Cape Girardeau Ward 5 candidate Redinger's main campaign concerns cleanliness, safety of community

Eric Redinger is running for the Ward 5 Cape Girardeau City Council seat in the Tuesday, April 8, general municipal election.

Redinger is the director of recreation services at Southeast Missouri State University.

He is running against Bryan Johnson for the seat; interim Ward 5 Councilman Ryan Essex has decided not to run for reelection.

Redinger said the concerns he has as running to represent Ward 5 are safety and cleanliness. He said he wants people to feel that their child can go outside and play in their yard and be safe.

"They can ride their bike down the street and go to the playground, go to a local park and enjoy it, and that you feel comfortable with that, that you could take your dog on a walk and not feel like you have to watch out," Redinger said.

Redinger said he is very "fiscally conservative" and explained that rather than ask for money to address a problem, he wants to look into where tax money is already coming in. Redinger said this approach can be used for City Hall among other projects.

He said the city should search for more creative ways of rerouting funds it has already instead of asking solidly middle-class residents to dig deeper in their pockets.

"'I'm not saying I would not support, like, a new tax for the water measures, right? But there's already a Capital Improvement (Sales) Tax, and one of those arms is for water improvements," Redinger said. "So one project might have to be put on the back burner while you funnel that tax money into, if water is an emergency right now, then we work on that something else, because it's a pay-as-you-go system."

Redinger said he is trying to keep his campaign very grassroots and that his family is trying to fund it. He said they've accepted only one small donation from a supporter and aren't looking at huge fundraising or creating a committee.

Redinger has had experience on different volunteer boards as well as recently serving as president of the Public Library Board of Trustees. As Redinger went through a leadership program in Cape Girardeau, his committee's project was called Complete Streets Cape Girardeau. He said through the project grant funding, shared road signs and bike lanes were added to city streets.

Redinger said he also served on the Girardeau Goes Green committee. He said the committee helped support measures such as the city's "steady stream recycling program".

Redinger said that in his time on the library board, he had to remember to not "follow a personal agenda".

"You're trying to do what's best for the majority and what's right," he said. "Having just a code of ethics and values and a moral cause, and so I want to do what's best for everybody."

This is not Redinger's first time running for a seat on the council.

When Bob Fox stepped down as Ward 5 council member to take on the role of mayor in 2018, the City Council chose between Redinger and Essex to fill the seat.

"We were able to speak to be put on the council, and they were going to vote on it. After that, I met with him (Essex) ahead of time, and I had no intention at that time to run, but I would have filled the vacancy," Redinger said.

After talking with Essex, Redinger said Essex told him he was planning on running if he was appointed. He said after his conversation with Essex, he spoke with the council and said he was transparent about the fact he wanted to run but not while his children were in the house. The council ended up appointing Essex.

Redinger also sought to be appointed to the council after former Councilman Rhett Pierce stepped down in September following his arrest for alleged unlawful possession of a firearm and drug trafficking. Essex was appointed as an interim councilman again.