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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5.
The supervisors will meet in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, for a hybrid meeting format which also will include the opportunity for community members to continue to participate virtually.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
To participate in real-time, join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link at 9 a.m. The meeting ID is 996 2072 4673, password 325048.
To submit a written comment on any agenda item please visit https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and click on the eComment feature linked to the meeting date. If a comment is submitted after the meeting begins, it may not be read during the meeting but will become a part of the record.
As the meeting gets started at 9 a.m., Supervisor Rob Brown is scheduled to offer remarks and the board will present to him a commendation for his 20 years of service.
The oath of office will then be administered to District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon and District 4 Supervisor Tina Scott, who were reelected to their second terms in last year’s primary, and to new District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, Brown’s successor, who was elected in November.
Afterward, the outgoing chair, Simon, will hold the election for chair and vice chair of the board as well as for the Lake County Board of Equalization and for the Lake County In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority Board of Directors.
At 9:19 a.m., the board is scheduled to reappoint to two-year terms Lake County Planning Commission members John H. Hess III, District 1; Everardo Chavez Perez, District 2; Batsulwin A. Brown, District 3; and Christina Price, District 4; and appoint new District 5 Commissioner Lance Williams.
In other timed items, at 9:35 a.m. the board will present a proclamation designating the month of January 2021 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Lake County.
At 9:45 a.m. the board will consider forming the Lake County Agricultural Advisory Committee.
At 10:30 a.m., Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace will give an update on COVID-19.
In an untimed item, the supervisors will consider temporarily closing their board chambers for in-person meetings due to the COVID-19 case surge.
The board also will consider a letter in support of the Lake County Fair, which like other fairs across the state is facing big financial challenges due to the pandemic.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt proclamation commending Rob Brown for 20 years of service as a member of the Lake County Board of Supervisors.
5.2: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No. 20-0709-020-SF with California Department of Food and Agriculture to authorize execution of the Asian Citrus Psyllid Winter Trapping Program in the Amount of $8,647 beginning Oct. 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021.
5.3: Approve the agreement between the county of Lake and Debra Sally DVM for veterinary services for the remainder of the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year in the amount of $8,000 and authorize the board chair to sign the agreement.
5.4: Approve agreement between county of Lake and Behavioral Health Services as lead agency of the Lake County Continuum of Care and Elijah House for Fiscal Year 2020-21 in the amount $102,200 and authorize the chair to sign.
5.5: Approve agreement between county of Lake and Behavioral Health Services as lead agency of the Lake County Continuum of Care and Hope Is Rising Lake County for Fiscal Years 2020-21 and 2021-22 in the amount of $220,000 and authorize the chair to sign.
5.6: Adopt resolution to authorize the standard agreement between county of Lake and the Department of Health Care Services for the period of July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2023, and authorizing the Behavioral Health director to sign the standard agreement.
5.7: Adopt proclamation designating the month of January 2021 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Lake County.
5.8: Approve amendment to the lease agreement between the county of Lake and the Senate Rules Committee, California Legislature for a district satellite office.
5.9: a) Approve Amendment A1 to Agreement #19-5042 between the county of Lake and California Department of Social Services for resource family approval program services in the amount of $85,120 for the term of July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2021, and b) adopt resolution authorizing the director of Social Services to sign the amendment.
5.10: Approve memorandum of agreement between the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Yuba County Sheriff’s Office for mutual aid provided during the North Complex fire and authorize the sheriff/coroner to sign.
5.11: Approve memorandum of agreement between the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and various entities for mutual aid provided during the LNU Complex fire and authorize the sheriff/coroner to sign.
5.12: (a) Adopt resolution approving the Lake County Sheriff's Office to apply for state of California, Department of Parks and Recreation Off-Highway Vehicle Grant funds and (b) authorize the sheriff/coroner or his designee to sign the project agreement.
5.13: (a) Approve letter of agreement between the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States Department of Justice in the amount of $275,000 for the period Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021; and (b) authorize sheriff to sign the agreement and (c) authorize the chairman to sign workplace certifications and grant assurances.
TIMED ITEMS
6.1, 9 a.m.: Remarks from outgoing Supervisor Rob Brown and presentations/commendations thereto.
6.2, 9:15 a.m.: Administer oath of office to District 1, District 4 and District 5 supervisors.
6.3, 9:16 a.m.: Election of chair of the Board of Supervisors and vice-chair of the Board of Supervisors for 2021 (outgoing chair conducts election).
6.4, 9:17 a.m.: Sitting as the Lake County Board of Equalization, election of chair and vice-chair of the Lake County Local Board of Equalization for 2021.
6.5, 9:18 a.m.: Sitting as the Lake County In-Home Supportive Services, election of chair and vice-chair of the Lake County In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority Board of Directors for 2021.
6.6, 9:19 a.m.: Appoint/reappoint members of the Lake County Planning Commission for a two-year term (a) reappoint District 1 Commissioner John H. Hess III; (b) rReappoint District 2 Commissioner Everardo Chavez Perez; (c) reappoint District 3 Commissioner Batsulwin A. Brown; (d) reappoint District 4 Commissioner Christina Price; and (e) appoint District 5 Commissioner Lance Williams.
6.7, 9:30 a.m.: Public input.
6.8, 9:35 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of January 2021 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Lake County.
6.9, 9:45 a.m.: Consideration of formation of the Lake County Agricultural Advisory Committee.
6.10, 10:30 a.m.: Consideration of Update on COVID-19.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of chairman's recommended 2021 committee assignments for members of the Board of Supervisors.
7.3: Consideration of letter of support for Lake County Fairgrounds.
7.4: Consideration of temporarily closing the Board of Supervisors Chambers for in-person meetings.
7.5: (a) Consideration of amendment to the County of Lake COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Worksite Protection Protocol; and (b) consideration of request to form a board ad hoc committee to work with department heads regarding this protocol.
7.6: Consideration of an Agreement between Lake County Health Services and KnoQoti Native Wellness Inc., for RFP #LCHS 20-002 Prevention, Detection and Support: A Lake County COVID-19 Initiative for Native American-Focused Outreach for a one time cost of $70,900 and authorize the board chair to sign.
7.7: Consideration of the following advisory board appointments: Animal Control Advisory Board, Emergency Medical Care Committee, Glenbrook Cemetery District, Hartley Cemetery District, Kelseyville Cemetery District, Lake County Public Authority Advisory Committee, Lake County Resource Conservation District, Lucerne Area Town Hall, Maternal Child and Adolescent Health, Spring Valley CSA No. 2 Advisory Board.
7.8: Discussion of changes to state management standards for treated wood waste and direction to staff for future efforts.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9 (d)(1) – Citizens for Environmental Protection and Responsible Planning v. County of Lake, et al.
8.2. Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9 (d)(2) (e)(3) – Claim of Lillie.
8.3: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9 (d)(1) – Sabalone v. County of Lake.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5.
The meeting will be by teleconference only. The city council chambers will not be open to the public.
The agenda can be found here.
Click here to join the meeting.
To access the meeting by phone call 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799. The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to
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 Tuesday, the council will meet new Utilities Operator III Mark Fetzer and present a proclamation designating January 2021 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in the city of Lakeport.
Under council business, City Manager Kevin Ingram will give the council a report on the city’s ongoing response to COVID-19.
Ingram noted that at the council’s regular Dec. 1 meeting, it requested that staff work closely with the League of California Cities to give rural areas a greater voice on COVID-19 relief for local businesses and residents and then bring the item back to the council for further consideration.
He recalled that additional discussion on the topic of the city’s COVID-19 response efforts took place following a presentation from Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace at the council’s Dec. 15 meeting.
“Following that discussion there seemed to be a greater need to revisit more holistically the City of Lakeport’s current COVID-19 response efforts and evaluate whether or not City staff should be doing things differently,” Ingram wrote.
He noted in his report that, as it was being written, “the City along with Lake County are experiencing its largest surge in the number of new COVID-19 cases to date.”
Ingram will review the city’s community and business outreach, as well as its compliance efforts and activities and will invite input from the council and public. His report and the list of activities begins on page 20 of the staff report below.
“Overall, the City remains committed to finding solutions that balance both the public health and economic needs of the City’s residents and businesses,” Ingram wrote.
Also on Tuesday, Mayor Kenny Parlet will appoint council members as liaisons to various boards, committees and commissions.
The council will adopt a resolution appointing representatives to represent and vote on behalf of the city at the League of California Cities, Redwood Empire Division Business meetings and represent the city and vote at Division Legislative Committee meetings.
Finance Director Nick Walker will present a contract award for Willdan Financial Services of Temecula to complete a utility rate study for $44,750.
The council also will hold a budget review and look and first quarter financials and consider executing the first amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with 4LEAF Inc. for building services. The total “not to exceed” amount in the contract is being increased from $25,000 to $50,000.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on Dec. 15; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency; and approval of the Recognized Obligation Schedule for the period of July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, for presentation and adoption by the Lake County Redevelopment Oversight Board.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Both men offered their gratitude to their constituents for electing them to office.
Garamendi noted that as he took his oath on Sunday, “I was reminded of the awesome responsibility I have to ‘create a more perfect union,’ to act in all ways consistent with the Constitution, to advance economic and social opportunities for all Americans, to protect our home, the Earth, from the destruction of climate change, and to secure the safety of our country from domestic and foreign threats.”
He continued, “The most pressing and immediate challenge before the 117th Congress is to provide the much-needed resources to defeat COVID-19 and restore the economic wellbeing of Americans that have lost so much due to this pandemic. The health and safety of my constituents is my utmost concern during the coronavirus pandemic. I will take every step to ensure American families have the tools they need to protect themselves from the virus without facing unnecessary economic hardship.”
Garamendi said he will fight throughout this new session of Congress to ensure every American has equal access to an affordable education, and that our K-12 and public university systems are fully supported.
“My work as chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness will also continue, where I will work to support the missions at Travis and Beale Air Force Bases, ensure our nation has a strong defense against the recent string of cyber-attacks it has faced, and that our military helps address the global threat posed by climate change. I will also continue my work as a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to create new jobs in our region by promoting my ‘Make It In America’ and “Buy American’ policies that will help rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure with American materials and workers. I look forward to accomplishing all of this and more with the Biden-Harris Administration,” Garamendi said.
“Yes, I’m excited by the challenge and the work ahead, but I know that I can only succeed in meeting the challenge with the continued support and advice of my constituents. I encourage every Third District resident to write to my office to share their priorities and ideas with me. You can do so by visiting http://garamendi.house.gov,” he said.
Thompson outlined his priorities for the coming session.
“It’s my deep honor to be sworn in to again serve our community in Congress. Our nation faces a crisis unlike any in our lifetimes and we must tackle this challenge together. I will work tirelessly to ensure we have the resources to crush the coronavirus and support the families, workers, small businesses and state and local governments that are struggling. We need more relief and we must work to get this done as soon as possible. This is our most urgent task in the first weeks and months of this year,” Thompson said.
“This Congress, we must also tackle our nation’s most important and pressing problems. Chief among my priorities is addressing the threat of climate change, an issue that poses an existential threat to our planet and to future generations. We must also work to build back our economy that has been hit hard by the virus, including creating jobs that meet the needs of our 21st-century economy,” Thompson said.
“I will continue my work to help end gun violence and ensure our new president signs into law my bill to expand background checks and help keep our communities safe. I’ll also fight to ensure we expand access to high-quality, affordable health care and to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure,” he said.
“Finally, I am committed to redoubling my efforts to bring back every federal dollar and resource to help our community rebuild from the recent fires and to prevent future fires. We must address both fire recovery and prevention at the same time. I know that this new Congress, with the help of President-elect Biden, can address these critical priorities and help make history,” Thompson concluded.
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- Written by: Ana Santos Rutschman, Saint Louis University
Editor’s note: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency in charge of enforcing laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace, on Dec. 16 said that employers can require employees to get vaccinated before entering the workplace. Now that two COVID-19 vaccines have received emergency use authorization in the U.S., some people are concerned they could be fired if they don’t want to take the vaccine. We asked legal scholar Ana Santos Rutschman, who teaches a course on vaccine law at Saint Louis University, to explain the decision and the rights employees and employers have.
1. Can employers require employees to get a vaccine?
The general rule is yes – with some exceptions.
Under U.S. law, private employers have the ability to define general working conditions, including the adoption of health and safety within the workspace. Requiring employees to get vaccinated against diseases that could compromise health and safety in the workplace is viewed as part of that ability.
2. Does the rule apply to COVID-19 vaccines?
Earlier in the pandemic, there were some doubts about whether the general rule would apply to COVID-19 vaccines because the first vaccines that became available in the U.S. have not been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They have received an emergency use authorization, which is temporary permission to commercialize the vaccines because of the public health crisis the U.S. is facing. This is the first time emergency use authorization has been granted to a new vaccine. For this reason, some legal scholars questioned whether existing laws applied to temporarily authorized vaccines.
That question was addressed when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidelines that said employers have the right to impose a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
From a legal perspective, this view is based on the fact that the law allows employers to impose requirements to make sure that employees don’t pose threats to the “health or safety of other individuals in the workplace.” The EEOC treated emergency use vaccines as part of the sets of measures that employers are able to mandate in order to accomplish this goal.
Therefore, the general rule applies and employers should be able to require that employees get vaccinated against COVID-19, within certain limits. These limits – including the exceptions below – are the same as the general exemptions applicable to any employer-mandated vaccination.
3. Are there religious exemptions?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act established that if an employee has a sincerely held religious belief incompatible with vaccination, the employer cannot require that employee to be vaccinated. The EEOC has traditionally interpreted the concept of “religious belief” very broadly. Vaccine refusal cannot, however, be a personal or politically motivated belief.
If an employee qualifies for a religious exemption, the employer must then try to reasonably accommodate the employee. An example of an accommodation would be for the employer to have the employee switch from in-person to remote work while COVID-19 poses risks to public health.
However, the employer does not have to grant an accommodation if doing so would result in “undue hardship.” Typical cases of undue hardship include situations in which the accommodation would compromise the health and safety of other employees or in which implementing the accommodation is too costly or logistically burdensome. In case of a dispute over what constitutes an undue hardship for the employer, a court would typically be asked to resolve it based on the cost of offering the accommodation, as well as how difficult it is for the employer to implement it.
4. How about disability-related exemptions?
The balance of rights between an employee with a disability and her employer is similar to the one described above. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if an employee has a disability and cannot safely receive a vaccine, that employee qualifies for an exemption and the employer has to provide reasonable accommodations. But the act also establishes that employers do not have to provide an accommodation that would result in undue hardship.
The technical question here was whether employers could impose COVID-19 vaccination because the Americans with Disabilities Act severely limits the ability of employers to require medical examinations. In its Dec. 16 guidance, the EEOC clearly stated that COVID-19 vaccines do not fall in the “medical examination” category.
Therefore, requiring employee vaccination does not violate federal disability law.
5. What if the employer cannot provide an accommodation?
If an employee qualifies for either a religious or disability-related exemption but the employer is unable to provide an accommodation because of undue hardship, then the employer has the right to exclude the employee from going to the workplace.
Given the broad set of rights that the law gives employers in order to promote health and safety, in some cases it is possible for an organization to go even further and terminate employment if a worker refuses vaccination and there is no reasonable way to provide an accommodation. For example, if there is no reasonable accommodation that an employer can provide a barista that would allow her to continue make lattes at the coffee shop where she works, the employer may be able to terminate her employment.
However, the EEOC guidelines explicitly say that the inability to reasonably accommodate an employee does not automatically give the employer the right to fire her. Finding out whether the coffee shop could indeed terminate its unvaccinated barista would depend on a variety of factors, including state law, union agreements and any other potentially applicable requirements at the federal level.
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Ana Santos Rutschman, Assistant Professor of Law, Saint Louis University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.