Questions arise after EDC pays Shasta PAC to conduct study

By Kimberly Ross, Record Searchlight
October 13, 2006

Letting Shasta Alliance do the grunt work of pro-business groups is one of the reasons the political action group formed, development executives said Thursday, adding that they're happy to lighten their load.

Questions about the alliance and its role arose this week after news that the Economic Development Corporation of Shasta County, half-funded with public dollars, gave the politically based alliance $1,500 to study a proposed gravel plant.

But only the EDC's private sector contributions -- no public dollars -- paid for the report by consultant Diaz Associates, a Redding land use and environmental planning firm, EDC President Jim Zauher said.

The EDC, a nonprofit group, gets about half its budget from private sector contributors and half from publicly funded sources, he said. That includes about $140,000 from the city of Redding, $55,000 from Shasta County, $25,000 from Shasta Lake and $16,000 from Anderson.

The EDC must file monthly line-item reimbursement invoices with Redding, for example, before the city will dole out portions of EDC's agreed allotment, Zauher said.

"We don't just get paid up- front. We have to submit a bill, and it has to show the work," he said.

Redding City Manager Kurt Starman confirmed that this Thursday, saying the invoices are open to public review. He said the city's finance department reviews the invoices to be sure the public's money is spent promoting business development in the area, as city officials expect.

As for the EDC's private-sector dollars, contributors leave that spending up to its 20-member board of directors.

The board agreed to pool money with the Shasta Builders' Exchange, which gave a reported $1,000, to conduct the independent environmental study of the Shasta Ranch sand-and-gravel project, proposed southeast of Anderson.

Zauher stressed that the reason for the study is to educate the board on the project. The EDC doesn't have a position on the gravel plant and won't necessarily have one after the study, he said.

The EDC is not an alliance member; the builders' exchange is. Both have a history of joining forces with the Shasta Board of Realtors and the Greater Redding Chamber of Commerce for such studies, Shasta Builders' Exchange CEO Kent Dagg said Thursday. Those four groups pooled money to fund a study of the Knauf Fiberglass plant before it was built in Shasta Lake, he said.

Except this time, Dagg said the agencies can let Shasta Alliance find a consultant and negotiate a price, for example. That task fits perfectly with the mission statement of the alliance, which is "not just set up to be a PAC," Dagg said.

Although they were asked, the chamber and Realtors' organizations declined to partner in the Shasta Ranch study, Dagg said. The chamber did its own analysis through members who are engineers, he said.

City Councilman John Mathena, who the alliance did not endorse in his current bid for re-election, said it surprised him that the organizations wouldn't work independently of the PAC.

"I don't understand why the Shasta Alliance is in all the middle of that," Mathena said. "You're not a partner if you're giving them the money."

Also, public funds help pay for Zauher's salary and office, he said. Zauher said the alliance is just a vehicle for ensuring sound economic development.

"We've never gotten tied into the chamber's political action committee ... and I don't see why we would be tied into the alliance's," Zauher said. "To me, this is obviously very apolitical. It's an independent study."

Reporter Kimberly Ross can be reached at 225-8339 or at kross@redding.com.