Letters
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- Written by: Kim Costa
I have over 30 years experience in public service and leadership positions promoting community well-being. I believe strongly that government exists to serve the people, and as a member of the Lakeport City Council your voice matters greatly to me. On Nov. 5, please vote for me, so that I can continue working for you!
There is A LOT to love about our special city: incredible natural beauty, rich culture, a simpler lifestyle, amazing recreation opportunities, a safe and caring community. These are things we love, and these are things we need to both protect and promote. This has been my work on the council since 2022, and in other settings for many years.
Even in our small town, creating and maintaining the life that we all want can be a challenging task. It seems straight forward — we want: A strong economy, vibrant retail, a beautiful downtown and healthy tourism. Abundant housing options for families of all income levels, accessible home ownership. Safe neighborhoods, great schools, walkable and bikeable streets, good environmental stewardship, and fun times together as a community enjoying what we have and who we are. Yes, let’s make those great things happen!
But here is an important reality: While envisioning these things is absolutely the first step, it is also the easiest part. Accomplishing and protecting these things is the next step, and it is the most challenging part! This is the task of effective city government, and it is best achieved by capable city leaders working alongside involved and concerned citizens to create the Lakeport that you envision and desire. This is where the rubber meets the road, and where experience, knowledge and perseverance make the difference between a vision and an outcome, between a hope and an accomplishment. And this is where my experience, skills, determination and commitment are put to work for you!
Effective City Council planning and decision making for the city of Lakeport require:
• Sincere and meaningful community engagement. If elected, I intend to promote regular opportunities for Lakeport residents to meet with individual city council members outside of council meetings for discussion of the issues that matter to you. I will also help ensure that council meetings are managed in a way that encourages meaningful and comfortable citizen participation. Your voice matters! Additionally, I am working to promote hands-on involvement of community members to champion their passions: promotion of music and the arts, a vibrant and beautiful downtown, walkable and bikeable streets, art in public spaces, desired community events, and increased tourism are examples of potential hands-on community involvement opportunities.
• Creative and collaborative problem solving. Encouraging fresh ways of approaching community needs is often vital to moving beyond perceived bureaucratic barriers. Sometimes small efforts can make a big difference! Other times, we can identify the necessary big-picture efforts together, and plan effectively to get to our goals. I have decades of success in doing exactly this.
• Informed analysis. Even issues that seem simple can sometimes have complex features or unintended consequences. Therefore, digging deep into the relevant information and critically analyzing all aspects of an issue are needed skills in city governance. My 30+ years of public service and leadership experience have demanded this of me, and I bring this ability to my work on the city council.
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter, and I hope you will vote for me so that I can continue to work for you! We are neighbors; this is our city, and together we can guide Lakeport to where we want and need to go.
If you would like more information about my views or my qualifications for City Council, please feel free to reach out to me directly at
You can also check out my candidate statement video, linked here.
Additionally, you can watch the candidate forum video from Sept. 23.
Finally, I invite you to view any of the videos of Lakeport City Council meetings since my appointment in December of 2022, which can be accessed on this page.
Thank you, and best wishes!
Kim Costa lives in Lakeport, California.
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- Written by: Christina Price
As a lifelong resident of Lake County, a licensed real estate broker, and District 4’s Planning commissioner since September 2019, I am committed to building a thriving community. My husband and I are excited to raise our young son here, and we share the same hopes and dreams as many of you — to create a city where our children can thrive, have opportunities to find meaningful work and housing, and be able to raise their own families right here in Lake County.
I am a dynamic leader with fresh ideas and a proven track record of making meaningful change. Even small changes can have a significant impact.
I am an advocate for a thriving downtown. I bring creative ideas to add more housing options and encourage collaboration between government, businesses, nonprofits and community members of all ages to build a strong future. Let’s make our City Council meetings welcoming spaces where community members of all ages can freely share their ideas and talents, working together to build a better Lakeport.
I think we all see Main Street's promise as a vibrant, walkable hub where visitors, new residents, and locals are drawn by our thriving businesses with a dynamic mix of goods and services for all ages, our natural beauty, recreational opportunities, strong arts scene, and this community’s pride and can-do spirit. There are proven ways to slow down traffic, make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, strollers, and wheelchairs, and attract more customers to our downtown businesses. It's time to start implementing them.
For more details about me and my plans, please visit my Facebook Page – Christina Price for City Council. I would be honored to earn your vote on Nov. 5.
Christina Price lives in Lakeport, California.
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- Written by: Mary Wilson
I am an adult education navigator and outreach specialist at the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College.
I help people finish their high school diploma or equivalency. Then I help them make educational and career plans towards family sustaining employment.
In this position, I do outreach at many community events and coordinate events on campus. For some of these events, I work in collaboration with community agencies.
Two recent examples are Resilient Reentry with Lake County Probation and Suicide Prevention with Behavioral Health.
Additionally, I also help connect English language learners to ESOL coursework and to college coursework as they improve their language skills.
In addition to my employment, I am active with several community agencies. I am currently the president of the Middletown Art Center Board. I also acted as a cross-cultural liaison and helped write the grant that resulted in the murals on the water towers on Rabbit Hill.
I have been a member of the Lake County Continuum of Care, the agency that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families, since 2020. I have been a member of its Point in Time, or PIT, count committee since 2021, I also serve on their performance and grant selection committees. Over the past two years, we have significantly improved our review of funded programs and the grant selection process, which has the potential to increase funding to the community and the effectiveness of programs we oversee.
I have been a member of the Lake County Subcommittee of the Workforce Alliance of North Bay, the agency responsible for workforce development programs, since 2018. I was instrumental in making sure CareerPoint Lake has a continued presence in Clearlake and they will be in Clearlake full-time soon.
I also assist community agencies with grant writing and the grant selection process, including Kno’Qoti Native Wellness and Lake County Probation.
My job and my volunteer position make me well connected to the community and I am well aware of the issues impacting Clearlake.
My vision for Clearlake is that it is a safe place for people to raise their families and to live happy, fulfilling lives. That vision includes more housing choices for every economic status and a growing economy with family sustaining employment.
In my vision every citizen has access to the education they need to participate in that economy, and we continue to expand the places that people celebrate our rural, small town outdoor lifestyle, like what the city created at Austin Park.
I care about safety in our city. If elected, I want to develop a wildfire risk assessment plan using Firewise protocol, increase the number of egresses in neighborhoods that are landlocked, and research ways to utilize responsive architectural methods to address wildfire risk and climate change as we improve our infrastructure.
I want to install traffic calming devices to slow down traffic on our newly paved streets. And I want to improve safety at the Burns Valley Mall, where some of our citizens have expressed to me their apprehension about shopping.
Together we can develop a long-term vision for Clearlake that is connected to community values and aspirations.
To develop that vision, we need to have participatory conversations about the future of Clearlake that will contribute to the county, our country, the planet and the well-being of our citizens.
Let’s build a vibrant city together. Vote for Mary Wilson for Clearlake City Council on Nov. 5.
Mary Wilson lives in Clearlake, California.
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- Written by: Brenna Sullivan Kennedy
Even though this vote is nonbinding, it represents a strong signal of where we stand.
We can all agree that the tension has been disheartening, but we’ve been through this debate before. I was part of one of the last graduating classes to be known as the “Kelseyville High School Indians.”
The school board’s decision to change the mascot, though controversial, was ultimately the right one. The new mascot avoided disrespecting the Pomo, allowed us to move forward together and was ultimately embraced.
At the heart of the issue was this simple question: “Is the mutual respect of all community members worth the discomfort of change?” In 2006, that answer was a resounding “Yes.”
In 2024, we see similar arguments. I note the hypocrisy of decrying the costs of changing the name considering the sophisticated effort made to oppose it.
The cascade of lawn signs, t-shirts, banners, media advertisements and other materials distributed throughout the community has surely been a costly venture, not to mention the taxpayer money expended to put Measure U on the ballot. I don’t think cost is the heart of the issue.
Equally misguided is the argument that changing the name will undermine efforts to improve our name recognition. In my experience, folks from out of the area are more likely to recognize the name Konocti (as in “Konocti Harbor”) than they are Kelseyville. It’s usually how I qualify where I am from.
Considering that this debate has now received local, regional, statewide and national press coverage, it is apparent that the larger risk is one of perception. How will we be viewed if we do nothing? Will we be able to say with a straight face that we are “a friendly country town?”
Ultimately, I think the true argument is an emotional one. Kelseyville prides itself on its agricultural heritage, rural lifestyle, and spirit and tenacity of the pioneers. Many of Kelseyville’s residents are descendants of the pioneers and connect deeply to this history and legacy.
I love Kelseyville for these same reasons. But we must acknowledge that there are people in our community who connect deeply to the very same history in a significantly different way.
We must sit with the fact that at least one person is alive today who has heard firsthand stories of the Bloody Island Massacre from a family member. This is not ancient history. It is alive, and real, and felt. The pioneers' triumph was the Pomos’ tragedy, and how we choose to reconcile that reality is what truly defines us.
Days ago, I learned something that compelled me to write this letter. In 1950, Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone were exhumed and reburied beneath the site of a new monument: “The First Adobe House.” This historic landmark, which has long greeted visitors and residents as they cross the bridge into our town, is effectively a tomb.
Despite recent attempts to rewrite history, Andrew Kelsey remains inexorably connected to Kelseyville whether we like it or not. The only way forward is to confront and dismantle this connection or Kelsey’s legacy will continue to haunt us.
I have witnessed my hometown come together to achieve remarkable things. We have been resilient through floods, fire, drought, recession and controversy. No matter where we stand on this issue, we all have common ground. We love this beautiful place and are invested in its well-being.
This is why I have an optimistic vision of a near future when that monument on the edge of town will instead read:
“Here lie Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, who were killed in 1849 for their heinous crimes against the Pomo and Wappo people of this area. In 2024, the community formerly known as Kelseyville denounced these atrocities, and in collaboration with Lake County’s seven tribes, unified under the name Konocti.”
Brenna Sullivan Kennedy is a resident of Kelseyville, California.
