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Lakeport Police logs: Saturday, Jan. 10
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
00:00 EXTRA PATROL 2601100001
Occurred at Lake County Law Library on 3D....
Clearlake vice mayor submits resignation due to family move out of county
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Due to her family's decision to leave Lake County, Clearlake's vice mayor is resigning her seat on the city council.
Gina Fortino Dickson, whose term expires at the end of this year, handed in her resignation letter to the city clerk on Wednesday, according to City Manager Greg Folsom.
“It is with a heavy heart that I tender the resignation of my post as elected council member. My final date of service will be Aug. 12, 2016,” Dickson said.
“The news was very disappointing to hear because we have had such a wonderful council to work with since I started last year,” said Folsom. “Gina has been a great advocate for the community for many years and will leave some big shoes to fill.”
Fortino Dickson told Lake County News that her son has been accepted to a high tech high school focusing on science and math that is located at Sonoma State. He starts school a week after her resignation date.
Because of her son's educational opportunity, Fortino Dickson said her family moved to Sonoma County in April.
Since then, Fortino Dickson said she has been splitting her time between Clearlake – where she has to live more than 50 percent of the time to remain on the council – and Sonoma County.
She said her goal had been to finish out her term. However, the commuting back and forth and the attempt to manage her family's transition while continuing her council responsibilities has pulled her focus both from her work on the council and her family, she said.
“It's just become more and more difficult,” she said.
Fortino Dickson's resignation comes about four months after Denise Loustalot announced she was leaving the council because she had moved to a new home just outside of the city limits, as Lake County News has reported.
To choose Loustalot's successor, the council went through a recruitment process that included advertising the position, vetting several applicants through an ad hoc committee and ultimately having the council select a new member during a regular meeting.
That led to the appointment of Nick Bennett, a retired Clearlake Police sergeant, in May.
As for how the council – which meets Thursday night – might approach filling this newest vacancy, Folsom said the council has several choices, including selecting one of the candidates who came forward for Loustalot's seat, holding a brand new recruitment or leaving the seat open until the November election.
The city will hold a municipal election in concert with the presidential election on Nov. 8. Along with Fortino Dickson's seat, the seats currently held by Bennett and Joyce Overton also will be on the ballot. The candidate filing period opens next week.
Fortino Dickson is a longtime resident of the city of Clearlake and a graduate of Lower Lake High School.
She had been a member of the Clearlake Planning Commission for five years prior to her election to the City Council in 2012. She is in the middle of her second term as vice mayor.
“Serving with Gina has been a pleasure and I am going to miss her knowledge and advice,” said Mayor Russ Perdock. “I know she has important family matters to attend to and I wish her all the best.”
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Supervisors put off accepting sunken crane abatement agreement to consider possible interest
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A decision on an agreement to repay the county for abating a sunken construction crane five years ago will wait another week due to the Board of Supervisors asking a county officials for additional information at Tuesday's meeting.
The board had held over since June 14 a decision on the agreement with Martin Scheel, who formerly worked as a contractor on the lake, and who now is a member of the Lakeport City Council and a candidate for the District 4 supervisorial seat.
The crane went into the lake during a storm in November 2010, and months later the board voted to have it abated after Scheel indicated he did not have the means to remove it himself, as Lake County News has reported.
The abatement cost the county $59,945.07. Scheel signed the crane over to the county, which recouped $4,039 by selling it for scrap.
Last month, the board held off on making a decision on the agreement – which calls for biannual installment payments of $2,795.30 over a 10-year period – in order to let Scheel try to get a loan to pay off the debt, something Scheel told Lake County News he already had tried.
Scheel was not present for Tuesday's meeting, but Board Chair Rob Brown said that Scheel submitted a letter on Monday regarding the matter.
In the brief letter, obtained by Lake County News, Scheel wrote to Brown: “I have exhausted all avenues in trying to secure private financing for repayment of the crane removal. As such, I am requesting that the agreement staff prepared for repaying of the crane removal be approved. I look forward to finalizing this matter and appreciate the assistance of staff in putting together an amicable agreement that will make Lake County tax payers whole.”
Supervisor Anthony Farrington, who Scheel is seeking to succeed on the board, has criticized Scheel for not paying off the debt sooner, despite the county not having taken formal action to send Scheel a bill after he said he repeatedly asked for one.
Brown said he had followed up with Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen, who confirmed that she cannot accept payments on debts until the Board of Supervisors takes action to collect them.
Scott De Leon, the county's Water Resources and Public Works director, said the agreement with Scheel is patterned after other agreements the county has had.
It does not include interest, as currently proposed, and De Leon explained that the county similarly doesn't charge interest to residents for road repairs in county service areas. “This agreement was patterned after that.”
“I guess it's better late than never,” said Farrington.
Farrington said the county doesn't create a promissory note for assessments and liens, adding it's a unique situation due to there being no real property at stake.
As such, he suggested pursuing a lien on Scheel's wife's property, a judgment through the courts or wage garnishment.
Supervisor Jim Steele wanted to see interest applied to the agreement.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said there are penalties if businesses are late in paying their transient occupancy tax, and he said the county should at least get the interest on the payments that it would get if the money was sitting in the bank.
Brown said a legal judgment was not an option due to the length of time that has passed. County Counsel Anita Grant followed up by saying that a three-year statute of limitations would apply. Farrington disagreed.
Smith also wanted the payments made monthly, not annually.
The matter of a possible interest rate ultimately held up a decision. The board wanted to have Ringen calculate the appropriate monthly rate.
Steele moved to amend the agreement to include a 2.5-percent annual percentage rate plus costs associated with managing the account, and make it a monthly rather than a biannual payments.
Grant cautioned that the interest rate should reflect an obligation, as the county is not entitled to make money on a transaction.
She said the board could approve the 2.5 percent interest rate in concept, subject to approval by the treasurer-tax collector regarding what the county earns on its investments.
Brown put the matter on hold in order to try to get an answer from Ringen that morning.
However, the board didn't hear back from Ringen by the end of the meeting, so the matter was put over to the July 19 meeting.
At its meeting next week the supervisors also will take up the matter – brought back to the board by Supervisor Jim Steele – regarding the proposed separation of the Water Resources and the Public Works departments.
Supervisor Jim Comstock was absent from Tuesday's meeting, and Brown said Comstock had asked for the matter to be held over so he could participate in the discussion.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
MATH to discuss Dollar General proposal, gateway arches
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall is expected this week to get another update on a plan to build a Dollar General store in the town and discuss a proposal to place decorative gateway arches.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 14, at the Middletown Community Center, 21256 Washington St.
Meetings are open to the community.
One of the agenda's main items is an update on the Dollar General store proposal.
Texas-based Cross Development wants to build the 9,100-square-foot store at 20900 Highway 29 in Middletown.
The Lake County Planning Commission turned down the proposal in April, but Cross Development is appealing the decision, and is scheduled to appear before the Board of Supervisors at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 19.
In other business, the group will discuss a proposal to place town gateway arches over Highway 29.
There also will be recognition of donations for Middletown Square Park, which is located in front of the community and senior center.
Thursday's meeting also will offer the opportunity for public input from community members and a discussion of agenda items for the Aug. 11 meeting.
The MATH Board includes Chair Fletcher Thornton, Vice Chair Claude Brown, Secretary Margaret Greenley, and members Linda Diehl-Darms and Gregg Van Oss.
MATH – established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 – is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
Meetings are subject to videotaping.
For more information email
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Clearlake City Council to hold hearing on abatements, discuss property purchase
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will hold a public hearing to confirm assessment penalties on abatement cases and discuss a property purchase this week.
The council will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 14, for a closed session to discuss labor negotiations, anticipated and existing litigation, and a public performance evaluation of City Manager Greg Folsom before the public session of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The council will hold a public hearing to confirm assessments for administrative penalties for failure to abate public nuisances.
Altogether, the council will consider taking action on 19 properties, for total administrative penalties totaling $55,000, according to the staff report from Code Enforcement Supervisor Lee Lambert.
Also on Thursday, Folsom will take to the council a request to appropriate $90,500 from Series A bond funds for the purchase of properties on Pearl Avenue, which are to be used for a Lake Transit bus stop and turnout at Highlands Park, according to Folsom's report.
In other business, the council will consider a rebuttal to an argument against Measure V, the sales tax measure for road improvements to go on the November ballot; a certificate of appreciation will be presented to the Lions Club; and the council will get annual updates from the senior and youth centers.
Email Elizabeth Larson at