Supervisor Chris Kelstrom appointed as Shasta County board chair for 2026
County board members divided over the decision, with Supervisors Matt Plummer and Allen Long opposing Kelstrom’s appointment.
Supervisor Chris Kelstrom has been selected as Shasta County’s next chair of the Board of Supervisors. The board’s current chair, Kevin Crye, did not express interest in holding the leadership role for a third consecutive year. He announced today that he’s facing a new health challenge: a tumor, which will require urgent surgery and may warrant chemotherapy or radiation.
Crye presided over today’s conversation about who will succeed him in board leadership starting in 2026. After almost an hour of discussion and public comments, the board selected Kelstrom as chair and Supervisor Corkey Harmon as vice chair, with Supervisors Allen Long and Matt Plummer opposing Kelstrom’s appointment but supporting Harmon’s.
Before those votes, Plummer nominated himself as chair, pointing out that he had received the largest percentage of voter support during his election compared to any other sitting supervisor. He also emphasized his habit of working to cross the ideological divide on the board, noting his efforts to create collaboration on a variety of issues including budget requests from the District Attorney’s office, the future of the Shasta Election Commission and a land use agenda item related to Hawes Farm.
Plummer also asked Kelstrom to explain why he wanted the role next year after having turned it down earlier this year. Kelstrom responded by saying an additional year of experience on the board has made him willing to take on the leadership role. The authority of the chair includes the ability to decide what is placed on county agendas and what liaison positions each supervisor will hold.
That authority was what allowed current chair Crye to call a last-minute special meeting in October to oppose the proposed True North behavioral facility. During that meeting, he managed to recruit votes from both Kelstrom and Harmon to issue a letter of opposition to the facility, a decision both men have now changed their minds about.
Today, Crye provided the bulk of the board’s discussion on why Kelstrom should hold the role in a wide-ranging series of statements that included talk of partisanship, ideology and the recall attempt against him that failed last year. Among other things, Crye cited Plummer’s support for Measure A saying he’ll never vote for someone who supports taxes. Plummer parried by saying that he supported Measure A to help accomplish things for the county that have been on hold for years, such as an increase in custodial facilities.
Kelstrom spoke only briefly during the board’s discussion, mostly to answer Plummer’s queries. Harmon did not speak until the vote was called, at which time he double-checked with his peers that he was allowed to vote for himself as vice chair before doing so.
The new chair and vice chair will take their seats during the board’s first meeting of 2026.
Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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Chris Kelstrom will be a good Chairman. he attends a number of events in his district. Also, he listens to and cares for his constituents.
Get better soon Kevin! We need you in there supporting the majority of Shasta County. I have come full circle on him. Went to high school with him, never really liked him. I never voted for Trump because I can not stand rich brats. However, the alternative is so much worse. Make America Great Again is something that scares self-hating citizens… it’s akin to the trouble public figures like Hillary Clinton and Grant Napier got into for saying All Lives Matter at the height of BLM propaganda. MAGA at it’s best is a succinct acronym, a rallying way to say we know that free-loaders and hand out social policy have tarnished American culture and are being enabled by woke yimbys. It freaks out people like Christian and Brad and the other naive babies who don’t understand Darwin, dont run businesses, dont pay for their own health insurance, and dont employ legal and illegal immigrants in California. The reality is that we have a gross opportunist like Trump because Obama turned loose the runaway train on health insurance which galvanized enough moderates to tip the elections. My health insuance (blue shield silver) went from $300 a month, where it had been for years, to $680 the month ACA was enacted. It now is set to renew at $3,700 for 2026. This is why people do not have the patience for generational food stamp families, terrorist countrys, transexual debates, masking rules, etc etc etc. Get well soon Kevin.
Spoken by a true Christian?
The bible? [Eye roll]. Ok Chris, please pray for my health insurance premium to stop going up 15-20% every year. It’s not crying wolf to say that rising insurance costs will fundamentally alter American lifestyle and partisanship. Increases in health insurance premiums and homeowners insurance exceed the rate of inflation since the enactment of ACA. It is now compounding at a point that is not sustainable. The financial pressure squeezes self-employed moderates to the point that they are less likely to be socially progressive— i.e. it creates skeptics. It has done this to me as well. For example: I would like to continue my environmentalism, but it is less of a priority for me emotionally as I am now forced to work harder/longer while trying to control my growing resentment. Not a great place to be. This is where you hear conversations like: “my wife took a job for the benefits.” Or “I’m thinking of going to work for the county.” Or the out of state move, etc. I’ll leave with this and please take me at my word: I know personally, 10+ intelligent, compassionate people in their 40’s, who voted for Obama and also voted for Trump. Economic realities created this phenomena. $$ creates strange bedfellows.
Ive had 3 recent surgeries that would have cost me almost a million dollars if it were not for “Obama care”… Crye me a river…
Yeah, and i paid for it, not jesus. You’re welcome.
I thank God He stopped Trump from shutting down Obama care for years that people like you so bitterly resent. Keep yout tax nickle or dime, for “God loves a cheerful giver” 2 Corinthians 9:7
I stand firmly with this view. I’ve reached out to Supervisor Crye multiple times by email and received no response. His refusal to engage with constituents while continuing to block this much‑needed facility is unacceptable. The people of Shasta County deserve leaders who listen, not obstructionists who dig in their heels. Crye should show humility, admit he made a colossal mistake, and align himself with the overwhelming majority of citizens who support this project. This facility is vital, and it’s time for Crye to stop standing in the way and start standing with the community.
Without proof, I suspect this change of the guard was a setup. Crye, Kelstrom, and Corky most likely all knew how it was going to roll and agreed to it before the vote was even put on the agenda. And, don’t be fooled. If Crye hadn’t had to step down due to health issues, Corky and Kelstorm would have ensured Crye retained the chair. Never the less, Crye will try his best to continue to run the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and make sure his platform of using political graft, MAGA conspiracy theories, lies, employment of crony ring kissers, and vindictive behavors to punish, and conquer Shasta County citizens, and county employees, resulting in community division, strife, internal chaos, monitary waste, national embarrassment, and in millions of taxpayer dollars flushed down the MAGA propaganda toilet, all to the best of his ability, all to ensure his political opposition and any non-MAGA compliance is suppressed. Don’t get me wrong, experience and education are just a part of the picture, but do we want inexperienced, uneducated, and inexperienced OTJ people at the helm of, say, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an Airbus A350, or even a car going 75 miles per hour on a packed freeway? The board is responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with budgets (primarily state-funded) over $400 million, funding county departments, public assistance, health services, protection, and special districts, making them stewards of county funds for all residents. Yet Kelstorm, Crye and Corkey seem to embody the tRump-MAGA motto, “We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated,” and are so intimidated by Safe and Sane Republicans like Matt Plummer and Alan Long, who have run circles around all three of our MAGA suppervisors, who value compassion, logic, healthcare, community unity, fiscal responsibility over conspiracy theory, propaganda and MAGA vindictive power trip nonsense, that all three will dig in, rig and suppress until we, the voters, vote them out in the June 2, 2026, Primary Election. VOTE THEM OUT!
Thank you for posting this detailed opinion. I’m usually focused on geopolitics because my local political activism has begun to seem futile. Your positive opinion of Matt Plummer is worth investigating. Perhaps there is hope for Shasta County after all. Former Republican , Judith McMillan
I think the most startling revelation for me was finding out Crye is 49? He’s only a few years older than me! I seriously thought he was in his late 50’s, not sure if the toxicity of the job or his soul aged him so? Good luck on your health challenges, hope you aren’t ruined by the medical bills.
Crye again and again fails to understand numbers. Tax revenues pay for things citizens want, and if you refuse to support tax increases to cover increasing expenses you must cut spending, otherwise you end up in debt, like the country is to the tune of $37 trillion. Crye has increased county legal expenses and decreased revenues by millions, in a matter of only three years.