The county plans to purchase the 1.48-acre property, located at 12565 E. Highway 20, for $500,000, county Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox told the board Tuesday.

Since entering into a purchase option agreement with island owner Carlton Clark on Sept. 18, the county Redevelopment Agency has completed an environmental report, an appraisal and an estimate for relocating residents of the island's 12 trailer homes, said Cox. On Nov. 8 the Planning Commission also found the purchase in keeping with the General Plan.

The property appraised for $622,000, said Cox, with the appraiser noting several of the property's liabilities which he said made the county's offer an attractive one.

“The final issue is the cost of relocation,” said Cox.

Relocation will cost the county $232,781, said Cox. Redevelopment's budget has enough money to cover both the purchase and relocation, he added.

Once the county takes possession of the property, it will be in the unusual position of being a property manager while renters are still on the property, Cox said. Until the property is vacated, the county also may be subject to regulatory issues from state and county agencies.

Managing the property will be a “staff intensive effort” over the several months it will take to relocate residents, Cox said.

“In the long run, the agency's acquisition of this property will be very beneficial to the agency and to the community, and we believe it will also be of benefit to the current owner,” Cox said.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington asked Cox about a grant the county had applied for to help with assessing the property. Cox confirmed that the county had received the grant, which paid for the appraisal and environmental assessment.

Cox said the plans now are to vacate the property and keep it as open space, leaving the door open to develop more plans for the island at a later date.

Supervisor Denise Rushing said the island's rehabilitation was, along with Nylander Park, the highest priority in a Clearlake Oaks citizens survey.

Rushing added that there will be several environmental concerns if the island's current use as a trailer park continues. “Ultimately, it's good for the lake.”

Supervisor Ed Robey asked about who would be the property manager. Cox said he was meeting with his administrative staff that afternoon to discuss who should take on the responsibility.

Cox added that the relocation will take about six months. “Nobody is just going to be kicked out of their house and left homeless.”

Supervisor Jeff Smith said the island's purchase is a good thing. “This is something we've been looking at for a long time.”

During the public hearing on the purchase, Upper Lake resident and former District 3 Supervisor Gary Lewis thanked the board in advance for their vote to confirm the purchase, which he said will be a big plus for Clearlake Oaks.

“It has been a long time in coming,” said Lewis. “It was a real dream.”

Joey Luiz, who manages Shannon Ridge Vineyard and Winery's Clearlake Oaks tasting room, spoke on behalf of the business to offer support for the county's plan.

Two years ago Shannon Ridge made the decision to stay in Clearlake Oaks because of the Redevelopment Agency's efforts, said Luiz. “A very large part of that decision was what we saw in the works.”

Since then, they've created more jobs and hired area residents who previously had been commuting out of county, Luiz said.

Rushing thanked Shannon Ridge, calling the business “an amazing corporate citizen.”

Clearlake Oaks residents Holly Harris and Chuck Lamb also sent a message to the board supporting the island's acquisition, Cox reported.

Following public comment, Rushing offered the resolution “with great pleasure.” The board approved the purchase 5-0.

Cox told Lake County News in a Tuesday afternoon interview that he has narrowed his choice of a property manager to two administrative office staffers, and should have a decision soon.

“We're all excited about this because we think it's going to be a good thing for Clearlake Oaks,” Cox said.

County pursues Nylander Park addition

In other board news Tuesday, the supervisors approved a proposed option agreement to purchase a parcel located at 12588 Acorn St. in Clearlake Oaks from Gary Nylander. The property is located to Nylander Park, currently under construction by county parks staff.

Cox said the property, which Nylander has offered to sell the county for $150,000, includes a large building that Nylander is using for storage.

The parcel will be used as an addition to the park, said Cox. The building will be used as a public restroom facility.

The cost of buying the property and converting the building to a restroom is cheaper by far than building a restroom facility from the ground up, Cox explained.

“It's a really good thing for us to do,” he said. “It's a no-brainer.”

The park, as Rushing had noted in the meeting, is a priority for Clearlake Oaks residents.

“It was a big day for Clearlake Oaks,” Cox said.

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“Team DUI” is inviting all concerned parents, students and county residents to the meeting, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 28 at Lower Lake High School, 9430 Lake St.

The Team DUI effort includes participation from the District Attorney's Victim-Witness division, county Alcohol and Other Drug Services, Lake Family Resource Center's Tobacco Control Program, the Safe Schools Healthy Students Program and the California Highway Patrol, according to Clearlake Mayor Judy Thein, one of the founding members.

Wednesday's meeting will offer the community a chance to find out what local organizations are doing to prevent high risk and underage drinking, said Thein. It's also a chance for residents to voice their own concerns and learn how they can help the effort.

Team DUI gets started

Team DUI has resulted from the collaboration over the last year by a several local agencies and individuals, whose goal is to reduce underage drinking and driving under the influence.

For Thein, activism came in the wake of tragedy: her daughter, Kellie, was killed in a crash caused by a drunk driver in December 2005.

On Sept. 18 of last year, on what would have been her daughter's birthday, Thein attended a Board of Supervisors meeting, where Sam Laird of Victim-Witness presented a report on the Driving Under the Influence Vertical Prosecution Program.

The District Attorney's Office had received a two-year, $307,936 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, which funded a full-time prosecutor and a part-time investigator to work exclusively on DUI cases, according to Laird's original report.

The program's primary goal, Laird's memo to the board noted, “is to provide prosecution and education to reduce alcohol-related collisions and reduce student drinking and driving.”

The grant was important, Laird told the board, because Lake County “has a disproportionate level of alcohol-related fatal and injury collisions, a DUI arrest rate nearly double the state rate, and about 30 percent of high school students drinking and driving.”

Thein had contacted Laird prior to the meeting to let him know she planned to attend to show her support for the grant. “It was at this Board of Supervisors meeting that Sam Laird and I met and began moving forward with the education of reducing alcohol-related collisions and reduction of underage drinking.”

At the time, she said, she was in the “beginning stages of becoming an activist in Lake County for DUI reduction awareness.”

She and Laird began working together on DUI prevention, with Laird inviting her to Oakland in October 2006 to speak with Victim-Witness advocates in training. There, Thein said, she shared with them her experiences losing her daughter to a DUI collision.

Last November, she and Laird organized their first town hall meeting featuring a DUI panel of speakers who discussed how to reduce alcohol-related collisions and reduce student drinking and driving. Thein said she received a lot of encouragement from community members to continue her work on the issue.

The work has continued this year. In the spring, she organized speakers on DUI prevention at the weekly Judge's Breakfast in Clearlake, issued a proclamation to Laird in April for National Crime Victims Rights Week in the City of Clearlake.

In May, Alcohol and Other Drug Services invited Thein to speak at a youth summit on underage drinking, where she met Erica Harrison, a teen driver who had been seriously injured while driving drunk. Since then, Thein and Harrison have spoken to groups of students at local schools about the dangers of underage drinking.

The informal beginning of Team DUI came in June, when Thein met with Carrie White and Catherine Rose of Alcohol and Other Drug Services to discuss how they could work together to reduce DUI and underage drinking. In August, Sam Laird and Crystal Martin of Victim-Witness and California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Garcia joined the effort.

During the summer, Thein also introduced an underage drinking ordinance that was accepted in Clearlake, with a similar version subsequently accepted in Lakeport. The Board of Supervisors is due to consider its own version of the ordinance Dec. 4.

Thein said the group – not yet called Team DUI – gave its first presentations in September at Carle High School, Clearlake Community School and Lower Lake High School.

Support for the effort continued to grow, she said, with the Lake County Office of Education's Safe Schools Healthy Students program joining the partnership in October. Also adding their support were Clearlake Vice Mayor Curt Giambruno, Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain and Michael Rupe, program director of the county's Tobacco Control Program.

But Thein said it wasn't until October that the “Team DUI” materialized.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) inspired the entire effort, said Thein, as did Denise Stelzer, Thein's Victim-Witness advocate from Lassen County, where her daughter's fatal crash occurred.

Thein said the credit for getting Team DUI to where it is today belongs to all of its participants. “Each member of Team DUI brings their own special uniqueness to the partnership, making us whole in order to educate our county on the consequences of drinking and driving.”

To find out more about Team DUI or to get involved, call Judy Thein at 994-8201.

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

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UPDATED: Part two will appear later this week. 

This is the first of two articles on the recent Code Enforcement hearings held by the Board of Supervisors.

LAKEPORT – The issue of Code Enforcement has long been a contentious one in Lake County, and this month it has received extensive attention at the Board of Supervisors level.

Supervisor Ed Robey had the Code Enforcement discussion placed on the Nov. 6 agenda originally, at which time the board also heard more than an hour's worth of testimony from a largely unhappy audience of community members.

The board continued that discussion to Nov. 20.

After hearing another extensive round of testimony from the public about county Code Enforcement operations, Board of Supervisors members said at the Nov. 20 meeting that they would use the information to decide how the division should operate in the future.

The Nov. 20 hearing began with Code Enforcement Manager Voris Brumfield giving an overview of Code Enforcement duties and procedures.

Code Enforcement's caseload is extensive, Brumfield said; from January through October of this year the department responded to 763 complaints.

At the Nov. 6 meeting several people had stated that Code Enforcement officers had trespassed on their property or had made them feel harassed and intimidated.

Brumfield said Code Enforcement officers are required to get consent from the person who has legal authority over a property before entered.

The department is developing a new property owners' rights brochure, said Brumfield. “It appears as though a number of people are not informed as to our procedures.”

When Code Enforcement staff is denied access, they must leave the property said Brumfield. At that point they will seek warrants to return and conduct an inspection.

In the past seven months Brumfield said the department has copied four files for people who wanted more information on particular cases. The charge was 10 cents per copy, said Brumfield, a fee that needs to be examined because it is much less expensive than that charged by other county departments.

Brumfield said that, based on public and Code Enforcement staff input, the department has changed some of its procedures in the past 14 months.

“I am more than interested in upgrading what we do and being of service to this community,” she said.

Allegations of harassment, retaliation

Danielle Huck, who spoke to the board on Nov. 6, talked about Code Enforcement officers coming onto her property without asking permission.

Huck told Lake County News in a weekend interview that her family has a half-acre property on Gifford Springs Road on Cobb. For years their three children have had animals, including chickens and ducks, and this summer 4-H sheep and pygmy goats.

In July they found a Code Enforcement officer's card at their home, Huck said. Her husband, Joshua, called to find out what the matter was, but heard nothing back.

In September, while the couple was at work on a Monday, their neighbors spotted Code Enforcement officers on their property, Huck explained.

Huck immediately wrote a letter to all five supervisors, Brumfield and the Grand Jury. The same day that she mailed the letter, her father-in-law, Andre Huck, called to complain about the situation to Brumfield.

Brumfield then reportedly called and spoke to Danielle Huck's 16-year-old son, and began asking him questions about the property and animals. Huck's son suggested Brumfield call his mother.

Huck said Brumfield never called, so Huck called her. The first words out of Brumfield's mouth, according to Huck, was, “Did you file a Grand Jury complaint?”

The officers had been on her property on a Monday, said Huck. On the Friday of that same week in September, Animal Care and Control Officers came to the property saying that they had received information from Code Enforcement that the animals weren't being cared for properly. A report on the incident the Hucks obtained from Animal Care and Control confirmed that Code Enforcement had made the complaint.

On the morning of Nov. 20, before Huck appeared to speak about Code Enforcement to the board, she said a county employee showed up at their home, saying he had been told to check out a new driveway reportedly built without a permit on the Hucks' property. Danielle Huck said the driveway was built at the same time as their home was, in 1974.

“What a coincidence that was,” Huck told Lake County News.

She told the board that she believed Code Enforcement was harassing her family.

Speaking after Huck at the meeting was a young girl named Kimmy Young, a neighbor of the Huck family. Young told the board that she has had horses at her home for five years, but after a neighbor filed a complaint, Code Enforcement informed her family that she can no longer keep her horse or mule at the property.

Danielle Huck's father-in-law, Andre Huck – who also had addressed the board Nov. 6 – acknowledged to the board that Code Enforcement is “a very emotional issue,” and was important enough to get him to the board meeting, which he doesn't often attend.

“The Fourth Amendment is coming real close to being trashed,” Huck said, as a result of Code Enforcement.

He said he feels threatened and intimidated by the division, and questioned if their motivations were based on money or politics.

Other concerns, and some praise

Other residents from around the county shared stories of having constant contact with Code Enforcement officers, causing them stress, illness and – one woman alleged – the death of her husband from a heart attack.

Lucerne resident Donna Christopher recounted finding Code Enforcement staffer Ron Yoder on her front porch one day, telling her she had only a few hours to move her truck, which was parked on the other side of the street. She said the truck was driven regularly, was licensed and registered.

“I had never been treated so rudely by anyone from the County of Lake,” said Christopher, who emphasized that continuity and respect were critical in interactions between Code Enforcement and citizens.

Upper Lake resident Janet Cawn said she had a much different issue with Code Enforcement. She complained that the department wasn't acting to stop environmental damage done by development projects.

She cited a gas station project at the intersection of Highways 20 and 29 outside of Upper Lake, which Cawn alleged was a major environmental concern.

While the department hits some visible code violations, “these environmental issues don't get touched,” Cawn said.

It wasn't all bad news for Code Enforcement.

Meriel Medrano read a letter from fellow Anderson Springs residents Joan and Allen Clay, and Kathy and John Regalado, who weren't able to attend the meeting, which expressed “whole-hearted support” for Code Enforcement.

In particular, they cited Brumfield and Community Development Director Rick Coel for their efforts to address code compliance cases in Anderson Springs.

“Rick and Voris have been instrumental in helping the residents of Anderson Springs resolve many of the serious code compliance issues we have had,” they wrote. “We sincerely appreciate their efforts and are more than grateful for the results they have achieved.”

The work of Coel and Brumfield is helping the Anderson Springs community improve daily, the letter continued. “We believe we speak for the majority of the residents of Anderson Springs in expressing our gratitude for the excellent work performed by the entire code compliance staff.”

Medrano stated added her support for the county's efforts. “I think we all want to have a clean and beautiful Lake County.”

John Engles, another Anderson Springs resident, said the biggest problem he has encountered with Code Enforcement is when, in seeking resolution to permit issues, he has tried to move up through different staff and department levels.

“You can't get the same answer out of anyone in this building,” Engles said.

Later this week: What does the Board of Supervisors plan to do with the information? Supervisor Ed Robey explains what's ahead.

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

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The meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27.

A public hearing on the Clark's Island discussion is set for 9:15 a.m.

The county's Redevelopment Agency took the potential purchase of the 1.48-acre island, located at 12565 E. Highway 20, to the Board of Supervisors in September.

On Sept. 18, the board voted unanimously to approve a purchase option agreement with island owner Carlton Clark of Santa Rosa.

Clark has agreed to sell the property to the county for $500,000, a figure that is much lower than Clark previously had sought, according to county Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox.

The option agreement expires on Dec. 15.

Currently, the island has 13 rental spaces with trailer homes, with one of the spaces occupied by a motorhome, Cox told the board in September.

One of the considerations for the Redevelopment Agency will be to determine the feasibility of relocating the island's residents, Cox told the board. The plan would be to remove all the structures and make the island to a park.

The possible expenses – besides the purchase price – that could accompany buying the island were concerns for Cox. But Supervisor Rob Brown confirmed on Friday that the sale appears to be moving forward.

Clark, whose family has owned the island since the 1940s, told Lake County News in a September interview that he thought the park idea was the best choice for the property.

Brown and other supervisors also have suggested that a marina could be located at the island.

Following the Clark's Island public hearing, the board is set to discuss a proposed option agreement to purchase a parcel located at 12588 Acorn St. in Clearlake Oaks. The property, owned by Gary Nylander, has a $150,000 purchase price.

The meeting will be held at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. The meeting is broadcast on Channel 8.

Other Tuesday board agenda items

Timed items:

9:30 a.m. – Presentation of proclamation designating the week of Nov. 25-Dec. 1 as World AIDS Week in Lake County.

Untimed items:

– Consider the County Auditor-Controller's request for a $15,878 budget transfer to upgrade the clerk's marriage license software, and approve a contract between the county and Southtech systems Inc. for a marriage license software system.

– Consider the first amendment to the agreement between the county and Kings View Corp. for an increase of $146,000 for telepsychiatry services.

– An ordinance amending curfews in the county parks, restricting the Lucerne Creek Park hours from dusk to dawn (second reading; advanced from Nov. 20).

– Consideration of proposed agreements for mortuary services between the county and Jones Mortuary; Jones and Lewis, Clear Lake Memorial Chapel; and Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary.

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LAKE COUNTY – With assignments on 10 committees and more than two dozen bills authored during this legislative session, North Coast Assemblymember Patty Berg kept a quick pace during her third term in the Assembly. {sidebar id=34}

Berg (D-Eureka) authored a total of 26 bills in the 2007 legislative session. While several of her bills are still in the Legislature, to be carried over to next year, she reported that nine of her bills were signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by the October deadline.

During a special legislative session called by Schwarzenegger, Berg was appointed to a seven-member working group that consulted with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez in his negotiations on health care with the governor and the Senate.

This year also saw her using the power of the Internet to discuss key issues with constituents.

In October Berg hosted a hearing on Sacramento on Lake County's proposal to create a two-tier pay system for In-Home Supportive Services providers, with those agreeing to drug tests and other stipulations receiving higher pay.

Holding the hearing garnered some annoyance from the Lake County Board of Supervisors, who didn't attend, citing short notice for the hearing which was held on a Tuesday, the board's normal meeting day.

Berg, who is due to be termed out in 2008, reported in summing up her year in the Assembly that there were both victories and disappointments, besides the usual budget delay during the summer.

Berg focuses on health care issues

With a background in social work, Berg continued to emphasize health care and advocate on behalf of special populations.

“As everyone knows, I am passionate about health care and about issues affecting senior citizens and people with disabilities,” Berg told Lake County News. “I believe my legislative package demonstrates those interests.

“My biggest success this year will help prevent the spread of AIDS, and that is preventative medicine at its best,” Berg said, referring to Assembly Bill 682, which makes HIV testing a routine part of a physical exam.

Berg promoted the measure as a way to both slow the spread of the deadly virus and get patients into early intervention. “I'm very pleased the governor signed this bill into law,” said Berg.

She added that she was pleased Schwarzenegger didn't veto a single one of her bills this year.

In addition to AB 682, Berg's bills and resolutions signed into law this year include:

– AB 106: Requires hospitals to offer flu and pneumonia vaccines to patients over age 65 before discharge. Berg said those illnesses prove particularly dangerous – even deadly – for the senior population.

– AB 315: Allows participating counties to continue the integration of health and human services, a measure meant to give counties the flexibility to provide service efficiently and effectively.

– AB 1123: Gives the City of Healdsburg greater control over its city center, by allowing it to sign a long-term lease for the state-owned National Guard Armory.

– AB 1568: Names a portion of Ma-le’l Dunes in Humboldt County as the Sen. Wesley Chesbro Coastal Trail.

– Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) 5: Designated February as American Heart month and February 2 as Wear Red Day in California.

– ACR 30: Named the northern Eel River Bridge after Elizabeth Jane Rosewarne, a local pioneer woman.

– ACR 31: Dedicated a portion of Highway 101 in Del Norte County as the California Highway Patrol Officer Ernest R. Felio Highway.

– ACR 57: Designates a stretch of 101 in Humboldt County, from milepost 68.40 to milepost 71.10, as the Veteran’s Memorial Highway.

In summing up the year, Berg said, “Of course, it was also a very difficult year. For every success, there was a disappointment.”

One of the year's disappointments, she said, was the budget. “The budget crisis hung like a cloud over everything.”

Berg already is lining up bills for the 2008 legislative session, including AB 380, which stabilizes funding for the Multipurpose Senior Services Program, which helps older adults remain in their own homes as they age.

She said the bill will help the state get closer to complying with the Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead Decision, which challenges states to develop more opportunities for adults with disabilities to avoid institutionalization and remain in their own communities.

She's also working on AB 64, which ensures that out-of-state doctors and in-state health care providers won't get tangled in the kind of red tape they experienced after Hurricane Katrina should they attempt to respond to a disaster situation in California.

Next year, Berg will take back to the Assembly the Compassionate Choices Act – AB 374 – which will give Californians the same end-of-life choices as those gives to Oregon residents in that state's Death With Dignity Act. A similar measure, AB 651, failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2006.

Berg said she's optimistic about the coming legislative year, even when contentious issues are on the horizon. “I've never been someone who shies away from a challenge. I've never been someone who backs away from a fight.”

This year also saw Berg take a new approach to communicating with constituents about her legislation.

Using what she called “Generation Next” techniques, Berg began broadcasting one-minute videos on her official Web site.

“Using this format not only makes legislation more accessible,” said Berg, “but since these videos are so short, it forces us to get to the heart of the matter quickly and explain it in simple terms.”

Berg, who is admittedly not a tech expert, is nonetheless using electronic outreach in other ways, including sending regular e-mail newsletters to several thousand of her North Coast constituents.

Earlier this year, when the Willits Bypass project was up consideration before the California Transportation Committee, Berg sent a mass e-mail encouraging North Coast residents to protest to the commission about the project's loss of funding.

Visit Berg's Web site at http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a01/.

Tomorrow, Sen. Patricia Wiggins gives her perspective on the 2007 legislative year in the State Senate.

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

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The council members – sitting as the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District board – approved Resolution No. 2311, which allows the city to issue a $3 million bond in December to pay for sewer system upgrades.

The upgrades, according to city staff, were required by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board because of system capacity issues.

Getting the bond in order, said city Utilities Superintendent Mark Brannigan, has “been a long time coming.”

To qualify for the bond, the city had to raise its sewer system rates, which it did at its Nov. 6 meeting.

Henderson Capital Partners LLC is underwriting the bond, according to Brannigan's staff report.

“We’ve got a good interest rate being presented to us now,” Brannigan told the council, with the rate set at 4.85 percent.

Councilman Buzz Bruns moved to accept the resolution, with the vote 4-0, with Bob Rumfelt absent.

Without the bond, Brannigan reported that the city could have been forced to reduce services which could result in regulatory action, including a building moratorium.

Council debates Webcasting

City Engineer Scott Harter reported to the council on his research into setting up a Webcam in order to stream council meetings on the Web.

Thanks to the donation of a Webcam from Andrea Anderson on Nov. 6, and other offers for hardware donations, getting set up won't cost much, only about $100, said Harter. However, the main cost could be the streaming video provider, which could cost from $39 to $129 a month, depending on how much data they broadcast.

Those monthly costs, said Harter, haven't been accounted for in the current budget.

Pointing to the nearly empty gallery, Harter suggested that making the service available might get more people involved.

Mayor Roy Parmentier asked Harter how long it would take to set up a video streaming system.

“Half a day,” said Harter. “It could be done very quickly.”

Said Councilman Ron Bertsch, “I think all of us agree we would like to get out there more than we are now.”

Councilman Buzz Bruns said they should look at the budget before making a decision.

Parmentier suggested setting the system up and then beginning at the first of July.

“I don’t think we’re going to be in a better budget situation the first of July,” responded Councilman Jim Irwin.

Bertsch said he would really like to see the city get on the cable television network as a way to reach more people. However, last month the city turned down a proposed agreement with the county and City of Clearlake to take part in the PEG Channel, citing high costs.

Parmentier suggested tabling the issue until the start of the year, after they had reviewed their budget.

“I don’t see our financial condition being any different in January than now,” said City Manager Jerry Gillham.

Gillham did, however, tell the council that they had the money to cover the Webcasting in the council's own small budget portion.

Gillham said he was “leery” of taking donated items such as Webcams and software. Rather, he wanted to analyze the best camera systems and have an integrated video system. “If we're going to do it, let’s do it right.”

Bruns suggested that the council's current public address system wasn't adequate, and that people who attend the meetings often complain that they can't hear the council. He said that system should be fixed first, and asked Harter to look at those costs.

Harter said he didn't anticipate hardware costs for a camera to be more than $700.

City Clerk Janel Chapman said one of the main issues at this point is that the city only records meetings on cassette tape, which have poor audio quality, and that the city has no duplication capability.

“It’s not just the PA system, it’s creating a way the record can be made available in other media,” she said, a sentiment with which Gillham agreed.

Lakeport resident Suzanne Lyons told the council she didn't understand why they would turn down free equipment, and suggested they should consider it.

Regarding the public address system, she said, “We can hear you in the back when you want us to hear you.”

Lyons said there are “a lot of little asides” amongst council members, and she suggested they needed to speak into their microphones and address the public more clearly.

“When we don’t know what’s going on, that's what bothers us,” she said.

The council directed Harter to research better camera options and bring them back for discussion in December.

Clearing up misleading numbers

During comments to the council toward the meeting's end, Police Chief Kevin Burke offered clarification of recent reports in area media about county crime statistics.

“Lakeport is not the rape capitol of the county,” said Burke.

He explained that the media reports offered crime statistics for the entire Lakeport zip code, and didn't separate out the city.

Burke said no rapes have been reported in the Lakeport city limits in 2007 or 2006. There were two, however, in 2005.

The seven rapes the reports mentioned all happened outside the city limits, Burke said.

“The article was not entirely clear on that,” he said.

A second article reported 21 sex crimes in Lakeport in 2006, when there actually were two in the city limits, Burke added.

Parmentier said he had been getting calls on the stories, and admonished a reporter in the audience that it was important to make clear the difference between sheriff's jurisdiction and that of the police department.

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