south lake tahoe city council

It looks like the SLT Parks & Recreation Commission is about to get bigger as the City has found that its too big of a job for just five people with the number of sub-committees and other tasks needed as the creation of a new recreation city is on the horizon.

During Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting they appointed five commissioners, then took the first steps to expand the commission by two members. In a resolution at the next Council meeting, that will be a done deal, if approved.

The vacation home rental (VHR) businesses in South Lake Tahoe have joined together in an effort to address, not only issues residents have with their homes, but to address their relationship with those who control and vote on their regulations.

"Our biggest fear is that the City has changed the intent of the ordinance without the council approval," said Josh Priou, Director of Product Development at Lake Tahoe Accommodations and a member of SLTVRA, South Lake Tahoe Vacation Rental Alliance.

At the beginning of Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, Austin Sass was voted in as mayor, Wendy David as vice mayor and new Councilmembers Jason Collin and Brooke Laine were sworn in.

It was an unanimous vote for Sass, but with three Councilmembers interested in being vice-mayor, the vote for that position was a much closer 3-2. Both Brooke Laine and Tom Davis also expressed a desire to serve under Sass. Collin was the only one not interested in either position, citing his being "the new kid on the block" and wanted to learn the job he was elected for first.

The were some questions surrounding Monday's special meeting of the South Lake Tahoe City Council, a meeting that will both certify the November 8 election results and honor outgoing City Council member JoAnn Conner with a plaque of appreciation.

In 2014, a special meeting was held to honor outgoing Council members Angela Swanson and Brooke Laine, both who lost in their bids for reelection. Conner lost her reelection bid this year.

The election was seven days ago, but the final ballots cast in El Dorado County have yet to be tabulated, and it might not be until Friday for the results of over 20,000 ballots are released. Another 3,000 provisional ballots should be counted by Monday.

As of 5:00 p.m. November 15, the 20,000 ballots were about to be scanned.

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Trey Riddle, 38 years old, Bartender, 3 years in South Lake Tahoe

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Dan McLaughlin, 66, Sales Manager for Lake Tahoe Television, has lived in Lake Tahoe for 43 years.

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Jason Collin, 43, Administrative Director of Post-Acute Services & Owner/Race Director for Epic Tahoe Adventures, 8 years living in Tahoe.

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Brooke Laine, 52, Branch Manager, US Bank, Born and raised in SLT

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

In order to be a successful community on the South Shore, the state line needs to become a blur and both sides need to work together. There should be no "us" and "them" but a collective "we."

When travelers come to Lake Tahoe they don't see a state line, or a direction on the compass, they see a beautiful recreational paradise that just a few people are able to call home, but millions can call a vacation destination.

Stump speeches and meeting candidates via a speed-dating format will give voters in the South Lake Tahoe area a way to get to know their future elected officials on October 25 at the Lake Tahoe Community College from 5:30 p.m. to 7::45 p.m.

The evening will start out with each candidate for South Lake Tahoe City Council as well as the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, Lake Tahoe Community College and South Tahoe Public Utility District boards, giving a 1.5 minute "stump speech." Then they'll move to pre-assigned tables where they will meet voters in an up close and personal way.

The utility relocation work on Highway 50 through South Lake Tahoe the past two years has made way for a major, three-year long Caltrans project that will get underway next Spring.

The project, which is currently out for bid, will be starting in 2017 and will have crews working along U.S. Highway 50 from the "Y" intersection with State Highway 89 to the Trout Creek Bridge once again.

Angela Swanson, who was a Lake Tahoe Unified School Board member from 2005-2009 is back on the board, this time to replace Ginger Nicolay-Davis who left in June to accept a job with the school district. She was interviewed and voted in Tuesday night during the LTUSD board meeting. Her term will last until December, 2018.

The school district accepted applications for the open seat, and Swanson was the lone candidate so Tuesday's interview and vote was just a formality.

Swanson also served on the South Lake Tahoe City Council for a term from 2010-2014.

A number of runners and staff with Epic Tahoe Adventures were involved in Friday's collision between one of their rented motor homes and a SUV on Kingsbury Grade.

The South Lake Tahoe company was involved in the beta testing of a new running event which sent runners in teams of 12, running three legs each, in a 81 mile race from South Lake Tahoe to Mammoth Mountain.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting on Tuesday will feature the following topics:

Commercial Floor Space - Doctors Steve Leman and Clint Purvance have applied for Commercial Floor Space allocations (CFA) for three projects at the Y area. Together they are asking for 6,170 square feet of CFA from the City's allotment for a building at 941 Emerald Bay Road. Leman himself is asking for 4,621 square feet at 2215 South Avenue and another 4,025 at 1072 4TH Street. He also wants to purchase another 28,940 Square Feet of 1B Banked Land Coverage from the City.

My name is Tamara Wallace and I am a candidate for South Lake Tahoe City Council. To begin with, I have vowed to not accept the pay that comes from holding office.

In a letter to City Clerk Susie Alessi, it was officially stated that if elected I would not accept the recently doubled Council salary of almost $1,000 per month. Being a fiscal conservative, I feel being careful with taxpayer dollars should start with me.

Tamara Wallace’s campaign slogan is “it’s Time.”

I believes that the voters feel as I do.

Here is what I am not:

The race for the two open South Lake Tahoe City Council seats may turn out to be an interesting one as several people have expressed interest in serving the community with a four-year term.

As of Tuesday, eight people have been issued sets of filing papers with four people turning them in and being qualified to run.

Those running thus far are Patrick Jarrett, Ted Long, JoAnn Conner and Robert Topel.

The deadline to qualify is this Friday, August 12 at 5:00 p.m. If incumbent Hal Cole doesn't decide to run again, the deadline is extended to Wednesday, August 17.

The July 19 meeting of the South Lake Tahoe City Council should be a long one, with multiple items on the agenda ranging from vacation rentals to massage parlors.

Some of the items the Council will be addressing:

Old Business: Vote on Vacation Home Rental changes to the code which grandfather in multi-family units with a permit by September 1, a request by SnowGlobe to extend their contract by 3-10 years and budgetary items.

During Tuesday's El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting they quietly voted to change the ordinances regulating vacation homes in the Lake Tahoe portion of the county (Meyers and all unincorporated areas on the South Shore). Missing was the heated public comments from the Vacation Home Rental owners as seen at South Lake Tahoe City Council meetings.

The changes for VHRs in the Tahoe side of the County (the Board of Supervisors at a duly noticed meeting shall have the authority to impose additional standard conditions applicable to vacation home rentals as necessary):

South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler has written the following in response to an opinion piece written by South Tahoe High junior Noah Jackson that was posted on South Tahoe Now June 9 concerning massage parlors.

Just as it is when the topic of vacation rentals is on the South Lake Tahoe City Council agenda, a large, and at times, angry, crowd gathered.

The task at hand Tuesday was to review changes to the current Vacation Home Rental (VHR) Ordinance which included 11 changes which will take effect 30 days after the June 7 Council meeting if approved.

The Bijou Bike Park Association was recognized during Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting with a proclamation honoring their successful creation of the bike park on Al Tahoe Blvd.

"I didn't know this was going to be so successful so quickly," said Amy Fish, an active member of the association. "Our kids can now ride side by side with world class GoPro cyclists at the park."

Amy accepted the award for her husband Ben who was out of town on business. He is the President of both Bijou Bike Park and Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Associations

During their April 19 meeting, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Lake Tahoe Unified School District’s Safe Routes to School Master Plan. With this approval, the Supervisors support plans to improve pedestrian and bicycle access and safety around Lake Tahoe schools through infrastructure upgrades, education and encouragement programs, and better enforcement of traffic laws.

During Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, the Council gave direction to the City Attorney to create a policy on how non-agenda item public comments are televised.

While the public is always invited to speak during the public comment period, the Council will look at not televising the portions that aren't about agenda items. They will also look at continuing to televise those comments made by non-profits and other groups to publicize their activities and events.