CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council decided on Thursday not to immediately fill a vacant seat on the council but to let the voters decide in November.
Earlier this month, Gina Fortino Dickson ended her service on the council after moving to Sonoma County, as Lake County News has reported.
Fortino Dickson's seat is up for reelection during the Nov. 8 municipal election, along with the seats currently held by Nick Bennett and Joyce Overton.
The council had two main options to consider: taking applications to fill the seat, as it had done when selecting Bennett to succeed Denise Loustalot, who left the council in March; or calling a special election to fill the seat.
After a brief presentation by City Manager Greg Folsom, and based on city staff's recommendations, the council chose the latter option – to follow the special election route, which in actuality will just be the municipal election on Nov. 8.
With the fall election about two and a half months away, council members felt that it was close enough that it would be best to let voters decide, and to save staff the effort of the recruitment process.
Councilman Bruno Sabatier asked if the council had to make decisions on any large projects, like the environmental impact report for the Walmart expansion and the city's new general plan, before the election. Folsom said those issues would come up afterward.
“I think it's better not to waste our staff time” and wait until the November election, said Sabatier, who moved to approve the resolution calling for the special election, which the council approved 4-0.
Later in the meeting, the council agreed with a suggestion from Folsom to place the selection of a new vice mayor on an upcoming agenda.
Also on Thursday, Mayor Russ Perdock recognized local and state official and city staff who contributed to the Clayton fire response.
Among those honored were Cal Fire Unit Shana Jones and Battalion Chief Mike Wink. Wink noted that the evacuation plan implemented in Clearlake during the Clayton fire was the same one created for Rocky fire. He said city Public Works Director Doug Herren and his crew worked well with Cal Fire.
Herren said his staff put in long hours, noting that at one point they worked 24 hours straight. Lakeport's Public Works crew then came to offer its assistance.
Perdock also recognized the efforts of the Clearlake Police Department.
Lt. Tim Celli, the agency's acting chief, said he had been out of town when the fire broken out. He had left Sgt. Tim Hobbs and Sgt. Martin Snyder in charge, and the two men successfully implemented the evacuation plan.
Celli said Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen and District Attorney Don Anderson both called him to ask what they could do to help, and sent their own staff to assist.
Rasmussen himself would work on patrol, and Anderson told Lake County News that he sent several of his investigators over to conduct patrols in the evacuated area.
Celli said that, while the portion of the Avenues was evacuated, no burglaries were reported and there were 22 arrests for various charges.
City Manager Greg Folsom worked around the clock during the fire, and also received special kudos from Perdock.
Perdock recognized Overton, who is director at the Highlands Senior Center, which had acted as an evacuation shelter until power was cut to the evacuation area. Perdock said the city needs to make modifications to the building to ensure there is a power supply in such cases in the future. Overton in turn thanked her staff.
Others lauded by Perdock included the city's animal control staff, Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira, Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta, Sheriff Brian Martin and state Sen. Mike McGuire.
Later during the council members' reports, Sabatier said that during the evacuations he went down to the parks to check on the evacuees and found the city's engineer, Bill Clemans, had driven his boat across the lake – because he couldn't get there by road – to get to the city and offer his help.
Bennett, who lives in the area of Clearlake evacuated during the fire, said that while traffic was bumper to bumper, it was an orderly process.
In other news, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with North Coast Opportunities to locate a food node – a 20-foot retrofitted shipping container for cold storage of produce dropped off by local farmers – at the Highlands Senior Services Center on Bowers Avenue.
The node, which will be operated at no cost to the city – including power, which NCO will cover – is part of the MendoLake Food Hub project.
Overton said the location of the food node is part of the senior center's effort to purchase more locally produced food.
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Clearlake City Council to let vacant seat be filled by November election
- Elizabeth Larson
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