A reader e-mailed to ask if I had a copy of that locally famous May 8, 2001, front-page Wall Street Journal piece on the McConnell Foundation by Anne Marie Chaker, "A northern California town finds that private largess comes at a cost."  After some Googling, I sent my reader a link to the article (it's behind the WSJ's paywall) but in the process of searching for it I ran across the following letter to the editor of the Record Searchlight, from 1999, that sums up McConnell's fundamental PR challenge.  I remember reading the Journal piece in my office in Washington, D.C., and wondering how an organization that did so much good for Redding and northern California could manage to earn such a bad reputation in some quarters.  And here we are in 2014 with McConnell at the center of a divisive local election over the sale of 14.1 acres of city land.

 "McConnell needs to work on image" Wednesday, June 30, 1999

Redding Record Searchlight

Editor: It was interesting to see the horde of people show up at the Redding City Council meeting on June 15 for what should have been routine business. But, it seems nothing involving the McConnell Foundation is routine.Some have characterized the confrontation between McConnell and Howard Taylor as the second-coming of King Kong vs. Godzilla.From my perspective, it is more like McConnell vs. itself. The fact that McConnell 's rezoning application was approved is not the story. Neither is the fact that it opposed Howard Taylor 's application for a rezoning just a few months ago.

The real story is how did a philanthropic organization that supposedly gives away money for worthy causes come to be so feared and distrusted by the very community it serves? How is it possible that McConnell 's good intentions have erupted into a public relations nightmare?

Why can't the residents of Shasta County and McConnell find a common cause that rallies us around this organization as it sets a course for a brighter future? Is it possible that we don't really understand this group at all? Or, do we understand them all too well?

Ken Miller


Read or Share this story: