Recreation advocates take sides on ballot measure
By Kathryn Reed
If an umpire had been in the room, several “players” would have been ejected.
And it was a good thing no children were there Thursday night, even though the subject matter was recreation. These grown men don’t all play nice together.
What brought them to the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Complex was to discuss Measure S and the possibility of changing it into Measure R. What got them riled up was if voters should be asked to change how the dollars are divvied up and how the dollars should be allocated.
John Upton and Norma Santiago get an earful at the June 16 meeting about rewriting Measure S. Photo/Kathryn Reed
South Shore voters on the California side approved Measure S in 2000 to provide money to maintain future bike trails, create ball fields, and build an ice rink – in that order. Instead, the order was reversed. The ice rink is done, one ball field is in, and little of the bike trail funds are spent because no asphalt is being laid.
The ball field proponents, led by John Cefalu and Measure S’s lone paid staff member John Upton, tried in 2009 to get more money out of the measure for their preference and failed with Measure B. This time they brought the bike community to the table in hopes altering the measure’s language to allow for old trails to be renovated would sweeten the pot.
“Little League is trying to get more money. I will very much be opposed. I think the funds should go to what was originally voted for,” Jerome Evans, a former city recreation commissioner, said. (The only current rec commissioner at the June 16 meeting was Jonathan Moore.)
Evans and Cefalu traded verbal jabs. Evans was confrontational as he spoke. Cefalu and Upton were not always gentlemen-like, either. Cefalu eventually left the meeting when it came time for Evans to speak again.
Before he departed, Cefalu said based on the opinions of the dozen people in the room, he didn’t see Measure R having the two-thirds votes needed to pass.
He suggested the bike people get their own measure on the ballot to raise funds for their cause.
The reality is what’s left to be collected through 2030 from property owners at a rate of $18/year for single family residences and what’s in the bank from Measure S is not enough to take care of what voters thought they were paying for. Cyclists and baseball advocates agree on that much.
However, one person described it as everyone wanting a piece of the pie, with Measure R creating a smaller piece for bike trails. And it ultimately would no matter how people sugar coat it.
Upton and Cefalu lobbied hard that doing nothing is sticking with the status quo. For them, and the ball field gang, it means not being able to make the improvements they want.
The status quo for cyclists means the only bike trails that would be improved are new ones when they need it.
It’s the pot of money being set aside for those improvements that ball field advocates want to get their hands on.
Cyclists contend while the money for new trails is stagnant, one day the fiscal situation will change and those dollars voters approved for their maintenance will be needed.
The next step is the recreation joint powers authority will meet June 30. Because the meeting as been noticed to be at Lake Tahoe Airport at 9am, it will start there, and then be moved to the library on Rufus Allen Boulevard because of a conflict in scheduling. So attendees just need to be at the library about 9:15am.
The three members of the JPA (El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago, South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Hal Cole and Tahoe Paradise Park board member Deborah Henderson) will be asked to vote on a resolution to create Measure R and the November ballot language.
When asked Thursday by more than one attendee if any of this could be changed, Upton said an emphatic no. Santiago said the politically and legally correct answer of yes. A “no” would imply a decision had been made – which at a minimum violates the Brown Act. And it would be political suicide to admit to making a decision before a public hearing is conducted.
Santiago told Lake Tahoe News for the JPA board to consider amending the language of Measure R the verbiage would need to be presented in the necessary legalese at the June 30 meeting.
But the truth is the ballot language does not need to be finalized until July 29, so the JPA could schedule a special meeting to create some other iteration of Measure S if they so desired.
Santiago took issue with the allegation rewriting Measure S has not been transparent, citing the May 5 meeting that resulted in Measure R being tweaked.
But the truth is Kathay Lovell, as South Tahoe mayor last summer, approached the Bicycle Coalition, saying a compromise to amending Measure S needed to be found.
Talks between the Coalition’s Ty Polastri, Upton and Cefalu started earlier this year. The first time the idea of altering S was brought to the public’s awareness was at an April South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting.
By that time, the language for R was written. No public meetings were conducted before then to get input from anyone. It was all behind the scenes finagling by youth baseball leaders to get it to that point.
On a side note, the Cefalu family is involved in this in another way. Even though no money from Measure S goes to the ice rink operation, it was South Shore property owners who built it via the tax assessment. The city sought bids from people and entities wanting to run the rink, with Chris Cefalu – son of John Cefalu – being the frontrunner to get that bid in July when it comes to the City Council. The proposal was submitted by Tahoe Sports and Entertainment, owned by Van Oleson and Cefalu.
The is proposed Resolution and this is the proposed ballot measure.
Well, that certainly sounds like a bit of conflict of interest, eh?
How do we know who the front runner is? Do we know who the other bidders are? Has the city indicated they are the front runners? Not sure other bidders would be comfortable there is a front runner.
Here we go again, another South Lake Tahoe mess to untangle.
In hindsight, Measure S was a sham. Poorly prepared, promises undelivered, yet money being collected from taxpayers thru 2030. Voters watch your wallets.
It kind of sounds like bike trails have gotten the short end of the stick from this measure. There is already an ice rink and one ball field. Now they should work on a continuous bike trail through town. Seems only fair.
No mention of the cost to taxpayers of the last election or the next one.
good point Perry on the cost of these elections. We don’t need any more costs.
Who will be deciding on who gets the rink? I heard there were several potentials. I don’t believe that there is a problem in young Cefalu getting the rink as Ms. Reed says, the operation costs are not part of this debate.
It also doesn’t surprise me that Jennifer Scanio didn’t show up to the meeting. Hopefully she will resign so that someone who is committed to the community and not to her sex offender husband will take the position and move forward in a positive way.
A portion of the remaining money should be allowed to construct bike trails, that is more close to the intention of the original measure passed.
It really gets old with these ball-field guys constantly trying to get their hands on this money, that is intended for bike trails.
Maybe figure out what 25-50% of the currently held money for bike path maintenance is, and us it to build some trails. Yes, maybe down the road, the pot will not have enough in it to maintain our huge network of trails and paths, but in all the time leading up to then, many will have enjoyed riding those paths :)
I would be for allowing some $ to be used in the creation of bike paths/trails, and I think others would as well.
This article is a serious distortion of the facts, and doesn’t do the south shore any favors. If you really want to know what the measure is about, you should ask Kathryn Reed for the text and read it for yourself.
A PDF of the proposed resolution and proposed ballot measure have been added to the bottom of the story. The JPA board must unanimously approve the decision for Measure R to go to the voters.
Measure B cost $18,000 — out of Measure S funds. The JPA board has allocated $35,000 for Measure R. This, too, would come out of money that would otherwise go to ball fields and maintenance of bike trails.
The council intends to recommend a certain bidder be award the ice rink contract. This is normal for staff to issue such a recommendation.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
It’s always so difficult to be fair here in South Shore.
It’s obvious we are all being ran by bunch money stealing crooks for bogus measures that always seem to change their priorities when it gets down ,dirty.
Get rid of the corruption old ring leaders get on with the real deal.
Why have the residents never had a recall beyond anyone who lives here.Are we lazy or stupid?
The money from measure S was designated to go basically 4 places. Bike trails, Ball fields, Ice rink and Tahoe Paradise park. The money for the ball fields, the ice rink and Tahoe Paradise park has all been spent or is allocated, but the bike trails haven’t been built and there is a pile of money there that the ball field people see and they want to get their hands on it.
The voters voted for bike trails in measure S. We want bike trails. We need bike trails. Our economy needs bike trails. We don’t want the bike trail money diverted to ball fields.
Measure R is designed to divert money to ball fields. If the JPA wanted to do what the people want instead of the special interests, they would write measure R to allow the unspent bike funds to be spent on bike trails. It’s simple! Problem is that they don’t want to do that because they want to divert the money instead to their pet ball field projects.
We need to complete our bike path network, not divert bike path money to ball fields.
What a shame that the way Measure S was written was so restrictive to future bike trails instead of ALL bike trails. It should have been for ALL bike trails, new and old, and not just for repairs but for some brand new areas.
Hopefully, for future measures, people will think things through more thoroughly. All this time and discussion is just a waste for everybody! AND, to consider yet another measure in another election is like throwing money down the drain.
As Hank says, we need to complete our bike path network, not divert bike path money to ball fields.
These ——- in south shore are a bunch of incestuous criminals. Cefalu’s, the garbage scam, etc…it is all the same. What a joke. In the real world these people would parish. Here , they run this town. Live off each other and the tax payers. What a joke.