Five days after Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis received a letter from a free speech group criticizing him for singling out a local medial outlet, supervisors will hold a special meeting Tuesday, Oct. 14 to discuss the matter.
The board is scheduled to convene at 9 a.m. before it goes into closed session. Supervisors are expected to take public comments before they meet in closed session.
The agenda for the meeting was released Friday, Oct. 10, a day after the First Amendment Coalition sent Curtis a four-page letter that threatened litigation over his decision to allegedly exclude Shasta Scout from the distribution of news releases sent by Curtis’ office.
The letter from the First Amendment Coalition was attached to Tuesday’s agenda, which lists one item, “Conference With Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation.”
In his letter, David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, said Curtis’ decision to exclude Shasta Scout “violates the First Amendment and threatens the freedom of the press.”
Loy told the Record Searchlight last week that Curtis responded via email on Friday morning to the letter.
The response was to stop sending press releases to all media outlets.
“I think that our actions are correct but just to be on the safe side, we are stopping all press releases to all parties at this time. I will refer this information to the United States Department of Justice to make a further determination. If they agree that we must include them then we will do so, should we ever decide to continue sending press releases,” Curtis’ email stated.
Read more: Shasta County Registrar of Voters tells Election Day mail voters to get postmark in person
Curtis’ email to Loy arrived about an hour and a half before the agenda for Tuesday’s special meeting was released on Oct. 10.
The registar of voters’ actions have raised concerns about government transparency ahead of the Nov. 4 election.
When he was hired last spring as clerk and registrar of voters, Curtis spoke about bringing more transparency to elections and how he would always have an open door to the public.
“I think it’s very unfortunate that a public official who is vested with the responsibility to serve the public interest is choosing to deprive the people of information about vital matters such as elections,” Loy said last week. “I think that transparency is the oxygen of accountability and anything the government does to reduce transparency is a threat to the public good,” especially something so fundamental as the conduct of elections.
Loy said on Monday, Oct. 13 that he had not heard anything more from the county but was interested to see if there will be any reportable action coming out of Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’ll monitor and see what the county does going forward and figure out what to do next,” Loy said.
Curtis did not respond to an email sent Monday morning seeking comment.
Former Shasta County Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut, who was terminated by Curtis two weeks after he was hired in May, has criticized Curtis for his decision to exclude all media from press releases. Francescut worked in the elections department for about 17 years and was passed over for the top position twice in the past two years, this time in favor of Curtis, a Florida attorney with no elections department management experience.
“Elections belong to the people, and public questions, oversight, and transparency support the credibility of an election. When community members or reporters are shut out, it erodes the trust our system depends on,” Francescut said in her post.
Both Francescut and Curtis are running for county clerk and registrar of voters next June.
More: Shasta County executives who left: A timeline of retirements, resignations, terminations
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
