Letter: STPUD board members need to show up - Time for change

The night before football tryouts in the 9th grade I can still hear the advice my father gave to me before I tried, but failed, to get a good night’s sleep. He didn’t comfort me to tell me I would make the team, or tell me how great I was, he simply told me, “the only thing you can control, is that you can outwork everyone else.” This advice had an impact on me and ultimately led to everything positive in my life.

If we want to begin to solve our local issues, we need to ask ourselves why things are not working? Fundamentally, we need to come to the realization that the reason things aren’t working is that some individuals in position of power simply did not get my dad’s advice about hard work. These people continue to get re-elected because of Tahoe legacy or family connections and as a result we as a community lose out.

In 2018 I am running for the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) Board and as I watched every meeting for the last 3 years I became increasingly disappointed at the lack of participation and more importantly the attendance of current Board member (seeking re-election) Chris Cefalu. When local new reported on this lack of attendance the STPUD Board President made a statement on this issue. He stated the reason for Mr Cefalus’ lack of attendance to the last 4 consecutive board meetings was not because of a family emergency or illness, but rather to allow the board member to take an ‘Incredible opportunity for himself to learn to be an airline pilot,’ all while keeping his board position and receiving the monthly check and benefits from STPUD. STPUD meets twice a month, in 2017 Chris Cefalu missed 8 STPUD Board meetings and to date in 2018 he has missed 5 consecutively.

Historically some local politicians could get away with this. They could get elected as a result of family name or legacy, collect their check while doing as little as possible and no one would know. But as Bob Dylan so eloquently sang “times they are a changin.”

I have worked with some of the most amazing individuals in this community to have the City and Lake Tahoe School District commit and work toward 100% renewable electricity. All of this work was done as a volunteer. I need to tell you that when we began these 100% renewable efforts people said we would fail. However, using the same advice my dad gave to me in 9th grade we simply dug deeper, worked harder and gave up more because that was what was needed to bring about this necessary change and was fundamentally the right thing to do.

I am running for the STPUD Board and if elected will bring this same dedication. Bad news is never great, but we must face tough realities. STPUD’s own budget forecast calls for massive rate spikes in the future. There is a different path which we can take, by using renewable energy and saving millions of dollars on STPUD energy bills, we can stop the predicted rate spike. We can use those savings to repair our crumbling sewer infrastructure and install the correctly sized water lines to all the fire hydrants in the district so that you and your family are safe when fire comes. I am running for the STPUD Board because based on the challenges and potential that exists, we need dedicated Board members to identify opportunities to keep our rates and carbon footprint low.

In 9th grade I did make the football team and we won exactly one game that year. This was unacceptable to us, so we began to see what we needed to do to improve. The first step was to get rid of the those on the team that didn’t turn up or give 100%. Those that were not ready to show up to every practice, sacrifice other interests or take their position on the team seriously had to go. We understood that apathy and indifference were toxic on a team and if we allowed them to stay around we would ultimately fail. We may have only won one game in 9th grade, but by the time we reached 12th we had beaten a nationwide top 10 team!

Our community is no different than a team. If we accept our local officials to be absent, indifferent and only look out for their own interests then we as a community will lose.

My name is Nick Exline and I am asking for your vote on November 6th for the STPUD Board. Thank you.

www.nickexline.com
www.facebook.com/NickExlineTahoe