LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has three dogs available for adoption this Christmas week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Chihuahua and pit bull.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short brindle and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 16, ID No. 11543.

‘Tank’

“Tank” is a male pit bull terrier with a short brown brindle coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 7002.

Senior Chihuahua

This senior male Chihuahua has a short black and gray coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 139, ID No. 11560.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 and 2 observations made decades ago.

The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field.

“We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,” said James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years, but add to this the Cassini-spacecraft measured ring-material detected falling into Saturn’s equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live. This is relatively short, compared to Saturn’s age of over 4 billion years.”

O’Donoghue is lead author of a study on Saturn’s ring rain that appeared in Icarus Dec. 17.

Scientists have long wondered if Saturn was formed with the rings or if the planet acquired them later in life. The new research favors the latter scenario, indicating that they are unlikely to be older than 100 million years, as it would take that long for the C-ring to become what it is today assuming it was once as dense as the B-ring.

“We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime. However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today!” O’Donoghue added.

Various theories have been proposed for the ring’s origin. If the planet got them later in life, the rings could have formed when small, icy moons in orbit around Saturn collided, perhaps because their orbits were perturbed by a gravitational tug from a passing asteroid or comet.

The first hints that ring rain existed came from Voyager observations of seemingly unrelated phenomena: peculiar variations in Saturn’s electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere), density variations in Saturn’s rings, and a trio of narrow dark bands encircling the planet at northern mid-latitudes.

These dark bands appeared in images of Saturn’s hazy upper atmosphere (stratosphere) made by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission in 1981.

In 1986, Jack Connerney of NASA Goddard published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters that linked those narrow dark bands to the shape of Saturn’s enormous magnetic field, proposing that electrically charged ice particles from Saturn’s rings were flowing down invisible magnetic field lines, dumping water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere where these lines emerged from the planet.

The influx of water from the rings, appearing at specific latitudes, washed away the stratospheric haze, making it appear dark in reflected light, producing the narrow dark bands captured in the Voyager images.

Saturn’s rings are mostly chunks of water ice ranging in size from microscopic dust grains to boulders several yards (meters) across. Ring particles are caught in a balancing act between the pull of Saturn’s gravity, which wants to draw them back into the planet, and their orbital velocity, which wants to fling them outward into space.

Tiny particles can get electrically charged by ultraviolet light from the Sun or by plasma clouds emanating from micrometeoroid bombardment of the rings. When this happens, the particles can feel the pull of Saturn’s magnetic field, which curves inward toward the planet at Saturn’s rings.

In some parts of the rings, once charged, the balance of forces on these tiny particles changes dramatically, and Saturn’s gravity pulls them in along the magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere.

Once there, the icy ring particles vaporize and the water can react chemically with Saturn’s ionosphere. One outcome from these reactions is an increase in the lifespan of electrically charged particles called H3+ ions, which are made up of three protons and two electrons.

When energized by sunlight, the H3+ ions glow in infrared light, which was observed by O’Donoghue’s team using special instruments attached to the Keck telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Their observations revealed glowing bands in Saturn’s northern and southern hemispheres where the magnetic field lines that intersect the ring plane enter the planet. They analyzed the light to determine the amount of rain from the ring and its effects on Saturn’s ionosphere. They found that the amount of rain matches remarkably well with the astonishingly high values derived more than three decades earlier by Connerney and colleagues, with one region in the south receiving most of it.

The team also discovered a glowing band at a higher latitude in the southern hemisphere. This is where Saturn’s magnetic field intersects the orbit of Enceladus, a geologically active moon that is shooting geysers of water ice into space, indicating that some of those particles are raining onto Saturn as well.

“That wasn’t a complete surprise,” said Connerney. “We identified Enceladus and the E-ring as a copious source of water as well, based on another narrow dark band in that old Voyager image.”

The geysers, first observed by Cassini instruments in 2005, are thought to be coming from an ocean of liquid water beneath the frozen surface of the tiny moon. Its geologic activity and water ocean make Enceladus one of the most promising places to search for extraterrestrial life.

The team would like to see how the ring rain changes with the seasons on Saturn. As the planet progresses in its 29.4-year orbit, the rings are exposed to the Sun to varying degrees. Since ultraviolet light from the Sun charges the ice grains and makes them respond to Saturn’s magnetic field, varying exposure to sunlight should change the quantity of ring rain.

The research was funded by NASA and the NASA Postdoctoral Program at NASA Goddard, administered by the Universities Space Research Association. The W.M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and the data in the form of its files are available from the Keck archive.

The authors wish to recognize the significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has within the indigenous Hawaiian community; they are fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The men and women of local law enforcement continued a tradition of giving this week when they delivered Christmas gifts to children impacted by crime.

The Lake County District Attorney’s Office Victim-Witness Division once again organized a toy drive for the children who it served during this year, with the toys delivered on Thursday.

It’s the 23rd year the drive has been taking place.

Victim-Witness Program Administrator Crystal Martin said that over the years St. Mary Immaculate Church in Lakeport has been the main church involved in helping to collect toys for about 110 children.

She said the children are of all ages in communities around Lake County. This year, the drive also included gifts for some adults.

This year, the effort expanded. Martin said they went out to ask for assistance from a broader group of churches and local organizations.

The groups participating in this year’s toy drive included the Lake Ministerial Association, Lake County Bible Fellowship, First Baptist Church of Clearlake, United Christian Parish, Galilee Lutheran Church, Rotary Club of Lakeport, Lakeport Christian Center, Clearlake First Assembly of God, Restoration House of Ukiah, Family Life Christian Center of Booneville and Coast Christian Center in Fort Bragg, Martin said.

Local law enforcement agencies that took part in the deliveries, in addition to Victim-Witness, included the California Highway Patrol, Clearlake Police, Lakeport Police, Lake County District Attorney’s Office, Lake County Probation and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen and his officers arrived donning Santa hats, and Rasmussen brought one for Sheriff Brian Martin, too.

District Attorney-elect Susan Krones arrived in time to see the group off on their special mission, and she joined in carrying bags of presents to the patrol cars.

Before heading out to make their holiday deliveries, the deputies, officers and advocates enjoyed some doughnuts and coffee.

Then, they received their directions from Victim-Witness staff on where to take their cargo before heading off on the rainy Thursday morning.

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.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Friday, State Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes Lake County, was named assistant majority leader of the California State Senate.

“I am honored to be able to help lead the Senate as the state moves forward on the most critical issues of our time and grateful to Pro Tem Atkins for this opportunity,” Sen. McGuire said. “I am excited to get to work as assistant majority leader and continue our laser focus on affordable housing, homelessness and making local government work for California’s 40 million residents as chair of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.”

McGuire will continue to serve as Chair of the Senate’s Governance & Finance Committee, which is responsible for hearing legislation related to state and local government, most housing and housing financing bills, all land use and development policy, special district revenue and all tax related legislation.

He also will continue to serve as vice chair of the Democratic Caucus.

Senator McGuire’s additional committee assignments will be announced at a later date.

“How can my dad have died and his estate been transferred to another relative without my being told anything?”

That was the question, in a nutshell, that a client asked because she was not getting any answers from the relative in question.

My initial suspicion was that something was wrong. Notice to a decedent’s heirs – which always includes the decedent’s surviving children – is required in order to commence administration of a decedent’s estate, whether it is a court supervised probate administration or a private trust administration.

Such notice is required to all beneficiaries and to all heirs. Even disinherited heirs must be notified. That way they can go to court to object if they believe that the will or the trust being administered is invalid or improperly being administered.

The most frequent objections involve allegations that the decedent lacked testamentary capacity to sign the documents or was subjected undue influence and acted under coercion.

However, notice is not required in a number of situations when the estate is neither subject to probate nor to trust administration.

Small estates (with assets collectively worth under $150,000 in combined gross value) – except a small estate with real estate appraised at more than $50,000 – can be administered informally (without notice) using the so-called “affidavit procedure.” Likewise, lifetime gifts before the decedent died do not require any notice.

Lastly financial accounts that name designated death beneficiaries or that pass to a surviving joint tenant also transfer without any notice: Beneficiaries simply present the bank (or other financial institution) with the deceased account holder’s certified death certificate, the beneficiaries’ own identification documents (e.g., driver’s license) and complete the bank’s forms to claim the proceeds.

Fortunately, transferring title to real estate involves filing title documents with the county recorder’s office. Here, investigation into the recorded chain of title to the decedent’s residence showed that my client’s father while alive had signed a deed transferring title to other family members.

The same deed also reserved a life estate to allow the decedent to live in the residence until his death.

The life estate protected both the father’s right to live in the home and his recipient’s right to obtain so-called “stepped up” income tax basis at the father’s death.

Accordingly, in my example, the father while alive had made a lifetime gift of the house and removed it from his estate prior to death, none of which required any notice to my client.

The decedent likely had a will disinheriting my client and likely named death beneficiaries on his bank accounts. Any small estate he left (such as vehicles, possessions and bank accounts) could have been claimed by his beneficiaries using a small estate affidavit in reliance upon the will.

Accordingly, no formal administration of the decedent’s estate would have been required, and so no notice was sent to surviving heirs.

Children are disinherited for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes it is because the child upset their parents or because some else – often another sibling or a step-parent – poisoned their parent’s goodwill in order to get a larger inheritance.

When undue influence is detected while the parent is still alive, a conservatorship to protect the parent’s estate from being plundered or passing under an invalid will or trust may be an option. A conservatorship may be preferable to waiting until after damages have occurred.

Conservatorships, however, have no guarantees, and are emotionally and financially expensive.
When the wrongdoing goes uncorrected until after the decedent’s death, depending on the facts, the heirs (who believe they were cheated) may contest the decedent’s will or trust and/or sue those persons whom they allege wrongfully took their inheritance for damages.

The foregoing is not legal advice. Anyone confronting any of the issues should consult a qualified attorney before proceeding.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com.

People around the world have the opportunity to participate in the study of a comet this month, when a hyperactive comet that orbits between Jupiter and the Sun is closest to Earth.

It will be so close, in fact, that you may be able to see it with the naked eye within a week or two before and after its closest approach on Dec. 16.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen is a ball of rock, dust and frozen gases a little over a kilometer in diameter that was discovered in 1948 by astronomer Carl Wirtanen at the Lick Observatory in California.

Wirtanen’s orbital period is around 5 and 1/2 years. As the comet and the Earth travel in their different orbits around the Sun, there are times when Wirtanen is observable from Earth, depending on how close it gets to us.

Its appearance in 2013, for instance, was very faint, and only a few distant measurements were obtained. Its appearance in 2024 will be equally faint.

But, its appearance in December 2018 is expected to be very bright, passing just 30 lunar distances from Earth, or only 30 times farther from Earth than the Moon. This encounter will occur just a few days after its perihelion, which means its closest point to the sun.

The result is that Wirtanen will appear very bright from Earth for a comet, and it’s likely to be visible in binoculars and maybe even to the naked eye.

Additionally, since it will pass by Earth on the side away from the Sun, it should be visible for many hours during the night from both the northern and southern hemispheres. This presents a unique opportunity to study the object.

Dr. Kelly Fast is the program manager of the Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA Headquarters, and she’s eager to watch this event unfold.

“At NASA,” she noted, “we normally send spacecraft missions to solar system targets. It’s always nice when the target comes to us. This is a wonderful opportunity for comet science, and for the astronomical community around the world who will be studying the chemistry, coma changes, and other processes taking place at Comet Wirtanen.”

Dr. Tony Farnham is a principal research scientist at the University of Maryland. He is leading a multi-faceted campaign to provide information about Wirtanen and to encourage observations of the comet throughout its appearance. Farnham said, “This effort is targeted to both professional astronomers and citizen scientists of all types.

This is the 10th closest comet approach in the modern era, and, because its orbit tracks the Earth's for many months, it will remain observable for between 2 and 8 hours per night for over a year as it brightens and then fades around its closest approach.

Comet Wirtanen – you light up our night.

For more illuminating information about comets, visit http://science.nasa.gov.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A former local educator who last year was convicted of identity theft in cases involving his adult children was this week sentenced to prison time for grand theft from a Lake County couple.

George Tanner McQueen II, 62, of Sacramento was sentenced to three years for grand theft plus a two-year bail enhance on Monday, according to Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson.

Abelson said McQueen will serve the prison sentence in the Lake County Jail.

She said McQueen had pleaded either guilty or no contest to grand theft and one enhancement as a result of him being on bail or involved in another felony case at the time of this latest crime.

In McQueen’s latest case, when he committed the grand theft he was in the midst of the identity theft case involving his son and daughter, for which he was sentenced to jail time in Placer and Sacramento counties last year, as Lake County News has reported.

McQueen’s attorney, Eric H. Hintz, of Sacramento, told Lake County News he had no comment on the latest case outcome.

McQueen, a former Yuba College dean who at one time had worked for the Lake County Office of Education, also has a former criminal conviction locally stemming from a 2005 elder abuse case in which he stole funds from the estate of a friend for whom he was acting as executor.

In the years since that conviction – for which McQueen was sentenced to a year in jail and required to to pay $185,000 in restitution – he had moved to the Sacramento area where he opened a business, McQueen and Associates, which offered services including bookkeeping, payroll and tax preparation.

In this latest Lake County case, which was filed in February, a local couple that owns a business and had used McQueen as their accountant for 25 years found that he had transferred $103,000 from their accounts – $60,000 from personal accounts and $43,000 from a business account into his own account over the course of several days in August 2017, according to case documents compiled last year.

McQueen told the couple it was a mistake and claimed to a sheriff’s detective that it was a “glitch,” however, despite his promises to the couple to return the funds, the money didn’t reappear in their accounts.

The victims had reported discovering the missing funds weeks before McQueen’s September 2017 sentencings in the identity theft cases involving his children, in which he had taken out more than a dozen credit cards in their names and run up bills totaling an estimated $125,000.

In a plea agreement reached in the current Lake County case, Abelson said another enhancement for McQueen being on bail for a criminal case was dismissed.

She said the male victim in the case read his impact statement in open court on Monday.

The court denied mandatory supervision and home detention for McQueen, and reserved restitution for the victims, Abelson said.

The District Attorney’s Office said McQueen is set to return to court for a restitution hearing at 8:15 a.m. Feb. 27 in Department 4.

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.

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – A solar power system has been installed at the Soda Creek Station on the Upper Lake Ranger District of the Mendocino National Forest.

This system is part of the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies, or AFFECT, Off-Grid Renewable Energy Project.

The project was commissioned on Dec. 14.

The Soda Creek Mobile Solar Photovoltaic System is one of five pilot projects in Region 5.

All five systems will be installed at stations where the primary power is derived from generators, thus greatly reducing the annual fossil fuel consumption at these sites.

Monthly data from the renewable energy projects will be collected and analyzed over the next decade with the intent to develop similar systems forest service-wide.

The photovoltaic system consists of three solar panel trailers and a trailer that houses inverters and lead acid battery banks.

This system is capable of producing 162 kWh/day and has two days of battery autonomy; the average daily load at Soda Creek Station is 105 kWh/day.

The Energy Independence and Security Act (2007) and Executive Order 13514 (“Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, Economic Performance”) both call for increased implementation of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy installations.

More recently, the Presidential Memorandum “Federal Leadership on Energy Management,” issued Dec. 5, 2013, requires all federal agencies to pursue the goal of having 20 percent of all electrical power consumed come from renewable energy sources by the year 2020.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is inviting community members to apply for seats that are open on numerous county advisory boards and commissions.

All vacancies are countywide unless stated.

Applications are available at the Lake County Courthouse, Clerk of the Board Office, Room 109, 255 North Forbes St., Lakeport, or online at www.co.lake.ca.gov on the Board of Supervisors’ Web page.

If you have questions regarding a vacancy on one of these advisory boards, please contact the Clerk of the Board at 263-2368.

Please note that all memberships on these bodies are voluntary.

The following is a list of the available seats.

– Animal Control Advisory Board: Four vacancies – supervisorial districts 2, 3 and 5 and member-at-large

– Big Valley Groundwater Management Zone Commission: Seven vacancies – one member-at-Large, four agriculture users category and two water district category.

– Building Board of Appeals: Five vacancies – one representative from each supervisorial district.

– Child Care Planning and Development Council: Seven vacancies – two consumer, one public agency, one community representative, two discretionary appointee and one child care provider.

– Countywide Parks and Recreation Advisory Board: Five vacancies – one representative from each supervisorial district.

– East Region 3 Town Hall: Two vacancies – one member of Spring Valley Property Owners Association, and one member of Clearlake Oaks Keys Property Owners Association.

– Emergency Medical Care Committee: Twenty vacancies – one community college district, one California Highway Patrol representative, four consumer interested group, two emergency affiliated medical care coordinator, two EMT representative, one paramedic, one private ambulance company, one sheriff’s office representative, five fire department, and one from Adventist Health Clear Lake and one from Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

– Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee: Twelve vacancies – all five supervisorial districts, one agriculture, one education, one land conservation organization, one ex-officio member, one recreation industry and two fish and wildlife conservation.

– Hartley Cemetery District: Three vacancies – general membership (must live within the district boundaries and be registered to vote in Lake County).

– Heritage Commission: Seven vacancies – one representative from each supervisorial district, and two members-at-large.

– In-Home Support Services Public Authority Advisory Committee: Seven vacancies – four (4) senior consumer, one disabled community representative, one senior community representative and one provider.

– Kelseyville Cemetery District: One vacancy – general membership (must live within the district boundaries and be registered to vote in Lake County).

– Lakeport Fire Protection District: One vacancy – Board of Directors (Board of Supervisors appointees to this board must be a resident of the district, live outside the Lakeport city limits and be registered to vote in Lake County).

– Law Library Board of Trustees: Two vacancies – one for the Board of Supervisors and one public member.

– Library Advisory Board: Five vacancies - one representative from each supervisorial district.

– Lower Lake Waterworks District One Board of Directors: Five vacancies – public members.

– Lucerne Area Town Hall: Five vacancies – public members.

– Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Advisory Board: Seven vacancies – general membership.

– Mental Health Board: Four vacancies – two members-at-large, one consumer and one consumer family member of a past/present consumer.

– Middletown Cemetery District: Three vacancies – general membership (must live within the district boundaries and be registered to vote in Lake County).

– North Bay Cooperative Library Advisory Board: One vacancy – Lake County representative.

– Public Defender Oversight Committee: Three vacancies – two members of the general public, one attorney.

– Scott’s Valley Community Advisory Board: Five vacancies – members at large.

– Section 8 Resident Advisory Board: Seven vacancies – general membership

– Solid Waste Appeals Panel: Two vacancies – one public member and one technical expert.

– Solid Waste Task Force: Two vacancies – one public representative and one other.

– Spring Valley CSA No. 2 Advisory Board: Seven vacancies – members at large.

– Upper Lake Cemetery District: One vacancy – general membership (must live within the district boundaries and be registered to vote in Lake County).

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, on Thursday called for change of executive leadership at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. following a California Public Utilities Commission report alleging the utility falsified documents relating to underground gas pipelines, like the one that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, killing eight people.

The findings come as the utility faces billions of dollars in potential legal liability for the series of historic wildfires that swept across the state over the past year, taking many more lives and threatening the very existence of some communities.

“PG&E has demonstrated a pattern of poor management and illegal conduct that has shattered lives across California,” Sen. Dodd said. “This latest revelation underscores the need for systematic change, which must include change on the board of directors and in the executive suite.”

On Friday, Dec. 14, The CPUC announced it had investigated PG&E and found it falsified “pipeline locate-and-mark” records over a five-year-period, from 2012-2017.

Investigators determined the utility lacked sufficient staff and that it pressured supervisors to falsify safety data so it would not appear to have been performed or submitted late.

An administrative law judge will hear testimony from investigators and PG&E before deciding appropriate penalties.

CPUC President Michael Picker said the findings are “another example of why we are investigating PG&E’s safety culture.”

In June, Cal Fire investigators found evidence that a dozen wildfires that erupted in Northern California in 2017, killing 46 people, were caused by PG&E equipment in violation of state law, and forwarded them to local district attorneys for further action.

Among those fires was the Sulphur fire in Lake County, for which the county of Lake and the city of Clearlake are now involved in litigation against PG&E.

Investigations are ongoing to determine if PG&E had a role in this year’s wildfires, the most destructive and deadly in California history. However, recent wrongful death lawsuits allege PG&E is to blame.

“Right now there’s a bunker mentality that makes it impossible for the necessary change to occur at PG&E and to ensure the long-term safety of our state and the financial well-being of ratepayers,” said Sen. Dodd, who formerly represented Lake County in the State Assembly. "We must see clear and meaningful change, and I expect the CPUC to take action to force improvements in PG&E's governance and safety culture."

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday evening two Lakeport City Council members took their oaths of office as they began new terms, the council elected its new mayor and mayor pro tem and appointed community members to fill city commission and committee seats.

City Clerk Kelly Buendia administered the oath to Councilwoman Stacey Mattina and Mayor Mireya Turner.

Mattina is now beginning her third term, and Turner is starting her second.

Because both women ran unopposed, in August the council voted to appoint them and forgo the cost of an election, as Lake County News has reported.

After they took their oaths, Mattina and Turner exchanged a high five and returned to their seats.

The council then chose its leadership for the new year, with Councilman George Spurr nominating Mayor Pro Tem Tim Barnes as the 2019 mayor, which the council approved unanimously.

Barnes then nominated Spurr for mayor pro tem, explaining that he had planned to do so even before Spurr nominated him for mayor. Spurr received a unanimous vote from the council.

Barnes and Turner then switched seats, and Barnes led the remainder of the meeting.

“I really enjoyed my year as mayor. It gave me serious street cred,” said Turner.

She praised city staff for being supportive of council members' priorities and ideas, and said she’s excited to be on the council for another four years.

Barnes praised Turner’s tenure as mayor and told her he hoped to do half as well as she had done.

During Tuesday’s meeting the council met new city staff members.

Public Works Director Doug Grider presented new Public Works employees Hector Heredia and Codie Lairson.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen also introduced his new sergeant, Mike Davis, who came to the city from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Davis, who was sworn in on Monday morning at City Hall, has more than 22 years of previous law enforcement experience, is a veteran of the U.S. Army and the California Army National Guard, and has advanced education in public administration and emergency services management, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said they’ve been recruiting for over a year for the position. “We believe Mike is a good fit for our agency and we’re proud to have him on our team.”

Much of the meeting was devoted to selecting community members to fill open seats on the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, Measure Z Advisory Committee, Lakeport Planning Commission, the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and Parks and Recreation Commission.

The council has instituted an ad hoc advisory committee of two council members – in this case, Mattina and Turner – who along with staff interview applicants and make recommendations to the full council.

On Tuesday, Mattina and Councilman Kenny Parlet explained that the ad hoc committee was instituted because the city wasn’t getting enough applicants and they had heard that people didn’t like being interviewed by a full council.

“We had very low turnout for all of the committees and commissions and that was some of the feedback we were given,” said Mattina, explaining the awkwardness some people felt about finding out in front of an audience that they weren’t chosen.

“So we tried this out,” she said, explaining they are now getting more applicants and not seeing open and unfilled seats any longer.

It was also noted by council members during the meeting that the ad hoc committee interviews had been relaxed, friendly and informative, and that they had learned a lot about people in the more informal atmosphere.

However, several community members and former members of various boards and committees complained about the ad hoc committee process, which they said was unfair.

Suzanne Russell, who is an outgoing planning commissioner and former Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and Parks and Recreation Commission member, said many seats are being filled by brand new people who have no experience and aren’t showing up to meetings.

Ann Blue, another former Parks and Recreation Commission member who also has served on a number of other committees, also faulted the process, which she called very unfair.

The council voted to fill four openings on the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee with applicants Denise Combs, William Eaton, Terre Logsdon and Wilda Shock, all of whom have experience on the committee.

For the Measure Z Advisory Committee, the council appointed Susan King and Verna Schaffer.

When it came to the ad hoc committee’s recommendations to appoint Brandon Disney, Jeri Driver and Mark Mitchell to the planning commission, the council received pushback from Michael Froio, a current planning commissioner not recommended for reappointment, and several community members who came to support him.

Froio, who has served for two years after being appointed to fulfill Spurr’s unexpired term on the commission, said he wasn’t happy, and has worked faithfully on the commission. He then outlined a number of actions he’s taken to improve his neighborhood.

“If I sound cranky, I'm really cranky,” he said, adding he didn’t feel it was a transparent process and he wanted an explanation of why he wasn’t selected for reappointment.

Turner thanked Froio for his service, recognizing he has been a powerful and passionate advocate of his neighborhood. She said both she and Supervisor Tina Scott have toured his neighborhood twice, first to see the problems and then to see the improvements. “He has done great things.”

For Turner, experience isn’t the single most compelling reason to reappoint, and she noted she was impressed with everyone who interviewed. She said she was confident the three recommended appointees are fully capable. “I see the same drive, I see the same work ethic.”

Russell spoke in favor of both Froio and another sitting planning commissioner, Kipp Knorr, who also hadn’t been recommended for reappointment. She said both are contractors and fine commissioners.

“It takes a lot of time to get the hang of the planning commission,” Russell said.

Supervisor Tina Scott told the council she was surprised the council was considering selecting new people. She said she’s met with Froio and was amazed by how much he loves his community and how he was worked to make a difference.

Michael Green, another planning commissioner whose seat isn’t up for reappointment this year, said he was OK with the ad hoc committee process, noting the interviews are hard to do in a public setting and that he’s seen the process work well.

“It is surprising the recommendations that came forward,” he said, noting that Froio has been dutiful and passionate, and Knorr has been helpful.

Parlet said he also had been shocked Froio wasn’t recommended for reappointment. “He is exactly the kind of guy that I think we need on the planning commission.”

Spurr said he agreed with Parlet and he also wanted Froio on the commission. Mattina and Turner indicated that they stood by the ad hoc committee’s recommendations.

The council took a brief break to retrieve a paper copy of one application that hadn’t been included in the electronic packet before resuming the discussion.

Barnes said he also wanted Froio to continue. “He suits up and he shows up.”

Turner noted that the ad hoc committee is advisory only, and she then moved to appoint Froio, Driver and Mitchell to the planning commission, with Parlet seconding and the council approving the motion 5-0.

“Show up and make noise and we listen. That's how this is supposed to work, right?” Barnes said after the vote.

The council then went on to appoint Ashley Barrett, David Brown and Vicki Cole to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee.

For the Parks and Recreation Commission, the ad hoc committee recommended Wayne Yahnke and Lynn Andre be appointed to the two vacancies.

However, the council yielded and voted unanimously to appoint Yahnke and current commission member Suzanne Lyons after she, Blue and Russell complained about the process, with Russell at one point stating she didn’t agree with bringing in so much “new blood” to the commissions.

Parlet spoke up on Lyons’ behalf, noting that she often doesn’t say the nicest things about city staff and council members and, “I’m not always happy to see her.” However, he said she puts in the work.

The presentation of holiday decorating contest awards by the Lakeport Main Street Association was held over until the next meeting.

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.

121818 Lakeport City Counci... by on Scribd

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a resolution that states its intent to implement an ordinance addressing hazardous vegetation in an effort to protect against wildland fires.

The board has held discussions on several drafts of a hazardous vegetation ordinance this fall, with community members raising a number of concerns ranging from property rights to high fines.

After a lengthy hearing last week, the board decided to continue working on a draft but gave direction to County Counsel Anita Grant to come back with the resolution before them on Tuesday, which she had suggested could help in pursuing grant funding for a joint powers authority meant to work on reducing fire risk.

Grant said the staff intends to return with an updated draft of the ordinance itself on Feb. 12.

The resolution approved Tuesday includes recitals on defensible space and reducing the risk of wildland fires.

“It’s a resolution simply stating your intent to bring something forward in the near future to address this issue,” she said.

Grant said the resolution didn’t include the content of the ordinance yet to be finalized, and didn’t require anything other than it be an addition to Chapter 13 of the Lake County Code regarding hazardous vegetation.

Only one person offered public comment, Mike Kramer of Cobb, who has been at previous meetings to outline his concerns.

As in the past, he questioned why the proposed ordinance focuses on unimproved parcels, and also asked why owners of improved parcels are forgiven of fines, obligations and penalties for abatement.

Supervisor Rob Brown said they were not dealing with the language of the ordinance, explaining the resolution was just to show the board’s plans to bring a draft ordinance back early in the new year.

Brown moved to approve the resolution, which the board approved unanimously.

The resolution can be seen below.

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.

121818 Lake County Board of... by on Scribd