Who will fight crime and fire in this Sutter County town? It has a year to solve
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Live Oak ends county contracts and has one year to replace police and fire.
- Public safety spending consumes most revenue, driving a $1.9M budget shortfall.
- Officials will seek renegotiation, new contracts, taxes or mutual aid before November.
Live Oak officials have about a year to answer a question the small Northern California community has not faced in decades: Who will respond to its crimes and fires?
For years the answer has been the Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department in Sutter County, but a decision by city leaders to renegotiate and possibly cut ties with its longtime law enforcement and firefighting partners has started the clock on finding more affordable service contracts or other means to respond to emergencies.
Faced with a budget deficit of nearly $2 million, Live Oak City Council members voted in October to end the city’s law enforcement and fire response contracts with Sutter County. The cost-cutting measure leaves officials with about a year to figure out how to replace the responsibilities held for decades by the Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department.
The current services remain in effect through next November.
“Public safety is a top priority for the city, it’s just how to fiscally remain solvent and work through it,” Live Oak City Manager Ben Moody said at a town hall this week.
The current five-year contract between the Sheriff’s Office and Live Oak went into effect in July 2024, but agreements between the county and small city of more than 9,000 people date back to the 1970s.
“We’ve been doing this for quite some time,” said Sheriff Brandon Barnes at the town hall.
What’s the problem?
Money, or a lack thereof, lies at the heart of the matter.
Under its current five-year agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, Live Oak pays about $2.7 million toward the department’s $3.3 million budget to staff deputies and respond to calls in the city. The city’s agreement with the Fire Department costs it about $1.3 million.
The roughly $4 million cumulatively spent on public safety services this year accounts for the majority of the city’s $5.3 million expected income, which falls short of its $7.2 million of estimated expenses, amounting to a roughly $1.9 million shortfall.
“The problem is simple,” Moody said. “If it costs four and I only have two, either we need to cut or we need to raise revenues.”
The cost of partnering with the Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department increased by about $1.5 million over the past couple of years, said Moody, who left his job as neighboring Yuba City’s public works director in June to become Live Oak’s city manager.
Law enforcement services increased by about $800,000 in the current fiscal year, with another 5% increase beginning July 1, Moody said in an email. The cost of fire services will have risen from about $900,000, before the new contract began, to about $1.6 million next year, Moody said, not including roughly $120,000 per year the city will owe starting next year for a new fire engine.
Moody said in an interview that the city views its decision as a matter of renegotiating rather than canceling the services, and has looked at other cost-saving measures to address its financial problems.
“An option is to try to increase revenues, an option is to cut services, and an option is to contract elsewhere,” Moody said in an interview.
To increase its revenue, the city may explore potential sales tax or special assessments, either on its own or in partnership with the county, that could help offset public safety costs. A citizens initiative has started to raise taxes for the county fire district overseeing a large swath of Sutter County, including parts of Live Oak, the small town of Sutter and much of the unincorporated county.
“We’re committed to engaging our community and identifying regional solutions that strengthen public safety and support financial independence,” said Steve Smith, Sutter County administrator, in a statement. “Too often, major cities like LA, San Francisco, and Sacramento, receive most of the funding, so it’s vital that our region works together to solve shared challenges while keeping costs to taxpayers as low as possible.”
What happens if a deal isn’t reached by next November?
Short of a new contract, whether with the same partners, the city would likely have to rely on, effectively, “pay-as-you-go” mutual aid services from neighboring agencies responding to emergencies in Live Oak, Moody said, which the city would like to avoid.
“The intent would be, let’s work together and let’s figure out how to get a contract in services that we both could support,” Moody said.
Law enforcement services
The Sheriff’s Office staffs about 13 jobs dedicated to Live Oak, including seven deputies and a detective.
Where those jobs are by this time next year remains unclear, Barnes said, as the Sheriff’s Office and county officials weigh how to adjust their operations without a clear resolution in sight.
“We have a year now until we actually have the cancellation of the contract,” Barnes said. “So I’ve got to spend time during that year figuring out what to do with the staff that is assigned here to the city of Live Oak.”
Barnes said that if the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the Sheriff’s Office will continue responding to calls that are classified as essential services, including violent crimes. That classification has made up about 20-25% of the city’s total call volume in recent years, Barnes said. The remaining calls, including lesser crimes, traffic stops and civil problems, would likely go unanswered by the Sheriff’s Office.
“We have a longstanding relationship with the city,” Barnes said. “We are open to renegotiating that contract for service. But I’ll tell you, as sheriff, I have to take care of the community, I have to take care of my staff, and I have to make sure that any contract is accountable to those two things.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
