Richmond’s vice mayor violated term limits for elected officials, lawsuit alleges

Can a termed-out former Richmond mayor temporarily serve as a city’s mayor if the current one can’t fulfill their duties?

This hypothetical civics conundrum has boiled into a real-life lawsuit, with council mainstay Gayle McLaughlin at the center of the controversy.

McLaughlin won back-to-back elections to become Richmond’s mayor, ultimately serving a full eight years from January 2007 to January 2015. McLaughlin was elected again as a councilmember six years later, sworn in Jan. 2021 to represent Richmond’s newly formed District 5.

But the issue at hand emerged in January, when she was also appointed by her peers to serve a one-year term as vice mayor, who is assigned to fill in whenever the elected mayor is absent, sick or dies.

Consequently, McLaughlin once again took over responsibilities of the city’s top elected official when current Mayor Eduardo Martinez was too ill to attend the March 7 Richmond City Council meeting — the council’s first in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic.

According to the charter, McLaughlin would be called upon to do this again any time Martinez is gone, throughout the remainder of 2023.

But on Thursday, former Mayor Tom Butt filed a complaint against McLaughlin and the city of Richmond in Contra Costa Superior Court.

Written by Daniel Butt — Tom Butt’s son, who also acts as his attorney — the lawsuit argues that if McLaughlin is found to have violated the city charter, Richmond should void any actions she took March 7 and remove her appointment as vice mayor, in an effort to prohibit her from ever assuming the role in the future.

McLaughlin, however, said there is a difference between “becoming” mayor, a position which has specific powers and responsibilities, and occasionally “serving” as mayor when necessary.

“The vice mayor performs certain duties on behalf of the mayor in his absence, but does not become the mayor in any way, shape or form,” McLaughlin said in an email. “(Former Councilmember and Mayor Nat Bates) doesn’t say he was mayor during the times he served as vice mayor and performed duties on behalf the mayor…nor does any other councilmember serving as vice mayor become mayor when they perform such duties.”

While then-Councilmember Bates was appointed mayor twice by his colleagues — in 1971 and 1976 — each appointment was only a two-year stint. It wasn’t until 1981 that the title of mayor became an elected, four-year position, which was limited to two four-year terms, according to the city charter.

Tom Butt said this debate is “similar to a Constitutional crisis,” since the purpose of term limits is to limit the potential for public corruption.

“How does this work? Beats me,” Butt wrote on his eBlog. “I’m not surprised that the incompetent and corrupt city attorney let this go without advising it was a bad idea.”

If Butt’s legal challenge successfully voids the actions of the March 7 council meeting — led by McLaughlin — several agenda items would potentially be affected.

Notably, that includes the decision to approve a highly controversial 6-foot redwood fence that enclosed 1,580 square feet of the public right-of-way at 8 Western Drive, which some neighbors argued unlawfully narrowed the path for pedestrians and cyclists headed towards Richmond’s popular Keller Beach.

Despite years of vitriolic complaints and regulatory mishaps, the McLaughlin-led council voted to leave the fence alone, mainly because many residents hadn’t noticed at all before the raging debate bubbled over online — thanks, in large part, to Tom Butt and his infamous e-Blog.