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Gilbert Sarafin Rael
Oct. 28, 1960 - June 26, 2016
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Gilbert always wore a smile and touched so many hearts.
Visitation will be held at Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary in Lakeport on Wednesday, June 29, from 1 to 4 p.m., with a Rosary service at 4 p.m.
There will be no funeral service.
For further information please call Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary at 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .
Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) and Senators Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) and Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) have announced a sweeping package of reforms to bolster governance, accountability, transparency and oversight of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
“These reforms will change how this commission does business,” said Gov. Brown. “Public access to meetings and records will be expanded, new safety and oversight positions will be created and ex parte communication rules will be strengthened.”
“These reforms mark a new beginning for the CPUC. The commission will become transparent and accountable to Californians and focused on the safety of our communities,” said Gatto, chair of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. “I want to thank my colleagues in the Legislature and Governor Brown for their support of these key reforms.”
“It's been a long road, and we still have much work to do if we are to build the CPUC that the state deserves,” said Sen. Hill, whose district includes the City of San Bruno. “Today we take a strong step forward with principles that underscore our shared commitment to an organization that will better serve Californians, ensure their safety and merit their trust.”
“The principles are a blueprint for a CPUC that is focused, efficient, working in the public interest, and most notably, transparent and accountable,” said Sen. Leno. “The changes agreed to by the commission and the governor in SB 215 apply enhanced ex parte communication rules targeting the abuses of the past and ensure independent prosecution and stiff penalties for those who would violate the public trust. I offer my thanks to Gov. Brown, the commission, my joint author Sen. Hueso, all my legislative colleagues and The Utility Reform Network for their commitment to reforming our Public Utilities Commission.”
The Governor's Office will work closely with the Legislature and impacted entities in the administration to move forward with these reforms in the months ahead. Complete details of the reform package are below.
Principles for Reform: Governance, Accountability, Transparency and Oversight
of the California Public Utilities Commission
Governance
Increasing the CPUC’s focus and expertise by relocating responsibilities and making logistical changes that improve the commission's ability to function.
Transfer the implementation and enforcement of the following CPUC transportation responsibilities to departments within the California State Transportation Agency (e.g., California Department of Motor Vehicles primarily for licensing, registration, evidence of insurance and select investigations and the California Highway Patrol primarily for enforcement and select investigations) through the Governor’s Reorganization Plan process:
– Passenger stage corporations.
– Charter-party carriers (including transportation network companies).
– Household goods carriers.
– Other carriers subject to CPUC registration requirements (for-hire vessel carriers, commercial air operators, private carriers of passengers and interstate carriers)
Assess state telecommunications governance by Jan. 1, 2018.
Establish cross-agency secondments (for example, with the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, California Air Resources Board, etc.) to foster coordinated actions and exchange of information and facilitate cultural change.
Work with state colleges and universities to develop and offer curricula specific to the regulation and oversight of utilities.
Authorize the CPUC to hire and locate employees in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Require CPUC voting meetings to be held in various regions of the state.
Provide statutory authority to consider outside reports from state, federal and academic sources.
Allow a commissioner to issue an Alternate Proposed Decision (APD) at any time before the Commission votes (current law requires issuance of the APD simultaneous to the issuance of the Presiding Administrative Law Judges issuance of their Proposed Decision.).
Accountability
Enacting reforms to make it easier for the public and watchdog groups to participate in CPUC proceedings.
Prohibit former regulated utility executives from serving on the Commission for 2 years.
Allow any California agency to participate in CPUC proceedings without official party status.
Authorize the California Attorney General to bring an enforcement action in superior court against a decisionmaker or employee of the commission who violates the ex parte communication requirements.
Transparency
Reforming the ex parte rules to establish a more ethical environment that is fair to all parties, while providing flexibility for entities to contact their appointed officials.
Ex Parte:
– Adjudicatory proceedings: maintain the current prohibition on ex parte communications.
– Quasi-legislative proceedings: allow commissioners to meet freely, particularly with members of the public, to gain perspective and become more educated on the subject area.
– Ratesetting proceedings: require commissioners and interested persons to disclose and promptly log and post the content of ex parte communications online. Failure to timely report shall result in penalties enforced by either the CPUC or the California Attorney General.
– The CPUC may apply additional limits on ex parte communication in ratesetting or quasi-legislative proceedings as circumstances may warrant.
Allow intervenor compensation for substantial contribution including when a party does not participate in a settlement.
Subject the CPUC to the judicial review provisions of the California Public Records Act and revisions to improve the CPUC public records and confidentiality statute (§ 583) to retain confidentiality with a more timely release of public information.
Require documents distributed to service lists be docketed.
Require transcripts to be made publicly available promptly.
Require representatives of organizations that lobby the CPUC to register, much like the rules followed in the Legislature.
Allow commissioners to deliberate on ratesetting proceedings if no hearing has been held. Current law allows commissioners to meet and deliberate only when a hearing is required for resolution of the proceeding.
Make administrative record more open in quasi-legislative proceeding by not applying the formal rules of evidence.
Allow commissioners to discuss administrative and managerial issues in closed meetings.
Enter public comments into the record and develop an e-comment system to make commenting more accessible.
Establish thresholds for the reasonable and timely resolution of proceedings with enhanced CPUC authority to conclude proceedings in cases exceeding those thresholds.
Ensure the CPUC appoints all senior executive staff who report directly to the CPUC, including the executive director, the general counsel, the internal auditor and the chief administrative law judge.
Oversight and Safety
Enacting sweeping ethics reforms, which have been elusive or are completely unprecedented.
Create an Ethics Ombudsperson who any CPUC employee or member of the public can contact at any time with any concern and who is responsible for enhanced ethics training for all CPUC staff and commissioners, on everything from gift and travel ethics to ex parte compliance.
Codify the creation of the Deputy Director for Safety with plenipotentiary power to “red tag” any unsafe facility, process or activity.
Require the CPUC to work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite relocation of spent fuel currently stored at the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station to an independent spent fuel storage installation.
Increase oversight of excavation and improve enforcement of dig-in safety laws.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters continued to make progress on Monday in the effort to contain a wildland fire burning since Sunday afternoon in a remote area near the Indian Valley Reservoir.
Cal Fire reported Monday evening that the Reservoir fire has held steady at 215 acres, with containment up to 35 percent, a 10-percent increase over the course of the day.
The fire is located seven miles southwest of Leesville, and is burning in oak grass woodland and heavy brush near the Indian Valley Reservoir, Cal Fire said.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed, according to the report.
Cal Fire said it currently has multiple fire suppression resources at scene from the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit as well as from other agency units across the Northern Region.
Resources committed as of Monday evening included more than 350 personnel, 25 engines, 14 hand crews, eight bulldozers, four water tenders, two helicopters and four airtankers.
Radio traffic from earlier in the day indicated that the air resources had made good headway on the fire, with no serious flare-ups reported.
Cal Fire said fire crews will continue to work through the night, extinguishing hot spots within the interior of the fire as well as establishing and improving containment lines.
The cause remains under investigation, Cal Fire said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LUCERNE, Calif. – Authorities are continuing their efforts to identify and locate the male driver of a U-Haul pickup who caused a Sunday afternoon crash in Lucerne that injured a juvenile and then fled the scene before ditching the vehicle.
The California Highway Patrol did not release the name or age of the girl, a resident of San Jose, who was hurt in the crash, which occurred at approximately 3:22 p.m. Sunday.
Initial reports from the scene had indicated that the juvenile had either been hit on the roadway by the U-Haul pickup or may have been ejected from a vehicle that was hit by the truck, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the CHP's Monday evening report stated that based on its investigation the girl was injured in a chain-reaction crash involving a second vehicle while she was standing on the side of the highway.
The CHP said a 2002 Honda Accord was parked on the north dirt shoulder of Highway 20 east of 16th Avenue, with the girl standing directly in front of the car.
The U-Haul pickup, a white 2015 GMC, was being driven westbound by an unknown male subject on Highway 20, east of 16th Avenue, according to the CHP report.
The CHP said the pickup's driver failed to negotiate a lefthand curve in the roadway and turned unsafely to the right.
As a result, the pickup traveled to the right, off the roadway and onto the shoulder. There, the pickup's left front hit the right rear of the Honda and pushed it forward, which caused the Honda to hit the girl, the CHP said.
The CHP said the girl sustained major injuries. Both of her legs were broken and she suffered lacerations.
She was flown by a REACH air ambulance to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for treatment, the CHP said.
Officials did not have an update on her condition on Monday evening.
After the crash, the male U-Haul driver fled the scene in the vehicle. CHP officers searched for the pickup in Lucerne by ground and with the assistance of a CHP helicopter from Redding into Sunday evening, as Lake County News has reported.
The CHP said the U-Haul pickup was found abandoned in the hills north of Lucerne.
When it was towed away Sunday evening, it had major front-end damage as well as damage to its rear bumper, with the bed of the truck still filled with furniture and appliances.
Anyone with information on the crash can contact the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office at 707-279-0103.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Fire crews have made progress on the county's biggest fire of the summer season so far, which broke out on Sunday afternoon.
The Reservoir fire, located northeast of Clearlake Oaks near the Indian Valley Reservoir, was reported to be at 25-percent containment on Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.
Early Monday, Cal Fire had estimated the fire was at 350 acres, but that total was revised to 215 acres on Monday afternoon.
Cal Fire called in dozens of engines, ground crews and air resources to battle the fire on Monday, as Lake County News has reported.
The fire is reported to be burning in brush and oak woodland.
Officials did not have a perimeter map for the Reservoir fire on Monday afternoon.
In neighboring Yolo County, the Creek fire – located off Highway 16, four miles south of Brooks near the Cache Creek Casino – reached full containment on Monday, Cal Fire said.
The fire, which also began on Sunday, burned a total of 277 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Across California, more than 5,200 firefighters are battling nine large wildfires in California, Cal Fire reported.
Sunday's high temperatures – combined with the low humidity – led to an increase in wildfire conditions, officials said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LUCERNE, Calif. – A hit-and-run collision in Lucerne on Sunday afternoon injured a juvenile, with a ground and air search leading authorities to the suspect vehicle later in the day.
The crash occurred just before 3:30 p.m. Sunday on Highway 20 at 16th Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.
There were different reports from the scene about what had occurred. Originally dispatched as a vehicle versus a pedestrian, reports from a sheriff's deputy at the scene later related that a white U-Haul pickup had hit a sedan, causing the juvenile to be ejected from the car.
At press time the CHP had not reported on the exact circumstances or how the juvenile was injured.
The U-Haul pickup, which was said to have had major front-end damage, fled eastbound on 16th Avenue, according to reports from the scene.
A REACH air ambulance was dispatched to the scene. Originally, Northshore Fire Protection District personnel had asked for the helicopter to land at Lucerne Harbor Park, but the parking lot was filled with vehicles and boat trailers.
Instead, the juvenile was transported by ground ambulance to a landing zone set up at Sentry Market in Nice and flown to an out-of-county trauma center, according to radio reports.
At the same time, authorities were beginning the effort to find the suspect pickup.
About an hour after the crash occurred, a CHP helicopter from Redding began flying over Lucerne in an attempt to locate the damaged pickup, with several CHP cruisers searching areas of the town.
Radio reports indicated that the U-Haul pickup was found abandoned on a dirt road in the paper subdivision area above Lucerne.
A tow truck hauled the U-Haul GMC pickup – the back of which was filled with furniture – from the scene at around 7 p.m. The pickup had both major front-end damage and a dented rear bumper.
Additional information on the incident – including whether or not the vehicle's driver had been identified and the specific details of the crash itself – was not available Sunday night.
Email Elizabeth Larson at