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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The commission will meet via webinar beginning at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 10.
The agenda is available here.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here; the meeting ID is 986 6166 5155. To join by phone, dial 1-669-900-9128.
Comments can be submitted by email to
Please indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that read to the council will be subject to the three-minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council prior to the meeting.
On the agenda is a lot line adjustment proposed by Kjell Akerstrom to reconfigure lands
between four existing lots of record located at 1901 S. Main St., and 301, 401 and 292
Industrial Ave.
The staff report said the lot line adjustment’s purpose is to adjust property lines around existing buildings along Industrial Avenue and reflect the zoning boundaries between major retail and industrial zoning along South Main Street.
Also on Wednesday, the commission will discuss and make a recommendation regarding the update to the City of Lakeport’s General Plan Safety Element to include the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The committee, or LEDAC, will meet via Zoom at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 10.
The meeting is open to the public.
The meeting will be held via Zoom: Meeting ID, 987 7563 7121; passcode, 079305. Dial by your location, +1 669 900 6833.
The meeting will get started with a Brown Act training led by City Clerk Kelly Buendia.
Chair Wilda Shock said LEDAC will continue its discussion of the Economic Development Strategic Plan 2017-2022 and its implementation. The full plan can be found here.
Shock said developing an arts and culture plan for the city of Lakeport to become a key component of the next strategic plan will begin with a discussion of art in the parks and other public spaces.
She said representatives of the Lake County Arts Council and the Lake County Rural Arts Initiative have been invited to join the conversation at this meeting.
City staff also will update the group on projects and activities, and there will be reports from committee members.
LEDAC advocates for a strong and positive Lakeport business community and acts as a conduit between the city and the community for communicating the goals, activities and progress of Lakeport’s economic and business programs.
Members are Chair Wilda Shock and Vice Chair Denise Combs, Maureen Brasier, Bonnie Darling, Candy De Los Santos, Melissa Fulton, Pam Harpster, Andy Lucas, Alicia Russell, Laura Sammel and Amanda Xu, with Bill Eaton as an ex officio member. City staff who are members include City Manager Kevin Ingram and Community Development Director Jenni Byers.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The state began dedicating 10 percent of its vaccine supply to education workers on March 1.
“This is welcome news for teachers, students and parents as more and more schools reopen safely across the state,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. “We will continue working with our local partners to accelerate this effort in communities across the state so that all school staff have access to a vaccine within weeks.”
California was among the first states to authorize vaccines for education workers, with vaccine prioritization a core component of the Safe Schools for All Plan since December.
Prior to the governor’s 10-percent commitment, 35 counties were actively vaccinating education workers.
Last week, through accelerated county-led efforts and supplemental state efforts, more than 200,000 education workers in all 58 counties were vaccinated.
Across California, 10.5 million vaccinations have been administered. More than one in 10 Californians over the age of 16 (3.35 million) are fully vaccinated and more than one in four (1.7 million) people 65 and over are fully vaccinated.
The governor last week signed a $6.6 billion package to safely get students back in school, which provides additional funding to support safety measures for in-person instruction and expanded learning opportunities.
The package also codifies several successful state initiatives, including the governor’s commitment, beginning March 1, to dedicate 10 percent of the state’s vaccine supply to education workers – such as teachers, paraprofessionals, school bus drivers, child care workers and site-based administrators.
The state outlined its plan to execute on the governor’s commitment last month.
For more information about safe returns to in-person instruction, please visit www.schools.covid19.ca.gov.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Since March 2020, the department has processed 20.7 million claims and paid a total of $126 billion in unemployment benefits – an amount that exceeds five times the number of claims filed during the worst year of the Great Recession.
Approximately one-third of these payments are part of the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, program implemented by Congress last year – a federal program for people who are not eligible for state unemployment insurance benefits.
About two-thirds include state Unemployment Insurance benefits, benefits under Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, or PEUC, extension or the Federal-State Extended Duration extension, which provides up to 20 weeks of extra benefits for people who used all their regular Unemployment Insurance or PEUC benefits.
Last week, the department completed adding up to 11 weeks of benefits to PUA or PEUC claims, finishing the work by the Department's commitment to complete Phase Two by March 7. Phase One of this rollout was finished in January.
Approximately 185,000 claimants included in Phase Two have all now been given the opportunity to certify and receive these benefits if eligible. These extended benefits can help the more than 1.5 million Californians who would have otherwise lost benefits after the federal CARES Act ended on Dec. 27, 2020.
Call center staff complete specialty training to strengthen customer service
Since the onset of the pandemic, EDD has seen an unprecedented rise in calls to its contact center.
Last week, the department graduated 260 top-level call center staff specially trained to research and resolve complex claims, answer questions, and help claimants.
In total, 3,436 EDD agents are helping answer claimant calls and the average wait time to talk with a representative once in the queue is about 40 minutes.
In addition, the department recently expanded translations of its English and Spanish Form 1099-G fact sheets to include Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean and Armenian. These guides provide claimants important information about the annual tax season process of receiving
Form 1099-Gs from EDD.
Agency seeks to help claimants avoid unnecessary delays in benefit payments
EDD has expanded the availability of information to help claimants who must certify their eligibility for benefits every two weeks in order to get payments.
Claimants will see expanded information available when they go to complete their next certification. This new language assists the claimant with how to avoid common mistakes in the application process.
The department will continue to release additional educational materials to help people who are confused by the certification questions in light of the unique challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic. EDD provides “Step by Step Instructions” and the “Understanding the Continued Claim Certification Questions” on the website for helpful tips on certifying.
Curbing fraud using new tools and systems
Last year, California was hit hard by fraud from international and national crime syndicates – particularly those targeting the Federal PUA program, which did not require income or employment verification and allowed claimants to backdate claims to February 2020.
In response, California launched a new identity verification system, ID.me, to reduce fraud at the front end of the application process. The department said it also thwarted scammers by no longer backdating PUA claims automatically.
The department has also invested in new fraud prevention technology and investigative tools to assist the process of preventing and catching acts of fraud.
EDD provides resources for Californians at the Help Fight Fraud webpage.
Between March 2020 and January 2021, the department said its fraud screening measures and new security protections prevented up to $60 billion in payments to fraudulent claims.
Helping victims of identity theft
The department set up a designated phone line and online reporting system for anyone who gets a 1099-G form with an inaccurate report of benefits and believes identity theft was involved. Information to help fraud victims is posted here.
Anyone who receives a 1099-G from the EDD that is not accurate because of suspected identity theft should report this as fraud by going to Ask EDD, selecting “Form 1099G” and then choosing “Report Fraud.” EDD will investigate and issue a corrected 1099-G as appropriate.
The IRS has made clear that taxpayers who are unable to obtain a timely, corrected 1099-G should still file an accurate tax return, reporting only the income they received.
Resources for identity theft victims are also available by reporting the crime to the Federal Trade Commission and IRS.