LAKEPORT — The Lakeport City Council, sitting as the Board of Directors of the Lakeport Redevelopment Agency (RDA), directed staff not to pursue a business loan program that would have provided larger sums of money for improvements of storefronts such as those at Vista Point.
The direction occurred along with other miscellaneous items during Tuesday”s regular city council meeting at Lakeport City Hall.
Community Development Director Richard Knoll said the owner of the Vista Point Shopping Center approached the Lakeport RDA about securing loan funds to start up the first phase of the center”s rehabilitation.
The creation of a Commercial Rehabilitation Loan Program would be necessary to fulfill the owner”s loan request for several hundred thousand dollars, Knoll said. The proposed loan program was not included in the current fiscal year”s budget, Knoll said.
Lakeport RDA staff drafted a set of program guidelines, which included minimum qualifications, loan requirements and application processes. Applicants could request up to $250,000 for commercial building rehabilitation projects.
Knoll said the program would allow the Vista Point property owner to address the “blight conditions” of many of the shopping center”s storefronts. Located at the Todd Road exit off of Highway 29, many of the existing Vista Point buildings are unoccupied and one large store has a dilapidated roof.
The Lakeport RDA has used similar loan programs, including the current Fa?ade Improvement Program, which has a much lower loan-ceiling, and other California RDAs have developed programs with guidelines similar to those proposed for the commercial loan program, according to Knoll.
Mayor Suzanne Lyons said she was apprehensive to approve the program because of the potential that it could be viewed that the program was created primarily to allow a specific property owner to secure a city loan.
Knoll said staff supported setting up a program, not necessarily approving a private request.
Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Mattina said introducing the new program “seems like strange timing” considering the uncertain status local RDAs have in the governor”s proposed budget.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating local RDAs in the upcoming fiscal year”s budget, a plan that state legislatures would have to approve.
Other council members expressed concerns about where the funds would come from in the current city budget since the program hadn”t been budgeted for.
The council, sitting as RDA board of directors, voted unanimously to direct staff not to proceed with the proposed Commercial Rehabilitation Loan Program.
Councilmen Roy Parmentier and Bob Rumfelt said they would support seeing the program re-introduced during discussions about the 2011-12 budget.
The council approved appointments to two citizen advisory groups later in Tuesday”s meeting.
Local residents Ann Blue, Suzanne Russell and Cindy Ustrud were appointed to one-year terms on the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC). Lynn Andre and former council member Ron Bertsch were appointed to two-year terms on the commission.
The PRC meets at 4:15 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month at Lakeport City Hall.
Blue and Russell joined Kermit Knudson as appointed voting members to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC). Local business owner and AAA auto insurance agent Wally Cox will serve as a non-voting committee member. All four were appointed to four-year terms that begin in March.
The TSAC meets at Lakeport City Hall at 9 a.m. on the third Wednesday of the month on an as needed basis.
A public employee performance evaluation for longtime city attorney Steven J. Brookes was scheduled for Tuesday”s closed session. Brookes was arrested Feb. 10 in Kelseyville for suspicion of driving under the influence.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) alleges that Brookes”s Volvo drifted into the opposite lane and struck a Ford truck. Brookes then allegedly left the scene of the incident, the CHP said. The CHP reported the woman driver and three girls in the truck sustained no injuries.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said she could not comment on the closed session topic or the issue in general because “it”s a personnel matter,” but did confirm that Brookes, who was absent from the meeting”s public session, remained Lakeport”s city attorney, as of Thursday.
Attempts to contact Brookes by e-mail and telephone since Feb. 11 have gone unreturned to this point.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
