CHICO — Andrew Coolidge’s time on the Chico City Council has followed a distinct pattern. After narrowly missing out on a seat in 2012, he ran successfully in 2014 and served four years. He missed out again in 2018, the last election before Chico adopted districts, but returned to the dais in 2020 — and he’s now in a rare second consecutive two-year term as mayor.
His second council term ends this year. The pattern suggests Coolidge will spend the next couple years out of local government … and, turns out, he already knows he will. Redistricting shifted his residence from District 5 to District 1, currently represented by Sean Morgan. Former police chief and councilor Mike O’Brien, appointed to fill a vacancy in 2021, is running in District 1 this fall with the endorsement of the incumbent — and, it also turns out, of Coolidge as well.
The mayor hadn’t declared his decision, but he made up his mind when O’Brien reached out a few months ago to inquire about his plans. Coolidge isn’t ruling out a future foray back into politics; it just won’t happen imminently.
In a phone interview Friday, Coolidge reflected on his civic service and what lies ahead for both him and the city.
Q: How have the last year and a half of your mayorship compared to the first two years?
A: There certainly was an elephant in the room back then, conducting meetings online with the pandemic but also going through homeless issues and things surrounding that. It was a challenge. Last year and a half has certainly been less controversial, and thus a little easier than the first two years. We made a lot of strides in moving the town in a particular direction, but a direction that the majority of people see as being the right path.
Q: What issues has the city shifted into that you feel are important?
A: I’ve been very happy because most of the items I wanted brought forward have been brought forward, most of them successfully. Of course, working on our roads. A lot of people think that roads can be fixed overnight — there’s an issue, someone comes into office, and a year later the roads are repaired obviously is not how it plays out.
We’ve had to pass a sales-tax measure, which coming into office I said right away I wanted to do; something I never thought I’d do, but seeing where the city of Chico was, it was something I felt we needed to do. It’s hard to tell citizens to have patience, that things will take time. It will take probably another six to eight years to get the roads really back into the condition they should be and put us hopefully above the state average by that time. And it’s going to take a lot of money, as well.
Homeless issues, everyone knows we’re spent a lot of time, money and effort on the last several years. Flights from the airport are something really big on my list — they’re kind of my last campaign promise. I do think they’ll come to fruition, probably after I’m done with this term, but I do think they’re on the horizon for Chico. I’m hopeful we’ll be having people flying to L.A. soon from CIC.
There are some minor issues I think are successful, from replacing trash cans downtown to making sure we’re in tune with the county. Before the last few years, our communication was sometimes adversarial with the county, and I think it’s now working in harmony with them and in partnership with them to solve some of the problems that face us.
Q: You mentioned a relative lack of controversy, though we’ve had Valley’s Edge simmering. What’s your reaction now that the voters have spoken on Valley’s Edge?
A: We voted on, and I approved, that project because they complied with all the aspects that I think they needed to comply with and put forward a plan that was within the rules and regulations we have within a special planning area. It all made sense from the government requirements for such a development.
In terms of the voters not approving it, that’s certainly their will; citizens do as they please, and they’re more than welcome to do that. I have a great deal of respect for that. Either it’s going to be brought back as a different type of project or Chico will grow in a different way.
Q: Do you have an indication of which object might be moving forward?
A: No, none at all. I have very little communication with their organization. Outside of council, I had a few conversations with Bill Brouhard when the project was coming up, and that was about the extent of it.
Q: Looking ahead to the rest of the year, what issues and developments do you expect to see?
A: The downtown streets plan is something we should take a good, hard look at to determine how that’s going to be put forward and what changes, if any, it makes to the downtown. Like with any issue in Chico, you get different opinions on both sides of the aisle — my guess is we’ll probably land on something in the middle; that typically is how it works out in government.
Something big is what I’m calling the Summer of Construction, because in a typical year you’d have $3- to $5 million in road construction taking place in the city of Chico and between ’24-25 we’ll have close to $60 million worth of road projects. People will get tired of construction traffic around the city of Chico, but it obviously is for a reason. As is the bike bridge at 20th — some folks will see that as a big project taking place, certainly cause some congestion around there as well.
Beyond that, you never know. You never know what will happen in the world or the state that will move you off your selected topics. I do think this budget cycle is going to be very important; this is probably going to be one of the most important budgets the city of Chico has had in the last 10 years.
Q: Election season is coming up. What can you tell folks about your intentions?
A: While I may return to politics some day, I’m not looking to run again this time around. In the future, I’m open to help wherever I might be needed — I’m not seeking reelection in ’24, but if I see the need and find I’m called back to serve, I’ll always be happy to do that.
Q: Looking back, what is a decision you’re particularly proud of, and is there one you think events have overtaken?
A: Hmm. I don’t know if I was proud of any particular decision. You make decisions up there based on the information you have and based upon how you feel about it, ethically and morally but also what you think would be best for the city of Chico moving forward. I’ve never second-guessed any of my decisions necessarily; I thought in the moment that all of them were the right and correct ones to make and were necessary. That doesn’t mean the voters always loved them or that I didn’t catch a lot of grief for making a particular decision — that, of course, has happened.
I think getting out of the budget crisis the city was in when I came into office originally in 2014 was probably the biggest defining thing in those four years, turning the city around financially. Coming in this time, homelessness obviously has taken center stage, and a lot of things happened when I was out of office. I was voted out, and two days later, there was the Camp Fire. So, certainly there were a lot of struggles the city went through in the two years I was gone, but there’s been a lot of positives in the last three and a half years.
So, when I look back, we made a tremendous amount of progress on homelessness. Some people would say that’s because our hand was forced, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But, at the same time, few cities went forward as we went forward. I think the council during the first two years of my second term made a lot of decisions that made sense and were very hard decisions to make. It’s been huge, it’s been monumental, it’s been life-changing for a lot of folks. There have been a lot of success stories that have come out of the Pallet shelter, a lot of care and concern that’s been provided, and I think the citizens of Chico view that as a good compromise that’s worked very well.
