My Responses to the Mountain News

The following are my responses to a Mountain News questionnaire which was featured in their September issue.

Why are you running and why do you believe you are qualified to serve on the council?

For more than 40 years, I have dedicated myself to public service and helping to support thriving communities. I began my professional career as a Police Officer and Police Detective, and I put myself through both college and law school at night while working full time. I served as a Deputy District Attorney, and the head of the sexual assault and child abuse units, as well as the supervising attorney for a large city police department. I have also had a small business where I served as an attorney for other small and large cities, and I worked as the Director of Moral Character for the State Bar of California.

That progression - from police officer, to prosecutor, to attorney working with local governments, to small-business owner - has given me the opportunity to see government from many different perspectives. I know how important good government can be, and I also know how frustrating government can become when it stops working well for the people it is supposed to serve.

That is an important reason I am running for the South Lake Tahoe City Council.

During my years here, I have seen our community at its best and have also experienced many of the same challenges as my neighbors. I have dealt with parking problems, neighborhood crime, difficult vacation rentals and other quality-of-life concerns. I have cleaned up trash left behind in our neighborhood. Like many residents, I experienced the extraordinary pressures that came with the increase in tourism during and after the pandemic. And during the Caldor Fire, my husband and I evacuated along with an elderly neighbor, not knowing what we would find when we returned. Experiences like these remind me that the decisions made by our City Council are not abstract. They affect our neighborhoods, our safety, our businesses, our homes and our daily lives.

In addition to my professional background, I also spent many years volunteering as the Vice President of a  Homeowner’s Board, serving on a crime victim’s board, and as the Vice President of one of the first Police Advisory and Review Boards, which functioned as an appellate board for citizen’s complaints. I understand the important role the City Council plays in establishing priorities, allocating resources, and working collaboratively with other local agencies, boards and commissions. My goal is to bring experienced, professional, and common-sense leadership to the Council while making decisions that strengthen our community and support those who protect it.

I believe South Lake Tahoe is at an important time of transition. We need change. This is a time for experienced, professional and trustworthy leadership. I want to help restore faith and confidence in our city government by focusing on competent decision-making, respectful leadership, transparency and the basic responsibility of making City government work well for the people who live here.

I am not running because I believe one person has all the answers. Good local government requires listening, asking difficult questions, examining evidence, bringing ideas to the table, and working with people who may not always agree.

I am running because I believe my experience can be useful to this community at an important moment where we need change, and because after more than two decades here, I care deeply about what South Lake Tahoe will be like in the years ahead.

In the past year, how many city council meetings have you attended or watched online?

For more than three years, I have attended and participated in the City Council meetings, either in person or via Zoom. I have also attended other City events, symposiums and presentations. There are only a handful of meetings that I have watched on YouTube. A lot happens at meetings that you do not hear online. The reason I believe it is important to attend in person is that you meet the other community members and hear their concerns. Many members of the public have had good ideas that were implemented by the City Council. I am the only candidate not seated on the Council that regularly attends and participates in the meetings.

How would you balance the need for regional collaboration in Tahoe with preserving local control for the city?

Many of the challenges facing South Lake Tahoe do not stop at the city limits, so strong regional collaboration is essential. We need a productive relationship with TRPA on environmental protection, land-use planning and development; with the Tahoe Transportation District on transit and regional transportation; and with our state, federal and neighboring agencies on wildfire prevention, forest management and emergency response. These are just some of the many overlapping needs and interests in our small city.

Collaboration should not mean giving up local control and accountability. The City Council is elected by South Lake Tahoe residents, and as such, should advocate for the City’s needs, including maintaining the rights over important City decisions.

I will collaborate whenever the problem requires a regional solution, but I will also advocate for decisions to remain with the City when they can responsibly be made here.

What is your plan for mitigating wildfire risk and preventing wildfires in the city?

We evacuated during the Caldor Fire and found that there was very little communication from the City at the time. Most of our information came from Facebook. I believe that as a result of this difficulty, the City has vastly improved the communication strategy from five years ago.

My plan for mitigating wildfire risk is to rely upon the experts in the field.

We cannot eliminate wildfire risk, but we can do much more to reduce the likelihood that a fire will become catastrophic, and to make sure we are prepared when a fire occurs.

(1) Start at Home

Planning begins at home. Residents need to do their part in creating and maintaining defensible space around their homes. There is help for seniors and others in need. The City should continue to seek out grants to help residents with home-hardening and defensible space improvements. Additionally, residents need to have a family plan to evacuate and to be able to survive for a period of time during a disaster.

(2) Forest Service Partners

The City should continue to work with our forest service partners to reduce fuels and provide fire breaks in and around the City.

(3) Local Fire Experts

The City has the experts. We need to listen to them, and support them by making sure they have everything they need to do their jobs - staffing, equipment, training, communications and strong mutual-aid relationships.

We should regularly test and evaluate our evacuation plans. There are models that can do this, to evaluate different evacuation conditions.

How would you address the affordable housing issue in the city? Do we need to build more projects and/or make more of the existing housing stock in the city habitable and available for long term occupancy? If so, how would you accomplish that?

The South Lake Tahoe housing issue is difficult problem that requires more than a few paragraphs of dedicated discussion.

The City has made meaningful progress in addressing housing needs for low-income and very low-income residents. This summer, the largest number of affordable apartments at Sugar Pine Village have opened, with 248 units planned, as well as other additional smaller low-income housing projects/units in progress.

A significant gap remains for moderate-income and workforce housing. That “missing middle” should be the next priority. We should carefully evaluate practical approaches such as appropriately located ADUs and multifamily rentals, partnerships with large local employers, development incentives that produce durable workforce housing in the basin, and pathways to homeownership. Secondary sources of funding through grants and other government funding should be considered. The Lease to Locals program helped support a significant number of locals and assisted in getting them into long-term rental housing. Ideally, this program would be supported by outside funding, including the assistance of major employers in the area. No single approach is a complete solution, so we should measure what works.

We should also make better use of our existing housing stock by helping property owners rehabilitate deteriorating homes and apartments. More than 73% of the City’s housing was built before 1980, so preservation should be part of the solution alongside any responsible new construction. A well-managed fire evacuation plan also must be part of the conversation.

A councilmember alone cannot accomplish much on the council. How would you work constructively with other councilmembers to achieve your goals, even when you may not be in total agreement?

I do believe that individual Councilmembers contribute a lot to the discussion and to the community. The Councilmembers are there to represent the community, to do the research and to bring ideas to the table. Councilmembers can build relationships with Tahoe basin partners and representatives to further the interests of the City of South Lake Tahoe. In that way, they accomplish a lot for the community and on behalf of the community. Individual Councilmembers can also write letters on behalf of the community, and in support of community needs. I have seen this done well.

I would work with the other members of the Council to further the objectives of the greater community. I treat others as I would like to be treated. I would seek to find common ground and cooperation to bring the best interests of the community forward.  I have spent a lifetime in government service, working with cities, counties and boards and commissions to further the best interests of the greater group. I am a hard-worker, passionate and well-prepared for meetings and events. I can put personal interests aside for the greater good of the group. I am willing to change my mind. I do not think that I have all of the answers, and I am often impressed by the ideas that others bring to the table. I am the person that people want on their team.

Fun question: Who would play you on Saturday Night Live?

I am not a good actor, so I would be in the band, playing saxophone.

In light of the Tamara Wallace embezzlement scandal, we are asking the following background questions of all candidates. If your answer to any of the below is yes, please explain further. 

Have you ever been charged or convicted of a crime beyond a traffic ticket?

No – no traffic tickets either.

Have you ever been held civilly liable beyond a small claims action?

No.

Have you ever been fired from a job for cause?

No.

Have you ever filed for bankruptcy?

No.

Are there any of your old social media posts or online content that could be problematic?

No.