Of public record

Last week, the Glenn County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to fire John Linhart (pictured), the county’s planning and public works director since 2009. Tim Crews, publisher and editor of the Sacramento Valley Mirror, suspects the firing has something to do with emails sent on the county’s service between Linhart and other county officials. Crews requested these under the state’s public records act and then used them in a story that says the emails show “disrespect and hostility for the Glenn County Board of Supervisors as a body, for County Counsel Huston Carlyle, and for Supervisors Dwight Foltz and Steve Soeth individually.”

Linhart describes the board as “not the Harvard Business School model, but I am dealing with more ‘Larry the Cable Guy’ school of supervisors right now.”

Referring to Supervisor Soeth, Linhart wrote, “I’m not sure that he is sophisticated enough to understand the implications.”

When asked for a response, Soeth told Crews, “I don’t think I am sufficiently sophisticated enough to comment.”

The story evolved as the California Legislature came close to gutting the California Public Records Act, which was in a trailer bill tied to the proposed state budget. In an editorial, Crews noted that he, not the taxpayers, paid Glenn County $93 for the email records.