Lake Local Agency Formation Commission approves next steps for considering South Lakeport Annexation
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Lake Local Agency Formation Commission has approved the steps it will take in the process of considering the city of Lakeport’s application to annex a portion of South Main Street.
Lake LAFCo’s members made the decision at its meeting in Clearlake on Wednesday.
Lake LAFCo oversees orderly development and protects natural resources and agricultural lands. It does that by preserving prime agricultural and open-space lands, encouraging orderly growth and development, promoting orderly development and discouraging urban sprawl, balancing competing interests and promoting efficient service delivery, according to its website.
LAFCo includes representatives from the city councils and Board of Supervisors, special districts and members of the public.
The annexation discussion begins at the 10 minute mark in the video above.
In August, the Lakeport City Council held a special meeting during which it approved submitting an application to LAFCo for the 136-acre area, composed of 50 parcels, that runs along South Main Street south of the city limit. It is reported to be the most lucrative commercial corridor in the unincorporated county.
In December, LAFCo, currently chaired by Bruno Sabatier, also the District 2 representative for the Board of Supervisors, sent letters to the city of Lakeport and county of Lake to ask them to participate in a good faith process to resolve the ongoing dispute over the proposed annexation.
Key to the dispute between the city and county over the annexation area is that they disagree about the validity of a series of previously approved tax sharing agreements meant to address the county’s loss of revenue.
One agreement, reached in 1997, calls for the city to pay the county $210,000 in tax revenue over seven years to offset the loss of the sales tax.
While the city holds that the agreement remains valid, it is the county’s position that the 1997 tax sharing agreement, including the two subsequent amendments, are void and unenforceable.
The Lakeport City Council voted in December to participate in the good faith process and sent a letter to LAFCo agreeing to its proposal.
On Jan. 7, the Board of Supervisors also approved its participation, with LAFCo Executive Director John Benoit reporting that he had received an email from the county informing him of the board’s decision.
A key piece of the process LAFCo proposes is a separate financial analysis of the proposed annexation.
Both the county and city have completed their own separate financial analyses. Benoit said the two analyses need to be reconciled so that LAFCo has some direction going forward.
Once the two studies are reconciled, LAFCo would hire a facilitator to discuss with the city and county a new property tax sharing agreement. Then, Benoit said LAFCo can notice a hearing and move on with consideration of the annexation.
LAFCo is proposing to hire its own consultant, which will be paid for by the city of Lakeport. Benoit said he has contacted an economics consultant who comes highly recommended, noting that they want someone totally independent with extensive municipal background.
He said they don’t know if they will need to do a third study. Rather, they are planning to work with the two consultants who did the city and county analyses to reconcile them. That first stage is to get all of the numbers correct as to impact on the two governments and to understand their financial obligations. Then the facilitation can take place.
LAFCO legal counsel P. Scott Browne told the commission that the hope is that they will come up with a financial analysis that represents the most accurate assessment of the impacts.
However, if the city and county consultants can’t agree with the LAFCo consultant, Browne said LAFCo’s consultant will go forward with making his own neutral recommendation.
Browne said the city and county will have to authorize their consultants to work with LAFCo’s consultant, and that will take some time – he said he wouldn’t be surprised if it took four or five months. LAFCo would then ask the parties to participate in facilitated mediation to see if they can work out their differences.
“That seems like a reasonable way to move forward,” said Commissioner and District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon, adding fair and independent is the way to go.
Commissioner Stacey Mattina, who also sits on the Lakeport City Council, asked if the LAFCo consultant will review the old tax share agreement or what the city most recently offered. Browne said they will produce a fiscal impacts analysis on which an agreement can be based.
Questions about process, timing
During public comment, Assistant Lakeport City Manager Kevin Ingram told the commission, “I think this is a really good strategy for resolving this conflict. This has been going on for quite some time.”
Ingram said that the way the system is set up, it pits the two sides against each other. Whether or not the land is annexed, Ingram said there is a public health issue in the area, particularly with water.
He said regional water officials have held off on enforcement in the area because they assumed it would be annexed.
Ingram questioned the estimate of four to five months, suggesting it could be done quicker than that.
The important piece, regardless of the differences between the city and county, is to protect the public interest of people in the area, where there is a lack of water for fire protection. “There is an issue that needs to be resolved,” Ingram said.
Sabatier said part of the good faith effort is not to stall the process, noting they’re all at the table working for consensus and that the good faith effort should provide some sort of efficiency.
Ingram said they would like to shorten the time period, adding the city will have its consultant working with those with the city and county.
County Deputy Administrative Officer Susan Parker asked clarifying questions about who would pay for the various parts of the analysis. Benoit said the city of Lakeport will shoulder the costs of LAFCo’s economic consultant, but Browne confirmed that the county would pay its own consultant to work in the reconciliation process.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira told the commission that she appreciated the good faith negotiations.
She also raised concerns about timing, noting that it’s important for businesses in that area to get water service. She added that they would appreciate anything LAFCo could do to make the process go quicker.
Sabatier said that he liked the idea of going with a consultant, and questioned if it was better than going with a request for proposals, or RFP.
Benoit said that if they wanted to go with the RFP process, it would take six months.
Going forward, Benoit said he will work with Sabatier to get the consultant on board as quickly as possible.
Commissioner Ed Robey moved to direct staff to get a consultant in place, with Simon seconding and the commission approving the motion unanimously.
LAFCo is next scheduled to meet March 18 in Lakeport.
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