As a longtime resident (20 years and before that for 40 years as a summer visitor) of Clearlake and Lake County, I am pleading with the Clearlake City Council to fire their city administrator, Dale Neiman, who seems so determined to destroy what is left of our city and lake.
Under his "leadership" the council goes continually against the will of the people and charges ahead on schemes that will bankrupt the city and plague the lake and all of the communities around it. Their latest demonstration of mismanagement is a refusal to cooperate with the county supervisors in an upgrade of the sewer system, which the whole county is dependent upon.
At the council meetings preceding the vote on Provinsalia the public spoke loud and clear about how that project would negatively impact our schools, water system, sewer system, traffic, fire and police protection – all of our infrastructure. No thought or discussion was given to the other communities in the county or to their need for the water and sewer systems we all depend on. Nor did the the city council nor the local planners have any interest in what the public had to say.
Now we read that the city is refusing to cooperate with the county on this very serious problem of sewage disposal – all this not long after the city council refused to cooperate on the quagga mussel problem.
What are they thinking? Do they think that this lake and the lands around it belong only to the ruling few dictated by Dale Neiman? They have $7.5 million of redevelopment money that they (Neiman) want to put into a shopping center built around a big box chain store (Lowe's), which, by definition, will take more money out of the county (to the corporation) than it will bring in.
To be fair, one council member wants to put the redevelopment money into "sidewalks, curbs and gutters" near the "downtown" section, Austin's Park and Clearlake City Hall. But that will do about as much for tourism as a Lowe's shopping center ...
Private developments like Provinsalia and Lowe's are not "redevelopment" by any stretch of the imagination. Look at the parks and developments along the waterfronts of the Oaks, Lucerne and Nice and see what redevelopment money COULD be doing. Then look at what Clearlake is planning and see a dying community alongside what was once a beautiful lakeshore.
Neiman, with the council panting along behind him after the myth of tax money, seems determined to build another city on fresh unbroken ground, and let the old Clear Lake Highlands die, in spite of the protests and lawsuits of many groups and individuals, and in spite of the number of businesses and homes that have already been lost to the crushing lack of intelligent governance.
One city council member tells me that several businesses went out last year because of the stench of the algae, the most severe it has been in my memory. The county is currently considering a plan to build floating islands that will thrive on the algae and other contaminates in the lake.
Will the city of Clearlake, which is so engrossed in making a buck at the expense of doing the right thing for the whole county, cooperate with the supervisors on this potentially life-saving, algae-eating plan? Or will they kill the idea by claiming that's not redevelopment, or we need more studies, or it costs too much money or it may help the lake but it won't draw tourists like another golf course ...
I hope the citizens of Clearlake realize it's time to cooperate with the county – we are all in this mountain bowl together. We need do something that will benefit us all – preserve our resources and water (not waste it on more golf courses) – and get rid of the "leadership " that is leading us over the cliff.
Shirley Howland lives in Clearlake.