LAKEPORT, Calif. – At the request of the Lake County Health Department, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday continued proclamations of local health emergencies for the Pawnee fire and Mendocino Complex, and heard an update from staff about the cleanup phase for the incidents.

Dr. Erin Gustafson, Lake County’s deputy health officer, went before the board to make the requests, noting that the debris cleanups for the Pawnee and Mendocino Complex fires haven’t been completed so health risks continue to exist for the community.

Gustafson was accompanied by Environmental Health staff, including Director Jesse Kang, who explained that the county received 12 rights of entry, or ROEs, to allow for the state cleanup program in the Pawnee fire area, with all of those ROEs processed and ready to go.

Kang said CalRecycle started the Pawnee fire property assessment process on Monday. It’s expected to be finished Friday with debris removal process to start this coming Monday.

The board approved continuing the Pawnee fire health emergency proclamation 4-0, with Board Chair Jim Steele absent.

Gustafson then asked for the board to continue the proclamation of local health emergency for the Mendocino Complex.

Kang said the county has received 122 ROEs for the Mendocino Complex, two of which are pending, with four private cleanups and 12 modified ROEs, which he said relate to instances such as where there is a small building that doesn’t qualify for cleanup.

He said the California Office of Emergency Services’ Debris Removal Operations Center has five teams deployed in the field working on the debris removal process.

The board also approved continuing the proclamation of a health emergency for the Mendocino Complex unanimously.

Nathan Spangler, the county’s Mendocino Complex recovery coordinator, told the board that ROEs for that incident were due this past Friday, but the county will continue to accept them through Wednesday.

He said the county also is preparing to issue abatement notices to individuals who haven’t signed ROEs for the state cleanup or taken steps for private cleanup.

The Lake County Water Resources Department is monitoring and working with the National Weather Service to track the current storm system as well as potential for runoff and debris flows, although there are none currently expected, he said.

Spangler said the California Geological Society is coming to Lake County on Oct. 9 to inspect the Cache Creek landslide – located near the Spring Valley Lakes subdivision, east of Clearlake Oaks – to see if it has moved any further following the fires.

Undersheriff Chris Macedo told the board that the property where the slide is located in an area where the property is owned either by the Bureau of Land Management or the conservation organization, Tuleyome; he was not sure of where the property lines are or which organization owns it.

He said he’s been involved with keeping track of the slide since 2001 when the sheriff’s office was first advised of it due to having the Lake County Office of Emergency Services under its auspices. Macedo said the county needs to let BLM and Tuleyome know that they probably need to be the lead agencies to mitigate it.

Macedo added that it may take letters from the board to the property owners to get them to look at mitigation measures before it closes roads or damages county infrastructure. He suggested that contact take place as soon as the county gets a report back from the California Geological Survey.

During the discussion, Macedo said the slide is in a difficult to access area where the BLM has cut a fire-type road.

“It was a big issues years ago,” he said, noting that banks stopped lending on properties there for a time until they were able to determine the stability of the slide.

Macedo said that with the Pawnee and Ranch fires having burned over the area, the stabilizing vegetation is no longer there.

Supervisor Jeff Smith said he has a contact in the Department of the Interior who he planned to call after the meeting to begin the process of determining the property owner and responsibility for the slide.

Retiring deputy honored

In other business on Tuesday, Supervisor Rob Brown presented a proclamation to Deputy Cynthia Radoumis on her retirement.

Radoumis began her law enforcement career in 1981 as a correctional officer for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, where she later worked as a community service officer. She also worked for the Fresno Police Department as a reserve police officer and community service officer.

She joined the Lake County Sheriff’s Office on May 29, 2007. In February 2013, she accepted an assignment as the Kelseyville Unified School District school resource officer, an assignment for which she was grateful, she said Tuesday.

Radoumis retired effective Sept. 4.

“Sometimes you don’t want this moment to arrive because you enjoy your job so much and most particularly the people that you work with,” she said.

Radoumis thanked her brothers and sisters in law enforcement for their support, kind words and for teaching her things – including things she didn’t want to learn.

“This job is about people. To me it’s always been about people. The way we treat people has a profound effect on them,” she said, thanking everyone from the bottom of her heart.

Macedo, who said he sat in on her hiring interview, said she is a people person who has a calming influence on others.

“It was evident that she had that rare ability to get to the bottom of things, get to know people, and not just rush through things,” he said.

He said she adopted Kelseyville and it adopted her, and she has volunteered her own time while off-duty to support the Junior Giants, the Sheriff’s Activity League, and Kelseyville’s Christmas and Pear Festival events.

When the school resource officer job came available, she took it. “It was a perfect fit,” Macedo said.

He said Radoumis will be coming back as a 900-hour employee, and will be working as a bailiff in the Lake County Superior Court.

Macedo said there is not enough time in the day to talk about Radoumis’ accolades or what she has done for the sheriff’s office. On behalf of Sheriff Brian Martin he presented her with a plaque recognizing her for her years of service.

Radoumis thanked everyone, calling it “a day I’ll never forget.”

Also on Tuesday, the board considered its response to this year’s grand jury report, the day’s most heated item, which included sharp criticism by the board of the report and “nonsense” criticisms by the grand jury of county staff. That item will be the subject of a separate article.

The board also presented a proclamation designating October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month, approved a letter of support for the county of Lake to receive the Land Use Planning Assistance to Reduce Community Wildfire Grant, approved a resolution authorizing the 2018-19 Grant Project-Lake County Victim-Witness Assistance Program and authorized the chair to sign the certification and assurance of compliance.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.