Q: Matt Moseley, welcome to A News Cafe.com. First, before we talk about the subject at hand, can you tell a bit about yourself?
Matt Moseley
I have a beautiful wife and two amazing daughters. I’m a proud member of our community and serve/have served on various non-profit boards. I am currently on the board at One Safe Place, a co-founder of Northern California Anti-Trafficking Coalition, a member of the Mercy Medical Center Advisory Committee and a member of the City of Redding Community Development Advisory Committee. There’s a bunch of other stuff and past boards but I don’t want to bore your readers.
Q: Not boring at all. So, Matt, I’m reaching out to you today because there’s a Redding story being shared on Facebook and other social media (up to nearly 7,000 views at this posting) that has to do with your being upset about someone destroying an election sign. Actually, you posted a short video on Facebook about what you encountered.
KRCR also ran a story about it, and got a comment from Jones. For the record, I reached out to Jones for a comment but haven’t heard back. If you go to Patrick Jones’ Facebook page, you’ll see his intro description is, “Worked at mayer (sic) city of redding.” Uh. OK.
So, what happened?
I saw someone cut down a campaign sign for Measures D & E, fold the sign in half, and put it in the bushes.
Matt Moseley said he saw Patrick Jones, former Redding City Council member and mayor, cut down this sign and throw it into the brush. Photo by Matt Moseley.
Q: OK, so you saw someone cutting down the signs. but then, you recognized the person. Who was it and what happened next?
I honked at the person and when he looked up, I saw that it was our former mayor, Patrick Jones.
Former Redding Mayor Patrick Jones.
Q: A former mayor and city council member. I’m not sure how to get my head around this, but what were your thoughts?
I was appalled. I couldn’t believe that someone would do such a thing, much less a past mayor.
Q: Matt, do you have anything else you’d like to say about this?
I would expect people to be civil and not tear down or destroy each other’s signs, even when they think a sign is placed somewhere without permission. I want to call our community to a higher standard. My point in posting the video was less about Mr. Jones and more about a call to civility and maturity.
Q: You mention the issue if signs are placed somewhere without permission. Were the signs on Mr. Jones’ property? And what was his response when you confronted him?
The sign was not on a property owned by Mr. Jones. He was agitated when I confronted him and repeatedly accused me of placing the sign there. I reassured him that it wasn’t my sign since I’m not on the campaign team. I assume the Revive Redding team placed them there. I doubt they would knowingly do that without permission. Either way, we should be mature and civil. Rather than destroying signs, this guy should have reached out to the Revive people and let them know there was a potential sign problem.
Q: Thanks so much, Matt, for taking the time to share this with A News Cafe.com.
