REDDING, Calif.—Shasta County, California, swore in a new supervisor on March 1, following a lengthy recall effort that unseated former District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty, who locals say didn’t represent them on county issues.
Recall Shasta—a group of parents, business owners, doctors, nurses, and teachers—told The Epoch Times that they saw a need for restoring local control to county constituents, so they led a recall effort against three county supervisors.
“A lot of the older people, younger people, they all came together through this one issue of liberty and freedom,” said Melissa Magaña, a mom and Recall Shasta social media manager. “We value the future of our children.”
The recall effort was launched in mid-2020, during which a small group of moms met for leadership training and assembled the necessary paperwork to receive approval for a recall petition and signature gathering. The initiative stemmed from three core reasons, according to Recall Shasta.
“Those three reasons were a betrayal of public trust, a need for fundamental change, and third, we didn’t have time to wait,” said Elissa McEuen, a mom and chair of Recall Shasta. “[The supervisors] didn’t defend us from state government overreach.”
McEuen said smoke from the 2021 fire season proved to be an obstacle, so they were only able to gather enough signatures to put Leonard Moty on the recall ballot. The other two supervisors, Joe Chimenti and Mary Rickert, didn’t receive enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Moty is a retired police chief and self-described Republican.
“It’s very disheartening to me to have a group be able to spend that much money to personally assault my reputation that I worked for 44 years to build in my hometown,” he told CNN.
Moty told The Guardian that he’s done with politics but plans to stay in Shasta County “for now.” He didn’t respond to requests by The Epoch Times for an interview.
Garman, the newly elected District 2 supervisor, said he hopes to bring more open communication and community engagement to the position in order to hear directly from constituents about their needs and concerns.
“I think we’re tired of the lack of representation for the people. We’re all, myself included, frustrated that our supervisor was not working for us,” he said. “Talk to your people, because you work for them.”
Following Garman’s swearing-in ceremony, the board of supervisors approved a number of agenda items that included keeping in-person board meetings open to the public for comment and adopting staff performance evaluations.
A Wake-Up Call
Some locals have called the recall election a course correction. They describe Shasta County as a highly conservative area that’s family and tradition-oriented.“We live in a constitutional republic, which means that you are elected to represent your constituents, and you do what your constituents want. If your constituents are conservative, they elect conservative representation. If they’re liberal, they elect a liberal representation,” said Chris Kelstrom, candidate for District 5 supervisor.
Patrick Jones, the current District 4 supervisor, said he felt a lack of representation after attending county supervisor board meetings following his primary election for the District 4 seat in March 2020. During the meetings, he saw that the public was held outside and unable to take part in public meetings, something that he didn’t agree with.
After winning the election in November 2020, “I decided to open up the board room on my own accord and let the public come in. I did that, and we’ve been open to the public ever since,” Jones said.
He noted that public meetings should be an opportunity to hear from constituents, including criticism, as long as it doesn’t disrupt the meeting.
Similarly, many Shasta County residents also pointed to the board meetings as a tipping point that made them feel that some county supervisors were limiting public comment and not representing constituents on issues such as COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates, homelessness, and other policies.
All 10 interviewees that The Epoch Times spoke to expressed that they may not have the power to make changes on the federal or state level, but they believe that they can start with local changes to protect the country’s founding principles and its values.
Interviewees say that moving forward, they hope to see a smaller and more efficient government, as well as increased accountability, transparency, and representation from county officials.
“Our founders and our past presidents constantly [spoke] to the duty being the people’s to restrain their government from benefiting themselves. We’ve had it so good for so long economically that the people let the government take the reins, and what we’ve seen is that allows for corruption. It’s dangerous,” McEuen said.
