Yes, you do.

Okay, thanks.

I now call the February 5th, 2026 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.

Thank you.

Would the Deputy City Clerk call the roll, please?

Chair over your cameron.

Present.

Vice Chair Graham.

Member Galati, excused.

Member Mosdeen.

Member Drum.

Member Lee, excused.

Member Tilzer.

Present.

Member Young, excuse.

Thank you, Chair Yavakorn.

Thank you, Deputy City Clerk.

Item number three, public comment.

Comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed may be limited.

Seeing and hearing none.

Item number four for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference of the regular meeting of December 4th, 2025.

Do I have any amendments or a motion?

Nicole Graham Ward One.

Uh motion to approve the minutes from December 4th, 2025.

Thank you.

We have a motion.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

So moved.

Item number five.

Presentation by David Ricketts, Navy veteran and fire safety advisor with L V Fires LLC regarding fire safety and preparedness.

All wards.

Good afternoon.

My name is David Ricketts, D A V I D, Ricketts, R-I-C-K-E-T-T-S.

All right.

So the topic uh for me to speak on today is in home fire safety.

Uh, not just how and how it affects our seniors, but everyone here in Las Vegas Valley.

I do have some handouts uh that I would like to give to everyone as well.

Four.

And what these handouts entail is part of our free service that we provide for the community.

Since 2015, LV Fires has been a partner with Clark County Fire Department and North Los Fire Department as of the last two years.

So a lot of times we get referred by the fire departments directly if people do call and request for a speaker to come out and talk about in-home fire safety.

And what we do review are the things that are inside that packet there.

So as we're in the tail end of winter, um, we're getting out of the season where we have a lot of carbon monoxide fatalities, and we've had a lot, unfortunately, this winter, especially in parts of the country where they had the severe weather.

Uh here in Las Vegas, what we do see are different uh reasons why people are going to the ER for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Some may be just lack of maintenance on certain appliances throughout the house, such as your water heater, furnace, and ACs.

So we just want to bring awareness to the community and different things in the house that can start a fire or create carbon monoxide in the house.

So just very briefly, this is some of the some of the slides that we do share with everyone, whether if we're in a group setting, such as Sun City Summerlin or Anthem, or in someone's home directly.

And this is a free service that we provide to the community and to residents all throughout Las Vegas.

So in the kitchen where we do point out different fire starters, the main issue that we are seeing, not just here citywide, but nationwide are the countertop appliances.

Most people leave those appliances plugged in when the manufacturers themselves tell you to unplug them once you're done using them.

Anything that has a heating element, such as your coffee maker or air fryer, need to be unplugged immediately after use.

Unfortunately, we have about 16,000 laundry room fires every year, not just because people don't clean out the lint trap, but they don't do the required maintenance on the back of the dryer.

That air vent needs to be cleaned out.

So whether if someone is a homeowner or if they rent a ha a house or live in an apartment, that maintenance needs to be done.

And I see that all throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, where a lot of people are just not aware to little things like that.

And bedroom fires.

This has been the talk of the town at every national convention that I've gone to for the past two years, mainly because of everything that we have in our house now that has a rechargeable battery.

Chances are that's a lithium-ion battery.

So it could be something simple as our cell phones, iPads, laptops.

If these fires start, we have to inform people not to try to fight that fire with your extinguisher or fire blanket.

Just get out because fires like that cannot be stopped once they start for the most part.

And they emit horrendous toxic fumes as well, which everyone needs to be aware of.

But one of the main types of fires that we do see, unfortunately, all throughout our valley are the electrical fires that do start inside the walls or in the attics.

These could be from numerous things, such as ceiling fans, light fans or uh wall sockets, bathroom fans, any of these things can malfunction at any given time.

So, but also we do know that the Red Cross, they are very diligent about their smoke alarm program, and we give them kudos for that.

Same with the city of Las Vegas or Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, they have the same type of a program.

But along with being prepared, most people are not aware of the new updates in fire code.

Everyone needs to make sure that you have at least one carbon monoxide alarm in your house.

And it should be placed lower to the ground, not on the ceiling.

Carbon monoxide still is a little bit heavier than standard air, so it needs to be lowered to the ground.

But also, when I go into homes, I see a lot of people do not have the proper amount of smoke alarms inside their house.

If their house was built in the 70s or 80s, chances are they may still fall on under old fire code, which means they have one smoke alarm in their house, and that's it, and it's going to be in the hallway.

So every home that we go into, we make sure that their house is up to fire code, uh, that they have the proper carbon monoxide placement as well throughout the house.

And but also, biggest thing is most people don't have a plan, especially if you have younger ones in the house.

You need to make sure that everyone needs knows how to get out of the house properly, especially if it's a two-story.

Sometimes people get trapped upstairs in house fire and they don't have any way to get out.

So we just make sure that we educate families and prepare them for the inevitable because chances are we're going to experience at least five fires in our lifetime, whether directly or indirectly of people that we do know.

So it's the just basic things like that that we do review with everybody that we visit.

Uh, we also do give away free fire extinguishers and fire blankets as well.

Uh we don't have our complete numbers for last year, but for for extinguishers, but for fire blankets last year, we gave out over 700 fire blankets uh to the community with extinguishers, it's probably closer to double than that.

But we do that free of charge to everyone that we see.

We want to make sure that we can help solve the fire problem, and it can be solved with education and with preparedness and planning.

All right.

Does anybody have any questions?

Um thank you so very much.

Um, let me see.

Let me get your name right.

Oh, my name is Linda Young.

I'm with Ward Fly.

Okay.

And thank you, um, David Ricketts.

Thank you.

Um your information is just so critical, so important.

And um, I ran a school as a principal, and we did this with kids once or twice a year.

And y'all bought the fire trucks out and put the siren on and everything, and um I read maybe perhaps um maybe a month or so ago where a little girl who wasn't in the state in the city.

One of the states had taken um, I guess your information or information like yours and saved her family.

There you go.

Uh she was uh in the second grade.

Okay, and uh one what the information was was like you said, an electrical woke everyone up, and then of course, people were trying, as you say, put it out, and she said no, because you all said no, get out.

Get out, and she was able to get everyone out and the dog and the cat.

There you go.

Good.

So I guess my point I'm trying to make is um as we age and move on, we forget this stuff.

Absolutely.

And um the schools are a little bit captive with the kids.

Correct.

What would you suggest?

I'm with a neighborhood association.

I could probably set something up, but you know, I forgot a lot of this stuff myself.

And that's the I forgot a lot of it.

Most of us have.

For the most part, what most of us remember for school is stop, drop, and roll.

That's the extent of our fire training.

Yeah.

But unless you go into the military like myself or was a fireman or emergency services, you really don't do any training on fire training in the house.

No.

When I speak to children at I just did a uh resources fair last week at an elementary school or middle school, and every child that walked by, I asked them if you had a fire tonight, if your smoke alarms woke you up, what would you do?

Out of all those, probably close to 50 children or families that I met, only one family had a plan.

And the mother, she was in emergency service, you know.

So she knew she trained her children.

We're gonna practice fire drills every month, and that's what we should do.

We practice at school and at work, but not at home.

Not at all.

So we're not as prepared.

So we're more likely to die in a home fire than we would in a public facility.

Unfortunately.

Um with the lint filters on your dryer.

I have never done that, quite frankly.

And most people have it.

And and when you said that, I go, Oh my god.

And you're absolutely right.

Uh it gets clogged, and we we never do anything about it.

Absolutely.

And here right here on the slide, look at this.

This is one of the biggest things that we try to prepare people for are nighttime fires.

Most people die in a fire between 11 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

when we're sleeping.

So let's say if you go to bed and your fire starts in your kitchen or in your living room or launch room, and your bedroom door is open.

The first and fast way that you can lose your life is through asphyxiation.

You just suffocate.

The fire's pulling the air out of your bedroom to feed itself.

But along with that, toxic fumes and smoke also does go into your room, so that little bit of air that you do have is now tainted.

So that this is why early uh notification of a fire in every part of the house is so vital.

So keeping that mask that bedroom door closed before you go to bed could be the difference between life and death in a lot of situations.

Sometimes the bedroom window is the only escape that you have out, so you have to make sure that you don't have anything in front of it, whether a dresser or another, there may be big bushes where it prevents you from getting out.

That may be your only escape.

So, something else that we do give to every family that we visit are these people locator stickers.

These go on the occupied bedroom windows to help the first responders identify which windows you would be in.

And also, if they have pets, we also give them pet stickers as well for the front part of the house.

So this way their pets can possibly be found in an emergency.

So this last little I will share with you guys is to me the most important thing.

It's about smoke alarms, because unfortunately in Nevada, we're not one of the states that has banned ionization smoke alarms.

Ionization smoke alarms are the smoke alarms that come with our house.

You go to home depot, that's what you're gonna get.

But a lot of people have no idea that these alarms may not go off in a real fire.

Most people complain and tell me every time I cook I to run my air fryer, my smoke alarm goes off.

But the thing is, those are designed for a certain type of smoke.

The smoke from your food is different than the smoke that comes from your burning furniture.

It's a lot different.

So this here, this little video will show how these types of alarms work.

Today's homes burn up to eight times faster.

We can have as little as three minutes to wake up, gather our family, and escape a home fire.

Mother desperately handing her children to firefighters.

So there's a need for early warning now, more than ever.

Since the 1970s, smoke alarms have been our first line of defense.

But over the decades, there's been a race to the lowest cost manufacturer, contractor grade or store-bought alarms have been viewed as commodities.

And the codes have followed by requiring only the minimum installation, beginning with only one alarm in the hallway for years, then one on every level, and finally requiring smoke alarms inside and outside all sleeping areas.

Chances are your home has the minimum smoke alarms required at the time it was built or purchased, and they use the cheapest technology, ionization.

It works like this.

Ions flow between two plates.

Smoke particles enter the chamber.

The flow is interrupted, and the alarm is triggered.

Most people have a false sense of security from the quick response.

They cook bacon and don't see any smoke, but the alarm goes off, and they think it would alert them to any kind of fire.

But the smoke produced by a smoldering sofa can have a larger charge, be fewer in number, and not interrupt the flow of ions.

The result, your alarm might not sound.

When somebody's like, oh, your house is on fire, you assume that you're gonna hear your folk detector, but they're they weren't going off.

Due to dead or missing batteries, disconnected or corroded wires, and the life of americium 241 found inside.

The deadly failures have been highly publicized.

Codes and ordinances have reacted in different ways, requiring more alarms in more locations.

Then requiring changes to the power from hardwired units to hardwired with battery backup to tamper proof batteries, a new standard requiring nuisance testing and a limited lifespan has been written.

But manufacturers found ways to pass with software changes.

So the ionization technology will continue to be used.

Except now the retail packaging and online marketing can boast meets new standard and smart alarm.

And regardless of the quality of the technology or manufacturing, all home smoke alarms will be forced to deactivate in 10 years.

With all the new tests, standards, codes, and of course marketing, it can be difficult to decide on the best protection for your family at home.

Simply ask yourself, what will the condition of my home be when I find out about my fire?

And how much time will I and my loved ones have to escape the fire?

And unfortunately, when it comes to home fire fatalities and injuries, the two categories that need the most time to get out, young children and people over 65.

They either need assistance or they move slower.

I'm 47, I don't move as fast as I did 10 years ago.

Most of us don't.

So we need to know uh what's going on in the house as soon as possible, but have a plan, and that's where we can help out.

All right.

Deanna Rare Cameron, that actually was on my list of things I was gonna ask you about is you know, you're hearing you've got three minutes.

Well, that's not gonna go well for seniors.

Yep.

You know, um, I have my bad days, and I have to say, you know, having to use the stairs, you know, when you're on the second floor.

Yes.

Yeah.

You know, um, so I'm just curious when you're making a plan, um, what what type of things would you suggest for seniors then if time is of the essence?

Or obviously the right equipment.

Absolutely.

But how much extra time can that give them, you know, for people who might be listening to this later?

That made me panic a little.

I'm not gonna lie.

Three minutes, I'm like, if I'm in bed, you know.

Yeah, wow.

And so where it comes to the technology, technology's been around for over 50 years.

And uh Nevada, we were the one of the first states to change it for public use.

Um, if everyone recalls the MGM fire that we had in the early 80s, we had so many people die.

It's not just because of how quick the fire happened and how it moved, it's because a lot of smoke arms didn't go off.

And those are the type of smoke alarms they had back then.

We were one of the first states, if not the first, to change the fire code for commercial, you know, properties, so you'll see either sprinklers like we see here, or they are called optical alarms, optical alarms, they work a lot faster.

That's what we carry.

But we did everything our company since 1971, American made.

We've done everything that the experts on the federal level have recommended to have your house prepared for fire.

So, in other words, having something in your attic to notify you of an attic fire, your garage, your kitchen, it's very important.

So we've actually combined all those things together with our home safe network, and plenty of people in Sun City have it because they they see the value in it, how much more time it gives people.

But for us personally, our numbers are in our records.

We are still the only fire safety company here in the U.S.

that's never had a loss of life due to failure of our products.

That in it in and of itself says a lot.

Deanna Rear Cameron for the record.

Um, now I understand that you go home and you you go into their homes because I've had plenty of Sun City residents tell me, including David, our own board member, uh, go out and do the assessment and help them out.

Now, for the people who do want to move forward with it, because you can also, you don't just assess, you can also help them with the equipment is what I understand.

And so um, just for the record, is there like financing or how does that work for seniors?

You know, because a lot of them are on a budget.

True.

Um, and just for my own reference, I kind of want to know.

So when we're dealing with doesn't matter if it's a senior or just a young couple that's just starting out financially, if people are financing our equipment, they can get it as low as I think $27 a month.

So it's not no monthly, it's not that bad at all.

But that gives you the earliest notification.

It actually gives you your text messaging notifications too.

So if you had a fire right now you'd receive a text message.

More carbon monoxide leaks same thing.

So we have everything included in the system but we also give you extinguishers throughout the house which you should have at least two master bedroom and kitchen just for everybody's reference here.

Because the reason you want one in your master bedroom is if you have a nighttime fire, you have to make sure especially as a parent you can get to your children in the house.

So that fire may be separating the bedrooms you don't know where it's going to start.

So having the extinguisher can help you get everyone else in the house by having it in the master bedroom too.

So we go through everything from top to bottom the evaluation for a standard house let's say three bedroom takes 30 to 45 minutes.

But once again it's no cost to you plus we bring you a fire blanket or extinguisher as well just for your time.

We want to my job is to make sure you're safe and the reason I even started this company in Vegas I almost died in a house fire at four years old.

So I take this very seriously David Tillser Ward for first of all thank you for your military service.

Thank you.

Uh I was lucky enough to have David uh to my home and he assessed everything and we saw everything we were doing wrong and he points it out in a very nice way I now have the fire extinguishers I have the blankets I have one in the garage and one in the kitchen.

I have your stickers on the windows where they have to be and where you'd think there's not that much to know about this type of issue he points out that there really is.

And it's all simple a lot of it is common sense kind of stuff and um we listened to them we saw the videos and uh we learned a lot and we listened to it and we took notes and we actually made just about all of the the changes you had suggested and we appreciate it and in my ward I know I'm going to get out to some people there and let them know about this service and hopefully they'll take advantage of it and perhaps we could put groups together.

Yeah.

So you don't have to go to individuals houses but you can reach more than one or two people at a time so I will be doing that from starting I would say between what which you're planning on doing and you know Mary Fairhurst in your community she's doing very good with getting me to meet with individual block captains I believe.

So I'll come to everyone or someone's house and have maybe 15 people there so I can hit everybody at the same time.

So but I have I've had plenty of churches reach out to us we come out to churches HOAs schools as well so anywhere where we could be in front of people that's what I want to do.

Caroline Mosdean Ward six thank you David for such a informative uh presentation there are three things that actually caught my my attention as well one is about countertop appliances I think this is something that we probably all have and do never thought to unplug my courig or my uh toaster oven uh it seemed that it's just goes in the wall and it stays there and you use it and it works for you.

So that was a very interesting um uh an interesting comment and I think I'll be starting to make some changes in that um I've never been uh happy with home uh smoke alarms from the time that I moved into a house which was built in 2006 I did have a problem with it once and found out that was the first time um after coming out of New York we had a little bit different system but uh uh after coming here I found out that it doesn't go anywhere and I'm thinking to myself if there were a fire during the day well it's nice that there's a fire and this alarm is going off in the house and my pet is not able to get out because they don't know about that sound.

So I was never very happy with that.

So I called my alarm system back a few years ago and said what's going on with this and they said well you know it doesn't go anywhere.

So the answer to that was to put it in and add add alarms and put them in so that at least at the very least it goes to the alarm company.

Correct.

Right now I'm in the process thank you yes uh I was surprised and I maybe other people will be too I certainly will share this information.

Um but um uh I am in the process of uh building a new home or having a new home built um up in the Sunstone area and there were two things about that one is I noticed that they all well the rooms have sprinklers in them so I'm assuming that's a new uh regulation I don't know how effective they are or would be in a fire but they are look a lot like a hotel room when they've got these little little uh uh units uh up on the ceiling so can you address that yes and then um the other the other part of that is I did have the alarm company come in because I wanted to estimate what it would cost to do security and I reminded them that I wanted the same thing I want my alarm my spoke alarm to go elsewhere.

And I reminded them that I wanted the same thing.

I want my alarm, my smoke alarm to go elsewhere.

So uh I just had them last week, and they they're talking the same thing as is in this current house that the CO2 alarm goes in the laundry room, which is right by the garage, but up on the ceiling.

Now you've mentioned it should be on a lower lower uh project.

So can you tell us like how many feet would this go in the wall and about how many feet high that should be?

Thank you.

Yeah, so when it comes to carbon monoxide, the quote unquote science has changed over the past 20 years.

First they would say, yes, it needs to be the uh 12 to 12 inches from the floor, then they said it could be five feet from the floor, then they said, Oh, it could be on the ceiling.

So it this science, quote unquote, changes.

So ours we stick with the with the medium uh or the center position, uh, because whether if it is a little bit heavier than air, but once that AC or the heat's on and everything starts to move in the house, the carbon monoxide basically flows around the house like air.

Um what we see in terms of the quality of carbon monoxide alarms, that's tends to be the bigger issue.

And our headquarters in Dallas, we're members of so many federal organizations and agencies on fire and carbon monoxide, and I think I left a flyer in there for you guys as well.

That's one of them that we're with.

Um there's only two companies that I can say that have the best carbon monoxide alarms in the uh in the US would be ours, because ours can test at a very extreme extreme low level of carbon monoxide.

Um the most recent that I had one of our carbon monoxide alarms go off was only at 26 parts per million.

But if you read the back of a standard carbon monoxide alarm today from Home Depot, it's gonna say it won't go off until it gets to at least 70 parts per million.

70 parts per million after extended amount of time can actually start to have effects on pets, children, and seniors for the most part, at least in the beginning time period, and anybody who's compromised uh health-wise.

Um when it comes to sprinklers, so new construction code is that all new construction homes have to have sprinklers.

Sprinklers only work on one of the two types of fires.

You have a flaming fire, which is very hot, and that will activate the sprinklers, or you can have a slow smoldering fire, which just results in a just a bunch of smoke, and it may not erupt in the flames and for a few hours in some cases.

In that situation, the sprinkler will not work.

It only goes off when the ceiling gets to a certain temperature, usually at 135 degrees.

And some sprinkl, not some, but sprinkler systems do require some type of maintenance, whether if it is a soft flush on the when you flush your master bath and toilet, or if you have to have the company come on out and do a hard flush as well on the entire system since we do have hard water here in southern Nevada.

Thank you.

That's very helpful information.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um so David, um I just want to say thank you.

And um I always consider myself fairly informed, and and I give myself about a 20% here.

Okay out of a hundred.

I mean, I really do.

I mean, I'm typically on things.

Um how do how do we get this information?

Now is your is this your company?

Correct, yes.

I'm the owner operator.

Okay, good.

So the way that anyone can contact us, the easiest way is to go through our website, LV fires.com.

Okay.

You can uh request just for us to come on out and do a home evaluation or for me to come out to and host an event.

Everything's on the website.

Um for a group event, usually it's going to be two to three weeks out before we can accommodate that.

This is the busiest time of the Air Force, but we do try to accommodate as much as possible.

So we do have our actual working hours from 8 a.m.

till 8 p.m.

seven days a week.

And are you local?

Yes, we are.

Okay, and do you do I'm with the village foundation?

Uh no, actually.

Yeah, I'm the I'm with the village foundation.

And so, you know, we have lots of partners, and we in fact we have a big event coming up March the 7th.

Okay.

And I want to uh get something out to people because this is very important.

Absolutely.

Um, and so I'm gonna give you some information and maybe you let me know how we can do this.

And my neighborhood association uh uh we we're very into keeping up on things and and so I'd like to do my due diligence and get the word out.

I was just thinking, even just my family, my my sister and brother-in-law got a beautiful home, they wouldn't know what to do on any of this.

Yes, and mostly not only them, but people all around.

Uh we we do.

I I mean I've got my fire alarms um uh uh uh put up on the ceilings and everywhere, probably in every room.

Yep.

I have one.

Uh but I I'm just stunned that this is inadequate, quite frankly.

I'm just shocked.

I'm a little bit shocked quite frankly.

You get it right on the inadequate.

Yeah.

So um if I can give you any information and uh and contact the people and just get some help, I feel I think my responsibility is coming and being on the uh advisory senior citizen advisory board.

Okay.

Okay, so thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Deanna Rear Cameron for the record.

Any other questions for David.

David, I would like to thank you for taking the time to come here and share your information with us.

It is recorded and on YouTube, so I'll be sure and get you that information.

And it's something that you can even uh let people hear or use on your website, whatever you want.

Okay.

Um because your knowledge is amazing, and that's what I keep hearing out in the community.

And we're so grateful because for seniors this is obviously so vital.

It is so vital because of mobility issues.

And I think it's just um a huge part of aging in place, which is what most people want to do.

They want to age out in their home.

Or their apartments if they're living in a building, and this is so vital.

And we actually uh the vice chair is actually uh administrator of a building.

So I know she knows the importance of every bit of this, and it's just so amazing that you took the time to come educate us, and I'm just grateful.

And I'm also having an event um the end of this month.

So uh in case you need to remind me and follow up with me that I would love to have you out.

Um it's on the southeast side, and I know you pretty much work the valley, correct?

No, I work all over the city.

All of it.

Yeah, okay, perfect.

Um, because they're 55 plus homes and I know they need to have you in there.

Absolutely so we can get in, get you in the event and then follow up with an educational event after.

All right.

Because I want to make sure I don't have any more stories of seniors.

I can't I just can't.

I can't.

Um thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

I appreciate everyone.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, so amazing.

And now we go to item number six, report by Olga Flowers.

Uh actually it's Gregory Gray today.

Filling in for Olga, community program technician regarding senior issues received through the Health and Wellness Initiative.

All words.

Gregory Gray for the record.

Um, we do not have anything to report at this time.

Thank you.

Item number seven, report by board members regarding senior issues and events within their council wards and at large, all wards.

And first we have word one, Nicole.

Hello everyone, Nicole Graham Ward One.

Um, no real big updates for Ward One.

Um, I know we've talked about many times, uh, making sure uh we all we are all part of our Ward One newsletters that come out, but there's also newsletter that comes out at the Alts and C Arts and Cultural.

So please make sure you are um in tune and looking at those.

There's tons of events that are going on.

Um and arts and culture is a great one as well.

That's it.

Thank you.

And word three, we have Jennifer.

Hi, uh this is uh member drum.

On um January 14th, I attended with councilwoman Diaz.

Uh she hosted Bingo with the City Impact Seniors at their at their um facility there.

It was beautiful, great participation, had a good time.

Um I attended our first Tuesday with the downtown area command and the presentation was by the FBI and part of the presentation covered elder fraud.

There were some really good points that the um FDI agent brought up, which I just want to share really quick uh ways that we can protect ourselves.

Um if you get an email from somebody that you don't know and there's links in there, don't click on the links because that is a way to quickly let somebody take control of your um computer with without your knowledge.

Uh if you there's a lot of double check.

So people are getting phone calls that they need to give money or gift cards or something to help a grandchild or somebody else in the family.

Verify with somebody before you do that.

That's a lot of scams that are going on.

One other thing to know if you're getting random phone calls from people asking for money.

You have the power to hang up or just not even answer that car call.

So keep that in mind.

There's good information available at FBI.gov forward slash elderfraud.

And then if you have anything that you need to report, um, another website to go to is I as an ice season cat, the number three dot gov.

And you can report um fraud there on that website.

It was uh it was very informational.

And then um upcoming uh Councilwoman Diaz will be at some lunar new year festivities with some of our senior um living places this month, later in the month.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And ward four, we have David.

David Tillser Ward 4.

Uh we're continuing to hear about uh senior scams through Medicare and Medicaid.

So we implore people to please continue to monitor your monthly summaries from these two and make sure that your summaries reflect only the items and services that you're getting.

Uh on Saturday, January 3rd, I attended the police appreciation day at the Memorial Park in Summerlin.

I met with a bunch of senior groups that were represented.

And there was a representative there from a uh a group called Moore, M-O-R-E.

Uh, it stands for the multi-agency outreach resource engagement.

Uh, it's a direct service for seniors that need help with various items.

Uh, instead of getting all different types of runaround from different agencies, this is one that you can go to direct.

Uh, I have a bunch of their cards that I'll give to the members of the board here, and as needed, they can give them out to the people uh that they represent.

Uh, and then uh finally on Monday, January 26th, uh, there was a print presentation uh called Slam the Scam in Sun City.

Uh, we had speakers from the state criminal investigation division, Metro, the state contractors board, and very interestingly, from the manager of the Wells Fargo Bank.

Uh uh Wells Fargo Bank in the area that represents covers Sun City.

Uh, they're now having their tellers and people that work there question any large amounts that are being taken out by seniors uh for the only reason to make sure that it's not part of a scam where somebody's asking for a lot of money uh quickly and then uh they're losing it.

Uh over 350 people attended.

Uh I would like to thank our chairperson, Aurilla Cameron, who did attend, and she knew every one of the speakers there.

And uh I'm sure should we need help with any assistance from any of these departments?

Uh they really look forward to helping her and us.

Uh so I appreciated her coming.

And I think it was a great uh great morning.

There was a lot more people than we thought would show up.

They kept bringing out more chairs.

There were people standing in the halls, and it was very interesting.

So uh we have a few things going forward.

Uh I do have some flyers here that I'll give to the board members.

Uh that's it.

Have a lovely month.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

And ward four would be also myself, Tiana Rare Cameron.

And the event, I want to start with that.

So absolutely wonderful to see so many older adults come out for this information.

And what it said to me is the need is great.

The amount of abuse and the amount of scams is over the top right now in our valley.

Uh, it was so wonderful to reconnect with some of the speakers that I hadn't talked to uh since before the holidays because of schedules, and we are definitely gonna be doing a lot of events through seniors in law enforcement together to really get the information out because yes, you have a lot of people who come out for these events, but what about the ones that are isolated?

We go back to that story just like we have for a very long time.

So we're putting our heads together, all of the agencies so that we can see how we can address this in a better way moving forward, especially when we're telling them not to open emails or answer calls.

It's the same thing that Gregory and I went to during the pandemic.

We did such a good job of telling them to be careful, but then when we need to reach them, we can't.

So it's time that we all put our heads together for solutions in that and be able to, you know, like the seniors helping seniors get seniors to help by telling their neighbors, bringing the information to their neighbors, so you know, things like that, so that we can get that taken care of.

Um the the slam the scam was just absolutely amazing.

And I did talk to the Sun City Wells Fargo branch manager.

I'm in there all the time, that's my bank.

And I was there at one point, um, probably six months ago, when a senior was in there and was talking to one of their people, and she kept saying that her daughter was following her, that her husband had recently passed away, and that she thought her daughter was, you know, after the estate, etc.

And I did hear someone say, I'm not saying it was, you know, someone that works there, but someone said, you know, she's been doing this a lot, and we think after the passing, you know, her cognitive whatever.

And my thing is though, we can't always assume it's cognitive because these things are happening in our community as I speak.

So rather than assume that, I made sure that they got her on the phone with APS.

It was a long hold wait.

So I had to leave, unfortunately, because I had an appointment, but I did address it with them at that point and just told them and gave them my card and said, if you see this happening, even if you have to call my cell phone because we don't want to just release them, like look outside, see if you see anybody that looks suspicious, you know, especially if you're gonna be a branch right there in Sun City, and they were so warm and welcoming about it.

So it was so wonderful to see them there to take the extra step.

I don't always see the banks there at these scam things and actually talking.

So I thought that was beautiful.

I have had three cases just in one week alone recently, all of them elder abuse.

One was the governor-appointed attorney who has spoken to us prior, and she actually was getting involved in a case that was elder abuse, and luckily she did exactly what needed to be done.

But then the senior was left with needing food to come to their home, and that seems to be a difficult resource right now, also.

It's about getting people to pantries, but in her case, she's a caregiver for her son, and this senior is a hundred and two, so we can't expect that she's gonna be out on the roads driving.

So they were looking for check-ins and food to be delivered.

So it sent me down the rabbit hole again, realizing we just don't have enough of those resources for the amount of people.

We have resources, but they're slim.

So there's a great need there.

The other two abuse cases were almost identical.

They were both nieces that were abusing uh the elders, and one of them there was no POA, the aunt had just helped, and it was right there in our Sun City, and so I did once again get Shauna involved.

She and I make an interesting team lately, and uh, you know, everything had been done properly, getting the protective order, but waiting for the protective order to be served.

You know, this beautiful senior was so stressed, and she's like, I'm gonna need counseling now.

And then it really hit me because I do counseling, so it really hit me just how far these scams are really just changing lives.

It's not just about what the person has done with the house with the money, etc.

It changes what's going on in their mind and their everyday living moving forward.

And I'm seeing one too many of these were families involved.

So when you're out there and you hear something, don't ever assume the person is just saying something, once again, just like at the bank, always get more information.

I know David, before we started the meeting, you know, he checks in with one who recently um you know is widowed, and it's things like that because if the family's involved, but yet they see people involved and eyes are on the situation, it may help.

Um they may not take it as far, they may not go further with it, not to mention um, then we can turn it in just for them to look, right?

Adult protective services can at least take a peek at the situation.

Um, before it goes so far that the senior doesn't even want to speak because they're afraid in the state of Nevada, they have to speak up, and if they do not, there's not a lot we can do, and it's really sad, but it is a truth.

So if we can nip it in the buzz sooner.

I have a lot of other things I can talk about, but for the interest of time, I'm gonna move on.

And so next we have Word Five, Linda.

Thank you so much.

And always these are such interesting meetings, and I'm uh I mean, I'm always amazed at the information I don't know.

If I'm supposedly knowledgeable, what's what's happening?

Anyway, thank you so so much for that.

Um, you know that that whole statement that says knowledge is power.

Um, even for seniors who tend to feel like their power has evaded them, having knowledge about these things really does elevate not only the cognitive part of what we do, but also the social and the connective part.

So this is really important.

So thank you all to the staff people for what you do.

It's it's very important, and don't think it's not being noted.

Um, the other thing I would just want to say for many of us to know is to grow.

We tend to think also that as we age we don't grow anymore, and that's not true.

Um, one of the things that uh I wanted to do, and we're working toward that, is uh pulling together our partnerships between the churches, um, particularly in Ward 5, and the um different uh entities and organizations such as mine, which is the Village Foundation, and the different homeowners associations and neighborhood association.

So we're looking at doing that, and one of the groups um we we're working with or moving toward is the Martin Luther King Senior Citizen uh EOB of Clark County with Byron Goans and that whole group.

So uh Mr.

Gray, you and I are we're we're gonna work together to do that connection.

And um the Doolittle Senior Citizen uh program as well.

So we're kind of getting started and moving in that direction, and we'd love to partnership with some of you all on some of your programs and even come out, but we think it's really important, such as what um what David Ricketts just provided for us.

I can't tell you how many people don't know about that.

And and it will literally will save lives.

Um the only thing I'd like to add with all of this is that we are looking at providing more information for awareness of seniors with limited income to be able to improve their homes.

You know, it's the no matter what you do with your homes, they do require maintenance.

And if you don't provide the maintenance, it gets worse year by year.

So we're looking at finding uh kind of a, and I think there's some of that out there, we just have to do a little more research of finding what the churches and some of the other organizations can provide seniors maybe 40, 50 percent discount or something to help maintain their homes with limited income.

So that's kind of the thing that the direction we're going on, and um, if I just can finalize this, um, is that um we're thankful to uh uh groups like what we have here, our senior citizen board.

Thank you for what you guys do.

But this is important work, and we want to continue and elevate the work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Linda.

And for ward six, we have Caroline.

Thank you, Caroline Mose Dean.

Well, ward six.

Uh at uh Nancy Bruni, our council's ward six councilwoman, uh, at her town hall recently, she had a speaker uh from the Las Vegas Water District, Doa Ross.

And the town hall was well represented uh all age groups, of course, but many, many seniors.

I was surprised to see that so many seniors came out in the evening, and they certainly took part and wanted to hear about the water situation we have here, and they had many good questions to ask.

And I wanted to mention that if any of the other uh wards have an interest, I would certainly suggest that you get in touch with Doah Ross to ask her to speak before your uh at your one one of your ward meetings or town hall meetings, or ask it uh your council person if they could make that arrangement because there were a lot of questions, of course, about in ward six about the new uh planned community up towards Kyle Canyon that had a lot of interest, but people living here, we all have the same kind of feeling.

Oh gosh, how can you build so much so many homes when we have such a water shortage?

So this was explained thoroughly by DOA about how this works and how because of conservation, how we have actually we are actually using less water than we did many years ago because of the conservation uh efforts of our city and our state, our city, and our residents.

So um I would encourage everyone to try to get that so we can dispel misinformation and get it on to good information.

Um other than that, I have no report at this, no other report at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Caroline, and I'm sending you lots of healing.

And now we have item number eight, discussion regarding next steps and future meeting topics of the senior citizens advisory board, all wards.

I know uh Chair Wear Cameron, we have had a lot of discussion in the past, and I have been uh really trying to get our speakers in those directions for us.

And so if there's anything else that anyone would like to add, Gregory.

Gregory Gray, for the record.

Um, in light of the comments from Member Tilzer and Member Young, I think it may be pertinent to have one of the administrators from neighborhood services come in and discuss more about the Moore team.

Yeah.

And the services that they provide, as well as the SHIFT program, which is the safe home improvements funding and training program, which is geared to help um low-income vulnerable peoples and families with home improvements.

Um, so we can definitely have them come in and talk about that program as well.

Perfect.

Um Deanna Rear Cameron for the record.

Do you want to work on that for March?

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

And then I'll tell anyone I had to later in the year.

I think that's wonderful because it's been a while since we've had more team here, actually.

And so an update would be great because I know they helped me with the homeless situation, and and they really helped me to understand when to call who, when to call them versus when to call Metro, because that was something I really didn't know.

And we had a really bad repeat offender that they can't get a handle on, and so she comes around every now and then, but I know how to handle it now, which is beautiful.

So that would be wonderful.

Does anyone else have any other discussion on any next steps or future discussions?

Uh have we had any discussions um and over the years, and you and I just have been here a little under year, um, about what they call service dogs.

These are dogs or animals that help people that have physical, sometimes even emotional, they got on uh support, and even just in the shelters uh where seniors may sometimes feel a little bit lonely.

The shelters sometimes have um just some encouragement for those that tend to be um um inclined to stay in uh to perhaps think about uh adopting an animal uh and helping to support the animals who are sometimes having to be euthanized because no one picks them up.

Uh is there just any discussion about that and support staff support for those people who do uh take on an animal who feel like I'm just me and I don't know what to do.

If there was a support team around, I would do that.

So just something like that.

I did a uh an animal I pulled one out of the shelter, and we're just good buddies for you and I we're good buddies.

I know, but it's a lot of work though, it's still work.

Uh people need to know about that.

Um we have had brief discussions on it.

I will look into who would be a great speaker on the service dogs, especially understanding the um laws regarding them and and um best use, so to speak, of you know, a service dog because they um are very important, and I know a lot of the associations do have speakers that talk to them, uh, you know, like Lung Association, Heart Association, ones where people definitely have conditions where um they utilize the service dogs as far as other resources.

I do have one rescue, I love rescues, um, that I am in the works of right now um doing some events this year called Seniors for Seniors, because the senior pets are the ones that unfortunately tend to not get adopted, and then I can also talk to them uh about taking it a step further.

Um, you know, I know there was, I'm not sure I need to do homework on it, but there was uh an association that was helping with the food for seniors with pets.

So I need to see if they're still in existence or not, because that was mainly during the pandemic, and I do not recall if they are still doing it.

I know, I haven't heard anything either, so that's perfect.

I'll look into that speaker and um the food, and we'll put our heads together here, chair and vice chair.

We'll get our resources together.

Um, since we're both in the industry and find out, you know, what who would be best for that?

Because I think that would be amazing because um, first of all, when they're isolated is a problem, and and having a pet really helps with that.

Um, it actually helps with their cognitive too.

So um I think that's really beautiful.

So we'll look into that for also speaker down the road.

That's a wonderful suggestion, Linda.

And is there any other discussion regarding any next steps?

Yes, Caroline.

Caroline Mosley Ward 6.

I would just like to also just remind people about the Nevada, excuse me, about the PowerShip by Nevada Power.

They do offer a free bundled appointment, and there's many things that people can get from Nevada Power that they may not be aware of, and it's a free assessment, an energy assessment.

So at this time going into the hotter weather when we use so much electric uh for our air conditioning and things of that sort, they offer the free thermostat and free uh installation for that and some other customized savings depending on what your home needs are.

Uh they do provide some light bulbs and things of that sort, which can be expensive for seniors, but they can uh provide some of those for you at little to no cost.

So if anyone is interested, uh don't forget to contact Nevada Energy for that type of uh assessment.

Wonderful reminder, thank you.

Any other discussion on next steps or future meeting topics?

Okay, item number nine, citizens' participation.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the board.

No subject may be acted upon by the board unless that subject is on the agenda and is scheduled for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion on any single subject, as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed, may be limited.

Do we have any citizens' participation?

Seeing and hearing none, our next senior citizens advisory board meeting will be on March 5th of 2026 at 1 p.m.

Thank you.

We are now adjourned.