The media has been all over a request by the California State Controller’s Office (SCO) to “conduct an investigation of financial practices and reporting by the City of Richmond.” Without even giving the City a chance to respond, the letter is highly inflammatory, including the statement, “…I have concluded that there is reason to believe that the Annual Reports of Financial Transactions by the city are false, incomplete or incorrect.” Continue reading

Below is a letter from City Manager Bill Lindsay in response to a report from the California State Controller's Office notifying the city of an investigation into its financial practices. Continue reading

Richmond City Council and members of the public Tuesday celebrated progress in the development of the Richmond Promise Program, the $35 million scholarship from the Community Benefits Agreement of Chevron’s Modernization Project that aims to ensure that Richmond youth have the means to afford a college education. The uncertain long-term fiscal sustainability for the scholarship, however, raised questions from concerned community members.  Continue reading

This article originally appeared on Radio Free Richmond in English. You can read it here. Continue reading

RICHMOND -- In what one councilman is calling "a very serious matter," a state agency is investigating Richmond's accounting practices after saying it found irregularities totaling millions of dollars in the city's financial reports and concluding that the city was dangerously low on cash at one point last year. Continue reading

Below is a report from the California State Controller notifying the City of Richmond of an official audit into the city's financial practices and reporting. Continue reading

This article originally appeared on Radio Free Richmond in English. You can read it here. Continue reading

  A week after residents of the Hacienda, Richmond’s notorious, uninhabitable public housing complex, were scheduled to be entirely vacated from the dilapidated premises, some of the building’s most disadvantaged tenants are still struggling to find housing elsewhere in the face of difficulties within the Richmond Housing Authority (RHA) and beyond.  Continue reading

The following is a letter from Richmond Resident Kate Sibley written Friday, September 18. Continue reading

RICHMOND -- Several police commissioners -- residents who are tasked with investigating complaints against law enforcement -- say the city is blocking their efforts to look into an officer-involved shooting that left an unarmed man dead last year and that continues to be a flashpoint in the community. Continue reading