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The employees of the TRPA

Tribune

The 15-member Governing Board of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency are appointed indefinitely by they’re respective state or county governments. The at-large position representing Nevada is recommended by Nevada Governing Board members and voted on annually by the full board.

Members do not get paid for their service to the board. They are, however, reimbursed for travel, lodging and food expenses.

Jerry Wells, TRPA acting executive director



Wells is acting executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Raised on the Oregon coast, Wells first visited Lake Tahoe in the summer of 1973 working as a landscape architect on several design projects located in the Lake Tahoe region. He had the opportunity to come back to Tahoe from Oregon to live in 1985 when he was hired by then-Executive Director Bill Morgan as the chief of the project review division for TRPA. Other than a brief two-year hiatus, Wells has been at Tahoe for nearly 18 years.



He has a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon, an Oregon real estate management broker’s license, a private pilot’s license and landscape architect’s licenses in California, Nevada and Oregon. He received his landscape architect’s certification from the National Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards.

Wells has been married for 33 years and has two children, a son who is 18 and a daughter who is 21.

When asked what he thought about the future of TRPA, Wells said he hopes that a line of communication will be open so the public can have a better understanding of what the TRPA does.

“I look forward to the day that the residents of Lake Tahoe come to appreciate the efforts of TRPA as much as those that live outside the basin. The challenges for TRPA in the future will be increasing its operational efficiency and effectiveness, rebuilding public support, especially locally, through an improved public outreach program, completing the EIP, updating the environmental thresholds and adopting a new regional plan.”

TRPA Governing Board members

1) Tom Quinn

Governor of California appointee. Born and raised in Los Angeles, first visited Tahoe on a high school camping trip and was enamored with it from then on.

Graduated from Northwestern University and was a reporter for ABC News in Chicago, Los Angeles and Sacramento. He managed Jerry Brown’s campaigns for governor and secretary of state. Quinn became deputy secretary of state from 1971 to 1974.

In 1975, Brown named Quinn chairman of the state Air Resources Board and special assistant to the governor for environmental protection, which later became a cabinet position known as secretary of environmental quality. He had substantial involvement with Tahoe issues during the mid- and late 1970s.

He left government in 1979 to become chairman of City News Service in Los Angeles. In 1981 he founded Americom Broadcasting, buying and building radio stations in the Las Vegas, Fresno and Reno markets.

Gov. Gray Davis appointed Quinn to the TRPA Governing Board.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“TRPA was created to protect and preserve the unique beauty of the Tahoe basin, particularly to stop damage to the lake and to restore the lake’s clarity. The task is challenging because thousands of people live in the basin and many more visit to enjoy the area’s natural beauty and

recreational opportunities. So TRPA must work to improve the basin’s environment while also allowing reasonable growth and development.”

2) Drake DeLanoy

Governor of Nevada appointee. DeLanoy, 75, was appointed to the TRPA Governing Board by former Nevada Gov. Robert Miller and has been a board member for 13 years. He is an attorney handling matters in arbitration and mediation over land use matters.

DeLanoy was raised in Reno and spent his summers at Lake Tahoe where his family owned property.

After high school he went to the University of Nevada, Reno and then attended Denver University where he earned a law degree. He went into the Air Force following school and served as a trial judge advocate. He returned to Reno where he served as assistant city attorney and chief deputy district attorney in Washoe County.

Later he moved to Las Vegas where he now makes his home. He created the law firm of Beckley and Singleton in 1962. He is also a property developer.

As a trial attorney, he has spent years representing manufacturers and developers primarily for insurance companies.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency was created by the two states and approved by Congress to bring about the preservation and beauty of the Tahoe basin. Through that there was the development of nine criteria that we should be looking at to be sure we are on the right track. That was some 20 years ago, and still we haven’t met the indicators that we should.”

3) Tim Smith

Douglas County Commission representative. Former Tahoe Douglas Fire Chief Smith is a Douglas County Commissioner. Elected in 2002, his district serves the Lake Tahoe Basin. He has been married for 33 years to Christy. He has two grown children and three grandchildren.

He retired from the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District on Dec. 31, 2002, after nearly 30 years. He spent the last seven years as fire chief. Now living in Genoa, he moved to Lake Tahoe in April 1972.

He also sits as a representative on the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority, Tahoe Douglas Chamber of Commerce, Stateline Stormwater Association, Waste Management Authority and Coordinated Transit System Board.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“Simply put, I believe the purpose of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is to preserve the beauty of the Lake Tahoe Basin.”

4) Reed Holderman

California Assembly speaker appointee. Holderman was appointed by Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson Jr. in January 2003 to serve a four-year term.

Holderman is the vice president and regional director of the Trust for Public Land’s western region office in San Francisco. He lives in Oakland.

Holderman joined TPL in March 1998. He is responsible for land conservation activities in California, Nevada,and Hawaii. Holderman is president of the Coast Dairies and Land Company, and is a member of the California Environmental Dialogue.

Prior to his position with Trust for Public Land, Holderman directed the land acquisition, resource enhancement, urban parks and nonprofit programs at the California Coastal Conservancy. He received his master’s in public land use policy from UC Santa Barbara. He was a Rockefeller Foundation fellow. In 1997 he was a visiting scholar in the environmental studies department at UC Davis.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“Protecting and enhancing the environmental resources of the lake and its watersheds for the benefit of people and wildlife. If we do that, everything else should fall into place.”

5) Wayne Perock

Governing Board Vice Chairman Perock has more than 33 years experience in the field of state parks and outdoor recreation. He was the administrator for Nevada State Parks until July 18, when he retired.

As a Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board member since 1996, Perock serves as its vice chairman. Perock is familiar with the Lake Tahoe Basin, having served as a park supervisor in the region.

In 1996 Perock was appointed to the TRPA board by Pete Morros, then director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Perock has also served as the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources designee to the TRPA’s Governing Board since 1998.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“I believe the restoration and protection of Lake Tahoe and its environs for present and future generations is the primary purpose of the agency. The lake is a national treasure, keeping it as such is of primary importance for both local residents and also the entire nation.”

6) Jerome Waldie

California Senate Rules Committee Appointee Waldie, 78, was a lawyer in Antioch until he was elected to the Assembly in 1958. He later became a partner in the firm of Hamm, Arnason and Waldie. He was majority leader in the Assembly beginning in his second term. In l966 he was elected to Congress from Contra Costa County. He was on the Judiciary Committee that conducted the impeachment inquiry that resulted in a committee vote impeaching President Richard Nixon. He made an unsuccessful run for governor in 1974.

A couple of years later, Waldie was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the chair of a newly created quasi-judicial body called the Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

In 1980, Carter appointed him to a position on the White House Conference on Aging. When President Ronald Reagan was elected, Waldie returned to California and was appointed to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Eleven years ago he was appointed to the TRPA board.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“I do not see Tahoe as being a resource singularly subject to local government and its development pressures. Neither do I see it as being solely subject to California or Nevada and their particular development or preservation policies. I believe it to be such a rare and wondrous and fragile national resource that the responsibility for its protection is a national duty. I long to share in that effort.”

7) George Stuart Yount

Appointed by President Bush in 2000, Yount is chairman of the board of the paper company Fortifiber Corporation based in Incline Village. He is a Harvard School of Business graduate who began at Fortifiber as a management trainee in 1969. He is president and CEO of Fonzia Corporation Nevada. He serves as a director on several boards including Thompson & Company Insurance Services in Pasadena, the Sierra Nevada College Board of Trustees in Incline Village, Parasol Foundation in Incline Village and Tracerton Enterprises.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“I strongly believe in TRPA’s core purpose of saving the clarity of Lake Tahoe. The lake is truly a national treasure that deserves to be preserved for future generations. To achieve this, rules must be imposed on the public much the same as the police and fire departments do. I personally want to help constructively refocus the agency to saving the clarity and balance between the natural beauty of this magnificent lake and its inhabitants while gaining the same respect and appreciation as our police and fire departments. Such a narrow, priority-ranked, results-oriented focus can be easily understood and communicated. Police and fire departments are usually highly respected and praised by the general populace for their service to the public good. I want to see TRPA earn this same public standing. I also want TRPA’s employees to be proud to proclaim they work there and be given the public respect and admiration such work deserves. To achieve this, I believe TRPA must serve the public in a way that is widely believed to be timely, fair and scientifically justified to save the clarity and balanced natural beauty of the vast public lands surrounding our beloved Lake Tahoe.”

8) Jim Galloway

Washoe County Commissioner Galloway has been a research scientist, aerospace engineer, small business defense contractor/manufacturer, and for the last 15 years a manufacturer of commercial aerial lifts for inside building maintenance in high places.

In 1995 Galloway was elected as county commissioner for District 1, which covers the west side of Reno and the North Shore of Lake Tahoe.

He is an engineering graduate of the University of Colorado and has a doctorate in applied physics from Stanford. He runs a small manufacturing business.

While employed at Hughes Aircraft Company, Galloway designed solar panels for spacecraft, including commercial and military satellites and a NASA probe to the planet Venus. He has also done solar cell research and is published in electrical engineering proceedings on that subject.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“I really believe the job of the TRPA is to preserve a balance between the man-made and the natural environment and the resources of both. I underline the word balance. I believe the job of this regulatory agency is not to keep people out of Lake Tahoe, but allow people to use it in a nondestructive manner so that we can preserve this resource. I believe part of the character of Tahoe that we are preserving is that it has developed and undeveloped areas. I believe in a balanced approach.”

9) Dean Heller

Nevada Secretary of State Heller graduated from Carson High School, and received a bachelor’s in business administration, specializing in finance and securities analysis from USC in 1985.

Heller was first elected secretary of state in 1994, and re-elected in 1998 and 2002. He previously served Carson City as an assemblyman from 1990-94. Prior to that, Heller worked as an institutional stockbroker and as a broker/trader on the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Heller is the third highest-ranking constitutional officer in Nevada.

Statement: What is the purpose of the TRPA?

“If left unchecked and without controls on building and development, what do you think the Lake Tahoe area would look like? That’s the purpose of TRPA, which came into existence at a time when plans were in the making for two freeways to surround the lake and for growth to reach 500,000 by the year 2000. Today, about 60,000 people reside in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Today TRPA works in partnership with federal, state and local agencies, as well as private property owners, to come up with solutions to save the jewel of the Sierra Nevada for future generations. A strong partnership between all those interested in Lake Tahoe’s remaining the fairest picture the whole Earth affords is the cornerstone of this goal. TRPA’s purpose could not be more clear: save Lake Tahoe from unchecked growth and development.”

10) Shelly Aldean

Carson City Supervisor Aldean was born and raised in the Bay Area. Since graduating from UC Davis in 1979, she has been a member of a family-owned and operated business specializing in commercial and resort-oriented residential development. She is president of the Glenbrook Company, a Nevada development corporation and vice president/corporate broker for Eden Managements, a Nevada property management company.

Aldean became civically active soon after becoming a resident of Carson City in 1989. She served as president of the Carson City Mainstreet organization from 1990-93 and as president of the Carson City Area Chamber of Commerce from 1994-95. She is past chair and a current member of the Western Nevada Community College Foundation Board of Trustees and a member emeritus of the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation Board of Trustees. She is the current chair of the Chamber’s Political Action Council and is a director on the Business Development Board for Irwin Union Bank and Trust Company. In 1999, Aldean was the recipient of the Soroptimist International of Carson City’s Women of Distinction Award and the Sam Walton Business Leader Award.

As a member of the Board of Supervisors, she also serves on the Regional Transportation Commission, the Public Transportation Advisory Committee, and the Western Nevada Development District.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“The purpose of TRPA is to safeguard Lake Tahoe as an environmental, cultural and economic resource while respecting the rights of those who live, work and recreate in the basin.”

11) Ronald Slaven

Governor of California appointee Slaven grew up in Fresno. He is in the construction business.

He attended Fresno City College. He has worked in California and Nevada. His construction experiences include building structures, water treatment facilities, pipelines, roads, highways, bridges and refineries, as well as hydroelectric and rapid transit.

While working, he completed CSU Sacramento courses involving the construction estimating program sponsored by the office of Regional and Continuing Education. In addition, Slaven became certified in DuPont’s Safety Training Observation Program and is presently enrolled at the National Labor College’s George Meany Center for labor studies. He hopes to earn his bachelor’s degree in labor studies.

Following the election of Gov. Gray Davis, of whom he describes himself as a supporter, he wanted to be appointed to a board where he believed he would bring his knowledge and background to the table.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“The purpose of the TRPA is to preserve the Tahoe basin. I believe we must continue to search for the environmental and socioeconomic balance of everyone’s interest in the Tahoe basin to maintain the integrity of the TRPA.”

12) Coe Swobe

Nevada at-large member Swobe was appointed to the board in 2001 but has had a long history with the TRPA. He is one of the original craftsmen of the legislation that created the agency. Swobe is a lifelong resident of Reno and has a law practice. He has been a Nevada legislator, with a keen interest in the Lake Tahoe environment.

In June 1967 then Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt asked Swobe to establish contact on his behalf with then California Gov. Ronald Reagan and the California Legislature concerning the establishment of a regional agency for Lake Tahoe.

After two years of hearings and negotiations between the governors and the California and Nevada legislatures, the report called for the establishment of the TRPA. Swobe drafted the legislation, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on Dec. 18, 1969.

The main problem TRPA faced in the 1960s remains today, Swobe said. The problem is the continued flow of nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorous into the lake, which destroys the lake’s clarity.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“It is to preserve and protect the water quality, the scenic beauty and natural resources of Lake Tahoe by establishing uniform minimum standards for the basin. “

13) David Solaro

El Dorado County Board of Supervisor Solaro is chairman of TRPA’s Governing Board. Solaro retired in fall 1998 as police and fire chief for South Lake Tahoe. Solaro spent 33 years in public safety.

As supervisor, Solaro covers District 5, which starts at the Placer County line on the western shore of Lake Tahoe including the communities of Tahoma, Meeks Bay and Rubicon Bay and follows the ridge line around to the South Shore, including all of South Lake Tahoe and a small portion up to Echo Summit and down Highway 50.

He is a board member on the California Tahoe Conservancy, the Tahoe Tallac Association, the South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe. Solaro represents El Dorado County on the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization and is on the California State Association of Counties Board of Directors, is chairman of the CSAC Criminal Justice Committee and on the California Biodiversity Council.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“The organization that was formed by a United States congressional compact to guide growth in the Tahoe basin according to environmental thresholds. With the makeup of the Governing Board, an important aspect of the TRPA is that it is also made up of local government representatives. These members are unique because they represent the diverse thoughts of the local constituents who live in the basin. “

14) Larry Sevinson

Placer County appointee Sevinson has been on the TRPA Governing Board twice, the first time as a county supervisor from 1980-84 and the second time, when the Placer County supervisors appointed him in 1988.

Educated at UC Davis, the professional home builder serves as one who understands the complexities of lake pollution and one who understands property rights. He is a founding member of the California Tahoe Conservancy, which formed in 1985.

Sevinson, 68, is still a Conservancy board member. He has been on the Placer County Planning Commission since 1970. He lives at Agate Bay.

Statement: What is the purpose of TRPA?

“The purpose is to allow those of us who are fortunate to live at or enjoy Lake Tahoe to create a lifestyle that produces an environment that promotes the health and welfare of Lake Tahoe. The primary purpose of everything we do is about water quality.”

15) Hal Cole

South Lake Tahoe businessmen and City Councilman Cole serves as the appointed member to the TRPA board from South Lake Tahoe. His primary job is to represent the city’s interests as they relate to the TRPA.

Cole grew up in South Lake Tahoe, graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966. Cole’s family moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1959.

After attending UC Davis, earning degrees in chemical engineering and international relations in 1972, he moved back to the South Shore where he started a contracting business, Cole Enterprises, with members of his family. He is married and has two children.

Cole was first elected to the City Council in June 1994, and has been a member of the TRPA since November 1996.

Statement: What’s the purpose of TRPA?

“In my mind, there is a purpose and it is the stated purpose in the Compact. The trouble I have is the stated purpose of the Compact has much different thresholds and very often they compete with each other. To me the most important purpose of the TRPA is to slow down, stop and if at all possible, reverse the (decline in the lake’s clarity) which is caused by algae and other nonnative things going into the lake.

My primary focus is water quality. If this lake turns green, it will never recover and our lake will lose a certain draw, a certain uniqueness it’s had for hundreds of years.”


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