The regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors was called to order at 5:32 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The complete video and agenda are available here. Timestamps are in parentheses.
CALL TO ORDER
The Invocation was conducted by Nelda Johnson. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Supervisor Kelstrom.
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.
Board Matters
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
(5:50) CEO Dave Rickert: First, there are a couple of requests I’ve had from boards from prior meetings for updates and I’ll give you updates on those issues. First and foremost, the health department director update. The recruitment timeline has closed. We had 6 applicants for that position. Two applicants were deemed qualified and interviews were conducted today and we do not yet have word as whether a offer was extended to an applicant. So we’ll keep you further apprised on that issue.
Another issue requesting feedback from the board was the Union Pacific property near the VFW and the post office as far as a rent and or a lease for additional parking. We are currently researching at issues. We’ve contacted representatives of Union Pacific and they’ll be coming out within the next week or so for a meeting to discuss potential options with county representatives.
Also it’s been a busy week. I had the opportunity Saturday to tour the Park Fire preparations in the fire line with Sean O’Hara from CalFire and Supervisor Chris Kelstrom. I won’t elaborate. I’ll save that for Supervisor Kelstrom to discuss.
And one final note, I do want to talk. There was a press release that was issued last week and a clarification that went out related to press access to the the county boardroom. The press has the full access they had before. There have been no new changes. We were instructed by the sheriff’s office that if they have to clear the chambers after the board exits the room that they will clear the entire chambers including press. So in an effort to accommodate the press, we opened up the media room. So the press has the opportunity to either participate with the crowd and exit. If they’re asked to exit by law enforcement or if they choose to remain, they’re set up in the media room. That’s an additional option they can consider. So rather than take away as reported by many of the media, we’re actually affording an additional opportunity if they choose to participate with the county board proceedings through the media room and will not be asked to leave through the media room at the time. So that concludes my report.

District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman.
(8:13) Supervisor Tim Garman, District 2: First thing I want to say. see a few backpacks down below me. This is tomorrow is the last day for the child support backpack drive. They need backpacks. They still desperately need backpacks. If you guys can afford to donate one, two, or ten, please do so. You can drop them off at 2600 Park Marina Drive in Redding, 2460 Breslauer Way in Redding, 1220 Sacramento Street in Redding, 4216 Shasta Dam Boulevard in Shasta Lake, Golden Valley Bank located at 250 Hemsted Drive number 100, or any Tri-Counties branch location in Shasta County. Lastly, you can also call 530-229-8767 for more information. I also want to give a huge shout out to Stacy Shawn for making this happen over at child support and your whole team. We thank you. We cannot thank you enough for what you do for our children in this community. So thank you so much for that.
Moving on, if you see elder abuse and anywhere you see it in any way, shape or form, just please report it, just please report elder abuse when you see it.
And lastly, I have one last thing I want to talk about and that is we all have really busy work schedules and we sit in on this board members on numerous commissions and boards and sometimes these meetings happen at the same time. You have a different board meeting and this is why we all have an alternate on our assigned commissions. And it’s vital that we attend every that we attend every meeting we can and if we cannot attend, we need to make sure that we’re reaching out to our alternate and ask them to cover for us. When we do not show up, our county loses its representation. And we were elected in our page to fulfill our obligation to Shasta County and Supervisor Crye, I know you’ve missed multiple meetings between RCRC and CSAC and that’s not the end of the world as long as you can reach out to your alternate on those boards to attend for you, but you have not reached out to Supervisor Rickert or myself in the past when you’ve missed those meetings. Hopefully, with Supervisor Kelstrom, if you have to miss a meeting in the future, you’ll reach out to him to have them cover for you. And if you’re not able to, then maybe it’s best to step off of those boards. And with that, that concludes my report.

Outgoing District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones
(10:28) Supervisor Patrick Jones, District 4: So this last week was pretty heavy on our CSAs and I have three of them in my district. And unfortunately, in most of these districts, there is operational revenue and then operational costs and they’re not matching up unfortunately. And so rates most likely will need to be raised. And so they’re in early discussions in CSA 2 because they have a new water system that’s in Sugarloaf outside of Lakehead, they put that off for a year because they have a new water system. And so that may affect and may drop the rate increase down time will see its efficiency. It’s certainly going to be more efficient than what it was.
Attended the CSA3 in Castella. And they too, operating revenues, costs are outpacing that. And so they put together a five-year plan, instructed the residents of Castella what that might look like. And so they’ll be going over that. And then ultimately, these rate increases will come to the board for approval and nobody likes raising rates. But it’s better to have a slight increase in your water rates than having less service or no water at all. And then lastly, actually CSA 23 was Crag View. They don’t meet that often. So this was one of the first opportunities to get up there as well. And again, their revenue is not covering the costs. And so they’ll be looking at it and these are small water districts. They have some good infrastructure, but costs are going up.
Today I attended the media day for the Asphalt Cowboys along with Supervisor Rickert and Supervisor Kelstrom. And so most of the media was there. And so this is for the September 8 barbecue that they do at Lake Redding Park. And this is for the Asphalt Cowboys and the revenue that they receive from that is what they fund all their programs and all the charities that they do. And so encouraging everybody on September 8 to go through the drive-through at Lake Redding Park and that’s a Sunday.
And then lastly, I would like to thank Supervisor Kelstrom. I know he was on the fire line on Saturday. I’ll let him give the details, but he got me up to speed. Obviously with the events of the Park Fire, everybody was concerned. And so I appreciate him being there along with our CEO Rickert.

District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom
(12:45) Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, District 5: I too had a CSA 13 meeting planned in Shingletown on Friday night. So unlike most CSAs my Shingletown peeps would be there in full force. So on Wednesday I met with John Heath at public works about the CSA meeting. And then also Rochelle Vinton and Sean were also in attendance. So they got me up to speed so that I’d be prepared.
Then Wednesday night I attended or that night I attended the Mosquito Serenade in Anderson. Thursday I attended the Win-River I-5 celebration with Supervisor Crye as well as Mark Mezzano and Mike Dacquisto from the City of Redding. They were there.
And then Friday, I attended the public works meeting up in Shingletown, but by then the fire had started. So my people up there were, the fire was in full force Friday evening. One of the gentlemen that showed up that wouldn’t have missed it for anything other than the fact he had to leave and go evacuate. So he showed up, went with his brother to evacuate. One of my other good friends, she was the only one at the meeting that ended up staying and again, shout out to John Heath and Rochelle. They both came up with a couple of representatives from the advisory firm.
And then that night, I ended up, Friday night I was in Shingletown and it was a pretty scary time. The skies were actually absolutely black. I don’t know if the campgrounds had told them to evacuate. I think most of the people up there just decided to evacuate. So by 7:30 in the evening, I mean, the freeway was already getting pretty full leaving out of there. I heard later on at 9, 10 o’clock at night, it was bumper to bumper and stop and go traffic all the way down the hill. Both sides going up and coming down were full when I left at 7:30. I think people coming up to help evacuate and people going down to evacuate. And then that night I sat back on my patio and my patio faces east. I’m up on a hill and I tell you, it was absolutely horrific because the rate that fire was moving, to give you some perspective, the Carr Fire, which is one of the worst fires we’ve had in Shasta County, consumed 229,000 acres, but it took 39 days to do that. This fire surpassed it in two days. It was at 239,000 acres in two days. When I went to bed at midnight, I for sure thought Manton was gone and Shingletown would probably be gone by the morning and had the fire continued to spread the way it was, that quite possibly would have happened. I mean, shout out to our fire personnel and all the crews that helped them out. They did an unbelievable job, but that fire was one in a million. Fortunately at 1 a.m. the winds died, it just laid down on itself. The conversion layer came down. There was huge thunderheads prior to that in the afternoon. All that died down, the north wind picked up and blew the fire back on itself which probably saved those communities.
I mean, it’s still a dicey situation. There’s still a lot of danger up there. Fire crews are doing an outstanding job. But then as CEO Rickert said, I toured the fire lines with Sean O’Hara, our county chief and CEO Rickert. And it was quite a relief to all three of us because I fully expected walls of flames. I expected, you know, huge fronts still moving and really the forward momentum had pretty much stopped. In most places, there were still a little bit, obviously. There was a little, it had jumped Highway 36 in multiple places north of Paynes Creek. It jumped for miles. I went, I’d say miles. Wouldn’t you say, CEO Rickert?
CEO Rickert: Absolutely. The devastating devastation was very clear and extensive.
Supervisor Kelstrom: The guard rails, there was just hundreds of yards of guardrails laying on the ground. Fortunately the firemen did a tremendous job saving structures. They burned a lot of ground but they saved a ton of structures. Later on it jumped the fire at 36 again down by Paynes Creek right at the firehouse, burnt the old store down there, burnt the house across the street from the fire station, but they were able to save most of the structures there. Also, when we toured it, it was a few spots here and there that were still smoldering. The stumps were smoldering, but I mean for the most part, it looked like forward progress had stopped. Obviously, we’ve gotten spot fires and it’s continued to grow, but at a much, much slower pace.
And then today, I attended the Asphalt Cowboys luncheon. Supervisor Jones, Supervisors Rickert were both there. And then I want to bring some attention to, well, first of all, I want to bring attention to a couple of things. So during this fire, there is no damage in Shasta County. There’s been no structures lost. There’s been no fire in Shasta County. It has not crossed the lines, it is not in Shasta County. So people are starving for information. Our news crews aren’t doing 24-7s because there is no damage in Shasta County yet. But I do believe that we have so many people evacuated and under evacuation watches, I think we need to start getting some more information out there. I talked to John, our PIO today. I talked with Sean O’Hara about his PIO and CEO Rickert. But I miss Sheriff Johnson today. He was at the Asphalt Cowboys. I was going to talk to him or Tim Mapes but Tim Mapes wasn’t there. But I think we need to start doing some more updates because we have a lot of people out there that are evacuated. They’re scared. They don’t know what’s going on. They’re waiting for watch duty to update every several hours. There’s rumors rampant out there. I mean, I’ve heard rumors that was 0.1 mile from Manton when it was at least three or four miles away. So I think we need to really work on a public service and get some more information out there on a daily basis.
And then one of the thing that was brought to my attention, I got a call yesterday from the interim superintendent at Anderson High School. The state approved them for a grant to open a trades class. They were going to do construction work and, you know, school starts in two weeks, they hired an instructor, they bought some tools, they bought some supplies and before school started the state now is saying that they’re going to withhold funds for reimbursement. They’re not going to reimburse them on this. So they reached out to us to see if the county could do something. I don’t think the county’s jurisdiction can help the schools. That’s a state problem. But I think we need to bring attention to this because I believe personally it’s because of the school board’s stance on SB 1955 that California is withholding funds from this program. And I think that’s a complete shame if that’s what’s happening and that concludes my report.

Shasta County District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert.
(18:43) Supervisor Mary Rickert, District 3: Yes, I spoke with Stacy from Caltrans. There’s been two recent accidents and this has been a place that other people have had accidents in the past and that’s at Silverbridge and 44. So I had a long discussion with her about the safety of that particular exchange. And so they’re going to do an assessment and see if there’s something that they can do that might be able to help alleviate some of these accidents. It’s right by the golf course. There’s not the best ability for people to see as they come out of Silverbridge on 44 to see if there’s cars coming. So I’ve been working on that.
Attended the Shasta County Cattlemen’s meeting in Anderson, last Tuesday night. Attended the Shasta County Law Library meeting. Went over our financials and we’re working on a press release. We’re going to be working with our County PIO with David Maung.
I gave the welcome for the ag pass training at Shasta College and the timing was impeccable because Tyler Van Dyke from channel 7R News was there and he was filming the ag pass training and he turned to me and he says, “I’ve got to get down to the Park Fire because we don’t have any reporters to report on that. ” So again, I think for those, Ginger, you’re in the audience, you were there that night. It was a great turnout. There was over 60 people. I think that was our fifth training that we’ve done. This is something that in 2022 I wanted to be sure to get passed here in Shasta County. We are one of the first counties to get that done. So what it does is it allows for people that have livestock or bees to have a training and then if there’s a major fire incident, then they can perhaps if CalFire or the local sheriff’s department allows them to, they can get in to feed their animals or water their animals if necessary. So, again that was very well attended and I was pleased to see so many people there.
So with the Park Fire I did spend my weekend going from the evacuation center to the Office of Emergency Services for Shasta County and I visited the rodeo grounds several times to see how the animals were doing. And I appreciate, we had a vendor from Cottonwood donate some hay. People were able to bring their livestock there. What I tried to do is I had several different apps and I tried to get it on my Facebook page, which – I cannot use my personal Facebook page. It’s been disabled by somebody somewhere and it’s impossible for it to get back up. But for another Facebook page I have so that people would have as much information as possible so they could know what the latest information was on the fire and it was important. The other thing was the evacuation center. It’s so sad when I talked to several people there. A lot of them brought animals because they didn’t have any other place to go so they would lay out on cots outside of the Bella Vista Elementary school. And a lot of them didn’t have family to go to. They were really basically especially Saturday morning, panic stricken about losing their homes. So it’s a very emotional time. I also talked to, through my church I talked to a priest yesterday. He was going to go out there today and talk to people and counsel them. Also, there was a social worker there also that I’ve known for many years and he was talking to people. So it’s always good to remember those people that are under a lot of stress. They’re in a very terrifying situation. They don’t know what’s happened to their properties and they don’t know about their animals that they left behind either. I’m trying to be a little optimistic but I’m familiar with some of the land between here and where the fire is and I’ve been out on the Tuscan ranch and the Inks Ranch before as we’ve appraised it and it’s just mostly a lot of, it’s just rocks. So I’m hoping that if it gets into that area that it will kind of burn itself out.
I went to the Asphalt Cowboys lunch. They’re going to have a barbecue September 8 and so they want everyone to join them. They do a lot of good philanthropic things throughout the county. So that, that’s one of their fundraisers and Tim, you would be glad to know I finally got my backpack to child support services today and they do need more backpacks. So if anyone is so inclined, please please do that.
And Chair Crye, anytime you can’t make it to an RCRC meeting or CSAC meeting, I’m the alternate to CSAC. I’m happy to go. I know for years ever since Les Baugh stepped off and was gone, the RCRC crowd has wanted me to be there. I do have a strong background in agriculture and forestry. So I’m at your disposal and I’m happy to attend any time.

District 1 Supervisor/Chair Kevin Crye
(23:35) Supervisor Kevin Crye, District 1: This past week I attended the RCRC Director Board of Directors meeting. So I don’t want to politicize this stuff, but, you know, Supervisor Rickert or Supervisor Garman, like I have email, text message calls if you ever have any questions. One thing with RCRC, so I was down there this last time. I have, we have four, possibly five counties that are looking to jump on board with our resolution, Del Norte County is actually taking that to their board tonight as well. So I think that’s exciting. District 1 representative, I think it’s Darren Short, moved on it right away. So after I left RCRC, I went over to the Dahles’ offices, both the Senator and Assemblywoman Dahle, dropped off that letter, talked to their staff a little bit. Also went by James Gallagher’s office, talked to his staff, Megan Dahle’s staff. Their whole office was closed. Nobody was there. But I did talk to some of Brian’s staff and some of James’s staff and then as well as the governor’s staff. Now the governor’s staff, let’s be honest, there’s 75 layers between who I talked to and the governor. But at least I say that I dropped it off and we just pled our case of what’s going on with insurance here in Northern California. When it comes to meetings, a lot of these meetings can be done via Zoom and a lot of times they are more informational that you can read the materials. So I care more about doing the work than sitting in a room listening to people talk about policy that’s not going to affect this county. So if I do need someone to step in, I absolutely will. Thank you for that.
I reached out to the district. In my district there was a pretty heinous murder and I asked Ms. Bridgett via email if I was curious if she would consider the juvenile who beat a 55 year old man to death with, I believe a bat, if she would seek prosecuting him as an adult. So I sure hope that’s in the cards if it warrants it. I think that is one of the most grotesque things I’ve had to read quite some time. So that’s horrible.
So staying on that note, one of the things that’s come up a lot and I have it here. I’m going to give this to Counsel Larmour. But if anybody wants to see it, please don’t foy, it just come up and make some photocopies and bring it back. But that’s all the court information of the last three years of every type of misdemeanor felony traffic infraction, et cetera because a lot of people are asking me right now, Supervisor Crye, is it lack of judges? Is it people not getting prosecuted? Is it people getting kicked out? Does the jail not have space, are law enforcement not arresting people? Like what’s going on? I see a lot of finger pointing and we see it in the media that says it’s, there’s not enough judges and then other people say, well, it’s not that. If you talk to cops or sheriff officers, they’ll say our job is to arrest our job. [Voices from audience] You need to sit down right now, please. You’ll get it at break. And then the most important thing is we just want to get the truth. I think people here in the Shasta County just want to know what it is. Do we have a lack of judges? And what does that mean? Are we not prosecuting things? Are we having things pled down? So, Counsel Larmour, is there anything that we are able to do as a board of Supervisors to say, give us factual information because when I met with Melissa Fowler Bradley, who’s the CEO of the courts across the street and Sheriff Johnson and of course, Stephanie Bridgett was not at that meeting was invited but did not come. I need to get these answers for my constituents because with this murder that happened this week, it’s not getting safer. It doesn’t seem to be getting better and I just want answers. I want straight answers of what these issues are.
(27:27) Counsel Larmour: So as as far as the court goes, that would exceed the jurisdiction of this board, but the board does have oversight of elected offices. Although as it relates to prosecution, the attorney general has the final say as to the prosecutor. But if the board wanted a consultant to take that data and inform the board as to where they saw the problem, the board could move forward with something like that.
Supervisor Crye: Ok. Could you bring back a recommendation of what a consultant would look like because I see a lot of finger pointing of a lot of people and it’s really three agencies. It’s the courts, it’s the DA and its law enforcement. And if all three are pointing, I just want to know what is what.
Counsel Larmour: Myself and CEO Rickert can work to bring a proposal related to a consultant for that type of an inspection of the records.
Supervisor Crye: Great. Thank you. And some of the stuff that I was involved with the others up here has already been spoken about.
So I will talk briefly about the meeting we had last week with County Counsel, the sheriff’s office and the CEO’s office about policies. And just everybody knows when the board is cleared, the jurisdiction of this building is the sheriff’s. The sheriff makes those calls. What the sheriff says when it comes to public safety is not from me. And again, I would be one vote, but that is, that’s not in my purview. If the sheriff says this is what he wants to do to keep constituents, media, anybody else safe, that’s not my place. So I stand with the sheriff with any policy he wants to make when it comes to making sure the public are safe at these meetings.
(29:08) Supervisor Garman: I just have one last thing I wanted to add in my report. I was having lunch with some family members at Becca’s Cafe on Saturday and she came over and sat down with us and just wanted to let me know that she has opened up her cafe for any evacuees to come and enjoy free food. And she’s also got a collection site. I think some other restaurants have joined on with this. I don’t know the names or I would give them a plug right now. But if you’re down in Anderson or you want to evacuate and need some food go down and get a free meal at Becca’s Cafe.
Supervisor Crye: And she’s got a Venmo, she’s got a Venmo link on her website too. If you want to give to Becca’s Cafe.
(29:45) R2 Adopt a proclagmation which designates August 2024 as “Child Support Awareness Month” in Shasta County (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Supervisor Crye read the proclamation.
(29:59) Supervisor Crye: Whereas the Shasta County Department of Child Support Services believes that Children are our most precious resource and become healthy, productive and well adjusted adults through the support and nurturing of their families. And whereas the Shasta County Department Child Support Services believes that child support provides an essential bridge to self sufficiency and financial security for Children and their families by ensuring that Children have a reliable source of financial support and health care, allowing them to grow, learn and achieve their dreams. And whereas the Shasta Department of Child Support Services currently serves 8117 families of which 5187 families are former recipients of cash aid. And whereas in the 12 months ending May 31, 2024 the Shasta County Department of Child Support Services collected and distributed just over 17 million in current and past due child support payments. And whereas the Shasta County Department of Child Support Services is strongly committed to its mission of empowering families by discovering their needs, providing education and collaborating with partners to bridge the gap to available resources for the well being of Children. And whereas the staff of the Shasta County Department of Child Support Services believe in and practice the core values of respect, integrity, service, responsibility and communication. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Shasta County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaims August 2024 is Child Support Awareness Month in Shasta County signed by myself July 30, 2024.
Jenna Richardson, Director of Child Support Services, Assistant Director Shelly Costa, Supervising Child Support Specialist Lana Johnson, and Outreach Coordinator Stacy Jong accepted the proclamation.
(32:26) Jenna Richardson: This August, we continue our tradition of giving away new backpacks and school supplies to local school age children. Last year, we served 530 children and our goal this year is to serve at least 600. The community and several partner agencies join in the effort by donating backpacks and school supplies. The backpack and school supply event is an opportunity for our department to give back to our community by providing Shasta County students with the tools they need for the upcoming school year. We continue to accept donations of new backpacks and school supplies through July 31, every contribution will make a huge impact on the lives of these children and we sincerely appreciate the support. The backpacks will be distributed on August 5 which is coming up next Monday and it will be at the Redding Civic Auditorium parking lot. It will begin at 9 a.m. until supplies run out. Families of all backgrounds are welcome to attend the event and children must be present to receive a backpack. We will have several community partners participating to provide additional community resources for families. We would like to extend an invitation to the board and the community to join us in this exciting event.
The proclamation was passed on a 5-0 vote.
Clerk of the Board
(36:51) R3 As introduced on July 2, 2024, and enacted on July 16, 2024, reintroduce and waive the reading of “An Ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Shasta, Adding Procedure for Filling Vacancies of Elected Officials to the Shasta County Charter,” and adopt a resolution repealing Resolution No. 2024-064 and calling an election and consolidating it with the November 5, 2024, General Election for the purpose of submitting to the voters a measure to add a section to the County Charter.
Future General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Deputy County Executive Officer Stewart Buettell made the presentation.
(37:17) Stewart Buettell: Today is an ordinance which may look very familiar, proposes adding procedures for the board of Supervisors to fill an unexpected or midterm vacancy in an elected office. Should the board approve the draft ordinance? It is also recommended that the board approve the accompanying resolution which repeals resolution 20 2400-0 64 as I mentioned, which also calls for an election and consolidates voter consideration of this addition to the charter with the general election on November 5, 2024. Included in the resolution is the proposed ballot language as well as additional guidance to the elections department, County Counsels and the auditor controller and the board may recall me introducing a very similar ordinance during the July 2 board of Supervisors meeting.
Unfortunately, even though the board provided direction to amend a portion of that ordinance changes were not made prior to it. Returning for enactment on July 16. We caught the issue during review of the July 2 meeting minutes. At which point, the following language was added to the ordinance as originally requested by Supervisor Kelstrom and approved by the board. That language is section five, subsection B was added and reads “If at the conclusion of the filing deadline, only one qualified candidate is placed on the ballot, the candidate shall be deemed to be appointed and the special election canceled the change in language requires this item to be reintroduced prior to enactment at a later date.” The other provisions of this charter amendment remain unchanged and I’d like to thank county counsel especially for their assistance with adding this section that concludes my presentation and I’m happy to answer any questions.
(39:09) Public comment on R3 began. There were two commenters.
(40:02) Delores Lucero: We’re here to talk about the same old thing. Charter. Why are we making changes with this charter? The charter has not taken place. This is supposed to be to next year. You’re amending it before it even starts. I don’t think this is legal. I know that you’ve been doing this because you want to get this going because you have plans to appoint someone and we already know who that’s going to be.
(43:04) Laura Hobbs: I am in support of this and I just don’t understand why exactly this error occurred? Is this a clerical error? We have a pattern in this county of petty bureaucrats entrenched within the county that want to slow down and obstruct the process of our local government. And I don’t think that’s ok. I want to know what are the consequences for this type of mistake and who’s going to be held accountable. So this is something that we saw in the election commission. It happened quite a lot. It interfered with our ability to even establish the commission. Things weren’t posted on time and then the writing of what was decided upon during the commission was changed, which is not all right. And I think we need to clean house here in the county. So anyone who’s obstructing the process of this government needs to be held to account.
(44:19) Supervisor Rickert: It says an appointee may be removed from office by any means defined in California government code, which would otherwise apply to the elected official being appointed for the remainder of the current term. Who has the ability to remove someone from office because the voters vote that person into office. So who’s the appointee? And how does that work?
(45:02) Stewart Buettell: So I’m actually going to defer to counsel a little bit just because I believe that it varies depending on the specific elected office. But I think the broad answer to your question is the voters have that ability.
Supervisor Rickert: Well, it says an appointee may be removed from office by any means so –
Stewart Buettell: Defined in the California government code. And I believe that the government code that that’s referencing says that it would be through a recall or through any mechanism that is available to the voters, which would otherwise apply to an elected official in that office.
Counsel Larmour: Mr. Buettell is correct. Ultimately, a charter can change how elected officials were removed. Our charter does not have those provisions. So the provisions are under California government code and depending on the position they hold in general, it usually takes a recall election by the voters. There are some certain circumstances under which state agencies can remove a local official.
R3 passed on a 3-2vote with Supervisors Garman and Rickert voting no.
Board of Supervisors
(48:56) R4 Discuss the process for determining the property tax exemption level if the costs of assessing properties and collecting taxes, assessments, and subventions exceeds the total taxes, special assessments, and applicable subventions on the property (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No General Fund Impact
No Vote
Assessor-Recorder Leslie Morgan made the presentation.
(51:54) Leslie Morgan: So everything is taxable in the State of California. Unless there’s a specific exemption for that, there’s a series of exemptions, A through R that exempt anything from personal household furnishings to scientific vessels .There’s a series of exemptions. This particular low value exemption is a little bit different than those particular codes that are actually covered under the revenue and taxation codes of which there’s a whole series of codes that we operate under from 50 to 61,050.
But with this particular code, what it does is it states that essentially if the cost of getting a tax bill created and mailed to the taxpayer is more than it will generate in the bill itself, that the board can essentially allow us to not have to go through the process of sending out that tax bill because it costs us more money to generate it than it does.
The thing I have stressed is that there is a lot of work that’s still required of us, especially as an assessor. The auditor and tax collector don’t do anything that we don’t rend a bill, but there’s a lot of functions that we do as an assessor that we’re going to whether or not that bill gets generated. And that’s mostly because what the duties of the assessor are, in a nutshell, is we have to discover, classify, index, value, and ensure that the proper taxable value is on each and every, whether it’s real property, the structural properties, the businesses, the boats, the aircraft, the tractors, the rider mowers, whatever those things are. If there’s no exemption for it, it’s our responsibility to discover them, get them assessed.
Morgan went on to describe the evolution of the assessor’s office since she began in 1995, how expenses such as salaries have increased during that time, and that efficiency in the office has increased to manage the increased caseload.
Resource Management
(1:06:24) R5 Receive a presentation regarding the Shasta County Carr, Zogg, Salt, and Fawn Fires disaster recovery ordinance and its effective period ending September 22, 2024, with respect to persons displaced by the Fawn Fire and consider providing direction to staff (Sponsored by Supervisor Jones).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Adam Fieseler made the presentation.
(1:07:02) Adam Fieseler: We’re asking you to consider providing direction to staff to bring back an ordinance extending the effective period of Title 19 of the Shasta County code with respect to the Fawn Fire. Shasta County code Title 19, entitled the Shasta County Carr Fire, Zogg Fire, Salt Fire, and Fawn Fire Disaster Recovery Ordinance, temporarily modifies and suspends various housing permitting and health and safety codes, as well as policies.
The purposes of Title 19 are one, to expedite the transition of persons displaced by the listed wildfires in the ordinance, to interim long term shelter; two, to house displaced persons in safe, secure habitable housing on a temporary basis; three, to facilitate the re-establishment of non-conforming uses and structures destroyed; and four, to aid displaced persons and affected properties.
The effective period for Title 19 is different for each fire. When Title 19 was enacted on September 11, 2018, the Fawn Fire had not yet occurred. Title 19 was amended to extend the effective period with respect to the Carr Fire victims twice, the first time for an additional 21 months and the second time for an additional 12 months which ended May 1, 2024. The Fawn Fire started on September 22, 2021. destroying 180 structures including the loss of 79 homes. On November 19, 2021, Title 19 was amended to include the Fawn Fire and the effective period with respect to persons displaced by the Fawn Fire ending September 24, 2024. Pursuant to Title 19, the use of RVs, manufactured homes, mobile homes and movable tiny homes as temporary dwelling units is allowed until September 22, 2024. Since November 19, 2021 approximately 27 temporary dwelling permits have been issued to persons displaced by the Fawn Fire. Currently, there are approximately 16 temporary dwelling permits issued to property owners who have not applied to rebuild. There could be additional temporary living situations that we are not aware of.
On April 10, 2024 code enforcement similar to the Carr Fire, we gave a notice of up to six months ahead of the expiration and we notified all the temporary dwelling unit property owners who have temporary dwelling units as well as some neighbors in the area. Feedback was received from the temporary dwelling unit permittees, who wanted the effective period extended, with additional time to transition into permanent housing, including an email from Richard Roman sent to the board on June 11, 2024. If the effective period is not extended, code enforcement action will begin to take place September 22, 2024 to bring properties into compliance with Shasta County code Title 17 zoning, which permits the use of temporary dwelling units only during construction of a permanent residence.
(1:10:45) Public comment on R5 began. There were three commenters.
(1:10:49) Christian Gardinier: First off, I want to thank the Department of Resources for an incredible job. I mean, a stellar, fantastic job. They helped me and my neighbors rebuild after the Carr Fire and in fact, went out of their way to give advice to help in any way legally they could. , I think a resolution needs to be drawn up indicating that this board appreciates the work they do. It’s incredible. My concern here is the Carr Fire was six years ago, I think yesterday or perhaps the day before, I can’t remember. And I fully endorse the fact that people needed help, temporary help in trying to put their lives back together. And that’s one of the things this board is here to do is to help your constituents. But my concern is I do know of a couple of instances where there is no permit on one and perhaps a questionable permit on another temporary dwelling. And my question is to this board, how far do we want to go out of compliance with the law and giving leniency? Six years, eight years, ten years? Of course, the best way to do this is to look at each fire a little differently because there’s a different timeline associated with that. As a property owner who went out of my way to comply with the law, I expect my neighbors to do the same. In fact, I expect some of the people on this board to do the same, but that’s a different issue. Once again, I think a resolution needs to be passed. Thanking the incredible work of resources here in our county and helping the people.
(1:14:42) Richard Roman: I’m here to share my experience with the Fawn Fire. I lost my home that I lived in for the past 50 years and it takes more than two years to really recover from something like that. It’s a human factor. I speak for my neighbors too that, you know, if you was 40 years old and had a good career job and you could turn around and build your house and have a mortgage and you could redo things and have the time to pay it off at 70. Things are a lot tougher, you know, my fixed income and my place is clean, it’s cleaned up for the most part, you still got trees that are dead. But it’s going to take me a lot longer to build. I may never be, nobody’s going to give me a loan. I live on a fixed income and I don’t have the energy I used to have and I speak for my neighbors too. There’s elderly people just like myself and we try to exist as best we can and with what we have and to expect us to have something built within a time frame is not possible. It’s not going to happen. You know, it’s going to take longer for some of us. I think pretty much as I look around my neighborhood, I say probably 70% of the people are still living in trailers and, you know, I live in a RV and and I have my power and water and sewer. It’s all legal and I’m comfortable, I’m by myself, you know, and if to spend the money that I have, what little money I have to, I wouldn’t be able to complete any projects. I’d still be in a situation where I would be in a situation where I wouldn’t be able to finish the project in and I wouldn’t have any money and I wouldn’t have any money for emergencies or anything like that. So, right now I just don’t see myself being able to do it to abide by the code enforcement and that’s it.
There was discussion among the board along with Adam Fieseler about extending the timeline of Title 19. In the end, R5 passed on a 5-0 vote.
(1:31:23) PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD – OPEN TIME
During the Public Comment Period – Open Time, 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 Period – 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 19 public commenters.
(1:31:53) Laura Hobbs: I’d like to draw your attention to a report by Patrick Byrne that was recorded during an X space event last week. It’s centered around Smartmatic, a computer software that’s used in all voting machines, no matter the vendor, Hart, Dominion EH&S all use the software. The software was developed and marketed out of Venezuela, a communist dictatorship. Patrick Byrne spent the last two years in Venezuela hacking the Venezuelan government to gain access to the proprietary source code that they refused to let us see here in the United States. He says, quote, I have it all at this point. I have everything he went on to explain. Quote, the computer forensics are indisputable. We have the people from Venezuela who wrote the code, they deconstructed the image and they know exactly what happened. Literally. The people who wrote the code in Venezuela are on our side and they deconstructed this all for us, he said. He also said we have it all, we have it at the atomic level. What happened in Mesa County in 2020. In 2020 the entire election was hacked, the entire election was fake and this is all going, this is going on all over America. Patrick Burns’ X account stated that the US Congressman Jim Jordan was alerted of incontrovertible election fraud evidence that that had happened. And Jim Jordan said that this is so radioactive that we cannot dig into it until after the coming election. It appears that our elected officials still do not understand the gravity of the situation we are in. Byrne issued a stark warning. He said we knew a year ago about the illegalities and access but it is far beyond that now and I would suggest to anyone in law enforcement now that this is your come to Jesus moment. If you continue on this fraud, you are abetting. This is not just a county election, you are committing treason, this is all part of treason, this is a component in a treasonous plot. You supervisors have the authority by California government code 25 201 as a governing body to decide the manner in which our elections are conducted. And you also have the authority to canvass or count all ballots. Just so you know that if you decide to relinquish your power and authority to Sacramento you will be complicit in treason. You are hereby notified. Thank you.
(1:34:58) Robert: Three minutes is entirely inadequate to express my point. The events from last week were disturbing. I understand it from an intellectual point of view, but from a human standpoint, it was wrong. Whenever we try and quell dissent and rigidly control the response from those in the minority, we exercise a form of fascism that we conservatives condemn so much. So how much more unbecoming in the minor? So how much more unbecoming when we practice it on our brethren across the aisle? The answer isn’t to band aid the problem, but to seek its root causes. We have two sides that do not listen to each other and in fact firebomb each other’s village on a regular basis. Today. The further right is in power but tomorrow, the further left can be in power and we’ll have the same situation except the other way, social media warriors and press whip up their fan base in order to justify and foster victim mentality. This helps no one.
(1:36:46) David Halligan: I want to follow up on your tourism dialogue last week and your RFP request. I see already on the county website. It states financial commitment. The county will consider an investment ranging from $250,000 to $1 million to support this marketing branding initiative for tourism. The RFP will be coming soon. You don’t need to spend $250,000 for this information. For the most part, it 80% of it’s already on the visit Redding website. I encourage the audience to check it out to me. 250 would be on the high end and I’d ask that you would reconsider your starting point. Have you reviewed the Visit Redding site? It’s tied to the chamber in the City of Redding and it is a nonprofit site. Visit Redding could create a Visit Shasta County site using existing marketing and local information and add chamber sites to the Shasta County created site. You as a board are trying to re invent the wheel and spend a boatload of money that has already been spent on creation and marketing at Visit Redding.
(40:08) Max Walter: Well, I wanted to comment regarding this whole election commission nonsense and what happened with Benjamin and Jenny last time. What is the value of a man’s word first, Kevin? It’s amazing what you’ve done regarding your pledge to Tim, that you’d back whomever he chose for this election commission. You keep finding ways to evade being true to your word. A few weeks ago, you blurted that Tim was the reason for all the chaos in Shasta County. That is so extraordinarily unprofessional. It’s petty and vindictive. You project your running reel of chaos onto him. And you’ve had quite a journey with Jenny. From my understanding, she attended a lot of your coffees in good faith. She stood at this podium and she praised you in good faith. She challenged you often in good faith to be better and you, you gave her your recusal. Now, I’m not sure betrayal is the correct word for good faith, but it’s yet another instance of you saying to her it wasn’t a mistake, but that’s ok. We can talk about it, your ego, your pride, my way, or the highway, deal with it. And Benjamin, he’s worried, he says about his career. He’s worried about Kevin Crye’s vindictiveness and maybe rightly so, so I hope for both of you that that’s a misplaced fear. Time will tell. And yet again how unnecessary all of this was. You should have simply allowed Tim’s first pick Nathan and then Benjamin, the election commission is completely powerless and is blatantly political. It’s where the three of you live, our very own Project 2025 cartel.
(1:43:20) Alex Bielecki: You guys happen to talk about the fire. We got a fire. Camp Fire was six years ago. Did we learn anything? No. On TV, man, the television, the news people say, don’t let your food spoil for more than four hours without electricity. How come that wasn’t made public knowledge health wise? How about some other things like clearing out the problems of the fires or the fuels that are left better yet? We haven’t learned nothing.
(1:46:25) Rob Belgeri: I’m sure this is going to get covered maybe many times before you finally take a vote on it. I want to jump in right now because I wrote a quotation attributed to you, Chairperson Crye last week. This has to do with the proposed Shasta County Press Corral that you folks want to create. And the quotation I read that’s attributed to you is that if it happens when it happens, it’s for the safety of the press and the safety of the people. And I saw nothing in that episode last week where anyone was unsafe. Can you point out to me or anyone here when the press has ever been unsafe in this room, rather in this room or outside there? And there’s been some pretty intense discussions going on between people and I know the press, no matter whether it’s a Record-Searchlight or Shasta Scout or A News Cafe, they’re not everybody’s favorite people. They’ve never been unsafe that I’ve seen. I’ve seen a couple of them be put in unsafe situations away from here. But what is the safety that you are trying to create by creating a press ghetto back in that room? Now, I can’t come here every week. Yes, I’m retired but I have a disabled spouse. I have family got to take care of. I depend on the press and I realize you got to distill a lot of that when you got to read. But I depend on the press to see what I can’t see. And if they’re stuck back there at a 55 degree angle to what’s going on out here, they can’t do the job for the rest of us. Nobody was unsafe when that young lady sat down there and did her nonviolent demonstration. Nobody got hurt, nobody was going to get hurt and to use safety, that is the dodge of people who are trying to take power that doesn’t belong to them.
(1:52:07) Marjorie Andrews: 2024 will be the most historic, memorable year in the history of our constitutional Republic for the United States of America. We are a republic, not a democracy. We, the people are supposed to be a sovereign people. Government cannot be sovereign. A democracy equates to mob rule. Sadly, we are currently no longer in control of our nation. We are not free. In truth we have not been a free people for a very, very long time. A historical fact remains an obscurity about our once great nation. On February 21, the act of 1871 was signed by the 41st Congress in the darkness of night in December when most congressmen were on holiday. It was then a corporation was formed called the United States of America Corps. This corporation was formed without our consent. Hence, our freedom was stolen from us. We have been placed in a slave nation ever since. So what does this mean for us today? We need to recognize the real crisis in America is losing our freedom for. We are in fact one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Are you willing to fight for it?
(2:08:54) Supervisor Rickert: I have a question for County Counsel. I assume, you know, the first I heard of this change of having the media go into the media room was when it came out in the press. I was not part of the decision. Who makes that decision? And what does that process look like?
Supervisor Crye: Sheriff.
Supervisor Rickert: County Counsel? I’m just curious.
Supervisor Crye: I mean, I can, we, we’re, we’re in the middle of public comment, but Sheriff, Sheriff made Sheriff made that decision. [Voices from audience.] We, we don’t, we don’t need any, anything from the crowd to go ask the sheriff.
(2:09:57) Greg Lawson: My name is Greg Lawson and I was born here in Redding 63 years ago come next Monday. I grew up here. I went to Parsons, Nova, Enterprise High School, Shasta College before leaving for about 20 years. But when my dad got too old to drive, I knew I had to come home and Redding’s once again been my home for the last 25 years. My dad’s name was John Lawson and he was a journalist who wrote for the Record-Searchlight for 30 years. When he retired, his editor, Bob Edkin described him as one of a dying breed of community journalists who played a pivotal role in informing readers about local news and that included local government. I remember nights as a kid when he would come home late and exhausted after covering meetings just like this one. My dad was fairly liberal as am I and his editor along with most of the folks in Shasta County then and now we’re pretty conservative, but he worked with them and he covered them fairly and without bias. He told me often, son, you have to learn to live with people you disagree with. I know dad would be proud to see the new breed of Shasta County community journalists like Doni Chamberlain and Annalise Pierce who are courageously trying to navigate the political climate this current board majority has fostered. I think my dad would be perplexed by the hyper-partisan hostility that has trickled down from the national level to infect our local government in his Shasta County folks disagreed. There were extremists on both sides for sure. But when it came down to business people accepted that their constituents were their neighbors and they acted neighborly and rationally as proud as I am to call Shasta County my home, I am not proud of the coverage. This board’s actions have gotten from other news organizations around the state around the country and indeed around the world. I see this current move to further stifle journalism as one more black eye on our reputation, your discomfort with local news coverage will undoubtedly make news on a wider scale.
(2:22:28) CEO Rickert: I feel obliged to clarify something that the sheriff don’t make a decision to limit the press. The decision was that if we have to clear the room for a safety reason and shut down the board meeting, everybody will have to leave the board chambers including the press. As an accommodation to provide an additional opportunity for the press to remain. we decided to open the press room so they wouldn’t have to leave. So it was an additional combination that didn’t exist before. I want to clarify that the sheriff did not limit the press in any capacity.
Supervisor Crye: Neither have we.
CEO Rickert: Correct.
REGULAR CALENDAR, CONTINUED
Presentations
(2:30:38) R6 Receive a presentation from the Health and Human Services Agency regarding the upcoming new civil court process Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE Court) (Sponsored by Supervisor Rickert).
No General Fund Impact
No Vote
Shasta County Behavior Health and Social Services senior staff services analyst Katie Nell made the presentation.
(2:32:05) Katie Nell: What is the Care Act? Care stands for community assistance, recovery and empowerment. It’s a new civil court process that’s designed to upstream diversion to prevent more constrictive conservatorships or incarceration. And the focus is to focus on those with untreated schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders and provide behavioral health services and other crucial resources. This is not criminal court and it’s not for all mental health conditions and it’s not a solution for homelessness. So who is eligible for Care Court? It’s for adults 18 years and older. They must have a severe mental illness and have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder. They cannot be clinically stabilized or an ongoing voluntary treatment and they must meet one of the following unlikely to survive safely in the community such as unable to provide for their basic personal needs, food, clothing or shelter. Where that comes from is the gravely disabled definition or they’re in need of services and supports to prevent relapse or deterioration that could result in that grave disability.
Katie Nell talked about how candidates for Care Court would apply for and receive services and what those services would entail.
(2:43:15) R7 Receive a presentation from Shasta Substance Use Coalition regarding fentanyl (Sponsored by Supervisor Rickert).
No General Fund Impact
No Vote
Shasta Substance Abuse Coalition representative Jill Phillips made the presentation.
(2:44:30) Jill Phillips: Fentanyl is, in fact, a medication that is used commonly in the hospital and other places. It is 100 times stronger than morphine. So it’s very strong, but it’s used safely when prescribed by health professionals and taken as directly as directed. What we’re concerned about here in Shasta County and throughout the nation is illicit fentanyl. Illicit fentanyl is uh found in many different forms. On the market, liquid powder can be taken in many different ways, orally smoked, snorted or injected and it’s unfortunately commonly added to pills that are made to look like prescription medications that can cause an overdose for an unsuspecting individual and also can be found in supplies of methamphetamine and cocaine. So, fentanyl laced or contaminated drugs are dangerous, especially dangerous.
Jill Miller went on to talk about when unintentional exposure to fentanyl might and might not be dangerous to individuals, the effect fentanyl has on individuals, families, and services such as EMTs.
Clerk of the Board
(3:00:43) R8 Approve an amendment to the Board of Supervisors’ 2024 meeting calendar (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Stewart Buettell made the presentation.
(3:01:17) Stewart Buettell: For your consideration is an amendment to the Board of Supervisors 2024 meeting calendar as drafted and if approved this change adds a regular meeting on August 8, 2024 to the board of supervisors meeting calendar. This is directly related to the item I spoke about earlier as the ordinance introduced today, must come back for enactment and must be provided to the elections department no later than August 9 to ensure it can be added to the November ballot for the general election approval of this addition to the meeting calendar will effectuate these processes, And with that, that concludes my presentation.
A motion was made to amend the calendar to cancel the October 22 meeting and move the August 29 meeting to a day meeting. R8 passed 5-0.
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.
County Administrative Office
(3:04:54) R9 Take the following actions: (1) Conduct a public hearing; (2) adopt a resolution which: (a) Finds that, for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-24, the subvention payment the County received from the State of California pursuant to the Open Space Subvention Act was less than one-half of the County’s actual foregone General Fund property tax revenue that resulted from Williamson Act contracts; and (b) states the Board’s decision to implement Government Code section 51244(b) and Government Code section 51244.3 effective January 1, 2025; (3) direct staff to notify all Williamson Act contracted landowners of the following: (a) the final decision of the Board of Supervisors after the conclusion of the July 30, 2024, public hearing on whether to implement the AB 1265/SB 1353 provisions; and (b) the landowner’s right to prevent the reduction in the term of his or her contract due to the implementation of the AB 1265/SB 1353 provisions by serving notice of non-renewal as specified by Government Code sections 51244, 51245 and Shasta County Resolution No. 2011 103; and (4) direct the County Administrative Office, Assessor Recorder, Auditor Controller, Tax Collector and Director of Resource Management to take all necessary steps to implement AB 1265/SB 1353 including but not limited to recording a notice that states the affected parcel numbers and current owner’s names, making the appropriate additions to all affected properties assessed values, and modifying the 2025-26 tax bills to reflect the assessment changes associated with the reduced tax benefit.
General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Supervisor Rickert recused herself and left the board chambers.
Bryce Ritchie, Administrative Analyst, County Administrative Office, made the presentation.
(3:07:30) Bruce Ritchie: Before you this evening is an opportunity to consider the implementation of AB 1265 and SB 1353 which are amendments to the Williamson Act for 2025. AB 1265 was put into effect in 2011 to allow counties to recoup proportion of their loss of Williamson Act related subvention funds when the state stopped making subvention payments for designated lands under Williamson Act agreements. AB 1265, which was originally set to expire in 2016, allowed counties to have the option to implement the provisions each year. The state subvention payment was less than one half of the county’s foregone revenue. SB 1353 removed that expiration date as of January 1, 2016. If implemented AB 1265 reduces the Williamson Act contract for the current year from 10 years to 9 years. Last year was the first year the board elected not to adopt a resolution implementing AB 1265. For fiscal year 23-24, Shasta County received $0 in state subvention mentioned for Williamson Act properties which equates to less than one half of the county’s foregone revenue of $289,355. As a result, Shasta County is eligible to implement AB 1265 for 2025. Implementation for 2025 would likely allow Shasta County to recoup discretionary dollars of approximately $144,677 which would have otherwise been lost due due to the loss of subvention payments from the state of California. This concludes my presentation.
(3:09:27) Public comment for R9 began. There were four public commenters.
(3:09:50) Brian Stevenson: My name is Brian Stevenson and I’m the current president of the Shasta County Cattlemen’s Association. And I’m here today to ask the board to vote no on this resolution. I would like to thank Supervisors Kelstrom and Garman for voting no last year at the October 17 hearing. And I ask Jones and Crye to join in the previous two supervisors in supporting ag in this county. Last year when I spoke against this resolution, there were 637 parcels enrolled in the Williamson Act. This year if you read through your board packet, you’ll notice there’s only 615. So in 12 months, you have lost over 5000 acres in ag in this county. There are 51 counties in California that have active Williamson Act contracts since the whole subvention thing went away. 42 of those counties do not implement AB 1265. Your neighbors, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Butte, Tehama County, Humboldt and Glenn do not implement AB 1265 to their constituents and contract holders. The amount of money as mentioned earlier that this fee would bring into the county is 144 and change, probably not even enough to cover the staff time that we have to get two mailings a year. Every time this comes up one, we get notice for this hearing because we’re contract holders and then we’ll get another mailing, giving us the results of this hearing. So what this fee means to us though is it amounts to a 33% increase on our property tax bills. Every Williamson Act contract holder in this county, they’re assessed per law. The assessor does a good job on seeing that. This fee is a 33% increase on that by just implementing the fee. So Williamson Act parcels assessed by what we can produce, what a farmer can grow, what a rancher can raise and what ends up feeding the people of this county, this state and this country, the total gross value in Shasta County’s agricultural production for the current production of 22,022 was just a touch over $89 million. Hay and cattle are your top two categories in the county for that. It was a little bit over half, very heavily reliant on Williamson Act contracts to make that happen. So again, I ask each of you to vote no on this resolution.
(3:12:49) Shannon Wooten: Last year I spoke to you twice representing the Shasta County Cattlemen. And so I won’t reiterate most of what I brought up last year, Brian covered it very well. My ranch has been in my family since 1862 and it comprises about 5200 acres. So we’ve got pretty good charge of Williamson Act. My fire insurance last year and insurance went from $27,000 to $70,000. Wages are up, fuel’s up, property taxes are up, everything’s up and we’ve got to somehow rein in this little bit. The integrity of my ranch is not there anymore. I can’t handle it. It’s just getting too much. The cost is too much. I realized that the property taxes aren’t as high as what the insurance is, but it’s one place to start. This fire that’s going on, my ranch was right in the bull’s eye of that fire. I’m just six miles away from it. Well, little more than just on the north side of Shingletown. So my fear is this next year, the insurance is going to be even higher yet because there’s going to be more companies leaving. The fair plan is probably going to go bankrupt because they can’t cover the losses that this fire is going incorporate. So it’s just one thing that we got to try to rein in if we can and I’d appreciate your support in trying to keep our taxes level.
(3:14:18) Matt Fowler: I’m a director with Shasta County Cattlemen’s Association. I was not raised in agriculture but I married into it. My wife is a fifth-generation cattle rancher here in Shasta County. We both see the benefits of local agriculture from preserving a way of life, to producing safe food for our community, to ensuring open space habitat for wildlife and being a positive contributor to our local economy. Since 1965 the Williamson Act has kept all of these benefits a reality. It is legally described as a use value tax assessment, but in plain words, it is a fair taxation based on how we use the land and the revenue we can generate on that land. We are not asking to get a handout or get out of paying taxes. We only ask that we be taxed fairly. The increased taxation added to our Williamson Act property taxes due to assembly bill 1265 was initially implemented as a temporary way to shore up the county budgets when Governor Schwarzenegger eliminated the subvention funds to the counties. This added temporary tax has now been charged for over a decade and local Williamson Act owners are feeling the pinch. It should go without saying that agricultural production cannot generate the same revenue per acre as a Walmart, the Mount Shasta Mall or a residential subdivision development. The property taxes must fit the use. The AB 1265 increase comes out to nearly 36% of our base Williamson Act tax rate. Ask store owners or corporations or industrial businesses or land developers to pay up . an additional 36% in tax in order to help offset the county coffers and we were sure that they would probably take legal action. We’re simply asking that this temporary increase not be reinstated this year. Perhaps the county could generate more tax revenue if the planners forced out agriculture and brought in industries that paved over everything. But would you really want to live here? And would you even feel safe eating the imported food in our grocery stores? The Williamson Act has preserved agriculture and open space in most of California and in Shasta County for over half a century, it has helped us to continue a fifth-generation of ranching in our family and our hope would be that our ranch will be around for the next five generations.
A motion was made to decline the implementation of AB 1265 and SB 1353. R9 passed with Supervisor Rickert recusing.
(3:25:21) CONSENT CALENDAR
Both Supervisor Garman and Supervisor Rickert announced their intention to vote no on C1. The Consent Calendar was approved by unanimous vote with the exception of C1, which passed 3-2.
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 Period – Open Time, before the Board’s consideration of the Consent Calendar.
Clerk of the Board
C1 As introduced on July 16, 2024, enact “An Ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Shasta, Adding Limitations on the Exercise of Eminent Domain to the Shasta County Charter.”
Future General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C2 Approve the minutes of the meetings held on July 2 and 16, 2024, as submitted.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Public Works
C3 Approve the purchase of one 2024 Kenworth T880 with water truck equipment and one 2024 Kenworth T880 chassis for use as a dump truck from Papé Kenworth of Anderson under Sourcewell Contract #060920-KTC.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C4 Find the “2024 Shelly Lane Culvert Replacement Project,” Contract No. 610757, to be categorically exempt in conformance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines 14 CCR Section 15301, Class 1-Existing Facilities and Section 15302, Class 2-Replacement or Reconstruction and direct staff to file a Notice of Exemption with the Shasta County Clerk and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C5 Award Request for Quote (RFQ) 24-22 to, and approve contracts with: (a) Commercial Glass, Inc.; (b) Nicolet Glass, Inc.; and (c) Western Glass & Window for glass services at County facilities.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Sheriff
C6 Take the following actions: (1) Waive competitive procurement; (2) designate authority to County Purchasing to purchase a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado from Lithia Chevrolet Redding in the amount of $60,637.79; and (3) approve a budget amendment increasing appropriation and revenue by $489,090 in the Sheriff Budget (BU 235) to recognize the expenditures and revenue from the California Highway Patrol Cannabis Tax Grant.
No Additional General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
REGULAR CALENDAR, CONTINUED
(3:27:19) CLOSED SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT
The Board of Supervisors will recess to a Closed Session to discuss the following item (estimated 30 minutes):
R10 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – EXISTING LITIGATION
(Government Code section 54956.9, subdivision (d), paragraph (1)):
Name of Case: Betty Abbie, et al. v. Shasta County, et al. (Case No. 2:20-cv-01995-KJM-DMC)
At the conclusion of the Closed Session, reportable action, if any, will be reported in Open Session.
(3:27:26) REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS
There was no reportable action.
(3:27:30) ADJOURN