Good morning, everyone.

It is 10 oh two.

I will call this Board of County Commissioners meeting to order on October 21st, 2025.

We will start with a salute to the flag.

We have Chief Edwards here, so hopefully he can lead us in the salute.

And see the republic for which it stands.

And invisible liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

We'll now do roll call, Madam Clerk.

Alexis here hill chair.

Here.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Andriola.

Present.

Interim manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

Chief DA Mike Large.

Present.

And I'm Jan Gellasenior County Clerk.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

And we are going to start with an informational item before public comment so Chief Edwards can get back to work.

This is item 3A1, Manager Thomas.

Welcome, Chief Edwards.

Item 3A1 is a general update from Trucky Meadows Fire and Rescue.

We've got our Chief Ed Edwards here who's available to provide the Board of County Commissioners with a verbal report on fuel management and emergency planning and any other updates as required monthly to the board and to update the community related to our fire activities.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, and Commissioners.

Richard Edwards, Fire Chief.

And I have the distinct privilege to lead the incredible men and women of the Trucky Meadows Fire Protection District.

So we have a little bit of an update for you in some of the programs that we're working on right now.

As the seasons are starting to change, we're starting to feel uh the temperatures changing.

We're starting to see get a little precipitation.

Um that's welcome uh from us in the fire protection world as that means our fire risk is also reducing, uh which is very important for us here locally.

Um we're starting to see our our number of larger fires significantly drop off.

Uh we have not had any fires larger than five acres in over 45 days now.

Uh so that's some really good news.

Um and nationally, actually, uh the pre preparedness level is also dropped.

Um so at the height of fire season in the middle of summer, when all the crews are committed to incidents, that's a level five.

Um that's the worst.

Um right now we're back to a preparedness level of one.

Um so we have a lot of federal resources available, and actually our federal partners are starting to transition from fire protection and move into more fuels mitigation type work right now as well.

Um but I think it's also really important to note that we should not be letting our guard down because as we get these cold fronts that move through, uh, we can get some pretty uh significant wind events.

Um and we've seen some of our region's largest fires uh during the months of November and December, or some of our most destructive fires.

And part of that is we become complacent.

We think we've had a little bit of moisture and we can't have big fires, but that's not necessarily the case.

So, in you know, in alignment with uh October being fire prevention month.

Also wanted to share some important tips uh for everyone in the audience today and our our viewers at home.

Um, that you know, vegetation management and our fuel mitigation should be things we think about year-round.

Um, and this is a great time to take uh a little bit of action as the weather is a little bit more favorable for getting outside and and taking care of some of our overgrown vegetation that maybe we put off uh during the the warmer winter or summer months.

Um and as the we as the fire protection specialist, we look at three different zones around our homes uh to prevent against that amber cast.

So when big wildfires come through, you get a lot of embers that blow through, and that's really what causes the damage to uh everyone's homes afterwards.

Um and so what we really want to uh recommend to folks is that um there's three different zones to protect your homes.

And that first zone is that zero to five feet from your your structure.

Um really what we'd like to see here is non-combustible, no plants, no vegetation, rocks, or hardscape only, and that way that the embers that are blown across don't have an area to collect and and burn anything that's gonna be flammable there.

Um then second zone is the the five foot to the thirty-foot zone.

And this is where you have some of your your your ladder fuels, your brush and your shrubs that can then catch fire and then uh transmit that fire up into the trees.

Uh so we really ask people to kind of limit the height of their vegetation there to no more than two or three feet, and then trim your trees up, uh your branches all the way up between six and ten feet, uh, whatever you can reach to.

And what that does is it keeps the fires from uh getting from the ground up into the trees and then becoming a crown fire and running throughout uh the trees or the forest that way.

Um we're also looking at you know, as you get up to that 30 foot range to make sure your trees are separated, this is the canopies are more than 10 feet apart between the trees, and that you don't have any trees within that 10 foot uh perimeter as well up against your home.

So that the tree catches fire, it's not gonna then transmit to your home as well.

And then we also look at that 30 foot to 100 foot range to do the same, but also make sure your your your trees are have a little bit more spacing between those as well.

Is that 12 foot is the recommendation there?

At the same time, we can also do some some home hardening, uh so cleaning the debris, uh the pine needles and stuff from your roofs, your rain gutters underneath your your decks where those will tend to collect.

Um make sure also that we're as we're getting ready for winter and we're stacking our firewood, uh, that we don't have our wood piles up against the house.

We'd like to see those about 30 feet away as well.

Um, and then a good opportunity to also look at the vents.

So, recommendations right now are for vent screens should not have openings larger than one sixteenth to one eighth of an inch.

And again, that really protects those end bursts from being blown into your attic or your underneath your crawl space of your homes because the biggest uh hazard for us is after a fire blows through an area is that you get those embers that linger behind, and those embers can linger for days actually, and that's where we'd see uh some of the biggest damage afterwards.

So we're continuing to chase the fire, we're not looking for that one ember, um, and it gets in there and finds that that that combustible material and then burns the home.

Um also asking folks to make sure their the driveways and the roadways are clear, so we have 10 foot clearance so we can get our fire apparatus in to protect your homes, very important.

Um, and then make sure that your your address is also clearly marked.

Um so if you have an emergency, you're needing help uh being evacuated or something else, that we can actually find you in time of need.

Um then just uh another tidbit there is also knowing how to open your garage doors.

Um during our bigger fires, uh the energy company will come in and turn off power.

So you're not gonna be able to go out and hit your garage door opener and have it work as normal.

Know how that door operates uh without power as well, so that you can get out and evacuate if your car is in the garage.

So all of these actions together are very helpful for us as firefighters as well because as we have limited resources, we also look to see where can we make the biggest difference?

Where can we stop that fire?

Um, and if homes that have these home hardening things in place already, it's easier for us to defend compared to those that don't.

Um, that it's going to take a lot more action or a lot more firefighters to defend those homes.

So we encourage people to do their part, take care of their vegetation and stuff so that we can protect their home to the best of our abilities during a wildfire.

Um I say all this as we're also doing a lot of green waste uh collections this month.

Really important for all of our community members.

Uh we've had five events.

Um we have two more events this coming weekend.

Uh the first weekend was down in East Lake.

We had 354 loads of vegetation that were dropped off, which was pretty considerable.

Um, and then we did even better last weekend at Silver Lake, where we had 366 loads of green waste that were brought in, and our fuels teams were chipping that material or putting into dumpsters and partner with uh waste management to haul that off as well.

We do have one more uh green waste collection uh weekend ahead of us on this Saturday, uh October 25th.

We have a location in Spanish Springs and in Palomino Valley.

And if people are interested, please go to our website, TMFPD.us.

Um, we have a yellow banner across the middle of our web page there.

You click on that, it'll give you the times and the specific locations and what uh materials that you can drop off there so that we can continue to improve our wildfire preparedness across the entire county.

Um and then the last thing I wanted to share is that we also are looking to open uh up our open burning program a little bit earlier this year.

So those folks that are on property more than an acre in size that have that ability to burn, um we're looking to revamp that program to open it on November 1st.

And the website will be updated later this week to announce all those changes so that again we can reduce those fuels uh across our region.

So hopefully we're also reducing the risk of wildfires.

So that concludes my update.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Chief.

And Vice Chair Herman, thank you so much for asking the chief to come once a month.

Do you have any questions or comments?

No, I just said two up the good board.

Wonderful.

And uh Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning.

Thank you for the update.

Uh, we're 20 days into a government shutdown, and I was just curious to see if you've heard any rumblings from our federal partnering agencies in terms of if something were to happen, knocking on wood.

Um, but that and how that could potentially impact incident command when we're working with U.S.

Forest Service or BLM.

Um, what are you hearing, or what are we doing in terms of um contingency in case something does happen?

That's a great question.

Um, so right now we're not seeing any impacts to our federal partners.

Um, what we are seeing though is our federal partners are starting to transition from fire suppression activities to more fuels mitigation projects as the weather's change.

So they're starting to downstaff as they would normally right now during the season.

Um, but we do maintain their ability for them to call back.

Um it just takes a little bit longer for them to staff those resources, and then we just uh also have mutual aid across the state as well, um, so that we can call our regional partners in to help should we have a major event.

So we're we're still very well protected.

Okay, sounds good.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andrew.

No questions, just thank you so much for the update.

Thanks for all your hard work and everyone, and thanks for even getting things a little early for November 1st.

So looking forward to that.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you uh for the good report.

Uh I was one of the uh 354 loads.

I missed you the day uh I brought a load of uh uh branches and and limbs and that type of thing.

But it's just phenomenal.

You you back your trailer in and then the crew get it get on it and and unload it for you.

You're out of there in like two or three minutes.

Might take you an hour to load up the trailer, but they uh they unloaded that trailer in two or three minutes.

It was like a bunch of ants attacking a picnic the way they jumped on it, and and there was you know lots of folks waiting in line, but it's just a great job, and it's just a great uh something for for the citizens.

And if anybody has branches or limbs, uh pickup truck or trailer or whatever, you show up and and they'll uh unload it for you and you'll be on your way.

Uh, you don't have to pay, it's not like the dump where you have to pay and unload it yourself.

You don't have to pay, and it gets unloaded.

So they did a great job and just uh very professional the way they organize the uh line to get into the the facility.

And you're in and out and uh off down the road doing something else.

So it's very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Chief Edwards.

We appreciate it, and we'll see you next month.

All right, sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we will now move in to our public comment.

Manager Thomas Comment heard under this item is limited to three minutes per person, and it may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers, and the commission will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person.

Comments are to be made to the commission as a whole.

Virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

A speaker's viewpoint will not be restricted, however, reasonable restrictions may be imposed upon the time, place, and manner of speech, irrelevant statements, unduly repetitious statements, and personal attacks that would objectively antagonize or incite others or examples of speech that may be reasonably limited.

The Board of County Commissioners carries out the business of Washoe County and its residents during its meetings.

The presiding officer may order a person removed if the person's conduct or statements disrupt the overall safety of the meeting.

Warnings about disruptive conduct or comments may or may not be given prior to removal.

Furthermore, certain disruptions of a public meeting are criminal acts as defined under state law, which may result in prosecution inappropriate cases.

Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk.

We have several people signed in.

So the second name, if you would cue up.

Um, first up, we have Terry Brooks, followed by Vicky Railton.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

And today I'd like to render on the act of discrimination when it comes to education and gender.

When I was a kid and went to public schools, they allowed both girls and boys.

I was really glad they did.

I was overcome with joys.

There at that time, only girls were allowed to go to two small colleges.

Because there was a large university for boys only.

So girls could go to the two small colleges.

But by the time I graduated high school and went to the university, they allowed both boys and girls, and I fully appreciated the diversity.

And later on, one of those small colleges where only girls could go to, started allowing boys to attend, so I could go there too.

When I had gone to that university, all my instructors were men.

But then when I went to that small college, my instructors were women as well as men.

I learned a lot when I went to that university, and when I went to that small college, I learned even more about diversity.

And years later, I went back to that university again, and this time I had more women instructors than I had who were men.

And in a lot of classes, our instructors would divide us into discussion groups.

I noticed that there were both boys and girls in each and every one of those groups.

So in those mixed discussion groups, we all learn from various points of view.

And the more we listened to each other, then the more we knew.

And by going to different classes with different genders as teachers, we could learn even more with different perspectives of different features.

So eventually mixing gene genders in education was well done.

Not only did we learn a lot more, but going to class was a lot more fun.

So gender and education has improved that much I know.

But there are still other factors in which we still have a ways to go.

I would like to thank you all for listening to me today, and I appreciate the diversity that I see here today.

Thank you, Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you.

Vicky Ralston, followed by Nicole Harris.

Madam Chair and Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity for me to speak today.

I'm here in reference to the Verde TV district in appearance because state law now requires that they have a website.

So thank you very much for that.

However, I welcome each of you to Google Verde TV District and experience for yourself what is available.

The board meeting I attended in April 2025, I asked for transparency and accountability of where my tax dollar goes.

Money in, money out.

I was given two different budgets, both similar.

However, a budget with office expenses and salaries is not acceptable financial accounting and is not what I asked for.

In a year's time since KOLO aired the first of three stories on the Verde TV district, they had done very little, if anything, to improve or make readily available the information that we have a right to see.

They claim that everything I ask for is available, but that requires personally going to several separate government buildings.

KOLO encountered the same gaslighting, and neither of us obtained answers specifically where do my tax dollars go.

It's my understanding that the Verde TV district uses tax dollars to maintain one tower on P-Vine Mountain for residents to get basic programming, and more importantly, a way to receive news in case of an emergency.

The truth is this one tower works intermittently at best.

My conclusion in a year's time is that they have no conscience of who they are serving and excluding, which is now in 2025 a very large district.

I strongly request a financial investigation into these people and this entity to answer our question of where our money has gone for decades.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Vicky.

Nicole Harris, followed by Tammy Holt still.

Okay.

Good morning, Commissioners.

As you can see, my name is Nicole Harris.

I helped Senior Rescue Magazine, as well as the Reno Elks Lodge, put on the senior cooking class October 15th with guest chef Becky Den.

I'm here today to thank Commissioner Herman for her donation of $5,000 towards the senior cooking class.

A lot has been said about seniors and how much services we receive or not receive.

This particular senior cooking class had a roster of close to 80 folks there.

This event was no charge to the seniors.

They could come in between 11 and uh one o'clock, enjoy the cooking class, learn a little bit about the secrets that Chef Becky had, and they got to sit with their friends.

So now we're expanding that program to include our senior living communities.

If they would like to um I don't want to say bust them, but to shepher their citizens that are residing at the communities to come join this.

So I want to thank Commissioner Herman for allocating $5,000 to the Reno Elks, specifically with the cooking class.

As our last event, um this is the senior rescue magazine.

We also publicize that event.

Again, this is no charge tourist seniors.

It's open to all seniors.

They can come, they can register if they wish, and we also are asking for donations because we have seniors who would like to donate, and so we have a donation basket, and they put in um money, and at this particular one, we're able to collect 226 dollars, which will go towards supporting this program.

A gentleman from the October cooking class sent us an email.

When's the next one?

And what's on the menu?

And I go, well, we're working on that.

Um we did have Reno Recipes Chef Chapin come in um several months ago, I believe it was September, October, and we've had um 35 seniors attend, and then another 39.

So I want to publicly thank Commissioner Herman for giving these funds tests, and I encourage all the other commissioners to come join us and consider giving us money.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tammy Holt still, followed by Russ Earl.

Tammy Holt still for the record.

I'm before you today.

I want to thank Kent Commissioner Herman for her dedication to the North Valleys.

This is her final year coming up, and because it is her final year, this is my announcement that I intend to run for her seat.

This is my letter of intent that you see before you today.

Um my background is that I have been with the state or been in the state of Nevada since I was a sophomore in high school.

I graduated from Carson City in 1981.

Um I moved here in 2012.

I've been in the North Valleys since then, married my husband who has had his home since the last 40 years, started in 2017, fighting for the North Valleys, and have been fighting ever since.

My background is with the state of Nevada.

I have learned a lot with the NRS's and the NACs.

I believe in the Constitution and transparency in government.

And I believe that I can make a difference, and I want to fight for the citizens in the North Valleys.

I also believe that in family and community health and infrastructure and responsibility in government is another part of my situation that I believe in.

Thank you.

Russ Earl, followed by Blake Vanderwell.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Russ Earl for the record, I'm a Silver Knolls resident, and this pertains to what will be your item 17 on today's agenda, their Silver Hills uh East extension to their uh planning.

Um I think if you would ever look up in the dictionary what a ghost or zombie project would be, this would probably show up as the definition.

I've been at this working with this developer and then working against this developer uh since the very beginning.

We're going back to about 2004.

Uh he's worked with us, he came to an agreement with the community as to what it was going to be, and then reneged on that plan when he, in my estimation or my personal view, got greedy.

Um this is also this project has been denied before.

Uh back in July 6th of 2021, uh, the Regional Planning Commission found that it did not meet the findings.

Water, sewer, traffic, and it was denied.

Washoe County Commission overturned that.

Um I have my beliefs as to why, but uh it happened.

This is the second lapse that they've had in their timelines.

They've done this once before.

We're two months after the expiration of the four years they had to submit documents in a timely fashion.

This is also their third attempt to come up with a way to come up with water.

So, how many times do we keep letting them uh do this and fail or not try all that hard?

I know this time they have some issues trying to come across the airport.

They've tried to go down Red Rock, they've tried to go down Osage, they've tried to go down the easement along the airport.

It's all been problematic.

The biggest problem I have right now is what we're going to get for congestion in the North Valleys.

The infrastructure act under the Biden administration was basically dismantled under the current administration.

And that money has uh what they call clawback, even if it was a uh attributed to a project, the federal government's taking it back.

The 395 improvement project from Golden Valley North up to Stead, 40% of that project was paid for by Federal infrastructure money, which isn't there anymore.

I've tried to get NDOT to commit that yes, we have the money or no we don't, and I can't get answers from them.

So where do we stand on that?

Who knows?

Um this is just gonna make all of the development that we have right now is north of STED, and there is no solid timeline by NDOT to improve anything north of STED.

It's maybe in the in the late 2030s, but there's no money allocated for that right now, uh, and it's solid form.

We've now got Stone Gate resurrected again, where there will be about uh 1,500 homes.

We've got over 7,000 zombie project homes approved on Red Rock alone.

At this point, how much more do we really need if they can't make their timelines?

I don't think we should keep kicking the can down the road and letting them have more and more leeway as to what they want to do because they've also said in this document they might want to change zoning again.

So I am definitely not in favor of this.

I hope you have a good day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Blake Vanderwell, followed by Catherine Yarte.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Nice to see you again.

Uh my name is Blake Vanderwell, President and CEO of Senior Rescue, providing rental assistance to senior and senior veterans in Washoe County as a nonprofit.

I am here today to thank Commissioner Herman for her generous donation to help support seniors in Washoe County.

Thank you.

Uh I am also here to make a plea to those on the commission who have not donated to consider please consider doing so.

Since senior rescue was started in May of 2024, it has had a significant impact on the seniors of this community.

We have been working closely with Reno Housing Authority to make sure our services work cohesively.

Senior rescue needs more funding, and we are diligently pursuing community foundations that support housing and planning future fundraising events.

We are now able, with the help of some individuals proficient in writing grants, to be able to start applying, but that takes time.

And with that said, in the current federal government environment, cutting back on these available grants, community funding and your support is more important than ever.

Many senior many of senior rescue's referrals come from Washoe County Senior Services, Washoe County Department of Welfare, and other Washoe County agencies, as well as Reno Housing Authority, Catholic Charities, and others.

Lower income seniors in Washoe County are still having a difficult time with rising rents.

It is not or not is not a matter of enough housing.

The issue is the number of Section 8 vouchers that are currently available.

We need more, and I know this is a federal issue, but we need to make our voices heard.

Many of our seniors are already living in units that will accept these vouchers.

Many don't even know they can apply, and many don't even know they exist.

I'm still taken aback that these folks are so happy to have someone to help and care about them.

They are unbelievably grateful, even for as little as 40 dollars a month.

I would like to again thank Commissioner Herman for her donation, and I would also like to thank Commissioner Clark for his continued support.

And again, I encourage all of you to help support senior rescue to help our seniors in Washoe County.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Catherine Yarte, followed by Oscar Williams.

Thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Catherine Yarte, and I live in District 5.

I've come here today as a resident, a small business owner, and a proud Nevada and who deeply cares about the direction of our country and our county.

I'm also running for the District 5 seat, currently held by Commissioner Gene Herman, and I want to begin by expressing my deepest respect and appreciation for her years of dedication and service to our rural communities.

Over the years, I've worked alongside local organizations and community groups, strengthening the connection between Washoe County's rural and suburban areas.

Through that work, I've seen firsthand how much potential we have when we focus on listening, collaboration, and common sense leadership.

My professional and personal experiences have shown me that the challenges that many in our county face, from small business owners navigating outdated regulations to families struggling for resources to better care for their aging and disabled family members to rural residents who feel their concerns are often overlooked.

I believe we can do better, and I believe that starts with communication, compassion, and accountability.

I'm guided by my faith, family, and a deep sense of responsibility to serve with integrity.

My goal is to help build a county government that works efficiently, respects property rights, protects open spaces, and supports the people who make Washoe County strong.

District 5 represents the heart of who we are as Nevadans, hardworking, independent, and deeply connected to the land.

I want to ensure that every decision made at this table reflects those values and that no part of our community feels left behind.

For me, this moment is not about politics, it's about people.

It's about ensuring that every resident, from our ranchers and agricultural families to our growing neighborhoods and small towns, have a voice and that feels heard and valued.

Thank you for your time today and your continued commitment to serving the people of Washoe County.

I look forward to listening, learning, and contributing in whatever way I can to strengthen our shared future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oscar Williams, followed by Susan Walls.

Good morning, Oscar Williams for the record.

How are you?

Um I want to talk a little bit about the organizational chart.

I know Kate Thomas is going to present here in a few minutes.

I may be the only one, but uh I see it as being a fatally flawed chart.

Um there's no direct line of communication between the registrar voters and you, even though you hire and fire that person, you set their salary and other compensation, and um you certify the canvas or the vote that they provide you, but they're not to have direct lines of communication with you.

Why?

The clerk has no direct line of communication with register of voters, though the clerk is the one who signs the certificates of elections.

How does that work?

It seems like um the everything must flow through the county manager to get to you.

Uh the elected offices of clerk, district attorney, sheriff, they all got to go through the county manager to get to you.

And I don't think that is correct.

The Rough Tellus Report, based on the flawed organizational chart, is itself flawed.

And you really got to go back to the beginning of this thing and rethink the the manager's role is to serve the elected officials, not the other way around.

And that's the way the chart is built now.

I hope that makes sense to you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Susan Walls, followed by Anna Pageau.

Good morning.

Susan Walls for the record.

Thank you again to the county commissioners and all of the Washoe County employees and appointed board members.

I know it can be a thankless job, and all should know that the work they do is appreciated.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank the friends of the library system as well as all of the other volunteers that contribute to our community.

I spoke last week about my concerns about the future for our libraries and the entire Washoe County library system.

While I was not able to attend the Library Board of Trustees meeting in person last week, I was able to view the recording after the fact.

Our libraries provide essential services throughout the county, not just for children, but for adults of all ages.

The services cannot be found elsewhere in the county, and their loss andor reduction would hit residents who rely on the libraries very hard.

I commend the county staff for the excellent guidance they provided the Library Board of Trustees to reach reach the point of budget agreement.

I appreciate it, and I believe all community members who fully understand the importance of a strong, well-funded, well-staffed library system, appreciate it as well.

I mentioned last week that it appears that the training for the trustees may be lacking or is not being absorbed as there appears to be contention between the board members, and they often seem confused as to what they need to be doing in general, not just with the budget creation.

That includes following Robert's rules of order and other established meeting protocols.

At the most recent meeting, and at previous meetings for that matter, the questions, confusion, and second guessing concerning the budget recommendations reinforce the seeming disarray of the board.

While I understand that stepping up to serve is not easy and not for everyone, including myself, is willing to do so.

I am appreciative of those that do.

But when there is disarray, one assumes there is also dysfunction as well.

Confusion, disarray, and dysfunction, whether real or perceived, creates additional unnecessary contention with and between the community members in attendance at the meetings.

This is definitely not a good look.

While good process progress is being made with the 2026 and 2027 budget, I hope the county staff looks further into modifying as necessary and delivering training for the county boards to improve function and perception.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Anna Peugeot, followed by Jill O'Leary.

Hi, I'm Anna Pageau for the record.

I'm speaking on item number 12.

Our dream to start a farm began when my husband was transitioning through retirement after 24 and a half years in the military.

We did as much research as we could and finally purchased property north of Red Rock in the North Red Rock area.

In 2023, thinking we had done the research and were ready to file the paperwork and get the proper business licenses and certifications.

Our vision was to have a small farm growing produce and local herbs to sell to our community.

Having multiple certifications in aromatherapy, herbalism, and gardening, I also wanted to provide workshops to equip people with the knowledge to grow their own food and herbs.

As part of this, we wanted to have seedlings available for sale to help people get started, and for those not interested in growing, we wanted to have a farm stand offering what community members were looking for.

Unfortunately, our application sent us down a right winding road.

I made several revisions to my application and still had to pay fees that we were supposed to be exempted from.

It required inspections for a property that has nothing to inspect, and required signatures from regulatory authorities that have no authority over my current business activities.

The challenge with what you were reviewing in the envisioned Washoe 2040 document is the constant statement of urban agriculture versus agriculture.

Urban agriculture is an important aspect of developing areas that are close to the Reno Sparks and Incline Village, but that only encompasses approximately 200 square miles of the 6,600 square miles representing Washoe County.

Farms such as urban roots and the Reno Food Systems are urban agricultural businesses.

They allow for residents to live that live nearby to access locally grown foods at a farm stand and walk through a small farm location.

There are several unincorporated Washoe County residents that would like to develop agricultural businesses to support an area like these above.

But limitations within current code prevent us from creating a livable livable business opportunity.

Our properties are in rural areas that are zoned either low density rural, general rural, or general rural agricultural.

As is stated in the staff report, the development code allows does allow for activities such as agricultural sales, animal production, and produce sales, but using our farm as an example, which is located on low density rural zone, we can't have people on our property without obtaining a special use permit.

Special use would be unprofitable for us.

Due to the rural designation, we would never fit within revisions of urban agriculture.

By revising the language in support of agritourism to include all agricultural locations, you would also support thank you.

And hopefully you'll continue to speak to us when the item comes up.

Jill O'Leary, followed by Maureen McElroy.

And I have documents to distribute.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair Hill, Vice Chair Herman, and members of the Washoe County Commission.

My name is Jill O'Leary, and I have resided at parcel number 02814401 in Sparks since 1999.

I'm here to address a serious issue concerning the integrity of our property records and the oversight of the county recorder's office when a lien is filed.

Currently, a document is accepted for filing if it is formatted correctly, signed and paid for without any verification of its legal validity.

This lack of oversight has resulted in invalid liens being placed on properties without notification to the owner, creating a threat to homeowners' property rights.

Using my case as an example, I have attached two exhibits for further review.

Exhibit one shows electronic recording by a law firm with their legibility notice, acknowledging the document they recorded is not suitable.

Exhibit two, which now resides as a lien against my home, is a proposed judgment signed by a district court judge, e-signed by a district court judge.

The burden of clearing their title of a fraudulent lien falls squarely on the homeowner.

In most cases, with the same district court judges who allow signed proposed judgments to be recorded.

I've submitted my mortgage history to this case, and the plaintiffs had it stricken because it disproved this predatory law firm's narrative to steal my property.

The county recorder's role seems to be merely a filing service rather than a guardian of accurate property records, exposing every property owner to these types of predatory actions.

A first line of defense against this type of property fraud would be a legally compliant intake policy at the Washoe County Recorder's Office, incorporating NRS 17150, which details legal requirements for valid abstract of judgment, and NRS 247145, explicitly allowing a county recorder to deny a request that is unauthorized, falsified, or otherwise may not be lawfully recorded.

This crucial check and balance system seems to be failing.

These legal authorities already exist to protect Washoe County citizens.

This issue is a policy of inaction, not a lack of power or authority.

This falls within the county's purview and requires the commission's attention.

We rely on the county to uphold the integrity of our property records.

Liens being filed without any verification of their legal basis erodes that trust.

If the board determines a more detailed discussion is required, I request this topic affecting every property on a wash.

Thank you very much.

Maureen McElroy, followed by Trista Gomez.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

I appreciate it.

For the record, Maureen McElroy.

Last Saturday, October 18th, 18,000 people gathered and peacefully rallied here in downtown Reno.

Our rale was just one of 2600 across our nation.

Over seven million, seven million people turned out on Saturday.

Why were we here?

In protest of our federal government's despicable actions and edicts against its own citizens.

Whether it's it is disappearing human beings, blocking affordable health care coverage for millions of people, or deploying our military against our own citizen citizens, we are not in agreement with our federal government right now.

It was an invigorating, joyful but determined crowd that marched on Saturday.

At the end of the day, I thought, where do we go from here?

How can we take this forward?

The answer is right here, right now, this morning.

We come to you, I come to you, our local elected officials, and demand do not bend a knee to these people in our federal government involved in these abhorrent actions.

Please listen to our concerns.

Take note of our dissatisfaction and act to support our citizens with just lawful, fair, sane governance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Trista Gomez.

Good morning, Trista Gomez for the record.

I have been coming here almost two years.

Can you believe it?

Almost two years.

That's how long I've been coming here because I just had an issue one day and didn't realize what was going on in the county, and now I've been here for almost two years.

Today I'm going to talk about the manager, the issue with the county manager.

We apparently get to know about the candidates that are running for this position on Thursday.

And then we get to meet them on Sunday.

And then I'm assuming that the special hearing on Monday at 9 o'clock is for that.

I don't know because I can't, there's no agenda, so I can't find that out, but I'm assuming that that's what it's for.

I've lived here my whole life.

My kids who live here, my parents live here, my great grandparents have lived here.

And I never paid attention.

I always believed that the government worked for the good of the people.

And because when I started getting involved, it was because we started feeling very, very differently than that.

And I come to these meetings each week and I hear residents who are disregarded.

I hear residents who plead.

Somebody maybe who hasn't been dealt dealt with a deficit and an overarching, you know, um budget deficit, and all of the things that have gone wrong that have impacted residents so severely and continue to.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We will now move on to item five.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item five is county manager and commissioner's announcements, reports, and updates to include board and commission updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas.

I have one quick clarifying item.

Um we on our donations on item 9e2, we were notified late yesterday that though they are extremely um happy to receive a donation from Commissioner Herman that the Elks Lodge 597 right now is working through an issue for some clearance on their 501c3.

They're replacing an older version with a new one, and so they're not able to receive the funds properly at this time, so they're asking that we hold on that item for today.

They're graciously wanting to accept those that when they get their clearance from the IRS.

So when we move on that item 92, we'd be approving the senior rescue donation, but without the elks donation, if that's clear for the whomever makes the motion.

I just wanted to point that out.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Vice Chair Herman, do you have anything?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh about 11 years ago.

I asked to get an item on the agenda that uh would give some oversight on GIDs because it's lacking, and it has to go to the legislature.

And for all these years, I reminded about this, and uh nothing's happened.

So I would like to once more request that we um get the proper department to work on and uh uh bill draft so it would be ready when we have the next legislature, and that's all I have.

And that's all I have.

Thank you so much.

That's great.

Commissioner Garcia.

Okay, Commissioner Andrew.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanted to uh extend a shout out to Sergeant Butler with the Washoe County Sheriff's Office and the Hope team.

I went on almost um uh all day, but a good portion of the day, really seeing firsthand the work that's being done in our community, and I think um one of the things that I hope to continue to see in terms of communicating with the um public about what that success is and uh I think firsthand um being able not only to two years ago I rode with the same different people, but the same Hope team, and then uh with recently with the Sparks Hope team, and one of the things that I see that I hope that we can work through is the regionalization of literally working together with all jurisdictions because everyone is um boundaries sometimes literally are you know one step away you might be in Reno or one step you might be in Sparks, and another step you might be in Washoe County in terms of unincorporated, and I think collectively as um all jurisdictions are looking at the challenges with budget constraints and looking at efficiencies as the nomenclature that we're all using.

I think really working together collaboratively, um I think would be beneficial for uh all three jurisdictions to really get together and look at it.

I know that there's been some initial discussions, is my understanding, but I really would like to see those discussions move forward with a plan.

Um, Sergeant Butler and her team, it's just amazing.

Um the case worker is with them, and um I had the pleasure of meeting um the very first person that the case manager we were with um move from a homeless situation into a permanent housing situation without any government subsidy, and his name is Dan, and he has been in that location for three years and really has shared how his life has changed.

And so I think sometimes there's a lot of stereotypes with homelessness.

There are a lot of complexity with homelessness.

I'm not suggesting that everyone has figured it out, but again, uh recognizing the sequential intercept model, us moving into that, having everyone work together for the same purpose and looking at not only helping those in need, but looking at how we move them out of a um enabling type of situation to a productive situation for long term, and I just really want to give a huge shout out to uh Sheriff Balam, to Chief Sereno, who I see is in the audience, and everyone, but uh really the front uh line folks, and that's Sergeant Butler and her team.

So it was amazing.

I'd encourage everyone to see it firsthand.

Um you know they don't know who they're gonna run to into per se, but they also have really a unique uh opportunity to uh create the situation where when people are ready, they're ready, and when they're ready, you have to act.

And I I've seen it not only in Reno, I've seen it in Sparks, and I've seen it in um in Washoe County with with the Hope team and how they all work, and it makes a lot of sense because when people are ready, they're ready now.

And so um I think the success of tenancy support, I'm seeing that 91% of folks that receive tenancy report support actually have success in the long term.

So I've asked for additional information, so um I'm hoping to continue to share that, and I'm hoping we can also, if the chair so uh chooses that we could have a presentation by the Hope team so that we can also look at what their success, what their challenges um I asked them point blank, what what what do you need?

Like what do you see that can help you?

And I think um their um response is um I I'm gonna let them make that response.

You know that I'm gonna let them respond because it was clear to me many of them have been doing this for quite some time, but it's not it's not it's still evolving in our community, and again, I'm gonna do a shout out to Judge Walker and the team who brought the sequential intercept model to Washoe County, and I really celebrate all that um are really participating and looking at what we can do to help folks, but more importantly, how we can have this be efficient, how it can be long term with a success and not necessarily always be a burden on the taxpayer.

Um there's a lot of folks who have shared with me that they feel that there's a lot of warehousing of people, and I think um I'm a really fact-based person, I keep an open mind, I don't make any judgment until I have all the information and and I continue to be on that quest.

So I think hearing from the Hope team and hearing what they do would be really really beneficial, and I I'd welcome that opportunity.

Thank you.

Great.

Yes, that sounds great.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair.

I've got a couple of things I'd like to uh uh first of all.

I'd like to talk about the donation to to the elks.

Uh it's on the agenda.

Can we vote on this today and hold the check, give like six months, and uh, and if they don't come through with uh getting their uh nonprofit in order, then uh reverts back to the county.

Michael Large for the record from the district attorney's office.

Um based on their request, I would actually think that we need to read redo this at a different time simply because we don't want a donation to go in there to any effect with the IRS that they're going through with their 501c3.

Sure.

So I I think we we bring it back at a later time.

Very well, thank you.

Just a question.

Um I put uh I gave uh the clerk copies for for my fellow commissioners.

It was it uh uh K the uh TV station K O L O.

Um Terry Russell, who's here in in the audience uh uh published an article back in uh April 11th of 2025 about item uh 6A1, and I'd like to get that distributed to my fellow commissioners so they could take a look at it.

There's one particular uh sentence in here, or one particular paragraph that I found uh uh quite disturbing.

Um as far as financial information, Zunio said that it all contained it at the Department of Taxation website.

Well, that may be true, according to the State Department of Taxation.

The board voted to exempt itself from any budget or audit reporting.

Can you imagine that a board gets to vote whether they can exempt themselves from making a report?

This is outrageous.

You know, I it just doesn't make any sense if it's true.

And I don't believe everything I read, but uh according to this particular article, uh that's the case.

And you know, we have the same kind of thing coming before us, it seems like on a regular basis.

We had the Department of Alternative Alternative Sentencing with some financial uh irregular irregularities there.

Uh folks came to us from Incline Village and talked about their their board up there and how they didn't think it was transparent and they couldn't get facts and information about uh their board and how they handled uh the finances there.

I I think it's incumbent upon uh us as county commissioners to over have complete oversight on any boards that uh that we oversee and make sure that they're audited properly and and not just an internal audit, an independent audit and find out exactly what's taking place.

I understand there's some 11,000 folks in that particular area area of Verde that are they're they use the uh the county treasurer to collect property taxes to to fund something that sounds like it doesn't work on a regular basis.

I mean, we need to look into this stuff.

People are tax dollars are being paid for something that may not may not be uh delivered.

So we need to look into this and make a make it a point to to audit all boards and and let's get ahead of the curve on this so we don't hear about it and publications and and we don't hear about it through the grapevine.

We we need to have a good understanding of of financial uh uh regularities with with all of the boards that we oversee.

So that's just my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um final stages of the recruitment for the county manager for Washoe County.

We will be hosting a meet and greet on Sunday, October 26th.

That's this Sunday at 4 p.m.

at the Lazy Five Regional Park.

And so hopefully folks can come and meet the candidates, and then on Monday, we will have a special meeting to interview the candidates.

Uh so uh we're really excited to have um this process move forward and hope that the community will participate.

And so if there's no other comments uh from the board, then I will move into item six, which are our presentations.

Uh Manager Thomas, 6A1.

Thank you.

6A1 is a Verde TV district.

HUD Horton is here to provide some updates on the financial and governance status of the TV district per requests of the board.

Thank you.

Morning, everyone.

Morning.

I use this to scroll through as I'm doing.

I think so.

All right.

Thank you for having us.

The DV District, Verdict TV District.

And your name for the record, sir.

HUD Horton, Chairman of the Verdite TV District.

Thank you.

The Verdict TV district was formed in 1961, so the Verde residents could have television.

Now with all the growth in the area and the transmission signals now taken Verde Mogul and the western part of Somerset.

This presentation will cover what I'm doing, sorry.

This presentation will cover several key aspects of the Verde television district.

We'll begin with an overview of the district, including the geographical location and the primary functions.

We will then explore its history and evolution.

Next will be analyze the funding sources, governance structure, and detailed map and geographical data before concluding with a few photos.

The Verdura the Verde TV district was established under NRS 318.

Its purpose is oversee the operation and maintenance of the transmission facility on Verdeye Mountain or Pivine Mountain, sorry.

Locate high atop Pivine Mountain at an elevation of approximately 8,096 feet.

Verde Peak Communication site was first used for communications purposes under authorization to the Truckee River TV Association in 1958.

Did I get ahead of myself?

No.

Um these pictures here show the site and location of the facility.

The Verde TV district site is a facility to in Area B under the Forest Service Department of Agricultural's Pivine Peak Communication Site Management Plan.

Operation and maintenance.

The Verde TV Board oversees the operation and maintenance of the transmission facility located on Pivine Mountain.

The Verde TV District Board ensures compliance with the Department of Taxation, Washoe County, USD, USDA Forest Service, and the state of Nevada.

The Verde TV Board consults consultants are available to do RF studies in the residents within the district if needed to determine the availability and reception of their location.

The Verde TV district has a rich history that showcases growth and transformation over the years.

Understanding its past will help us appreciate its current situation.

The Verde TV district was established in 1961, driven by the need for the TV reception in the Verde Township.

Those in range will route with a reliable antenna, unobstructed signal will receive multiple channels.

The Verde TV district is not a television repair service or broadcasting facility.

The Verde TV district is responsive and to transmission loss and interruptions.

The first tier calculation is the gross revenue allocated to each of the 17 counties.

The second tier calculation allocates the revenue among the entities within the county.

The base distribution is calculated prior to the excess distribution.

The excess distribution may be distributed using the one plus or 0.02 plus formula.

The six different tax types are cigarette tax, liquor tax, government service tax, real property tax, basic city county relief tax, supplemental city county relief tax.

In essence, the LGTA can contribution to the overall pool.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Funds that are uh distributed to the counties through the CTX process, which include both base and excess distributions.

Um and then we also get a little bit of money from uh Americon, which is a uh radio station.

I've lost my I don't know where I'm at here.

Sorry.

My uh yeah, right.

Um expenses, all expenditures are paid through the Washoe County Comptroller's office.

So anything we go purchase has to get approved by you and checks and out.

Um board responsibilities.

Effective governance is vital to success of the Verde TV district.

This section discusses the structure of the board and its responsibilities.

The board is responsible for strategic planning, financial oversight, managing and maintaining the equipment, and ensuring the district meets its goals.

Their duties are crucial to maintaining the district's mission and vision.

The Verdite Television District Pine site has 21 channels, three radio channels, first responders, you and our seismic seismology lab and a local amateur radio.

There was some confusion.

One question that was marked by NA by our consulting engineer who felt it didn't apply to us and was later clarified and corrected.

The FCC representative assured us that we were never without licenses.

They were pending in the correction, but we still had licensing.

The information form is a list of occupants and their types of uses in our facility.

Um finally, we'll explore the geographical data and mapping of the Verdite Television District.

This detailed map of the Verdite Television District illustrates the area of coverage.

The visual representation is essential for understanding its operations.

So you can see there's a wide swath of the county there.

The location of the Verdite Television District site makes it excessively challenging at times.

Looking from the valley at the site, it may appear there is no snow hindering access, but that is not always the case.

There can be large snow drifts on the access roads while the top of P-Vine has no snow because of the high winds that have recleared it.

Technicians and board members have had to hike snowmobiles, snowcat, and even helicopter into respond, repair, and maintain the site.

And I've personally done a few of those over the years.

Over the years that we've collected, and um hysterical folder.

Here's here 8,000 feet, and here's a typical ice storm and snow attached to all our antennas that we used to have to bang off.

Um here's where an antenna fell during the snowstorm and windstorm, and there's a snow cat.

We have to access the site when it's like this in snow count.

It's the only way we can get into it.

Um here's more damage to the site.

Um we've even used a helicopter in years ago to bring propane up to keep the generators going.

And that picture on the left is looking down.

You can't see the city arena, but it's down that valley right there, that canyon.

Here's a snow cat snowmobile.

Um I was up there a couple years ago when it was just like this foggy, blowing, windy.

More pictures, people working on the site.

Um here's fire department responding to uh the fire up there when the retardant got dropped on our antennas.

In conclusion, the Verde Television District is a significant entity providing over-the-air transmission to the Verdade TV district residents with a rich history history, dedicated board, and a well-structured governance system, understanding its operations and geographical significance is crucial for the appreciated anticipated.

Oh my gosh, I can't read, sorry.

Um that's all I have for you.

Do you have questions for me?

Thank you, Chairman Horton.

We appreciate you coming, and um, I had asked uh for this presentation, so thank you.

Um and I think uh you heard from some uh public comment or um you know there is some concerns about transparency of the district to the public and what what kind of um moves have uh has the district made to make sure that folks can find you, know who their board members are, can come to the meetings.

Um I'm I don't see that there's a website up as was that supposed to be October 1 when you had a website up.

So thank you for again for doing this.

We've been working, we've heard some people complain about this.

Um as also we get on the county and the verdict TV district under the GID is just blank, there's nothing there.

Um we have the county's helping us set up a website.

We've already been in talks with them, they've already started it's going.

Um it's already on the website.

Uh we're still mending a few things and changing a few things, but yes, we're up and going.

So the that website is going through the county.

Yes, the Washoe County.

Okay.

All right.

Um I'm sure there's other questions.

I've got some as well, but um, I'll go around.

So Vice Chair Herman.

Since you're in my district, and I I'm happy to be able to finally meet you.

Yes, thank you.

And uh sounds like you have a busy job on there sometimes.

It's yes.

Yeah, it can go a month or so without nothing, and then all of a sudden the power's out, there's a fire, the power's out.

Um so it's snow.

Um we've upgraded our generators.

We had an old generator, little generator that would work.

Um, but then a mountain top, there's issues with propane usually.

So we uh we put in a new generator, uh snow top, it's got 20, 30 foot exhaust tubes of snow can get can't get down in there.

So if the power's out, generate kicks on.

Um we had some issues with the last fire that we turned the power off.

Some rodents had gotten into our new facility.

We have now cleaned up that one area, so the generator didn't fire for a few hours where the power was out.

But we haven't lost TV reception in years for longer than a few hours.

Thank you for your service.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you so much for being here today.

My questions are about your website.

Um first tell us it's 2025.

You're collecting taxpayer dollars, you're delivering services to the community.

What was the resistance in the first place of putting your information online?

I don't think there was ever a resistance.

Nobody ever thought about it, but yeah, these days everything's on the web.

I don't uh you can find anything.

Um it was brought up and we talked about it, we discussed it, and we've been working with the county to have our members of the board on there and the agendas and all our meetings, and and be more transparent.

Okay.

Well, I'm on the website.

I didn't bring my um iPad today, so it's difficult to see.

I I did a quick Google search, I wasn't able to clearly delineate that it's housed on the county website.

So that was problem number one.

Um and then we're working through that with the county.

So it just started, I don't know, month ago, maybe.

I understand.

Um, and so I'm on the county website now.

The the title of the page is Washoe County General Improvement Districts.

Um it it starts with the NRS, and then you've got Gurlack, Grandview, Incline Village, Palomino Valley, Sun Valley GID.

Um, you're right, yours is not hyperlinked.

No, but yours is embedded right below.

Yeah, but it used they were all embedded like months ago when that's all got brought up, but nothing there was no information there.

So yeah, I know we're working on it, so yes.

I know you're working on it.

I'm just trying to communicate what I'm seeing as problematic from a constituent perspective.

So, you know, it starts off with your authority and legal basis, your membership, um, your finances, it's providing a phone number, how you're funded, um, when and where the meetings occur.

And so let me just summarize.

AB31 stat stated that all TV districts must have a website, right?

And so I know you're working on it.

Um it said, you know, budgets, audits, expenditures, meeting minutes, uh, annual reports, all of that should be embedded.

That's fine.

Right now, um, right now, as it stands, you we don't see audits, we don't see meeting minutes, and if you click through all the other general improvement districts, those meeting minutes are gonna be clearly shown.

Yeah, we've sent them in.

Okay, so my question to you They should be there.

Can I finish?

Yeah.

Thank you.

My question to you is can are you gonna have a separate standalone website, or is it gonna still be embedded at the bottom of the list?

Um, will you have links to your meeting minutes from prior meetings?

Will those be retroactively uploaded?

And um, will we see an audit on item on?

Yeah, yes, to all that.

Uh um, what was the first question?

I'm sorry.

First question is are you gonna have to?

Oh, we're standalone.

No, we're not gonna have we didn't talk about it standalone.

We thought this would be through the county would be enough if we need a standalone.

Nice.

Uh that's more money to taxpayers and everything else, so I don't know if that's really needed.

But if you want us, we could work into that.

Yeah, yes, ma'am.

Please introduce yourself.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Michelle Zanino, I'm the secretary.

And I did put that I would be a speaker, sorry, I'm losing my voice.

I've been speaking with Casey with the county, and as of a couple days ago, all of our information was there, and I did ask him about us having a hyperlink, and he said that that was coming.

Okay.

Um, that I can't remember who it was was not there at the time, and they were working on it.

Our minutes are there for the last two years, I believe, and our budgets.

Um, if they're not there now, uh it's a county issue because they were last week.

Um I asked Casey if when we searched Verde I TV district, I said it's hard to find it, and he said it's under the GIDs, that's where it will be housed.

I said, Will we have our own little landing page?

He said yes.

Again, we had all this information in October 1st, ready to go.

We'd been working with them prior to October 1st.

According to AB 301, we can either have our own website or be housed on Washoe County's website.

So thank you for the clarification.

That's what we chose.

All right, and then I'm looking at the meeting archives.

It's it's just confusing because it is embedded in the county website, and then there's a whole other section that says meeting archives.

You don't know if that's referring to the other I G IDs from up above.

Um I do see your meeting minutes now from April 10th and uh February 27th.

So the moral of the story for me is we we need to tell our stories or people will tell our stories for us, correct?

So I just encourage you to take whatever avenues you can to be more transparent because you've been under the microscope, and rightly so.

Um people are worried and concerned, and it's our job to be transparent as possible.

So thank you for being here today.

I look forward to seeing the improvements on the website.

We agree.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andriola.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, I too was trying to navigate, so I'm not going to repeat what was just shared.

Um so thank you, Commissioner Garcia, for pointing out um some of the um confusion.

But I have a just direct question.

You were really clear in terms of throughout your presentation, you specifically stated that the Washoe County Controller's Office processes all of your expenses.

Did I understand?

We send the billing into them.

If we're purchasing something, the bill goes into them and the check is sent out through we as a board we approve it and whatever were expenditures, and then we send it in from to the comprollers for the payment.

I'm sorry.

So all expenses are processed through the all of your expenses are processed through the comprovers.

So in terms of funding, where is that funding?

Because obviously if the comprollers paying, they're paying out of your particular um allocation for um the Verde ITV district.

Where does the funding come in?

Does it come into that's uh an account that's held by Washoe County that's restricted to the Verde TV district?

Yes, I assume right?

Yes.

Yeah, and it's all part of those taxes.

We don't we don't we don't see any income other than Americom sends a check to us and we send it to the county, but all the other money that comes from CTAX and from LGTA goes to the county.

Okay, so technically one should be able to access through the Washoe checkbook.

You should be able to, yeah.

Not not that I'm suggesting they would have to, because I do think because you have um a specific purpose statutorily that putting up the website, but the point is is that to those that want to look for that.

I I would say that it should be available.

And I think to the point of um encouraging Washoe County, whomever that is, this is I don't know who it is.

So whoever is standing up, the uh website and standing up and the hyperlinks and all of that that could specifically point directly to those two accounts so that you don't have to spend a lot of time.

There are a lot of counts at Washoe County, and even though the checkbook is there for full transparency, it's live.

It updates every 24 hours, so it's live data in terms of financial representation for all the public to see.

But I do think whoever it is at Washoe County, I guess I'll kind of direct this to the interim county manager manager that we might be able to pinpoint exactly where those two hyperlinks are so that no one has to go through all of Washoe County's expenses and funding to find the GL accounts that are directly related to the Verde TV district.

However, to the public that might want to look, you should be able to find that.

And I would hope that that would be an easy search.

And it's going to be my quest when we're done with the meeting to look at the Washoe County checkbook for that.

But I do think that what you're hearing from everyone is the responsibility you have as a board for the governance and the statutory responsibility you have to the public for full transparency.

I think you know audits are important.

Those independent audits ensure the public that funding, whether it's funding and expenses are being allocated correctly and appropriately within the statute and the framework to which you you're operating.

And we have a great audit committee that takes audits very seriously.

And I would really ask that we actually put this on that uh agenda if it's possible.

Because those folks are independent, they're experts at what they do.

They have a very strong auditing and financial background, and I have, unless there's changes, I have um previously previewed their experience and those appointees are very, very good at being real independent auditors.

And I think that we should for also the satisfaction of the public.

So I I know there's a lot of moving parts that are happening, but the income and expenses are already there, and so auditing that is something that wouldn't have to wait for website update, wouldn't have to wait for um you know hyperlinks to be done, and I would encourage that to be uh a priority.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Mr.

Could I ask a question or reply to that, please?

Um we don't disagree.

I would like, we would like to know who we need to talk to at the county.

We would like to know who we're supposed to send information to.

When I had sent the information that was required to be sent in on October 1st, um I sent it to you because I wasn't sure who to send it to.

Excuse me.

I also sent it to the county clerk, and I did get a call saying, what do you want me to do with this?

So we're trying to follow the law.

We I personally had asked at least two, three people in the county.

I know Mr.

Horton uh Horton had also asked people.

I'd asked our attorney, really, no one knew the answer.

So we're happy to comply and be transparent and follow the law as we always have done.

We don't know who to send it to.

Send what anything.

We're we don't know who to ask questions.

We don't know who to send the information required by AB 301.

Um Do you not have an attorney?

Yes, we do.

Okay, have you spoken to your attorney about this?

Yes.

And your attorney said send it to the county commissioner.

We went and looked, he didn't know who to send it to either.

We had no idea.

Um, if I might, yes, please for the record.

I'm interim county manager.

Okay, Thomas.

Um so a couple of things.

First of all, you're um a separate governmental entity, so I'm not sure.

We hold your funds in a in a trust account, so we serve as your fiscal agent, but I'm not necessarily sure they would show up in the checkbook.

So that's just first thing.

So there's that.

Um we have liaison roles, and I know Mr.

Solero, my counterpart has been working with you and reaching out.

So the best bet every time is to send them to him.

He knows exactly where to just share, but information, whether it's to the communications department to make sure that the information on our website, um, if you've noticed we have a new GID kind of holding spot on our site.

They are one of they are the only GID that doesn't have a hyperlink to a separate account, so we'll work on that with you through our comms team.

But if we can maintain a single point of contact through Mr.

Slurrow, I think that would be beneficial for everyone.

That's okay with you, Matthew.

Yes, I I don't I'd have to look at my email.

I don't recall seeing anything from the GID, but um I think that it's uh yes.

If I might um the financials were submitted in um correspondence and reporting in the last BCC meeting as as part of the CNRs in the consent clerk's item, and also um the GID does submit financials to the debt management commission as required by law, and those are all public records.

And I think the issue is there is no one place where people can find this.

And so I think it's really important as manager Thomas pointed out, you are your own separate governmental entity.

It's your responsibility to communicate out to the public.

And I think it's great that the county is supporting you in your website um because we want to make sure that it's transparent, but it's not up to the county to make sure that all those appropriate documents are there.

That is that is definitely your job as uh the board.

Um and I think the reason that the public is feeling uh you know so frustrated is because they have to go to ten different places to find this information.

It's their tax dollars, and it's uh and so they have a right to know where these things are at.

And these, you know, through NRS, our board can ask for an audit.

I don't know if it needs, I don't know if it should go through the audit committee or if you should pay for your own audit.

Um, because I think at this point we uh need to make sure that this all this information is in one spot.

And during audits, board members are asked questions like do you know about relatives who are receiving benefits as part of this?

Do you know about any uh possible um uh misuse of funds?

You know, and so these are questions that board members also should be able to answer as part of an audit.

So I think it's important that we look into doing that.

I look to um DA Large on what your uh thoughts are on NRS and what the board, our board needs to do to officially ask for that.

Or I can come back to you.

Uh I I'm not prepared at this point to talk.

I know there are limitations in regard to our ability to ask for audits just as as we talked discussed with Incline Village General Improvement District.

Um there are limitations in NRS, but um there is um no barriers for V Verde TV district to publish either any audits or request their own audits, um whether it's done by Washer County or by any other outside agency.

Thank you.

I seem to remember that there was specifically a citation in RS that the Board of County Commissioners could ask for one, but um I will go to Commissioner Clark and follow-up, I don't think to follow up go for it.

Thank you.

Um just in following up on what I was talking about, so thank you to the interim county manager for clarifying that it may not be appropriate, right?

So wherever it's appropriate in terms of being um displayed and transparent, but here's the point I just would like to make.

The the point is that the reality is that if the comproller, for instance, if we're we're bringing in the the funds and then we're expending the funds, are we actually you know charging?

I'm talking about a reasonable fee for that processing.

Because as a separate government entity, if you were to have somebody else do that, you'd have to pay for that.

And I don't know where that lies as well.

So um certainly always being collaborative and supportive.

There's nothing that um I think any um jurisdiction wants to do more than to help with efficiencies.

But the reality is is that you as an organization or any organization should know truly what your expenses are.

And if it weren't for Washoe County doing this, then you know, just like you would have to pay for an attorney, you would have to possibly pay for an audit.

You would have to pay for bringing in in the accounting services if it weren't for for others.

So I just think it's something that we should look into.

So I appreciate Commissioner Clark and your patience.

I just wanted to follow up with that.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I I've got a few comments and a few questions.

Uh first of all, I like to uh salute my fellow commissioners for asking difficult questions.

Uh this is needed in this particular case.

But as I I read earlier, it said put on my better glasses here.

The board voted, the board voted to exempt itself from any budget or audit reporting for 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Is it is that true to the board board vote that way?

Yes, that is a right that they have to sign a petition and resolution for exemption to exempt us from certain things.

So having answered that question that you the board voted to exempt themselves from any audit or reporting.

Uh nothing says transparency like that.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

This is unbelievable.

And then uh you know, to uh compliment my fellow commissioners, they're giving you a tutorial on how to run the your organization.

Your organization has been in existence since for 63 years, and we're having to coach you on how to run it.

I mean, what what's going on here?

No wonder the public seems to be uh concerned about this.

I I have longtime friends that live in Verde for a long time, and they've complained about this situation for years, is finally coming to the surface, but uh this is uh this is not a good sign.

It isn't a good look.

People uh are are interested in transparency, and this is the absolute opposite of transparency.

When you vote for uh 2024, 2025, 2026 to not uh report your budget or uh uh have an audit.

Why did you stop at 2026?

Why don't you just keep going?

I mean, this is this doesn't make any sense.

Uh and you know, I just I just became aware of this.

This is in my district, but now that uh it's on my radar, and I think uh there's some questions that need to be answered, and and uh you should probably pay for an independent audit and share it.

Uh that being said, if the comproller uh signs your checks and sends it out, I understand that, but how can we balance what what you are purchasing?

How can anybody look at what you are purchasing?

What are your expenses?

What is your income?

These are things that the public has a right to know.

You serve some 11,000 folks in that district.

Is that a correct number?

11,000 people in your district.

I don't know, off the top of my head, I don't know.

It's around probably 12,000.

Is this on it's around probably 12,000 now?

But, sir, some of the things you said were not accurate.

And um so not accurate.

I I ask you if if you voted to uh uh exempt yourself from uh budget uh audit or or reporting for three years.

Is that that that was I answered that one.

What you said wasn't correct was about the budget.

All of our expenses are on there.

We have an independent account and go over and do our financials.

So the question you you the question I asked was did you vote to exempt yourself from any budget or audit reporting?

And you have said you did.

Excuse me, I misunderstood you.

Okay.

We report a budget every year to the Nevada Department of Taxation, every single year.

So we're gonna do that.

So I apologize for the US.

This was uh incorrect statement in this report from uh Channel 8 News.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Well, that's a few of them.

Okay, all right.

Well, I think that's the one.

Incorrect statements from Channel 8 News.

I have spoken with the Nevada Department of Taxation with our analysts several times.

Um the information that they are reporting is not accurate.

Well, so I really appreciated um, was there a board vote to exempt itself from uh publishing or uh budget or an audit for three years in a row?

Was there a vote on that?

Yes or no?

The budget.

Let me get the paper, sir.

Sure, sure.

Sorry, glasses.

Well, you're looking that up.

I've got a couple other questions.

Uh who is it what's the name of your attorney that represents your organization and how long has that person been your attorney?

And uh also who who is the accounting firm that you use for for your accounting?

Well, he wants to answer the attorney, the accounting firm.

Oh, the attorney is Gild Gallagher, and our attorney is John Gallagher.

And our accountant is Michael Knott.

What was the last name on that?

Not okay.

Could you spell out is it not like uh K N O T T, is that the spelling?

That's correct.

Okay.

So the exemption that you are discussing, it's a resolution.

It says we were exempted, we were granted exemption from the following.

Filing a tentative budget, filing an audit report.

We're exempt from certain publishing requirements by the local government budget and finance act, except for the annual publication of a notice of the budget, which we do, and filing.

We are exempt from maintaining accounting records records on an accrual or modified accrual basis.

The district is required to file an annual fiscal report and quarterly status reports, which we do.

We are required to file the annual budget on or before April 15th, which we do.

Provide notice and hold a public hearing for the budget, which we do.

We file a statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance, as well as a balance sheet for the governmental fund types, or a statement of revenue, expenses and changes in net assets, and a balance sheet for enterprise funds on or before January 1st, which we do.

Very good.

Again, this isn't uh I'm not a judge, this isn't a hearing.

I'm just asking some questions.

So I feel like that the things are mistaken.

Well, again, I'm gonna I'm gonna read a little bit more that same statement.

It says, according to the State Department of Taxation, the State of Nevada.

So I'm gonna rely on what they say versus what's in a report.

But according to the State Department of Taxation, the board voted to exempt itself from any budget or audit reporting for 2024, 2025, and 2026.

That is that a true statement.

Did your board vote to exempt itself?

I'm confused.

Could you could you tell me where you got that and what is that?

Yeah, it was in it's uh I put it in public record.

Anybody can look at it.

It's uh a report from uh published.

This was published back in April 11th, 2025 at 4 55 p.m.

Pacific Daylight Time.

Okay.

And it says the State of Nevada Department of Taxation said that the board voted to exempt itself from any budget or audit reporting for 2024, 2025, and 2026.

I'm confused at where this is published in the state.

Well, I'm confused as well.

Were you at the meeting when this was was this ever on your journal?

Where was that published, sir?

This is a K O L O report.

That's inaccurate.

Okay.

Well here is would you like this?

I don't believe everything I read, that's why I'm asking you.

Yes, and I did say that was inaccurate.

I said that did not happen.

Very well.

And and I think to the board's point.

It it's really important that we share with the public what we are doing with public funds.

Which we do.

And it's all available and and any, and if someone asks for it, we are happy to send it.

We put we follow all of all of the rules that we're supposed to follow.

This is the letter from the Department of Taxation.

We cannot control misinformation.

So I don't I don't know what to say when people make up stories and um that aren't accurate.

To Commissioner Garcia's point, you can control some of this.

You can publish your information.

We do.

And so well, the website's incomplete, and that you're blaming the county for that, which it was required to be at by October 1st.

So I would just say that isn't what part is incomplete.

I'm not what part is incomplete?

On the county's website.

What could you all of the financial documents?

They are there.

I'd like to have a follow up.

Yes, question part.

Is it possible for us to get uh the copies of your last five years uh uh uh uh reportings uh uh your financials?

Uh sure, sure.

Yeah, two of them are on the website right now.

I can go back and get the rest of the receive the last five years.

Yes, no problem.

Thank you.

So you want the budget?

Let's be I just want to be able to do that.

Yeah, what do you want exactly?

Uh your financials and uh whatever other documents that you provide.

And I'm gonna share share that stuff with the public and I'm gonna share it with the news media if they need it need to see a copy of it.

We have all of it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um DA Large, did you find anything after our discussion?

I did.

Um the Chapter 318 um 515 provides a notif uh notification in terms of corrective action for um things but requires 20 percent of the qualified electors to the district or requests from the Department of Taxation in order for um this board to essentially open a hearing in regard to taking corrective action in terms of financial mismanagement.

Um so that's the limitation in regard to that in terms of the audit aspects of it.

That is w how we would get to get that, but we were required because they are a separate government entity to have either our quest from the Department of Taxation or from 20 percent of the electorate.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Okay.

Well, um I will peruse the county's website more because I couldn't find anything online and I didn't know that that was uh where your website was held.

Um and we will continue to um have this discussion.

I think it's important that your community members know how to find you, know how to contact you, know what you're up to, and I think we can all work together to make sure that we get that done.

That would be very much appreciated.

And I just want to say that it it is pulled up here.

And I'd also like to comment that these search engines when you church search for Bird A TV district, there is some inaccurate um addresses and phone numbers because we have moved location.

Uh I have been sending in, please change this information repeatedly, uh, hoping that it will eventually get changed on MabQuest and you know, those types of sites.

Every time I run across one, I'm working on getting that fixed.

Um I can't control that.

I'm trying.

So just know that we are working on it.

Thank you.

And thank you for having us today.

Yeah, we appreciate you coming.

We want to make sure that we're listening to the concerns of the community, and we've had other GIDs come as well.

We want to make sure people know how to reach you, what you're up to, and understand where their tax dollars go.

Any other board comments or quite yes, Vice Chair Herman?

I I just feel like we've been a little rough on you, and I wanted to apologize for some of our questions.

It's been this way for six or eight months.

I know.

Yeah.

I just hope yeah, if you're treating everybody else the same way we've been treated, paper news.

Like your last comment two months ago, the DA called me, two news channels called me.

You can have all our financial records, we don't care.

We're not doing anything wrong.

Thank you.

And and and if there were any possibility of um, I appreciate and I I'm sorry, I don't know how to say your last name.

Uh Commissioner Andreoli, as an Andrew, for at for saying that you want all the facts before you make judgments, because unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.

So I appreciate you saying that.

All right.

Well, if there's no other board comments, not seeing any, we'll move on to our next item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We are now going to 6B1, Manager Thomas.

Item 6B1 invites Bill Thomas from the Regional Transportation Commission to discuss the connection between RTC and the Gwynn Center.

The Kenny Gwynn Center for Policy Priorities is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research center addressing key challenges faced by policymakers and all the badens.

In addition, Mr.

Thomas will cover the traffic maintenance study, intelligent transportation systems, and information about the traffic management center center.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Um Chair and Commissioner members and interim manager, no relation, Thomas.

Um glad to be here this morning.

I also have with me with me Dale Keller, who's our deputy executive director and um director of engineering.

So if you want to go very deep, Dale's the one who has all the details.

So I brought him with me.

Um I wanted to at the board's the board to indulge me, give you a more holistic view of what we're doing at RTC before we get into the Gwen study, which is really kind of the focus of what we're presenting today.

So I'm gonna get right into the beginning of talking about what we've been up to, because I do think for the board, since we come here maybe once a year, it's helpful for those members who are on an RTC board to understand what we've been doing for the past year.

So I have a brief video that's gonna go through some of the major projects.

Um there's no sound here, so don't freak out if you don't hear anything.

We didn't put anything on it.

Um but if we can run that, and then I have a um slideshow.

I want a slide deck, I want to go through the get to eventually the um conclusion of not only the Gwen study, but also maintenance study that we did recently.

So that is just a slice of the hundred and eighty-five million dollars that the RTC invested in the region last year.

I want to start before I get into the detail with kind of mostly for the public, because I don't think the public tracks this necessarily, but our board, which was created in 1979, probably one of the oldest regional agencies in Washoe County, is made up of uh elected representatives from the three local governments.

And we do really function as a regional agency.

I'm proud to say that board members look at their jobs, I think, in the way they've acted in their conversation with me to look at transportation and the way it really exists in our community.

The average trip for people who live in our county is about six miles.

So you can imagine driving six miles, you often cross jurisdictions.

And so the perspective that we have as transportation officials is that people are somewhat blind to jurisdictions.

They're more focused on what their trip is and their experience in that trip.

Um those two minutes, um, like I said, only highlighted some of the projects.

And I did want to point out, because it's not obvious, that as a result of the tax money, both um sales tax and fuel tax that RTC manages on behalf of the community and our board.

11,180 unique individuals were employed.

So fairly significant number of the population in our community um have jobs as a result of these investments.

In addition, there's um close to 3,000 jobs between not only the projects we do, but also um the transit agencies that we have as contractors, kill us and MTM and their employees.

So close to 3,000 jobs annually come from these investments.

Before I get into the details, I did want to remind the board and just share with the public what we do at RTC.

So we have three main roles or three services we provide.

First and foremost is the transportation planning.

So it's our job to be on top of and manage and manage and monitor how um goods and people move throughout our community.

So, again, broadly, the regional transportation um function is the key to why we exist.

We also are a what's called a metropolitan planning organization, which is a federal construct.

In other words, the federal government says communities of greater than 50,000 have to have an agency like this in order to spend federal money.

So that's a key part of what we do.

Um, last year we adopted the 20-year transportation plan, the regional transportation plan, which is the key, as you'll see in a minute to how we invest.

So that's Dale's area, but it's a significant part of what we do.

And we don't do local roads, which we're going to talk about.

We don't do state roads and highways.

We do the intervening portion in there, which is really most of the major roads that people drive on in our community.

And then lastly, as you saw, we do public transportation, which isn't just the big blue buses, it also includes the disability service of access, the flex ride program, which is a newer one in terms of the life of RTC.

And then we also have some very active programs for seniors that include senior rides with taxis, um, Lyft and Uber.

So we kind of cover the whole gamut of trying to help the public in moving around in our community.

One of the things I know is can be frustrating to people, and particularly members like you that hear from the public, like what's going on with this road, why aren't things happening in my neighborhood, why can't we get something done?

Is we have by design a very involved decision-making process.

And that process starts with a 20-year look.

So anything we do at RTC in terms of projects must start there.

So we we basically do this every three to four years, and we look at everything that could be needed in the next 20 years in the region.

We put it, if you will, in a bucket that says here's all the things we need to do.

And then we have a second touch, which is our five-year regional transportation improvement program.

So that's the actual projects that we see in the foreseeable future, we're going to actually be doing.

Following that, we have what we call our interlocal cooperative agreements, which go through the board.

You see all of them.

You see them for Sparks, you see them for Washoe County, you see them for the City of Reno.

They almost come through you because you're the agent that basically lets us uh expend this tax money.

That um actually gets us to the refined point of when are we going to do a project.

So that two-year is the most important into the certainty that something is going to happen.

And then lastly, just like you, RTC board approves an annual budget, which is the actual expenditure of the fund.

So I share that with you and with the public for them to understand that there's a reason why we do this.

And the reason in great part is because we're talking about investments that range from five to eighty million dollars.

So these are very big, impactful projects.

We want to make sure we do it right, that we're doing the right project, that the purpose and need is really the one that's best for the community, and that as we go spending these significant monies, we're doing the right thing holistically for the region.

So I want to get into one study we did before I get into the Gwynn study, and this is one we did with um with the staff of Washoe County, the staff of Reno, and the staff of City of Sparks.

And it came about as a conversation point that we have been hearing, which is there's issues with funding street maintaining streets, holistically, all the streets.

And it wasn't just the asphalt, the sidewalks, the kind of things that we normally do.

It's snow plowing, it's um potholing, it's crack sealing, it's all the things that go with actually maintaining the roads.

So we engage the consultant and ask them to take a look at the situation, and here's kind of the three bullet points of what we learned.

Bottom line is everybody is spending the money that they have specifically out of taxes, fuel taxes on roads, and they're also embellishing with other funding sources, each jurisdiction a little bit different, but everybody spent a little more than what they get on uh fuel tax to maintain the roads.

However, in the next 10 years, we'll have about uh 1.4 billion shortfall.

So, in order to maintain the network and the roads the way we would all like them, um, including again the whole thing, the whole gamut, snow plowing, um, street cleaning, all those things, we would need about 1.4 billion dollars.

When we look at this a little deeper, and there were some recommendations, but primarily the study was really to find out what is the magnitude of the issue, because we didn't have any kind of reports like that, is that um we're not, this is my conclusion, and our conclusion at RTC is particularly on regional roads, we're not at a bad place.

Our roads are in good shape.

But um when you add the whole gamut of maintenance, roadside ditches, um, local roads that we're not keeping up.

So we're in a situation where we know what our infrastructure needs are, and we know that we don't have the um monetary resources to be able to do everything we want to do.

So if you look to the right here, it's really the recommendations, which is, and I'll talk about it in a minute, investing in intelligent transportation systems.

And probably most importantly, which is what you do all the time is prioritization.

We know there will probably never be enough money to do everything, so it's really a question like how do we spend our time and money, and um, where's the best bank for the buck, if you will, for the public's funds to make sure we have a um a positively or a well-managed transportation network.

So getting to the GUEN study, we just had this study um delivered to us from the um Gwen Center, who, if you're not familiar with them, they're a nonprofit and they are a nonpartisan group of um think tank, I guess is what I would call them.

And their specialty is looking at issues in Nevada, particularly public policy issues, and normally what they really focus on is legislative issues, to provide advice and kind of get to the meat of what's really going on on any major policy issues.

So we hired them to look specifically at the issue of electric vehicles, because we know electric vehicles don't pay fuel tax, and fuel tax is how we build and maintain the transportation system.

It's how we come up with the money that I said earlier helps us pay for all those road projects that you saw.

And so a little bit of background on what they found is if you look at the graph on the or the chart on the left, you can see starting in 2020 the number of in the green electric vehicles and the number of hybrid vehicles in Washoe County.

And you can see, probably not surprisingly, all of us probably noticed this as you're driving around how many more electric vehicles you see on the street, that as of June, we were at about 5 percent of the total fleet.

So, you know, 5 percent of all the cars you see on the road now are either hybrids or electric vehicles.

And while there's great environmental and social benefits to have changing these vehicles, the biggest issue that they create is that they're not funding the maintenance of the roads and the construction of roads.

And you add on top of it, and this is really a reflection, I think, the the quality and the value and the fuel efficiency of new vehicles.

You can see that even though we're growing as a community, the amount of gasoline consumed is going down, which, you know, as a resource, you would say that's a good thing.

But again, getting back to how are we going to maintain this?

And the other thing I don't have on here, but is a truth is that people aren't driving less.

So as we grow in a community, people are driving more, they're using the roads, they're consuming less fuel, therefore they're contributing less money to take care of a very um large and expanding transportation network.

So part of what we asked the Gwyn Center was, what should we do about this?

What are some of our options?

And that's what you have up here are the recommendations that came from them.

The first one is the policy interventions are things that could be done that would require legislative approval.

So if you look at those top three, the one that's probably had the most traction, the most conversation is levying either a tax or a fee on electric vehicles.

And the idea would be to get those types of vehicles basically equate paying equivalent to or close to what people who buy fuel and internal combustion engines pay to take care of the transportation network.

The other one, vehicle miles traveled, is really one that's been talked about, and it's the concept is pretty simple, which is right now, when you buy gas, you know, you you pay for as much as you use the road, at least in theory, because you are buying gas.

You drive more, you buy more gas, you drive less, you buy less.

So this idea is to start charging based on how much people drive.

So on the face of it, it seems like a very fair and very equitable way to collect the money that is needed to maintain the transportation network.

However, no state has figured out how to do this yet.

And part of the problem is that the complexities, complexities of managing it and collecting the money require that a substantial portion of the money collected would be contributed to that.

In addition, there is some serious concerns from the public about the privacy of this information being given over to government.

So while I think everybody ideologically would prefer to go to that, it's very difficult to do.

And no, like I said, nobody's figured out how to do it.

The last thing is an electric charging station tax.

And that one we've looked at, it would again require all of these would require the State legislature to approve, but part of what we have learned on that is not all of the charging stages are set up to do that.

So you have to have a method to collect the information as far as what's being charged to be able to collect the tax on it.

So all of those are opportunities that are there.

Um we're looked at it is probably the first one.

And we will be returning to the county commission in the near future.

I have no doubt to talk to you about what do we do about that particular issue, which has been discussed in the legislature, I think, probably for three sessions, but doesn't seem to get addressed.

Um the second group of recommendations are ones we control.

And what I mean by that is they don't require any state approval.

So there's two options there.

One of them, which I think you are probably very familiar with, is the supplemental government services tax, which is a tax that the uh Board of County Commissioners have that authority to impose to provide for services needed in the community.

The second one is an increase in a sales tax, which is allowed but would be subject to the vote of the people.

So we could move forward and ask the people in our community to pay an additional 8 percent of 1 percent or 1-8th of 1 percent on a sales tax to generate money.

So, though they didn't go any further than that, they did give us some general estimates of what those might raise in terms of revenue to deal with the problem.

I can tell you that short of probably the vehicle miles travel tax, none of these are going to solve the problem holistically.

These are basically measures to keep us from getting further behind.

And in closing, I want to talk about a new and kind of novel solution.

You know, in the past, what we've done is we would um traffic would occur on a road, people would get concerned because there's congestion, we would go widen the road, and then more cars would get on the road, and after a brief period of time where people would be happy that there is more capacity would fill up, and we would keep doing that.

In addition, what we would do as far as moving people throughout the community is we would go and we would um often with a consultant, we would have them look at all of our traffic signals, time all the traffic signals, and then they go away for three years.

So the intelligent transportation system is a novel way that's happening in many communities, but it is really a new thing, which is trying to be very smart about how we manage the capacity we have.

In other words, we have um capacity in all the roads we have, but sometimes we don't use them wisely.

Like one road could have all the traffic on it, well, there might be other roads that could have capacity, or we could even defer everybody getting on the road at the same time.

Um or even more importantly, in this program, we can deal with special events, you know, whether it's a crash on the freeway or a concert getting out or whatever.

And the way we do that is because we put in software and um computer devices, all the things that need are needed with the signals to talk to each other.

And that way, then we can actually move those signals instead of being set for three years and then come back and making the adjustments they can be adjusted real time.

So we can look at an event that's happening that maybe wasn't predicted or modeled, and we can respond to it by changing the timing on the signals that not only are on that main corridor, but also feed into it.

And the idea behind it is to be really intelligent about how we manage transportation flows at any point in time on our network.

Part of that, which you'll be seeing more details, because it really is only going to happen with agreement between uh Washoe County, the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, and RTC, because we are your agents, um, and we have to have concurrence really for this to work at a regional level.

But we're moving forward with the creation of a physical manifestation of the ITS system, which is a traffic management center.

And the way I would describe that generally is that this is a place where we will have people physically get together to look at how the system holistically is being operated.

Right now we send out individuals based on an incident or something that happens, and it's not it's not collectively analyzed and discussed in a way that everybody can understand what the complexity of the situation is.

And it will lead to us to, and it has in other places, I think a much better use of our road system, which really is probably the most important thing, is we realize we're never gonna have enough money to build all the roads, we're never gonna have enough money to maintain them all.

So we just have to be smarter about how we use them.

And with that, um I wanted to just close, and I apologize, I went way beyond only 14 seconds beyond my 10 minutes.

Um it's hard to pack, you know, a year's worth of stuff into 10 minutes, I gotta tell you.

Um but I appreciate it.

We're we're really focusing on increasing our coordination RTC with NDOT.

And probably don't need to tell you, but is important for everyone to understand that NDOT is a straight state agency, and 73 percent of the population in our state is in Southern Nevada.

So we have to be very strategic, and we have to be very much on top of that relationship with NDOT because we're in a competition.

We're in competition with not only Southern Nevada, but also all the rural counties to get their attention and their investment and that not only their money, but their time to deal with our issues.

Also, federal funding, which we've been very aggressive at pursuing, um, is changing.

It's definitely shrinking.

Um it's in a state of flux now, so I couldn't tell you exactly what's going on, but we do know the nature of investment from the Federal Government, at least probably for the next three years is gonna be different.

Money that was used in the past for pedestrian bicycle facilities is likely gone.

And money that is focused on safety is probably gonna be the target of the new administration, from what we can tell.

But the most important thing is to just let everyone in the community know, including you, of course, that there's not likely to be the same levels of Federal money that were invested in the past four years in our transportation network.

And then lastly, um it's really kind of on nobody's radar, but it's something that everybody talks about, and that's the issue of the um Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, and the employees that live in the Reno Sparks area and have to drive along Interstate 80.

So anybody who hasn't driven that, good for you.

But if you have, you would know that pretty much on a weekly basis, there are crises on that road, and it's causing some real challenges, not only for the people who live in our community, because 80% of the people who work in the Tri-Center come from the Reno Sparks Washoe County area.

So it's real life, real day impacts on those individuals.

And it's an issue that we've approached at RTC by coordinating not only with NDOT, the governor's office, and Story County, to see what can we come up with as near-term and long-term solutions to deal with that issue.

And I bring it up only because, like I say, it's not in our RTP, it's not in anything that we have done ourselves because it's not a Washoe County independent issue.

It really is a regional issue, interregional issue, and it really is a state issue.

So with that, um, and I thank you again for letting me go long.

I would be more than happy to answer questions or have Dale help me with answering questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Thomas.

We appreciate it.

I will go down the line, Vice Chair Herman.

Thank you for the great report.

And you your timing is great.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you so much.

Um it is a pleasure to serve on the RTC board.

We learned so much.

Um, the blanket of services that the agency provides to all ages in areas of the county is impressive, and um the multi-generational projects that have been uh completed or are in the process of being completed.

I mean, you don't get to see a bridge getting rebuilt in your lifetime very often, and so those things are all happening right now.

Um ITS is very innovative.

Um, we're getting uh very excited about that.

So that's another example of how you're looking regionwide.

I can tell my fellow commissioners, RTC does not favor one jurisdiction over another.

Everything is done via lots and lots of data collection and prioritization, and so uh we're we all have to look at this roads issue as a nonpartisan issue, as a non-jurisdictional issue.

It's uh, you know, that it's daunting to hear a 1.4 million dollar shortfall in the next 10 years, and it's incumbent upon us to really look at the um policy recommendations that were provided to us and really lean into what is possible and what is um feasible for our region.

So I just wanted to say thank you for all your work and um thank you for coming to present today because a lot of there's a lot going on.

You're a very lean agency and you do a lot with what you got, so keep up the go work.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

Uh, I'll I'll uh I will also echo um thanks for coming and for everyone and the staff for all of your hard work.

But I do have a question.

The um stats in terms of um the EVs and hybrids and the 5% that represents that of the total.

And you mentioned um, I believe you said that there's really nothing that's gonna be able to solve that holistically, like even though the legislature, quite frankly, has been wrestling with us for more sessions than we'd like to actually say three, because I remember it was even discussed a long time ago.

Um but the fact is is that there are folks who are traveling the roads for free.

That's the bottom line.

And I'm one of them.

And I will tell you what I said to the NDOT director, Ms.

Larkin, come up with something.

I'm willing to pay it.

Yeah.

I mean, really, I know I'm I mean, if I could write a check, where do I send it and how am I insured it's gonna go back to roads?

So the f the point that I'm trying to make is as we see more and more, it's now five percent.

I thought it would be more, but it's now five percent.

And then the fact of the balancing of less consumption at the pump, if you will, that feeds into the fuel tax that is intended statutorily to help pay for the roads.

So if we stayed within the confines of the analysis that the Gwen Center, who is a great think tank, as you put it, but it's really composed of researchers that are truly bipartisan and trying to come up with viable solutions so legislators can look at what those options could be for policy changes.

So what could be or did the Gwen Center address what a number could be for that group in terms of making up the difference for the consumption while also those that are riding the roads free?

We have free riders, right?

I didn't think I'd ever be one.

So it's not intentional, but it is.

And so I'm wondering if I know that you've given the number in terms of I thought I read it 1.4 billion, by the way, but maybe it was 14.4 million shortfall.

But what could be assessed instead of necessarily raising the tax?

Because the reality is is that evidently the DMV is having trouble being able, as you pointed out, you didn't name the DMV.

So maybe I'll just say there are entities who collect this and then send out the bills to DMB, who um have to wrestle with how they do this.

And so even if they collect the money, it's gonna go back in to the process that they have to build to support it.

That's what I heard you say.

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

I don't quite understand that, but that's not for me.

I don't have enough information.

But what could be assessed?

So I'll go back to my question.

What could be assessed?

Did the Gwynn Center give you an idea of, for instance, the hybrids and the EVs?

Just to be clear, the dollar amount, is that what you're looking for?

Yeah.

Approximately.

They did.

They gave us a basically a matrix.

Okay.

And the matrix really has to do with two variables.

One is what's the maximum, what's the minimum?

Um, what's the adoption level in terms of people actually getting EVs?

Because there's no certainty on that.

I can say that what, and I'll get to your specific answer, but I need to preface it a bit.

Um, what NDOT is forecasting is that within five years will be at like 20 percent.

So even though it's small now, um, it's gonna grow and it's gonna continue to grow.

And I think all of us see it.

You don't have to be a scientist as you see more and more, not just Teslas on the road, right?

There's all kinds of new EVs now.

So you can watch as you sit at a signal, you can see how many electric vehicles are going by, and I think common sense would tell you there's more.

So that matrix really, I would say probably somewhere in the middle, is 200 to 250 dollars a year.

Would you ask Ms.

Larkin what the amount is I shared with her?

I cannot believe this.

Because I said, I'll write you a check.

I think it's 250.

I'm not kidding you.

This is crazy.

If I could be assured that the money would go to the roads, I'd write the check today.

But did the Gwynn Center give an indication of what the dollar amount would be to the entity to process this, where essentially that $250 per vehicle wouldn't be enough because it wouldn't go to the roads because it's gonna have to build the infrastructure to put into place.

So if the state, for instance, were lucky enough to find a quarter in the in the couch that could invest in that and then let the money go to the roads, I'm I'm hoping that that might be uh consideration.

But I guess what I'm getting at is if if it's 250, we'll just use that number.

If it's 250, is it 250 that will go investments risk for the first year, then the next 250 it could be allocated for roads?

What period of time to cover whatever the infrastructure costs to for the agency to run the billing and collection and that kind of thing.

So the beauty of doing a either a fee or a tax, just a flat registration fee is it costs very little to implement because that would just be another little tick on DMB's list of money they collect for.

Um so that particular method, I don't remember it's in the report, and uh I don't I I want it's a small percentage.

So if we do it as if it's done as a registration fee, there'll be minimal administrative costs.

Where I was really trying to make the point is this new one where you would do a vehicle miles tax.

Right, right, right.

Really said, you know, we're gonna get rid of gas tax, we're just gonna have how many miles.

But um I would say that from what we know the um the estimate of what we're gonna charge is gonna be something that's gonna work its way out if you look at other states, because we are only we are one of only nine states that don't do this.

So when you look across the country, you know, the other 40 states have already dealt with this.

We're we're in the very small minority that haven't dealt with this.

But when you look at them, their ranges are from probably 100 to 200 is kind of the top.

And then what they've done is the um the hybrids are about half of that.

So that's if you look at other places, kind of what the model is.

Part of what will have to happen as we move forward with this is again getting authorization from the legislature to charge this fee, but it'll probably be a policy decision falling in great part, possibly even on you as the board of county commissioners for our county to say how much do you want to collect?

But it'll probably be a policy decision, falling in great part, possibly even on you as the Board of County Commissioners for our county to say how much do you want to collect?

And I'm sure you'll probably hear like place most places do that there's concern about this being new technology, and if you set the rate too high, will people quit doing it?

And there's social benefits to people going to EV.

So that kind of balancing test is what I would suggest to you is probably going to be where we land in terms of the actual rate.

Well, the other thing that'll probably be included, sorry to keep going, but we would propose to the extent we get a chance to influence it that it'd be indexed much like fuel tax.

So it's not static.

In other words, you know, 20 years from now, 250 dollars is not going to be much.

It needs to also accelerate in the same way fuel tax does because of the cost.

Yeah, which is why you things are usually indexed to the CPI.

Right.

Um so thank you.

It sounds like there's more to come.

I could talk to you more than I don't want to take up any more time, but I'm I'm looking forward to seeing the legislature have the courage to actually uh bill free riders for um what has now been you know several years and kicking that can down.

The um road applicable, pun intended, is is really hurting everyone.

And so um I don't think anyone wants to have the you know any tax, but the reality is is that there's nothing that's being paid by the folks that are using and um those free riders are are really making others pay, and then the efficiency of vehicles over the years that started even then in the 70s, to be honest with you, where um the whole country moved into how to save fuel.

So we've seen the benefit of those efficiencies, which means we have a decrease of over time of fuel usage, but then the tax actually was you know indexed to that.

So I was part of that at the legislature in terms of how to calibrate that and even you know what would be fair to everybody and how do you have fair and equitable um you know payment across the board.

So I'll look forward to the legislature, not doing anything but doing something, right?

That's going to work.

And so it seemed like a first step to me.

I didn't know that detail, but um, I'll be watching for more.

I also want to just share with you how incredible it is for the student rides to be up 34 percent.

That's a huge number.

And so thanks.

That's amazing.

I didn't see the percentage of flexride, but flex ride is really important to the district that I serve, and I'm sure many others.

And I can't thank you all enough for flexride.

I'm one of the very first constituents I ever helped was Flexride.

And it's near and dear to my heart of being able to see him being able to go to dialysis treatment to save his life, essentially.

So thank you for that.

I didn't see the numbers on that, and I'm not going to uh worry about that right now, but I would like to follow up on what those percentage are we seeing increases for flex ride, are we seeing increases for the senior rides and the taxi voucher program that you have in place.

So thank you for always thinking about how to move people efficiently, effectively, and as least cost as possible, which the intelligence system sounds fascinating.

I also would be remiss to not thank you for always coming to the Spanish Springs Cab and doing a great job.

We feel the infrastructure with not only RTC but um and dot.

And so having you there on November 5th is going to be a great opportunity for those at Spanish Springs at 6 p.m.

at the Spanish Springs Library to again hear all of what you're doing and and also what the plans are, specifically to your point about I-80, because those several thousand people that are going to TRIC, 43 percent approximately live in my district.

And so we all have an interest in how we can actually look at that and moving those folks in an efficient way and what those short-term and long-term options are.

So I'm sure the Spanish Springs Cab will be uh well attended with a lot of information that you share.

And then in closing, thanks again for everything that you do.

Um, as Commissioner Varcia stated, you know, this isn't about this is really about jurisdiction, like jurisdictions working together because we all are crossing those boundaries in various ways, and I am going to encourage everyone to reach out to their elected representative at the legislature to talk about figure out a way to charge EVs and hybrids.

Please get it done.

2027, right?

No, 2028.

When's the next legislature?

2027.

That's around the corner.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just uh comment.

Thank you for your report.

Um you should say something in your your report that gasoline purchases are down.

Is that is that what you said?

The volume of gas consumed, yes.

Volume.

So that's interesting.

I I know we've got the component of uh EVs and hybrids and that type of thing, but you said they're only making up about five percent of the of the uh automobile market at this point in time or vehicle market at this point in time.

And uh so I'm just wondering why why gas purchases are going down, the population's increasing, more people are spending more time on the road.

Do you think anybody's buying gas out of the county to avoid the uh the local tax that we have here in the county?

You think that is a component of of what's taking place?

Um I certainly believe from people who've told me that that's what they're doing, but I I think that's really a reflection of the fuel efficiency.

You know, it's not just the EVs, it's not just the hybrids, but you know, you see more, you see less and less, I guess, large trucks and more smaller vehicles.

So to me, that's the you know visual representation of what's happening.

So there are more people, there are more people driving, there's more use of the roads, all of us see the congestion increasing.

It's just that at the gas pump, people aren't pumping in as much to their cars as they used to.

And that's reflected in how much money is raised to pay for the network.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much.

I think uh you hear that this board wants to help with that um uh that equity issue that we're seeing, and so please uh let us know how we can support you.

We want to make sure everyone's paying their fair share.

And we deserve great roads.

So uh we appreciate the update and the great work that you and your team are doing every day to serve our community, and we'll just stay in touch.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

I really appreciate it.

Okay.

Uh we are going to move to our final presentation, 6C1.

Manager.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm gonna give you a very brief status update on the RAF Tellus recommendations that we all heard.

Thank you so much.

And they're letting me stay up here and go to the presentation.

So if you'll indulge me, um, you'll all recall that we had a commission request for an outside entity to come take a look at what was occurring in the county manager's office from a communication organizational work allocation standpoint.

And so after a series of selection um opportunities, the RAF TELUS organiz uh company was invited to come in.

They conducted uh some research, talked to a bunch of individuals and elected and other department heads and came up with uh recommendation that we've given you an update on.

It was presented in June on June 25th of this year.

We gave a little bit of an update in one of the board briefs, but I wanted to walk through some of the recommendations and just give you a brief status because I have um assured you that we would come back with this.

You'll see the 12 recommendations listed on this um graph here.

Something to note is all of all but two of those along that y-axis, which is your vertical axis, started immediately.

And so we got to work in the manager's office, um, various other areas.

HR was a big help to start to put into place some of the recommendations that came forward from RAF TELLUS.

We are happy to report that we've started some important initiatives right away.

You've been seeing the weekly board brief rather than getting a multitude of emails from the manager or assistant managers or department heads.

We're trying to communicate in a more meaningful way by putting that in a weekly publication for you that also goes out to our elected department heads, the other department heads, and then out to the organization.

But it is intended to give the information to this board so that you're up to speed and uh well communicated with.

We've put the commission support function under my counterpart, Dave Solero, who is working hard to align that with the commissioners' requests, um, some of the functions of the agenda piece and just commission support in general, and so we're working hard on that.

We started our one-on-one meetings, which I enjoy with commissioners as often as we're able to make those weekly, um, just to again enhance that communication.

We have a quarterly elected officials meeting that we just had our first re-established luncheon um last week or the week prior, and then as often as I'm invited to meet with them, all get together and we talk through some issues that those department heads and elected officials are having.

I'll clarify that the elected officials I'm speaking here are elected seven elected department heads, not this board.

And then we had the realignment of some of our office of the county manager roles and the reporting structure.

So we've gotten underway with some of those items already.

Still up for and in process being worked on.

We've got the agenda setting and board meeting framework.

You've heard us talk a little bit about a meeting structure that involves a more intensive workshop for the board.

That was a RAFTELUS recommendation.

We also had a recommendation to look at posting the agenda a few days earlier so that the board would have time to digest the information and come back with meaningful questions.

If they if you all weren't clear on something, we could give you a deeper dive.

So that's in the works.

The process for prioritizing your requests.

We heard a little bit today that you do have individuals that show up at the board meeting that are looking for answers or solutions.

A lot of those are reverberated by this board and requested that we look into those items.

And so we've been working on what it is that this board would like to see as far as requests, whether it's an agenda item or a future presentation, making sure that those requests are prioritized and communicated back to this board.

Looking at some of the policy and governance role for the governance roles for the board, you'll see that a little bit later in this presentation, strengthening the board relationships, accountability, collaboration.

We've heard working together is a big theme that we've talked about.

And then, of course, looking forward to when we might have some new board members, we know we'll at least have one, but looking at a really robust onboarding program.

And so I'll I'll go through those a little bit more here as far as those in process are.

But though that was the general overview.

If we set that agenda or release that agenda, you know, it's a pretty robust schedule to get something before the board for a policy decision.

And so if we move that up a couple days, how does that impact the work that you do from a from a different department perspective?

And so we're looking through that feedback.

We expect to bring forward some more information to you in December, realigning the duties of the executive assistant to the county manager, talking about moving agenda-related duties out from under that role so that it can be more of an office manager type coordinating effort versus having the commission support team working on the agenda, since so they're more in direct contact with this board.

That was coming before you.

And so those are some of the items that are coming forward from the board retreat or training sessions that we're looking at.

And then finally, I mentioned the onboarding processes for in uh elected officials when we start to look at a really robust opportunity when new elected officials come into this organization, how we give an opportunity for uh robust onboarding.

And so that's something that we're really focused on.

We heard that loud and clear, um, as well as appointees to boards and commissions.

We know there's been some frustration there.

We're going to continue to work through that so that everybody's happy with how those constituents that represent the boards that you are appointed to can better serve the community.

So, with that, um, the two that are currently on hold pending the the future uh manager or or just after the new year is really looking at that strategic planning and how that gets reframed, as well as finalizing that restructure of the manager's office.

I know there's been some discussion on should there be another executive level position, should there be a different, you know, that continues to evolve the longer that we work together on figuring out what the office can do to serve this board.

And so with that, we all wrap up.

We're continually looking for ways to improve.

Um, the RAF Tellos report gave us that opportunity and a framework that we've been following.

We certainly know it's not an end all be all, so we don't need to just follow that, but it did give us a good ground setting set of goals to follow.

So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Or if you have any suggestions, we're open to that too.

Great, thank you.

That is an awesome update.

I'm glad to see all the work that you and the team have been putting together on that.

And so, Vice Chair Herman, anything.

Okay, Commissioner Garcia.

Commissioner Andrea.

I just want to say thank you for the update.

I think it's important that everyone hear about what's happening.

Everyone's working hard, and you don't necessarily know what's moving and what isn't, and your uh Gantt chart there actually shows obviously what those targets that RAF tell us had put into play.

Um, I share with everyone that you know I've worked with a lot of consultants, we all have in various capacities, and I didn't know Raphtellis at all before they came.

But the fact that they worked with leadership to actually create this timeline and to create what can be implemented, what is realistic, what those goals I think is a real testament to them doing a very thorough job versus just saying, here it is, and then you have to figure it out, so to speak.

So I I really appreciate the update, and I'll uh continue to look forward to those updates.

And I would just like to keep an open opportunity to offer suggestions as they arise.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for uh your report.

And uh it's good to see some progress, and it's uh a lot of this uh we cover on our one-on-one, so it kind of was no surprise, but it was just nice to see it all in uh one uh one presentation.

So thank you.

Yeah, and I think we already see the improvements and things coming together.

So thank you for that.

We really appreciate it.

Okay, we will now move into proclamations.

Uh 7B1 and Manager Thomas.

Sure.

This is a proclamation date proclamation for the week of October 19th to 25th as National Friends of the Libraries Week.

And so we have Commissioner Garcia who has offered to read this proclamation for us.

Thank you.

And I think we have some folks from the library here.

Yeah.

I could have delivered it for you.

Hi, good to see you.

Thanks for coming down.

All right.

I'd like to start off by saying thank you for your patience.

It's 1236.

Um, but this is an important proclamation, so I'd like to read it.

Whereas the Friends of the Washa County Library raises money to enable the Washoe County Library System to move from good to great, providing resources for additional programming, necessary equipment, support for children's summer reading, and special events throughout the year.

And whereas the Friends highlights an ongoing on an ongoing basis, the fact that our our libraries are a cornerstone of our communities, providing opportunities for all to engage in the joy of life learning, lifelong learning, and to connect with the thoughts and ideas of others from ages past to present.

And whereas the Friends understand the critical importance of well-funded libraries and advocate to ensure that our library gets the resources it needs to provide a wide variety of services to all ages, including access to print and electronic materials, along with expert assistance in research, readers advisory, and children's services.

And whereas the Friends gift of their time and commitment to the library sets an example for all in how volunteerism can lead to positive civic engagement and for the betterment of our community.

Now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim the week of October 19th through the 25th as National Friends of Libraries Week.

And here you go.

There's two in there.

I'm not sure why, but the more the merry and you're welcome to say a few words if you'd like.

She had to leave because their book sale, their October book sale, the final one of the year, is ongoing right now.

So she had to rush on over to help at the book sale.

But they are very grateful for this recognition.

It means a lot.

They have raised over $2 million for us since starting in 1980.

Very close.

It's actually getting real close to three million.

So well, we'll be excited to see what those book sales have generated in funding for this year's donation, end of year donation.

So they they work year round to put these book sales on, and uh it's a great opportunity.

I really appreciate the opportunity to recognize that hard work.

Um so thank you.

Thank you.

And I also see that we have a trustee here from the library board.

So maybe we could get a quick picture and let's let's applaud our friends of the libraries.

We can't do it without them.

Okay.

Thank you for my comment.

Thanks for coming up.

And Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve.

Thank you.

I'm looking for a second.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

And Madam Clerk, any public comment on that item.

There's none.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

Thank you.

That I think passes unanimously.

Thank you.

All right, we're gonna move into donations.

Commissioner Garcia.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Today I would like to say thank you to the Reno Rodeo Foundation for donating $8,279.46 cents in books, toys, and teddy bears to the reading room, as well as the anonymous donors who stepped up to support this effort.

Thank you so much.

I'm looking for a second.

I'm gonna have to second that one since I started the reading room program, but how exciting.

Congratulations to all those foster kids who have their lives influenced by this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Any public comment on that, Madam Clerk.

We have Alicia LaRude.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Alicia LaRude for the record, district court administrator.

I did just want to take a moment this morning to acknowledge our reading room program and all of the great work that the Reno Found that the Reno Rodeo Foundation, excuse me, does with respect to that program.

It was established in 2018 with a lot of community support.

And since establishment, the Reno Rodeo Foundation without fail provides us with books that get handed out, as Commissioner Andreola mentioned to our foster care population, those children who are coming in on our dependency dockets.

But since establishment, it really has expanded where we try very hard for children who come into the court, that all of them are leaving with a book.

A court is not necessarily the most friendly environment for our smallest and our most vulnerable court patrons.

And those books, they serve as a celebratory momentum for children who are on our adoption docket.

They serve as a way for children to walk away from the court with a positive experience.

I personally will go in our family lobby and hand them out to children who may be there sitting with a parent who's there filling out an order for an application for a protection order.

And I didn't appreciate when this program was first established that books really are a very, very valuable resource for that population, and the look on a child's face when they realize that they get to take home a brand new book, and then the look on that parent's face when they realize that their child gets to take home a brand new book.

It really is something special.

So I did want to take a moment this morning just to acknowledge those donations that come in without fail from the Rena Rodeo Foundation.

We also have little stuffed animals.

This year they're horses, they're fantastic.

Um it really does just change how a child walks away from the courthouse.

So a huge thank you.

Thank you.

There's nobody.

May I make a comment to Miss LaRude?

Yes.

Being that uh we all had that fun experience of seeing this roll out.

I also want to acknowledge the staff at the courts because I don't think people realize that they're the ones who are putting all those books in those courtrooms on Friday.

And I still don't know if you're doing it on Friday, whenever day you're doing it, but the staff volunteer with that and put those books in.

And the judges actually helped to vet some of the books so that it's related to whatever that particular child may be experiencing in terms of inspiration as well.

So I do want to give kudos where they also need to be, and that's to the staff and the judges who are a major part of this as well.

And thank you so much for that, Commissioner.

The staff who work on this project are very passionate about it.

Um, they they help to order the books in, and again, just talking about how this project has expanded.

I mean, even I'm over in the old courthouse, and I have a box of books that I keep in my office over there because we occasionally have children in those hallways, and it really it I can't describe to you how much it changes those kids' faces when you hand them a book.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

We've taken public comment.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Okay, we're gonna move into consent, and we do have that one change on consent on um 9e2 to exclude the $5,000 for the Reno Alex Lodge, which will come later to the board.

I am looking for a motion on consent.

Thank you very much.

Looking for a second.

Thank you.

Or vice chair, do you want to yeah, Vice Chair Herman, you got the second.

Okay, Madam Clerk, is there any public comment on consent?

Looks like there's nobody signed in.

Thank you.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Hi.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And that motion passes unanimously.

And now, Madam Vice Chair, could you help us with a block vote, please?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um and this will be in the form of a motion as well.

And that would be item 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

Thank you so much.

I'm looking for a second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

Madam Clerk, any public comment on those items.

There's none.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second on the block vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And I think uh that will come back on our screen here.

Who is the seconder on that?

That was Garcia.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

It's up on your screen.

All right, that motion passes unanimously.

We will now move into item 12.

And manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item 12 is a recommendation to receive an update and provide direction to staff by confirming or modifying the priority order of actions to implement the envisioned Washoe 2014 master plan and changes mandated through the 2025 session of the Nevada legislature.

Topics for prioritization may include but are not limited to countywide affordable housing initiatives, public noticing, permitting requirements for equine businesses, dark skies, heat mitigation, and agro tourism.

And we have Kelly Mullen here today to walk us through that process.

Okay, thank you.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, members of the commission.

Kelly Mullen, Planning and Building Division Director.

About two years ago, this board adopted the envisioned WASHO 2040 master plan.

And at that time, you identified the initial priority order for items to start implementing that plan last December.

You updated that priority order.

And this afternoon, I'm gonna provide you with an update on some of the accomplishments that have occurred since then since initial adoption, as well as ask you to confirm or modify an updated priority order, including some of the items that have been mandated by the state legislature.

And similar to last year, I'd like to ground the discussion in the importance of the county's strategic plan and the master plan in the work that our planners do, and especially those who are focused on long-range planning items like this.

As you know, long-range planning is a very time incentive, time-intensive resource-intensive endeavor, and it's super important that the work that we're doing on long-range planning stems from the priorities of this board.

Of course, you set the policy in the direction with the strategic plan with the master plan, and then we in turn implement those policies and those directives.

Some of those are up on the screen, but at the end of the day, it's you know really intended to make sure that the work that we're doing is driven by the priorities that you set.

And of course, there's always some of those complicating factors, such as the two regional planning agencies, Trucky Meadows Regional Planning, Tahoe Regional Planning, where they also set mandates for us at times, as well as the state legislature.

So diving into the meet for today, that master plan that sets the vision of how our community should grow over the next 20 years.

And as you know, that implementation of that master plan and carrying out that vision takes many years, very labor-intensive.

That includes a variety of actions, short-term, medium-term, long-term, and we have made substantial progress on those initial priorities that you set two years ago.

We will be providing you with some recommendations today on new items to hopefully get prioritized, and again, just want to make sure that we're aligning our efforts with board direction.

So, in terms of things that have been achieved, especially related to that first initiative, the top priority that you have set related to countywide affordable housing.

As you're aware, a significant work was done last year to reduce barriers for some of those missing middle housing types, things like triplexes, quadplexes, cottage courts.

You updated some of the standards related to multifamily housing.

You have made it easier, cheaper, and faster to bring accessory dwelling units on board.

Two of the most time-sensitive ones that we are looking to enact very soon would be allowing for multifamily and mixed-use housing on commercially zoned properties and also creating an expedited review process for attainable housing.

So a lot of progress has been made.

Similarly, with the Tahoe area plan, you're aware that the county's part in that is now complete, that changes were adopted in August that has been provided over to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for them to review make a conformance review and analysis of the changes within the Tahoe area plan.

But for the most part, the county's portion of that is complete, so we are also recommending removal from this list.

And then the fourth item on there work on that has not yet been started, but if you'll recollect back in 2022, we made some changes that allow for projects requiring a public hearing to be presented to the community earlier in the process so that community members have more of an opportunity to present their concerns, learn more about the project, potentially influence what that final application looks like.

This particular item is aimed at evaluating and possibly enhancing some of those processes.

You know, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that our engagement process is as effective and efficient as possible.

And with the prior two items being recommended for removal, this item related to public noticing and engagement is a recommended to move up to number two.

Standards doing an assessment and updating standards related to equine businesses, if you'll recollect, the board prioritized that last year as the fifth uh priority item on the list based on those other two items being removed.

We do recommend moving that up to number three.

And then the next item related to uh groundwater groundwater rights dedication uh within the warm springs area.

That is a work that actually our engineering division is going to be leading.

They'll be driving those efforts, which means that that is going to be able to be completed separately.

Our planning staff will provide support, logistical assistance with that work, but because it can be completed separately and by another division, we are recommending it be removed from this particular list.

The engineering division has identified that efforts on that will start next year.

And then the last item that had been prioritized previously was for dashboard indicators to help measure achievements as we implement the master plan.

Um we are we are recommending that the this actually get scaled back a little bit, transitioned off the list.

There is information that has been provided on the website that identifies you know what has been accomplished in terms of implementation of the master plan, what is coming up.

But because of the complexity of some of those other items that are on the list and where this was prioritized previously, we're recommending it come off uh come off the list and that completion of a more advanced dashboard get completed over time as resources allow.

So now we'll get to the new topics for prioritization.

Um, one of the the items that came out of the recent legislative session was a mandate that counties and cities within their master plan that they create a heat mitigation plan, it has to cover a certain series of topics that does go into effect July 1, and so we are recommending that that get prioritized at this time.

And then the following two items were requests made from commissioners on this board.

Dark skies is one that was actually one of the highest, um, one of the highest ranked and most talked about items by some of the community members who participated in the master plan update process, and there's a lot of community interest on that.

Um we're recommending that that get prioritized by the board today, and then the final item.

Uh Commissioner Andreola had requested that an item be brought back to the board to consider creation of an agro tourism ordinance.

And for those who may not be familiar with agro tourism specifically, it can mean a variety of different things.

There's a broad range of activities that could fall under that definition, but generally it means bringing members of the public to a farm or a ranch for educational, recreational or retail purposes.

And that is something that you know, some of the activities that could fall under that umbrella.

The county does already regulate to some degree, not all of them, but that's something that should this board prioritize this item that we would be looking to dive into a little bit more.

So, based on all of that, this is the recommended priority order that we just talked about.

Adding dark skies and agro-tourism is fifth and sixth on this list.

If the board would does wish for us to proceed with work on those items.

And with that, I'll leave this up on the screen.

I'm available for any questions.

Thank you.

I have a question and then open it up to the board, and then we'll do some public comment.

Um agro-tourism and hearing from our public commenter, and I think I've been corresponding with her as well on this issue for a while now.

Um, is there are we doing stopgap measures to help with folks who do not fall into the regulatory requirements currently, or are we just saying no to them?

So we have the ability to identify, you know, if if a particular type of use is not very clearly spelled out within the development code, we do have the ability to look at what are similar uses, what's the closest fit and make sure that that is something that you know we can still identify that for them.

Okay, it would fall under this type of use, these are the requirements to get a permit for doing that.

So, like I said, a lot of our a lot of the the uses that could fall under that umbrella are regulated to some degree.

Um now, certainly there are differences of opinion in terms of you know the permitting process that's required for that.

Is it something that folks want to go through or not to establish the business that they're looking to establish?

Um but but at this point, to my knowledge, you know, we have not on any of those types of requests have said this is not allowed at all.

It's just here's the process to be able to get there.

And N SUP is expensive and time consuming.

Certainly, yeah.

So, and we only can get so many per property.

I think a year, I'm not am I right about that on SUP or is it unlimited?

There is not a limit to my to my knowledge.

Okay.

Uh so I am all about dark skies, don't get me wrong.

Um, a big advocate, but I just knowing that there are people who are for years struggling with the agro-tourism issue.

I would tend to want to push it up.

Um that's where I'm at, but I also want to hear from the uh board and obviously public commenters.

But um, Vice Chair Herman, do you have anything?

Okay, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, could you please provide an overview of the public noticing where we're at?

What what is broken?

How much work is that gonna entail?

I am having a difficult time recalling what we talked about.

So if you could refresh my memory, that'd be great.

Absolutely.

There's a couple pieces to that.

Um, you know, we talked about how some of the processes changed in 2022, where we have uh folks who are looking to do some sort of a discretionary permit with a public hearing, the vast majority of them, not all of them, but the vast majority of them are required to put on a neighborhood meeting prior to submittal of the application, and that allows for the folks who may be impacted who live nearby to learn more about the project and to provide input on the project before that application is submitted.

That was a process change what was that was made, but is not yet codified.

So one piece of it would be codifying that, formalizing that process along with some other cleanups.

Um but at the end of the day, too, it's also you know, doing a more thorough assessment, I think, of how our public noticing and engagement processes are working right now.

Certainly, one of the things that we always struggle with is making sure that we get as many folks who may be interested in participating to participate.

That is an ongoing struggle for you know, any of the public hearings where we want that input.

How do we make it as easy as possible to participate?

Um, how do we get representative samples of information from across the all the different perspectives that may be out there?

And so this um this work, this initiative was going to be digging into that a little bit deeper.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andriola.

Thank you.

Um I think one of the things I'm just for full transparency, I I shared um this comment I'm gonna make with uh assistant county manager Solero because two uh you're explaining, for instance, public noticing, and I know I've had conversations with you and others about public noticing at least some things that I think can be um enhanced.

But the reality is just by looking at this list, you can't necessarily tell in terms of timing.

And one of the things to the chair's point, I did bring agritourism.

I also recommended dark skies amongst others, but I had been wanting dark skies as well, and I know there are others on here that want to look at it.

So, as an example with agri-tourism, there already is provisions at least that were introduced to the legislature.

I'm not saying that Washoe County and this commission as a board of a whole would just take that language and just say, you know, here it is, but a lot of work has already been done at the NACO conference.

Um, there was a panel that the representative from the Lieutenant Governor's office and also from AG were there, the Department of Agriculture, the State Department of Agriculture.

And so it's hard, I think, to um be able to ascertain the priority if for timing.

So let me give you an example.

If it were just me, I would put equine business number one.

But it's not just me.

And the other thing is is that the countywide affordable housing initiative or the countywide attainable housing initiatives are also legislatively driven.

So there's some compliance mandates that you always have to balance, and I realize that.

So it really, I think is difficult to be able to put these in the order because as I spoke with assistant county manager Solero, it's it's like just because one thing is being worked on, it could be a big lift, but other things could be worked on as well.

And I just don't know what that balance could be.

So I guess my question directly is public noticing is that a long process.

What would that look like?

Given the fact that we have agritourism, at least a body of language that could be looked at, what would that look like?

I know it's hard for you to say this is going to take a year or this gonna take two weeks or whatever, but I think it's hard to be able to make decisions when some of these were not we're not certain the timing of it.

For me, I'm gonna let you know I'm going to do whatever I can in the most articulate way I can and the most negotiating way I can to move equine business up.

The equine businesses have been waiting.

I brought this to the commission as a board, and I want to thank all of my colleagues for moving it up from nine number nine in 2024 at the strategic planning meeting to number five.

Some work had been done, and thank you, Miss Smolin, and to the staff of CSD for working through that.

But the reality is that there are folks that are being directly impacted, and I'm not suggesting there aren't impacts to these others, by the way.

But I think that there's enough work with the equine business, and a lot has already been formulated that moving it up, I think would be at least my preference.

Again, I realize that number one has some compliance requirements.

So if I could have a 1A, that's what I'd like as a 1A for equine business.

So for me, I think the countywide attainable housing initiatives, equine business.

I think agro tourism, um, and then I don't know how long it would take for the heat mitigation and the dark skies or the public noticing, but that's that's where I'm leaning, at least at this moment.

I just wanted to share that.

But one A is good.

Maybe we have two ones, if that's possible.

Thank you.

Well, I mean, to the commissioner's point, and I was thinking about this too.

What is this body of work looking like?

Is it we're gonna be done with this in the end of 2026 or these six items?

If everything clicks in and no one is sick at work and we approve everything that comes before us because it's perfect.

Let's just say there's like all the stars align, the dark sky stars.

Uh, there you go.

So I just curious like so these um people who are here, there are people who are here who are like, I need help, I need help from the county today.

And so I just timing-wise, I know this is long-range planning, and um I it's a tough job, but you know, where where are we at getting all six of these things done?

I and thank you for all the caveats, by the way.

I appreciate that.

Yes, all of those things, those stars would need would need to align.

I think that with these six items on the list, it would absolutely fill out another year worth of work.

Okay.

Um, and I will say, you know, for the housing items, there's still several months' worth of work, but all of those initiatives that I mentioned, they're underway on those housing items.

So we're much closer than we were a year, year and a half ago to closing those out.

Um, the public noticing piece, I mean, that is certainly there, like I mentioned on that one, there are there are two primary components of it.

There's the codifying the changes that were made in 2022, and then there's doing the deeper dive and codifying those changes that were were made previously, if that was by itself could potentially be a faster process.

But when we're talking about all right, those ways of engaging with the community, if that is done at the same time, certainly that could lengthen that process.

Don't know what that might look like at the end of the day.

I think that there will be a lot of involvement from the from the community.

Certainly, as you mentioned, Commissioner, on the equine businesses, that you know, a good chunk of that initial work has been has been completed.

Um, but you know, as we get into the process of throwing out some draft language, working with the community, how many times does that have to get modified and do we have to have those workshops to kind of get it to a place it's ready to bring forward?

There's lots of um unknowns, I think.

And I very much appreciate that that question.

I appreciate the comments and that you know, concern on timing.

Certainly, that's I think something that we can take back for next time we do this priority exercise is if we can provide you with some sort of guardrails on the timing to help make it a little bit more real, we'll do that.

Like a Gantt chart, kind of what Kate or manager Thomas gave to us.

I think that would be helpful because it's like we know housing has been ongoing, and you know, we know that public noticing has also been worked on, and kind of where you think that will end, that would be helpful for us.

Um, and then uh also high water, high energy users.

This is a hot topic in our community, not just data centers, but we know that they are high water, high energy users.

Uh there are recommendations that we have from our partners in our community about what we should be doing zoning-wise uh today on that.

So I'd like that to also end up on this list as well.

Um, and it again, it doesn't just have to say data center specifically, but making sure that we're looking at um these uh potential drains on natural resources is uh I think something that we need to look at as a board.

Uh Commissioner Clark.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Um, I'm looking at this list, and and and there is these are all important.

I don't know how you can put a number on any of these, and uh they should all be worked simultaneously.

If this was a private industry and they had these six challenges, I think they could probably get them done quicker than a year, but that's just my my personal thought.

Uh as far as uh dark skies.

I don't know.

All we have to do is put out some notices and tell everybody every Friday night turn off all the lights and the you know, see something.

I don't know.

Doesn't it seem like that could be moved uh quite quickly?

Um agro tourism.

Um I've got a five-acre horse ranch.

I'd I'd like to do some workshops there, and I've got a 10 acre uh 10-stall barn, and I could show people how to move the manure and spread it around in the pasture and and uh you know things like that.

I we could do some weed pulling out there.

I'd be happy to volunteer my my property to do that if we we need to help finding uh locations to work at.

But uh, you know, I all of these are important.

I think some of these could move uh quite fast, quite quick, quite quickly.

I mean, when uh why do we have to have a year to get dark skies done?

Can't we just pick a month, pick a day, pick a week, uh do like uh do like they do with uh Tumwap uh odd and even days of pick pick part of the county to turn your lights off.

You know, that seems like a quick fix to me.

Uh public noticing that that should be quick.

Uh uh ecoin businesses, these people have been waiting for years to get this solved.

This is why make it difficult, more difficult than it is.

There's gotta be a there's gotta be a way to streamline this.

That's just my take.

Get it get it done.

We have other fish to fry, we've got other things due, and and to say that this is gonna take a year to get these six items done.

It's like wake us up when it's over.

I mean, this is this is seems like just a long time to get some looks like, and maybe I'm all wrong.

Maybe maybe maybe it's way more detailed than it looks like, but it just based on what the headings are, it doesn't seem like it should take that long.

So that's just where I'm coming from.

And um equine businesses should all have to agree with the Commissioner Andrea needs to be moved to the top of the pile.

These folks have been waiting for uh years to get an answer.

Thank you.

Okay, any other board comments before I open it up to public comment.

Madam Clerk.

First up, we have Catherine Yarte followed by Tristy Gomez.

Um by now, my name is Catherine Yarte, and I'm addressing you now as a Washoe County resident, an advocate for our local equine community, and an equine business owner with firsthand experience of navigating the current code.

This is a process that I've been diligently navigating for 26 months now for an existing community supported and state licensed business.

Over two years, countless hours, hundreds of emails, several meetings, and two hearings with the Board of Adjustments leader, and we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the Washoe County Planning Department as a whole for their tireless efforts, communication, and willingness to look for alternative approaches to make this possible.

Ms.

Kelly Mullen, Mr.

Tim Evans, and Mr.

Trevor Lloyd in particular have demonstrated unparalleled dedication and customer service, making what began as a highly distressing experience an opportunity to collaborate and acknowledge the shortcomings in the existing codes while creating practical resolutions that satisfy all parties and agencies involved.

For years, our horse professionals, trainers, boarding operators, and riding instructors in rural properties owners themselves have faced unnecessary barriers under the current county commercial code.

These regulations were written decades ago before the equine industry became the dynamic and vital part of Washoe County's economy that it is today.

So I'm getting tongue-tied.

Right now, too many small family-run horse operations are being forced to navigate a code structure that doesn't reflect the realities of rural business.

The current system classifies all equine activities in a way that makes it often sorry, that often makes compliance confusing, expensive, and at times nearly impossible for legitimate local businesses to operate legally.

This isn't asking about special treatment.

It's about common sense reform.

Our equine businesses provide jobs, preserve open space, support youth programs like 4-H and FFA, and strengthen Washoe County's economy and rural identity.

We deserve a fair, clear, and updated code that recognizes our contribution and supports responsible land use.

I'm asking the commission today to prioritize the amendment and modernization of the commercial code as it applies to equine and agricultural enterprises.

This is a great opportunity to tie agritourism in, as that's a great bucket that realistically horse training falls under.

We bring in business from states all over.

We've had business as far away as Georgia and Montana bringing their horses here.

So we're bringing in money from other states just by existing.

By streamlining these outdated codes, you can reduce red tape, protect property rights, and strengthen one of Washoe County's most historic and community-centered industries.

Through stakeholder meetings and community input, I believe we can find a balanced approach, one that maintains neighborhood integrity and safety while supporting the growth and sustainability of local equine operations.

Let's make Washoe County a model for how local government can work with and not against the people who sustain its rural and agricultural heart.

Thank you for your time, your service, and your consideration.

Thank you.

Trista Gomez followed by Tammy Holt still.

Good afternoon now.

Tristy Gomez for the record.

Equine business isn't super short on this.

I went to a hearing or a public comment, you know, months ago, and I really appreciate that this is actually something that is that has been in the conversation for so long, but I agree with Mr.

Clark and Ms.

Andrea, it is long overdue.

I mean, these are these seem like very easy modifications to the code to make to make these businesses viable and livable.

And I mean, I just I think as as a public person, I cannot understand why this has not happened yet.

In addition, Algata, and I'm gonna tie this in.

Agro tourism is incredibly important along with equine businesses, these are almost trade-like entities.

These are these are entities that um help children or families learn.

They provide services to our company, they provide you know healthy food.

They provide ways for kids to learn how to have healthy food.

What is healthy food?

What you know, I mean these things are so important and they are so overregulated.

And I mean, I don't think anybody, I've talked to some of the farms, I've talked to some of the, you know, some of the stables.

It's like nobody can understand why these codes exist to such a huge extent for these for these kinds of things.

I mean, we just nobody can understand it.

We they just it just doesn't make sense, and there has got to be a way to simplify these codes.

So these educational and needed businesses are they happen in an easier way.

So that's those two things.

Public noticing, I've been on this for years.

We we need a better public noticing, and then in addition to that, we wonder if our public, if our comments even matter, oftentimes.

You know, we've gone to, I've heard, like I said earlier, so many people who just cry almost.

I've heard actually people cry in the parking lot, about things that you guys have done that we know that the public is overwhelmingly against, overwhelmingly against, and yet you say we've had the public noticing, we understand that that's happening, and so that is something so we're going forward almost in spite of public resistance to these things that have a real lived experience and impact on their day-to-day lives.

I am just gonna, and then countywide affordable housing.

I just helped a young person get into kind of like a an apartment.

And one of the apartments he looked at was one of the apartment complexes that had been, you know, changed over or anything or something.

I won't have enough time.

But it almost seemed predatory, and so with the affordable housing, there should be a definition of affordable housing, and we should know what that affordable housing actually looks like instead of just saying more housing is affordable housing.

And there's more to say on that, but I'm out of time.

Thank you.

Tammy hold still.

Tammy holds still for the record.

I have been involved in the master plan since 2017 with regional planning.

Have seen where dark skies has been in the regional plan from day one.

I don't understand how it's become an issue again when it's been part of the master plan from day one.

In the North Valleys, dark skies has been part of the master plan.

So to bring dark skies back here again here, it should already be part of the master plan.

Dark skies is dark skies, which means the lighting should be set up as such.

I know I fought with Mikita about their dark skies and their lighting.

So yes, I like to see that you guys are worried about dark skies, but there's priorities, and it's already part of the master plan.

Keep it part of the master plan, deal with it as part of the master plan, understand as part of the master plan, and deal with the other stuff.

You know, affordable housing, public noticing, the equine businesses, but it's already part of the master plan.

Let's move on and get to the real business at hand.

It's part of regional master plan.

It's already part of your master plan.

Move on.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in, but I do have an email to place on the record.

Thank you.

Going back to the board, Vice Chair Herman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I I just um okay.

I'll start with uh equine business.

So what made it so that we are calling them business now?

We used to have people at their homes and they trained a few horses.

Um why are we into receiving tax more taxes from them?

Or what's the purpose of putting so many rules against them?

I just I just haven't figured that one out.

Um there's if somebody has a huge place that that is you know, they they do collect enough income on it to make it an actual business.

I can understand a certain, but there's a limitation there.

I mean, if you have somebody that's got two horses and they give a couple riding lessons a month, um that now would be uh horse business, an equine business.

It just it just seems like a lot of regulation for you know, just it doesn't seem appropriate that that's the way it is, but maybe maybe we'll work all those details out.

Um I don't know, it seems like sometimes we go out of the way to make life miserable for people that are just starting out doing something that they love to do.

Well, I guess that's about all I'm gonna say right now.

And dark skies, I think it's a little late in this county for dark skies.

Gurleck, it fits.

But in our county here, I can't see it.

I mean, right, right in Reno Sparks.

I mean, you've got all these warehouses with bright, bright lights.

I mean, they are I mean, you can see them from miles.

I I don't know how you can regulate that.

I just don't see the meaning in it or of it at all.

I mean, it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

That's all I got to say.

I I get I get frustrated with too much, too much regulation.

So it'll it'll be good when I'm gone because you want to put up with me.

I think these are good points.

I I don't agree with you at all.

I think it's tough though when people have neighbors and then they complain that's the issue, and then the county feels like they have to do something.

But I hear what you're saying, absolutely.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you.

I really like that these priorities are in the spirit of what we do in the unincorporated part of Washoe County.

You know, we cover from Bird Eye to Wadsworth from Oregon all the way down to Tahoe, and we're looking at these priorities through that lens.

I know City Areno looks through their lens, Sparks looks through lens, but as county commissioners, I really think a lot of these align with the constituents that we serve.

So my number one is housing.

I I don't think we should ever take our eye off of that.

We need to continue to prioritize uh the housing supply, affordable housing options, streamlining those development processes.

I hear all the time.

We still have a lot of work to do.

I'm really excited to hear about the incentives for senior housing and um the infill projects would uh which would impact a largely in in district three.

So I think my vote is number one keep housing, and we need to keep housing at the top of our all of our priorities moving forward for as long as we could foresee.

Um in the spirit of of working with my fellow commissioners and listening to the public comment, I would like to uh put equine as number two and agriculture agritourism as number three.

And the reason why I put housing, equine, and agritourism at my top three is because I believe all three of those remove barriers.

And there's people in the queue waiting for us to remove barriers, and I think it's upon us to get that done.

Now, I'm gonna maybe differ from my colleagues on this one, but I think heat should go number four.

And the reason why is because I think there are some serious public health concerns that we're facing as a region where the Reno's is fastest um warming city in the nation, and this work is gonna take I think a heavier lift.

We do have AB96 kind of looming over us that will go into effect in July 1.

So I would rather bump up heat to number four so that we can get ahead of the legislative requirements so we can start digging into that.

And again, I think that'll help all constituents um regardless of age, and it's a real important thing to focus on.

Um I would bump up or uh put dark skies just because of the high interest that we did here during the uh public outreach process.

And um Sun Valley has dark sky issues.

I get phone calls about that from constituents when there's new construction, and so I I still think it's relevant and I would like to lean into that a little bit more and public noticing, not that it's not important, but the reason I asked my earlier question is because I feel like we've kind of gotten into a rhythm with things um since 2022.

I know there's some housekeeping we need to codify some things, but um I think as things are marching along right now, I would rather have you prioritize your your time for housing and um equine and agritourism, and those are my thoughts.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Andriola.

Uh thank you.

And um again, it's not going to be a surprise.

Um I I realize there's a compliance piece on the housing, and so the equine number two, um, agritourism already has a framework, I believe, that hopefully won't take too long since there already has been vetted by LCB and it's been gone, it's gone through a lot of lifting, um, which is really helpful and looking at um what those um provisions could be instead of looking at a blank slate.

Um I do realize that the AB96 is in place for the heat mitigation.

I just attended the DRI um conference actually, and there was a panel session, I believe the chair was there.

Um we missed each other, but I I attended that.

And um that certainly was a panel discussion in terms of the compliance.

So um dark skies does need to be actually clarified, even though there is some language, it is not clear enough.

And I I can state that to um some of the folks that made comments about dark skies.

It just needs to be uh really tightened up, and so I'm gonna support um again, housing one, equine two, agritourism three, four is the heat mitigation, uh five is dark skies, and and the public noticing.

I I hope that in terms of looking at if we have a Gantt chart for the future, I think that would be really helpful when we're faced with these in terms of timing because even though um you know, Miss Smolling, you you shared that it might be a year, it doesn't mean everything's gonna take a year.

Some things may finish earlier than others, and so I think I just wanted to clarify.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that's how I understood it.

Is it doesn't mean we have to wait the entire time of a year, it just the staggering and being able to answer when things are complete.

And I do believe the publicly public noticing piece, maybe you know if no one calls in sick and everyone maybe there's an opportunity to squeeze it in because it is important with the noticing that we have everybody's feedback, but I am gonna support the order as I stated.

So housing one, equine two, even though I really wanted it one.

Can I state on the record?

I really want it one.

I think we're so close.

Hopefully, housing will just be a couple months, and then we can see equine happen.

Agritourism, heat, dark skies, and public noticing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

With regards to dark skies, uh, you know, I I think that we should have public uh service announcements, uh, letting people know that and get the get the public involved in this.

Uh you know, maybe I I'm missing the whole point here.

Uh people should uh want to have dark skies at night for lots of reasons.

Power bills and lots of other things.

I also understand that there's the warehouses and and the big uh mega warehouses that we have, and these people work around the clock.

Luckily, hopefully some of those are far enough out uh that they could um you know not affect their their housing neighbors.

But uh I'm looking for uh you know, let's have a public and anybody who's in favor of dark skies should talk to the so start turning off every light and on their outside of their property at you know, 10 o'clock at night every night or nine o'clock or whenever that is.

But uh public service announcement should be made about this, and and let's get the public because I think the public is is in favor of this.

It seems to be a hot topic.

And let's let's start this and let's just have a grassroots effort to get that going as soon as possible.

You know, asking people to turn off their lights at a certain time uh could be helpful.

Uh let businesses know that you know business hours shouldn't be conducted after uh you know 10 o'clock, probably, unless you know there's other reasons.

But there's there's lots of other ways to get this going without us having to legislate our way through this.

So that's that's my thought on that.

And uh and I agree with the Commissioner Herman.

Uh this these horse businesses are uh hobbies in many cases.

Uh the stuff and I think I've said it before, I don't know if there's anybody even on your staff who owns a horse.

So I mean, you got nobody uh even understands the culture and what's going on there.

We should have some citizens on citizens meeting with you, maybe a citizen's advisory board of of horse uh horse businesses.

I seem to have a lot of them in my district, probably the most in the county in my district, and and um you know, other than some anonymous complaints, and by the way, I've been the victim of that recently.

Anonymous complaints uh from from people who are not subject matter experts who want to chime in and malicious uh reports and in and getting people's businesses shut down.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Uh, we should have uh moved a lot quicker on this.

As the lady said, uh 26 months she's waiting.

I mean, who's got that kind of endurance?

Somebody wants to start a business, they don't want to do it uh you know, two, two, five two or five years from now.

They want to they want to do something, and uh they should be able to do that again with no subject matter expertise in your department about this particular type of business.

Uh just it's mind-boggling that we don't have some subject matter experts walking you through this and and helping you helping you get this done.

So I'm not picking on you.

Don't don't take it that way.

It's just to the universe.

Uh we need to have this thing uh smoothed out, and it should have been done a long time ago.

Uh Commissioner Andrew has been working on this for several years, and we're still talking about it.

So that's my thoughts.

Uh I agree with uh number one.

No.

I would have had it, I would have had it done by now.

So yeah, yeah, it would have been uh uh ancient history, it would have been in the books.

But uh that's just my thoughts, and I agree uh uh with uh uh Commissioner uh Garcia on on her thoughts as well as prioritizing these things.

So some of this stuff could move a lot quicker, I I think.

So that's just my thoughts.

Thank you.

Okay, and I uh think you hear some consensus here.

So let me just make sure we're all on the same page.

So we're gonna keep with affordable housing as number one, uh, equine businesses is number two, agro tourism is number three, uh heat mitigation as number four, uh public noticing is number five, dark skies sorry, dark skies is number five, public noticing is number six, and then if you could bring back what this idea of regulating, and it could even come with this heat mitigation work.

I don't know because we warehouses may have scientific.

I'm not sure.

I don't know for sure, but there may be a correlation with warehouses and um uh rising heat in cities.

Um that would be I I I would also be supportive of looking into that as um if the staff could also look into that as number seven or as part of the heat mitigation work, depending on what you find as you work through that.

Does that sound like we're kind of on the same page?

All right.

Uh then uh I'm looking for a motion to that effect.

So move.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner Andrella.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

Any questions on that from the board?

Seeing none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And thank you.

It's up there on the board for you.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, everyone.

That was great, and thank you, Ms.

Mulan.

You're doing great work, you and the team.

Okay, we will now move into item 17, and this is to Madam Clerk.

Item 17.

This is this will be bill number 1939 to adopt a development agreement for Silver Hills, a residential subdivision, tentative subdivision map case number WTM 21-006 to extend the deadline for recording the initial final map to August 24th, 2029.

Amendment of conditions case number WAC 25-0009.

Thank you very much.

Uh, does the board wish to have a staff report on this?

I'm seeing no.

Okay.

Uh then do any board members have questions on this.

I think it's pretty straightforward in the staff report.

Okay, Madam Clerk, is there any public comment on this?

There is.

We have Tammy Holt still, and I have a document to distribute to the board.

Thank you.

Tammy Hilt still for the record.

You will be receiving a document, which I have here before you.

Was the reason why this plant that it was denied back in 2021?

It did not conform to the master plan, which you guys just talked about again for Washoe County.

It did not conform to the master plan.

Again, it's not consistent with the plan.

It does not have available services, it does not have any, it will not meet public health, it does not have access, and it doesn't have dedications.

Which there's no availability to that, it has no water dedication to it, it has no street availability, it's over gonna be overdeveloped, it has too many homes per acres.

There's no reason to have this ghost development developed, it needs to be denied.

There is no reason to keep doing this type of development.

This goes back to again one of the things you guys were talking about in this last step.

Talking about heat.

Reno is one of the biggest areas that is increasing heat.

When you increase your development, you increase heat.

When you increase asphalt buildings, you increase heat.

The more asphalt, the more buildings you have.

That's what creates this.

Again, there is too much development in the lemon stead area.

We are drowning in water.

I've showed you guys how contaminated Swan Lake is.

You need to deny this project.

Also, you received from another resident an email.

He stated the same thing.

Please listen to your constituents.

They've asked you not to do this.

Please deny.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Okay.

Any other board comments?

I I have a question for DA Large in terms of just clarifying what our legal responsibility is with this.

And how VAT was already gone through the process.

So could you clarify the legal framework of taking into consideration something that actually happened in 2021?

Then it went through the process, and this is actually an extending for a deadline of recording.

So I'm just curious if you could help with the legal framework to which we are seeing this item.

Michael Large for the record from the district attorney's office.

As outlined in the staff report, and I'll let the planner speak to it if need be.

But this is a first reading of which has to be done by pursuant to Nevada Statute and Washa County Code for an extension of a development agreement.

That's all this before you.

This is a first reading to extend that deadline for another two years, I believe, four years.

Um in terms of revisiting what the what the prior board has done.

That this is not before you in that.

All that is before you is whether or not this at this point, whether we should introduce this bill.

And then the next one will be whether or not we approve the four-year extension to the development agreement based on the findings that are in code that need to be made.

Thanks.

I think it's helpful to understand what is our legal responsibility and our responsibility to act in the purview to which we make decisions.

And so thank you for the clarification.

And yeah, I believe the the uh extension is for August 24th till 2029 as stated.

And specifically Washer County Code, um, section 110 or 110, 8140 D require is the required findings.

This board will need to make the compliance with the master plan and all of those things with regard to the next hearing.

Um, this is just merely the introduction of that bill.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other board comments or questions?

I'm not seeing any.

We've taken public comment.

I'm looking if uh folks are ready for someone to introduce bill number 1939.

Madam Chair.

Thank you.

I move to introduce bill number 1939.

Um, the development agreement is necessary to provide adequate time to finalize the redesign of necessary utility infrastructure and request amendments to both the Silver Hills specific plan handbook and the tentative maps conditions of approval.

Thank you so much.

All right, we're going to move into item 18, and this is also a first reading, so I'll throw it over to Madam Clerk.

Okay.

If introduced, this will be bill number 1940 and ordinance amending the Washoe County Code by repealing Washoe County Code Chapter 11 alternative sentencing.

Would you like me to wait a moment?

We have a quorum.

Go ahead and proceed.

Thank you, sir.

Uh, good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair, uh, members of the Board of County Commissioners, Abby Ucoban, Chief Financial Officer, again, to uh present the first reading of repealing Washoe County Code Chapter 11.

Just a quick agenda for what we're going to talk about today.

Again, this is repealing chapter 11, which created the Department of Alternative Sentencing.

We'll talk about how we got here, what our goals for this project and initiative are, what are the proposed changes.

We heard some questions about what is the new model look like and want to present on that, even though that's not what the specific vote is on.

Certainly you still had great questions last time, and we want to tell you that.

What are the known savings?

We will clarify that there will be some minor savings associated with this, but until the plan is fully, fully developed and implemented.

Um we want to wait until this this vote today, and then kind of fully bake that plan and then bring you back more information on the 18th of November.

So we'll have much more detail at that time if there's an affirmative vote today.

And then we'll talk about next steps because there are a lot of procedural steps that'll be happening between now and the 31st of December if the vote is affirmative today, and then on the 18th of November.

So, how did we get here?

Uh we're consistently looking for efficiencies.

We're always thinking about how we can do things differently and better, and some of our ideas are great and they move forward like this, and some of them are not so great, and we talk about them among ourselves and move on to different initiatives.

As the chief departed, we started thinking about how whether or not we could have these functions fall in different areas, create economies of scale, and actually enhance the customer experience.

And so that's what we'll talk about today, in addition to other things.

Small departments often lack the administrative support they need to be fully, fully self-sufficient.

That includes things like cash handling, inventory control, financial reporting, monthly budget to actual comparisons, and from the human resources perspective, policy development and compliance.

We've seen three years of budget overages ranging from almost $95,000 to almost $400,000 in the past three fiscal years.

And we received a very large internal audit report containing more than 60 findings.

So we had to do something, and we started talking about it.

What is our goal?

I've heard many things from it's a financial goal to uh you know other types of goals, and I want to be very clear about what this team's goals were when we talked about this new model.

And one thing is to offer more consistency.

As the second judicial district court moved to a different drug testing entity, we were looking at two and three different drug testing agencies depending on which court you were a part of.

And so we were also finding that in pretrial services there were two entities doing pretrial services.

We wanted to consolidate that under one agency so we could have consistency, and so that we had customers that were not saying, where do I go, how do I get my services?

And you'll hear from the pretrial services team that they are going to create what I'm calling a new warm handoff team.

I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but it it is to uh support the sequential intercept model that is so critical and in your vision to keep people out of jail and keep them working, you know, functioning in society and and doing their their absolute best every day.

The drug testing piece, when the judicial uh when the district court did their RFP, uh they came back with many uh many different responses, and the winning vendor has trauma-informed staff.

What I've learned as part of this project is that sometimes people who are in the system are victims themselves, and so they have a very hard time going to drug testing because it can be invasive.

This team is sensitive, they're trauma-informed trained, they have nationwide experience.

There's less confusion because all customers will be going to one place.

And in addition, one of the things that was most important to me was it's a risk reduction for the county.

Anytime we can move risk to a different entity or the private sector and they're willing to do it, we'd like to do that because we don't want to put ourselves at risk.

At the same time, we learned the very unfortunate news that the STAR housing program funding for personnel was going away.

And so we're going to continue that program in different departments in a different way.

And certainly there may be bumps in the road, but we're committed to continuing that program even without the personnel funding.

We thought that when uh small small groups of people join larger departments, there are more training opportunities, and there are more opportunities for growth and development.

I see that countywide.

Smaller areas and smaller divisions almost don't always get the same level of training, level of support that the larger agencies do because they know to ask for it.

And so the intention here was to offer one of the intentions was to offer that more, those more opportunities.

And again, there's likely to be minor budgetary savings.

I'll give you a briefing on that today, and then if there's an affirmative vote today, we'll be more specific on November 18th when we really know what this model is going to look like.

So this slide is very busy, but this is the model, this is the proposed model and the proposed changes.

I'll go through it because I think that that's important for you and for the the public and other stakeholders.

There are four main areas of department of alternative sentencing.

Let's take them kind of one at a time here.

Drug testing.

As the district court conducted their RFP, we realized that there were some successful vendors out there that were doing that.

So now we we are seeing that function is going away.

There are four people in that area.

That function is going away.

Those people, the majority of them are going to different departments.

They've been successful at interviewing.

So kudos to HR for being very proactive helping them on a weekly basis to move on to those other positions because we know the board finds it very important not to do layoffs.

That's we've heard that loud and clear from you.

So as this as the district court is joining this new drug testing company, Averhealth, other county departments like HSA and juvenile services are also joining.

So that we're trying to get that done by December 1st because those employees were so successful at finding other positions.

Pretrial services.

There are currently four positions in this area.

They're proposed to go to the district court.

So then all pretrial services would be provided by the district court, but just because people report to someone at the district court doesn't mean that they don't know what the other courts are doing, respond to their needs, and handle their caseloads as appropriate.

So just because you report somewhere doesn't mean you wouldn't be sitting somewhere else with a different team, and this would be a cross-functional effort.

That was very, very important to us, and you can see this cross-functional team here who is who are many of the architects of this plan.

So post sentence monitoring, that is after you have had your sentence, your your monitoring piece, that's the law enforcement piece with some casework help as well.

But those will be going proposed to be going to the sheriff's office.

They can continue to collaborate with their current case workers because again, one of our high priorities was to keep the service levels the same and not overburden any particular department with this change.

The justice courts, one thing that came out of this was that they would like some casework help and they need some casework help.

So the Sparks Justice Court had a vacancy and they were kind enough to repurpose that position.

So if there's an affirmative vote today and on November 18th, you'll see a staff report coming forward on December 16th, reclassing that one position, and then there's a new position being proposed under this model for Reno Justice Court, just to make sure that this is a smooth transition and help them with some needs that they've said they've expressed.

But it doesn't mean that they can't work with pretrial services or on any specialty court cases.

I just happen to list it under post sentence monitoring.

It can be used as the courts determine.

And the STAR housing program, there are four positions associated.

We have we had a vacancy, we have people moving to other departments, and we're doing our absolute best to kind of re-home everyone in that area without greatly increasing our funding.

Operations will move to the human services agency, the manager's office, and the sheriff's office, depending on what the function is, because there's a civilian and law enforcement, there's case management, counseling, peer support on the civilian side, and then there's a law enforcement component.

So they'll continue to work together, and it is important to us.

We know that that program is important to you.

We will be continuing it after the funding is eliminated.

It will just look different.

So here's the slide regarding the known proposed savings, and I've been very, very hesitant to list this because we're still working with stakeholders, and certain certain things may change between now and uh and even next week.

We're going to solve a problem this afternoon that won't cost us any more money, but we're constantly solving problems and questions.

But we we commit to the chief salary and benefits, and you'll notice that the 27 savings is lower than the 26 savings, which doesn't make intuitive sense.

But there was an incumbent in that position when we budgeted for 2026.

Our policy post-classification and compensation study is everything starts at the beginning.

That's the beginning, that 2028 34.

The building lease, that building has a six-month notification process, so you'll see the savings jump quite a bit between this year and next year because we have to give that six-month notice.

You also have some utilities and janitorial services, although in this first year they're very minimal, and we do need to remember that we still have to have moving costs and other things that will necessarily chip away at some of those savings.

But this is the approximate savings, and we will bring you back something more detailed on the 18th of November if this moves forward today.

There's some cost avoidance we should talk about.

Again, we had three consecutive years of budget overages, and they between the first and second year, they increased quite a bit and then leveled off a little bit, right around $375,000.

But also we have some other cost avoidance.

We don't need to put a fiscal person in that department or an HR person to make sure that it can really have compliance, have policy direction, have fiscal management, half cash controls, inventory controls, things like that.

That's a cost avoidance of one or two positions that we will not be proposing to you in the budget if we can move forward and incorporate all of these functions into departments that already have solid and established fiscal teams.

So two slides on kind of the procedural pieces of this, and then we will be happy to answer any questions.

We're working with the DAS, the Sheriff's Office, the courts, HSA, and other stakeholders.

Discussing operational needs, we have already had several uh you know kind of welcoming meetings, and I know the sheriff's office meets weekly with their with the people that are coming to them to figure out, you know, doing write-alongs, doing field visits, trying to make sure that those teams know that they're welcomed on these new teams and understand exactly what everyone does so we can properly incorporate in this a smooth transition.

We're also trying to have some data exchange to make sure that we all know what the caseloads are, where they are, with which courts, what type of supervision is needed, and how much case support is needed.

And I suspect, frankly, that that's the piece where we may have some movements as we learn more and more about the uh the needs of each and every case.

Drug testing is transitioning to Aberhealt.

The district court is going, I believe it's November 1st.

Other departments and entities are beginning to join now for December, because as we said, the the employee the employees there were very successful at getting other positions.

So we're going a little earlier than December 31st.

And please know that we are monitoring, we will be monitoring the performance of this new vendor as we do with any vendor to make sure that this vulnerable population and our courts and our law enforcement are properly served by the drug testing company.

Very important to us and to you.

So next things today we're doing the first reading.

If there's an affirmative vote today, we'll do a second reading on November 18th.

We'll terminate the building lease quickly thereafter, again the next day.

Uh, we've been working with the DA's office on that already.

Again, the joinder with Aver Health by December 1st, so that we can uh transition those services.

If there's an affirmative vote on December 16th, we'll bring to you a very large staff report with all the budgetary moves and the staffing moves.

And that will include uh the Sparks Justice Court uh reclassification and the Reno Justice Court new position, so it will not be net zero.

Late December through December 31st, we're transitioning, continuing to meet, continuing to move data back and forth so that we understand what these caseloads are and how we're going to address them best to make this smooth and refine operations.

And one of the things we talked about is how do we make sure that this is working and there are no stakeholder issues that bubble up that we can't figure out quickly.

So we propose to meet uh 30 days after the transition, right around February 1st.

I think it's February 4th.

This meeting has been scheduled already.

Uh, and then 60 days after that, and and ongoing for the first year, in the hopes that we just naturally have these more communications on the sequential intercept model and keeping people with the services they need and out of our jails.

With that, I'll be happy to take any questions you may have.

Thank you.

And I see that that we have public comment.

Uh, do board members have comments?

Um, ICDA large.

Madam, Madam Chair, um in with in regard to the presentation, I I invited um Miss Winky, um, who is the head of pretrial services for the second judicial district court.

I in something that Commissioner Clark said last week, um, struck a chord, which he spoke about our our group meeting in terms of listening to the subject matter experts speak about these type of issues.

Um, you know, there's we need to know we need to listen to the people that we have.

And I know that there's been some discussions and some um concerns, but I wanted to hear uh in regard to explaining to this board what pretrial services actually does on the day-to-day basis and what the vision of that is.

Um so if you indulge me, I think she can speak very clearly to what pretrial services actually does and the vision of the future.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Sorry about that mic there.

Um let me log in here.

Manji Wenke.

I've been with Second Judicial District Court for 10 years and in the legal community for 17.

So when I explain how pretrial services is already involved in this system, just bear with me if you guys already know this stuff, because you know a lot, you've been exposed to a lot, but just forgive me.

Also, I have notes here to try to keep me on track because I'm caffeinated and I'm excited.

I love pretrial services.

If any of you have any questions after this about pretrial services, they're like, What is this?

Please call me.

I love pretrial services.

In fact, we are part of the National Association of Pretrial Services Agency.

All of my staff members are certified through them.

I work with them on any leadership level, they're coming to Nevada or Reno in 2026.

So that'll be really exciting for us to house a national pretrial agency, the national pretrial services agency.

Anyways, so I wanted to talk to you guys about what we do, my team, how we work with those things.

I want to start at the beginning.

So pretrial services, while you guys understand it as being this supervising agency, which is what DAS did.

We are both.

My department is an assessment team and a supervision team.

We already, when somebody comes into Washoe County jail, you know you come in, there's no uniform bail schedule.

You come in with no bail until you're seen by pretrial services, and we do what's called the Nevada pretrial risk assessment.

Right now we're working with the AOC to revalidate that assessment.

Well, what that assessment does is it allows to determine risk to flee or risk to re-offend.

Those are the pillars of pretrial services.

Those are the only things you know that govern us is risk to reoffend.

Let's get them to court and let's not get rearrested, okay?

So when you come into Washto County jail, my team is already there.

We sit right in the belly of the beast, right there with you know law enforcement to do those interview assessments.

Interview assessments is a best practice for us to do so we can gain necessary contact information from the defendants, call references.

We are working 24-7, 365 weekend holidays to ensure that people have the best shake to determine their risk, not their money, their risk.

What is it for you to be released and to help our courts?

This is very cool.

We two JDC, I'm two J DC, but we do the assessments for everybody.

We do Sparks Muni, Reno Muni, Sparks Justice, Reno Justice, Incline WhatsApp.

We do the assessment for every court.

That assessment is criminal history review, we go through criminal history, we do the uh reference review, we call references to confirm information.

But then the neat thing that we do is with an administrative release.

So we have the authority given to us by these courts.

All of the courts have one matrix, and RJC has a different matrix.

But my team is so amazing that they are able to take this if-then analysis for up to cat B felonies and appropriate that if-then analysis to determine if somebody gets to be released prior to judicial review.

That's fantastic.

Our sheriff is concerned about intake lobby times.

I know in past you've heard about hey, my intake lobby times are are really a thing.

We have worked with the sheriff's office to keep those up.

My team is about five hours.

When you come in, we're gonna see you, we're gonna make that determination.

And sometimes if you're a low risk and you meet these criteria through a matrix, you're gonna walk right out the door.

You're gonna walk right out the door with a release acknowledgement.

Standby team.

I brought some papers.

I only brought one or else I'd make uh my friend Mr.

Large pass them out to you.

So, but these are release acknowledgments.

They are face to face.

Hey, these are gonna be the expectations we have of you.

If you walk out the door, you may not go back home.

There's a no-contact order.

Oh, but if you do need to go get your toothbrush or your tools or whatever it is you need, because people need to do these things.

This is presumption of innocence, you still have to do life, but we want to ensure community safety.

Two pillars of pretrial.

Don't get re-arrested, show up to court, right?

So we go through these.

We also have them in Spanish, and our my team is very good with Spanish.

Um, execute these acknowledgements, even for Reno Muni and Sparks Muni, and for Reno Justice.

We get to do all these things and explain in the intake area, release.

Something a little bit different that we do for those courts that we supervise.

We supervise individuals with supervision in Sparks, Wadsworth, Incline, and to JDC, okay.

If during their stay, once bail is set, my team helps facilitate bail.

We put together the packages with the pretrial risk assessment, the report that we make, criminal um criminal history goes to the DA's office, but then we also assess for public defender affidavit for appointment of counsel at the earliest stage, which is super cool.

We do bail review for all of the courts daily, Christmas for justice courts twice a day.

So we are trusted with these high liability things for all the courts, my team.

And it's exciting because then for the courts that we supervise, if somebody posts bail, bail set man, my team can't release on the charge, either the charges not within our release criteria, or there's exigen circumstances.

My team doesn't release them, fine.

Bail set for those other courts I told you I supervise.

If bail is posted by the defendant, we update, get an updated view of the docket, updated conditions, and we go back to housing.

We go back there and we have this one-on-one conversation with the defendant and say, hey, do you understand what is expected of you?

Do you know, please, you know, this is oh, yep, you're good, those are observed tests, you're gonna have to know drug and alcohol.

Yep, I know you're over 21, you still can't drink.

Okay.

So we go over these release acknowledgements, we make sure they have a copy, so no one gets to say, gosh, I wish somebody would have told me what my court date was.

And we show, hey, you're gonna go to this address, you're gonna go there and you're checking in with your officer.

Then, I know I'm saying a lot, guys, and I am motor mouthing, so if I'm going too fast, just stop me.

So we get to do these things, but then we I hand off, we get to do those acknowledgements, execute those with the defendant in person.

It takes about 30 minutes to make sure they understand, and work with sheriff's office to make sure we're safe going up the hill, blah, blah, blah.

It's exciting.

But then the next day, they go and check in with my staff, the supervision team.

This at the supervision side, they have an intake.

In that intake, we do what's called a resource assessment.

I know there's a holistic part of pretrial services that addresses these court things, but also the human being.

So let's get you signed up for SNAP benefits.

There's a real there's an eligibility worker, there's a resource assessment, because we're looking for stay out of trouble, don't get re-arrested, come to court.

Because what we don't want to see is warrants.

Warrants are expensive, that is difficult.

So they come and check in with my team.

My team tells them what the judge is expecting of them.

My team answers their questions.

Hey, how do you get a hold of counsel?

Um oh, throughout the judicial process.

You've been ordered to do a PSI.

Great.

This is where you're gonna go to do the PSI.

That supervision team works hand in hand with DAs, PDs, to make sure that our our population is meeting the requirements and getting through this really complicated process.

Part of that is giving them these cute little binders.

I know it feels antiquated to give paper binders out, but I cannot tell you how many times I see people come into court with their binders.

Right.

In this binder, you'll see what's expected of you.

You're gonna know how to get a hold of your officer.

You're gonna know what it means when they say no contact.

What does that mean?

Or no alcohol.

That means NyQuil.

Yeah, NyQuil make the test positive.

We work so very, very hard to make sure that both on the assessment side and supervision side.

This population that is dealing with the super complex stuff is meeting their expectations of the court.

So it I there's so much about pretrial.

Again, I could talk forever, and if you ever have questions about it, call me.

But those are those are some of the things we do.

We do compliance reports for the lower courts and for the and for the higher court, in meaning it's a best practice too for pretrial services.

In the past, it's like if they screw up, tell the court.

Revocation, big bad, right?

That's not a best practice.

If somebody is on with pretrial services and has been on for a certain amount of time and it's doing great, maybe we need to modify those conditions, right?

Maybe we need to acknowledge the compliance and ensure, hey, are we over drug testing?

Are we over-supervising?

That brings me to my one of my final points.

All conditions for pretrial services need to be least restrictive and individualized.

I have not run into a situation with the courts that we supervise to JDC, Sparks Justice, Wadsworth and Incline, where they've given us a least restrictive individualized pretrial services supervision question or condition that we didn't meet for them, where we check in with them, we facilitate drug testing, we provide compliance reports, we notify the court of non-compliance and work with all the stakeholders to address that.

So we're excited, I believe that we can meet all of those needs for Washoe County.

It would be an honor and a privilege to meet all those needs for Washoe County, just like we do at the jail.

Questions?

Yes, Commissioner Andrew.

Well, I hope I never see you.

Because that means I'm in trouble.

Yeah, you know.

But if I do, I hope I see you right now.

Um you mentioned early on, I just want to get a clarification.

You mentioned that there's a matrix for JDC and a matrix for or the RGC for and I'm I'm trying to understand as you went through this consistency of the process, but you distinctly held up your hands and you said the matrix matrix.

So that that threw me a little.

If you're talking about consistency, what what is that matrix that you were referring to?

And would this make it different so it would all be one matrix that you follow?

So those are kind of my two questions.

Great question.

But how can you be so enthusiastic?

You're enthusiastic person.

Where are you?

Can you come every time?

I generated and I'm nervous.

So this is this is what you get, guys.

Thank you.

So uh we this is it's the other courts have decided hey, if you score this and your charges that, then you could be released under these circumstances.

RJC has elected a different set of circumstances for which my team complies with their if-then analysis, that criteria.

Happily, we happily do so.

They would like this other analysis, the other courts have decided for this analysis.

We have no problem meeting the needs of both of those analyses.

As a manager of 25 people, including a 24-hour team, uh, it'd be great if we were all one.

Like the if the the criteria was the same.

But we don't need that.

We understand that judges have the right to do different things, including those individualized, least restrictive supervision conditions.

That was a lot, sorry.

No, no, no, I I I appreciate your clarification.

And that's really what I was getting at because ultimately the judge has the authority and um that isn't being relinquished is what I'm hearing.

So you're still following the same matrix as outlined by the RJC.

Is that a correct statement?

Yeah, and we've been doing that for years.

So what are you doing differently than under this?

Well, if this goes through, we would be then supervising.

Once released, then we would be complying with the judicial order to supervise the defendant as individually ordered by RJC judges.

Right.

So if they said we want drug testing, because they do order drug testings differently than other other courts.

They're more um specific, uh, at least at least two times a week.

We'd like the defendant drug tested within seven days.

Whereas uh sometimes some of the other courts are more likely to say at the discretion of pretrial services.

See, when we already touch these cases on the assessment team level, but then we touch these cases again when they come up to to second judicial.

When they wave over to us, we have the opportunity to review those cases anyways.

And I will tell you a lot of times when the defendants come into our office, they're super confused, and they love the opportunity to sit and talk to my staff, super seasoned staff to go, these are questions we can answer for you.

Sit down, here's your folder, and it it stinks for them to have to go from one agency supervising them to another.

Um it'd be cool if they started.

Um it'd be efficient.

How's that?

Cool many not the right word for you guys.

It'd be efficient and helpful to this population if they started an assessment with my team, released on supervision at the Justice Court level, and then really stayed at that same supervising officer at the district court level.

We get to see those conditions that were ordered at Reno Justice because they waved over to the district court.

So we get to look at them and touch them, and I have not seen anything that I don't believe my team could also supervise effectively.

So there is an independent discretional list that's given to you.

So the judge, whatever that he or she has outlined, will be followed by you and your staff.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That was very informative.

I think we did need that.

So DA Large, thank you for cueing that up for us.

And Madam Clerk, um, public comment, please.

We have Kendra Birchie.

Good afternoon.

Kendra Birchy, B E R T S C H Y, and I am a Justice of the Peace with Reno Justice Court.

Um, uh what was provided in some of the materials is the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies recommends that every jurisdiction established a dedicated pretrial service agency.

Based off conversations we had, we understand that this commission believes that that is not currently possible.

Reno Justice Court wants to work with this body to ensure that the core mission of the Department of Alternative Sentencing continues, improving lives by providing accountability, providing opportunities to succeed, and to enhance community safety.

Reno Justice Court has concerns with the current model proposed, and as it does not align with the NAPSA standards or the structure of other similar courts in Nevada.

Across the state, it is the court who is hearing the case that has the supervisory authority over the pretrial probation supervision agency.

Justice courts in Washoe County would be the exception.

Over the years, our court has relied on the Department of Alternative Sentencing in many critical ways, from supervising high-risk individuals while cases are pending to providing post-conviction support.

DAS is also a vital partner in our therapeutic courts.

The Sober 24 program and the STAR program, all evidence-based initiatives provided to reduce recidivism, enhance public safety, and save taxpayers' money.

These programs fit squarely within the sequential intercept model that this commission has adopted.

Just by way of background, according to the administrative office of the courts and we'll report for fiscal year 2024, the total number of criminal cases for Wadsworth Justice Court was 83.

Sparks Justice Court, 2,490.

The second judicial district court, 2,823.

Reno Justice Court, 4,974.

So just as a reminder, not all cases that are beginning in Reno Justice Court go to the second judicial district court.

For example, the misdemeanors will all then stay with Reno Justice Court.

With the current plan, we have concerns about our ability to maintain best practices and to supervise safely high-risk individuals in our community.

We are also concerned with the proposal, how it may limit our authority to set and enforce conditions on those individuals and concerns with testing.

Reno Justice Court has long served as a pilot project and court for an innovative services, including the DY Rant, Sober 24, and our therapeutic courts, including the housing court that I previously spoke before this agency about.

These have become models in collaboration and efficiency.

We are concerned that our current programs will be directly impacted by this plan and hope our ability to serve this community is not interrupted.

As this plan continues to evolve, I want to thank Manager Thomas and the members of this commission and the partner agencies for continuing to work with us to ensure that collaboration is met.

Our safety concerns are managed, and as well as to allow for effective supervision to remain at the forefront.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Mark Wickman.

But I just wanted to so DAS, we do uh we work for the justice courts, and we do a lot of the post-sentencing supervision on our side for misdemeanors.

So I just wanted to lay that out there.

Like she's the judge Birchie say we do do pretrial supervision for the Reno Justice Court and Sparse Justice Court.

So the district court and Reno Justice Court were two different courts and systems, and I wanted to make that clear.

Um I also wanted to just put on the record that yes, I know that um uh the CFO was up here earlier, and she went over the the three years of the fiscal misspending, and I want to say yes, it was addressed in our audit, but that was also I want to you know put on record that that was also brought forth to the commission year after year after year, that that misspending was happening and should have been addressed at that time by the CFO and Ms.

Thomas, which it never was it was, but if any regards to any concerns with uh the chief at the time should have been brought forth at that time and it occurred year after year after year.

So I also want to basically when we go over, I was we were told basically when we go over that our we're going over as a hard way of saying it is alternative sensing, right?

So we're going over to do what we do with our budget and what we're supposed to be doing.

So the increase in training and uh lateral movement and stuff like that.

We just have some concerns regarding that also because we're told we're our department.

If we want to do anything with Washow, we would have to apply if Washington wanted to do anything with us, they would have to apply for those positions.

And so I don't understand where that training would be able to increase because we're still our little our little division.

Um then the the building versus Chief Roper savings on the impact we've had with this testing.

Um we've grown from minimal officers that are able to supervise in the field and make sure those compliance checks are done in a timely manner and out in the public, and certain violations are addressed in a timely manner.

Whereas with pretrial services, that's in the in-house.

So that's a little bit of the difference also.

Um the testing has grown from your analysis cups to the lab, what it is today, to where we get actual numbers, we can do different assays to for specific drugs.

Um, so that's we you know, we'd like to keep that too.

Like I said, I thought you think we're moving backwards a little bit in this and the efficiency, I just don't see it being there.

So again, I thank you for your time, and I am here for any questions if you have any.

Thank you.

Well, uh, just to set maybe the table for the board on my thoughts, and then I want to hear what everyone has to say.

We had a really and Commissioner Clark actually went to this meeting, um, a good meeting, a good starting point with all of the agencies that um really touch this issue and really looked at the um uh our justice system as a whole, and it was really great to have the judges there, um all the different courts represented the administrators and um the sheriff's office uh and um alternative sentencing as well and hearing those voices around the the table.

Um there are still from what I can tell uh concerns from Reno Justice Court on the how we want to proceed potentially with this new program and certainly the staff from alternative sentencing.

I I am heartened to know that if we move forward with this, it won't be until January.

Potentially, I'm hoping that if uh things are not worked out with how we manage this pretrial services, we can.

I don't know, I need to look to Manager Thomas if it could be extended to February, knowing that we're hitting the holiday season and it's really tough to work out these issues.

But I had asked Abby to get um calendar all these meetings um with the um team.

I feel like it's a really important team of uh alternative sentencing, you know, working out this transition and start those meetings to make sure that we can start talking and start working out these issues because I think that there is a way that we can try to make everyone a little bit happy, knowing that we need to get drug testing online.

We've got staff who are not no longer going to be doing that.

We have staff that are not being supervised right now without having a chief.

Um, and knowing that they're potentially this transition could be very good for um the our customer, and I think for me that's what I worry about the most is a person who's going through the the um justice system and very confused and not knowing uh who they're supposed to go to and if there's a way we can make that better, I want to do that, and I feel like that does fit in with the sim, but I do think we need to make sure that we're listening to our partners at Reno Justice Court and their concerns hearing from a judge today.

So I'd like I'd like to move forward with this first reading.

I'd like to move forward with this concept, but I want to make sure that we listen to our uh partners and we're doing what what they need us to do to be successful, knowing that there's still little pieces that we need to work out.

So that's where I am sitting today.

I um feel comfortable with this professional team, um, diverse team from different departments that they can work together and they can uh figure this out.

And and I have asked that we this board continue to get updates on where this is at if we do move forward so we can make sure that we are um making changes as needed um and and listening to our our departments um and our elected officials.

So that's that's where I'm at.

Um I would like to go around to uh starting with the vice chair, your thoughts.

Thank you, madam chair.

Always being first I can I can come back to you.

Do you want me to?

It's okay.

Okay.

Um I'm still in the processing stage here and uh trying to get all the information I can and uh and I'll answer by next time we come back.

By the time we get that second reading.

Yeah.

All right, great.

Uh Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, what's clear today is that we've got a lot of people who are working incredibly hard and are very, very dedicated and committed to serving our most vulnerable population that go through the judicial system.

So whether you're sitting in the front row or our judge in the back, um, I really appreciate the time, energy, and efforts taken to have these difficult conversations.

I think for me as a commissioner sitting here right today, I may not be here in this role after elections next year.

So I have to make every decision I take count for long-term vision, long-term goals, because while we have a great sheriff in office right now, we never know with the changing of the tide how quickly things can change within the cultures and um the leadership styles, whether it's a commissioner or sheriff or whoever is sitting at the table.

Um, so taking away all the you know, the faces and the names and the titles today, looking at it from you know, uh a clear operational standpoint.

Um, I think what we during this difficult time are looking for are you know how we can be more efficient, how we can improve services, how um we can make operational changes, although they can be tough at times, but to really stretch our dollars as far as we can, and it's not always about the money, but it's it's the quality of services for me.

And um, so I appreciate the conversations.

I haven't been in on some of these meetings, and it is difficult to tease through because we're getting so many different opinions, and there's a lot of heart in into this because you know you've dedicated your life to this work, and it's important to you to see that um your people and your mission and your values carry on.

Um, so you know it's it's been a difficult process.

I just hope that the communication continues.

So the question to Abby is um, well, a the question that you brought up, madam chair, is that we need we would need or expect to have more updates in communication between now and January 1st.

And then Abby mentioned that we would have a 30-day transition meeting and perhaps a 60 day, and then what would it look beyond 60 days?

Thank you, Madam Chair, through you to Commissioner Garcia.

We have started uh we have scheduled these already yesterday afternoon.

30 days on uh February 4th, I believe it is, because if it takes effect January 1st, we're into February 1st.

Um, and then 60 days thereafter for the first year with the understanding that we can change things, meet more frequently.

But the intention is to get the cadence going so that we start naturally having these conversations.

And so any of the operational change or glitches that need to be ironed out that come, you know, in uh February, March, April, May, um, would those need to come before the BCC or would that be taken care of or handled um internally?

Let me let me do my best here, DA uh large, but uh first um Commissioner Garcia in internally we're talking all the time.

In fact, we have a three o'clock.

This team here has a three o'clock to address a concern of Judge Birchie's.

We're very excited that she's willing to share some of those concerns, and I feel that we have the answer, so we're going to solve that together.

We're solving problems kind of all the time.

We have a standing by weekly meeting internally.

We send messages and talk all the time.

Um but if there were things that happened outside of these 30 and 60 day periods, of course, we would reconvene uh right away.

And today, here's where I'm going to try for Mr.

Large.

Uh, today and and on the 18th of November if today is affirmative, you'll be voting on eliminating that portion of the code.

So every small change will not have to come back to you unless there's a budgetary increase, unless there's a personnel change or anything over which you have authority and jurisdiction and and staff does not.

Yeah.

Does that help?

Yes.

And communication is going to be key.

Um how this rolls out and the success of our communication is going to be the success of this transition.

So thank you.

Commissioner Garcia, I agree with you.

Thank you for that.

Madam Chair, if I may just uh interject uh two points.

Um, first, there is ongoing meetings as Ms.

As Abby said, that this these are ongoing meetings that we're having in terms of working a plan and you know, the meeting this afternoon, we're gonna schedule other meetings.

The plan is by no way in shape.

All this board is voting on today is the introduction of the first amendment.

I want to note for that re for the record, um, the ordinance that was submitted um and posted um has been slightly modified by my office um and has been put in the back um before the meeting and has been circulated to you.

Um all we are doing in that is eliminating chapter 11 of the washop county code, and we are updating um chapter 50 with the fee schedule that is currently in um the uh in uh chapter 11.

However, I'm gonna be um working with um the stakeholders, including Ms.

Groznick, who I know is still here and the courts in regard to setting up that fee schedule to make sure it makes sense and is complies with all the necessary laws.

So there may be some modifications to that specific ordinance when we bring it back for a second reading.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andrew Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I want to just echo something that you said to make sure I am hearing you.

We are running into the holidays, and we are um, even though there's a 30 and 60 uh day plan and the communication is committed to by everyone, um, but I believe some of the things that Judge Bersky um mentioned in terms of just some of the concerns moving forward with the model that um both she and for full disclosure, I've also met with um Pierre Hash Chef, Judge Judge Pierre Half Chef.

I just knew him before he was Judge.

So I so calm.

Judge has chef and um even Judge Pearson as well.

And I just want to be really transparent.

And we all want the best.

The one thing that I have seen from everyone is everyone wants to do the best they can in terms of um the whole process for the individual and to avoid confusion or an inadvertent situation where somebody's not understanding something, they might get in trouble and they didn't mean, you know, there's there's certainly pretrial services and and the process that was explained was extremely helpful.

But January 1 for this ordinance to go into effect is just so soon.

And I'm wondering if there isn't an opportunity to um look at because this is a first reading, this isn't everything in terms of having the plan lined out, but I do um just for clarification with DA Large the way this ordinance reads the first reading says this ordinance shall be effective on January 1, 2026.