COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday March 15 , 2018,
6:00-8:00pm
Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426
full agenda packet available at www.cobbareacouncil.org
CALL TO ORDER (shut down cell phones; sign in please)
PRESENT: Cindy Leonard, Jessica Pyska, Eliot Hurwitz (Chair)
15 people in attendance
CALL TO ORDER 6:06 (shut down cell phones; rules of participation)
Welcome to new attendees
Approval of minutes Robert Stark, Magdalena
SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
-Fairlight First Friday starting in June for Middletown, the hub is MAC
-Glenneth- Abundant Land movie will be at April 13th 6:00 in Kelseyville
-Kelly- Annual Easter Egg hunt at BlackRock at noon on the 31st
-Magdalena- FireWise event happening May 5th on national FireWise day
TREASURER’S REPORT-Gary is ill, no report this month
PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
1)Eliot introduces new Red Cross Richard Goldfarb Disaster Program Manager for Mendocino and Lake Counties. He is in Cobb today to get to know our area better to begin to plan for disaster preparedness. This includes the pillowcase project and also planning and preparing for shelter needs in case of a disaster.
-Glenneth asks about looking at evacuation for our neighborhoods. Richard states that the Red Cross normally does not create the evacuation routes, but partners with the county and local plans to include their shelter resources. They can also be active in community education once a plan is created.
-Rob Brown says there hasn’t been any money forthcoming for emergency escape routes. We just need to plan for simple routes through people’s property.
2) Chris Macedo is getting ready to present the disaster plan to the Board. We need to allow for many different scenarios which makes it difficult to plan.
Short reports from CAC Committees as needed
Glenneth presented Karl parker’s report for Hoberg’s : erosion controls have been put in place. Work is at a standstill while they wait for more funding.
Erosion controls have been installed
Work on-site continues to be idled while awaiting possible aid from new CHD (California Human Development) grant.
Karl continues to maintain active contact with Hobergs management and County officials in an effort to ensure continuity, regain momentum, and establish an accountable plan for completion.
Since January, Karl has had many contacts with Jasjit Kang, the new Director of Enviromental Health, via phone, email, and a face-to-face meeting, to bring him up-to-speed and convey our concern. Environmental Health Specialist James Scott has also been involved. This effort has been productive.
Mr. Kang sent the following message via email on Tuesday, March 13:
“Hobergs is on our top priority list considering the circumstances. Mr. Scott and I are planning an action plan to deal with the Hobergs’ project (specific to the Summary Abatement Order).
First step is a site visit ASAP (3/14 at 9:00am) to evaluate the situation, and then follow up with a letter. Secondly, we will certainly be attending the Cobb Abatement Monitoring Committee meetings”
Supervisor Rob Brown has put Hobergs on the Board of Supervisors’ calendar for Tuesday, March 27, 2018. He also planned to meet with County staff to review the Abatement Order.
The next Abatement Monitoring Committee meeting is scheduled for March 20 @ 5:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted, Karl E. Parker
PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
Discussion of proposed new 1.5% Countywide Sales Tax that will be on the June ballot (Measure G)
Fairlight is very concerned about the sales tax increase. She feels that less sales tax encourages more people to come. How do we create more opportunity for people who live here? We need to be creating opportunities. When people come to taste wine, we should be encouraging folks to try the other things in our county, like farms and restaurants. She will review the videos to see what ideas were suggested that would be an alternative to the tax.
Carol and Rob state that it would bring the rate to 8.75% and it would be a 10 year tax. Carol feels that the tax increase would help alleviate
Carol says that the top priorities of the community voiced at the meetings were roads and safety, so the tax money would go into the general fund, but priorities of spending would be roads and safety and economic development.
Rich says that if it is a specific tax, 60% need to vote for it, since this is a general tax then only 50% need to vote for it.
Carol says that they are working on capturing the hotel taxes that are going uncollected. Losing Konocti resort and Harbin has been a big hit.
Rob says he would like suggestions on what incentives can be given for local cottage industry.
Eliot suggests that we have another discussion about economic development at another meeting. Carol says that she would like another Visioning round of meetings that would be specific to types of industry ( like agriculture or small business, etc.)
Rob says that any new tax would have an oversight committee.
Joanne is wondering the contributing factors. Rob says the fires, and also the cities don’t pay for many of their services. AB 109 brought a lot of prisoners to the county that are a big cost burden. We lack a lot of revenue drivers that other counties have.
Robert Stark points out that the tax is a big bite for many people in our County.
Continue PLANNING FOR “COBB SAFE 2018” TO BE HELD ON SATURDAY APRIL 14
Cathy has created an online form (it just needs verbiage for clarifying privacy/confidentiality) for folks to sign up for volunteering.
Contributions so far:
$1,000 from John Carlisi
$500 from South Lake Refuse
$25 from Costco
$ possible from
10:00- 11:00 Firewise community planning
-this program has begun in Siegler Springs
-Local certification is done by Jeff Tunnell
from Bureau of Land Management. He does an assessment and then you do an annual plan.
Our goal would be to create 5 FireWise communities initially. Getting certified creates opportunities for funding and helps the local firefighters protect your neighborhood.
We would find people who could be point of contact in each of the areas.
Discussion of spending money on advertising event:
-$600 for large banners
-$250 for mailer in P.O. Boxes
-$150 for Facebook and other promotion
Motion to spend the money, all in favor except one person
11:00 to 12:00 Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Declare two dates: perhaps in June and July. This could coordinate with the chipping program with South Lake Fire Dist.
The session could get into the details of setting up these programs.
Setting up the CERT program. The Red Cross could be a partner in this process.
12:00 to 1:00 Local networks and Communication
-warning systems
: (do the new sirens work?), Nixle and Code Red update, Gotenna
-build in redundancy
– identify most vulnerable folks who might need help
1:00 to 2:00 Sheriff/Neighborhood Watch.
Kelly Stucky has 4 signs just needing posts or plywood, and knowing where to mount in the area
2:00 to 4:00 more in-depth on the CERT program (18 people minimum to train at minimum).
Motion to adjourn Rich, Seconded Jessica adjourned at 7:57p.m.