LIVE OAK, CA (MPG) - At the Nov. 6 meeting of the Live Oak City Council, they first held a special meeting with an update of an incident of fraudulent checks.

Finance Director James Ramsey explained that on Monday, Oct. 28, Bank of America and Golden Pacific Bank notified the city that someone was attempting to cash forged checks that included the city’s account number, logo, address and other contact information.

Staff quickly closed the account and opened a new one, and have since been updating deposit instructions with various agencies, such as the California State Controller’s Office, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), etc. In order to update the new account information with the City’s Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) account, the council has to pass an official resolution updating the names and titles of the authorized signers on the account. After the resolution has been submitted, the city will again be able to transfer funds to and from that account.

There is no fiscal impact from changing the account number, and Interim City Manager Mark Scott said, “We didn’t lose any money because of the fraudulent checks.”

Councilmember Bob Woten asked they were able to duplicate the city checks, and Finance Director Ramsey said, “Fraudsters are very creative.” They could have seen an old or canceled check, or “just taken our logo and put in on a check.” The checks were being used out of state, instead of locally, which helped flag them as fraudulent.

The council voted unanimously (with Vice-Mayor Nancy Santana absent) to approve the resolution updating the Local Agency Investment Fund account information.  

During the regular meeting, Interim City Manager Mark Scott requested the council approve a contract with Bob Murray & Associates to perform executive search services for the Live Oak city manager position.

Scott said, “As you know very well, we have had an opening for city manager for some time now. We made an effort to do an internal search and find a candidate—didn’t work out. I think this day and age it’s gotten very difficult to find city manager candidates.” So, the city interviewed three firms and identified Bob Murray & Associates as the best choice.

Once the contract is approved, Bob Murray & Associates will begin working on the brochure, placing ads and contacting potential candidates. Scott expected candidates would be brought forward for Council consideration in January, with a possible appointment to the position in February.

The contract fee for services is $17,500, plus expenses not to exceed $6,500.

“That’s a good price in this market,” said Scott.

Mayor Ashley Hernandez said, “This is a good choice for us,” and council voted unanimously to approve the contract.

Interim City Manager Scott also introduced a resolution to appoint Richard Crabtree as the new interim city manager.

“I’m very happy to make this presentation,” said Scott, because with his current circumstances, he can’t continue making the drive to Live Oak from Fresno. “I regret that I can’t do this forever. I’ve had a great time and have loved to have a chance to be a part of the Live Oak community, even for this short period of time.”

Scott said Crabtree has prior experience as the city manager and city attorney for the City of Red Bluff, as well as serving on the Paradise City Council. Scott said Crabtree is “clearly an overachiever, and I’m very happy he’s stepped up to fill this role.”

The council thanked Scott for his work with the city and for finding a candidate to step in for the transition. They voted unanimously to approve Crabtree as the new interim city manager.

Interim City Manager Scott also provided council with an update about the Business Grant Program, which allocated $572,473 of the city’s federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to support improvements to local businesses that were impacted by the pandemic. Local businesses were eligible for grants of up to $20,000 for exterior improvements and up to $10,000 for interior work—and approximately $310,203 has been expended from the fund at this point.

American Rescue Plan Act guidelines require that the funds be committed by the end of December 2024 and spent by the end of December 2025. Scott said that many of the businesses have already completed their improvements, but some are still working on their plans for the funding. The city will be asking the remaining businesses to submit their final plans by the end of the year so the funding can be spent by June 2025—giving the city time to determine how much funding will be available for reallocation to other programs before the American Rescue Plan Act deadline.

Scott said that the Business Grant Program ended up being quite difficult to navigate, so it would be difficult to hand over to the new interim city manager.

“So, I’m just going to take it through to completion, and I’m not going to charge for it. I don’t do this work for the money. … Hopefully we’ll get it done and spent well,” Scott said.

Councilmember Bob Woten said, “I think you’ve done an excellent job at trying to correlate everything and make some sense out of it. … I think it was a great program for our businesses and for our community. Because the better our businesses look, the better our community looks.”

The council all agreed that the program was a good use of funding and a good investment in the community, thanking Scott for guiding the program. 

The next meeting of the Live Oak City Council is scheduled for Nov. 20.