City Administrator Dale Neiman urged the council to take the action in order to allow city staff to work on zoning guidelines for dispensaries and cooperatives rather than having to process applications for new establishments.

Close to 80 people packed the council chambers for the discussion, which elicited anger, concern and frustration from many local medical marijuana users.

The council and planning commission had gathered for the workshop, which included an update on draft zoning regulations that Neiman and Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain crafted. Neiman said they used information gathered during several meetings with an ad hoc committee as a basis for the draft.

Drafts of the documents were only made available to the public just before the meeting, because Neiman said he and city staffers had been working on them through the afternoon.

Neiman said he and the city's attorney, Malathy Subramanian, both interpret the city's zoning ordinance as not permitting dispensaries and collectives, an opinion that would be challenged by medical marijuana proponents throughout the meeting.

A summary of the general regulations presented by Neiman – who reported that McClain was out sick with the flu – required that dispensaries or collectives be nonprofits that submit to an annual audit. They would require use permits to operate, which the Planning Commission would need to grant, and licenses to operate would have to be renewed annually.

No one under 18 would be allowed in the dispensaries, which would require a mechanical entry system. Neiman said outdoor cultivation must not be visible from outside of the buildings.

In addition, dispensaries would be required to maintain records of qualified patients, operate air treatment systems to control odor, have a security plan, obtain a sales tax permit from the state Board of Equalization, and keep minimum staffing levels of one manager and one employee, based on the proposed guidelines.

Neiman said the establishments would be allowed to keep 5 pounds of processed marijuana on site, 20 mature plants or 50 immature plants. Only dispensary staff, caregivers an those with state-issued medical marijuana identification cards would be allowed on the sites.

Proposed zoning-related regulations limited operating hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, and should be closed on state-observed holidays.

Neiman said the proposals also include limiting the number of dispensaries within the city to three, which each can have no more than 200 members. The sales area would be limited to a maximum of 1,200-square feet.

Other limitations would keep the establishments at least 100 feet from residences, and 1,500 feet from churches, youth centers and other dispensaries.

Neiman said city staff is proposing that dispensaries and collectives be permitted only in the C-4 commercial areas, which is used for heavy service and light industrial.

Neiman said the draft ordinance will go to the Planning Commission, which will hold a public hearing and make recommendations to the City Council, which also will hold a public hearing.

Community expresses concern about safe access

During public comment, retired District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey said that, overall, he felt city staff did a good job of covering all the points they needed to, but he cautioned that many of the issues with medical marijuana are temporary.

“It's kind of like being in 1932 when Prohibition was still in effect but it hadn't been repealed yet,” he said.

Not discussed, Robey noted, were fees that the city would charge.

He also reminded the council that under HIPAA law, medical records are confidential.

Lower Lake Attorney Ron Green, who represents Liz Byrd of Lakeside Herbal Solutions in her appeal of the city's refusal to renew her business license – which still hasn't been decided – said he disagreed with Neiman's interpretation that city zoning didn't currently allow for dispensaries and collectives.

Green said he believed C-2 community commercial zoning was a better fit for the establishments, because that zoning allows for “retail trade and service” which is defined as “the purchase, sale, offering for sale, or other transaction involving the handling or disposition of any article, service, or commodity to the ultimate consumer,” according to a memo he and Robey submitted to the council and commission.

Many patients spoke to the council, asking them to not move the dispensaries to the more distant industrial zoning areas. They also voiced concerns about currently operating dispensaries being closed, but Neiman said there was no intent to do that, only to eventually bring them all into compliance.

Valerie Adase, who spoke to the council in May when it began drafting the proposed ordinance, said the city was treating medical marijuana patients like degenerates who needed to be sent to the outskirts of town.

“We're not degenerates, we're the sick, we're the disabled and we're dying,” she said.

Adase suggested the city had more urgent problems – foreclosures, high unemployment, struggling businesses – than regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. “This town can't even pay the dog catcher,” she said, which elicited laughs from the audience.

Other medical marijuana users explained that the drug helped them with a variety of serious maladies, and that the city should not inhibit safe access.

Businesswoman Jeri Spittler said she, too, is a medical marijuana user. Spittler, who has worked for more than 40 years and continues to put in 16-hour days, said she can't get medical insurance or afford medication. That leaves medical marijuana to give her relief from scoliosis, which causes her serious back pain.

Spittler said she wanted to break the stigma that's attached to medical marijuana users, who she said aren't dangerous and are just everyday people.

“It does take a lot of courage to be here – a ton,” she said.

Quincy Jackson of the Triple C Collective questioned why, more than 13 years after Proposition 215's passage, the city still hadn't created a way of handling medical marijuana establishments.

Jackson urged city officials to tax dispensaries as a way of bringing in revenue to the city, such as is being done in Oakland.

Dave Moses, owner of Alternative Solutions, said he sat on the city's committee but didn't go back after the first meeting because it wasn't truly representative of the people affected. He accused McClain of trying to circumvent guidelines set by Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, and SB 420, which offers additional guidance on medical marijuana usage.

Liz Byrd said she hoped the city would be able to come to a conclusion at some point about how to handle the establishments.

Byrd said she believed the C-4 zoning would be unsafe, and will necessitate creating a delivery service, which she said the city hadn't considered.

“I will not stop taking care of people. That's what I do,” said Byrd, adding that she wouldn't take her clients to unsafe areas.

City resident Alice Reece said she wanted to play the devil's advocate. Reece said many people abuse medical marijuana, alleging that they purchase it at collectives and then reselling it.

She agreed medical marijuana is needed, and she suggested C-4 zoning isn't in the “boondocks” as some suggested.

Greg Byrd, husband to Liz, said C-4 zoning presents a health concern because of the industrial uses going on there, and could magnify problems for those who are already ill. “C-4 is not where we belong,” he said.

Lake County Publishing reporter Denise Rockenstein asked city staff if city zoning ordinances specifically mention pharmacies, and if they lay down specific guidelines for pharmacies such as are being suggested for dispensaries. Rockenstein suggested it wasn't fair to treat pharmacies and dispensaries differently.

Estella Creel told the council and commission that they should give licenses to the existing dispensaries – which were identified during the meeting as Lakeside Herbal Solutions, Triple C Collective and D&M Compassion Center – and figure out rules for the new ones. “You cannot go back and rework the past,” she said.

When the discussion moved to the interim urgency ordinance on the opening of new dispensaries and collectives, Neiman said the idea was to prevent city staff from having to spend time on processing new applications while they were trying to work on the proposed zoning regulations.

He noted that if the city wanted to shut down existing dispensaries, it would be an expensive process that would involve going to court.

Green said he and Robey think a moratorium is helpful, but it needs to be legally correct. He suggested that the proposed moratorium language was legally incorrect and insufficient in its definition of caregivers.

Neiman told the council that the moratorium would only be in effect for 45 days, probably less, as the city worked out its zoning guidelines.

Council member Joyce Overton moved to accept the temporary moratorium with Green's proposed changes and Planning Commission Fred Gaul's suggestion that the language include the names of the three currently operating dispensaries.

The council voted 5-0 to pass the measure.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors voted to extend a temporary moratorium on the opening of dispensaries and collectives while its staff continues work on zoning guidelines. In that case, the extension will last just over 10 months, as Lake County News has reported.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

The Lake County Board of Education received the Lake County School District Reorganization Feasibility Report at its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 14. The report was the work of the School District Reorganization Feasibility Task Force.

The Lake County Board of Education established the task force at the request of the Lake County Board of Supervisors. In January, the Lake County Board of Supervisors at the request of a local citizen began discussion of potential cost savings if the seven school districts and the county office of education would unify either totally or partially.

The board requested, by Resolution 2009-15, the “… creation of a Feasibility Task Force by the Lake County Board of Education to consider the potential for cost savings and the general effects to be anticipated should any of the school districts in Lake County be unified with one or more existing districts.”

Once this resolution was presented to the County Board of Education, the county board directed the county superintendent to establish a task force of local citizens to prepare an initial feasibility study of the impacts of such unification proposals.

Task force members were selected by the county board and the county superintendent based on representation from all areas of the county and their knowledge and experience in working in the public and private sector.

The Lake County Board of Education and the county superintendent of schools both extended their gratitude and appreciation to the members of the task force and the task force facilitators for their hard work and perseverance in tackling this challenging issue.

The purpose of the report was to present a preliminary, exploratory study of school district unification options in Lake County outlining any potential advantages and disadvantages. The report would then be presented to the Lake County Board of Supervisors who would decide if a formal study should be prepared by a paid professional consultant.

A formal study would meet the standards for submission to the State Board of Education for possible implementation of a specific unification proposal to be submitted to the voters.

The task force decided to limit the study to three possible unification options:

1. Reorganization of all seven districts and the county office into one single countywide district;

2. Reorganization into two districts – Konocti Unified and Middletown Unified into one district; Kelseyville Unified, Lakeport Unified, Lucerne Elementary, Upper Lake High and Upper Lake Elementary into one district;

3. Reorganization into five districts – Konocti, Middletown, Kelseyville and Lakeport would remain unified districts and Upper Lake High, Upper Lake Elementary and Lucerne Elementary would become one unified district.

The task force examined what currently exists at the present time. The fiscal status of the seven school districts was reviewed and projected income and potential expenditures under each of the three options indicated above.

The task force was advisory only and did not make any recommendations. Its purpose was to present factual data and potential outcomes.

The report is not intended to be a professional in-depth study of the caliber that can be presented to the State Board of Education. It is simply an exploratory effort to see if such a professional study should be done, according to the Lake County Office of Education.

Some conclusions that came from the study were that a revenue increase is possible through unification of districts due to the “leveling up” blended revenue limit calculation. However, expenditures are difficult to predict.

In this study, average employee salaries were examined and projections made on the average high salaries. In a more in-depth professional study, salary schedules currently negotiated in each of the seven districts would have to be analyzed and a new hypothetical common salary schedule for teachers and support staff developed. This could increase the expenditures projected in this feasibility study. The same is also true in developing common health and welfare benefit costs for all employees.

Public opinion was not assessed or surveyed in this study. Comments were made by members of the task force who have participated in the merger of fire districts and justice courts in Lake County that public opinion is difficult to quantify and predict.

It was also noted that there are several means to achieve costs savings without unification if the school districts intensify their communication and cooperation with each other and other public agencies in the areas of transportation, food services, maintenance and operations, information technology services, etc. Efforts have begun to do joint bidding on fuel and other needed supplies.

The report has been distributed to the seven school district boards of education and to the Lake County Board of Supervisors.

A joint meeting of the Lake County Board of Education and the Lake County Board of Supervisors has been scheduled for Dec. 8 at 6 p.m. in the Board of Supervisor’s chambers. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the report and to determine the next steps that will be taken by the Board of Supervisors.

A copy of the 53-page report is available online on the Lake County Office of Education Web site www.lakecoe.org and a printed copy is available at the Lake County Office of Education’s main office 1152 S. Main St. Lakeport, CA.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

Lakeport Redevelopment Director Richard Knoll told the council that city officials met with college representatives on Oct. 22 to discuss extending water services to 2565 Parallel Drive.

The college has made an offer to purchase that 31-acre location for the site of its new $7.5 million Lake Center campus, as Lake County News has reported. The college also has been conducting due diligence on a Merritt Road site it entered escrow on in June.

Knoll said the college offered the $550,000 needed to build the water line extension, but also proposed that the city share half of the costs and pay back its share over five years in $50,000 to $60,000 installments.

The agreement calls for the city to be responsible for the water line's design and construction, said Knoll. The city also likely would create an ordinance requiring property owners hooking up to the system to pay a prorated amount at the time of connection.

The city addressed the college's concerns about a city easement through the land by offering instead to use nearby Linda Lane for access, Knoll said. Community Development staff are working on getting a list of permits and other building requirements together for the project.

Kathy Lehner, the college's superintendent and president, also addressed the council Tuesday night.

She said the Parallel Drive was one of the first sites the college had considered for the new campus, but noted that the costs were “fairly prohibitive” at that time.

The college had made an offer to the property's former owner, developer Tom Adamson, who had wanted $2.9 million for the land, which was almost twice its appraised value, as Lake County News has reported. Adamson lost the property to foreclosure over the summer.

As a result of those developments, and with the possibility of cost-sharing improvements with the city, Lehner said it puts the college back in a position where locating on Parallel Drive would have a “reasonable cost.”

Mike Adams, Mendocino College's director of facility services, commended city staff for working cooperatively with the college.

“We think there's benefit for both the city and the college in this agreement,” Adams said.

The agreement could help the college make the decision to come to Lakeport, he added.

Jan Bruns, executive director of the Lakeport Main Street Association, brought to the council a petition with 1,200 signatures collected over the last three weeks in support of keeping the college in Lakeport.

“It's very important to all of the businesses and the people who live here,” she said.

Councilman Roy Parmentier moved to accept the draft memorandum of understanding with the college, and also directed staff to start a request for proposals for engineering services and to prepare a draft reimbursement ordinance for the water main extension. Council member Suzanne Lyons seconded, and the council approved it 4-0. Councilman Bob Rumfelt was absent.

The audience filled with residents and business people applauded the vote.

In its next action, the council voted against having its Dutch Harbor property, located at 901 N. Main St., considered as a possible location for the new $71.7 million Lakeport courthouse that the state proposes to build.

A Santa Rosa firm, Keegan & Coppin, which represents the state in negotiations with the owners of possible sites, had sent the city a letter dated Sept. 23 indicating that Dutch Harbor was on a short list of potential sites.

However, Knoll told the council that the short list had changed. The state Administrative Office of the Courts released the new short list of sites on Tuesday, and it didn't include Dutch Harbor. The sites included were a portion of Vista Point Shopping Center on Lakeport Boulevard; another site at 645 Lakeport Blvd.; and a location at Martin and Bevins, as Lake County News has reported.

However, the state's announcement noted that the proposed sites might not work out, in which case others would be reconsidered.

The central issue for the city, Knoll said Tuesday, was whether the council wanted to have Dutch Harbor considered by the state as a potential site.

City residents warned against allowing the site to be used for a courthouse facility.

Businesswoman Nancy Ruzicka was upset that six properties she had offered the state were turned down, including the Nylander's shopping center on High Street. She pointed out that the Keegan & Coppin letter states that the seller must pay the firm a 6-percent commission, which she said isn't a cost picked up by the state.

George Spurr told the council that Dutch Harbor is one of the most valuable properties the city has.

Jan Bruns agreed, saying she can picture a marina and hotel on the property. “It should not go for a courthouse.”

Parmentier moved to reject the state's offer, which the council approved 4-0.

In other council action, the council approved the update to the city's housing element, selected RAU and Associates to do the engineering, estimates and specifications for phase two of the city's downtown improvement project, and approved three change orders for the Forbes Creek Trail project.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

The Clearlake City Council and the Clearlake Planning Commission are set to hold a joint workshop on Thursday to discuss proposed regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries.

They'll also discuss a second agenda item – added to a revised agenda issued Tuesday – to consider adopting an interim urgency ordinance that would place a temporary moratorium on opening new dispensaries in the city.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

In April of 2007 the Clearlake City Council had approved a yearlong moratorium on medical marijuana within the city limits, as Lake County News has reported.

A year later, they allowed the moratorium to expire but instead decided to enforce city ordinances, which they said prohibited medical marijuana because city rules don't permit business licenses to be granted for any activity that violates federal or state law.

While medical marijuana is permitted in California under the auspices of 1996's Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, it is still considered illegal under federal law, which would mean that it would be excluded in the city.

This past May, the council directed Police Chief Allan McClain and City Administrator Dale Neiman to begin work on draft regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives within the city.

The proposed regulations that came out of that effort are expected to be presented Thursday, but late on Wednesday draft documents still had not been released to the public.

Currently, the county of Lake's Community Development Department is drafting proposed zoning guidelines for where to locate medical marijuana dispensaries and cooperatives. A draft of those regulations is expected by year's end.

In March of 2007 the city of Lakeport passed an ordinance banning all medical marijuana cultivation within the city limits.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

Measure C, an initiative that was placed on the ballot after the Lakeport City Council voted earlier this year to prohibit safe and sane – or state-approved – fireworks sales in the city, passed with a margin of 59.3 to 40.7 percent, or 514 yes votes to 353 no votes, according to the Lake County Registrar of Voters.

City ordinance had allowed four nonprofit groups to sell the fireworks annually, which the groups – Clear Lake High School Booster Club, Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization, Terrace School Parent Teacher Organization and the Lake County Channel Cats – have said is their biggest annual fundraiser, as Lake County News has reported.

The groups, along with American Promotional Events and TNT Fireworks, gathered signatures to get Measure C on the ballot.

The measure proposes to limit sales times during the July 1 to July 4 sales period, and also pledges to require a 5-percent surcharge on fireworks sales which will go to the city for safety personnel.

Overall, turnout in Lakeport was at about 35.2 percent, with 876 or the city's 2,491 registered voters taking part in the election, the Registrar of Voters Office reported. Approximately 11.1 percent, or 277 voters, turned out at the precincts and 24 percent, or 599 voters, took part by absentee ballot.

In other races around the county, a Mendo-Lake Community College District race between incumbent Janet Chaniot and challenger Craig Shell was decided, with Chaniot receiving 2,205 votes, or 73.5 percent of the vote, and Shell getting 796 votes, which accounted for 26.5 percent of the vote.

The Upper Lake Elementary School board race had three seats open, which went to Marilyn Pivniska, 359 votes or 27 percent; Joanne Breton, 283 votes or 21.3 percent; and Don Meri, 267 votes or 20.1 percent. Matt Barnes received 229 votes (17.2 percent) and Nicole Miller brought in 192 votes (14.4 percent).

Bruce Higgins and Mark Timothy Sadler won seats on the Lucerne Elementary School Board. Higgins received 207 votes or 41 percent of the vote, and Sadler received 153 votes, approximately 30.3 percent of the vote. Sadler just edged out James Hankins, who received 28.7 percent of the vote, or approximately 145 votes.

In the Upper Lake High School District, three seats were decided. Claudine Pedroncelli received 569 votes (28.1 percent), while Valerie Duncan got 540 (26.7 percent) and Ron Raetz brought in 535 votes (26.5 percent). Glenn Koeppel rounded out the field with 376 votes, or 18.6 percent of the vote.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

The Lakeport dog park group during a recent Saturday morning cleanup. They're planning to meet on the first Saturday of each month to work on weeding and improvement. Courtesy photo.

Meeting on the first Saturday of each month to make improvements and do cleanup, they also held a meeting last Friday to consider a longterm plan for a dog park, according to Mary Amodio, one of the group's members.

In February of 2007, the Lakeport City Council voted to allow a city-owned parcel at 1402 Westside Park Road to be used as a dog park on a temporary basis. The park was completed last October.

Another area of the park had been set to be the dog park location, but the city made some concessions to Schellinger Brothers for its Parkside Subdivision, Doug Grider, the city's Public Works director, told Lake County News in a recent interview. Some of the area was used for a bioswale, a stormwater filtering system, which cut into the area, making it too small.

“It was not really an adequate location for a dog park,” Grider said.

A new dog park location is expected to be determined during a future phase of the park's development. Grider said there is enough land in phase three that they could find a new spot there.

The city land is commercially zoned and is meant to be developed at some point in the future, he explained.

Grider said that the city still considers the park's current location a temporary one.

However, he added, “I don't see them doing anything with that ground in my tenure.”

Meanwhile, the current park location is getting plenty of use from many local dog lovers.

Amodio said some nights there are more than a dozen dogs and their people out enjoying some exercise and play.

Grider said he went out on a recent morning and found two groups of dogs and their owners at play. “I was really surprised,” he said.

Amodio, who has a “big ol' friendly dog” who is a golden retriever mix, enjoys time out at the park, as do many others. She said she's met a lot of fun and interesting people and dogs of all sorts, from boxers and puppies to a Pomeranian named Harry.

How the group got active started with a complaint. She said one day the dog owners began complaining about the starthistle, so they decided to go out one Saturday morning and start chopping down the weeds.

“It's been nice to see this group of people step up to do stuff,” she said.

The weed chopping has turned into a monthly gathering to do cleanup which, in turn, has them thinking about other ways to improve the facility. “We have ideas,” she said.

The park has water, but Amodio said the group would like to see irrigation installed, some grading done for drainage, shade trees planted and a small pond dug for the dogs.

“I think we convinced them that putting sod in really isn't the answer,” said Amodio.

The Lakeport City Council agreed to let the city-owned property, located at 1402 Westside Park Road, to be used temporarily as a dog park. Courtesy photo.

They also would like to set aside a part of the park for older and smaller dogs, she said.

It's still early in the group's development, but Amodio said they're already beginning to talk about possibly starting a nonprofit to raise funds to assist in making the park upgrades.

“The core group of committee members understand this is going to be a longterm project,” said Amodio.

Grider said his staff mows, empties trash, cleans the doggie dump station and maintains faucets.

He said the city doesn't have the funds to install the irrigation, so he's encouraging the group to become a nonprofit to assist with raising funds.

The group also has helped draw attention to the park, which Amodio said some people didn't know existed.

Over the winter, Amodio said they may not be able to do much other than make plans for the park, all of which they're coordinating with Grider, who said the city isn't trying to curtail any of the group's plans as long as they're following city rules.

“They're a very energetic group” – one of the most energetic volunteer groups the city's got, Grider said.

To get involved, call Mary Amodio at 707-263-5759 or e-mail the group at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .