Truckee’s Hometown Hijack

The whistleblower report into how the Town of Truckee is rewriting the CODEBOOK to Harass Local Businesses, Dismantle Local Homes, Upheave Local Livelihoods, andPINCH TRUCKEE LOCALS OUT OF TOWN.

Have you noticed the buzz of aggravated locals around town? In the hardware store, at the market, in the bars, and in the gyms. The buzz is everywhere, you’re probably even apart of it. What’s the buzz, you ask? Truckee locals are feeling under attack, and we’re trying to figure out what to do about it.

According to reports below, many of Town of Truckee’s codes and enforcement practices are ethically questionable, while others appear to be downright illegal. Numerous accounts below (many more stories are not even included here) detail exactly how the Town has been operating. Highlights are for quick scanning, because there is a lot of important information to cover. Para nuestra gran comunidad latina, traduzca al español aquí:

This site is updated regularly. Originally published in 2021, Town Council and Staff members are fully aware of this report. Despite this, and many people protesting at Council Meetings, they condescendingly snub their nose at us and refuse to correct their ways; they have only doubled down on the assault. If you or anyone you know may be interested in running for Town Council to clean out this gang, please contact admin@notothecode.org

In the following accounts you will hear how local workers are living in their cars while rental units that have been around for decades are being Shut Down for suddenly being “non-compliant”.

You’ll hear how local businesses have collapsed under the weight of compliance requirements, while businesses who have resisted have been delivered “cease and desist” threats at 3am by Truckee code enforcement thugs dressed all in black.

You’ll also hear how local business owners are drowning in red tape, and paying big fines for bizarre “code violations” just to keep their doors open and their crews working…. Meanwhile the $293k salary + benefits package of the top Town Official keeps increasing by as much as $25,000 per year, year over year over year.

Read on to find out WHAT codes these are, WHO put them here and WHY… then sign this Petition to stand up for Truckee’s locals and demand a stop to this Hometown Hijack.

Have you been harassed by code enforcement and don’t know what to do? You’re not alone. First, know your rights to contest a code violation. Know how to appeal a permit denial (must be within 10 days of issuance). Or contact us directly: admin@notothecode.org

Meet Pete a local Truckee builder and iconic Squaw skier for over 40 years. A true Truckee citizen, he learned of the local housing crisis and put his guest room up for rent on Craigslist. Within the hour, Caitlin the Code Compliance Officer responded to his ad. She said: update the unit to comply with THE CODE, or rip it out. Meeting this “code” was not possible in his older house, so he ripped his guest room out. She then insisted he sign a deed restriction that he would never rent his extra room out again, as she browsed his property and threatened him with even more “code violations”. He refused, so she scheduled him a court date. All he was trying to do was help, as hundreds of Truckee locals were being pushed out of housing. 

Meet Jim a good-natured Truckee ski-coach with a modest lifestyle. He’s been a full-time Truckee resident for over 30 years, and has always relied on room-rental income to help pay his bills, while also making it possible for him to eventually retire. His last renter paid no rent for many months, so Jim pressured him to leave so he could rent it to someone who could. Kid finally leaves. In retaliation (and with advice from his lawyer dad), kid called Caitlin the Code Compliance Officer and reported the “illegal” room. While Jim was away, kid and dad come back to (illegally) usher Caitlin around the house using the kid’s old key. Jim returned to his house with a CONDEMNED notice taped to his front door. Jim’s 1980’s house is meticulously kept, and never renovated: his home was built with a separate rentable room. His lawyer says the Town of Truckee could be sued based on the unlawful entry of the Compliance Officer as seen on his security camera footage. 

Meet Sam a happy guy who works long hard doubles in the restaurants downtown. Like hundreds of other working Locals, he recently lost his housing when the homeowners sold his rental house. He couldn’t find any place reliable to stay, so he moved into his car with his two elderly dogs. One dog fell into such panic from the upheaval, Sam had to put her down. Sam is still looking for a stable place to stay.

Meet Dan a local homeowner who is tired of working long hard hours to meet ends meet. He decides to sell his house and move along. After finding a interested buyer and securing a job in another state, the sale of his home falls through at the last minute…. because it suddenly doesn’t meet CODE. He moved back to resolve issues with the in-law suite his mother had been living in for decades. Meanwhile…. reports have surfaced that Caitlin and Kerry the code enforcement officers scour the MLS daily looking for houses that mention features and upgrades but have no “permit” on file… and when they find one (a so-called “code-case”) they gleefully jump around the Town Hall office. “Got another one!” Another hefty fine to be collected. Tisk tisk.

Meet Jesse a fed-up local homeowner for over 40 years, who put his house up for sale. He then turns around to get slapped with a code violation. The violation included photos of the so-called “illegal space” inside of his home. Photos that are not found in any of his home’s public records, he checked. The perplexed owner concludes that the only way these images could have been taken is if a code enforcement agent went undercover to pose as a potential buyer… so they could enter the home to snoop around and report. Many similar stories like this have surfaced, and a local realtor and engineer have both confirmed this ongoing sting.

Meet Ted a local business owner just trying to run his business. Ted was harassed by Code Enforcement for putting a sign up in his storefront window. “Enrolling now!” the sign said. “Take it down now, or be fined!” Said the code enforcement agent. “Plus, you need to apply for permission to put a sign up. It’s $800 and there is no refund if we deny your request.” Ted then suffered weak enrollment. Ted is one of countless of business owners being harassed for “inappropriate” signage. One store has already shut its doors because the new wave of Truckee residents had no idea he was there.

Meet Jill another local business owner who had a great little artisan shop downtown. Suffering a similar scenario to the men above, she actually shut down her shop and moved her business out of town because one code enforcement agent in particular kept stealing her “non-compliant” signs.

Meet Jeff a downtown Truckee business owner just getting by. He had a creative idea to bring more customers to his shop. Great idea, awesome for the downtown experience. Code Compliance stops by and issues a violation: the particular snack he was selling required more parking spaces out front than he had (but isn’t Town Council pushing a walkable downtown? Not to mention, there’s also the town’s major parking lot directly across the street). Tired of all the endless senseless no-you-cant’s, he shuts his business down for good.

Meet Linda a local country store owner for over 30 years. She outgrew her small space in a 100 year old structure, and decided to build her own shop. But a new wood structure just wouldn’t do! Our latest building “codes” forced her engineer to design her modest new shop with 24″ deep steel moment frames (while the 100 year old shop down the road still stands just fine). On top of that, Sacramento’s “California Beautification” Code Compliance Agents forced her to take down her native trees and replant with aspens….. with a required irrigation system… on the summit. The agents refuse to visit the site, they simply make the following threat from their sunny Sacramento desk:if she doesn’t comply within 3 years, they will revoke her temporary occupancy permit and close her shop down. In utter fear for her survival, she ends up in the hands of a cardiologist for heart palpitations and shortness of breath.

Meet Alex a successful local who just bought property and is looking to build a house on a sloped lot in Tahoe Donner. He wants to add an ADU to provide good quality housing stock for Truckee’s working community. Low and behold, a new height-restrictive Code gets passed, effective immediately, and with “absolutely no exception“. Alex had plans to build a simple and energy efficient two story cabin + loft, just like hundreds of others in TD, where he could easily tuck in an ADU. This new code, however, now forces him to tier his cabin with the hill ala Martis Camp, (all for looks “we hate boxy houses, mmm don’t we”), adding nearly 100k to the cost of construction by doubling the excavation, foundation, and roof, as the house sprawls. He chooses to forgo the ADU, and wonders if he can build at all now.

Meet Jason & Kelly an old-school Lake Tahoe family who owns a small neighborhood movie theatre. Everyone was excited for them to open a new location in the ground floor of Truckee’s Artists Lofts….. but they were forced out of the opportunity when (one year into the deal), the Town of Truckee suddenly hit their mom-and-pop business with a whopping $250k in parking mitigation fees… non-negotiable… when they decided they didnt like their business model anymore… their investor immediately walked out. Today, the Artist Lofts sits on the far edge of downtown, surrounded on three sides by dirt lots, with a large, always-empty parking lot right across the street because no one goes over there. Let’s not mention the associated crime problem (most recent: six assaults in 3 days by the same guy on female restaurant workers, police caught and released the guy every time). The Artist Lofts is a failed development, through and through, because of no one other than our “just say NO to everything” Planning Department.

Btw, here is Truckee Planning Department’s latest 1-star Google review: “This department is anti growth, anti jobs & anti American. It seems like this town gives preferential treatment to second homeowners from the Bay Area, rather than locals.”

The US Supreme Court in Washington DC just ruled this same form of thuggery as unconstitutional… this April 2024, the US Supreme Court determined that Developmental Impact Fees just like this in the case Sheetz v. County of El Dorado (which had only $25k in traffic impact fees btw) was illegal. Think about that! Truckee bullied this local business with TEN TIMES this illegal fee!

Meet Jones Truckee’s hometown developer and one of Truckee’s most well respected members of the community. He has imagined and built many of Truckee’s most enjoyable places to live and work. Town of Truckee Staff recently discovered a paperwork error in his 20 year phased development permit (which on closer investigation reveals it was a setup)…. Town Staff then forced him to rip out 19 truck loads of steel beams, and 60 truckloads of reinforced concrete… with no exceptions. This June, Jones appealed this order in front of Town Council, bringing dozens of professional contractors and engineers to testify in the danger of ripping such a structure out, and to just settle the paperwork error and be done with it. Town Council actually agreed to keeping the structure with conditions, but certain Town Staff (Mike Ross, the head building official) has been heard exclaiming their 100% commitment to making sure Jones rips down the structure, to make an example of him. No one is to EVER do ANYTHING in this town without their permission.

Meet Jack a local Truckee Builder for more than 40 years. Jack loves to build. At almost 100 houses, everyone can clearly see. He runs his crew from foundation to framing at a remarkable pace: Four houses in 9 months, with winters off. During the winter, he hand-draws four more projects for the next build season. Truly larger than life, this old-school Truckee local has mastered practically every skill in his trade, and still swings a hammer with his guys out in the field. When you mention his name around Town, people smile. Everyone, that is, except the Town of Truckee.

Today, Jack is saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in Code Compliance costs, fines, and stalled projects as he fought tirelessly on behalf of his clients to get their modest homes built amidst extreme covid delays and difficulties. When Truckee’s Permit Department was backed up 8 months (offices closed, phones, emails unanswered) Jack chose to break ground without a permit (just another modest house in a 30-year old subdivision) or he would be out of work for the entire season… and lose the team he’d trained for years. But breaking ground without permission is bad, even if Permit Staff is on Covid Vacation! Jack is about to pay.

Soon after, Truckee compliance officers red-tag his two major projects due to obscure Code violations, while insisting authority over the Title Company (after 3 parcel sales already), the Nevada County Registrar, the Licensed Surveyor, Tahoe Donner’s own parcel maps, and the neighbors themselves… while leaving him waiting “any minute” on their verdict for 6 months, effectively shutting both projects down for the whole year and forcing a redesign of one. $40k in extra costs to each homeowner. Much, much more losses for Jack. Appeals were rejected, only reinforced with more stipulation.

Which codes have strangled this builder? These codes are new… Jack has never seen these curious Codes in all of his 40 years in Truckee. This strangulation is enough to cripple a new builder. But Jack? He’ll probably just quit and go build elsewhere. The fun here is gone. Truckee once was a wild and free mountain town, a rip-roaring good time. The soul of Truckee is now dead. Thank you, Town of Truckee! Now we stand to lose another Badass Local. 

So what’s your verdict? Should these Locals STAY? Or is it time to GO.

WHY LOCALS ARE ANGRY

These Codes are the OPPOSITE of what we have been asking for

Affordable workers housing has been voted the #1 most important issue for the Truckee community, year after year. So why exactly is the Town of Truckee assaulting us with prohibitive housing codes while our local businesses cripple and fail without workers who can live here ? Who are these code agents anyway?? These are not the laws we gave them permission to enforce.

Actively and aggressively hunting down and punishing locals who are stepping up to help solve the housing problem is a little suspicious, isn’t it. Meanwhile, other locals who have offered to split their larger lots to build workers housing get hit with enormous permit fees that are “non-negotiable”. Faced with outrageous costs, they choose not to build. In other words, the Town refuses to compromise on the money that fuels their bureaucracy, even if it is for the benefit of critical workers housing. It’s all about them, not us.

This Assault is UNLAWFUL

In many cases, these threats appear to be in direct violation of California SB897 (which prohibits authorities from forcing existing housing into ADU compliance). In cases where the Town refuses to state which code you’ve actually violated while punishing you for it anyway (no issuance means no ability to appeal) … they are violating our own Town Municipal Code AND the 14th Amendment to US Constitution: Due Process. The latter is a most serious offense. During the course of developing the infamous 2040 Truckee General Plan, almost none of the collaborative meetings were posted on the Town Calendar, which is a violation of the Brown Act (this act ensures proper transparency in government). Take note: this is how our town officials operate.

This Assault is a HOMETOWN HIJACK

Truckee has always been a town of wild and free, hard-working, honest local men and women who do the absolute best they can to work a job they love, take care of their home and raise a family. The assault by the Town of Truckee… the endless fees and fines demanded of us for not complying with their arbitrary and ever-growing code book… which grows daily without our permission… is stealing countless livelihoods, instilling a terrible fear for survival, and bringing so many of us to desperation, sadness and defeat.

Meanwhile our Code Agents are giddy asthey aggressively hunt down and cite Truckee Locals with these obscure Codes, insisting absolute authority, offering no exceptions, inflicting thousands of dollars in compliance damage and putting local livelihoods at risk. If we argue, they have been known to cite more codes to burden us even more as they force us to apply for Permit (ie their permission), or they will send us to court.

The overwhelming majority of locals who have been assaulted by code enforcement have a real fear of retaliation by Town of Truckee Code Enforcement if they speak out on the abuse. In other words, our neighbors are scared to have their homes and businesses attacked if they push back. This is an alarming reality.

This used to be a community of fun-loving neighbors who built this Town together (we had our own Town Code). But now… Truckee is overrun with a heinous new City Culture…. where neighbors monitor and complain about every move anyone makes. They sign themselves up for HOA boards to finger-point over “eyesores” (unpainted nail-heads, have you?), while at the same time voting in miserable, self-righteous Town Officials to assume an even greater power to punish us for all the things that bother them so.

And hence, the CODEBOOK is now being used against us by our own Town Agents, in their forceful bid to transform Truckee into one of the most wealthy, prestigious and fashionable enclaves in the US… while pushing the original LOCALS out in the process. THIS is a Hometown Hijack.

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Quick Jump: WHO is Responsible | Denyelle Nishimori | Know the Codes | Building Codes! | WHY these Codes are Here | What WE Can Do

Click Truckee Tahoe Media for LIVE BROADCAST of all Town Council Meetings, every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, 5pm.

Would you like to help us push back? We need your great ideas and spirited action… even if you’re a Truckee Local now living in Reno. Connect at admin@notothecode.org

If you want to document your code violation or planning department experience for our lawsuit, click here to make a report.

If you are currently a big fan of our Town Council, click here to see the better way of accomplishing our shared Truckee goals. As you will discover below, the current Town Council is operating on false promises.

Don’t want to commit to voting yet, but you still want updates? Sign up here. Then ask around town to see what peoples’ experiences have been. Between HOAs and local CODES, you will be shocked.

KNOW THE CODES

#1: TRUCKEE DEVELOPMENT CODE 

This is our Hometown Code, Truckee locals are supposed to write it. This is the Codebook that executes the Truckee General Plan, which is this town’s Long Term Development Plan. Who knows what’s in this 500 page document. It gets updated every 15 years, the latest update (2040 Plan) was just ratified by Truckee Town Council this May, despite plenty of pushback from Truckee Locals.

Why the pushback? The Town of Truckee strangely brags of 115 community meetings involved in this new 2040 general plan, but if you ask around town, hardly anyone knew they were going on. Even the town’s own hospital district wasn’t informed of important dates and deadlines.  Not to mention, nearly all Truckee Development Plan meetings were VIRTUAL , with NO dates regularly listed on the official Town Hall Calendar (months of empty calendar screenshots available as proof). One has to wonder: why didn’t we have regular, real life Town Hall meetings with our own Truckee General Plan Committee?? Real Truckee Locals don’t do ZOOM. What is going on in these virtual meetings, anyway??

On closer investigation, in this year’s General Plan process, the town took community input via a measly 12 person volunteer panel called the GPAC. Our General Plan process 15 years ago, in contrast, was entirely open to the community. Why the change? The “excuse” was that the General Plan process is too cumbersome and complex for hundreds of people to weigh in, which unfortunately is now true (yes, planners make even the simplest of things extraordinarily complicated). So locals took comfort in the idea that 12 of their neighbors are representing them. This sounds fine, except a twelve-person panel (who were selected by our Town Officials ) is nowhere close to being an accurate or unbiased representation of what Truckee Locals want and don’t want. In reality, hundreds of local homeowners, workers and business ownerswant FEWER Truckeecodes, but they are working so hard jumping through Truckee’s “code hoops”, they dont have time to volunteer or fight back.

Well… turns out, while our locals were haplessly entangled in code,Town of Truckee pushed through 325 more policies and action items (325 NEW CODES!) this year (and still counting), including some very burdensome Reach Codes (see below). Moreover, the General Plan mentions no metrics or measurable benchmarks. Without metrics and benchmarks, there are no goals… there are only BURDENS. For example: the entire state of California produces less than 1% of the worlds carbon footprint*, yet Truckee is dead-nuts on MORE punishing restrictions. When do we get to stop?? We don’t! Because we don’t have benchmarks! * CA 370 million tons greenhouse gasses per year / WORLD 50 billion tons per year = 0.74%

A number of local homeowners protested these Reach Codes at the May ratification meeting with the Council, saying these codes would ultimately push them out of town. In reply, Council used the gavel to quiet the crowd’s applause for those who spoke up against the codes. “We don’t allow clapping because we don’t want those commentors who don’t get claps to feel bad” said Councilmen Linsday Romack with the gavel, naively pacifying a room full of dissenters (but otherwise, a cunning trick). Needless to say, the concerns of Truckee Locals fell on deaf ears and blank stares by the Truckee Councilmen and Planners as the Council passed the Plan anyway, claiming it’s all or nothing, now or never.

An important note: The Town Council passed the 2040 plan ALSO against the recommendation of the Planning Commissioners (who voted NO to passing the plan, and provided recommendations). According to our own Truckee by-laws, the Council and Planning Commission must be in alignment before the Council can approve the plan. The Council, of course, ignored the Commissioners recommendations and passed the plan anyway.

The disrespect goes even further: as the Council railroaded the dissenting Truckee Locals and the Planning Commission, a number of Hospital District representatives in attendance were also quite upset that the Town never included them in the General Plan either (they somehow missed some obscure deadlines?! So much for “open” meetings). Tahoe Forest Hospital CEO Harry Weis wrote a reasonable public statement showing his understandable disappointment with the Council, and our Council member Anna Klovstad retorted with this snide reply, as documented in Moonshine Ink’s April 17, 2023 article:

“I was terribly disappointed in Harry Weis’ op-ed,” Klovstad continued. “… I do not expect this to be the way that we create partnership in the future. I hope that the board will hold Harry accountable for the disintegration of that partnership, at least for the time period that it took me to calm down.” Hmpf! In other words…. Talk to The Hand, Harry.

California’s Open Meeting Law Meetings of public bodies must be “open and public,” actions may not be secret, and action taken in violation of open meetings laws may be voided. The Brown Act  (§§54953(a), 54953(c), 54960, 54960.1)

#2: CA GOVERNMENT CODE 

This Outsider Rulebook is responsible for many of the obscure codes which Local residents, contractors and business owners have recently experienced. This CA Government Code is in addition to, and whenever possible, claims authority over our own Town Code. At many thousands of pages, it is impossible to know what is actually in it, and when you get hit with one of these codes, it is a giant, multi-page paragraph of small-print legalese which may as well be written in another language. For some odd reason, our Council Members are suddenly quite happy to throw this thousand-page book at us. Suddenly.

Up until the past few years, this California Government Code was only reasonably enforced by our Council members and their officers. However, it suddenly has been the root of many curious and highly-controversial code conflicts this year.

The outsiderCA Govt Code has proven itself to be arbitrary, with no recognizable benefits, goes against common sense, wastes loads of time and money, restricts our community’s ability to grow uniquely and naturally, and most importantly, it has crippled local businesses and put locals on the streets. Truckee Code Enforcement has suddenly been all over these Codes, putting locals’ time, money, housing and livelihood at jeopardy. The question is… why?

Despite California historically being a Home Rule State (localities are free to govern themselves on local matters), and Truckee being a Charter City (we have our own constitution aka “charter” (read it here) which further guarantees our power to determine local matters)… despite all this, Truckee Town Council has, in multiple instances over recent years, adopted fat sections of the California Government Code in exchange for big chunks of money, the latest money “deal” funded the section 8 Artist Loft scam….

The Artist’s Lofts, which instead of fulfilling its promise for critically needed Truckee workforce housing (over 200 Truckee families lost their housing due to Covid, and moved out of town), The Loft Application included a checkbox for “Begging” in the employment section, and many of the units were given to vagrants. Meanwhile, the real hard-working local restaurant workers who still remain here, need late-night police escort to their cars because of the Loft’s new indigent crime problem. Ironic.

#3: CA REACH CODES

In 2022, on a 4-1 vote, Truckee Council established Truckee as a “flagship town” for Reach Codes … Truckee is now included in a small group of the most elite (ie most expensive) municipalities in California… who now force tens of thousands of dollars of extra expenses on each local home owner in the name of being fashionably green. Again, California is the 4th largest economy in world yet produces less than 1% of the planet’s greenhouse gasses…. but somehow Truckee’s earnest conservation efforts are still not enough. Damn us! We must now sacrifice more! Our valiant Town Council leads the charge.

The adoption of Reach Codes in Truckee means we will soon be banned from Natural Gas in new construction. No more gas cooking, gas fireplaces, fire pits. Oh the joy. These Reach Codes also expect us (absurdly) to use solar panels to charge our cars, heat our hot water, and heat our house all at the same time, on 15 degree days in a power outage with solar panels buried under snow. Want to know how much a solar system that big will cost? “But we will still be attached to the grid!”, you say. Well, since electric companies will now have a monopoly over our energy, you can bet you’ll be paying even more for electric than you ever did. Check out this massive CA electric bill hike planned for 2024.

Reach Codes are fashionable requirements that a CA Town may choose to inflict upon itself, in the name of “doing your part” to fight climate change. They claim to be cost-effective (read: pay $$$ upfront, get payback over lifetime… except CA re-negged on their solar panel savings promise already, so…. that’s a lie), plus it would add $$ tens of thousands more to already sky-high construction costs (A tiny 750 sqft ADU already costs $400k to build). These Codes are so lofty, pre-code houses can’t be renovated without $$$ code compliance upgrades, if they can even be renovated at all. When you can’t renovate, your home becomes obsolete, and worth less. These codes make it even more expensive to live in Truckee, and when locals try to sell their house and leave, they will take a big hit on their house value… because it needs big $$$ to be renovated to meet code… if it can even be renovated at all! PINCH. 

Reach Codes are expensive and downright risky. Understand this: codes always increase costs, otherwise they wouldn’t have to be forced on people. California’s current “safety” and “green” codes have doubled the cost of construction already. Now, these additional Reach Codes aim to move CA to a 100% electric state… which funnels everyone onto one single energy source (utility monopoly) that is hinged on a hostile nation (china) which has a (monopoly) on our batteries and grid components. We will be pushed onto a power grid that hasn’t been built yet (dream), while our current grid blacks out and sparks fires (reality). This is resilience?? Meanwhile, our biggest Forest Fires so far were caused by down Power Lines and manic (radical-left) College Professors. (ie arson. Oct 22 Moonshine Ink).

#4: CA & LOCAL BUILDING CODES

“We are working hard to fix the problem of affordable housing for you!” our Town Officials proclaim…

Truckee charges +/- $80k in permit fees for new housing, which are absolutely non-negotiable. Then, in just ONE CODE alone, they add $80k in additional construction costs (the code has no related safety benefit, its just the town’s preference).Now housing is now more expensive to build than you can get back in rent…. so they offer you generous “cost-breaks” in exchange for partial ownership / control of your private property (via deed restrictions). This is a total racket.

PERMIT FEES

Local land owners have offered to build affordable housing units on their own properties to help with the housing crisis, but the town declined when the property owner asked to waive the permit fee to make the series of duplexes affordable enough to build. The Town declined the offer! Despite being fully aware of the 3000 housing units are local business owners are begging for to house their workers…. or our local economy will collapse. Speaking of permits, the Artists Loft was also supposed to have a family-owned movie theatre at street-level, but the town required an astronomical permit fee which the local family business could in no way afford, not even close. No permit paid? No movie theatre made.

DEED RESTRICTIONS

If you’re wondering how Truckee’s novel “deed restriction” solution to affordable housing is going (they’re working so hard to fix the problem!)… it’s a sham. Instead of fixing the root of the problem (explained below), they are using deed restrictions: they offer you generous “cost relief” for a problem they created themselves…. in exchange for partial ownership and control of your private property. What?

Believe it or not, the housing problem is fixable, if only the Town would put our interests above theirs. However, because of their outrageous cost for “permission” (permits) and unreasonable building codes, housing in Truckee costs more to build than you can get back in rent. Think about that. Apartment rents are higher than they have ever been, yet still not high enough to cover the cost to build them. This is an impossible market equation. Check out this real-life fiasco suffered by local builder Daniel Fraiman on his Town of Truckee sponsored “affordable housing” project at Clear Creek behind Chevron. Reported by Moonshine Ink June 8 2023

THE CODES

1) Zoning. Truckee refuses to zone any additional land for housing…. while at the same time restricting building height. Limited land sells at a premium, while at the same time, a developer is not allowed to build enough units vertically to make any housing endeavor financially feasible. Sprawl or height. One or the other, not both.

2) California Building Code. The structural codes today are so overbuilt they require tens of thousands in extra lumber and hardware (ever wonder how houses built with 2×8 rafters on Donner Summit are still standing after decades?) Electrical codes are also ridiculous, in some cases requiring specialized equipment that costs thousands more than the typical alternative… all because you can’t be trusted to turn off the bathroom light on your own (motion-sensor bathroom lighting required, among other nonsense). Town of Truckee passes the blame on the California Building Code, which in many cases is correct except for this little whopper….

3) Town of Truckee’s Drip Line Code. Truckee’s engineering department took it upon itself to force all new construction to add $80k extra in excavation costs (on a typical home, more on a multi-family development) to dig extra deep trenches under all dripping eves to catch melting water and filter it though an underground, shoulder-deep pile of rocks. No homes have ever suffered any substantial damage from soggy soil outside the water-tight foundation. Truckee is not even on the Lake Tahoe clear-blue watershed. There is no other legitimate reason to force $80k in extra construction costs on each home …. unless you cant stand the idea of coming to the mountains and getting your shoes dirty when you walk around outside. That’s it. There’s no other reason.

Isn’t it interesting? If the Town really cared about affordable housing (and the fact that local businesses are on the verge of shuttering because they cannot find the staff to help keep the doors open)… they would certainly relax their permit fee, and eliminate their ridiculous drip-line code (among other codes)…. but they won’t. Just by eliminating these two code requirements alone… the cost of building would drop around $160,000 on a single family home. $160k! Thats 16% of the total construction cost of a 1M dollar home today! (reality check: a modest new single family house cannot be built for less than 1M right now in Truckee).

But…. our Town Officials would rather watch you struggle while “generously” offering Deed Restrictions so they can look like heroes while commandeering partial control of your private property (your home is most valuable asset, remember). Hands off, Truckee Stooges! “We don’t need affordable housing experiments!” Editorial, Moonshine Ink Aug 10, 2023.

Our Town Officials are working for themselves, certainly not us. These people are incompetent at best, and should be removed. Click here to jump sections and find out exactly who these people are.

NONSENSE SUMMARY

Why are we insisting on going 100% electric if the globe is critically warming? Electric devices need to stay cool or they shut down.  If Truckee desperately needs affordable housing, why does Truckee enforce the CA Govt Code which is already proven responsible for the largest homeless crisis in modern US history? And our “safety” codes are now so extreme, it is now impossibly expensive to addon to pre-code homes. (God forbid a tiny crack in your sheetrock!) In some cases, the compliance gap is technically unbridgeable (already local engineers are declining add-on projects for this reason). Housing is now harder to find, twice as expensive to build and impossibly compliant. To fix the mess they made themselves (Reno is building just fine, btw), Council now wants to subsidize “workers housing”… for anyone who… works! What a racket.   

AT WHAT POINT DO WE STOP allowing these OUTSIDER AGENTS to dictate how we live in our own Local Community? At what expense to our time, money and precious enjoyment? We’re the ones who ultimately pay the price. And for what, the prestige our Town Council women receive for leading a “flagship” town to a Safe (risky) and Fashionable (fake) existence?? No thanks! Truckee Locals don’t buy this nonsense. Town of Truckee’s prideful mission to be a Flagship Do-Gooder comes with a price tag that pushes the Real Locals out. Pay to Play, Truckee!  Pay to play.

Quick Jump: Know the Codes | Know WHO is Responsible
WHY these Codes are Here | What WE Can Do

Click to help us VOTE these people OUT

BTW, HOW WE GOT LIKE THIS

If you ask anyone around town, they’ll admit: “we are overrun by the Bay Area”…. and they are correct. In the ultimate contrast to Truckee’s fun-loving, hard-working, wild-and-free mountain community, Truckee now has a deluge of new “neighbors” who snoop, whine and report (rat) on everyone around them in the righteous name of their own personal safety…. or even better… their own personal aesthetics. Instead of respectfully moving to our town to enjoy our friendly culture and modest lifestyle, these “neighbors” immediately vote in their so-called highly-educated Bay Area cohorts in a bid to rectify what bothers them so, effectively changing our culture to their liking. There are very few things on earth more disrespectful than this.

A question to our new bay area neighbors: do you always barge into someone’s house, rearrange all their furniture, have yourself a little tea party, then push the owners out? Because that’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re a new Bay Area voter in Truckee. Do us a favor and show some respect: DON’T VOTE for our local or county positions until you’ve put in decent time here as a working local taxpayer.

As for this current Town Lineup who was voted in by this Bay Area wave: your days in charge are surely numbered, because the following report will explain a lot about exactly who you are, what you have been doing, what motivates you, and why it is in this communities best interest to remove you from your positions of power.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

We didn’t vote for these laws, and who are these Truckee Town Council code enforcement stooges anyway? Truckee didn’t used to be like this. It’s starting to seem like a gang of professional CA Code Agents took over Truckee, paid themselves nicely with “state money” acquired from sell-out deals, then hired their own henchmen to push us around and make life painfully difficult and expensive…. then pinch us out. BUT WHY???

Well… think about this: Besides Truckee Residents being an endless gold mine of fines and fees revenue…… there is a bigger reason: If you’re a long time local you probably bought your house for something like $200k. If you become disgruntled enough by the obscenely high cost and high stress of living and running your business in Truckee, you’re likely to just give up, sell your house and leave (pinch!). Once you leave, your house will sell for about $800k (avg cost of 3bd/2ba house in Truckee today)…. which means the new owner will pay FOUR TIMES the property tax. Luckily for our town leaders, land in Truckee is a limited, ultra-valuable resource (we’re “built up” already) so clearly, our high-yielding turnover is what they are interested in. In other words: If you follow the money, there is a benefit to harassing Locals out in exchange for a higher paying tax base (wealthier residents and businesses) that can afford the taxes, fines, and fees which fund Town of Truckee’s pet projects and employee benefit packages.All the while, our town “leaders” achieve the particular ego-stroking status of being “in charge” of one of the most beautiful places on earth.Basically, its an elitist RACKET. A land grab. Think about it. When was the last time YOU got paid $293k in one year (salary + fat benefits) to do nothing besides point fingers and push people out?

Angry yet?

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KNOW WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

Let’s take a look at the current Town of Truckee (Mob) Lineup to explain why Locals have been hit over the head with COMPLIANCE the past few years. In this snapshot, we can see some interesting talent, leadership and experiences in this “highly educated” bunch, but we also can see an insiders group with questionable transparency, potential red-flag associations and possibly more outside $ deals in exchange for…. enforcing our compliance, perhaps? There are also reports of various members side-stepping the very rules they enforce on others. In other words, their rules don’t apply to them, just us. Typical. This group should be removed. 

TRUCKEE’S PLANNING DEPARTMENT  

Led by top-dog “Director of Community Development” Denyelle Nishimori ($293k salary+benefits, UC Santa Barbara / CalPoly), this notorious all-female planning department (read: mob) has the highest administrative authority in all of Truckee. Denyelle Nishimori was not elected, she was appointed in 2017 by the Town Council, “winning” over a much more qualified applicant whom everyone in Town really liked. She got the position, then soon after, the “more qualified applicant” no longer had his job.

Denyelle’s tenure remains somewhat untouchable for this reason: by now, she has been camping out in her position longer than any of our elected Council Members. As the longest standing Town Official, she also had the strongest influence in choosing the new 2020 Town Manager, who operates under her strict control (remember, the prior Town Manager suddenly and unexplainably “left” with a strict NDA) Hmmmm. The new Town Manager Denyelle hired in his place,Jen Callaway technically has the authority to hire and fire employees….. but wouldn’t dare fire Denyelle or her stooges because Jen is under Denyelle’s thumb. Denyelle is not elected… and not able to be fired! Voila! Carte Blanc!

In this setting, the planning department gang that Denyelle has assembled now insists on absolute authority with absolutely no appeal, while simultaneously being absolved of any responsibility for the damage they cause.  Their ruthless enforcement of the outsider CA GOVT CODE has angered countless local residents and big-time business owners who have suffered greatly (hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases) from costly code compliance damages. And no one dares to fire them.

Nishimori and her department believes it is THEY who know better, and so THEY should be responsible for planning all aspects of OUR life in Truckee… from what we get to do with your own property, to what color and what kind of signs we can put up in our own business storefront (or else!), to what kind of public art we are forced to pay for (rusty ants?), to updating the General Plan 2040 on our behalf during closed-session zoom “workshops”. And no one dares to fire them.

Nearly every single angry local resident with grievances against the Town of Truckee cites Denyelle Nishimori as the aggressor. Curiously, Denyelle also has the highest benefits package of anyone employed by the town, by as much as $40k in some cases. Also curiously, Denyelle’s salary + benefits have been increasing by as much as $25,ooo year over year. (see link). 

The all-mighty Denyelle is not only head of the Planning and Building Departments, she also now assumes the role of Zoning Administer, which historically has been a separate role in this Town. The Zoning Administer accepts development applications and prepares them for review in front of a public forum of Truckee community members (Planning Commission). Reports have surfaced where Denyelle has refused to pass along projects for public review if she doesn’t like them first. If she decides to play nice, she will force you to change aspects of your proposal OR not have the opportunity to be reviewed by members of the Truckee community whatsoever. What a power grab! Think of all the amazing development ideas (like the community movie theatre) that have died at her feet… and no one ever knows because she controls all access to the department.

Also during Denyelle’s tenure, at least three Town Staff members suddenly “stepped down”, with strict NDAs included in their departure package. “Town Manager Heading Out After Surprising Announcement” (Moonshine Ink, June 29, 2020). One Staff member in particular, a long-time Truckee Locals’ favorite, was just shy of reaching his full retirement benefits. “Voluntary leave” just doesn’t add up.

Denyelle was also somehow elected to the TTUSD School Board in November 2022, where locals are also reporting misbehavior over there also (submit a report). Somehow means this: reports indicate she instructed Keri Tabber and Caitlin Safford to harass all her political opponents by stealing their signs and threatening them with fines and fees because said political signs were “non-compliant”. This btw, is seriously unlawful. Who knows what else she was up to.

Judging by the sheer number of locals enraged by DenyelleNishimori’s  aggressive actions, palpable arrogance, and hefty salary and benefits increases, she should not only be removed from office for abuse of power, but she should also be investigated for potential fraud. 

It should be noted also, that only 25 of the most elite towns in California have “Community Development Directors”, which means it’s hardly an essential community role. Denyelle’s position is not needed. In fact, Urban Planning is a robust 3rd party consulting market, for three essential reasons: Firms are hired based on their proven track record of successful public planning decisions, they are detached from insiders benefits, and they’re only called on to recommend policy (codes) as needed.

In contrast, Denyelle (Karen) Nishimori makes up new codes daily depending on what bothers her (she has carte blanc with the Town Council), she has no proven track record with her policy decisions (she only has a 2-year masters in urban planning, not even an undergrad in any related field, and some years prior on the Truckee planning staff). She has no means of accountability (not elected, not term limited), she stands to personally benefit from the codes she installs…. and since Denyelle (and the little dog she trots around Town Hall) have been in Town of Truckee longer than any single council member, no one dares to check her. Because of all this, there is NO END to the new codes she gets to hit us with.

Bad deal for Truckee residents, at the tune of her $293k salary package per year…. plus dog-walking benefits: 10 minutes of every hour the entire Planning Department goes and walks their dogs (and they have Fridays off). Is this what we pay these people for?? AND just last month (see June 25, 2024 council minutes) they voted themselves another $12k/year “cost of living’ raise, uncontested. When was the last time YOU got one of those?

Unsurprisingly, seven years after Denyelle’s appointment, its clear how abusive this tenured, unelected, non-term-limited position can be. Truckee locals must remove Denyelle, and the Truckee Community Development Director office all together. While we’re at it, lets change the “Planning Department” to “Review Department”. They shouldn’t be “planning” anything anymore. With 329 new codes so far this year…. and still counting…. we’ve had it with planners.

TRUCKEE TOWN COUNCIL

This elected panel consists of 5 members, all new since 2018, who receive $10k per year for their community service: 3 are far-left public sector lifers (Courtney Henderson, Anna Klovstad, Jan Zabriskie ), 2 others prefer the safety of the band wagon and easily sway left (Lindsay Romack, David Polivoy). Polivoy and Klovstad were elected new in 2018, Henderson, Zabriskie and Romack were elected new in Nov 2020 (7 months after covid begins, just after Truckee locals lost their housing by the hundreds).  Unfortunately, in the 2022 election, three of the five seats were up… yet only faced one (far-left) contestant! All three council seats remained! Boy was Truckee was sleeping /gutted by covid.

Two members joined Council within just a few short years of moving to Truckee. Courtney Henderson is a Berkeley PhD and Anna Klovstad is a PUD utility contractor, both with a climate agenda. Then we have Jan Zabriskie , a retired so-cal CA Deputy Attorney General who prosecuted fraud against the government (nevermind government fraud against you).

Jan’s former boss, Attorney General Rob Bonta, actively “calls on attorneys and special agents from all sectors to help defend California’s policies“… in other words, Big Brother Zabriskie, a “special agent” of The State, is sitting inside our very own Town Council, with the moral authority to report us if we don’t comply with The California Government Codebook. Meanwhile Romack and Polivoy are the only two members with actual private sector jobs in Truckee.

A special note should also be made on Anna Klovstad, the public utility contractor with a climate agenda (CalPoly). She is a self-described “politically savvy council member” whose “dream is to help the Town of Truckee achieve its 100 percent renewable and carbon reduction goals!!” (TOT bio).

Anna is in the position of negotiating with major power infrastructure contractors on our behalf. This is a powerful role, soarewe absolutely confident she will make sound decisions in our best interest? As recent news reports, major car manufacturers all around the country can’t move their EVs, meanwhile the Net-Zero Movement worldwide is unravelling itself as an international fraud that even Macron admits. Not to mention, communist China has stated its intention to forcefully take Taiwan, the largest micro-chip producer on earth. So, in light of how irrational, draconian and damaging these extreme net-zero alternative energy policies can potentially be for Truckee locals… will Anna still keep pushing us over the Net Zero edge?

As the net-zero craze is proving itself more crazy by the day, it’s a good bet Anna’s position will not budge: according to her demeanor, her elite leadership and celebrity career seem more important to her than the real burden on Truckee locals…. the people who will ultimately pay the price for her uncompromising “prestige”. According to her actions, aside from railroading dissenters in the Truckee Town Council, Anna also posts articles that promote California’s indoctrination of youth toward aggressive environmental activism (paramilitary brainwashing…. Red Guard anyone?), which gives us insight into Anna’s ‘NO is not an option” attitude toward getting her way. Is this the kind of person we want in charge of our critical public utility infrastructure? Resilient she is not.

Then we have Courtney Henderson, a young, “well educated” PhD (Brown, Columbia, Berkeley), degrees in climate + public safety (agenda), advocates for (rubs elbows with) Alternative Energy Companies in exchange for….? According to her own resume, Courtney Henderson “leverages behavioral science to effect change” (ie pure manipulation). Courtney is a Berkley / Bay Area transplant with flashy red flags, a very impressive NGO and public policy resume, and 1500 followers on linked-in … yet the only private sector job she mentions is a downhill mountain bike instructor (talk about an alternate reality). At council meetings, she sashays into the chamber in her black and pointy, 3″ patent-leather stiletto pumps, then sits in her seat smiling around the room as if she were in a beauty pageant. Attire and composure completely inappropriate for the Council chambers. She was barely a resident of Truckee before she ran for Town Council and won (thank you Bay Area voters).

It’s funny. With all these high-powered, ultra-passionate climate activists in the ranks of our Town Council, one has to wonder why they are wasting their ultra-valuable skillsets here, with us. California produces less than 1% of the world’s greenhouse gasses, and Truckee hardly a drop of it…. if our Net-Zero obsessed Council Members wanted to make an actual impact to save the Earth, shouldn’t they be beating their drum in China or India? They really should! Unless, of course, they want all the glory for doing none of the actual work.

TRUCKEE TOWN MANAGER

After a state-wide search, interview, and selection process, this Council hired Jen Callaway in Nov. 2020 as the new Town Manager ($296k salary + benefits). She arrived in Town with the Bay Area covid wave. She executes and enforces the wishes of today’s council (as their direct agent), yet has no backbone in standing up against bad behavior. She has an admin background, and hires all the staff, with Council oversight. Department Heads (Denyelle Nishimori, Jenna Gatto) also help Jen Callaway oversee the execution + enforcement tone according to Council’s wishes ( Nishimori really runs the show though). 

TOWN ATTORNEY

The Town Attorney, Andrew Morris  ($294k salary + benefits) is at Calloway’s (ie Denyelle’s) disposal to prosecute locals and defend the actions of her agents… which he certainly does. (Doesn’t he work for us though?)

PLANNING COMMISSION 

(Not elected) Appointed by the Town Council from within the community. Commission’s duty is to make policy recommendations to the Council, and pre-accept / decline development applications. Three of the five commissioners (a slight but critical majority) are long-time Truckee Locals with successful private-sector careers in this town: Mitch Clarin (chairman, and local Contractor appointed by Councilmen Dave Polivoy), Dave Gove (vise-chair, local Realtor appointed by Councilmen Lindsay Romack), and Daniel Fraiman (local Contractor, appointed by Councilmen Courtney Henderson).

The other two newest commissioners are Policy Administrators, new to the Commission in 2023: Sami Taylor, a public policy writer / sustainability planner currently working remotely from Truckee at her high-brow Environmental Policy Firm with locations in prestigious Berkley and Downtown LA (she was appointed by Councilmen Anna Klovsted, of course). Then there is Coral Cavanaugh, an environmental planning, policy and engineering document writer / editor with special experience in Water policy (she actually lives and works in Truckee, at least), who was appointed by Councilmen Jan Zabriskie. In other words….. these two public sector virtuosos actually write and implement the book of Outside CA Codes! Feeling under attack yet? People generally work for jobs they believe in, right? Well, one more big-government appointment by one of our hometown Councilmen, and this lot is owned by, and answers to, the State of California (ie, not us).

TOWN PLANNERS

Planning Manager  Jenna Gatto ($201k salary+benefits) oversees Sr. Planners Yumie Dahn ($154k salary + benefits) Jaime LaChance ($71k part-time salary + benefits), Associate Planners Chantal Birnberg, Laura Dabe, Lucas Kandall (between $101k and $150k salary + benefits). Below them are Plan Checkers for new construction (aka code enforcers, also new to town since 2020): Christy Lyle ($79k pay + benefits) and Heather Benson (stepped down as of 10/23). It should be noted: In 2019 there were only 3 planners in the Planning department, not Nishimori’s army of eight. (CA Govt Code Money = CA Govt Code Stooges). Not to mention, the entire Planning Department is totally out of reach of public visitation… you can only talk to whichever associate Planner is on call for the day, and they will only meet you at the building department counter (they’re on the princess schedule: 8-12 M-Th, Fridays off). If you have a valid complaint… the Senior Planners (the ones responsible for the nonsense) are not available to meet, ever, and they will also “forget” to answer emails. Cowards.

GPAC

Together, the Town Council , Planning Department and their Planning Commission Friends combine to make all decisions for the Town. This powerful posse is responsible for the direction of the Truckee General Plan, which dictates the Truckee Development Code, which their code agents enforce on us. This consortium got its only community input via a 12-member volunteer community panel (selected by our town officials) called the General Plan Action Committee (GPAC) …… via ZOOM. NO meetings were ever listed on the Town Hall Calendar. This is unfortunate for Locals who want to know where their tax money is going. Jenna Gatto oversaw the GPAC, and is partly responsible for its clandestine operation.

TRUCKEE CODE ENFORCEMENT 

Out in the field, Caitlin Safford, Kerry Tabber swoop neighborhoods to find CODE violators. Officers technically are not allowed to hunt down violators, but must wait for neighbor complaints instead. However, reports show this is not the case. The officer especially adept at hunting down violators and giving all kinds of Locals hell (major stooge, and ALSO the first one to snoop this site and comment with cheerful intimidation before it went live, of course), is Caitlin Safford (click for mugshot). Caitlin has a degree in criminal psychology (thus trained to see the criminal in us all). She has had various minor league enforcement roles throughout her career in Truckee (incl. police records department, from which she was let go for her attitude). Aside from many aggravated reports from locals, Caitlin is most importantly on video unlawfully abusing her power while on the hunt for “code violators”. As for Kerry Tabber, an angry local business owner threatened legal action against the Town because Kerrywouldn’t stop coming onto private property to harass him. The town instead cut him a deal: Kerry was formally restricted from interacting with him any longer. If it weren’t for the substantial legal fees he saved, he would have brought the issue to court.

Besides the code officers out in the field, the Planning Department agents enforce the development codes, and Nishimori herself roams around town picking out local business signs she doesn’t like to look at (humpf), at which point she or her henchmen either steal you signs, or she gives the property owner a call and threatens them with consequences until they have their renter take their signs down. If she doesn’t like you as a person, you can bet she’s not going to like your business sign either…….. and there goes your business. Pinch!

Speaking of prosecuting locals for non compliance… let’s not forget council member Jan Zabriskie, our very own state-approved “special agent” deputy DA morally committed to defending (installing) California’s outsider policies… since they are setup to supersede our own hometown code with every passing day….

This is the new Truckee, folks. This post-covid Town of Truckee lineup has more than a few red flags. Coupled with their abusive code enforcement practices that have knowingly put local livelihoods at risk, they frankly should beshaken down and retired.

Quick Jump: Know the Codes | Know WHO is Responsible
WHY these Codes are Here | What WE Can Do

WHAT WE CAN DO

Over the past several years, we have been helplessly watching our own hometown being wrestled away from us by “politically-savvy” people who claim to “know better”. For so many locals, their new codes and policies have caused debilitating stress, insurmountable fear for survival, and a terrible heartache for what we stand to lose…. but we can turn this whole thing around.

THIS NOVEMBER is the time to clean out this crowd… but it’s going to take a hardball strategy and a cohesive movement of Truckee locals to remove this rogue Council and relight Truckee’s original mountain spirit. How bad do you want Truckee back? Because it’s going to take serious effort. Sign the petition to show us your commitment to vote these people out of office this November, and press charges at every opportunity. WE NEED YOU, NOW.

Just remember….. Out of 10 Councilmen and Commissioners….. exactly 5 are very high-powered, policy pushing CA government stooges whose careers are entirely dedicated to creating and installing CA Government policies that put us in our place while paying their fat salaries and bolstering their ultra-prestigious resumes. Truckee Locals are on the brink of losing everything unique and wonderful about our town. That’s one hell of a Hometown Hijack! Click HERE to pushback.

A BETTER WAY

Still quite fond of our Town Council? Well, let’s put all this another way. We know this to be true: EVERYONE in Truckee wants Green Energy and a cleaner, healthier planet. We all share this concern, this is Truckee after all. As with all issues important to Truckee (affordable housing etc): The difference is in HOW we make that happen. In other words…. instead of forcing CODE and Regulation with hefty fines and displaced locals, there is a powerful alternative we can implement instead:  the incentivized free market. 

For example: CA Reach Codes ultimate goal is for every home in the state to be zero-waste and “off-the-grid”. Awesome! Who doesn’t want that! Need proof? It’s trending hard (#vanlife). A state-wide public service campaign (info / hype) + tax breaks ($ incentive similar to LEED), would be far more effective than government regulation, with far more dynamic and “equitable” results. Plus, a tax break essentially means YOU get to choose the pet projects in which YOU want to participate. Good ideas get good participation. The (current) alternative is to give your tax money to local politicians to spend on whatever pet project they want….. might as well give your credit card to a bunch of drunken narcissists.

Tax incentives empower YOU to support GOOD IDEAS. Any honest politician will gladly empower you through tax incentives, while any politician with a self-serving agenda and a fat salary hinged on government kickbacks will fight tax incentives tooth and nail. Just follow the money, it’s not hard to see why.

A second alternative, is the beauty of Economy of Scale. Let’s look at Organic Foods as a wonderful example. At first, only wealthier people could afford organics, they pushed the demand. Ten years later, costs have come way down with scale, efficiency, and competition (always does). Now we see a market flush with affordable organics, available to everyone. Goal achieved (and with tax incentives, organic food manufacturers could have hit the goal even faster). The same can happen with off-the-grid housing. Pioneering a movement isn’t cheap! So when the Town of Truckee forces all residents to participate in an early, expensive movement, it only pushes out the non-wealthy. The wealthy were going to do it anyway… especially with tax incentives.

Politicians aren’t dumb (especially the savvy ones). Forcing people to comply with rules and regulations is a great strategy for a land grab (invasion), if you’re into that kind of thing (Country Club of California). Yes, we know Tahoe is pretty. No, you can’t have it. Codes are for thugs, and the other naive Town Council members (and voters!) who believe that Government policy and regulation is the answer to everything.

Quick Jump: Know the Codes | Know Who is Responsible | What we can do

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT GOVERNMENT

There is a thing about Government: it is NOT the answer to everything. In fact its structure is inherently corruptible and requires careful vigilance. Why? For one, Policy Makers (aka planners) job description is to plan life and make rules. A job well done is to make rules (policy) 40 hours a week. So of course we suffocate in code. Planners should be on-call only (sidelined), otherwise they’ll plan the socks off you. After all, it’s their job. 

Secondly, there are 3 types of people attracted to Planning / Government positions: 1) eager people who feel joy performing a civic duty for their awesome community. 2) micro managers on steroids, possibly with a chip on their shoulder 3) Authoritarians and Sociopaths (statistically 1-4 in 100).  We’d like to assume #1 for Truckee.

Example of Eager People: When a group of talented people come together to achieve reasonable objectives. Works great with public participation and transparency (ie regular news coverage of Town Council Meetings, which we do not actually have in Truckee).

Example of Micromanagers with a Grudge: When code-compliance officers give you an inexplicably hard time, they’re either naively following orders, or they are abusing their power to punish those whom they find offensive (did you not get my permission first?? Oh no you don’t!) How many hoops can they get you to jump through, and at what cost. Oh fun! Payback time. This is also cause to question the organization’s motives… who is sitting higher up? What’s their objective? Perhaps we should ask Denyelle this question.

Example of Sociopaths: THIS IS WHY governments fail. Sociopaths FLOCK to government positions for power and prestige. They believe they know how to live your life better than you. They are usually at boss level, are highly “educated” in trending topics, and see their job as critical. They believe humans are always the problem, and must be managed. They often have training in Behavioral Science (manipulation), and use crisis as an opportunity to scare people into doing what they want. They don’t have much private sector experience (can’t hang), usually just government jobs (fat benefits little work). They fixate on pet projects, and are happy to use people as lab rats for the sake of their prideful objectives. They chant “compliance!”, virtue-signal loud and often, and are very clever hypocrites…

… You can do whatever you want, as long as you do what they tell you. They talk organic but want to masterplan every decision a person can make. They scream “Progress!” while obstructing any way to make your life easier. They talk resiliency, but build energy grids off resources sourced from hostile nations. They plug “Local” while overwriting your local culture with outside rules and expectations… if this sounds like you………. it’s time to take a seat.

Communal Narcissism (reference) is a clinical condition, and a subcategory of megalomania. This is why ALL Governments require careful vigilance (not just Truckee), because there is the inevitable chance there are manipulative and self-serving agents in its ranks. The higher up the Government, the more shadows, and the more corruption (Sacramento, DC, EU, UN, WEF etc). Be warned!

AT THE END OF THE DAY

One dark night at 3am, a Truckee Code Enforcement agent dressed head-to-toe in black, crept up to the door of a local Truckee business and boldly posted a “cease and desist” order. The note threatened the owner with lofty fines plus one night in jail for every day they continued operating “in violation”. The owner had too much to loose if he obeyed, since he was a fledgling new business shouldering a hefty new business debt. He consulted a lawyer.

The lawyer, after watching the security camera footage, simply made a few phone calls to the County Sheriff’s department and a few other law enforcement offices, and came back with a reply to the troubled business owner. He said: “no one is interested in enforcing this violation. Just ignore them and carry on.” So he did, and his business is alive and thriving today.

In other words… if a law is written but no one is willing to enforce it, it does not exist.

THIS is why it is so critical for citizens to not only know who we elect for Council, but we also must KNOW EXACTLY WHO our local code enforcement agents are… because they are always the last line of defense in the (inevitable) event your government goes rogue. Knowing your local law / code enforcement arm ensures, via checks and balances, that your NEIGHBORS are responsible for your safety and well being… not some hired outsider government thugs like the sell-outs in our current Town of Truckee lineup. The difference is critical.

And this is how it all ends.

Thank you kindly for reading, and please….

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