One week ago District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye proved, once again, his propensity for complicating even the most basic plans, even a seemingly simple town-hall event.
(Click here to watch the event’s entire video.)
First, Crye selected a place that could accommodate only about 100 people in a downtown Redding yoga studio; granted, a pretty, light and beautifully remodeled space. (Formerly Enjoy the Store.)
District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye addresses his Town Hall Event audience. Photo by Alan Ernesto-Phillips
The first complication was the fact that that yoga studio — Lit From Within — is co-owned by the female life partner of Jon Knight, an extremist militia member whose money helped fund the polarizing Red, White and Blueprint docuseries.
- Jon Knight flashes white pride sign at Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in Wash. D.C.
- Jon Knight, executive producer of Red, White & Blueprint
- Jon Knight, (far left) models RWB merchandise.
The second potential complication arose when Crye extended his exclusive town hall invitation to the more than 22,000 registered voters in District 1; roughly half of whom voted in the November General Election in which Crye barely squeaked out a victory over his opponent Erin Resner.
Crye offered a few reasons for excluding residents from Shasta County districts 2, 3, 4, and 5. For one thing, Crye said there wasn’t room for everyone inside the yoga studio, which was obviously correct.
Kevin Crye’s assistant Carolyn Gomes asks residents to use pushpins to identify homes’ locations on a map. Photo by Alan Ernesto Phillips.
For another thing, Crye said it was difficult and expensive to find a location large enough to invite all Shasta County residents.
The Veteran’s Hall, the United Methodist Church fellowship hall, any Shasta District Fairground building, or even the church that held the Kevin Crye Victory Party — “ALL ARE WELCOME” — come to mind.
The third uncomfortable complication was when Crye arranged for “security” on the premises, which only exacerbated the gestaposesque “show-me-your-papers” feel.
Pam Hughes waits for a security person to locate her name on the pre-registration list.
That’s why, before being allowed entry, even longtime community treasures like Pam Hughes, who’s been in Redding practically forever, were required to literally show official evidence, such as a drivers license, as proof of residency.
A tall gentleman named Jeff, along with Nathan Blayz and Richard Gallardo, were among Crye’s security detail. Of the three, Gallardo — who goes by “Stones” when calling in to his favorite alt-right KCNR radio programs — is the most renowned. It’s a mystery why Crye would think it a remotely good idea to allow Gallardo to have anything to do with Crye’s town hall event, especially security.
Raise your hand if you believe Gallardo was carrying a loaded firearm.
Richard Gallardo (right) looks on as Kevin Crye’s assistant Carolyn Gomes listens to a woman. Photo by Alan Ernesto Phillips
Gallardo’s best known for so many things. He’s a faux “citizen journalist” who’s shown up at vaccine clinics where he’s harassed staff and patients. He authored the unlawful Second Amendment resolution that’s still in the process of being foisted upon the Shasta County Board of Supervisors. He was fired from his Cal Fire job for brandishing a weapon at work. Most famously, he attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest upon the entire Shasta County board and staff at a supervisors meeting.
Former Shasta County Board of Education candidate Rich Gallardo’s failed attempt to arrest the Board of Supervisors and county staff earned him a deputy escort from the board chambers.
Perhaps Crye figured that requesting security service from Blayz — a Redding African-American comedian, chef, peacenik and avowed progressive – would balance Gallardo’s menacing presence in a yin-and-yang way.
Redding resident Nathan Blayz stands outside the yoga studio’s doors as security where he said he relied upon the honor system and believed people who said they were District 1 residents.
Someone for everyone, don’t cha know.
A few residents brought signs to the event, but Jeff informed them that no signs were allowed inside.
Crye’s favorite media
Once inside, A News Cafe encountered trouble before the meeting even started. ANC videographer/photographer Alan Ernesto Phillips, who’d arrived armed with his large tripod and professional video camera, was told he couldn’t set up his camera equipment.
Even though Ernesto-Phillips identified himself to Crye as an ANC media representative, he was told he could not use his camera equipment along with the other two media guys. He was told that Crye’s public event for District 1 residents was private, and ANC had not been invited.
Thank goodness for loopholes, because Ernesto-Phillips and I are both District 1 residents.
Ernesto-Phillips learned that Crye had personally invited KRCR to film the town hall event for a news story, and freelancer Michael Flanagan was invited to film for Crye’s Facebook page.
A News Cafe was not allowed to join other cameramen at Supervisor Kevin Crye’s public event. Photo by Alan Ernesto Phillips
“They’re allowed to shoot, but ANC is not,” Ernesto-Phillips said.
When Ernesto-Phillips was asked to guess what might happen if he disobeyed Crye’s request, set up his tripod and started filming anyway, Ernesto-Phillips assumed he’d be asked to leave.
Videographer/photographer Alan Ernesto Phillips resorts to using his cell phone after ANC was banned from setting up professional equipment to film the event.
Security or not, wild horses could not have dragged me from that meeting or stopped me from using my cell phone camera for photos and video. My rationale regarding staying — even had I not been a District 1 resident — was that all media had a First Amendment right to be there. The town-hall gathering was held in a private business, but that’s not unusual for many events covered by media. Most of all, the town hall meeting was hosted by an elected public official who’d invited the public to attend for free.
A News Cafe did not require a personal invitation from Supervisor Crye to attend and cover his public event. Now, if Crye had held the event at his home, for example, and if he’d hand-selected specific individual guests to attend that event, ANC would not have have crashed his party. We’re not that uncouth.
With that in mind, Ernesto-Phillips and I both remained, and used our phones to take videos and photos. Later, someone at the event explained that the reason A News Cafe was banned from setting up professional camera equipment was because Crye complained that ANC reporters have been unkind and disrespectful of Crye.
Kevin Crye speaks with Redding resident Susan Wilson. (On the far side wall Doni records a Facebook Live post with her cell phone. ) Photo by Alan Ernesto-Phillips.
No shocker there. As anyone who’s observed Crye in action during his dreadful January-to- March supervisor stint, he plays favorites. It’s no secret that ANC is not on Crye’s favorite-media list. I can live with that.
Perhaps Crye learned to perfect the art of showing favoritism from his mentor/board chair Patrick Jones. Jones routinely botches names of those he dislikes (while smiling). Jones cuts off his least-favorite speakers (and their microphones) mid-sentence precisely at the 3-minute mark, despite his precedence of allowing his pals to drone on for as long as 15 additional minutes (a la Doug Frank).
Case in point, perhaps you saw last week’s MSNBC report on Shasta County that featured Nathan Blayz extracting information from Crye regarding his flight across the country for a one-on-one meet-up with Mike Lindell. What MSNBC didn’t show is what happened before that, when former Shasta County Public Defender/attorney Jeff Gorder attempted to ask Crye the very questions Crye later willingly answered for Blayz.
It’s worth it to watch the video and hear Gorder speak.
(Video courtesy of Nathan Blayz.)
Sigh. Why can’t Gorder be Shasta County’s CEO?
In Crye’s fragile world, he labels as “disrespectful” anyone who challenges him, disagrees with him, reports unflattering information about him, contradicts him, fact-checks him, and basically doesn’t drink the Kevin Crye Kool-Aide.
So, it was no surprise last Thursday night when Gorder once again got the boot from Crye, along with another District 1 speaker, Larry Johnson, each of whom clearly rattled Crye, and were summarily dismissed, despite the crowd’s protests.
“Let him talk! Let him talk!”
- Crye allowed Jeff Gorder mere seconds to speak, while letting the few who spoke favorably of Crye to ramble on for many minutes.
- Larry Johnson explained he had a list of questions, which Crye wouldn’t permit Johnson to read.
Cryer, Cryer, pants on fire
After introducing herself to Crye, Susan Taylor shares a personal story. Photo by Doni Chamberlain
One of the most stunning things to happen during Crye’s meetings wasn’t evident until days after it was all over. This incredible detail emerged while combing through the meeting’s videos. Here’s a video clip that best illustrates what happened, but first, some background. A woman who identified herself as Susan Taylor started her comments by acknowledging that Crye had no jurisdiction over homeless youth.
Nevertheless, she launched into a story about how Taylor had taken in a homeless Chinese (but legal) teenager, and how the county was no help to her at all, which is in step with Crye’s frequent assertions of a do-nothing government. She lobbed Crye a softball question about whether there was some way to bridge the gap with services for foster and homeless youth, a topic that fits nicely with Crye’s privately-funded solution, The Other Side Academy.
After she’d returned to her seat, Crye called out to her for a reminder of her name. “So, you said it was Susan?” he asked, to which Taylor replied yes, her name was Susan.
“Susan. So if you could please make sure after you’re done, connect with Carloyn?” Crye said. “I’d love to get your information.”
That way, Crye would know how to reach Taylor, and maybe they could even work together.
“Because if we don’t do it, maybe nobody else is,” Crye said.
Here’s the video between Crye and Susan Taylor.
That entire exchange between Crye and Taylor was pure deception in action. Perhaps Crye set it up to stack the audience deck more in his favor, since the overwhelming number of people at the town hall event (described as an “echo chamber” by Crye) were unhappy with him for several reasons.
Taylor and Crye are not strangers. Far from it. In fact, they know each other quite well. What’s more, Crye knows Taylor well enough that he selected her as his community-member pick for the Shasta County CEO-interview advisory committee. (This is no leak. Her name was published in the Redding Record Searchlight, along with other community members and county staff chosen by the supervisors.)
A News Cafe reached out to Crye’s assistant to fact check Taylor’s identity. Initially the assistant wrote, “I don’t know” followed by a happy face. A News Cafe’s follow-up question asked if the assistant could please ask Crye, to which she replied that she didn’t want to be in the middle, so it was best to contact Crye directly. A News Cafe emailed Crye a question that asked if the Susan Taylor at the town hall event was the same Susan Taylor he’d appointed as his ad hoc committee selection. No reply.
That’s OK. No need for Crye’s reply. Today, after six days’ of fact-checking, A News Cafe finally received numerous confirmations from people who said yes, the Susan Taylor at the meeting was the same Susan Taylor selected by Crye to serve as an advisory committee member.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Crye professes to be a devout Christian, as does his assistant. What would Jesus do? Not lie.
World-class microphone monopolizer
Supervisor Kevin Crye speaks, and speaks. Photo by Alan Ernesto-Phillips
Nearly 70 people attended Crye’s event. Several times throughout the evening Crye claimed that he was there to listen to the people.
Fortunately, time is a truth-teller. A tally of the number of minutes Crye spoke, compared with the number of collective minutes the approximately two dozen citizens spoke, called into question Crye’s claims that he was there to listen. The clock proved Crye’s ability to flatter, cajole, charm and talk and talk and talk about all kinds of extraneous fluff, without directly answering the most difficult, controversial questions.
Crye spoke for about 60 minutes of the 90-minute meeting. The remaining 30 minutes were left for Crye to ostensibly listen to the people who’d registered online and provided proof that the were District 1 residents. (Crye did allow a few non-District 1 residents to enter, and at least one spoke.)
Non-District 1 resident Christian Gardinier asks Crye what he plans to do about increasing numbers of North State extremists who frighten people. No solution, replied Crye, because he can’t control others’ behavior.
Most speakers asked questions. Some made observations and statements. Judging by the comments and the crowd’s reactions, the majority of the people – minus approximately 10 residents, give or take – were there to express grave concerns about Crye’s votes, statements, and an alarming series of ghastly decisions and behaviors on the board dais.
What an amazing feat it was to watch Crye dodge hard questions, evade, and change topics faster than a newborn’s diaper. He pontificated with long-winded explanations that veered wildly off course from the speakers’ inquires.
Crye warned the group from the get-go that if things got disrespectful or out of hand, then he’d shut the whole thing down. Even so, the audience erupted periodically in spontaneous applause and cheers for many speakers’ statements. Likewise, they groaned when Crye said something particularly outlandish, such as when Crye asserted that the Lindell topic was just “a hot button topic that the media picks up on”.
One of the biggest groaners of all was when Crye boasted that his vote to cancel the Dominion machines was actually a good thing; as if it was all by grand Crye design, and he had the county exactly where he wanted it, as if he should be praised for a vote that could gut the county and bring it to its knees.
“My vote pushed us to having that conversation,” Crye said with a big grin.
That illogical statement made about as much sense as someone burning down a preschool and then bragging that the good part about the destructive inferno was it led to discussions with insurance agents, contractors, hazmat teams and burn units.
There was some drama at one point after a burst of enthusiastic applause and shouts from the audience for Crye to let a speaker continue talking, when a man jumped abruptly from his chair. Up until that point the man had muttered and grumbled whenever the crowd audibly expressed emotions that didn’t praise Crye.
“I didn’t come here for this!” the man shouted as he strode toward the door. “They’re just arguing!”
With that, Crye went into full-persuasion mode and successfully convinced the man to return to his seat.
“Do me a favor,” A smiling Crye said to the man. “I just met ya. Sit down. Please sit down.”
After the blue-shirted man complied and returned to his seat, Crye then turned his obvious irritation upon the audience. In a gaslighty way Crye scolded the audience — people who were rightfully fed up with not receiving straight answers — for vocalizing their frustration; ergo causing the blue-shirted guy’s angst. His outburst was all their fault.
“See, this is what I didn’t want!” Crye said. “And this is maybe why supervisors haven’t been brave enough, why council members haven’t been brave enough, to do it. We gotta get this community rollin’ together!”
Three is the loneliest number
The audience listens as Kevin Crye speaks. Photo by Alan Ernesto Phillips.
Of approximately 20 specific questions posed, by my count, all but three of Crye’s responses never actually directly addressed the specific questions. Absent clear, succinct answers, Crye demonstrated his adeptness to speak at great length without coming a country mile within the subject at hand.
Question No. 1 by Johnson included a statement that Crye’s reliance upon Lindell was absurd, which gained applause from the audience. Johnson asked Crye point blank if there’s an agreement with Mike Lindell that Lindell will cover costs of replacing existing voting machines that have been approved by the state of California.
Crye responded (before pivoting to another subject for nearly a minute and a half), “So, there is no agreement,” Crye said.
Question No. 2 by Erin Resner (yes, Crye’s former opponent) challenged Crye about who would replace Jaclyn Disney, the recently dismissed director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community Action Programs.
Crye responded quickly by correcting Resner’s misinformation, and said he had nothing to do with Disney’s termination, as that decision was made before he became supervisor. True statement.
Former District 1 candidate Erin Resner’s question related to a county employee dismissed prior to Crye becoming supervisor.
Being schooled by Crye must have been somewhat humiliating for Resner, who was obviously unaware of the timing of Disney’s dismissal, probably because she’d not kept abreast with Shasta County antics since she lost the November election to Crye by just 90 votes.
Crye could have left his answer at that and directed Resner to take a seat, as he had Johnson and Gorder.
Defeated District 1 Supervisor candidate Erin Resner listens to Crye’s response. Photo by Doni Chamberlain
Instead, Crye kept Resner captive in front of the audience as Crye gave a lecture — to Resner, one of the North State’s most successful businesswomen — about how more businesses and individuals should step up, help, and stop waiting for the government to fix the county’s problems.
Question No. 3 by Susanne Baremore was more of a statement in which she shared her disappointment that the first action taken by Crye and his three fellow male supervisors in January was to bypass long-time District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert as the board chair.
Before that January vote, Baremore had recommended during the public comment period that the board should appoint Rickert as chair.
Instead, then-new District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstom made a motion to nominate Jones, which was seconded by District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman, who said it was Jones’ turn, so that’s how things rolled.
Susanne Baremore, a frequent commenter at Board of Supervisors meetings, speaks to Crye.
Crye asked if Baremore recalled that vote, to which Baremore said yes, she did. Crye recounted that he’d actually asked Rickert if she wanted the chair, but Rickert had said no.
“I’m big about who’s next in line,” Crye said. “It’s really important to me if there’s a process set up you don’t skip over somebody. So I wanted to make sure Mary didn’t want to be the chair or the vice chair and she said no.”
From the audience, Baremore said that’s not how she remembered what happened that day, which drew a challenge from Crye.
“Are you going to admit that publicly when you see that you were wrong?” Crye said.
Here is how the vote for chair and vice chair went on Crye’s first day on the dais.
Two points worth noting. First, Rickert went into that first meeting in anticipation of many lone votes. She knew, given the ultra-right board majority make-up, there wasn’t a shred of possibility that she’d be selected as chair. Once the motions were made, Rickert, who’s a Republican, demonstrated class when she joined the men to approve Jones as chair and Garman as vice chair. What was she supposed to do, bare her soul about a desire to be the board chair, yell and scream and demand and say the whole thing was unfair, only to have it quickly smashed by four no votes?
As an aside, regarding Crye’s commitment to “the process” and Garman’s observation that it was Jones’ turn because Jones was the previous vice chair, both statements are flawed. Prior to former District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty’s unfounded recall, he was chair, and Rickert was vice chair. Following the process, Rickert should have rightfully ascended into the board chair position. Instead, the moment Moty was recalled, the board majority bypassed Rickert’s turn as board chair, and placed former District 5 Supervisor Les Baugh as chair, and Jones as vice chair.
The county has been in chaos ever since.
Patterns in questions
Many residents questioned Crye’s short-sighted potentially disastrous vote to cancel the Dominion Voting System. Others voiced profound disappointment in Crye’s wishy washy yes/no/maybe/let-me-consult-my-attorney votes regarding the unlawful Second Amendment resolution. One of the most pressing issues of all was residents’ horror to imagine the possibility that Chriss Street could actually become the county’s next CEO.
When asked about Street, Crye smuggly responded that it was a personnel issue, so he couldn’t discuss it. Slam dunk. But when someone from the audience shouted out that at least Crye could describe what he looks for in a CEO, Crye did not reply.
Prospective (contingent upon a background check) CEO Chriss Street attended Crye’s Town Hall Event. Street’s district is unknown. Photo by Alan Ernesto Phillips
The other massive concern voiced by citizens was Crye’s disturbing relationship with Mike Lindell, and worries that Crye’s personal connections with Lindell has put Shasta County in danger of following misguided advice from a widely debunked and disregarded unhinged pillow salesman who speaks of Crye as if they’re new best friends.
- MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
- Dist. 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye.
Gorder was one of the first to mention Lindell, and when he did, Crye sarcastically feigned surprise that the topic had arisen.
“OK, you can sit down,” Crye instructed Gorder. “Didn’t think that was going to come up. Caught me by surprise.”
Questions about Lindell were met with yet more non-answers from Crye, but one in particular was a doozy. Crye explained that he had planned to discuss Lindell at the Town Hall Event, back when he thought that by then his “exclusive” KRCR interview between Crye and Mike Mangas would have aired the previous day. But, Crye said that Mangas wasn’t able to follow through with the interview the previous day, for some reason he wouldn’t disclose. (For the record, nobody was wondering.)
“I’m a man of my word,” Crye said. “So Mike Mangas asked for an exclusive interview about this topic and I promised him I would do it.”
With that, kick-the-can Crye promised the audience that all their Mike Lindell questions would be answered in the upcoming KRCR interview. Except that promise fell flat, too, because Crye was just as evasive with Mangas as he was with the Town Hall speakers. Not that Mangas didn’t ask good questions, because at least three times Mangas asked variations of, “What happened with Mike Lindell?”
But each time, Crye dodged or went completely off track. In the end, aside from hearing about the logistics of asking for permission from the county to see Lindell, and details about the trip (gee, he saved the county money by flying from Sacramento), and Crye’s fascination with Lindell’s story about addiction, and besides learning that Crye spent four or five hours with Lindell … besides all those random, insignificant details, viewers learned not one single salient piece of information from the KRCR interview about Lindell’s hold on Crye, and by default, Shasta County. What exactly did Crye and Lindell discuss for five hours? We may never know.
Kevin Cryelights from KRCR interview about Lindell visit
Kevin Crye was interviewed by Mike Mangas on KRCR.
- Yeah, I learned a lot in the process actually, about, well, not talking about just the topic, but I’m talking about county travel and how that works.
- I was pretty determined to go either way.
- There’s some answers that are best in person.
- This whole process for me has been about learning. There’s only so much you can read online and research in terms of videos because everything seems so slanted.
- So I basically just threw a Hail Mary and said, ‘Look, I know there’s an individual, Mike Lindell, who is obviously in this, when I say in this group, I mean he, obviously, is some kind of de-facto hot button topic, or, I don’t even want to say leader, it’s just someone that’s very loud about it.
- I learned more in that five-hour meeting than I could have ever done in a month or two of reading and trying to study and listening.
Crye’s memorable town hall statements
As with the KRCR interview, Crye made a number of noteworthy comments during the town hall meeting, the majority of which were unrelated to questions. Even so, they were still memorable.
Former Shasta Count public defender/attorney Jeff Gorder speaks for less than a minute before Crye reaches for the mic and dismisses him. Photo by Doni Chamberlain
- You have to understand. These problems I’m dealing with are because people haven’t done their jobs in like 20 years, or more.
- I can tell you that more potholes will be fixed in District 1 than in the last 10 years. Guess who can make that phone call?
- I put a Pac-Man game in my office for employees.
- The Other Side Academy — I want to bring that here — look it up.
- I can rally people together to build teams, and I can mobilize those teams to get out there and accomplish things.
- People call me back really fast; I mean really fast, and I like that.
- This isn’t about dodging questions. I mean, people say, ‘Ah, Kevin, you shared too much. You shouldn’t have ever told anybody you were going (to see Lindell’.
- I’m not going to skulk in the shadows and pretend. I’m asking questions and getting great answers.
- Until you’ve read or listened to his (Lindell’s) book, be careful about bashing the guy … His heart is for people with drug addictions.
- This vote (to cancel the Dominion contract) forced action, because we’re talking about it.
- If there was a trophy for asking the best question he’d get the trophy.
- People, we made the vote (to cancel the Dominion contract) and now I get to push the conversation.
- My vote (to cancel the Dominion contract) pushed us to having that conversation rather than kicking the can down the road two years and having more people upset about it.
- You’d almost have to give the trophy to her, cuz that’s a pretty good question; a phenomenal question.
- If people said, ‘We want to bring back slavery,’ I’d say, ‘We’re not doing that.’ So, it doesn’t matter what people want if it’s not legal, lawful, constitutional, etcetera.
- I represent a bunch of Olympians and actors and musicians.
- I’m going to be very in-depth with Mike Mangas tomorrow.
- I could have not said a word. But I’m about transparency.
- Great question.
- We’ll do this in another month. Maybe we’ll have cookies.
- Here’s the nice thing: When I say I’m going to be back here in a month, you can ask these questions in a month, and we can have this conversation again.
- On March 28 there’s some really good news for everyone in this room.
Far Crye from a capable supervisor
It’s not a huge deal that Crye fumbled his first town hall meeting worse that a 6-year-old Pee Wee football player. It’s not a huge deal that his communication style is the equivalent of feeding the public Styrofoam peanuts; artificially filling, but not fulfilling. It’s not a huge deal that Crye is braggadociosness personified. It’s not a big deal that Crye asserts himself into matters that are other supervisors’ responsibilities, when there’s plenty of glaring issues for him to address in District 1. Finally, it’s not even a huge deal that Crye has an obvious disdain for reading, which could explain his alleged reliance upon at least two assistants, and is perhaps why he flew to Minnesota to meet Lindell in person to avoid reading, and you know, research.
However, it is an extremely huge deal that in less than three months as a new supervisor, Crye has arguably done more damage to Shasta County’s government, reputation and stability than any supervisor in recent memory. It is a huge deal that Crye routinely builds himself up by tearing others down; even fellow supervisors, county staff, and decades’ worth of public servants. It is a huge deal that Crye’s an attention-seeking loose cannon who exhibits questionable behavior and faulty decision-making. It is a huge deal that Crye appears deficient in enough intellectual discernment and sound judgment to not understand why his relationship with MyPillow guy is freaking out even some of the county’s most hard-core Republicans. It is a huge deal that he uses Shasta County as his personal ATM, and that he orders a local television station around as his private promotional team. It is a huge deal that Crye is about as transparent as a cinder block, and that he has a track record for making evasive statements that often prove false. Finally, it is a huge deal that Crye, with a straight face, can plant a friend in a town hall meeting and pretend they’re strangers, all to manipulate the meeting into appearing more favorable about Crye than it really is.
A common refrain from people when referring to Crye is that he’s the most powerful person on the board, not just because he’s the swing vote, but because he’s so damn unpredictable. What a heady place that must be for someone who believes he has all the answers; to bask in the realization that he holds the fate of the whole county in his hands.
During the town hall meeting, after Crye failed to provide more clues about his Lindell visit, or what lies ahead with regard to the county’s Dominion voting system and whether Shasta County will eventually have a functional elections system again, Crye directed everyone to stay tuned for the March 28 board meeting. Then, he said, the public will have answers to many of their questions.
Suppose that during the pivotal March 28 supervisors meeting — even after sitting at Lindell’s feet for five hours — Crye comes to his senses. Suppose Crye joins rational Rickert and sometimes conscientious Garman to rescind the catastrophic Dominion vote, thus pulling Shasta County from the precipice of certain doom.
That would be great. However, with Crye’s finger on the trigger, that’s one dodged bullet down, five to go. After that, what if Crye makes even worse decisions during his remaining term in office? What if he’s inspired by yet another television charlatan with addiction issues who Crye deems worthy of spending more county money to fly an entourage to other far-flung places to chase down another horrible idea?
We already know almost every dreadful thing there is to know about the county’s prospective (pending background checks) CEO, Chriss Street.
Shasta County CEO candidate Chriss Street appears to doze during a Shasta County Supervisors meeting. Photo by Doni Chamberlain
Likewise, after seeing Crye in action on the campaign trail, and watching his cringeworthy decisions from the dais during less than three months in office, we already know enough about Kevin Crye to come to our senses. We know enough about his instability, his hubris, his flawed judgement, his inflated ego and his limp grasp of the truth to know just how severely he could harm Shasta County.
There’s only one viable solution: Recall Kevin Crye before he has any more time in office to do even greater damage to Shasta County.
In the meantime, stay tuned for the March 28 special 8 a.m. Board of Supervisors meeting, that could bring more definitive news about Shasta County’s next CEO.
After that, watch the March 28 9 a.m. regular Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting. It will have all the answers. Crye promised. When in doubt, ask Susan.
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