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Fast Fact: Shasta County Personnel Director Monica Fugitt Has Conflict of Interest in Ewing’s Hiring


In this episode of North State Breakdown’s ‘Fast Facts,’ we discuss the recent appointment of Sean Ewing as Shasta County’s new Director of Resource Management. We look into the questionable panel selection process involving Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, CEO David Rickert, and Personnel Director Monica Fugitt—highlighting potential biases, conflicts of interest, and allegations of favoritism.

Full transcript

Welcome to the North State Breakdown with Benjamin Nowain. On today’s episode of our Fast Facts series, let’s discuss the recent appointment of Sean Ewing as the new Director of Resource Management for Shasta County.

The hiring panel for the Resource Management Director position included: Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, CEO David Rickert, and Personnel Director Monica Fugitt. This selection process immediately raises questions. Let’s start with Chris Kelstrom.

Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, who has has a close association with Supervisor Patrick Jones since childhood, as well as Connecticut billionaire Reverge Anselmo, has already shown bias when he chose Wyatt Paxton as the interim Director of Resource Management, a controversial anti-government candidate. The Breakdown recently reported on Paxton’s hostile work environment allegations from his previous position.

Now, Kelstrom has supported Sean Ewing, adding to the suspicion of favoritism and political influence.

“Yeah, and I was just going to just those exact sentiments. It was unanimous, all three of us, and I fully support Sean. I think he’s the right man for the job.”

Kelstrom further emphasized his support for Paxton:

“And just so the record, I also fully support Wyatt Paxton. I brought him in. I interviewed him on the tailgate of my truck in Cottonwood, and I think he was the right man for the job for the time being. And I think Sean’s the right man for the job moving forward.”

A Clear Conflict of Interest?

And then we have Personnel Director Monica Fugitt. Monica was also on the hiring panel that offered the position to Sean Ewing. But here’s the issue: her husband Josh Fugitt works in the Resource Management Department.

This is a direct conflict of interest because it means Monica was effectively picking her husband’s next boss. If there were any sort of quid pro quo involved beyond that, it would make the situation even more unethical. She should have recused herself from that panel.

The October 15th Board Meeting

The October 15th board meeting also highlighted some of the contention around the appointment.

Kevin Crye: “Well, you just heard two supervisors say like none of this is based on merit. It’s based on relationship and cronyism. So you got the job because you earned it. You deserved it.

“I have full confidence in the panel. I just want to apologize to Director Fugitt and CEO Rickert that, I mean, we all sign up, we all sign up to have our integrity and character slammed, but staff just getting railroaded more and more and thrown into it.”

Supervisor Patrick Jones takes credit: ‘We’ve changed the people that run the county’

I’d like to also mention a recent report done by a Dutch media outlet where a reporter makes a statement to Patrick Jones at his brother Marshall’s gun shop:

“But you’ve basically taken over the entire county?”

Jones responded, “Yes, we’ve changed. We’ve changed the people that run the county.”

Perhaps Supervisor Jones doesn’t understand the definition of the term cronyism.

Controlling the Narrative

In Crye’s post-meeting social media video from October 15th, Crye tried to control the narrative:

“Very often, it becomes the next man up or next woman up. It’s never who is best, who is most qualified. You hear people constantly talking about they’ve paid their dues,” Crye said.

“Well, guess what? In a free market society, we should want, and especially here in Shasta County, we should want people, regardless of their affiliations politically or anything else, if they can do the job best, that’s who needs to get the job.”

However, when you’re dealing with crucial county departments, institutional knowledge and experience should be of paramount importance.

The Breakdown has discussed the trend of appointing individuals with a lack of experience in depth back in Episode 22, and yet it seems the pattern is continuing. Since Supervisors Patrick Jones, Chris Kelstrom, and Kevin Crye have made up the board majority, we’ve seen a series of questionable leadership appointments in Shasta County government. The lack of transparency and apparent favoritism undermines public trust.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel, though. If Supervisor Mary Rickert is re-elected on November 5th, Shasta County may be able to restore the trust of its citizens and once again favor experience over cronyism.

And that’s a Fast Fact.

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If you appreciate Benjamin Nowain’s investigative video reports, please consider supporting A News Cafe and/or the North State Breakdown. Thank you!

Benjamin Nowain

Benjamin Nowain grew up in Palo Cedro and has a penchant for storytelling. He studied technology and film at City College of San Francisco. He is married to Jenny O’Connell-Nowain and has two children, Judah and Ari. His favorite hobby is holding elected leaders accountable. If you appreciate Benjamin Nowain’s investigative reporting, videos, and commentary, please consider a contribution to A News Cafe. You can also support Benjamin directly by subscribing to The North State Breakdown at https://www.northstatebreakdown.com

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