Categories2016 Minutes by

Minutes- July 26, 2016

COBB AREA COUNCIL

Public Meeting

Tuesday, July 26, 2016, 6:00-8:00pm

Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club

15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426

Draft Minutes

Present: Eliot Hurwitz, Barbara Flynn, Jessyca Lytle, Jessica Pyska, Gary Prather

(Magdalena Valderrama took minutes; 46 people signed in as attendees.)

Eliot Hurwitz, acting as Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:04 pm.

  1. MAC REVIEW:  Chair reviewed what a municipal advisory council (MAC) is and does. State law provides for the establishment of a MAC for unincorporated areas. Essentially, draw a circle on a map, set up the council, and whoever lives within those boundaries can act. The Cobb Area Council Map was posted on the back wall for the meeting.  A MAC serves as the eyes and ears on the ground of interest to locals, and likewise for Board of Supervisors. Other examples in the county: MATH, and north shore. For the C.A.C. everyone attending the assembly is a member, with the votes carried by those who are registered to vote in the region marked on the Cobb Area Council Map. He welcomed everyone and outlined the agenda.
  1. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS
    1. Peter Leuzinger, new forestry manager for Boggs State Forest discussed its status: 90% gone essentially; 2-3yr rehab plan for the forest; 75%-85% salvage logging completed.  Re-opening timeline: not clear, still a lot of hazards–stump holes, burned trees, lots of equipment; looking at opening portions not so badly damaged or areas successfully mitigated maybe by spring have visits again (applause)
    2. Ed Robey, new chair for Team Lake County congratulated everyone for getting together a municipal advisory council
  1. READING AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Council had not had a chance to post. Will post for next month’s meeting and ask for approval then. There were no objections.

ACTION: Council will post the June 9, 2016 Minutes for next month’s meeting and ask for approval then.

  1. TREASURER’s REPORT: (No Treasury yet)
  1. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
    1. Barbara Flynn: Talked to Brian our sheriff about the new CA laws on guns to find out where to get info. He says he will print us up something, meanwhile check out CA Rifle and Pistol Assocation.org
    2. JoAnn Holme – Has lived in the area since 1963, never a problem with the water; her neighbors are all on the same line, she has filters, and she is the only one whose house burned, so why is the water an issue in her being allowed to rebuild? Has met with Ruminski and Brown, they say “I’ll get back to you”. Never heard more.
    3. Female Resident – Have heard Hoberg’s is going to try to put a food service truck into business and go around to service the building sites. Why are we allowing this to come in when other food services have lost business? Needs attention.
      1. JLytle: BOS just heard about the truck this week
      2. Robert Stark: Asked Rob Brown about the truck. Brown says that the lack of activity at Hoberg’s can’t be used against a permit for a food truck–however, Hoberg’s can’t do it on that property
      3. Leah Jennings: You have to have a commercial kitchen to operate a food truck; check with environmental health department
      4. Male Resident: Why isn’t Hobergs cleaned up yet?
      5. GPrather: Nancy at MATH from OES gave a runaround answer, insurance says he has to clean up
      6. EHurwitz: At recent BOS meeting, Brown says there is formal agreement to be cleaned up by Oct 15, and can’t wait until Oct 13 to start
      7. Robert Stark: Workers there today, asking for directions; some are same as before, i.e., there is activity.
      8. Michael Dunlap: Food truck, parked on Hoberg’s, should have a big sign on the back, “Hoberg’s is an unconfined and undefined hazardous waste site”, so since it was parked on a hazardous waste site do you want to eat off it?
  1. OLD BUSINESS
    1. Re-introduction of initial panel of council members (voted upon by the public on June 9th, and appointed by the County Board of Supervisors July 19): Eliot Hurwitz, Barbara Flynn, Jessica Pyska, Jessica Lytle, Gary Prather. There is now room for an alternate as Beau Moore has had to step back. Alternate “alternate” will be voted on later in the meeting
    2. Activation of Ad Hoc Committees proposed to and voted upon by the public at the June 9th general meeting:
      1. Rebuild Advocacy — Ron Haskett anticipates setting up email, maybe a website on this topic. Let me know your concerns; been in Cobb 30 yrs, got our house rebuilt and can share info
      2. Emergency Preparedness — Gary Prather notes that emergency preparedness takes in a lot of different areas. Four to concentrate on now: communications, maps, hazard mitigation (dead trees), and resources. Governor Brown declared a beetle disaster but the funding only covers federal lands; we need a grant writer especially for large landowners.
        1. Communications: The MATH has started to work on sirens with CalFire and South Lake Fire Districts; Sheriff has Nixle and has distributed affordable NOAA weather radios, but we need a separate form of communication (phone calls, etc.) to know why the siren is going off –could be fire, civil defense, riot, or other emergency.

ACTION: Jill Martin will head up this subcommittee.  

        1. Update county and media (google) maps: Current maps show roads that don’t exist, existing roads weren’t named on firefighting maps, roads have been chained off by private landowners thinking the road was theirs and cutting off key fire fighting access.
          1. Joan Moss: Our church said we could use that bell in case of electricity. Would like to help with media. Will ask Madelyn re maps.
          2. Gary: that bell was used to call volunteers in my grandfather’s time
          3. Ed Robey: talk to the county surveyor.
        2. Resource needs: Robert Stark will work on Water resources as subtopic of resource needs; also note, huge lack of volunteers to staff fire engines  in South Lake Fire District because of extensive required volunteer training and other state mandates. Shana Jones, the CalFire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Chief, reported that CalFire has not built a new wildland fire station since 1959. The three Cal Fire stations are located in Middletown, Clearlake Oaks, and half way between Kelseyville and Cobb on highway 175 just north of Red Hills Road. The nearest Cal Fire helicopter is at Boggs Forest, with next closest helitack bases in Mendocino county, Santa Clara county, and Butte county, so helicopters also are not enough. The closest fixed wing air tanker bases are in Ukiah, Santa Rosa, and Chico. Lake county has one inmate fire fighter camp (Konocti Conservation Camp) located on highway 29 half way between Lower Lake and Kelseyville that also houses one reserve fire engine that is primarily used for the protection of the camp itself. Even if they got only 1 more engine in another station, there would be a cut in the response time. Need volunteers to support as well as actually fight fire. Need someone to head up a community emergency response team (CERT), folks who know the area for water resources and won’t need to be stopped by roadblocks; Emergency Preparedness will help Neighborhood Watch, because keeping people in their homes is the best way to prevent looting. There is only 1 CERT @ Spring Valley, and we have a couple of volunteers from The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary Has done the research to find out how to start and run one. Gov. Brown’s funding upgraded engines, but they are not staffed.

ACTION: Gary wants to meet with subcommittee chairs after this meeting.

      1. Neighborhood Watch — Inez Wenckus says that at Anderson Springs, they found some people that didn’t belong in the area. Had a scanner in their car, saw trespassers in the pool, watched and asked them, they said they were swimming, called dispatcher to  notify cops. Signs are up on the highway. Neighborhood Watch celebration coming up in Lucerne Aug 9  as they have completed 2 yrs. Lucerne resident, Kevin Waycek, came to help Anderson Springs have its first watch meeting  last night,  talking about what to do. Get signs, patrols for fire, set up more local meetings.
      2. Back to the Rebuild Advocacy committee — Ron says on social media they are not always correct and it starts snowballing. Need to be able to ask the right questions and get the right answers. If you’re talking to someone in the County, please get their name as we need to know who said that, then we can get that to Rob Brown and follow up; he’s really good at responding but he gets stretched thin if he doesn’t know who to talk to. We start knocking these things off ourselves. Kelseyville Lumber, please email or call me I’m up at 5:30AM. Email: rhaskett@kvlumber.com. Are we setting up a website?
        1. JPyska: when we get funding, yes. In the meantime, we have a Facebook page: Cobb Area Council. Please “like” it.
  1. NEW BUSINESS
    1. Selection of New Alternate – Chair Eliot Hurwitz asked Cindy Leonard to introduce herself
      1. Cindy:  Has lived in Upper Rainbow 20 yrs; married to Cobb Elementary School principal; their daughter is 10 years old; manages school gardens; lost home and are rebuilding after Valley Fire
      2. Chair asked for other nominations, and hearing none called a vote

VOTE: Aye with applause, none opposed

    1. Officer selection by the council members:
      1. Chair: All ayes on Eliot Hurwitz, none opposed
      2. Vice-Chair: All ayes on Barbara Flynn, none opposed
      3. Secretary: All ayes on Jessyca Lytle, none opposed
      4. Treasurer: All ayes on Gary Prather, none opposed
      5. Communications: All ayes on Jessica Pyska, none opposed

ACTION: Small pieces of paper were marked with X’s on 3 of them (indicating a 3-year term), and the council representatives drew lots for their terms. Results: x–Eliot, x–Gary, x–Cindy will serve for 3 years, and the rest will serve for 2 years.

    1. Getting items put on the agenda, Council point of contact:
      1. Send agenda items and other email to point of contact: cobbareacouncil@gmail.com
      2. Send a message to the Facebook page, “Cobb Area Council”
      3. Deadline: a week before the next meeting; we meet every 3rd Thursday of each month beginning in August, i.e., August 18, so we need agenda items by the 2nd Thursday of the month, i.e., August 11 for the next meeting
      4. This Thursday there is a Valley Task Force meeting at Cobb School 6pm, when we would have ordinarily met
      5. Robert Stark: What if, 4/5 majority gets the item on the agenda, then post per brown act 72 hrs since you are acting as county committee? Seventy two hours is needed under the Brown Act to give proper notice so you can’t discuss business without the assembly. Everybody says yes. It would be ok to post agenda at Water Board.
      6. We will use Rosenberg’s Rules of Order: much more practical than Robert’s Rules and is available online
    1. Review and Adoption of Proposed Bylaws–Chair read out each of articles

Q:  Robert Stark: Why is a Treasurer mentioned? Are you expecting to pay the council members compensation?

A:  No Council member will get compensation. We will be looking for grants for specific needs, like the map materials that Gary is talking about.

      1. Proposed amendment: not quorum be a 4/5 simple majority to amend bylaws.  Moved and seconded
      2. Clarification re amendment:  quorum is 4/5 but 3 only needed to conduct business.
      3. Tom Slaight: Who are you representing? Whoever’s here is good, but don’t say the people of Cobb, because they’re not all here. You’re not speaking for everybody.
      4. EH: We certainly want to outgrow our current meeting space.
      5. JL: There are still task force meetings, we are not the only forum for questions and such; please keep going to BOS meetings etc.  It takes all of us, we’re not saying come here only as there are many other points of contact. This Thursday, the Task Force meeting is up here on Cobb, and if people stop showing up they won’t hold them anymore.
      6. As read and with changes, motion to approve as amended: moved
    2. New MOTION from Robert Stark: Chair with Treasurer should sign disbursements.
      1. Group discussion:
        1. Money comes to C.A.C. with approval from Board of Supervisors, i.e., we can’t accept money ourselves, the Controller does this.
        2. Linda Lou Bartlett: When one of those two people is away, then what? Need flexibility–how about Vice Chair?
        3. Basically, invoices are approved by the council members, so all the members can see all the invoicesReport on checks going in and out will be part of the Treasurer ‘s Report
      2. MOTION AS AMENDED: Bylaws can say instead, “Checks to be signed according to standard procedures and control mechanisms to be adopted.” Moved: Karl Parker, seconded Glenneth Lambert

VOTE: All AYES, none opposed

    1. Joan Moss: Take the grand jury report seriously and read it. Bring this to the Task Force, there should have been a Disaster Council set up

ACTION: Grand Jury Report and perhaps Disaster Council items for next agenda.      

    1. Review and Approval of proposed application to Cobb Community Investment committee for start up funds

ACTION: Tabled until the application form is completed

    1. Possible Formation of other immediate ad hoc committees
      1. MOTION: Establish an ad hoc Hazard Abatement Committee; Debra Helleren so moved, seconded: Jessica Pyska

VOTE: All AYES, none opposed

ACTION: Karl Parker will lead this Committee.

Meeting adjourned at 7:18 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Magdalena Valderrama