LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is holding off on approving an appointment to the Lakeport Fire Protection District Board as it seeks to research further how appointments should be made and whether procedures have been followed properly.
On the board’s Tuesday agenda was approval of a recommendation from the fire board to appoint Gary Hill to succeed longtime member Gerry Mills, who retired in September. Lakeport residents Cheryl Pick and Greg Scott also applied for Mills’ seat.
However, filling Mills’ seat has undergone additional scrutiny in the wake of the fire district’s decision last month to accept a budget that cuts three full-time firefighters, which led to widespread criticism and concern from the community, as Lake County News has reported.
With the other four fire district board positions set to be reappointed by the start of next year, the situation has led to questions about how seats have been filled and whether over the past 20 years the appointment process has been carried out properly, which caused the majority of supervisors to want to pull back and explore the matter further.
County Counsel Anita Grant explained that the Lakeport Fire Protection District covers both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the Lakeport community. In 1999, the Lakeport County Fire Protection District annexed the city of Lakeport Fire Department.
Grant said that, based on state law, the fire district board shall be elected by the Board of Supervisors and the Lakeport City Council.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he knows Hill, who he said is a nice man, well educated, knows the community and is a retired county employee. “So this is not about him,” Brown said of wanting to not make the appointment right away.
Rather, Brown focused on the process, explaining that in his time on the board – which began two years after the annexation was finalized – the Board of Supervisors has never recommended two fire board members, and has never interviewed them. In speaking with officials from the city of Lakeport, he said they communicated it was the same for them.
“I don’t think the process has been followed,” he said, adding that the fire district board can operate with the vacancy while it’s studied further.
Brown asked Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison if a fire parcel tax measure was going on the March ballot. Hutchison said at that point he wasn’t sure, adding it could be put on the ballot in May, but he confirmed one was being put before voters.
Following up, Brown asked if the district was going to ask voters if the fire district board should be elected rather than appointed. Supervisor Tina Scott said she went to the fire board meeting last week, and district officials said they hadn’t discussed it.
Grant told board members that appointing fire district board members is not a discretionary function but a ministerial one. She said they could encourage the fire district to go to an election process, but they can’t order it.
Brown said he understood Grant’s point, but nonetheless was unwilling to make an appointment yet.
“There’s some real big problems in Lakeport with the fire district,” he said, explaining that what happens with Lakeport Fire will affect every other fire district in the county, especially the neighboring districts like Kelseyville.
Board Chair Jim Steele said Brown made good sense of the issue in laying it out, and added he felt it was important that the Board of Supervisors get the appointment right. As such, Steele also suggested deferring board action, adding he wanted Brown and Scott to sit down with the appropriate groups and come back with a solution.
Scott said she didn’t know what more they could clarify, and she didn’t see an issue with accepting the fire district’s appointment recommendation.
Brown moved to defer a decision, develop a committee to work with the fire district, the city of Lakeport and the Board of Supervisors and come up with a plan for filling the district board’s five seats by the start of the year. Supervisor Jeff Smith seconded the motion.
Scott then made her own motion to appoint Hill to the fire district board, which Supervisor Moke Simon seconded.
Steele called first for the vote on Scott’s motion, which failed, 2-3.
The vote on Brown’s motion passed, 3-2, with Scott and Simon voting no.
Steele asked for a followup discussion to be timed for early November.
Grant urged the board to focus on using that timeframe to clarify the circumstances of filling the fire board district seats. She also told the board that she didn’t think the matter was as difficult to resolve as it sounds.
Fire board applicant Greg Scott told the supervisors that it’s important to have people on the fire district board who understand how to lead and grow the district, support the chief and look into the future.
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Supervisors hold off on Lakeport Fire District Board appointment, seek to research process
- Elizabeth Larson
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