Clearlake City Council presents NAACP with Black History Month proclamation

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Members of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People accepted a proclamation Thursday from the Clearlake City Council designating February as “Black History Month” in the city.

Lake County NAACP Branch President Rick Mayo, who was accompanied by members of his board, thanked the council for the recognition and reminded the public of the NAACP's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“The history of civil rights in the United States is largely the story of free people of color and then African Americans to define and enumerate what rights pertain to citizens in civil society,” Mayo said. “It has been the history of enlisting political parties to recognize the need for our governments, state and federal, to codify and protect those rights. Thank you.”

Mayor Denise Loustalot recognized the Lake County branch for its dedication to the principle of fostering civic, economic and educational programs and social justice throughout the city of Clearlake.

The group also was honored for its dedication to encouraging reflections on the rich history and teaching of black Americans, and bearing witness to the progress, beauty and achievements they have made throughout the community.

Aqeela Bahkeit was among the board members present to accept the proclamation with the recommendation of a book, “The Negro Trail Blazer of California” by Delilah Beasley, which she said was rich with history.

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Written by: Denise Rockenstein

Published: 16 February 2014

Clearlake City Council makes budget adjustments during midyear review

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council held its midyear budget review Thursday.

As part of the review, the council authorized adjustments reflecting a net decrease of $88,026 to the estimated general fund balance at the end of this fiscal year.

Adjustments addressed changes in projected revenues and expenditure increases primarily associated with the capital project fund.

In its action, the council also authorized a $1,000 donation to the Lake Family Resource Center's warming center, an action the council had previously indicated it would consider during the midyear budget review.

The budget estimates revenues and expenditures for the year as well as beginning and ending balances.

Financial Consultant Bruce Budman said the current budget was prepared prior to the end of the last fiscal year, requiring an estimation of final month figures to determine a beginning 2013-14 fund balance.

He said the lack of a 2011-12 audit complicated the process as well. He said the 2011-12 audit is complete and staff is “well along” with the 2012-13 audit, making the 2013-14 beginning balance easier to calculate and more accurate.

“This midyear process revisits the process with more current data (including) the completed 2011-12 audit, a completed 2012-13 fiscal year and six months of the current year complete,” Budman said. “A more accurate estimate of beginning and ending fund balance and revenues and expenditures can now be made.”

Budman's report showed general fund expenditures to be at 49.41 percent and all funds at 40.59 percent. He said the administrative support fund in the general fund is at 83.26 percent because insurance is budgeted through the account and was paid in full in July.

The capital projects fund is at 774.92 percent because projects that carried over from the prior year were not budgeted, which Budman said he proposed to adjust in his report.

“While some individual expenditure line budgets could be adjusted upwards, overall the various departmental budgets are in line with the adopted budget and overages can be absorbed by savings in other line items. I am not proposing to adjust individual expenditure line items up or down at this point as overall I believe they will balance out,” Budman said.

Budman's report showed a beginning fund balance higher than anticipated while the economic development fund shows to be lower.

Additionally, the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund begins the year with $275,520 more than projected, he said.

Adjustments represented a net increase across all funds of $776,497 while the general fund showed a net decrease in its revenue budget of $301,172. The general fund showed receipt of budgeted revenues at 36.89 percent at midyear with a percentage of 42.9 for all funds combined.

Additional property and sales tax revenues are anticipated. Budman said five months of sales tax had been received as of Dec. 31.

“The bright spot in our general fund revenue budget is sales tax,” said Budman, noting that in speaking with the county and the city's sales tax consultant, he was informed that Clearlake should receive $78,000 over its budgeted amount.

Budman said the increase will be more than offset by shortages in property tax ($138,502), school resource officer ($36,722), Area Planning Council reimbursement ($24,357), vehicle license fees ($38,000) and transfers in from the economic development fund ($147,791).

Expenditure budget adjustments showed a net increase of $1,029,005 with the general fund showing an increase of $14,508. Adjustments reflect, in part, use and/or transfers of grant monies awarded the police department and others for capital improvement projects in the city.

Some additional expenses include $80,000 in gas tax funds for purchase of a dump truck in order to meet Cal/EPA Air Resource Board regulations. Public Works Director Doug Herren said noncompliance could result in daily fines of $300 to $10,000.

According to Budman's report, the revised estimated general fund balance at June 30, 2014, is projected to be $271,305. Compared to the projection in the original budget of $359,331 it is a net decrease of $88,026. He said this leaves a $150,000 reserve for risk management and $121,305 for reserve revenue.

In addition, the discussion included the proposal of an additional street project not reflected in the budget adjustments. The purpose of the project is to repair and overlay streets before they are restriped and reflectors installed through use of grant funds already budgeted.

The council's action did not include anything related to the additional project other than direction that the city engineer continue to pursue it.

Documents related to the midyear budget review are available to the public at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive in Clearlake.

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Written by: Denise Rockenstein

Published: 15 February 2014

Lakeport Unified School Board supports exploring upgrades for Westshore Pool

LAKEPORT, Calif. – After meeting with state officials earlier in the day, on Thursday evening Lakeport Unified's maintenance director and superintendent presented to the district board the necessary next steps in the process to upgrade and reopen the Westshore Pool.

The board meeting room was packed with students, parents and local officials – including Lakeport City Council members Stacey Mattina and Martin Scheel, Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira, and Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Deputy County Administrator Alan Flora – who came to hear the pool discussion.

The pool normally would have been open by this time for the Channel Cats and the swim teams for Clear Lake and Kelseyville high schools to begin practice.

However, Lakeport Unified Superintendent Erin Smith-Hagberg discovered a December 2003 letter from the Division of the State Architect that raised issues about the pool's accessibility and structural safety.

Those issues weren’t addressed by the district’s leadership a decade ago, and the district – concerned about potential liability – has kept the pool closed while seeking more information from the state.

On Thursday four Division of the State Architect staffers met with representatives of the county, city and the Channel Cats to look over the pool, Smith-Hagberg said.

She thanked Farrington for taking the initiative to ask the Division of the State Architect for making the site visit. Smith-Hagberg and Dave Norris, the district’s director of maintenance, operations and transportation, previously had asked for a site visit and were denied, but a letter from Farrington apparently caused the agency to realize the pool is a community asset.

She said she thought it was a beneficial meeting, and raised everyone's understanding of the situation.

The meeting began, Smith-Hagberg said, with confirmation that the Division of the State Architect had not certified the pool – which was built by the county in 1973 – and, as a result, the district is in violation of the state education code, and board members are personally liable if any injuries occur.

The county was helpful in getting the pool's original plans to the Division of the State Architect on Monday, with the agency doing a “cursory review” of the plans followed by a quick visual inspection on Thursday, she said.

The Division of the State Architect offered the district options, including getting the pool certified, which is the only way students can begin to use it again. Smith-Hagberg said other options included having other entities take over the pool or assume liability.

Norris thanked Farrington for helping expedite the visit from the state. “That's incredible. This doesn't happen.”

Some of the concerns raised by Division of the State Architect staff included the pool's hillside location. Norris said the district was advised to hire a design team that includes geotechnical and structural engineers to collect data on the hillside and pool structure and come up with a plan to reinforce it.

The design teams finding and calculations would then be sent to the California Geological Survey and, if that agency agreed with the district's design team, the district could then pay $2,000 to open a permit with the Division of the State Architect, Norris said.

The division’s regional manager, Leroy Tam, who was among the state officials who visited on Thursday, said reinforcing the hillside could include boring holes in the ground and filling them with rebar and building a retaining wall. “He didn't think it was too involved,” said Norris.

Once the district submitted plans for addressing the pool's issues to the Division of the State Architect, there would be an eight-week waiting period before the agency began reviewing them. If they were approved, the district would then go out to bid, according to Norris.

Smith-Hagberg said the hillside stability needed to be explored before anything else was done. She said she and Norris recommended moving forward on that aspect.

In addition to the pool, Norris said the building at the pool also would need to be checked, with the walls bored into to check the rebar and the footing excavated. “Everything has to be verified, as if you are initially building it from the ground up.”

Norris and Smith-Hagberg didn't have definite cost estimates for some of the work, and the visiting state officials would not offer comment on potential costs, Norris said.

Agustin Merodio, coach of the Channel Cats as well as the Clear Lake and Kelseyville high school swim teams, said they were told during the visit that they could put in a portable, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathroom, and that they don't need showers. They also could demolish the small building at the site, thus avoiding potentially high costs.

Farrington told the board that there was an offer on the table to help the district save money. Engineer Cliff Ruzicka, who designed the pool, is offering his services – including soil and structural analysis and all other steps in the process to upgrade the pool – for free.

“There's no downside to bringing him in,” Farrington added.

Farrington also suggested resurrecting a joint powers agreement that the county, city and school district had once had for operating the pool. “I think there's an opportunity for us to work together,” he said, adding that all he asked was for the school district to be willing to financially contribute to the pool's improvement.

Earlier this month the Board of Supervisors approved Farrington's request to allocate $15,000 toward getting the pool reopened, with the city of Lakeport agreeing to purchase a new pump after several years of shouldering most of the pool costs.

Clear Lake High Principal Steve Gentry, seated in the audience, said it was nice to see the Board of Supervisors getting involved once again after dumping the pool in the district's lap 12 years ago, with the city and the Channel Cats coming on later to help support the facility.

Farrington responded that it was his understanding that when the joint powers agreement was in force, the county carried the pool's responsibility for 20 years, with the city and district not pitching in. The county finally stepped away from the pool when the agreement reached its sunset.

He said he's trying to bring the county back to a joint powers agreement, but to get board support the school district needs to be willing to contribute.

Jennifer Hanson of the Channel Cats said the club has its own liability insurance, and she wanted to know if the swim team could use the pool in the summer if it assumes liability. Smith-Hagberg said the district's attorney indicated that was a possibility.

“Everybody here is supportive of getting the pool up and running as long as I don't have to give them my house to do it,” said Board member Dennis Darling.

Pointing out that the Division of the State Architect's representatives made a point of saying the board members are personally liable for the uncertified pool, Board member Wally Cox said he wanted to make sure everything is done right before the pool is reopened. “It's got to be ironclad or I'm not going to go for it.”

Silveira said the city is starting to look for summer lifeguards, and the city insurance carrier has told them that nothing has changed related to the city's liability. Smith-Hagberg said the district's attorney will want to talk to the city attorney about setting up an agreement for the city to run the pool this summer.

Smith-Hagberg also pointed out that the economic feasibility of upgrading the pool will come out in the state certification process.

The board hoped to have information from Ruzicka by the time of its meeting next month. Smith-Hagberg said the district also could hold a special meeting, depending on how fast Ruzicka can submit his initial findings.

Flora told Lake County News following the discussion that county officials came away from the meeting with the state believing that there actually are many options for getting the pool reopened, and county staff also is available to help with studying the facility's needed improvements.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 14 February 2014

Lakeport Planning Commission approves removing golf course project from general plan update

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Wednesday the Lakeport Planning Commission got to work on the early groundwork for updating the city's general plan, agreeing to remove the language for a golf course and housing development on city property and looking at how agricultural lands fit into the plan.

Richard Knoll, the city's retired Community Development director who now is working part-time as a special projects coordinator, took the general plan discussion to the commission Wednesday evening.

He said the process, which will unfold over several commission meetings, will involve a focused update, review and possible amendment of the city's general plan, last updated in 2009.

There also may be updates to other documents, including the city's zoning ordinance. “Frankly, we're not sure about that at this in point in time,” said Knoll.

The goal Wednesday evening, Knoll said, was to introduce the project, address questions from commissioners and reach consensus on some items to help move the project forward.

Typically, when communities are engaging in general plan updates there is a citizens advisory committee – independent of the planning commission – formed to meet regularly and arrive at consensus on policy goals and objectives, he said.

In the case of the city's current project, Knoll said they are eliminating the citizens/advisory committee approach, “primarily because it's a very focused project that we're involved with here,” and having the planning commission also assume that citizen advisory role.

One of the main discussion points Wednesday was the city's sphere of influence, the area that extends beyond its limits where urban growth is expected to occur in the future.

Going back to 1992, when the city went through a comprehensive general plan update, it included definitive policies about annexation and its sphere of influence, which were reaffirmed when the general plan's latest version was adopted in 2009, Knoll said.

In 2011, city staff completed a study under the California Environmental Quality Act and completed a mitigated negative declaration to annex 197 acres along S. Main Street. Knoll said the city received numerous comments from the county of Lake, Sierra Club, Lake County Land Trust and other public entities – primarily county departments – that will be addressed in this process.

Knoll said the Lakeport City Council approved a proposed resolution on Jan. 21 to begin the general plan update process.

He said the Lake Local Agency Formation Commission has a related matter before it regarding a statutorily required update to the city's sphere of influence.

Some of the general plan updates are basic language changes, like removing references to the city's now-dismantled redevelopment agency, Knoll said.

One of the key items Knoll discussed with the commission was the specific plan area designation that covers the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District land, which totals more than 700 acres.

CLMSD Director Mark Brannigan told Lake County News that 241 acres of the property is within the city's limits.

Knoll said the specific plan designation covers the city-owned CLMSD parcels and some private properties south of the current sphere of influence, running along Hopland Road.

In 2006, the Lakeport City Council had approved an agreement with Boeger Land Development – the same firm that proposes to develop the Cristallago project near Lakeport – for a golf course and housing development on the land, as Lake County News has reported.

Knoll said that the project called for between 600 and 1,200 homes to be built, along with a golf course, on the land.

“What I really wanted to point out is that language, according to what I am told, is no longer consistent with city policy,” Knoll told the commission.

When the current general plan was being formulated in 2007 to 2008, the Lakeport City Council was negotiating an agreement for the development of the site, he said.

“That project is not apparently going forward,” said Knoll, and the city's intent is to remove from the general plan the language referring to the possibility of a development project on the CLMSD site.

He said the city wants to go back to the idea that the land will be used for providing wastewater treatment, storage and disposal, the reasons for which the land originally was purchased.

With that language regarding the project being removed, “The idea that there is a need to do a specific plan goes away,” said Knoll.

Knoll suggested the specific plan area be redesigned to refer to public and civic use, and that the privately held lands – including a Catholic cemetery – be removed from the city's sphere of influence. He added that keeping the city-owned CLMSD land within the sphere of influence made sense.

The commissioners reached 4-0 consensus – with Vice Chair Tom Gayner absent – to accept Knoll's proposals to remove the specific plan area language relating to the development project, redesignate the CLMSD property for public and civic uses, and drop the privately owned properties from the sphere of influence.

Knoll and the commission also explored the issues of including prime agricultural land in the sphere of influence. Such lands aren't primary areas for annexation, but nonetheless Knoll said the fact that the lands are included had been a source of criticism of the city by the county of Lake.

The city was suggesting a new approach – excluding such lands, including those under Williamson Act contract – from the sphere of influence altogether or adopting a policy that mirrors how the county handles its agricultural zoning in order to be totally consistent, Knoll said.

Knoll said he liked the idea of simply excluding the lands, which he said doesn't preclude a future general plan from reconsidering their inclusion.

Another issue that has to be corrected in the general plan update, Knoll said, is that the city's urban reserve designation was not defined in any way in the current general plan.

Commission Chair Ken Wicks Jr. pointed out that an area of agricultural land along S. Main Street that is used for cattle grazing is a flood plain that includes Manning Creek.

“Nobody in their right mind would build on that land for one good reason, it's soft land,” Wicks noted, adding that the acreage includes wetlands and has been used for agriculture and hunting for many years.

Knoll said local environmental groups had criticized the city for including the Manning Creek area within the city's urban growth area, and he proposed also pulling it from the sphere of influence.

With the land's flood zone and riparian habitat, “It's really an environmentally sensitive area,” said city Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton.

Knoll said there also had been a discussion about making the city's sphere of influence coterminous with the city limits, which he called “ludicrous.”

“That doesn't allow for any kind of growth,” said Commissioner Suzanne Russell.

Knoll said he will bring back to the commission more information and resources on the floodplain and agricultural uses.

The commission is next set to meet on March 12, with Knoll suggesting a special meeting on the general plan process be called in March.

Wicks said he hopes to have more community input as the process continues, noting that will make the process better. “We would like to see the town come together and say, this is what we'd like to do.”

Also on Wednesday, the commission passed a resolution to clarify rules for commercial signage, specifically relating to when a second freestanding sign may be appropriate.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 14 February 2014