Steve Bade named Redding’s interim city manager as Tippin prepares for retirement

The council announced last night, September 2, that Assistant City Manager Steve Bade has been tapped for Interim City Manager. Bade will start in his new role on Oct. 4, one day after current City Manager Barry Tippin retires. He’s been with the city since 1998. In his current role, Bade oversees the city’s housing and economic development initiatives as well as the airport. 

Under Redding’s approach to governance, the city manager is appointed by the majority of an elected council. The manager’s role includes overseeing the preparation of the city’s budget, administrating and coordinating the city’s operations and providing supervision over city-owned property and enforcement of both local and state laws. 

Last night’s announcement of the impending change in city leadership came as a surprise to some in the audience. But the decision isn’t an abrupt one, council member Erin Resner clarified in comments to the public during the meeting. She said since 2023, council members have been aware that City Manager Barry Tippin intends to retire later this year. A few months ago, she said, the council was given a planned date for Tippin’s retirement this fall, which prompted a series of closed session meetings about how to choose his replacement. 

“Once we know someone’s vacating their seat, we have to have a discussion about, what do we want replacing that person to look like,” Resner said. “In those discussions we talked about things like, were we willing to spend money on a recruiting agency, and if so, what firm would we like to hire and how much money are we willing to spend on that sort of process?”

Those discussions were held in a series of closed session meetings over the last several months, she explained. What still lies ahead for the council, Resner said, is another series of meetings during which they’ll discuss interview questions before interviewing potential candidates and making a final decision on who will be offered the long-term role and at what salary.

While a review of the city’s job posting site did not show a listing for the position as of this morning, Resner told Shasta Scout that job listing should go live today. She noted that the council has hired the firm Peckham & McKenney for a national recruitment with the hope of having a large pool of candidates to choose from. It’s not yet clear what the timeline is to complete the process.

Current city manager Tippin worked his way up the ranks in the city starting as the assistant director of development services in 2004 and moving to a position as director of the city’s transportation and engineering department before becoming the head of Redding’s public utility, REU. In 2017, after being promoted to Assistant City Manager, Tippin was selected first as interim City Manager and then to the long-term role where he’s served for the last seven years.

The news of his retirement was announced as the city is also responding to unconfirmed allegations of financial mismanagement from council member Tenessa Audette that have gained traction with some community members. In a report published on her campaign site last month, Audette questioned key financial information shared by top city staff. 

In broad terms, Audette has said her report alleges inflated revenue forecasts, underreported expenditures and discrepancies between public statements about funds and actual city reserve levels. 

During a discussion of how best to respond to those allegations during the council meeting last night, the four others on the council made it clear that they don’t give credence to Audette’s allegations, but nevertheless believe a thorough and transparent response to her report is important to maintain trust in city leadership. 

Council members voted unanimously to instruct the city’s Finance Director Greg Robinett to provide a response to the allegations both in a written press release to the public and in a presentation to the council that will follow. Robinette readily agreed to do both, but emphasized the strain the process has, and will, put on his department. He asked for time to respond both succinctly and transparently to Audette’s wide ranging 154-page report.

In addition to that presentation, council member Dr. Paul Dhanuka asked the council to consider launching an external audit into city finances to reassure members of the public who have concerns as a result of Audette’s ongoing allegations, saying while he doesn’t see any lies or fraud he does see a structural problem at the city.

“I’ve always found city manager, finance department and the staff, to be completely truthful with me,” Dhanuka said. “I have looked at all these things, I have not found any lies or any frauds. At least I myself have not found that.”

“What I do find,” he continued, “is a structural problem we have in the city, and the structural problem is we are bringing in less revenue and spending more money. And there’s a legitimate questions how the city is spending that money, whether some of those expenditures are justified or not, or what path city should take in the future?

As other council members noted, the city already pays for an external audit of city finances each year. Council member Mike Littau suggested the council should wait to see Robinett’s initial response to the allegations before deciding whether any further steps warrant the time and cost.

Asked by Shasta Scout after the meeting how many members of the public he knows to be concerned about Audette’s accusations against the city, Dhanuka said “if even one” is concerned, that’s too many. 

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