Hosting a party where minors drink alcohol would be a costly affair under an ordinance the city of Redding is expected to adopt in the near future.
With a unanimous vote Tuesday, the Redding City Council directed the city attorney to write a law subjecting adults to civil penalties for allowing minors to drink, smoke marijuana or use other controlled substances in their homes.
“I look forward to supporting this,” Councilwoman Missy McArthur said. “I’m pleased to see this go forward,” echoed Councilman Brent Weaver.
The so-called social host ordinance, similar to measures already in place in Chico, Anderson, Truckee and Fort Bragg, has been a goal of the Shasta County Chemical People, a countywide nonprofit organization that works to eliminate drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse.
Once adopted, the ordinance will be a tool police and parents can use to crack down on homeowners and others who knowingly provide alcohol to minors or otherwise allow underage drinking on property they own, occupy or control.
Betty Cunningham, the Chemical People’s senior administrator, said her group was prepared to take the lead in a public relations campaign to get the word out.
Anita Joseph, also with the Chemical People, said Redding police were called to 1,323 parties last year. If adults can be fined for hosting parties where they should be reasonably aware of alcohol use by minors, the number of police calls would decrease, she said.
In his report to the council, City Attorney Barry DeWalt said statistics provided by the Chemical People indicated one youth per week is seen for alcohol poisoning in local ERs. Some 13 percent of seventh-graders, 26 percent of ninth-graders and 36 percent of 11th-graders report drinking in the past 30 days. More than a quarter of high school juniors say they have driven after drinking.
A whopping 84 percent of Redding kids surveyed said booze is always or sometimes present at parties they attend; a quarter of the youth who drink stated they drink at home and 35 percent of those who drink say they drink at a friend’s home.
DeWalt said ordinances in Anderson and Chico include criminal penalties while Truckee and Fort Bragg ordinances only have civil penalties.
Cathy Grindstaff told the council that an ordinance may not have saved her son, who was killed by an 18-year-old drunken driver, but it may prevent other parents from a lifetime of suffering. “We need to change attitudes in the city of Redding. It is not OK to have children drinking. Let’s go forward and draft that ordinance,” she said.
Councilwoman Kristen Schreder thanked Friday Night Live (a youth-led group with chapters at Shasta County high schools) and the Chemical People for their advocacy on the social host ordinance issue. “I hope this will be a tool to make the community safer,” Schreder said.
“I am super pleased with this going forward,” Councilman Gary Cadd said before asking that the ordinance be expanded to include penalties for hosts who allow the use of marijuana and other illegal drugs. “Unfortunately we have a lot of children who are now using heroin,” Cadd said.
In other action Tuesday, the council:
Shopping cart ordinance
With a 5-0 vote, the council adopted an ordinance giving the city the authority to impound abandoned shopping carts and charge their owners if the carts are not picked up within three days.
Planning Manager Kent Manuel said the main provisions of the ordinance require supermarkets and other businesses to affix signs to their carts that identify the owner and clarify that removing shopping carts from the premises violates state law.
Businesses also must develop a “cart containment and retrieval plan” that lists what steps have been taken to keep carts from wandering off and what plans are in place to retrieve them when they are found offsite.
Lost or stolen carts will be collected at the Solid Waste Transfer Station on Abernathy Lane. Manuel said seven or eight businesses that use carts have already contracted with a private cart retrieval company.
Dale Ball of the volunteer Shasta Support Service group applauded the new ordinance, saying “we’re 100 percent behind this. This is the only way to get the big box stores to follow the law.”
Redding Police Chief Rob Paoletti said his department’s Web site, www.reddingpolice.org, soon will have a button available to make it easy for residents to report the location of an abandoned shopping cart. A pull-down menu will allow users to email the location to the respective business.
REU customer assistance programs
Barry Tippin, the assistant city manager and director of Redding Electric Utility, updated the council on the utility’s four customer assistance programs.
The Lifeline program is a discount available to qualified low-income seniors (age 62 and older) and any household with a disabled family member living in the home. To qualify, a family of four requires a monthly income of $3,688 or less; the program offers a 25 percent discount on the monthly network access charge and the first 800 kilowatt hours of energy usage each month.
There were 3,093 customers enrolled as of Sept. 30, Tippin said.
Lifeline Plus is available for extremely low-income customers who earn 30 percent or less of the Shasta County median income, or a maximum of $1,360 a month for a family of four. It offers a 25 percent discount on the access charge and the first 300 kilowatt hours of energy. There are 340 customers currently enrolled.
The CARES program is designed to help customers who have suffered a temporary financial hardship get caught up on their energy bill. These customers must pay the non-electric portion of their bill. The maximum CARES contribution is $250 and customers are eligible for CARES assistance once in every 12-month period. To qualify, a customer must have suffered a temporary financial hardship and earn a maximum of $3,688 a month for a family of four.
The SHARE program is funded entirely through contributions from ratepayers. All contributions are forwarded to the nonprofit Golden Umbrella agency for distribution to qualified low-income seniors.
For more information, contact REU at 339-7200 or visit www.cityofredding.org.
Photo by Jon Lewis.
Eagle Scout project
Todd Mehr presented a slide show documenting his Eagle Scout project that involved the installation of a swing set in Indian Hills Park. Mehr, a scout with Troop 759, said he got the idea for the swing project in the spring of 2014 after meeting with Kim Niemer, Redding’s community services director.
Fundraising began in earnest in August of 2014 and the swing set was installed earlier this year. The finishing touches were applied Oct. 10 during Parke Diem, a community-wide park cleanup day.
