Letter: Tamara Wallace works tirelessly for us

As a lifetime resident of El Dorado County, I’ve seen my share of City Council members and County Supervisors. Some were excellent leaders and others struggled to live up to the task of taking what the citizens wanted and turning it into public policy. Others faded in times of crisis.

We have four people running for County Supervisor this time. The one I know best and am voting for is Tamara Wallace because she has proven, not just promised, that she can do those important two things.

Our City Council had bitter infighting for over a decade. Our County Supervisors for the past 16 years seemed to fade from sight and seemed more interested in party politics than filling potholes and plowing snow so we could get to work. During the Caldor fire and evacuation, we heard nothing, crickets…

When Tamara Wallace ran for City Council she had just been hired as the Bookkeeper for the Presbyterian Church. She immediately became an integral part of the organization. We had a fire that left us without a place to worship. Tamara used her background in Organization Management, to move the church office, helped coordinate the contractor who rehabbed the whole Church building, and got us back in the building. She had also just been elected to the Council. She ran on the basics of police, fire, roads, and housing. Before she got elected the city had gone 11 years without a Council Budget Committee. It wasn’t long before they had found enough funding to add seven firefighters and opened the closed station. They hired back six police officers. They bought seven new snowplows and they dedicated millions to road repairs. Then the Council was able to donate land and money to start about 500 new workforce housing units.

All those accomplishments happened during the pandemic chaos and then the horrible smoke, and then the evacuation from the Caldor fire. Tamara Wallace didn’t ghost us as many other officials did. She evacuated with her family to Truckee, then spent her time comforting the people of Tahoe and Pollock Pines. she visited the camps where they were evacuated helping them solve the many problems. She did dozens of radio, TV, and newspaper interviews giving comfort and assurance. She met at the command center with the incident command to stay informed. Where were the other candidates? I saw some Facebook posts but with all due respect not much. Tamara worked tirelessly on our behalf. Those are my reasons for believing Tamara Wallace is the right choice for County Supervisor.

- Nancie Norton