News

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The construction of a new seawall at Library Park has been rescheduled to the end of January.

City Public Works Director Doug Grider originally had estimated in November that the project would start on Dec. 23. Last month, he updated the Lakeport City Council to report that the contractor was to get the sheet pile through the holidays in order to start by Jan. 6.

Grider has since reported that the sheet pile manufacturer had a breakdown and so the sheet pile won’t be ready until the end of January.

The cinder block seawall was destroyed in the February 2017 storms as the result of being battered by heavy waves, as Lake County News has reported.

In November, the Lakeport City Council held a special meeting to approve the contract with West Coast Contractors Inc., which also does business as Oregon West Coast Contractors, which is based in Coos Bay, Oregon. The company specializes in such projects.

West Coast Contractors’ bid came in at $799,773, well below the city’s $1 million cost estimate.

Grider and his staff have pursued a difficult and complex process through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get funding to build a new 534-foot-long wall at the 100-year flood level.

As a result, FEMA will pay for all but a 6.38-percent match the city will be required to cover, which will come from the city’s insurance.

The city’s goal is to have the project completed by the spring in order to be able to have the chain link fence that has cordoned off the damaged seawall and sidewalk removed for the busy summer season.

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 Lakeport Police Department said that it is stepping up enforcement of parking rules in downtown Lakeport in the wake of numerous complaints.

For the past couple of years, due to a lack of staff resources, the police department has not been able to consistently enforce two-hour parking, the agency said.

However, the department said it continues to receive complaints that many people continue to violate the two-hour limit downtown and around the courthouse area.

Police said the situation is becoming problematic for the downtown businesses because vehicles left all day in front of businesses may create a loss of revenue for the business.

Due to the numerous reporting of parking violations, the police department said it will be immediately conducting more parking enforcement.

Additionally, the agency is looking at expanding resources and technology to more efficiently enforce parking violations.

That includes looking at a contract with a parking enforcement company to process citations and collect fines to include liens on vehicles for persons who fail to pay citations.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has many big dogs waiting to find new homes.

The kennels also have many dogs that need to be reunited with their owners. To find the lost/found pet section, click here.

The following dogs are ready for adoption.

‘Blue’

“Blue” is a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a short blue and white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 2420.

‘Charlotte’

“Charlotte” is a female Akita mix.

She is dog No. 3040.

‘Chris’

“Chris” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short brindle and white coat.

He has been neutered.

Chris is dog No. 3319.

‘Clarice’

“Clarice” is a female German Shepherd mix puppy.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3402.

‘Eve’

“Eve” is a female American bully with a short brindle and white coat.

She is dog No. 3480.

‘Fable’

“Fable” is a female Alaskan Malamute mix with a brown and buff coat.

She is dog No. 3044.

‘King’

“King” is a male purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a short brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 3034.

‘Linus’

“Linus” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.

He is dog No. 3255.

‘Lola’

“Lola” is a female pit bull terrier mix with a short red and white coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3337.

‘Nook’

“Nook” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short brindle and white coat.

He is dog No. 3415.

‘Spice’

“Spice” is a female pug mix with a short tan coat and black markings.

She has been spayed.

Spice is dog No. 3033.

‘Woodrow’

“Woodrow” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a black and white coat.

He is dog No. 3281.

Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.

Hours of operation are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at the city’s Web site.

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.

Earth’s warming trend continued in 2019, making it the second-hottest year in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 140-year climate record, just behind 2016.

A collage of typical climate and weather-related events: heatwaves, drought, hurricanes, wildfires and changes in sea ice coverage.

The world’s five warmest years have all occurred since 2015 with nine of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2005, according to scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

It was also the 43rd consecutive year with global land and ocean temperatures, at least nominally, above average.

The average temperature across the globe in 2019 was 1.71 degrees F (0.95 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and just 0.07 of a degree F (0.04 of a degree C) cooler than the 2016 record.

Ocean heat content, which describes the amount of heat stored in the upper-levels of the ocean, was the highest ever recorded. High ocean-heat content can contribute to sea-level rise.

2019 as ranked by other scientific organizations

NASA scientists, who conducted a separate but similar analysis, concurred with NOAA’s ranking. NASA also found that 2010-2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded.

Scientists from the United Kingdom Met Office determined that 2019 was one of the top-three hottest years on record, and the World Meteorological Organizationoffsite link also ranked 2019 second warmest for the globe.

More NOAA findings for 2019

– The declining state of sea ice: Polar sea ice coverage continued its downward trend in 2019. Both the Arctic and Antarctic oceans recorded their second-smallest average annual sea-ice coverage during the 1979–2019 period of record.

– December 2019 was near-record warm: The month was in fact Earth’s second-hottest December on record, logging an average temperature 1.89 degrees F (1.05 degrees C) above the 20th-century average. Only December 2015 was warmer.

– Continents baked: Parts of central Europe, Asia, Australia, southern Africa (including the island of Madagascar), New Zealand, Alaska, Mexico and eastern South America had record-high average land temperatures in 2019.

– The annual globally averaged sea surface temperature was the second highest on record at 1.39 degrees F (0.77 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and just behind 2016.

– Northern Hemisphere snow cover was close to average in 2019, at 9.57 million square miles.

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies and officers from allied agencies responded to a report of a man with a gun near East Lake Elementary School in Clearlake Oaks on Wednesday morning, and while no firearm was found two people in the area were arrested on unrelated misdemeanor charges.

Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Central Dispatch received information that a man was seen pointing a firearm at children on the East Lake Elementary School grounds in Clearlake Oaks, according to a report from Lt. Rich Ward.

Ward said the information initially was received from students attending East Lake Elementary.

The students notified school staff and those staff members immediately called Konocti Unified School Resource Deputy Antonio Castellanos., Ward said.

East Lake Elementary initiated its lockdown procedures, immediately accounted for all students and notified parents with the school’s mass notification system, according to Ward’s report.

Ward said several deputies responded to the scene as well as members from the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Cal Fire, Lake County Probation Department, Lake County District Attorney’s Office and Clearlake Police Department.

Deputies set up a perimeter surrounding the school and began searching the immediate area. Ward said several deputies remained with school staff members to provide security for the students.

Deputies remained on scene to assist school staff members in conducting a thorough search of the school grounds and accounted for all students, Ward said.

When deputies made contact with school officials, they learned that a Caucasian male adult was seen in a field behind the school’s baseball fields. Ward said the male subject was described as wearing all black clothing and possibly armed with an ax.

Although initial reports were received of a man with a gun, this information could then no longer be corroborated by witnesses on the scene, Ward said.

Given the uncertainty of the initial reports of a man with a gun, Ward said deputies expanded the search perimeter and began searching the field behind East Lake Elementary School’s baseball fields.

Deputies soon located a female subject identified as Netomie Denice Cardoza, 53, of Manteca. Ward said deputies learned Cardoza had a misdemeanor warrant for her arrest for public intoxication.

The deputies continued their search and located a male subject identified as Gary Alan Trueba, 64, of Clearlake Oaks, Ward said.

Ward said Trueba was located approximately 100 yards to the north of the school baseball fields. Trueba was lying in thick brush, wearing all black clothing and appeared to be attempting to conceal himself from deputies.

Deputies detained Trueba and located an ax and small sunglasses case lying within his immediate reach, Ward said.

A cursory search of the sunglasses container yielded a small amount of suspected methamphetamine and Ward said Trueba was taken into custody for misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.

No firearms were located during the search, Ward said.

Ward said Cardoza and Trueba were transported to the Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked on misdemeanor charges.

“The Lake County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank all school staff members and allied agencies that assisted with this investigation,” Ward said.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday offered a response to a letter sent in November by the city of Clearlake over concerns about a growing number of tax-defaulted properties and not enough tax sales to keep up with millions in unpaid tax revenue.

Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora had first raised the issue with the board in September, with the Clearlake City Council holding a special November meeting in which it approved sending letters to the Board of Supervisors, the Lake County Civil Grand Jury, the California State Controller, California State Treasurer, California Board of Equalization and the California Attorney General’s Office asking that Lake County Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen be investigated, as Lake County News has reported.

Ringen and one of her staffers were on hand for the Tuesday discussion, as were Flora and two of his council members – Clearlake Mayor Russell Cremer and Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten.

Board Vice Chair Bruno Sabatier led the discussion, responding to a series of questions and requests that the city of Clearlake’s letter raised.

Among the city’s requests was that an additional tax sale be held in 2020, with no fewer than 1,500 tax-defaulted properties to be sold. Sabatier said an additional sale can’t be done without extra staff, and to do such a large sale – when a total of 300 are scheduled for a spring sale that’s planned – isn’t feasible. A second tax sale is being considered for 2021.

The city also had asked for reduced fees on eligible properties and to pursue any and all options for reducing gridlock. On the former matter, Sabatier said it could impact the Teeter fund, which allows jurisdictions to allocate delinquent property tax revenues, and additional staffing was needed to address the former.

In addition, the city had asked for various state agencies and the Lake County Civil Grand Jury to investigate Ringen “for negligence of statutory responsibility to conduct regular tax sales,
initiating any action necessary for a future remedy.”

“We want to make sure that we solve this problem,” said Sabatier in response to the request for an investigation, adding they could take actions like a vote of no confidence but that they wanted to be solution-oriented.

Supervisor Rob Brown, who along with Sabatier sits on a board-appointed ad hoc committee to work with Ringen on issues concerning her office, said Ringen is not fighting them.

He said regarding any issues going on with Ringen’s office, “It’s our obligation to make a commitment to fill that gap.”

The city of Clearlake also had asked for a review of the Teeter Fund balance, as well as the revenue into the fund over the past 10 years, payments from the fund to taxing entities over the past 10 years and payments to the general fund over the past 10 years.

Auditor-Controller/County Clerk Cathy Saderlund said she was there primarily to assure the board that she will come back to them for a “Teeter 101” presentation. At that time she said she will provide the 10-year request, which is a “weighty,” and added that she hadn’t been aware it was on the agenda.

Saderlund said she had been concerned about numbers being circulated in the community.

The number for Teeter delinquencies is nowhere near what Saderlund said she was hearing, noting that the delinquent secured roll as of June 2019 is $9 million, not $18 million.

The city’s November letter gave the total defaulted amount currently due as $18.3 million countywide, a figure Sabatier also had stated in previous meetings. However, neither the city nor Sabatier had given that figure as for Teeter alone.

Saderlund said there are other charges that the Board of Supervisors has no control over, including bonds, nuisance abatement and fire fees.

Flora, who was invited to speak, said he wasn’t sure what to respond to.

“My question is, what’s the plan?” Flora said. “We’ve laid out the gravity of the situation, which we feel like the Board of Supervisors should have even more of a concern about than the city of Clearlake.”

Flora said that, as of Tuesday, 25 percent of all Clearlake properties are at some level of tax delinquency. He then presented a printout of all of them, totaling 625 pages printed on both sides that was about three inches thick.

“If we don’t take this more seriously and do something about this problem, it’s going to cause great harm to the city,” Flora said.

Flora said there were a lot of smart people in the room who could figure out the situation, and the city of Clearlake remains willing to help.

Sabatier suggested opening up a seat for the city of Clearlake on the ad hoc committee that’s working with Ringen’s office. Board Chair Moke Simon said that suggestion could be brought back for further discussion.

Sabatier said he wanted consensus to bring back the proposal to discuss it. County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, who also sits on the ad hoc committee, said she wanted the committee to discuss it before putting it on the agenda.

A five-year plan to address the number of tax-defaulted properties was raised during the meeting, which the board members appeared to support.

Simon said there may be opportunities for contracting out the sales. “We do all take it seriously.”

“The city trusts Vice Chair Sabatier’s involvement in this,” said Flora, adding he hopes the full board shares that commitment.

“The city council is very motivated to find a solution to this issue. We need to see progress,” Flora said, adding that if they don’t, they will have to look at other options.

Brown said he’s committed and that he’s spoken with Ringen. “She’s committed to it as well,” he said, explaining that the board needs to work with her to provide her with the resources.

Sabatier said he wanted Ringen to go through the numbers for tax-defaulted properties and totals owed, which she said she could do.

Ringen also explained that the tax sale scheduled for March has been extended into early May, and she would return in February with the resolution for the sale.

She said she is dedicated to solving the issues surrounding tax-defaulted properties, adding she didn’t see why they couldn’t make improvements and that it is possible to look at doing another tax sale after the tax year ends June 30, once there is more staffing.

“Let’s make that happen. Let’s make that a goal,” said Sabatier. He said that the county has been averaging around 70 tax sales per year, but in the year 2013 did 201.

Supervisor Tina Scott said she also is committed to solving the issue and agreed with Brown about needing to provide Ringen with resources.

During public comment, Michael Green criticized the city of Clearlake for attacking Ringen’s character, stating that the issues with the tax-defaulted properties have been years in the making.

He said the city of Clearlake and Flora owed Ringen an apology, and asked the board to stand up and show solidarity for her.

Brown said everyone knows there has been an issue with tax-defaulted properties. “It has gone back for a long time.”

He said they needed to focus on moving forward with a five-year and even a 10-year plan.

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.

BOS Tax Collector Letter 11-20-19 by LakeCoNews on Scribd