Memorandum
Date: December 9, 2025
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Robin Borre, Special Districts Administrator
Subject: Provide Staff with Direction on the Water Connection Standby Status
Executive Summary:
Special Districts requests the Board’s direction on a prior administrator policy and approval to modify it going forward. Past practice has been to require someone with a water connection to be on standby if they do not have a residence or active building permit. Staff reached out to County Council to review the current Water Ordinances and determine if the policy adheres to the existing Ordinances.
County Counsel has reviewed the Ordinances and has determined “Section 2(c) of the attached Ord. No. 2928 gives the right to exercise the option to go into standby to any service connection that has zero usage for 4 months or more. The standby language in Ordinance No. 2959 and 2945 that requires 4 months of zero usage to be placed on standby are both permissive, but not mandatory. Given that the only times where the description of triggering standby status gives the property owner the right to trigger it, where ordinances are silent on this issue, County Counsel would tend to follow the precedent established under the explicit descriptions and require a request from the property owner to put a property into standby status.”
Staff recommends sending everyone that is currently on standby a letter and allowing them to determine if they would like to remain on standby or not.
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Estimated Cost: _$0 Amount Budgeted: _$0_ Additional Requested: __$0____ Future Annual Cost: $0
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☐ Economic Development ☒ Infrastructure ☒ County Workforce
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Recommended Action: Provide Staff with Direction on the Water Connection Standby Status