With its scenic vistas and clear alpine waters, South Lake Tahoe long has been a destination for outdoor enthusiasts, vacationers and wealthy Californians looking for a reprieve from city life.

It’s a place where people seem more eager to strike up a conversation about hiking, boating or skiing — depending on the season — than about the often-dull arena of local politics.

That changed after South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace sent the local newspaper a letter this month confessing she’d stolen money from the Presbyterian church where she’d worked as an office manager and bookkeeper for seven years.

Then she resigned.

Adding to the local drama, news broke a day after Wallace’s revelation that the town’s mayor pro tem, Cody Bass, had been arrested following a recent early morning inc

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