LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With Lake County seeing a rise in cases in recent weeks, the Public Health officer said Tuesday that the community could face increased restrictions due to moving into a higher tier on the state’s COVID-19 blueprint.
“Recently we have been seeing an upsurge in cases,” Dr. Gary Pace said in a Tuesday video, which can be seen above.
On Tuesday, Lake County’s case total had risen to 516, an increase of 98 – or 23 percent – over the previous Tuesday.
Of those total cases, 97 are active, one is hospitalized and 408 are recovered.
To date, there have been 11 deaths, four in the last week alone and three of those from an outbreak at the Lakeport Post Acute skilled nursing facility.
Pace said Lake County’s case rate as of Tuesday was 8.8 percent, which puts it in the purple tier – the most restrictive – on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, while the county’s 5.7-percent positivity rate puts in the red tier, the second most restrictive.
While case numbers around the region and state have been improving in recent weeks, Pace said Lake County’s cases have been rising. Those cases include the outbreak at Lakeport Post Acute.
While that outbreak now appears to be slowing down, it has led to a total of seven deaths, Pace said. The facility has a COVID-19 ward and is “following all of the protocols recommended,” he said.
Pace said Public Health currently is analyzing the data to see how much of Lake County’s rate increase is due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak and how much is due to community spread.
He said the outbreak appears to have started with community spread with a worker contracting it outside of the facility and then bringing it to work.
Pace said another facility also has an outbreak. The state identified that second facility – which has both patients and staff with the virus – as Rocky Point Care Center in Lakeport.
For many weeks, Lake County has been in the red tier, the second-most restrictive tier in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, Pace said.
However, on Tuesday, Pace said the state notified Lake County that its case data has landed it for the first time in the purple tier, the most restrictive.
If Lake County’s case outlook doesn’t improve in two weeks, it will be forced entirely into the purple tier, Pace said.
If that happens, Pace said indoor dining at restaurants and indoor movie theaters must stop, places of worship will have to go to outdoor-only services, with gyms and fitness centers also required to move activities outdoors. Museums also would be closed and retail would only be open at 25-percent capacity, with the exception of essential businesses.
“This could happen as early as next week,” Pace said.
He said the county is talking to the state to see if there might be an exception in its tier ranking due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak. As part of those discussions, the county is seeking another week to prepare in order to bring case numbers down.
“Once we would get on the purple tier, we would have to stay on it for a minimum of three weeks,” he said.
All of Lake County’s six school districts are now open for school, with two districts – Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified – having in-person classes while the rest are conducting classes online, as Lake County News has reported.
If the state moves Lake County into the purple tier, the schools that are open could remain so, but any other districts would have to wait to open their doors until the county moves back into the red tier, Pace said.
He said the majority of Lake County’s cases continue to happen in households or in social gatherings where people don’t use the proper precautions.
The pandemic and the lockdown have been impacting Lake County for six months and Pace said it’s understandable that people are getting tired of it.
However, he said more is now known about controlling the virus.
Pace said the best way to prevent contracting the virus is to increase precautions, including masking, social distancing and staying away from group settings, including indoor ones.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County, like the rest of California and the nation, continued to see improved employment numbers in August, according to the state’s latest report on joblessness.
The Employment Development Department said Lake County’s August unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, down from an adjusted 11.7 percent in July, 14.2 percent in June, 15.5 percent in May and 16.7 percent in April.
Lake County’s August 2019 unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, based on state records.
California’s overall unemployment rate improved to 11.4 percent in August, down from 13.5 percent last month but up from 3.9 percent from August of last year, the state said.
August’s statewide unemployment rate of 11.4 percent marked the first month since March 2020 that California’s unemployment rate was lower than the 12.3 percent mark set during the height of the Great Recession – March, October and November 2010 – according to the report.
The number of Californians holding jobs in August totaled 16,574,300, an increase of 291,700 jobs from a downward-revised (-11,300) July, but down 2,081,600 from the employment total in August of last year, the state said.
The report showed that the number of unemployed Californians was 2,134,600 in August, a decrease of 408,700 over the month, but up by 1,370,800 compared with August of last year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nation’s unemployment rate in August was 8.4 percent, down from 10.2 percent in July and more than double the 3.7 percent reported in August 2019.
In Lake County, the civilian workforce in August totaled 28,640, up by nearly 2,000 people over July, when the workforce numbered 26,960 members, according to the state report.
Locally, the total farm job category had the most growth in August, 37.2 percent, or 420 jobs, while still being down by 2.5 percent compared to 2019, the state said.
The Employment Development Department said the total nonfarm category was up by 9.2 percent in August compared with July, but down by 7.5 percent in the year-over comparison.
Total nonfarm’s main subcategories that showed growth in August were service providing, 10.3 percent; private service providing, 7.4 percent; and total private, 6.2 percent. Goods producing was down by 1.6 percent.
Lake County earned a statewide ranking of No. 24 for its August jobless rate, tying with Mendocino County.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks in the latest report are Colusa, 11 percent, No. 49; Glenn, 8.1 percent, No. 17; Napa, 8.3 percent, No. 19; Sonoma, 7.7 percent, No. 10; and Yolo, 7.5 percent, No. 6.
The county with the highest jobless rate in August remained Imperial, at 22.9 percent, while the lowest unemployment rate, 6.7 percent, was reported in Lassen County.
Details of statewide job picture
In August, California’s employers added 101,900 jobs, following July’s downward-revised gain of 83,500 jobs. The Employment Development Department said California has now regained nearly a third – 33.9 percent – of the 2,615,800 nonfarm jobs lost during March and April as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
California payroll jobs totaled 15,874,400 in August 2020, up 101,900 from last month but down 1,598,200 from August of last year.
The month-over decrease in California’s unemployment rate (-2.1 percentage points) was larger than that of the nation as a whole (-1.8 percentage points).
Total nonfarm jobs decreased by 1,598,200 (a 9.1-percent decrease) from August 2019 to August 2020 compared to the U.S. annual loss of 10,246,000 jobs (a 6.8 percent decrease).
Six of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in August: Government increased by 66,100, the largest job gain, due to federal temporary hiring for the 2020 Census and growth in local government education; trade, transportation and utilities’ increased by 26,000, buoyed by transportation and warehousing and general merchandise stores; professional and business services increased by 19,400; education and health services, 7,900; construction, 6,700; and manufacturing, 900.
Leisure and hospitality posted the largest industry job loss in August (-14,600), and 561,900 of the sector’s 633,000 year-over job losses have occurred since March 2020. Other services showed a drop of 5,700 jobs, information jobs declined by 4,300, mining and logging was down by 400 and financial activities decreased by 100.
The Employment Development Department said the number of jobs in the agriculture industry decreased by 3,400 from July, to 326,800 jobs in August 2020. The agricultural industry has lost 101,100 farm jobs since August 2019.
Update on Unemployment Insurance
The Employment Development Department also reported there were 2,837,209 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the August 2020 sample week. That compares to 3,144,098 people in July 2020 and 309,691 people in August 2019.
Concurrently, the state said 196,855 initial claims were processed in the August 2020 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 47,651 claims from July 2020, but a year-over increase of 162,080 claims from August 2019.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s Public Health officer said Monday that the county saw a significant rise in COVID-19 cases over the weekend, as well as the 11th death in the county related to the virus, which he said could lead to further restrictions imposed by the state if the situation doesn’t improve.
On Monday, Lake County’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 512, up by 53 since the last report on Friday. Of those, 96 are active and continue to be monitored by Public Health, 405 are recovered and one is hospitalized.
Dr. Gary Pace also reported Lake County’s 11th COVID-19-related death, which he said was not associated with a recent outbreak at a skilled nursing facility, Lakeport Post Acute.
Public Health departments in all 58 counties reported Monday a statewide total of about 789,000 cases and more than 15,000 deaths from COVID-19.
As of Monday, all three of Lake County’s skilled nursing facilities have COVID-19 cases – two of them with residents who have contracted the virus and one has cases involving staff only – based on the California Department of Public Health’s skilled nursing facility COVID-19 dashboard.
Lakeport Post Acute has 36 confirmed cases in residents, 21 in staff and seven deaths so far, according to state and local officials.
Pace said another facility – which he did not name – has two resident cases and four staff have tested positive.
The California Department of Public Health’s skilled nursing facility COVID-19 dashboard indicated that that second facility with both residents and staffers who have tested positive for COVID-19 is Rocky Point Care Center in Lakeport.
Meadowood Nursing Center in Clearlake also has staffers – last reported at two by local officials – who have tested positive for the virus.
“It appears the usual course is a staff member becoming infected in the community, and bringing it to work,” Pace said of the spread of the virus in skilled nursing facilities. “Multiple other situations of COVID infection are arising in care workers and local businesses.”
He continued, “Labor Day was two weeks ago today, and post-holiday increases are common. We have all been sacrificing many normal experiences for six months now. It is tough to maintain a high level of vigilance; masking, avoidance of social gatherings and proper social distancing all seem to be decreasing in our communities.”
Given the increase in cases, Pace said Lake County’s latest numbers are consistent with the state’s most restrictive tier, purple or Tier 1, in its Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Pace said if the local case growth trend continues, the state will force Lake County to close indoor dining and add other restrictions.
“Schools not open for on-site instruction by the time we get to that point will not be able to open until we get back into the Red Zone – Tier 2 – and stay there for two weeks. These are state mandates. We sacrifice local control when we fail to take basic precautions known to slow the spread,” he said.
“Most of us want to keep businesses open, and resume on-site learning at schools as soon as it is safe,” Pace said. “How do we accomplish this? Slowing transmission in the community by wearing masks and avoiding gatherings with people outside of our households. Indoor gatherings are high risk, and may have particularly serious consequences if you or someone in your family works in a setting with vulnerable people – like a nursing home, homeless shelter, hospital or jail.”
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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As deadly Ebola raged in Africa and threatened the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pinpointed a problem: The agency had many sources of data on the disease but no easy way to combine them, analyze them on a single platform and share the information with partners. It was using several spreadsheets and applications for this work — a process that was “manual, labor-intensive, time-consuming,” according to the agency’s request for proposals to solve the problem. It spent millions building a new platform.
But at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC still struggled to integrate and share data. The system it had built during the Ebola crisis wasn’t up the task. An effort to modernize all of the agency’s data collection and analysis was ongoing: One CDC official told a congressional committee in March that if the agency had modern data infrastructure, it would have detected the coronavirus “much, much sooner” and would have contained it “further and more effectively.”
By April, with coronavirus cases spiking in the U.S. and officials scrambling to wrangle information about the pandemic, the CDC had a proof-of-concept for a new system to pull together all of its various data streams. But it was having trouble figuring out how to securely add users outside the agency, as well as get the funding and political backing needed to expand it, according to two sources with close knowledge of the situation.
So the CDC turned to outsiders for help. Information technology experts at the federal Department of Health and Human Services took control of the project. Five days later, they had a working platform, dubbed HHS Protect, with the ability to combine, search and map scores of datasets on deaths, symptoms, tests, ventilators, masks, local ordinances and more.
The new, multimillion-dollar data warehouse has continued to grow since then; it holds more than 200 datasets containing billions of pieces of information from both public and private sources. And now, aided by artificial intelligence, it is shaping the way the federal government addresses the pandemic, even as it remains a source of contention between quarreling health agencies and a target for transparency advocates who say it’s too secretive.
The Center for Public Integrity is the first to reveal details about how the platform came to be and how it is now being used. Among other things, it helps the White House and federal agencies distribute scarce treatment drugs and supplies, line up patients for vaccine clinical trials, and dole out advice to state and local leaders. Federal officials are starting to use a $20 million artificial intelligence system to mine the mountain of data the platform contains.
People familiar with HHS Protect say it could be the largest advance in public health surveillance in the United States in decades. But until now it has been mostly known as a key example of President Trump’s willingness to sideline CDC scientists: In July, his administration suddenly required hospitals to send information on bed occupancy to the new system instead of the CDC.
The Trump administration has added to the anxiety surrounding HHS Protect by keeping it wrapped in secrecy, refusing to publicly share many of the insights it generates.
“I want to be optimistic that everything is happening here is actually a net improvement,” said Nick Hart, CEO of the Data Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for open government data. “The onus is really on HHS to explain what’s happening and be as transparent as possible... It’s difficult to assess whether it really is headed in the right direction.”
A long history of data frustration
To hear some tell it, the reason behind the CDC’s long struggle to upgrade its data systems can be learned in its name: the Centers — plural — for Disease Control and Prevention. Twelve centers, to be exact, and a jumble of other offices, each with its own expertise and limited funding: the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, for example, or the Center for Preparedness and Response. Scientists at each myopically focus on their own needs and strain to work together on expensive projects to benefit all, such as upgrading shared data systems, experts familiar with the CDC said. A 2019 report from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists found that the agency had more than 100 stand-alone, disease-specific tracking systems, few of them able to talk to each other, let alone add in outside data that could help responders stanch outbreaks.
“CDC has been doing things a certain way for decades,” said a person familiar with the creation of HHS Protect who was not authorized to speak on the record. “Sometimes epidemiologists are not technologists.”
The U.S. government knew for more than a decade it needed a comprehensive system to collect, analyze and share data in real time if a pandemic reached America’s shores. The 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act directed federal health officials to build such a system; in 2010 the Government Accountability Office found that they hadn’t. A 2013 version of the law required the same thing; in 2017 the GAO found again that it hadn’t happened. Congress passed another law in 2019 calling for the system yet again. In 2020 the coronavirus struck.
“We’ve had no shortage of events that have demonstrated the importance of bringing together both healthcare and public health information in a usable, deeply accessible platform,” said Dr. Dan Hanfling, a vice president at In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit with ties to the CIA that invests in technology helpful to the government. “We’ve missed the mark.”
In fighting a pandemic, the nation struggles with data at every turn: from collecting information about what’s happening on the ground, to analyzing it, to sharing it to sending information back to the front lines. The CDC still relies on underfunded state health departments using antiquated equipment — even fax machines — to gather some types of information. The agency for years has also had ongoing, formal efforts to upgrade its data processes.
“There’ve been a lot of false starts in this area,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the CDC during the Obama administration. Frieden blamed money already spent on existing systems and local governments unwilling to make changes, among other reasons. “We had decades of underinvestment in public health at the national, state and local levels, and that includes information systems.”
The CDC attempted to fix at least some of those problems — joining and analyzing and sharing data from disparate sources — with the system it built during Ebola, known as DCIPHER. The system saved the agency thousands of hours of staff time as it responded to a salmonella outbreak and lung injuries from vaping. But it couldn’t keep up with the coronavirus. It was stored on CDC servers instead of the cloud and couldn’t handle the flood of extra data and users needed to fight COVID-19, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.
So CDC officials handed the proof-of-concept for a new system to the chief information officer of HHS, Jose Arrieta. The CDC was having trouble figuring out how to approve and ensure the identities of new users from outside the agency, such as the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and give them appropriate permissions to view data, according to two sources with close knowledge of the situation. Arrieta and his team solved the technical problems, stitching together eight pieces of commercial software to build the platform and pulling in data from both private and public sources, including the CDC.
“Our goal was to create the best view of what's occurring in the United States as it relates to COVID-19,” said Arrieta, a career civil servant who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats, speaking for the first time since his sudden departure from HHS in August. He said, and a friend confirmed, that he left his job primarily to spend more time with his young children after months of round-the-clock work. “It changes public health forever.”
The system allows users to analyze, visualize and map information so they can, for example, see how weakening local health ordinances could affect restaurant spending and coronavirus deaths in mid-size cities across America. Arrieta’s team assembled the platform from eight pieces of commercial software, including one purchased via sole-source contracts worth $24.9 million from Palantir Technologies, a controversial company known for its work with U.S. intelligence agencies and founded by Trump donor Peter Thiel. CDC used the Palantir software for both the HHS Protect prototype and DCIPHER, and it works well, Arrieta said; contracting documents cited the coronavirus emergency when justifying the quick purchase.
And now a new artificial intelligence component of the platform, called HHS Vision, will help predict how particular interventions, such as distributing extra masks in nursing homes, could stanch local outbreaks. Arrieta said HHS Vision, which is not run with Palantir software, uses pre-written algorithms to simulate behaviors and forecast possible outcomes using what experts call “supervised machine learning.”
Though many of the datasets in HHS Protect are public, a scientist who wanted to use them would have to hunt for them from many agencies, clean them and help them relate to one another. That work is already done in HHS Protect.
“It is a big leap forward,” said Dr. Wilbert van Panhuis, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh who is working to get access to the platform for a group of 600 researchers. “They are making major progress in this pandemic.”
But the new system became a source of controversy this summer when officials told hospitals to stop reporting information on beds and patients to a well-known and revered CDC system, the National Healthcare Safety Network, and instead send it to Teletracking, a private contractor connected to HHS Protect. Observers feared the move undermined science and was another example of political interference with the CDC’s work. In August, hospital bed data from Teletracking sometimes diverged wildly from what states were reporting, though now it aligns more closely, said Jessica Malaty Rivera, science communication lead for the Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer organization compiling pandemic data.
“If there’s one major lesson we have from emergencies in the last 20 years… it’s not to try to create a new system but take the most robust system you have and scale it,” Frieden said. “The way to make Americans safer is to build on, not bypass, our public health system.”
Some familiar with the switch from the CDC to Teletracking said it allowed the federal government to compile more data on more hospitals. It happened, they said, because the White House task force members asked for more hospital information to prepare for the winter. Teletracking was able to start collecting extra data from hospitals in a matter of days, while the CDC said it would take weeks to make those changes.
A CDC official familiar with the situation disputed those claims, saying that the National Healthcare Safety Network provided excellent data without overburdening already-stressed hospitals. Making the switch to HHS Protect, he said, is “like taking a veteran team off the field to replace that team with rookies. You get a lot of rookie mistakes.”
The hospital data dust-up aside, some CDC officials remain skeptical of HHS Protect.
“It is a platform. It isn’t a panacea,” said a CDC official familiar with the system who didn’t want his name published because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Some of the outside data sources HHS Protect depends on — including the hospital data from Teletracking — aren’t reliable, the official said, sometimes showing, for example, that a hospital had a negative number of patients in beds. “We’re seeing enough of it to warrant overall big-time concerns about the hospital data quality.”
Some are also concerned about the system’s ability to guard patient privacy: More than a dozen lawmakers sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar in July questioning how HHS Protect would protect individuals’ privacy.
But officials say HHS Protect contains no personal information on patients or others. It tracks users’ every interaction with the data and blocks them from datasets they don’t have authority to see, allowing the federal government to guard privacy and prevent data manipulation, sources familiar with the system said.
Under wraps
The Trump administration adopted data principles in 2018 that include promoting “transparency… to engender public trust.” But much of the data in HHS Protect remains off limits to the public, glimpsed only in leaked reports and occasional mentions by White House task force members. The platform’s public web portal displays the hospital bed data that caused so much controversy this summer but little else. Observers of all stripes, from Frieden to the conservative Heritage Foundation, have called for the Trump administration to make more of its data public.
Van Panhuis said HHS Protect clearly was designed with federal government users in mind, not academic researchers or the public.
“It’s a bit disappointing,” he said. “Currently we have to invent that part of the system.”
Basic data about the pandemic contained in HHS Protect remains secret and is sometimes obscured even from local public health officials. The White House task force’s secret recommendations to governors use HHS Protect data on cities’ test positivity rates, but the White House does not release those reports. And that national dataset is still nowhere to be found on any federal website. When asked, an HHS spokesperson could not point to it.
Some secrecy surrounding HHS Protect data exists for good reason, officials said: Some private companies share their data with HHS on the condition that it will be used to respond to the public health crisis and not be revealed to competitors. And releasing some of the data, even though they contain no personal information, could trigger privacy concerns, forcing officials to redact some of it. For example, it might become obvious whose symptoms were being described in data from a small, rural county with one hospital and one coronavirus patient.
But the secrecy around HHS Protect frustrates transparency advocates who want government data to be shared more openly.
Ryan Panchadsaram, who helps run the coronavirus data website Covid Exit Strategy, would like HHS Protect to publish in one location information on cases, test results and other metrics, for every city and county in the U.S., in an easily accessible and downloadable format.
“Making it available to the public shouldn’t be that difficult,” he said. “It's a political and policy decision.”
People looking for county-level information — to make decisions about whether to visit grandparents, for example — are often out of luck. And if they want a one stop-shop for state-level data, they must turn to private sources: Panchadsaram said that even employees of state and federal agencies visit Covid Exit Strategy for information on the coronavirus. The state of Massachusetts uses his site’s data to decide which travelers must quarantine when they arrive.
“It is shocking that they come to us when the data is sitting in its purest form” in HHS Protect, he said.
Federal officials, attempting to deliver on at least some transparency promises, say they are working to set up congressional staffers with logins to HHS Protect. Staffers monitoring the pandemic say they have yet to be granted access, though some states are using the system.
The secrecy surrounding HHS Protect also means that outsiders also can’t evaluate whether the platform is living up to its promise. Despite repeated requests from Public Integrity, HHS and CDC spokespeople did not make any officials available for on-the-record interviews regarding HHS Protect.
“The federal government has an obligation to make as much data and information public as possible,” said Hart, of the Data Coalition. “HHS should consider ways to improve the information it’s providing to the American people.”
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Kelseyville Pear Festival is a one-day celebration of Lake County’s harvest of pears, walnuts, olives and winegrapes.
This has always been a family-focused event that showcases the rich agricultural heritage of many generations.
It features a grand parade, historical displays, local businesses, craftsmen, food vendors, musicians, dancers, horses, kids’ town, and community services.
This is the best-attended, one-day event in Lake County.
For the past 27 years Lake County families and those from beyond have planned reunions, enjoyed outdoor concerts and cheered at high school homecomings, all to coincide with the Kelseyville Pear Festival held on the last Saturday of each September.
A recent feature is the sold-out farm-to-fork dinner centered in the middle of Main Street on Friday night.
Sadly, 2020 has seen traditional community events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And again, Lake County endures horrific fires and weather conditions that make any sort of outdoor event nearly impossible this September.
With all the defugalties, the all-volunteer Kelseyville Pear Festival Committee will be planning to bring everything back on Sept. 25, 2021. Mark that day on your calendar and we will see you then.
For more information go to www.pearfestival.com or contact C. Richard Smith at 707-278-7268.
Vicky Parish Smith has worked with the pear festival organizing committee.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week will discuss a referendum submitted in opposition to its Public Health order enforcement ordinance and continue its consideration of issues with the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22.
The supervisors will meet in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, for a hybrid meeting format which also will include the opportunity for community members to continue to participate virtually.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
To participate in real-time, join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link at 9 a.m. The meeting ID is 993 7987 0523, password 835361.
To submit a written comment on any agenda item please visit https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and click on the eComment feature linked to the meeting date. If a comment is submitted after the meeting begins, it may not be read during the meeting but will become a part of the record.
At 9:02 a.m., the board will consider a reference filed with the Registrar of Voters Office to challenge the ordinance the board passed on Aug. 18 to provide for graduated levels of enforcement of Public Health orders, including the imposition of fines.
At 10 a.m., the board will present several proclamations, including to Bob Malley, who has spent more than a decade on the Lake County Planning Commission, to Det. Jerry Pfann of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office who is retiring this month, another marking the 100th anniversary of Disabled American Veterans, one declaring Friday, Sept. 25, as Native American Day in Lake County, and will honor Lakeport resident Lydia Meraz for her heroic actions in saving the life of 3-year-old Darius Apar.
At 11:15 a.m., the board will continue a discussion from Sept. 1 regarding issues with the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office, including a proposed vote of no confidence and request for resignation of Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt proclamation commending Bob Malley for his 10+ years of service as a planning commissioner.
5.2: Adopt proclamation honoring the 100th anniversary of Disabled American Veterans.
5.3: Adopt proclamation declaring Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, as Native American Day in Lake County, California.
5.4: Adopt proclamation commending Lydia Meraz for heroic actions in saving the life of 3-year-old Darius Apar.
5.5: Adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2020-133 adopting the Final Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2020-21.
5.6: Approve change to board’s annual meeting calendar for 2020.
5.7: (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services; and (b) approve the agreement between the county of Lake and Resource Development Associates for implementation and maintenance of the Network of Care Website for Fiscal Year 2020-21 for a contract maximum of $48,000 and authorize the board chair to sign the agreement.
5.8: (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services; and (b) approve the agreement between the county of Lake and Vista Pacifica Enterprises Inc. for adult residential support services and specialty mental health services for Fiscal Year 2020-21 for contract maximum of $78,000 and authorize the board chair to sign the agreement.
5.9: Adopt resolution to amend the budget for FY 2020-2021 by appropriating unanticipated revenue for Public Health Services and authorize the Health Services director to sign necessary documents to secure these funds.
5.10: Sitting as the Kelseyville County Waterworks #3 Board of Directors, (a) approve Proposed Private Lateral Grant Program to assist property owners for the replacement costs of private laterals to reduce inflow and infiltration; and (b) adopt resolution canceling reserves in the amount of $15,000 to fund the program.
5.11: (a) Adopt resolution revising the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 adopted budget of the county of Lake by canceling reserves in Fund 295 Special Districts Administration Equipment, in the amount of $30,000 to make appropriations in Budget Unit 8695, Object Code 786.62-74; (b) authorize the Special Districts administrator / assistant purchasing agent to issue a purchase order not to exceed $30,000 to Industrial Electrical Co. for the purchase of a 15 KW generator for the Special Districts Administration building.
5.12: Adopt proclamation commending Jerry Pfann on his retirement.
5.13: Approve mileage reimbursement for Al Acrey, quagga mussel monitor in the amount of $983.32 and authorize the auditor to pay.
TIMED ITEMS
6.1, 9:01 a.m.: Public input.
6.2, 9:02 a.m.: Consideration of direction to the Registrar of Voters regarding the referendum against Ordinance No. 3097, “An Ordinance of the County of Lake to Provide for Graduated Levels of Enforcement of Public Health Orders Through Education and Training and the Imposition of Administrative Fines”, adopted by your Board on Aug. 18, 2020.
6.3, 10 a.m.: Presentation of (a) proclamation commending Bob Malley for his 10+ years of service as a planning commissioner; (b) proclamation commending Jerry Pfann on his retirement; (c) proclamation honoring the 100th anniversary of Disabled American Veterans; and (d) proclamation declaring Friday, September 25, 2020, as Native American Day in Lake County; and (e) proclamation commending Lydia Meraz for heroic actions in saving the life of 3-year-old Darius Apar.
6.4, 10:10 a.m.: Presentation of Employee Service Awards.
6.5, 11:00 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration/discussion of naming existing unnamed roads in the Jerusalem Valley area of Middletown.
6.6, 11:15 a.m.: Continued from Sept. 1, presentation on continuing issues regarding Treasurer/Tax Collector’s Office, vote of no confidence and request for resignation of Barbara Ringen.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Public Employee Evaluations: IT Director Shane French, Social Services Director Crystal Markytan.
8.2: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9(d)(1) Center for Biological Diversity v. County of Lake, et al.
8.3: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9(d)(1) California Native Plant Society v. County of Lake, et al.
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.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials said Tuesday that firefighters held the growth of the lightning-caused August Complex over the course of the previous day to less than 200 acres while pushing containment up by several percentage points.
All three zones of the complex – burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests – have burned a total of 846,898 acres, with containment up to 38 percent, the US Forest Service reported.
Officials said fire crews continued burning operations to the north of Lake Pillsbury on Monday, further increasing protection of communities and overall progress toward containment.
As smoke lifted during the afternoon Monday, firefighters were able to utilize both ground crews and aerial resources in ignition efforts along the M1 from the summit south to Cabbage Patch at the M1-M6 junction, officials said.
The use of helicopters allows operations to take place in areas that are unsafe or inaccessible by firefighters on the ground and complete the operations more quickly to take advantage of favorable weather conditions, the Forest Service reported.
Crews and equipment continue to improve both primary and alternate control lines to the west and northwest of Lake Pillsbury near Sunset Gap. Officials said the improvements include setting up pumps and hoses and removing trees and vegetation that could cause control problems during future firing and holding operations.
Meanwhile, Cal Fire crews on the West Zone of the August Complex have been working eastward and constructing additional control lines along the fire edge.
No new structure losses have been reported, with the damage reports so far remaining at 35 structures destroyed while 1,595 remain threatened, the Forest Service reported.
In the South Zone of the August Complex, evacuation orders are in effect for portions of Mendocino and Lake counties. In Lake County, orders remain active for Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday voted to approve a new ordinance to implement changes to rules regarding commercial cannabis operations, allowing more of them to open in the city.
Thursday’s discussion about the rule changes was the third meeting in a row in which the council discussed them.
The item begins at the 1:29:15 mark in the video above.
The discussions initially had begun at the Aug. 25 meeting, when staff asked the council if it wanted to increase the maximum number of permittees allowed.
At the time, City Manager Alan Flora said the city had a continued demand for licenses and the city’s existing cannabis businesses were seeing success with their operations.
At the Sept. 3 meeting, Flora returned with more information at the request of the council – relating to the number of permittees, police calls at the facilities, available commercial zoning and financial impacts.
The council at that point gave the go-ahead for changes to the number of businesses allowed and locations.
In his report for the Sept. 17 meeting, Flora said retail dispensaries would continue to be limited to three as they currently are in the city municipal code.
The rule changes would lift the caps on delivery-on dispensaries, which is two, and other cannabis businesses, which is 12, and rather than using a total number as the basis would instead limit them to locations on the city’s Commercial Cannabis Combining District map, Flora said.
In an email before Thursday’s meeting, Flora told Lake County News that there is immediate interest for at least four additional permits.
During the council discussion, staff read a public comment from city resident Joan Mingori, who asked if they wanted the city to be the cannabis capital. She added that she believed it was criminal to not let people speak to the council face-to-face about the matter, a reference to the fact that the council meetings continue to remain closed to in-person participation by the public.
She said there is a growing black market issue and asked why staff continued to bring up the matter, questioning how many of them live in the city.
Councilman Russ Perdock said he disagreed with removing the number cap, pointing out that at the Sept. 3 meeting he had suggested increasing the cap numbers by six.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton, maintaining that she was the only one to be against allowing the cannabis businesses to begin with, said she didn’t think the new rule changes would be a big issue.
Councilman Phil Harris moved to approve the first reading of the ordinance, which was seconded by Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten. The council approved the ordinance 4-1, with Perdock voting no.
In other business on Thursday, the council got an update on animal shelter operations, heard a presentation from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on public safety power shutoffs, approved the first reading of an ordinance adopting the city’s development impact fee program for transportation, awarded a $455,000 contract to the California Engineering Co. for professional engineering services for the Sulphur Fire Road Rehabilitation Project, approved a radio voting receiver site for the police department, adopted a third amendment to the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget to appropriate funding for professional services, equipment and supplies, and gave Overton direction on voting for resolutions as the city’s delegate at the 2020 League of California Cities Annual Conference, which is virtual this year.
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.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters made more containment gains on the August Complex, which burned another 4,000 acres.
On Sunday the complex – burning for a month on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests – reached 836,871 acres and 34-percent containment, the US Forest Service said.
The number of structures it has destroyed remained at 35 on Sunday, with 1,595 structures still threatened, officials said.
The Forest Service said steady progress continues on the South Zone of the August Complex. The east side of the complex is now contained, and resources are being shifted to other areas of the fire.
On Saturday, crews continued to improve lines near Pillsbury Ranch and conducted additional burning when weather and other conditions were favorable. The strategically applied burning will increase the protection of structures in Lake Pillsbury by removing vegetation between control lines and the main fire perimeter, officials said.
Officials said the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington has 233 soldiers deployed on the complex, and they continue to support the August Complex.
These firefighting soldiers have been engaged in fireline construction, mop up and patrol, and many are now assisting with structure protection and holding lines as firing operations continue in the Lake Pillsbury area, officials said.
An updated Forest Order No. 08-20-13 was issued for the August Complex on Sept. 19. This Forest Order adjusted the southern boundary of the previous closure to encompass more of the area around Lake Pillsbury due to firefighting activities and to protect the public from potential injury caused by hazards within the fire area.
Residents and property owners may return to their properties within the Mendocino National Forest in Glenn County, but should use extreme caution when entering the burn area, as hazards may be present.
Properties accessed by a Forest Service road will require a permit from the US Forest Service. Access to the Forest Service closure area for other purposes, including hunting and recreation, is prohibited.
In the August Complex South Zone, evacuation orders are in effect for Mendocino and Lake counties. In Lake, the orders are for Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin.
Evacuation information can also be found at Inciweb.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Sunday Lake County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Lakeport man who a witness said set a small vegetation fire near Upper Lake.
Baraquiel Simon Ruiz, 33, was taken into custody in the case, according to Lt. Corey Paulich.
At 6:50 p.m. Sunday, deputies responded to the 6600 block of Westlake Road in Upper Lake for a reported arson. Paulich said a witness reported observing a male starting a fire in the area.
When deputies arrived, they contacted the witness, who told them he saw a male lighting a fire on the side of the road that was approximately a 5-foot by 5-foot area, Paulich said.
Paulich said the witness yelled at the subject to stop and the subject started to stomp out the fire. Once the fire was mostly out, the male subject who set it left the area toward Highway 29. The witness was able to capture the subject on video using his cell phone.
The deputies searched the area, locating a male subject identified as Ruiz, who matched the description provided by the witness, Paulich said.
The deputies conducted an in-field line up and the witness identified Ruiz as the individual who set the fire. Paulich said Ruiz admitted to starting the fire to burn some trash. He could not provide a reason why he was burning trash on the side of the road.
The fire ultimately burned a 10-foot by 10-foot grassy area, Paulich said.
Fire personnel reported there had been a separate fire in the same area around 2 p.m. that day. Paulich said it is unknown at this time if Ruiz was responsible for that fire.
Ruiz was placed under arrest at 8 p.m. Sunday and booked at the Lake County Jail for arson, according to jail records. He remained in custody on Tuesday with bail set at $250,000.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation or the fire earlier in the day is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-262-4200.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials said the hard work of firefighters is paying on the South Zone of the vast August Complex, as additional burning operations are conducted and containment continues to increase.
The US Forest Service said Monday that the August Complex as a whole had reached 846,752 acres.
The complex was sparked by lightning storms in mid-August. It is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests and has been divided into three zones – the South, which includes Lake County – as well as the North and West zones.
Officials said the east side of the South Zone is fully contained, and the containment of the entire complex is now 34 percent.
To put this into perspective, officials said the perimeter of the August Complex is more than 568 miles, a greater distance than the drive from Boise, Idaho, to Red Bluff, California.
On Sunday, smoke prevented the use of aircraft to assist in the firing operations around Pillsbury Ranch, but firefighters continued to utilize hand ignition where possible to remove vegetation and increase protection of structures, officials said.
While hand ignition by ground crews is slower than aerial ignition, the Forest Service said it allows for continued progress when smoky conditions make it unsafe to fly.
Dozers and crews continue structure protection and strengthening the control lines west and northwest of Lake Pillsbury. Officials said these lines will be used as both primary and alternate locations for containment of the fire.
Fire crews are widening lines and installing pumps and hose to prepare for future firing and holding operations, the Forest Service said.
The number of structures the complex has destroyed remained at 35 on Monday. Also unchanged is the number threatened – 1,595.
Full containment is still expected on Nov. 15, the Forest Service said.
Evacuations in the complex’s south zone remain in effect for Mendocino and Lake counties.
In Mendocino County, evacuation orders have been reduced to evacuation warnings for zone A, zone C, and a part of zone E, while Pillsbury Ranch and the Lake Pillsbury basin in Lake County are still under mandatory orders. Evacuation information can also be found here.
Forest Order No. 08-20-13 remains in effect for the August Complex. Residents and property owners may return to their properties within the Mendocino National Forest in Glenn County, but access to the Forest Service closure area for other purposes, including hunting and recreation, is prohibited.
Properties accessed via a Forest System road may require a permit from the US Forest Service. Contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 for more information.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week will continue a discussion, postponed from its Sept. 1 meeting, regarding a proposed vote of no confidence against the county’s treasurer-tax collector after she said she was unprepared to respond to a list of concerns brought forward by one of the board members.
The discussion is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22.
At its Sept. 1 meeting, the board was due to consider a vote of no confidence and asking for the resignation of Barbara Ringen, who has served as treasurer-tax collector since 2013.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier had asked for the board to consider the action against Ringen, whose performance has been under scrutiny due to a list of concerns, from a lack of tax-defaulted property sales to issues with check deposits for property tax payments, inability to implement new taxes or enhance collection of current taxes such as those for cannabis and vacation rentals, and a host of other matters.
However, after Ringen said she was unprepared to respond to all of Sabatier’s concerns, the board agreed to give her until Sept. 22 to return with a response.
Ringen’s performance has been a source of discussion for the board and the County Administrative Office going back to September of 2018. Issues previously cited have run the gamut from lack of consistent tax default sales, collection of taxes, lack of transparency regarding the county’s investment practices and status, and customer service.
That led to the board in early 2019 creating an ad hoc committee to work with Ringen’s office. In June 2019, Ringen emailed the ad hoc committee to offer her resignation effective January 2020.
However, during an August 2019 board meeting, Ringen appeared to make an about-face, refusing to give a firm resignation date.
Ultimately, Ringen – who was reelected in November 2018 – didn’t go through with leaving her job. Her term continues until January 2023.
Also last year, the state Legislature approved and the governor signed AB 632, legislation requested by the Board of Supervisors and carried by Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and State Sen. Mike McGuire, that will allow the county government to combine the elected positions of auditor-controller and treasurer-tax collector into a single elected office.
However, county officials said no movement has been taken on that department combination yet.
Sabatier outlines concerns
At the Sept. 1 meeting, Sabatier read through a portion of his nine-page report raising concerns with Ringen’s performance, which can be seen below.
Sabatier raised five key topics: Delayed deposits which impact our partner agencies as well as individuals; inability to implement new taxes or enhance the collection of current taxes; inability to problem solve the issues of the department whether through creative staffing strategies or the addition of technology; inability to follow through and make the necessary changes to make progress in mitigating the problems of the department; and inability to trust that change will occur in a meaningful way or that the answers the board is given are honest or truthful.
After Sabatier gave his review, Supervisor Tina Scott asked if Ringen was attending the meeting virtually. At that point, she was not, and Sabatier said he’d had a short conversation with her the previous Thursday to let her know it was on the agenda.
While they waited for Ringen to join the meeting, Supervisor Rob Brown saidt, “We always think that we can do better, including our office.”
He added, “We just keep getting stuff thrown at us, one thing after another.”
Brown said he wasn’t trying to make excuses, but was pointing out that more things were getting stacked on, and noted that adding on cannabis taxation was “a huge thing, over and above” everything else.
Brown asked about staffing levels. Sabatier said Ringen is budgeted for close to 12 staff, and is only down by one, and also is using extra help staffers.
When COVID-19 appeared, Brown said the board was working on a classification and compensation study that would result in $91,000 to increase salaries in Ringen’s office, which he said would help with turnover and get the department caught up.
Ringen joined the meeting a short time later, saying she wanted time for a fair chance to respond because she didn’t have all of the necessary information at hand.
In a brief prepared response, Ringen said she wasn’t aware of delayed deposits burdening partner agencies and individuals, and acknowledged a slight delay in processing tax payment during tax season.
She said cannabis taxes are paid in two annual installments and transient occupancy tax, or bed tax, is billed quarterly. Her department recently added a TOT billing module.
Ringen said her department can accomplish the tasks in a more effective manner.
She added that her office has received and processed more than 700 COVID-19-related penalty cancellation requests on property tax payments.
During public comment, Lakeport resident Michael Green argued action against Ringen isn’t warranted.
She said tax-default property sales are an unfunded state mandate. “Ultimately it’s really not up the Board of Supervisors to render judgment on her performance,” but it’s a matter for the public, said Green.
Sabatier maintained he was not making a personal attack against Ringen, who he said is a kind and sweet person. He added that he’s been trying to make positive changes with regard to her department for a year and a half and he’s seen nothing, so he wanted to spotlight the issue.
“This is about a specific role, not a specific person,” he said.
He added, “Our community is waiting for us to see change and we need to provide that to them.”
The board agreed to reschedule the discussion to its Sept. 22 meeting to give Ringen a chance to fully respond.
Also at the Sept. 1 meeting, the board held a closed session to discuss the suit filed by the city of Clearlake over issues including the tax sales. County Counsel Anita Grant said the board took no action.
In related news, at its meeting last week, the board approved an item on its consent agenda to approve a contract of up to $95,000 with Harmony Research for the new fiscal year for professional research services related to the tax default land sales.
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.