Area Council - Regular Meeting

Clay Lake City Hall 14050 Olympic Drive, Clay Lake. To begin, can I have a roll call, please, Madam Clerk?

Council Member Wilson? Here. Council Member Hooten? Here. Council Member Kramer?

Here.

Vice Mayor Downey? Here. And Mayor Slotin?

Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Aye. Aye.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'm pleased to remain standing in the moment of silence on this coming Saturday, a long-time icon of the community, Mr. Jonas, as a celebration of life. Thank you all. Just a couple of meeting procedure notes. All items on the agenda will be open for public comment before final action is taken. Citizen wishing to introduce written material into the record at a public meeting on any item are requested to provide a copy of written material to the city clerk so it's not the end over there prior to the meeting um let's see what speakers must restrict comments to the items as appear on the agenda and stay within three minutes time time limit the mayor has the discretion of limiting the total discussion on any item the council cannot answer questions or provide comments while citizens are given a public comment once your comments are complete the mayor will refer you to staff for follow-up if you're on zoom Please note that only written comments may be taken via Zoom through the Q&A chat feature. We'll go now to the adoption of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda?

I'd like to pull item number 11 for consideration at a future meeting. Can I have a motion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda as presented with the exception of item number 11.

I'll second it.

We'll have a motion in a second. Please go to your portals. Submit your vote.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

Okay, we'll go now to presentations. First is by, I assume, Officer Snyder will do the police department commendations.

Good evening, members of the council. Unfortunately, the chief had a prior obligation tonight with his family, but he did prepare a speech, which I'm going to read to you. This is Detective Keller here with me to my left. Mayors and members of the city council, it is my privilege to recognize Detective Christopher Keller for an outstanding professional accomplishment that reflects positively on both the Clear Lake Police Department and our communities. Detective Kelleher achieved the number one ranking in the nation within Maverick Data Systems, a search warrant platform utilized by more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. During 2025, he authored an impressive 271 search warrants, the highest total record nationwide. To put this accomplishment into perspective, the second highest total in the country was 245 search warrants nationwide. authored by a detective in South Carolina, while the third highest total was 185 search warrants authored by a detective in Solano County. Detective Keller's productivity and dedication placed him well ahead of his peers across the nation. The preparation of search warrants requires extensive investigative work, attention to detail, legal knowledge, and commitment to ensuring that cases are thoroughly and professionally documented. Detective Kelleher's efforts have directly supported criminal investigation, the collection of evidence, and successful pursuit of justice within our community. His persistence, professionalism, and dedication to solving cases continues to have a significant impact on the public's safety and clarity. This achievement is not only a testament to his individual work, ethics, and expertise, but also reflects the high standards of service maintained by the Cleric Police Department. On behalf of the department and the City of Cleric, we proudly recognize Detective Keller for his exceptional accomplishment and thank him for his continued commitment to serving our community.

Thank you.

And.

Next, we have presentations and certificates of appreciation to the Recreation and Events Sports Program volunteers. I believe there are a couple of members here for that. Is Wayne Ogata here, please?

I think there are three people, some more people.

You.

advocates here, one for Yolanda Day, I don't believe she's here, and Sandra De Leon. We'll give this back to our city clerk to distribute those later. Okay. Presentation on recent and upcoming recreation and events. Mr.

Laura. Director Swanson will give the presentation.

All right. Thank you, honorable mayor and council members. The recreation and events department has been actively expanding programming opportunities for residents of all ages throughout the year we've offered a variety of baking cooking craft and enrichment classes designed to engage Community members and fun educational and creative activities. And this is our flag raising that just happened last month that's the lower lake. choir singing at the flag rising. In May, we successfully launched our new Super Saturdays program, currently offered once a month with potential for expansion based on community demand. Super Saturdays provides a day camp style experience for youth and through partnership with KUSD, students enrolled in the district are able to participate at no cost. Participants enjoy a full day of activities, including baking, preparing and cooking their own lunches, arts and crafts, sewing projects, outdoor sports and recreation, and hands-on STEM activities. We also hosted highly successful community events this spring, including both our Youth Egg Hunt and our Adult Egg Hunt, which saw strong participation and positive community engagement. There's some pictures from Easter and from some day camps. And our ever popular bingo night. The next bingo night is June 20th. So come and join us for some fun bingo and prizes. These are some of our winners. Looking ahead, Preparations are underway for our annual summer concert series. In addition, we're planning an exciting celebration for Dia de la Independencia in Clear Lake on September 12th. This fun event will feature live entertainment, including a concert and mariachi band. mechanical bull riding, face painting, dancing horses, cultural activities, food vendors, and more. The evening will conclude with a small fireworks display. Our sports programming continues to thrive. This year, our volleyball and basketball clinics have provided valuable opportunities for youth to develop athletic skills, build confidence, and stay active. We also continue to offer adult badminton, giving participants an opportunity to learn a new sport, improve fitness, and connect socially with others in the community. This summer, we're also excited to offer once again, let me pull it back up, Our CSI camp, along with a new volleyball clinic, providing additional opportunities for youth to learn, grow, and stay engaged through the summer months. So as you can see here, this is a program impact snapshot. 58% of our youth, our classes offered are Our registered applicants for our classes offered are from Clear Lake. However, we do see participation from all over the county, including Hidden Valley, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Nice, Lower Lake, and more. So the Recreation and Events Department remains committed to providing diverse, affordable, and high-quality programs that enrich the lives of Clear Lake residents and strengthen our community. So I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Is the concert series already in? Is there some dates?

Yes. Let me pull that up. Oops. There we go. So our first concert is July 4th. We're going to have Aquanet. And then on July 26th, we have Carnival, which is a Santana cover band. On August 8th, we have the Funky Dozen. The 16th of August, we have Correo Norteño. September 12th, which is also our Día de la Independencia, we are welcoming back the Tamboraza del Val. That was a lot of fun last year. We had them. We had a great time. And then on October 10th, we have the Boys of Summer, which is an Eagles cover band.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

All right. Any questions?

If I could just briefly add, obviously they're doing a great job with all the activities. And I mentioned a couple of meetings ago that we're working on some things to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States. Calpine is sponsoring a drone show, so we're planning on having that after the August 8th concert. Something new.

Awesome. Drone.

Drone?

Drones. Light drones flying in the air?

No, I know that, but how is that a show?

Well, yeah, I mean, you can make, choreograph pretty much anything you want, so there'll be like 200 drones that'll be lighted and...

It'll be cool. Something new.

All right. Thanks to Director Swanson and Charlotte White for all the work they're putting in the house.

All right. We'll move now to public comment. This is a time for any member of the public to address the City Council on any matter not on the agenda, which is within subject matter jurisdiction of the City. The Brown Act, with limited exception, does not allow the Council or staff to discuss issues brought before under public comment. The council cannot take action on any non-agenda items. Concerns may be referred to staff or placed on a future agenda. Please note that comments from the public will be also taken on each agenda item. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. The council cannot answer questions or provide comments while a citizen is giving their public comment. Once your comments are complete, they may refer you to staff We have Crystal.

Could you come up, please? So, my name is Crystal, and I am back this week to finish what I said last week, or last meeting. So, I was talking about your City of Clear Lakes website page, the transparency issue you guys have. So, let's see. Where did I leave off? Um, My inspection on my electrical box was finished on March 9th of 2022, right? Case should have been closed. Easy as that. But your officers are furious with me. Because let's get down to the core of the issue. Your officers, what your officers are actually fierce about is my gate has been locked from day one to prevent unauthorized entry. And they have never stepped a single foot past that locked gate in the entirety of all the cases involved. They have done nothing but invent reasons to trespass. When you manipulate case records like this, things get messy. Case contamination and confusion is inevitable, and my case is contaminated with other people's photos, other people's information. It's a mess. It's blatantly obvious what is happening and what has happened. To hide the... When I ask analytical questions to get to the bottom of this process, your staff engages in a game of administrative gaslighting, picking and choosing when they would talk to me, freezing me out under the guise of owner-only communication less than 24 hours after openly discussing the exact same file. To hide the digital footprints of the records tampering, the city has completely sabotaged The California Public Records Act, you have failed not once but twice to provide mandated native electronic files. The system audit trails explicitly requested in my CPRA filings. Your staff deployed a bad faith 14-day extension for absolutely nothing. Using it purely as a stalling tactic while supervisor Chelsea Banks intentionally suppressed critical data from both requests and served up altered body cam footage. I am not stupid. I know how your software infrastructure works. I know that your ILMS has comprehensive electronic audit trails tracking every single user action, every login, every keystroke, every retroactive modification. You cannot delete the footprints of this manipulation, and you cannot claim that the database mismatches are anything other than intentional record tampering. Because your municipal channels are completely compromised, I have completely bypassed you. A formal comprehensive complaint backed by my physical evidence of this document manipulation and your due process violations and your double CPRA failures has been filed directly with the Lake County District Attorney, the Civil Grand Jury, the California Attorney General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We have demanded an external digital forensic audit of the City of Clear Lake record systems and immediate criminal processing under Government Section 6. Thank you.

We'll go next to Julia Hurst.

Good evening. You should have two copies of this in front of you because I made two copies for everybody. It's a letter that we residents on Canocti Street for box down here. received in 2021. And they said they were going to start paving our street on October 25th, 2021. And they listed all of the times and when we had to keep the road clear and et cetera. And yet nothing with the first, say 200, 250 feet have been done. And that is all. And the road has terrible potholes. I have a Prius that has $5,000 worth of batteries underneath it. And I would like to have the road fixed so I don't feel so scared to drive my car on it. And I can't even walk down to my neighbors anymore because the road is in such horrible condition. And if you'd like to go to China, I'll tell you how to do it. Just come to Clear Lake, Canocti Street, and take one of the potholes, because that's where it goes, to China.

Thank you. Anybody else in the audience just wants to speak? Come on up.

Good evening, everybody. Margaret Garcia, City of Clear Lake. I hope everyone's well. I came up to say the same thing that this poor woman here in a walker is trying to convey to you that the conditions and some of these roads are ridiculous, okay? There's only potholes in some of the roads, right behind Yule Avenue, right behind it, nothing but potholes. There's no road, just potholes, huge potholes. Yet Burns Valley is getting paved all the way to Kingdom Come. Olympic, it's beautiful pavement. But some of that, I don't know who's funding the Olympic, the Burns Valley deal. I don't know if it's because of the sports complex. I don't know if it's because of City of Clear Lake, a main plant there where all your vehicles go. I don't know why. But what I'd like to know is why other streets cannot be just addressed slightly filled in with gravel, for God's sake. That's all. I mean, it's really a shame. It's a horrible, horrible look for Clear Lake. And you should be, take a walk. My cat got lost about a month ago. And I'm trying to find my cat at like nine o'clock at night, dark. I rounded my corner to go see if my poor cat's over there. I almost killed myself back there. I don't know what street, Evans, Evans Street, right behind me. It's ridiculous. I could have broken, I don't know, an arm, a leg, a neck. And is that what you're waiting for? Something like that to happen? Because it's coming. I mean, Jesus, people can't walk safely in their neighborhood. This woman can't visit her neighbor, can't drive down her road. I'd like to see you guys having going through that. Yes. Now your roads are probably beautifully paved all the way through. So I would like to stop coming up here and having to say this stuff over and over. And I will, and I will. So I don't know what's, what's up with you guys, but get, you know, open your eyes, put some, attention to something other than, you know, 20 miles on Burns Valley. And this other thing that's coming up in the agenda, number four, I'd like to know... You know, Russ, is that all you've got there? Just that, that, that? Yeah, okay. I won't talk about arrests, but number four item seems to be about what we're talking about. Is that okay?

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, just real quick, I would encourage Ms. Garcia to come in and meet with me sometime. I'd be happy to explain how road construction is prioritized, the funding behind it, and what we are focusing on.

That's Anybody else in the public that wants to come up and speak? Come on up, ma'am.

I'm Bonnie Snelling, and I live on Canocti Street. And on Lakeshore between Cabrilla and Lupiona, around that bend, And I live on Canocti Street, so we have to come down. And the people fly around there. We need speed bumps, good ones, you know what I mean? Because a lot of people have just about gotten hit. My mother did when she was alive, just about. But it's very dangerous coming around that curve. Those people don't care. They just fly around. And policemen think so too, right? They do too. It's a bad area. And anyway, I'm hoping that you'll get some speed bumps there. And then my husband did fall in some holes. He's 84 years old and he can hardly walk very good. He lost his balance and fell. And the street is super bad. They went up about four houses and paved to their you know, about four houses on Canocti Street, and they never finished it. They did Woodside, you know. So anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could take care of this.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Anybody else in the public?

Good afternoon. My name is Chris Talaferro, Clear Lake resident. My spouse and I, December last year, bought 12 acres right next to our property, right behind Pomo School. And we bought that because my family members in Texas, my dad's sick, and we're looking at moving my mom here to take care of her. So we've been working really hard clearing up the property. We got roads and we did fire breaks, cleaned a lot of that stuff up. The next step was looking at city water. Went to the only place that's allowed to get city water there, Golden State Water. And I'm asking for the city's help on what my next step is or what I can do. The quote I got was $181,000 for 600 feet of pipe. So looking at their quote that they gave us, there's like $28,000 to just go to state water overhead. They're asking me to put in a... fire hydrant. They're asking me to do things that, to me, that the water company should provide. However, I'm being asked to do some of these things. So $181,000, I sent it to my brother in Texas who deals with pipeline companies. He deals with gas and oil companies, and his company laughed at that cost. So when I get that and I look at what's been happening in the past about the water companies and the issues, I can now kind of understand why new growth for businesses, people want to build houses. I can understand why the costs are so high and not being able to do any of that. Because there's no way I'm going to be able to afford that. that area right there, we looked at doing a well, and it's a very shallow area. So putting in a well, I'm going to have to deal with a lot of other issues that, you know, so just I'm asking for help. I don't know what my next step is or what I can do or how I can be involved to help. But, you know, $101,000 is just ridiculous for trying to get 600 feet of pipe. So. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Chris, if we could just talk and figure, I mean, obviously we don't have a lot of direct authority there, but be happy to help any way we can. So reach out.

Anybody else in the public? If not, is there anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

There are no comments on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Is there anyone who wants to comment on this? If not, anybody public wants to comment on this? If not, I'll bring it back. I assume anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

No comment on the Zoom.

All right. Can I have a motion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion. We approve the consent agenda as presented.

I'll second it.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please fill your portal and vote.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

I go to business item number eight, presentation and discussion on zone zero regulations.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, council member. So, um, you know, you're aware we've talked a little bit before about some of the new regulations related to fire that are coming down the line. And, um, reached out to Chief Cepeda and Fire Marshal Lancaster recently and asked if they'd be willing to come and do a presentation to the Council and the public about what these new regulations are looking like. So I'll just turn it over to Fire Marshal Lancaster.

Good evening, Autumn Lancaster, Lake County Fire Protection District. Tonight's presentation will include an overview of Zone Zero, what it is and when it is required, as well as a video from the Board of Forestry about current status of Zone Zero and its proposed regulations. We will briefly discuss ignition pathways and science of how homes ignite, as well as wildfire mitigation, such as the inspections we do for defensible space standards and what are some of the voluntary options beyond the minimum, such as our Certificate of Compliance and IBHS's Wildfire Prepared Home designation. So zone zero is a regulation that is in the final stages with the board of forestry. It refers to the first five feet of space that extends out from the walls or an attached deck of your home. It is sometimes referred to as the immediate zone or ember resistant zone. When most people think of defensible space, they think of the requirements outlined in Public Resource Code 4291, which is cut grass to four inches, separate live flammable fuels, and cut ladder fuels on trees. The proposed Zone Zero creates a combustible-free boundary around the structure with no dry grass, even if it's cut, no combustible furniture or items, including trash cans, and very limited allowances for spaced plants. Before we start the Board of Forestry video about Zone Zero, there are some key important factors. It is not yet ratified and not yet enforceable. There have already been significant changes since the inception of Zone Zero regulations, and there may be additional changes before finalization. Once ratified zone zero will be required in the state responsibility areas and very high fire hazard severity zones within the local responsibility areas. Zone zero will not be required for every house. And when it is ratified, it will be required for new construction. And there will be a three year period before retroactive enforcement begins. The board of forestry emphasizes education and outreach for enforcement, not penalties or citations. And the next should be the video.

That is in a wildfire crisis. Legislators and governors have stepped up and responded accordingly to protect homes, lives, and communities. It's clear that business as usual will not stop, and all of us feel the extreme impact of catastrophic wildfire. In recent years, the legislature and governor have launched a series of actions and investments to control this reality at home. New laws and emergency provisions from investments in prevention, propelling wildfire resilience projects, to giving communities the tools to be ready. A critical part of these historic actions is the governor's and legislator's direction to the California Board of Tourist The focus here is on what's called zone zero, or the first five feet around your home. So why this area? Because research, fire science, and experience shows that this is the most critical area for protecting your home, your neighbor's homes, and the community around you. Where windblown embers are most likely to land, and where homes are vulnerable to ignition. To tackle this, starting last year, a Board of Forestry and Fire Protection subcommittee in communities across the state had held more than a dozen public workshops and attended numerous community meetings, town halls, and neighborhood walking tours. The subcommittee listened to and read thousands of public comments and introduced four different approaches to regulating Zone Zero before discussion of fine-tuning in October 2020. Through this process, we've listened along with scientists, fire professionals, and community members to consolidate this far-reaching feedback, these four approaches into a single option for the board's zone zero subcommittees consideration. As we release the latest rule draft this month, here are the details. The new Zone Zero regulation applies to homes in what are classified as high fire hazard severities across the state. For new construction, these rules will take effect immediately. For existing homes, there's a three-year phasing period of education and support to give homeowners time to adapt. So more specifically, what does this mean for you and your neighbors? First, this version of zone 2 regulation is designed to protect the most flammable parts of structure, such as vents, leaves, windows, and basements. It will involve keeping the area closest to your home, where it must be. That includes flammable things like smoke, fallen leaves, wood piles, and debris, especially on roofs and on scutters. All things many people already do. Next, you would create a minimum of one-foot buffer zones with no combustible materials, including vegetation and other materials. Think of it as a smaller safety zone directly around your home or free from fire hazards. We've heard feedback requesting that we integrate Zone Zero with the built environment, and this does to their own home, not allow the environment where embers accumulate at the base of the walls that ignite or elevate foot of your room or out to the edge of your roof line or eaves. One foot is the minimum requirement, but if your eaves are larger, then it would apply to a full-size house that was extended to their end. It also includes areas within two feet of windows, doors, and vents, within five feet of attached decks or stairs. These poppers are designed to protect the most vulnerable parts of your home but the regulation under consideration requires that they be maintained. This means trimming lower branches closest to the ground, reduce fire spread, or what we call ladder points. This also means branches must be kept five feet away from the top of roofs and 10 feet from chimneys, which is also an existing statutory requirement. And all dead limbs and branches must be removed. Some non-woody plants are also allowed within Zoom Zero under the post. as long as they're smaller, well-spaced, and well-maintained, like flowers, succulents, ground covers, grass, and flooded plants in non-combustible containers. Grass and logs will also be permitted up to the safety zones, but again, no vegetation or combustible materials are allowed in the safety zones under your feet. For structures like fences and sheds, this proposed zone zero storage would also require no combustible materials, including shed made from combustible materials, feet of your home this also means incorporating a metal gate or fence panel where the fence connects to that this could also include using non-combustible fencing such as metal or concrete or a five-foot span or fences connect to a structures no new combustible senses of sheds are allowed in the zone zero area and no changes to sense requirements have been made outside of zone suits Lastly, we understand communities are different. There's flexibility for local communities to make decisions based on what works best for them. Please keep in mind that inspection is supposed to be conducted by your local fire protection to understand your vegetation types and the condition of your trees. This provides local flexibility and discretion. Local fire agencies may also allow some flexibility based on local conditions. As long as safety is maintained and the local community can show that their actions will have the same safety And most importantly, these rules will be faced is the focus on education progress, not palatability. Inspectors throughout the state might work with you on a reasonable and sensible plan for your home, one that is affordable and keeps your neighbors safe from the wildfire. Zone zero is about giving your home, your neighborhood, and your community a fighting chance to survive a long time. This video has been produced to help us interpret rule text that we know can be difficult to read and help provide clear guidance that is going to make small changes over time. Even slight changes around your home can make a big difference. Learn more about the details and what's included in this draft regulation, get involved, and help shape the final outline. Because salt fire safety, prevention, and protection is everyone's responsibility.

Sorry for the poor audio quality.

And as they said in the video, it's an education approach and it has not yet been ratified. They're still accepting public comment. But there are three primary ignition pathways for structures in a wildfire. There's embers, which are number one, which can travel up to five miles ahead of the fire in extreme conditions. They actually account for up to 90% of home ignitions. Zone zero removes receptive areas for embers from the immediate zone of your home. The second cause of ignition is radiant heat, which travels outward from burning structures and creates a chain reaction of structure to structure ignitions or an urban wildfire scenario. Zone zero removes combustible materials like wood fences and plastic patio furniture, which can act as a bridge transferring radiant heat from a neighbor to your exterior walls. And then third is direct flame contact. Zone zero creates a fire break, preventing flames from a ground fire from contacting exterior walls. Structures can be ignited through multiple vulnerabilities and mitigation is most effective when defensible space, building features, and ember intrusion pathways are addressed together. So there are several different inspection options a property owner can request to assess these ignition pathways. At Lake County Fire Protection District, we do complaint driven inspections for minimum defensible space standards. These are educational based and we cannot issue citations or penalties for noncompliance. We also do AB 38 real estate inspections, which are required by the state for the sale of property in high or very high fire hazard severity zones. both in the state and local responsibility areas. Both inspections are based on Public Resource Code 4291, which is the standard for minimum defensible space laws in California. We also offer free voluntary home assessments based on NFPA, the National Fire Protection Association guidelines. These guidelines go beyond California's minimum defensible space requirements and NFPA guidelines already include a combustible free zone of five feet titled the immediate zone. And it factors in home hardening measures such as non-combustible screened over vents and screening in decks and porches. Homes that meet NFPA guidelines can receive from us a certificate of compliance. Even if a property isn't able to meet every recommendation, we still strongly encourage homeowners to schedule an assessment since the goal is to identify improvements and help with information education. And again, these are free assessments. Pictured here are some of the improvements we've already made after these assessments. Zone zero is already being implemented voluntarily with removal of plants and a damaged vent screen was replaced. For homeowners looking to take wildfire mitigation a step further, the most stringent option is the Wildfire Prepared Home designation, which is through IBHS, the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. The program offers two designations, BASE, which focuses primarily on protection from embers, and PLUS, which adds protection against direct flame contact and radiant heat. Homeowners apply directly through IBHS and complete a self-assessment and then undergo a third party inspection to verify compliance. Their standards are very vigorous. There's no combustibles, including overhanging branches, combustible fences, and no plants are allowed in zone zero. Our defensible space certificate of compliance does not guarantee you will get an IBHS designation, but it's based off the same practices and FDA guidelines. And those are the three inspection pathways that are available to homeowners, starting when meeting defensible space requirements, your zone zero, scheduling a home assessment, and then that will get you close to where you need to be for IBHS designation. I'm happy to answer any questions. I know zone zero has come a long way since its inception, and it's a little complicated. So if you guys have any.

You mentioned sheds. If you have an outbuilding, like I think you know where I live, my shop, for instance, is that considered a shed, but to the house, or is that a separate structure in which sheds can't be near yet? How does that?

They would want it to be removed after the five years, after the second phase for five years, because it is within five feet of the structure. But since it's an education approach, you will be, yeah, you will just be informed that it's a risk. your primary house is the main structure, and then anything else is an accessory.

So the accessory, I basically have a greenhouse behind that shop, and I'm not sure it's five feet from it. While it's not permanent, it's not going to be easy to move, and it is a good structure. So again, what do I do in that circumstance?

Yeah, and Practically, I would suggest creating its own zone zero if you're unable to move it and just make sure that it is as protected as your house would be. That way you avoid the radiant heat structure to structure combustion.

Thank you. I have one. You said certain side of certifications need to be done for a real estate transaction. Is that what I hear?

Yes. AB 38. It's the real estate inspection. It's a state law now that any the sale of real property and very high fire hazard severity zones and high fire hazard severity zones requires a disclosure of a defensible space inspection.

Yeah. We're in a high fire. All of that.

No, not every not not everybody is in the high fire hazard severity zone where you're at. Yeah, that's a very high fire hazard severity zone. Thank you.

But you came by and did an inspection, and I'm sorry, I did several of them, but not all of them.

No, I understand, and that's why I still encourage people to get them done, though, because it's an education approach to it. So I hope that you walked away from the inspection learning more ways that you can mitigate around your house.

Absolutely. Thank you for doing that.

One more follow-up, if I may. Zone zero applies to every house or just to those in high or medium high.

Just to every house in the state responsibility area and for the local responsibility area, only the very high fire hazard severity zones. So it will not be required for every house. I'd recommend it if possible.

So to get one of the, they just come into the firehouse and request to be put on a schedule and you guys will work with.

Yeah, you can call and we'll get it scheduled.

Just everybody in the public, Mr. Mayor, real quick. Well, I think you can also, can you set an appointment on the website to make a request?

Yeah, we do have a link on our website, but that's mostly for AB 38 inspections. Usually you'd have to call and ask for me if you wanted the NFPA guidelines.

So if I could just real quick... before she finishes up and you take questions from the public. But I just want to thank Chief Cepeda for his leadership on this. I'm not sure the current status with the other local fire districts, but Lane County Fire Protection District was really the first one that jumped into this. And I think Fire Marshal Lancaster is probably the most educated and best informed countywide. Perhaps there's some exceptions with Cal Fire. I'm not sure. But I I don't know if other districts at this point are doing the free inspections like she's talking about, but they were certainly the first one to be doing them. So we very much appreciate what you're trying to do.

Thank you. We want to help. We want to.

Is anybody from the public had a question? I think I think we can.

We have an exception.

We have a portable mic here.

Yeah.

I just have a question is, how do you, where are these bad areas at that you were talking about, the fire danger, like he lives in a fire danger?

So the fire hazard severity zone maps were adopted. They came down from state and local jurisdictions as well. And they're available on Albuquerque. Oh, yeah.

yeah so you could um check the state website or you can always call the city offices and provide your address and we could get to it okay this is call on margaret one by one please go ahead

My name is Stephanie Hummel. I'm from Clear Lake. And I don't have a question. I just have a comment. And the first thing that came to me was big money and a lot of work. For me. That's all.

Marguerite Garcia, City of Clear Lake.

I'm wondering about, I've heard about what they call home hardening program that helps homeowners to make improvements that make their home more fire resistant and resilient. And I'm wondering if anything like that is going to be happening in City of Clear Lake?

So, Right now in the county, the only home hardening program is through North Coast Opportunities, and they're doing a pilot program in the Kelseyville Riviera area. That's when we start to encourage people to form those Firewise communities, because then you can get grant funds in your own rights and then distribute them through your Firewise community. We actually, Lake County Fire Protection District, with the support of Allen Flora, applied recently for the fire risk reduction list, which gives us priority in grants. We made it through the first list of it, and we're hoping to hear back, which will be great news for anybody applying at the firewise level for a grant in this area.

Great. Anybody else? Is there anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

There are no questions on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. Thank you, madam. Okay, we go to business item number nine, discussion and consideration of amendments to the city regulations for short-term rentals. Mr. Florian.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. Let me get, I have a short presentation. Find it. okay all right this is one of our vacation rentals um so big picture just a few numbers um in the last year almost 63 million americans have uh booked lodging through short-term rental or vacation rental um globally 25% of all bookings are through vacation rentals as compared to hotel stays. And 51% of travelers prefer to book a vacation rental over a hotel. A few numbers from our local listings. This varies pretty frequently, but over the last year, there's been 113 vacation rental listings in the city of Clear Lake. 65% of all bookings from tourists are for vacation rentals as opposed to hotel rooms. And then the average daily rate comparison between local hotel rooms is $82 for the hotel and $266 for a vacation rental, although this property, as an example, is about $2,000 a night. A few other numbers. If you look at all of our listings, 50% of them are booked through Airbnb. That's the largest one globally and largest locally as well. And then about 14% are through VRBO. That stands for vacation rental by owner. 36% of all listings, you can reserve it through either platform. There are a number of other platforms out there that are smaller that focus on certain groups of travelers. Those are generally also listed on Airbnb or VRBO. And then some of these other sort of niche markets, they list through them as well. There are a lot of benefits. You can see from some of the numbers the popularity of this type of stay. So some of the benefits for us locally. Of course, lake access. We don't have a lot of hotels you can stay at that offer lake access. Of course, not all of our vacation rentals offer that, but there are a number of them that do. It's often a more family-friendly option. If you have a number of kids or extended family, vacationing together provides more flexibility. and can often be more affordable than renting a number of hotel rooms. It compares well here to some of the budget hotels that we have. Pretty much all of our hotel options are fairly old and not in what you would consider the upper tier of the market. And so some travelers are looking for something a little bit nicer than that, and this provides that option. Also see a fair amount of folks looking for some type of work life balance that will come and stay for more extended period in a vacation rental where they can work remotely. And then, of course, there is city revenue involved with hotel rentals and these as well, but you know one thing to. to understand is because of um some of the higher listing prices for some vacation rentals the city would end up getting more revenue from that than a normal hotel room if the short-term rental itself is permitted which we do have that is kind of a constant um chase for us is to try to um keep up with folks because you don't have to have permission through the listing platform of the city in order to put that up but we do require a permit so that's one of the things you want to talk about here there are often some challenges associated with vacation rentals um this often results in some large groups in neighborhoods that um you know if you have a uh very large group of folks in a property right near your house. Also, there can be noise, parking issues, sometimes trash. So those are the most common complaints that we get. And then Of course, a lot of communities have struggled with this because of just the need for additional housing. And essentially, in many cases, a transition to short-term rental is equal to a loss of a full-time housing unit. So that's something that needs to be balanced. Current city regulations. So if you want to use your house for a vacation or short-term rental, it requires a permit from the city. Um, that property has to be owner occupied at least 51% of the time. Um, that's something that's always a challenge for us too, because it's a little difficult to verify exactly if that's happening or not, but that's, um, what has been established. Um, the ordinance requires a notice to neighboring properties after the permit is issued. That was a decision that the council made, I guess, I don't know, back in 2018 or 2019 when these regulations were adopted. We do have a number of other limits. One of the most important ones is limit on the number of occupants that can be in the house. So there's a maximum of two people per bedroom, some things like that. And then we have really operated with a three-strike sort of approach to enforcement. there's three verified complaints of violations of the ordinance. Um, we can revoke, uh, the permit. And then, um, we have a vendor, um, I could show it briefly if you would like called rentalscape. Um, and that's what we use to monitor compliance. So this vendor that we have, we have a subscription service. Um, they have some algorithm that's able to capture the listings through all the digital platforms. Um, It identifies those in the city. We can go look at them, get all the owner information, the nights that it's booked, the amounts that it's booked for, that type of thing. And then it also identifies, like, for example, if you have a three-bedroom house that has a maximum occupancy of six visitors, but they're listing it on Airbnb for eight or ten visitors, then the software flags that as a possible violence. So we want to reiterate that tonight we're not asking for you to adopt anything. We wanted to come and kind of get some feedback from the public and from the council around this. We do have sort of a red line of our existing ordinance that's included in your packet that identifies a few things that we think might be appropriate. So I'll just go over those briefly. Most of them are just, you know, further strengthening or providing additional clarity to a number of the issues that we commonly have issues with, like, for example, around parking, clarifying that commercial activity is not allowed in these, like having a wedding or something like that. I'm actually not sure what point I was trying to make with the rental registration bullet point at the moment, but there's additional... So staff have the ability to create additional terms and conditions as a part of the permit process if we identify some challenge in looking at and reviewing the permit. And then there's a little bit more around violations, kind of a tiered suspension of the permit. So we kind of structured this after the recent tobacco retailer license regulations that the city adopted a couple of years ago. So essentially, if you have one violation, we can suspend your permit for a period of time. If you have two violations, it's a longer period of time. Three violations, it can be longer, so on and so forth. And then something that is not in this ordinance itself, but we've talked about a couple of different times, and we would anticipate bringing this back at the same time. It will be a separate ordinance adoption but requiring a real estate disclosure. So any properties that are sold when you, you know, buy a new house in the city of Clear Lake, you have enormous amount of disclosures that you have to do. We would propose doing a disclosure specific to the city of Clear Lake that would include this item that there are rental registration regulations that you need to be aware of. And while we won't talk about it here, I'll just briefly mention that some other things that are not consistent across Lake County, like our requirement for mandatory garbage service. That would be something that would probably be good to also include. And then, you know, we hear a lot of complaints about why isn't the city doing this maintain my road. You know, we have a very high number over 30 miles of private streets still in the city that are not maintained by the city. And so that would also be, probably a good disclosure to add in as well. So recommendations really is just direction on what amendments you would like. And then we will, staff will work on that, bring it back at a future meeting for first reading of those items that I used. So with that, I would be happy to address any questions.

Questions from staff? Nobody?

I have some ideas, but I think I'd like to say it after a public comment.

OK. No?

OK. Is there a councilor?

All right. We'll open it up for the public. Anybody that wants to speak on this item, please move forward.

Hi, everybody. My name is Henry Bornstein. I live in the Highlands Harbor neighborhood of Clear Lake. And I just have three quick points. First, I wanted to really commend staff and working with us. We had a couple of small problems for the last year on and on and on most of the time you get a vacation and there's no problem and I'm fine with vacation rentals but occasionally you get a problem house sort of seems like that's how it happens we had one or two and I noticed that they the city had a horrible time it took a while under the regulation I think they needed some more tools so I fully support the um amendments that they propose. I think I'll give them some extra tools and a toolkit to help speed up the process in dealing with scofflaws or just problem houses, houses that are being rented to fishermen all the time during the tournaments with lots of trailers and things like that. So that's the first point. The second point I noticed that we had here So noticing prior to permit issuance was one of the things that was listed as a possibility. I know in 2019, we came forward and asked to have the public have some input on permit conditions. And the council at that time decided to see what happened. They just did a zoning permit and notification afterwards. What happens is that, well, let's take that one example we had. It was a house on a corner. It's a cul-de-sac. It's a no place to park there because lots of driveways. And people come from a tournament with five boats. And there's nothing in regulation about how many boats or trailers you can have, right? But you could, in that particular house, say, all right, you're limited to three boats or I'm making this up, whatever it is. And the city doesn't know that. It would be helpful to get input from the people who live there beforehand and So the city can have the benefit of the not local knowledge about particular problems, or perhaps a certain area where the river, the creek is really narrow. You might want to make sure they disclose the five mile an hour, no wake limitations. People say it all the time. I didn't know that. I hear it all the time. And boats get damaged against the docks. So that's the other thing. So I would love to have the city council think about making it something like an administrative permit that requires, that allows permit from the public before the actual permit conditions are finalized. And finally, really quickly, one thing I'm glad I didn't see on here and that there wasn't any proposed change was in the 51% of the occupancy limitation. This is very important to us because I think I go all the time out for 10 weeks in the summer. Maybe I want to rent my house out. I'm fine with that. But if someone can come in and buy 10 or 15 houses because they made a lot of money in Silicon Valley and then turn them into, because he doesn't have to live there, and turn them into vacation rentals, That's really going to change the character of the neighborhood. Instead of now a residential neighborhood, you got basically a hotel. And you have a bunch of empty houses that no one can live in now because every once in a while they're rented out. And I know that other cities are having a problem with this. I'm sorry, I'm going over. Other cities are having a problem with this. I know Lake Tahoe is now instituting that for the first time because of the problems they had. And I don't think we should go back the other way. I think we need to preserve that. That's it.

ask question do you have homeowners violations in highlands

We do not have a HOA with enforceable homeowners. We have a, this is unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the community was created before the HOA concept was finalized. And so there is a homeowners, there's a community association. There are CC&Rs, but no one can enforce them. So it's just like recommendations that you, I got when I bought the house, it was showing me here's what you have to do. You know, they're not very restrictive. but no RVs in the street or whatever it is. But they are enforceable, so it's not really being enforced by anybody else.

Since the two of you made complaints more than a year ago, as I recall, has anything improved in that time?

Well, we still have, well, yes, of course, things have improved. There's one house still that's operating, we think, without advertising, because he's got his now mailing list from years of doing it, and he's just doing it privately. There's no permits. He's never had a permit. And there's been a lot of problems, a lot of late noise, parties, drunkenness, trash all over the place, boat trailers blocking other people's driveways. And, you know, we're There's no reason. I hope it would be nice if that went away, but so far nothing's been done. He still is in the same position he's in.

And do you think that person is not there 51% of the time?

Yeah, we know he's not there 51% of the time. I guarantee you. Yeah, he's not going to get a permit.

And that's pretty clear.

But he doesn't really care if he can just keep doing it. And that's what's happening. So on the other hand, if he just monitors people and they behave themselves, I wouldn't care if it was just a situation. But we don't have the 24-hour manager thing, all the things you're supposed to have, because he's not permanent. So most of the time when they're permanent, people following the laws I had run across from me had never had a problem. wonderful people, just never had a problem. But it just depends on whether the owner of the house is willing to enforce these rules. And if he doesn't have a permit and he's being allowed to operate, then that's what's going on still.

Okay. Thanks, Henry. Right.

Anybody else? I have one comment. We live in an area that is on the lake, so there's lots of activity in several um airbnb is there and um actually uh our previous city manager complained again this was one-time issues but that's the problem we don't have a mechanism that can deal with the back bad actors in these situations last year down the street another neighbor again complained And I told him to, you know, you have to do it three times, make sure you take pictures. And so he processed that. And eventually, he was ready to sell his house because he couldn't deal with a neighbor that didn't comply with the rules. So finally, the house that was the Airbnb sold, and he said, now it's still an Airbnb, but the people are being screened, and he has no problems with it. That's my two cents.

It wasn't an Airbnb.

It was permitted, but the bad actor didn't follow the rules. Noisy, same complaint that Henry has. And he was ready to sell his house. I do believe that there are some, you know, pro and cons of all these different issues that I am concerned that an influx of more Airbnb lease, and I don't know how much this city can bear without losing some community sense. That's my two cents. We're still in public comment, just go ahead.

And just as a point of fact, when you were saying more people coming in, two specific buyers were down Harbor Lane, and they came up and they happened to be one of the neighbors down there, sent them down to me. And taking away our issues of the past 15 months, which everybody's aware of, they asked, they said, well, we're contemplating buying both of these homes on Harbor Lane. One gentleman was going to buy them both. And he says, this is strictly as a business. He says, I want to rent them and I'm going to turn them into Airbnbs. And I said, fine. I said, you're going to need to go first to talk to Mark Roberts, Mr. Flora, and the city, because you're going to need a permit, and there are certain regulations, and he goes, oh, I've never heard of such a thing. The county doesn't do that, which may or may not be the case. I'm not familiar with that, but these issues have come up, and they're not being disclosed or told to potential buyers, and that could be a real issue, and as you say, that could be a real demise to an area. We have a fairly secure area. I mean, there's a few problem homes. There is everywhere, but This was noted and this has happened in the past 60 days. So I just thought make you aware of it. Thank you. Thank you.

Any more? Any more public comment? If not, is there anybody on Zoom, Madam Clerk?

There are no comments on the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, we'll bring back to the council. You're up.

Okay. So when this came on to the agenda, I dug in. did a lot of research read a lot of other cities ordinances and how they're handling these things and i think that we should really focus on the nuisance behavior you know the bad actor the guest that's not being considerate um and not necessarily try to discourage responsible property owners and people who want to come and enjoy life here maybe not right now but maybe later on in life and not try to discourage them or make it harder for them to Let's start to plant roots here. I think a really good option that I would like my fellow council members to look into is something that I saw that South Lake Tahoe is doing. And they are putting out a good neighbor contract to all their vacation rentals. You get a copy of it when you make the reservation. So you get a formal notice from the city of, it's like a welcome letter. you know, nasty right off the bat, but it's a welcome letter that says, you know, thank you for choosing to vacation here. But we just want to remind you that, you know, where you're staying is, it's a residential, it could be a residential neighborhood. People work, people live, and this is what's expected of you. And it would give us an opportunity to tell people about the neighborhoods and lay out what's expected of them. And actually South Lake Tahoe at the very bottom, there's a violation and they're holding the guests accountable for, not following these um and i think this would be a great opportunity to like henry suggested put the the no wake zone speed limits we could let people know about um red bug park there's uh overnight parking for your extra boat trailers we don't expect um there to be any more than what's necessary parked on the street um you know feel free to park your boat after you launch it there's a camera more being installed we can really um put in their things to guide people to make the right decisions and to let them know that there are gonna be expectations, quiet hours, you know, garbage, whatever we need to do. I think this would be a good opportunity to take care of the nuisance before it happens, to put it on them. And then instead of trying to make it harder for people to wanna come here and, you know, plant roots, like I said, and, you know, tourism i think is uh one of the things that we have to offer here in lake and clear lake specifically and um there's i don't agree with the 51 i think that there's a ton of negatives to it more so than positives um if you compare us to the county of lake and lakeport they do not require a 51 occupancy so if someone was coming here to purchase a second home to purchase a retirement home and they would like to supplement that cost They may choose to go somewhere else in the county. Because they're not going to be able to do that here if you know if they're going to be honest and try to try to run it honestly um and you know. Working in real estate, I have dealt with a fair amount of people that have bought dilapidated homes and they come into the county, the city, they buy these homes and they spend their money here fixing it up. They go to Mendo Mill, they stay here, they go to Walmart, they take their family to breakfast at Grandpa's, they go to Delicious Alvarez, they get gas at Arco, then they're going to the dock, they're going to Richmond Park. You know, people, they're earning their money elsewhere and they're coming to Clear Lake, coming to Lake County and they're choosing to spend it here. and you know seeing the photos of some of the homes if anybody goes on these websites and searches the available homes that are in the city of clear lake you will be blown away these homes are beautiful these people these property owners care about the the product that they're putting out there for for people to come and experience and enjoy and i can just see families like my own coming here and having poor memories built and to me You know, I think the more that we can allow people to come here and make improvements and beautify our lake and our lakefront. I mean, I think it's a no brainer. It also I mean, having allowing people to do this also supports all five steps of our strategic plan. It will improve economic development. People will be spending more money here even after the work is done and the people go home because they don't live here and they're allowed to live here. They go home will now week after week or month after month or whenever on occasion, people are still coming and using that home as a base to spend money in our Community. Another thing to think about in the future, I guess you know we're looking to annex all the way out to win flower point all those homes are on county regulation they don't have to be 51% so you know what are we going to do when. or what's going to happen when we bring those properties into the cities and now they don't fit into our regulation. So I think we could kind of take care of that if we remove the 51%. I don't know if you guys have any questions, but I just brain dump on you.

I think this is actually your point on 51%. Okay. I get that you talked about

anything but what about the bad actors what would you propose for the five trailers in the party earlier oh i think i think if we followed through with the good neighbor contract that you know they could they could call the police and the police can come and acknowledge that they're not following the rules they sign these agreements you know cite them ask them to be quiet ask them to move their um their boats i know that we'll be able to work with staff to build this into something that we can enforce. So, you know, I don't have all the answers now, but I thought it was a great idea and direction to go to hold the news, the source of the nuisance accountable instead of trying to, you know, no, you make good points.

And like I said, the only question I have would be the enforcement if they aren't good neighbors. Yeah. What a word. Is that where we put the teeth?

Yeah. I mean, South Lake Tahoe imposes a fifteen hundred dollar violation.

So.

per violation.

Okay. That'll work.

Well, I mean, real quick, I haven't, I have, I did make a copy of South Lake Tahoe's new ordinance. I haven't really went through it yet, but if I understand what Council Member Houghton is saying, I mean, I don't think it would change any of our ability to enforce regulations against the property owners. It basically just adds an additional mechanism of enforcement against the tenant. notifying them as well i mean i think it could provide a lot of a lot of impact notifying the owner or the or the well the owner should know the owner has no excuse not to know this is just making sure the tenant also knows what the expectations are yeah so so you would have the tenant put down a fifteen hundred dollar deposit well i mean i wouldn't be prepared to address all those things now i'm not sure how they do it there i just know that that's the fine for violation of the good neighbor policy in South Lake Tahoe I don't know how that's structured I know you know there are some bookings that require deposits like at that level that may be an option I you know I don't I've been in that situation before I didn't love the $1,500 deposit but anyway I mean I think the council needs to decide what direction you want to go and then we'll have to work through some of those details and bring it back.

Okay, just if I want to summarize this a little bit, is that there's two things that we're trying to do now. One is to figure out a better way to deal with the bad actors. That contract is one. My problem with that is, I mean, I like it, but there's no, how can you get to the tenant afterwards after the place is wrecked and they have plans from their neighbor.

That system is- I mean, that's a question I have too on how South Lake Tahoe is doing. I mean, we aren't going to be able to provide the same level of staff support to this program as South Lake Tahoe does. I mean, they have at least one full-time person that this is all that they do, right? But I mean, I think the deposit would be one way. I mean, I think we could probably still use our regular administrative citation process, but it's- You know, for someone who may only be here, you know, a weekend out of the year, it may be a little difficult to collect on that. I don't, we'd have to look into it more if it's something you're interested in.

So to summarize it, I think the one thing that we will both all agree on is that we need to deal with a bad actress. I think that's one suggestion. And I think the disclosure is another section. And I think if we want to change the 51 to whatever, then I think that's another discussion. Do you do you agree with that? Or is it just for fun?

Well, I do agree with Councilmember Houghton. I mean, I do agree with the fact of removing the 51%. I mean, it's like Alan said, it's really hard to track. I mean, and we don't have the resources or staff to be doing that kind of stuff. And then I do like what Houghton said about the good neighborhood contract. All I know is that when I do go on vacation, I do rent Airbnbs. I'm really a stickler about I want a good review as a person renting it because I want to be able to be welcomed back again. So I think making sure that we, these homeowners who do have these rentals, that if this person who is renting it, they are not welcomed back if they are in violation of any of these

issues that we're having in the neighborhoods um so i mean that's pretty much so to piggyback on what you said i want to know the south lake tahoe inform the uh like airbnb that people have gotten these fines because then you are going to have if they did then it would be on airbnb and nobody would want to rent to you yeah i mean it does uh fine starting at 1500 for a violation and maybe issued to both me and the property owners Okay, so then the property owner would put them on Airbnb that they're, they're a bad actor.

I mean, it's up, it's up to the property owner. Yeah, but, but I think having an agreement or knowing that you could be liable for violation penalty, if you're not a good neighbor is enough to make somebody want to true, like, listen, and because I know, when I see in houses, there's signs on everything.

Like, you know, like, how to run the dishwasher, how to do this. I mean, maybe there needs to be inspections on these rentals, which we did implement. So maybe that's one thing that we need to piggyback on and check, like, hey, is there safety signs and regulations and rules for the neighborhood and what's happening?

Oh, I like that one.

So, I mean, that could be one thing that should be on inspections for short-term rentals.

Yeah, there are sometimes signage in properties that have local information.

Right.

signs that are created by the cities right yeah like we'll have to have your your permit your certificate or you know any kind of a notice provided that's like needs to be posted whatever it may be so i had a question about the uh about potential buyers are we also suggesting that you know like those um the other things we've been talking about like um revealing that This is a private road. No disclosures. Yes, thank you. So I'd like that whenever we're doing with this, that there's also disclosures made to potential buyers that these are the regulations of the city and this is what's going to happen. And I'm sure like South Lake Tahoe says, well, everybody who buys one property and makes an Airbnb is going to have to use these contracts. Yeah.

I don't really feel very good about the possible effect of a contract like this, I have to tell you, because the good actors are going to pay attention to it.

The bad act was, I'll tell you what I confronted. We had these guys out there. It was like 11 o'clock at night. They're drinking beers, throwing it into the creek, carrying on, had a fire on the deck. And when I tried to confront them, they said, I'm paying a lot of money for this. No local yokel is going to tell me to just get the fuck out of here. I'll have to get my gun. This is what you get. And trust me, they got a piece of paper saying you have to do this and you have to do this. It's just going to be... Because we have to deal with the people who aren't going to, the people who are going to listen to that contract aren't going to be a problem in the first place. They're going to be like you. They're going to say, I want to have a good reputation. I want to rent again. A lot of them, you know, it's funny, it just depends. It's the bass fishermen tend to be the best people. Not a problem at all. They're there for a reason. They take care of business. But the party sort of boat people are a problem. And I don't know. The problem I see is that, I mean, we've had this problem for 14, 15 months now. You could they had fines against them and no one's paid anything. And what are you going to do put it on their property when you sell it down the road somewhere you'll get a lien I mean, there's no real mechanism for getting the money.

Well, the only thing is if they go to Airbnb or VRBO, that they have to put that $1,500 deposit. That will make them change.

You know, if you had a deposit system or something, that would definitely be one thing. But I have to tell you that the bad actors aren't going to listen to a contract. They're out of their minds just partying. I think $1,500 might change their mind a little bit.

Yeah, it might. Okay. What can we do about it? Okay, well, I think we'll bring it back. Hold on.

I would just like to make one point. If I had a neighbor doing those sorts of activities outside my house, I would call law enforcement because obviously there's something illegal going on and they shouldn't be doing that or whatever. They're a nuisance after a certain amount of time period. So, I mean, you do have those key elements where you could do something about it besides you putting yourself at risk.

We're bringing it back to the council now. I think direction to the staff is work some more on the suggestion of the contract, and then I think we do need to have another discussion about if we're going to take out the 51%. That's a separate item because now a lot of people are working on their dose conditions. I think that's a separate item.

I'd also like to see enforcement with some teeth and talked about.

That's my opinion. Well, I mean, you tell me. I don't know. I think now's the time to have a discussion about everything in the ordinance, including the 51%. I would I would say, but you tell me how you want to, I mean, there'll be at least two more bites at the ordinance in order to pass it. So you just have to tell me what you want to, what you want me to start with.

I have no problem taking the 51% out if you're asking. That sounds like. Okay. I'm kind of on the fence on that.

Okay.

Well, it sounds like.

A majority is okay with removing the 51%, including the good neighbor policy, making sure that we tighten the enforcement procedures as much as possible. So, you know, I appreciate council member Hooten bringing up the South Lake Tahoe. Interestingly, the changes that we made were pulled from South Lake Tahoe's ordinance. What we didn't realize was that they just adopted a new one, literally after years of public meetings. And this is the one, council member hooten found so there's also a very similar one in palm desert that we're looking at so we can dig into a pull out more stuff look into the deposit thing more um how that would work and bring our best version back for a first reading unless you want to have us bring back um something just for a general discussion before doing well it seems like four of them are ready to move on yeah

I definitely would like your, I'm glad that you're looking at Palm Desert. I like the idea of the welcoming type of approach. Because we are, you know, our economy is tourism, a big part of it, and we don't want to ruin that. I don't want it to decrease either. So I like that soft approach at the beginning, but I do want to see enforcement if they break the rules.

Yeah, I mean, it's essentially a code enforcement process. So, you know, it's not like we can go red tag the house because you're putting a vacation rental in there. But I mean, we'll do anything we can to tighten it up based on other examples.

Yeah, I'm not so much talking about red tagging the house. I'm talking about enforcement against the violators, the late party night or the garbage in the creek and all of those things that You talked to me about a year and a half ago. No, I'm not. I'm just saying. Okay. I think it's got to be a big part of it.

I also want to make sure that we look at the disclosures for potential buyers, whatever you put together.

We already have a draft on that. So the plan would be to bring that ordinance back at the same meeting that we bring changes to this. I think generally, yeah. Yeah, it sounds like.

OK, direction. All right. Did I ask for public comments on Zoom? I don't think there wasn't any, right? OK, I forgot. All right, we'll go to item number 10. Rejection of bids for 36th Avenue Import Improvement Project, Mr. Ornette is going to get over.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening. City Council is being asked to reject all bids for the 36th Avenue Improvement Project and authorize staff to rebid. Staff solicited bids for the 36th Avenue Project and received several proposals. However, the submitted costs exceeded the anticipated funding by almost double, with the majority of the costs due to the material and type of covert specified in the plans. Following a review of proposals, staff discussions, and consideration of design modifications, it was determined to be in the City's interest to reject all bids and re-advertise the project for new proposals using different material for the culvert to reduce costs. My request is to request Council to reject all proposals and authorize staff to re-solicit.

Anybody have a discussion on that? If not, Any public comment on that? Oh, there is.

Margaret Garcia, City of Clear Lake. I'm not familiar with the 36th Avenue project, but knowing the avenues, I'm figuring it's at the end of 36th Ave, maybe where it hits the dirt and the trees and nothing's developed there yet. I'm thinking, but I'm wondering what the 36th Avenue project is and if in those plans, whatever they might be, are there any you know, are there any direction as far as sidewalks that might begin to be required for whatever this project may be, if it's housing, if it's commercial, but that would be something that would be nice to have as part of requirements. You can't, you know, build a house, you have to put the sidewalks in, because we'll just have more and more, you know, dirt roads and

potholes and so i'm just wanting to know maybe if that can be thought about thank you thank you hey uh anybody on zoom madam on this item there are no uh comments on the zoom mr mayor all right we'll bring it back to the council can i have a motion no go ahead

Yeah, I just wanted to say the location of the project on 36 avenue is west of Phillips, I think it's your week is the next street over and it consists of a large drainage project of shown on the screen right there. That area tends to flood a lot in the winter and we are looking to put some very large culverts in there to relieve some of the flooding issues, along with some pavement in that area.

i could just add these um this was initiated um a number of years ago the city owned almost all the lots on both sides of the street we sold them to a developer things didn't go that well but we have danco that did project over by the senior center has purchased these lots and is prepared to build them but with the housing values in clear lake they do not have money in the budget to be able to do the infrastructure So a few years ago, the city committed to doing the storm drain improvements and paving the street. There will not be sidewalks required as part of this project. We do require sidewalks in some areas, but as you can expect on all classes of streets in the city, it's unnecessary to require sidewalks and could prohibit additional development. Okay, thank you.

Can I have a motion now, please?

Go ahead, Delight, or I can. I'll make a motion, Mr. Mayor, to recheck all the bids for the 36th Avenue Improvement Project and authorize staff to re-solicit.

Okay. Go to our voting. I'll second. Second. Second by the woman. Wilson. Okay, there we go. There we go.

Motion passes with unanimous vote of the council.

We go to item 11. City managers report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. So we've almost finished the Arrowhead Burns Valley Olympic Games. project. The paving's done. They're just raising manholes and valve boxes and doing the striping. Just as a quick side note, based on some of the questions earlier, the reason this project was done is it's disaster recovery funding, that grant that the city received. It's the same funding source that we did Lakeshore Drive north of here, Sulphur Bank, all of that work a few years ago. There are specific requirements of disaster recovery funding that have to be tied back to a specific disaster. In this case, the sulfur fire that happened in 2017. So some of these roads were routes for debris removal, which is the tie back to the disaster, just as an example. So this funding could not be used just for any project. Required an enormous amount of federal and state review. For your information, I included you in the email today, but, you know, we had an item requesting, you gave me direction to request a number of documents from Lake County Special Districts a number of weeks ago. I sent that request in on May 12th. Today, we received notice from them that, you know, they're going to be giving it to us sometime maybe. So their response was 13 days after the statutory deadline. and still no documents have been provided. So we'll keep working on that. Also wanted to give an update. I guess I'll send this out, but there were some concerns about homeless and came up behind foods, et cetera, a few weeks ago. It's kind of an arduous process in this case to get a warrant for that, but that area was cleaned up last week. There were quite a number of dogs out there, as you heard from the public. Animal control took some of them, but a large number of them were not taken. Just so you know, I have some more details on that that I can forward to the council. I was happy to meet with new owners of the Rite Aid building last week, working with them to find a new tenant. I was going to mention the drone show, but I mentioned that a little bit earlier, so that'll be kind of a new thing. And then just an update on various grants. Just, I guess it was early last week, we submitted for funding to finish the Lakeshore Drive streetscape project. So I think that was about a little over 17 million in funding. Same funding source we've applied for before and barely missed with just a couple of points. So we're hoping that we'll be able to be successful this time. Matt, with our grant writer to identify some additional funding for the sports complex. I think we have some good options there. So we're going to be working on putting that together. Also funding source for the recreation center itself. And then we've identified some smaller grants we're hoping to pursue for maybe some additional soccer facilities and lighting grants that could go for, let's say, lighting Haverty Field and a few other things. And then the last one that we've been working on for a while, but to try to identify funding is replacement of the Redbud Park Pier. We do have some funding we're working on design to do some work at Redbud Park and some temporary fixes to the to the pier. But over the long term, it requires complete replacement, which is going to be a big project that we're trying to find funding for. So that's my report.

Okay.

I've been attending the special committee meetings with the Lake County special districts. I wish I had, I wish I had more progress, but we are making little bits of progress. So hopefully in the near future, we'll be able to bring a workable solution to this governance issue. And then I had also attended the Highlands Water Company committee meeting. It's been really nice to meet with them and just kind of keep each other in the loop about like future projects and concerns of infrastructure and availability of utility services on projects for ourselves and for them. And I wanted to share that the city presented them at their board meeting with the token of appreciation for their commitment and their assistance to the city during the robin lane spill because um jeff was a huge asset he's really smart about water and uh i think he was he was really uh instrumental for us so that was my report councilman councilwoman wilson so last week monday i attended the peg tv meeting um they covered their budget and um

it did a 22% increase of their fees, which is still below market. Their Circle of Native Minds project is going forward. They got a grant writer to work on more funding so that they can have each individual video edited because they have hundreds of hours of video with tribal elders. Their youth project is, up and running at the lower lake, and they have had a couple of videos made by the students over there. They're talking about an internship program with the youth project, but they have not been successful with getting into other high schools for the project. And Kingdom Games launched their podcast This week, or was the end of last week, but I looked at I couldn't find anything so we'll have to wait for that last week Friday I attended the League of cities meeting in sport brag. They did some legislative committee updates. The most interesting thing about the meeting was a presentation on the blue economy, which is a sustainable use of ocean resources, including wave-powered desalinization. What was... most intriguing about the Blue Economy Project is that it's a regional collaboration that includes their harbor district, the local tribe, Mendocino College, business development, and the Noyo Center for Marine Science. And we got to see, we went on a field trip to see their urchin project. People may or may not know, but the urchins are kind of invasive and they're working on a way to figure out ways to use urchins for things like sushi. And then we had a presentation on global issues in local cities where the presenter talked about the fact that some cities are actually making making agreements with other countries that order on treaties, which she's was waiting to see, you know, what the reaction is going to be on the federal government and about that. And today I attended right before this meeting, a continuum of care meeting. We talked about the bylaws a little bit. We talked also about the safe parking project that uses the encampment funding. We still have some issues with what the city wants. It's not the city's fault. It's what the city wants for drawings, but that we're working... We're progressing on that. The PIT count data is done. It was submitted to HUD. And if anybody's interested, within the next month or so, you'll be able to look at the Continuing Care's website for that. And the county closed all of the peer support centers in the county. because of this administration's funding. The LaVoy Center is going to, actually did close on June 1st, but it will reopen on July 1st under a new model. They're calling it the Clubhouse Model. And I'm looking if there's anything else. So the one, shelter model that has any openings is supporting brighter futures which are the the smaller homes projects and um also i think yeah scott's valley has um is working uh they have some um openings for uh males sle and that's all i got councilman raymond well council member hooten pretty much

I'll talk about the two things that I was going to. I guess I would add with regard to the special districts meeting that we have each week. I feel really more optimistic that we're at least approaching an interim agreement with the county on the district's problem. Although they apparently didn't do anything at the county supervisor's meeting the other day. But I do feel like We're making progress on that. That would be an interim solution to give us more authority with regard to the operation of the southeast plant. And then with regard to Islands Mutual Water Company, yes, we gave, Helen presented their board with a plaque of appreciation, correct me if I'm wrong, Helen, for the help that they gave us with the robin, specifically for the robin mine spill and the things. and i would agree also with council member putin that um we we have established i think a pretty good working relationship with with highlands mutual water company feeling pretty good about that that's all i have vice mayor

I think the only thing I have to report is my apologies for missing last meeting. I was the master of ceremonies for the Lower Lake High School senior scholarships and awards night. So I think the only, I don't really have much to report right now is a really crazy time of year as we reach the end of the school year. This weekend, we do have a fundraiser for Lower Lake softball team. We're playing, it's alumni game. Our POA gave a generous donation for the game and sponsor. So we really appreciate that. So yeah, if you are doing anything Saturday, please come out and watch. And it supports our softball program for all our equipment and safety and anything that's needed for the season. So, and Council Member Hooten will be playing because she's an alumni.

All right. I have nothing to report this time. So any future agenda items? If not, we adjourn to closed session.