SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The following letter is being published at the request of its author prior to Tuesday night’s South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting.

Good evening, Council Members, For the record, my name is Deepak Sharma.

My family owns and operates multiple lodging properties in South Lake Tahoe.

I was told that as an atomic family, we own and operate the largest number of legal tourist accommodation units in South Lake Tahoe and in the basin. We are further in the process of developing land in another commercial town center of South Lake Tahoe.

For someone who is 100 percent invested in South Lake Tahoe, we watch the politics in this town very carefully.

This town was never a capitalist town, it has always been hard to survive in this town as a business.

While we can praise the natural environment we live in, it is a tough place to do business. With tourism being the only industry here and for that matter in the whole basin, we don’t seem to like our tourists much.

Departure of “Snow Globe” from South Lake Tahoe is a prime example of it. That was pretty much the only event in this town that had brought in tens of thousands of tourists. All those came to spend money here and to pay our bills. The city did its best to push them out. That was a big loss to the business community in the region, but the city also lost a decent amount of revenue that was generated in those 3 days.  Several years down the road, we have no event like Snow globe in this town. For the town with the largest population in basin, population that depends solely on tourism, there is no similar event that brings in high paying tourists in thousands.

Instead of harnessing the power of tourism to benefit the community here, we try to find ways to not welcome tourists.

All that when all our bills are either directly or indirectly paid by the tourism industry. There is absolutely no other industry in this region.

Even the recreation center is being built by an additional two percent tax paid by tourists for the last several years and earmarked for decades to come.

We used to be a socialist type of town and went too far to becoming a welfare state. Where we seem to think we can solve all problems of society by government. That is to control or dictate the income people make and the cost of living here.  Those were the things that were supposed to be decided by the free market. While the businesses here are struggling, attempts were made to force a highly unsustainable minimum wage on the local businesses. Those elements pride themselves on a housing project that costs 5 to 6 times more to build than the options available in the open market.

All this was not enough, then we see the rise of communist elements here. Communism, the very definition is people who don’t respect private property and private property rights. That is the very core of communism. And we saw that here in Council and the commissions appointed by the council.

Measure T came along a few years back. That was supported by voters and all it said was no commercial use in residential areas. That was a simple enforcement of residential zoning laws. Technically, there would be no need of measure T if residential zoning laws were enforced in the first place. Measure T was voted on, it clearly stated, no commercial use in residential areas. Just commercial areas and town centers are for business. And for records again, the only industry in this town is tourism.

However, in recent times in the commissions appointed by this and previous council, there were attempts to ban commercial use of land in commercial areas or town centers. Some smart communists in the planning commission came up with ideas on how to grab commercial land in town centers to further their communist agenda. They tried to ban commercial use of commercial land. For most part, none of those people in the commission and some in the council have anything to do with the industry in this region. They absolutely have no connection with the industry in this region. And to remind again the only industry in this region in tourism.

We are glad to see those communist elements were defeated in the past, but the danger of such elements resurfacing remains, and we need to keep a watchful eye on this matter.

I am here to warn that there are some fragments of politics here that are taking South Lake Tahoe away from USA and closer to Cuba.  Cuba is not where we want to be. I strongly oppose those communist elements in the council and in all the commissions appointed by the previous councils.  I request the council to very carefully vet the commissions on their communist ideology and their connection or any contributions to local industry before appointing them.

Respectfully,

Deepak Sharma