Tehama County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) covers over 3000 square miles and on patrol at any given time, are 2 Deputies and a Sargeant.  Patrol Deputies are generally on their own and rely on backup from CHP and local LEOs.  Resources for TCSO were MORE 27 years ago when the county had less people and less crime.  At one point, not too long ago, those of us who don’t live in a “town” got a letter from TCSO explaining that there would be times when service was not going to be available.  So, I was excited when my email about cyber crime and citizen appreciation to TCSO resulted the next day in a phone call from Sheriff Kain himself inviting me to set up a meet the next week.   

On meet day, right on time, I was escorted through a large room with many empty desks to a conference room with a huge color coded org chart.  Sheriff Kain explained that there were many (too many in my opinion) empty positions, some not funded, and most, underfunded relative to other local counties.  We are loosing Deputies to Butte and Shasta counties.  The exit process says that it’s because of the lower pay that the Deputies are leaving.  TCSO is stretched beyond reason.  Ironically it has been one of the most up spirited  workplaces that I have visited thus far.  This I believe is a testament to the quality of the staff we do have and to Sheriff Kain’s leadership.

TCSO has been promised funding for Deputies, equipment and so on, but somehow it gets left behind.  Now the BoS is talking about creating a Public Safety Tax Initiative Working Group.   Every opinion of people I saw on line or spoke to except myself has said they would vote no.  My yes vote would be contingent on a committed budget with safeguards to ensure that the money reached it’s earmarked destination.  We know that somehow the county took over 600,000 dollars from the road fund towards the funding of our currently failing Water Plan, so other re-directs are not unimaginable.  The grand jury report https://www.co.tehama.ca.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Grand-Jury-Report.pdf   can be found at this link.  I could find no BoS minutes on the official county website and unravelling the financials posted is giving me an e headache every time I look at it.  The minutes not existing is a real problem for me.  I did minutes for multiple non profit groups and it’s easy.  You can just take the minutes and add on each motion and how each member voted with a time stamp on the video.   To expect people to listen to the hours of recordings is ridiculous and discriminating against hearing impaired individuals, a large part of our population.   A lawsuit waiting to happen, but hey it’s ok because the LAWYERS here are all making a bunch o bank.  If and when the tax initiative hits the ballot, we all owe it to ourselves and our future to really examine it in detail.

In the meantime, I’m working on understanding the budget, campaigning for accountability and transparency.  Our governance is here to serve US, not us serving them.  If we are wanting to complain and criticize, it serves us better to be informed and to speak out publicly and to our officials.    Each time we participate in governance, we are working the parts of democracy as they were intended to be used.

I love that our LEOs have K-9 partners and I am grateful for them as well as our Sheriff, his Deputies and the staff that supports them.  This has been bumped up in my donations list.   Also,  I will keep a look out for fundraising outreaches to pay for building a small courtyard so the TCSO has a decent outside area to take breaks and relax.   What all can YOU do to show you appreciate those who put their lives on the line for us?????

For e forms, complaints, commendations etc., and to find out more about TCSO