Opinion: Complaint against South Tahoe filed with grand jury
By Steve Kubby
Recently, the South Lake Tahoe City Council boasted that it is going to spend $4 million a year on roads for the next five years. Unfortunately, that $4 million promise, which is probably only half of what needs to be spent to do the job properly, is just an empty promise that history tells us will soon be forgotten. The reality is the City Council has only budgeted a pathetic $100,000 to fix our roads.
History also tells us there has been a clear pattern and practice of raiding funds from road repairs and maintenance in order to prop up redevelopment failures and to reward special interest groups. These actions have been going on for 15 years and it has resulted in an enormous unfunded liability of somewhere between $150 million and $250 million in crumbling roads, broken drainage pipes and dangerous potholes. The only success in this area has been for a few individuals who reward their supporters with money and favors, so they can continue to get themselves re-elected to office.
Steve Kubby
Jim Marino, an engineer with the city, told the council in 2009 that it would take $5.2 million a year for 25 to 30 years, just to get the streets back up to par. The City Council responded by doing nothing, resulting in more unfunded liabilities as well as ever more runoff polluting our beaches and creating further loss of lake clarity. Meanwhile, the city budget does not even recognize these unfunded liabilities.
On May 31, 2011, I sent a letter to the South Lake Tahoe City Attorney Patrick Enright to inform hi I had discovered that sometime around 2002, someone transferred $7,007,000 from the general fund, without the knowledge or consent of the City Council. I explained that my research had indicated that those funds were deposited to the Redevelopment Agency, again without the knowledge or consent of the City Council. I then told the city attorney that it appears the purpose of this raid on the general fund was to cover the financial failures of the Redevelopment Agency and the Park Avenue development.
To my astonishment, the city attorney sent me a “loan agreement,” dated March 16, 2004, which was about two years after the unauthorized transfer of the $7,007,000 from the general fund. This agreement, signed by then Mayor Tom Davis, asserts that the $7,007,000 is a “loan” and that it is to be paid back with TOT funds. Since the TOT funds had already been allocated to the general fund, I could not understand how such a loan could be legal. It also struck me as suspicious that the city attorney would proffer this backdated document, especially since the El Dorado Grand Jury had previously admonished the City Council about backdated documents.
As a result of these disturbing findings, I have filed a formal complaint with the El Dorado County Grand Jury.
Steve Kubby is a South Lake Tahoe resident.
The road and curbs in this city do need lots of attention. EVERYTHING “government” in this Town and County needs fixing!
The government getting into the development business is what has done so much damage to this town, county and state.
The crony deals slime their way into everything – our government has gotten into all aspects of our business, Chambers of Commerce business leaders are polluted with the cronies taking tax money to teach us business people how to succeed.
GET BENT!
ACCOUNT FOR YOUR RESULTS CHAMBER BOARD –
Chamber Board members should stand up and be ashamed.
The bottom line is – the community is where it is because of the people you follow. Be it business leaders in the Chambers of Commerce or the elected officials.
The results reflect poorly on the people of the town the county and the State.
To live free you must leave California.
Let it collapse under the weight of its folly.
No Bailouts.
It’s not rocket science and it is annoying dealing with the arrogance of this liberal state of fools.
In my opinion Government has betrayed the citizens. The road problems is just a symptom and it is going to get a lot worse.
Look at the sneaky little $7 million dollar loan that Kubby uncovered.
Where was our wonderful free press in keeping it’s citizens informed…?
The Tribune is a joke. Fluff news for a fluff population.
Bye now.
The City must rid itself of several people in order to see change for the better, The Roads will never be fixed the proper way as long as you have Tom Davis, Hal Cole on the council. And your City Manager is only making things worse, he will not be here long though as this is just a pit stop for a bigger job with the Ski Industry in Colorado, And the City is paying him $175,000 dollars a year plus Benefits, $500 dollars a moth car allowance plus the City gives him a car for City business,Fully paid medical benefits for him and his family, plus they gave him $12,000 to move to Tahoe and the benefits go on with big severance package etc, etc etc, The last I heard was that his family moved back to Colorado, Not sure of that yet.
At least Mr. O’Rourke used the word ‘vision’, as if there might be one someday.
They all seem to relish ‘wading in alligators’, as if that provides enough drama to overlook an actual direction towards the future.
Overcoming others’ earlier shortcomings is not a direction – nor any kind of panacea, especially when ‘overcoming’ only keeps you from getting closer to solutions. . .
Sustainable funding for roads needs to be established for all South Lake Tahoe. This issue is getting worse and compiling annually. The cost also increases every year to bring up the road index ratings. Getting further behind makes it that much harder / expensive to get caught up. Since road condition is tied to water quality and the lake clarity effort you can enhance roads and meet regulatory expectations all at once. The costs of this Lake Tahoe clarity effort are staggering and meanwhile our roads are falling apart, which are the main source of the problem. These are all unfunded mandates that need to be addressed. We need regional funding that capitalizes on the tourist base and not just taxes the business / homeowner. Everyone that lives here or comes to visit should have to pay for roads and environmental impacts associated with selfish people co-habitating in the one of the most sensitive and regulated places known to man.
Well said Hyde Joe Man.
What the City should do is have a long term bond issue brought forward and put the burden on the property owners to pay for the upgrades to the system throughout the City.
T.R.P.A., Lohntan and all concerned with the lake clarity should contribute.
The property owner will cry but the VALUE of all Tahoe Properties would increase by 50% or more.
There should also be a $2.00 fee for every vehicle that comes into this City for Road Maint. and Snow removal. This money should never be touched by the City Council. It should be placed into an account only to be used for those 2 purposes.
Problem solved in a very short period of time. $2.00 will not stop anyone from coming to Tahoe.
Thank you Steve
It’s always interesting to read a story about a City issue: be it roads, redevelopment, debt, govt. salaries. People will always post on this site what some would perceive as personal attacks on members of the City Council. Heck, I think I’ve done it?!
Then to read this opinion piece where a matter with the City is being brought to the Grand Jury and some are cheering that effort on. Shows there’s a high level mistrust! And for the record, I don’t have much trust in the City!
But the criticisms, attacks & mistrust are directed towards those whom I have to admit have been fairly elected! So then it hit me. We need to change our election process!
Sure the members on the Council were the top vote getters in their elections. But the way our system works, where everyone runs at the same time, and the top vote getters get in, needs to be changed! For this regularly means those who are elected to the Council were elected where a majority did NOT vote for them! Thus a majority does not trust them!!
To get elected, you basically just need a corps, but not a voting majority, of supporters! The ” Good Ol’ Boys” just need a corps of backers since the votes get dispersed to so many different candidates!
We need to restructure our election process! Not sure if it’s with a strong-mayor system, a district system or a runoff system. But we need those in power to represent a majority of the voters and thus know they are working in the majority of voter’s interests!
Just one example-spend money on roads which all of us citizens care about! Not on high govt. salaries where you can generate the support a dedicated few who will turn out for you on Election Day!
I think we should make it $15 dollars as a vehicle based fee that is used for all South Tahoe jurisdictions. The other south shore jurisdictions are facing the same issue with decreasing conditions, increasing costs, decreasing budgets and increasing expectations. What gives…? A vehicle based fee would be easier to implement than a toll road and capitalize on the tourist, while getting contributions from the local taxpayer base without raising taxes. A simple road based fee like this would raise millions annually for road improvements… And while were in there fixing the roads, retrofit with LID based water quality improvements… If $15 deters people from coming here, then we probably don’t want those people here trashing our town anyway.
If you charge an entry fee that is too high, only the upper middle class and higher will come, and less services will be needed, so more of us will have to move out of the area.
Also Lake Tahoe belongs to the people, regardless of their economical class.
Dissolve the city instead, end the duplicity, redundancy and overlapping positions, aim toward saving at least $5 million a year which is then put to road repairs. Problem solved.
You know what Steve? Yeah that may be, in fact probably is, the best answer! And I’ll support and vote for City dissolution first! But if that doesn’t happen, second choice is to stay a City BUT contract out services (where the County can still be held accountable) to the County! Third, I’ll go with my change the electoral process post!