LAKEPORT ? A plan for the city of Lakeport to expand its code enforcement, including replacing its county contract for animal control services with a city animal control officer/code enforcement officer, is on hold for the time being, city staff reported at Tuesday”s city council meeting.
Lakeport Chief of Police Kevin Burke reported to city council that money saved by the city cancelling its county contract for animal control services to hire an additional staff person tasked exclusively with code enforcement ? including addressing aesthetic code enforcement issues, safety and animal control ? is “on the back burner.”
“We”re going to continue doing the same thing we always have done,” Burke said, referring to the city”s current method of combining departmental efforts to address code enforcement.
The city is trying to close a $1.5 million budget deficit carried over from 2002-03. Last year the city passed its first balanced budget in two years. Burke said due to budget constraints, a code enforcement officer would be the “first thing” he would cut from his budget.
The city will continue to utilize the SPCA to take animals during off-hours when city of Lakeport animals cannot be taken to the shelter. “We still need the safety valve at night. But that”s something that will only need to be invoked three or four times per year,” Burke said.
City councilman Bob Rumfelt suggested to staffers that the council ask the county Board of Supervisors “what we”re getting for our money” in terms of code enforcement.
City Manager Jerry Gillham said plans to end the city”s contract with the county for code enforcement are still on the table with a tentative date set for July 1. “We have told them on the phone, so they know it”s coming,” Gillham said.
“The agreement we”ve written [with SPCA] is for 30 more days [of service] with a 90-day expiration date. Steve [city attorney] and their attorney are still negotiating ? we”re talking worst case scenario if we don”t have the money to pay SPCA. They”re not out of it, as I see it they will have a role. It”s too early in our dialogue to be definitive tonight,” Gillham said.
City council met Thursday to establish items to be discussed with the Board of Supervisors. Calls placed to three councilmen and City Manager Gillham Thursday afternoon were not returned by press time Thursday night to confirm what items were established.
During miscellaneous reports at the meeting, Gillham told councilmen that the city received an “unexpected bill” from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) for $26,000 to fund its program.
“We don”t have that. I don”t know what I”m going to do. We”re going to talk about it tomorrow. We didn”t budget for it, I didn”t realize we have to budget for it, so I”ve got to somehow deal with that,” Gillham said.
He added that the bill needs to be paid in the next 30 days and that he didn”t see a bill from LAFCO when examining last year”s budget. Rumfelt said he was “surprised” a bill was sent. “That budget was passed in May 2007. They reported that our costs would be the same. They sent us a letter and it wasn”t in the budget.”
He said the city did receive a bill similar to that figure for the “last six or seven years.” He said the agency”s fund is an agreement that special districts pay into, with about 45 percent paid by the county and 25 percent paid by the cities.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
