Your incoming and outgoing board for 2009/2010
This month's Member of the Month was Doni's Occasion Station in Lucerne.
Doni's Occasion station is the perfect stop for your celebration decorations. Doni has already made a name for herself with beautiful balloon decorations that you may have seen at Lakeview Supermarket & Deli's 40th anniversary or many other community events. Doni even donated the balloon Christmas tree for our parade float which was still looking' good several weeks after its appearance at the parade.
Also at Doni's Occasion Station are beautiful fresh flowers.
Doni is enthusiastic about consulting with anyone in advance of their celebration and is able to work on a budget from little to huge. No matter what the budget, the results will be beautiful as Doni's thrilled customers are enthusiastic about pointing out.
Officer John Irwin
Our featured speaker with officer John Irwin of the Bureau of Indian Affairs through the US Department of the Interior.
Officer Irwin is presently assigned to Robinson Rancheria and handles criminal activity on the Rancheria. Incidentally, Native American lands carry three size designations; reservations, colonies and rancherias. Robinson Rancheria comprises over 5,000 acres as far away as Chico, surprisingly.
Some might recognize Irwin from his work at the Clearlake Police Department where he served the community well. After a brief taste of retirement he applied for the job with the Department of the Interior and was hired. Presently there is officer Irwin and another peace officer at Robinson with plans for more.
Tribal governments are sovereign nations as appropriated by the Congress which means they are subject to federal laws. Some tribal governments choose to establish their own police force using locals which frequently is more trouble than it's worth with cronyism and feuding factions grabbing control of these police departments. More often than not they tend to burn or shoot each other and few of the residents of these nations feel safe.
Robinson Rancheria is one tribal government that had the foresight to seek federal help with professionally trained officers enforcing federal laws. One of the many advantages of having federal officers is that they are able to enforce federal laws outside of the reservation and can also seek fugitives who step off the tribal land.
Among these laws are federal drug laws. While California is lax on small amounts of marijuana and other laws, the federal statues have little leniency for even these recreational drugs. Officer Irwin cited a case where he observed a drug transaction in progress and followed the suspect to the Sentry market, where he stopped the individual on a traffic stop. Sure as he suspected, there were significant amounts of drugs in the individual's possession.
After booking the suspect, officer Irwin headed down the road. The repeat offender was surprised to learn that he wasn't going to the local jail, but was heading to federal penitentiary. You see, he was on federal land and had broken federal laws. The legal process for federal crimes is quite different and less tolerant.
Among the questions often asked of officer Irwin are about casino security. While the casino does fall within officer Irwin's territory, he is involved with federal crimes and, unless those are being committed in the casino, he doesn't focus on that area. The casino has its own security force, which is a private operation not affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Officer Irwin indicated that he's heavily focusing on cases of assault on minors which is fairly common among native American communities, who tend to have a great deal of mistrust for law enforcement.
Supervisor Denise Rushing had a lot to say with much good news and a bit of bad.
Lake County is one of only two counties with a balanced budget. This is saying a lot in a time when California continually reneges on agreements and pulls back funds counties think they were going to get. Still, for this year things are okay.
With all of California's problems the Board of Supervisors voted to support a constitutional convention and hopefully make major changes to the way California runs.
There is also a new Quagga Mussel program. The Division of Water Resources is a separate department. The County has also petitioned the Federal Government to allocate some of the funds that were earmarked for Lake Tahoe to be sent our way instead. With our important to California's ever challenged water system, the importance of Clear Lake to California is very significant and, despite the strings, federal support is being sought.
As for Upper Lake, the project is very close to completion. One of the few remaining details is the issue of a clock tower, which is a distinct possibility. Through some efficiencies there are still redevelopment funds available and the County made these available to partially-fund the clock, which has a history in Upper Lake. As in the early part of the last century, the Women's Protective Club is seeking to bridge the funding gap and is looking for the community as a resource for the $3-4,000 needed to put in a clock.
Mary Amodio from the Clearlake Glenhaven Business Association was excited about a new visitor's center coming to her part of the county.