Election denialist Dan Ladd.
In a classic case of biting the hand that feeds you, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at a special meeting Tuesday to suspend the Shasta County Elections Commission after two of its most ardent supporters filed yet another civil lawsuit against the county.
Dan Ladd and Laura Hobbs, prominent figures in the local election denial movement, filed suit against Shasta County Registrar of Voters Tom Toller on Jan. 30, alleging a litany of election law transgressions. In closed session Tuesday, the board voted 5-0 to assign an outside attorney to the case, in which Ladd and Hobbs are acting as their own attorneys.
The board also voted 4-1 to suspend the controversial Shasta County Elections Commission until the Ladd/Hobbs lawsuit is resolved. Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye was the lone vote opposing suspension of the commission, which has been most notable for its failed attempts to persuade the board to break state election laws and the inability of its right-wing commissioners to tolerate anyone left of Father Coughlin.
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s former election commissioners Mike Michalak and Brad Garbutt explaining why they walked away from the commission. Garbutt summed it up best.
“The commission has succeeded at two things,” Garbutt said. “One, wasting tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars and countless hours of county staff time, particularly of those employed at the County Counsel’s and County Clerk’s offices. No election commission recommendations forwarded have been placed on agenda for a vote by the Board of Supervisors other than changing the name from Advisory Commission to Election Commission. Their recommendations never saw the light of day, likely due to County Counsel determining the recommendations were unlawful, unenforceable and unconstitutional.”
“Two, they have succeeded in forming 19 ad hoc committees that have never reported back with any recommendations,” Garbutt dropped the mic.
I have advocated abolishing the election commission from its inception little more than a year ago because its whole existence is based on President Donald Trump’s Big Lie that he was cheated out of victory in the 2020 presidential election. It doesn’t matter how many times the Big Lie has been debunked in court, or how many years former Trump conspirators like Tina Peters spend in jail. We’re dealing with querulous litigants here. They’re not going to stop, even at their own peril.
That being said, they can be humbled, as occurred coming out of closed session when County Counsel Joe Larmour announced the decision to hire an outside attorney and suspend the elections commission. Anticipating the coming right-wing freak-out, District 4 Supervisor Matt Plummer made a motion to form an ad hoc committee to keep the commission’s work going during the suspension.
It didn’t work. The election denier crowd flipped its collective lid.
Rich Gallardo, Brown Act expert.
Ostensibly R6 was at issue: Discuss the Shasta County Elections Commission, waive reading of changes in the ordinance and provide direction to staff.
Local tea party capo Rich Gallardo attempted to exert some control over the situation from the podium.
“So just for clarification, the election commission is suspended indefinitely and per Matt Plummer’s motion, we may have an ad hoc committee at the, at the County Supervisor level?” Gallardo said, addressing Crye. “Is that what I heard? I just want there to be clarity for the other 29 people coming in behind me, Mr. Chairman.”
Gallardo had correctly summed up the mob’s wrath, which was directed at the five supervisors and County Counsel Larmour, who, it should be noted has had to put up personally with this election denial nonsense sitting in on commission meetings for the past many months.
Election denier Kim Moore.
I’m pretty sure election denier Kim Moore was pointing at Larmour when she went off. But who knows? It might have been Chair Crye! Or the FAFO Five!
“You’re going to be in deep trouble, buddy, let me tell you that right now,” Moore said. “I’m going to tell you right now, you guys are going to have DOGE all over you.”
Moore was apparently advocating that Elon Musk’s teenage hacker squad, the Department Of Government Efficiency, peruse Shasta County’s databases, perhaps even delete Shasta County for noncompliance with the election commission.
“We were really clear,” Moore said. “We were very clear. I don’t know what the, what the excuses, you guys knew that voter election integrity, election security, it was everything to us.”
“Let’s just crack it all open and get to business,” she finished.
Dan Ladd’s lawsuit triggered the election commission’s suspension.
The man playing the dog who caught the car at Tuesday’s special meeting was Dan Ladd, since it was the Ladd/Hobbs lawsuit that triggered the suspension of the elections commission.
“Wow. Wow. He mumbled through what he wanted to say about closed session,” said Ladd as reality set in.
“You guys have canceled the election commission. You got all these people suspended. OK.”
“Again, the cancellation is not what’s the topic right now,” Larmour said not for the last time. “The change, the ordinance is …
“Don’t, stop,” Ladd interrupted. “He’s wasting my time. He’s wasting your time. You guys, this is scorched earth right now.”
He might be right. Once the commission is suspended no one will want to bring it back.
“You’re not letting us have a commission that can bring this to you so you can take action,” Ladd said. “So you guys are using witness intimidation against the citizens that are trying to have fair and transparent elections. That’s a criminal offense for all six of you.”
Election denier Laura Hobbs
Witness intimidation and tampering was on many of the speakers’ lips but rarely spelled out precisely, perhaps because no reason was given for suspending the commission until the Ladd/Hobbs litigation is resolved. The public speakers seemed to be confusing testifying in court with speaking at a board meeting.
“OK, I’m appalled by that recent decision,” Hobbs said. “I think that was in very, very poor taste.”
Hobbs complained that the annual report requirement Plummer added to the election commission’s ordinance was “premature and a waste of resources until significant improvements are made to the election process, such as implementing voter ID, hand counting ballots, eliminating voting, mail in voting, maintaining voter rolls.”
She’s putting the cart before the horse because she knows she’s going to lose, just like she lost her pro se case for her March 2024 primary loss, twice.
“So what if David, in his battle with Goliath, said to God, I’m not willing to fight a battle that I know that I’m going to lose, right?” Dobbs said. “Supervisors, I urge you to do what you know is right by God.”
“I urge you to take your hands off the elections commission. Don’t alter it. It’s fine the way it is. You don’t need to amend it.
Keep it as it is. Do not suspend it. That’s witness tampering. And that’s not all right. That’s not all right by the citizens.”
“Shame on you.”
I asked Larmour after the meeting why the board had suspended the commission, but of course he couldn’t tell me because the decision was made in closed session. I imagine it might have something to do with members of the commission sharing data with their election denier compatriots to use in lawsuits against the county.
Have we seen the end of the Shasta County Elections Commission?
As I see it, yes.
Meanwhile, Stormy Weather Back in the Real World
Shasta County Sheriff Mike Johnson’s emergency report went extremely well.
Considering the stormy weather I endured traveling back and forth from the last BOS meeting Feb. 4, it made perfect sense to hold a special meeting Tuesday to put the official stamp on Shasta County’s emergency declaration—especially with more rain on the way by this Thursday.
Shasta County Sheriff Mike Johnson and Office of Emergency Services Lt. Rob Sandbloom made the presentation for R1, “Adopt a resolution which ratifies the Shasta County Director of Emergency Services’ February 5, 2025, proclamation of a local emergency due to the February 2025 winter storms.”
Between the two of them, a preliminary damage report emerged.
“So we’ve experienced the flooding, you know, over the past couple of weeks due to the dry conditions we had, then the extreme rainfall that came on the heels of that,” Sheriff Johnson said. “During this time, cities of Redding, Anderson, City of Shasta Lake, and all of our surrounding rural communities have been suffering damage to their infrastructure or floodings or roads or one way or another. The rainfall over a five to six day period exceeded 14 inches, which is well above the historic normal average for the entire month.”
Shasta County Office of Emergency Services Lt. Rob Sandbloom.
Thanks to mega water releases from Shasta Dam and the previous rainfall, Park Marina is flooded and the Sheriff’s Office sandbagged. The floodwaters stretch southward alongside the Sacramento River to Anderson and beyond. A portion of Rainbow Lake in western Shasta County has collapsed, the estimated repair cost is $215,000.
“City of Anderson officials report $50,000 to $100,000 in damages of various locations just in Anderson River Park,” Sheriff Johnson said. “The Cottonwood Irrigation District is conservatively looking at about $500,000 minimum of damage to their infrastructure. Westwood Manor subdivision in the city of Redding sustained flooding damages to residents homes.
“And then of course, probably the biggest one damage we’ve got going so far is the Bonnyview boat ramp and the sinkhole and the pipeline there that’s caused. So I spoke with city manager Barry Tippin yesterday and he told me that estimate is going to be anywhere from $5 million up to fix that culvert and the damage that’s starting to extend northway there. That is a key boat ramp to our emergency service operations or boating safety unit operations, Swift Water Rescue.”
Johnson warned that the damage report is indeed preliminary.
“That’s not even infrastructure damages yet,” he said. “So that number is going to go way up.”
The supervisors approved R1 unanimously, 5-0.
SCOREBOARD
R1: Adopt a resolution which ratifies the Shasta County Director of Emergency Services’ February 5, 2025, proclamation of a local emergency due to the February 2025 winter storms, subject to the requirements of and in accordance with Government Code Section 8630.
Future General Fund Impact: Unknown, but possibly high.
Score: 5-0.
R2: Appoint David J. Rickert, County Executive Officer, Bryce Ritchie, Senior Administrative Analyst, and Jenn Rossi, Senior Administrative Analyst, as real property negotiators for Assessor Parcel Number (APN) 050-050-010, pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8.
No Additional General Fund Impact so far. The county is scoping out land for the proposed alternative jail building.
Score: 5-0.
CLOSED SESSION
R3: Conference with legal counsel.
Case Name: Daniel T. Ladd v. Thomas Toller (Shasta County Superior Court, Case No. 206952)
Report: The board voted 5-0 to hire outside counsel for the case. The board voted 4-1 to suspend the Shasta County Elections Commission until Ladd/Hobbs case resolved.
R4: Conference with legal counsel, anticipated legal action regarding Chriss Street’s $40,000 consultant bid.
Report: No action was reported coming out of closed session.
R5: Conference with real property negotiator
Property Description: 7251 Eastside Road, Redding, CA; APN 050-050-010
County Negotiators: County Executive Officer David J. Rickert, Senior Administrative Analyst Bryce Ritchie, Senior Administrative Analyst Jenn Rossi
Negotiating Parties: City of Redding
Under Negotiations: Price and terms of payment.
Report: Given to staff.
OPEN SESSION
R6: Discuss changes to Shasta County Election Commission ordinance.
Score: 5-0
R7: Discuss changes to board calendar.
Score: 5-0
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