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City permitting process, public art on LEDAC agenda
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee will hear a presentation on the city of Lakeport's permit process and discuss public art when it meets next week.
LEDAC will meet from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 13, at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
Lakeport Community Development Director Kevin Ingram will speak to the committee about the city's one-stop permit and information process.
In other business, under LEDAC goals for 2015, members Chris King and Rebecca Southwick will discuss proposals for the committee's Art in Public Spaces project.
Chair Wilda Shock also will give the committee an update on the Carnegie Library, which the city is seeking to upgrade for public uses.
There also will be updates on regional economic development, committee member reports and business outreach efforts.
LEDAC advocates for a strong and positive Lakeport business community and acts as a conduit between the city and the community for communicating the goals, activities and progress of Lakeport’s economic and business programs.
Members do not have to be Lakeport residents.
Wilda Shock chairs LEDAC, the membership of which also includes Vice Chair Christine Hutt, Secretary Rebecca Southwick, and members Bill Eaton, Melissa Fulton, Rick Hamilton, Pam Harpster, Chris King, George Linn, Paula Pepper-Duggan and Taira St. John.
City Community Development Director Kevin Ingram and City Manager Margaret Silveira serve as ex-officio committee members.
LEDAC's next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, June 10, at Lakeport City Hall.
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Lakeport City Council continues stage one water emergency; plans community education, outreach
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday chose to continue with voluntary water conservation measures in the city under a stage one emergency first approved last year rather rather than moving to a higher level of emergency.
The council voted unanimously to forgo taking much more strict measures and instead directed staff to conduct community outreach in order to educate residents and business owners about state water conservation mandates and the city's stage one requirements that went into effect by resolution last September.
Under the September resolution, the council declared a stage one emergency
In accordance with state mandates, the council also ordered that the outdoor irrigation of ornamental landscapes and turf with potable water by the city's water customers be limited to two days per week, prohibited using potable water for landscapes in such a way that it caused runoff onto pavement or nonirrigated land, prohibited use of hoses without shutoff nozzles for washing cars, banned using potable water for washing driveways and sidewalks, or for fountains or decorative water features that don't have a recirculating system.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said in her written report that enforcement of the rules by the city is not mandatory, “and the City may not wish to expend resources to fully implement this regulation.”
The council's decision to continue those measures on Tuesday came on the same day that the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new regulations to achieve the water conservation ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown.
The State Water Resources Control Board approved an emergency regulation requiring an immediate 25-percent reduction in overall potable urban water use statewide.
At the same time, the board instituted a requirement for small water suppliers – those with 3,000 or fewer connections, which Silveira said includes the city of Lakeport – to reduce water use by 25 percent, or restrict outdoor irrigation to no more than two days per week.
Those smaller water suppliers, which the state said serve less than 10 percent of Californians, also must now submit a report on Dec. 15 to demonstrate compliance with the new rules. They still won't be required to do the monthly reporting that applies to large suppliers.
In order to meet the state's requirements, Silveira said the city must implement a simple conservation plan. While noting that small suppliers don't currently need to make regular reports on their water usage, “That may change,” Silveira said.
Silveira said the city's Water Task Force – comprised of city staff, Mayor Martin Scheel and Dennis Rollins, chair of the Westside Community Park Committee – recommended continuing stage one of the city's water rationing procedures ordinance, including the state mandates imposed at the Sept. 2 council meeting.
According to the 1989 rationing ordinance, a stage two emergency would have made certain “non-essential” water uses illegal, including use of water from public hydrants for any purpose other than fire protection and prevention; use of water through any meter when the consumer had been given two days notice to repair one or more leaks and has failed to complete such repairs; use of water to irrigate grass, lawns, ground cover, shrubbery, vegetable gardens, trees or other outdoor vegetation by other than hand watering and/or drip irrigation; use of water for the construction of any structure, including such use in dust control; use of water to wash any sidewalk, walkways, driveway, street, parking lot or other hardsurfaced area by hosing or by otherwise direct use of water from faucets or other outlets; use of water to wash any motor vehicle, trailer, airplane or boat by hosing or otherwise using water directly from a faucet or other outlet; and use of water to fill or refill any swimming pool.
The Lakeport Parks and Recreation Committee also has discussed water conservation measures, said Silveira, and it has asked the city council to consider its recommendations.
A minute order from the commission's April 2 meeting, included in the council's Tuesday agenda packet, proposed several conservation measures to the council.
Those suggestions included using drought resistant plants to replace any plants that die out in city parks; expanding the mulch area around trees; using rocks in planting areas to reduce the number of plants required; using native plants in new planting areas; moving forward on the progress to bring in nonpotable water to Westside Community Park for irrigation.
Councilman Marc Spillman asked Silveira if she foresees the city having to go to stage two measure.
Silveira responded by pointing out that Lakeport hasn't seen drastic changes in its water conditions over the last year, with its well levels staying the same and Clear Lake being up 2 feet over this time in 2014.
Scheel also pointed out that Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, which possesses the main water rights to Clear Lake, won't get its full allotment of 150,000 acre feet of water this year due to the lower lake level as of May 1.
Lake County Water Resources reported that based on the May 1 lake level, 30,714 acre feet is available for use by Yolo Flood according to the Solano Decree. That amounts to approximately 9 inches of depth on Clear Lake.
Suzanne Lyons, a member of the Parks and Recreation Committee, went over the commission's water conservation suggestions and also added another, permeable pathways, as well as a suggestion that more drought-resistant plants be introduced into the decorative planters on the lamp posts in the downtown area, which are handled by the Lakeport Main Street Association.
Lyons additionally recommended that the city place a sign at Library Park telling people that the city uses nonpotable water from Clear Lake to water the park's lawn.
Scheel agreed with the proposal to educate the public in order to avoid having to resort to the stage two emergency measures, which he called “brutal.”
Silveira pointed out in response to the commission's suggestion to move forward on using nonpotable water for Westside Community Park that the city has received an $80,000 grant for that very project.
Spillman moved to continue the current restrictions and direct staff to begin community outreach, with Councilman Kenny Parlet seconding and the council voting 5-0.
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Referendum challenging Clearlake ordinance banning marijuana cultivation qualifies for ballot; council to discuss options
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – With a referendum against the city of Clearlake's marijuana growing ordinance qualifying for the ballot, the Clearlake City Council will need to decide what actions to take next.
Clearlake City Clerk Melissa Swanson confirmed that the referendum effort qualified with 635 signatures – just five more than it needed.
The challenge is to Ordinance No. 173-2015, which bans all marijuana cultivation in the city.
The Clearlake City Council approved the ordinance at its final reading on Feb. 26. The vote was 3-1, with Councilman Bruno Sabatier voting no and Councilwoman Joyce Overton absent for the meeting.
The ordinance, drafted by City Attorney Ryan Jones, declares marijuana cultivation to be a public nuisance and prohibits any growing of the plant in the city, with the possibility of misdemeanors, administrative citations and penalties, abatements and collection of city expense for violators.
It was meant to supersede an ordinance the council enacted in January 2014 that prohibited commercial grows and grows on vacant lots, and limited the number of plants to six on parcels smaller than a half acre and as many as 48 plants on properties 40 acres or larger.
That ordinance is civil in nature, which city officials said means that it lacked a mechanism for strong enforcement. As a result, grows popped up all over the city in 2014.
With a 30-day window for gathering signatures, the referendum effort began immediately following the Feb. 26 meeting.
The city of Clearlake contracted with the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office to do the signature verification, a process that Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said she had until Wednesday to complete.
With the voter records at her office, Fridley said it's easier for her staff to take on the work than for city officials to do it.
“It takes time to verify signatures,” Fridley told Lake County News last week, as her staff was working to complete the work ahead of the deadline.
She said she doesn't think that people realize that her staff actually looks at each signature to check for duplicates and other issues.
Fridley sent the signature certification to the city of Clearlake, explaining earlier this week that the specifics of the matter would be up to the city to release publicly.
Swanson said on Wednesday that a total of 1,209 signatures was submitted to Fridley's office for verification, with 630 needed.
While leaving the main release of details up to the city, Fridley on Wednesday was able to provide some explanation of the process and the final outcome.
In county referendums that have been submitted over the last few years, Fridley and her staff would not necessarily count every one of the thousands of signatures submitted but would stop the count once the necessary number, plus some extras, was reached.
In this case, however, Fridley said they counted all of the signatures submitted, and found that the referendum got just enough – 635 – to qualify for the ballot.
“It was a squeaker,” Fridley said.
She said the washout rate was nearly 52 percent. That's a higher-than-expected number, considering that Fridley has generally urged signature gathering efforts to aim for 25 to 30 percent more than the needed number in order to cushion for invalid signatures.
Fridley said the Clearlake referendum's biggest issue with signatures came down to people signing it but not being registered to vote.
As for any other work for her office on the Clearlake referendum, “Our duty was to verify the signatures, which we did, and it kind of stops there,” said Fridley, adding, “It's up to the city now.”
Swanson said the Clearlake City Council is set to consider its options at its next regularly scheduled meeting on May 14.
She said she and Jones are working on a detailed report on the referendum and possible options for the council to consider.
Generally, options include rescinding the ordinance targeted by the referendum or moving forward to place the ordinance before voters.
The last referendum before this one that targeted a city of Clearlake ordinance was submitted in November 2001, according to Fridley's records. However, neither she nor Swanson had information readily available as to whether that effort moved to the ballot.
Separately, the Clearlake City Council is set to hold a special meeting at 8 a.m. Thursday to discuss the selection of a new city manager – City Manager Joan Phillipe is retiring at the end of June – and a lawsuit filed against the city in March over the marijuana cultivation ordinance.
The lawsuit was filed by Jeri Spittler, the city's former mayor, as well as her husband Anthony Spittler and Robin Farnham, challenging the ordinance from the perspective of medical marijuana patients.
Phillipe told Lake County News on Wednesday that no court date has yet been set on the Spittler case, and whether or not there is one also will likely be determined by the council's action on the referendum.
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City of Lakeport plans ribbon cutting for new Library Park docks
LAKEPORT, Calif. – To celebrate the newly installed docks at Library Park, the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday approved plans to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony later this month.
The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21, at the park, located on Park Street across from Lakeport City Hall.
Public Works crews installed the docks late last month, as Lake County News has reported.
The Lakeport City Council in January approved purchasing the new aluminum docks, at a total cost of $226,336.43, from The Dock Factory and Supply Co. in Lakeport.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said Tuesday that the new dock installation was one of the council's top priorities for this fiscal year.
She also reported that Lakeport Rotary provided a donation of $10,000 towards the dock project, with some of that money used to add lighting to the docks.
Silveira said the public will be invited to the May 21 event, with which the Lake County Chamber of Commerce and the Lakeport Main Street Association have expressed a willingness to assist.
She said the Lakeport Main Street Association has proposed to sell beer and wine at the event, but will need an ABC permit to do so. Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said the organization also will need a permit from his agency.
The LC Diamonds are scheduled to play, and the city is looking at possibly offering hot dogs to the first 200 people who attend, she said.
Silveira said the city has already gotten good feedback on the new docks.
Councilwoman Stacey Mattina moved to approve the proposal for the event and alcohol sales, with Councilwoman Mireya Turner seconding and the council voting 5-0.
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