By Susan Wood

Former South Lake Tahoe City Councilwoman Brooke Laine returns to the panel with a renewed vigilance, joining newcomer Jason Collin. They captured the two seats with 22.32 and 16.71 percent, respectively.

That’s Laine with 1,887 votes and Collin with 1,413, the El Dorado County Elections Department reported early Wednesday morning. The election will be certified in 28 days.

One thing is for sure in this year of election unpredictability – the council has evolved over the years with varying personalities, missions, visions, challenges and tasks.

Serving this community often serves as a balancing act for candidates considering politics and people. The two seats came up for grabs this 2016 election with longtime member Hal Cole bowing out and JoAnn Conner trying to answer to the community again. Conner, who didn’t return phone calls election night, came in fourth with 11.97 percent, or 1,012 votes, El Dorado County Elections reported.

Tami Wallace’s 1,359 votes at 16.08 percent had her in third. Another City Council returning candidate, Ted Long, follows behind with 968 votes at 11.45 percent.

Laine has served six years on the council; the first term during a critical time for the city managing redevelopment.

They say timing is everything.

Laine admitted to Lake Tahoe News her “heart wasn’t in it” during that last go-around two years to serve on the council and wondered if the community sensed it. Her nephew had just died.

“I needed that space,” she said.

Now she’s returning strong and confident because there’s a lot to accomplish.

“I’m in this because I feel the future of our community is at a tipping point. I always felt there was more to do,” she said.

She emphasized that this 2016 election is about the community moving forward, adding she hopes for those with dissenting voices to have “public discourse that’s polite.”

“This national election has shown a divide. People are so unhappy. We as a council cannot allow it to get to that level. We’ll have to adjust and make accommodations,” Laine told Lake Tahoe News.

She proceeded to thank those who believed in her during the campaign.

Collin congratulated Laine and said he felt “excited” about his own race. He was saying goodbye to a few friends from his home when LTN called.

Although Collin early on became known as a widely supported candidate, he said he “honestly didn’t know what to expect.”

What he’s not surprised about is how close the race turned out to be.

On the other hand, Wallace told LTN she predicted the top four vote-getters would be who they are.

She pledged to run again for council again because if anything “there’s not a single one of these people who I couldn’t work with” even though they “may not agree 100 percent of the time.” She wants to work with patriarch Councilman Tom Davis and embrace his institutional knowledge.

The rest of the field included: Danny McLaughlin with 6.7 percent; John Shearer with 6.58 percent, Trey Riddle with 2.77 percent; Bob Topel with 2.64 percent; and Patrick Jarrett with 2.42 percent.