Chaos still ringing out in the new year at Shasta County Supervisors' meeting

A day before Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, Shasta County sent out a press release reminding residents to behave themselves during public meetings.

That didn’t seem to matter to some who turned out for the Board of Supervisors' meeting.

The chaos, rancor and dysfunction that’s marred board of supervisors' meetings for more than three years and has attracted national attention were on display, once again, at Tuesday evening’s meeting.

For at least the fourth time since last summer, the chamber had to be cleared of spectators after a member of the public lashed out at board chair Kevin Crye, who represents District 1 and is fighting a recall. The meeting was interrupted for about 15 minutes after Crye ordered security to clear the room.

Frequent board meeting attendee Nathan Pinkney became angry during a presentation on whether Shasta should caucus as a rural county or a suburban county in the California County Caucus. Shasta is currently a member of the suburban caucus. Crye put the item on the agenda because he wants Shasta to be designated a rural county.

After a presentation by county Administrative Analyst Jared Biddle, who recommended Shasta stay a suburban county, Nigel Skeet of the Shasta County Chamber of Commerce presented. Skeet contended that changing the county’s designation to rural would help better market the area to tourists.

Skeet was joined by Jason Stovall of Redding Buzz, who after Skeet finished took the microphone to pitch his social media page.

Pinkney then ripped Crye for allowing Stovall, whom Crye calls a friend, to promote his business at the podium.

“This is a government meeting. What the hell was that? Why did you sponsor that, Kevin? This is county business. Why did you waste our time with that?” Pinkney said.

When Pinkney would not sit down, Crye ordered the chamber to be cleared.

It’s not the first time Pinkney’s actions have shut down a board meeting.

Last May, Pinkney was escorted from the chamber by a security guard after then-chair Supervisor Patrick Jones got upset with him for speaking out from his seat in the audience.

During a presentation on the potential to build tiny homes in Shasta County, Pinkney, who is Black, got angry when a white man, Alex Bielecki, used the N-word while stating his opposition to tiny homes. Bielecki was not chastised and was allowed to address the board later in the meeting.

Ultimately, supervisors on Tuesday voted 3-2 to move forward with changing Shasta County’s designation to rural.

Crye, Jones and Chris Kelstrom were in the majority. Supervisors Tim Garman and Mary Rickert voted no.

Meanwhile, some who spoke wondered if Crye had a conflict of interest because he is friends with Skeet. “You are supposed to disclose if you have a business relationship with somebody that you keep having present at these meetings,” resident Steven Kohn said Tuesday.

More: Why this supervisor's apology to Black man he kicked out after racist incident fell flat

Crye’s critics have also said Joseph Larmour, who was hired as county counsel in December, is dating the general manager of Crye’s business, Ninja Coalition, and that Crye should have disclosed that in the run-up to hire him. Crye said he helped recruit Larmour but has told the Record Searchlight that he would not discuss his employees.

Crye did acknowledge he is friends with Skeet and Stovall before he said why he wants Shasta to caucus with rural counties. Crye also said he was disappointed that Stovall promoted his business, Redding Buzz, saying he did not know Stovall would do that and that such promotion was wrong.

Shasta supervisors should caucus with “like-minded” counties, said Crye, and he doesn’t care what larger counties like Santa Barbara want to do. Crye also said changing to the rural caucus will help market Shasta County and bring more tourism dollars into the county.

But echoing some speakers, Garman was perplexed about what being a member of a rural or a suburban county caucus has to do with tourism. He also said that Shasta County needs to be working on more important issues like the jail expansion, homelessness and mental health.

“You’re going to advertise in L.A., Las Vegas, wherever you’re going to advertise and nobody down there is going to look up and see if we’re a rural caucus or suburban caucus,” Garman said of tourism marketing.

“I don’t know why we’re spending so much time on something that doesn’t really make a difference in the lives of our citizens," Garman added. "The average person out there did not know last week if we are a rural or suburban caucus. The average person is not going to know six months after we change."

Laurie Baker, of Upstate California and the California Welcome Center in Anderson, said she has been marketing the North State for about 10 years.

"When it comes to tourism, we do work together with other rural counties," Baker told supervisors. "So, we do work together because we have the same values, challenges and we will brainstorm together."

Tim Mosher', whose family owns and operates Lakeshore Inn Resort on Lake Shasta, said it's a "no-brainer" that Shasta County should be in the rural caucus.

"Living here my entire life, I would never categorize this county as a suburban county, to me it's always been rural," he said.

Supervisor Rickert, a cattlewoman and business owner, said she has been involved in agricultural tourism for many years.

“I think I’ve probably done more agritourism than probably everyone in this room. I never, ever remember anybody asking me, ‘Are you a suburban county or rural county?’ ” she said. Remaining a suburban county gives Shasta more of a voice and more control over issues that affect residents, Rickert said.

In his report to supervisors, county Administrative Analyst Biddle wrote that Shasta would have better representation if it stayed in the suburban caucus.

“Being a part of a caucus with larger counties allows staff to utilize the knowledge of the larger counties who have more staff to implement programs and respond to new laws and mandates,” Biddle wrote.

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Once again, Shasta Supervisors' meeting gets shut down. What happened?