Opinion
It is a great concept, from my perspective, because I implemented that same idea when I was chief deputy district attorney in Santa Cruz County.
The actual feat had to wait for the right time to be accomplished, however. There had to be free county space of sufficient size and security, and the caseload, available staffing and office functions had to be workable.
In order to do that here in Clearlake, you have to consider that the staff of the district attorney is not currently large enough to give up the ability to assign attorneys, investigators and victim advocates to cover others when they are in a different court, in trial, out on vacation or training, or more importantly, to cover the caseload. When the staff is large enough, that is not a worry.
We currently have a domestic violence team, a child sexual assault team, an elder abuse team and a narcotics district attorney who are assigned to all the cases in their specialty even though they are in both Southlake and Northlake.
That means you cannot assign them to just the Clearlake office, even though it would be wonderful for those victims, witnesses and law enforcement officers located in the south county to be able to only go to a Clearlake office.
Felony district attorneys are only in Clearlake one day a week, and are required to be in Lakeport in court two days a week and two more days if they are assigned to do a trial in Lakeport.
There are two and sometimes three courts in the north that take trials and only one in Clearlake, so it is much more likely that felony district attorneys will be in Lakeport.
There are two district attorneys assigned to the misdemeanor cases in Clearlake. They are only in court one day a week and one additional day the third week of the month. They also are more likely to be assigned to trials in one of the courts up north. They are also required to be in the settlement conferences that are held in court in Lakeport.
You can see that there are days when the attorneys who might be handling cases that occur in the south county will not be able to be there. As a matter of fact, all of them may be required to be up north on the same day.
If the new district attorney covered the office on those days, that would be very helpful, but Don probably would not be familiar with every case filed in that court.
Also at issue is the availability of files in the Clearlake office.
To handle all the facets of office work that are done with the case files, it would not work to send staff to do it in the Clearlake office, because they are needed to cover each others work in the main office.
One would need to wait until more staff is hired so you could have duplicate functions covered in each office. A number of the important functions have only one person doing that job.
My suggestion to Don Anderson is that he hold office hours in the office in the Clearlake courthouse a couple of days a week, with announcements to the public so there will be a regular time when they know they will find someone there. That way, while he is looking into the money and logistical issues, he can also assess the need and response of the public.
It will be a lot easier to sell the Board of Supervisors on the expenditure of extra funds if he has the stats to back up the idea instead of just having the idea.
Jon Hopkins is the current district attorney of Lake County. His term ends in January.
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- Written by: Jon Hopkins
This raises an issue of changing Lucerne from a tourist destination to a county government satellite that could change the dynamics of the area.
My feeling is this investment is counter to the intention of the redevelopment expenditure previously spent. The county has invested millions of dollars already into creating the entire Northshore as a tourist draw.
From my perspective, I see a need for the supervisors to spread a little of the taxpayers money around
in different areas of the county.
My belief is, they should be looking at what area of the county could benefit the most from government investment. They should look at property already owned by a government, rather than grabbing one more piece of private land. They should be looking at what location suits the largest amount of people when they spend taxpayer dollars.
The airport property in Clearlake is a better suited site for construction of a government complex to
service the citizens already begging for satellite services.
The capital expenditure required to build a multi story complex could be spent building a single story building of greater square footage. The building could house county service representatives from varying departments. The sheriff’s office could be expanded to better accommodate the employees working the south district.
Given the politically sensitive issue of the current proposal for a Lowe's, and the money some claim
will be spent defending the Lowe's project; this could be a viable alternative for both the county
representatives and the Clearlake representatives to consider.
Those who are concerned about environmental impacts in the county could argue that a government
service building in the city of Clearlake would decrease the amount of emissions by lowering driving to
Lakeport. The roadways will see less wear and tear, traffic could be lowered and perhaps a few more
deer will live to see another day.
The citizens of the Southlake district will save thousands of dollars in making single reason trips. It would be a shorter trip to conduct county business. Given the tight budgets many are living with, it could make a difference in their quality of life.
The city of Clearlake would benefit from having a dependable source of income from a reliable tenant.
This also creates a complex where state government, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, could lease space and as needs arise additional buildings could be built.
The property is large enough that the city of Clearlake could maintain a portion of the roadway section to sell off or lease to business requiring a smaller building footprint.
The city of Clearlake would be able to spend their redevelopment money on the preexisting areas of
commerce. Lakeshore businesses can benefit from a revitalization process once the funds are freed
from the airport.
Although most people do not realize it, there is a greater area of the county in the south district then
there is in the north district. The taxpayer money in the county seems to be spent disproportionately in the north over the south.
The Board of Supervisors is a compilation of people who are supposed to represent their own districts and the county as a whole. The health of the city of Clearlake, the service of all county residents in all parts of the county, and a resolution to this ongoing discussion over the airport can all be addressed.
The supervisors need to look at the city of Clearlake as part of the county family and not the red-headed stepchild as they have in the past. Clearlake can once again be the shining jewel she once was.
The county is going to spend the money, so why not service the Southlake and the citizens?
Keith Buter lives in Lucerne, Calif.
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- Written by: Keith Buter
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