Outgoing Mayor Rick Bosetti accepting a collage of sorts from City Manager Kurt Starman as a token of appreciation for his service.
The last vote Rick Bosetti presided over as Redding’s mayor was divided, with Council members Gary Cadd and Patrick Jones dissenting on a motion to certify results of the Nov. 4 elections.
The first vote incoming Mayor Francie Sullivan presided over was unanimous, with all five council members approving the panel’s annual reorganization. Councilwoman Missy McArthur will serve as vice mayor and Councilman Brent Weaver will serve as mayor pro tempore.
Francie Sullivan being sworn in by City Clerk Pam Mize.
“Well, we’re off to a good start,” Sullivan said with a smile.
Jones and Cadd sought to postpone acceptance of the election results, and the success of Measure B in particular, based on their ongoing concern that key information was withheld from both the full council and Redding’s voters.
Brent Weaver.
City Clerk Pam Mize reminded Jones and Cadd that state law provides the means to dispute election results, but those means can’t be brought into play until the vote is certified. The topic of Measure B—which gave voters the chance to approve the sale of 14 acres of public property to the McConnell Foundation to pave the way for construction of a four-star Sheraton hotel at Turtle Bay—surfaced later in Tuesday’s meeting.
After incoming Council members Weaver and Kristen Schreder were sworn in, and the council reorganization was completed, the community got a glimpse how the reconfigured council will differ from the former and often cantankerous body.
First up was McArthur’s motion to permanently shift the public comment portion of council meetings to the end of the agenda, after normal city business had been dealt with. The council, at McArthur’s urging, voted 3-2 in April to move public comments from the beginning to the end of meetings.
Kristen Schreder.
In April, and again on Tuesday, opponents of the shift spoke out, accusing council members of being too thin-skinned and attempting to suppress citizens’ free-speech rights. McArthur countered that the council’s priority is to deal with the city business that the majority of the audience has an interest in. Miscellaneous comments on non-agenda topics are better suited for the meeting’s conclusion, she said.
Carl Arness, the former public works director who served four years on the council after a 27-year career on the city staff, spoke in favor of McArthur’s motion and said he couldn’t think of a single incident over 31 years where somebody was denied the right to speak.
Weaver said that judging from his time in the audience at council meetings over the past year, the 8-month-old public comment arrangement generated more decorum and respect. “We are here to do the business of this city, and if we used (staff) time, we need to hear it first,” he said.
“People have a right to come into their building at the start of the meeting and speak without interruption,” said Cadd, who was clearly the odd man out with fellow Tea Party colleague Jones no longer on the council.
Schreder joined in the new majority, noting the council meetings had been “functioning very well” since moving the public comments to the end. McArthur’s motion passed with a 4-1 vote; Cadd was the lone dissenter.
Turtle Bay
At Cadd’s urging, the council again tackled the Turtle Bay property sale. Cadd reiterated his concern about the post-election revelation of a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce, dated in April, informing the city that, upon sale of the property, the agency expects to be reimbursed a portion of the $1.6 million grant it awarded Redding in 1995 to help fund improvements to the museum site.
The so-called “clawback” clause would be 74 percent of the property’s fair market value, or $327,000 based on the highest of three appraisals, which was $443,000.
Specifically, Cadd again asked why the full council, and the community as a whole, was not made aware of the letter prior to the Nov. 4 election. In a report to the council, City Attorney Rick Duvernay said the letter from the Economic Development Administration was available for review but nobody on either side of the Measure B campaign inquired about it.
Nobody on the city’s negotiating team, including former Mayor Bosetti, expressed any particular concern about the EDA letter, Duvernay said.
Redding businessman Alan Shipman, who said he voted for Measure B, said knowledge of the EDA letter would not have influenced his vote. He repeated his support for the project, noting the hotel will create jobs and help support Turtle Bay. “It’s time to move forward,” Shipman said.
A majority of the council agreed, voting 4-1 to accept the staff report. Councilman Weaver said he was eager to embrace the “new opportunity here” and move forward rather than hunkering down in a back-and-forth fight.”
Councilwoman Schreder said she, too, was choosing to move forward. Cadd could not find any takers on his bid to order a staff report explaining why the EDA letter was not shared with the full council.
Photos by Jon Lewis.
Jon Lewis is a freelance writer living in Redding. He has more than 30 years experience writing for newspapers and magazines. Contact him at jonpaullewis@gmail.com.
