Konocti Harbor

Konocti Harbor was a resort and music venue in Kelseyville, California. It is situated at the base of Mount Konocti on the south shore of Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake interior to California. Its amenities included a spa, a miniature golf course, a marina, and two Olympic-size swimming pools.

The resort was founded in 1959 by Joseph Mazzola, president of United Association Local 38, a union of Northern California plumbers. The intention behind the formation of the resort was to provide low-cost vacation housing for union members.

In 1982, a federal judge took control of the pension fund of the union, which owned Konocti Harbor, over allegations of financial improprieties involving the resort; in 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor again sued the union, alleging that $36 million of pension funds had been improperly diverted to the resort. Mazzola died in 1989, in a car crash near the resort, but the Mazzola family continues to own much of the land surrounding the resort.

In 1990, Greg Bennett was hired as the general manager of Konocti Harbor. He renovated the resort and turned it into a concert venue. Bennett eventually expanded his concert hall, the Joe Mazzola Showroom, from 350 seats to 1000;Performance Magazine called it "the best small concert venue in the country". As the resort's concert business expanded, Bennett also added outdoor concerts in a 5000-seat converted softball field.

In 2007, The US Department of Labor's 2004 suit against the owners of Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa was settled. During the suit, a sale of Konocti to Page Mill Properties of Palo Alto was under way. Within that settlement Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao went on to state "Workers’ retirement dreams, health and other benefits were jeopardized by the gross mismanagement of their benefit plans," and "This legal action puts the benefit plans under new, independent management and restores at least $3.5 million to the pension plan." Chao's Friday statement alleged that the suit's defendants “maintained inadequate financial controls, violated plan documents, engaged in self-dealing, and imprudently spent millions to build and maintain facilities at Konocti despite the resort’s continuing financial losses.

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