LAKEPORT, Calif. – After the Board of Supervisors sent two letters this fall to the city of Lakeport asking for a meeting over a water loop project and proposed annexation, the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday agreed on a letter in response.
In short, the council’s answer: No thanks.
The council’s letter indicates its members will only be willing to meet once negotiations for a tax sharing agreement for the annexation area get back under way and matters relating to an agreement for handling Lampson Field’s wastewater are addressed.
The city has maintained that it needs to complete the water main loop on South Main Street and Parallel Drive for health and safety reasons.
However, the county has taken issue with the project due to its belief that it is part of the city’s efforts to annex 197 acres including the S. Main Street corridor, one of the county’s most lucrative commercial areas in terms of sales tax.
In May, the Board of Supervisors discussed – but ultimately took no action on – a proposal by Supervisor Anthony Farrington to direct staff not to give the city an encroachment permit when, and if, the city should seek one for the water main loop.
The city’s response letter, written by City Manager Margaret Silveira, was read aloud by Mayor Stacey Mattina at Tuesday night’s meeting.
It stated that the county incorrectly assumed that putting in the water main loop is about positioning itself with the Local Area Formation Commission – or LAFCO – in order to proceed with annexation.
“Experts in the public utilities field would readily confirm that loop water lines are of fundamental importance to the the proper functioning of large water systems,” the letter stated.
The letter went on to point out that the city’s top priority – documented for more than 20 years in the city’s master plan for water services – is to complete and operate a fully functional municipal water system in the most rational and economically efficient manner possible.
“The County has in the past repeatedly acknowledged that the City is best situated to provide reliable and cost-effective water service to consumers located along the South Main/Soda Bay Road corridor,” the letter explained.
The council’s letter accuses the county of undermining its own credibility in repudiating preannexation agreements reached with the city, and showing a lack of good faith in negotiations.
In an April Board of Supervisors meeting to discuss a feasibility study for a county water project in the South Main Street and Soda Bay Road area, Mattina and Silveira had addressed the board about the issues over annexation.
Then-County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox told supervisors at that meeting that residents of the South Main Street area did not support annexation.
Regarding those preannexation agreements the city has repeatedly cited, during an April Lakeport City Council meeting, Deputy County Administrative Officer Alan Flora told the council, “At this time we don’t consider those agreements to provide any sort of obligation on the county’s behalf” in moving forward on annexation.
Due to the city’s list of grievances with the county over the project, the council’s letter said it “respectfully declines” the request by the Board of Supervisors to meet.
Instead, it said council members would be open to continued negotiations between two county board members, two council members and staffers to further negotiate a tax sharing agreement for the planned annexation.
In addition, the council wants city and council staff to discuss an updated agreement for the handling of Lampson Field’s wastewater.
Once there is “an acceptable and mutually beneficial resolution made at the staff level,” the letter said the Lampson Field wastewater item may be agendized for city council action and discussion.
The council did some final wordsmithing on the letter, changing one passage that stated council members had “grown weary” and substituting that with “grown frustrated” over the situation with the county.
“The other way sounds like a country western song,” said Councilman Bob Rumfelt.
Rumfelt moved to have the letter sent to the county with corrections. The motion passed 4-0, with Councilman Tom Engstrom absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
Later Tuesday night city election results showed that both Rumfelt and Suzanne Lyons were voted off the council.
With their departure, as well as that of Roy Parmentier, who did not seek reelection, a new council including Kenny Parlet, Martin Scheel and Marc Spillman – who will join Mattina and Engstrom – must now address the stalemate with the county.
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