Shasta County supervisors are moving ahead with a charter amendment that would spell out how vacancies in elected department head positions are filled, according to a July 14 staff report.
The proposal would require a special election when the next regularly scheduled election is within 12 months of a vacancy. If the next election is farther away than that, the board could fill the seat by appointment through open recruitment, but only with a 4/5 vote, the report says.
The staff report says the board had already directed staff on June 16 to return with the ordinance, and that supervisors introduced it on June 23. The same day, they adopted a resolution calling for an election and consolidating the measure with the Nov. 3, 2026 general election.
The report identifies the measure as Measure F and says the board also was set to approve an argument in favor of the proposal and authorize the County Executive Officer, or a designee, to submit the required signature-statement form to the Elections Department.
The amendment stems from Shasta County’s transition to charter-county status. The report says voters approved Measure D on March 5, 2024, establishing Shasta County as a California charter county, and that the county became the state’s 15th charter county in 2025. It says future charter amendments must be introduced and enacted by ordinance before being prepared for the ballot.
The staff report warns that any delay would keep the measure off the November ballot. It also says the proposal carries general-fund costs tied to staff time, legal review and ballot production, and estimates that each countywide ballot measure reduces election revenue by $20,000 to $50,000.
