LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday approved a department policy addition for the Department of Animal Care and Control to increase pet adoption.
Director Bill Davidson presented a memo to the BOS that outlined the department”s new animal adoption amnesty program. According to the memo, the program will be conducted up to four times a year for one week at a time. During each amnesty week, the county”s animal adoption fee will be waived.
County Counsel Anita Grant said there was a problem with the wording of the proposed program that would require the BOS to approve each time the amnesty period would take place.
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith suggested making a change, requiring Animal Control and Care to return annually for approval of the program. The proposed program wording was amended and approved unanimously.
In other matters, the BOS approved a resolution to provide loans from the county General Fund to the Social Services Department to provide funding for cash flow purposes.
Matt Perry, chief deputy administrative officer, said the loans totaled $950,550. This is related to the state deferring CalWorks payments in the amount of $289,000 for February and March 2011.
The state is also recouping money that it advanced to counties last summer to operate foster care, adoptions, child welfare services and adult protective services that were shifted to counties as part of state realignment in 2011. This amounts to a total of $661,550.
Perry said Social Services expects to be able to pay back the $289,000 loan by Jan. 1. He said the department would not be able to pay back the $661,550 in the near future. He said the department will evaluate its financial condition each July and January to determine if any of that loan can be repaid.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he was concerned about the future of the affected programs.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said the programs cannot be eliminated because they are mandated by the state. Cox added that he thought it was OK to use one-time funds for this loan, though he cautioned the county may never get that money back.
The resolution was approved unanimously.
The supervisors approved an agreement in the amount of $99,895 between the Community Development Department and Matrix Design Group to update the Lake County Zoning Ordinance.
Department director Rick Coel said the money was allocated in the department”s budget. He said Matrix Design Group was not the lowest bidder but the company offered to develop a searchable version of the ordinance to place on the Internet for the public. He said the company had also worked with the department previously on updating the Lake County General Plan a few years ago, and the group did a lot of work beyond what it was contracted.
Coel said the zoning ordinance had not received a major overhaul since 1986 and was needed to make it more user-friendly. He said a goal was to combine the separated commercial and residential zoning ordinances into one document. The BOS unanimously approved the agreement.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
