Livingston cancels meeting on releasing investigation into mayor-elect Uppal's conduct as a teen

Livingston cancelled a special City Council meeting that was set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, to decide whether to release part of a confidential investigation into Councilmember Japjeet Singh Uppal, who was elected mayor last week.

A cancellation notice posted on the city’s meetings page and dated Nov. 12 doesn’t give a reason. It replaced the meeting’s agenda on the city’s website.

The investigation looked at Uppal’s admission last year that, as a 16-year-old in 2019, he did coursework toward a police officer’s online college degree in exchange for $1,000.

What the council was going to decide

A city staff report for the meeting, prepared by Assistant City Attorney Maria Sullivan, asked the council whether to waive attorney-client and closed-session privilege and release all or part of the investigation report. Uppal posted the staff report on Instagram on Thursday. Merced Neighbors couldn’t find it on the city’s website after the meeting was cancelled.

According to the staff report:

• The city received an anonymous letter on Oct. 21, 2025, alleging that a councilmember had helped one or more police officers get online degrees by writing reports and taking exams for money, which led to higher pay.
• Uppal posted a statement on Facebook on Nov. 2, 2025, saying he had done coursework for a former Livingston police officer in the summer of 2019, when he was 16.
• The city then hired an investigator, Keith Kilmer, to look into it. His investigation is finished, and council members have reviewed the report.

The staff report recommended keeping the investigation confidential, saying that giving up the privilege carries legal risk that can’t be undone. It said the report includes confidential legal advice and closed-session material, and that it involves a former police officer whose personnel records are confidential under state law. If the council wanted to address public interest, staff recommended releasing only the report’s conclusion.

What Uppal admitted

The anonymous letter was signed “Concerned citizens from Livingston,” and Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra read it aloud at the council’s Oct. 21, 2025, meeting, The Merced FOCUS reported at the time.

In his statement, Uppal said a Livingston police sergeant who was a family friend asked him in the summer of 2019 to do parts of the officer’s online bachelor’s degree in criminal justice management, and paid him $1,000. Uppal said he felt pressure because of the officer’s age, his job as a police officer and Uppal’s own need to help support his family. He said he didn’t grasp how serious it was at the time, called it wrong, took full responsibility and apologized to Livingston residents.

The officer is no longer with the Livingston Police Department, The Merced FOCUS reported last year.

Uppal’s response

In his Instagram post Thursday, Uppal said he was unable to take part in the council’s decisions about the investigation because he was its subject. He questioned why the outgoing council scheduled the meeting days after the election, and he called its majority “the Good Ol’ Boys Club.”

He asked how much the city had spent investigating something he did as a minor and had already admitted. He wrote that the city pays the investigator $250 an hour and partners at its law firm $330 an hour. Merced Neighbors hasn’t confirmed those rates or the total cost.

He also asked why the council hasn’t investigated what he called credible allegations against another councilmember.

A document about Samra

With his post, Uppal shared a two-page document titled “Will the Good Ol’ Boys Club Investigate?” It lists complaints about Samra that its author says were raised on Aug. 19, 2024, with the city’s human resources coordinator present.

The document alleges that Samra made inappropriate comments in front of female city employees, pressured city staff and a former police chief to do him favors, and tried to influence the hiring of a police chief and a city banking contract.

The document isn’t signed or dated, and it doesn’t say who wrote it. Its author writes about deciding whom to hire as police chief and about their own performance evaluation, and says they faced retaliation after raising the complaints. Uppal wasn’t on the council in August 2024. He was first elected that November.

None of the allegations in the document has been proven. Merced Neighbors couldn’t confirm who wrote it, whether it was filed with the city or whether the city looked into it.

The election

Uppal, who has served on the council since late 2024, won the mayor’s race against Councilmember Jason Roth with about 68% of the vote, according to the Merced County Registrar of Voters’ latest count, updated Nov. 10. Mayor Jose Moran’s term ends this year.

Samra was running for re-election to one of two council seats and was in third place in the latest count, behind Parwinder Singh Uppal and Terika DeGraw. Robert Wallis ran unopposed for a shorter council term.

The results are unofficial until the county certifies them.

What’s still unknown

• Why the meeting was cancelled, and whether the council will take up the report again
• What the investigation concluded
• How much the city has spent on the investigation and on legal advice about it
• Whether the city received or investigated the complaints about Samra

Sources: City of Livingston meeting cancellation notice, Nov. 12, 2026. City of Livingston staff report for the Nov. 12, 2026, meeting and the document about Samra, both as posted by Japjeet Singh Uppal on Instagram, Nov. 12, 2026. Uppal’s public statement of Nov. 2, 2025. The Merced FOCUS, Nov. 26, 2025. Merced County Registrar of Voters, unofficial results updated Nov. 10, 2026.