Colfax Council completes rotation of officers

The Colfax City Council completed the annual rotation of officers during its first meeting of the year. Usually completed in December, the rotation was delayed due to the council facing a deadlock at the Dec. 10 meeting where a majority of public comment questioned Caroline McCully's collaborative leadership and whether a conflict of interest was present due to her involvement with Colfax Railroad Days. McCully served as mayor pro tem in 2025 and was slated to assume the mayoral position, as outlined in the city's policies. Before the rotation, the council received 24 comments, with 14 in support of either McCully or her becoming mayor. Councilmember Sean Lomen also noted 10 letters in support of McCully were submitted to the council before the meeting. The letters were not read due to the sake of time. "What stands out most about Caroline is that she cares deeply about Colfax, not in words alone but through consistent action," said Lori Koons. "She shows up. She follows through. She works collaboratively to make our community stronger, more connected and more vibrant. For these reasons, I wholeheartedly support Caroline McCully for mayor." Three comments were also received in opposition of McCully assuming the mayoral role due to her involvement with local nonprofits and allegations of unprofessional conduct. "We cannot all be lying," said Rebecca Mazzio. "I beg her to reflect on her emotional control and emotional maturity. I ask the council to remove Caroline from council as long as she wants to lead nonprofits that are requesting money from the city and as long as she continues to conduct herself unprofessionally." The remaining seven comments noted the council should follow due process to select the mayor for the year and do what is best for the city of Colfax. One commenter also raised concern about a period of suspension of the Colfax Railroad Days nonprofit and receipt of funds during that suspension period. Following comments, McCully thanked those in attendance, whether in support of or against her, as they took the time to engage in the process, and read her editorial ("Colfax councilmember issues statements regarding mayoral concerns," Auburn Journal, Dec. 27-28, 2025, page A4) into the record. Additionally, McCully confirmed the taxes were "a hot flipping mess" when she took over Railroad Days, her work with the Sierra Business Center to fix and file missed taxes and that the nonprofit was now "in good standing with the Department of Justice at this point." McCully also shared her priority on council. "What will I do? Listen and continue to bring other businesses into Colfax and bring people into Colfax and keep people connected and coming to events; I mean, those are truly my priority," she said. "Keeping both our people that are going by on (Interstate) 80 coming into Colfax, finding out that there's more to us than just that strip along 80 and enjoying our community so they come back because without revenue, yeah, we don't have a lot. We need that tax revenue. We need to be able to appeal to those individuals. And then I want the people that live here to continue enjoying and participating. Coming down to patronize the businesses, coming to events, to actually be a community." Councilmember Trinity Burruss noted the struggle of having to respect the processes the council is expected to uphold while taking the public's concerns seriously, and read a statement she shared on Jan. 3. Within her statement, Burruss noted the council should live up to its commitment to govern timely and if there are issues of criminal conduct or ethics complaints, those should be referred to the appropriate entities. "Accountability should be had if there is accountability to be had," Burruss said. Councilmember Larry Hillberg noted he raised the contradiction of the process within the city's policy at the December meeting and while the policy could not be changed that night, the focus was now on how Colfax moves forward in a positive way. After the council's deliberation, Lomen made a motion for McCully to be mayor. Burruss seconded the motion, noting it did not constitute a diminishment of the raised concerns. "We will handle those through the appropriate channels and I second the motion," she confirmed. The motion was approved in a 4-1 vote, with Hillberg submitting the vote of dissent. Lomen then made a second motion for Hillberg to be mayor pro tem. Burruss said she was not ready to second the motion as she wanted to give Hillberg an opportunity to speak on the matter. Hillberg noted there were conflicts not all were aware of and confirmed he would not share them in a public forum. "What it comes down to for me is can I deal with those conflicts and still move forward and try to do the right thing for Colfax," he said, confirming he would accept the position if selected. Burruss seconded Lomen's motion, which passed in a unanimous vote. The council then took a recess for McCully and Hillberg to be sworn into their positions. When the meeting resumed, McCully assumed her position and led the remainder of the meeting.