New Shasta County Citizen Election Advisory Committee Searches For Legal Authority

Members of the new Shasta County Citizens Election Advisory Committee: from left, Bev Gray, Dawn Duckett, Ronnean Lund, Lisa Michaud and Susanne Baremore. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

During their first two meetings, members of Shasta County’s new Citizen Election Advisory Committee (CEAC) spent significant time reviewing the wording of draft bylaws. They also debated the related question of how best to use their authority to access documents connected to the attempted recall of County Supervisor Kevin Crye.

Some committee members had repeated questions for the county’s attorneys about the use of standard terminology in the bylaws including words like “committee,” “review,” and “hinder.”

The CEAC was established by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors just a few weeks ago. The specific wording of that resolution represents the legal boundaries for the committee’s work. But during last week’s meeting, CEAC members Lisa Michaud and Ronnean Lund repeatedly questioned language in the bylaws that mirrors the resolution itself, saying they felt the intent of the board was to give them more authority.

Both committee meetings began with short agendas but lasted for hours as committee members circled around specific wording.

During one tangle over vocabulary in the first meeting, Lund questioned the use of the word “hinder” in the draft bylaws. The word was used as part of a section of the bylaws emphasizing that committee members may not hinder the work of an elections official, something that’s already forbidden by state elections law. A second draft of the bylaws shared on this week’s agenda no longer shows that wording, using “interfere” instead.

Another line of questioning centered on whether the group is a committee, a commission, or a board, a distinction that some members felt might make a difference in their legal powers.

“The intent of the Board of Supervisors was to have us be public officers,” CEAC Chair Ronnean Lund said on October 17. “We have to be a commission or a board (not just a committee) in order to be public officers.”

For now, a committee majority of Lund, Michaud, and Gray have voted to hold off on approving bylaws pending what they believe is a likely increase in their legal authority under a potential draft ordinance that could be approved by the Board of Supervisors in the future. Lund said that ordinance was likely to appear on the Board’s October 31st agenda although Deputy County CEO Stuart Buettell declined to confirm that.

Interim County Counsel Gretchen Stuhr answered questions during the committee’s first meeting, at times showing visible frustration with committee members’ line of questioning and requests, including a repeated request from Michaud for Stuhr to hyperlink all references to law in committee documents.

“That’s not typical,” Stuhr responded, indicating that members of the committee and the public could google the code just as she would have to do to hyperlink it.

“Well they do it on the Anderson School Board agenda and it’s really helpful,” Michaud said.

Notably, as County CEO David Rickert pointed out to CEAC members during their first meeting, the Board’s resolution did not grant the committee a budget for attorney fees or other costs.

Deputy County Counsel Matt McOmber sat in for Stuhr during the committee’s second meeting this week, October 24. But McOmber and Clerk of the Board Stephanie Blankenship both continued to emphasize what Stuhr had stated to members of the committee last week: that the official resolution forming the committee is the legal document outlining its powers, despite what they may feel the board’s true intentions for their authority is.

The debate over the bylaws wasn’t the only issue committee members faced. With three of the five committee members waiting to see if the county board will increase the committee’s power, a majority of the committee struggled to know what, if any, actions to take while waiting for a possible future increase in authority.

“We don’t know what (authority) we’re gonna get,” CEAC member Bev Gray said towards the end of yesterday’s meeting, as committee members discussed whether to set up an ad hoc committee to review the steps taken by the elections office so far in the attempted recall of Supervisor Kevin Crye.

Some committee members including Lund, Michaud and Gray indicated that they feel they should have enough oversight over the elections process to review signatures on the recall petition themselves in order to confirm the work of county elections staff who operate under the county’s independent elections official, Cathy Darling Allen. CEAC members were told by county counsel Stuhr in no uncertain terms that viewing those signature documents would be a violation of state election law.

“You’re just like a regular member of the public,” Stuhr said last week, “you have no more authority to look at election documents than the board does.”

“It seems that would be in our purview,” Michaud responded, “but seems we need to go back to the board.”

Stuhr said the only legal way for CEAC members to attempt to view private election documents would be to file a writ of petition with the Shasta County Superior Court. Committee members did not make moves to do so, instead voting unanimously to form a temporary ad hoc committee to “review and investigate election issues including but not limited to the recall of Kevin Crye.” It’s not clear yet how they will attempt to do so.

Elections Advisory members also discussed having staff from the elections department present to the committee on the process for maintaining voter roles. In response, the Clerk of the Board Blankenship said she would speak to executive staff about whether a request could be made for elections staff to present information to the committee. McOmber emphasized that while requests can be made, neither the committee nor the board has the authority to direct the work of another elected official, including Clerk of Elections, Cathy Darling Allen.

The CEAC’s next meeting will be held on November 6, one day before the county’s November 7 special election. Committee chair Lund, who was appointed by a unanimous vote of the members, emphasized that CEAC members should be careful to give Darling Allen and her staff space and time to adequately prepare for the special election.

Resources:

Find the Committee’s draft bylaws here.

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