Alturas City Council
Special Meeting
City Hall Council Chambers
March 11, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
Alturas City Council Mayor Paul Minchella called the special meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. at the City Council Chambers. Councilmembers present: Paul Minchella, Jennifer Engel, Duanna Knighton and Jodie Larranaga. Councilmembers absent: Brian Cox. Staff present: City Clerk Tacie Wheeler, City Treasurer Dorothy Long, Director of Public Works Warren Farnam, Assistant Director of Public Works Dominic Budmark, Officer Frankie Widby, Officer Jonathan Morgan. Public attending: None.
All present joined together in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Councilmember Engel states that many people have reached out to her asking about the attendance of Councilmember Cox. The last regular meeting he attended was the November Council meeting. He tried to attend the special meeting December 4th, but we did not have internet or phones that day, so he was unable to attend via Zoom, but did get his comments out. Councilmember Engel references Government Code Section 36513 about a councilmember being absent without permission for 60 days consecutively that his/her office becomes vacant and shall be filled as any other vacancy.
City Attorney Kenny states that if Council decides to move forward with this, he will work with the City Clerk to get the process going.
Councilmember Knighton states that there was a previous councilmember before her that had missed several meetings and nothing was done about it. She just wants to be sure that this isn’t going to open the City up to any repercussions.
Councilmember Larranga says that she has the same concern.
City Attorney Kenny explains that just because a previous council did not choose to take action against that other councilmember, does not mean that this council can’t take any action.
MOTION by Councilmember Minchella, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to direct City Attorney Kenny to proceed with the quo warranto action. ALL AYES.
Councilmember Engel explains that she wants to be sure that there is no hiring of any kind without coming to Council first, at least for now. She doesn’t want the City to be obligated to paying funds that we may not have in the future.
Director of Public Works Farnam states that they will be needing to hire lifeguards and pool supervisors for the swimming pool soon, as well as extra help drivers to help take samples for public works.
Officer F. Widby states that the police department is currently short a sergeant.
Treasurer Long asks about the contract rules per MOU that requires promotion, such as Admin Clerk I to Admin Clerk II or D I to D II. When an employee meets certain requirements, they are promoted to that next position.
Councilmember Engel states that she just wants everyone to be on the same page with this, and that Council isn’t surprised so we can make sure that we have the budget and we don’t run into a layoff situation in the future.
Treasurer Long says that we are currently going through this with one of our office staff who we have working with the Union on promoting from Admin Clerk I to II, and she is more than qualified.
Councilmember Engel states that she doesn’t want to stop something like that from happening. She says the City Ordinance says that it should be approved by Council already, so she just wants to be sure we are following what is already written.
No action taken.
Councilmember Engel hands out sections of the procurement policy, and is mostly looking at Section 9.6 and 9.7, and the purchase amount limit that can be purchased without Council approval. She just wanted to go over this so everyone is aware. The limit is $25,000.
Director of Public Works Farnam states that he will bring it to Council, and usually has a “not to exceed” amount when purchasing bigger items, but doesn’t want to see the threshold dropped necessarily, as that could cause them to miss out on some auction items and such.
No action taken.
With no further business to come before City Council, MOTION by Councilmember Larranaga, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to adjourn the meeting and to return in regular session on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 2:00 pm, City Hall. ALL AYES
Respectfully,
Tacie Wheeler
City Clerk