Board Majority Ignores Most Qualified Applicant, Hires Former Reverge Anselmo Consultant as Interim Resource Management Director

Wyatt Paxton, who formerly worked with Reverge Anselmo, is Shasta County’s new Interim Director of the county’s Resource Management department. Photo source: Screengrab of Red White and Blueprint cast list.

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors’ ultra-conservative board majority has struck again. Even legions of weary rational citizens — those stupefied by countless toxic “Shasta County Shit Show” meetings, people who’d ceased being surprised by board majority shenanigans — were shocked by Tuesday’s bombshell.

During Tuesday’s meeting the board majority’s strategic blows fell upon the county’s Resource Management department with a stealthy, stunning personnel move: They hired Wyatt Paxton as the Interim Director of Resource Management.

You’ll learn why he is the worst possible choice for that position in a moment.

Paxton’s appointment follows the recent departure of former Resource Management Director Paul Hellman, whose staff going-away party was last week. Hellman’s leftover farewell cake hadn’t even gone stale before the board rushed to fill Hellman’s position with a subpar interim placeholder.

It didn’t have to be that way. Prior to leaving his Shasta County director position for a new job in a high-functioning county that values its employees, Hellman suggested in his letter of resignation that the board fill Hellman’s vacant position with Adam Fieseler, Assistant Resource Management Director. Fieseler is immensely qualified, well-respected and non-political. He has a reputation for being well-liked, hard-working, smart, dependable and ethical.

The director of resource management position wears many hats: Planning Director, Air Pollution Control Officer, and Environmental Review Officer. Fieseler ticks all the boxes with regard to possessing abundant qualifications to serve in all those capacities, which is precisely why Hellman recommended Fieseler as the most logical person for the job.

“Adam is uniquely qualified for the position based on his thorough working knowledge of the department which he has gained as a result of working in three of the department’s four divisions as Assistant Planner, Air Pollution Inspector, Permit Center Manager, and Planning Division Manager prior to becoming Assistant Director,” Hellman wrote in his resignation letter.

In a normal county, where elected officials vote as if they have the public’s best interest at heart, hiring Fieseler should have been a slam dunk. Not so with this self-serving, authoritarian board majority, where every single decision is motivated either by personal gain, retaliation, political theater, or all of the above.

Board majority routinely rejects the best, hires the worst

No surprise, the board majority ignored departing director Hellman’s expert advice to hire Fieseler, clearly the best-qualified candidate. Instead, once again — as has become a pattern with this board majority — the men rejected the best-qualified, most obvious option, only to select the most woefully ill-equipped individual to tackle an important position that requires a plethora of institutional knowledge and first-hand experience. They chose Paxton, someone characterized by a former colleague from long ago as a “marginal employee, at best”.

Examples abound of the board majority’s similar wrongheaded hires:

The board majority fired Shasta County health officer Karen Ramstrom and replaced her with the far-less-qualified Dr. James Mu.

The board majority soundly rejected epidemiologist Donnell Ewert’s application for a seat on Shasta County’s Mosquito and Vector board, and instead chose Jon Knight, Red White and Blueprint producer, conspiracy theorist, grow-store owner and true believer that the Japanese are arming mosquitoes with tiny syringes.

Oh, and who can forget Shasta County Counsel Joseph Larmour, hand “poached” from Yuba County by Crye? Larmour is someone who now appears to only have eyes for Crye. And his sidekick CEO David Rickert is not much better. Between the two of them, we’d need to hire a proctologist to disengage them from Crye’s nether regions.

County Counsel Joseph Larmour looks toward the crowd and the clock above their heads as CEO David Rickert pretends to not hear Crye’s verbal abuse, sneers and sarcasm toward Supervisor Mary Rickert and select speakers.

Finally, most recently, the board majority bypassed Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut, someone who’d stepped in to oversee and act as the ROV and county clerk when ROV Cathy Darling Allen stepped down because of a sudden heart condition. Supervisors Rickert and Garman voted for Francescut, while supervisors Jones and Kelstrom wanted election-denier and hand-count proponent Clint Curtis. In the end, Chair Crye won when he gamed the vote by threatening Jones and Kelstrom that if they didn’t vote for his pick, Thomas Toller, then Crye would vote for Francescut, which would have given Francescut three votes for the win. Of course, Jones and Kelstrom buckled and allowed themselves to be manipulated by Crye.

Welcome to Shasta County, where what Chair Crye wants, Chair Crye gets.

But here’s the $2 million question: Why does Crye and his cronies want Paxton in that position, especially since it has a 900-hour cap? For that matter, why did Crye want Toller?

That saying about to catch a fish one must think like fish comes to mind. The thing is, it’s difficult to think like a sociopath, if you don’t have those particular traits.

Handing Paxton the keys to the Resource Management department makes about as much sense as dumping a pail of starving termites in the hull of a leaky wooden lifeboat.

Wyatt Paxton screenshot from Red White and Blueprint docuseries.

Tuesday afternoon, a Shasta County press release put a slippery saccharin spin on this latest terrible decision by the board majority:

“Shasta County Board of Supervisors Appoints Wyatt Paxton as Interim Director of Resource Management

Shasta County, CA – September 10, 2024 – In a 3-2 vote, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors have appointed Wyatt Paxton as the Interim Director of Resource Management, effective September 16, 2024, with Supervisors Crye, Jones, and Kelstrom voting “Yes” and Supervisors Garman and Rickert voting “No”. This appointment comes as the County continues a thorough recruitment process to select a permanent Director of Resource Management, which began on August 19, 2024.

Mr. Paxton brings over 20 years of experience working with public and private entities in building and land use. He holds a variety of residential and commercial inspection certifications issued by the International Code Council and has experience working with Shasta County Department of Resource Management, both as a former employee and as a consultant/consumer. His temporary appointment will allow the department to maintain its high standards of service while the recruitment process is underway.

As a retired professional, Mr. Paxton is limited to working a maximum of 900 hours in this role to retain his retirement status and benefits. This interim position is expected to continue until a permanent Director of Resource Management is appointed or until Mr. Paxton reaches the hour limit, whichever comes first. Shasta County confirms that no retirement-related incentives have been or will be provided in connection with this interim appointment.

During his tenure as Interim Director, Mr. Paxton will be instrumental in evaluating the department’s operations and providing valuable insights to assist the Board of Supervisors in their selection of a permanent director.”

###

The press release missed a few key points. It failed to mention that after leaving his job with Shasta County Resource Management, Paxton worked as a consultant for son-of-a-billionaire Reverge Anselmo, who lost a bitter, protracted legal battle with the county.

Before we move on, riddle me this: Who’s to say that Paxton isn’t still working for Anselmo?

The press release also failed to mention that after leaving his Shasta County job, Paxton publicly disparaged the county’s Resource Management department on a regular basis. For example, there was the time in 2013, when Paxton, as an Integrity Project devotee, was the guest speaker at a church where he discussed building permits, hacks and tips, all the while talking smack about his former Shasta County employer.

During that event he disclosed various ways that Shasta County did Anselmo wrong, including the statement that Anselmo spent more than $40,000 a month in legal fees to defend his failed case against Shasta County.

The entire presentation is on YouTube.

Robert Exter photo source: Facebook.

It’s noteworthy that the video’s author is Robert Exter, a MAGA compatriot who is ever-present with his professional camera equipment at most Shasta County Board of Supervisor meetings and various far-right political events.

But perhaps the press release’s most glaring omission of all is the fact that Paxton appeared as a cast member in a Red White and Blueprint docuseries episode.

During his recorded interviews for Red White and Blueprint, Paxton didn’t just throw his former Resource Management department under the bus, but he put the bus in reverse and rolled over Resource Management and its staff a few times more, for good measure.

Wyatt Paxton was a cast member in a Red White and Blueprint episode.

And yet, despite Paxton publicly criticizing Shasta County’s Resource Management department, despite his disloyalty to the county, despite those things, the board majority inexplicably hired Paxton as the interim director of the same department he’s maligned since he left his county job in 2004.

Reverge Anselmo: Out for revenge

Connecticut son-of-a-billionaire Reverge Anselmo

The year after Paxton left his Shasta County job, Anselmo purchased more than 1,500 acres near Shingletown in eastern Shasta county to create a vineyard, restaurant, chapel, and even some rooms for overnight lodging.

Once built, Anselmo’s property was a popular North State entertainment destination; a fancy place unlike anything most Shasta County folks had seen within our borders. Trouble arose for Anselmo in 2007 when the state cited Anselmo for some water-related code violations. Soon, Shasta County Resource Management joined the fray when it identified some construction-related issues, too.

So began the epic fight between Shasta County and Anselmo, a legal battle that dragged on for years, even as Anselmo continued to operate his businesses until he absolutely was forced to shut it down. Ultimately, eventually, Anselmo lost the legal fight, and in the process, he lost his dream destination and returned to his Connecticut home, one extremely pissed off millionaire.

But Reverge didn’t just go away; he went away mad.

In the 2021 Red White and Blueprint docuseries Anselmo spoke frankly about his great disdain for Shasta County. He listed the three conditions, that, if granted, might pave the way for his return to Redding: Get Patrick Jones on the board, succeed in the recall of the three (rational Republican) supervisors, and obliterate the Resource Management department.

“If you did that, I’d go back,” Reverge said as he sipped an amber-colored liquid from a glass tumbler.

Now, thanks to Shasta County’s trio of extremist supervisors, Anselmo’s three wishes are close to being granted.

First, thanks to Anselmo’s infusion of $100,000 into Jones campaign – the largest single campaign donation in Shasta County history — Jones won his 2020 election. It sounded like a lot then, but that $100,000 is relative chump change now when compared to the nearly $2 million Anselmo’s invested in campaign gifts to his favored Shasta County candidates in the past few years.

Second, although two of the three rational Republican (aka RINOs) supervisors — District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert, and District 1 Supervisor Joe Chimenti – avoided the far-right’s recall attempts, District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty was not so lucky. He was recalled in February of 2022 in a lie-based recall, replaced by Tim Garman.

By the time the 2022 November election rolled around, victorious MAGA board of supervisor candidates Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom joined Jones on the dais to form an ultra-conservative threesome whose votes have catapulted Shasta County into their own Project 2025 version that seems out to gut Shasta County government, but not before using what’s left of the dying county to benefit themselves and their projects.

The moment Crye, Kelstrom and Jones climbed aboard Shasta County’s government ship was the moment crazed political pirates took over, changed course and are now sailing toward certain destruction. Termites everywhere!

Tuesday’s board majority vote to hire turncoat Paxton could destabilize the Resource Management department, a move that could lead to the granting of Anselmo’s final wish: the beginning of the end of the Resource Management department.

If you did that, I’d go back

Paxton’s packed resume

Paxton’s employment history reveals a variety of jobs, not just his Shasta County stint as a building inspector and plan checker, but as a Shasta Community College construction division instructor in Redding, director of Trinity County’s Development Services in Weaverville, and his own company, Permits Plus Solutions, where he consults with clients about everything from unpermitted structures and new projects to airport developments and rezoning.

Finally, Paxton is co-owner of Wy-Not Cowboy Dressage, a company that provides clinics and lessons to “educate for better horsemen & horse women everywhere around the world”.

Wyatt Paxton, cowboy. Photo source: Facebook.

Board minority disagrees with Paxton hire

As noted in the county’s press release about Paxton’s upcoming job with Shasta County, the vote was carried 3-2 by the board majority, which consists of District 1 Supervisor Crye, District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, and Jones.

The board minority, District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert, and District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman, both responded to A News Cafe’s request for comment regarding the board majority’s decision to hire Paxton.

At the center of both supervisor’s criticism of the Paxton hire was the fact that there’s already a highly capable employee — Adam Fieseler, Deputy Director of Resource Management — the heir apparent to the position following the resignation of former Director of Resource Management, Paul Hellman.

Mary Rickert: “With the resignation of former Director of Resource Management Paul Hellman, he recommended that Deputy Director Adam Fieseler be his successor.

I was concerned that the ultimate choice made by the board majority lacked the skill set needed to perform the tasks needed to be an effective director for the next 900 hours while the department launches its search for a permanent director.”

Tim Garman:  “We have a very capable person in Adam Fieseler, someone who knows the ins and outs of the entire position of Resource Management. Being the Director of Resource Management is just so much more than just dealing with permit issues. There is planning, environmental health, and so much more. I don’t know where Paxton’s skill set lies. However, Fieseler has experience in every aspect of that office, and he would have been the appropriate person for the interim position. That would have also allowed us to see how he performed in that role before we made the permanent hire.

Then Dawn Duckett dropped a bombshell today during public comment when she mentioned that Paxton had worked for Anselmo. If that’s true, then I guess that’s your answer.”

Dawn Duckett’s ‘bombshell’ comment

Supervisor Garman rightfully credited frequent public speaker Dawn Duckett for dropping a major “bombshell” during her 3-minute public comment. Gasps reverberated throughout the board chambers as Duckett told the public information about Paxton that the board majority had conveniently kept to themselves.

Today, we’ll give Duckett the last word.

###

Are you already a financial supporter of A News Cafe? Thank you! But if you’re not, why not? We need your help to continue providing local, independent journalism. Please help us.