Alleged Brown Act and Civil Rights Violations at the June 6 Special Meeting
- Letter to the Editor
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Letter to the Editor
June 7, 2026
A heightened level of tyranny has surfaced at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meetings. Chair Kelstrom, and by omission, the remainder of the Board, showed their personal disdain and contempt for the people who want transparency and desire to participate in local government affairs. The meeting was eerily reminiscent of the last two months of Leonard Moty's term in office as Chair before his removal by recall.
I am appalled that the Kelstrom and Counsel Larmour inhibited the public's ability to comment effectively on a single item and offered not even a suggestion of the item's purpose. It was absurd to allow public comment but NOT allow them any information on what to speak of, nor even to speculate on what the item may be.
The link below is a private citizen's video (about 18 minutes) of the meeting.
In a horrendous display of tyranny, Kelstrom calls for some to "stick to the agenda item, litigation," but he also allows some to speak outside of that very topic. Then, when Laura Hobbs begins to connect the dots, Kelstrom shuts her down and cuts off her microphone. Laura remained and stated she had not received her full three minutes, but Kelstrom ignored her.
It was the County that "interrupted" the meeting by NOT giving Laura her legally entitled and full three minutes to speak her mind, a blatant violation of the First Amendment. The violations here are many and even skirt civil rights violations under the color of law, United States Code 18#241 or 18#242, or USC 42#1983.
Kelstrom was not allowing Laura to speak about her thoughts on how she believed the anticipated litigation was connected. Counsel Larmour suggested that the Sheriff be called to remove Laura Hobbs. Kelstrom told Laura she was interrupting the meeting and then expanded his allegations to her, "disturbing the peace".
Kelstrom has effectively shown his contempt for the "people," and the remaining members have shown their complicity through their lack of intervention in violations of the people's rights and will to speak. As a reminder, in the County organizational chart, the "electorate" is placed ABOVE the Board of Supervisors because in our Republic, it's the people who are in charge, and the elected members are the "representatives".
For years, Kelstrom was an ardent supporter of the State of Jefferson, advocating for splitting the state into a more constitutional form of governance. He has blatantly turned and is now a traitor to anything moral, ethical, and constitutional. The proof is in his votes and in his no longer associating with the State of Jefferson supporters.
The proper action at the meeting would have been for Kelstrom to allow each citizen to speak their thoughts for three minutes and then move on to the next speaker. Whether any one or all of those speakers were correct or not is irrelevant because none of them had any clue as to the general reason for anticipated litigation. What harm would have happened if Kelstrom had just allowed each speaker to speculate on the item? The Brown Act does not mandate any responses or questions during or subsequent to a speaker's comments. Simply allowing the speakers their time would have been a politically safer and more legal manner to follow. When certain speakers are stopped from speaking, it only heightens public suspicion about the speaker's focus, which could be on target.
Shasta County has now moved into the role of a "banana republic." The once (alleged) conservative members have now taken a drastic turn towards tyranny in showing they do not want to hear the public speak. Even members Crye or Harmon should have spoken up during the open session and suggested that Kelstrom allow each person to speak their peace for three minutes. I do not expect members Plummer or Long to stand up for individual rights, as it's not in their political history.
I have warned that, since the BOS sued to stop the Measure B petition in March of 2025, if that were allowed without serious public backlash, the BOS's bad behavior would continue and even worsen. I have no crystal ball, but I do have history to show this truth.
Shasta County has now lost all of the conservative gains since the 2022 Recall Shasta movement. It's time to relegate the current five members of the Board and Counsel Larmour to the dustbins of history (as we did Toller, Garman, M. Rickert, Cathy Allen, Chimenti, Moty, et al).
How and when we do that is a topic for another day.
Rich Gallardo
"real conservative and constitutionalist"
