S. Tahoe council backs prosperity center

By Kathryn Reed

Money was the dominant subject at Tuesday’s South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting.

After multiple attempts by the Tahoe Prosperity Center to get $10,000 from the city, the council said yes on a 4-1 vote on Sept. 15. Councilwoman JoAnn Conner was the dissenting member. Conner is against giving any nonprofit taxpayer money.

Mayor Hal Cole noted the city is a voting member on the TPC board and that it is not a traditional nonprofit because of the public input, and that it is a regional body that can do things the city alone cannot do.

Councilman Tom Davis reluctantly voted to spend the money, but said without proven deliverables in the next year, he won’t do so again.

While at previous meetings the council had talked about designating what the money would be earmarked for, this was not the ultimate decision.

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Resident Jerry Goodman brought forward a desire to institute parking permits for his neighborhood near Heavenly Mountain Resort to deal with vacation home rentals taking over city streets.

Councilman Tom Davis recused himself because his company has rentals in the area.

The vote was 2-2, and therefore died. Cole and Councilwoman Wendy David opposed the permits, while Conner and Councilman Austin Sass were for them.

“I don’t think this is the right solution for vacation home rental problems,” Cole said.

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Jerry Bindel, chairman of the Tourism Improvement District, and Carol Chaplin, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, gave a tourism report. TID collects transient occupancy tax on top of what the city mandates.

Bindel is expecting a 2 percent increase in 2016 in hotel taxes collected; this is on top of the 2 percent that has been accrued to date this year.

Cycling is likely to become a bigger piece of the marketing story, including the bike park at Bijou Community Park that opens Saturday.

The Tahoe South ad campaign is being re-thought.

Much of what Chaplin said had been covered in that day’s Lake Tahoe News story.

In other action:

·      Mark Carlson, who is in charge of the city’s finance department, is now also the assistant city manager. He will receive a 5 percent boost in pay.

·      The council approved the budget for fiscal year 2015-16.

·      The Oct. 6 council meeting has been canceled so most of the council may attend the League of California Cities conference.

·      The council approved the agreement with Lake Tahoe Unified School District regarding ball fields.