By Christian Gardinier
As the Shasta County Board of Supervisors (SCBOS) enters its lengthy three-day budget hearings, let us understand a few things. Shasta County heavily relies on federal and state funds for various programs and services; we are a welfare county.
With the Trump administration planning to cut funding for health, housing, recreation, education, veteran services, and food assistance for seniors and families, which will significantly impact local employment and our economy as a whole, we need to eliminate the waste of taxpayer money. Let’s start with the SCBOS itself.
Theoretically, by considering the salaries of supervisors, the CEO, and County Counsel, as well as the salaries, time, and effort required by support staff to prepare meeting agendas, minutes, and supporting documents, along with the facility costs of security, maintenance, utilities, computers, and audiovisual equipment, and the fact that at least five or more other salaried county employees are often waiting around to address the board on legitimate county issues, we can extrapolate that the cost of running a BOS meeting is at least $2,000.00 (two thousand dollars) per hour. Here’s a formula:
Four SCBOS meetings per month at $2,000 an hour total $8000.00 monthly.
Twelve months in a year at $8000.00 a month totals $96,000.00 annually.
Regarding SCBOS meetings, the rules for the board agenda clearly state: “PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD—OPEN TIME, during which you may address the Board on any matter not listed on the agenda that is within the Board’s subject matter jurisdiction or on any agenda item listed on the Consent Calendar.”
But, three years at $86,000.00 a year amounts to $3,456,000 spent on conspiracy theories regarding voting fraud, COVID, anti-vax propaganda, God, chemtrails, Joe Biden, Governor Newsom, and other highly partisan issues that are clearly a universe outside the board’s legal jurisdiction, at $86,000.00 a year, amounts to $3,456,000.00 taxpayer MAGA propaganda, and that’s nothing but waste.
Many folks would argue that this nonsense has been ongoing for over four years, bringing the total to around $4,600,000. Add that to $ 1.2 million spent to replace perfectly good voting machines with… voting machines, and over $120,000 for a non-functioning “Elections Commission” that openly advocates for Shasta County to break state and federal laws, and we’re talking serious money, and add to that over $10,700.00 fighting Hobbs, who lost three times so far in court, and we’re talking serious money!
If you’re in a hole, stop digging. The time, resources, and money spent on nonsense not only harm our reputation but also divide our community, encouraging people like the Shasta Five to file numerous frivolous lawsuits that get admonished and dismissed in courts, yet cost taxpayers tens of thousands to defend against. The SCBOS needs to grow up. We are in a severe drought, and taxpayer money doesn’t grow on trees.
Christian Gardinier lives in Redding
