111 E. COMMERCIAL STREET
WILLITS, CALIFORNIA 95490
(707) 459-4601 TEL
WILLITS (707) 459-1562 FAX
WILLITS CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING
MINUTES
MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2026
Mayor Allman called a special meeting of the Willits City Council to order at 6:30 p.m., in Council Chambers.
Roll Call: Councilmembers Larry Stranske, Gerardo Gonzalez, Bruce Burton, Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz and Mayor Tom Allman were present.
Also present were staff members: Bob Richardson, Interim City Manager; Walter Kolon, Services and Facilities Director; and Delores Pedersen, City Clerk.
2. CLOSED SESSION NOTICE
a. Conference regarding Labor Negotiation Pursuant to Government Code §54957.6 - Agency Negotiator Interim City Manager Richardson. Employee Organization(s):
International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker (IBEW), Willits Police Officers Association (WPOA) and Employee Organizations; Management Team and Unrepresented Employees
Public Comment:
• Bear Kamoroff inquired how long the Council would be in closed session, so that the audience does not have to wait around for an hour or more. Mayor Allman could not commit to a time. City Clerk Pedersen will call those that want to be called when Council is done with Closed Session.
• Nicole Caldwell thank Interim City Manager Richardson for clarifying regarding the pay scale for the Water and Wastewater Departments. Based on the items in the packet it appeared that there would be a pay cut, which is not the case. Ms. Caldwell also addressed the Leave Buyout item, stating that she has been able to do leave buyouts since she started working for the City.
• Mark Wilson, Business Representative for IBEW Local 1245, expressed his disappointment with the lack of communication that IBEW has received from the City.
• Manual Orozco expressed his grievances and concern over the direction the City is going.
Willits City Council Convened to Closed Session at 6:40 pm.
The City Council reconvened to open session at 7:25 pm, and reported direction was given to staff.
3. Adoption of a Resolution Declaring Fiscal Emergency. • Mayor Allman asked what a Declaration of Fiscal Emergency is. Jim Lance, City Attorney explained that in the case of an unexpected or extreme emergency, including a financial emergency, City's can make a declaration and the impact of making a declaration and passing a resolution declaring a fiscal emergency, is that certain contractual obligations the City has with other parties can be relaxed. For example, if the City is in a collective bargaining contract those requirements can be waived so the City can do any reasonable and necessary thing toward the mitigation of the emergency including lay-offs and reorganization. • Andy Heath, City Financial Consultant, presented the Council with a PowerPoint Presentation of Forecast Update/Declaration of Fiscal Emergency Public Comment:
• Tamara Alaniz inquired, since the Declaration of Fiscal Emergency is only in response to the General Fund, would the City be addressing the enterprise funds budget overruns or is that going to be done in the future? Mayor Allman responded that tonight's issue is the General Fund and Measure K Fiscal Emergency.
Moved by Burton/Seconded by Alaniz and carried unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 2026-09 declaring a Fiscal Emergency Pursuant to Government Code Section 3504.5 and California Constitution, Article XII(c), Section 2(b)
4. Adoption of Resolution Approving Reorganization of City Departments in Response to the Declaration of a Fiscal Emergency, Establishing new classifications and the related classification Specifications and Pay Ranges, and Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Initiate Layoffs and Transfers, and take other necessary administrative Actions to Effect the Changes.
Deborah Muchmore, Muchmore than Consulting, explained that she had pulled the incorrect Job Description for the Water and Wastewater Plant Operator I, I and I!!. Ms.
Muchmore had included Job Descriptions from 2017. There are new ones that have been passed out to the Council and made available to the public. • Bob Richardson, Interim City Manager, presented a PowerPoint presentation to explain the Reorganization of City Departments.
• Mayor Allman commented that the City has to change. Mr. Allman stated that he is happy with the transparency that the City is going through with not just the audits and the personnel. Mr. Allman added, to the City Employees, this is not personal. Rightsizing the City is what needs to be done or we have a major discussion to dissolve the City. • Councilmember Gonzalez comments that he had a hard time sleeping this past weekend after receiving the Agenda Packet, this is something this council has known is coming The Council has been waiting for Bob Richardsons, Interim City Managers, recommendations. What is the best way to go about this, again it is not personal with any staff that is affected. The City obviously has to change the way they are doing things and probably should have been doing it sooner. Mr. Gonzalez stated that he asked plenty of times if there is money for this and that and heard yes, we are good. He has herd from a lot of folks that he should have been more cynical. Not here to point fingers, what Mayor Allman says is really important that we right the ship, move forward and that this is phase one. Mr. Gonzalez states that he would be lying if he told us these might be the only cuts the council will do. Over the next couple months, the Council will be looking at how we do things, what we are doing and what we are buying. • Council Member Stranske states that he taught a lot of the City Employees in his high school class. It is hard for Mr. Stranske to tell these employees that we are going to lose you or you are going to have to change your job with the City. This is going to be hard.
Willits City Council Special Meeting Minutes of March 9, 2026 Page 2 of 5 • Council Member Burton states that this is not new information, the previous Interim City Manager, Rob Wilburn, told the council $2.4 million in February of 2025. As a council we have held on to this system longer than he would have. Mr. Burton respects the process that the City is going through, he is of the opinion that if the City needs to adjust do it one time instead of three. Mr. Burton feels they should be looking at pay cuts across the board for all employees, redefining the benefit programs for employees. How much health insurance and the quality of it, they should also be looking at the health insurance that is provided to the City Council, being a non-essential expense. Mr. Burton continues that he feels the City should be looking to privatizing functions that are often privatized in other communities successfully. Mr. Burton feels that to try and bolster up the General Fund with a sunsetting tax does not make sense to him.
• Vice Mayor Alaniz states that he is aware that the decisions that they are making affects whole families. It never makes sense, it isn't right and you don't feel good about it. Mr.
Alaniz wants to make it clear that those receiving the layoff notices were not people that the council found at fault. Mr. Alaniz then expressed the need for new people to run for City Council; the Election is in November. The City cannot go backwards. • Mayor Allman stated that ten years from now history will look back as the decision that was started tonight was either the correct decision or the wrong one. The decision that is being made tonight is based on as much information that the council has now.
Public Comment:
• Helen Sims inquired if there would be anything other than the time accrued paid to an employee that is laid off. Mayor Allman responded that no there is no severance package. Ms. Sims inquired if any of the positions that are transferred are any of them subject to a salary reduction. Bob Richardson, Interim City Manager, responded that they have kept pretty much everyone the same but have reduced the working hours for some.
Nicole Caldwell, responded to Mr. Richardsons statement that no one said stop, she reminds council that there were multiple staff over the last couple years tried to say stop.
Including the Finance Director and other employees. The previous council and management refused to listen and ignored it. This is nothing new. The City Lawyer said that in order for a City to declare a Fiscal Emergency, there has to be an unexpected emergency, nothing here is unexpected, we all knew where we were heading for months and years, and again we tried to stop, again no one wanted to listen. When I look at the Organization Chart, there are two contract positions, one is engineer and one in Human resources, the City employees are being asked to go with issues to a contracted HR Company who is getting their paycheck from the city who will do whatever the City tells them to do. We as the employees deserve better.
• Robin Leler expressed her disappointment as what has come out. Andy Heath, Financial Consultant, presented a good program, he did not say that this justifies a Fiscal Emergency, he said this happened over a long time it is going to take years to correct the path. Mr. Leler then expressed concern over the re-organization happening so soon after passing the Fiscal Emergency. Ms. Leler wants to know why management staff was not consulted for ideas on how to cut. Ms. Leler feels that council should be talking about the mismanagement of the enterprise funds.
Manual Orozco, Finance Director, states he was not consulted on how the city could save. Mr. Orozco mentioned that he tried to bring out the 2003 Measure A, it does have an expenditure plan that has Full Time Employee's (FTE's) associated with it. Mr.
Orozco states that he gave the Measure A information packet to council for consideration but that it was not.
• Bear Kamoroff asked for clarification on the number of employees being laid off vs. vacant positions. Mr. Kamoroff then asked if there are any savings other than salaries and people being laid off? Mayor Allman responded that yes, this is just the starting point.
Willits City Council Special Meeting Minutes of March 9, 2026 Page 3 of 5 • Raghda Zacharia stated that she is impressed with the new plan, and she likes the idea of putting Measure K into reserves. She inquired about how long Bob Richardson will be the Interim City Manager. Mr. Richardson responded that he will only be here until early May. Ms. Zacharia then asked what measures will be put in place so that the City does not get in that mess again. Mayor Allman responded that it will be the responsibility of the City Council to do oversight. Ms. Zacharia inquired if Mr. Richardson had thought of shared positions. She also feels that policies and procedures should be imposed on the City Council as well.
• Eric Hart expressed concern over the change in Public Works. Mr. Hart also expressed concern over bringing on contractors for the engineer and HR positions. Mr. Hart then suggested that the City Council look into allowing residents that do not live within City limits but still live in Willits to be able to run for City Council.
Walter Kolon, Services and Facilities Director, states that the past year has been difficult for all of us. The Managers have all looked at their departments to see where changes could be made. When Mr. Kolon started, he came into an untenable position where we had lost a city engineer and two very skilled personnel. The City Managers idea was to put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) to have five engineering firms to be consultants to the City. The city had five Engineering Firms with contracts for 3 years. One firm had 15 task orders. Instead of doing the work in-house the City spent 1.5 million dollars. This made Public Works dependent on outside consultants. The Public Works staff worked hard to get out of those three-year contracts and then tried to build up the department by doing project management in-house to save money, having also brought in a highly skilled Civil Engineer. This new plan breaks this up and loses momentum and makes us rely on outside engineering. Mr. Kolon states that when Mr. Richardson started, he presented him with a written response on what can be done within the Services and Facilities Department to save money. Mr. Kolon has never received a response. Mr.
Kolon feels there has not been good communication, he feels the plan has some merit to it but that it is not ready to be voted on yet.
Moved by Alaniz/Seconded by Gonzalez and carried unanimously to adopt Resolution No. 2026-10 approving Reorganization of City Departments in Response to the Declaration of a Fiscal Emergency, Establishing New Classifications and the Related Classification Specifications and Pay Ranges, and Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Initiate Layoffs and Transfers, and take other necessary administrative actions to effect the changes.
Adopt a Resolution Approving a Policy Temporarily Limiting the Cash-Out of Leave Accrual Balances to 40 hours from March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027.
Public Comment:
Nicole Caldwell stated that the 40-hour cap with the IRS is just the vacation not the comp time, she believes the vacation time is capped at 240 hours if you are over the cap you have to take it or get it paid out. Comp Time is capped at 120 hours. Sick leave accrues bi-weekly, half of that will be paid out at separation unless you are the previous Assistant City Manager who was allowed to take it all. Ms. Caldwell pointed out some date discrepancies in the resolution that is in the packet. Ms. Muchmore clarified the correct date that should be noted
Tamara Alaniz expressed concern over the multiple updates to the Agenda Packet that were made for this meeting.
• Vice Mayor Alaniz suggested changing the allowed buyout amount from 40 to 60 hours.
Willits City Council Special Meeting Minutes of March 9, 2026 Page 4 of 5 • Council Member Gonzalez asked that the date in the Resolution be fixed on line item No. 5. The paragraph starts "Beginning in March 2028", where it should read March 2026. Mr. Gonzalez also moved to have the by-out rate increased from 40-hours to 60- hours.
Moved by Gonzalez/Seconded by Alaniz and caried 4/1 with Burton dissenting to adopt Resolution No. 2026-11 establishing a policy limitation of 60 hours on leave accrual sales from March 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027.
6. ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Allman declared the meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.
For more information on the March 9, 2026 Willits City Council Special Meeting please view le recording on You lube.
Tolen
Tom Allman, Mayor
City Council for the City of Willits
ATTEST:
Deleres Pederser
DELORES PEDERSEN, City Clerk
Willits City Council Special Meeting Minutes of March 9, 2026 Page 5 of 5