LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Windy conditions have led to the National Weather Service issuing a red flag warning through Thursday and a limited-scope public power safety shutoff in parts of Lake County.
The red flag warning remains in effect through 7 a.m. Thursday due to low humidity and northeast winds of up to 45 miles per hour with isolated gusts of up to 55 miles per hour along ridgetops and high terrain.
The National Weather Service said a red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly due to a combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures that can contribute to extreme fire behavior.
Daytime temperatures are expected to be in the low 60s and in the 40s at night this week, with chances of rain in the forecast for the weekend.
Due to the red flag conditions, PG&E said it planned to conduct a public power safety shutoff to as many as 22,000 customers across 17 counties, including 1,168 Lake County customers, through Thursday morning.
In Lake County, those customers are primarily in more remote areas east of Clearlake Oaks as well as east of Lower Lake and near Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — As election day arrives, the latest numbers show more than a third of Californians have already returned their vote-by-mail ballots.
Early ballot numbers updated by the California Secretary of State’s Office on Monday showed that 8,058,584 ballots have been cast out of 22,838,522 that have been issued.
That amounts to a 35.2% return rate.
In Lake County, 38,397 vote-by-mail ballots were issued and 9,438 had been returned by Monday, for a 24.5% return rate.
Of those ballots counted so far, 832 were returned at drop off locations, 1,135 were returned through drop boxes and 7,449 by mail.
So far, 99.45% of the ballots returned in Lake County have been accepted, with 52 under review, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.
Lake County’s early ballot return rate is the second-lowest statewide, based on a percentage analysis of all 58 counties.
The county with the lowest early ballot return rate is Imperial, with 23%. The highest rate is Sierra County’s 57%.
The overall ballot return rates for other counties in the region are as follows:
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A bicyclist was killed Monday evening after being struck by a vehicle along Highway 175 near Middletown.
The crash occurred shortly after 5 p.m., according to radio reports and the California Highway Patrol’s online reports.
Fire units were dispatched to a possible death from the crash at 5:12 p.m.
There was an attempt to resuscitate the bicyclist, who was declared dead shortly after paramedics arrived at the scene, based on radio traffic.
The CHP reported that Highway 175 at the Dry Creek Cutoff was closed until nearly 8 p.m. while the crash investigation took place.
More information about the crash was not immediately available.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Authorities have arrested a Napa man who they said is responsible for burglarizing vehicles in the south county.
Manuel Madrigal, 42, was arrested Nov. 1, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office reported.
In October, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office began investigating a series of vehicle burglaries that occurred in Hidden Valley Lake during the early and later part of October.
Several local businesses reported their work trucks were burglarized, with several thousand dollars worth of tools stolen, the sheriff’s office said.
During the investigation, the businesses were able to provide video surveillance that captured the vehicle used during the burglaries. The sheriff’s office said a detective used the automated license plate readers and was able to locate the vehicle in the area of each of the burglaries around the time the burglaries occurred.
The vehicle was found to be connected to Madrigal, the sheriff’s office said.
On Friday, detectives from both the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Napa County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at Madrigal's residence.
While searching the residence, detectives recovered over $1,000 worth of stolen tools from the Hidden Valley Lake burglaries, authorities said.
Madrigal was arrested on felony charges related to grand theft, possession of stolen property and vandalism, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies transported Madrigal to Lake County, where he was booked at the Hill Road Correctional Facility in Lakeport.
Jail records showed that he remained in custody on Monday, with bail set at $50,000.
“This is still considered an active and ongoing investigation,” the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a Monday statement.
The agency said detectives recovered a large number of additional tools, which are also believed to have been stolen from Lake County or other surrounding counties. Detectives are working with other nearby law enforcement agencies in identifying the owners of the property.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office thanked the Napa County Sheriff's Office for assisting during the investigation.
If anyone has any information regarding this investigation, please contact Det. Matt McCabe at 707-262-4223 or the Major Crimes Unit Tip Line at 707-262-4088.
The Avenue of Flags. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Veterans Day — Monday, Nov. 11 — the flags of fallen veterans will be flown at cemeteries throughout Lake County.
The Avenue of Flags members, with the help of volunteers, will install flagpoles and mount large flags which once draped the caskets of fallen veterans along the avenues of the county cemeteries.
Veteran flags will be flown at the following cemeteries: Lower Lake Cemetery, Hartley Cemetery in Lakeport, Kelseyville Cemetery and Upper Lake Cemetery.
Organizers are asking for community members to assist by volunteering in set up and breakdown of the display on Veterans Day.
The flag displays will be set up at each of the participating cemeteries from 6:30 to 8 a.m., weather permitting.
Taking down of the flags and poles will happen at various times starting at around 3 p.m. but check with the coordinators at each site for the exact time.
They will conclude the day with the folding of the flags.
Anyone willing to volunteer at any of the above mentioned cemeteries would be greatly appreciated.
For more information, call Avenue of Flags Coordinator Mike Dean at 510-206-6531.
Attorneys general nationwide are condemning the potential for violence in response to Tuesday’s presidential election.
The National Association of Attorneys General, or NAAG, on Monday released a statement on behalf of a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general, led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Oregon Attorney General and NAAG President Ellen Rosenblum, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.
“Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, we expect that Americans will respond peacefully and we condemn any acts of violence related to the results. A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation’s stability. As attorneys general, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve,” the group said.
“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” the group statement continued. “Let us come together after this election not divided by outcomes but united in our shared commitment to the rule of law and safety of all Americans. Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”
Participating states and territories are Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors this week will hold a public hearing on the proposal to create a new hospital improvement district hearing and consider a letter of support for another section of expressway along Highway 29.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 865 3354 4962, pass code 726865. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16694449171,,86533544962#,,,,*726865#. The meeting can also be accessed via phone at 669 900 6833.
At 11 a.m., the board will hold a public hearing for the Lake County Hospital Improvement District.
The staff report said the district “would be a business-based assessment of the two hospitals in Lake County — Sutter Lakeside Hospital and Adventist Health Clear Lake.”
The two hospitals petitioned the county to form the district by utilizing the Property and Business Improvement Law of 1994.
If approved, the district’s initial term would be five years and renewals could be up to 10 years. The county would retain a fee of 1% of the collected assessment to cover the district’s administration costs.
In an untimed item, the supervisors will consider a letter of support regarding Caltrans’ application to the California Transportation Commission for the LAK-29 Konocti Corridor 2B project. “Konocti Corridor project is split into three sections,” the staff report explains. “As of June 2023, the first three mile section, Section 2C, was completed. It ranges from .75 miles Northwest of Kit's Corner to less than half a mile west of the intersection of 175 and 29. Section 2B is the next step in this large project. This will start from where section 2C ended approximately .75 miles Northwest of Kit's Corner to approximately half a mile west of DNA Ridge Rock on Highway 29.”
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt proclamation designating November 2024 as National Native American Heritage Month in Lake County.
5.2: Adopt proclamation recognizing veterans on Veterans Day.
5.3: Approve joining Operation Green Light and lighting the Lake County Courthouse with green lights.
5.4: Approve early activation of email for District 4 supervisor-elect.
5.5: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No. 23-0729-011-SF with California Department of Food and Agriculture for compliance with the European Grapevine Moth Detection Program for $19,572 for the period July 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2024.
5.6: Approve agreement between county of Lake and Aurora Behavioral Health for acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services and professional services associated with acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations in the amount of $300,000 for fiscal year 2024-25 and authorize the board chair to sign.
5.7: Approve Board of Supervisors meeting minutes for Aug. 27, Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, 2024.
5.8: Authorize the Public Services director/assistant purchasing agent to sign a purchase order not to exceed $106,730 to Bobcat Company for the purchase of a T86 T4 Bobcat Compact Track Loader.
5.9: a) Adopt resolution appointing directors of certain special district boards in lieu of holding a general district election on November 5, 2024; b) appoint John Maurer to Buckingham Park Water District for a four-year term; c) appoint Joan DeVito to Buckingham Park Water District for a two-year unexpired term; and d) appoint Joseph Franklin Velarde to Callayomi County Water District for a four-year term.
5.10: Addendum, adopt resolution approving receipt of a grant in the amount of $41,500 from the Department of Health Care Services by the Probation Department for implementation of CalAim Enhanced Care Management.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:03 a.m.: Pet of the Week.
6.3, 9:04 a.m.: New and noteworthy at the library.
6.4, 9:05 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating November 2024 as National Native American Heritage Month in Lake County.
6.5, 9:06 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation recognizing veterans on Veterans Day.
6.6, 9:20 a.m.: Lake County 2050 update.
6.7, 9:30 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration of Community Development Block Grant funding for the Business Assistance Loan Program and the Employment Training BUILD Program.
6.8, 11 a.m.: Public hearing, hearing for the Lake County Hospital Improvement District.
6.9, 1:30 p.m.: Consideration of review of the Mendocino Air Quality Control MOU.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of letter of support regarding CalTrans application to the California Transportation Commission for the LAK-29 Konocti Corridor 2B project.
7.3: Consideration of (a) board appointment of the 2025 Rural County Representatives of California, delegate and alternate; (b) board appointment of the 2025 Golden State Connect Authority Board of Directors, delegate and alternate; (c) board appointment of the 2025 Golden State Finance Authority Board of Directors, delegate and alternate; and (d) board appointment to the 2025 Rural County Representatives of California Environmental Services Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors, delegate and alternate.
7.4: Consideration of proposed 2025 Board of Supervisors regular meeting calendar.
7.5: Consideration of appointments of a director and alternate to the California State Association of Counties Board of Directors for 2025.
7.6: Consideration of presentation regarding ongoing development of a Lake County Regional Housing Trust Fund.
7.7: Consideration of resolution amending Resolution No. 2024-100 establishing position allocations for fiscal year 2024-25, Budget Unit No. 2111 Public Defender.
7.8: Consideration of Chapter 8 agreement sale of tax defaulted properties with county of Lake Special Districts Administration.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Closed session item: Conference with legal counsel: existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(1) – FERC Project No. 77, Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project.
8.2, 11:30 a.m.: Public employee discipline/dismissal/release.
8.3, 1 p.m.: Public employee discipline/dismissal/release.
8.4, 2 p.m.: Public employee evaluation: Chief public defender.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — County officials are planning a second meeting on a housing project for formerly incarcerated individuals.
The Lake County Probation Department and Rural Communities Housing Development Corp., or RCHDC, will host the Zoom meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.
The meeting ID is 848 6054 4560; passcode is 626247.
The topics will include the approved housing project for justice-involved individuals, potential locations for the project and the resources that will be available for individuals who will be housed in the project.
Lake County Chief Probation Officer Wendy Mondfrans and Ryan LaRue, Chief executive officer of Rural Communities Housing Development Corp., will be on hand for the meeting.
The first meeting held on the project took place on Oct. 23 at the Lake County Courthouse.
The Board of Supervisors greenlighted the project in August. It will be a new build and is expected to cost $24 million, as Lake County News has reported.
For more information, follow Lake County CA Probation on Facebook or contact Mondfrans at 707-262-4291.
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.
As Election Day arrives, people’s feelings of eagerness and anxiety can intensify. It’s normal to want to know the results, but it’s also important to make sure that when the results are announced, they’re accurate.
The Conversation U.S. has covered many aspects of the election, including the mechanics of tallying and reporting the votes. Here are selections from some of those articles:
1. How long did it take to count votes in 2020?
In 2020, Election Day was Nov. 3. While some results emerged that evening and over the subsequent days, it was not until four days later, Nov. 7, that The Associated Press called the race for Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
Waiting can be unsatisfying, wrote John M. Murphy, a communications scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but it’s key to getting accurate results.
Murphy warned: “People tend to see what they want to see. … Partisans want that beautiful picture of triumph, blue or red seas cascading across screens on election night.” But, he observed, that might be a mirage – and realizing it’s a mirage means one thing: “Wait. … Wait until we know it’s real.”
Election officials count ballots at the Allegheny County elections warehouse in Pittsburgh in 2020.Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
2. Why do candidates’ leads change as the results emerge?
Every state counts votes slightly differently. Some, like Colorado, allow election workers to begin counting absentee ballots in advance of Election Day, while in other states, like Illinois, the count can’t even start until the polling places close at the end of Election Day.
In addition, various communities report their results in different ways. Some may release preliminary results every so often while the counting continues, while others may wait until counting is fully complete before announcing any results.
That’s why vote counts change over time: Partial results are updated, and additional results are added to statewide tallies. In a 2020 article, Kristin Kanthak, a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh, went through the whole process, including the release of partial results:
Election officials take their jobs very seriously and work hard to count all the eligible votes accurately while under great pressure. They have specific rules and processes for how to handle ballots and vote-counting.
Derek Muller, an election-law scholar at the University of Notre Dame, explained those steps in detail, highlighting the focus on verifiable facts rather than people’s opinions about the process:
“Certifying an election is a rather mundane task. … It is little more than making sure all precincts have reported and the arithmetic is correct. But it is an important task, because it is the formal process that determines who won the most votes.”
Washoe County employees in Nevada open ballots as they begin processing mailed ballots in the 2024 primary election.AP Photo/Andy Barron
4. Who invented the Electoral College?
Of course, the candidate who gets the most votes doesn’t necessarily win the presidency. The official decision is made by the Electoral College.
Phillip VanFossen, a civics educator at Purdue University, explained that the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787 came up with three ideas, but couldn’t agree. Determined to find common ground, even if it was imperfect, the delegates told 11 men to come up with a solution, which was the Electoral College.
VanFossen explained that “with this compromise system, neither public ignorance nor outside influence would affect the choice of a nation’s leader. (The delegates) believed that the electors would ensure that only a qualified person became president. And they thought the Electoral College would serve as a check on a public who might be easily misled, especially by foreign governments.”
5. Why does the US still have an Electoral College?
Other nations were inspired by the U.S. Constitution, but not for long, as Westminster College political scientist Joshua Holzer explained:
“None have been satisfied with the results. And except for the U.S., all have found other ways to choose their leaders.”
Many people in the U.S. also aren’t satisfied with the Electoral College, and Holzer identifies one effort under way to replace it without amending the Constitution. But even that won’t ensure that the person who becomes president is supported by at least half of the people who cast ballots.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has several kittens waiting to be adopted into home homes.
The kittens and cats at the shelter that are shown on this page have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
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.
Downtown Kelseyville, California, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — This fall, Lake County residents are being asked to consider an important question: Should the town of Kelseyville have its name changed to “Konocti” in an effort to address wrongs against the county’s Indigenous people?
The question, while seemingly a straightforward one, appears to be anything but, and has resulted in deep disagreements between neighbors and friends.
At the same time, it has raised questions about the ability of a community to choose its own name and identity, and those questions have intensified after the Board of Supervisors in July decided to approve an advisory measure to put the question to all of Lake County — not just the residents of Kelseyville.
On Oct. 18, 2023, a proposal was submitted to the United States Board of Geographic Names, often referred to as the BGN, to change the name of Kelseyville to Konocti.
The name change application to BGN was made by Lorna Sue Sides on behalf of a local activist group calling itself Citizens for Healing.
The group, which has about 20 members from around Lake County, does not have formal standing as a registered nonprofit, according to a search of the California Attorney General’s Office online records.
Though the name change had been informally discussed for years, this was the first time it entered an official procedure with the BGN, the federal agency formed in 1890 for the purposes of maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government.
Today, the BGN says on its website that it “serves the Federal Government and the public as a central authority to which name problems, name inquiries, name changes, and new name proposals can be directed.”
There has been increased focus in recent years on names that are problematic, derogatory or racist, with the BGN leading the effort to remove the word “squaw” from federal geographic features. In September 2022, the BGN voted on the final replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features featuring the “sq” word, including three in remote parts of Lake County.
Enter the Kelseyville name change, which was submitted to the BGN because it’s not an incorporated community.
For the past year, whether Kelseyville should change its name tied to the painful local history has escalated into one of the county’s most polarizing debates among residents and local leadership, sparking arguments among friends and neighbors and a growing sense of discontent.
Throughout this time, major stakeholders have been questioned over the process at nearly every stage.
On Jan. 23, the BGN published its Quarterly Review List, which included the Kelseyville case.
About a month later, the Lake County Board of Supervisors received a letter from the BGN requesting the board’s opinion on the name change.
District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he received the letter on Feb. 26, but it did not include a deadline or any details on how to proceed.
On July 30, the Board of Supervisors held a special meeting, where they passed a motion on a 3-2 vote to put the Kelseyville name change on the ballot for county-wide vote as an advisory measure, now known as Measure U.
The two dissenters were Sabatier and District 4 Supervisor Michael Green, who voted against the ballot measure because they believed the board needed to submit a recommendation directly to the BGN.
At that meeting, District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon, who also is chair of Middletown Rancheria and one of two tribal members on the board, supported the vote being countywide.
“I want the opportunity for the Indigenous people that have been here forever to see where we stand in this county. Every vote that we’ve taken, I think I know the outcome already. But I want it on the record. I want it on the record,” said Simon.
“I’ve walked through these halls,” he continued. “I’ve heard how racist this community is and I’ve seen and tried to work together and bring it together. I want to see if we’ve learned anything in the past 400 years here in this country, in this county, how we move forward. I want it on the record.”
The supervisors’ meeting and decision came a week after the county’s recommended deadline to file the measure and just 10 days before the official final deadline.
In the five months between February, when the BGN reached out to the Board of Supervisors, and July, when the special meeting on what would become Measure U was held, "The Board of Supervisors as a whole did nothing,” Sabatier told Lake County News in a phone interview.
“That was the only time that the board as a whole ever had a conversation or took any action related to the BGN request,” Sabatier said of the July meeting.
Why, then, didn’t the Board of Supervisors come together sooner to discuss and act on it?
Sabatier declined to comment on why. “It's not in my district, and it's not for me to bring to the board,” he said.
The plan to rename the community
Citizens for Healing is advocating for renaming the unincorporated community “Konocti” in order to stop honoring the memory of Andrew Kelsey, who along with Charles Stone brutalized natives during a two-year period.
The men, believed to have been close to age 30, were said to have enslaved, raped and killed tribal members, which prompted the tribes to kill them in 1849.
Before arriving in Lake County, historians believe Kelsey was involved, along with his brothers, in leading emigrants west, with the family having involvement in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. His sister-in-law, Nancy Kelsey, helped make the Bear Flag Revolt flag.
In “The Donner Party Chronicles,” historian Frank Mullen said that Stone was part of a rescue relief group for the Donner Party in 1847. Stone and another man, Charles Cady, made a deal with Tamsen Donner — believed to have been the last of the party to die after she refused to leave her dying husband, George Donner — to rescue her three young daughters.
Mullen’s account says that Stone and Cady, instead of rescuing the children, left them at a camp at Truckee Lake, later known as Donner Lake, and then “escaped” — heading to California.
Later in 1847, Kelsey and Stone came to Lake County and acquired Salvador Vallejo's livestock, living in an adobe that historians say they forced local tribal members to build. That house, the first adobe home in Lake County, was located where a historical monument now stands at Main Street and Bell Hill Road in Kelseyville.
The remains of the men also are buried under that monument. Before they were placed there, a group of local boys had “inadvertently” dug up the graves of the two men, according to a 2015 history talk by lifelong Kelseyville resident Floraine Chalk.
Lorna Sue Sides, a Kelseyville resident who also is executive director of the town’s small senior center, submitted the proposal on behalf of Citizens for Healing.
She said her commitment to the cause resulted from seeing Kelseyville school buses go by her house, and thinking about the children who have to get on those buses and hear the name “Kelsey.”
“And they have to get on the school bus, and then they get to the school, and then they have to walk into the school. I have to say the name all the time. I have to hear the name all the time. I have to write the name and read the name, and it's everywhere. I think it needs to disappear. It's an insult,” Sides said.
“And I wouldn't want to hear Jeffrey Dahmer's name every day,” she added, “I wouldn't want to hear Adolf Hitler's. I don't want to hear, you know, Charles Manson's name every day. Would you like to hear Charles Manson's name every day? Would you like to have to write it?”
“This name serves as a painful reminder of a time when our ancestors faced unimaginable hardships,” said the argument in favor of Measure U on the voters’ pamphlet that invokes this history and bears the sole signature of the Flaman McCloud, chairman of Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
McCloud told Lake County News that the document was co-authored and agreed upon by six of Lake County’s seven tribes.
For opponents of the name change effort, it hearkens back to 2006, the year a movement succeeded in changing the Kelseyville High School mascot from the “Indians” to the “Knights” and the Mountain Vista School also changed its mascot to the “Knights” from the “Braves.”
Community members who were against the mascot change said they were told it would address the claims of racism against the community. There also was opposition because the Knights was the only option offered when an effort to put forward an alternative, the “Cowboys,” hadn’t been considered.
The single choice of “Konocti” being the only alternative offered in the current name change issue has resulted in opponents drawing similarities to what they believe were the shortcomings in how the mascot change was handled.
It’s also led to another question: What next?
“No on Measure U” signs in downtown Kelseyville, California, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. Government inaction and lack of clarity
The Kelseyville area falls under District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska’s constituency who told Lake County News that she spent months reaching out to state and federal agencies to clarify the process while meeting with constituents from all sides.
During that five months of inaction by the board, Pyska also was in the midst of a contested reelection bid, and her critics have pointed to that election — and her desire to be reelected — as a reason for a broader community name change discussion being put on the back burner.
In her pursuit of a second term as supervisor, she was challenged by businessman Boone Bridges, who made the name change an issue. Despite the name change controversy, Pyska was reelected on March 5 with 56.96% of the vote, compared to 43.04% received by Bridges.
Asked about the implication that the delay in bringing the issue to the board might relate to her reelection campaign, Pyska maintained the two things were not connected. “We received the letter from the BGN on Feb 24th, I was re-elected on March 5th,” she said in an email response.
Like Sabatier, Pyska found little information and guidelines about the name change process in the BGN’s February request for recommendation.
“We were just very, very unclear on what the process is — what does implementation look like? Should there be a change? And what resources are available to assist?” Pyska said, adding that she sat through calls and Zoom meetings with the BGN and California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names, or CACGN.
Yet, “every time we had a conversation, it felt like we had more questions than answers afterwards,” said Pyska. She felt that the two committees were “under-resourced” and their staff were “also frustrated.”
“No matter where you are on the spectrum,” Pyska said, “it’s just really, really hard.”
She attributed the difficulty to the BGN and CACGN: “These government agencies are making it harder.”
Ultimately, efforts to clarify the name change process resulted in the supervisors’ vote for the county-wide advisory vote on Measure U at the end of July.
In response to that action, Lake County News asked BGN if, in other name change considerations elsewhere in the country, have such ballot measures been used to advise BGN, and has it impacted BGN's decisions?
In response, U.S. Geological Survey public affairs specialist Gina Anderson wrote in an email that the BGN receives very few community name change proposals and is unaware of any ballot measures used to inform the BGN.
“Having said that, the BGN seeks input from the local government on every new proposal, and it is up to the Town/City/County Board as to how they develop their recommendation,” Anderson wrote.
The document is found to be contradictory on how the BGN takes public input.
While the BGN’s Quarterly Review List states that any interested party or individual may submit their position regarding the name change in writing, the FAQ document, however, explicitly states that “the BGN has no process for formally inviting the public to comment” and it “does not have the resources to handle large volumes of emails directly from individuals.”
Lake County News reached out to the BGN for clarification on Oct. 7.
Over two weeks later, on Oct. 23, the BGN replied, stating they “rely on local governments to synthesize and address public opinions,” adding that “a tally of emails and a brief summary of comments” would be considered.
This response, again, contradicted both its statements in the FAQ document. A clear process of the BGN’s intake of public opinion, up to this point, seems to be unattainable.
For Pyska, who said she had “worked earnestly” for months on getting this document available to the public, “what they say the county is responsible for wasn't clear.”
But that was “the most substantial response we ever got,” she said.
Pyska attributed the delay in bringing the matter to the Board of Supervisors to the slow and unclear communication with the two state and federal agencies, according to her email response to Lake County News’ follow-up questions.
For her, the lack of timely response and clear information from the BGN and CACGN has also played a part in the escalation of the local controversy over the matter.
“Because there’s no place for the public to truly understand what the process looks like,” Pyska explained.
The BGN didn’t respond to Lake County News’ email and phone inquiries on Thursday for a comment in response to Pyska’s statement.
For Alan Fletcher, a spokesperson of Citizens for Healing, the county could have done much more in the months after the application was submitted — such as hosting formal meetings for both sides to have conversations and debates, having a historian to verify the historical details and seeking a clear response from the postal office and the DMV on how a name change might impact the everyday life of local residents.
“They absolutely did nothing; absolutely not enough,” Fletcher said of the Board of Supervisors.
Now Measure U is up for a county-wide advisory vote. A "yes” vote supports the Board of Supervisors recommending approval of the town name from Kelseyville to Konocti whereas a “no” vote opposes it.
Pyska told Lake County News that she’s committed to staying neutral no matter what the vote result looks like, even if it’s a 90 to 10 vote.
“I settled that with myself a long time ago. I need to serve my whole community,” Pyska said.
But has being neutral and taking no side actually served the whole community or nobody?
“Pushing for the people to be a part of this, pushing for the people to be informed about the process,” Pyska responded, referring to putting the matter on the ballot and getting the FAQ document from the BGN. “That's what you can do when you're neutral.”
In fact, some do not think it should be put before the voters.
“We’re elected to make difficult decisions and I didn’t feel that our community should be the ones to fight over this decision,” said Supervisor Sabatier in a phone interview.
His opinion on the matter is the same as it was in July, when he was one of the two supervisors who voted against having a ballot measure.
“If people are going to be upset, I'd rather they be upset at the Board of Supervisors than be upset with each other and divide our community over it,” Sabatier added.
During the time when the county leadership did not act collectively and the federal and state agencies lacked clear guidelines, interactions among various local agencies and groups intensified the conflict.
Tribal engagement came late
Since stepping into office as Big Valley’s tribal chair in January, McCloud’s stance toward the name change has changed considerably.
At first, McCloud said he was rather indifferent.
“I wasn’t bothered either way,” he said of the name change, adding that his priority was the development of the tribe and the people.
“This wasn’t even on our radar,” said McCloud in an interview at the tribal office of Big Valley Rancheria. “It’s not like something that was do-or-die for us.”
But soon he started to find things were “bothering” him.
When he first heard about the proposal submitted to the BGN by Citizens for Healing, “I thought some of them would have been native, but then when I found out that it’s all nonnative people, then I was upset,” McCloud said. “And it still bothers me to this day.”
Did the group get the approval from the tribes before submitting the proposal?
“I would say no,” McCloud responded. “Because when I had met with the other tribal chairmen, they had not met with any of these people.”
“Some of them didn’t want to because they [Citizens for Healing] submitted the proposal for the name change and they weren’t even Native American,” he added.
For McCloud, the tribal people are the ones who would be experiencing most pushback. “It's not going to affect you guys,” said McCloud, referring to Citizens for Healing. “The ones that are going to have to feel it are our kids that are going to school and our people that live in Kelseyville.”
McCloud said he was asked to meet with Rachel White, who chairs the Save Kelseyville group that rallies against the name change, before he even met with people from Citizens for Healing, though his meeting with White took place as late as in June.
“That was kind of an issue for me,” McCloud said, adding that he had communicated the disappointment to Citizens for Healing when they finally met.
Fletcher of Citizens for Healing said that they did the tribal engagement mainly through three tribal elders including Ronald Montez, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Big Valley tribe.
In his explanation of why Citizens for Healing didn’t reach out to McCloud sooner, Fletcher said McCloud took office “only recently” and that, by that point, the name change effort was already underway.
Fletcher added, “I did not, in fact, even know that Big Valley has a new chairman, honestly.”
Was Citizens for Healing very confident that all the tribes were aware and approving of this proposal before they submitted it?
“That was my understanding; yes,” said Sides, responding to Lake County News’ questions in a phone interview late last week, after multiple text messages, emails and phone calls to reach her for about two weeks.
Sides said tribal historic preservation officers discussed the proposed name change at their meetings, and all approved the use of the name Konocti.
But she also said she had not discussed the name change issue with any of the tribal chairmen.
The first in-person meeting between her and McCloud took place on July 27, three days before the Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Sides said.
For Sides, it’s the opposition, Save Kelseyville, that created the division. “Why didn't they say this was a beautiful gift?” Sides said.
A changed mind
Even with the discontent on the lack of engagement with him, McCloud said his will to support and lead the name change has built up over the past months.
Both meetings were long and contentious, with a large number of tribal members and local community members coming up to speak during public comment.
McCloud was frustrated during those meetings “just by the feeling that I got there and that like even our children weren't even being seen or heard.”
He said just by hearing the elders, students and other members of the tribe speaking up at the meetings about their thoughts and experience of trauma, he has developed “a drive” to go for the name change which is a way of “being seen.”
Rachel White of the Save Kelseyville group recalled the first and only meeting she had with McCloud on June 5, about two weeks after she was fired by Tribal Health where she had worked as a nurse practitioner.
Her 30-day termination notice given in a generic letter without specifying a reason for the termination, she believes, was the result of her activism on the name change matter. “I know enough people, it's a small town, and you learn the truth, and the truth is that it was because of my involvement in the name change.”
The meeting between McCloud and White, like the larger name change issue, has led to two very different perspectives of what occurred.
“When I talked to him, he was against the name change. He told it to my face, with a witness present, and he said that he believes that changing the name would only make racial tension worse,” White told Lake County News in a sitdown interview at Studebakers coffee house in downtown Kelseyville.
“I don’t know who he talked to after that. I don’t know if it was pressure from his tribe,” White said, trying to figure out why McCloud’s stance changed.
While both agreed — in their respective interviews with the Lake County News — that the meeting was a friendly and respectful one, McCloud denied that he had ever told White he’s against the name change.
“I didn’t say that. I said I'm not worried about that; I’m more focused on the other direction my tribe is going,” McCloud said, adding that someone had heard what White had said and brought it up to him.
“When I heard that, I was like, you’re not going to do that,” he said. “And all the stuff I was seeing, how our people were getting treated — that’s what changed it for me, right? I was like, I’m just going all in.”
McCloud decided that the tribes were going to lead the cause and submit the argument in favor of Measure U.
By that time, Citizens for Healing had already drafted their argument but was asked to step back, Fletcher said.
White’s name appears as the first signature on the argument against Measure U on the voters’ pamphlet, which invokes substantial economic and administrative costs on businesses for the name change, and questions if Kelseyville was named to “honor any specific individual.”
It also criticizes the process. “The application to rename Kelseyville was submitted to the BGN without local input,” the document reads.
White said there were two questions: one about whether to have the name changed at all, and another about what the name changed to. For both components, “There’s been no vote; there’s been no community consensus” prior to the submission of the proposal.
For Supervisor Sabatier, the BGN process itself is “an awkward process.” It is unable to reconcile the conflict between “giving voice to a minority voice” and “to ensure that voices can be heard and decisions can be made based on all voices that represent our community,” according to Sabatier.
What happens next and the vote’s potential aftermath
Once the votes are cast on or before Election Day on Nov. 5, it will take 30 days to certify the election.
After that, “This will go back to the Board of Supervisors for a final discussion,” said Pyska, who emphasized she is committed to remain neutral regardless of the result.
It became clear at the Board of Supervisors’ special meeting in July that, whatever the result of the advisory measure, the supervisors are poised to recommend changing the town’s name to the BGN, as all supervisors other than Pyska supported the name change.
But in a recent interview, when asked how the voting result would possibly impact his decision, Sabatier found it hard to know how he would react. He said he couldn’t speak about his feelings for the future.
Sabatier also said he’s worried about the aftermath after the election, “because once it’s out there in writing, I fear that it may be difficult to look at it depending on what side of the issue you’re on.”
So far, neither CACGN or BGN have given indications publicly of when they might make decisions on the name change proposal.
For McCloud, no matter whether the name gets changed, the tribe will take the most “pushback” among all stakeholders.
If the name gets changed, “We’ll have to deal with the negativity,” which McCloud believes will be a long term sentiment.
And if the name doesn’t get changed after all, he believes the pushback toward them “won’t be as bad.”
McCloud said he would prefer to deal with the bigger pressure from the name being changed.
“If that name changes, our kids, when they go they'll be able to say — you know what, we got that name changed,” McCloud said. “We got that name changed from that person that did that to our grandmothers and our grandfathers.”
For White, there will be no winners either way.
“What exactly are we trying to win here?” she asked.
“I know both sides will not give up,” White said. “So despite this election, I feel like it's going to be an ongoing issue, unfortunately.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Rachel White previously worked as a nurse at Lake County Tribal Health. She actually served as a nurse practitioner.
Email Lingzi Chen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Editor/Publisher Elizabeth Larson contributed to this report. Email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Uncertainty about the election getting to you? Is anxiety the dominant feature of your emotional landscape, maybe with a small sprinkling of impending doom?
It’s difficult not to be worked up about politics in today’s polarized climate. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, you may find yourself glued to your browser or TV, gobbling up every tiny tidbit of news and feeling your stress levels skyrocket.
I’m a psychologist who develops and tests strategies for combating anxiety. As I constantly tell my stressed-out clients, when it comes to election news, there’s a fine line between being well informed and being oversaturated with information.
If you’re ready to short-circuit your stress spiral, here are three science-backed strategies for coping with anxiety in times of uncertainty.
Approach your emotions with mindfulness
Being mindful refers to the quality of awareness you bring to your experiences – specifically, nonjudgmental attention focused on what’s happening right now.
Mindfulness practices originated in Eastern spiritual traditions, including Buddhism. Over the past several decades, mindfulness has gained popularity as a powerful tool for managing anxiety. For instance, meditation apps such as Headspace and Calm incorporate it. Even if meditation isn’t your thing, though, you can still apply nonjudgmental awareness, focused on the present, to election-related anxiety.
Be present. Anxiety can draw you into an uncomfortable spiral of “what-ifs” about the future. When you make a point to be present, you remind yourself what is actually happening right now, rather than letting hypothetical fears take over.
Although you may have serious concerns about the fate of the nation, those outcomes have not yet come to bear. As I tell my patients, “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. For now, focus on the step right in front of you.”
If you notice yourself getting carried away by thoughts of the future, you can pull yourself back to the present by bringing awareness to simple sensations – the feel of your feet on the floor, the rhythm of your breath, or the sounds around you – and remind yourself that you are safe in the current moment.
Pay nonjudgmental attention. Many people are hard on themselves for feeling strong emotions. This critical mindset might look like telling yourself that you’re overreacting, or that it’s weak to let others see that you’re upset. You might even view that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach as evidence that negative outcomes are right around the corner.
Making judgments about your emotions only serves to make you feel worse. In fact, researchers find that pushing away emotions or beating yourself up for having them leads to more frequent and stronger anxiety.
Instead, try giving yourself a break. Tell yourself, “This election is high stakes, so it makes sense I’m anxious.” Then, notice if your anxiety is driven by a fear about the future, and bring yourself back to the present.
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to shift away from rigid, all-or-nothing thinking about the future.
When people are anxious, they tend to focus on the worst-case scenario. For example, you might be telling yourself, “With this candidate in office, things will be terrible and I won’t be able to cope.”
In this scenario, I encourage my patients to move past that initial thought of how awful it will be and instead consider exactly how they will respond to the inauguration, the next day, week, month and so on.
Cognitive flexibility allows you to explore how you will cope, even in the face of a negative outcome, helping you feel a bit less out of control. If you’re experiencing a lot of anxiety about the election, try thinking through what you’d do if the undesirable candidate takes office – thoughts like “I’ll donate to causes that are important to me” and “I’ll attend protests.”
Choose your actions with intention
Another tool for managing your anxiety is to consider whether your behaviors are affecting how you feel.
Remember, for instance, the goal of 24-hour news networks is to increase ratings. It’s in their interest to keep you riveted to your screens by making it seem like important announcements are imminent. As a result, it may feel difficult to disconnect and take part in your usual self-care behavior.
Try telling yourself, “If something happens, someone will text me,” and go for a walk or, better yet, to bed. Keeping up with healthy habits can help reduce your vulnerability to uncontrolled anxiety.
It’s not on your shoulders to solve every single problem in the world.AP Photo/John Hanna
Post-Election Day, you may continue to feel drawn to the news and motivated to show up – whether that means donating, volunteering or protesting – for a variety of causes you think will be affected by the election results. Many people describe feeling guilty if they say no or disengage, leading them to overcommit and wind up overwhelmed.
If this sounds like you, try reminding yourself that taking a break from politics to cook, engage with your family or friends, get some work done or go to the gym does not mean you don’t care. In fact, keeping up with the activities that fuel you will give you the energy to contribute to important causes more meaningfully.
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
