CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control continues to be full, but there was good news to report this week on animals transferred to another facility with a higher adoption rate.
Clearlake Police Lt. Martin Snyder, who oversees the shelter, along with Alyssa Terry, a shelter animal care technician, gave the Clearlake City Council an update on operations at the council’s Thursday night meeting.
They also introduced “Maya,” a beautiful black and tan female German shepherd that is housed with Terry, another shepherd waiting for a home.
While not a fit with cats, Maya loves to cuddle in your lap, is spayed and up to date on all vaccinations, and is “the perfect amount of energy and calm,” Terry said.
The city of Clearlake contracts with North Bay Animal Services for animal control.
Terry said that on Feb. 1, 23 animals were transferred, including 12 dogs — four adult dogs and eight puppies — and all 11 of the cats that had been at the Clearlake shelter to North Bay Animal Services’ Petaluma shelter.
“The cat room is empty and we’re working on the dogs,” Terry said.
She said the Petaluma shelter is a no-kill facility and has more adoptions than Clearlake, so whenever possible Clearlake transfers animals there.
She said “Babs,” a longtime resident at the shelter, has a new family of her own thanks to being adopted on Jan. 30.
The shelter is continuing to improve its spaying and neutering services to the animals in its care, with one spay and one neuter and one to two exams taking place every Wednesday, depending on injuries and medical issues. Terry said the shelter has partnered with Clearlake Veterinary Clinic.
Terry said there also have been siding improvements to shop building at the shelter facility to make it warmer and more comfortable for the dogs.
Snyder said that since the start of 2023, there have been 108 dogs brought into the shelter. Of those, 35 left the shelter — 16 to rescues, 15 were returned to their owners and three were adopted. Snyder said one died or was lost in care. While he did not have information on that case, he said sometimes the dogs will get out and escape.
Overall, the shelter is at a 100% live release rate, Snyder said.
While there has been good news about dogs moving out of the shelter, Snyder said the shelter remains at capacity, with 70 dogs now in care.
Anyone looking for a new best friend is invited to come down to the shelter at 6820 Old Highway 53.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
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. — 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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Sheriff’s Activities League has been providing a variety of activities for Lake County Youth since 1997.
Programs over the years have included rock climbing, cooking, dance, sewing, Jr. Giants baseball and softball, kayaking, archery, girls’ wrestling camp, basketball, tutoring, and activities that promote social skills and leadership.
Funding has been provided by grants and donations including awards from the Lake County Wine Alliance and Lake County Tribal Health.
All activities are held in community spaces such as public schools, churches and parks.
Kelseyville Presbyterian Church has provided space for the boxing program for many years.
Members from the Lakeport Elks and staff from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office have volunteered their time to help support the various programs.
The Sheriff’s Activities League is composed of 100% volunteers including board members.
Volunteers receive a background check and orientation to agency requirements.
Each year the Kelseyville Lions Club hosts a breakfast fundraiser for the Sheriff’s Activities League.
This year’s breakfast will be held on Sunday, March 12, at the Kelseyville Lions Club on Sylar Lane in Kelseyville.
The breakfast begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 11 a.m.
Tickets are $9 per person at the door.
There will be raffle prizes.
Come out and enjoy a great breakfast and support the provision of worthwhile activities that are provided at no cost to families.
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.
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, University of Southern California
Even after heavy snow and rainfall in January, western states still face an ongoing drought risk that is likely to grow worse thanks to climate change. A whopping snowpack is good news, but it doesn’t reduce the need for long-term planning.
Confronted with a shrinking supply of water for agriculture, industry and residential uses, water agencies have pursued different strategies to encourage water conservation. They have nudged customers to reduce water use, limited outdoor watering and offered incentives to rip out lawns. On the supply side, there are innovative ideas about using heavy rains to recharge groundwater.
Basic economics teaches us that a higher price for water would encourage conservation. Up until now, however, concerns about harming low-income households have limited discussions about raising water prices to reduce demand.
We know that it’s hard to pay more for essential goods such as food, energy and water, especially for lower-income households. Rather than raising everyone’s water prices, we propose a customized approach that lets individual consumers decide whether to pay higher prices.
Who is most able and willing to conserve?
One of the most common challenges involved in making markets work well is what economists call asymmetric information – when one party has more access to relevant information than the other party. Think about buying or selling a car before online tools like Carfax were available. Owners and dealers knew more about what each car was really worth, so they had greater bargaining power than buyers.
The West has millions of water users with a broad range of incomes who consume water at widely varying levels. These consumers, including urban households, businesses and farmers, know more than water agencies do about how readily they can conserve water.
For example, a person who owns a home with a large green lawn and who is conservation-minded may need only a small incentive to switch to native, low-water plants. Some farmers may need only a small incentive to replace water-intensive alfalfa production with a less water-intensive crop.
Water agencies could elicit this private information by making a “take it or leave it” offer to water consumers. Some of California’s electric utilities have already experimented with this opt-in approach to encourage energy conservation.
Target the big users
Every western water district has access to customer-level big data on monthly and even daily water consumption. Agencies could use this information to identify the top 10% of water consumers in their territories, based on volume used – like the household in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles that used 11.8 million gallons of water in 2014.
Water agencies could randomly select customers among the largest water users in their service areas to participate in a small pilot study. Each invitee would receive an opt-in contract offering to pay them an annual fee for enrolling for three years in a water conservation program. In return, the price the consumer paid for each gallon of water would triple. This approach would give the consumer a guaranteed payment for participating and a clear incentive to use less water.
Data scientists would collect information on who accepted the offer and could survey invitees to learn how they decided whether or not to participate. Combining these two data sets would make it possible to test hypotheses about which factors determined willingness to accept the opt-in offer.
Using customer-level water consumption data over time, water agencies could track usage and compare customers who participated in the price increase program with others who turned down the offer. This would make it possible to estimate the water conservation benefits of introducing customized water prices.
Conducting a pilot study using a randomly chosen sample of high-usage customers is a low-stakes strategy. If it fails to promote water conservation at a low cost, then a valuable lesson has been learned. If it succeeds, the same opt-in offer could be made to more high-usage customers.
Today, most water agencies don’t know how responsive individual customers would be to higher prices. By conducting the type of pilot study that we have described, agencies could answer that question without raising prices for vulnerable households. If such initiatives succeeded, they could be replicated in other drought-prone areas of the West. Since farms consume the largest share of water in western states, it is especially important to learn more about farmers’ willingness to conserve.
Water is essential for life, but westerners have different abilities and willingness to conserve it. We recommend a strategy that rewards those who are most able to reduce their usage without punishing those who are least able.
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.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) and his entire staff team met with members of the Lake County community.
The meeting came as part of a listening tour by Congressman Thompson and his team from both the district and his Washington D.C. office.
“After redistricting changed the boundaries of our district to include all of Lake County, I brought my staff team to Lake County to hear directly from our community,” said Thompson. “Our district is my top priority, and hearing directly from the people is the best way that me and my staff will be able to serve our district. It was great to meet with elected leaders, business leaders, community leaders, and others from Lake County and talk about how we can best work together to support our community and deliver on our shared priorities.
“Over the next two years, I am focused on ensuring that my office is a resource for all of our district, and meetings like this will provide my staff with the hands-on experience needed to understand the local issues and connect with those we represent.”
Rep. Thompson is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and serves as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Tax.
Following the 2020 Census, Rep. Thompson’s district now includes all of Lake County.
Thompson represents California’s 4th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
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.
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.
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.