Shasta auditor explains why county reserve is low in light of Chriss Street’s comments
AENN
by Mason CarrollFri, April 7th 2023, 4:59 PM PDT
Board of Supervisors Chambers empty between meetings (KRCR – Mike Mangas)
REDDING, Calif. — Chriss Street will not be the Shasta County CEO after the supervisors vote Thursday. However, he now said he has new information about where the county stands financially.
Street shared he found that the county is under its minimum reserve target for the general fund.
“The reserve for Shasta County are 8.9 percent,” Street said. “That is a third of the plan and I’d about half of the absolute minimum.”
RELATED | Shasta County Supervisors vote 5-0 to not move forward with Street for CEO
So what exactly does this mean? Shasta County’s general fund budget is $218.8 million.
The county administrative officer minimum target to hold in reserve is 17-25% so the county should have at least $37.2 million.
The county took out $10 million last year for use in building the new jail. This left the reserve at $19.6 million, which is 8.9% of the general fund.
Shasta County Supervisors listening to public comment. (KRCR)
Street said on Tuesday he is going to be passing out flyers to everyone at the supervisor’s meeting so they can see these numbers up close.
“You wanted to keep me from doing the right thing as the CEO, now we’ll just do it in public,” Street said.
County Auditor Nolda Short confirmed these numbers are accurate. She also shared the county increased the amount that should be held in reserve in 2019 from 5% to the 17-25%, and the county has been working since then to meet the increased goal.
She said the 10 million will be replenished next year as long as county policy 2-103 is in place.
Sign outside Board of Supervisors Chambers (KRCR – Mike Mangas)
Supervisor Chris Kelstrom said Street was the one who informed them about this issue, but they have also been working with the auditor to make sure they are within guidelines.
“It definitely needs to be looked into,” Kelstrom said. “We’ve been told by our auditor, controller Nolda Short that we are within the guidelines. There’s apparently a repayment of money that’s going back in there. At that point, we will be in good shape.”
Short said in light of comments made by Mr. Street, and in the interest of transparency, they will be providing a quick presentation on the status of the general fund at Tuesday’s board meeting.
