This is my first letter of the year as mayor, to the residents of South Lake Tahoe. The statements and opinions in this letter are mine only, not the official opinion of the city council.
I am grateful to my fellow councilors for voting for me as mayor. I will not lead the city but will manage the meetings. I will help set the agendas and represent our city in official settings, parades, etc. I still only have one vote, the same as the other council members. That’s a lot of appearances with a little extra authority, but an honor nonetheless. When I previously served as mayor in 2021 we had Covid stretching into 2021 (my first 6 months as mayor, all our meetings were virtual) and the Caldor fire and evacuation. I am proud that we decided to evacuate the tourists before evacuating all of our 20,000+ citizens in just an incredible four hours.
The security agencies had good evacuation plans in place. Our family was among the last to leave and we evacuated to the city of Truckee. We had seven people and six dogs joined us there. I visited every evacuation center our citizens lived in throughout the Carson Valley, Carson City, Topaz and Reno. There were problems such as getting medicine, rescuing animals, getting shelters to accept people’s pets and helping the elderly. We all helped each other. I did a lot of radio, TV and print interviews in 10 days because of Tahoe’s notoriety. I really hope this year won’t be as challenging as 2021.
This year I intend to make the council meetings better for the public to attend and participate. One way is to ensure that matters of great public interest are heard first so that those who take time away from their jobs and families do not have to wait to be heard. I hope to continue streamlining routine staff reports. I’ll do my best to arrange the agenda so you don’t have to endure the details that come with some city business. We are already making the website more user-friendly.
Currently, the public only gets 3 minutes to speak, while prepared speakers on behalf of a question and councilors themselves can go on indefinitely. Council members are supposed to read the packages we received on Thursday before Tuesday’s council meeting. The agenda is available to the public on the day the council receives it. Some council members, who have met with the city manager and the attorney, already know the answers to their questions but do little standing and ask questions they already know the answer to. Our city council has an existing protocol (listed on the city website) where the mayor lets council members know they have been gone for over five minutes. I use it if necessary.
The most important thing we do as a council is to put together a strategic plan for next year and beyond. We vote on WHAT we are going to do, WHEN we are going to do it and how we are going to pay for it. The city manager and the staff are responsible for HOW it all works. It is important that we do not get sidetracked by what I call rabbit chasing, micromanaging, or new programs and ideas from individual council members’ philosophies and political agendas. Emergencies are the exception.
Our five council members branch out and sit on many other boards such as TRPA, Tahoe Transportation District, California Tahoe Conservancy, CalTahoe (Ambulance) JPA, Clean Tahoe, Lake Tahoe Visitor’s Authority, both Chambers, Lodging, LAFCO and many others. I joke that our council’s approximate salary of $1,200/month comes out to -$0.27 per hour! Our goal is to inform these organizations of the City’s strategic plans and to report back to Council, NOT TO HAVE OUR OWN, INDIVIDUAL AGENDA that we push on these organizations.
We each meet with the city manager and attorney once a week and of course attend council meetings twice a month, as well as strategic planning, budget sessions and special topic group meetings like State of the City and things like Meet the Mayor. We answer lots of emails, text messages and phone calls.
Of course, time management is a necessary skill.
I intend to keep the main thing. The city was incorporated 60 years ago for police, fire, roads (including snow removal) and housing standards. I intend to stick to my file and not let political issues and social fads get ahead of our main purpose. Every time I hit a pothole, buy gas, groceries or hear a siren; it reminds me of what is most important to our citizens. Just as you must live within your means, so should your city government. I am not in favor of creating new expensive programs that add to the city’s payroll with expensive benefits and pension packages that your children and mine will have to pay for. I intend to leave the city in better shape than when I was first sworn in. I want to help others by taxing less, having fewer regulations and adding economic prosperity so people can earn the future they deserve.
I believe in getting to YES. Rather than putting up roadblocks to prosperity, job creation and housing in our city. Our amazing City Manager Joe Irvin and his department heads see it the same way. Joe constantly upholds that philosophy. When all is said and done, we are public servants, not public authorities.
In the same vein, I am committed to increasing our supply of labor and affordable housing. One way is for every agency that regulates housing to somehow NOT CHARGE FOR ANYTHING THEY DO OR HAVE, INCLUDING VACANT LAND, INSPECTION FEES, AND PERMITS. But we live in paradise. The supply of housing may never be able to meet the demand of those who want to live in paradise. Also, we can’t provide all the housing that the Nevada side and El Dorado County should provide, but we can make the supply and demand better than it is now. We’re already doing that with up to 600 apartments planned over the next few years, with the 248-unit Sugar Pine Village the latest. I believe that TRPA, with Julie Regan at the helm, understands that our city must first follow state law.
To solve the housing crisis, we don’t need to burden everyone with unnecessary bureaucracy. There are over 20 state and federal agencies that overlap with our local government. As Peter Uberoff lamented when he put together the 1984 Olympics in LA: “We’ve gone from the law of the jungle to a jungle of laws.”
It sometimes takes two or three years to build a garage for a home here, even longer to get an affordable home built, not to mention the cost. Our city has one vote out of five on the Board of Supervisors, one out of seven on LTVA, two out of seven on Conservancy and only one out of 14 on TRPA, none on Lahontan and USFS. These agencies have authority over much of what happens in our society. Most of their board members are not elected and do not live in South Lake Tahoe. As a sovereign city in the state of California, our city council must make our needs known and vigorously defend our right to govern ourselves within the laws of this state. The federal government may have seen the light regarding the effect of overregulation on the economy and I remain hopeful that the state of California will wake up soon.
I want to thank our voters for electing two very capable, common sense people to the council. I look forward to working with both Keith Roberts and David Jinkens. This year we will all listen respectfully to all those who speak and write to us as we take in your collective wisdom. As I have written before
“none of us is smarter than all of us.” Just like those who incorporated this city 60 years ago, we will do our best to look to the future in our efforts to make the best decisions for ALL residents of this paradise we live in.
I am also extremely pleased to see the new multi-generational recreation center making progress. It should be completed in 2026. It is designed to serve all of our citizens.
One issue many citizens are commenting on is the possible annexation of the Heavenly Cal Lodge property to the city. I am personally in favor of that happening. Here’s why: In 2001, the gondola was inaugurated and came straight down into the city at Heavenly Village. It was a wonderful addition to that project. The agreement with Heavenly at that time was that no elevator or sales tax would be paid by Heavenly, at that location, as long as the financing bonds were still being paid. The city refinanced that debt during a downturn and expanded the tax-exempt provision.
For the past half century, Vail/Heavenly, while attracting skiers to our community who generate sales and TOT taxes on motels and businesses, has paid zero sales or property taxes to the city. Instead, they have paid taxes to El Dorado County, even though the city, not the county, has maintained the streets leading up to the slopes, allowed its customers to park in the neighborhoods, and has responded to the many incidents for the police and fire departments, such as hundreds of medical injuries and health emergencies , fender benders, fistfights, thefts and the gondola fire of 2003.
Recently, our city fire department put out a fire in the main lodge dressing room long before the county showed up. All that service and your taxpayer money was never meant to go on forever. The city agreement has not, in hindsight, been a smooth affair, as was evident during the massive storm event in the winter of 2022. The videos show car after car sliding down the roads crashing into those stranded at the bottom. It makes sense that the government that maintains its access roads, answers police calls and puts out its fires should be the one collecting the tax generated. I am personally very pro-tourism and fully recognize that Heavenly, along with Sierra, Kirkwood and the many other ski areas around the lake, is one of the main reasons for employment and economic benefit in this town in the winter.
But fair is fair. Vail should either fully reimburse the city for the actual cost of the many services we provide to support their existence or allow the city to collect the sales tax rather than the county.
I especially want to thank our citizens for showing up in the hundreds at council meetings to stop the slew of proposed new taxes and for resoundingly defeating Measure N. You sent a clear message to stop the anti-second home owner, anti – the tourist mentality. As a result of Measure T, 2018, we lost 1,400 temporary tax-producing VHRs and as many local jobs, by stopping people from temporarily renting out their homes to help pay their mortgages. It cost us many school children, as these families moved to find work elsewhere. Almost none were converted to long-term rentals as promised, and Measure T reduced city revenue by over two million dollars each year. Many potholes that could have been filled with that amount. The anti-tourism group, feeling their oats, then tried to push Measure N with the same failed logic. Recently they proposed that temporary seasonal workers should receive municipal funds to pay their rent. The hypocrisy of banning temporary lettings of housing, and then wanting to support temps/tenants, is incredibly obvious.
We just went through a contentious election season. That was then, this is now. Just like in sports, when the game is over, let’s shake hands and work together on local issues to make our city a better place to live. I look forward to fixing and plowing our roads and protecting us all from
crime and forest fires as well as doing everything we can to build more affordable workforce housing.
I will be hosting Meet the Mayor events this year, to listen to you, provide updates and answer your questions. I am also giving you my cell (530)545-2623 and email [email protected]
Finally, I want to thank all those who have been so supportive of our family over the past three years as we have gone through many of life’s trials and losses, just like many of you. Your prayers and gestures of support have been greatly appreciated. We will pay your kindness forward. Life in a small town is so comforting. Together we are Tahoe Strong.
Happy New Year and God bless you all,
Tamara Wallace
