LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In unanimous Tuesday night votes, the Lakeport City Council approved new sewer and water rates for city utility customers, an introductory lease for a portion of the Carnegie Library and a new crisis intervention program that partners police and a local nonprofit.
At the start of the meeting, Police Chief Brad Rasmussen introduced to the council his newest officer, Katie Hutchins, a Middletown High School graduate who graduated from the police academy and worked for Calistoga Police before starting work in Lakeport last week.
With Hutchins’ hire, Rasmussen said his department now has four female officers, the most in its history.
Her hire also has brought the department to full staffing, which “we have not been at for some significant time” due to hiring issues, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said that over the last 10 years, Lakeport Police — with 13 sworn personnel — has only hit its total number of officers one or two times and usually only stayed at full staffing for as little as 30 days.
Following Hutchins’ introduction, Councilwoman Mireya Turner presented a proclamation designating October 2021 Domestic Violence Awareness Month to members of the Lake Family Resource Center.
The council’s main item of business on Tuesday night was a public hearing on the proposal to increase water and sewer rates for city residents.
Chris Fisher of Willdan Financial Services, the consulting firm the city hired to lead it through the Proposition 218 process required for increasing utility costs, presented a report on the increases. Willdan had presented similar reports in May and August.
Fisher said Willdan’s staff has worked with the city staff on the study in order to prepare for the rate increases. “It’s been an exhausting but very productive process,” he said, adding they have done everything they can to take everything into consideration.
The primary goals of rate study are full cost recovery of utility expenditures, cost-based rate structure, equity among customer classes, administrative efficiency, a five year financial plan and Proposition 218 compliance, Fisher said.
From 2022 to 2026, the city of Lakeport is planning more than $7 million in capital utility projects — 41% in water and 59% in sewer facilities, Fisher said. From 2027 to 2031, the city plans another $7.5 million in projects, with 58% and 41% to go for water and sewer, respectively.
For every dollar of debt owed in utilities, Fisher said $1.20 is needed to pay for that debt.
Over the coming five years, Fisher said an average residential customer who uses 800 cubic feet of water per month, water and sewer rates combined are forecast to increase from $127.34 to $157.54 monthly.
In order to approve the new rates, the council had to hold a public hearing and receive any final written protests that hadn’t yet been submitted, as required by Proposition 218.
During that hearing, which lasted just three minutes, there were no protests submitted in person to the council or via email.
One Lakeport resident posted comments in the meeting’s Zoom chat speaking against the increases, but City Attorney David Ruderman said that was insufficient to meet the written protest requirements.
After the brief hearing was closed, City Clerk Kelly Buendia reported the protest tabulation to the council.
“Currently we have one valid protest and no other protests have come in,” said Buendia.
In order to have a sufficient number of protests to reach a majority and stop the utility increases, Nick Walker, the city’s finance director and assistant city manager, said the city would have had to receive 1,661 protests, or 50% plus one. Ruderman said that number is based on parcels.
Due to a nuance in city municipal code, the council will have to hold a second hearing for the water rates before Nov. 1, Walker said.
The city’s water system ordinance, adopted in 1954, requires that resolutions relating to the water enterprise have two readings, which is unlike how resolutions generally are handled. The city’s wastewater ordinance was revised in 2008 and does not contain the same restriction on adoption of resolutions.
The council approved the resolutions to increase water and sewer rates in unanimous votes.
City Manager Kevin Ingram asked the council if 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, would work for a special meeting to hold the second hearing on the water rates. The council agreed.
Once final approval on the water rates comes in next week’s hearing, the increases are set to go into effect on Nov. 1.
In other news on Tuesday, the council unanimously approved a one-year lease for the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, or CLERC, for the basement of the city’s historic Carnegie Library, at a monthly cost of $850.
During the first year, the city will cover electricity, water, sewer and trash while they determine how much it will cost for the building’s utilities.
Initially, CLERC will use the basement for its laboratory and administrative offices, Ingram said. In the future, the plans are to also move into the top floor, where repairs are still needed to the ceiling and lighting.
The council also gave unanimous support to Chief Rasmussen’s request to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Lake Family Resource Center for a Crisis Intervention Responder Program.
Rasmussen said Lake Family Resource Center will assign, and pay for, an intervention specialist who will team up primarily with the department’s homeless outreach officer to offer more appropriate and targeted services to people in crisis who need resources beyond what a police officer can provide.
The center has money to cover the program through December 2022, Rasmussen said.
He said the program’s details are still being finalized, with the agreement soon to be signed, with a goal of rolling out the program in November.
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