Tom Butt

Who is Tom Butt?

Thomas K. "Tom" Butt is a former vice-mayor and a present city council member from Richmond, California. He is a Democrat. He has been on the Richmond City Council since 1995.

He is an architect by profession and is the president of Interactive Resources, a local architectural firm. He is also a contractor and former broker.

Butt founded and is currently the president of the East Brother Light Station, Inc., a non-profit organization whose aim is to save and maintain the historic East Brother Island Lighthouse on East Brother Island, a Bay Area landmark on the Register of National Historic sites which he helped accomplish.

He was also pivotal in lobbying Congress to establish the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park and sits on the board of the organization dedicated to its creation and expansion.

In 2006 he made headlines for accusing the city of ignoring the aging infrastructure of the city's sewer system and that this had led to several raw sewage overflows due to intense rain events for which the city was sued by an environmental group.

He is a stronger supporter of the San Francisco Bay Trail and wrote a city resolution that passed 8-1 that had mayor Gayle McLaughlin speak to the State Lands Use Commission to encourage them to force Chevron Corporation to allow a bay trail access to build a route through Chevron Richmond Refinery's Richmond Long Wharf.