WILLITS, CA., 3/11/26 — The Willits City Council held a special meeting earlier this week to declare a fiscal emergency for the city and announce layoffs of several employees.
On Monday, in front of a large crowd of community members, the council voted to approve a resolution declaring a fiscal emergency. The council also passed a resolution that allows employee layoffs and transfers, establishes new classifications on pay ranges, and authorizes other administrative actions to stabilize the city’s finances.
According to the resolution, the city has decided to lay off seven employees, cut 11 vacant positions, and issue more than a dozen transfer notices. Interim City Manager Bob Richardson said during the meeting that layoff notices would be issued Tuesday.
Willits City Attorney Jim Lance said that the emergency declaration typically happens when cities are facing extreme budget deficits and makes it easier for the city to make layoffs or reorganize the government.
Andy Heath, a financial consultant for the city, said that Willits is annually spending at least $2.4 million more from its general fund than it is bringing in as revenue.
Mayor Tom Allman, who said he has only served on the City Council for 15 months, said that the layoffs were a difficult decision to make.
“I can’t think of a harder decision because we are addressing people’s livelihoods, and I know every person by name, and if anybody thinks this is an easy time to be on the City Council, you are grossly mistaken. This is something that has caused many sleepless nights,” Allman said.
He said, “Right-sizing the city is either something we do … or we dissolve the city.”
During the meeting, Richardson gave a presentation outlining the status of the city’s budget and what the reorganization of city departments should look like.
“Today, the general fund is overspent, and it’s depleted. It seems to have started roughly six or seven years ago, and accelerated briefly in the last few years,” Richardson said. “Quite simply, when we look at the last several years in accelerated expenses, nobody in administration or leadership said stop.”
He said that while an immediate solution is not possible, he can give suggestions that will help the city over the next few years.
“At this juncture, I cannot provide you with a solution to the problem. What I can do is bridge the next three and a half and four years to get you to a solution,” Richardson said. He also said that the city will need to cut out almost $1.3 million in salaries and “change the way we work” to stabilize finances.
Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz said that the financial emergency is not the fault of one person and is a systemic problem.
“This is a deep-seated problem,” he added. “This is just the first step.”
There will be a Willits City Council meeting Wednesday evening and the agenda to that meeting can be found here.
The Willits City Council meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at Council Chambers, 111 E. Commercial St. Meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. Public comments can be emailed to council members or by calling (707) 459-4601.
Ultimately you “run out of other people’s money”.
I wonder if any of the 7 employees would have been willing to continue working in a part-time capacity? You might lose full-time benefits but keep your job.
Also there’s nothing about spending cuts. Maybe take the 10 most expensive items and rank order them in priority for spending, with possible cuts in all of them across the board. I’m sure they have already done this. Right? Get your spending under control and don’t even think about new taxes.
PD won’t cut their budgets. Probably the number 1 or 2 highest budgeted dept.
Willits has been on the edge of insolvency before…it’s just the times we live in.
I was thinking that also. Some small towns contract with the Sheriff’s office instead of having their own police department to save money.
It would. Not sure how well the sheriff can cover a new more densely populated area given they struggle to cover many rural areas in the county now.
City Police have a different mentality than Deputies and enforcement responsibilities involve completely different types of crimes. A city cop uses radar for traffic control and Deputies usually do not. A city cop will enforce laws in town like a trailer parked to close to an intersection or a kid riding a skateboard between people on the sidewalk. A Deputy will go by himself 75 miles into the remote areas served by a dirt road to investigate possible felony criminal activity. It takes courage to be a Deputy Sheriff.
Police and Sheriffs’ Depts are capable of doing each others jobs; the police are beholden to the elected city council directives and the deputies are beholden to the elected sheriff’s directives. Otherwise they are capable of doing the job. I think police will serve a better service than a deputy given police concerns are immediate to the city and not the whole county. Sheriffs are a bit more tied to the old wild west days and have less transparency than say a police department which is more scrutinized by it local populace via the city council.
Given the continued declining property values in Mendocino county there needs to be a property tax reassessment to align tax valuations with reality.
Ask your Assessor’s Office about a Prop 8 Appeal.