Alturas City Council
City Hall Council Chambers
May 20, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.
City Council Mayor Paul Minchella called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. at the City Council Chambers.
Councilmembers present: Paul Minchella, Duanna Knighton, Jennifer Engel, Brian Cox and Jodie Larranaga. Councilmembers absent: None. Staff present: City Clerk Tacie Wheeler, City Treasurer Dorothy Long, Director of Public Works Warren Farnam, Fire Chief James Lloyd, Sergeant Cody Widby.
Public attending: 9. All present joined together in the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Public Forum
Matthew Digrazia introduces himself. He explains an incident he was involved in in which he was bit by a dog. He says the owner is in violation of the City’s animal ownership ordinance. The dog was picked up and held for 20 days. He further states that this is a public health matter, but there was no report of the bite filed with the public health department. He says that the animal control unit has not contacted him and there was no investigation or report filed. He would like to inspect the City’s animal control facility, but he was denied access. He questions why the City has an animal control unit when the Sheriff’s Office has one and the High Plateau Humane Society has discussed being willing to help with the dogs-at-large problem. Mr.
Digrazia had a list of requests for the City Council. He says that this is about transparency, public health and financial accountability.
Council explains that they cannot take action for this and advises him to email Clerk Wheeler to be added to the agenda for next month.
Molly Teuscher and Jozie Hannah representing the Junior Livestock Show would like to formally invite City Council to this year’s show, June 16th – 20th, 2025.
3. Approval or Additions/Deletions to Agenda
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve agenda as written. ALL AYES.
4. Consent Agenda
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to approve Consent Agenda as follows: a.) Approve minutes of April 15, 2025 meeting, correcting the Committee Reports section to reflect that it was the RERC who were the semi-finalists, not the fitness grant; b.) Approve City Warrants for April 2025 in the amount of $272,235.78; c.) Approve ACH reconciliation report for April 2025 in the amount of $134,385.16; d.) Adopt Resolution #2025-13 removing inactive water & sewer accounts from February from the amount of $152.06. ALL AYES.
5. Discussion/Action Item
Eliza Pena and Maddie Crites, representing the Alturas FFA, request permission to raise 15-20 chickens at the high school. They explain the benefits to students and community for having the chickens at the school, and how the animals will be taken care of during the summer and holiday breaks. There will be no roosters, only chickens.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to grant permission to keep 15-20 chickens on school property for the Alturas FFA Program. ALL AYES.
6. Discussion/Action Item
Councilmember Knighton explains she attended the SCED meeting in Redding on May 15, 2025 and is requesting to be reimbursed for the mileage.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Minchella to approve the mileage reimbursement for Councilmember Knighton for SCED meeting attended May 15, 2025. ALL AYES.
7. Discussion/Action Item
Councilmember Cox explains that as the representative for the CA League of Cities he believes this conference is pertinent to us and could provide a lot of training.
Mayor Minchella inquires about the cost and if we are in a position fiscally to send someone to the conference.
Councilmember Cox says there are reduced conference rates.
Mayor Minchella suggests we send one of the new councilmembers.
Councilmember Cox reiterates that he is the League of Cities Committee representative.
Mayor Minchella thinks this should be taken up later when our financial situation is better understood.
Councilmember Engel says that next year’s budget has not been discussed yet, but she tends to be more frugal. She would prefer this item waits for now.
Councilmember Larranaga asks if they would be able to get a price by the June meeting so they would have an idea of what they would be approving financially.
MOTION by Councilmember Minchella, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to postpone this item and bring it back when we have a cost estimate. 4 AYES, 1 ABSTAINED.
8. Discussion/Action Item
Councilmember Knighton explains that they met with the Safety Unit and agreed to 2% this year, effective October 1, 2024. The verbiage and the last page of the MOU should be the only thing that changed. Prior to September 30, 2025, it can be opened up for discussion for another potential COLA if any.
MOTION by Councilmember Larranaga, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton approving Resolution #2025-14 approving the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Public Employees of California Local 792 Alturas Safety Unit and the City of Alturas. ALL AYES.
9. Discussion/Action Item
Treasurer Long explains that this is to get us through the remainder of the fiscal year and into the new year.
The cost of electricity is a big increase. There was also an RMAP invoice from the prior fiscal year that was not planned for, for radios for AFD, as well as legal expenses. We have gone through most of the legal expense budget thus far, and asks everyone to be mindful of that.
Director of Public Works Farnam discusses the pool budget and expenses.
Councilmember Cox states that we are dipping into the reserve funds across the board. He says cities are not allowed to do deficit spending without voter approval, but it seems that we are deficit spending. He would prefer to have a budget workshop before approving an amendment.
Treasurer Long says that the budget workshop will be for the 2025/2026 Fiscal Year Budget, not the current year. The amendment is for the City to keep operating to the end of FY 24/25.
Councilmember Cox inquires about the expenditures for the general fund that went up about $200,000 and where that came from.
Treasurer Long explains that what we spend in general fund in more than what we bring in. That is all general fund departments.
Councilmember Engel states that the expenditures are about $52,000 more, not $200,000 in looking at what we originally approved in October.
Treasurer Long says that one of the line items that cost the general fund about $30,000 of that 52,000 was the investigation done by Oppenheimer. Also with the rise in electricity and the legal fees, you will get your $52,000 difference.
Councilmember Cox states that that was a ridiculous investigation in the way that it was handled. He says that was a big error on the Council, and it should have been done for free with a State agency.
Treasurer Long says what’s done is done. We can’t go backwards. She is trying to get an amendment now so that we can move forward in this fiscal year.
Director of Public Works Farnam explains that we are almost in June and this fiscal year is almost over.
We cannot control the costs of the investigation now, and we still have bills coming in that need to get paid.
This amendment will allow for the City to continue paying the bills for this fiscal year. The numbers are not going to change from this meeting to the June meeting, the expenses have already gone through. We need to focus on next fiscal year in the budget workshop.
Councilmember Engel says that she has spoken with Treasurer Long about the electricity increases. Her personal electricity bill has gone up almost double, she can only imagine what the sewer plant has increased to.
Councilmember Cox says that it concerns him to get an amendment to approve without having a workshop prior and seeing where all of these numbers are coming from.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to adopt Resolution #2025-15 approving the third amended budget for the 2024/2025 Fiscal Year Budget in the amount of $11,233,561.00. 4 AYES, 1 NO.
10. PUBLIC HEARING
Fire Chief Lloyd says that he is reaching out to the State Fire Marshal. There was a Chief meeting after our last Council meeting and there were mixed reviews on whether to accept these maps or not. The County has not moved forward on this yet. He says they don’t really agree with the maps, there are some areas more severe on the map than they should be. He does not have answers at this time. It was written that they are required to pass this, but in doing some research, there are no written penalties as of right now if it is not passed immediately. He thinks that this should maybe be tabled for now.
Councilmember Cox agrees that this should be tabled with so much unknown.
No public comment.
11. Discussion/Action Item
Item dies for lack of motion.
12. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam would like to put out an RFP (request for proposal) for the splash park, but the Melton Design contract needs to be terminated first.
MOTION by Councilmember Cox, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to rescind Resolution #2023-34 and terminate the contract with Melton Design Group Incorporated, and authorize the Mayor to sign the letter to terminate. ALL AYES.
13. Discussion/Action Item
Director or Public Works Farnam explains that their equipment is very old. There are dump trucks with no brakes, among other issues. They are looking for some used equipment that is in better condition. There is $235,545.00 available.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve the purchase of used road equipment with Local Transportation Funds not to exceed $200,000. ALL AYES.
14. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam says he believes that extending pool passes to our full-time employees is a good morale booster for our staff.
MOTION by Councilmember Cox, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve of family pool passes for full-time City employees for the 2025 season. ALL AYES.
15. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam says this project is already going, this is just a formality. It doesn’t change anything.
MOTION by Councilmember Cox, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to authorize the Public Works Director to sign supplemental service agreements 3 and 4 with Brandley Engineering Inc. for the Precision Approach Pathway Indicator (PAPI) Airport Project. ALL AYES.
16. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam states that there are two roofs – the fire meeting hall/gym and public works office – that need to be repaired. The windstorm did some damage. He does not know the costs yet, but one was leaking and had to be patched up. The rest needs to be fixed. The RFP will give us a cost estimate.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to authorize advertising an RFP for replacing two roofs on City buildings in Fiscal Year 2025-2026. ALL AYES.
17. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam would like to solicit for engineers for the splash pad now that the contract with Melton Design Group is terminated.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to authorize advertising for an RFP for engineering and project management on re-organized Rural Recreation Grant for the splash pad and auxiliary structures. ALL AYES.
18. Discussion/Action Item
Director of Public Works Farnam states that this will just memorialize our previous agreement.
Councilmember Cox asks if the City is picking up liability of infrastructure outside of the pool DPW Farnam says that he can clarify with them if need be and change the terminology.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to approve and sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the Modoc Joint Unified School District concerning the use of geothermal water for the pool, with the amendment to strike section 2.3. ALL AYES.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Councilmember Cox reports that he attended the LAFCO meeting. The next meeting was moved up to June 3rd. They increased the budget costs for printing and a couple of other line items. The next meeting will be to approve the budget, which would be a total cost of $28,000 for the City and $28,000 for the County. He questions what the City is getting for their $28,000.
Councilmember Engel explains that LAFCO covers all special service districts in Modoc County, of which the City only has one special district under us. For the City to have to cover half of the cost of this does not sit right, especially when we are making such drastic cuts to our budget, but we can’t make cuts to this one.
Councilmember Cox states that this will be pushed forward on the 3rd, and he does not agree with it, and wanted to give Council a head’s up on it. Thinks we should look into a fee adjustment with the County so the City isn’t stuck covering 50% of the budget.
Mayor Minchella reports that he attended the LAFCO meeting in Chico, more of a training meeting to see what the mid-level people wanted to see out of LAFCO. Not much came out of that.
Councilmember Knighton reports that she attended the SCED meeting in Redding last week. This morning they had interviews for Modoc. The Recreational Economics for Rural Committees had 200 applications and 50 were selected. Modoc was one that got an interview. 25 counties will be selected. Talked with Warren about the EDA grant a little bit. Want to confirm if it’s the USDA or the EDA grant so it can hopefully help a little bit. They received one RFP for the meat processing plant. Tony Scott and Sarah Deforester from Morrison out of Chico were the only applicants and got the RFP for the meat processing project. Will be meeting with them, along with a couple of other agencies, on May 27th at the new Wastewater Treatment Plant to look at a potential facility for the processing plant. She also wanted to give a shout out to the two officers in the newspaper, Frankie Widby and Fernando Alcala for saving the man’s life and being recognized for their efforts. Also, SCED was very interested in our Rental Housing Ordinance, so her and DPW Farnam will be sharing some information with them about that.
Councilmember Larranaga says that she attended scholarship meeting. There were 11 applicants and 8 of the 11 are getting some type of scholarship. Meeting again in November. Also had a Clerk Committee meeting that we have about every other month.
COUNCIL/STAFF REPORTS
Fire Chief Lloyd reports that they have 39 firefighters on the roster. The two new applicants they have will have their final reading in June. They should both be approved, which would give us a full roster at 41.
They had 2 fire calls and 18 medical calls. There was a dumpster fire at TEACH on the 9th and a false alarm at Modoc Steel on the 11th. The Fire Marshal is getting out the final letters for weed abatement and will begin the first round for this year soon. He is currently working on getting his fire investigation certification and is very close to completing that. Lastly, they have a final fire inspection next month for the new Skilled Nursing Facility.
Sergeant Widby reports that the police department had 46 new cases leading to 23 arrests, of which 11 are felonies and 12 misdemeanors. There is a big case involving child sex crimes and potentially multiple life sentences. Officer Widby had a vulnerability assessment done at the Modoc Middle School, and is working on getting one for the elementary and high school. Officer’s Widby and Alcala both received Save pins from Modoc Medical Center and the Emergency Medical Services for their efforts in saving a man’s life.
They are doing public outreach for Denim Day and at the Bike Rodeo and the health fair. The Sid Cullins Memorial Scholarship is $3,000 this year, which is significantly higher than it has been in the past. Chief Muller is not here today as he is at his second week of management training.
Treasurer Long reports she attended a required supervisor drug and alcohol testing training with Warren.
Required to be part of the federal drug testing mandate. Also attended a grant webinar, working to submit that. The application deadline is June 20th. She would like to get timeframes from Council that would work for everyone to have a budget workshop so we can get the ball rolling. Also, City Hall will be closed Monday for Memorial Day.
Director of Public Works Farnam reports that Aaron is back this week. The STIP projects start next month.
Building activity is plugging along. More interest than we’ve had in the past. Haven’t heard anything on the Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) for the disaster from OES. They have the well generator, the WWTP generator, a mobile generator. So they will be better off this year than last with any power outages or anything like that. Getting ready to start spraying for mosquitos. Calfire came back and helped us get everything ready for Masten Ramsey. Hoping by the end of June it should be done. Have received a lot of compliments on it. We got the culvert for the ditch behind that so we can expand the parking. They are still behind on the Housing Element. Working on the lead testing for the water. Will be sending a letter out in the water bills to have people get their stuff out of the alley ways. Signed an agreement with the County for the spraying around the ball fields and such that worked pretty good last year. Met with the Chamber about Fandango Days. It will entail a little longer road closure for the duck race this year.
Clerk Wheeler reports on the new businesses licenses. No new store fronts or anything, an electric company and a solar company, both of which are from out of town.
With no further business to come before City Council, MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to adjourn the meeting and to return in regular session on Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 at 2:00 pm, City Hall. ALL AYES
Respectfully,
Tacie Wheeler
Tacie Wheeler
City Clerk