LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lakeport Police Department is urging community members to be watchful in order to protect themselves against an increase in vehicle theft.
There has been an increase in license plate thefts throughout the county, the agency reported.
The stolen plates are being affixed to stolen vehicles or switched for plates from stolen vehicles, and some vehicle owners are not aware that they are falling victim to this until they are pulled over by police.
License plates are often stolen from those vehicles that closely resemble a stolen vehicle. Reporting your stolen license plate to law enforcement is not enough to combat these trends.
Stolen license plates that are reported to law enforcement are entered into the same database that is checked by Automated License Plate Reading cameras.
If you are still driving your vehicle with that one remaining plate, you are alerting these cameras every time you drive by them.
Car thieves are counting on this to draw attention away from them, police said.
How well do you know your license plate number? If you don't know it, you might want to check yours to ensure they belong to your vehicle.
It is important for vehicle owners to know what their license plate number is and to ensure that their front and rear license plates are for their vehicle.
You can also help by replacing that one remaining plate with a new set of license plates from the DMV.
The Lakeport Police Department said it will soon begin strictly enforcing California's two license plate requirement to better protect vehicles from theft, and speed up the recovery of vehicles that are ultimately stolen.
Deshawn Mills. Courtesy photo. CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The Clearlake Police Department is asking for the community’s help in locating a missing teenage boy.
Deshawn Mills, 13, was last seen on Tuesday in the area of Olympic Drive and Emerson Street.
He is described as a black male juvenile, 5 feet tall and 128 pounds.
He has brown eyes and black hair that is shaved on the sides and longer on top, sometimes worn in a man bun.
Police said he was last seen wearing a sweater and pants of unknown color and black crocs.
If you have any information regarding his whereabouts please contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251, Extension 1.
Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, announced legislation on Monday to create the Wildfire Mitigation Planning Act to better prevent and contain wildfires.
The bill would create a framework for evaluating wildfire mitigation investments taken by state, federal and private actors and better coordinate utility wildfire mitigation efforts across California to increase the overall effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of wildfire related investments.
“With this cycle of heavy rains and prolonged droughts, we cannot take our eyes off of the risks that major wildfires present to communities across the state,” Sen. Dodd said. “Wildfires don’t respect county lines or utility service areas, so we need a coordinated and comprehensive approach to keeping California safe. We’ve made a lot of progress in recent years, but climate change continues to compound challenges and underscores the need for us to be thoughtful about how we do the most good, as quickly as possible, with our investments.”
Catastrophic wildfires impose enormous costs on the state of California and its residents.
In the aftermath of the Camp fire, Sen. Dodd co-authored AB 1054, which created a framework for electric utilities to evaluate their wildfire risk and plan for their wildfire mitigation investments and activities, overseen by the Office of Electric Infrastructure Safety within the California Natural Resources Agency.
More recently, the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, a multiagency effort to identify needs and develop strategies to better manage wildfire risk, has produced plans to better manage wildfire risk.
Current spending on utility wildfire mitigation exceeds $10 billion per year while state budget wildfire expenditures have grown to $1.3 billion over two years.
Meanwhile the U.S. Forest Service recently announced major wildfire mitigation investments in California and other western states wildfire mitigation activities that will total $930 million.
No framework exists to evaluate how these multiple activities will interact and might be coordinated to maximize their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
The Wildfire Mitigation Planning Act would require the Office of Electric Infrastructure Safety to prepare a Wildfire Risk Mitigation Planning Framework every three years to quantify the potential benefits of actions taken by state and private actors to reduce wildfire risk.
The bill then requires that the Office of Electric Infrastructure Safety prepare a wildfire risk baseline and forecast on statewide baseline wildfire risk and risk mitigation potential over the next one to 10 years.
It would also mandate an annual wildfire mitigation scenarios report quantifying actual risk reduction from all actors and investments within the State of California.
Finally, Dodd’s measure empowers the Office of Electric Infrastructure Safety to coordinate utility spending with this planning framework in order to maximize the effectiveness of all investments related to wildfires being made within the State of California.
"Preventing catastrophic wildfire requires strong coordination between all of our investments,” said Michael Wara, interim policy director of the Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and director of Climate and Energy Policy Program and Senior Research Scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment. “Building on current efforts, this bill would create a planning structure to maximize the effectiveness of California's work to reduce the impacts of wildfire. As California spends more to prevent catastrophic wildfire, we should also make sure that these investments go as far as possible in keeping residents safe. This bill creates a planning structure that does just that and ensures that all our efforts are well coordinated."
The act, also known as Senate Bill 436, is expected to receive its first committee hearing and vote next month.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians have initiated a pilot program on Clear Lake to remove invasive carp and goldfish to benefit the Clear Lake hitch, also known as “chi.”
The Clear Lake hitch or chi is a large, native minnow found only in Clear Lake and its tributaries within Lake County.
Since 2014, the fish has been listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
An important cultural resource for Native American tribes within Lake County, Clear Lake hitch populations used to be seen in runs numbering in the tens of thousands.
Through permitting and $177,872 in grant funding from CDFW, Robinson Rancheria is leading the pilot research effort to study the effectiveness and benefits of removing nonnative carp and goldfish from Clear Lake.
The Robinson Rancheria contracted with the Minneapolis-based WSB engineering and environmental consulting firm to seine sections of Clear Lake from Feb. 3 through Feb. 11, to catch carp and goldfish.
Some of the carp and goldfish were kept for biological testing but most of the fish — including all nontarget sport fish — were returned to the lake unharmed as part of the feasibility study.
The timing of the project was chosen to coincide with the period when carp and goldfish form large aggregations in preparation for spawning for more efficient collection of target species and to minimize bycatch of other fishes. CDFW was on the water monitoring the effort.
Other partners include the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Lake County Water Resources Department.
Carp and goldfish are detrimental to Clear Lake hitch and their habitat in several ways, including predating on Clear Lake hitch eggs; disturbing and circulating nutrients in the lake that can reduce water clarity and foster harmful algal blooms in the summer; and inhibiting tule growth. Tule provide important rearing habitat for juvenile Clear Lake hitch.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council will hold a midyear budget review and consider an agreement to form a new county recreation agency this week.
The council will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive, for the midyear budget workshop before the regular portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m.
Comments and questions can be submitted in writing for City Council consideration by sending them to City Clerk Melissa Swanson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To give the council adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit your written comments before 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16.
Each public comment emailed to the city clerk will be read aloud by the mayor or a member of staff for up to three minutes or will be displayed on a screen. Public comment emails and town hall public comment submissions that are received after the beginning of the meeting will not be included in the record.
Following the council’s midyear budget workshop at 5 p.m., it will convene for the regular meeting, during which it will hear a presentation on February's adoptable dogs, present a proclamation declaring February 2023 as Black History Month and receive the Clearlake Police Department’s annual report.
Under council business, council members will consider approving an application to the county for direct sale of various tax defaulted properties for up to $150,000.
They also will consider a resolution approving, authorizing and directing the execution of a joint exercise of powers agreement among the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, and the county of Lake to form the Lake County Recreation Agency, with two council members to be appointed to serve on the agency’s board.
In other business, the council will consider updates to its norms and procedures and hold the first reading of an ordinance amending the municipal code relating to the method of service for property maintenance, nuisance and vehicle abatement.
On the meeting's consent agenda — items that are considered routine in nature and usually adopted on a single vote — are warrants; authorization of an amendment of design contract for the senior center project with California Engineering Co. in the amount of $10,594.61; minutes of the Jan. 11 Lake County Vector Control District Board meeting; minutes of the meetings on Dec. 1 and 8, 2022, and Jan. 5, 2023; approval of a professional services contract with SSA Landscape Architects for the Burns Valley Sports Complex Project; continuation of authorization to implement and utilize teleconference accessibility to conduct public meetings pursuant to Assembly Bill 361; authorization of job description for management analyst and placement into salary schedule; adoption of third amendment to the FY 2022-23 Budget (Resolution 2022-44) for midyear adjustments.
The council also will hold a closed session following the public portion of the meeting to discuss negotiations for a property at 14709 Palmer Ave.
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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an executive order to protect the state’s water supplies from the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather.
After years of prolonged drought, recent storms resulted in the wettest three-week period on record in California.
The storms have been followed by an unseasonably dry February, however, and the state could see a return to warm and dry conditions during the remaining weeks of the wet season — just as heavy rains in fall 2021 gave way to the driest January-February-March period in over 100 years.
While recent storms have helped replenish the state’s reservoirs and boosted snowpack, drought conditions continue to have significant impacts on communities with vulnerable water supplies, agriculture, and the environment.
The latest science indicates that hotter and drier weather conditions could reduce California’s water supply by up to 10% by the year 2040.
The frequency of hydrologic extremes that is being experienced in California demonstrates the need to continually adapt to promote resiliency in a changing climate.
To protect water supply and the environment given this new reality, and until it is clear what the remainder of the wet season will hold, the executive order includes provisions to protect water reserves, and replace and replenish the greater share of rain and snowfall that will be absorbed by thirstier soils, vegetation and the atmosphere.
The order helps expand the state’s capacity to capture storm runoff in wet years by facilitating groundwater recharge projects.
It also continues conservation measures and allows the State Water Board to reevaluate requirements for reservoir releases and diversion limitations to maximize water supplies north and south of the Delta while protecting the environment.
Additionally, the order directs state agencies to review and provide recommendations on the state’s drought response actions by the end of April, including the possibility of terminating specific emergency provisions that are no longer needed, once there is greater clarity about the hydrologic conditions this year.
Leveraging the more than $8.6 billion committed by Gov. Newsom and the Legislature in the last two budget cycles to build water resilience, the state is taking aggressive action to prepare for the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather on the state’s water supplies.
In the 2023-24 state budget, Gov. Newsom is proposing an additional $202 million for flood protection and $125 million for drought related actions.
LUCERNE, Calif. — While awaiting new appointments to the Lucerne Area Town Hall, a community meeting for Lucerne residents will be held this week.
The Lucerne community meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the multipurpose room at Lucerne Elementary School, 3351 Country Club Drive.
The meeting ID is 857 2312 7967, the passcode is 13931.
Kurt McKelvey, who has served as chair of the Lucerne Area Town Hall, will moderate the meeting.
The Board of Supervisors have yet to make new appointments to LATH. In response to questions about the delay in the appointments from both Lake County News and McKelvey, Supervisor EJ Crandell has not given a reason for why no action has been taken.
Those appointments, or the lack of them, will be an item for discussion at the Thursday meeting.
Another agenda topic will be the needed bridge repair on Foothill Drive, between Dunston Drive and Robinson Road.
They also are scheduled to discuss a petition to the Board of Supervisors regarding the Lucerne Area Town Hall’s Resolution A0004, passed in December, condemning the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ proposal to use the Lucerne Hotel for housing for homeless youth and young adults.
Other discussion items include the formation of a community service district for Lucerne and the larger Northshore area and additional topics community members recommend pertaining to the community of Lucerne.
Mirror case, ivory, a Lady Crowning her Lover, Paris, France, ca. 1300. Victoria and Albert Museum
For Valentine’s Day, some couples only roll their eyes at each other in mutual cynicism. The capitalisation of love in the modern world can certainly seem banal.
But Valentine’s Day gifts are hardly a contemporary invention. People have been celebrating the day and gifting love tokens for hundreds of years.
We should first turn to Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th-century poet, civil servant and keen European traveller. Chaucer’s poem from the 1380s, The Parliament of Fowls, is held to be the first reference to February 14 as a day about love.
This day was already a feast day of several mysterious early Roman martyred Saint Valentines, but Chaucer described it as a day for people to choose their lovers. He knew that was easier said than done.
The narrator of the poem is unsuccessful in love, despairing that life is short compared with how long it takes to learn to love well. He falls asleep and dreams of a garden in which all the different birds of the world have gathered.
Nature explains to the assembled flocks that, like every year on St Valentine’s Day, they have come to pick their partners in accordance with her rules. But this process causes confusion and debate: the birds can’t agree what it means to follow her rules because they all value different things in their partners.
Like today, in Chaucer’s time gift-giving could be highly ritualised and symbolise intention and commitment. In Old and Middle English, a “wed” was any sort of token pledged to guarantee a promise. It was not until the 13th century that a “wedding” came to mean a nuptial ceremony.
The same period saw marriage transform into a Christianised and unbreakable commitment (a sacrament of the Church). New conventions of love developed in songs, stories and other types of art.
These conventions influenced broader cultural ideas of emotion: love letters were written, grand acts of service were celebrated, and tokens of love were given.
Rings, brooches, girdles (belts), gloves, gauntlets (sleeves), kerchiefs or other personalised textiles, combs, mirrors, purses, boxes, vessels and pictures – and even fish – are just some examples of romantic gifts recorded from the late middle ages.
Posy rings, such as this one from 1500-1530, were often given as love gifts, betrothal and wedding rings.Victoria and Albert Museum
In stories, gifts could be imbued with magical powers. In the 13th century, in a history of the world, Rudolf von Ems recorded how Moses, when obliged to return home and leave his first wife Tharbis, an Ethiopian princess, had two rings made.
The one he gave her would cause Tharbis to forget him. He always wore its pair which kept her memory forever fresh in his mind.
Illustration from a World Chronicle of Moses giving Tharbis the Forgetting Ring, c1400-1410.J. Paul Getty Museum
Outside of stories, gifts could have legal significance: wedding rings, important from the 13th century, could prove that a marriage had occurred by evidencing the intention and consent of the giver and recipient.
The art of loving
Like Chaucer, 20th-century German psychologist Erich Fromm thought people could learn the art of loving. Fromm thought love was an act of giving not just material things, but one’s joy, interest, understanding, knowledge, humour and sadness.
While these gifts might take some time and practice, there are more straightforward ideas from history. Manufactured cards have dominated since the industrial revolution, taking their place alongside other now traditional presents such as flowers, jewellery, intimate apparel and consumables (now more often chocolates than fish). All can be personalised for that intimate touch.
A Valentine’s Day card from 1836.Bequeathed by Guy Tristram Little, Victoria and Albert Museum
There have, of course, been weirder examples of love gifts, such as Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton exchanging necklaces with silver pendants smeared with each other’s blood.
Artist Dora Maar was so upset when her notoriously bad lover Pablo Picasso complained about having to trade a painting for a ruby ring she immediately threw the ring in the Seine. Picasso soon replaced it with another, this one featuring Maar’s portrait.
A good love token can long outlast the feelings that prompt its giving: a flower pressed in a book, a trinket at the bottom of a box, a fading heartfelt card or a bittersweet song that jolts you back to an earlier time. In this way, the meaning of gifts can change as they become reminders that all things pass.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors discussed a report commissioned by the county on indigent defense services and considered a plan to make sure that the constitutional rights of criminal defendants in the local courts are being protected.
In August 2021, the county hired the Boston-based Sixth Amendment Center, or 6AC, a national nonpartisan nonprofit, to conduct an operational analysis of indigent defense services.
The work included observing 170 proceedings in Lake County Superior Court and interviewing stakeholders in the judiciary, indigent defense — including the contractor — as well as prosecutors and law enforcement.
The report concludes that the county’s provision of public defender services and funding lacks accountability and oversight.
It notes that while the U.S. Constitution holds the state of California responsible for ensuring adequate funding for counsel under the Sixth and 14th Amendments, California has delegated that responsibility to the counties in what has become an unfunded mandate.
The study recommends the county advocate for the state to form a legislative or gubernatorial committee to study and make recommendations “on how best to fulfill the state’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment responsibilities to ensure that each indigent defendant who faces the possible loss of liberty in a criminal or juvenile delinquency case receives effective assistance of counsel,” according to a staff report to the board.
It also recommends the Board of Supervisors establish and fund the operation of a nonpartisan independent commission to oversee all aspects of indigent representation services.
Ultimately, the report concludes that the Board of Supervisors should immediately establish an office of indigent representation services to carry out the day-to-day duties of the commission, headed by an executive director attorney selected by the commission.
Criticisms of the report during Tuesday’s meeting included that 6AC usually makes such recommendations to establish public defenders offices.
One of the report’s more puzzling aspects is its focus on Lake County’s property tax revenues, which it used to argue that Lake County has financial challenges that warrant state funding.
That’s despite the fact that the County Administrative Office and the Board of Supervisors used those same property tax revenue figures when moving forward on $21 million in raises over a 13-month period in 2020 and 2021.
Additionally, strong property tax revenues were cited by the County Administrative Office in December when the supervisors approved giving themselves a 40% raise.
The indigent defense services contract model
Since 2017, the county has contracted for indigent defense services with Lake Indigent Defense, or LID.
Andrea Sullivan, wife of newly elected county Treasurer-Tax Collector Patrick Sullivan, originally founded LID with partner J. David Markham, who has since left to become a Lake County Superior Court judge.
Attorney Mitchell Hauptman followed him as an administrator, working along with Sullivan, but he has also since retired, and now Sullivan administers the contract with Thomas Feimer, who like Sullivan also is a public defender, both handling full caseloads.
The 6AC report was released publicly on Jan. 30, before LID had a chance to review or respond to it.
That timing puts it just ahead of the sunset of the indigent defense contract in March. “We are in negotiations to extend the contract,” and are entering “the crucial negotiation phase,” Feimer said.
He said they are discussing what changes can be made to address the county’s concerns while securing better services and resources not only for their clients but also for their contract attorneys.
One of several criticisms offered by Sullivan was that while the report talks about problems, it doesn't address actual outcomes for LID clients, who represent more than 95% criminal defendants in Lake County Superior Court.
She said LID’s attorneys have helped Lake County achieve a ranking of 13 highest among California’s 58 counties for the number of case dismissals while being in the bottom third for felony convictions.
Sullivan told Lake County News that the total contract is now $1.8 million annually. She told the board on Tuesday that the cost to have a full public defender’s office is estimated at more than $4 million per year.
She said each individual attorney is an independent contractor and must pay for their office space, bar dues, office supplies and malpractice insurance.
Felony contract attorneys started at a flat monthly fee of $6,500, and the LID administrators then bump up pay for longevity, topping out at $8,750. Realistically, in today's market, Sullivan said it would be difficult to recruit attorneys at that highest contract rate.
Misdemeanors contract attorneys started out at $5,000, and received increases for longevity, topping at $6,250, Sullivan said.
Two of the 6AC recommendations are in line with the county’s past practices when it comes to indigent defense services.
The county has a Public Defender Oversight Committee, but it hasn’t met since 2018. Before that, it had been very active for years.
Sullivan said that committee met at least twice after LID took over the contract. She said it was the county’s committee. “For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, it stopped at about 2018.”
The County Administrative Office did not provide a definitive answer to Lake County News’ questions about why those meetings stopped.
The county also previously had a public defender’s office in the early 1980s. One of the attorneys hired to work in that office was Richard Martin, later a Superior Court judge. He told Lake County News in a 2017 interview that the office had been located in what is now the Historic Courthouse Museum in downtown Lakeport.
Kelly Cox, who retired in 2012 after three decades as Lake County’s administrative officer, confirmed that the public defender’s office had been established in the early 1980s and that Martin had been hired to work there shortly after it was established.
“It was eliminated just a couple of years later due to high costs,” Cox said. “Because the in-house attorneys declared so many conflicts, the county still had to utilize a lot of outside appointed counsel.”
Cox continued, “The whole reason the department was established was to avoid appointment of outside counsel, but that never really happened so the county ended up spending twice as much on public defender services. There was no sign that would change so the in-house department was eliminated in favor of contracts with individual attorneys who operated independently and didn’t have as many conflicts. Eventually the county transitioned to a master contract system, which is still in effect. It saved hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.”
Returning to that model is what the 6AC report suggests. Feimer said the nonprofit’s other reports usually suggest creating a statutory public defender’s office.
“That’s not really an action that’s in the cards budgetarily right now,” he said, although Feimer acknowledged that there are issues to be addressed, including the caseloads and salaries of attorneys who work for LID, and the need for at least two more attorneys. He said they recently lost a very good attorney to Mendocino County, which has better pay and benefits.
One of the challenges has been that as their caseloads have grown, the contracting attorneys haven’t been able to pursue as many outside cases as they are allowed to do. That flexibility has been used as a benefit, but increasingly they are treated like they are full-time and exclusive to the contract, and little accommodation is given by the courts to their outside commitments, Feimer said.
Despite the challenges with pay and workload, Sullivan said LID’s turnover has been relatively low and very stable, and the people they’ve recruited have become very successful in Lake County.
Supervisors consider report
During a Tuesday morning discussion, County Administrative Officer Susan Parker introduced the report and went over its key findings and recommendations with the Board of Supervisors.
Parker said there has been a failure to manage the contract. In her opinion, she said that failure fell within the responsibility of the county administration, but she later clarified that it was a failure of capacity and knowledge on how to manage such a contract.
Sullivan and Feimer were on hand to address their concerns with the report, including mistakes such as a statement that two felony defenders have no criminal experience, which Sulivan said is “blatantly not true.”
They also questioned 6AC’s conclusion that LID paying its subcontractors a monthly flat fee results “in a system-wide conflict of interest between each and every indigent person’s interest in their constitutionally guaranteed right to effective representation and the personal financial interest of the attorney appointed to represent them, leading to the constructive denial of the right to counsel to some indigent people in Lake County.”
“A flat fee by another name would be a salary,” said Sullivan.
Supervisor Michael Green said he sees a need for “increased oversight and understanding,” adding that he believed it was the responsibility of the state’s Judicial Council and the courts to make sure the system is working appropriately.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he would like to see a recommendation brought back to the board on what oversight looks like and who would be involved.
Sabatier said the county paid for the report’s comments and recommendations. “I don’t think their findings are too far off of what is happening.”
The board reached consensus to direct staff to develop and implement a plan to improve public defender services.
County counsel offers recommendations
Following that discussion, County Counsel Anita Grant and her deputy, Carlos Torrez, offered suggestions on the next steps the county could take in its ongoing review of indigent defense services.
Grant said that the report, more than 100 pages in length, gave barely three pages of recommendations. “Criticism is easy. Constructing improvements is much more difficult.”
Noting that the county has had a public defender oversight committee, Grant suggested it could be more robust and involve people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. She said those individuals could give the board more information on the system in a real and practical way, helping it to understand the challenges and hurdles.
Grant and Torrez also recommended retaining the services of a former public defender to ensure comprehensive provision of indigent services, someone who is on the ground and will roll up their sleeves and get to work.
She said they had a person in mind, a retired public defender who Grant said is one of the most dynamic people she’s ever spoken to.
Later in the discussion, Torrez identified that individual as Jose Varela, the retired chief public defender of Marin County. After he retired in March 2021, he was hailed by the Marin County Bar Association as a “transformational leader.”
Torrez said that the County Counsel’s Office had spoken to Varela during the course of its work over the past several months to explore, at the board’s direction, how to support and improve LID’s services.
He said they had reached out both to active chief public defenders and recently retired chief public defenders because no one would have as much knowledge. Everyone they contacted offered help and suggestions, and wanted to help Lake County do better.
Most helpful of all has been Varela, who held the chief public defender job in Marin County for 16 years before retirement. He now leads trainings, Torrez said.
Torrez said Varela is willing to help the county under a service agreement.
“We don't always know what we don't know. We're county counsel. We handle civil issues all day long but criminal are a different animal and so we only know so much,” said Torrez, adding that it's important that they refer to someone who knows the system.
The County Counsel’s Office also has been in touch with the state public defender’s office, which has been incredibly helpful and helped them with grant opportunities. Altogether, the County Counsel’s Office has received three grants totaling more than $1.3 million, and Torrez said they want to boost the amount of money needed to help the indigent defense program.
“We’re continually having conversations with the state. We’re continually looking at new opportunities for new funding. Ideally, we want to work with our partners in LID because we understand the attorneys at work with them now, they’re going to be our attorneys going forward,” said Torrez.
He said the county wants to support those attorneys and help them do the best they possibly can so that another report like 6AC’s won’t be warranted again.
“No one wants to see their county described like ours was,” he said.
However, he added, “It’s not a surprise,” noting that every report that 6AC does has similar outcomes.”
Torrez said, however, that it makes sense. “There’s a reason we commissioned it. There’s a reason they had the findings that they did. But because of that, we’re all moving in the right direction to help fix it.”
Grant said she and her staff wanted to bring back a list of actions that can be done immediately, as well as longer range goals.
Torrez added that he believed a stronger public defender system will improve the District Attorney’s Office as well.
Sullivan told the board that what the report and county counsel failed to mention is the elephant in the room — that the independent contractor model is what the current system is built on.
If the county wants more direct oversight, at a certain point the subcontractors are going to be employees, and that comes with additional costs, Sullivan said.
“You say you want more oversight, but what does that fundamentally mean?” she asked, explaining that they are paying their subcontractors two-thirds of comparable counties.
Sullivan said they were tiptoeing around the matter when they needed to address it head on.
Grant said the board will have to develop a plan as they get more information, data and reporting. Hopefully, she added, with the assistance of the consultant, they can get an idea of priorities.
Green said he didn’t think the independent contractor model is the right model for public defenders.
While he thanked the LID partners for what they’ve done under the current model, “I think that definitely a pivot is forthcoming, expensive as it might be,” Green said.
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.
From left, Rick Mayo, Lake County NAACP branch president and co-founder; Ida Johnson, Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference assistant secretary; David D. Smith, the Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference Area director; a Lamont Kucer and Andrew Pierson of Foods, Etc.; and Lynette Kirkwood, branch executive member in Clearlake, California, at a Silver Life membership plaque to the store on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — On Thursday, the Lake County NAACP branch bestowed a unique honor on a local business.
NAACP Board members, led by Rick Mayo, the branch president and co-founder, presented Lamont Kucer and Andrew Pierson of Foods, Etc. in Clearlake with a Silver Life membership plaque.
Mayo was joined by Bessie Bell, branch treasurer and Legal Redress Chair; Lynette Kirkwood, branch executive member; Aqeela Markowski, life member and past president; David D. Smith, the Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference Area director; Ida Johnson, Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference assistant secretary; James Black, NAACP member; Greta Zeit, NAACP Lake County Branch secretary; and Andrew Kucer, Lamont Kucer’s father.
Not in attendance was Dennis Darling, Foods, Etc.’s founder, who was out of town.
The NAACP credited Foods, Etc.’s record of embracing diversity in its hiring and community practices.
Mayo said Foods, Etc. is the NAACP branch’s only life membership business organization, but they have other businesses that are members, including Lakeview Market in Lucerne and the Red and White Market in Clearlake Oaks.
He said there also are 29 total life members of the branch.
From left, Rick Mayo, Lake County NAACP branch president and co-founder; Ida Johnson, Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference assistant secretary; David D. Smith, the Cal-Hawaii NAACP State Conference Area director; Aqeela Markowski, life member and past president (kneeling); Andrew Pierson of Foods, Etc.; Lamont Kucer of Foods, Etc.; Andrew Kucer, Lamont Kucer’s father; Lynette Kirkwood, branch executive member; and James Black, NAACP member at a Silver Life membership plaque to the store on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. Bell, who said she’s been shopping at the store since 1979, pointed out how the store hires young people who are still in school, giving them an opportunity to have a job. And she pointed to their welcoming of people of all ethnic backgrounds.
“They don’t care who you are,” she said, and they treat people kindly and are responsible.
She said they are grateful for the business’ service. “This is a good store.”
“We’re happy to help and to be part of it for the next 30 years,” Lamont Kucer said.
Johnson, whose father, Gilbert P. Gray, worked with Mayo to found the local branch in 1982 as well as the branch in Santa Rosa, where he was a respected community member, said the work of the NAACP takes place at the local level, noting the local members are the “worker bees” and inviting people to take part.
“The work starts here,” she said.
The event took place just days ahead of the NAACP’s anniversary on Sunday.
The organization was founded on Feb. 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln.
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.
NAACP branch members Bessie Bell (left) and Greta Zeit, who also serves as branch secretary, also were on hand to honor Foods, Etc., at a Silver Life membership plaque to the store on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors is set to discuss the county’s indigent defense services and consider ways to improve them in order to ensure the constitutional rights of individuals facing criminal cases in the Lake County Superior Court.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 982 4526 2136, pass code 099773. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16694449171,,98245262136#,,,,*099773#.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
In an untimed item, the board will discuss the organizational analysis of indigent services report entitled “The Right to Counsel in Lake County, California,” completed by Sixth Amendment Center, or 6AC. The organization completed the analysis after the board approved an agreement with it in August 2021.
The report for the meeting explains that 6AC “observed approximately 170 court proceedings, involving indigent representation attorneys in the Lake County Superior Court in all critical stages of an adult trial level criminal case. In addition, 6AC also interviewed stakeholders in the judiciary, indigent defense, prosecution, and law enforcement.”
The result is that 6AC found an overall lack of accountability and oversight in Lake County’s provision of public defender services and funding.
It recommends the county advocate the state to study and make recommendations about how best to fulfill the state’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment responsibilities to ensure that each indigent defendant receives effective assistance of counsel; that he supervisors should establish a nonpartisan independent commission to oversee all aspects of indigent representation services and should fund the operations of the commission and the implementation of the methods and standards it adopts; and that an office of indigent representation services be established immediately.
In a followup item, the board will consider initial steps in the county’s ongoing review of the provision of legal services for indigent criminal defendants presented by County Counsel Anita Grant and Deputy County Counsel Carlos Torrez.
Grant and Torrez’s recommendations including reconstitute the Public Defender Advisory Committee; initiating and developing a community-based approach to criminal defense services, utilizing the services of Lake County Behavioral Health, Lake County Social Services and numerous service-based groups in the County; retain the services of a former public defender to assist the county in ensuring the comprehensive provision of indigent defense services; and continue to pursue grant funding to initiate any desired improvements to the indigent defense system.
In timed items on Tuesday, at 9:10 a.m. the supervisors will present aproclamation designating the month of February 2023 as Black History Month and celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday, and at 9:20 a.m. they will hold a Brown Act “refresher” and related changes in the law effective in 2023.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Approve letter of support for Assembly Bill 297 – “Wildfires: Local Assistance Grant Program: Advance Payments,” and authorize the chair to sign.
5.2: (a) Approve revisions of Personnel Rule 1801, Holidays: Adding Juneteenth as a county paid holiday; (b) approve a side letter to Lake County Correctional Officers Association Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (c) approve a side letter to Lake County Deputy District Attorney’s Association Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (d) approve a side letter to Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (e) approve a side letter to Lake County Employees Association Units #3, #4, #5 Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (f) approve a side letter to Lake County Safety Employees Association Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (g) approve a side letter to Lake County Sheriff’s Management Association Nov. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025 MOU; (h) adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2021-122 establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to the Confidential Unit, Section A, for Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025; (i) adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2021-123 establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to the Confidential Unit, Section B, for Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025; adopt resolution amending Resolution No.2021-124 establishing salaries and benefits for management employees for the period from Nov. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025.
5.3: Approve long distance travel for Auditor Controller/Clerk Jenavive Herrington to attend GFOA Advanced Governmental Accounting training in Chicago, Illinois, from March 21 to 23, 2023.
5.4: Adopt proclamation designating the month of February 2023 as Black History Month and celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday.
5.5: Approve first amendment of agreement between the county of Lake and TruePoint Solutions for as-needed permitting software services for and increase of $19,965.00, and authorize the chair to sign.
5.6: Approve agreement between the county of Lake and Liebert Cassidy Whitmore for training and consultation regarding employee-related matters and authorize the chair to sign.
5.7: Approve late travel claim for Health Services staff Carol Morgan in the amount of $339.87.
5.8: Approve Amendment No. 3 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Management Connections for temporary clerical personnel in the County of Lake Human Resources Office to amend the minimum hourly rate of compensation and authorize chair to sign.
5.9: Approve amendment one to agreement between the county of Lake and Track Group to provide electronic monitoring and associated services for an amount not to exceed $75,000, and authorize the chair to sign.
5.10: Approve purchase orders for the purchase of two vehicles for the Central Garage Fleet at revised prices, and authorize the Public Works director/assistant purchasing agent to sign the purchase orders.
5.11: Approve allocation agreement for the Medi-Cal Health Enrollment Navigators Project between county of Lake, Department of Social Services, and state of California, Department of Health Care Services in the amount of $126,000 for the term of Oct. 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026, and authorize the chair to sign.
5.12: Approve contract between county of Lake and the Regents of the University of California for training services, in the amount of $339,915 from Jan. 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, and authorize the chair to sign.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of February 2023 as Black History Month and celebrating Martin Luther King's Birthday.
6.3, 9:20 a.m.: Presentation of a Brown Act “refresher” and related changes in the law effective in 2023.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: 2022-23 Mid-Year Budget: (a) Consideration of resolution amending Resolution No. 2022-118 to amend the FY 2022-23 Adopted Budget by adjusting reserves, fund balance carry over, revenues, and appropriations; (b) consideration of resolution amending Resolution 2022-119 to amend the position allocations for FY 2022-23 to conform to the mid-year budget adjustments; and (c) consideration of resolution amending adopted budget for FY 2022-23 to establish Fund 74-John T. Klaus Park, Budget Unit 7074-John T. Klaus Park.
7.3: Overview and discussion of the organizational analysis of indigent services report entitled “The Right to Counsel in Lake County, California.”
7.4: Presentation of initial steps in the county’s ongoing review of the provision of legal services for indigent criminal defendants.
7.5. Consideration of the following Advisory Board Appointments: Animal Care and Control Advisory Board, Child Care Planning and Development Council, Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee and Scotts Valley Community Advisory Council.
7.6: Presentation of update on planning services contract between the county of Lake and LACO Associates for processing cannabis-related use permit applications.
7.7: Consideration of the following resolutions to correct benefit language as required by CalPERS: a) resolution amending Resolution 2020-149 and Resolution 2021-122 establishing salary and benefits for Confidential Unit, Section A, for the periods of Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021, and Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025; b) resolution amending Resolution 2020-150 and Resolution 2021-123 establishing salary and benefits for Confidential Unit, Section B, for the periods of Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021, and Oct. 21, 2021, to June 30, 2025; c) resolution amending Resolution 2020-151 and Resolution 2021-124 establishing salary and benefits for management employees for the periods of Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025; d) resolution amending the memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Sheriff’s Management Association and the county of Lake for the periods of Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021, and Nov. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025.
7.8: Consideration of conceptual approval for the purchase of real property for a Cobb area community park and appoint a negotiating team.
7.9: Consideration of Lake County Social Services CalFresh & Medi-Cal Program Update.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(1), Citizens for Environmental Protection and Responsible Planning, et al. v. County of Lake, et al.
8.2: Public employee evaluation: Social Services Director Crystal Markytan.
8.3: Public Employee Evaluation: Air Pollution Control Officer Douglas Gearhart.
8.4: Public Employee Evaluation: Agricultural Commissioner Katherine Vanderwall.
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.
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