CLEARLAKE— Direct sale of tax defaulted properties from the County of Lake was a topic of discussion and consideration during the Clearlake City Council’s regular meeting Thursday, at the City Hall Council Chambers.
“One of the best things that’s happened this year has been a new tax collector. For a number of years, we have been interested in doing a taxing agency, but have been unable to do it. We have the ability, under state law, to do direct sale agreements with the county. If there are properties that, for one reason or another, we would like to purchase directly from the county, we can do that outside of the auction process. There are about 20 or 25 properties which I believe, for a variety of reasons, would be in the city’s interest to purchase,” said Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora.
Flora added that tax collectors will be moving forward with the auction in the month of May, “We have been able to work together on what properties the city would like to see on the auction,” he said, adding that many of them have development potential either for commercial or single family residential.
The recommended action was authorizing the city manager to submit an application for direct sale of various tax defaulted properties for up to $150,000.
“I’m asking for authorization to do that and to spend up to $150,000 on these various tax defaulted properties,” said Flora. “The city has additional advantages in being able to merge properties and prepare them for sale.”
This action was unanimously authorized by council.
The council also discussed resolution 2023-10 approving, authorizing and directing the execution of a joint powers agreement among Clearlake, Lakeport and the county of Lake to form the Lake County Recreation Agency. The recommended action, in that case was to adopt the resolution and further appoint two members to serve on the board, which received unanimous approval as well.
“We originally had a draft where we were proposing that each of the elected bodies appoint two members to the JPA, one of which had to be a member of the elected body. After further discussions, it was recommended by the group that both of those appointees be members of the elected body and then those six members would appoint one additional person for a total of seven,” said Flora.
Flor added city officials have tried to detail how things would be organized, while still leaving room for future flexibility on the matter.
“The final thing that we’re asking is not only to approve the resolution, authorizing the signature of this, but to make a determination on the two members who would sit on that board from the City Council. Our plan would be, once all the jurisdictions approve this, that sort of the handoff would happen. We’re already in the process of doing the two-phase polling,” he said.
Flora also stated that moving forward, the Council will be producing a Spanish agenda for its meetings. “As you can imagine, there are some challenges with making sure that things are translated correctly and all that, but the Spanish agenda is available on our website.”
The Clearlake City Council meets the first and third Thursdays every month at the Clearlake City Hall Council Chambers. More information about meetings and agendas and minutes from previous meetings can be found online by visiting https://clearlake.ca.us/143/City-Council.
