Alturas City Council
City Hall Council Chambers
January 20, 2026 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: Duanna Knighton, Jennifer Engel, Paul Minchella and Jodie Larranaga. Brian Cox attended via Zoom. Councilmembers absent: None. Staff present: City Clerk Tacie Wheeler, City Treasurer Dorothy Long, Director of Public Works Warren Farnam, Interim Police Chief Simon. Public attending: 5. Craig Flournoy provided the invocation. All present joined together in the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Public Forum
Doreen Smith-Powers introduces herself and states she is concerned with the process of getting something on the agenda. She says she wrote a letter on August 4th about water tributary and the Pit River, but it did not get on the agenda for the Board of Supervisors or City Council. The Board of Supervisors told her that it was still under review, and she was informed that her letter was submitted to City Council members. She is upset that it did not get on the agenda for City Council, as people look at the meeting agendas to determine if it is something important to them and if they should attend the meeting. She would like her letter added to the next Council meeting, and states that she would like to see the City and County work together.
3. Approval or Additions/Deletions to Agenda
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve the agenda as written. ALL AYES.
4. Consent Agenda
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve Consent Agenda as follows: a.) Approve minutes of December 16, 2025 meeting after correcting that Paul called the meeting to order, fix the typo on Paul’s name in the committee report section, and change the # to $ in the staff report; b.) Approve City warrants for December in the amount of $116,988.17; c.) Approve ACH reconciliation report for December 2025 in the amount of $162,961.22; e.) Adopt Resolution #2026-1 removing inactive water & sewer accounts from November in the amount of $717.48. ALL AYES.
5. Discussion/Action Item
Gena Long, representing Modoc Crisis Center, introduces herself and requests permission to post signs along Main Street. She says they will put them up February 1st and take them down the last day of February. She brought one of the signs to show Council what would be displayed.
MOTION by Councilmember Larranaga, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to grant permission for Modoc Crisis Center to place signs along Main Street, starting February 1st, to promote Teen Dating Violence Awareness. ALL AYES.
6. Discussion/action Item
Treasurer Long explains that this is the second portion of the MOU that was approved to re-open with a new budget.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to approve Resolution #2026-2 approving a 3% COLA for the Safety Unit pursuant to section 7.4 COLA of the 2024-2026 Memorandum of Understanding and authorizing the City Treasurer to sign the side letter. ALL AYES.
7. Discussion Item
Treasurer Long states that this is required for us to be able to remove Deanna and add Katy to the Plumas Bank account.
MOTION by Councilmember Larranaga, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel to adopt Resolution #2026-3 authorizing Administrative Assistant to the Treasurer, Katy Patchett to be added to the Plumas Bank signature card, and removing Administrative Assistant to the Treasurer Deanna Stains. ALL AYES.
8. Discussion/Action Item
Police Chief Simon explains that this is required for the Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program. The grant for training, equipment and backfilled personnel. He is working on getting the grant submitted by February 23rd. Simon says that this is modeled after the CHP policy. The grant can be up to $500,000, but with our size we would probably be looking at receiving about half that.
MOTION by Councilmember Knighton, SECONDED by Councilmember Engel approving the new APD Checkpoint Policy that is required for the Cannabis Tax Fund Grant Program. ALL AYES.
9. Discussion/Action Item
Police Chief Simon states that the police department currently has shifts that are not supervised. The department could also be looking at losing two officers, so he feels this needs to be looked into. Mr. Simon says that there are two good officers who could be promoted.
Councilmember Cox says that optimal supervision in law enforcement is 5-1. He also feels that the selection for promotion should be left up to the new long-term Chief. Additionally, he states that they need to look into the budget to see if this would be feasible. He suggests they look into this after they have the mid-year budget meeting.
Chief Simon explains that he is not requesting to make the selection, he is just trying to open the door for the new Chief to have a list prepared for them.
Councilmember Cox states that they had Chief, lieutenant and sergeant positions that were never filled after Chief Cullins. He says that the new Chief should decide how he wants to fill those positions.
Chief Simon says that he has two applications on his desk that are lateral transfers, so we wouldn’t have to pay for them to go to POST. He explains that he is a background investigator and would be able to do their backgrounds himself.
Councilmember Engel says that her concern is the budget and asks Simon if his budget would support this.
Chief Simon states that the budget does not currently support it. However, they will be working on a new budget come July and they could work out how to implement this in the new fiscal year. He says he is trying to look at this in the long run. He knows that he is only here a short while, but he would like to plant a seed with Council about what is going on within the department and what they need to keep a full staff.
Treasurer Long states that there were a lot of things that came up this year, such as equipment, claims, unfunded liability, etc, that is eating away at the police department budget. They haven’t had mid-year budget reviews yet.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to table the discussion of considering the creation of a second Sergeant position within the department. ALL AYES.
10. Discussion/Action Item
Council agrees this item coincides with the previous item.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to table the discussion of opening a Patrol Officer Position. ALL AYES.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Councilmember Knighton reports that she attended the SCED meeting. There is $150,000 grant to be split with Weaverville, for Main St.
Councilmember Engel says that she would like to get a group together, including Public Works, Fire and PD, to talk about code enforcement and nuisance abatement and figure out some possible solutions to start making some headway on that.
Councilmember Minchella states that he attended MCTC and the LAFCO meeting. Nothing to report.
COUNCIL/STAFF REPORTS
Treasurer Long reports that she has posted the Chief of Police position flyer with POST, Western City Magazine, the City website, City Facebook and the Modoc Record. She worked with Mr. Kenny to create the vacancy flyer. There have been no applications received yet. She asks Council if they have any other suggestions as to where else they could post it. Mr. Simon recently reached out to a few other possibilities, but there are a couple of surrounding cities that are also looking for a Police Chief, so there is a bit of competition. Ms. Long states that she is going to start doing the City newsletter quarterly instead of monthly now, as it tends to get repetitive when there are not a lot of projects or new things going on every month.
She is also thinking of just advertising it in house and saving some money there. She is currently working to get the Tobacco Grant operational. She met with MCOE about City internships with the high school, as there are some new requirements. Fortunately, we have some City staff who coach for the high school, so we will be compliant. Ms. Long says that the office staff has been working hard on getting our new hire, Katy, acquainted and trained. So far that is going really well. She is looking at Tuesday, the 27th at 9:30 am for the mid-year budget review meeting, and asks everyone to put that on their calendars.
Interim Police Chief Simon reports that they had 38 new cases, 21 citations, and 16 arrests that included 7 felonies and 9 misdemeanors. He says there has been some good investigations and he is proud of the police officers. Mr. Simon states that he is able to do the backgrounds for the two officers who have applied to the department should Council approve that.
Treasurer Long asks about the contracted background investigator the City has used in the past.
Councilmember Cox adds that there is only 30 days left of Mr. Simon’s contract and asks if that would be enough time to complete both backgrounds before the contract is up.
Chief Simon says that he is willing to take on that responsibility, and would definitely be able to complete one background before his contract is up. He says he would only do one at a time. He explains that he would like to see APD successful. He knows these officers and he is proud of them. He states that they are a great group and he would like to help the City out as much as he can.
Director of Public Works Farnam reports that he has been working with the Mill on their lease agreement.
He met with the engineer for the new wastewater treatment plant, and is waiting on the funding list. He says he has not heard back from Fish & Wildlife on the right of way situation. Public works crew is working on pot hole repairs. The airport projects are underway, as well as the splash park project. The guys are working on a handful of different projects. Their guy who has been out on worker’s comp should be coming back to us next month, and the new hire from down south who has his certificates should also be able to start next month.
Clerk Wheeler reports that Nomination papers for the Council seats coming up for election can be pulled starting February 9th. The City received several new business licenses this month, including Double Down Distributing, that bought K&K, a new donut shop and a Mexican candy store and other miscellaneous items.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to go into Closed Session at 3:22 p.m.
MOTION by Councilmember Engel, SECONDED by Councilmember Larranaga to come out of Closed Session at 3:41 p.m.
No action taken.
With no further business to come before City Council, MOTION by Councilmember Larranaga, SECONDED by Councilmember Knighton to adjourn the meeting and to return in regular session on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 2:00 pm, City Hall. ALL AYES Respectfully,
Tacie Wheeler
Tacie Wheeler
City Clerk