The now-vacant site, which once housed a Chevron warehouse, would be made available to help the city realize their economic development plans, said ChevronTexaco spokesperson Dean O'Hair. Terms would be negotiated whenever the city meets with the company to work out details of the Point Molate agreement.

No meeting has yet been scheduled, O'Hair said Wednesday afternoon.

ChevronTexaco's original offer also included city-owned land at Point San Pablo at the tip of the Richmond peninsula. After city officials refused to consider the sale of that parcel, the oil company excluded it from their bid but didn't change the purchase price. In essence, we've increased the price for Point Molate, Triplitt said.

Berkeley developer James D. Levine, whose Upstream Point Molate LLC has teamed with gambling giant Harrah's Entertainment and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, ridiculed the ChevronTexaco offer. Levine referred to the city's contentious dealings over the years with the refinery as a caution against accepting the firms current proposal.

You're trying to find a partner, and the fundamental basis of any partnership is trust. But Chevron has misled you, Chevron has duped you, and now they want to be your partner, he said.
Levine declared that, unlike the oil company's proposal, the casino, hotel, upscale retail and entertainment complex he plans will offer Richmond jobs and opportunities not seen since World War II.

Because Chevrons offer has no sustainable economic development plan, it does not meet the fundamental purpose for reuse for a former military base, he said. Calling Chevrons promises pie in the sky, he said, We don't think that's what the city needs.

While some Richmond residents have questioned the wisdom of bringing casinos into cities, Levine said, there will be urban gaming in California. The only question is where and how much of it?

With this project you can set the model. There will be fewer urban gaming projects if you get this up to Sacramento.

He did not explain what he meant by this comment.

Levine said his project would create a retail base that would help the deeply indebted city balance its books, and he promised that once the casino is up and running, the project would establish a million-dollar-a-year community-based foundation to award 50 grants a year to community organizations in Richmond.

Norman LaForce, legal affairs director for the Bay Area Sierra Club, said Levine had offered a similar million-dollar-a-year environmental trust fund if the Sierra Club and other organizations agreed to endorse his proposal.

We refused to sign off, and now that's gone, he said, warning the council that once the land transfers to tribal reservation status, the city loses all control over environmental impacts at the site.

Two clear endorsements came during public testimony, a ringing approval of the casino plan from the politically powerful Richmond Local 188 of the International Association of Firefighters and a hearty thumbs up to the ChevronTexaco offer from the Council of Industries.
Most of the other speakers questioned both offers, and interim City Manager Phil Batchelor said too many questions remained unanswered about both proposals.

While city staff and consultant attorney John Knox had spent months hammering out details of the Upstream proposal, Batchelor said the ChevronTexaco offer had just been received and there had been no time to iron out potential wrinkles.

Questions about the oil company offer included:

While Upstream offered the city complete indemnity from pre-existing problems with the site, the ChevronTexaco offer didn't.

What would happen if the federal government spent too long in releasing the 51 acres of the site still under their control?

Would their offer still stand if the city wasn't able to comply with all of the company's requests?

How long was the offer to remain open?

Questions for Upstream included:

What would the developer do if they couldn't receive authorization for a casino, the likelihood of which the city had been informed was somewhere between 5 percent and 50 percent?

What would happen if Harrah's backed out?

Would the city lose its indemnification?

We should put this over until we get the answers so we can clearly know what well be voting on, said Mayor Irma Anderson. The rest of the council agreed, and the proposals were tabled until such time as city staff could bring back concrete answers to the questions they'd raised.

One other item scheduled for action was pulled off the agenda, a proposed council censure of one of their members, Tom Butt, for his outspoken e-mail criticism of the city attorney staff members and of lunchtime spending habits of the city Human Resources director.
The motion was withdrawn in part because city ordinances neither define nor provide for censure of councilmembers.

The Upstream proposal is one of three casino plans being floated for Richmond. One would site a major casino at Hilltop Mall and another would build a similar gambling palace in unincorporated North Richmond.

Of the three proposals, plans for the Sugar Bowl Casino in North Richmond are the farthest advanced. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has already conducted hearings on Scotts Valley Band of Pomo tribespeople proposed reservation on the site along Richmond Parkway.

No such hearings have yet been held for the other two sites.

Posted on Thu, Oct. 07, 2004
Councilman's censure fades with silence

By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

A threatened censure of outspoken Richmond Councilman Tom Butt petered out without explanation Tuesday when no one came forward to take responsibility for it and no one on the council appeared inclined to vote for it.

An unsigned resolution that admonished Butt for violating the council's code of conduct by authoring an e-mail was quietly removed from the agenda Tuesday. The e-mail called the city attorney's office on the carpet for allegedly condoning lax work habits, punishing a particularly dogged staffer and retaliating against Butt.

The draft resolution noted that the oath requires council members to "treat my colleagues, citizens, and city staff with dignity and respect."

While the council didn't discuss the issue, several public speakers rushed to defend Butt, who is seeking re-election.

"I think most people understand the code of conduct has no provision for censure," community activist and council candidate Andres Soto said. "There was no identified sponsor for this. Nobody had the courage to take responsibility. This was a great strategy for getting him re-elected."

"Every week for the last two years, we hear the city clerk read the code of conduct," police commissioner Bob Sutcliffe told the council. "It has become apparent you all can't get along. Everybody in the community hears about the arguments."

Neither the mayor nor any council members offered comment.

In a recent candidates' forum, Butt said he has raised hackles among staff by "asking tough questions."

"If that means indulging in a little micro-managing from time to time, count me in," he said.

"I don't think the voters expect us to park our brains at the door when we take office."