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The Richmond City Council swiftly cleared new business items from its agenda Tuesday night, sent city staff home, and spent hours hearing public comment focused on Mayor Eduardo Martinez and the council's failed effort to formally censure him for controversial social media posts.
Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda and Councilmember Jamelia Brown attempted to add an emergency agenda item calling for Martinez’s censure, arguing that immediate action was necessary to address community harm stemming from the posts.
Richmond mayor’s social media posts spark controversy: the media coverage
The recent controversy surrounding Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez has drawn scrutiny from a wide range of local, regional, and international news outlets. The media coverage focuses on a central debate: whether Martinez’s social media activity was a “careless mistake” or a “dangerous pattern of conduct.” Last week, Martinez engaged
Soren Hemmila
Zepeda cited California’s Brown Act standard for emergency items, saying the need for action arose after the agenda was published.
“Waiting until the next meeting will continue to cause harm to our community,” Zepeda said. “Many of our Richmond residents feel unsafe by the mayor’s actions, and also, we have a lot of people here to speak on the item.”
Several council members opposed the move, citing procedural concerns and stating the issue did not warrant declaring an emergency.
Councilmember Claudia Jimenez said the item should be properly added to the agenda for a future meeting.
“I feel like bringing something that doesn’t meet all the standards of an agenda, an emergency item, situation, with everything could be an emergency in many ways,” Jimenez said. “This issue can be discussed, and it can be put into an agenda item for another time with the proper rules and procedures that we follow.”
Councilmember Sue Wilson said she had not seen the resolution before the meeting and objected to being asked to vote on it without advance notice.
“I have not read this censure proposal,” Wilson said. “To ask me right now to make a decision on it is bad public policy. I don’t think that there’s harm that will come from waiting two weeks to have it on a proper agenda item.”
Brown argued that the council had a responsibility to respond immediately to community members who said they felt harmed by the mayor’s actions.
“We don’t get to escape and say we didn’t have time to read or we don’t want to take the time to read the resolution,” Brown said. “Justice can’t wait for people who have expressed harm.”
Brown added that she had publicly called for Martinez’s resignation and said the proposed censure was a minimum step.
“I actually called for the mayor’s resignation,” Brown said. “However, I think the censure is the least that the council can do.”
Councilmember Doria Robinson said she agreed the reposts were harmful and antisemitic, but opposed advancing the resolution as written without more time for review.
“I felt like they were wrong. They were absolutely antisemitic, and they were disappointing,” Robinson said of the posts. “I think that they did cause harm. They do make people feel unsafe.”
However, Robinson said the resolution went beyond acknowledging that harm and raised concerns about its scope.
“What I’m reading here tonight goes beyond acknowledging what I just said,” Robinson said. “It includes the mayor not participating, not doing his job, not participating in regional committees, taking part of his salary, and doing other things with it.”
Robinson also said portions of the resolution appeared to criticize political speech related to Gaza.
“There’s language in here that leans towards criticizing political speech in a couple of the sections, and political speech that I feel is very warranted,” Robinson said. “This, to me, needs more time.”
During the discussion on whether to add the censure resolution as an emergency item, Martinez objected to the proposal's introduction and argued it violated open meeting rules.
“I am concerned about the process today,” Martinez said. He told the council that Zepeda and Brown had approached him earlier that day to discuss changes to the resolution.
“Vice Mayor Zepeda and Council Member Brown came to my office to discuss this item with me, to see if we could make changes to it before it even gets out to the public,” Martinez said. He added that he had already spoken with another council member about the issue and said the discussion raised Brown Act concerns.
“I don’t think process is being taken seriously here,” Martinez said.
After further exchange, Martinez explicitly tied his objection to the open meeting law.
“Because of the lack of respect and the lack of rule of law, I will have to vote no,” Martinez said before the roll call vote.
The motion to add the emergency item failed, receiving yes votes only from Zepeda and Brown.
City Attorney Shannon Moore outlined the legal requirements, explaining that adding the item would require a two-thirds vote and a finding that immediate action was necessary to prevent undue harm, but emphasized that the determination rested with the council.
With the censure proposal off the agenda, the council entered open forum, where dozens of speakers addressed the mayor’s posts for hours. Some urged Martinez to resign, while others defended him as a progressive leader who apologized and should be allowed to pursue dialogue and repair.
Mindy Pines, a 20-year Richmond resident, urged the council to act, saying the issue was about leadership, not foreign policy.
“This isn’t about Palestine or Gaza,” Pines said. “It’s about fitness for public office and your responsibility as a governing body when our mayor echoes antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
Pines said the impact of the posts was felt locally, adding, “The harm is real. It lands on real people in our community.”
Others defended the mayor. Kate Laster, who said she works at the NIAD Art Center in Richmond, praised Martinez’s record and said the focus on censure ignored what she described as concrete support for residents.
“There’s a lot of talk about harm here, but there’s not a lot of talk about material solidarity,” Laster said, citing Martinez’s advocacy on environmental and social justice issues.
Public comment continued for hours before the meeting ended, though council members said the issue could return on a future agenda.
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