How to resolve AdBlock issue? CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A former Clearlake City Council member who left the council last year to pursue the city’s police chief job has been selected to fill the vacancy left by Mayor Nick Bennett’s May resignation.
During a special Thursday afternoon meeting, the council voted 4-0 to appoint Russell Perdock to fill Bennett’s term, which lasts another 18 months.
Bennett resigned on May 9 citing health reasons, moving later in the month to South Dakota, as Lake County News has reported.
The council subsequently decided to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than holding a special election in March 2020.
The council established an application period of nearly a month, and six city residents applied for the vacant seat.
The discussion begins in the video above at the 28:50 mark.
In addition to Perdock, Cristina Azanza, David Claffey, Desserrie Shaw, Erin McCarrick and Pattie Duke submitted applications.
During Thursday’s meeting, the council interviewed five of the six, as Shaw did not attend.
Perdock served more than three years on the council before resigning in February 2018 to apply for the city’s police chief’s post, which later went to Andrew White.
He ran for council last year, coming in third in a three-person field, with Russell Cremer and Dirk Slooten winning the two available seats.
Perdock, who now works for Adventist Health Clear Lake as director of community integration, told the council that he wanted to again be part of helping the city move forward in a position direction. He added that he doesn’t see himself as a politician but as a public servant.
After posing questions to the candidates about their work and educational history, interests and abilities, the council took public comment, with several people – including former mayor, Denise Loustalot – speaking in favor of appointing Perdock because of his experience and their belief in his ability to quickly get up to speed.
Councilmembers, in turn, voiced their support, but Slooten said he wanted to make sure Perdock didn’t quit halfway through the term for another police-related job.
The other applicants were encouraged to get involved with city government, including running for a seat in the next election.
Councilman Phil Harris moved to approve Perdock’s appointment, with Joyce Overton seconding and the council voting 4-0.
City Clerk Melissa Swanson said Perdock will be sworn in at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 13, ahead of the budget workshop that will precede the regular meeting.
City Manager Alan Flora urged Perdock to pick up his budget book before he left City Hall Thursday evening.
Police radio infrastructure upgrades approved
Also on Thursday, Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White received the council’s approval for the purchase of radio equipment and a contract for installation services from Precision Wireless Service, in an amount not to exceed $63,543.
White explained that his department’s public safety radio system needed to be replaced, as it has had multiple failures, is at the end of its service life and poor “talk-in” coverage – which relates to transmissions from field units to dispatch and other units.
White explained that the police department utilizes two-way radio as the primary means to communicate with field personnel in both emergency and non-emergency situations. The system’s equipment and antennas have repeatedly failed.
He said the current system uses a repeater which has antennas fixed to a wooden pole outside of the police department.
The equipment’s performance is jeopardizing officer and community safety, with White explaining that critical incident situations have happened and the radios haven’t worked.
Five years ago, the department added a backup repeater at Adventist Health Clear Lake, but that hasn’t solved the problem, so last summer the agency began looking into a new radio system, White said.
White said they’ve opted to go with a “voted” radio system, which uses an electronic device called a “comparator” that compares the signals received from multiple receive sites in a coverage area and then passes the best signal to the repeater to transmit to other units and dispatch. Such a system eliminates the need for an officer to change channels on their radio.
The updated system will have three initial equipment sites – the police department, the hospital and a new location on Woods and Eureka Avenue owned by the Konocti Water District. A contract will need to be developed for the third site, White explained.
White played some audio from police incidents to illustrate the scope of the problem, with the transmissions barely understandable. One recording came from earlier on Thursday, when five officers needed to subdue a combative subject and the radio transmission was so poor other officers couldn’t use it to locate the incident – that was done by computer tracking.
Sgt. Martin Snyder, Officer Mark Harden and Capt. Tim Celli all spoke to the council in support of the new equipment.
Celli, who has been with the department since 1995 – the longest of any police employee – said the radios have been a longtime issue. “This seems like a really good option for us,” he said, noting he can tell the council many stories of officers calling for help over the faulty equipment.
He said the officers put their lives on the line every day, and they need to be given the best equipment possible.
Snyder, who emphasized safety concerns, said the new system is not conventional and it’s expandable.
Harden said during a fire in the Avenues a few years ago, the radios quit working as officers were conducting evacuations. During the October 2017 Sulphur fire, officers couldn’t hear the operations center over the radios and had to use portables, which didn’t allow them to communicate as they were trying to evacuate residents. Cell phones had to be used instead.
During a deadly force encounter in which someone was trying to stab Harden with a screwdriver, he said he couldn’t be heard on the radio and instead used it like a distress code, which other officers recognized. He said that, once out of their cars, the officers are failed by the system.
“Your safety is definitely the highest things in our minds. Know that,” said Mayor Russ Cremer.
Cremer asked if the purchase is in the 2019-20 budget. Flora said no. Because they feel that it’s critically important to do it now, Flora said the city would fund the equipment purchase from salary savings in the current year’s police budget.
Harris moved to approve the equipment purchase, which the council approved 4-0.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
060619 Clearlake City Council special meeting agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd
