LAKEPORT >> Another sign of automation’s impact on daily life as the Board of Supervisors at the regular meeting November 28 indicated likely approval to move forward with assigning an independent third party to manage citations and fines issued to violators of county ordinances.
Mireya Turner, Community Development Department director informed the board that they are developing a system for administrative citations and fine processing. “This is a time intensive process and it takes a certain level of expertise, which our current staff resources do not have,” she said. “So, we are happy to have found Data Ticket Inc. (Irvine based), which is already working in the city of Clearlake.”
The agreement is tentatively scheduled to commence next month and expire Nov. 30, 2028. compensation is not to exceed $5,000 annually. Turner left it to Deputy Administrator Shannon Walker-Smith to explain the details. She noted she and Development colleagues have been working quite some time to implement a system to collect administrative penalties and fines.
“Code Enforcement have a lot of programs to put through in Lake County: illegal dumping, public nuisances, illegal cannabis cultivation and hazardous vegetation. We have a couple of tools we can use; abatement is one which can convert into liens for cost recovery,” said Walker-Smith. But administrative citation is one of the tools we haven’t really been using because of a lack of resources to process the citations.” Collecting fines will remain an in-house task.
Development was not required to obtain board approval since it is a small contract. It is a fee for service that the department will collect on the fines issued, while Data Ticket will take their fee off the top. If a resident wants to appeal a citation that will stay in-house with the board.
Walker-Smith went on that if collections are not made through their regular processes, then violators will have ability to work with the Development Department and attach fines through the Franchise Tax Board,” she added.
“Were trying to achieve two goals; to become a division of a county that is financially stable on its own, and we’re trying to make lasting changes in the county, where we hold property owners responsible, for keeping their property up to a certain standard,” she said. “The company does have ability to adjudicate some hearings, but because of the way our ordinance is written all of those hearings will stay with the board,” she said.
District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier pointed out the contract is, “not quite past the finish line, but it has been a long time coming.” He inquired, “At what point in the near future, maybe get a consensus from the board, maybe around the mid-year budget review, can we review what the fines are? All of a sudden, people will start seeing fines; it’s good to review it … is it too weak, too strong, just right? We’ll at least make it public, what those fines look like. This is how you hold people responsible; to change their behavior. This is something they would have had to pay for already. This is actually putting teeth on the ordinance. Let’s push it to the finish line.”
But District 4 Supervisor Michael Green noted the ordinance allows the board to act as a hearing body for any appeals. “But you did mention that Data Ticket offers an adjudicating service,” he said. “I don’t need to go into it today, but I’d be interested in seeing what the prices were. I have a suspicion we may want to take a look at that somewhere down the road.”
