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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The woman who has led Lakeport as its city manager for the past decade said she is planning to retire this summer.

Margaret Silveira said she will step down from the job she’s held since April of 2010 on July 31.

She called working for the city of Lakeport for the past 10 years “the greatest job of my career.”

“She did so many amazing things for this city that we are going to reap the benefits for many, many years,” Lakeport City Councilwoman Stacey Mattina told Lake County News.

“She’s leaving us in very good hands, with a well-trained management team and the assistant city manager,” Mattina said.

“Working with her has been a pleasure and an honor,” said Councilwoman Mireya Turner.

Silveira credited the council for being very supportive of staff and progressive in its support of projects.

She said the city has developed a great team thanks to excellent city staff and community engagement. “I constantly receive compliments about our accomplishments and I am
proud to acknowledge our collaborative work.”

Silveira began work in Lakeport on April 1, 2010, coming from the city of Gustine, where she was city manager for three years. She topped a field of more than 60 candidates for the Lakeport city manager job.

She is the third city manager for Lakeport, which went to the city manager form of government in 2001, and the first woman to hold the job. Altogether, she has nearly 30 years of management experience.

Mattina said that over the past several years Silveira implemented goal-setting and succession planning, which is critical for the city due to the challenge in recruitment.

That led to the creation of the assistant city manager job, held by Kevin Ingram, formerly the city’s Community Development director.

The city has not yet named Ingram city manager, although the naming of the new city manager is expected to be a topic at next week’s council meeting, Silveira said.

Turner said the council previously appointed two of its council members to negotiate a contract with Ingram, a process that is still underway.

A decade of changes, challenges

Silveira has helmed the city during a decade that has seen both significant crises and major opportunities.

She became city manager as the city and the rest of Lake County were struggling to emerge from the Great Recession and set to work to make the city financially stable.

Silveira took action to pay down the city’s unfunded retirement liabilities and improved the sewer and water systems, and in 2016 helped guide the city’s passage of another sales tax measure, Measure Z.

During her tenure, the county would be swept by a series of natural disasters. In the winter of 2017, heavy winter storms and flooding did damage to the city’s Library Park seawall. In the summer of 2018, the entire city of Lakeport would be under an evacuation order due to the River fire, one of the arms of the Mendocino Complex.

More storms hit the city in early 2019, doing still more infrastructure damage. Then, later that year, the city – and the rest of the county – was under a prolonged public safety power shutoff.

During the emergencies, Silveira and her team were gathered together at City Hall in the emergency operations center, working with other agencies and trying to keep the community up to date on those situations.

Despite those challenges, under Silveira’s guidance, the city has made strides financially, amassing annual surpluses that cushioned the city’s reserves.

One key project that’s moving forward is the city’s lakefront park. Earlier this year it received a $5.9 million state grant to build the park at the former Natural High School property on N. Main Street. The council approved the purchase of that property last week.

“I’m just so excited to see that happening,” said Silveira.

She also secured the donation of the former Bank of America building last year. It’s now being turned into a community center.

Turner cited the Bank of America building donation as one of Silveira’s standout accomplishments in her decade of service. In other communities that Bank of America has left, it’s made a practice of selling the buildings, not giving them away. Thanks to Silveira’s efforts, the Lakeport bank building was the only one in California that Bank of America donated.

“It’s hard to get stuff out of those big banks,” said Turner.

Silveira said the park and the community center will be “true gifts to the community.”

Turner said Silveira’s networking efforts have paid off for the city. “Because she’s good at relationships, she has put Lakeport on the radar for state and federal funding that we never would have gotten otherwise.”

In recent weeks, work has wrapped up on the new Library Park seawall and promenade. “I forgot how beautiful the lakefront was without that fence,” Silveira said of the chainlink fence that had lined the park since the 2017 storms.

One project that’s still in motion is the attempt to annex the South Main Street area south of the current city limits. It’s reported to be the most lucrative commercial corridor currently in county jurisdiction, and has been a source of ongoing disagreement between the city and county.

“That was my goal, not to retire until the annexation,” said Silveira, who added that she believes it’s the right thing to do, as it will include providing water and sewer to the area.

The annexation application has been submitted to the Lake Local Area Formation Commission and Silveira said she believes her successor will complete the project.

“Things are actually really good because of all the partnerships we’ve been able to accomplish through the years,” said Silveira, noting the city’s work with arts and regional economic groups.

She said the city’s sales taxes, Measure I and Z, are helping keep the city in good shape, as is its reserves. “We’re trying to keep our operations in the black.”

The city’s reserves have grown from about 10 percent to over 65 percent of the general fund. “Those are the things that will help us through the future here,” said Silveira. “You always want that rainy day reserve.”

Those reserves will be key as the city faces the impacts of its latest challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter in place order. While Silveira said the city expects to bounce back from the pandemic, “It may be a couple of years.”

The city also is working on bringing in a larger commercial development and its consultant, The Retail Coach, has been working to find new tenants for the former Kmart store on S. Main Street, which closed last year.

“There’s some traction happening,” she said, adding she believes they will have a new tenant in the Kmart property within two years, if not sooner.

A project she’s worked to promote but which is out of the city’s hands is the new courthouse project, which has been a stop-and-start prospect over the past decade. Last year, Lakeport’s courthouse was listed as the No. 1 courthouse priority in the state. There had been an expectation of funding for the project in the governor’s spring budget, but the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed those plans. However, Silveira is optimistic the project will eventually happen.

Succession planning

Silveira said she originally had planned to retire in a little over a year. However, when she began to look at the forecast revenue shortages for the city, she decided retiring earlier would be a benefit to the city as it will save money.

“When we initially talked about it, we said, ‘No, no, no, you’re a great value to this city and you’re going to help keep us on track,’” Mattina said of the council’s discussions with Silveira about early retirement.

However, Mattina said they reluctantly accepted it. “It definitely brought some tears to the eyes,” she said, adding, “It would have been nice to have her a little bit longer.”

Turner said Silveira has two strengths in particular that have benefitted the city: Leadership, with people wanting to work hard for her because they know she’s working harder still, and team building.

She said Silveira is really good at assembling strong teams, equipping them to do their jobs and then letting them do their jobs.

“Because of that team-building skill, she can step down and we’re still left in a pretty good position – even though none of us wants to see her go,” said Turner.

Silveira said all of the city’s department heads are good leaders with great people working with them and mentoring each other. “It’s going to go very smoothly,” she said of the transition.

She compared her job to that of an orchestra conductor, explaining, “Conductors add no sound to the musicians, they just lead so that the music is in unison and beautiful.”

“I have no doubt that the team that she has built up over the years is more than capable of carrying on,” said Turner. “We would keep her forever if we could but we’re very thankful for everything she’s done.”

For Silveira, retiring earlier than originally planned has some big benefits, including the chance to move closer to family.

She has a 13-year-old granddaughter and a three-and-a-half-month-old grandson who she wants to have more time with, so she said retiring is working out fine for her and the city.

Silveira said she listed her house for sale on Friday and sold it over the weekend, which will allow her to move closer to family.

She said she’ll miss everything about Lakeport. “This has been a wonderful place to live. The people are amazing.”

She added, “I can’t say enough about this community,” explaining how supportive the community is and how residents work to make it better.

Silveira said she’ll be coming back a lot to visit, with a lot of friends offering their extra rooms. “There’s too much I love about the place.”

Mattina said that there is more to come before Silveira leaves. “We’re hoping to honor her in some special ways.”

“She’s done a great job for our city. I’m really thankful,” said Turner.

Silveira also remarked on her gratitude for the chance to work for the city. “We live in an amazing, beautiful place.”

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.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino College has selected its new president/superintendent.

Dr. Timothy Karas, currently the president of the College of Alameda, has been chosen as the next leader of Mendocino College, said interim Superintendent/President Eileen Cichocki.

Karas was selected from a field of four candidates, which included Cichocki, Greg Nelson and Richard Storti.

Karas was selected following a series of public forums with the candidates held online in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cichocki, who has served as interim superintendent/president since July, will return to her role as assistant superintendent/vice president.

Karas’ parents are immigrants to California from post-war Europe. His mother is a retired teacher’s aid and his father is a grocer.

He grew up in San Jose, prior to it becoming Silicon Valley with fruit orchards and farms close to his family home, and became the first person in his family to attend college.

Karas received an associate degree from West Valley College, following that with a Bachelor of Arts in geography from Humboldt State University and a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.

Before working in academia, he worked as a librarian for the City of Palo Alto and Redwood City.

He completed his doctoral studies in the field of Educational Leadership at Fielding Graduate University in 2017.

He was a tenured faculty member at the College of San Mateo, and later served as dean of liberal studies and language arts (2009-2014) and director of library services (2005-2009) at Mission College.

In July 2014, Dr. Karas joined the College of Alameda as vice-president of instruction. He was appointed College of Alameda President in January 2017.

During the past 15 years he has served on eight accreditation site visit teams. He served as Executive Board President of the Council of Chief Librarians: California Community Colleges and was an Executive Board Member (2008-2014).

Dr. Karas believes education is a transformational experience for individuals and communities. He has worked to imbed community college education intuitions into the fabric of the community. Community colleges are economic development powerhouses for counties, cities, neighborhoods, and individuals.

In Alameda, Dr. Karas serves on the board of directors for the Alameda Chamber of Commerce, Alameda Family Services; serves on the mayor’s economic development task force; and participates in the local Rotary Club.

Dr. Karas has served on many civic committees and commissions, including the City of San Jose Library Commission, Bond and Parcel Tax Citizen Oversight Committees, and Santa Clara County Sister County Commission. Karas co-authored a chapter in the book Campus Partnership in Small Academic Libraries: Challenges and Rewards.

COBB, Calif. – A student representing Cobb Mountain Elementary recently received a perfect score in the last of three meets in this year’s WordMasters Challenge – a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 125,000 students annually.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge, fifth-grader Lily Morita earned a perfect score of 20 on the recent challenge.

Nationally, only 86 fifth graders achieved this result.

Cobb Mountain Elementary teacher Angela Stevenson coached students in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge.

The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships.

Working to solve the analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. Although most vocabulary enrichment and analogy-solving programs are designed for use by high school students, WordMasters Challenge materials have been specifically created for younger students in grades three through eight.

They are particularly well suited for children who are motivated by the challenge of learning new words and enjoy the logical puzzles posed by analogies.

The WordMasters Challenge program is administered by a company based in New Jersey which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters are pushing a fire in Solano County that began over the weekend closer to full containment.

The Quail fire, which began on Saturday afternoon in the 8000 block of Canyon Road near Winters, was at 1,837 acres with 75 percent containment as of Monday evening, according to Cal Fire.

When the fire began on Saturday, several hundred homes were reported to be threatened by the blaze.

As of Monday night, Cal Fire said 100 structures were threatened and three destroyed.

Residential evacuations and road closures have been lifted and crews are continuing to perform tactical patrols, construct containment lines and mop up hot spots, Cal Fire reported.

Resources assigned include 12 engines, five water tenders, eight hand crews, two dozers and 200 personnel.

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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Monday afternoon vegetation fire in the city of Clearlake has prompted evacuations of nearby homes and the Cache Creek Apartments.

The fire, reported as beginning in a structure before spreading to nearby vegetation, was first dispatched in the area of Seventh and Boyles avenues just before 3:45 p.m., based on radio reports.

Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta arrived on scene within minutes and began ordering evacuations of the Cache Creek Apartments and nearby structures over the radio.

He also asked for additional air tankers and helicopters.

Engines were able to reach the fire by ground, finding it threatening power lines, radio reports indicated.

Meanwhile, law enforcement was on scene assisting with evacuations.

The Clearlake Police Department issued a Nixle alert just after 4 p.m. ordering evacuations from Boyles and Seventh avenues and continuing northeast of Dam Road and Lake Street due to the fire.

Just after 4 p.m., Radio reports later indicated there were downed power lines in the area.

Air attack reported shortly after 4 p.m. that the fire was about two to three acres, with moderate fuels, threatening high tension power lines.

The wind was reported to be hitting the fire and causing it to spot up to a quarter-mile away, with nearby roads holding the fire from advancing, based the radio reports.

More aircraft were reported to be arriving at the scene at around 4:30 p.m.

At about the same time, two tankers were released, with two others and two helicopters remaining committed, air attack reported.

Just after 4:30 p.m., incident command reported over the radio that the fire was holding at three acres, with dozer line and hose lay around the majority of the blaze. At that point, the west wind had died down.

Incident command reported that power had been deenergized in the area.

Pacific Gas and Electric’s online outage map showed that the outage area includes 2,575 customers, stretching from Anderson Marsh south to Hidden Valley Lakes and east along Morgan Valley Road. Estimated time of power restoration is 7:15 p.m.

Incident command said at about 4:30 p.m. that resources are expected to be assigned for four hours.

Additional information will be published as it becomes available.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors will continue meeting online this week as it honors the county’s retiring undersheriff and gets the Public Health officer’s latest report on COVID-19.

The board will meet virtually beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 9, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

Because the meeting will be held virtually, members of the public are asked to submit comments on items to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please note the agenda item number addressed.

At 9:02 a.m., the board will get Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace’s weekly COVID-19 update.

At 9:45 a.m., the board will present a proclamation honoring Undersheriff Christopher Macedo on his pending retirement.

Macedo has spent more than 30 years in law enforcement and has spent nearly a decade in the undersheriff’s job.

The full agenda follows.

CONSENT AGENDA

5.1: Adopt resolution authorizing the agreement between the county of Lake and Adventist Health Clear Lake for the period of Oct. 11, 2019, through March 31, 2023, and authorizing the Behavioral Health director to sign the agreement.

5.2: Approve minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting on June 2, 2020.

5.3: Adopt resolution amending Resolution 2020-42 to replace EMC Planning Group Inc. with County Administrative Officer Carol J. Huchingson in Section 1 and Section 2 of Resolution 2020-42.

5.4: Approve to waive 900-hour limit for Extra Help Facilities Maintenance Worker II Lawrence Platz.

5.5: Sitting as the Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, approve proposed project and purchase of septage receiving station for Southeast Regional Treatment Plant.

5.6: Approve budget transfer in Budget Unit 1671 from Object Code 18.00 Maintenance to Object Code 61.60, Buildings & Improvements for $92,310.

5.7: Adopt Resolution authorizing the acceptance of the 2020/21 Boating Safety and Enforcement financial aid funding from the State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways in the amount of $315,312.

5.8: Adopt proclamation commending Undersheriff Christopher J. Macedo on his 30-plus years of service and on his pending retirement.

5.9: Adopt resolution authorizing Special Districts Administrator Janet Coppinger to sign and submit all documents, certifications, and assurances required for a funding agreement with Economic Development Administration in the amount of $5,211,608.

5.10: Sitting as the Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, (a) waive the normal bidding requirements per Ordinance #2406, Purchasing Code 38.4 Cooperative Purchases; and (b) authorize the Special Districts administrator/assistant purchasing agent to issue a purchase order not to exceed $240,000 to Multiquip INC. for the Purchase of a 400KVA 3PH generator and trailer for the Northwest Treatment Plant Lift Station #1. (c) Approve budget transfer allocating money from object code 61-60 and 62-72 to 62.74.

TIMED ITEMS

6.1, 9:01 a.m.: Public input.

6.2, 9:02 a.m.: Consideration of update on COVID-19.

6.3, 9:45 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation commending Undersheriff Christopher J. Macedo on his 30-plus years of service and on his pending retirement.

UNTIMED ITEMS

7.2: Consideration of (a) purchase of seven 2020 Ford Explorer police pursuit vehicles from Redwood Ford in the amount of $254,197.44 from the Sheriff/Pursuit Replacement Budget Unit 2217, Object Code 62.72 and (b) authorize the sheriff/coroner or his designee to sign the purchase order.

7.3: Consideration of proposed agreement for the Soda Bay CSA-20 Redwood Water Tanks Replacement Project Bid No. 19-18.

CLOSED SESSION

8.1: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code section 54956.9(d)(1): EEOC Charge of C. McCormick.

8.2: Conference with legal counsel: Existing Litigation Pursuant to Gov. Code section 54956.9(d)(1)- John, et al. v. County of Lake, et al.

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.