In a swift moving meeting on Monday, Aug. 1, the Oakdale City Council set its annual assessment for the city’s Landscape, Lighting and Maintenance Districts (LLMD). Annually the council must levy the assessments for the lighting and landscaping districts to place the assessments on the county property tax billings.
Five different agenda items, with some on the council having to excuse themselves from voting due to living in the district, covered the neighborhood subdivision districts that were established to provide for maintenance of streetlights, safety lighting, and roadway and park landscaping throughout various portions of the city.
Residents in those districts pay property tax assessments to finance those services.
The largest of the LLMDs, Bridle Ridge with 999 parcels, will see its assessment rise $13 to $461.32. Burchell Hill’s 359-parcel district increases $16 to $551.64 and The Vineyard with 392 parcels will remain at $561.74 and have no increase.
A number of the city’s other areas of LLMD that consists of five different zones were voted on separately with little or no increases after shuffling on the dais with Mayor Pat Paul and Councilmen Rich Murdoch and J.R. McCarty needing to excuse themselves for conflicts for their particular neighborhood.
The Sterling Hills LLMD, a 69-parcel zone located north of Sierra Road, south of Lando Drive, east of Maag Avenue and west of Orsi Road, saw the largest increase of the group with a $58 increase bringing its annual assessment up to $200.
Finance Director Albert Avila said the Sterling Hills LLMD had reserves which had been used in previous years but was now at the point where the increase was needed.
During his presentation, Avila said the proposed assessments were at or below the authorized levels. The authorized level is the maximum amount that can be levied without a required election of the affected property owners within the districts.
No one spoke in opposition to the proposed increases.
Affected residents will see the LLMD charges on their statements from the Stanislaus County Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector.
In another move, the council set the make-up of the community interview panel for the city’s recruitment for a new police chief.
City Manager Bryan Whitemyer recommended the panel consist of car dealership owners Jeff Steves of Steves Chevrolet and Erich Haidlen of Haidlen Ford, Mary Guardiola, CEO of the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce, John McCormick, CEO of Oak Valley Hospital, and Marc Malone, superintendent of the Oakdale Joint Unified School District.
Whitemyer said the city has already received a number of quality applications that staff will filter through. He anticipates interviews to begin in about two weeks.
