01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 1
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TRINIDAD CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2026 (LIVE/HYBRID)
I. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Kelly called the live-hybrid meeting to order at 6:00pm. Council members in attendance: Kelly, Tuttle, Breckenridge, Kenny, and Waskiewicz. City Staff in attendance: City Clerk/Interim City Manager Gabriel Adams, Administrative Assistant Anton Souza, and Grant Administrator Angela Cather. Approximately (8) participants were present by video-conference, and (4) were present live at the beginning of the meeting.
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
III. ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION
1. Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation (Calif. Gov. Code Section 54956.9(d)(1)) (1 Case: City of Trinidad vs.
Tsurai Ancestral Society, et. al, Humb. Co. Sup. Court Case No. DR180684 IV. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION – No reportable action taken.
V. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Kenny recommended pulling consent 3 for discussion.
Motion (Kenny/Tuttle) to approve the agenda as submitted. Passed 5-0.
VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – 11/12/2025 cc
Motion (Kelly/Breckenridge) to approve the minutes as written. Passed 5-0.
VII. COUNCIL REPORTS/COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Tuttle: Nothing to report.
Waskiewicz: Nothing to report.
Kenny: December HCAOG meeting, presentation by California Transportation Commission, pay-as-you-use system to recoup revenue otherwise received through gas tax; mileage-based system. RHNA allocation discussed and the Board endorsed a variation of staff’s version. Regarding Trinidad, the method selected required us to build 3 units for acutely low-income, 4 for extremely low, 3 for very low, 5 for low, 2 for moderate, and 10 for moderate income for a total of 27 units for the next cycle. Very optimistic what jurisdictions can do.
Breckenridge: Summarized the November RREDC meeting, and noted Waskiewicz will be taking over this role moving forward.
Kelly: Attended Mayor Cities Select Committee. Kimberly White (Arcata Mayor) appointed to LAFCO. Also attended quarterly Hazardous Materials Response Authority meeting.
VIII.PUBLIC SAFETY REPORT – City Manager & Law Enforcement HCSO Lt. McCall summarized November and December stats. Interim City Manager Adams echoed the low call volume from these months, and thanked the City’s public safety team (HCSO and Pacific Coast Security) for proactive service to this community.
IX. ITEMS FROM THE FLOOR. – NO ITEMS PRESENTED
(Three (3) minute limit per Speaker unless Council approves request for extended time.) X. CONSENT AGENDA
1. Financial Statements – October/November 2025
2. Law Enforcement Report – November/December 2025.
Motion (Kelly/Waskiewicz) to approve the consent agenda as submitted. Passed unanimously.
XI. DISCUSSION/ACTION AGENDA ITEMS
1. Update/Discussion regarding the January 03, 2026, Scenic Drive Water Main Leak and Water Shortage Emergency Status.
01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 2
Interim City Manager Adams explained that the purpose of tonight’s discussion is to present a full account of the water leak incident and response, with technical and operational staff present to provide a post-incident summary, current status update, help answer questions, and receive feedback that will help guide future decisions regarding the water system.
Staff present and available to help respond to questions included; City Manager Gabriel Adams (Management/Outreach)
City Engineer Steve Allen (Technical)
Contract Chief Plant Operator Eric Sanders (Regulatory) Public Works Supervisor Kyle Shipman (Operations)
The water main service line break that occurred on a problematic section of Scenic Drive during the overnight hours on January 03, 2026 rapidly drained the storage tanks (nearly 400,000 gallons of potable drinking water) and triggered the first Boil Water Notice issued by the City in over 20 years. The impacts of this event were significant and disruptive to the community. The incident further emphasizes ongoing concerns about the vulnerability of a small water system challenged by increasing costs, regulatory, and environmental pressures.
The discussion is intended to open the conversation with the Council and community, provide access to management, technical, and operational staff for questions, capture feedback, identify areas that can be improved, and recognize how staff response and community support helped rebound from a water shortage emergency.
LEAK LOCATION, TIMELINE, DETAILS
With a significant rain event forecasted, water treatment production was shut down by staff at approximately midnight on Saturday, January 03, with the 400,000-gallon storage facility at 90% capacity. Water department staff began receiving alarm calls from the plant shortly after 3:00am warning of storage/distribution system issues. The first emails/calls/texts received from customers nearest the tank elevation were received shortly after 5:00am when their water pressure began to drop. This trend continued until the pressure drop reached Main Street just before 8:00am. City staff mobilized and immediately began troubleshooting and analyzing the information available. Trinidad Rancheria staff contacted the City Manager at 7:00am to report a leak observed near a hydrant near 824 Scenic Drive.
Based on the information gathered, approximately 72,000 gallons of water were lost per hour over a 5-hour period, beginning sometime after 2:00am Saturday morning. Water service was reported out completely in parts of the distribution system highest to the tank elevation. Pressure drops were reported on Main, Trinity, and Edwards Streets.
STAFF RESPONSE & RECOVERY
Public Notification: Staff began implementing the Water Shortage Contingency Plan as soon as the incident severity was realized. Public Works isolated the leak and began assessing production challenges.
Management began implementing the communication and emergency response notification systems (website, phone calls, email lists, social media outlets).
Potable Water Trucking: Potable water trucking services were dispatched at 11:00am and a convoy of four, 1650-gallon capacity vehicles operated by Puryear Water Delivery and Norcal Water began shuttling water from the McKinleyville Community Services District (Humboldt Bay Municipal Water), direct to the City’s water storage tanks. They operated non-stop for four days with their last loads delivered on Tuesday when the tanks reached approximately 7’ in elevation (of the 18’ height peak).
Water Plant Production/Treatment: Extremely turbid water flowed through Luffenholtz Creek following a series of potent storms Saturday-Monday, slowing treatment and production, significantly to approximately 20,000-gallons per day. Treatment and production improved steadily as the storm passed and the creek cleared, increasing production to approximately 65,000-gallons per day from Tuesday on, relieving the city from its reliance on the trucking companies. By Friday the tanks reached 55% capacity. 01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 3
Staff Impacts: Public Works and City Management worked round the clock starting with the first sign of trouble early in the morning Saturday. All four shift operators rotated plant duty every 5-hours, 24-hours per day through Saturday when operations stabilized and storage capacity reached 65%.
Coordination and distribution of Boil Water & High Turbidity Notices took a team of five people approximately six hours to execute, from drafting, duplicating, preparing, and delivering. The Mayor, Mayor Pro-Tem, and a third Councilmember joined public works and administrative staff in a door-to-door distribution campaign that lasted approximately 4-hours.
Daily updates were provided on the City website through an emergency alert notification, and red banner directing visitors to a page dedicated to the emergency. Leak repair status, water storage recovery progress, and boil water notice outreach was provided. Push notifications sent for messages of significance; 1) Notification of Emergency, 2) Boil Water Notice, and 3) Boil Water Notice lifted.
FISCAL IMPACT // TRUCKING
Saturday, January 03: 30 Loads 49,950 gallons delivered $5,400.
Sunday, January 04: 27 Loads 44,145 gallons delivered $4,860.
Monday, January 05: 31 Loads 50,685 gallons delivered $5,580.
Tuesday, January 06: 16 Loads 26,160 gallons delivered $2,880.
Total: 104 Loads 170,940 gallons $18,720
FISCAL IMPACT // LEAK REPAIR
The city has not yet received an invoice from GRS for the emergency repair. The preliminary estimate is approximately $10,000.
COMMUNITY / BUSINESS IMPACTS
Reports were received from businesses that single-use (disposable) items were used in place of dishware to minimize water use during the shortage. The Humboldt County Department of Environmental Health sent officials to Trinidad on Saturday to confirm adequate hot water temperatures required for food handling, and to verify methods used by restaurants to reduce water consumption were not compromising public health.
The Boil Water Notice, however, prompted County Health Officials to notify restaurants and the Trinidad School to close. The ripple effect of this impact was significant. Preliminary estimates calculate taxable prepared food sale losses during the 2-day closure to be in the tens of thousands. Employee wages were also lost.
Council questions included:
Kelly: Thanked Public Works and Rancheria staff for their emergency response.
Tuttle: How would this situation had been different if we were connected to Humboldt Bay Municipal Water? Adams stated he spoke with HMBWD General Manager Michiko Mares during the emergency, an in anticipation of this question coming up post-incident. Mares mentioned the tanks would have been refilled much more rapidly, that the 24/7 staff oversight of the pumps and distribution system would have likely captured the pressure irregularity instantly and responded with either increased supply and/or boots on the ground, and that the segment of pipe along that stretch of Scenic may be unnecessary if the Rancheria and City had independent supply connections.
Breckenridge: Astonished with the efficiency of communication and commitment by staff in response to this emergency. How much did the water lost cost to produce? 01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 4
Adams explained the price per gallon of water produced requires a calculation he doesn’t have, but there could be additional unknown costs if we discover any damages that are a result of the water flooding downslope from the leak location to private property.
Kenny: Was the pipe break due to the geologic instability of the location, or due to the material of pipe and internal pressure? Can flexible pipe be used? Can both tanks drop at the same rate? Is there a way we avoid losing both tanks in the future?
City Engineer Steve Allen noted this area along Scenic Drive is unstable. The Rancheria is proactively working on a project to stabilize a road segment. The amount of stress on the pipe as a result of the instability is not perfectly clear, but may very well be related. An emergency bypass line was installed when another segment of road failed in 2024. HDPE, PVC with constraints, or ductile iron are all alternative pipe materials worth looking into, but there’s no magic flexible pipe that is immune from failure. Infrastructure will continue to be compromised by the instability of that area. The tank levels are equalized. We have had internal discussions with staff about running power to the tank site to automate things such as valves, but haven’t identified a funding source. A manual valve exists between tanks that could be closed to prevent water from draining completely, but ideally you isolate only the section leaking – not the main tank supply - and prevent the entire customer base from being out of water. The challenge is finding a leak in the distribution system and understanding what and how fast it’s happening, especially in the middle of the night. There are also situations such as a fire, where you wouldn’t want an automated valve shutting off your supply.
Kenny: Questions about the water department alarm system. Someone gets a phone call when it goes off? T3 Chief Plant Operator Eric Sanders explained that the Verbatim Alarm Dialer is a basic alarm system connected to the phone system with several alarm channels available. When it calls out, it tells you what the channel is and a brief description. Pressure, chlorine, turbidity… the basic Title 22 Drinking Water regulations.
It calls out on a loop until the call is acknowledged. Once the condition changes, it will restart the call rotation until someone acknowledges the abnormality. The operator uses their key pad to acknowledge the alarm. It’s a rudimentary system that many plants – at least half that I know of – use. The alarm was answered by an operator. Multiple operators may have responded since several alarms were triggered through the early morning hours. Nuisance alarms or real alarms have to be checked. There is no data collected by the machine, but Water Operators may be able to say in more detail what happened.
Kyle Shipman, Public Works Supervisor
I was not on call that night, but the first call was “tank level low” around 3:00am. This alarm often resolves itself when the tank automatically starts up. The second call around 3:30am was “distribution flow rate high”, which is the one we don’t want to see. By the time we wrapped our heads around it, find, and isolate the leak it just after 7:00am.
Kelly: This was a good review of what happened. One of the things we can talk about down the road is to improve our emergency communication system.
Tuttle: Was the Trinidad-Westhaven Intertie active at this moment? Adams explained that the project was within a week of activating, but not ready to activate as the construction deadline was January 15. Regarding production, the MOU calls for 20-30k gallons per day. On a good day Trinidad consumes approximately 50K gallons per day, so even at peak function it may not be very effective.
We were able to get that same amount of water in 5 hours from the water delivery companies.
Kelly: We covered the root cause, and understand there’s a long-term plan for the Scenic Drive distribution system. We talked about redundancy, communications, and fiscal strategy. There’s a turbidity bottle-neck. Is there a capital improvement path to help improve this?
Steve Allen explained that the most recent project to address this happened in 2014. Eric Sanders may have some additional suggestions that can be reasonably implemented. 01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 5
Eric Sanders, CPO/T3 explained that the turbidity exceedance notice was issued because of the fact that the backwash system isn’t large enough. The water plant is usually offline during the big storm events – when the source water is extremely muddy. In order for staff to treat the highly turbid water, adjustments had to be made with the chemical feed system. The highly turbid, treated water was sent directly into the distribution line between the plant and storage tanks. Normally that batch of water would have been pushed into the backwash tank for later recovery and treatment. The first thing I’d recommend is to add a second backwash tank and upgrade the chemical feed with a heavier coagulant that can handle more turbid water. This could be completed for $50-60k to ensure emergency water can be treated during heavy storm events. There’s a host of other things - new storage in other areas, extra distribution loops, intertie with Humboldt Bay, or a complete plant upgrade or replacement. In 10-15 years this plant will be in need of significant replacement. It works well, but it is 1960’s technology. There are new technologies out there that are relatively inexpensive ($200-300k) for a 100-150gpm treatment plant.
Public comment included:
Jacque Hostler-Carmesin – Trinidad Rancheria
Appreciative of the work that your staff did during the event. Trinidad Rancheria has put out to bid an emergency Scenic Drive repair project to improve the failing area shown in photos tonight. We will be improving the road with a soldier pile wall to stabilize the roadway. No improvements to the water line are included. What we know is that the roadway is actively moving. It is not surprising that stress in this area was responsible for this leak. Also hoping for an update on the ALMT.
Anita Thompson – Trinidad
Thanked everyone so acting so quickly. The weather was horrible Saturday – wind, rain, etc. I felt badly for everyone involved. Special thanks to Public Works for working around the clock. Also appreciate the City Manager for transparency and bringing in the experts, and “what if” analysis. Witnessed the downtown fire last Saturday in Arcata, and I’m also a survivor of the Camp Fire. I appreciate the City Manager’s reminder to not only be water-wise, but also fire-wise in the outreach sent during the emergency.
Council comments:
Waskiewicz: Question about how many commercial vs. residential hookups. Adams explained that he would review the rate study and provide a response.
Kelly: Support the local restaurants this week and help them recoup their losses. We should also remember to utilize our CERT team during emergency situations like this.
Information item only. No decision was made.
2. Update/Discussion regarding the Axel Lindgren Memorial Trail (ALMT) Repair, Coastal Commission CDP Appeal Status; Agency Roles, Procedure, & Progress.
Interim City Manager Adams explained that the purpose of this discussion is to provide information and context to the Council in response to questions that have come up during this process that began back in September when the Coastal Commission took jurisdiction over the project by upholding the appeal filed by the Tsurai Ancestral Society and Yurok Tribe.
City Planner Trever Parker explained that this isn’t a straightforward process. The appeal is complicated by the fact that this is a closure of a public trail. The current process is the most efficient at this point. Coastal Commission has taken the role as facilitator. We’re looking at a phased reopening plant that is similar to what the Council approved in May, but with the difference being the first phase as a partial reopening, and phase two rerouting the bottom to the traditional path requiring slope stabilization. Commission staff want to permit both phases with responsibilities and requirements to ensure the process continues.
Council questions included:
Kenny: Presented photos and argued that the current trail condition landing on the beach is not much different than many other coastal trail access points in our area. The fences should come down and the trail should be open. Trail immunity protects the City from injuries that occur on trails. 01-13-2026 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 6
Kelly: I believe we discussed this, and the city determined the trail was unsafe – at least based on engineering solutions that have been presented (cable steps, etc.). I don’t agree with Kenny about the trail being in a safe condition. Are all the stakeholders aligned on this phased concept? We have the options of continuing down the path or to pulling the application, but tonight’s discussion is focused on gaining more information about the status.
City Planner Parker noted that the TAS is very opposed to reopening the trail in its current alignment.
City Engineer Allen confirmed that he has not made any safety assessment, but those questions should be presented to the City Attorney and/or Insurance provider.
City Manager Adams explained that the ALMT working group is still trying to reach a consensus on the improvements needed that satisfy the TAS.
Melissa Kraemer – Coastal Commission
The staff report is informative and does a good job laying out the status. We have a pending application from the City before the Commission, and requires more information before it is ready to be brought to a hearing. We’re in the process of facilitating this process. More detail on the realignment is needed. We would like to permit both phases, and see the trail opened in a way that’s safe and protects resources. Your Council decided in November not to direct up to $10k in resources for the City Engineer to begin developing the traditional trail plan.
This was not a request from the Commission.
Kenny: The Coastal Commission doesn’t seem interested in our offer to provide $10k in exchange for resolving the appeal.
Kelly: This is an informational item for discussion. No decision was expected. The City can revisit the application status (continue or withdraw) and $10k conditioned approval in a future agenda item, possibly in February or March.
Information item only. The Council may choose to revisit this in February or March.
3. Presentation/Annual Update from the Trinidad Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Informational item only, with the presentation led by CERT volunteer Larry Goldberg.
4. Staff Activity Report – November/December 2025
Presentation item only. Interim City Manager Adams provided a detailed summary of staff activities in November/December, included in the meeting packet. No decision was made.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
ADJOURNMENT: 8:45pm.
Submitted by: Approved by:
_____________________________ _____________________________ Gabriel Adams Cheryl Kelly
Trinidad City Clerk Mayor