UPDATE: Shasta County's next CEO expected to be Illinois county financial administrator

Corrections & clarifications: David Rickert is the CFO for Winnebago County, Illinois. An earlier version of this story had the wrong state.

Shasta County is expected to finally fill its long-vacant executive officer position.

The county has turned to David Rickert, the chief financial officer in Winnebago County, Illinois, to be its top administrator.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to vote on a three-year contract for Rickert. His annual salary would be $258,600.

Rickert has been the CFO of Winnebago County since 2021. Prior to that, he served as treasurer for Kane County in Illinois.

He resigned as Kane County's treasurer in January 2021, according to news reports that stated when he was hired in Winnebago County he still had two years left on his term as treasurer.

According to the staff report for Tuesday's meeting, Rickert has a master of science degree in accounting with honors from Roosevelt University and has been a licensed certified public accountant for 22 years.

Winnebago County has a population of 282,188. The county seat is Rockford.

Rickert's three-year term as Shasta County CEO would start May 30.

Rickert is no relation to Shasta County Supervisor Mary Rickert, who said she is eager to work with the new CEO.

"I think he will be a good fit for Shasta County. He has a strong financial background, which will be important," she said.

David Rickert is not the supervisors' first choice and his appointment would end a nearly year-long saga that galvanized the community before playing out in dramatic fashion the last couple of months.

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Tuesday's meeting will take place a little over a month after supervisors on April 6 rescinded the CEO job offer to Chriss Street and then announced they had offered the job to another candidate.

Supervisors did not say why the offer was taken off the table, but it came nine days after they announced they were waiting for Street to respond to a background report that was done on him.

The decision to move on from Street capped a month of emotionally-charged board meetings and public debate on social media on the merits of Street, whose position as vice president of New California State drew criticism. New California is a group that wants to leave California and form its own state.

Street, who lives in Redding, is also the former Orange County treasurer-tax collector who in 2010 was ordered to pay more than $7 million in damages for allegedly mismanaging a bankruptcy trust. That same year, Street decided not to run for reelection for treasurer-tax collector.

Street has twice shown up at Shasta County supervisors meetings since his job offer was rescinded.

At the April 11 meeting, Street got up during the public comment period and alleged serious and illegal budget maneuvering by the county.

Supervisors anticipated Street’s presentation, so they called on county Auditor-Controller Nolda Short to provide a report rebutting Street’s claims.

Shasta County has been without an executive officer since Matt Pontes abruptly resigned last June after a political battle between Pontes and Supervisor Patrick Jones that played out in an April 19, 2022, closed-door job evaluation of Pontes. Supervisors spent two hours in closed session at the time, before giving Pontes a 4-1 vote of confidence. Jones cast the lone dissenting vote.

Since Pontes’ resignation, the county has had two acting CEOs — Patrick Minturn, who did the job from June through January, and Mary Williams, who succeeded Minturn on Feb. 1 and continues to be the acting CEO.

Pontes started as Shasta County CEO in January 2020. His annual salary was $240,096 when he was hired.

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 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta's new CEO expected to be Illinois financial administrator