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LAKEPORT, Calif. – At its Tuesday meeting the Lakeport City Council approved budget adjustments and the completion of the downtown tree project, and appointed two members to an ad hoc committee to help select members of city committees and commissions.

Finance Director Nick Walker presented to the council a report on the unaudited actuals for the 2017-18 fiscal year, which ended June 30, and an update on surplus revenues.

He said the general fund, and the water and sewer operating and maintenance funds all exceeded expectations and ended the year with surpluses.

Walker said the general fund is anticipated to have an operating surplus of $763,023, primarily from vacant police department positions, delayed capital projects and operational savings across departments.

The water operating and maintenance fund is expected to have a surplus totaling $269,540. Walker credited staff for its work to eliminate a budgeted deficit. Operational savings, operational revenues that outperformed the budget by 6 percent and delayed capital projects contributed to that budget outcome, Walker said.

In the sewer operating and maintenance fund, the operating surplus totals $1,951,954. Walker said the closeout of the US Department of Agriculture water project in this last fiscal year resulted in $1,153,000 of repayment to the operating fund for projects that were completed under the program. It also was helped by operational cost savings, delayed capital projects and operating revenues outperforming the budget by 7 percent.

Walker said staff asked for budget adjustments including $70,000 for the Library Park playground, $90,000 for two new police vehicles and an additional $28,500 for the downtown tree project.

He said there would be another $384,000 to put into reserve.

Regarding the police vehicles, Walker said the vehicles will be fully loaded Dodge Chargers, which cost about $45,000 each. He said the city is is looking to get another Chevy Tahoe patrol vehicle through a USDA grant.

In other business on Tuesday, City Manager Margaret Silveira asked for the council to award a construction contract Nate’s Electric Inc. in the amount of $68,500 for the city’s downtown tree well electrical project.

The work will include providing outlets for the future tree lights and electrical service that will be available to vendors during community events on Main Street.

This project was part of the city’s larger Downtown Improvement Project. However, Silveira said that, due to costs coming in higher than projected, the tree installation and electrical conductor work were deleted from the downtown project in 2016.

The city did move forward with the placement of conduit and electrical panels during the main project but no power source was installed in the tree wells. The trees were planted in 2017, Silveira reported.

“Now that the trees are planted, we would really like to see the project completed,” Silveira said.

The city’s engineer had estimated the tree project would cost $35,000, and it initially came in at $40,000 in 2016, Silveira said. It’s since jumped in cost, and now totals $68,500, with staff expecting the price could rise still higher if the city puts it off again.

Nate’s Electric, based in Kelseyville, was one of two bids submitted for the project, Silveira reported.

Councilman Kenny Parlet pointed out that, every time a capital improvement project is put off, costs go up.

“It was hard to get bidders for it,” Silveira acknowledged.

Mayor Pro Tem Tim Barnes asked staff if the work could be done in house, by city staff.

“We really don’t have the expertise to do this particular electrical-type work,” said Public Works Director Doug Grider, who added that there is a lot to the project.

Grider also told the council during the discussion that Nate’s Electric has done a lot of quality work for the city. “At least the money’s staying local,” and not going to a big out-of-area contractor, Grider said.

Parlet said that, right now, with the fire rebuilding going on around the region, contractors are in the driver’s seat.

Councilwoman Stacey Mattina said the downtown project turned out great, and the trees are integral to it. She said the tree project will be worth it.

Grider explained that vendors for downtown events like the Dickens Faire and Oktoberfest will be able to easily plug into outlets at the tree wells rather than having to use a lot of other equipment.

Mattina moved to award the bid contract, which Parlet seconded and the council approved 5-0.

The council then unanimously approved the amendment to the city budget as recommended by city staff, which included the tree project.

At Tuesday night’s meeting the council also approved establishing an ad hoc committee including two council members to make recommendations to the full council for appointments to the city’s commissions and committees, with terms expiring in 2018.

The recommendations will be for the Lakeport Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee, the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, Lake County Vector Control District Board of Trustees, the Measure Z Advisory Committee and the Lakeport Fire Protection District Board of Directors.

Mattina and Mayor Mireya Turner agreed to serve on the committee, with the council voting to approve their appointment to the ad hoc committee 5-0.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – At its Tuesday meeting, the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to the second agreement with Golden State Finance Authority, or GSFA, expanding assistance for Lake County residents affected by catastrophic fires.

Since 2016, GSFA has provided $1,050,000 in grant funds to assist county residents who lost their homes due to certain wildfires.

This latest amendment expands eligibility for the remaining grant funds to include residents who experienced housing instability as a result of any state or federally declared fire disaster in Lake County since Jan.1, 2015.

This opens up the funding to more fire victims and to those evacuees who suffered related financial loss that impaired their ability to obtain or maintain housing.

North Coast Opportunities is administering the grant funds for the county and is accepting applications for this grant.

Patty Bruder, NCO executive director, said she is pleased that GSFA has made these changes to the agreement.

“This amendment will make funding available to hundreds of current applicants that did not qualify under the previous terms of the grant,” Bruder said.

NCO’s Long Term Fire Recovery Office can be contacted by calling 707-994-2910.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson expressed gratitude to GSFA for its generosity and their willingness to expand the grant program to assist more Lake County residents who suffered losses due to wildfires.

Golden State Finance Authority was established in 1993 by the Rural County Representatives of California, a public service organization that champions policies on behalf of California’s rural counties.

GSFA has distinguished itself as a leader in housing finance in California for more than two decades, helping more than 74,800 individuals and families purchase a home. It has provided more than $537.3 million in down payment assistance and participated in financing over $680 million in energy efficiency improvement projects.
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Andres Ramos of the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy photo.

A Lake County student who plans to come home to help his tribe is among four American Indian students from across California who have each received a $10,000 scholarship from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Palm Springs as part of the 14th Annual Rodney T. Mathews Jr. Scholarship program.

Andres Ramos of the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians is among this year’s scholarship recipients.

“The Rodney T. Mathews Jr. Scholarship at Morongo was created to reverse the trends that have left Native Americans as the most underrepresented group in colleges and universities,” Morongo Tribal Chairman Robert Martin said. “We are happy to be supporting each of this year’s deserving recipients in attaining the education and skills they need to pursue their goals and improve their tribal communities.”

Ramos is pursuing a B.S. in biochemistry at Northern Arizona University.

Following graduation, he plans to attend pharmacy school to obtain a Doctor of Pharmacy.

His goal is to be a pharmacist on his reservation to help his community where he noticed a shortage of medical personnel while growing up.

“Thanks to the scholarship from Morongo, I’ll now be able to volunteer more of my time to Indian health clinics since I won’t have to spend as much time working to pay for school,” Ramos said.

The other 2018 recipients are:

Deserea Langley of Susanville Indian Rancheria attends the UC Davis where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Native American studies. Her doctoral research will be the first comprehensive history of the Susanville Indian Rancheria and the implementation of the Dawes Act in Northern California. She plans to be an education counselor at a tribal college or state university to help educate future leaders.

“I’m so thankful for tribal communities like Morongo supporting student success,” Langley said. “It is important to have educated Native Americans for the future of our culture, communities and tribal governments.”

Donald Salcedo of the Quechan Indian Tribe attends UCLA and is working on a Bachelor of Arts in American Indian studies.

He plans to continue his education with an advanced degree in social work to assist in tribal communities.

Salcedo worked in tribal social services and mental health for eight years. He is the American Indian Student Association President at UCLA and a board member of the California Indian Basketweavers Association.

“I felt so lucky and blessed to have received this scholarship from Morongo, especially since I was having a hard time financially,” Salcedo said. “As a non-traditional and first-generation student, I didn’t know I had so much support to go to school. It felt like someone believed in me.”

Shayleena Britton of the Round Valley Indian Tribe is working towards on her B.A. in 3D Animation at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Britton wants to use her animation and media skills to make films that preserve Native languages and bring tribal culture to others, while also inspiring native youth to go to college.

She received a grant through Running Strong for Native American Youth Dreamstarter to be an Ambassador for the Wailaki language. She manages a Facebook page titled “Wailaki Kunnes Bakang Ishjii Naagai” and is creating a website with an accessible Wailaki dictionary.

“I am very thankful and so happy to have received this scholarship from Morongo,” Britton said. “San Francisco is such a different place from the small town I grew up in, but I love the city, my friends, and my classes.”

American Indians and Alaskan Natives comprise less than 1 percent of the nation’s college students, the lowest college enrollment rate of any ethnic group, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Similarly, only 15 percent of American Indians hold bachelor’s degrees, fewer than any ethnic group in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The scholarship program honors the late Rodney T. Mathews Jr., a Morongo tribal member and Hastings Law School graduate who passed away in 2004 after serving as a judge pro tem for more than a decade.

Scholarship applicants are considered based on their academic success and community service.

Candidates must be full-time students at an accredited college or university; complete 60 hours with a designated California Indian agency; and be actively involved in the Native American community.

Since launching the program, Morongo has provided $470,000 in scholarships to 49 American Indian students seeking to secure a college or postgraduate degree.

The scholarship program is unique in that it is open to enrolled members of any of the more than 100 federally recognized tribes in California.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Wednesday, Oct. 31, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) and Rep. John Garamendi (CA-03) will come to Lake County to host a veterans town hall.

The town hall event will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Medeiros Veterans Center in Lakeport, 875 11th St.

This event will be an opportunity for veterans to ask questions and hear from the members of Congress and veterans from regional veterans organizations, including the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center, the Oakland VA Regional Center, the Lake County Veterans Service Office, and the Lake County United Veterans Council.

All constituents of California’s Fifth and Third Congressional District are invited to attend.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – Two men convicted of poaching for profit native succulents that grow wild on the bluffs of the Mendocino coast were sentenced Wednesday in the Mendocino County Superior Court to suspended prison time.

Minguk Cho, 27, and Hyeongjae Kim, 39, both of South Korea, were each convicted of grand theft of property valued at greater than $950, a felony, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office reported.

Following a sentence bargain negotiated and agreed to by the parties, each defendant was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with those prison sentences to be suspended pending successful completion of 36 months of formal probation.

As part of the sentence and in addition to court fines and fees, the defendants were required to pay – and did pay – $10,000 each to the California Fish and Wildlife for habitat restoration.

The defendants were also ordered to exit the United States within 48 hours and not return unless their immigration status allows one or both to do so legally. It is anticipated that each defendant will be denied re-entry due to their new felony theft convictions.

Authorities said the defendants were caught in March in the area between Point Arena and Anchor Bay with 30 moving boxes of native succulents known as Dudleya Farinosa.

An inventory of the boxes revealed 850 rooted plants with 1,400 rosettes. Together, the plants stolen weighed between 600 and 700 pounds.

The two poachers also had with them paperwork for vendors all over the world. According the investigator, “These people are global exotic plant vendors. I’d guess they’re not just in dudleyas but carnivorous plants deep in the jungle in Sumatra.”

The local plants can sell to collectors overseas starting at $50 each and going up from there.

The plants targeted by these poachers are also known as “bluff lettuce,” “powdery liveforever” (owing to the leaves’ dusty appearance) or simply “liveforever.”

The squat plants boast a geometric beauty reminiscent to some of the blossom of a lotus flower. In bloom, they sprout stalks, decked in clusters of small yellow flowers.

The prosecutors handling this case were District Attorney David Eyster and Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen. The investigating law enforcement agency was the California Fish and Wildlife, with a special nod going to the arresting officer, Warden Patrick Freeling.

The judge who imposed sentencing today was Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The SafeRx program of AmeriCorps VISTA will present “The Opioid Epidemic: What it is, and how it affects you and your community" on Saturday, Oct. 20, at two branches of the Lake County Library.

The first presentation will be held at 11 a.m. at Redbud Library 14785 Burns Valley Road in Clearlake.

The second presentation will take place at 2 p.m. at Lakeport Library, 1425 N High St. in Lakeport.

At the presentations, guests will be able to sign up for training in use of naloxone, or Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal agent.

“So far, the wave of Chinese fentanyl has not hit California, but we are starting to see the changeover from prescription opioid overdose to illegal street drug overdose here in Lake County,” said Lisa Hardy of SafeRx.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control show that the 2017 opioid prescription rate in Lake County, the most recent data available, was 95 prescriptions per 100 Lake County residents.

In Lake County, from 2014 through 2017, 63 people died of opioid overdoses.

The California Department of Public Health publishes statistics on opioid use by county at https://discovery.cdph.ca.gov/CDIC/ODdash.

The SafeRx website http://saferxlakecounty.org offers alternatives to prescription drugs and other resources for pain management.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary.

Jan Cook is a library technician with the Lake County Library.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake man who in December 2016 shot his estranged girlfriend’s aunt to death and wounded other family members has reached a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office.

On Friday, Ezequiel Junior Bravo, 26, pleaded guilty to the murder of Theresa Sara Jones, and also entered guilty pleas for the attempted murder of his estranged girlfriend Shian Brown, assault with a deadly weapon on Robert Brown, assault with a deadly weapon on Stephanie Brown and assault with a deadly weapon on E.G., a minor, according to District Attorney Don Anderson.

In addition, Anderson said Bravo pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnapping of Shian Brown at the Lakeport Cinema three days prior to the home invasion and shooting.

Anderson, who personally prosecuted the case, said Bravo will return to court early next year, at which time he’s expected to be sentenced to 45 and a half years in prison.

Bravo’s attorney, Angela Carter of the Carter Brown Law Firm, said she and her client are satisfied with the outcome.

She said Bravo, had he gone to trial and been convicted, was facing five life terms plus 189 years if he went to trial.

Under California law, he’s considered a “youthful offender,” since the crime was committed under age 27. At the time the shootings occurred, the state cutoff for youthful offenders was actually lower, at age 25.

Carter said that 25 years from the time of his arrest he’ll be eligible for parole, which means he could be up for release in his 40s.

“This is a good outcome because he has the potential for being out,” she said.

It also is positive, she said, because all parties agreed to it, from the victims to Bravo and his family. “It’s been approved on a lot of levels.”

The case alleges that on Nov. 27, 2016, Bravo met with his estranged girlfriend, Shian Brown, at the Lakeport Cinema in order to exchange their children.

Anderson said Bravo had been in an abusive relationship with Shian Brown for several years and that she had ended the relationship a few days prior to that Nov. 27 meeting.

During the exchange of the children Bravo tried to force Brown into his car, Anderson said. Brown got away but Bravo threatened to get a shotgun and kill her family.

On Dec. 1, 2016, Brown was staying with her family at the Pomo Drive residence of Jones – Brown’s aunt – at the Elem Indian Colony in Clearlake Oaks, Anderson said.

At approximately 2:16 a.m. that day, Bravo went to the residence armed with a shotgun, kicked in the back door and demanded to know where Brown was, according to the investigation.

Bravo went to Jones’ bedroom, where he found her with her 6-year-old daughter, E.G. Anderson said that when Jones did not tell Bravo where Brown was, he shot her once in the face, killing her instantly, Anderson said.

Anderson said Bravo then went to the room of Robert Brown and Stephanie Brown, where he struggled with Robert Brown over the shotgun. Robert Brown was shot in the arm before Bravo fired another round, hitting E.G. in the arm.

Stephanie Brown ran outside and Ezequiel Bravo followed her. Anderson said they also got into a brief struggle over the shotgun when Bravo struck her several times then shot her in the upper chest, causing only moderate injuries.

Bravo then stole the Browns’ vehicle and fled the scene prior to sheriff’s deputies arriving, Anderson said.

Later that morning Ezequiel Bravo was spotted on the school grounds at Pomo Elementary School in Clearlake by Principal Diane Johnson. While at the school, Anderson said Bravo entered the classroom of his younger brother.

In a plan with Clearlake Police officers, Vice Principal Joe Madrid entered the classroom and asked to talk to Bravo outside. On leaving the classroom, Bravo was taken into custody without incident, Anderson said.

Anderson took the case to a criminal grand jury, which returned an indictment of Bravo on June 30, 2017.

The grand jury proceedings take place without the defense attorney, so Carter said she was not a party to what occurred there.

The case proceeded, with efforts to reach a settlement.

Carter said that Bravo always was accompanied to court by several of his family members, “and that’s unusual,” she said, noting that in her experience handling homicide cases, there are rarely family members there in support of the defendant.

She said his parents, who have five other younger children, were there for him. “It was so sad for me to see them at court every time,” she said, noting the heartbreak she saw in their eyes.

Carter said Bravo’s family didn’t make excuses for what occurred, and as his attorney she didn’t put on a defense of denial.

The first offer from the District Attorney’s Office was for 110 years, Carter said. That wasn’t accepted.

Carter said the efforts on the current plea deal started months ago, and took time while getting everyone to agree. There also were court appearances required to finalize it.

She said Bravo has been a really good inmate, and she has no reason to believe he’ll be a difficult prisoner, which will go in his favor for an eventual release.

Carter said that the plea, while a lot of time, gives Bravo a chance to eventually get out of prison and have some kind of life, which she said meant a lot to his family.

Anderson said Bravo is scheduled to return for sentencing on Jan. 22.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Following the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “National Preparedness Month” in September, individuals and communities throughout California will participate in the 10th annual Great California ShakeOut earthquake drill.

Held annually on the third Thursday of October, the ShakeOut International Day of Action is set for Thursday, October 18, at 10:18 a.m., according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

All citizens, businesses, and communities in Lake County are encouraged participate.

During the self-led drill, participants practice how to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On.”

Endorsed by emergency officials and first responders, the safe response to an earthquake is to:

– DROP where you are, onto your hands and knees. This position protects you from being knocked down and also allows you to stay low and crawl to shelter if nearby.

– COVER your head and neck with one arm and hand. If a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl underneath it for shelter. If no shelter is nearby, crawl next to an interior wall (away from windows). Stay on your knees; bend over to protect vital organs. If you’re under shelter, hold on to it with one hand; be ready to move with your shelter if it shifts. If there is no shelter, hold on to your head and neck with both arms and hands.

– HOLD ON until shaking stops.

Wednesday, Oct. 17, marks the anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

On Oct. 17, 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area. The shaking was felt across the region including Lake County.

In that quake, 67 people lost their lives and there was more than $5 billion in damages.

The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa serves as a reminder that large earthquakes can occur with little to no warning.

The region is home to several active seismic zones capable of producing damaging earthquakes, including the San Andreas, Hayward/Rodgers Creek and the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
While damaging earthquakes in Lake County may be fewer in number when compared to other areas, they can occur at any time, Paulich said.

As such, everyone, everywhere should know how to protect themselves from an earthquake.

The ShakeOut is free and open-to-the-public, and participants include individuals, schools, businesses, local and state government agencies, and many other groups.

To take part in the ShakeOut, individuals and organizations are asked to join the drill by registering to participate www.shakeout.org .

Once registered, participants receive regular information on how to plan their drill and become better prepared for earthquakes and other disasters.

Paulich said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office is now using LakeCoAlerts to communicate with citizens and businesses during emergencies and other critical events. Residents are encouraged to register immediately to receive these alerts by visiting www.lakesheriff.com.
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The California Highway Patrol and the California Office of Traffic Safety are working together to focus on child safety through the California Restraint Safety Education and Training, or CARSEAT II, campaign.

Reducing the number of children killed in collisions because they were not properly restrained is the goal of the year-long CARSEAT II campaign.

The CHP will host educational seminars, classes, and child safety seat inspections throughout California to help meet the goal.

“Making sure every child in your vehicle is buckled up in an appropriate car seat for their age and size is the easiest way to prevent serious injury or even death in the event of a crash,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “Drivers should set an example by always buckling up and requiring everyone in the vehicle to wear their seat belt, no matter how short the trip.”

California law requires a child be properly restrained in an appropriate child safety seat in the rear seat of a vehicle until they are at least eight years of age.

For the best protection, all children should ride rear-facing until they reach the upper weight and height limits of their car seat.

Child passenger safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers in passenger cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported.

In California, preliminary 2017 data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System of the CHP recorded 17 unrestrained children age seven and younger killed in traffic collisions in the state.

In addition to educational efforts, the CHP will be conducting enforcement operations concentrating on seat belt violations throughout the year with a special emphasis during the national “Click It or Ticket” campaign of OTS and national Child Passenger Safety Week.

More information regarding child passenger safety, child safety seats, and seat belt regulations, is available at any local CHP Area office.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is holding off on approving an appointment to the Lakeport Fire Protection District Board as it seeks to research further how appointments should be made and whether procedures have been followed properly.

On the board’s Tuesday agenda was approval of a recommendation from the fire board to appoint Gary Hill to succeed longtime member Gerry Mills, who retired in September. Lakeport residents Cheryl Pick and Greg Scott also applied for Mills’ seat.

However, filling Mills’ seat has undergone additional scrutiny in the wake of the fire district’s decision last month to accept a budget that cuts three full-time firefighters, which led to widespread criticism and concern from the community, as Lake County News has reported.

With the other four fire district board positions set to be reappointed by the start of next year, the situation has led to questions about how seats have been filled and whether over the past 20 years the appointment process has been carried out properly, which caused the majority of supervisors to want to pull back and explore the matter further.

County Counsel Anita Grant explained that the Lakeport Fire Protection District covers both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the Lakeport community. In 1999, the Lakeport County Fire Protection District annexed the city of Lakeport Fire Department.

Grant said that, based on state law, the fire district board shall be elected by the Board of Supervisors and the Lakeport City Council.

Supervisor Rob Brown said he knows Hill, who he said is a nice man, well educated, knows the community and is a retired county employee. “So this is not about him,” Brown said of wanting to not make the appointment right away.

Rather, Brown focused on the process, explaining that in his time on the board – which began two years after the annexation was finalized – the Board of Supervisors has never recommended two fire board members, and has never interviewed them. In speaking with officials from the city of Lakeport, he said they communicated it was the same for them.

“I don’t think the process has been followed,” he said, adding that the fire district board can operate with the vacancy while it’s studied further.

Brown asked Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison if a fire parcel tax measure was going on the March ballot. Hutchison said at that point he wasn’t sure, adding it could be put on the ballot in May, but he confirmed one was being put before voters.

Following up, Brown asked if the district was going to ask voters if the fire district board should be elected rather than appointed. Supervisor Tina Scott said she went to the fire board meeting last week, and district officials said they hadn’t discussed it.

Grant told board members that appointing fire district board members is not a discretionary function but a ministerial one. She said they could encourage the fire district to go to an election process, but they can’t order it.

Brown said he understood Grant’s point, but nonetheless was unwilling to make an appointment yet.

“There’s some real big problems in Lakeport with the fire district,” he said, explaining that what happens with Lakeport Fire will affect every other fire district in the county, especially the neighboring districts like Kelseyville.

Board Chair Jim Steele said Brown made good sense of the issue in laying it out, and added he felt it was important that the Board of Supervisors get the appointment right. As such, Steele also suggested deferring board action, adding he wanted Brown and Scott to sit down with the appropriate groups and come back with a solution.

Scott said she didn’t know what more they could clarify, and she didn’t see an issue with accepting the fire district’s appointment recommendation.

Brown moved to defer a decision, develop a committee to work with the fire district, the city of Lakeport and the Board of Supervisors and come up with a plan for filling the district board’s five seats by the start of the year. Supervisor Jeff Smith seconded the motion.

Scott then made her own motion to appoint Hill to the fire district board, which Supervisor Moke Simon seconded.

Steele called first for the vote on Scott’s motion, which failed, 2-3.

The vote on Brown’s motion passed, 3-2, with Scott and Simon voting no.

Steele asked for a followup discussion to be timed for early November.

Grant urged the board to focus on using that timeframe to clarify the circumstances of filling the fire board district seats. She also told the board that she didn’t think the matter was as difficult to resolve as it sounds.

Fire board applicant Greg Scott told the supervisors that it’s important to have people on the fire district board who understand how to lead and grow the district, support the chief and look into the future.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s decision to cut off power to tens of thousands of residents across Northern California on Sunday and its continuing impacts as power was being restored was added to the Board of Supervisors’ agenda on Tuesday morning.

About 11,000 Lake County residents were impacted by the shutoff, which began Sunday evening, as Lake County News has reported.

Continued power outages in some areas led to school being canceled on Tuesday for Cobb Elementary School, while other districts that had closed on Monday were back in session, school officials said. Power was still being restored to areas of Kelseyville on Tuesday afternoon.

Supervisor Rob Brown asked for the discussion to be added as an extra item, which the board unanimously approved.

He prefaced his comments by saying that the county’s criticisms weren’t pointed out their PG&E representatives, Herman Hernandez and Brian Bottari, who were on hand to answer questions.

“The plan, or the lack of planning, that happened is just – we can’t allow this to continue in our community,” said Brown, noting the loss of money to local governments, schools and businesses, and the impacts on people with health concerns. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”

Bottari explained that this was the first event for the Public Safety Power Shutoff program. He said that, beginning this year state law requires a shutoff of power in conditions where a utility could spark a wildfire that could spread into a catastrophic event.

Separately, he said PG&E developed its own protocols for such an event, which it benchmarked through other utilities – most notably, San Diego Gas and Electric – and some companies in Australia. The program is part of PG&E’s larger Community Wildfire Safety Program.

Explaining the process

A few months ago, PG&E started communicating with local governments, community stakeholders and customers in Tier 3 wildfire areas, which are based on a map developed by the California Public Utilities Commission, Cal Fire and investor utilities that show the highest fire risk areas in the state, Bottari said.

He said PG&E communicated by letter and phone with customers to say the shutoff was coming, and that it was expected to happen once or twice a fire system.

Bottari said PG&E has a 24/7 Wildfire Safety Operations Center in San Francisco to monitor conditions.

He said it wasn’t just a red flag warning that triggered it the shutdown, but a number of other factors, including excessive wind speeds, low relative humidity and fuel moisture.

PG&E’s meteorologists also use the the Fosberg fire weather index to determine potential risk areas, Bottari said. The index, according to the US Forest Service, is a tool for “evaluating the potential influence of weather on a wildland fire based on temperature, relative humidity and wind speed.”

Bottari said PG&E had been monitoring the storm system for most of last week. Then, on Saturday morning, there was a shift and it appeared that there was a strong diablo wind event potentially coming into the service territory.

On Saturday afternoon, PG&E started its outreach to local governments regarding the likelihood that they would have to turn off power on Sunday night, Bottari said. Calls to customers went out on Saturday evening, followed by another notification to customers on Sunday morning.

At about 4:45 p.m. Sunday, Lake County News received notification from PG&E that the shutoff was set to occur, and just before 8:30 p.m. the shutoffs began in communities around Lake County, with the exception of Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake. Limited areas of Lakeport were impacted, with the bulk of the outages reported in and around Kelseyville, Cobb, Clearlake and Middletown, according to PG&E’s outage map.

Bottari said that, beginning on Monday morning, PG&E used helicopters, vehicles and personnel on foot to inspect every inch of the transmission lines that had been deenergized. He said they didn’t want to turn the power back on if there were downed lines, because those could start fires.

He said there were more than 2,200 miles of power lines deenergized in the regional system,
and all of them had to be patrolled, inspected and tested before the power could be restored.

At the time of the Tuesday morning meeting, about 1,700 customers of the original 11,000 Lake County customers who had their power turned off were still waiting to be restored. Bottari said they were located around Loch Lomond and surrounding areas, and a few in Long Valley.

“This is the first time, obviously, we’ve done this,” he said.

Bottari said he’d conveyed to local officials ahead of the event that it might be “bumpy,” adding, “I think we’ve experienced that.”

He said that, to his knowledge, the power shutoff was the largest event of its kind in the state. “We’re all learning together. We’re going to tighten this up, particularly on the communication side.”

Bottari said PG&E wanted to meet with county officials, including the sheriff, for an after action report.

He said PG&E will do better next time, and he hoped there isn’t a next time. “This is the world we’re in right now.”

Board Chair Jim Steele asked about damage to equipment. Bottari acknowledged that there was some but he didn’t have specifics, explaining that the company is still documenting it.

Bottari said PG&E also is documenting how the weather ended up. As part of that, he reported that there was a wind gust on Mount St. Helena during the wind event that was 77 miles per hour.

During the discussion he said that San Diego had done some smaller power shutoffs to just over 90 customers in the backcountry, and last year shut it off to 17,000 customers during the Thomas fire.

Brown asked how many meters there are in Lake County. Bottari didn’t have an exact number, but said it’s in the high 20,000s. Brown concluded as a result that the shutoff left a third of the county’s residents out of power.

Bottari said the impacted areas are the Tier 3 risk areas as well as circuits that run through them.

“Which is bizarre to me,” Brown replied. “The entire town of Kelseyville was out except for the Brick Tavern. I’m just wondering how that worked out, but anyway. Not that I was there or anything, but I talked to people that were.”

Brown asked Bottari and Hernandez to convey to PG&E leadership that the county wasn’t happy how the situation rolled out.

He said the county’s sewer system has 75 sewer lift stations and only six generators, and they were moving them around like crazy to keep operations going. If lift stations go out, sewage goes into the lake, he said.

Something has to be done differently, Brown said. “There’s nothing to get used to here.”

Shutoff program part of a larger effort

Bottari told the board on Tuesday, “I want to make clear that the Public Safety Power Shutoff is a last resort. We’re not taking this lightly. We’ve a company full of folks who have spent careers trying to keep the lights on and this is not something we’re enjoying.”

He said the shutoff is part of a larger effort, the Community Wildfire Safety Program, which seeks to create a more resilient grid. It includes arborists and foresters clearing vegetation around lines, a goal of installing 200 new weather stations this year – 130 already are in place – plus another 200 next year, and grid hardening.

As they work to improve the power grid, Bottari said PG&E is looking at how to make the system more resilient, including replacing wood poles with steel, installing more coated conductors and considering undergrounding projects. They’re piloting a few of those undergrounding projects around the territory to see how efficiently and cheaply they can be done because cost is a big factor.

Sheriff Brian Martin said PG&E has been a great partner to the county during disasters, restoring power quickly. However, “This event was disappointing,” he said.

Martin said that if PG&E is going to cite state law that gives it the authority to turn off the power, the company also needed to recognize the state law that requires vegetation clearances. “Those are the proactive measures that our community needs,” he said.

He added, “This was a well-intentioned idea but it was very clearly poorly planned for and I think poorly executed.”

Martin said county officials couldn’t get consistent information, nor could he get definitive answers as a customer, with the company Web site telling him he wouldn’t be impacted but a separate phone call warning him his power was about to be turned off. It wasn’t.

PG&E has a database of medically fragile customers that emergency responders needed. Martin said that 36 minutes before the scheduled power outages, his office received the nondisclosure agreement from PG&E about those customers.

Supervisor Brown added that the county didn’t get the list of medically fragile customers until Monday morning, well after the shutoff was under way. “There was no time to react to this.”

“We should have got that in August,” Martin said of the list.

During the meeting, PG&E and county officials indicated an after action meeting could take place next month.

Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Lake County News received notification from PG&E that power had been restored to all customers impacted by the shutoff program. The company said it had restored about two-thirds of impacted customers by Monday night and the remainder on Tuesday.

PG&E also confirmed that it had repaired wind damage in the impacted areas.

Approximately 59,000 PG&E customers were ultimately impacted by the public safety power shut off, while PG&E initially had notified approximately 97,000 customers in advance of the possibility that power would be turned off.

Separately on Tuesday, the board adjourned into closed session to discuss a decision on whether to initiate litigation against PG&E due to last year’s Sulphur fire. Details about any reportable action out of the closed session weren’t available by the time of publication.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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More than 5,200 marijuana plants were seized during the service of search warrants on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, in Lakeport, Calif. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Local, state and federal authorities last week served numerous search warrants at Big Valley Rancheria, where they said they eradicated thousands of marijuana plants and arrested 10 people who are part of a cartel drug operation.

On Oct. 10, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit along with the assistance of numerous state, local and federal law enforcement agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, California State Parks, Tri-County Drug Enforcement Team, or TRIDENT, as well as the Clearlake Police Department and Lake County District Attorney’s Office served a series of 14 search warrants on properties within the Big Valley Rancheria in Lakeport regarding illegal marijuana cultivation, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Paulich said the investigation led detectives to learn a Hispanic drug trafficking organization was cultivating thousands of marijuana plants on tribal lands and were doing so while committing a number of environmental crimes.

Upon arrival, law enforcement personnel began conducting the service of the search warrants on Mission Way, Paulich said.

When they initially entered the site, two Hispanic male adults identified as Gilberto Figueroa, 20, of Santa Rosa and Cristian Garcia Saucedo, 22, of Clearlake fled one of the grow sites on foot towards Reeves Lane in Lakeport, but were quickly apprehended by deputies. Also located at the Mission Way locations were Arnulfo Barragan, 39, of Clearlake and Cesar Godinez, 31, of Ukiah, according to Paulich.

Paulich said a second team of law enforcement personnel conducted simultaneous warrant services at several properties located on Mission Rancheria Road with one Hispanic male fleeing into the brush. After a search of the area, deputies located the male – identified as Alexis Saucedo, 18, of Clearlake – hiding in the brush near the lake.

Four additional Hispanic males were located within the cultivation sites and identified as Miguel Saucedo, 31, of Clearlake; Braulio Vargas Saucedo, 25, of Clearlake; Severiano Cerda, 28, of Clearlake; and Fernando Rodriguez, 27, of Rockford, Illinois, Paulich said.

Detectives learned that some residents had entered into agreements to allow the grow operations on their properties. Paulich said the investigation also determined that the majority of the residents did not want the operations on their land.

Paulich said a total of more than 5,200 marijuana plants were located and eradicated from the 14 locations, with more than 500 pounds of bulk processed marijuana seized.

During the search of the locations, detectives located containers of commercial insecticide being used on the marijuana plants which were being cultivated in a creek, which flows directly into Clearlake, Paulich said. Additionally a number of these cultivation sites were being conducted in and along the marsh of the Rumsey Slough, within the high water mark of Clearlake.

The chemicals, soil products, insecticides and fertilizers being used for this activity were leaching into the soil and into the marsh threatening plant, animal and aquatic life of Clear Lake. A large amount of garbage and debris associated with the cultivation were being stashed in the marsh, Paulich said.

Paulich said a series of three additional search warrants were served later that day at residences in the 14000 block of Emory Avenue, 3800 Block of Alvita Avenue and 3600 Block of Thomas Avenue in Clearlake.

While searching these locations, detectives identified another suspect, Jose Ceja-Torres, 29, of Clearlake who was also placed under arrest. Paulich said detectives located evidence tying Ceja-Torres to the operation at the Big Valley Rancheria.

Paulich said detectives also located evidence tying Ceja-Torres to a large scale marijuana cultivation investigation conducted by the narcotics unit on Sept. 25 involving Pedro Landa-Alvarez and several properties located in the Lower Lake and Middletown areas.

All subjects were placed under arrest for felony marijuana cultivation violations associated with environmental crimes, felony conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of marijuana for sale. All subjects were later released after posting bail, Paulich said.

Garbage and trash were found in a marsh at Big Valley Rancheria in Lakeport, Calif., on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, in Lakeport, Calif. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

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