Meet Mary Rickert for County Supervisor

This story is part of Shasta Scout’s ongoing citizen-powered election coverage. Our election reporting flips the script by asking candidates to answer questions from the community. Rickert is running against two other candidates for the area of Shasta County known as District 3. Her interview was conducted long-form and in person. The questions were drawn broadly from reader responses to Scout’s latest survey on elections. Rickert’s responses have been curated and paraphrased for this format. Unsure what district you’re in? Find out here.

Scout: What should we know about you? What brought you to Shasta County?

I’m a fifty-year resident of Shasta County and my husband’s family has been here for many generations. My grandchildren are sixth- and seventh-generation Shasta County residents.

I came to the area from Central California, where I come from a long line of people who have worked in agricultural education and education in general. I never really talk about this, but in 1929 my grandfather, who was the Chief of California’s Bureau of Vocational Education, started California’s Future Farmers of America program. 

In 1933, he was asked to go to California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, which at the time was a vocational secondary high school. He was president of Cal Poly for thirty-three years and during that time he also founded Cal Poly Pomona. That’s where I spent all my childhood holidays and I have a lot of very fond memories of that place. My grandfather loved Cal Poly. He was always an advocate and he really built that place from 1933–1966. And if you look at the hundreds of thousands of peoples whose lives have been changed by Cal Poly now, it’s pretty amazing. As a child, I remember my grandfather walking around campus, keeping an eye on everything. Former students have told me he even got up early once or twice a month and rode around in the garbage truck with the garbage man so he could check the wastebaskets and see who had been hard at work. He was so in tune. He wanted his institution to really thrive and to be great. And it is today. It really is.

Many of my connections in Sacramento, which I use to benefit Shasta County, come from my family’s long-term involvement with state government. My mother used to talk about sitting on (Governor) Earl Warren’s lap and my grandfather was very close to (Governor) Pat Brown and (Governor) Ronald Reagan. When my grandfather passed, I remember my grandmother receiving a telegram from Ronald Reagan saying how sorry he was. 

So I do have a little bit of a political heritage. I was very blessed with a wonderful, wonderful birth family and they really taught me that it’s important to be engaged and involved to do what you can for your community.  And that’s part of my desire to stick this out and continue to be a supervisor in Shasta County. I have kind of a DNA problem in terms of fighting for what I consider to be right. And it comes from a very strong family tradition. As a cattle farmer, I understand genetics and it really does carry through.

Scout: Why did you decide to run for the Shasta County Board of Supervisors?

I’m currently completing my second term on the Board of Supervisors. I first ran in 2016. At the time, I had been appointed by (Governor) Jerry Brown to the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection as a livestock representative. And I just felt like there was so much that needed to be done in Shasta County, especially in the area of mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness. There wasn’t a supervisor at that time that was passionate about those particular subjects. By that time, I had served for ten years on the Mental Health Alcohol and Drug Board for the county and I was very involved with the local branch of NAMI (the National Alliance for Mental Illness) over the years, including doing crisis intervention training. And I really felt I wanted to take it one step further. I was interested to see what else I could do in the county to address those issues. I’m also passionate, of course, about agriculture and forestry, and I thought the combination gave me a diverse range of issues to run on. So I decided to run.

I remember that the appointment secretary for Jerry Brown told me at the time, ‘Mary, that’s a crazy idea. That’s a 24/7 job. Your life will never be your own again.’ I often think about that comment she made to me, especially since COVID. 

Scout: Originally you had said you wouldn’t run for a third term. What changed your mind? 

Yes, that’s true. I spent about six months trying to convince several people to run. These were people I thought could make sound decisions in support of the constituents’ rights and the district’s rights. But I could not convince anyone to run. And that’s basically a result of the toxic environment that we’re experiencing today on our board. People didn’t want to have to deal with it. When I realized that, I began to feel compelled that I could not abandon District 3. I prayed about it and God gave me an answer and here I am today. 

Scout: Are you afraid to reenter what you refer to as a toxic environment on the board for a third term? 

I would really just like to do whatever it takes to try and get this ship corrected. In the last year especially, we’ve made a lot of poor decisions as a board. Decisions that have been very costly to the taxpayers. And that’s what concerns me. I have seen very little research, analysis, or thoughtful decision making taking place. The decisions have been very quick decisions, whether it’s on impact fees, or whether to terminate Dominion voting machines. 

The board majority is not thinking through what the consequences of their decisions could be. And we’ve had a lot of unintended consequences as a result. For example, with the Dominion voting machines, the state stepped up and passed a law making hand counting illegal. And we brought that upon ourselves. There was no consultation with (the Registrar of Voters) Cathy Darling Allen. There was no analysis of what it would cost. No extended discussions or assessments. It was just “we think there’s fraud, let’s throw the machines out.”

Scout: How would you describe yourself as a candidate? 

First of all, I’m not a politician, I’m a public servant. It’s important to me to put people over politics. Being a supervisor is a nonpartisan position. I don’t think of my constituents as Republicans, Democrats or ‘no party affiliation.’ I think of them as my constituents. And that’s the way county government is structured.

I’m fiscally very conservative, which comes from my work in the business world. And I’m socially more moderate because of my long-term involvement with responding to issues of mental health and substance use and seeing what is needed to address those problems.

Scout: Are you committed to following state law?

I am committed to following state law. As a county we are a subdivision of the state. But I’m also certainly involved with pushing back on the state where appropriate. 

For example, I’m involved in the lawsuit that we’ve filed against the California Energy Commission in opposition to the Fountain Wind Project. To be clear, I am not against alternative energy. But I have knowledge of forestry issues and knowledge of this particular area where the windmills are proposed to be constructed. It’s a very potentially dangerous area for catastrophic wildfire. I’m concerned about the people that live there and I also very much respect the Tribal efforts to get in front of this project and stop it.  I do not believe in government overreach. And we made a decision at the Shasta County Planning Commission level and at the Board of Supervisors level to turn this project down, and the state is now trying to overturn those decisions. So I feel that this is a time and a place to stand up to the state.

There are many things I disagree with the State of California on. This is not the same State of California it was fifty years ago. Assembly Bills 47, 57 and 109 have caused so many problems with crime because of the way they impact prison populations and affect our jail. So again, I am very conservative. I just feel that you can work with the state and it’s important to do so. When I was on the Board of Forestry, there was a program promoted by the State Water Board that would have impacted twenty-three million acres of land. I got a lot of the key players in the state up here to Shasta County and held a tour. I showed them exactly what our challenges were and explained to them how the proposal would impact us. The officials included one individual from the State Water Board and they actually pulled the plug on that project after that tour. So you can do it. 

Another example of working with and influencing state policy is when we were able to ensure that local kids could  show and sell their animals during the pandemic. That came about through my relationships with Karen Ross, California’s Secretary of Agriculture, and my relationship with the head of the forestry program for the state. When you build those relationships, you can work with people and you can accomplish things.

But I’m not interested in fighting the state on AB 969. I’ve read extensively on hand counting. It’s more expensive. It’s more time consuming, and there’s greater opportunity for human error. We have an excellent track record with elections in Shasta County. I have all the faith in the world in our county elections office. And I see no need to get rid of the machines.

Scout: Who are your largest funders? What political action committees (PACs) have supported your campaign either directly or indirectly?

I’m sorry I am not very involved in reviewing the funding for my campaign. I just haven’t had time to worry about that part of it. I’m not supported by a large outside funder and I’m not supported by the Redding Rancheria. And I do not think we’ve received any large donations except maybe from a few individuals who know our family personally. But please look that up.  (Editor’s Note: Rickert is also supported by Sierra Pacific Industries which has donated $5500 to her current campaign, according to available finance documents.)

Scout: How would you work towards a sustainable county budget? 

We’ve had some new expenses due to the changes in the elections process and because of new staff positions that have been created, as well as new hires that have been given some special contract packages. We’ve also paid for a lot more outside counsel than we used to pay for in past years. Plus we have an upcoming loss of revenue with the suspension of impact fees. 

As far as upcoming expenses, one thing that’s really important is to address the jail. It’s in an antiquated building. It’s not efficient. It’s not as safe for our correctional officers. And it is no longer a jail where it’s just housing someone who’s disturbed the peace the night before. It’s basically a de facto prison because of the way propositions have impacted who can be sent to our prisons. Most of the public understands that we really do need a new facility. And the only way we’re going to ever afford a new jail facility is from a sales tax initiative. We’ve tried that and it failed because trust was low and unfortunately trust is even lower now. There are other ways to continue to educate the public on how much a new jail is needed, but it will be a hard path. 

Our finances are not too bad yet, but I’m concerned as we move forward about the cost of potential upcoming lawsuits. I think there will be more lawsuits. And one of my other big concerns is that, as we lose more attorneys in the County Counsel’s Office, funding contracts are not going to be reviewed. They’re not going to move forward. And because of that, we’re going to be losing funding on the state and federal levels to provide required county services. So that is going to impact our financial situation and it’s going to impact the services that some people use. Hopefully somehow we can get ahead of that, but I’m very concerned about that.

One good thing is that people are paying more attention to what the Board is doing now than they were a year ago. There have been so many dramatic decisions made by the majority of our board, you know, guns allowed in the supervisors’ chambers and that kind of thing, that I think people are paying more attention. And I hope that they do.

I think it’s going to take some time to get this county back on track. We were in extraordinarily good financial shape up until just recently, and I see things kind of crumbling.

Scout: How would you approach any changes to the elections process? 

As I’ve said, I support machine counting and I also support periodic hand-counted audits of a percentage of the ballots. That’s something we already do and should continue doing to mitigate any loss of trust. 

Scout: How would you work to address homelessness?

Homelessness has always been a problem, but it’s gotten so much worse. And I really, really find it’s a difficult problem to solve. I think you have a portion of those who are on the streets who are mentally ill, who cannot handle the responsibilities of living in an apartment or even a motel room, or who prefer to live on their own. Not everyone wants to be housed. And that’s difficult. It’s really difficult. You can’t force people to do something that they don’t want to do. 

Then we have substance use, which is a huge problem. I think being on the I-5 corridor has opened us up to more of a drug problem in this county. And it’s so important to respond appropriately. Something I’ve worked to get instituted in the county is the medically assisted treatment program for those in the jail. Some individuals need to be restored to competency just to be put on trial. In the past, we had to put them on a long waiting list to be sent to a state facility for the medically assisted treatment they needed prior to trial and their mental health would deterioriate even further as they sat in our jail waiting. Now we’re getting them treatment in the jail which allows us to get them through the justice system more quickly, which opens up more jail beds. 

I’ve also worked with former county counsel, Jim Ross on the opioid settlement. Our county is getting millions of dollars as a result of that, which will provide much-needed services to help reduce homelessness in our community. 

These are the kinds of programs that I’ve really advocated for and promoted. And we need to to expand these kinds of programs. That’s both the fiscally responsible thing to do and the humane thing to do.

Scout: How would you address the need for developing additional housing in our community?  

We obviously need more affordable housing. Maybe about four years ago, I worked with former Health and Human Services Agency director Donnell Ewert, Northern Valley Catholic Social Services ,and K2 Developers and we set up an informal town hall in Burney. As a result, now Burney Commons is there, an expansion of affordable housing that Burney truly needed. For the most part, I think it’s been embraced by the community and it’s been a real boon. But we need to continue to really work on affordable housing, because housing costs are very prohibitive and it’s very expensive even to rent in Shasta County. There’s a lot of need.

Scout: How would you address labor concerns at the County?

Well I am very much in support of our county employees. Anybody that’s been in business knows that the number one resource for your business is the people that work with you. And it’s important to remember that they work with us, not for us. We’re a team and I think we need to build that team camaraderie more. We have incredibly dedicated and committed employees in this county. That’s one of the main reasons I’m sticking around. I want to make sure that somebody’s keeping an eye on our employees, because they mean a lot to me. Some people have a hard time making ends meet, especially with the cost of living today and inflation. Today’s economics have been hard for all of us, but especially for some county employees.

Scout: How would you help our community prepare for and reduce the risk of wildfire?

When I served on the state board of Forestry and Fire Protection, we would meet up and down the state and I would be in all these different counties and many had wonderful nonprofit Fire Safe Councils. And then I came back to Shasta County and found out we didn’t have one, or that it hadn’t been functioning for fifteen years. 

So when former county CEO Matt Pontes came on board as a former Forestry major, I told him we needed to get a Fire Safe Council established at the county level. He had done similar work over the years in different counties he’d been in. I got hold of Jim Chapin, who’s a retired forester that I’ve known for about forty years, and he said he’d help too. My husband Jim and I kicked in about $10,000 and the county kicked in about $10,000 and together those paid the legal fees to get the Articles of Incorporation and that kind of thing done. And now have a very high-functioning nonprofit Shasta County Fire Safe Council. There’s been millions and millions of dollars of grants that have been approved and awarded as a result and we’ve done some amazing work, especially with education, to help the county become more fire resilient. The county Fire Safe Council is a kind of umbrella to all the local Fire Safe Councils and Fire Wise Communities forming across the county. They help locals to work on fuel reduction projects, including defensible space around people’s homes. Doing that also helps lower the cost of fire insurance.

Scout: Thank you for your time! How can people learn more about your campaign?

Ummmm . . .  let me check. . . . Isn’t it terrible I don’t know this? I’m just working on too many other things.

Okay, my website is voterickert.com and on Facebook I’m Rickert for Supervisor.

You can find our other candidate interviews here. Have questions, concerns, or comments? Reach out to us: editor@shastascout.org.