What is Happening with the Mount Shasta City Manager?
By Anastasia Sprout | Mount Shasta Observer
Anyone paying close attention to events in Mount Shasta City governance noted major changes of city staff from the recent council business of July 8, 2026. In a closed City Council Special Session, Council Members Clure, Stackfleth, Redmond, and Mayor Glaubman (Councilmember Collings was absent) addressed three items on their sudden/urgent business agenda:
- Closed Session: Public Employee Dismissal/Release of City Attorney
- Closed Session: Public Employment of Interim City Attorney
- Closed Session: Public Employee of Performance Evaluation/Discipline/Dismissal/Release of City Manager
Legally protected closed session council meetings mean no cameras, no public witnesses, and no public notes about what is said. This may be appropriate for civil servants to discuss sensitive topics but leaves non-participants to speculation.
We learned from the meeting minutes that the Mount Shasta City Attorney John Kenny was “released” (or let go/relieved from duty), and an Interim City Attorney named Andrew L. Jared was appointed in his stead. Per the Shasta Scout news report later on the matter:
“With regards to the change in firms performing legal services, the City Attorney reports to and is hired by the City Council,” Glaubman wrote to Shasta Scout today. “We absolutely thank Mr. Kenny for his many years of service to our city, but the City Council opted to contract with a new attorney moving forward.”
Note from the Mount Shasta city website:
The City Attorney is responsible for providing legal advice to the City Council and staff in carrying out their duties in the operations of the City government. The Attorney, or special counsel supervised by the Attorney, defends the City in all legal actions and brings about suits on behalf of the City. The City Attorney is not a public defender of citizens.
Regarding item 3:
"The City Council voted to place Todd Juhasz, City Manager, on paid administrative leave pending further performance evaluation."
Around town, locals are still asking why.
(Now former) City Attorney John Kenny, five days after being released from duty, attended the July 13, 2026 Mount Shasta City Council meeting and made a statement in protest about the situation:
"My name is John Kenny. I came here from Redding today to discuss the meeting you had last Thursday night with respect to the City Manager. The meeting was called, I understand, by the mayor as a special meeting uh, on short notice, which would assume that it involves serious matters. The city council members who came were not given update of information that was going to be discussed and the goal was to terminate the city manager. There was no time to vet any of the charges or get any information or contact the city manager with respect to response to whatever charges were being made. Uh, I've been practicing law a long time, municipal law, and this is one of the most bizarre things I've seen. Uh, I would expect that an experienced city council, as you are, would have said, "Okay, we've listened. We're not taking action tonight. We're going to get to the bottom of this matter and decide what needs to be done." That didn't happen. Apparently, rather than terminating, the city manager was put on administrative leave; the operative effect is pretty much the same. The city is without leadership and, uh, and your city manager who is [an] especially qualified city manager which you're lucky to have here and I think you all understood that until suddenly it wasn't the case anymore. Uh, there is no leadership in the city now and this city is understaffed to start with because of budgetary concerns and I used to deal with the city manager probably once or twice a day with all the things he had to deal with. He was overloaded. Uh, however, uh, he did the job and he had the respect of the staff with excep[tion of] maybe one staff member. So you're now without a leader and uh I don't know what your course of action here is but with respect to the city council I mean the city the city council should have exercised some moderation here. You cannot surrender your authority to one city council member. And it would be wise to take a look at the grand jury report for the city of Monague that to see what can happen when the city council surrenders their authority to one. So that leaves us with no leadership. You have an interim you're going to appoint. Uh, Kim's very qualified and the staff you have, generally very good staff but Kim isn't experienced in being a city manager and she has a full-time job already. So that's an interim I guess but I don't know how you're going to function that way."
In the same packed City Council meeting on July 13th, former Councilmember Tim Stearns commented on the recent administrative leave imposed by the City Council towards City Manager Todd Juhasz, calling for an independent investigation and emphasizing legal and financial risk to the city as the result of improper procedures. To date, requests for more information about Juhasz’ leave have been declined by Mayor Glaubman, with a statement about protecting confidential personnel issues, and no report of an independent investigation has yet emerged.
It was approved at the same Council meeting that Interim City Attorney Andrew Jared from Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC was offered a city contract. In other words, Jared was no longer on “Interim” status, he was hired as the new Mount Shasta City Attorney. He did not attend the July 13th council meeting in person but was heard on audio introducing himself and offering information. An Acting City Manager was also approved, Mount Shasta Planning Director Kim Fowler, who would be serving in both roles for the foreseeable future. When this author asked a question about the Council intending to fire Todd Juhasz, which was alleged by former City Attorney John Kenny, Andrew Jared stated that Todd Juhasz’ “administrative leave” was not a disciplinary action.
Specifically Jared said,
“All right. First, I...I... I just want to underscore that, um, no one, um, should jump to any conclusions um about what, um, the the action taken, um, last meeting, um, means or meant, um, the, um, the statement regarding an intention to terminate, um, I think is without basis; that did not happen. Um, and it uh, I can't underscore enough Mr. Juhasz remains as a city employee. He remains, um, under contract and remains able to, um, provide his, his knowledge, um, um, as part of um, of all of this. Um, um as for how long um, as for how long, um this lasts, um the, it's, you know, indefinite, um at this point but, um it is it is not, a, um, in any way a disciplinary action that has been taken, um, and so I just want to underscore people should not jump to any conclusions about anything, um, in regard to any of this. So, if any if any rumors are out there those are those people's alone. Those are not, um, um statements, uh endorsed by the city.”
From further investigation, two credible insider sources say no, the public mention of the data center inquiry was not related to Juhasz' paid administrative leave. Insiders say it was something else entirely, related to the Mount Shasta City Finance Department. That story is under investigation currently and will be covered when more confirmation is available. However, if accurate, this might explain the call for a forensic financial investigation by Councilmembers Clure and Stackforth placed on the Mount Shasta City Council agenda on Monday, July 13, 2026:
In summary, what we know is that Todd Juhasz remains employed by the Mount Shasta City Hall, he is NOT under disciplinary suspension, and he continues to be lauded as a hero by many locals for warning the community about an AI data center inquiry into the former Crystal Geyser bottling plant - this time before the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the purchase. His reputation as a City Manager, per many locals, is that he was likable, hard-working, and cared about the community.
The Mount Shasta City Council meeting was cancelled for August 10, 2026, for lack of quorum. The next Council meeting is set for Monday, August 17, 2026, at 1:00pm. One agenda item will be Measure H, regarding a request to raise money for the city via a sales tax increase:
Ballot Measure H Argument Authorization Background: On June 8th, the City Council voted to place Measure H on the ballot for the election to be held on November 3rd, 2026. Staff has prepared a resolution authorizing several members of the public to submit an argument in favor of Measure H on behalf of the City. Report By: Rachel Agron, Deputy City Clerk Recommended Council Action: Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution CCR-26-XX, A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Mt. Shasta Authorizing Ballot Measure Arguments.
Following the Special Meeting, another Closed Council meeting will be held to speak with City Attorney Andrew Jared regarding possible litigation:
Residents of Mount Shasta City are left with many questions.
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