Redding has a new mayor and two new council members after last night’s swearing-in ceremony. Incumbent Francie Sullivan was given unanimous support as the new mayor, and new members Brent Weaver and Kristen Schreder were seated. As North State Public Radio’s Kelly Frost tells us, the new, reorganized council wasted no time in discussing an issue that has crossed over from the old council.
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Measure B, which voters approved in November, would allow the City of Redding to sell a small parcel of land near Turtle Bay to the McConnell Foundation — which would in turn lease the land to Turtle Bay so it could build a Sheraton hotel. However, a 20-year-old agreement with the Economic Development Administration surfaced after the election which would require the city to pay back 74 percent of the $1.6 million grant if the property was ever sold. Council member Gary Cadd contends that neither he nor former Council Member Patrick Jones knew about the letter, and more importantly neither did the public. Cadd suggests that information might have changed the results of the election. And he says that City Attorney Rick Duvernay purposely withheld that information.
Cadd: “Measure B might have turned out different. I’m not saying that it would or wouldn’t have but it might have turned out different. I would like to have known about this. I would like to have been up front, and known what is going on.”
Two weeks ago Cadd tried to have the item taken off of the closed session agenda and moved into open session. However at the insistence of then Mayor Rick Bosetti the item was removed completely. Last night, Duvernay again took issue with the claim that he did anything wrong. And he tried to explain why the letter was not public information until after negotiations were through.
Duvernay: “There was a period of time until the council acted in March to approve the real estate agreement. Everything — the appraisal, everything that was going on in the negotiations was not subject to public disclosure. But once that happened, from March forward, it was open — there were public records.”
But Cadd questioned that statement wanting to know how he could have asked for something that he did not know existed. The rest of the council disagreed with Cadd and voted not to take up the issue any further. The agreement with the EDA is set to expire in July of next year, meaning the land could be sold at that time with no penalty.
For North State Public Radio News, I’m Kelly Frost in Redding.