LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday heard updates on the Valley fire, and discussed reduced planning counter hours, a temporary south county permitting center, rules to allow for RVs on larger lots in the fire area, and appointed the county's recovery coordinator.
The hour-and-a-half-long meeting took place in the board chambers on Tuesday afternoon in Lakeport.
At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Social Services Director Jennifer Fitts presented an update regarding housing-related matters.
Fitts said last weekend the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived and the Local Assistance Center transitioned into the Disaster Recovery Center, located at the Middletown Senior Center and in Clearlake at the Burns Valley Mall, with mobile units also available.
She said that during a two-week period at the Local Assistance Center more than 4,000 families checked in. Right now, state and federal agencies are at the centers, as well as local nonprofit agencies.
The county has placed 42 people at Konocti Harbor Resort and 20 more in hotels, she said.
Since FEMA has approved transitional shelter assistance and rental assistance, she said they are working with the agency to move people the county has been housing into those FEMA programs.
Edgar Perez, Social Services program manager, said the county is working closely with FEMA and the California Office of Emergency Services to help people who are still staying at campgrounds and Moose Lodge and who haven't qualified for FEMA assistance.
When asked for clarification about people who didn't qualify, Perez said there are families who don't have a member with a Social Security number, which is needed to apply.
Fitts said in one case brought to the county's attention on Tuesday morning by FEMA, a family wasn't considered eligible for assistance because FEMA said the family's home was still livable, when the residents didn't consider it to be.
She said she anticipated having a lot of situations where people didn't fit into programs, and they planned to do one-one-one audits to determine how to help them.
Board Chair Anthony Farrington noted during the discussion that price gouging is becoming an issue, reporting that he's getting calls from potential renters who are seeing prices raised above the allowable 10-percent increase during a state of emergency.
Last week, the board approved increased penalties – specifically, doubling the usual fine for price gouging that's specified in the penal code from $10,000 to $20,000 – for landlords raising rental prices.
Farrington queried Social Services staff about what could be done. Supervisor Rob Brown replied, “It's a violation of the penal code,” and therefore the District Attorney's Office should address it.
“Our action reinforced state law,” Brown said.
It was also reported during the meeting that the state-led cleanup on the Rocky and Valley fires is under way.
During public comment, Anderson Springs resident Christopher Rowland reported that 13 massive Douglas fir trees on his property had been taken down.
He said the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle – which is leading the cleanup – told him they will not remove the trees, but would have had the trees still been standing when the agency arrived to conduct the cleanup on his property.
“This is a huge dilemma for me” and for others, said Rowland, explaining that he can't afford to have the trees removed. “There's got to be a way for the cleanup to be expanded to include this.”
Brown said he was working on a solution. “I think I can safely say, you will not be responsible for removing those trees,” he said.
Brown said he will host a meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at Cobb Elementary School – the first day that the school will be reopened since the fire – to discuss issues related to trees and tree removal on Cobb.
Supervisors consider planning issues
Community Development Director Rick Coel asked the board Tuesday to give him leave to reduce counter hours for his department.
He said the reason was that they were “completely overwhelmed” with staffing shortages – they are down two planners and a building inspector, with a fourth employee expected to leave – plus an “astronomically high” call volume of 2,400 phone calls a month.
The department has closed the counter during lunch, but that hasn't been enough to give staff enough time to deal with its growing workload, which includes planning applications that already are coming in related to the Valley fire, he said.
Coel asked for a few months' time of reduced counter hours. At the same time, he said it will take him about four months to fill the planner vacancies.
Brown suggested reaching out to the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport about the possibility of contracting with them to help meet the needs. Supervisor Jeff Smith offered the idea of looking for retirees who might be interested in temporary work. The board also suggested the need for a phone tree.
Coel said different agencies handle planning differently and he didn't believe the cities had sufficient staffing. He explained that many retirees don't keep up the necessary certifications.
Smith also suggested allowing people to work overtime. Coel said his staff already is getting burned out.
Farrington said Coel's department doesn't have a structurally balanced budget, and it may be the time to begin discussing fee adjustments. “That's the reality of what we're confronted with,” Farrington said, noting the county has had nominal planning fee increases.
The board approved Coel's request to reduce hours unanimously.
Supervisors also gave Coel approval to open a temporary permit center in the Pine Room at the Middletown Senior Center.
While a small space, Coel said his staff thinks it will work. “We know we're going to be busy.”
The goal is to create a micro one stop shop for people wanting to rebuild after the Valley fire. Coel said they probably won't be conducting plan checking at the location, but they will be able to help people get their permit application packets complete in order to expedite permitting.
In other business, the supervisors approved Coel's proposal for an interim urgency to allow RVs to be used as living quarters on lots that are 40,000 square feet – or nine-tenths of an acre – or larger during the rebuilding process.
Specifically, the urgency ordinance waives the existing requirement that a building permit first be obtained for the replacement home prior to approval of a temporary dwelling, in this case an RV.
Coel's requirements include that the site be inspected and deemed adequate for RV occupancy, including parcel size verification, the ability to locate the RV away from dead trees and the presence of a functioning septic system.
He maintained that smaller lots possess too many health and safety concerns, and that RVs are likely to impede cleanup and recovery efforts within the small lot subdivisions.
Coel also received the board's support for waiving the consultant selection process and approving an agreement with Santa Rosa-based Coastland Civil Engineering Inc. for additional building inspection and plan review services in connection to the Valley fire.
He reported that the process to hire additional county staff to fill staffing needs to do the work would result in an up to four month delay in making those services available.
Also on Tuesday, the board approved appointing Social Services Director Carol Huchingson as the county's recovery coordinator.
In that capacity, Huchingson – who served as director of the Emergency Operations Center during the fire – will act as the county's primary point of contact to interface with the recovery coordinators with the California Office of Emergency Services and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The anticipated length of this assignment is approximately 6 months until the community rebuilding process is well underway,” according to County Administrative Officer Matt Perry's written report to the board.
The board also approved a letter to state officials requesting that at least 50-percent of workforce for master cleanup of the county's wildland fires be local labor, operators and truckers.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
