LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport has successfully sought a change of venue in its lawsuit against the county in response to the sheriff cutting off the Lakeport Police Department's access to shared law enforcement records.
In a lawsuit filed late last month against the county and Sheriff Frank Rivero, the city of Lakeport alleges breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing after Rivero cut off the Lakeport Police Department's access to the records information management system, or RIMS, without warning in late April, as Lake County News has reported.
Rivero's “unilateral and unjustified actions” – in the words of City Manager Margaret Silveira – violated the city's long-running dispatch contract with the county.
The city is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, and specific performance of the contract.
On Tuesday, Lakeport City Attorney Steve Brookes told Lake County News that the case was being moved to Mendocino County.
“It's a statutory right to have it moved to a neutral county,” Brookes said.
Brookes said no hearing date has yet been set for the case in Mendocino County Superior Court.
County Counsel Anita Grant said Tuesday that the county won't oppose the change of venue.
“We had hoped to keep the case here to keep costs down but Lakeport didn’t agree to that and the Code of Civil Procedure gives them the ability to seek a change of venue,” she said in an email message.
She said the county's answer to Lakeport's suit is not yet due, and as such no response has been filed.
Rivero cut off Lakeport Police's access to RIMS – as well as that of the Lake County Probation Department – on April 23, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said Rivero initially told him that it was an issue with auditing the system, which includes Lakeport Police case records derived from calls into the county's Central Dispatch center.
However, after Rasmussen went public with his concerns that the inability to access his own agency's records in the system would result in public and officer safety issues, Rivero accused Rasmussen and his staff of inappropriate access to the system.
The Lakeport City Council asked the Board of Supervisors to intervene and a special meeting was held April 26.
Despite the fact that during the meeting Rivero conceded that there was no way to verify that Lakeport Police's accesses to RIMS were legitimate, he nevertheless refused to comply with the board's request that he reinstate Lakeport Police's ability to use the system.
On April 30, the Lakeport City Council voted to hire an outside law firm, the law office of Colantuono & Levin, to handle the lawsuit against the county and Rivero for breaching the dispatch contract.
The suit was filed May 20, according to court records.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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