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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The quake, reported at 8:51 a.m., was located just southwest of The Geysers at a depth of 2.2 miles, according to the US Geological Survey. It was located 15 miles southwest of Clearlake and 25 miles north northwest of Santa Rosa.
The US Geological Survey received five shake reports from four zip codes – Novato, Fairfax, Concord and San Jose.
Just after 3:36 p.m. Friday, a 1.4-magnitude earthquake was reported six miles southeast of Lake Pillsbury and 14 miles north of Upper Lake, the latest in a series of small shakers in that area.
A 3.0-magnitude earthquake was reported 10 miles southeast of Lake Pillsbury on July 30, as Lake County News has reported.
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- Written by: Dennis Fordham
Let’s discuss each individually.
The “no contest clause” used in a will and/or trust is the most trusted legal tool to make beneficiaries accept and not quarrel over the decedent’s estate plan.
Very simply speaking, a no contest clause deters a beneficiary from bringing lawsuits to contest the terms of a trust or a will, involving certain allegations. The deterrence is to disinherit a beneficiary entirely if he or she should bring such a contest and fail.
Under current law, as of Jan. 1, 2010, “no contest clauses” now only apply to the following three types of legal challenges: “direct contests” – those contests alleging forgery, improper execution, lack of capacity, menace, duress, fraud or undue influence, and alleged revocations of trusts and wills that are brought without probable cause; actions to determine the character, title or ownership of property – if expressly provided for as triggering a contest; and filing a creditor’s claim or an action to enforce a creditor’s claim – if expressly provided for as triggering a will/trust contest.
The “probable cause” exception for bringing a direct contest protects a beneficiary who brings the contest based on a “reasonable belief” at the time that further legal discovery will lead to evidence supporting a “direct contest.”
The scope of the no contest clause should be drafted with particular attention to who is likely to bring what type of contest.
The no contest clause only deters beneficiaries who stand to lose something significant by bringing a contest so that the beneficiary’s fear of losing what they are assured of receiving outweighs their desire (greed) to try to receive more.
Some people chose to buy peace for their primary heirs by leaving something significant, with a no contest clause attached, to a beneficiary whom they otherwise might entirely disinherit.
Next, the “forced election.” A forced election occurs when a decedent’s will or trust forces a beneficiary to choose between either accepting an inheritance (under the will or trust) or asserting his/her ownership rights in property that the decedent’s will or trust gives entirely to someone else.
The forced election typically involves a deceased spouse attempting to give one or more items of community property to someone other than the surviving spouse/co-owner by inducing (or coercing) the surviving spouse to accept an inheritance of money (or other property) that is left to the surviving spouse under the same legal instrument.
Nowadays, however, the “forced election” is seldom used due to its adverse tax consequences, its engendering acrimonious feelings in the surviving spouse, and the existence of better alternatives.
For example, consider a married man who writes a will gifting his and his wife’s community property residence to a testamentary trust (established at his death) that provides for the lifetime benefit of his surviving wife (if she survives) and that thereafter leaves all to the husband’s children from his prior marriage; in the same will the husband also leaves a generous gift of money to his surviving wife as an incentive to obtain her cooperation.
Thus, the surviving wife must either accept her husband’s testamentary gift of money and the right to remain in the couple’s home until she dies, or else assert her one-half ownership right in the couple’s community property residence. Whether the surviving spouse will agree usually depends on how generous is the incentive.
Neither of the foregoing “carrot and stick” approaches guarantees that the decedent’s wishes will be respected and that litigation will be avoided.
They are, amongst the available tools, along with those discussed in my prior article, available to help ensure that one’s testamentary wishes are carried out.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Wednesday night the Lake County Board of Education accepted county Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck's resignation.
Geck told Lake County News that he will retire effective Aug. 31, clearing the way for Wally Holbrook, elected in June to succeed him, to take office before January.
He said this was an opportune time to step down.
“Our idea was to really look at leadership transition,” Geck said.
Holbrook said he was excited about getting to work early.
He said he will be serving on an appointment basis until he formally takes office in January.
The development, said Holbrook, “was evidence of a good transition that Dave and I have been working on for awhile.”
Holbrook said it's an opportunity for him to step into the role at the same time as schools around the county start. “I'm looking forward to that.”
Geck himself took office early in 2006, with his predecessor, Bill Cornelison, stepping down early so Geck be sworn in during a September ceremony.
After the June 8 election, in which Holbrook won with 59.6 percent of the vote, he began meeting with Geck and the deputy superintendent, along with other officials at the office of education and county board of education members.
Geck said the sooner they could put the transition into place, the more money they could save.
He is at the stop salary step – $122,000 a year – for the office, while Holbrook will begin at $116,000.
Geck will work, unpaid, to assist Holbrook through the rest of the transition, with the district covering his health benefits for the remaining four months of the year.
With those savings, and with Holbrook working three-quarter time until January, Geck said the district is estimated to save $30,000 in salary costs over the coming 16 months.
Holbrook said he has been spending a lot of time getting to know people, and understanding how people and programs fit together in the office of education.
“I'm learning every day,” and enjoying it, said Holbrook.
He's looking forward to starting work at the start of the school year, with its unique energy.
Once in office, Holbrook said a review of all of the office of education's programs and services will start right away.
Geck has been with the Lake County Office of Education for 14 years and has a 35-year career in education, more than 30 years of it spent locally. He decided last fall not to seek a second term.
He and his wife, Rose, are retiring at the same time, and are looking forward to being able to work together on future projects.
Both are educators, but he said they may not work in education and instead might pursue projects in a different area.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Some customers in the area reported receiving hand-delivered notices from Lake County Special Districts, while others received calls from the agency through the Office of Emergency Services' reverse 911 system.
Lake County News also received reports from Kelseyville residents of the water being off in downtown Kelseyville for about two hours on Thursday morning.
Pete Preciado, Lake County Special Districts deputy administrator, said the system experienced low water pressure on Thursday morning, resulting in a lot of calls from customers.
“Right now everything's back to normal,” he said Thursday afternoon. “The system is fine, the water is fine.”
However, he said Special Districts was asking customers to purify their water before drinking it, with boiling one of the ways to achieve that goal.
“Anytime you lose system pressure you could suffer back siphonage, and that could bring water into the system,” he said.
Last week construction began in downtown Kelseyville to increase the size of the water main, a project Preciado said is expected to conclude next Tuesday.
Preciado said district workers valved off an area of Main Street where that work is going on.
“We are isolating sections of pipe and redirecting the water,” he said.
He said that, following their investigation into the low water pressure occurrence, they believe the way the area was valved caused the problem.
“The wells are fine, the pipes are fine, the storage tanks are fine, it was just the valving off for construction,” he said.
Preciado said once Special Districts settled on a cause, the focus then turned to getting the water pressure restored, flushing the lines and notifying the public.
He said they were in the process of collecting bacteriological samples to make sure the water was safe to drink. They have to have two days of consecutive clean samples before the health department will rule the water safe.
Preciado said Special Districts is telling customers in the Kelseyville and Finley areas who have received the notices and calls to boil their water until a paper notice is placed on their door notifying them of the boil water order's cancellation.
If everything goes well, the earliest the order would be lifted is Saturday afternoon, Preciado said.
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