Op-Ed: What Are We Missing in City Hall? A Newcomer’s Look at a Changing Mount Shasta

Reflections on a year of change, controversy, public service and the city I’ve come to love.

By Anastasia Sprout | Mount Shasta Observer |

The Mount Shasta City Council has had to deal with a lot this past year:

💻 Data center/Crystal Geyser (resolved?) that included scary personal threats
💰 The proposed 1% sales tax (Measure H, pending)
📈 Rising city fees and financial problems
💧 Water and sewer rates
🏗️ The Landing development (ongoing)
🚧 Lake Street reconstruction (ongoing)
🏠 Housing—including mobile-home rents and tiny homes (ongoing)

I admire the council members for taking all this—and more—on.

These are complicated, sometimes contentious issues that affect nearly everyone who lives and works here. Serving on the council is still essentially part-time public service: council members receive only $220 a month, plus reimbursement for eligible expenses.

That's not a lot for the time, responsibility and scrutiny that come with making decisions that affect an entire community.

Citizens who attend and speak at Council meetings can be critical, granular, angry, occasionally mean—and, in some cases, frightening. At one meeting I watched an inebriated man take the microphone and launch into an angry, nonsensical critique before being removed from City Park's Upper Lodge by a law-enforcement officer. I later learned he had physically assaulted an officer the previous day, only to be released from custody and show up at City Council.

It was disturbing to watch him physically removed from the room. It was also reassuring to see that police protection was there before anything worse happened.

When controversy arose after the data-center inquiry was revealed in June 2026, city representatives—and their children—were threatened by some members of the public if the project was not stopped.

Scary.

So, these are not service roles for the faint of heart.

However, after almost a year of attending meetings, and as we approach an election for two new council members, I find myself hoping and praying for less legal activity and more heart—more Ohana—in the years to come.

🌺 Ohana means family... loving family.

I am also hoping and praying for leadership with more experience and grace.

Who are You To Start a 'Newspaper'?

I have attended many City Council meetings since I moved to Mount Shasta in 2025. My concern about the changes in Council and City Hall staffing that emerged in the second half of 2026 helped inspire the creation of the Mount Shasta Observer as a local independent online news source—and a deeper look into the health and functionality of politics in the city I have grown to love. 🏔️

Starting a local news source after having lived in a city for less than a year is almost ridiculously ambitious, I know.

Indeed, at one City Council special meeting concerning Mount Shasta's Measure H, the proposed 1% local sales and use tax increase, a local woman approached me after my three-minute comment at the microphone and said:

"You haven't lived here long enough to say that."

To be fair, I was also holding up a sign I had made that said "Let's Grow Mount Shasta Together."

The sign was inspired after I attended a "Coffee with Casey" community conversation with Mayor Glaubman and heard him say, "This may be controversial, but I'd like to help Mount Shasta grow."

I thought, If this charming small town does have to grow, I want to help it grow in a positive direction.

At that Measure H meeting—sadly unrecorded because the video team was stuck in traffic—we heard Mount Shasta Chief of Police Robert Gibson say that his department and Mount Shasta Fire were underfunded and understaffed, resulting in exhausted officers and mandatory, more expensive overtime.

I greatly admire the Chief after interviewing him in an earlier iteration of the Mount Shasta Observer, called the Mount Shasta Be(e). A subsequent evening ride-along with MSPD Sergeant Devon Priddy only strengthened my appreciation for the department.

They were doing difficult work and, in my experience, deserved support. Despite the grueling, tedious and sometimes dangerous tasks they carried out each day on our behalf, they somehow kept a lighter side alive that seemed to align with the spirit of Mount Shasta.

After I signed a lease for a rental home located ON the foothills of the mountain in September 2025, my new landlady insisted I attend the nearby Blackberry Festival being held that very day. I went, and lived to regret my decision to not get a piece of pie—I was on a diet then—because a year later I went back for one (now off my diet completely!) and missed my chance.

It seemed by 2026 everyone else in Northern California was also off their diets, and the Rotary volunteer crew sold out of pie within the first forty-five minutes of the packed festival's opening. I should have known there'd be trouble when I was walking into Shastice Park watching men exiting the event balancing pies in their arms three boxes high, silly grins on their faces.

I hadn't set out to create a local independent news source, or start following city politics at all. But living in this town brings an inspirational flow that is ignored at one's own peril. I wake up with ideas that pester me until I find an outlet. For the last several mornings, it has been this op-ed.

My regular attendance at City Council meetings started with a desire to connect. Then I got on social media and saw a guy posting a lot of interesting things.

Afa Garrigan was his name, and tiny homes were clearly his passion.

Nearly everyone in town knows Afa and his lovely partner Aurea Wolf for their tireless efforts to create and support affordable housing for generations to come.

I had recently met a new Mount Shasta friend who was living in his van, and I worried about how he was going to fare over the winter.

I saw a community dinner invitation at Soul Connections from Afa's group, then called Y.E.A.H. (Yes to Expedite Affordable Housing) and decided to attend. Afa and Aurea were down-to-earth and welcoming, enveloping me in big hugs and encouraging me to fill my plate—which I happily did. They showed me what I later learned was called Ohana Spirit: neighborly love offered so freely and generously that an outsider instantly becomes family.

New in town and feeling quite lonely, this was exactly what I needed. And my friend, living in his van and plagued by memories of extreme abuse, needed this even more.

I asked Afa what resources were available for transient people, and he encouraged me to attend an upcoming City Council meeting to ask the town leaders directly.

So I did.

That's how I first met Chief Gibson, interviewed him, and realized that his answers were important enough that I should submit a story to the town's newspaper so everyone could read it. But there was no dedicated local newspaper, only a national one with a local name.

So I started the Be(e)—one issue—handed out almost 100 copies, kept sleeping on the mountain in my rental home, and kept waking up with new story ideas. I also kept trying to help my friend find housing, and attended more City Council meetings.

At first, it was mainly because I enjoyed spending time with Afa and Aurea, and they were always there. I loved their ideas about tiny-home communities and wanted to see them come to fruition. But over time, I also became genuinely interested in what the Council was doing to serve the city. The Mayor was affable. The council seemed to get along. The City Manager seemed effective. The Chief was there. As with my interview, I always appreciated hearing what he had to say.

I developed a feeling of belonging and liked witnessing important developments-in-the-making by town leaders. And some meetings were downright thrilling!

One of them was June 22, 2026, when we were first to hear about a data-center inquiry involving a potential industrial facility within walking distance of my rental home.

Whaaaaatttt??!!! No way!

The community response was immediate and intense. Residents raised concerns about water, noise, industrial development and what such a facility could mean for Mount Shasta and the surrounding area.

The Council and Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors subsequently faced substantial public pressure over the issue. They reassured residents there were no plans in the works. And still they were threatened personally.

Right after that, things radically changed in City Hall staffing. A series of personnel changes followed. The Council began holding additional closed sessions, including sessions concerning potential litigation, while the public received little information about what was happening behind the scenes.

Rapid, Unexplained Staff Changes and Legal Threat to City

The chronology:

I am not afraid of change—remember that sign I made about city growth?

But this is not what I had in mind, nor do I suspect it is what many residents of Mount Shasta City would want if they had a say, even though we don't know all the facts.

What I found shocking about the series of changes I witnessed in the Mount Shasta City Council and City Hall in the latter half of 2026 was their abruptness and the lack of public explanation surrounding them.

In roughly two months, three people with a combined nearly 39 years of service were no longer participating in city decision-making in the same way:

City Attorney John Kenny: approximately 22 years of service, released from his position without prior public notice or a public explanation of the reason.

City Manager Todd Juhasz: approximately five years, eight months of service, placed on administrative leave without a public explanation of the underlying personnel matter.

Former Mayor and longest-serving current Councilmember Jeffrey Collings: approximately 11 years on the Council, resigned without a public explanation.

I asked for information about these changes during public comment at Council meetings and was told that personnel information was protected by privacy rules.

Maybe so.

But the sudden loss of so much institutional memory is a big deal, especially for a city this small. With Kenny, Juhasz and Collings no longer playing their previous roles in City Hall, the Council is left with far less experience during a significant transition.

The Council found a new contracted city attorney, while questions about that change and the new firm's qualifications have also been raised publicly.

The Council appointed Planning Director Kim Fowler as acting city manager and, as of the September 28 meeting, selected her for contract negotiations to become the next permanent city manager.

Public comments about Fowler have generally been positive. One citizen, however, questioned at a September meeting whether she had prior city-manager experience or professional training in that position.

The same could be said for me as a journalist. New can bring a fresh perspective and innovative thinking, and sometimes that's a very good thing.

But there is still a question that has stayed with me throughout all of this:

What are we missing?

At the July 13 meeting, former Councilmember Tim Stearns specifically suggested that the Council bring in an outside investigator to review the personnel matter before taking further substantive action.

Former City Attorney John Kenny also publicly questioned the process and urged the Council to slow down, gather facts and investigate before moving toward termination.

The Council did not announce an outside investigator at that meeting, nor have I found a public report of an independent investigation into the Juhasz personnel matter. That doesn't necessarily mean one did not occur or could not have occurred privately. Personnel matters are subject to confidentiality restrictions.

But from the public's perspective, the questions remain unanswered.

Meanwhile, the Council continued to hold closed sessions, including multiple meetings concerning potential litigation. These legal meetings are paid by citizens. The public records identify those closed sessions as legal matters; they do not establish that every such session was connected to the personnel changes.

Still, taken together, the rapid personnel changes, the calls for an outside review, the continuing closed sessions and the lack of public explanation naturally leave residents with questions.

What Happened?

I don't know. That's why I'm writing this.

In close succession, several long-serving public servants abruptly left or were suspended or released from their previous roles, citizens asked questions and at least one former councilmember called for an outside investigation—and much of what happened afterward has remained behind the closed-session door.

That is worth paying attention to.

All of this has also happened while Mount Shasta is confronting some very real questions about its future:

💻 What happens to the Crystal Geyser property?

💰 Does the city need a 1% sales-tax increase? If not, how will we support the understaffed Mount Shasta Police and Fire Departments?

📈 Why are city fees increasing?

💧 What will happen to water and sewer costs?

🏗️ What will The Landing become?

🚧 How will Lake Street be rebuilt?

🏠 How will Mount Shasta address housing, including mobile-home rents and tiny homes?

These are not small questions.

Even with all the unknowns, I applaud the people who have agreed to sit in those council seats and wrestle with them, and those running for council positions.

They receive $220 a month.

They take public criticism.

They sit through long meetings.

They hear from people who are angry, frightened, passionate, grateful, confused and sometimes downright unreasonable.

Now they are dogged by upstart journalists like myself.

And they still choose to show up to serve, or offer to in the upcoming election.

I am suffering a little whiplash from all this change though.

Are you?

Maybe I should make another sign:

Slow down "growth" in Mount Shasta! 🤔

Here's to hoping and praying that, whatever the coming election brings, Mount Shasta moves forward with heart, experience and grace—and that we can find a little more moderation and ❤️Ohana in council in the weeks, months and years ahead.

And for us citizens, may we participate just as actively—or more so—with the same care, consideration and grace we ask of our public servants.