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Lakeport and Clearlake City Councils mark new chapter with women majorities, new goals
In Clearlake, a sweeping change saw incumbent Mayor David Claffey and council members Joyce Overton and Russell Perdock voted out of office. They were replaced by Realtor Jessica Hooten, adult education specialist Mary Wilson, and school secretary and softball coach Tara Downey.
The new Clearlake City Council selected Councilmember Russ Cremer as the mayor and Councilmember Dirk Slooten as the vice mayor.
While Clearlake experienced significant changes in its City Council, Lakeport maintained continuity, with all incumbents re-elected except for Mayor Michael Froio.
Joining the council is Christina Price, a Realtor and the former District 4 representative on the Lake County Planning Commission, who secured the most votes to earn a four-year term.
Grocery store owner Kenny Parlet and county employee Kim Costa will extend their tenures for another four years, while recreational business owner Brandon Disney will serve a two-year term.
The new Lakeport City Council selected Costa—who served as the mayor pro tem for 2024 — as the new mayor and Disney the new mayor pro tem.
Women council members lead the majority
With the new elects taking office, both City Councils now have a female majority.
For Clearlake, it’s a comeback.
“We have had a woman majority a couple of times: in 2012, Jeri Spittler, Gina Fortino Dickson, Joyce Overton and Denise Loustalot were on together," Clearlake City Clerk Melissa Swanson wrote in an email. “That lasted until 2016.”
“I hope they see this as something that is inspiring to see so many women in politics and in leadership roles,” Clearlake Councilmember Downey said.
For Lakeport, it’s historical.
“This is the first time there has been a female majority,” said Lakeport Deputy City Clerk Hilary Britton. “As far as I could find, Olga Hudson was the first female council member, elected in 1952.”
“I feel that it's a very exciting time to be a woman, and not only a woman, but a mom and a woman of power,” said Lakeport Councilmember Price.
For Councilmember Costa, a program manager at the county’s Department of Social Services, “It’s not really unusual for me at all to have been on a leadership team that is completely female.”
She added, “I hope that there wouldn't be a female or male point of view that would dominate anything. I just hope people can have a nice mix.”
Lake County News has reached out to all seven newly elected and re-elected council members — four from Lakeport and three from Clearlake—for their thoughts on the upcoming term.
Among them, Lakeport’s Christina Price, Kim Costa, and Brandon Disney, along with Clearlake’s Tara Downey, shared their insights during phone interviews.
Councilmembers Kenny Parlet of Lakeport), and Mary Wilson and Jessica Hooten of Clearlake did not respond to interview requests.
Here’s what Price, Costa, Disney, and Downey had to say about their upcoming term on the council.
Christina Price of Lakeport
Price was the only non-incumbent to win a seat on the Lakeport City Council and emerged as the top candidate, securing 944 votes, or 22.37% of the total.
“That was my first elected position,” Price told Lake County News. “It’s kind of a confidence boost, knowing that you’re chosen by the people.”
Price has been a licensed real estate broker since 2014 and served as the county’s District 4 planning commissioner since 2019. Her candidacy in running for the City Council was endorsed by the Lake County Democratic Party.
Price attended her last planning commission hearing on Dec 12, five days before she was sworn into office at Lakeport City Council.
As an incoming council member, Price said she would like to revisit some “older topics” such as the South Main Paving Project which will resume in the spring and the community center project which started in 2019 and recently received a new grant.
“I think we should reevaluate, come up with a deadline to really stop pushing the goalpost and really just kind of make sure that we can have a deadline, and really get the community center up and running,” Price said.
“There are some things that we should kind of clear off of our plate before we start adding new stuff to it,” Price said of completing some existing projects.
Some of her new goals include organizing volunteer groups to clear up trash and beautify the neighborhoods, and tackle empty buildings that are “eyesores” to improve the local economy.
For owners who “have allowed their buildings to sit empty for three to five to 10 years,” Price said she would want to have them either lower their rents, or “we're going to have some type of penalty.”
She also plans to collaborate with the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee to provide training to business owners in need.
Kim Costa of Lakeport
Appointed in December 2022, Costa has now served on the Lakeport City Council for two years. With 842 votes, or 19.96% of the total, she has secured a seat on the council for the next four years.
For Costa, the past two years have been a learning experience: “learning how city government operates and trying to find what’s genuine and effective and how to go about doing this role in a good way,” she said in a phone call. “And I’m still learning that.”
She has also realized the difficulty in achieving consensus, from agenda setting to voting.
Speaking of council members having their own priorities, “none of that's going to get done if we don't end up voting together toward any of those things,” Costa said. “So I think one general challenge, not just for me, but for the work, is finding ways to get the topic on the council's mind so that we can have that conversation and vote.”
Costa found a difference in the way things are done in a City Council from that in her regular job as a program manager for the county.
“Even though that’s a bureaucracy, you know — everybody reports to somebody — I have some direct ability to directly influence things,” Costa said of her leadership role in the Department of Social Services.
But on the council, “you are one of five,” said Costa of working with council members with different priorities. “It’s just more political … It’s just a different way of getting things done.”
Costa said she wants to improve public engagement in the council’s decision making process.
“What frustrates me to no end is when the voice of the residents seem to be lacking from that whole equation, when token efforts are made.” Costa said, explaining that elected officials at various government levels may hear public and stakeholders’ comments and still go their own way.
“Just going they say, ‘thus it shall be’ — I find that incredibly frustrating,” Costa said, adding that she’s not calling out to a specific government.
Costa recalled a land use decision that she herself was involved as a resident. Before she was aware, “It’s already at the planning commission. The developers have already worked through it,” she said. “And really, there isn’t a lot that the resident can do to participate.”
Costa said one of her early goals in the new term is to “reset a little about how council meetings go.”
For now, “they get their three minutes and they got to go away,” she said.
Costa said she wants to inform residents early and make the council meeting more “interactive.”
But how to better inform the public about things that may impact them?
“Maybe we should just go start knocking on doors,” said Costa and laughed. “I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I think it might be a little more person-to-person than a notice in the newspaper.”
In the long run, Costa said her major “big-picture” goal is housing.
“Very low income, high density builds is what the state of California demands and subsidizes,” Costa said. “Assistance to build homes for professionals or moderate income families is not there.”
Such a “one-size-fits-all” policy, Costa said, “doesn’t fit little Lakeport and we’re stuck with these.”
Costa found that housing projects in Lakeport are already reflecting what the state would pay for.
“There’s not enough housing for such as doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers. It is very difficult for them to find housing,” said Costa.
She went on to explain that the local housing shortage for professionals, which makes recruitment and retention more difficult, will hurt the local economy eventually.
“So one of my concerns is to try to figure out creative ways to get that other kind of housing that we need,” Costa said.
Brandon Disney of Lakeport
Like Costa, Disney was appointed at the end of 2022 and has served on the City Council for two years. He has won the seat as the sole candidate running for the two-year position.
Disney told Lake County News that the decision to run for the two-year position was out of consideration for his young family.
“I always want to put my kids first,” he said of the flexibility of a shorter commitment.
Disney runs Disney’s Boat Rentals, a family-owned local recreational business, has a degree in recreation and serves as the vice chair of the Lake County Recreation Agency.
“Recreation and opportunities for youth and adults is a big priority for myself on the council,” he said.
In his recreation bucket list, Disney said he would like to hire a recreation coordinator to handle classes and events, and organize holiday camps for children, which will rely on the city’s general fund.
Disney also said that a Lake County Recreation Agency study shows that “a vast majority of the county wants a public pool to be available again, and I would love to have that in Lakeport.”
What does a public pool possibly cost?
“The pool could be as, you know, luxurious or as basic as you want,” Disney responded, providing a rough estimate from as high as $20 million which is “out of reach for now” to $5 million which is “a little more attainable.”
“That's another huge goal of mine, and that is a much more expensive goal that would rely heavily on grant funding and donations, because we can't do it alone,” Disney said.
Besides recreation, Disney also wanted to improve “business retention and attraction” at downtown Lakeport.
“I would like to at least look into a retail-only ordinance,” Disney said. “Like the sidewalk-facing businesses — it doesn’t necessarily apply to the second story — would be retail focused.”
“When we have businesses in our walkable downtown that are real estate and law firms,” he continued, “some of these types of businesses aren’t very tourist-friendly.”
While he thought any business is better than a vacant business, it is also important to have the right businesses that “make a downtown feel vibrant.”
Disney mentioned that the city has kicked out a “vacant building registry” that could impose some penalties on property owners who keep their buildings empty for too long.
So his other goal would be “getting some of these vacant storefronts filled by means of going through the building owner,” said Disney.
Another priority for Disney would be infrastructure.
“We want to have nice roads to drive on which kind of goes back to my whole priority is visitors and having a vibrant community,” he said.
While Disney has a long list of goals, how many of those does he think can be realistically accomplished?
“The thing that I've learned with government is — it's slow. Just because I have this big list doesn't mean that it's going to get accomplished in the two years — a lot of it won't,” Disney said admittedly. “But what it will do is it'll lay a good groundwork, and it'll continue the progress.”
He continued: “I don't think that me, personally or anybody on the council, would be able to take one of these items and speed it along if we really put a ton of effort into it, because there is just a lot of red tape; There's a big, long process that you have to go through.”
Tara Downey of Clearlake
Downey won a seat on the Clearlake City Council with 1,262 votes, or 14.4% of the total.
“This is my first time being somewhat like, you know, in politics,” said Downey, who works at Lower Lake High School.
“I’m actually flattered and honored that the people voted for me,” Downey said. “I have to put it to good work."
As a school employee and a mother of two, Downey said her priorities largely revolve around youth and community activities.
“It would be great to see us move forward with our sports complex,” said Downey of the Youth Sports Complex project that is proposed to be built on 25 acres behind the Burns Valley Mall.
This project started with a property purchase in 2020 and the initial study estimated the cost to be about $8 million, which later became $12 million to $15 million for the complex itself with another $18.7 million for construction, as Lake County News reported.
The project has stalled since 2023 as a result of ongoing litigation and surging costs.
“Due to lengthy legal proceedings, the project is now at risk due to delays and cost increases," the city’s webpage on the project reports.
Downey also planned to work on “getting a community pool.”
“So we have a safe place for people to swim,” she said. “I want them to grow up in a place that they’re proud of and you know, they’re gonna have memories of going to the pool every summer and having fun and swimming with their friends.”
Downey said animal control is “a big problem in Clearlake” which will also be one of her priorities.
As a new council member, “It’ll just take maybe a little bit to kind of scope it out,” said Downey. “But I’m a quick learner and I’m ready to do what it takes to stand by the people and the community.”
Downey said the school’s softball team is greasing up for another season, and people have been asking how she would handle the two jobs at the same time.
“I have a game plan for that,” she said. “If I’m missing, someone else is there for me, in place of me.”
At 34, Downey is the youngest council member of all ten.
“If I were to tell my 25 year old self that one day you’ll be City Council of Clearlake, I would laugh at myself,” Downey said. “But here I am.”
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