TRPA searching for new executive director

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board selected a committee of seven Wednesday to think through the process to replace Executive Director John Singlaub.

While the informal committee cannot make any official decisions about how to handle replacing Singlaub, who resigned Jan. 23, it can discuss how to move the process along.

"It's important that we keep the process moving as quickly as possible," said committee member Mara Bresnick, the California Assembly Speaker appointee to the TRPA Governing Board. "At the next (governing board) meeting the group should recommend a process that the board takes action on."

Singlaub's resignation last week happened too quickly before Wednesday's Governing Board meeting to allow the board to take any formal action.

The informal committee consists of seven members " four who are already members of the executive review committee. Those four are Allen Biaggi, TRPA Governing Board chair and director of Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Norma Santiago, board vice chair and El Dorado County Supervisor; Shelly Aldean, Carson City Board of Supervisors member and Bresnick.

Additional members appointed are Steven Merrill, governor of California appointee; Nancy McDermid, Douglas County commissioner and Stuart Yount, presidential appointee.

At Wednesday's meeting, Biaggi said the agency was entering challenging times.

"Obviously we are at a crossroads with this agency," he said. "We have set some lofty goals for ourselves, to make the forests in the basin more fire safe, to achieve positive movement on the environmental thresholds we have established (especially water quality), to keep invasive aquatic species in check in Tahoe and deny the introduction of new ones, to move forward with environmentally sensitive development and redevelopment within the basin and to pass a long overdue regional plan."

Tahoe planning budget up for cuts

(AP) " Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget would slash Nevada's share of funds for the bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency by 41 percent, and that means big reductions in service to the public, state legislators were told.

John Singlaub, executive director of the California-Nevada agency charged with protecting Lake Tahoe, said this state's nearly $3.8 million share of TRPA costs over the next two fiscal years would drop by $1.5 million under the governor's proposed budget.

Singlaub, who just announced he's quitting his post, added that the proposed budget cuts would cause a "significant reduction in customer service," create morale problems and delay various projects aimed at preserving the clear waters of the mile-high mountain lake.

Under questioning from lawmakers, Singlaub also said the proposed spending creates a "very touchy" situation since Nevada's typical contribution is a third of the TRPA funding while California pays the rest. The proposed cut would reduce Nevada's share to a fourth of the total.

"Nevada not paying our fair share ... I wouldn't like it if I were a California legislator," said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.

Budget-cutting moves to date include the elimination of 11 staff positions, a salary and hiring freeze, work furloughs and closure of a satellite office on Tahoe's north shore for at least the balance of the fiscal year, he said. The agency now has about 80 employees.

Under the spending plan proposed by Gibbons, Singlaub said all those steps must continue, and additional steps such as increasing employees' health benefit costs may be required.

"It's going to severely impact the activities of the TRPA," said Allen Biaggi, the agency's chairman and also the head of the Nevada Conservation and Natural Resources Department.

"California, believe it or not, may be in an even more dire situation perhaps than Nevada," added Biaggi.

The budget woes are the latest in a number of hassles for the agency, among them a protest last year over TRPA plans to regulate boats piers and buoys at Tahoe. The critics said those plans didn't go far enough to protect the lake.

Also, some homeowners have accused the agency of dragging its feet on projects to reduce the wildfire threat at Tahoe. A June 2007 fire destroyed more than 250 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area.