CHICO — Randall Stone’s eight-year run on the Chico City Council will no doubt be remembered for his determination pursuing fiscal change in the city, as well as the turmoil of his post-Camp Fire time as mayor.
Stone will leave the council in December after a bitter election cycle during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Having lost representation of District 5, he plans to continue involvement in community activism, as it has been most of his life.
He was raised in Sunnyvale under the tutelage of his father, a former Wall Street broker and real estate investment manager who became an elected official for most of his son’s life. Politics “flavored” Stone’s early life watching his father, on into studying economics and finance at Chico State in the 1990s, but he said he did not become fully politically engaged until after the 2000 presidential election.
Stone soon joined the Democratic Action Club in 2002 and became chair in 2006. He then became involved in real estate and building affordable housing developments, quickly learning “It was surprisingly challenging for communities to address the housing need with the funding they had.” Stone is a Registered Investment Advisor and fiduciary, and holds Series 7 and 66 securities licenses, a current insurance license and real estate broker’s license.
He said while starting his career while living in Chico, he watched the 2008 national recession wreak havoc — and thought the council from 2008 to 2012 “ignored” fiscal realities (the period resulted in an exodus of city staff after a grand jury rebuke of the council and staff).
Meanwhile, Stone had started a financial planning business, married wife Krista and earned his masters’ degree in public administration. But he said the four-year slump and leadership (with Ann Schwab as mayor at the time) encouraged him to run for office — “The city didn’t take evasive action. I knew the city had a tremendous compensation problem on its hands that needed to be addressed.”
He also wanted to address the city’s financial ”crippling” due to California Public Employees Retirement System and pension obligation bonds (which he described as putting land as collateral to flatten the curve of pension costs). Stone hoped to focus on housing and budget reform and employee compensation.
Over the next four years, he was often embroiled in uncertainty on the council fighting for financial and development change, getting involved in policy committees for housing and economic development while looking for revenue for more housing and infrastructure.
Then, Stone became mayor in November 2018, mere days before the state’s most destructive wildfire disaster.
A tumultuous aftermath
The Camp Fire upended everything in Chico and put the onus on the council to handle the tragedy and the needs of over 20,000 displaced. Stone acknowledged ”tensions ran high” quickly.
He was no stranger to controversy while on the council, which only increased when he became mayor. In 2019 he soon became known for rumors of personal rifts with other councilors as meetings on drawing districts and needle distribution grew more tense. He was often criticized for his handling of council meetings and comments to the public in person and on social media, accused of “pot stirring” and even facing calls for public apologies.
Controversy and these personal rifts ultimately helped lead to his removal on Schwab’s request in March.
Stone acknowledges he sometimes struggles to address the “emotional sides” of discussions, as he said he prefers to stick to facts, math and solutions. He said this approach sometimes garnered criticism from those who called his comments “curt” or rude.
”I do the job, and to my detriment,” Stone said. “I’m all business.” He pointed to moving the ‘business from the floor” segments to the front end of meetings as evidence of wanting to prioritize the hearing of public voices before the regular meeting.
“We want the public’s engagement and we also don’t want to waste time,” he said.
However he also felt unable to accomplish what he had hoped for. Key issues like reforming pensions or developing affordable housing led to, from Stone’s point of view, presenting evidence to colleagues who have various reasons not to agree or pursue a solution based on that evidence.
“You can lead a man to knowledge but you can’t make him think,” he posited.
He also felt the pressure to respond to something as destructive as the Camp Fire was too great for the public to pin upon any one council, and was disappointed a discussion of housing needs was delayed during the COVID-19 shutdown with his removal as mayor in spring 2020.
The need for “workforce” or affordable individual housing showed a disparity “between incomes in community and median household income, and mean housing price” before the fire. And after, he was unhappy to see developers jump on the chance to build more and more expensive housing in the outer limits of the city “making a killing” rather than creating other opportunities.
While proud of some accomplishments (climate action, citywide economic growth, increasing park revenue by legalizing alcohol sales at Bidwell Park golf courses and hiring more police officers) Stone said what stands out is having fought for things which ultimately could not happen. In particular, he called his long attempt to reform pensions “an uphill slog” without much support from colleagues or staff to change the current system.
It made him run for reelection, though he said he was aware of the potential for “significant negative outcome.”
Moving forward
Stone said he will continue in community activism. He currently is at home with his two children, one of whom attends fully online classes, most days since March, while his wife works in essential child services. Having begun a habit of bringing his sons along on engagements like volunteering in the park, he plans to continue “exposing them to all I have been doing.”
He also plans to continue in athletic activities. Stone made triathlon history at 15 in 1988, competing in world-class triathlons, and has avidly pursued running, cycling and swimming, with a long history as head track and field and head bowling coach with Special Olympics Butte County.
And he praised his wife, calling her “superhuman, to put up with all the nonsense and drama that is being a councilor’s spouse.” They hope to do more traveling after the pandemic.
He remains very concerned about the pandemic’s pressure on the city.
“This is the most challenging fiscal crisis the city of Chico has seen in decades and that includes the 2008-2012 time period,” he said.
But he doesn’t look back with regret, if a bit tempered with recognition of why some of his greatest causes were contested.
“I feel the most impressive things I’ve done are not the things I’ve done, but the things I (tried to do and) wasn’t able to achieve and accomplish. We pushed hard and I worked as hard as I could, but you’re only as fast as your tightest bottleneck.”
"8" - Google News
November 26, 2020 at 04:38PM
https://ift.tt/3mabK1R
Randall Stone reflects on 8-year council run, plans to stay active in community - Chico Enterprise-Record
"8" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2z1PBPz
https://ift.tt/3c1rzCJ
No comments:
Post a Comment