CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department has issued a reminder to the community about new city rules that apply to medical marijuana cultivation.

The outdoor growing season for marijuana is rapidly approaching, and in the next few weeks citizens may be approached by individuals involved in the growing of marijuana asking permission to plant and cultivate marijuana on their property, according to Lt. Tim Celli.

Celli said such individuals may offer to pay property taxes, offer large sums of money at the end of the growing season or other methods of payment for the use of property.

He said the police department wants to warn citizens of these activities because they are illegal in the city of Clearlake.

Also in past years several citizens have reported being threatened by individuals when requesting payment. Often, individuals who are involved in these illegal grows have no intention of paying for the use of property, he said.

Celli said these large scale grows also cause significant damage to property and have the potential to attract criminal violence.

Property owners who allow grows on their property may also be subject to civil and criminal penalties, he said.

He said there is a new ordinance in effect requiring that individuals apply for a permit to grow medicinal marijuana in the city of Clearlake. This ordinance will be enforced by the Code Enforcement Department.

Information on the permit process can be located at the city of Clearlake Web site at www.clearlake.ca.us or at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

Additionally, Celli said marijuana ordinance information that deals with medicinal marijuana has been distributed to local businesses, such as the dispensaries and businesses involved in hydroponics.

Celli said the Clearlake Police Department has no interest in legal medicinal marijuana grows that are in compliance with the city ordinance.

“We do, however highly recommend any citizen desiring to grow medicinal marijuana follow the permit process or risk code violations and civil penalties through Code Enforcement,” he said.

Illegal commercial marijuana grows will be investigated by police personnel, Celli said.

Celli said individuals who want to involve themselves in illegal commercial – or for-profit – growing of marijuana “should be warned that this type of activity will not be tolerated in the city of Clearlake and we will take the necessary steps to investigate, enforce the law and submit cases for prosecution.”

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Authorities are asking for the public's assistance in identifying the individuals responsible for a rash of recent vandalism cases that have occurred in the Kelseyville and Clear Lake Riviera communities.

There has been a dramatic increase in gang-related graffiti cases in those areas that started approximately two weeks ago, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

On Monday, deputies working the day shift – which takes place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. – responded to eight vandalism cases involving graffiti, Brooks said.

Brooks said deputies who were assigned to the night shift – 6 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday – responded to an additional eight vandalism cases involving the same type of graffiti.

The majority of the vandalism cases in Kelseyville have been in the area of the Kelseyville Lions Club and the Kelseyville Community Park, while Brooks said the majority of the vandalism cases in the Clear Lake Riviera have been in the area of Teton Way and Marmot Way.

The sheriff’s office reported that one of the proven ways to reduce this type of activity is to remove the graffiti as soon as possible. That falls in line with county ordinance Article 1 Abatement Section 13-1, which states that the graffiti must be removed by the property owner within 30 days.

Brooks said the sheriff's office has increased the number of patrols in the area and is actively investigating the cases to identify and arrest the responsible individuals.

Additionally, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office is asking for assistance from the public in identifying the responsible subjects.

Brooks said the only identifying information authorities have received is that the subjects are possibly two males wearing all black clothing.

If you have information concerning the identity of the subjects please contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is welcoming two new officer trainees to its ranks, the latest step the agency is taking to meet staffing challenges.

On Tuesday, Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen introduced Dale Hoskins and Andrew Welter to the Lakeport City Council, city management and the community.

In December, Rasmussen took a new approach to staffing up his small department, beginning an extensive recruitment that focused on county residents who were interested in pursuing a law enforcement career locally but who had not attended the police academy.

Rasmussen wanted to find people who planned to stay in Lake County, as recruiting from out of the area has been an ongoing challenge due to salary levels.

Dozens of applications were submitted by the deadline, which was just after the new year, with interviews taking place in January. From that pool, six qualified candidates emerged.

At the beginning of the year, the Lakeport Police Department was budgeted for 11 full-time positions, down from 14 several years ago.

In February, as the officer trainee hiring process was still under way, Rasmussen received the council's approval to add a 12th position for a 15-month period running from this month to June of 2017.

That gave him the ability to hire not just one but two officer trainees in anticipation of upcoming retirements and one possible resignation.

The result was his hiring of Hoskins and Welter – both lifelong Lake County residents who currently reside in Hidden Valley Lake.

Welter, 23, previously worked for the Hidden Valley Lake Association's security division and the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department in one of its police training intern programs. He currently works part-time for the South Lake County Fire Protection District as a paid call firefighter, Rasmussen said.

Welter was on duty in September when the Valley fire tore through the south county. He is among a group of South Lake County Fire personnel who lost their homes, according to district officials.

Hoskins, 24, has most recently been working as an officer for Lake County Animal Care and Control, having also worked as a county juvenile probation officer, according to Rasmussen.

Rasmussen said the two young men successfully completed the hiring process and their job offers have been made final.

They officially start work with the Lakeport Police Department on March 28, and will go through two weeks of orientation at the police station and city hall, Rasmussen said.

They're scheduled to start the police academy – which Rasmussen told Lake County News will take place in Windsor – on April 2, with graduation to take place Aug. 19.

Rasmussen welcomed them to the city and wished them good luck.

Mayor Marc Spillman came down from the dais to personally welcome both men and shake their hands.

“We're at a crucial point in the city right now,” Spillman told them, adding, “We're glad you're here.”

Rasmussen said earlier this month that he has seven officers on duty, with the equivalent of 2.5 positions off on medical leave.

The short staffing has resulted in the Lakeport Police Department reaching a informal agreement with the California Highway Patrol for backup and assistance with traffic-related incidents in the city, as Lake County News has reported.

Rasmussen also told the council Tuesday that he currently is in the midst of a recruitment for officers who already have police academy training and experience – and who can be on the streets more quickly than the trainees – with that process so far yielding several good candidates.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department – at full staffing for the first time in several years – is implementing new programs and community outreach, looking at ways to improve service and earn the community's trust.

That was the report from Lt. Tim Celli, the department's acting chief, at the Thursday Clearlake City Council meeting.

Before presenting the annual report to the council, Celli began by recognizing new employees and presenting annual employee awards.

Among the introductions were the two new police K9 teams, composed of Officer Mark Harden and “Zip” and Officer Travis Parson and “Bear.”

Before he went into law enforcement, Harden served in the US Marine Corps as an assault amphibian crew chief, Celli said.

In his 15 years in law enforcement, Harden has been a K9 handler, field training officer, and a firearms and weapons defense instructor. Celli said Harden previously was employed at the Napa Criminal Justice Training Center for seven years, where was a recruit training officer and drill instructor at the police academy.

Harden was paired with Zip, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, and together they recently completed their five-week basic training, Celli said.

When the audience applauded for the team, Zip began to bark excitedly, and since they were on duty that night, he and Harden left the meeting.

“They're pretty excited. They're spirited,” Celli said of the dogs.

Celli said Parson was a successful mechanic who felt the calling to help people. So he quit his job and put himself through the police academy, then began applying around the area before doing a ride-along with a former high school classmate who worked for Clearlake Police at the time.

After that one ride-along, Parson knew he had found the agency for him, and he's worked for the department since August of 2013, making a high number of arrests, Celli said.

Parson went through the difficult testing process and was selected as a K9 officer and paired with a 17-month-old Belgian Malinois named “Quick,” according to Celli.

However, thanks to a contest the Clearlake Police Department held with local seventh and eighth graders, a new name was selected for the dog – “Bear.”

Bear is trained in tracking, article search, building or area searches, suspect apprehension and handler protection, Celli said. Like Harden and Zip, Parson and Bear also just completed their basic handler course – held for the first time in Clearlake – and are now patrolling the city together.

“We're very proud to have them,” Celli said of the teams. “I think they're going to do a good job for us.”

Also on Thursday, Celli introduced new traffic enforcement officer, Mike Perreault, who has been with the department for nine months. An officer for eight and a half years, Perreault came to the Clearlake Police Department from Calistoga.

In January, the agency decided it needed a traffic unit, which was established by Feb. 1, Celli said. At that time it wasn't yet full-time, but about two to three days a week.

Since that time, Perreault has made 122 traffic stops, written 34 citations and made 12 arrests, including two for drunk driving and one for a warrant, Celli said.

Perreault is radar and lidar certified, and also is certified to instruct for the use of those technologies. He has attended traffic investigation and DUI enforcement school, is a drug abuse recognition expert and attended the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Evaluation School, Celli said.

Celli said Perreault has received seven regional and four statewide awards from Mothers Against Drunk Driving for DUI enforcement efforts during his career.

Perreault also got two radar units that had been sitting on the department's shelves recertified and recalibrated. Celli said Sgt. Rodd Joseph also is trained in using radar.

Celli said Perreault also is assisting this year with the “Every 15 Minutes” program presentation done annually in the county's high schools.

Celli then presented awards to department staff and volunteers. He said the awardees are nominated by fellow employees.

First up was Jim Hopkins, named volunteer of the year for his constant willingness to serve and his assistance in a variety of jobs – from transporting evidence to working the front counter, and guarding scenes. “He helps any which way he can,” Celli said.

“He's always there. He's always available. He comes in when we call him,” said Celli.

In a year's time, the department's volunteers donated more than 5,000 hours of service, according to Celli.

Mayor Russell Perdock thanked the volunteers. “This country runs on volunteerism,” he said.

Support services staffer of the year honors went to Det. Ryan Peterson, who Celli called “an outstanding employee.”

Peterson writes search warrants, gives great testimony in court and the District Attorney's Office is constantly trying to steal him away, Celli said.

Patrol division officer of the year honors went to Officer Michael Dietrick, a Lower Lake High School graduate like Celli.

“We're very proud to have him,” Celli said.

He added of Dietrick, “He's always out there handling calls for service, he does a very fine job for us, doesn't get any complaints, and he does an outstanding job,” said Celli, adding that Dietrick is “at the top of his class.”

The Clearlake Police Department annual report

Celli then presented the department's new annual report for calendar year 2015. He said he hadn't been able to find that such a report had actually been completed since 2007. “So it's been quite some time.”

In January the department decided to complete the comprehensive report as a baseline in the effort to implement some changes and to provide transparency about the agency's operations.

The department's mission statement, Celli said, is “to enhance public safety by providing professional, trustworthy service in partnership with the community.”

He added, “That is the mission that we set out to do each and every day.”

The Clearlake Police Department budget is sourced from the city's general fund and augmented by Measure P, the half-cent sales tax, Celli said.

The general fund in 2015 contributed to the agency's budget approximately $2,747,983, which Celli said equated to each citizen paying 50 cents per day for police services. Measure P provided an additional $857,749, which was used for front line services.

Together, those funding sources provided $3.6 million, all but $300,000 of which was used for personnel costs, Celli said.

As for staffing, one of the department's key challenges over the years, Celli said in 2015 the agency was budgeted for 22.5 officers – the half position is a detective – along with five dispatchers, one dispatch records supervisor and one evidence technician.

Most of the year they had 16 sworn police officers, including the chief, with nine of those officers acting as supervisors or investigators, Celli said.

Toward the end of 2015, the number of sworn staffers was brought up to 21.5, he said.

He said it's important to understand how long it takes to hire a police officer, explaining that from the time of application until hiring it can take three to four months. The new officer must then complete another 16 weeks of training with a field training officer before they can be on their beat alone.

Low staffing particularly impacted dispatch, which now has three dispatchers but was getting by with two dispatchers and a records supervisor staffing it around the clock, with assistance from officers who had to be taken off the street to cover, Celli said.

As for the department's enforcement activity, “It's one thing to say that we're busy but I was hoping that I could put it in some type of perspective for you,” Celli said.

In 2015, the department responded to 21,508 incidents, which Celli said equates to 2.46 incidents per officer every hour of every day.

He also reported the following statistics:

– 1,989 arrests, 5.45 arrests per-officer, per-day;
– 2,288 traffic enforcement stops, 6.27 traffic stops per-officer, per-day;
– 1,311 citations issued, 3.59 citations per-officer, per-day;
– 3,543 reports, 9.71 reports per-officer, per-day, with Celli explaining that a police report can take as little as 15 minutes or an entire shift – sometimes longer – to complete.

Regarding serious – or “part one” – crimes that need to be reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation through uniform crime reporting, in 2015 there were increases in serious crimes including homicide, robbery, arson and vehicle theft, although other serious crime was down 8 percent overall, Celli said.

“It doesn't make a whole lot of sense,” Celli said of the statistics.

He said homicide was up by 167 percent; robbery, 168 percent; vehicle theft, 125 percent; and arson, 43 percent.

At the same time, the statistics showed that aggravated assault, burglary and larceny were down, with forcible rape down at least 50 percent, he said.

However, Celli said he thinks the reduction in some of those serious crimes actually is a statistical issue that could be a direct result of Proposition 47, which reduced some felony crimes to misdemeanors. “So the crime, I believe is still occurring, it's just reclassified,” he said.

While the homicide statistics for 2015 were reported to be up by 167 percent, Celli said in actuality there were a total of five cases that year, up by two cases – one of them a double homicide – over the previous year. Three of the 2015 homicides are believed to be directly related to marijuana.

He said traffic enforcement is a vital function of the police department, reducing serious vehicle crashes and also offering a deterrent to crime.

Of the citations issued in 2015, Celli said 74 percent were for moving violations (with most of those for driving on a suspended license), 22 percent were for infractions (such as fix it tickets) and four percent for parking violations, including parking in a handicapped space.

Looking ahead, Celli said the department wants to make a number of improvements. Priorities are reducing crime and calls for service, hiring and retaining employees, increasing service to the community and improving customer service.

“So in January, we go to work,” he said.

Since then, they've hired another officer and are now at full staffing among sworn officers, are looking at how to use grants and other sources to increase budgeted positions, have hired a new dispatcher and are looking for ways to hire more, Celli said.

While money is important, is isn't everything, Celli said, and so the department is looking at ways to improve it working environment to retain employees, which includes empowering them and encouraging fresh ideas. He said they're also pursuing more training, which is easier now thanks to be at full staff, and improving communication within the department.

In an effort to create efficiencies, Celli said the department is looking at a transcription product to help officers more quickly complete reports. One officer noted it reduced a normally 10-hour report to two hours.

Celli said the department also has created a traffic unit for high visibility enforcement, enhanced the homeless liaison program by adding an officer and a supervisor, enhanced its gang officer program by adding an officer, implemented procedures to enforce new municipal codes the city council recently passed, is working to development new municipal codes to address public safety problems and concerns, and assigned a marijuana liaison officer to work with code enforcement when needed and keep up with the changing laws.

He said they are continually looking for ways to identify high crime areas and use different methods of crime reduction, and are developing plans to increase special enforcement.

One of the special enforcement areas is marijuana, with Celli showing a picture of a large marijuana grow in the city. “Our goal, obviously, is we want less of this.”

When it goes above and beyond medical marijuana grows and impacts neighbors, “That's enough,” he said.

Celli said other efforts include customer service, with officers encouraged to meet with business owners and the public to enhance problem solving policing; improving communications capabilities, which has included implementing the Nixle alert system; making visual improvements through adding plants and pictures to the police department lobby, which he said was reported to not be welcoming; and updating the phone system with music instead of dead air when callers are put on hold.

He said they're utilizing a drought relief worker provided by the state to scan reports and greet people at the window. “It's essentially free labor for the city.”

The department's dispatch center is very busy, receiving an estimated 27 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, he said.

Another initiative is the reestablishment of the police explorer program. “That's where I came from. I was a police explorer,” Celli said.

Explaining the importance of a number of key goals – encouraging employees to be helpful, treating others as they want to be treated, attending public meetings, encouraging more information sharing internally and externally, and exploring ways to enhance service, Celli said, “All of these things lead to trust. We need to continue to build and maintain the public trust. We cannot do our job effectively without it.”

To sum up the importance of that trust, Celli used each letter of the word to outline the following goals:

– Truth;
– Respect;
– Understanding;
– Stability;
– Transparency.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The seven-year effort to build a new and safer courthouse for Lake County encountered another delay last week when a state committee voted to reevaluate the Lakeport site where the facility is proposed to be built.

In a 13-3 vote – with two abstentions – the Court Facilities Advisory Committee, which met in San Francisco on Thursday, ordered state Judicial Council staff to take a closer look at the six-acre site, located at 675 Lakeport Blvd.

The committee's action suspends all work on the project's working drawings except to study alternatives and project costs. Judicial Council staff must prepare a report in six months or less for review by the Court Facilities Advisory Committee and its Courthouse Cost Reduction Subcommittee on all options to reduce costs.

“We were surprised by the result,” Lake County Superior Court Presiding Judge Andrew Blum told Lake County News. “We had been led to believe that they understood where we were and the need to go forward.”

“We are extremely disappointed and frustrated with the process,” said Lake County Superior Court Executive Officer Krista LeVier, who attended the meeting.

During the Thursday discussion, one committee member suggested reducing the number of courtrooms from four to three, which would have given the new facility less courtrooms than the current cramped facility has.

“It doesn't make sense to make a nonfunctional building to save pennies,” said LeVier.

Deepika Padam, senior project manager of the capital program, told the committee that a six-month delay equates to an additional $500,000 in costs.

The project is in the working drawings – or final phase – of design. However, it came in for additional scrutiny due to being $6 million – or 12 percent – over the state’s target budget due to increased design and environmental costs.

The Judicial Council gives $49.984 million as the current authorized project budget.

The project cost has gone through a series of cost reductions totaling 30 percent, down from an original estimated $35.3 million for construction of the two-story, L-shaped building to $23.8 million. The Courthouse Cost Reduction Subcommittee wanted the construction costs dropped to $20 million or below.

The design-to-budget is $27.8 million, which is $4.7 million less than the project’s design is expected to cost, according to meeting documents.

Projected budget overruns are as a result, in part, of the need to meet environmental requirements on the property, including nearly half a million dollars to protect and restore sensitive plants, besides managing the land's unusual topography and building the necessary access road.

State officials have acknowledged that the site – selected because it was one of the few areas out of the floodplain – will be difficult to build on.

It was pointed out during the meeting that the site – purchased by the state in 2011 for $1.1 million – was less expensive than the required mitigations to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which total $1.4 million.

State staff argued in the documents presented at the meeting that, “If the schedule slips, construction inflation will likewise eliminate any savings.”

The project already is several years behind the original projections of a late 2014 completion. In that time, it has been reevaluated, with a smaller size proposed to save money.

The most recent projected opening for the new 45,300-square-foot building – reduced from an original estimated footprint of 50,158 square feet – was June 2019.

That, said Blum, was the projected date had the project gotten the green light on March 3, which it didn't.

With the latest decision by the committee, Blum said the opening date will be pushed back by at least six months – more if the state were to decide to start from scratch with a new site.

The effort to build a new courthouse began in earnest in 2009 after the Lakeport Courthouse – the top floor of which is owned by the state and houses the Lake County Superior Court – was ranked in the Trial Court Capital Outlay Plan's “Immediate Need Project Priority Group.”

That report found the fourth floor facilities were overcrowded, had structural and accessibility issues, poorly served the court's growing needs, lacked basic security and were, overall, unsafe.

“The project is very much needed,” said Blum, noting that the Lakeport courthouse was rated as one of the worst in the state.

Then the recession hit, which resulted in $1.5 billion in court construction funds being borrowed by the Legislature, swept to the general fund or redirected to court operations, said Teresa Ruano, spokeswoman for the Judicial Council of California.

“As a result, many court construction projects throughout the state had to be delayed indefinitely, and all others that are proceeding have undergone cost reductions. So any request for a budget increase on court construction projects requires stringent oversight and approvals,” said Ruano.

At the same time, the situation has only worsened as the local courts' caseload has continued to grow.

“Our courthouse is outdated and not capable of accommodating our county's current needs,” said Angela Carter, head of the county's public defender contract. “Every [criminal] case in the county is heard on the fourth floor of that building and it is becoming unmanageable.”

A smaller courthouse facility in Clearlake now is used primarily for small claims cases.

Before the committee

Ahead of the meeting, letters from the Board of Supervisors, Lakeport City Council and state Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Bill Dodd had been sent to the committee, expressing support for the courthouse and a need to move forward.

Armed with that support, Blum – accompanied by Judge Stephen Hedstrom, Judge Mike Lunas and Court Executive Officer Krista LeVier – made the trip to San Francisco for the afternoon meeting.

Originally, the Lakeport project was to have been the second the committee was to consider that day, behind a new Santa Barbara courthouse project that is $10 million over budget. Instead, when the Lake County delegation arrived, they found they had been moved to the top of the agenda.

Judicial Council staff made presentations ahead of Blum on the budget history of the Lakeport courthouse project, the funding for which originally was authorized in fiscal year 2009-10, according to Pearl Freeman, manager of design and construction for the capital program.

Freeman said that there were a series of cost-cutting actions taken beginning in 2010-11, which continued after the courthouse plans were first presented to the Courthouse Cost Reduction Subcommittee in December 2012.

Padam explained the series of measures taken to further reduce costs, including looking at different designs, such as a more compact, rectangular building, rather than the L-shaped construction originally proposed.

Padam said the work also included additional geotechnical analysis and negotiations with the city of Lakeport to do one bus stop instead of two as part of the CEQA requirements.

Next it was Blum's turn to speak, offering a presentation he said he spent months preparing, writing and rewriting it.

He told the group that the current courthouse is unsafe and overcrowded, with jurors having to stand out in the hallway along with witnesses, and inmates being walked through public corridors.

“We are a very, very busy court,” he said, explaining it is rated for five and a half judge positions but has only four. Visiting judges from the Bay Area have told him they've never seen court calendars as large as those at the Lake County Superior Court, he said.

“You're not being asked to build a courthouse that is going to sit idle. It's going to be heavily used,” said Blum.

He said the project – which went back to the drawing board for the third or fourth time last year due to being over budget – is “far from extravagant.”

Blum continued, “We’ve seen some of the new courthouses that have come online recently. They’re beautiful. And they should be beautiful. A courthouse shouldn't look like a strip mall. This building however – there’s no granite, there’s no marble, there's no columns, there’s not even tile on the floors. It's stucco, it's concrete floors, it's drywall.”

He said the Lakeport design is for a decent, functional, safe building, which is all they’ve ever asked for. “We simply don’t have that in our county.”

The county court was told that an elevated site, out of the floodplain, was needed. “That's why we ended up with the site we have,” Blum said.

He said the county is the poorest in the state, with 25 percent of the population living below the poverty level. There were a dozen homicides last year, most related to marijuana, and a severe methamphetamine problem. He also referenced last year's devastating wildland fires.

Blum asked for the committee to fund the project so it could finally get going.

Committee members agreed that a need certain existed, and went on to question the site selection, alternative locations and CEQA mitigations.

One alternative site mentioned during the meeting is the Vista Point Shopping Center property, located across from the proposed building site. Blum said the landowner wanted about $3 million for the property, which he said had a fair market value of about $800,000, and the state wouldn't pursue the purchase.

During the discussion, one board member brought up the possibility of pursuing eminent domain to acquire the land, an avenue Blum said the state hasn't been willing to pursue.

Blum also was questioned about possibly locating the facility next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility. He said that option has been considered repeatedly, but there is no land available there, especially now that the sheriff's office has received a $20 million grant to expand the jail.

“This is in the sticks of the sticks,” replied Blum of the jail location. “There's nothing but rattlesnakes out there.”

Blum said that the shopping center was among the 35 or so sites originally considered, most of them eliminated due to being in the floodplain. The shopping center was dropped due to cost.

“It's an eyesore,” Blum said of the shopping center. However, “Many of us would have preferred that site years ago,” explaining a new courthouse would have turned the eyesore into an asset.

Committee member Jeffrey Johnson, an associate justice on the Second Appellate District Court of Appeal, suggested that creativity is important when dealing with a $6 million shortfall. He suggested space reduction – specifically, eliminating the fourth courtroom and staggering schedules.

Don Byrd, presiding judge of the Glenn County Superior Court and an ex-officio, nonvoting member of the committee, advocated for the courthouse project, having seen the need firsthand during a visit.

Byrd – whose 122-year-old courthouse in Willows is slated for a $40 million renovation – was concerned that the committee's proposed action to reevaluate the site would put the Lakeport project a minimum of seven years behind where it should be.

“I don't know how much longer that they can last in this building that they have,” he said, citing the current building's numerous safety concerns and questioning if the delay would save money.

David Power, a retired Solano County Superior Court judge, said there was no question about the need, and he didn't think reducing the building size would work. His focused on the money needed specifically to deal with the site's topography and poor soils. He was very concerned that once construction activities on the site started, the cost would turn out to be much higher.

“I know of no other site that has CEQA costs like this,” said Power.

Steve Jahr, a retired Shasta County Superior Court judge, said he had visited all the courts working for the council, with one of the most memorable visits being to Lakeport, where the judges gave him a tour. They showed him the sorry state of the facility and the fullness of the calendars.

They also took him to the proposed site. “It was a site that was troubling to me,” Jahr said.

He said the court hasn't made mistakes, but has been cooperative and flexible. He said the architects made the mistakes.

“My impression at this juncture is one of enormous disappointment,” he said, adding that changing course will be costly.

Jahr said he would reluctantly support the additional costs, and he voted against the motion to reevaluate the site, joining Siskiyou County Superior Court Presiding Judge Laura Masunaga and Stephan Castellanos, FAIA, the former California state architect who is now principal architect for Derivi Castellanos Architects in voting no.

Byrd and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Highberger, both ex-officio members, abstained because they are chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the Trial Court Facility Modification Advisory Committee.
                  
Chair Brad Hill, administrative presiding justice of the Fifth Appellate District Court of Appeal, said the committee's action did not mean the door was being closed on the project.

“We want this project to succeed, we want it to move forward. We just don't want to shut down another project in the process,” he said, adding that working together they could hopefully get the Lake County courthouse project on track and built for the county's citizens.

Following the Lakeport courthouse discussion, the committee gave the Santa Barbara courthouse project a similar outcome.

Blum said that, after the presentation, Johnson approached him to tell him he was touched by the presentation.

“I touched their heart, not their pocketbook,” said Blum. “I hit the wrong target.”

Blum spoke with state Judicial Council staff on Friday, who were getting started with the site reconsideration process. He said Lakeport is the first project with a site to be told to go back for reevaluation.

The process has been slow for Blum, who during his three years as attorney general on Micronesia saw a new courthouse project built.

LeVier recounted the lengthy process that the local court had gone through to get the Lakeport Boulevard site.

She said that, hopefully, once this new review is completed, the project can move forward.

“We just want a functional, safe building – that's all we're asking for,” she said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.