Meet Elise Ramirez Sloan for Redding City Council

Three seats are open on the Redding City Council, and nine candidates are running in the November election. Shasta Scout interviewed the candidates, including local volunteer and community advocate Elise Ramirez Sloan. 

Interview questions were inspired by a reader survey that asked participants to identify their top priority issues along with questions they want answered. Each candidate was asked the same questions, and they were asked to keep their answers concise and to the point. 

What personal or professional qualifications have prepared you for the role of city council member?

Ramirez Sloan said her work and school history are what has prepared her for a role on the city council. She attended the University of California, Berkeley and worked at Eureka High School and various restaurants. 

“I’m a quick thinker,” she said, “and I know how to assess all of the facets of a situation and make sure that I am reaching for every single side of something before I move forward.” 

She said her experience in restaurants and a family-run winery have prepared her to work in thin margins, as there’s “never money for anything.” 

“You work with each other to figure out ways to get things done with a smaller budget,” she said.

Why should the public trust you as a leader, and how would you approach issues of transparency, conflict and decision-making processes?

Ramirez Sloan said she’s passionate about transparency, saying she feels the current city council has made decisions, including those on big contracts, behind closed doors, something she disagrees with. 

“You’re representing the community, so you need to open that up to have community voices give input to make sure that you are making the right decision,” she said.

How would you work to address the city’s significant financial instability?

Ramirez Sloan said she’s been meeting with city directors to know what’s happening with the city’s finances and processes. She also said the city needs to ensure staff can continue to deliver some of the lowest electric rates in California.

She brought up Redding’s newly approved financial advisory committee, saying she doesn’t believe in appointing people to fill such roles. She said the city should seek applications from qualified professionals with accounting backgrounds and hire them, instead. 

“That is very important to be able to look at an accounting budget and know what is going on and know the math behind it,” she said. 

“I only have a little bit of accounting knowledge, but somebody who has decades of it is going to be able to give a more informed response,” she added. 

Redding is currently under a hiring freeze, but Ramirez Sloan believes the city needs to strategically hire back for positions that are currently vacant and evaluate in what areas the city needs additional staff to help it run better.

How would you as a council member work to provide resources for homeless individuals and ensure people have access to permanent housing? 

“I would love to work with developers of all different types to make housing available and affordable,” Ramirez Sloan said. 

She explained that she recently went to an event held by the Shasta Health and Human Services Agency and that she was surprised by how many services from the government as well as nonprofits and other organizations are available to people but believes many people don’t know about them. 

“We need to develop a strategy where we can put this information all together and get the information to the people who are interacting with homeless people so they know who they can connect with,” she said. 

She also said she wants supportive housing that has in-house psychologists so any mental health episodes can be addressed immediately. 

She explained that this subject is personal to her, as she had a cousin who dealt with addiction following a car accident, was in and out of homelessness and has since died. 

“Hopefully, we can bring people in and give them reasons to live that are good, and tell them that they’re not sub-human,” she said. “They deserve care and compassion and our help.”

There are several groups that have major influence in Redding, including Bethel Church, the Redding Rancheria and the McConnell Foundation, among others. When considering any influential groups you may be involved with, how can you ensure your leadership will stay objective and not persuaded by conflicts of interest?

Ramirez Sloan explained that if she had a relationship with an influential group and that group came up in a council matter, she feels it’s her duty to recuse herself. 

“That’s part of the transparency thing,” she said.

What would your biggest priorities be if you’re elected?

Ramirez Sloan’s first priority is hiring staff back. She said some positions with the city are for highly skilled employees whose salaries don’t impact the general fund and said she doesn’t understand why the city wouldn’t hire these positions back. Part of that priority is getting permanent hires for the city manager and finance director roles and working with new top officials to fix the budget. 

She said she also wants to focus on sustainable development in the city. 

“How do we continue to build in a sustainable way for future generations,” she said, “not just building because, oh, there’s some investor that’s coming in and wants to infuse a bunch of cash, but does that make sense for Redding as a community?” 

She said Redding is one of the last affordable places to live in California and that it has many amazing qualities, such as the downtown area and the arts and culture within the community. 

Transparency is also a priority, she said, as well as making sure that decisions aren’t made in closed session “but with the eyes and ears of the residents.” 

“It’s not my city,” she said. “It’s our city.”

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