Message from the City Manager

Published on August 14, 2023

I hope you are enjoying the summer so far.  I actually caught Covid while on vacation in July, so please be aware that it is not gone and keep your guard up.

During my discussion in last month’s update on the budget, I mentioned that Council had authorized a significant increase in police officer pay due to the continued loss of officers to other jurisdictions paying more.  I’m very happy to report that we recently had four new officers start, including one lateral officer, so we are back on track to having a fully staffed department once these new recruits have competed their training.

July was significant for several other reasons:

• The Highway 12 Landscape Improvement Project began the week of July 10^th.
• Senate Bill (SB) 1 road improvement projects also began the week of July 10^th.
• The Suisun City Mobility Hub project began construction in July.
• The Downtown Suisun City Farmers’ Market began July 15^th.
• Take 5 Oil Change opened in July.
• Cllaimm Academy Childcare Center opened in July.
• The Lawler Residences (luxury apartments) opened in July.

In addition, the annual 4^th of July celebration on the Waterfront was a resounding success!  Thank you to all who attended and all those city employees who had to work to put on the event and ensure safety for all who attended.

One of the biggest challenges that we face in Suisun City is dealing with homelessness.  It is an increasing issue primarily because we lack the resources to provide alternatives for the homeless and because the laws around homelessness do not give cities many options.  I will go into this in more detail in a future update, but I wanted to highlight a recent small victory.  The City has been in litigation with a property owner regarding the property at Railroad and Sunset.  Over the last year it has become a haven for homeless.  Our litigation finally settled and the City now owns a portion of that property.  After additional legal due process provided to the owners of an RV illegally parked on the property now owned by the City, we were successful in having the Sheriff’s Office evict the squatters and we had the RV towed off the property on August 9th. 

The Sheriff’s Office also evicted the other individuals illegally squating on the privately owned property.  We are in the process of fencing the City’s property to permanently keep people off that property. 

On August 10^th, we participated in an appeals hearing with the property owner regarding their appeal of the code enforcement actions we have filed against them.  We will be anticipating the results of that hearing and will hopefully be able to take additional actions to have that property cleaned shortly thereafter.  Stay tuned for more updates on this, although it is likely to be an ongoing problem as the property owner and their attorney so far do not seem very agreeable to addressing the issues on their property.

To read more please click on the full report below: 

City Manager Report - July 2023(PDF, 5MB)