This is a governance-heavy agenda dressed up as a routine August meeting. There are no public hearings. Five threads run through the 291-page packet: a twice-deferred, formally protested $616,700 citywide tree maintenance award (G.3) that will determine who operates Lodi's street-tree inventory for the next two to four years; a no-bid $115,000 consulting contract (G.2) to CityWise Strategies, LLC — the firm of Aaron Busch, Lodi's Interim City Manager through June 22, 2026; a first-reading ordinance moving City Clerk appointment and removal authority from the Council to the City Manager (G.6), introduced two days after the incumbent Clerk's last day; a single consent vote clearing a two-year backlog of 18 sets of minutes (C.1), ten of which record canceled meetings; and continued fiscal strain visible in a boiler award 57% over the Engineer's Estimate funded by draining two other capital accounts (C.6) alongside the elimination of executive CalPERS employee cost-sharing (G.5).

Also on the agenda: ratification of David Hanham as Community Development Director at $201,619.47, filling a vacancy open since February 24, 2026 (G.4); an informational report restoring Friday library service and ending Sunday hours for a net gain of four weekly public service hours at no added cost (G.1); a countywide free bus transfer pilot including Lodi GrapeLine (C.7); and recognition of Lodi as America's Favorite Small Town 2026.

The July 15, 2026 Lodi City Council meeting opens with a lengthy closed session covering the City Attorney and City Clerk recruitments plus two active lawsuits filed by former City Manager Scott R. Carney — a whistleblower/wrongful termination action and a companion Public Records Act suit. The open session moves through a Junior Giants proclamation, a certificate of appreciation for outgoing City Clerk Olivia Nashed, and a consent calendar dominated by two substantial items: TANC Project Agreement No. 3 Amendment No. 1, which zeroes out Lodi's scheduling rights on the California-Oregon Transmission Project, and a three-year $694,600 professional services agreement with West Yost & Associates for wastewater regulatory compliance at White Slough. No public hearings are scheduled.

The regular calendar features an informational presentation on Opportunity Zones 2.0 and a staff recommendation to nominate Census Tract 45.02 in place of the underperforming Tract 44.03, an ad hoc committee to advise on a Government Relations RFP, and appointment of Walfred Solorzano as Interim City Clerk at $70.41/hour. The meeting closes with the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 2048, which replaces Lodi's 2022 mobile food-vending framework with an operator-permit model but keeps the controversial food-truck caps.

The July 1, 2026 regular meeting is a light public-facing agenda built on a heavy financial foundation. There are no scheduled presentations and the closed session covers a single item: recruitment of a permanent City Clerk. The consent calendar carries the most consequential dollars — two write-off authorizations totaling roughly $3.32 million in uncollectible utility and general-billing accounts (items C.5 and C.6), alongside a no-bid power-cable purchase, a renewed Stockton fire-dispatch contract, and an environmental-remediation reimbursement tied to the downtown Central Plume.

The lone public hearing (F.1) introduces a new mobile food vending ordinance with population-based permit caps and buffer zones. The regular calendar is dominated by labor and finance housekeeping: a rewritten purchasing policy (G.1), a sweep of CalPERS cost-share reductions across bargaining units (G.2–G.6), AFSCME salary-schedule corrections (G.7–G.8), and adoption of an SB 707 meeting-disruption policy due by July 1, 2026 (G.9).

This summary covers every item across the closed session, consent calendar, public hearing, and regular calendar. It includes a dedicated section on the City Clerk transition (and the background of long-serving Clerk Olivia Nashed), an expanded item-by-item consent calendar table, and concludes with a detailed addendum analyzing exactly which departments, revenue streams, and years are driving the $3.32M write-off.

The June 17 meeting is dominated by one marquee action — adoption of the FY 2026/27 Financial Plan and Budget — set against a backdrop of tightening General Fund reserves. The all-funds budget totals $302,351,060, with a General Fund of $96,208,300 that plans a second consecutive deficit year, drawing unreserved reserves down from 39% to 27% of revenue over three years.

The closed session continues the high-profile City Manager matters that have been before the Council since 2025. The consent calendar runs 18 items, the only genuinely contested one being the tree-maintenance award (a bid protest). Public hearings cover a routine landscape-district levy, a capped 2.6% wastewater rate increase, and the annual vacancy report (7.6% citywide). The regular calendar adds a five-year homeless-shelter operator agreement with OMI and a Council-requested discussion on preventing data centers in Lodi.

The June 3 meeting opens with a 6:30 p.m. closed session on existing litigation (Scott R. Carney v. City of Lodi), then a 7:00 p.m. open session with a heavy policy load. The headline item is the public hearing to adopt the Downtown Specific Plan (DTSP) — a long-range visioning and implementation framework for downtown and the Main Street corridor east of the railroad. Two other public hearings cover the 2026-27 CDBG Annual Action Plan ($665,263 in federal funds) and the annual Military Equipment Use Policy review required under AB 481.

The 13-item Consent Calendar is dominated by professional-services contracts, led by a $2.39 million five-year energy-efficiency administration contract and a $176,268 website-hosting agreement that is actually a renegotiated savings of about $66,000. The Regular Calendar includes a $70,192 funding request from the Downtown Lodi Business Alliance and the FY 2026/27 General Fund and Measure L budget presentation (draft budget ~$96.5 million). The lone ordinance is the second reading of Ordinance No. 2047, a development agreement allowing Rogers Media to install three programmable electronic signs on city property.

Three public hearings are being set on this consent agenda for June 3, 2026: the CDBG Annual Action Plan, the Downtown Specific Plan, and the Police Department's annual Military Equipment Use Policy review. The Regular Calendar features the FY 2024/25 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (with a modified audit opinion tied to CalPERS reporting) and Part 2 of the FY 2026/27 budget series covering Enterprise, Special Revenue, and Capital Outlay budgets.

The May 6 meeting is a heavyweight transition night for Lodi. After more than a year of acting and interim leadership, the Council is being asked to install three permanent executives in one sitting: Kara Reddig as City Manager ($285,000 base, 3-year term, effective June 22), Jamie Bandy as Director of Administrative Services ($315,000 fully-burdened, effective May 12), and Bandy as City Treasurer. A fourth personnel item brings retired Vacaville economic development director Donald Burrus back to public service as a part-time annuitant under PEPRA's 180-day exception.

Beyond people, the agenda also delivers a first-of-its-kind revenue-share billboard partnership with Rogers Media (greater of $25,000 a year or 25% of net ad revenue), a same-week deadline question about acquiring the State-owned Lodi Armory, a placeholder asking whether the City should formally prevent data centers in Lodi, and the first of three FY 26/27 budget study sessions revealing a structural gap that has forced 37 deferred General Fund positions, a $1.5M cut to fire vehicle replacement, and $2.8M in department-wide reductions. The 22-item Consent Calendar is unusually heavy with end-of-fiscal-year contract resets totaling roughly $15 million.

This packed agenda features three Regular Calendar items including a forensic accounting audit report, a $1.25 million credit card convenience fee policy decision, and a vendor permit cap discussion; four presentations including three mayoral proclamations and a non-profit check presentation; and twelve Consent Calendar items totaling over $22 million in contracts and appropriations. Two Closed Session items address the ongoing City Manager recruitment and anticipated litigation.