A printable version is at lcvisioning-print.php

Lake County BOS Visioning Forum Final Report June 18, 2024


Item 6.8 10:00 A.M. - Consideration of the Final Report of the Lake Countywide Community Visioning Forum Planning Committee (VFPC)

The following are my personal notes of the meeting, as attended, and reviewed in the video. I attended many of the planning meetings, and all of the public forums, helping facilitate at one.

I was informed during that process that the VFPC's brief was to look at changes over the long term, perhaps 5-10 years, and that the short-term issue of the proposed name change of Kelseyville was not in their brief. Their final recommendations were broken into "Internal" issues for the County itself, and "External" issues concerning the community. There are no recommendations concerning Kelseyville.

The renaming issue did emerge from the public forums, and was (despite the best efforts of BOS chairman Bruno Sabatier to keep the focus on the actual recommendations) discussed at this meeting. I submitted an e-comment on the matter, and spoke on the issue.

These notes relate to the name-change process only, and are thus "cherry-picked" from the wider discussion and aims of "inclusion" and "safety".

We also wish to acknowledge the economic progress and development of Lake County, California, and all of the United States, resulted in part from the unpaid labor and forced servitude of many Peoples of Color. Despite having been interned, sexually abused, caged, captured and killed, these individuals contributed to the prosperity and power that exists in our country today. Their collective traumas cannot be ignored, forgotten or dismissed as ancient history. Instead, we are informed and inspired by their struggles spanning multiple generations.

While we recognize those living here today were not the original perpetrators of harm, we do recognize some present today do perpetuate harm. The Committee is specifically concerned with working to find places of repair and healing from these past and present harms. [p4]

A safe space was provided for community members to explore four topics:

 How do you define respect, fairness, and inclusion?
 What gets in the way of you and your family getting your needs met in Lake County?
 What history must be acknowledged to begin community healing?
 What would support all Lake County residents feeling respected, included, and experiencing fair outcomes? [p 10]


The procedure was that small groups of about 6-10 discussed the issues separately, wrote up their thoughts on a flip chart, ordered by importance, and then presented this to the whole forum. The infamous "page 14" represents the collation of all these reports from the three public forums. Only the two relating to 'Kelsey' - out of a total of twenty - are repeated here.

What history must be acknowledged to begin community healing?
#1/3: Harm caused to Lake County’s Tribal Nations, including actions of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone

What would support Lake County residents feeling respected, included and experiencing fair outcomes?
#5/5 Support efforts to rename Kelseyville [p 14]


The VFPC made a presentation to the board, which was briefly reviewed by them. Public comments were then taken via Zoom and from the Chambers. Despite the off-agenda nature of the name-change comments, the opponents voiced these main objections:

- That "page 14" was detrimental to their opposition, would "make its way" to the BGN, and should be deleted. Chairman Bruno rejected this, emphasizing that it was an accurate reflection of comments in the public forums, and was not a recommendation to the board.
- That changing one's address was an onerous task.
- That "Save The Name" had tried unsuccessfully to meet with tribal members.
- That Kelseyville residents were not represented on the VF planning committee, and were not invited to the forums. Again, the board reported that they had solicited members for the forum planning committee, that all meetings were county-wide, and had been widely advertised.
- That all 5 supervisors should hold a meeting for Kelseyville residents only. Supervisor Pyska said she had met with many individuals.

Supervisor Green made a specific proposal the the BOS should convene a limited-time, limited-purpose Ad-hoc committee to address the naming issue. Chairman Sabatier rejected this, saying that the board should defer to the ongoing BGN/CACGN process, had communicated with CACGN about what questions the BOS should answer, and wondered whether any funding was available if the BOS needed to hold meetings. He felt that CACGN itself had no clear idea of the best procedure. (Of course, the BGN makes its decision based on recommendations by CACGN, the BOS, Tribes, and the public, and does not participate in local deliberations.)

In the end, the board asked staff to prepare a proposal for an Ad-hoc committee to continue the Visioning Forum's work on the recommended "Internal" and "External" issues, but which would not address the naming issue.

Alan Fletcher 6/24/24

Final report: : https://countyoflake.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=13034711&GUID=7BAC21E5-D3B3-450A-A6D6-41C7D9D91967

Video of 6.8 (without a transcript): https://lakecounty.granicus.com/player/clip/726?view_id=1&meta_id=262213&redirect=true

e-Comments : https://lakecounty.granicusideas.com/meetings/806-board-of-supervisors-on-2024-06-18-9-00-am-please-see-agenda-for-public-participation-information-and-ecomment-submission-on-any-agenda-item/agenda_items/666cc6537d79657c89006d52-6-dot-8-24-70110-00-am-consideration-of-the-final