Well, good morning, everyone.

It is 9 01, and I will call the special board of county commissioners meeting to order on October 27th, 2025.

We will start with a salute to the flag.

And if Commissioner Garcia could please lead us, that would be great.

Please join me in the salute to our flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God and divisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to the roll call, Madam Clerk.

Let's see.

Chair Lexus Hill.

Here.

Vice Chair Jean Herman is absent.

Commissioner Mike Clark.

Commissioner Murray Luz Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Clara Andreola, present.

In for interim county manager is director of HR, Patricia Hurley.

Yeah, Patricia Hurley here, Director of HR.

Thank you.

Our district attorney today is Mike Large.

President.

I'm Jan Gallisini, your county clerk.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll now move into item three, our public comment at DA Large could lead us into that.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Public comment, comment heard on her this item will be limited to three item three minutes per person and may repertain to matters both on and off the agenda.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers.

The commission will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person.

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

Virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

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 be removed, the person's conduct or just statements disrupt the order or safety of meeting.

Thank you so much.

Madam Clerk.

First up, we have Paul White, followed by Drew Rebar.

Paul White with Education Crusade.

We've got uh a need for three things this morning.

An apology, humility, and prayer.

Let's start with the apology.

I want to apologize to the three outside of the three of the four outside uh finalists for being brought to something that unquestionably was a done deal before they ever got here.

And it was a setup.

It's I feel bad for them for this.

I think in their future they'll look back and be glad they didn't get it.

The need for humility would be on the part of Kate Thomas, who I would hope would withdraw before you even vote.

Based on the fact that there is no way in seven, eight years, whatever it's been, that she could list one thing that's been accomplished in this super important position.

And that would, in fact, I would hope that she'd ask for a position that would more suit the things she's done in her past and enjoys more doing.

This is not it.

We just haven't gotten the leadership.

Uh this CARES campus is just so out of control and the whole homeless thing, and that fits right on her shoulders.

That's her responsibility and her comment when interviewed about it about this place where sexual assaults, robbery, drugs, violence is a daily thing, was quote, she thinks it's great.

Well, given that, so we've got the apology, we've got the humility.

Well, what's the prayer for?

Well, the prayer is for all five of you.

And I would hope that you'd pray for the moral courage to do the right thing this morning, which would be to not vote for anyone, to cancel it, reopen the search, go nationwide, go for somebody strong who's a leader who can do what you need a county manager to do.

And that is not just acquiesce to you guys or play go along to get along.

You want a manager who's strong and accomplished and can give you good leadership.

That's their full-time job.

Uh Commissioner position is kind of different.

You're kind of overseeing things, but you need somebody who's a strong leader.

And again, assuming it's Kate's uh job.

What have you seen in seven years?

Ask yourself the homeless problem has exploded 2,000 percent since she's been here.

2,000.

The statistics that were recently released that she done didn't question at all, couldn't have been more manipulated.

So that's what I would hope.

And thank you.

Drew Rebar, followed by Farah Downey.

Drew Rebar for the record, candidate for Assembly District 40.

Never thought I'd be doing any of this stuff in my life.

I just wanted to happily run my business, but then the government came and bothered me.

And I took out a camera and started recording the government.

I came to you guys a few years ago when I had about 5,000 followers.

Now I've got about 230,000 on my social media channels.

Well, I came to you guys and asked you guys to solve some problems.

You refused to listen to me.

You refused to have even anybody talk to me.

I asked all the candidates last night if they'd have people talk to me.

One was the current uh Kate.

Well, she said that she'd have somebody come talk to me, but uh she hasn't done that since she's been here, so a little faith.

Um to the other candidates, nah, they wouldn't do that, they'd just go do the litigation thing.

There was one candidate that said they'd like to talk, so but I think it's predetermined, so I'm not really gonna say much more than that.

Anyways, uh, with regards to my federal lawsuit against Washoe County, the damages and numbers keep growing.

On October 22nd, I filed an amended uh a motion to amend my complaint to a second amended complaint, and I added uh a couple of library trustees to it, increase the dollar amounts.

Unfortunately, on October 22nd, um something else happened.

I was in a courtroom with uh Judge Breslo recording the court and the proceedings, and after the court proceedings were over, I left the courtroom and followed uh deputy district attorney Amos Steggy outside to try to ask him some questions.

We got in an elevator together, and deputy district attorney Amos Steggy committed the crime of assault on me by attacking me in the elevator, rushing towards me, trying to push me aside.

That's what we want deputy district attorneys to do.

So, anyways, now I'm gonna have to motion the court for a third amended complaint.

Make criminal complaints against a deputy district attorney.

This seems to be an ongoing long-term pattern in Washoe County.

Do you remember Jeff Church when he was uh fighting and uh the county basically came in against him, made up stuff about him wasn't true?

Mr.

Clark, you remember back when they did that to you?

I like the smile, sir.

So, Mr.

Large, why does the dep why does the district attorney's office attack people?

Why do why does our district attorney attack people that are simply trying to make political change?

Civil lawsuits civil rights lawsuits can be very expensive, and mine just keeps growing.

Every time I turn around, I've got to do a new mended complaint because I've got some new dumb government employee just not leaving me alone.

Wouldn't it be great if our government left left the people alone to live in peace and just did the right things by us, built roads, had good police, good fire, and other than that, you know, let people live their lives.

That's what I want if I were to win my legislative seat, Drew Rebar, Assembly District 40, vote for me.

Thank you.

Good morning for the record, Farrah Downey.

Um I always come off the cuff, so it takes about 20 seconds for me to get the the kind of ideology and the articulation for me to say.

So, you know, I will kind of mirror another comment made about apologies.

I believe you said uh humility and prayer.

So I will say that I started out with prayer so that way the words that are coming out of my mouth are from the Lord directly and be received with kindness across the board.

I don't think anybody should be attacked.

Humility means that everybody that walks in here should look at every candidate equally and say what they do and bring to the table.

Now I believe apologies should be given to one of their candidates, particularly, because I speak for 92% of the rest of the population that don't believe that perhaps Kate Thomas has been doing a terrible job here.

We have to remember as a society that COVID happened and homelessness was abound because of 2020.

So I think we need to recognize that our shelter that has been underneath the county manager's office, instead of saying how homelessness is the problem and blaming it directly on one candidate.

I think that we should state how in that time there was no campus for people in our community that were houseless, and I'm in the housing industry.

We didn't have somewhere for them to actually go.

So the partnerships that it took to go between Washoe County Sparks and Reno taking those funds to build something, and we're only five years in from breaking ground to now thousands of individuals in the houseless community have been able to find services.

Is it perfect?

No.

Is anybody perfect?

No.

But I have to say we have been recognized nationally for our abundant resources here.

So I do believe that we cannot pinpoint one statistic on one individual.

And I would say controversy has gone through here.

Dynamics within the county manager's office has happened, and I would still like to say and give my voice from somebody on the other side of this podium who is doing the fighting on the street for housing services, for resources to help individuals, to know that every time I've ever needed the county manager's office, Kate is available.

Kate has been there for individuals and people regardless of what their opinion is or who they're allied with.

So I took my time out of my day where I've got to get back out to helping individuals that may get in and out of the campus right now to say and speak for somebody that I've witnessed have character, integrity.

So I guess another apology is I'm sorry that we have to go through a negative to get to a positive, but you know what?

We've all been there, we've all seen what's going on, and for someone to stand strong through that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Trist Trista Gomez.

Good morning, Tristan Gomez for the record.

And I watched Manager Brown get really great uh reviews and bonuses and raises.

And I don't know what happened, but something turned.

And what happened with that was your you commissioned a national consulting study.

The taxpayers paid for that study.

And when the taxpayers paid for that study, they found inefficiencies.

And I mean, they there was no passing zero, not one passing area of nothing in the in the Rough Telly's report.

There was nothing that said that the manager's office was doing a good job, not one area.

And when you commission a professional consulting study that talks about a department, and that department includes in second in command, somebody that is vying for a job right now.

I think all of us were not understanding how that report doesn't flow through Ms.

Thomas, who was an integral part of that report in that department.

This is as Miss Andreola is Commissioner Andreola likes to call it.

This is fact-based information.

These are that they didn't single out manager Brown when they had that report.

It was the manager's office in general.

And this is why when we understand that we we believe, you know, it's a kind of a consensus.

We all hope it's not true that you're probably going to just appoint Manager Brown or uh interim uh manager Thomas to this position.

We we want to say why.

Why is this going to happen when your you commissioned a study that said that her department was deficient in all areas?

That's the question.

We're not making this up.

This isn't something that like maybe happened.

I don't believe that that report was specifically talking about manager Brown.

It was talking about the manager's office.

And that is where the concern is.

That is where we have watched the homeostasis of the county just up in upheaval over the last seven, eight years.

And Ms.

Thomas has been here every step of that way.

She's a nice lady.

I talked to her last night.

I have no personal problem with her, but I don't understand how you can not conflate those two that position with that report.

And so I'll be back at item five.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

We will now move into item four.

We will now move into item four our um and uh if DA Large could lead us into that.

Thank you.

Commissioner and County Manager's announcements, reports, and updates to include board and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

Thank you very much.

Ms.

Hurley, do you have anything for us on this?

I do not.

Okay.

I just wanted to make a quick uh remark that Vice Chair Herman uh is not here today, which is um uh I she's not feeling well, which is um a disappointment.

But um I I had a pleasure, it was a pleasure working with her on this recruitment process.

You'll hear more about how we did this, but um I'm I'm sad that she's missing today.

So I just wanted to point that out.

Um Commissioner Garcia, do you have anything?

Commissioner Andriela and Commissioner Clark.

Thank thank you, madam chair.

I've got uh some comments I'd like to make to the applicants, but they're not here, but maybe they can look at it on the on the record at a later time.

Uh I want to apologize for for what uh what we did yesterday in and Spanish Springs.

I mean, uh we had a meeting, we were there to showcase these applicants.

They come from other areas of the uh uh the the country, some of them, and uh you know we've got the nobody I didn't see any elected officials from the city of Reno there.

I didn't see any, I saw only one uh elected official from Sparks uh County.

We had obviously the the commissioners were there, but no other elected from the county were there.

Um we've got uh over 3,000 employees of the county, just a few of those folks, and they were there working, um, and uh over 500,000 citizens, and and we didn't have much of a turnout.

There were probably more county employees there than there were county employees working and county electeds were there.

But uh, you know, this is a very powerful position in our county.

People have to look at the county manager is probably the most powerful person in the county that's not elected.

This person controls a lot of departments, and this is a very, very uh powerful job, and it's also something that that affects everybody who's who's here in the community, and you think there would be more engagement.

So I want to apologize for the candidates.

I know they were looking forward to talking to lots of folks and and sharing their stories and sharing their credentials, and unfortunately, uh but there was less than 20 people that weren't involved with the county that were there, or just private citizens were there.

And again, the lack of uh of all the department heads that uh that are going to be uh uh overseen by this particular office.

I think it was just unfortunate that we didn't get a better turnout.

Um I will talk about uh I'm gonna ask all of them if they've had a chance to read the uh Ralph Tallis report and and how the dysfunctionality of this county is is gotten to the level where it is.

I think it's uh I think we've made a turn.

I think uh we've made a come to a fork in the road.

We're we're going to a much, much, much better place than we were last June.

So that's that's my comments about that.

Um as far as uh uh Ms.

Gomez made a made a point that uh the Raff Tell us report was based about the county manager's office, but at the end of the day, Mr.

Brown was the head of that department.

Anyone who worked underneath him uh was not running the show.

He was running the show.

So any dysfunctionality and any other problems that took place with the county uh under Mr.

Brown, I feel are no longer there.

That's just my take.

My my world has changed 180 degrees since since June, since we have uh somebody else in that uh that seat.

I think there's a lot more uh uh acceptance and a lot more uh uh communication.

So uh I just wanted to put that on the record.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I know that um our communications team did major outreach to all the leaders in our community to make sure that they were invited.

So but thank you for that feedback, Commissioner Clark.

Okay.

Uh with that, we will now move into item five, and if uh DA Large could help us with that.

Item five is discussion and possible action.

Can you just consider the following top candidates?

James Storr, Laura Freed, Tyler Stone, and Kate Thomas for the vacant Washoe County Manager position pursuant to NRS 244 work.125 to two NRS 244.135 inclusive, including interviewing the top candidates, selection of a county manager and possible direction to staff regarding negotiation of an employment contract.

Thank you very much.

And Ms.

Hurley, um, your team has been instrumental in this process.

So uh do you mind uh kicking this off for us?

Not at all.

Thank you, Chair Hill.

I'd like to introduce and bring up to the podium to um bring us through the process and answer any questions you have and how this will go down.

I'll bring Julie Paholki from Human Resources.

We also have Pam Derby from CPS, who is the executive recruiting firm.

Great.

Welcome.

Thank you.

For the record, Julie Paholke, Human Resources.

On June 17th, which doesn't seem like it was that long ago, we came to the board with a proposal for a recruitment plan for a county manager.

That included working with the chair and the vice chair to do RFPs requests for proposals, which we did.

We received three.

We reviewed those and identified those that we wanted to interview.

One of them was CPS, and they were selected to run the recruitment.

One of the things that was important is that it was very thorough, that it was nationwide, and we've worked with CPS for many years, and it was a very good selection.

So I will turn everything over to Pam Derby and she will talk about the process that she used once they started their recruitment process.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Thank you.

From the time that we started speaking with human resources, and it was decided that we would take on this process.

Uh we spoke with each of the commissioners individually to get your take on what you would like to see in the next county manager.

We also had conversations with people across the organization as well, gathering input on that to see what they were looking for.

All of that information was put into the recruitment brochure, marketing brochure that then was disseminated nationwide.

This was sent out to over 10,000 individuals across the nation, but then we did significant uh outreach to individuals.

That's just the first email blast that goes out.

It was obviously advertised on the International City County Management Association on NACO, uh, etc.

on all those advertising channels.

But we spoke to people, you know, picked up the telephone, called people, and those people that we reached out to were people that you know fit the profile that the five of you were looking for.

You know, people who had dealt with different types of organizations, federal government, you know, city government, all of those intersections.

Um we were open for four weeks, meaning that we advertised for four weeks.

We had over a hundred applications.

Uh I ended up interviewing uh about 15, 16 candidates from that group, very heavy vetting of those candidates.

I spoke to each of them for a good hour to an hour and a half, talked to them about things that were happening here, to get their take on things.

We also did significant social media searches on them, media searches to find anything that could be out there.

Uh the people who are coming today, obviously, two of them are county administrators in currently in other jurisdictions.

Um we worked with the chair and the vice chair to narrow that group down to it was a top five.

Uh unfortunately, we did have one candidate who had a family medical emergency and had to withdraw before this process.

But that is uh a synopsis of how we got here today.

That's great.

And um, just from working with you with the vice chair, um, I just think you did a great job and really um uh did a lot of work with the vetting and helped us narrow that down to the top five that now we have our top four today.

They're all really great candidates.

Um very proud of the work and also that these candidates want to work at Washoe County.

So um it's been great to work with you.

Thank you for your partnership.

And so uh next step, are we going to be bringing the candidates up?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And for the record, they're sorry, sorry, too.

They have been given 15 minutes to review the interview questions before they come in.

Okay, great.

And do you want me to call um our first candidate, Mr.

Dore?

Sure, he should be right outside.

All right, well, thank you so much.

Any board questions uh before we begin here?

I'm not seeing any.

Okay.

Yes, Commissioner Andrea.

Just for the um, you know, transparency, I'm gonna get a tattoo, I think.

But transparency, I think it would be helpful that everybody understand as we're going through the process of this um interview, um, what what the ranking is.

If if we could maybe, I don't know if it's appropriate, Mr.

Large or Ms.

Hurley, whoever, Madam Chair, you feel would be appropriate to just share as we go through the interview how this works.

Madam Chair, the the force rankings are not appropriate to be displayed publicly after each interview.

But I would recommend that each of you do the force ranking sheet that's been provided to you and rank each candidate as they come in.

Um this is we as as a county, we're doing defensible hiring.

Um, and so we are asking the same questions for each of the candidates.

Um, and that's part of the reason why we do this in the public transparency process.

Um, but is I each of you have a sheet that will be your individual rankings, and then afterwards we'll do it just like we've done all of the other appointments um in terms of who are the top candidates for the position.

Thank you for the clarification, and madam chair, may I have a follow-up?

Of course.

Um I appreciate you sharing that, but not everybody may understand that.

And so I think it's really important that we be transparent and how we're being transparent and the confines to which we legally have to work.

Um I also think it's important if you don't mind as not I I'm clear on the sharing of the the ranking as we're going through, but just what that process is that we're taking uh that we're following in and force ranking.

So everybody understands.

And you when with what the force ranking does is it says you'll have one interview, and then that person will be ranked number one, regardless of how they sit.

Then the second interview, you'll rank that person compared to the previous person.

Then the third would be the th the last candidate ranked against the first two, and then the last one is the one against the last three.

So that is how the forced ranking sheets work.

Thank you for the clarity for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, welcome, Mr.

Duor, and we're so excited to have you.

Do you see a red?

I see nothing.

Oh, there we go.

There we go.

Perfect.

I was waiting for a green light.

Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure to be here.

I really appreciate the opportunity and and your time.

Absolutely.

Our pleasure.

And so uh do you want to start um for the first five minutes of your interview to introduce yourself to the Board of County Commissioners?

I do.

I you gave me five minutes last night.

I think I took three.

Um my name is is Jim Dore.

Uh currently the county administrator in Gallatin County, Montana.

But uh county seat is Bozeman.

I've been there 11 years.

It's um about 600 employees in a hundred and seventy million dollar budget that I lead.

Uh a lot of the same challenges and issues that are facing Washoe County with growth and the need to work collaboratively and regionally with partners, including the state of Montana, City of Bozeman, nonprofits to try to best deliver services to the people who pay taxes and frankly expect value for their money.

Um bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in political science and economics, a master's of public administration from Florida State University.

Uh I served with the 82nd Airborne Division right out of high school, and uh here I am.

Great.

Well, thank you so much.

We'll move to uh Commissioner Clark.

You have question number one.

Thank you for being here.

Um as county manager, you serve at the pleasure of the board.

The question, what is your philosophy for maintaining a productive and transparent relationship with five elected commissioners who may hold diverse policy views?

How do you balance being responsive to individual commissioners while remaining faithful to the collective direction of the board?

Uh thank you, Commissioner.

Um my philosophy is that county commissioners should never be surprised by anything.

Um I try to over-communicate when I can.

Um I I have a I think a tendency to be a little a little direct.

Um sometimes sometimes gets me in trouble, rubs people the wrong way.

Um but that's uh that's who I am, and I think that's what you would expect from me.

Um as far as uh maintaining that productive and and transparent relationship is again the communication one-on-one meetings, um, trying to understand where you're coming from, what your position is, navigating that.

I think um as how do I I balance being responsive is is to always answer questions, provide information.

But at the end of the day, elected county commissioners make decisions, not bureaucrats.

I see my role is the not to be glib about this, but as the head of the hired help.

You guys make decisions we execute.

I make sure that it gets executed.

I make sure that it gets executed um efficiently, effectively, and uh transparently thank you for that answer.

Thank you for that answer.

I think that's that's a very good answer.

I've got a follow-up question.

Were you able to read the uh RAF Talas?

I'm I hope I'm pronouncing that right report about this county and specifically to my question.

Uh and this uh you know, out of town experts in short order discovered what the real problems were here in the in the county.

That's why it's the this particular question I ask is very important to me.

We had a situation according to the the report that there was little or no communication with certain commissioners here in the board, and and the county uh manager didn't consider himself, in my opinion, uh the hired help for using your words.

He he considered himself, he was running the show.

And um more than once I asked him if he if he got elected as a commissioner.

I wanted to know that.

But tell me about your uh reaction to reading the RAF Talis report and and what what do you see as the what I call dysfunctionality of the past situation here, the past four or five years.

Uh Commissioner, that was my takeaway.

I I did get a chance to read that.

Um the the uh recruiter here, Pam Derby pointed uh me in that direction.

Uh I I read it.

I I don't have a different opinion from you.

I do think that that was the uh at least that was my takeaway from reading that report.

Um again, sir, you're not gonna get that from me.

That that is not I I don't uh I have three county commissioners in in Montana.

I am not the fourth commissioner.

I I am the county administrator.

They make decisions.

Um of our challenges is uh we we have a we have a new commissioner who who um I I want to say in her defense is uh sometimes there are our commitment, let me back up.

Our commissioners are full-time, um, have offices in the in the building, come to work every day.

And sometimes when we get into the minutia of things, um decisions get made that weren't noticed that at a public meeting and made in a public meeting, and uh that's our biggest source of friction, I think, right now.

Um so reinforcing that cultural norm, I think, uh has been challenging, but but we've been successful with that.

Um, but I do not think of myself as the fourth commissioner, and I won't be the sixth commissioner here.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Andrea, you have question number two.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming last night, and it was nice meeting your wife as well.

So my question is Washoe County is a large service-driven organization that values innovation, integrity, and collaboration.

What steps would you take in your first year to assess organizational culture and employee morale?

And the second part of that is how would you build a high performing, accountable and motivated workforce across multiple departments.

Uh I think the steps that we take in the first year to assess the the culture and employee morale is to go out and visit where everybody works.

And um I know that there's no way that we get to meet all 3,000 plus employees and in Washoe County, but I think being visible, listening, having an open mind to what they're saying, and um, you know, again, I refer to to probably a direct communication style that I that I have.

Um communicating with employees that way.

Employees want things that sometimes can't be granted.

And um, you know, it it's uh that they need to hear that, I I think.

And um, you know, clear as kind.

I I think that a lot of times that helps build morale, but as far as building a high performing uh accountable, nothing kills motivation of a good employee faster than watching a supervisor tolerate a bad one.

Um so I can be pretty decisive when it when it comes time to uh to make those changes.

And and I think long term that pays off.

That pays a lot of benefits for morale.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The third question is for me.

Establishing long-term key objectives are is important to strategic planning.

However, when you are taking on a new role, short-term objectives can be equally as important.

If you are selected as county manager, please describe your plans and key objectives for the first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job.

Uh I appreciate that question.

That that's a that's a difficult question to answer.

I think, Commissioner, and and the difficult part is are the key objectives.

Again, county commissioners determine key objectives.

Um so you know, 30 days we assess assess staff and and work plans.

I think in 60 days we monitor those and make adjustments when they need to be made.

In 90 days, um report to the to the county commission and and define what we're trying to do, what we can't do, what we need resources maybe to do, and let you make the decision about what key objectives and and priorities need to need to happen.

And then again, we execute.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And question four is Commissioner Garcia.

Good morning, Mr.

Dory.

Washoe County's success depends on regional collaboration with Reno Sparks, state agencies, and neighboring jurisdictions.

Describe your experience fostering intergovernmental partnerships to advance regional priorities such as housing, homelessness, infrastructure.

What barriers did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Thank you.

That's a that's a great question.

We have had um a lot of success experiencing uh or uh in fostering intergovernmental partnerships.

Um we have a regional housing coalition right now.

Uh we we've made some really great strides addressing some mental health gaps in in Gallatin County to include partnerships with both the city of Bozeman, City of Belgrade, Bozeman Health, and the state of Montana.

Um those come in waves.

There were times where the county commissioners and the city commissioners of Bozeman did not get along, could not agree on anything.

Um they couldn't even agree to disagree at times.

So we've done a nice job, I think, more recently of at a at a staff level, you know, me, the deputy county administrator and the the city manager and the assistant city manager of getting coffee, sitting down for a beer to try to just make sure like you have your job to do, and I have my job to do, and as long as we're going to be upfront and honest, and I give him a heads up if there's something coming, if if my uh county commissioners are going to throw his come his commissioners under the bus, and he does the same thing for me.

So we have a really good working relationship that I think set the tone for being able to build those um those partnerships with some of the other agencies to deliver on on those services.

Um you know the barriers are always it's always funding and and politics.

Um mental health is a is a particularly um good example, I think, in in this regard.

Um we put together a mobile crisis team uh of professionals who would respond to 911 calls when somebody is in a mental health crisis, and um oftentimes somebody in a mental health crisis does not need to see blue blue lights, you know.

They they need uh law enforcement is not the appropriate response all the time.

So um it was a fight over should that be in the fire department, the sheriff's office, the the politics of that were a barrier, but we've we got that straightened out.

Um interestingly enough, the why I use mental health as an example is that was an example of of where everybody wanted to control that service, and then uh we were trying to build uh a psychiatric, we we call it the PES, um, and I'm blanking on what that stands for, but um nobody wanted it, right?

It was like the hot potato.

But again, working with um a lot of the a lot of the law enforcement and public safety agencies is in the Bozeman Health stepped up to run the PES with some funding arrangements from from all of the from all of the partners is gonna make it's going to be successful long term.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And question five was Vice Chair Hermans, but I've asked Commissioner Andriella to step in and help us with that one.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Transparency and community confidence are foundations to effective local government.

How have you effectively engaged the public in complex or potentially controversial decisions?

And the second part is what techniques do you use to communicate policy issues in ways that build understanding and trust.

You know, I I believe that um being being upfront and transparent at the beginning sets that tone.

I I think that if we're explaining ourselves after the fact we've already lost the battle, right?

Um battle is a really bad word.

I can't think of a better one right now, but as it left my my mouth, like it's it's not a battle, right?

But but they are complex.

Some of these issues can be very complex, they can be very controversial.

Um, and I think that if as a as an organization we made a decision and didn't do any front-end work, citizens are obviously um frustrated by that, have every right to be.

And so I think I think doing that ahead of time, getting getting out to um to build uh a consensus, you know, explain what the issues are ahead of time, and then say the these are the various things that we're trying to consider as ways to address this.

Um mitigate some of that distrust early on.

Does that answer your question, Commissioner?

Yes, I guess if you don't mind, Madam Chair.

Just to follow up.

Um how would you communicate those policy issues, for example, um in ways that again build understanding and trust.

I know you're talking about getting in front of it and and he actually being proactive, and that's really commendable.

Getting in front of everything really helps.

That way everyone has all the information.

But can you give some examples of of how you would actually do that, especially when there are um a lot of misinformation that seems to be fact sometimes that isn't?

Yeah.

Well, thank you very much for the follow-up because that that probably was a very uh easy and obvious answer that I gave, right?

Uh so one example after after the COVID excuse me.

That's okay.

Uh after the COVID pandemic, the legislature in Montana made some significant changes towards um how health off local health officers and boards of health operated, and uh that was an incredibly contentious um decision, especially locally, because it would drastically change the way our board of health operated and the way our health department operated.

Um it really kind of hemmed in local governments a little bit in how they could uh operate while at the same time not being very specific, right?

The law just in my opinion wasn't written particularly well.

Um, it was like uh board boards of health have to be uh a governing body of elected officials made up of you know, A, B, C, or D, whatever works for you.

And so that was like, well, what does that mean, you know?

Um so very contentious, uh, a lot of really strong feelings on on all sides.

The city of Bozeman had a really strong feeling about what they wanted to see happen.

The county commission had a very strong feelings about what they wanted to happen.

Uh the city of Belgrade was not a part of the Board of Health, but had reached a population limit where they needed to have a health department, so we were gonna bring them in as part of an interlocal agreement.

Everybody thought they should be in charge of it.

Um the citizens didn't, a contingent of citizens didn't want a board of health at all because they came out of the pandemic.

Um so what we did was was hold uh, you know, we set up meetings with the with the editorial board of the of the paper.

We did a lot of um uh my communications coordinator at the time was doing little snippets of video for each county commissioner on um on social media, and and then we held a lot of public um, I don't want to call them public hearings, but kind of town hall type meetings and and and public engagement around um I hate PowerPoint, but we did a PowerPoint like here's how it used to work, here's how it's going to have to work now under the new law, and this is what we'd like to do, and then answered questions, and and uh and in a not everybody's happy, but we we got to the end of it, and I and I think uh time has shown that it's it it has worked out well.

Does that answer that question?

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

Well now moved to uh question six.

This is Commissioner Clark's.

Thank you, madam chair.

I've got a question for you, but I want to give you a couple of some some information a little bit first before we do that.

Here in our county, according to the county assessor, we've got more uh assessed value than we've ever had in the county's histories.

But going back to 1861 on our county seal.

Uh according to the treasurer, he's made fantastic investments, making more money now than they've ever had the counties ever had access to.

We have some of the highest gas taxes in the state, gasoline taxes in this county.

We have uh some of the highest sales taxes in this county, and yet this county's insolvent.

So I'm gonna go ahead with this question now, but I wanted you to have the uh understanding well what's what's really taking place here.

So the county's strategic plan emphasizes fiscal sustainability and transparency.

Here's the question.

Provide an example of how you would navigate a challenging budget cycle or economic downturn.

What specific tools or approaches did you use to preserve core services and public trust while maintaining long-term fiscal health?

We've got a budget here of over a million, over a billion dollars.

And I and I gave you some some background of what's really taking place here.

So let's uh let's hear what you how would you respond to that question.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that question.

Commissioner, first of all, um I have never been through a budget cycle that was not challenging, right?

Um as far as economic downturns.

Um I you know, I was uh a city manager in Maine when the when the Great Recession came, and that was a probably the biggest economic downturn.

Um but it wasn't it wasn't local, it wasn't regional, everybody was in the in the same boat, and and so I think it was kind of uh making those hard decisions was a little bit easier because everybody expected them to come and and knew you know you couldn't look over the hill and be like, yeah, but they're not they're fine, what's wrong with us?

So so that was a uh an easier, easier problem to navigate.

Um but specific tools and approaches we take to, I mean, first of all, you know, preserving core services again.

Our job is to provide information, your job is to make decisions.

Um so I think that that question about preserving core services is um you need to make decisions about what those core services are.

Yeah, I know that county commissioners disagree on what is a core service.

I mean it goes to the very heart of local government and the philosophy that each of you bring to to your job and what government should look like and the role that government plays in in people's everyday lives.

Um but I think being completely transparent, you know, budgets get very difficult sometimes in in presenting budgets because there's a lot of nuance, there's a lot of um very, very big numbers, right?

And and sometimes they get a little a little glossed over.

And you're always trying to draw this balance between giving a whole bunch of stuff that make people's eyes glaze over or hitting you know bullet points, kind of a high-level stuff that um that perhaps uh doesn't give quite enough information.

So again, I have a tendency to provide probably more information than is necessary, but I think that that's a key component of being transparent, and so um, you know, the approaches that we use is is uh or that I have used is to present uh information in a budget to county commissioners that gets them to make a decision in in terms of programmatic areas and not in terms of particular line items.

Um there's always a trade-off to everything we do, Commissioner.

And I wasn't making making it trying to make this a trick question.

Oh no, I appreciate that.

The trick word in here is downturn.

When I just gave you four examples of we've got more dough than we've ever had, yeah.

That's not an economic downturn.

There's other problems.

It's uh usually means you're spending more than you're taking in.

If you've got more money than you've ever had and you're still 25 to 30 million dollars in the red, that's a problem.

And part of part of that problem here in this county is some of the our departments have uh uh 90 over 90 percent of their whole budget is is is payroll.

I mean, so that's that's a problem.

So uh just yeah, wanted to share those thoughts with you.

Thank you.

No, I appreciate that, Commissioner.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Andrilla has question seven.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The county strategic plan emphasizes fiscal sustainability and transparency.

Oh, excuse me.

That was Commissioner Clark.

I was just repeating what he already asked to.

Did I do okay?

Verbatim.

Verbatum, huh?

Try this again.

Sorry about that.

The county's manager, uh, the county manager plays an essential role in uniting diverse departments and providing strategic strategic counsel to elected officials, not just the county commissioners.

Please describe your approach to building strong trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials.

And can you share an example of how you've successfully aligned differing priorities to achieve a common goal?

No, uh, I can, thank you.

Um my approach to building a strong trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials is to build uh I I had a previous city manager and Bozeman said I'm gonna I'm gonna screw his quote up a little bit, but so it's better to have friends before you need friends.

Um I don't mean to to sound glib, but you need to build those relationships before it's before something contentious comes up.

So um, you know, my approach to to building those is to is to try to meet them, understand where they're coming from, and again, be direct about things.

So I appreciate your question about providing strategic counsel to to elected officials and uniting those diverse uh diverse departments.

Um but I think it's important that that elected officials understand that I have a boss too.

And um, you know, if the sheriff, for instance, is is cross with the county commission, then you know, sheriff, I'm gonna do what I can to help you achieve your goals.

But at the end of the day, the county commissioners make a decision, and I that's who I work for.

So I I think I have taken that approach and it's and it's worked well because it sets the expectations early.

Um and and so um I think that the elected officials in Gallatin County some of them don't like me very much, and that's okay.

But I but I would suggest that I think I think most or all of them respect me for that.

Um, for a number of reasons, that just being one of them, I I think.

How have I successfully aligned differing priorities?

Uh we have a new new county attorney um in in Gallatin County uh as a Democrat.

The the uh sheriff is a is a Republican.

Um they agree on almost nothing when it comes to uh criminal justice.

Uh she's a she's a criminal justice reformer, I would I would suggest, and and he comes from kind of a um an ideology of uh you can't build jails big enough, right?

Um so uh they have very differing priorities, um but one of their common issues is is neither of them have enough staff.

So um coordinating that I think has was was challenging, but I but we've gotten to a point where um you know we we aligned a different priority on their common goal of needing more staff and higher wages.

I don't know if that's a good example for you, Commissioner, but thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you.

The county strategic plan identifies vulnerable populations as a key focus area.

What is your philosophy on addressing the needs of vulnerable residents?

Share an example where you helped integrate services across departments or jurisdictions to deliver more equitable outcomes.

Um you know, my philosophy on addressing the needs of vulnerable residents is is uh I think is a really uh difficult question to answer.

Um you know, I think that we have an obligation as a as a government to provide for the neediest among us.

Um how we helped integrate services.

I would I would go back to to mental health and and talk about um mobile crisis, has getting those city of Bozeman, different departments, nine 911 had a role in mobile crisis and and getting everybody, it took a lot of time, it took a lot of effort, it took a lot of coordination, but um getting everybody in a room and in a position and at a comfort level where they could have uh you know honest conversations without um without to kind of ignore the ignore the the noise around um why they're doing something, you know, the motive it's very easy to attack people for their motivations, and well, you're just doing this because I'm not.

I mean, this is where we're this is where I'm coming from, these are what the challenges that I have are uh and and getting people into that space where we could have those conversations.

The end result has been has been really successful.

Um it's early, and um you know, these programs have only been going for about three years, but we brought in um the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch, partnered with our uh human resources development council to purchase uh a piece of property that's going to be used for um for youth in a mental health crisis that need that, which is a like which has been a huge gap in Gallatin County.

Um not there has not been a lot of emphasis on helping our our youth that are struggling with with mental health issues, uh and the result of that is that Montana is a big place and it's very rural, and um a lot of a lot of youth were being separated from from families and support networks, and and um you know, just as an example of working across jurisdictions and and getting those partners in place that want to step up and solve some problems, and and then it's our job to kind of work out the minutiae and see how how best everybody's going to what role is is best suited for a particular organization to take and what they can bring to the table.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I will ask Vice Chair Herman's question for her.

Number nine, integrity and openness are critical attributes for this role.

Describe a time when you face an ethical dilemma or public integrity issue as a senior executive.

How do you handle the situation and what did you learn about leading with transparency?

Appreciate that question also, Commissioner.

Um, as I was sitting upstairs, we got these questions ahead of time, and this was the most difficult one for me to come up with an example of.

And I I have an example, I'm just not sure that it's a that it's a really good one.

Um I I think ethical dilemmas a lot of times happen when we are faced with positions uh or or questions or situations where we know what the right answer is, we know what the right thing to do is, um, but we contemplate doing the wrong thing anyway.

And I don't know that I've I've come in across a lot of those in in my career.

Um I will use one of my former county commissioners is one of the more ethical men that uh that I've ever met, um just a phenomenal public servant.

He was a county commissioner, his father was a county commissioner before him.

Um he ran into some trouble at the Yellowstone Club where a a member of the Yellowstone Club, which is a very, very wealthy enclave, wealthiest people in the world, um private ski area invited him up to ski, and he took him up on the invitation, went skiing.

Well, it came out sometime later that uh the person that took him on this uh on this ski trip, ski day was um had a land use application in front of the or that would be coming in front of the county commissioner.

Now the commissioner didn't know that at the time.

He had other relationships up in Big Sky in the Yellowstone Club that he wanted to uh um and and talk to some of those people.

Uh he really got painted in a very very negative light, and it it was really easy from the outside to see why.

But again, one of the more ethical people that I've that I've ever known.

Um I my dilemma was really staying quiet.

I tried to, you know, I I did.

I did not try, I did stay quiet and neutral, but it was very difficult not to not to reach out to the media and say you guys have this entirely wrong.

Um that that was difficult because it was a a personal um like I said, I I hold him in a in a high very high regard.

I have a great deal of respect for him.

Um and watching him get get drugged through that was was difficult.

Um what did I learn?

I I think that I just I always lead with transparency.

I can be direct to a fault.

It is not um not always taken well, but um again that's who I am, and uh that's what you're would expect from me if uh if at the end of the end of the day you offer me this job.

Great.

Well, thank you so much.

Um you have a few more minutes if you want to make any closing statements.

I don't know that I have a closing statement, Commissioner.

I really do appreciate the time.

It's been it's been wonderful to meet all of you.

I know that you don't have an easy decision ahead of you.

There are some really great candidates that I've gotten to know upstairs.

Um I don't think that you would go wrong no matter what decision you make, but uh I I certainly have a very biased opinion of which one you should make.

Uh I appreciate the time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

We really appreciate you coming out, and we'll be talking to you shortly.

Thank you.

Uh would the board like a five-minute break between?

Or do you want to just go forward?

All right, let's keep on moving.

All right, if um HR can help us get Ms.

Freed uh down, that would be great.

Can we take one after the next one?

Well, I think after the next one.

That's great.

Uh we'll take a break after we interview Ms.

Freed.

You know what's funny is what had that question?

Thank you.

This is where we need elevator music.

Like, you know, inspirational music or something.

Do you want to sing?

Are you thinking no?

What's that?

It wasn't agendized.

There was no singing agenda.

Sorry, welcome.

And we are going to have a 45-minute interview and have nine questions.

Uh, to get started, we would love if you would take the first five minutes to introduce yourself to the Board of County Commissioners.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, my name is Laura Freed.

I'm very happy to be before the commission today.

I want to introduce myself by walking you through my resume and then discuss what each job taught me.

I have been a public servant for my entire career in Nevada.

In 2003, I joined the Legislative Council Bureau Fiscal Analysis Division and reviewed a variety of state budgets for presentation and ultimate approval by the legislative money committees.

I was promoted internally after a few years and supervised a team of fiscal program analysts.

At LCB, I learned the real life things about public budgeting, including reviewing painful budget reductions when revenues come in below projection.

I've been through eight state budget cycles, and I have to tell you that more of them were famine than feast.

So I'm familiar with the fiscal environment that the county finds itself in, where revenues do not meet expenditures, and I hope to work with your talented fiscal and budget staff to ensure that policy options are brought to this body that ensure we have the ability to continue services that Washoe County residents depend on.

In 2014, I moved to the executive branch of state government, and I served both at the Department of Health and Human Services, now just called human services, and the governor's finance office.

At Human Services within the division of public and behavioral health, I oversaw the state's public health regulatory efforts.

And back in those days, well, well before uh cannabis was legal recreationally, we were charged with implementing medical cannabis establishments for the first time.

That gave me an appreciation of contentious policy issues that have lots of stakeholders.

And it gave me an appreciation for the practice of public health that I think translates to working with Northern Nevada public health in this position.

At the governor's finance office, I again worked on very analyzing various parts of the state budget and team leading newer analysts, this time from the perspective of the folks who build the budget, not just those who critique it.

Then in 2020, six weeks before the pandemic, I was appointed director of the department of administration.

That department had 550 FTEs and an operating budget of 367 million dollars annually.

Uh, for state workers since that was passed in the 2019 legislature, and we did ultimately do that.

Um but really that first year was mostly pandemic response and adjusting to a new way of working.

I learned so much about practical problem solving in those years.

Everything from smaller things like rethinking the way that IT bills were presented to our customers to being in those collective bargaining sessions, so I gained an understanding of labor relations.

To working with others on the PEB board.

I was the chair of the public employees benefits program, and we had to choose plan design in a constrained fiscal environment.

It was a great job.

I loved it.

It was very stressful though.

In 2023, I joined the RTC, and I serve as the Regional Transportation Commission's Director of Admin Services.

RTC is a lot different than the state.

However, I think the regional perspective that RTC takes in its planning for transportation improvements and services translates well to the position of county manager.

At RTC, I've been responsible for human resources, IT, and communications and public outreach.

And then last year we did a compensation and classification study, something that hasn't been done at RTC in over a decade.

Those two projects really reinforced in my mind that open frequent communication is non-negotiable for a healthy agency culture.

I'm pleased to say that RTC has worked conscientiously on that, and I think the agency is better for it.

So that is my work history in brief.

I applied for this position because I think the county finds itself at a bit of a crossroad.

Fortunately, I think the county also has a very valuable roadmap for the relationship between the board and the manager's office in the form of the RAFTELUS report.

I want to help continue that work with the staff.

Thank you.

Right on the dot.

Okay.

Question one is Commissioner Clarks.

Make sure my microphone is on.

Thank you.

I uh I've got this question for you, but I want to I'm gonna start with uh trying to ask the kind of the same questions that I've asked asked the other candidates.

Not gonna be verbatim, but that'll be the same general uh tone.

Uh the Raftellus report, and again, I I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but uh did you have a chance to review that before you did.

I've read I've read uh parts of it, yes.

What were your thoughts about that?

I thought it was strikingly candid for a report of that type.

Um I have to applaud um both uh the consultant and the commission and the staff for going with um going where the facts led you, you know.

Um I have seen uh other culture studies that kind of soft peddled um the outcome because it might offend somebody.

And so I was uh like I said, my my dominant impression was struck by the candidness.

And that was my same impression, and and I was very uh happy to see someone that uh you know, the experts from afar that came in and with the short order were able to interview some folks and understand what's really taking place here.

So that'll lead into my next question.

Um as a county manager, you serve as the pleasure of the board.

Here's the question what is your philosophy for maintaining a productive and transparent relationship with five elected commissioners who may hold diverse policy views.

How do you balance being responsive to an individual commissioner while remaining faithful to the collective direction of the board?

So last night at the meet and greet, I talked about one of the through lines of my career, and I talked about operational excellence, and I said that frequent clear communication is a cornerstone of operational excellence.

And so, you know, the first thing is continuous communication with your elected officials via one-on-ones, um, via uh email communication, um, even as informal as text messages because I know elected officials are very busy.

Um, diverse policy views is something I'm used to.

I used to work at the LCB.

Um LCB is nonpartisan central staff.

Um they don't get paid to have political opinions, they get paid to ground their advice in law, regulation, and policy.

And we always did that.

It is an article of faith, and I truly believe that government service should be the same, be of the same quality, uh, no matter whether you're serving a D or an R or an independent or anything else.

Um, you asked about the RAF Tellis report, and I think the Rough Tellus Report guides us in sort of um categorizing and ranking, you know, commissioner business requests.

I think that was, you know, it it gives us a really good framework.

Um, you know, one of the things I asked you last night, Commissioner Clark, was a hypothetical.

If you know a county manager comes to you and says, um, well, I have 30 requests, I can't get to yours right now.

Um, what would you say?

And you said to me, well, that's that's what it would be.

I just have to wait.

Um, and I would hope that the the Board of County Commissioners would uh meet the manager halfway on that sort of thing.

Because there's you know, there one of the things in Rap Tell us that they talked about was developing a ranking system, and I think that's really important because um, you know, there's staff time is is valuable just like commissioner time is valuable.

So um you have to keep talking and keep um communicating openly to see where everybody's at and how you can work together to sort through the requests as they come through.

Thank you for answering that, and thank you for thank you for bringing up the hypothetical question.

So I'm gonna give you my hypothetical answer.

Okay.

If everyone was treated fairly and equally, I would wait my turn.

But uh, and I'm and and I'm gonna switch now and give you the real life story around here.

Two years and 11 months, 40, 50, 60 requests for something to be on the agenda, maybe one or two items.

So that's real life versus hypothetical.

I hesitate to answer hypothetical questions, but when since you brought it up last night and and you brought it up again today, I'll I'll put it on the record that we did have that conversation.

And my answer was if everybody's being treated fairly, I'll wait my turn.

But if everybody is not being treated fairly, that's that's the reality of what we've had around here.

And I think the ref tallis report was quite clear about that.

And uh, and again, uh thank you for answering those questions.

And Commissioner Clark has also requested to ask his next question, um, question six, and then we'll move to Commissioner Andriela.

Okay.

I've had a long-standing doctor's appointment.

Took me several months to get that.

It's this morning.

I'm gonna duck out for about a half an hour, but I wanted to get my uh other question in.

And uh again, I'm gonna try and uh phrase this question the same way I asked uh shared it with the other the other candidate.

Um here in this county, the assessor's office, the assessor here in the in the county tells us that he's has more assessed property value and more value in the county than we've ever had since 1861.

And the last several years, every year it gets a little bit better.

The treasurer's doing an excellent job making uh lots of investments that are really paying serious dividends.

So there's more income.

We've got some of the highest sales tax in the state in this county.

We've got some, and you're you're well aware of this coming from your department, some of the highest gas taxes in the nation in this county.

So here's four sources of serious income.

And I'll go ahead and read this question now, and I'm gonna switch to question, I believe it's uh six.

The county's strategic plan emphasizes fiscal sustainability and transparency.

Here's the question.

Provide an example of how you would navigate a challenging budget cycle or economic downturn.

What's specific tools or approaches did you use to preserve core services and public trust while maintaining long-term fiscal health?

So I'm used to lots of budget cycles where there's no money.

Um, you know, working at LCB, working at the governor's finance office, like I said in my opening remarks, there uh were more sessions where there wasn't money than where there was.

And you know, we as public entities working in the budget ROM and public service kind of tend towards the same answers, right?

You know, um we face this, of course, uh at the PEB board, and we used projected excess reserves.

Um at PEB, there's actuarily determined reserves, which you really shouldn't touch unless you have a rate stabilization need, and then there's excess reserves, which just represents excess cash.

And so we use that to um forestall benefit cuts.

Um sometimes we did have to cut benefits.

Um sometimes, I mean, there was the session where you know PEB had to go to from a PPO plan to a high deductible health plan, and that was the 2011 session.

Um, you know, in basic operating budgets, you know, you do the you take the low-hanging free, right?

You take the travel, you take the training, you don't do your deferred maintenance.

Um, you hold positions vacant if it gets to that.

Um but then there's responsibility talking about transparency, there's responsibility to educate everyone about the trade-offs that you've made.

Um, you know, you have to explain to the community, well, there might be a loss of services because we can't keep the libraries open as many hours as we might like to.

Um, we can't staff um the human services agency in the way that we might like to.

Um, so um that is you know, that's what we did, and um, you know, and then of course that leads into inevitably discussions of revenue, as Commissioner Clark raised, um, and what revenue sources are available, what revenue sources are politically feasible, um, but you know, it's not been my experience in 20 years in Nevada government that talking about revenue is anybody's idea of a good time.

So I'm used to making the budget cuts.

Thank you for that answer.

And again, this wasn't a trick question, but when I tell you about the income stream, and you tell me you've been through lots of fiscal cycles in the state where it's usually the other way around, there's not enough money coming in.

Yeah.

Our particular problem, and with my financial background and being the former uh assessor and loaning out billions of dollars and finance, lots of property.

You know, when I see somebody who's got more income than than they than they've ever had, and they're still broke, there's other problems.

And that's that's my question to you is how do we how when you have more the most money you've ever had in your life as a person or as a as an institution or as a government entity, more money than we've ever had, and we're still coming up short.

What what how can we fix that?

And that's that's the question that uh that I'm gonna continue to ask up here on the diason until we find that out.

But uh thank you for your answers.

Commissioner Andrea, you have question too.

Thank you.

I was nice meeting you last night.

Yeah, thank you.

It's nice to meet you.

Uh Washoe County is a large service-driven organization that values innovation, integrity, and collaboration.

What steps would you take in your first year to assess organizational culture and employee morale?

And the second part of this question is how would you build a high performing, accountable, and motivated workforce across multiple departments?

So the research about executive effectiveness in the private sector indicates that it takes about 60 days before a new leader of a organization starts adding value.

Unfortunately, the research is a little bit more muddled for the public sector.

Um so I think that that calls for an analysis, and I've been fond of using something called the SARS model.

And the STARS model stands for hold on, I gotta check my thing.

So in the first, you know, 60 to 90 days, I think the job is to identify what kind of an organization do you have on your hands.

Do you have a startup?

Well, no, this is not a startup, this is a county organization that's stable.

Um do you have a turnaround?

And turnaround is an organization that suffered come some kind of setback and needs like a reset.

Realignment is where uh an agency's um business processes maybe don't meet its policy goals, and sustaining success is exactly what it sounds like, you know, everything's sailing along.

So I mean, you have to understand kind of the systems, the structure, and the stated plans of an organization.

Um so what does that look like practically?

For me, it looks like talking to people, it looks like what you know, we used to call it the LCB field work.

I can go around and talk to people.

Um, I used to love that.

You know, I've been to state prisons, I've been to Dieter Job Connect offices, and I I mean, much to the chagrin of department directors.

I mean, I want to go and say, hi, who are you?

What do you do here?

How long have you been here?

What's fun about your job?

What's terrible about your job?

Um, those are the kind of things I want to know.

Um, I wasn't able to know all 550 people in the department of administration, but I was able to know a lot of them.

So I think um, you know, that's that's kind of the first step of building a high performing organization is building that trust as a leader, is letting the employees know that I care about what happens to you, and just like I you know care about the policy priorities of the Board of County Commissioners, I also care about the 3100 people who work here.

Thank you very much.

We'll now move into question three, which actually um I think Doug tells well off of what you were saying.

Right.

Um, establishing long-term objectives are key to strategic planning.

However, when you are taking on a new role, short-term objectives can be equally as important.

If you're selected as county manager, please describe your plans and key objectives for 30, 60, and 90 days.

Yeah, this is a continuation of what I was just talking about.

I think in the first 30 days, it's about listening.

I think meeting with each commissioner, um, meeting with the office of the county manager staff, meeting with department heads, going out and doing that field work, um, just getting a sense of the culture of the place.

Um in 60 days, I think I should be getting up to speed on the strategic plan and where we're at with the strategic plan.

I look, I took a look uh from the last meeting at the update of the progress.

I gotta say I wasn't clear on the whole document, so I got some you know studying to do.

Um I think that as well as um you know seeing where the county is with each department's KPIs.

I think by the 90-day mark, um, particularly again, guided by the RAF Tellis report, you should start to put plans in place for strategic planning process.

As you all know, one of the recommendations in the Raftellus report was to do a multi-year strategic planning process.

So, you know, then it's time to start looking at consultants who can help, you know, the board and the county manager's office implement a rich uh multi-year strategic planning process.

Great.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move into question four, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Describe your experience fostering intergovernmental partnerships to advance regional priorities such as housing, homelessness, and infrastructure.

What barriers did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

So, as you know, the Regional Transportation Commission works collaboratively in the planning process with uh all the local governments as well as NDOT, and I hope that my colleagues at the RTC have made you know the cities and this county feel like they have a voice in the transportation future of our region.

But how you know, I have to be honest, that's not my area of responsibility at the RTC.

So I'll give you an example from my days as director of admin.

You all know that the airport authority is expanding their property greatly with their federal funds.

What you may not know is that uh the state of Nevada has a small fleet services office on the grounds we rent, or we like I still work there, right?

The the state rents, you know, a bit of property from the airport authority to run its Reno fleet services operation.

And I remember the public work staff and the fleet manager came running into my office and were very unhappy.

He's like, we gotta move, we gotta move, we gotta move.

The airport authority told us we gotta move.

I said, Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

What do you mean we gotta move?

Why?

Well, they're kicking us out in 30 days.

So I had we had to call over to the airport authority, and I'm really grateful for the professionalism of uh Darren Anderson, the airport authority head, um, and find out, okay, what did your planning staff tell the public work staff?

And you know, they said, Oh, no, no, I know you guys are on a month-to-month lease, and we can uh extend that for a while, and we can work on this other phase.

So we worked it out with them that you know, fleet services doesn't have to, you know, didn't have to move in 30 days because that would have really put a pinch on us trying to find a suitable um commercial property for all the vehicles.

Um so I think you know, the the barriers were fairly easily again overcome by talking.

I just, you know, I just we just emailed over there and said, hey, what's going on?

Um, is this correct?

And I think you can sort through a lot of things that end up being ultimately misunderstandings just by talking.

So thank you.

We now will move to question five, which was Vice Chair Herman's, but Commissioner Andrew will do that for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Transparency and community confidence are foundations to effective local government.

How have you effectively engaged the public in complex or potentially controversial decisions?

And two, what techniques do you use to communicate policy issues in ways that build understanding and trust?

So in the communications and outreach area of RTC, our focus, particularly for this fiscal year, it's one of our strategic goals actually, is telling our story of community benefit.

Um, you know, Commissioner Clark is right.

We have a dedicated gas tax, and people want to know what do you I get for my gas tax dollars?

Um, so we've done a few things.

Um the executive director of the RTC has gone out and continues to go out and talk to community groups, um, downtown business partnership, um, EDON, Chamber of Commerce, uh, Realtors Association, all those kinds of folks to talk about generally this is the planning we're engaged in, this is what your fuel tax dollar gets you, this is what your sales tax dollar gets you in the transit realm, and this is how we're doing with that.

Um we've tried to have a more active social media presence.

Um, and I hope that we have um succeeded in punching up our social our online presence.

Um and one of the things that you know, and I have to credit the comms staff, they're so great.

Um, I I they've started doing pop-up events, and whether it's biggest little bike network or it is um a neighborhood plan.

Um we find that small pop-up events kind of work better than formal project meetings, um, and we go where the people are.

Um we did a presentation to Trucky Meadows Bicycle Alliance at you know uh one of the local um wine bars, you know, the other week.

Um they go to UNR and TMCC to you know advertise that students ride free, um, and now the K 12 students also ride free.

And we also in comms really try to talk like normal people.

Um, you know, the engineers like love to say stuff like, well, we're gonna do a mill fill.

Well, don't say mill fill, nobody knows what that means.

Like, you know, tell them in in plain plain language.

So I think those help build understanding and trust.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And uh now we'll move into question seven, which is also Commissioner Andriellas.

Thanks.

The county manager plays an essential role in uniting diverse departments and providing strategic counsel to elected officials, not just county commissioners.

That was a chuckle.

She chuckled.

Describe your approach to building strong trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials.

And can you share an example of how you've successfully aligned differing priorities to achieve a common goal?

So I'm going to talk about the state's ERP project.

Um, in the during the Sandoval administration, the state undertook an effort to revamp its enterprise resource planning program.

It had been running an old ERP from 1999, and it was way, way overdue.

So the project at that time was known as SMART 21, and the state had retained an integrator and chosen software.

It was SAP for HANA for those of you who love to talk about ERPs.

Um and the governance structure was a steering committee made up of a whole bunch of people from various departments, and then an executive sponsorship committee.

And the executive sponsors were the director of the governor's finance office, the state controller, and the director of admin.

So by the time I was appointed admin director, this project had been going on for a couple of fiscal years, and the integrator and the integration was well underway, and building modules was well underway.

But things started going wrong as they so often do with enterprise level IT undertakings.

And we had various departments who were testing, and they were unhappy with what they were seeing, including constitutional agencies.

And deadlines were being missed, and the executive committee felt kind of like we were getting the runaround.

And so I think the governor's finance office director probably wanted to continue with this on this path, but the controller and myself did not.

And I had been, you know, I had talked, I talked last night at the meet and greet about how I used to send a weekly email to my governor's office liaison.

So for many weeks, I had been kind of talking to them about this as an emergent issue, and I didn't feel like I was getting any traction really.

I felt like nobody's paying attention.

What am I gonna do?

What are we gonna do with this project?

Um we have sunk at this point millions of dollars into this.

And ultimately, we did um cancel the contract with the integrator.

Um, but there was a whole bunch of recriminations and a whole bunch of um unhappy people because of course we had to revert to this old system, and that in itself was a bunch of work and the system wasn't all that stable.

And so um the next governor came in and kind of scrapped the whole thing, and they went with a different um ERP entirely, which might not have been a bad choice.

Um I think what we learned there's in large-scale IT uh organizational change management cannot be a check the box exercise.

It must be an integral part of it.

If you are going to use your agency SMEs to help integrate, you have to have backfill, and the state did not have staff to backfill.

And you must have executive buy-in, and this is where we talk about trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials.

Um I think the kind of the lack of a central IT authority, and you know, to his credit, um Governor Lombardo has actually fixed this, but I can talk about that later if you wish.

Um, but the the lack of a central IT authority strongly connected to the chief executive is also really important for success, and that was just kind of missing, and it wasn't just missing in one governorship, I think it was missing over two, you know.

So it again it comes back to um strong communication, but that I mean that's just one example of a business process that can go wrong, and then you have internal customers just furious, um, but you have to have support and buy-in at the highest levels for those kinds of things to be successful.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia, you have question eight.

All right, the county strategic plan identifies vulnerable populations as a key focus area.

What is your philosophy on addressing the needs of vulnerable residents?

Share an example where you helped integrate services across departments or jurisdictions to deliver more equitable outcomes.

Well, as far as philosophy, I have to say we have to all do our share as a region to support our vulnerable populations.

Um, you know, and I'll be honest with you, I came up as a budget person.

I'm not particularly a human services expert.

Having said that, in the budget realm, I did deal with human services way back at the LCB.

Um there is uh, as you may know, a program called Early Intervention Services out of human services.

And one budget cycle, um they they had moved to kind of privatized services more instead of going to state EIS clinics.

These children with developmental delays could go to a private provider.

And they had submitted a budget with a dual with an overall cost per child that didn't take into account the overhead of the state EIS clinics.

They had just sort of said, okay, it's this much dollars per child, did multiplied by how many children we expect to have in EIS, boom, done, there's the budget.

And we said no, um, at fiscal, um, we discovered no, that's not right.

Um, there's you can pay a rate to a private provider, but you need to pay a different rate to the state EIS clinics to serve all these children.

So uh we had to add back.

I mean, a thing the legislature hates to do, let me tell you.

I mean, this was not uh my bosses were did not love this.

Um had to add add back uh two some million dollars um to that to the budget for early intervention services uh to meet that per child cost.

Um I'm not unfamiliar with the need to fund supportive services.

Thank you.

And now I have the final question.

Uh and it is um from Vice Chair Herman, but I am going to read it.

Integrity and openness are critical attributes for this role.

Describe a time when you face an ethical dilemma or public integrity issue as a senior executive.

How do you handle the situation and what did you learn about leading with transparency?

So I believe in late 2024, early 2025, there was a pro public article about a company called N Zero.

N Zero, for those of you who don't know, is a company that tracks carbon emissions among agencies, and it's had several local clients and it has the state as a client.

Um they got a grant of money from the state energy office to track carbon emissions um from state buildings to kind of uh to move towards um the former governor's climate goals.

Um the pilot project uh didn't yield terribly much useful information.

And if you read the article, you can you know see how energy office staff felt about that.

Um however, it was a significant priority of the governor.

And the governor wanted to provide more funding to NZER to expand um carbon monitoring.

And uh there was some contact between the governor that um and zero are the governor's staff and N0 that might have spoiled the competitive bid process under NRS 333.

And my staff, with my blessing, sent an email to the governor's staff saying you should not be talking to these people outside of a procurement process.

You could spoil a bid.

Um boy, did I get an angry email for that.

Um but I stand by what I said, and um you know, we uh tried, and uh you know, kudos to the former deputy director of of administration for running point on coming up with a list of things that we thought would contribute to the governor's climate goals um that we felt were feasible to do, and that did not necessarily require a competitive bid process.

But um, you know, I again I I was not afraid to say no, we shouldn't be doing this because it is not compliant with state law.

So that was my that was fun.

Thank you.

Uh you have a few minutes if you want to make any closing statements to the board.

Uh just thank you for the opportunity.

Um it's an honor to be among the final pan uh candidates, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

We really appreciate you coming down and answering your questions, and we'll be talking to you briefly.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm gonna give the board um a few minutes to take a break, and we'll come back.

Is 10 minutes okay for the board?

Okay, we'll come back um at 10 50, and then we'll hopefully have our other applicant ready to go by then.

Thank you.

Okay, hello everyone.

We will call this Board of County Commissioners meeting back to order.

Uh we are on our third candidate.

And Mr.

Stone.

And we will um start this is a 45-minute interview, and we have nine questions.

But to get started, we'd love if you would take the first five minutes uh to introduce yourself to the Board of County Commissioners.

Are you ready?

We are ready.

All right.

Well, thank you, uh Chair and Commissioners, other electeds.

Uh my name's Tyler Stone, and uh I currently am the chief administrative officer for Wasco County in North Central Oregon.

And um I've been there, I think I'm coming up on my starting my 20th year.

Um would have never thought that it would have been that long.

Uh but it's a great place, a great place to work.

Um just a little bit about me.

Some of you heard this last night.

Um I moved from the Seattle area down to take this job in Wasco County and to raise my family on a wheat and cattle ranch.

And uh so that was a that was a great opportunity for us, and that's can has consisted of us being uh uh a member of that community for that that amount of time.

So um I've got two undergraduate degrees, one in science and one in business and a master's degree in public administration.

So I started my career uh in the HR track and spent about 10 years in human resources and working for um a couple different entities, one uh large corporate retail may company, um, and then I was in the private sector to for a large uh landscape nursery products uh corporation.

We did landscapes like the Microsoft campus and Boeing campus and that kind of thing.

And uh from there I moved into the medical field and um I worked for two different multi-specialty medical clinics, and the last one up in Seattle.

I followed a CEO up there to do organizational development work and also some practice management work.

So I managed a uh oncology practice and uh infusion center uh for large uh multi-specialty medical clinic, minor in James Medical then during that same time I was doing some work uh as a Baldridge examiner and that's the National Quality Award.

And we what we did there is went out and actually reviewed organizations against the national quality uh criteria framework and uh had the opportunity to see a lot of really high performing organizations in uh well actually all sectors, so um there's a public sector uh process and a private sector process.

And um so um when we decided we were going to move back to uh rural Wasco County to um raise our kids on the farm.

I took the job with the county and at that time it was an interesting time because the county was transitioning from a uh judge form and moving to a commissioner form.

And so I was hired in as the administrative services director and uh with the intention of moving into the administrator position once that transformation uh proceeded through.

So it was a challenging time when I got to the county.

Um our budget meetings were not fun.

There was lots of tears and yelling, and we got through that and really started to work on process and process improvement around how we're going to approach and guide the organization through through those challenges.

And so, you know, we went from a two million dollar deficit to now we're paying down our PERS liability to the tune of 12 plus million dollars, and uh really working on building our reserves for um for us for these times that are cyclical in nature.

Uh one of the one of the biggest parts of that turnaround is uh culture for the organization and really working on culture.

Um you've got a good culture, you generally have high performing people and high performing teams, and uh so our culture has actually been uh recognized by the National Association of Counties and their leadership training documents you can you can continue on.

Um so you know, today I think, and I'll wrap this up, um, but I think we're probably one of the best performing rural governments in Oregon.

Um, our leadership team is very active at the state and national level, um, which uh tells me that that people want our expertise out there.

So I'll end with that.

Thank you so much.

And I will start with a question one.

Uh as county manager, you serve at the pleasure of the board.

What is your philosophy for maintaining a productive and transparent relationship with five elected commissioners who may hold diverse policy views?

How do you balance being responsible to individual commissioners while remaining faithful to the collective direction of the board?

And also if you could just touch on the Raphtellus report when you're thinking about this, that would be helpful for our board.

And DA Large, did I get to that question?

Okay, just want to make sure.

All right, go ahead.

So I mean, any relationship with the board is really around communication and the ability to work through uh the challenges, the problems, the successes of the organization, and so um everybody up here at the at the commission level may have differing views on things, um, but your problems are all the same, right?

So uh you have to come together and really be able to work through those items and those issues that are out there, and in order to do that, you have to accept each other's diverse views and really work towards consensus on a lot of these problems, and so my job as the county manager is to be able to really give you that information so that you understand um excuse me, all of the intricacies of the policies that you're working on because without that information uh you're gonna have a hard time really coming to consensus, and so um it's regular meetings with commissioners uh one-on-one time, scheduled one-on-one time, um, really encourage you uh individually to talk with department heads, and I know as uh a county manager that's lots of county managers don't like that to happen.

Um, but those are your resident experts here in the county, and so they're the ones should be giving you some firsthand information, and so I certainly like the fact that you can spend one on one time to really dig into some of those issues, and then after you have the data and everything that you really need to be able to work through those issues, when you do come to a decision, my job is to support that decision and and then to move it forward without a personal opinion on it or or anything like that.

Um then, as far as the RAS tell us, I get this name wrong every time.

As far as the report goes, um, there's a lot of stuff to work on there.

And then that report, in my view, then needs to filter down to the individual departments in this organization to really start to have conversations around what does that mean for my department.

You know, I like to say that as a county, we run pick the number 17 to 20 to 30 independent and separate and distinct businesses under one roof.

And what's right for one area may not be right for another.

And so again, it's really talking about what those findings are and really uh working towards what that's going to mean for next steps for for this county.

Um, and there was quite a bit about the board here as well in that report.

And so uh it's not just the departments that that you oversee and represent or that I oversee and represent, it's also yourselves.

So great.

Thank you so much.

Well, now move to question two, which is Commissioner Andrewis.

Thank you.

It was nice meeting you last night.

Um is a large service-driven organization that values innovation, integrity, and collaboration.

What steps would you take in your first year to assess organizational culture and employee morale?

And second, how would you build a high performing, accountable, and motivated workforce across multiple departments?

Sure.

Um, well, coming into any new position, you know, you're coming in blind, and so you've really got to spend the time and take some time to be able to understand the departments and what those challenges are within those departments.

So, yeah, I would envision in that short time period uh full meetings with departments, department heads, um, and then uh I also want to want to understand what you think as a board and and really see if if those things are in alignment.

Um then some of the other things the the tools that are out there are you know employee surveys, uh training, and then uh being able to support those departments with what their what their needs are.

I'm gonna read this question one more time here.

And so the second part of that question how do you build high performing, accountable, motivated workforce across multiple departments.

Um I've spent a lot of time at my current county really uh, like I said, working on culture, but also every year we go away for three days to a place that has no cell phone coverage, and uh we take the time to get to know each other personally.

Um we also take the time to really work on and um implement tools that are out there and proven.

And so I think I mentioned last night uh we we've used and gone through a process where we've applied the principles and uh Jim Collins good to great uh to our to our own organization, and we've talked about you know what it means to hire a players and are we doing it or not, and what it means to start pushing the flywheel, so to speak, and to get momentum for change and and cultural movement, and at the same time, you know, those are management type practices, but um we worked through the book called The Art of Possibility and what does that mean to our organization?

And that's really about envisioning what we're gonna look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now.

Um you know, the book starts out is it's it's a classroom setting, and if you were gonna give yourself an A at the end of this school term, what would that A look like and having people write that down?

And then that gives a path forward for your organization to move.

Let's see.

Um, and then kind of the last piece with within every organization is really how do you work your strategic plan?

Um and you know, in looking through the strategic plan here, the one thing that I didn't see, and maybe I didn't dig deep enough is what are the measures and how are you gonna measure yourself against what you're doing?

Um it's a very ambitious strategic plan.

Um I would ask, can you achieve all of those things this year or or is it two years or is it five years?

Um and so being able to measure yourself against that and what your what your successes are and and those areas where you need to work to improve thank you.

I have question three.

Establishing long-term objectives is key to strategic planning.

However, when you take on a new role, short-term objectives can be equally as important.

If you are selected as county manager, please describe your plans and key objectives for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of the job.

Yeah, so like I said earlier, you know, you've got to spend some time really getting to know the organization and the people and the teams and the departments.

Um additionally, your stakeholders that are out there, so the people you work with, the people that provide uh you know, co-production type services, cities, state, et cetera, et cetera.

Um, and then any of those other entities, those regional entities that you've formed to provide those services, and so you've got to get a good understanding of the things that are that are out there and in front of you.

Um, I've done listened to a lot of your board meetings, and um I've listened and looked at a lot of the reporting uh for me.

One of the things that I would immediately do is really sit down and work with the finance department trying to understand the budget, the budget deficit that's currently sitting out there, and how you're going to bridge those gaps because time is of the essence there, and if what I've seen out there is true as you move out five years, and that deficit is no longer manageable, now it's massive.

Um, and so how are you going to address that today and in the next 12 months to be able to change that trend?

And right, your revenue and your expense lines, they can't cross, they've got to be parallel to each other.

And so there's got to be some action taken there, probably within the next year or two to be able to uh be able to dig yourself out of that scenario because it's gonna compound over time, um, and nobody can afford that.

So thank you.

We'll now move to question four, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Washoe County's success depends on regional collaboration with Reno, Spark State Agencies and neighboring jurisdictions.

Describe your experience fostering intergovernmental partnerships to advance regional priorities such as housing, homelessness, and infrastructure.

What barriers did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Yeah, great.

Um so currently in Wasco County, we really we have a lot of we call them IGAs, intergovernmental agreements, um, you may call them interlocal agreements or or some other form of that.

And so we used to do public health as a county, and we spun public health off and made that a three-county public health system.

So the counties to the east and west of us, and so that entity now is its own entity made up of county commissioners for their governing board and and uh private individuals, and they provide the public health services in the organization.

Um also our behavioral health services, we've done the same thing, and um taken that out of the uh direct county work product and move that into again another three county entity to provide behavioral health services, and so just an example there.

Um I just spent probably the last year and a half actually working in that entity with a number of people from our leadership team to help make that entity solvent, and so they were facing um some huge budget issues and uh a culture that was was pretty bad.

And uh so we embedded our leadership team within that organization and really helped to run that in that organization until it got on its feet.

Um and now they're back and working great, and let's hope our funding stays solid and and go from there.

And so and as far as barriers go, you know, funding is always a barrier.

Somebody has money today, and then they don't have money tomorrow, and so you there's an admin of flow there where as an organization you may need to step in and step up during those times, and other times where you're gonna step back and let somebody else step up.

And those are relationships, right?

Because if those relationships aren't there, it's gonna be we can't afford it, and we're out or something to that tune.

And that's really how you overcome that is through those relationships because I can give here a little bit, but maybe this entity can give there a little bit.

We're currently um doing wildfire response recovery efforts.

We had the second worst wildland fire in state of Oregon uh here about four months ago.

We lost 76 homes in our in um disadvantaged community, and we're doing uh all of the things around wildfire recovery, and um the county has taken on incident command.

I'm the incident command uh lead there, but we're outlining those tasks, and the community has stepped up to really perform those services, and so I've got behavioral health, I've got public health, I've got individual service clubs uh working uh round the clock, we've got the state um and even a little bit um of expertise from the feds uh to be able to uh wrap our arms around what it's gonna take to recover those those areas and those homes.

Um it's a slow process.

It's uh it's been very eye-opening for me as to those challenges that are that are out there, and so uh as a community and as community services service agencies we're really trying to break down those barriers, such as reducing permitting times, etc.

etc.

Um so current currently in my county, we're surrounded by a national scenic area that's got its own set of governing uh rules.

Uh we have several tribes in our areas that we're constantly uh interfacing with.

Um, and then we do a lot of regional work, as I said, with public health and behavioral health, and uh how do we get those things done more as as a region because we are rural and no one entity can do it all, so we have to come together uh to be able to provide those services.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And question five is Vice Chair Hermons, but Commissioner Andrew will read it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Transparency and community confidence are foundational to effective local government.

How have you effectively engaged the public in complex or potentially controversial decisions?

And what techniques do you use to communicate policy issues in ways that build understanding and trust?

Sure.

Um, by the nature of of what we are as government, I mean our public meetings certainly uh move towards that.

We also use a variety of other tools such as work sessions, um, stakeholder meetings when we need to uh get more detailed information.

We try to, as our board, we make it a point to actually go and have at least one meeting a quarter out in our communities.

So we'll we'll go an hour south to an antelope city county city council meeting and actually have a joint meeting at that time in the evening to really be able to connect with especially our more rural residents and and engage that that two-way communication.

The needs in in the south of our county are drastically different than the needs in the north end of our county.

Um, and so we can put the blinders on and not understand those things, but we actually take the time to go out and meet with those city councils and those smaller communities, our unincorporated communities as well.

Thank you.

Now we'll move to question six.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um it was a nice meeting you last night, Mr.

Stone.

Okay, I I appreciate the fact that you talked about in your uh the other answer about the county's finances, and uh that's very important to the citizens of this county, and certainly uh the commissioners as well.

Uh did you get a chance to read the uh Raf Talas report?

I did.

What did you what were your thoughts about that?

I think there's a lot of one good information there.

Um I mean, which part of it, so the board needs to do some work.

I read that um and work on relationships and communication and uh understanding the needs of each other, and the strategic and direction and management systems part of that report, I think is probably key for your next county manager because that's where the magic's gonna happen.

And um I guess what what part of it are you looking for?

Well, looking at the I'm looking at the part that the new county manager might play in that, how the new county manager might take that information and utilize it to uh make a smoother transition and and utilize that for for the benefit of uh use the study for what it was for.

Was the study was to re review and find out uh areas that may need some improvement.

Did uh do you agree with those and would you be able to implement some of those improvements?

Yeah, for sure.

Um, you know, I I didn't flag everything, but I flagged some of the things.

So the board staff communication, I think is one that's really important because this board provides the the strategic direction, so to speak, for the organization, and your county manager is gonna actually uh impact that and move move those things forward.

Thank you.

So the question again, I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that situation.

I've got other question, and and I'll get into that uh now, but I just wanted to make sure all the candidates were aware that uh some of the things that the experts from afar have uh pinpointed by their reviewing and interviews and so forth.

So as long as you've read it, that's that's the important part.

And have an understanding.

So my next could the question for you, and and I'm gonna ask it kind of the way I've asked the other candidates, so everybody's got a fair shot at it.

Um this particular county, according to the assessor, since 1861, we've got more uh properties on the tax roll, more value on the tax roll than we've ever had the last four, five, six years, continues to increase.

There's building going on everywhere.

The we have a different tax base and the structure than than you do in your state.

I can say that because we're the only ones who do it the way we do it.

But that being said, there's continued amount of property that comes on the rolls is a hundred percent taxable.

So the assessor tells us we have more assessed value than we've ever had in the history of the county.

The treasurer tells us with his wise investments, he's got more money invested and more return on investment than we've ever had.

We have some of the highest uh gas taxes in the in the country, certainly in the state, and and some of the highest sales taxes.

So we've got lots of income coming here.

And when you brought up the word of uh uh finances and looking into that, I mean, if you have more the most money you've ever had in the history of the county, and you're still going sideways, something needs to be addressed.

So uh the I'll go ahead and ask the question now.

The county's strategic plan emphasizes fiscal sustainability and transparency.

Here's the question.

Provide an example of how you've navigated a challenging budget cycle or economic downturn.

What specific tools or approaches did you use to preserve core services and public trust while maintaining long-term fiscal health?

Yeah, so I'm gonna go back a little ways in history because uh what we did then today is paying benefits because we are not in fiscal distress.

Um so we have our reserves uh to a level that we need to be to be able to ride those peaks and valleys uh in in the revenue cycle.

Um but when we started that was not the case, and so to your earlier point, uh government by nature is notoriously good at spending lots of money, and so if the money is there, uh it gets spent.

And there that's right and wrong, right?

Because if you're spending money, you're providing service, and so that's a good thing, but you also have to be planning for those times and those economic challenges when when things may not be as great.

And so one of the things that we did early on is we went in, we took a hard look at the budget, and it's it's a one-time fix, but we looked at the amount of money that our departments are turning back every year.

And because we're good at budgeting to spend money, if we're not actually spending it, that's revenue that's locked up and can't be and and not being used.

And so what we did is we went through and across the top, we took all of that money that was just being churned over and over and over again and made a promise that we'll dump a bunch of that into a large contingency fund, so if something does come up that we can be able to address it and to be able to give those departments the uh ability to say, okay, somebody has my back, and we can move forward with less budgeted money, which then allowed us what that did is it freed up enough money that we could start building up our strategic reserves and paying down our PERS liability.

Um, and so when we started paying down the PERS liability, that started adding money back into the budget because we weren't paying rates of you know 20, 25 percent.

We're only paying 12 or 13 percent.

So that's real meaningful money.

That's kind of a one-time deal, so it's you can't grab it and then just spend it, right?

So we very targeted put that money back into working for us and to be able to uh reduce costs in other areas such as the UAL for PERS.

And so that's one strategy.

And then we also went through a process where we really worked on what our statutory core services were and really understanding those, and how we approach that was we need to focus on those statutory services up until the point when we actually are doing them very well, and when that point happens, then we can start to look at all of the other services that are out there and how we want to approach and work towards spending that revenue in those areas.

So this is a big county, it's a big budget.

Um it'll be interesting to see if there's those opportunities that are out there.

Um it's uh it's a hard discussion for staff for departments, right?

Because it's everybody wants to keep what they have.

Um, but what we don't want to do is get into a situation where we don't have it, and now we're making decisions that are significantly impactful.

So there's always some money in that budget, and there's always the ability to be able to target that money to the direction that you need it to go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, now move to question seven, Commissioner Andriella.

Thank you.

The county manager plays an essential role in uniting diverse departments and providing strategic counsel to elected officials, not just county commissioners.

Describe your approach to building strong trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials.

And can you share an example of how you've successfully aligned different differing priorities to achieve a common goal?

Yeah, sure.

So just generally my job as the county manager isn't to run individual departments, it's to break down barriers so that the experts in those departments can run those departments.

Um that's what we've hired them to do.

Uh that's what they're good at, that's where their skill set is.

And so my job as a manager is really then to break down those barriers that are stopping them uh from doing those those things.

Um an example, so I guess it's been about four years ago now.

An example, so I guess it's been about four years ago now.

The traditional budget cycle for government is everybody goes in, they budget, they spend at the end of the year, it's swept, so to speak, you start over again and do all of that.

And so we actually instead of sweeping that money, if there's been turnover in those departments or you know, unfilled positions, we actually roll that money back into what we call flex account within those departments.

And so now we've given them back the revenue picture for their department, so they can make decisions in their own department on the direction and the priorities that are important within those departments, and they've got actual dollars in their department to be able to make those decisions and do those things, as opposed to having those department heads have to come to me and get approval and argue a point and set themselves up against other departments to compete for resources.

They actually have resources in their in their budget to be able to move those priorities forward from accounting management standpoint.

That was that was a strategy that was out there.

It was really hard for us to get our arms around letting go of some of that control of those resources and letting the experts in those departments actually manage those.

Our sheriff's office, for example, they've been able to uh add a canine unit, they've been able to add um UAVs to their repertoire.

That those things would have never ever made it through our old budget process because they would have been stopped at the county manager or the commission level.

Um they have that authority, so if UAVs are important for them to be able to do their job, they actually have the dollars in their budget today to be able to invest in that infrastructure.

It comes with a caveat though, they know that they have to be able to manage that budget, and so um, you know, my job again is to break down barriers, but it's also to put guardrails on, and so people know that if they're gonna go and spend something on a UAV program, that that program has to be sustainable because they get the good and the bad, and so if it's not sustainable, they're gonna be forced to make that decision within their department and make that cut.

Um that has built relationships and trust in the finance and government cycle within our organization that have been immeasurable.

Um, our our sheriff's office absolutely loves it.

Actually, everybody absolutely loves it because now they can work on what's important within their organization without having to compete with another department or what have it, and kind of the last caveat to that is um as we're allocating.

So let's say our sheriff's department uh consumes 33% of the general fund, so they know that they're gonna get 33% of the general fund, and they know that they're gonna get that 3% increase on that 33% with new assessment, new property coming on the rolls, so they can plan for that from the strategic side of that as the county manager.

I also then take off of the top of that general fund those things that are organizational in nature, and so like our payment to the jail, six million comes right off the top of that, and so that that pie gets a little bit smaller.

Sheriff's office still gets 33% of it, but it gets a little bit smaller.

So if there's a strategic initiative that is out there that we need to fund, that'll come right off the top of it.

And so that then becomes our budget process, and now we start talking about as an organization.

What are we going to do with our strategic initiatives and how much is that gonna cost, and what is the impact then on those individual departments?

It's a really unique um budgeting message, but it's been really well received.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia has question eight.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The county strategic plan identifies vulnerable populations as a key focus area.

What is your philosophy on addressing the needs of vulnerable residents?

Share an example where you helped integrate services across departments or jurisdictions to deliver more equitable outcomes.

Yeah, so my philosophy, I think the the first piece is you really under you really need to understand what those needs are, and then you really need to understand what the root causes are that are out there, and then once you have that, then you can really start working towards solutions.

And so, an example in in my county county, the state just did a statewide survey of all of the behavioral health needs in the state, and we're talking about tier one treatment, so like hospitalization uh all the way down to just crisis intervention and everything in between housing, um, um, secure residential treatment, non-secure residential treatment.

Um the state had a smattering of those services all across the state.

My region in the north area had zeros down every column, and so we have no services, right?

We are in a constant state of crisis, and so we went out, we actually formed a citizen coalition of folks to really start to work on that issue, and what we came to the conclusion is we need all three steps of the stool or all five steps of the stool, depending on how you want to slice it up from intensive treatment all the way down to I just need a place to come today and talk to somebody.

Um, and so once we kind of got our arms around what those needs are and what those root causes are in our community, and Oregon is bad right now for for this area.

I mean, it's a real challenge for the state, and it's reason the state is putting so much money into these areas.

Um we actually went out then and we started to figure out how are we gonna meet some of those solutions, and so um we've spent the last two years now grant writing, and we've raised 18 million dollars.

Um the concept is we need a resolution center, and that resolution center was originally slated to have secure residential treatment, non-secure residential treatment, substance use disorder treatment, crisis intervention, um, and then uh crisis crisis teams all working out of one central location, and that's in partnership and will be run by our behavioral health entity, that ORS 190, which is an intergovernmental agreement made up of the three counties, and obviously uh supported by our sheriff's department, our jail, the hospital, and uh a number of those different stakeholders.

Um, and so we're just now working through plans for that facility to be able to build that facility.

We identified a piece of property that the county owns that would be a good match for it.

So I think I answered that.

Great, thank you.

And I will ask Vice Chair Harman's question.

Integrity and openness are critical attributes for this role.

Describe a time when you faced an ethical dilemma or public integrity issue as a senior executive.

How did you handle the situation and what did you learn about leading with transparency?

Yeah, um, it's a hard hard question when brings back a lot of bad memories.

Um we actually had an employee and elected official that had some challenges with staff that I won't go into.

And then began using the power of their office to intimidate that staff person and other staff people, uh, myself included.

And we could have not done anything there.

Uh, but instead, as a county, we actually filed a bar complaint to be able to uh address some of those issues and some of that abuse of power, and that was an exceptionally difficult scenario to be in where uh you're at odds with another one of your elected uh teams.

So that was kind of the the situation.

Um very easily could have been swept under the rug uh and ignored, and we chose not to do that.

It was difficult.

And so you know, really what that said about transparency for our organization is that we're willing to meet those types of scenarios head on, and we're willing to be able to uh talk through them and take action.

So I don't know if you want more detail than that or not.

That's a great example, so thank you.

I appreciate it.

And that's the final question.

Do you have any um wrap-up uh thoughts that you want to tell the board?

Well, uh one, I I like the position.

Um I'd like to be your candidate.

Uh two, uh I think you've got a great team here.

So everybody that I got to talk to last night had significant uh tenure and seniority at the organization.

So that says a lot, right?

If everybody was a one-year employee or a six-month employee, that would have given me some real doubts.

But everybody that I talked to uh was really happy where they work, they love where they work, and so that's really really positive.

So good job there.

Um, you know, whether it's me or somebody else, I think you've taken the right steps, at least uh bringing on RASTELUS and starting those conversations.

They're gonna be hard, um, but I think you've got the fortitude to be able to get through them, so good luck.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.

And we'll be chatting here shortly.

Thank you for your time.

We really appreciate you coming out.

Appreciate it.

Okay.

Uh does the board need a little break or is everyone doing okay?

Okay.

Well, I would ask HR to get our final candidate.

Thank you so much, hello.

Welcome.

This is a 45-minute interview.

We have nine questions.

And to start off, we'd like to give you an opportunity to take five minutes to introduce yourself to the Board of County Commissioners.

Well, thank you.

My name is Kate Thomas.

I am currently the assistant county manager here at Washoe County.

And for those of you that don't know me, I have a breadth of experience.

I've been a public servant since 1997 when I fell into a job at the City of Thousand Oaks in Southern California, and have worked in a progressively more increased level of responsibility capacity ever since.

I worked for the city of Reno.

I have worked for the Secretary of State, serving as your deputy secretary of state.

And then I've been here at Washoe County since 2017 serving as your assistant county manager.

So that's a little bit about my experience.

As I mentioned, my career has been built on consistently increasing levels of responsibility and scope and scale.

And I've been involved in lots of projects, direct oversight, working with lots of staff and doing lots of collaboration.

One of the ways though that might not be articulated through interview questions, but wanted to let you know that the ways that I think we show commitment to our community, which is at the center of how we do these jobs, is by serving on boards and volunteering and being involved.

So I've been privileged to be a member of the Keep Trucking Meadows Beautiful Board, the High Sierra Industries Board, which serves a vulnerable population set of folks in our community.

I'm currently their chair.

I've been involved with the Assistance League.

I have experience with CR Arts, the renowned community advisory board, and I'm currently the chair of the State Board of Indigent Defense for the state of Nevada.

So that's a great role to show how we give back.

So even in my current role though, I work on strengthening nonprofits through capacity building.

We have the community reinvestment team that works hard to make sure that our nonprofits can serve the community in the best way they can.

How we support those nonprofits is important from their lack of resources or need to work together to serve the community in ways that the county can't or private business can't.

So it's an important factor of how we contribute back is through that work we do to support those folks.

A little bit about me.

I've lived in Washoe County in the unincorporated area for about 22 years in the same house.

My parents are here, my sister's here.

Um her husband, third generation of ADN, their kids, so I've deeply integrated into this community.

I've been married for 26 years.

I have two boys.

One of them is a sophomore at Galena High School, the other goes to school in Montana.

And so again, just committed to this community.

I um have a good working relationship with this board as well as others in Reno Sparks, and I also work with our congressional delegation, so deeply rooted and pretty connected in this community.

I'll close just by saying that a county or a city manager has to always consistently exemplify that everyone within the local government structure is here to serve the community.

And that the community should be at the center of our purpose.

And so I'd like to embody that as we go through the process today.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move into question one, which is Commissioner Clark's question.

Good morning.

Your mic's off.

There you go.

Mike is I'm gonna ask the question uh in a minute, but I I've I've asked each of the candidates this this question in this way, and so I want to kind of keep some continuity there, consistency.

Um I don't want to ask you, and I probably know the answer to this.

Have you read the RAF TELUS report?

Uh yes, Commissioner Clark, I have read the RAF Tellers report.

So uh what are your major takeaways from that?

Share that with us because it's kind of leading into the question I'm gonna ask next.

Great.

So the reason we underwent that project was to give some clarity around roles and alignment in the manager's office, for which we use as a guideline to outline work that needs to be done.

It's an important office.

We serve you all, uh, we serve the citizens, we represent the organization, and so making some recommendations and best practices from other jurisdictions was really important for us.

It shown a little bit of a light on how we can work together as a board.

Umbody says the board has to agree, but working professionally together sets the tone for the organization.

And this board is really um committed to the work that was done in that report, and so it gives us a really great foundation as staff to work towards the framework that's outlined there so that we can all more cohesively provide the services to the community.

So as a whole, you you you recognize that report and you embrace that and think that's it's something that we should strive towards.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is that kind of the way you're I do.

I I mean, do I believe every word or think we can do things in our own way?

Sure.

But again, it gives that gives that framework that, yeah, I think has proven so far to be pretty successful from the pieces that we've implemented.

So thank you.

Sure.

It's always important when you pay for a study that you know, it's like going to the doctor and then rejecting what they tell you.

So we don't want to do that.

So I'm I'm glad that you read it, and I know you have a feeling that uh you're embracing that.

So leads me into my question.

As county manager, you serve at the pleasure of the board.

Here's the question.

What is your philosophy for maintaining a productive and transparent relationship with five elected commissioners who may hold diverse policy views?

How do you balance being responsive to an individual commit individual commissioners while remaining faithful to the collective direction of the board?

Thank you.

So at the heart of the answer is communication.

A culture of communication is paramount.

I think being honest with each one of you, and so we understand the roles that we serve is important.

I fully recognize the roles that you have as policymakers for this region and how you got here by the vote of the people that put you in office.

Knowing that each of you have goals and priorities of your own for the communities that you represent is huge.

And so for the manager to have a good and transparent relationship with each one of you just furthers our community.

And so balancing the responsiveness to the individual commissioners is at the heart of the role of the manager, and it really involves meeting with you, talking to you about what it's what you see as things that you'd like to accomplish as individual board members as a collective whole.

Understanding what the manager's role is and how the manager represents the employees of the organization who carry out the functions that you set forth as priorities.

And so I think with that trust, um, I mean, look, boards change, your personalities are gonna come and go with each seat as it as it turns over over the years, but the goals are the same.

We want to serve the community, and so the relationships that we have are really important.

Um, transparency you mentioned is at the heart of that.

There aren't always gonna be times where we're gonna agree, but understanding where one another comes from is really, I think the trust building exercise there.

And so do we as staff want to perform for the board?

Always.

Um, are we going to be able to for certain reasons?

Maybe not.

And so having that common understanding, I think is going to be what makes us successful.

Thank you for the answer.

And uh just want to add that I've seen a 180-degree change in the county since June.

So thank you for that.

Uh and everyone realizes you can't always do everything you want to do and can get anything done you want to, but just being treated fairly is half the battle.

So thank you.

Welcome.

Question two is from Commissioner Andriella.

Thank you.

Nice seeing you last night.

You as well.

Um, Washoe County is a large service-driven organization that values innovation, integrity, and collaboration.

What steps would you take in your first year to assess organizational culture and employee morale?

And two, how would you build a high performing, accountable, and motivated workforce across multiple departments?

Thank you for the question.

Employee culture is at the heart of what I believe.

This organization is made up of individuals that perform the work that you set forth through your policies, and we deliver that in a way that is the majority of our budget.

Um, it is the intellectual intelligence of the very committed staff that's here that that follows through on those policies.

So, culture is having an employee base and workforce that is engaged and and performs in an innovative way is how we deliver services the best for the community.

And so I would assess by staying the current course.

I think we're on a good trajectory.

There are clear lines of communication between the employee associations, the department heads, the elected officials, this board.

And so as long as we have two-way communication to understand that there are gaps in morale and how do we address them and how do we address them together from the department head level who can solicit the ideas from their staff, the department heads coming together, both elected and and appointed department heads to talk about how we can, you know, we can't fix what we don't know is broken.

And so, in order to strengthen morale, we have to have those open lines of communication.

I think shifting our culture a little bit to especially in these times where the economics of what we're facing in this region are challenging and we're not gonna have a bunch more staff to do the work.

What if we didn't hire skilled people and try to motivate them?

What if we hired motivated people and tried to inspire them?

I think that's where we're gonna see the biggest benefit for what we try to achieve as an organization.

I'd love to see this as an organization of excellence that hires attracts and retains an incredibly talented workforce to deliver services in the way that we feel we should.

So thank you for the question.

Thank you.

And now we'll move to question three, which is my question.

Establishing long-term objectives is key to strategic planning.

However, when you are taking on a new role, short-term objectives can be equally as important.

If you're selected as county manager, please describe your plans and key objectives for the first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job.

So I'm doing the job.

Um, just to put that out there.

So the 30, 60 and 90 time frame is an interesting one.

But short term, I'd like to focus on keeping us all on track with the board's strategic objective.

We have that framework, we know the direction we're moving.

I think it's important to stay the course.

We've got some work to do on those still.

We know that the focus on seniors, we know that the focus on behavioral health, fiscal responsibility, those are important objectives to stay highly focused and motivated on.

So in the short term, I think we need to stay the course.

But in the long term, I really see, and I know I'm not addressing 30, 6090, but really it spans that time frame.

In the long term, I really want to see us, and I know that I've had discussions with you about shifting our focus to be strategic to make sure that our outcomes are the highest yield that we can for this organization.

We've talked about things like embracing the sequential intercept model, which I think plays dividends for this organization from a standpoint of having everyone regionally follow a framework that is proven in other jurisdictions to not only help individuals in this community, but do our work in a more efficient and strategic manner.

And so that's the long-term goal.

We've done some really important work in the short term.

We stood up to emergency shelters during COVID.

We have helped people that were at their lowest point, and now it's time to start looking at how we shut down the or at least minimize the inflow of individuals into that system so that we can make the most responsible choices for the taxpayer.

Um, we have a lot of work to do in that area, but I think we're up to the task.

And it's not just for the populations that we serve, but it's for infrastructure, the built environment.

We talk about regional parks, we talk about consolidation in important areas.

Those are the kinds of things that I think, as far as longer term objectives can help us all because it's the most strategic use of our resources.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move to question three, which is Commissioner Garcia's.

Question four.

Sorry.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As you know, Washoe County's success depends on regional collaboration with Reno, Spark, state agencies, and neighboring jurisdictions.

Describe your experience fostering intergovernmental partnerships to advance regional priorities such as housing, homelessness, and infrastructure.

What barriers did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

I'm in a very fortunate position to have good relationships across the region and even into Southern Nevada.

So I work well with our regional managers in both Reno and Sparks.

I have good relationships with our congressional delegation and their staffs.

And that's important, I think.

You mentioned that it our success depends on it, and that's how we go about it rather than working individually.

So in my conversations with them, and even more recently, our discussions stem around how we as a region are seeing similar situations, and so in order to solve those issues, working together is the way that we're gonna make the most advances in that area.

And so those intergovernment relational partners are critical.

Housing, we talked about when we decided as an organization to take the lead in homelessness.

The way that works is if the cities commit to housing, so that when we do the work here, there's the housing available to put our individuals in.

We looked, I mentioned regional park systems, there's some economies of scale to be gained there.

The infrastructure, same thing.

We talk about sewer and the way that we're consolidating those resources, and those relationships are what makes it work.

If if our relationships aren't good, we're just fighting one another on things that we stand to make good progress on collectively.

The one of the things I really liked about the sequential intercept model, there's a little tagline that goes along with that.

And it says moving from silos to systems.

And until we start thinking that way, and if we stay in our silos, we're sort of spinning our wheels regionally on efforts that we're all concerned about.

But until we align and start working together on those issues, I think that you know we're not going to make much progress.

The the out-of-town folks that come to this jurisdiction to see how we do uh great work around the CARES campus or other areas, oftentimes comment how well we work as a county with our city counterparts.

That is an indicative of other cities, especially in the West.

And I think it's something to be proud of.

I I happen to know that you all have good relationships across the county with your elected counterparts, and I think that benefits all of us.

And so those issues you mentioned housing, homelessness infrastructure.

The way we're going to make progress in this region and really continue to thrive is by doing it together with our regional partners, and I'm looking forward to continuing that work.

Thank you.

Well, now move to question five.

This was Vice Chair Herman's question, but Commissioner Andrew will be doing it for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Transparency and community confidence are foundational to effective local government.

How have you effectively engaged the public in complex or potentially controversial decisions?

And what techniques do you use to communicate policy issues in ways that build understanding and trust?

My commitment to transparency began when I took the role as interim.

I committed to this board that that was a step we would take forward.

We have done some significant work around the area of public records requests.

You've seen the board brief where we're communicating more clearly to the board, issues of significance across the county.

We are pushing out information on vulnerable populations and services, for example, at the CARES campus and our place campus and what we're doing in those areas, opening up the doors to people to come in and see what we're doing.

And to me, that embodies transparency.

If the public doesn't feel we're being transparent to them, we're not.

The court of public opinion is one that reigns strong in this region, and so really engaging the public to understand the things they think we're not being, whether we are or not, the things they think we're not being transparent on are the things that we need to focus on as an organization.

I'm not saying we can make things that are or issues that are confidential, open to the public, obviously.

But if we as an organization can tell our story about what we're doing and why, I think we gain the public's trust.

And that goes hand in hand with transparency.

There are a lot of potentially controversial decisions that are always being contemplated.

Risk, um reward doesn't come without risk, and I think that this board is brave and has taken those and has proven that over the years.

And so having folks understand why we're undergoing the controversial issues that we are, I think is critical to gaining the public's trust.

Not everyone's going to agree with us, they just don't.

But if they have the respect and understand where we're coming from, I think that helps build the public trust.

It helps us tell our story and helps us advance what we're trying to achieve through whatever that controversial issue is.

I think having certain decisions being communicated really clearly to the public.

Here's why we're doing this, here's why we're not doing that.

And again, not everyone's going to agree, but at least we're transparent about it so they understand where we're coming from, I think is is how we build understanding with the community.

And I think it's communication is an easy technique that we can use in that regard.

Thank you.

Well, now I move to question six.

This is Commissioner Clark's question.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Again, I'm going to try and uh ask this question the way of ask it to other folks.

So I'm going to lead into a little background and then I'll ask the question.

You've heard it before, and I'm sure my fellow commissioners have heard it many times today.

And maybe this will be the last time today, maybe not, but it's going to come out.

According to the assessor, we have more new value on the on the rolls each and every year over the last several years.

More assessed value in this county than the county's ever seen, which translates to tax dollars.

Next, the treasurer has some made some great investments.

He's making more money than he's ever made, return on investment for investing the county's funds.

So we've got income from the assessor's office, which translates to property taxes, which is more than half of our budget.

We've got the uh treasurer reporting this.

We've got the some of the highest gas taxes in America, certainly in the state.

We have some of the highest sales tax in the state, if not the highest.

We've got all these sources of income, and yet we're still 25 to 30 million dollars in the red.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and read the question.

And it talks about an economic downturn, but it's not really it's kind of a trick question in this economy because the income isn't on a downturn.

We've had economic downturns where there are real downturns where the money wasn't coming in, but that isn't the case here.

So I'll read this question.

The county strategic plan emphasizes fiscal sustainability and transparency.

Provide an example of how you've navigated a challenge budget cycle or economic downturn.

What specific tools or approaches did you use to preserve core services and public trust while maintaining long-term fiscal health?

So I was unfortunately part of nearly a 20-person layoff situation back in the economic downturn when I was at the Secretary of State's office serving as a deputy.

We uh had taken over the state's business license, the economic downturn hit that very significant revenue source hard.

Um it was one of the worst days of my professional career, uh laying off individuals both at the state capitol, going to Reno, getting out of but laying off somebody there, getting on a flight, going to Las Vegas, and laying off individuals there.

It was a difficult, difficult decision, one that I hope I never have to go through again.

Through that example, um we were able to maintain the core functions of the office.

It was really um, it was a it was an unsettling time.

But one of the key things that we did was work very hard to keep the staff that was remaining focused, um, communicated with robustly so they understood why we just went through what we did, uh, why the work that they're doing now was important more than ever because they were sort of taking on this role and the responsibility for you know a lot less with a lot less individuals.

Constant communication is how we weathered that that um storm, uh, even soliciting ideas from the staff.

And and you'd be surprised uh when times are tough, the innovations and the recommendations that come from the workforce are unlike any other.

They're the ones doing the work, they're the boots on the ground.

They are the first ones we should listen to when saying how in your department or your area of function, could we do things better given that we're not going to see any increases in staff?

And we're facing that reality right now, to your very point.

Um we as an organization have the benefit of being really solid fiscally for the short term.

Um we don't know what it's gonna look like, but I do know that this organization has strong fiscal policies that we stand behind so that when there are increases in revenue, we know exactly where to focus those, so that we can weather the storms that lay ahead.

But again, relying on the employee innovation and the collective brain power of this staff is a powerful thing and it isn't to be underestimated in times when they're tough.

Um the where we don't want to be is is breaking trust by saying we're okay and then having to go through cuts or layoffs or freezes or whatnot.

So I think collectively we have a responsibility throughout the organization to bring forward concepts.

Um, the cream rises to the top in situations like this.

And right now we're currently using cross-department innovation to prepare what lies ahead, and I think that's gonna be a successful model.

And so we'll continue to keep a laser focus on what the economics look like.

We will likely see scenarios where we have revenues above expected, but I I do think we stay the course because innovation downturns or or strain drives innovation in times.

I mean, that's when we do some of the most innovative work that we've got.

I know this body is facing a tough situation with the economy the way that it is, and that we have an 80 percent of our budget is our workforce, and so it's difficult because that's how we provide services, even though the we know that the revenues that are coming in are um hampered by the state provisions around um property tax and the caps that exists, so so we're growing as far as revenues are concerned, but those are capped, and so there's a structural imbalance in how we are seeing revenues come into this community, but yet what the costs are to provide the services, which are only getting more expensive.

We know that from infrastructure, we know that from building materials, we know that from the cost of labor.

Um it's a it's a conundrum that we're all gonna have to work on together.

So hopefully I answer that question for you with the example.

Thank you.

And uh it's important that you note that the uh employees many times have solutions to problems.

You know, if you go into a factory, any factory in the in the planet, and you ask the managers what they think of taking place, and then you go on the the factory floor and you talk to the people who are actually putting the widgets together, you'll get a couple of different answers, and sometimes the folks putting the widgets together have a better understanding than the bean counters in the office.

So that being said, um, you know, everybody talks about property tax, and you know, that's kind of the office that I came from.

And you know, if people really look at it, and they always everyone wants to talk about the property tax cap of 3%, but that's for only owner occupied.

So most of the property in the county, uh almost 190,000, under 92,000 parcels in the county are not owner occupied.

So on those, we've got an 8% cap.

So it isn't always everybody wants to go to the reduce it to the ridiculous and tell us about 3%.

It isn't 3% across the board.

It's majority of the properties are 8%.

So if you look at it that way, the county is getting uh I know an 8% uh cost of living uh for lack of a better uh people understand that you get an 8% raise every year by uh looking at that, and then factor in the 3%.

You're really looking at about 5.5% increase in property taxes each and every year.

So again, what I was trying to emphasize here is spending is the problem, not income at this point in time.

And and for somebody who's an employee, anybody who's ever been in a union, anybody who's ever had any other job but Washoe County understands that the first person the first one hired is usually the first person hired.

And and everybody should be made aware of that through HR when they have an interview process that hey, if things get rough, you this might might be the job for for the rest of your life, you know, you it may not.

And and and once people are aware of that, then they can figure out how to deal with it when we have to deal with that.

You mentioned uh also about 80 percent of the of our budget is employees.

You know, there's some departments, and I talked to the assessor, I think they're at like 92 percent over there.

So it isn't 80 percent would be nice.

If you're at 92, you really have little or no wiggle room.

So everyone needs to get those numbers straight and and uh and have a good working understanding.

So thanks for bringing that stuff up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andrew, you have question seven.

Thank you.

The county manager plays an essential role in uniting diverse departments and providing strategic counsel to elected officials, not just county commissioners.

Describe your approach to building strong trust-based relationships with department heads and elected officials, and can you share an example of how you've successfully aligned differing priorities to achieve a common goal.

I go back to communication and meeting with folks to listen and hear what they have to say about things that aren't working in their areas.

Those trust-based relationships come from not just meeting, but listening and coming up with solutions and engaging those folks in the solutions.

Part of that stems from recognizing their roles.

I think that we've got a unique position for example our del our elected department heads.

You as an elected body set policy for the organization and the community.

They are also setting policy for their offices, but they're also running for office and managing whole departments.

So I think understanding the baseline for which they operate helps us navigate how to provide solutions for them.

And so aligning differing priorities to achieve a common goal.

Um of the things we're about to undergo is a look at internal services.

We've heard that across the organization, there are discrepancies in how we do, I don't know, janitorial, or how we provide security or things like that that are that are operational to the organization and baselines for how we perform the services in our departments.

Some folks are happy with the services, some are lacking some of the services, but I think sitting down and looking at aligning, each of us have a different goal for our office, but understanding how some of those internal services can help us all move forward is an important exercise.

And one that we haven't done that I recall since we've been here.

So I'm looking forward to going through that practice so that we can provide tools to the departments to work on the things that they need to work on, especially in times where things are tight.

And so it goes back to the strong trust-based relationships, starting to meet with them regularly.

I have quarterly meetings with the elected department heads.

We have an elected officer and department head meeting once a month, where instead of just talking at them and telling them, you know, here's the latest stuff or the newest program or the this policy, it's bringing forward real problems or situations and solving them together because when we get departments working across from one another and coordinating themselves and not in those silos that I talked about, you see economies of scale for how we can make better choices for internal service functions or just understanding what one department needs, and I might have something that can help with that, or one department is lacking something that I actually have a skill set to assist with.

Thank you.

Question eight is Commissioner Garcia's question.

Thank you.

The county strategic plan identifies vulnerable populations as a key focus area.

What is your philosophy on addressing the needs of vulnerable residents?

Share an example where you helped integrate services across departments or jurisdictions to deliver more equitable outcomes.

So this goes back to, and some of you may have heard that a while ago I was hauled into a judge's chamber and asked to help fix the situation where one of our judges was seeing generations of individuals coming through his court.

And he was frustrated and feels like we as a community are letting these individuals down.

And for some reason I landed in that seat, you know, being asked to help solve this.

And so what we did was we pulled together a team of community stakeholders and business professionals, providers.

It wasn't a big team.

I I use the term everybody rolls our eyes at me.

Uh, we pulled together a tiger team of individuals to help us figure out what it is that we needed to solve this issue.

This is where the SIM was born was we held a couple of community meetings with folks, and we decided that what was lacking was a point person to align us regionally around addressing this issue of vulnerable populations and people cycling the system.

We've all heard about million dollar Murray, and we've all been a lot of us have been to Miami and seen a jurisdiction that's done it correctly.

But starting with an idea, bringing together a group of people through a tiger team, identifying that we needed a point person, this board making the strategic decision that we needed to hire a behavioral health administrator, putting that individual into place, starting the work to create the framework of the SIM and engaging our regional law enforcement partners, the judges, the courts, the defenders, the district attorneys, engaging the providers, the nonprofit organizations, all of that effort around a single solution, which became the sequential intercept model that we're so focused on, is an example of how I helped integrate not only services across departments but across this region.

And I think in the long term, that's where we're headed to see real efficiencies that you talk about in delivering services and doing more with less staff.

And so that's the example that I would lend.

Um falling on the close heels of that is the Washer Behavioral Health Center and how that folds into this whole continuum.

Uh, never my career did I think that opening a behavioral health hospital would be something that would be on my list of accomplishments.

I hope to get that over the finish line here in the next couple of years to help serve a spot in that intercept process to again drive back to helping to serve the community and and the vulnerable populations that you talk about.

So that's that's my philosophy is it's not me, it's not us, it's all of us working to solve something big, and we're not always going to get it right.

And so being willing to take that risk, even if we need to pivot and retool some things is something that I think we need to be willing to do.

And I'm excited to be a part of that.

Thank you.

Your final question, question nine was Vice Chair Herman's question, but I'll ask it today.

Integrity and openness are critical attributes for this role.

Describe a time when you faced an ethical dilemma or public integrity issue as a senior executive.

How did you handle this situation?

What did you learn about leading with transparency?

My integrity has been publicly questioned a number of times.

Um, when you are, it's lonely at the top, I think is the saying.

And so all I can say is that when you know who you are and that you hold honesty and openness and ethical standards as one of the core centers of who you are as both a leader, um as a coworker, as a community member, that's all you have at the end of the day.

So if you're ever in a situation where your ethics are being questioned or you're being asked to do something that isn't above board, um, that's where it's time to consider doing something else, or do your best to try to change the the what you're being asked.

Um, I haven't I've had early in my career I was in that situation, and um the person was gracious enough to let me step out of a project that I didn't feel aligned with the ethical uh responsibilities of the organization.

So I was lucky in that regard.

But at the end of the day, you hold your head high, you do what is right, and you always take the high road because that's all you have, and that's all you need to fall back on.

And so I learned that by doing that and by being transparent, keep going back to that word, but that's how you persevere because people are gonna say anything they want about you, and they do.

But as long as you can continue to do the work that's important and show that you you lead by your actions, I think that's how you overcome it, and we just need to keep our eyes focused on what's meaningful for the region and for the organization.

And sometimes all of that just falls away.

Thank you.

That is the final question.

But if you have any words you want to share to wrap up the interview, we're happy to hear those.

I know you've had a long morning, so I'm sorry.

Um I would just say that given my direct experience as your interim county manager and my deep knowledge of our operations here at Washoe County and my established relationships with the board and the staff and the community.

I would be absolutely honored to continue to work for Washoe County in any capacity.

So thank you for your time today.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

We'll be chatting with you shortly.

So the board uh we have a few public commenters.

Do we want to take a break and then get to public comment and deliberation?

Do public comment?

Okay.

Great.

Uh Madam Clerk.

First up, we have Ern Ernest.

Erstin Whitten.

Sorry.

Followed by Tristan Gomez.

Good afternoon.

My name is Erstin Whitten.

Uh I am here as a community member, but also representing a nonprofit.

And uh just for the record, I am here to support Kate Thomas as your next manager.

She has so many qualities that are important to have Washoe County continue to prove uh progress as uh she has done in the in the last few months.

I think uh one of the roles, uh one of the qualities rather for that position is to be focused on what's important, to be flexible with regard to things that occur within the community, items that come on to the uh plate of a leader that they did not anticipate, and then work with whomever you have to within the community within Washoe County, within the city of Reno, within with the state, to come up with a workable solution.

It's highly unlikely that you're going to find uh perfect answers to any question.

It's even more difficult, more of a problem if you try to do it yourself.

So I think collaborating with the community, with departments that uh Kate would be working with, collaborating, collaborating with you as board members uh is key.

And as she indicated, communication is so important.

There is hardly a single subject that's going to come up that's going to be the same tomorrow as it is today.

So, how are we going to as an organization make that happen?

I think Kate is the one to uh make that happen effectively.

And as you have indicated in some of your comments, specifically, Commissioner Clark, is um you've seen progress with the application of what was suggested in the audit that was recently uh shared with you, and that process needs to needs to continue.

Uh I won't spend a lot of time.

You know me, I always go over time, but I won't do that today.

Um at the same time, it's so important to um be able to work with the issues that are really significant and paramount uh to this county.

In case there was any doubt, Kate Thomas is who I would recommend you appoint as your next county manager.

Thank you, Mr.

Wayden.

Trista Gomez, followed by Todd Bailey.

Good afternoon, Trista Gomez.

Long day.

As a resident here, I'm really, really interested in this position and the things that I'm the most interested in are culture and long and short-term outcomes.

And I'm also really interested when I was hearing the candidates speak about some of the things that they talked about, and one of them was the empowerment of experts.

And I really loved that one of the one of the candidates talked about the empowerment of experts and really empowering the department heads to take control of that, you know, of those uh of those issues.

Um collaboration was a big a big thing.

You know, the the collaboration between um not just not just state agencies or city agencies, but also with nonprofits, and then also when it comes to collaborating with residents who oftentimes obviously can't get here on a nine o'clock morning meeting or a six o'clock, you know, Sunday evening meeting, but to really reach out to that population as somebody who's important and should be heard.

I felt like that was a really important piece to one of the candidates' answers.

And you know, having concise answers without necessarily having knowledge other than what maybe can be found on the internet of the county and being able to speak intelligently, specifically, and then also on a broad basis for you know the good of the county.

And when I'm listening to the people, you know, the city's candidates talk, they were obviously obviously very good.

All of them, I was surprised that there was a candidate that had a county that was so small, but when I was listening to Mr.

Stover uh from Oregon, what uh whatever that name was, I was impressed of his ability to answer articulately specifically and broadly with examples all of the different issues that were brought in.

And when he's describing the outcomes of his county and the collaboration with residents of his county, as well as the as well as the successes of the people who are working under him, I feel like that's a huge accomplishment.

I feel like that's a huge accomplishment, and I would really like to see that translated into our county.

And while we know, while Ms.

Thomas has an institutional knowledge, we also have seen continued the you know, continued issues for the last seven years with that person here.

And so I'm really interested in having new blood.

I'm really interested in having someone with great outcomes, and I'm really interested in somebody who can speak to a broader portion of these issues for residents.

Thank you all.

Um Todd Bailey from Nevada Accountability.

The number one job for county commissioners is to hire the county manager when required.

The number two job for county commissioners is to fire the county commissioner or county manager when it's necessary.

And so it's an important decision you're making today, probably the most important of uh county commissioners' job.

Um vulnerable populations, unfortunately, because of the budget decisions that have been made over the last five years, the vulnerable populations are growing.

You can't make the affordability problem in Washoe County worse and pretend to care about vulnerable populations if you're making them bigger.

Um today's decision isn't going to necessarily make the city manager's office more fair, Commissioner Clark.

I heard you loud and clear on that, but today's decision may not necessarily make it more fair, hopefully.

Um if there are any bad elements left over from the RIF RAF decision or RIFRAF study, I'm sure you'll know in about 30 days.

Like it won't take long.

You'll figure it out.

I think today should be used as an opportunity to start a fresh discussion on all the issues we all face.

And what is the vision of the future?

Not twenty years, not ten.

What do you want this organization to look like in five years?

Okay, think about it.

Not way in the future, right now.

Five years.

And you get twelve months to fix it.

Thank you, Madame Clerk.

Does the board want to take a little break before we go into Dilbert?

Okay.

Okay.

Bringing the meeting back to order.

It's twelve forty, and we've done our interviews.

We're now it's time for deliberation.

Um, I also just want to give a big thanks to the team who put this recruitment together, and the um HR staff gave me a list of staff members who helped us with this, and I just want to give them public acknowledgment because this is above and beyond, and I know they all have a lot of other jobs to do as well, but um, it's I really appreciate the time and effort that was put in.

So from our parts team, we have Gabrielle Barbato, Andrew Brown, Brandon Faber, the clerk's office, our clerk, Ms.

Jan Galcini.

Thank you, thank you, uh, county manager staff, Bethany Drysdale, Sally Johnson, Nancy Lewinhagen, Nancy Ramirez, Partita, Candy Ramos, Dave Solero, Michelle Snyder, Diane St.

J.

Jacks, sorry, uh, the DA's office, we Mr.

Mike Large, um, HR, Alicia Areglia Areglia, Jessica Gutierrez, Christine Hubard, Patricia Hurley, Cole McBride, Andre, Julie Pahockey, Alma Perel, and Stephanie Wallace.

Thank you all for the putting all of your efforts on this and um making it so easy for our board uh to just show up and make decisions.

We're really lucky to have such a great team.

So we were told to use our forced ranking and um DA Large.

Are we putting these on a sheet?

Um, or are we just having a discussion?

What would how did was this envisioned?

I believe that we were going to just vote for our top candidate on the first round, and if there's any issues after that, then we can vote for the top two.

On a paper.

On paper.

Okay.

And if I could, yes, madam clerk.

There was a forced ranking worksheet provided in the packet that was distributed to you.

You can use that in your decision to come to your final recommendation.

Okay.

Um now I would like to open it up to the board if board members have comments before we um give our votes to our clerk.

Um Commissioner Garcia, do you have anything?

Commissioner Andrew, do you have anything?

Commissioner Clark, do you have anything?

All right.

So I think we're ready to give you our forced rankings.

Thank you.

Okay.

Me too.

Could you understand that?

Everyone ready with their ballots.

Thank you.

Round one results.

Commissioner Mike Clark recommends Kate Thomas.

Commissioner Andriola recommends Kate Thomas.

Chair Hill recommends Kate Thomas.

Commissioner Garcia recommends Kate Thomas.

Okay.

Well, um, I want to say before we take our vote that this was a really um great group of candidates, and you all brought different um expertise and passions to this process, and we really appreciate your time.

Um, those of you traveled out here, thank you, thank you so much.

And um, we're really glad that you are interested in supporting Washoe County in our future, and thank you for your service to our community as well as your communities.

We need committed public servants.

We're really lucky to have you in our country to um really make sure that we all thrive in our communities.

So um, if there's no other comments from board members, I'm looking for a motion because we've done our public comment.

And Commissioner Garcia.

Madam Chair, I move to approve Kate Thomas as our county manager.

Thank you very much.

Looking for a second.

Oh second.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And it's up on your screen.

And that motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much again to the candidates, and congratulations, Ms.

Thomas.

All right, we're going to move into the final portion of our meeting.

We have our final public comment, DA Large.

Item number six is public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three per minutes per person and may pretend it matters both on and off the commission agenda.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers.

Comments are made to the commission as a whole.

Thank you very much, madam clerk.

First up, we have Susan Walls.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Commissioners, staff.

I wear a bracelet that reads, don't let the hard days win.

Heaven knows there have been an abundance of hard days, and there are certainly more to come.

Depending on what life's outlook, uh hard days might be an opportunity or a defeat.

And how one handles those hard days is generally a choice.

During my approximate 24 45 year career in leadership and management in multiple disciplines, including finance, technology, project management, and consulting, I had the opportunity to sit on both sides of the recruitment table from entry level to executive.

Making recruitment and hiring decisions in my experience are never easy, but in my view, are always eye-opening and rewarding.

Fortunately for myself, as was the case for the commissioners today.

That said, not a single individual or situation for that matter was perfect.

To be sure, we are all human and by design, not perfect, and there is always room for individual and organizational improvement.

And thank goodness for that.

Thank you for your diligence in the recruitment, interview, and selection process.

I choose to believe that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us, and I look forward to seeing and experiencing what lies ahead.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Ms.

Walls.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We're now on to item seven, uh DA Large.

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

Do you have anything for us over there?

I do not.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Commissioner Andriola, Commissioner Clark.

All right, thank you, everyone, for a great meeting.

It's 12 47.

We are adjourned.