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Lakeport Police logs: Saturday, Jan. 10
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
00:00 EXTRA PATROL 2601100001
Occurred at Lake County Law Library on 3D....
Lakeport City Council selects new mayor, mayor pro tem
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday evening selected the new mayor and mayor pro tem for 2014.
Kenny Parlet was elected mayor, with Martin Scheel selected as mayor pro tem.
“That was the last thing I expected to have happen tonight,” said Parlet following his nomination, explaining that he had believed Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Mattina would be mayor.
Before the council reorganization, outgoing Mayor Tom Engstrom said it had been an honor to represent the city as mayor over the past year, and thanked City Manager Margaret Silveira and Kelly Buendia the city's human resources/administrative services director, for their help.
“Someone's life is going to get a whole lot busier,” he said.
Engstrom added, “This is a great city council. I have loved serving with all of them.”
Councilman Marc Spillman nominated both Parlet and Scheel for the new jobs.
Despite his initial surprise at the nomination, Parlet said he would accept. “I'm here to serve, absolutely.”
Both Parlet and Scheel were elected in unanimous votes.
Following the votes, Engstrom and Mattina exchanged seats with Parlet and Scheel, respectively.
“That's one step closer to the door,” Engstrom quipped.
One of the council's main items of discussion was time limits for temporary commercial signs, such as banners and feather signs.
Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton took the matter to the council, explaining that it was a matter of aesthetics and community character.
The Lakeport Planning Commission had discussed the issue in November. It recommended sending out a form letter to businesses in January asking for voluntary compliance with the 30-day display
limit and advising business owners who use temporary signs as their permanent signage that they must install a permanent sign by May 1.
Britton wanted to know if the council approved of this direction or wanted to pursue other measures.
Lakeport businesswoman Nancy Ruzicka supported enforcing city signage rules, telling the council, “We really need to clean up our signage around town.”
Britton said city staff was more than willing to work with new businesses that want to use banners for short periods of time. However, some businesses had been using such temporary signs for years.
“We should be aiming for something a little bit better,” Britton said.
Engstrom liked the strategy that the planning commission recommended, noting that at first he had mixed emotions when the matter came up.
“We lose so many businesses every year,” said Engstrom, adding that he was in favor of doing everything possible to help them stay in business.
Parlet said he has a very serious problem with most of the city's business signage, but mostly because of signs that were in disrepair or otherwise not maintained. “People don't even realize how they're hurting their own business.”
He suggested they needed a broad plan on how to educate people about how important signs are.
Mattina moved to direct staff to send out the letter to business owners as recommended by the planning commission, with the council voting 5-0.
In other news, the council awarded a water tank repair and recoating project – which City Engineer Scott Harter said was one component of a larger multifaceted US Department of Agriculture-funded project – to Farr Construction of Sparks Nev. The bid was $948,262.
The council also awarded a bid for two new Public Works utility vehicles to Corning Ford for just over $82,500.
The winners of the annual holiday light contests were honored, and the council reappointed George Spurr to the Lake County Vector Control District Board; appointed Paula Duggan, Christine Hutt, Taira St. John and George Linn to the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Council; and appointed Suzanne Russell, Ann Blue and Cindy Ustrud to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
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Supervisors approve marijuana cultivation ordinance, direct staff to work on new dispensary rules
LAKEPORT, Calif. – In its final meeting of the year, the Lake County Board of Supervisors voted to accept a new medical marijuana cultivation ordinance that will tighten growing rules in communities and also impose limits on indoor grows.
In a unanimous vote, the board approved the ordinance, which they acknowledged wasn't perfect. However, they wanted to have a body of law in place to address concerns including nuisance complaints in neighborhoods, increased crime and environmental damage.
“We have struggled with this for years,” Board Chair Jeff Smith said of the marijuana issue, with Supervisor Denise Rushing adding that the matter is “impossible” to deal with.
The new ordinance, which goes into effect in 30 days and applies only to the unincorporated areas of the county, bans outdoor cultivation in community growth boundaries, maps of which can be found at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Community_Development/documents/2008FinGP.htm?PageMode=Print .
It also places limits on indoor cultivation, which under the interim ordinance isn't regulated. Such grows now must be 100 square feet or less, with lighting limited to 1,200 watts.
Outdoor cultivation cannot take place within 1,000 feet of any school, playground, drug or alcohol rehabilitation facility, child care facility or nursery school, church or youth-oriented facility, or within 100 feet of any spring, top of the bank of any creek or seasonal stream, edge of lake, delineated wetland or vernal pool.
Plant numbers on parcels larger than one acre outside of community growth boundaries are limited to six mature or 12 immature plants, and quicker abatements – in some cases within five days, or less in an emergency – are possible, with the Lake County Sheriff's Office responsible for enforcement.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said the more stringent measures were in response to an increase in community complaints and damage to property.
The board held a special evening meeting at the Lake County Fairgrounds on Dec. 10, receiving three hours of public input before closing the public hearing.
As such, at Tuesday's meeting the board did not entertain more public comment, instead focusing on deliberations and getting additional information from staff.
In a rare action, the board approved the ordinance after one reading, rather than two, which usually is required for ordinances.
However, County Counsel Anita Grant said that because the document is a zoning ordinance, it could be approved in just one reading following a noticed public hearing.
The supervisors expect that the new ordinance will be challenged by a referendum, which opponents of the measure already have indicated they are preparing.
“Whatever we create is going to be challenged,” said Supervisor Anthony Farrington, adding, “I think this is the soul of the county that we're fighting for here.”
In 2011, a previous medical marijuana cultivation ordinance and an ordinance governing dispensaries were challenged by referendums. The board later withdrew both ordinances.
As a result, today no dispensaries continue to operate in the unincorporated county because, according to county officials, if the use is not specifically included in the zoning ordinance, it's not legal.
However, along with approving the new cultivation ordinance, the board directed staff to bring back a dispensaries ordinance – a suggestion also made in November by the Lake County Planning Commission when it recommended the cultivation ordinance to the board.
Supervisor Rob Brown proposed using the dispensaries ordinance that the board had accepted but later withdrew due to the referendum as a starting point.
Coel told the board he believed he could integrate a dispensaries ordinance with the new cultivation ordinance.
Staff urges strengthening rules
During the meeting, Coel urged the board to accept the tightened guidelines. “We have a very relaxed cultivation ordinance,” he said, noting many other governments are making their own rules more stringent.
“The more they tighten up and the less we do, the more influx of people you are going to have,” Coel said, adding those newcomers don't care about the environmental damage they are causing.
“It's like gold mining, it's resource extraction,” and creating massive enforcement challenges for Community Development and the sheriff's office, Coel said.
Brown suggested the available land in Lake County is enough to supply the legitimate medical need for the drug.
Rushing called the environmental devastation that's resulted from marijuana growing “tragic” and something the county will be dealing with for generations. She said this damage would be an event in Clear Lake's environmental history that they would look back on and ask, “How did we let that continue?”
Coel said there is such a disconnect between the state and federal governments on the marijuana issue that it isn't an option for the county to offer a variance or permitting process for legitimate growers.
Grant added that a number of jurisdictions have been threatened by the federal government for attempting to establish permitting processes. The federals agencies, she said, “won't work for the inevitable outcome of simply legalizing it,” adding that Mendocino County has run into problems with the federal government regarding marijuana.
Smith said that if people who voted for Proposition 215 knew what it would end up being, they would never have voted for it.
Supervisor Jim Comstock said growing as it currently is taking place in the county is taking away the rights of those who don't grow marijuana to enjoy their property.
He also observed that some people who had called the interim ordinance “draconian” when it was adopted last year have since urged the board to keep it in place rather than adopting the new regulations.
Referring to the gathering at the fairgrounds last week, Brown said the marijuana advocates there represented people who have come to Lake County only to grow marijuana.
“I wish they wouldn't have come. I wish they would leave,” he said. “I'm not here for them.”
Responding to advocates' arguments about the money marijuana can bring to the county, Brown raised the issue of all of the money needed to mitigate the environmental problems.
Marijuana, Brown pointed out, has been grown in Lake County forever, but people didn't start complaining about it until it was being grown in town.
“It brings with it a culture that we don't want in Lake County,” he said.
In response to criticism marijuana advocates offered at previous meetings regarding the winegrape industry, Brown said that industry is heavily regulated. Winegrapes also have contributed a lot to Lake County, he added.
He reminded his colleagues that he hadn't supported the interim ordinance because it allows marijuana grows in residential areas.
Brown said the board's options included accepting the proposed rules or just giving up, adding he wasn't going to concede. “I'm not going to sell Lake County out.”
He asked his colleagues to all support the ordinance. “For me, Lake County is not for sale.”
Rushing said she believed the ordinance could be a whole lot better than it is. However, she said she was horrified by the growing activities taking place in neighborhoods and the watershed, and so she didn't want to see no regulation at all.
To get her vote, Rushing said she wanted to see an ordinance to allow dispensaries to be reopened, which Brown said he was open to considering as he had been previously.
Brown moved to accept the ordinance, which the board accepted 5-0.
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121013 Board of Supervisors - Proposed Marijuana Cultivation Ordinance
City of Lakeport looks for best uses for Carnegie Library, seeks study proposals
LAKEPORT, Calif. – As it continues to explore future uses for the historic Carnegie Library, the city of Lakeport is inviting proposals from firms or individuals interested in conducting a feasibility study of the building.
City officials are requesting proposals from qualified consultants, building and site design professionals, architects, engineers, economic development and marketing consultants, or similar professionals interested in completing the feasibility study.
The library, owned by the city, opened in 1918 on the shore of Clear Lake, with Library Park later developed around it.
The Classical Revival style building was made possible by an $8,000 grant to the community given in 1914 by Scottish steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, according to the Carnegie Libraries of California Web site, http://www.carnegie-libraries.org/ .
Carnegie and his corporation built 144 libraries across California and more than 1,500 more across the United States between 1889 and 1923, the Web site said.
The library was placed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 2008.
In more recent years the library has been used by the city of Lakeport for offices and storage, and isn't currently open for public use.
The Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee formed an ad hoc committee to consider uses for the building.
Earlier this year Carol Hays, then-executive director of the Lakeport Main Street Association, completed an application for a $5,000 Hart Family Fund for Small Towns grant through the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help fund a building study.
The city reported that it recently was notified that it received the grant which, along with $5,000 in matching city funds, will be used to hire a qualified professional firm to conduct the feasibility study to determine the current highest and best use of the building.
Anyone interested in submitting a proposal can download one from the city's Web site, http://www.cityoflakeport.com/hot-details.aspx?id=153 .
Additionally, questions and inquiries should be directed to City Manager Margaret Silveira, City of Lakeport, 225 Park St., Lakeport, CA 95453; telephone 707-263-5615, Extension 32; or email
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Judge rules plaintiff in marijuana lawsuit against county not entitled to legal fees
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lake County judge has ruled that a man who sued the county last year over its temporary medical marijuana cultivation ordinance is not entitled to legal fees in the case.
Retired Lake County Superior Court Judge Arthur Mann filed the decision on Dec. 11, ruling that Don Merrill's request for attorney's fees and costs didn't meet the criteria.
Merrill's attorney, Joseph Elford, did not respond to messages left by Lake County News seeking comment.
County Counsel Anita Grant said Merrill originally requested $145,320. He later submitted a supplemental request to the court, which court documents showed sought another 19.9 hours of compensation at $500 per hour, increasing the total amount by nearly $10,000 more.
Merrill and three anonymous plaintiffs filed suit against the county in July 2012, days after the Board of Supervisors passed the temporary ordinance limiting plant numbers according to parcel size. They contended that that the ordinance's limits were not enough to satisfy their medical needs.
Merrill had been a member of a county-appointed advisory board working to create a permanent marijuana cultivation ordinance. Shortly after his suit was filed, the Board of Supervisors disbanded the group, citing the lawsuit as one of the reasons.
In August 2012, Judge David Herrick granted Merrill and his co-plaintiffs a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ordinance, ruling that anyone with plants in the ground by the time the ordinance was passed – and who was growing in accordance with Proposition 215 – should be able to complete the growing season.
Herrick emphasized that the injunction was limited, and that its protections were up by Jan. 1 of this year.
The case did not get to the permanent injunction phase, with since-retired Senior County Counsel Bob Bridges filing a motion for summary judgment this spring.
The day Merrill's response to the summary judgment filing was due – June 13 – the case was dropped, according to court records. At that time, Merrill was the last plaintiff remaining in the case.
The case was dropped about a month after the California Supreme Court issued a decision in the City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Inc., which upheld the land use planning powers of local governments.
Later in the summer Merrill filed the request for attorney's fees, according to court records.
Bridges and the county argued that Herrick had based his preliminary injunction decision on a decision in a case that has since been rejected by the higher courts. As such, the county claimed that Merrill wasn't the prevailing party and so couldn't receive costs and fees because of a faulty judgment.
Mann's decision did not go into detail, only noting that Merrill's request did not meet required criteria for reimbursement requests.
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