Political Notebook: Gay Richmond CA councilmember Zepeda seeks 2nd term

Looking over the site of Richmond, California’s largely abandoned Hilltop Mall, gay City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda sees potential for a future reimagining of the property. He envisions residents of his East Bay city receiving medical care inside a hospital built there that could be managed by Contra Costa County or a private health care provider.

To reach their medical appointments, patients could jump into driverless transit vehicles run by Glydways, which is working to bring a 28-mile Automated Transit Network to East Contra Costa County in partnership with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and Tri Delta Transit. In the meantime, the company has opened a development and demonstration facility on a portion of the vacant shopping center site where it can test out its Glydcars.

“The Glydways Development Facility is a transformative project that embodies the City of Richmond’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and economic growth,” noted Zepeda in the company’s announcement last December of its moving into a portion of the shopping center and its parking lot.

Not only could such vehicles have a stop at the mall site, which is located within his District 2 council seat boundaries, but Zepeda can envision them possibly gliding across San Francisco Bay via a dedicated lane on a rebuilt Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. In doing so, they could connect commuters and visitors with two regional transit systems – BART’s current end-of-the-line station in Richmond and SMART’s southern terminus in Larkspur.

With the current bridge structure 69 years old, Zepeda is pushing regional transportation leaders, elected officials, and bridge users to begin the process of imagining what its replacement will look like and feature, as he urged in a September video marking the bridge’s birthday that he recorded with Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia. The typical lifespan of a bridge being 100 years, and the timeline for approving a replacement being 10 to 15 years, Zepeda has already been holding meetings with decision-makers to start the conversation about replacing the important conduit between the East Bay and North Bay.

“We want a new bridge for a lot of different reasons,” noted Zepeda, citing structural integrity as well as meeting the transportation needs of today’s Bay Area and those in the future as he gave the Political Notebook a tour of his city and council district in early December. “Since the bridge was first built, the needs of the community have changed, and we have to change with it.”

(He had planned to bike the bridge for the first time last month on his 45th birthday but didn’t due to it raining that day. Zepeda now hopes to do so next November, as a bicycle and pedestrian path across it is open weekly at 2 p.m. Thursday until 11 p.m. Sunday though is remaining accessible throughout the holidays until Sunday, January 4.)

No matter what happens with the bridge, Zepeda would like to see the Glydways project result in providing his constituents and other Richmond residents a mode of transit to reach the city’s historic Point Richmond shopping and dining district and the Richmond Ferry Terminal providing an aquatic route to reach downtown San Francisco.

“More people will want to live here because it will be easier to commute to work in the city,” said Zepeda, who called the Glydcars “exciting technology that will be able to move 10,000 people in an hour.”

Zepeda cited his advocacy around the major infrastructure projects for his city and council district as examples of how he has approached his role as an elected official during his first four-year term on his governing body. In addition to addressing everyday concerns, from fixing potholes and preventing flooding of a historically Black neighborhood he represents, Zepeda also has his eye on long-term planning even if the projects may not come to fruition during his tenure on the council.

“I jokingly say I don’t mind begging for my community,” quipped Zepeda.

His refusal to take no as an answer is physically represented by the stuffed toy version of his city’s mascot, an osprey, that Zepeda named Will and has accompany him to meetings.

“I tell people we now have Will, so if there is a Will then there is a way, so let’s find it. People think I am crazy, which I am,” he joked.

The Bay Area Reporter asked the freshman councilmember to show off his council district and discuss the projects he is pursuing in light of his seeking a second four-year term in 2026. Due to a change in how his city runs its council elections, his race to maintain his seat is scheduled for the June 2 primary ballot along with the contests for mayor and two other council seats, for District 3 and 4.

If multiple candidates seek the positions then a winner will be declared next spring if someone receives more than 50% of the vote. If that threshold isn’t met then the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff race on the November fall ballot.

The filing deadline to enter the races is March 6, and to date, Zepeda has yet to draw a challenger for his council seat. Should he be the lone candidate, he told the B.A.R. he won’t need to mount a campaign and will automatically be sworn into a sophomore term.

It will mark quite the turnaround from his 2022 race, in which he made national headlines for ending up in a tie with his opponent, Andrew Butt, with 1,921 votes each. Zepeda was declared the winner due to the city clerk drawing his name out of a red Christmas holiday shopping bag that December, as the Political Notebook reported at the time.

When Zepeda took his oath of office in January 2023, he became the first out gay man to serve on his council and the second out councilmember in the city's history. The first, lesbian former councilmember Jovanka Beckles, cycled off the governing body in 2018.

Zepeda had lost his first bid for a city council seat in 2016 and, three years later, was appointed to a vacant seat on the West County Wastewater District board. Rather than seek a full term on that body, he jumped into the 2022 council race.

Raised in the small city of San Martin in Jalisco State, Mexico, Zepeda immigrated to the U.S. at age 8. Currently single, Zepeda lives in Richmond’s Hilltop district with his German Shorthaired Pointers Zulu, 5, and Zeke, 4 and a half. He disclosed to the B.A.R. that he had refinanced his house in case he needed to self-finance his previous council campaign. “Luckily,” he recalled, he didn’t need to due to people contributing to his candidacy.

While he could hardly imagine then that he might not draw an opponent four years later, Zepeda said he has worked hard to lay the groundwork to successfully seek reelection. He holds annual strategy meetings with his constituents in a different part of the district each year in addition to holding quarterly drop-in hours at coffee shops in the neighborhoods he represents.

Zepeda said he strives to respond to as many emails and phone calls as he can being a part-time councilmember with no staff of his own. (The six council members, who earn $30,294 a year and serve alongside the mayor, share one staff person, Zepeda noted.)

“I show up everywhere. I am very visible,” said Zepeda, who will step down as vice mayor next month. “My aim is to be accessible to the people, that is what it is about … I am not running from your issues; I want to know them. I can’t do that just every four years during elections.”

Repeatedly fielding questions this year on if he would jump into his city’s 2026 mayoral race, in which Mayor Eduardo Martinez is running for his second two-year term, Zepeda told the B.A.R. he ruled out doing so. Mainly, he said, because it would mean giving up his council seat with no guarantee of winning what is shaping up to be a crowded mayor’s race, with three people already pulling papers to oppose the incumbent.

“I don’t have a safe seat so it is very difficult. I don’t want to risk my seat,” responded Zepeda when asked about his 2026 electoral considerations.

He didn’t rule out running in 2030 when the position will be open, as Richmond term limits its mayors to serving two four-year terms. As there are no term limits for council members, Zepeda could instead opt to seek a third term should he secure a second term next year.

Pressed on his interest to someday seek higher office, Zepeda told the B.A.R. that he has “no ambition right now” to do so and that next year he “will not be running for county supervisor or Congress or mayor.” Until he decides to do so, his focus remains on his duties as a councilmember, addressing the needs of his constituents and dreaming up future possibilities for his city as it evolves amid an influx of new residents seeking more affordable rents and home prices.

As for his push to see a hospital be built at the old mall site, Zepeda noted people who are not patients at Kaiser, which has a medical center in town, have to travel to the county-run hospital in Martinez or to Alameda County for their medical care like himself, as Sutter Health is his medical provider and his doctor is in Oakland.

“It is not equitable. We have a hospital desert in this area,” contended Zepeda, a health and benefits consultant with professional services firm Aon. “Just because it is a challenge doesn’t mean we should not fight it.”

Having not just a new hospital, but one with a trauma center, will benefit all of the surrounding cities and towns, he noted, especially in the event of a catastrophic calamity like an earthquake.

“It is not just I want one and not just for Richmond, I am doing this as a regional approach,” said Zepeda, pointing out that his city’s charter calls for it to administer a hospital. “Critics, other electeds and people I meet see a big hill blocking the path to get to the other side, and I respond that I am a climber. I will climb it.”

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on a queer San Francisco commissioner paying an ethics fine as she fights to save her governing body’s oversight powers.

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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected] .