The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport. TV8 will broadcast the meeting live.

At 9:15 a.m. the board will get an update on Bear, a dog owned by Nice resident Gerald Lindquist. Bear had been set for destruction after escaping his chain link kennel in July, as Lake County News has reported.

Bear had previously gotten in trouble with county animal control officials after he and two other dogs were involved in an attack that injured two people. Animal control officers described him as unpredictable.

At its Aug. 3 meeting the board agreed to let the dog be taken to an out-of-county trainer in an effort to get him under control. Tuesday's hearing is to update the board, which must decide if the dog should be destroyed or if he has made enough progress to be saved.

In other agenda items, the board will receive the annual report of domestic violence services at 9:50 a.m. and at 10 a.m. will continue a public hearing regarding U Wanna Camp's appeal of a September 2009 notice of violation for allegedly allowing long-term occupancy of RV spaces on a site with an expired use permit. U Wanna Camp is located at 2699 Scotts Creek Road, Lakeport.

The board will hold a closed session to discuss existing litigation, Sidetracked Associates dba Featherbed Railroad v. Lacosan.

Other items on the agenda are as follows.

Timed items

9 a.m.: Approval of consent agenda, which includes items that are expected to be routine and noncontroversial, and will be acted upon by the board at one time without discussion; presentation of animals available for adoption at Lake County Animal Care and Control; consideration of items not appearing on the posted agenda, and contract change orders for current construction projects.

9:05 a.m.: Citizen's input. Any person may speak for three minutes about any subject of concern, provided that it is within the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors and is not already on the agenda. Prior to this time, speakers must fill out a slip giving name, address and subject (available in the clerk of the board’s office, first floor, courthouse).

9:35 a.m.: Hearing, summary abatement and nuisance abatement assessment confirmation and proposed recordation of notice of lien in the amount of $591.38 - 10348 Del Monte Way, Kelseyville, CA (APN 043-606-120 - PNC Mortgage Co.).

9:40 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the week of Oct. 3-9, 2010 as National 4-H Week in Lake County.

9:45 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of October 2010 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Lake County.

11:30 a.m.: Assessment appeal hearing: Kenneth Joachim - Application No. 156-2009 - 7680 Verna Way, Glenhaven, CA - APN 060-101-060-000.

Nontimed items

– Supervisors’ weekly calendar, travel and reports.

– Consideration of request for out of state travel to Colorado for client placement.

– Update on South Main Street and Soda Bay Road Corridor Improvement Project.

– Update on emergency action taken on March 2 regarding the Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System's interim collection system improvements.

Consent agenda

– Approve minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting held on Sept. 28, 2010.

– Adopt proclamation designating the week of Oct. 3-9, 2010 as National 4-H Week in Lake County.

– Adopt proclamation designating the month of October 2010 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Lake County.

– Terminate appointment of Clear Lake Advisory Committee member Charles O’Neill-Jones, per committee bylaws.

– Approve Agreement between the County of Lake and the city of Clearlake for the provision of animal control services, and authorize the chair to sign; and approve agreement between the county of Lake and the city of Lakeport for the provision of animal control services, and authorize the chair to sign.

– Approve amendment to Clearlake Oaks County Water District’s Conflict of Interest Code, pursuant to district’s approval on September.

– Adopt Resolution No. _____ appointing representatives to the CSAC-Excess Insurance Authority Board of Directors.

– Adopt Resolution No. _____ setting rate of pay for election officers for the November 2, 2010 General Election pursuant to Section 12310 of the Elections Code.

– Approve first amendment to the agreement between the county of Lake and the Lake County Community Action Agency, New Beginnings Highland High School, for provision of alcohol and drug

counseling for fiscal year 2010-11 (to include the provision of services at Carlé High School, at no additional cost), and authorize the chair to sign.

– Adopt Resolution No. _____ authorizing the director, Public Works Department, to sign a notice of completion for work performed under agreement dated July 26, 2010 (2005/2006 Storm Damage Repair - Highland Springs Road PM 10.1, Bid No. PW 10-07).

– Adopt Resolution No. _____ authorizing the director, Public Works Department, to sign a notice of completion for work performed under agreement dated May 27, 2010 (2005/2006 Storm Damage Repair - Scotts Valley Road PM 6.39 to 6.41, Bid No. PW 10-05).

– Approve grant agreement between the county of Lake and the California Department of Boating and Waterways, in the amount of $11,500, for the purchase of a Marine Patrol jet ski, and authorize the sheriff to sign.

– Approve second amendment to agreement between the county of Lake and Industrial Employers and Distributors Association (IEDA), for public authority labor negotiations consultant services (an annual rate increase of $430), and authorize the chair to sign.

– Approve Amendment No. 1 to agreement dated Sept. 22, 2009, between the Lake County Redevelopment Agency and DeLeon Engineering for services previously provided to the agency in connection with the Lucerne Third Avenue Plaza Project, and authorize the executive director to sign (amending the amount of professional liability insurance required to be in place for one year after completion of services).

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The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

Staff reports and the full agenda for the meeting can be found at www.cityoflakeport.com/departments/home.aspx?deptid=88.

The council will discuss appointing two members to serve four-year terms on the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee.

Also up for discussion is two seats on the Lakeport Planning Commission.

As of Oct. 3 two commission terms have expired – those of Ross Kauper and Harold Taylor, both of whom have expressed interest in continuing, according to City Clerk Janel Chapman's report to the council.

The city also has received applications for the positions from John Thompson and Judith Steele, Chapman said.

Also on the agenda is a resolution authorizing signatories to the city’s checking, payroll and investment funds accounts.

City Manager Margaret Silveira's report to the council explained that the city has, until recently, used a stamp with the mayor's second signature for check signing.

“The use of the stamp was to allow for a more efficient process in processing the accounts payable and payroll, which at times may be a very large quantity of checks,” said Silveira.

Silveira continued, “The auditor and the Lake County Grand Jury have both commented that if this stamp were to be used, it should only be used by the Mayor. This can be very difficult at times due to the time sensitivity of our payables and payroll.”

She said staff is recommending that the stamp no longer be used for check signing and additional names be added to the accounts in order to have two signatures available for processing checks.

Currently signers include the mayor, mayor pro tem, city manager, finance director and city clerk, she said. In the absence of the finance director, Silveira said city staff is recommending that the community development director and the administrative services director be added.

The council also will hold a closed session to discuss property negotiations for Green Ranch and negotiations with the Lakeport Employees Association and Lakeport Police Officers Association.

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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Supervisors, County of Lake, State of California, has set TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2010, AT 9:30 A.M., Board Chambers, Courthouse, Lakeport, as time and place to hear the

REQUEST FOR REZONE FROM “RR” RURAL RESIDENTIAL TO “PDR” PLANNED DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL (RZ 07-14) AND A GENERAL PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT FOR

THE SUBDIVISION OF APPROXIMATELY 105 ACRES TO CREATE 30 RESIDENTIAL LOTS (GPD 07-03); PROJECT APPLICANT IS PLUM FLAT, LLC; located at 10929 Point Lakeview Road, Kelseyville, CA (APN 009-006-300).

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that at said place and time, any interested persons may appear and be heard.

If you challenge the action of the Board of Supervisors on any of the above stated items in court, it may be limited to only those issues raised at the public hearing described in this notice or in written correspondence delivered to the Clerk to the Board at, or prior to, the public hearing.

KELLY F. COX

Clerk of the Board

By: Mireya G. Turner

Assistant Clerk to the Board

planting native tules on floating islands, and a tule revegetation class.

The second natural building project on public land in Lake County will soon be under way at Clarks Island with the construction of a hand-sculpted entryway that will include an information kiosk, signage, and bench, all constructed with materials acquired locally.

A “floating island,” made of recycled plastic and planted with native tules also will be installed in the coming weeks in the waters off of Clarks Island. A floating dock made of the same material to be used as a kayak launch also will be installed.

A clean-up day and a tule revegetation project, where participants will learn the proper way to harvest and plant tule rhizomes, has been scheduled. The Clean-up Day at Clarks Island will be held Oct. 9 and the tule re-vegetation class will be held Oct. 23. Announcements will be made when the floating islands arrive.

Ideal for school and community groups, volunteers for all projects on Clarks Island are being sought. Volunteers can register online at www.1-800-Volunteer.org (search for Clearlake Oaks in the search menu) or contact Lore Schneider in the County of Lake Administrative office at 707-263-2580. For more information on these projects, visit www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island and

http://www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island/tule-revegetation.

Background on Clarks Island

As a community-identified priority, the Lake County Redevelopment Agency purchased Clarks Island in downtown Clearlake Oaks in 2008. The island is located between the Tower Mart and the Clearlake Oaks Boat Launch, near Island Drive on East Highway 20.

Since the purchase, the redevelopment agency has relocated the dozen mobile home residents, removed debris and rezoned Clarks Island as open space.

Since January 2010, a group of community volunteers have been meeting under the direction of District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing to develop a concept plan for Clarks Island that aligns with the Clarks Island Feasibility Study approved by the Board of Supervisors in April of 2009.

The focus of the plan is on the environment and sustainability, with aspects of natural earth building, native and Native American plantings, a kayak stopping spot, a demonstration trail, tule revegetation and interpretive signage.

The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative, led by community volunteers, received the go-ahead from the Lake County Board of Supervisors sitting as the Board of Directors of the Lake County Redevelopment Agency to purchase and install floating islands, as well as begin the natural building project at the entryway to Clarks Island.

The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative has raised over $7,000 in donations from the community for these efforts.

Nationally-renowned natural building designer and instructor, Massey Burke, will once again be engaging the community to participate in a natural building project while at the same time imparting natural building techniques and skills that are accessible, low-cost, and use locally-available materials residents can use on their own properties.

Burke, who leads natural building classes worldwide including teaching at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, was the designer and instructor at Lucerne Creek County Park where over 60 community volunteers worked together to construct a decorative wall and bench with adobe bricks, cob, and reclaimed materials.

That project was awarded a Green California Leadership Award in 2009. Using locally-acquired clay soil, Burke also re-plastered the existing wine tasting bar that is constructed of straw bales at the Lake County Wine Studio in Upper Lake.

What is “natural building” and “cob”?

"Natural building" is an umbrella term than connotes any sort of building that is accomplished with the use of natural materials primarily, as opposed to the use of man-made or industrial materials. Natural building minimizes the use of products that require considerable embodied energy for their manufacture or transportation. The objective is to build with simple techniques that do not further pollute the environment, consume more fossil fuel, or unnecessarily extract the resources. (www.greenhomebuilding.com, September, 2010)

The word “cob” comes from an old English root meaning a lump or rounded mass. Cob building uses hands and feet to form lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw, a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. Cob is easy to learn and inexpensive to build.

Because there are no forms, ramming, cement, or rectilinear bricks, cob lends itself to organic shapes: curved walls, arches, and niches. Earth homes are cool in summer, warm in winter. Cob's resistance to rain and cold makes it ideally suited to cold climates like the Pacific Northwest, and to desert conditions.

Cob has been used for millennia even in the harsh climates of coastal Britain. Thousands of comfortable and picturesque cob homes in England have been continuously occupied for many centuries and now command very high market values. With recent rises in the price of lumber and increasing interest in natural and environmentally safe building practices, cob is enjoying a renaissance. (www.cobcottage.com, September, 2010)

Cob is one of the simplest and least expensive building techniques available. Although it is typically labor-intensive, everyone – children, seniors, disabled – can participate in some aspect of the construction process using cob, allowing for a fun, engaging and positive community-building experience.

Other advantages to using cob in construction include seismic safety, impervious to fire (although roofs constructed of wood can still burn, of course), versatility, and can easily be shaped and molded. Cob-like mixes are also used as plaster or filler in several other methods of natural building, such as adobe, earth bags, timber frames, cordwood, and straw bale.

What is a “floating island”?

According to Floating Islands International, a BioHaven Floating Island is made of 100 percent recycled PET plastic, which is made from recycled drinking bottles and certified non-toxic. After the plastic undergoes a recycling and spinning process, it is then turned into a “matrix” of fibers composed of layers of a durable synthetic mesh. The matrix design resembles a pot-scrub or loofah, which is important as it serves as a water filtration design.

During production of the BioHaven Floating Islands, the plastic matrix is cut to shape and bonded together with buoyant adhesive foam. In his April 6, 2010 presentation to the Lake County Board of Supervisors, Sean Dempsey of Floating Islands West shared how the BioHaven matrix material can be planted or used alone as a floating dock.

He explained that BioHaven floating islands can remove pollutants from a waterway, provide critical riparian edge habitat (new land mass for use by all kinds of creatures, from microbes to humans), mine nutrient loads from any waterway and reduce algae blooms, sequester carbon and other greenhouse gases, and provide wave mitigation and erosion control while beautifying a waterscape with floating gardens.

The purpose of the floating islands near Clarks Island is to test their impact on nutrient uptake and algae remediation. To test their effectiveness and get baseline readings, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake have offered to pay for the first year of testing, estimated at $5,000. Lake County Vector Control also will provide training to staff in the Water Resources and Environmental Health Departments on phytoplankton sampling.

When can I volunteer and what can I bring?

Natural Building:

Wednesday – Sunday, beginning Friday, Oct. 8 – Sunday, Oct. 24, starting each day at 9 a.m.

Monday – Wednesday, Nov. 1-3, 9 a.m.

Tasks to include laying the foundation, making adobe bricks, building walls, roofing and final details. Please let us know which you would like to be involved with, as tasks and number of volunteers needed change daily. Wear clothing that can get muddy. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water. Call 707-263-2580 for schedule.

Clarks Island Cleanup:

Saturday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m.

Needed for the day: Gas-powered string trimmers, eye/ear protection, tarps, brush-whackers, shovels, gloves, etc. Will be clearing grasses, thistle, and some brush. Removing invasive Trees of Heaven and water primrose (on land) but feet may still get wet. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water.

Tule harvesting, propagation, and planting demonstration:

Saturday, Oct. 23, 9 a.m.

Needed for the day: Flat, squared-tipped spades, gloves, Styrofoam or plastic containers, shade cloth, and buckets. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water.

Ideal for school and community groups, families, and individuals of all abilities, volunteers for all projects on Clarks Island are being sought.

Volunteers can register online at www.1-800-Volunteer.org (search for Clearlake Oaks in the search menu) or contact Lore Schneider in the County of Lake Administrative office at 707-263-2580.

For more information on these projects, visit www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island

and http://www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island/tule-revegetation.

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Last Thursday, Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain criticized the report and statements it made about his agency, some of which he called lies.

Then on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors also pointed out issues in the report that they felt misrepresented statements they made during confidential interviews with grand jurors, and raised concerns that the way the grand jury presented some of that information was causing a Brown Act violation.

In the beginning pages of the 2009-10 report, the grand jury included what appeared to be transcripts of interviews with each of the supervisors.

However, as Supervisor Denise Rushing pointed out on Tuesday, the interviews weren't presented word for word, were out of context and omitted portions of statements supervisors made to the group.

Referring to the document, Rushing said the grand jury asked her about how Lake County is using its stimulus money. She told them that the county was applying for grants and stimulus money, but the report said, “Lake County has applied for grants rather than stimulus money.”

In another portion of the report regarding the public defender contract, the grand jury recommended that phone numbers for defense attorneys and bail bondsmen be posted near telephones, which she and Supervisor Jim Comstock told them already was being done in an Aug. 25 tour of the Lake County Jail.

After reviewing the document, Supervisor Rob Brown said, “I'm wondering which interview they were at.”

He suggested he should have taken a tape recorder and done his own transcript, because he felt the grand jury was extremely selective about which statements of his were included in the report.

One of the questions for Brown was, “What is the status of the investigations into the environmental impact of power companies' drilling on Cobb Mountain? Does the drilling increase earthquake frequency?”

He said he told the grand jurors there is no evidence that the operations are causing earthquakes, and said he backed that up by saying there is an increase in earthquakes all over the state, including areas where there is no geothermal drilling.

Instead, the grand jury report read, “There is no effect.”

“They just said there is no effect and I did not say that,” Brown said.

He added that he was puzzled at how the grand jury presented the report, leaving out what he considered important information.

“It appears that it's just a colossal waste of time to go in there and answer questions if they're not going to put it in it's entire context,” he said.

Brown said it also appeared to him many of the questions were based on complaints from the grand jurors themselves, not the community.

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox – who, along with the board, the grand jury had admonished to “avoid misleading statements that paint a rosier picture” in budget documents – asked the board if it wanted to address those concerns in its response back to the group.

He noted that Board Chair Anthony Farrington – absent from the meeting – also had a concern about the report, which he submitted to be included in the board's response to the grand jury.

“The process is bizarre,” said Rushing.

“Do you want to say that?” Cox asked.

“I don't know,” said Rushing.

Brown chimed in, “Yes, in its entire context.”

Rushing explained. “We can't act as individual board members, we act collectively as a board.”

The grand jury asked the supervisors about their individual opinions on certain matters, she said. “The process of interviewing individual board members and them publishing select comments from those interviews doesn't make sense to me.”

She said the grand jury might as well run a newspaper. Comstock added that they would get misquoted as badly as they do in the newspaper.

Brown said a grand jury member who also was on the Lake County Genetic Engineering Advisory Committee was asking him for his opinion on genetically modified crops in Lake County. The response attributed to him was “Brown is not big on the UN recommendation of cautionary steps. 'No minds can be changed, so why bother?'”

Brown said that was another example of having something taken out of context.

Rushing wanted to include in the response the concern that it's inappropriate to question individual board members about certain items and then publish them. She said the board members then see what each other has to say on issues that haven't been discussed in public, which she feared led to a potential Brown Act violation.

Brown said he had questions about the grand jury's validity.

“There are some good things that have come out of the grand jury,” he said.

However, recently he's seen outcomes that make him think people are signing up to serve on the grand jury with an agenda. He suggested that the grand jury itself needs more oversight.

Deputy Administrative Officer Matt Perry updated the board's response document, which is addressed to Lake County Superior Court Presiding Judge Richard Martin, and returned later in the afternoon with a revised version.

Besides correcting statements by individual board members to the grand jury, the board agreed to state in the opening paragraphs of its response its concerns about the interview process and potential Brown Act violations relating to items that hadn't been discussed in a regular board meeting.

“We strongly believe that (it) is inappropriate to ask individual Supervisors to take a position on a matter of public policy and disclose that position in the Grand Jury report before the matter is discussed by the Board in public session and a(n) official policy is produced through the collective debate that is the hallmark of our government,” the document stated. “We are concerned that the Grand Jury appeared to be asking Supervisors, unintentionally, to violate the Brown Act by publishing the individual responses in the Grand Jury Report.”

The board response added that it believed the interviews reflected the grand jury's efforts to get as much information as possible from various sources.

“However, since the Board of Supervisors is a collective body and, unlike other elected officials, cannot act individually, the manner in which these individual interviews were conducted and reported was inappropriate,” the response explained.

In addition to the boards' comments, the final, 14-page response from the board to the grand jury includes comments on the city of Clearlake's public access channel, county administration oversight, inmate phone service, Board of Supervisors oversight, human resources, information technology, redevelopment, the public defender, adult protective services, In-Home Supportive Services, mental health, Lampson airport, code enforcement, the adult and juvenile detention facilities, the area planning council, parks, and the Middletown Public Library and senior center project.

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Tom Engstrom, the former police chief for the city of Lakeport and an early contender for a Lakeport City Council seat, said he's dropping out of the race, although his name will appear on the November 2010 ballot. Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The field of Lakeport City Council members has dropped from seven to six.

On Sunday, Tom Engstrom, the city's former police chief and an early contender in this year's council race, said he is dropping out of the race due to unforeseen circumstances.

It's a surprising turn in the council election, for which he already had put together a campaign Web site and Facebook page and was doing outreach for his council bid.

Engstrom said his name will still appear on the ballot, as names of candidates can't be removed after the Aug. 11 filing date.

He said on Aug. 22 he received an assignment from his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to oversee nine congregations from the Mendocino Coast to Middletown and from Cloverdale to Willits.

“This is a nine year unpaid assignment that requires long hours and extensive travel,” Engstrom said.

“I sincerely apologize to those people who have supported and encouraged me in my bid for a seat on the city council,” he said. “I can never thank you enough for your love and friendship.”

He continued, “I realize that I have let you down, but serving the Lord has been a priority throughout my adult life. Cindy and I decided early on in our marriage to follow the admonition found in Joshua 24:15 – 'Choose you this day whom ye will serve ...But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'”

Engstrom encouraged all Lakeport voters to cast their ballot for two of the six remaining well-qualified candidates.

The six remaining candidates include current mayor and construction contractor Jim Irwin; former councilman and local businessman Ted Mandrones; Realtor Stacey Mattina; Paul Racine, who manages his father's business, Paul Racine Distributor of Lakeport; Marc Spillman, a Lakeport planning commissioner; and George Spurr, a computer programmer and analyst for the county, as Lake County News has reported.

“I wish them and the city of Lakeport all the best,” Engstrom said.

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