The two-page document tells recipients, “Unfortunately, the City has had to end the code enforcement program in May, 2010 due to the lawsuit the Sierra Club filed against the City on the proposed Lowe's store.”
The letter encourages people unhappy about code enforcement's elimination “and the environmental problems that will be created” to contact Sierra Club Lake Group Chair Cheri Holden, and includes the number to her business, Watershed Books.
On the letter's reverse side, the letter include the mailing addresses of the group's board of directors, which includes Tom Gilliam, Juliana Vidich, Tom Marchand, Debra Sally, Monica Rosenthal and Steve Devoto.
While Holden hadn't talked to anyone at the city as of Wednesday, she said the letter was brought to the attention of the attorney who is handling the case for the Sierra Club.
She said the Sierra Club was consulting with the attorney on what actions to take. “Something is in process,” Holden said.
In March the Sierra Club Lake Group filed a lawsuit against the Clearlake Redevelopment Agency and KK Raphel Properties of Danville, the developer proposing to build a regional shopping center – including a Lowe's home improvement store – at the now-closed Pearce Field airport property on Highway 53, as Lake County News has reported.
The suit alleges that state law was violated because the project was approved by the city on Feb. 25 without a full environmental impact report, and it seeks to have the project's approvals set aside.
Since the lawsuit was filed, some of the city council members and City Administrator Dale Neiman have increasingly blamed the Sierra Club for the city's serious financial straights, saying that the project would have brought in significant sales tax revenue for the struggling city.
However, well before the Lowe's project was approved or the lawsuit filed, code enforcement was being scaled back, including cutting two positions and spreading out the work to police and other city staff, actions approved last summer as part of the 2009-10 budget.
During the midyear budget review on Feb. 11, Neiman suggested the city consider filing bankruptcy and detaching portions to return to the county, two routes later proved not to be feasible.
At the council's July 1 meeting, Neiman delivered a report on the temporary elimination of code enforcement, placing blame for the program's demise squarely on the Sierra Club.
“What we plan to do is mail or give people a handout explaining the problem when we receive a complaint,” he stated in his one-page staff report.
Neiman wrote the letter as a result, Clearlake Mayor Judy Thein confirmed on Wednesday.
The letter states that the Sierra Club didn't file a lawsuit against the Kelseyville Lumber store, which is 28 percent larger than the proposed Lowe's.
“When the permit for Kelseyville Lumber were being processed the Sierra Club was actively objecting tot he Provinsalia residential project in Clearlake,” said the letter, which also pointed out that the 2010-11 Lake County Grand Jury determined that the environmental document the city prepared for the Lowe's project “was studied more intensively than previous studies done on similar businesses in Lake County.”
The document also includes a graph of public nuisance cases handled by the city from 2005 to 2009. In 2005, cases numbered 557, rising to a high of 1,265 in 2008, and down slightly to 1,206 last year.
The code enforcement program's elimination will result in “environmental contamination, depreciation of property values and people living in unsafe buildings,” Neiman's letter stated.
Victoria Brandon, the former Sierra Club Lake Group Chair who more recently has spoken on behalf of the group regarding local projects, said they found out about the letter being circulated over the weekend. She used the words “harassment” and “scapegoating” to describe the city's letter.
She said the only thing that the lawsuit is trying to achieve is an environmental impact report, and the fastest way to move the project forward is for the city to concede that it should have done the report and then get to work doing it.
Brandon said Neiman and the city are refusing to discuss a settlement and therefore are exposing the city to “some very hefty legal costs” in the future, besides engaging in what she characterized as “grossly irresponsible and counterproductive” behavior.
Brandon doesn't believe the developer will pay for the report and the project is dead “if it was every really alive in the first place.
Neiman, whose job has been reduced to half-time because of budget constraints, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Thein said that over the previous weekend Neiman, while at his Humboldt County home, fell several feet and was hurt, suffering a concussion and broken collar bone, among other injuries.
With inquiries being directed at Holden, she confirmed that she has been getting calls at her business.
Holden said the city's isn't dealing honestly with the code enforcement issues. “The people shouldn't be misled that way,” she said.
No one has threatened her, but those she spoke with were convinced that she had some connection to code enforcement.
Holden added that people need solutions to the issues and the calls must stop. She said those who called her “were totally misled and therefore confused and frustrated, as well they should be.”
Thein said she hadn't received any feedback from community members about the letter, and she was surprised to hear that anyone actually had called Holden.
Clearlake City Clerk Melissa Swanson said the city gets requests for code enforcement action all the time, however she didn't know how many of the letters had been sent out.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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