Today was another regular meeting of the local Board of Supervisors. Kevin Crye reiterated last week’s ultra-popular reduction of speaker time from three minutes to two minutes, and the distaste for that was evident in comments from speakers who tend to disagree on pretty much everything else.
The meeting took an intense turn when frequent speaker Christian Gardinier was punched in the stomach by another board meeting attendee. The incident caused a stir and some shouts from the audience as the board majority predictably tried to instantly spin the situation to their benefit, and a brief recess was called.
Christian Gardinier is a local who has regularly attended meetings and sought to bring some accountability to the board majority he has affectionately dubbed the “JCK Cartel” in response to Patrick Jones, Kevin Crye, and Chris Kelstrom’s actions.
When Christian Gardinier weighed in on what had just happened, he was rather forgiving of the incident and chalked it up to a “mistake” by the person whose fist mistakenly found its way to Gardinier’s torso. Fortunately, Gardinier seemed physically okay.
Here’s my public service announcement for the day: If you are going to attend these board meetings and criticize the board majority’s reign of terror—always record everything. EVERYTHING. Wear a body-worn camera, you can find inexpensive ones online. Here’s a buying guide with a few options that are under $100 so check it out. That may come in very handy if, or rather, when the alternative-facts crowd tries to immediately spin the situation to paint you as the liar. Most of you will already have a camera-equipped device that you carry around everywhere so that you can send incoming calls to voicemail, so please use that if you don’t want the upgrade. Things are getting more heated as the extremists cling to the lies of the past, to their remaining time on the board, and to their fervent desire to continue pushing hatred instead of joy, division instead of unity, and bigotry instead of equal opportunities for all.
Perhaps most significantly, the national polling and presidential campaign rallies are telling a story that MAGA extremists don’t want to hear, and when reality hits, we can probably expect to see a few desperate incidents as the confident delusions come crashing down. Be cautiously optimistic, but please, PLEASE don’t be the collateral damage.
Aside from the punch-to-the-gut reminder that our political discourse has been and continues to be completely unacceptable, Kevin Crye continued to maliciously ignore the advice from my last “fake media” writing to treat Mary Rickert with a modicum of respect. Tim Garman commented that the unexpected reductions in speaker time without notice isn’t giving the public much time to adjust their messages. Kevin gave a rambling response about how the board would not know the number of speakers until the day of the meeting, and that his reduction prevented a need for the speakers to return after lunch. Mary Rickert echoed Garman’s sentiments about giving the public the opportunity to speak, pointing out that the three-minute timeline has been a predictable staple of meetings for many years now, and that it has been rather confusing and difficult for speakers now having to choose between addressing an item on the consent calendar or using their one chance to speak to instead make a public comment on a non-agendized topic.
Supervisor Rickert also pointed out that she’d been part of past board meetings that went past midnight due to the number of speakers, and mused that it was interesting how outraged the public and certain board members had been when then-chair Leonard Moty had been practically crucified for seeking even a few slight changes to restore peace and order, but Kevin Crye’s current behavior is significantly more harmful to public engagement and yet there’s no docu-series filmmakers releasing a disingenuous smear video about that.
Crye’s disrespect for Mary Rickert knows no bounds, so he repeated his dishonest refrain that Mary Rickert personally closed board meetings down and deprived members of the public of their chance to speak. Small problem: that was during the pandemic. Another small problem: that was the result of a state mandate that caused similar closures up and down the Golden State that “patriots” hate. A third small problem: the board worked out remote speaker access so that speakers could simply call in and deliver their comments live—unhindered by a board chair’s urgent need to go… (1) record himself talking about the meetings for a propaganda video recap, (2) promote his Friday coffee self-stimulation sessions, (3) tape Sunday radio shows, or (4) to manage his private businesses handsomely enriched by taxpayer dollars.
Or maybe Crye will just go hang out with District 3 Supervisor candidate Corkey Harmon, the man who claims he won’t take Anselmo money (we’ll see), held a Red, White, and Blueprint event at his ranch, recently hosted a coffee meet-the-candidate event in Palo Cedro (sound a bit derivative?), and still hasn’t figured out the rules that would govern his ability to continue taking public contracts for his Stimpel Wiebelhaus business if elected.
Before Corkey Harmon wanted your votes, he seemed perfectly comfortable with personally hosting the chaos by inviting the Red, White, and Blueprint crowd at his ranch.
Corkey’s claimed attitude is that he doesn’t think Mary Rickert should be treated badly at the board meetings because he’s “old-fashioned and respectful to ladies,” but that hasn’t stopped Corkey from continuing his runoff race against the lone female member of a five-member board and trying to minimize his relationship with Kevin Crye to a few phone calls and some incidental interactions.
But back to Crye for a second: he was all too smug when county counsel split hairs trying to differentiate between Rickert’s earlier effort to give feedback on a previous agenda item, but shied away from any discussion of how the public comment should be handled—saying that he would not get involved with political discussions. It seems to me, a humble observer, that the manner in which public comment is administered and the reasoning used to justify changes to the process or attitudes toward those changes are very much relevant to county business, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that county counsel’s primary objective is to play nice with Kevin Crye and keep drawing a salary.
Here’s part of what you missed during this week’s race to the bottom at 1450 Court Street in Redding.
Let’s see what happens next week. If you’re brave or stubborn enough to go, bring your cameras, and please stay safe.
Silence DoGood is an anonymous guest writer who would like to help stop the insanity in Shasta County. Motivated by the strong desire to go back to doing the dishes instead of worrying about a potential civil war, DoGood seeks to bring humor, sarcasm, and insight to the sane folks who have resisted the very reasonable urge to move somewhere that isn’t currently determined to eat itself.
