LAKEPORT, Calif. – County officials are continuing to refine a plan for a proposed sales tax measure to generate funds to protect and improve Clear Lake and its watershed.
The half-percent “Lake County Clear Lake Programs Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance” – or “Healthy Lake Ordinance” for short – is anticipated to appear on the June 2014 ballot.
If passed, it would generate an estimated $2.4 million annually.
It's similar to Measure E, which failed at the polls by a few percentage points in November 2012.
A group of community members has been working on refining and improving the latest incarnation of the plan, giving it more specifics and addressing concerns of those who opposed it previously, according to Lake County Water Resources Director Scott De Leon.
After Supervisor Anthony Farrington took the proposal to the Board of Supervisors this past summer, De Leon put together the working group, which he said is a cross section of community members with various interests related to the lake and the county's water resources.
De Leon said he also looked to add to the group people who were critical of Measure E so the group could sit down, talk about their concerns and find solutions.
“We've tried to involve a lot of different people,” De Leon said.
Among those who De Leon said were involved were Lakeport City Councilman Martin Scheel, Lake County Chamber Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton, Big Valley Rancheria Environmental Director Sarah Ryan, Scott Knickmeyer of the Lake County Association of Realtors, Chi Council member Victoria Brandon and Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Claudia Street.
Individuals including Clearlake Oaks businessman Chuck Lamb and Dr. Harry Lyons of Yuba College also gave feedback on the plan, said De Leon.
The goal, he said, was to get a wide variety of perspectives and work on the concerns people had about the proposal, and the group – with a broad range of interests and political viewpoints – has been extremely important in that process, and has helped focus in on addressing the criticism.
“Really, what it's boiled down to is this expenditure plan,” said De Leon.
Measure E's plan had included percentages for how much of the sales tax funds would be spent. De Leon said the new plan removed those percentages, and instead builds estimates on a program-specific basis.
The previous plan, he said, also was more vague on water quality monitoring, focusing instead on weeds, algae and invasive species.
However, with requirements for total maximum daily load and storm water permits becoming more onerous – with the potential for large fines for the county for noncompliance – the new expenditure plan is paying more attention to those issues, he said.
“There's a lot more at stake now with respect to water quality and monitoring than there was two years ago,” De Leon said.
De Leon said he hasn't yet done expenditure plans for the second or third years if the ordinance were to become law.
If voters approve the new lake measure, the expenditure plan would be updated each spring – before the fiscal year budget is approved – to address both short- and long-term needs and projects, he said.
Ultimately, the Board of Supervisors would approve the annual expenditure plans, but public hearings would be held to offer everyone the opportunity to weigh in on how the funds should be spent in the coming year, De Leon explained.
Board discusses draft expenditure plan
On Tuesday, De Leon presented to the Board of Supervisors the draft first year spending plan for the sales tax measure, which the board had asked him to bring back at the end of a special workshop on the ordinance held during the Board of Supervisors' Oct. 22 meeting.
In the proposed plan he offered Tuesday, De Leon laid out the estimated costs to get the program started.
“I hope that we're closing in on something that we'll be able to bring to your board,” De Leon said.
He said the proposal needed to be ready by December in order for the board to approve it and for it to get the necessary approvals at the state level.
“This is a draft,” said De Leon. “This is a starting point for discussion.”
The proposal includes $275,000 for a water quality monitoring program with three separate components. De Leon's breakdown includes $100,000 for stream monitoring, $145,000 for lake monitoring for nutrients and cyanobacteria toxins and $30,000 for lake sediment monitoring.
“These are programs that we are currently not funding,” he said.
De Leon said his department currently spends about $275,000 annually on weed abatement. In the expenditure plan, he increases that amount to $350,000 annually.
The plan’s big ticket item is the quagga mussel prevention program, which De Leon estimated to cost $1 million in the first year.
That cost would cover the development of mechanical ramp controls at half the 11 public access ramps around county, with the remaining ramps to be modified in year two, he said. De Leon estimated that it could cost as much as $200,000 per ramp to implement such mechanical controls.
He told Lake County News in a followup interview that if it costs $100,000 per ramp, they could tackle more of the ramps up front. Mechanization has high initial capital outlay, but annual expenditures go down over time, he said, and it's less expensive than having staffers assigned to locations.
Other projects in De Leon's expenditure plan include water quality projects. It budgets $100,000 for the Clear Lake Keys, which would cover a property purchase to create a wetland adjacent to the Keys' east canal, with the outfall of the large drainage ditch adjacent to the highway to be rerouted from the canal to this new wetland.
A Burns Valley Creek project, budgeted at $250,000, would fund dredging at the mouth of the creek to remove buildup of sediment that presents not just a navigation hazard for boats but, according to De Leon's draft expenditure plan, is believed to contribute to the poor water conditions in the cove to the north. Removal of the sediment, the plan states, will reduce nutrients in the lake as well as promote water currents.
De Leon told the board that he's tried to get grants for these projects but hasn't succeeded so far. He said relying on grants isn’t effective, as they're very difficult to obtain and often require large matches.
Another expenditure covered in the plan is $25,000 for algae abatement, including providing additional floating boom materials for placement around the lake to protect the shoreline from nuisance algae. De Leon's plans said Water Resources staff time will be covered with existing department revenue.
He also includes $400,000 annually for the Middle Creek Marsh Restoration Project, which proposes to flood 1,650 acres of land near Upper Lake. De Leon said those funds would be placed in contingency to cover future matching funds needed for the project.
De Leon and board members agreed that they would like to see all county creeks studied. Supervisors Jeff Smith and Denise Rushing also noted a potential wetland project next to Schindler Creek in Clearlake Oaks.
Paula Britton, Habematolel Pomo's environmental director, said she felt De Leon was headed the right direction with the proposed projects.
She noted that the Habematolel tribe already is sharing information with the county based on its monitoring, and she suggested that there should be a standardized format for that information. Britton said there was a huge capacity for collaboration.
She also asked if they were doing full scale panels for pesticides in the streams. De Leon said the monitoring activities could be expanded to track pesticides; for now, it was based on water quality parameters.
Britton said she has collected data on 27 sites in four years, and has those panels on some of them. She encouraged the county to work with the tribes.
Sarah Ryan said De Leon's proposal was excellent, and it was what a water quality program should look like. “I think it's great.”
She asked about the sediment monitoring, and what the county would be looking for and why.
De Leon said he wished Tom Smythe, his longtime water engineer, was there to give the precise examples for the sediment monitoring. However, he went on to explain that the county works with the California Department of Water Resources on monitoring sediment, which has a large nutrient bank.
The county used to get monthly samples from the state, which has since reduced that number to about six a year if conditions allow. To have an adequate study, De Leon said they need more data points over a longer period of time. Ryan agreed, noting there are seasonal and annual variations in conditions.
She asked if, as part of monitoring stream flow, the county planned to install gauges. De Leon said yes. Ryan said she welcomed the information that monitoring would bring, as she believes the state hasn't calculated creek water use and, as a result, the water from the creeks is overappropriated.
Finley resident Phil Murphy, noting that the $1 million for the quagga program appeared to be the startup cost and not the ongoing cost, wanted to know how much would be devoted to that program in the future. De Leon said he didn't have estimates for ongoing costs, but suggested they would be “significantly less” than $1 million.
Murphy said someone must be doing something similar and they should be able to get those numbers. He also questioned hiring an outside consultant with no familiarity of the area to study where to locate sediment ponds when Water Resources had someone like Smythe who could do the project. De Leon said it was something they could possibly do in house.
“I think it's a very sensible plan,” said Victoria Brandon, adding it will work and make a tremendous difference.
Brandon said she was glad to see so much money is proposed for quagga prevention, because if the mussels get into the lake, Clear Lake will never be put back in a healthy state.
She said the current prevention program isn't adequate.
“This is a good look at year one. I feel like the balance is right,” said Rushing.
What's next
De Leon and County Counsel Anita Grant next are set to go over the proposal's details.
He told Lake County News that he's planning to return to the board with a final draft of the proposed ordinance for a first reading on Tuesday, Nov. 19, clearing the way for a possible second reading and acceptance vote on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
De Leon said the timeline has been guided by county Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley, who has advised him that the final draft ordinance accepted by the board must go to the California Board of Equalization for review the first week of December.
If the state review goes well, next February there would be a resolution calling for an election, with the ordinance in its final form – vetted both locally and by the state – going back to the board the first Tuesday in February.
As long as the measure stays on track, it should appear before the county's voters on June 3, 2014.
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Lake sales tax draft expenditure plan
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