Meet SLO County’s new CAO: He’s faced down fires, a pandemic and a smear campaign | Opinion

The Tribune Editorial Board
·5 min read
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The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors did the right thing when it hired Matthew Pontes as the new administrative officer, rather than automatically disqualifying him over a 30-year-old criminal conviction he acquired as a 20-year-old.

We all deserve some grace for the boneheaded moves we make while our brains are still developing and our judgment is less than stellar. (According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the human brain doesn’t stop developing until the mid-to-late 20s.)

While we don’t have many details of Pontes’ crime, the conviction was for felony grand theft involving less than $1,000 and was expunged long ago. (According to the California Penal Code, expungement means that “all penalties and disabilities” connected to the offense are erased. That generally means job applicants do not have to disclose the conviction to potential employers, though there are exceptions — one being when the person is applying for public office.)

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors was aware of Pontes’ criminal record before it decided to hire him.

“Pontes was fully transparent during the interview process,” county spokesperson Jeanette Trompeter wrote. “The board stands behind its choice of him for the role of county administrative officer and is confident he will lead us in the direction we need to go.”

SLO County public unfazed

News of Pontes’ record did not appear to faze San Luis Obispo County residents. A couple of people contacted The Tribune because they were concerned the county may not have conducted a thorough investigation of the new CAO. (It did.)

As far as we know, no one has publicly opposed the hiring due to Pontes’ long-ago crime. That’s totally appropriate, especially when you consider the circumstances that surrounded release of the information.

From a review of news reports, it’s clear Pontes was the victim of a smear campaign conducted by an unconscionable politician in Shasta County, where Pontes formerly served as CAO.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Shasta, which may be the most radically conservative county in the state of California, if not on the entire West Coast.

Shasta is the county where the Board of Supervisors fired the county health officer for enforcing state COVID-19 restrictions; voted to switch to hand-counting ballots; considered replacing Pontes with the vice president of the New California secessionist movement; and in January, voted to allow concealed weapons in local government buildings.

Chriss Street, in 2007, then-treasurer of Orange County. Shasta County offered Street its chief executive officer job, then rescinded the offer after it became known that he was vice president of the New California secessionist group.
Chriss Street, in 2007, then-treasurer of Orange County. Shasta County offered Street its chief executive officer job, then rescinded the offer after it became known that he was vice president of the New California secessionist group.

‘Of all people to point the finger’

According to news reports, Shasta County effectually drove Pontes out of office.

“He resigned last month after being publicly hounded, mocked, disrespected, humiliated, devalued and belittled,” an online magazine, anewscafe.com, wrote on June 15, 2022.

The situation escalated when Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones allegedly threatened to go public with Pontes’ old criminal record unless Pontes resigned.

Jones told the Redding Record Searchlight that he wasn’t sure Shasta County supervisors knew about the conviction when they hired Pontes in 2020 and he felt he had to come forward with the “grave information.” (Jones was not on the board when Pontes was hired.)

Supervisors had indeed been informed.

“We were all aware. He stepped up; he was responsible. It just makes me furious — of all people to point the finger,” Shasta County Supervisor Mary Rickert, a Pontes supporter, told the Record Searchlight at the time.

Pontes, who accused Jones of blackmail, resigned shortly after the issue blew up.

(Patrick Jones has since fallen out of favor; he lost his bid for reelection in the March 2024 primary — a sign that the far right may be losing its grip on Shasta County.)

Shasta County Board of Supervisors candidate Dale Ball, center, shows his phone to District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones as they await election results in 2022. At left, a man in a cowboy hat wears a shirt that reads “No Hablo Libtard.”
Shasta County Board of Supervisors candidate Dale Ball, center, shows his phone to District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones as they await election results in 2022. At left, a man in a cowboy hat wears a shirt that reads “No Hablo Libtard.”

Unanimous support from a divided SLO County board

Shasta County’s foolish loss is San Luis Obispo County’s gain.

Pontes has several points in his favor.

For one, anyone who can win the unanimous support of the deeply divided SLO County Board of Supervisors has got to be an exceptional applicant.

For another, Pontes already knows the area; he attended Cal Poly and worked as assistant chief executive officer in neighboring Santa Barbara County.

And he has a breadth of experience. As a county administrator, he’s dealt with budgeting, emergency management, public safety, planning and environmental regulations.

He was a firefighter for seven years, an adjunct professor, an assistant director of parks and recreation and, most recently, a director of wildfire and forest ecology for Sierra Pacific Industries, a timber company.

He’s also a man who’s weathered more than his fair share of crises.

“He’s big and easygoing and has the air of a man who really doesn’t want any trouble,” Bloomberg opinion columnist Micheal Lewis wrote in 2020. “Still, trouble has had a way of finding him.”

The “trouble” referred to in that instance was COVID-19 or, more specifically, the public responses to COVID-19 restrictions in Shasta County. Those included election recalls, death threats and accusations of treason targeting public officials.

“What’s happening up here is full-on anarchy,” Pontes told Bloomberg.

SLO County has its own troubled past

While it’s no Shasta County, San Luis Obispo County can be a challenging place for top government employees as well. The last two county administrative officers — Dan Buckshi and Wade Horton — resigned under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Buckshi left amid rumors that he was fed up with the county’s dysfunctional politics, and there was speculation that Horton was forced out, though he never commented on his reason for leaving. (John Nilon, who served as interim CAO following Horton’s departure, was fired for inappropriate conduct with numerous women employees.)

And let’s not forget what happened to former County Clerk/Recorder Tommy Gong, who resigned following a barrage of vicious verbal attacks from election deniers — including a racist remark linking him to the Chinese Communist Party.

While it’s becoming increasingly moderate, San Luis Obispo County still has a contingent of election deniers, conspiracy theorists and even some secessionists. With another controversial election looming, things could get nasty again.

We hope that doesn’t happen.

But if it does, we expect Matthew Pontes — the big, easygoing guy who knows a thing or two about facing down trouble — will be prepared to handle it.