How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Needing to cut millions of dollars in order to have a balanced 2012-13 fiscal year budget, the Konocti Unified School District Board on Wednesday night took up a new approach to budgeting.
District Superintendent Dr. Bill MacDougall took to the board a proposed zero based budget model, accompanied by an updated list of proposals for basic services and losses that he and district management staff compiled.
The zero based process, according to MacDougall, will allow the district to begin with the vision of services it wants for its students.
From there, he said they must determine what the minimal program requirements and positions are to achieve that vision, noting they’re planning for continued success.
He suggested that the mantra needed to be how to do business differently in the face of the deep cuts Gov. Jerry Brown is projecting.
Board members went into the Wednesday night meeting knowing that they would have to begin the process of some serious considerations for the district's future, with $2.8 million – more than 10 percent of the district's budget – needing to be cut back.
“It's a tough night for all of us, whether you're sitting out there or sitting up here,” said Board Chair Anita Gordon.
The board plans an all-day budgeting workshop on Saturday, Feb. 11, but Wednesday was a chance for the management team to present its proposals to the trustees and get their initial input.
MacDougall said the document is still a draft.
He noted that in the first three years of his four-year tenure as superintendent, the district sustained $3.6 million in budget cuts. Now, in addition, it's looking at another $2.8 million.
“We want your input. It's crucial. As a community we can make this work,” he told the board and staff.
Later in the evening, as the zero based model came up for discussion, MacDougall compared the district's budget to the board game “Jenga,” in which building blocks are pulled out one at a time until the structure finally collapses.
“We have been pulling blocks out of the foundation of the Konocti Unified School District for over four years,” he said.
With $2.8 million needing to be pulled out of the district budget, “at that point the district crumbles,” he said, noting that the district is the largest organization of its kind in the county and must be fiscally responsible.
Rather than taking the approach of cutting, MacDougall proposed starting with zero and building upward. “We rebuild from a base, and that base is the bare, bare, bare minimum of operations.”
In the past four years the district has made many wise moves, including preparing for midyear cuts when other districts didn't, MacDougall said.
While the governor is proposing to put on the ballot later this year a bill to give funds to education and other state agencies, MacDougall warned it won’t be a panacea.
He said the district has to be prepared, otherwise it will be devastated. To help staff prepare, MacDougall said he will visit the district’s schools in the days ahead to discuss the budget with staff.
Understanding the new model
Among the recommended actions, the district will go from 181 days down to 177, two above the state minimum. MacDougall said it will have staff development days, which will allow them to pay staff. He said staff has made many sacrifices, and called the plan “a win-win.”
Board member Mary Silva was trying to keep track of how the various proposals would save the district money, but MacDougall said he didn't want to talk about what they were cutting, but what they were keeping.
“I have to see where it all comes from,” said Silva.
MacDougall said he wanted to discuss how to build up from zero.
Gordon said the zero based process has been described to her using a pizza comparison: the district is starting out with a thin crust pizza with sauce and cheese, and it has to decide later on the toppings.
Staff went through the proposals with the board, going over everything from federal mandates for special education services in transportation to needs for appropriate numbers of licensed vocational nurses, food services and the importance of keeping the technology director position, which helps guide the district's technology policies.
As the night wore on, MacDougall said the board was doing well with the new budget concept, noting it was a little uncomfortable at first.
“It's just a new concept,” said Silva, adding that in the 14 years she's been on the board she's never budgeted that way.
MacDougall said the board needs to be really comfortable with the method by the time the Feb. 11 budget workshop arrives.
If there was a bright spot it was that the revised document presented Wednesday was not as dire as originally proposed.
“I really had to gulp over the original one and I think this is a really good compromise,” said Gordon.
At one point, while discussing the bare minimums in food service, Board member Hank Montgomery said they needed to focus on what was needed to keep the doors open, pointing out that what they were doing had nothing to do with peoples' worth, otherwise they would have had a very different discussion.
The Wednesday evening discussion had focused mostly on the management team's proposals to the board. The next steps will be for the discussion to be opened up to everyone, MacDougall said.
“We're preparing for the worst. We will hope for the best,” he said.
Montgomery thanked the management team for its efforts.
“I think you've provided us with a thoughtful approach to a horrible situation,” he said.
He added that “it's always been kids first,” and the proposals reflected that, showing what the district values in the face of what he called “a tragic situation.”
Gordon added that the hardest thing for the board members is knowing that they didn't cause the problem.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Fire District Joint Volunteer Firefighter Academy will honor 10 graduates at a Friday graduation ceremony.
The 10 recruits – five from Lakeport Fire, four from Northshore Fire and one from Kelseyville – completed their academy training last Sunday, according to Andrew Bergem, the academy’s coordinator and a firefighter/EMT for the Lakeport Fire Protection District.
“We made the academy very difficult and demanding of recruits,” said Bergem. “We wanted them to understand and be able to apply everything we expected.”
Graduating volunteers are Josh Armstrong, Kelseyville Fire; Beau Bastian, Lakeport Fire; Tom Beall, Lakeport Fire; Nick Elam, Northshore Fire; Gregory Fricker, Lakeport Fire; Shavona Graham, Northshore Fire; Robert Hopkins, Northshore Fire; Jordan Mills, Lakeport Fire; Miles Monte, Northshore Fire; Sean Thomas, Lakeport Fire.
At the Friday ceremony they will receive certificates of completion. Additional awards for top performance also will be given.
Bergem said the academy was designed to train new volunteer candidates to the firefighter level so they could respond and operate with a basic knowledge and safety on emergency response calls.
He said the academy physically challenged the recruits, requiring them to participate in morning physical fitness exercises that pushed them further mentally and physically than many had ever experienced before – much as they would be challenged on a fire scene.
Recruits had 10 hour days of physically and mentally intense training on the drill ground where they learned everything from building construction to how to throw ladders and apply streams to compartmentalized fires, Bergem said.
The recruits also learned how to operate on a company level, meaning on a fire engine or truck, and a a team member, working together to accomplish an objective, he said.
In addition, the academy included station cleaning duties, academic requirements, hands-on drill ground exercises and core values and their importance in the fire service.
Bergem said he is very proud of all of the recruits.
“We held them to a high standard and each one stepped it up to impress me each and every day,” he said.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Thursday night fire in Clearlake burned a trailer and nearby vegetation.
The fire was reported just after 11:30 p.m. on Third Avenue near Wilkinson Avenue, according to radio reports.
A caller from Third Avenue had reported seeing flames and a lot of smoke near two structures.
A short time later, a second caller told dispatchers that abandoned trailers and brush were on fire.
Lake County Fire Protection District firefighters initially had difficulty accessing the scene, but when they arrived they reported finding a single structure that already was well involved, as well as a small amount of wildland with a slow rate of spread, radio reports indicated.
The fire was reported contained just before midnight.
A battalion chief on scene reported that the damaged structure was an abandoned singlewide mobile home.
Also on Thursday evening, a brush fire near a residence was reported on Highway 29 near Twin Pine Casino in Middletown just before 5 p.m. No further details were immediately available.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News reports
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1) on Thursday led a bipartisan group of representatives in calling on President Obama to protect local clean energy royalties from harmful budget cuts.
The letter urges the president to not repeal the sharing of geothermal royalty payments with counties.
Because of the high burdens that geothermal production places on the counties where it is developed, counties currently share in the revenue of the federal receipts. Revenue sharing has been a target of cuts in the past.
“The geothermal energy produced in California’s counties is good for our environment, reduces our dependence on foreign oil and helps our economy by spurring green job creation,” said Thompson. “Repealing geothermal royalty payments to counties is a short sighted plan that will do nothing to reduce our deficit. Also, it is not fiscally responsible. It will kill jobs, cripple future green job growth and slow our economic recovery – all of which will only make our deficit larger. If a community invests in developing geothermal energy they deserve to get their fair share in returns.”
Last year, Lake County received $800,000 a year in geothermal royalties. The county has received among the highest reimbursement amounts nationwide thanks to The Geysers geothermal steamfield.
Revenue sharing was first started through the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005. Geothermal revenue sharing accounts for less than one half of one percent of the total federal deficit. Ending this sharing would negatively impact counties.
Currently, counties use geothermal revenues to pay for governmental services, such as road maintenance, public safety and law enforcement, and conservation easements.
Many of the counties receiving revenue from geothermal receipts are small, rural counties like Lake, facing uncertain budget situations.
The loss of such revenue for these counties could result in the elimination or reduction of essential services.
"Geothermal energy brings jobs and growth to Nevada with 20 plants in operation providing clean, reliable electrical capacity to the grid and significant additional capacity under development," said Congressman Amodei. "Given the important role of the counties in the development of this domestic energy source, it's only proper that they should share in the revenue of the federal receipts."
“By generating geothermal energy, my home county of Sonoma is making an important contribution to an environmentally sustainable future,” said Congresswoman Woolsey (CA-6). “The royalties Sonoma earns from that production pay for the services our people expect and deserve from their local government, at a time when our county is facing a fiscal crunch. This very modest federal investment yields a significant return – these royalties must not be eliminated in the President’s budget.”
“In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on America to double down on our clean energy investments. I agree, and that’s why I support preserving incentives for geothermal development, which help us produce affordable American-made renewable energy and strengthen our energy independence,” Congressman Garamendi (CA-10) said. “This revenue is essential to many rural communities, especially in Northern California. Cutting geothermal royalties would be shortsighted, devastating vital public services while doing virtually nothing to address the deficit. I urge the President to maintain his commitment to clean energy by preserving geothermal royalties for local communities.”
“Geothermal development comes at a cost,” Thompson continued. “Our counties spend money on public safety, road maintenance and law enforcement in and around areas where geothermal is produced.”
The full text of the letter is below.
February 1, 2012
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
As you draft your Fiscal Year 2013 Budget proposal, we urge you not to include a repeal of the sharing of geothermal royalty payments to counties. We understand the need to propose a fiscally prudent budget, but repealing geothermal royalty payments to counties is a short sighted method that does nearly nothing to solve our fiscal problems.
In the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress decided that because of the high burdens geothermal production places on the counties where geothermal development is located, these counties should share in the revenue of the federal receipts. In turn, counties have used these revenues to pay for critical governmental services, such as road maintenance, public safety and law enforcement, and conservation easements. This revenue sharing has also made counties vested partners, and ultimately champions, in the continued development of geothermal energy — a clean, renewable, and domestic energy source that provides jobs in rural areas.
Ending the geothermal revenue sharing plan would have a significant negative impact on our districts, while the overall effect on our nation’s fiscal well-being would be miniscule — less than $7 million a year. Many of the counties that receive revenue from geothermal receipts are small, rural counties facing precarious budget situations. The loss of such revenue for these counties could result in the elimination or reduction of essential services. As such, we urge you not to include the repeal of geothermal revenue sharing with counties in your Fiscal Year 2013 Budget proposal.
We appreciate your attention to this issue and look forward to working with you as you prepare your budget.
Congressman represents California’s First Congressional District, which includes the Counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa and Yolo.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .