Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting: Board Approves 2025-26 Final Budget: Four county supervisors approved Del Norte County’s 2025-26 final recommended budget about two weeks after they learned that 25% of its positions are vacant and overall base salaries are 10% under market median. The final step in a process that included a 14-day public hearing window and two budget workshops, the total 2025-26 recommended budget is $249,475,247 with a general fund budget of $45,460,804, according to a staff report from County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez and Auditor-Controller Clinton Schaad. In their staff report, Lopez and Schaad addressed the staffing shortage within general fund departments. According to them, staffing levels within general fund departments have been consistent “over many years now,” but has resulted in struggling to meet increasing demand. “It has become increasingly more obvious that many of our service departments do not have the necessary resources/staffing to meet the demands of the community mandated programs or other county departments, which is compounded by key vacant positions,” Lopez and Schaad state. Salaries and benefits account for about 56% of the recommended 2025-26 general fund budget. Out-of-County Services: District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson asked Health and Human Services Director Ranell Brown for more information on three consent agenda items. The first issue was a non-financial agreement with the California Department of Health Care Services for specialty mental health services, including intensive home-based services, adult residential treatment services and crisis intervention. According to Brown, this contract is mandated under the state Welfare and Institutions Code. “Of course not everyone is going to get all those services, it’s based on their individual need and the level of care they need,” Brown said. “This is our agreement with the state so it covers our Behavioral Health side as well as the service center and services we do at Sutter Coast Hospital for crisis services.” Under the program, Behavioral Health served 1,033 unduplicated clients, Brown said. The second was an agreement with 4Kids2kids, a residential program for foster youth and juvenile offenders to receive treatment. This, too, is a requirement by the state that’s based on an individual child’s level of need. One youth is placed in the facility, which is in Santa Barbara County. Over the past fiscal year, the county has placed four foster youth and one juvenile offender in the program, Brown said. “Our team does monthly visits to these facilities to ensure they’re meeting the requirements and the standards,” she said. The third is a proposal to renew a contract with Mid Valley Recovery Facilities, which is in Yuba City. According to Brown, the contract is for residential treatment. In the 2024-25 fiscal year one client from Del Norte was served in the facility at a cost of $4,400. “As you know there are no in-county facilities for these services as well, Brown said. “So we need to place out-of-county dependent on available beds, dependent on services they need so we contract with multiple facilities in case one doesn’t have an available bed we can use another one.” Brown said DHHS also placed nine clients with Granite Wellness in Grass Valley at a cost of $63,000. Wilson pointed out that while these are state-mandated programs, because there’s a lack of services in Del Norte County, most are provided “a long way away from us.” “That makes it very difficult for the families, it makes it very difficult for the individuals but it is unfortunately the reality we are saddled with because these are mandated programs,” he said. “We struggle to find organizations that fit the bill — the NGOs, hospitals, service centers — that fit the bill that have openings that can accept those that need the services at the time when they need them.” “A New Revival of Christianity”: Calling the fallen right-wing political activist a “martyr in this country and in the world,” District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson said he hoped Charlie Kirk’s assassination spurns a “new revival of Christianity” in the United States. Wilson, who noted that the number of Turning Point USA chapters have increased since the activist’s death on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University, said the nation is grieving and he’s even counseled his own children as they come to grips with Kirk’s assassination. The county supervisor said his children were embracing their Christianity because of Kirk’s influence. Wilson noted that before Kirk’s death, there were 900 Turning Point USA chapters in colleges throughout the country and 1,200 chapters in American high schools. Now, he said, there are 65,000 new chapter requests pouring into Turning Point USA, the nonprofit conservative advocacy organization Kirk founded in 2012. “His message was resonating out in these colleges,” Wilson said of Kirk. “He went there because he knew they were places that were devoid of that kind of talk. And he spoke boldly about his love for Christ and the need for Christ … if we’re going to save this country, the Western Civilization.” Wilson isn’t the only elected official in Del Norte County who weighed in on Kirk’s death. At the Crescent City Council’s Sept. 15 meeting, Councilor Jason Greenough asked his colleagues to observe a moment of silence for Kirk, stating that the activist influenced him when he was mayor.