Community Service or Self Service?
Update: This year it’s disingenuously called the “Positive change for IVGID” PAC with its blue signs all over town supporting Tonking, Jezycki and Homan. The only change they want is higher Facility (Rec/Beach) Fees.
In the past, real estate agents, golf club members, IVGID employees and their families have collectively made up a powerful and well-connected political force. Their cozy relationships have ensured the success of many past candidates for Trustee. Unless voters elect trustees who will work for the community as a whole, IVGID will slip back into the same unsustainable culture of “loose controls” that favors special interests and threatens the very survival of the GID.
Trustees, and for that matter, anyone who really cares about our community, should put the public good ahead of their own personal interests. Two candidates, Mick Homan and Michelle Jezycki, seem to have it backwards; they’ve put their special interests ahead of the public good. Incombent, Michaela Tonking, has been so supportive of staff, she still cannot acknowedge that her former Board failed by abdicating all responsibilities to an incompetent GM who hired an incompetent Finance Director.
Michelle Jezycki
Michelle Jezycki obtained her Nevada real estate license in January of 2021, two months before the County Commissioners approved the short term rental ordinance. Her wife, Marian Huish, also a licensed agent, has been an Airbnb host for over 8 years. Nothing wrong with that .. until shortly after Jezycki filed to run for Trustee they were caught advertising an un-permitted short term rental on Airbnb. They certainly both had full knowledge that since the summer of 2021 the County required a permit. Operating a short term rental without the required permit is a crime (midemeanor)1. Yet their customer reviews on Airbnb date back to November of 2022 or earlier. They finally applied for a permit in September of 2023, while still operating without one. They did not provide the required proof of dedicated parking; no STR permit was issued.
In early March they were notified by the County that they had to remove their ad or pay a fine. The ad was removed.
No fine was imposed nor was a criminal complaint filed for unlawfully operating an STR for over a year, probably because the fine is not high enough to justify the County’s expense of imposing the penalties or holding a trial.
The fact that Jezycki knowingly operated an un-permitted short term rental is evidence that she puts her personal interests ahead of the public’s. The permit process is supposed to protect STR customers, as well as the community. As an IVGID trustee, there are some major decisions that impact short term rentals.
Public officials are supposed to uphold the laws. In fact, they take an oath to do so. Jezycki has shown she has little respect for ordinances designed to protect the public. She put her personal financial interests ahead of the public health, safety and welfare.
Mick Homan
Mick Homan wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees included in the March 22, 2023 Board packet objecting to proposed pricing for golf course rates. He compared a Tahoe Mountain Club offering to the IVGID couples pass, inferring that the IVGID pass price was set too high. He failed to mention the TMC pass did not include a cart (an additional $1600 ). He also minimized the extent of the limitations on days and hours when the TMC Pass could be used, nor did he mention the booking window of just 7 days.
He advised the Board that the golf financials should include food and beverage and catering, that is, until he learned about the abysmal performance of those 2 activities. He didn’t understand that IVGID is precluded from providing food or beverage services unless associated with recreational activities. His “portfolio” model is a farce. Diamond Peak no longer produces enough revenue to offset golf losses. So all of the negative cash flow will have to be made up with Facility Fees.
He ignored capital expenses and depreciation, dismissing reports that showed golf needed huge subsidies. Rather than using his skills to find out why these venues are financial disasters, he’d rather take the easy way out and continue to make property owners subsidize his golf game, food and drink. He thinks a Facility Fee of $2340 would be a bargain.2
He used his credentials (CPA and executive experience) to convince golfers he was highly qualified to advise the Board. It is telling when someone with his background misinforms others, and promotes his personal interest (golf) over the good of the community as a whole.
Golf is undeniably one of the most highly subsidized IVGID ventures. It’s a long-standing injustice that so much of our facility fees goes to subsidize venues that serve a relatively small percentage of the parcels/owners. Mick Homan has already demonstrated he is prone to supporting decisions that favor his special interest, private golf clubs, placing a greater burden on the community as a whole.
Michaela Tonking
Michaela Tonking was a member of the prior Board majority consisting of Kendra Wong, Tim Callicrate and herself. Together they ascribed to the belief that the Board could depend on staff’s expertise. Wong had repeatedly stated that the Board was only there to set policy. They put faith in a GM who had no financial skills who then hired a Finance Director with minimal skills in that area. We all know what happened next: the financial debacle in implementing a new financial system that went live before anything or anyone was ready. It will take years, if not forever, to undo the financial damage. Both Tonking and Wong had glowing credentials in the field of accounting, yet neither made any effort to head off this disaster. Instead they continue to blame the current Board and criticize their efforts to get to the root of the problems.
Election decisions
IVGID has blown through more than $60M in Facility Fees over the last ten years with little to show for it but the new Burnt Cedar pool, a couple of restrooms and “lipstick on a pig” remodels. Rather than for facilities, these fees were used to prop up poorly run golf courses, restaurants, and bars plus pay bloated admin and internal services salaries. User fees don’t come close to covering operating costs. There are $51M in capital projects identified for the next 5 years. The “portfolio” model for setting and distributing facility fees is a failed concept. It is unfair in that it favors special interests and promotes excessive spending. Fees will spiral upward unless our new Board puts aside their personal interests in favor of the public good, and accepts that oversight, not just setting policies, is essential.
IVGID’s lack of internal controls hurts everyone. It has fostered a financial model that is unsustainable. It shouldn’t matter what your personal interests are, all voters need to find out how candidates will get costs under control if IVGID is to emerge from the current financial chaos. Elect candidates who exemplify the true spirit of public service, not self service.