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“He wants to get rid of people who have any institutional knowledge and put into place people who want to do what he wants them to do without questioning him,” Heather McFall, a business manager with Teamsters Local 137, claimed during a phone call with a reporter last night. 

She was speaking about County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, who is facing substantiated findings of managerial misconduct by the county. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors will discuss those findings during a meeting on Tuesday, when they will consider whether to censure — or formally rebuke — Curtis for his actions in office. 

The county has not released any specifics, but labor representatives told Shasta Scout the misconduct has ranged from verbal abuse to reassignment of key responsibilities to physically intimidating behavior paired with the threat of violence. Several staff members within various parts of the department confirmed accounts of these allegations, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation, a concern that labor representatives said is well founded.

Curtis did not respond to emailed questions about the allegations sent this morning.

According to a staff report prepared for the board’s discussion Tuesday, the findings are the result of a county investigation. An attached resolution laid out the county’s personnel rules related to abusive conduct, something that can range from “offensive actions” to physical threats. 

McFall, the Teamsters staffer who represents management positions within the elections office, said she’s been receiving reports about a hostile workplace since soon after Curtis first took on the role as ROV last spring, saying the behaviors have worsened over recent months. 

The latest report, she said, included a threat of violence accompanied by an intimidating physical action. She said the county has opened multiple personnel investigations into Curtis over the last year, including one that’s still in progress.

Robert DeLong works for UPEC – LiUNA Local 792, another union group that represents workers within the Shasta County clerk and elections department. He outlined reports he’s received of managerial misconduct that included removal of key job assignments. Asked about what might motivate Curtis to behave this way, DeLong speculated that the election official is attempting to push longer-term employees out of their roles in an attempt to increase his control over the department.

“It seems like he’s trying to bring in ‘his people’ and push out the county’s long-term employees,” DeLong said. “It’s easier to manage people that you bring in versus people that were already there.”

Since taking the role, Curtis has hired several individuals who vocally opposed the previous registrar of voters, including one who unsuccessfully sued the county’s prior election official and another who sought to stop certification of the vote during the 2024 election. 

DeLong said Curtis has insinuated in at least one internal document that longer-term employees are corrupt or are sabotaging the department, statements he’s made without providing any evidence. 

“He’s making claims that employees are creating a hostile environment,” DeLong explained, “but it’s actually he, himself, that’s creating a hostile environment.”

According to several people on staff, Curtis also responds poorly to critical feedback from staff or the media, which can lead to him removing job assignments or releasing denigrating group emails about the person he feels is at fault. Staffers alleged that those who have experienced the most harmful behavior from Curtis are individuals who haven’t put significant efforts into using communication patterns that might placate him — so-called soft skills. 

Descriptions of Curtis provided by those staff painted a picture of a man whose unfailingly cheerful public persona at times shifts into a very different affect, something McFall said she witnessed only once when she and others were discussing security accommodations with Curtis and he abruptly reprimanded an employee who came up to the group to share an opinion.

Most of his comments come without a change in his demeanor, she and staffers within the department said, noting that he’s threatened to punch staff, fire them or sue them in a tone which made it difficult to determine if he was joking. In separate interviews, several staff sources confirmed that he uses the same cheerful tone when he makes what they claim are frequent references to death or dying, noting that he’s jokingly suggested ways to kill annoying voters and asked about how staffers might respond if he threatened to shoot them.

Staff sources, along with labor representatives, also expressed concern about reports that he treats women more harshly than he does men, as well as statements he’s made that could amount to sexual harassment.

Last November, late on the night of the special election, a Shasta Scout reporter witnessed one such statement that occurred while Curtis spoke to several members of the public in the presence of a female employee. He told community members that the staffer hadn’t done something quite right saying jovially that he planned to “spank her later.” She did not react. 

Labor representatives said it’s been difficult to find a way to hold Curtis accountable for his actions because of his unique position as an appointee to an elected role. A vote of no confidence by staff, they said, would be too identifying given how few people work in the elections office, especially since the county does not appear to have a clear path to remove him from his position given his status as an elected official.

He also expressed concern about Curtis’ right hand man, saying his role in the office should include making sure employees are treated fairly no matter who’s elected or appointed to supervise the department. DeLong said the county might have more leverage when it comes to holding Turner accountable for his role in employee well-being, something he’s looking into. 

Turner did not respond to a request for comment. 

The labor representative also noted a relative lack of experience in elections management by both top officials, neither of which had ever run an election before last November. DeLong called it a disservice to the public to not have qualified people in those kinds of higher positions, especially given the critical nature of election work.

“I think that’s why there’s such problems,” he added, “because they’re not qualified to manage this type of department. Imagine if you’re the chief of police or assistant chief of police and you’ve never worked as an officer.”

McFall shared a similar sentiment, saying some incidents of verbal abuse have followed attempts by staff to hold the line on election law.

“The problem is he doesn’t understand the law.” McFall claimed. “He’s trying to tell them to do things a certain way which violates the law. He’s demanding they do that, but they’re worried about being held liable. That’s when he can become verbally combative or denigrate them.”

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