LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday evening gave the city's Public Works director approval to recruit for three positions and agreed to rescind an ordinance relating to sewer capacity that was no longer needed thanks to a new state permit.
Vice Mayor Tom Engstrom led the meeting Tuesday night, as Mayor Stacey Mattina was absent, as was Councilman Roy Parmentier.
Public Works Director Mark Brannigan asked the council – sitting as the board for the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District – for two items at the meeting.
The first was to rescind Resolution No. 2294, passed in April 2007, in response to a state water board cease and desist order over a treated wastewater release. Brannigan explained that the document set up guidelines for how reduced sewer system capacity would be managed.
Now, the city has a new waste discharge permit which has given it new sewer capacity, the cease and desist order has been lifted and Lakeport is back in good standing with the state water board, Brannigan said.
“It's very good news, thank you,” said Engstrom.
With the resolution no longer needed, the council agreed to rescind it.
Brannigan then presented his request to hire three new employees, which required the council to approve an exemption to the hiring freeze.
“Last fiscal year we had a series of positions that were frozen pending a reorganization and coming up with a balanced budget,” Brannigan said.
He said City Manager Margaret Silveira worked closely with Finance Director Dan Buffalo and “wore out” the department heads to come up with a balanced budget.
Just a few weeks ago a maintenance worker position was vacated, “which really just pushed the button,” causing Brannigan to take the matter to the council.
He said another position in the water department had been vacated last December, but he had held off on filling it – as he had done with the second maintenance worker position pending the budget approval and reorganization.
All of the positions are fully funded in the new budget, Brannigan said. “We're desperately in need of bodies to continue working out there,” he said.
Councilman Bob Rumfelt moved to approve the hiring freeze exemptions to let Brannigan recruit. Council member Suzanne Lyons seconded, with the council approving the request 3-0.
As part of a public hearing in which there was no public comment, Buffalo received the council's approval of the utility billing delinquency list and the associated resolution, and the council directed that the list be submitted to the Lake County Auditor-Controller's Office for inclusion on the property tax roll.
Buffalo said the city was trying to collect about $25,000 in delinquent water, sewer and trash fees from city customers.
Lyons asked if the list meant anything; Buffalo said it helped spur customers to make their payments.
Silveira said the delinquent fees will show up on the customers' property tax bills.
Lyons pointed out that one of the bills was particularly large – $10,000.
That customer Santa Rosa-based Donica LLC, which owns the Vista Point Shopping Center. “For whatever reason or purpose, that particular customer doesn't pay the bill,” Buffalo said.
In other business, the council unanimously approved the Forbes Creek Neighborhood Improvement Study and the submission of the HOME Investment Partnership Program application.
Also on Tuesday, council members heard presentations from county Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait on the Centers for Disease Control survey on emergency preparedness – coming up this fall – and from the Lakeport Main Street Association, which presented Cheri Holden of Watershed Books with the business of the year award.
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