When South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace stood before the public earlier this month to admit stealing from the Presbyterian church where she worked for seven years as administrator and bookkeeper, she cast herself as a broken woman overcome by guilt and grief — a repentant sinner who “had not been found out,” but turned herself in.
“Rather than being like many public servants and individuals who try to lie, hide, and delay the consequences of something they have done,” said Wallace, “I am taking a different path.”
Or was she? The story begins to unravel the moment you look beyond the dazzling confession to the facts on the ground.
According to the church’s attorney, Philip Dunn, Wallace is believed to have stolen more than $300,000 from Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church — a sum he called “very significant … a loss that has an impact on the church’s ministries.” An extraordinary betrayal for any congregation, let alone one that trusted her with its books. And while she claimed to have “turned herself in,” the church’s attorney now says otherwise: she did not report the theft — the church discovered it, fired her on September 25, and contacted law enforcement.
And this isn’t the first time.
Court records show that Tamara L. Wallace was sued by Federal Insurance Company for over $110,000 tied to the theft of funds discovered in 2006.
In reviewing some 50 pages of court documents related to this incident, the Promissory Note, signed by Ms. Wallace in June of that year, includes the following statement:
It is agreed that this Promissory Note is given as evidence of rights against me arising out of the theft of funds discovered on April 24, 2006, which resulted in Federal Insurance Company making payments of $122,193.16, for which I owe reimbursement and that Federal Insurance Company has the authority to collect the sum of $122,193.16, a compromised amount of the total of the amount due from me, which I agree is due by reason of said incident.
Over the years, she paid back only about $12,000. By 2017, she had stopped paying altogether. In 2021, Federal Insurance Company sued her in El Dorado County Superior Court for defaulting on the agreement, and by 2022, she still owed roughly $110,000 on the original judgment. The case was reclassified as an unlimited civil matter due to the substantial unpaid balance.
So much for Ms. Wallace’s recent promise to “pay back every penny.”
Despite this long and sordid history, Wallace assured the public she had never done anything like this before. Yet, this pattern — theft, denial, half-truths, and delayed contrition — spans nearly twenty years. It paints a picture not of redemption, but of calculated self-preservation. And we still have no clear accounting of how her actions have affected the people and institutions of this community. And who in this community will be bold enough to count the cost?
All the while, Ms. Wallace has held far-reaching positions of public trust and financial oversight: the California Tahoe Conservancy, Clean Tahoe Program, Tahoe Transportation District, League of California Cities, and multiple city subcommittees — including Finance. Her husband, Duane Wallace, is the longtime executive director of the Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, where she is Executive Vice Chair.
The conflict of interest could not be clearer — nor the hypocrisy more egregious.
South Lake Tahoe has heard enough of the mayor’s many reasons for her misconduct and betrayal. It’s time for Ms. Wallace to do what she herself said she would: accept the consequences by offering her immediate resignation. This must be followed directly by forensic audits and reviews of every board she has touched, every budget she has influenced, and every level of city and county leadership where she has served.
One thing is clear: Tamara Wallace is her own worst enemy. Her role as Mayor must be brought to a swift end — not only for the sake of the city and the people of Lake Tahoe, but for Tamara Wallace herself. Anything less is cowardly and self-serving.
-Dana Tibbitts, Lake Tahoe