How to resolve AdBlock issue? Farrington withdraws from state Assembly race
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After becoming the first person to officially throw his hat into the ring to succeed Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, Lake County Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he is withdrawing from the race for the Fourth District Assembly seat.
“Even though my family, friends, and supporters, in particular my wife, have been supportive of my candidacy, I have decided that the time is not right for me to seek higher office,” he said.
In March the 43-year-old Farrington – who has represented District 4 on the Lake County Board of Supervisors since 2001 –announced his plans to seek the Assembly seat in the 2014 race, when Yamada is termed out.
The seat covers all of Napa and Lake counties, most of Yolo County, and portions of Solano, Sonoma and Colusa counties.
Since Farrington announced his plans in March, a number of candidates have joined the field, including Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd, Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza, Napa County Planning Commissioner Matt Pope and Davis Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk.
Farrington said Wednesday that he's decided it's time to leave the race, and he plans to continue to dedicate time to addressing local issues.
Those local issues Farrington wants to concentrate on include the need to find ongoing revenue to better manage Clear Lake and the watershed, and moving forward with the Board of Supervisors' current application to secure surface water rights to Clear Lake.
Farrington said he also wants to continue serving on the Marymount University Advisory Committee – Marymount is opening a new campus at the Lucerne Hotel – and see Konocti Harbor Resort reopened.
There also is the work of upgrading the county's antiquated infrastructure, completing the $15 million road project in the South Main/Soda Bay corridor and continuing to represent the residents affected by the landslide in the Lakeside Heights subdivision in north Lakeport.
Farrington said his campaign hadn't begun fundraising but he nevertheless received generous donations from residents and businesses, and he said he will return the funds.
He thanked everyone who believed in, and supported, his candidacy for state Assembly.
“I will forever be grateful for your faith in me,” Farrington said.
To read Farrington's full statement on his reasons for leaving the race, click here: http://bit.ly/1g9BZ1v .
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County senior mobile home park rent control proponents to submit signatures to elections office
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The group that for several months has collected signatures to put a senior mobile home park rent control initiative before county voters plans to submit the signatures to the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office on Friday afternoon.
The Save Our Seniors Committee has collected more than 3,500 signatures, said committee member Heather Powers.
The committee collected a sizable cushion against invalid signatures; they needed a minimum of 2,115 signatures, according to the Registrar of Voters Office.
The proposed measure would define a senior mobile home park as one where 80 percent of the homes have at least one person over age 55; roll back rents to Jan. 1, 2012; and require that rent hikes be based on the percent of Social Security benefit increases.
The proposed county initiative differs slightly in language from a similar measure that has qualified for the ballot in the city of Lakeport.
The Lakeport City Council voted last month to put the Lakeport measure on the ballot for the next municipal election, which occurs in November 2014, as Lake County News has reported.
If it qualifies for the ballot, the county initiative would go before voters in June 2014, Powers said.
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Lakeport City Council approves delaying next sewer rate increase until July 2014
LAKEPORT, Calif. – In a brief Tuesday evening meeting, the Lakeport City Council – sitting jointly as the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District – approved waiting until next summer to implement the city's next sewer rate increase.
Public Works Director Mark Brannigan went to the council to ask for clarification on when the council members wanted the next sewer rate increase to take place.
Exactly one year ago – on Oct. 2. – the council approved water and sewer rate increases for city residents, as Lake County News has reported.
The water rates went into effect in January, but the council had directed staff to delay the sewer rates until July 1 in order to look into ways to assist the commercial customer classification with volume charges, which was completed this summer.
The resolution passed last year that instituted the new sewer rates set up a schedule that called for the next increase to be in January 2014.
Brannigan asked the council members to decide if they wanted to keep the increases on a yearly basis or go ahead and raise the rates again after six months.
The council voted unanimously to keep the sewer rate increases on an annual schedule, meaning the next increase will come in July 2014.
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Demolition of damaged homes at Lakeside Heights begins
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Monday afternoon, Scott Spivey looked on as an excavator tore through the walls of the Tudor-style home he and wife Robin had shared in the Lakeside Heights subdivision.
The home, located on Lancaster Road, was perched on a hillside over Hill Road with a view of Clear Lake. Built in 1985, it had been the couple's home for 11 years when cracks in the structure began to appear last spring.
The home eventually would be split in half and fall into a hole that resulted from a landslide, the cause of which is still a source of debate between subdivision residents and county officials.
The Spiveys had to leave after the county red-tagged the home on the weekend of March 23, forcing them to move out within 48 hours.
Eventually, seven structures would be red-tagged and other residents would leave based on voluntary evacuation notices the county issued, with about half of the residents in the 29-home subdivision moving out.
Late this summer, the county Community Development Department moved forward with abatements of the most severely damaged homes, including the Spivey home.
At the Sept. 17 Board of Supervisors meeting, Community Development Department Director Rick Coel told the board that he was pursuing the abatement of two structures – the Spivey home and a nearby duplex.
Having the structures out of the way, Coel said, would make recontouring the soil – part of the process to winterize the landslide area – an easier task.
On Monday, Coleman Construction – which received the county contract for demolishing the two structures – got to work taking the homes down.
Company owner Tracy Coleman said he had until Oct. 15 to remove the structures, do the soil contouring and cover the slide area above Hill Road with plastic.
The county's goal is to keep the landslide area dry and prevent the ground movement from starting again.
Randall Fitzgerald, the president of the subdivision's homeowners association, said the county sent him an abatement notice last week for the association's property above Hill Road.
The notice gave the association 48 hours to mitigate the slide area, and Fitzgerald said they let the deadline lapse, which means the county now will move forward with the abatement.
Fitzgerald told the supervisors at their Sept. 17 meeting that the association had limited funds and was doing what it could to deal with the slide.
However, he pointed out, “Every single homeowner feels that we are not responsible for the damage that has been inflicted on our neighborhood.”
It's unclear who ultimately will pay for the abatements. When the county takes over an abatement process, the property owner usually is billed.
However, the property owners maintain that the county's water system was responsible for causing the landslide, and that's what they alleged in 45 tort claims filed against the county in July.
The county's third party liability administrator denied those claims, which opens the door for the property owners to file a lawsuit within a six-month window.
Michael Green, an attorney with the Santa Rosa law firm Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery, represents the property owners.
He told Lake County News that the property owners intend to file a single lawsuit against the county in order to recoup their losses – from destruction of homes to lost property value.
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Council to consider delaying Lakeport sewer charge increases
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council will consider delaying its sewer rate increases when it meets this week.
The council meeting, which also is a joint meeting with the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District, will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The main item of business for the council is a proposed resolution to delay the increase in monthly service charge increases for sewer rates from Jan. 1, 2014, to July 1, 2014.
Last October, the city council, sitting jointly as the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District Board, adopted a resolution to establish new sewer rates, fees and charges, as Lake County News has reported.
Public Works Director Mark Brannigan's report for the meeting explains that the council directed staff to postpone the implementation date for the rate increase to July 1 and look into ways to assist the commercial customer classification for the required volume charge.
At the July 16 council meeting, the council passed Resolution No. 2478 was passed to provide the commercial customer with 10 units of usage before a volume charge was applied, Brannigan said.
Brannigan said that although the council directed the initial sewer rate increase to occur on July 1, “its direction to staff regarding the future annual increases was ambiguous” and Resolution No. 2463 (2012) and Resolution No. 2478 (2013) included Jan. 1, 2014 as the next scheduled increase.
The proposed resolution provides a full 12 months between the July 1 implementation of the sewer rate increases by amending Resolution No. 2463 (2012) and Resolution No. 2478 (2013), Brannigan said.
He said the proposed resolution would provide an additional six months and have the proposed rate increase on July 1, 2014, and continuing on July 1 thereafter through 2017.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted on one vote – are ordinances; the warrant register for Sept. 18; minutes of the Sept. 17 meeting; review and approve the city’s response to the 2012-13 Lake County Civil Grand Jury Oversight report regarding the Lakeport Police Department; approve Application 2013-017 for the Clear Lake High School Homecoming parade on Oct. 11; approve Application 2013-018 for the Harvest Revelation Block Party on Mellor Drive, sponsored by the Eternally Wired Youth Ministry on Oct. 31.
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