OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Senior Citizens Advisory Board Meeting – September 4, 2025

Public Meetings — Thursday, September 4, 2025
BodyLas Vegas, Nevada
SessionPublic Meetings
DateThursday, September 4, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 56:03

Transcript — Verbatim
3:58

I now call the September Fourth, twenty twenty-five Senior Citizens Advisory Board meeting to order.

4:04

Has this meeting been properly noticed and posted in compliance with the Nevada Open Meeting Law?

4:09

Yes, it has.

5:03

Do I have any amendments or a motion to approve?

5:13

I make a motion.

5:14

I uh move to approve the minutes from August 7th meeting.

5:19

So we have a motion to approve meeting, minutes from August 7th, 2025.

5:25

All in favor?

5:27

Aye.

5:27

Aye.

5:29

So moved.

5:32

Item number five presentation by Natalie Mazzulo, Master of Education, Healthy Aging Initiative Coordinator with the University of Nevada Reno regarding healthy aging initiative programs for seniors, all wards.

5:46

And if you can state your name for the record.

5:52

Yes, okay.

5:52

Good afternoon.

5:53

This is Natalie Mazzulo for the record.

5:58

How are you this afternoon?

6:01

Wonderful.

6:02

You have packets in front of you.

6:05

There's just some things from the University of Nevada Reno Extension Office.

6:10

Before I get started, how many of you are familiar with the UNR extension offices?

6:17

Is there anybody that's not familiar?

6:19

Okay, great.

6:21

So the extension offices are attached to land grant universities.

6:26

We are with the University of Nevada Reno.

6:29

Extension offices are throughout the country.

6:32

We have 17 offices across the state.

6:34

There's one in every county, including one in Carson City.

6:38

Extension offices typically are known, they're community-based and they service the community that they're in.

6:46

So every extension office that's in a community services that community and works really closely with the boards and county commissioners, city planners, those types of things to really provide the necessary education for those communities.

6:59

Many of you may know the 4-H program or Master Gardeners.

7:04

Those are both uh extension programs and have been for uh many years.

7:09

Um here in Nevada, we have both of those a Master Gardener Program and 4-H, uh, which is a youth program.

7:16

It uh we do a lot of after school programming, but we also have a healthy aging uh team, which is unusual.

7:22

Not all extensions have a healthy aging focus.

7:25

Uh we usually focus on health and nutrition, um, a lot of agriculture, uh, how uh the communities and economic development within the community, but ours is very fortunate, and we work very closely with the university and faculty members.

7:40

Um I myself um faculty with the university, and I'm really excited to tell you a little bit about the programs that we run here in Clark County.

7:49

So on the slide here, you can see um these are some of the main programs that we run.

7:54

And here's my small team up in the corner there.

7:57

I'm very proud of them.

7:58

I was uh doing our calendar for my director today, and we have 60 classes and events scheduled for the month of September.

8:06

So we're a busy group, even though we're kind of small.

8:09

Um, one of the many of the programs that that we offer and that extension offers are evidence-based programs.

8:16

They're either uh research-based, evidence-informed, or evidence-based themselves.

8:20

An aging mastery program is an evidence-informed program.

8:24

It's uh it was developed out of the National Council on Aging.

8:28

Uh, we run that in our older adult resident communities, which would be our Nevada hand properties, our ovation properties, um, those types of uh residential independent living communities.

8:40

We also run them in senior centers and community centers across uh across Clark County.

8:47

The program is um uh there are 10 items or 10 different lessons that are part of uh the aging mastery program, and we do things like advanced planning, so you can plan for end of life, uh financial um education or financial fitness, we call it.

9:03

Uh we do falls prevention, nutrition, uh, physical activity, uh all different kinds of um how to stay healthy, and it's not just again physical activity and nutrition, it's all the other kind of finances like relationship, um relationship education and how to maneuver grandparents that raise their grandchildren, um, how do we provide them tips and resources?

9:27

So that's really what aging mastery does, and it really helps to uh get older adults to set goals and to live a healthy, a healthy, happier, longer life.

9:37

Um, we're also really excited about bingo size, it's out of the University of Kentucky.

9:42

Um, and uh the it's bingo, but they combine it with exercise to make it more fun, but then in addition to that, we have educational questions.

9:52

So we teach a falls prevention module, we do a nutrition education module, we have a range of motion, and that's really for our assisted living folks that might not be able to do much more than be in a chair and be mobile.

10:07

And then we have our regular exercise program.

10:09

And again, we teach this at the residential communities like Ovation and Nevada Hand, as well as all of our senior centers.

10:17

We can do pop-ups of these as well, but it is a 10-week series, and so we and we teach it twice a week.

10:25

We also do community outreach, and these are tabling events.

10:28

This might be of interest to the group because we can be asked, we're often asked by county commissioners and folks in the community to come and perform or provide a table or an educational interaction, so to speak, at health fairs and wellness fairs.

10:48

We also do believe it or not, back to school events where we do provide tips for grandparents that again are raising their grandchildren.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Senior Services█████████████████████████████████████████████65%
Education████████12%
Procedural██████8%
Affordable Housing███5%
Public Engagement███4%
Public Safety███4%
Homelessness█2%
Summary of Proceedings

Senior Citizens Advisory Board Meeting – September 4, 2025

The Senior Citizens Advisory Board meeting was called to order at 1:00 PM on September 4, 2025. The board approved the minutes from the August 7, 2025 meeting, received a presentation from the University of Nevada Reno Extension on healthy aging programs, heard a report on a senior care coordination case, and received updates from council ward representatives. The meeting concluded with a discussion of future topics and setting the next meeting for October 2, 2025.

Consent Calendar

  • Motion to approve the minutes from the August 7, 2025 meeting was made and passed unanimously (all ayes).

Presentation by Natalie Mazzulo – Healthy Aging Initiative Programs

  • Natalie Mazzulo, Master of Education and Healthy Aging Initiative Coordinator with the University of Nevada Reno Extension, presented an overview of programs for seniors, including:
    • The Aging Mastery Program (evidence-informed, 10 lessons) covering advanced planning, financial fitness, falls prevention, nutrition, physical activity, and relationship education.
    • Bingo Size (combining bingo with exercise and education) for assisted living residents.
    • Community outreach tabling events at health fairs and back-to-school events for grandparents raising grandchildren.
    • Cooking Matters nutrition education classes.
    • Disrupt Aging program taught to UNLV students, emphasizing the economic impact of older adults (who spend 61 cents of every dollar).
    • Overnight camps at Camp Alamo (Alamo, Nevada) for older adults, with a preparedness camp in October 2025 (full, $199 per camper, with AARP Nevada sponsoring 10 spots). Future grandparents' day camp planned for September 2026.
    • Annual professional development summit (6 CEUs) for health professionals, focusing on alternative therapies in 2025.
    • Botanical garden tours at the UNR Extension office (215 and Windmill, 4,500 plant varieties) with a planned Neon Museum art installation.
  • Mazzulo noted the newsletter distributed 70,000 copies annually, and offered free classes and pop-ups available to community groups.
  • Board members asked questions about the spending statistics, age definition for seniors (50+), financial aid opportunities for camp, and logistics for day trips. Mazzulo provided contact information (nmazzulo@unr.edu, 702-859-1112).

Report by Gregory Gray – Senior Issues and Care Coordination

  • Gregory Gray, Management Analyst I, reported on a care coordination case received the previous day: a senior who had been abandoned by his spouse, was homeless, had no ID or insurance, suffered a stroke, used a walker, and needed round‑the‑clock care. The family initially attempted to leave him at the Centennial Hills Active Adult Center (which is not an overnight facility). After Gray advised the family that the senior might need to utilize the courtyard shelter, the family arranged interim housing with a room rental from another senior. Gray and staff will assist the senior in obtaining new ID and insurance once state services resume.
  • Gray also addressed a complaint about increased fitness fees at Dula Senior Center, noting a mandate across all city facilities. He will connect the board member with the chair and councilwoman for further discussion.

Board Member Reports – Ward Updates

  • Ward 1 (Vice Chair Nicole Graham): Held a Dementia Friends training at Libra Senior Center with over 10 attendees. Mentioned ongoing controversy in Ward 1 over the location of the Campus of Hope.
  • Ward 2 (Vito Galati): Attended the annual forum organized by the Road Equity Equality Allowance Project in June, with over 80 attendees. New traffic systems installed on Fort Apache; a study pending for tubular delineators. Invited a representative to present to the board.
  • Ward 3: Absent.
  • Ward 4 (David Tilser): Reported quiet summer; Sun City Security Volunteer Force renamed to Sun City Patrol for legal reasons. Two Sun City restaurants undergoing renovations; one subleased space for poker machines. Upcoming Memory and Balance Expo (by UNLV medical students). Top concerns from residents: rising prices on fixed incomes and security. Seminar on contractor fraud scheduled for September 24.
  • Ward 4 (Chair O'Rear-Cameron): Uses Nextdoor app to correct misinformation about resources; continues to receive calls about rising costs forcing seniors to choose between health and housing. Noted state legislation passed for affordable housing but construction will take time.
  • Ward 5 (Charles Lee): Presented a petition signed by members regarding additional fitness fees at the senior center.
  • Ward 6 (Caroline Mosdeen): Reminded about ornament decorating deadline (September 15), Fat Cat Swinger concert at Centennial Hills Amphitheater (September 13), Councilwoman Bruni's boca ditos (next Thursday), Ovation housing at Decatur and 215 accepting applications, affordable housing groundbreaking in North Las Vegas, and Night of Souls event at Sun City (October 25, $65).

Discussion Regarding Next Steps and Future Meeting Topics

  • Board members reiterated interest in obtaining updated ward maps (preferably 11x16) from the 2024 redistricting. No other topics were added.

Public Comment

  • No members of the public came forward.

Key Outcomes

  • Approved minutes from August 7, 2025.
  • Received the presentation on healthy aging programs and reports from staff and board members.
  • The petition regarding fitness fees will be addressed by the chair and councilwoman.
  • The next meeting is scheduled for October 2, 2025, at 1:00 PM in the public meeting room of the new Civic Center building.

Meeting Transcript

I now call the September Fourth, twenty twenty-five Senior Citizens Advisory Board meeting to order. Has this meeting been properly noticed and posted in compliance with the Nevada Open Meeting Law? Yes, it has. Do I have any amendments or a motion to approve? I make a motion. I uh move to approve the minutes from August 7th meeting. So we have a motion to approve meeting, minutes from August 7th, 2025. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So moved. Item number five presentation by Natalie Mazzulo, Master of Education, Healthy Aging Initiative Coordinator with the University of Nevada Reno regarding healthy aging initiative programs for seniors, all wards. And if you can state your name for the record. Yes, okay. Good afternoon. This is Natalie Mazzulo for the record. How are you this afternoon? Wonderful. You have packets in front of you. There's just some things from the University of Nevada Reno Extension Office. Before I get started, how many of you are familiar with the UNR extension offices? Is there anybody that's not familiar? Okay, great. So the extension offices are attached to land grant universities. We are with the University of Nevada Reno. Extension offices are throughout the country. We have 17 offices across the state. There's one in every county, including one in Carson City. Extension offices typically are known, they're community-based and they service the community that they're in. So every extension office that's in a community services that community and works really closely with the boards and county commissioners, city planners, those types of things to really provide the necessary education for those communities. Many of you may know the 4-H program or Master Gardeners. Those are both uh extension programs and have been for uh many years. Um here in Nevada, we have both of those a Master Gardener Program and 4-H, uh, which is a youth program. It uh we do a lot of after school programming, but we also have a healthy aging uh team, which is unusual. Not all extensions have a healthy aging focus. Uh we usually focus on health and nutrition, um, a lot of agriculture, uh, how uh the communities and economic development within the community, but ours is very fortunate, and we work very closely with the university and faculty members. Um I myself um faculty with the university, and I'm really excited to tell you a little bit about the programs that we run here in Clark County. So on the slide here, you can see um these are some of the main programs that we run. And here's my small team up in the corner there. I'm very proud of them. I was uh doing our calendar for my director today, and we have 60 classes and events scheduled for the month of September. So we're a busy group, even though we're kind of small. Um, one of the many of the programs that that we offer and that extension offers are evidence-based programs. They're either uh research-based, evidence-informed, or evidence-based themselves. An aging mastery program is an evidence-informed program. It's uh it was developed out of the National Council on Aging. Uh, we run that in our older adult resident communities, which would be our Nevada hand properties, our ovation properties, um, those types of uh residential independent living communities. We also run them in senior centers and community centers across uh across Clark County. The program is um uh there are 10 items or 10 different lessons that are part of uh the aging mastery program, and we do things like advanced planning, so you can plan for end of life, uh financial um education or financial fitness, we call it. Uh we do falls prevention, nutrition, uh, physical activity, uh all different kinds of um how to stay healthy, and it's not just again physical activity and nutrition, it's all the other kind of finances like relationship, um relationship education and how to maneuver grandparents that raise their grandchildren, um, how do we provide them tips and resources?

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