- Elizabeth Larson
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Lakeport City Council honors retiring fire captain, holds midyear budget review
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week honored a retiring Lakeport Fire captain for his decades of service, approved fees for processing commercial marijuana permit applications and held its midyear budget review.
The council started off the Tuesday evening with a proclamation commending retiring Fire Captain Bob Ray for his 45 years of service.
Mayor Mireya Turner read the proclamation, which explained that Ray was born and raised in Lakeport, received a degree from Santa Rosa Junior College and then became a volunteer for Lakeport Fire.
As soon as the agency had a full-time opening, he immediately applied and was hired. Since then, Ray has extinguished blazes and served residents within a 70-square mile radius, Turner said.
He was the first Fireman/EMT II at the department to transition to a firefighter/paramedic after the department was authorized to upgrade their program to recruit and hire paramedics in the late 1980s. “This was a groundbreaking approach at that time, as previously the EMT II certification was the highest level authorized by the North Coast EMS,” Turner said.
Turner said Ray also took charge of EMS-related calls while his colleagues assisted in the Valley, Clayton and Sulphur fires, and had served in Southern California in 2003 as part of Lake County’s response to the Cedar fire in San Diego, which killed 15 people, including one firefighter.
Ray has been serving the Lakeport Fire Protection District as fire captain since 1985, with a 10-year stint as assistant chief from 1989 to 1999, Turner said.
Ray received a standing ovation from the council, city staff and the audience, which included many friends and colleagues.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to serve our community. I’ll tell you, those years went really fast. I tell people now that I always knew I’d retire someday, but I had no idea it would come this fast,” he said.
He said he has met and worked with many great people and made a lot of friends not just in his agency but in many others, and throughout the county.
In other business on Tuesday, the council approved a resolution setting fees for processing commercial marijuana, or cannabis, permit applications.
Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said the new ordinance the council accepted on Jan. 2 that would allow for commercial cannabis operations in the city will go into effect on Jan. 31.
He said the ordinance has several parts that would involve fees, including background checks, which requires review by the police department, the Live Scan process and checking for consistency with the ordinance; submission of applications, which requires review by the city and sending it out to the police department, planning, building and the fire department; and final review by the city manager.
Ingram said the proposed fee for application submittals for cultivation, testing, distribution and retail is $1,025; manufacturing is $1,1185; background checks will cost $354 per individual; an appeal for a rejected application is $1,030; and the annual review and inspection cost is $1,100.
Councilman Kenny Parlet asked if staff had checked the fee amounts in other areas. Ingram said yes. “We’re very competitive,” Ingram said, noting the city is actually probably at the lower end when it costs to costs.
There was no public comment and the council approved the resolution unanimously.
Also on Tuesday, Finance Director Nick Walker presented the midyear budget review, and asked for and received the council’s approval of an amendment to the 2017-18 city budget.
The main changes to the budget requested on Tuesday night were from the Lakeport Police Department. The council approved a $52,000 increase in appropriations, which included $12,000 for two new HVAC units and $40,000 for technology upgrades, including new body cameras, mobile audio visual units for several patrol vehicles, software for downloading and retaining footage, and an additional server for backup.
The request came at the midyear budget review rather than in the new budget because the Lakeport Police Department is getting two new patrol vehicles, which presented the need to get the technology in several other vehicles upgraded, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said the new technology will be more efficient and will download automatically, a big time saver as the agency’s evidence technician now spends much of her time downloading and categorizing the video.
Only a few vehicles and body cameras will still need upgraded technology, which Rasmussen said they can address in the new fiscal year.
The council also approved the purchase of a Weco Industries multi-conductor main line TV van for $242,672.04, which will be used to monitor the sewer collection system. City Manager Margaret Silveira said the equipment is especially needed after last year’s storms.
When the city has had to rent such equipment it has cost $1,800 a day, and usually isn’t immediately available, according to Public Works Director Doug Grider’s written report to the council.
As part of the purchase, staff said the city will receive a four-day onsite training to use the equipment.
Also on Tuesday, the council, sitting as the successor agency to the former Lakeport Redevelopment Agency, approved the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule 18-19 for the period of July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, for presentation and adoption by the Lakeport Redevelopment Oversight Board.
Council members also approved a resolution creating and affirming the city’s master pay schedule for all represented employee classifications and all unrepresented employees covered by a compensation plan, which puts the city in compliance with California Public Employees’ Retirement System requirements.
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011618 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd