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Lakeport City Council to discuss water restrictions, concession agreement, relocating police operations
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will discuss water restrictions in the city as well the plans for relocating the city police department to its new headquarters and a concession agreement.
The council will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
On Tuesday the council will consider continuing current water restrictions under a resolution passed last year. Council members also are expected to direct staff to do community outreach to educate residents and business owners of state mandates and the city's current stage one conservation requirements.
Community Development Director Kevin Ingram will present to the council a general plan amendment and zone change to facilitate the relocation of the Lakeport Police Department from its Forbes Street location to its new headquarters at 2025 S. Main St. The proposed ordinance will be introduced and a public hearing scheduled for the second reading.
City Manager Margaret Silveira also will present to the council a concession agreement and setup as proposed by Mendo-Lake SUP through this summer, with a concession agreement fee of $500.
In other business on Tuesday, Ingram will present an expedited project review for architectural and design review of Pacific West's 32-unit affordable senior housing development proposed to be built at 1255 Martin St.
Ingram is asking the council to direct his staff and the Lakeport Planning Commission to “engage in appropriate and legally defensible entitlement application processing activities in compliance with California law” in order to bring the project in front of the Planning Commission prior to the State HOME Grant application deadline.
Also on Tuesday, the council will get an update on the Lake County Marketing Program from Jill Ruzicka of the County Administrative Office, and will approve the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Library Park docks on May 21, along with approval of the sale of alcohol by the Lakeport Main Street Association at the event.
On the meeting's consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; warrant registers for April 21; minutes of the council's regular April 21 meeting; Application No. 2015-010 with staff recommendations for the Lakeport Senior Center for Cruisin’ the Main-Hot August Nights event on Saturday, Aug. 15; Application No. 2015-011 with staff recommendations for the Lake County Rodeo Association for the annual rodeo parade on Saturday, July 11; Application No. 2015-012 with staff recommendations for the Lake County Chamber of Commerce for the annual Memorial Day Parade on Saturday, May 23, and Oktoberfest on Saturday, Oct. 3; Application No. 2015-013 with staff recommendations for the 36th annual Clear Lake Sea Plane Splash In Sept. 24 through 26; Application No. 2015-014 with staff recommendations for June 19 through 21; Application No. 2015-015 with staff recommendations for Future Pro Tours for a Classic Bass Championship Tournament on May 16; and allocation of $19,023.08 from police asset forfeiture account 110-0000-387-002 to Automobiles and Trucks account 110-2010-98, with the $1,800 in equipment costs to be taken from current FY 2014/15 budget account 110-2010-970, Shop/Other Equipment.
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County's emergency drought declaration extended; last year's ag losses tallied at $1 million
LAKEPORT, Calif. – With decreased water supply continuing to have a widespread impact throughout Lake County, on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors approved another extension to an emergency declaration due to drought conditions first passed last spring.
The board is required under state law to reconsider the declaration every 30 days. The extension approved Tuesday is the 13th since the proclamation was first passed on March 4, 2014.
Lake County Emergency Services Manager Marisa Chilafoe went to the board with the extension request.
In her written report, Chilafoe recounted Gov. Jerry Brown's drought state of emergency passed on Jan. 17, 2014, and the action the governor took on April 25 to continue the state of emergency, also calling on the state's residents to redouble their conservation efforts.
Her report also explained that the water supply continues to be severely depleted despite the winter's rainstorms, with record low snowpack levels.
In local reservoirs, there also are lower water levels; she said Indian Valley Reservoir is at 23 percent of its capacity.
Chilafoe said it's anticipated that the state will see a fifth drought year, continuing through 2016.
On Tuesday, Chilafoe urged the board to continue the emergency declaration to help the county as it continues to seek state and federal assistance for local water systems and residents.
They're also working to assist local agriculture, upon which Chilafoe said so much of Lake County's economy and way of life is based.
She told the board that the county is aware of approximately $1 million in agricultural losses due to the drought last year, “and we're expecting even more this year” as growers and ranchers struggle to deal with less water.
Chilafoe said the county will reconvene its drought task force – which first met last year – to make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors with regard to local water issues.
Supervisor Jim Comstock moved to extend the emergency proclamation, with Supervisor Jeff Smith seconding and the board voting 5-0.
Regarding those local agriculture losses losses, Chilafoe later told Lake County News that last year local cattlemen had to give their animals supplemental feed sooner, reduce their herd size and haul water because of the dry conditions.
Just that loss of range and hay supplementation has been tallied at approximately $667,125, Chilafoe said.
“Producers have lost thousands of dollars because they had to market their herd early as they could not feed their livestock,” she said.
There are other estimated costs for early season, water hauling and other unreported losses, said Chilafoe.
“We expect this year to be no different,” she said.
Chilafoe said Lake is one of 15 contiguous counties to 42 primary counties included in a US Department of Agriculture disaster designation issued in September.
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Supervisors approve consulting agreement to explore uses for Clear Lake algae
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an agreement with a consulting firm to work on a grant to explore using algae from Clear Lake as a potential resource.
The supervisors voted to approve waiving the consultant selection process and the agreement with Oscar Larson and Associates for the Department of Energy Grant Program consulting services, but not until after the board veered into a discussion on whether the request would detract from lake management goals.
Water Resources Director Scott De Leon originally had taken to the matter to the board on March 24, but returned to continue the discussion on Tuesday accompanied by Ken Davlin, project manager, president and senior engineer of Oscar Larson and Associates.
De Leon's report to the board explained that last year his staff had negotiated a simple contract with Oscar Larson and Associates to prepare a report on the potential for lake algae to be used as a resource.
“The resulting report 'Clear Lake Algae as a Resource, Preliminary Alternatives Evaluation set the stage for future project grant applications,” De Leon wrote. “Due to the unique nature of the types of projects, staff recommends the use of an outside firm to assist in the pursuit of outside funding.”
De Leon said the firm “has demonstrated the specialized skill and industry connections to merit a sole-source selection,” and so staff recommended the board approve the contract “for specialized services related to the development of grant applications for algae harvesting and processing.”
His written report to the board went on to state, “The County is often accused of not 'thinking outside the box' when it comes to finding solutions to issues. While we continue to pursue funding for projects and programs to reduce nutrients from entering Clear Lake, the fact is the lake will continue to produce algae for the foreseeable future due to the existing bank of nutrients in the bottom sediments. This proposal, if brought to fruition, could create a sustainable industry that utilizes cyanobacteria as a feedstock. This new industry could help reduce the negative impacts to water quality and create much needed jobs in the County. Because of the potential for economic growth, the Administrative Office has agreed to partner with Water Resources in the funding of the agreement.”
The contract amount is not to exceed $30,000, according to De Leon's report.
Davlin said the company was founded in the 1940s and was selected by the government to create Redwood National Park. The company also is one of two selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to explore algae and biofuel production.
Supervisor Jim Steele initially voiced his objections to the pursuit, stating that it didn't fit into any plan for fixing the lake.
Davlin told the board that he had history in Lake County, having spent time here during his childhood water skiing. However, he later stopped and went to Mendocino County because of the proliferation of algae in the lake.
He suggested that the county has “some real advantages here,” and should stop looking at algae as a public works expense but instead as a resource, which he said “changes the dynamics.”
Lake County also has a unique opportunity in that one jurisdiction oversees the lake, rather than many, as in the case of Klamath Lake.
He said there also have been a number of companies coming to the county that have wanted to harvest the algae for manufacturing everything from proprietary medical products to animal food. However, they haven’t been provided with the information they need about local resources.
“You have a paucity of information about this lake,” Davlin said, and he said that can be remedied by a thorough study to collect data.
At one point, Davlin got up and walked over to Steele, placing a small container before him on the dais.
“That's Clear Lake algae. It's a bio crude oil,” Davlin said.
The algae also can be used for compost for water retention for crops, Davlin said.
However, pilot programs needed to be carried out to find out what can be done practically with the materials, Davlin said.
He said his firm was hired by NASA to do biomass algae conversion, and he believed he and his staff had the experience and capability to work on Lake County's behalf. During the discussion Davlin also explained that they were going to look at a variety of grants.
Steele said he was opposed from the standpoint that the county really wanted a new normal. He said he saw the agreement setting up a situation where the lake would need to produce more algae, not less.
He said the county needed to be looking for a clean lake during the summer, not algae production, and that the proposal was going in a different direction than using a management plan to improve the lake.
While he understood a lot of people have been asking for such algae use, “From my standpoint I don't support it.”
Davlin said that algae has been present in Clear Lake for a long time. In his view, he said it was “economically impractical to eliminate the algae growth in the lake.”
Steele replied that was incorrect. He said the lake has changed over the years due to actions like removing wetlands. Now, he said that it's not a matter or removing things from the lake but managing it.
He added that he believed the county was going to go in two directions at once, and he wanted a plan.
Board Chair Anthony Farrington said he respectfully disagreed with Steele, adding that the lake needed to be managed with a two-prong approach. “There is a reactive management plan that is of value.”
Farrington said he was tired of “analysis paralysis,” explaining that he's excited to look at solutions, but getting algae out of the lake does no good without having a market for it.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said he agreed 100-percent with Farrington, explaining that he's moved thousands of tons of algae on the lake using an air boat and booms. Smith said removing algae will help the lake in future years.
Supervisor Jim Comstock also agreed with the two-prong approach of prevention and action.
Steele said he had no problem with the two-prong approach, but rather with weakening the main approach, which he said was management. Dealing with nutrient cycling will help the lake, he said, explaining that Clear Lake “has not been this way forever.”
He added, “From my standpoint, the management of this lake is pretty straightforward.”
Farrington asked if the project would look only at aquatic weeds. Davlin said it would primarily look at the surface mats and harvesting options in a pilot program. That's the grant they're proposing to put together.
Based on an analysis of satellite imagery of the lake, Davlin said his firm has estimated that there are 10 million tons of algae a year in Clear Lake. “We don't understand how you would deal with all of that,” he said.
Farrington pointed out that constituents have responded well to the board putting money into weed management and removal. He said he also wanted to explore designing a harvester specifically for the work.
Davlin told the board his firm was looking at opportunities to collect data, which would contribute to both the county's management and response approaches to the lake.
“I actually agree with that,” said Steele.
Farrington said he believed “something brand new is actually good,” and that he didn't believe exploring uses for algae would harm the long-term vision of managing the lake. “We know we need to be better stewards of the watershed.”
Steele said he would support the firm's work from the standpoint that he's a data hound.
Farrington pointed out that, before Steele was a supervisor, the county had contracted with him to study issues related to quagga and zebra mussel prevention, which wasn't for the long-term management plan. “It's really analogous to that same approach.”
Comstock moved to approve waiving the consultant selection process, which the board approved unanimously, before Comstock also moved to approve the agreement, which also received a 5-0 vote.
In other lake-related action on Tuesday, the board – as part of its consent agenda, and sitting as the Lake County Watershed Protection District Board of Directors – adopted a resolution authorizing the Lake County Watershed Protection District to file a grant application and signature authorization to execute agreement for a conservation innovation grant for the Clear Lake Tule Mitigation and Replanting Bank Project.
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Judge issues tentative ruling in county's favor in Mt. Konocti Park road easement lawsuit
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week a Lake County Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling in a case filed against the county of Lake regarding use of the easement road for Mt. Konocti County Park.
On Tuesday, Judge Andrew Blum ruled in the county's favor in the case filed in October 2012 against the county by Emily Ford and Mike Fowler.
“We aren’t happy with it,” said Ukiah attorney Thomas Brigham, who represents Ford and Fowler in the case.
The Fowler family sold the county 1,520 acres on top of Mt. Konocti in 2009 for $3.6 million. The land has since become the county's largest park.
As part of the sales agreement, Ford and Fowler maintained a 159-acre parcel in the middle of the park where they continue to live.
According to court documents, they also granted the county three road easements through their remaining property between October 2009 and September 2011.
The first two easements were for construction, use, maintenance and repair of the communications towers and other facilities on Mt. Konocti, while the third – granted in September 2011 for a different area of the property – was for maintenance vehicles, the county’s licensees and other persons authorized by the county, according to the suit.
In September 2012, the county announced that it would launch a pilot bus tour program in cooperation with Lake Transit Authority for a limited number of bus trips per year.
Plans were for two trips a day for 12 days annually – six in spring, six in fall – to take people who otherwise couldn't make the trip to the top of the mountain.
It was a pilot program that the Board of Supervisors put in place in response to numerous requests from people who were unable to make the hike otherwise, said County Counsel Anita Grant, whose office represented the county in the case.
She said the program also was an effort to try to minimize vehicular traffic by organizing controlled trips.
“I don’t think that anyone intended to have it be a thoroughfare,” she said.
However, Brigham said the Fowlers never envisioned motorized tours would take place on the mountain.
Discussions with the Board of Supervisors about the property purchase had included statements about Mt. Konocti being treated like Mount St. Helena, which is pedestrian-only, said Brigham.
The bus pilot program was the precipitating event in the decision to file the suit. “It signaled a difference in interpretations at least of the scope of the easement,” Brigham said.
The following month, Ford and Fowler sued the county, alleging that the bus trips violated the road easement they had negotiated with the county as part of the sales agreement. They also sought attorney's fees and costs.
The Fowlers' concerns about their privacy, peace and quiet is all over the agreement they entered into with the county, Brigham said.
“They did what they thought they needed to do in the paperwork to protect themselves,” said Brigham. “But here we are.”
Lake County Public Services Director Caroline Chavez, who oversees the park, said the suit caused the county to stop the bus tours. At that point, “I think we had one or two days left to do it,” she said.
Requirements of the tentative ruling
Grant said that Blum, in his tentative ruling, determined that the easement is not limited to maintenance vehicles and licensees of the county.
He also ruled that authorizing a total of 24 buses per year for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to hike the mountain doesn't violate the easement agreement and doesn't constitute an excessive burden on it, as long as the county keeps within the intended uses of the park property and maintains its natural condition, Grant said.
In addition, Blum ruled that both sides needed to pay their own attorney's fees and costs, and that the Fowlers needed to restrain their animals from disturbing people who use the hiking trail, Grant said.
Chavez explained that the animals of concern who had frightened hikers are dogs, a horse and an aggressive mule.
In November 2012, the Board of Supervisors gave county staff the go-ahead to work with another neighboring property owner on the possibility of establishing an alternate access easement through his property, as Lake County News has reported.
The Tuesday decision means that the county doesn't have to pursue that option, said Chavez, noting that in his tentative decision Blum said there was no need to build an additional road.
She said the county did investigate the second easement option, and had brush cut to look at the land contours and topography more closely.
“It became too difficult,” she said, explaining that the work that would have been needed would have been very visible.
“That’s not what we’re trying to do to conserve the mountain,” she said, adding, “So we never even entered negotiations with the adjacent property owner on that.”
While Brigham and his clients don't like Blum's tentative ruling, he said there are a number of “silver linings.”
For one, while the scope of use is not as limited as the Fowlers wanted, Brigham's interpretation of Blum's intended decision is that it does limit the easement “pretty significantly.”
“The scope of the easement needed to be clarified,” Brigham said.
Brigham said his clients are hoping for two things: to better define the scope of the easement and who can use the road, and to eliminate – or at least limit – the bus tours.
He said the next step for his clients is that they will request a statement of decision, which he said is a more formal document than the tentative decision. They can then identify specific issues that the court needs to address.
Among those issues, said Brigham, is his interpretation of the language of the Fowlers' deeds with the county, which he argued limit the easement to maintenance vehicles and licensees – such as individuals with agreements for the communications towers on Buckingham Peak – not Lake Transit.
That's different than the judge's – and the county's – interpretation, which is that anyone who is granted access by the county can use the easement.
Grant quoted a portion of the deed that stated “other persons authorized by grantee” – with the county being the grantee – as those who may use the road.
What's ahead
The statement of decision is due to be drafted by Grant's staff by May 12, she said.
Both Grant and Brigham estimate that by the time a final judgment is entered, along with post-trial motions and the appeal period, it will be sometime in August before the suit is fully settled.
Brigham said the Fowlers could still decide to take their case to a state appellate court, which could lead to a year-and-a-half-long process.
As for whether the Tuesday decision will lead to the county restarting the bus tours, Chavez said, “We're going to wait through this.”
Once the case is finally settled, Chavez said county staff, the Board of Supervisors and Lake Transit will need to reevaluate the program to determine if they will do it again.
“We’d like to, that’s the short answer,” she said. “It was very well received.”
Grant noted that as part of the lawsuit, the county received a number of testimonials in support of the bus tour pilot program from those who had taken the trip and were grateful to have had the opportunity.
She said if the Fowlers appeal the decision, it would be up to the Board of Supervisors whether the program would continue.
Chavez said the park remains open to hikers during daylight hours. There is a parking lot below a locked gate with a turnstile to allow hikers through. Park users can't stay overnight and must keep to the hiking trail.
More information about the park and its hiking trails is available at http://konoctitrails.com/trails/mt-konocti-county-park/ .
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