WILLITS, CA., 11/13/26 — Davey Bowles stood up Tuesday night to ask the Willits City Council to declare an emergency, and he started by saying there wasn’t one.
“This is actually a preemptive declaration,” said Bowles, the public works director who is serving as acting city manager. “There is no current emergency. We’re just preparing for it.”
The council voted 4-1 to proclaim a local emergency for what the resolution calls “the developing 2026–2027 El Niño event.” The resolution calls the El Niño, in the Pacific Ocean, “strong and likely historic.” It says the El Niño and the winter storm season may be more than the city can handle with its normal operations.
Bowles told the council that the state and Mendocino County have already declared emergencies. The governor proclaimed a statewide emergency Sept. 21, according to the resolution.
The vote doesn’t spend any money. “There is no fiscal impact,” Bowles said. “This doesn’t guarantee us money. This doesn’t guarantee us additional resources.” He said it would save the city time on paperwork if a storm does hit.
A city staff report says getting ready may mean buying equipment and supplies and putting them in place, lining up contracts and calling in workers before severe weather. The council has to review the emergency and end it as soon as conditions allow.
Mayor Tom Allman said acting early “will save us weeks and hopefully dollars” when the city deals with the federal government.
One council member objected before the vote. “I just can’t do it, guys,” he said in the meeting video posted by Willits Community Television. “It just seems ludicrous.”
Allman answered that the state and the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors had done the same thing. “They’re not my model,” the council member said.
Council member Bruce Burton cast the only no vote. Allman, Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz and council members Gerardo Gonzalez and Larry Stranske voted yes. Allman said Point Arena has passed a similar declaration, and that he believes Fort Bragg has too.
Garbage rates wait until December
The council put off a decision on garbage bills. Redwood Waste Solutions Inc. has asked for a 4.44% rate increase on all Willits accounts starting Jan. 1, 2027. Allman said the council couldn’t take it up because supporting documents were left out of the agenda packet and weren’t posted online.
The staff report lists the rate for a 35-gallon cart going from $35.99 to $37.59 and for a 95-gallon cart from $97.59 to $101.92. The report doesn’t say what period those rates cover. Redwood Waste Solutions says on its website that it bills residential customers monthly.
$1.5 million for business loans
Willits has won $1.8 million from the state’s Community Development Block Grant program, said Dusty Duley, the city’s community and economic development director. Of that, $1.5 million will go to loans for local businesses, to create and keep jobs for people with low and moderate incomes. The other $300,000 will pay for planning and early design of a new Mendocino Community Health Clinic medical campus. Duley said it’s planned for the site of the old Howard Hospital.
The council voted 5-0 to hire Community Development Services of Kelseyville to run both grants for three years, for up to $170,850. “Not $1 comes out of the general fund,” Duley said. The firm’s fee comes out of the grant.
Businesses may not have to pay the loans back. Duley said an earlier city loan program, set up with one-time COVID money, forgave loans when a business kept its workers. He said staff expects to propose setting up the new loans the same way. “They would be forgivable loans,” he said.
The firm’s proposal calls for closing up to 12 loans between Jan. 1, 2027, and Dec. 31, 2028.
Housing plan
The council also hired the consulting firm PlaceWorks for up to $48,095 to help update the housing element, the state-required plan showing where homes can be built. The new plan is due Aug. 15, 2027. Without one, Duley said, the city can lose its chance at grants like the one for business loans.
“The state very much has teeth in this matter,” he said.
Duley said the plan won’t fix what builders tell him is the problem: the cost and availability of labor and the cost of materials.
Tuesday was the last full meeting for Burton and Stranske, Allman said. Two new members take office next month. The council next meets Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m., when the garbage rates will come back on the agenda.