The regularly scheduled Tuesday morning meeting of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors was called to order at 9:01 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. The complete video and agenda are available here. Timestamps are in parentheses.
CALL TO ORDER
The Invocation was conducted by Pastor Chris Light, Connection Church. 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. 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.
County Administrative Office
R1 Receive an update from the County Executive Officer on County issues and consider action on specific legislation related to Shasta County’s legislative platform and receive Supervisors’ reports on countywide issues.
No Additional General Fund Impact
No Vote
CEO David Rickert
(4:25) CEO Dave Rickert: As reported in the local media, the global software glitch also impacted Shasta County on July 19 at 12:20 a.m. County IT staff were able to retrieve a bulletin from cybersecurity company Crowdstrike advising of a computer update that triggered a logic error. This error led to computers crashing. At 12:30 a.m. IT staff went to the jail to start unlocking machines and proceeded to other sheriff locations. At 12:40 IT started to facilitate an action plan to systematically start unlocking PCs at the county. 3:10 a.m., CAO Schreiber sent a message to the CEO and CAO staff informing us of the issue and steps they were taking to mitigate the issue. 3:40, CAO Schreiber sent a message to department heads, deputies, IT liaisons informing them of the issue and the steps IT will need to take to provide the fix.
By 5:00 a.m. servers and services were back online. At 7 to 730 a.m. IT reached out to several departments to recruit staff to help them solve the issue. By 5:30 p.m. that same day, 1157 of the 1400 PCs at the county were resolved, leaving just 243 low priority items still to be resolved and be fixed. And with that, it just highlights the amount of integrity, the professional staff we have in the IT department. I want to congratulate Tom Schreiber and his excellent staff for judiciously and efficiently solving this issue. I will note that a lot of Fortune 500 companies and companies around the world took hours and days and flights were delayed because of this fix. Our staff got it done seamlessly and without incident at the county. So I want to congratulate them for that. That concludes my report.
District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman.
(6:32) Supervisor Tim Garman, District 2: I took one day last week and I rode along with supervisor-elect Alan Long. We rode through parts of District 2, kind of set up some of the hotspot areas and what to watch out for.
I met with Sheriff Johnson, we talked about the missing girl, Nikki and what I can tell you guys is because I know we get a lot of emails and a lot of people asking for us to do something I will tell you, the sheriff’s office is working seven days a week. They’re working with dog teams, drones, heat sensors and scanners. I can assure you are taking this very seriously and they will continue to look for her. This is an ongoing investigation and they cannot and will not do anything to jeopardize the case. They will continue to investigate every lead that comes through and the detective sergeant is in regular communication with Nikki’s family. So they’re not giving up on that. They are trying very, very hard.
I met with Nolda Short and we had a discussion about fire departments and how they are funded, today being the six year anniversary of the Carr Fire. First of all, we don’t want to ever forget the the seven people who lost their lives that day. But looking forward, we have to make sure our fire departments stay funded in the future because as the future comes each year, this budget gets harder and harder. So I just had some quick conversations with Nolda about that. I also met with Tom Schreiber and IT. We discussed the Microsoft glitch that happened there. CEO Rickert laid it out pretty clearly, but I will say as of yesterday, at noon there were only 140 machines left to go out of 1400. So hats off to Tom and your team at it and also the other department heads who stepped in with staff to help get our computers back up and running. That was no small task. I also talked to Tom about what happens in the future. When this happens again, I will assure you we’ve got a good plan in place. Tom is having ongoing conversations with Microsoft and Crowdstrike about what this may look like in the future. So we are in great hands with Tom. Tom, thank you again.
I also met with Tom Toller and extended an olive branch to let him know that my vote for the ROV position was not personal in any way, shape or form. And I wish him the best of luck in the future with his role.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I had two separate calls about elder abuse and I haven’t had any of those calls since I’ve been on this board. June was Elder Abuse Month, but I guess it’s just going to, I’m going to mention it today. I had those two calls. So I just want to remind you guys to be aware of what’s going on out there with your elderly friends, neighbors and relatives. Elder abuse can happen in many different ways, shapes and forms. Please keep an eye on your elderly folks. And if you know of anyone having problems with this, have them reach out to the DA Crime Victims Assistance Center at 530-225-5220 or they can also reach out to Adult Protective Services at 530-225-5798. And let’s end elder abuse.
I also want to give you guys a reminder that the child support backpack drive is still ongoing, that ends on July 31. So we have a few more days with that. New backpacks of school supplies are needed. Last year, we passed out 530 backpacks and we ran out and to see those 40 or 50 kids at the end of the line who didn’t get a backpack with tears in their eyes and you had to tell them, I’m sorry, we don’t have any more – painful. So I’m asking you guys if you can and you are willing to donate, please donate some backpacks or school supplies. They’re very well appreciated if you can. And if you have any questions, you can call 530-229-8767. And donations can be dropped off at the following locations. 2600 Park Marina Drive, 2460 Breslauer Way, 1220 Sacramento Street, 4216 Shasta Dam Boulevard in Shasta Lake, Golden Valley Bank at 250 Hemsted Drive #100, then any Tri-Counties Bank location in Shasta County. So please, if you have any donations you want to make, you have a few more days to do that. With that, Chair, that is my report.
Outgoing District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones
(10:45) Supervisor Patrick Jones, District 4: First I had a meeting at Community Advisory Board CSA 6. This is in Jones Valley. The CSA has had a variety of different issues over the last few years. First a couple of years ago their pumps, they get their water out of Shasta Lake. Those pumps had a, there was a slide and they lost those pumps. But they’ve continued to have a very high water loss. And it’s some of the most expensive water in Shasta County and with the high water loss, it’s compounded frustrations for the district. I’m happy to say today with the replacement of most of the meters in CSA 6, they’re now down to under a 10% water loss, which is probably the best of any of the CSAs in Shasta County. So that is the result of good, hard work from our public works department doing a lot of work in CSA 6, resolving that problem. This week also I’ll be going up to CSA 2 in Lakehead, CSA 23 in Castella. And they have some rate increased possibilities. So it’ll be a busy week for community advisory boards.
Met this week as well with Chair Crye and Joseph Larmour for about a half hour. So I appreciate your gentlemen’s time on that.
Yesterday we had an election commission meeting as well and Tom Toller gave a presentation and I had to leave a little early for that one for another meeting, but I appreciate the commission’s work and I appreciate Tom being able to show up.
And then lastly Chair Crye and myself met with also folks at Public Works. A couple things, one, the monument, the veterans monument at the library that was a function of the city. We finally have an estimate now for the granite plaque, that’s a 48 X 48 structure. The county will be handling that. To tell you the price difference when it was originally built, it was around $3000 dollars. Today to replace that part is about $10,000 but we finally have a bill for that or an estimate for that. So that will be, we’ll be moving forward on that and getting that monument fixed and back to its rightful place. In addition, we’ll be working now through the next several months on doing a tribute here at 1450 Court Street for our veterans. I’m not sure if everyone knows that we had a waterfall out front here. I didn’t know that. And so we’re going to be using that space to do a monument. And so we’re in the early discussions of what that’s going to look like and we’re gonna be formulating some fundraising opportunities to be able pay for that through private donations. And I appreciate Chairman Crye’s movement on that as well. And it should be a very nice tribute to KIA, that’s folks killed in action. And so their names are going to be placed on that monument and it may be granite. It may be brass. We’re looking at those details right now, but it’ll be a great tribute for those people that have given all here in Shasta County and with that, Chair, that ends my report.
District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom
(13:57) Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, District 5: All right. Last Wednesday I attended the Mosquito Serenade in Anderson and I will be there again tomorrow night also.
And then Thursday I got a call from one of the managers at Avelo or Trego to invite me to go down and work the Avelo flight on Friday morning. So I went ahead and reached out to Mark Mezzano, he’s the liaison for the City Council. I want to make sure that it was okay with him. And then I also went and met with Lauren, one of the assistant managers at the airport, to let her know that I would be there at the flight the next day and talked with her for quite a while. I wanted to let her know that I was there to help and not hinder and she ended up escorting me out on the tarmac the next morning.
So and after that I went and toured the US-Offsite plant on Airport Road. They’re going to move to Anderson and be hiring for about 200 jobs down there. So they make modular homes. They’re actually very neat. Everything from tiny homes to stackable homes that you can put five high in like an apartment building. Pretty, pretty great organization. Then Friday morning I did work the Avelo flight from start to finish and that was the day we had the cyber attack. So United canceled their flights. But Avelo was up and running. 139 passengers came into Redding that morning from Burbank and they were booked at 140 but by the end of the flight, they were at capacity of 150. Yesterday, I got a message from one of the managers that yesterday’s flight was overbooked. So there’s another 150 people flying out of here. It’s a shame that we’re gonna lose that airline. But we’ll do everything we can to hopefully bring them back.
And then Friday night I had the dinner at the Anderson VFW Hall and then Saturday morning I met with supervisor-elect Alan Long. We talked for about three hours and I’m looking forward to working with him and that concludes my report.
Shasta County District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert.
(15:57) Supervisor Mary Rickert, District 3: I had a teleconference meeting with County Council, Alan Cox on the Fountain Wind Project. We continue to work on that and he’s very pleased with the consultants that the county’s hired and they’re doing a great job and I want to thank Alan for his continued support. He went up to the site and was able to get out on the ground and see for himself the fire danger that exists up there and the absolute jeopardy that it puts the residents of that area in if there were a catastrophic fire.
I met with a group of constituents who are very concerned about the direction our county is headed. So that was a very good informational meeting.
I met with the Chemical People for about 2.5 hours and I thought I’d give an update on the work in the county. They recently held an every 15 minute event in Fall River Mills at the high school. It was a senior project and my husband and I donated towards the cost for the young lady to sponsor the program. I received some statistics on illegal grows in our county which has always been a high priority of mine. For any of you that have followed the last several years here in the board chambers, I’ve talked about illegal grows extensively. Some interesting statistics – In 2015, we had 7000 illegal grows in our county and as of in 2024 it’s projected at 2000 illegal grows in our county. So that was very rewarding to know that we are making progress. We had 90 operations last year of eradication. Some of the hot spots is Two Feathers, that’s where I went with the sheriff when they did an operation; Mill Creek which is in my district out of kind of up out of Oak Run; the Lack Creek area, they had the largest honey oil bust in the county’s history. It was in a shipping container and they had to declare the Hazmat site because of all the ether on the site. So these are things that are happening in our county that are polluting our environment and that’s really important that we stay on top of this.
Had a discussion with the city council member, Mark Mezzano about the Avelo issue at the airport. I did an interview with Mike Mangas about transmission corridor evaluation of the Humboldt wind energy area. And the purpose of this is to identify and potentially see that there’s a major environmental sighting and permitting constraints early in the transmission process. And what this has to do is they’re talking about doing offshore wind turbines in Humboldt County. But the lot of the projected transmission lines would come into Shasta County and not in just one or two spots. There’s several spots. And so this is what would really impact a lot of landowners in this county. So I’m going to keep an eye on that.
I attended a special meeting of Superior California Economic Development, the Board of Directors evaluation of our director, a compensation package. We discussed his performance. We got a very positive review of the executive director. It was kind of interesting. We have several, we have Trinity County, Siskiyou County and Modoc County. I always really enjoyed getting to know them and the city managers and they’re really good people and they’re very supportive of my role here in Shasta County.
I had two meetings at the same time. So after that meeting, I jumped off and ran into the commission on aging meeting because the person that I had appointed had to step down. So I’m working on a replacement for my appointee and I just want to say how much I appreciate the passion that these people have on that commission.
I’ve been having ongoing conversations with the sheriff and the DA on the Nikki McCain case.
I attended the Hat Creek Fire Department Deep Deep Pit barbecue. It was 102 degrees. And for those of us, from the intermountain area, that’s hard. That’s a big number. So a lot of people were not lasting there too long.
On Saturday night, the there was a 90th birthday and I heard that CEO Rickert, you had been there. I think I just missed you. But the 90th birthday party for Maurice Johansson, former supervisor, assemblyman, State Senator and the Secretary of California Department of Veterans Affairs. He was appointed by Democratic Governor Gray Davis. And while I was there, I talked to Congressman Doug LaMalfa at great length about the Fountain Wind project and asked for any kind of assistance that if he knew of anyone that was an expert or someone that had some connections in that particular field, whether we could tap into their knowledge and perhaps connections on that issue. He’s strongly opposed to that project. So I feel like we have a good advocate there.
I had a phone call with my planning commissioner Steve Kearns about the continued opposition to the Fountain Wind project. I appreciate Steve’s persistence and he’s really done a lot of work in the last few years on this particular subject. Last night I attended the CSA meeting in Palo Cedro, they did a rate study and the rate study was completed by by RCAC when I was a supervisor that at the time my district was Jones Valley. They worked in Jones Valley also. There’s 85 water users there and 250 wastewater users. And they haven’t had an increase in their pay rates in since 2021. They’re looking at different options so that they don’t have to continue dipping and dipping into their capital reserves. I want to thank all the Shasta County team members that were there, John Heath was there and others and I just appreciate so many people from the county showing up for that.
And then I want to remind everybody that tomorrow night is the last and only ag pass training for this year at Shasta College at 6 p.m. If you haven’t taken that training, if you have livestock or you’re a beekeeper you need to get this certification so if there is a serious fire and CalFire allows you to go across the fire lines to check your livestock or your, your egg products, whatever they are, that you are able to do that. So that’s tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at Shasta College at the Shasta Farm.
And then lastly, I would like to have an update if possible, CEO Rickert, on the investigation on the AG letter. I’ve had some concerns that hasn’t moved forward and we need an update and to know that that investigation is continuing.
(22:51) Counsel Larmour: I’ll take that. My office has been spearheaded to set that up. The investigation has started and there are only from my understanding two witnesses left. The investigator did – she was ill and, and that set her back a little bit. The expectation is that that should be done in the very near future. I would say less than two weeks.
Supervisor Rickert: I appreciate that. I think that our public is interested in the outcome of that investigation. And I think the sooner we wrap that up and have the findings presented to the public, I think that’s important. So, thank you so much.
District 1 Supervisor/Chair Kevin Crye
(23:37) Supervisor Kevin Crye, District 1: I’m having continued conversations about the low value assessment. I’m asking auditor-controller or assessor-recorder, Leslie Morgan present something briefly at our next meeting. I’ve spoken about that the last couple of weeks, I believe that isn’t going to be wrapped up. It will be a full presentation. But I, again, it’s something where we talk about what the board of supervisors has jurisdiction over in terms of property tax and where we can set that. This board has a jurisdiction to set that between $500 and $10,000 depending on the cost. That study hadn’t been redone since 1998. So I asked us to take a look at that and see our efficiencies because I’m sure we’re, I mean, I know we’re more efficient in some ways, but costs have risen. So again, last time, I speculated that the new low value assessment may be somewhere, you know, $2500 to $3500. And I would expect that to still probably be the number. But again, we’ll have a small presentation before that comes back for a full presentation.
Met with Tom Schreiber. There was, I did receive some emails. And I actually saw Mr. Schreiber at the coffee shop like way before eight o’clock in the morning going for a walk the day that it happened and he had been up, I think by that time, seven hours or so, it might have been his like third cup of coffee by then. I can assure a lot of you, people reached out and there were some people that spoke out in public comment about Crowdstrike and they did not like Crowdstrike and they wanted this board to vote against Crowdstrike. I’m not a technology expert, but we do have one sitting in that office and I can tell you, Mr. Schreiber is a veteran of this country. He’s been not just in the military but in this role for a lot of years, I have full confidence in his leadership through this. So again, for the people that have reached out and want us to relook at that, that is something that I’m always interested in hearing from the public. But I just want to give a very public message of support to Mr. Schreiber and his staff and how they’re leading it.
I’ve had quite a few conversations with individuals surrounding AB 1955 as that was recently signed. Again, this board has no jurisdiction, but what this board does have is a voice and I think that voice is important. I think it’s just absolutely horrific that the state is taking parental rights away from parents. And that is something I’ll be very active in as a private citizen, as well as a supervisor. Because anything I could do lend my voice to give the parents the right and the responsibility to have their voice heard in their children’s lives and education. I’m never going to shy away from that.
Did have that meeting with Supervisor Jones with the KIA monument or memorial that we’re going to have down there. We are looking to set actually that fundraising date first possible weekend after Labor Day. So that’s just tentative. We are looking to do it possibly at the Anderson VFW Hall. And there’s a lot of organizations that have reached out, VSO Tucker, Troy Bartolomei and their teams leading that. So we’ll keep everybody apprised of that. I mean, we’ve already raised a good chunk of that money and we haven’t even had the event yet. So, if you’re interested in being involved in that, please reach out to VSO Tucker or Supervisor Jones or myself.
I met with Sheriff Johnson and Melissa Fowler Bradley. If you don’t know who that is, she’s the CEO of the courthouse across the street, assigning the judges, the 13 judges. DA Bridgett was invited that invited to that meeting but did not attend. What we spoke about because there’s a lot of talk about the lack of judges and then there’s the conversation about people aren’t being arrested and then people aren’t being prosecuted or what’s going on. So I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in meetings trying to just get data and get to the bottom of what I feel it is. And so I will be bringing that back probably each meeting. I got a ream of paper about it, it was a lot, you can download a lot of this information online at the courthouse. But the problem is they don’t have an intuitive way to dissect the data. So I’ll be looking forward to having a conversation with DA Bridgett at some point about some of that. So I’ll bring that up to the next meeting as well. I mean, there’s criminal, civil, probate, juvenile, child custody, divorce, family law, I mean, there’s all different sects of law within that and there’s the 13 bench judges. So I want to be able to deliver to all of you, how that’s being broken up, where time is being spent, what’s being brought forth, what’s being pled down and just give you some raw data. So I’m working on that.
I’m continuing correspondence with chair Don Rowe of San Bernardino and Tim Murphy, who’s the CEO of the Building Industry Association. I have an RCRC meeting tomorrow. So I’m gonna be working with five counties as of right now, maybe a couple others to bring something similar to what we’re voting on today with the letter to the state about fire insurance. Again, I think we’ve all said this in various capacities in different instances that a lot of this stuff is round filed. But how can we put more pressure as a region on the governor’s office to actually do something substantial that delivers help to individuals. I mean, not just in Shasta County, I mean, of course, that’s what I care most about, Shasta County. But there’s a lot of people hurting with insurance and we have to get aggressive with our actions to try and force some movement. Some of you may have also listened to Doug LaMalfa’s town hall that he had last night, I thought it was a great format. You had the opportunity to ask questions. He tackled everything from fire, water, and then he spoke quite a bit as well on the secret service congressional thing yesterday. So it was good. I’m not sure if there’s a playback, but I would encourage you to try and listen back to it.
I met with Jake Duncan who’s a sergeant with the sheriff’s office. He’s also the chair of what is basically the Police Athletic League of Shasta County. And I’m not on that board but working with him about what would be some opportunities possibly to have some youth programs in conjunction with the county to reach Burney, Fall River, Cottonwood, Shingletown, Lakehead, and getting some of these programs that we have in centralized Redding but having some county influence to push out what many kids and young people aren’t exposed to in the unincorporated areas. Again, I’m District 1 but all of us represent the entire county. And the one thing about kids is they’re gonna keep making them. And I think the avenues to expose kids to more positive things the better. So I don’t think there’s any cross district kind of politics that would play into that. So I’m looking forward to working with Jake and his organization and I will end with because I know there was a lot of board members probably from the youth options that we’re gonna be listening in today. I was gonna make a statement on that. I’m gonna wait, I’m gonna wait, I’m gonna get a little bit, I wouldn’t say more information but I want to continue to I mean, one of the things as chair that I said was the most important thing to me was kids and youth programs and what’s really troubling is when you see politics go before people, but when those people are kids, it really, really fries me. So I’m gonna wait and I’m gonna speak on that next week and I’m gonna take a little bit of time before I publicly talk about some issues I have with Shasta Youth Options.
Health and Human Services Agency-Public Health
(31:07) R2 Receive a presentation from the Shasta County Health Officer regarding excessive heat conditions and cooling centers (Sponsored by Supervisor Rickert).
No General Fund Impact
No Vote
Cassidy Branch, Jonathan Chaco, and Cherie McKinsey of Public Health made the presentation.
(32:17) Jonathan Chaco: Our planning for extreme heat conditions starts at the beginning of the warm weather season and leading up to an extreme heat event. We monitor weather forecasts and alerts from the National Weather Service as well as planned power outages and increases in heat related illnesses. With this information, we refer to our Public Health Extreme Temperature Response Plan. We look for actions to take and in our plan, we have a set of criteria which determines when we start our response activities.
So here are the criteria. When any of these are met, this starts our response activities. First, a daytime heat index of over 110 degrees and a nighttime heat index of over 80 degrees for two consecutive days. Note that heat index is the combination of air temperature and humidity, and we use this measurement rather than air temperature alone. The next criteria we have here is increased reports of heat related illnesses, medical emergencies or mortality. Next we have a power outage with a heat index above 105 degrees. And finally, any situation where the health officer and/or the Public Health Branch Director determines that heat exposure puts lives in imminent danger. So once we have met any of these criteria, we begin our response activities such as public messaging on heat safety, promoting public air conditioned spaces, open cooling centers and other coordination activities for preventing and mitigating the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke to the public.
There was one commenter on R2.
(45:14) Jenny O’Connell: Good morning, beautiful board and especially Mary for bringing this to the board’s attention because it really is important. I’ve worked with firefighters. I’ve been a lifeguard for three years and seen like children suffer from heat exhaustion and usually children and elderly are the ones that get hit the hardest. I just like hearing what we’re doing because it makes me like, feel better about our county. So I just wanted to thank you. Thank you. Oh, and I agree because 105 is considered hazardous working conditions. So we should probably lower that degree a little bit.
Board Matters
(46:01) R3 Adopt a proclamation which designates July 21-27, 2024, as “Probation Services Week” in Shasta County (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Presentations
(46:32) Chief Probation Officer Tracy Neal: This is an important week for our staff in our department. It’s a time to show our appreciation, our gratitude and honor the work that we do. It’s a time for us to reflect on our accomplishments and be proud of our commitment to safer communities better lives. Probation plays an essential role in the criminal justice system and in public safety. The work we do is important, challenging and multidimensional. We provide an array of services from prevention to diversionary services, accountability through community supervision, rehabilitative in treatment services support in changing criminal thinking, objectively assessing the law and writing reports for the court, restoring victims in preventing future victimization, providing evidence-based informed assessments in in strategies. We also provide reentry services, excuse me in secure and effective detention services. Probation, staff work hard each day and do a remarkable job and are an important part of public safety. They are dedicated and committed to our community, public safety and making a difference in the lives of the population we serve.
(48:19) Supervisor Crye: Whereas the week of July 21 to 27, 2024 is nationally recognized as Probation Services week, and whereas probation officers and juvenile detention officers are an essential component of the criminal justice system, working alongside other law enforcement agencies and working in partnership with county and public agencies and community-based organizations to provide effective community corrections. And whereas probation officers and juvenile detention officers are dedicated hard working professional people who are truly concerned about providing public safety through offender accountability, promoting offender rehabilitation and preventing crime. And whereas probation officers are sworn peace officers and juvenile detention officers are sworn peace officers while on duty and both are trained experts prepared to manage trauma and criminogenic needs and are a connector in the justice system, bridging the gap and maximizing the resources available within the courts, local government law enforcement, social services, behavioral health, schools, victim organizations, nonprofits and the community to reduce recidivism by carefully balancing direct services and evidence-based programs and intervention. And whereas probation officers and juvenile detention officers provide services, support and protection for victims of crime. And whereas probation makes efforts to balance the need for accountability with individualized rehabilitative treatment and services, providing individuals with support and opportunities to successfully re-enter and become productive members of the community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Shasta County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaims July 21 through 27, 2024 as Probation Services Services Week in Shasta County, highlighting probation’s immense contributions to our communities and state and state.
There were no public commenters. The resolution was passed 5-0.
(52:33) R4 Receive a presentation from the Local Child Care Planning Council regarding their mission and objectives (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No General Fund Impact
No Vote
Jennifer Snyder, outgoing coordinator for Local Child Care Planning Council, made the presentation.
(53:44) Jennifer Snyder: We’ve been around for about 30 years as a result of some legislation that was passed in 1997 establishing LPCs in every county in the state of California. So there’s 58 and our business basically is to understand the needs and plan for the childcare needs of families. By working with other members on our council and people in the community, we exist to ensure that there is a strong system of childcare that supports families and supports their children’s growth and development, that that system is in place for residents of Shasta County.
Snyder discussed the importance of childcare to the entire community and the shortage of staff for existing facilities.
There was one public commenter.
(1:10:43) Monique Welin: I loved hearing this woman talk extreme intelligence when she made the statement iceberg complexity of the issue that made my brain fire off. Now, mind me, please understand. I think differently than other people. The word care means the meaning of the word care, the provision of what is necessary for the health and welfare maintenance and protection of someone or something. The second noun, serious attention to consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or damage or risk to the individual. So as this incredible woman came up here and spoke about child care, please forgive me, but it made me think of assembly bill 1955. There are two totally different things, what she spoke about and what I’m thinking. But let me make the connection. What she stated that it’s that this is a collective and collaborative effort on everybody’s part to help every child because the child care is everyone’s business. Remember the meaning of care means serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk. Assembly bill 1955 does nothing but teach people to lie to one another and not confront issues. I’m telling you this is going to harm our county. She stated there’s about 18,000 children between the ages of five and 13. Those are your most vulnerable children that need a parent’s guidance. And if an educator lies to a parent and doesn’t openly help the parent understand that child, we’ve got issues.
Support Services
(1:13:01) R5 Receive a presentation from the Director of Support Services regarding a Request for Proposals for tourism marketing and branding for Shasta County and consider providing direction to staff (Sponsored by Supervisor Garman).
General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Director of Support Services Monica Fugitt made the presentation. She outlined the procedure and timeline normally associated with a Request for Proposals (RFP). There was board discussion about promoting tourism and budgeting for that as well as sources of income such as the Transient Occupancy Tax.
(1:35:52) There were two public commenters.
(1:37:01) Christian Gardinier [After argument with Supervisor Crye about starting the three minute clock over and yelling from the floor]: So let’s cut to the chase. It’s called a transient tax, not a tourist tax. Number two, it pays for a lot of things. Our infrastructure that is used on a temporary basis, our safety, our first responders, et cetera, et cetera. What I’m concerned about Mr. Crye, is you channeling a million dollars to a good buddy, an ex campaign, friend of yours who we need to really be careful about this because the impropriety is he is there. There is a a cloud of corruption that is floating over Mr. Jones, Mr. Crye, and Mr. Kelstrom. This county needs to be acutely aware of where the money is going because the money is tight. You’re cutting budgets left and right. We need to be very, very aware that the chamber of commerce has done this for years upon years upon years. You want to reinvent the wheel. Don’t do it for your buddy. Please make this a completely transparent so that all perimeters and all boundaries, all information is available to the public because I don’t trust you one bit. Not, not even, not even close. However, we live in a beautiful place. God gave us a wonderful environment. It should be shared. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Utilize the wheels that are there in every community in this county. And let’s let that happen before we create another government program for people at the trough.
(1:38:59) Delores Lucero: You never fail, Crye, always dictating. I don’t care what you do. Roll your eyes all year. You’re a dictator. You know, you talk about how you wanna bring tours. How can they want, why would they wanna come here to see you being a dictator? How many times are you gonna keep on scaring people away? See the audience. How many people are still left? You want, the person should be involved in the Chamber of Commerce, not you three. The chamber of commerce should be the one you talk about work money to spending and everything. But actually it’s you guys who are spending the money like it’s coming out of your pocket. It’s unbelievable. You don’t have any morals, any ethics for you to bring tours here. You don’t have what it takes to attract people to come here. The county is so corrupt. You are the worst freaking dictator.
(1:42:10) An amendment was made to R5 to add Auditor-Controller Nolda Short to the committee.
R5 was passed on a unanimous vote.
Board of Supervisors
(1:46:48) R6 Take the following actions in support of strengthening and stabilizing California’s insurance market: (1) Approve a letter to Governor Newsom requesting action; and (2) adopt a resolution which requests the declaration of a state of emergency and immediate action (Sponsored by Supervisor Garman).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
There were three public commenters.
(1:47:50) Jenny O’Connell: Hello again, beautiful supervisors. Thank you, Tim for continuing the good fight for us. As someone who has worked on helping people rebuild after both the Carr Fire and the Camp Fire, I can without a doubt say one of the biggest problems facing our local population is being underinsured or without insurance with no way of knowing how to get reasonable insurance and keep it. I realize that we’ve brought the insurance commissioner to Shasta County to speak. We’ve asked our questions, however, it is apparent we still need to stay on task. California would prefer to forget about our small county and ensuring that you keep on top of it and continue to ask until something is done. It pleases me greatly. So, thank you for bringing this forward. And may there be good fruit from this.
(1:48:44) Christian Gardinier: I think it’s important that this board understands that Governor Newsom has signed off on an executive order to do just what you’re talking about, stabilize and subsidize California marketplace for homeowners and commercial property insurance. And gee whiz, I know that sounds a little like socialism, but I’m ok with that. In fact, Governor Newsom, the guy that Mr. Crye loves to call Spawn of Satan, has issued not one executive order but two. And in fact last month California Insurance Commissioner Lara put in place requirements that ensure that the catastrophic modeling used must write more policies in distressed areas like ours. So, yeah, if we go ahead and and ask for an emergency declaration more money from the state will be available. I want to cut to the chase here. The board also needs to recognize, and I’m gonna say it this way, the JCK Cartel needs to understand the climate crisis is real. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a hoax, this is not one of the flat earth society, you know, manifestations, this is real. It’s impacting not only Shasta County but every county in California. In fact, we could see the whole United States asking for handouts and money is important. That’s part in part what the state is there for. I get that, but you must start by demonstrating an understanding of the problem and how we got here.
(1:53:38) Heather Ball: I’m not sure if the board has sent any letters asking the governor of the state to change his budget, to provide for more firefighters in our area, more firefighter training and to help our infrastructure that way rather than dealing with the green earth stuff, which in my opinion is actually caused by the fact that we have wind things that raise the earth’s temperature by five degrees. It’s a proven statistics that you can find out there. So, I think that’s part of it and as a person who has had to deal with some of these um government funded things, I’ve had to make a claim through. I think it’s called California Fair Plan because I could not get anything. And it sounds all great to want to have the government take care of you, but they don’t do a good job of it because it’s not really their money. They, they just don’t, I, I wish it was, was true. You know, you do the best you can but when it’s not your property you never take as good care of it usually. And since it’s really, they don’t own it, they don’t, they don’t care as much about what goes into it. And it is quite a red tape nightmare to have to deal with a claim for something through the government thing. So I’d rather see a letter that states that we would rather change where our money goes to prevention more so than now.
R6 passed on unanimous vote.
(1:57:25) PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD – OPEN TIME
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 or on any agenda item listed on the Consent Calendar. Each speaker is allocated three minutes to speak. Those wishing to participate in Public Comment – Open Time must submit a speaker request card to the Clerk of the Board before the meeting begins. All speaker request cards submitted after the meeting begins, and any public comment not heard by the 12:00 p.m. recess, will be heard once all Regular Calendar items on the agenda have been considered by the Board, and before the Board’s consideration of the Consent Calendar.
There were fifteen public commenters.
(1:58:00) Steve Woodrum: The current board majority has done it again. Avelo will soon stop flying from Redding to Los Angeles. Supervisors accused the airport of mismanagement. Someone must have dropped the ball. The board then offered Avelo up to $100,000 to continue service. So far there hasn’t been any response and that usually means the answer is no, which would be good news for the taxpayers. Witnesses at the Redding City Council and the City operates the airport then testified that those flights have been about half empty and the airline is pulling unprofitable flights from cities across the United States, not just Redding. Couldn’t supervisors have done some research before saying other people messed up, before risking $100,000 of our money? This board majority has damaged the county. Many expensive election fiascos. A sweetheart of a deal for casinos and privileged employees. The bait and switch over the Zogg Fire and the resulting corruption of the March election, laughing after hounding our most respected elected official into early retirement. People will look back at this majority with this with disbelief.
(2:07:29) Ray: I live in Lakehead and I lost everything three years ago in the Salt Fire. I have since rebuilt in my home and I’ve been buying all the things you normally need in a rural community, but I’ve been broken into or burglarized twice in the last 30 days. The Sheriff’s Department in the last two years, it has had a 30% increase in their budget. But despite that, when I called them to file a complaint and I sent them pictures and all the information requested, I never even got a response. I sent multiple emails. Never response. I can understand why burglary is such an epidemic in Shasta County. I get no reaction from the sheriff’s department. The guy I suspected was my neighbor who’s living on his father’s land. His father decided not to rebuild. He’s got a trailer there. The trailers, temporary trailers were permitted for only two years. That permit is already expired. I went to Shasta County Building Department. They also have had an increase in the number of their staff and I said this is now a code violation. I’m trying to get rid of this guy. They told me it takes 2 to 3 years for them to enforce a code violation. 2 to 3 years. It’s insanity. It’s a threat to our community because any code violation for anything else. 2 to 3 years, I’m tired and I’m frustrated and now I’m coming to the County Board of Supervisors. My question to you is what are you gonna do to protect the law abiding citizens who voted to give you your jobs? It’s my question. Do you have any answers?
(2:09:22) Supervisor Jones: Thank you. And feel free to email me when whenever you have a code enforcement problem. If you can email me, it’s on the county’s website. I will address it very well.
Ray: I’m telling you right now, they’re saying 2 to 3 years for code violations.
Supervisor Jones: Well, if you email me, I can guarantee it will move a little faster than that. So take my email down and just email me a brief description and we will move forward. Now, it has been an ongoing issue to try to get a deputy up there. It has not been easy and it’s been and trust me, we’ve been trying to do that for at least eight years to try to –
Ray: But, you know, they, they’ve had a 30% increase in their budget to me. That’s a sorry excuse. I mean, they got the money and that’s all I’ll say. One last thing, my homeowners insurance before the Salt Fire was $1800 3 years ago. I just got my new bill, $4900 and the insurance company has raised my premium just in one year73%. So for all the people worried about this is, it is a problem.
(2:13:00) Laurie Bridgford: Since July 13, our nation, state and Shasta County have been impacted by nefarious disruptors who try to halt a fair, honest and transparent election. That’s generic. If we even get an election in November. So if the nefarious deep state can’t cheat their way to select a candidate then neutralizing or an assassination attempt might be the green light that we might be seeing. I don’t know, there’s more information coming out. We’re always talking about cover ups, fraud and corruption. The followers of division and disruptions are well known agitators. Some will reframe what an agitator is as being an activist or they’ve got great passion. That’s not exactly accurate because some people will put on a good act. Well say what unity will we have with people who only hate or try to silence or cyberbully or destroy people’s property or scare them at their jobs and all the rest. My point is to pay great attention to anybody that’s gonna be an appointee. Look at their allies, their pals, their buddies, their friends, look at their social media. How do they really come across? That’s my biggest point. No matter if this is on whatever’s on the rest of the calendar or not, the antagonistic people, I’ve got 30 seconds. So Mr. Garman, please be careful of anyone that you might want to appoint in the future, really pay attention. And there’s the goals and purposes of the election commission commission on the back table and they are I’m concerned when people run around with micro cameras, micro audio and a candidate has a partner that’s been going to be taking a job.
(2:19:17) Bev Gray: First of all, could someone please change the ad for the candidate filing and remove Cathy’s name from it. She is no longer the ROV and it should have Tom Toller’s name up there. Just do a search and replace and you have it taken care of wherever. There are many things that are happening that people are saying never seen that happen before. It is time to open your eyes and ask yourself why I believe this will be the first time that Democrats do not get to vote for who they want to have run for president. Ok. It is time to really think about. Is there any possibility that some of the things you have been hearing is not conspiracy theory? But maybe you should check it out and see for yourself. Ask yourself if the television station, the radio station, the newspapers are all all owned by the same people. Is there a possibility? They are only telling you what they want you to hear. If you’ve not heard any lies from the media yet, then my heart really aches for you. Thank you. Wake up.
(2:20:42) Benjamin Nowain: I’d like to speak today as a private citizen. I’d like to address item C1 on the consent calendar concerning the Shasta County Grand Jury report titled To Recuse or Not to Recuse. Now, frankly, this report has exposed a troubling issue with how this board conducts itself in response to calls for greater transparency. While the grand jury found no violations or laws or regulations by the supervisors, they did highlight a need for improved transparency. They recommended that we adopt a procedure to explain before any recusals, the applicable government codes and rules to the public. This is a basic step towards ensuring that the community understands our decisions and sees that we have nothing to hide yet. It appears as if the majority on this board has chosen to reject this recommendation outright. It’s alarming that Supervisor Patrick Jones uses the grand jury’s findings to absolve himself when it suits him but then dismisses any constructive criticism or suggestions for improvement. This is not only hypocritical but it is also an insult to the integrity of the grand jury process and the volunteers who dedicate their time to ensure accountability in our governance.
Supervisor Jones has previously dismissed the grand jury claiming they have quote no teeth. The attitude is not only disrespectful but dangerous. It suggests that he and others believe that they are above scrutiny and do not need to adhere to the standards of transparency and accountability that the public expects and deserves the grand jury’s recommendation for more transparency. It’s not just a suggestion, it’s a necessary measure to restore public trust by refusing to implement it. We are effectively telling the public that we do not value their right to understand your actions. This is unacceptable. My ask is to stop using the grand jury only when it’s convenient if we are to claim that their findings vindicate us, we must also take the recommendations for improvement seriously. It’s time for us to prove that we are committed to transparency and accountability, not just when it suits us but consistently, Patrick Jones and others who lead this charge against the grand jury’s recommendations are setting a dangerous precedent. We must reject this approach and instead embrace the calls for greater transparency. This is not just about following the law, it’s about doing what’s right for the people.
REGULAR CALENDAR, CONTINUED
Clerk of the Board
(2:45:06) R7
Cont.
Appoint Benjamin Nowain as the District 2 representative to the Shasta County Elections Commission to serve the remainder of a term to January 6, 2025.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
(2:45:15) Chief Deputy Clerk of the Board Stefany Blankenship: Supervisor Garman had requested staff agendize the appointment of Mr. Benjamin Nowain as a District 2 representative to the elections commission. Mr. Nowain would fill the remainder of a term to January of 2025 as required via ordinance 20 23-07 and the commission bylaws, Mr. Nowain fulfills the requirement as a registered voter of Shasta County and that concludes my very short presentation and I’m available for questions.
Supervisor Garman made a motion to approve R7 and Supervisor Rickert seconded it.
(2:45:53) Supervisor Crye: And at time, I need to let the board know that I’ll be recusing myself from this vote.
Supervisor Rickert: What, why?
Supervisor Crye: You’d have to ask the applicant. I can’t disclose that.
Supervisor Garman: County Counsel, can you weigh in on this? [Supervisor Crye interrupts.]
Supervisor Crye: Are there any – one question, do we have any speakers for R7, Stefany?
(2:45:54) Supervisor Rickert: Counsel Larmour, you started to say something. Would you like to finish, begin and finish.
County Counsel Larmour: Counsel would have no opinion on whether a recusal is appropriate and in general, it’s up to the board member. So as far as whether a recusal is appropriate or not, number one, I wouldn’t question the reasoning. And number two, I wouldn’t render an opinion on that.
Supervisor Garman: Out of transparency, wouldn’t it be nice to have a reason for the board? I would like to to know why.
Supervisor Rickert: I’d like to know why.
Supervisor Crye: I just, I’ll tell you what we can do. If you go back to the last three minutes of my board report at our last board meeting. I made a statement that applies to many things that I would encourage anybody to go back and watch. So I’m recusing myself.
There were nine public commenters.
(2:48:05) Steve Kohn: Benjamin Nowain as election commission on the election commission. I think it’s an excellent idea. He’s, I found him to be very intelligent and well spoken and honest. I can’t think of a better person to be on the election commission and with his recusal, it kind of changes up my statements, but I think it’s gonna end up being the same way and that is that it’s become apparent lately that the three that are the majority, Crye, Jones and Kelstrom have been hand picking who they want for different areas and disapproving people that have either been critical of them or disagree in any way. I don’t think today will be any different.
(2:49:24) Bruce Russell: I just want to state that I oppose the appointment of Benjamin Nowain to the elections commission. He is clearly opposed to the commission and its goals. He wants the commission shut down. It is not a normal business practice to hire someone who wants to eliminate the job. He is being hired for. We need people on the commission that want to make our elections more transparent and secure. You have to be really brainwashed if you don’t believe we have serious integrity problems with our elections in this country. Many citizens are extremely worried about the security of the November elections. Just look at the Crowdstrike massive disruption of computer systems last week and its impact on early voting systems in Arizona, Elon Musk, a technology wizard agrees and that we need to get rid of all electronic voting equipment and go to one day of voting with hand counted paper ballots. So again, we need people on the elections commission that want to improve the election system in Shasta County and not appoint people who want to leave the status quo in place.
(2:50:32) Supervisor Rickert: Getting back to the recusal. There was an incident in the last month or two and you know, I had a constituent bring this up to me where Supervisor Kelstrom made some negative comments about the potential nominee. And I wonder if that’s a basis for perhaps recusal because it indicates bias. So, I mean, how does that work again?
Counsel Larmour: So again, County Counsel wouldn’t render an opinion on whether a supervisor should recuse. If they were to ask for general information, we would provide that. But ultimately, the recusal is their own choice and if they wanted, if they had questions and wanted protection, they would have to seek that information from the FPPC.
Supervisor Rickert: OK. I just feel like it’s kind of an uncomfortable situation to be voting on something when you’ve made very negative comments in the past.
Supervisor Garman: Yeah, I just think, Counsel, it does kind of become the county’s business because when somebody threatens violence to somebody, they vote to not appoint them or appoint them, it could lead to a lawsuit against the county. I think Mr. Kelstrom should recuse.
Counsel Larmour: Again, recusal would be his choice and the implications would be those of his alone. And I don’t have the authority to recommend a recusal.
Supervisor Crye: If I can supervisors, if I could as chairing the meeting, I would like to try and get through public comment. As many people have come here. I’d like to try and get it in before lunch. So if we can, I’d like to hear from all the public.
Benjamin Nowain
(2:54:00) Benjamin Nowain: So I have to, I’ll recalibrate a little bit. Kevin, your recusal does add an interesting fold to this. I’m just gonna read my speech and you guys can, you guys can see what I have to say. I stand before you today as a private citizen, not only to advocate for myself, but also to represent the voices of our community in seeking an appointment of the elections commission. Our entire community deserves to be heard and to have their concerns addressed fairly and transparently. It is essential that we work together, setting aside personal biases for the greater good of our electoral process. And I’ll admit that is difficult for me. I’ve been outspoken and I will continue to be because I believe in transparency and accountability. I believe that they are the cornerstones of a healthy democracy. And Kevin, you stood here and espoused those very same values when you announced your run for supervisor.
I stand here to pledge transparency and accountability for our elections, something that I wholeheartedly believe in. We need to ensure our elections are conducted with the highest integrity. Installing individuals who are ideologically opposed to the very foundation that our elections were fair undermines the public trust. It creates the very trust on the opposite side of the aisle. We must bridge this divide and restore faith in our democratic process. Government should not just be about one ideological side winning and excluding the rest. Effective leadership must encompass and respect the diverse views of our community. We need to move beyond the notion that winning by a small margin entitles one side to 100% control, alienating nearly half the population. Instead, we should strive for a balanced approach that includes all voices. Our discussions may be passionate and sometimes contentious, but I endeavor to engage respectfully and constructively.
The frustration of feeling that you’re unrepresented has driven some to harsh rhetoric. But this only underscores the need for inclusive representation. Let’s take inspiration from history. Abraham Lincoln’s team of rivals brought together diverse perspectives to achieve great things. We too can come together leveraging our differences to build a stronger, more united community. Board, I ask for your support in appointing me to the elections commission so we can work together to ensure that every voice is heard and respected in our electoral process.
(2:58:47) CLOSED SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT
The Board of Supervisors will recess to a Closed Session to discuss the following item
(estimated 15 minutes):
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION
(Government Code section 54956.9(d)(1))
Name of Case:
Derrick C. Wilson v. Thomas Dodson et al. Case No. 24CV204346
At the conclusion of the Closed Session, reportable action, if any, will be reported in Open Session.
(2:59:21) REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS
Board returned from closed session. There was no reportable action.
(2:59:56) Supervisors Crye and Kelstrom recused themselves and left the board chambers. Public comment continued.
(3:06:43) Jim: First of all, I just wonder if by Benjamin being a county employee, is there any conflict of interest thing going on? It’s a rhetorical question. It’s not a criticism, but I’m just curious about it and I couldn’t support him if his intention was to abolish that board, which I know a lot of people have said that it’s a waste of time. So I wouldn’t want anybody on there that doesn’t really want to have that board succeed. Whether or not I agree with him politically is beside the point for this matter. So that’s my two cents.
(3:09:12) Supervisor Jones [who had the gavel at this point]: We have a motion. There’s been a motion and it’s been seconded. We’ll bring it back for further discussion.
(3:09:16) Supervisor Garman: I have a question for counsel real quick. Is this an item that will take a two, just two out of three votes or do we have to have three votes for this?
Counsel Larmour: You need a majority of the board. So you would need three votes. It would need to be unanimous at this point.
Supervisor Garman: Ok. That’s what I thought. I think you, the audience just may be misled a little bit with that earlier. Supervisor Jones, I would encourage you to vote yes on this. I don’t agree with Benjamin’s political views on most of them, but Benjamin is honest, he’s not gonna lie. His background is what he does is going to fit this position. Well, he’s, he’s, he’s actually a very good person for this board. What are we scared of? Why are we scared to work with the other side? I’ve been preaching this for a long time. We have to work together. This is an opportunity for you to sit down Benjamin and work with Patty Plumb, two opposite sides, right? Why can’t we work together? What are we so scared of? So, anyway, that’s what I’ve got to say of the item.
Supervisor Rickert: Well, I just think we ought to take the vote. I mean I feel that Benjamin’s extremely bright and he’s very knowledgeable about what’s been going on and I think he would make an excellent commissioner. So that’s my opinion.
(3:10:39) Supervisor Jones: So I’ll weigh in now. This will be an absolute hard no, that’s very clear. Hard. No. If you’re going to be and I, and I think this is a poor reflection on Supervisor Garman in that if you’re going to make a selection, you’re going to have to support the commission. We don’t pick Shasta County planning commissioners that don’t think the planning commission should even exist. We don’t do that and we’re not going to do it this time.
Supervisor Garman: So I’ll call –
Supervisor Jones [Talking over Garman]: No, you may not. So we’re going to call for a roll call vote. Stephanie, can we start with supervisor –
Supervisor Garman: I would like to speak, please.
Supervisor Jones: All right, Supervisor Garman.
Supervisor Garman: Thank you. It’s obvious you all will never allow me to pick my appointee for this commission. You guys want to pick this for me. That’s not how the spirit of appointees work. You guys want to pick this for me. That’s not how the spirit of appointees work. We appoint people to different commissions in the county. This is disgusting, disgraceful and it’s a shame in the county that you guys will not allow me to pick my appointee. I supported your appointee nd I do not agree with him any less than you don’t agree with Mr. Nowain, but it was your appointee, sir. Just like it was with Supervisor Crye’s. You guys both. Yep, we’ll vote for your person. Well, obviously you guys don’t have any interest in that. You guys want to run this as a dictatorship and you should be flat out ashamed.
Supervisor Rickert: Yes. I have to kind of echo the comments by Supervisor Garman. We represent everyone in Shasta County. Everyone’s political views are important. And I think by having a diverse commission only makes it representative of the people of Shasta County. In my district alone, about half of my constituents, a little over half are registered Republicans, bout a third or so are registered Democrats and about another third are NPP. Everyone is entitled to a voice. That’s what makes America great. And I think that this is another example of one personal political agenda being foisted on the rest of the citizens of Shasta County and it has to stop. It absolutely has to stop.
Supervisor Jones: Thank you Supervisor. So again, I can’t be more clear. This has nothing to do with the political affiliations. This has everything to do with [At this point there was a lot of yelling from the audience.]
Christian Gardinier: Hail dictator, hail dictator.
Supervisor Jones: I’m gonna ask you to leave. I’m gonna ask you to leave the room. So you, we were established a warning. All right. So you’ve been warned just so, you know, now we were respectful when you all spoke, right? We didn’t interrupt you. Now, it’s our turn and it’s my turn. And so again, never have I ever seen anywhere, and this is coming up to my 12th year as an elected official, both from the city and the county that someone wanted to be on a committee or commission that didn’t have a thorough interest in making it better. Never quiet. Please quiet, quiet. [Continued yelling.] You guys are just, this is, this is your second warning.
Christian Gardinier: Hail dictator.
Supervisor Jones: Sit down. Please sit down.
Voice off camera, possibly CEO Rickert or Counsel Larmour: We may have to clear the room, Mr. Chairman. We should clear the room.
Supervisor Jones: All right. So we’re now going to clear the room, the media, media can stay. We’re going to take about a 15 minute recess.
The events that occurred during the recess are detailed in Doni Chamberlain’s article.
(3:14:12) Supervisor Jones: All right, we’re returning from recess and apologize for the long delay there. We’re back on R7 and Stephanie could we have a roll call vote, please. Starting
R7 failed on a 2-1 vote with Supervisors Garman and Rickert voting yes and Supervisor Jones voting no.
Supervisor Garman: I’m sorry, we gave it a whirl. These guys are so scared of you. Take it as a badge of honor and at this time I just applaud you for your efforts and I’m sorry for what happened to your wife. That was inexcusable. It did not need to happen. I’m not even sure how Jones ended up chair for this item. All this seems to be a little bit not quite right.
[Continued yelling from audience.]
(3:15:19) Supervisor Crye returns and shortly thereafter Supervisor Kelstrom.
SCHEDULED HEARINGS
A court challenge to action taken by the Board of Supervisors on any project or decision may be limited to only those issues raised during the public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the Board of Supervisors during, or prior to, the scheduled public hearing.
Public Works
(3:15:39) R8 Conduct a public hearing on behalf of County Service Areas (CSAs) and adopt resolutions which confirm the: (1) Reports of Delinquent Fees and directs that the annual liens be placed on the tax bills for Fiscal Year 2024-25; (2) Reports of Uncollectible Debts and approves a discharge of accountability for collection of unpaid water and sewer service accounts that have been deemed uncollectible; and (3) Annual Parcel Charge Reports for the various CSAs and directs that the parcel charges be placed on the property tax bills for Fiscal Year 2024-25.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Public Works Principal Engineer Shawn Ankeny made the presentation.
R8 was approved by a 5-0 vote.
(3:18:56) R9 Take the following actions on behalf of the Shasta County Permanent Road Division (PRD): (1) Conduct a public hearing; and (2) adopt a resolution which confirms the Annual Parcel Charge Reports for the various PRD Zones and directs that the parcel charges be placed on the property tax bills for Fiscal Year 2024-25.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Public Works Principal Engineer Shawn Ankeny made the presentation.
R9 was approved by a 5-0 vote.
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD – OPEN TIME, CONTINUED
(36:21:08) 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 will be provided with a single opportunity to comment on one or more items on the Consent Calendar, during Public Comment – Open Time, before the Board’s consideration of the Consent Calendar.
(3:21:26) Supervisor Garman pulled C1.
As the board discussed the consent calendar, Counsel Larmour spoke up.
(3:23:19) Counsel Larmour: Because we combine the the public comment with the consent calendar, public comment needs to pursue and before the presentation of one that you pull.
There were two public commenters.
(3:24:04) Robert Gibbs: My name is Robert Gibbs. I am the publisher of Shasta County wars.com. I’m also a candidate for supervisor of Shasta County District 1. I am here to address the ongoing corruption in the county of which I’ve spoken here several times about. There seems to be some idea that just because something is legal does not make it corrupt. That is not true. A lot of what passes as legal by this board and by certain entities in this county are legal to the extent that they’re not breaking actual laws, but they’re illegal that that they’re violating people’s civil rights. They’re violating the Brown Act. They’re violating a lot of lesser known ancillary laws that go to such things as using your office to enrich yourself and your cronies and using your office to discriminate against people in the public or people whose political views you don’t agree with. And that’s something that needs to be addressed. It’s something that I’ve talked about several times and it’s been completely ignored. Right now there is a email that I sent to the entire board that Mr. Crye asked me to send as an email. I sent it to the entire board. I have not heard from the board. This is the third or fourth letter I’ve sent to the board that I’ve not had any response on. I think at bare minimum, the board could respond to it and say we’ve received your letter and we’re looking into your complaint or whatever. My opinion is that the reason that they don’t do this is because they don’t want to look at certain things. If that’s not the case, someone in here earlier was speaking about the perception of impropriety. OK, I’ve had numerous discussions with some of you privately about things and I know that on one level you see yourselves as honorable people trying to do honorable things, but then I hear things that don’t make sense, that don’t jibe with that. It is essential that you appear to not have impropriety. If people can’t trust you, you might as well be as crooked as the day is long. You really need to address that. You really need to consider that, consider that anytime you enrich yourself or someone that, you know, or give a board position to somebody or do anything like that, you should absolutely pick somebody that’s as far away from you as possible. You should be doing everything you can to avoid any perception of impropriety and that will help with the people in the community.
(3:28:35) Consent calendar continued with Troy Bartolomei clarifying the language in C9.
The consent calendar was approved 5-0 with C1 held for discussion.
County Administrative Office
C1 Approve the proposed responses to the Shasta County Grand Jury Fiscal Year 2023-24 Report entitled “To Recuse or Not to Recuse? That is the Question.”
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Board of Supervisors
C2 Accept an ongoing donation of funds in the amount of $500 per pay period from Supervisor Rickert to be used exclusively for the Annual County Employee Appreciation Event (Sponsored by Supervisor Rickert).
General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Clerk of the Board
C3 Approve the minutes of the meetings held on June 18, and 25, 2024, as
submitted.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
County Clerk-Elections
C4 Adopt a resolution which consolidates the November 5, 2024, General Election and allows the County to charge the incorporated cities and districts for actual costs on a pro-rata basis.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Health and Human Services Agency-Behavioral Health and Social Services
C5 Approve a retroactive amendment to the agreement with Willow Glen Care Center for residential mental health treatment services which increases rates.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C6 Approve a retroactive renewal agreement with Kindred Hearts, Inc., for postadoptive services.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Health and Human Services Agency-Public Health
C7 Approve an agreement with Shasta County Office of Education (SCOE) for youth cannabis prevention education services and designate authority to the County Executive Officer, or their designee, to sign amendments, including retroactive, which does not increase maximum compensation more than ten percent over the entire term.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Information Technology
C8 Approve an agreement with OutSystems for subscription licenses, and designate authority to the Chief Information Officer to subscribe to the software service through OutSystems directly in an amount not to exceed $65,648.89 and purchase additional licenses and subscription renewals so long as the total annual increase does not exceed $10,000.00.
General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Public Works
C9 Approve an amendment to the agreement with GHD Inc. for construction management, inspection, and material testing services for the “Cove Road Storm Damage Slide Repair Project,” Contract No. 706765, which amends the responsibilities of the Consultant and increases maximum compensation.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C10 Receive a petition from property owners of the Oak Tree Lane Permanent Road Division Zone (PRD Zone) and adopt a resolution which dissolves the PRD Zone.
No General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
Sheriff-Jail
C11 Take the following actions: (1) Accept a donation in the amount of $18,000 from Sierra Pacific Foundation; (2) approve a budget amendment transferring appropriations in the amount of $297,000 from Services and Supplies to Capital Asset and increasing revenue by $35,000 in the Sheriff’s Budget (BU 235); and (3) designate signing authority to the County Executive Officer to purchase an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) robot from ICOR Technology through GSA
Contract GS-07F-0430V.
No Additional General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
Support Services
C12 Adopt a resolution which approves a successor Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Teamsters Local #137 Supervisory Unit (SUPV) and the County of Shasta, covering the period July 1, 2024, through December 31, 2025, and adopt a salary resolution effective July 28, 2024, which amends the Salary Schedule for positions in County Service pursuant to the SUPV MOU.
General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C13 Adopt a resolution which appoints Laura Burch as the Acting Director of Mental Health Services effective August 3, 2024, lasting twelve months or until such time as a qualified individual has been appointed by the Board to fill the position, whichever occurs first.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C14 Approve a retroactive renewal agreement with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore for training and consulting services.
No Additional General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
(3:31:57) Deputy County Executive Officer Erin Bertain made the presentation.
Erin Bertain: The grand jury received two claims of wrongdoing by Supervisor Jones. The first claim alleged that Supervisor Jones didn’t appropriately recuse on October 24 during the public hearing regarding his own amendment that would allow him to build an outdoor gun range and gun club. The grand jury found this allegation to be unfounded as Supervisor Jones did leave board chambers as required prior to the board discussion regarding this item. The second claim alleged it was inappropriate for Supervisor Jones to vote on the item related to the suspension of impact fees because it would disproportionately provide a personal benefit to him. The grand jury also found this claim unfounded as the item affected at least 25% of the population. The grand jury made recommendations that the county adopt procedures to require county counsel to explain government codes and rules that govern the requirements when a supervisor should recuse from voting on an item and the actions required when a supervisor does choose to recuse.
Pursuant to penal code sections 933 and 9 33.05, the Board of Supervisors is required to respond to both the findings and the recommendations of the grand jury within 90 days and the responses must use consistent language regarding agreement and disagreement with the findings as well as status of implementation of the recommendations attached to the Staffer Board is a draft response for the board’s consideration. As the recommended draft indicates agreement with the majority, the majority of the findings with the exception that the perceptions of wrongdoing created discord within the county as the actions were similar to others taken in the normal county course of business. The response also indicates the recommendations will not be implemented because county counsel does not provide advice to the board members about when to recuse from a topic. The responsibility to determine when it’s appropriate to recuse belongs to each supervisor who may request an opinion from the Fair Political Practices Commission. If they are unsure of what action they should take, that concludes my presentation and I’d be happy to take any directions or questions at this time.
(3:34:02) Supervisor Garman: I don’t really have any questions for you, Erin. I just feel like we should approve it with their recommendations as they wrote the recommendations. I think our response needs to be to say, ok, we will go along with those recommendations. I don’t think it would be that hard for counselors just explain the codes when they come up. I think it would just be a chance for us to be a little bit more transparent in what we do. And so I’ll make a motion that we approve it with the recommendations recommended by the grand jury.
(3:35:40) Supervisor Jones: You know, this is obvious, very politically motivated. It was very clear on the night that the range came up for public comment and I was very clear and staff was clear that I would remain through the public comment. And before any voting took place, I would exit the building, which I did, the public could see that. And so it was, it was obvious that the person that made this complaint was simply trying to politically hurt me. That’s all that it was.
And with regards to the other issue, you know, the reduction of these impact fees, was countywide for all people. And that too was explained to the public as well. So, I mean, we can only explain things so many times and if somebody refuses to listen, it shouldn’t be a reflection on the county. We did our part. I broke the rules. I will not be supporting the motion that’s on the table. I believe the staff’s recommendations are appropriate. And in fact, I’ll make a substantive motion that we support the responses that staff has put into the staff report.
A lengthy discussion followed about whether County Counsel should do more to explain the legality of board actions, whether informational packets should be available to the public, and the wording of the letter responding to the grand jury.
C1 passed 4-1 with Supervisor Garman voting no.
REGULAR CALENDAR, CONTINUED
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors will recess and convene as the Shasta County Water Agency.
(3:57:54) SHASTA COUNTY WATER AGENCY
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors does not receive any additional compensation or stipend for acting as the Shasta County Water Agency. The Shasta County Water Agency will adjourn and reconvene as the Shasta County Board of Supervisors.
(3:59:00) ADJOURN
