LAKEPORT—After a holiday break the Lake County Board of Supervisors resumed their weekly meetings on Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the County Courthouse and online via zoom link. With District Four Supervisor Tina Scott’s resignation approaching, the board discussed the next steps in filling that position, as well as appointing positions for the Cannabis Task Force and heard an appeal hearing regarding re-zoning and construction along the Blue Lakes shoreline.
Supervisor Tina Scott resigned in April announcing the effective date of her departure from the board as July 31, with less than three weeks remaining in her term. According to California Government Code Section 25060, “Whenever a vacancy occurs in a board of supervisors, the Governor shall fill the vacancy. The appointee shall hold office until the election and qualification of his or her successor.” Several members of the board were prepared to explore that and other viable options, but District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he was not in favor of calling for an election “While we still have a supervisor who can absolutely change their mind on July 31 or July 30. We’ve been though that with another elected official who is still in their seat right now.” He also noted that other counties have been in the same position and that the majority wait until after the vacancy occurs. Supervisor Scott agreed. Ultimately the board decided to re-visit the matter Aug. 1.
Community Development Director Mary Darby presented a list of applicants for the Cannabis Task Force. With over 24 applications received, the board appointed seven positions. Supervisor Jessica Pyska said, “We need candidates that don’t have a bias.” The seats appointed were Will Weiss as the northern community member and Jan Coppinger as the southern community member. Robert Geary will represent Tribal, Rebecca Harper the Farm Bureau, and Catherine Vanderwall the agriculture industry. Lake County Cannabis Alliance President Jennifer Smith was selected as well as Nara Dahlbacka, representing the cannabis industry.
The selection of appointees passed with a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Sabatier dissenting and noting, “I will be voting for none. I don’t agree with the amount of time being spent on this process, this is not a benefit economically to our community.” District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon responded, “The debate on whether cannabis is here or not is over.” Simon added that the county should be moving the process forward with the current ordinance in place while helping to streamline the local ordinance with the help of community input and taking into consideration board concerns. The task force will be spearheaded by a program manager and the meetings will be public as they are bound by the California Open Meetings (Brown Act.)
The board also heard an appeal hearing regarding a notice of nuisance and order to abate on a property along the Blue Lakes Shoreline. A group of homeowners (15 total) jointly own an undeveloped beach front parcel for use as a community beach for the homeowners in that neighborhood. As it is widely used, they constructed two pergolas to provide shade despite building code requirements of having a main residence on the parcel in order to have auxiliary buildings. Code Enforcement Manager Marcus Beltramo explained that in order to bring these buildings into compliance the R1 zoning would have to be re-classified, a special zoning could be considered, or the structures must be taken down. Supervisor Scott opposed the appeal stating “This structure goes against code. I think the property owners need to work with Community Development to figure out what they can do to change the zoning or (do) something else to be able to move forward but today it’s very clear the structure needs to come down.” Worried that this decision would affect property values and set precedent for future cases, more consideration is needed, and the board will re-visit the matter Aug. 16.
The Board of Supervisors meetings are recorded and available on the county website lakecounty.ca.gov along with minutes and agendas.
