CLEARLAKE >> Clearlake City Manager Greg Folsom claimed that more than half of the city’s 36 priority goals were completed or started in the first half of the year.
The biggest achievements of the fiscal year, which spans from July 1 of 2015 to the present, were the increases in staff for the Clearlake Police Department and Code Enforcement, he said. The presentation reported the hiring of six new officers, the implementation of a community policing program, and the creation of nearly 1,200 new code enforcement cases with the invoicing of $105,000.
The increasing in staffing comes at a time when the city has seen uptick in crime and other violations. In one calendar year, the CPD noted 1,989 arrests and approximately 1,300 citations.
Code enforcement has also made some significant strides, mostly because the city didn’t have any staff since the recession of 2008. Since hired in July, Folsom said their priority was enforcing the city’s current marijuana ordinance. Now, they are opening cases and abating the blight caused by garbage and other violations on properties.
“It’s going to make a huge impact,” he said. “Going forward in 2016, I think code enforcement is going to be a really big tool for the city.”
This increase in code enforcement has created some backlash, most notably on social media. When asked about some of the public’s response, he attributed it to an interruption of the status quo held in place for the last eight years.
“It’s kind of a culture of anything goes, there hasn’t been code enforcement her for a long time,” he said. “I want them [code enforcement staff] to be active.”
According to Folsom, his administration’s focus was to make the city clean, safe, and well managed.
“One of my first impressions on driving into Clearlake was unkempt properties … It wasn’t positive,” he reported. “In order to bring investors into the area, we need to clean it up — having dirty properties isn’t going to help that.”
Related to public works, Folsom said he is also proud of the work achieved by animal control, especially in the wake of SCPA’s termination of its contract with the city. So far, the city claims to have made improvements to an interim facility, added some staff, and is currently negotiating for a permanent site.
These achievements and the numerous others claimed in his presentation were praised by the city council last week, applauding the work done with the city’s limited resources and budget.
“It gives a little shot in the arm to continue to make changes on those things that we would like to see looking better,” Vice Mayor Gina Fortino Dickson said at the . “Holy cow. The things you are capable of accomplishing with the little resources we have to allocate to you, it’s amazing and I’m in awe in all of you.”
Folsom said he owes his success to leveraging the resources given to him by the state. According to him, the state gave the city drought relief workers for the public works department and it has been using them to prepare the city for flood season caused by El Nino.
“With the staff we had normally, there was no way to keep up with all the work had to be done,” he said. “Because of these additional crew members of these additional crew members, we’ve been able to stay ahead of the flooding.”
He also gave the council a lot of credit for his administration’s success due to its solidarity—a trait he said was absent in previous years.
“Right now, we have a very cohesive council,” he said. “For the most part, they all want the same things.”
Looking ahead to the second half of the fiscal year, Folsom said he wants to continue the goals of “clean, safe, and well managed.” To do so, the city wants to pass a universal garbage ordinance, demolish blighted buildings on county right-of ways, keep police staffing high, pass crime-preventing ordinance like the marijuana legislation that’s currently under consideration, and improve citizen communication and transparency.
Goals for the 2016-2017 fiscal year will be discussed in May, according to Folsom.
