The Richmond City Council voted down a motion to add an emergency agenda item seeking to censure Mayor Eduardo Martinez, after more than two hours of debate and a daylong public-comment marathon in which residents and regional callers lined up for one-minute remarks.

The failed motion would have placed a censure or "censorship" resolution before the council immediately rather than waiting for the regularly scheduled meeting. Supporters of the emergency item argued that recent social-media reposts by the mayor had caused real and immediate harm to Jewish residents and required an urgent council response; opponents said the Brown Act's emergency standard was not met and that the resolution should be properly agendized to give council members and the public time to review it.

"Many of our Richmond residents feel unsafe by the mayor's actions," one pro-emergency speaker told the council during the meeting. Opponents countered that the issue had been amplified by outside groups and warned that a rushed process would set a poor precedent for agenda management.

On the roll call to add the emergency item, the clerk recorded votes for each named councilmember. The motion failed: Councilmember Brown and Vice Mayor Zepeda voted yes; a majority voted no.

The council heard more than 200 public comments in total. Speakers who urged censure or the mayor's resignation described the reposted material as antisemitic, said they felt unsafe, and called for formal accountability. Other speakers — including community leaders and residents who identified as Jewish, progressive activists and labor representatives — defended the mayor's broader record on local issues such as rent control, public safety and environmental justice, urged restorative dialogue, and warned against allowing election-year politics to drive the council's actions.

"This is not about free speech. It is about responsible leadership," one resident said; a rabbi who addressed the council urged the mayor and Jewish community leaders to pursue "teshuvah," a process of repair and reconciliation.

City Attorney staff briefly outlined the Brown Act standard for emergency items, saying the council must find (1) that the need for action arose after the agenda was posted and (2) that immediate action is required because of undue harm. Several council members said they had not seen the proposed resolution before the meeting and therefore could not responsibly decide to adopt it as an emergency item.

After the vote on the emergency addition failed, the council moved through other business. The clerk and mayor recorded and carried a motion to approve the consent calendar, which passed on a separate roll call. The city attorney reported that the closed-session items had been discussed but that "no final reportable action was taken." The city manager had no new-employee report.

The meeting closed after members raised several reports and requests for follow-up, including liaison work with the West Contra Costa Unified School District and a remembrance request related to recent homicides. The council adjourned after asking staff to return with agendized items and without taking formal disciplinary action against the mayor at this meeting.

What happened next: Because the council did not add the emergency item, any councilmember who still wishes to propose censure must do so through the regular agenda process so that members and the public have access to the full text and time to prepare. The council also directed that public comment on non-agendized items remain the forum for immediate statements from residents.

Votes at a glance
- Motion to add emergency agenda item (censure/censorship of the mayor): FAILED on roll call; recorded yes votes: Councilmember Brown, Vice Mayor Zepeda; recorded no votes: (majority of the council as read by clerk).
- Consent calendar: APPROVED on roll call.

Sources: City clerk roll calls and the council's public record of speakers during the Jan. 6 meeting; city attorney explanation of the Brown Act emergency-item test; multiple public commentators quoted at the podium.