5/14/24 BOS: DA Cross-Examined, AG Letter Will Not Die

(.02) The regular Tuesday morning meeting of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors was called to order at 9:00 a.m. on May 14, 2024. The complete video and agenda are available here.

CALL TO ORDER

(2:36) The Invocation was read by Pastor Cole Zick, Risen King Community Church. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Supervisor Patrick 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 hearing are opened for comment. Those wishing to participate in public comment for Regular Calendar items must submit a speaker request card to the Clerk of the Board before public comment on the item begins.  Each speaker is allocated three minutes to speak. All speaker request cards submitted after public comment for each Regular Calendar item begins will not be heard by the Board.

BOARD MATTERS

Simple Majority Vote

(4:14) CEO Dave Rickert:  Dave Rickert, County Executive Officer reporting with an update on state issues. The governor’s 2425 May budget revision proposes spreading out the use of 12.2 billion in Budget Stabilization Act revenues over two fiscal years, withdrawing 8.4 billion from the public school system stabilization account,  10.7 billion in reductions, 2 billion in revenue and borrowing 520 million in payment delays and 3.9 billion in fund shifts. The governor’s 2024 and 2025 May revision projects, a $3.5 billion budget surplus in fiscal year 2024-25 and a $650 million surplus in fiscal year 2526 as a result of significant spending reductions in those years.

An update on county issues during an audit of the county clerk’s 2022 filing oath of notary and recording bond fee. The Shasta County Auditor controller discovered miscalculations leading to overcharges for the notary oath service fees. This audit was prompted by a Shasta citizen, John Wild who brought forward concerns of excessive fees to Chairman Crye that were highlighted at the February 6 county board meeting. Two employees deserve recognition for their prompt efforts to correct this error. John Baker of the county clerk’s office found time between elections to expedite this correction. And Kyla Brauer from the Auditor’s office who created an interface. So the county didn’t have to waste staff time entering in auditing hundreds of items separately. All this work including refunds was completed by April 30. My sincere appreciation to both employees and their departments.

And with a jail update, the CEOs office is preparing a financial presentation on financial options for funding a jail expansion scheduled for May 21. Also, we are continuing to seek information on when we can expect a notice of completion so we can access the old courthouse. And finally, with Memorial Day soon approaching, I’ve asked Wesley Tucker, our veteran service officer to make a brief announcement concerning the Memorial Day activities.

(6:32) Wesley Tucker: As you guys have noticed and hopefully, if you haven’t noticed, please feel free to go into the main lobby and look at the Memorial Day display. This is a nine-month project that we’ve been working on, my staff and I.  Amy Hancock has really led the way on it. We have dug through the National archives and we have found, we believe we’re there now, but we’ve tried to find every single Shasta County resident who has passed away in conflicts since World War l through the current conflicts.  We also publish the names and we’d encourage anybody to please check our list because if there’s anything, anybody we’re missing, we wanna make sure we also get a dog tag for them ready to go. So today, I’d like to present a display that will honor and remember the brave men and women from Shasta County who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country as we look upon the Memorial Day display that bears the names of every resident who was killed in action.

From World War l to the current conflicts, we are reminded of the profound impact that war has had on our community. Each name represents a life that was cut short, a family forever changed and a nation forever grateful for their sacrifice. These individuals answered the call of duty, leaving behind the loved ones and the comforts of home to defend the freedoms that uphold the values that make our country great. From the muddy trenches of World War l to the South Pacific and European Theater of World War ll to the forgotten conflict of the Korean War, the jungle warfare in Vietnam all the way to the deserts of Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

These brave souls faced unimaginable hardships and dangers with courage and resilience. They fought not for the glory or recognition but for a sense of duty and honor that transcends personal gain as we gather today. As we look at the memorial, we must never forget the sacrifices made by these heroes. Their names have been etched on the hanging dog tags, but their spirit lives on in the hearts of those who knew them. And in the memory of a grateful nation, we owe it to them to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain. And that we continue to uphold the values that they fought and died for. Let us also remember the families and the loved ones who are left behind who bear the burden of the loss every day. Their sacrifice is no less significant as they carry on the legacy of their fallen heroes with grace and dignity as we pay tribute to these brave men and women. And we exercise our right to practice democracy. Let us look upon the display as a memory of their sacrifice is providing us the right to do so. Let us look upon the display as a constant reminder of the true weight of freedom and democracy for not only Shasta County but around the world in closing, let us honor those who gave all for their country by living lives with purpose and gratitude. Let us never forget their sacrifice and strive to be worthy of the freedoms that they fought to defend.

(9:29) Supervisor Tim Garman, District 2:   First of all I want to say Supervisor Rickert, it’s good to see you here this morning. Moving on, I want to say on May 8 I attended the Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board and that was a very important meeting. So I’m glad I got to take part of that for Supervisor Rickert when she was out. That’s a very important board for our community with the mental health problems we have and the drug and alcohol issues and glad to be part of that and I will attend even now that she’s back.

On May 9 I met with Joe, County Counsel and CEO, and Mr Crye. We just had a conversation that needed to happen. Thank you Joe for your leadership in that conversation on May 10 Supervisor-elect Long filled in for me while I was at a memorial service and he went out to Whiskeytown and rode around with Josh and Troy Bartolomei, our public works director, and they were looking at trees that were overhanging the roads in the park. And of course, it’s always difficult when you got the National Park Service and the county roads trying to coordinate and how to get these trees out of there that are a danger to society. But that will be happening. They will be taking some trees out while they are driving around. They also found a section of the road that was washed out to the point of where it is very, very dangerous. They had to stop, put cones up and it’s on the high-priority list for the county to fix. So I thank you, Mr. Long, for filling in for me.

May 10 attended the Sierra Sacramento Valley EMS meeting. I’m happy to announce that ambulance times are down on a time for it to get to a call. That’s a good thing. Next week, I’ll talk a little bit more about that as we’re going to have a proclamation for EMS week which will be on Consent Calendar, I believe. But I will talk about it briefly.

I attended a retirement party for Cathy Darling Allen. It was nice to see that a lot of staff there were supporting her. CEO Rickert was there as well and a lot of community members that was a great time to be had.

May 13 I met with  Supervisor Crye,  Chairman Crye and Wesley Tucker. I think you’re in the audience somewhere. And also Amy from Wesley’s staff and what this is about you guys – is Pauline Arellano in the back? Sorry for calling you out Pauline. But she made a very passionate plea to us a while back about a monument that was missing over at the library, the Veterans Monument. And we talked about it as a board and I thought, you know what I mentioned a few weeks back, maybe we can do some fundraising or come up with some way so the county wouldn’t have to pay for that to be replaced, but it needs to be replaced. But I was very passionate about that.

So I went to Wesley first and I went to Supervisor Crye with an idea. And I could do a fundraising event where we’re kind of challenging each other to a, quote unquote, triathlon of sorts. So we’re basically going to play cornhole, a free throw shooting contest and darts and the people will donate money to the cause. Right? And that’s the idea and the bigger cause is who could raise the most money, who wins? Doesn’t matter. It’s about raising money for the veterans. And when we talk with Wesley, he brought up some other points to it, which I think hopefully you put a card in this so you can share Wesley, but we don’t have anything here at this building to honor our veterans. So I’m going to let Wesley talk about that in a moment and hopefully we can raise enough funds to put something here as well.

One other thing, I’ve had a few people in the community reach out to me asking about Dr. Mu’s status. Is there any way we can get an update CEO on his status with the county?

(13:13) CEO Rickert: Maybe in an upcoming meeting. I will make a note and have a conversation with Dr. Mu.

Supervisor Garman: Ok. I appreciate that. And with that, that concludes my report.

(13:23) Supervisor Patrick Jones, District 4:   Normally I would be going over my supervisor reports and I will resume that next meeting, but today I wanted to talk about the Shasta Grand Jury’s letter that came out May 7. So we all seem to be very concerned with these letters. So the grand jury put out a statement to recuse or not to recuse. That is the question Shasta County Board of Supervisors and this is the 2023-2024 part of the Shasta County Grand Jury. I’m going to read most of it and people can check it out on their own.

So the summary, the Shasta County Grand Jury received two complaints alleging wrongdoing by a supervisor, that would be me, of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors. When the grand jury investigates into wrongdoing and no wrongdoing is found, the grand jury need not write a report. However, in this case of the following complaints, because the perception of wrongdoing led to public discord and community distrust, the grand jury felt that it was important to clarify any lingering misconceptions within the community.

The grand jury received two complaints alleging violations of rules and regulations pertaining to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors members recusal. One complaint alleged a supervisor did not leave the board chambers after recusing from a manner in which the supervisor had a financial interest. Another complaint alleged that the supervisor did not recuse on a matter that could financially benefit the supervisor. The grand jury investigated both allegations as to the inappropriateness of the supervisor’s actions. After a careful study of the Shasta County Administrative manual, the California Code of Regulations and the Fair Political Practice Commission Political Reform Act. The ground jury determined there were no violations by the board and the supervisor appropriately followed the abovementioned rules and regulations. They had methodology, they had a discussion and eventually they got to their findings.

F.1. After reviewing the minutes of October 24th, 2023 the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting and reviewing the pertinent recusal rules and regulations, a grand jury found there was no violations of laws, rules or regulations. F.2., since removing impact fees for Shasta County affects at least 25% of all real property within Shasta County. There is not a unique effort on the supervisor’s financial interest. The grand jury found the supervisor appropriately took part in the discussion and voting regarding impact fees. F.3. Although the grand jury found no wrongdoing, perceptions of wrongdoing created discord within the community. Finally, they had some recommendations and I’m not going to read the recommendations. There’s R1 and R2, you’ll be able to look at those.

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors has not weighed in on these recommendations and we may agree or we may not agree on these recommendations. As a board, we will do that shortly and then report back to the public. So I just wanted to let people know with regards to me and my actions, with regards to the shooting range. The grand jury has fully investigated into that. We did mention at the times that I did recuse myself and I recused myself on all matters related to that project, but it seems that several members of the public just seem to refuse those facts. And that’s unfortunate because it creates discord within the community unnecessarily. And so hopefully this will put that to bed.

(16:45)  Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, District 5:  Wednesday I met with CEO Rickert. We had lunch at San Francisco Deli and we discussed a lot of issues including the new reporting app that we have at the county offices. So I see Richard in the audience, the auditor-controller had some real good positive feedback. We even had positive feedback from the tax assessor’s office, which I don’t think anybody’s too happy to go into the tax assessors and pay their taxes. But obviously they were treated very kindly and expediently. And so they were actually happy with their experience. So good to see that.

Then that night I had ladies’ night out. So look forward to that every year. I’m an auctioneer, so I get to auctioneer items to 300 women with no men allowed.  So, wonderful night in Cottonwood. That’s part of the rodeo week. And then on Friday, I emceed the Cottonwood kiddie parade, which is just great. It’s a bunch of little kids, little league teams, karate teams, individual kids with rabbits and goats and ponies and sheep and everything you can imagine.  So that was great. And then afterwards we had a live music and dancing at the Bobby Jones Arena on the rodeo grounds.  They brought that back for the first time in several years and on Saturday, I directed traffic with CHP Officer Morton and newly Captain Fernandez of the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department.  We directed traffic for the Cottonwood parade, get in the cars. We put – all the parade goes down one side of the street, so we put both lanes of cars under the one other side of the street. So I’d put up barricades earlier that morning at 5:30 a.m. For some reason, we needed to meet at 5:30 to put up barricades and cones. But I was there for that too.Then immediately after I raced to the rodeo grounds and I took tickets at the front door all day Saturday. And then I did the same thing on Sunday. Didn’t do the parade, but I again took tickets all day Sunday at the Cottonwood Rodeo on Mother’s Day.

And then yesterday, Supervisor Jones and I went to the Special Kids Day with Asphalt Cowboys. That’s their day that they look forward to every year. We just missed Supervisor Crye or Chairman Crye. He had been there earlier in the day. But that was great, little kids riding horses with, you know, everybody’s helping them on there, and a lot of the kids were special needs. So it’s a pretty heartwarming day. And then later that afternoon, yesterday afternoon, I met with resource management, to try to pass an an agri-tourism ordinance here in the county. So we met with that. Shout out to Paul Hellman, Leo Salazar and Adam Fieseler and Brenda Haines was also there from Doug LaMalfa’s office and I even did a short stint for writing buzz with Jason afterwards.

And then don’t forget the pancake breakfast this Friday and the Employee Appreciation Day on Saturday. I just want to put it out there. Unfortunately, I’m not going to make that. I appreciate all of our employees very much. But 10 months ago, I was asked to do the Manton parade and fundraiser and I already said that I would do that. So I will be in Manton all day Saturday. I will appreciate our employees, but from a distance. So that concludes my report.

(19:56) Supervisor Mary Rickert, District 3: First of all, I want to thank Wesley Tucker for his discussion about veterans, etc. I’m proud to say that the fairgrounds in McArthur will be dedicating their veterans memorial at the end of this month. And I kind of helped get that facilitated and get that off the ground. So I received word from the head of their foundation that that will be taking place and they wanted me to be there.

I met with a lady on homeless issues. She’s been working on a homeless plan. I gave her lots of phone numbers, ideas as far as other contacts so she can perhaps continue to pursue their project.

I attended the Shasta Land Trust annual fundraiser. A lot of people don’t follow the Shasta Land Trust. They have preserved in Shasta County 60,000 acres, those 60,000 acres will never be developed. And of those my husband and I are involved in; either own or manage about 10,000 of those acres. And we were the very first conservation easement in Shasta County. I say that because I’m a firm believer in preserving the rural legacy of Shasta County. It’s true and dear to my heart that we have open space for generations to come on our property in Anderson, we have 2.5 miles of frontage on the Sacramento River that will never be developed. There will never be any kind of structure on it whatsoever. And I think it’s imperative that we have that rural atmosphere, that rural feeling for our young people to appreciate in this county. Also my husband and I and some of you in the audience have attended, we’ve hosted several agritourism events in the last 20 years in collaboration with Shasta Land Trust.

I attended the retirement dinner for Cathy Darling Allen. What I was so impressed was she had admirers, people in the in the world of elections come from all over. There were people from Texas, all over the country, to honor her and it was a very heartwarming evening. She has not just a state reputation but a national reputation and she will be missed by Shasta County very, very much.

I’ve been talking to Paul Helman and Adam Fieseler about a couple of issues. One is the Palo Cedro planning process where we continue to work on that. I’ve been talking to people encouraging to get more applications in. We haven’t had a resounding number of applications. And then also I had talked to Adam, I think it was a couple of months ago, about resurrecting the work I had done for agritourism in Shasta County. We had, I got several templates, we had several meetings and so they discussed with me the meeting that was gonna happen. That happened yesterday and so they’re using some of those templates and I will continue that work.  I wanna get that completed as soon as we possibly can. Agritourism is not a huge revenue source for m most people in agriculture in Shasta County. It just has to do with the nature of our businesses. A lot of people don’t want to just come and watch garlic grow or hay being baled.  But there there are some things we do get people out on farms and ranches and there is a wine ordinance that past supervisor Pam Giacomini got implemented years ago.

So I want to first of all, thank everyone for the dozens and dozens of cards, the flowers, the emails, the phones, calls, the texts and I continue to get them. And I want to thank Supervisor Garman for welcoming me back and calling my husband regularly to check on my progress. He’s not used to that. And after 51 years, last time I had a knife taken to me was when I had my tonsils out when I was 20 years old. So it’s been 51 years and I hope I can last another 51 years before that has to happen. So it’s a slow process.  I was given clearance by my medical provider to do short meetings as much as, here and there, and to just take it really slow and easy. It can take sometimes up to a year to completely heal. So I just want to thank everyone.  And as I have been kind of sidelined, I have continued with responding to emails, phone calls, texts. I’ve had people come to my house several times to meet with me in person. So I just appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.  I am not used to sitting still, this is killing me.  I’m not a person that likes to sit around. I did read a novel for the first time in eight years, though. That was a big step. So with that, I just want to thank everyone.  I’ve talked to Dave Rickert several times, so I’ve kept in communication with what’s going on. So thank you all.

(24:47) Supervisor Kevin Crye, District 5:  I attended the Americorps Volunteer Awards ceremony with CEO Rickert.  And these are in no particular order.  Met last week with Christy Coleman and Laura Burch, regarding the CoCs  presentation and talking about some different ways where we can get maybe some quarterly updates with the CoC and HHSA working together on how money is being spent.

Attended the Special Needs Day yesterday at the rodeo grounds with the Asphalt Cowboys. That is truly a phenomenal event. if you haven’t gone to it in the past, I would put it on your calendar for next year. It’s the Monday of Rodeo Week. It’s just awesome.   I would just encourage you  to go to that.

I met with the Shasta County Chamber and James Mazzotta, working on also some things with the airport. I’m glad Supervisor Rickert talked about rural counties and our belief that we are a rural county. We have a rural way of life. One thing again I’ve mentioned in the past is about the airport and some improvements I think that could be done. And so looking to work with the city and bring something back here soon on that.

Had a meeting with  Joanna Francescut, just about some processes in her office that some things that she’s doing. I have taken quite a few phone calls, about the position that’s open right now. That obviously was posted. So that’s garnering some, national interest. I don’t have anybody yet that to my knowledge that has turned in an application or a letter of intent, but I do expect those coming here soon. Next meeting, which will be a night meeting, which is next Tuesday, I’m sponsoring something about SB 90, our auditor-controller Nolda Short, we’ll be bringing that forward.  I’ve been working quite a lot on June’s budget hearings and now having a full year  in office and working with department heads and then CEO Rickert, I look forward to June for sure.(27:05) There were six commenters on R1. Wesley Tucker spoke about the display honoring veterans.

Presentations

(41:26)  R2 Receive a presentation from the Shasta County District Attorney regarding the prosecutorial process.

No Additional General Fund Impact

No Vote

DA Stephanie Bridgett made the presentation about the flow of cases through her office.

Patrick Blacklock from RCRC made the presentation. He spoke about the benefits of RCRC as well as strategic plans, resources, and future financing.

There were no public commenters.

There were four public commenters on the Consent Calendar, who largely spoke in favor of the Step Up program.

Clerk of the Board

C4 Approve the revised Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) Bylaws adopted March 21, 2024, by the JJCC. 

C5 Approve a renewal agreement with the Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College  District for the  Shasta-Tehama  Education  Program-Unified Partnership (STEP-UP) program.

C8 Take the following actions regarding the “Fall River Mills Corporation Yard Roofing Project,” Contract No. 610944: (1) Reject the bid submitted on April 18, 2024; (2) approve revised project plans and specifications and direct the Public Works Director to re-advertise for bids; and (3) authorize the opening of bids on or after June 20, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.

C9 Approve a renewal agreement with the Anderson Union High School District for educational services to inmates at the Shasta County Jail.

Troy Bartolomei made the presentation.

(3:22:28) Supervisor Rickert: It was suggested since the party that’s kind of interested in getting this passed, whether or not I should kind of recuse myself because of the current political situation in our campaign. We’re campaigning, we’re running against each other. We’re gonna be on the ballot. .. What is your legal opinion?

(3:32: 23) Jay Harris, Support Services: If enacted, the ordinance would be effective 60 days hereafter on July 14th, 2024 the total cost increase is approximately $250,000 annually, which includes the vehicle allowance and all costs are 100% general fund with that.

There were six public commenters on R5, none of whom completely supported the raise as proposed, The motion passed 3-2 with Crye and Rickert voting no.

(3:50:07) The BOS returned to public comment. There were six commenters who spoke on a variety of subjects from voting to the budget to decorum in the BOS chambers.

(4:10:35) The BOS adjourned.