Clearlake City Council honors outgoing member, chooses planning commissioner

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday bid farewell to one of its members and welcomed a new planning commissioner.

At its regular meeting the council honored Denise Loustalot, who announced on March 10 that she intended to resign as of March 25 due to having purchased a new home just outside of the city limits.

Mayor Russell Perdock presented a proclamation to Loustalot for her service at the end of the four-hour meeting.

Loustalot won election in November 2012 and was sworn in the following month. She served one term as vice mayor in 2013 and back-to-back terms as mayor in 2014 and 2015.

“As mayor she kept this entity under control in some turbulent times,” said Perdock, recalling her leadership during volatile meetings.

He also credited her with a forward-thinking and planning approach to city governance. “You were a good leader.”

When he presented the proclamation, Perdock had invited up Loustalot's husband, Pete, noting that spouses are “a big part of this” when it comes to city service.

Perdock thanked Loustalot for all she had done for the city and wished her the best.

Loustalot thanked her fellow “teammates” on the council, explaining that she couldn't have been the mayor or councilmember she was without them.

She thanked them for electing her mayor. “I hope I served you well,” she said through tears.

Loustalot said she and her husband had wanted some additional space and to move to a quieter area. When they fell in love with their new property, they didn't know it was about 200 yards outside of the city limits, necessitating her resignation.

She said she ran on honesty, transparency and doing the job from the bottom of her heart.

During council member reports later in the meeting, Vice Mayor Gina Fortino Dickson told Loustalot, “It's been a heck of a journey,” and added she couldn't imagine having taken that journey with anyone else.

“I will miss you. But I know where you live,” Fortino Dickson added.

As for the decision about how to fill Loustalot's unfinished term until it expires in December, that matter was pulled from the Thursday agenda and will be brought back an an upcoming meeting.

Also on Thursday, the council honored Bill Perkins, who served on the Clearlake Planning Commission for a decade, and selected his successor, Russell Cremer.

Cremer and Peter Shandera were the two applicants to fill Perkins' term, which ends next March.

The council interviewed both men and then asked them to leave the room while deliberating.

The final vote for Cremer was 3-1, with Perdock recusing himself – he'd served with Cremer on other boards and service clubs – and Councilman Bruno Sabatier voting no.

In other business the council approved an updated franchise agreement with Golden State Water Co. that will allow for the city to be paid a franchise fee totaling about $20,000 annually; reviewed real estate owned by the city and the former redevelopment agency; accepted the final Highlands Park Master Plan; had the first reading of an ordinance to reinstate administrative items and building permits within the area served by the Southeast Wastewater System; presented proclamations declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month; and heard a presentation on the Lake County Economic Profile Report.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Supervisors agree to consider community choice aggregation proposals

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors has decided to move forward with vetting several proposals to create a community choice aggregation program.

Last year the board began looking at moving forward with such a program, which is meant to give communities the opportunity to have lower power bills while determining where their energy comes from – with the option to build a portfolio that includes renewable energy sources like solar and geothermal.

The effort began after the board heard a presentation early last year from Peter Rumble of California Clean Power Corp., which was proposing to roll out the program in Lake County.

In December, the board approved issuing a request for proposals for development and operations services for such a program.

Deputy County Administrative Officer Josh Jones told the board last Tuesday that the county had received four responses to the request for proposals – from California Clean Power, Sonoma Clean Power, Tanoak Energy Advisors and the Energy Authority.

Since the county first began considering the move to community choice aggregation, there have been changes in state regulations that impact the cost savings that such programs have enjoyed.

In December Pacific Gas and Electric was successful in getting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to raise by 95 percent the power charge indifference adjustment fee – or PCI – which is the exit fee customers pay when leaving PG&E for a CCA.

PG&E and other investor-owned utilities are allowed to charge that exit fee to cover possible losses when customers opt out for a community choice energy aggregation program.

Opponents raised issues with an increased PCI – which went into effect Jan. 1 – making it harder for community choice aggregation programs to be competitive.

The California Alliance for Community Energy estimated that PG&E would make $70 million in exit fees from community choice energy customers this year as a result of the increase.

“These unwarranted charges will also make it much more difficult for new Community Choice energy programs to compete with PG&E, thereby attempting to stifle the statewide motion toward establishing new Community Choice programs,” the alliance said in a statement on its Web site.

Jones told the board that, in the case of one leading community choice aggregation program in California – Marin Clean Energy – the PCI increase has caused that organization's power to be more expensive than PG&E, with Sonoma Clean Power rates being either slightly up or down.

As for revenues the county might bring in from a community choice aggregation program, Jones said the county's special legal counsel on the program proposal said that, to be safe, those revenues would have to be used for things with a strong nexus to the program itself.

Previously the board and staff had discussed the possibility that the revenues might be unrestricted and could be put toward general uses like road improvement or law enforcement positions.

“We've been advised and concur that that probably is not the case and that we should view any net program revenues as very restrictive to be on the safe side,” Jones said.

He said the respondents to the county's request for proposals had noted that now is an ideal time to create a community choice aggregation program, adding that he advised the board to consider what such a program in Lake County would look like in 10 years – both under ideal and not-so-ideal conditions.

He said all respondents to the  request for proposals also had noted the importance of internal staffing, with Jones suggesting that one full-time equivalent position could be sufficient.

The county has some trouble attracting highly skilled employees and the same would be true for the community choice aggregation niche market, he said. If they could find a candidate, that job could be funded through program revenues.

“The bottom line today is that our RFP respondents are still claiming that there are savings to be had,” he said. “I would just say that, with local control, that's a great benefit. But with that control also comes local responsibility.”

Jones said the county may be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and procure power from suppliers in the county locale, but is probably not looking at limitless double digit ratepayer savings or unrestricted revenue.

He presented a few options for the board to consider. The first option, joining Sonoma Clean Power, would offer the least risk, based on staff's assessment. Sonoma Clean Power is well regarded and established, is seeking to expand its service territory and would be fairly safe, as many cities in Sonoma County have joined it, he added.

With less risk comes less reward, Jones noted, adding that Sonoma Clean Power's rates are close to those of PG&E.

Option two would be to go with another of the three respondents, which Jones said would require greater investment in the process and a requirement to have energy experts come in and review the very technical proposals.

The third option was to maintain the status quo and not take action now, Jones said.

County Administrative Officer Matt Perry, who retires April 1, suggested that third option, noting, “The timing is really challenging” due to the transition in county leadership that is taking place and the budget cycle.

He said his successor, Carol Huchingson, agreed that it would be a challenging assignment at this time.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he didn't want to close the door on moving forward with a community choice aggregation program, adding, “We don't know what's before us.”

Farrington said the county already has spent money for legal counsel and staff time to work on the proposal. He added PG&E's PCI increase was a slap in the face to all ratepayers.

He wanted to let Huchingson settle into her job and reconsider the matter in another 30 to 45 days.

Rumble, who was on hand for the discussion, strongly encouraged the board to take Farrington's option, look at the proposals and make a decision.

He said his firm recently reevaluated the numbers for a Lake County community choice aggregation program due to the PCI increase. “Lake County is still very much in a competitive position,” he said.

Noting that his firm has offered to provide several hundred thousand dollars up front to support a program and made more than half a dozen presentations on its proposal, Rumble said, “We're here today to reaffirm that commitment to Lake County.”

Rumble said California Clean Power was still willing to fund all upfront costs and help cover additional staffing, noting the county's success is in his company's best interest.

During the meeting Rumble also would explain that the community choice aggregation programs in Marin and Sonoma counties have higher costs due to more staffing.

Brian Pierce, a member of Valley Fire Phoenix Rising, said he wasn't expecting the proposal to shelve the program.

“We've been working for months to organize people around this,” he said, noting his group held a town hall meeting in the south county earlier in March.

Pierce pointed out that millions of dollars are being sent out of Lake County to PG&E that could be used to build a sustainable future here.

“It's worth it,” Pierce said, adding that what Lake County stands to gain from such a program is “unprecedented.”

“These are important choices to make,” said Supervisor Jim Steele, who supported Farrington's approach of getting all the pieces together to consider them.

He added that he believed the Legislature is looking at options to make it fairer for consumers in response to the PCI increase, which Steel said had created a stir.

“Maybe waiting a little bit clears the landscape,” Steele said, adding he wanted time to at least read the proposals.

Supervisor Jim Comstock said they should look at the option if it would save the ratepayers money, but he wasn't prepared to make a decision at that point.

The board reached consensus to have Huchingson form a consultant selection committee that could include more members of the public and fewer members from the ranks of department heads, where the county is stretched thin.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly named one of the RFP responders as “Ten Oaks Energy Advisors.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Supervisors approve Holiday Harbor purchase bid

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors opened bids for the county-owned Holiday Harbor property and approved the top purchase offer.

In January, the board approved moving forward with selling the property, located at 3605 and 3655 Lakeshore Blvd. in Nice, as Lake County News has reported.

The county's former redevelopment agency purchased the six-acre property – which has 400 feet of lake frontage, docks, a launch ramp, boat slips, a two-story residential duplex, commercial building and several outbuildings – in June 2008 for about $2 million, as Lake County News has reported.

Based on a property appraisal and a real estate broker's opinion, the board approved a minimum purchase price of $1.2 million.

During the Board of Supervisors' meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Chair Rob Brown opened two bids that had been submitted for the property.

The first, which at $500,000 was well below the required minimum, was submitted by real estate broker Scott Wolmuth on behalf of Active Realty of Santa Rosa.

The only other bid submitted was for $1,200,100 and came in from Tim Vi Tran of The Ivy Group on behalf of Bella Lago Development.

The board offered the chance for individuals to make bids from the floor for more than The Ivy Group's bid, but no one came forward, and the board voted unanimously to accept the top bid.

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, the winning bidder needed to deposit 4 percent of the proposed purchase price – or approximately $48,004 – with a Lakeport title company, according to Deputy County Administrative Officer Josh Jones.

Jones confirmed to Lake County News on Wednesday that the funds were deposited.

“We got the escrow money so now we suspect the escrow period will be about 60 days,” said Jones, noting that's a typical timeframe for commercial property transactions.

“There's a lot of due diligence to be done on their part still but we're hoping that everything goes through with flying colors,” Jones said.

Tran had held a separate contract with the county to market the property, Jones said, adding that any broker was able to bring a buyer to the table. “He happened to have a buyer.”

The proposed buyer, Bella Lago Development, is the same entity that purchased the 104-acre Robin Hill property on Lakeshore Boulevard in Lakeport in a tax default sale in the spring of 2014.

County officials reported that the Robin Hill parcel was purchased for $723,000, well below the $2.6 million in taxes and penalties that had accrued over 20 years of default between different owners.

In that case, as in that of Holiday Harbor, The Ivy Group also had been hired by the county to market the property, county officials reported.

As for what plans Bella Lago Development might have for Holiday Harbor, Jones said the county has not heard anything about them.

However, he said the buyer has seen the county's original marketing plan for the property, which had included a boutique hotel and restaurant, and marina operations.

As for the income from the sale, Jones said the county's assessment so far is that it would be unrestricted revenue. “Hopefully, that holds true,” he said.

In light of the local government's struggles in the wake of last year's fires, Jones added that it's a good – and timely – inflow of funds for the county.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.