With the controversy of this coming presidential election, one local measure is noncontroversial and straight forward.

Measure V will create a significant and long term plan for improvements of the residential streets in Clearlake.

We finally have an answer to how the residential streets in Clearlake can be repaired and resurfaced and to get started, our city needs the residents of Clearlake to vote yes on Measure V!

Voting yes on Measure V will start a 20-year plan that will rebuild the roads in Clearlake and here’s a brief glance at how we got to this point.

Last year an ad hoc committee of the Clearlake City Council was established by then-Mayor Denise Loustalot. I requested to be a part of that committee along with then-Councilwoman Gina Fortino Dickson.

The committee was made up of people who had supported prior road measures and those who had spoken out against those previous road measures.

The committee listened to battalion chiefs and captains from the Lake County Fire Protection District, the chief of Clearlake Police Department, and department heads from the Konocti Unified School District Transportation Division and the Lake Transit Authority. All of them described the damage done to their vehicles because of the poor road condition.

The ad hoc committee learned that public safety was compromised by the additional costs associated with vehicle repairs and equipment that was taken out of service because of damage from the poor roads. Most importantly, response times are greatly reduced in emergencies because of bad roads. We learned that our ambulances and fire truck’s life span was cut significantly.

The former manager of Lake Transit Authority, Wanda Gray, reported that buses used in Clearlake had more damage and cost more in repairs than in any other area that they operated.

Information was also provided that Clearlake Police patrol vehicles received significant damage when engaged in emergency response or pursuits because of the poor roads within the city.

Lastly, evidence was provided via a national transportation safety report that motorists driving on poor road conditions spent more than double the national average in vehicle maintenance.

Gina Fortino Dickson and I met with Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Bill Dodd along with representatives from other cities and counties.

The short story is that the state has reduced funding for cities and county streets because of lower gas tax revenue and that will continue to decline. They are still trying to pass some type of legislation for our state’s crumbling infrastructure, but thus far cannot create new legislation that will pass.

Their answer from them was to create a local funding tax and that is exactly what Measure V does. Our state of California representatives encouraged us to move forward with a measure to resurface roads and help with grants for local road projects and we were told those may only be awarded to cities and counties with local funding measures.

Based on the above information, the road ad hoc committee requested the Clearlake City Council place a single cent sales tax on this November’s ballot. The council did, voting unanimously in favor of the measure.

As we are getting closer to the election, questions have been asked by those living on private streets within the city of Clearlake, specifically if their roads would be part of those being helped by Measure V.

The short answer is that publicly collected taxes cannot be provided to private individuals. Doing so would be a gift of public funds, which is not legal.

However, if Measure V, a "special tax," passes by the 66.7 percent needed, a percentage of the tax will be set aside for use in obtaining grants and it can be used to fund bonds and for new "special districts" if an assessment district is voted on and passes.

I met with the Clearlake Public Works director and he confirmed that if residents of Clearlake who live on private roads were to go through the process of creating a special district for their neighborhood, they could improve their private streets and then request the city accept them into their street maintenance program.

Vote yes on Measure V! It is an investment in ourselves and our city. It will be another big part of making our city cleaner, safer and better managed and a place for us all too proud of.

Russell Perdock lives in Clearlake, Calif.