Good morning, everyone.

It is 10 a.m.

and I'll call this Board of County Commissioners meeting to order on October 28, 2025.

We're going to start to the salute to the flag, and we have someone from the National Guard here, Mr.

Clatt.

Please lead us in the uh Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

And Madam Clerk, I love the roll calls.

Alexis Hill, Chair.

Thank you.

Jean Herman, Vice Chair is absent.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Andreola.

Present.

Interim County Manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

DA Mike Lurch.

Present.

And I'm Jan Gallisini, your county clerk.

Madam UF Quorum.

Thank you so much.

Is it interim still, or do we have to have her do the contract?

Okay, oh, when we bring the contract.

But congratulations.

Just as a note, we did officially um vote to make uh Ms.

Thomas our manager yesterday.

So this is an exciting meeting.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh now we'll move to public comment.

Ms.

Thomas.

Thank you.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the commission 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 to be made to the commission as a whole, and virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

A speaker's viewpoint will not be restricted.

However, reasonable restrictions may be imposed upon the time, place, and manner of speech.

Irrelevant statements, unduly repetitious statements, and personal attacks that would objectively antagonize or incite others are examples of speech that may be reasonably limited.

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

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

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

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

Thank you so much.

Madam Clerk.

First up, we have Terry Brooks, followed by Virginia Wiggins.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

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

When I first went to college, I took a variety of classes, and there was a variety of genders in most of my classes.

And on campus, there were several sororities and only females lived in the sororities.

Also on campus, there were several fraternities and only males lived in the fraternities.

Also on campus were a lot of dormitories.

There were male only dormitories and there were female only dormitories.

There were privately owned apartments for males and privately owned apartments for females.

And there were some privately owned apartments for both males and females.

But because wages then were higher for more males than females, more males could afford the apartments than could females.

So when it came to gender, I saw a lot of separation.

But at that time, I really didn't see it as discrimination.

I can understand why a lot of females would prefer to live in places only with other females.

A lot of those female students may have been a bit afraid of living near some of the males with the reputations they had made.

That developed into an uncomfortable situation.

That some might call one of discrimination.

No one should have to fear because of their gender of possibly being assaulted by a sex offender.

This all happened years and years ago, but it is still going on today and continues to grow and grow.

Thank you.

We appreciate you bringing it to us, Mr.

Brooks.

Virginia Wiggins, followed by Pam Roberts.

Hi, my name is Virginia Wiggins, and I reside at our place.

My bones are of a 90-year-old one.

My rights are being violated daily.

I'm also a domestic violence.

In January of this year, I was attacked by a man I left 32 years ago because he thinks I'm his property.

And I was homeless at the time.

Since VOA is taking over, the gate does not close.

Anyone can come on that property.

Anything can happen.

A lot of us women are hiding in fear of our lives.

I am a diabetic.

When they first came in, they told me I could no longer take my insulin in the privacy of my cuppy where I have to take my pants down to inject myself.

I immediately got that handled because it's against the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The night before last, they cleaned out their refrigerator, mixing four of our insulins, so I no longer had my insulin.

And they told me, can't you get some more?

Again, that's life or death.

Today I was said, oh, we do that as a courtesy.

No, by law, an emergency shelter has to allow me to keep my insulin.

There is no medicine log.

There is no paper trout.

The day before Labor Day this year, I let the manager know that she did not know the laws for sanitation in these places when they get federal and state grants for sanitation.

We went in our bathroom for four days without soap to wash our hands after we urinate.

Yesterday, there was feces all over the toilet paper.

I was told I'm in that dorm and I need to clean it.

First of all, I'm immune compromised.

Second of all, I do not get paid to clean other people's feces.

And third of all, they left that toilet paper in there, and that was what I was supposed to use.

The things that are going on, the stomping of rights, they yell at me like I'm a dog, like I'm in prison.

I have become a bed number, and I've never even been to jail.

I have been a part of the system since I was young.

I grew up in the Northern Nevada children's home when it still existed.

And never in my life in any institution or homelessness that I have faced student medical because I get SSI.

I'm sorry I can't afford, but that doesn't mean I'm not a human being and that I don't have rights and that I can overcome because the last time I was homeless, I went and got a degree while I was homeless.

I'm not trying to just live off the system.

But at the same time, unfortunately, my medical conditions are staring me.

But it does not give anyone right to continue to create trauma in my life when I have overcome it my whole life.

And I just want to be heard and to bring those things up and to also acknowledge that if we are trying to integrate people into a community, we need to make a healthy community in which they can practice.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Ms.

Thomas, we've got a follow-up on this.

I have also gotten a complaint about uh whether we have staff that are trained in trauma-informed care.

So, okay.

And I don't know if we can have a staff person follow up with her.

Thank you for sharing, Ms.

Wiggins.

Pam Roberts, followed by Drew Rebar.

My name is Pam Roberts for the record.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak to you.

Um, I did have a pretty uh badass speech prepared, but I had a chance to speak with your new uh county manager regarding my concerns, which was about the failure to have the reappointments and new appointments on the agenda, both on October 8th and today for the senior advisory board.

As I told you a couple meetings ago, I am the immediate past chair of that senior advisory board.

And unfortunately, uh, we will have a very small board uh on November 12th because of these delays.

But I understand there's a plan in place and that we will be uh on your agenda December 9th, which is a day before the December 10th meeting, and hopefully we'll have a full board.

I just want to say on behalf of the senior advisory board that it has been one of the most productive in recent history.

And one of the reasons is because we take off our partisan hats.

We don't have a label of conservative or liberal on our, you know, the letter on our forehead.

We put that stuff aside because we realize that our responsibility is to all the seniors in this county, not the ones that belong to a particular party.

And I hope that this board will continue to follow that example because even though you might be a registered Democrat or registered Republican, that is not who you serve.

You don't serve the parties.

You serve all the people in Washoe County, regardless of their party affiliation.

Switch gears real quickly because this woman really touched me.

I have a sister who lives now in in Montana, who is also on SSI.

But did you know that there are more than 450,000 Nevadans who are going to lose SNAP?

What have we done in anticipation of this?

This board needs to take leadership and help with the coordination of the food that we have to get together for these people that are going to suddenly not have any food.

We realize we you this board has no control over what happens in Washington, DC and the battles that are happening between one party and the other, and they're each blaming each other.

Guess what?

That doesn't matter to us locally.

It doesn't matter to this woman back here or to my sister who's up in Montana and is worried about how she is going to feed herself and her kids.

We need to do something about it locally, and one of you or all of you need to take leadership on this.

Thank you so much for your time.

I know that you guys have a really hard job, and congratulations to our new uh county manager.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Drew Rebar, followed by Kristen Kennedy.

Drew Rebar for the record.

Good morning, everybody.

So it all started off with me going around with a camera and recording things.

Went to the library, got locked out of the library.

Then a librarian slammed the door on my leg and called the police on me and accused me of injuring her.

At which point in time you guys all decided to shut down the Drag Queen story hour because I was violent when the reality the camera shows the librarian slamming the door on my leg.

Everybody here ignored me.

Nobody paid attention to me, nobody reached out to me.

It's been a couple years now.

And I think I'm figuring out why.

I'm gonna share with that with you here in a second.

It's kind of really very disturbing.

And as I mentioned yesterday, on October 22nd, uh deputy district attorney, Amos Steggy, assaulted me, attacked me in an elevator.

You guys approve of that?

Mayor Lewis, you're running for election.

Chair Hill, you're trying to become governor.

Everybody's saying you all solve problems.

If you solve problems, you would have reached out to me, but I guess what you're putting forth in your campaign is pretty much a lie.

You don't really solve problems, you just try to increase the bloat in government.

What was it?

90% of our taxes in Washoe County go to pay government employees, not for the real services to the people out there, but to pay employees.

So the other day, what was it, Commander Robinson?

He got arrested for uh sexually uh soliciting a minor.

And I'm wondering, is that a problem with any of you up here or everybody else in government?

You all seem to support our center.

You ever uh seen some of the things that our center supports?

I'm gonna read a little article to you and ask you do you guys support these things?

Is that what you're trying to protect?

Is there this whole other thing going on underneath this thing where you know deputy district attorneys assault people in elevator elevators, librarians slam doors on people, you lock up the libraries, but you only want to keep the kids in the libraries, right?

And that's all done with our center.

So I'm gonna read an article, and this is from uh the information came from their website and from uh Washington Free Beacon.

It says Scarlatine Queer Sex Education is a youth program, which build our center partners through which teenagers and quote emerging adults end quote take classes on sexuality.

The classes provide information about how to perform a wide variety of sex acts and encourage children to engage in them.

Is that what Washoe County is supporting and trying to protect?

I mean, you guys are working hand in glove with our center.

That's what Lindsay Liddell's emails show.

Who on this board supports encouraging children to engage with them?

That's fucking disgusting.

Kristen Kennedy, followed by Matthew Wilkie.

Good morning, Chair Hill and members of the commission.

My name is Kristen Kennedy.

I'm the executive director at the Domestic Violence Resource Center.

October is domestic violence awareness month, so I wanted to just pay a little visit and um shine some light on the reality of domestic violence here in Washoe County, but also give you an update on um our exciting progress with our domestic violence, our new shelter.

Aggravated assault rose 15% in renowned sparks, driven largely by domestic violence.

And Nevada continues to rank among the top five states, or yeah, for incidents of domestic violence.

These are difficult statistics to hear because we live in an amazing community, and one that we are all proud to be a part of, but we can't ignore the fact that domestic violence still remains a critical and urgent issue right here at home.

At the Domestic Violence Resource Center, we're focused on solutions for thinking about how can we provide more safe housing, more counseling services, more legal support for people who are abused and often financially controlled, so that they can um feel they can have options and can escape.

And that answer we have found comes through community partnership and collective action.

And that's what we've been working on for about the past two years.

I'm proud to say that we have raised 29.9 million dollars to our 31 million dollar goal, and we're building a 43,000 square foot resource center with on-site shelter.

The new facility will quadruple our community's capacity to shelter individuals and their children fleeing violence.

So no longer will we have to place survivors in motels because our shelters full or double and sometimes triple up our families in single rooms.

And then all of our wraparound services will be provided on site and other community partners will be able to deliver direct support within our new campus.

So we are officially breaking ground one week from today on November 4th at 11 a.m.

And I invite each of you to join us.

I know some of you have scheduling conflicts, and some of you will be there, so but um please come in if you can and celebrate this momentum momentous occasion.

Um our new shelter is expected to open in summer of 2027.

It will really represent hope, safety, and a fresh start for so many in our community.

Um I just want to thank you for allowing me to share this update, and thank you for your continued leadership and partnership over the past 48 years.

Together, we're building a safer future for Washoe County.

Thank you.

We have a fire board meeting that day, but if we get out on time, we're gonna be there.

Yeah, congratulations.

Matthew Wilkie, followed by Jill O'Leary.

Yeah.

Uh very good morning, Madam Manager, Madam Chair, and members of the commission.

My name is Matthew Wilkie for the record.

Um starting to get a little cold this morning as I was getting up and walking my dog.

It made me think what's the county doing and the shelter doing for uh the shelters in terms of uh warning shelters.

Um it made me think that would be something greatly to be discussed in a CHAP meeting, but uh we're not holding those anymore.

Um I'm here today in the sense of a great betrayal, actually.

Um a few short years ago, I was approached by then chair of the Washoe Dams to uh help on a campaign for an up-and-coming political star that was gonna change the game and uh run against an eight-year incumbent on the commission.

And I uh volunteered.

I made phone calls and sent text messages, and um what did we get?

We got another politician who traded conviction for convenience, the second thing dried on the election certificate.

Canceling the community homeless advisory board is not reform.

It's sabotage.

No notice, no transparency, no explanation, just poof, gone.

Um, and why?

Because the community might ask hard questions, advocates might hold you accountable.

You silence the one space that people can come together and talk about homelessness, and you canceled this behind closed doors.

Let me remind you the homelessness crisis in this county and in this state is not canceled.

You can sweep people off the sidewalks and sweep accountant off the agenda, like that ordinance review that still hasn't taken place.

Canceling CHUB was cowardice, dressed up as leadership.

It didn't fix a process.

You buried it alive.

And while we're digging through the rebel of integrity, let's, and as we're talking about making the rich pay, let's talk about a donation from November of 2024 on the CNEs, because I'm just a nerd and look at your guys' CMEs.

Um of you took a donation from billionaire Herb Simon, the multi-billion owner of the Indiana Pacers.

You can't call yourself a fighter for the people.

Well, pocketing billionaires cash.

That's not populism, that's political cosplay.

Hypocrisy with the hashtag.

Now, here's what the community deserves to know.

Um, whether from you, Miss Manager or from anybody up on the dio, when will the CHAP meeting be reinstated, if ever?

Um why was it killed unilaterally and why was it hidden from the public?

Um that board, from what I understand, was created by this board as a whole.

Multiple jurisdictions sit on that bold board, and I don't know why it was dissolved unilaterally.

Um, all of you love to say that you believe in transparency.

It is not a slogan, it's a meeting, it's a schedule, it's facing the public at these things that you're canceling.

So I ask, please do that ordinance review that was asked a year and a half ago.

Um, and um, if we have more CI meetings, so whether um the person who initially asked for that ordinance review or Commissioner Clark, somebody will you please ask to do an ordinance review on that ordinance, please.

Thank you.

Jill O'Leary.

Ms.

O'Leary has documents I will distribute the question.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Jill O'Leary.

I'm a property owner in Washoe County here to address a significant failure in the county recorder's office.

I spoke here last week, and recorder Kayleigh Work met me in the lobby on my way out.

She took my phone number and suggested I get an attorney to have it expunged.

When I found this lien existed on my property a year after it had been recorded, on April 10th, 2025, I filed a motion for order to release a lien.

The same judge who allowed a proposed judgment to be passed off as a final binding judgment for this lien, struck that motion on May 7th.

This is not just about my property, it's about the integrity of our public records and the protection of all Washoe County property owners.

Exhibit one is a copy of the formal challenge.

To the recorded judgment lien I submitted to the recruiter's office today.

I asked this board to clarify the application of NRS 247.145 and other relevant existing laws to ensure the recorder's office is properly fulfilling its legal duty.

This board's oversight is requested to ensure the integrity of Washoe County property records, including a review of the recorder's current intake policy being in line with the governing laws.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll now move to item four, Manager Thomas.

Item four is your commissioner and county manager's announcements, reports, and updates to include boards and commissions updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas.

Do you have anything for us?

I have two quick things if I might.

One, um, next month we only have one meeting on the 19th, I believe it is.

Sorry, I didn't write that down.

Um, in November.

So just for everyone's um information and for transparency because of the holidays, we have the one meeting in November.

And so I have two openings, one for the Open Space and Regional Parks Commission beginning uh January 1, 2026, and that term goes through December 31st, 2029.

The deadline to apply is 5 p.m.

on Friday the 14th, so that would occur before our next board meeting, which is why I'm letting everyone know now, as well as an opening for the law library board of trustees.

So we're seeking one attorney and one non-attorney member to serve on this board for a two-year term.

That one starts in February of 2026 and it runs through January 31st of 2028.

The deadline to apply for that one is by 1159 p.m.

on the 31st of this month, October 31st.

So just wanted to get that out there for the board's information.

And then, secondly, remind everyone we only have the one meeting in November.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, everybody.

Um Pam Roberts, where'd you go?

Thank you so much for your public comment.

I was I'm on the same wavelength as you as Chair Hill is.

Uh we talked to Manager Thomas this morning about SNAP benefits, and um, we're deeply concerned as well.

So I wanted to piggyback off of what you said, and then give interim county manager Thomas an opportunity to give you an update on what's happening here regionally.

We know at the county we're responsible for serving children, adults, and seniors.

Um, these programs have existed in American history since I mean, I was looking up since the Great Depression is when it was first introduced in 1939 and then brought back into the fold in the 1960s.

This has been one of the ways that our nation has fought the crisis of hunger, and we are in unprecedented times, and us at the county are deeply deeply concerned about the impacts it's gonna have on our Nevada family.

So I just like to turn it over to interim uh county manager Kate Thomas.

Thank you.

We have been getting a lot of questions about SNAP and and thank you for recognizing that though it's not directly under our purview, we are regional leaders and this board is very interested.

So, in preparation for the suspension of that program, which is the supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP, the state of Nevada has scheduled, we have learned a special meeting of the interim finance committee, which happens this Thursday at 2 p.m.

And they're going to consider emergency work programs to reallocate about $5.9 million in unstate unspent state ARPA funds to the food and securities program.

That funnels through the Nevada Department of Agriculture and then goes to our food bank here in Northern Nevada.

So the details and logistics of how the food and commodities are going to be made available as part of this program is going to be detailed, and those are still in development.

Obviously, we'll get that word out.

But it's expected that the uh Department of Ag will work directly with our food banks.

I've been in contact with the food bank.

I know our human services folks have as well to talk about how we will support our folks in need in this community, especially with the weather and the holidays and all of those things.

So we've been also in communication with the governor's office of finance as well as, like I mentioned, the food bank and then our county departments.

We also had a great um uh recommendation by one of our uh leaders here in the county to potentially look at Washoe County being uh able to as commun citizens and also our organization donate to the food bank directly.

So we're working on maybe getting a QR code or some information out so that our employees can donate directly to the food bank, given that that's the resource that we're going to be using to get folks resources in this community.

I also understand that there may be some additional funds that the state is considering.

I know 5.9 million statewide is not gonna probably make a huge impact given that I think the number I heard was over 90 million dollars a month that is distributing SNAP benefits to our statewide.

I don't know the percentage of that that's Wajou County, but um, we have some real needs here in the community.

So uh the state though is looking for other funds.

We don't know the details on that that would significantly increase that 5.9 million dollar amount.

So we'll keep you posted as we learn more, but just wanted to give you that update.

Thank you so much.

I uh also wanted to uh mention the website for the N Northern Nevada Food Bank is very easy to find.

Um, it gives you an option on the donate button to do a one-time gift or a monthly uh reoccurring gift.

It's a secure website, so I hope you'll join me in making a donation today.

Um we all know somebody that's impacted by food insecurity.

The I didn't come prepared with the rates here in Washville County, but they're very high, not only for our seniors, but for our children.

So please step up, give whatever you can give.

If you can't give monetarily, please donate your time.

I know the food bank, we just need to really uplift and build capacity within our nonprofit partners during these critical times.

So thank you.

And Commissioner Garcia, I wanted to also give you an opportunity to speak to the effect this will have on our local community-owned grocers and stores as well, just so the community understands and maybe uh gives a little love to them over the next few months.

Thank you so much.

I um I have good news on the grocery local groceries storefront.

I'm meeting with the head of real estate from grocery outlet tomorrow to do a walk around the building.

We can't get inside the building because in my district, Scalery's closed uh community of 20,000 people without a local grocery store.

The lease doesn't end until the end of the year, um, but trying to make some connections.

This is a private business, private venture, but I think as commissioners, we have an opportunity to raise um the concerns that our constituents face, and it's getting more and more difficult for our constituents to have to travel either through public transportation or get rides or juggle multiple jobs with children to even just get basic, you know, services in Sun Valley.

So you know, when I hear news like this, it just amplifies all of the other stressors that families are currently facing, um, not only with the grocery stores and and the food, but you know, this is oftentimes a decision between a family member going to get access to health care or putting groceries on the table or paying rent.

And so we are we know this is uh all interconnected, but we everybody in this room has an opportunity to help out however you can, and that's just my call to action today.

Thank you so much.

And uh Manager Thomas, if we could see if our communications team can pull together all the rest of the communications teams from the state, um, all the other jurisdictions to get a really good communication strategy out because folks are gonna get their cards.

Well, they have their cards, and they're that these are folks who are maybe not connected to the news, maybe not connected to technology, um, seniors, um, so and go and try to use them at a store, and there will be nothing on their card, and they may not know that.

And so I want to make sure that we um have told folks where they can find these food baskets and uh connect them with transportation.

Commissioner Garcia and I are on the RTC board.

We are happy to find ways that we can give uh transportation vouchers as needed.

Um, so if there is a way we can make sure that um our team figures out um how to communicate with the governor's office on this plan and the National Guard, as well as the rest of the communities around the state, so we all have one message very clear, amplified, so um folks do not go hungry.

I it is a big fear of mine.

Is that something we can do?

Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

There needs to be coordination.

We've talked about that.

Um I think there's a big misconception about what SNAP is, and it is like you mentioned the EBT cards, and so this is a different way of distributing those resources through the food bank, it's actual food rather than the money.

And so we just need to make sure that's clear for everybody so that they're not stuck at the grocery stores.

Yeah, we'll get on that.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

I'm almost wondering if there should be distribution locations at the grocery stores, but I don't know what the plan is.

So once we know the plan, maybe we can make sure we amplify it.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Andriola.

That's tough to follow.

Yeah.

I'm gonna move in a different direction if we could and celebrate that today is National First Responders Day.

We have Chief Edwards in the audience and and many others that may uh even serve in a volunteer capacity or currently be or have ever been in a first responder position.

And so I just want to make sure that we recognize all the national or this special national day to recognize first responders.

Yeah, absolutely.

The other item, and I've mentioned it several times, but since this is our last meeting for a while, that on Friday, November 7th, we are observing Veterans Day at the Spark Senior Setting Center from 11 a.m.

to 1230.

It is not required to RSVP, but it would be great to RSVP to either senior underscore info at washow county.gov or calling 775-328-2575.

Um I'd like to actually recognize Pamela Baker and uh Ryan Gustison and Kara Pioli and several others who actually have been working on coordinating this.

There's been lots of meetings, and it's going to be a great time and a great way to observe those who have served in the greatest honor that we have, and that's in reverence to our country.

So I'll share with everybody later in the spirit of brevity about why we're raising a root beer and salute of the veterans, and there's some historical content to the root beer.

I um had the pleasure of speaking at the um Hidden Valley Alliance um board meeting and and shared some of that so we can talk about it later, or you can look it up yourself and find out why that is such a relevant thing to raise a root beer and salute to all veterans.

So I'll leave that to everybody's exploration.

The next item I'd like to talk about, which we've been talking about a lot and celebrating as a state with the U.S.

Capitol Tree, Christmas tree from Nevada.

Um, the tree's name is Silverbell.

If you're not aware of it, it was uh it is a 53-foot red fur that was selected by Congressman Amade and recently cut down it right there at Mount Rose around the corner from us.

So I think there's a lot to celebrate.

A fourth grader named Grady Armstrong from Virginia City was selected as the SA finalist for the tree.

Yeah, and um the there were a lot of entries throughout the state, and Lieutenant Governor uh Stavros Anthony selected the winner who is from Virginia City.

So um representing the North, but we are representing the state.

So I also want to let everyone know that the celebration for Nevada Day is on Saturday, November 1st, even though we know it's on technically October 31st, but it's gonna be celebrated, and the tree will be displayed in the parade, it will be a part of the parade, and it's going to be displayed from one to three at the Carson Toyota business if you're wanting to look at it.

And it's going on a whistle tour throughout Nevada in various rural areas along through various states as it makes its way to the U.S.

Capitol to be displayed for the first time, representing Nevada at the U.S.

Capitol.

And I think that is a big celebration because Mr.

Grady Armstrong, the fourth grader, and his family will be having the pleasure of going to DC, lighting the tree as well.

So again, a little Christmas cheer as we uh turn uh the corner for holidays, but I hope everyone will go and watch and follow.

If you want to know more, you can go to US Capital Christmas Tree.com.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's uh a very exciting thing to look forward to.

So Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I feel like we've been in this building for several days in a row.

It's days of all over again.

Uh we're back.

It's a marathon uh meeting uh uh unlike the not unlike the Dodgers long long game last night.

Uh we're we're uh back to back here.

Uh I want to talk about uh, you know, this is our first meeting with our new uh county manager in our last meeting for a while here at at the uh the the facility.

Um I've got a couple of things that uh I need to to just air out.

Uh you know, the county seems to like going on field trips.

And the uh the example was Sunday night out in uh uh Spanish Springs.

You know, we've got to move the facility and move the the uh the uh podium and you know we get more more employees and more political candidates and more elected candidates, and we had citizens out there.

I don't know why we have to continue to move.

We did this for the uh fire chief, we did this for uh uh a meeting at uh Sparks Library.

I don't know why we have to go off campus.

We've got this beautiful building, all this all the equipment we need is right here, and and it's centrally located.

When we have these off the wall kind of places, I don't think the citizens are served well.

And so I'd like to ask the county to to in the future hold our meetings at the county buildings instead of uh traipsing all over the county with this.

Um do you want me to answer why we did that?

I can do that.

I know I'm asking if we do it in the future week we can we can do that.

Uh many of our rural constituents told me after our last uh recruitment for Chief Edwards that they wanted something more geographically centered.

So I tried to listen to all of the community, and I I you you can put that on the chair.

I wanted to put it more in a geographical centered location, and so the staff helped me with that.

Um we can definitely look at things for the future, but that was a concern that was raised by folks who live further up north in Washoe County and feel like we don't do enough things in that northern part of Washoe County where they can get there a little bit more easily.

So just wanted to explain that, Commissioner.

Sure.

And I wasn't picking on you.

Don't you think?

No, I just want to make sure it was clear.

And because uh you know, as I like to count things.

So when I'm in a room, I count how many people are here, I look around who works for the county, who's a citizen, who's a political candidate, and I saw maybe 10 or 12 people there.

That's that's all I'm saying.

I to I took a census based on people that I recognized.

And uh, you know, I can kind of deduce who's who's who in the zoo there and and figure out what's taking place.

And then unfortunately, as I'm driving away, I see four or five, three or four of our lady staff folks wrestling up a podium out in the parking lot on a very windy night, bringing that equipment back.

So that's that's why it has nothing to do with why you did it.

And I understand why you did it and it makes sense.

I agree with that.

But if those same folks want to do it in their community and they don't show up, why are we doing it?

That's that's the question.

Fair enough.

All right.

So next uh uh I want to uh salute the uh new uh county manager.

Uh I'd like to see some uh things come up in conjunction with your your contract uh about uh one of the things I think we need to roll back is the 150,000 dollar defense fund that former manager Brown put in place to uh uh protect whatever he thought he was protecting.

I'd like to see that go away.

And I'd like to see in your contract getting rid of the year uh uh severance pay and and make that uh you know several months or whatever it is, but uh the full year severance pay when somebody's uh uh you know somebody was trying to protect themselves when they put that in play.

And I don't think we need to have that.

Uh Nevada Day was brought up.

I'll be in the Nevada Day parade, and uh uh I'm looking forward to that.

I've been in the parade before, riding my mule or a horse or whatever in the past, but I'll have a I'll have a float in the parade this week.

So uh I'll be thinking about the tree, and I think the tree is behind me in the parade.

So I'll uh get done with my uh parade and uh go look at the tree.

Um I'm thinking this is a real good opportunity with what we've just had yesterday here.

We've had some great candidates apply for the uh county uh manager's position.

Uh I'm one that doesn't want to want to uh uh sh I always ask for for new people and new ideas, and in some boards that makes sense.

But in this particular case, with what we're going through with this county with the budget issues and the homeless and lots and lots of reasons.

We don't have the time, the luxury to bring somebody up to speed and get them to know who's who's who around here and what's taking place.

So I'm happy to support uh the manager, the new manager in her position.

Um, there's other things.

Now this is a uh a good opportunity.

We spent a lot of money to have Kenneth that's vetted and brought in, and and there might be an opportunity to hire one of those folks as uh as an assistant county manager and and train them up.

So we've got a secession plan in order for a few years down the line.

Somebody, somebody can grow into that job as you have, and and uh with your background, and and you've got the institutional knowledge, and we need to have you're not gonna be here forever.

None of us are going to be here forever.

And so we need to start thinking about who could who those candidates we might want to bring in and uh you know have have them uh work underneath your leadership and and train somebody up for the future.

So there's some good candidates, and I think we should look into that and maybe uh see if we can bring somebody up on board for that.

So that's just a suggestion.

Um I saw a report the other day, and and you know, if you want to learn to do something, I don't care if it's whatever it is.

If you want to learn how to jump out of an airplane, you should hire somebody who knows how to do that.

You just shouldn't go freestyle on a lot of stuff.

And there was a report I saw the other day, the safest city in California, the exact the safest city in California.

This the city has little or no homelessness, has little or no crime.

It's only about 400 miles away.

I mean, we should uh reach out to that that city and see if they would be willing to give us some some mentoring or or give us a tour or share with what they do.

The city is Irvine, California.

That place 40 years ago was all farmland.

Now it's a big city.

They've got entertainment, they've got manufacturing, they've got an airport adjacent to them.

It's the headquarters for lots of five Fortune 500 companies, uh in and out burgers headquartered there, Taco Bell, lots of lots of vibrancy there.

And it was farmland before.

So there's something to be learned from somebody who's more successful than you are.

And and so that's what I'm suggesting.

We get a new uh assistant county manager, study what other cities that are doing well and see if we can emulate that.

Talk about silos and guardrails and all this stuff.

We need to reach out and again, this is another example of bringing in fresh ideas, somebody who's doing a better job.

And and quite frankly, you can call it stealing their ideas, or I could call it uh uh research, you know, look into this.

So that's what I'd like to suggest.

And I think it's an opportune time with a new county manager and some new direction and and uh and work towards that.

Uh very uh sad story about Ms.

Wiggins, uh, very, very sad uh situation.

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Sorry that you're having to deal with that type of situation.

We life is tough enough without having to deal with that on top of it.

Uh Drew Rebar makes an allegation about uh being assaulted in an elevator.

I'd like to ask if there's any security film of that.

Uh do we have security uh cameras in an elevators uh just asking.

Uh and uh and if it if there are security uh cameras, or if there aren't, there should be for things like this, these kind of allegations.

If somebody is being accused of something and it didn't happen, it'd be sure nice to have have a film of of that.

So I'm asking about that.

Not accusing anybody and then Mr.

Wilkie, I think he's left now, but uh had some legitimate questions about uh uh citizen advice uh excuse me, community homeless advisory board meeting.

I think we should get back on track on that.

It's uh that's a very important issue.

You know, as I said about the city of Irvine, let's find a place that doesn't have any homeless or if the and figure out how they did that.

So it's one thing uh to fix a problem before it arises.

We've got the problem, but maybe there's something to learn from other cities and municipalities that are more successful than we are.

So those are my comments.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

All right, with that.

We are now going to move into our proclamations.

Such an exciting day.

If uh manager Thomas could help us with uh reading that in the certainly we are on item 5A1.

That is a proclamation for the week of November 4th through the 11th, 2025 is operation Green Light for Veterans 2025.

And Commissioner Andrew is here to present that proclamation to the folks that are ready to join us from the audience and Commissioner Andriela has been working on this project since she got elected, so this is a really exciting day.

Whoops, excuse me.

I'm encouraging all veterans to join me.

So if you're a veteran, please come on up.

So today is a proclamation that I'd like to read.

And again, I'm going to follow Commissioner Garcia's interactive experience.

So come on up.

So we're all going to help read this, and you guys can just follow me.

How does that sound?

Sounds perfect.

Okay.

So on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, I'd like to read the following pro we would like to read the following proclamation.

Whereas the residents of Washoe County hold deep respect and gratitude for the men and women of the armed forces who selflessly service and sacrifices have been vital to preserving our freedoms and way of life, and whom Washoe County seeks to honor for their courage and dedication.

And do you want to do this one?

Whereas veterans continue to serve our community in the American Legion, veterans in foreign wars, religious groups, civil service, and by functioning as county veterans service officers in 29 states to help fellow former service members access more than 52 billion dollars in federal health, disability, and compensation benefits each year.

And whereas approximately 200,000 service members transition to civilian communities annually.

Whereas studies indicate that 44 to 72 percent of service members experience high levels of stress during their transition from military to civilian life, and that active military personnel are particularly high risk for suicide during their first year following separation from service.

And I guess I'm gonna get to read this, but you can help me.

You can be right here with me.

So now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim the week of November 4th, 2025 as Operation Greenlight for Veterans 2025.

Woo!

Thank you.

Yeah, please.

And Madam Chair, if you wouldn't mind just hearing a couple things.

One, a huge shout out to the sheriff's office, who has been actually honoring uh Operation Greenlight for since its inception five years ago.

This was brought to me by the NACO conference that I attended, and certainly am happy to share that the courts too here have actually made their courts green November 4th through the 11th.

So this is a shout out to everyone, November 4th through the 11th.

Let's make Washoe County green.

These are all veterans, including okay, come on up.

She's a okay, well, I know, but she she she's a supportive veterans, but all of these folks and many in the room who've given their honor and their dedication to serving our country.

It's just the deepest thing that we could ever be so grateful for.

I come from uh growing up in a military family, it's very near and dear to my heart.

And and so in honor of that, I wore green.

And so I'm hoping we can all take a picture with all the commissioners as well.

Uh I'll wait for your uh direction on that, madam chair, but I would like to make this in the form of a motion.

Okay.

So thank you.

And I'm looking for a second.

Second.

And I'm sure that we have folks who want to say a few words.

So if you all want to come up for public comment, I'm sure you're not officially signed in, but uh, if you could state your name for the record, just so the clerk can have that.

I just want to thank all of you guys for your service.

My father's met multiple times in Vietnam.

I appreciate everything you want to do.

You're welcome.

Okay.

And I think you want to show us a sheet of paper, but it's turned over.

Thank you.

Yes, absolutely.

There it is.

Okay.

And you want to flip it to the side there?

Thank you for helping.

I'm not changing.

There you go.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Andreola.

Thank you, everyone here, for your attendance and participation in this fifth year proclamation by Washoe County for Operation Green Light for Veterans, because none more cherished in a veteran's life than those who lighten the burdens from our service.

My name is Pamela Baker.

I am a U.S.

Air Force veteran, war, Vietnam War, 100% service connected disabled veteran.

What is a veteran?

A veteran is someone upon their enlistment or commission into the U.S.

Armed Forces or U.S.

Public Health Commission Corps swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.

That means each veteran, concurrent with their oath, wrote a blank check to the United States of America for up to and including their life.

That is an honor.

Why?

The most expensive thing everyone owns is their freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

And freedom isn't free.

We veterans are an extraordinarily rare 6% of the population who served for 100% of the population.

Veterans paid the price owed for freedom by those who couldn't serve, and veterans paid the price for freedom owed by those who wouldn't serve.

Veterans are the smallest demographic, yet have the highest rate of volunteerism.

Dying for freedom isn't the worst thing that can happen.

Being forgotten is.

That was said by Gold Star mother Georgie Carter Krill, whose 19-year-old son, private first class Bruce Carter, United States Marine Corps, was killed in action in Vietnam, then received a posthumous Medal of Honor, America's highest honor.

Veterans have succumbed to suicide at more than twice the rate of non-veterans.

They have for decades.

Currently, the rate is a staggering 18 a day.

6,570 a year veterans dead from suicide.

I believe that is because we veterans are too often forgotten by the 94% who are not veterans.

Operation Greenlight for Veterans is a nationwide effort to not only remember our veterans, it is also to reduce the horrifying rate of veterans succumbing to suicide.

Spearheaded by the National Association of Counties, it has people, businesses, and government change their outside lights to green lights from November 4th through Veterans Day, which is November 11th.

These green lights say we have not forgotten our veterans.

These green lights say to we veterans, welcome home.

The green lights express honor and thanks to all veterans.

The green lights express gratitude for veteran service, sacrifice, and oath to defending the U.S.

Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.

These green lights raise awareness about the challenges we veterans face every moment as a readal as a result of our service.

These green lights show support of OE veterans.

These green lights say we love our veterans.

May we live in a society where people ask for the autographs of veterans and idolize veterans with the same zeal and enthusiasm they have for celebrities who are not veterans.

Because that old man or old woman who shuffles around town wearing their veterans' accruchements was at one time more badass than any never served celebrity could ever be.

It means a lot to we veterans because we missed Melee holidays with our family and friends while we were serving away from home in defense of you.

Thank you.

That was beautiful.

Yes.

Thank you for your service.

Okay.

Any other folks have a few words to say?

Go for it if you'd like.

Sure, go for it.

Good morning, Madam Chair.

Romel Ferrer, Dep Deputy Director, Nevada Department of Veteran Services.

I really just want to thank you, folks, uh, for the unwavering support and the partnership with Washoe County.

Um, on behalf of the deputy uh our director, Colonel Retired Mary Devine.

Um again, we thank you for the partnership.

Um taking care of our veterans and their families.

That's a huge investment that matters in the community.

Uh to add to that, uh, I want to take this opportunity to recognize Commissioner Andrew Andreola for her initiatives, her selfless service as well.

Um for strengthening Nevada Department of Veterans Services mission to serve Nevada veterans, honoring the remarkable legacy and connecting them to their earned benefits and their services as well.

Um thank you all for your commitment and dedication to public service.

I know it's not easy.

Uh we are um we appreciate the trust that you've had you have placed in and in the NDVS team, and we look forward to the joint collaboration, the unity of uh unity of effort for a thriving and resilient community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your work with a state as well.

Okay, well, we're gonna take a tiny break, take a picture, and then we'll reconvene the meeting.

Oh, yeah, we have sorry, thank you for the reminder.

We have a motion, we have a second, we did public comment.

All right, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye, any opposed, please say nay.

And uh I know that yes, there you go.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

All right, we'll take a quick picture.

We're all done again.

Um we both work for nature slides.

Okay, so you're doing the course of work.

Yeah, we're gonna show you.

I don't believe here in the correct person else to meet you.

Thank you for your saying.

Thank you.

All right, perfect.

Thank you so much.

There's so many highs and lows being on the commission, and that was a big high.

So thank you so much, Commissioner Andriella, for bringing that to us.

Okay, we're gonna move to item six, a one, Manager Thomas.

Six A one is a presentation by Gabrielle Enfield, who is our community reinvestment manager.

She's here to provide a status update for uh about community reinvestment and the state and local fiscal recovery funds grant that was ninety-one million five hundred and eighty-seven thousand and thirty-eight dollars awarded to Washoe County pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

So we welcome Ms.

Enfield.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Madam Manager, and County Commissioners.

We implement these programs and projects through collaboration with our departments with nonprofits and by convening stakeholders and providing direct project delivery.

So I've come here many times.

Longer and longer in between now that we're getting pretty close to the completion of our state and local fiscal recovery funds.

That total amount was completely allocated by the board prior to the deadline that was December of 2025.

We have 131 projects, a pretty even-ish distribution between internal and external.

So we had 63 projects that went out to our community, primarily to nonprofit organizations, but also to other governmental entities as well.

And then we had 65 projects internal.

You can see 65 external and 63 internal.

Excuse me, we're getting very close to completing projects.

We have a several more that'll be completed by December, and then again by by June.

So we're getting really moving through them quickly and successfully.

So our projects were across the board, uh, capital projects, service projects, um, really all different kinds of projects that were able to support negative economic impacts of COVID.

Um we have a copy of this report on our website, and I also have hard copies that are made available today.

Um we have, of course, our major achievement is ensuring that all of these funds were allocated so that we are able to utilize them all and none of these funds are returned to Treasury.

We're very on target to expend them all by the next deadline, which is expenditure deadline by December of end of December of 2026.

We've also deployed a project dashboard, which can be found on our Washoe County ARPA website for transparency and performance tracking.

And as we move all of these projects through to closeout, more and more information will be made available on the outcomes of those projects.

Um through these funds, Washoe County invested in a lot of long-term solutions to homelessness and mental health funding for the Washoe County Behavioral Health Center, both the purchase as well as the renovation were supported through these funds.

Our timeline looks a little bit different now.

We've gone through many years of implementation and various awards.

We're really looking to close out and to really wrap up and support the administration of the remaining projects through the end of next year.

Um another one of our primary projects at community reinvestment is our opioid abatement and recovery fund, which are the opioid settlement funds.

Lauren Beale is our analyst in charge of and responsible for this program.

She has been very hard at work conducting the needs assessment.

The survey was very successful with more than 600 respondents, focus groups, and key information interviews were also conducted.

Uh to review the strategies and to get input from the community members on the priorities.

So the needs assessment is really what identifies and defines where we focus the dollars for our upcoming round of awards.

Lauren will be here at the December meeting to give you an overview of the needs assessment and more of an update on the results of that assessment.

Our funding status at this point, just a reminder that we expect to receive funding through approximately 2043, and more than 42 million dollars over the next 19 years.

To date, we have uh 10.4 million dollars received, and at this point, the very first round that is coming to an end of implementation was 4 million 4.1 million dollars that were allocated to projects, and those projects were identified in the prior needs assessment.

The next round will focus on the needs identified in the most recent assessment and will be conducted in 2026, and those will be multi-year awards.

You can see here the distribution of the amount of funding that's been spent so far on the war funded projects.

Another one of our primary programs at Wash Community Reinvestment is our grants management program led by Connie Lucido.

Connie is our county grants administrator, and she focuses on support throughout Washoe County, primarily focusing on providing leadership in policy, ensuring that Washoe County's grants management policies are in compliance and that departments are aware of and complying with those requirements as they implement federal funds.

Building compliance and oversight, capacity building, sharing the regulations and really making sure that not only do we have policies but the folks that are implementing projects are know what they are and have support and technical assistance in implementing them.

Additionally, she supports the development of new grants sometimes, and the next slide I'll show a few that are administered or managed through community reinvestment that are more regional or that are major collaborations.

So right now we're waiting on about $3.5 million.

One of them is the first one is a collaboration between Washoe County, UNR and Washoe County School District.

This is a safe streets for all grant that we have been noticed of award.

We are working with Federal Highway Administration on the final documents and hope to bring those to the board soon.

Also, there is a Trekkie River fund agreement that is also expected to come soon to the board.

And then the final one that Connie worked with staff in community service department on a second Safe Streets for All grant.

This would provide for planning for pedestrian safety in our unincorporated areas as we have previously collaborated with RTC on planning grants from this program for Reno and Sparks areas.

This shall just expand it to uncover the whole county.

We currently have two projects, one that were funded for fiscal year 24, federal fiscal year 24, a Gurlock project for a preliminary engineering report.

And the other project is Side Hill Pedestrian ADA improvements, which is in Sun Valley, and this project is right now.

CSD is working on the environmental review.

And then our next opportunity to apply for projects will begin in July of 26th for awards that come available July of 27.

Then federal appropriations.

So we've been very successful in the past in receiving appropriations.

They are underway in the environmental review process, as with all federal funding exclusive of SLIFRIF, we're required to do the environmental review, which can be a lengthy and complex process.

And that is the CARES Campus Capital Project for 12 million, and the preliminary project design for the Sheriff's Office infirmary.

Both of those have been completed.

And just a little reminder about the appropriation timeline.

So with the projects, let's see.

Normally we learn of that, and that is passed prior to October 1st, as we all are all aware.

So normally we learn about them in October, prior to October.

This slide is really what do we do next for the coming year?

So we're beginning very soon to gather information on different projects.

It could be potential applications for the next round that will be submitted in March of 26th.

Thank you very much.

Looking to the board to see if there's questions.

Commissioner Garcia.

I just wanted to say thank you for the update.

The report is phenomenal.

The dashboard I've used even before I was a commissioner, your dedication to transparency.

This is such a small but mighty team.

And I don't think you get the recognition that you deserve because you've impacted so many different sectors and the return on investment on your team is just through the roof.

I just uh, you know, I think we're lucky to have a Gabrielle in our county.

Uh I know that many counties, especially our rural ones, when this infusion of money came into the state, um, didn't have the capacity or or the staff to be able to allocate these dollars and then spend these dollars and monitor everything, but the way I've seen it, you know, done through the needs assessment, the strategic prioritization of all these things because everybody has needs, everybody has their hands out, wanting and needing more, but I just really uh commend you and your team for being able to sift through all that and um get those dollars into the projects that could be shovel ready and ready to go, and and I'm so pleased to hear that we've already had 90 completed.

So congratulations to everybody.

I just uh for me because I don't know the inner workings of the staffing from your department.

I didn't know you before the infusion of dollars um prior to 2021.

Um, as we move forward uh through the process, how is your department, your your team going to evolve and change and continue to serve in the uh capacity that you do here at the county.

Thank you.

Um yes, we're we are really winding down a lot of the work that we do related to SLIFRIF.

We do have the other projects as well as right now, we're really working to identify exactly what you say.

We've got one more year basically of SLIFRIF, so um we're looking to uh support other components of the work at the Office of the County Manager.

We are right now also supporting the nonprofit capacity building, so that's another thing that's um being assisted with.

Um we're really we don't have an answer for exactly what we'll be doing, but we are looking very much at things that have been identified that need to happen.

One of our staff resigned, and we have chosen not to fill that position because really just making smaller what we do and ensuring that the things that we do take on are very much not new things necessarily given our financial situation currently, but supporting other projects and programs that are priorities for Washoe County and the board.

Great question.

So like mental health, probably vulnerable populations work, special projects under that.

Right.

Yeah, great.

Okay, Commissioner Andriola.

I just want to say thanks as well.

So I'll just echo the sentiment that Commissioner Garcia just said.

And I know there's a lot of things and I's dotted and T's crossed, and I don't think really everyone really appreciates all the compliance reporting that has to take place.

And I think it's a testament to the alignment that was mentioned.

So thanks for the question as well, Commissioner Garcia.

I was wondering as well.

So thank you for looking at the future as we start to head towards some tough decisions.

But for right now, we're going to celebrate all of the great work that has been done and all the great work that you've contributed and all of those that have benefited, not only now, but also long-term future.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you, Ms.

Phil, for your report.

It's always good to meet with you when we meet one-on-one, and it's also good to hear your reports here in the chambers.

I'm looking through this magazine or brochure, not a magazine, but folder.

And uh I see one that jumps out at me that uh and I understand because of the time constraints on off to the print or something happened.

And page 95 is what I'm referring to.

It talks about seven magic uh mountains relocation installation.

Obviously, that's gone a different direction.

Right.

Is there any others that I missed as I went through this that have also gone a different direction that wouldn't wouldn't be uh accurate in their description and the um this report was due the end of July, so it would include all of the projects that were still um planned for um approved at that point in time.

We have, and even on today's meeting, we have a few projects that I'm actually don't think there are any that are being eliminated, but we continue to come back with projects like the seven Magic Mountains, if they're not going to be implemented or for some other reason, and as well as some that are coming in under budget.

So you'll continue to see those kinds of um of actions coming forward to you, but um seven Magic Mountains will have a different note in the one that you're gonna see next year, so they will all be different.

Um we do in order for transparency, we do on our web page on our Washoe County ARPA webpage, we include a summary of every board item that we bring to the board.

So every time a project is de obligated or reduced in size or moved, you're gonna see that.

You can just go scroll through all of those, and it's every item every time we've come to the board and um asked to allocate or de obligate.

So any actions is going to be included in there.

Thank you for that answer.

Again, my question though is is there any others that are in here now that have been have been de obligated that I could go to or at page whatever in full like the the entire project.

I can't think of any, but I can go through it and take a look and let you know.

Very good.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, we really appreciate all the work that you and your team do, and can't wait to see the next phase of work.

And um thank you for continuing to bring us these updates.

Thank you very much.

And I just want to also thank all of the people at Washoe County, including the commissioners, the folks in CSD, the folks in human services, so many people, in addition to my staff who work very hard, are implementing all of these projects.

And no small feat when you receive 91.5 million and you have to spend it over a a number of very short time frame.

Um we have some really great people at Washoe County doing great jobs.

Yeah, absolutely, and doing it strategically.

This book speaks volumes about the impact of the work, and honestly, we're gonna be missing that money.

Um I'm thinking of some of these literacy programs and other programs that we really want to continue to move forward and we'll hope the community wraps their arms around them.

So thank you.

Okay, I'm changing the order really quick because um we have our visitors are waiting for a consent item, so I'd like to move consent up and then I'll go back to presentation.

Sorry, folks.

Um but uh item eight, um eight a one through eight F1 on consent.

Um do commissioners have any questions or want to pull any items?

Commissioner Andreola.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to um thank you for consideration of folks that um I'm going to uh request uh polling item eight C1, please.

Okay.

So um is that in the form of the motion approving the rest of the consent?

Yes, it is.

Okay, I'm looking for a second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

All right, madam clerk, is there any public comment on consent?

Okay, and we'll bring them up for that.

Okay, we have a motion and a second on the consent, except for 8C1.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And that motion passes unanimously, and now eight C1, Commissioner Andreola.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I really wanted to take the time to look at eight AC one, and I'm hoping that Gabrielle is here as well, um, that she could um present the framework for this.

Um and then I'd like to maybe make a couple.

I don't mean to put you on the spot, Miss Infield, but uh I do think it's important to share what um the hard work that she has done and the benefit that we're going to see in our community at Washoe County with the agreement between Washoe County and the State of Nevada Department of Veterans Veterans Services and the hard work that we've all been doing.

I've met just for full transparency with not only Colonel Devine, but the team that's here, many others.

Um Pamela Bakers, who's a constituent has also been integral in trying to share that information, Ryan Gusison, the folks with HSA Carapioli who's here.

Many folks have really participated, and what is I'll call um a void that is being filled.

And I would be remiss to not recognize Glenna Smith, who is also here, because I've known Glenna a very, very long time in various other capacities, and there isn't one thing that you can point to Glenna that she's done in her career, but that of service to veterans.

And the fact is is that this recognition that we really don't have what I'll call representation for a veteran service officer in our community has um I have a place as I've mentioned in my heart for veterans.

I've been working since appointed for veterans, and I'll continue to work for veterans.

This is a very celebratory day for Washoe County and all veterans within Washoe County, and again, I can't thank the team at the Nevada and Colonel Devine and her leadership for really supporting this item.

So I I I'll let uh Miss Ingfield kind of shape what what this looks like for two VSOs in Washoe County for uh a year and um and then have a little bit more after that, if that's okay, madam chair.

Absolutely.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Um back in September of 2024, the board originally awarded uh 150,000 to Nations Finance to support a veteran services officer 1.5 position.

And the role of the veteran service officer is really to assist veterans in providing the opportunity to apply for their benefits, support them throughout that process, ensure that that is um that they have the assistance that they need for that very complicated process and any challenges that they have.

Unfortunately, but uh nations finance had a existing staff member that left, and then they had a lot of challenges hiring uh the required personnel for the VSO positions, and through um a lot of work from Commissioner Andreola and um Ryan Gustafson working with um the Nevada Department of Veteran Services.

We were able to find um the opportunity to make an interplacement contract, which is unique.

This is the first time we've done one of these, but it is one of the ways, one of the very limited ways that we can reallocate funds, um, any of these slip rif funds past December of 2024.

So we're very happy that the services and really the scope of work and intent of the project were able to be um carried out by Nevada Department of Entry and Services, and that's what this agreement is to um take the remaining funds in the amount of um 139,000 to support that those same activities through September of 2026.

Great.

That's so creative.

And if I and if I could add uh two gentlemen who um were here uh moment ago with Operation Greenlight, we're from Nations Finest, and it really is appreciative to Nations Finest for the hard work that they did in the initial contract and how that initially was gonna roll out, and we all realize that some things just change.

And so it all is in a big way even better in the sense of it's it it belongs at the Nevada Department of Veterans Services.

That is the heart of where it belongs, and I I just couldn't be more grateful to everyone for making this happen.

And I I don't know, madam chair, if you're needing a motion, but I'm sure you're not going to be surprised with me uh doing this with my heart and soul to be able to say that I would like to move to approve this item as presented.

Thank you.

Looking for a second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

And Manager Thomas actually wanted to speak on that last presentation since Gabrielle's here.

Do you want to just say a few words?

You're good.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Uh uh any questions on that from the board and public comment, madam clerk.

We have Pamela Baker.

I also believe the representative from Veterans Services wants to speak to I want to say thank you to Commissioner Clara Andreola on this.

I have been attempting to get going for 30 years here at Washoe County, joining the other 49 states, counties, and having a Washoe County Veterans Service Office.

Now, with Commissioner Andreola's support, the support of those on our team she has assembled, and the support of everyone here and those not here.

It will finally happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there someone else you wanted to speak?

Yes, I wanted to um introduce um the deputy of the Veterans Service Administration, Romel, uh Romel Ferrier.

I I hope I'm not getting your last name.

Everyone calls them Roe, so I feel like I should call you Roe.

Um and certainly want to also uh recognize Glenis Smith who's in the audience and also uh Chief Information Officer Justin Clatt, who is here to support this item as well.

But I'll turn it over to the deputy director through you, madam chair.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh again, good morning, madam chair, uh Washoe County Board of Commissions, uh Roe Ferrer, Deputy Director Benefits uh for NDVS.

Um just again, we couldn't thank you enough, ma'am.

Uh Commissioner Andriola for this initiative, right?

It's gonna open doors throughout the state through other counties uh just for you guys' situational awareness.

Throughout the state, that's not including their families, the caregivers.

And we only have about 20 according to the VSOs in the department.

So having two additional VSOs, two accredited VSOs uh in the county is huge.

And it's gonna help us uh servicing our veterans and their families, right, with their benefits that they've they've earned from you know, like right now with with the federal government shutdown, helping them assist them with with whatever they need.

Um services at Furley and Boulder City uh cemetery, right?

And the veterans' home that we have at Sparks and again at Boulder City.

So VSOs are huge force multiplier, you know, from Washoe County, and we sincerely appreciate this initiative.

Um we're optimistic about the value that we're gonna create together for this.

And again, we appreciate the trust that you've yeah placed with NDVS.

So thank you again, ma'am.

Thank you for everything you do.

Thank you.

That's great.

Okay, Commissioner Andrea.

Transparency, I think it's important that we share that.

Uh we toured um with Colonel Devine and her staff.

Uh, the KERIS campus and the resource center.

Um actually uh Roe, if I can call you that, uh really is going to help look at creating a schedule with HSA through Ryan Gussen, so that all the VSOs in Washoe County will know where they're going to be, what the time is, uh so they're gonna rotate essentially is the concept that we all spoke about.

So it won't just be here at the Washoe County nine street address, it'll be if if you will, at the resource center, and it'll be in other locations, but that is the deputy director's specialty, and so he will be outlining how that looks and working with Ms.

Mr.

Gustavson on that.

So I really wanted to put some context on the execution of how this is all going to work.

So thank you for your indulgence, Madam Chair.

And I think Pamela Baker has something I think she wanted to do.

I forgot to mention, and Commissioner Andreola just reminded me, is I'm putting out a challenge to raise funds to make this program permanent.

And in that light, I myself am going to match up to 65,000 towards this program.

And I invite everybody else.

Pony up.

Thank you.

Wow, that is beautiful.

That just got me.

Um thank you so much.

Continuing veterans continue to serve.

They can't stop.

That's amazing.

Uh we need more caseworkers to help folks navigate our difficult government systems.

This is going to be such a great um asset for our communities.

So we have a motion and a second.

Any other comment from the board?

Not seeing any.

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.

What a cool um opportunity, and thank you all for your service.

It's really special.

Okay, we're going to now move on to our second presentation, 6A2.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item 682 is a presentation on the unaudited fiscal year 2025 year and general fund budget to actual revenue and expenditures, in addition to potential updates on the fiscal year 2026 budget to actual revenue and expenditures.

And we are joined by budget manager Lori Cook.

Welcome.

Good morning still, almost afternoon.

Uh, for the record, Lori Cook, Washaw County uh budget manager.

Uh so good afternoon, Chair, members of the board, and county manager Thomas.

So we will start out.

This is very similar.

The information's exactly the same as the last update when we look at fiscal year 25 and how we finished out fiscal year 25.

So there won't be any variances to um prior information received, but just as a recap to look, um, we have the sources um on the up on the I forgot my glasses on my desk, so you're gonna have to let me look down a few times.

Um so there aren't any changes to um any of the revenue sources, including taxes or consolidated tax based on okay.

And uh but also to highlight again the the acronym URGL, which is unrealized gain or loss.

So if you see it as a positive number, that's an unrealized gain.

If you see it as a negative number, that would be an unrealized loss.

Uh that is the a mark to market value.

So if you were to, I I compare it to a home value.

So at a certain point, your home's gonna have a market value.

If you sold it at that point in time, would you make money on it?

Would you lose money on it?

If you don't sell it, you don't make or lose anything, right?

Um, as far as actual cash value, so uh or cash in your pocket, rather.

So that um is a fairly large number uh for prior fiscal year or fiscal year 25.

Just bring that up because it's not it's not a cash entry, just as a reminder.

Then when we talk about the second largest revenue source uh for the county is consolidated taxes.

We've had a lot of conversation about this.

The state held two town halls last week, one on the 21st, October 21st, and one on October 23rd.

And we did have several people, myself included, that were able to attend remotely last week.

The figures that you see are the updated figures through June, right?

Which we had had some difficulty in the state had some difficulty getting us getting us those numbers for a variety of reasons, changing over to a new uh financial system as well as the cyber attack that I think we're all aware of.

So basically, what we're seeing now as compared to the prior update is uh information through the end of fiscal year 25 or June of 2025.

So what we see here is a 4.1% increase in taxable sales reported.

When we get to later in the presentation, that information we got from the state, we'll we'll talk about how that changes with their new system.

Then our total C tax distributions you can see at the 162.9 million, and then the BCCRT, SCCRT.

As a shortcut, we call those pure sales tax or tax right based on taxable sales.

So that's uh basic city-county relief tax, supplemental city-county relief tax.

And those are directly related to taxable sales.

The other components of this C tax for anybody who doesn't remember might be interested or maybe not interested, relate to excise tax for cigarette and alcohol.

Those are very small percentages of what we get, what we receive, and then the the two remaining pieces are government services tax, which is through your registration on your automobile, so it's collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles, and real property transfer tax, when there's a real property transfer in a county, so for Wachau County, that's collected by the recorder's office when those transfers happen, and then there's fees and their other um revenue associated with that that gets returned back to the state, the state puts it in the C tax and then sends it back.

So those two together approximately 15 to 16 percent of total C tax distributions.

So for the most part, this BCCRT SCCRT, it hovers in the 83 to 85 percent of what we see in these distributions.

So we'll talk more about what happened before when we get to this year.

We do have some this year information on here.

Again, this information is the same as prior, so nothing has changed based on as we're going through the year in process and going through an audit and closing out the fiscal year.

The highlighted amounts are just showing that we did not realize as as what we estimated for salary savings.

So we were not over budget at bottom line, we just didn't have the savings we necessarily had anticipated.

However, um, you can look at this or we can look at the next slide.

We see that uh, but from a bottom line perspective that we finished better than anticipated.

I will put this out there again without the unrealized gains, we would have seen a change in fund balance of a 2.5 million.

So with a large, large budget, that is basically what we call flat.

It's good, um, it's better than using fund balance, but it's not a huge aboon or you know, this large amount.

So it's actually when we look at estimates, it's it's fairly close, even though the numbers are large.

So now we look at our first quarter.

Again, these are unaudited.

Oh, and I should have opened up with this.

I'm I apologize.

Uh, comptroller Kathy Hill apologizes for not being here, but she's over at district court.

So I should have mentioned that when we opened up.

But again, these are unaudited, so this is through September, July through September.

So what we can see is that from the perspective of trending and analysis, we are on par.

We are where we would expect to be for the first quarter.

We are when we look at expenditures and transfers out, we are slightly higher than we look at year-to-date budget compared to actuals of last year.

What's driving that?

The driver of that is budgeting salary savings.

So when we budget for the salary savings, and so we we anticipate them when we do the budget, and then we see those the actuals come in, they're closer to budget because we budgeted those salary savings.

But at this point within the general fund, when we're looking at trending and we're looking at what's going on in the beginning of the fiscal year, we don't have there, there's nothing in here that's concerning from just a fiscal management fiscal tracking perspective.

So now we can talk a little bit more about this consolidated tax.

So, what is up here?

What we have for current year, we just got our consolidated tax information yesterday, so I had submitted the presentation already.

And um, so this just shows the one, so it shows the first or the July distribution.

So I'm gonna very high level kind of talk a little bit about what happened and how we're reporting.

So if you look at prior presentations, uh you will see that the 2024 total county taxable sales are not 12.06 the billion in taxable sales.

It was, I have it written down.

12.118.

So with the new system, if there is an outstanding payment related to a prior period, so depending on when the system cuts off for the state.

That was one of the issues when they implemented last year.

Cut off at the end of the month.

So we basically got a half of a November distribution that we got in January.

They extended to make sure that we would get full 12 months of distributions.

So we saw a June distribution that was you know almost three times what we would have expected.

So it did average itself out.

It's mostly due to timing on when the system was implemented by the vendor.

They have updated that process.

So now there's a 15-day close, it doesn't close at the end of the month.

So after our October distribution, which we received notice of yesterday, I don't think we have the cash yet.

We received notice of yesterday.

After this distribution, we should see a normalization.

So this is what the state has given us information.

So what happens with their new system is say you have an April, right?

You have it from a vendor merchant, you have it, you have an April taxable sales.

You haven't worked through it, whatever, whether it's the vendor's missing information or taxation has to do has to do their closeout procedures.

Um it's not reflected in the April distribution, and they're usually two months behind.

So we would receive that in June.

Well, what happens now is once that gets cleared up, those taxable sales go back to April.

They don't post in June as taxable sales, which is the way the old system did it.

So prior months, we will see adjustments, the year to date is the year to date.

So if you try to at any point in time start adding up July through June, your cumulative amounts might not match for year to date because prior periods have been adjusted.

This is how it's been at least my understanding of how it has been explained to us.

So more accurate when you're looking at okay, what happened when, right?

This was April, it really wasn't June.

But when we look at trending, now we know we have 20 plus years of potentially April activity that we were being reported as June.

So it makes the tracking and the historical information challenging because you you just don't know if if you're comparing apples to apples.

The second part of this uh this change over the um the idea was that it would the distributions would happen faster, right?

So I'm a merchant, I submit all of my information.

It's required by the last day of the following month.

So when you close out September, September's information is not due until October 31st, last day of the next month.

Um what's going to happen, um, and I did not know this, but there has been a change, the new filing deadline for vendors starting January 1st of 2026 will be the 20th of the following month.

So that gives additional time, if you will, for taxation to work through what they need to to get things posted and get things reconciled and then release, release the funds, release the hounds, so to speak.

So there were multiple different issues happening at the same time related to being able to track being able to try to analyze and forecast, then add on to that in 2022, and it's the North American industry code, it's NACs, N A I C S.

There was a roll-up in 2022.

So for example, if you've ever looked at those codes, there's construction equipment, construction, rental, right?

So there are different codes, say 440, 441, whatever they might happen to be.

And they're they're in groups.

Well, some of those were rolled up in 2022.

The old state system could go all the way back to those codes before they were rolled up all the way back to 2012.

So you could look at that information and you could, you know, line by line or code by code, you could look at those comparators.

Well, now their system will can only use the new, or it only uses the new 2022 rolled up amounts.

So then when you're looking at again, historical inform, excuse me, sorry, historical information that goes back in time, you had to be very careful about how it rolls up because you could be looking trying to compare a code that it doesn't exist anymore that they don't use anymore.

It's been rolled up into another code.

So those are just some of the challenges.

The state is very aware of the challenge challenges that we're facing.

I think that they've taken all of the comments and the input very seriously.

They helped these town halls.

There's um presentation or presentation materials.

There's a YouTube video, I believe, as well that they provided.

So letting us know that things are supposed to normalize, I guess, is the main part of this information sharing.

To get to with the information we got yesterday.

Oh, and rem, and I don't know if I mentioned it, but that first July distribution because of the cutoffs, we did not receive real property transfer tax or government services tax.

We just it hadn't gone through.

So our recorder is on time and did things they needed to do.

The DMV was doing what they needed to do.

It didn't make it through.

So we got notice yesterday, and our distribution, if we look at year to date, so right, that cumulative amount, we're at about 7.5% higher than prior year.

That is more in alignment with what their taxable sales is showing.

Um, but again, it's are we comparing a different 30-day period to a different 30-day period?

So we have to have some time to understand where that's going.

But from the website, so this is public information.

You just go to the department of taxation, it's revenue statistics or revenue information.

And so the reported through fiscal year, so two months, uh, the reporting Washow County taxable sales up 7.8%.

So that was surprising.

It's it's good, but it was surprising.

Um trying to read one of their notes on here, and standalone document.

So that's some of the concerns is that that taxable sales statistic is standalone and it's not reflective in any single revenue month due to the split filing period.

So this is their information related to that.

So that has been a huge challenge when it comes to trying to forecast or figure out where we're going to be.

Um, and it's such a large portion of our general fund revenue and right as support.

We have debt issuances that are supported with C tax revenue and different things, and so we focus on it.

Um, but and there have been challenges uh at the state as well, so not trying to blame them or anything, but it's just it's it's been pretty crazy actually.

So when we look at 25 and we look at 26, 26 is trending where we would expect it to trend.

25, we did right um have a little bit uh better uh ending fund balance or ending position than we thought.

Uh the lower than anticipated July distribution, but now and this information will be updated for the next presentation, so it'll be in the tables and whatnot, not just verbal.

Um so we need to you know plug that in and show that to you.

But um, it's kind of hot off the presses, so I wanted to share.

So, but we still need to write keep eye on the growth of expenditures versus growth of revenues.

We still have some unbudgeted expenditures that we need to wrap into the forecast, and so we did another, we call them personal cost plans.

So they're uh it's how we simulate our personnel, uh, which is our largest expenditure category.

So we need to make sure we do that right.

And we just did one last week on Thursday, my team, I didn't do it, uh, but we will be going through that, making sure it's accurate.

And then that's some of the unbudgeted, right?

So we so there's some things in there in particular.

We talk, I'll put up their SB 116 from the 2025 session.

Then the actual expenditures and transfer hours are trending as expected.

Um, the pay period 19, this will show you.

So that was the previous cost plan that we did that we are trending in the direction of the 3% target, which was budgeted for salary savings, but a lot of things can impact that.

And then what are we looking at as far as the budget process for 2027?

So, right now, and again, fiscal year 2027.

Sorry, so July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027.

Uh, we're looking at having a preliminary fiscal outlook on January 20th, which is similar to last fiscal year.

Um, a identified time for budget workshop.

We're gonna continue our internal department.

We call that it's the budget Congress.

It was new.

We tried it last year, um, have gotten some great feedback on maybe things to do different or things to do better, but um well received generally speaking, then continue the monthly updates to the board.

So we're we're targeting the third meeting of the month because we want to make sure that right prior month and different financial information is available to share.

So we look at February and March.

Right now, April 14th would be on our calendar for the recommended budget, so recommended fiscal year 27, and then the public hearing on May 19th.

Now these can change.

We have some statutory limitations of when we can hold that uh public hearing for that final budget, and um, so this could change.

And so this could change.

So I don't is it is it gonna be April 14th?

Is it gonna be April 21st?

We're gonna have to go through the process.

We will still have conversations with with departments and obviously with the county manager will follow whatever uh her direction is, but right now this is the outline or the overview of the going into the school year 27.

And that's all I had.

Thank you.

Very helpful to know where we're going, and I cannot wait for that workshop in January.

I'm uh do not envy your position.

I know that it's really tough for you to be projecting budgets right now, so I apologize.

And the property tax thing is kind of shocking to me.

Um do you have any insights on that?

No, we're looking at um bringing in the subject matter experts, which are gonna be um from the assessor and the treasurer's team to see, okay, is this a blip, is this a one-off?

Yeah, um, we will adjust how we need to, is how it's gonna reflect in the budget.

So we have to reconcile to the state's pro forma.

Um, so if or we have to make a really good argument to them why we don't want to use their number, which I don't know, it has its pros and its cons.

Um so uh if we need to make other adjustments, we need to figure out where we would make them in the forecast.

So that's why the trending and looking at, well, if last year was slightly below where we thought we were gonna be, if this year's trending that same way, we need to make those adjustments.

So we were fortunate at a bottom line that it was not a material or negative negative material impact to us.

Um, but it was uh anyway, fiscal or 13, since I've been a budget, we have it's usually very, very close in percentage-wide as it is very, very close.

But if something else is in this formula or is causing some of these impacts, we want to know about them sooner rather than later.

So working with those staff to get that what information we can get.

But it's lack of growth depreciating a property tax, or is there something else you're figuring it out?

I yeah, honestly, I will I would have my opinion, but I don't want to give my opinion because it's probably wrong.

So I don't I don't know.

Okay, maybe you can whisper it to me later because I'm curious what you're thinking.

So um but yeah, that's all anecdotal solution.

Exactly.

Um okay, well, I'll open it up to the board.

Um, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you so much for the presentation and update.

Glad to hear the FY25 ending fund balance is better than expected.

I know you're facing some serious challenges trying to forecast all the CTAX revenues and and um I wanted to kind of rewind the tape a little bit.

It's we're at about the six month mark where on April 15th, as we remember, um, we expressed some concerns as a board about the idea of a potential countywide hiring freeze, and then fast forward uh you know the next week.

We uh at the April 22nd meeting talked about vacancy salary savings.

And so I think for me today, you know, we've got over 3100 employees, we've got the 24 departments.

Um if you could just take a moment to talk about where we're at with the vacancy salary savings.

I know that you said um we budget the salary savings, and we didn't have the salary savings that we had anticipated, but I was just hoping you could drill down a little bit deeper on that particular point since that did carry so much weight as we closed out the last fiscal year.

Right.

So there are um obviously we have, and I didn't put it in this presentation, and we can um provide it, you know, whenever.

So there are we are not the only agents, most unless you're a capital intensive business, most agencies, most businesses, their most expensive, their their cost are their people.

So we're not unusual.

There are um to commissioner Clark has made has made comment related to we do have some departments that are a much higher percentage of personnel than other departments.

So that's just a nature of how those departments or how those funds uh financially work.

Uh so when you start when we start talking about uh ways to address right escalation of costs.

There's you know, there's from the minor, I would call it.

I mean, anything that's gonna impact employees, I don't consider minor, but the the less impactful to the most impactful.

And there's some best practices uh through government finance association officers association of the United States and Canada, as well as through just various uh agencies or entities that right that go out and they work with whether it's the conference board or whomever.

So one of those is when we talk about hiring freezes, right?

So I'm not trying to bring it up as a dirty word, it's nothing that's being recommended at this point.

So you have hot soft freezes, you have hard freezes, you have you know different ways that you that you go about that.

So we had that conversation of is this what as a policy decision that the board wanted to proceed with, and that's that's not the direction that that we took.

So there is the estimate was based at vacancies at a point in time, those vacancies were filled, and so we didn't see all of those come to fruition.

So that you know it is what it is.

When we budgeted those salary savings, we have less flexibility when it comes to bottom line because we're already saying yep, we anticipate them.

So what we're seeing early on based on our cost plans is that we are trending to have those.

Um, but when it comes to what that value is in the general fund it was uh between 10 and 11 million for that 3%, what does that mean in terms of turnover?

Um obviously, if we have people who what we're seeing right now, which is it's a higher number, so larger number than last year is our payouts.

So we actually in the first quarter have a larger, and I don't have it in front of me, so I don't want to misspeak, um, but we do have a larger um, I want to say it's like last year first quarter is like 97,000 or 950,000, and this year it's like 1.4 million year to date.

So it's a marked increase, but what comes along with that is then when either internal candidates are promoted or we hire, those are usually less expensive employees.

So there's that natural turnover, which is where the 3% was targeted.

It was not a targeted at um X.

We we've done that, we've done some analysis.

It wasn't that X percent of this population of employees gonna be eligible for retirement within a year, and we're people can I mean we have I think we have one person on staff who's had like 40 or 45 years of county service.

So you just you don't know it's a it's a personal choice.

So we have those averages keeping an eye on those because again, we don't have that that flexibility.

Usually when as an agency, when you um when you go there, as far as hiring freezes or whatever we want to say, there's a framework around it.

So there's criteria, it's you know, there's sometimes there's exceptions, sometimes it's like, well, this position we could never just not hire somebody into that position that it became vacant.

So I don't think I'm answering your question.

So that's uh being honest at the dais.

Um but from the perspective of flexibility from a financial flexibility, we have a little bit less, but we're trending okay.

And hiring freezes, however you want to call them, usually are the least impactful because it's not current employee.

Now it does impact potentially a department if they can't refill a position.

Right.

That certainly is um that is true, that is real, that is an impact, um, but not laying people off or having people on the street, um, which has been a priority and a communicated priority of of this board, um, it's one of the least impactful things that we can do to try to, especially when we have uh right, we have multi-year collective bargaining agreements, so there are certain things that have already been approved and that are gonna move forward regardless of all other things, regardless if you know PERS has another change, or regardless of what happens with group insurance, those types of things.

So, but there are you know, there are a lot of options when it comes to things that an agency can do to address, you know, that that expense or that cost, um, but again, that's that's policy, and then things that we can or can't do either by state law or collective bargaining.

So we have limitations as well.

So it's kind of, I don't want to say low-hanging fruit, but it's kind of is one of the first steps or one of the first stops is we call them a soft hiring freeze.

So, okay, you have a vacant position, you don't fill it for three months, something like that.

Then you would go to hard hiring freeze, then you would go to position layoffs through attrition, then probably actual layoffs.

So that is kind of in order or or kind of the um what we see as uh potential.

There's all other kinds of creative stuff in between, voluntary part-time.

I mean, there's just all kinds of stuff that we can that can be done at an agency level, is just we're not um, I don't think we're at that point yet of looking there.

I I think what we're doing right now is we're trending where we thought we would be, but keeping an eye on it too.

Okay, sorry.

No, that's no, that's okay.

And I think um we're gonna continue to have more difficult decisions ahead of us.

I I don't want to shy away from hard to talk about topics.

Um I think if anything, we should be leaning into it and um communicating that to our incredible employees, knowing that we as a commission have clearly said we want to take care of the people we got.

We don't want to put our staff and departments under a tremendous amount of pressure where we start to see people burning out and being less effective in their jobs, and we need people to bring their A game every single day to deliver top-notch services to our community members.

So I think for me, moving forward as the budget continues to tighten and as these forecasted shortfalls continue to just get in our face.

I think we just need to talk about it a little bit more.

Since it was such a central part of what we talked about in April, it's been pretty quiet on that front.

So if we could have leads for me, it would be helpful that we could revisit and touch this very point in the upcoming um updates that we receive from you.

And I look forward to hearing again in in January as we start to kick things in a high gear.

So thank you.

And Manager Thomas wanted to add something to this.

I think Commissioner Garcia beat me to it.

Um I was going to reiterate that we heard you loud and clear when that issue was brought forward before this board.

I think since then you've heard some creative solutions.

You heard one today from Miss Enfield about a vacant position that they are gonna hold and assess to see what is needed before just automatically filling those.

And that comes with trust from the organization.

If you're fearful of a hiring freeze, you're gonna fill those positions immediately for fear that though that freeze is coming.

So I'd like to applaud the work that the organization has done as far as really taking a hard look at positions as they become vacant and retooling them, and just wanted to give that comfort that you already reiterated.

So thank you for doing that.

Yeah, and I would say our county employees are so committed and some of the hardest workers out there and are prepared to take on, I know, additional work because we're all gonna have to become Swiss Army Knives A reminds this time reminds me of 2008.

I don't mean to be dark, but it does.

Um, and so I think just making sure that we're having these discussions, Commissioner Garcia, you're absolutely right, and um making it clear that we're thinking through all of these um potential decisions.

Commissioner Andriola, I feel like I want to talk about the Christmas tree.

You bring up the Christmas tree again.

Really want to talk about the Christmas tree.

Um so thank you so much.

I too want to echo the gratitude for you and your team and everyone because there's so much uncertainty and things, it feels like things the goalposts is always moving.

As soon as you feel like something is at least settled, you find out that it's not.

Um it's not the first time I've said this, but I truly believe that Washoe County is in the customer service business delivering essential services, and that very statement is about people.

And so even though we hear a lot about various departments and whatever their wage rate is comparatively, the reality is is that the folks at Washoe County and the staff are delivering those essential services to the community that are expected in terms of roads, public safety, um, and and everything in between.

And so I do think that as um, you know, I I lived through some pretty tough discussion decisions as well with 2008 when the chair said that I immediately went to 2008.

The the reality is is that I I would say that we're in even more unique times than 2008.

We don't know where we're going in terms of the the one thing that we have is constant is uncertainty.

That is the one thing in my opinion that is constant.

And so it's from that perspective of not scaring and not creating a lot of more uncertainty, but I think laying out a plan, having the discussions that have already been shared.

I was um wondering when the um there were a couple things that I wanted to ask.

One was uh well, first of all, I'd like to say I'm really excited about the budget workshop.

Can I share with the interim county manager, soon to be county manager?

Thank you for you know really taking the lead um on having a budget workshop and taking from the RAF Tell us report a recommendation for those workshops.

I don't think there's anything as as intrical that we could be talking about than that of what is being faced, right?

To Commissioner Garcia's point is we need to have these discussions, and some of them are not going to be easy.

I am wondering from a timeline standpoint, um what is the projected time to I forget what it's called to meet with all the departments?

The Congress, the Congress.

I was gonna call it a caucus and I I embraced myself on caucus, but I couldn't remember the workshop, right?

No, not the workshop, but the clock of the budget congressional Congress where all the departments come together and discuss.

I think you have that in February.

February right now.

So February 3rd.

So that'll be after the workshop.

Correct.

It will be after the initial outlook.

It will be after the workshop, but like literally in the next week.

Um, and then uh we will follow up with departments uh individually or whatnot as we need to.

And I it goes without saying, I'm sure that all departments are looking for the quarters and the couch.

Um and hopefully they're big quarters.

Um but I do I do think um it would be really helpful to share a couple things that I had with a conversation with uh President Smith with Wash County School District when some of the budget discussions had happened as Commissioner Garcia stated in April and some of the discussion.

Um I spoke with her, and one of the things, and I'm just using this as an example to be fully transparent.

You know, they hadn't, and it was my understanding hadn't looked at their insurance policies in a very in-depth way.

I'm not suggesting they did anything inappropriate.

I'm not suggesting Washer County is not doing this.

I'm just giving it as an example.

They found several million dollars from a Washoe County School District budget, which is very comparable to their dollar amount for us.

So I'm just giving uh one example.

The other thing that I think is something that I'm sure everyone's thinking about, and Miss Enfield used the example of looking at positions, but even cross um pollination of positions and not looking at silos being the only uh way that one department can't think about how they can leverage things with another department and how we can look at that.

I think the workshop will help the commission as a whole look from a policy standpoint point.

For me, I really am looking forward to you know how we can look at defining those essential positions.

I've said it before, I think that statute is um and compliance are a first.

I'm not suggesting that there aren't other areas that are equally important, but I do think that it's something to think about, not in giving you direction, I'm just throwing this out because it's not the first time I've mentioned it.

We all want this to be successful, and we don't want anyone to be laid off.

I think that's the one thing that every single commissioner, I hope, would agree to.

This is about looking at not only what the forecast is today, but the stability of how we do things in the future.

And I think that um there are some best practices that you're probably already aware of.

Um I feel for you on the National Association of Industry Code Standards and that compiling, because I have done with those code, I've dealt with those codes.

So looking up and then having them not there, I I can't even imagine what you're going through.

I I can't.

Is there an automation with that for you, or are you having to just cross reference things for that for those industry codes?

So interestingly enough, it was a positive outcome of the of the state changing systems, is now we can get our reports in Excel.

Okay.

Okay.

So prior to that, it's PDF only, which does not convert to an Excel easily, basically at all, based on their format, and it was Laurie typing or my team typing, um, and trying to look at that bottom line and then just trying to find those things that were the kind of those red flags of oh my gosh, this had a hundred percent variance from prior year, um, and going from there.

So I do um there will be definitely it will as we move forward, we will have more advantages of that will be more automated, even from a perspective of you know, pivot tables or comparing prior year, but right, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to experience a year to be able to compare it to the prior year.

So when I'm looking at prior years or even, you know, we've looked at um well, what happened over over the big bad word, what happened over the Great Recession?

Uh, what code, I mean, we know housing, especially here in Nevada was if not the hardest, maybe the second hardest hit state, um, and one of the slowest to recover when it when it came to property values uh looking at that, but they're right, there's all the other things associated with that.

If you're not building new houses, people aren't buying appliances and they might not be buying blinds, and they might be not be doing landscaping and those things that go along with it.

So we can we could see those when we looked at those um those codes.

Um now, how significant is the roll-up that I haven't been able to um have time to dig into and say, shoot, this used to be 10 codes and now it's one to know kind of what that um what that variance would be from the analysis perspective.

Well, thanks to the but I do anticipate greater efficiency and better ability to do that kind of analysis going forward now that now that we can now that's all settled.

Now that we can get it in now that we can get it in.

And I love the way you're using normalize because that may change on a minute by minute basis on defining normalization.

Right.

But um the other uh thing that I was wondering about as you were um presenting and then answering Commissioner Garcia's question is that the reality is is that even in the budget, there's there's these um compliance requirements in terms of just getting uh filings in with certain deadlines that have to be met.

And then even I remember actually asking last year about what if we need to change this.

There's a rules for changing this.

So trying to get this right is kudos to you, right?

I mean, it's really trying to fine-tune and I do think um in having lots of conversations with um the assessor, lots of conversations with the treasurer being on the investment committee and seeing what those outlooks look like.

I think that there is um an opportunity, I hope, to um look at what what what they're forecasting and what some of those reasons to the chair's point about what what could be the core reasons for some of these things that you're gonna whisper her to her later.

Um and maybe she'll share with the what that whisper is.

I don't know.

But the reality is is that there is um what is perceived as having a lot of funding, and and that there's more expense expenditures that are happening than there is obviously with revenue, and and I hope that we can have a better uh feel for that.

And I am just gonna ask the chair for consideration of having the treasurer also share some of the outlook from the investment committee and to CFO.

Oh, she's here yet open as well, because I think that we all should hear what those forecasts look like as well from those that are um actually again kudos to the treasurer for and the investment committee for making decision on going to an RFP.

We've seen the results of of that, but there's some there's some things that I think everybody needs to really be aware of, and I would hope the chair would consider that so that we understand.

And by the way, if you ask 10 economists, you get 11 different responses.

So that isn't certain, but I do think that there's analysis that would benefit in terms of just what we all should be thinking about and moving forward with this with some really hard decisions.

And so I just want to say thank you to all the department heads in advance.

Thank you for looking for the quarters in the couch that hopefully there's lots of them, and really looking at how you can think differently about delivering your essential services and what we can do also in Washoe County if those decisions are gonna be difficult, how we actually share even to the folks that we serve, and that's the community on what changes they may expect as well.

So um I really appreciate the chair for giving me this time and thank you, Ms.

Cook, for um trying to present information that can change as soon as the meeting is over, or may have already changed now.

We don't know.

I would ask if we could get your presentation, um, if that could get emailed, and and maybe I'll do it a different way.

If you wanted to email what you presented, and then no rush, but if we could get anything that's updated to Commissioner Garcia's point, the more information we can have, I look forward to the end term and future county managers briefings.

I look forward to having these um briefings with commissioners, and I hope we can have them sooner and often.

That would be really helpful, and that's what I would ask and request.

Thank you.

And to that point, you know, at the fire board, we know we're reviewing our PNL every month.

I don't know if it's appropriate to do it every month.

I would look to you and the manager to talk that through, but um figuring out a way to just keep us informed.

And it could be a really brief presentation, but just making sure that the board understand the community because I think there's a lot of misperceptions out there in the community about what our budget is and why it's being affected and why we're seeing, you know, um why we're seeing that we're not keeping up uh with our costs, and so I I think Breno, the city of Reno is actually doing a very good job articulating the issues uh with our tax system.

All the yeah, and so maybe there's an opportunity for us to also make sure that we uh articulate that and you know just putting more work on your shoulders.

I'm sorry, but uh maybe there's a way that we can figure that out that makes sense for the scheduling and uh for as you learn more information.

Uh Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, uh Ms.

Cook, for your report.

Um it's always good to get information, you know.

Uh information is is just that it's something that that we can formulate what we need to do in the future.

Information is key to what we do here.

Uh I know you're a dedicated person.

Uh I just want to know how many hours during the night are you dreaming about this?

I get that feeling that that you're on duty about 23 and a half hours a day, if not more.

Uh I I know you're dedicated to this and and it shows and thank you for your hard work.

Thank you.

All right.

Anything else to add, Manager Thomas, before we move on from this item or Ms.

Cook.

Thank you for your work, and we'll be in touch.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, we are now moving into donations.

If Commissioner Garcia could help us with that.

Of course.

Um, so today we've got several items.

We've got cash donations and in-kind uh donations for the regional parks and open space programs.

We've got monetary donations and supplies to support uh the welfare activities for the child protective services fund for housing and homeless services for senior services, and I wanted to highlight a particular monetary donation of ten thousand dollars that we received from LPL Financial, and thank you so much for that generous gift.

And with that, I'd like to move um to approve all of those donations.

Thank you so much.

Looking for a second.

Do you want to do that?

Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

All right.

Um, Madam Clerk, is there any public comment on the donations?

There is none.

Thank you.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And that motion passes unanimously.

We are now going to move into our block vote.

We just have one and our vice chair isn't here.

So I will move to uh block item nine.

I'm looking for a second.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

Madam Clerk, is there any public comment on item nine?

There's none.

Okay.

All right.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

All right.

It's on your screen.

Thank you.

That motion passes unanimously.

We are now going to move into item 10.

And I look to Manager Thomas to help me with this one.

Sure thing.

This is a public hearing where you will consider the planning commission's recommendation to adopt an amendment to the South Valley's regulatory zone map to change the zoning on four parcels which are listed on the agenda, totaling plus or minus 80 acres from low density rural to medium density rural, and plus or minus 9.7 acres located all over the four parcels that are listed from general rural to open space and other matters that are considered on the agenda.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Does the board wish to have a presentation on this item?

I'm not seeing that anyone does.

Okay.

Is there any this is a public hearing?

I will open up the public comment.

Is there any public comment, Madam Clark?

There is none.

Thank you so much.

All right, we have no public comment.

We're not doing a presentation.

Any board comments before we do a motion on this item.

I'm not seeing any.

So I am looking for a motion.

I'm sure I move to approve as presented.

Thank you very much.

And I'll second that.

And uh all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

We've got an error on our iPad.

Oh.

All right.

Motion passes.

Is that accurate, Commissioner Clark?

Just want to make sure.

Okay, unanimously.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We are now uh out of public hearings.

Moving to item 11.

Manager Thomas.

Item 11 is your final public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers.

And please make your comments to the commission as a whole.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Um I will now move into item 12, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item 12 is your final commissioner and county managers announcements, reports and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topic for futures future agendas.

Do you have anything for us?

Just clarifying that your meeting in November is the 18th.

18th, yeah, that's right.

Okay.

Tuesday the 18th.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Garcia.

All right, Commissioner Clark.

I don't have anything either.

Uh well, it is 1221.

We are adjourned.

Thanks for a great meeting.