Soledad council adopts preliminary engineer reports, sets June public hearings for five assessment districts

The City Council voted May 20 to adopt preliminary engineer reports and declare the city's intent to levy annual assessments in multiple maintenance and benefit assessment districts for fiscal year 2026-27. Staff said the reports were prepared with consultant DTA Associates and that year-over-year changes were primarily small CPI-based adjustments.

Kuda Wekware of DTA reviewed methodology and confirmed that most changes were limited to CPI inflation adjustments or a standard 3% adjustment in a single district. Council members asked detailed questions about line items, including park acreage typographical issues, whether recycled water would change assessment charges for park irrigation and how graffiti-abatement costs are allocated when a district contains sound walls.

Where conflicts were identified (for example, certain council members had property within a district), the city attorney advised recusals; the council followed that advice and had affected members temporarily leave the chamber for related votes. Multiple resolutions (identified in the staff packet as 63-64, 63-60, 63-61, 63-62 and 63-63) were moved and approved with the council setting June 17 as the public hearing date for final determinations.

Council directed staff and consultants to clarify report details (e.g., confirm which parks will use recycled water, correct apparent acreage typos and document which costs apply to sound walls or stormwater outfalls) and to circulate corrected information ahead of the June hearings.

What happens next: The council set public hearings for June 17 to finalize the assessments and asked staff to provide corrected engineer-report details in advance of the hearings.