Item #07
Date: October 20, 2026
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Vance Nabeta, Police Chief
Subject: Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Memorandum of Understanding for Participation in the Yuba-Sutter Regional SWAT Team
Recommendation:
Adopt a Resolution authorizing the City Manager or his designee, to execute a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Marysville, the County of Yuba, and the City of Yuba City for the participation of the Marysville Police Department in the Yuba-Sutter Regional Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team and Crisis/Hostage Negotiations Team.
Rationale for Recommendation:
Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager, or designee, to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the terms of the City’s participation in the Yuba-Sutter Regional SWAT Team; authorize the assignment of qualified Marysville Police Department personnel to the team, subject to the team’s selection, training, and certification standards; and require that any proposed amendment to the MOU be submitted to the City Council for approval before execution.
Background:
The Yuba-Sutter Regional SWAT Team is a multi-agency tactical resource that responds to high-risk incidents in the Yuba-Sutter area, including barricaded suspects, hostage situations, and high-risk search and arrest warrant service. The team is under the organizational management and administrative control of the Yuba County Sheriff and the Yuba City Police Chief, and it is made up of tactical operators, sniper/observers, crisis and hostage negotiators, and Tactical Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) personnel. The Marysville Police Department has participated in regional SWAT operations with the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office since 2012.
Penal Code section 13514.1 directs the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to maintain guidelines and standardized training recommendations for agencies that conduct SWAT operations, including personnel selection, fitness, planning, hostage negotiation, safety, risk assessment, after-action evaluation, and multijurisdictional operations. Meeting these standards requires a level of staffing, training time, and specialized equipment that is difficult for an agency the size of the Marysville Police Department to sustain on its own. A regional team allows participating agencies to share personnel, equipment, training, and expertise while providing each jurisdiction with a fully staffed and trained team when a critical incident occurs.
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Discussion & Analysis:
The MOU formalizes the City’s participation in the regional team and incorporates the Yuba-Sutter Regional SWAT Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which govern team operations. Under the SOP, the SWAT Team Commander reports to the Incident Commander through the Incident Command System.
Incident command remains with the agency having jurisdiction, while the SWAT Team Commander is responsible for carrying out authorized tactical operations. The City will work with regional partners to ensure the SOP appropriately addresses deployments within Marysville. The SOP contains confidential tactical and operational information and will not be attached to or distributed with the public staff report.
The regional SOP establishes training and qualification standards consistent with POST guidelines. SWAT operators train a minimum of 10 hours per month, are recertified annually on individual core competencies, and attend a POST-approved Basic SWAT course following selection. Sniper/observers have separate training and qualification requirements, and crisis/hostage negotiators must complete specialized training and participate in ongoing exercises. Specialized equipment may be used only by personnel trained and qualified in its use.
The regional SOP also requires documented planning and risk assessment for planned operations, including warrant service, documentation of operations, and after-action reviews. These administrative, training, and accountability requirements are summarized here without disclosing confidential tactical procedures. Separately, the Marysville Police Department maintains its own internal SWAT participation procedure, which establishes additional City controls over personnel assignments, qualifications, training, supervision, participation, and accountability and is intended to satisfy applicable POST requirements. The City’s internal procedure may not be changed without prior review by both the City Manager and City Attorney. All amendments to the MOU itself require City Council approval.
Participation gives the City access to a trained and equipped tactical team, negotiators, sniper/observers, and TEMS personnel for critical incidents within Marysville, and gives Marysville officers access to specialized training and experience that benefit the Department as a whole. The Department would assign officer(s) to the team subject to the team’s selection process, and those officers would continue to perform regular patrol and investigative duties when not training or deployed.
Environmental Review:
The MOU is not a project subject to the California Environmental Quality Act under State CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(5) because it is an organizational and administrative activity of government that will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Alternatively, it is exempt under the common-sense exemption in State CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
Alignment with City Council Goal(s):
Goal #4 – Enhance Public Safety
Goal #6 – Strengthen Institutional Capacity
Legal Review:
The City Attorney has reviewed resolutions and approved as to form Fiscal Impact:
There is no direct cost associated with execution of the MOU itself. Consistent with the SOP, each participating agency is responsible for its own personnel and equipment expenses. The Police Department has participated in regional SWAT activities for years and has historically absorbed associated ongoing Item #07
expenses within its operating budget. However, those expenses have generally been accommodated as they arise, rather than through a comprehensive, advance assessment of recurring costs, staffing impacts, and available funding. The table below quantifies estimated one-time equipment needs and annual SWAT-related expenditures for two existing employees (one Sergeant and one Police Officer). These estimates should not be interpreted as the cost of adding two positions or as entirely new expenses attributable to approval of this MOU.
Cost Item One-Time
(Initial)
Ongoing
(Annual)
Personnel – Differential Pay and Overtime
SWAT pay – Sergeant (2.5% of base pay) — $2,381
SWAT pay – Officer (1) (2.5% of base pay) — $2,057
Training overtime (120 hours each; Sergeant at $69.85/hour, Officer at $60.33/hour, including SWAT pay) — $15,622
Callout/deployment overtime (8 callouts × 6 hours each, at the same rates) — $6,249
Subtotal – Personnel — $26,309
Equipment, Clothing, and PPE
Ballistic helmet, entry vest with rifle-rated plates, chemical agent mask, electronic hearing protection/communications headset, and eye protection (1 Officer × $5,500 first year, 2 officers x $1,500 subsequent years)
$5,500 $1,500
Tactical uniforms, boots, gloves, and gear bags (1 Officer × $1,000 first year, 2 officers x $300 subsequent years) $1,000 $300 Training and duty ammunition, chemical agent filters, and consumable supplies — $3,000
Subtotal – Equipment, Clothing, and PPE $6,500 $4,800
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST $6,500 $35,909
Personnel – Differential Pay and Overtime. The two proposed participants (one Sergeant and one Police Officer) are existing Police Department employees whose regular salaries and benefits are already funded in the adopted budget; no new positions are proposed. SWAT pay is 2.5% of base pay, estimated at $2,381.45 annually for the Sergeant and $2,056.78 for one Officer ($4,438.23 total). SWAT pay also increases the applicable overtime rates to approximately $69.85 for the Sergeant and $60.33 for each Officer. For cost-planning purposes, the table assumes 120 annual training hours per employee outside regular shifts and eight regional callouts averaging six hours each. These are illustrative overtime assumptions, not a determination that all participation will require overtime. Training or deployments outside regular shifts can generate direct overtime. Participation during scheduled shifts removes those Item #07
employees from patrol, investigations, and other assigned duties and may require overtime to backfill staffing. Even when no backfill is authorized, the Department incurs an operational cost through reduced availability for other services. Actual overtime and service impacts will depend on scheduling, deployment activity, and minimum staffing needs.
Equipment, Clothing, and PPE. The SOP requires each agency to supply its members with specialized safety equipment that is not issued for regular patrol duties, including a ballistic helmet, entry vest, eye and hearing protection, chemical agent mask, and authorized weapons and ammunition. The Sergeant is already fully equipped, so one-time costs reflect initial outfitting of the one Police Officer only. Ongoing costs include training and duty ammunition and consumable supplies for all three participating employees. The Department will actively pursue available grants, interagency funding opportunities, and other outside funding sources to offset the cost of ballistic vests, helmets, and other specialized tactical equipment and reduce the burden on the General Fund. Potential awards will be evaluated for matching requirements, ongoing maintenance, replacement costs, and other future obligations before acceptance; outside funding is not guaranteed.
The table estimates $6,500 in initial equipment costs and $31,109 in annual SWAT-related expenditures, or approximately $37,609 in the first year under the stated assumptions. These amounts quantify the resources associated with participation; they are not equivalent to a $37,609 increase in the City budget.
Some ongoing expenses have historically been absorbed within the Department’s appropriations, while the initial equipment needs and any incremental overtime or other expenses must be evaluated against current budget capacity.
Historically, the Department has managed these costs within its operating budget, but without sufficient advance planning to identify their recurring funding and operational effects. Going forward, SWAT participation should be incorporated into the Department’s annual staffing, training, overtime, equipment replacement, and budget planning rather than addressed primarily as costs arise. Before determining whether a supplemental appropriation is needed, the Department and Finance should identify which costs are already funded or can be absorbed within existing appropriations, which are incremental, and the anticipated effect on patrol coverage and overtime. The department will make every effort to absorb costs into its existing appropriations.
Applicable expenditures would be charged to the Police Department’s salary, overtime, and special department expense accounts, as appropriate. Any funding shortfall would be brought forward through the normal budget adjustment process.
Attachments:
1) Resolution 2026-XX
2) Memorandum of Understanding – Yuba-Sutter Regional SWAT Team 3) MPD Internal SWAT Policy