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Caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, the Chico City Council on Tuesday (Feb. 17) did an about-face on the issue of annexing the Chapman and Mulberry neighborhoods.

In November, in one of its last actions, the outgoing, post-election council narrowly voted, 4-3, not to have then-Mayor Scott Gruendl sign an agreement the city earlier had negotiated with the Butte County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo). The agreement would have led to annexation of the neighborhoods in five years.

Well, that was then, this is now. Gruendl is gone, and the council has two new members (Reanette Fillmer and Andrew Coolidge) who support annexation.

In addition, Councilman Randall Stone, who voted against annexation in November, had a change of heart. It was Stone who asked for the matter to be reconsidered, and it was he who subsequently spearheaded a community meeting held earlier this month at Chapman Elementary School. Judging by neighborhood residents’ comments made at Tuesday’s council meeting, that outreach had reassured them somewhat that the city cared about them and that annexation wasn’t the end of the world.

“I think [the meeting] was a great help to many of us in the neighborhood to understand the issues,” Ron Angle, a Chapmantown resident since 1990, told the council.

Besides, the city had no choice. Soon after it voted in November not to sign the agreement, LAFCo threatened to file a lawsuit demanding full payment for some 62 sewer connections, about half of them in Chapman/Mulberry, the city had allowed without getting LAFCo’s approval, as required by state law. The suit threatened to cost the city $100,000 or more, not counting attorney fees.

Community Development Director Mark Wolfe acknowledged, as he has done several times before, that the city was wrong not to follow correct procedures. “It’s not a pretty sight to look back at these things,” he said.

As Mayor Mark Sorensen pointed out, it’s LAFCo’s job to make sure jurisdictional boundaries are efficient and cost-effective. Having islands of county land surrounded by the city, as is the case with Chapman/Mulberry, makes no sense.

Wolfe said LAFCo has offered to settle the unauthorized-hookups issue separately from annexation, but that’s not in the city’s best interest. It would inevitably lead to piecemeal and, in all probability, faster annexation of the neighborhoods.

“If we don’t sign the agreement, LAFCo will move within a year,” Stone said. “This way we have five years to make sense of the process and establish our finances so that we … can satisfy the public-safety needs” of the neighborhoods.

Stone said it would cost the city $600,000 a year to provide services to the neighborhoods and their estimated 1,300 residents. There is disagreement on the figure, however. Another estimate is $400,000, while a study done by the county in 2013 says the net cost will be minimal.

The vote was 5-2, with Councilwomen Ann Schwab and Tami Ritter dissenting. “I’m very upset that we didn’t stand by our promise that we would let them decide when to annex,” Schwab said.

Gen. Vang Pao is getting bigger—his statue, that is.

Last October, vandals did irreparable damage to the memorial statue of the late general, the leader of the Hmong in America. The local Hmong community had paid for and placed the statue outside council chambers in 2011. This week, Hmong leaders asked the council to approve plans for a new, significantly larger statue, one that included an American flag and was less vulnerable to vandalism. They’ve raised the funds to pay for it.

Their preference was to have it be placed on the main patio in front of council chambers, not in its original location next to the stairs facing Main Street. County Supervisor Larry Wahl, a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, told the council, “There’s really no better place in Butte County than here in front of the council chambers.”

The council didn’t agree. Coolidge said moving the statue sent the message to vandals that the city could be pushed around. And Vice Mayor Sean Morgan said, “[A] larger statue right out the front doors … I’m not sure that speaks to the entire community.”

In the end the council voted unanimously to place the new, larger statue where the original statue was located.