 22 reported in 2020, according to the city’s crime statistics dashboard. Robbery rates similarly are trending downward, from between 240 and 298 reported annually since 2020, a drop from the more than 400 reported in 2018 and 2017.
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Crime has not dropped in all areas, though. Larceny, car thefts and sexual assaults rates remain largely unchanged over the past few years.
Curl and the councilmembers also noted the city’s budget has stayed out of the red in the past few years, another indicator the city is moving in the right direction. Martinez said the city’s balanced $225.37 million budget is its “best budget ever.”
Still, Robinson said the city isn’t “off the hook” when it comes to bringing to fruition six top priorities with 106 different objectives adopted by the council nearly a year ago.
Those overarching goals include increasing access to quality housing and reducing homelessness, increasing city revenue and economic development, improving quality of life and health for the community, bettering public safety, strengthening internal city infrastructure and addressing shoreline issues and ecological sustainability.
What delays the city has faced on completing various projects was largely blamed on capacity restraints by both councilmembers and staff Tuesday and during other recent council meetings. Curl said departments are currently assessing staffing needs to meet council demands and will ask for more staffing during the upcoming budget process.
“It’s getting better all the time,” Martinez said about the city’s footing. “We’re the first council taking a proactive look at how to move forward in a positive way.”