It’s 11 am on a Tuesday when I arrive on the third floor of Redding’s City Hall and stride down a long corridor, flanked by walls filled with local art. I’m just starting to sit down in the stiff chairs of the little lounge when Mayor McElvain catches sight of me through his big glass wall of windows and gestures me in. His huge desk appears to contain nothing but an array of pristine papers laid out in neat stacks, marked by sticky notes with copious “sign here” remarks.
“You have to sign so many things as mayor. My hands are getting tired.” McElvain tells me.
I try to feel sympathetic.
The Mayor’s office is small and ceremonial, with flags standing at attention on each side of the desk. I feel simultaneously welcomed and very much at attention. It’s the contrast of the setting paired with McElvain’s effusive personality.
“I’ve decided I really want to use the Mayor’s office” he tells me. “You know it hasn’t been used since 2011 but I’m changing that. I’m going to be here Monday through Thursday in the mornings. Be available to the public.”
I’ve been watching Adam McElvain for several years, scrutinizing his website for the 2016 campaign for City Council, noticing his prior involvement on the REU Citizens Advisory Commission. In his first months on the City Council he was most noticeable for his reticence, seeming to rarely speak more than a few words, sometimes dissenting, never a yes man. My curiosity was piqued.
And in person Mr. McElvain did not disappoint, appearing warm, genuine, and unafraid of direct questions. Seeming to have little to hide and much to share. Here are some excerpts from our hour long conversation.
You’re Redding’s newest mayor. . . .what are your goals and priorities in this position?
My number one priority is public safety and quality of life crimes. I want to see us push all the resources we can towards public safety. Crime has gone down significantly in the last few years and actually every year since I got on the Council. I want to stay focused on this, and of course, homelessness. While homelessness is something new for Redding, it’s not a unique problem. Nevertheless, many of our solutions will need to be unique.
I know people are waiting to see what happens with the tax measure in March, but I’m not counting on it passing. I’m looking at all the resources we already have to work with as we come into 2020.
Do you still work your full time job? How much time do you spend on Council duties?
I’m still very much working, but not full time. I’ve committed to being here mornings, four days a week in my new role. As Mayor there is a lot more correspondence from the public. More DMs. More phone calls, emails. I want to engage with the public as much as I can over the next year. I’ll also be working more closely with the City Manager and City staff directors since I’ll be setting the Council Agenda and running the Council meetings. As Mayor I also appoint people to commissions and committees for the City. In cities like ours, the Mayor is essentially chair of the board. I may suggest initiatives or take the lead on new legislation.
What would you most like to see change in Redding?
I think we are in the midst of tremendous change. There is a significant downtown revitalization happening. When I came on the Council my goal was to see 6-8 new four story or higher buildings downtown. I’m happy to say we have three happening now and a fourth has been approved. Eventually there will be a fifth on the south side of block 7. The McConnell Foundation has told us that if we get 1000 residents into the downtown area it will come alive. That’s the magic number. We want that to happen.
What do you think we’re doing well in Redding?
We’re doing really well with Development Services. We’re getting a whole lot of projects through including commercial projects and remodels. We’ve put in an express lane in the development services process for Carr fire rebuilds and we’ve gotten really fast at solar installation approvals. Our focus has been on streamlining the processes, reducing our local regulations and requirements. We’ve gone through a series of policy changes and in April of this year the projects started coming in fast. In the Development Services Department we now hire out so that residents can choose if they want to use a third party to review their project.
At this moment we have 750 million in commercial projects that have recently been permitted or are in the permitting process. This is equivalent to the total commercial development investment of the last thirty years and evidence of the huge transformation we are seeing in our City right now.
I’m also proud that we are experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in Redding since we began keeping employment records.
I think we’ve begun fostering a business friendly environment in Redding. When I first got on the Council people felt like Redding wasn’t open for business. That’s starting to change. It’s partly because several years ago we moved some things around. The position in charge of Economic Development used to be under REU. But it’s now in the Development Services Department. Larry Vaupel is now both the Director of both Economic Development and the Director of Development Services. These two hats he wears weave into each other, creating motivation to get investments through and see projects both begin and come to completion.
Let me give you an example of one of our recent policy changes. We are now piloting a deputy inspector for roofing program. Roofers can receive two hours of training annually which allows them to self-inspect their roofs. They take pictures and submit their work to the permit program. The City then audits one out of every 4-6 roofing jobs to ensure that self-inspecting is working. This allows permitted roofers to compete with those who don’t legally permit and frees up time for our inspectors.
How did you develop these changes in Development Services?
I’ve served as the liaison for Development Services for the last three years and worked closely with Larry Vaupel, Director of Development Services and now also Director of Economic Development. We pulled policy ideas from other cities, and he and I both came up with ideas about 50/50 input.
One of the things I did as soon as I was named liaison for Development Services was to begin printing off a weekly list of every permit in our permitting system. I was looking for how long the permits had been in the City’s hands. I wanted to make sure people weren’t being held up by the City. When I started to review permits there were several projects which had been in the City’s hands for more than 180 days. Now, it’s rare for any permit project to be in the City’s hands for more than 30 days and many of our solar projects are approved right away at the counter.
What do you feel most proud of in your time on the Council so far?
Definitely public safety. We now have more firefighters than we did before the recession began. We’ve managed to keep the Neighborhood Police Unit (NPU) and we’ve added 7 more officers with even more on the way. I’d still like to see the Community Service Officer (CSO) program fully reconstructed.
You recently announced your reelection campaign. Why are you running again?
I want to continue pushing for more resources for public safety. I want to see us face the homeless issues head on. And I want to continue with my high speed internet proposal.
Your citizen accomplishments read like you’ve been planning for a significant political career. What are your future political ambitions?
Really? I hate when I hear that. I have zero future political ambitions. I began down this path because I was approached by community members that asked me to run for city council. A friend told me to look for some City Citizen Commissions to get onto before running and I did. I served on citizen commissions for 6.5 years before running for City Council.
I want to run again because I really want to see Redding become cool. I want to see high speed internet come in and the downtown grow. When we had our recent open house to talk about high speed internet a handful of young people showed up. That was so exciting to me. I know that if a 21st century business can thrive in Redding people will flock here for the beauty and nature we have. We have the recipe for tremendous growth and tremendous potential.
I love it here.
As part of this interview I asked Mayor McElvain about the high speed internet program he has championed since his first campaign. He kind of wouldn’t stop talking about it and I decided that the details he shared were really a story of their own. That story will be written up as part 2 of this interview, McElvain’s Fiber Optic Dream, coming soon to A News Cafe.
