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LOWER LAKE – On Tuesday, firefighters and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. employees remained at work on the scene of a fire that broke out the previous day.
The fire, located along Highway 29 near Manning Flat, was sparked mid-afternoon Monday, caused a highway closure and burned approximately 182 acres, as Lake County News has reported.
Downed power lines may have been a contributing factor, according to Cal Fire.
Along Highway 29, PG&E trucks were at work through the day, replacing more than a dozen power poles. Some of the poles were at the roadside, and some others were located in steeper terrain 50 to 100 feet east of the roadway.
The work required one-way traffic control in the area all day until about 4 p.m.
No homes were in danger, although DNA Quarry was nearby.
There, three Cal Fire hand crews spent the day working to put out hot spots and clean up the fire lines.
Many of the firefighters had worked into the night and were relieved about midnight, returning after about four hours of rest.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Pat Shaver, the longest-serving member of the district board, confirmed Monday that she had tendered her resignation to district General Manager Darin McCosker earlier in the day.
However, Shaver would not offer a comment to Lake County News about her reasons for resigning.
The district's board held a public hearing on Saturday evening at the Eastlake Grange to receive public testimony about three proposed rate hike options – 39.4, 25 and 10 percent – one of which officials have said is necessary to help stabilize the district's shaky financial picture.
At that meeting the board was criticized for its handling of the meeting, which began with audience members asked to submit questions in writing rather than giving testimony and asking questions at the podium. Eventually, the board did welcome ratepayers to take the microphone.
Shaver was absent from the meeting and board Vice President Mike Anisman, angered by what he said was an abusive barrage from audience members, walked out a half hour into the meeting, which ran for more than two hours.
Community member Mike Benjamin – who had criticized the board for the way it conducted the meeting – then circulated two petitions to file a notice of intention to begin a recall effort on both Anisman and Shaver.
“There were so many people that wanted to sign that thing that I ran out of spaces for signatures,” Benjamin said Monday.
Benjamin said he actually took five petitions to the meeting – one for each board member, the others being President Helen Locke and directors Frank Toney and Harry Chase.
However, he said he felt both Toney and Chase conducted themselves properly at the meeting, so he chose not to pursue an effort to oust them.
Anisman had written a comment on Lake County News in which he indicated he planned to tender his resignation as well. However, he said Monday evening that he was still making up his mind about what action to take.
Benjamin said he was still prepared to pursue the notice to begin the recall against Anisman, saying his walking out of the meeting “was the absolute worst thing in the world he could have done.”
A former elected official himself in the Yuba County city of Wheatland, Benjamin said elected officials don't have the luxury of getting their feelings hurt. “This is business. It isn't personal.”
Over the last several months, Benjamin has been a fixture at board meetings, and board members also have called on his knowledge of the Brown Act and running public meetings.
He had warned Shaver at a June meeting that he thought she should be recalled.
Water board member Frank Toney had posed this question at Saturday's meeting: Who will step up and take the seats of the board members who leave?
Benjamin, who turns 62 in November, said he is willing to serve in order to get the district straightened out, but maintained he likes being retired and wasn't preparing to get back into public service. “All I'm trying to do is help.”
Board President Helen Locke said Monday that Shaver's seat on the board will be filled by appointment. The district will publish the opening, take applications and make a choice.
Locke, Toney and Anisman were elected to the board last November. All three told Lake County News in previous interviews that they had no idea about the district's financial condition until after they were seated on the board earlier this year.
The board is set to meet at 3 p.m. this Wednesday. Not on the agenda for that meeting is a discussion of passing a rate hike, which the board agreed to postpone, at raterpayers' request, until it held another community meeting fully explaining all three rate hike options.
On Wednesday the board will consider proposals for audit services to conduct two past due audits and a third that's coming due now.
Toney's suggestion to form a finance committee will be considered, and McCosker also will ask the board to allow him to appoint district bookkeeper Jana Saccato as board secretary, a job he has been holding down in addition to other duties.
Also at the request of ratepayers, the board on Wednesday will consider moving its public meetings from 3 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month to 7 p.m. every third Thursday.
In the wake of Saturday's tense meeting, Locke said she had considered offering her own resignation.
In the end, however, she decided to stay and continue working on the district's issues.
“We've got to keep the place running,” she said. “I'll hang in there as long as I can.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The incident that has garnered the Santa Rosa Democrat heavy criticism occurred during a joint hearing of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications and Assembly Natural Resources committees on Aug. 6.
Rev. Robert Jones, government affairs director for the Sacramento-based California Association of Black Pastors and pastor of Oak Park United Methodist Church, was giving testimony during a hearing to discuss global warming.
He asked the committee to consider input from members of ethnic and lower-income communities when addressing global warming and emissions standards. When new fees are implemented to address such issues, Jones said those communities suffer the most.
“Excuse me, but it think your arguments are bull****,” Wiggins said.
Committee Chair Sen. Christine Kehoe immediately interjected and began talking with Jones, keeping the hearing moving.
A clip of the hearing and Wiggins' comment were posted on YouTube, and has generated nearly 36,000 hits.
Since then, Wiggins has sustained harsh criticism for her words.
She's also attempted to apologize to Jones. In an Aug. 12 letter to Jones she wrote, “I did not intend to be aggressive, disrespectful or vulgar. Unfortunately, my directness and poor choice of words may have left the wrong impression and were, in hindsight, inappropriate for a legislative hearing. Nor did I mean to be insensitive to the important role of the California Association of Black Pastors.”
In the letter Wiggins asked Jones for a second chance and an opportunity to personally meet with him to apologize for the incident.
David Miller, Wiggins' spokesman, said she immediately regretted her words and has attempted ever since the committee hearing to meet with Jones, to no avail.
Initially, Wiggins thought she had heard Jones say that he believed he was asking for minority-owned businesses to be exempt from the regulations, which Miller said she realized later wasn't what he said.
Wiggins at one point did have a meeting scheduled with Jones and some of his colleagues, but they didn't show up to the meeting or call to say they weren't coming, and have offered no response since, said Miller.
A call Lake County News placed to Jones' church was not returned.
Critics of the senator have seized on the opportunity to go after her. The California Republican Party reportedly sent out a news release with a link to the YouTube video.
Likewise, the Capitol Resource Institute launched a phone call and email campaign demanding Wiggins publicly apologize to Jones, saying she displayed “shocking contempt for the people she was elected to serve.”
“This type of behavior from an elected official is simply unacceptable,” Karen England, executive director for Capitol Resource Institute, said in a written statement.
Miller said he wouldn't offer an excuse for Wiggins' remark, which she herself feels is inexcusable.
It's an unfortunate situation, said Miller, considering Wiggins' strong belief in the kind of environmental justice Jones was seeking, that drafting environmental regulations should be an inclusive process.
Wiggins was elected to the state Senate in 2006. She previously represented the North Coast in the state Assembly.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Juan Morales-Vasquez, 20, of Clearlake sustained major injuries that were not life-threatening in the single-vehicle collision, said California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Garcia.
Morales-Vasquez was driving a 1989 Nissan Pathfinder southbound on Butts Canyon Road near Oat Hill Road at about 4:18 p.m. Saturday when he went straight through a left curve in the road, losing control and rolling the vehicle, Garcia said.
Garcia said Morales-Vasquez was ejected from the Pathfinder, and later transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where he was released to the hospital's care.
Vasquez-Morales is suspected of driving under the influence, said Garcia, with CHP planning to arrest him once he's released from the hospital.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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