Election Day may be more than three months away, but campaigning among candidates for local offices is already underway. Here’s an initial look at two of the five candidates seeking a seat on Redding’s City Council
Gary Cadd is the sole incumbent seeking reelection and arguably the most conservative. Though he foresees being part of an over-ruled minority in the next few years, he feels compelled to remain and push his ideas.
"If I walk away from the city of Redding the way it is right now, it’s going to hurt me in the heart,” Cadd says. “It's going to hurt me in the heart, that I wasn't able to do something. Because I didn't get elected to build a baseball park or build a subdivision — none of that."
Focused on long-term fiscal solvency, Cadd has for years warned ominously that the state’s Public Employee Retirement System, CalPERS, is overstretched and will take the city down in a collapse.
"The city of Redding is over 300 —that’s -3-0-0 — $300 million with unfunded pensions,” he said. “Now folks listen to me it's a lot of money. And the thing of it is it is CalPERS and PARS have us on a payment plan."
Cadd says those retirement plans [cost Redding] $70 million for ten and a half years for PARS and 25 years for Cal-Pers.
"It's gonna be oh probably between that upper CalPERS number probably between $11 and $13 million dollars,” Cadd says. “Somewhere in that general neighborhood. Tack on the six and a half for PARS for the next ten years and you get an idea what I'm talking about."
Cadd is also urging big changes to the flow chart at Redding Electric Utility, the city’s municipal electricity and water utility. Currently the city council provides oversight, a function he believes is beyond the council’s expertise.
"I've been thinking of putting together an initiative to form a five member board to run the Redding Electric Utility and take it away from the city of Redding, and city staff," he said.
Cadd favors an independent board, with limited council oversight. Cadd said he favors more transparency and accountability locally and said he’d fight mandates from Sacramento concerning water.
One of the candidates Cadd is competing with, Adam McElvain, served on the Redding Electric Utility Commission. While acknowledging that the city faces challenges, the Air Force vet and former planning commissioner believes Redding has much potential.
"There's endless recreational opportunities in our area and it's something young people really look at,” McElvain said. “Our K-12 education is absolutely top notch. That's another item on the list for young families and young professionals. What we need is economic opportunities. The things I want to do are the infrastructure of the modern economy, and things that capitalize on our current resources, tangible realistic ideas that we can execute.”
McElvain believes one of the keys to revitalization and prosperity is 21st century infrastructure, starting downtown.
"We put in the high-speed internet at a fraction of the rates of what’s being currently being offered and watch our downtown grow," he said.
He’s urging directing the municipal utility build out operate a city-owned Internet Service Provider.
"It's something that is going to enrich and encourage the businesses locally. It will draw businesses from out of town,” McElvain said. “Our downtown will become a magnet across the region. It will become a place where groups and businesses from say the Bay Area or the (Silicon) Valley can relocate to Redding, because we will have the services that they need to make the businesses run."
McElvain isn’t out to compete with private business, merely supplement and fill gaps.
Voters will decide Nov. 8 who will fill the two open council seats.
