Shasta County’s CEO Position Has Been Offered To Controversial Candidate, Chriss Street

March 16, 2023 7:37 am: We have updated the article to correct how recently County supervisors were elected to office. We have also removed a reference to a specific media group.

Yesterday, March 14, Shasta County announced that County’s top executive position has been offered to Chriss Street, best known for his role as Vice President of New California, a secessionist movement that hopes to separate California into two states.

Street is also the former elected treasurer of Orange County, a frequent Breitbart contributor and the host of the syndicated radio show Agenda 21.

In 2010, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled against Street for having mismanaged private funds eight years before he became an elected treasurer. Street tried twice, unsuccessfully, to appeal that ruling before successfully suing his attorney for malpractice. The second lawsuit awarded Street $11 million in damages, but did not overturn the federal judge’s previous ruling that he had mismanaged funds.

The news that Supervisors had picked Street broke March 14 after the Board voted 5-0 to release information from closed sessions in order to respond to information recently leaked to local media. The Board also voted to authorize County Counsel to open an investigation into the source of the disclosures from the Board’s closed-session meetings. Revealing information learned during confidential public meetings is forbidden under California’s transparency law, known as the Brown Act. 

According to an email from County Information Officer David Maung, seven candidates, including Street, were interviewed for the County’s CEO position before a Board majority extended a preliminary offer of employment to Street, contingent on a routine background check, which is still in progress. No final appointment has been made. 

The Board also clarified that despite recent media reports to the contrary, Street was supported by some members of the Temporary Advisory Committee for CEO selection, and specifically that he was ranked number one by three members of the Committee and number two by a fourth. They also clarified that the Board did not discuss Street’s marital status during closed sessions.

Unauthorized disclosures to the media would have come from a member of the Board or the Temporary Advisory Committee, which is composed of five Supervisor-selected community members and five Supervisor-selected County department heads. According to reporting by the Record Searchlight, County staff on the advisory committee include Sheriff Michael Johnson, Chief Probation Officer Tracy Neal, Chief Information Officer Thomas Schreiber, Public Works Director Al Cathey and County Tax Collector-Treasurer Lori Scott. Community members on the committee include Mark Kent, Lynn Dorroh, John Wilson, Susan Wilson and Ben Swim. 

The County has not had a permanent CEO since mid-2022 when former CEO Matt Pontes resigned after claiming he had been “blackmailed” by Board Supervisor Patrick Jones. Since Pontes’ resignation, two County employees have been appointed as acting CEO, first Patrick Minturn and now Mary Williams.

If Street is officially appointed as County CEO, he will face an uphill battle to stabilize a county that’s been rocked by political battles that have contributed to significant turnover in both appointed and elected County leadership over the last three years. 

Four of the five County Supervisors were elected to office within the last eighteen months. The County’s Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health Office, and County Counsel have also seen recent transitions in leadership due to resignations, retirements or terminations without cause.

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