UPDATED: Part two will appear later this week.
This is the first of two articles on the recent Code Enforcement hearings held by the Board of Supervisors.
LAKEPORT – The issue of Code Enforcement has long been a contentious one in Lake County, and this month it has received extensive attention at the Board of Supervisors level.
Supervisor Ed Robey had the Code Enforcement discussion placed on the Nov. 6 agenda originally, at which time the board also heard more than an hour's worth of testimony from a largely unhappy audience of community members.
The board continued that discussion to Nov. 20.
After hearing another extensive round of testimony from the public about county Code Enforcement operations, Board of Supervisors members said at the Nov. 20 meeting that they would use the information to decide how the division should operate in the future.
The Nov. 20 hearing began with Code Enforcement Manager Voris Brumfield giving an overview of Code Enforcement duties and procedures.
Code Enforcement's caseload is extensive, Brumfield said; from January through October of this year the department responded to 763 complaints.
At the Nov. 6 meeting several people had stated that Code Enforcement officers had trespassed on their property or had made them feel harassed and intimidated.
Brumfield said Code Enforcement officers are required to get consent from the person who has legal authority over a property before entered.
The department is developing a new property owners' rights brochure, said Brumfield. “It appears as though a number of people are not informed as to our procedures.”
When Code Enforcement staff is denied access, they must leave the property said Brumfield. At that point they will seek warrants to return and conduct an inspection.
In the past seven months Brumfield said the department has copied four files for people who wanted more information on particular cases. The charge was 10 cents per copy, said Brumfield, a fee that needs to be examined because it is much less expensive than that charged by other county departments.
Brumfield said that, based on public and Code Enforcement staff input, the department has changed some of its procedures in the past 14 months.
“I am more than interested in upgrading what we do and being of service to this community,” she said.
Allegations of harassment, retaliation
Danielle Huck, who spoke to the board on Nov. 6, talked about Code Enforcement officers coming onto her property without asking permission.
Huck told Lake County News in a weekend interview that her family has a half-acre property on Gifford Springs Road on Cobb. For years their three children have had animals, including chickens and ducks, and this summer 4-H sheep and pygmy goats.
In July they found a Code Enforcement officer's card at their home, Huck said. Her husband, Joshua, called to find out what the matter was, but heard nothing back.
In September, while the couple was at work on a Monday, their neighbors spotted Code Enforcement officers on their property, Huck explained.
Huck immediately wrote a letter to all five supervisors, Brumfield and the Grand Jury. The same day that she mailed the letter, her father-in-law, Andre Huck, called to complain about the situation to Brumfield.
Brumfield then reportedly called and spoke to Danielle Huck's 16-year-old son, and began asking him questions about the property and animals. Huck's son suggested Brumfield call his mother.
Huck said Brumfield never called, so Huck called her. The first words out of Brumfield's mouth, according to Huck, was, “Did you file a Grand Jury complaint?”
The officers had been on her property on a Monday, said Huck. On the Friday of that same week in September, Animal Care and Control Officers came to the property saying that they had received information from Code Enforcement that the animals weren't being cared for properly. A report on the incident the Hucks obtained from Animal Care and Control confirmed that Code Enforcement had made the complaint.
On the morning of Nov. 20, before Huck appeared to speak about Code Enforcement to the board, she said a county employee showed up at their home, saying he had been told to check out a new driveway reportedly built without a permit on the Hucks' property. Danielle Huck said the driveway was built at the same time as their home was, in 1974.
“What a coincidence that was,” Huck told Lake County News.
She told the board that she believed Code Enforcement was harassing her family.
Speaking after Huck at the meeting was a young girl named Kimmy Young, a neighbor of the Huck family. Young told the board that she has had horses at her home for five years, but after a neighbor filed a complaint, Code Enforcement informed her family that she can no longer keep her horse or mule at the property.
Danielle Huck's father-in-law, Andre Huck – who also had addressed the board Nov. 6 – acknowledged to the board that Code Enforcement is “a very emotional issue,” and was important enough to get him to the board meeting, which he doesn't often attend.
“The Fourth Amendment is coming real close to being trashed,” Huck said, as a result of Code Enforcement.
He said he feels threatened and intimidated by the division, and questioned if their motivations were based on money or politics.
Other concerns, and some praise
Other residents from around the county shared stories of having constant contact with Code Enforcement officers, causing them stress, illness and – one woman alleged – the death of her husband from a heart attack.
Lucerne resident Donna Christopher recounted finding Code Enforcement staffer Ron Yoder on her front porch one day, telling her she had only a few hours to move her truck, which was parked on the other side of the street. She said the truck was driven regularly, was licensed and registered.
“I had never been treated so rudely by anyone from the County of Lake,” said Christopher, who emphasized that continuity and respect were critical in interactions between Code Enforcement and citizens.
Upper Lake resident Janet Cawn said she had a much different issue with Code Enforcement. She complained that the department wasn't acting to stop environmental damage done by development projects.
She cited a gas station project at the intersection of Highways 20 and 29 outside of Upper Lake, which Cawn alleged was a major environmental concern.
While the department hits some visible code violations, “these environmental issues don't get touched,” Cawn said.
It wasn't all bad news for Code Enforcement.
Meriel Medrano read a letter from fellow Anderson Springs residents Joan and Allen Clay, and Kathy and John Regalado, who weren't able to attend the meeting, which expressed “whole-hearted support” for Code Enforcement.
In particular, they cited Brumfield and Community Development Director Rick Coel for their efforts to address code compliance cases in Anderson Springs.
“Rick and Voris have been instrumental in helping the residents of Anderson Springs resolve many of the serious code compliance issues we have had,” they wrote. “We sincerely appreciate their efforts and are more than grateful for the results they have achieved.”
The work of Coel and Brumfield is helping the Anderson Springs community improve daily, the letter continued. “We believe we speak for the majority of the residents of Anderson Springs in expressing our gratitude for the excellent work performed by the entire code compliance staff.”
Medrano stated added her support for the county's efforts. “I think we all want to have a clean and beautiful Lake County.”
John Engles, another Anderson Springs resident, said the biggest problem he has encountered with Code Enforcement is when, in seeking resolution to permit issues, he has tried to move up through different staff and department levels.
“You can't get the same answer out of anyone in this building,” Engles said.
Later this week: What does the Board of Supervisors plan to do with the information? Supervisor Ed Robey explains what's ahead.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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