“The city welcomes input in addressing our community’s housing needs,” said Community Development/Utilities Director Mark Brannigan. “Our hope is that residents representing a broad spectrum of the community attend so we can understand their concerns and priorities for both for-sale and rental housing. Community participation is important in preparing a Housing Element that reflects the needs and desires of our residents.”

The following are a few frequently asked questions and their answers to help explain the process.

– What is a housing element?

It is a document designed to address the existing and projected housing needs for people of all incomes in the city.

– What will the workshops be like?

The workshops are an opportunity for the public to provide input on housing issues that face the city, including the types of housing needed in Lakeport, where new housing should be located and what types of special housing needs exist within the city. In addition, the city is seeking input on how to preserve and improve the quality of Lakeport's existing residential neighborhoods.

– How will the input be used?

The input will be used to develop strategies, policies and programs that will guide residential development in the city. Input will also help the city address problems that are specific to Lakeport.

– What will this mean for the future?

More of the housing needs of city residents will be met through the implementation of the housing element policies.

– Workshop information

The workshops will be held at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St., in the City Council Chambers on:

• Thursday, March 26, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.;

• Tuesday, March 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.;

• Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

To view additional information, please refer to “Hot Topics” on the city’s Web site at www.cityoflakeport.com.

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Captain James Bauman reported on Wednesday that, earlier this month, several Lake County motor sports dealers received letters alerting them to an unverified hazard for off-highway vehicle operators who trespass on private lands.

Bauman said the sheriff’s office has learned that Hillside Honda of Lakeport, Nor Cal Moto and Speed of Upper Lake, and Flagship Marine of Clearlake Oaks have all received brief, yet concerning letters alleging that off-road trails in Nice and Lucerne have been “booby trapped.” There was no return address or other indication as to who sent the letters.

The letters received by motor sports dealers, Bauman said, simply stated, “To Whom It May Concern: You might want to inform or warn any of your customers who ride illegally in the hills above Nice and Lucerne that the trails have been booby trapped. This is destroying private property and a valuable water shed not to mention the ugly scars upon the hills. This is nothing more than eco terrorism.”

The letters, said Bauman, are clearly an expression of discontent relating to fairly regular reports of recreational motorcycle and ATV operators using private undeveloped lands with little or no regard for the property rights of property owners, or any damage resulting from such use.

He said the sheriff’s office has received periodic reports of vehicular trespass on undeveloped lands in Nice and Lucerne for several years, particularly in the areas northwest of Pyle Road in Nice. There have also been more recent reports of similar trespasses in the Robin Hill area of North Lakeport.

In August of 2006, the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance to address one of several factors making enforcement of trespass laws by off-road vehicles problematic.

Lake County Code 19-52.1 states in essence, that it is unlawful to operate certain vehicles, including motorcycles and ATV(s), on private or public property belonging to another, without having written permission from the owner or agent of that property in the operator’s immediate possession. The ordinance further states the document must include the name and phone number of the person providing permission, as well as the legal address of the property to which the permission extends.

A violation of the ordinance is punishable as an infraction or misdemeanor with a fine not to exceed $100 for a first offense and a separate infraction or misdemeanor with a fine not to exceed $200 for a second offense. A third and any additional violations are punishable as a misdemeanor with a fine not to exceed $1,000 or six months in jail, or both.

The vague implications of the letters sent to motor sports dealers offer no leads to either investigate or verify the existence of hazards maliciously placed in the referenced areas, said Bauman.

The sheriff's office advises off-road motor sports enthusiasts to avoid violating the law, as well as any such hazards should they in fact exist, by using designated OHV use areas such as the Cow Mountain Recreational area and areas of the Mendocino National Forest.

Bauman said OHV enthusiasts must otherwise comply with the provisions set forth by county ordinance and state law when enjoying their sport on private property.

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The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. TV Channel 8 will broadcast the meeting live; it will also be available later in the week online at http://laketv8.pegcentral.com/.

University of California, Davis scientists have requested time on the board agenda to present the findings from their work on mercury in Clear Lake. The item is timed for 9:15 a.m.

The 18 papers – which recently were published in scientific journals – are the result of a 15-year study of Clear Lake. They can be found online at www.esajournals.org/toc/ecap/18/sp8?cookieSet=.

Scientists, funded in part by the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center and the US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund account, focused primarily on the Sulphur Bank mercury mine in Clearlake Oaks and its impacts on Clear Lake. The researchers state that the mine was in operation from 1873 to 1957. It is now a Superfund site.

Concerns about mercury and its potential impacts on humans and the environment are the focus of significant scientific research efforts around the world, several researchers – led by Thomas Suchanek – noted in the paper, “The legacy of mercury cycling from mining sources in an aquatic ecosystem: From ore to organism.”

However, few studies have focused specifically on mercury bioaccumulation resulting from mining; the researchers noted that a US Environmental Protection Agency mercury to report to Congress, submitted in 1997, didn't identify mining as a significant environmental mercury source.

Yet the researchers note that mercury, gold and silver mines continue to play a major role in releasing mercury into the environment, “and some progress is being made toward understanding these processes.”

They go on to explain the California is home to nearly 300 abandoned mercury mines and prospects, mostly along the Coast Range. The paper explains that, over the past 150 years, mercury contamination from Coast Range mines “has been, and continues to be, deposited into streams that join either directly or indirectly with the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, and the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.” The mercury that came from the Coast range mines was used in the Sierra Nevada for silver and gold mining.

Methylmercury, a toxic compound that can result from released mercury, can remain stable within sediment from “decades to millenia,” the researchers note.

And, while they state that Clear Lake is one of the world's most mercury-contaminated lakes, that is qualified with the additional finding that the resulting methylmercury concentrations aren't as high as predicted.

The “mine-derived acid mine drainage” is responsible for ongoing dissolved mercury loading, but that hasn't translated to high toxicity levels, the researchers found.

Scientists also have found that mercury residues in tissues of grebes from museum specimens were higher than those found in more recent samples, which tells that them mercury reaching the lake's birds “was already in a declining phase at the beginning of our studies in 1992.”

Incidentally, in 1992 the EPA began an emergency removal action to reduce erosion of mercury-laden rock into the lake, according to the paper. That work doesn't appear to have slowed the flow of acid mine drainage into Clear Lake.

From 1992 to 2005 osprey nests grew from seven to more than 30 in the Clear Lake area, making it comparable to Eagle Lake near Susanville, a lake the researchers say has no mercury contamination. Those improvements may have been more due to management practices, with mercury residues in osprey feathers noted to once again increase during that time. In 2004, mercury concentrations in juvenile largemouth bass showed the highest mercury concentrations in a 30-year period.

The paper also refers to a study of 63 residents of the Elem Colony of Pomo Indians. Mercury levels in their blood were found to be “significantly higher that he average U.S. Population,” which was correlated to fish consumption. At least 10 percent of those surveyed consumed more fish than suggested by advisory guidelines established in 1987, researchers found.

The board also will consider a proposed amendment to the joint operating agreement between the Lake County Sanitation District (LACOSAN) and Northern California Power Agency to allow use,

occupancy and access of LACOSAN property for a solar energy facility (Bear Canyon Zero). As part of the item, the board also will consider a proposed lease and easement agreement between LACOSAN and Northern California Power Agency. The item is set for 9:10 a.m.

Last month the county officially launched a 2.2-megawatt solar installation that is partially located on LACOSAN property in both the north and south county.

Other agenda items follow.

Timed items:

10 a.m.: Assessment appeal hearing: Mediacom California LLC, seeking assessments on unsecured accounts/tax bills on 13 parcels throughout Lake County.

10:15 a.m.: Consideration of staff recommendation on proposed criteria for inclusion in Lake County’s investment attraction efforts in follow-up to board discussion of Feb. 24; consideration of proposed request for proposals for commercial and resort investor attraction; and consideration of staff recommendation for other economic development advisory services.

Non-timed items:

– Discussion/consideration of criteria and mechanism for accessing funds for road improvements in communities requiring subsidization of small area benefit zones.

– Discussion/consideration of request that the board recommend the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC), amend the proposed 2009/2010 policy language to require conventional and

organic farmers who do not use genetically engineered seeds to undergo lab testing prior to being able to label their products/produce as “GE-Free.”

– Consideration of proposed agreement between the county of Lake and Remi Vista Inc. for placement of children in the residential treatment program in the amount of $30,000 (costs to be paid by Medi-Cal/early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment funding).

– Consideration of proposed amendment five to agreement between the county of Lake and Pavement Engineering Inc. for engineering services for design of rehabilitation improvements in Downtown Upper Lake (an increase of $34,210).

– An ordinance amending Chapter 3 of the Lake County Code providing for the abatement of unmanaged, neglected and abandoned pear and apple trees. Second reading; advanced from March 10.

– An ordinance establishing a fee schedule for outpatient substance abuse counseling as established by the state of California’s Drug Medi-Cal (DMC) reimbursement rates. Second reading; advanced from March 10.

The board also will have a closed session with labor negotiators.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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That decision came the same day as a grand jury complaint was filed that alleged the council violated the Brown Act.

The Provinsalia project, proposed by Lake County Resort Partners Inc., would be located at 17012, 17055 and 17065 Dam Road. The plans call for 665 housing units – 565 single family homes and 100 condominiums – and a nine-hole golf course on 292 acres along Cache Creek.

The council, which gave approval to the project at its Feb. 26 meeting – following two council hearings on the matter – had been scheduled at the March 12 meeting to conduct a second reading on an ordinance to rezone the Provinsalia property from “resource protection” to “specific plan.”

Vice Mayor Judy Thein said there have been complaints about the process and how it was handled, and she asked the council to delay a decision in order for the city to seek a legal opinion from its attorney, Malathy Subramanian, on whether or not it was handled correctly.

The complaints voiced at the Feb. 26 meeting and since then by community members were based on the limiting of public comment.

“Thank you, Judy, for doing that, because that was exactly what I was going to say,” said Council member Joyce Overton, who was not at the Feb. 26 meeting due to back problems.

Overton said the concern was that some members of the public felt they would be able to speak on Feb. 26 following the lengthy public hearing on Feb. 12.

Councilman Roy Simons pointed out that the gallery at the meeting was empty, and he wanted to see the people brought back so the council could listen to their concerns.

Thein said she wanted a written legal opinion. “If we were wrong we need to right the wrong.”

Councilman Curt Giambruno asked how the council could right the wrong. City Administrator Dale Neiman suggested it could involve starting the public hearing process over and sending out new meeting notices.

Giambruno asked if they would have to hold both hearings again. “Probably so. Maybe not,” said Neiman.

Neiman added that the Provinsalia project has been the second-longest public hearing process with which he's been involved, with nine meetings amounting to 18 hours of public presentations and testimony.

Thein said they can determine how to proceed at the next meeting, and asked Neiman if Subramanian could attend.

Neiman noted that the city had brought in a Riverside attorney who is an expert on the California Environmental Quality Act for the hearings. During the meeting it was reported that the attorney cost the city $8,000 for two meetings, which is being paid for by the developer. Subramanian costs the city $2,500 for every meeting she attends.

City resident Rick Mayo told the council that people who haven't been heard in the process need to get their chance. He said when he was a planning commissioner they did 100 meetings on the Wal-Mart store.

“I think it would be a good idea if you opened it back up to the public,” Mayor said. “What you're about to do here is a major undertaking.”

He pointed out that the general plan amendment required for the project will change the plan's direction.

Mayo said he was concerned that archaeologist Dr. John Parker wasn't heard at the Feb. 26 meeting. He added that when a previous incarnation of Provinsalia came up 20 years ago it had many issues, and it still does.

Neiman responded that most of Parker's recommendations were adopted into the project's documents. Mayo replied that they still needed to let Parker speak before the council.

The council agreed, by consensus, to continue the item in order to ask Subramanian for a legal opinion.

Mayor Chuck Leonard explained at the meeting that when they reopened the public hearing on Feb. 26, it was for the purpose of allowing people to speak on specific, new information.

PEG TV Manager Allen Markowski said the meeting can be viewed at the http://laketv8.pegcentral.com/index.php. He said it was Councilman Roy Simons who suggested just after the meeting's three-and-a-half-hour mark that the next person should be the last speaker. A lot of people thought the hearing would be continued, Markowski said.

A review of the meeting confirms that it was Simons who called for wrapping up the public hearing at the Feb. 12 meeting, saying it was getting late and the council still had its own discussion. However, the council did not discuss the project at that meeting, which ended a short time afterward.

Joshua Borba, a Carlé High School student who was assisting with filming the meeting as part of the school's Pegasus Productions, told the council Thursday that he and fellow Carlé students felt the public was cut off from speaking. He added that Provinsalia will affect younger people more than it will many older community members.

Grand jury complaint faults council's handling of hearing

The council's action to seek a legal opinion came the same day as Victoria Brandon, chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group, filed a complaint with the Lake County Grand Jury, alleging that the council “unreasonably restricted the public's right to comment on a duly noticed agenda item, thus preventing effective public participation in public affairs, in contravention of the Brown Act.”

Brandon wrote in her four-page complaint that the council's behavior “was profoundly damaging to the democratic process,” and she is seeking that the vote on Provinsalia taken at that Feb. 26 meeting be invalidated.

She said the council made no attempt at the Feb. 12 meeting to find out if everyone who wished to speak had done so before they closed the public hearing.

Brandon stated that at the Feb. 26 meeting the council considered a 78-page staff report that had new information, but that public comment was limited to a new letter from Caltrans, outlining its concerns about the project, and discrepancies regarding climate change impacts outlined in the environmental impact reports of Provinsalia and Valley Oaks, both of which were prepared by the same consultants.

Thein told Lake County News on Saturday that she knew about Brandon's allegations about the Feb. 26 meeting being handled incorrectly but she had only received a copy of Brandon's grand jury complaint on Friday. Thein declined to comment specifically on Brandon's complaint.

However, Thein said council members acted in good faith on Feb. 26 “in accordance with the direction of the legal counsel that was representing us that evening and the prior meeting.”

The Riverside attorney was even questioned during the break if the process of the meeting was being handled correctly, “and we were advised that correct procedures were being followed,” Thein said.

“I feel it is very important that if the legal counsel that was present that evening made a mistake in judgment of the procedures of conducting the hearing, that it be corrected,” she said.

Brandon's complaint can be viewed online at http://lakelive.info/provinsalia/GJcomplaint.pdf.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Notice of Public Hearing

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Supervisors, County of Lake, State of California, has set Tuesday, March 24, 2009, at 9:15 a.m., Board Chambers, Courthouse, Lakeport, as time and place to consider adoption of a proposed Resolution conveying personal property from the County of Lake to the Benicia Police Department not required for public use, pursuant to Government Code Section 25365 (transfer of a 1987 Humvee utility truck VIN #C24107).

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that at said place at time, any interested person 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 at the public hearing described in the notice or in written correspondence delivered to the Clerk of the Board at, or prior to, the public hearing.

The Courthouse is handicapped accessible. For further information contact the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors at 707-263-2371.

KELLY F. COX

Clerk of the Board

By: Georgine Hunt

Assistance Clerk of the Board

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Nine “green” projects, programs and initiatives undertaken by California state agencies, cities and counties will be honored at the upcoming Green California Summit & Exposition, held at the Sacramento Convention Center March 16 through 18.

“Initiatives like these keep California ahead of the curve when it comes to preserving the environment,” said Carl Smith, editor-in-chief for Green Technology. “The dozens of deserving projects that were nominated are impressive evidence of the public sector's commitment to a sustainable future.”

The Green California Leadership Awards, established at the request of the Summit's Advisory Board, recognize state and local agencies for innovative efforts to green the Golden State.

“We are pleased to be recognized for our innovative efforts in combining two forms of alternative energy – solar and geothermal – to power county facilities," said Matt Perry, chief deputy administrative officer for the county of Lake. “The Lake County Board of Supervisors remains committed to energy efficiency and the use of multiple sources of alternative energy.”

Board of Supervisors Chair Denise Rushing said the county just found out about the award, which it applied for about a month ago.

“It was a very competitive situation,” she said.

Lake County will be honored this year in the energy innovation category for its innovative recycling program, which uses solar energy to power facilities that treat, transport and recycle wastewater and then uses the treated water to recharge geothermal resources for energy production.

The county's award application, prepared by Lake County Sanitation District Administrator Mark Dellinger, called the project “Innovation in Sustainable Community Infrastructure.”

The project's elements include the county's 2.2-megawatt solar power installation – including five arrays on three sites totaling 22.5 acres – that was dedicated last month.

The solar installation is the largest public solar power installation in California and the third largest in the western United States, Rushing said at the dedication.

The arrays will help power the Hill Road Correctional Facility, the Northwest Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Southeast Effluent Pump Station, and will save the county millions of dollars in energy costs in the coming 20 years, according to county officials.

“This project is part of a larger effort to create sustainable energy and community infrastructure in Lake County,” Dellinger noted in his application.

He explained that, since 1997, Lake County Sanitation, Northern California Power Agency and Calpine Corp. have operated a wastewater reuse system that pumps treated wastewater effluent to The Geysers, the world’s largest complex of geothermal energy. The Geysers, he said, generates 50 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity.

Dellinger stated in his application that The Geysers pipeline has avoided more than 4 billion pounds of carbon emissions since 1997.

Sustainability and green energy have increasingly become a priority for the county in recent years.

In August of 2007, the Board of Supervisors voted to join the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization program, a nationwide effort to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80 percent by 2050 or 2 percent annually. Movement organizers also are supporting a increase in fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon within a decade.

Rushing would like to see the entire Board of Supervisors go to Sacramento to receive the award, but she said she's not sure everyone can make it. She said she and Dellinger plan to make the trip.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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