Lake County board approves liens for four Nice parcels after CalRecycle-funded cleanups

The Lake County Board on Tuesday approved placing special-assessment liens on four vacant parcels in Nice to recover costs for trash and junk-vehicle abatements performed under a CalRecycle illegal-dumping grant.

Marcus Beltramo, manager of the Lake County code enforcement division, told the board staff requested recordation of liens after abatements at 7840 Hyde Street (APN 030-233-24), 2560 Fall Street (APN 030-071-06), 2826 Bush Street (APN 030-142-03) and 2830 Bush Street (APN 030-142-04). At the board’s motion, the auditor will enter the lien amounts as special assessments: $1,519.37 for 7840 Hyde; $1,229.18 for 2560 Fall; $719.37 for 2826 Bush; and $2,032.39 for 2830 Bush. The motion passed 5-0.

Why it matters: the work was done with state grant money from CalRecycle to remove illegal-dumping sites in the Nice Hills. Because state funds paid contractor costs, CalRecycle will be recorded in the first lien position for contractor amounts; Lake County’s administrative recovery costs are recorded in second position, Beltramo said, meaning the state would be repaid before the county if the liens are collected.

Beltramo said crews and contractor 360 Junk Removal cleared trash and, in some cases, towed abandoned vehicles and a pop-up RV. He summarized contractor and administrative charges for each site and said two other parcels (7769 and 7771 Main Street) were removed from today’s action after an e-comment and would be handled separately.

Supervisor concerns and staff response

Supervisors asked for more detail about how staff calculated billing rates shown on task sheets. One supervisor questioned why task sheets list supervisor hourly rates (example shown: $53.88) rather than officer or coordinator rates and asked the department to provide documentation showing how the fully burdened rates were computed. Beltramo said the task sheets were completed by a supervisor (Norman Valdez) and agreed to provide backup. Shannon Walker Smith, deputy community development administrator, said the department is transitioning to fully burdened hourly rates and that a code-enforcement hourly line will appear on the next master fee schedule to standardize charges.

Supervisor Crandall and others also asked how the county handles abatements involving elderly property owners. Beltramo said the code unit flags cases involving seniors, those with disabilities or minors, reaches out to Adult Protective Services (APS) for assessment when appropriate, and attempts other departmental referrals and repair programs before pursuing lien recordation.

How the money flows

Shannon Walker Smith said the CalRecycle grant covered abatement work and required the county to record liens so the state could recover its costs. "Because the state is spending their money for those abatements, they require us to lien the properties to recover their cost," she said. Staff added that the county must record liens per the grant template but cannot guarantee that recorded liens will be paid back to the state.

Motion and vote

A board member moved to "approve and confirm the assessment of the following lien amounts" and to direct staff to record the liens with the Lake County Recorder and for the auditor to enter the amounts as special assessments. After the motion and a second, the board voted in favor; Chair Rasmussen announced the motion carried 5-0.

Details and open questions

Staff presented item-level cost breakdowns (contractor and administrative charges) for each parcel. Presentation materials list contractor and administrative figures; for 7840 Hyde Street the administrative amount appears inconsistently in the transcript/presentation (staff gave $219.37 in one place and $2,219.37 in another), but the lien amount entered by the board for that parcel is $1,519.37. Staff agreed to provide the board with supporting documentation explaining rate computations and the task-sheet entries.

The board pulled two additional parcels from today's action to give staff extra time to work with the property owners after receiving public comment. No members of the public spoke during the hearing.

The board concluded the item after voting; staff said they will record the liens in accordance with the CalRecycle-approved template and return with any items requiring further action.