Tahoe Regional Planning Agency executive director announces she will step down

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - The face of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) for well over a decade is stepping down. An emotional Joanne S. Marchetta spoke to the TRPA governing board during its meeting Wednesday, telling them a hearing impairment has led to her decision to leave the position of executive director at the end of June.

She has spent her tenure at the agency for 17 years, 13 as its executive director, and four as general counsel, moving TRPA from an uncertain, unstable, and divided bi-state agency to one that is robust, and one with strong partnerships while being a leader of collaboration.

"I have been so profoundly privileged to serve Lake Tahoe," said Marchetta. "I am deeply proud of what we all accomplished together."

"It is a hugely daunting life experience to lose one of your five senses entirely," Marchetta told the board. "I've had a long, positive, productive tenure with the agency."

She explained that even though her hearing has been helped by modern electronics, it isn't perfect, and the day-to-day realities of a job with different listening situations/meetings no longer work. Marchetta said the long hours lead her to the reality she needed to step down from full-time work.

Marchetta will remain in her position until June 30, at which time she has requested the Governing Board allow her to oversee a new organizational initiative within TRPA to strengthen staff leadership development with collaborative skills. The board will consider her request for a new, part-time position temporary position and the process to hire a new executive director at its meeting on June 22. The board named current Chief Operating Officer John Hester as the interim director beginning July 1.

"We have an excellent and passionate staff, supportive organizational culture, and have become a designated employer of choice," said Marchetta during the meeting.

Board Chair Mark Bruce said of the announcement, “Executive Director Marchetta has been an extraordinarily diligent, strategic, and collaborative leader for the Agency and for all of Lake Tahoe. Her commitment and dedication to the Agency and its mission have been nothing short of phenomenal. During my tenure on the Board, she has proven to be a constant and powerful force behind Lake Tahoe’s many successes.”

Marchetta said she led TRPA as the backbone of collaboration. "We were the agency to hate," she said as they are now seen as making collaboration the "secret sauce."

Marchetta’s tenure has been one defined by culture change and partnership building, lasting nearly one-third of the agency’s 52-year history, according to TRPA. Marchetta led the celebrated 2012 Regional Plan Update, which strengthened the bi-state partnership between Nevada and California. The updated plan created incentives for property owners to encourage environmental improvements on private properties and has led to the enactment of six local area plans which streamline permit processes and encourage community-led plans.

She also helped grow the Environmental Improvement Program to nearly 100 organizations working together to restore Tahoe’s lake clarity, streams, and mountain ecosystem.

Since taking the helm, Marchetta has led TRPA in its support of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team, which since 2008 has collaboratively completed more than 68,000 acres of hazardous fuels treatments and 55,000 defensible space evaluations.

Under her leadership, the Lake Tahoe Watercraft Inspection Program has become one of the nation’s leading aquatic invasive species prevention programs. The program has inspected more than 100,000 boats since 2008 and in that time there have been zero new species detected in the waters of the region.

"This is an emotional day for me," said Marchetta.