Clearlake Mayor Joyce Overton said she wanted to explore the idea, which was the basis for holding a Dec. 20 evening town hall meeting at Clearlake City Hall.
She told the filled council chamber that night that the meeting was meant to introduce “a new concept for us” as far as using redevelopment for policing services.
The crowd, for the most part, appeared to reactive negatively. Overton said she believes that's because it was communicated to police department employees and community members that the meeting's true effort was to get rid of the department in favor of handing policing over the to sheriff, which she maintains wasn't the intent.
Exploring the idea further has since become moot, Overton this Wednesday. “If the governor gets to do what he wants, we won't even have redevelopment.”
That's because Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing in his new budget – released Monday – that the 425 redevelopment agencies across the state be phased out.
The Dec. 20 meeting was be cut short at about the 70-meeting mark when it became clear that the reception wasn't a good one, said one of the evening's presenters, Jim Burns, of Fort Bragg-based Burns & Watry, a firm that works in redevelopment.
Burns is no stranger to public meetings filled with passion. He's one of the principals in Cristallago Development Corp., which is planning to build a large resort and housing development in the north Lakeport area.
But the Clearlake meeting was especially heated. “It just became a personal attack against Joyce,” said Burns.
Burns said he had met with incoming Sheriff Frank Rivero, Overton, County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox, members of the Board of Supervisors and other local leaders about ways to use redevelopment for policing.
While the purpose of the meeting was, in some peoples' minds, about turning over policing to the sheriff's office, “The purpose of the meeting was just the opposite of that,” he said.
He said he and his co-presenter at the meeting Dan Vanderpriem – a retired community development and redevelopment official for the city of Oakland and Burns & Watry consultant – had given a similar presentation to another redevelopment group, and spend about a week prepping to bring it to Clearlake.
Audience members also had criticized the presentation itself because they felt Burns and Vanderpriem hadn't researched Clearlake's situation well enough, instead referring to Oakland and other large cities.
Burns had told the crowed, “This program is about crime only,” before turning it over to Vanderpriem, who discussed using redevelopment money to augment the police department through staff, hardware and crime fighting tools.
The redevelopment concept
Vanderpriem said the basic concept was that if you can lower crime in the city, you can improve property values. That, in turn, will raise tax increment revenue in the redevelopment area, which will pay for the program.
Oakland and other cities use the approach, because crime is considered a blighting factor, and redevelopment is used to address blight, Vanderpriem explained.
Vanderpriem was asked if he had spoken to the Clearlake Police chief yet. He said no.
During the presentation he showed pictures of areas in Oakland and elsewhere where he said a security system using cameras that could tie into the Internet had been successful crime deterrents.
He said he had looked at crime statistics, which he said there have been decreases across the United States but, at the same time, an increase in the Clearlake area.
Roy Simons, who retired from the Clearlake City Council last month and has been an outspoken critic of some of the city's redevelopment fund uses, insisted that the suggestions being brought forward weren't appropriate.
“You can't use redevelopment money to fund the police department. You can't do that. Not in this city,” Simons said.
When city resident Rick Mayo asked which section of redevelopment law said police services could be covered, Vanderpriem responded that it's possible to use redevelopment funds over and above what are considered more normal uses, and said Jerry Brown, the incoming governor, had been attorney general and mayor of Oakland and hadn't had a problem with it.
Numerous people in the chamber were wearing black T-shirts that stated, “Support Clearlake Police Department.”
One of them was resident Don Turman, who said some cities are pulling cameras due to lawsuits over invasion of privacy.
“We need to support our local police, not bring outside people in,” he said.
When audience members pushed on why the presenters hadn't first spoken to police officials, Burns said, “We're just exposing this to you because of the crime rate in your area.”
Others were concerned that there was a move on to get rid of the police department and replace it with a security system consisting of cameras.
At that point Overton broke in. “This is to try to help save our police department,” she said, adding, “We're in a real critical time here.”
Overton said it was her job as a member of the city council to bring the community options. “We may or may not want to do this.”
Rita Doyle told Overton, “You know what's wrong with our city council? You're wishy washy.”
Doyle, also wearing a T-shirt in support of police, added, “We need to keep the police we have right now.”
Overton said the police department is a big part of the city's budget, and no one wants to get rid of it. She said there was no suggestion about giving up the police department in order to allow the Lake County Sheriff's Office to take over the city's policing services.
However, she added, “We have a really tough year coming, a very, very tough year,” and they need to try to save the city, including the police department.
Referring to Burns and Vanderpriem, Overton told the group, “You guys should show them the respect they deserve and I want the respect I deserve.”
She said she's not in support of closing the police department and asserted that she had fought for their wages.
As the meeting progressed, businessman Bob Kiel told Burns and Vanderpriem that he wanted them to go and talk to the police department and then come back and give a presentation.
“What we're doing now, we're just rattling,” he said, adding that the city's residents know they have a blight problem.
Another city businessman, Vince Metzger, said his business has been burglarized, but he installed cameras and hasn't had a problem since.
Referring to comparisons made during the meeting between Clearlake and Chicago, Metzger said you can drive through Chicago and not find any dirt roads. He suggested that if the town was fixed up, they won't need cameras.
“You didn't prepare your presentation for Clearlake,” he said.
Toward the meeting's end, Clear Lake Observer-American reporter Denise Rockenstein got up and began suggesting that the meeting hadn't been properly agendized, and questioned why it wasn't discussed in an open city council session.
Rockenstein then went on to read case and charge information involving drug arrests for Overton's daughter, Victoria, and also referred to arrests involving children of new Council member Jeri Spittler. When Overton tried to respond Rockenstein raised her voice so that at one point she was shouting at the mayor.
“Some of your constituents may view this as a personal conflict,” Rockenstein told Overton.
Burns tried to break in to calm the situation down but was unsuccessful.
Overton said she didn't agree with what her children do. “It's obviously something that I don't want. I don't want drugs in my town.”
“They're under your house,” Rockenstein yelled back.
Mike Minton, a union representative for the Operating Engineers, which represents the city's police officers and some staff, questioned how they could make statements about the city's crime issues when they hadn't discussed it with Clearlake Police.
Minton, himself retired law enforcement, pointed out there are different kinds of crimes and asked if the statistics presented separated them out.
He said that what drew the interest and anger of the citizens is that they thought the meeting was to discuss bringing in the sheriff's office.
Based on Overton's statements at the meeting, Minton said he was happy to hear that wasn't the case.
“That was never ever said, ever,” replied Overton.
Minton then pulled out a copy of a Dec. 9 e-mail Overton had sent to Burns about bringing in the sheriff's office in lieu of the police department.
“Oh, that wasn't tonight,” said Overton, as the audience applauded Minton.
Burns asked if Minton understood that getting rid of the police department wasn't the purpose of the meeting, and Minton said yes.
Effort dies for lack of support
Outside of Clearlake, there is a dispute in the redevelopment world over how some redevelopment funds can be used, Burns said. The California Redevelopment Association has its own internal disagreement over operation-type services and crime reduction.
Burns said Oakland has spent $100 million in redevelopment funds over the last 12 years to fight crime, and all the big cities are using it.
“I don't think there's a lot of risk,” he said, but nevertheless, his work on the proposal for Clearlake ended with the Dec. 20 meeting.
Overton said she believes the outcome, ultimately, was positive. “People started talking and started questioning,” she said, adding, “I found out some things that I didn't know before.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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