City Council - Regular Meeting

Right.

We'll call to order the regular meeting of the Live Oak City Council, September 16th, 2026. Roll call, please.

Council Member Wooten.

Here.

Council Member Santana is absent. Council Member Hernandez is absent. Vice Mayor Palma.

Here.

Mayor Chapdelaine.

Here. Please join us for the pledge and invocation.

Salute. pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Amen.

Well, Lord, we're just so thankful for our city, Lord, and our community and everyone in our community, Lord. We're just so blessed with all the agriculture and all the different things that we have around us, Lord, that bless us. Lord, we just pray you'll be with us this evening as we recognize our team here, Lord, and that we make good decisions. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Right. Is there any corrections or changes to the agenda?

No changes proposed. All right.

Well, with that, we'll move on to our presentations and recognitions. And our first item is proclamation honoring the Live Oak Little League Live Oak Lions 2026 Northern California 10-12 Softball State Champions.

Yes.

So with that, I'd like to read this proclamation. Honoring the Live Oak Little League Live Oak Lions 2026 Northern California 10-12 softball state champions. Whereas the Live Oak Lions representing Live Oak Little League demonstrated extraordinary athletic skill, determination, and teamwork throughout the 2026 season. And whereas during the 2026 California District 2 major softball regular season, the Lions achieved... an undefeated record of 15 and zero scoring 160 runs while allowing only 23, including victories against three 14 U junior teams. And whereas the lions went on to win the California district two major softball tournament of champions with a perfect four and O record outscoring their opponents, 52 to five and sealing the championship with a perfect game victory over Sutter area, little league. And whereas the Lions continued their winning tradition as a 2026 California District 2 10-12 softball all-star champions with a 7-1 record, fighting their way through the loser bracket to win 9-1 over Sutter area in the championship game. And whereas the Lions earned the title of 2026 California Shasta section 10, 12, 10 to 12 softball all-star champions with a flawless three and one record against again, fighting their way way back in the losing bracket to, to defeating Chico little league six to three in the championship. And whereas the Lions made history by becoming the 2026 Northern California 8-12 softball state champions, posting a 3-0 record, scoring 18 total runs and allowing only seven, and defeating Pinole Little League 9-4 in the championship game, securing Live Oak's second state title in Little League history. And whereas the Lions proudly represented Live Oak at the Western Regional Little League 10-12 softball tournament, with a 4-0 record, advancing to the championship game with victories over SoCal 4-2, Hawaii 9-0, Nevada 4-1, and finishing the tournament against Nevada 2-1 to win the title of Western Regional Champions, becoming one of 12 teams in the world to compete at the World Series of Softball in North Carolina. Whereas the Lions' dedication, teamwork, and grit helped them helped make them the first team in the history of live oak little league since 1953 proudly represented live oak at little league softball world series held in north carolina bringing one of only 12 teams in the world to make it this far lions played two games kentucky 15-1 japan 2-1 whereas this team's accomplishments mark historic milestones for the city of live oak as the first 10-12 softball team to win the tournament of champions district, section, and state titles, with several players building on their legacy from last year's historic 8-10 softball district championship. Whereas the City of Live Oak commends not only the athletes, Juliana Robles, Avea Martinez, Athena Hu, Riley Perigo, Charlotte Dudek, Lea Palacio, Brooke Duran, Blake Rodriguez, Olivia Smith, Juliana Alvarez, Hannah Lancieri, Leah Carrasco, but also the dedicated staff and supporters, including manager Eva Martinez, head coach Mitchell Perigo, coaches Anthony Lancieri, Ryan Ho, Juan Robles and team mom, Monique Martinez, whose leadership and encouragement guided the team to greatness. Now, therefore let it be resolved that I, Jeremy chapter lane, mayor of live Oak on behalf of the city council do hereby proudly recognize and honor the live Oak lions, 2026 Northern California, 10, 12 softball state champions for their, their historic season, their dedication to excellence and their inspiration to our community. So with that, we'd like to go ahead and present this proclamation and bring the team on up.

I appreciate it. Amazing.

I'm proud of you guys.

Congratulations, girls. I'm so proud of you. We just love watching the games. Some amazing games, amazing effort, amazing stats. I hadn't heard all of that. They're amazing. Absolutely amazing. It's so great to see the turnout of the parents and everyone here tonight. It's a great turnout to honor these girls. So we're so proud of you.

It's a huge list of accomplishments, and you guys just keep adding to it every year. So proud of you. It was an honor to watch you all over. You're a big star now on TV. Yes. It's everywhere. It was an honor for me. I got out to see your name on Publish there. Yeah, let's go ahead. We actually got something. Yeah, let's go ahead and get out there. Yeah, yeah, I guess, okay.

Juliana Robles.

Congratulations, sweetie. Is this one to Bea Martinez?

Aaliyah Palacio. Oh, she's not here. I'll take it. All right. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Juliana Alvarez. Okay. Someone take it. There you go, Koki. Charlotte, do that. Yeah, Carrasco. There you go. Dynamite. You're dynamite, girl.

I'll let you describe it. I don't know if you can probably figure out what it is. And you coaches, we really appreciate all your time you put in.

I'm sure you put hours and hours and hours in, and it's well worth it. So look at this. Amen. Amen. Yeah.

Yes. Thank you. Yes. Great. Jimmy, have him grab a cookie. Oh, yeah. Yeah, tell him, have him grab a cookie on the way out, or we can take a five-minute break.

We're going to go ahead and take about a five-minute break.

Well, we turn back to our meeting at 625 p.m. And.

Moving on to public comment. Do we have any public comment?

We do have two public comment cards. First up is Rigo Diaz.

Good afternoon, everyone. Rigo Diaz, General Manager of Recology Yuba-Sutter, your garbage company. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. I'm just here for a quick public comment. Recology recently hit the news as of last night that we're doing a rather significant route change in the Yuba-Sutter area. I am just here to let the City of Live Oak know that there is going to be no change for the City of Live Oak. They will remain on Wednesdays as they always have. But I am here for any questions on that. But there is no impact to the City of Live Oak residents. There might be to Sutter County residents outside of Live Oak, but not for the City of Live Oak. Okay. And I will be around in case there's any other questions for any of the agenda items. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the update. All right. Thank you.

Next up is Rick Dice.

Rick Dice, 3157 Colcourt, Live Oak. It's pretty impressive to see those young ladies. You know, Live Oak's got a lot to be proud of there. Good parents, good hard-working kids. And most of the people I talk to in Live Oak are hardworking, blue-collar, people you'd be proud to associate with. I want to reference a number that was put out the last meeting. Your Finance Director, Mr. Gutierrez. I don't think he needed to provide this number, but the number he provided was the fact that our balance in cash and investments is now $3.6 million. When you look at the fact that this is for, I think, was it August of 2026? Yeah. It's a very sobering number because if you look at how much money we had in cash investments as of June 30th, 2023, that number is $13.6 million. So we've gone through, spent, used up $10 million in three short years. And if the present rate of expenditures continues, we're going through approximately $300,000 a month. And that means 3.6 million will be gone in a year. And I think the definition is that we'll be officially bankrupt. So I trust that this council took note of that number. But you know how serious things are. Again, I hope we have more transparency. People have a right to know where we stand. And they're good people in this community. The fact that... We're not drawing attention or drawing their attention to this and enlisting them. I mean, I gentlemen don't put all this on your shoulders. Yes, you're elected to represent people, but I think you know that you need everybody's help. So I was going to talk about declaring a fiscal emergency. I think at this point we we meet that definition. This is an emergency. But again, I think the city can rally, but we need to have more transparency

and more people need to be involved thank you for your time thank you um i'd like to just provide some factual info on that um so this has been no secret i mean we've been working on this for years, literally years. And we've had budget workshops that we've expressed these same things, these same projections, actually projections that the money runs out even sooner through the work that our new staff has done. They've gone through and shaved some of that down to make it last longer. So you can go back to those budget workshops, those other things. It's been no secret. The transparency has completely been there. And also if you go back to just two years ago, I mean, that number was 4.2. So 3.6 shows that that's the general fund. And you're also co-mingling different accounts there with the 14 million and other assets that aren't cash. That's part of what you're seeing there as well. We've been completely transparent about this situation and continue to be. Just want to provide that context to the rest of the public because Again, this is nothing we're hiding. When we had the turnover in council and had a majority council to start taking action on this item, the situation, we've been doing everything we can since then to right the ship. So I've just, if there's any other numbers or any other thing from staff to add to that,

It definitely reflected. You know, I want to scream it out loud that, man, we've been through that through our mid-budget workshop goal setting, through our multiple budget settings, and through each item here, how critical it is, and even tonight, about where the budget's at and taking corrective action. And so we're trying to flatten out that curve, and we're making some progress, and we need to continue to make progress.

All right.

Next up is JR Tiara.

Good evening, Council. May I ask for your indulgence a bit? I'm a little bit on the disabled list, recovering from a major injury, breaking up a school fight. last year, so I'm moving a little slow, but I do have some things I'd like to share with you and don't want to get bombed that quickly. I'm not going to be able to beat anybody up, right? But I'm concerned about things. And if I may approach, I brought some documents, so it might be helpful to demonstrate what I'm talking about, if that's okay, if you want to pass it. I brought a couple extra, if anybody wants copy, there's extras here.

I think I have enough, I'm not sure.

A few council members missing. I'll try to be quick. Is there enough there? So my point of presenting this document here today, this is an agenda item from June 5th, 2019. And you'll see on this item, I was a city councilman at the time. and at that time a year prior to the 2018 when i joined the city council if you go and flip to this agenda and you go to the say about the third or fourth page you'll see this list of accounts payable transaction packet id and when i became a city council member we got here's accounts payable that you're supposed to approve but this is a list that doesn't list check numbers who they're paid to what amounts they are, but there's maybe two or three hundred thousands of dollars in this list that I'm supposed to approve that have already been paid. And they could have been embezzlement, fraud, I don't know, but they could have been legitimate. And every month was asked, please approve these, pass it on consent calendar, which is automatic pilot, which I thought was not right for us not to know where the money's going, because that's our absolute charge. ultimately what we deal with in charge of the money. Everybody else does the work, right? We make sure that the money is spent well and efficiently. So after a year of fighting with then management and JR the monster asking all the questions at city council meetings, I flipped over to the page and all of a sudden I got check registers. Flip over your page, please, if you don't mind. And you'll see all of a sudden I got all the checks, who they were paid to. And you'll see I marked up these and had questions. Who got paid for what? That's how I learned how to be a good city councilman. Where the money was going, because where is the money was my question. So I started answering the question myself because I couldn't get the answer from staff, right? So you look at page, and this is just a portion. Every budget, every year, you're going to see JR's red, white, blue, green color on every document that's ever passed through my hands that dealt with money and decision-making in this council, okay? So now, since June of 2025, This whole packet, not even the docket numbers where you're supposed to guess at what bills you were paying, has disappeared since Mr. Moody has joined us. Now, I'm not putting fingers. I don't know why, but we don't even get... And actually, this list shrunk back down to the docket numbers when I left. They stopped even giving you the check stubs when I left. And I pointed that out to you. I go, hey, you don't even know who's getting paid here. And that's the easiest recipe for embezzlement and fraud. when you don't know who's getting paid. Right? It happens all around us all Chico Sacramento, I mean, happens in government all the time. So anyway, so that's my point. There's something to think about. But it's a little late now. Right? Well, no, that's a little late.

Okay, so then I'm gonna ask you to wrap it up here.

Okay, so now over on your time, we have the MSR report, right? MSR municipal services report. this is a master report an independent report on the financial condition of the city of live oak every single page every single paragraph of 103 pages has bad news in it i will give you a hundred dollars if you find five things in here and say financially live oak is not going to be completely broke within the year from now and if you can prove that we're not i'll give you a thousand dollars okay because you can't we're out of money This report, your previous three interim city managers, full-time city managers have reported to you that you are operating as a not a going concern. You're going broke. You have a structural deficit since three years, right? You've been operating since you took over in the loss and you've been skipping meetings. This is an emergency, as Mr. Lester has pointed out. We are in a financial, you're going broke. Our citizens' money, guys. So I'm not yelling at you. I'm just, hey, this is a reality. And so, and it's happening. And how are you going to stop it? God is me. So now, then you have the comprehensive annual report, right? Let's go on. Point of order. May I finish? I asked you for your permission, please. You can wrap it up. All right, I'm trying. I got two more minutes, please. Comprehensive annual report. Same thing. Mr. Lester pointed out to you that this report, that's page 52 of this report. May we pass these out, please? same thing it tells you that we are in big trouble we are spending money that we don't know where it's going go ahead and pass those around what i have here and i'll let you know is the comprehensive it's kind of an audit of our financial report again by an independent company, but the MSR, the Municipal Services Agreement is done every four to five years. So we have these double audits going on, plus our own CPAs. Thank God we have this young man here that joined us. He actually told us some real numbers finally, after six, seven, eight years. But anyway, you'll see on page one, this is for the year 2023. If you look at the back page, Mr. Chaptoline, there's one page dedicated to cash and investments. Mr. Lester was correct. It is not mixed up. It's one page of your financial And it shows that in 2023, there was almost $14 million in cash reserves, our savings sense, our savings, my savings, the citizens' savings that we tax and we put away for rainy days to fix the streets, to fix the gutters, the money that's in reserve. So let's fast forward from 2023, from $13.5 million, $14 million, to last year, flip the page, June 30, 2025, flip the page, same page, we're down to $7 million. We spent $7 million in a year, and you have no financial report that tells you where the money's gone. Can you tell me how you received a detailed ledger to show you where all the money was spent? $7 million? And then this year, that $7 million has grown from a couple months ago went to... So from, what is our loss? Our net leftover was 8 million or 9 million, and then now we have 3.6 million left over to run this city. And that's not nearly enough to finish, but it's costing you almost 9 million to run between payroll, fire, management, staff, benefits, salaries, what's left to actually run the system. So folks, it's all here. So now where's 10 million gone? if you don't have the financial reports you don't have anything to point at where the money was spent what the heck were we doing here right you got legal you got this man you got this young lady all sorts of people here professionals Chris if I had this on my ranch in my business man I'd be just wow I mean Hawaii every day But anyway, again, no offense meant gentlemen, ladies and to the audience, please forgive me. But I'm having a little tough time with all this recovery was breaking up a seventh grade fight, by the way, post COVID. Yeah, let me in the hospital. Anyway, please pay attention to these things. And get to these things on the table. Put these on your agenda. Don't skip meetings. Find out what you're going to do with this plan. We're going broke, save our money, we have 3 million left. Don't lose that too. That's all we have left. We're going to end up in Sutter County or somebody to have some money in our pocket to go negotiate with. They're going to be our service provider. They're already providing fire. They're already providing police. So let them send the bills out and fix the streets. That's the easy part. But don't go there broke. Don't go there broke. Thank you for your comments.

Again, we'll provide some factual backup on this similar to the first item. Again, this is this is no new discussion. We've had these same discussions. We've had the same type of forecasting. Ben or Ethan, do you want to speak to this? I know we I don't want to re redo the same budget meetings and these same things that you've gone through point by point explaining this, but there's a lot of really just not an accurate info being thrown around here. High numbers being thrown around here and there. You had your opportunity to talk and we're allowed to come back. I don't think you're a liar. I think you're uninformed or maybe misunderstanding some things here, but go ahead, Ben. The thing is that what you're holding up MSR, there is good things in there too. And there's many of the things that this council has pointed out and told the community that we're gonna be in that MSR because of the way the finances have been managed prior to this council. So again, this isn't a new issue. And those MSRs, you're looking at those audits and those financial statements, they also commended the city. You wanna talk about transparency on the amount of transparency we have on our websites. We spend... huge amounts of time looking at these. I'm on the LAFCO. You mentioned it last time. I'm on the LAFCO board. I'm reviewing these MSRs as well. Again, these aren't new topics and they're not new numbers or it's not surprising. So Ben, can you speak to this general fund versus what they're seeing in those reports?

To the chair, if I can add for Mr. Moody, the first inaccuracy is we've been in a structural deficit for the last three years. As a former council member, you should know we've been in a structural deficit almost 10 years. The Water Fund hasn't been covering itself for how long? So I mean, how long have we been in a structural deficit, Mr. Moody?

You know, I would say 15 years, but maybe one positive out of the last 20. And so the which is not sustainable. I echo the critical, I echo the council's understanding of where we're at. And then so how do we focus on the solution? And really the solution is trimming costs, reducing staff, looking at options for revenue, working through multiple points where we back in October, You know, there was a six point process we initiated with changing public safety contracts, with encouraging development, with adjusting revenue rates, multifaceted because it's not a single silver bullet. And so I would just echo that we're available. We don't want to hide it. We're transparent. We know where the money's going. As referenced, it was recognized that on the website we have our CAFRs, our annual audited financials that are on there that many agencies don't have that show where the money goes. But it was budgeted and it was spent. And so we're definitely at a spot we need to continue on a path to seek resolution.

Yeah, and just going back to those audits, as you mentioned, we have multiple audits. Not one time, and even before this council, there hasn't been any findings of misuse of funds or the things that you're alluding to. So that would be included in those. Okay. Okay. Okay. You had your time? Okay. We'll move on.

No further comments.

All right. With that, we'll move on to our consent calendar. Is there any items anybody wants to discuss?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I'll second that.

Council Member Wotan?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chapdelaine?

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right. Moving on to our public hearing items. Code Enforcement Fee Update, and I'll turn that over to our Community and Economic Development Director, Jaspreet Kaur.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. So tonight I am presenting the Code Enforcement Fee Update. So the nuisance abatement code was adopted by City Council on September 2nd to help streamline the processes, address current needs, and provide staff adequate legal tools to remedy public nuisance. And staff had reviewed the existing fees and determined to consolidate the two categories currently in the master fee schedule into one and include the appeal fees. So on the left side of the screen is what's currently in the master fee schedule. So it is broken out by non-building safety code, as well as the building and safety code enforcement. And what we're proposing is to just have one code enforcement fee. So you can see there's The fees for the first, second, third, and each additional violation. There is also an initial appeal fee for $300, and that is going to be intended to recover a portion of the city's admin costs with staff time, the appeal process, preparation, and coordination. And the appeal fee is currently what's already in the master fee schedule to file appeals with city council. So there's no changes to that. So my recommendation tonight is shown on the screen, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

We have any questions. No, no, no questions. All right. Well, with that, we'll go ahead and open up the public hearing at 6 46 p.m.. Is there anybody wanting to speak on this for the public hearing?

Yeah.

My name's Deborah Derozier. Some people call me noise. Um, I was just wondering if you compared your rates with nearby jurisdictions, as far as the appeal fees.

Thank you.

All right. See no one else. I will close the public comment at 6 47 PM and bring it back to council for any other discussion.

Other questions and discussion?

Okay. I'll go ahead and move to...

Sorry. What's that?

Do we want to address the question you asked?

You can go ahead. I know the answer to the question. I know staff did look into that and compare the fees.

Yes. Yeah. So the first, second, third violation, that is a statute set by the state. So that one is consistent that you'll see throughout the communities and cities nearby. And then with the appeal fee, so the appeal fee is pretty standard to what you'll see in Yuba City and Marysville.

Thank you.

Okay. So with that, I'll go ahead and move to adopt a resolution amending the city's master fee schedule to consolidate the existing code enforcement fees into a single code enforcement fee structure and establish associated violation and appeal fees consistent with Title eight Chapter eight point two four nuisance abatement code.

I second that.

Councilmember Wotan.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Palma. Yes. Mayor Chappelline. Yes. Motion carries.

all right moving on to uh business item or i'm sorry business item six establish an operator in training position and update the water wastewater operators salary schedule and i will turn that over to jessica mata or management analyst

Good evening mayor and members of the council. Tonight's staff is bringing forward a recommendation to establish a new water and wastewater treatment plant operator in training position within the public works department and to update the water and wastewater operator series salary schedule. The reason for this request is to give the city an entry level path to hire and train future certified operators. The city runs water and wastewater systems that require trained and certified staff to protect public health, meet legal requirements and keep city services operating. It has become more difficult to hire certified operators due to more competitive job markets. A recent vacancy in the water and wastewater operator series showed the need for new hiring options. The city doesn't have any type of entry level position for individuals who are still gaining experience or working towards certification. Creating the operator and training position would allow the city to hire qualified candidates earlier, train them on local systems, support them as they work through their certifications. Updating the salary schedule is meant to keep the operator pay levels aligned while not just and we won't be adjusting current employee rates for that. The proposed schedule benchmarks each classification 10% below the next higher classification and the operator in training position is approximately 27% below the currently budgeted operator three position. Funding for this position would not require an amendment for the approved fiscal year 26-27 budget. So staff recommends that council approves the new operator and training position, the corresponding job description, salary range, and revisions to the operator one and two salary schedule. Happy to answer any questions you have.

All right. Great.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Yes. Thanks, Jessica. I just want to make clear, I did get some questions about item six and seven. Those are your items. So we're not hiring anybody, you made very clear that we're just opening a position for potential hires in training. But today, as of now, we're just opening a position, correct? Or what do I say? I'm establishing a position.

So basically, we're not adding a budgeted position. What we're doing is putting on the schedule, just restating and kind of simplifying it, is that right now on the job classifications and how I can hire, I cannot hire a trainee. Um, the way the job descriptions are listed is one, two threes, and they all have this certification. Um, in the, in the business, there is this operator and training classification. They're the young individuals that are trying to get into the market and get their hours. And it's a win-win where we could set up a position where they're, they're, they're getting paid, um, you know, beginner's rate, um, and they're gaining hours to gain certification. And so we had a recent, um, um, uh somebody left the city and so we have a budgeted position that's uh that's vacant and so what i'm proposing to do is we're going to add this classification so i could hire for that and set the salary schedule but then we're going to use those budgeted funds from that vacancy in order to hire that and we're expecting that to save about forty thousand thirty five to forty thousand dollars of that budgeted position for water and it's out of the water sewer accounts

so that vacated position was a higher up position they were a water treatment operator three and we're basically going to fill that with we're going to try to fill that with a limited term operator and trainee okay thank you for the explanation uh council member one um thank you mayor so just to clarify that kind of lets us do it in-house training to uh to bring people up to that position that's vacant

Absolutely. And that's kind of how we see it as a win-win. There's internal growth, plus it's a win-win for internal growth plus savings for the city. That sounds great. Thank you.

Yeah, those were going to be my comments from what I saw in the fiscal analysis. it saves money and you know what we've seen over the years is that kind of have that turnover and i i appreciate you bringing this forward uh uh kind of you know fill that or create a solution that uh also provides that additional opportunity for folks here to to get that training and move into those higher positions so all right um with that was there any public comment no public comment

you guys invited me here good thank you i'm deborah derosier so i was just looking at this and the question i had i know you said it was going to be paid out of sewer and water is it like aren't those two separate enterprise funds so is it going to be like 50 50 or have you decided on how that's going to work and then the other thing was on the level of certifications there's like a certain time period that they have to meet certain levels And I was wondering if you actually looked at what the testing schedules for those type of advances are and if that timeframe that you have in there is realistic. Thanks.

Yes. Yeah, we've done definitely a deep dive met with our plant superintendent. And I did share a few comments because it was pretty tight timeline with three months, six months. But based on the type of tests that previous prior education and experience, staff wanted to keep a tight line on it. So when we hire somebody, we see them advancing and it's not just a position to hire and hang out. It's a position that they need to move forward.

All right, seeing no other public comments, so go ahead and bring it back to Council for comments or a motion.

Okay. I move to approve the operator and training position within the Public Works Department, corresponding job description and salary range as reflected in the updated salary schedule, and two, approve revisions to the water slash wastewater operator one and operator two to align pay levels and help with hiring and retention. Right, I'll second that.

Council Member Wotan?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Palma?

Yes.

Mayor Chapdelaine?

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right. Jessica, we'll move on to your next item. Establish accountant one slash two classification series. And I'll turn that over to you.

So similar to the previous item, this one establishes an accountant one, two within the finance department. Uh, the purpose is to support the finance department's evolving operational and professional accounting needs. The department's workload has expanded beyond clerical and administrative duties to include more professional analytical and project based worked, um, creating a serious gift for city, more flexibility to recruit and promote, promote staff internally. The proposed salary schedule establishes the accountant two at the financial analyst salary range and the accountant one, 10% below the accountant to a total fiscal costs for the remainder of 26, 27 is estimated to be around $8,500. This will be funded through supplemental appropriation from the general fund, water fund, sewer and street funds. Staff recommends that council approves the Accountant 1-2 classification series, the corresponding job description, salary range, and authorize the finance director to amend the fiscal year 26-27 budget by making a supplemental appropriation. Again, happy to answer questions. Okay. Any questions, Vice Mayor?

Yes. Thank you again, Jessica. Being asked to approve account in one and two classifications, what are the current classifications?

Senior admin assistant, financial admin assistant.

Okay. And so, like, are those positions that are filled, are they going to change over to these? Are these people going to fill that, or is this...

So right now, we don't even have a classification on the books. And so... One of the issues with the city, again, is there's not a big, typically the agency based on the scope, you'll have accountants, you'll have clerks, you'll have these different scopes of work with classifications of what they do. And so part of the restructure effort with finance where we've got rid of Eide Bailey, it costs savings of $260,000 a year, they were doing the accounting services. The way our classifications here are set up, they're just called admin assistant. So it's a real generic term, and it doesn't talk about accounting, accounting one, two, taking in that scope and doing that role. And so the plan is through this budget, we're taking the currently funded senior admin assistant role, and we're upping the budget amount, $8,500. And so right now, it's the same person, It's going to be budgeted for an accountant one, two, but it's underfilled as a senior admin assistant. And then likely we'll go out with a recruitment to see who qualifies and push into that person. But we're not gaining a person. It will either be an internal recruitment where that person promotes because they're qualified to do it, or we bring somebody in that does the accountant one, two work. So I hope that clarifies. So finance is not growing in bodies, but we're taking on the technical capacity and the scope for an accountant because we're doing accounting work. And so it's part of the restructure. Unfortunately, there's some that I save $45,000, $40,000, $35,000. This one, there's a little bit of a cost, but it enables us to do the scope of work that is required.

We're not able to do this classification and define rules without supplementing the $8,500?

You need an accountant, you know, to do the work without us having at some point to contract that out through I'd Bailey. So we continue to reduce the work off of I'd Bailey, what they're doing. So we're still relying on I'd Bailey to do that? We still are. We've definitely reduced it, but the end, I mean, what are we down to about $10,000, $20,000 a year?

So if we reduce I'd Bailey and that would eliminate them, right? So we wouldn't be counting on them at all, correct? That's the goal. And so that would, we wouldn't be paying them. You said how much exactly?

roughly what are we up because we're doing some auditing i don't know so we're we're cutting 30 000 from there and we're supplementing 8 500 so we're saving correct just want to make sure that's the goal long-term savings and and having it in-house that's not surface level we're already seeing those rewards with um better tracking better accountability on how we're doing things it just needs to be presented like that because you already hear

the way this is going to get twisted. So I want to make clear one more time. The reason for this defining these rules is to get rid of our consultant, I'd Bailey, who's charging us roughly $30,000 a year to do accounting. And we're going to supplement that position $8,500, essentially saving us minus $20,000. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you.

Perfect. Sounds great.

Yeah, I had the same questions. This is just one position, correct? Yeah. Yeah, that was some of the things I was hearing, too. There was some confusion whether it was one or two. Both classifications are established.

Yeah.

yeah it's either a one or a two and then um yeah i had those same questions earlier in the week so um you know just for the the background so i bailey was at what 260 we were able to reduce it down to we're continuing to to uh reduce those services to zero eventually so Okay.

If I can ask, you know, when we bring these to council and stuff, I think that's important to address right away, the savings, because this gets misinterpreted real fast, especially online. And no one takes the time to actually read the agenda or the agenda packets or divulge in, let alone watch the meetings. So if you put it on this business item or at least make it a little more clear, it makes our job easier afterwards because this gets twisted very fast. Thank you. And nothing against you, Jessica, but just in general.

No, and I appreciate the transparency because what you guys speak to in this is the general fund impact. That's what you were stating with the $8,000 increase and the amendment. So, all right. Yeah, I don't have any other questions. Any public comment? Go ahead.

I'm Deborah .

I thought it saw in this item that it was creating a new beginning type of position in this series. Am I wrong? One that required no experience, but knowledge? I mean, no. Am I wrong? I can't put my finger on it. What item is this? Number seven? I mean, I guess somebody would know.

I think that's what our city manager just spoke to. It's going to require a higher level of...

The accountant series requires an accounting degree or a minimum years of service. The operator and training had a reduced level of requirements.

Yeah, going from the three down to the... Yeah, correct. Okay. Any other questions?

Nope.

All right. I'll bring it back to council. Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you. With that, I'll go ahead and move to approve the accountant one slash two classification series within the finance department with corresponding job description and salary range. And two, authorize the finance director to amend the Fiscal year 2026-27 budget by making a supplemental appropriation of $8,500 within salaries and benefits allocated as follows. General fund, $4,675. Sewer fund, $1,700. Water fund, $1,700. And streets fund, $425. I'll second that. Council Member Bowen? Yes. Vice Mayor Palma? Yes. Mayor Chapdelaine? Yes. Motion carries. All right, moving on to business item eight, revenue sharing agreement with Sutter County, 1% transactions and use tax. And I'll turn that over to our city manager.

You know, I don't have a formal PowerPoint presentation tonight, but I'll just kind of walk through it a little bit. And so this item before you tonight is regarding the revenue sharing agreement for potential revenue associated with Measure G. So as many of you have heard previously, uh this is critical funding um for the city for public safety um for the community really to keep the city um on track and providing a service that the community demands and so um the background on it in in july of 28 of this year the board of supervisors voted to put a revenue measure one one percent transaction use tax a sales tax measure on the ballot for november 3rd that's known as measure g and so with that action they also directed the cao steve smith to work with the agencies yuba city and live oak to come up with a revenue sharing agreement should the measure pass and so those actions those negotiations through administration and through staff um, have, have been occurring, um, in earnest, um, in real, cause it's, it's meaningful. It's critical to the city. It's critical to the County, um, for this funding. And so, um, we came to terms, um, with an agreement, um, that's, that was taken to their board, um, last week and approved. And then now it's before us, um, for consideration. And so, um, high level, what those terms are is that, um, The sales tax that's generated with the successful passage of Measure G, 100% generated in Live Oak would come to Live Oak. And then in unincorporated county, 100% would stay with the county. And so that works out to about $800,000, $750,000 to $800,000. There's some terms in there that there's a minimum share of $750,000 prorated based on when it starts through the end of fiscal year 28. And then starting in fiscal year 29, the city would be just on its own as far as the 100% TUT rate. We're expecting with projections that we should exceed that $800,000 number by that time. I feel that this is a good foundation for the city. Um, it really sets, um, um, our destiny with, um, that as we develop and we control that growth and those funds come back at a hundred percent level to the city. Um, and it's in partnership with the County where they continue to provide County services, such as the jail, the DA, the library, um, health and human services that are, that are, um, items that are critical for the county as a whole, including city citizens. And so with that, again, this is part of the solution. This is part of the solution that we've been talking about. And it's been a priority that was set as a goal for how the city can work towards working through our fiscal situation and provide the services that the community demands, including public safety and roads and water. So I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Excuse me. Yes, so thank you, Mr. Moody. I just want to, I know you touched on this already, but how does Measure G help our public safety? If it were to pass.

So right now we have an $800,000 structural deficit. So we've whittled that, some of those numbers that that gentleman threw out, we've whittled that down to about an $800,000 general fund structural deficit. And so that amount right there, If that's not taken care of, there will be further reductions to public safety because General Fund, it's primarily a public safety fund. And the only way to reduce that would have to be further reductions to that. And so the passage of Measure G, it's critical. It will stabilize the city and it stabilizes the public safety.

And how do we ensure that for the residents? That if this does pass and we get that money that comes to our general fund, that it does go to public safety.

So there's. Because it will come into the general fund, general fund is used to pay for public safety. Each one of these council members is accountable to the public. There's independent audits that are required. There's an oversight committee required. And there's been expectations that it's been for, it's a revenue measure for public safety, roads, and for water uses.

Thank you. Council Member Wood?

No, I have no questions.

So my question, and again, not to rehash all the budget meetings we've had discussing this, but in regards to, you mentioned the general fund, the impact of the general fund, the cost of safety, which I believe combined is about, what, 40% of our general fund budget. And Ethan or Ben, I know I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, but can you guys speak to that? Because I know, what revenues, my understanding is, there's very little revenues and what's there is completely outdated compared to that service level based off those revenues is nowhere near enough to cover today's

costs so you know typical cities uh spend around the 65 percent um threshold of their general fund dollars um live oak we don't have a lot of general fund dollars that are property tax and sales tax based there's not a lot of commercial activity here um and there's in the the property tax base is low and so um So funding is limited for public safety. And we have 10,000, approximately 10,000 residents here that require a certain level of public safety. We have a, you know, I don't know how to get the right answer. Please let me know. I mean, it's a smoking deal from Sutter County.

Oh, totally. But what is, I keep hearing that there's, we collect other revenues to cover this from the state or feds, or can you speak to that? I mean, we're- For general fund or public safety? For safety.

You know, public safety is locally controlled. I mean, there's a little bit of safer grant. I'm looking over at Ethan. Okay. that comes through, but it's really through property tax, sales tax, and it's through the CFD that was established on the new homes. That's what is needed to fund public safety.

Yeah. Right. So the bulk of it is.

Yeah. The bulk of general fund, right? Excuse me. Yeah. The bulk of its taxes, property tax, sales tax. We do have the CFDs 2004. We do receive some state funding through COPS, which again is about 200,000. The last couple of years have been a lot more contributions from that fund over to the general fund. And that's just because of a lack of transfers. It's not because we're receiving more money each and every year. It's the lack of transfers that we're doing from that fund that was in its own special revenue fund over to the general fund. So now we're basically at a balance to where it's true actual numbers where we're getting about 200,000 each year. So there's not a lot of...

funds that come in that are dedicated to public safety itself outside revenues yes yeah exactly gotcha and um you know speaking of the questions i've had people just say don't don't don't go for it don't vote for it levels will stay the same uh the city is legally bound to provide those levels can you speak to that because my understanding is uh just like we talked about tonight overall uh budget and financial stability of the city, the city has to account for it. We can't go borough providing those services. So my understanding is it does get reduced if it doesn't, if we don't fill that gap through this measure or any other way.

It has to be an $800,000 reduction and we need to find where that's at. And that only comes for public safety. That is really through closing your parks and closing your and reducing your public safety and parks has been eliminated. Parks has been reduced and we've been offsetting it with grants this last budget year to try to keep a quality of life and reduce it as much as we can.

Right. So that discretionary spending, it's like we talked about at the budget previously during the budget talks, that discretionary spending is basically down to, it's a lot. We keep it permanent. We've trimmed it almost to the bone. Yeah, it recoups. Right now, between CFDs that have to go towards that, that are dedicated funding, restricted funding for that, and registrations and the other things where it's, they're self-sustaining. So... There's not much left, right?

No, there's no silver bullet. We've been looking at this budget and trying to figure out a solution on how to turn the ship around, and we're working on it. But right now it's about that $800,000 to keep the lights on, pay the insurance, and keep public safety on the street. And so without the funding, there's going to have to be further reductions, which ultimately will be public safety.

And then the ongoing years, you touched on it a little bit, but like the development that was passed at Planning Commission last night, those future revenues will continue to go up. If it were to pass, we would collect with any future development as well.

Yes, and so that's the benefit with agreement with the terms where the 100% stays in Live Oak. If we went on our own, it would be 100%. And so with this passage, when we promote development like the ARCO, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic last night, all of that additional revenue, it stays local, local controlled. And then the pending McDonald's or the pending residential development, that adds because with it being a tut tax it also pulls in your amazon orders and different things and so there's definitely an incentive that we control our development and control our growth and that part of the 100 it's it's a good foundation gotcha and then there's been some comments about we need to do it on our own can you speak to the benefits of the partnership with the

We're a regional partner.

We're a regional partner. We contract with Sutter County Sheriff. We cut in contact with CSAF through the Sutter County Fire. We're tied together. We have joint interests. We collaborate. If we went on our own, it'd be 100%. What this community has said in the past is that we need to work together. And so now there's a team effort and it's a regional effort that we're working together. And so I see it as a benefit that all rising tides rise all boats.

Gotcha. And then if we were to do it on our own, we'd be responsible for 100% of the whole effort, right?

Correct. You'd have a... you know, any sort of effort with information and understanding the polling and, you know, how to move forward with that would be solely city-led and city initiative. And it might be in conflict with the counties, which makes it more difficult, you know, two different items running at the same time.

Okay. In addition to that, that'd have to be a special election, correct? And 66% to pass or 67% to pass?

If it's a general, it's currently 50%. If it's specific, then it's 66%. Yeah, I mean, where this is at, I guess I want to make this clear too for the general public, is that this is a countywide initiative, a countywide tax. If we don't agree with them, they could keep all the money. And so this is a partnership where they're doing a countywide boat across the city. And so if you don't share with them, the money will stay with them.

Well, with that, do you have any other questions before we go to public comment? All right. We'll go ahead and go to public comment.

Liz Cervantes, District 5. Mr. Moody, tonight, just listening to you, I find it disingenuous, misleading, and reckless. This is not a safety tax. If it were a safety tax, it would need two-thirds. It is a general tax, therefore a blank check out of the general fund Can I remind you of some things that Sutter County has done with money out of the general fund? I wish I had my Kmart blue light. That's what I take to my supervisors meetings and it bugs them. You wanna know why? Because it's killing us. Salaries and pensions are killing us. Look at what your gas prices are per gallon at $5 a gallon, which exceeds that today. you're gonna be paying five cents a gallon on top of what we're already paying. This is not a safety tax. There is no guarantee that it will go to roads or public safety, which, oh, by the way, the only job of government is public safety. So I tell my supervisors, if my house is on fire, I'm not gonna call the librarian, which the Sutter County Library, and you have a cute little branch up here, I saw it today. $1.6 million is the budget for Sutter County Library. The tax collector's office, just for comparison, 1.2. Ask yourself, can there be more cuts? They have done nothing in four years since they tried to pass measure A. Measure A failed. Measure G is more of the same. And if it doesn't pass, which we're fighting like hell because we're not ATM machines in Sutter County, none of us are. How many times are they going to try this before they come up with some permanent solutions, sustainable solutions? We've got a lot of property around here and a lot of people smart in Sutter County that think outside the box, but they're not listening. Are you? If that measure G doesn't pass, are you going to unincorporate? All of you would be out of a job. Would that be a savings? Thank you.

Any other public comment?

No further comments.

Bring it back to the council for further discussion. Nothing else to add. Thank you. I'm good. Okay. All right.

I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing an exchange of transactions and use tax revenues with the County of Sutter if voters approve Measure G. I'll second that.

Council Member Bowman?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Palma?

Yes.

Mayor Chapdelaine?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Uh, we had no items pulled from the consent calendar. We'll move on to updates and announcements from city attorney.

No updates.

All right. City manager.

Just a few. So to reiterate, the Planning Commission was held last night. The Planning Commission approved an ARCO Buffalo Wild Wings Go and Sonic Burger. The approval was a new permit for the fuel sales, the drive-through, and then for the sign. And so that was approved last night. The developer anticipates working to have it open next summer. With that, we also update the bylaws based on demand, need, and staff ability that we've updated the planning commission. So the regularly scheduled meetings will be the fourth Tuesday of the month. fall festivals next week um so it's the fall festival and food vendor event food vendor event so it's next thursday evening on broadway so 9 24 staff is working on that i'm trying to work through make it a nice event and then um Just to notice that there's quarterly water, sewer, and storm and street light and traffic meetings scheduled for this Friday. We're moving those to September 30th at 1130 for some status updates regarding some of the recent road grants and Little League status and the pool and then also some work with water and sewer next steps.

Any questions for Ben?

No questions for me.

That was number one. Do you have updates?

No updates.

Vice Mayor?

Yeah, I just want to first begin by thanking staff. Thank you, Mr. Moody. The rest of the staff that's here, we're all in tough positions. So I just want to know that I appreciate you. I'm pretty sure the rest of the council appreciates you guys. So I want to begin with that. And I don't want to rant, but this is reading some of these social media comments, even though we shouldn't be consumed by it, but the negativity in this town that's because of social media really disturbs me you know and i think i'm i'm the only council member currently that's born and raised in live oak i don't know about council or santana but i'm pretty certain that i am and to see progress like this is what we need to keep this town going you know and to read i'm referring to the development because that was the initiative of this council i think when i joined a year and a half ago was how do we get development here What are the ways? And it's not as easy as I want it in and out and it's going to pop up, you know, and it's very complicated. And I can credit to a lot of that education and learning from Erica and Brenda and economic development. You know, they've taught me how the logistics behind what businesses look to in a town to come here. And don't get me wrong. I ask a lot of questions and I think the public should continue asking questions. It's the way you ask questions. It's the format of it. It's don't attack people. It's be genuine about it. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, that's kind of my message is you want to know why something's coming? Just feel free to ask. And I want to give a little background. We were both on planning commission at the time when Jack in the Box was initially going to be a Taco Bell or Burger King first, then transitioned to a Taco Bell. The owner came to the planning commission meetings and just got bashed by the public. And at the time we had nothing here. And when he saw, heard all those comments, he's like, why am I going to invest in this town? And he left.

Yeah.

Why would you, he's going to come here, purchase a property, build something for our benefit. He could take that money and go elsewhere, which is what he ended up doing. You know, if someone wants something here in this town, there's property up and down 99, go buy it, go build it. I'll support you. It's really that simple. I'd rather see something come into true value than leave it vacant, vacant for what? Five years now. If you want a hardware store, buy some, build it. It's really that simple, you know, but it's just the attacking on council. And it started with the other thing I want to address and I apologize for the rent is the million dollar grant for the pool should. Coming off guard right there, the million dollar grant for the pool is it's such a positive thing for the community, but to say that that can go to improving our drinking water. We address this at our meetings, and people don't want to listen. And that's the thing. Please, if you can't attend meetings, watch them. Listen to the recording. Reach out to me. I made myself, you know, I've said it several times. You have questions, please reach out. So once again, I apologize for the rant, but this is kind of frustrating reading these comments.

Yeah, no problem. I was actually going to make some of those same comments myself. You know, this... I mean, this is just the agenda, but there's there's a whole packet of, you know, behind each of these items, you know, right now, 82 pages that explain these things. And it is it really is disheartening to see the things and see things portrayed, you know, reposting the agenda and with a bunch of kind of somewhat accusations or and and these these questions that are just negative or open-ended um i would encourage people to to read the packet most of the time the 95 of those questions can be answered if you if you just flip a little further and i mean just look at the staff report that has a fiscal analysis has a summary you know it's pretty pretty easy to follow there um but unfortunately uh it usually doesn't get that far, but if folks don't like the vice mayor said, if they, if you don't, if you have other questions or you don't want to take the time, but reach a stat, the door's always open. Staff's here. Uh, we're here. Anybody can get ahold of me. Um, all of our info's out there to, to ask the questions. Um, I see folks here tonight that have reached out to me and asked, asked me questions, uh, uh, quite a bit over the years. So it's just, uh, uh again uh we jumped into this and and going i didn't know it was the um i know it was the uh uh consent item but uh you know it's another huge one that we're gonna be applying for i've heard people talk about this grant for a year or talk about the issue of the sidewalk gap over on on pennington and that was one uh same thing uh when we had uh a council ready to make progress and get proactive and really go out and go after these grants and provide that direction to staff, that was one of our top priorities. And we're seeing it right now that we're going to be a top contender or in a really good position for this grant to close the sidewalk gap, which has been huge. How many years has that sat there in that condition? and so it's and again the uh we're we're using you know it looks like a big price tag or a match there but i just wanted this was one of the main things i wanted to shout out to staff is really i appreciate all the hard work you guys are doing uh everybody's hit the ground running since since uh you know, we've given you the direction on these things, and it shows in these grants, and it takes time, and we're seeing it now, you know, a little over a year into it with Ben coming on. I mean, Ethan's new, Jaspreet's new, but they're going out and getting these things, and that's what should have been going on these other years, this proactive... activity has to be constant if you want to be able to move forward on these. And it's well thought out. I mean, we're not just throwing money at these grants. When it comes to the match, we're using restricted funds that we also went out and found that we can put towards this. So there's no general fund impact when you see this $100,000 Plus thousand for our share and then to cover and then the rest of it is through SACOG. So that's huge. You know, we have those restricted funds that have to be used for things like this. Otherwise, they just sit and why not spread them out? for the match over these things and really make the improvements that were, you know, that we talked about recently for Larkin road, you know, from one end of town to the other Larkin and Broadway that that's in the queue now and is funded. Hopefully this other one, like I said, it's we're in pretty good shape there. Same thing with the pool. I mean, and it goes back to what our city manager talked about earlier tonight, the multi-pronged approach that, that we were, we're, hitting it everywhere we can to, uh, uh, to make progress and save money where we can. So, um, with that, uh, just as far as my committee updates, um, we did have a SACOG meeting. Uh, there wasn't, it wasn't too eventful. We're actually having a special meeting tomorrow to, uh, uh, finish up some items from that, uh, before, um, next week. So there, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of uh city and county staff that's uh that's out that following week that we didn't have a quorum so we are going to have that special meeting tomorrow and um some some of these grants will be uh finalized tomorrow as well and then um we'll continue to push uh you know with this application for this one and and everything else that comes up there comes available so um I want to appreciate the community, everybody that showed up tonight. It's great to have folks in the seats and actually getting the information and participating. It's huge. So appreciate you all. And we'll go ahead and adjourn at 7.31 p.m.