By the end of February, people around Lake Tahoe will be referring to John Singlaub in the past tense. The executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is stepping down.
‘It probably doesn’t sound like it, but I’ve had a great time here,’ Singlaub said. ‘It’s been a fascinating time.’
As head of the area’s heavyweight regulating agency, Singlaub has been charged with overseeing development around the lake’s basin. It’s not a job without controversy, and the director has made some waves.
‘I think there was a separation in our ideology,’ said League to Save Lake Tahoe Program Director Carl Young, after measured consideration.
In his resignation letter, Singlaub describes his time with the TRPA as both his ‘dream job’ and ‘relentlessly grinding … both mentally and physically.’ Whatever it’s been, it’ll soon be over.
‘My target from the outset was five years,’ Singlaub said. ‘That was my commitment to the board.’
Since his turn at the helm began in 2003, Singlaub has made few friends in environmental advocacy circles. Issues such as the recently adopted Shorezone Ordinances – which allows for additional piers and buoys on the lake – have created much friction.
In a recent Reno Gazette-Journal opinion piece, Rochelle Nason, head of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, and Ron Grassi, co-chair of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club, painted Singlaub as a development-hungry director who has forced legal action to protect the environment.
‘John Singlaub, TRPA executive director, has gone fishing for red herrings,’ the pair writes in the Jan. 11 piece, ‘claiming that a fair court hearing ‘harms Lake Tahoe.’’
The Governor-appointed member of the TRPA board is also stepping down. In his own resignation letter to Singlaub, Tim Leslie sites specifically the ‘League’ and the ‘Club’ as reasons for his agitation with working on the board.
‘You have a difficult job,’ Leslie writes. ‘The problem with it is that whenever we make a decision, someone wants to sue us. It is bringing progress at the Lake to a standstill.’
Leslie goes on to say that he does not feel projects which have spent millions of dollars jumping through regulatory hoops will be given a fair shake in the face of North Shore environmental opposition: ‘that is not something I wish to be a part of.’
Singlaub said he doesn’t share Leslie’s sentiments. And he doesn’t view himself as pro-development, either. By his account, Singlaub – and to a greater extent, the TRPA as a whole – is the man in the middle, in constant search of a happy medium between the strainedest of bedfellows: environmentalists and developers.
‘We are thrust in the middle of a lot of disagreements,’ he said.
Singlaub disagrees with Leslie about proposed developments not having a fair chance of surviving on the North Shore. While he admits the environmental review process is stringent, he insists that diligent developers can realize their projects.
‘I get developers in here all the time and it’s like, ‘go back to San Jose, you’re not even understanding it,’’ Singlaub explained. ‘A developer who has done their homework is going to get a fair hearing.’
There are, however, pains to the job. Leslie had apparently had his fill with what he viewed as environmental roadblocks. Singlaub seemed a bit frustrated as well.
‘I think I’ve reached as far as I can with the groups here to try to find what I call the radical middle ground,’ the exiting director reflected.
Singlaub also has other reasons for leaving the TRPA. He’s feeling the need for more personal time, and there’s been considerable turnover on the board since its 2003 incarnation hired him.
‘This is as good as time as any to move on to the next thing,’ said TRPA Spokesman Dennis Oliver, adding that only two board members involved in bringing Singlaub on board remained.
Oliver said the agency will begin its search for a new executive director immediately. Once five or fewer candidates are selected, the board will conduct public interviews. The entire process is expected to take several months.
In the interim, Oliver said the TRPA would most probably be headed by Deputy Director Jerry Wells. A board action is required to formalize the matter.
‘He’s run the agency in the past,’ Oliver said. ‘I think he’s equipped to do it again.’
In other TRPA shakeups, former California State Senator Byron D. Sher was appointed to the board by the California Senate Rules Committee. Sher replaces former U.S. Congressman Jerome Waldie, who stepped down in December after 16 years with the TRPA.
Sher is a Harvard-educated lawyer from St. Louis. In an agency statement he is touted as a leading advocate for environmental issues, consumer protection and government ethics.
Tim Leslie’s seat, also vacated in December, remains open. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is currently searching for a replacement.
The TRPA is comprised of 15 members. Seven members are from Nevada, seven hail from California, and one is a Presidential Appointee.
When Singlaub finishes out February, he will no longer attach the agency’s acronym to his name. He seems to be looking forward to life after the TRPA: there’s the new grandbaby, the ill mother, more time for skiing, kayaking and hiking.
‘As my children told me,’ he said, ‘‘it’s time to do something for yourself.’’
There are drawbacks as well. For one, it’s cold and crowded in the bread lines.
‘I probably could have been smarter with my timing,’ Singlaub concluded. ‘To resign at a time of record unemployment was probably not the smartest thing.’
