LAKEPORT — Law enforcement evacuated the Lake County Courthouse Thursday morning after receiving a report of a bomb threat related to a public hearing on medical marijuana dispensaries scheduled for later that day.
The County Counsel”s office received a phone call at around 9:15 a.m. from an unidentified man who sounded “very angry” and said “don”t mess with the marijuana users” and that “a bomb had been placed in the courthouse that was set to go off at 10:30 a.m.,” according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO).
The man ended the call by saying, “don”t (expletive) with us,” before hanging up, Bauman said.
The issue of new county-proposed regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries was scheduled for discussion at 10 a.m. during Thursday”s regular meeting of the Lake County Planning Commission.
Community Development Department staff drafted an ordinance, which in part would amend the Lake County Zoning Ordinance to allow a maximum of nine dispensaries operated by collective or cooperative organizations in the unincorporated county.
Other proposed regulations for dispensaries include 1,000-foot setbacks from schools, allowing them only in certain zoning districts upon minor use permit approval, owner and employee background checks, no on-site smoking or cultivation, stringent patient verification and annual LCSO monitoring at the owner”s expense.
Staff drafted the ordinance “based on what jurisdictions across the state are doing,” Community Development Director Rick Coel said.
Consideration of whether to recommend the proposed ordinance to the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) was the second item on Thursday”s commission agenda.
The commission meeting began at 9:05 a.m. in the BOS Chambers, with discussion of issues related to Lakeport Outlaw Karting. Following a 20-minute hearing, the commission voted unanimously to approve staff recommendations on the issues.
The commissioners had just started a break when Lake County Sheriff Frank Rivero entered the chambers at 9:25 a.m. and asked everybody in the room to evacuate.
LCSO representatives had begun clearing the courthouse shortly before, and all four courthouse floors and the adjacent Lake County District Attorney”s Office were emptied.
The evacuation forced out everybody, including judges, jurors, county workers, courts employees and government officials. Most of the people congregated in Museum Park.
LCSO deputies and command staff members led the evacuation and established a perimeter around the courthouse. Officers extended the perimeter to several blocks around the building in all directions by 10:45 a.m.
Officers did not find any evidence of a bomb during initial sweeps of the courthouse, and the LCSO began working to trace the source of the call, Rivero said.
County employees were told shortly after 10 a.m. that the soonest they could enter the building would be the early afternoon, according to County Administrator Kelly Cox.
Deputies maintained the secure perimeter and an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) K-9 detection team responded from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, according to Bauman.
Staff Sgts. Chris Smith and Charles Bell arrived with EOD dog “Nico” at around noon, and completed a thorough search of the courthouse within an hour, finding no evidence of a bomb, Bauman said.
Rivero commended the EOD team for its quick response and thorough work, helping the LCSO more promptly search the building and address the validity the caller”s threat. “They saved us literally half a day”s work for county employees,” he said.
The “all clear” was given around 1 p.m., and county employees, jurors and lastly members of the public were allowed entry to the courthouse.
Cox complemented the LCSO response to the threat. “I think our sheriff has handled this whole situation very well,” he said.
The threat and ensuing evacuation prevented many county and courts employees from doing their jobs for nearly four hours.
Rivero requested the commission public hearing on dispensaries not continue Thursday because of safety concerns and asked that all future public meetings on any marijuana-related topic not be held at the courthouse.
“The rest of the county is not going to be shut down because of this marijuana stuff,” the Sheriff said.
Many local citizens interested in attending the commission hearing gathered around the courthouse at different times Thursday morning, but a vast majority had left before the “all clear” and the rest exited upon learning of Rivero”s continuance request.
Ron Green, a Lower Lake attorney and pro-dispensaries advocate, called the reported threat “awful,” saying “shame, shame on that person.”
Green added that the alleged language used by the anonymous caller does not make him think the unidentified man was against dispensaries regulation.
“Just because someone said that doesn”t convince me that it was a pro-marijuana person,” he said, suggesting the caller could have been an anti-marijuana advocate posing as having the opposite viewpoint.
The commission reconvened briefly at 1:30 p.m. to schedule a new date, time and location to which the dispensaries agenda item would be continued.
“It is very said and too bad that anybody would go to those lengths to try to derail the issue and try to intimidate,” said District 3 Commissioner Olga Martin Steele, who was presiding over her first meeting as a county planning commissioner.
The public hearing was continued to May 11 at 9 a.m. at the Alternative Work Program (AWP) building at 4913 Helbush Drive in Lakeport, adjacent to the Lake County Jail.
The AWP building would permit the LCSO to provide security for the meeting while still allowing enough space for commissioners, county staff and the public, Rivero said.
The source of Thursday”s threat and identity of the caller remain under investigation by the Sheriff”s Major Crimes Unit, Bauman said.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
