Wilcox pulls out of TRPA director's race

Nevada State Lands director Pam Wilcox has pulled her name out of the running for executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

She is the second of the three finalists for the job to withdraw. Greg James, director of the Inyo County, Calif., water department, was offered the job in April but decided not to take it.

Wilcox and Salt Lake City principal planner Bill Allayaud were the other two at the top of the list, selected from more than 100 who applied for the job.

"It just didn't work out for me," Wilcox said Friday. "Nothing to do with TRPA. It was a wonderful process and everyone was very courteous."

Wilcox, who has been with the state of Nevada 20 years, serving as administrator of the State Lands Division for more than a decade, said she will stay in that job.

"I love my job and Tahoe is a big part of that job," she said. As lands administrator, she heads the state's Tahoe Basin programs ranging from forestry to land acquisition to funding for special roadway projects.

"Obviously, we're full partners with the TRPA and I look forward to that continuing," she said.

She said with the long list of qualified applicants who wanted the job, she expects the regulatory agency will have no trouble finding an excellent director.

The position was vacated by longtime executive director Jim Baetge, who resigned in January for health reasons. His second in command, Jerry Wells, has decided to move to a position in Oregon on May 26.

The new director will head TRPA's efforts to coordinate California, Nevada and five county government efforts to implement a $900 million environmental improvement program.

That program was developed at the Tahoe Summit in June 1997 attended by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and is designed to stop environmental damage to the forest and degradation of the water quality at Tahoe.