The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport. TV8 will broadcast the meeting live.
The board voted at its Jan. 5 meeting to request the attorney general conduct the investigation into whether or not Sgt. David Garzoli's flight training under a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) marijuana eradication grant constituted a misappropriation of public funds, as Lake County News has reported.
The board also will consider sending identical letters to the DEA and the Federal Aviation Administration.
A County Administrative Office review of the matter concluded that the grants had funded $98,898 of flight time during which Garzoli had received training.
Altogether, Garzoli logged more than 300 hours that appear to have been amassed on county time, but county officials are unclear about how much of that might need to be repaid to the federal government if it's determined that only unapproved flight training – and not marijuana eradication activities – was taking place.
The draft letter that will be considered Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. was written by Board Chair Anthony Farrington, with help from county counsel.
The letter explained that the county has received the DEA grants since 1998, and that they're administered by the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The funds “are primarily intended for payment of deputies'/officers' overtime, and reserve officers' salaries and overtime while those deputies and officers are actively engaged in the cannabis eradication process, as well as for per diem as appropriate, and other direct costs related to the actual conduct of cannabis eradication, such as rental of equipment and vehicles, fuel for vehicles and aircraft, and minor repairs and maintenance necessitated by their use to support cannabis eradication.”
The sheriff's office must annually submit an operational plan to the DEA for its approval, and the 2009 operational plan included a request that a helicopter flight training component be added, Farrington's letter noted.
“The Board was never informed or asked to approve such a component to this operational plan,” the letter said.
As was noted at the Jan. 5 meeting, the DEA approved the operational plan, and although DEA officials said they had overlooked the flight training request and probably wouldn't have approved it, they nonetheless considered the matter for 2009 closed.
However, Farrington's letter explained that the use of the funds for helicopter training began before the 2009 approval from the DEA. The administrative review presented earlier this month showed Garzoli had begun flying on county time in 1995. Within the last few years, particularly 2008, he had amassed numerous flying hours.
Beginning in 2008, the sheriff's office made several requests to the board for approval of helicopter rental services for aerial surveillance of illicit marijuana gardens, according to the letter.
“The helicopter services contractors additionally provided helicopter flight training to a Sheriff's Department employee,” the letter stated. “This additional service was not referenced in any of these contracts. The Board was never informed or asked to approve this additional contract service.”
The letter added, “The pursuit of this helicopter flight training was accomplished without the required approval of the Board of Supervisors, occurred largely on County time, appears to be beyond the scope of the authorized use of the DEA grant monies and may have included out-of-County and nighttime flights that were unrelated to the conduct of official County business even though public funds were expended to rent the helicopter for such flights.”
Referring to Garzoli, Farrington wrote, “Questions exist as to whether the employee receiving the benefit of this helicopter flight instruction acted upon his own authority or if the flight instruction expenditures were authorized within the Sheriff's Department.”
Farrington said that the board hasn't determined if the grant monies were intentionally misused, or how and why the sheriff's office “pursued and acted on this flight training component without obtaining the approval of the Board of Supervisors.”
He said it's the board's duty “to be capable and diligent stewards of public monies and it is, therefore, imperative that those determinations be made.”
Farrington asked the Attorney General's Office for “a thorough investigation” of the situation.
“In order to ensure that such investigation is conducted independently and to eliminate any possible public perception that those conducting the investigation might have a conflict of interest, we ask that the Attorney General initiate such an investigation,” Farrington's letter concluded.
Other items on the agenda include the following.
Timed items
9 a.m.: Approval of consent agenda, which includes items that are expected to be routine and noncontroversial; presentation of animals available for adoption at Lake County Animal Care and Control; consideration of items not on the agenda; current construction projects and change orders.
9:05 a.m.: Citizens' input: Any person may speak for three minutes about any subject of concern provided that it is within the board's jurisdiction and is not already on the agenda. Speakers must fill out a slip giving name, address and subject prior to speaking; forms are available in the Clerk of the Board's Office on the courthouse's first floor.
9:10 a.m.: Discussion/consideration of two appointments to the Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee, replacing Lars Crail and Lorrie Gray, who have resigned from the committee. Continued from Jan. 12.
10 a.m.: Discussion/consideration of proposed changes to the Lake County Rule LCR 1-195 on Aerobic Systems. Continued from Jan. 5.
11 a.m.: Assessment appeal hearings – Rebecca Stansberry, 21518 Bartlett Springs Road, Lucerne; and David Woodall, 9129 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville.
11:30 a.m.: Assessment appeal hearings – Dorta Watson, 9995 Meadow Drive, Cobb; and James Watson, 10055 Meadow Drive, Cobb. Continued from Oct. 6, 2009.
Nontimed items
– Supervisors' weekly calendar, travel and reports.
– Proposed agreement between the county of Lake and Unity Care Group Inc. for specialty mental health services in the amount of $25,000.
Consent agenda
– Approves minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting held on Jan. 10.
– Appoint Bonnie Trumble (senior community representative), Beverly Bergstrom (senior consumer, past or present representative) and Jeanne Morin (In-Home Support Services provide, past or present representative), to the IHSS Advisory Committee for two year terms expiring on Jan. 1, 2013.
– Appoint David Estep to the Lower Lake Waterworks District 1 Board of Directors for a four year term expiring on Jan. 1, 2015.
– Approve staff recommendation and authorize County Public Works Department to assume responsibility for administration and engineering of the Clearlake Oaks Highway 20 Sidewalk Improvement Project; and adopt Resolution No. ___ appropriating $1.2 million in unanticipated revenue for the Clearlake Oaks Highway 20 and Sidewalk Improvement Project to Budget Unit No. 1781-Special Projects.
– Adopt Resolution No. ___ amending Resolution No. 2009-233 establishing position allocations to conform to the Fiscal Year 2009-10 Final Budget, Budget Unit No. 2602 – Building and Safety (continuing a Building Inspector I/II allocation with the designation of being an at-risk appointment).
– Adopt Resolution No. ___ authorizing the Public Services Department to submit an application to the California Integrated Waste Management Board for a Local Government Waste Tire Cleanup and Amnesty Event Grant for Fiscal Year 2009-10.
– Adopt Resolution No. ___ declaring intent to adopt a Resolution of Public Use and Necessity – Bartlett Springs Road, Federal Emergency Management Agency project.
– Approve the California Boating Safety and Enforcement Grant Equipment and Operation Contract in the amount of $18,000 and authorize Sheriff Rodney Mitchell to sign the contract and the chair to sign the recycling certification and certification clauses (Exhibit D).
The board also will hold a closed session to discuss labor negotiations, existing litigation with the California Sportfishing Alliance and the water resources director position.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
