South Lake Tahoe appoints Nancy Kerry as permanent City Manager

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s South Lake Tahoe City Council closed session, the council unanimously voted and offered the full time permanent City Manager position to Nancy Kerry. The terms of the two-and-a-half year contract are still being negotiated.

Announcing the appointment, Mayor Claire Fortier said “It was a unanimous decision by council; all of whom have recognized Nancy’s capacity to take on tough challenges to come to painful but necessary decisions quickly and her ability to be both compassionate and focused. We are thrilled that Nancy is going to be our new City Manager because she not only has all the gifts to be able to perform the job well, but she is being hired from within and it is important to recognize that being able to hire from within is very important to the City Council. We are very pleased because she will be the first female City Manager for the City of South Lake Tahoe and that is pretty historic.”

Ms. Kerry has been with the City of South Lake Tahoe since 2008 working in various departments. She worked alongside the previous City Manager to develop a comprehensive Strategic Plan with meaningful performance measures later operationalized into an effective City Business Plan linking priorities to measurable outcomes throughout the organization. Ms. Kerry has 12 years in government and more than 15 years in private business started in Southern California.

Prior to moving to Tahoe, she worked for the City of Solana Beach, San Diego County, San Diego Association of Governments and San Diego District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Kerry also has a background in the private sector as Vice President of her father’s manufacturing company for many years and providing private consulting services to organizations.

Ms. Kerry earned her Bachelor’s Degree from San Diego State University where her GPA garnered a rare Summa Cum Laude with distinction award. She continued her education by earning a Master of Public Administration degree, also from SDSU, where her grades and participation were recognized when she was named the Outstanding Graduate Student of 2001 by the School of Public Administration.

Upon accepting the City Manager position, Kerry said “I’m humbled by the opportunity to work with an incredibly hard working City Council and city staff. These continue to be challenging times due to the protracted recession, but as we can see from all the visitors here enjoying Lake Tahoe, the signs of recovery are on the horizon. The City intends to help lead the recovery efforts by encouraging our collective leadership in South Lake Tahoe to focus on where we have shared agreements to achieve significant success, attract capital investors into the community and leverage local resources.”