Mount Shasta City Council Candidates Forum Review

By Anastasia Sprout | Mount Shasta Observer

A small but engaged group gathered on the morning of September 19, 2026, at Sisson Elementary School for the first 2026 Mount Shasta City Council Candidates Forum. The event was organized by the Siskiyou County Republican Party and hosted by Dan Dorsey, County Party Chairman and retired Cal Fire captain.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Russ Porterfield of State Farm Insurance, a former city politician.

Dan Dorsey explained that the format was to invite each candidate to speak about “who they are, why they want to run, and what they’re gonna do” if elected. The audience was encouraged to “ask them the hard questions.” Questions were limited to two per candidate, although the early speakers were only asked one question each.

It was explained that the duties of the City Council included:

1. Providing security, police and fire services to the community; and
2. Maintaining city infrastructure, including water services.

Candidate Vicki Barr was unable to attend, but the other four candidates took the microphone and offered their best.

What Voters Learned

Heading off the event, Mount Shasta Union School District President Jessica Evans presented the case for Measure J, a separate $9.1 million school facilities bond.

The forum revealed both common ground and some clear differences among the candidates. Housing, supporting local businesses, maintaining essential city services and preserving Mount Shasta’s small-town character came up repeatedly.

Measure H, the proposed 1% city sales tax increase, was a major topic. Wendy Warnick, Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori and Tim Stearns voiced support for the measure, while Roslyn McCoy said she wanted more information about the city’s budget and spending priorities. Mayor Casey Glaubman, who is not running for City Council this year, attended specifically to advocate for Measure H.

The candidates also brought different backgrounds and priorities to the discussion. McCoy emphasized citizen involvement and protecting residents; Warnick focused on business experience and “smart growth”; Dorsey-Imabori spoke about representing younger residents and making Mount Shasta affordable for future generations; and Stearns emphasized his previous council experience, city finances, housing and The Landing.

Stearns was also asked directly about the proposed data center and said, “I oppose locating a data center in or near Mount Shasta.”

Event Agenda:

Jessica Evans on the School Bond Measure J

Roslyn McCoy

Wendy Warnock

Mayor Casey Glaubman, Measure H % Tax Increase

Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori (no direct relation to Dan)

Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori was overcome with emotion as he spoke from the heart about what it meant to be running for Mount Shasta City Council.

Tim Stearns

Slight tension arose toward the end of the event when an audience member asked Tim Stearns to address his experience of being censured while previously serving on the City Council. The questioner asked whether, if elected again, Stearns could get along with other councilmembers. Stearns offered reassurance and asked whether he had answered the question. The audience member replied, “No.”

See the transcript below for more details.

Jessica Evans, President, Mount Shasta Union School District, Supporting School Bond Measure J

Thank you so much. My name is Jessica Evans, and I'm the current president of the Mount Shasta Union School District. I'd like to say thank you to Mr. Dorsey for putting this together and inviting us to talk about a really important issue about the building that you're sitting in right now.

Our district is comprised of Sisson School and Mount Shasta Elementary School, which is a bit of an iconic landmark in our town. But it is very old and it is falling apart, as are some of the other buildings on this particular campus: roofs, drinking fountains, HVAC systems, and we don't have facilities and maintenance budget that can fix everything that needs to be done.

So, we've been putting our heads together. We've gone to Sacramento. We met with Assemblywoman Heather Hadwick, and we decided to vote for a bond on this upcoming election ballot. It is Measure J, and we'll be going for $9.1 million, and it can only be used for facilities and maintenance. It cannot be used for salaries, pensions. It cannot be taken by the state or the federal government and used in different ways.

And the average annual tax for people who own property, whether it's real estate, commercial or residential, will be $25 per $100,000 of value. And I kind of put all of that out first for taxpayers because everything's going up. Everybody, you know, we understand that it is a hard time to be going after such a large amount of money.

But if we don't, our schools are going to collapse, and I am on the school board because I do firmly believe that our schools are the heart of this community.

And just to give a couple of examples: the price of diesel has gone from $600 to fill up our bus. It now costs us $1,600 to fill the bus. It is September 19th. School has been in session for one month, and we have already burned through our maintenance budget.

Our boilers are so old that they don't heat our schools efficiently, so then we have to spend more money for propane. You can stick your fingers through windows in some of MSE's classrooms, like outside. Half of those classrooms don't have air conditioning, so you have these little guys who are trying to take in information, and they're, you know, they're little puddles of sweat.

So by going after this bond, we are investing not just in these buildings, but we're investing in students, we're investing in our community, we're investing in our future citizens.

So I have two flyers here that have a lot of information, and I would love to talk more about this and answer any questions. But this is a whole new bond for our community. We also are going after Prop. 2 funds, so this $9.1 million potentially could turn into $13.4 million if we get matching funds from the state.

So, all right. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak.

And does anyone have any questions?

Audience Question: Is this a 50-plus-one vote, or do we need 66.6%?

We need 55% of the vote to pass.

Anybody else? Thank you.

Roslyn McCoy, City Council Candidate

Dan, thank you for organizing all of this. It was a lot of work, I'm sure. I've lived here for 37 years, and I moved here with my two children. They were very young, seven and two, and I was looking for a place with clean water and clean air and a community that would be conducive and kind to my children.

And when I came here, I found out about our water, and that we don't put any chemicals in the water or fluoride. And we're like, yes, this is wonderful.

The air was blue, and I was driving around town. I saw Bob Hunts. He was the chief of police at the time, and he was on the street corner talking to some young teenagers, and they were all smiling. And there was such a good relationship between the police department and the youth in the community, and I'm like, yeah, that's a good sign.

This is a kind place, and I saw how even teenagers and business people treated some of our significantly disabled people.

Her name was Woolby, and she was very interesting. But people were so kind to her, and I thought, now that's a real indication of this community and how they've raised their children to be kind to very different sorts of people.

So it's really important to me to bring together a strong voice of the community in what City Council does for us and for the surrounding area. We have a very large sphere of influence here, and so I started attending City Council meetings when Crystal Geyser was an issue.

And I learned about the residents around Crystal Geyser and how, when Coca-Cola was there, their wells dried up, and they didn't really have the support and the voices from the community. I really felt that with a new factory coming in, that we as citizens needed to stand up for each other.

And so I started asking questions from Crystal Geyser and our City Council members and questioning: Well, how much water can they pull? Didn't get real clear answers, but basically whatever they wanted, and we were having droughts. So there were questions of, well, if we had a drought and people were having problems with their water, would you help them?

I kept getting, “No, they're a company or business. They're going to make money, and that's what they're going to do.”

And so I really felt that I needed to contribute. I needed to watch what was going on and make sure that my fellow people in the city are protected.

So I started going to City Council meetings when I was like the only one on the public side of it, and I'm sure there's some [thinking], Don't say anything, but I felt we should say something. We should have comments. We should have questions.

And sometimes I got answers, and sometimes I didn't. But being on City Council, I think I can make more of an impact and get more questions answered, and really help this community make sure that we're within legal bounds, that we're doing what we need to do legally, and we're protecting our fellow citizens.

Any questions? Come on. Okay.

Audience Question: If you go in, what is your position on Measure H?

Roslyn McCoy:

On Measure H, I really wish up to this point that we had had more information about how our budget has been structured and looking at the priorities that Dan was saying, that those priorities were covered first.

And I really don't feel that I had the information that I want to make a real clear decision on, yes, the city needs this extra amount. But we're in a situation where I guess we really need the extra money, and I'm hoping that it will be spent wisely and not on advertisement, not on flyers that may or may not go to the border.

And trying to get questions, you know, get answers about how much money do we spend on advertisement has been [sighs] impossible to get. I don't quit, but I wish I had more information.

Wendy Warnick

I have lived in Shasta for 14 years, so I'm much more new than many of you, and I have considered it a privilege to live here.

And I have had the experience of co-owning a business here, which I feel has given me a lot of really important experience of what life is like here and how important it is that our business owners are supported and that we do our best to foster new businesses coming into our community that will augment what is already here.

Because we are poised here in Mount Shasta for such a beautiful stage of growth. I love how John Stackfleth characterizes it as “smart growth,” because it will take really careful thinking, really important input from all of the community as to what you all want to see and how you want to see that happen, and then how it is thoughtfully implemented so that we continue to grow and prosper, and we keep the enchanted small-town feel that draws many of us.

I have been in business all of my life, which has been a long life. I'm mostly in project management and development, affordable housing, financing it through taxes and bonds and private investment; senior communities with all levels of care, also through private investment and tax-free bonds.

And then I've been on the other side of things, where I've done major fundraising for worldwide organizations, nonprofit organizations, working with the quirky subculture of the ultra-wealthy. So, and doing a lot of grant writing to develop funds for a food recovery program that I initiated in San Diego and ran for many years. I started with the food bank and then I opened up my own.

So I'm a person who usually stays behind the scenes.

But two years ago, I was influenced enough and drew enough courage to step into this spring of community service by running for council, which was great. Also a great experience. I did lose by five votes to Casey [Glaubman], which was the happiest moment of my life because he's done such a great job.

And I feel even more clear now to take an active role on City Council because of the skills that I've developed over my long business life and the personal aspects of who I am. I think I would bring a lot to the other strong elements that our council members who are staying with us [bring], and weaving that together.

And we have the skill of bringing people together that have not—as an indicator of our council, but in our community—who may have good, opposite ideas of what things are required, how to go about solving them, and not all have to agree on everything, but have consensus so we can move forward.

So I would welcome any questions. I feel it's an honor to run for this role, and I really feel I could do an excellent job. So I appreciate your time.

Audience Question:

You mentioned you've been in business all your life, and what are the two maybe most important things that the city is or should be doing in support of the small business community, in support of its small businesses?

Wendy Warnick:

A really good question. I think the city does a good job in support of its small businesses to the best that they have the capacity for, right? Because there's a lot of big issues on the table, especially now with the way that costs are rising, and we barely keep our heads above water. All of us as individuals and as a city.

I have thought about it a lot because, you know, to me, it's enticing businesses into our community, new businesses that help our community flourish. I think it's really a foundational piece.

And when I look at small towns like Nevada City and Brookings on the Oregon Coast, and, you know, they really achieve that, and my goal is to understand how that's come about so that we effectively as council can do whatever is possible within the limits of the council to support that growth and cohesion in the businesses, and understand better what their needs are, and to do everything possible that we can to rebuild them.

Audience Question: What is your stance on Measure H?

Oh, I'm absolutely a proponent. I think it gets scary for people because the normalization of tax increases has really skewed our perception.

But if you just look at the numbers, and the city has done a really good job of detailing what the 1% increase actually factually means to us. In our popular votes, it's hard to imagine that people wouldn't support that because when you think about what we spend on a daily basis and what I would say are discretionary purchases and frivolous purchases—it just is a no-brainer to me.

So I think it's incredibly important that people support this measure and really let the city, you know, take this forward so that the city can do what needs to happen with these funds.

These funds are not going to be used in a way, I believe, that is anything but prudent and responsible to keep a safe community whose basic needs are met, and I hope you all vote for the bond issue.

Mayor Casey Glaubman, Request for Support of Measure H Tax Increase

My name is Casey Glaubman, and I am currently the mayor of Mount Shasta. And as I said before you asked, I am in favor [of Measure H].

I do want to just real quickly thank Dan and all the other organizers here. It's really important for me to be able to do this. When I ran two years ago, we didn't have a forum like this, and I was actually pretty disappointed that we didn't have an opportunity both to get out there and meet people, you know, beyond door-to-door and door-knocking, that kind of thing.

So I think these candidate forums are just really, really important, and if we're able to, I think we're going to try to do another similar thing to this a couple weeks before the election, so look for something kind of end of October.

But in all that, I'm going to do what I'm actually here for. I'm not running for City Council again this year, so just to clear that up. But I am here on behalf of Measure H, which, as Dan mentioned, is a 1% sales tax within the City of Mount Shasta. It would be on most things. Some exceptions—food, medicine, and a few other things—would be exempted from that tax.

But before I dive in, I do want to make something really clear. I'm not a big tax guy. I actually really dislike the fact that I'm up here right now advocating for a sales tax—it's not something that I would normally want to do.

But I am up here right now because I believe that in this case it is the right thing to do right now, and it's the right thing to do for Mount Shasta.

Because you know what I dislike even more than the necessity of raising taxes? I dislike the thought of when my house is on fire and I call 911 and it takes hours for somebody to respond to that fire.

I dislike the thought of living in a city where we can't provide protection, fire services, and the basic needs of our citizens. I dislike that significantly more than my dislike for the possibility of raising taxes, so that's why I'm willing to stand up here and advocate for Measure H.

Now we're a small municipality when it comes to having full-service fire, police, and other emergency services. Many communities our size don't have that luxury, and I'm proud of the fact that we're able to provide that for our community, and I want to continue to be able to do so.

I get to discuss Measure H and other issues on a wide range of things with people in Mount Shasta pretty much every day, everywhere I go out.

One of the counterarguments that I hear goes something like this: I own a business here, and why should Mount Shasta be able to raise taxes? If my business has to pay more for goods, I have to lay people off or raise prices, and that's just it.

As I'm sure everyone in this audience is aware, the cost of external services is rising through no fault of our own. One problem: full-time emergency services. We're too small of a city to have a full-time dedicated road crew to devote to infrastructure projects or to keep all of that equipment on hand.

So when we have a large project, we have to either contract or rent equipment and hire the labor as much as we need, and the cost of doing so has gone up faster than the revenue generated in our city. So just like any business faced with mounting costs, we're unfortunately forced to raise our prices. No one wants to do that, but it is necessary.

Well, I don't think that city staff should get cost-of-living adjustments to their wages every year. I've heard that one too.

For one thing, that 2 to 3% cost-of-living adjustment is part of their employment contract and is something to which they're legally entitled. But more than that, I don't want to live in a world where hardworking employees in the public sector are not rewarded for doing what they do for all of us.

Do any of you really think that Brooke down at the wastewater treatment plant doesn't deserve fair compensation for dealing with everything that we flush down our pipes every day?

California has a seven-and-a-quarter-percent sales tax. Six percent goes back to the state. We can debate all day about, you know, what's going on there. A quarter is for local transportation here, and just 1% stays here, mostly.

Now let's get a show of hands: How many people here have purchased something online?

Amazon. Yeah. Okay. Well, for a lot of years prior to 2019, that was no problem. But in 2019, a reinterpretation of the Bradley-Burns Act by some lobbyists of, let's say, questionable ethics means that any time we order things online now, if it comes from a fulfillment center in this state, the city in which that fulfillment center lies gets to keep that 1% tax revenue.

It's not great, but it's unfortunately the system that we live in.

Now, show of hands again: How many people think that online shopping is a fact and it's just going away?

No, I didn't think so. How many people think it's here to stay?

Yeah, unfortunately, me too. While I am working with a group of city leaders from all over our state to hopefully get this changed, it's going to take far longer than we have before we'll see any of that online shopping tax revenue come back to our community.

But you know the beauty of Measure H? All of the money from the 1% sales tax when you're shopping at Sportsman's Den, Amazon, or Shasta Super—all that money stays right here in Mount Shasta, where it belongs.

It looks like I'm getting called off here in just a second, so I will be here to answer more questions. I'm sure there are plenty of them. I'm happy to.

I will be doing another kind of long-form Coffee with the Mayor event where you can come and ask me anything on either October 6th or 7th or 5th or 6th. I'll put the word out there. I'm not going to agree with everything you say, but I will always listen and listen with an open mind.

So this November, when you go into that voting booth, I urge all of you to please vote for Measure H. Hold your nose if you must, but please vote for our emergency services, infrastructure projects, and all the things that help make and keep Mount Shasta the place that we all love and cherish. Please vote.

Audience Question: Is this a 50-plus-one to pass?

Casey Glaubman:

Yes. This would go to the general fund, which I do understand folks have some concern with.

Also written into the language of the measure is there will be a mandatory citizens oversight committee that will oversee how this money is spent, in addition to the way the City Council allots it in the budgeting process as we normally do.

Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori

Hi, my name is Kenji. I did go to school here [at Sisson Elementary]. I grew up around here. I lived here for a long time, and I plan to live here for a lot longer.

And sorry [pause], this is intense...this is my passion for this community. I care about it.

I don't have experience. I'm willing to learn, and I believe in the progress of this community. I don't have the experience of Tim, or Roslyn, or Wendy. But that's not what my value is. My value comes from my perspective.

I represent a generation that doesn't get represented in politics very much. I'm not a business owner. I'm not a homeowner...and that's why I felt a responsibility to come up and run for this, because I do care about my community and I want to have a place where my kids can grow up...where people my age can live here without being in debt for two lifetimes.

We all live here because it's beautiful, and it's not Tahoe, and we don't want to become Tahoe. I don't want to become Tahoe. I don't want to watch my town be bought and sold to the highest bidder.

We love it here. I love it here. I want to keep it that way.

Before you ask, I do support Measure H, because as much as I fucking hate giving my taxes to things I don't believe in, I believe in here, and I can pay that tax with a clean conscience.

And to your question, how do I see our town can support businesses? I think that if we can keep businesses more creative, it's a very important thing. There's a lot of red tape and local blockers that businesses have around here that they have to deal with to make it.

I think more variety of businesses would be very key. We don't all want the same things. I think we all love burgers and pizza, but we would all enjoy more variety. Any questions?

Audience Question:

Thank you for sharing your heart with us. Mayor Glaubman has created the “Buzzword Bingo” [game] at Deadwood, and I think that's in part to reach out to younger citizens. I'm wondering what kinds of ideas you might have in addition to that to bridge the gap.

Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori:

Actually, I talk about this every meeting. In the age of information, our town still has difficulty sharing information. People don't know what's going on. People don't know what's going on.

And finding a way that makes it easier to spread that information to the public—well, for one, help people my age because we're too busy figuring out how to live life to be concerned with what's going on that directs how we live.

And to make that information easier to reach and not be quite so intense to chew your way through would draw more involvement from the youth. Because we're lazy. [Audience laughs]

Audience Question:

Thank you for your passion...With Measure H resources coming in, what would you use to keep the kids safe from some of these nefarious areas?

Kenji Guy Dorsey-Imabori:

We have a pretty safe community here. Kids can walk around. I walked plenty of times through the school all the way over there.

I think one big thing that I'd love to see that would be improved safety for kids would probably be more of a return to the summer camp program that was run over in City Park. I would love for that to be back.

[City Park has] really turned into not really a place the locals go. It's not a park that we hang out in. It's kind of been like an unsafe zone for a while. With an increased budget, I would hope that there's something that can be done about that.

Tim Stearns

Thanks, Dan, and thanks everyone for being here. So I have been on council for a long time, and when I wasn't on council, I was also on the Downtown Enhancement Advisory Committee. During that time, we came up with a plan to ask the City Council to create a fund for downtown businesses so that they could get through to the storefronts.

When I was on council, I was on the Active Transportation Committee here in Mount Shasta, where we promoted more biking and trails and improvement on the sidewalks.

I'm running for City Council again because the next City Council likely will be choosing a new city manager. City manager is actually the CEO of the city. The council takes care of budget, takes care of policy, creates ordinances, but it's the CEO, the city manager, who runs the city administration.

And I have had experience with a couple of the other council members going through that process before. I think we have very good council members at the present time. We've got a couple that have years of experience, and Casey's coming up in that process. Experience matters.

The City of Mount Shasta has a general budget of just over $6 million. We spend about two and a half million dollars on the police department. Of that, about $1.6 million is from the general fund. The other $900,000 is from the state or federal government in terms of grants or special programs.

As Casey mentioned, we have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the loss of the online tax revenue that used to be coming to the city, that's now going somewhere else, wherever the fulfillment center is for Amazon or Walmart or some of the other stores.

So in recent years, we have had to dip into our—let's call it savings—to help get by. Now, we're at a point where that savings is going way down, and we can't keep doing that.

My position on Measure H is absolutely for it. I don't like spending more money on taxes either, but one cent on $1 or $1 on $100 is worth it to all of us, I think, to have a police department that responds; to have a fire department that responds; to be able to function as a city.

And if we don't pass Measure H, the city is going to end up having layoffs, a reduction of services, and we're going to be in a world of hurt.

While the Mount Shasta City Council is asking the public to look for a one-cent, or 1%, increase, the City of Weed—we can put things in context—has a measure on the November ballot asking its citizens to increase sales tax by one and a half percent.

The 1% will help offset the losses that we have sustained, and we're in a difficult time—a time of change—where the grant funding that we have relied upon in the past from various sources is not necessarily going to be there in the future.

Anytime we go for a loan, typically we are required to put up a percent or a down payment, so to speak, and that's true with some of the grant funds as well, grant programs. But we can't count on that in the future. So Measure H is incredibly important.

Now, what also is important? You know, when I first got on City Council, I said I was only going to stay on City Council until we broke ground on the Roseburg property. Little did I know!

I would like to, I guess, fulfill that commitment by at least being on City Council as we break ground for The Landing. We've already had two town halls regarding The Landing. Some of you have also attended those town hall meetings regarding The Landing. There's going to be a third one probably next month or early November. If you can, watch the first ones that are available on YouTube.

I'm really excited about the idea of creating something that we've been asking for and looking forward to for a long time. That's affordable housing and more housing in our case.

We've also, for a long time, envisioned a Performing Arts Center or a Convention Center. That is in the [Landing] plan as well.

I support the continued efforts to expand the library. Probably a dozen or so years ago, we were told the library is too small for the size of Mount Shasta as it is, and that we should expand it. So we made plans over the years to expand it, and that's still in the works. I would expect [this would] go forward.

In terms of expanding, from my perspective, we need to expand the population of Shasta—not double or triple it, but expand it; bring in young families, young people for the schools; create more businesses, to shop at more businesses that we have here. So that goes hand in hand with creating housing. Thank you.

Audience Question: What is your position on data centers in our precious community?

Tim Stearns:

I oppose locating a data center in or near Mount Shasta.

Audience Question:

In the five years that I've been here, I have gone online and got most of my information. And your name pops up on a regular basis, but it's mostly connected with being censured and not getting along with other people.

And so, my understanding of being on the City Council is respect and equanimity, so can you tell me how your personality would support that?

Tim Stearns:

Sure. When I was chair of the Siskiyou County Democratic Central Committee, Russ Park was the chair of the Siskiyou County Republican Central Committee, and we worked together as members of the Mount Shasta City Council, and that we're working for the benefit of the city.

And Russ is one of my supporters in this campaign. Council members all come from different backgrounds with different skills, different perspectives, but we all work together.

I think it's important to have respect for one another, and not only to come to council with an open mind as to the agenda and to hear the councilperson's opinions, but hear the public opinions.

So back in the Crystal Geyser days, I think I was mayor for one of those years anyway; I've been gone forever, and we had lots of input from different people. The idea was to listen to people, get a sense.

That applies to city councils. We're not always going to agree. In fact, we haven't always agreed. More often than not, we do. I think the vast majority of time we might come up with a five-zero vote, but sometimes we're split.

I think most people in the community know me and know that I respect them, and I don't have a reputation as a bully...I was surprised to see comments [like that online].

Editor's Note: This transcript was prepared from an audio recording of the event. It took considerable time to transcribe and edit, and portions of the recording were difficult to hear. If you attended the forum and notice a transcription error, please contact the Mount Shasta Observer.