How to resolve AdBlock issue? Leaks discovered in county water system at Lakeside Heights; repairs made, monitoring continues
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Two leaks within the county’s water system were discovered this week as officials continue to try to zero in on what is contributing to a landslide at the Lakeside Heights subdivision.
A second leak detection test that revealed the previously undiscovered leaks was completed on Thursday at the north Lakeport subdivision, according to a Friday evening report from county public information officer Kevin Ingram.
Lakeside Heights, a 29-home subdivision located off of Hill Road, has been the scene of moving earth, several destroyed homes, and many more homes evacuated mandatorily or voluntarily since late March.
Lake County Special Districts, which oversees the public sewer and water systems serving the subdivision, had asked for the second leak detection test due to concerns that continual ground movement over the past month had the potential to compromise the water infrastructure, Ingram said.
A previous leak detection test, conducted on March 25, concluded there were no leaks in the public water system, suggesting instead that there may have been an issue with the homeowners association’s irrigation pipeline, as Lake County News has reported.
The two leaks found this week were both located on Oxford Drive, Ingram said.
He said Special Districts repaired both leaks on Friday.
Ingram added that Special Districts will continue to conduct regular monitoring of its system and perform periodic leak detection tests in order to ensure that continued slide movement does not lead to additional leaks within the existing public water and sewer infrastructure serving the subdivision.
Tom Ruppenthal, vice president of operations for the testing firm Utility Services Associates, oversaw the second round of tests this week.
He characterized the leaks as being “small in the scheme of things,” but added that he couldn’t discuss the testing further and that it would be up to the county to release his full findings.
Subdivision residents Garey Hurn and Randall Fitzgerald said they watched the testing and repairs this week.
The two men said it was estimated that one of the leaks, not far from Fitzgerald’s home, was putting out about 10 gallons of water a minute, with the second leak farther up the hill putting out about 20 gallons a minute.
Based on those amounts, Hurn estimated that during the past 60 days – a timeframe he is using based on the earth movement subdivision residents have reported seeing – the leaks have put out 2.5 million gallons of water into the hillside, which he said equates to roughly 125 swimming pools that contain 20,000 gallons each.
He pointed out that the estimated amount of water that’s saturated the ground is a much greater surface area than the compromised and slipping hillside.
“I’m thinking that volume of water is definitely a major contributing factor” to the landslide, Hurn added.
Scott Spivey, whose home on Lancaster Road slid into a hole that developed in the hillside, said the home had been there since 1985 and there was never a problem.
He’d lived in the gray two story home for 11 years before he started noticing sticking doors, stress cracks on the side of door headers and, then, the most significant damage, including a large crack on the home’s exterior.
Spivey and his wife were given a 48-notice the weekend of March 23 in advance of the home being red-tagged.
“This wasn’t a natural thing,” Spivey said. “There’s something going on there.”
His insurance company won’t cover any of the damage to the home, Spivey said, and that’s causing residents to consider taking legal action elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald – who has watched many of his immediate neighbors move due to voluntary evacuation orders – said Lancaster Road is breaking in two about 50 feet from his home.
“We may have only a couple of weeks before Lancaster is completely gone,” Fitzgerald said.
With the recently identified leaks now being fixed, on Friday fences were put up around the landslide area on Lancaster Road, Fitzgerald said.
Next Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will get another update from county staff on the situation at Lakeside Heights. Hurn said homeowners are planning to meet later that day.
At a previous homeowners meeting held last week, the group gathered names to place on a petition submitted to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office, asking that he declare an emergency in response to the situation.
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Initiative efforts seek rent control for senior mobile home parks in county, city of Lakeport
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Efforts are under way to place initiatives that would implement rent control in senior mobile home parks on upcoming Lakeport and county ballots.
Lakeport resident Nelson Strasser is the chief proponent of the initiative effort in Lakeport, and he has joined forces with the Save Our Seniors Committee, which is working on the countywide initiative. So far, no initiative is under way to govern the city of Clearlake.
City Attorney Steve Brookes and County Counsel Anita Grant both provided ballot titles and summaries for the parallel efforts, and the required legal notices were published.
Strasser said he and the Save Our Senior Committee gathered about 200 signatures – of which he estimated 60 to 70 were for Lakeport residents – last Friday and Saturday, and also registered 10 new voters.
“We’re pretty enthused,” he said, adding that it appeared to be an “easy sell” once they explained their purpose.
The language of the initiatives are, for the most part, similar on their main points, said Strasser, with some minor exceptions.
Both call for rent control to be imposed in senior mobile home parks, which the county measure defines as “one where at least one inhabitant of 80 percent of the mobile homes is over 55 years of age and which has at least two mobile homes.” Strasser’s measure defines such parks as have one inhabitant age 65 or older in 80 percent of the homes.
The two measures also would roll back all rental rates to those in effect on Jan. 1, 2012, and prohibit all space rental increases in senior mobile home parks unless there is an increase in Social Security benefits, and then only to the extent of that percentage increase. Violations would result in misdemeanor penalties in both proposed initiatives.
The measures allow capital improvement costs, including reasonable financing costs, to be passed through to residents in a senior mobile home park only if a majority of homeowners occupying spaces affected by the pass through consent to the improvement. Government-mandated expenses could be passed through to tenants; in the county measure, passing on such costs would require a 90-day written notice.
The county measure requires that space rentals decrease proportionately to any reduction in Social Security benefits; prohibits any rent increase in a senior mobile home park when a tenant moves from a space due to illness, incapacity, death or the sale of the mobile home; and would not apply to leases more than 12 months in duration, to mobile home spaces constructed after 1991 and mobile homes which are not the tenant’s primary residence.
The Lakeport measure would provide “limited exemptions for rent control for mobile home spaces with leases over 12 months in duration, for mobile home spaces constructed after 1991, and where the mobile home space is not the tenant’s principal residence,” and forbid rent increases when a mobile home space is transferred to a new mobile home owner or occupant.
Strasser said he’s aiming to get the Lakeport initiative on the ballot this November, and must collect 415 signatures by July 1.
For the county initiative, Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said it will require a minimum of 2,115 signatures, which is based on a percentage of the total number of ballots cast during the Nov. 2, 2010, gubernatorial election.
Fridley said the county initiative’s proponents have 180 days from April 12 – when they picked up the copy of the final ballot title and summary from her office – to collect the necessary signatures.
They have not so far requested a special election, which Fridley said would require them to collect a greater number of signatures. She said there is not enough time for them to get on the November ballot, so if they make their deadline it would go on the next statewide election ballot, which would be in June 2014.
The origins of the effort
Strasser purchased a mobile home in Fairgrounds Village Senior Park in Lakeport more than a year ago.
He began spearheading a rent control movement after the park’s new owners began to implement large rent increases, including a recent 7.5-percent hike. He said that raised his rent from $330 to $355 each month.
He said there are no limits on the amount of rent that can be increased at a time, with only a 90-day notice required.
For many seniors in the parks, Strasser said they don’t have a means to go elsewhere if the rents get too high, and called the high rent increases “vulture capitalism.”
Strasser circulated a petition among fellow park residents, getting between 40 and 50 signatures, and then, during citizen’s input at a Lakeport City Council meeting last August, he asked the council to consider implementing rent control in senior mobile home parks. However, the council since has taken no action to hold a separate discussion on the matter.
He wanted to pursue an initiative, and said he met with City Manager Margaret Silveira and Brookes, who asked him to come up with an alternative, so he called the owner of his park and asked if they would commit to a year of not raising space rents.
Strasser said the park’s owner never called back – he’s still not heard from them – and he decided to move forward on the initiative, which he crafted based on successful initiatives elsewhere. It would form the basis, with some minor changes, for the county initiative, according to Save Our Seniors Committee member Heather Powers.
Powers, a resident at Sterling Shores Estates in north Lakeport, said she became involved in the county initiative effort after being involved with the attempt to negotiate a fair rent contract with the park owner, which she said has raised rents there about 44 percent over a seven-year period.
After finding out about Strasser’s plans, she said the idea came up to pursue a countywide initiative, using language similar to Strasser’s. Eventually, the Save Our Seniors Committee was formed in April, growing out of a homeowners association group.
Brookes said he has concerns about the constitutionality of Strasser’s initiative, specifically, because of due process concerns, retroactivity and issue of “taking” from the property owners.
Strasser believes the measure will hold up, and said he doesn’t see evidence of a taking.
Eric Johnson, spokesman for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, said rent control is a complex issue.
“There are some state rules on how rent control is implemented,” he said.
While state Housing and Community Development has jurisdiction for mobile home parks in relation to making sure they adhere to codes and standards – and provide livable standards including sewer and trash collection – “We don’t enforce the rent control,” Johnson said.
That leaves it up to the jurisdictions. Brookes said there are administrative complexities for the jurisdictions where rent control is implemented, and he expects that the city of Lakeport – and, separately, the county – would need to create bureaucracies to track whether rent control rules were being implemented and followed.
This isn’t the first time that some kind of rent control effort has taken place in Lakeport. In 1988 there was an effort to get an initiative on the ballot to require the city to implement a rent control committee, but that ultimately failed. Brookes said he doesn’t recall any other rent control efforts in the city.
“There’s a lot of municipalities that have rent control,” said Strasser, explaining that many are tied to the Consumer Price Index.
The local measures are tied to Social Security increases, which relies on a weighted CPI, which Strasser considered the most fair approach.
The city of Ukiah has a rent stabilization ordinance in place for mobile homes, as do dozens of other jurisdictions around the state, including Alameda, Sonoma and Ventura counties, and the cities of Calistoga, Concord, Cotati, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Novato, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Sonoma, according to a list provided by the San Luis Obispo Mobilehome Residents Assistance Panel.
A minority of areas, including San Luis Obispo County, the cities of Cathedral City, Delano, East Palo Alto, Escondido, Hemet, Indio, Lancaster, Rancho Mirage, Rohnert Park and Santa Monica, had rent control implemented through initiative, based on the panel’s list.
Weighing issues for parks
According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, there are about 100 mobile home and RV parks in all of Lake County – including the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake. Available mobile home spaces in the parks range from as few as two spaces up to as many as 158.
Regarding the many parks in the county’s jurisdiction, Powers said the committee hasn’t directly identified all of the parks where the initiative would apply other than Sterling Shores. The owners of that park – Shamrock Millco-Sterling Shores LLC of Paradise Valley, Ariz. – did not respond to a call seeking comment from Lake County News.
In addition to his own park, among the parks in Lakeport that Strasser identified as fitting the senior mobile home park definition was Lakeport Lagoons on South Main Street.
Manager Paula Duggan said she didn’t think the initiative was necessary as, in the case of her park, “We always try to keep it well below the CPI.”
Duggan added, “There’s times that we don’t raise the rent for three or four years because we’re trying to be fair to the residents.”
She acknowledged that some people have come to her park from Sterling Shores because of high land leases there, and said some mobile home park owners are looking to get rich and price out residents. That’s not the case with Arton Inc. of Redwood City, which owns Lakeport Lagoons, she said.
Northport Trailer Resort in the county doesn’t fit the definition of a senior mobile home park, but Mary Ann McQueen, who along with husband Jerry has owned the park since 1988, is familiar with efforts to stabilize rents.
The McQueens, whose park has 26 mobile home spaces as well as 20 RV spots, were among the park owners who signed onto a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors in September 2008 calling for rent stabilization for all of the county’s mobile home residents.
She said Sterling Shores – which had been a proponent of the measure – ultimately didn’t sign on to that effort.
That 2008 agreement called for maximum rental increase of between 3 and 7 percent at a time, she said.
“I understand their frustration,” McQueen said of tenants who have formed to address high rents.
However, she cautioned that rent control measures have been expensive to implement in jurisdictions where they have been adopted.
She said park owners also have to contend with ever-increasing costs, among them, water and sewer, repairs, construction and hiring.
Strasser said the initiative proponents plan to be at local grocery stores and other locations gathering signatures on Fridays and Saturdays. Those who want to volunteer to assist can contact him at
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Clearlake City Council to discuss additional public comment opportunities at meetings
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – At its meeting this week the Clearlake City Council will discuss the Brown Act as it relates to public comment given during certain portions of council meetings.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 9, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The main item of business is a followup discussion regarding a Brown Act-related question brought up at the council's April 25 meeting.
A community member had wanted to respond to City Manager Joan Phillipe's verbal report at the meeting, which it was said at the time was not a discussion item and that the Brown Act provision for public comment didn't seem to apply. However, Phillipe said she would inquire with the city attorney.
In a report for the council's Thursday night meeting, Phillipe explained that the city attorney was apprised of the issue and agreed that staff's response was generally correct, however, “because the reports do actually appear on the agenda as a place holder of sorts, that arguably there is a right for the public to make comment.”
Phillipe said the city attorney recommended changing the agenda to make city manager and council member reports one agenda item and provide opportunity for public comment after all of the reports have been given.
In other business on Thursday, Police Chief Craig Clausen will present a citizens commendation.
Items on the consent agenda include minutes of the Feb. 28 and March 14 and March 28 council meetings; the second reading of Ordinance No. 2013-160, which amends Chapter 2, Section 2-1.2 of the code as it relates to council member salaries; receipt of notice of a rate increase from Clearlake Waste Solutions, effective July l, 2013; receipt of notice of rate increase from Mediacom; receipt of notice from Lake County Vector Control regarding mosquito spraying; receipt of notice from Lake County Water Resources regarding aquatic plant management on Clear Lake for the 2013 season.
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Supervisors hear of more damage discovered at Lakeside Heights subdivision
LAKEPORT, Calif. – More moving earth and signs of new cracking pavement at the Lakeside Heights subdivision in north Lakeport are creating new problems for residents and county officials.
On Tuesday morning the Board of Supervisors heard another update on the subdivision, where seven of the 29 homes have been red-tagged due to landslide damage and six more have been voluntarily evacuated since late in March.
The Tuesday report pointed to new concerns, with Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger telling the board that new fissures are opening up in previously unaffected parts of the subdivision, with pavement on another of the neighborhood's streets starting to separate.
There also has been new movement noted to the northwest, which has even surprised the geotechnical engineer hired to investigate the ground movement, Dellinger said.
On April 16, the Board of Supervisors declared an emergency in response to the situation at the subdivision, with Public Works Director Scott De Leon named incident commander late last month.
He said the primary focus has been to get water and sewer infrastructure bypassed out of the slide zone. “That effort is nearly complete,” De Leon said, adding that Pacific Gas and Electric also has moved an oil-filled transformer.
De Leon said they are trying to keep as many people in their homes as long as possible.
Dellinger said a number of county departments are monitoring the situation on a daily basis.
He said two new manholes have been installed and long-term design the for relocation of utilities is under way.
“This is a very dynamic situation” he said.
Dellinger said his department is trying to schedule another leak test to find out where the water saturating the ground is originating.
On Monday the county submitted a request to the California Emergency Management Agency to cover additional geotechnical work at a cost of $43,000; Dellinger said they want to be able to define the area of unstable ground so they can design infrastructure solutions.
He said if CalEMA decides to fund the request, it's likely that staff from other state agencies will be brought in to assist in the investigation.
Since the landslide began in late March, the county has spent about $81,000 in materials and labor, not counting design work, at Lakeside Heights, said Dellinger.
De Leon said they are still trying to zero in on the water source that seems to be exacerbating the shifting ground. “The question is, what's the source, what's the cause?”
He said Special Districts had done its own leak test previously and found that its own system wasn't leaking, and yet water is continuing to come out of the hillside.
De Leon said contingency plans are in place should the subdivision need to be evacuated or if the landslide moves further and blocks nearby Hill Road.
He said that on Monday, state Sen. Noreen Evans' staff contacted the county to ask for information about the situation.
The subdivision's residents have contacted state officials – including Evans and Gov. Jerry Brown – to lobby for a state emergency declaration, as Lake County News reported on Tuesday.
De Leon said the county still isn't certain of where a state emergency declaration is in the pipeline.
Capt. Chris Macedo of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said he had received word early that morning that CalEMA may approve the request for county funding to investigate the landslide source.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he visited the subdivision Monday night, and in a week's time there was a noticeable change, and not for the good. “It's very concerning to me.”
He said letters have been sent to state and federal legislators and Evans already had completed her letter. There remains a question about whether the landslide and the damaged homes will meet the state's emergency threshold.
US Sen. Dianne Feinstein's staff is sending a member to tour the subdivision on Thursday, Farrington said.
Farrington added that he believed there needed to be further hydrological analysis of the area, where wells had been dug years ago and old water lines may be in place.
Supervisor Denise Rushing asked about the new spots of cracking earth. Dellinger said new fissures appeared in an empty lot at 5427 Lancaster Road, the roadway along which most of the damaged homes have been located.
At that spot a contractor also dug a hole and found what looked like unconsolidated material from the fault plane. Dellinger also pointed to separating concrete on Oxford Drive, which raised the question of how much farther the ground movement can extend.
Dellinger said that when a work crew was construction a manhole, they found a lot of groundwater. He said the county's infrastructure pipes tend to act like French drains – a fact pointed out last week by resident Randall Fitzgerald, who had observed some of the manhole excavations. Dellinger also noted that flowing out of the ground in the area of Downing Drive appears to have been diminished.
Rushing questioned if the ground movement could be damaging pipes in new places and causing new leaks. Dellinger said that concern is one reason why they want to do another leak test.
Fitzgerald told the board that despite signage asking all but residents not to enter the subdivision due to safety concerns, they're getting visits from curious onlookers.
De Leon told the board that while it may be distasteful, the county needs to consider the worst case scenario, including if no state aid is made available.
County staff is scheduled to continue bringing the board weekly updates on the subdivision.
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Lakeside Heights residents petition state for emergency declaration
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following the Board of Supervisors’ declaration last month of a local emergency in response to a landslide that has destroyed several homes at the Lakeside Heights subdivision, residents of the hilltop cluster of homes are petitioning the state for an emergency declaration.
Citing the Board of Supervisors’ April 16 emergency action, last Friday residents of the north Lakeport subdivision sent a petition asking for a state emergency declaration to state Assemblymember Mariko Yamada and state Sen. Noreen Evans, according to homeowner Randall Fitzgerald.
Yamada’s office reported to Fitzgerald that the petition subsequently was forwarded to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office.
The 29-home subdivision, located off of Hill Road across from Sutter Lakeside Hospital, has been the site of a devastating landslide, which since late March has destroyed several homes, as Lake County News has reported.
The county reported that, so far, seven homes have been red-tagged, requiring mandatory evacuations, and six other families were given voluntary evacuation notices.
In addition, county sewer and water infrastructure has been damaged, and the landslide is threatening Hill Road. County officials said they have created emergency ingress and egress plans should the landslide block the roads.
Fitzgerald said the earth is continuing to move and residents’ insurance companies are refusing to cover the damaged homes, claiming it is a subsidence issue of undetermined cause.
Lake County News contacted the Governor’s Office on Monday to inquire where the consideration of the emergency declaration is currently.
Kelly Huston of the California Emergency Management Agency responded to the inquiry.
“We are still evaluating the request and working with the county and other agencies to determine the extent of damage possible remedies, etc.,” Huston said in an email message. “So at this point no final determination has been made.”
Huston said the agency’s regional staff “has been working hard to get a handle on this problem.”
In the meantime, Fitzgerald also used Facebook to ask for community support for the emergency disaster declaration.
He asked that people contact the Governor’s Office by filling out a contact form at http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php ; scroll down and hit “general” as the subject.
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