Searching for candidates to move Lake Tahoe forward
Who and what to vote for?
Those are questions Californians who vote by mail are asking themselves now, Nevadans who vote early will soon answer and everyone else will decide Nov. 2.
On the South Shore, three seats are open on the South Lake Tahoe City Council and the two Douglas County Commission incumbents are being challenged. El Dorado County voters must decide on a sheriff – someone from within or an outsider. U.S. senators in both states will be voted in. California and Nevada will have a new governor. Propositions line the ballot.
Lake Tahoe News on Oct. 12 finished publishing profiles of 12 of the 14 candidates in the South Shore races. Two of the 10 City Council candidates did not return the questionnaire.
The answers are there to compare one to another. It’s time for you to evaluate them. But first it’s important to know what you want in a candidate.
Lake Tahoe News believes there are more important issues than legalized marijuana and the number of dispensaries in South Lake Tahoe. State and federal law can handle some of that. And if it’s a legal way for the city and business owners to make money, what’s the harm? People seem to forget 24-hour drinking is next door in Stateline, prostitution is a short drive away and the Stateline casinos practically promote sex at the nightclubs. Morality can’t be the issue.
Pot has been a huge issue here long before people tried to sell it legally. Ask any police officer. Where was the outrage before it became legal?
The questions that need to be asked and answered are: What can be done to change how easy it is to get a prescription for medical marijuana? Is it better for the people who are going to smoke pot without a true medical need to get it at a collective where the goods are not laced with anything than on the street? Could the pot clubs reduce crime? With the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office not prosecuting people with a minimal possession of marijuana, is it better for law enforcement to know pot users are off the street so they can deal with more serious offenses? How much money can the city make off this enterprise?
It’s time the discussion of local elections centers on real issues. What about the 25 percent of South Lake Tahoe’s children living in poverty? Not a single official from the city of South Lake Tahoe was at the Oct. 8 Poverty to Prosperity forum. Shame on them. Let’s hope whomever the new three electeds are for the city will want to be part of that discussion and part of the solution.
People talk about wanting recreation to be the focus of the future. Great. But has any one of them spoken to the U.S. Forest Service to know the fed’s recreation sites are tapped? Have they been at a ski resort in Lake Tahoe on a Saturday?
Recreation – define it — all you candidates who mouth off about it. Be specific what you want and how you will achieve it. What are you going to do that others haven’t done or aren’t doing?
Lake Tahoe News is a huge supporter of recreation. It is fantastic Amgen is bringing the Tour of California cycling event to the basin in May 2011. Kudos to the visitors’ authorities on both ends of the lake to make this a reality.
And hats off to the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board for voting to revamp the football field so it will have lights and be able to attract outside entities to use the site.
Two thumbs up to Douglas County and others for the Stateline-to-Stateline bike trail that is in the planning stages.
This election (or any other for that matter) is not about voting for friends. It’s about voting for the person who can achieve the goals you deem important. It’s looking at track records. Now is not the time to elect people who need a learning curve. The South Shore, California, Nevada and the United States need to right the listless ships of bureaucratic and political morass that have bogged each entity for years.
Locally, Lake Tahoe News is supportive of the candidates with vision, ones who have experience with finance, who can work together as a team, who aren’t afraid to go against the status quo, who are about substance and not hot air.
We need people who call Lake Tahoe home, but who also have experience from elsewhere to bring depth and perspective to decisions. Living here for decades does not make someone more qualified than someone who has been here less than a decade. On the flip side, being here for years does not make someone a good ole boy.
It’s easy to talk a good game, especially for people with a communications or marketing background. But talk is cheap. The South Shore deserves more. We deserve more than going to meetings and putting colored sticky dots on poster boards at endless meetings and to have nothing come of it. (Think TRPA Regional Plan.)
Government will never solve what ails society. But it can help or hinder the process. City councils, county commissions, Congress – they are there to set policy. What kind of policy do you want? Who running for office will help you get what you want and what is best for your town, your state, the country?
Then look in the mirror. What are you doing to help yourself, your town, your state, your country?
If you want Tahoe to look better, what does your home and business look like? If you want less poverty, are you able to hire more people? Or pay people more? Charge a fair price and not one to rape tourists and in turn send locals off the hill.
We are all in this together – at the local, regional, state and national levels. It’s time to play nice and learn the definition of compromise to take off the tarnish that befalls the Lake Tahoe Basin in order to make it shine like the jewel it should and can be.
Your vote is that important.
Well said, Kae.
I hope all candidates read this piece and I agree with Dennis.
The only thing I wished would be asked of those running:
1.what party do you belong to?
2.are you believer or a atheists?
3.your opinion on gay rights?
4.What should be done to people holding office in SLT when crimes of fraud,disobeying rules(chamber,ltva,utilities,law enforcement,city titles,ECT)BE FOUND GUILTY OF WRONG DOING, BE FORCED TO A HONEST RECALL?
5.Should The Brown act be better enforced, followed, than past councils performance have shown ?
I don’t see this as a privacy concern, but foundation of what builds the soul,conscience, and true character?
You can throw out all the past job description,schooling,what other board you held,cut to the chase, “Who In Hell Are You, Really?”
“THAT’S WHAT COUNTS THE MOST IN MY OPIONION”
I was happy to see some of the candidates at the Poverty to Prosperity Forum. A nice day full of great insight and inspiration for a great new page.
I was at the council forum tonight…65 members of our community were too. A bigger turnout would have been nice so they could get a better insight into our candidates and how they conduct themselves in public and their ability to think and talk.
Went to the forum last night, gave my undivided attention for the full two hours (which by itself stuns even me!), and walked away with a very clear picture of which three candidates, in my opinion, would be the best choices for the future of our town. All candidates did quite well, and the forum format also seemed to expedite the process fairly smoothly, while giving the candidates seemingly ample time to give their answers. When all was asked and answered, if I were able to vote in this election (currently registered in NV for the last year after being registered and voting in SLT for the previous 27 years) it would be for Angela Swanson, Claire Fortier, and Tom Davis. I did expect a better turnout of members of our community to attend this forum. These candidates were speaking to a much too small audience!
Very well said, Kae. As a 21 year resident, it resonated with me. I do think that Claire Fortier is a candidate who will move our city forward. She has vision,courage, the depth of experience, and the guts to challenge “what has been”. She knows how to work in the type of collaberative effort it will take on our new city council to be effective. And she will be up front, and transparent. She cares passionately about our town, and the people in our town.
Great editorial, and wonderful series of candidate profiles! And thanks for asking focused questions of each candidate. I wish more time could be devoted to some of the Nevada issues that affect the entire south shore community.
Regarding the City Council race, Claire Fortier and Angela Swanson have had the most compelling, thoughtful, and reasonable solutions to turn our community into a more positive direction.
For the other candidates (City Council and Douglas County), I would like to see more specific responses. Enough generic diatribe about filling the hole in the ground, eliminating regulations, promote tourism, and get the TRPA out of the City’s business. What are the specifics? What are the current adverse impacts you all perceive from these issues and what will be the specific outcomes from specific and reasonable changes you would implement?
Hi h
I don’t see this as a privacy concern, come out of your closet. Please answer your own questions, 1 2 and 3 then as a new #4 “your full name”
Alex, won’t happen as h, which is short for holt, is content to hide behind the anonymity of the web and spout his nonsense. Every now and then h does come up with something worthwhile to think about but not to often. All you have to do is wait for h to say something about LTN that is derogitory and the site will reveal who it is anyway as evidence of the past two revealing of web names by this site. Ken Curtzwiler
Kenny
You keep taking cheap shots at LTN for disclosing names. It’s a private business just like the rest of the media in the basin that can make up whatever rules it wants. Why should it promise anonymity? I don’t think the people involved with LTN have gone against any policy it has in place by calling out people. If people are afraid of others knowing who they are, maybe they shouldn’t be saying what they are writing. Just like you get to make the rules for your K&K, LTN gets to do the same. Not only that, LTN is free. I for one support it as a subscriber and donor so it will remain a viable news outlet. If you don’t like how it does business, don’t read it or comment. We have choices here.
I in no way took a cheap shot at the LTN only in your mind did I. I like this site and subscribe to it’s daily e-mails and have contributed to it also. You need to know the difference between a cheap shot and an opinion. Thanks for your opinion and I agree with you as to the viability of this site, we have needed something like this for a long time. However I thought this site was a journalistic news site and journalists do not reveal their sources. BTW, no one else has posted but you are defintley in the minority if you think no policy was breached as I have been contacted by quite a few people but it’s not my site and LTN is free to do what they want. At that I will move on before I am told to lol.
Ski why are you so jealous?
You got the right name. Your words to me are quite flattering, I feel so touched…!lol
Just because you think your name is up in lights “,boy” you’re reading it wrong dude!
Alex, I’m not running for any seat, I truly thought voters would like to know their stance on certain society Beliefs, lifestyles, since they are suppose to represent society as a whole, not just certain good thing they are trying to convince the public to why we should vote them in .Open books are so much better to read than closed cover novels.
(if we elected them on looks, Steve and hot gossip are a shoe in)!
I’ve never seen so many running on the ticket proclaiming that skiing, hiking, outdoor activities are their pie in the sky has that entire extra hip, thighs, following them around.
I won’t reveal my candidates because we are business associates, partners, in the unheard voices, you see on the street every day.
Pardon me Jason for having to make a comment to kk…..it’s nice to have American freedom in having choices.
I have to admit that LTN is on a higher plain than any Generic Entertainment News, worn out Tribune, these papers so bad it won’t start a fire in the Wood-stove without stinking up the wide open spaces.
Peace…’macoche”
Since when are people who make comments sources? If that is your argument, you should talk to Kae or your boss Taylor and let them explain the difference between a source and all these people like me, you and the anonymous others. I would never consider myself a source to any entity, whether I’m posting here, on CNN or the Huffington Post. LTN does not have a policy and never has about keeping people who make comments anonymous. Just ask the publisher. That’s why there has been no breach of policy. And clearly no journalistic ethics have been breached. The problem is you and others think you have the right to tell a private business how to operate; people think they have the right make critical, borderline libelous, statements without accountability. I think this is wrong. Maybe I’m in the minority. I’ve been there before. Free speech is great. So is free enterprise. Knowing Kae’s background, to question her ethics and confidentiality with keeping sources anonymous is so wrong. You aren’t a source, I’m not a source and no one else posting should ever consider themselves a source. Get real and get over yourself.
Just curious but why is it when ever I get a response someone always throws in a “personal” touch like my business, my first name or a little personal tidbit about me. Don’t get me wrong I could use the advertisement as business has been slow this year but just curious because I don’t know any of them and maybe if they throw that i tidbit in people will think they have talked with me but they don’t. Back to the story LTN wrote. Excelent way to put into the light that we need a change Let’s hope that at least 3 of them work together.
You have mentioned your business. No means for disrespect on my part. Merely pointing out you and LTN’s publisher both own businesses and trying to relate how each has the right to conduct business as they see fit.
And it is time for change. Forum today was good.
Being a good public speaker, does not matter when policy decisions are being make. Don,t vote for style over substance, vote for change that you belive in. Swanson elected to the school board, quit before her term was up, and Clair had her name on the c.c. ballot, a few years back, then quit the race. I ask why to both?
lou, check out those donations,food for thought!
Even bird man threw some seed in the pile!
Nurse for 100 bucks…that’s what they charge for your temp in the office!
Lot’s humanitarian for the homeless .
This some great reporting,love it!
Skibum
Thanx for the info on the closet h