Good morning, everyone.

It is 1001, and I will call this Board of County Commissioners meeting to order on November 18th, 2025.

We'll start with a salute to the flag.

If Commissioner Garcia could please lead us.

Please join me in the salute to the flag.

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

Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, if you could help us with the roll call.

Certainly.

Thank you.

Alexis Hill Chair.

Here.

Jean Herman Vice Chair.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Garcia.

Commissioner Andreola.

Present.

Interim County Manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

And Chief Deputy DA Mike Large.

Here.

And I'm Jan Gallisini, your county clerk.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll now go into item three, which is our invocation.

It will be given by Jason Gunasso.

Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

A reading from the book of Micah, verse uh chapter six, verse eight.

He has shown you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Would you bow with me and pray?

Heavenly Father, your prophet Micah declared what you require of us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you.

May these words provide guidance and encouragement to all who gather here today.

Lord, we ask that you would bless and give each of these commissioners, Chair Hill, Vice Chair Herman, Commissioner Clark, Commissioner Garcia, and Commissioner Andreola.

Give them wisdom that surpasses even their own understanding.

Grant them courage to make difficult decisions, compassion to see those most affected by their choices, and humility to recognize their dependence on you.

As your servant Catherine Booth, the co-founder and mother of the Salvation Army once said, To better the future, we must disturb the present.

So, Father, as this board considers matters of housing and homelessness, public safety and fire protection, behavioral health services and support for the most vulnerable.

Uh neighbors, give them wholly discontent with any status quo that leaves people suffering.

Where there is need, let them see it clearly.

Where there is injustice, give them resolve to address it.

And where there are solutions that require courage, strengthen their head, their heart, and their hands to make tough decisions, to take bold actions, and to do the hard work required of them, regardless of whether the solution is popular and regardless of whether the solution would come with a political cost.

May this board always put the people they serve over the politics of the day.

We also pray for the staff who prepare the reports, who research the issues, and serve this community day after day, many of whose names we will never know, but whose work touches countless lives.

Bless each of them, each of the staff members and their families, as they faithfully serve our community, and please keep them safe and encourage them.

We pray for our county manager Kate Thomas, for Chief Edwards and all of our firefighters, for Sheriff Balam and his team of dedicated sheriff's deputies, the technology specialists, the human resource workers, and all those who labor to serve this community in ways that are both seen and unseen.

Bless the work of their hands, and may your grace and peace rest upon them and their families.

We pray for those who will be impacted by the decisions made today by this county commission for the families seeking affordable housing, for the seniors needing services, for those struggling with addiction and mental health challenges, for students using our libraries and for neighborhoods protected by our first responders.

I pray your grace would fill their debates and discussions as they work through each issue.

Give these commissioners the wisdom they need to reach consensus and make important decisions.

And may your peace reign over this meeting from start to finish.

Lord help this commission to not merely maintain what is comfortable, but to build what is just.

Give them eyes to see beyond budgets and agenda items to the faces of real people, people who weep, people who hunger, people who struggle, and people who hope.

May they love mercy and may they walk humbly with you today and every day as they faithfully serve our community.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you very much.

Well, um, I would like to just take one item out of order.

If um I we have four kids here who want to speak from Coral Academy, and they have to leave.

And so I'd like to allow them to come up and speak if they're here.

And um and so they want to come down, Madam Chair.

I believe they would like to speak after 1020.

So after 1020.

Yes, we can go ahead with item four, and then I will watch the time to make them speak after 1020.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay.

We'll now move in to item four, then.

Um manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item number four is a general update from our Trucky Meadows Fire and Rescue Chief Edwards, who is here to provide the board with a verbal report as requested monthly to the board.

So welcome, Chief.

Thank you.

Welcome, Chief.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Vice Chair and Commissioners.

Um just wanted to provide some updates on our fuel mitigation and fire prevention efforts over the last couple of weeks.

Um this fall we had a green waste program, kick off, um, where we brought in 894 loads of green waste that were disposed of.

Um more than 700 of those came from Washoe Valley and Silver Lake areas.

So this is huge in our fuel reduction and making our communities a little bit safer.

Uh those totaled over 4200 cubic yards of material.

Um so we're also very grateful to our partners at Waste Management who donated 16 large dumpsters to help us offload a lot of that material as well.

So we're looking forward to also doing that again in the spring.

So if those that weren't able to participate this fall, there'll be another opportunity in about three months uh to do it then.

Um we also had our curbside chipping uh program up and running in this fall.

Um we service 110 properties and this curbside chipping program is for those that are elderly or disabled that can't get out and come to these recycling events that will come to them and help chip their material as well.

Um so also a great service to the community to bolster their their fire prevention efforts and their their fuel mitigation uh plans.

Um we've also expanded our open burning season.

So in the past, that's only been for two months.

Uh we've opened it up on November 3rd this year, and that'll run all the way through April 30th.

Um so if you have an approved permit and it's a permecible burn day, we encourage those that are able to to get out and burn those fuels so that uh we can do it in a controlled environment uh and in good conditions, like today when it's raining where the risk of fire is low.

Um if you need more information or the community would like more information, they can visit TMFPD.us.

It's right on our homepage there.

There's more information about the opening burning process.

And then the last update I had for you all today is that uh we're partnering with the Truckee Meadows Firefighters Foundation on uh neighborhood Santa Parades and Toy Drive to give uh collect toys uh for those less fortunate and uh those at the Ronald McDonald House.

Um so those parades will occur uh nightly for five nights between December 11th and December 15th.

Um they'll start at uh a neighborhood firehouse at 6 p.m.

Um and there's more information also on our website for that as well.

We'd love to have everyone come out and join us for the holiday festivities and getting to know your firefighters at the same time.

Um we're also collecting toys at each of our Truckee Meadows firehouses between now and December 15th.

So if anybody would like to drop off unwrapped toys, we're collecting at those uh locations as well.

Um and that concludes my updates.

That's great.

I love the the parade and um making sure that community members can um learn about our different fire stations and also support kids in need.

So thank you for your leadership on that, Chief Edwards.

Do you do any commissioners have questions or comments?

Yes, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair, and and thank you, Chief, for your reports.

It's very informative.

Um, the waste uh uh management or the waste management donating the bins and working together, and and I've said it here on the dais before.

I had a load of uh of uh waste that I brought down and uh the workers unloaded the trailer, they did a great job.

And uh I think it's all about fire prevention.

And I think you're doing a good job with that.

Uh the open burn extended time, that that's another great idea.

Again, it's all about fire prevention, and uh so we can get rid of these wastes around people's dwellings or outbuildings and and just help clean up the the area, get rid of the dead brushes and bushes and branches and and get it chipped up and and recycle it somewhere.

And I presume that's what you're doing with it.

I saw the big shipping piles there, so some of it gets recycled and used uh in other ways.

Is that correct?

Absolutely.

That those uh the stuff that we could ship um that didn't have a lot of soil or other materials mixed into it was shipped and it could be used for mulch or uh decorative landscaping and so forth.

So we repurposing of that, so thank you.

And the community outreach and and your involvement, I see at different events on a regular basis.

I see you here uh and around, and so uh I think that's important to the community to have a face uh of the leadership of the the Truck Emo's fire department.

So thank you for uh showing up to all those events.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

Any other commissioners?

Thank you, Vice Chair, for asking for this update.

It's a great update.

Well, thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Have a great one.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll now move into item five.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item number five is public comment and 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.

A news 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, if you could help us with public comment.

Of course.

Thank you.

We have several people signed in, so the second name, please queue up for your turn next.

First up, we have Fred Henders, followed by Terry Brooks.

Morning, Commissioners.

My name is Fred Hinners, unpaid executive director of Family Counseling Service of Northern Nevada.

Our small agency has served Washoe for 66 years.

You may know us from Ali's prom closet, where we provide dresses, tuxes, and accessories for high school students who might not be able to afford them.

We operated the Summer of Healing Sexual Abuse Treatment Program for 25 years.

We brought sexually abuse children to a camp at Eagle Lake for therapy.

The can't was absolutely transformative and extraordinarily helpful for the children.

This year we worked with veterans groups to do a complete makeover of a disabled veterans home.

He had been abused by family members, and we organized a massive cleaning, structural repairs, new appliances, and a live-in caregiver to a system.

For decades, we assisted uh thousands of middle-class Washoe residents with low-cost credit counseling and bankruptcy preparation.

We now focused on the impoverished.

FCS operates a representative payee program where we receive a client's social security or VA benefits and pay out their monthly bills.

We give them one quarter of the remainder each week.

But we are much more than debits and credits.

As we are able, we provide snacks, clothing, and hygiene products.

We also provide intensive case management as needed.

A grant from the state allows us to take on truly difficult cases in Washoe.

We have the training and experience, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of resources to make positive differences in people's lives.

But to our surprise, Washoe Human Services Agency has decided to cancel our annual $70,000 grant that makes our rep pay program possible.

We have been meticulous in our record keeping and extremely responsive to requests for information.

We know of no complaints from our clients, and we had no negative findings in a recent audit.

We began the area's first rep pay program more than 25 years ago.

And we've been serving 20, and we've been serving uh challenged individuals ever since.

Over the years, a few other PE programs have popped up, and then they've gone away as the reimbursement rates by Social Security and the VA make programs such as ours almost unsustainable.

Currently, we have 150 PE clients, and we don't want to lose our ability to help.

The 70,000 we receive is a tiny fraction of the Washoe budget, keeping our program attack will save many lives.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Terry Brooks, followed by Amy Pulver.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

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

When I was young, I worked at a restaurant where males like me washed dishes, while all the females were waitresses who served to customers their dishes.

After that, I worked three other jobs where they hired only males.

None of the positions in those places were considered appropriate for females.

Then I got a job at a textbook company that hired both females and males and positions there were considered appropriate for females and males.

Then I worked at another place with separations of jobs.

Then I worked where I had gone to school at a library of a university.

Males or females worked in any position, so again, I enjoyed the diversity.

Men used to be more easily employed whether they were married or not.

And they could usually work longer at the job they got.

Young single women, however, were less likely to get a job because if they got married later, then they might quit their job.

Once they got married, they might have children, and they'd have to quit their job to stay home and raise their children.

Men usually got paid more, women usually got paid less.

Some employers said if they paid women more, then they'd have to pay men less.

Some women have been abused with threats of being fired, and some couldn't defend themselves with the fear of being fired.

And again for putting up with more of the very uncomfortable things that I say.

Thank you, Mr.

Brooks.

We appreciate it.

Amy Pulver, followed by Kennice Tasman.

Good morning.

My name is Amy Pulver.

I want to address item 12 on today's agenda, which is labeled as for discussion only.

It would be equal to the combined current FY 2026 budget adjusted as appropriate to account for future contractual obligations.

This 2027 budget would be fully within the general fund in 2027.

I have attended all regular and special meetings of the Library Board of Trustees since last November.

Many of the meetings were chaotic, ill-managed, and breached rules of civility.

At one meeting, three different library staff members left the meeting in tears at different times from statements made by board members.

I've worked in the public sector for decades.

I've been through many contentious and heated public meetings, but even I was shocked at the lack of professionalism exhibited by some members of the Library Board of Trustees.

That said, a corner was turned.

He treated everyone with kindness, courtesy, respect, and patience.

His work was thorough, transparent.

He explained budget scenarios numerous times and answered multiple questions, sometimes multiple times.

He listened to hundreds of comments from the public and helping the board to move consensus, move to consensus on a base budget for the library system.

He and his staff put together cogent presentations, multiple scenarios, and different assumptions to arrive at the recommendation that is now supported by the library board.

I too support that budget recommendation for the base budget moving forward and urge the commissioners to accept the recommendation at the appropriate time.

The recommendation faithfully reflects community sentiment about the library system, the reality of the county's tight financial situation, and provides a good starting place for the new library director once he or she is on board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

When a government gets corrupted, all goes to the floor.

Good morning, commissioners.

My name is Conese Asman, and today I will be talking about corruption.

The meaning of corruption is when someone is dishonest, Andrew Frogger, most times including bribery.

While there are a few countries that aren't that corrupt or just haven't been found out yet, there are met there are a few countries, there are still many countries with corruption.

The top ten most corrupted countries as listed on USnews.com starts with Russia, followed by Iran, Colombia, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, El Salvador, Ghana, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.

US News.com ranked the countries based on the 2024 Transparency Organization based on corruption perceptions.

Here's an example of when people finally had enough of their of the corruption in their country.

In Bangladesh, there had been a quota system in which if you were a descendant of someone who fought the battle of independence for the country, you would get the higher level and higher paying jobs.

Not many people were descendants, as many of their family members had not fought in the battle.

Because of this, the higher power jobs were corrupted.

Sheikh Hashina was and had been the prime minister for over 20 years at this point, since the voting polls were guarded by cops who followed every order given to them.

And since she made the KOTA system, all the cops were not picked for their ability, but for being a descendant from the people who fought for independence.

When students started not getting not getting jobs, not getting equal pay, and not getting the same rights, they started to protest.

There were peaceful protests at first.

They just wanted something done, but Sheikh Hasina did not like the peaceful protests at all.

At one point, they turned all the cell towers in the country off so this information could not get out.

She decided to send out the cops and start threatening and hurting people as well.

It is estimated that around 1,400 people died during these protests.

In the end, though, Sheikh Hashina did not did get karma as the people of Bangladesh started to retaliate and eventually raiding corrupted mayors' homes and as well as offices.

Sheikh Hasina's home also got raided.

In the end, she fled Bangladesh and tried to go to the United Kingdom where her sister lives, but the United Kingdom denied her visa so she could not stay.

She tried to get a visa to many other countries as well, but they all got denied.

Now she lives in India, getting protection from Wodi, the Prime Minister of India, since she cannot go to any other country.

In recent news, Hashina has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity during the protest, but she cannot serve her death sentence at the moment since India will not release her to Bangladesh.

Although she although if she were to leave a country, she would definitely be sent back to Bangladesh to serve her death sentence.

While we may not be able to control the rise in corruption, we should stand up and try to stop the corruption.

I also want to mention that this is not directed to any members of the committee or anyone here.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Beautiful job.

Next up, we have Daniela Marquez, followed by Genesis Fijardo.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Daniela Marquez, and today I will be talking about ICE migration.

Imagine a chess board where every piece represents a life, a family, a dream.

ISO migration agents are some of the people that play within these complex games, tasked with enforcing immigration law.

But unlike King Queen Pond in More Pieces in Chess, they use human lives, families.

Their job is to detain individuals without proper documentation.

Yet, behind every arrest is a mother, a father, a child that is separated from their family.

These people, although without proper documentation, they help our community and our country to become what it is today.

America is being built by immigrants.

According to community to hine every arrest is a mother, a father, and a child that is separated from her family.

According to Pew Research Center, as of June 2025, 51.9 million immigrants live up live in the US, making up 15.4% of the nation's population.

These people are not criminals.

In fact, a large a large majority of immigrants have not committed a crime at all.

Immigrants, including undocumented, undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than US porn.

These people have dreams, goals, achievements.

Some are some hard some are hard workers trying to build a better future, building our houses, schools, apartments, and many more buildings.

Others were students that were forced to be under their education.

These are not just stories, they're showing what the US has become.

With every knock on the door, families fear to open it, and kids are taken away from schools from their families.

Families are torn apart and living in fear.

Let us not forget the Constitution protects every single person on US soil, regardless of having no proper documentation, which proves ICE is breaking the law.

Without ICE immigration, we can work together to help one another.

We cannot only create a united system, but follow the Bill of Rights, which protects citizens' rights, freedoms of America.

Specifically the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and requires warrants.

The Fifth Amendment guarantees several rights and protects individuals from abuses of the legal system.

And the Sixth Amendment guarantees rights to individu individuals accused of crimes.

These people are not criminals.

They're just like you and me.

Without ICE, no families would no longer be torn apart and are taken away from each other.

We cannot create a system that unites all of us, that every one of us has equal rights regardless of our past, that the Bill of Rights are followed, and that the dreams of these people are achieved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Genesis Bridardo, followed by Eliza Rouse.

How does it feel to be Bad Bunny at this moment in time?

Some people may say it has been the best month of his life because he has just been named the headliner for the Super Bowl, while others say it has been his worst because of the controversy surrounding this decision.

My name is Genesis from Coral Academy, and I will be speaking about the bat the headliner for the Super Bowl.

Do you think Bad Bunny should be able to perform at the Super Bowl?

I believe he should be able to for the following reasons.

Because he's an American citizen, because 600 million people in the world speak Spanish, and because his music has a vibe.

I hope that by the end of this speech, if you have any doubt that Bad Bunny deserves to perform at the Super Bowl, that not only your mind is changed, but you also consider joining his fan club.

Let's stop being as boring as a sloth on a sunny day.

A lot of people who are against his performance are claiming that he's not even a United States citizen and now he should not be able to perform.

They only claim Americans should perform in the Super Bowl.

However, they are very mistaken because Puerto Rico is part of the United States, which makes all their residents US citizens, including Bad Bunny.

Not only that, but there had been many performers in the past that were not US citizens, which is also okay.

Some of these performers include Shakira, The Weekend, Rihanna, and Coldplay.

Not that it should even matter.

Everyone should be allowed to perform.

We should be making people feel welcome.

We should support non-US citizens, we should help.

Another reason some people are upset is because all his music is in Spanish.

They claim that the performer should only perform English music and have certain standards.

The NFL is trying to reach a bigger audience all around the world.

What was once known as an American sport is now becoming a worldwide sport.

What better way for the NFL to reach a new audience than to bring Spanish speakers?

Around 600 million people around the world speak Spanish.

Imagine how many people the NFL is going to be able to reach that day.

Maybe this will open to the possibility to bring more performers that speak other languages and re and therefore attract more NFL watchers.

We live in such a diverse world, why not embrace other cultures?

Last but not least, his music is just a vibe, plain and simple.

His music gets everyone dancing along, even if they don't know what they're dancing to.

In conclusion, everyone should let loose and enjoy this entertaining free concert.

Let's all embrace diversity in this as the NFL is doing and jump on and support Bad Bunny.

Let's allow him to pave the way for more artists to be able to perform regardless of the language they perform in.

Let's diversify and that Super Bowl and stage and enjoy the show.

Wow, good job.

Great.

Eliza Rouse, followed by Adam Schiffendecker.

In the United States, we are a melting pot of many different races and cultures.

Our presidency should reflect the best of our country.

But does it really?

Hello, my name is Eliza J.

Ralph, and today I will be speaking on the inequality in our presidency.

As citizens, we should show our diversity by choosing presidents from different backgrounds.

But after almost 250 years, 98% of our presidents have enlightened, and most share the same ancestor, King John of England.

White males have been running our country for a long time, and I have nothing against their leadership.

But we need people with different experiences and ideas to be presidents as well.

When a child reads a book or watches a movie that reflects them, they feel inspired to do great things.

Though that is not the common way today.

By electing diverse presidents, we will fix this for the next generation.

Do you want your children and grandchildren to be afraid to pursue their dreams?

Do you want to let down your posterity?

That is why we need more diverse presidents.

Wow, great job.

And I commend Coral Academy, having your kids come down here and do public comment and take part of our representative democracy.

So thank you so much.

Congratulations.

And please feel free to come back.

This is your home.

Madam Clerk.

Next up we have Adam Schifferdecker, followed by Jessica Ruano.

Good morning, County Commissioners and all the staff.

My name is Adam Schifferdecker.

First, I wanted to say thank you to Daniela Marquez for her wonderful wonderful comment on immigration and customs enforcement.

I'm here also once again to speak about the proposed grant that would remodel the sheriff's office to create space for ice.

I want to talk about what it really means to make room for an agency like this in our county.

Decisions like this don't just reshape buildings, they reshape communities.

When we build space for ICE within local law enforcement, we're doing more than approving a grant.

We're blurring a line that many families already fear crossing.

And when that line blurs, people who are already vulnerable begin to retreat.

Victims of violence think twice before reporting.

Witnesses who could solve crimes choose silence instead.

Workers who've experienced harm keep their heads down because they no longer know what kind of badge is going to show up.

The problem isn't mistrust of law enforcement itself, but the fear that local officers are now tied to some agents who take people away for reasons unrelated to public safety.

This remodel may seem small on paper, but its consequences reach far beyond a renovated room.

We all know the stories from other cities.

The stories of unmarked cars, unmasked masked agents, and neighbors detained for nothing more than being in the wrong place with the wrong papers at the wrong moment.

These practices don't build safety, they build fear.

And they damage the very trust that law enforcement depends on to do its job effectively.

Safety without trust isn't real safety, and justice that people are too afraid to access isn't justice.

If our residents can't speak help, can't seek help without calculating the risk, then we are moving in the wrong direction.

So I'm asking you to consider not just the monetary cost, but the human cost.

Ask what we are making room for.

More fear and silence, or a community where every person can step forward without hesitation.

I urge you to reject this grant and instead support efforts that strengthen trust, dignity, and real safety for everyone who calls Walshore County home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up we have Jessica Ruano, followed by Nicholas St.

Johnning.

Good morning.

Commissioners, sorry.

My name is Jessica Ruano, and I'm a 41-year-old singer single mother of four.

I'm also a key old driver for seven years.

I'm also from the Crossroads program.

About nine or ten years ago, I got in trouble, had some drugs in my pocket.

Officer Wickman became my probation officer.

He liked to flirt during court time.

He liked to tell me that he loved me during intake at the sheriff's office.

And I am willing to polygraph all of the stuff.

For the best seniors, he's been stalking and harassing me.

Him and his wife, I knew his wife from 20 years ago.

She worked with my dad.

She wanted to take me to a gay bar.

I didn't want to hang out with her.

It was in college working full time.

I was 19.

She was in her late 20s, I guess.

He he and her like to come by and swing rings at me along with other wives.

He likes to bring other women past on whatever route I'm on most recently, the route 13 with the female coworker.

They drove past me with lunch, pulled into a house, and then parked there.

They were there for more than an hour, like directly on my route.

I'm just, I'm over it.

Like I work with a woman that went through the crossroads program as well.

Um they're all PCP smokers.

I don't know about the female coworker.

Uh, but those are the ones that he seems to favor, and they're harassing me.

Uh, his wife yelled out the car window at me.

It's because I'm fat.

She's also yelled out of the DAS car at me.

All the all the ala.

Uh it's the same thing with the woman I work with.

Uh, she likes to tell me all the business with Officer Whitman.

She even went as far as to name her dog after him.

I'm just I'm over it.

I'm sick of reporting it.

I'm sick of clicking my camera on my bus.

I am literally, I'm only working.

It's my job as a bus driver to sweep the street to make sure I am driving safe.

But I cannot get DAS to leave me alone for being sober.

I like I said, I'll polygraph blood back panel, but I am not the problem.

The one that he's touting to you guys, to the donors.

Um, she's still an alcoholic.

She was involved in some fight at an arcade, and one of our other drivers passed away from a fight from their alcoholism.

Um I don't I don't understand what their problem is, why he wants to antagonize me.

I don't understand why nobody is listening to me.

It's just ridiculous.

This is what they do to people who are successful, even if they walked out of the program as a revoke and still made it.

My picture is on the wall at Circus Circus.

I didn't ask for that.

I didn't sign for that, wasn't compensated.

I'm not asking for a husband.

I've been married twice, and that's a reason why they fling rings at me.

But I don't think they should be a ring harassment.

Thank you for your comments.

No, thank you for your comments.

Can we follow up?

Okay, thank you so much.

We'll follow up with you.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry.

Next up, we have Nicholas St.

John, and I have documents to distribute.

And following Nicholas will be Tara De Quros.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I'm gonna distribute.

They need these documents in front of them before I can see the case.

We can start the timer.

Mr.

St.

John.

Stop the you need these documents before you, and otherwise you're stealing my time.

Thank you.

You know, it's amazing, Alexis, how much, you know, when I call you Queen Tyrant, there's a reason.

You're a tyrant and you're stealing my time.

Why would you not just wait until you got the documents in front of you in order for you to be able to see what it is I'm talking about?

I want you to restart the timer.

I want to reclaim my 30 seconds.

Please restart the timer.

Please restart the timer.

All right, congratulations.

We'll just add that to the uh list of violations, Alexis, our queen tyrant.

Well, you have before you use the cast vote records from 2020, uh, the 2020 general election.

These are the the actual results of the all of the votes that are being cast.

This is this was uh this election was uh touted as the most free and fair election and safe election ever.

Everyone watching and those that are on watching online, free and fair and safe.

I'm about to show you that none of that is true.

What you have before you are are a limited number of pages.

I printed up the first, second, third, and last page of that list.

What you will find is that on the one that's uh that doesn't have a date on the top of it, and then the second one that has uh a day that says C VR export two, two zero two zero one one one seven.

The one one seven document is what I we pulled down in March of 2020.

The one that's uh that doesn't have an uh a header on it is 2020, uh one we just downloaded in March of this year.

If you will look on the left side, there are sequential numbers, cast vote record numbers.

These are numbers that are assigned as they vote, they cast the vote and are counted.

You'll see that the first one is 0003-1-15.

The same is uh on the the 17 report.

The next one is different.

1 and the on the original it was 1 9.

Then it was 120, and on the original it was 116.

Over 98 percent of all the cast vote record numbers have been changed since that election.

If you'll turn to the last page, you will see a number.

You'll see 252, 562, and 254 244.

That's an additional 16 and 82 um records that have been put on this thing.

I'm I'm amazed at how this doesn't seem to shock anybody.

How you guys don't ever step up again.

Madam Clerk, can you call the next person, please?

So you guys have 30 seconds and 40 seconds of my time.

Madam Clerk.

Next up, we have Tara De Caros, followed by Elizabeth.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Um I'm speaking on item 12, which is the library budget.

Um I'm gonna go over some graphs.

Um, all of these data are from the most recent survey by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, which is the federal agency that oversees museums and libraries.

Um the first graph shows funding for the Washoe County Library System compared with all of the other libraries across the country that serve populations with 400 to 600,000 people.

So it's all inclusive.

I didn't select libraries from this.

This is all of them.

Um you can see that the total budget per person for similar similar sized libraries goes from the highest to the lowest, and Washoe County is right here.

Um funding for Washoe County libraries is about 34 dollars per person, um, and the national average is about $53 per person.

Um the next page is gonna show data on the size of the library's collections.

So the number of books per person in each of the library systems.

Um you can see that Washoe County is near the bottom with 0.6 books per person, which is less than half of the national average.

Um the next page shows ebooks per person for these libraries across the country.

Um, and here Washoe County falls even lower.

Um we have 0.07 ebooks per person, and the average is more than 10 times that with um 0.8 books per person.

So I thought maybe you know, this is uh a Nevada thing, Nevada doesn't like taxes, so I thought I'd look at how Washoe County libraries compare to other Nevada libraries.

So these two graphs are for all of the libraries in Nevada that reported data to IMLS.

Um, and here you can see that Washoe County once again um is fairly low.

It has a budget of um $34.19 per person, while the average for Nevada is $85.68.

Um here's the number of books per person for Nevada libraries in Washoe County is right near the bottom.

Um that state average is more than eight times the number of books per person that we have in Washoe County.

Um this is the last graph.

Um it shows the number of e-books per person for Nevada libraries in Washoe County again is near the very bottom with 0.08 ebooks per person, while the average is 2.05.

Um, so I'd say that as far as funding a flat budget, it's sort of the bare minimum.

Um, and libraries are not businesses, um, they're a public good.

However, if you look at the return on investment for funding libraries in Washoe County, I'd say it has to compare very well to all of the other departments.

Libraries are really giving you a lot for each dollar that you put into them.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Elizabeth Estes, followed by Oscar Williams.

Good morning.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this morning.

My name is Elizabeth Estes.

I am the business manager for Family Counseling Service of Northern Nevada.

Um I have been with the agency for it'll be 20 years in February.

Um the previous speaker, Fred Hinners, our executive director, went over the many different programs that we've provided over the years for the community.

So I'm not going to go over that again.

What I would like to speak to specifically this morning is our representative pay program and the loss of the $70,000 a year contract that we've had for over 20 years.

Um we have never asked for an increase in that amount of money.

We've always just run our agency bare bones so that we could hopefully keep within the budget that we had to continue to provide services.

Um as of this year with the reduction in federal funding.

As we all know, it's gone down.

Our agency was hit pretty hard.

Fred is now serving as an unpaid executive director.

And in order to keep our pay program running without the $70,000 a year contract that we've had, I will also be waiving my wages starting in January.

So I will be working for free as well, trying to keep the agency open to continue to serve the underserved population.

And I'm going through the budget here, and I see you know, like $17 million for the libraries and increases in budgets for home care for aging and disability services.

A lot of those clients are also our clients.

We do still a lot of work with the Washoe County clients that they send over to us.

Um I would really encourage this committee to please reconsider the contract that we've had.

It's really a very small amount of money out of the county budget.

Um, but we we rely on it to stay open and to continue to provide services for the unhoused.

We have a lot of unhoused clients that through managing their funds for them and providing intensive case management services.

We've been able to house people and keep them housed.

These are people who refused any kind of housing for many years.

And once we get them housed, then we can get them sober, then we can get them employed.

And um, yeah, we're we're in a pretty serious situation right now without that ongoing um contract that we've had.

So I appreciate your consideration in this matter.

Thank you for allowing me to speak this morning.

And I'm look, I'm within my time.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Next up we have Oscar Williams followed by Eileen Eklund.

Good morning.

Hello, Oscar Williams.

It's a pleasure to be here today.

Um I got a couple items on the agenda, a couple of items off the agenda.

Let me start with the off-agenda stuff.

Um I'm gonna put this down here.

I'll be referencing this in a few minutes.

Um, but uh the stuff off the agenda uh specifically um why aren't we having a discussion and a vote on automated signature verification?

It is a critical piece of election infrastructure, handling with our signatures, verifying that we are valid voters and counting our ballots by automated means.

We need to have a discussion.

I don't believe that um automated signature verification is approved for use by the state.

I've asked over three months ago from the county and the state for the letters of approval to use that critical piece of election infrastructure, and I got butt kiss at this point.

I imagine you can vote on it and they'll approve it later.

But isn't that a little preemptive?

Shouldn't you have the approvals before you go ahead and vote to commit to this technology?

But ASV is not even on the table.

It should be on the table.

I make the same argument for the ballot marking devices.

We'll get to that because that's on the agenda.

The second point off the agenda is that um um uh November 5, 6 and 7, the uh Deputy Secretary of State Mark Baloshan held um hearings on the uh revision to the election procedures manual.

And um I entered it into an interesting discussion with him uh that reflects on one of the agenda items off agenda.

Um there's a part where it talks about uh the election officials who um uh no one shall harass or intimidate such election officials, including the register of voters, city county clerks.

What's missing are you guys?

You're not mentioned as an election official that's protected under 293, sorry, NRS 293710, the harassment statute.

So I guess if the Secretary of State wants to sue you, uh he doesn't have uh any restriction because you're not labeled on the election procedures manual as an election official.

I think that's an oversight you guys should address.

I'm running out of time, so I gotta go quick.

Um I spoke to Mark Velocian, and what resulted in this memorandum that I sent to him is um something called personally identifiable information.

At some point, we have a right to privacy to the protection of our handwritten signature, particularly when it's combined with our name and our address exposed on a ballot return envelope.

I can tend you that the ballot return envelope is illegal.

If you pursue it, you're aiding and abetting uh potentially identity theft and forgery.

It's exactly what it is.

Many U.S.

codes are ballots are being transported across state lines, by the way, to Sacramento, where our signature are being scanned.

Every piece of mail is scanned.

Do you know what happens to our scanned signature image once it goes to Sacramento?

I don't.

There's a serious problem with that.

Um I would say vote no on item 10.

Don't enter the state's ballot agreement, okay?

Keep it to yourself.

The last one would be a good question.

Thank you.

Eileen Eklund, followed by Ryan Vorstitch.

Good morning, Commissioners.

And thank you once again for the opportunity to speak.

For the record, my name is Eileen Eckland and I live in Sparks.

Today I would like to first of all thank Assistant County Manager Solaro and the Library Board of Trustees for all their efforts to find a workable solution to our library's budget challenges.

It's very clear that a lot of work has gone into developing the budget proposal that you will be discussing today.

And I'm particularly glad that library staff were consulted and their input incorporated in the final budget product.

Our dedicated Washoe Library County staff are the frontline experts in assessing specific neighborhood needs and delivering the many services and programs that the library provides the across the community as a whole.

I understand that you won't be voting on the fiscal year 2027 budget for the libraries today.

But I strongly urge you to move forward the proposal that Mr.

Solara has presented to you.

Does it provide everything that I would wish for the libraries?

Absolutely not.

But given the current financial situation of Washoe County and the state of Nevada as a whole, it's a reasonable, thoughtful compromise.

This budget proposal is both fiscally responsible and responsive to fundamental community needs.

It will ensure that our libraries can continue to provide the essential materials, services, and programs that Washoe County residents rely upon and that enrich all our lives.

Getting to this place of compromise has been a long and often rocky road.

And I'd like to particularly thank Mr.

Solero for all his hard work.

The last few years have been a challenging time for our libraries, but personally I've been very grateful to see the community show up in force to support this critical resource.

I hope that you will continue to support the libraries as well by allowing allowing this budget proposal to move forward.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Ryan Vortich, followed by Kate Barnicke.

Uh good morning, Chair Hill and Commissioners.

My name is Ryan Vortish, and I'm the Northern Nevada Democracy Coordinator with Silver State Voices, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission centers on building a more robust democracy by expanding voter access and ensuring transparent, efficient, and secure election processes.

Later today, y'all are scheduled to review item 11, which requests funding to support the registrar's transition from VVPAT voting machines to the new ICX ballot marking devices.

We at Silver State Voices strongly urge you to approve this transition and its associated funds.

This new technology, which prints a physical paper ballot of a voter's selection at the voting machine, supports increased transparency and trust in our election processes by allowing each voter to tangibly verify their ballots accuracy before independently placing it into the tabulator.

Additionally, digital ballot marking devices continue to support accessibility and privacy by allowing voters to tailor their voting experience to their needs via accommodation features such as adjustable text size and ballot language selection in English or Spanish available at the touch of a button.

We believe this transition in our voting technology will support increased voter confidence and trust in our elections while avoiding the persistent errors and excessive cost associated with administering an entirely paper-based and hand-counted election.

With that, we kindly request your support for this transition to ensure that Washoe County joins our neighboring 16 counties who already utilize these devices.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kate Barnicki, followed by Sandy Tibbett.

Good morning, commissioners.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

So here's just six simple reasons.

I recently started an online class, and libraries are a place I can go where I don't get distracted by everything going on at home, and I'm not spending money at a coffee shop only to be distracted by the people around me.

Two, interlibrary loan.

This is most important to me.

So the library has always been able to get the books that I request.

If I need to extend the due date, I just call Lee Ann, and she usually is able to extend it for me.

If I forgot something I requested, Leanne calls me and lets me know.

So this is a really nice human interaction, and it's really nice to be able to get the books I want to read because I can't afford them all.

Um three news.

So today you obviously can't trust just one news source.

So the library lets me access the New York Times, which I don't want to pay a subscription for, but I want to know what's being sold to the American public.

So the New York Times, among other news sources, is something that I can access for free through the library.

Um for just general mind expansion.

So when I was a kid, I didn't travel much, but the library had National Geographic, and I probably read every issue from 1987 to 1999.

Um I was able to look at maps up close and learn about cultures and languages, which I never would have been exposed to in real life.

And so, as a good example, I was fascinated with Anchor Watt as a kid, before Tomb Raider or any of that stuff.

And so in 2013, I went to Cambodia and totally realized a childhood dream.

And that's all from the library.

That's all from reading at the library.

Um, let's see, five safety.

So it's important for us to remember that many kids don't want to go home after school for a variety of reasons.

And so it's really nice for them to be at the library, you know, use different resources there, and um, it's better than having them on the streets.

And lastly, just community rooms.

I didn't realize this till recently, is that you're able to reserve a room.

So if a small group of people wants to talk about something in the community or whatever, you're able to do that, and again, you're not spending money on coffee or being distracted by all the people around you.

And so I ask that you just continue the funding and remember the importance of the libraries.

Thank you.

Sandy Tibbett, followed by Janet Butcher.

Good morning, commissioners.

Sandy Tibbet for the record.

So the reason my the reason I am here today is to talk about code of conduct and how to file one against a commissioner when you are the public, which I am.

So on 9-2, I was here, and I spoke at this podium, and I talked about TRPA and your guys' votes, and I didn't say anything that was not true, it was the truth.

But for some reason it pissed one of me off.

She proceeded to uh confront me, intimidate me, try to bully me out in the hallway out here, right?

So per Washoe County's code of conduct, number seven, professionalism.

Employees and other representatives of Washoe County shall behave in a professional manner with each other and the public, demonstrating Washoe County values and an adherence to the code of conduct in all interactions, all of them.

Right?

So I filed a complaint, right?

Kate Thomas, very nice.

Her response was the Washoe County Code of Conduct is an internal policy intended solely for officials and employees.

It is not designed for use by members of the public to report complaints about interactions with employees or elected officials.

Wow.

So if I I bet if I was to file a complaint again against my Clark, it would probably go all the way that it needed to go.

Because you're protecting her, in my opinion.

So I was told that I should file an ethics report, which didn't quite make sense to me because she didn't do anything unethical.

And of course, it was dismissed.

The commission does not have jurisdiction over how a public officer conducts their official duties unless facts separately implicate the ethics law.

Well, that didn't happen now, did it?

So I reached out to the governor's office.

And of course, they responded.

Seeing that your concern requires attention from Washoe County.

Yeah, duh.

Duh.

Please follow the link below to submit a complaint.

And so as of last night, I did a Title VI complaint, civil rights.

Because I'm not letting it go.

It's unacceptable.

All I want, and it's not even what she said, because she's gonna deny it, right?

I got the video, she's in my face with her finger, just like this, and it's unsettling.

She should have just walked by and just left it at that, but she didn't.

So, bottom line, all I really want is for her to practice what she preaches by owning her own behavior and apologizing publicly to Janet Butcher, Nicole Harris, and myself.

It's very hypocritical of you to sit up on that diet.

You can't even practice what you're doing.

Madam Clerk.

Janet Butcher, followed by Alan Munson.

Janet Butcher, for the record.

Um first of all, I'd like to respectfully remind people that our current president is the son of a legal immigrant and married to a legal immigrant.

Um I'm gonna talk about affordable housing and the possibilities of why it's out of reach.

Notice the boxy stark apartment buildings being built all over Washoe County.

Notice the rent increases sub that have increased substantially.

They have gone from a one-bedroom apartment in 2022 of $800 to now 1,400 a month.

And these are not new complexes, they're all dilapidated, horrible, unkept.

There are a few reasons.

Approximately 30% of housing is owned by corporations.

Some of those are from outside of the country.

Lots of owned LLCs, which are difficult to track.

I've tried.

Foreign hedge funds snatched them cheap, jacking up rents and prices by design to keep Americans in debt, pass-throughs and shell companies, the ever-increasing demand on new energy and costly regulations, the government's fair market value rental pricing, the push for you will own nothing and like it, the influx of low-wage workers and no wage workers flooding the area, um, research the UN's 2030 project.

Please note I am not anti-immigrant.

Somebody from my family immigrated back before the Revolutionary War.

However, the fact that Biden administration allowed an unsustainable number of people from upwards of 200 different countries to cross the border in short amount of time could be contributing to the housing crisis.

This this first one that I put up there was between 2019 and 2023, the number of immigrants, and that could be legal, illegal, people who are documented, people who just came here and crossed the border because of the Biden administration.

This is from 2024.

Alan Munson, followed by Cliff Nellis.

Alan Munson, uh and first of all, I appreciate all of you uh in the job you're trying to do.

And um I am a resident of Washaw County, and um I just wanted to comment on three things.

But the the first thing I wanted to comment on is that uh there's a legal uh this is like allowing, as Janet just pointed out, the number of people who came in uh uh illegally or let's just say illegally uh in the last few years.

Uh there's a legal process.

And if I I you know, I care about all people, you know, people who are coming who are you know stressed, but I don't care about criminals and people who are going to be raping and harming people.

And so the process that ICE has to go through is to discern what kind of person you're dealing with, and there is a legal process, and they should follow it.

Um, again, I I you know I I'm very concerned with those people who need to get come here.

Uh so I I just wanted to comment on that.

Um the other thing I'd like to to comment on is uh I I'm not sure it's I think it's uh uh item 10 or 11 or combination.

And I just think that voting uh uh ballots made should be made here in Washaw County, and that process should be here in Washaw County.

We have a better handle on it rather than allowing the Secretary of State uh uh uh, which I understand might be using a company in California.

Um we need to keep it here.

And I I understand that there was uh I don't know how many years ago, very recently uh one of the candidates' name was left off the ballot, Drew Break Drew Rebar.

Um there's a you know it's important to keep our election process here, even though it may, you know, like uh sound nice.

Uh you know, we need local control.

Um the third thing uh and again I don't know if you're gonna be hearing it today or not, but I just want to comment on um the it's it's got to do with a wonderful new uh uh county manager, Kate Thomas, but I don't know if she should get quite the raise right away, maybe in a few years, because I'm sure I hear she's a very good person.

But uh because we're you know the county is last year, I believe I may have this wrong, but last year we had a 25 million dollar deficit.

So we really need to keep all county employees' salaries, you know, limited.

And so I would just hope you would consider that.

Thank you very much for what you're doing.

Thank you.

Cliff Nellis, followed by Penny Brock, hello, Commissioners.

Cliffin Ellis, 50 year resident of Washaw County.

I just want to talk about each of these items as quickly as possible.

First of all, is elections, which is the most important thing of all for our county, that we have elections that are honest, and we there's no transparency, we don't see what goes on in those computers in that computer room.

The only way to verify that is by a hand count.

And in the primary last year, I asked for a hand count to verify the machine numbers, and you didn't give it to me, which proves to me the numbers are manipulated inside those machines.

Now, President Trump is gonna require for federal uh elections, there'll be a hand count.

So I want to heads up on that, guys.

So I think we should go to complete hand count system, and there's a ways to do it.

We can show you how.

It will save the county a lot of money, millions of dollars.

And if if you still want to use these machines, I would say keep the old ones, because they're better than the new ones.

You know, we had the socialists up here that's recommending the new one, so I would say don't go with those.

And and the other thing is verify the count with a hand count afterwards, which we'll do for free, so you doesn't have to pay for anything.

And the other things is the libraries.

We have a big problem with the libraries.

We voted no on increasing funding to them because it's run by a cult.

It's run by a rainbow cult.

And the rainbow people don't represent the community, and they want the funding because they want to keep their little cult running.

Now, I I would recommend actually privatizing the system that way we can fire all the cult members and get in some normal people.

Well, we can't do that because they're working for the county, they work for the state.

And they're pushing obscenity on our children.

We keep talking to you guys about that, the same books.

They refuse to remove any of the books, and and it's not removing from them from the library, it's removing them from the children's section.

And the problem with that is if you remove them from the children's section in the public libraries, they also have to be removed from the schools, and the teachers are signing those books for reading and projects in the schools, and it's obscenity, and you're seducing our children with sexual immorality.

And we're not going to put up with it anymore.

I support your uh extra funding for the sheriff's office.

We need the ICE needs room to do its job.

Matter of fact, my recommendation is that we take the whole uh campus down there, uh CARES campus, turn it into another an expansion of the jail.

And the vagabond brigands, which is the proper word for them, um, that break our laws should be put to work and sobered up.

And I do not support the manager's raise.

I think that the uh county employees can get a 50 percent cut and they'd all stay with us because they get overpaid.

Everyone's overpaid compared to the normal people.

Penny Brock, followed by Tracy Thomas.

Looks like Ms.

Brock has documents to distribute.

Go ahead.

Penny Brock for the record.

First of all, I object that items 10 through 18 are going to be blocked.

Under the Constitution, First Amendment, we, the people have a right to redress the government on these issues.

We cannot be denied the right to address items 10 through 18.

I ask that these not be blocked.

Thank you.

Tulsi Gabbard of DI has said.

Which further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of the elections.

In other words, it's no coincidence that Dominion voting system just sold unexpectedly and is rebranded as Liberty Vote.

There's problems with Liberty Vote.

I found this late last night, and I've given you a copy of it.

We have many questions about liberty vote.

What was acquired?

Dominion assets or the stock?

If assets, what assets and what liabilities?

If stock was anything excluded, what exactly?

What was the purchase price?

Was it all cash?

If seller financing was included, how much is it?

What are the terms for the seller financing?

What are the terms of indemnification, if any?

What is the indemnification basket in dollars?

Was this a shotgun wedding officiated by the DOJ?

What role did the federal agencies play, if any?

What smart Matic intellectual property are you licensing?

Did you commit um to decertification of of these machines?

So it goes on and on.

There's many questions about this.

We're just six months away from their primary election.

If you go to Liberty.com, their website, that should concern you right away.

We don't know what we're getting with Liberty vote.

This is very concerning.

It should be concerning to every person, no matter your political party.

What are we going to get for our primary with liberty vote?

We don't know.

I would ask that you have your legal department do a due diligence on this.

Also, the county manager and the ROV should do their due diligence on this also.

I ask that number 11 be tabled because there's too many questions about liberty vote.

Thank you.

Tracy Thomas, followed by Charles Elliott.

Good morning.

One Corinthians 13 6 teaches us love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with truth.

The continued practice of approving budget expenditures retroactively that are well over a year old leaves no wonder in why there is such a deficit.

How is the public ever to be informed of what the true budget is or was?

A commissioner recently publicly scolded employees for not saying something when they see something.

It's imperative the public and commissioners be informed that Washoe County's whistleblower and retaliation practices and policies have not historically benefited those who have done just that.

An employee or volunteer who is brave enough to speak up has been blackballed and or retaliated against by management.

As just one example, the employee who spoke up against a former commissioner openly discussing his genitals in the manager's office was transferred to the basement of the main library with no chance ever for promotion.

Corruption exists in every department of Washoe County.

A person who could not get the value of his properties corrected to the values he wanted through the Board of Equalization, got himself elected assessor so he could get his way.

What is good for thee, but not for me is certainly demonstrated with your agenda item for the manager's salary.

While every other employee must enter a new position at the bottom of that pay grade assigned to that position, it is quite clear who doesn't follow those rules established, much less lead by an example.

It certainly does not show any serious attitude for the deficit you are sacrificing other staff and departments for.

Let us also not forget about the California Bay Area resident collecting a Washoe County paycheck for one of the elite top paying positions on the payroll.

Again, you know it's wrong.

You just refuse to correct the corruption.

When you do have a hiring process that functioned correctly in selecting our next registrar voters, you allow the manager to interfere and disregard the process that a Florida candidate was chosen in order to insert his will and desire for his California chum.

Corruption.

To be clear, it does not bring me delight to point out evil within this organization.

But someone has to speak truth for the record, because staff in the trenches certainly do not have that luxury.

They have families to feed and provide health benefits for.

So until you walk the talk, please save us the lip service.

And then also I'm going to put a bat on.

You gave lip service to the chair being required to attend these agenda meetings.

And I'm going to guarantee the next chair will not have attended one of those agenda meetings.

Charles Elliott, Washoe County resident for many, many years.

In fact, I was born here.

Original quote.

I have been up here many, many times on many, many things, and uh I just can't stop.

Now I might be just tap dancing, and I do have some good shoes on to do that, but I hope I'm not.

I'm hoping I'm speaking to your heart, and I hope I'm speaking to the uh folks in Warhoe County.

And I hope I get through this.

So I know.

Here we go.

On the uh county manager.

Uh I've got a little thing written here that I would like to read.

Uh tomorrow the county will uh let me let me get this better.

Tomorrow the county will uh meet to uh uh no will be voting on newly appointed manager Gate Thomas' salary.

This is her full benefit package, though it is one percent lower than Brown's salary, it is as high and even little higher than a county uh Clark County manager.

Clark County has five times the population uh we have.

This salary is also higher than the governor.

A reminder that residents are struggling, and the budget is in uh uh significant deficit, and our sincere hope is that the board uh makes decisions that are fair and just for all of us.

And it goes on, but I won't go further than that.

Also, the the school board uh uh the main person of the school school board is obscene salary as well.

We are in a deficit.

We are bankrupt.

Uh I would hope that you use common sense to uh deal with that.

Uh also I have an uh on the voting machines.

They have been proven over and over again since for for over the last 20 years that they are corrupt.

They are controlled by Venezuela, Serbia, and it's proven, and we have proof.

And yet, though Washoe County, what we do, let's get the latest machine we can we can get.

I'm sorry, it is uh totally wrong.

Um this is a transcript of a um whistleblower interrogator.

So to summarize it is that the Venezuelan government paid Smart Medic to create software that could be used by the Venezuelan government to rig the election.

Why is President Trump sending all the stuff down in Venezuela?

Well, anyway, this is true.

Interrogator.

Is it true that Smart Medic said uh thank you?

Todd Bailey, followed by Jill O'Leary.

Today we begin a new journey to a new Washoe County.

We must have a new county commission in one year.

As everyone in Washoe County is an at-risk population now, thanks to the decisions that have been made in this room.

You have made the wildest claims that nobody, no taxpayer in Washoe County, is paying enough taxes.

You know, you turned up your nose in the air a little bit when you claim that people living in new homes don't pay enough taxes.

Growth doesn't pay for itself.

And then at the same time, you suggested with a bit of disdain the people living in older homes also don't pay enough taxes.

Property tax abatements are the problem.

No.

You are the problem.

The current Washoe County Commission has had more money, more tax money to spend than any other commission in Washoe County's history.

Over 150 years.

With all that money, you've created a road to county bankruptcy with a smile.

You've sat here demanding the taxpayers pay up to fix your bad financial decisions to overspend.

Some of you even wishing for Santa Claus.

Okay, look, there's no Santa Claus for Washoe County because some commissioners are on the naughty list.

Okay, not nice.

Now there's only one way to change the situation, and that's to put Commissioner Jim Clark into the chairperson's seat with a majority of responsible adults to lead us out of this financial mess.

I'll distribute Ms.

O'Leary's documents.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Jill O'Leary.

I'm a property owner in Washoe County with an unlawful judgment lane clouding my property's title.

I'm here today to request a certified electronic audit log for that transaction.

Seemingly the clerks at the Washoe County recorders are not required to comply with a mandatory statutory requirement for a clerk's endorsement to include the name of the clerk when recording documents.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Cynthia Cooper, followed by Trista Gomez.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Cynthia Cooper, I live in Reno.

I so didn't want to come to the meeting this morning.

But here's the thing.

I made I made excuses.

You know, I I I thought about all the reasons I could skip coming.

You guys have already heard from me several times on how I feel about the ICE activities.

I spent one meeting talking about how wonderful it is to have immigrant influences in the community.

I talked about the Basque, the Irish, the Chinese, and our present-day Hispanic community.

In another meeting, I uh hopefully persuaded you that the ICE activities, not only are they racist, but they are bad for business, and particularly here in Nevada.

I also emailed you about concerns about whether detainees would be able to vote during election season.

So I said to myself this morning, oh, they they don't want to see me again, they don't want to hear from me again.

But here's the thing.

There are other members in our community who are much more elegant, eloquent, articulate, persuasive, and they've made such great contributions to our community, who maybe would have liked to come to talk to you to say, gee, these ICE activities don't feel right, and we shouldn't be a part of it.

Maybe they wanted to say something to you about how that is impacting their communities.

However, they may have a darker complexion than you or I.

Or and or maybe they speak with an accent.

And even if they're naturalized citizens, even if they're here legally with a work permit, they may still have thought, oh, it's not a good idea to go and talk to the county commissioners.

Somebody may come after me.

So Epstein's been in the news a lot lately.

Um the bankers, uh top executives, some of them may have questioned Epstein and thought, boy, this is a shady guy.

But they went ahead and continued to do business with him because, well, you know, money.

Well, think what a punch in the stomach that is to women who may have been sexually assaulted when they were teenagers.

And I submit to you that taking money uh associated with ice is a punch in the stomach.

Thank you.

Trista Gomez, followed by Kit Waite.

Good morning, Trista Gomez.

I have three minutes of prepared comments, but I'm gonna speak to a couple of things first.

I'll be here for a while, so I'll speak to the rest the next time I come up here.

I feel like when I listen, when I come to these meetings and I listen to all these people talk, I feel like there's a longing.

There's a hope, there is a desire, there is a there is just a clear need for residents in the county to feel heard.

And I feel like one of the main reasons there's so much contention, and it's so hard here, and there's so much just headbutting, is because I don't feel like residents feel heard.

I've been out in the parking lot when people have cried over decisions that have been made here.

I have been here when people have begged you to make decisions that are good for their communities and good for the people.

That is what all of us feel like your job is.

At least acknowledge residents and Ms.

Herman, at least acknowledge residents.

And we come here week after week after week after week, and we hear you guys just kind of give this sort of like, oh yes, I am sorry that you're so upset, but you know, we're gonna vote with money or developers or whatever, anyway.

I'm just asking you to stop.

We're all asking you to listen to residents.

We're asking you, we're begging you, begging you.

I will be back for this later.

But you guys, when you guys did the Corn Ferry study, and this is just a couple of examples of the raises that we're giving during corn study, during Cornferry, just a couple.

Our budget is 40% higher than it was in 2019, 40% higher, and we're in a deficit, and we were homeostatic in 2019.

And we were homeostatic in 2019.

And you're giving people raises, and there was no I to listen to the that meeting, there's not a conversation about how are we going to sustain these salaries?

How are we going to sustain the CARES campus?

What are we gonna do?

How is this going to affect taxpayers going forward?

This is three years old.

So now we know that this these salaries they're even higher than this paper shows.

Some of these the HR manager is 47% higher.

These salaries do not exist in the private sector.

And if they do, I would love to show you.

I cannot find them.

But we did this at the expense of residents, and I'll talk more about this during that item.

Hello, commissioners.

It's always great to see you.

I just want to say uh thank you for your time and opportunity to speak.

I know this is a thankless job a lot of the time.

Um I have a few things I wanted to talk about.

The one is for agenda item number 11.

Um I just asked that you would table this topic for the time being.

I have personally a lot of questions and concerns about it.

I'm not necessarily against what the agenda item is, but I feel like there needs to be a lot more clarification before there is a vote made to that will ultimately impact our county and impact our election next year.

So um yeah, thank you for that.

And then I also just wanted to give the reminder that we are in the beautiful country of the United States of America.

It is known as a land of opportunity.

We all have the American dream in some way, but in order to preserve that, we must be America first.

Put our legal citizens first.

If an individual comes here and does not go through proper documentation, they do not respect our rules that we have in place as a nation, and needs to face the consequences for that.

ICE, like every other government organization, needs to be held accountable, but does deserve proper support from our county to enforce the law of the land.

Our founding fathers had a great setup of two plans.

The first one was to have checks and balances and restrictions on government so that way they could not have an overreach of power.

And the second one was to instill civic civic responsibilities and virtues in individuals so that way we could be a self-governing nation.

I see both of those today are being degraded on multiple levels, and we need to come back, one as a community, another as a county, and as a nation, to go back to these first two plans of action.

Um so yeah, thank you very much for your time.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'll now move in to item six, manager Thomas.

Item number six is your commissioners and county managers' announcements, reports, and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas.

Thank you.

And I think you've got some updates for us, and then we had some public commenters on a particular grant item.

I don't know if you can speak to that as well.

Yep.

So um a couple of updates.

First of all, I like to announce that we have a board opening for the emergency medical services advisory board.

It's a four-year hospital continuous quality improvement or CQI representative term.

It begins on December 18th, 2025, and it goes through December 17th of 2029.

Um, after the first term, the hospital quality improvement representative is eligible for reappointment for up to two additional terms.

And that deadline to apply is at 1159 p.m.

on Friday, November the 20th.

So not a whole lot of time if you're interested in that one.

Um you can either call.

Uh we've got a number on here.

If you can go online, you can certainly call 311, but the number to call if you have questions is 775 326-6042.

So that's an opening we had, and then I just wanted to let folks know that out in the lobby, we started at 11.

We've actually got the ballot marking devices that are being discussed as today's um item number 11.

Those are out there.

If you want to go touch the devices, take a look at what that process does.

I'll remind the board that we are the last county in Nevada to actually purchase these devices.

All 17 counties are moving in that direction.

So I encourage people if you have questions or you want to go see that um equipment, it's out in the lobby now until the end of the meeting.

And then I think you had uh a question on one of the uh speakers for the family counseling services.

We're gonna get some information for the board and get that to you in a in a formal memo.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, Vice Chair Herman.

Yes, madam chair.

Um, I have uh I should have gone down there during the public comment, but this one of our uh constituents um was unable to come today to be a public speaker.

And um, she gave me uh uh some information that she would have said it would be okay if I read that.

Okay, yes.

Okay.

Go ahead and share them.

All right.

Um her name is Valerie White.

And uh she says, please accept and review the below attached documents regarding agenda item 11 on November 18th.

Um the board meeting.

Uh, I'm wholly opposed to any future involvement, both monetary and construct contractual with Liberty Vote.

The attached documents I'm submitting came from a book that details security issues with the Dominion Voting System, author of the book, details findings on the book that's mentioned here, and I'll give this to the clerk when I get done here with this part of it.

Um it talks about the vulnerabilities in the Dominion Liberty Electronic Voting S by U.S.

government bodies.

And um essentially the whistleblowers share critical verified information that demands at Washoe County CC use of Liberty Vote.

The two investigators, Gary Burnton and Martin Rodeal, have serious investigative credentials nationally, and they're not run of the mill investigators.

The book is titled Stolen Elections, The Takedown of Democracies Worldwide by Ralph Pizzulo, publisher, and I can't read the rest of that.

The only way Washoe County voters can trust the results of any election is of course I agree with that too.

Hand County paper ballots at the precinct level.

So I'm gonna give this to the clerk for great distribution.

Thank you, Vice Chair Herman.

Do you have anything else for us today?

Um, thank you.

Oh, you're fine.

Uh, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, still, everyone.

Thank you for being here and sharing your thoughts with us today.

Um, I wanted to highlight the November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

Washoe County has a terrific program.

We call it FAM, stands for foster adopt mentor.

Um, if fostering or adoption isn't for you, we encourage you to look into the mentorship program.

And it was actually today, nine years ago, that I got my two little ones ready for pictures, and we walked down to the river, took pictures, and walked into the courthouse so that the judge could finalize our adoption.

So nine years later, um, it's really um important for me to reflect back.

I didn't know it at the time uh that there were so many people in that room that were paving the way and supporting us and encouraging us, um, people behind the scenes that I had no idea had dedicated their lives from the from the judge to the people in the courtroom to the social workers who were in attendance, even to the other families who are there to support each other.

Um it wasn't easy going from zero to two kids overnight, and I remember you know being so scared about finding child care.

Um, we had a huge child care shortage back then, and we still do today.

And I remember going to the grocery store and seeing the ingredients and price of groceries uh to care for my family, and um knowing that I had to make it to a lot more appointments for you know, plate therapy, occupational therapy, all these early interventions that we were now providing for these two children who had been through tough times and we're trying to help them heal.

So it is a commitment, it's a lot, but I really encourage you all to look into the programming that we offer here at the county.

We have a huge wait list uh for children who are in need of homes, permanency.

Um, and so it really helps me as a county commissioner to know you know, this is how my family was formed.

I'm now in this policy making position, and so all of it's connected.

You know, and we're getting ready here.

A presentation on housing, housing is connected to the foster families and adoption families within our system, not only them, but the people who are seeking substance abuse treatment or those going through the court system or um coming out of jail.

Housing is one of those critical things that we really need to focus on in order for all these other systems to run smoothly.

Um, we've got to continue focusing on child care, access to health care, and behavioral health.

Um, so that's just me on my soapbox for the day, but it is a big day for us, and I always take this time to reflect reflect back.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

Yeah, thank you so much.

And um that's a beautiful reflection of your family and hopefully some inspiration for the community.

Commissioner Andrew.

Thank you.

Um I just really want to send a huge, huge shout out to um the planning committee committee that put together the first annual observance to veterans on November 7th.

It was a vision of one of the constituents, my constituents, Miss Baker, who is a veteran, an Air Force veteran, and um also served in the Vietnam War.

There were over 150 people who attended the Spark Senior Center.

And really, it was one of the most memorable ways that we can um really see the community together.

Uh say thank you to our service men and women, both past, present, and future.

I also want to recognize and thank um everyone who attended, Commissioner Garcia, Commissioner Clark, Washoe County School District Trustee Colleen Westlake, Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson, Spark City Councilman Donald Abbott, who also served on the planning committee, and these um amazing um junior RO2C from Spanish Springs was really again touching.

There were a lot of people who put a lot of work into this, including the Human Services Agency Senior Services staff, Carrie Kara Paoli, I always get her last name mess, um, and Ryan Gusison and a lot of other folks.

But I also want to do a shout out to the Nevada Department of Veterans Services who also attended, and um Miss Baker and I are going to be along with staff are going to be meeting with them because as you know, and thank you, Commissioners, for approving the two VSOs that we are going to be seeing serve our community, and that is a program that's gonna hopefully be extended beyond the year to which it was voted on by the generous donation of a constituent, and then she's um putting out a challenge match.

So we're looking at how that is all going to um roll out and more to come on that.

I also want to um really recognize all of the Hidden Valley residents and the hard work of former Chief Moore, um Fire Chief Moore, who really had the great vision of the expansion of the um station number 37 in Hidden Valley, and many of us um attended it is in my district, and I really want to thank everyone for um not only actually having the fire station go through some of the expansion, but to literally Trekie Meadows Fire who continue to not have any interruption of service during the uh year of the um you know finishing of the construction project, and again for um former chief Moore for having the vision for the five million dollars that went into that from the Nevada State Um Bank Infrastructure Fund, and that's where that came from.

So that was really exciting.

And then many of us serve on many boards, and I want to share that the Trekkie River Flood Management Authority, the chair and I both sit on that.

It's a huge, huge kudos that finally, after 25 years on Friday, November 14th, it was unanimously approved to have the Vista Narrows, which runs through my district and others.

Um design was approved, and that is essentially in the works of preventing flooding.

For those who experience the 1997 flood here and some other things, that's that was the catalyst of actually making sure that our community, in terms of not only preserving the essential Truckee River, but to ensure that everything that is surrounding it remains intact and preparing for a hundred to a hundred and fifty year flood.

The Vista Narrows project was approved.

It's going to start construction will be essentially late 2027, early 2028.

It's estimated to be a one to two-year project.

So I wanted to make sure that that information was shared to everyone in the community.

So thank you.

That's so great.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you.

I want to thank all the public commenters today.

There was a lot of good information, a lot of good points were made, and it's important to hear from everyone.

So thank you for coming down and expressing yourself.

Always good to hear what the what the folks are thinking and take the pulse of the public.

A couple of folks uh I'll get into that in a moment.

Um there was an article uh uh and you know I don't believe everything I read, nor should you, but uh there's an article in our town uh Reno about uh the safe camp director being one of the highest uh directors of a nonprofit in our our community, and that's all funded with tax dollars.

And and I'd like to find out uh and uh this is a request for for the staff to uh find out what the outcomes are uh safe camp, safe camp is part of the uh CARES Camp campus, and and I'd like to find out what the outcomes uh some definitive outcomes of what's really taking place there with that particular program at uh Safe Camp.

Next, I think that uh Kate uh Barnacy's comments about the library.

I think there were there were just great comments, just positive about how how things had uh influenced her life and reading about the National Geographic and her trip to uh uh Laos, was it, or Cambodia, Cambodia, excuse me.

And uh, you know, just the hearing those things.

That's that's what the library is supposed to be.

It's supposed to be neutral, Switzerland, safe place, go there, read, let your mind wander, and and later on maybe you can if you're lucky enough you can act on it.

So I think her comments were were very good.

And they were all great reasons for our our support of of the library.

Uh Todd Bailey had some good comments about uh what's taking place here in the county.

Uh so I appreciate his comments.

I only have one question for him is who the heck is Jim Clark and if he's uh a commissioner commissioner or not.

But uh I don't recognize that name.

But uh and then uh Trista Gomez has some some great comments uh and I hope to hear more from her later on in public comment about uh uh budgets and and uh uh uh massive pay raises, which I I I felt the same way when it was happening is massive pay raises.

And it happened about three and a half years ago.

A lot of this stuff took place, and a lot of it was uh spearheaded by my predecessor.

So I I'm not opposed, I'm not happy with that, and I'm opposed to that.

And it set the stage for what we are now.

You know, if you look in the rearview mirror of what the county's done, it'll tell you what's taking place now.

We've got financial problems because people at one point in time thought the county was flush and and they spent money like it was going out of style.

And now the group that are up here now, we're gonna have to deal with that.

And and that's that's an issue that uh shouldn't be, but it is.

So we're gonna have to make difficult decisions because our predecessors didn't make sound financial decisions.

So just keep that in mind.

I hope the public keeps an eye on what we're doing and uh make sure we don't make those kind of mistakes for the people who follow us.

So thank you for allowing me to speak, uh Chair.

Thank you.

And yes, it was great to go to the opening of station 37.

That's so exciting, and um we look forward to um many more um open station openings, the Apple station, hopefully here soon, and um then we'll start to work on the South Meadows station when we can find the resources.

And um, it was really wonderful to walk in the Veterans Day Parade with the county staff and elected officials.

So I just commend the team that organized that and thank our veterans.

And now we will move into item seven, which is our presentations manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Maurice Page is here, he's the executive director of the Nevada Housing Coalition.

He will be discussing their objectives and reviewing some data regarding the housing crisis in Nevada.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair and Commissioners, uh County Manager Thomas.

Uh thank you for having me.

Again, my name is Maurice Page for the record, uh, executive director for the Nevada Housing Coalition.

Uh so I was here.

Um, if you're not familiar with uh the Nevada Housing Coalition, we are a 501c3 uh membership-based coalition.

Um we act as the voice of affordable housing throughout the state of Nevada.

Our core principles or competencies are built around advocacy, education, and collaboration.

Um earlier this year, I came in front of you and I talked about in my presentation and uh a little bit about the housing pressures that uh Washoe County is going through.

We also outlined some of our policy priorities going into the session at that time.

And so now I am back.

Uh finally was able to get on the agenda to be able to bring back some of the successes and continued barriers that we are facing not only as a county but as a state as well.

And so again, I just appreciate allowing you to have me a few uh a few minutes this morning uh to be able to speak um about the ongoings of lack of housing throughout our state.

Um so this the graph and uh um uh just ahead of mind for it, excuse me.

Um the the slide in front of you uh represents a study that was made or uh taken by Nevada Grant Lab in conjunction with the Nevada Housing Coalition.

Um this shows that Nevada consistently receives among the lowest levels of federal grant funding in the nation despite having some of the highest need.

Um in federal fiscal year uh 2022, Nevada received $800 less than the national average.

This gap significantly limits our ability to fund housing uh services and infrastructure throughout our state.

We also rank bottom 20 um in five of the 10 largest federal funding programs, resulting in fewer fewer dollars in our cities, um, counties, tribes, and nonprofits.

Um, this really just shows the underfunding that is going towards um homelessness, our seniors and veterans throughout the state.

Um, furthermore, just last week um we just got notified that the HUD's new continuum of care, NOFO, the notice of funding opportunity is shifting away from per permanent supportive housing projects, which will then place about 170,000 um individuals and families um nationwide at risk of homelessness.

Um, when this how this applies to Washow is that in Washoe County, you stand to lose 1.9 million dollars, which will result in about 88 households losing rental assistance and support services.

All of those households were per previously homeless and now will likely return to homelessness if no alternative funding is provided.

Um so we are we just got notified of this notice uh late Thursday.

We have already sent out notifications to our coalition members about this, um, and we are currently looking to meet with each of our COC representatives throughout the state to figure out how we can help avoid or fight and combat this issue that is going on.

So again, talking about the need of affordable housing, we know that there's uh huge need uh ongoing.

Um, and so with that, again, previously I talked about uh when I was here the the numbers and the lack of affordable housing throughout our state.

These are updated numbers.

These numbers came out and roughly at around April of earlier this year.

It shows that in our state, 93,000, almost 93 uh 94,000 renters' households are extremely low income.

So again, that is individuals who are making $30,000 or less.

They're severely rent-burdened.

The shortage statewide is at 77,928.

When you reflect how what that number consists of for northern Nevada, that number is roughly at at about 16,000 units that we are short.

The annual household income is 64,000 just to be able to maintain housing.

Um and as you can see, 86% of extremely low-income renters and households are severely cost burdened.

That is throughout the state.

Let me give you some overall other numbers that have come out through reports that have been taken throughout this last year.

Um again, Nevada has the fewest affordable homes, 14 affordable units per 100 residents.

Nearly 48.1% of renters are excessively cost burdened.

We are we have the second worst rate in the country.

So I want to take a look at again when we talk about affordability.

This graph um and slide shows where we stand and where folks are at um when it comes to housing.

Taking a look at the blue line, which is the annual fair market rent, as you will see, that is where the rents are at.

When you look at the industries, hospitality, home health, manufacturing, retail, and construction, you see where they compare in salaries as to how much they can afford as far as housing.

So as you can see, when it comes to a studio and one bedroom, the prices are roughly the same.

You're right at about 39,000.

You see that majority of your uh industries, hospitality, um, home health and manufacturing are right below.

So they are struggling with um in trying to provide um housing for themselves or their families, or that they are just severely cost burdened with moving forward.

When it goes to three and four bedrooms, we are severely uh cost burdened with where they are at.

So when we talk about where we are at as far as housing, we know two things.

Number one, rents, homeownership, costs are extremely rising over the last few years, and wages have only gone up two and a half percent statewide.

So that is a burden that we are definitely continuing to watch.

Um we are advocating to uh hopefully increase uh the minimum wages and also work with some of our major industries to give back to our communities and and to our Nevadaans uh residents so that they are able to afford housing going forward.

So when you're talking about overall data and policy, um, when it comes to um uh affordability and and where we are going, what I can say is I've given you a lot of bad news in those first few slides.

Um, but what I can say is that uh policy around housing um has been at the top of the mind um over this last uh during this last 2025 legislative session.

Um we should we saw we saw that legislators came to the table with ideas um with some with solutions, um, and it was amazing to see how this is really becoming a bipartisan issue.

Um, there is no one person in that building that said that we should not care about housing.

So let's go through an over or an overview of what happened during the session.

And a lot of you already are up to code with this and what is going on, but hopefully for those that are watching or tuning in, I just want to give them a little bit of perspective as well.

We had over 1,200 bill draft requests that was submitted.

Um, rep out of those 1,200 bills, 63 of those bills represented housing um bill draft requests.

And so that represents 5% of the overall total.

Put that in perspective, 63 housing bills in 2025.

In 20 in 2015, we had three housing bills.

In 2017, we had seven.

In 2019, when we had the most success with housing, we instituted our state tax credits at during that time frame for affordable housing.

We had roughly about nine bills.

So within that seven-year span of between 2019 and now 2025, we have gone from nine to sixty-three housing bills.

And that shows that it is on the top of everybody's mind, and it shows that housing is a major issue that we are looking at as a state.

So out of those 63 uh bills, 26 of those bills were were able to be signed into law, which represented a 40% success rate, which was huge for us.

518 bills were signed into law overall, and then we had 87 bills that were vetoed.

The reason why I bring in the bills that were vetoed overall, I look at that as from a perspective of from a national perspective.

Um, as a state, we say, oh my goodness, 87 bills were vetoed.

When we look at that number overall and looking at it across the country, we're actually in the middle of the road.

We also have to take a look at again our growth over this time frame.

I'm a resident of Nevada for over 22 years.

Um when I came here, we had a state population of about 700, 800,000 folks.

We are now at 3.3 million people.

So with that comes more bills, more ideas, and so not every bill has to has is going to get passed, and we have to understand that.

Um, and then also just working across the aisle, making sure the language is correct, and it is affecting all folks at all times.

So again, I just want to put that in perspective when we look at that bill and we say it's a is a huge number.

I do see, you know, there is concerns with maybe some bills, but I think overall, when you generally look at that number, it is not as crazy as you we would think it is.

So when we talk about housing bills outcomes, again, we had a lot of success.

We had nine bills that passed on affordable housing and financing, tenant rights, um landlord, uh, tenant law, we had two bills, supportive housing five, rental assistance eviction aversion one, uh manufactured mobile home parks, uh three, tenant anti-discrimination, fair housing three.

We had local government zoning land use three that passed, a property tax and abatements one, and then we had five bills overall that were vetoed.

So the major wins that we had for this session were were the following assembly bill 366, the Nevada Supportive Housing Development Fund.

This bill was actually brought to us back in 2023, it was assembly bill 310.

This was the the initiation of the supportive housing.

At that time, it was in a one-time appropriation of 32.2 million dollars.

The success of that, and we saw where the money was going towards, and congratulations to Washo because you were the major recipients of that money.

Um, as again, you as I like to quote some folks, but they say it was like all gas no breaks when putting out the applications and making sure that folks were able to get those support services.

And out of the I believe 14 applications that were submitted statewide, uh Washoe in Northern Nevada was able to uh achieve 11 of those, was awarded 10 of those uh uh grants um that was submitted.

So kudos to the the uh organizations that uh put out the idea um was strategic and how they went about it, and congratulations to them.

So, with that being said, we brought that bill back with the assistance of assemblymember Daniel Monroe Moreno.

We asked for a permanent funding source, and now going forward that money at a at a minimum of 20 million dollars will be going towards support services um yearly moving forward.

Um, currently, right now the Nevada Housing Division is currently working with Corporation of Supportive Housing to design the framework as to how this money will be utilized moving forward.

The second bill was assembly bill 62, um, the transferable tax credits for affordable housing.

I mentioned earlier that in 2019 um was the first time we actually got the state tax credits approved.

Um we had a mixed bag of this was a success.

However, we did ask for an expansion on the tax credits.

Um, we was unable to get that awarded.

However, some of the things that we were able to get um moved forward was the processing, the final applications, and how we can get projects moving at a faster rate.

Um, and so with just with the technical language through that bill, um, that was a huge win.

I will say that we only have state tax credits that will help us fund development through the next year and a half.

So by 2027, we will pretty much run out of state tax credits.

And so development projects that are currently um being reviewed and under development right now may come to a halt um if we do not get an expansion on state tax credits in 2027.

Assembly bill uh 475 eviction diversion program.

Um again, uh we this bill was pretty much combined um with rental assistance.

We were able to get allocated 21 million dollars, uh to which uh 5.2 2.5.2 uh 250 million dollars will go towards um northern Nevada and 750 will go towards the rural communities.

Um again, that is over the biennium, so again, that money will have to stretch out that money as much as we can.

Um, but is again it's a good start, and it will help um some families be able to maintain housing and not be pushed uh to the streets.

And then finally, Assembly Bill 540, which was our biggest win um overall for the legislation and for housing as a community, the housing attainable, the Nevada Housing Attainable Housing Act, um 133 million dollar commitment towards um the missing middle.

Um, these this money will go towards um homes uh stretching the AMI all the way up to 150 percent, um, which is huge for our working class citizens who are unable to acquire home ownership or start their path towards general um generational wealth, uh wealth building.

Um, so in the with this um bill, we are looking to have at least five this five to seven thousand Nevadans be able to step into home ownership over the next few years, which is a huge win for our state, um, and start their mission on being able to create generational wealth for their families.

This bill will create more starter type homes.

So you're looking at town homes, condos, duplexes, triplexes, um, at a lower rate to purchase.

So, as we all know, again, our starting price for homes, single family homes are roughly at about four four fifty to four sixty, depending on the month and time that it was captured.

Um, the goal of these are to put these price, these home prices within the $300,000 range, which will make it more accessible for folks to acquire home homeownership.

So, with that being said, I wanted to be able to keep time.

I know this presentation was really quick and fast, but I wanted to just give an overview and just help you know and understand that as we move forward and our priorities um for the coalition is to look at more development opportunities statewide, look at more uh a policy solutions that we could uh maneuver for the 2027 uh session, and then also looking at additional revenue sources to help support our builders and hopefully preserve our affordable housing that we have and that will be coming to term over the next uh couple of years.

With that, I also say that the partnership with Washoe County and with all of our jurisdictions is going to be paramount as we try to move forward and decrease the number of units that we need for folks to be able to maintain uh housing throughout the state.

Thank you very much, and I'll take any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Page, and thank you for advocating for all of us during the legislative um session, and you did get a lot of wins, and I really appreciate uh your hard work, and we have a lot more work to do, obviously, by your presentation.

So I'll open it up to the board for questions and comments.

Vice Chair Harman.

I'd like to thank you for all the great information and thank you for your hard work on this.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Major issue is around here.

Yes, it is.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you so much for another great update.

They're not ever great news, but I appreciate the updates.

And um, as I was speaking earlier, housing is such a big pain point in the system for the children, adults, and seniors that we serve.

It's at the forefront of every phone call pretty much that I get that our constituents are concerned about.

It's our foundational basic needs, and so we can't talk about it enough and um keep coming back as as this evolves.

I got really excited when I heard about the the missing middle, particularly is a really exciting um part of AB 540 that I think we need to keep pushing for.

There's a lot of families that don't want to live in a single family home that would prefer a townhouse, a condo, a cottage, a duplex, triplex, and making that easier for you know counties and cities to provide those the housing variability.

Um I I know here at the county we've been working really hard to take away some of those barriers, promoting ADUs, um, really looking at the diversification of our housing stock, I think is a great place to stay in that lane.

I'm deeply concerned how um about the announcement of HUD cutting permanent supportive housing, and um I think it's on your eighth slide where you have the blue boxes.

There's a quote on there that says affordable housing is not a threat, it's an investment.

And when I think about permanent supportive housing, you know, this is geared to addressing our chronically ill, it's our mentally ill, physically disabled, largely senior population, veteran population, and it's arguably cheaper than housing them in hospitals, in our jails, or in homeless shelters.

And that box to me says it all.

Um we have to have a paradigm shift in the way that we look at affordable housing.

It shouldn't be a bad word.

Um, going back to the different housing types, if you frame affordable housing as hey, it could be a really cool senior cottage development that is um you know, small in scale, ADA, but it it's um small square footage.

We don't all need to live in 3,000 square foot homes.

Um so I think just really um it's a lot of education, and I know that's a big part of your mission.

So thank you.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you very much.

Commissioner Andreola.

Um, I just want to thank you for all of your hard work, and I know that you have a great um board and who work hard, it's bipartisan, and I think your statement on that is is echoed deeply.

Um I um obviously AB 540, the governor's bill, um, certainly was very helpful.

And thanks for all your work in working with the governor's office in terms of looking at how we can address not only I think a lot of people think it's just Clark County and Washoe County, but I serve on the NACO board and hearing what the rurals are going through, it's almost hard to believe that you're talking to some of the rural counties.

You would almost feel like you're talking to essentially either Clark or Washoe.

So it it it really um the tentacles of housing need go deep across our entire state.

Um I do think it's also important um the right-along that I've now been on my third ride along.

Um the tenancy support and um really pushing the success of of homelessness and nine over 90 percent success with Washoe County's hope team and gave me all those stats.

I think that is also important, and I'm sure that you're aware of all of that as well.

I was just curious how that, if you happen to know how that compares Washoe County's high percentage of over 90 percent of success, where somebody literally from homelessness is now sustainable on their own without any government assistance, is able to sustain whatever um housing that they were uh able to get, along with the support of many of the issues that um are the barriers that there's it's homelessness is complex.

That's right.

It's very complex.

So there's not one situation, but I was curious how tenancy support, if you're aware of what those percentages are, maybe in Clark County and some of the other areas.

I know that the rules are also looking at how they can implement something like that because they too surprisingly are dealing with um some mental illness, um mental illness and drug affliction and some other behavior issues are borderless when it comes to where somebody lives.

So anyway, I was just curious if you had that information.

Yeah, I you have seen the the growth in Clark County in particular.

Um I'm still waiting on action numbers from the rural communities to reach out and and send those over to me in their population, their homeless population has grown over the last couple of years, as as well as throughout the whole state.

But um, and with Clark County, you know, their numbers right now are looking closer to about 8900.

Their new point and time count won't be coming out until January.

They had to postpone it because the numbers are, I guess, are just that bad.

But directly to your point in regards to percentages, what we can say it's roughly at about 67% success rate with folks.

Um, but again, you have to take in the population and the the account of um the homeless numbers rising over the last couple of years.

Um that number was closer to the 80s um a few years ago when their popul when their homeless population was roughly at about 3,000.

Um but as they have seen uh a tremendous growth over 60 percent growth in their in their population um overall as far as their homeless numbers, the number has dropped down to roughly about 66 percent um success rate with providing permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing services.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thanks again for you know, this is an important issue as we already all know statewide.

So thank you for everything that you do, and thanks for working with Cadence as well.

I know that she you're locked up with Washoe County when it comes to some of the um the areas, especially the housing that directly impact us.

It'll be interesting to see what y'all come up with in terms of what that looks like for 2027, but stay tuned, I suppose.

Yes, stay tuned.

It will be interesting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair.

I just uh saw somebody leave the room that uh is a real hero of mine, and uh he specializes in entry-level homes and has for a number of years.

Peter Listener, I don't know, do you know Peter Listener?

I have not.

He's he's out in the lobby, just stepped out.

But uh over the years, uh he's built uh uh I don't know the exact number, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 entry-level homes up in up in Sun Valley and uh also out in Cold Springs, and and he's a specialist in doing this.

That's just his market niche is uh lifestyle homes and uh somebody might want to talk to.

Uh you know, and I'm not criticizing any other builders.

Everybody's this is America, these are capitalists, they all want to make money, but toll brothers and and some of these, you know big uh national names, they're they're here and they're everywhere across the country building high-end properties too.

Commissioner Garcia's point, uh, you know, 3,000 uh square foot is as nothing for the for some of these places.

But that's not affordable for the for the for the citizens that we deal with here for the workforce that we deal with here for the most part.

So we need to encourage through uh helpful uh legislation on on our part as county commissioners to make things easier for for entry-level builders, uh figuring out a way to work around the permitting process and the inspection process.

Just talking to somebody out in the in the in the hallway, uh, you know, if you're if they're gonna build 30 of the same kind of houses, the exact same floor plan using the same blue blueprints, they can maybe just get one of those inspected and then have just a quick inspection uh on the rest to make sure that they're following the the guidelines.

But there's ways that we as uh uh county commissioners can figure out ways to to reduce the the costs, and that's only about about the only thing we can really do is is make it easier for builders to get the things out of the ground to help your situation and help help the public is is entry-level housing and entry-level housing will will sooner or later lead to someone building some equity and having some financial stake and pride of ownership and everything else that goes along with with owning property.

So we support what you're doing and uh thanks for the report.

Absolutely.

And hopefully he did was made aware of the um uh pre-app for 540.

Um that was I mean, that's going towards all of our developers, nonprofits, and for profits.

Um I know that the if the pre-app has been closed, and forgive me, I know it opened on the 31st, I believe it closed on the 5th of November, but there will be a second round early next year.

So I will try to find Peter and make sure that he is informed of those.

He signed up, he's gonna do a public comment in a while.

I want to something on the else on the agenda, so he's not left.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thank you very much.

Send him a message to look for you.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks.

I'm pretty noticeable.

Well, thank you so much again for your advocacy.

I know that we don't have you don't have anything particular on the special session agenda, except that the tax credits that would potentially go to the film tax um will potentially will not go to housing, which is kind of what you were um insinuating as part of the earlier part of the conversation.

So just something to be aware of, and um we'll just continue to support your efforts and let us know what we may be missing on a local level that we should be enacting because we want to make sure we're at the forefront and doing what we can at Washoe County, and we're so appreciative for the support you give to our team.

So we'll just continue to move move forward with uh the resources we have and try hard for these really amazing people in our community that deserve a roof over their heads.

Perfect.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate your time this morning.

Thank you.

Happy holidays as well.

You too.

Thank you.

Okay.

We are now going to go into consent.

And um, just to give folks um a little information of where I'd like the agenda to go.

We have um, I'd like to do let's see, consent, um manager Thomas.

So you wanted consent, block, and then to go into item nine, right?

Yeah, can we hear consent then item nine and then block?

Yeah, okay.

Um then I will do consent, then we'll go to item nine, then we'll do the block vote, and then we'll go through the rest of the items.

So thank you for the clarification on that.

Any board members want to pull anything from the consent calendar.

I'm not seeing any that do.

Okay, great.

I'm looking for a motion on consent.

Move to approve.

Thank you, Commissioner Andrillo.

Looking for a second.

Vice Chair, thank you very much for your second.

And oh, yes.

Public comment.

Yes, of course.

Um, and do we have any public comment, Madam Clerk?

We do.

We have Tolini Vegas signed in the morning, commissioners and staff.

Um, thank you for allowing us to come forward and share some information about our nonprofit organization.

Uh, my name is Tolini Vega.

I'm the president of Born to Ball Basketball Academy.

Beside me here is our head director and coach, Joe Vega.

Born a ball basketball academy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving underserved boys and girls right here in Reno Sparks community.

Our mission is to provide youth athletes not only with elite basketball training, but meaningful opportunities, mentorship, and a pathway toward continued education beyond high school.

Right now, Northern Bas Northern Nevada basketball programs do not offer many opportunities for our youth athletes to truly learn competitive basketball, let alone compete at a high level.

We fill that gap by offering real development, real competition, and real pathways forward, all while still all while staying affordable for our community.

We remove the idea of selection and open the door to any athlete willing to put in the work.

In our very first season this March, we're very proud to say that we welcomed over 200 athletes, and that's 200 more kids working hard, learning discipline, confidence, staying actively, and most importantly, staying off the streets.

As we continue to grow each each season, our priority remains the same, creating a safe environment, supportive environment where every child feels seen, valued, and inspired to reach their full potential.

For many of our kids, Born a Ball is more than just a program, it's a lifeline.

It's a family, it's a place where they discover who they can be on and off the court.

Something that we are extremely proud is that right now is Born a Ball is entirely ran by community volunteers.

Every training session, every game, every minute invested into our youth comes from people who give their time out of pure passion, pure commitment to the community.

Our hope is that one day we are able to grow and compensate our incredible staff for the hard work and dedication.

This is why we invite others to be a part of our our community and our nonprofit organization.

When you represent uh when you support us, you're not only donating, you're investing in meaningful change.

We have high goals for the future, such as launching a scholarship program, building a safe after-school open space gym, and continuing continuing to expand our reach and serve even more youth's youth in need.

These dreams are big, but they're real, and with community support, they are possible.

That's why today we are deeply grateful for Commissioner Garcia for her generous support.

Your potential contribution isn't just financial, it's a message message to our young athletes that they matter, that their dreams matter, and their futures are worth investing in.

Thank you for believing in our mission and for making a real impact on their futures and for being a part of the Bournaball family.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

We have a motion and a second on consent.

We've taken public comment.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And I it's I think that passed unanimously.

Oh, it's up on your screen.

And that did pass unanimously.

We'll now move in to item nine.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item nine is a recommendation to authorize the chair of the Board of County Commissioners to execute a non-binding letter of intent from the economic development authority of Western Nevada for the purposes of assisting Washoe County to assure the appropriate use and positioning of surplus land for the overall benefit of the community by developing the land to the highest and best use.

And we have Assistant County Manager Dave Lero here.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

For the record, uh Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager.

Commissioners, as you are aware, for uh a number of years, we have talked about how to best put Washoe County owned property to the highest and best use.

This is a strategic objective of Washoe County, and we have an initiative built around uh those things that we need as Washoe County, whether they are a uh attainable housing, whether they are our own facilities, whether they're infrastructure.

Uh and so in working with the economic development authority of Western Nevada, because Washoe County does not necessarily have an economic development arm uh as county government, uh, we've come up with an idea to let them uh to let EDON essentially create a nonprofit third party that would work as our convener of all things uh property related to Washoe County, a way for them to bring us those needs that they see as they are doing their development work, uh, those things that could benefit Washoe County citizens on properties that we own.

And so what's before you today is really just a letter of intent to allow Washoe County staff and the economic development authority of Western Nevada to work together to determine uh projects based uh specifically on different parcels of land that Washoe County owns.

An example, we have 12 acres of uh land up in the North Valleys uh that in my mind at least is pretty ripe for attainable housing.

Uh we have been unsuccessful in trying to get someone to come forward and work through that because we don't necessarily have the expertise along with that.

We have the land, we have a need, we need someone to help us convene the the best highest and best use for that property.

Uh as Commissioner Clark has mentioned many times, we want to get some of these properties back on the tax rolls to actually work for us.

Uh, another example is our Court Street lot.

We have struggled for years on trying to come up with the right approach to actually put that uh property that we own to good use in our community, and at the same time, Washoe County needs uh an updated courthouse that is a direction of this board to one of the one of the top infrastructure projects that we have.

And so uh we own multiple properties downtown.

We need someone to help us work through the best approach for development of those properties that actually works for our community and sort of understands the need of what we have downtown working with the city of Reno as another example.

So um, I don't have much more than that uh for you, but we do have uh Taylor Adams, uh, the president and CEO of EDON here.

Uh if if Taylor would like to make a few comments, uh, or if you've got any questions on kind of how this might work, we are certainly here, but I'm very excited about moving something forward to really help us get some of these things that we've talked about for a lot of time, long time into actual action.

I think this is a really good way to do that.

So good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the uh commission, and uh congratulations, Manager Thomas.

Uh welcome.

Um the and also I should tell you um we did not plan to wear the same shirt today, that just happened.

Um but uh but no, um we're so grateful uh to be able to potentially have this conversation with the county.

Uh obviously, EDON advocates on behalf of uh of sort of free markets and the private sector and whatever we're talking about, public-private partnerships, highest and best use of real estate.

I believe that we do have some tools that would be uh very valuable in this conversation.

I think the biggest things that we might offer here, one would be a broader conversation with the private sector about how these how these parcels can be uh leveraged to deliver your best uh vision.

Secondly, I think we can go a little faster and and and most importantly, uh we believe that there's great opportunity to allow the private sector to uh to mitigate some of the risk that the county might face in in exploring what could happen here.

With that, I'm happy to take any questions as well.

I'd also like to quickly um also recognize with me today is is is a member of my board, Eric Rowan, who's here who has been uh uh uh who has helped me greatly in structuring with what the conversation we've had today, and I'm grateful that he carved out some time to be with us.

Great.

Well, thank you so much.

I know that this board had this conversation during our strategic planning retreat, and so we're moving forward potentially with this agreement.

Um, understanding that this board obviously has the final backstop on any project and can make that final decision, but um Edan will uh potentially support us on some projects that will make sure that we can support our community in a better way.

So I'll open it up to the board, Vice Chair Herman.

Do you have anything?

And Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to start off by saying I'm a member of the EDON board and I don't have any precuniary interest in this matter.

I'll be voting on this item and proud to serve with you, Taylor.

Thank you for your leadership.

I am so excited to get some of these underutilized properties that are just sitting in our possession, and and we're gonna breathe some life into it, and why not bring on the subject matter experts?

Why not bring on the people that have their ears to the ground?

And so I think this is a really smart strategic move.

Um assistant county manager Solero, can you remind us how many uh parcels we were presented with?

It's I feel like it's been forever since you stood right there and you told us.

Was it in like the hundred uh realm?

Uh for the record, Dave Solero.

Uh there are hundreds of properties, however, many of them are tied up with uh with deed restrictions associated with donations to us.

Uh, there is a disposal list uh that is actually attachment A to this agreement uh that kind of outlines some of those that uh that this board has determined already that are uh surplus to our use.

We don't have a specific use now that attachment also includes the court lot, so it's a little little uh you know different.

But certainly uh we're we're targeting that first grouping of those uh those easy process or these easy properties, uh probably a list of I would say you know, round numbers, it's eight to ten.

Okay.

Um I didn't uh see the attachment, so thank you for pointing that out.

Are most of these infill projects potentially?

Um with the exception of the North Valleys and I see a lemon valley.

I think could be considered infill.

It's been built all around.

There's uh there's one parcel out in Lemon Valley that a little questionable on whether it's in fill or not.

So they have existing infrastructure, their services and and things of that nature.

Yes, with the exception of the one out in Lemon Valley.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Commissioner Andrew.

Thank you.

Thank you for um literally putting that alignment of having government think outside its own self.

Right?

That is uh we should be all clapping right now because I think the alignment of the private marketplace and the market-driven approach with EDON that goes all over the world essentially, and thank you for the board chair for attending this important, I think, uh, inaugural inaugural opportunity that hopefully we can see in the future.

Um needs and having that expand and having EDON know what that looks like, and then matching what that looks like.

I think that that funding opportunity is there, but also having it be market-driven as well.

So I really want to thank you, uh Mr.

Adams, for your leadership for your board, for um Commissioner Garcia's leadership and serving on the EDON board.

It really is, I think you've taken EDON to a new place.

Um, and so I don't know how long you've been here now, but I don't think you're new any longer, but you've definitely utilized all of your experience and maximized um our community for the benefit of all.

Thank you so much, Commissioner.

And it's two and a half years, hard to believe that we're uh that it's been that long already.

Just uh I guess time flies when you're having fun.

Yeah.

I um think it would be helpful if there was an opportunity to come back as projects are um identified, but also if there are barriers, because this is a new um venture, if you will, and if there are barriers, it would be helpful to understand how we can remove them so that we can see the benefit and move some of these properties.

Um I always um I know that I've had this conversation with Mr.

Adams, but don't forget about the BLM disposal land maps, and I know um Mr.

Solero is laughing too because I bring it up all the time.

I think that we'll be seeing some other resources that I hope will come before the commission that I've been working on for the last two years to have um again additional opportunities for uh addressing a market-driven approach and looking at putting for the first time, I hope, uh, infrastructure in place before we see some things.

So um sounds like these properties have the infrastructure in place, but I don't want to ever can I remind you about the BLM disposal land maps that are out there that um are a hundred dollars an acre.

Uh Southern Nevada, I think has done a great job and really utilizing some of the resources, and so I think this is the beginning of a great a great opportunity that we'll see for the benefit of all.

So thank you so much.

Thanks for doing this, and thanks for your vision too, ACM Solero for having this um put together.

Oh, okay.

Well, we're gonna share.

We'll we'll share that between Mr.

Adams and the ACM.

But thank you on a very serious note.

Thank you.

This this is a big deal.

So thank you.

And Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I'm happy to comment on this.

Uh you know, I uh as the assessor was after the county to liquidate this surplus property.

I don't think the county should be in the in the in the property management business, especially since nobody apparently around the county staff has a real estate broker's license or really understands property management and that type of thing.

So I've always advocated for getting this off the tax rolls.

Sagebrush doesn't pay property tax, okay.

Sage brush doesn't house anybody other than maybe some rodents and some rabbits and maybe some sensitive areas, but for the most part, uh sagebrush is not on the rolls.

Uh if we get some development, we're creating jobs, we're creating housing, we get some infusion of cash into the county, and then it stays on the tax rolls from now until the county is dissolved, which hopefully won't be in the near future.

So with that being said, this sounds like the most illogical step that I've ever heard of.

Next year and just a few months, I'll be a real estate broker for 50 years.

We need to find some real some quality, and I'm not suggesting listing these properties with me by any stretch, because I don't do commercial, but we've got some excellent commercial real estate brokers in this county.

We should meet with those folks, interview those folks, figure out how much it would cost to put this on the open market, all these properties on the open market, get the highest and best use in the highest dollar amount.

This is sounds to me like having an auction with only allowing one person at the auction.

We need this to be broadcast throughout the universe that we know of, the world, uh, foreign companies, our companies, local companies, national, international companies, with a broker that can actually get top dollar for this.

So I'm looking out for the taxpayer.

Uh you know, EDON does what EDON does, but uh unless I'm uh mistaken, I don't know if anybody there, and who would you list it with?

Uh you do this property needs to be listed, and so what we got just one more layer of somebody we've got to pay instead of going to the source.

Do you want to buy wholesale or do we want to buy retail?

We want we want this to be on the open market for everybody to see it.

So I'm gonna be absolutely against this.

And just just uh my reasoning is highest and best use, most exposure we can get, have brokers come to us with proposals, value the property for us, let us know what it's worth, and then negotiate with them on their commissions and see if we can get some savings on the commissions and do this like a business would do it instead of just going out and uh putting somebody else in charge of the taxpayers' property.

This isn't the county's property.

This is owned by the taxpayers, not the county.

The folks that live in this county all pay taxes.

They are the ones who own this.

So let's do the best as a fiduciary relationship to our constituents, our taxpayers, our citizens, and get the most money we can get for this stuff and liquidate it.

So that's my position.

And it's quite different than my other folks up here because a lot of them, other than Ms.

Herman, who is a real estate broker, and I'm a real estate broker, we understand how this works.

Sounds good, and you're a great guy, and I'm sure you do a good job at what you do, but this is just putting another layer of somebody in there who's gonna get a little bit of pay out of this.

And it shouldn't be that way.

All this money should go back in the county coffers.

And uh the highest and best use is what I'm advocating for.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Clark, Taylor Adams for the record.

Thank you for those comments.

And and um I'd be remiss if I didn't disclose that the process that you just laid out, maybe exactly what happens.

It's it's it's important to know.

It's it's uh it's important to know I mean because here's the thing I'm I'm not a commercial real estate broker, but but it is important to know essentially every commercial real estate broker and real estate developer in the region invests in my organization, and some that are they're outside of our region.

So it is absolutely our intention to ensure that there's a fair and open process that's to be defined with the county that'll come back to this body for consideration.

But I do thank you for the comment, and we agree highest and best use and as much private sector input as possible is is critical to the success of the project.

And I'd like to be on a committee here at the county to search out and find the best deal for the taxpayers.

And I'm an ex subject matter expert at this.

49 years as a real estate broker, 40 plus years as a mortgage broker, 40 plus years as a property manager.

I talked the talk, I know how to get the best deal.

Ask the uh the county manager.

I just helped them uh just not too long ago with the lease that'll be coming up that we were able to get uh uh some favorable terms that that the county had never approached it that way before.

So uh I think that uh it's a great idea to liquidate the property, but we don't need another layer of whatever, because in the you're gonna do what we should have been doing is is interviewing subject matter experts, licensed in the state of Nevada to conduct business in the state of Nevada and and rely on their expertise and their fiduciary relationship to the county.

So thank you.

That's where I'm coming from.

Thank you.

It looks like Mr.

Adams that Eric, do you want to say anything?

I don't know if you um wanted to say anything you had come down.

Okay, since you asked, I'd be happy to talk.

Um what I would say is that the goal of the arrangement that we're talking about here is to discern not only what the highest and best use is, but also what the highest um return for the county is, not just necessarily in terms of dollars.

And I don't mean that we're not going to bring in a lot of money to the county.

The goal is to do that, but the goal is also to accomplish the county's goals.

In other words, I've just been listening for the last two hours about how we don't have housing that's workforce affordable.

Well, guess what?

With this program, we can make it possible for a developer who is a for-profit developer to use this property and build that kind of proper that kind of product that you need to see, and that the community needs so desperately.

It really is a desperate need, as we all know, especially with all the amazing work that Taylor's doing in terms of bringing in higher and much more sustainable, higher paying and much more sustainable jobs.

You need to have people feel that they can afford something that they can live in in order to work at those companies and do that, do those jobs.

So the goal here is to uh, and by the way, the manner in which a lot of these are structured, and I have an incredible background and history with this kind of um product, which is why Taylor and I have been working so long and hard on trying to make this happen.

Um the uh at the end of the day, what you're really trying to accomplish is getting the community the things it needs, and at the same time generating not just the revenue from that particular property, but the halo effect that comes from putting in something that is substantial, and then all of the things that that are built and get utilized and operate as a result.

Remember, you do want to get taxes out of the particular parcel that you have this big.

But when you then figure out, okay, now I'm gonna put in 300 housing units right here.

Well, what does that housing unit need?

Well, those properties next door that are not so great and kind of need to be redone, you're gonna have real marketplace developers buy those properties to house little shopping center, to house uh uh dry cleaners, all these different ancillary facilities and properties that need to be there in order to support what you've built and what you've accomplished for the community.

And that generates massive amounts of additional tax revenue, and it also generates sales tax revenue, and it generates a lot of things that the county is in need of.

So this is really a huge win-win for the county.

Again, it's a 501 C9 that would end up, or C6 that would end up owning or being responsible for this property.

You would have the final say, of course, on whatever gets done.

And one of the things I think that Commissioner Clark might think about is that you don't necessarily need to divest to do this.

That property can be leased on ground leases for for 50, 60 years, and that will support the financing that's necessary in order to build the project.

So there's a lot, and the and the revenue from the lease will come into the county.

So in other words, there's a lot of opportunity here that doesn't necessarily require the liquidation.

And frankly, we all know that liquidating vacant land or underused land or dilapidated land is not necessarily going to get you as much money as once that property is all built out and done up, and then you get your revenues start to really churn.

So I'm just uh here to support the project, and I really all I can do is tell you that these two guys who have done just amazing work to try and um put this together should be supported by the committee by the commission.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I think we have to.

I've signed in again.

Okay.

So I appreciate your comments, sir.

But I'm a salesperson.

I'm listening to every word you say.

You didn't particularly listen to what I've had to say.

I don't want a middleman in there.

I'm the kind of guy who doesn't put three stamps on an envelope when I only need one.

We don't need a middleman doing this for us.

There's been talk, and not with you, sir, about you, but in the past, EDON, certain real estate brokers got all the presidents of these companies that came in.

Some certain people who preceded you have played favoritism, and and I don't want that.

I want this to be on the open market and let each and every commercial real estate broker in this state, particularly the county, but in the state, so we get the highest and best use.

And and leasing the property out, that's 180 degrees from where I'm coming from.

We need to sell this, get the cash infusion.

We've got folks sitting in the audience who want extra money for the library.

So do we give the extra money that we might make from this to the folks at the library, or do we give it to EDON?

EDON seems to be doing good.

The library seems to be struggling.

We have folks in the audience, every person in this audience from every department is and every citizen is looking for extra money from us.

Should we give it to them or should we give it to you?

Let's hire some subject matter experts, make them a bid on this, like any other contract we should do here at the county, and let it be on the open market, and let's get the best for the taxpayer, because I think that you want what's best for the taxpayer.

I know you do because you work do a good job at what you're doing, but I think you're kind of getting out of your lane on this.

We need subject matter experts, highest and best use of the money and find somebody who know really knows how to market a property and get it sold and get it sold for and get the money into our coffers and then get it on the tax rolls.

And that's just where I'm coming from.

This is an extra layer of somebody else is getting paid.

This is like one more middleman here.

Let's cut out the middleman.

Let's go right to the broker, figure out what they're gonna do, and then let's grind them on their price too.

You know, I'm I'm not just grinding you.

I'm gonna grind the real estate broker.

Will you do it for this instead of that?

What if you get two pieces of property?

Can we get a discount?

I mean, negotiation is what it's all about.

And this county has buying power, and this county has leverage, and it hasn't been using that in the past.

We've got other contracts for janitorial, and we've got contracts for this, that, and the next thing, and it seems like they go out to one bid only.

We've got only one supplier of food to the seniors here.

You know, this same company did a crappy job, in my opinion, got a renewal on this stuff.

So, you know, we didn't get what's best for the folks, and I want what's best for the folks, and one bid is not best for the folks.

It's like holding an auction with only one person there.

Just doesn't make sense.

We want we want to get the best best we can get for the public.

Thank you.

All right.

For the record, Taylor Adams Commissioner, thank you for that feedback.

Okay, Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment?

We do.

Todd Bailey.

Okay, I read through all the documents that were available to the public on this, and I didn't see anywhere where the county was gonna be paid for the real estate.

Is that am I mistaken about that?

Is there going to be a financial transaction to the taxpayers from EDON from these parcels?

Because I didn't see that anywhere in this agreement.

What I saw was that EDON was going to get this surplus taxpayer property at no cost with complete discretion to do whatever they want.

Now, if I'm wrong about that, anybody, people from EDON, somebody here at the county commission table, please straighten me out about that.

Because if this means that the county gets no revenue from the sale, then I can't support that.

Thank you.

Those statements are inaccurate.

Um the county will hold on to the property.

Thank you, Mr.

Adams.

Okay, Madam Clerk, there's nobody else signed yet.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Any other comments from the board on this item?

I'm not seeing any.

I am looking for a motion, please.

Madam Chair, I move to approve as presented.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

Looking for a second.

I'm gonna second.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

We have a motion and a second.

We've taken public comment.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

It's on your screen.

And the motion passes three to two with Vice Chair Herman and Commissioner Clark voting no.

We are now going to move into block.

If Vice Chair Herman could please help us with the block vote.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

I I'd like to remove item 10 from that list because it kind of goes together with 11.

Okay, that's fine.

Okay.

So the balance of it, which would be in the form of an of a motion, um, would put 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 in the block.

Thank you very much.

Um I'm looking for a second on the block vote.

Oh, second.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

Madam Clerk, any public comment on those items?

There is.

Let me poke through the items.

Let's see.

Item 13.

Let's see.

Trista Gomez is up, and Todd Bailey is up for item 14.

Oh, I so wish everybody would have stayed.

That's okay.

Trista Gomez for the record.

So these are what I started off with, and I added some notes.

And it was interesting that the gentleman who did the housing uh sector uh showed the incomes of the private sector.

And I'm gonna also say that a lot of those workers in the private sector are in district three.

Um and so these inequities are massive when you're comparing the um salaries of that slide from the housing to these salaries that as I said before, I'm not I don't know these jobs.

I could easily go and be an office manager somewhere.

I I couldn't get paid even the amount of an admin secretary at the county.

So the salaries are 78% of the inflated budget.

What is interesting is that law enforcement was funded to my what I think they were funded last, and I think they should have been considered first.

Public safety should be our primary concern.

And to the best of my knowledge, they were not our primary concern.

And at the uh after all of these budgets and salaries were approved, and I could be wrong, but that's my understanding, then law enforcement got a race.

The budget in 2019, but versus the budget now, it was about 40 percent.

And when we got a bunch of ARPA money, and we knew because we had a master plan, we knew that we were going to be developing.

We knew we needed housing.

Instead of using ARPA money for housing or development or infrastructure or things that folks needed so that they could live here comfortably, and that would benefit 98 percent of the population here.

We we put that money into I mean, a lot of the money went into CARES.

And so that's what we did with ARPA money, and so we benefited a very small percentage of people when we knew we would have these infrastructure issues.

So now what do these raises prevent?

The raises prevent libraries.

You guys, we've had these libraries discussions.

There's not enough money for libraries, infrastructure, maintenance, and other items that the large majority, 90% of people benefit from.

A couple people benefit from them.

County workers certainly benefit from these raises, but the majority of people who don't have access to these salaries, these PERS packages, or these benefits do not benefit from this money.

It's hurting people.

And then, right, Miss Ms.

Thomas has been lovely to me.

She's you know, provide me a lot of opportunity.

These salaries are unsustainable, and if we keep going this way, it's going to further hurt other programs that benefit the rest, the the huge majority of the rest of the population.

Todd Bailey, followed by Penny Brock.

Okay, good.

I got in the right spot.

Actually, it was accurate.

Nobody's nobody dismissed what is said.

So listen, transparency is the new goal of the Washoe County Commission.

But is it complete transparency?

Is it total transparency?

Now, the county manager's contract is full of unknowns to taxpayers.

There's no way to predict or financially forecast the obligations in this contract.

The unknowns include annual cost of living increases, longevity pay, holiday pay PERS, health care life insurance, and an unlimited infinite bonus and merit pay increase provision.

Now we fully approve of the contract.

We do, we approve of your contract.

We just need to understand every detail of the cost.

That's not unreasonable.

This is how we are funding our own management.

Okay?

We're using your contract as a guide.

You're the right person for the job.

I firmly believe that.

Out of all the candidates that applied, and I very much appreciate the personal way you approached me at that public meeting.

Thank you.

It was great.

We had a good conversation.

And so I look forward to working with you.

The county commission, Washoe County Commission, has had more tax money to spend than any other county commission in Washoe County's history over 150 years.

That is why we can offer you such a generous contract.

We need adults to work for the county to accomplish what the county commission requires.

And adults are expensive.

We want to know exactly how expensive it is each month.

Total transparency.

So we're just gonna fill out a make a public information request each month for you to fill out these unknowns.

And I don't think that's unreasonable.

I simply want to know how much this actually cost me.

Thank you very much.

Again, congratulations, you are the right person for the job, and good luck.

Next 12 months is going to be very challenging.

Penny Brock, followed by Darlilly.

Miss Thomas came on board as intern county manager in July and received a substantial raise then of 333,000 dollars.

Now she's gonna get another raise.

What merits this another huge raise for her right now?

We as taxpayers cannot afford this.

You have a budget of one to 1.2 billion dollars, and yet last year you ended up 25 million in the red.

It looks like, according to number 18 on the agenda, we're headed for another deficit for this fiscal year.

What's interesting when you compare the county manager of Clark County?

Um, Clark County has 2.3 million residents and 43 million tourists annually.

Clark uh Washoe County has 500,000.

I've no information on the number of tourists, but nowhere does it match Clark County.

Clark County Manager is making 297,000 dollars.

Prior hit to his going to Clark County, he was an assistant county manager for Washoe County.

So this gentleman, Kevin Schiller has a lot of experience to merit his 297,000 dollars.

Why is Kate Thomas wanting this huge, another huge budget, another huge increase when she doesn't have the experience?

We don't have the population to merit.

I think it should be based on a comparison with Clark County.

I I don't think that's too much for we, the taxpayers, to ask for comparable salaries for comparable population and experience.

So I would ask that you vote no at this time for her to be given another raise.

Um because I think enough information has been given that uh this should not be voted uh into I I keep thinking though that it it somewhat compares to the school systems really across the nation, but I would say particularly here in Washoe, where we have uh administration getting the bulk of the money that is going into the school budget as opposed to the teachers, etc.

And if we have the same thing happening here, where we have the top administrators making this kind of excessive salary, um there is something definitely wrong, and it needs to be addressed.

Um so please vote no on uh this item.

Uh whatever item it is, 14.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in for these block items.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

All right, we have a motion and a second on block.

Any other comments from the board?

I'm not seeing any.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And it's on your screen.

Thank you.

Great.

That motion passes unanimously.

We are now going to move into item 10.

We'll open 10 and 11 together since they're um similar items.

Um manager Thomas.

Sure.

Great.

So item number 10 is a recommendation to elect to use ballots, including mail ballots and return envelopes purchased by the state as authorized by state law for the 2026 primary and general election cycle.

The state contract was awarded to pro-vote solutions as the statewide ventor vendor.

And if the county elects to use the ballots obtained by the state, the state vendor will provide Washoe County with all ballots, including without limitation, mail ballots, return envelopes, secrecy sleeves, I vote stickers, and voter instruction materials.

If approved, author this item authorizes the registrar voters to provide written notice to the Secretary of Washoe County to the Secretary of State of Washoe County's intent to use ballots purchased by the state as required by state law.

Thank you.

We've got um registrar voters and donald here if there are questions, or do you want to also do me to read number 11 and then you can do that?

That would be great if we could just take them both together.

This one's a little longer, so bear with me, please.

The item number 11 is a not a companion piece, but along the same lines with the register of voters office, which is a recommendation to approve the transition from voter-verified paper audit trail or VVPAT equipped Dominion Voting Systems, which is now Liberty Vote voting machines to ICX ballot marking devices, which are called BMDs with vote center-based ballot scanning in an amount not to exceed $1,764,619.70 to be funded through the Capital Improvement Fund or CIP, and the project number is listed there.

It also authorizes the purchase and contracts manager to make the necessary purchases and the additional information is on your agenda.

Thank you so much.

So I look to um vice chair.

Do you have any questions before we take public comment on these items?

No questions.

Okay.

Um and Commissioner Andrew and Commissioner Clark, any questions before we take public comment?

All right.

Madam Clerk, if we could do public comment, thank you.

Okay, I'll start with item 10.

We have several of the same commenters for both items.

Do they get two opportunities or just one?

I I think we'll just do one opportunity for these.

Thank you.

So first up, we have Penny Brock followed by Maureen Kunha.

Penny Brock for the record, just to make clear, I assume that I get three minutes for item 10 and another three minutes for item 11 since they weren't blocked.

Item 10 deals with the Secretary of State wanting you to join in with Provote for printing our election materials for 2024.

Pro vote is out of California.

In 2023, it came before the county commissioners to approve printing of our materials with Provote.

At that time, um Commissioner Herman, Andreola, and Mike Clark voted against it because they wanted that it to be done locally or at least by a Nevada printer.

So Provote was voted down.

I would ask again that you vote this down because it should be the decision of locally, not of the Secretary of State, who wants to take over everything pertaining to elections.

We do not want state control of our elections.

We want local control, and that's our constitutional way is local control of our government of well of our government too, but also our elections.

So another problem is he's telling you that well, it'll be cheaper.

Well, there's an NRS provision, 293200, that the state reimburses are ready for certain election materials.

So I don't know.

I didn't have a chance to compare, but I don't feel that that's a valid reason to go with his plan.

Um let's see what else.

When the county can spend 88 million for the homeless, 1800 homeless, you can certainly spend money to print our election materials locally, if not at and at least in Nevada.

The other problem with this is who's gonna be the mail house on this.

It's not mentioned.

So that's another concern for voters is we don't know who's gonna be the mailhouse.

If pro vote, if you approve this and it goes to California, that means our personal information will be going over to California.

The Secretary of State is under investigation by the Department of Justice.

He does not want our voting information to go to the Department of Justice.

Why would he want it to go over the California to pro vote?

That logic just does not follow.

So I would ask you to please vote no and to select, have this brought back.

Um also it should um per Nevada are um NRS.

Contracts are to go out to bid Maureen Kuhn, followed by Janet Butcher.

Okay, Maureen's not in the chambers anymore.

Janet Butcher followed by Darley Lee.

Janet Butcher for the record.

Um I will concur with um what Penny Brock has just said.

And I want to say I appreciate the fact that we have an example out there, and we can go out and take a look at it.

But is this kind of like the Affordable Care Act, like Nancy Pelosi saying you have to vote for it and then you can find out what's in it?

I think we should have had this displayed to us ahead of time.

Why not last meeting?

You guys were done at noon last meeting and 1028.

Or why wasn't this tabled until the next meeting so that people would have any uh chance to take a look at it?

Um we have no idea.

I assume that maybe the commissioners have looked at it.

I have no idea.

There's nothing, there'sn't been any comment about it.

So I think it's very interesting.

Um I totally have concerns about the machines.

I've said it before.

I'm a programmer.

I know how you can program.

I know how you can hide code.

I know how you can make code eat itself.

So I'm totally 100% against any machine, and I think hand counts are the way to go.

It can be done.

And we proved it last year at our caucus.

Thank you.

Diana Lee, followed by Alan Munson.

Yeah, again, I would echo the last two speakers' uh comments.

Uh I I don't understand why we can't do things locally here, give people in Nevada the chance to do things.

Why would why would we want to go and have all this done in California?

We don't want to be like California.

So uh and and just as far as taking away the local control, even in part for the supposed sake of saving money or having uh more of a centralized uh it's just the decentralization is what we need, not more government control uh from top down.

So I I and I don't know.

I've been a poll worker for several years uh since we moved here, and uh the differences in the election and how it's run has been uh of great concern.

Uh so I don't know.

I haven't had a chance to look at this, the uh replacement or the new provisions for the uh the election, but I too would have liked to have had more uh time to consider it to see what it's about before having a vote.

Thank you.

Alan Munson, followed by George Lee.

Thank you for the opportunity to uh speak.

I I I just want to reiterate what the previous two or three speakers said as I don't have a lot new information but um to say, but I I just concur with what they say, and that you know I'm concerned that we need to be able to have our voting here, and we've got a lot of issues about how how voting is counted, but um, I just hope that you you do hear uh what us citizens say, and I'm just another citizen telling you, you know, keep it here in Washaw County.

Uh and um I think uh Penny Brock mentioned that the the financial differential is pretty close, so we're not you know spend uh losing um or spending more money.

So um that's really all I got to say.

I just hope that you hear another citizen from Walsha County speaking that keep our our uh election ballot development here and not giving it to the state.

Uh uh and and then you know the state secretary of state, and and then I understand that it's being done by a company in California.

So anyways, thank you.

Thank you.

George Lee.

While Mr.

Lee approaches, I do have emails to place on the record for items 10 and 11.

Great.

George Lee for the record, this is 1011.

Um you're about to commit if you're signing a contract with these liberty vote for a for equipment for computers and for a software system.

You are corrupt.

You are doing something you would never do.

Anyone who deals with property or ownership, never would do it sight unseen.

You're depending on a temporary output of the product.

The product is a counted vote.

And the point is that at any moment of the time and day, you can program the machine at 1139 to change the programming and do whatever they want.

You're dealing with a closed proprietary software that never ever, ever should be bought by public entities.

You never should sign anything that locks you in to somebody hiding something from you.

You don't sell property, or I should say, you don't buy property or sell it without analyzing it and seeing that it's what's purported, to seeing that it's what you actually are getting.

The problem with this software package and this hardware package is you're not allowed to see.

How can you buy or sell property and blindfolded?

That's one of the things that uh County Commissioner Clark was talking about when he was having them talk about the process for what should be what do you call it when you um property is eliminated or what it's not eliminated, it's um when you sell property and you get it off your books.

That's the difference between getting it and turning it over to a program to a um we have uh the Wild Creek Golf Course, which for 15 years people worked diligently in this board, not you people particularly, but in this board to destroy that golf course.

They said, well, we're gonna put a put a quarter of a billion dollar high school there.

Of course, they didn't know it was gonna be a quarter of a billion dollars until they didn't listen to all of the people who told them how much it was gonna cost.

Thank you.

Kit wait.

Hello again.

I just wanted to say it is clear from being at this meeting that you don't listen to what the public commenters have to say uh majority of the time, but I really do hope that you listen with this issue.

There is a lot of constituents concerned with this particular agenda item, and I really stress that you would table it for a different time to give us more information as taxpayers.

We deserve the right to know how our elections are going to be taking place next year.

And this is part of our freedom of speech, freedom to show who we want to vote for by voting in a new machine that we're have concerns about and don't know a hundred percent of what it entails.

That's not fair, and we need to know.

And you it's your responsibility as elected to officials to listen to what we have to say and be the uh representatives for our voices.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, that was public comment for item 10.

Item 11 has some of the same commenters, but they need to be heard separately.

So, first up, we have for item 11, Penny Brock, followed by Tracy Thomas.

I'll distribute Ms.

Brock's documents.

Penny Brock for the record.

This is very serious.

What's trying to be done here today about this Liberty Vote contract?

Here's their web page.

There are no tabs at the top.

We don't know what we're getting with Liberty Vote dot com.

Secondly, according to contract law, NRS, when a contract expires, which the Dominion contract has expired, it has to go out to bid.

It has to have the solicitation.

This has not been done.

This is very serious.

This is a violation of NRS.

That should concern you.

So the count the county manager and the manager of the elections department, it's their job to do the solicitation.

If they wonder what other companies are out there in the handout, you will see that in Washington State, where each county gets to choose their own.

Um where RFPs can be sent to.

So I would encourage that this be done.

The second thing is Boulder, Colorado, their county clerk who oversees their elections.

She sent out a letter to all the voters telling them about this new Liberty vote.

And in her letter, she said that they had met with Liberty Vote CEO.

My question is did the CEO talk to or meet with our county manager who oversees the elections department and our ROV?

This is what I'm seeing, there's no transparency here.

Elections are one of the most important things that U.S.

County Commissioners oversee.

And you should be concerned also.

The sale of Dominion to Liberty was announced the first part of October, and yet you will see in the attachments for the contract that it's predated August 26th of Washoe County with Liberty Vote.

How can that be done when Liberty Vote had not even bought Dominion?

This is very strange.

This does not seem right.

So some articles.

Then we've got from MPR, who's known they're not exactly right wing, but even their concern.

They say, does the sale of Dominion voting machines mean a transformation?

It depends on who you're asking.

Thank you.

Tracy Thomas, followed by Tristan Gomez.

If you had any institutional knowledge with the registrar's office, you would know that in 2018, Washoe County used all new poll books wherein voters signed a tablet to vote in person.

Along with many other wrenches this threw into the works, all new signatures were added to the voter database.

Understandably, digital signatures are quite different than a signature on a piece of paper.

Nevada's legislature mandated same-day registrations in 2019, to which the new vendor could not or would not accommodate.

Consequently, all that new equipment and the taxpayer money spent on it was wasted as we were forced to revert back to the legacy system from 2016.

A very costly lesson in why Washoe County should not bind itself into constant costly contracts that cannot guarantee prudent use of taxpayer funds in future years.

While I am in favor of the first motion on this item to purchase ballot marking devices as it leads to paper ballots and away from the digital ballots, and has been something Carson City has been using for years.

We have no guarantee this nearly $2 million investment in equipment is going to meet the needs of voters and changes to election laws.

Where are they coming from?

Overseas.

Or are the images loaded onto thumb drives that are transported to the registrar's office?

Finally, other than eliminating QR codes, what is the registrar doing to address the issues of the March 25th executive order?

Thank you.

Trista Gomez appears to have left.

Janet Butcher's up next, followed by Jennifer Willett.

Janet Butcher for the record.

I really was a little confused since you globbed two of 10 and 11 together, but mostly I spoke before about I'm confused.

Anyway, 11, I guess.

But George Lee brought up something that really hit me because I've audited software before.

I've audited software for banks.

Do they have a good audit log of any programming changes that they make?

How do how do we get to see what happens?

I thought that George really brought forth some pretty good things.

Would you personally personally sign a contract and do that for yourself personally without being able to know what's underneath the covers?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer Willett, followed by Darla Lee.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jennifer Willett, and I'm the senior campaign manager at all voting as local action Nevada, an organization that advocates for policies and legislative priorities that expand voter access.

We are in support of item 11.

Ballot marking devices strengthen our voting system by combining accessibility, accuracy, and voter confidence by continuing to use voting machines to mark ballots.

We allow voters to use English or Spanish version versions of the ballots, supporting language access here in Washoe.

Additionally, voting machines also support voters with disabilities through providing features such as adjustable text size, audio output, and other assistive technologies, assuring that every voter can cast their vote independently and privately.

In this process, once the voter has made their selections, the machine prints a paper ballot that the voter can review and verify before casting.

This process helps voters feel confident and comfortable with their choices.

Ballot marking devices are not new.

They have been used throughout the state for several years.

We believe this hybrid voting system, which combines technology and paper, strikes the right balance between voter confidence, efficiency, and accessibility.

Please support funding the ballot marking devices.

Thank you.

Darla Lee, followed by Cappy Wilson Sietzma.

Darla Lee looks like she left.

Kathy Wilson Sietzma.

Sorry about your last name, you'll have to pronounce it for me.

It's actually Kathy Wilson Sitzema.

I keep Wilson because it's much easier to pronounce.

That subject matter experts should be sought, and the Board of County Commissioners should rely on their expertise.

And that is a direct quote.

Digital election management is a fact of life and keeps pace with digital life today.

If the hardware can both alleviate tampering fear and record mail-in ballots as they become available to reduce accounting time, time in which perceptions grow, rumors circulate.

And by the way, my former position was Washoe County Public Information Officer from 1995 to 1998 when the first scrutiny of the recorder's office and several acts that cause the Secretary of State to come in and take over the election.

I'm aware.

The other issue I'd like to address is that the Board of County Commissioner, while listening to the public, understands that it's the expertise of staff and other experts in fields that they listen to and the public would do well to understand if they want to be listened to seriously that they hire the experts themselves and speak before you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alan Munson, followed by Kit Waite.

You know who I am.

And I don't really have much more to add what I've already said, which is I would encourage you not to vote for this.

And you know, I heard the word expertise.

You know, it doesn't take a lot of expertise to count votes when you have a nonpartisan group watching each other versus a machine that you have no ability to look at, and you know, it's all being done in internally where if you have non, you know, both groups uh or you know, whatever, counting the votes, you can you can you can have a lot more confidence in it.

And I think we do have a concern about how our voting is being handled here.

So I would encourage you to you know not to uh support this.

So, anyways, thank you for letting me speak and uh thank you.

Thank you.

Last step we have kit wait, and I believe that captures everybody for these two items.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Sorry, there is a little confusion on the public comment for me with this uh issue.

So I spoke pretty much everything I wanted to say last time.

Um, but I being an old soul just see this as a little more uh compliment complicating things than it needs to be.

Uh it seems like hand counting ballots has had much less issues in the past than what these machines are are bringing to the table and what they have brought to the table last year.

Um so yeah, I just think that this is adding a lot more confusion and problems to our elections, and would encourage you to at least wait to vote on this item for a later time with more information.

Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I appreciate it.

All right, we'll go back to item 10, and I wanted to see if there's any board comments or questions on item 10 before we take a motion after we take in public comment.

I'm looking to yes, Commissioner Andrea.

Um I realize that 10, 11 to a certain extent are the same high-level category, but it we have um Mr.

McDonald, and I'm wondering if he could at least give a summary.

I realize that we have our staff report, and thank you.

But if you could just give a summary and also talk about um the process that you went through with that and the evaluation, and then the full transparency of that as well.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Uh Andrew McDonald for the record.

We'll start with the state ballot printer, if you don't mind.

So uh in 2021, AB 321 enacted at all mail ballot uh for Nevada, the state of Nevada.

In 2021, AB 126 created the PPP for the presidential preference primary to be held every four years, increasing cost to the county to print those ballots.

In 2023, NRS uh 293 2699 also was enacted that told the county to prepare and mail every single active registered voter a ballot.

Therefore, costs have increased to the county uh during these time frames.

What we're simply asking for uh is for you to make a choice if you would like us to leverage the pro vote contract that the Secretary of State has put in front of all counties in Nevada.

It's an option to utilize that.

And to much of what folks have said keep it in Nevada, our current print vendor for mail ballots is not in Nevada.

It is in Arizona, based out of Phoenix, and it's with RunBecks print services.

So I think folks may have gotten confused with the sample ballot booklet.

Um that also is a printed uh out of Southern Nevada through Taylor uh printing services, but our ballots have always been printed, not always, but have been printed recently from Arizona and trucked up here.

Um I also want to mention that um the trucking of those ballots come to Reno Post Office off VASER.

So there is no going to California, there is no going to Sacramento to bring ballots here.

They come, they truck here, and Vassar Post Office delivers those ballots directly to your post office or your your uh residence.

So I just want to make sure that's very, very clear.

In regards to the print vendor, um, we would be saving the county money, and right now, as many of the public have spoken, the county has some tight times.

Uh roughly 200,000 and above per election to have the Secretary of State print vendor, not the Secretary of State themselves, but the print vendor print our ballots.

We re-con we control and retain full control of our ballot formatting, our I voted sticker, our secrecy sleeve, all the information is given to that print vendor, not through the state, but through us to that print vendor directly.

We retain all control.

So what we're asking for is for you to make the decision.

If you'd love to um like to save the county money, that's where I'm coming from right now.

If you want to stay the course, we would stay with Runback uh print services, and they're a great partner, a great vendor, um, but to the tune of about 250,000 and above to uh print our ballots for us every single election.

Commissioner Andriela, do you have any follow-up?

Um I've had some uh folks reach out, who is always wonderful when people reach out prior to a meeting so they can get all the information.

And um I would just like to ask a question that has um come my way specifically about having that printed locally, because I did a lot of research on the local, and I'm wondering why um if you could maybe share why we can't well, I I shouldn't say why we can't.

What are the barriers that prevent us from actually printing everything locally?

Well, let me just say that the Secretary of State went out for an RFP very recently, and there, as far as I know, there was no Nevada company or print vendor that actually applied for that RFP.

So that is uh a barrier.

If there is no one to print the ballots, then we have to go out.

Um so kind of that's where we're at.

Uh there happens to be a sample ballot printer in southern Nevada, uh, but not a ballot printer.

There was a comment made earlier about the Secretary of State printing at their facility.

And they uh if they wanted to do that, they would have offered that.

And they did not offer that.

And I know they can print sample ballot booklets there, but not ballots.

And I would say that the state printing office has really evolved to even not doing everything that it had done in the past and farming it out in terms of going to other vendors.

So thanks for the clarification, because there are uh guidelines that are uh legal guidelines, both at a federal level and a statutory level that have these requirements for printing.

And so if a printer doesn't have that capacity, and I can tell you firsthand in talking to many printers quite some time ago, uh, well, recently in the last few years, the capacity isn't here in terms of northern Nevada.

I'm not I'm not talking about the um printer that's in in southern Nevada, but if it were to be even locally here, they would have to actually look for a vendor, so they would be uh subcontracting to a certain extent, which is not uh part of that eligibility piece.

So I just really thought it was important to put that on the record as well.

And so um, Madam Chair, if if there aren't any other questions, I I would like to have um a request, Mr.

McDonald talk about item 11 if there isn't anything else that anybody else wants on items.

Sure, and we'll just we can vote on item 10 and then we'll go to item 11.

Sorry to confuse the matter.

I apologize.

Um and Commissioner Clark, do you have anything?

Yes, thank you, madam chair.

I've got a couple of uh questions.

I I brought it up uh on a regular basis the last uh go around with uh uh mailing mail out ballots.

So we had some some 43,000 returned or 34,000, I guess I can't remember the exact number, but uh and I asked the uh county manager about this the other day.

Um tell us about that uh the the number and and uh as far as cleaning up the uh voter rolls uh and making sure you know we're talking about cost savings.

I'm sure it costs probably several dollars each, maybe you'll give us exact number for mailing out uh ballots, uh printing, the mail, the postage, uh the return and the sorting of the return and lots of lots of money involved in that.

So uh just for a cost saving, just for fiscal responsibility, it makes sense to have you know uh mailing addresses that are actually to the person that that's supposed to vote instead of sending it out and getting a return.

So you can give us a little bit about that, and then I'll have a couple other questions for you.

Thank you for the question, Commissioner Clark.

Um so since you voted me in, uh approved me to uh appointed me to this position.

I just want to say since February of this last year, we have uh done list maintenance uh quite extensively, bulk list maintenance.

We do the daily list maintenance, but we have inactivated off our voter rolls 44,200 voters.

That is a large number on a county this size.

We have also performed 25,000 cancellations.

So you move from inactive to canceled on the voter roll.

So that's over 70 uh give or take around 70,000 bulk in activation since February.

And there's more to come.

Um so going back to your original question, it's about three hundred three dollars and sixty to eighty cents a ballot to to mail it out.

Um the the benefit of moving in this direction is the state uh is going to pay for the postage of mailing out those ballots and the return of any returned ballots.

So they are working with the post office to set up accounts just as of today.

We asked that question.

So um that would not be a uh cost uh beared or borne by the county.

Uh that doesn't make it any better to just send ballots out.

That's why we're doing uh active uh bulkless maintenance uh and taking it very seriously, sir.

Good, good.

Thank you for the answer and good information, and the public really needs to hear that as well, because that that was a big concern of of a lot of constituents, a lot of citizens of the county.

So I'm glad you you were able to clarify that.

Um I've got some information.

Um that uh Dominion was sold to Liberty Vote, Scott Leadendacker.

Um pronouncing his last name correctly.

The CEO of Liberty is a former Um we we're we'll go over item 11.

Sorry, do you want we're on 10 right now for the 10?

So thank you for the answer.

I've got some other questions for you.

We'll it'll come up on item 11.

I guess thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions, Vice Chair?

No.

Okay, then um we've taken public comment on item 10.

Any other questions over on this side?

I'm not seeing any.

I am happy to make a motion.

Uh I move to elect to use the ballots, including mail ballots and return envelopes purchased by the state as authorized by NRS as listed in the staff report, looking for a second.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Andriola.

We have a motion and a second on item 10.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay.

And it's up on your screen.

And that motion passes four to one.

Commissioner Clark voted um in the negative on that one or voted no.

We'll now move in to item 11.

And uh we're back with our registrar.

Um and Commissioner Clark, you had started saying that you had some questions on item 11.

So go ahead.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um the information that I have is uh Dominion was sold to Liberty Vote.

Uh Scott Late Lidendecker, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing his name correctly.

Uh the CEO for Liberty is a former GOP operative.

He was uh former election director somewhere in uh Missouri.

Scott is sort of a ghost online, no credible uh LinkedIn information and not other not much other information.

Uh have we looked at other options and then uh further, he was the uh GOP uh elections uh uh director in St.

Louis, Missouri, and he owns another company, another tech company called No Wink.

Do you know familiar with that company?

Yes, sir.

Uh this is Andrew McDonald for the record, uh the registrar.

No Inc is actually the top-down voting system here in Washoe County that the state provided to us.

Okay, very well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And any other commissioners have comments or questions on item 11.

Commissioner Andriola.

If you would mind just giving a summary of um, because I realize that there was a change we were all aware of that in terms you can't control when a company has purchased or what have you, but I I do think it's important to talk about even what its purpose is and the vetting that your responsibility as being in this office and having the expertise and ensuring that we're following the law and that the I's are dotted and T's are crossed.

And I think again, thank you for the extensive um uh staff report and all of the documents that were provided.

But if giving a summary, I think would be helpful because when that transition occurred, you know how that happened.

Um if you could just uh brevity is welcome, but certainly if you wouldn't mind, you don't maybe not in the beginning because I don't know when the beginning started.

Um, but if you could just um give some um detail about how we're here now and why.

Thank you, Commissioner Andrew uh Andrew McDonald for the record.

I don't exactly know uh I think probably I heard it the same day you heard when the transition happened from the per the procurement, it wasn't a rehat.

I mean, it was a full-blown procurement from uh Dominion to Liberty Vote.

A lot of those employees came over, maybe a few didn't, but they are rehatting, rebranding and becoming a a new company in that regard.

Um that is really all I know.

I I was shocked, just as probably everyone in this room was shocked.

I think they kept it under uh the wraps for whatever reasons, you know, it just didn't come out.

Uh, but either way, uh it's the known systems that that we have been utilizing and using, and therefore that's why I am asking for an extension of the contract.

Uh folks uh how it also mentioned um going out for um competitive procurement.

Uh and so just so everyone here is aware to do a like for like voting system swap, you can't use two different voting systems equipment.

Uh you have to use proprietary equipment from that voting system.

So I did call uh the only other voting system in Nevada.

There's only two.

There's Liberty Vote Now and there's ESNS.

That's it.

Those are the two games in town.

I did call uh and made it very clear uh that I wanted a quote like for like of what I'd be going to if I went with the then Dominion 2B Liberty Vote contract, and it came back at $8 million.

So that is to replace our existing voting system with ESNS uh voting system.

What I'm putting forward in front of you today is just to swap out the VVPAT, the voter verified paper audit trail with the output, which is a full-length ballot, and that's the equipment I'm asking to procure, which is we already have in a CIP capital improvement project fund that has already been given to us prior.

So that's really what I'm after today.

So just as a follow-up, um just again to drill down to having everybody understand.

Yeah, they're gonna be able uh the voter is gonna have a ballot when they when they when they leave the of what they voted.

Yeah, uh let me I think you could maybe go into that a little bit because I'm not sure everybody's yeah, I apologize if I thought your question was related to.

So I just thank you.

So let me give some benefits or reasons why we want to move from VVPAT over to the ballot marking devices.

Uh VVPATs are difficult to number one to see and read for the ADA community.

Uh but BMDs or ballot marking devices provide accessibility.

Uh they feature a 12-point font on the ballot, just like you get your ballot in the paper ballot in the mail, it's the same thing.

It's a 12-point font.

It's legible and it's tangible.

The voter has something in their hands to actually feel, look, and verify that that is the vote that they want to cast.

So there's that.

Um the paper ballot again is the same as the mail ballot that comes in the mail.

It eliminates the QR code off the V V PAC, which is in the executive order.

That is not the main reason we're doing it, but it is a good reason to do it.

It is in there.

Um, it also speeds up election night results.

So today we have 900 voting machines that we put out in the general election.

Each one of those voting machines comes with a USB stick, a primary and a backup stick inside of each um ballot mark um prime.

And so when we move over to BMDs, we'll have about 140 ballot scanners out at the sites, which provides a primary backup that's 280 SD cards from 1800.

What does that mean?

Election night results will come in much faster because we're only uploading 240 cards as opposed to 1800 cards.

So those are the few uh reasons that uh I'm wanting to move in this.

It's more transparency for the public, it's streamlining operations, it's accessibility, and giving more voter confidence in the elections that they can hold that tangible ballot before they cast it.

And just as a last comment, madam chair, thank you for your patience.

If people are wanting to look at some of the detail and be able to provide their own uh assessment, is there an opportunity to for them to reach out to you to make an appointment and to talk to you about some of these details?

Um I think all of us as commissioners have been briefed.

When we come to these meetings, we have hours and hours and hours spent on research before we come into these chambers.

And I think it's hard sometimes for people to understand the amount of time we all work and pride ourselves on doing a lot of research.

So I just want to make sure that everyone understands your accessibility.

You have been very gracious that I have seen myself.

And having folks contact you, meet with you, and be able to have you answer the questions.

The doesn't mean that everyone is going to necessarily like the answers, but the reality is that they are based on facts and they're based on data that can be supported by you, you and your office and and the leadership and the statutory requirements as well that you have to follow.

And so many of the changes I think that we hear about really again the legislature on unfortunately or fortunately, however, you want to look at it, but those opportunities have to have to happen statutorily.

Our purview is very limited in what we can do.

So your commitment to transparency, I know all of us are committed to transparency and to putting in some things that will even have a um a very very clear, checkable auditable uh process are uh hopefully coming, and I'm looking forward to that presentation when the time is right.

But in terms of um your accessibility, I just wanted to see if you were I know that you're busy, and I'm not trying to um overload you, but I do think it's important that everyone have a comfort level and have accessibility to your office.

Yeah, I mean I mean I obviously can't take every single member of the public into the office every day.

I'm not gonna get anything done, but I'd be more than happy to figure out some like office hours or something where someone folks could stop by and we can answer questions for them.

The other thing I'd like to do, and I think it might have been your idea when you actually saw the BMDs is I'd like to do a public um display with about 30 or 40 of these out at the convention center or a Wooster High School or somewhere in one of your uh jurisdictions where the public can come in and they can like it well, the same thing they have outside out here, but in a larger setting where it really uh anybody can stop by after work or if we can do it on the weekend, we'll figure out a time.

But to be as transparent and have as many questions as possible, I think that would be uh good use of time.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

And I do have to say, as far as if people want to dig in on the work that you and your office have been doing.

You just did a great podcast interview on ballot battle-born Nevada.

And so I do want to just plug that appearance and thank you for representing the county so well on that.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Any other commissioners have yes, Commissioner Garcia?

Just a quick question.

Can you refresh my memory?

Software licensing and contracts, I get them all kind of muddled.

But each of those options that are presented to us today have a three percent annual escalator.

It's on the on page four of the staff report.

Can you explain to me that what that is and why?

Sure.

I mean, it's it's already embedded in the existing contract.

Um, what it is is things go up, it's inflation, it's it's no different than you know, um, you're going to buy uh some milk at the store, it goes up every year.

And so the voting system vendors, just like a lot of our vendors have an escalator, not just that one of X amount percent, and that's I guess the consumer price index roughly is three percent, where they're feeling that they're making the same amount of money every year for doing the same services.

Yeah, thank you.

Any other board comments or yes, um manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Since we're uh continuing the theme of transparency, I want to make sure I know the board's aware, but the ballot marking devices that we're purchasing are quite bulky.

Um, if if you move forward with this purchase, I just want to be really transparent that what that will do and what we're already constrained with the space that we have in the in the warehouse that we're renting.

And so I wanted to to at least put out there on the record that once if we go forward with this procurement, we're gonna need more space.

The the number of pallets that will necessitate us to not just receive but to unpack, uh, had us starting to go down the trail of looking for additional warehouse space.

And so we're gonna be bringing forward an item in a future agenda in December to move the warehouse that we're currently leasing to a different location here in the county.

And um what I think that also affords is the opportunity to have a more transparent uh for those of you that have participated in the election and have been down to the ROV's office, it's quite constrained in space, and this would offer us a lot more transparency for the public to come see the operations um to participate in and see all of the functions of the election night.

So in full transparency, I just wanted you to know that as we move through this process, I know you're aware we've talked about the fact that this would necessitate additional space for us.

And so um there are many benefits that come with that, but I just wanted to put that on the record.

So that is the bulk of what you and your team are doing in the office, and you just don't have enough space and enough visibility by the public.

I think this is going to be a game changer as well, that investment.

So I'm really excited about that piece.

Now liberty vote voting machines to ICX ballot marking devices with vote centered ballot scanning in an amount not to exceed exceed uh one point seven uh million uh six or set one one million seven uh hundred and sixty-four thousand six hundred and nineteen dollars and seventy cents as uh outlined in the staff report looking for a second.

Thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay and that motion passes four to one with Vice Chair Herman in the no vote.

And um this meeting is going way longer than I think we thought it would, which is okay.

Um I would like to um take a lunch break.

Um we um have uh some food upstairs so the the board can um take a little break, make the best decision with the rest of the the the rest of the agenda.

We will come back and we'll start on item twelve.

We'll come back at two thirty.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think we're gonna have a lot of people.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I will call this Board of County Commissioners meeting to order at two thirty-three.

We'll start with item twelve, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Item number twelve is a discussion and direction to staff on a request from the Washa County Library Board of Trustees.

After many hours of deliberation and discussion discussion at a publicly agendized notice to executed meetings for fiscal year twenty twenty-seven, the base budget equal to the combined current fiscal year twenty twenty six budgets, and the general fund amount is fourteen million three hundred and seventy-four thousand and one hundred and sixty eight dollars, and the library expansion fund at three million two hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ten dollars adjusted as appropriate to account for future contractual obligations as the baseline budget within the general fund of Washoe County for purposes of supporting library services in our community.

And I'll remind you this is for discussion only.

We have our assistant county manager Dave Slayer here.

Um as you know, we'll be discussing the budget in whole at a later date.

So this is just that portion that you requested for the library.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

For the record, Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager.

I'll start with just a brief little overview and then kind of get into the meat of the discussion for you all.

But uh the Wash County Library System operates as a regional library uh service, providing access to information educational resources and community programming through a network of twelve locations, including partnership libraries and specialized outreach services.

As you will also recall, uh, during the fiscal year twenty-six budget setting process, there was some question related to the appropriate budget for the library system.

The board, you all uh requested that the library board of trustees review the needs uh of the community and propose a budget to this board in October or November of this year.

We're here in November, just cutting it close.

Um for the upcoming fiscal year twenty-seven operating budget.

Again, as Manager Thomas recommended mentioned, this is not for you to approve this budget.

This is the recommended recommendation from the library board of trustees for Washa County staff to uh move forward uh in creating the twenty-seven budget.

Library board will go through the the entire budget setting process.

The fiscal year twenty twenty-six library combined adopted budget is approximately one point or sorry, seventeen point six million dollars, which includes personnel, central services and overhead, service and supplies, and the current titles budget.

Those are the books and the ebooks that we all enjoy in our community.

Uh, the majority of the costs associated with the library budget are personnel related.

Approximately 83% of the budget is people providing a service to our community across all 12 of those branches.

So through a process of multiple meetings, the Library Board of Trustees initially focused on policy discussion related to which branches would be open on which days and for how long.

Many iterations of library location days and hours were created that generally followed the direction of the trustees, which was to provide programs that are most impactful and in the correct locations for our community, offering more hours after traditional work hours of 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Monday through Friday to ensure those working traditional work hours have access to those libraries.

So all trustees agreed agreed that providing programming like early literacy was an important function of the library.

That's important because while we were defining the cost models for the library, in order to offer programming, we needed more staff than just to have a building open with books to check out.

So that's an that's an important little piece as you start looking at hours of operation and kind of the number of staff to do that work.

So all iterations of the expanded hours as requested library board included the need for additional staffing over what the current budget is.

Many options for different hours, days, and locations were reviewed and priced.

And at the October 15th trustee meeting, the trustees voted to request that the fiscal year 27 operating budget be equal, adjusted through contractual obligations of the existing current fiscal year 26 budget.

As I mentioned, all of the options that we worked through and priced for expanded hours and a few other things, we massaged hours in all kinds of different ways.

So there's a lot of work that was done by the trustees to review really what it takes to provide services within our community for the library system.

I really want to you know mention that the work of the staff themselves in uh bearing with me as I would worked with the library board of trustees to come up with these options and understand what those impacts are.

Uh the staff did a phenomenal job.

They were there, they were understood what we were trying to accomplish.

They came up with proposed uh solutions uh to library hours that best fit the needs of their uh individual branches.

In fact, uh we proposed uh a new operating schedule uh for fiscal year 27.

A little bit more to come on that as we go through this process with the library board of trustees.

Uh we you know it was a proposed model brought up through staff to be the most efficient with the current staff that we've got.

Really, how do we provide those staffing uh the needs of the community at those separate branches?

As you can imagine, different populations utilize the branches.

While we have 12 branches, anybody can use those branches.

Uh some people get very comfortable in in certain locations, and maybe that's the you know the location where they just feel most comfortable.

They they'd love to take their children there, they have access to transportation, whatever that looks like.

Certain programming for different populations starts to occur in these in these libraries.

Um the process that we went through, however, did not determine the programming to be provided our libraries.

Um instead, it was you know, it was uh we identified that the current and existing budget is necessary to provide programming, doesn't matter what that programming is uh to operate the library system.

Um and so, you know, as I mentioned, the the trustees realize that they don't want to put the library board or the library in a different position than all the rest of the departments.

You all have some choices that'll be made during the budget process.

They recognize that it is your option uh for how much money is actually spent in the library system, they will react appropriately.

Uh however, they felt they felt that uh they were comfortable and they voted to provide a recommendation to you all that we utilize the same base budget for next year that we have this year.

Um moving forward as the trustees hire a new director in early of 2026, and in part upon updating their strategic plan, that is the time where programming and specific needs of the community will come out and be identified, uh, and they will put that through the process as all departments do.

Uh so with that, I'm available for any questions that may have provoked through this discussion or thoughts that you have heard from the community.

Well, ACM Solero, thank you for all the work you put into this process.

We really appreciate it.

You uh are the assistant county manager overseeing a lot of the operations of the county, and then you took over the job of supporting the library system in a more intense capacity since we don't have a director right now, and I just want to thank you so much.

And I know this has been a lot of late nights and long hours and tough discussions, and I just uh want to extend my appreciation to you and the library staff who have also done a ton of work on this, and then obviously to the library board of trustees.

And I'm glad that there this came out with a unanimous vote.

And we what was it or no?

Four four to one.

Of four to one.

I apologize.

Okay, so uh not unanimous.

Four to one vote.

Um, and uh there's the majority of the board supports the direction moving forward.

So um I just really appreciate and commend all the work that's been uh put forth on this, and thank you for your leadership.

Thank you.

Certainly my pleasure.

Absolutely.

Vice Chair Herman.

Okay, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you.

Um I think your ears were ringing today because you had several public commenters actually go out of the way to thank you for the great communication, your organization, your thoughtfulness, and your patience.

Um somebody specifically said, you know, there was times where Dave had to say the same thing several times, but um I just wanted to personally say thank you for that um that calmness and the professionalism that you exhibited.

I know that many of our library uh staff uh have been put through the ring over the last few years.

Uh morale has been at a historic low, and it just um means a lot to me that we have leadership in the county that can kind of help stabilize and and bring that um calming effect.

And um, I not only wanted to thank you for that lengthy iterative process that you went through, and um I wanted to thank the staff for um digging in and looking for those efficiencies and offering those ideas and suggestions.

Um we have some very talented, smart people in all of our departments, and our librarians are some of the the brightest.

So thank you for putting your trust in some of those recommendations that they brought forward, and finally, thank you to the trustees um from the the library trustees for prioritizing programming.

I think you know you can have a shell of a building, you can have supplies on the shelves, but really the heart and the soul of these libraries.

If you are a patron and you know what it feels like to raise your child or take your senior citizen parent, there's so much magic that happens within these walls, and if you peel away that programming, um, it really does change the feel of of it all.

And I believe our constituents have been very vocal in access, you know, wanting to preserve that access.

And so I look forward to the library trustees' strategic planning process so that we can kind of see how that is uh drilled down.

That's not within our purview, but it is a team sport here that we're all in, and I'm very supportive of the direction um that we're headed.

So I offer my full support.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Andreola.

Thank you.

Um I just have a quick question.

I was trying to write down everything you were saying, not everything, but one of the points that you made in terms of timing, the hiring for the director is 2026, you mentioned.

Um, and then what is the process?

They're gonna go through a strategic plan, and then they're going to look at the budget again.

And I'm I'm only I'm I'm wrestling with this because you brought up obviously that programming was a priority by the library trustees, and that you also specifically spoke about the proposal of lots of options and that looking at efficiencies, and if you um essentially added more programming could be more staff, so really the hours of increasing or decreasing could have maybe not exactly the impact that one would think.

Just decreasing hours doesn't mean the staff is going to be decreased.

So I realize that you looked at all of that, but I guess what I'm wondering is the next plan of the iteration in terms of their strategic planning, and then are they re-looking at the budget or are they just submitting this as an initial draft and then looking at the direction of where the commission is going and then will adjust, and if that's the case, what would be their timing for that?

Yeah, I appreciate the question.

Again, for the record, Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager.

So uh moving forward, the process uh to get to where we're at.

Uh right now we have two funds.

We have uh an expansion fund and we have a general fund portion of the library budget.

Um, the process through the upcoming fiscal year 27 was will be to have an above-base request to kind of get from the current roughly 12.5 million dollar, or maybe it's a little bit more the numbers are the current uh general fund portion of the fiscal year 26 budget to the overall um budget ask, which is roughly 17.6 million dollars.

Um, there will be an above-base request for that brought forward through the budgeting process.

Um moving into the future, uh, the timing is off a little bit, right?

So normally you would tie the strategic plan to the budget and you'd work through all of those things.

Absent a director, it's really hard to understand kind of the direction that the board really wants to go.

Uh this recommendation is really to set the library system itself at kind of a baseline of we know that you can provide the services that you're providing to the community with the hour roughly the same number of hours throughout the community uh at the 12 locations.

This is really setting them up for that future success of having a new director and board on board with a new strategic plan so that they can hit the run hit the road running in fiscal year 27 starts July 1st, 2026.

Now, what happens after that, right, is the adoption or the adaptation of the budget with a new director to the strategic plan and potential future recommendations to the board for the budget, whether it's additional funding or less funding.

But until we have that strategic plan, we're we're right at the end of the current three-year strategic plan, which put us a little bit behind of you know, kind of where we would normally want to be.

Um but I believe that this actually sets the library system up for great success hiring a new director and coming through with a new strategic plan.

So I hope that answered your question.

It did that there's more to come.

Okay.

That's what I'm hearing that there's more to come because they're they're having to do some things, they don't have a director yet.

So I too really appreciate the leadership of the library chair, the library trustees, and all the staff and you I realize that the uh robust discussion that has happened in terms of looking at the 17.6 and then looking at essentially the 12.5 without the expansion fund dollars.

It was clear from this board unanimously in terms of um separating that expansion fund, but allowing the board, library board to actually have their fiduciary responsibility if they needed it, it was there, right?

So moving forward though, you made a comment that I think really was clear.

All they they you mentioned that they meaning the trustees, I'm guessing the trustees all felt that um they equally will follow whatever the other departments within Washoe County may be faced with in terms of some budget constraints.

And so I hope in moving forward that they can look at the possibility of those contingencies.

That's why I was looking at the timing of how the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners are going to be doing their budget and how that aligns with the timing of the library trustee.

And that's where I was really going and just seeing if it coincides because if they're just saying this is what we're looking at is keeping us whole, and all other 24 departments are looking at whatever they're looking at.

I think that there might be some inequity there.

So I'm just wondering that's where I was going with the timing.

Yes, Commissioner, absolutely.

They were very sensitive to the fact that they did not want to be treated differently than all the rest of the departments, but they were asked to bring something to this board to say, hey, we we've looked at what we do, what we do for the community, how we do that for the community, and our recommendation is to you know start with this.

Certainly uh when we get to the budget time and you all want to give everybody 10% above base budgets, they will accept that.

So I don't remember hearing that from anyone.

I I I love how offered such a such a very uh interesting suggestion.

Um I didn't hear anybody say that, but I think that uh there are going to be some, to be honest, I mean there's going to be some tough decisions and discussions, and it's gonna be I don't know where it's gonna land.

It sounds like you might have the ball of something that you can share with us, but I don't think that we we have that.

We don't have that information moving forward at this particular time.

And so I really appreciate and can you extend.

I I'm guessing we all feel the same way, but the appreciation to the library trustees, staff, and yourself for looking at and understanding that they may be actually faced with some um constraints and that they understand and they'll follow that consistency and be equally um and fairly treated just like every other department.

Um I'm guessing I'm gonna have to watch the meetings to see what suggestions you might make.

If it might be the one that you just made, that would be interesting.

But I do appreciate it on a very serious note.

These are tough times.

I don't think anybody is going to disagree with that.

I also um thought it was really interesting that you all looked at so many different models in terms of what how like what is this best model to still stay with the mission while staffing and efficiency.

So the models that you the new model is without adding to any additional staff, right?

That's what I'm hearing.

That is correct.

Okay, but the programming hasn't yet been done.

So I wonder how that'll impact it.

I guess there's more to come, as I mentioned.

Yeah, so it's it's it's interesting.

Uh the moment you provide any programming, you need more staff.

And so, you know, as as we looked through that piece, you know, the amount of programming right now in the libraries is dictated by the current strategic plan.

And so there may be a you know a point in the future where they want so much additional programming.

Um, right now it's kind of generally the same across all library branches, just different timing.

Uh, and so I think the library board of trustees is recognized that we don't need to provide the exact same program at every single branch, right?

We want to focus what's most important to the community.

So super excited for that upcoming strategic planning process where they can define really where those things are uh located, which which libraries provide those they totally get uh as well.

Um, you know, that the staff is important to providing that programming.

Uh the question really becomes what is the programming accomplishing?

And again, that ties back to the the upcoming strategic plan.

Well, it'll be interesting to see, and again, um I'm really appreciative of you taking even the roles and responsibilities clarification of what the board's responsible, what the staff is responsible, what's the mission, and then how that all ties in.

What is the uh authority from the Board of County Commissioners?

And I know that you've done all of that, and and I really appreciate it because as the chair said, it's not like you know, you didn't have other things going on as well.

And so to take that on and to help keep them informed is really really important.

I do think that we have an obligation to try and get you as much information and direction as they move through that process.

So contingencies, I hope, are going to be considered in the options as they go through the strategic plan.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr.

Solero, for your your uh report here.

Um I I'm supportive of the library, and just I'll just want to get that on the record that uh I'll always have and uh we'll continue to feel that way.

Um I'd like to see sometime in the future, you know, some efficiency experts to come in and really detail what's taking place at the library.

I think that uh an outsider kind of kind of like the Raf Tallis report and and see what what really could be how how it can be configured uh if if we're doing the best practices now, or is there a better way to do it?

You know, some real experts.

I appreciate your your stepping in, and I certainly appreciate the the uh library board members, but you know, an outside eye might might uh show us something that that might be helpful for future discussions.

I'm sure it wouldn't happen soon, and and probably we don't have time for that right now, but sometime in the future that that should be looked into.

And then on another note, uh af after you've stepped in and they've got your feet wet over there.

Do you think that you might apply for the library director's position?

Is that is that something that intrigues you?

Is it is it let's get that on the record.

I I appreciate the question.

Uh, as much as I enjoy uh my experience with library system, uh I really enjoy the job that I've got today.

Very well, thank you.

And uh just for the record as well, since we're not taking an official vote, I also am in support of what the library has proposed.

I'm glad that they're going to be looking strategically on where it's best to put the staff for the programming, but keeping it um at the same level as the year prior, um, I think is the smart move, and we'll continue to have these really great budget discussions.

I can't wait till we have our strategic planning session in January to look at the full uh budget and see where we're at as um a community and uh what what we need to be doing to make sure that we're putting this um commission and uh the county on a good track, but I'm I'm in full support.

I really appreciate all the work that you all have been doing, and I think that this um and to Commissioner Garcia who brings up a good point on uh morale.

I hope that um folks who have if they're listening or um if you could relay this back to the staff, how much we appreciate their work and um we hope that they'll hang in there and I know that um it can be um a hot topic libraries, but we I think all see the the very important work that they're doing in the community and making sure that everyone has access to free materials to learn and read and engage with their community, and yeah, Commissioner Clark is right, that public commenter who talked about traveling internationally because uh she was inspired by a library book or uh by a magazine.

I mean, that's what it's all about.

So I think that we are excited to see how we can continue to support well.

So making sure that we're balancing these fiscal concerns and needs that we have as a county.

Any other comments before we I told the clerk, even though this is not an action item that we take public comment.

Um, Madam Clerk, is there any public comment?

There is, Madam Chair, and thank you for allowing this discussion item only.

Uh, first up, we have Sherry Sanders, followed by Carrie Bucambuso.

Um I've lost my public comment one moment.

You've been waiting so patiently.

It's been amazing to hear it.

Yes.

Thank you.

And thank you for hearing us today and for doing the work that you're all doing here.

And my name is Dr.

Sherry Sanders in a recently graduated law school with a degree focused on the public interest and constitutional law.

Um and because of reasons, if anybody's curious about why I have a mask on, I actually do not have health insurance in I just can't afford to get sick.

It's not meant as a statement.

Um I live in downtown Reno and I volunteer within interfaith and multi-denominational communities.

I'm here to ask the commission to accept the library budget recommended by the library board of trustees as prepared by Mr.

Solero and staff, both his staff and the library staff.

And we open today with an indication for wisdom and compassion.

And in a secular sense, the library gives us both.

Learning is how we get to wisdom and wisdom is how we get to compassion.

As we saw this morning, there are amazing students using these libraries.

And these students use the libraries alongside seniors and veterans who, in addition to using the books, are more likely to need food or housing assistance, access to mental health assistance, connections to low-cost legal assistance, meeting rooms, internet access, and places to sit while applying for jobs or assistance.

And as we know, we are in a time where we are seeing many of our public interest programs being defunded.

And at the same time, the nonprofit legal services that might help people stand up under these challenges are also being defunded.

The library is already serving as a lifeline for people that existing programs are failing to reach.

And as we lose programs or receive less access to these programs, the library becomes more critical rather than less.

Few who need the libraries can be here today to advocate for them.

As just one person who can be here for all of us who need these services, including all the books and learning we can hold.

Thank you.

Carrie Bucumbuso, followed by Janet Butcher.

Hello, Commissioners.

Thank you for allowing the public to speak today, and thank you for your service to our community and the time you're giving us, especially today.

It's going a little long.

My name is Carrie Buckambusso, and I live in Sparks, Nevada in Commissioner Andreola's district.

I want to start by thanking Commissioner Clark for your comments earlier about wanting the commission to be efficient and saving money where we can so that we can spend it on programs such as the library.

And that's why I'm here.

So I'm here today to express my support and appreciation for the Washoe County Library System and to ask the Board of Commissioners to fund library programs, librarian education and training, and the library in general.

I love libraries.

I love the Washoe County Library System.

The downtown one's my favorite.

And thanks to the availability of diverse books, my family has bonded over reading stories together.

And my children have increased their knowledge, vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and imagination while learning about a variety of topics as we listen to books around the house and on road trips.

I love that we get to select the books that we want for our family and that we can ignore ones that maybe don't match up with our standards or things we want to be reading about.

It's great that they're available if we want them, and it's great that I'm not getting forced to check out something I don't want to read.

And I also love that I get to chat with my parents, my husband, and my friends about books that we read and what we learn from them.

Because of our public libraries, I've listened to 56 books this year on Libby, and I've checked out many physical books as well.

I currently have several books checked out to learn about foods to improve the health of my family.

I've gone to the library and listened to musicians and seen dancers and learned about other cultures.

I've used a publicly available meeting room to host an event, and I'm planning to host another in the coming year.

And all of these are things that have improved my family, my life, my personal development, and are only possible due to the resources of our library system.

I would not be able to afford all of these services or access them otherwise.

Like 56 books times 20 dollars is really expensive.

And I appreciate that the library can get these books for cheaper and disperse them to our whole community.

And I'm so grateful for the positive impact that the library system has had on my family and my personal development.

Our libraries give us spaces to meet, learn, and develop ourselves.

They provide a variety of educational resources, community resources, and countless other services and programs.

While waiting today for my time to speak, I put a hold on a book that 176 other people were waiting to read, just from our little library system.

And I found another one that 209 people are waiting to read.

So our library is being used.

People are using the reads resources.

They want to read books, they want to have access to this.

And I love that we have that availability.

I might have to wait 23 weeks to listen to that book, but eventually I'll get my turn.

So the opportunities the libraries provide are invaluable.

Please continue to fund the Washoe County Library system so that they do not have to cut programs, services, hours of operation, or staff members.

Thank you.

Thank you.

56 books.

That's more than a book a week.

So that's impressive.

Go ahead, Madam Clark.

Janet Butcher, followed by Audelius Ferius.

Janet Butcher for the record.

Um I've attended a lot of the library board meetings, and I know the trustees have worked really hard, especially two of them who have financial background, and I think understand more so than a fiction writer, um, what it would take to run up an entity.

Um Mr.

Solaro, I'd have to say he's done an excellent job.

I do want to make one comment, and this isn't a derogatory comment, it's just an observation.

I believe that Mr.

Solaro is a union employee, and he was working with the union librarians.

Of course, we would know what the outcome would be.

I'm not opposed to funding the library if we have the money.

But as we've all heard, we do not have the money, and I believe that we still are waiting for the amount of money that we need for the uh procurement of books that hasn't been put forth yet.

I think that's on the agenda for tomorrow night.

But um there are a lot of programs within the library that are they necessary.

Whenever I have worked with um unemployment, I did after COVID, I worked with unemployment.

They sent me to job connection, and the lady at job connection was very helpful, although she looked at my resume and said uh you don't need any help, but I don't think anybody, a job connect would ever send anybody to the library because they have all the facilities there.

I've walked by job connect at the town hall or Tom Town Mall, and it isn't full, it isn't busy.

So why aren't these people being directed to job connect?

Nobody's ever directed me to the library, and I've heard people say social security will send you to the library.

I'm on Social Security also, even though I work.

Um they've never sent me to the library.

Another thing is that sometimes some of the programs, and I wrote something about this in the last um library board meeting, and it had to do with some of the things that we put forth and we spend time on in the library, like putting up displays for banned books.

Well, there is not a I don't I don't know of a single solitary book in the United States of America that is banned.

Um so it that's a fallacy, but we have we ended up in the library spending time to put up displays.

That that took away from these other things that are supposed to be so important.

And I grew up in a library, I think most all of us always always did.

And I've challenged people to go out there and try to bring up some more funds for the library on their own.

But anyway, three minutes goes by.

Thank you.

Odalis Farius, followed by Jonathan McNeil.

Is Jonathan McNeil here?

Yes.

Hi, Commissioners.

My name is Jonathan McNeil.

I'm a lifelong Washaw County resident and currently a radiologic technology student at Truckee Meadows Community College.

I know many of you support our libraries, but I want to add another story that conveys to you just how important the services provided by our libraries are, and ask that you support the funding of our local libraries in full.

The libraries have been elemental in my life.

I grew up going to our libraries, and now as a student of TMCC, the main library we have access to is at the main TMCC campus above Par Boulevard.

And if you've driven toward the North Valleys anywhere near rush hour in the last year, you might understand just how long it takes to get to the TMCC library.

Because of this, I've frequented and frequented our Washoe County libraries over and over in the last few years.

I've utilized the libraries to attend interviews in a private space, print and copy application materials, and use the Wi-Fi and the peace and quiet of the space to study for my exams.

Our libraries even had a copy of a study guide for an entrance exam required by my current program at TMCC.

All of this using nothing but this little card right here.

I know the same is true for many other students and members of my community.

Our libraries have been essential in getting me into my program at TMCC, and they continue to be a tool I use for my success in the program.

Our libraries have created the opportunity for me to enter into a field that has given me a brighter future and allows me to give back to my community through health care.

Our libraries are a place that creates access to fundamental services needed to exist in our society.

Failing to fund our libraries is a failure to the past, present, and future of the citizens of this county.

If your vision, if your vision truly is for Washoe County to be the social, economic, and policy leadership force in Nevada and the Western United States, you will provide the necessary funding to keep our libraries open and thriving.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, any other comments or direction to staff before we move to the next item.

I'm not seeing that any commissioners do.

Well, we look forward to having our strategic planning session talking about the budget, but obviously this board is in support of the libraries and wants to see how we can keep it whole.

Thank you, everyone.

We'll now move in.

I I see that we have two judges in the audience.

Um, so I'm going to move to item 21.

Um, so we can uh make sure that all the folks who are patiently waiting can um have that item.

So, manager Thomas.

Thank you.

Um, Madam Clark, are you going to read the public hearing or would you like me to do that?

I will read it.

Thank you, Madam Clark.

Sorry, thank you.

Okay.

This will be bill number 1746.

Oh no, that's not correct.

Item 21.

Yes, this will be ordinance number 1746.

An ordinance amending the Washoe County Code by repealing Washoe County Code Chapter 11, alternative sentencing bill number 1940.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Okay.

Umager Thomas, uh throw this to you.

Thank you.

Um, as you'll recall, the board has heard an initiation in a first reading of this item, which proposes to dissolve the Department of Alternative Sentencing and relocating the functions of that department under some areas that have additional oversight.

Um, if the board would like a presentation, we've got we have folks here.

Um, I know there's likely a lot of individuals that would like to comment on this item, so I leave it up to you as far as how you would like to orchestrate this item.

Okay, I look to the board.

Do you want a presentation?

No.

Do you need a presentation?

Okay.

Then we will go to public comment.

And this is a public hearing, so I'll open up the public comment.

First up, we have Tammy Ingraham, followed by Joe Ingraham.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My husband is retired Chief Joe Ingraham of the Department of DAS, and I wanted to read an email that he mailed to the board on October 27th in part that I think is important.

During my tenure 2005 to 2020, DAS focused on misdemeanor offender supervision, pretrial release programs, community service, and alternatives to incarceration, such as health arrest.

Millions of dollars were saved in diverted jail days and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues annually from testing and probation fees.

Additionally, the in-house lab not only brought in revenue but made it affordable for the probationers who are often required to test up to four times per week.

This set them up for success as well as allowed immediate response for regressive behaviors.

While I fully support Under Sheriff Solferino and his deputy's capability in administering their AIU and mental health substance abuse programs, there's a major concern with regard to DAS responsibilities.

DAS was established under NRS 211A, which meant that our department had authority to do home visits, search seizure, and tests any time of the day or night without a warrant.

Countless defendants who graduated from the program expressed that this one tactic was the thing that kept them sober.

They never knew when one of our officers would show up unannounced to test them, and this kept the recidivism rate at an unheard of low for any offense.

Washa County Sheriff's Department will not have the authority to conduct warrantless search and seizure.

Two concerns that needed to be addressed early in the DAS creation was not being able to place the department under Washaw County Sheriff's control.