THE DATE OF THE CITY'S INCORPORATION HAS BEEN CORRECTED - IT WAS 1980 NOT 1979 AS STATED AT THE MEETING.
CLEARLAKE – Following close to an hour of discussion, the Clearlake City Council on Thursday decided against directing the city's administrator to explore returning portions of the city to the county.
City Administrator Dale Neiman proposed the idea to the council, explaining that the city doesn't have adequate financial resources to provide the minimum services to its residents, with the city cutting its staff by 43 percent over the last three years.
Since the city hasn't been able to increase its transient occupancy or property taxes, Neiman suggested that the only option was “detaching” portions of the 30-year-old city and putting them back in the hands of the county government, a proposal that County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox greeted with uncertainty earlier this week, as Lake County News has reported.
Neiman said the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) would have to make the ultimate decision on a detachment action should the council decide to pursue it.
While he didn't have specific areas of the city in mind for detachment, Neiman suggested that the areas that should be considered would have small populations and issues that impact service costs, like drainage problems and poor roads.
He said Cox told him that he would gladly take Walmart – which generates a significant portion of the city's sales tax – but Neiman said in such a case the city would immediately become insolvent.
Neiman then shared with the council his thesis that Clearlake has been the subject of “environmental discrimination” in the past.
He said the garbage dump for the entire county was placed there, and asserted – incorrectly – that the sewage treatment plant for all of Lake County was located in Clearlake, as was the county's Social Services Department.
In addition, he said a school for students expelled from all other schools around the county was placed in the city, with problem kids ending up in the streets and becoming a problem for Clearlake Police.
Lake County Mental Health tried to purchase the former Lake Escape Resort – which since has reopened under new ownership and is once again generating transient occupancy tax for the city, he said.
Then, there was the Sierra Club Lake Group's lawsuit against the city for its Lowe's shopping center plan at the old Pearce Field airport property on Highway 53, an action which Neiman asserted is about “protecting outside financial interests.”
He went on to suggest that the county chose to incorporate the city in 1980 because businesses and resorts were on the decline, the costs of maintaining public facilities were increasing and revenues were down.
“I think they realized that they didn't want future liabilities and it made sense to create Clearlake” so the problems would be transferred from the county to the city, Neiman said.
“The residents clearly deserve better services than we can financially provide,” he said.
During the discussion that followed, Vice Mayor Joyce Overton suggested that the police department's costs – including retirement – were taking the city down, and she wanted to look at contracting the services out.
Longtime city resident Shirley Howland suggested that maybe the city should be considering disincorporation, and she wanted to know more information about the detachment plan. Mayor Judy Thein said there would be public hearings if the city decided to move forward.
Jeri Spittler, a Clearlake businesswoman who is planning to run for the council this fall, didn't like the detachment plan.
“I just don't really think it's an option to start chopping pieces of our community off,” she said.
Spittler added, “I think that's the wrong message. I don't think that's right,” saying there were other avenues to explore.
City resident Pete Gascoigne agreed with Spittler, telling the council he didn't think they could start taking away parts of the city, nor did he think contracting out police services would work.
He, too, placed blame on the Sierra Club for the suit, and told the council, “I think you guys are doing the very best you can.”
Supervisor Jeff Smith also addressed the council.
“A lot of times I agree with Dale and, I'm sorry, but this time I don't,” he said.
Smith corrected Neiman's statement about the sewer treatment system, explaining there are several other treatment facilities around the county, and pointing out that the Social Services Department was located in Lower Lake, not Clearlake.
As Smith was speaking he ran out of time and the council's timing buzzer went off, with members of the audience asking for him to be able to continue to speak, which the council didn't do at that time.
Another community member, Don Turman, suggested the council hold a Saturday meeting to come up with ideas, and that they should explore grants and volunteer help.
The council then agreed by consensus to allow Smith to come up and finish his statement.
Smith said a pavement condition index was completed a few years ago, with Clearlake rating the lowest in the state. However now, thanks to the work of City Engineer Bob Galusha and the city's Public Works Department, the city's pavement condition index has moved past the county's.
Smith said that the Sierra Club lawsuit against the city has “taken every light out of the end of our tunnel.” He said that the regional shopping center plan for the old airport property “is the savior of the city of Clearlake.”
Councilman Roy Simons said decisions to let parts of the city return to the county should be up the community at large, not the council.
He then asked the council to consider giving back Konocti View Road to the county. “That's where I live and I'm willing to go,” he said.
Councilman Curt Giambruno said the city wouldn't be in its current shape if the Sierra Club suit hadn't stopped the shopping center effort.
“I'm tired of everybody coming around here telling us what we're doing wrong,” he said, adding that he's really tired of the Sierra Club. “They got us by the nap of the neck and they love it.”
The airport site has no ecological problems since it was a former dump site, said Giambruno. He said even if the city conducted a full environmental impact report the Sierra Club would turn it down anyway.
“Quite frankly I've had it,” he said. “It's just ridiculous the way we're treated.”
He added, “We need that shopping center and somewhere along the line someone's got to push some buttons and get that thing going.”
Overton suggested that they should raise taxes in the city, and said she believes the city has lost out on millions of dollars worth of grants that could help it operate.
“The value of doing this is looking at what the future holds for your city, too,” said Neiman of the detachment discussion.
“I hate to lose any part of the city but I think we have to look at alternatives,” said Councilman Chuck Leonard. “We're in a desperate situation.”
Thein said she didn't want to lose any part of the city. “You've really got to convince me of this,” she said.
“Right now I'm not willing to let go of Clearlake. I just love it too much,” said Thein, adding that she was OK with exploring the possibilities.
Giambruno said he also thought it needed to be explored, but that the city needed “to get the Sierra Club to go play with someone else” because the city needed the shopping center.
“If it doesn't happen, you people better be prepared for all kinds of cuts,” he told the audience.
Simons suggested that the sales tax that a project like Lowe's would bring it has to be considered in light of what it would draw from other local businesses, which recirculate their income.
Clear Lake is the city's biggest promise, and the downtown needs to be cleaned up to make it presentable, Simons said.
Leonard said it appalls him to hear from people who think Clearlake's residents need to live as second-class citizens.
“We're trying to bring this city forward,” he said. “I'm not giving up.”
Leonard then moved to authorize Neiman to explore returning parts of the city to the county.
However, despite the fact that other council members said they believed the idea should be explored, no other council members offered a second, and Leonard's motion died before it could move to a vote.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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