Live Oak City Manager Mr. Larry Sessions is being accused of theft and mismanaging funds without any facts to support those accusations. Well here are the facts not: I guess, I believe, or maybe he did this. If you really want to know what happened read on and become informed. In February of 2025, $481K was stolen from the city via a wire transfer the same as you or I would do at any bank to pay a debt, make a purchase such as property, home etc. A scammer mirrored the company receiving the payment and intercepted it undetected at first. There was a second payment in the process in excess of $200K which was halted by the finance director when the first payment account was closed, the red flags went up, payment stopped, and the Live Oak Police Department was notified and began an investigation and in turn notified the Secret Service, FBI and asked city officials to keep the information confidential while their investigation was ongoing. Captain Rountree stated the trail went through multiple banks and states until the last stop was in Chicago prior to going international and the trail went cold at that point. He stated the likely hood of finding the money overseas is next to impossible. The city insurance company reimbursed $350K. Bottom line is the city manager had no involvement in the theft; anyone claiming differently is just full of nonsense, and too lazy to go get the truth, or just wants to spread lies.
As for the $60K spent on a residence at 215 Meadows Street. I have reviewed a log kept regarding the sewer backup due to a hole that opened up in front of CVS on 129. The city manager and public works could not determine why the sewer backed up after DOT had repaired the hole not informing the city that they had injected foam which seeped into the city sewer causing sewage backups in the area. Mr. Sessions responded to the owners of 215 Meadows believing the city had caused their house to be flooded with sewage which also turned into taking multiple loads of sewage from the system by truck to prevent any further damage. The 215 Meadows house was initially cleaned and repaired by Serve-pro at a cost of approximately $7K , however the sewer issue continued and additional cost were incurred at multiple times, all well within the spending limits of the city manager. Unfortunately the cost added up to $62,104.68 before it was determined the foam injected by DOT was the culprit. No one handed the home owners $60K or wrote their self a check there are logs and documents supporting these findings all of which are public record. The city manager advised city council at the 2/10/26 meeting they could sue DOT however legal fees may exceed the reimbursement. The council took no action to proceed with legal action.
Bottom line is the city manager responded quickly by stopping any further theft by a scammer and doing what was the right thing for a citizen. Isn't that what he is supposed to do?
By Wayne F. Hannaka
Concerned Citizens of North Florida