City Attorney Christian Curtis will be leaving his position as Redding’s chief legal counsel
Redding Mayor Mike Littau said that the city council is taking first steps toward recruiting Curtis’ replacement. There’s no word yet on when Curtis will leave. News of his departure comes as Redding awaits the arrival of a new city manager.
The City of Redding will be getting a new city attorney. City Attorney Christian Curtis confirmed for Shasta Scout today that he recently gave the city notice that he has a new conditional employment offer, necessitating his departure from Redding.
“While I am saddened to leave, another career opportunity has presented itself that is simply too tempting to pass up,” Curtis said.
According to the Redding City Council’s closed session agenda, the city has begun the recruiting process for its new attorney. Curtis has served in the role only since Dec. 2023. The news of his departure comes as the city faces another major transition. After a series of interim city managers, new Redding City Manager William Tarbox is scheduled to start in his role mid-February.
As for Curtis, Littau said that the city is “sorting through” when the attorney’s departure will take effect. “[Curtis’] contract requires three months’ notice,” the mayor indicated, but “his new employer might like him to start sooner.” Curtis indicated that the latest his departure date might be is April 28.
In the meantime, the mayor said that “everything is very preliminary” regarding the recruitment process, which he estimated could take three to six months. He added that the city is exploring the possibility of hiring an interim city attorney to fill in for Curtis after he leaves and said the council will have a clearer picture of next steps following the Feb. 17 meeting.
The city attorney is responsible for advising city staff and elected officials on legal matters related to their work, reviewing contracts, and overseeing the city’s risk management team. That can range from providing direction to Redding’s Planning Commission to advising the Redding Police Department on how to comply with state law, among many other matters.
The city attorney also works with council members in an effort to ensure that their processes and decisions are consistent with both municipal and state laws. During city council meetings, the city attorney often weighs in on whether council members’ procedures — such as making a motion for a vote — are executed in a standardized way according to government code and in line with transparency laws.
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Another opportunity too good to pass up. That means Christian Curtis has been looking for another job for a while because something is not right at City Hall.
Read between the lines, please.
Redding has amazing facilities, as far as public buildings go.
The problem is that the people at the top are blatantly corrupt. I’ve seen it first hand for 3 decades.
Our court & city hall are way nicer than cities 5x the size of Redding.
And yet they have never been able to run the ship decently.
Professionals will always jump ship when there is corruption they can’t fix.
I know it as fact.
It’s not a political thing in my opinion.
It’s a deep-rooted bad practice that festers over time.
I’m blown away by the bullshit basic skills that the window-hosts don’t have. Their facility is so damn nice, and they can’t be bothered to have basic customer service skills. And the attorneys, police, PO’s,
top-dawgs socialize casually & chat their work hours away.
3 decades? isn’t that when Mike Warren showed up?
Lawyers. Its a sticky wicket.