The council members – sitting as the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District board – approved Resolution No. 2311, which allows the city to issue a $3 million bond in December to pay for sewer system upgrades.

The upgrades, according to city staff, were required by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board because of system capacity issues.

Getting the bond in order, said city Utilities Superintendent Mark Brannigan, has “been a long time coming.”

To qualify for the bond, the city had to raise its sewer system rates, which it did at its Nov. 6 meeting.

Henderson Capital Partners LLC is underwriting the bond, according to Brannigan's staff report.

“We’ve got a good interest rate being presented to us now,” Brannigan told the council, with the rate set at 4.85 percent.

Councilman Buzz Bruns moved to accept the resolution, with the vote 4-0, with Bob Rumfelt absent.

Without the bond, Brannigan reported that the city could have been forced to reduce services which could result in regulatory action, including a building moratorium.

Council debates Webcasting

City Engineer Scott Harter reported to the council on his research into setting up a Webcam in order to stream council meetings on the Web.

Thanks to the donation of a Webcam from Andrea Anderson on Nov. 6, and other offers for hardware donations, getting set up won't cost much, only about $100, said Harter. However, the main cost could be the streaming video provider, which could cost from $39 to $129 a month, depending on how much data they broadcast.

Those monthly costs, said Harter, haven't been accounted for in the current budget.

Pointing to the nearly empty gallery, Harter suggested that making the service available might get more people involved.

Mayor Roy Parmentier asked Harter how long it would take to set up a video streaming system.

“Half a day,” said Harter. “It could be done very quickly.”

Said Councilman Ron Bertsch, “I think all of us agree we would like to get out there more than we are now.”

Councilman Buzz Bruns said they should look at the budget before making a decision.

Parmentier suggested setting the system up and then beginning at the first of July.

“I don’t think we’re going to be in a better budget situation the first of July,” responded Councilman Jim Irwin.

Bertsch said he would really like to see the city get on the cable television network as a way to reach more people. However, last month the city turned down a proposed agreement with the county and City of Clearlake to take part in the PEG Channel, citing high costs.

Parmentier suggested tabling the issue until the start of the year, after they had reviewed their budget.

“I don’t see our financial condition being any different in January than now,” said City Manager Jerry Gillham.

Gillham did, however, tell the council that they had the money to cover the Webcasting in the council's own small budget portion.

Gillham said he was “leery” of taking donated items such as Webcams and software. Rather, he wanted to analyze the best camera systems and have an integrated video system. “If we're going to do it, let’s do it right.”

Bruns suggested that the council's current public address system wasn't adequate, and that people who attend the meetings often complain that they can't hear the council. He said that system should be fixed first, and asked Harter to look at those costs.

Harter said he didn't anticipate hardware costs for a camera to be more than $700.

City Clerk Janel Chapman said one of the main issues at this point is that the city only records meetings on cassette tape, which have poor audio quality, and that the city has no duplication capability.

“It’s not just the PA system, it’s creating a way the record can be made available in other media,” she said, a sentiment with which Gillham agreed.

Lakeport resident Suzanne Lyons told the council she didn't understand why they would turn down free equipment, and suggested they should consider it.

Regarding the public address system, she said, “We can hear you in the back when you want us to hear you.”

Lyons said there are “a lot of little asides” amongst council members, and she suggested they needed to speak into their microphones and address the public more clearly.

“When we don’t know what’s going on, that's what bothers us,” she said.

The council directed Harter to research better camera options and bring them back for discussion in December.

Clearing up misleading numbers

During comments to the council toward the meeting's end, Police Chief Kevin Burke offered clarification of recent reports in area media about county crime statistics.

“Lakeport is not the rape capitol of the county,” said Burke.

He explained that the media reports offered crime statistics for the entire Lakeport zip code, and didn't separate out the city.

Burke said no rapes have been reported in the Lakeport city limits in 2007 or 2006. There were two, however, in 2005.

The seven rapes the reports mentioned all happened outside the city limits, Burke said.

“The article was not entirely clear on that,” he said.

A second article reported 21 sex crimes in Lakeport in 2006, when there actually were two in the city limits, Burke added.

Parmentier said he had been getting calls on the stories, and admonished a reporter in the audience that it was important to make clear the difference between sheriff's jurisdiction and that of the police department.

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