A Mobile Home Rent Fight Reaches the Board, and County Counsel's Contract Comes Back a Third Time: Tuesday, October 27th, 2026 Shasta County Agenda

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors meets Tuesday, October 27, at 9 AM, with 36 items on the agenda: 10 on the regular calendar and 26 on consent. It is the board's last regular meeting before the November 3 election, and two of its biggest items were put there by supervisors themselves. Residents of two unincorporated mobile home parks between Redding and Anderson asked the board for help with rent increases, and Tehama County Supervisor Greg Jones is scheduled to explain his county's proposed rent ordinance. The board is asked, for the third time in 14 1/2 months, to act on County Counsel Joseph Larmour's contract. And Health and Human Services returns, again, to extend the loan that has kept its Social Services fund afloat since March 2025. Below are the items most worth watching, followed by a rundown of the full agenda.

Mobile Home Rents: Residents Asked, Tehama Is Coming

Item R1 asks the board to hear from Greg Jones about "Tehama County's ordinance on mobile home park rent increases" and to consider giving staff direction. Supervisor Allen Long sponsored it.

Video: Supervisor Allen Long, during supervisors' reports at the Oct. 13, 2026, board meeting, on residents' complaints about mobile home rent increases and his call to Tehama County Supervisor Greg Jones. Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting video.

It started with residents. At the board's September meetings, residents of parks managed by Harmony Communities, including Riverland, used public comment to describe steep rent increases. On October 13 the board directed staff to contact Jones, according to the staff report. On October 19, Long and Supervisor Chris Kelstrom held a community meeting at the Frontier Senior Center in Anderson with leadership from Harmony, which the county announced on Facebook three days earlier. North State Breakdown attended.

At that meeting, residents pressed Matt Davies of Harmony Communities and his staff with questions. Harmony's side described the rent structure as a defensive measure, applied at every California park it manages, against what lawmakers in Sacramento might do, and pointed to Santa Rosa, where, they said, no park could raise rents for four years. Asked by a resident whether the company's profit margin was public information, Davies answered, "No." Residents also said that people who had come to earlier meetings received three-day notices; Harmony's side said those notices are standard for late rent and are voided by payment. Long told the room that the board had not known there was a problem until residents came to its meeting, and that supervisors had then learned of similar rent increases in Tehama County.

The numbers residents describe center on a new rent of $985 a month starting December 1, paired with a $300 monthly credit. Under the company's "Rent Credit Addendum," as published by Action News Now, the credit ends automatically if a "Rent Control Law is enacted," and the addendum counts a law as enacted once "adopted by a board of supervisors ... even if not yet effective." A resident who signs also acknowledges that the rent increase "is valid" and that "No Rent Control Law applies to the Park today." At the October 19 meeting, Harmony's side called the document a working draft and agreed to add a notice requirement before the credit can be removed. Whether a county ordinance's base rent could reach back past those terms is a question for County Counsel; the packet doesn't address it. For Bixby Knolls, the addendum names the owner as Bixby Knolls MHC, LLC, with Harmony Communities as its managing agent.

The state's mobile home rent cap doesn't reach these parks. It limits increases to the lower of 3 percent plus inflation or 5 percent, but only at parks within the jurisdiction of two or more incorporated cities, and it expires in 2030. Both parks sit outside city limits, in unincorporated Shasta County, where a county ordinance would apply.

The packet attaches an earlier Tehama draft, one that caps increases at a flat 5 percent and expires after 24 months. That isn't the version Tehama is now considering. Tehama County's board is scheduled to take up its ordinance the same day, Tuesday, October 27, and the version on its agenda caps increases at 5 percent plus inflation, 10 percent at most, until January 1, 2030. Tehama's agenda asks only to waive the first reading and accept the introduction; adoption would take a later vote. Tehama's online records date the newer draft to October 2. Tehama has not adopted a rent ordinance.

In Ventura County, Harmony-affiliated park owners have sued Santa Paula over its rent decisions, including a rent board's denial of a proposed 44.64 percent increase, and have sued Thousand Oaks over a rent increase application, the Ventura County Star reported in August. A Harmony spokesperson told the paper that a rent control ordinance does not remove an owner's right to petition for a "fair return."

County Counsel's Contract, a Third Time

Item R7 asks the board to approve a new four-year employment agreement for Larmour, starting October 28, 2026. His pay doesn't change: $20,840 a month. The staff report says "the Board majority wishes to consider adoption of a new employment agreement" to "recognize the exemplary service" he has provided.

Larmour already has a four-year term. The board renewed him on August 12, 2025, 4-0 with Long abstaining, for a term that started August 13, 2025, and runs into August 2029. A new term starting now would replace the roughly two years and nine months left on that one, adding about 14 1/2 months. The staff report mentions his original 2024 start but not the 2025 renewal, and not what happened last month.

On September 15 the board reported a 5-0 finding that Larmour had exceeded expectations in his evaluation; Supervisor Kevin Crye said Supervisor Corkey Harmon made the motion to bring back a four-year renewal. The draft minutes report both the finding and the direction to bring back a renewal under a 5-0 vote; no separate count on the renewal was announced. On September 29 the renewal failed 2-2: Crye recused himself, according to the draft minutes, "due to his term ending prior to the extended term," and Long and Supervisor Matt Plummer voted no. Plummer called Larmour's work excellent but said it was "inappropriate to extend the contract only one year into the current contract," the minutes say. Crye lost his re-election bid in the June primary to Erin Resner, who takes the District 1 seat in January.

Video: The Sept. 29, 2026, roll call on a one-year extension of County Counsel Joseph Larmour's contract, in which Supervisor Kevin Crye recused himself. The motion failed 2-2. Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting video.

On October 13, according to the meeting recording, Crye moved to bring the contract back, and that passed 3-2, with Long and Plummer voting no.

Video: Supervisor Kevin Crye moves to bring Larmour's contract extension back at the Oct. 13, 2026, board meeting; the motion passed 3-2. Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting video.

After that vote, Long asked whether the board could bring back a substantially similar item within a year of voting on it. Larmour, whose own contract was the item, answered that any such limit comes from the board's rules of order, not from law, that the board often departs from those rules, and that the decision was the board's, according to the meeting recording.

Video: Supervisor Allen Long asks County Counsel Joseph Larmour whether the board can bring back an item it has already voted on, Oct. 13, 2026. Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting video.

The severance math is where the new term matters. If the county terminates Larmour without cause, he gets the rest of his term's pay, capped at 18 months of base salary. That 18-month cap, $375,120 at his current pay, is the same in every version of his contract since the first one in December 2023, and state law sets the same ceiling. What a new term changes is how long the full 18 months stays on the table: under the current term, the remaining time drops below 18 months in February 2028; under the new one, not until April 2029. After that, the maximum shrinks month by month.

The new agreement also adds a sentence the 2023 and 2025 versions don't have: "Severance pay shall not be paid in the event of removal in accordance with Government Code section 27641." That section lets the board remove a county counsel for cause, after a written accusation and a hearing, by a three-fifths vote. It is the first change to the severance terms since 2023, and it narrows them in the county's favor.

The Social Services Loan, Again

Item R6 asks the board, by four-fifths vote, to extend a general fund loan to the Social Services fund, the sixth time since the original March 2025 loan that the board has been asked to extend or enlarge it. The loan now in force, capped at $10 million, comes due October 31, four days after the meeting. As of October 12 the fund's cash was negative $2.7 million, the staff report says.

The packet gives three end dates. The agenda and recommendation ask for repayment "by June 30, 2027." The staff report's discussion says "through December 31, 2026," while adding that the loan will likely be needed into fiscal 2027-28. The slides say "through February 28, 2027." The same staff report says the fund's "ongoing and consistent monthly revenues ... will allow for the timely repayment" of the loan.

The board is also asked to approve, after the fiscal year closed, $6,078,761 in additional use of the fund's reserves in 2025-26. A year-end true-up is a normal budget step; the packet doesn't say how much reserve is left after it. Two other pieces move money in: $150,000 from the general fund's unassigned balance for cash aid, and a $1,080,155 transfer of realignment money from Public Health. The slides explain the shortfall as "Revenues did not materialize as projected" and ask for direction on "elimination or reduction of non-mandated programs," without naming any.

Plummer has voted against the last two extensions, in December 2025 and May 2026; in December he first moved shorter extensions, to March 31 or May 15, and neither got a second. This one cites Government Code section 25214.4(b), a section written for loans to county service areas, which the county has cited for other kinds of funds before; whether it fits is a question for County Counsel.

Flock Cameras, Back for Discussion

Item R2 is a discussion, with no vote, of the county's contract with Flock Group for 24 automated license plate reader cameras. Crye sponsored it. The board approved the five-year, $550,849.20 contract on November 6, 2025, on its consent calendar without discussion, with Crye presiding as chair; he signed it. On September 15 of this year Crye said he wasn't happy with that vote, and the board voted unanimously, on his motion, to bring the contract back for discussion.

The staff report at the time said the system was "wholly funded with restricted funds from the Zogg Settlement for the period of five years." The county has paid the first year, $122,113.20, in April 2026. The remaining $428,736 depends on future budget appropriations, and the contract lets the county exit on 30 days' notice if funds aren't appropriated. The order form also renews automatically for 24-month terms unless the county gives notice, which the 2025 minutes described as "two optional renewal periods." Deputies got access to Flock's search system on December 4, 2025, a sheriff's lieutenant told staff in an email released under the Public Records Act, while the county's own cameras were "still 3-5 weeks out." Ending the contract would take a future action item.

Approved After the Fact

As on October 13, several consent items ask the board to approve agreements for periods that have already started or ended. A Health Alliance of Northern California agreement for the county's membership in the Shasta Health Assessment and Redesign Collaborative (C9) runs from July 2024, and the staff report says it was "inadvertently held in review status." An amendment adding $65,099.27 to an Aspiranet youth services contract (C11) covers a term that ended September 30. A $200,000 agreement with Willie Young's Home for Young Men, doing business as Walt's Home for Young Men in Bakersfield (C12), starts March 2. A Superior Court pretrial services agreement (C14) is retroactive for the third year in a row.

The Full Agenda

Here is every item on Tuesday's agenda, in the order the board takes them up.

Regular Calendar

R1. Mobile home rents. A presentation from Tehama County Supervisor Greg Jones. Covered above.

R2. Flock cameras. Discussion only. Covered above.

R3. Library update. The annual report from Shasta Public Libraries Director Julia Parsons.

R4. CEO update and supervisors' reports. No vote. The item allows action on legislation but names no bill.

R5. Drug Medi-Cal services. A Behavioral Health presentation on moving administration of the county's Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System to CalMHSA on January 1, 2027, after Partnership HealthPlan ends its regional contract. The packet gives no cost figures.

R6. Social Services loan. Covered above.

R7. County Counsel contract. Covered above.

R8. Public Works director. A public hearing and resolution appointing John Heath, interim director since May, as Public Works Director and Road Commissioner, effective October 28, at his current pay.

R9. Closed session, labor. Negotiations with the United Public Employees of California General Unit, whose contract ends December 31. Supervisors' own cost-of-living raises are tied by ordinance to this unit's.

R10. Closed session, litigation. Supervisors meet privately about "one potential case" of anticipated litigation, the same wording as October 13.

Consent Calendar

Consent items are usually approved together in a single vote unless a supervisor pulls one for discussion.

C1. Shasta Lake lots. Purchases of two lots in Shasta Lake, for $8,000 and $29,000 plus up to $4,000 in fees, for a Health and Human Services modular office. The appraisals are described but not attached, and the parcel numbers differ from those listed for the May 5 closed session.

C2. Juvenile facility rules. A letter to the Board of State and Community Corrections on proposed juvenile facility regulations, listing cost drivers including "gender affirming health care" and orthodontics, with no dollar estimate.

C3. Debt policy. The biennial review. The only change is the word "Bi-Annual" to "Biennial."

C4. Resource Conservation District. Reappoints four incumbent directors.

C5. Training for supervisors-elect. Enacts the ordinance introduced October 13, letting the County Executive Officer, rather than the board, decide whether a supervisor-elect's training is "proper and beneficial." It sets no dollar cap.

C6. Minutes. Approves the minutes of August 25, September 15 and September 29.

C7. 2027 meeting calendar. 25 regular meetings, with one in July.

C8. Appointments in lieu of election. Appoints 27 candidates to 12 special district boards whose seats drew no contest. The staff report says County Counsel's review "was not requested by the Elections Department," and the packet gives three different deadlines for the appointments.

C9. SHARC membership. $46,200 for July 2024 through June 2028, with two prior years' costs charged to this year. Covered above.

C10. Homelessness grant money. Re-budgets $657,983 in state homelessness funds for Ready for Life and FaithWorks. Plummer recused himself from the FaithWorks contract in March, citing a financial conflict of interest.

C11. Aspiranet. Covered above.

C12. Walt's Home for Young Men. Mental health services for youth placed at its Bakersfield facility, paid at 65 percent of Shasta's Medi-Cal rates, up to $200,000 through June 2028. Covered above.

C13. Partnership HealthPlan. A no-cost, open-ended agreement on child welfare coordination that the state's Medi-Cal managed care rules require.

C14. Pretrial services. Up to $176,028.26 from the Superior Court for pretrial services, about four months retroactive. Last year's version needed a $77,566 general fund backfill, according to the minutes.

C15. Federal claiming contractor. A retroactive renewal with the firm the agenda calls Justice Benefits, Inc., which keeps 15 percent of what it recovers; the contract itself names "JBI, L.P., a Texas limited partnership."

C16. Juvenile hall Medi-Cal billing. A contract with Medusind Inc. through June 2029 at 10 percent of net collections plus a $5,000 implementation fee. The rate is fixed only for the first 12 months, and the contract lets Medusind use its India affiliate "without prior notice to Client."

C17. Jones Valley water emergency. Continues the no-bid emergency declared after Jones Valley's water intake pump failed in September. Temporary pumping runs about $17,000 a month; the permanent repair is expected to exceed $4 million, and state funding talks are "ongoing." No contractor is named.

C18. Survey software. $4,298.84 for Trimble software, renewable through October 2031.

C19. Paving. Awards a road maintenance contract for several Permanent Road Division zones at $549,000, 24 percent over the $442,420 estimate, on two bids, with two of nine zones scaled back.

C20. Buffett Foundation K-9 deputy. Accepts $346,971.18 from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation through the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities for a K-9 deputy, the dog and a $68,230 vehicle. The deputy position ends August 1, 2027. The coalition's officers are sheriffs and a district attorney from other counties, and its IRS filing lists a single contributor, the Center to Combat Human Trafficking.

C21. Night-vision goggles. $29,879.24 in federal grant money, with competitive bidding waived.

C22. Sheriff's pickup. $90,000 from general fund balance for an F-150 pursuit vehicle, bought from the price list the board approved October 13. Staff says the revenue to cover it was already recognized but the appropriation was "inadvertently omitted."

C23. Prisoner transport van. $149,959.58 plus up to $30,040.42 in change orders, from a state grant.

C24. Administrative law judges. A $48,000, five-year agreement with the state Office of Administrative Hearings. The agenda labels it a "2/3 Vote" without explaining why.

C25. Background checks. Adds $14,143.50 to the NEOGOV contract, to $71,038.12, plus authority to pay any added taxes under SB 122 beyond the maximum.

C26. Vehicle damage. $50,446.31 to ARI Fleet for damage to a privately owned fleet vehicle in an April crash in which the California Highway Patrol found the county employee at fault.

What to Watch

On mobile home rents, Tuesday brings a presentation, not an ordinance: the most the board can do is vote to give staff direction, and Tehama's own ordinance is only scheduled for introduction the same day. Under Harmony's own addendum, though, the $300 credit residents are counting on ends once a rent-control law covering the park is adopted, even before it takes effect. Larmour's contract comes back with the same pay, the same severance ceiling, one new severance sentence and a longer clock. And the Social Services loan returns with three end dates and a cash balance still below zero.

And that's the Agenda Preview.