Richmond, California Green City
Councilmember
Gayle McLaughlin was elected Mayor of Richmond yesterday. Richmond is located in northern California, in the East Bay county of Contra Costa.
McLauglin’s victory makes her Mayor of the largest U.S. city yet (pop. 103,000).
Previously the largest city to have a Green Mayor was Santa Monica, CA (pop. 90,000), where (yours truly) Mike Feinstein was Mayor from 2000-2002. However, Feinstein was appointed by the City Council,
whereas McLaughlin was directly elected.
Of the 31 U.S. Greens who have served as Mayors, nine have been directly elected and 22 appointed. Of those directly elected, all had previously come from small cities and towns, with the only city over 7,000 being
Websters Grove, MO (2000 pop. 23,000) where Terry Williams served between 1994-1997.
The first U.S. Green Mayor ever was Kelly Weaverling, Cordova, Alaska (1991-1993), who was directly elected in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, with Weaverling being an important activist involved in the post-spill clean-up.
The 22 that have been appointed have all came from California, where most cities have a City Manager/City Council form of government, with an appointed Mayor who serves various roles, but not as a chief executive,
nor with veto power over the Council.
Some California cities – mostly the larger ones like Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco – have directly elected ‘strong mayors’ who serve as the chief executives of their cities. In
Richmond’s case, the Mayor is separately elected, but is not a ‘strong’ mayor in the traditional large-city sense.
According to the Richmond city government website:
“The Mayor is a member of the City Council and the chief elected
officer and ceremonial head of the City. The Mayor is also responsible
for:
For a complete list of U.S. Green Mayors since 1991, see:
http://www.feinstein.org/greenparty/greenmayors.html
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Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 