LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake Local Area Formation Commission's effort to get the county of Lake and the city of Lakeport to meet apparently fell short on Tuesday.
The Board of Supervisors and the Lakeport City Council both discussed LAFCO's request for a meeting – with a facilitator that would be paid for by the agency – at their Tuesday meetings, with the board willing to meet without a facilitator and the council concluding that they were not prepared to sit down with the county at this time.
The council also had turned down a request to meet with the board last fall.
LAFCO made the request for this meeting in January in an effort to get the county and city to settle a long-running dispute over the proposed annexation of the 197-acre South Main Street area in Lakeport, a commercial corridor that is the most lucrative sales tax generator in the county.
According to statements made at the two Tuesday meetings, LAFCO has been attempting to conduct a sphere of influence update for the city.
At the board's Tuesday morning meeting Deputy Administrative Officer Alan Flora said county staff had some concerns about the proposed meeting format, among them financial equity.
He said the county would end up paying about 33 percent of the costs for the process and Clearlake 16.5 percent, which county staff didn't feel was fair since it was a Lakeport issue.
The staff report for the meeting also pointed out concerns that LAFCO had stated a desire to “facilitate a cooperative approach to completion of the update of the City sphere and annexation project,” with county staff pointing out that LAFCO's role is to analyze and approve projects, not lobby for them.
Flora told the board that staff perceived that through the meeting a “new and unique process” for sphere of influence updates was being created because of the sensitivity of the annexation issue.
Instead, they suggested sending LAFCO a letter proposing a coterminous sphere of influence policy that would require that desired updates, changes or amendments be initiated and costs borne solely by the responsible entity.
Supervisor Denise Rushing said she expected that, whatever happened with respect to the annexation matter, legal action would be involved. At that point County Counsel Anita Grant stopped her from making further comments along those lines.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he believed the two sides could sit down like adults, without a facilitator. He said that there has been a changing of the guard on the Lakeport City Council, and lines of communication were open between him and council members.
He wanted to move forward with the letter staff proposed sending to LAFCO adding, “I think the meeting would be productive either way.”
Board Chair Jeff Smith said the supervisors used to hold joint meetings with the councils years ago, and it was very beneficial.
Grant cautioned the board that it may not be appropriate to have LAFCO Executive Officer John Benoit participate in any meeting outside of a LAFCO proceeding as it could be viewed as impacting his ability later to act objectively.
The board voted unanimously to send the council the letter.
However, that letter may be useless in light of the council's Tuesday night decision on the meeting proposal.
Mayor Tom Engstrom noted at the start of the discussion that the city had offered to have two members of the council meet with two board members along with associated staff members, an offer which didn't get far.
He said there were three new council members – Marc Spillman, Kenny Parlet and Martin Scheel – who still needed to get up to speed on the issue and there was no application in place for annexing the South Main Street area.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said Engstrom hit all of the main points she would have mentioned, adding that the county previously had indicated that it wanted to know the views of property owners in the South Main Street area before even talking about annexation.
While Silveira said it's a great idea to eventually meet, “I just think it's a little premature at this time.”
Parlet also agreed that a meeting was not appropriate just yet, explaining that he wanted to do some fact-finding and discover the underlying issues.
Silveira explained that LAFCO is supposed to review the city's sphere of influence every five years, and currently are two or three years behind on the process. There also is an environmental review that needs to be completed.
“That's what brought this to a head with LAFCO,” she said.
Scheel, who was at the board meeting, agreed that in the future they should wipe the slate clean and start over, but that the timing was not appropriate and they should decline.
Spillman, who had served on LAFCO, said the commission felt it was stuck in the middle and needed to find a way to complete its duties.
Engstrom said the city needed to respond to LAFCO's letter and do its homework in preparation for when a meeting did happen.
Parlet said it was in everyone's best interest to get on the same page on the matter.
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