California county moves to hire secessionist leader as chief executive

A Northern California county has offered its top job to a leader of the state’s secessionist movement, which advocates for splitting the Golden State in two. 

Chriss Street was offered the position of Shasta County’s chief executive officer, according to county information officer David Maung. 

Street is the vice president of New California, an organization that supports the secession of California’s rural areas, along with Orange and San Diego counties, into a new state. 

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors, alongside a Temporary Advisory Committee, decided to offer the job to Street, who was one of seven candidates interviewed, according to Maung. 

The decision was leaked to the media and later confirmed by county officials on Tuesday. The board has launched an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of the job offer.

The county has seen a shift to the right with the election of a slim conservative majority on the Board of Supervisors, who voted to offer Street the job. 

In February, the board announced it will pursue new options for counting votes amid unproven claims of voter fraud, the Los Angeles Times reported. County Supervisor Kevin Crye has also discussed a new voting system with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an election conspiracy theorist, according to the Redding Record Searchlight. 

Street is a former Orange County treasurer-tax collector who recently moved back to Shasta County. 

“I just want to say how, I’m just so thankful I moved back up here. We never thought it would happen; it kind of was a crisis, and we moved here,” Street said in an interview with Redding’s KRCR-TV Monday.

A formal job offer cannot be issued until the board votes again March 28 following a background check of Street, Maung said.