Denise Gauny

In this election, there’s been a lot of talk about fiscal discipline. Everyone agrees it’s critically important for Tahoe Donner, but not everyone agrees about the right way to achieve and sustain it.

For much of Tahoe Donner’s history, the prevailing view seemed to be that fiscal discipline meant keeping the annual assessment artificially low while shortchanging the capital reserves. That’s not genuine fiscal discipline. That’s phony because it only pretends to balance revenues and expenses by brushing off our responsibility to maintain, modernize, and improve our facilities by not saving the money needed to fund these projects. 

Worse, when we defer, delay, and neglect maintenance, modernization, and improvement, that only increases the long-term costs for the members. The best example of this is the Ski Lodge Replacement Project. The need to replace the Ski Lodge was identified more than 15 years ago. Had past boards made more responsible financial planning choices, the Ski Lodge would have been replaced years ago for many millions less than it cost us today.

Phony fiscal discipline also undermines member value and enjoyment and harms our operating budget. Not so many years ago, boards prioritized keeping the assessment flat. To boost capital reserves while artificially depressing the assessment, those boards decreased funding for our operational needs. That hurt our ability to attract and retain employees, increased member amenity fees, and decreased member services and benefits. It also left us vulnerable when post-pandemic labor shortages and inflation caused operating costs to skyrocket, resulting in boomerang assessment increases.

As fiduciaries for the association, board members are supposed to be faithful stewards serving the best interests of Tahoe Donner as a whole. Unfortunately, too many boards disregarded their duty and passed the buck. Today, we are all paying an expensive price for those poor choices. We can’t afford to repeat these damaging and costly mistakes.

Our current board already adopted the necessary policy reforms to strengthen and stabilize the Operating Fund. Now we need to follow suit for our other financial policies. That’s why I applaud the policy work that staff and the board has begun to update and reform our capital policies and budgeting processes. 

Because I served on so many Tahoe Donner committees, task forces, and working groups, I’m uniquely prepared to partner with the board, staff, and the committees to complete these critical policy reforms.  If elected to the board, building off the work I’ve done on the Long-Range Planning Committee, I will advocate for budget and capital planning reforms that:

• Clarify our legal obligations to maintain, modernize, improve, and, when necessary, replace Association facilities.

• Strengthen our capital reserves in accordance with HOA industry standards to provide adequate and sustainable funding to meet our obligations.

• Improve the capital planning process to: 

  • Identify, prioritize, and address capital investment obligations in a timely and responsible manner.

  • Promote meaningful member involvement, especially for developing and building consensus around the vision and purposes for significant capital projects.

  • Provide for more precise and transparent project cost estimates.

• Develop realistic and sustainable budget policies and practices to meet our financial obligations while avoiding volatile assessment increases.