Bakery owner says city agents locked her out after she sought payment plan

Candice Oden read a statement identifying Kenlyce Auton, owner of K Sugar World, saying city agents seized her bakery’s inventory and locked the doors after she sought a payment plan to resolve about an $11,000 debt. "Once I finally found a competent accountant, we proactively contacted the city to settle an 11,000 debt," the reader said, recounting that a determination letter arrived on April 18 and that agents returned days later to lock the business and discard perishable ingredients.

The statement said staff demanded a cashier’s check for the full balance immediately and left the business unable to fulfill pending cake orders. "They let my ingredients go to the trash to rot the perishable items. They throw my stuff out. They throw me out," the speaker said. The statement called the city’s approach "a broken system that punishes honesty" and asked the council to revise laws and establish protocols to protect minority, women and Latino entrepreneurs who lack immediate access to large lump-sum payments.

The speaker described attempts to ask for a payment plan, submit paperwork and seek help from city staff and an accountant, and said those attempts were met with hostility. The public comment demanded clearer, fairer enforcement options and more notice or payment-plan pathways for small-business owners confronting administrative debts.

No council member spoke from the dais during the public comment period; the clerk had earlier reminded speakers that the council would not offer comments or responses during the half-hour comment block and that staff or members might follow up with speakers afterward.

The city council meeting record does not include any council response to the specific allegations during the public comment period. The statement concluded by urging city code and enforcement protocols be revised to avoid what the speaker described as punitive outcomes for owners seeking to resolve debts.