City celebrates Emilie Tieslau as honorary mayor of South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - On the evening of Tuesday, March 29, South Tahoe Middle School Student, Emilie Tieslau, served as honorary Mayor at the City Council meeting. After she was presented with a proclamation from Mayor Cristi Creegan, she called the meeting to order and led the pledge of allegiance.

Before the meeting, Emilie had a busy afternoon starting with a tour of City Hall. Next, she met up with the City’s Police K-9 team, toured a fire engine with the City’s firefighters, and viewed snowplows with the City’s Airport Operations team.

While the Mayor for the Day event was originally scheduled at the end of February in honor of Youth Leadership month, it was canceled due to severe weather. Mayor Creegan thought the timing of the event was perfect since it was a great way to share leadership roles in local government.

“The Mayor for the Day Contest is a great opportunity for youth to become more engaged in local government and learn about civic engagement. It’s important for our youth to gain an early understanding of how all levels of government work, but especially to understand that local government is that which is closest to the people and where they and all community members can often make the biggest and most impactful difference on our everyday lives. Also, exposing our youth to these different leadership opportunities is extremely valuable as they determine their career path for the future,” said Mayor Creegan.

Emilie did an amazing job as Mayor for the Day. She enjoyed having the opportunity to serve as the honorary Mayor along with the events before the City Council Meeting. When she was asked what her favorite part of the day was, she replied, “it was meeting the Police K-9, Rocky.”

Middle School students in South Lake Tahoe were invited to apply for the Mayor for the Day contest by submitting an essay on what they would do if they were Mayor. The essays were reviewed by the judging panel that included Mayor Creegan, City Manager Joe Irvin, and Lake Tahoe Unified School Board Trustee, Lauri Kemper. The review panel enjoyed reading the student’s essays and hearing about all the creative and innovative ideas they shared.

The City thanks all the students who participated in the contest. We hope to continue this new tradition every year so we can provide students with a glimpse of local government and potential career opportunities as they look to their futures.