Shasta County Sheriff’s Deputies will no longer be assigned to Board of Supervisors meetings. Deputies have been attending at the request of the board, but in order to keep them from other assignments, such as patrol duties, the deputies in the boardroom have all been on overtime pay. That money has been drawing from the sheriff’s department budget. Armed guards have now been assigned by Ardent Security, a private company that already had a contract with the county. The cost savings is estimated at $7,658 annually. Although they’re armed, the private security guards have no police powers or any authority to make arrests beyond that of any other citizen.
-Steve Gibson