> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.grandviewindependent.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Anderson, Jiménez clash over Chevron settlement, Flock cameras in mayoral debate - URL: https://www.grandviewindependent.com/anderson-jimenez-clash-over-chevron-settlement-flock-cameras-in-mayoral-debate/ - Published: 2026-09-24T20:16:28.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-25T17:24:57.000Z - Author: Soren Hemmila - Tags: Election'26 Claudia Jiménez has a council seat. Ahmad Anderson doesn't. That means Richmond's November 3 election decides more than who becomes mayor. If Jiménez wins, her District 6 seat opens up. Under the city's charter, it's not only voters who pick her replacement; the remaining councilmembers have 60 days to do so by majority vote, and only if they can't agree does it go back to the ballot as a special election. If Anderson wins, none of that happens. Jiménez keeps her seat, and the council stays as it is. It wouldn't be the first time Richmond has faced this kind of situation. In 2015, when Councilmember Tom Butt left his seat to become mayor, the [vacancy he left behind touched off three weeks of deadlocked votes](https://richmondconfidential.org/?p=64648&ref=grandviewindependent.com) among 18 applicants before the council settled on a compromise pick nobody had originally nominated as a frontrunner. Jiménez was one of the two finalists in that fight herself, then a community organizer, backed by the council's Richmond Progressive Alliance, before losing narrowly when Eduardo Martinez broke from that bloc to back a different candidate. Eleven years later, Jiménez ran directly against Martinez, her fellow RPA member and the sitting mayor, in this year's primary. She finished first with 34 percent of the vote; Martinez finished third, and hence, was eliminated from the race. None of that came up Monday night, when Jiménez and Anderson met for the first time since June's primary at a debate hosted by the [League of Women Voters of West Contra Costa County.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojMPPWjxWQ&ref=grandviewindependent.com) Ten panelists from local political and civic organizations asked two questions each, followed by questions from the audience. But throughout the debate, the candidates kept circling back to a simpler question: who should voters trust to lead the city? That question was still hanging in the air by closing statements. Anderson contrasted his administrative background with Jiménez's legislative experience, saying voters need someone who has worked "in administrations, working with budgets, working with finance, working with hiring, working with safety and operations." Jiménez said the city's challenges "require someone who knows the budget line by line" and emphasized that she does not accept "corporate money, developer, or anybody who does business with the city." [Candidate Interview: Claudia Jimenez runs for mayor of RichmondClaudia Jimenez arrived in the United States in 2007 without speaking a word of English, enrolled in ESL classes in Berkeley, passed a language proficiency exam, and gained admission to UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. By then, she had already spent a decade in the mountains of southwestern![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/53/c7/53c7637d-655b-417c-b207-9b692de9e67f/content/images/icon/logo2--3--d2225907-3c30-4048-b6b9-8605bfb075ac.png)Grandview IndependentSoren Hemmila![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/53/c7/53c7637d-655b-417c-b207-9b692de9e67f/content/images/thumbnail/claudia-jimenez-speaking-no-kings-protest-richmond-032826-1-2f66c04d-42dd-4ea9-9d97-59ae387f6303.webp)](https://www.grandviewindependent.com/candidate-interview-claudia-jimenez-runs-for-mayor-of-richmond/) The sharpest exchange came over Richmond's $550 million Chevron settlement. Anderson argued the city has the order backward, deciding how to accept the money before asking residents what they wanted done with it. "When you go on a trip, you don't pack everybody in the car and then say, 'Let's go,'" Anderson said. "Don't tell me where we're going once you've got me in the car. That may not be the trip I want to go on." Jiménez didn't contest that the spending plan is still unfinished. She focused instead on the negotiation that produced the settlement in the first place. "We didn't know how much we were going to get until we got Chevron at the table," she said. "They offered $300 million, and I was one of them that said no. And we got them, in two days, to go from $300 million to $550 million. This is the kind of leadership that you need in the city council." Anderson pushed back on Jiménez's recollection. "It wasn't the city council members that went and approached Chevron," he said. "It was the union, SEIU and the RPOA. Cesar Zepeda answered the call and brought people together. That's the real story." [Candidate Interview: Ahmad Anderson runs for mayor of RichmondAhmad Anderson has lived in Richmond’s Laurel Park neighborhood for more than 55 years and built a career in community advocacy and workforce development. He is running for mayor on a platform that ties public safety, housing, and economic opportunity into what he calls a “people-centered” vision for![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/53/c7/53c7637d-655b-417c-b207-9b692de9e67f/content/images/icon/logo2--3--39dc6984-e91c-4f9f-a50a-0af96aaba3de.png)Grandview IndependentSoren Hemmila![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/53/c7/53c7637d-655b-417c-b207-9b692de9e67f/content/images/thumbnail/ahmad-anderson-richmond-mayor-candidate-2026-1-deb93c3a-4f41-497b-9f36-aae08d3d4268.webp)](https://www.grandviewindependent.com/candidate-interview-ahmad-anderson-runs-for-mayor-of-richmond/) The same fight over credit and blame showed up again with Flock Safety's license plate cameras. Jiménez said she'd opposed the technology from the start, accusing the company of lying about how it would handle residents' data. Anderson, who backed the cameras earlier in the campaign, said his position hadn't reversed, just gotten more conditions attached. "The caveat is we need minimum staffing," he said. "If I found that we had minimum staffing in public safety, then we would move forward without Flock in this community, but we don't have that." On police staffing itself, Jiménez pointed to Chief Timothy Simmons hiring 24 new officers as proof her approach, pairing traditional policing with the ROCK program's non-police response to nonviolent calls, is working. Anderson didn't disagree on minimum staffing, but widened the focus. "It's not just about the police staffing," he said. "It is about mental health. It is about youth programs as well." On that point, the two candidates largely agreed. Jiménez said policing alternatives established after George Floyd's murder, including ROCK, have worked, pointing to last year's historically low homicide rate, while cautioning that funding one department too heavily risks starving youth programs that also keep the city safer. Housing brought a familiar dynamic, with Anderson pressing for results and Jiménez pointing to projects already moving forward. "We've had only nine percent of permits done thus far, and no shovels in the ground," Anderson said. "When is the housing going to start here in the city of Richmond?" "Nevin Plaza is going to be open, October is going to be the inauguration," Jiménez answered. "We approved over 300 units near BART, but it takes time. We have been cleaning up horrendous deals. Miraflores is one of them." Jiménez tied housing to her broader economic pitch, pointing to the Macdonald Avenue Task Force and a new partnership with the AFL-CIO's Housing Investment Trust as financing sources, and arguing the city should chase "green businesses" over data centers as its tax base of the future. Measure U, a 2018 business tax increase, came up as its own flashpoint. Anderson called it a success, pointing to his time chairing the Economic Development Commission, but pressed for accountability on where the roughly $12 million a year it generates has gone. Jiménez didn't let the compliment stand uncontested. "I am so glad that you are thinking that this was a success, because you opposed that when we were trying to pass Measure U. You were in the billboards and all of this," she said, before listing where the money went: $10 million for park renovations at Shields-Reid, Wendell and Burg parks, $20 million for the library, and another $10 million for pavement, sidewalks and ADA access. Anderson pushed back that spending alone doesn't prove much. "It's not money, it's the action," he said. "People can see and feel what you're about. Where are the jobs that can afford people to live, eat, work, and play here? Not just parks." Arts and culture drew a similar split in emphasis. Jiménez pointed to her work supporting the city's "art corridors," tied to the Macdonald Avenue redevelopment, saying funding decisions are waiting on a community arts plan. Anderson, who said he previously worked with SF Jazz in San Francisco, argued the Macdonald corridor itself needs cleanup, empty lots and vacant buildings addressed, before an arts district there can take hold, and separately pointed to Hilltop, the Point and the Marina as other areas with potential for arts and culture development. Both candidates said they want more diversity on city boards and commissions and more input from residents. Anderson, who served on Richmond's Racial Equity Taskforce, said he'd bring it back and choose appointees for their expertise rather than "just picking anybody." Jiménez said she'd ask neighborhood councils and community groups to recommend people for the boards, based in part on her own experience as an immigrant who has "felt what it feels like to be excluded." The night's most personal moment came when a panelist asked how the candidates would balance economic development against the health costs of living beside one of the state's largest oil refineries. Anderson answered as a resident who has lost family to cancer, naming his parents, former Richmond mayors Irma Anderson and Booker T. Anderson Jr. "My mother and my father died from cancer, and lived here in the city of Richmond," he said. "It's personal to me that we bring business together." Jiménez, who said she is a cancer survivor herself, pointed to a health risk assessment released last month showing elevated cancer risk near the refinery as a reason to slow industrial development, not accelerate it. "As a cancer survivor, I just have to listen to the health risk impact," she said. "So we cannot allow more pollution to come to this area." By the end of the night, the candidates had found several areas of agreement. Beyond public safety alternatives, both candidates said they support a bond measure addressing the city's unfunded infrastructure needs, including fire station repairs, though Anderson argued some of the Chevron settlement should go toward that instead of waiting on a bond vote. Both also support the city's 45-day moratorium on new data center construction, citing the same energy, water and pollution concerns that shape nearly everything else on Richmond's civic agenda, and both want city appointments to better reflect the community's diversity, even if they'd get there by different paths. In their closing statements, both candidates argued that voters should trust them to handle what's coming: a $550 million spending plan still being written, a police department still short-staffed, and a housing target still years from being met. "I've done that," Anderson said, listing his background in administration, budgets and hiring. "I'm here, raised here, born here." Jiménez returned to the word that had shaped the whole night. "This is an election about who you trust to lead the city," she said, describing the moment as requiring someone who knows "the budget line by line" and has "sat across the table from both polluting industry and big banks." Voters will settle that question November 3. [****YOU GET MORE WITH A PAID SUBSCRIPTION**](https://www.grandviewindependent.com/#/portal/signup/6387e9f831b2f10031d27adc/monthly) Your subscription enables **Grandview Independent* to deliver more: - More time devoted to in-depth reporting - Longer, more comprehensive stories - Greater coverage of what matters to our community ****Quality journalism costs money.** Subscriptions allow us to keep reporting the stories that matter, without paywalls getting in the way of critical community information. 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