Redding Council Will Temporarily Appoint a Replacement for Dacquisto, Pending Fall Election

7.6.24 6:55 and 8:27 pm: We have updated this article to correct the name of the church that Joshua Johnson currently attends and to correct our clarify that only Mezzano has announced he is running for reelection.

Former Redding Council member Michael Dacquisto likely wouldn’t have chosen any of the three individuals who will be considered this week to fill his vacant seat during a special Council meeting on July 9. 

But it’s not up to him. Instead, the four remaining Council members will choose an appointee. They’re deciding between Joshua Johnson, Erin Resner and Kristin Schreder. Johnson is a newly-appointed Planning Commissioner and Resner and Schreder have both previously held seats on the Council.

Dacquisto stepped down a few weeks ago, resigning a little less than halfway through his four-year term. He cited health reasons, saying he’s been told he needs to reduce his stress. Dacquisto has been an outspoken member of the Council, especially over the last eighteen months, as he’s frequently sparred with members of the Council who are associated with a controversial local megachurch, Bethel, which teaches that its members should “take dominion” over local government.

Dacquisto timed his resignation to ensure that the public would have the opportunity to vote for his successor. By leaving when he did, Dacquisto prevented the rest of the Council from appointing a two-year replacement for his term. But the timing also leaves a five-month gap between his resignation and January 2025, when whoever the public elects for the position this fall will be eligible to take their seat. 

Last Tuesday, July 2, the remaining four members of the Council held a special meeting to decide whether to fill that gap, and if so, how. 

Council member Mark Mezzano, who’s often voted with Dacquisto on substantive issues, said he’d be okay leaving the seat open until January, something his fellow council members disagreed with. Julie Winter said that a looming $1 million budget gap ahead for the city makes her leery of ending up with repeated tied votes at the Council. In response, City Manager Barry Tippin said if the Council wanted to appoint someone for five months, they could do so almost any way they’d like, including choosing someone that very evening, opening the position to all applicants for future interviews, or something in-between.

After some discussion, the Council chose three community members they’d like to publicly interview this coming week, on July 9. They’ll choose one of the three to fill Dacquisto’s seat for the coming months.  

Council member Jack Munns and Mayor Tenessa Audette are both hoping to appoint Joshua Johnson, a builder, developer and general contractor who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2022. Audette recently appointed Johnson to the Planning Commission because he’s “pro-development,” which Audette said, “means pro-Redding.” Johnson has been vocal in his support for further developing land at the Redding Riverfront.

Those in the community who have concerns about Bethel’s influence on the city may oppose Johnson because of his former church, The Stirring, which is referred to by some community members as “Bethel lite.” Prior reporting from Shasta Scout indicates that The Stirring’s pastor rejects a controversial Bethel theology known as the 7 Mountains Mandate, which encourages Christians to “take dominion” over government. 

Speaking to Shasta Scout in November 2022 when he was running for a seat on the City Council, Johnson emphasized that he believes in the separation of church and state and does not support Christian Nationalism. On the topic of how he’d treat gay community members as a city leader, something that’s concerned many who oppose Bethel-connected candidates, Johnson put it this way:

“There is no partiality in the Constitution when it comes to equality. That means we must show no partiality in the way the city hires people and in the way it treats its employees and its customers, the people who live and work and visit here. We welcome all.” 

Johnson clarified for Shasta Scout today, July 6, that he and his family now attend a new church, Risen King.

He was also the only one of the three candidates who showed up to last Tuesday’s special meeting to ask for the job, something Audette said should have made him a shoo-in. But other Council members pushed back on that idea, saying there was little public notice of the special meeting and that some individuals with known interest in the Council seat couldn’t make it to the meeting due to prior commitments. 

One of those individuals is Resner, a former City Council member who also co-owns Shasta County’s Dutch Bros franchises. In 2022, Resner stepped down from her seat on the Council and ran unsuccessfully for the District 1 Shasta County Supervisor seat against now-Supervisor Kevin Crye. While still on the Council, Resner pushed for a pause in consideration of whether to develop the Redding Riverfront until a Riverfront Specific Plan update could be completed. 

Council member Julie Winter strongly backed Resner for appointment to the City Council, saying she has the experience necessary to get right to work once she takes her seat. Winter didn’t vote with her fellow Bethel-Church-affiliated Council members Munns and Audette, who attempted to immediately appoint Johnson last Tuesday. Winter’s choice to support Resner over Johnson, at least so far, indicates that the so-called “Bethel juggernaut”, a term coined by former Council member Dacquisto to describe the three Bethel-affiliated Council members who hold the Board majority, doesn’t always vote in lock-step.

Resner and Johnson have both said that if they’re appointed for the five-month partial Council term, they’d also run for the two-year seat to fill the rest of Dacquisto’s term. Having the short-term appointment might give them an advantage in gaining that seat, some Council members worried. 

That was one reason they also agreed to interview Kristen Schreder, a former long-term City Council member who stepped down from her role in 2022, just like Resner. She’s now serving as the Chair of the NorCal Continuum of Care’s Executive Board, where her strong leadership has angered some on the Shasta County Board, including Crye. Schreder has said she’s willing to accept a five-month appointment, but will not run for the two-year seat. She supported public involvement in the riverfront land development process but also supported declaring the land surplus.

Mezzano and Winter’s Council seat will be up for grabs this fall. Mezzano has announced he’ll run for reelection. At least two other candidates, Ian Hill and Paul Dhanuka, have also said they’ll run for a seat on the Council this fall. 

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