SLT council touches on annexing Meyers, electing a mayor
By Kathryn Reed
Is South Lake Tahoe about to redefine its boundaries? Will an elected mayor be the way the city is governed?
Kenny Curtzwiler who lives in Meyers and former South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Ted Long broached those topics. They both spoke at the Feb. 9 City Council meeting during public comments.
Councilman Jerry Birdwell at the end of the regular session got consensus from his colleagues to have an item on a future agenda that would help push the discussion forward. The idea is to have a community meeting to talk about possibly annexing portions of El Dorado County into the city limits as well as going from a general law city to a charter city.
“People who want to be annexed should do a grassroots (movement). Not the council,†Councilman Hal Cole said.
The council said it welcomes the discussion in a community meeting format, but does not want it to be at a council meeting.
Councilman Bill Crawford suggested Mayor Kathay Lovell attend the next Meyers Roundtable meeting to gauge what that group thinks of annexation.
He cautioned that it is expensive to become a charter city and that there are a lot of hoops to go through.
“Do we have the kind of people in this community who can give up their life or job for four years?†Crawford asked in reference to an elected mayor.
It’s no wonder why Tahoe (including Meyers)is run down and circling the drain.
Although I live in Meyers, much of my life and money is spent in “the city”. Unless you’re a hermit, my guess is most of the people in the county are the same way.
Did you “city” haters ever stop to think that there are more of us in the county than there were people who voted in the last city election? Change happens with action not complacency. Moreover, if we ever want the South Shore (city-county included) to flourish rather than continue to flounder in mediocrity we all have to work towards that goal.
Lastly, annexing the county would greatly increase the tax base for the city. Used properly (or course that is key), that revenue (combined with a large new voter base) could very likely be a catalyst to revitalizing and cleaning up the South Shore.
Let’s make this town (city) rock rather than sitting in the shadows and complaining about it!
How in the world would annexing Meyers in to the City be considered a good thing? Just because it’s an “idea” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Next.
Don’t annex the county to the city. Dissolve the city and give it back to the county. I think we’d save a ton of money and reduce headaches, not to mention getting rid of the good old boys’ network that runs the city.
Making Meyers part of the City is a stupid idea by people with an agenda. Wouldn’t help the people in the county one iota.
Dogwoman…..”RIGHT”
As for the GOB network I couldn’t agree more. Scary thing is, I’ve even had a city council member tell me we need to get rid of “same old people” cycling on/off the council. But being a county resident we have no say!
The only agenda I have is to see the South Shore evolve into a thriving community (economically and socially)and to be confident that my kids will get a stellar education. Neither of which is happening at this point in time.
Granted the city doesn’t have a great track record, but how do you all expect the county to improve upon this? Tahoe is a nice adjunct for ElDoCo but the focus is on the Western Slope, not here.
And as for stupid ideas, how do you suppose that increasing a tax base and increasing a voter base is a bad thing (again, assuming tax revenues can be used PROPERLY)?
We’ll never see Tahoe flourish if we retreat to the county and forget that we’re all in this together.