Snippets about Lake Tahoe
• The good thing about a wet spring: the Nevada Department of Agriculture forecasts just an average year for the number of Mormon crickets.
• At a future South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting the five are going to discuss the merits of changing to a government structure where the mayor is in charge and not the city manager.
• The Lake Mary Cabin Dinner Series benefiting North Shore nonprofits will be Fridays and Saturdays from July 29-Sept. 24 at Sugar Bowl. For more info, call (530) 426.9000 or go online.
• Tahoe City Dog Park opened June 16 off Highway 28 on Grove Street (behind Fat Cat and below Conners Field). The dog park will be open Thursday-Tuesday dawn to dusk, and Wednesday noon to dusk. For more information, call (530) 583.3440, ext. 10.
Please write more as the Council begins discussing the merits of the mayor being in charge and not the city manager. I try to avoid conjecture but that sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Changing the SLT City government structure from a City Manager’s management to a Mayoral management would require a legal change from a General Law City to a Charter City. There would be an actual election of a paid Mayor and the Council Members would function as Council Members with the practice of one Council Member acting as a Mayor to chair meetings and sign letters on the City’s behalf altering. I’m unfamiliar with the advantages/disadvantages of being a Charter City versus a General Law City. Perhaps Ms. Reed could furnish greater information on that topic or direct the reader to where more information could be found.
It’s bad enough now, be careful what you wish for. One can only imagine former SLT Mayor Terry Trupp, subsequently an inmate, being in charge of city government.
I wrote and suggested this last year and Jeff Munson did a great writeup in the Mnt. News. The city mngr and attorney allready have all the info that I supplied last year. It’s not as involved as one would think and there is a consultant, of course there is a consultant lol, that helps towns move to a Strong Mayor System. A stong Mayor still must answer to the council but the major changes is he / she is responsible for hiring & firing the City Manager, Fire Chief, Police Chief and works with the City Mngr on the budget. They are also elected by the voters. I also gave a budget to work with, I took most of it from the airport and still had about $200K left. It’s not a perfect system but at least the buck stops with Someone.
I agree with Julie,do we want the same bunch that got us into the hole,debt,pipe dreams running the city manager job?
Is there anyone in our city government that can’t be bought?
If so, would you please type there names in so we all can get a idea who that is!
I applaud the City Council for looking into a strong mayor form of government! Not saying it will solve all our problems and not saying strong mayor cities are perfect.
However, it sure would be an improvement as the citizens of SLT could place the votes for what kind of City they want, and what priorities they want laid out, by backing a particular individual! Now it gets so muddled in that each Council person will tell you they were for what you wanted but they couldn’t get the rest of the Council to go along. And then who knows who’s telling the truth?
Plus, the last City Mgr. clearly ran things as if anyone tried to give him direction he would just delay, babble, misdirect until the part-time Council would run out of steam! It would be good to have someone we elect act as the boss and final voice on things!
Bell, Ca.(pop. 35,000) became a charter city in a low turn-out election and their city manager made 1.5 million in salery and benies last year. Its a bad idea. All council members except one and the top 4 or 5 top city officials are or have been under arest and some have pled. It’s a bad idea.
Lou is right, having the mayor run the organization means you are stuck with what ever numbskull happens to win the election. It’s a really bad idea. As it now they have a contract and must answer to five bosses and all of us publicly every day. Don’t make another bad idea for no good reason.
The problem is not paying our city council more than the pittance they get now of something like 500 bucks a month making it practically a volunteer job. Compare that to County supes who get about 75,000 a year its just dumb policy to not give the council a part time salary. I bet if the council got paid we’d get a lot more people willing to step up.
Lou makes a good point about Bell as a Charter City. It was something that was rammed through by the already in office City Mgr. so the limits on his and other top managements’ pay could be removed. Wasn’t just a low turnout in that election, but over half the ballots were absentee. It was an election that barely passed the smell test!
If SLT were to become a Charter/Strong Mayor type of City it doesn’t mean the citizens can fall asleep at the wheel. We would still need to be dutiful watchdogs! But in case you haven’t noticed, SLT has no, and has never had, any kind of direction!! We’re sailing aimlessly up here on our ‘island in the mountains’! Maybe it’s time to change how our government is structured?!
If a paid strong mayor ran the city, would the salaries of upper management throughout the city decrease as this is where the waste is most prevalent?