Letter: Watch out for a certain trio of politicians
To the community,
What goes around comes around, so here goes.
On Dec. 10, Brooke Laine was appointed mayor pro tem for the city. So what? In 1998, I was elected to the City Council, as was Brooke Laine. Without delay Ms. Laine fell under the spell of redevelopment and its advocates Tom Davis and Hal Cole. Thus, there was a ready majority to support any plan for redevelopment regardless of the merit or lack of merit.
Bill Crawford
Example: The trio supported the American Skiing Company until the bitter end. They refused to collect a $5 million letter of credit of the American Skiing Company. The ski company had breached its agreement with the city. On the issue to collect, I was in the minority.
Also, the trio didn’t exercise oversight over the redevelopment manager who was a loose cannon working for the private side of redevelopment. She was in lockstep with the private party’s attorney. It wasn’t a secret.
So, 13 years after Ms. Laine was elected to the City Council, she’s back by appointment united with Tom Davis and Hal Cole. There will be serious blowback because they are unrestrained boosters of commerce; any commerce and they will gamble with the city’s welfare to seal a deal. On Dec. 10, Hal Cole said, grants are drying up and the city needs more and more private money to be pumped into the city’s economy. Mr. Cole was the main player in the Hole in the Ground. So go figure. People only change in novels.
The trio isn’t the three stooges. They are the three moneys who see no evil, hear no evil, who speak no evil. They ignore the past and their role in harming the city’s welfare. I think of the city’s parking garage that they voted for.
So what comes around has come around. After 13 years, the city is back to square one governed by the same worn and tried trio. We know where they have taken the city from the parking garage to the Hole in the Ground in the past. So what can we look forward to? Place your bets.
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
PS: Dec. 16 is the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.
I agree with you on this.
And look who is running for supervisor.
Things will not get better without lots
of good luck.
The only way to solve this problem is for the people to get their head out of the sand and rid the Council of these vermin, wake up Tahoe, stop allowing these people to crush the City.It’s very sad, South Lake Tahoe used to be a beautiful place to live.
Bill Crawford has a very good memory and genuine talent for putting things into historical perspective. This city needs educated and independent thinkers as our elected leaders. This threesome’s vote to gamble on a paid parking garage has cost this community literally millions of dollars. Consultants made the case that it would make money and they must have agreed. I recall most of the community disagreeing, at the time. That losing gamble is not our councils only money losing legacy. The list is long. Parking meters are the latest entry on the list of bad ideas. The community wants to be heard, but the council is not listening. Ski Bum is right. They operate in a bubble.
The test isn’t if council members made decisions which didn’t work out, it’s if they are willing to learn from them and go forward and correct them.
I’d be interested in seeing a list of negative impacts to the city which were made by the council and then have the council go forward and correct them.
Mr. Crawford, can you be more specific about what was decided to seal the deal?
I know the parking garage was part of it and some movement through refinance has been made to improve that bad situation. Are there other things the council should do?
The “Parking Program” ordinance enacted by the council last year is harming us and will harm commerce. This should be addressed and eliminated by the council without the ballot initiative.
Were there decisions made which limit the city’s ability to collect revenue or cost the city money which were part of the redevelopment or the HOLE? I’d like to see the council readdress and correct them in today’s environment.
It is the same old ‘worn out’ game that is playing out accross our Country. The devious, no talent, self-serving, golden tounged, ill bred, hyennas of the world, have figured out is is easier bamboozle than to put in a hard days work!!
From Washington to SLT the sliksters are plying their trade because the rest of us are trying to make an honest living. But instead, we, the tax payers are just supporting these crooks, all while our cities, counties, states are being RAPED by this criminal element through a tangled web of regulations, laws, agencies, bureaus, overseers and just plain old liars and cheats.
The initiative for HONEST citizens to step up, volunteer their time and run this vermin out of town, county, state, is so draining with the protective sheild of governmental insullation. Yes, laws that have been instituted to protect the criminal actions of these snakes and their ability to sway those with ‘Public Trust’ by currupt means creats a daunting task.
This cycle has been around since recorded history!
Marlene at Tahoe,
I would suggest that “The devious, no talent, self-serving, golden tongued, ill bred, hyennas of the world…” are actually the hate radio/faux news bloviators that you parrot in all your diatribes. Mindlessly blaming all of our gov’t officials and representatives for everything that is wrong with the world is simplistic, unproductive foxbot speech.
Our government is we the people, we can affect change through the cooperative efforts of concerned citizens as we see with the groups opposed to paid parking and those in favor of the med. marijuana dispensaries. It takes leadership, tenacity and dedicated individuals to put these ballot initiatives together and I hope they get a fair hearing. If that doesn’t work there are always the next elections. That’s how it works.
Since the parking program was able to show a profit in its first summer http://www.laketahoenews.net/2013/11/south-tahoes-paid-parking-turns-profit/ I doubt that any Councilmember will change their opinion of the project just because the LPA people are whining, it will take much more than that to get something done before the upcoming election dates. Maybe a plan to increase revenue without the need for paid parking, that would be something I would consider to be progress.
The “problems” of South Lake Tahoe do not fall on the lap of just three individuals. Unfortunately, Lake Tahoes’ (and South Lake Tahoes’) problems began shortly after Fremont “discovered” the Lake in the first place.
Miners needed timber so “we” clear-cut the forests. More people needed highways so we bulldozed the land and laid asphalt. We needed more gambling and Casinos and parking lots and sub-divisions were built. We needed more airplanes, boats and yachts so the Upper Truckee River drainage was paved over. We needed more ski slops and terrain parks and more forest was cut down. We needed more “billionaire” lake fronts and we developed right on the Lake’s edge and put up Private Property Signs. We needed more golfers so even more drainage into Lake Tahoe was developed.
So. Lake Tahoe has lost it’s once “fairest” water clarity that Samuel Clemens exclaimed about years ago and all “we” Lake Tahoans can do collectively is watch the lake’s decline in slow motion while the Powerful and Politicians keep using the same “game plan” designed in the 18th Century.
The “theoretical” limit of the Secchi Dish is about 250 feet. The current record depth of a Secchi Dish is the Sargasso Sea at 217 feet in 1972. That same year, 1972, Crater Lake recorded a Secchi Dish depth of 144 feet. In 1873, John LaConte recorded a depth of 108 feet in Lake Tahoe using a 9.5″ white dinner plate (after clear cutting had been started in 1858).
Today, even Ronald Reagan’s own solution, The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, says, “We need to develop Lake Tahoe in order to Save Lake Tahoe.” The TRPAs’ water clarity/Secchi Dish “goal” is NOT 217 feet, not 144 feet or even 108 feet; it is 100 feet of clarity. (Can’t make the bar, lower it?)
Sorry folks, but Lake Tahoe had a chance for “saving” in 1913 but by the “wisdom” of the US Congress, they decided NOT to grant National Park Status to Lake Tahoe. Good Luck Lake Tahoe… yes, same ol’ equals same ol’.
Good letter Mr.Crawford!, I’m glad you and Jonnie are still here in SLT and remain active in this community.
It looks like it will be more of the “same ol’same old” once again. Old Long Skiis, class of 72′ STHS.
Bill, I know how easy it is to criticize and rile up the troops, both of which you do quite well. I do take some responsibility for the completion of the Heavenly Village project (including the gondola and parking garage), the ice rink, the Ski Run Marina, the Ski Run Business District, Lakeview Commons, the planned improvements to Harrison Ave., etc. I was also involved with preparing an agreement that would lay out how development would occur should Randy Lane, et al, be successful in acquiring the property where the “hole” is now. With few exceptions, I would make those same decisions again given the chance.
As someone who has also participated in our City’s decision making, I do think it incumbent on you to take some responsibility as well. I would remind the public that you personally:
1. In 2007 sat on the council that gave Randy Lane a building permit to demolish the existing buildings and put in a foundation only, even though the property was heavily encumbered and could not be consolidated into one parcel.
2. Supported reinstating Johnny Poland to our police force
3. Opposed the City building a reserve account, stating it was hoarding the tax payer’s money and unfair to our employees. Without that reserve I don’t know how we would have made it through the past 5 years.
I’m sure there are other positions you have taken that you are not particularly proud of, just as I have. The point is; it is easy to accuse others of poor judgement, much harder to take responsibility for your own actions. Just one time I would like you to journey down that more honorable path.
Hey Hal-You are ‘punching down’ there to Mr. McCrankypants and the ‘I hate gubmint cause ya know liberty’ crowd- Bill should be ashamed of himself for attempting to dupe the duped in his unabashed effort to become Tahoe’s resident political curmudgeon
Hal, the troops are already riled up. This paid parking program you voted for is just the beginning. Next time listen to all the voices in the community and not some high paid consultatnt. BTW: You are right that our town’s name should remain South Lake Tahoe. “Tahoe South” just doesn’t sound or feel right.
Hey Hal
You talk about a City reserve, do you remember when the City robbed the Insurance Reserve of Millions of dollars that was supposed to be for the retirees Insurance reserve to cover future cost INCREASES??? Well thanks to you and your Council cronies you are still robbing it and have taken almost all of the Insurance benefits away from us and spent the money that was supposed to cover us in our retirement. But then we only gave up around $1250.00 a month in salary increases to get that benefit and that money was supposed to go into the INSURANCE RESERVE THAT YOU SO FREELY ROBBED
Thanks again
Hey Mr Cole-
Question about one of your comments re Bill Crawford:
He “sat on a council that gave Randy Lane a building permit to demolish the existing buildings and put in a foundation only, even though the property was heavily encumbered and could not be consolidated into one parcel.”
OK so, if the fact that Crawford was on the council is true, the real issue is HOW DID CRAWFORD VOTE?
I seem to recall that in many issues where the council as a whole, voted and approved to do various things, Crawford cast the only dissenting vote.
I would like an answer to this, which will establish if you are a plain spoken direct honest man or someone who writes to shade the truth.
Judging guilt by association is not an honorable thing. If Crawford’s votes were not exactly as you suggest, positive in agreement, you just lost any credibility you have with me, and, I hope the rest of the public.
observer said:
“I seem to recall that in many issues where the council as a whole, voted and approved to do various things, Crawford cast the only dissenting vote.”
My recollection of the above referenced circumstances during Mr. Crawford’s second term as a City Council Member was that he (Crawford) would frequently abstain from voting. The definition of “abstain” is to refrain from something by one’s own choice, therefore Mr. Crawford did not cast a vote of support or opposition that was recorded in the City’s permanent records; he in essence just didn’t vote.
Great post, HTU. The City, with the blessing of Hal and li’l Tommy, offered the employees retirement health benefits as a way to avoid trying to keep wages anywhere near in line with cost of living increases. Looking at just one City agency, the Police Department wages dropped from the bottom 20 percentile of California agencies to the bottom 5 percentile not long after the City and the employees agreed to the settlement. Which no one complained about – it seemed a fair trade to all.
What no one, aside from the politicians, realized, was that the City, with the full knowledge of the council, would use the reserve that was meant to eventually cover those expenses to pay its bills and cover its commitments.
THANK YOU COPPER
NICE TO KNOW THAT SOMEONE ELSE REALIZES THE TRUTH
I spent a bit of time tonight trying to refresh my memory of the City Council voting. I only remember one Crawford vote regarding the Randy Lane; L.T. Development company, etc. I spent some time trying to find the records from Jun 2006 forward, wasn’t on the City website, nor was there any votes listed on the city council agendas, etc….and I looked into late 2008. That was on slt.granicus.
Unless someone has a citation for it, or pipes up with the real information, a visit to the City Clerk’s office would be needed…..
Mr. Bob Fleisher:
Contained in each City Council Meeting Agenda is a heading entitled “Consent Agenda” and under that sub-heading “Item No. 1 – Minutes” the date(s) of prior meeting(s) are listed and the topic discussions/votes for each Councilmember on individual agenda items at specific meetings. This can be accessed by going to the City’s Home Page at http://www.cityofslt.us/index.aspx and clicking the “How Do I” tab then “Watch City Council Meetings” from that drop-down menu, then click on “Watch City Council Meetings and View Agendas”, click the “Year” tab under archived videos, and then click on “Agenda” next to the meeting date and go to Consent Agenda Item No. 1 – Minutes. Sounds a little complicated but it really isn’t too bad once you get used to it. Another way of verifying each Council Members votes and comments is to watch the video of each meeting, then there’s no mistaking what they said. A warning though, this can be extremely time consuming as some meetings are quite lengthily mostly due to the unwillingness of Council Members to exercise any degree of brevity in their remarks and thus the Council meetings and the Council Members become quite tedious very quickly.
Unfortunately this web-streaming feature on the City’s website wasn’t available prior to May 15, 2007. Good luck.
….or you can contact the City Clerk’s office to find out how Mr. Crawford voted.
Is there another? worth considering? Does the basin for air quality issues need development focused on pollution caused by inefficiencies in design. How much non polluting passive solar energy is used to heat buildings, deice pathways ect… Can non polluting windmills power electric vehicles in the basin? Let’s face it,we live in an industrialized world, this is not going to change, but we don’t need to choke on our waste.