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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – During the Tuesday, Feb. 13 Council meeting, Mayor Cody Bass and Mayor Pro Tem John Friedrich volunteered for a trip to a sister city of the City of South Lake Tahoe. The City of Ameca in the Jalisco region of Mexico became a sister city in 2019.
Delegates from Ameca visited South Lake for the unification. To continue to foster the relationship, made Bass and Friedrich designees for a trip on Feb. 28 – March 4.
The purpose is to trade knowledge and tour the city.
The trip is at no cost to the city, so both will pay their own way. Mayor Pro Tem Friedrich said he’s “ready and willing to pay for all the expenses,” because it is an important relationship.
Mayor Bass also said he believes the relationship is important, “We have so many different residents that are from that region that live here in South Lake.”
The city estimates 70% of its Hispanic population has roots from that area of Mexico. That’s one of the main reasons the city chose to become a sister city.
Other business
The city will soon upgrade its accounting, purchasing, personnel, and payroll system. The last upgrade was around 10 years ago.
Council had the option of choosing between CentralSquare Technologies LLC’s cloud software for $105,000 per year or an on-premise format for $73,835 per year. Both are more expensive than the current system’s annual cost of $68,000.
Although the on-premise format is less expensive annually, it would require upwards of $15,000 in hardware costs. It also requires maintenance from the city’s IT team.
City staff, as well as an independent consultant recommended the cloud based service due to it’s outsourcing of risk and security, reduced IT burden, and the increased reliability of not depending on one server, which could cause interruptions when it goes down. The consultant did not find evidence of data breeches with the cloud.
Council approved a motion for the cloud software upgrade.
Within the consent agenda, council members ratified a grant application and approved receipt of funds over $200,000 from the California Office of Emergency Services for domestic violence programs. The funds will partially cover police responses to domestic violence and sexual assault.
Council approved a grant application for funds that would replace and upgrade breathing apparatuses for firefighters.
They also accepted a million dollar grant from the California Tahoe Conservancy for Phase 2 of the Tahoe Valley Stormwater and Greenbelt Improvement Project.
Council accepted $10,000 worth of volunteer time from the Retired Investigators Guild for assistance with cold cases. The Tribune plans on taking a deeper look at how this will help the police department solve these cases.
As the Tribune has reported, the city is making more upgrades to the Bellamy Parking Garage. Council approved additional funds for this next phase of upgrades.
The Tribune also took a look into how the city and county plan on joining forces on microtransit. Council approved entering into negotiations on an agreement.
Council agreed to pull Item 12, the Cannabis Community Benefit Fee Revenue Allocation Policy, Grant Program Guidelines, and Application from the agenda and bring it back at the next meeting when Councilmember Robbins can attend.
He was absent due to circumstances surrounding the passing of his father.
The item is a discussion on potential language changes to the policy, particularly removing language that says funds from Measure G go towards projects that mitigate the potential negative impacts of the cannabis industry. A review team asked whether is was appropriate to use funding from adult serving cannabis business for programs meant to mitigate illegal and unregulated cannabis use and abuse.
Also on the next agenda is a presentation by Chad Hayse on a basin entry fee, as well as poll results on a 2% increase on Transient Occupancy Tax.
The entire agenda and meeting can be viewed on the city’s website.