For a small town with a population of approximately 8,000, Winters is busy and thriving, with an active downtown, many fine dining establishments, two hotels, and planned residential and commercial developments on the horizon. Winters’ ability to thrive is supported by the community.

With a third of 2025 behind us, a look back at what was accomplished in 2024 informs our priorities, which are underway in 2025. The citizens of Winters decided to invest in keeping Winters the great small city it is by addressing funding shortfalls caused by the pandemic, its impacts, and high inflation over the past several years.

In August 2024, the community voted for continued investment in the Winters Fire Department by passing a Proposition 218 assessment which funded improved staffing and allowed the fire department to update equipment for firefighter and community safety. The assessment is funding the department’s ability to increase staffing with the hiring of two engineers and one firefighter.

Measure S, which the citizens approved in the November 2024 election, increased the sales tax in Winters from 7.25% to 8.25%. This sales tax increase is estimated to generate $ 1.2 million in additional revenue for Winters.

The passing of two funding measures has been the catalyst for the Council to work on prioritizing the issues we communicated to the community during the election campaign which includes attracting and retaining great staff across all departments, addressing the city’s deficit and addressing deferred equipment and capital needs that have been delayed for several years due to budget shortfalls.

These two measures are essential to the many great things you will see in the coming years as we preserve and build upon the rich Winters’ legacy.

In the past year, the Winters City Council and City Manager Jeremy Craig have worked to address operational efficiencies and staffing needs. The unstaffed positions of a building official, and senior planner were filled through an operating contract which allowed us to offer full services again and continue key studies such as the downtown vision and economic development master plans.

Winters completed a long-overdue class and compensation study. The study ensured our employees are properly classified and compensated so we retain the very best team members to serve our community. Currently, the city has a small, dedicated team that does an amazing amount of work with limited resources, so it is important that each member feels valued, is well-trained, and has all the tools to allow them to successfully serve the community.

Winters continues to be one of the safest communities in the state based on violent and property crime statistics on a per capita basis. Last year, DUI enforcement continued as a Winters Police Department priority, with 24 DUI drivers taken off our streets.

The Winters Police Department continues forward into the twenty-first century with the implementation of RiMS, a law enforcement Record Management System. The Winters Police Department is the first police department in Yolo County to go to RiMS, which is used across California. This system improves report writing and records processes, data collection, and required reporting of state and federal crime statistics as well as facilitate digital citations.

Last spring, a collaboration between the Historical Society of Winters, the UC Master Gardeners-Yolo, and the City of Winters resulted in the dedication of a monument and garden commemorating the lost Japanese community of Winters. The city government provided an area in Rotary Park, Public Works resources, and foremost, the retraction of two resolutions, still in on the books in 2024, which discriminated against people of Asian descent.

One from 1915, limited to Asian people or their descendants living within Winters, to a specific area within the city limits. The second, from 1942, requested the State of California to remove all people of Japanese descent from Winters.

The retracted, outdated resolutions were out of conformance with the Proclamation Regarding Community Values and Affirmations, approved unanimously by the City Council in 2016. This Proclamation stated that all are welcome in Winters. The Proclamation may be found on the city’s website at https://www.cityofwinters.org.

The end of last year saw the reworking of a full set of design plans for the proposed Winters Senior Center. The senior center’s story is long and will not be delved into here, however, in November 2024, the reworked plans were submitted as part of a grant application for a Community Development Block Grant to fund construction.

Without the amazing and diligent work by our city staff and our consultants the project would not have made the deadlines to apply for funding. Unfortunately, and sadly for our community, notice was received last week that our grant application was not funded by the California Housing & Community Development Department.

In early December 2024, the City of Winters participated with Winters Rotary, the Spirit of Winters, and other civic groups and citizens on the renovation of the Rotary Park Gazebo at our downtown park.

Our city continues to be resourceful and has identified and applied for multiple funding opportunities for life-saving equipment, summer internships, new police bikes, and several smaller items that have saved and will continue to save city funds and bring improved efficiencies.

The city has completed an Americans with Disabilities Act assessment to ensure that all city facilities and services are accessible to all residents, regardless of their needs. A result of our study is the construction of a new customer service center which will offer a fully accessible space for all residents to interact with City Hall and conduct their business. This is being accomplished without having to make obtrusive renovations to our beautiful, historic city hall.

Winters’ city staff has improved the city’s website with enhanced ways for citizens to communicate with the city via notifications and fillable forms in both English and Spanish. For the tracking of budgets and revenue, the city procured a new financial system, which brings our financial services and tracking into this century! It replaces a system that stopped being supported years ago.This will streamline operations and increase customer service to improve how the community conducts transactions with the city. In addition, staff completed a full upgrade of the Geographic Information mapping system aka GIS, which is now available on the city website.

To facilitate communication, the editor of the Winters Express newspaper, Crystal Apilado and Winters City Manager Jeremy Craig, hold Express Chats, every third Friday morning of each month at Steady Eddie’s Coffee House, to provide citizens an opportunity to meet, discuss and learn about local government issues.

During these chats, City Manager Craig and Editor Apilado are often joined by WJUSD Superintendent Rody Boonchoy, or our County Supervisor Lucas Freichs, as well as my fellow council members. Citizens can ask questions or discuss what’s on their minds!

Writing about the City of Winters’ accomplishments begins with thanking the entire Winters community for its investment in the city, in giving their support, involvement and trust! This spring, the City Council will create a vision for the next 5-10 years of our city’s life.

This will be born from the whole community. All will have the opportunity to voice what that vision might be. Our collective vision will be a representation not only of our community spirit and history but will point us to a bright future.

Albert Vallecillo is the Mayor of the City of Winters.