Fact Check: “Shasta County Has Spent More Than 16 Million Dollars on Outside Counsel Since January 2021.”

The Claim:

“Shasta County has spent 16,426,293.80 dollars on outside counsel since January 2021.”

When/Where:

In the September 26, 2023 Board of Supervisors meeting District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman claimed that the county had spent over 16 million dollars on outside legal counsel since January 1, 2021. 

Context:

Supervisor Garman made this claim as the board discussed the potential costs of moving toward becoming a charter county, including the possibility of needing to hire outside counsel.

Our Analysis:

“Shasta County has spent 16,426,293.80 dollars on outside counsel since January 2021.”

This claim is partially false.

While the amount claimed to have been spent is within dollars of the real amount spent, the dates initially provided were off by one year.

Here’s How We Know

Shortly after the September board meeting where the claim was made, Shasta Scout Managing Editor Annelise Pierce emailed Nolda Short, the Shasta County Auditor-Controller and Garman to verify those numbers. Garman then reached out by phone to correct his statement saying that he had misspoken and the 16.5 million dollars was spent since January 2020, not 2021.

Deputy Clerk John Sitka confirmed by email that the county spent $16,420,952.80 on outside legal counsel between January 1, 2020, through August 20, 2023. 

Information about the expense of hiring outside counsel was initially gathered, according to Sitka, in response to a public records request.

Here’s What Else You Should Know:

The County Counsel’s Office is a county department that provides internal legal services including those needed by county officers, agencies, and other departments.

Shasta County has budgeted about $850,000 for the County Counsel Office this fiscal year. The amount is similar to the amount budgeted in the previous fiscal year. 

The actual amount spent on the County Counsel Office between the 2020-2023 fiscal years (different from calendar years) was about $940,000, which averages out to about $313,000 per fiscal year. All previous years’ budgets can be found here.

The county also spent an additional $16,420,952.80 on contracted outside counsel over approximately that same period of time, which averages out to about $5.4 million per year.   

Shasta Scout has requested county records for how those funds were spent and is pending a response.

If you’ve heard a statement in public meetings that you’d like to see fact-checked, let us know. Email: editor@shastascout.org