Supervisor Candidate Wants to End “Tourist Economy”
[Jeffrey Spencer, Candidate El Dorado County District 5 supervisor]
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (May 15, 2022) — The powers in charge over the last 10 years have promoted only tourism. They have spent millions of our tax dollars on marketing. The Chamber, the history of Council members, TRPA and LTVA all bought into the tourist economy. They just budgeted more than $600 thousand of TOT for marketing instead of our crumbling roads! And now they are telling you these leaders are going to solve this problem – that they created!
Our economy is not supporting the many demands for services. Low wages and a lack of tax revenue from diverse sources is bankrupting the County. Many supposed proponents for local business claim we need more; more tourism to make money. We need better, not more. What we have is more trash, more traffic, more overcrowding and more deplorable visitor behavior.
In 2004 the TRPA voted to allow vacation rentals without making them obtain Tourist Accommodation Unit (TAU) permits that are required by all others in the lodging industry. TAUs do not apply to the VHR industry, thereby allowing many more accommodations. Thousands more people come to Tahoe beyond the artificial limiting threshold of TAUs. The impacts are evident.
According to TTD, more than 50 million vehicle trips are made into, out of, and within the Basin annually. The environment is suffering from too many people impacting the area. Traffic is destroying our roads faster than we can repair them. When the exodus of traffic can take eight hours to clear, it is a direct indicator our infrastructure, and thus the environment, are beyond capacity. The amount of traffic being experienced is a result of too many people in the area. Having thousands of vehicles idling in traffic is not meeting environmental thresholds set by local and regional agencies. The trash being left behind impacts our sensitive environment – the very thing that attracts the tourists. From cigarette butts to dirty diapers, all being tossed on our beaches and roadways, they eventually make their way to the beauty of the lake.
The governmental agencies and business proponents in the Lake Tahoe basin seem to have ignored the obvious impacts of traffic, overtourism and the inherent dangers of overcrowding, all in the name of the economy. Tourism’s potential benefits are clear. Our local economy has depended primarily on tourism for the past 10 years. However, the mistake is to think that it can only bring good. The local Chambers of Commerce, like many others, focuses almost exclusively on growth, with little or no concern for the impacts. A “successful” year in tourism is generally considered to be one in which numbers have increased substantially. It has crossed a threshold: tourism now demonstrably creates more problems than benefits.
There is a finite capacity of the Tahoe basin. Measures include knowing that and keeping the capacity in limits, yet we regularly exceed that capacity. Tahoe is much like a cereal bowl. If you don’t stop pouring in more milk, you make a huge mess!
Do you really think the people in charge over the last 10+ years have the ability, much less the will, to now find a solution?
What would I do? At a minimum we need at least a 5-year moratorium on TOT spending for marketing. That money needs to go to roads and other impact mitigation. We need to work with all the basin partners to establish a capacity limit and how to manage that capacity. TRPA needs to adhere to its charter in limiting crowding through TAU permits. And we need a strong evacuation plan that saves lives by sending tourists home before the mandatory order to evacuate our residents.
— From Website —
“34 years experience in managing growth in urban communities … He is a nationally recognized expert in urban planning”
The real Jeff Spencer has finally emerged!! Another life-time government employee moves to a tourism town and wants to kill the economy so that he can have peace on his pension. We have had many like him move here and arrogantly start telling us how we should live when they haven’t been here long enough to understand how things work never less how to fix them. Evidently, he does not care about the families and the jobs they need.
Nice Duane. Buy into the media spin. Only the headline states I want to strop tourism.
Nothing in the article states that I want to eliminate tourism. I want to see it managed so everyone has a quality experience. I want less traffic. I want to see a diversified economy with better than minimum wage pay so people can afford to live here. What is the problem with that??
Wow. So basically the “I got mine” approach to economic development. A supervisor that wants to “close the door behind them” after they reaped the benefits of our beautiful County. Balance is key, but I guess Spencer thinks this beautiful treasure belongs only to those who live there, now. Just wow. These statements read like tourists in Tahoe are second class citizens. “Outsiders not welcome in Tahoe under Spencer leadership” message received
You have either not read the article or did not comprehend the point of managing our tourism instead of the current conditions as described in the article.
I have also asked the news publisher to retract the title as I never stated I want to end the tourist economy.
I read it fully, sir. I have a graduate level education and reading comprehension and retention is still part of the criteria and curriculum.
Perhaps you should hire a PR person to help with messaging vs personally challenging how the message is received by the public you reference.
$600k is a drop in the bucket for roads…road construction is in the billions..We still need tourists..The local ma & pa stores NEED tourists after the current disaster called covid. The road crews are out there every year working on the road during summer, getting the road ready for winter. Heck they just spent millions on the divider and repaving hwy 50. What about putting in a toll booth at the basin entrance..local El Dorado County residents can get a free pass every year..tourists can pay a toll just like they do in San Francisco. With that money, hire more sanitation people..It might sound dumb but Disneyland has sanitation people walking around everywhere picking up trash.. build affordable housing in the basin and add lots of County bus lines from Placerville to Tahoe.. This is a tourist county! Lots of tax revenues come from tourists.
Apple Hill, Wineries, Living History Programs, Museums, Parks, Historical Places, Local Stores all need tourists. The county has plenty of money through El Dorado Hills..they are packing in the people inside of those condos, town homes and houses smashed together. Their zoning is
” pack em in”, building cities, within cities. The TOT should be given to smaller businesses for advertising. The casinos in Tahoe to Shingle Springs can afford their own. Im sure the county can get more hardship money and since the state is sitting on billions..they can help out more, it’s a matter of applying to the right agencies. And the state gas taxes? Don’t even get started on that! ?? For a county that survived the onslaught of the gold rush, you would think they would have a lot more smarts from experience. This guy running? He needs to go to a different county.
Correction: the headline states that.
Nowhere did I say that I want to ban tourism. I talk about managed tourism and diversity in our economy.
$600k in local funding can leverage $6 million in state and federal funds. That is just the funding for this one year! Past years have had much higher marketing budgets.
Budgets are a big part of this executive role and knowing the variety of fund sources and the match requirements will serve our residents to deliver better services.
The guy does not seem to stay in one place long, including jobs. What makes him an expert for our area when he had a job in the Tahoe basin for a few years. This guy’s has worked for caltrans. He knows roads cost billions…taking away $600k TOT is a joke. On his own employees website is a link for
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
Yet he wants to take away a measly amount of money for businesses.
The handbook information about smart growth in a community seems to be lost on him.
He seems to want to just stop growth period. Here are the guidelines on his work website for a community.
SMART GROWTH IN RELATION TO AIRPORT LAND USE PLANNING
The Smart Growth Network—a joint activity of the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) and
several nonprofit and government organizations that has been established to promote smart
growth practices—identifies 10 strategic principles of smart growth:
1. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.
2. Create walkable neighborhoods.
3. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in the development process.
4. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.
5. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective.
6. Mix land uses.
7. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas.
8. Provide a variety of transportation choices.
9. Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities.
10.Take advantage of compact building design.
His idea is to stop growth period and hurt businesses and economy in the area.
The guy does not seem to stay in one place long, including jobs. What makes him an expert for our area when he had a job in the Tahoe basin for a few years. This guy’s has worked for caltrans. He knows roads cost billions…taking away $600k TOT is a joke. On his own employees website is a link for
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
Yet he wants to take away a measly amount of money for businesses.
The handbook information about smart growth in a community seems to be lost on him.
He seems to want to just stop growth period. Here are the guidelines on his work website for a community.
SMART GROWTH IN RELATION TO AIRPORT LAND USE PLANNING
The Smart Growth Network—a joint activity of the U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) and
several nonprofit and government organizations that has been established to promote smart
growth practices—identifies 10 strategic principles of smart growth:
1. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.
2. Create walkable neighborhoods.
3. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in the development process.
4. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.
5. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective.
6. Mix land uses.
7. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas.
8. Provide a variety of transportation choices.
9. Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities.
10.Take advantage of compact building design.
His idea is to stop growth period and hurt businesses and economy in the area.
Those in power for the past 20+ years have all been lifetime locals/businesses elected to those positions. The parochial thinking is what has laid the road to all the problems we see.
Private business experience does not prepare one for all the different things government has responsibility for. What does a business do in planning communities? What does a private business know about public safety? Or how about preserving environmental quality? There are advantages to having diverse experience in government, not to mention the different accounting and funding methods that are not used in business. The GAAP standards do not apply in government as it follows FASB.
I have been employed by the state for 27 years and 15 years of federal employment. Pretty stable by many standards. I served on many community boards and commissions as well. Different roles from promotions and lateral duties that gave me the breadth of my skills. Not wrong answers. Just different answers that have direct applicable effects.
This is a mischaracterization of the facts. I do not want to end tourism. I want to diversify the economy so we aren’t completely dependent on tourism. I also want to reduce the overcrowding so that the tourism that does exists is a quality visit.
I ask the news publisher to retract and correct this error.
Wow, where to start. So many mistakes in this post. This candidate had no idea what powers a supervisor has. Nor does he know how much tax dollars are raised by tourism. It’s over to 40 million a year btw. Funds that are used to pay for snow removal, road repairs, police and fire protections, schools, parks, everything the goverment does is paid for by tourism in the basin. He wants better roads but wants to take away the funding source to fix them. Most employers in the basin pay above min. wage, they have to there’s a employee shortage.
He seems to believe that city and county governments control the funding to market the basin. They don’t spend any funds to market Tahoe. That is paid for by the lodging properties on both sides of the stateline. This letter says. “I HATE TOURIST AND I WANT THEM ALL BANNED”
Correction: the headline states that.
Nowhere did I say that I want to ban tourism. I talk about managed tourism and diversity in our economy. The other candidates have no idea about what it takes to be a Supervisor. What does tree trimming know about government? Cities are completely different from County government as they are so much more parochial, where County is a subdivision of the state and must comply with state mandates.
Perhaps take a look at my various social media posts on housing, traffic, road maintenance, public safety, environmental quality and the economy to see the true breadth of what I bring to this executive role.
How about charging a toll to enter the basin?Luther Echo and Spooner passes?One more on the north end of lake.
That is in the plans for the TRPA/TTD in the basin. How to implement it is easy. No toll boths required as so many have electronic tags that can collect the fee. But gaining approval from the 2 states and 5 counties affected is the heavy lift.
Wow, the hatred on this thread!!! I myself, being a Meyers resident for 18 years, read AND AGREE with what he said, not what the headline said, but what he said about OVERTOURISM. It’s one thing to allow tourists to come visit our place but when our town is over maximum capacity by quite a lot, our streets are crammed, our grocery store shelves are empty and our gas stations are empty, then it becomes the locals that suffer. The question I pose is “Can our town stay afloat without being overrun with tourists? There was a time when our businesses did just fine in our town and was not nearly as crowded as it has been in the last decade.
I’ve heard mr. Spencer, who is a nice guy, talk about the County Supervisor position as an executive position. I’ve seen others make that mistake on Boards and they were micro- managers who drove the executive staff crazy. The Supervisors are in the legislative role not the executive role. They have an executive that works for them who hires the staff and directs them.