[Lake County] Supervisors slam grand jury report, deny jury’s funding request

Special report released in March called for changes at Lampson Field airport.

LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors this week responded to a special report by the Lake County Civil Grand Jury and denied the grand jury’s request for money to cover over-budget expenditures.

The grand jury’s special report, entitled “How can we safely land?” was submitted March 14 in advance of the jury’s upcoming full 2018-2019 report. The report pertained exclusively to the Lampson Field Airport—Lake County’s only operating public airport—and identified areas of concern with the facility, also noting an opportunity for the county to apply for federal grant money to perform needed improvements.

A civil grand jury is made up of local residents, and is tasked with investigating the operations of the local government under which it operates, and making recommendations as to how those governments can improve. This work is referred to by the State of California as a “watchdog” function.

In Lake County, recent reports from the grand jury have been met with sharp criticism from the board of supervisors.

In 2018, District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown called the 2017-2018 grand jury report “nonsense.” On Tuesday, Brown referred to the recent special report’s title as “idiotic,” and claimed the grand jury is “taking credit for the sun coming up” by making recommendations about the Lampson Field Airport.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson and supervisors Moke Simon and Bruno Sabatier joined Brown in jabbing the report’s title. “It essentially implies that it’s not safe to land at Lampson Field,” Huchingson said.

“We all get affected by the negative remarks that are put out there,” said Sabatier.

In legally required written responses to the grand jury report, the board of supervisors disagreed with every recommendation made by the grand jury. Lake County Public Works Director Scott De Leon, who also responded, disagreed with most of the jury’s findings.

The board of supervisors also denied the grand jury’s request for $5,000 in contingency funds to make up for over-budget per diem and travel costs incurred by the jury members. The entity’s total budget is roughly $65,000 annually.

In an interview with this newspaper, civil grand jury foreman Mark Rothrock suggested he was not surprised by the county’s reaction to the report.

“I understand their response,” Rothrock said. “Whether they liked it or not, I think (the report) brought attention to the airport.”

Asked whether he agreed with the county about the title of the report, Rothrock said he believed the title had had no negative effect, but had contributed toward raising awareness of the airport’s needs.

“It’s been out for a couple of months,” Rothrock said of the report, “and nobody has called us” with concerns about the title. “I’m glad it came out the way it did and I haven’t heard anything negative from the public at all,” he added.

Regarding the denial of the grand jury’s request for $5,000 to cover additional expenses incurred in the past fiscal year, Rothrock remarked that most of that money would have been used to print the final report. He noted that costs had been higher this year because much of the work done by the grand jury was “far-flung,” making travel costs rise.

June 13, 2019

Lake County Record-Bee

By Aidan Freeman