Colusa City Council candidate: Fantl

Christopher Fantl bristles at the idea he is in over his head as a candidate for the Colusa City Council — perhaps the most frequent, though not widespread, criticism from the public.

He admits he has stumbled at times during the campaign, no worse than at the only candidates forum, but he is confident his ideas resonate with the voters.

Fantl said he had developed a speech with just a couple of talking points for the candidates night, but when the other candidates all went in a different direction, he simply tried to wing it.

He called it a learning experience, and has focused on getting his message out ever since.

That message largely is centered on the need to focus on getting the downtown healthy first, and said the best thing the city can do is get out of the way of the private sector.

To that end, he is the only candidate to state publicly that business and property owners are going to have to be the driving forces, and that the city and government in general is not in a position, nor should it be in the position to fund private projects.

Fantl, 36, has certainly made the boldest statements of any of the candidates.

One of those — the prospect of merging the Police Department with the Sheriff's Office as a budget issue — he has backed off of in recent weeks. But he didn't step back until he talked to local sheriff's officials, and talked to Sutter County sheriff's officials about absorbing the Live Oak police a couple of decades ago.

And while he sees no economic value in disbanding the Police Department now, he said he is still willing to consider all options.

He is also an advocate for not hiring a city manager. "The city manager is just a city administrator who is way overpaid," Fantl said.

He believes those duties can be absorbed by other department heads, or at the very least, it should be a hybrid position with administrative duties and perhaps financial responsibilities.

However, Fantl said because the city has already spent time and money to begin the recruiting process of a city manager, if elected he said he would not try to change that direction.

As for concerns raised that he is part of some kind of voting block with other candidates, he said that is absolutely not true.

He said there has never been any kind of mutual strategy discussed among candidates about the campaign or what to do if certain combinations of candidates are elected. Nor does he want to be associated with the campaign to not vote for Kay Hosmer.

He does not agree with the councilwoman on such issues as the city manager and the city's recent economic development efforts, but believes the campaign to oust her specifically is wrong.

Fantl, who is in the computer business, thinks whomever is elected needs to be prepared to take on more duties, work more closely with the various departments, and be far more active in the public.