South Tahoe mayor controls board appointments

By Kathryn Reed

In a bit of gamesmanship, South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tom Davis bumped colleague Angela Swanson from the California Tahoe Conservancy board and got himself appointed to it.

Davis filled out the council assignments for the various boards and then the council voted on his recommendations. While this process has been done in the past, the norm in recent years has been for the council to volunteer to be on a board in open session and then the council votes.

Tom Davis

“I think it’s more efficient,” Davis told Lake Tahoe News of how he did things this year.

He said during the Jan. 8 discussion, “Sometimes I just think change is good.” But he didn’t take himself off his pet boards – the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce and Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority – to embrace change.

Davis gave no reason for initially recommending Councilman Hal Cole be on the CTC board. Swanson made is well known she wanted to retain the seat and asked if the council was not satisfied with the work she was doing. No one responded.

Instead, Cole nominated Davis for the CTC board. That was approved with a 3-1 vote, with Swanson the dissenter.

It is possible when the fifth council member is seated that the assignments could be changed. As of the morning of Jan. 8 only Kathay Lovell had applied. She was on the CTC board when she was previously on the council.

At Tuesday’s council meeting the four decided to interview the candidates on Jan. 29 at 9am. This way if they cannot find consensus, they could call for an election in June. The deadline to make that decision is Jan. 30.

People have until Jan. 25 to apply for the seat vacated by Claire Fortier.

Other key board appointments:

• Tahoe Regional Planning Agency – Cole

• Tahoe Transportation District – Swanson

• Cal-Tahoe JPA – Swanson, JoAnn Conner

• Recreation JPA – Conner

• South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce – Davis.

• Waste Management JPA – Conner.