LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday evening selected the new mayor and mayor pro tem for 2014.
Kenny Parlet was elected mayor, with Martin Scheel selected as mayor pro tem.
“That was the last thing I expected to have happen tonight,” said Parlet following his nomination, explaining that he had believed Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Mattina would be mayor.
Before the council reorganization, outgoing Mayor Tom Engstrom said it had been an honor to represent the city as mayor over the past year, and thanked City Manager Margaret Silveira and Kelly Buendia the city's human resources/administrative services director, for their help.
“Someone's life is going to get a whole lot busier,” he said.
Engstrom added, “This is a great city council. I have loved serving with all of them.”
Councilman Marc Spillman nominated both Parlet and Scheel for the new jobs.
Despite his initial surprise at the nomination, Parlet said he would accept. “I'm here to serve, absolutely.”
Both Parlet and Scheel were elected in unanimous votes.
Following the votes, Engstrom and Mattina exchanged seats with Parlet and Scheel, respectively.
“That's one step closer to the door,” Engstrom quipped.
One of the council's main items of discussion was time limits for temporary commercial signs, such as banners and feather signs.
Planning Services Manager Andrew Britton took the matter to the council, explaining that it was a matter of aesthetics and community character.
The Lakeport Planning Commission had discussed the issue in November. It recommended sending out a form letter to businesses in January asking for voluntary compliance with the 30-day display
limit and advising business owners who use temporary signs as their permanent signage that they must install a permanent sign by May 1.
Britton wanted to know if the council approved of this direction or wanted to pursue other measures.
Lakeport businesswoman Nancy Ruzicka supported enforcing city signage rules, telling the council, “We really need to clean up our signage around town.”
Britton said city staff was more than willing to work with new businesses that want to use banners for short periods of time. However, some businesses had been using such temporary signs for years.
“We should be aiming for something a little bit better,” Britton said.
Engstrom liked the strategy that the planning commission recommended, noting that at first he had mixed emotions when the matter came up.
“We lose so many businesses every year,” said Engstrom, adding that he was in favor of doing everything possible to help them stay in business.
Parlet said he has a very serious problem with most of the city's business signage, but mostly because of signs that were in disrepair or otherwise not maintained. “People don't even realize how they're hurting their own business.”
He suggested they needed a broad plan on how to educate people about how important signs are.
Mattina moved to direct staff to send out the letter to business owners as recommended by the planning commission, with the council voting 5-0.
In other news, the council awarded a water tank repair and recoating project – which City Engineer Scott Harter said was one component of a larger multifaceted US Department of Agriculture-funded project – to Farr Construction of Sparks Nev. The bid was $948,262.
The council also awarded a bid for two new Public Works utility vehicles to Corning Ford for just over $82,500.
The winners of the annual holiday light contests were honored, and the council reappointed George Spurr to the Lake County Vector Control District Board; appointed Paula Duggan, Christine Hutt, Taira St. John and George Linn to the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Council; and appointed Suzanne Russell, Ann Blue and Cindy Ustrud to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
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.