S. Tahoe commission appointments become personal

By Kathryn Reed

In a thinly veiled attempt to deny Ted Long a seat on the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission, the City Council on Tuesday delayed appointments to that board for two weeks.

“We can wait so we don’t get a candidate by default,” Councilman Bruce Grego said in his desire to postpone the Planning Commission selection.

Grego repeatedly cautioned his colleagues that just one vote for a person is good enough to get them appointed. It doesn’t take a majority of the council. That rule may be revisited in the future.

Five people applied for the five-member Planning Commission.

Long, a controversial ex-councilman, filed for six commission seats. He was appointed to two on Jan. 11 – the Latino Affairs Commission and Delinquent Refuse Hearing Board.

One of the problems with the application process is the person does not have an opportunity to rank which seats he or she would prefer to be on or how many. It’s possible Long or anyone else has an interest in serving their community in various ways, but not necessarily for all seats applied for.

For those who are interested in serving on the Planning Commission, contact City Clerk Suzie Alessi at salessi@cityofslt.us. Those who applied in the initial round need not reapply.

The Parks and Recreation, and Airport commissions received the most number of candidates, while some received the minimum, and the General Plan Advisory Commission is short a member.

Much discussion centered on a potential conflict of interest Claudio Bellotto may have by being appointed to the Airport Commission because he operates a helicopter business out of Lake Tahoe Airport. While this was ruled to not be a conflict, nothing was brought up about the fact he is dating the airport’s senior administrative assistant.

The council put him on the commission.

Appointments made Tuesday include:

• Airport Commission – Bellotto, Kris Keesling, Ike Marr.

• Building Board of Appeals – Keith Cloutier, David Huber, Dale Rise, Randy Vogelgesang, Robert Wirth.

• Delinquent Refuse Hearing Board – Long, David Kelly, David Newell.

• General Plan Advisory Commission – Richard Belli.

• Latino Affairs Commission – Long, Pedro Lopez, Paul Moniot, Mary Rodriquez, Liliana Sanchez Ruvalcaba.

• Parks and Recreation Commission – Seth Martin, Jonathan Moore, Chip Morrill, Jennifer Scanio, Les Wright.

• Sustainability Commission – Newell, Morrill, Jason Collin, Joy Curry, Juliana Prosperi, Kay Ogden, Tom Wendell.