TCPUD chief moving to top role at NLTRA
By Lake Tahoe News
Cindy Gustafson, general manager for the Tahoe City Public Utility District, is quitting to become CEO of North Lake Tahoe Resort Association.
She is leaving one agency mired in controversy to join another with its own issues.
Cindy Gustafson
Gustafson has been with TCPUD for 26 years, with the last nine as the top executive.
On Aug. 2 she assumes her new role. Last December Sandy Evans Hall tendered her resignation as executive director of the NLTRA, giving the agency six months to find her replacement.
TCPUD is in talks with North Tahoe Public Utility District to merge. While both deal with sewer and water, TCPUD has had a more recreation oriented approach. The debt from pension obligations, age of the infrastructure, and amount of lines are concerns by ratepayers who are wary of combining resources.
At the NLTRA, Gustafson steps into a quagmire with Placer County saying it will be reducing the tourism agency’s role. Talks are ongoing to resolve differences.
Gustafson will be able to walk into her new job knowing many of the players. With TCPUD having a role well beyond sewer and water, she should not have a steep learning curve.
Going in she wants to help tackle affordable housing – which is key to her constituents’ ability to find workers; transportation – for locals and tourists; and revitalization of commercial areas.
The Resort Assn spent over $150K in search of a replacement for Sandy Evans-Hall to ultimately hire local Gustafson. Would be interesting to know how many applied that are local versus outside Tahoe.
The affordable housing issue is being tackled? on many different fronts with little to NO on-the-ground results: Heidi Hilldrum from the Tahoe Prosperity Center has being making the rounds on issue, Placer County for years has collected mitigation in-lieu fees, The Regional Plan Update 2012 allowing deed-restricted second homes on less than acre…. more studies, more dollars to consultants…. NO RESULTS!