How to resolve AdBlock issue? Supervisors discuss urgency ordinance to address marijuana cultivation
LAKEPORT, Calif. – An interim urgency ordinance is expected to appear before the Board of Supervisors in two weeks in order to temporarily address major health and safety issues with marijuana cultivation around the county.
That was the outcome of a two-hour discussion the Board of Supervisors held Tuesday afternoon as it began to formulate direction for county staff on how to handle the escalating problems during the cultivation season.
Community Development Director Rick Coel said he would come back with something along the lines of three outdoor plants in community growth boundaries – with three plants allowed indoors – or up to six outdoor plants outside of those boundaries. No grows would be allowed on vacant parcels.
He said the hope would be that a cultivation ordinance advisory committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors would be able to continue its work.
During the two hour discussion board members heard from a large number of residents from around the county – including many who made the drive from Middletown – about their concerns over how large marijuana grows have deteriorated their quality of life and safety, destroyed property values, increased criminal activity, and led to the injury or death of pets and livestock.
Board Chair Rob Brown said the board needed to address the county’s “obvious problems” with marijuana cultivation, the sooner the better. “The voters want something done.”
Supervisor Jim Comstock said there has been an explosion in the number of grows west of Middletown.
“It’s an epidemic,” he said, adding, “We need to deal with it right here, right now.”
Supervisor Denise Rushing, who along with Supervisor Anthony Farrington sits on the cultivation advisory committee, said that group for the most part unanimously agreed that “mercenary grows” needed to be addressed.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said environmental concerns need to be handled, too, adding that the county had backed off of enforcing rules against marijuana as it would have done against winegrapes.
Coel said his department could quickly address RV occupancy on vacant parcels where grows are located. However, they can’t remove the plants.
He said there needed to be an ordinance that clearly prohibits commercial grows and gives the sheriff’s office more enforcement ability, including plant removal. Coel said there also needed to be a plant limit for residential areas.
Smith wanted a provision requiring written permission from a property owner to allow renters to grow, stating there are liability issues now due to the federal crackdown.
Coel said the advisory committee has been working very hard. “I’m impressed with the progress they’ve made to date.”
He said both his department and the sheriff’s office have strategies for moving forward.
“We are going to start hitting things pretty hard here, but an interim ordinance would make a big difference,” Coel said.
Farrington said the advisory committee had been concerned about the board trying to resurrect its cultivation ordinance, and he didn’t want the process derailed.
A wide variety of concerns
Rob Rosenthal, a Middletown doctor on the advisory committee, agreed that they needed to target the large commercial grows and grows on vacant lands – “the people who are gaming the system and the people who are aware they’re breaking the law” – but he believed the sheriff’s office could do that already, without an urgency ordinance.
He also was concerned about property owner consent for grows, and told the board that the state guaranteed at least six plants.
“A lot of people don’t need more than two or three plants,” he said, but that’s provided they know how to grow.
Rosenthal said he thought six plants were enough. At a pound of pot per plant, Rosenthal said that amounts to a quarter ounce a day, which is probably twice the amount that most people use.
“I am never offended when people are arrested for violating state law,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal said he was the lone dissenter in a Monday advisory committee vote on allowing up to three plants outdoors on smaller residential lots because he wanted the group to pass something that’s “bulletproof.”
Smith brought up complaints from his constituents about odor. Rosenthal acknowledged, “I wish that marijuana didn’t smell. That would solve a lot of problems.”
Several Middletown residents told the board of their concerns about the increasing number of grows, and their frustration in watching their neighborhoods be taken over with dangerous activity.
“I know the supervisors are trying, I know that. I know you tried on your first ordinance,” said Don Blakeslee, a longtime property owner.
He said he can walk away from his property “but that’s not fair,” adding that he’s upset that there seems to be more concern for the growers than residents who they’re victimizing.
Armond Urbano, who is a substance abuse expert, said he’s now dealing with a massive grow next door to his home.
Pointing to the large number of Middletown residents at the meeting – about 400 years’ worth of residency in that town – Urbano asked, “When was the last time you saw us all here?”
He was concerned about damage to his water supply, attacks on animals, danger to children and families, and a host of other concerns.
“We need to all wake up,” he said.
Rushing said there’s no disagreement that something has to be done. “How do we come up with something that will deal with these ridiculous and horrible situations without triggering the initiative process?”
Jack Laird described dealing with violence in his neighborhood, as well as roving dogs belonging to growers that savaged his miniature horses. One of the horses had to be euthanized while the others have required expensive veterinary care.
“Nobody has any responsibility for it,” he said. “They just disappear.”
Brown said there has been an invasion over the last couple of months due to this “idiotic measure” put on the ballot, referring to Measure D, which was defeated by Lake County voters June 5.
Finley resident Phil Murphy asked Coel where the main problems were located in terms of zoning. Brown said the grows are everywhere.
Murphy wanted to know if the board could limit it the grows in scale and zoning to where marijuana wouldn’t be an issue. “The bottom line is, commercial pot grows have to go somewhere,” adding that he thought it should be on agricultural land.
Brown said that’s what the original county ordinance was for, and he’s happy to have growers go somewhere other than Lake County.
Rushing said they could talk all day about everybody’s point of view. “We need to talk about specifics. Making law is really hard.”
Murphy told the board, “Today the criminal element has won again.”
“Because we’re going to do an interim ordinance?” asked Brown
No, said Murphy, rather because he said the county had eliminated the ability for people to cultivate in the right way. Brown said other pot growers were responsible for that.
Lower Lake attorney Ron Green told the board they need to balance peoples’ rights, and he asked the board to respect the rights given to patients by Proposition 215 and SB 420.
Paula Vess of Spring Valley said she’s fought issues with large pot grows next to her property for years.
“We are victims of these terrorists, because that’s what a lot of these people are, whether you want to believe it or not,” she said.
Brown said he’s inclined to do what is best for citizens who have spoken up loud and clear.
“Right now we just need to clean the trash out of Lake County,” he said.
Coel laid out his plans for what he would bring back. Farrington said he would wait to debate the specifics once a draft urgency ordinance came back to the board.
County Counsel Anita Grant also encouraged the board to wait to discuss the specific points Coel was proposing.
“Right now you’re debating something in the abstract,” Grant said.
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Road sales tax measure, smoking ban, panhandling, dogs in parks on council agenda
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will take on several big issues at its meeting this week, including ordinances to address panhandling and allow dogs in parks, consideration of whether to pursue a city park smoking ban and a survey on support for a sales tax ballot measure to improve local roads.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Council members will discuss the results of a polling effort by the Lake County/City Area Planning Council on a proposed countywide sales tax measure to support local road improvement and transportation projects.
A report that will be presented at the Lake County/City Area Planning Council's Wednesday meeting said the polling results are encouraging, showing broad support among several hundred county residents who were surveyed.
City Manager Joan Phillipe will ask the council whether it supports a ban of smoking in all city parks, an item she said was first discussed at the April 12 meeting.
Included in the agenda packet is a copy of the city of Lakeport's ordinance banning smoking in parks, enacted in 2006. After meeting with Police Chief Craig Clausen, Phillipe said he favored an ordinance like Lakeport's, although he told Phillipe it would not be a high priority enforcement issue for his staff.
In other business, following on recent discussions, the council will hold the introductions and first readings of ordinances restricting panhandling in the city – which police say is a growing problem – and setting guidelines for allowing dogs in parks.
Also on the agenda, the council will discuss erecting a peace pole in Austin Park in recognition of the Lake County Summer of Peace; continue a previous discussion on the city's multi-way stop sign review; and consider a joint use agreement between the city and the Konocti Unified School District for use of Haverty Field.
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Perry appointed interim county administrative officer
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors has appointed a current member of the County Administrative Office to act as interim county administrative officer, with a view to keeping him in the job permanently.
Matt Perry, Lake County’s chief deputy county administrative officer, will take over the job on an interim basis, Board Chair Rob Brown said shortly after the supervisors emerged from closed session on Tuesday evening.
The vote was unanimous.
Perry's appointment will allow Kelly Cox – a 32-year county veteran who officially retired as county administrative officer on March 16 but has continued to fill in on a volunteer, temporary basis – to finally get started on his retirement.
Perry, 51, grew up in Minnesota and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He and his family live in Lakeport.
He has worked for the county for 24 years, and in the that time has been mentored by Cox on the budget, he said.
Cox’s financial acumen has been credited by board members with being one of the main reasons why Lake is one of the only counties in the state to remain in the black, maintaining that status despite the challenges the recession has brought.
Brown said the county had many excellent candidates for Cox’s job.
For Brown, budget experience was a critical factor in Perry’s selection. He said Perry clearly has the necessary experience and knows Lake County’s budget “inside and out.”
He said Perry is an excellent choice who he believes will work well with the Board of Supervisors.
Perry said he asked the board to make his appointment an interim one so that everyone can have an adjustment period. There will be reviews at the three-month and six-month mark, with a view to transitioning Perry to a permanent appointment.
While he admitted to being a little nervous about the new job and new responsibilities, Perry said, “It’ll be fine.”
Right now, he and administrative staff are focusing on having a final budget ready for the board to approve in August.
“That’s been our focus for the last month, is preparing the recommended budget,” he said.
Perry said his goal is to keep Lake County fiscally sound and “keep the ship steady.”
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County, correctional officers' union settle contract
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following ongoing negotiations, the Board of Supervisors last week approved a new contract with the Lake County Correctional Officers Association.
The new contract covers a two-and-a-half-year period that began last July 1 and expires Dec. 31, 2013.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Matt Perry, Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry and Senior Administrative Analyst Jennifer Hammond negotiated the agreement with the union.
The report to the board from Perry, Harry and Hammond explained that the union's representatives worked cooperatively with the county “to develop a package of no cost and low cost items which the County can afford at this time.”
The county’s correctional officers have remained willing to compromise on salaries and benefits at the same time as they are finding themselves faced with additional demands due to correctional realignment, which is sending some prisoners who previously would have served time in state prison to the county jail instead.
Perry told the board at its June 5 meeting that the union had approved the agreement a few weeks earlier.
Significant changes include a 4-percent salary adjustment for employees in the PERS safety retirement system; that adjustment was in exchange for employees paying their full share of their retirement contributions, which is 5 percent.
There is no cost of living increase; instead, the agreement provides 40 hours of personal leave in lieu of cost of living increases for current employees. New employees hired after this July 1 would receive 24 hours of personal leave and those hired after July 1, 2013, would receive eight hours of such leave.
For employees in the “miscellaneous” PERS retirement system, existing salary rates will continue, and the MOU additionally allows the county to amend the PERS contract to provide a 2 percent at 60 retirement plan.
In addition, employees who are demoted shall be placed at the salary step representing the least loss of pay; the employee caring for the department’s canine may have first right of refusal to purchase the animal for $1 when the dog is ready to retire; and there is a timeframe for responding to leave requests.
Board members expressed their gratitude to the union for understanding the county’s funding limitations.
They also reacted to what they said was misinformation about the negotiations process.
“This process was almost derailed by comments made publicly by the sheriff, saying that this wasn’t going to happen,” said Board Chair Rob Brown.
Brown was referring to comments made on a local radio show by Sheriff Frank Rivero several weeks ago as the negotiations process was winding down.
“I feel very proud of our employees for sticking by us and working with us because this was a tough year for everyone,” Brown said.
He attended the correctional officers’ association meeting on the same night that they ratified the agreement; he was invited in to meet with them after the vote.
The group’s only questions for him related to what they could do to help the county, he said, noting that the group was a partner, not an adversary, in the negotiations.
“I appreciate their maturity in this whole process,” he said. “They’re definitely committed to the betterment of Lake County.”
Supervisor Denise Rushing thanked the correctional officers. “Our board prides itself on its relationship with employees and this has been a really tough year for everybody.”
Supervisor Jeff Smith said the correctional officers have stuck with the county through tough times. While the county had wanted to be able to give increases and cost of living adjustments, “It's just tough to do in this economy.”
Smith offered the resolution, which the board accepted in a 5-0 vote.
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060512 Lake County Correctional Officers Association MOU
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Adoption event helps animal shelter break another record in May
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The inaugural animal adoption event held in May led to another record-breaking month for adoptions.
Lake County Animal Care and Control received approval from the Board of Supervisors earlier this year to hold four adoption events annually as part of the effort to find more homes for shelter animals and reduce the county's high euthanasia rate.
The first weeklong event was held May 9-15 at the shelter.
During May, the shelter saw 42 animals adopted, a new record, according to Animal Care and Control Director Bill Davidson.
Over the last several months the shelter seen an increase in its adoptions. Davidson reported 35 animals were adopted in March, which at that point was a three-year high. That number was quickly surpassed in April, when 39 other animals found homes.
In March the shelter opened its new veterinary facility, which allows it to have animals spayed or neutered and ready to be released to homes in a quicker, more seamless fashion than in the past.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
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