TOWN MAKES IT RAIN FOR WHITEBARK

In an effort to support wildfire mitigation efforts amidst federal grant freezes, the Mammoth Town Council approved a Town budget Wednesday which would allocate $610,000 of its Tourism reserve this quarter to Whitebark Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to reudcing wildfire risk. 

The motion to approve the budget passed 4-1, with Councilmember Brent Truax on the dissent.

Though the Tourism reserve has historically been used to fund housing, Town Manager Rob Patterson recommended using it for wildfire mitigation work for the next three years. “While we have invested a great deal in housing, we really need to do things that are going to protect those investments,” he said.

Of the funds needed to execute Whitebark’s Fire Mitigation efforts, two thirds of them are suspended because of federal grant freezes under the Trump Administration, said Janet Hatfield, Forest Resilience Program Director at Whitebark. The Town’s $610,000 allocated this quarter would supplement one of those thirds.

“The timing of this probably couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” she said. “We’re mid-term and mid-contracting with entities and contractors that don’t know if they’re going to have work, and to me, maybe more importantly, is that we communicated to the Town via Community Coffee, ‘we’ve got your concerns addressed.’”

Whitebark was a featured guest of Community Coffee in January after the L.A. Fires occurred.

“Every delay that we have in the season, it doesn’t just increase the wildfire risk in this Town, it also increases the cost per acre of how much it costs to implement,” said Ryan Bobik, Whitebark’s Finance and Administration Director.

Patterson said the allocation could potentially function as a loan to Whitebark, wherein the funds could be reimbursed to the Town if the federal freezes are released, but, he said, “the concern is that the funds are likely not designated as a reimbursement.” Translation: the funds are sunk.

Truax opposed the expenditure on the belief that the Tourism Reserve should continue to support Housing efforts as a commitment to Mammoth Lakes Tourism, which works to market the Town’s assets to tourists. He wanted to instead fund the fire mitigation efforts through monies in the General Fund.

The approved budget allocated $1 million from the General Fund towards housing, roughly equal to what the Town has historically allocated from the Tourism Reserve to housing.

Patterson said he could rearrange the funds to make it consistent with past years (i.e. switch the dollars in the tourism reserve with the dollars allocated to housing from the general fund), but that he didn’t think it was a good idea.

“I am recommending we look at how we will continually fund wildfire efforts in subsequent years, and the only dollars I have to play with are the Tourism Reserve,” he said.

Councilmember John Wentworth argued in favor of the switch, and said funding wildfire mitigation efforts could be a marketable asset for MLT. Aside from Truax, the other Councilmembers agreed.

The approved Budget also included a separate allocation of $50,000 to form a wildfire task force between the Town, Whitebark Institute, the Mammoth Lakes Fire Department, Mammoth Disposal, and the Mammoth Community Water District.

The taskforce intends to work on a parcel level, wherein the agencies work together to assess green waste and other fire hazards on every land parcel in Town over 2-3 years, and facilitate ways for people to remove the dangerous material. 

Salary Boost

In what Town Manager Rob Patterson stated as his “favorite part of the meeting,” Council voted unanimously to boost his salary 5% based on his annual performance evaluation. His previous salary was $209,103, and it got bumped up to $219,558.

“I believe that, while I have been probably the stingiest Councilmember in increasing pay for our executives, the job that Rob has done in the last year, the amount of time that he has put into this effort, I think a 5% bump is certainly not overcompensation,” Councilmember Bill Sauser said.

Mayor Chris Bubser echoed Sauser’s sentiments. Next year, Patterson’s contract is up for reapproval, which Councilmember John Wentworth said he hoped would prompt a return of the “S.O.B.,” or “Stingy Old Bill.”

Outbound 

The Council, following the Mammoth Lakes Planning and Economic Development Commission’s (PEDC) recommendation, held a public hearing and greenlighted to convert their five recently-built fourplexes, (“villas”) into for-sale ownership units.

The villas were built in accordance to an amended version of the Clearwater Specific Plan, originally conceptualized by Jim Demetriades, who took ownership of the site in 2008 with an ambitious project proposal, which included 340 hotel units, a retail shop, a restaurant space, workforce housing, and more. 

He never built it.

Waterton bought the property in 2021 and built the villas soon after, in part to allow for development in line with the Clearwater Specific Plan “if and when market conditions allow,” slated as an “interim development” of the larger project. Waterton began renting the units in December 2023.

Matt Mering, Executive Vice President Hospitality at Waterton, said the proposed change would put the company “on equal footing with their competitors.” 

Andrew Morris, the Town’s Attorney said he was “skeptical at first” of the arrangement, but that Waterton’s lawyers convinced him “that this can be done and that this really is a valid approach. They’re very restrictive CC&Rs [or Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions]”

Wentworth made the motion, and it was passed unanimously.