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Clearlake City Council approves veterans housing project concept
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council has approved the conceptual design of a veteran's housing project in the city.
The project involves the collaboration of multiple agencies including the county of Lake, which has donated 16 acres for use in the project.
“(The county) has been looking for something to do with that property and some funding has become available to possibly do some building there,” District 1 Supervisor Jeff Smith said.
The property is located at 15837 18th Ave., just east of St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake.
The project would provide veterans with affordable housing options and include other functions such as a community center, as well as mental health and other services. It is not to serve as a homeless shelter.
The county will be working with Veterans Resource Centers of America, or VRCA, in developing the project.
The VRCA has extensive experience in similar projects and provided the council with a slideshow presentation late last month showcasing projects it has completed in other areas.
Bert McChesney of VRCA and Veterans Housing Development Corp. said the project would provide veterans with opportunities for affordable home ownership as well as lease options on apartments.
He said amenities would be identified and developed with the participation of the community.
“We have some ideas that we would have to work with (the city) and the county to develop,” McChesney said.
The project is anticipated to be funded through use of Proposition 41 Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2014.
McChesney said funds will be sought in the second round of funding in early 2016.
The initial round of homeowner recruitment will come from Lake County with preference given to veterans, McChesney said.
Recruitment could extend out-of-county and to nonveteran participants after the needs of area veterans are satisfied.
According to City Manager Joan Phillipe, a project of this nature, funded by the resources identified, must be maintained for the intended purpose for a period of 55 years.
Frank Parker, president of the United Veterans Council – which includes the participation of every chartered veterans organization in Lake County – said years of effort has been exhausted in trying to get the state to recognize the rural veteran community.
“We have a heck of an opportunity here,” Parker said.
“What is happening here is historical. We have a rural county with a crying need,” Dean Gotham, president of the Vietnam Veterans Council, said. “We can show the rural counties of California that we can all take care of our veterans.”
All members of the council voiced their support of such a project.
“This is all aligning for a reason and we need to say 'what can we do,'” Vice Mayor Gina Fortino Dickson said. “Anytime we can help a group in the community, we are helping ourselves.”
In providing its approval for conceptual design, the city also agreed to waive any fees that may be associated with the preparation of any potential general plan or zoning code amendment. Phillipe said neither is likely to be required.
However, housing bond funds could cover such a cost as it would be an expenditure allowed because the project addresses low-income housing needs, she said.
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Planning commission to hold rescheduled review of parks plan
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – This week the Clearlake Planning Commission will host a rescheduled workshop on the city's master parks plan that previously had been set to take place last month.
The meeting will be held beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The commission, which sits jointly as the Clearlake Parks and Recreation Committee, will discuss the 95-page plan, which – among other things – catalogs park resources, and guides acquisition and development.
The plan was adopted in January 2003, and hasn't been reviewed much since then, according to City Manager Joan Phillipe.
Last year, the Clearlake City Council directed that the city's Parks and Recreation Committee be reestablished. Phillipe said the plan review will assist the commission in the work of getting that committing restarted.
The Clearlake Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Committee's membership is composed of Chairman Carl Webb, Vice Chair Cheryl Hutchinson, and commissioners Bill Perkins, Alvaro Valencia and Mike Vandiver.
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Clearlake Master Parks Plan 2003-13
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Supervisors consider supporting wildfire strategy resolution, waterworks board appointment
LAKEPORT, Calif. – This week the Board of Supervisors will consider signing on to support a statewide wildfire strategy and discuss an appointment to a local water board.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 with the video available online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Boards/Board_of_Supervisors/calendar.htm . Accompanying board documents and the agenda also are available at that link.
In an untimed item, the board will consider the Rural County Representatives of California, or RCRC, wildfire strategy and resolution, which advocates for adequate federal funding and commitment to wildfire prevention.
A report to the board from county Senior Administrative Analyst Jill Ruzicka explains that the wildfire strategy resolution was first introduced in August 2014 at the RCRC Board of Directors meeting.
“Currently 18 of RCRC's 34 member counties have passed this resolution,” Ruzicka wrote. “RCRC has requested that the County of Lake pass this resolution in support of efforts to launch a refocused wildfire advocacy strategy to key policy and decision makers in California.”
She explained that the RCRC 2014-15 Wildfire Strategy “outlines a proactive outreach effort to communicate and demonstrate the multi-level issues associated with current forest management practices, and foster a cultural or, if needed, structural shift within the United States Forest Service and other state and federal agencies in order to better manage California's forests and wildlands.”
Ruzicka continued, “With this plan, RCRC endeavors to ease statutory, regulatory, and legal barriers to fire-prevention project completion, and create innovative new approaches to increasing the pace and scale of vegetation management and forest restoration in California.”
Also on Tuesday, in another untimed item, the board will consider reappointing incumbent Fran Ransley to the Lower Lake Waterworks District One Board of Directors.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
7.1: Approve minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting held Jan. 27, 2015.
7.2: Authorize extension of reduced public hours (i.e., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday) at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter through February 2015.
7.3: Adopt proclamation designating the month of February as Black History Month and celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday.
7.4: Sitting as the Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors, reappoint Roger Bakke, PE Professional Engineer to the LCAQMD Hearing Board pursuant to Health and Safety Code.
7.5: Approve contract between the county of Lake and Lake County Office of Education for Foster Youth Services, V-1 for the duration of Sept. 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015, in the amount of $39,492.50 and authorize the chair to sign.
7.6: Approve agreement between Lake County Social Services Department and UC Davis Extension for FY 14/15 Peer Quality Case Review, in the amount of $18,500, and authorize the Social Services director to sign said agreement.
7.7: Approve agreement with Forensic Medical Group Inc. for forensic pathology services, from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016, with one-year extensions, amount undetermined, and authorize the chair to sign.
7.8: Approve out-of-state travel for Water Resources staff Chris White and Mark Miller to attend “Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Project” program administered by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
7.9: Approve contract between the county of Lake and Cathy Ferron and Associates for the Child Welfare Services Title IV- E Waiver Project Evaluation, from Jan. 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016, in the amount of $30,000, and authorize the chair to sign.
TIMED ITEMS
8.2, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of February Black History Month and celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday.
8.3, 9:15 a.m.: Presentation of 2014 Public Works Project Summary and Upcoming Project Plan.
8.4, 9:30 a.m.: Consideration of request for waiver of construction traffic mitigation fees for Joe Gonsalves.
NONTIMED ITEMS
9.2: Consideration of Rural County Representatives of California Wildfire Strategy and Resolution advocating for adequate federal funding and commitment to wildfire prevention.
9.3: Consideration of appointment to the Lower Lake Waterworks District One Board of Directors.
9.4: Consideration of Resolution Amending Resolution No. 2014-112 Establishing Position Allocations for Fiscal Year 2014-2015, Budget Unit No. 1341, Human Resources.
9.5: Consideration of contract between the county of Lake and Redwoods Children’s Services Inc., for Family Wraparound Service from Jan. 1, 2015, through June 30, 2019, entire term amount not to exceed $2,001,000, and authorize the chair to sign.
CLOSED SESSION
10.2: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code Sec. 54956.9(d)(1): Gleason v. Bowen.
10.3: Public employee performance evaluations title: Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley and Agricultural Commissioner Steve Hajik.
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Group plans to launch new effort to address rent stabilization in county's mobile home parks
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The group that spearheaded the drive to put rent control initiatives for senior mobile home parks on local ballots – only to have the initiatives later overturned in court – is once again aiming at bringing the matter to voters.
Save Our Seniors, which had collected signatures for the rent control initiatives, intends to bring forward a more solidly drafted initiative and create an association for mobile home owners who live in the county's more than 100 parks, according to Heather Powers, who founded the organization.
In early 2013, the group collected more than 3,500 signatures to place slightly different rent control initiatives tying rent hikes to Social Security benefit increases before voters in the unincorporated county and the city of Lakeport, as Lake County News has reported.
Both the Lakeport City Council and the Board of Supervisors chose not to accept the initiatives as law but instead voted to put the measures on the respective ballots – Lakeport's last November and the county's last June.
However, in early March of 2014 both initiatives were ordered removed from the ballots as the result of a court case, Smith et al. v. Chapman, et al., which was filed in January 2014 by Kerry Smith, daughter of a county park owner, and the Lake County Mobilehome Park Owners Association.
The case challenged the initiatives' constitutionality, with issues including the inability for park owners to implement discretionary rental increases, lack of a rent control board to ensure fairness to both tenants and park owners, and other areas that violated state law.
Lakeport resident Nelson Strasser, who was responsible for drafting the ordinances, argued in their defense in court, but ultimately Judge Richard Martin said the constitutionality issues couldn't be overcome.
Later, Save Our Seniors would again approach the Lakeport City Council and the Board of Supervisors and ask them to take up the rent control issue, but Powers said nothing came of that request.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira said she hadn't heard of the new movement on rent stabilization.
“There is nothing before the council at this time, not since the court hearing,” she told Lake County News.
Since the initiatives were thrown out, Powers said it's been “a long slow process,” thinking about what action to take next.
“It’s not been off my mind, or anybody’s mind,” she said.
Many of the original participants in the Save Our Seniors effort lived in Sterling Shore Estates in north Lakeport, where tenants had raised issues with the previous ownership, Powers said.
Powers said many of the people who live in the park and were active on the committee have not continued their involvement following the purchase of the park by Caritas Affordable Housing Inc., a nonprofit company that owns other mobile home parks around California and promised not to raise rent more than the cost of living adjustment.
Caritas, according to its Web site, has as its mission and purpose “to provide and maintain quality, affordable housing for persons of low income and means, focusing on manufactured home parks.”
The Board of Supervisors voted in December 2013 to consider a joint powers agreement with Caritas to issue bonds to assist the nonprofit, and to help facilitate the purchase, which Powers said was completed in 2014.
“Everyone feels comfortable here now,” she said, explaining that Caritas holds regular meetings with residents and has placed computers in the clubhouse, along with providing a number of special dinners, including for the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.
Powers said she is impressed with the new owners. “They clearly really know what they’re doing.”
The group feels the initiative process put pressure on some parks – like Sterling Shore – to make positive changes, she said.
For Powers and the rest of the Save Our Seniors group that is still active, however, the matter of fair rent for mobile home owners is larger than just one park or one group of people.
“I found the process kind of fun and energizing and exciting,” she said of the effort to put the initiatives on the ballot.
Powers said that Save Our Seniors is now working on an initiative that will be modeled after one in the city of San Rafael that has withstood all legal challenges – even up to the United States Supreme Court.
Like the San Rafael law, this latest effort for Lake County, Powers said, is meant to support rent stabilization for all mobile home parks in Lake county – not just senior parks.
The previous initiatives' focus on seniors only weakened it, said Powers.
This new push will include not just the county of Lake and the city of Lakeport; Powers said they're also aiming to include the city of Clearlake.
Save Our Seniors is now attempting to raise funds to hire a lawyer to take the San Rafael initiative and craft it specifically to Lake County.
In order to raise the funds and get support from mobile home owners, Powers said Save Our Seniors is sponsoring the formation of a new group, the Lake Mobile Home Owners Association.
She said the goal is to go through all of the county's parks, connect with residents and get people to sign up for annual memberships at a cost of $12 for a single person for a year, $1 per month or $14 annually for a family.
If enough people sign up, Powers said the group will have enough money to pay for a lawyer. She said they would love to have a pro bono lawyer, “But nobody has raised their hand.”
So far, they've gone into one Upper Lake mobile home park and interviewed several homeowners, Powers said. “They had so much to say about things going on in their park.”
What they've found so far, said Powers, is many parks don't have clubhouses or homeowners association, so residents don't know each other.
Powers said they want to be able to approach homeowners and share information about the new association, but she said that could be tricky, asserting that management in the parks don't allow that.
“It’s going to take us awhile to get through all the parks, but we will,” she said.
Save Our Seniors has to move quickly, as Powers said they want to have the new initiative finalized and ready to be presented to the city councils and the Board of Supervisors for the November 2016 election, which means they will need to start collecting signatures later this year.
In the first go-round of signature gathering, Powers said they received very good response. “Everyone was so supportive.”
Meanwhile, Save Our Seniors and the new association is meeting every other Wednesday at Powers' Lakeport home.
For more information about the new mobile home owners association and attending meetings, call Heather Powers at 707-263-3580.
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