The Shasta County Board of Supervisors has offered a top figure in the New California movement the job of running the government’s day-to-day operations

pushing to split California into two states.

In an unusual press release, county officials announced that “a majority of the board” had made a “tentative job offer” to

Chris street

vice president of New California and former treasurer of Orange County, to become the county’s chief executive officer.

New California advocates, founded in 2018,

retain

that old California has become ungovernable and is trying to collect much of the rural parts of California, along with San Diego and Orange counties, and form a 51st state.

Street cannot be formally offered the job until the board votes on March 28 after a completed background check. He did not respond to calls asking for comment.

But some governance critics wondered how the county could hire a leader who doesn’t believe in California.

What does it mean that the vice president of an organization that claims to be its own state [would be] run a province? the resident of Redding asked

Susan Baremore

Who is

try to organize fellow residents of the province

to demand a more stable government.

County officials declined to comment on Street on Wednesday, aside from issuing the press release confirming the tentative job offer, which had become a subject of feverish discussion in the county after it was leaked to the media. The press release also said the divided board took a rare 5-0 vote to order an investigation into who

has made

unauthorized disclosures of the deliberations in closed sessions.

The development is the latest sign of a shift to the right in Shasta County following the election of an ultra-conservative majority to the board. The board responded to this last month

unfounded

Claims of voter fraud, canceled the contract with Dominion Voting Systems and began looking for other vote counting options, including manual counting.

Supervisor at the time

Kevin Crye

also announced that he had been in discussions with MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell, a prominent pro-Donald Trump election conspiracy theorist, about supporting

a pilot

voting system in the rural province of Northern California.

The county’s leadership began its turn to the right about a year ago after far-right activists, including members of a local militia, led a successful recall of a Republican supervisor and former police chief, in part because he imposed state-mandated coronavirus restrictions. In the months since, the county has lost top-ranked leaders at a rapid rate, both through firings and firings.

In May, the new conservative majority on the Board of Trustees fired provincial health official, Dr. Karen Ramstrom. Soon after, the county’s chief clerk, Matt Pontes, announced he was leaving, but not before telling the local paper that one of the pro-recall supervisors, gun store manager Patrick Jones, had been blackmailing him. Jones said at the time that the accusation was a “total lie”.

Street has roots in Shasta County, and local media reported that he returned to the area to care for his parents. His tenure in Orange County was marked by controversy. A former investment banker, he correctly predicted Orange County’s bankruptcy in the 1990s and eventually became county treasurer. In 2010, he announced he would not run for re-election after a federal judge reprimanded him for violating his fiduciary duties in an earlier stint as trustee. Street later sued his attorney in that case for malpractice, winning a $10 million judgment.

In an interview with KRCR News Channel 7 this week, Street spoke about his vision for the 51st state, New California, and his belief that Shasta County could become a major economic driver for such a new state.

Referring to the province’s ability to generate power at low rates, he said “Shasta is probably the next place for a real economic” center.