If doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity, then three of our current council members are making us believe they are insane. Past councils made repeated attempts to manage the runaway train of vacation rentals in residentially zoned neighborhoods.

Their efforts failed to satisfy the people living in neighborhoods, so residents took this issue to the voters in 2018. Measure T passed, and after a three-year phase-out period, the neighborhoods returned to their intended use as places for people to live or own a second home. It was a reminder of what neighborhoods should be like. There were those who refused to obey the law and continued to short term rent. For some, cheating is just part of the game.

Since Measure T was overturned last March, the majority of the council voted to not appeal the decision and instead passed an ordinance to bring back vacation rentals to our neighborhoods. In June 2025, the Tahoe Neighborhoods Group (TNG) filed an appeal to represent the 3,517 voters who passed Measure T. On December 31, 2025, the pro-VHR investor group that sued the city over Measure T, filed a ‘Motion to Dismiss’ the TNG’s appeal.

On February 11, the court formally denied that request. To add to the drama, on January 13 (in closed session and never reported out to the public) three members of the city council (David Jenkins, Keith Roberts and newly appointed Heather Horgan) directed the city attorney to prepare an opposition against the appeal by the TNG. The City’s opposition was filed in the ‘Court of Appeal’ on February 6 and is how the TNG learned of the closed session decision to secretly go against the majority of the voters.

Over the last ten months council meetings have seen countless hours spent saying the same things about VHRs that were said a decade ago. It is like watching reruns of the council meetings from 2015. The voters have already decided this issue and having three council members working behind the scenes to undermine that vote is the definition of insanity.

Jerry Goodman
South Lake Tahoe

President’s Day: A Day to Reflect on the Last Year

In the past I have been proud to be an American on President’s Day. President’s Day not only reflected my love for my country and its constitution but also to be able to reflect on our democracy and the freedom it affords Americans. Unfortunately, that is not true this year.

Under our current president the constitution and democracy is being undermined. Think about what has happened in the last 12 months:
• The Justice Department has been politicized
• Congress has been made impotent
• The East Wing of the People’s house has been torn down
• The Kennedy Cultural Center has been renamed
• The pardon powers of the President have been abused. Insurrectionists were released from jail, some who were convicted of felonies. A former Honduran president convicted of importing cocaine and firearms were pardoned
• 75,000 are now being held in detention camps of which only 56% have been convicted of any crimes
• ICE has a blank check to do what they want
• Journalists arrested and media outlets controlled
• Environmental laws are being decimated
• Public lands are not being protected
• Americans are being killed in the streets for exercising their civic rights
• Venezuelans in fishing boats are being shot out of the seas with no evidence of wrong doings while in international waters
• Economic decline of the country due to tariffs causing massive inflation
• Reduction in Forest Service personnel
• Reduction in vaccination requirements
• Restricting voting rights
• Support of Russia, undermining Ukraine
• Profiting from the Presidency through cryptocurrency and business dealings
• Restricting voting rights
• Lack of funding for public radio
• Bungled response to the Epstein files
• Elimination of USAID
• Thousands of lies.

Wake up America! It is time to take our country back! It will start by voting in a Congress in November that will stand up to our current President and start to reverse the actions of the last year. Please vote in June and November!

Susan Chandler
South Lake Tahoe