Re-posted from the Contra Costa Times Letters to the Editor Section: Regardless of all the talk about a city renaissance, Richmond remains corrupt.

City Manager Bill Lindsay lives in Walnut Creek. His salary, with benefits, is $271,000, which is more than the governor's. Former Human Resources Director Leslie Knight made $281,000 before being forced to retire after it was revealed she ran a private business out of City Hall, used city employees, under duress, to work for her private business, and double-dipped on her car allowance.

Tim Jones, director of Richmond Public Housing, makes $187,000. Jones is responsible for warehousing poor, working-class people in unsafe mouse-, rat-, cockroach- and bedbug-infested apartments with mold, dilapidated doors, broken appliances and inadequate security.

San Quentin inmates live better than Richmond public housing residents. Yet Jones is not being fired.

Lindsay and the progressive leadership on the council have condoned a culture of corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability. The city remains a community divided by color and class.

Like it or not, many of these problems are being perpetuated by the so-called progressives.

- Charles T. Smith