By Kathryn Reed

This is it. It’s time to say goodbye.

These past nine years have been an incredible journey; one I would never trade. So many friends have been made. So many interesting people interviewed. So many exciting events to cover. So many stories – and not all of them saw the light of day.

I want to say thank you one last time to everyone who has been part of the Lake Tahoe News team – which includes all of you readers. After all, if no one is reading, what is the point of writing?

For the immediate future I will be paying to keep LTN up so it can be used as an archive. There will be a small fee to access the content. This is just a way to help offset the expense of hosting the site and for basic maintenance costs.

I believe all credible news sources become an area’s history. To “pull the plug” on Lake Tahoe News felt wrong on so many levels, so that’s why it will remain as an archive. There just won’t be any new content after today; unless it sells or something.

What I worry about most going forward is the lack of news Lake Tahoe will be receiving. It’s not that LTN is not replaceable. But the fact that no one in the basin is doing the kind of news LTN does – hard hitting, investigative, daily, in depth series – well, it will take some time to fill the void that LTN will leave.

This means it is going to be up to you, the residents and others who care about the Lake Tahoe Basin and Truckee to become more involved. Start by signing up for the information that the various public agencies send out. This includes meeting alerts and recaps of meetings. Just know that the recap is their biased slant on what happened. There is no reason to say you didn’t know about a meeting. It is easy to get advance notice about them. Read the agenda, become engaged.

Some meetings are online, others are covered via the public access station on cable TV. Seeing them in person is better; you get to witness how the electeds and others play with each other. A psychologist could have a field day watching these people interact.

The electeds who sit on other boards almost never give a recap of what happened so even their colleagues don’t know what is going on. I can’t remember the last time Councilman Austin Sass or Commissioner Nancy McDermid or Supervisor Sue Novasel reported back to the South Lake Tahoe City Council, Douglas County commissioners and El Dorado County supervisors about what happened on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board or Tahoe Transportation District? Yes, it would lengthen meetings if these recaps were provided, but don’t the other electeds and the public deserve to know? It’s been a pet-peeve of mine for years that these elected officials represent the city or county on another board but seem to do so in a vacuum, as an individual and not as a representative of the city or county. It’s one of the procedures I wish I could have gotten changed because I believe it would have brought more accountability to more agencies.

Read the legals in the non-daily Tribune, Record Courier, Sierra Sun, and Mountain Democrat. Yes, really. That’s all the small print in the back of those publications. (All are available online.) Public entities are required to post almost all of their meetings in the newspaper of record. Those four cover South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado, Douglas, and Placer counties. There is a trove of information in the legals.

Read those publications as well as the Tahoe Mountain News, Moonshine Ink, Reno Gazette-Journal and Sacramento Bee for local and regional news. The Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun do a better job of covering Nevada politics, gaming and other news. In California, take a look at the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register. They all have real journalists who understand how to ask tough questions, have ethics and are not bought by advertisers. They are in print and online.

The number of pages a print publication has is based on a formula that starts with how many ads there are on a given day. The news hole is then derived by a ratio of ads to editorial content. So, the more advertising, the more potential for local news. The more advertising, the more reporters who can be hired.

If you want your news sources to stay, advertise. If you don’t have a business, frequent the advertisers in the publications and tell them you saw their ad in X publication.

When you see the donate button – donate. When the number of free stories expires, actually pay to read the publication. In fact, just pay for it from the beginning.

If you don’t somehow contribute financially to a news organization, it is not going to stay in business. It’s your choice.

If you want something done, do it. Government is the people. Remember that.

There is also so much that can be done outside the constraints of government. Get involved. Look at all the good the Meyers Community Foundation has done, the arts groups are doing, the business districts on the North Shore keep doing.

Remember, requesting public records is something the public has a right to do. It’s not just the media. And if you don’t get them, make a stink.

Write letters to the editor so more voices get heard. Suggest stories to the publications. Hold the publications accountable as well as the decision-makers.

There are so many aspects of this job I will miss. But it really is time for something new.

Thank you again for everything.

Hasta luego,

Kae

To the community,

A record 245 people participated in the 35th annual Tahoe Tennis Classic at Zephyr Cove Park. The four-day event that concluded July 29 continues to draw people from across the United States and abroad, with a player from Holland this year.

The tournament is the biggest fundraiser for the Zephyr Cove Tennis Club Foundation. The nonprofit, all-volunteer organization has a contract with Douglas County to operate the six courts. Responsibilities include resurfacing the courts, managing play, and providing instruction for all ages and abilities.

Barton Health for the second year helped sponsor the event. Casey’s in the Round Hill center opened its doors for the July 26 Charity Day, while MontBleu hosted the July 27 players’ dinner.

The money raised from the silent auction/raffle at the dinner will help to continue to provide the only organized recreational tennis on the South Shore.

We thank the following businesses and individuals for their generosity for our fundraiser: Adam Robin, All Sports Fitness & Personal Training, Suzy and Mark Allione, Tom and Doreen Andriacchi, Angel Touch Salon & Spa, Anytime Fitness in Zephyr Cove, Jenny Bentley, Kari and David Beronio, Liz and Todd Bissell, Bona Fide Books, CalStar, Capise?, Carson Valley Inn, Casey’s Restaurant, Casino Fandango, City of South Lake Tahoe, Justin Clark, Cold Water Brewery & Grill, Barbara Cooper, Tony Cupaiuolo, Heart Rock Herb and Spice Co., Dirk Yuricich Photography, Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, Elements Day Spa, Elevation Spa at The Ridge, Elizabeth & Marin, FastFrame Carson City, Jay Freeman, Sharla Freeman, Dorothy Fugitt, Genasci & Steigers DDS, Getaway Cafe, Hard Rock Hotel-Casino, Harrah’s-Harveys, Haskie’s, Heavenly Sports, Heavenly Village Cinema, Sheryl and Hersch Herschmann, Homewood Mountain Resort, Imagine Salon, Improv at Harveys, It’s My Yoga, Melissa and Jess Jester, Charna and Bill Knerr, Lake Tahoe Yoga, Lakeside Inn and Casino, LuLu Hair Design, Marcus Ashley Gallery, Jeanne Bogle Miller, MontBleu, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe, Dave Nostrant, Pamela’s Pilates, Ray and Nancy Peters, Weidinger Public Relations, Pine Cone Resort, Paul and Lousie Proffer, Kae Reed, Reel-Lentless Fishing Charters, Reno Aces, Reno 1868 FC, Bridget Rielley, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Splatter Studioz, Sprouts Natural Foods Café, Studio Four, Tahoe Adventure Film Festival, Tahoe Best Friends, Tahoe Blue Vodka, Tahoe Bodyworks, Tahoe Custom Massage & Structural Integration, Tahoe Dive Center, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters, The Loft, The Ridge Tahoe, Ginny Unger, Tim and Linda Wulf, Rob Wunderlich, Patty Yamano, Whittell High School Boosters, and Zephyr Cove Resort/Lake Tahoe Cruises.

With great appreciation,

Carolyn Wright, ZCTCF president

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the July 27, 2018, Sacramento Bee.

As we face yet another summer of towering firestorms and overmatched first responders, it is becoming clear that we must radically improve emergency preparation in California. Summer has been a death march and July isn’t even done.

On Thursday evening, the wind-driven Carr Fire rushed into residential neighborhoods in Redding, bringing a one-two punch of thick smoke and unpredictable “firenados” that overwhelmed firefighters.

This is climate change, for real and in real time. We were warned that the atmospheric buildup of man-made greenhouse gas would eventually be an existential threat.

Still, it is sobering to witness how swiftly scientists’ worst predictions have come true, from the lethal heat wave gripping Japan to the record temperatures in Europe to the flames exploding near the Arctic Circle. And it is terrifying to watch as ideologues in the Trump administration block action on this gathering crisis.

Read the whole story

By Vicki Christiansen

People sometimes tell me that the U.S. Forest Service isn’t aggressive enough in fighting fires. As a wildland fire professional with more than 30 years of experience, I disagree.

Historically, wildland fire shaped the American landscape. Fires were once common, revitalizing and reinvigorating forests and grasslands. American Indians used fire for purposes ranging from shaping habitats for desired species to reducing fuels to protect communities. 

Today, our nation has more than a billion acres of vegetated landscapes, most naturally adapted to periodic wildfire. In a backcountry area such as a wilderness, we might decide to monitor and manage a fire, using it as a land management tool to reduce hazardous fuels and restore fire’s natural ecological role to the landscape. Our policy is to use every tool we have to improve landscape conditions, evaluating and managing the risks in conjunction with our state and other partners. Instead of waging a losing war on wildfire, we are learning to live with fire.

Still, if a fire threatens lives, homes, property or natural resources, we put it out as fast as we can at the least possible cost. We make that decision while the fire is still small, and our rate of suppression success is phenomenal: up to 98 percent. These fires number about 7,000 per year nationwide.

Two to 3 percent of the fires we fight escape our control. Some of them become huge conflagrations driven by winds through tinder-dry fuels. Such fires are impossible to stop until weather or fuel conditions change. They are bona fide natural disasters. So we evacuate areas at risk and use special techniques to steer the fires around homes and other points of value as best we can. And we put the fires out as soon as we can.

The Forest Service once tried to put out all fires, but we wasted taxpayer dollars by attacking backcountry fires where nothing was at risk but the lives of the firefighters themselves, some of whom paid the ultimate price. Today, we will commit firefighters only under conditions where firefighters can actually succeed in protecting important values at risk. The decisions we make are based on the safety of our firefighters: With our can-do culture, we expect our responders to fight fires aggressively, but we neither expect nor allow firefighters to risk their lives attempting the improbable.

Whether a fire is in the remote backcountry or close to homes, safety is our highest priority. No home is worth a human life. Any other policy would be unconscionable, irresponsible and unacceptable to the people we serve.

Vicki Christiansen is the interim chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

By Jeff Colombini and Mike Wade, San Francisco Chronicle

The United States exports one out of every three apples it grows. California, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan together produce 90 percent of the apples grown in America. Although we apple growers come from various places, we share one common concern: going out of business.

While having to close the farm gates for good is always in the back of growers’ minds, as profit margins are razor thin and our livelihoods depend on the grace of Mother Nature, it has never been more of a reality than now due to the retaliatory tariffs being imposed on apple exports by Mexico, India and China.

Thousands of jobs in rural America are at risk, not just in growing and picking the crop but also in equipment, fuel and fertilizer sales, and in packing and transportation.

Saying that trade is critical to the apple industry is an understatement.

Read the whole story

By Ted Gaines

The unbelievable devastation wrought by the Northern California fires of 2017 has given way to an inspiring rebirth. Santa Rosa, ground zero for the damage, is alive with the sound of skill saws and the constant rapping of hammers, as homeowners – by the thousands – rebuild their lives and homes. 

Those fires are mercifully out, but their effects will be far reaching and spread across the entire state. In their aftermath, another set of problems is smoldering in Sacramento, challenging utility ratepayers, the insured, and taxpayers for years to come.

Ted Gaines

The Legislature has established a committee to look at a bill offering solutions to our wildfire problem and the costs and liabilities for fire damages. That sounds good until you remember this is the same Legislature that didn’t invest in adequate forest management, even as the state’s general fund grew by tens of billions of dollars in the past six years. That sounds good until you remember that this legislature is fixated on plastic straw banning and a thousand other trivialities. That sounds good until you remember that Gov. Jerry Brown, who will ultimately sign any committee-generated legislation, is more concerned with preventing 0.0001 degree fluctuations in global temperature 100 years from now and European popularity than he is with the actual pressing issues affecting Californians.

With that in mind, here’s one easy prediction from the committee: Your costs are going up.

You will pay, one way or another. Your electricity rates – already about 60-percent higher than the rest of the nation – will go up, as the state lets the utility responsible for the fires pass costs along to you.

Your insurance rates – already skyrocketing for rural homeowners looking for fire hazard insurance – will shoot even higher to cover increased costs pushed on them by the state.

Your taxes, already the highest in the nation, will only push higher as the committee and Governor decide that what has really been fueling our fire epidemic is taxpayers keeping too much of their money. Look for some surcharge or other way to milk taxpayers as a “solution” to California wildfires. Maybe even a reintroduction and expansion of the illegal fire tax that was supposed to help with wildfires in the first place (how did that work out?).

In California, every problem is an opportunity to put more fees, charges, and other costs on the backs of the people working harder than ever but falling farther behind. 

This state took in billions of extra, unanticipated revenue this year alone. Gov. Brown has an obsession with the high-speed rail, which will burn billions of taxpayer dollars in perpetuity. That’s real money that could do good if it isn’t wasted by irresponsible Sacramento politicians.  So here’s a novel idea: Put our existing resources where they will actually count.

Instead of high-speed rail, how about high-speed public safety? Gov. Brown and the committee members should commit to providing CalFire every resource it needs to quickly implement the California Fire Plan, a ready-to-go, comprehensive roadmap to slashing California’s fire risk for fall of 2018. This plan shows that CalFire already knows what to do, it just doesn’t have the resources to do it. This project should be paid for with existing money, to protect every Californian from the infernos that too-often wreck property and steal lives.

We will never stop lightning strikes and sparks, and every hot, dry area with trees will have fires. But we can do a far better job than we have done at managing our forests and cutting down risks, all without burning taxpayers and ratepayers in the process. Let’s hope Gov. Brown and the committee members agree.

State Sen. Ted Gaines represents the 1st Senate District, which includes all or parts of Alpine, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra and Siskiyou counties.

By Joe Mathews

Welcome to the Bay Area, Merced!

And welcome as well to Modesto, Sacramento, and Yuba City. Looking south, you’re invited, too, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Salinas. And while you’re almost in another state, don’t worry, Tahoe City. The bay waters are warm.

Joe Mathews

This expanded notion of the Bay Area’s reach isn’t a joke. It reflects the biggest thinking about California’s future. If you’re in a smaller Northern California region that can’t quite compete with the advanced grandeur of the Bay Area, why not join forces with the Bay Area instead?

The Bay Area would benefit too. It is one of four connected Northern California regions—along with the greater Sacramento area, the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and the Central Coast triumvirate of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties—that struggle with severe challenges in housing, land use, jobs, transportation, education, and the environment. Since such problems cross regional boundaries, shouldn’t the regions address them together as one giant region?

The Northern California Megaregion—a concept developed by a think tank, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute—includes 12 million people and 21 counties, extending from the Wine Country to the lettuce fields of the Salinas Valley, and from the Pacific to the Nevada border.

The places of the Megaregion are integrating as people search a wider geography for jobs, housing, and places to expand their businesses. The trouble is that this growth is imbalanced. The Megaregion is home to the mega-rich in San Francisco and poor cities like Salinas, Stockton and Vallejo. As high housing prices push people out of the Bay Area, they flee deep into the Megaregion, only to find they are too far away from their jobs and schools. The results: brutal traffic that produces more greenhouse gases and longer commutes.

Figuring out how to rebalance the Megaregion and solve such problems is a high-stakes challenge, and not just for Northern Californians. The entire state relies heavily on the growth and tax revenues generated by the Bay Area, which represents about one-third of California’s economy. And the Megaregion concept offers a vision for how the Golden State might spread out its prosperity, creating a better distributed version of the California dream.

This doesn’t mean allowing the Bay Area to colonize its neighbors. Ratherm, it’s a mega-rethinking so that planning and development is widened to enable the Megaregion’s pieces—Bay Area technology, Sacramento government, San Joaquin Valley logistics and Monterey area farming—to magnify each other.

To pick one example: If new state research-and-development tax credits from Sacramento were to target inland companies, an infusion of technology could allow the Northern San Joaquin to make its logistics industry more efficient and less polluting as it moves green vegetables from Salinas to expanded ports in Stockton or Oakland.

A Bay Area Council Economic Institute report and its co-author, Jeff Bellisario, a man whose colleagues call him “Mr. Megaregion,” suggest that Megaregional planning could create more high-tech jobs and companies outside of the Bay Area, by better connecting universities, laboratories, and research institutions with local entrepreneurs.

Such planning should be performed by new economic development entities that extend across the Megaregion; companies that now leave the Bay Area for Austin might be redirected to Sacramento or Santa Cruz. Such an effort would be strengthened if Bay Area entities jointly lobbied Sacramento to boost lower education levels in the Northern San Joaquin.

Of course, making such a shift would require a well-integrated set of transportation connections from one end of the Megaregion to the other. Suggested changes include more service on Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor between San Jose and Placer County east of Sacramento, an extension of rail service to Salinas, and support of planned expansions of the ACE (Altamont Corridor Express) train to Merced and Sacramento. (A political note—the controversial gas tax increase produces $900 million for these ACE expansions.) These changes would make the actual completion of high-speed rail more urgent, since the first segment, from Bakersfield to San Jose, would connect with this expanded Megaregional transit system.

It is easy to mock such mega-visions. For years real estate interests have done silly things, like touting a major housing development in San Joaquin County as being in the “Far East Bay.” (One local joke: Is that nearer Singapore or Hong Kong?)

But if the Megaregion could harness its joint economic and lobbying power, much of this seems possible. It could even inspire imitators. Could Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas further integrate into their own Megaregional triangle? Might Tijuana and Mexicali join their planning mix?

If it built a record of success, the Northern California Megaregion could even expand, extending down the San Joaquin Valley to California’s fifth-largest city.

Welcome to the Bay Area, Fresno.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

By Joann Eisenbrandt

“Why should people who live in South Lake Tahoe care about this?” 

I have written articles for Lake Tahoe News for many years. Every article had to first pass this relevancy test. Granted, Kae Reed and I have had our disagreements about what was relevant and what wasn’t. We burned up quite a few cell phone towers in the process. However, we have never disagreed about our role as journalists.

Kae viewed Lake Tahoe News as the gatekeeper for the information highway between Lake Tahoe residents and those making the decisions that would impact their lives. She took this role very seriously. It often involved asking the hard questions, not taking things at face value and being willing to dig beneath the surface to find the truth.

Telling that truth sometimes led to acrimonious backlash. Truth and transparency have been in short supply on the lake’s South Shore a very long time. The same small, inbred circle of corporate and governmental power brokers or their hand-picked successors has had control there for decades. This has led to a sense of entitlement and a lack of any real accountability. 

It has also led to the failure to effectively solve the core problems that lie buried to this day beneath the lake’s mysterious blue waters. Kae did as much as any single doggedly determined truth seeker could do to bring them up into the light. She told me many times how vital it was that those who lived at the lake had meaningful input into local officials’ decisions. Lapses in protocol and secret back door deals violated her sense of what good government should be. Regurgitating glossy press releases and filling her stories with self-serving quotes was not her style.

On July 31, Lake Tahoe News will cease publication. Kae was a stern editor and taskmaster, but that was a good thing. I am sad my time writing for her will be over. Still, I am even sadder about the gaping vacuum the publication’s departure will leave behind.

 “Why should people who live in South Lake Tahoe care about this?”

For the majority of residents, living at the lake can be a day-to-day struggle. Low wages and the lack of affordable housing mean they often must sacrifice what is less important just to hang on. Lake Tahoe News made sure they did not sacrifice their right to be informed about what was really taking place in the city where they lived. I fear the much-needed unvarnished truth that Kae told will be much harder to come by in the future.

To the community,

Bread & Broth serves two meals weekly and welcomes everyone from our Lake Tahoe Shore community to enjoy the wonderful dinners prepared by our talented and creative volunteer cooks and warmly served by our dinner crew volunteers. Our meals are not only meant to ease hunger, but to prove the opportunity to spend a meal in fellowship with other community members. Being hungry is not a prerequisite to enjoy our meals.

Every Monday, B&B invites everyone to attend a full-course meal at St. Theresa’s Grace Hall from 4-5:30pm. These Monday dinners are funded through the Adopt A Day of Nourishment program where individuals, families, organizations and businesses host the dinner by donating $300 to cover the meal’s costs and send a sponsor volunteer crew to assist at the dinner. On July 16, the Tahoe Douglas Elks Lodge No. 2670 was the generous sponsor and Elk members Roger and Jeanne Barragan, Roger Koeck, Steve Kurek and Steve Lannen volunteered at their club’s sponsorship dinner.

According to Roger, the club’s chairman trustee, the “Elks are here to help.” For many years now, the Elks Lodge has been sponsoring Monday dinners several times a year and their members have volunteered many hours of their personal time to help at their B&B truly appreciates the Tahoe Douglas Elks Lodge No. 2670 for their continuing support of our programs.

In addition to the Monday meal, every Friday, a soup and simple entrée meal is served from 4-5pm at the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church; and once again all are welcome to these dinners.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Kathryn Reed

Ten days. That’s how much longer the residents of South Lake Tahoe have to put up with an ineffective city clerk.

The city on July 24 sent out a notice saying Suzie Alessi has finally said Aug. 3 will be her last day. On June 29 she first announced her intent to leave her elected post early. Then on July 9 she told Lake Tahoe News she didn’t know when she would be quitting.

Alessi has been the elected city clerk since 2002; after having started in that department in 1986. Her term was to end at the end of the year. Instead she is choosing to be a quitter, to not fulfill her duty to the public who elected her.

It’s not like she’s around much, so it’s hard to know if she’ll really be missed.

She still hasn’t produced the public records Lake Tahoe News sought months ago. This goes against the advice of the city’s legal counsel. In fact, the interim city attorney has told LTN that if she had the power to release the records, they would have long ago been provided.

The documents have been assembled, just not released.

Alessi doesn’t want them to potentially be published because part of what has been requested is her text messages. In the texts she reportedly talks about her stint in rehab and trashes the former city manager. Also reportedly in the documents are incriminating emails from Tracy Sheldon, the city’s communication’s director, and Councilman Austin Sass. Those two allegedly had much to do with the smear campaign against the former city manager.

Alessi thinks that by not releasing the records they won’t see the light of day because I have said July 31 is LTN’s last day of publication under my ownership. But as of today, I’ll still own the news site in August. I can publish whatever I want whenever I want – or not. I can also write for another local publication; one of which has agreed to let me write the Public Records Act story when it’s ready, or I can provide them the info.

I have also been approached to file a lawsuit against the city to get the records. State law mandates that if I were to prevail, the city would have to pay my legal bills. So, I wouldn’t be out of pocket any cash and my attorney wouldn’t either. However, I believe this would be a huge waste of city (aka taxpayer money).

Still, sometimes it’s necessary to do the uncomfortable thing because it’s the right thing. Oh, wait, that should apply to the city clerk, not me. Come ’on Suzie, do the right thing – your job – and release the records. The city attorney keeps telling you to. Are you really going to make a judge be the one to tell you to?

And show up to work between now and your quitting day.

The mayor told Lake Tahoe News that Alessi “was an incredible source of information for the council.” Whatever. She doesn’t work for the council; she works for the public. At least she is supposed to.

That’s one of the odd things about having an elected city clerk, which is more of an anomaly than the norm in California.

Dealing with election filings – applications as well as financial documents – is part of the clerk’s responsibility. This is a big year locally with seats open on the City Council, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lake Tahoe Unified School District, South Tahoe Public Utility District and more.

Interim City Manager Dirk Brazil was asked if the city clerk’s office will be able to handle the election duties.

“That’s the big question – what is the clerk’s office staffing level required in an election year?” Brazil told LTN.

While the elected clerk is not a city employee and only accountable to the public, the deputy city clerk is a city employee. But the one the city has isn’t qualified to run the office based on job criteria if it were not an elected position. To be elected one only needs to be 18 and live in the city.

Per state law the city must have a city clerk. The council has 60 days from Alessi’s departure date to replace her. This could be with an interim person much like the city manager and city attorney.

Originally Brazil told LTN he planned to talk to the council today about the clerk’s position during the special meeting. LTN reminded him the clerk position was not on the agenda, only the city manager and city attorney positions were. If the clerk is discussed, this would be a violation of the Brown Act. The District Attorney’s Office is already looking into whether the council has violated the opening meeting law; is it really necessary to provide investigators with more ammunition?

South Lake Tahoe deserves better elected representation than it has. Run for office and vote.