Area Council - Regular Meeting
About this meeting
- Government Body
- Area Council
- Meeting Type
- Area Council
- Location
- Clearlake, CA
- Meeting Date
- August 19, 2026
Transcript
289 sections
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All right. Good evening, everyone, for tonight's meeting, August 19th, to the Western Regent Town Hall. I'm going to do a roll call. I'm Thomas Aceves, your chairman. Tim Kiera. Present. Linda Alexander. Here. Lisa Benavidez. Here. And David Eby. Present. Claudine Pedruccelli will be out tonight, and Supervisor Crandall will be, he says he's on his way, he'll be late to the meeting tonight. Let's all stand. All right, here we go.
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. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. All right. Did everyone get a chance to read the minutes? Yes. OK. Make a motion to accept. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Lisa. Motion from Tim. All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Okay, next up is public input. Up to three minutes for a citizen to provide input on any item not on the agenda but within the council's jurisdiction. Worth Chair can extend the time to accommodate item if not appearing on the agenda. Items can be further discussed on a future agenda if the Worth Council decides to add it. Before we have someone come up to the podium if you want to for three minutes, I will be having a motion to add something to the agenda which is the general plan. So we will be talking about that very soon, okay? So is there anything else anybody would like to talk about at the podium, if you could say your name and you have three minutes.
Do you wanna go first?
Mine will be quick. I'm Tammy Alexei, Upper Lake resident, and I work for the Red Cross. We are having a resiliency workshop planning meeting, Roots, Ripples, and Resilience. A Lake County gathering for everyone who wants to strengthen our communities from the ground up. Two day conference brings together neighbors, volunteers, cultural leaders, resilience practitioners, and local organizations to explore what is meant to be climate ready, community connected, and capacity strong. through hands-on workshops on extreme heat, climate anxiety, cultural awareness, storytelling, volunteer recruitment, de-escalation, mental health, first aid, neighbor fest, activation, Participants will dig into roots that ground us and the ripples that connect us and the resilience that carries us forward. It's a day or days to learn, build, imagine, and leave with practical tools and renewed hope for a stronger Lake County. I have some flyers. It's September 18th and 19th at Mandala Springs. There is a QR code to register. So please, if you're interested in getting some great education around Lake County and how to make it better, come and see us.
All right. Thank you. Awesome.
I'm Olga Martin-Steele. I have just a couple of announcements I wanted to make. First of all, I wanted to let everybody know that I am with Lake County Community Radio. I am president of the board, but I am also a radio programmer. And I've started a new show called The North Shore Report, and as my co-host, is my dearest and one of my longest friends here in Lake County who I dubbed Lakeshore Deb a long time ago. Well now she is going to be Lakeshore Deb because she's going to join me as a co-host on the North Shore Report. So the point of that report is to really focus on the North Shore. What's happening in our North Shore? What happens at the town halls? We actually had two. The first one was Angela whose last name I forget right now, but she is the chair of the Amaral, Angela Amaral, how could I forget her? But she is the chair of the East Region Town Hall and followed by another North Shore report that we did just last week and our guest was Lisa Benavides. Some of the things that I wanna do in addition to talking about what's going on at the town halls and how important the town halls are, are all the good things that are happening on the North Shore. yeah there's plenty the last month or so we've lost people it's you know there's plenty to fix but there are also a lot of people working really really hard and doing really good things i want to showcase those people but next friday at 9 00 a.m the west region town hall is going to be featured and i've got tim and thomas joining me and deb uh at nine o'clock on kpfc 88.1 fm and we'll be talking about um all things west region town hall and maybe a few other things thrown in there so that's my announcement um and so listen yeah listen and you'll be able to call in if you want and we'll have a good discussion and stay informed. The other thing I just want to mention is that I am a chair and co-founder of an organization called One Team One Dream. We are in our sixth year of conducting a small business competition. I wanted to let everybody know that We have selected seven businesses throughout Lake County. One of them is in the North Shore, and that's Turped Out Kitchen. I mention that because they're competing for big dollars. We're gonna be giving away about $70,000 to small businesses. This year, and the goal is to help our businesses Thrive, become resilient and sustaining businesses, and generally help the overall local economy a few businesses at a time. That's the goal of what we do. But Turped Out Kitchen is in the running for, he's actually made it to the final competition. And you can vote for him. any of the others on Facebook and we do something called the fan favorite so that's where everybody in the community gets to vote on which business they like the best and I some of you know about what a turped out kitchen is and does you probably had their food so just go to one T one dream on Facebook and you can support it that way and then lastly I do have some information some pamphlets and that show you kind of our history of what we've done. And we're always looking for sponsors. You can sponsor at any level from $100 to $100,000. So if anybody's interested, or if you know someone that's got money, let me know. And I do have some pamphlets. Just see me after the meeting and I'll get them to you. That's it.
Thanks, Olga. Can't wait to see you Friday. We'll start with the top 10, top 10 pop songs. No. Whoever's in the public here to, Walt, do you want to, does anybody else want to make a comment? Yeah, go ahead. I'm going to let Walt come up and talk about, or John, I mean, sorry, John. Yeah, you're looking around for Walt. John, if you can come up and talk about the, he's going to do an early input about the levies. He's on the subcommittee. And then I'll add something just to...
yeah hi i'm john laboito i'm speaking for the levy subcommittee this evening um there are some strong indications that it looks like we might have a heavy winter and um i know some of you may have seen uh senator mike mcguire's online a seminar about the el nino and of course none of us can actually say what the weather's going to be until it happens but um you know we hear two terms the la nina and the el nino And what this refers to is very large changes in ocean currents and temperatures. And we know from historic experience that when these ocean currents change dramatically, it very definitely affects our weather. And El Nino, which appears we're going to have, lends itself to a heavier winter. Naturally, the committee continues to be really concerned about the condition of our levees, most particularly the flood control channel. We have a suggestion. The water resource is not ready to remove all that vegetation and stuff from the flood control channel, but there is one very practical and probably low-cost thing they could do. and that because it's dry now we've got september it's short for a short time but we've got september that is to run a machine straight down the middle about 20 feet wide and clear the middle of the channel where the water flows we wouldn't be tearing out all the vegetation just not taking out log jams and vegetative barriers and that sort of thing might take one day with a good sized machine to do this and it wouldn't would not be very costly i think that um i think that we're going to have to ask our supervisor to carry this suggestion to water resources because we don't have real good communication with water resources and um um i would i would let's see that did i overlook something there um Oh, just other kind of an aside report. The mowing of the levees did finally get done. They kind of made a late start, but it was mostly completed, which is better than it has been for the last two or three years. They obviously put, once they got going, they put more effort into it this time, even trimming around the gates and stuff. So that was good. There are still other maintenance, general maintenance, things that are not getting done. And so we gotta keep working on this. But I think for right now, facing perhaps a heavy winter, we would like to pursue this idea of just at least trying to clear the center of the channel. And it wasn't our idea, it was Coleman's idea. I should say that. he was out clearing around the diversion and we were talking up and down in the creek and he said well you know well i could just run my masticator down here and clear it 20 feet wide when john let me go ahead and if i could wrap up because i'm going to add one thing here okay i'm done thank you so much i have invited uh director paul on here to the meeting
We invited him in September, but I was told that he wasn't available, so I've invited him for October, and we're gonna invite the director of OES to come here and talk about El Nino and the severe impact, possible impact of that for the Upper Lake region. As a public input on my part, and Supervisor Crandall isn't here, but I would suggest the county should be having a town hall on this, because Mike McGuire did a wonderful town hall on it himself, and it's very important. This is gonna get bad. Do we have something coming up? Well, can I have you go up to the front? Sorry, I'm gonna have Tammy come back up Maybe something's in the works.
They were talking about it at the Risk Reduction Authority meeting the other day, or Monday.
Yeah, it's all over the place. You can watch numerous videos on it, and it potentially can be pretty heavy.
Yeah, it's the biggest story for the winter.
So we want to find out what the plan is for this area. Not really... clearing out the levees. We know that's not going to completely happen, but at least are the gates going to be open? What's their plan of action, operational plan?
And plus, if there's any flooding, what's the response going to be as far as that goes? Lisa?
Yes, I just have a quick comment on that because the Grange was actually approached by Water Resources, and we are working with Water Resources and LEIA, and we will be hosting multiple flood preparation meetings.
Leah Sautelette, who is the chief of the Office of Emergency Services.
Well, that's the people we want to come here.
Yeah, so we talked about that. It's going to be where they're talking about how do we get the maximum amount.
So she'd be willing to come here too?
Yes, it wouldn't be either or.
We haven't had an issue with getting feedback from her. It's Director Pawan. It's always not as responsive.
Yeah, I was just speaking specifically to the flood preparation when we're talking about response. There are community meetings that are being planned.
I'm sure they're not only reaching out to us. All right, so thank you so much.
Wait a minute, you said there's specific meetings being planned to talk about The weather situation coming?
To talk about flood preparation, what to do in the event of a flood.
Okay. Well, we need to know from them what their actions are going to be, if they have a master plan in place, and what do they do if something happens.
And what we can do as well.
I mean, obviously it's a lot of it's how we can prepare, but we want to know, especially about the levees, what they're going to do to make sure they're operational and running freely. So Margo, do you have another comment?
I do. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Worth, Margo Kambara. To piggyback on John's comment, Scotts Valley Advisory Council shares your concern about El Nino and flooding and its levees. So what the Scotts Valley Advisory Council has done, it has delegated an ad hoc committee to draft a letter and it has decided to work directly with its supervisor and water resources and other parties to get some immediate actions going to prepare for El Nino now we have some longer range solutions but right now we want to focus on getting ready for El Nino so we just wanted to share that with you and one other thing is one of the solutions is looking at vegetation clearing in the creek and But when you do that, you have to get approval from fish and wildlife. And you have to have a stream bed, lake stream bed alteration agreement. So paperwork and things to work through. But I just wanted to share that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Does anybody have any other public announcements before we move on? Okay. Or public input. Is anybody else have public input before we go to announcements? Any announcements?
Yes. You have an announcement? Yeah, just for the gleaners, food distribution tomorrow from 8 to 10 at the Nice Event Center.
Okay, anybody else?
I have a couple. One is September 19th at the Bachelor Valley Grange. We'll be having our first annual tomato festival from 10 to 2 p.m. So you can come to the Grange, enjoy local produce and the tomato as the special guest. Also at the Bachelor Valley Grange on October 9th is our Autumn's Night Out Dinner. So we will be sharing more information on that as we get closer, but please look out for our Facebook when we start selling tickets. And just hot off the presses from the PTO last night is October 24th will be Upper Lake's annual Halloween Fest or Fall Festival at the Upper Lake Middle School. So be on the lookout for that announcement coming.
All right, sounds exciting. So anyone else right now before we close public comment and announcements? Okay, I'd like to introduce, I saw the chief walk in. Chief Shannon, are you here? Shannon Banks. Mr. Shannon Banks, how are you doing? Good, how are you guys doing? I'm good.
He's messing with the microphone. How's everybody doing?
Good. I just have a couple updates and then I was going to open it up for questions. Yeah. Is that better? Okay. I have a couple updates and then I was going to open it up for questions. One of the updates is Monday at 10 o'clock, the board is gonna be, our board of directors for North Shore is gonna be voting on our tax measure. So after Monday, we should have answers for you guys as far as how much we're gonna be asking for and what it's gonna look like on your guys' end. Is that right, Jim? 10 o'clock Monday morning, yeah. other than that the staffing right now our new staffing model we're doing three people at station 85 and three people at station 75 we're not stopped at station 80 and we're not stopped at station 90 just to clear up any confusion other than that we have been busy lately we've had a few fires we've had a few fatalities I'm sure you guys have heard about this stuff I just want to let you guys know that if you have any questions, please give us a call at the station. And if I'm not there, leave a message and I'll call you back to clear up any questions because there's been a lot of, uh, false information being shared on Facebook. And some people have called and I've cleared, cleared things up for them and they appreciate that. I appreciate that they call rather than spreading bad information. What has been the misinformation? What are you referring to? Uh, well, there's a lot, but, um, Most of it's been bad information, honestly. The couple that stick out in my mind was the double structure fire we had in Lucerne. There were several comments asking why Lakeport fire was the first engine on scene. I'm not sure where that question came from, because Lakeport did come and help us, but they were the last engine on scene. The first due engine was there first out of Station 85. Second engine, I think, was from CAL FIRE. Third engine was our other engine from Station 75. And then another CAL FIRE engine. And then Lakeport was last. So why people think that Lakeport was there first, I'm totally confused on. That's why I'd like, if you guys hear stuff like this and you have questions, just call the station and ask. We'll straighten it out for you. The other one is there was a fatality in the Oaks last week, and there were some comments on Facebook that Cal Fire Medics, which it wasn't Cal Fire Medics, it was North Shore Medics, sat in their ambulance, waited for SO to get there, That's true because there was dogs on the loose that were actively attacking people. So that's our policy too. Any call that has violence involved, we wait until SO or CHP has cleared the scene, then we go in. So just to clear that up.
Can you clarify something on that? Because I've had some people want me to ask you this about that dog attack. And that was one of the questions. They kept referring to CAL FIRE and waiting to go in.
Yeah, CAL FIRE doesn't have any ambulances.
Yeah, that's misinformation like you're talking about. How long did it take for the animal control to get there? Do you know?
I don't know. I wasn't on scene or the sheriff's department to get on scene. I'm not sure. I'd have to look, I'd have to look at the report and see that. I'm not sure. All right.
Cause I've heard, you know, it could be misinformation.
And that, that is that that's the one true thing that was put out is the guys did wait until SO showed up to clear the scene, but they're always going to do that. Right. Cause they don't know if the dogs are going to get attacked by dogs.
Yeah. It's just a terrible thing. All right.
We'll have to ask them. Um, That's really all I had for updates. I'm more than happy to answer your questions you guys have.
Before we go out to the public, let me ask, I have one question. So can you go over the real quickly, Upper Lake you have how much staff here? Zero.
Lucerne Chiefs only? Yeah, the only thing that's, the only activity in Lucerne is the headquarters office, our office staff. Nice? Nice is fully staffed. Oaks?
Fully staffed. Okay. Thank you for that. And again, Monday, 10 a.m., is that meeting open to the public? Can we get through the portal to watch it?
correct all right and i suggest you guys do because that's where you're going to get the information firsthand and you'll make a decision on what you're going to do about them the board will i don't make those decisions all right the board will make a ballot decision and then from there you're going to have to from there that's when everything starts that's when we start working with the marketing aspect of the uh of the consultant team and we start putting information out i haven't shared any information yet because i don't want to put out false information
right well thank you very much chief who has another question on the council is the um the measure going to be on the november ballot or are we still looking at march march okay anyone have a question for the chief in the i think he was
Yes, sir. I think we've had three fires in Lucerne fairly recently. One was the shed at the senior center. The other was the one you just mentioned, the behind the knoll behind Sherwood and Webster.
That's not the one I was referring to. The one I was referring to is the one that was on Highway 20, the two houses with the boat and the cars. Okay, so that's the third. And then we had another single light on Highway 20 probably a month ago. Yeah, okay, so that makes the three. I wasn't sure what the third one was.
At least two of those, I don't know what that house fire was, but it seemed pretty suspicious to me.
Which one are you referring to, the Sherwood?
Yeah, the Sherwood and the... senior center shed.
I wasn't aware of the senior center shed fire. I must have been off.
Is that the one that was put out by community members?
They helped, but the senior center took some losses. The shed is gone. They decided to save some of the stuff.
Okay, there was another question.
Did you have a question about the starts? Like how they started?
Well, we need a microphone on you.
The one on Sherwood Court is kind of undetermined, but it is a house that was vacant. It had no power going to it at all. PG&E actually went up the pole and cut the power months ago because squatters kept pirating into the power. So yeah, that one's very suspicious. If no one's in the house and there's no power to it, it's pretty suspicious how it started. So I'd be guessing if I told you how that one started. The one on Highway 20 was very clear. A car veered off the highway and drove straight into a propane tank and the propane tank blew up and started a fire. Oh, that was the other thing I wanted to clear up too. On Facebook, they're saying that our response time was 25 minutes. And our response, I looked it up on the CAD, and the first North Shore engine on scene was eight minutes, which anybody that knows response times, that's as fast as you're going to get anybody there, period.
I think there might be... If it's possible, and I don't know, kind of all new to this, and I understand what place you're talking from on Facebook, you might want to go back and look. There were some corrections made on that post and put it in more of a situation where they were corrected. So I want to say that. But also, I've been in this county 12 years. My dad lived in it for almost 40. We've had property in Bachelor Valley. We sold it. I recently live in the CERN now. And up until that fire on 20 was the first time I found out that there are town hall meetings in this North Shore. Because you know why? I was asking, how do you start a town hall? And that's how I noticed that there are town hall meetings. So maybe the fire department, because you have your own town hall meetings or your own meetings that people can go to. and help educate them because I got a good education that day. I think I spoke to you on the phone. And it helped me, it actually changed my perspective on something I never thought I could change, which was I'm willing to have my property tax increased so we can have better fire services. I think a lack of communication on town halls in general and more knowledge to the people of where the fire department, North Shore Fire Department stands would be greatly increase the number of people at your town hall meetings, number one.
How did you find out about, I'm sorry, let me ask you a question. I'm Thomas. What's your name?
My name's Brenda.
Hi, Brenda. Thank you for coming to the meeting. I appreciate you. How did you find out that we were having this town hall?
I'm sorry?
How did you find out about tonight's town hall?
Well, because I put a post on Facebook asking how can I start a town hall because I'm concerned about our fire issues. And that's when I found out we have town halls.
Was that, I think I posted on that, right? You might have, yeah.
I may have gotten some information from you. There was a lot of people posting.
Lucerne actually has their own town hall too.
But my other question is, and this one kind of concerns me personally. I have a fire hydrant on 17th. I live off 17th. Splits between me and my neighbor. You guys needed to use it one time back in early, late fall, somewhere. I don't remember the exact date, but it was in the fall going into winter. And you parked right in front of my house with the truck, not you specifically, but somebody with a big truck from Lakeport parked in front of my house, took up my whole driveway. I couldn't get out if I wanted to. It was three structures from the fire and it was windy that night. So that's a concern for me. Is there a way to remedy that?
That's a good question. I wasn't there, so I can't. I can't say we try not to block people in, but the streets in Lucerne and Nice particularly most of the time we have a fire. We completely shut the streets down because there's no room.
Well, it was windy that night and I think that was my biggest concern for me and my family and my five dogs. I did tell you the truth. I was actually inside packing up essentials, getting my dogs ready to load into a trip. My car. My wife was in the yard, hosing our front yard and our roof down because we were literally three structures from that fire and the wind was blowing our direction. If we needed to, which I'm grateful we didn't have to. Boy, am I grateful. I'm just saying, if I needed to, we couldn't get out.
Yeah, and there's measures. Usually we have SO en route. If we're anticipating it to go from house to house, and then we'll initiate evacuations, and the fire engines will get out of the way for evacuations, yeah. That's not what I said. And that's just when he doesn't hesitate.
The next speaker is, can you go ahead and state your name?
Pardon, Steele. A couple of things. First of all, congratulations again on being appointed chief. And second of all, it's really good to hear that at least one person in the room is willing to see their taxes increase to support our fire agencies. And thirdly, Chief Ciencio was a regular on my radio programs. Anytime I asked and he could, he came. So you're next on my list for the North Shore Report. This is an area that's so important to everybody. Everybody wants to know what's going on. And I totally get the Facebook thing. There's a lot of pages. for a lot of different reasons. It's hard to keep up. But radio is another way that you can keep people on the North Shore, well, everywhere, informed of what's going on and what's going on with the campaign. Can't wait till Monday to see what you guys do.
Thank you. Yeah, last time we talked, Olga, I was on my way out and Matt was on his way in. I remember. But I'm more than willing to come down and participate on your show anytime.
Awesome. Thank you.
After Monday would be probably best because I'll have more information for you.
Yes, yeah, thanks. I'll be in touch.
David on the council has a question for you.
Could you also say your phone number?
It's 274-3100.
If I don't answer, leave a message.
I represent the Blue Lakes area, and are you familiar at all with the Laurel Dell Mobile Home Park? Yes. Do you know that there's a large reservoir right up above it with hydrants all throughout the park?
Correct, yes.
And do you know that for the past 24 months plus, that reservoir is just like in the... Pacific Palisades dry. There's no water.
So the hydrants are dry.
The hydrants are all dry. That's good to know. They've talked to the supervisor. They've talked to the county. And I told them you were going to be here tonight. I was hoping some of them would show up. But I said I would ask you personally what's the plan to get that filled with water? The owner has neglected it and I just, I don't have an answer for them. And I was wondering if you could have something I can share back with them.
Not right now, I don't. I could look into it, but I can tell you anywhere that we don't have hydrants, we're bringing water tenders. There's a lake right there.
Well, these are hydrants that are available if you needed to fill rather than just pumping out of the water. I mean, you could hook right up to the hydrant.
Yeah, I'd have to look into that. I'm not sure what the logistics would be of filling that pond, how big the pond is. I'd have to look into it.
It's a covered pond. It's actually a tank up there.
Oh, okay.
I believe it's a fiberglass tank.
How big is it?
I'm thinking 50,000 gallons, but it could be 100,000 gallons. I do not know. All I know is right now, it's dry as a bomb. And no water comes out of any hybrids.
Well, I'll put that on my list and go out and talk to the owner of the park and see if we can come up with a plan.
He lives in... Or is it?
Is there a manager on the site? No. No.
But if you talk to the man in Space 2, he would be mostly, his name is Larry. Wilhite. And talk to him, he's the kind of quasi.
Larry in Space 2, write that down.
Space 2. Larry Wilhite. His wife's name's Jeannie. But they would, they're very concerned about, And the park, state park, they have done no weed abatement in the central part of the park. And it's all overgrown, taller than we are. So the state is working on that. But their main concern was the water. Why is it dry? Why hasn't it been filled?
Why is it dry?
It has its own well. I think it sprung a leak and the owner said shut it off.
Okay.
All right. But that's just something that's not urgent, but really urgent.
Yeah. It's not urgent until it's urgent. That's right.
We just had a fire in Blue Lakes.
So I just wanted to add that the risk reduction authority meeting on Monday, which is the third Monday of every month at 3 p.m., and it's available online. But they were talking about portable hydrants too. So there is some of that talk going on also.
So I can give you a little update on that as well. Next Thursday, we're putting on a class for the water companies that the portable hydrants are going to be assigned to at the boat ramp in Clear Lake Oaks at 10 o'clock Thursday. And at that point, the remaining districts that haven't signed their agreements are going to sign their agreements, and then they're going to get their pumps. And it's going to be on the water companies to utilize the pumps. We're going to utilize the hydrants, as we always do. water company determines they need to supplement their water they'll they'll put those pumps in into action uh but it's it'll be on the water company just to follow up on the i'm a board member of the nice mutual water and we talked about that yesterday manager donnie breedlove mentioned we will be getting one at nice mutual so yeah nice is going to get one um spring valley is going to get one uh the oaks water district is going to get one and then i think there's a couple going around on the other side of the lake as well
right all right anybody else with another question and and uh state your name and redbud health donated the money for that too by the way hi my name is susan burton and i'm on the redbud healthcare district and our area comes just to glen haven so i we can't really help this end of the lake but that's the taxpayers down there i want you to know that the money that paid for these did not come out of the fire department's budget it's a grant and we paid 75,000 I believe for them and they're beautiful they're wonderful you get a chance come down next Thursday watch them work their pumps portable fire hydrants so to speak where is that again you're gonna be showing a 10 a.m. or boat ramp at Clear Lake Oaks boat ramp 10 a.m. now although we we purchased those for North Shore it covers the whole we didn't say don't take it up to lucerne we didn't say don't take it to upper lake no that's not how we do we purchased it for north shore as well as lake shore all the fire departments on this side and of course if they want to bring them up to upper lake and that's just fine with us all right so we'll take one more question john do you have a final question well it's about the portable hydrants so do i understand this that in an emergency
pumps would be used to pump lake water into the city mains no they're complete independent system that it's a portable pump that pumps to a pvc hydrant that has an on-off switch so that when the fire trucks come through they can just open up a fill pond yeah basically it's just automatic all right it has a button on and off button it makes it quicker than going and starting a pump so a couple dates to summarize the end of monday 10 a.m
north shore you're having the meeting making the final board is making the decision you can go through north fire protection website to link into that and then thursday what's the date on that to see the pumps working the date is the 20th 27th i think at the boat ramp in oaks to see how the pumps work at 10 a.m yeah and the the company that built the pumps is going to actually set them up and put on a demonstration and all that all very cool yeah Thank you very much. I'll invite you to the next meeting. If you're available, we'd love to have you follow up, especially after the Monday meeting. And for next month, if you're available, I'll send you an invite on that or invite. Sounds good. Thank you, Chief Shannon Banks. Thank you, everyone.
all right Thomas Thomas really quick I would like to just address Brenda your comment about not hearing about the town halls we don't have to get into it here but I would love your feedback and anyone's feedback we blast the mess out of our town halls it's all over Facebook supervisor Crandall posts it we post we have our own website it's on the county's website we were on the radio We pass out flyers. We go to different events. So it would be really, really great feedback because I have heard from you and from other people, we'd never hear about this. What avenue are we missing?
Well, we can't have anybody off the mic.
Brenda, we got everybody on mic. And maybe we can talk after. I just wanted to put that out to you and to everyone. If you have ideas...
Brenda, if you wanna stay at the end, are you gonna be able to stay to the end of the meeting? Why don't you approach the us after we're done and we'll. All right, she has a lot of time, okay. Thank you so much, we'll do that. Okay, so now we're moving on to a couple items that are concerning right now, and I have a guest on the phone waiting. And one of them, first off, is the Palace and Place Apartments. and that's on Collier. Is everybody familiar with those apartments that opened up a couple years ago? Before we get to my guest, the CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Ryan LaRue, he's with RCHDC, Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation. He'll be speaking in a moment about this. The concern was from citizens or citizens talking about some of the activities or criminal activities and frequent activities about that apartment complex and gunshots. Let me reach out. Let me read this real quick. I reached out to Sheriff Bingham on – and I did reach out to – Director Jones from Behavioral Health, but I think Sheriff Bingham's letter was more pertinent to this issue. Regarding the unhoused issue, I'm going to talk about one section of this. I'm also talking about, in a moment, the parks in these, which are being flooded with homeless and possible homeless or whatever you want to use. We'll talk about that in a second. regarding palace in place in the past two years this has come from sheriff bingham we have responded to the apartments an excessive number of times for a variety of reasons though the criminal activity is not excessive excluding warrants of arrest we have taken just the past two years we have taken 21 criminal cases from the apartments so i know uh is lit the person that lynn she's not here tonight right is she on zoom at all no yeah the owner of the event center who's right next door to the apartments all right um before we is ryan or can you hear me are you there sir yes can you hear me yeah let me get you up a little higher thomas is getting you a little Go ahead, Ryan, and talk. We can hear you. Go ahead and introduce yourself. And if you could talk about the palace and apartments in Nice and some of the challenges and what you're possibly doing to try to resolve or work through these concerns. Thank you for coming in and calling in. I appreciate it.
Sorry, the last stop. It's kind of cutting in and out a little bit here. So if my service comes through Spotty, please flag me and let me know. So my name is Ryan LaRue. I'm the CEO of RCHDC. And yeah, so we work in partnership with Lake County Behavioral Health on Pallison Place and Collier Avenue. We're the developer, owner, and property management firm. We're based out of Ukiah in Mendocino County, but we serve rural Northern California from here to the Oregon border for low-income to moderate-income folks. And so Palace in Place is a permanent supportive housing community with about... Can you still hear me okay? Yes. Yeah, we can, Ryan. Go ahead. About 75% of the units are set aside for folks who are suffering with mental illnesses or are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Those folks are referred either from the Redwood Coast Regional Center or Lake County Behavioral Health. Some of the challenges that we've recently encountered from our perspective stem from an influx of difficult-to-serve clientele. The county uses a system called Coordinated Entry, or HMIS, which refers clients based on their needs. So the highest needs folks often get referred on a priority basis. I want to emphasize that Palace in Place is a permanent supportive housing community intended for independent living. It is not transitional or institutional housing. This is for folks who are capable and competent to live on their own without necessary support. So sometimes what happens when a project is structured in this manner is you get some folks who have higher needs. As the property management firm, we're bound by fair housing laws and other tenant landlord regulations both at the state and federal level that make it very difficult for us to evict folks without significant evidence specifically this project is governed under a housing first policy which further complicates our ability to evict folks so those are some of the constraints if we get a tenant who is a It often takes just one person to really put some turmoil on one of these communities. And then once that person is moved on, things kind of settle down. There's a natural ebb and flow to some of these communities. And so we've had some tough referrals recently. We've had some good meetings with behavioral health, and we are optimistic that this will turn around. But to cut it short is I think that the property received some referrals that should not have been there. And it's difficult for us to deal with them legally. It takes a really cohesive partnership between us the behavioral health department and law enforcement to be able to keep these properties running effectively we have several of them throughout rural northern california and some are working much better than others and it's often due to uh you know the ebbs and flows of tenancy um i'll pause there instead of just ranting on but um
that did that poise any questions or comments I know this is a difficult yeah let me find out Thank You Ryan so much does anybody have any questions for Ryan about those apartments I have a couple questions first thank you for coming and speaking to us we really appreciate your response the question that I have is this is a very admirable goal and I think that some of the concerns that I saw on Facebook around safety really affect the tenants, like the safety of the tenants that are there. So I'm wondering if with your partnership with Behavioral Health, if a part of the conversation is to have on-site security and or, and probably more important, on-site crisis counselors that could intervene on site like if you have someone on site that and then someone's experiencing mental illness crisis you don't have to wait for the response time of the police who might may or may not depending on what other calls are going on in the county but instead you have someone physically present on site that can respond in the moment yeah great question um so
We, in our conversations with behavioral health, it's my understanding that they will have more of a presence on site with, you know, oftentimes either of our organizations are struggling staffing wise. And I think that has been compounded on our side of the fence where we had turnover at the site level. So we have an onsite property manager and there was some turnover there, which does affect, you know, how the community operates. And then I think behavioral health also had some staffing shortages, but we're looking to staff up. And it's my understanding that behavioral health will have a more focused presence on site. As far as actual security guards, we would have to seek additional funding to support that. And as far as we're aware, there's not any funds available for that. So you'll see some of these home key properties, which are funded through state funds, they budget for security guards often. It's a completely different structure though. It's more transitional related, higher needs often folks. And so it's just not like the property and RCHDC as the nonprofit sponsor could not afford that, unfortunately. And it's not structured to be that type of housing, right? So it's supposed to operate more effectively than it has been in the past months.
Anybody else have a question in the public? Okay, raise your hand. We'll bring the microphone to you to state your name and ask Ryan a question. Thanks.
Hi, Ryan. My name is Derek Hughes, and I currently work with the Habibatul tribe. Prior to this, I spent 13 years in mental health.
I just want to make sure. Ryan, can you hear the gentleman? Can you hear me, Ryan? Ryan, are you still there? Yeah, I'm so sorry.
It cut out for like 40 seconds.
Go ahead and just restate your name.
I caught his name. I was just stating that currently I work with the Habibatul tribe, but prior to that I worked with an agency through the Redwood Coast Regional Center for the past 13 years. How lovely. I also am a resident of Nice. I live fairly close to the Palestine apartments. I have a number of clients that I personally moved into those apartments and currently have a number of clients residing there. the problem that I'm noticing is that uh as Lisa said the intentions I believe were were heartfelt and very admirable noble um but I don't think that the statistics really shown what would happen when you are moving in a certain percentage of volatile individuals and I'm not sure how it was presented to you that these individuals function at a high functionality, but that is not accurate. Majority of the regional center homes do require 24 seven staff around the clock. Now, these are not trained individuals. They have simple training in de-escalation, but it seems to be the biggest problem is the drug users who are taking advantage of those who suffer from mental illnesses. Now, just in my time there, I had noticed and seen a number of crime in which I had a very strong relationship with the prior manager there. I don't know if it's being managed now, if there is a manager on site now. I don't believe so, which is less of a deterrent when there is someone with an authority there to make a decision.
Sorry, it's less what? It cut out.
There's less ability for someone with authority to make decisions for residents, because we have a mixture of residents that have no cognitive disabilities, and then you have, I believe you would probably know the numbers of the percentage apartments that were reserved strictly for redwood coast regional center clients as well as the county's mental health units the problem i see is that mixture and the mixture of drugs that flow through that community i understand that there's a lack of funding for security but there are cameras around the entire property And it just seems like there's a lack of oversight. And when the cat's away, the mice will play, as my grandma used to say. And for a nice resident, I'm going to say that we're infested with mice right now. as though it seems. But I do believe that it's a very nice property and it's a shame that we have certain residents there that are making it this way. It's not so much of a question, but to maybe bring you up to speed with eyes on the ground. because I am there multiple times a week caring for clients and members who may or may not have mental illness and the complaints are continuous and they're the same and they have been the same since I moved my client in as one of the first clients when this apartment was built and I have seen very little change with that so I just would like to know if there's any ideas or what is going to be done because there is no management.
I'm sorry it cut out after you said I would just like that.
I would just like to know what are the ideas that you have or what is going to be done about these issues because I do understand the red tape from removing individuals. I also use housing first practices in my line of work. But I do believe that there are continual rule breakings that would get some of these individuals out. But another issue is that there's a lack of housing in Lake County. There's a lack of resources. So I just wanted to hear your ideas on what's going to be done or what the plan is.
Yeah, great. Thank you for the wonderful work that you do. it's currently we do have staff on site our regional manager amount of pal spends two full days on site working out of that office to have a presence there and we have another staff member who goes over the other three days so we have someone during business hours but i think we're still seeing you know, the effects of, like you said, a lack of presence from that full-time onsite manager. And we're, you know, we have applicants we're looking to interview this next week. So we're optimistic that things will turn around with that. Because I think that so much of it in our business does really come to that onsite presence that that person has. And like, you know, you guys mentioned the behavioral health clinicians onsite as well. The impact that that can have And I think differentiating a little bit between regional center clients and behavioral health clients, I think we may be able to agree that that's a little different clientele when it comes to the type of 24-hour services that a regional center client may need versus someone coming through behavioral health. But in any regard, It is difficult to police the drug activity with the security cameras that help. And we are working to be more aggressive on that and adhere to housing first. I've had quite a few meetings about this obviously since these recent issues and i think that our team will be more much more diligent and aggressive in getting folks who are a detriment to the community to get them to move on in partnership with whoever their service provider is if they're continuing to receive services as you know oftentimes they move in and then decline services So yeah, all I can say is that those are really good points and that we're just looking to address them as proactively as possible with the support of our staff. We have a great regional manager who lives in Lakeport and she's very committed and dedicated to this project. And yeah, as you've mentioned, there's definitely been some hardships and we just look forward to getting it to a place where it's not, you know, a point of discussion for meetings like this.
All right. Anyone else have a question in the public for me? Okay.
Chief Banks, while we're walking to chief banks, just really quick staffing shortages is often the thing that we're hearing from our our public agencies. And so if you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to reach out to the local Workforce Development Board who receives federal dollars in order to connect employers and job seekers for Lake County. This is the Workforce Alliance of North Bay or CareerPoint. they do they're all they always have people that are looking for jobs that and they can connect to you and their job is to help employers find positions so if we're not already tapping into our local workforce board which I happen to know many of us are not we should be connecting to them because that is what they are funded for just a suggestion all right
Chief Banks, North Shore Fire. Just a quick question. We spent a lot of time at that address as well. I was under the impression that Bayview Health does have an office on that facility. Is that not the case?
That is true. They do. There's several offices for service clinicians. On the facility? Yes. Okay.
Real quickly, I'd like to add, I did receive a response about this from Director Jones from Lake County Behavioral Health. She says, Lake County Behavioral Health maintains an on-site staff presence at Palace and Place as required under the project's No Place Like Home funding. Palestine Place is a permanent support housing and behavioral health provides the supportive services component of that model. Our staff work with residents on behavioral health needs, housing stability, and connections to the services. It is important to note that over the 40 total units, only 20 are dedicated to behavioral health consumers. Palestine is a mixed housing model. Behavioral health does not manage the property or track and investigate criminal activity. And that was pretty much sums up what she was regarding to that.
So just to add to that, it could respond to that email. I don't know if you already have Thomas, but it would be really interesting to ask her what the schedule of staff are, because that is exactly opposite of what we've heard. Also, just a little bit confused because she said 20 of the 40 units. But earlier we heard that 75% of the units are for it.
so it would be good clarification to know and oh i can i can clarify that so there's 20 for the county and 10 for redwood coast regional center and then the remaining nine are just they're unrestricted to use they're income restricted but not specifically targeted That doesn't mean that a special needs person is not eligible. It just means that regulatory wise, they do not have a restriction over it. Like the no place like home program didn't fund those units, or and the county did not fund those units. So they're not tied to any of the programs. So that's why it's just called this like falls under 75% special needs rule.
Alright, you have one more question. I'll take just real quick.
I just wanted to know the timeline in which they stated they were in the facility because I have staff currently there have been there the entire time since the building has been.
And you're not seeing them there at all. I mean, what time period are we talking about weeks?
I have people there 24 seven and I have people there 24 seven. I've been there personally to do shifts when my staff have fallen ill because I live so close.
In a month, in a month, the last 31 days, have you seen any presence from the herbal health there?
This is why I was asking the timeline of when they showed up.
Maybe it was recent, but... Ryan, can you answer that? Do you know their timeline of attendance to the building for...
I do not. I don't have that on me.
I can reach out to Elise Jones, and I'll get, if you want to stay behind after the meeting, I can get your information and get back to you if you like. All right, so any more questions for Ryan before we let him? We thank you so much, Ryan, for coming on board and discussing these matters. It's a concern to the community, but We're hopeful that this community, you know, we have less of that activity as you find someone to monitor it closer. And we'll work with you in the future, maybe invite you back as well. I appreciate it so much.
Thank you. Thanks.
Likewise, thank you all so much and We really appreciate this opportunity to go over this, and I'm saddened that we're having to have this conversation, and I look forward to improvement for everybody. So thank you very much.
And please let us know what we can do to help.
Will do. Thank you so much, everyone.
Thank you, Ryan. Have a great night. uh before we uh real quickly another part of this which is different is the parks uh Keeling and Hinman especially I know this is happening across the whole North Shore but I focused on these because I walk my dog to Keeling every morning now and which is the water or you know where these parks are at in Nice the Keeling or is it what's the one near the water is that Hinman Keeling that's Keeling I don't know who these people are by the way I don't know why Who Keeling and Hinman were? Maybe Deb can clue me in later. Maybe we should start changing the names every 10 years to make sure we have updated. But, you know, I've seen people sleeping on the shoreline in the morning. Two people, not every morning, they're using the restrooms. I know, you know, I don't know. And then, of course, the park on Highway 20. it's inundated with people and you know population uncertain it's taken over for the last couple years I know the bathroom yeah let me do I'll let you say it talk about cuz I know you're right there all the time but I did talk to me I did reach out to the supervisor of parks and recs I think his name was Bob and no response So I was riding my bicycle, as I do a lot, and I see somebody at the park in Keeling off the freeway, and I go over there and talk to him. His name's Nate. And I really want to hand it to our people in the field that clean our restrooms and clean our parks and do the work, because these are immediate actions that take place. And I told him that I appreciate these people's hard work. He told me that he's been threatened there sometimes. He has to get people out of the bathrooms. They do lock at night, but then they go in before the automatic lock goes down. Right now in Lucerne, the restroom plumbing is having issues. I'll have to actually get it fixed. So he was appreciative, but he wanted me to share with our community meeting about these concerns. So I'm not saying I have any solutions to this currently, but real quickly before we go to the public, I had Chief Bingham address that. Sheriff Bingham. And we would ask that any person sleeping in the park be reported by the sheriff's office. When calls for service allow, we will make contact to determine whether any laws are being violated and enforce them. Certain law Martin Martin verse Boyce was overturned 24 so we can and will enforce County overnight camping laws in the parks It is has been my direction to our staff that will enforce all laws regardless of persons housing status Simply put if any other member of the public would face charges for violating a law all should There are there are of course numerous factors which can do influence of a deputy's decision which are too vast to cover in this email and then regarding the parks from director Jones questions and applicable law park rules and the County Enforcement Authority are more appropriately addressed by county council the sheriff's office and the department responsible for managing the parks behavioral health cannot independently remove people from public spaces and homelessness itself is not a behavioral health diagnosis or something or our department can resolve through enforcement so i'm not really here to i guess it's a conversation to begin uh to find out it's been a long-going process i'm just noticing it's getting worse
So let's go to the anybody you had a question or comment up here I would just make a comment that the other Component to that is that when we have community organizations that put together robust plans to try and address housing issues or Homelessness like we know our friends tried to do in nice, you know Then they go to code enforcement and they go to Public Works and they get told no sixteen different ways of and then the problem exacerbates, I just feel like that needs to be a part of the conversation when you have people, the county is not the end all be all, but when you have a community organization or multiple community organizations that put forward solutions and are willing to do the work, behind those solutions, there has to be some sort of give at the county level to allow for solutioning and work to be done. So I just know I happen to know that swim was trying and I don't know their progress on it, but they were trying for literal years to clean up the marina and to clean up those parks and they hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. So just to add that into the conversation.
Lisa, when you say they hit roadblocks, do you have any sort of idea of what kind of problems they were having?
Yeah, so they put together plans, and then they submit it to code enforcement, and code enforcement says, nah. And then they say, OK, well, here's these new plans, and then code enforcement says no. Or not code enforcement, sorry, community development. So I know that there were multiple years. It's one of the reasons why. representative started coming to the local area plan meetings because they were trying to figure out how do we make this happen you keep telling us no 16 different ways so I know that was a part of it I know trying to get some traction on finding out and this isn't just a nice issue happens here in Upper Lake too, if you talk to this community development person, you're gonna get this answer and so then you build your plans because that's the answer you got and you submit it and you get a different person in community development and they go, no, this isn't allowable and you just go, well, I talked to this person and they told me that's allowable and so then you just do this endless cycle of planning and planning and planning And all of those cost thousands of dollars at some times. So it just gets to, you get a lot of people give up. And then they're just like, never mind. I can't do it. I can't afford it.
Anybody have a comment about this situation? That's a great comment. Thank you. It's great clarity on what's happening.
I was going to say Derek probably knows way more.
Derek, if you can state your name again.
My name is Derek Hughes. Resident of Nice. My brother, Josh, works for SWIM, and we have been trying our best to, as adults, because we grew up here, to try and make a difference. But what I've noticed with dealing with county, state, federal officials, is they want money. A lot of times it's money that They know that those individuals or those entities don't have. So it's more of a deterrent to not develop here. So if you've looked around our county, you can see the lack of development by, unless you're a multi-million, billion dollar agency, company, individual. while talking to the individuals who attempt to develop here, they're almost shunned away because of how hard it is to deal with the county and the different rules that they seem to also not understand very well. Because I've spoken with legal teams from bigger cities, bigger counties that don't deal with this. And it almost seems as if we don't want development in Lake County We want it to just stay how it is because it's an old town feel. We all love it. I love it as well, but what I feel is that there isn't enough individuals looking to push us into the next century to update things because it is costly for some. But when people come, when agencies come to try to make that change, it's almost more red tape and more barriers that aren't seem to be Explained or even understood by the individuals who are issuing these things And more strict than state law. Yeah, it's more strict than state law, which can you give us an example you're referring to? I Know swim was putting up some housing in the marina area. I
So there was a square footage requirement and I and Josh is John forgive me Josh if you're listening I do not remember the details but there was a square footage requirement and a plumbing requirement and so swim updated their their plans and then it changed and then when Josh looked into the regular like for the coding and the land use and then he looked at state law and state law said it could be a lesser requirement than what the county has and so he goes to the county and he goes can you help me understand why it's stricter and the county was like I don't know it just is that's one example maybe Derek knows but I know that that was a part of it and I know in Upper Lake the issue was square footage so this is this is now we're gonna we're gonna talk about this for a couple minutes all right go ahead so this is basically
What we have here is a failure to communicate. Right?
I'm serious. I'm serious. I know it's a joke. We're going to eat a bunch of eggs. Say what? Yes. 50 eggs.
If you're familiar with that movie, it's a great movie. Paul Newman.
Cool Hand Luke. Yeah, we all know that. And that's part of it because that's our cultural memory, right? All of these little things that everybody knows, right? That everybody's been a part of. And it's like... But it's like if you have a structure... I used to think it was like this. You can have government experts, right? An expert that works for the government. But what we really need is experts about the government, right? We need experts on the government. Because it's like you say, you could have people enforcing rules and they don't even know why they're enforcing them. And it's like, this person says yes, and this person says no, and that's failure to communicate, right? Well, he's part of it, sure, but he's kind of stuck in the middle of this too, right? Well, yeah.
But they're bound by the laws as they are written currently.
But they're also part of this situation where they've got things going, and you look at them, they look stunned most of the time.
We need you on a microphone if you're going to talk. So hold on, Brenda, OK? Olga?
Well, since you said a failure to communicate, I just want to say. Lisa's right they're bound to all kinds of laws and rules and sometimes it's a state and sometimes it's just there seems to be a willingness of getting to yes but the failure to communicate could be this body not communicating to the board so you have that power as a town hall as a municipal advisory committee and maybe it's time it sounds like well I know this is an old problem this is not new but maybe it's time to step up and get some letters written through your supervisor as you are authorized to do and go to the meetings absolutely squeaky wheel does
good evening Tom Lacey I just want to echo what Olga just mentioned but I will also add that the board although they are bound by the rules they also can set policy and priorities and and give direction to staff on what those might be and that is also an area where the community and the advisory councils can step in that said i will say that we are seeing a lot of frustration within various advisory councils not just town halls but all the variety of our advisory councils that are all over the county there's dozens of them where they are willing to make recommendations but they're not listened to so it is it is not a single silver bullet that's going to fix everything but I do believe that advisory councils shouldn't stop trying to communicate and trying to say what their wishes are known and I do appreciate especially here in district 3 where supervisor Crandall's made it clear that he relies heavily on the input of his advisory councils and And he's followed through on that, and I think that's great. He's using the advisory council's, at least to a large degree, as they're intended, and relies on their wisdom and guidance. So with that, I wouldn't stop communicating. I wouldn't stop using your role as advisors to write letters and to get community involvement. As far as I'm concerned, this is probably
one of the best of not the best town hall that we've got going right now thank you and thanks tom i know you say that to every town hall but hi everyone deb clark i used to be the president of north shore business association of this uh apartment thing i wrote a letter when it first happened and I all these concerns were in it and I just was begging them the supervisors and Maria and everybody that runs the whole joint that to keep an eye on it because we've got people on the spectrum we've got you know people drugs on and then they're going down to the parks and we need housing so I wrote a letter about that and I guess they're turning the water on in the morning. I know that's terrible, but it's deterring people from sleeping in the park. The other thing is I was very curious about the harbor because I had people ask me questions, so I contacted the supervisors and they didn't know about the project at uh swim and i thought that was kind of interesting because i asked went right to maria so i'm hoping that you know maybe swim will write another letter or another plan or something and send it in because she said she didn't know anything about it respectfully i spoke to maria about the project at swim so So when did you talk to her?
Like three months ago.
Okay. And it was in a late pack meeting too. So when we go back to what Tim was saying, it's very important to write letters to these people because You know, you can sit back and complain and everything, but I've seen some things happen with letters. I'm just saying. And I really do want housing for the homeless because on my walks in the morning too, I see a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. So I guess what I'm trying to say is don't keep your eyes closed and say something. Just like, you know, Neighborhood Watch.
All right.
We've got a lot to do, it sounds like.
Suggestions to work on this project because obviously there's some unknowns and knowns between SWMM and trying to overcome some roadblocks with our county bureaucracy to make things available for these people so they don't have to linger in the parks.
Yeah. Well, one suggestion that I have is maybe we can contact Diane and Josh and see if there's any, if we could write a letter of support, if they could come present on what they're trying to do and if they're interested in any of support from us. Because I just threw it out because I know about it, but I don't know what progress they've made on it or if they need our assistance.
Yeah, we can do that. We can. So, and we, number one, we need to know what's on the Board of Supervisors agenda. Like we have to be, you know, monitoring what they're looking at because literally they could be looking at something that we're interested in and we don't know that and it just passes us by and we lose our opportunity to say anything.
Well, as you know, there's so much going on in our county. We're dealing with a massive deficit, which is going to impede a lot of things. And I just think as the low, as the, my opinion where we're at as a council and citizens in the community doing a lot of different things I think bringing possibly swim back or inviting them to come in and explain to us and so we knew that like everything else you got a need to know the whole picture it's like what Chief Banks was saying you know Facebook is a lot of information disinformation but once you know the whole real truth you can find the solution or offer a solution or offer to help find a solution. It's the way life is. So let me, if you don't mind, I'll reach out to Diane and possibly Josh. I know you know Josh well. And we can see if they'll be available, one of them, to come to our meeting. And we can get their side of the story and what they're trying to do and what's been roadblocks for them. It just seems that
the more we can help our county go. It's like, good heavens, let's, hang on, don't. I'm gonna paraphrase John F. Kennedy. Don't ask what your county can do for you. You know, I mean, and it's like.
I thought you were gonna say put the roof up.
Put the roof up? Yeah, well I could. It's like, and we, all of us here, know people who are willing to help, right? If they can get the right, if they can actually do something that does help, right? So we, it would be nice if our whole county was more proactive? Or interactive? If the difference between the governors and the governed was as small as possible, right? So we don't need a divide between those who try to enforce the rules or make the rules and people that follow the rules. And it's something like, the consent of the governed, right? That's the basis of our social structure in this country, the consent of the governed. But the governed have to make their desires known. And it seems like the best place for us to do that is at the Board of Supervisors meeting. know direct directly to actually and if there's a constant stream of people you know or there's somebody there every meeting that's that's addressing something that the board of supervisors is looking at that that says to me that that all right thanks we have to do that we have to do that okay we'll go one more comment don't blindside your supervisor you've got a supervisor who will help you that's all i'll say We're not trying to be adversarial.
My name is Susan Burton. And the Redbed Health Care District, many years ago, a government agency came to us and asked us, we would help build small apartments, homes, for the homeless. There would be a one room with a bathroom. They could not cook in there. It was just basically to go in and sleep and to use the restrooms and shower. Well, that's what we do. That's called health prevention, and that's what we do. So before that, though, we said to them, I want you to go out and do a survey and tell me how many homeless people would guarantee to come live in those. There was some rules. Bear with me on this one. No alcohol, no drugs, no fornicating in each room. Room was for one person only. well it's kind of like that but it's unsafe place to go to bed and take a shower so they went out and they did their survey and about it six months eight months later we get back and I don't remember the numbers this has been 89 years ago say out of a hundred people 90 said you're not telling me what I can do in my room I will not live in a place that tells me what to do We did not fund it, they did not get built.
All right. Well, is it, I'm sorry? Okay, we'll end there. We have a lot more to talk about this and maybe bring it up the next meeting, obviously. It's a big topic. So before we go to the worth business, the resource card was actually Claudine's discussion. She's not here tonight, so we'll go ahead and table that. um we wanted to talk about we were going to talk about general planning or doing a motion to bring that to the agenda but i think at this point we've recommended doing a special meeting on this because what's the date on this that's going to be in the commission september 10th september 10th is the north lake and there's some questions from all the a lot of concerns coming from advisory committees and towns about what's going into this plan so lisa do we want to how do we go about doing a special meeting do we make a motion
the supervisor has informed us that he will call it anytime we ask for it so if we agree that we will be present he will do it for us that's what he told us that the last time okay
So we need to make a motion for that.
I move to house a special meeting on September 2nd to specifically discuss the North Lake area element of the local area plan.
And if we can't secure this building, we can possibly do it at a bachelor building?
Yes, if we cannot secure this building, the Grange is open.
Is Thomas available on the second? I think that's Wednesday.
No, never mind. Yep, just kidding. Oh, wow. So sorry, Holly and Angela, if you're hearing. Maybe the third? Thursday the third?
I can't do the third, but you guys can be there.
Well, let's ask Thomas. Thursday the third? Thursday the third?
Thursday the 3rd.
We're not sure.
Why don't we just say it's at the Grange, because that's guaranteed.
Well, I think we can have a pretty good chance of being right here.
Probably the 4th. I can be there the 4th.
Can you do it 9-4?
Yes, I can do it the 4th. That's a Friday night. Can you do it the 4th?
Friday the 4th. Well, that's not a good day for me either, but I can get there. I'll be late.
Well, obviously it doesn't have to be recorded necessarily, but. So we want to do September.
Yeah, as of July 1st, because we are connected to the county government, we do have to have a virtual. Yeah, and that would be hard to get if we were going to write a letter or anything, it would be hard to get it to the commission.
Is there a Monday? Monday's no good?
How about August 31st?
I can do August 31st. Monday is that.
It's a Monday.
August 31st is fair?
August 31st is Monday.
No, fair's that weekend. August 31st, Monday works for me. Fair's the weekend of the 4th.
yeah I might be late to it but I don't want to impede anybody's because that week I'm pretty busy at my work so but I can come later after my workload you guys can I'm sure you'll still be there discussing it's not going to be a short meeting what time do you want to do it at do we want to do 5 30 or 6 you do 6 6 do you want to do 6 why not 5 30 because then that allows them to be there probably be there about 7 you'll be at 7
Well, I mean, you can get there when you get there.
Linda and Dave, can you guys do six on the 31st?
Okay. Do we need a motion for the special meeting then?
Well, yes, we do. Sorry?
Oh, we can do public comment on the special meeting. Margo's already ready to go. All right, Margo. Let's go to public comment on the special meeting.
Is that on the meeting or is that on the local area plan?
It's to get you ready for your special meeting.
Okay, so we have to close this motion out first.
Because we're not going to be talking about the special meeting tonight.
I think it could be. So just to give very high level context, I have reviewed the comments that Northlake submitted. I put them in writing and submitted them to Director Turner and I have reviewed the revised changes. Much if not all of the requests that we submitted are not reflected in the changes and some of the changes were made. We specifically asked them not to make. So it could be a pretty robust conversation.
So we're just going to take public comment on this, having a special meeting. I'm not going to, I know you brought some materials. Yeah, we'll do that. So can you come to the special meeting? I guess if you can make it the 31st, is that okay?
My comment isn't on the timing or the date of your meeting, but I applaud your going forward to have that meeting, and I encourage you to do so. in fact scotts valley has the same concern that you have the scotts valley advisory council submitted a letter in april 2026 prior to the release of these final drafts only one comment was included and it was dismissed because it wasn't specific enough And the council said up front, this is a general comment about the drafts. Make it non-technical, make it easy to read and understand. And it was dismissed. And meanwhile, the same letter had recommendations on wildfire prevention, flooding prevention, suggested work in the levees, again, to address flooding. None of that made it into the local area plan
or to the appropriate general plan chapter yeah i haven't had real time to focus on i've seen the comments but um will you be able to provide us with like yes i will send um everyone on the committee i will also put it on the website the track changes i will also share the comments that i submitted that i collected when i was in the local area meetings
Appreciate Tom. Yeah, Tom Lysak. I just want to echo what you are all doing. I just also want to reflect on What what Lisa mentioned that this is not unique to Your area virtually every single area is having the exact same problem. I would also encourage you to have healthy dialogue with supervisor Crandall and because as with the energy policy that a lot of the uh districts had insisted on putting on and cdd initially said they weren't going to do it this is where the board can set guidance policy and direction and it was the board that directed because of the feedback from organizations like yourself that said this is not acceptable you're going to have to do this you're going to have to have that meeting you're going to have to put that thing in that component in there so i would encourage you in addition to having your special meeting to uh... to engage supervisor crandall
And I already have. Supervisor Crandall has said he will support us and that he'll support his other Macs if the Macs voice that they do not want it passed, he will not vote for it.
Thank you. And also respectfully ask that the general plan, which impacts you as well, be included because they've been asking to have a meeting And she didn't want to do it. So we're this goes back to the same conversations you had on the previous agenda item where you're exhausting yourself trying to do the right thing to be involved community members. But there are obstacles within the county government that just
just aren't getting it all right thank you all right thank you okay we're ready to make a motion for the special meeting i move to have a special meeting to discuss the local area plan on august 31st at 6 p.m second it we have a second from david first motion from lisa all in favor aye any opposed okay no pose no motion carries we'll get the announcement out and make sure we
So it's really important, okay. Sure. We just ask him, right?
Yeah, let's do the bylaws.
I think Thomas could even just text him or email him and say, hey, we're gonna have a special meeting.
Thomas, Thomas, Thomas should do it. Okay, let's go on to it's getting late.
So we'll go on to bylaws This was proposed at the last meeting. Hopefully everybody got to review them again and at this point we're to get a motion to either I move that we adopt the bylaws as presented proposed changes do we have a second for that second second from lisa uh motion first motion by david all in favor aye aye any opposed okay motion carries lisa can you
i will send them to the county clerk and ej lccu thomas thank you thank you for your hard work on that great job and i apologize but i have treatments going tomorrow and i have to get home and are you going to the city That's it. I'll take UCSF. Yep.
I'll stay say hello to Alton Thomas travel say you travel safely Thank you, David All right, thank you so much appreciate it we'll reach out to you and thanks for your feedback you guys have a great night uh d3 mac alliance update i don't think we have anything right now land use projects i really don't have anything in that category to share unless somebody else does um pile row do you have a comment to make tonight david thanks
i'm dave hendrick of the pile road subcommittee and there have been three new dump sites but they're all smaller than a pickup truck load and i continue to go around the whole area practically every day and i get down to pile road on the pile road side at least twice a week so and keep checking things out then there's nothing else really new uh cody with cody gone things have really quieted down
So David, you said there's loads that are less than a pickup truck. Do you clean up any of that stuff?
If we get another free dump day, I will take as many loads as I can get.
All right, so if you do that sort of operation and you need assistance, Oh, yeah.
Yeah, well, usually Mike comes and helps. Of course, of course. Usually it's Mike and me. We'll run up a couple of the roads that we got and clean up everything we can clean up in whatever time we got.
So, but, I mean, this is like you're filling up a pickup truck and then you're going to go dump it somewhere?
Yeah, it's in one place I saw the guy dumping. I saw Logan out there, and I told him, And he said, well, we can't do anything. We didn't see it. So it was a red hatchback. And the guy just had it. He was sleeping in it. And he got rid of all his trash. Another one was just like a half a pickup truckload of lumber and stuff, that kind of thing.
Do we know do we know a dump day coming up? Yeah, I got an announcement to me.
Yes Super I was waiting because supervisor Crandall was thinking he was gonna be here But he said that he has the folks on board. He needs a date from us So he needs us to give him a couple of dates. I'm wondering if do we just want to pick? Let me pretend like my computer has internet do we just want to pick in september maybe the 18th or 19th that's a friday or saturday i think a saturday would be great for folks like me that work and would like to use it i think it's they were doing it on weekends because people were available and they could you know households could clear clear out the stuff and yeah that's the more normal sort of day on the weekend So we could always do, like if we just want to give him three Saturdays, we wouldn't pick the fair weekend. Friday. Yeah. So maybe the 19th, that's a Saturday and the 26th.
Well, why can't, why can't we just say every Saturday in September, whichever ones work sort of thing?
Well, I don't think we would want to recommend the fifth because that's fair.
Okay.
How about the 26th?
Yeah. The 26th is fine. Or, Why is that not on my calendar?
Oh, wow. Give them the days.
The 20th. The Grange event is on the 20th.
How's September 12th?
December?
Yeah, December 12th. How about Christmas? How about the 26th?
September 12th works.
September 12th?
Is there any events on the 12th besides Rosh Hashanah? Do we want to offer the 12th then?
Is the sooner the better?
Is he going to be able to do more than one?
You know, he just said give a couple dates. I'm not positive.
So, you know, it would be like Upper Lake Neese or Lake Oaks. You know, he did all three last time.
I have to be very honest with you. I heard dump days and dates. I didn't get those details.
All right. I would just say give him three consecutive dates and what works. If he's got it, do it.
Yeah, me too. So just the 12th, 19th, and 26th?
Good for me.
I get the 12th or 26th. I got to work on the 19th.
Okay, the 12th or 26th.
You don't have to be there.
September 12th and September 26th. I'm going to fill half of it up.
I have it.
thank you so much for that announcement it's exciting so let's go and finish this up um i also have an exciting update for school traffic it'll be very quick oh you have one okay a very very quick one okay just an update um in my new position i have accepted a position at the upper lake unified school district congratulations thank you and thank you it's fine And I don't have a timeline or anything, but I can confirm that the district is working very hard to get the staffing to support opening the school in the mornings for extended learning opportunities. And if we open in the mornings, that will naturally assist with traffic because we will have people coming at different times. So I know we've been talking about that for literal years. I just wanted to share
start on the 31st give me a couple months and I will work hard to get that open for you all just a comment on traffic school the phone number that we've been sharing with everyone I've been calling see it and it just 281-5200. 707-281-5200. And fortunately, there's no one there to answer. It says they're out of business hours. The first time I called was to, and I called dispatch at 467-4000, and the person put me on hold, and I couldn't wait. The concerns I have is obviously the big trucks going through in the morning in Nice, and I have been riding my bike carefully on that North Shore because I've been doing a lot of road work. And those trucks are coming into Nice from east to west going 55, 60 miles an hour. So I've been trying to talk to the CHP about doing more coverage there. Some of the worst people doing it have been the pear trucks. I didn't see anything this morning, but man, they're really, now they're not using the Cut-Off anymore because they spilled a bunch of pears there I think last year or the year before, but they're using, they're coming over 29, It's bad. The speeding through Nice is pretty pretty. I mean they get the Lucerne. I ride through there too and they slow down pretty good. But Nice is pretty pretty bad in the morning. I mean it's barreling through there. So yeah. They don't slow down. Yeah, you see it too. Yeah. Tom?
Yeah, just as a suggestion, because we know that the Sheriff's Department and the CHP are short staffed, but what some municipalities have been able to do is to put, I don't know what the right term is, but essentially put a... a patrol car there it's not occupied but just the visibility of the patrol car causes a change in behavior it's some unit in that way it's not it's not a labor issue it's you basically just get a decoy car a decoy that can yeah because what you're asking for is a change of behavior this is oh that's the solution for everything we'll just put
We'll get like they did in World War II where they made the tanks out of camera.
Yeah, so yeah, clones would be better, but we are not there yet, so a decoy might work. Thank you.
All right, we already discussed Upper Lake Levee's nice copter. Do you have any updates?
Basically, the last thing we discussed at our last meeting was we're going to work on getting active shooter training, considering some of the events that have been happening recently in our neighborhoods. And we're also going to get some first aid training, including CPR and stuff like that. So we want to be prepared. So that's where we're heading for the next step.
OK. Supervisor's not present, so no update. New business anybody wants to add? guess we kind of add a bunch of new business tonight already and next work meeting will be wednesday september 16th i have a motion to adjourn okay second okay i i i i hey thanks so much for sticking it out we had a great meeting thank you so much for coming i appreciate it we are still looking for an out large person or a person to come on the council too so
Who's second? Tim. I guess we'll have to draft someone.
This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.