Huchingson appointed new county administrative officer

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors took action on Tuesday to appoint a longtime county employee to be the next county administrative officer.

Following a closed session discussion at the end of its regular meeting, the board emerged on Tuesday to vote unanimously to appoint Social Services Director Carol Huchingson to succeed County Administrative Officer Matt Perry, according to Board Chair Rob Brown.

Perry's retirement begins at the end of business on Friday, April 1. Huchingson's appointment becomes effective the following day, Brown said.

Since Oct. 13, Huchingson also has been serving as the Valley fire long-term recovery coordinator for the county, a position the board appointed her to a week after the fire was reported to be fully contained.

Reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon as she was working on the set up for the After the Fire Rebuilding Summit and Open House in Middletown, Huchingson told Lake County News, “I'm just excited to have the opportunity and look forward to guiding the county through the complete recovery process while also maintaining the county's financial solvency and much more.”

Huchingson started with the county in June 1993.

In her role as Social Services director, she has overseen one of the county's largest and most complex departments.

Social Services includes adult and child protective services, housing, the In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority, CalWorks, food stamps, foster care, the public guardian and much more. Revenue comes from sources including the state and federal governments.

“We have every bit of confidence in her ability to do it,” said Brown of Huchingson's appointment to the county's top administrative position.

He said he has worked with Huchingson throughout his nearly 16 years on the board. Watching her perform as recovery coordinator during the last four months has made him even more confident in her ability to manage the county's government.

“She's a tremendous asset to the county and will continue to be in this role,” Brown said.

In November Perry announced his retirement, with the recruitment for his successor beginning that same month, as Lake County News has reported.

Perry, who was appointed in 2012 after the retirement of Kelly Cox, said he would begin the process of preparing the 2016-17 fiscal year budget before he retired.

Brown said seven individuals applied for the county administrative officer job. The candidates went through interviews on Jan. 25, with three or four finalists interviewed by the board on Jan. 26.

As she moves into her new role, Huchingson expects to transition out of the long-term recovery coordinator role.

“I anticipate continuing to lead the task force but in terms of coordination our intention really is to, as issues and concerns come up, to pass them to the departments that would respond to them,” she said.

As the coordinator, she's been more directly involved in recovery-related issues, but while she would still have a hand in those matters after she becomes county administrative officer, she expects to no longer take the lead but to let the department heads take over.

The county must now start the recruitment process for a new Social Services director, a process that Brown said is expected to start soon.

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.

Lakeport City Council approves adding 12th police officer position temporarily

LAKEPORT, Calif. – In a unanimous vote, the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday approved temporarily reestablishing a 12th police officer position as the Lakeport Police Department seeks to fill empty positions and anticipates retirements.

Ahead of the meeting, Police Chief Brad Rasmussen had presented to the council a detailed report, which can be seen on page 325 of the staff report below, outlining the needs leading to the request.

He asked to add the 12th position back into the budget on a temporary basis for a 15-month period, running from March of this year to June of 2017.

Rasmussen's department currently is budgeted for 11 full-time sworn officers and one part-time officer.

From the mid 1990s up through 2009, the Lakeport Police Department had a total of 14 sworn officer positions budgeted and as many as six reserves, Rasmussen reported.

However, by January 2009 that number had been reduced to nine sworn officers as a result of economic issues, which Rasmussen said included loss of state and federal revenues supporting police staffing.

In February 2013 the number of budgeted officer positions rose to 10, and in December 2014 the council raised the number covered by the budget to 11 in order to restore a detective position, according to Rasmussen.

However, he said his department has struggled to keep that additional position filled, and as of Tuesday the number of officers was back at nine, with two and a half positions on medical leave.

Rasmussen said operating with such low staffing levels has been challenging.

“The crime and the workload hasn't gone down since the 1990s or even January of '10,” he said. “We're still seeing significant issues.”

Rasmussen said that, in 2014, his agency had a record number of arrests, totaling more than 600.

He commended his officers and support personnel for all of their work. “I believe we have kept the city safe over the past five years.”

One of the challenges for law enforcement agencies like the Lakeport Police Department is recruitment. In particular, Rasmussen noted, it's getting more and more difficult to recruit trained police officers from outside the county, when out-of-area agencies often pay more money.

However, he explained that there are a lot of local people who are interested in attending the police academy to become officers.

The city recently held a recruitment focused on finding officer trainees who were local, grew up here, were used to the economy and wanted to stay here, he said.

That recruitment resulted in a pool of at least six qualified candidates, according to Rasmussen, who is considering hiring two of those trainee candidates.

Rasmussen said he can't send three people to the academy at once, and he would need to run another recruitment to find at least one person who already has passed the police academy and who can be ready to be on the streets sooner than the two trainees.

In attempting to gauge the potential financial impact of adding the 12th officer position to the police department's budget, Rasmussen said he didn't anticipate that it would be significant. Due to open positions it could be minimal or could range as high as $90,603 for the 15-month period.
 
During public comment, Lakeport resident Val McMurdie explained that he had carefully researched Lakeport before moving there. “You have one of the best managed cities in Northern California,” he said, noting that he and his wife are very happy living in the city.

However, he urged the council to look at the pay scale for its officers, referring to the California Controller's Office Government Compensation Web site, http://publicpay.ca.gov/ , where found officer salaries in other areas of the state.

“You're at the absolute bottom. That's why you can't get people graduating out of the academies,” he said.

McMurdie suggested that the council look at raising the minimum salary to at least $68,000 a year and to increase the number of officers to a minimum of 13.

During the meeting, McMurdie quoted the number $61,000 as the base salary in connection to the controller's Web site.

However, according to the current memorandum of understanding between the Lakeport Peace Officers Association and the city of Lakeport, the pay scale appears to be lower, with the first step for the police officer I classification at $3,424 per month, or $41,088 annually, not including benefits.

In response to McMurdie's concerns over staffing and salaries, Mayor Marc Spillman said the council is planning to have a goal setting workshop in a few weeks. “Maybe that's something we need to look at.”

Lakeport Police Sgt. Gary Basor, speaking on behalf of the Lakeport Police Officers Association, told the council that the organization supported Rasmussen's request, adding they would like to see the 12th officer position made permanent.

“We need the additional officers on the street to protect the citizens,” Basor said, citing an increase in the crime rate, with more petty thefts, transients and crimes against people.

Basor also noted the difficulty in hiring officers due to pay, explaining that a guy delivering beer on a beer truck can make more money than an officer.

He said newer officers are looking to leave due to wage levels, and they have to be creative in the approach to getting new staff.

At the same time, Basor said two officers are needed on every shift, with new laws coming into effect that will change the ways officers use the tools available to them, including the Taser.

Spillman, who moved to Lakeport in 1999, acknowledged that the flavor of Lakeport has changed a little, and he's not sure what's created it. “It does seem a little bit more dangerous,” he said, adding that while Lakeport is still a very nice community, it's different.

Councilman Martin Scheel said he spoke with Tom Engstrom, who retired as Lakeport Police chief in 2005. He related that Engstrom said it had been hard to keep the police force fully staffed even with 14 budgeted officer positions due to vacations and medical issues.

Scheel said he doesn't want to see the city's officers overworked or morale down. He said he had met with Sheriff Brian Martin on Tuesday morning. “He's dealing with a lot of the same issues,” said Scheel, reporting that the sheriff's office is down by 10 deputies.

He acknowledged that money was a main issue, but added of Rasmussen's request for the 12th position, “For me this one's a no-brainer.”

Scheel added, “I know it's not enough but it's a start.”

Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Mattina also offered her full support. She said living in a small city is a great thing, and she also appreciates living in a small city with its own police department.

City Manager Margaret Silveira said city staff met with representatives of the Lakeport Police Officers Association to discuss the proposal. She said the city told the association that it would consider making the 12th position permanent in the next budget year. However, she said they needed to see the next fiscal year's numbers before making a final decision.

Mattina moved to approve the request, with Scheel seconding and the council voting 5-0.

“Be safe out there, guys,” Spillman said to the officers sitting in the audience for the discussion.

In other business, Finance Director Dan Buffalo, who at the last council meeting gave an update through the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year, returned for a midyear budget review in which the council unanimously approved budget amendments totaling $1,347,429 in revenue and $501,643 in additional appropriation.

During the meeting the council heard a presentation from the Lake County Breastfeeding Coalition, which is working to promote, protect and support breastfeeding, including gathering support from a growing number of local businesses who welcome breastfeeding.

Also on Tuesday, the council held two public hearings after which they approved updates to the zoning ordinance to improve transparency and streamline the processing of land use development permits, as well as approving the zone change and mitigated negative declaration for the AutoZone store project on Industrial Avenue.

A first reading of an ordinance for a proposed zone change for the former Victorian Village property on S. Main Street also was approved, and will return for its second reading on March 1.

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.

020216 Lakeport City Council agenda packet

North Coast legislators, supervisors want detailed response, followup on largescale AT&T network outages

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – State Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood are spearheading efforts to engage AT&T in the critical need for redundant telecommunication services in rural California.

Recent fiber outages, including a significant outage in September of last year that wiped out much of the North Coast telecommunication and network systems, have left rural residents completely cut off.

The North Coast state legislators and chairs of the County Boards of Supervisors in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt counties, have officially requested complete telecommunications redundancy, not just “resiliency,” from AT&T in the North Coast.

“Public health and safety is at risk when a simple fiber cut can lead to rural residents being cut off from 911 access for several hours, and when patients are challenged to access their electronic medical records for prescriptions,” Sen. Mike McGuire said. “Reliable Internet and phone service is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity, and our rural residents deserve better.”

The North Coast has experienced four significant outages over the last year, and the lack of reporting and communication from AT&T left residents, local county and city officials and public safety officers out of the loop.

“Lake County residents deserve to have reliable Internet and phone service,” said Rob Brown, chair of the Lake County Board of Supervisors. “These devastating fiber disruptions are simply unacceptable in the 21st century and a redundant system should have been deployed years ago, before these crises hit the North Coast.”

In addition to the public health and safety threat, large scale fiber outages cost local communities potentially millions of dollars when businesses and financial institutions can’t complete transactions due to lost connectivity of debit and credit card machines.

The Federal Communications Commission also recently stated that Internet service has “steadily shifted from an optional amenity to a core utility.”

In December, AT&T representatives sent a letter to Northern California elected officials stating the company is committed to upgrading the North Coast’s network to increase protection against service disruptions caused by fiber outages.

The legislators and supervisors responded with an official letter this week, asking for more than just a commitment.

“We respectfully request complete telecommunications redundancy for all of AT&T’s North Coast customers. Additionally, we request a detailed outline regarding AT&T’s resiliency proposal and responses as to what steps are being taken to address the concerns,” the letter stated.

The letter was signed by state Sen. Mike McGuire, Assemblyman Jim Wood, Lake County Board of Supervisors Chair Rob Brown, Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Chair Efren Carrillo, Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Chair Dan Gjerde and Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Lovelace.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors approved signing onto the letter at its Jan. 19 meeting.

The letter can be seen below.

North Coast Responds to AT&T