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On November 7th, Carolyn Horrell-Smith wrote a very interesting Letter to the Editor of the
Record Bee voicing great concern for the citizens of our community. The City Council of
Clearlake wants to walk into the homes of clean, law-abiding renters; however, our city council
has yet to clean up our town as first promised. The city hasn't done much about all the homes
that have been torn up and abandoned. The owners of these homes are worn out from fixing the
damage to their homes, they are frustrated, and they are not coming back to try again. I was
told that these tagged houses might be an opportunity for young, low-income people to buy a
place and make a home for themselves. Now, just finding the owners to these homes may be a
problem
Now what are they really going to do with this new ordinance? I do not think the intent is to
annoy good citizens that maintain their homes, inside and out. Before they enter anyone's home I
would expect they would have some indication there is something wrong on the inside (Probable
Cause) by looking at the outside, i.e. trash, broken down cars, etc., as Carolyn mentioned in
her article.
This is cleaning up our town, yes, but there is a much bigger problem, the trash is everywhere.
Take for instance the situation at Borax Lake. The owner put a great deal of funding into
cleaning up that dumpsite and look at it now. I have to drive by that mess it makes me ill. What
does the City Council plan to do about that? Also, if you take a drive down to the end of the
streets of Clearlake Park and some streets up across the freeway you will find several bags of
trash, often from renters who are not getting trash service included with their rent. I am also
concerned that some of our welfare recipients, paid to provide a home for their children and
remain clean and sober, are renting these properties and not caring for them? Are these young
and healthy (except for drug issues) people responsible for the decline of the rental
properties?
As anyone living in Lake County knows, just from reading our local newspaper, there is a serious
drug problem here. Since the city says they cannot afford hi-tech surveillance equipment, is
part of the plan of this new task force to enter these rented homes looking for drug dins?
Perhaps the city council is looking for a way to attack this existing drug problem and that is
what they meant when they said, "let's clean up this town". How could this proposed task force
enter homes without Probable Cause if the existing Drug Task Force cannot? Are drugs what the
council is really looking for in our rental units?
Do you believe that our City Council is really out to "antagonize those … who are acting
responsibly"? Should we give the council the benefit of the doubt? Consider this alternative:
Let's start doing something to ease our concerns; meet with those responsible, draw their
attention to our concerns, get to the real concept behind this madness. I welcome any response
to the statements made in my letter.
With great love, respect, and concern for my community,
Laura Schwartz-Arrington
Gboys247@xprs.net
Cc: Carolyn Horrell-Smith, getalongdog@earthlink.net (provided with her permission)
suggest: PRINT THIS LETTER PLEASE, LOVE THE ABILITY TO DO THIS FROM MY COMPUTER WITHOUT LEAVING
HOME. ITS GREAT!!! THANKS
# 00742 hits since July 19 2006