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.