Pro-immigrant demonstration outside the board chambers.
Here’s a question for all you restaurant owners, cattle ranchers, strawberry farmers, construction contractors and any other local businesses reliant on Latino labor, documented and undocumented, not to mention all the customers dependent on your products and services: When ICE and the federalized California Guard raid your companies in the coming weeks to deport your employees and their families without due process, will you stand up for them?
How? Who you gonna call? The Shasta County Sheriff, who apparently claims he doesn’t have to follow California law? The Cottonwood Militia? Please.
Having attended Monday’s Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting, where the board voted unanimously to declare for the third or fourth freaking time that Shasta County isn’t a sanctuary county, even though legally it is under state law, I can assure you no one is coming to your rescue.
Somehow the story at Monday’s meeting wasn’t President Donald Trump laying siege to Los Angeles with federalized National Guard troops and rumored Marines over the weekend, but Shasta County’s inclusion on a sanctuary jurisdiction list—which again technically we are, despite bloviating board resolutions to the contrary.
Shasta County District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom learned about Shasta County’s inclusion on the list from Cottonwood Militia commandant Woody Clendenen in late May.
“So anyways, talking with Woody, he had gotten a call from a New York Times reporter saying that we were listed on a Department of Justice list as being a sanctuary county, and she found that surprising being that we’re pretty conservative up here, as was Huntington Beach,” Kelstrom said. “The city of Huntington Beach was also on that same list. So I did an impromptu interview with her on Woody’s phone, called her up, and we talked, and she sent me the list, and sure enough, we were listed on that.”
Kelstrom relayed the information to Crye, County Counsel Joe Larmour and County CEO David Rickert. Crye sponsored R3 on Monday’s agenda, which called for writing a letter to the Department of Homeland Security informing the agency that Shasta County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction (even though it is).
Eris explains state law to the supervisors.
Eris, a black-masked local progressive activist, explained state law to the board.
“California is a sanctuary state, as so eloquently put by Christian Gardenier,” Eris said. “And that’s the law, specifically SB 54, which prohibits local law enforcement from helping ICE or engaging in civil immigration enforcement. That is the law in this state, whether you like it or not. And it’s protected under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which you claim to uphold.”
“For this board to go out of its way to defy that law is a waste of taxpayer money,” she continued. “It does nothing to protect our communities, build infrastructure, or support your constituents. It is political theater, a taxpayer-funded stunt meant to feed your egos and spread division and hate. And considering this board’s deep ties to Cottonwood Militia, no one should be surprised.”
“I oppose this letter and your blatant noncompliance with SB 54. We stand with LA. This is our state, and we will protect it from fascists.”
Once again, Eris butted heads with Crye who threatened to expel the activist from the meeting as he did at the last board meeting in May. Suppression of dissent and free speech are the calling cards of fascism, Eris explained earlier in the meeting during open comment.
“Fascism can show up in local government, and even though it’s usually associated with national regimes, there are early signs that can appear at the local level too,” she said. “Here is how. It looks like suppression of opposition by silencing local activists, journalists, or political opponents, like cancelling town hall meetings, or punishing dissenters.”
No kidding. This reporter was barred from a May 24 town hall featuring newly selected Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis at the Redding Public Library. The ejection appears to be in violation of the library’s code of conduct, but so far the library hasn’t responded to my request for a copy of the room reservation contract, which was paid for by former District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones.
Incredibly, with almost zero discussion about the crucial events unfolding in southern California and the Bay Area in real time, the board voted 5-0 to bend the knee to Trump and send the letter to Homeland Security.
No sanctuary here!
Deputy DA Nolan Weber.
District Attorneys Protest Proposed Budget
Budget week is upon us and the board will hack the numbers out at public meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Once again Shasta County’s deputy district attorneys showed up in force, hoping to head off what they believe to be drastic budget cuts.
“I’m deeply concerned about the proposed budget’s impact on public safety,” said prosecutor Nolan Weber. “Let’s be clear. This budget defunds law enforcement, and it does so not with a headline but with the fine print, by cutting critical positions, slashing the DA’s budget, the public defender’s budget, and suppressing wages below inflation. This is not fiscal responsibility. That is a slow erosion of law and order.”
“It’s a broken promise to the community, and what’s most troubling is the philosophy behind this budget,” Weber continued. “It assumes savings from positions staying unfilled because wages are so low the county is aware they will never be filled. Every year for the past three years, $40 million to $50 million returns to the general fund, and why does it do that?
“Because positions are left unfilled because wages are suppressed,” he concluded. “The county literally banks on using depressed wages and unfilled positions. That’s not budgeting. That’s gambling with public safety.”
They say there are no stupid questions. Then there’s Chair Crye who never misses a chance to snark on a perceived opponent.
“I have a question for you, because since we’re in public comment and we don’t normally engage, but you won’t be up here for the budget hearing, so why is it that the Sheriff’s Department is at full staff and people take pay cuts to work for the Sheriff?”
“So that’s a complex question that has to do with personnel orientation,” Weber said. “If you’d like a further answer, I’d be happy to meet privately, but you’ve declined those invitations.”
“You didn’t answer the question,” Crye said.
“I did,” Weber said.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did, sir.”
Deputy DA Benjamin Rothbaum.
Deputy DA Benjamin Rothbaum attempted to schmooze Crye, a noted jock, with a sports analogy.
“It’s like a football team whose fans pack the stadium every week, chanting defense wins championships, while the front office quietly trades away all the best defensive players and cuts the defensive coordinator’s budget in half,” Rothbaum said.
“When I was in high school, I played defense for an underfunded football team,” he recalled, somewhat ruefully. “I was a strong safety on a defense that ran a 4-4. It was an underfunded football team, and here I am over 10 years later, and I feel like I’m playing defense for an underfunded team once again.”
Ouch!
Prosecutor Noah Kinkaid.
Noah Kinkaid prosecutes domestic violence cases, rape cases, and child abuse cases, all on the felony level. He agrees Shasta County doesn’t pay prosecutors enough to attract them to the area.
“Butte County, their deputy DAs are now going to make $48,000 more than we are,” Kinkaid said. “That’s a competitive county to us. So we are going to continue to lose DAs, and we are going to continue to not be able to recruit DAs if we are not competitive.”
“What we have is a de facto defunding of the DA’s office. And if you care about public safety, if you care about law and order, it’s time to invest in DAs.”
Dawn Duckett
Frequent public speaker Dawn Duckett, who formerly worked for the DA’s office, explained the differences between prosecutors and sheriff’s office employees for Chair Crye.
“So there’s two main reasons (they’re different),” she said. “One is level of education. Prosecutors have to have extended years of education and student loans, so they may not be in a position to take a pay cut to come work here. And also, the DA’s office and the Public Defender’s Office compete with the private sector as well as the public sector.”
“So let’s talk about your hiring of that nitwit computer hacker, Clint Curtis,” Duckett chided. “What’s next? Are we going to hire Sherri Papini to be our HHSA director? I mean, come on. We are a laughingstock, gentlemen.”
Classic mic drop.
Personnel Director Monica Fuggit.
Later in the meeting, during her presentation for R7, Shasta County Personnel Director Monica Fuggit brought the county’s current staff vacancy rates into closer focus as required by new state law.
“As of that pay period, the county had a total of 2,083 positions, full-time equivalent positions, and 1,784 of them were filled,” she said. “This equates to an overall 14.5 percent vacancy rate. The units with the highest vacancy rates include the United Public Employees of California, UPEC, local 792, general and professional units.”
Those are the bargaining units that represent public attorneys.
“The professional unit tends to maintain a higher vacancy rate,” Fuggit said. “Those positions require professional certifications, and we’re often competing with the private sector for many of those individuals.”
District 3 Supervisor Corkey Harmon
Wolves, Wildfires and Shirking Duty in Sacramento
Let me make one thing perfectly clear on Northern California’s burgeoning gray wolf population. This issue is getting intense scrutiny from ranchers, wildlife biologists, other stakeholders and the national media. There have been no wolf attacks on humans, period. But for cattle ranchers it’s a different story. There are more than 5 million cattle in California, including 670,000 beef cattle on an estimated 11,000 ranches, many located in Northern California in the wolf zone. There’s maybe 100 wolves in the region. It’s entirely possible that gray wolves and cattle production may be incompatible, but we don’t have enough information to order their extermination, which is saying the quiet part out loud, sorry.
One local expert, at least from the ranching perspective, is former District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert, who’s been warning about the wolves for the past three years, since they’ve been preying on Prather Ranch cattle in Siskiyou County.
Now that District Supervisor Corkey Harmon has displaced Rickert, he’s crying wolf, without the actual ranching expertise. Harmon dedicated his board report to the wolf issue, and his spiel got progressively apocalyptic.
Harmon began by falsely saying gray wolves constitute a public safety emergency. That’s simply not the case. They’re a threat to some cattle, not humans. He then reeled off a stream of unverified claims.
“Well, there was an article that just came out in the LA Tribune or LA Times, I forget which one, but there was a lot of information in there. I urge you to read that. Hunnicutt is the wildlife biologist. He indicated that the 80 corridor to the north, which is 23,000 square miles, he feels that’s capable of maintaining 500 wolves.”
“So, it kind of gives you a little bit of an indicator what their goal is,” Harmon deduced. “They’re understating how many wolves are out there right now.”
Harmon produced no evidence to support this claim.
Harmon predicts that gray wolves would be devastating to the cattle industry and wild game hunting based on a recent scat study that found 70 percent cattle DNA and 30 percent wild game in samples of wolf scat.
“But I want to point out one more thing and I’ll wrap this up,” Harmon said, preparing the big reveal.
“If you think about what’s the biggest issue we have in California in the last few years is wildfire,” he said. “Nobody’s pointing this out.”
“I’m going to point this out right now. The wildfire, part of the control of wildfire is grazing in our public lands, well, these ranchers aren’t going to be able to graze if there’s all these wolves, they’re just not going to be able to afford to.”
Harmon based his observations on the small herd of cattle he owns and the amount of grazing they do.
A country boy will survive. That goes for Harmon and District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, both of whom have shirked traveling to Sacramento, which is part of the job they were elected to do, and passed their assignments on to Crye. The proposed Fountain Wind Project is in Harmon’s district, but the board voted 5-0 to make Crye the official spokesperson for upcoming meetings in the state capital.
“I don’t want to go to Sacramento, so he’s going to Sacramento,” Harmon said, making the motion.
“I’ll second that because I don’t want to go to Sacramento either,” said Kelstrom, seconding the motion.
Welcome to Rubeville.
SCOREBOARD
Health and Human Services Social Worker Jessica Roi (holding plaque) is Shasta County Employee of the Month for June.
Board Matters
R1 Adopt a resolution which recognizes Jessica Roi, Social Worker, of the Health and Human Services Agency as Shasta County’s Employee of the Month for June 2025.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Score: 5-0.
Jessica Roi has worked as a Social Worker for Behavioral Health and Social Services Branch of the Health and Human Services Agency since June of 2023. One year later, she’s Shasta County’s Employee of the Month for June.
“Jessica came into the position with experience from another county, but did not hesitate to jump in and learn Shasta County policies and procedures while unlearning her past practices from her prior position,” said Shasta County District 1 Superintendent Crye, who presented Roi with the award. “One of these tasks included transitioning from doing telephone visits to home visits. Jessica has not only accepted the challenge without hesitation, but she has also excelled at overcoming changes while solving problems creatively and independently.”
Roi declined to take all the credit and selflessly thanked her staff.
“I don’t often to do this, but I just wanted to take a moment to highlight my team over there and all of the contributions that you guys have made, I want you to all the stand up so I can clap for you,” Roi said. “I’m really honored to be an employee of the month for the month of June. I wanted to thank my team and leadership for their constant support and collaboration, and recognition is really a reflection of all of the great people I get to work with every day. As Isaac Newton once said, if I see further, it is by standing on the shoulders of other giants.”
Well done Ms. Roi.
R2 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
R3 Approve a letter notifying the Department of Homeland Security that Shasta County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction (Sponsored by Supervisor Crye).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Score: 5-0.
R4 Approve a letter of support for preserving the dams at North Battle Creek and McCumber Reservoirs (Sponsored by Supervisor Kelstrom).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Score: 5-0.
R5 Designate Supervisor Crye as the spokesperson for the Board of Supervisors to attend meetings with the California Energy Commission regarding the Fountain Wind Project (Sponsored by Supervisor Harmon).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Score: 5-0.
R6 Discuss and consider requesting regular updates regarding the activities of the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) and the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC).
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Score: 5-0.
SCHEDULED HEARINGS
R7 Conduct a public hearing and receive a presentation regarding the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts, in accordance with Government Code § 3502.3.
No Additional General Fund Impact
No Vote
CONSENT CALENDAR
At Supervisor Kelstrom’s request, C2 was pulled for discussion and then approved 5-0. The rest of the consent calendar was also approved unanimously.
County Administrative Office
C1 Approve lease agreements with the Shasta Air Quality Management District for approximately 142 square feet of rooftop space at 2630 Breslauer Way, Redding and 2640 Breslauer Way, Redding.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C2 Adopt a policy resolution which amends Administrative Policy 5-201, Disposition of Surplus Property.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C3 Approve the proposed responses to the Shasta County Grand Jury Fiscal Year 2024-25 Report entitled “Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility Report, Transforming the Lives of Youth.”
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Auditor-Controller
C4 Adopt a resolution which establishes the Shasta County appropriations limit at $302,640,426 for Fiscal Year 2025-26 and sets the annual adjustment factors used to calculate the appropriations limit.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Clerk of the Board
C5 Approve the minutes of the meetings held on April 22 and 30, 2025, as submitted.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Health and Human Services Agency-Administration
C6 Approve retroactive use of General Purpose restricted fund balance in Fiscal Year 202324 in the amount of $42,856 in the CDBG Admin/Rehab Budget (BU 596).
No Additional General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
C7 Approve a budget amendment which increases appropriations by $107,600 and reduces revenue by $26,971, offset by use of restricted fund balance, in the Housing and Community Action Agency Budget (BU 590) for expending the remaining Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) 1 funds.
No Additional General Fund Impact
4/5 Vote
Human Services Agency-Behavioral Health and Social Services
C8 Approve an agreement with Compassion Pathway Behavioral Health LLC, dba Anderson Creek SRF, for residential mental health treatment services in an amount not to exceed $5,400,000 and designate authority to the Health and Human Services Director, or their designee, to approve rate changes not to exceed 10%.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C9 Approve a retroactive renewal agreement with Hill Country Community Clinic for Mobile Crisis Team services in an amount not to exceed $10,800,000.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Health and Human Services Agency-Economic Mobility
C10 Approve a renewal agreement with Shasta Women’s Refuge, Inc., dba One SAFE Place, for a domestic violence program for residents of Shasta County.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C11 Adopt a resolution which repeals Resolution No. 2025-022 and authorizes the Health and Human Services Agency Director, or their designee, to submit an Emergency Solutions Grant application and approve funding agreements and amendments.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Public Works
C12 Approve plans and specifications for the “County Service Area No. 3 Castella Water Intake Replacement Project,” Contract No. 610471, and direct the Public Works Director to advertise for bids, and authorize opening of bids on or after June 26, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
Future General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C13 Approve plans and specifications for the “County Service Area No. 6 Jones Valley Emergency Generators Project,” Contract No. 610971, and direct the Public Works Director to advertise for bids, and authorize opening of bids on or after June 26, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C14 Adopt a resolution recognizing that the circumstances and factors that led to the May 27, 2025, proclamation of an emergency in the area of the Breslauer Campus due to necessity of an emergency sewer line repair have not been resolved and that there is a need for continuation of the emergency proclamation.
No General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Resource Management
C15 Approve an agreement with BPR Consulting Group LLC for plan check and inspection services.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
Support Services
C16 Approve a renewal agreement with Securitas Security Services USA, Inc., for unarmed private security services in an amount not to exceed $7,000,000.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
C17 Approve a renewal agreement with Zeek Technologies, LLC, dba Zeektek, for Information Technology Staffing Services.
No Additional General Fund Impact
Simple Majority Vote
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