LAKE COUNTY – Tests of Clear Lake are under way, many local residents are checking their own docks and piers, and the Board of Supervisors is trying to choose prevention measures to keep the quagga mussel out of Clear Lake.

Pam Francis, deputy director of the county's Water Resources Division, went before the Board of Supervisors last month to ask for direction in how to protect the lake from quagga and zebra mussels, invasive pests from the Ukraine that are creating havoc in waterways across the U.S.

Francis returned to the board Tuesday to give an update on tests of the lake the board ordered done two weeks ago, and to seek further direction.

So far, the lake's upper arm has been tested, with the rough weather on the lake preventing further tests, Francis said. After the tests are done and results come back in a few weeks, they should have a good idea if the mussels are present or not.

She said she's received numerous calls from area residents asking if they can help look for the mussel. Francis encouraged that, saying to check boats, docks, piers, buoys, ramps and chains for the tiny mussels, which can feel like sandpaper in their larva stages. The mussels like concrete and shady areas, she added.

Water Resources has a hotline, 263-2556, which is manned from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to answer questions from the public, said Francis.

Officials are asking the state Department of Food & Agriculture and Caltrans to post signs around the county, warning people with boats coming into the county about the need to prevent the mussel getting into Clear Lake, said Francis. County officials also would like to pull over boats coming into the county.

Braito's Marina has posted signs, and the Coast Guard Flotilla is adding information about the mussel to its boating safety information, she added.

The county also is approaching incoming boating and fishing events to ask that people observe “good housekeeping practices” in cleaning their boats, said Francis.

Francis is concerned that the county needs to be prepared to deal with emergency situations.

Finley resident Phil Murphy suggested the board send letters to state legislators, Sen. Patricia Wiggins and Assembly member Patty Berg, to ask them to start dealing with the issue.

“This is really a statewide problem,” said Murphy, adding that “a ridiculous level of complexity and cost” is involved with the mussel issue.

Murphy suggested a quarantine would “drive home the urgency of this problem.”

Supervisors Jeff Smith and Rob Brown were concerned that a quarantine wasn't feasible.

Brown suggested that the county work with the hospitality industry – specifically campgrounds and hotels – to spread the word about the need to comply with boat and watercraft decontamination. He also proposed using the county's unused pears sheds for decontamination stations.

Supervisor Denise Rushing wanted to formulate a plan for what to do now, saying she didn't think short-term restrictions on access to the lake would harm the economy.

The immediate action the board agreed to Tuesday was to send letters to state and federal legislators, the governor, state government groups and neighboring counties for assistance.

The board also decided two supervisors – Brown and Rushing – would meet with County Counsel Anita Grant and Francis to discuss emergency measures, and whether a quarantine is feasible on a short-term basis. Conclusions from that discussion will be brought to the board in two weeks.

Francis said Wednesday that the threat posed by quagga and zebra mussels is a statewide issue, and it isn't economically feasible for each county to create their own prevention and inspection programs from the ground up.

Inspections by the Department of Food & Agriculture are key, she said. “The choke points are really at the state lines.”

A main concern at the county level is decontaminating boats, and creating portable decontamination stations, she said.

The Fifth Street boat ramp in Lakeport is equipped with a drain that goes into the sewer system, not the lake, said Francis. That location could be used for decontamination, using a chlorinated water solution that Francis compared to “spa water.”

Francis said the supervisors want to appoint a manager to take control of the situation, but she's not sure who that will be.

“I feel that our department is just the messenger on this,” she said.

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

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LAKEPORT – The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to forward to the state a proposal that would give In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) providers a $1-per-hour raise if they undergo drug testing.

Critics of the proposal said the offered raise was too small, and that the issue hadn't been properly negotiated with the IHSS workers' union.

The board's approval Tuesday doesn't guarantee the wage increase will go through.

With 2.1 million hours of IHSS care being provided annually in Lake County, the $1-per-hour increase could translate into millions of dollars, money that the county can't some up with on its own, said county Social Services Director Carol Huchingson.

If the state Department of Social Services doesn't help up the costs, IHSS workers won't get the raise, Huchingson said.

In essence, the proposal would offer IHSS care providers the raise if they went through drug testing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, said Huchingson.

IHSS workers currently receive minimum wage, or $7.50 per hour, in caring for seniors and the disabled who qualify for the in-home care, Huchingson said.

The overall pay hike would actually go to $9.75, which would include $8.50 an hour for workers, plus payroll taxes, worker's compensation and a 33-cent per-hour administrative cost for the county's IHSS Public Authority oversight.

Because the state minimum wage will go up to $8 an hour on Jan. 1, 2008, Huchingson said she will return to the board no later than Oct. 1 to request another hourly wage raise for providers, from $8.50 to $9.

Focus placed on drug testing

David Smith, a representative of the California United Homecare Workers – the union that represents local IHSS workers – said after the meeting the proposal shouldn't have been taken to the board Tuesday, because it involved wages and benefits issues that belonged in the negotiations arena.

The union represents between 1,300 and 1,500 local IHSS providers, said Smith.

He said this latest proposal doesn't include medical benefits for workers and is about $2 an hour less than the state allows. Most local IHSS providers are paid less than fast food restaurant employees, he added.

During Tuesday's meeting, the drug testing requirement was a focus of discussion.

To be included in the IHSS Public Authority Registry, providers currently must fulfill several requirements, including providing references, attending a mandatory two-hour orientation/training, meeting with public authority staff for a face-to-face interview and passing a Department of Justice criminal records check.

Drug testing, under this recent proposal, would be added to that list.

The drug test screens for methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, opiates and PCP, said Huchingson. The CPR training would be five to six hours in length, and the public authority is considering a $15 stipend for IHSS providers who complete the training.

Drug screening and CPR training would be conducted by vendors hired by the public authority, Huchingson said, estimating the drug testing would cost about $114,000 annually.

Smith said the union currently offers free CPR training to IHSS providers, so he wasn't sure why it was added to the requirements or why the county plans to add CPR training costs to its budget.

Huchingson suggested removing the reference checks from the requirements for IHSS providers who wish to be added to the registry. She said post-employment followup with IHSS recipients have been much more valuable.

She asked the board to approve three new positions for the public authority, in addition to its current staff of 3.5 positions, because they believe the public authority's workload will increase by at least 100 percent. New positions would include a supervisor position, a bilingual specialist and an office assistant.

County, union disagree on how to handle proposal

The county's IHSS Public Authority will need to meet and confer with the union to implement the proposed registry policies, said Huchingson. But she suggested waiting until they get a sense of whether or not the state will approve the proposal before going back to the negotiation table.

At the end of the last bargaining session the public authority held with the union on May 29, the wage and drug testing proposal was presented to the union as an information item, said Huchingson.

Smith, who was at the negotiations, said the public authority handed the union a memo at the end of the meeting.

In a May 31 letter to the supervisors, union President Tyrone R. Freeman said that at the May 29 meeting the union told the public authority that the wage changes and drug testing couldn't be made without meeting and conferring with the union, and that the public authority “refused to negotiate.”

“In fact, the Public Authority said they would not even discuss the memo and left the room,” Freeman wrote.

“They didn't want us to have any response whatsoever,” Smith added, claiming that county negotiators “ran out the door” when the union tried to discuss it.

Huchingson disputed that the union told the public authority at the meeting that they needed to meet and confer.

“That did not take place in negotiations,” Huchingson said.

Supervisor Denise Rushing asked Huchingson what the board's recommended approval would mean.

The board's approval meant submitting the proposal to the state, said Huchingson, which could take up to 90 days to approve.

Different views of the plan

Supervisor Ed Robey said he felt the proposals offered a benefit to providers through extra training and higher wages, as well as to participants, who will receive services from providers with better skills.

But the proposal's focus on wages based on drug testing was a concern for some IHSS providers and for Andy Rossoff, an attorney who has been an outspoken critic over the years of the county's handling of the IHSS program.

Rossoff said he felt supervision was a key element in the program, and questioned doing away with reference checks. There are many people who commit crimes against seniors who don't use drugs or have a criminal past, Rossoff added.

He emphasized the need for recipients to have choice in who provides their care, which he said is the primary concern he's heard from IHSS recipients.

“It's a penalty on the providers,” he said of drug testing. “I also think it's a clear penalty on the recipients and their right to choose.”

No other county is considering pay differential based on such factors, Rossoff argued. “This feels like this is about IHSS workers and nobody else.”

Rossoff also said that the pay raise “doesn't cut it,” and that it should go $10.50 per hour plus health benefits.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he believed in the IHSS program, and didn't think drug testing took away choice from clients. It's better, said Farrington, to find ways to keep people in their homes rather than having them be “warehoused” in convalescent facilities.

IHSS provider Felicia Smith of Clearlake urged the county to meet and confer with the union about the proposals.

Smith said she felt the drug testing requirement singled out IHSS workers, because it's not required for other health care workers. “We're not criminals,” she aid.

Rushing said her sister, who lives in the Bay Area, uses IHSS services, which help her stay independent.

Like Rossoff, Rushing questioned the drug testing aspect. “I think there's been some good points today raised about the fairness of that.”

Farrington said he felt drug testing should be required for those going into the homes of the elderly and disabled, and surmised that only those who had something to hide would object.

“There is a reason why you wouldn't want to do it, and that's civil liberties,” Rushing replied.

David Smith said some other counties drug test IHSS providers, but it's done on a voluntary basis, based on requests of IHSS clients. He said the county should go to local IHSS clients and ask them if they want drug testing.

IHSS worker shares concerns

After the meeting, Felicia Smith, who has been an IHSS provider for six years – four years in Sonoma County and two in Lake – said she was concerned that no medical benefits were included in this offer. She noted that the plan included benefits considerations for the new Social Services positions, but not IHSS providers.

She said Lake County “should look at some of the other counties that are making this program work.”

In Sonoma County, she explained, workers received $10.50 per hour and benefits, and social workers did quarterly checks on IHSS clients to evaluate quality of care and look for possible abuse.

Smith said she personally had no problem submitting to a drug test, but felt that the issue was “just another way to hold up our benefits and our wages.”

She said she's not sure if she'll continue as an IHSS worker, saying she can't survive on the low wages while raising a 16-year-old, and she doesn't want to live on welfare and Medi-Cal.

Still, she said, it's difficult to leave clients. “Once they invite you into their homes and into their lives, it's hard for me to leave and someone take my place.”

David Smith said he expects negotiations will continue. “We're not going to stop that process,” he said of the union. “the board might, but we won't.”

Freeman's letter to the board, however, struck a more ominous tone.

He said if the IHSS Public Authority disregarded the meet and confer with the union and the county approved the proposal Tuesday, “the Union will take immediate legal action.”

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

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LAKEPORT – New City Manager Jerry Gillham is getting ready to embark on his first budget for the City of Lakeport.

He told City Council members Tuesday evening that the 2006-07 budget will be closed June 18, and that he could have a draft 2007-08 budget to them a week later.

"You're going to be faced with some very critical choices," Gillham said.

Asked to elaborate on that following the meeting, Gillham said the City Council has to decide how to fund important services such as police, roads, maintenance and parks on a modest budget.

He estimated that the 2007-08 budget will be about $18 million, compared to this fiscal year's $17.4 million budget.

Gillham said he expects to have a draft budget ready by June 25, because he's aiming to have the budget ready by the start of the new fiscal year. A council workshop is tentatively scheduled for later that week.

On May 1, the council officially hired Gillham as city manager, so he hasn't had much time to get up to speed before having to dive into the budget.

"This is kind of guerilla budgeting this year," he said.

The council and staff gave Gillham a hard time for his hope of getting a budget completed close to the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

City Attorney Steve Brookes told him he'd likely make history, since they don't often have all the information they need in time to get a budget completed by the fiscal year's beginning

"It's going to be a very conservative budget," said Gillham, adding that it's also going to be developed with more of a team effort from city department heads and staff.

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

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KELSEYVILLE – The sale of the county's leading concert venue and resort is under way, with the price tag set at $25 million.

But the buyer for Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa won't be Kenwood Investments, the San Francisco firm headed up by the well-connected political lobbyist Darius Anderson.

Instead, it appears that it will be purchased by another Bay Area firm, Page Mill Properties, according to court documents obtained by Lake County News.

The UA Local Convalescent Fund has owned Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa since 1959, as Lake County News previously reported. The fund originally purchased the resort for $200,000.

The convalescent fund is controlled by the San Francisco-based Local 38 of the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Journeymen.

The resort was at the heart of a federal lawsuit that charged that Local 38's trustees diverted $36 million from five employee benefit plans to renovate and operate the report, located on Soda Bay Road.

But with that lawsuit reaching a tentative settlement on May 15 – and with a final settlement expected next month – the way appears clear for the resort to be sold.

The records of the settlement conference note that WhiteStar Investments LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., is handling the resort sale, which isn't required in the lawsuit's settlement terms.

In 2005 Local 38's pension fund trustees hired WhiteStar to evaluate and sell the property, according to a letter written by James Baker – attorney for Local 38 and Lawrence J. Mazzola Sr., the union's business manager and financial secretary/treasurer – which Lake County News obtained earlier this year.

Baker's letter said the union's convalescent fund trustees decided to sell Konocti Harbor to “maximize its investment and secure Konocti's future development.”

Documents indicate the prospective buyer is Page Mill Properties, which is negotiating with WhiteStar to buy Konocti Harbor for $25 million.

During the federal lawsuit, two appraisals were conducted on Konocti Harbor. The appraisals valued the resort at $8.5 million as a non gaming venue, or $11 million if it included gaming, as Lake County News previously reported.

Page Mill Properties is a Palo Alto-based firm which invests in “commercial and multi family residential properties in growth markets,” according to the company Web site. Their portfolio includes San Francisco's Market Center and Clift Hotel, Automation Parkway in San Jose and the Lincoln Center in Denver.

Page Mill and its predecessor firms have acquired and developed $2.3 billion in real estate, according to its Web site. Its investors and financial partners “include leading public and private, domestic and international pension funds, institutional investors and investment funds.”

The court documents didn't offer a date for the sale's completion.

What happened to Kenwood?

Kenwood had been a prospective buyer for the resort since last year, when they negotiated a deal with WhiteStar for the resort's purchase.

When WhiteStar was brought on to sell the resort, it began by considering Konocti Harbor's “highest and best use,” according to Baker's letter. WhiteStar considered gaming as a prime use because of other Indian gaming casinos in the county.

Last year, Kenwood entered the picture. The firm has experience with other Indian gaming facilities, including the proposed Graton Rancheria casino in Rohnert Park, which it helped get off the ground.

Local tribes told Lake County News earlier this year that Anderson had approached them about partnering for an Indian casino.

In the case of the Elem Colony, Anderson reportedly told tribal officials he could “fast track” an Indian casino deal – which normally takes years to accomplish – because of his connections in the state and federal government.

But the Indian gaming plan at Konocti Harbor met local resistance, which culminated in a February vote by the Board of Supervisors to accept a resolution, championed by Supervisor Rob Brown, against Indian gaming at the facility.

Since then, Kenwood has not returned calls from county officials or from Lake County News.

However, Kenwood's abandoning the plan was confirmed by Anderson's statements this month to the North Bay Business Journal.

Anderson said he lost more than $100,000 in walking away from the agreement to purchase Konocti Harbor. But, faced with opposition from the supervisors and the community, Anderson said there was no way to make the deal work out.

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

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LAKE COUNTY – If the roads around the county seem a little bumpier this year, it isn't just your imagination – local officials are finding that the pavement appears to be falling apart at an accelerated pace.

In Lakeport, Main Street has deteriorated so badly over the past year that city staff went to the City Council last week to report that the project to rehabilitate the street may need to be completely redesigned.

City Engineer Scott Harter told the council that that the South Main Street Pavement Rehabilitation Project was designed last spring. Granite Construction Co. won the bid to do the work in September.

But his report to the council stated, "The condition of South Main Street has changed dramatically from last spring when the project was designed. The original design is no longer appropriate and does not address the deficiencies which now exist in the road structural section."

Harter said the project's scope needs to be redefined in order to address the roadway's current conditions "yet still be mindful of the project budget."

Included in the staff report was a letter to Public Works Director Doug Grider from Paul Curren, a senior principal engineer with the firm Pavement Engineering Inc., a consultant on the project.

Curren's letter notes that tests of the road surfaces shown they've "radically changed" over the past year.

"The rapid deterioration is uncommon, but it does happen," Curren wrote.

He said he researched lake levels to see if last year's heavy rains may have affected the roads, although he doesn't believe the rains were an issue.

However, the pavement, he said, "has descended into major structural breakdown."

As such, Curren wrote, the designed overlay is "no longer feasible or recommended."

Harter told the council, "This project has been going through some changes, and it's actually been changing even daily."

Curren found that over the winter, the road conditions "degraded significantly,” Harter said.

Harter said Curren theorized that the January freezes may have been partly to blame for the road deterioration.

During a five-day period in January roads suffered freezing temperatures 18 hours and more each day, said Harter. He said Curren has reported seeing the same problem in other parts of the state where he is doing pavement analysis.

"He's not absolutely positive why it happened," said Harter.

Curren, who also is working for the county to study pavement conditions in certain areas, noted increased wear on those roads as well, said Harter. "It's a phenomenon that's not just localized to South Main Street.”

Councilman Bob Rumfelt also said he had noticed road conditions worsening around the county.

In Lakeport, South Main's base and subgrade levels have failed, Harter said, citing Curren's findings.

The South Main project originally called for little or no new pavement overlay on some areas, Harter said. The road has since degraded to the extent that some areas will now need as much as 6 inches of new pavement surface to make them drivable, he said.

Harter said Curren suggested the city wait for four to six more weeks before deciding how to proceed. Curren suggested letting the road base dry out a few more weeks and running more tests on the pavement surface.

"We don't want to spend $400,000 on a project that is not going to last," Harter said.

The intention, Harter added, is to complete the project before the next winter rolls around.

He said that Granite Construction has said they're willing to wait on the project in order to find out new test results.

The ideal fix is to mill out the whole road is to put 10 inches of new pavement, said Harter. But, he added, the city doesn't have that kind of money.

Councilman Jim Irwin said they needed to get the money and fix the road properly to keep the problems from reoccurring.

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LAKEPORT – The Board of Supervisors has ordered county staff to conduct tests at 10 sites around the lake to look for zebra and quagga mussels, and begin a public outreach campaign in order to keep the invasive mussels keep out of Lake County.

Pam Francis, deputy director of the Water Resources Division, went before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to discuss the threat to the lake and ask for board direction on the next steps to take to prevent its arrival.

As Lake County News reported last week, the county's Water Resources Division is concerned that if the mussels reach Clear Lake the consequences could be devastating.

The mussels, originally from the Ukraine, spread to the United States in the late 1980s, and have since wrought havoc in areas such as the Great Lakes.

Francis, who was raised in Michigan, said she's been back to visit and has seen the damage the mussels did to Lake Michigan, saying it's “a different lake” from when she was growing up.

Beaches littered with sharp, stinking mussel shells, mussel-coated water intake pipes and piers, and changed ecosystems are just a few of the ways the invasive pests have changed water bodies like Lake Michigan for the worse, Francis explained.

The mussels were found in Lakes Mead and Havasu at the start of the year, according to Francis. Those lakes supply water to Southern California, and the Department of Fish & Game reported earlier this year that the mussels had, as a result, made their way into California waterways.

In January, the state Department of Food & Agriculture sent teams to inspect Clear Lake for the mussel, but didn't find them, Francis reported.

The mussels, however, can be tough to spot, said Francis. “They're very tiny. They'll fit on a dime.”

And they're extremely aggressive and adaptive in their spread, Francis said. They feed on phytoplankton, which Clear Lake has an abundance of, and mature and begin to reproduce in a year's time.

They produce 1 million eggs at a time, of which about 3 percent – or 30,000 – survive and then are reproducing themselves in a year, said Francis.

Board Chair Jeff Smith said he tried to do the math on his calculator and it couldn't handle the number of digits.

Mussels move with human help

Francis said the mussels can readily move downstream in moving water. “However, they need people to help them move from water body to water body.”

She added, “That's the scary part.”

That's because the mussels can attach to boats, trailers, bait, even vegetation. As a result, they've been able to invade the Mississippi River and its tributaries on its march west, Francis said.

“There's only one way they can get out here, and that is by people moving them, inadvertently,” she said.

The state does inspect some boats coming into the state, and has found the mussels on them.

“Life as we know it will change completely if they show up in this county,” said Francis.

“The bad news is, you really can't get rid of them once you have them,” Francis added. “Your only option is to prevent getting them in the first place.”

Water Resources plans campaign

Francis explained that Water Resources is working with state agencies to develop a strategy to keep the mussels out of Lake County. She also brought the board suggestions from the Clear Lake Advisory Subcommittee, which proposed education and outreach, inspections, and contacting organizers of bass tournaments and water events to enforce inspection requirements.

She asked the board for $10,000 to begin a prevention campaign, which would be funded from tourism taxes used for aquatic plant management.

Smith asked about the conflict in the report she submitted on the time needed for a boat to sit out of the water in order for the mussels to die. He pointed out it has been stated that it takes as little as five days, or as many as 30. Francis said that is an area that isn't clear.

Smith emphasized the necessity to act immediately. “If this gets started in our lake, it's pretty much all over,” he said. “The consequences are unbelievable.”

He added that he thought “drastic measures” were in order, and that the county also needed to discuss the issue with Yolo County. “If we end up with these, they end up with them.”

One of the focal concerns of the board's discussion was bass tournaments.

“That's more than likely the place they're going to come from if they come from anywhere,” said Smith.

Havasu and Mead are popular bass fishing lakes, Smith pointed out, with many fisherman who fish there also coming to Clear Lake. He went so far as to suggest that bass fisherman who participate in tournaments on those lakes shouldn't be allowed on Clear Lake within a 30-day period unless the boats are decontaminated.

Supervisor Denise Rushing asked what the $10,000 would be used for in the anti-mussel campaign. Francis replied that it would cover signage at entry points into the county and outreach materials.

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said the aquatic weed management funds that would help cover the outreach currently amount to about half a million dollars, an amount funded mostly by the sale of the Cove Resort.

Cox said he doesn't believe signs at the county's entrance will be sufficient.

He even suggested considering banning bass tournaments altogether if necessary. “You don't want to risk losing the lake for the tournaments.”

Cox suggested adding signage at boat ramps, but pointed to the difficulties in enforcement.

Smith proposed launch fees to incoming boats and a $10,000 fine for boats that enter the lake without being decontaminated.

Supervisor Ed Robey pointed out the need to develop decontamination facilities, and to determine whether or not the mussels are vectors – meaning they carry disease. If they're vectors, he said, vector control funding could be another source of assistance.

Supervisor Anthony Farrington proposed a concerted effort in fighting both the mussels and invasive weeds.

County Counsel Anita Grant reminded the board that when water-based events apply to the county for encroachment permits, they could require decontamination as a condition of permit approval.

Supervisor Rob Brown asked about where decontamination stations would be, and both he and Smith questioned if a regular car wash format was sufficient to remove the mussels.

Suggestions on keeping the mussel out

Ed Calkins, chairman of the Clear Lake Advisory Subcommittee, told the board he believed public outreach would give them the “biggest bang for the buck” in fighting the mussel.

He suggested the issue “is really worthy of a systematic evaluation,” and urged the board to assemble a task force to look at the mussel concerns. “Now is the most critical time.”

County Agricultural Commissioner Steve Hajik told the board that inspections are key to keeping invasive pests out of the county. He noted that the glassy-winged sharpshooter had once been found in Lake County, but through diligent inspections it hasn't been back.

Outdoor writer Terry Knight warned the board that enforcing decontamination requirements with visiting bass fishermen will be a challenge.

He explained that many of the boats that come to Clear Lake come directly from areas in the Midwest --

Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan – where the mussels have been found. In addition, there are six or seven tournaments on Clear Lake each year that draw Southern California and Arizona fishermen.

“You may already have the mussel in here,” said Knight.

Knight estimated that only about 10 percent of fishermen would voluntarily comply with decontamination requirements. “They're going to go put their boat in the water and go fishing. That's a fact.”

Knight suggested the county go to major tournament organizers and get them to implement decontamination requirements. He also said the county should work with the Department of Fish & Game with enforcement.

Upper Lake resident Janet Cawn posed the question she said “nobody wants to hear.”

“Why don't you not let the boats on the lake?” she asked, at least until the county knows how to deal with it.

Smith said he feels there's a happy medium that can be found rather than banning tournaments and water events altogether.

Rushing said she wondered if the mussels aren't already in the lake, and said she was prepared to go as far as preventing boats from outside of the county.

“The loss of an ecosystem would not only be devastating economically, it would be devastating for generations to come,” she said. “This ecosystem is special, it's fragile.”

Brown again questioned how they could enforce keeping out boats. “We can't totally limit boats on the lake.”

The next steps

Francis said there are very good detection methods, including a $300-per site test which would tell the county if mussels are here. She suggested looking at 10 popular sites around the county. Test results would be complete in two weeks.

Robey made the motion to use $3,000 in tourism taxes for the testing, along with the requested $10,000 for public outreach. His motion also included direction to staff to develop an action plan and Farrington's amendment to gear up for inspections.

The board approved that motion, before approving a second by Rushing to have water events guarantee that watercraft are decontaminated before entering the lake.

Smith scheduled a followup discussion on the mussel issue for 1:30 p.m. at the supervisors' June 5 meeting.

Francis said anyone who wants a copy of the DVD presentation she gave to the supervisors can call her at 263-2341.

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