From left, Shasta County board majority Patrick Jones, Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom. Photo by Richard DuPertuis
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors held their regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, February 6, at 9:00 a.m.
The complete video and agenda are available here. Time stamps are in parentheses.
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Kevin Crye called the meeting to order. It was announced that an additional agenda item had been added on Friday, February 2, but was pulled and would not be discussed. Chief Deputy Clerk of the Board Stephanie Blankenship reviewed the rules of order for board meetings.
The invocation was conducted by Pastor Janet Chapman, First Christian Church of Redding, and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Supervisor Jones.
REGULAR CALENDAR
Members of the public may comment on any item on the Regular Calendar before or during the Board’s consideration of the item. Members of the public may also address matters scheduled for public hearings at the time such public hearings are opened for comment. Each speaker is allocated three minutes to speak.
Board Matters
R1 Adopt a resolution which recognizes Health and Human Services Agency Senior Public Health Assistant Anissa Dallen as Shasta County’s Employee of the Month for February 2024. (6:22)
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Supervisor Mary Rickert read the nomination and proclamation.
“Anissa Dallen splits her work time between the child passenger safety seat and the injury prevention programs. Anissa strives to always demonstrate professionalism in her workplace. When working with clients, she treats every individual she meets equally and with dignity and respect. She recently went above and beyond taking initiative to unload 200 car seats from the delivery truck as well as sorting and putting them away in the pouring rain. She is a team player, an integral part of the injury prevention team who exudes harmony and works well with each other of her coworkers and clients. Others admire her work ethic, positive attitude, professionalism, dedication and endeavor to be more like her.”
Upon receiving the award, Dallen said, “I truly appreciate being nominated, but I truly could not do it without my teams on both sides.”
There were no public commenters.
R2 Take the following actions: (1) Receive an update from the County Executive Officer on County issues and consider action on specific legislation related to Shasta County’s legislative platform; (2) approve a letter of opposition to Senate Bill 961 which proposes to limit the speed of vehicles to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit; and (3) receive Supervisors’ reports on countywide issues. (15:17)
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
There were three public commenters on R2, all of whom opposed Senate Bill 961.
CEO Dave Rickert (7:38) “AB 702 died in the public Safety committee. This bill would have proposed to reallocate and make fundamental changes to the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act and the Board of Supervisors previously sent a letter of opposition to this legislation. AB 797 died in appropriations. This bill proposed each community with law enforcement criteria independent of the community-based commission on law enforcement in this guiding committee. And finally AB 1090 also died in government committee. This bill would have authorized the board of supervisors to remove a sheriff from office for cause by 4/5 vote.
“I am currently working with our remaining supervisors to set up tours to review the old courthouse and to provide an opportunity for them to meet with our support services people and with HHSA director Laura Burch to get an update on potential uses of the court building.”
CEO Rickert brought up the resolution of Jan. 23, “allowing authorization for citizens to exercise their second amendment right in county buildings. We are currently working with the task force. We set up to produce signage, provide for training, do public safety announcements, with both our security personnel, staff and department heads. Once we complete this process, we will then be posting a signage up in our buildings to carry out the wishes of the board that was passed on Jan. 23.”
CEO Rickert continued, “[Registrar of Voters] Cathy Darling Allen has formally announced her retirement. We are looking into that process with the County Council’s office and county clerk’s office to determine what procedures will be necessary to fulfill that vacancy.”
“Finally, for your consideration, we have SB 961. We’ve had a number of the public speak on this and for your consideration is a letter of opposition to the Senate bill which would require new vehicles in the State of California to put a regulator on there to limit speed limits to no more than ten miles an hour over the posted speed limit.”
District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman: (20:39) He was unable to attend the tour of the old courthouse but will follow up with CEO Rickert. He attended his first LAFCO meeting last week. He met with Chuck Bauer at the local Carpenters Union and attended the elections commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 5. He announced that the Children’s Diabetes Support group meeting will be Saturday, Feb. 10 at 10:30 a.m. to noon and will now be called the Nor Cal Children’s Diabetes Club. New meeting place is located at 3330, Churn Creek Road. There will be a chance for children ages 8 to 15 with diabetes to attend Camp McCumber diabetes camp. The diabetes camp is sponsored by the Lions Club.
“The last thing I want to say, this is to the audience. Last week, I talked about some respecting each other and whatnot that did not seem to go anywhere. So I’m gonna change it up this week. I don’t want to talk about hate and there’s so much hate in this audience. There’s so much hate in this county. There’s so much hate in this country. We’re so divided. We hate each other. I don’t know if you guys know it or realize it, but hate is actually an addiction when somebody starts to, to spread hate, they hate it out with other haters. And it’s just, it’s actually, if you research it, it’s like taking a, a heavy dose of cocaine when it wears off, you need more. So when you’re gonna hate. You’re gonna hate.
The only way we’re gonna overcome this is to love each other, get along with each other and mainly respect each other. So for somebody that makes a comment you don’t agree with, just sit down, let them have their time, respect their time and then move on and we’ll let your attorney get up and speak if we could just show some respect to each other. For instance this morning a gentleman came in and said something to a lady who was just trying to instigate stuff. That’s the hate that needs to stop. We just need to, you know, say nothing at all or, or, or, or just say something out of love. That’s just my plea to everybody. If we can just start treating each other with more respect and love, it will go a long way towards healing our community with that. “
District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones: (25:39) He attended the Shasta Lake City Forum. He attended California Deer Association’s annual banquet. He went to a Sacramento Basinwide air pollution meeting. He attended the Shasta County Election Commission meeting.
District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom: (27:04) He also attended the Sacramento Basinwide air pollution meetings. Will probably attend the monthly breakfast at the Senior Center in Anderson. He had an NCAA Zoom meeting. He has an email concerning an issue in Anderson Cottonwood area and the ACID canal and some water leaking on the road and will contact Director Troy Bartolomei about it.
District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert: (27:51) She also attended the Shasta Lake Forum for candidates in districts 2, 3 and 4. She attended the LAFCO meeting and stepped in as the alternate in place of Supervisor Jones. She had a meeting with our health and human services director, Laura Burch and CEO Dave Rickert discussing among other things, the issues surrounding contracts and agreements. She received a call from senior staff members over the weekend in regard to various issues in the County Counsel’s office. She received a call from a senior staff member from RCRC about the situation here in Shasta County.
Rickert continued, “I also want to bring to attention the Fountain Wind project. We continue to be in opposition of that, that’s in District 3, the district I represent. And I want to thank formally Matt McOmber who is no longer with Shasta County. He has done an amazing amount of work. He developed a very excellent relationship with the Pit River tribe as we’ve collaborated on a lawsuit standing up to the state of California over this proposed project. And, he’s going to be missed tremendously on this project, and I just want to bring this to the public’s attention.
This is the third attorney we’ve lost in the last several months. And those three attorneys had a combination of 48 years of institutional knowledge that went out the door and that’s going to really hurt our county. All three of these attorneys were excellent attorneys. They had been working with Jim Ross over the opioid settlement project. He was the leader among the attorneys in the state and led that project. He highly regarded Rubin Cruise, excellent reputation as an attorney, as is Matt McOmber. We’re going to miss these three gentlemen. I think Shasta County is going to really suffer as a result of that. We just didn’t have that kind of turnover in past years. This is something that everyone should be concerned about.
We need to make sure that our contracts and all the services — and especially for those that are the most vulnerable in the population — that we have here in the county that they continue to receive their services. If not, we’re going to see increases in a lot of crime, homelessness, et cetera. So with that, let’s hope and pray that we can get things settled down. And I want to thank Alan Cox for stepping in today. Alan, you’ve been here nine years. Let’s make sure we make Alan feel welcome and that we continue to work well with Alan. We need people that know about the past history and how to get agreements and contracts moving through the system so that we can take care of everyone in Shasta County. So thank you Alan for being here today.”
District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye: (31:09) “So I spoke with the Sheriff quite a few times this past week about safety protocols within the board of supervisors meetings. We have a pretty extensive meeting this Thursday with the attorney’s office, sheriff’s office, the CEOs office, myself and a few others. So we’re working on that. It’s a process but there’ll be more obviously at the next meeting from a follow up from that meeting. This Thursday,I met with some solar company representatives about various programs that the county may or may not want to look into down the road. Wasn’t overly impressed, but I’m always willing to listen. I was on a webinar with Golden State Finance and Support services about the housing down payment assistance program again for employees, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been an employee, you need to look into that. That is a very great program and a huge opportunity, being employed by the county. So on my list here, I probably would finish with this, but I met with Laura Burch as well as well as the CEO, not in the same meeting as Supervisor Rickert and separate but same topic.
“I’m gonna take a little bit less political stance and just tell you what that meeting was about. So bear with me, Alan when we can talk all we want about. Oh, God forbid, we lose services. Well, that’s what was going to happen. We are over six, nearly seven months behind on contracts. I don’t care how much experience you have. When that freight train is barreling down the tracks and going off the tracks. Corrections have to be made. When Alan was in charge of the HHSA contracts for years. How many years, sir? 10 years we were never behind, never behind. So we can pontificate all we want about the importance of delivering services at the end of the day, decisions have to be made to make sure children and the most vulnerable that need those services, those contracts do not lapse.
“There’s some huge course corrections taking place. I will not politicize those. If anybody in the public knows anybody in the County Counsel’s office, if you see them mowing their grass, if they see you at the store, approach them and say, how’s it going? These are amazing human beings in that office, phenomenal human beings, all of which I’ve met now since we’ve hired a new County Counsel who starts in April. You guys are one of the hardest working departments I’ve come across and granted it’s not a department of 1000 people, maybe like HHSA, but I am very impressed by our County Counsel’s office and their willingness to get these contracts caught up and put us on a direction that sustains the services we have and does the right thing and puts politics aside and does their job as attorney. So thank you Alan for stepping up. I appreciate that.
I had a meeting with John Wilde who is actually on, we just recently appointed him to the assessment Assessment Appeals Board. Thank you, Clerk Blankenship for making sure I got that correct. And he came to me, he’s actually not only a realtor, but he’s a notary and he brought to me about two months of research about the fees of being a notary in Shasta County in Shasta County, we are 55% higher. Our fees in Shasta County are 55% higher to be a notary than the second county, Riverside County in the state of California. If you take the surrounding six counties, we are 168% more expensive to be a notary in Shasta County. Now, you could say what’s the big deal? The fee is 123 bucks. But I believe it’s a systemic thing that we need to look at as a board. I have met with Nolda Short twice on this issue. We will be looking at other fees as a government. We are to make ourselves whole, not make money. And the spreadsheet that has been presented to me has been presented to Nolda Short then verify that there will be. I did talk that we do not need a board action. She can do an audit of that one particular fee and we will be looking into other fees because we should not be making money on the backs of Shasta County citizens. So I’ve actually talked about this, I did tell John he needs to come up in public comment. I said I would cut his mic at three minutes. I will not ask you questions because we’ve spent time. So John, you will have your three minutes. I have my radio show this weekend. I do see Corky Harmon who’s running in District 3 in the audience today. Win Carpenter has also confirmed, Supervisor Rickert, not sure if you’re gonna show. Matt Plummer showed, Susanne Baremore showed. We’d love to have you on that live debate this weekend at eight.
Keeping with my weekly coffees at Kaleidoscope. It’s coffee with Kevin 8 a.m. at Kaleidoscope on Athens. There won’t be a board meeting next week, so there will not be an agenda to print out and bring. But again, I’m there for an hour. It’s a no holds barred, ask whatever you want. We did have beyond standing room only last week. So bring a jacket because we may have to move outside underneath the cover.”
R3 Receive a presentation regarding the 2024 Employee Appreciation Day and consider providing direction to staff. (36:41)
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Director of Support services. Monica Fugitt made the presentation.
“Our employees don’t receive enough recognition for all that they do and the difference they make in the lives of Shasta County residents. And this event is our opportunity to, to demonstrate a gesture of, of thanks to those employees. We have over 2000 employees. This event would be open to our full time and extra help employees. Because of COVID-19 among other things we have not had an event since 2019. So we are excited to get the ball rolling again. Our resolution in place authorizes us to expend up to $35,000 in support of these events and to accept donations as well. We have secured a date, time, and location. The resolution allows me to accept donations in um any amount in accordance with our county policies. And monetary donations if received would go to offset the cost of the venue, the food and other expenses. Donations such as gifts, gift baskets, gift cards would be passed on to employees and drawings throughout the week’s events. So if there’s anyone in the public or local businesses who feel compelled to donate, I encourage them to reach out to me or to my staff and we would be excited and welcome those contributions to the benefit of the employees.”
Supervisor Garman: You can count on a gift basket from us. For myself, not speaking for the board.
Supervisor Rickert: I’m really glad to see it’s coming back, and you can count on me. I just have to remember to get a gift basket. I’ll get some Prather Ranch jerky and wild rice that we grow and various products.
Supervisor Kelstrom: I know a guy that makes peanut brittle so you can probably get a gift basket of peanut brittle.
Supervisor Jones: I was just gonna ask Monica if she needed any guns for this event.
Supervisor Crye talked about looking into a band and wanted Supervisor Rickert to look into a petting zoo.
There were six public commenters. (53:19) Three were for the employee appreciation day. One was angry that some commenters made the presentation into a political attack. One suggested that Reverge Anselmo fund the picnic . One was angry at the amount of money spent.
The motion to approve the budget for employee appreciation day passed unanimously. (53:31)
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD – OPEN TIME (1:03:13)
During the Public Comment Open Time period, the public may address the Board on any matter not listed on the agenda that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors. Each speaker is allocated three minutes to speak.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The following Consent Calendar items are expected to be routine and non-controversial. They may be acted upon by the Board at one time without discussion. Any Board member or staff member may request that an item be removed from the Consent Calendar for discussion and consideration. Members of the public may comment on any item on the Consent Calendar before the Board’s consideration of the Consent Calendar. Each speaker is allocated three minutes to speak.
There were 38 public commenters.
REGULAR CALENDAR, CONTINUED
CLOSED SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT (3:05:48)
The Board of Supervisors will recess to a Closed Session to discuss the following item (estimated 1 hour 15 minutes):
R4 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION
(Government Code section 54956.9, subdivision (d), paragraph (1)): Case Name: David Couch, Sr. et al. v. State of California, et al.
R5 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – ANTICIPATED LITIGATION
(Government Code section 54956.9, subdivision (d), paragraph (2)): Significant Exposure to Litigation: one potential case.
R6 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION
(Government Code section 54956.9, subdivision (d), paragraph (1)): Case Name: County of Shasta, et al. v. California Energy Commission, et al.
At the conclusion of the Closed Session, reportable action, if any, will be reported in Open Session.
REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS
BOS returned from closed session. There was no reportable action. BOS adjourned (3:07:48)
