LAKEPORT ? The Lakeport City Council meeting starts early tonight at 5 p.m. for an hour-long workshop on goal setting. City Manager Jerry Gillham said the workshop will help council members brainstorm about laying out goals and objectives for an upcoming city business plan.
“We”re going to do an exercise that helps the city council. I call it the ?yellow sticky exercise.” It”s used to stimulate the ideal future of Lakeport and it involves yellow sticky notes. I”ve got them (yellow sticky notes) sitting right in front of me,” Gillham said. The workshop is open to the public.
The regular meeting will start at 6 p.m. Among items on the agenda, there will be a presentation by Jeff Walker, executive vice president of Aircon Energy regarding solar energy. Councilman Bob Rumfelt went to the League of California Cities conference in Sept., where he met Walker.
“We have been talking amongst the members and staff about how we should be able to save money and energy if we had solar power in the city. We have talked about this for quite a while. This year it was my job to look into the solar so I did and went to the presentation (Mr. Walker gave) and have since talked to him. He”s going to talk about what his company can do for us. It”s not a proposal, just a discussion. There are some trade-offs but I think it sounds like we might be able to do this,” Rumfelt said.
After the presentation, the council will discuss a contract change for the South Main Street project. The project is part of a dozen different road improvement projects in Lakeport underway this year as a result of Measure I, a tax based revenue stream strictly for road improvements voters approved in 2004.
“Because of the significant flooding in that area and inundation with water, the underpinning foundation came into question?so we”re going to do some additional work,” Gillham said.
Next on the agenda will be a discussion of the newly passed fiscal year 2007/08 budget.
The meeting will conclude with a closed session conference regarding sale negotiations of Vista Point shopping center. “We”ll be discussing how to proceed. The city has deposited the ($90,000) check,” said Gillham in reference to a non-refundable check from developer Matt Riveras that the city has deposited into an escrow account. Escrow on the property is still underway.
The city approved Riveras” bid for the property at their meeting on Sept. 18. Riveras is a Sonoma County developer and son-in-law of councilman Buzz Bruns. Bruns and councilman Jim Irwin will sit out on discussions, due to potential conflicts of interest. Irwin has worked with Riveras on a fence that joins his property with Riveras” property. Gillham and city council member Ron Bertsch will act as negotiators.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
