Hi, I'm Michael Naft, your Clark County Commissioner for District A.

On July 8th, in recognition of the NBA Summer League returning to Las Vegas for its 22nd year, we illuminated Clark County's iconic welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign in red, white, and blue.

The following day I was honored to participate in the ceremonial tip-off officially starting the eleven-day premier basketball event.

As the sports and entertainment capital of the world, Clark County is proud to welcome players, coaches, and fans from around the globe for another exciting summer of basketball.

On July 10th, I joined students, educators, and community partners, a cartwright and gearing elementary school to celebrate two exciting new editions for students.

At Cartwright Elementary, we celebrated the opening of a new stream lab, a hands-on learning space dedicated to science, technology, research, engineering, arts, and math.

Just next door, Garing Elementary unveiled a new mini-pitch basketball court, providing students with a safe, high quality space to stay active.

Thank you to Heart of America, NBA CARES, and State Farm for investing in these district A schools and creating new opportunities for our students to learn and play.

Looking ahead, I'm teaming up once again with Clark County Fire Station 38 for coffee and conversation at Grouchy John's.

Neighbors are invited to join me and their local fire station crew members on Saturday, July twenty-fifth from nine to ten AM to talk all things Clark County.

I hope to see you there.

Be sure you're staying up to date on all things happening in District A and across Clark County.

Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and X at Commission Aft.

Until next time, I look forward to seeing you all around A.

Well, good morning.

Welcome to the Clark County Commission.

Today's Tuesday, July twenty first.

We will begin today's meeting with the invocation being led by Rabbi Brad Techteal of Minbar Kodesh Temple to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning.

Thank you for commissioners for allowing me to uh help set the tone for this morning's meeting.

Let us pause together for a moment of reflection, source of the all life, whom we call by many names and reach toward in many ways.

Where there is disagreement, let it be honest and respectful.

And where a decision will shape the lives of our neighbors, let it be guided by fairness, by humility, and by concern for the common good.

Bless the work of this meeting and let it bear good fruit for all who call this county home.

Commissioner Kirkpatrick.

Thank you.

And good morning.

So this week is National NACO.

National NACO met on Friday, and most of them are going home today.

But there's a part uh in National NACO where they're asked over 3,000 counties around the country to submit ideas that they're doing so that uh other counties can benefit from it.

So Clark County has 38 departments, so of course we got some recognition from some of our departments.

We'll which you will hear about later, but probably the most exciting one is the IT recognition that we got.

So I worked on that for a long time.

I sit on the national committee, but then the lingo just got too hard for me to understand.

So Bob stepped in and uh did a lot of the work for us.

But with that work, uh during the survey um came out and it ranked Clark County as number 10 in a national ranking with over one million people, and that is really a big deal because we are competing with other large um communities across the valley.

And to know that uh Clark County ranked on the top 10 of doing everything right on IT and improving public service, communication, and strengthening our connection.

Uh so with that, uh Bob, I'd like to invite you and your team up, so a few of your team, and then we'll ask um at some point for all of your team because they keep 38 departments running.

They uh have 10,000 employees, and we have a 24-7 help desk, which I've been guilty of using meeting times on a Sunday morning.

Uh so congratulations, Bob, if we could all give him a round of applause.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Um, I want to say uh note of appreciation for NACO and for eRepublic.

Um, we are receiving some recognition of the tremendous work that we're doing here.

Um, I want to thank the board for their support for the tremendous investments that we're making in technology.

Um, I want to thank um uh Kevin and the leadership team here at the county for the day-to-day support that we get with all the work that we're doing.

Technology pervades every aspect of the work that we have.

Um, and sometimes we have to apologize for that because it doesn't work all the time.

But we are always standing by ready to support the delivery of services to the public through all the technology investments that we've made.

And I want to give a special recognition to my leadership team that's here, but to uh the IT team that we had that uh that came in here.

So thank you all very much for the work that you do.

Go ahead and stand up so that we can recognize you.

Thank you.

So, Bob, uh, while we don't have a proclamation from you, there is a much nicer plaque that's coming that will go in your department, and I think that is uh going to be in the mail tomorrow when uh National NACO, which is the association of counties across the country wraps up.

So, congratulations, and uh we'll make sure you get that plaque very soon.

Okay, thanks.

Commissioners, your next item is to recognize Clark County employees who have been selected as our Clark County value championship, hi, this is Jeanette Rivera.

I am here today representing the Office of Community and Economic Development.

We have nominated um Kathleen Taylor.

She's our small business um initiative and division for economic development.

She goes on and beyond her description of the job out in the field, always assisting businesses, assisting uh clients and expanding, providing resources beyond Clark County.

She comes with experience from federal government and she shares those resources among our business community.

She's nominated for her excellence integrity, her values, core values of Clark County, aligning with her own professional and personal values.

Congratulations, Kathleen.

My name is Kelsey Chiselli, and I'm a permanency worker for family services.

I nominated my supervisor, Tiffany Wedlow as a value champion for leadership because I believe that she really embodies the ideal of lead by example.

Now, Tiffany is somebody who's really never asked someone on her team to do something that she wouldn't do herself.

In fact, I've noticed that as a supervisor, she looks back to her past experiences as a caseworker to understand what her team might be experiencing.

Tiffany is somebody who goes into the field with her workers and personally meets the families we serve so that she can better understand how to direct us.

Now, when I've come to Tiffany before with a problem on my case, well, the very first question she asked me is how can I support you?

Now Tiffany is also somebody who she really invests in her team.

As a worker, I've become a more confident and stronger person.

And I've seen how some of my past teammates have gone on to become supervisors and seniors of their own.

So I just want to thank you, Tiffany.

You're amazing, and I appreciate you so much.

You deserve all of this.

My name is Felicita Carranza with Clark County Public Works, and I can think of no one more deserving for this recognition than Lynette.

So Lynette is a kind leader who makes a lasting impact on everyone around her.

She leads by example every day, demonstrating integrity, professionalism, and a genuine passion for the work she does.

She genuinely cares about the success of her team, the quality of work, and positive impact we make every day.

She leads with humility, compassion, authenticity, earning the trust and respect of everyone she works with.

She's an incredible mentor, an inspiring leader, and the definition of a truly valued employee.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work alongside her and can think of no one more deserving of this recognition.

Congratulations, Lynette.

How about these employees?

Come on.

All right, I gotta start first.

We got DFS up here.

Hey, these people work every day.

I'm gonna be a little biased because that's where I started.

That could be your next county manager, so I'm just gonna say that to you.

Yeah.

But not to overshadow public works, 26-year employee.

Um public works never stops, DFS never stops.

And then last but not least, economic development.

We're constantly working, trying to invigorate our region.

It's constant.

It's really good to see all of these people up here today, and with uh they're gone already, but with IT, just another example of our great department.

So we got one person, all right.

All the great stuff we do every day.

Um, we don't get a lot of credit, which is why I really like to say this every time we're trying to tell our county story, and you guys are the story.

You are the bread and butter.

You make all of us look good, and you're taking care of people every day, no matter what you're doing.

So thank you for all you do, Commissioner Knaft.

Thank you, Kevin.

It's it's hard to match Kevin's energy this morning, but I will match his sincerity without uh the work that each of you all have done.

This county wouldn't be what it is today.

Uh, this morning, uh, some of us got the pleasure of speaking with new recruits, new hires into the county at orientation, and uh in talking to them, you all give a prime example of what their career could be, what their uh contributions to this community could be.

Uh, and we're just so proud to call you and consider you colleagues and to thank you very much for the service you provide to the residents of Clark County.

One more time for these wonderful team members.

Well, now moving to section three of today's agenda, the first time set aside for public comment.

Anyone wishing to speak on items that appear on today's agenda, section four and after, please come forward.

You may speak for up to three minutes, and please identify your first and last name for the record along with the item that you're speaking on.

Good morning.

Yes, good morning.

How are you?

Um I've been here 44 years.

And the I'm talking up on your I'm talking up on items seven, eight, nine, and ten.

That is concerning um the chair to sign an amendment.

What's this agreement number with the state of Nevada, Department of Business and Industry, Nevada Housing Agreement, uses of home investment partnership programs by the Clark County to take action appropriate.

This is what I'm saying is my home has been taken by the courtyard to be used for renting out my home to squatters.

That is one reason why I want to speak up on that.

Trying to be a team player.

19 of 82 to 19 uh 2026.

My court order was is still on home.

The Board of Commission have placed 22 million dollars distribution distribution into between themselves and to their account.

Whereas I'm left as a homeless victim and in a conspiracy overthrow.

My name is Margaret Coleman, and I tired of being in Nevada, uh, arguing and trying to get you to recognize owing and due from a court order 8204984 issued by a chief judicial judge, docked and recorded for me to be received this uh money from a summons, 20-day summit service by the sheriff department up on being a receiver.

I wish you uh understand work with compensation and my pension is important.

It is concerning a fulfillment settlement, whereas I could have stayed here in peace and being a part of the society, whereas I am being a threat to society and not a solution.

Whereas my money is being spent to help everyone else, and I'm tired.

I can't find my children, and I need your help and finding them.

But I'm needing, I don't fit in.

As Jones say from Deputy Shannon O'Hughes, nine million for me and my good morning.

Good morning.

Uh, my name is Benjamin Jacobs.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the Nevada Division of Forestry at 4747 Vegas Drive.

Um, I want to speak on item number 55 regarding the multiple species habitat conservation plan.

Um, as a partner agency who works cooperatively with Clark County to permit and regulate the protection of state protected flora via the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

The Nevada Division of Forestry is invested in the continued funding and efficacy of the plan.

The continuation of our master permit with the county, which allows Clark County Desert Conservation Program to enforce compliance with Nevada revised statutes 527 and 528 in our stead is reliant on the effective and diligent application of adequate protections for sensitive species uh through this program.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Anyone's anyone else wishing to speak, please come forward.

Seeing no one will close the first public comment period and turn it over to Manager Schiller.

Commissioners will now move to the agenda section.

Uh your next item is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting on June 16th, 2026, and the special meeting held on June 18th, 2026.

Mr.

Chair, I'm reproduced our regular meeting minutes from June 16, 2026, and the special meeting which is held on June 18th, 2026.

Thank you.

Please cast your vote on the motion.

Motion passes.

Staff is requesting that item number 26 under your consent section be deleted from your agenda.

For the record, I'd like to read the following corrections under item number 28 under the consent agenda on page one of the third amendment item two term agreement shall be extended from June 20, June 30th, 2025 change to June 30th, 2025 to June 30th, 2026.

Under item 946, under public hearings, under the recommendation, first line, delete and authorize the chair to sign.

And under item 53, under the business items in the background lessons, change the effected date from July 18th, 2025 to July 18th, 2026.

With the corrections written to the record, I'll move approval with the agenda.

Thank you.

There's a motion, please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Commissioners, you can now move to the approval of your consent agenda consisting of items number six through 45 with number 26 being deleted.

We'll approve of our consent agenda.

Item 6 through 45.

Thank you.

Please cast your vote.

Commissioners, it's not yet 10 a.m.

So we'll now move to the business section of your addend of your agenda.

Your next item is to identify emerging issues to be addressed by staff or by the board at future meetings, receive updates on the activities of the various regional boards and commissions, and direct staff accordingly.

Thank you.

This would be a great day for emerging issues.

Commissioner Kirkpatrick.

So say that somebody I I'll use kids.

Say that they threw a lid to the water bottle in the backyard.

That standing water alone in there can breed mosquitoes for up to one mile.

So maybe if everybody could put a little blurb to remind people that it's the smallest amount of um water standing that will create a mosquito problem for you.

And with the West Nile that we've had out there, it's more important than ever to make sure that uh we stay mosquito-free.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Anyone else for emerging issues?

Okay.

Uh Commissioners, your next item is to ratify the appointment of Jell Jason Alswang as director of comprehensive planning.

Sorry.

I think that's the lobbying team up there, but uh we'll we'll make we'll take some action first.

Mr.

Chair, I move the approval and the appointment of Jason All Swing as a director of comprehensive planning.

Excellent.

There is a motion to ratify the appointment of Jason All Swing as director of comprehensive planning.

Please cast your vote.

Now you can clap.

Good morning, Director All Swing.

Good morning.

Thank you for that.

This is uh an exciting day.

Um been in the business for 27 years and uh been looking looking forward to leading this department for a long time.

I want to thank you all, commissioners, for uh the trust uh you have in me and uh voting to ratify my appointment.

Uh thank you to Kevin and Lisa and the senior management team uh for the faith that they've put in me uh to lead this department and help make uh positive impactful changes for the department.

Um over the 27 plus years I've been in local government.

I just want to thank everybody that I've worked with.

Um I've learned so much from so many people.

Um I would not be here without them.

Um the team that was pre-lobbying for the vote back there, the uh the comprehensive planning team.

Um we're a small department, uh, but we have a lot of impact on the development of this community.

Um, I want to thank all of them.

They work extremely hard.

Um, they work um evenings and weekends as well uh to make sure that we make this a better community for all the citizens and developers of Clark County.

Um I want to thank Jen Ammerman.

She's been acting as our um acting director for the last five months.

Uh she's done a phenomenal job.

I won't say how long she's been with the county because it's it's it's been a while, but um she's she's going to be leaving us, so I'm going to learn as much as I can from her until the day she says goodbye.

Um but thank you to her for that.

Um and then most of all my family.

Um my kids are here, um, and my wife is here.

And without them, none of it's possible, right?

They are for whatever reason, they are my supporters.

Um I know I drive them crazy, uh, but I love them, and I would not be able to do any of this without them.

So I want to make everybody proud, most of all my kids and my wife.

So thank you.

Well, the this board thanks you, and we thank your family for enabling the good work that you have done and will continue to do as director.

We all have placed a lot of confidence in you, but for good reason, and we're all anxious to continue working with you in this new role.

Congratulations.

Mr.

Chair.

Could I just say something?

I just want to thank Jennifer for stepping in and really there was a smooth transition, so thank you so much.

That was a lot of energy.

All right.

Uh, Commissioners, your next item is to waive the requirements of the Clark County resolution creating the Justice of the Peace uh nominee nomination committee to recommend qualified nominees to the board of county commissioners for appointment to vacant justice of the peace offices and appoint Sam Bateman to the vacancy in the Henderson Township Justice Court Department 2.

Thank you, Commissioner Gibson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

As we discussed in our last meeting, uh we have a situation that is unique.

It hasn't happened before, may never happen again, but it requires that we uh authorize the waiver of the appointment of the Justice of the Peace nominating committee uh and related uh procedures when we have an incumbent Justice of the Peace who vacates the department after the election of his or her successor, but prior to the start of the elected successor's term, so that the position can be filled continuously with someone who has been elected.

That is the case uh today.

Uh Judge Morris has uh announced that he was not running again.

He then found another opportunity, indicated to us that in August he would be leaving.

And uh Sam Bateman ran for uh the seat.

No one filed against Sam.

Uh so he was elected uh in the primary election.

And as a consequence, uh I moved the appointment of uh Sam Bateman to the Henderson Justice Court, effective August 14th.

15th, effective August 15th of this year.

What's that?

The agenda says the 14th, huh?

Maybe I did read that item.

14th is fine.

Okay, then let's make it the 14th.

We might even have two JPs there for a day.

Uh I'll defer to um legal counsel, but I think the vacancy is actually created on the 14th, and we fill in the 15th.

But yes, Commissioner, the effective date should be August 15th.

Well, I'll start over.

I move the appointment of Sam Bateman to fill the unexpired term of uh Judge Morris, effective August 15th.

That's the motion.

Please cast your vote.

And Mr.

Chairman, if I can clarify one thing, um it's Judge George who is retiring, not Judge Morris.

Oh, I'm sorry, Judge George, yes.

He married a Morris family member.

That motion passes, and the record is clear.

Thank you.

It's clear, all right.

What is clear is that I'm not together.

That's what's commissioners.

Your next item is to receive a presentation on the completed multi-species habitat conservation plan amendment application application package and the MSHCP amendment update funding analysis report, approved submittal of the MSH CP amendment application package to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, including the proposed per acre habitat disturbance fee adjustment analyzed in the MSHCP amendment updated funding analysis report for purposes of federal review, negotiation and environmental analysis.

Direct staff to return to the BCC for any final action necessary to adjust, adopt, or implement the per acre habitat disturbance fee after completion of the federal review process and direct staff accordingly.

Good morning.

Morning.

Chair and Commissioners, for the record, I'm Kimmerly Goodwin with the Department of Environment and Sustainability as Desert Conservation Program.

Today I'll be providing an update on the multiple species habitat conservation plan amendment or the MSHCP and the updated funding analysis that was prepared for the MSHCP amendment.

So I'll start with where this effort stands and what we're asking from the board today.

So this has been a long process.

The board first directed staff to amend the MSHCP and our incidental take permit back in 2007.

A citizen advisory committee was convened and they developed the objectives that have guided the MSHCP amendment process since 2010.

Efforts were put on hold for a few years during the recession, but in recent years, staff have worked to finalize the MSHCP amendment.

And it's directed by the board, we moved through a public engagement process in 2024, a stakeholder work group on the avoidance and minimization measures in 2025.

And this past March, the board approved those final measures and also included a directive to retain the Borrowing L as a proposed covered species.

So with that, the draft amendment application package is now complete.

And in March of this year, we also prepared an update to the funding analysis to determine what it will cost to implement that plan over its proposed 50 year term.

So today we're asking for approval to submit that application package, including the proposed adjustment to the per acre habitat disturbance fee to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service to initiate federal review.

So firstly, um, why this matters now.

Our current MSHCP and Section 10 permit took effect in 2001.

It provides streamlined endangered species act permitting coverage for 167,650 acres of non-federal development activities across the county.

And that permit term ends in 2031.

So as of March 2026, we've used roughly 80% of that development that is authorized under the permit, and only about 35,000 acres remain.

The permit again is set to expire in 2031, and federal review of the amendment is likely to take years.

So we need to move forward now in order to have a replacement permit in place before the current one ends.

And without this amended permit, the Streamlined Endangered Species Act permitting process and authorization that development in Clark County relies on would stop when the current permit expires, and developers would be required to negotiate their own permits on a project-by-project basis, a process that tends to be more expensive and time consuming.

So the amendment renews that authorization and expands development capacity for the next 50 years.

So now I'll turn to the amended plan and how it is funded and go over the proposed fee.

So implementation of the plant land is funded primarily through a per acre habitat disturbance fee that is assessed on all development activities at the time that they apply for a grading permit.

So the updated analysis estimates that total implementation costs will be approximately 458.8 million over the 50-year permit term, and that is in constant 2026 dollars.

So that averages out to about 9.2 million per year.

And to fully fund those costs, the funding analysis assumes a development scenario of up to 215,000 acres over that 50-year planning horizon.

So the current per acre fee is $550 per acre, and to fully fund the implementation under the $215,000 acre development scenario.

The funding analysis report estimates a required fee of $2,134 per acre in 2026 dollars.

And this would be indexed annually for inflation and reviewed at least every 10 years, so it stays calibrated to actual program costs over time.

So why does this fee need to be adjusted?

The current fee of $550 per acre was set back in the early 1990s and it has never been raised.

It has not kept pace with inflation or with actual cost of running the program.

For years, that $550 fee worked only because of a very special set of circumstances.

Primarily because federal dollars provided as grants under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act or SNPLMA were carrying major program costs.

Further, early rapid development under the permit let us bank a lot of that fee revenue faster than we were spending it.

And this was during a period of time when interest rates were very high.

So the fund balance accumulated, and we've essentially been surviving off of that ever since.

However, in the analysis that we will be submitting to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, SNPMO funds are not allowed to be accounted for in the amendment application because they are considered grant funds that are uncertain.

And we must demonstrate that we have a secure source of revenue to fully fund the plan.

It's one of the permit issuance criteria that the service will evaluate when determining whether or not they will issue us a new permit.

And so that brings me to what uh we're asking the board to do today.

Um, so first um we're asking to approve this middle of the completed amendment application package to the Fish and Wildlife Service, including the proposed fee adjustment.

The fee is included specifically for the purpose of federal review, negotiation, and environmental analysis.

And we're asking the board direct staff to return for any final action needed to adjust, adopt, or implement the plan and the fee after the federal review process is complete.

Um you're not being asked to adopt or implement the fee today.

Any action on the fee itself would come back to you later after federal review is done.

So if and when the fee takes effect, it is anticipated to do so on the affected date of the amended permit, which is estimated around February 2031.

Um and that final fee will be based on the final plan that is negotiated and approved by the service following the federal environmental review process.

Um that our recommendation, um, so staff recommends the board approve this middle of the completed MSHCP amendment application package to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, including the proposed per acre fee adjustment of 550 to 2134 as analyzed in the updated funding analysis report, and to direct staff to return to the board for any final action to adjust, adopt, or implement the fee after the federal environmental review process is complete.

And with that, I'd be happy to take any questions.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions for Ms.

Goodwin?

Or a recommendation?

Seeing none, I move approval.

This is not a public hearing, so we can go ahead and take a recommendation approval.

Thank you.

There's a motion to approve the recommendation presented to us by staff.

Please cast your vote.

That motion passes.

Thank you very much.

Commissioners, your next item is to receive a presentation from the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, L V GEA about their various programs and services.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners for the Record.

Shawnee Coleman, director, uh Clark County Community and Economic Development.

Um, as you know, the work that we do at Clark County in our in our department of economic development is to support uh our local economy, um, job creation, support small business.

A lot of that work that we do, we do in partnership with our regional partner LVGEA.

Um, last year, LVGEA took on the task of identifying new leadership and they went through a transition.

And so today, um, Miss Danielle Casey, who is the new CEO, um, will be presenting to you the work that's happened over the past year.

So, Ms.

Casey.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Coleman.

It is an honor and a privilege to be here, uh, Mr.

Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the commission.

Uh, again for the record, Danielle Casey, Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance.

I'm thrilled to have been here now for still under a year.

I'm milking every minute I can, but I did arrive at the very end of August last year, and we have absolutely hit the ground running.

By the way, I'd love to add I was in here for the long haul today, expected to be going up around 11:30.

So this is a pleasant surprise.

I guess I picked a good time of year to provide an annual update.

Um, a little bit more about myself.

I do hail from uh other parts of the country.

I was a military kid, but spent a lot of time in my economic development career in the Greater Phoenix area, and then I went to the dark side of regional economic development work in Sacramento and Albuquerque, New Mexico before coming here.

But I but I do come from a municipal background, which is how I learned how to do economic development in a very rural community and as well as Scottsdale, Arizona.

So it's always good for me to exercise my presentation skills in front of a public body.

So thank you for that opportunity.

For anyone who is not aware in the audience or otherwise, what LVGEA is, we are a 501c6 nonprofit organization that may change in the hopefully near future as part of our strategic plan.

I'll talk about at the end of the presentation.

As of today, we have 51 board members and we go back to the late 1950s in our original incorporation as SNF, the Southern Nevada Industrial Foundation.

They told me I can't change the name back to SNF for whatever reason.

Apparently it's not cool.

But anyway, after a statewide reorganization in 2011, we then became a designated regional development authority for Southern Nevada.

I do want to recognize our many organizations that are represented on our board of directors that make the wheels turn and make sure that we are following our plan and executing for the community.

And obviously, you will see that the county through Commissioner Jones is represented on there as well, as well as County Manager Schiller.

So I wanted to highlight a few things today.

Some of the outcomes and activity.

So annually at its core, it's our job to help bring and attract new investment into the region through inward economic development work.

And we do that in kind of a dual way.

We do that through our contract with the governor's office of economic development as the regional development authority, but we also do that through support directly from our municipal and government partners and the business community.

So I just want to share some high-level outcomes there.

We do have at the end of the presentation some QR codes to a full-scale annual report.

The uh the fun part, uh, and I say that tongue-in-cheek, is that we are on a calendar fiscal year, and obviously you all are on a July through June government fiscal year, so sometimes matching that up can be a little tricky.

But we do uh we are now producing quarterly reports as well as annual.

So a couple things that we need to do contractually with the governor's office of economic development are outlined here on the slide.

You can take a look.

But we work on regional alignment at their on their behalf.

Um, we have actually just created something pretty cool in the last year since my arrival in partnership with the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, which is the creation of the Nevada Economic Development, Economic Developers Association.

Long story short, this is a professional association to train economic developers in their craft and also offer that training to elected officials, legislators, anybody who wants to learn more about his how this work goes.

So very exciting.

Stay tuned for more announcements on training we'll be doing in the next year.

We support key federal and state initiatives in partnership with Goed.

We do a lot of representation at trade shows, market visits, and other events with them.

We do engage site selectors and brokers.

We're actually required through GoEd to engage the broader brokerage community in our region, meaning because we are the uh recipient of government funds.

We cannot say we're only gonna circulate economic development opportunities to those that give us money, and I believe very deeply in that, and I think that's very critical and important.

So we have a lot of processes that ensure we are fair to all in sharing opportunities across the community to make sure that we have the best shot at getting uh getting investment.

We do inventory and asset mapping, and then we also represent uh LVGEA and companies at the board meeting for Goed.

This is very important.

One of the critical uh pieces that we play in their process is assisting companies that are seeking statutory incentives through the state of Nevada.

We walk them through that process.

We are the vetting agency, so we determine uh we get the company to fill out a form and do all the things they need to do to ensure that they're going to meet the merit of getting those incentives, and then we also walk them through the meeting process and continue with reporting.

Above and beyond that, we do things for our municipal partners and our government partners, including the county.

So something that we've instituted over the last year is a really deep dive in a monthly meeting with all economic developers in the region.

They are all invited, their entire teams are invited.

Um, your Clark County economic development team has been very engaged and we share uh prospect pipeline information every month.

We actually have a retreat coming up at the end of August where we will dive a little bit deeper into sharing about different priorities across the region.

Um we host two site selector familiarization tours each year.

These are pretty big lifts.

Uh they take a lot of work and engagement.

We have representation there, we promote all of our activity with the site selectors, and the idea is that we want them to tell their clients why they should be looking at a Southern Nevada location, and we also want to learn from them.

If we're not hitting it right, if we're not winning, we need to know why, and then that informs our strategy going forward.

I'm very proud and excited that in large part due to partnership with Clark County.

We have actually been able to recruit the site selectors guild to come out for their spring conference next March.

They've not been willing to do this in the past.

I think it's a huge testament to the whole region for uh for really working and doing a great job on um lifestyle and and just the perception of the market.

So I'm really excited.

We've actually just started a new growth council opportunity that engages brokerages and developers across the board.

And we also have, and please forgive me, I see that there are some uh says CLV that we've actually corrected that in other document, but it was a little late on the submission.

This is Clark County data that uh you do participate on the board and receive tickets to our various events.

And then we have been expanding our tools and resources.

We've gone digital with our prospective awards.

We're expanding internal research tools.

So right now, as opposed to a year ago, your team can call us for much deeper dive labor analytics.

Um we've launched a MetroComp tool so we can do comparisons between other regions and metros in the community and across the country to give you a very clear value proposition.

And then we've also coordinated our regional comprehensive economic development strategy work.

I am not gonna read all these off to you.

They are in your report, you've been provided all of these, but ultimately, this is information on the regional announcements that LVGEA has had a material influence on or involvement in, either bringing to the market or assisting them through the process of abatements or other support.

It could be anything from connecting with workforce partners to making sure that they're moving through the process and uh also uh you know, being able to integrate in the community and of course site selection within the region.

And we've broken that out in terms of the projects that have been located within unincorporated Clark County and some estimates on what that return on investment would be based on the support that the county provides us.

And pipeline activity.

Um, anybody in sales knows a pipeline is only as good as your announcements, but uh we do track activity that comes into the market and how many projects and opportunities we are working on on a daily basis.

And you'll see the CYTD is calendar year to date and then fiscal year, so that we could kind of match up those numbers for you.

Another item that we have started producing over the last year is a regional deal overview on a monthly basis.

I didn't think that we were actually reporting this out adequately with our investors, partners, and municipalities.

So this is something that we produce on a monthly basis to give you an idea of where opportunities looking into the community are coming from, what are the general trends and space requirements, um, what kind of industry cluster uh concentration are we seeing, and what is that activity flow look like.

So, at any time, if you're curious about that, give us a call.

Um, and I'm just gonna wrap us up, although uh it's a a few a few slides and comments here, on the most important thing we've done in the last year, which is our three-year strategic plan.

This is L VGEA's internal strategic plan.

This is setting the tone and setting the trajectory for everything we're going to do over the next three years and beyond.

Um, it was very clear that we needed to understand better what LVGA's role is in this work, what our role isn't, and focus on very intentional metrics and outcomes.

So, our primary metric in North Star is to create a more diversified economy.

When I was interviewing for the job, and I've told this story a lot.

I I continually heard from everyone just diversify the economy.

Just get it, make it more diverse.

We all know if it were as easy as that sounds, that it would have been done.

You don't, you don't need me, there's nothing magical about me to move that forward.

Um, so we had to figure out what those numbers actually mean and then be able to create a roadmap to start moving the needle in the right direction in a measurable way.

We updated our mission and vision.

Uh, Commissioner Jones may have a comment about that later.

He was very involved in helping with that language and those conversations.

And this plan is different from what we've operated on before because it's extremely data-driven in our market.

Um, and uh and it's also been developed through a community input and organizational input.

So we did not create this in a vacuum.

They didn't send me home one weekend and say, Danielle, write a plan and come back.

There was tremendous involvement with our board and other partners.

There's a lot of information on this slide.

This is about 32 pages of info on one card, and this is because our board members said if you give me 32 pages and you think I'm gonna read this, you're crazy.

I need something I can walk around with, which which uh makes a ton of sense.

So our big North Star goal when you think about diversifying the economy.

Um, if you're familiar with the thing called the Hackman Index, you've probably heard um Seber and and uh and applied and others talk about this.

Uh 100% or a one means you have a very diverse economy, right?

That's the aspirational number.

We're at about a 74.

Now, a C sounds good, but I know we can do better.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be talking about diversifying.

And what that means is we're about 26% concentrated, obviously, as we know, in entertainment and tourism, which has been, you know, our lifeblood bread and butter and and a tremendous anchor that's gonna continue to be here for generations to come.

So I think we need to celebrate that, but also think about how we can insulate ourselves for future economic economic changes and shifts.

To get that closer to a 76 or 77, this is why this is important.

That actually means adding upwards of 34,000 direct, indirect, and induced.

By indirect, I mean construction jobs, other things that happen while something's getting built.

Induced jobs, because you bring a technology job that creates a demand for maybe you know, a lawyer, a salon, uh a restaurant tour, right?

Um, so direct, indirect and induced jobs over five years.

This is not an easy lift for our region to take on if we want to move that needle.

So we wanted to put that dose of reality there on what we're tackling.

Ultimately, LVGEA's goal is to do that work, and we will be measuring our work against it, not just how many jobs, but the direct jobs that we're attracting, are those direct jobs in diverse sectors that you see on this slide, and do they have higher wage premiums?

What I care about, and what I hope my board and everyone cares about is are we making people's lives better in southern Nevada?

Um, so I think about that every day, and the team that I hire and work with uh knows that.

And by the way, I do want to recognize Tim Mullen, our VP of investor relations is here just to hang out with me a little bit.

I told him it could be a long morning, but you know.

Um so uh if you look at the goals and key tactics on the right, again, if you want to dig through that that deep document that Commissioner Jones has, every single bullet point under each one of these has about a half page of explanation and then how we're gonna tackle these.

So you'll see a lot of very important things here that we're being working off of.

And our strategy also uh is very clear in characterizing for each if they're short, mid or long-term goals, and whether those goals um are in the budget or not.

And we're having conversations right now with our board on budget restructure and future fundraising within the private business community.

And this is just a little bit of a recap.

I like to always remember everybody why.

Why a strategy, why economic development?

Um, we do remain heavily concentrated in leisure and hospitality.

It creates a vulnerability.

Um, we need to celebrate uh the the wonderful assets we have and build upon those.

And this is for anybody interested a little bit deeper dive on what the Hackman Index is.

It is a widely used measure, and I think the illustration you see on the bottom right of the slide is can be a little helpful when you look at a benchmark share of tourism or or um so this is these numbers are related specifically to the tourism sector, so it's kind of converse from the Hackman Index.

You see, we're about 26% there, but if you look at Orlando and Nashville, significantly lower, and then Phoenix is on there because we compete with them significantly.

I could probably think of four deals off the top of my head that are very active right now that they're in the mix for.

I know a little bit about what's going on over there, so hopefully that's helpful for us.

Um and finally, uh, this is a lot of information, but I just wanted to throw this up here and share with you all that board chair Purdue and the rest of the board is aware of this.

I when we finished the strategic plan, she said, This is all great, Danielle.

You need to show us what you're gonna do in the next six months and every step along the way, because we want to hold ourselves accountable and we want to hold the organization accountable to moving forward on this strategy.

So these are big things we're working on right now.

But I will tell you just yesterday morning and this afternoon, we're working on an update to our bylaws.

We're working on documents to uh transition our organization from a 501c6 to a 501c3.

Why does that matter?

Because being a full-blown public charity allows us to look at things like um federal grants, foundational grants, and it also then manages our mission and and makes it very clear to our board and supporters that we are a mission-based organization for outcomes in the community and not just inward facing.

And then finally, I wanted to share with you all that if you are interested in that comprehensive economic development strategy, which is completely separate from LVGEA's strategic plan.

LVGEAs is internal, the SEDs is for the entire region.

We are merely the facilitator of that, but we did uh apply for the EDA grant, which matches about half of the funding that supports this, and ultimately the outcome of a SEDS is a document that allows all the communities in the region to utilize that to apply for futural federal grant opportunities.

And every meeting that we've had, which has been extensive, those notes are on live on this web page for anybody in the community that wants to see them.

And with that, thank you so much for your deep amount of time this morning.

I'd be thrilled to answer any questions or take any input.

Thank you, Miss Casey, for your partnership and for your time today.

Commissioner Jones, thank you for facilitating this agenda item today.

Um can I turn it over to you for a moment?

Sure.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you, Miss Casey, for the presentation.

I just want to say to the board, um, having been on the LVGA for most of the last eight years.

Uh the organization had lost its way, and I'm not the only one who said that.

I mean, Danielle heard that the first day she was interviewed, and that was why the board was really looking for new leadership.

And I have to tell you, in the last not quite year, um, Danielle has done tremendous work uh listening, starting with listening and uh all the stakeholders in this community to try and bring the LVGA back to its core mission of economic development because it had sort of gotten a little too far out there on a lot of other things and um the proposals that that she has led uh with a lot of interaction with the board have really already transformed the organization, but also are headed in the right direction and making sure that um the LVGA is centered in the role that it plays in between Goed and municipalities.

And the proposals that she has led uh with a lot of interaction with the board have really already transformed the organization, but also are headed in the right direction and making sure that the LBGA is centered in the role that it plays in between Goed and municipalities.

Um I'm just uh I just want to say you all should have confidence that uh Miss Casey and her team are are really keeping us focused on the core mission of economic development and and making sure that there are metrics to get it done.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions?

Thank you again.

Nice to see you.

Thank you all.

Have a wonderful day.

Commissioners is still not quite 10 a.m.

So we'll move to our next business item, which is uh 57, which is a Clark County Family Services to present foster care recruitment data strategies and request for uh county funding.

Good morning.

Morning, county commissioners.

Good morning.

Uh thank you for having me today.

I am honored to be sharing with you some uh foster parent recruitment ideas, what we've done and what we hope to do in the future.

So I just want to give you a snapshot of what foster care looks like today.

So right now we have about 3,600 kids in foster care, regular licensed home, we have 420, and we really do need about 200 more foster care homes.

Now that doesn't include we do a lot of work with relatives and uh fictive kin.

We need the regular uh licensed foster homes as well.

Our team does a really good job at placing with relatives and fictive kin when they're available, but if not, we need the foster homes.

So I I think everybody knows about child haven.

Um as of this month, we probably average about a hundred youth on on Child Haven campus.

What we would like to do is get more foster homes so we can place those kids, get them off campus.

We know that congregate care is not the best solution for kids.

That's not a place kids should have to be, they should be in a loving home.

So this year, the administration for children and families has made an initiative, a home for every child, meaning that we need more foster homes.

Nationally, the average is about 57 homes for every 100 kids.

Here in Clark County, we're at about 33 homes for every 100 kids.

That has grown.

Um a few years ago, we are at 24, so we are making progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.

So our recruitment team has been doing a really great job at coming up with this recruitment funnel that they have.

Um we do things like the billboards, TV radio commercials to get the message out there.

The more the message gets out, the the more people hear it, the more they the more they talk about it.

So that's where we start.

And then we we have a website to build interest.

Clark CountyFostercare.com has all the information that you would need.

And then we also do automated emails to people that are interested.

And then something else that we have started is making sure that we support the caregivers that we do have because we need to keep the ones we have.

So this year we have started um a caregiver support website where they can get resources where they can get information, the forms that they need, and then they can there's also a foster parent champion hotline that they can reach out to for any information that they need, any help that they may need, any guidance.

So these are things that we have done to increase um getting the message out there about foster care and the need for foster care.

Uh we were funded from August 30th, 2024 to August 31st, 2025, 925,000 through the administration for children's and family.

And with that, we really saw an increase in the homes that we were able to get because we were able to get so much information out there.

Uh we ran a lot of time advertisements from January 1st until August 31st, and but that's when the money ended.

We did see a 70% increase to our website during that time as well.

So anytime we have families come in for an information session, we do ask them how'd you hear about us?

Why are you interested?

What do you know?

And number one is word of mouth.

And so that's why we need to keep the information out there because we need people talking about foster care.

We need people to be interested in opening up their homes to children.

So this talks about the pipeline from licensing.

Um it really it's just the conversion rate of the percentage of households who start at the information session who then actually get licensed because there's steps along the way.

Um and we saw that rate grow from 2022 at 3% to 2026, we're up to 10%, meaning that those that attend an information session, now 10% of them are actually getting licensed instead of just the 3%.

So as I mentioned before, our regular homes, we have increased them.

So right there in the blue, that's the regular licensed homes.

So in 2022, we had 345 licensed homes.

2026, we have 418 homes now.

And then the new and reopened, you can see that we're increasing each year on how many homes we are opening, and we're closing less licenses.

People are staying open because we are trying to support them.

What isn't shown on this graph that I do want to talk about is the expedited licensing.

So in 2025, we had 37 that participated in the in the expedited licensing process.

23 of them were licensed, and so far this year we have licensed 13 through the expedited licensing process.

In August, we have 39 households signed up to do the expedited license, and we do think it's because lately there has been a lot of press releases.

We've had a lot of push about the need for foster homes.

So again, we we we are increasing the homes, so that also means we're increasing the amount of beds that we have available for the foster youth.

So in 2022, we had 521 beds available, and in 2026, right now we have 916 beds available, and then over on the other side, increased caregiver retention.

Uh, because of our support we've been giving, we have been closing 9% less foster homes.

So this is what our our uh marketing budget has been, um fiscal year 23 up to 26.

You can see it has increased each year, um, and it's important to note that um the county's office of communications and strategy has been able to give us steady income or not study income steady funding for our find our forever homes, which looks for homes for kids that are free for adoption, and as of date, they have uh found 32 of those homes for our youth.

Also, after we had submitted this um this slideshow, we did hear from the fiscal unit that we will be awarded 196,000 from the adoptions incentive grant to go towards our recruitment efforts.

So, this is what we have done because August 2025, we didn't have any money, so we got creative.

We have worked with media outlets, we've had free PSA commercials on different radio stations, um, media partners have pushed out the press releases that we have been able to get out, and then you all we have had a lot of help from you all.

I don't know if you are aware, but anytime you do uh evening with the stars, we get twice as many people interested.

So we thank you for that, and we hope you'll continue.

But we've also worked along with uh Parks and Rec team to share the messaging.

We have um on the Clark County website, Clark CountyNV.com.

We are uh featured on there.

So again, the evening with the stars has been amazing.

Uh we appreciate you all so much for being able to do that with us.

I know we have two more this year scheduled.

We think what makes this um so valuable too is that we do have foster parents that talk about uh their experience, and so we think that kind of helps along.

So the partnership that I mentioned with the Office of Communications and Strategy, they have really helped us with our social media advertisements, they've done Google ads, they've done digital ads.

Um so between this and then the other push outs that you all do on your newsletters as well.

I think this has helped so July 14 and information session that we had, we had a record 30 households in attendance.

So again, with the retention, we really need to make sure that we support the families that we do have.

We want to know that we do appreciate everything that they are doing for the youth in our care.

So we do a lot of things we do with the the proud partners of Clark County foster care, raise the future is getting in on the retention side of it, and then of course, all the events that you guys hold as well.

We have the back to school event coming up to give the backpacks, uh shoes, haircuts, everything to the youth in our care.

And then also, as I mentioned, we have our support web page, Clark County Fostercare.com to help retain some of the foster parents that we have.

Here's our funnel again, our recruitment funnel.

Um of the ideas we have.

We had um we had some staff go to uh a conference because this really is a national issue.

Everybody is having a hard time uh obtaining foster homes for youth.

Um, and some of so some of the ideas that they came up with is wrapping the county cars with the message about foster care.

Um getting sponsorships from um co brands to do advertising, and then they get that supports them as well that they are supporting us.

Uh doing hosting online in-person office hours for application documentation.

Some people say it's it's a lot, they don't understand.

So if we can help them do that, we're talking about doing super Saturday where where they can get everything done at once.

Do your fingerprinting, TB tests, physical, any equipment that you need, car seat checks, and then also we want to increase our community support by hosting two proud partners of foster care networking each year.

So the ask.

Um, our ask is for $625,000 to continue to support the youth that are in our care.

We have a breakdown of what we would use it for.

Um, so we thank you for your continued support.

And do you have any questions?

Thank you very much.

Um, I I have a few questions, but I'll uh Commissioner Jones.

I think you initially asked for this item, so might you go first?

Sure.

Um thank you, Ms.

Chair.

And I uh Mr.

Ashrap, I think you've done a tremendous job taking over this department.

It's a very difficult job, as you know.

Uh and having spoken to several of our partners and um service providers in uh the space last week, I I can tell you that uh they are very pleased with the customer service that you and your team have brought uh over the last several months.

Um this is something obviously we've been talking about for a while.

Uh I know uh members of your department have really dug dug in deep on on this, Holly uh in particular.

Um, and I appreciate the the efforts that have been made uh working with uh our uh public team here in communications and the request here today.

I I the the one thing that I did want to get clarification.

I think uh Ms.

Colvin if you can clarify where the money would come from that is being requested.

Um yes, Commissioner, the these costs are captured in fund 230 2370, the child welfare fund, and um, there are funds appropriations that are available to meet the budget request.

So it wouldn't come at the expense of other programming that uh that DFS is is currently pursuing?

No, we build in some contingency in the budget to help meet any type of unforeseen expense or mandate.

Okay.

Sorry, I may have other questions, but Commissioner Kirkpatrick.

Thank you, and thank you uh for what you do, uh Stacey.

So can I ask this?

It I know that Super Saturday sounds great, but Saturdays are so busy in the fall for everyday parents that are trying to do that.

What about Fast Fridays or something where they could take the day off of work and not have to worry about child care?

That's the issue that I hear.

People are like, oh man, I gotta go to child, I gotta find child care, I gotta go through the trainings.

So I mean, are are we asking what how can I help you by asking constituents in my district?

What would want to make them be a foster parent?

Because here's what drives me cuckoo is on Facebook.

Everybody has an opinion, and 99% of the time it's misinformation and nobody ever clarifies it, right?

And I have a deal with my husband, I don't clarify things in at night because it's never good.

Uh but how can we tell them?

Because I think that if there is a video, two minute video that said, you're not alone, we wrap you in.

I tell my principals now, all right.

If your kid is a foster kid and does not have a backpack, I need to understand why, and I need to talk to that parent.

If they do not have a good pair of shoes, if they do not have clothes, if they do not have a crib, because what I find with social media, unless you correct all of those things, the message out there is you're all alone, right?

And so I just am I I think that if it was a good news story, if it was uh this is all the things you get, um I think that that might encourage more people because then maybe we have to look at what does it cost them to raise a child, right?

I know at least my partners, we provide free sports for every foster care kid, right?

I know we're trying to do child care for foster care kids, and I'll give you an example.

The why preschool has some openings, and I said to Abby, let's get our foster kids first in those areas.

So I mean, what other we we have to entice people because it's hard enough.

Um milk five dollars and eighty cents a gallon, and now you want me to, and we're not asking them to take one, we're asking them to take siblings of three, four, right?

In some instances.

So how do we have that conversation?

I I like the idea of I wonder if we could do some more social media that includes real stories and the support that we do provide.

And then get that out there as well.

I know, and I I see the social media some of the things as well.

It it's it is discouraging because it does, I think it does keep people from wanting to do it.

Well, the truth is uh I don't need no more drama in my life, right?

And if that's the only message out there, then it's gonna let me find something else that doesn't seem hard, but I think that once you do talk to a foster parent, it's such a rewarding experience.

And I do think that we as a county got to figure out how to give these foster care parents a break every once in a while, right?

Because um we wake them up at one o'clock in the morning, we you know they gotta do all these things, jump through hoops, visitation, doctor's appointments, all those other things.

So I I think it's a bigger, longer, I'd like to see, which I know you're gonna bring me at some point a 30, 60, 90 day play in with the year so that we could start planning on what that looks like because it's not going away, it's growing, right?

Mr.

Chair, just real quick.

Uh, just following up on the social media.

Uh, I know when we did the most recent call out for for foster families, um, obviously we did it on our own social channels and got some feedback, but also lots of news agencies covered it and they all got lots of feedback too.

And while I don't think that your department or comms should be responding to every single one of those uh comments because you don't know where they are, they could be in some other state and never have had any real experience with our own foster care system.

There were definitely those that I read that were seemed to be legitimate concerns that were raised and might be concerns that were years old that if we were able to reach out to them as you know, former foster parents uh that they could be resolved and bring them back into the system.

So I don't I don't know if we have a specific plan to look at former foster parents or people who started the process, and how do we encourage them to come back into the process?

But that might be another avenue.

We certainly can.

I know that even with the social media posts, the ones that were positive about said, oh, I would love to do that.

We did have our recruitment team reach out to them.

Great.

That's great.

I would just add um two things.

I I wish there was a way, or I I hope and expect perhaps that there is a way that we could tighten up some of the evaluations that we're doing with our successful cases, our families that are already participating.

I think they can probably inform us where best to spend these dollars, uh, probably more than anybody else.

Um what worked for them, what they think would work for their friends and neighbors.

Um, and so if you can kind of bring back uh to us how you would plan to tighten that up and bring us really analytical data so that we can start making spending decisions that are actually informed by numbers.

Um would be very helpful.

And then similarly, and I think this probably goes to Commissioner Kirkpatrick's 60, 90, 120-day plan, uh 30, 60, 90.

Uh you put up a slide of of ideas that you captured at a conference recently.

Those are all very low-hanging fruit.

I would love to see that same slide with the expected completion date.

And if any of those require board action or direction, you have to tell us so that we can provide that direction.

Otherwise, we're assuming that the things on those lists are going to get accomplished in a very short short turnaround.

Um looks like you've got some.

I was just gonna add something.

I think um to all your comments.

I think one of the issues, you have the media component, which is one piece.

Um, I think Commissioner Kirkpatrick was touching on this.

The economics that we face are are it's it's a national issue, right?

I mean, we're seeing this as a national issue, but more to us.

Um, one thing is we are almost like completely fully staffed in DFS, which we've rarely seen.

Um, so I think uh Stacy has she has the ability to figure out how we concentrate some of that staffing resource related to when somebody is interested.

How do we give them those individualized uh touches?

How do we pay attention to that?

Um so we've talked about that.

Um the other one, which you know, you always hear me talk about funding and all these pieces, but I think the other significant component is with those economics, we have to do some evaluation, and we're working on that around rates, because we have a state rate, we have specialized foster care, which is a higher rate, but when we get into placement of children and the economics, you know, there's two categories.

There's uh relative kinship, which we have a very high uh placement rate.

That relative kinship, they they are taking on something that they did not plan for.

Um, and so all of your points, the child care component, significant barrier, um, how we support them and how we avoid disruption is the secondary piece.

But as we know the numbers are rising, I think those are all pieces we're trying to look at.

Um, I'm very committed, you guys know this to um Stacey's success related to this and trying to give her the tools and try to figure out what that roadmap looks like.

Um, I think Commissioner Kirkpatrick, your comment on what day of the week, you know, it seems like a minuscule thing, but it really is not when you try to look at it.

But it also ties into Commissioner Nass's comment on what what are people saying?

You know, what if we were gonna if we're gonna expedite licensing, if we're gonna do this, what works for people, how do we create flexibility, how do we do those things?

Um raise the future, she pointed on.

I've spent, I did about three or four meetings with them, um, just talking about the issue of these are people coming through being trained and licensed.

You know, they become our champions if they successfully get through that process, but also kind of where did you hear about it, how did you hear about it?

Kind of getting into some of that detail, I think is important to your survey question.

So there's no magic wand, I don't think, um, but I would say um, you know, the economics that we're facing and what people are facing.

There's you see it in the social services realm um consistently as things come up, and I think we start to see that.

So it's a challenge, but I also think um, you know, we're we're a mighty group.

Um and I think we can take this charge um and try to move some of the tools and try to see what else is out there.

We may we may not have something we haven't even talked about today.

Commissioner Gibson, you had um previously kind of engage the the faith-based community um related to that.

Um of the key issues I think we have to focus on is when we engage those and we do it, it almost it almost is like you have to stay, I have to stay on the attack for lack of a better term in terms of being proactive.

So that may be part of the staffing component we have to look at.

Um you all have foster care um at all the events I go to, I always see a booth related to that.

It may be something we have to approach differently in terms of how we face the community on it, also um to for those challenges.

But I think if we can dedicate um to the execution, you know, to the 30, 60, 90, 120, I'm gonna call it year plan.

You know, what what are the outcomes that we want to accomplish?

And then you have this kind of uh federal charge around, you know, and I think it'll get redefined one child for every one child, one foster home.

It's probably more one child, one bed.

That's what we talked about when we briefed all of you.

But we kind of got to get it's a community responsibility, but we have to be able to execute on what that community responsibility looks like.

So I think the the plan is important, and I think we should be coming.

We'll come back to you with what we see specific to that as we adjust.

And again, just like I said, of the proactive attack, we need to be in front of you in front of you, in front of you, so that you're seeing what's working, what isn't.

Commissioner Gibson, then Kirkpatrick.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um a couple of years ago, we did a clergy uh meeting where we had 30 or 40 clergymen from all across the valley.

I haven't ever received um any kind of an analysis of how what what we got out of that.

I know that uh some of these leaders uh convene special meetings for the people they direct and preside over, and um invited our team in to train them.

Um and we're going to do another um clergy meeting, but it would be helpful to know what progress of any we made, what were the misses, what were what were things that we could do a little differently after having done some training out of the community.

Uh the other thing that occurs to me is that we're doing uh soon, like within the next week or so, a uh or a couple of weeks, a back to school event um at the uh Formula One building.

Um Commissioner uh Kirkpatrick and I um we'll see hundreds and hundreds of foster kids.

But it occurs to me, and I and we've seen it, that uh moms or moms and dads will bring their whole family to this event, but only the foster child picks the backpack, gets the school supplies, gets the shoes.

But when you start thinking about the effect on a family on a family budget of one or two kids that aren't theirs that happen suddenly because we've got some uh emergency arising, or because they determined they want to help.

Um, maybe we need to do a little more and not just limit it to the foster child, and it occurs I don't know how late it is in terms of the event we're going to do uh shortly, but it would really be something if every one of those kids could come in, get a backpack, get some shoes, uh, get the school supplies.

It would help the family immensely.

I don't see a reason, I don't see an impediment to our being able to do it, except maybe this is a late thought, but um it's a good thought.

But but it's something that I intend to work on and see if we can do something about this time.

But thank you very much.

But feedback, I I need uh where we need, but in my case with the clergy, I need some feedback in terms of what happened, where we went, where would we go next, who ought we to invite again, um, and then uh enlist them to help persuade each other.

And I think there's a way to do that.

But thank you very much.

And thank you for the great work that's being done.

I mean, you know, we talk a lot about the gaps, but the immensity of the work that is done to get us to the point that the gap is what it is today is something that is not lost on us, and we thank you very much for all of that work.

And I just wanted to follow up.

So uh here's the great thing for you, Stacey, and your staff.

Every board member, and I I don't I'm gonna speak for you all, but I think has been involved in one way or another, are working on different pieces, and maybe it's just one finding out every piece that we're all working on, and then how can we put that into a plan and expand?

Um, so for instance, Abby and I have been meeting with Jamie because he sits on the MCO advisory committee, and uh there's a report he's gonna get for us so that uh the foster cares are kids are gonna be covered, and that was like pulling teeth for a year and a half to get everybody to recognize that the MCOs should step up, but maybe it were it's worth asking everybody what they're already doing, so then we could put that into your bigger plan so that we're not um I hate to say the word duplicating, but I mean everybody represents a different demographic, a different type of um district with different needs, but maybe then we could you could help us tailor it more to our needs, right?

So I've always tried to figure out how to get the military engaged, right?

I have 30,000 military in my district, and they're here for two years, so how could they help us for two years?

So might be worth asking everybody what portion that they're already working on so that we could pull it together.

And I'm sure Abby can share that report with everybody as soon as Jamie gets it back from the MCOs, because I it's the little things that we as commissioners can push that will make a huge difference for not only the staff, but more most importantly those children, right?

So I think we're all doing something, and maybe not everybody just knows what everybody's working on.

So thanks, Commissioner Jones, for bringing this uh Mr.

Chair, just one two quick questions.

Has there been a uh informational session held exclusively for county employees here at the government center?

Not that I know of.

I thought we'd have to do that.

Okay, okay.

Sounds like it was a while ago.

Couple years ago.

Okay.

Um probably time to do another one.

Yes, and also I think uh being that you know we sit on other regional boards.

Maybe we can also partner with our folks over at UMC and in other areas to see if we can also you know talk to them about the opportunities uh that they're that may exist and you know what's needed in our community.

So I'll be willing to help with that as well.

Okay.

Mr.

Chair, um, I just want to I you I I heard the word champions uh from the county manager, and I just wanted to bring up we have a fantastic foster parent champions that are current or former uh foster parents, and uh if you want to be inspired, go sit down with the foster parent champions because they're awesome.

Um, but I was just thinking in the context of sort of the social services context of um the problem solving that in in social services where they're given a very small budget to just hey, what do you need today?

Right?

50 bucks.

Uh you need a pair of shoes, whatever it is.

Uh, if if there's a way that we can sort of use that analogy on uh the foster care recruitment side um and uh retention in particular with our foster parent champions and our placement team of you know, hey, let me resolve your your immediate problem today.

And I know sometimes that's difficult because it's respite care, it's daycare, and those are challenging to just resolve in the moment, but maybe that's a uh we can analogi from the social services context or helping our existing uh foster families.

All great ideas.

Uh, in addition to your report today, you've asked for some direction.

I'm happy to give that direction to follow the budget you've laid out.

I would just ask uh along with all the comments that everybody made today that just like you were able to demonstrate today that the 750,000 investment in the Find My Forever uh program garnered 32 placements.

Each item on that budget, we would hope to have similar data behind it when you come back next.

Thank you.

Is that enough direction, Kevin?

Um yes, thank you, commissioners again for the support.

The other thing I wanted to highlight um from kind of our senior team and our department heads, Parks and Rec is engaged.

Um, we engage that process to really figure out where do we have those commonalities, the exposure to families coming in.

I think that was mentioned by all of you.

Um whether that's walking into a museum and you have a gallery, or whether that's coming to a community event at Silverado Ranch.

I think those are other pieces, and then what I would recommend just so um as I reference the cadence, I'd recommend we come back in 30 days with kind of an update of where we're sitting and stay on task so that we can kind of tell you what what's working, what's not working.

We may have barriers, it gives us the opportunity to talk about what those barriers are and gives really Stacey the opportunity to talk to you, which I think is so important.

But we'll obviously be talking to you in between.

So can I ask a question?

Just probably a dangerous question to ask when I don't know the answer.

But we we have over 500 buildings, right?

Uh Lisa.

Is it unreasonable to ask that at the entrance of every single building we have a forever home, you know, print up there so that it's right on their mind when they walk in and then walk out.

I I think every single building that we have, because you don't know, right?

If it's the senior law project, maybe maybe it's you know, their daughter-in-law that can take something on maybe at parks and rec, it's their cousin, maybe it's somebody that you know.

Um so I I just think that's probably an easy ask.

We have a pretty amazing printing shop.

We could do it all in-house.

We have a nice little flyer there, and it just seems like maybe we could make that emission August, and it doesn't cost a lot, Jessica.

I promise.

So it doesn't cost a lot to get out of my office budget, but uh maybe we do this through December, right?

Because the fall is busy, more people are out and about, and tens of thousands of people they're coming to the county for a reason.

Maybe it's an in-business licensing, maybe it's we should have that plastered everywhere.

It is my opinion.

Yeah, I think that's a very good idea, and I also want to echo.

We were talking yesterday.

You know, we have access to a lot of associations through the chamber and things, and and it's it's pretty hard to say no to kids.

So I think that's another piece where we can engage them similar to our own buildings, it may be the restaurant association, it could be anybody related to hey, this is what we're doing over a 60 day period, it's very important to us.

It may be the restaurant association, it could be anybody related to hey, this is what we're doing over a 60-day period, it's very important to us.

So other ideas.

All right, thank you very much.

Appreciate all of your work.

Thank you.

We'll see you soon.

Okay, it's now past 10 a.m.

So we'll now move to the public hearing section of your agenda.

Your first item is to conduct a public hearing and approve the letter of agreement between the Mount Charleston Fire Protection District and the International Association of Firefighters Local 4621, effective July 1st, 2026.

We're not quite at the public comment period yet.

No.

Well, then I will open the public comment period on item 46.

Anyone wishing to speak on this item, please come forward.

As a reminder, we are on item 46.

Public comment is limited to this item, which is a public hearing on an LOA between Mount Charleston Fire Protection District and Firefighters Local 4621.

Commissioners, how are you guys doing?

Um I'll just do a quick presentation.

This is just our LOA for our cost of living for our um firefighters in Mount Charleston based off the current CPI.

Um so not much to it there.

Um not sure if there's much public comment on it, but that's pretty much this this item is.

Understood.

We'll receive that as public comment.

You can come forward, but remember this is specifically tailored to item 46.

Good morning, esteemed leaders, great staff.

Eric King, longtime resident.

Regards to item 46 is it inter Mr.

King, just please let go of the microphone.

It'll hold itself.

Thank you.

Very good.

Uh the Mount Charleston obviously is a great resource for us, and I would like there to be uh some consideration for any amended language for such letter of agreement amongst these amazing heroes we have and the organizations that help them do their job, including yours, and how we actually approach the resource of all these trees up there, and the prevention mechanisms they have for fire prevention.

I don't think any of that would come into play on this LOA.

If you and please staff correct me, you're whoever if I'm wrong, but with a letter of agreement, it seems that there would be considerations for allocation of staff to address who has what responsibility in such event and so forth.

I don't know all the details of such agreements, sir.

I really don't.

I am speaking in a different room and talking to a dark room, and I don't know what's in there.

But having said that, I know there are staff that get hired to do amazing heroic work, rest their lives all the time.

And there's fire loads up there that they know a lot better than I.

And I really would like to simply emphasize that if there is any language in there about whether or not there should be more staff to do X, Y, and Z in coordination with other agencies, that please strong consideration be given to more funding for that.

Thank you.

We understand.

Thank you.

Uh anyone else wishing to speak on 46.

Uh, there will be general public comment at the end, but if you have comments related to the LOA before us, you can speak now.

Uh Billy Schwartz, uh two sexual shoving crushed abuse street and Henderson.

As a citizen of Clark County, I strongly uh urge you to approve this agreement with the IAF IAF.

Uh firefighters uh really the fabric of any community, and I strongly approve you.

Approve this agreement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh I'll close the public comment period at this time.

Oh, Commissioner Becker, excuse me.

I I would move to approve item number 46.

Thank you very much.

There's a motion for approval.

Please cast your vote.

The motion passes.

Commissioners, your next public hearing is to conduct a public hearing and approve and authorized the chair to sign the collective bargaining agreement between Clark County and the International Association of Firefighters, IAFF, local 1908 supervisory unit effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029, and extend the same salary and benefit changes to non-union employees not covered by the IAFF supervisory collective bargaining agreement.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Christina Ramos, Deputy Director of Human Resources.

Item 47 is a full contract between the county and IF IAFF Local 1908, the battalion chief group, which is a supervisory group.

It's for a three-year term from 7126 through 630, 2029.

The net cost of the agreement for FY27 is $1,325 of the entire agreement, 12 articles we modified as well as one rule and regulation.

And there's 16 impacted positions.

So there's 16 battalion chiefs.

So with that said, I respectfully request your approval of this collective bargaining agreement.

Thank you very much.

I'll open the public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak on item 47, please come forward.

Mr.

King, I'm gonna invite you to save your comments if they're general till the end of the meeting.

Simply want to uh Eric King, long time resident, uh vote in uh vote of confidence for this agreement and all the heroes involved with it.

Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak?

Please come forward.

Uh yeah, uh Billy Schwartz uh again with the IAFF, any IAFF agreement should be approved by this board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else wishing to speak on item 47, I'll close the public hearing.

Turn over to the board.

Sure.

Congratulations.

I move approval.

Thank you.

There's a motion, please cast your vote.

That motion passes.

Thank you.

Your next item is to conduct a public hearing and approve, adopt, and authorize the chair to sign the collective bargaining agreement between Clark County Water Reclamation District and the Service Employees International Union, SEIU local 1107 for the non-supervisory unit effective July 21st, 2026 through June 30th, 2031, and extend the same benefits and salary adjustments to non-union employees not covered by the collective bargaining unit.

Good morning.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair, members of the board.

On behalf of district management, I would like to thank the negotiating teams for both sides as well as district employees for having a sincere interest in reaching common ground on a contract that supports the district's daily operations.

And also supports our core mission of providing a wastewater and collection treatment process that is essential to sustaining this community's precious water resource.

The collective bargaining agreement before you will only become effective upon your approval.

Some notable specifics about this contract are there are no new articles being presented.

The contract amends nine articles and clarifies the effective dates of an existing memorandum of agreement.

The amendments are mostly administrative changes to clarify language with a total estimated fiscal impact of year one in the amount of under 32,000 dollars.

It is a five-year contract expiring June 30th, 2031.

And for this contract, there are 257 eligible employees.

Otherwise, I respectfully request the board's approval of this new CBA.

All right, this is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak on this item?

Billy Schwartz.

Um, as a retired member of SCIU, I uh hope that you uh approve this agreement and recommend approval.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Ed Euling.

Excuse me through my dress.

Sorry.

Um the uh uh the the work of this agency is very similar to the SNWA and the uh uh Los Vegas Valley Water District.

Those people are being paid a thousand dollars a day for every day they work.

They uh they have they work uh their budget per per employee is two hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars, and that uh or a hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars, I'm sorry.

And that's about how many days they work, about 187 days during the during the year.

I want to know how does that compare with this agency, which has really a much harder job, and uh uh how how much are is the average employee of this agency getting?

Can you please tell us that?

I'm under the impression that they're really getting ripped off.

Eric King, longtime resident.

I just wanted to also uh say please uh ensure that these people are well taken care of to do a vital job protecting our safety, not only environmentally, but um health wise uh and and all the things that don't happen because they do their job well.

I thank you for supporting that.

Thank you.

All right, we'll close the public hearing and um just make a comment.

There is no more important agency than the water reclamation.

Every gallon of water you put back in the lake is another gallon we can pull back out.

So you're generating water for us, and so thanks to you and your employees.

And having said that, I make a motion to approve.

Oh, I'm sorry, Commissioner Jones.

Uh no, I'll make a motion to approve.

Okay.

There's a motion cast or vote.

That motion passes like thank you for your support board.

Commissioners, your next item is to conduct a public hearing to solicit public comments regarding Clark County's updated language access plan required pursuant to NRS 244.184.

Provide input and direction to the Clark County Language Access Committee, authorized staff to submit the plan to the governor's office for new Americans or take other action as appropriate.

Uh Deputy County Manager Dan Stewart's going to do a brief presentation.

Good morning, Chair, members of the commission.

Uh thank you for uh your time on this.

Uh also to the stalwarts that stuck around uh here in the building to hear this presentation.

Um I uh a few words of introduction and then I'll go ahead and do my my short slide uh presentation as soon as I see it up on the screen.

But uh Clark County is committed to ensuring meaningful access to county programs, services, and information for all residents, including individuals with limited uh English proficiency.

In 2024, the Clark County Board of County Commissioners adopted uh Clark County's first language access plan in response to Assembly Bill 266 of the 2023 uh legislative special session.

Uh since that time, Clark County has made progress in establishing the governance policies and resources necessary to support a sustainable countywide framework language access program.

Uh this language access program is developed and maintained in accordance with all applicable federal and state law.

The Clark County Language Access Committee uh provides countywide oversight for the implementation of the language access plan, and it serves as the form for advancing language access initiatives.

Uh additionally, the Clark County Office of Performance and Engagement coordinates the implementation of the language access plan and associated uh initiatives and works with the various departments.

I want to thank them for their work as well as uh the work alongside communications, IT, the legal department, um, and government affairs.

They've all been working together to put this uh plan, and I believe some of them are in the audience in case there are any uh technical questions that I can't answer.

So here we go.

Uh as mentioned, the the Clark County Language Access Plan establishes the countywide framework for providing meaningful access to county programs, services, and information for individuals with limited English proficiency, uh, and also our strategic framework as we look to go uh uh to the steps we're gonna need in the future as technologies and services change.

This is a living document, and it's the reason why we're here today.

Uh we're required by law to every two years submit our uh revised plan to the Office of New Americans.

Um and the new plan is in your backup if you'd like to review it, contains uh much of what I'm saying in it in a great deal of detail.

Just some of the highlights of the things we're able to do over the last uh two years since the original plan was submitted.

Uh our planning commission, planning commission, zoning commission public notices are now uh in compliance in the various language.

I believe it's Spanish and Tagalog.

Uh those line up with our election materials as well.

So any election mandates uh our public notices for planning and uh zoning commission have to match as well.

As you can see, we do that is also on our multi-u-lingual election materials and services, uh, which are now compliant with all federal and state laws.

Uh I'd also uh like to congratulate Department of Aviation.

I believe there's 10 languages that you can now access their website on when it comes to uh uh learning about what the airport can do and the services it provides.

We've also got multiple language access liaisons across multiple departments, uh digital communications and public outreach and website translate translation.

One other thing I wanted to add, um we did a quick survey as of last week.

We have approximately 186 uh employees across 16 departments that are currently receiving bilingual pay for their various transition uh translation services and the jobs that they do, and it's a wide range of departments, everything from social services uh to legal.

Um so we thank them for their work.

Uh our future priorities, and one of the things I do want to point to if you want uh some additional detail, page 14 of the 2026 language access plan goes into each of these in detail.

But these are things we're gonna be focused on in the next two years is to continue with department specific language access plans, uh, continued identification and translation of vital documents in accordance with uh administrative guideline 22 that the this body has adopted, uh, expansion of employee training and resource, uh, enhance multilingual community outreach and evaluation of uh innovative uh language access technologies.

Um, and then as always, we are open for ongoing assessment and continuous improvement, both from your direction and from the direction we receive from our communities.

I will say our departments are off in the first line of of uh information on what we need to do and how we need to do it better.

And with that, I'd like to take any questions or pass it off if there are any technical questions that uh I can't answer.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh at this time I'll open the public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak, please come forward.

Good morning.

Morning, yes, my name is Ed Euling.

And uh I don't know the speci uh specifics of this uh of this ordinance or this um this particular item, but in general, I think the county and the state as a matter of fact, does an excellent job of uh of uh communicating uh with uh people of other languages and uh particularly uh I I would thank uh Commissioner Sagerboom for participating in that and pushing that process forward.

I think I think the county does an excellent job.

It doesn't look well.

Morning, commissioners.

My name is Eric Jang, uh J E N G.

I'm the executive director of one API in Nevada.

It's a community advocacy and organizing group.

Also here as a DMV certified translator, longtime advocate who helped push for Assembly Bill 266 back in 2023 that uh gave us the language access plan.

So it's meaningful to see the counties update here today with uh after the first 2024 rollout.

I also wanted to start by uh commending the implementation, especially on the election department part.

Uh the piece of their plan reflects real sustained investment and the implementation has been shown in the community that uh it's the real effort was there.

Uh that said, I want to comment on the little uh one thing on the future priority and technology part, a gap that have showed up not just on the county uh site, but also across state agency and the implementation of the language access plan is the widget, the one-click, give you 249 languages, it's great.

But it's a model on the home page.

It's a great front door, it's just you adding a widget to the website.

But when the resident actually click through the forms and documents they need, most of those links were forms still aren't translated.

So it's a great front door.

The access is wide, but it's shallow and sometimes it's fragmented or it's not linked.

So uh my our input rather than chasing breadth across the 249 languages, which is cool.

It's a widget uh prioritize depth.

So is there a way to find out usage audit, figuring out which forms, which documents residents actually rely on most and use the top eight or ten languages like the uh aviation department or other uh election departments, so we can fully focus on those high use materials first, and that way we can uh actually able to implement the plan with where the need is instead of uh a lot of the new technology that's easy to implement but uh looks cool on paper, but we want to see real progress.

But again, thank you for this effort.

Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak on 49, please come forward.

Good morning, Eric King, long time resident.

Um, as someone who's spent a lot of time in my life learning other languages, unfortunately I'm forgetting much of that through some trauma.

Uh I would like to please request in all my time spent volunteering to help build community with people that speak other languages in addition to English, such as at the German American Club, places like Cafe Heidelberg, which I used to go and frequent quite a bit, which is no longer in business, and the existing Cafe Berlin that I've been to a number of times.

It's places like that, and I can't speak for all the wonderful Spanish uh, you know, organizations, Spanish speaking organizations and such, but possibly if it's viable and considered uh uh you know feasible as well, that there may be some consideration on the county for linkages to those organizations to help those cultures flourish more while new Americans are learning their way here in the valley because organizations I speak to CAFI Hadelberg because I really enjoyed that place.

Had they had more linkages like that, this is many years ago before the internet is what it is, um, may have stayed in business, and that culture would have flourished even more here, um, which I celebrate and uh would cherish the opportunity for the county to reconsider uh any ways they could help support that and all the other great things they do.

I would also like to note that one of the maybe the largest uh of the year uh in France, holidays Bastille Day just came and went, and um I don't often hear about the French language being um articulated uh and discussions like this, but I'm unaware more than I am aware.

So thank you for hearing me.

And if there is some linkages that could be somehow applied to what is being done here in regards to new Americans and language access for those cultural considerations, uh hardly second uh second that it be done, and hopefully sooner than later.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else on item 49, we'll close the public hearing.

Turn it over to the board.

Mr.

Chair.

Um I'm so there will always be gaps, and we're working on those, but the work that has been done over the past many years is really remarkable, and as it was noted by Mr.

Ewling, we've really done a good job.

The uh I remember the summer I was studying for the bar exam.

Um, I actually did the translation and interpretation work on a number, I think six jury trials in the Spanish language.

And um that's how bad it was then.

Judge John Mendoza was a district court judge at the time, and uh Judge Mendoza called me and said he'd heard me speaking, he wondered if I would be willing to come over and translate a trial.

And uh in that trial, there was one interpreter.

I interpreted for the defendant and for the judge, uh so that the judge knew what he was saying, and he knew what everyone else in the room was saying.

And uh, we've moved a great distance from that time.

My kids had done uh Russian translation.

Um it's been uh a wonderful thing to see us mature because if you think about the number of Hispanics that were in the community even years and years ago, decades ago, we really had nothing in place except for the work that Judge Mendoza did.

He'd be proud of all of this.

And if there isn't anything more, I would move approval.

Mr.

Chair, I just want to follow up.

I I think we've done tremendous work on the language access plan, but I just say suggest that we follow up with Mr.

Jang and other uh partners in this endeavor um in trying to just hone in on some of the uh key languages and also key documents um that are most heavily used at the county.

Mr.

Chair, if I could add, um I know this week we're going out uh for a bilingual PIO, so thanks to the PIO office for doing that, and and that's very important for our communication with our constituents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else, there's a motion for approval.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Commissioner's next item is to conduct a public hearing concerning the proposed issuance of general obligation, limited tax, transportation improvement bonds, additionally secured by pledge revenues and the maximum principal amount of 101 million one hundred and ninety thousand dollars for the purpose of financing transportation projects on the beltway.

Thank you.

I don't believe there's a presentation on this item, so I will open the public comment period.

Anyone wishing to speak on item 50, please come forward.

Uh good morning, very briefly, Eric King, long time resident.

I just like uh please there to be further discussion on uh great companies and initiatives like what is being done with the speed train coming in and uh other technologies that do exist.

Thank goodness we have Mr.

Musk and his group being doing boring uh work here, and uh thankfully um in times to come our our uh fellow citizens will have uh time being in the boring tunnels, not being bored because they'll be able to have a hands-free experience getting to where they want to go safely.

Thank you very much for those considerations of new technologies, higher large uh wider and broader horizons to bring the technology into our lives so that we can have that greater quality of life experience here with each other.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Ed Euling.

I think this item really uh creates several problems for the county.

This constant borrowing of money in order to uh uh take care of the highways is a is a huge liability for uh for the public for the county.

Uh and it's really not necessary if proper planning were done of the of the city.

Um we're going to be widening highways forever.

We're gonna need 20-lane highways pretty soon to take care of all the people that want to move here.

There it eventually this city will have 10 million people living here.

This is a very desirable place to live.

And instead of instead of having uh concentrating the apartments or have uh intense housing along the streets where there's transportation, so people have immediate access to transportation.

You we just have sprawl.

We're gonna end up like Los Angeles uh with uh having to build constant roads.

It's it's absolutely crazy.

Um and and another problem that we have is that uh you're putting this debt on future people.

We uh we're actually getting poorer as a country and as a society.

I was just in China again, and it's just unbelievable what uh what they're doing to help people get around uh the the entire country and the city.

When I first went to China 20 years ago, there were two uh subway lines in Beijing and uh and uh about uh 10 or f 10 or 13 million people living there.

Um they they made a decision around 2010 to increase the population to 20 uh 20 20 or 25 million people and create a transportation system where uh everyone would be within one kilometer of uh of a subway uh of a subway entrance.

Uh in two when we went there first, there were two subway lines.

Today there are at least 20 or 25 subway lines.

And those subway lines uh carry 10 million people a day.

It's the most, it's the biggest subway system in the entire world, and it's so efficient.

It allows the city so much uh freedom and and how it can do things, and and they do the proper thing with you know when they increase the population from 13 to 2020 million people, they they put the big buildings, the apartment buildings in the central city and the where there's transportation, surface transportation, in addition to the uh subways, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Ealing.

Next speaker.

But you need this item because I'm from Boston originally, and we get the best subway system in the country, but you only have roads here, and you have people moving here, so you have to widen the roads, and bonds go out into the market, people buy them, they make interest on them.

It's done everywhere.

And you need these because I've seen in the 20 years that I've been here, like the 215, it's been widened because it's uh Commissioner Jones's area is booming out there.

You need the money, and I've seen how they've expanded like Cactus Avenue, some of the others, and so you need these bonds, like I'm saying again.

You're not going to start digging a subway here.

It might take a few hundred years.

So again, you need these bonds, and I hope that the board would approve them.

You don't have any other means of transportation.

But cars out here, unfortunately.

But I can also tell you that the traffic here is nothing compared to, say, Boston.

Nothing.

There's no traffic here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak on item 50?

Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing.

Mr.

Chair, can we just make a couple of clarifications?

Because I want the record to be correct.

Commissioner Becker, Commissioner Knappt, and myself said on debt management.

We've already seen these.

We had a presentation from public works.

This is specific to the beltway.

And for those that don't know, and I'm gonna date myself.

When we originally adopted this well over 20 years ago, there was always this plan to widen at certain points to keep it upgraded in roads is the number one complaint we get, whether there's something in the roadway, whether there's a pothole, whether there's this or that.

And so if we don't keep up with this type, we looked at this mechanism many, many a few decades plus ago, and agreed that this would be in the best interest to keep our current roads and our current beltway where we already have the right-of-way, and as the growth would come, we we would include it.

So I just want to show you Ling.

We've been through this Tem Tem again, and it's in its the beltway itself and it's specific to the needs around the beltway and in the beltway.

With that, I'll make a motion to approve.

No action is required.

It's just adopted, right?

We see this is the third time we've seen it.

We've heard it.

Thank you.

Next item.

Commissioner's next item is to conduct a public hearing concerning the proposed issuance of general obligation limited tax transportation improvement bonds, additionally secured by pledge revenues and the maximum principal amount of 101,190,000 for the purpose of financing transportation projects within the strip uh resort corridor.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing on item 51.

Anyone wishing to speak on item 51 morning, uh Eric King.

Uh thank you, esteemed leaders.

Um specific to the Mr.

King, the only reason I'm asking you again to let go of the microphone is because we're only down to one.

It takes us a long time.

There's a whole lot of care that goes into that microphone that I won't belabor you with.

Uh but just drop it down and let go.

Perfect.

I'm gonna work on that habit.

Thank you, sir.

Um so with the strip corridor, obviously, millions and millions of people uh coming, paying a lot of money for us to have uh tax orientations we do and the quality of life we do have here.

With that in mind, um I I would like to wholeheartedly uh encourage more discussion be paid in uh going forward on considerations for more shade on the people who are coming and going, whether on their uh I don't know if it's on a bike, if it's on a whatever, some type of segue or whatever.

I'll ask you to wrap it up because that really is not under this item.

So is there anything further related to the bond issuance?

My my hope would be that there would be consideration in future uh for uh public safety risks with transportation considerations, and I really don't know what is the best course of action to get that more emphasized into these uh you know very large issuances and funding that comes from them.

But um we do have people with adverse things happening because of their transportation costs, including their health and their life.

So thank you for those considerations and future conversations.

Thank you.

Seeing another speaker for public comment related to item 51.

Yes, my name is Ed Eulin.

Um in the resort corridor, we should be doing something very different than we're doing.

We don't need more transportation, more cars, more uh confusion there.

What we need is is a space where people can walk.

The boulevard should really be we this is the most desirable place in the whole world for people to come and visit.

In the future, we're we're going we by this time we should have 80 million tourists a year.

We don't have that because of the incompetence of the of our uh tourist board.

Uh we ever since uh the year 2007, we haven't increased the uh sorry.

But it's sorry, Mr.

Lake.

But it's sorry, like in 2000 and then two in 2007 we had 40 uh 38 million tourists.

The highest number of tourists we've had in the 20 years or 18 years since then, or seven nineteen years since then, is uh forty two forty-two million back in the 50s when uh when the when the city was growing, we would increase the number of tourists uh you tie it back to the item that's before us.

We we need more space for people to be, for people to gather to for people to interact with each other.

And uh we we should be encouraging, setting up a system that encourages people to come, not to have them worried that they're coming to to be in another traffic jam that's typical of of cities in the United States.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And to be clear Go ahead.

But common sense would dictate that you approve these uh obligation bonds.

Uh again, there's no traffic here.

There's no traffic on the strip in comparison with other areas.

People that come to visit here can get around, and these bonds will help them do that.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else on this item, I'll close the public hearing and turn it over to Commissioner Kirkpatrick.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chair, and I just says a second one that came before debt management with Commissioner Becker, Commissioner Knaft, and myself, and um you'll all be surprised to know this is not new lanes.

This mostly is done for the bridges, for the maintenance of the escalators, so we have to repair and replace all of those things, which not to discount all the jobs that they're going to bring on both of these items, but it is um resort corridor money to ensure that our tourists have a safe way to get around and an efficient way to get around.

And Mr.

Chair, I I just want to note for for the public, the RTC and the LVCBA and many other stakeholders are currently going through the process of updating the transportation investment business plan, which was adopted 10 years ago, particularly focused in the resort corridor and meeting with stakeholders to determine what the future looks like, um, considering the amount of additional arenas, stadiums, etc.

that are uh now placed within the resort corridor, additional private transportation options like the Boring Company and Brightline, um, and to consider public transit options, including uh trains and light rail.

Unfortunately, uh or fortunately, we live in a democracy in which we have to consider uh property rights here in this country, unlike China, um, and we are not an autocracy in which we can simply impose this on the people who operate in that corridor.

Thank you, Commissioner.

On that note, we will conclude that item, and believe it or not, it's time for public comment.

Anyone wishing to speak on items that come before this body can step forward at this time and state your name for the record, and you may speak for up to three minutes.

Hello, my name is Shashana, and I'm a resident, and I'm here to urge the commission to end invocations, the praying at these government meetings, because this is not a church.

The source of your invocation, the Bible, which you keep endorsing, includes the rape, incest, slavery, torture, mass drownings, the murder of firstborn kids, the mauling of 42 kids, killing 200 men for their foreskins, the gang rape of a woman until she is dead and is cut up into 12 pieces, anti-gay rhetoric, throwing babies against rocks, cutting off a woman's hand, slicing open pregnant women, taking girls to be raped, boiling and eating children, and so on.

Just Google it.

And don't forget, the Christian Bible is made up of 75% of the Jewish Bible.

More kind of bizarre stuff going on that was written for the Jewish people by themselves, for no one else, which includes the Ten Commandments, by the way, that were written for the Jewish people.

Um, not Christianity, because Christianity wasn't invented till many years later.

Um the Jewish Bible was plagiarized, and a part two was created, also known as the New Testament, also known as Christianity, claiming a Jewish baby was raised by his Jewish mother and his two Jewish fathers, yes, your God is 100% Jewish because he commanded Jewish laws.

And he has white hair, fire in his eyes, and is floating around in the clouds, wearing a robe and sitting on a throne, watching everything you do at all times.

And then part two claims that the Jewish Jesus character, Yeshua, his real name, who did lots of magic tricks, is murdered.

There he is, and was uh nailed to a cross like this and brought up from the dead like a zombie three days later, and then is converted to a Christian.

I don't know if you know this, but you cannot change the religion of a dead Jewish guy to Christianity unless the story is fiction.

But at least the people knew that the enormous profitability religion would bring, and so they made up millions of different images of Jesus' face.

Um no one knew what he looked like because there were no eyewitnesses, and they took his dead body, turned it into wall art, and they hang it up on the wall, and they made jewelry out of him, put him on t-shirts and hats and all kinds of merch, and then these religions got tax-free status to Ching.

And then there was power and control of religion that got immersed into our government.

I urge the commission to draft an ordinance and to stop endorsing religion, stop having prayer in these chambers because it doesn't belong here.

Honor the Constitution and the separation of church and state, and please focus on what you were elected to do for the county, and stop treating this tax favor-funded building as your house of worship because this is not a church.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else wishing to speak?

Please come forward at this time.

Um real quick, I'll try to be anyway.

Traffic safety.

Um it was good that the office was formed here several years ago by one of our commissioners.

While we don't have a subway system here and a robust bus system, although I think the tourists use more than the people that live here.

Um, pedestrians being able to walk the streets and you know obey the rules.

Um, I I think it's important uh that we continue to work on that, having pedestrians uh be safe, one way or the other.

Uh I was gonna say last meeting too, talking about animal rules to protect our most vulnerable.

It's a great issue to expand on and keep track of.

A lot of our seniors rely on pets for compassion in our community.

Um, data centers are a thing of the future.

Important to remember evolution.

In this case, the evolving of continuing technology after we are all gone.

Um medical here, and my experience, Clark County is improving health care.

The sunrise system is great.

Uh I had a great surgeon here.

Do my hip, Dr.

Kyle Hancock.

However, I had to go back to Boston.

It was that RLA for a complex complex procedure on my retina to save my life.

I know many other seniors in the same boat, so to draw our outfits uh here, we need to build facilities and bring technology here like Mountain View and UMC have, and to attract the brightest and best uh doctors, you need uh public education to improve vastly and make five-star schools like Coronado and uh Liberty a thing for all the Clark County schools.

And this commission does best with the issues brought before it.

And as I watch the meetings, I now see a very cohesive group trying to do its very best.

I want to congratulate Commissioner Justin Jones on his service to this group and the improvements he has brought to his district mountain edge has exploded under his watch.

It's on seniors.

We have a lot of us people retired in this valley, a good amount on fixed incomes that can be easy to not on purpose, forget about.

They don't ask or complain for much, are often seen in the media productions on local TV.

I myself have lived in a senior community 18 years here, and I think maybe we could do more for what I call the ghost sometimes.

It becomes a state issue with a lot of the items uh they're looking for.

God speed to our seniors, and it's great that this commission and management staff have always seemed to work well with the labor unions and a pro-label.

I will never understand this nevada being a right-to-work state, but realize this is a caste and city issue.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, esteemed leaders Eric King, long time resident here.

Uh just uh a couple of weeks ago here before most all of you, uh minus our, I think treasurer, um uh excuse me, clerk.

Um, uh, I had made a declaration of tree dependence.

It was about three, four days uh, and plus 250 years after a long lost uh one of our founding fathers, Mr.

Thomas Jefferson made the declaration of independence.

And we do really have a dependence on things like trees, maybe more so than any other particular being, since we are one of the hottest cities in our country, and certainly the driest city in the country.

Not only do they uh pump out incredible amounts of cool moist air, particularly when they're in fully shaded complexes of trees and not only by themselves overseeing watch on a sidewalk that may be 30 degrees or more hotter than the surrounding air temperature and all of its related effects on people who don't have shoes, who don't have animals with soles besides their own on their feet.

And I've been on enough buses to see some of those folks have blisters on their feet and on their animals' feet.

Um I've known people that have uh religiously taken their bikes uh to work in back and had some health challenges along the way in the summertime, with their intention is to make this a more walkable city and a more bike ridable city.

Um I am aware of a very successful campaign to help people not make poor choices when it comes to water that's flooding our streets and a skeleton with some type of maybe bombers, helmet on from World War II or something like that, whatever it was he's wearing, but he tends to drive into the flooded street.

He's already dead being a skeleton.

The message is water kills you, don't do what I did.

Possibly since heat is killing more people in recent years than are dying by uh our uh motor vehicle accidents uh here in the valley.

That we could start with a program related, something along those lines that could be a slogan, is simply my suggestion of heat kills, let's chill.

That might be something that could help save lives, even starting this summer.

It might be posted in all 500 or so buildings that the Clark County has with some basic verbiage that accompanies how people might get to cooling centers, but it's something that would stick in people's minds such that maybe they don't die that night or the next day for that matter, or develop blisters on their feet, or wind up in an emergency room.

Thank you for your consideration hearing me.

Thank you very much.

Yes, my name is Ed Ulin, and just to clarify the ignorant comments made about China.

Uh the the uh the the uh ownership of homes here in the United States is around 70 percent, uh is around what 50 percent, 60 percent.

The ownership in China is 70 to 90 percent.

People own their own homes.

You go to a you go to Beijing, and you think you're in a national park instead of a city.

Every street is lined with trees.

Here in Las Vegas, every every in fact, every city you go to here in the United States is worse today than it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago, even it's it's really pathetic what's happening here in the United States.

You you go to China and it's vastly improved.

When we lived in Beijing 20 years ago, that's the sky was uh cloudy with smog.

Today it's clearer than our sky here in Las Vegas.

The air is better.

Plus, they have all the the trees are lining every street, their gardens, their flowers, there it's it's like walking in a national park, really.

And uh, and this is this is not the case just of Beijing, it's the case all over China.

And if and the benefits, the reason is the here in the United States, it's the corporations that control the government.

In China, it's the people that it's the government that controls the corporations, and that's the difference.

That's why in China there are uh it's it's small businesses everywhere.

Uh here in the United States, yeah, we have all these uh these uh national companies that's they serve food.

In China, it's individual people that are setting up businesses.

They have a they have a population of four times what our population is.

It's much more difficult, and they're doing a much better job.

And uh we're it the every city you go to is vastly improved over the last uh several years.

Here in the United States, it's horrible.

I felt so bad when I landed in in Los Angeles, and the freeways used to back in the 50s, they would be have grass and gardens along the side of the freeway.

Today, dirt, ugly, ugly, ugly.

That's what that's what uh the uh the impression.

So please go to China, Mr.

Jones, and find out for yourself.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Ewling.

Uh anyone else wishing to speak.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Sebastian Crawford.

I'm specifically here in regards to item 52 in regards to emerging issues in Clark County.

I first ask just as of I have been respectful of everyone's time by limiting my comments today.

I understand I'm only given three minutes, but please give me a little bit more than three minutes as what I'm trying to talk about today is a little bit longer than three minutes, and I was pretty respectful, so I'm asking for go ahead.

Okay.

So since 1905, Las Vegas has been a railroad or tourist destination.

We rely on people passing through here, traveling here, in order for this city to make money.

This is just a known fact.

But our but however, since 1905, with John F.

Miller, the first person to open a hotel in this city, he came here as one of the richest men in this city, opened a hotel, and was able to conduct business.

It was not until 2023 that the commissioners, some of you sitting here, um, actually legalized street vending in Las Vegas.

However, when you did this, you also implemented a rule that says that the street vending cannot be operated within 1,500 feet of major hotel resorts or casinos or sports events.

So what you were saying is that the only people that are allowed to conduct business in the city are the billionaires.

I don't know why you are so loyal to your ruling class and the people who control your lives, but what it's a blatant disrespect to the working class and the people that are trying to get by in the city.

This is also due to the fact that since 2024, visitation is down 7.5%.

That is just a known fact.

If you contact any of these uh hotel resorts, you will see that their visitation is down, they are struggling.

They have planned close dates in August because visitation is so low.

They have closed multiple uh dining rooms, uh like buffets throughout the casino resorts.

Okay, and so if I you're not allowing me to work, my hours have been cut for over a year straight.

I want to work, I'm young, I'm eager, I'm an entrepreneur, I want to start small businesses, I want to contribute to this economy.

You are not allowing me to do so.

This would be like saying if uh the 15 in regards to the 1500 uh meter set off or the 1500 feet set off.

This would be like telling runners they can run, but not within 1500 meters of a track.

This would be like telling football players you can play football, but not within 1500 1500 feet of a football field.

It's ridiculous.

And so I understand that we need to protect private investment, right?

These people are investing billions of dollars.

We're not just gonna let people line the streets right outside their building and try to take their business.

Why would someone invest billions of dollars if they're going to do that, right?

I understand this point, but the point is 1500 feet.

You're not if you look at the map, look at the map of the vending restrictions, you're not allowing any business to be conducted on the entire strip.

You're not allowed, I'm not allowed to go to the 43 million visitors that we have every single year and conduct business.

You yeah, thankfully I can conduct business on uh like Rainbow and Tropicana where no po no pedestrians walk by.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nobody passes by, I'm allowed to do business here.

That does that make any sense.

No, it makes sense for me to start my business, make you money, make this city money to be able to start my business where 43 million people walk by every single year.

So I'm asking you to stop.

I understand I'm over time.

I just have like two more things to say.

Like I'm all I'm asking is I understand that there needs to be regulation.

I understand that we need to have regulations to make sure people are having their health permits and they're not serving unsanitary food, but 1500 feet, you're not letting people do business.

I don't have an option.

I can't work, so let me work.

Thank you.

Seeing anyone else wishing to speak.

I do not.

I will close the public comment period and we will recess until 9 a.m.

tomorrow, and there is a closed door session following this meeting.