By Susan Wood

In the quest for the green or even the black, South Lake Tahoe’s government finances appear on paper to be much rosier than the figures tallied last year at this time – at least for now. The redevelopment picture could change that.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council received two critical financial reports Tuesday. Photo/Susan Wood

The City Council heard and filed a mid-year budget report by Finance Director Christine Vuletich Tuesday stating that the local government’s general fund is down by $276,689 in unfunded expenses this year. This term means items not budgeted. Last year at this time, the city was forced to make up for $1.5 million in the general fund.

“Compared to last year, it’s really minimal,” Vuletich said to the council, sharing her excitement about the improvement.

Overall, she summarized the report as “good news.” Revenues show an $800,000 increase over this time last year – except for one area that’s taken a major hit in diminishing property tax dollars during the recession.

“Most funds are up except the RDA,” she said, referring to the Redevelopment Agency’s $900,000 drop in revenue in one year.

“Flat is the new up,” she said.

The city contends it has made inroads on containing costs, and Vuletich’s optimistic about slight revenue gains showing a growth pattern, she later told Lake Tahoe News. The mid-year changes in total funds showed a net gain of $462,496. And city officials plan to follow a five-year strategic plan to prosperity.

City Manager Tony O’Rourke, who is most recently from the private sector, has shown no patience for government waste and business as usual.

When O’Rourke came on board, he took issue with 78 percent of the general fund being consumed by salaries and benefits. His aim is less than 65 percent. Just last month, 11 positions were eliminated.

The city had to pay out two top-level, former managers. Agreeing not to sue or disparage the city, Assistant Manager Rick Angelocci got $54,891 in severance, while Redevelopment and Housing Director Gene Palazzo received $44,748. These consent agenda items passed unanimously without discussion.

“I’m not happy about this,” Councilman Tom Davis told Lake Tahoe News during a break.

But O’Rourke insisted the terminations were necessary over the long haul – calling the maneuvers a 23-to-1 savings when considering Angelocci’s $144,360 annual salary.

The challenges continue. The city is scheduled to start labor negotiations in closed session at its meeting in two weeks.

O’Rourke appeared to breathe a sigh of relief with the city’s financials – that is, this year’s mid-year report and last year’s audit presented side by side before the council that afternoon.

Looking back at tough times

The city’s auditor, Cory Biggs of Maze and Associates based in Pleasant Hill, provided South Lake Tahoe with a reasonable bill of health on its finances evaluated over its 2009-10 fiscal year. And with no “discrepancies,” Biggs said he would rate South Lake Tahoe’s 190 separate funds it manages in the top tier of the 40 cities it combs over.

“If we found some, we would have been talking before this meeting,” he said.

Still, the city has worked to dig itself out of a hole.

In 2009-10, the audit presented a $2.1 million negative difference between the general fund’s revenues and expenses. Times have been tough. Another slide showed the history of the general fund starting with a $1.4 million overage in revenue in 2003. Growth continues until 2008, which reported a budget deficit of $1.2 million. And things went downhill from there.

Going from 2007 to 2008, the city even had to move $1.2 million in reserves to pay for general fund expenses.

The redevelopment story was bleak last year. State takeaways amounted to $2.1 million – and this year could be worse. Gov. Jerry Brown has suggested eliminating redevelopment agencies to ease the pain of its own budget woes.

“It’s an issue,” City Attorney Patrick Enright warned the council. The state’s threat also made the agenda as the city tries to absorb the ramifications of no state-supported funding for urban renewal. California’s possibility of being able to seize local assets and nullify loans represents a worrisome moving target for this city.

The local government’s Redevelopment Agency has struggled to pay back half the money owed to the general fund from the $7.2 million it borrowed a decade ago to complete the Heavenly Village project. It pays $500,000 each year, amounting to collected interest of $638,353. Over time, the interest almost doubles the amount owed.

Redevelopment is considered a tool for business and housing investment in town. But South Lake Tahoe’s liabilities outweigh its assets, representing “a huge amount of debt,” Vuletich announced.

In other money matters, the council:

-Approved rehiring Maze and Associates for future audit services.

-Authorized the pursuit of grant funding amounting to a total of $464,133 for 1.6 miles in bicycle paths.

-Allocated $40,000 in air quality funds for bus shelters.

Wind and snow are once again headed our way — get out while you can, and call ahead for lift information. Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

Publisher’s note: This is reprinted from the June 1975 Lake Tahoe Historical Society newsletter.

Tahoe residents and visitors alike will be saddened at the loss of the 90-year old Bliss mansion in Glenbrook, which was destroyed by fire within a half hour during the early morning hours of June 5th. No cause for the fire has been determined although investigators say [it] is unlikely arson could be involved.

The two-story frame house, which has been used by five generations of the same family, was built by pioneer Tahoe lumberman D.L. Bliss at the time Glenbrook’s claim to fame was not as a resort but as the center of a prosperous logging business. The home, now owned by William Bliss, was furnished with expensive Victorian antiques dating from his great grandfather’s time.

Bill Bliss, a Society Member, stated no value could be placed on the loss of the home and furnishes until insurance reports are received. He will tear down the remaining walls and let grass fill the area.

The mansion has been the subject of many writings on the Tahoe Area and its past and is well known to the Society.

Only last summer, Bill Bliss, after recalling the picturesque little community’s thriving area at the February meeting, hosted the membership at a luncheon tour of historic Glenbrook, including the lovely old family home.

•Lake Tahoe Unified School District is becoming an AVID district. Now all students in grades 4, 5, and 6 will have the opportunity to learn communication skills, educational self-advocacy, study skills, mental and physical organization within agenda/planner, organizational tools, time management, goal setting, note-taking strategies with an emphasis on writing to learn, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading to learn in all content areas.

• A tourism forum featuring the AMGEN bike event is scheduled at the Horizon Casino April 14 at 5:30pm. Topics to be discussed will be AMGEN, the Highway 50 closure and other events. The event is organized through the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

• Local historian Carol Etten will discuss steam-powered marine transportation in Lake Tahoe for an Explore Tahoe free talk scheduled for April 7 at 6pm at the Heavenly Village, Stateline Transit Center.

• The comment period for the Homewood Mountain Resort draft environmental impact report was granted a 30-day extension by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, extending the document’s comment period to April 21.

• The California Board of Equalization would like to remind those who are filing their taxes by April 18 to report and pay the use tax, which is what is owed by the consumers on items purchased from out-of-state retailers that don’t collect sales tax. These include purchases on the Internet, mail order or via telephone.

• Pineapple Hospitality, which sells green hotel products to 968 Park Hotel in South Lake Tahoe, is the first company in the hospitality industry to ship exclusively using UPS’s carbon neutral program.

• Douglas County’s main jail in Minden, built in 1980, is getting a $3.9 million overhaul and expansion that should be finished later this spring.

• This video shows how easily houses burn in a wildfire and what homeowners can do.

By Denis Collins

It’s not just hard finding good help these days — it’s hard finding honest help, too.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, approximately 75 percent of all employees steal from work in some way. What’s worse is that about 30 percent of all corporate bankruptcies are a direct result of employee theft. The National Retail Security Survey in 2009 said you can also subtract a whopping $15.9 billion each year just from retailers who suffer from employee theft.

With the problem so widespread, many companies simply factor those losses into their yearly projections, and then hope it’s not worse by year’s end.

Although it may seem complex, one hedge against employee theft and fraud is to redesign the hiring process to help screen for employees who suffer from ‘selective integrity’. After an employer fires someone for theft, the natural question they ask is, “How’d we even hire that guy?” Well, by changing your hiring practices, you can screen out people who are more likely to steal, and reduce the number of times you ever have to ask yourself that question again.

Tips for managers who screen job candidates include:

* Obey Legal Ground Rules

— While there are many questions the law forbids you to ask job candidates to eliminate discrimination, there are still many questions you can ask.

* Use Ethics-Based Interview Questions

— Too many interviewers gloss over questions that test an individual’s character. Ask the candidate how he or she responded at a previous job to someone stealing, engaging in sexual harassment, or cutting corners at the cost of high ethical standards. Ask them if a superior ever requested that they do something unethical and, if so, how did they react. Even those who are dishonest with their answers can reveal how they feel about ethics in general.

* Review Behavioral Information

— Behavioral information can be gathered about job candidates through resumes, reference checks, background checks and some basic integrity tests that quiz candidates through “what would you do” style situations. Three standard integrity tests come from the Reid Report, the Stanton Survey and the Personnel Selection Inventory (PSI), which are easily found with a Google search if you don’t already have access to them.

* Test Personality Traits

— The traits that govern whether an employee is more or less inclined to be dishonest include conscientiousness, organizational citizenship behavior, and social dominance. For the first two, you want to see high scores — not so much on the last one. Again, personality tests are widely available to test these traits.

* Other Tests

— Some of the most revealing tests are the obvious ones — alcohol tests, drug tests and even polygraph tests, when permitted by law. Many candidates may object to these as employment requirements, but in a world in which 7 percent of our entire economy goes up in smoke from employee theft and fraud, companies should not feel shy about drawing a line in the sand. While those who refuse to take those tests may not have anything to hide, it’s clear that those who agree to those tests have nothing to hide.

Fraud and malfeasance at the highest levels of some of the country’s largest companies contributed to the 2008 to 2010 recession, and have been a willing assistant in keeping our economy down. It would be interesting if we could have turned the clocks back and run those executives through an ethics-oriented hiring process, and perhaps eliminated some of the fraud and theft that helped level our economy. Short of that, all we can do is pave the way for a better future by taking some very basic steps to help weed out the unethical and dishonest from our nation’s talent pool.

Denis Collins is a professor of business at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisc.. He is responsible for Social Responsibility and Business Ethics components in the school’s Business Programs, and a SIFE Sam Walton Fellow.

By Kathryn Reed

Shakespeare is back – really back.

Last season the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival did not put on a full play of William Shakespeare. While officials say the abridged version of his work that was staged was well received by audiences, plenty of others stayed away because it wasn’t a true Shakespeare play.

“Twelfth Night” will be performed in July and August on the shores of Lake Tahoe at Sand Harbor in Incline Village. Officials have their fingers crossed the economy will continue to improve and a second play will be added in 2012 as has been the norm in prior years.

Karen Buranch as Julia Child in 2010. Photos/Kathryn Reed

“It’s going to be a wonderful show. It’s full of great costumes and great music,” said Daphne Lange, marketing director for the festival. “I think people will enjoy the return to traditional Shakespeare.”

The actors have Mondays off. Festival organizers hope to fill in those days with other events. So far the Reno Philharmonic is booked for July 18. A Chautauqua performance will be part of the playbill Aug. 8.

Chautauqua is when a performer is dressed as a historical figure and shares stories about the character’s life. Ginny Liebner Yates organizes the Chautauqua group that comes to Tahoe. Last year it was titled Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine. It was appropriately named as husband-wife Gene and Karen Buranch took on the persons of Babe Ruth and Julia Child.

Dressed as if they were these American icons and with a minimalist setting of a kitchen of sorts for Julia Child, and a beer and baseball bat for Babe Ruth, it was almost as though they were really the people they were playing. This is because they are more than actors; they are historians and must know their character beyond the role.

As is the norm with Chautauqua, the actors stay in character to take questions from the audience – answering from the perspective of the character and in the time period they were alive. So no questions about steroids in baseball could be asked.

Gene Buranch as Babe Ruth.

This summer Karen Buranch will be back. Doug Watson will be her partner. They will be playing Western outlaw Belle Star and cowboy Will Rogers.

Changes at the venue this year include the lower gallery – aka beach chair section – will be assigned seating. This means not longer having to queue up hours before the performance.

The upper gallery will have beach chairs provided, though people can still bring blankets to sit on.

The entire venue seats 1,200 people.

Lange said the menu will be changing, but didn’t have specifics just yet.

Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s website has more information. Tickets for some performances are on sale now.

By Susan Wood

Huge money matters in South Lake Tahoe await the City Council Tuesday.

The board is expected to fiscally make adjustments to operations, receive last year’s audit, approve severance payouts to two former, top-level staffers, go after money for bike trails and decide to put up pedestrian signs for safety where a failed redevelopment project sits.

This is among many other things on the agenda that could bring the meeting starting at 9am well into the afternoon, if not evening. It’s scheduled in council chambers at 1901 Airport Road.

The annual audit conducted by Maze and Associates – which is also on the agenda for extending its services — paints an improved financial picture in 2010 with mixed results. While net assets totaling $61 million are up at year end, revenues were down by $3.9 million.

The mid-year budget comes with a note of caution.

While the city’s general fund has received 33.5 percent of the budgeted revenue with an overall net increase of 5.8 percent amounting to $531,405 compared to the previous year, the unfunded expenses at the middle of the city’s fiscal year shows some challenges.

The unfunded expense increases and revenue decreases total $276,689. According to the Finance Department, this discrepancy comes from higher animal control costs and retirement costs, along with an overinflated revenue projection on court citation fees.

The hope is the city’s five-year strategic plan spells out prosperity and a reduction in expenses from the city’s reorganization will make up differences in the long haul. For one thing, salaries and benefits before the ax fell last month on 11 positions have been steadily consuming 78 percent of the general fund. The high percentage didn’t go unnoticed by new City Manager Tony O’Rourke – whose aim was to bring that ratio closer to 65 percent like other cities.

With that comes another item on the consent agenda – which is designed for less dialogue.

The council may approve severance payouts to former executive staffers Assistant City Manager Rick Angelocci and Redevelopment and Housing Director Gene Palazzo — both of whom were let go by the city last month. If they agree not to sue or disparage the city, they’ll each get at least $30,000.

Angelocci’s amount is a mystery at this point as the six-page document does not give a final figure. City Attorney Patrick Enright said Monday night the dollar amount is coming Tuesday morning after the city figures furlough days and vacation time on his $144,360 annual salary. If council approves the payout, Palazzo will receive the more defined $44,748.

Palazzo leaves the post with the city’s Redevelopment Agency saddled with a total, long-term debt for the year amounting to $114,000, the audit report adds. This decrease over the prior year is due in part to years of refinancing a debt accrued for projects and paying back the general fund amid diminishing revenues in bad economic times. For example, the agency borrowed $7 million from the general fund over nine years ago to pay for the Heavenly Village project.

And redevelopment could see even more trouble. City Attorney Patrick Enright will also discuss with the council California Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to eliminate the agencies at the state level. The state provides funds for housing and urban renewal to local governments. If the proposal goes forth as planned this summer, the city will need to determine who will be the successor to that.

In other items, the council may:

-Hear a report on the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Facilities Joint Powers Authority from former councilman John Upton, who has managed Measure S funds for years.

-Submit a grant application with the California Department of Transportation for fixing bike trails amounting to a total with city match of $464,133.

-Direct staff to put up advisory signs where pedestrians have been walking unsafely alongside Highway 50 at the defunct Chateau at Heavenly (aka convention center project). Caltrans has backed off of providing funding needed to open up the walkway, the staff report reads.

The afternoon “work” session for City Council includes discussion on the Highway 50 project and other capital improvement plans.

The South Tahoe High Varsity Baseball Team plays Truckee High’s Wednesday at the Aces Ballpark in Reno, KTHO reported Monday. The game time, which starts at 4pm, will be broadcast live from the press box by KTHO.

Aces officials are also allowing the radio station to conduct the public service announcements for the game.

More than 100 CrossFit members from Northern California and Nevada will compete to find the world’s strongest man and woman. The benefit, which is scheduled from 8am to 5pm on April 16, will be staged at South Tahoe CrossFit at 2050 Dunlap St.

Local historian Carol Etten will discuss steam-powered marine transportation in Lake Tahoe for an Explore Tahoe free talk scheduled for April 7 at 6pm at the Heavenly Village, Stateline Transit Center.