I have never felt more betrayed… I had faith that at least three of the members of the City Council would do what is right and just by restoring the right for ALL of the former VHR permit holders and those on the waiting list to their rightful former positions prior to the passage of the unconstitutional Measure T.
If the City Council wants to reduce the number of permits by attrition after all of the above were allowed the opportunity to pick up the pieces from where they were at the time Measure T was unlawfully enacted, I would be OK with that.
However, this proposal is abominable.
There is no provision in the proposed ordinance for selecting which of the former
permit holders will be afforded the limited opportunity to renew their permits, and what the status of the remaining ones will be.
Those on the waiting list are also being shafted by this proposal. Some of them
have been on that list for as long as eight years, and will suffer an even greater loss than the actual permit holders. The waiting list also has a significantly different legal position than the permit holders, it was legally only suspended ostensibly until Measure T was adjudicated.
While I do agree that the QVHR permits should also be restored, they were not
included on the agenda.
Actions speak louder than words, these actions disgust me. There is still the
opportunity to correct this hastily passed, poorly conceived measure, I urge the
Council Members reconsider what they are doing.
-John Messina, South Lake Tahoe