Is Redding ready for the next wildfire? Six city council candidates weigh in

For much of Redding, the Zogg Fire is finally in the rear-view mirror. But then this week, another fire weather-watch warning emerged as windy and warm weather rolled in.

That means worries about wildfire are nearly a constant concern in the North State, where some Shasta County residents are still recovering from the catastrophic 2018 Carr Fire, which destroyed 266 homes in Redding and 817 in Shasta County.

Is Redding properly prepared should another blaze come this way? What steps must be taken to make the city safer, wildfire-wise? Those are just a few of the issues awaiting the Redding City Council next year.

There are six candidates running for two Redding council seats. Here’s where they all stand on what it will take to get Redding prepared for the next wildfire.

While “in far better shape than we were before the Carr Fire,” incumbent council member Julie Winter says Redding still is not “ready on all fronts.”

On the plus side, with funding from Redding Electric Utility, there are 19 additional firefighters dedicated to clearing out dead trees and other potential fire fuels. Those crews have cleared more than 85 acres of brush, said Winter, including “a pretty large number of miles underneath the electrical lines.”

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However, more active code enforcement of overgrown private properties is a different matter. The city will respond to residents who report uncleared properties that they believe represents a danger to their home, she said. But dedicating code enforcers be more proactive in finding violators “takes a lot of staff (and) we just don’t have staffing to do that,” said Winter.

Earlier this month, the council approved a three-year Mutual Threat Zone Agreement with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection that enables Redding and Cal Fire to respond to structure and vehicle fires that might be slightly beyond their official limits. That ability will be “helpful” for the Tierra Oaks Estates community in north Redding and others where the closest official fire station might be some distance away, Winter said.

Meanwhile, challenger David Robbins believes not enough has been done to lessen wildfire risk in the city.

“You can drive around and see there’s still debris and stuff from the last fire damage,” he said. “Granted, a lot of that wasn’t in the city, it was on the outskirts of town. But yeah, I feel like we could do a lot more.”

Cutting back trees and brush is central to what Robbins calls his “Green Public Works Program,” designed to create jobs that involve removing dead and burnable materials that could become wildfire tinder.

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Another strategy could be redistributing money from areas of the city budget to wildfire reduction efforts he said, going on to note that the city spends far more on its police budget than all other categories of services. "So, I would suggest balancing those out a bit more and shifting some of those funds toward public works and community services,” Robbins said.

Ensuring funding for the future of the city's wildfire mitigation efforts remains a question, according to Redding Mayor Adam McElvain, who is in the running to retain a council seat.

The current five-year funding cycle for the $8 million program lasts through fiscal 2023 and is supported by money from the Redding Fire Department and REU, which has 45,000 customers in the city.

“We have approved the five-year plan and we have the funding for that,” said McElvain, adding that after the five-year process of removing wildfire hazards ends, “then we have to start it again" and secure new funding to carry out the mitigation work again.

Redding has eight fire stations and 80 firefighters, including the 19 that were added to the force under an agreement between REU, the city's fire department and other agencies.

Even with the rising headcount, there still aren’t enough personnel to meet the National Fire Protection Association standard of four firefighters per engine, city officials have said.

Candidate Mark Mezzano backs the idea of taking some money now spent on paying overtime to firefighters and using a portion of that money to create new positions. That’s a strategy now being discussed by the council with its firefighter union.

“With more firefighters on payroll, you’ve got more bodies to work with (and) you don’t need as much overtime,” Mezzano said. “I think to be a fireman is certainly a dangerous job … and I think you need to be compensated for that. But you’ve got to meet somewhere in the middle.”

Expanding housing and jobs will “greatly help” provide funding needed to hire more firefighters, according to council challenger Jack Munns.

While he said he does not support additional taxes, Munns said that “everybody pays property tax and pays sales tax. You can’t build a city on the backs of families that make $44,000 a year. You need to expand that tax base.”

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In addition, he said, tourism dollars could be used to bring more firefighters and police officers on board.

“I can’t wait to open up our city fully and get tourism back,” he said.

Another first-time candidate, Monique Welin, says she's "not satisfied with the way Carr Fire victims have been dealt with. I want less loopholes. I want taxes to be reduced. These are people that went through an absolutely horrific thing and I want them to know that the city, no matter what, has their back."

Michele Chandler covers city government and housing issues for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @MChandler_RS, call her at 530-225-8344 or email her at michele.chandler@redding.com. Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.