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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Sutter Lakeside Hospital has welcomed its newest chief administrative officer.
Scott Knight, previously the assistant administrator of Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, has taken on the role, according to Sutter Health.
Knight’s appointment became effective on Feb. 3.
“Scott is committed to serving the community, as he demonstrated by serving on the boards of both the Tracy and Ripon Chambers of Commerce,” said Julie Petrini, president and CEO of hospitals, Sutter Health Bay Area. “I know Scott is eager to bring this passion for community to his new role at Sutter Lakeside.”
Knight succeeds Dan Peterson, Sutter Lakeside’s CAO since February 2017.
Peterson has been selected to serve as chief executive officer of Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital.
Knight earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Health Care Administration from the University of Washington, Sutter Health reported.
He has a broad health care background in finance, revenue cycle, planning, business development, marketing and community relations, operations and administration, according to the hospital’s report.
While at Sutter Tracy, Knight provided leadership for nonnursing operations and business development. During his tenure, Sutter Tracy received patient safety awards from various organizations, and in 2020 was awarded a CMS 5-star rating – the highest ranking possible – for overall performance on quality measures including readmission rates, safety of care and patient experience.
Over the past two decades, Knight has held a number of posts in health care organizations around the West Coast.
He’s previously worked for Tenet Healthcare in Manteca, Kaiser Permanente in the Central Valley area, Renown Health of Reno, PaceHealth of Vancouver, Washington, Highline Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle and Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, according to his LinkedIn page.
Peterson introduced Knight to the Lakeport City Council earlier this month.
At the same time, Peterson reported that Sutter Lakeside has been awarded a four-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the fourth year in a row.
Sutter Lakeside was among six hospitals to get the four-star rating.
“That’s the highest rating of any critical access hospital in the state,” Peterson said, adding he’s very proud of that rating and the community can be proud of it, too.
“I have been really proud to work at Sutter Lakeside,” said Peterson, adding he’s appreciated working with the city.
During his tenure, Peterson has served on the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee and taken part in the Lake County Chapter of California Women for Agriculture’s 2017 AgVenture class.
Peterson told the council he was excited to introduce Knight, who has worked for Sutter Health for a number of years.
He said Sutter Lakeside will be in good hands with Knight.
Knight said he’s excited to be in Lakeport, and his family – including his wife and four children – are looking forward to being involved in the community.
“I’m grateful to be part of Sutter Health and be part of the hospital here,” as they take the hospital into the future, Knight said.
He added, “My wife says we’re getting a boat,” noting he’s never had one before.
City Manager Margaret Silveira welcomed Knight and said they will look forward to working with him.
She also thanked Peterson, who she said they will miss, for his work for the city.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
MATH had been scheduled to hold an election at its January meeting but held off as the result of concerns over nominations, vetting of candidates, election protocol and public noticing.
As a result, the election was rescheduled for the Feb. 13 meeting,
The results of the secret ballot were announced at the end of the meeting by Chair Sally Peterson.
Elected to the two open seats were Lisa Kaplan and Rosemary Cordova, with 80 and 70 ballots, respectively, cast in their favor, Peterson said.
David Thurber received 33 ballots and Claude Brown 26 ballots. Peterson said they will be alternates.
The new board then elected its officers for this year.
Tom Darms was elected chair, with Peterson to serve as vice chair. Secretary Paul Baker said he was willing to continue in the role for another year.
MATH’s next meeting is at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at the Middletown Senior and Community Center.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council will meet beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive, for a workshop on the 2019-20 midyear budget review and adoption of a resolution to amend the budget.
The council also will hold a closed session to discuss existing litigation involving Pacific Gas and Electric Corp., one potential case of litigation and negotiations involving property at 2890 Old Highway 53 owned by the Clearlake Redevelopment Successor Agency.
The open portion of the meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
On Thursday staff will take to the council a review of plans and a request for direction regarding the proposed Public Works corporation yard.
Consulting City Engineer David Swartz’s report to the council explains that the city’s corporation yard currently is located on the city’s airport property, which is deemed as valuable property for commercial development.
“The site facilities, namely the Public Works office, and shop are antiquated and in many respects beyond their useful lives to be an asset to the department. Additionally, the sharing of some of the facilities with Animal Control significantly limits the department from performing many operations that are vital to the department’s efficient operation,” he wrote.
Swartz’s report, on page 40 of the agenda packet published below, suggests moving the corporation yard to a site on the 21.25-acre property the city owns on Ogulin Canyon Road.
“This area is well suited, as it is an industrial area with similar type uses as would resemble the operations of the department,” he explained.
He said there are two areas located on the property which are flat enough to consider development: the hilltop and a portion of the hill bottom.
“Staff has conducted several visits to the site, to assess the opportunities and constraints with developing a new corporation yard on this property. After consideration of several factors, chief among which includes the access roadway to the hilltop, and the amount of land area that could reasonably be developed, we prepared a site plan in the best available location for consideration and discussion by the City Council,” Swartz wrote.
The council will further discuss that site plan on Thursday.
In other business, the council will consider a resolution adopting the official right-of-way map for the streets and roads within the city limits.
Also on Thursday’s agenda, the council will get a presentation by Clearlake Animal Control of February’s adoptable dogs, meet new Clearlake Police Department office assistant Katelind Brown, receive the Clearlake Police Department Annual Report, hear the Lake County Tourism Improvement District’s progress report and also get an update from Jim Steele on the Senior Summit.
On the meeting's consent agenda – items that are not considered controversial and are usually adopted on a single vote – are warrant registers; receipt and filing of the minutes of the Jan. 8 meeting of the Lake County Vector Control District Board; receipt and filing of the January meeting minutes; the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 237-2020 to amend Section 9-1.4, Subsections (a) and (b) of Chapter 9 of the Clearlake Municipal Code adopting the 2019 California Building Standards Code; and the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 238-2020, an ordinance amending Chapter VIII, Section 5 “Pavement Cuts
in New Pavement” of the Traffic Code of the Clearlake Municipal Code.
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022020 Clearlake City Council meeting agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
Internet-enabled crimes and scams show no signs of letting up, according to data released by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, in its 2019 Internet Crime Report.
The last calendar year saw both the highest number of complaints and the highest dollar losses reported since the center was established in May 2000.
IC3 received 467,361 complaints in 2019 – an average of nearly 1,300 every day – and recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims.
The most frequently reported complaints were phishing and similar ploys, non-payment/non-delivery scams and extortion.
The most financially costly complaints involved business email compromise, romance or confidence fraud, and spoofing, or mimicking the account of a person or vendor known to the victim to gather personal or financial information.
Donna Gregory, the chief of IC3, said that in 2019 the center didn’t see an uptick in new types of fraud but rather saw criminals deploying new tactics and techniques to carry out existing scams.
“Criminals are getting so sophisticated,” Gregory said. “It is getting harder and harder for victims to spot the red flags and tell real from fake.”
While email is still a common entry point, frauds are also beginning on text messages—a crime called smishing – or even fake websites – a tactic called pharming.
“You may get a text message that appears to be your bank asking you to verify information on your account,” said Gregory. “Or you may even search a service online and inadvertently end up on a fraudulent site that gathers your bank or credit card information.”
Individuals need to be extremely skeptical and double-check everything, Gregory emphasized.
“In the same way your bank and online accounts have started to require two-factor authentication – apply that to your life,” she said. “Verify requests in person or by phone, double-check web and email addresses, and don’t follow the links provided in any messages.”
Business email compromise, also known as BEC, or email account compromise, has been a major concern for years. In 2019, IC3 recorded 23,775 complaints about BEC, which resulted in more than $1.7 billion in losses.
These scams typically involve a criminal spoofing or mimicking a legitimate email address. For example, an individual will receive a message that appears to be from an executive within their company or a business with which an individual has a relationship. The email will request a payment, wire transfer, or gift card purchase that seems legitimate but actually funnels money directly to a criminal.
In the last year, IC3 reported seeing an increase in the number of BEC complaints related to the diversion of payroll funds. “In this type of scheme, a company’s human resources or payroll department receives an email appearing to be from an employee requesting to update their direct deposit information for the current pay period,” the report said. The change instead routes an employee’s paycheck to a criminal.
“Information reported to the IC3 plays a vital role in the FBI’s ability to understand our cyber adversaries and their motives, which, in turn, helps us to impose risks and consequences on those who break our laws and threaten our national security,” said Matt Gorham, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “It is through these efforts we hope to build a safer and more secure cyber landscape.” Gorham encourages everyone to use IC3 and reach out to their local field office to report malicious activity.
Rapid reporting can help law enforcement stop fraudulent transactions before a victim loses the money for good. The FBI’s Recovery Asset Team was created to streamline communication with financial institutions and FBI field offices and is continuing to build on its success. The team successfully recovered more than $300 million for victims in 2019.
Besides stressing vigilance on the part of every connected citizen, the IC3’s Donna Gregory also stressed the importance of victims providing as much information as possible when they come to IC3.
Victims should include every piece of information they have – any email addresses, account information they were given, phone numbers scammers called from, and other details. The more information IC3 can gather, the more it helps combat the criminals.
In 2019, the Recovery Asset Team was paired with the Money Mule Team under the IC3’s Recovery and Investigative Development Team. This effort brings together law enforcement and financial institutions to use the data provided in IC3 complaints to gain a better view of the networks and methods of cyber fraudsters and identify the perpetrators.
The new effort allowed IC3 to aggregate more than three years of reports to help build a case against an active group of criminals who were responsible for damaging crimes that ranged from cryptocurrency theft to online extortion. The ensuing investigation by the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office resulted in the arrest of three people.
Read the full 2019 Internet Crime Report, download it here or see it below.
To stay up to date on common online scams and frauds or report a crime, visit www.ic3.gov .
FBI 2019 Internet Crime Report by LakeCoNews on Scribd