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- Written by: Lake County News reports
McGuire’s office said the bill is a critical step in supporting local governments as they try to collect millions of dollars in revenue statewide to support vital city and county services like fire and police, public health, good roads, and for parks and libraries.
In California, nearly every city and county levies TOT, and the revenue collected is typically used to support essential government services.
Unlike with hotels and motels, local jurisdictions often have an incredibly difficult time collecting TOT on short-term vacation rentals because hosts are not always aware of the requirement to collect and remit these taxes, and local governments do not always know what properties are being used for short-term vacation rentals.
SB 555 will help cities and counties collect this untapped revenue by creating a statewide TOT collection program administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, or CDTFA, for local jurisdictions who choose to participate.
This program would require short-term vacation rental platforms, such as Airbnb or VRBO, to collect the appropriate TOT from customers when a short-term rental is booked through the platform. The platform would then remit the funds collected to CDTFA, who would then distribute the revenue to the city or county.
“Hundreds of cities and counties don’t collect bed taxes from short-term vacation rentals and this is a simple statewide solution that will collect and invest in vital services that will help California cities and counties thrive,” McGuire said. “SB 555 will provide cities and counties the ability to opt-in to a statewide program to collect bed tax revenue from tourists, which will in turn be reinvested into fire and police services, local parks and libraries, and economic development projects. It also ensures that all short-term vacation rental platforms do their part and even the playing field.”
This program would be an opt-in for local municipalities, and those municipalities would be required to enact an ordinance to participate. This bill does not prohibit local agencies who want to continue with their own voluntary collection agreements with platforms from doing so.
Rather, SB 555 gives jurisdictions that have not found success in entering voluntary collection agreements, which are the majority of cities and counties across California, with hosting platforms the ability to collect this vital and untapped revenue.
SB 555 passed 5-0 last week in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.
It will head to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it will begin routine vegetation maintenance work along a stretch of Highway 175 in Kelseyville this week.
Starting on Thursday, the company said it will remove vegetation that is overhanging power lines, work that may impact drivers.
Those who are in the area between mile markers 13.792 and 13.911 of Highway 175 may see tree-trimmers and oversized equipment working from approximately 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At least one lane of the highway will be closed and there is the possibility that both lanes could be closed for safety, due to oversized equipment, PG&E said.
There will be traffic management in place to guide drivers safely through the work area, which stretches approximately 634 feet along Highway 175.
PG&E said the work is to maintain regulatory compliance. General Order 95, issued by the California Public Utilities Commission, requires a year-round clearance below power lines of a minimum 18 inches.
New fire safety regulations require a minimum clearance of four feet year-round for high-voltage power lines in the CPUC-designated High Fire-Threat Districts.
PG&E said it inspects approximately 100,000 miles of overhead power lines, with some locations patrolled multiple times a year.
It also prunes or removes approximately one million trees annually to maintain clearance from power lines, and addresses dead and dying trees in areas affected by drought and bark beetles.
For more information on PG&E’s vegetation management work, customers can visit www.pge.com/trees.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is celebrating its two new sergeants.
In a brief ceremony held at the gazebo in Library Park on Monday morning, Chief Brad Rasmussen administered the oath to newly promoted sergeants Victor Rico and Andrew Welter.
Rasmussen said a major goal of the city of Lakeport and the Lakeport Police Department has been realized with the promotion of Rico and Welter from the ranks of the department’s officers.
Both men were originally recruited in the department’s hiring local campaign which seeks to employ police officer candidates who are already members of and have strong ties to the Lake County community.
This hiring program is a collaborative effort between the Lakeport Police Department and the City’s Human Resources Department that has been in place for the last seven years.
Sgt. Rico grew up in Kelseyville and attended school there, graduating from Kelseyville High School in 2008. He went on to attend Mendocino College and Sacramento State University.
He worked for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy sheriff between September 2014 and May 2016, at which time he made a lateral move to the Lakeport Police Department as a police officer.
During his five years with the Lakeport Police Department, he has served in the supervisor in training program, as a school resource officer, detective, firearms, taser and less lethal device instructor, and armorer and drug abuse resistance instructor. Sgt. Rico is fluent – in speaking and in writing – in both English and Spanish.
Sgt. Welter was raised in the Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake areas, graduating from Middletown High School in 2011. He attended Santa Rosa Junior College and while attending worked for the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department.
He also worked for Hidden Valley Lake Security Services for five years and was a firefighter for South Lake County Fire Protection District for two years.
In March of 2016 he was hired by the Lakeport Police Department to attend the police academy and work as a police officer.
During his five years with Lakeport Police, Welter has served in the supervisor in training program, as a field training officer and was recently assigned and trained as a traffic radar/LiDAR instructor. He was selected as Veterans of Foreign Wars Lakeport Post Police Officer of the Year in 2017.
“The national law enforcement hiring crisis becoming progressively worse over the past five years has led to having fewer experienced candidates available to move into critical supervisory roles,” Rasmussen said.
Recognizing this as a continuing problem into the future, in early 2019 the Lakeport Police Department and the city of Lakeport’s Human Resources Department developed a supervisor in training program – basically a sergeant in training – and took a plan to the Lakeport City Council, which immediately agreed to fund it.
Over the past two years, four Lakeport Police officers went through this training program and became eligible to test for sergeant.
Given that the supervisor in training program has been successful, the city’s police and human resources departments collaborated last fall to develop an extensive assessment center testing process designed to determine if a candidate could function and be successful in the highly complex job of police sergeant.
The 10-hour assessment center consisted of submitting a letter of interest, a resume and new job application, pre-test research and a writing assignment graded by an editor from outside the department, preparing and delivering a group presentation to an evaluating board, counseling an employee related to complex issues in front of an evaluating board, and answering complex questions from an evaluating board.
The evaluating board for all of the assignments consisted of the city’s human resources director, Kelly Buendia, along with Lakeport Police Lt. Dale Stoebe, an outside agency police chief, an outside agency police captain, and a local community member knowledgeable about issues and concerns in our community.
After the assessment center testing in February, advancing candidates had to pass an interview with the chief of police related to complex leadership, management and supervisory topics.
“The job of a police sergeant is one of the most critical in a police agency; their leadership practice creates a stage for how the agency will function,” said Rasmussen.
“The Lakeport Police Department operates in a manner that respects and protects the rights of everyone,” Rasmussen said. “To complete the process of becoming a police sergeant in today’s complex world for law enforcement takes significant time and is not a simple task. Based on the credibility of the process, we are confident that we are producing supervisors who will act in the best interest of the community, city and police agency.”
Rasmussen added, “We express thanks and appreciation to our city management and council for supporting our supervisor in training program, and to our police lieutenant, the human resources staff for its work on the assessment center process, and our team of outside evaluators.”
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
NORTH COAST, Calif. — Nicholas “Nick” Lavrov is embracing the challenge of serving as the Bureau of Land Management Ukiah field manager, overseeing management of more than 270,000 acres of public land within nine counties in Northern California.
“There’s never a dull moment. There are so many complex, multi-faceted issues in managing our BLM public lands and balancing the various uses in our multiple-use mission,” Lavrov said. “I enjoy working with the Ukiah Field Office staff who are very knowledgeable and dedicated to caring for our resources. I look forward to helping to improve our recreation areas and protecting our riparian areas.”
The challenges of the job became apparent immediately for Lavrov.
On Aug. 17, his second day, the LNU Lightning Complex fire started, burning more than 360,000 acres, including more than 46,000 acres of public lands managed by the Ukiah Field Office. Lavrov and his staff are still dealing with recovery.
As field manager, Lavrov oversees a field office jurisdiction covering parts of Marin, Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, Napa, Colusa, Glenn, Yolo and Solano counties.
The field office manages areas including parts of the California Coastal National Monument in the Point Arena-Stornetta area and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, managed jointly with the Mendocino National Forest.
The field office also administers geothermal leasing at The Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal steam field and the Cow Mountain Recreation Area, which includes the first Congressionally designated OHV area.
Lavrov grew up in the North San Francisco Bay Area. In the late 90s, he started his career with the National Park Service as a senior park ranger, managing special uses at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz Island.
He has also served as a patrol ranger and inspector for the San Francisco Water Department, as a watermaster for the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, and as park manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Additionally, Lavrov has experience serving on incident management teams for emergency response.
“We are fortunate to have Nick on our team,” says BLM Central California District Manager Chris Heppe. “His experience and leadership in natural resource management combined with his knowledge of the northern California inland and coastal areas have been valuable additions to our Ukiah Field Office.”
Lavrov succeeds Amanda James, who moved to a position with the BLM in Montana.
When not in the office, he enjoys traveling, gardening, hiking and skiing.