‘Crazy thing to bring up,’ woman tells supervisor before her arrest

With his time on the board winding down, Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones, at Thursday’s meeting, continued to lash out at the elections’ department, placing his mistrust in the early vote results from the Nov. 5 general election while airing old grievances with former Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen, who retired in May for health reasons.
Compounding the dysfunction that has marred the county since the pandemic four years ago, Redding resident Jenny O’Connell-Nowain was handcuffed and escorted out of the meeting by sheriff’s deputies into a waiting squad SUV in the parking garage behind the county administration building.
She was booked into the Shasta County Jail on suspicion of disturbing a public meeting, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
It was the second time in three months law enforcement removed O’Connell-Nowain from a supervisors’ meeting for disrupting the proceedings.
Like the first time in July, O’Connell-Nowain was upset with Jones, this time for going after the elections department. Supervisors suspended the meeting after O’Connell-Nowain and her husband, Benjamin Nowain, sat on the floor in front of the dais and refused to leave.
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Nowain eventually got up and left. He later told a Record Searchlight reporter that he had to go home and take care of the couple’s 15-year-old son. But he supported his wife’s sit-in.
The meeting was halted for about an hour before Supervisor Kevin Crye, who chairs the board, reconvened it.
Much of the argument between Jones and the Nowains and his other critics centered on the elections department’s use of a $1.5 million grant the Board of Supervisors approved nearly two years ago from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. Jones, who was the board chair in February 2023, dissented.
The nonpartisan nonprofit was one of two organizations that in 2020 received a $420 million donation from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. That money was eventually distributed in the form of grants to elections departments across the country.
But the donation is the subject of conspiracy theories President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters have made, falsely claiming it benefited Democrats, USA TODAY reported. It has mobilized activists at the local level to ban private election grants.
“This is kind of a crazy thing to bring up after all this time — you’re literally on the way out. You were the chair at the time,” Jenny O’Connell-Nowain told Jones during public comment.
Jones contends he has more than 100 emails that show the former county clerk rewrote the grant proposal. He was ready to release the emails, but County Counsel Joseph Larmour cautioned him he needed the board’s authorization.
Registrar of Voters Tom Toller was asked about what happened at Thursday’s meeting at his Friday afternoon media briefing on the election. He said the comments from Jones do not come at a good time when his staff is focused on Tuesday’s election. But he said his staff are professionals and they know what needs to be done. He also said he was troubled that this is something that happened nearly two years ago.
“In my view — and I’ll take off my clerk cap now and put on my trial lawyer cap — when the board voted to sign the contract with Hart and expend the grant funds for the Hart InterCivic (voting) machines, in a way they sort of ratified that grant,” said Toller, who is a semi-retired prosecutor.
Supervisors eventually voted 3-2 to bring the topic back to a future meeting to talk about releasing the emails, with Jones and Supervisors Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom in the majority. Supervisors Tim Garman and Mary Rickert voted no.
Jones leaves the dais at the end of December after having lost his reelection bid to Matt Plummer in a landslide on March 5, 2024. Plummer will be seated as the new District 4 supervisor in January.
Jenny O’Connell-Nowain argued Jones is bringing the issue up now to attack Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut because the people he wants to hold accountable, Darling Allen and former County Counsel Jim Ross, no longer work for the county.
“You’re literally just stirring up your people because you sit on a throne of lies,” she said.
Jones’ supporters, buoyed by his comments, demanded that supervisors not certify the election results unless the county does a hand-count audit of all votes. California election law requires counties to do a 1% manual audit of ballots after the election.
In Shasta County, a printing issue has helped delay the processing and tabulation of ballots from Tuesday’s election. Jones and his supporters allege, without verifiable evidence, that a lot of errors are happening.
While Jones said some of the alleged mistakes are being corrected, he said ballot processing being done by election workers concerns him greatly.
To be sure, supervisors don’t certify election results. That’s the job of the county registrar of voters, who then forwards the certification to the California Secretary of State. Local results from the Nov. 5 election must be certified by Dec. 6.
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.