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LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors received an update on a tax default property sale set for next year and heard from Clearlake city officials about the millions of dollars in tax revenue they’re unable to collect without tax sales happening regularly.
Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen gave the Board of Supervisors the update on Tuesday morning.
A tax sale that had been set to take place earlier this year was canceled, and over the summer members of a board-appointed ad hoc committee – including Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and Supervisor Moke Simon – appointed to work with Ringen on issues with her department had asked Ringen to resign, which she initially did but later pushed back on giving a firm date, as Lake County News has reported.
On Tuesday, Ringen said the next tax sale is scheduled for the beginning of March, with the work to complete the list of parcels now under way. Once that list of parcels is completed, she will bring it to the board at the end of October or the beginning of November.
Other steps in the process include notifying taxing agencies and nonprofits to give them adequate time to object or to bid on tax defaulted properties, noticing the State Controller’s Office and then sending the parcels list to the company that searches for interested parties. Once that list is complete, the county will notify those parties, Ringen said.
Next, the county will send its online auction contractor, Bid4Assets, the parcel list 45 days before the start of the auction. Thirty days before the auction begins, the information will go live on the Bid4Assets Web site so potential bidders can do their due diligence, Ringen explained.
After the auction, Bid4Assets will notify the winners, who must provide funds within three business days. Ringen said the company also will refund bid deposit to bidders who were not successful.
Bid4Assets will provide the county with a report within a week of the end of the auction and then wire the funds from the auction, which Ringen said the county will deposit. Her office will then provide reports to the auditor’s and assessor’s offices, review parcels for any excess proceeds and then file the deeds to the new owners.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, whose district includes Clearlake, asked Ringen how the properties were chosen to be included. Ringen said her office has been in communication with the cities and encouraged them to provide information about what properties they would like prioritized for sale.
Sabatier said he had a recent conversation with a potential developer in Clearlake who is being prohibited from doing a larger project because of surrounding tax defaulted properties, some of them with unpaid taxes dating back to 1986.
Ringen said the developer issue sounded like it involved unbuildable lots, which involve a different type of process, a closed bid sale, in which only contiguous property owners could purchase them.
Supervisor Moke Simon the ad hoc committee had asked Ringen to do the report to make sure they were on track, and to lay out the timelines and time frame for the community and the board.
He thanked Ringen for the report. “We need to be having these tax sales.”
Clearlake officials point to millions in unpaid taxes on properties
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora spoke to the board about the tax default property issue, noting he’s pleased to hear there is a sale planned for March.
A few weeks ago he requested from Ringen’s office the list of all the tax defaulted properties in Clearlake. “Currently there’s approximately 3,400 properties of almost 17,000 properties in the city of Clearlake that are at some level of tax default,” Flora said.
Those properties – totaling about 20 percent of all of Clearlake’s properties – have a total debt owed of $5.3 milion, said Flora.
Some of the properties have been in default since 1981, with hundreds of properties that have had unpaid property tax for more than a decade, Flora said.
He said the properties are held by individuals, trusts, out-of-state corporations, title companies and banks, and there are situations city officials call “ghost properties” where they’ve been released either through probate or another cause, with no one holding an interest.
Flora said the Lake County Sanitation District and the county of Lake have 10 properties for which they are listed as the owners on tax-defaulted properties in the city of Clearlake. “Someone needs to look into that.”
The properties in Clearlake that currently are eligible for tax sale – having been in default for five years or more – total 1,500, or 9 percent, of total properties in the city with $1.74 million owed, Flora said.
Flora said those propertie are compounding blight problems in the community. “These properties need to be sold,” he said, adding, “It’s critical that those properties are available for reinvestment.”
He said he wanted to facilitate as many of those properties in Clearlake going up for sale as possible.
Flora said everyone suffers when the tax sales don’t happen, explaining that the county has a “Teeter fund” that requires it to front sales tax proceeds to taxing entities for properties that are in default.
If that money doesn’t need to be fronted, those are general fund discretionary dollars that can be used to fund needed county services, Flora said. “You’re essentially paying out cold hard cash every year that this problem continues to grow larger.”
Flora asked how many properties are slated to be put up for auction in March. Ringen said she was budgeted to sell 300 parcels. She did not have information at the meeting about how many of the parcels are in Clearlake.
Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White told the supervisors about the importance of sales from a code enforcement perspective, explaining that one of the key ways the city can force a property to clean up is to add costs onto the tax rolls and have it be sold.
He said he doesn’t know if they’ll ever get ahead by just selling 300 parcels per sale. While he said he understands staffing and budgeting limitations when it comes to increasing tax sale numbers, “I think you can’t afford not to do it.”
Explaining an issue with “ghost properties,” White said there has been an effort to resolve issues with one such property for years, citing a 2004 letter to the city from the state. That property has accumulated more than $10,000 in back taxes and is a fire danger.
Supervisor Rob Brown asked Ringen if they could contract out the process. Ringen said she didn’t know of an entity that does it.
She said that in future tax sales, they could increase the parcel number offered to 500.
In response to Flora’s request to place more Clearlake parcels on the list, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said the county needed to take a balanced approach, and that other jurisdictions should have their priorities reflected. Board Chair Tina Scott agreed.
Sabatier said he wanted to support Ringen in adding more parcels, and suggested having a five-year plan on how to tackle what can look like an unmanageable number of properties.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen gave the Board of Supervisors the update on Tuesday morning.
A tax sale that had been set to take place earlier this year was canceled, and over the summer members of a board-appointed ad hoc committee – including Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and Supervisor Moke Simon – appointed to work with Ringen on issues with her department had asked Ringen to resign, which she initially did but later pushed back on giving a firm date, as Lake County News has reported.
On Tuesday, Ringen said the next tax sale is scheduled for the beginning of March, with the work to complete the list of parcels now under way. Once that list of parcels is completed, she will bring it to the board at the end of October or the beginning of November.
Other steps in the process include notifying taxing agencies and nonprofits to give them adequate time to object or to bid on tax defaulted properties, noticing the State Controller’s Office and then sending the parcels list to the company that searches for interested parties. Once that list is complete, the county will notify those parties, Ringen said.
Next, the county will send its online auction contractor, Bid4Assets, the parcel list 45 days before the start of the auction. Thirty days before the auction begins, the information will go live on the Bid4Assets Web site so potential bidders can do their due diligence, Ringen explained.
After the auction, Bid4Assets will notify the winners, who must provide funds within three business days. Ringen said the company also will refund bid deposit to bidders who were not successful.
Bid4Assets will provide the county with a report within a week of the end of the auction and then wire the funds from the auction, which Ringen said the county will deposit. Her office will then provide reports to the auditor’s and assessor’s offices, review parcels for any excess proceeds and then file the deeds to the new owners.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, whose district includes Clearlake, asked Ringen how the properties were chosen to be included. Ringen said her office has been in communication with the cities and encouraged them to provide information about what properties they would like prioritized for sale.
Sabatier said he had a recent conversation with a potential developer in Clearlake who is being prohibited from doing a larger project because of surrounding tax defaulted properties, some of them with unpaid taxes dating back to 1986.
Ringen said the developer issue sounded like it involved unbuildable lots, which involve a different type of process, a closed bid sale, in which only contiguous property owners could purchase them.
Supervisor Moke Simon the ad hoc committee had asked Ringen to do the report to make sure they were on track, and to lay out the timelines and time frame for the community and the board.
He thanked Ringen for the report. “We need to be having these tax sales.”
Clearlake officials point to millions in unpaid taxes on properties
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora spoke to the board about the tax default property issue, noting he’s pleased to hear there is a sale planned for March.
A few weeks ago he requested from Ringen’s office the list of all the tax defaulted properties in Clearlake. “Currently there’s approximately 3,400 properties of almost 17,000 properties in the city of Clearlake that are at some level of tax default,” Flora said.
Those properties – totaling about 20 percent of all of Clearlake’s properties – have a total debt owed of $5.3 milion, said Flora.
Some of the properties have been in default since 1981, with hundreds of properties that have had unpaid property tax for more than a decade, Flora said.
He said the properties are held by individuals, trusts, out-of-state corporations, title companies and banks, and there are situations city officials call “ghost properties” where they’ve been released either through probate or another cause, with no one holding an interest.
Flora said the Lake County Sanitation District and the county of Lake have 10 properties for which they are listed as the owners on tax-defaulted properties in the city of Clearlake. “Someone needs to look into that.”
The properties in Clearlake that currently are eligible for tax sale – having been in default for five years or more – total 1,500, or 9 percent, of total properties in the city with $1.74 million owed, Flora said.
Flora said those propertie are compounding blight problems in the community. “These properties need to be sold,” he said, adding, “It’s critical that those properties are available for reinvestment.”
He said he wanted to facilitate as many of those properties in Clearlake going up for sale as possible.
Flora said everyone suffers when the tax sales don’t happen, explaining that the county has a “Teeter fund” that requires it to front sales tax proceeds to taxing entities for properties that are in default.
If that money doesn’t need to be fronted, those are general fund discretionary dollars that can be used to fund needed county services, Flora said. “You’re essentially paying out cold hard cash every year that this problem continues to grow larger.”
Flora asked how many properties are slated to be put up for auction in March. Ringen said she was budgeted to sell 300 parcels. She did not have information at the meeting about how many of the parcels are in Clearlake.
Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White told the supervisors about the importance of sales from a code enforcement perspective, explaining that one of the key ways the city can force a property to clean up is to add costs onto the tax rolls and have it be sold.
He said he doesn’t know if they’ll ever get ahead by just selling 300 parcels per sale. While he said he understands staffing and budgeting limitations when it comes to increasing tax sale numbers, “I think you can’t afford not to do it.”
Explaining an issue with “ghost properties,” White said there has been an effort to resolve issues with one such property for years, citing a 2004 letter to the city from the state. That property has accumulated more than $10,000 in back taxes and is a fire danger.
Supervisor Rob Brown asked Ringen if they could contract out the process. Ringen said she didn’t know of an entity that does it.
She said that in future tax sales, they could increase the parcel number offered to 500.
In response to Flora’s request to place more Clearlake parcels on the list, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said the county needed to take a balanced approach, and that other jurisdictions should have their priorities reflected. Board Chair Tina Scott agreed.
Sabatier said he wanted to support Ringen in adding more parcels, and suggested having a five-year plan on how to tackle what can look like an unmanageable number of properties.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The rain and cooler temperatures have made it feel like fall but the National Weather Service said there is another increase in temperatures expected in the coming days.
Forecasters said the weather system that has brought rain to the region is passing with another system bringing the possibility of mountain precipitation and breezy north winds early in the new week.
The Lake County forecast predicts daytime highs in the 80s on Thursday and Friday, topping out in the 90s on Saturday before rolling back into the 80s on Sunday.
Temperatures from Monday through Wednesday are expected to top out in the mid 90s. Nighttime temperatures will reach the low 60s.
The National Weather Service also forecasts prevailing north winds of up to 10 miles per hour from Thursday morning through Friday night.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Forecasters said the weather system that has brought rain to the region is passing with another system bringing the possibility of mountain precipitation and breezy north winds early in the new week.
The Lake County forecast predicts daytime highs in the 80s on Thursday and Friday, topping out in the 90s on Saturday before rolling back into the 80s on Sunday.
Temperatures from Monday through Wednesday are expected to top out in the mid 90s. Nighttime temperatures will reach the low 60s.
The National Weather Service also forecasts prevailing north winds of up to 10 miles per hour from Thursday morning through Friday night.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and The Nature Conservancy announced a historic partnership to improve forest management and reduce the risk of high-severity wildfires through the expanded use of prescribed fire.
The memorandum of understanding, or MOU, guiding this partnership includes prescribed fire training with experts and trainees from both organizations, forest management projects including thinning and prescribed fire in cooperation with a diversity of partners, and joint communications to improve the public’s understanding of prescribed fire.
This partnership, in recognition of a worsening wildfire crisis and the need to involve new stakeholders, is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a state firefighting agency and an environmental nonprofit organization in California.
“Many of California’s forests are overgrown with brush and small trees and urgently need better forest management at greater pace and scale, including prescribed fire. We are set to increase efforts exponentially, especially through expanding the trained workforce,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director, The Nature Conservancy's California Chapter. “Together, we will make Sierra Nevada forests safer and healthier.”
“Forest Management including the use of prescribed fire is the way we will ensure Forest Resiliency and the health of our forests for future generations,” stated Chief Thom Porter, director of Cal Fire. “This partnership will help the state to increase pace and scale of fuels management to attain the goal of treating 500 thousand acres each year.”
High-severity wildfire is a significant threat to air quality, water quality, carbon storage, neighboring communities, and wildlife.
The Nature Conservancy has been performing controlled burns across the U.S. for 56 years and has recently expanded operations around the world. Since 2010, The Nature Conservancy has run Training Exchanges, or TREX, in California to expand and share expertise to use controlled burning to reduce wildfire risk and promote healthier, more resilient forests.
A recent scientific paper from the Nature Conservancy, “Wildfires and Forest Resilience: The case for ecological forestry in the Sierra Nevada,” cites over 130 scientific studies to make the scientific case for forest management including controlled burns as the best solution to combat megafires in California’s fire-adapted conifer forests.
The memorandum of understanding, or MOU, guiding this partnership includes prescribed fire training with experts and trainees from both organizations, forest management projects including thinning and prescribed fire in cooperation with a diversity of partners, and joint communications to improve the public’s understanding of prescribed fire.
This partnership, in recognition of a worsening wildfire crisis and the need to involve new stakeholders, is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a state firefighting agency and an environmental nonprofit organization in California.
“Many of California’s forests are overgrown with brush and small trees and urgently need better forest management at greater pace and scale, including prescribed fire. We are set to increase efforts exponentially, especially through expanding the trained workforce,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director, The Nature Conservancy's California Chapter. “Together, we will make Sierra Nevada forests safer and healthier.”
“Forest Management including the use of prescribed fire is the way we will ensure Forest Resiliency and the health of our forests for future generations,” stated Chief Thom Porter, director of Cal Fire. “This partnership will help the state to increase pace and scale of fuels management to attain the goal of treating 500 thousand acres each year.”
High-severity wildfire is a significant threat to air quality, water quality, carbon storage, neighboring communities, and wildlife.
The Nature Conservancy has been performing controlled burns across the U.S. for 56 years and has recently expanded operations around the world. Since 2010, The Nature Conservancy has run Training Exchanges, or TREX, in California to expand and share expertise to use controlled burning to reduce wildfire risk and promote healthier, more resilient forests.
A recent scientific paper from the Nature Conservancy, “Wildfires and Forest Resilience: The case for ecological forestry in the Sierra Nevada,” cites over 130 scientific studies to make the scientific case for forest management including controlled burns as the best solution to combat megafires in California’s fire-adapted conifer forests.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake man charged with killing a Lucerne resident with his van last week was back in court on Tuesday to enter not guilty pleas in the case.
Thomas Andrew Magee, 62, of Clearlake, was arrested for the killing of Joseph Symond Jackson, 40, of Lucerne on Sept. 10, as Lake County News has reported.
Magee was arraigned last week and was back in court on Tuesday for plea entry.
The District Attorney’s Office has filed a criminal complaint against Magee that charges him with murder; assault with a deadly weapon, in this case, his van, with a special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury on Jackson; vehicular manslaughter; the attempted murder of Racheal Gill; assault with a deadly weapon, a vehicle, on Gill; and felony hit and run with injury.
Reports from the scene on the morning of Sept. 10 indicated that Magee had been trying to run over a female subject before hitting Jackson on Highway 20 and Seventh Avenue in Lucerne at 1:30 a.m.
Magee then fled the scene in the van and was stopped about 20 minutes later by a California Highway Patrol officer on Highway 53 near Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks.
Jackson was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital and was to have been flown to an out-of-county trauma center but died before he was transported.
The sheriff’s office previously reported that Magee and Jackson had been acquaintances for a short time before the killing, and had a dispute over property.
Authorities have so far not disclosed why Magee also attempted to hit Gill with his vehicle.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel Flesch said Magee entered pleas of not guilty to all of the charges and waived the requirement for the preliminary hearing to be held within 10 days of his arraignment as well as the requirement that his trial take place 60 days from his arraignment date.
The preliminary hearing has tentatively been set for Jan. 15, with Angelina Potter appointed as Magee’s defense attorney, Flesch said.
Flesch explained that the longer-than-usual time frame is because the case involves murder, adding that he expects there to be voluminous discovery and that Magee’s mental competence may be raised by the defense.
Also adding to the complex nature of the case is Magee’s criminal background.
The District Attorney’s Office complaint against Magee outlines an extensive history of felony criminal convictions across several counties dating back to 1976.
Magee was convicted of the following felonies: burglary and transporting or selling methamphetamine in 1976, vehicle theft in 1982, and burglary and forging a credit card in 1991, all in San Mateo County; bringing drugs into a jail in 1981 in Lake County; and possession of a concealed firearm, grand theft and residential first degree burglary in Santa Clara County in 1985.
The criminal complaint states that the 1985 Santa Clara County first degree burglary conviction is a serious or violent felony and qualifies as a “strike” under California’s three strikes law.
Magee remains in the Lake County Jail on $1.3 million bail. Last week, Judge J. David Markham raised Magee’s bail to that amount from $1 million at the end of a bail review hearing due to the danger the court believes he poses to the community.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Address canvassing in Lake County is under way in preparation for the April 1, 2020, Census, the Census Bureau confirmed recently at a meeting in Lakeport.
Address canvassing improves and refines the Census Bureau’s address list of households, which is necessary to deliver invitations to respond to the census.
"The address list plays a vital role in ensuring a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the United States," the agency said.
“The Census Bureau is dedicated to ensuring that we are on track, and ready to accomplish the mission of the 2020 census,” said Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham. “We have made many improvements and innovations over the past decade, including better technologies for canvassing neighborhoods and developing complete and updated address listings and maps.”
As a necessary component of address canvassing, Census Bureau listers are now walking neighborhoods throughout Lake County, to verify select residential addresses.
Those residences chosen for verification will be contacted by a lister who will ask a few simple questions to verify the address and any additional living quarters on the property, the agency said.
Address canvassing is a separate operation from enumeration, which will occur beginning in March 2020 with the goal of counting every person in the United States once, only once, and in the right place.
Listers are identifiable by official Census Bureau badges and those persons contacted as part of address canvassing may request a second form of government-issued, photo ID from listers for cross-verification.
Residents may also contact the Census Bureau call center at 800-923-8282 to confirm the identity of persons identifying themselves as Census Bureau listers.
More information on the Census Bureau’s address canvasing operation, including a sample image of a Census Bureau ID badge, can be seen in the video above.
To learn more about the city of Lakeport’s 2020 Census efforts and what the decennial Census means for the community, visit https://www.cityoflakeport.com/census_2020.php.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake is launching a new pop up care shower trailer, a mobile shower unit that will help friends, family and neighbors who are homeless or are living in poverty with access to clean showers, hygiene products, a good meal and other vital health services.
The trailer features two showers – one is Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible – and an office for staff, which will include an administrator and a registered nurse who will provide free medical assessments.
The plan also includes providing access to other hygiene products and services provided by other local agencies in the community, including Vision of Lava Mae and the collaboration of the Lake County Continuum of Care for Homeless, to name a few. The services provided at each location will vary, depending on the location.
The first group to access free showers will be local veterans at this week’s Veteran’s Stand Down, an annual event focused on providing needed services to homeless veterans.
The stand down for homeless veterans was modeled after the stand down used during the Vietnam War to provide a safe retreat for service men and women returning from combat operations to access personal hygiene, clean uniforms, warm meals, medical and dental care, and mail, while enjoying the camaraderie of friends in a safe environment.
“We are particularly excited to launch our new pop up shower trailer at Stand Down because their mission is aligned and it is an event that has historically helped veterans experiencing homelessness since it first started in San Diego in 1988,” said Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth, coordinator of the pop up care shower project.
Other scheduled locations for the pop up shower include Big Oak Peer Support Center in Clearlake Oaks on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. beginning Sept. 23.
Manager Dave Ables is excited to participate in the project. “This fills such a huge community need. It’s not just a shower but a whole community resource, one-stop services and access to housing support.”
For those seeking to provide donations for this project, Adventist Health Clear Lake is accepting donations such as gift cards and gas cards. Gift cards can be sent to Project Restoration Attn: Pop Up Care Shower Project, PO Box 546, Lower Lake, CA 95457.
Donations such as large towels, shampoo/soap, anti-bacterial wipes, yellow cleaning gloves / latex gloves, microfiber cleaning cloths, hand sanitizer, paper towels and toilet paper and bleach can be brought to the IOPCM Office of Adventist Health Intensive Outpatient Case Management, Mulberry Plaza, 15090 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake.
For those seeking to volunteer for this project, Adventist Health Clear Lake is providing two volunteer orientation training sessions in October and will provide additional training sessions in the future. To learn more about volunteering, contact Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth at