Richmond, California’s Mayor Gayle McLaughlin
Edited by Carolyn Bennett
PASSED: Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilmember Jovanka
Beckles propose resolution urging federal government to pass constitutional
amendment limiting role of corporations in elections
This week when fire and explosions in Chevron’s refinery created billowing
black smoke spewing over miles of California’s Bay Area and causing a level
three health warning mandating “shelter -in- place” of “tens of thousands of people,”
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin demanded accountability.
The mayor called for a “full investigation and analysis from both
Chevron and independent sources [and] full and complete transparency and
accountability” in determining the precise conditions that jeopardized community
health and safety.
The now-mayor of Richmond rises from many years of politically progressive
activism.
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| Chevron Refinery fire August 7, 2012 |
In her early activist years, Gayle McLaughlin worked with such groups
as the Central American solidarity movement; the North Star Network, a national
networking effort to unite progressives; and coalition-building with People
United to Save Humanity (Rainbow/PUSH). She was on the steering committee of the
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).
In addition to being a U.S. politician, her career and character have
been described as social activism participating in peace, social justice, civil
rights, and environmental movements; an educator with research and leadership experience promoting literacy,
social justice, and environmental health and addressing needs of disadvantaged
youth.
She is a co-founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a
non-partisan progressive group of Democrats, Greens and Independents “coming
together in progressive unity for a better and healthier Richmond,” the mayor’s
website says. She is also co-founder of Solar Richmond, a nationally-recognized
local program promoting solar power and green jobs in Richmond; and of Richmond
Residents for a Responsible General Plan, “a community organization committed
to ensuring that the General Plan process is transparent and open to public
participation.”
Gayle McLaughlin has stood against Chevron’s Richmond Refinery tax
perks and against development on the North Richmond shoreline, against the USA Patriot
Act and the criminalization of the homeless, and against cutbacks in jobs and
salaries of union workers.
Mayor McLaughlin
Power of ideas, values
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin is a two-term mayor (2006, 2010) of the City of
Richmond (Calif.), the largest city in the United States with a Green Party mayor.
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| Gayle McLaughlin |
Before assuming the office of Richmond mayor, McLaughlin held an
elective seat on the Richmond City Council. She has conducted her political
campaigns “without a penny of corporate money,” her website boasts, thus marking
“a turning point in Richmond politics, when voters selected a candidate solely
on the power of her ideas and values, rather than the power of wealthy special
interests.”
While in office, Mayor McLaughlin has helped facilitate grassroots
efforts calling for fair taxation. The result was a historic settlement in
which Chevron agreed to pay an additional $114 million into the Richmond’s general
fund over the next 15 years (a rise in the annual average of $7.6 million). The
mayor has advocated for thousands of residents evicted from their homes by bank
speculators and supported fair-cause eviction policies. She has protected Richmond
open shorelines from toxic spills and unhealthy, ill-conceived development; and
spearheaded and sponsored many new green and sustainability initiatives.
Mayor McLaughlin is a member of the Mayors against Illegal Guns
Coalition; and she has worked closely with law enforcement and neighborhood safety
on strategies to reduce all violence in Richmond. She has defended victims of
violent crime and spoken out particularly against church shootings and rape
inflicted on school children and youth.
McLaughlin’s schooling
Gayle McLaughlin is U.S. Midwestern, eastern and western. A native of
Chicago, Illinois, she took her undergraduate and graduate credentials in education
and psychology at Massachusetts’ Bridgewater State College, the Rhode Island
College, and the University of California Berkeley.
Sources and notes
“Richmond Mayor Seeks Full Transparency in Determining Cause of
Refinery Fire Richmond, CA” (Office of Mayor Gayle Mclaughlin, Media Contact:
Jeff Shoji, jeff@officeofthemayor.net), August 7, 2012, 450 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, CA 94804-1630 Telephone: (510)
620-6503 Fax: (510) 412-2070 www.ci.richmond.ca.us
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=55
Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, biographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gayle_McLaughlin&oldid=500157400
Richmond, California
Contra Costa County
Population in 2010: 103,701.
Rank: 2nd in Contra Costa County; 61st in California; 264th in the United States
City Data, http://www.city-data.com/city/Richmond-California.html#ixzz22zF8PZ6C
See also Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_California
Images
City data dot com map
Smoke from the Chevron refinery fills the sky above Richmond after a series of explosions beginning around 6:15 p.m. No one was killed, Chevron said. Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle / SF
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Fire-at-Chevron-refinery-in-Richmond-3767221.php#ixzz22zUVkQm0
Christopher Connelly/RichmondConfidential.org
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilmember Jovanka Beckles proposed a resolution to urge the federal government to pass a constitutional amendment limiting the role of corporations in elections. It was passed unanimously.http://blog.sfgate.com/incontracosta/category/news/page/4/
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