Endorsements

I'm very happy to share with you my endorsements to date. First, the Tahoe Daily Tribune came out on 10/24/08 and endorsed me. Please see text below. In addition, I have been endorsed by the Local Carpenters Union here in South Lake Tahoe as well as The South Lake Tahoe Lodging Association. The race is been a great learning experience and I am very grateful that these three endorsements came as a result of three very distinct entities being supportive of my positions, comments and answers to questions.

From The Tahoe Daily Tribune

The race for two seats on the South Lake Tahoe City Council has been a lively one, full of healthy debate and little negativity. We've enjoyed getting to know the six candidates, through in-person interviews, our question-and-answer series, phone conversations and election forums.Each of the six candidates seems sincerely concerned about the future of our city, and each has brought good ideas to the table.But with the South Shore at a critical juncture - businesses are closing, commercial and residential areas are in need of revitalization, and the city could be hurt even more by the sagging economy - we looked for candidates who would be most effective at addressing these problems.The editorial board's choice was unanimous: We endorse Hal Cole and Austin Sass for City Council.

Austin Sass
In contrast to Cole, Austin Sass is a political newcomer. Rather than spending most of his life at Lake Tahoe, he has lived on the East and West coasts, where he has held a variety of high-level management positions.For example, he was sales and marketing manager of the Yale University Athletic Department; Western sales manager of Hearst Corporation's Popular Mechanics magazine; and general manager for the Vita-Stats Medical Services Division for Spacelabs Medical in Redmond, Wash.Sass first moved to Tahoe in 1975, buying a house here about a year later. He left Tahoe in the early '80s to pursue career opportunities but didn't sell his house, planning to return to the lake one day.He returned to Tahoe in 2002 and has been director of resort sales at Heavenly Mountain Resort since then.As such, he is keenly aware of the role tourism plays in our economy.If tourism wanes, it's not just the restaurants and hotels that suffer - the impact is felt even in unexpected areas, such as how many patients visit Barton Memorial Hospital, he says.Sass says he got into the race because he's concerned about the direction the city is heading. He sees a city without a plan for addressing the current economic challenges.He says he's more representative of the average Tahoe resident than some of the other candidates: He works full time, has a son and daughter in South Tahoe High School and loves outdoor recreation, hiking and skiing in particular.As a council member, Sass would work to get the public more involved in city government. He wants the city to hire a public information officer - not to sit at a desk and answer phones, but to get out in the community proactively and educate the public on the challenges the city faces."I believe in my heart, if people understand the issues, they will get more involved," Sass said.Improvements to the "visual environment" along Highway 50 is another priority for Sass.And despite his belief that tourism is central to our economy, he also would like to see diversification of the South Shore economy. To that end, he proposed pursuing a business park at the Lake Tahoe Airport, perhaps specializing in aviation-related business.As a council member, Sass would recuse himself when decisions pertaining directly to Heavenly came before the council, a situation that seems to occur infrequently.And Sass said he still would make up his own mind on issues even if top Heavenly executives are before the council advocating a particular action - as was the case this month, when the council considered funding for the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.Conflicts of interest could arise more often if Sass were chosen to represent the city on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board. If Sass is elected to the council, that is an issue that will have to be carefully considered.We like Sass' energy, enthusiasm, and management and sales experience. Although we certainly wouldn't want all five council seats to be filled with Heavenly managers, we think Sass would bring a perspective to the council that now is missing.

The rest of the article with the Tribune's views of the other candidates:

Hal Cole
Hal Cole wasn't planning to run for City Council again when his third term ended in 2006. But now, two years later, Cole says he finds all the knowledge of city business he has accumulated over the years rattling around in his head uselessly.Indeed, talk to Cole for just a few minutes, and his depth of knowledge of city issues becomes apparent - from city budget figures and the history of development projects to past efforts to get sidewalks built in town.We agree with Cole that the city is at a crossroads, and we like his priorities.Among his goals for a new term would be revitalization of the "Y" area. The city will suffer serious economic impacts if that doesn't happen, he says. He also would like to see the Harrison Avenue area fixed up. A new City Hall is not among his priorities.Cole shows a sincere concern for the environment, commenting on how he has "watched the lake turn green" over the 50 years he has lived here. He notes that redevelopment projects at the state line have included environmental improvements to reduce the amount of sediment getting into the lake.Cole was part of a council subcommittee that negotiated with Lake Tahoe Development Co. on terms for the convention center, an agreement that "involved no financial risk to the city for the project as it now sits," he says.Thus far, the developer has borne most of the project costs, and public funds won't be spent until it starts generating revenue.Cole said he's not afraid to stand up to developers such as Randy Lane and Lane's attorney, Lew Feldman.He's still firmly committed to the convention center and believes the project is needed to bring in tourists, especially during the slower spring and fall seasons.Even though work has stalled at the convention center site while the developer works to replace financing that fell through, the project is bringing in money to the city, he notes. Tax increment revenue from the project for this fiscal year is expected to be $285,000 more than it was in 2006, due to the increase in assessed value in the land since the developer acquired it and began work.On the issue of tourism promotion, Cole says there are two pieces to the equation: providing a product, then marketing it. The city has done its part, he says, by providing the product in the form of Heavenly Village and the gondola at the state line. Now, it's up to others - including those on the Nevada side of the state line - to market the product.Although he would consider proposals to use city funds for tourism marketing on a case-by-case basis, he said the funding "is not an entitlement," and he would not simply approve the funds as "a knee-jerk reaction when the room is full of people."Before his 12 years on the City Council (including three years as mayor), Cole served on the city's Planning Commission and the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan Team.He runs his own business, building and remodeling homes and businesses.With development and redevelopment issues at the forefront of current city issues, we feel Cole would accomplish much if elected to another term.


Ted Long
Talking with Ted Long, it's hard not to get caught up in his enthusiasm about the city's future.Long, who is finishing his first four-year term on the council, is a visionary: He talks about building a parking garage in Meyers and bringing visitors into town via light rail. "Give people something to talk about when they go home," he says.He envisions turning Sierra Boulevard, the main street through the Sierra Tract neighborhood, into a linear park lined with townhouses.We admire Long's energy. It sometimes seems he is everywhere: attending a ribbon-cutting for a Stateline jewelry store, driving to Sacramento to make South Lake Tahoe's case at the Capitol or visiting the Alder Inn to talk to its owner about housing for college students. Long has been a strong advocate for affordable housing.But considering the energy he expends, we are concerned that Long hasn't been more effective in his four years on the council.He can be a lightning rod for controversy (think back to his advocacy of a roundabout at the "Y"), and it often seems that his four council colleagues simply ignore him.For example, during the council's debate this year over regulation of vacation rentals, Long said at each meeting on the topic that the problems of noise, trash and parking can arise from nonrental properties as well, and the city should approach the issue accordingly. That made sense to us, as well as many members of the public who attended the meeting, but the rest of the council never acknowledged Long's viewpoint.At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Mayor Mike Weber interrupted Long's remarks multiple times, telling him it was time to move forward with the lengthy agenda.In a conversation with the Tribune, Long agreed that his ideas sometimes don't gain traction. If elected to a second term, "I'll keep trying," he said. "You re-elect me, I'm going to make something happen."Long acknowledges that he has been in a dispute with the state tax board. He says the agency overcharged his taxes for the years he was out of the country serving in the Peace Corps - basing his taxes on what he had earned as a lawyer in prior years.Long's actions were reviewed as part of a police investigation of the financial practices of the Clean Tahoe Program during 2005 and 2006. Long was board president during the period in question and told investigators that he had allowed the Clean Tahoe manager to sign Long's name on certain checks. (See past Tribune articles for more details.)No criminal charges arose out of the investigation, which Long called politically motivated.As good as a council member's ideas might sound, they will not move forward without buy-in from at least two other council members.Although we appreciate Long's efforts, we're opting for candidates we feel will be better able to build consensus with their council colleagues.

Bruce Grego
Another strong candidate in the race is Bruce Grego. Grego has lived in South Lake Tahoe since 1967 and has been a practicing attorney here since 1980. He served on the city Planning Commission in the 1980s and ran unsuccessfully for council twice: in the early 1990s and in 2004.Grego cited the stalled convention center project as a major concern and doesn't believe the council has protected the interest of residents on the project. He wants to get the project moving again and would go so far as to consider taking the property by eminent domain if other efforts fail.We agree with Grego on some issues: He sees no compelling reason to build a new City Hall and thinks keeping city offices at the Lake Tahoe Airport makes sense. He would like to get going on sidewalks along Highway 50, perhaps even recruiting service organizations to go out with a shovel and concrete to build them.But the main focus of Grego's campaign has been what he calls overregulation by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. He has called for a locally elected, rather than appointed, TRPA Governing Board.Doing that would require approval of both California and Nevada as well as the federal government.And we're far from sure that would be a good idea. The reason the TRPA was formed in 1969 is because development - regulated strictly by local government - was running rampant in the Lake Tahoe Basin.Even though we would like to think of Lake Tahoe as belonging to basin residents, the reality is it is a national treasure, and people and agencies across the country have an interest in protecting it.When asked what steps he would take to convert the TRPA Governing Board to an elected body, Grego said he would start by getting the sitting Governing Board to pass a resolution in support of that change. But he didn't explain what action he'd take after that.Aside from changing the way the TRPA Governing Board is selected, Grego had some good ideas for changing the agency's regulations. Land owners should be allowed to add improvements to their property for the disabled, without that counting toward their land-coverage limits, he says.And rather than requiring individual property owners to implement erosion-control measures known as best management practices, the BMPs should be built for larger areas - neighborhoodwide, for example, he says. Once BMPs are in place, Grego says, property owners should be allowed more land coverage.Still, those issues are the purview of the TRPA and not the City Council.Our other concern about Grego is that his personality can seem abrasive at times. If he is elected, we hope he'll work on dealing with others in a more congenial manner.

Jonnie Crawford
Jonnie Crawford is campaigning on a "locals first" platform."What the city does should be for the locals first," she says, pointing to police, fire, roads and snow removal as priorities. "That's why the city was formed."Crawford has been a member of the city Parks and Recreation Commission since February and has chaired the commission since June. Parks and Recreation is "one department that really is for locals," she says.Although a new dog park and refurbishment of a skate park at Bijou Park had been approved before Crawford joined the commission, she has been on the panel as it has received updates and discussed progress on the projects. She would like to see swimming and skiing lessons offered at no charge to any child whose family can't afford them.Crawford is proud of successfully lobbying the city to install a stop sign in the area of Ski Run Boulevard and Needle Peak Road when her family lived there. She worked similarly toward getting a new stop sign in her Tahoe Keys neighborhood.When asked what the city can do to help local businesses, she says it should allow them to use sandwich-board signs to advertise - something that's now prohibited.A 41-year-resident, Crawford's background also includes working at Harrah's for 17 years and as a ski instructor. She has been active in the South Lake Tahoe Cancer League and was the organization's president for two years.Crawford's accomplishments are worthy, but we are concerned that she hasn't laid out much of a plan for moving the city forward should she be elected to the council.We feel she missed an opportunity in the Tribune's question-and-answer series, often giving short answers that stated the problem - but didn't offer a solution.Crawford's husband is current City Councilman Bill Crawford.Research by the city clerk found nothing legally prohibiting a husband and wife from serving on the City Council at the same time. The state's open-meeting law, the Brown Act, prohibits a majority of council members from meeting to discuss city business outside of a publicly noticed meeting. In the case of the South Lake Tahoe's five-member council, a majority would be three or more members.However, we're still uneasy with the idea of the Crawfords discussing city business outside of council meetings. It seems unrealistic that a married couple wouldn't do so.Crawford said she thinks for herself and doesn't agree with her husband on everything. We believe her. Still, the Crawfords' viewpoints are similar on many issues, and we would prefer to have more diversity of opinions on the council.We encourage Crawford to stay involved in the community and continue her work on the recreation commission in particular. She has the potential to be a much stronger candidate in 2010 - and her husband's term will expire then as well.

Warren Kessler
Warren Kessler acknowledges that some of his opponents in the council race have more knowledge or experience related to running the city than he does.Still, Kessler says his background as a private investigator gives him the skills to research a problem and find a solution, and that the council could use a "fresh face." Kessler also is familiar with South Shore tourism through his work as a wedding minister.Kessler has a good amount of common sense.When asked what the council can do to get sidewalks built along Highway 50, he notes that many stretches already have sidewalks. The question, he says, is maintenance, and he has proposed requiring property owners to keep the paths cleared of snow.Kessler has suggested that the city look into storing fire retardant at the Lake Tahoe Airport, so that firefighting aircraft wouldn't have to fly back and forth to Minden during a wildfire to pick up a new load of retardant.We've enjoyed hearing Kessler's ideas, and would like to see him stay involved in local issues. However, we feel other candidates in the race are stronger choices. - The Tribune's editorial board for this endorsement was composed of reporter Adam Jensen, Visual Director Jonah Kessel and City Editor Elaine Goodman. Publisher Gail Powell-Acosta, Editor Peter Kostes and reporter Sara Thompson also provided input. This editorial was researched and written by Elaine Goodman.

Vote for Austin Sass for South Lake Tahoe City Council

The city is a business. The city council is the senior management team. The citizenry are the stockholders.

If you were hiring for the senior management team wouldn’t you want the most qualified, energetic, and passionate individual you could find? An individual who is:

· committed to living and raising a family here
· an active participant in the great recreational opportunities we have
· someone who understands that ultimately, it’s all about the lake, and the surrounding environment
· a business professional who is experience managing and creating large budgets in a wide variety of industries
· an individual who understands the largest driver of our local economy, tourism.
· a supporter of communicating the facts, the metrics, and the truth of what is going on in our town

I am running for city council because I am deeply concerned about the future of South Lake Tahoe. I see the empty stores on highway 50? I hear weekly about our neighbors and friends losing their jobs. I see declining enrollment in our schools because folks are leaving town. If we lose thousands of jobs because tourism wanes, I am concerned that my children won’t be able to come home after college and find work. Is this the future we want?

I have the passion, energy, skills and experience our city needs and it’s Time for a Change!

For more information on my positions on various issues facing our city, log on to AustinSass.com.