LAKEPORT – This Tuesday, the Lakeport City Council will discuss possibly revising its city manager ordinance as the council prepares to begin interviews to fill its vacant city manager position.
LAKEPORT – The Lakeport City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the city manager selection process.
LAKEPORT – The Board of Supervisors has postponed until next month a decision on whether or not to grant a request from Lake County Community Radio for a grant to match federal funds the group received last year.
LAKEPORT – A woman whose dogs reportedly attacked a man near her Nice home went before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to appeal a vicious animal abatement order.
KELSEYVILLE – District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said he plans to ask his fellow board members to formulate a stance on Indian casinos at a meeting next month.
LAKEPORT – The newly hired Clearlake city administrator said he'll finish his work as a consultant on the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District (CLMSD) development proposal, a decision approved by his new employers.
Dale Neiman was hired this past week as Clearlake city administrator. His hire was approved Tuesday, the same day that he was in Lakeport to give the that city's council an update on the CLMSD project proposal.
Lakeport hired Neiman last fall to consult on the proposed development agreement for CLMSD.
When he begins work for Clearlake on Jan. 22 Neiman said he won't be undertaking anymore outside consulting work, although he did tell Clearlake's council that he had an obligation to finish up work on the Lakeport project.
“I'll help them out for a period of time, but that would be all on my own time,” he said, and added that the Clearlake council didn't see a conflict of interest with him finishing that work.
If a conflict arose, he said, “I would have to stop work immediately” on the CLMSD project.
Regarding that project's status, Neiman said he told the Lakeport City Council at their meeting last week he recommended that they focus on certain key items – the land's appraisal, finding out whether the government agencies holding liens on the property will allow the plan to go through and an analysis of an upgraded sewer treatment system on the property.
In addition, the city and the proposed developer, Jim Burns and Boeger Land Development, need to decide whether the plan is financially viable, said Neiman, which will largely depend on the appraisal and a negotiated selling price between the city and the developers. Additionally, Lakeport needs to find out if the land can be annexed into the city, Neiman said.
Work on the sewer project analysis is close to completion, he said, adding that he didn't know how long it would take for the land appraisal to be completed.
As part of the contract that allowed Burns and Boeger to present a proposal for CLMSD, the city granted them first right of refusal on the Dutch Harbor property.
That came about, said Neiman, because “the developer is interested in having access to the water, to the lake.”
That property sits next to Lakeport Unified School District's Natural High School. Over the past several years the city has tried unsuccessfully to talk LUSD into selling or trading the land in order to develop the two properties as a hotel project.
In the contract with Burns and Boeger, it states that the city will allow the developer the opportunity to negotiate with LUSD for the purchase of the adjacent Natural High property “without any involvement on the part of the City.”
However, the city is staying involved with the process, according to Neiman. In November, not long after the project proposal agreement with Burns was signed, Neiman said he and Burns, along with a City Council-appointed committee that included Mayor Roy Parmentier and Councilman Buzz Bruns, met with LUSD about a proposed land deal.
At the council's Jan. 9 meeting, Parmentier disclosed publicly for the first time that he and Burns are “fishing buddies.” Parmentier has been an outspoken supporter of Burns and a development plan for Natural High.
Neiman said he thinks another meeting with the same group about the Natural High property is scheduled in February.
He said that despite the fact Burns and Boeger hold the first right of refusal on Dutch Harbor, the city could still sell it to another party.
The agreement notes that if the city receives an offer on the land from a third party, Burns and Boeger have 30 days to match the offer or it can be sold.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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