CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Thursday the Clearlake City Council approved proposed agreements to support a new city visitor center and a new general plan, and gave the OK to changes to city hall hours in order to better serve the public.
Mayor Joey Luiz and Councilmember Judy Thein both were absent for the Thursday night meeting.
During the meeting, which ran just over an hour, the council approved the agreement with the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce for use of a building at 14295 Lakeshore Drive, next to Highland Park, as a visitors’ center, with the lease at $1 a year.
While some community members questioned the arrangement, most of the comments were in favor of the new visitor center.
Supervisor Jeff Smith, in response to some residents’ input, said he is always surprised at how a positive conversation can go negative.
“This is a huge step for the city,” said Smith, adding that there have been visions for improving the town’s center for a long time.
City resident Carl Webb also supported the proposal. “The only way that we’re going to be able to turn this city around is one stop at a time,” he said.
Some will be baby steps, others will be giant steps. “I happen to think this one is a big step,” in transforming Lakeshore Drive into what they wanted it to be, said Webb.
Councilmember Joyce Overton said it was a positive step and Vice Mayor Jeri Spittler agreed. “I have always loved that house,” said Spittler, who also noted in the discussion that it was a “very exciting” development.
Overton moved to approve the agreement, which the council approved 3-0.
Also on the agenda was a proposal to work with the Cal Poly Corp. of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for the preparation of a general plan circulation document and, potentially, a new general plan for the city, whose current general plan is about 30 years old.
“We’ve had numerous discussions in the short time that I’ve been here about the need to update our general plan document,” City Manager Joan Phillipe told the council.
Phillipe said the corporation is a research group that includes second year graduate students who are excited about working on the project.
While the contract is for the circulation element, Phillipe said the students will complete the general plan as part of their research.
The city has received a Lake County/City Area Planning Council grant of $45,000 to cover the document’s preparation, which is estimated to cost $40,000, Phillipe said.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for us,” she said, adding, “If at the end we don’t have a full-fledged general plan, it’s certainly better than what we have today.”
A city manager in another area who worked with the students told Phillipe that they saved between $120,000 and $150,000 by using Cal Poly’s corporation to prepare a general plan.
Phillipe said the Area Planning Council has been involved in the discussions with Cal Poly and likes the idea of working with the students on the plan preparation.
She said the students prepare all media and public notices and, in some areas, go door to door to encourage people to be involved with the general plan process.
They’ve helped significantly increased meeting attendance in the cities where they’ve worked and also make followup calls to call those who participate in planning meetings, Phillipe said.
During public comment, Webb – who sat on the city planning commission – said it was a good way to save money and to get a modern document.
“I think this is a fabulous thing,” said Overton, who moved to approve the agreement, which passed the council with a 3-0 vote. The vote received a round of applause from the audience.
The last business item presented at the Thursday meeting was a change in city hall hours.
Phillipe asked for – and received – the council’s approval of her proposed changes to city office hours, which now are 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. She wanted the city’s hours to change to Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“I think we’ll be much more available to our citizens, our residents, our business owners,” she said.
Phillipe didn’t include a fiscal implication of the change in her report, noting that she expects a reduction in energy costs but didn’t have a history of similar usage in order to project the potential savings.
“That’s not the overriding reason to do this, it’s to provide service,” she said.
Former city staffer Nathalie Antus suggested the city allow people to make appointments to meet with city staff on Fridays and offer a brochure kiosk outside the building. She also offered to help record new voice mail messages.
Near the meeting’s end, during council members’ reports, Overton publicly apologized to volunteers at TV8, the cable access station based in city hall, for comments she made at a Board of Supervisors’ meeting earlier this month.
At that time, she suggested that the station needed professional staff because the volunteers didn’t know what they were doing. She said she hadn’t meant to insult them. “They do work very, very hard for us.”
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