Mayor Collin: We will take public comments at this time for
items that are on the (for this emergency meeting:
(Comments were sent in and read out
loud by City Clerk Sue Blankenship, the one woman in the room while council membersattended the meeting by voice only.)
First comment is Ed M: New
business: Great idea to avoid a catastrophe situation, provided that
volunteers and staff don’t contract the virus, don’t believe I have to
elaborate here. Item 3: You do need to
issue a ban on the rental of VHR's shared rentals, etcetera for short term
rentals. The risk of being infected is
much greater outside the Tahoe Basin. People will want to come here because it
is safe here. We won't be able to
quarantine them. They pose a risk and voluntary compliance has never worked in
any manner within the short term rental industry here. I suggest only those working in medical and
public safety fields be allowed.
Next Comment is from James A. Please close down VHR's, all short term
rentals and hotels motels during this trying time. Let's look after our own community and
welcome back visitors when it is safe to do so.
Next comment comes from PHRM. Hello.
I would strongly ask that you ban vacation rentals to stop visitors from
bringing in the virus to our community.
My wife is bravely on the front lines at Raley's grocery story and we
need to protect these workers and all of our families here in town. We can do this by not providing opportunity
for sickness to be transferred.
Next Comment from Alisa T. We would like to be assured that the county
is included with this. We live in Tahoma
and have seen much activity at legal and not legal rentals over the past week. This
should be applied to all rentals, penalties should include loss of their rental
license. This has to have teeth for
people to adhere to it.
Next comment comes from Theresa F. Hello.
I'm a full time Tahoe Keys resident and homeowner. Not only were the Keys infested with VHR's
but many families having second homes came here. I personally know four families from Stockton
and other parts of the Bay Area. I'm
certain what happened in the Keys happened in other SLT neighborhoods. It is sad that the ignorance of others has
put our safety at risk. Lastly our
hospital has sixty three beds. That
should be all you need to make your decision to take action and shut down
VHRs.
Next comment from Peggy B. In an effort to relieve some of the
challenges of trying to produce a remote council meeting, the Tahoe
Neighborhoods Group is submitting this email.
We have been monitoring the city' and county's efforts to advise the
public to shelter in their permanent place of residence and not over burden
resort communities. We have found
several online listings of vacation home rentals available in this city on
different platforms. Members report to
us that there are houses all over town that had visitors over the weekend and
many of them are currently occupied. One
Tahoe VHR operator was on KCRA stating she would not displace her tenants. Time is of the essence so waiting a few weeks
to determine if the travel and lodging advisory is being taken seriously may
not be an option. Without almost
universal compliance, the notion of ending the spread of the virus while
preserving medical resources in South Lake Tahoe is unrealistic. We note that other jurisdictions have taken a
much stronger position to gain compliance.
Next comment is from Lydia B. Thank you for the recent update. All of my current reservations were canceled
by my guests. From my perspective,
people are taking the stay at home order seriously. I, for one, am grateful to
see strangers take such quick action. I read a lot of the negative assumptions
on social media. Before the order was
issued, we packed up and went to stay at our family cabin, home away from home,
in same county as South Lake Tahoe.
Besides my neighbors, I saw a lot of people just walking, driving by
just glaring at us with assumptions. I
received a cold shoulder. People
concluded we were renting a VHR but that was not the case. They still went to Facebook to bash
everyone. Maybe some of these folk came
up before the order was issued like we did.
Everyone is now aware of the current situation in California. We're healthy and have been in place shelter
since March 13th.
As a responsible homeowner, I
personally am sick and tired of all these locals projecting their misguided
ideas into what I should and should not do with my own home. If I or my own
healthy family want to stay in our own cabin, we will continue to do so and
shelter in place at our cabin or in South Lake Tahoe. We now have people
driving around looking for cars at unknown VHRs in the neighborhood taking
pictures so they can spew their hate on social media.
I know I'm not the only one using
our home. As I read about another lady who with her elderly mother in the Bay
Area packed up and are staying in their second home by the lake because they're
scared like the rest of us. Clearly they
didn't come up because they're ill, they came up to feel safe. When I mentioned her situation on South Lake
Tahoe's Facebook page her situation was belittled in many different ways. It's awful.
There's no decency in this town by the locals and you're playing right
into their hate. Maybe the VHR is not
rented out to strangers but it's easy for strangers to come to this ridiculous
assumption.
Just because dates are still
available on websites-… 3 minutes up.
Next email from Rick D. Please shut down short term rentals. Visitors from outside the local by definition
are exposed to the virus and probably carry it.
They are violating the shelter at home edict and are spreading the
virus. If we prohibit short term
rentals, we can minimize the traffic in Tahoe from areas where the infection is
ongoing.
Next comment from Claire S. I am homeless with three underlying health
conditions with a HUD VA voucher for South Lake Tahoe that may never be
used. I am not and cannot stay at the
shelter because of the risks involved. I
need to be in isolation rather than merely social distanced at motels to
prevent infection. Have any VHR owners
been approached and or encouraged to accept a housing choice voucher? If not why? Would they rather generate zero
dollars or more than a thousand a month for their indefinitely unoccupied
rentals?
Next email comes from Todd W. Thank you so much for the hard work you are
doing for our community it is greatly appreciated. The El Dorado County Republican party wants
to thank you for the proclamation that you passed on Friday. We particularly believe the following section
is particularly beneficial to your constituents. A moratorium on residential evictions due to
layoffs or reduced work or expenses caused by Covid-19- we also support item
two re evictions.
Next comment from Marci N. My lungs are compromised, I already take
inhalers twice a day. If I get the
virus, I likely won't survive it, please.
Stop the spread of the virus. I
went to the Grocery Outlet and twenty somethings are congregating, clogging the
aisles, and acting like it's their new hangout spot since coffee shops are
closed. Regarding VHRs can you fine
owners with hefty fines or suspend licenses of those that don’t meet the
governor's mandate? I'm literally afraid for my life. Thank you for all you are
doing.
Next comment is from Evan G. I'm a vacation home owner and I support the
city's need to support health and safety above tourism. Whatever the city thinks must be done to
ensure medical and supply needs are focused on local residents. The health of our community is more important
than our tourist dollars during this time.
My only ask would be that, one, you provide some clarity or
accommodation for any valid uses of short term rentals. Is it okay to host medical professionals?
I've hosted traveling nurses before, should there be an exception for
that? Number two, clarity on the end
date for this order would be extremely helpful.
It's difficult to predict what things will look like a month from now
but knowing what rules will be imposed for May or June would be helpful. Perhaps this is a good time to speed up
building remodeling permits to encourage VHR owners to close to do remodels
they've been waiting to do.
Next comment comes from Patrick R: According to what we've seen from the State,
overnight lodging is allowed. The rooms we
seem to be getting appear to be business travel- Barton people and a few
others. Does the county or the city have the authority to change what the State
has enacted? If they do, the new rules
are enacted, what are we supposed to do and for how long?
Next comment comes from Jessica B. I own two small businesses Omni and Champagne
Productions in the city of South Lake Tahoe. I'm writing today to voice my
support for item two on today's agenda, moratorium on evictions. During this unstable time, we are occupied
with staying healthy. Last thing we need is to worry about rent payments on
businesses like mine that have been shut down by government order or can no
longer operate. My small business is
simply not prepared for the impact of this pandemic and if my landlord were to
evict me, recovery would be impossible for my business. My only hope is to have a business to return
to when this passes. This moratorium
assures my landlord can work with me.
That said, the resolution could contain some elements that are overly
burdensome, for example a requirement that each tenant document their inability
to pay rent is due to Covid-19. This
requirement could create a way for landlord to continue to pursue evictions at
this time. It should be assumed that
every small business that would need these protections is in this situation
because of Covid-19.
Next comment from Bill M, South
Tahoe Family Resource Center. The entire
Lake Tahoe community is suffering during this unprecedented pandemic. Our undocumented community is also adversely
impacted. The normal fears associated
with daily life are exacerbated by the isolation linked with Covid-19. Our
underserved and low income community is feeling extra pressure due to lack of
hours available to work. This health
crisis and economic downturn will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable
among us, our immigrant and low income communities. (Discontinued reading due to not topics that are
on agenda)
*
Additional comment from Linda
W Lake Valley Resident: Notice in an online
posting is not proper notice to all the concerned citizenry. Do you not see the tragic irony in wanting
visitors to stay home and people from gathering and spending money to
recreate? And the taking of our recreation
center to become a Petri Dish of public nuisance attraction and contagion. Who signed up for this among us? This is a terrible
proposal, there are countless buildings with no people like government offices
or org offices that have no gathering orders.
Take the children and teachers building, take the mental health
offices. Take away a source of
recreation for the community even for two months is unacceptable because it is
and will be needed by the community that built and paid for it. Stop the public contagion attraction in South
Lake Tahoe period.
*
Matt D: Thank you for having me. I just want to give a little glimpse of the life of a restaurant owner, I'm not too sure how many people have spoken. To make it fair for both sides, I know the landlords have bills to pay as well and morgages, I think [INAUDIBLE] the rent would be over a certain amount of time, that people could potentially pay, because it's getting hard to go back in and expect a lot of people to come back in and eat because it's not going to be reality. I compare it to when we had Nine-Eleven, no one went out after that for a long time. This being a health issue, I don't see people going out to restaurants right away, it's going to take people a little bit of time to get comfortable to go out again. restaurants will never be cleaner but that's just how it is from our perspective. We'll have to deal with those situations but to charge people rent would be- too hard for people to survive. I pay a lot of rent at my two locations in town and employees who are struggling, I'm trying to take care of their hours too. Just for cleaning and stuff but there's only so much I can do. So that'd be my recommendation and all my other landlords have worked with me in other cities that I have restaurants in I hope you can do the same here. That's my two cents.
*
(Continued in Part Two) https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html
*
Gary J. Please consider exemptions, exterior door
hotels to be exempt. We have social
distancing already in place. L.A. County
and Arizona already have exemptions for exterior door hotels. We need to define
exempt travels, for example visiting loved ones, the elderly etcetera, guests
unable to make it home, people without a home.
Next
comment Gary J for rec center. Please reconsider
this, our children need the rec center. It has been taxpayer paid and
built. I can think of two buildings off the
top of my head that would be better suited for homeless needs. One the old Chevy's restaurant building, it
has commercial bathrooms and possible kitchen.
Number two Motel Six restaurant, commercial bathrooms and kitchen. There is a better alternative than our rec
center.
Next comment by Natalie
Y: I appreciate the Covid-19 memo on the
city's website to encourage the city to provide more information and buillet
points on the website regarding short term rentals. There is some confusion between the executive
orders by the governor, county, and city policy and police powers. Clear communication is a key at this time and
I appreciate the city's response and efforts.
One more written public
comment, from Jessie G. Please do not
allow VHR's to continue to rent to out of town people, one, Barton cannot
handle an outbreak, two the grocery stores still have empty shelves and products
not available for local residents and most restaurants are closed. Three out of
town visitors will bring Coronavirus to Tahoe whether they know they're infected
or not and spread it to Tahoe. Number Four,
Governor Newsom has told everyone to stay home, not to travel and spread the virus. Please stay home and stay safe, don’t come to
Tahoe and cause people to become sick or die, thank you.
One more written public
comment, from Jessie G. Please do not
allow VHR's to continue to rent to out of town people, one, Barton cannot
handle an outbreak, two the grocery stores still have empty shelves and
products not available for local residents and most restaurants are closed.
Three out of town visitors will bring Coronavirus to Tahoe whether they know
they're infected or not and spread it to Tahoe.
Number Four, Governor Newsome has told everyone to stay home, not to
travel and spread the virus. Please stay
home and stay safe, don’t come to Tahoe and cause people to become sick or die,
thank you.
SB: That
is all of the written public comment and if we could now move onto public telephone
comment, I have two requests for phone calls.
First is a phone call to Bruce G, bear with me I'll get Mr. G on the line.
Bruce G: I appreciate the need to combat the Coronavirus. Everything seems so uncertain today except
for one certainty, that government is closing down businesses in our community. I'm very concerned about- [TECHNICAL] Government is damaging the marketplace
causing serious unemployment in many industries and risking a serious downturn. It kind of reminds me of a surgeon leaving an
operating room and declaring the operation was a success but the patient died. You need to keep this battle with the virus
balanced and a proportional response, stop closing down businesses. As to closing the South Lake Tahoe recreation
center, I would urge you to put a time certain subject to renewal by
council. To leave it open ended until this
challenge ends is so indefinite. Evaluate
it every thirty days I think that makes more sense.
SB: And we have one more request and then we will
open up the lines for people who want to call in. I'm going to contact Matt D. Matt D: Thank you for having me. I just want to give a little glimpse of the life of a restaurant owner, I'm not too sure how many people have spoken. To make it fair for both sides, I know the landlords have bills to pay as well and morgages, I think [INAUDIBLE] the rent would be over a certain amount of time, that people could potentially pay, because it's getting hard to go back in and expect a lot of people to come back in and eat because it's not going to be reality. I compare it to when we had Nine-Eleven, no one went out after that for a long time. This being a health issue, I don't see people going out to restaurants right away, it's going to take people a little bit of time to get comfortable to go out again. restaurants will never be cleaner but that's just how it is from our perspective. We'll have to deal with those situations but to charge people rent would be- too hard for people to survive. I pay a lot of rent at my two locations in town and employees who are struggling, I'm trying to take care of their hours too. Just for cleaning and stuff but there's only so much I can do. So that'd be my recommendation and all my other landlords have worked with me in other cities that I have restaurants in I hope you can do the same here. That's my two cents.
That's all so far:
Mayor: We are still getting emails from people who
say we're not doing enough getting the word out there, if you have a suggestion
as to how we can do that, please give it to us.
We're a small team trying to get the word out as best we can on many-many
fronts. But I'm getting a lot of emails
and we are trying to get as much information out there as we can. If you have a suggestion, we'd love to have it
alongside your concerns. Now we'll move
onto our regular agenda. *
(Continued in Part Two) https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html
NOTE: The clips I transcribe for this project contain information that I don't think is available in print anywhere else. Please show your appreciation by clicking some cash into my PayPal account through button at top of left hand column.)
*
The meeting is 2.5 hours long this is just first 20 minutes, but I WILL get the rest of the meeting transcribed, loosely, next few days.
*
Links in this post
The Covid-19 Transcripts https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-covid-19-transcripts-origin.html
South Lake Tahoe City Council Meeting on Video: https://slt.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=1086
Part Two is here: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-pt-2-city-council-emergency.html )
(Part Three is here: https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/2020/03/transcript-part-3-tahoe-city-council.html )
Posted by Kay Ebeling
Producer, City of Angels Blog
the city of angels is everywhere
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