SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Two City Council seats will be up for grabs in the City of South Lake Tahoe this coming November. The seat held by Councilmember Cristi Creegan and another seat, previously held by former Mayor Pro Tem John Friedrich, are set to expire in December.

Friedrich resigned from his position effective September 3, 2024. Reasons for the resignation are unknown.

Neither Friedrich or Creegan are running for another term.

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Seven candidates are vying for votes for the two seats. In a multi-part series, the Tribune will provide opportunities to get to know the candidates who will appear on November’s ballot and learn their thoughts on topics related to the City of South Lake Tahoe.

In this first installment of the series, we introduce you to the seven candidates and reasons behind why they are running for City Council:

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Aimi Xistra

Originally from Portland, Oreg., Xistra moved to South Lake in 1997 to pursue a professional career in snowboarding. During that time, she attended Lake Tahoe Community College, eventually transferring to San Francisco State University where she graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and a minor in Italian.

Xistra immediately moved back to Tahoe and worked for the Tahoe Daily Tribune as assistant editor for the Action Magazine, a weekly events publication at the time. She then went on to work at Heavenly, initially in marketing and public relations, and eventually became the executive director of the Heavenly Ski and Snowboard Foundation.

Currently, Xistra is the Director of Development at the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe.

Xistra is married and has two teenagers who attend South Tahoe High School.

She serves on the City of South Lake Tahoe’s Art, Culture and Tourism Commission. Xistra also sits on the board of directors and the executive committee for the Tahoe Chamber. She is a member of the Bijou Area Community Advisory Group and the Embarc Community Advisory Board.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

I serve in so many capacities throughout the community right now, and I wanted to really focus on where I could make the biggest difference for our community. I’ve lived here a long time. I’ve seen ups and downs of South Lake Tahoe, and I just want to continue moving up and in the right direction.

I have a lot of experience. I am very collaborative. I work well in groups.

I’m open-minded, and I’m interested to hear other people’s ideas and thoughts and don’t always think that my own are the best, but I think that I could be a real asset to our city council through experience and just my commitment to our community.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I think that from a candidate perspective, I’m a great option because not only have I lived here for a long time, but I am truly a member of the community. I have worked at restaurants. I have worked in so many different capacities throughout the community at hotels, in the tourism industry, in professional situations, that I really have a great idea of what our community as a whole needs. I enjoy talking to people, and I enjoy listening to members of our community and what they think our struggles are and what they think we can do better.

I have high hopes that this community could be the best it is, and that’s why I think people will vote for me, because they know that I genuinely care.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

I think that what makes me a qualified candidate is that I have experience managing budgets. That’s a huge part of working with the city council, is being able to identify funds and then properly direct them to where they are needed most through the allocations of those funds. I also feel like I’m someone who’s out in the community a lot, and being able to be out and talk to the people in the city makes you very electable because I hear and I’m open to those thoughts and ideas. I’m very approachable, and I want people to tell me what they think and what they think we could do better.

I admit that I’m not perfect. I don’t think I’ll ever be, as no one will, but I do have opinions. I am a strong-willed person, and I’m open to hearing others’ thoughts and working through difficult situations as a team in a team environment.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

My gosh, this list could go on and on and on. You know, you have the dreams and then you have the reality set in, and I think that what I want to focus on most is continuing to sustainably grow our town in a way that’s going to allow us to continue to share this special special place with others. People might call it tourism, or whatever word you want to use for it, but what it is is we’re really inviting people into our home, and I love that. I don’t want Tahoe to be an inaccessible place for people. I don’t want youth throughout California to not have the opportunity to visit Tahoe.

Those are things that I’m passionate about. I think in order for us to continue to develop sustainable tourism, we have to continue to improve our roads and our transportation, and that to me is something that not only will benefit visitors, but will hugely benefit our population, and if we can get those types of infrastructures focused, then we can build tourism through busing people around the city or using the trolleys, creating more bike paths, which I have really, really enjoyed over the last two years.

Besides that, prioritizing the road maintenance, talking about affordable housing, workforce housing, how we’re going to continue to build that and fund that, expanding our transportation fleet to be more organized and useful for not only visitors, but for our community, and continuing to grow our city’s dedication to our local events. The events that we really have designed for our community, like utilizing our Lakeview Commons venue for Live at Lakeview, our multicultural festival, our venue at the airport for art, and just cooperating more with our county to provide more funding for items like that.

Nick Speal

The eight year South Lake Tahoe resident moved here in the big winter of 2016-2017, drawn to skiing in the area. The president of the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition gets around primarily on his bicycle and doesn’t own a car.

In the past, Speal has served on the city’s planning commission. He is currently on the board for the Tahoe Transportation District.

He volunteers with SOS Outreach, a program that helps youth in the community get access to activities and mentorship.

Speal is one of the founders of Locals for Affordable Housing, a local advocacy group for affordable housing. The group has spearheaded local ballot Measure N, a tax on owners of vacant residential units in the City of South Lake Tahoe. The measure is appearing in November’s ballot.

The candidate provided Affordable Housing Advocate as his proposed ballot designation filed with the city. In emails made public with his designation paperwork, City Clerk Susan Blankenship rejected Speal’s proposed designation due to the title being considered a volunteer position for a 501(c)(4), which does not meet the qualification to list it as a primary profession, vocation or occupation required as a ballot designation. The clerk instead used his alternate ballot designation of Engineer. That’s a position he held within the last 12 months.

He previously ran for city council in 2022.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

I felt that it was important to stand up for progressive values. You know, there’s two seats available, both vacated by two councilmembers who were previously endorsed by the Democratic Party and [have] chosen not to run again. And when I put my hat in the ring, there were only two Republicans running.

I believe deeply in what we can do when we have a vision for progressive values. You know, didn’t want to take any steps backwards.

And I think it’s really important that we protect the environment, and that we have better bike infrastructure so kids can be able to get to school, and that we invest in affordable housing, because the cost of living has really gotten out of control here.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I think people should vote for me because I bring a collaborative approach and I’m very solutions oriented. You know, sometimes we hear a lot of no’s to this and no’s to that, but I think that it’s really important that we say yes to solutions to the various problems that we face and that we try things out and learn from what’s successful and scale those up. So, I think people should vote for me for that reason.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

So I think that I have really been involved in a lot of issues in South Lake Tahoe, involved in the community in terms of really understanding how our local government works. I’ve been spending a lot of time canvassing and talking to people in the community, whether it’s at their doors or at grocery stores, and just really learning from people. What are the most important issues to them?

And, you know, things that I keep hearing over and over again is we need to invest in our roads that have been under maintained for decades and are really falling apart, that we need to address the rising cost of housing, cost of living generally, but especially, rents and fire insurance, making it more expensive to live here and pushing people out of the community. Then we need to protect our environment because that’s a lot of the reason that a lot of people came to South Lake Tahoe in the first place.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

One part of my experience that I bring a lot of experience to the role is my work in sustainable transportation. I think that I have a really strong understanding of the bike path network and ways that we can improve it to make it safer for kids to be able to get to school [and] people to be able to get around on a bike. There are a lot of expansions to that bike network, whether it’s beautiful paths through the forest and also just making our streets safer for people to be able to ride their bikes on that I’m excited to accomplish in my term.

I also want to move forward on affordable housing developments and so, fully funding and completing the Sugar Pine Village project, so that more people can live in sustainable housing near our town center at the Y and then building more projects like that so that way we can have more housing available to our community.

Keith Roberts

Keith Roberts purchased a home in South Lake Tahoe in 2010 and moved here full-time in 2015. He’s been an executive chef for over 40 years, spending some of those years in some of the larger hotels in Los Angeles.

In the Tahoe region, the executive chef has overseen Zephyr Cove, Round Hill Pines, Tamarack Lodge in Heavenly, and the Chart House. He’s currently the chief operating officer for Ted Kennedy’s restaurant group in the Heavenly Village, overseeing California Burger, Poke Rock, South of North Brewery, Social House, the community speakeasy, Noel’s, and Gym Love.

He says he’s spent a lot of time in the back of the kitchen alongside blue-collar workers and has also owned two restaurants.

Roberts has been involved in numerous commissions, committees and boards within the city, including the Planning Commission, Police Advisory Commission, El Dorado County Commission on Aging, Lake Tahoe Community College advisory, Culinary Advisory Board, South Tahoe Chamber, South Tahoe Lodging Association, and South Tahoe Restaurant Group.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

The city is being divided right now, and one of the groups that is being divided is the small business owners and the workers, and we need to find a way to get them back working together, because they need each other.

On that line, living here, I love this place. Growing up at the beaches of Southern California as a surfer, I used to be able to afford an apartment anywhere up and down the entire coast, and you can’t do that anymore. So, you see that kind of growth up here as well, and I don’t think there’s any way successfully to stop that growth, but the city needs to do a better job of managing it.

So, as more and more money pours into the city, we got to make sure that, especially the workers, but the people that have lived here forever and the locals, if you will, don’t get walked on by all this new influx.

We need to find ways to make them help the city better and not just come in and take advantage of us.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I’m very pragmatic. I’ve worked in large union houses as a chef and as an executive, and I’ve been in those some big nasty meetings with union bosses, and I’ve been very successful at finding solutions that work for everybody so that they’re happy, so both sides get what they need and a lot of that just has to do with keeping focused on what the actual discussion is.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

I’ve been involved in a lot of the committees and commissions. I’ve been on the planning commission, one term on the planning commission. I’m now on the police advisory commission. I’m a South Lake Tahoe representative for the El Dorado County Commission on Aging.

I’m on the Lake Tahoe Community College advisory, culinary advisory board. I’m on the board of directors for the South Tahoe Chamber. I’m on the board of directors for the South Tahoe Lodging Association.

I’m [a member of] the South Tahoe Restaurant Group. So, I’m heavily involved in the community.

And so I’ve been paying attention to what’s going on in the cities. As an entrepreneur and a blue collar worker, I think I can successfully bring everything together for everybody.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

Well, my first and foremost guiding forces will be to work closer with the community and find out what they want because I’m applying for a job, which is a public servant job. I expect to be held accountable to answering what my constituents want, my understanding of what the job is.

The city as a whole needs to do a better job of getting that message out there and communicating with the community. What surprised me most in this campaign is how little people actually know about what the city is working on and what is in the works. You take affordable housing for one, almost nobody knows that there’s over 500 units in being built right now.

Once those are completed in a couple of years, that may even eliminate our need for more affordable housing. You know, it remains to be seen, but the city needs to do a better job of getting the message out there. The community gets mad about a lot of things.

And we want them to be less frustrated and that way they will be more engaged. They’ll be more comfortable coming up with ideas instead of just voicing frustration and venting. I want them engaged.

I want to know what they want.

Heather Cade-Bauer

The 24 year resident of the City of South Lake Tahoe currently works as a procurement contract coordinator for the Foundation for California Community Colleges, a non-profit based out of Sacramento. She’s been at this position for a little over a year.

Prior to that, Cade-Bauer worked at Lake Tahoe Community College starting in 2011 in various departments.

She has worked, played and raised a family in the region.

Cade-Bauer has previously served on the board of the Sierra House PTA, Lake Tahoe Community College Classified Employee Union and Classified Employee Senate.

She currently sits on the Tahoe Parents Nursery School Board and the South Tahoe Disc Golf Association Board.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time because I pay attention to what’s going on in the town and just wanted to be a voice and help unite people.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I think people should vote for me because I’ll be a voice of reason that will listen to them and try to bring people together as opposed to dividing us more.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

The fact that I can be that voice of reason. I was a negotiator for the Classified Employee Union at the college for several years, so I have the ability to work with people that have differing thoughts.

So, my ability to negotiate and bring people together is one of my things, and also I don’t have any hidden agendas.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

I want to unify everyone. That’s what my main focus is, just being able to be a voice of unity amongst the councilmembers and community.

David Jinkens

David Jinkens has lived in South Lake Tahoe with his wife, Terri Jinkens, for 22 years. The city council candidate was the City of South Lake Tahoe’s former City Manager from 2002-2010.

He holds 35 years of experience in city manager roles in cities throughout California.

Since retirement in 2010, Jinkens has worked to stay active and engaged in community events. He’s participated in the past as rotary president and is involved in Soroptimist fundraising events.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

Because I see a lot of things in the community that I think with my experience in management, I can be helpful. I can be, not a person who’s saying ‘do this, do this,’ but rather someone who can use my experience over years to help in matters that we’re facing.

One of the major issues [is] fire safety, not just in the city, but in the basin. The other is in housing. I’ve had a lot of experience here and elsewhere.

Affordable housing without taxes, without new taxes. So I think I can bring that as helping the council and staff with ideas that they may not otherwise hear about or know about.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I’m a known quantity here. I’ve worked here eight years as a city manager. I think most people know I care a lot about the community.

While I know a lot about government and governance here and elsewhere, I also listen. And I want government, whether it’s the city council or staff, to care about people’s needs, whether they can help them or not, and to demonstrate to them in their engagement with them that they care.

I’m not saying there’s no people who care, but I want to show them. That’s where I think I want people to feel that our council and our staff is connected and that while the city can’t help them all the time on everything, that they know that the city will try and at least make an effort if they can. And if they don’t, they’ll know that there was really nothing that could be done.

The worst answer that [I heard] when I was in government here, particularly here, is there’s just nothing we can do, really.

Well, let me tell you the ways. You know, there’s lots of things you can do whether you have the power or not. It’s persuasion. You can contact legislators. You can write petitions, the PUC, the insurance. I just want people to feel connected

What differentiates you from other candidates?

People say, who are you running against? I say, I’m not running against anyone. I’m running for.

I think what differentiates me, particularly, is my experience in local government. Not just working in it, but being an executive in cities throughout California, very different type cities, but all in California.

And knowing how local government should work at the local level, knowing, particularly, how this city works and how the region works and the inter-lapping TRPA, how this whole thing works. It’s a real learning curve.

So I think I bring an experience, a skill, not to be a smart mouth, but just that experience and insight. And say, look, maybe we can’t do this, but why don’t we try this other way? Why don’t we try another approach? You know, we can actually build affordable housing.

We can actually prefer existing locals and seniors in our workforce, without taxing people. Because we’ve done it in the past. Here are the number of ways.

By the way, I’ve written to them several times about it and those haven’t been looked at, even though there’s people doing it all over the state.

So I think I bring the experience and then they can share their ideas. We can blend and hopefully agree on a process that doesn’t divide the community.

Because we are divided.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

I want to see us persuade our federal and state partial owners, CTC, Forest Service, I want to see our coalition of our city, our county, our TRPA friends, our Nevada friends, who I know have concerns about this, the East Shore Alliance, I know they do and let’s make our region more fire safe.

People talk about being environmentalists.

They talk about the things they want to protect, but if we burn this region down, everything’s gone.

We’re not talking clear cutting, I’m talking just reducing fuel loads.

So first thing is, let’s do more to protect our region, our city, from catastrophic fire. I know the fire agencies would appreciate that.

Secondly, I want to see our roads maintained. I don’t want to see these third world rate roads in this city that are maintained. Give the public works people, who know what to do, give them the money they need and support our police and fire. I’m very supportive of them.

They need the resources to keep us safe. We have good departments. We have good leadership in the departments, Chief Stevenson and Drennan.

And then listen more. I think the city needs to listen more to constituents, and let people know that they’re going to try to help them. Even if they can’t, try to help them.

Let the city be advocates for the community and for our business community. Let’s create a more positive business climate here, growing business, retain business, grow economies, create jobs and grow revenue.

Caitlin McMahon

Caitlin McMahon moved to the City of South Lake Tahoe in November 2016 and has since had a number of different jobs in town. Initially she worked as a ticket scanner for Heavenly and cleaned for Turnkey Vacation Rentals. She’s also a PSIA certified ski instructor.

With a background in education and youth programs in Chicago, McMahon got involved in SOS Outreach within her first year of living in South Lake Tahoe.

McMahon has also worked for the Tahoe Resource Conservation District as a watercraft inspector and volunteers at Keep Tahoe Blue.

McMahon was a librarian in the Chicago Public library, a tutor for Chicago Public schools, and co-writer of land and water reserve proposals for the State of Illinois. She wrote and developed curriculum for After School Matters Earth Team for five years, managed a nature center, and contributed to the development of the curriculum for Oak Park Conservatory Educational programs.

In addition, she studied forestry at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and attended the Teton Science School Graduate program, focusing on field ecology and place-based education. She worked for the Department of Natural Resources for the State of Illinois and is a certified Chainsaw operator. 

The candidate has worked in organic produce, and has been a stagehand assisting Harvey’s Outdoor Arena with the production of shows as well as building all of the elements of the stage, bleachers, and VIP seating infrastructure. 

Why did you choose to run for city council?

So that’s a loaded question, right? Basically, in my voting history, I have not always felt that my vote has counted, but when I voted here for city council, I actually saw that it did.

And so why run for city council? Because I disagree with the decisions that they’re making sometimes and I think a bunch of the people in the community do as well right now.

They don’t always make poor decisions, but I also don’t feel they’re making decisions about people that are in my bracket, people I would say that are struggling and are living here and working here, and we’re struggling. I’m not sure that they’re making a lot of decisions that are helping this particular demographic.

I’m not sure that there’s anybody in that demographic represented on the council, although they are making decisions that are affecting our demographic, our social economic demographic.

So, I’m part of that demographic and I think that we should be represented. I know that not everyone is going to agree with some of my standpoints, but I will say that the majority of my work, or at least the work that I would intend to do, is going to be for us.

When you do something like this and you put yourself in the spotlight, not everyone’s going to agree. Well, I’m not doing this to make friends.

I’m doing this because there’s a problem and I feel like we’re not getting heard. Regardless of whether or not I get on the city council, I’m still going to be doing these things because I care about our community. If I do get on the city council, I may have an opportunity to actually do something that’ll help all of us because it’s not about me.

It’s about the family with the kid who’s struggling and I think that we can do better.

We can do better for our community and I’m ready to fight for us.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I’m not here to solicit votes. I am here to provide people with a choice.

There’s a couple of people running, and they don’t work for the city. They don’t work for a business in the city, and they’re trying to make decisions about people’s welfare and have an idea of how much people are making and the struggles that we’re having, but they work for some software engineering company, and they’re making a lot of money, and they’re not working for a business here in South Lake Tahoe.

So I’m not sure that they really understand what the struggle is.

I was looking at the choices. And then I’m thinking, does anyone in here have any fire experience? Does anyone have any experience managing forests?

I would say that I didn’t like my choices.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

I think my experience with forestry, my experience with land management. I’m a certified wildland firefighter type two. I don’t have my red card, but I’ve done prescribed burns.

So I think [with] the way that I view a landscape and how to manage it, I have a little bit of skills. I’ve done it professionally, but I was trained academically.

I also have my wilderness first responder certificate because I take kids outside and I had the benefit of going to Lake Tahoe Community College and learning there.

I also took the EMT course there and I met some of our first responders because all of them come and teach that class and I care about them too. I also [have] had to get some energy assistance in the past and I’ve gone through the gamut of how to get that assistance.

I’m not sure everybody knows that that assistance is available. There’s a lot of programs that are available. There’s a rental locals program.

I didn’t know, and a lot of people that I’m talking about don’t know about it. So isn’t it the job of our city council to communicate the needs to the public? But maybe I’m wrong.

And maybe I don’t know what the city council is supposed to be doing.

I’m a connector. And if there’s anything that I can help anybody do in our community, I’m gonna try to do it.

I may not be able to do it, but if I can, I will. And regardless if I get this job or not, I’m going to continue to do that because I’m going to continue to do all the things that I just told you that I already do. And those things make a difference in our community.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

 As much as I can. As much as I can, because I think that we can do better.

Roads and snow removal, I agree with the current city council on trying to figure out a different material that may last longer for our city streets.

There are alternatives and we need to look into them and create a plan and most importantly, execute that plan. I drove around and some of the worst potholes are right outside of the grocery store on Johnson and as you continue towards the police station, there are many large potholes directly out of the police station parking lot.

We should be doing everything that we can to not impede on first responders ability to help the community, which means making sure entryways and exit ways for police stations and fire departments are paved and safe.

Snow removal is a big issue as well. Over the past few winters, I have noticed plows, and in particular, the plow drivers haphazardly plowing the streets, destroying mailboxes and burying access to bear boxes for garbage removal.

We can do better. We can come up with a better system. We can work cooperatively with South Tahoe Refuse so that garbage can get picked up and the trucks can get through the street.

We also need a disposal system because at times there is simply too much snow and no place to put it. I value the work of everyone who runs a plow and clears snow during the winter.

And we can do better. 

Marjorie Green

Marjorie Green works as a project manager. As a child, she occasionally visited Lake Tahoe with her family and learned to ski in the region, starting when she was two. She has many fond memories from those days and wants to help build those for other people.

Green frequented the area for several years to work on the house she purchased in South Lake Tahoe before eventually moving full-time to the region in 2020.

Why did you choose to run for city council?

When I first saw it, it seemed like the deadline was approaching and there were only a few candidates. I wasn’t sure if those people represented my viewpoint or how I would like to be represented as the community.

I thought, I’ll give it a shot. I’ll run. I think I have a lot of things I could contribute to this community.

So just really good intentions. But since then, I’ve noticed a lot more people have joined the race, which is wonderful to give the community more options, because I’m sure a lot of people have different viewpoints, and more opportunities to be represented in different ways.

Initially, I just wanted to support the community. I’d like to get more involved and help out.

Why do you think people should vote for you?

I’m more of a moderate thinker. I’m very somewhat conservative in my financial approaches, but very liberal in what I believe.

All of my overarching values are very much human rights, and we should support one another, but financially, from a city standpoint, in terms of budgeting, I would probably be fairly conservative. So I think there’s a balance there that’s difficult to strike, especially in a small town.

And I could help to support that, right? To meet the needs of the most people in the most responsible way, hopefully.

What differentiates you from other candidates?

From the candidates that were initially running, I think that we’re seeing a lot of extremes, potentially. So, people that are far to one side or far to another side.

And I think that my differentiation would probably be just the thought process. I try to be very logical in my approach and say, ‘okay, if we’re trying to accomplish something, what’s actually reasonable? What are the downstream impacts to what we’re going to put in place? And what’s actually going to be the end result of our efforts?’

I think some of the other candidates are definitely there.

From what I understand, there’s somebody that was previously city manager, so I’m sure they hold that. But I also don’t know their personal and social values, right?

So my personal and social values are very liberal. But I always hesitate with the word liberal because personally, I just see things as human rights. Let’s not slice and dice the pie there.

But yeah, so I think every person probably has different viewpoints, right? And initially, I was seeing a lot of divisiveness.

I have a more collaborative approach. I am trying to work with people to do good, versus scapegoat one group or another, or have an us versus them scenario, because I feel like we’re all in this together. Let’s actually work together.

What do you want to accomplish if you are elected?

I think we all have this. We run around town and we see this or we see that and we’re like, ‘it should be this way or it should be that way, you know?’

So for me, it may sound very boring, but a lot of infrastructure improvement. The way that we do things, like down to how we have pedestrian crossings. I’d like to investigate how we can improve upon these things. So that is something that I’d definitely like to improve.

I’d probably like to simplify the overhead for building housing and some other things. Obviously, we’re stewards of this natural beauty, right? But we also have a lot of strange overhead, that may or may not make sense.

I think one of my goals would be to minimize that overhead so that we have more ability to serve our community in terms of building housing or making things more fair across socioeconomic lines while still trying to find that balance where we are doing things and supporting the preservation of this area.

I mean, we want it to be here for future generations, so obviously, we don’t want to build everywhere, but there’s obviously a need to identify some places where it’s safe to build more housing, right? Because simply put, if we want affordable housing, we have to build it.

The old cabins that we have right now are just not ever going to be affordable housing. They weren’t built that way. I have a money pit and it’s only a thousand square feet, right?

So, just we have to be realistic in what we’re doing in order to get those end results.