Former Assemblyman Tim Leslie appointed to TRPA governing board

Leslie known to be critical of the TRPA.

By Julie Brown
Sierra Sun www.sierrasun.com
March 27, 2008

One of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s fiercest critics has been appointed to the board of the agency.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today his appointment of former California State Assemblyman Tim Leslie to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board.

With 20 years of service in the California Legislature behind him, Leslie will assume the seat left vacant last year after former Chair Julie Motamedi resigned.

“Tim [Leslie’s] strong background in public service greatly qualifies him to serve,” said Rachel Cameron, spokeswoman for the governor. “As well as his familiarity with the region itself.”

During his service at the state capitol, Leslie developed a long list of achievements in the Lake Tahoe region, local officials said.

But he has also been one the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s most vocal critics. In 2006, the then-assemblyman hosted a survey that gauged public sentiment of the TRPA. Results showed that 85 percent of respondents felt the bi-state agency needed to be held more accountable to the public.

In past opinion letters published in the Sierra Sun in 2005, Leslie asserted that the bi-state agency is a “prime example of this type of abusive government,” referring to the agency’s unchecked operations.

“TRPA is a bi-state agency with a massive blanket of unaccountable bureaucracy layered over the top of otherwise elected and accountable units of government, with the objective of ‘protecting’ Lake Tahoe,” Leslie wrote.

Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz, who also sits on the TRPA governing board, said that Leslie will not be the only governing board member who is critical of the agency he serves.

“But now that he’s part of it, he can be part of the solution,” Kranz said. “I think there’s nothing wrong with that frankly. That’s one of the positive things I like about [Leslie]. He knows what the issues are.”

— Read the complete story in Friday’s Sierra Sun.