How to resolve AdBlock issue? Applicants sought for Lake County Vector Control Board of Trustees vacancy
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council is seeking applicants to serve as the city’s appointee to the Lake County Vector Control District Board of Trustees.
This is a voluntary position.
The Lake County Vector Control District Board of Trustees currently meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at 410 Esplanade, Lakeport.
The board of trustees establishes policies for the operation of the district.
It consists of five trustees: one appointed by the city of Clearlake, one appointed by the city of Lakeport and three appointed by the county of Lake.
Each trustee is appointed to serve a two- or four-year term at the discretion of the appointing authority.
The mission of the Lake County Vector Control District is to provide the citizens of Lake County with the highest practical level of protection from vectors and vector-borne diseases.
Interested applicants should contact acting Deputy City Clerk Hilary Britton at 707-263-5615, Extension 12, for an application.
Applications also are available on the city’s Web site, www.cityoflakeport.com .
Applications must be returned to the acting deputy city clerk by 5:30 p.m. Dec. 5.
Appointments will be scheduled for the Lakeport City Council meeting of Tuesday, Dec. 17.
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Lakeside Heights property owners file suit against county of Lake over landslide
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Property owners in a north Lakeport subdivision have filed suit against the county of Lake, alleging that the county water system was responsible for a landslide that damaged several homes earlier this year.
The Lakeside Heights property owners filed suit against the county late last week.
The suit – which names the county of Lake and 100 as-yet unidentified defendants, or “Does” – alleges inverse condemnation, dangerous condition of public property and negligence, and seeks an unspecified amount of damages.
Plaintiffs listed in the suit include the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association, Mark Tanti, Jim Andrews, Argonaut Properties LLC, Odell Landers III, Kory Hudson, Paul Loewen, Sheryl Loewen, Garey Hurn, Jonathon Gibson, Rachell Gibson, Terry Blair, Carol Blair, Robert Deuchar, Lois Deuchar, Jose Martinez Flores, Scott Spivey, Robin Spivey, Roderick Schnabl Jr., Jagtar Singh, Manpreet Gill, Blanka Doren, Eleanor Young, Michael Kropa, Janice Kropa, Randall Fitzgerald, Julie Bowman, Tyrone Steenburgh, Nancy Steenburgh, Kevin Nguyen, Lam Mai, Paul Ruth, Nanette Ruth, Alberta Diaz, Taryn Norton, Floyd Hollenback, Anton Herling, Kenneth Thomason, Erna Thomason, Fred Johnson, Vernetta Johnson, Daniel Malugani, Marian Malugani, Enoch Duplechan, Charles Holder and Marcia Holder.
County Counsel Anita Grant told Lake County News she had not seen the suit and therefore did not offer comment on it.
Attorney Michael Green of the Santa Rosa law firm Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery, who filed the suit on behalf of the property owners, did not return calls seeking comment on the suit.
In March, a landslide developed at the 29-home hilltop subdivision, located off Hill Road.
The hillside began to split and sink, destroying several homes and causing serious damage to others. Eventually, close to half of the residents were displaced through a combination of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders.
The suit alleges that breaks in the county's public water system saturated and destabilized the ground, leading to the landslide.
In addition to the damaged homes, the suit alleges that the remaining homes and properties have been devalued.
In July, the property owners filed with the county of Lake 45 separate tort claims seeking damages, as Lake County News has reported.
The county's third party liability administrator rejected all of the claims the following month, clearing the way for the group to file the lawsuit.
As the legal case moves forward, the county and the residents are working to make sure the ground – which has stabilized in recent months – doesn't start to move again.
Last month a contractor hired by the county tarped the slide area and demolished two of the badly damaged homes.
Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association President Randall Fitzgerald reported that the association also paid to have winterization work completed at the site, including building a storm drain bypass and tarping all of the damaged Lancaster Road area.
Then, at the end of October, Jagtar Singh's badly damaged home split in half and slipped off the hillside.
Currently Lake County Special Districts is applying for state grant funding to relocate the subdivision's sewer infrastructure.
Special Districts staff told the Board of Supervisors last month that the application is currently under consideration, but the state has not been encouraging as to the county's chances of receiving the requested funds, which total close to $250,000.
While he deferred comment on the suit to Green, Fitzgerald – who has been a fixture at Board of Supervisors meetings during which the subdivision has been discussed – told Lake County News that he can comment on neighborhood-related matters, for which he is maintaining contact with the county.
“If the funding does not come through from the state, and if the winter harms the temporary system we have, resulting in a spill or shutdown, we will all be facing displacement,” said Fitzgerald. “So the disaster scenario isn't finished playing out in Lakeside Heights.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Clearlake Planning Commission finalizes design guideline recommendations
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Tuesday the Clearlake Planning Commission finished preparing its recommendation for the Clearlake City Council regarding design guidelines submitted by the Clearlake Vision Task Force.
The recommendation is expected to go before the Clearlake City Council at its next regular meeting on Nov. 14.
The design guidelines describe allowable uses for future development on the lake and land sides of Lakeshore Drive within the design district, which is designated between Olympic Drive and Old Highway 53.
The commission is recommending the following as permitted uses on the land side of Lakeshore Drive: retail trade and services, personal services such as beauty care; parking lot, public or private; ATM machines, residential development above one or two levels of business; eating establishments including drinking establishments, outdoor eating area and drive through service; boat and water oriented rentals.
Recommendations for conditional use on the land side include indoor recreation, amusement and cultural facilities; portable sidewalk vendors, drinking establishments, retail trade greater than 5,000 square feet; transient lodging, cultural or visitor center and eating establishments with drive through service.
On the lake side, recommended permitted uses include retail trade with complimentary outdoor merchandise displays; bait and tackle shop; portable vendors, eating establishments, boat and water oriented rentals; and cultural or visitor center.
Conditional uses include drinking establishments, transient lodging, indoor recreation, amusement and cultural facility; marinas and other similar facilities; and retail trade and service, without outdoor storage or display, or a combination of separate structures on one lot of record exceeding 3,000 square feet.
City Manager Joan Phillipe said the recommendation to the council will include information pertaining to discussion of eating establishments with drive through services.
Commissioners Al Bernal and Bill Perkins, the latter of whom was not present during the commission's recent workshop addressing details of the recommendation, voted to remove, thereby prohibit, such business within the design district.
During the workshop, public comment was offered suggesting that the prohibition of such a business would be unwise.
Bob Mingori pointed to the high expense typically associated with franchise development, noting the city could retain control of aesthetics through conditional use regulation.
He indicated it would be against the city's best interests to eliminate the possibility of such an opportunity and deny any developer who may have such an interest in the future.
Chairman Alvaro Valencia and Commissioner Cheryl Hutchinson voted to retain the recommendation resulting in a tie vote and retention of the recommendation. Commissioner Carl Webb was absent from Tuesday's meeting.
In other business, the commission approved a mitigated negative declaration of environmental impact on a previously prepared initial study pertaining for 13885 Lakeshore Drive, the location of Clear Lake Cottages and Marina.
The declaration includes 26 issues of mitigation and is available for public review at Clearlake City Hall.
Phillipe said the action was to “clean things up” and move forward with the project.
The commission also granted a request for variance on an “oddly shaped” property at 15225 Highlands Ave.
The variance allows for a setback reduction of 1 foot, 6 inches, totaling 13 feet, 6 inches, down from the required 15 feet. Applicant Frank Metcalf intends to place a singlewide mobile home on the polygon-shaped lot.
Email Denise Rockenstein at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Clearlake City Council to hold special consensus building workshop Nov. 7
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will hold a special workshop to address issues that have arisen amongst its members in recent months.
The Clearlake City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, to address consensus building among the council members.
Recent conflicts among members of the council led to the scheduling of the workshop.
The public is welcome to attend the workshop, which will be held in council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at
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Supervisors direct staff to study senior mobile home park rent control initiative's potential impacts
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered several county department heads to bring back a report next month on the potential impacts of a senior mobile home park rent control ordinance.
The board voted 3-2 to direct reports from the County Counsel's Office, Community Development, Economic Development and Social Services be brought back by the Tuesday, Dec. 3 meeting, in order for the board to make a decision by the Dec. 10 deadline.
At that time, the board will consider its options – including whether to accept the initiative as an ordinance or to place it before county voters next June.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Denise Rushing, however, voted against ordering the reports, concluding that the additional information was unlikely to change their minds about putting it on the county ballot.
The group “Save Our Seniors” collected more than 2,500 valid signatures from county voters to qualify the measure for the June 2014 ballot, as Lake County News has reported.
The initiative defines a senior mobile home park as one where 80 percent of the homes have at least one person over age 55; rolls back rents to Jan. 1, 2012; and requires that rent hikes be based on the percent of Social Security benefit increases.
A similar initiative will be decided in Lakeport's next municipal election in November 2014.
Board members on Tuesday voiced concerns about legal challenges, which park owners already have hinted are on the horizon.
“Litigation is always a possibility with these things,” said County Counsel Anita Grant, who added that she needed time to analyze the document and make recommendations on the board's options.
The review, she added, is “more to inform your board as to whether the ordinance as presented is legally sufficient.”
One of the initiative's proponents, Nelson Strasser, urged the board to let the voters decide. He said 100 communities across California have adopted rent control for mobile home parks.
He said park owners are continuing to raise rents and squeeze seniors. “We're going to continue to get poorer and poorer if we don't have some kind of rent control ordinance inhibiting this curve.”
Mary Ann McQueen, who along with husband Jerry owns Northport Trailer Resort outside of Lakeport, said the Lakeport city attorney had identified legal issues with the city's initiative, yet the council chose to put it on the ballot. She encouraged the supervisors to neither put the initiative on the ballot nor accept it.
McQueen said park owners have indicated a willingness to work on long-term leases with tenants. Such a lease was created in a county process several years ago in which McQueen took part.
However, Save Ours Seniors members Heather Powers said that lease does nothing for homeowners, and protects park owners only.
Powers suggested that, with Lake County's large retiree population, senior mobile home rent control will benefit economic development and growth.
Doug Johnson of the Western Manufactured Home Community Association, referring to legal advice given to the Lakeport City Council by its attorney, said there is the option of not putting the initiative on the ballot based on the belief that it's unconstitutional.
Johnson said there are many problems with the initiative, but the main issue is there is no mechanism for park owners to seek a fair rate of return.
Farrington supported simply turning the matter over to voters and, ultimately, letting the courts decide if the initiative is constitutional or not.
Supervisor Rob Brown moved to seek the reports from the county departments, with Supervisor Jim Comstock seconding. Board Chair Jeff Smith joined them in voting for the reports, with Farrington and Rushing voting no.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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