SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, South Lake Tahoe Mayor Cody Bass presented three “Keys to the City,” one each to Roberta Mason, Jeff DeFranco, and outgoing City Attorney Heather Stroud.
Mason and DeFranco received theirs at the beginning of the meeting, and Bass surprised Stroud with hers at the end of the meeting. She is moving on to a new position after serving with the City for eight years.
“You leave our city in such a better place,” said Cody.
Roberta Mason, a prominent civic leader and community pioneer, has been widely regarded as the “mother” of Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC). She has spent decades establishing local strongholds, serving on numerous boards, and championing education. Her involvement in LTCC’s formation began in the 1960s, when she joined a small group of committed citizens determined to bring a college to South Lake Tahoe. Despite early setbacks, Roberta and her colleagues persisted, eventually securing the creation of an independent community college district. Her name is on the college’s library.
Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil recently recognized Roberta as the South Lake Tahoe Woman of the Year.
Jeff DeFranco is the outgoing superintendent and president of LTCC. Over his decade at the college, he oversaw massive institutional growth, boosting full-time student enrollment by 40 percent, nearly doubling annual revenue, bringing a dormitory to the campus, spearheading the Lake Tahoe College Promise program, and overseeing the work of Measure F, the $55 million general obligation bond aimed at upgrading campus technology, modernizing science labs, and building emergency responder facilities
He will be leaving after the current term for a new position at Arizona State University, where he will be Special Advisor to the Provost on Academic Alliance Strategy.
Jeff said his grandfather, Richard DeFranco, always used to say, “One of the best uses of your time is to invest in your community.” Richard received a key to his city, Mentor, Ohio, after serving in leadership positions, including mayor. As Jeff’s dad passed on the key to his son, he said, “Let this key be a reminder to live by those words.”
“So tonight was a very full-circle experience to receive a Key to the City of my own, hopefully in part because I have tried to live by those words about investing in my community: both through my leadership role and through my personal time,” said Jeff.
