Richmond, California
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Publius
24 September 2026.
There is a moment, near the start of a long meeting, when the Council decides what the night will be about. In Richmond it happens during agenda review, and it usually takes the form of a polite argument over the order of things. The order of things is everything. Whatever goes last is a gamble.
On September 22, during agenda review, Councilmember Zepeda moved to take item W.4 out of its place at the back and hear it first in the study session. W.4 was the City Manager’s presentation of “accomplishments, major milestones, and organizational” highlights, heard as the City prepared to hand the office to an interim manager. Councilmember Bana seconded. It passed 6–1, the Mayor voting no. The Mayor had said the item was placed later on purpose, because many staff members needed to be present for the items ahead of it.
So the evening began with a retrospective. On the video it runs about an hour, a farewell with slides. Staff were thanked. There were numbers about hiring and promotions. It is not unkind to say that a report of accomplishments is the one item no Council has ever needed to hear first. It does not expire. It does not cost money. It is the dessert.
The rest of the night went as nights go. The Council appointed a retired annuitant, Mark Scott, as interim city manager, beginning October 3, for no more than six months. The Mayor’s required oral report gave the rate as $182.74 an hour, with no additional benefits. That passed 7–0, as it should have; somebody has to run the City on Monday. The EFF item, a direction to arrange a presentation on license plate readers and to scope a study of Richmond’s reader data, passed 4–1 with two abstentions.
Then, with about twenty minutes left, the Council reached W.1: the Axon contract amendment, with license plate readers, cameras, and drones, raising the agreement by $3.5 million to $12 million through 2029, plus up to $500,000 for building cameras. It had not been reached on September 15. The presentation began. Before any vote, the meeting adjourned at the time limit.
This is the second meeting in a row at which the largest police technology contract of the year has been opened and not decided. The first time, staff had gone home. This time, the clock ran out, in part because an hour at the front of the evening went to a report about the past.
I do not grudge the City Manager her farewell. Public service is hard, and a thank-you costs little. But the Council had a choice about what to hear while it was fresh and what to hear when it was tired, and it chose to be fresh for the retrospective. That is a statement about priorities, made by the people who set them.
The cameras, the readers, and the drones will be back. They always are. Contracts do not take offense; they just wait for the agenda to come around to them, the way the tide waits for the moon.
The next regular meeting of the City Council is Tuesday, October 6, 2026.
— Publius