Shasta County Hopes to Eliminate Assistant County CEO Position Formerly Held by Eric Magrini

Shasta County CEO David Rickert is recommending eliminating an expensive top county position. The role of Assistant County CEO was created about three years ago and has been held by only one individual, former Shasta County Sheriff Eric Magrini. 

Magrini has been on administrative leave from the position since about May 2023, according to reporting by the Record Searchlight. CEO Rickert confirmed for Shasta Scout yesterday, October 1, that the position is now vacant. Magrini did not respond to a request for comment.

During Tuesday’s Board meeting, CEO Rickert told supervisors he would recommend they eliminate the position during upcoming mid-year budget hearings. Doing so, Rickert said, will save the County $354,000 annually in salary and benefits. In addition to the currently-vacant Assistant CEO position, the County also has two Deputy CEO’s, Erin Bertain and Stewart Buettell. 

No further information has been shared with the public about why Magrini left the Assistant CEO role, but several recent closed-session Board discussions related to a lawsuit filed by former Sheriff’s Captain Pat Kropholler, alleging harm by Magrini, may provide a clue into the timing of the vacancy. The Board has not disclosed any information related to those closed-session discussions on the suit, which is scheduled to go to trial in July of 2025.

Prior to becoming Assistant CEO, Magrini served for about two and a half years as Shasta County’s Sheriff. He gained the role by appointment in December 2019, after the resignation of former Sheriff Tom Bosenko. 

His time as Sheriff was marked by significant concerns from staff. In January 2021, two years after Magrini began serving as Sheriff, members of the Shasta County Deputy Sheriff’s Association passed a vote of no-confidence in his leadership. Around the same time, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Administration Association, which represents lieutenants and captains in the department, also passed a vote of no-confidence.

In March 2021, the County launched an external investigation by Ellis Investigations Law Corporation, into Magrini’s conduct. A month later, in April 2021, Kropholler sent a statement to Ellis, asking for whistleblower protections while alleging, among other things, that Magrini had retaliated against him after being confronted for pulling the records of former Shasta County CEO Matt Pontes. Ellis’s outside investigation into Magrini’s actions was completed in June 2021, just weeks before Magrini began his role as Assistant County CEO. The investigation report, which only became public after a two-year court fight, showed, among other significant findings, that Magrini had illegally used a law enforcement tool to obtain background information on Pontes.

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In June 2021, Magrini became Shasta County’s Assistant CEO, just one day after leaving his role as Sheriff. The position provided Magrini with a 31% pay raise to work for a CEO whose legal rights the public were not yet aware he had violated two years earlier.

While Magrini continued to hold his position as Assistant CEO until recently, Pontes resigned from the County in June 2022, after claiming that he had been blackmailed by Supervisor Patrick Jones. Jones has acknowledged that he brought concerns about Pontes’ decades-old felony theft conviction to the Board’s attention but has denied the allegation of blackmail. The Board discussed the issue in closed session and issued a 4–1 vote of confidence in Pontes, with Jones opposing the vote. A month later, Pontes resigned anyway.

He was hired just months before the COVID pandemic began and was among the first wave of top officials to leave Shasta County amidst a political upheaval that began at that time and continues today. In the months prior to Pontes’ resignation, long-term Public Health Officer Karen Ramstrom was terminated, and both Health and Human Services Agency Director Donnell Ewert and Public Works Director Pat Minturn retired after serving the County for decades. 

Magrini’s role as Assistant County CEO was originally envisioned to focus on building a new jail and responding to illegal marijuana grows in the unincorporated parts of the County. Yesterday, October 1, during the County’s Board meeting, supervisors briefly discussed future plans regarding marijuana eradication but did not take any definitive action. As for building a new jail, current supervisors agree that there are not sufficient county funds to move forward on such a significant project. 

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