Swanson enters El Dorado County supes race
By Kathryn Reed
Experience, knowledge and the ability to get things done are what Angela Swanson believes she would bring to the job of El Dorado County supervisor.
The 53-year-old officially threw her hat in the ring this week when at the Nov. 5 South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting she told her peers she would not be seeking re-election to that body but instead would be going for the county position in 2014.
When she isn’t at the twice-monthly council meetings she is either at the Board of Supervisors meeting in Placerville or watching it online. She believes in relationship building, and has been doing so on the West Slope to grasp a better understanding of countywide issues.
“District 5 is very different than in the past with the inclusion of the district going to Pollock Pines. We are no longer the lake district. We are the eastern end of El Dorado County,” Swanson told Lake Tahoe News. “We have to know how to play in the big sandbox.”
Swanson is entering her fourth year on the City Council. In the past three years she said, “I had to expand my base knowledge of Tahoe and El Dorado County to understand environmental politics, transportation, growth, development, management of public safety and fire, and more.”
She says her city appointments have helped her gain a breadth of knowledge. For two years she was on the California Tahoe Conservancy board, is in her third year on the Tahoe Transportation District, three years on the Cal-Tahoe Joint Powers Authority, and has been on the Waste Disposal board.
Swanson is also active in the League of California Cities. She is on the Transportation, Communication, and Public Works Policy Committee as well as the Women’s Caucus dealing with pensions.
Outside of the city responsibilities Swanson is part of Lake Tahoe Collaborative, advisory board member of the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe and on the Lake Tahoe Educational Foundation board.
It is the latter role and that of being a council member that put her name in headlines in August 2012. The ed foundation accepted money from a man who had business before the council and who subsequently went to prison on drug charges. The District Attorney’s Office has never filed charges nor exonerated her in that case, with DA Vern Pierson telling Lake Tahoe News there is still an active investigation involving Swanson.
Swanson said she has only spoken with Pierson twice in the last 15 months.
“My focus needs to be not on worrying about forces outside my control, but continuing to do what I have done since last August – come prepared, come with a plan, do hard work, and execute projects on behalf of the city at the policy level,” Swanson said.
Prior to being elected to the council, Swanson was on the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board from 2005-09. She left before the term expired “to focus on my family after a job loss.”
She is still working in school facility planning arena, though most of her emphasis is on grant writing projects.
The other declared candidates for the fifth district seat are Gerri Grego and Sue Novasel.
Proven success with the grants that changed SLTHS. What an incredible rejuvenation of that school.
Although she is very intelligent, I think she has an uphill battle. 4 years on council and never given the opportunity to be mayor. That’s a big question mark. The DA’s ongoing investigation; whether its BS or not is something she will have to deal with as well. How will she effectively fight for the basin when she demonstrated no leadership on city council.
To bad she has never sat on a disabllity or Senior board!
I seriously doubt that Angela can carry the city with her selling Geno out and the continuing bribery investigation. Worst yet this means two South Lake women in the race which at best splits the vote and the single candidate from Shingle Springs gets in easily leaving us with no representation which should not be a surprise because in the last 8 years we have had none.
There are already enough on the BOS with major legal problems, one under felony indictment that refused to step down which has caused numerous problems while he awaits trial, and there are others with suspicion of violating laws relating to financial disclosures that are required by law. There really isn’t any room for anyone with a questionable past to be elected. At the minimum the DA should charge her or dismiss the case, although he seems to be busy with corruption and murder trials on the west slope now.