The responsibility for trash-related cleanup in public areas within the city of Redding will now be changed from the Police Department to Public Works. NSPR's Kelly Frost has more from last night’s City Council meeting.
In reality, the police will still do most of the cleanup, but the financial responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Public Works. City Manager Barry Tippin told the council this will free up funds at a time when money is very tight for the police.
"At times we have either people on work crews that are helping with the cleanup or we're going into areas that have a need for more police protection, and so it makes sense for most of that work to reside within the Police Fepartment,” he said. “But the financial responsibility can reside elsewhere.”
Tippin says this is not unique. In fact, city departments routinely share the financial burden when another department does most of the work.
Mostly this cleanup will involve the clean up of transient camps and will include trash and shopping carts. Elsewhere at Tuesday night’s meeting, the council agreed to streamline the permit process for electric vehicle charging stations in the hopes of quickly installing them across the city.