LIVE OAK, CA (MPG) - Live Oak City Council members at their July 17 meeting considered the assessment of liens against delinquent homeowners’ properties to collect overdue costs for refuse collection services by Recology Yuba-Sutter.

Notifications were sent to renters and/or owners of the properties with delinquent accounts and account holders were also informed of this public hearing, so they had an opportunity to either dispute the charges or pay them before the liens are assessed.

By the meeting date, 191 units were still delinquent, with a total of $46,977.35 for collection.

During Public Comment on this item, a resident said it was unfair to put a lien on rental properties, because it was the renters and not the owners who accrued the overdue charges. He said the renter should be sent to collections, rather than going after the property owners.

City Council voted unanimously to approve the lien assessments for unpaid refuse collection.

Council also considered the assessment of liens against property owners with overdue utility charges, unpaid fire protection fees or charges owed to the city. For this item, the delinquent accounts were also notified of the charges and the public hearing.

By the meeting’s date, four properties had outstanding charges for a total overdue amount of $1,855.54.

City Council voted unanimously to approve the lien assessments for unpaid utility charges.

Interim City Manager Mark Scott provided a report on the recent enforcement against illegal fireworks over the Fourth of July holiday. Officers from the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office patrolled in Live Oak and responded to many calls for service, issuing a dozen citations and making one arrest.

Fireworks are a significant cause for fires, so weed-abatement efforts were implemented in the city to mitigate that danger, and the Sutter County Fire Department reported no fires within city limits on July 4th.

“Things actually went quite well here,” said Scott. “There was a great effort and a great outcome.” But Scott also recommended that the Council consider updating their policy to increase the fines against homeowners for each offense of illegal fireworks at their property.

Councilmember Bob Woten said it was “a terrific report of a job well done.”

Vice-Mayor Nancy Santana said, “Law enforcement did a great job. I feel like we’re making progress.” But she said there is still a massive number of illegal fireworks set off in the city: “It’s still way out of control.”

Mayor Ashley Hernandez agreed that City Council should consider updating the fines. While residents have the right to celebrate with fireworks, Hernandez said, they need to do so responsibly.

Interim City Manager Scott asked for City Council to begin considering a policy to guide the pursuit of code enforcement problem cases within the city. He said residents often report neglected or abandoned homes, which are a cause of blight, safety issues and decreased property values. The city’s Code Enforcement issues warnings, citations and abatement orders to the owners of neglected properties, but if those are ignored, the city’s only recourse is to take the issue through the court system. However, that is a time-consuming and expensive process, and if the city succeeded in court, they might end up with ownership of the property in question and thus the financial responsibility of demolishing the home. Scott asked the council to examine the issue and find a way to determine which cases should be escalated to the courts.

“This is a complicated issue,” said Scott. “There’s the issue of how do you set council policy? How do you make sure it’s a fair and equitable policy? What kind of money do we want to budget for this kind of work? And then what do we do with it when we get there?”

Scott said it was important to find “approaches that actually look at identifying not only the problem but the solution.”

Vice-Mayor Santana said, "I think we need to get more aggressive. We need to take care of our city.”

Santana suggested prioritizing the ones that have been a problem for many years since they cause an ongoing safety issue for surrounding homes.  Santana also mentioned that the city owns approximately 55 properties, so perhaps some of those could be sold to help cover the legal costs and then, if approved by the courts, the cost to demolish these abandoned homes.

Hernandez said, “It’s going to be a multilevel approach.” She said it would be important to discover the value of the properties in question, since they might have other liens against the property already, in which case the City might not be able to recover the invested costs if they pursue a court case. Hernandez suggested looking for programs or grants to help the owners resolve the issue without escalating to the courts, since that could be more cost effective for the City.

Interim Manager Scott advised City Council not to rush into the idea of selling off their real estate assets. He said that selling surplus government properties can be a long process, and it would be important to evaluate all the properties’ potential future values before making that decision. Scott said he did not expect resolution on this issue at this meeting, but just wanted the Council to begin thinking about establishing a future policy.

The council also received an update about the possibility of funding a school resource officer for Live Oak schools. Scott said that Live Oak Unified School District reacted positively to the idea and offered to pay 50% of the officer salary as well as 50% of maintenance for the officer’s vehicle. However, they won’t pay toward the vehicle purchase. Scott said, “It’s a great offer,” so if Council agreed, he would move forward with drafting a contract to bring back to Council for consideration at a future meeting.

Councilmember Lakhvir Ghag said, “This is a really good deal for our students.”

The next meeting of the Live Oak City Council is scheduled for Aug. 7.