News

LAKEPORT, Calif. — At its final meeting of 2022, the Lake County Board of Education on Wednesday honored an outgoing member, welcomed his successor, administered the oath of office and organized itself for the coming year.

After 16 years, Dr. David Browning of Lakeport stepped down from his District 4 seat on the county board.

Elected to succeed him in November was Nancy Hudson, a retired Lake County Office of Education retired administrative assistant.

The Board of Education’s five seats mirror Lake County’s supervisorial districts.

Reelected to their second terms were Denise Loustalot, representing District 3, and Anna Rose Ravenwoode, representing District 5. Neither appeared on the ballot as they ran unopposed.

Loustalot took her oath of office along with Hudson. Ravenwoode was absent for Wednesday afternoon’s meeting.

Not up for reelection this year were Melissa Kinsel for Trustee Area 1, which includes Middletown, and Board President Dr. Mark Cooper, who lives in Clearlake and represents Trustee Area 2.

As part of the organizational meeting within the larger meeting, Cooper led the board in thanking Browning for his service.

Cooper read and presented to Browning a framed copy of a resolution honoring his service, which can be seen below.

A Lakeport native, Browning has been a well-respected optometrist in the community for the past 38 years.

During that time, he served for more than seven years on the Lakeport Unified School District Board and beginning in March 6, 2006, he became Trustee Area 4 on the Lake County Board of Education, going on to serve several times as board president, the resolution said.

He also served two terms as the California County Boards of Education Association Region 1 Director as well as a member of the 2019 California County Boards of Education Budget/Audit Committee.

The resolution noted that "Dr. Browning’s earnest commitment to community and passion for every student in Lake County is to obtain a quality education, and become a life-long learner and contributing community member,” and lauded his contributions “as an intelligent, thoughtful, hard-working, kind, and dedicated person are unparalleled and will be greatly missed by Governing Board members and County Office personnel.”

Browning thanked the board and said he knew that the Lake County Office of Education is in good hands.

When the board took a break to have some celebratory cake, Cooper noted how well he and Browning and the rest of the board has worked together, with no angry disagreements over the years even when confronted with challenging issues.

“It’s just been the greatest board to work on,” Cooper said.

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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LUCERNE, Calif. — The chair of the Board of Supervisors took an unusual action on Wednesday night to try to cancel the Lucerne Area Town Hall meeting for Thursday that had on its agenda discussion and possible action to condemn the Scotts Valley Pomo’s secretive attempt to purchase the Lucerne Hotel to use it as a homeless facility.

The action by Board Chair Eddie Crandell, who lives in Lucerne and is a former tribal chair of Robinson Rancheria, appears to directly violate the town hall’s recently updated bylaws, which the Board of Supervisors approved on Oct. 18.

Under the bylaws, the responsibility for setting meeting dates and locations for the Lucerne Area Town Hall, or LATH, is up to the chair.

Town Hall Chair Kurt McKelvey sent out the town hall’s agenda on Monday, which included a discussion of the Scotts Valley Pomo’s plan as well as a proposed resolution that condemns it and asks the Board of Supervisors to take action to stop it.

The plan has been directed by Tribal Administrator Tom Jordan, who is not a tribal member, and Ana Santana of the Lake County Office of Education, or LCOE.

As Lake County News reported on Tuesday, Jordan and Santana wrote a $5.2 million grant to purchase the historic building and turn it into homeless youth housing, a plan that Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg found out required LCOE to run the shelter. He said LCOE will not do that.

McKelvey said the town hall meeting is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Lucerne Hotel, where LATH has been meeting regularly.

However, on Tuesday Mary Jane Blackshear, representing herself as the caretaker of the building for Andrew Beath of the Malibu-based Earthways Foundations, the building’s owner, emailed McKelvey, the other LATH Board members and county officials to say Beath would not allow the meeting to take place at the hotel if the group intended to discuss the potential sale.

McKelvey in turn responded that the meeting would still go forward.

On Wednesday, in response to Lake County News’ questions about the matter, Beath himself sent a letter.

It read:

“I’m sorry to say that EarthWays is unable to host the town hall meeting on Thursday for several reasons:

“There was never a request to use the space, just an announcement that a meeting was occurring. Naturally any building host must make plans for management of events, insurance issues, security issues, etc. so please get permission in the future before announcing a meeting.

“You would normally be very welcome to use the space with proper advanced requests.

“For this particular meeting, the announcement is perceived by many, including myself, as biased against the Pomo Tribe who has made an offer to purchase the castle. If correct, this bias would be a rude welcome to the tribe’s representative.

“As an alternative, I suggest that we have a near future meeting with the Pomo’s representative, hosted by EW [Earthways), in which a detailed presentation about the Pomo “intended uses” would be presented, and questions entertained. This would be a presentation, not a debate or a complaint session. Those processes could be organized elsewhere and communicated to the Tribe, the County Council , or any other party. EW and the Pomo Tribe are committed to finding positive social justice uses for the Castle that will benefit The Tribe and Lucerne.

“As a sidenote: This communication is EW only position regarding the proposed meeting. I realize that other communication has attributed comments to me, Andrew Beath. Please disregard these comments since they are not mine, rather, they are from third parties. EW comments are contained herein only.”

Lake County News emailed County Counsel Anita Grant and Crandell twice, on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, to ask if the county had an agreement with Beath to facilitate the town hall meetings at the hotel or in acquiring meeting space, where the town hall could meet and if the town hall could move to another location since the agenda already had been issued.

Crandell has not responded to those emails, nor has he responded to requests for comment from Lake County News about the scheme to turn the Lucerne Hotel into homeless housing by Scotts Valley or whether the Board of Supervisors might discuss the matter before the end of the month.

Then, at 7:11 p.m. Wednesday, Grant responded to Lake County News via email.

“I’m not aware of any enforceable agreement with Earthways for the use of this facility for LATH town halls. Instead, from the letter sent out by Earthways today, it seems that use of the facility has been based only on an informal request by LATH made in advance of each meeting. Apparently, that didn’t happen in this instance,” wrote Grant.

In response to Grant’s statement, McKelvey told Lake County News that LATH has never before been required to make such requests to use the Lucerne Hotel in advance of every meeting.

The agreement for the use of the building for the meetings had already been worked out before he became chair over the summer, he said.

Then, at 9:24 p.m. Wednesday, Crandell sent an email to the LATH Board, which he copied to Grant, County Administrative Officer Susan Parker and Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein.

“Good evening LATH Council members,” he wrote. “Please find the enclosed letter cancelling the December LATH Meeting.”

Attached to the email was a brief letter, on county letterhead, that states, “To the LATH Council and Community, Please be advised that LATH’s December meeting is cancelled due to a lack of a meeting place. The next meeting of LATH will be on January 19, 2023, Location TBD.”

At 9:59 p.m., McKelvey responded to Crandell via email, asking, “What authority do you have to cancel any Municipal Advisory Council meetings? I don't see that in the bylaws.”

The LATH bylaws suggest Crandell’s action is an overreach of his authority and it’s not an action he’s taken with any other town hall in his Northshore district.

No other county supervisors with town halls in their districts appear to be responsible for calling, running or directly managing town halls.

The suggested timing of the “next” LATH meeting is problematic, considering that Jordan is pushing to close escrow any day, and that Jan. 19 would not give LATH time to discuss the matter before escrow closes.

Jordan, who since last week had ignored McKelvey’s request for information, had written to McKelvey within hours of Blackshear’s demand for cancellation in her Tuesday email, suddenly asking to be on the Jan. 19 agenda.

McKelvey told Lake County News on Wednesday evening that he plans to call an emergency LATH meeting next week and is seeking legal counsel on Crandell’s action.

Shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday, McKelvey sent Lake County News an email titled, “Regarding the attempts to cancel the December 15th Lucerne Area Town Hall Meeting.

The full email follows.

“For reasons beyond me, two persons not authorized by the Lucerne Area Town Hall bylaws have sought to cancel this duly noticed public meeting of the Town Hall.

“I received emails from the hired caretaker at the Lucerne Hotel building stating that "Andrew Beath is writing a formal letter to Lucerne Town Hall to inform you of the cancellation of this particular meeting at his private property."

“The email went on to say, "This letter from Andrew is due to be released tomorrow and I will forward it to Kurt McKelvey for him to notify the public that this meeting that was to be held at the Lucerne Hotel Building, (The Lucerne Castle), is cancelled."

“The next day, I received an email from the Earthways Foundation CEO Andrew Beath, forwarded through his paid representative, stating that they were 'unable to host' the meeting.

“This is very concerning to me, and should likely be very concerning to the community. It seems some people do not want us to even be having this discussion as a community. Beath has no ability to cancel the meeting, but he can certainly say that the meeting venue is no longer available.

“I also received an email from EJ Crandell through official County email and on official County Letterhead, stating that the meeting is 'Cancelled' due to 'a lack of a meeting place'. Again, I don't believe that he has the ability to cancel a meeting of the Lucerne Area Town Hall either.

“I don't believe that any District Supervisor can unilaterally cancel any Municipal Advisory Council's meetings.

“Our bylaws clearly state who sets the agenda, who determines the meeting place, and who conducts the meetings, and it's neither of the individuals who are attempting to 'cancel' this meeting.

“I intend to carry forward in holding the space for this community discussion.

“I'd also like to mention that at the end of EJ's email attempting to cancel the meeting, he erroneously states that 'The next meeting of LATH will be on January 19, 2023, Location TBD'. I consider this statement to be a massive overreach, as he has no authority.

“This issue is very time sensitive, and needs to be discussed currently. It cannot be put off until January, as escrow for the property may be closing before the end of December.

“If there is any attempt to stop this properly noticed meeting of a lawfully authorized Municipal Advisory Council, then I am prepared to call an emergency meeting of the LATH by the 21st of December 2022 to discuss and act on these matters.”

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. — The county of Lake has issued a notice to its employees that there was a COVID-19 exposure during the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

In a Wednesday morning email to county employees with a subject line “COVID Exposure Notification” that was obtained by Lake County News, Human Resources Director Pam Samac reported the exposure.

The email said, “The County of Lake has been notified that an individual that was in the Board Chambers during the retirement proclamation celebrations yesterday has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Anyone in the Board Chambers from 10:45 AM to 1:30 PM was in close contact with an individual who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.”

During that time frame, the board was honoring Sheriff Brian Martin, County Clerk/Auditor Controller Cathy Saderlund, Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen and Social Services Deputy Director Michelle “Micki” Dolby on their retirements this month.

The chambers were filled with dozens of people, both members of the public and county employees.

However, there have been no statements from the county to the general public about the exposure either on its website or social media accounts.

In her email, Samac explained, “Close contact is defined as sharing the same indoor airspace with a confirmed-positive individual, in indoor spaces of 400,000 or fewer cubic feet (44,444 square feet if the height of the ceiling is nine feet tall) per floor such as home, clinic department, waiting room, airplane etc., for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period within the ‘high-risk exposure period’.”

She advised that employee guidelines following close contact include that employees must wear face coverings around others for a total of 10 days after exposure; exposed employees must test within three to five days after their last close contact; if an exposed employee develops symptoms, they must test immediately and be excluded pending the results of a test; and if an exposed employee tests positive for COVID-19, they must follow the isolation requirements.

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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — Kelseyville residents Angela Carter and Rob Brown to invite all senior citizens of Kelseyville to a Christmas dinner.

The dinner will be provided by them along with a generous donation of time by their family and friends, including local full service caterer Rosey Cooks Gourmet Catering, members of the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, and Julianne Carter to play festive Christmas music on piano.

Ham, potatoes, vegetables, rolls and pumpkin pie will be served at the Presbyterian Church, located at 5340 Third St. in Kelseyville from 3 to 6 p.m. on Christmas day.

All seniors in the Kelseyville area are welcome to drop by to enjoy a meal at the Friendship Hall or local delivery will be available as well if you are unable to join us.

Meals will also be delivered curbside to any Kelseyville seniors who wish to pick one up to take home and enjoy.

Please contact us by phone at 707-349-2628 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve your meal.

LUCERNE, Calif. — Concerns and many unanswered questions are arising over the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ plan to turn the historic Lucerne Hotel into a homeless housing facility with a multimillion dollar state grant that the tribe received after claiming the Lake County Office of Education is partnering with it on the project.

However, while the tribe’s plan names the Lake County Office of Education, or LCOE, is its “primary partner, ” the county superintendent of schools said LCOE isn’t in partnership with the tribe as stated in the grant application and that he knew nothing about the grant or the project until this reporter brought the matter to him.

“We are not going to be involved as a primary partner,” Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg told Lake County News.

At the same time, the state agency that gave the tribe the $5.2 million grant has brushed aside any concerns raised by that claim in the application and indicated it intends to go forward with awarding the money.

It’s part of a larger state effort to push money out into communities to try to address matters related to homelessness that has itself raised questions for its effectiveness, manner of oversight and expectations for due diligence.

Other key partners, agencies and officials named in Scotts Valley’s grant that were contacted by Lake County News have apparently been kept out of the loop, a critical concern as the tribe pushes to close escrow, possibly as early as month’s end.

Also not informed of the project is the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Northshore Fire Protection District and the Lucerne Elementary School District. The sheriff, fire chief and superintendent all confirmed to Lake County News that no one had reached out to them about the proposal.

Supervisor Bruno Sabatier got wind of the proposal at the start of September. However, Board Chair EJ Crandall, who lives in Lucerne, has not responded to Lake County News about whether Scotts Valley has spoken with him about the plan.

It’s a project that, if allowed to move forward, would directly conflict with planning for the Northshore community, running against the guidance of Lake County’s general plan, zoning ordinance and the shoreline communities plan.

However, Scotts Valley’s tribal administrator, Tom Jordan, is dismissing concerns raised about appropriate zoning and use of the building for what he intends as well as community concerns or lack of community input.

Community Development Director Mireya Turner told Lake County News that, by the time the grant was awarded, she’d had just one contact from Jordan about the hotel, which she said is not zoned for the use he intends.

Community seeks answers on proposal

The hastily created plan was submitted in June to the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, or BCSH, which announced the day before Thanksgiving that the Scotts Valley Pomo had been granted $5.2 million for the plan to turn the historic building into housing for homeless youth up to age 24, with priority given to tribal members.

Those youth won’t just come from Lake County, but also will be brought from Mendocino County, according to the grant language.

First selection priority will go to Scotts Valley’s homeless youth, which numbered seven, then all other homeless Native American youth in Lake and Mendocino counties, then all homeless youth regardless of socioeconomic status.

Jordan said the funds are to cover the purchase, estimated at $3.25 million in the grant documents, plus partial renovation totaling $1.39 million and the first year of operation — projected at approximately $525,813, of the Lucerne Hotel.

Not covered are costs for year 2, estimated at $553,188; year three, $703,839; and year four, $735,514.

The grant language itself says it will be housing for homeless youth and BCSH officials have called it a “shelter” for “homeless” youth in email correspondence to Lake County News, but Jordan disputes calling the project a “homeless shelter.”

He said the project which is funded for one year will be “a permanent residence for underserved, underprivileged disadvantaged youth between the ages of 16 thru 24. The McKinney-Vento Act will be used to qualify these youth. Scotts Valley intends to co-locate government and professional services to improve the opportunities for disadvantaged youth to be self-sustaining and self-reliant, so the space will also eventually include educational opportunities and professional offices. Scotts Valley understands that these purposes are consistent with the area and general plans for the Lucerne Castle property.”

How Scotts Valley understands the project to be consistent with area and general plans is unclear, considering the county planning director already has made him aware of significant issues with the proposed usage under current planning and zoning rules.

Other aspects of the plan that raise questions include whether Scott Valley has any experience in addressing homelessness with youth, much less on this scale.

Jordan said it’s meant to help address the more than 400 homeless youth in Lake County, but that number is more than 20 times the number of homeless youth recorded in the point in time count earlier this year. Jordan’s number is derived from a different definition used under the McKinney-Vento Act, which defines homeless children and youths as those who “lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.”

A review of the proposal raises questions about appropriate staffing levels to cover the project, and what kind of licensure would be required from state and local government.

At the request of Lake County News, the California Department of Social Services is reviewing the proposal to ascertain the necessary licensing, but as of Tuesday night the agency had not been able to give a final response.

Facilities on the scale of what Scotts Valley is proposing appear to more often be located in urban areas rather than rural ones like Lake County.

Scotts Valley’s was the largest grant given by the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, or BCSH, in that round of funding, twice the size of any other grant given to tribes for housing projects.

As of Tuesday night, BCSH said that the final award contract with Scotts Valley hadn't been signed but was expected to happen soon, and the agency dismissed concerns about the project in light of the revelations about LCOE not being a primary partner and did not intend to operate the facility.

The plan is being led by Jordan, who is not a tribal member, with his daughter, Sorhna Li Jordan, also not a tribal member, who is the tribe’s chief financial officer, also listed in the grant documents as being involved with oversight.

When approached for comment on the project by Lake County News, Sohrna Li Jordan said it wasn’t her project and she didn’t have information about it and would get back to this reporter, which she did not do.

Tom Jordan’s plan has mostly flown under the radar and has not included any input from community residents or leaders. In recent days, Lucerne Area Town Hall Chair Kurt McKelvey said Jordan has refused to respond to his request to speak about the project until Tuesday evening when he proposed talking to the town hall next month.

That’s all the more concerning since Jordan is rushing to close escrow. He said there is no definite time for closure of escrow, but separately Lake County News has received information that it could close on or around Dec. 22.

The agenda of the Lucerne Area Town Hall meeting, set for 6 p.m. Thursday, includes extensive discussion of Scotts Valley’s plans for the hotel.

Included in those discussions is a proposed resolution condemning the plan and asking the Board of Supervisors “to immediately put a stop to this project by denying necessary permits and informing Mr. Jordan that his plan is ludicrously inappropriate and flies in the face of longstanding county and town plans and economic goals.”

The resolution concludes, “Lucerne will not be a sacrifice zone.”

LATH’s meetings have been taking place at the Lucerne Hotel. However, when Andrew Beath, the man who bought the hotel from the county and is attempting to sell it to Scotts Valley, found out about the agenda, his caretaker Mary Jane Blackshear called and emailed McKelvey Tuesday afternoon to say Beath would not allow a meeting discussing those items to take place at the building, claiming LATH did not have all of the information.

“In the appropriate time Tom Jordan will address the community regarding the Scott’s [sic] Valley Band of Pomo Tribe possible purchase of the Lucerne Hotel Building, (The Lucerne Castle),” Blackshear wrote.

McKelvey said he intends to go forward with the meeting anyway.

Superintendent: Lake County Office of Education won’t run facility

Jordan and Ana Santana, head of the Lake County Office of Education’s Healthy Start Program, wrote the grant for the building after it came on the market in May.

“The grant was written as a coordinated effort between Lake County Office of Education staff and me. It was understood that LCOE would be the primary agency referring youth who qualified under the McKinney-Vento Act and would provide counseling assistance, as they do now for these youth,” Jordan said in an email.

The grant language is filled with inaccuracies and questionable assertions about the building and its historic use.

It misstates the number of local tribes — claiming six, not seven — and also claims that Scotts Valley is the only landless tribe, when the Koi Nation also is landless. A landless tribe is a tribe which does not have land in trust with the federal government, while Scotts Valley does own land, it is not in trust.

The documents also say that Marymount California University owned the building, which it did not. Rather, that college leased it from the county of Lake.

The biggest factual problem with the grant proposal is that it relied on the Lake County Office of Education as the “primary partner.”

However, LCOE knew nothing about the grant or the plan until contacted by Lake County News about it earlier this month, after the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency provided this publication with the details of the grant award. The initial public statement did not identify the hotel as the subject property.

Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg said the grant proposal did not go through LCOE’s process. Santana didn’t run it by the organization, and it bypassed the business office, the board and his own review, he said.

“This one snuck through,” Falkenberg said.

Based on an interview with Falkenberg last week, it appears that Santana committed the agency to the project, which she does not have the authority to do.

Last week Falkenberg met with Jordan and Santana. Falkenberg said there was an understanding between the tribe and Santana, presenting herself as representing LCOE, that as primary partner LCOE would be the operator of the homeless shelter.

“We are a school-based organization. We don’t know anything about running a shelter,” Falkenberg said.

Falkenberg said he and Board of Education Chair Mark Cooper discussed the matter and concluded that running such a facility is not within LCOE’s scope.

He said he told that to Jordan and Santana and later followed up to let them know, definitively, that LCOE would not be responsible for running the facility.

While Falkenberg said he is supportive of the concept and services for homeless youth, LCOE cannot continue as a primary partner and the effort should be led by a community based organization.

“We can’t be the operator,” Falkenberg said.

Falkenberg said that he believes everyone is in agreement that $5.2 million will not be enough to sustain operations on top of the needed renovations to the building.

He told Lake County News that the county’s former juvenile hall, which has already been retrofitted, operated as a shelter and is for sale, would be a far better site.

Falkenberg said he was trying to speak to state officials about the grant but as of Friday, he had not received a call back. This week he has been out of town due to a death in his family and so has not been available.

On Tuesday, BCSH offered a response that contradicts Falkenberg’s statements about the plan requiring LCOE to operate the facility.

The agency said it’s not accurate that it’s the intent of the grant that LCOE will run the shelter.

“We have spoken with LCOE Superintendent Faulkner [sic], who told us that the project is in alignment with SCOE’s [sic] mission and core values, that he and LCOE support the project, and that LCOE will be doing ‘everything that was said in the grant,’ including working with SVBPI to find an entity that can take a lead role on a center within the building,” the agency said through a spokesperson.

In his interview with Lake County News, Falkenberg did not communicate that LCOE would do “everything that was said in the grant” or that it would find an entity to take the lead on the project.

After the responses from BCSH, Lake County News spoke with Cooper Tuesday afternoon. He confirmed that Falkenberg also reported to him that it had been the intention of the project that LCOE run the shelter and that “it's not within the scope of our programs to be able to run programs like that.”

Cooper said Falkenberg recounted to him being sent around from one individual to another in BCSH in trying to clear up the matter. According to Cooper, Falkenberg relayed to the agency that LCOE would not run the shelter or be the project lead. The state, in turn, told him that it intended to award the funds anyway, without there being an identified entity to lead it.

The Lake County Board of Education meets Wednesday afternoon and the matter is not on its agenda. Falkenberg said he expected that board to bring the situation up “as a conversation” but not until its January meeting, but that will not take place in time to address the grant’s assertions about LCOE as primary partner before escrow is expected to close.

Even after the meeting with Falkenberg, Jordan said he intended to press forward with the plan, which does not have the support from LCOE that was a basis of the project and the grant application.

In an email response to questions about the project, Jordan wrote, “At the time in June when the opportunity arose to make Lucerne Castle a positive community investment, and the grant application written in a very short period of time, the preliminary investigation of renovation costs based on information supplied by Lake County and public records supported the amount requested in the grant. Subsequent discussions with general contractors indicate these costs could be higher. Scotts Valley has already discussed the potential for funding shortfalls with state staff and state consultants and are working to identify future grant opportunities to fund any outstanding renovation costs and operating costs. All discussions to date have been positive and encouraging, i.e., a grant application of this nature is likely to be approved. In addition, Scotts Valley has many unique funding opportunities available to it because of its status as a federally recognized Indian tribe.”

In addition to LCOE being listed as the primary partner, there were nearly 40 organizations and agencies listed as “secondary” partners for the grant.

They include, as listed in the application, five federally recognized tribes in Lake County (there actually are seven, Indian Child Welfare Act, California Tribal TANF, Lake County Tribal Health, Child Protective Services, Lake County Probation Department, Lake County Behavioral Health, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Redwood Community Services, SafeRx, Lake County Public Health, Lake County School Districts, Lake County Department of Social Services, Lake Family Resource Center, North Coast Opportunities, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Clearlake Gleaners, North Shore Business Association, North Shore Youth Club, Lucerne Senior Center, Catholic Charities, Career Point Lake, Lake County Transit, Mendocino College, Woodland College, Elijah House, Hope Rising, Red Cross, St. Vincent de Paul, Hospice Services of Lake County, Partnership Medi-Cal and Planned Parenthood.

Lake County News has been working its way through the list to contact all of these organizations. Of those reached so far, none knew anything about the grant and had not offered any written or verbal support for Scotts Valley’s plans for the Lucerne Hotel.

Planning concerns for the building and community

The grant narrative explains the project this way:

“The program is simple: house up to 60 homeless youth between the ages of 16 through 24 years of age, equally divided between boys and girls, some of whom will be married, and others married with 1 or 2 children. Males will be housed on one floor and females on another floor. Married couples with children will be provided two adjoining rooms to provide for a family sitting room/children’s play area and/or a second bedroom. In addition, 4 resident assistants to provide evening, night, and weekend supervision and 2 Case managers that develop individualized plans, provide supportive services vis-à-vis a coordinated services network, and monitor progress toward achieving each youth’s personalized goals will be assigned. All youth of school age will be expected to attend school, high school, or community college. Youth in the working age group able to obtain a work permit, will be expected to be employed. Culinary and maintenance staff are also included, and the youth are expected to assist in both areas, as they would in a family home setting.”

It continues, “The vision held by SVBPI and its primary partner, Lake County Office of Education, is “No youth shall experience homelessness.” Neither partner believes that this project will singularly achieve this vision. Yet both partners believe this project will fundamentally alter the homeless youth milieu that currently exists in Lake County and its sister county, Mendocino. Making a significant impact on this vision while achieving the optimum utilization of the property, housing 60 homeless youth, will not occur at once but will occur in annual phases. The first-year goal will be to house and support 30 homeless youth, thereby followed by 10 homeless youth increments for the successive 3 years.”

Turner said she was contacted once by Jordan some months before the grant’s approval.

“Tom asked me about the Lucerne Hotel, but it is not zoned for this. I told him that a rezone and general plan amendment would be required and it is not likely that the department would be able to support the project,” she said.

She said that there are no exemptions from zoning district development standards and uses in state law for such a project.

However, asked about those concerns, Jordan said the tribe itself is investigating whether a zoning change is required and that he didn’t read Turner’s initial guidance as “insurmountable.”

He also has dismissed out of hand the idea that there will be community backlash, and that instead the community will embrace and idea he so far hasn’t wanted to share publicly.

“Scotts Valley disagrees that there is likely to be backlash from the community for this project. We all know that youth in our community are suffering. Scotts Valley provides age-appropriate services and interventions to help youth build healthy habits, and to become self-sufficient members of the community. Lucerne Castle is an excellent place to provide residences for disadvantaged youth within a walkable community where they can access jobs, recreation, and social services. We will look for and entertain opportunities to present our vision of serving disadvantaged youth, in community forums,” Jordan wrote in a response to Lake County News.

Turner said last week that she recommended Jordan apply for a pre-application development meeting so he can get feedback from the reviewing agencies prior to submitting an application. She said he thought that was a good idea so she sent him the application.

As of Lake County News’ Tuesday night deadline, an application for that meeting had not been submitted.

Concerns about protecting a historical building and its community

Kelly Cox, Lake County’s retired administrative officer, said the county redevelopment agency purchased the historic building in 2010 to avoid plans exactly like what Scotts Valley has in store for the building.

The Lucerne Hotel is the heart of the town, which was built around the 94-year-old building. It’s the county’s last great resort from the era when Lake County was a top vacation spot for people from around the state and nation.

The county purchased it and began renovations in an effort to jumpstart the economy, an effort that worked.

It was used by Marymount California University as a four-year college — the first time Lake County had such an educational institution — for several years until the college abruptly left in 2017.

At that point, then-County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson began pushing the sale of the building without community input. It would soon become clear Huchingson wanted to use the building’s sale to bolster county reserves and support a multimillion dollar raise package that gave her among the largest benefits of any county employee.

The county opened a request for proposals process for the building in 2018. The Lucerne Area Revitalization Association, or LARA, an organization formed by the owners of Lake County News, submitted a proposal to lease the building and work collaboratively with the county to operate the building as it was intended, for educational purposes as a hospitality training campus operating a conference center, hotel and restaurant.

New Paradigm College, an aspirational permaculture school led by former county Supervisor Denise Rushing, was the only other proposal.

The county chose the New Paradigm College plan.

The county sold the building for $2.5 million to Andrew Beath of the Earthways Foundation, who purchased the building on behalf of New Paradigm College. But New Paradigm announced this past year that it was leaving the building and this spring Beath put the building on the market. In that time, LARA has continued to work on planning and grant writing to acquire the building.

Beath also appears not to have gotten a consistent answer from Scotts Valley about what it intends to use the building for, as he told Lake County News that he was told it will be used for “foster children.”

This isn’t the first time this year an attempt has been made to turn the Lucerne Hotel into a homeless shelter.

This spring, Adventist Health, in collaboration with the county of Lake, submitted a Homekey grant application seeking $15 million to turn the building into “Hope Castle,” a 70-bed homeless shelter.

The documents, obtained by Lake County News from the California Department of Housing and Community Development through a public records act request, included detailed plans for necessary renovations, the kind of due diligence that is missing from the Scotts Valley application.

Those estimates led them to request three times the amount sought, and received, by Scotts Valley.

The Board of Supervisors approved that grant application as part of its consent agenda in January.

Behavioral Health Services Director Todd Metcalf requested the approval, but at that point the documents made available to the board and the public did not include an actual project site or address.

The public records act request to the state, however, made clear that after the board gave approval, the Lucerne Hotel was added as the intended site.

Supervisor Bruno Sabatier confirmed to Lake County News that the Board of Supervisors knew nothing about that plan to turn the Lucerne Hotel into a homeless shelter.

On July 20, Lake County News emailed Metcalf to ask about Adventist’s plan, and to ask, “Are you aware of any such plan either involving those parties of anyone else? Are there any state grants that are being applied for, with or without the county's support, for use of that building?”

Metcalf responded the same day, “To my knowledge, the efforts made to secure funding for such an operation at the Lucerne Hotel fell through…”

The only letter of support in Scotts Valley’s grant packet was from Metcalf, on behalf of the Continuum of Care. That letter was dated June 29, a month before Lake County News’ email.

The letter reads:

“The Lake County Continuum of Care Committee (CoC) is pleased to provide its support to the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ (SVBPI) Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAP) application in partnership with the Lake County Office of Education.

“The goal of this application is to house and provide social services on a case management basis to 60 homeless youth.

“SVBPI is a participating member of the CoC, and, as with all its members, it is recognized that addressing the homeless youth population and its attendant needs requires a collaborative approach.”

Lake County News emailed Metcalf to ask if he didn’t remember that he had written that letter a month before or if he was being purposefully evasive.

Lake County News also asked Metcalf in that followup email how it was he had the authority to write that support letter on behalf of the Continuum of Care, considering that there was no discussion about offering a letter at the organization’s June meeting.

Santana, who was at that meeting, had asked if there was money to buy the building, but no action was taken to approve a letter, and that group must adhere to the Brown Act in its meeting procedures.

In his responses to Lake County News, Metcalf said, “The Board resolution and letter of support to which you are referring were not site-specific. The Lucerne Hotel is not mentioned in either document.”

Lake County News followed up in a Monday email to Metcalf, pointing out that the grant documents for those projects, which were in process or completed by the time the respective resolution and letters were written, were site specific.

In that followup email on Monday, Lake County News pressed Metcalf for an answer on how he had the authority to write the support letter for Scotts Valley’s grant on behalf of the Continuum of Care.

Metcalf did not respond.

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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LUCERNE, Calif. — The owner of the Lucerne Hotel is trying to stop the Lucerne Area Town Hall from discussing the plan to sell the historic building so that it can be used for a homeless housing project.

The Lucerne Area Town Hall, or LATH, is set to meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Lucerne Hotel, located at 3700 Country Club Drive in Lucerne, where LATH regularly meets.

LATH Chair Kurt McKelvey issued the agenda for the meeting Monday evening.

On that agenda, Tom Jordan, tribal administrator of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, has been invited to speak about the tribe’s plan to purchase the building with a $5.2 million state grant to use it for homeless youth housing.

Jordan is attempting to purchase the building from Andrew Beath of the Malibu-based Earthways Foundation, who purchased the building from the county in 2019 from the county for $2.5 million on behalf of New Paradigm College.

New Paradigm has since shuttered its operations, blaming the pandemic.

Until this week, Jordan has not responded to McKelvey’s request to answer questions about the plan, which is the subject of an in-depth Lake County News story published today.

Other items on the Thursday LATH agenda include Scotts Valley’s plan to partner with the Lake County Office of Education on the plan to run the building as a youth homeless shelter. However, Lake County News uncovered that the Lake County Office of Education knew nothing about the plan or the grant approved by the state to support it.

Also on the agenda is a proposed resolution condemning Jordan’s plan and asking the Lake County Board of Supervisors to intervene to stop the project.

On Tuesday afternoon, an email was sent to the LATH Board and county officials titled “RE: CANCELLATION OF Regular LATH Meeting Agenda for December 15th 2022 at Lucerne Hotel Building/Lucerne Castle.”

The mail was from Mary Jane Blackshear, calling herself “Stewart (sic) of Lucerne Castle.”

Blackshear is reported to be the caretaker hired by Beath to oversee the Lucerne Hotel.

In her email, she informed LATH that it could not meet at the building if members planned to discuss the sale.

Her full email, including misspellings and grammatical errors, is as follows:

“Hi Kurt McKelvey, Chair of LATH, and to all whom it may concern.

“Please be advised that Andrew Beath, owner of the Lucerne Hotel Building, (The Lucerne Castle), is not in support of this “LATH Agenda” set for the LATH meeting on December 15, 2022, on his private property located at 3700 Country Club Drive.

“Andrew Beath was given a copy of this particular LATH Agenda and feels strongly against this agenda as the information regarding Agenda numbers 5., 6. a. and 7., does not reflect all the information concerning this subject matter.

“To hold such a meeting condemning the Scott’s Valley Band of Pomo Tribe efforts, shows a great deal of disrespect towards the Scott’s Valley Band of Pomo Tribe and is unacceptable to Andrew and others.

“Therefore, Andrew Beath is writing a formal letter to Lucerne Town Hall to inform you of the cancellation of this particular meeting at his private property.

“This letter from Andrew is due to be released tomorrow and I will forward it to Kurt McKelvey for him to notify the public that this meeting that was to be held at the Lucerne Hotel Building, (The Lucerne Castle), is cancelled.

“In the appropriate time Tom Jordan will address the community regarding the Scott’s Valley Band of Pomo Tribe possible purchase of the Lucerne Hotel Building, (The Lucerne Castle).

“Thank you for your time.

“Mary Jane Blackshear, Stewart of Lucerne Castle”

McKelvey responded to the email list a short time later to report.

“The meeting is most certainly NOT cancelled. The agenda has already been posted stating the meeting will be held at that location, the same location we’ve been having it for the last year or so… I do not agree with the owners attempt to cancel the meeting.

“This is a grievous violation of the arrangement, that the owner thinks he can dictate what topics are discussed by the Lucerne Area Town Hall.

“It is not appropriate for the owner of the building to dictate what is or is not allowed to be discussed at the town hall, or to attempt to cancel the meeting simply because he doesn’t like what’s on the agenda. This is a massive overreach.

“The meeting is posted for that location, and I will be opening the meeting at 6:00pm.

“Thank you,

“Kurt McKelvey
“Chair - Lucerne Area Town Hall”

Neither District 3 Supervisor EJ Crandell nor County Counsel Anita Grant could be reached Tuesday evening to ask if there was an arrangement for use of the building by the town hall that precluded Beath from controlling the content of the discussion.

Within hours of the email exchange with Blackshear, Jordan, who for weeks has not responded to McKelvey’s requests for information about the homeless youth shelter plan, wrote to ask to be on LATH’s Jan. 19 agenda.

The timing of that request raises the question of when escrow will close, potentially allowing Jordan to take control of the building with little or no community input about his plans. Lake County News has received information suggesting that escrow is due to close before the end of the month.

Blackshear told McKelvey earlier this year that she wanted to turn the 94-year-year-old historic building into a cat rescue.

That was an odd turn of events considering that Beath’s previous caretaker had allowed the building to be infested by feral cats, causing agencies like the Lake County Office of Education to decide not to hold a summertime training event there.

As of press time Tuesday night, the Lucerne Area Town Hall meeting was still scheduled to take place at the Lucerne Hotel Thursday evening.

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.