That before too.

This is the last meeting of the Lashville County Board of Commissioners for 2025.

And this board is now called to order.

Meeting is called to order.

Chief Edwards.

Are you in here?

There you are.

Okay, could you lead us in the flag?

Salute to the flag.

And to republic for which it stands under the individual with the liberty and the justice cloud.

Madam Clerk, can we have a roll call, please?

Certainly.

Lexus Hill Chair is absent.

Vice Chair Jean Herman.

And I'm here.

Commissioner Clark.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Andreola, present.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Large.

Present.

And I'm Jan Galluscenior County Clerk.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And now we'll have public comment.

Actually, item three is an update from Trucky Meadows.

Oh, that's right.

Yes.

Okay.

Madam Chair, item 3A1 is an informational general update from Trucky Meadows Fire and Rescue Chief Richard J.

Edwards.

He's available to provide the Board of County Commissioners a verbal report on fuel management and emergency planning and any other updates as requested to the board monthly to update the community related to fire activities.

Thank you.

All right.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners.

As I begin, uh this this last week has been very tough for the Truck Eadows Fire family and a lot, you know, a lot of our community members as well.

Um, as we lost uh battalion chief Ryan Rosuda and his wife Danielle in a horrible accident.

Um so if I may ask uh if we could take just a brief moment of silence for them before I begin.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So some updates uh from the fire district.

Um we have some great weather right now for everyone looking to harden their homes or to reduce their fuel loads to help in those fire prevention efforts.

Um that have an active burn permit, our burn hotline number is down right now, so we're working to get that fixed.

But please visit our website at tmfpd.us uh for active burn day status.

Um we're also updating that on our social media platforms as well.

Um as we're coming into the holiday season, a lot of people are wondering what to do with their Christmas trees after the holidays.

Uh we've partnered with Keep Truck Eadows Beautiful for Christmas tree recycling.

Uh we will be collecting trees uh at station 32 in Washoe Valley, station 46 in Spanish Springs, and at our volunteer station in Lemon Valley at Station 440 on January 3rd and January 4th from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

And we'll have crews there that'll chip those trees so that we can recycle them.

Um and this again is only for Christmas trees at these two events.

Um and that concludes my brief update this morning.

Uh I'd like to wish everybody happy holidays and a very happy new year.

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair, if I may, um Chief Edwards, thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, thank you so much for um asking everyone for the moment of silence.

It's a tragedy beyond even thought of how um the loss of the parents and the children that are also struggling.

And I just wanted to, if you wouldn't mind sharing that there is a fund that has been set up for the family, and a hundred percent of those funds will be um dedicated to helping the children and the families.

So I wonder if you could just share that very quickly, and thank you, madam chair.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner.

Um yes, the the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District's uh Firefighter Foundation has been generous enough to set up a fund uh to collect donations for the family and the surviving children.

Um 100% of those proceeds, as you mentioned, go back to the family as well.

So anybody that would like to donate, they can go to the Truck E Meadows Firefighters Foundation website, and there's a link on that main home page that'll take you right there to the donation page.

But we really appreciate the the community's generosity and help and support as we support this family moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And now we have public comment.

Thank you, madam chair.

We are on to item number four, which 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.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers.

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

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

Virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

First up, we have Michael Marquez, followed by Terry Brooks.

Okay.

Here's some documents to distribute to the board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Michael Marquis, for the record.

I'm here to respectfully request that you uphold the denot the denial for the sanctuary of God Church.

There are four reasons for upholding this denial.

First, the BOA decision was firmly based in Section 110.810.30.

Second, the project places the safety attendees, the safety of church attendees and neighborhood residents at risk.

Third, the project fails to satisfy provisions in Section 110.810.30.

And fourth, an approval would set an erroneous precedent that commercial development is more important than the community's character, quality of life, and safety.

From the BOA hearing transcript and summarized on this slide, it is clear that the BOA's 401 denial decision, excuse me, was based on section 110.810.30.

It was not personal.

One critical safety risk area is emergency secondary access, especially in light of what is going on in the world today.

A brief reference in the original application mentioned access on Opal Station Drive.

County assessor records show that this parcel is owned by the North Star Ranch HOA.

Staff conditioned approval on more detail being provided, and since none was given at the BOA hearing, BOA member Pat Caldwell asked the applicant about it, and we learned that the HOA hadn't been engaged by the applicant, and the applicant stated that without access to the parcel, that project cannot happen.

There are two issues here.

One, the HOA will not grant access to that parcel as indicated in the attached legal document.

And two, eminent domain would represent an unconstitutional taking, excuse me, and violate Nevada law.

Since staff has dropped the emergency secondary access requirement for this hearing, this now means single entry and exit on Rolling Ridge Road for a church with a maximum capacity of 531 people, including 400 people in the warship area.

In an emergency, everyone will be trying to gain to exit from the same place.

The first responders are trying to gain access.

Church attendee safety was raised several times by BOA members, and staff's answer was always that is why we are requiring emergency secondary access.

Emergency secondary access represents a paradox for this project, and that obtaining it is not possible.

And by not obtaining it, a risk to public safety is created, along with Washaw County assuming legal liability by not mitigating or eliminating that risk.

For all of these reasons, I respectfully request that you uphold the denial.

Thank you.

Terry Brooks, followed by Nicholas St.

John.

Good morning, it's me, Terry Brooks again.

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

It has been a very long time that women in our nation have had to face several aspects of gender discrimination.

For a long time, only men who owned property could vote.

And since women could not own property, back then they could not vote.

It wasn't until 1920 that all U.S.

women could vote, but it was back in 1914 that women in Nevada could vote.

It took a long time for this country to head in the right direction.

But finally, women could even run for office in an election.

At first, it wasn't very often that a woman would win, but once they made our government more diverse, they kept winning again and again.

The more women were there who could vote in an election, then the more women who ran for office would wind up winning that election.

And the more women there were who would run for office in an election, then the more women would want to vote in the next coming election.

There are actually more women than there are men in our nation.

So having more women in office better represents our nation.

In the election of 2016, a woman ran in the presidential election.

She didn't win the electoral college vote, but she won the popular vote in that election.

And in the year 2020, a woman ran for vice president.

And she won, so then she was our first female vice president.

The less that women are discriminated against, and the more women are respected, the more they will be voted for, and the more they will be elected.

So when it comes to gender and politics, equality has begun to grow.

But in some situations, we still have a ways to go.

I would like to thank you all for listening to me today, and I'll look forward to coming back because I've still got a lot more to say.

Thank you.

Nicholas St.

John, followed by Corinne Carmen Nagy.

No.

I said you're waiting for him.

You're after Mr.

St.

John.

Yes, you're after Mr.

St.

John.

Nicholas St.

John for the record.

Who make laws by majority vote among themselves.

But the rulers cannot make any laws.

The ideal of a democracy, a universal equality.

The ideal of a constitutional republic is individual liberty.

In this century, great strides have been made toward the goal of subverting our republic and transforming it into a democracy.

The foremost tactic of the subverters is subversion of language.

By calling America a democracy until people thoughtlessly accept and use the term, totalitarians have obscured the real meaning of American principles of government.

The writers of the Constitution were anxious to safeguard liberty against dictatorship, monarchy, they call it.

But their chief anxiety was to protect the country against democracy.

Edmund Randall, delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Virginia, said the general object of the convention was to provide a cure for the follies and fury of democracy.

Elbridge Gary and Roger Sherman, delegates from Massachusetts and Connecticut, urged the Constitutional Convention to create a system to eliminate the evils that flow from the excess of democracy.

Alexander Hamilton, delegate from New York said, we are now forming a Republican government.

Real liberty is not found in democracy.

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into anarchy.

John Adams, one of the giants of the American Revolutionary Period, said democracy will end the all contend with all, endeavor to pull down all.

And when by chance it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, democracy will be revengeful, bloody and cruel.

America was founded not as a democracy, but as a constitutional republic.

We pledge allegiance to the republic, for which our flag stands not to a democracy.

The Constitution requires a republican form of government for all states, but does not mention democracy, and neither does the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.

And beyond that, today when democracy inevitably degenerates into dictatorship, guaranteeing nothing but poverty and circumstances of the people involved in rules.

Thank you.

Corrine Carmignogani, and she has documents to distribute.

Hi, my name is Craig Carminiani.

I am president of the North Star Ranch LMA.

And the reason I'm here is is um in reference to the um church that's wanting to have a piece of have a roadway built into a common area of property.

So I just wanted to make sure that we that all of you we did have our attorney to send you a letter indicating that no, that would not that could not happen.

And so in c in case it didn't happen, I did bring in a copy so all that you could receive one.

Um they're wanting to you know do a pathway through some common land, going through our area, and no, that's not gonna be realistic because especially they're asking for a church of about 500 uh members, they hope to have, and that's not that's even a bad decision to have something like that put into the small area that that community has on a dead end street.

So I hope that you have reviewed that and you will agree to not approve it in any manner.

Thank you.

Kayla Thompson, followed by Penny Brock, good morning.

Um, Board of County Commissioners.

My name is Kayla Thompson, and I'm here to talk about minor labor laws.

As many of you may know, most teenagers in the county rely on their own income to um provide for their own personal or family um like needs.

Um, like gas, car insurance bills, as well as saving up for adulthood and college.

It is no secret you must perform well academically to attend college or even a low-tier university.

Seniors in high school, especially, struggle to balance their workload between dual enrollment and honors classes, excess work hours, and their personal well-being.

All of this while also saving and applying for colleges.

Students should not have to sacrifice being successful in schools for providing for themselves and their families.

Nevada and Washoe County laws enforce that minors, specifically 16 to 17, can work no more than 30 hours weekly, eight and a half hours a day, and in the hours between 6 a.m.

and 11 p.m.

These current minor labor labor regulations do not align with how well students need to be doing in school.

Um, to achieve higher education.

This brings up a bigger issue of how minors can manage this unbelievable workload.

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that knows my needs and respects them.

I'm currently allowed to work four hours a day on weekdays, and then on weekends, I get a 30-minute lunch every four hours.

Um, these hours, um sorry.

These hours allow me to keep up with my school and my well-being.

We need to enforce stricter laws and regulations for all companies and organizations to follow to ensure protected school hours, mandatory breaks, reasonable weekly hour limits, and flexibility during exam periods.

Allowing students to succeed academically and financially.

These regulations will allow students to be successful in schools while taking care of their personal and financial well-being.

Thank you guys.

Thank you.

Ms.

Brock has handouts to distribute.

Penny Brock for the record.

We have a crisis of confidence in elections in Washoe County and Nevada.

Further documentation comes from United Freedom.com.

They did a scorecard on each state.

The state for Nevada is pretty bleak.

Were number one, were the voter rolls accurate as required?

There was a 7.5% error rate.

Number two, were the votes counted from eligible voters as required by the United States Constitution.

There was a 24.3% error rate.

Unique votes prohibited by law under Section 2, 361,488.

Number three was the number of votes counted equal to the number of voters who voted.

Was the number of ballots and error valid according to the uh Hava Act?

Total access ballots counted in error.

361,476.

This includes Washoe County.

We have a problem.

On top of that, the Nevada uh the Department of Justice sued the Nevada Secretary of State last week for failing to comply with federal election laws.

They began the investigation in June, and the Secretary of State refused to comply.

So now Nevada is one of 18 states that has been sued for failing to comply.

They are also looking at counties.

Three counties in America have been sued.

Washoe County has huge issues.

We are one of the seven swing counties in all of America.

Will Washoe County get a letter?

They're being investigated.

We're here meeting after meeting telling you about the problems that we have.

This is a crisis of confidence.

And we would ask you to take a serious look at this.

No electronic voting machines like Dominion that we have.

It just goes on and on.

It will restore confidence in our elections.

Janet Butcher followed by Sean Hill.

Janet Butcher for the record, Merry Christmas.

On November 18th, 2025, four of the five commissioners voted to proceed with purchasing equipment that the staff now reports they need more space for.

This will move the registrar of voters to a location not under the immediate purview of the county manager.

Bad idea.

This will result in extra cost for security.

The move of the ROV to a less accessible location.

Now talk about disenfranchising voters.

I thought Democrats always yell about disenfrenchement.

Why was this not presented at the same November meeting that the purchasing of the new equipment was passed?

Isn't this putting the cart before the horse example?

This is very irresponsible.

Would you purchase a home without knowing what your HOA fees were?

Would you obtain a horse without knowing the cost of feeding caring for the horse?

When the com was the when was the competitive bid for Nevada law presented?

What other vendors rendered a bid?

Have all the operational expenses been accounted for and reported?

If not, when will they be accounted for?

Please remember that we already have a budget deficit.

There is already distrust of the elections and the ROV.

Will this add to it as a different location will contribute to the already accountability and transparency issues?

There were many issues presented to the commissioners before the canvas of the vote on November 15th, 2024.

Only one commissioner stood out above the rest to not rubber stamp an election that was questioned.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

The way this is being presented today seems very suspicious of intent to fool the public.

Much like you have to pass the bill to read what is in it, so pass the purchase of the new equipment, then ask to pay for additional costs to support the decision of four of the commissioners.

And again, thank you, Commissioner Herman, for voting no.

Commissioners, County Staff, uh County Manager Thomas, welcome.

Congratulations.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning.

For the record, my name is Sean Hill, and I'm grateful for the chance to be considered for renewal to the Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission on a later agenda item today.

I want to begin with sincere thanks.

Serving on this commission has been an honor.

I deeply respect the role this body plays in stewarding the land and places that defined Washoe County, protecting our natural historical cultural resources while ensuring our community has access to meaningful recreation and open space.

I've lived in Washoe County for approaching a couple decades now, and both personally and professionally, parks and open space matter greatly to me.

As the CEO of Sierra Nevada Journeys, I've spent nearly 16 years working to ensure young people, particularly those from underserved communities, have access to nature and outdoor learning.

I see every day how well managed open space supports health, education, and a lifelong sense of stewardship.

During my term on this commission, I've worked to bring a balanced, thoughtful and collaborative approach, listening carefully, asking questions, and considering both near-term needs and long-term impacts.

I've valued the professionalism of fellow commissioners and staff, and I've tried to contribute positively to the quality of dialogue and decision making.

Looking ahead, I believe the work of the commission is only becoming more important.

Washa County is growing.

Demand for recreation is increasing, and at the same time, we face real pressures related to development, climate, and equitable access.

Navigating those challenges thoughtfully while protecting these resources for future generations will require steady leadership and long-reach long-range thinking.

And I'm excited to support the transition to a special parks district as well.

If renewed, I would be honored to continue serving and contributing my experience in nonprofit leadership, education, and community collaboration to support that work.

Thank you again for your time for your service to Washoe County and for your consideration.

It would be a privilege to continue serving on this commission.

Jill O'Leary, followed by Trista Gomez.

Good morning.

My name is Jill O'Leary.

I'm here today as a 63-year-old victim of fraud upon the court through the filing of a fraudulent lien and writ of execution.

These unlawful recordings in the second judicial district court and the county recorder, both staffed and housed in facilities maintained by the Washoe County tax dollars, violate statutory duties that directly threaten the property rights of all Washoe County residents.

Since October, my complaints have gone unanswered.

I've requested oversight into the recorder's improper policy that allows use of a notice of legibility attached to documents that are fully readable.

By statute, that notice exists only when a clerk requests it for documents that cannot be reproduced.

A clerk requesting this notice on a readable document is an unlawful recording practice by the recorders.

Accepting or enforcing this fraudulent lien violates the Fifth Amendment guarantees that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law.

My motion to the court to expunge it was stricken.

Two letters from the recorder claim the lien was filed correctly, and I was confused about the notice of eligibility.

On Friday, I received by regular mail a writ of execution from the sheriff's office.

This writ is hand endorsed by the clerk.

And backdated to November 4th.

Apparently, to assure my time to reply has expired.

This does not appear in the court case summary or docket as being filed, served, or noticed in any manner.

This is a clear example of how lack of this board's oversight is directly harming property owners in Washoe County.

Washoe 311 finally contacted me yesterday.

I was told they require an email address, even though I specifically requested mailed responses.

They were emailing instructions for me to contact the court for metadata log requests.

Washoe County residents deserve better accountability from this board on a matter of such importance.

On December 2nd, Department 3 at the second judicial court signed another order further restricting my right to due process.

Ministral duties are essential for lawful government governance and violations erode public trust.

The supremacy clause makes federal law and constitutional protections paramount.

State laws cannot override federal protections.

Board oversight will ensure compliance with statutes and protect property rights.

Any violation undermines the rule of law.

This experience had led me to support Republican representation at our county level.

They were the only commissioners who declined to certify election results knowing dollars.

Thank you for Trista Gomez.

Good morning.

It's Trista Gomez.

Little bit of stuff I'm going to talk about today is these things that people bring to this board over and over and over again, over and over and over again.

Property rights, property uses for residents, not for developers, but for residents.

Traffic.

You know, property issues like this lady's just talking about.

I'm interested in that.

All these things.

And I've been here for so long, and when I'm hearing this, you see these items and they come out of order, you know, just like this ROV.

We're gonna, we're gonna misplace that, we're gonna we're gonna move that.

But that wasn't part of the original agenda item.

So it looks fishy, looks bad.

Looks kind of weird.

So many things look just kind of weird.

And it seems like if we could just be transparent and straightforward, and you know, address people in a way that they want to be addressed in that we could solve that.

There could be just be so many problems solved instead of doing things kind of out of order, maybe putting this piece out and not that piece out.

We know what some of the contracts are, we don't know what some of the carn tracts are.

There's some rumors about some pocket deeds or some different things.

I mean, there's just so many things that happen that people have to try to decipher, and there's so many so much information to go through.

And it just feels overwhelming to people, and it feels like there's a reason to be distrustful.

And it I don't know why it has to feel like that, but it's being created, and it seems like it's being created on purpose.

And it doesn't need to be.

it stuck with me, and it just rings true now.

And he said, Who you are speaks so loudly that people can't hear what you're saying.

And it seems it kind of stuck with me, and then I was thinking about it in a business sense, and I come to this meeting every day, and it sticks with me.

And it feels it rings so true when I'm looking at this board.

And so anyway, Merry Christmas.

I hope you guys have a wonderful time with your families, and uh be safe.

Clyde Cordova.

Thank you, Clyde Cordova, uh, long residents of Golden Valley.

I'm here to talk about the uh proposed uh church.

Uh good morning.

The public uh finding number one the public health, safety, and welfare.

Rue roads are built for rural traffic, light traffic areas.

They cannot uphold suburban loads, not even the roads are designed for suburban traffic.

Finding two, adequate improvements.

Adequacy of improvements has not been shown.

Utilities, drainage, roadway capacities are insufficient.

Uh they were denied once by the board of adjusters, and uh that's proof there alone that they should not be permitted a permit.

Finding number three, suit suitable fails.

Five acres alone does not prove compatibility with high occupancy assembly use.

Finding number four issuance of not detrimental.

Granting this pyramid would permit would be detrimental to the public, injurus to adjacent properties, detrimental to the character of the surrounding area.

Washoe County Master Plan, general rule destination, requires rural areas to retain rural character.

It identifies uh agriculture, grazing, conservation, large lot residence as appropriate use.

Large assembly occupancies are not compatible with this destination.

Zoning, chapter 110.

Rule residential zoning is intended for animal zoning, custom homes, low density traffic, large assembly occupancies are incompatible with the rule surroundings.

Master plan.

The Washoe County Master Plan designates Golden Valley as general rule.

Agriculture, grazing, conservation, large lot residence.

High occupancy assembly use is not consistent with that destination.

A special use permit is meant to be truly special.

An exception that is only granted when every requirement finding is fully supported.

Every impact is resolved.

This is not a majority rules decision.

Everything, everything must be in line, and there cannot be unresolved negatives when the direct affected communities cannot support that proposed use.

That is strong evidence that the compatibility has not been demonstrated, and the findings cannot honestly be made.

Because the public the applicant has failed to meet the required findings under Article 810.

The law is clear.

Respectfully, I urge you to hold uphold the master plan.

Thank you.

All right.

Now we will convene as the joint board of commission county commissioners and board of fire commissioners for items five and six.

And Chief Edwards is coming up to facilitate here.

All right.

Item five is a recommendation to adopt a resolution readopting Washoe County and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District's current permit and service fee schedule for fire related matters.

The permit and service fee schedule was previously contained in Washoe County Code Chapter 60 in exhibit B.

However, the county and the district no longer wish the fee schedule to be included as part of the Washoe County Code, but rather adopted by resolution as authorized by Washoe County Code 60.100.

However, the county and the district no longer wish the fee schedule to be included as part of the Washoe County Code, but rather adopted by resolution as authorized by Washoe County Code 60.100.060 and all matters necessarily connected therewith and pertaining thereto for Chucky Meadows Fire, all commission districts for possible action.

Okay.

Do we have public comments on this item?

No, there's none.

Okay.

Can I have a motion to approve?

Madam Chair, I move to adopt a resolution re-adopting Washoe County and the Truckie Meadows Fire Protection District's current permit and service fee schedule for fire related matters.

All second.

Thank you very much.

Item this item has been moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Looks like we have a four to zero.

Thank you.

All right.

And item six is a second reading and possible adoption of an ordinance amending Washoe County Code Chapter 60, Fire Prevention and Protection to Udate the Adopted Editions of the International Fire Code, IFC, and International Wildland Urban Interface Code, IW UIC, from the 2018 editions to the 2024 editions with modifications to make them applicable to conditions within Washoe County and to remove the adopted permit and service fee schedule from the Washoe County Code and provide for its adoption by resolution and all matters necessarily connected therewith and pertaining thereto for Truckee Meadows Fire, also for possible action.

Do we have public comment on this item?

We do not have public comment, but I would like to um read the title and it is it will be ordinance number 1750 and ordinance amending Washoe County Code Chapter 60 Fire Prevention and Protection to update the adopted editions of internal fire code and internal wild land urban interface code.

It was formerly bill number 1942.

Do we have a motion to approve?

Madam Chair, I'll move to conduct a second reading and adopt ordinance number 1750 with an effective date of January 1st, 2026.

And I'll second.

Thank you very much.

And we do have a public commenter that just signed in, Tristy Gomez.

Okay.

This is this will be short.

Trista Gomez for the record.

I do have a question about this, though.

Regulations for businesses and residences to build or remodel or do these kinds of things are, I believe, directly impacted by these codes.

And I am wondering what the changes or if there's additional regulations or additional impacts that there would be on on residents for building changing their home, things like that with this code.

So I'm I'm just interested in that.

That's it.

Okay, so that's all.

Nobody else is signed in for public comment, so I'm getting your motion ready.

There you go.

Umce we have moved and seconded.

Um all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

No.

And we made it.

Thank you.

So we are into item seven.

Thank you, madam chair.

We are at item number seven is commissioners and county managers' announcements, reports, and updates to include board and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

I have a couple things if I may.

Um, I wanted to start off.

We are um fortunate to have with us this morning our textile artist, Holly Gardner.

She's here for a special presentation to the board.

She has with her the Washoe County panel of the Capitol Christmas tree.

And I wanted to bring her up if I may, while I give a little bit of background so she can present that to the board.

Um, while she's coming over, I will mention that Miss Gardner is a local textiles artist.

She was commissioned, as you are aware, to create the panel for our uh Capitol Christmas tree skirt along with our other counties in Nevada.

She only had a few weeks to design and create, not one, but two identical panels which depict the beauty that makes Washoe County so special.

We're honored to have her give us one that we're going to keep on display here right at the Wash County Complex.

She's a native Nevada, a University of Nevada graduate and an active member of the Sierra Arts Foundation, which is where our community reinvestment manager, Gabrielle Enfield, encountered her work.

And so she also has an interesting tie, family tie to Washoe County.

Her father, Bud Putnam of Putman and Putnam Associates remodeled the county complex.

So, right, very small town, we know that.

So, anyway, thank you for being here.

Holly.

Thank you.

I don't have a lot of words.

I just wanted to say it was an honor to be able to do this, and I felt very blessed to be able to represent this county and to represent this complex as my dad did remodel it.

And I just felt like what I wanted to achieve with this was the heart and soul of the Humboldt Toyobi National Forest, along with all of our land masses, plus our state bird and state animal.

So I hope that that's been accomplished.

And while I've looked at the tree, the silver bell, I did not see the skirt.

I did get to see it completed, and it was lovely, but I just feel so blessed that my work is going to hang in my dad's remodeled building.

So thank you.

Pause for a picture.

Might repause for a picture.

Oh, would you like to take a picture?

Great.

We're gonna go in here because of the Willows.

Great, okay.

Thank you everyone for your patience.

We're gonna pause for a brief picture with the commission and the artist.

Okay.

Will you know that?

One more for one more research.

Oh, okay.

One more right here.

This is supposed to be post frigid.

So I'll let you know.

I don't know.

I don't know what the name is.

Thank you.

Oh shoot.

Okay.

Okay.

Madam really quick on that.

Yes, we'd be happy to have a comment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just really want to recognize Holly Gardner.

I don't know if anybody has an opportunity.

She did a great video.

I shared that with her.

If you haven't seen the video, she speaks a little bit to the components that are in the very wonderful section of the 17 counties.

Each section had, and that was all.

And I also uh Vice Chair Herman and I both serve on the Nevada Association of Counties Board, and I feel like we need to at least give them kudos for getting the um initiating the creation of the tree skirt.

So hopefully that tree skirt will come back.

That's the goal that NACO has, and I just really am hoping that if we don't have access to that video, I hope we can push that out because she does a really great job talking about the connection of each one of those components and the meaningfulness of representing the great place that we live and we call home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And County Manager, do you have more?

I do, thank you, and I apologize.

Thank you for bearing with me.

I wanted to clarify that we had previously announced that the special use permit for a case WSUP 25-0018 for Ivinson Ran Iveson Ranch was going to be heard today at today's county commission meeting.

We did do a notice by Mao and newspaper.

However, the planning commission's actions related to this project was recently appeal.

And so the hazardous material special use permit hearing has been rescheduled to coincide with the appeal hearing on January 13th, 2026, and that won't be here heard today.

We do have an item, but it's not that.

So updated notices have been sent out in compliance with county code.

I just wanted to bring that up for some clarification.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Okay.

Commissioner Clark, do you have anything?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

I've got a couple of uh just a couple of items here today.

First of all, I I'd like to uh have uh a comment from the uh Mr.

Large or DA about uh Miss O'Leary.

I we she seems to be a fixture here in our commission meetings the last month or two, and I'd like to find out what what's taking place with that her allegations about missrecorded deeds or uh incorrectly recorded deeds or exactly what what's taking place there.

If you could put that on the record, please.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

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

Um at the December 9th uh meeting, uh Ms.

O'Leary handed a handout to the board um in it requesting certain documentation related to a civil case and orders and probate um and metadata in regard to the orders and judgments in those cases.

Um as we do with all public records requests, we submitted that through the Washoe 311 system.

Um and I worked in conjunction with that office to coordinate with Ms.

O'Leary to an attempt to get her email address so we get responses to her to get re and how she could get the documentation that she was seeking.

Um that was the initial uh item that was sent to her in regard to sending it to the courts.

Um she also requested a follow-up um from my office, which I sent yesterday uh via mail because we did not have an email address for Miss O'Leary, who refused to comply with that.

We do not, this board, as this board is well aware, um, the second judicial district court is a department of the state of Nevada.

We do not have custody and control of the public records that they have.

Um request for metadata or orders or judgments from civil cases has to go directly to the court.

That was the direction that was given through my office and through Washoe County 311.

Thank you.

That uh I just wanted to get it on the record so the public understands what our role in that particular uh matter is.

And that's the first comment I had.

The second is I just want to make an announcement that uh we've scheduled a uh community homeless advisory board meeting.

Our next meeting will be on uh February 9th here in this room at 9 in the morning.

February 9th, uh, 2020 uh 2026, uh the CHAB board meeting will be held here, and it's my understanding that that'll be available on YouTube the way quite similar to the way this particular meeting that we're in today is is broadcast, and folks can watch it from their home computers, uh, and that'll be available.

So it won't be hard to find.

So thank you for that.

Commissioner Andrea.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I do have a couple announcements.

One and an acknowledgement, um don't see fire chief edwards, but I wanted to um acknowledge that um Chief Edwards actually came up with an idea.

Um it was my understanding it was a very uh quick idea to help celebrate the holidays and went through several districts with a uh fire engine and it was decorated and collecting toys, and um there's a couple organizations that those toys will go to.

And if um my understanding, we had a meeting just a little bit ago.

Today's the last day to donate unwrapped toys, but you can donate and you can go on to the Truggy Meadows Fire Department's um website.

I was looking for it really quick and I couldn't find it.

I apologize if you're wanting to make a monetary donation, that is appreciated.

But I do want to do a shout out again to Trucking Meadows Fire District, their entire staff.

I just found out just the fire engine took seven hours to decorate.

And if you haven't seen them, I'd encourage you to go online and look.

It was amazing and a lot of partners, a lot of joy throughout the community during the special season that we're all enjoying as well.

My second um is an announcement, and there is a regional transportation commission of Washoe County that will be held tomorrow, December 17th from 4 to 7 p.m.

at Red Hawk Golf Course, well, the golf center, not on the golf course.

Um, and it is a is hosting this public information uh based on the um study results of the study for the North uh East Connector, and that is my district.

And I felt I do not serve on the RTC board, Commissioner uh Hill, Chair Hill, and um Commissioner Garcia do, but I felt it was important for me to shout out that everyone who is interested, who lives in the Spanish Springs area or doesn't live in the Spanish, you don't have to live in the Spanish Springs area, but certainly uh those of us that call that place home.

We are really interested, and I've seen the study, and I think it's important for everyone to attend.

It's the presentation will begin at 5 30.

So the meeting time is 4 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

with a presentation, formal presentation beginning at 5 30.

So and Merry Christmas to everybody as well, and thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

And if we don't see you before then, happy new year as well.

So the holidays can be tough for a lot of families out there.

So just remember that um 988 is a number that you can call.

If you see somebody, a friend, a family member, a neighbor who's in crisis, um, that's an uh available number.

Um, as many of us are hoping that everybody has a good time during this time of season.

It's it can be really challenging for those who've lost loved ones or suffered from traumatic experiences.

So please keep that in mind.

Um, I wanted to just offer a quick announcement.

I am uh the liaison to the Open Space and Regional Parks Commission, and I was able to utilize my district three funds over the past year to donate uh picnic tables and a park bench to a newly opened trailhead.

We're not opening a lot of trailheads in Washoe County these days, so I got really excited about this one.

It's called the River Bend Park, it's located in Verdeye.

And along with the fixtures that I had donated, I saw a wall that belonged to Temois and had been uh graffitied over and over and again.

And so I reached out to Temo to get permission to have a mural painted on that wall.

We have the mural unveiling tomorrow at Riverman Park.

I welcome my fellow commissioners.

It's at 3 p.m.

The artist will be there.

Her name is Autumn Harry.

She's this up and coming amazing community leader who does incredible work, uh, Truckee River cleanups uh through her nonprofit, and um she is starting to make such a uh difference in the community in terms of the beautification of different neighborhoods.

And so this mural is um really a testament to who she is, her background, her culture, and as we stood there and kind of looked at this space, um, the unique geographic location of this river bend park is interesting because you can see the the desert uh shifting into the alpine and all the wildlife in between is represented on the mural that she created.

It's really beautiful.

She's putting on the finishing touches.

So if you want to get out tomorrow afternoon while the weather is still nice, um, go check out the new trailhead.

Um, you can walk down this newly paved path, a portage access for all you river rafters and kayakers out there.

I really encourage you to get out and um check it out tomorrow at 3 p.m.

before the RTC meeting.

Thank you.

Commissioners, you outdone yourself.

Wonderful information.

All right.

Um we're into presentations.

Yes, A1 is the first one.

That's right.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is a recommendation to acknowledge the receipt of the Washoe County Annual Camp Comprehensive Financial Report, the ACPR, the auditors report, and to report on internal controls for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025 as presented.

And we have our Comptroller Kathy Hill here.

Hi.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Cathy Hill Comptroller for the record.

This year, the ACFA that you have been presented with is a little bit different than the previous act at first.

It does not include the single audit of the compliance audit for federal wards.

That's because the federal government was delayed in their guidelines for compliance auditors for direction to the auditors.

So we will be coming back to the board with that information on another date.

As as finance has been presenting to you throughout the year, we did end the fiscal year with approximately 2.5 million dollars being added to fund balance.

That is the net figure outside of unrealized gains.

Prior to me bringing up Laura Nelson from Id Bailey, I'd like to thank everyone for their Herculean efforts on getting here to the December 16th meeting, specifically at Id Bailey, Terry Gage, Laura Nelson, Jacob Evans, Ken Bayless, Tyler, and Tyler Yamamoto, and any other support staff, and the very Herculean efforts from the accounting staff led by Bob Andrews Accounting Manager for those accountants of Asta Dominguez, Susan O'Harrow, Joyce Garrett, Nana Hoyne, Rebecca Mosier, Michelle Gloat Miklaichik, and Chris Shemkovsky and support staff of Victoria Stebbins.

It takes a lot of teamwork to get through an audit and to get it up to the county timely and follow all the audit procedures.

So I want to thank everybody for that, and thank you for your time for presenting as that is required.

And on that note, I will bring Laura Nelson up here from Id Bailey.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners.

I'm Laura Nelson, senior manager with ID Bailey for the record, and I'm here just to present the audit report on the Washoe County fiscal year 2025 ACFER.

If you had a chance to look on page two of the ACFER, is our independent auditors report.

We were able to issue an unmodified opinion this year, which is what we call a clean opinion, which just means we were able to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement.

So that's where you want to be, and that's a very good record for Washoe County in the fiscal year.

In terms of changes for the ACFAR in the current year, the big deal in the government accounting space was implementing GASB 101, which was to bring consistency with how compensated absences was reporting.

For some government entities, this was a big lift.

For you guys, it was not.

So you are in compliance, but wasn't a huge deal for you guys, which was good to see.

And you guys got a break from some of the big GASB pronouncements that were coming out.

At the back of the ACFA report is the compliance supplement where we are the compliance section where we issue our audit opinion on compliance.

This year we had two findings.

So if you recall, there's two levels of findings.

We have significant deficiencies, which are items that we don't consider to be material or could be material, but still important enough to call out in the report.

And then we do have material weaknesses as well.

Our ending balances were corrected.

There was just a misstatement in the current year activity of principal payments, which was part of bringing that all up to date and current.

So I am confident that next year this finding will drop off and we won't see this again.

What happened here was there was a manual adjustment of expenditures to the schedule of expenditures of federal awards.

When those expenditures got added, there should also be a receivable that's recognized.

Part of the matching principle when you have the expenditure is when you want to recognize the receivable.

As always, I want to thank Comptroller Hill, accounting manager Bob Andrews, and all of the accounting staff.

It truly is a partnership to get through the audit, and they're always pleasant and take their job very seriously, which we appreciate.

Thank you for your time today, and I look forward to coming back to present the single audit once that's been issued.

Are there any questions?

No.

I don't have any questions, but I I just want to reiterate what you said, and I think it's somewhat um maybe acronymmy.

I don't know if that's a word.

But you know, the fact that GASPY 101, there were a lot of changes that came down, and the fact that you made the statement in terms of representing the audit, that really there wasn't any big heavy lift, is a huge statement to you, Ms.

Hill, to Washoe County, to the staff.

And I and I think to be honest, if anybody has had the pleasure of going through any type of audit, there's always something that's going to be found.

But the fact that this is such a huge budget, there's a lot of moving parts.

You know, recognizing, for instance, the point of the finding uh 2025-002, I believe you said, in terms of not recognition recognizing the receivable.

I mean, there are human things, but the fact is that is really de minimis to stick with the accounting theme.

I'll use de minimis.

Um and so thank you, Ms.

Hill.

And thank you for being a great leader.

And um I was hoping that during uh Christmas present we might get a little of your really special humor.

We didn't get and and um those who haven't met with Ms.

Hill, I encourage you to do that because it won't take long to realize not only how smart she is, but she has an incredible uh sense of humor.

And I think when you're working with numbers all day, that might be helping to feed that.

But um honestly, thank you so much.

Thanks for your leadership.

Thank you, Ty Bailey.

Fact that this is the highest level of an audit, again, I'll reiterate is really a big deal.

So thank you, I Bailey, and thank you to your team.

Thank you.

Happy New Year.

Well done.

Madam Chair, this is an action item, so we do have public comment, and then we'll need a motion.

So we have Trista Gomez.

Okay.

Come on in.

Well, as a taxpayer, um, I'm a little confused because they talked about 2.5 million missing or something another.

Um so as a taxpayer, I know that it was reported that we ended the fiscal year uh in the red.

And so uh I'm really confused about how this fiscal year ended, and I think we as taxpayers want clarification.

These numbers are thrown around.

And as Trista Gomez testified earlier, we as the voters, the taxpayers that hired or elected the commissioners and hired the staff.

Um, we want clarification on this.

What does this fiscal year uh 2425?

What are the ending numbers?

If that could be provided in the future, we'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

All right.

Madam Chair, I'll when you're ready, I'm happy to move to acknowledge receipt of the Washoe County Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, auditors report, and report and internal control for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025, as presented, approve the reappropriation of 117,880,477.50 cents for the first year 2026 budget consisting of 68,481,627.22 for purchase order encumbrances committed in fiscal year 2025 and 49 million three hundred and ninety-eight thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars and twenty-eight cents for spending of restricted contributions and fees and authorize the comptroller to proceed with the distribution of ACFAR for public record as required by law.

I'll second okay.

This item has been moved and seconded.

All in favor, aye, aye.

Aye, and we have a four to zero.

And now we have AB1.

And I always look forward to this.

Yes, this is our presentation and update on the fiscal year 26 first quarter status report for the Washoe County Regional Detention Facility.

We have Captain Stewart and Sergeant Butler with us in chambers to address the board.

My name is John Stewart.

I'm the captain over detention operations at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

We do these quarterly status reports.

Um a lot of it is to indicate if there's changes, if there's things that we need to work on, different areas that we keep stats on.

And I'll go to uh slide number two.

I want to take an opportunity to explain some of the stats.

I think a lot of times we pass these over for anybody to look at, and we don't really understand what they are for.

So on slide number two, when we're looking at medical refusals, this is going to be one of one of our one of our partner agencies in the region, brings in an arrestee, and the arrestee is deemed by our third-party medical NAF care that we contract with to limit our liability that they are um not a good candidate come with in the jail, and they need to go seek uh medical treatment before we're we're willing to accept.

So in that quarter, we had 32 refusals, whereas again, our sister agencies would take them to a hospital to be cleared by the hospital.

It limits our liability and lim limit um it limits the obligation to the taxpayers should they come into our facility and then we're fitting the bill for their medical.

The ER referrals, that would be if we have somebody that's in custody that has an event that we deem needs to go out to the hospital to be seen at a at a higher level level of care.

On slide three, um, these are some different screenings uh that our medical staff performs.

Um nothing really jumps out, these are pretty average numbers that we've seen uh from quarter to quarter.

If we go to slide four, slide four is interesting because it it gives everybody the ability to see how many medications our population in the jail are taking, whether that be mental health medications, um daily medications, it's a significant amount.

We um currently have I'll tell you this morning, our population was about 1,180 inmates, and so on an average, if we have 834 taking medication, that's quite the task for our medical staff and our employees in general.

Um it also goes over our our um medical assisted treatment, our map program that assists people with substance abuse issues.

If we go to slide five, this talks about ADP, which is average a daily population, and as you can see, it's anywhere from 1,200 to 1230 to 1195 for the months of July, August, September for an average of 1211.

We often see um an uptick in the in the summer months of our average daily population, and then it reduces typically in the fall.

And on slide six, this is our average length of stay uh for the inmates, and from quarter one of the previous year at 15.71 days per per inmate to quarter one of this is 16.21.

Um sometimes this number can be adjusted or be different due to a multitude of of issues, whether that be, you know, maybe the DA doesn't have as many D uh district attorney, um, deputy district attorneys that are uh their caseload is really high, whether the courts have something going on or they have big cases, that could adjust these numbers on our average length of stay.

And so that's because it's it's under essentially one day, it's not something that's significant that we're we're we're saying okay, we need to figure out exactly why this is going on, and there's so many moving parts when it comes to that.

So then we'll go to slide eight.

Uh, this is talking about our battery by inmates.

This is in that quarter, uh, we had 15 that was down from 17.

Uh inmates versus staff.

That's if a staff member gets uh in an altercation with an M8 that was six for that quarter, which was the same as the previous quarter.

Uh fights averted, and we averted 63 fights that was up from 49.

Um we're direct supervision jail, meaning that our deputies are out amongst the inmates when they're out on tier time and stuff, and that's one of the reasons we're able to intercede before fights happen.

So uh we like to see that.

It does seem odd that it's up, uh, but at the same time it's they're averted.

So we're averting inmates from fighting and getting injured and possibly costing the taxpayers money going to the hospital.

And on slide nine, um, this talks about how much uh we've assisted inmates within our custody and the day the days at the jail that are saved.

And so we we assisted 105 inmates for the quarter, saving the county about 911,000.

So I just want to take an opportunity to explain those a little bit instead of just handing them over and and going over them pretty quick.

One of the things I want one of the things I want to bring up to you as well is we just recently had a production company come in and uh uh do a piece on the jail, and some of the feedback that we got was they've been all over the country, they've been out of the country in different jails, and some of the feedback we got was it's one of the cleanest jail, with one of what it was one of the jails that we had the most professional staff, and they said the food was the best they've seen in any jail that they've been to in country and out of country, and so um I think that's attributed to our staff, our executive staff, the sheriff, all around, and our supervision and management of the facility and how we run it.

Um the feedback's been great.

Additional to that, we've had federal agencies come in, they all they often do audits, and we get a lot of the same feedback where they go all around the country in different jails.

Um one of the most recent one, they did 2200 points of inspection, and they found issue with two of ours, which we corrected within the day.

So our staff is doing great, and uh the facility is running really well right now.

I do want to reserve some time.

I'll let you if you guys have questions I I'd be happy to answer them, but I also want to reserve time for the hope team as well because I know that you guys have an update from them.

Do we have some questions?

I just have one quick question.

Um, first of all, thank you.

And I too want to reserve the time for the hope team because they have I'm sure some information.

But you mentioned that Q1 uh landed at an average of 1211.

What is the full capacity of the jail in terms of numbers?

I can't remember.

Um, the full capacity, I think we're right about 1350.

Okay now, that's if every bed is filled, so I have to say that with a caveat.

We often have inmates that with mental health issues who are in a cell with two beds, but we can't use that second bed.

We also have the um forensic program as well for our mental health uh unit, and we can't use all those beds, and uh they're doing great work in there, but due to the mental capacity of some of our inmates, it restricts us on how many beds we can actually use.

So 1300 is kind of our busting at the seams for lack of a better word.

Uh as far as what we can actually house with the um population that we have.

Thank you.

And you mentioned the shout out to the jail based health mental health program, and let me just say the tour was more than impactful, and the dedication of everyone to really make a difference, and the fact that I really want to appreciate the slide in terms of taxpayer dollars in Dave CA.

I mean, I know you can't predict how that outcome is, but the fact that it it equates to 911,250 dollars, I think is a testament to really looking at ensuring that we have a productive person being released at the right time with the tools and the resources necessary to make sure they don't come back.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Is the goal I see.

Absolutely.

And and I believe kudos to the Sheriff Balam, the under sheriff, and everyone in you.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Along those lines, just a quick question.

Can you remind me how much it is um on average per inmate per day in terms of cost?

Yes, ma'am.

We just we just redid the uh contract with the marshals a couple years ago, and we it used to be 109 dollars per day per inmate, went up to 160 dollars per day per inmate after uh after going through it.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Do you have something?

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh and I want to thank you for the the great report.

Uh I think you're doing a great job over there.

I've had numerous tours, the facility, I think the cleanliness there, the professionalism of the staff, and not just in at the jail, I think throughout the community.

Whenever you see your your uh deputies interacting with the public, I think I see a lot of uh uh respect for the public uh and uh it's just good to see.

And uh to your point about the jail, I I I would uh second that I would much prefer to eat food at the jail than than the senior center here.

So that just is my personal taste.

I think the jail food is fantastic.

I think we got a good chef over there.

I think all the magic happens in this big spice cabinet, and uh you know, I can show you how to make uh the same meal of taste in 19 different ways.

So I I think that's part of uh part of the morale of keeping the the the folks that are incarcerated there uh in a good space.

Uh and if the uh the folks that are incarcerated are are at least uh have some good morale and and I think that cuts down on a lot of other other issues if if they're at least getting some some good food there.

So thank you for for the good work you're doing there.

Thank you, Commissioner Gordon.

And I thank you as well, and wish you all a merry Christmas, and I I thank you for doing such a wonderful job.

And I mean we're we're really proud of you guys.

So thank you so much.

And I like I said, I agree.

Thank you, madam chair.

Oh, yes, and we have that too.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming.

Good morning, commissioners and member of the public.

I'm Sergeant Sonia Butler, and with me today is Deputy Courtney Lisby.

We'll be writing, we'll be providing the promised follow-up on Washow County Ordinance 50 dot 400, the public camping ordinance that was voted in on March 24th.

I'm sorry, in March 2024, and went into effect on June 5th of 2024.

In the next five minutes, you'll see exactly how it's been used, the results it has produced, and why it's a working as a balanced humane tool, not a hammer.

So let's begin.

Slide two.

Ordinance and overview.

Section 50.400 predicts prohibits camping on county-owned property or public places in the unincorporated county within or including 1,000 feet of the Truckee River.

Camping means sleeping or preparing to sleep, storing belongings longer than 48 hours, using a tent, shelter as a shelter, or a vehicle as a living accommodation.

There are clear exemptions for them for this as medical emergencies, disabilities, and permitted events.

No one can be charged unless they first receive a verbal warning from a deputy, or unless the area is posted with no camping signs every 500 feet or less.

The penalty is a misdemeanor, but as you'll see, that is almost never the outcome.

Slide three.

Critics worried that it would criminalize homelessness and punish people with nowhere to go.

The commissioners passed it a 3-2 vote on March 2024 after hours of puff public comment.

And shortly after the Supreme Court's grant passed decision, later confirmed that cities and counties may enforce these rules even when shelter beds are limited.

We heard every voice and we promised to use the ordinance responsibly.

Here's how that promise has been kept.

Slide four, enforcement in action.

Since June 5th, 2024, only three people have been formally charged.

40 written warning citations have been issued.

Verbal warnings have been given to virtually every single person deputies have contacted under this ordinance.

That's thousands of thousands of verbal warnings.

The Hope team has made 4,529 separate contacts, often returning to the same individuals to build the trust and offer help.

That is progressive, restrained enforcement, education first, assistance second, citation only as an absolute last resort.

Slide five.

Only three charges in 18 months, and here's why they happen.

January 2025 was on the courthouse grounds.

Two individuals were setting up camp.

Resources were offered and declined.

One person fled, jumped into the Truckee River, and was later found with drug paraphernalia and warrants.

The camping charge was secondary to resisting and possession charges.

July 2025, North Hills Boulevard, an individual ignored multiple posted 48-hour notices.

The Hope team had already cleaned up three previous encampment encampments left by the same person, and multiple nearby businesses had repeatedly called in because of the large amounts of trash and debris.

Services had been offered many times over the prior year, but they were refused.

A citation was issued and referred to the community court for court ordered resources.

In every single case, charges came only after repeated warnings, repeated offers of help, and in most instances instances, additional criminal behavior.

Slide six.

Ordinance 50400 is being used exactly as the commission asked, with restraint, compassion, and results.

Remain we remain committed to ongoing oversight and listening to every perspective.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

I would hate to be in your shoes and have to do that job.

It's a tough one.

It's rewarding.

Yeah.

So I would like my commissioners to we'll just go from Garcia, Dr.

Clark.

Thank you so much for coming to do the presentation.

I know many members of the public have been watching and listening, and I think it's really great that you put this all together in such a comprehensive but brief presentation.

And for those of us that have firsthand experience doing ride-alongs with you, deputy, and thank you for helping set that up.

I think the level of communication, calm, professionalism, and almost a social work type demeanor can be seen out of our deputies in both the detention facility and out on the streets because y'all start off in the detention facility.

You don't have the weapons that you're carrying.

You are forced to use critical thinking, strong communication skills, de-escalation techniques, and I think it really plays out later as you progress through your careers and you're interacting with folks from all walks of backgrounds in the community themselves.

So I commend the sheriff and all the leadership at the Washoe County Sheriff's Office for maintaining that high level of professionalism and training as you get your feet wet through this really difficult career.

My question is about community courts.

Talk to us about how difficult, if it has, I assume is made your jobs more difficult since that has been removed from our toolbox.

However, our team did show representation at the resource center every Wednesday.

So we had a table there that we would offer anyone in the community that showed up, they could sit down at our table and start working with our case managers to get involved and start going through the steps of getting permanent stable housing.

So that was the only difference really for us is we just don't have that Wednesday resource center anymore.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Well, Sergeant Butler, you certainly are a pleasure to do a ride along with, along with the entire team.

As you know, I've been on several ride alongside and I look forward to continuing that.

It really is a firsthand experience in terms of the level of as Commissioner Garcia, almost social work.

But you do have case managers, and I think that's an important piece to share.

And there are solution based.

I think the fact that the sheriff and his leadership, even the recognizable uniforms are a bit different.

And the relationships that you've built, and I've seen it firsthand, and looking at even knowing some things, probably that most people wouldn't even know the detail about, is I think a part of that moving forward and recognizing that there are resources and there is a plan.

But I do have a question because I really do appreciate the succinctness and briefness, the brevity that you brought in the report.

But would you please share the great success and the percentage numbers?

You probably know what I'm gonna say, right, Sergeant Butler, because about tenancy support.

What what what how does that resource really equate to some of the success that we've seen in the numbers that you've provided and the long-term uh success of folks that are actually not being supported by taxpayer dollars, if you will, that are moving on and um and and enjoying their life in a very productive way.

So when this team was developed, um we partnered with Washoe County um human service agency, and that partnership is really the true magic of how this works.

Um, like you said, we have two case managers that actually work for Washaw County Human Service Agency, and then on that note, um, when this are in the early beginnings of this, we um set up tenancy support.

Tenancy support is ongoing care.

So once someone gets housed, they will have a case manager that will continually check in on them and make sure that they're transitioning good and they're they're knowing how to pay their bills and and take care of life because this is a big culture shift for them in a lot of situations.

Umriginally the tenancy support had so many vouchers, and everyone who was newly homed received a tenancy support specialist.

And when that voucher program ran, even still currently to this day, they show that they can keep individuals housed at a 92% success rate.

Could you repeat that?

92% 92% success rate.

Thank you.

If you feel so inclined, I think it would be great.

That one page document that I think it would be great to send to all of the commissioners.

I do want to also thank you for the regular updates and the status reports that we get.

I think it again reinforces the testament of the success of the program.

I do see that uh under Sheriff Solferino is here.

I don't know if you're wanting to add anything, but I did.

Did you want to add something?

I don't I I have a I have a quick comment that I would just like to add, and I don't want to interrupt you.

No, you go first.

My comment can wait, sir.

Madam Chair, members of the commission, manager Thomas, Corey Solfrino for the record.

Uh I just wanted to get up here, and on behalf of Sheriff Balam and the men and women of the Wash County Sheriff's Office, thank you for this opportunity.

Uh two years ago, you guys took a chance on us, and I know it was a political hot topic.

And uh at the time, I believe it was Chair Hartongue when we initially brought this ordinance forward and said, I want you to get in a room with all the community stakeholders, uh, faith in action, the faith-based community, and everybody else, and come together and come to an accord.

And while we couldn't get to middle ground all the way across the board, uh Sheriff Balam and I assured you that we would not misuse this ordinance, nor would we violate the public's trust.

And what Sergeant Butler and her team have done is just that.

We cannot arrest our way out of this problem.

Um I guess one of the things in in dovetail with what Captain Stewart said in the jail, we get to see the success stories each and every day.

We get to see people who come in at their absolute worst, defined as chronically ill.

Obviously, we showed the medication data where an overwhelmingly number, large number of our uh population are taking uh medications.

I mean, three quarters of them are defined as chronically ill when they walk through those doors.

We are not a hospital, uh, but we do have good medical provider that is making those hard decisions and pushing people back out into the community, get the health care that they need until they can come back in.

I guess with all that being said, is we see the success stories.

We see people stabilize that when they are taking their medication that they can thrive.

Uh Lieutenant Phillips is also in the audience and what he's done with the jail-based mental health program and what we're doing up on the hill out there.

Uh, we've got people again from all over the country coming to Washoe County to see how we're doing it here.

So uh to the commission's credit to the manager's credit to Sheriff Balam's credit, uh, we do do it differently in Washoe County.

Um, and that's no knock to our sister cities and agencies that we collaborate with, but because we do listen, uh, because we do have that communication across all lines, uh, what they're doing is very, very important.

And I just can't sell you uh how proud of this team I am behind me.

It's hard work.

Nobody else wants to deal with it.

Um, and at the end of the day, we've had those debates as whether or not it's a sheriff's office response, a social worker response, or a combination thereof.

And I think that at the end of the day, when they call the police and they want somebody to show up, that we can show up and have a conversation, that that doesn't necessarily mean that they're leaving in handcuffs.

So on behalf of the entire sheriff's office, um, we just want to thank you for that opportunity.

For full transparency, I did have a comment and you just teed it up, and and you really don't know this, right?

Um, but I do think it's a community, it's not just the folks in terms of jurisdictions, the entire community benefits, but most importantly, the people that you're serving.

And the fact that you can't at 160 uh dollars a day is really uh a huge expense to the investment of not having to have jail be the place that is not appropriate in in many cases.

But here's my comment.

I know that um Commissioner Garcia, for instance, is looking.

I I when I went on the tour with the Hope team, I I went into her district, and I could not believe what I saw.

I certainly know that Commissioner Garcia is working with legal and to bring back some things, so I'm not going to uh get into that because I don't know all of that, but I am gonna say that I do think one of the questions I know that Sergeant Butler would uh say, and I and and um the other uh your predecessor who I went on.

I always ask what what are the resources you need, what's the investment we can provide?

And the reality is is that I do think that there's some strengthening of the ordinance that we can put into place based on where we're at with the homeless that refuse, if you will, any service.

And so I would like to reserve uh manager Thomas the opportunity to work with you and legal and the hope team and the sheriff's office because I think that there's an opportunity for us to strengthen the ordinance, not as a penalty to your point under sheriff.

Thank you to Sheriff Balam, thank you to you for committing during that time of this isn't arresting our way out of homelessness.

This is a solution base, and it's a it's a best practice base, and you guys are doing a great job.

So I look forward to bringing back some changes at a later time.

But thank you so much.

Thanks for everything that you do because it is hard work what you do.

It's a special talent, and thank you for what you do for the community every day.

So we don't hear it enough.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for your report, uh, Sergeant Butler, and uh very informative good information.

I haven't been on a ride along, and I'd like to see if I can get that scheduled uh please.

We'd absolutely love to take you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Yes.

Madam Chair, I have a question for under sheriff if uh if I may.

I know this is an I agenda item is specifically about the detention facility, but I know we deviated to hope and I briefly before I ask him my other question.

Um, for the jail based mental health unit, um, thank you so much for your leadership.

There, I wanted to let the public know we've got a full house today.

There's a really um comprehensive video, but it's only eight minutes and forty-five seconds on YouTube.

If you just Google WCSO jail-based mental health unit, um, it'll give you the overview of what this incredible program is doing in the jail while we have um these people's full attention.

They're in our custody, and we're helping get them access to the appropriate medications and services and supports.

Um, but you can see it yourself through that video.

Um, and I also wanted to acknowledge that we received $7.5 million recently from the special session to go specifically to that jail-based mental health unit.

So um, thank you to our state partners, and I know that's a big game changer for us because we would hate to see that uh incredible resource leave our region.

So thank you.

Um and then shifting gears.

How many federal agencies do we have um coming in and out of the detention facility any given year approximately?

Corey Solfrenal for the record, I'll have to get back to you, Commissioner Garcia on that one.

Um literally, we we partner with all of our federal entities from the U.S.

Marshals to every three-letter agency that you can think of.

Uh, but I will get a comprehensive list and get that back to you uh through Manager Thomas.

That's okay.

Yeah, I I texted Balam earlier today, but it was last minute.

So the reason I asked that question is is a to shine the light that you are you have a lot of guests in the building itself.

And uh recently throughout our region specifically, we've been particularly interested in one of your guests, which is ICE.

Um, so this is the end of the year, um, and we we saw a lot of change and an uptick of of things happening in our communities here regionally.

And in the spring, we saw some targeted arrests happening throughout the community, and people were being transported to our facility to be detained.

And um I just you know wanted to take this moment on this agenda item today while you're here to just help squash any misinformation that may be circulating because I know I get the phone calls where it's immediately panic.

Uh, there's been a raid, uh, there's been this, there's been that.

And um, I just wanted to give you an opportunity.

Uh many of the news agencies reported on um I what was it May that we had the uptick of of arrests happening throughout the region.

Um, but since then, have we had any organized orchestrated large-scale raids in Washoe County?

That would be a question for the or sorry, Corey Solfrenal for the record, uh, representing the Wash County Sheriff's Office.

Um, Commissioner Garcia, to you through the chair.

That is uh a question for the feds.

Uh, when they orchestrate those, we're independent of any of those operations.

I I think because we are a federal institution, we are an ICE detention facility.

We have been since 1988, and previously before that, uh, I would have to go back and look at records, but I know that facility at 911 Park Boulevard has existed there since 88.

With that comes uh different things.

Obviously, uh, Captain Stewart brought up during our quarterly report that about two years ago that we renegotiated the average daily rate up to 160 dollars per inmate per day.

That's baseline level services too.

So I want you to understand that.

That's to keep the lights on, that's to keep them fed, that's to keep them clothed.

That doesn't include medication, that doesn't include our jail-based mental health program.

You see those numbers soar as we start to add on uh incidental things anywhere from 500 to 800 dollars per inmate per day based upon that.

So uh that 160 dollars is just for the county to recoup their expenses for feeding housing and clothing those inmates.

Uh with that, we do have partnerships with all of our federal partners.

Obviously, we have a large contingent of our budget that is offset by grant funding.

Most of that grant funding is collaboration with our federal partners.

Uh so uh obviously I know that this this board has been patiently awaiting uh a grant award that was submitted uh earlier this year, August 1st.

Uh, we still have no word on that back from the federal government.

Obviously, with them shut down for some time, that has delayed the awards, but we are prepared to brief in full.

Uh and I will I will just say this uh as we've seen our numbers anywhere from 50 to 100 uh as far as the the federal agencies augmenting our daily population with their arrestees.

We haven't seen a huge increase in our area.

I can't speak to the rest of the state, but I can say in our area that it hasn't been overwhelming, and a lot of those individuals, because we are a nice detention facility are in trans.

They weren't brought tier, they weren't arrested in this area, they are passing through as they go to other federal jurisdictions throughout the county.

Um, but is that communication piece?

I think one of the first things that we did is we put our FAQs out there.

Uh, we started asking conversation or started to have those difficult and uncomfortable conversations with our public.

Uh we partnered with the Latino Stakeholders Council and brought them in on a tour and showed them what our project plan was and what it wasn't.

So uh while I'm not really at liberty to discuss what the federal government is doing in their average daily um what do you want to call it, scope of work, uh, that we are a federal entity that we we we do partner with our federal entities and we do provide a service for them.

But I have not seen a large increase.

So when the uh the media is reporting some of those things that are happening out in other communities, I don't see that happening to a large extent here.

Thank you so much.

And um in reflecting on the past year, we've seen that a lot of the focus at the federal level has left the border uh areas and moved into the communities and neighborhoods themselves, which has increased a lot of uh stress and fear throughout the country, and so it the scale, the visibility, the geographic reach of these operations have been happening, so there's no denying that.

Um, but I just am constantly on the lookout that you know we have large workplaces here that aren't being impacted like that, and that we're not seeing um those really aggressive um actions taking place like in our streets or in front of people's homes.

And so I know things have happened, but to clarify this is a federal agency taking orders from the top down.

But I just uh as a Latino stakeholder attending you know the the special tour that you were able to help us set up.

I appreciate the ongoing communication you have to not only the Latino community but all of our immigrant communities.

Um but I just um wanted to put on the record, you know, there's there's several groups throughout the state that are helping you know provide help, helping investigate whether or not these reports are false or misinformation and helping to provide resources.

So I just wanted to mention too, there's a statewide um resource called the uh that's led by the Nevada Immigrant Coalition, and any person in the state of Nevada can text this number 638-232 to report anything or if they see something that they're worried about or if they're worried about somebody impersonating a federal agent, they can text that number.

And then locally, we just had a community defense hotline that just came up, I believe, last week.

Um, and folks can call 77576 MIGRA, and that um stands for 64472.

Um, so those are two resources that any you know person in the state of Nevada can utilize.

And of course, um the Washoe County Sheriff's Office throughout this year through the ups and downs that the federal level has, in my opinion, maintained very close communication.

So I know that I could always reach out to you or to the sheriff and and make sure that I can get the accurate information because while we can't control what's happening at the federal level, we can focus on communication and um not sowing doubt in the trust that we've worked so hard to build over over the decades with the community members here.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, I I wanted to say that um a few years back.

I used to nag everybody, the sheriff's department BLM, because I had constituents that constantly called about people camping out property and even private property, but I hardly get those calls anymore.

So results, that's what you're getting.

It's amazing.

It's very quiet.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay.

We are now in to consent items.

And there's quite a list.

And I bet we have public comment.

Yes, your consent items are item 9A1 to 9G1.

Those are 12 items.

For public comment, we have Philip Moore signed in.

Okay.

Good morning for the record.

My name is Philip Moore.

I'm here representing the Friends of the Food Shed as well as the Great Basin Community Food Cooperative.

And speaking very much in favor of item 9F1.

First, I always like to start by thanking you for your service that you give to me and our community by being county commissioners.

Thank you.

In the uh well, she just left, but I'll thank her anyway.

Thank you to Commissioner Garcia for putting forward this proposal.

In the language of the agenda, it quotes the mission of our organization to promote a healthy lifestyle for all living things.

That's quite a statement, but let me tell you what it actually means.

It means our farmers and their employees are exposed to less toxins because they are growing with organic or near organic practices.

It also means there's healthier soil for them as well as for their employees and families and animals.

And the animals have a minimum of medicines and live a healthier life.

And our members and shoppers enjoy healthier food.

And last but not least, that our farmers receive a decent price for their food, enabling to live a healthier and sustainable life.

And let me tell you that education is key to this mission because it helps people understand the importance of healthier living, and that cheap food is not always cheap for us or our community.

Closely related to the Friends of the Food Shed is the Great Basin Community Food Cooperative, whose purpose is to promote local food system and to serve as a sustainable cooperative model for access to wholesome food.

We at the co-op go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that the local and other foods we sell meet our buying guidelines, which specifically support the benefits I mentioned earlier.

If you haven't been there, I encourage each and every one of you to visit the co-op and experience what a store that is focused on your health and the health of the community looks like.

If you haven't been to one of our seedling sales, I encourage you to attend one on May 30th of next year, where you will see firsthand how we build community while helping to keep dollars in the local economy.

You will see hundreds of individuals buying local seedlings from our local farmers.

And the shoppers receive seedlings tailored to our local environment, that they grow their own healthy food.

It is truly a delicious experience for all of us.

So I'll close in saying thank you for your support.

There's nobody else signed in.

Madam Chair.

Um prior to calling for the motion.

May I ask that we poll nine Free for a statement I'd like to read, please.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

So do we have a motion with that?

I'll move to approve, excluding nine F3.

Thank you very much.

And uh the consent it uh agenda has been moved and seconded.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

And I think all opposed.

No.

And so we're yeah, we need to go to 9F3.

Thank you.

All right.

So let me get on now.

Madam Chair, would it be appropriate with your okay to have manager Thomas share 9F3, please?

Thank you.

Yep, for the public's information, item 9F3.

I'm gonna paraphrase it's very long, but it's in your agenda.

Is a recommendation to approve some personnel changes, including position reassignments, position reclassifications, and the creation of one new full-time case manager.

Three, as a result of the Board of County Commissioners' repeal of chapter 11 of Washoe County Code, which eliminated the Department of Alternative Sentencing and transition of program functions, which are effective January 1, 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um we all uh as a board um have uh been you know working and we know that staff has really been working on an ongoing process.

And I I feel that um giving a lot of reflection, a lot of research, a lot of discussion that again, while I appreciate staff's work in putting together the plan for the implementation.

I recognize that not all the courts are happy with the proposed plan, but I believe that consolidation of pre-trial pretrial services into a single department which provides services for all defendants in our jurisdiction is not only the most efficient option but fits squarely into the recommended best practices.

I would like to see a memorandum of understanding entered into between the second judicial district court and all the Justice Courts, which details pretrial services commitment to maintaining and exceeding the service levels that were previously provided.

It is our commitment to maintaining and exceeding those levels and the community's best interest to have all the courts work together in a professional and amicable manner moving forward, and I am hopeful that if there are any disputes, I would like the district attorney's office to reach out to a retired Supreme Court Justice, perhaps consider Justice Hardesy, Hardesty to bring and help mediate any disputes.

I'd also like to look at obviously regarding the Mr.

Meeting Mr.

Mean Mr.

There's no Mr.

and Ms.

Demeanor probation.

I want to specifically thank Sheriff Balam and under Sheriff Solferino for their hard work and willingness to step up and protect the community by committing to providing oversight for these probationers.

The sheriff's commitment to working with the courts to provide oversight of these populations will allow our community to be safer and provide a more supportive structure for our probation officers.

So again, I'd like to recognize that not everyone is maybe where they would like to be, especially in light of the allocation of caseworkers.

However, again, I believe that an MOU that spells out between the courts will be beneficial.

And moving forward, what I'd like to ask that it would be extremely helpful to come back in a 60 to 90 day period to give the full board and the community an update, not only on the status of the MOU, hopefully it would be complete, but status report on the progress of this implementation plan as well.

So thank you, manager Thomas, for your indulgence and thank you, um Mr.

Large, for all of your support and for the many conversations of folks that I've had before reading this statement.

I would ask the board to consider, Madam Chair, that this item include the recommendation of the MOU that I just stated.

Thank you.

Do I need to go on okay?

Um before we move into a motion, can I ask legal on on this?

I've never seen an MOU attached to an agenda item.

Um are we okay to proceed with the question?

In regard to the recommendation for the MOU, um, I think I would like to pass this as written, and then we can bring back an MOU at a later date.

And once we I listened to what Commissioner Andreola said, and we can put those together and um essentially we will work with our stakeholders in terms of the the period to try to put those place those in place.

Okay, so if I'm understanding correctly, it's more appropriate that under like commissioner what requests for future items or okay.

Well, for the sake of brevity, I'm not gonna read this during commissioner comments.

Um, but I will move um if Madam Chair uh accepts it to move as the item is actually written and presented, and then during commissioner comments, I'll reflect the big statement that I made reflect of item 9f3.

I really would like to see that that happen.

So thank you.

Thank you for clarifying.

I'll second.

Okay.

Consent agenda has been moved and seconded.

All in favor.

For the record, there is no public comment on this specific item.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So we're into the block vote now.

Is that the black vote?

The items that we're going to recommend are 10.

11, 12, 16, 17, and 18.

Excuse me, madam chair.

Okay.

Uh I would like to uh have some further explanation of item 10.

So if we could pull that, please.

Okay.

You can you can take a vote on block uh 11, 12, 16, 17, and 18, and then we can pull 10.

Okay.

11, 12, 16, 17, and 18.

Do I have a motion?

We have to do public comment first.

Oh, okay there is no public comment on any of those items.

Okay.

Madam Chair, I move to approve 11, 12, 16, 18, 17, and 18.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Consent agenda has been moved and seconded.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Um opposed.

Okay.

The eyes have it.

Great.

Back to 10.

Back to 10.

Back to 10 now.

Okay.

You ready?

Okay, it's a long one, so you're gonna have to bear with me.

Item number 10 is a recommendation to one approve the Arrow Creek Soundwall Abandonment Agreement for Access, concrete panel replacement and repair.

Call out as the abandonment agreement to define the responsibilities of Washoe County and 14 residential property owners and their respective lots, which abut Arrow Creek Parkway beginning at 13430 Field Creek Lane and ending at 13560 Field Creek Lane.

And two, award a bid and approve the construction agreement to the lowest responsive responsible bidder for the Arrow Creek Parkway wall repair project as listed in the agenda.

And three, upon completion and inspection of the wall replacement and repair project, direct staff to prepare a boundary line adjustment to transfer ownership to the newly repaired wall to the property owners listed within the abandonment agreement and record the abandonment agreement against the 14 benefiting assessor parcel numbers as listed in the agenda.

Hello, Mr.

Smith.

Hello, sir.

May I have uh have the uh opportunity uh madam chair to talk with Mr.

Smith about this.

So this is a long drawn-out process.

12, 14 years longer.

Give us a can you give us a little bit of a brief history on what what's taking place, and I'll have some specific questions and comments about this.

Absolutely, sir.

For the record, Dwayne Smith, Director of Engineering and Capital Projects for Washoe County, uh to the Commissioner uh through the chair to the vice chair.

Uh this project um is the summary of a lot of angst, a lot of work uh over the the last 12, 15 years regarding a sound wall that was built as part of the part of the Aero Creek residential development and the improvements that were made along Arrow Creek Parkway, um, formerly Field Creek Lane.

Um at that time when these improvements were made, um they were uh in essence dedicated to Washoe County for ownership.

That ownership requires Washoe County to own, operate, maintain, repair, and replace facilities located within the right-of-way.

While there was some uh initially some concern and confusion over the responsibility for this sound wall, um because it is integrated as the back wall of many of the uh budding residents' parcels along the north side of Arrow Creek.

Um it became very clear that the responsibility falls and fell on Washa County to resolve this issue.

This um recommendation today to accept this uh this uh this uh competitive bid for this repair recognizes Washoe County's direction.

I brought former items before you before and received that direction.

So through a competitive bidding process, we we went out and received bids to repair the wall in its entirety.

I I want to uh make one small point.

When we were going through the processes of uh of understanding what the most cost-effective way to resolve this, um, there was a lot of angst over trying to replace certain wall panels that are potentially still in good condition as deposed the as opposed to those that have totally failed.

And ultimately the recommendation was made, and and Washa County actually got a better price to replace all of the wall panels.

Um this recommendation, this competitive bid includes replacement of all the panels, not a very costly and time-consuming process to try to evaluate which wall panel individual wall panels could be left.

So that's the one nuance, and I appreciate the question.

Um we have met with the community multiple times.

We have received uh signatures from all of the abutting property owners, uh, accepting uh Washa County's role in repairing, replacing this wall.

And after that repair is done, we have under the agreement um a couple of steps.

One is to transfer the warranty for this for this wall uh to the property owners.

That's a condition of the agreement.

And the second is to transfer the ownership of the wall to those individual property owners.

And so we will also take the responsibility to do the boundary line adjustment.

Uh our internal survey team will do that.

Uh we will effectively move Washoe County's right-of-way line or property line slightly to the south to fully capture the wall.

And we also will provide the abutting property owners uh an access easement to allow them to access the Washa County side of that wall, the the uh their wall, uh, so that they can perform maintenance activities, whatever they might need to do in the future.

So it's a comprehensive solution based on board direction that we have received in the past.

The financial uh approach of replacing the entire wall actually results in a better cost savings uh for Warsha County.

And uh we're prepared to initiate this project uh with this uh consideration and board approval.

So I just want to get this on the record because this has been going on for for a long time, 12 to 15 years.

Uh the uh allegations were that the uh materials that were used initially weren't uh sound, they they they disintegrated, they fell apart.

Uh the company that built this initially has been dissolved and they had no insurance, and at the end of the day, the county had accepted ownership of this, and and uh there is just a just uh in lots of ins and outs and going down this rabbit hole.

But this particular, once this is if this is passed, will uh take away ownership from the county.

We'll be will be off the hooks for for lack of a better word.

The homeowners will now own that property.

They'll have a new fence that they own.

We don't have any ownership in the land underneath the fence, we don't have uh any ownership in the fence.

We're we're paying a lot of money here, but this is the right thing to do, I think, and and finally get this back to the homeowners and they can have the future control of this if the fence fails or anything happens, we don't have to, we're not gonna be involved anymore.

Is that a is that a correct statement?

Uh Commissioner, you have uh very accurately stated all of those conditions that are captured within the agreement.

And uh my final question is now that they have an extra foot or two of land on their property, well, and now that they own a brand new fence or soon will own a brand new fence, will that uh affect their assessment of property values there?

Is that are they gonna have any tax implications over getting some extra land and getting a brand new wall?

I mean, it is new construction.

Uh do you have any have you had any conversations with the assessor's office about how that may play out?

Well, I want to be clear that that is not my role as the assessor of Washa County.

We did have a brief conversation, and I heard the word de minimis.

I cannot um state um anything other, but I would strongly suggest that the property owners reach out if there is any questions.

Sure.

And the reason I bring that up is, you know, we're helping uh a very small percentage of of the of the community remedy something that fell through the cracks, but there's other folks in the in the county saying their their version of this, their side of it is why why are us taxpayers making these folks whole?

And so I I just want to make sure everybody is clear.

This looks like it costs a lot of money, but I think uh eventually this will be a wise move to just to put this to bed and and us not have to worry about it in the future.

Uh anybody who's involved in any type of construction or purchasing anything around here understands that whatever we buy today is going to be cheaper today than it is two months from now or six months from now.

So the sooner we can get the county off the hook, uh, the the lighter it's gonna be for the the folks.

And I think this is a lot, as you said, a lot uh a lot less expensive than what we were initially uh predicting this might cost.

Is that a correct statement?

I was pleasantly surprised, Commissioner, when we opened the bids and and saw that this approach resulted in a better price, yes.

Very good.

Thank you for your help.

Thank you.

Madam Chair.

I I have a follow-up.

I I just really would like to recognize you, Mr.

Smith, and staff and the homeowners who aren't here but had come in meeting with them.

It was very clear that your and the staff's dedication to finding a solution that would be viable.

And um nobody could predict some of the things that occurred.

So I just really want to commend you for all your hard work and for actually looking at what how we always sometimes hear and when we're conducting business, the hours and hours that are spent in creating a viable solution isn't necessarily uh aware by the public, and I'd like to take that opportunity to thank you because it was really great meeting with the homeowners impacted.

You were in it, we were all looking at solutions, so thank you.

It's great to see that the bid came in the way it came in.

So um it's a win-win.

So thank you.

Thanks for your hard work and always looking at being solution-driven and customer service oriented.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I had neglected to state state that the block vote was in the form of a motion.

The block already passed so yeah, public comment.

So public comments.

No public comment on this item.

Okay, so now we can vote on the item.

Okay, we'll vote on item 10.

All in favor.

Madam Chair, I'll I'll go ahead and just make it a formal uh motion to approve item 10 as outlined in the staff report.

I'll I'll make a formal second.

Okay.

All oppose.

Okay, I pass this.

Yes, I have it.

We're on 13.

13.

13 is the okay.

So um, I can read that for you, Madam Chair.

Yes.

So item 13 is a recommendation to approve a lease agreement between Washoe County as the leasee at 6550 Longley Lane, um, which is the lessor for the occupancy of a 49,500 square foot warehouse and office space listed at the address that we mentioned for a hundred and twenty-six-month term starts January 1st of 2026 and terminates on June 30, 2036, um, for 5.5-ish million dollars over the total uh time for base rent and about 1.4 total estimated common area maintenance.

The registrar voters will initially use the space to establish a centralized operational hub and consolidate existed leasing space.

Um I wanted to, there's some information here about base rent negotiations, which I'll let you all read, but I wanted to add if I could for the public certification, just because we had some of the comments earlier.

Um this was a a combination uh combined effort.

It's not just for the ROV, we're actually uh looking to combine some other items into this space because it is quite large.

But um, in the spirit of public transparency, I I know I mentioned this at the last meeting when we were initiating the purchase of the ballot marking devices, and so um you know, I had put on the record that we were looking at additional space.

We have been looking for additional space for some time, just as you are all aware, everybody's aware.

We haven't been secretive about that.

Um, and it does take a decent amount of staff time to pull together and negotiate a lease like this.

I would like to call out those, especially um one of our commissioners, Commissioner Clark, with his background and expertise was able to guide us through this a little bit.

Uh we were able to get uh six months of free rent uh as we negotiated this, so it was really beneficial for the long run.

And so um I know we weren't uh prepared to give a big presentation, but we do have staff here to answer any questions that you want.

So um with that I'll turn it back over to the board for discussion.

Thank you.

Would you like um further explanation?

Um anybody have any anything questions or I just wanted to make a comment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, that that savings of six months of free rent uh amounted to uh 237,600 savings.

So we were able to uh accomplish with uh negotiating with the uh landlord.

Thank you.

Uh I I thank you, Commissioner Clark, for helping to save taxpayer dollars, and I'd also like to recognize the ROV, um Mr.

Um Andrew, for literally the action taken by this body in terms of being part of the um state's RFP means that we're saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I don't know what, I don't know what that dollar amount, but we're saving money as well.

Um, and and the action that this body took.

Um, so thank you, Commissioner Clark, for helping to save 237,000 dollars, and thank you, um, Mr.

McDonald for literally always looking out for not only efficiency doing things right, but creating a secure environment that we all expect, and looking at the efficiencies again that will be uh implemented, and looking to Manager Thomas for also leading the charge on um what that space may actually be beneficial for, and all of the hard work that you did and putting that in and briefing all of the commissioners and sharing with the public that this had been something that had been looked at.

So thank you.

Madam Chair, I I wanted to piggyback on my um fellow commissioners' comments.

Uh, aside from the cost savings, aside from the efficiencies that we'll have, I would love for um our ROV to have an opportunity to revisit what you told us in chambers, I believe, last time or the time before, the ultimate vision of uh as it relates to transparency and access to the public.

So can you recap uh what you saw on your tour and what you envision for our facility here?

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I I do want to thank um Commissioner Clark for helping negotiate that lease.

Thank you very much.

Also, Aaron and other folks here who've been very much a part of this.

Uh, we're along for the ride in the department where this facility takes uh control of the lease and really negotiates.

So I really appreciate that.

Um, the vision really is to improve coordination and collaboration real time.

Currently, we have two warehouses and we have a headquarters here, so we cannot necessarily communicate and get things done as efficiently as possible if we are in one location.

So that's kind of number one.

It's gonna reduce delays and miscommunication between uh headquarters and warehouse staff, logistical staff.

Two, faster response time during elections.

So election support on election day uh becomes more agile.

Warehouse staff and ROE leadership can coordinate rapid deployment of resources and put those resources where we need them at the time.

Streamlining logistics, return vote by mail ballots and supplies, voting machine and check-in stations, vote center supplies such as cradle points, ballot drop boxes, secure election vaults, forms, chairs, feather flags, all the stuff that we store, uh streamlining all those things, intake of election equipment ballots uh during early vote on election day, and reducing transportation steps between this location and two other locations.

Uh streamlining return of coordination of efforts into one seamless location for election workers, supplies, ballot runners, tech runners, and he increasing security and oversight.

Centralizing ballot storage processing and logistics improves physical and procedural security, easier to control, monitor movements, and maintain secure chain of custody procedures.

What does that mean?

In this new location, I'm trying to compartmentalize specific areas for the chain of custody for best practices.

Mail ballot processing folks that are in there and staff shouldn't necessarily have access to tabulation, right?

So we are literally um creating containers with badge access in the 2B environment.

So only those specific people that should be in the know have access to to be in those rooms or be let in as needed.

And uh operational scalability and extendability.

So one thing that we uh currently would like to do is parallel process all stages of the ballot, which we can't do because our room we're we're pigeonholed and shoe holed into an existing location through brick and mortar.

So this will allow us to do ballot sorting, signature verification, batching, ballot extraction, uh counting board, duplication, uh, scanning, digital adjudication, and finally tabulation all at the same time.

Well, we just can't do that today.

To scale out signature verification, we think we can do that by 30% increase.

We're gonna house all of our ballots instead of putting over record retention, we're gonna house all robots in our warehouse, have all chain of custody within us, nobody else.

So when a federal uh contest is on the ballot for 22 months, all the PPP, the presidential prep uh primary, and the general will all be housed in our warehouse now, no longer at records.

So that provides transparency and credibility for our office.

Uh in-person vote center ballots will be full length now that we're moving to ballot market devices, those have to come back now, and we need a place to store them.

No longer the small VB pat rolls.

We are gonna be housing 135,000 plus ballots if that's how many people turn out, a 50% vote uh turnout in election day last general.

All those ballots will now be stored uh physically on site.

Um we'll be able to run all 11 ballot scanners on election night uh and through the process as needed, uh which is a 45% increase in scanning capacity.

Uh training workers, we're gonna have a training facility on site to be able to train all of our poll workers slash uh election workers, whereas we commandeer the building C training room pretty much all year during the PPP, the primer and the general.

So all those things we'll be able to do in-house training and relieve that so other people can have training.

The other ancillary benefit to that is if other county folks need to use our training room and we're not in election, they can use it.

So it's another benefit of resource to the county.

Um there's other things here, but I think you get the point.

Uh parallel processing, uh, getting things done fast and actually increasing on election night results faster to the public to all candidates uh on the election.

So those are the main things that we're trying to do and improve uh services.

I think I should say one last thing for the public.

We will be putting in a gallery for the public to come and see every asset or every aspect of visibility of every angle that they we can possibly provide, meaning there'll be a gallery in and a view into every single room of the process.

So the life of the ballot, folks will be able to see ever from mail ballot processing all the way through to tap through tabulation with windows to be able to see into the process.

So that's an enhancement for the public transparency.

Thank you.

Went a little long-winded, but you put the chance there to be ready to be on it.

Okay.

Other further questions for myself.

Thank you.

You you hit on the security.

Could you highlight that in terms of how this actually provides more security than what we currently have?

Well, so to today the room is just a preface, not that it's not secure now.

So let me let me not be misquoted.

I'm not suggesting or implying there isn't security, but if you could just highlight how this actually enhances the security.

Well, uh, my staff will tell you when I got here, I'm like, why is everything in one room?

Why is it not containerized and have badge access and security into every step of the process?

Today, anybody can walk into that room that's that is an employee or a temporary employee and can touch any piece of equipment.

And that's not what we want.

We want to be able to have that segregated and only as needed people should be in that process or in that room or in that area to be able to process.

So if they don't have access, they're not getting in.

Whereas today, they can literally roam around the entire room uh freely.

Thank you, and thank you for sharing the vision, and thank you for looking at how we enhance this to the best capability we possibly can.

Um thanks for allocating additional savings over time.

Thanks for the um detail and your experience, quite frankly, needs to be, and your staff and and and their commitment.

So I'm looking forward to a later presentation at a later time to talk about um some of the things that you see in your vision of um not just for this warehouse, but for creating a mock election and the opportunities to have the public participate and see everything.

So I can't wait for that presentation, but that's more to come.

But thank you.

Very good.

Well do thank you very much, Commissioner.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Before I um open public comment, I have my comments.

I'm very concerned about this because it's a big undertaking.

We only have a year.

I just want to give you my comments.

And thinking about our budget.

I feel a responsibility there because things always end up costing more than what we think they're going to cost.

And then my own personal feelings about the integrity of our elections.

Which I've expressed on many occasions.

So I'm going to ask for public comment.

I don't want to think about those things.

Thank you.

First up for public comment is Penny Brock, followed by Ryan Vortich.

Penny Brock for the record.

Voters have lost confidence in our elections.

Voters have also lost confidence in our register of voters and the elections department.

He's new on the job.

I tried to reach him during the November election, and he was nowhere to be found.

He doesn't have the experience.

He loves technology.

His background from San Diego, where he came from, is technology.

So of course he loves technology.

We have asked you over and over again for paper ballots and hand counting.

That's an option that we have.

So we've got huge issues with this proposal.

Why is he wanting to run away from the county complex?

Where will the vote?

The voters won't know where to go to register to vote.

They won't know where to go with questions about voting issues they have.

Kate Thomas, the manager, the county manager that oversees, she'll be at the county complex, and wherever this new voting office will be, will be miles from here.

And I'm sorry that one of our commissioners is bored by what I had to say, but thank you for letting me Ryan Vortich followed by Jennifer Willett.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

I'm here today to request your support on this item, which will grant the ROV a necessary expansion and warehouse space to ensure our elections can be ran smoothly and securely.

Thanks.

Jennifer Willett, followed by Trista Gomez, good afternoon.

My name is Jennifer Willett, and I'm the senior campaign manager, all voting as local action, Nevada, an organization that advocates for policies and legislative priorities that expand voter access.

We are also in support of this item.

Ensuring fair and efficient elections is the registrar's most crucial responsibility as Washoe County has grown and our election laws have evolved over time.

The need for additional space for the registrar is urgent.

As has been stated in many past county commission meetings, the back room in this building is extremely packed, and this overcrowding makes meaningful observation very difficult.

And then adding the ballot marking devices to this room is just simply not logistically feasible in the current space.

The elections group audit also identified this uh existing split model as a deficiency and recommended transitioning to a single facility to improve workflow efficiency and transparency.

We agree.

So expanding the uh registrar of voter space is an investment in our democratic process.

Providing the registrar with the space and resources needed to operate at the highest standards will strengthen public confidence in our election system and better serve our community.

Thank you.

Teresa Gomez.

Good afternoon.

Couple questions that I'm I'm hoping couldn't be answered.

I'm hoping you guys can answer this since it's on this agenda item.

Was this money allocated during the original budget process?

This money that we knew we were going to spend.

I don't remember it, but I mean, I also didn't, I wouldn't have access to line items on the budget.

So I'm wondering if this was something that we knew about.

Um I'm also wondering that's really my main question.

And I am wondering about the idea of expanding the technology when we are nationally, we're on these lists of the you know, voter problems and federal lawsuits and these kinds of things.

And so I am wondering about if we're expanding the technology at the exact time that the federal government is trying to detract this technology.

If that is if that's prudent, if that's you know, what's the thinking behind that?

I'm very curious about that.

And um I do think that some of the some of the things are good.

The the gallery, great.

I mean, I've heard a lot of uh problems with some of those things.

So I'm understanding that some of those uh responses and some of the things that they're inputting are responses to community concern, and I appreciate that.

At the same time, I am wondering about the budget cost, and I'm wondering if there's cost savings in the space that they're currently in and what that space is going to be used for, and if the county will be able to recoup some of this money for this lease.

And so those are my questions.

There's nobody else signed in, but I did receive an email that will be placed on the record.

So we've had public comment.

And do we have a motion to approve this item?

Madam Chair, I move to approve as presented.

All second.

Thank you.

Um in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Nay.

And that turned out to be a three to one.

Item 14.

Pardon?

14?

I know.

Okay.

And 14.

And you're gonna read that.

The clerk reads that.

Okay.

Item 14 is a first reading.

It will be bill number 1943, if introduced, which amends Washoe County Code Chapter 110 development code to create standards for small lot and infill development and to modify provisions related to cottage courts, accessory dwelling units, and common open space developments.

So did you give me a number of bill number 1943?

1943, okay.

And now we're on 15.

No, now do you would you like a presentation?

Pardon?

Would you yeah?

Would the board like a presentation?

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Kat Oakley with Washoe County Planning for the record.

This is a set of development code amendments to address small housing and infill development, and I've got kind of a um high-level presentation for you, and then I can go into any more detail if you have questions.

And I've got kind of a high-level presentation for you, and then I can go into any more detail if you have questions.

So to start a little background.

Housing supply trends, as we've talked about before, are not really following household trends.

And so there's a growing divide between what's available in the supply in the housing market and what people need.

And so that's why we've identified this need for larger variety of housing types, particularly smaller units.

And this set of amendments is really trying to get at that issue.

Just to highlight that change, you can see a trend from 1970 to 2022 in the medium density suburban zone, which is one of our most common suburban zone.

The news new home size has gone from a bit over 1200 square feet to 2200 square feet.

So that is a huge increase, whereas in that same period, the mean household size in the United States has gone from 3.14 people to 2.5 people.

And so just an example of how those two things are trending opposite.

And currently, about two-thirds of households in Washoe County are either one or two-person households.

And so a lot of folks potentially benefiting from those smaller units.

So that's that's what we're here to try to impact.

To go over the changes that are proposed, um, starting with our our use table, use definitions, and then accessory use sections of code.

Um we're making some refinements to them the multifamily minor and cottage court definitions that are um those are outlined in the packet.

And then the the big thing doing a modification to allow accessory dwelling units to go up to 80% of the size of the main dwelling to the overall cap of 1200 or 1500 square feet, depending on the zoning district.

Currently, that proportionality requirement, as we call it, is 50%.

This um change is intended to really impact those parcels that have smaller main homes, because then it creates the ability to have a ADU that is more reasonably sized for a two, one, two, three-person household without essentially you know, penalizing the existing smaller home, which is a good thing in our housing market.

And so that's why we're proposing this change.

Uh that overall maximum, that cap is staying the same.

We're maintaining the accessory structure or the accessory nature of the ADU, but providing that that additional housing opportunity.

Next, we're proposing some changes to our cottage court standards.

You may remember this from the middle housing package, and this change is intended to allow cottage court subdivisions.

So right now, if you have a cottage court, if somebody develops it, essentially it's multiple small units on a single parcel that can be rented out.

The changes proposed would allow those units to be divided onto individual parcels and sold, so providing more of that entry-level home ownership opportunity.

We're also proposing to increase that maximum cottage size from 1,000 square feet to 1200 to enable three-bedroom units that can accommodate uh you know up to small families, and then uh making some other improvements, just limiting community accessory structures to one per every four cottages to ensure that the it maintains the nature, the character of a cottage court development and isn't cluttered.

Um so the the figure on the slide just kind of depicts this idea of each cottage on its own parcel uh around an open space.

That's what a cottage court, that's what our code requires, and then uh being able to have developments that are maybe like multiple different clusters, each cottage individually sellable, if if that's what the developer wants to do.

Next, we're proposing some small lot development standards.

So this again is getting at really the idea of starter homes of encouraging and enabling small houses on small lots to provide that housing opportunity, and so these standards could be used by subdivisions with sub-1200 square foot single family detached homes, uh single family attached, so townhomes, or middle housing types.

Uh what they would allow is alternate setbacks, so smaller setbacks to enable the development of those those types of parcels, a minimum lot size reduction, and then alternate road design when those roads are privately maintained.

Uh last kind of big topic area, we're proposing some infill standards.

So infill is really um infill standards are very common nationwide and are intended to encourage the appropriate development and redevelopment of parcels that are maybe underutilized or not utilized in areas that have been historically built out for a long time and were primarily built out prior to the zoning regulation, so they they may not conform with the current zoning standards, which can present some challenges.

We've identified four areas using some GIS analysis where this would be useful, Verde, Sun Valley, Wadsworth, and Gurlach, and then we're proposing alternate infill standards that would only apply to parcels under certain size, so where they are generally substandard parcels, and and that aspect of them is creating uh development challenges.

And the the sizes are listed there on the screen and in the staff report.

With these standards would come incentives.

And so essentially for residential, that'd be a ability to reduce that front yard setback when uh doing so actually conforms with the existing setbacks in the area.

So, like I said, these areas tend to have a lot of non-conforming development.

They were developed before the zoning code, so they were developed legally but don't match our current code.

And so if you set a structure back 20 feet uh and the rest of everything on that street is set back 10 feet, it doesn't really fit with the character of the neighborhood.

And so that's a missed opportunity that we're trying to resolve.

And then for commercial, just proposing uh fixed reduced setbacks of 10 feet and then five feet from the side in rear.

Um then overall, again, we're trying to um allow these variations when the development is conforming with the historical and existing character of the area.

Some other um small changes, so updates to common open space development standards to reflect the ability to request alternate setbacks and not just proposed building envelopes, and then adding the definitions that we need to support these new code provisions.

I do have just one proposed modification that I would request that the board in their motion, if they do uh conduct the first reading today, request us to make this change for the second reading is for the small lot development standards, the section about roadways.

We realized this language um was not as flexible as we wanted it to be and a little bit in conflict with some other sections of our code, and so proposing a modification uh to resolve that so that we hopefully get it right the first time, which is always our goal.

Uh, to report on the planning commission, they heard this item on November 4th and voted unanimously to recommend approval.

Uh only one finding must be made.

The planning commission could make all four required findings.

Uh they recommend that you introduce and conduct the first reading, and I do have a slightly modified motion if you all would like it.

I also have printed out copies, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you.

Commissioners.

Do you know if you have any commission questions?

No.

Okay.

I I feel like I always need to be consistent as thank you so much for continuing to bring these because I know that equine will be coming soon.

I I I guess I feel obliged to be consistent.

But thank you on a very serious note for aligning all of these changes to the governor's bill AB 540 to look at attainability.

Um, we all know that market demand is what drives essentially how things work.

And the fact that you've done the analysis that you've presented here, I think is really appreciated in terms of matching what that potential demand is, so that that can help drive the market and drive the necessary um gap that if I remember it's 15,000 plus homes or people, homes that need to be built between now and 2020, the next 10 years.

So I I think it's great that you're moving in this direction.

Um, thank you for supporting um all of these changes again, and thanks to the governor for having the foresight to put in what really needs to be done at the legislature, and then the locals actually doing what they can to meet that that demand.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are you ready for public comment?

Yes.

First up, we have Pat Davison followed by Tristan Gomez.

Thank you.

There's a document to be distributed for Ms.

Davidson.

Good afternoon, Chair Herman, members of the commission.

My name is Pat Davison.

I'm a resident of District 5.

So excited to see this housing program taking shape.

Some of the changes in today's package are the result of public feedback to staff about ADUs and small lot standards.

Yay, that's a good thing.

That means people are looking at what's happening and asking questions or making comments.

Even with these changes, safeguards are still in place, such as the maximum size of ADUs not changing.

My favorite part of this whole package is the change to allow cottages to be individually sold.

Wow.

Hoping we see local developers jump on the bandwagon.

The whole purpose of these changes is to try and entice interest motivate, encourage owners and developers to take the leap into lower cost market rate options for rental or purchase housing.

As you saw from the PowerPoint, the market is not supplying smaller lower cost housing units.

Demand for these units come from current residents who are struggling today, and those future residents who someday want to live here.

Whether it's townhomes, condos, cottages, duplexes, or ADUs, keeping costs down, and reducing unnecessary development barriers is the name of the game.

Well, enough from me.

I saw a letter that appeared on the Reno Gazette Journal website last Wednesday.

I brought copies for you.

It was written by a high school student.

Um instead of the word Reno, you could insert Washoe County and it would still apply.

So here's a few words from his letter.

Today I'd like to address housing costs in Reno.

And while I'm not yet searching for housing myself, I work with numerous college students and young adults who are.

The challenges they face on this topic are hard to ignore.

Many are balancing school and multiple jobs and yet are still struggling with rent that keeps rising.

Some are crowding into shared apartments or even considering leaving Reno because they simply can't afford to live here.

Reno's growth brings opportunity, but it also creates pressure.

When young people can't find stable affordable housing, it affects our schools, our workforce, and the future of our community.

These are the very people we rely on to keep Reno vibrant, yet they're being priced out.

I hope my email can help bring some attention to the issue, and hopefully our local leaders and developers take these concerns seriously.

So I don't know who this kid is.

I don't know why he wrote the letter, but the concerns he describes are not unique.

How many young adults or small families would love to rent a cottage in a cottage cluster?

I'm guessing a lot.

Please follow the lead of your planning commission who could make all four possible findings of fact and voted seven to zero last month to recommend approval of these code changes.

Thanks for listening.

Tristy Gomez.

Eight hours a week.

Because the roads and the infrastructure inside of in town were adequately built, and you know, for the amount of residences that were in town using those roads, as opposed to the valleys, North Valleys, Spanish Springs.

Uh, you know, if you get really far up into Northson Valley, where those poor folks, they're stuck in traffic for so long.

Those roads were not meant or made or planned well.

And so I say that I've always said I I think infill is the way that you're going to be able to do this.

I think people have a strong urge to you know keep their mom or their kids on their properties, uh, maybe have a little small rental for a small family.

I think this is a I think this is phenomenal.

I think this is great.

I'm not even I'm not mad about this at all.

My one caution would be that we have such poor infrastructure out in the valleys.

Those folks suffer so bad.

I'm saving an out I'm saving one workday a week by coming into town.

And so I urge you to make sure that when we are doing this, that you're also considering infrastructure and you're also considering those poor folks, those poor, poor folks who sit in traffic for so long every morning and every night.

And so I'm we're all begging you to figure out something about the traffic.

The traffic is the one thing.

When I'm out talking to people, it's the one thing that people talk about.

Traffic, traffic, traffic.

So that's the one thing.

Um I'm happy about this.

I hope that it doesn't create a hardship in town, but I do like I've driving around in town.

I've always loved being in town because it's such a it's such an easier place to drive.

And um, so I appreciate this particular thing and ask you to please be prudent in additional development and take this stuff into consideration.

There's nobody else signed in for public comment just looking for a an introduction.

Madam Chair, I'll move to introduce bill number nineteen forty three as presented in the staff report with any of the changes that were noted by staff so item fifteen fifteen yep.

That's Madam Clark Clark 15 Item fifteen is a first reading it will be bill number nineteen forty four which amends Washoe County code chapter one ten development code to establish standards for permanent employee housing in the high desert planning area and provide for increased death density in the general rural GR regulatory zone with approval of a special use permit there is no public comment just need an introduction would you like a presentation from staff okay Madam Chair um if the body is not interested in I'm sure everybody has read the staff report and in length may I also say we're getting a closer to equine I if there isn't any um additional um comment or need for presentation I would like to move to um introduce the first reading for bill number nineteen forty four is presented so madam chair if I may um so our we are scheduled to have a one o'clock the next items are a one o'clock public hearing so if I might recommend if the board is interested to take a brief recess and we can um run upstairs and get uh back here when at a time that you so choose so that we can hear the items that are to be heard after one p.m.

I would recommend a half an hour and we can probably do our attorney client as well while we're up there.

Okay.

And we'll come back at one fifteen if you'd like to I'll repeat is that work for the board Madam Chair um I would like to recommend that we just push through if possible and then um if the other commissioners are the agenda commissioner apologize the break until one until is what I meant.

Yes.

Well I know we have a lot of public comment we end up we have time certain at one that we have we can't start before.

Yes I just didn't want to break for lunch and take a full half an hour if that's okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

So what about what about nineteen for a public okay we've got wait 1012 minutes.

Okay so we will break until one PM

This Board of Commission meeting is back in order.

Which is a public hearing.

This will be ordinance number seventeen fifty-one, which amends Washoe County Code Chapter one ten development code to create incentives for senior housing.

It was formerly bill number nineteen forty-one.

They got notice at the October Planning Commission meeting as well as this meeting today.

And thanks to all of you for making change happen in Washoe County.

Okay.

So in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Who is the second?

Okay.

Thank you.

You ready for item number 20?

I guess we are.

All right.

We are on to item number 20.

It's uh public hearing.

It's the appeal of the Washoe County Board of Adjustments denial of special use permit case number, WSUP 25-0013, the Sanctuary of God for the religious assembly use type and major grading to allow the construction of a 15,000 square foot single-story church and site grading in the amount of 18,000 cubic yards.

The appellant is Sierra Builders of Nevada.

The subject parcels located at 3485 Rolling Ridge Road.

The APN is listed, and it has a master plan designation of suburban residential and a regulatory zone designation of low density suburban.

The Board of County Commissioners shall consider the appeal based on the record on appeal and any additional evidence submitted at the board's public hearing.

The board may affirm, modify, or reverse the board of adjustments decision.

If the board reverses the board of adjustments decision, the board may remand the matter back to the board of adjustment.

Oh my goodness.

Board of adjustment.

Um or directly grant the special use permit.

If the board directly grants the special use permit, staff is recommending the modified conditions included as exhibit G.

And we have community services here.

Looks like Mr.

Young to present for you this afternoon.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Eric Young, uh Washoe County Senior Planner Planning Program.

This is the appeal of a BOA denial for a special use permit 2513, uh, which was sanctuary of God.

Um special use permit for religious assembly.

The ridges assembly is the name of the use type and major grading to construct a 15,000 square foot church, including a parking area for 154 parking spaces.

While it was major grading, the grading is um consistent with what typically happens with this type of development.

Here we are in uh Golden Valley, right between right where uh Golden Valley, the the eastern edge of Golden Valley coming in from Sun Valley, where 7th turns into Golden Valley Road.

Um you can see the subject parcel on the sketch, and then with the arrow on the aerial photograph.

The site plan provided by the applicant shows a church on the northern portion of the property and most of the parking on the southern portion.

Um the retention pond there on the on the eastern side.

Um a typical layout for what we might see.

The elevations depict um uh a kind of a prefab type of a structure, uh metal building type of a structure with some improved improvements like a waincoat and and extra windows, uh but you can see the elevations of the front and the side.

The board of adjustment on their meeting of October 2nd, 2025, denied the special use permit by vote of four to one.

The appellant Sierra Nevada builder states we believe decision to vote no on the SUP request was personal and not based on the staff recommendation.

The appellate goes on to assert that the Board of Adjustment did not adequately state why they could not make the required findings.

The findings that the BOA and now the BCC are required to make for this particular application are consistency, uh, improvement, site suitability, issuance, not detrimental effect on a military installation.

There are no military installations, but the first four uh findings were discussed at length during the BOA meeting.

The options for the BCC today are uh to affirm the Board of Adjustments decision and deny the SUP, reverse the Board of Adjustments decision and approve the uh special use permit subject to the conditions of approval as described in the attachment G of the staff report.

The staff report uh does discuss the uh uh new uh um conditions of approval.

One of the conditions of approval uh regarding a secondary access uh was removed from the uh uh review staff review between the board of adjustment and this particular hearing.

So the amended conditions of approval reflect that uh new new review by our engineering program.

Um and then the third option is to reverse the board of adjustments decision and remain the matter back to the board of adjustment with your instructions for their review.

The full motions are provided in the staff report for uh you to read or use if you should uh choose to use one of those motions.

Thank you.

I'm available for questions.

I think the applicant is also here as well.

Hey, good afternoon.

My name is Steve Denny, um, vice president of construction with CR Builders and the lead project manager for this proposed project, Sanctuary of God, at the designated site that we're talking about.

First, I'd like to just thank the staff for the recommended um approval of this project with conditions, and I'd like to state that we have no objections whatsoever to any of the conditions laid out by staff's recommendation.

Um three of the five conditions that we were denied on were um B, C, and D.

And so I just briefly want to connect improvements and site suitability.

As I don't believe that I have much to offer in addition here, as I think most of them have been satisfied on our application, but I just want to highlight a couple of things for you real quickly.

Um it's important to note that everything that we do will clearly be done to code and by regulation and will be designed in such a way that to get us through plan review to get a permit, final inspections, and ultimately a C of O.

And so everything we do obviously has to be done to code.

Additionally, to the conditions of staff.

So I know drainage has been a concern.

One of the conditions by staff is in drainage, and so we don't have a an objection to getting hydrology report, 50-year storm, 100-year storm to make sure our retention pond, our curb, our gutter doesn't have any negative effect on neighboring properties.

So we are fine with that condition as well.

Um third condition is or third finding is detrimental to the neighbors' issuance to detrimental.

And I just like to say that we would like to build this project, of course, but we also want to be good neighbors, and so we've been sensitive to the design of this project and what it looks like on this property.

I want to highlight a few of those things.

First, we've kept the building height to a minimum.

Um, it's actually lower than my two-story house.

Um, second, Eric Young highlighted it's a metal building, but it's hardy plank lap siding, so it will not look like a metal building, it'll be a sided building that we will paint to match neighboring houses, and then there's about a 42-inch to 48-inch rock veneer wainscoating on the bottom of that building as well.

Second, um, I know there's concern about the lights, and so our electrical engineer has kept the light height to a minimum with motion sensors and photo cells, as well as what's called house shields around the lights.

So the lights will project in a very specific location and not flood out into the neighborhood.

We've also proposed to surround the entire property with a fence, so car head lights will not be an issue for neighboring homes as well.

Um, it's also important to note that we had a traffic study done by a third-party engineer, and I just like to read his final finding on the traffic study was this.

Due to the low number of trips, less than 80 peak hour trips estimated to be generated by this project.

The need for an additional traffic analysis is not required per Washoe County requirements done by Chris Smoltz of Hartfelt Engineering.

And so we have done a trip generator, which showed less than 80 peak hour trips, which is then not require full traffic study analysis.

But we also heard the neighbors, and so you just heard Mr.

Young say that there's 154 parking spots.

We have since reduced that to 120, as well as reducing the total number of seats inside the worship assembly to 300.

So the old overall size has been reduced as well.

Um often there's opposition and some to development and change.

And so I would just like to ask these commissioners you to think about the facts of our application and what we'll do in terms of code requirements and commitment to the conditions and think about that as you roll on this funding.

Thank you so much for your time.

I'm available for questions.

Do any of the board members have a question?

I I did have a question.

Can you I watched the meeting from the Board of Adjustment in full, and I I needed clarification about the secondary access road.

That was a big topic during the meeting, but now I just heard as this was introduced that that was removed.

Right.

Can you please go back and let us know what happened there?

For the record, Dwayne Smith, Director of Engineering Capital Projects through through the vice chair to the commissioner.

Um initially engineering placed a condition on this project for secondary emergency access.

That's that's uh uh area to the to the south uh out to uh an adjoining uh uh roadway.

That was placed in error.

Washa County's development code does not require secondary emergency access for this use.

So when that condition uh came to light, and as I was meeting with some of the neighboring residents that have concerns about this project, um this came up.

We talked about it a little bit more.

I went back, did some more research to see if there was anything with Trekky Meadows Fire Protection District or others that would require that secondary emergency access.

Those requirements don't exist, and so as the county engineer uh recognizing that this uh condition is not pertinent to this type of development.

I asked that the uh Washa County Planning remove that condition as part of this project.

So my follow-up.

So my follow-up to that question is that now there is only one entry and exit point from this property if built.

That's correct.

The driveway which you don't see here in this particular drawing comes down to a residential road that also connects to another residential roadway.

So there's 14 existing residential properties that utilize that that uh local road.

Um this project would connect onto that local road as well.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

I guess we it's time for public comment.

Okay.

We have several people signed in, so please cue up if you're the second name.

Michael Marquez is the first speaker, followed by Judy McKay.

Sorry.

Mr.

Marcus has documents to be distributed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This isn't this the same one.

Go ahead when you're ready.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

Michael Marquis for the record.

This project fails to satisfy several provisions within Section 110.810.30 and should be denied.

A commercial facility is not consistent with the community aesthetic of one plus acre homes in an area zoned for low density residential.

Staff's own report acknowledges the change to the character of the community.

Rolling Ridge Road is a narrow, low-volume residential road without sidewalks, curbing, street lights, or traffic controls, and has several erosion areas.

It is not suited to the volume of traffic this project would bring.

Staff's condition 2E for roadway improvements only applies to the driveway and parking areas into the church.

Nothing along the travel path.

In the BOA hearing, traffic impact was a major concern to several of the BOA members.

Staff has grossly underestimated the traffic impact to the community by not factoring in max capacity values or max exodus situations at the end of events or in an emergency.

Now that there's no emergency secondary access, this would likely contribute to greater casualties in an emergency.

Because there was so much discussion about traffic impact in the BOA hearing, I developed a computer model to better illustrate that impact.

This model was also shared with staff.

What was revealed?

What was revealed was the average number of cars exceed the available parking spaces.

A high percentage of parking lot overflows occur with no overflow parking solution.

And a safety impact to area residents and emergency service access will occur.

The travel path is approximately 2,261 feet, with two stop signs for cars exiting after an event or in an emergency.

Using the average U.S.

car length of 14.7 feet, and the computer model, a traffic nightware nightmare will occur as the length of the exiting cars will exceed the length of the travel path.

This will also impact the safety of church attendees and neighborhood residents.

There are numerous detrimental impacts, such as parking lot runoff to the water tables and wells, noise and light pollution, safety, increased criminal activity, and economic impacts to the community's property values.

For all of these reasons, Commissioners, I respectfully request that you deny the appeal.

Thank you.

Judy McKay, followed by Lori Aguilar.

I have documents to distribute for Ms.

McKay.

Hi, my name is Judy McKay, and I live on Rolling Ridge Road and directly near the property in question.

So I'm here today because I have serious concerns about the request for a special use permit to allow a church at the end of our street.

This property is currently zoned residential, and the request is asking to place a commercial style use permit in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

My husband and I bought our property 52 years ago on this cul-de-sac.

At that time, and is still today, it was zoned for one acre horse parcels designed to protect the quiet residential character of the area.

We made our home and raised our family here with the expectation that zoning would be respected and upheld.

Allowing a church at the end of Rolling Ridge Road would bring traffic, parking issues, and noise into a neighborhood that was never designed to handle that kind of use.

Our street is narrow and quiet, and large gatherings, particularly on evenings and weekends, would create safety concerns as well as a disruption to the peaceful environment their residents have relied on for decades.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask you to deny this special use permit.

Our neighborhood was planned and zoned as residential, and it should remain that way to protect the quality of life that families like mine have invested in for over half a century.

I would like you to please not pass off this as she is just thinking of herself, as I am not.

This would be a life change for me, my Rolling Ridge neighbors, my spearhead neighbors, my Golden Valley Road neighbors, and my Opal Station neighbors.

Thank you for your time and for considering my concerns.

Lori Aguilar, followed by Emily Hagler.

And I have documents from Ms.

Aguilar.

Good afternoon.

My name is Lori Aguilar.

My husband and I have lived on Rolling Ridge Road for over 24 years.

There are 11 homes on Rolling Ridge Road, with most of the residents being retired and living there anywhere from 14 to 52 years.

Rolling Ridge Road is a quiet zoned, low density suburban residential area on a narrow cul-de-sac street.

It is approximately 1,600 feet long with a grade of about a thousand feet to the top of Rolling Ridge, and then drops 600 feet to the end of the cul-de-sac.

During winter months, we're lucky to see a snow plow.

If we do, it makes a single pass up Rolling Ridge Road, stops there, leaving berms for all the residents to remove, and the truck doesn't even go to the end of the cul-de-sac.

A development, oh I'm sorry, we have several concerns about the special use permit for the Sanctuary of God Church.

Here are some of mine.

One, a development of this scale is incompatible with the established character and physical infrastructure of our resident cul-de-sac, which was not designed to accommodate large gatherings.

The cul-de-sac was designed for low density residential use and not institutional or semi-commercial use.

Two, the proposed 15,000 square foot development presents significant physical safety concerns directly related to ingress egress of the cul-de-sac.

The road was designed for low volume residential traffic and is physically unsuited for high traffic volume and large vehicles such as deliveries and emergency services associated with the large institution.

Three, we are highly concerned about the impact of the water table and the residential residential wells on Rolling Ridge with contaminated runoff residue from paid parking lots, any drainage such as oils and gases, and the retention pond not perking.

Any overflow could create flooding and could affect the water table and contaminate our wells, as well as flooding the adjacent properties.

Four, multiple services on Sundays and various events like Bible studies, weddings, and group functions, et cetera, being held throughout the week will highly disturb our routines and our rural lifestyles we've come accustomed to, as well as raising havoc on our animals.

It was stated by staff on the record that a requirement for the permit was a secondary emergency access road.

This was also stated during the B of A meeting by staff Janet Thomas, stated at one hour 56 minutes and 12 seconds into the meeting.

Now Sierra Builders has asked for the secondary access road to be removed in this appeal process.

As a concerned citizen and resident of Rolling Ridge Road, how can the secondary emergency access road be eliminated from this permit?

This is a large 15,000-foot project.

Isn't this the reason why staff originally made this a permit?

Thank you for your time, and we hope you consider denying the special use permit on Rolling Ridge Road.

As a project would create heavy congestion, noise, and safety issues for the 11 homes, residents, and livestock in the rural communities and the surrounding areas.

Thank you.

Emily Hagler, followed by David Purdue.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I respectfully urge the board to uphold the denial for the special use permit for the proposed Sanctuary of God Church on Rolling Ridge Road.

The Board of Adjustments denial was based in clear findings, and that determination is both justified and necessary to protect public safety in the surrounding residential community.

Critical infrastructure needed to support is simply not present.

Rolling Ridge Road lacks sidewalks, street lights, and safe traffic control measures, including turning lanes and signals at Opal Station and Spearhead Way.

I'll also add that Spearhead Way and Rolling Ridge Road do not have dividing lines.

Public transportation is located nearly two miles away.

Despite these constraints, no comprehensive traffic study was required to evaluate Rolling Ridge Road and Spirit Way, and if they can safely adequate and adequately accommodate the volume of traffic generated by the facility on a narrow dead end roadway.

The submitted traffic generation estimate of 50 peak hour trips significantly under states the scale of the proposed development.

The project includes more than 120 parking spot spaces and a building capacity exceeding 300 people.

Access to Spearhead Way has no sidewalks, yet students from North Valleys High School regularly walk this route for school evening and after school, after hours activities.

During winter months, they walk this walk these paths in the dark with no streetlights.

The proposal does not adequately address these safety concerns.

The impact of this project are not also not limited to a single day of use.

The Sanctuary of God Church current location advertises multiple weekday services in addition to Sunday services.

This intensity of use is not fully disclosed in the application, and the lack of transparency regarding the true operational scope of this facility is concerning.

Additionally, this proposal introduces approximately five acres of impermeable surface in an area already facing groundwater challenges.

The proposed water treatment pond raises concerns about potential impacts to nearby private wells.

Many residents in our community have experienced septic system failures, and our soils further increase the risk for runoff contamination.

Finally, the proposal seeks removal of condition 2F, which requires secondary emergency access.

This condition is critical.

The commercial facility of this size, located on a narrow dead-end street, must have adequate emergency access.

Removing this requirement places public safety at risk.

For these root reasons, the Board of Adjustments current currently determined that granting this permit would be injurus.

Upholding the denial affirms the board's duty to protect residential neighborhoods from incompatible development and ensures the zoning standards are applied consistently and fairly.

Thank you for your time.

Next up, we have David Perdue, followed by Elaine Hanford.

And it looks like we have more documents to distribute.

Thank you.

Well, your first comment was initially to address the inability of the developer to uh receive emergency access.

Um, since that is gone, I won't comment to that, but apparently uh it was a need in the beginning that convinced the staff there's no longer needed, but all of us would I'm sure think that it is a requirement.

Uh relocation of church to a lower property proper to lower on the property.

The new elevation plot now shows two levels for this huge metal building at the top at Grand ISO.

At the top of the hill, it will be the tallest structure around.

If approved, move the move it to the lower structure, putting it in the middle of the elevation of the property so it does not standing above all L's like a skyscraper, and also reducing the noise to the homes immediately to the S to the east.

Destroys the piece.

There are no other non-residential buildings within a mile except North Valley High School.

It already breaks the peace most of the day.

The neighboring lots in the city are one to one and a quarter, and the county mostly five acres.

All are all being peaceful.

The church will not be quiet, and we do not want 200, 300, or 400 cars on Sunday and midweek, depending on the number of services.

I sore, not conforming to the neighborhood.

A metal building, metal roof, and vinyl stent fence are planned.

Some stone on the face of the building is planned, but it will not hide all the metal.

All neighboring houses in the city are stucco with tile roofs, and many in the county are as well.

None are metal.

It may look nice in the beginning in the beginning, but will lose its nice appearance quickly.

How will a metal building and plastic fence look in five, ten, or twenty years?

Will the landscape being maintained or will be allowed to die in a few years when the church attendance dwindles and the money runs out?

This is right on my property line, and I am the closest to the structure, maybe 25 feet away.

Today my neighbors and myself have a beautiful view of Peavy Mountain just past my small vineyard.

When this is built, we'll have a view of ugly metal building.

A normal sized house, nicely appointed, would not be that intrusive.

Lastly, plastic slash chain link fence.

The fence has changed several times, and now it is proposed to be plastic, a chain lake with plastic inserts.

The fence should be stone or powder-coated metal panels and the landscape on both sides.

Again, we do not want to see a chain-link fence with plastic that will fade and deteriorate over the years.

Thank you.

Elaine Hanford, followed by Paul Hynan.

And there are more documents to distribute.

Go ahead when you're ready.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Elaine Hanford, retired professional geologist and a PhD.

Today I want to address the geologic and hydrologic conditions at the proposed site that make it unsuitable for the proposed project.

The exposed bedrock at the site is tertiary age volcanics that have been hydrothermally altered, resulting in high clay mineral content.

That's the area shown in purple on the map here.

These geologic materials repeatedly fail perk tests, and Washoe County has required engineered septic systems.

And you can see those in the areas in red on the lower map.

These same conditions mean that on-site materials are not suitable for retention detention pond as accumulated waters would not infiltrate.

Stagnant ponded water would breed mosquitoes that carry West Nile and equine encephalitis, both pose serious health risks to humans and livestock.

On-site clay-rich geologic materials characterized by high shrink swell capacity, high rates of runoff, poor soil nutrients, making them less unsuitable for construction, foundation materials, or landscaping.

The developer is indicated 80% of the five-acre site would be covered by impervious materials.

The NOAA point precipitation frequency estimate for the designated 100-year design event ranges from 3.3 to 4.3 inches of precipitation in a 24-hour storm event.

Such storms occur frequently in Golden Valley.

Doing the math, 1.3 acre feet of water must be contained to prevent off-site runoff.

Using the maximum dimensions generously given on the proposed project plan, 72 by 54 by 6.

The proposed pond would hold only 0.3 acre feet.

The surplus runoff would flow off-site as floodwaters, posing risk to downstream residents and their properties.

Runoff flowing from this impervious areas and landscape would contain toxic heavy metals, petroleum hydrocharbons, fertilizers, and pesticides that would accumulate in the pond and then be carried off-site by excess floodwaters.

Once those contaminated floodwaters flow beyond the volcanic outcrops, they can contaminate domestic wells in our groundwater supply.

Such contaminants would pose serious health risks to residents of Golden Valley.

The geology cannot be changed.

Therefore, I asked the commission to unconditionally deny the appeal.

Thank you.

Paul Heinen, followed by Chuck Allen.

Good afternoon, Paul Hinen for the record.

Not an emotional plea, but basically people's concerns were not really fact-based.

So I wanted to focus on the findings in the or the requirements of 110.810.30.

Consistency with the master plan and section one.

The proposed use is not consistent with the policy standards and land use objectives of the master plan in the applicable area.

Golden Valley is designated and historically maintained as a rural low density residential area.

Introducing a high traffic institutional use in a location with inadequate infrastructure and sensitive rural character directly contradicts these adopted plans.

The project is incompatible with the area's established developed patterns, noise expectations, traffic capacity, and environmental constraints.

Because the use cannot be integrated into the rural residential setting without substantial adverse impacts, this finding cannot be met.

The site unequivocally lacks the necessary infrastructure to support the proposed use.

Utilities cannot be provided without crossing privately owned land, including ours and that of neighboring property owners, which is which is neither appropriate nor feasible.

The single narrow access road lacks sidewalks and is not designed for institutional level traffic volume.

Additionally, Golden Valley Drive, the primary artery leading to the site, is already overburdened, prone to serious accidents and fatalities, and in need of substantial widening and safety improvements to meet current demand, let alone increased volume generated by a church.

I note in particular, less than 100 feet from where this entrance is going to impact uh Golden Valley Drive, there's multiple fatalities, and there's at least three crosses placed there right now.

Because the use cannot be uh I'm sorry.

Uh because the project depends on the infrastructure and roadway improvements that do not exist and cannot be reasonably provided, the required finding of adequacy cannot be met.

We talked about uh some of the driveways and the alternate access.

That access route is right adjacent to our property that was proposed.

Now, if it's all fenced off, my concern is 150 vehicles parking in the church lot, and if it's too difficult to get up rolling ridge road, they're going to come and park on Golden Valley or the property owners just to the west.

So there's so many reasons to deny this, and it's not personal, it just makes common sense.

I would just ask that you deny this permit.

It just makes sense to not put something this big there.

Thank you.

Chuck Allen, followed by Craig Goodfellow.

Good afternoon, Commissioner.

My name is Chuck Allen, and I'm here today with my wife Teresa, as 32-year residence of Golden Valley, along with many of my neighbors to express and state a strong opposition to the Sanctuary of God church special use permit.

As you were already made aware, the Washer County Board of Adjusters listened to a significant number of concerned neighbors during their October 2nd meeting, and that board made the right decision to deny the permit as it did not meet the four requirements outlined in Washer County Development Code Section 110.810.30A through D.

Today I'm going to specifically address subsection D labeled issuance not detrimental.

When we purchased our brand new home in 2017, which sits on a one-acre lot on Opal Station Drive, bordering the five-acre parcel being discussed today.

Would be allowed in a low density residential area.

When I go out onto my back patio or even on my elevated back porch, I will be looking directly at a large 15,000 square foot building, which will accommodate a congregation of the numbers changed today, but originally it's been 400 or more members with over two acres of asphalt service to accommodate then 154 cars.

Now that number's just magically dropping down to 120, and we will hear a lot of unnecessary noise.

Although the pastor stated at an earlier community meeting that he would only hold services on Sunday, we all know there will be additional assemblies throughout the week to accommodate funerals, weddings, meetings, fundraisers, and so on.

Please don't be fooled into believing that these services will only take place on Sunday.

As a homeowner in Golden Valley, I never envisioned our county would allow this five-acre parcel to be designated a commercial lot.

It's absolutely ludicrous.

Other detrimental concerns are the excessive vehicular noise, pollution, too much artificial lighting, as well as runoff pollution from the slope property ultimately flowing onto rolling a ridge road, potentially affecting other residents, wells and septic systems.

Please leave this five-acre parcel as a residential lot.

Please take into consideration every public comment heard today.

And lastly, please affirm the absolute correct decision the Board of Adjusters already made in denying this special use permit.

As a former sheriff and trooper and public safety official, I wish I had more time to talk about the amount of safety issues that this probably that this project presents.

Thank you.

Craig Goodfellow, followed by Michael Rodriguez.

Hi, I'm Craig Goodfellow.

Um I live at 3475 Rolling Ridge Road.

I live right next door.

Sorry for the emotion because it really hurts hearing all my neighbors say everything that I wanted to say.

Um I just want to let you guys know that the amount of traffic that they're asking about.

Uh the schools, I've been looking at the high schools.

A lot of their parking is 200, 180, 150.

We're talking about having a high school evacuate a church three day three times a week.

That these guys have said that they only have services on Sunday.

I look at their website, I can show you right now on their website that they're having a service tonight.

They have it on Tuesdays and Fridays from 7 to 9.

I don't think it's that's right.

We have like I said other parts.

There's the end of Rolling Ridge is not a cul-de-sac.

You can't turn around in there in a full-size truck.

It takes a small car to turn around.

Even the even the uh post office uh trucks have to do a three-point turn in that street.

So I can't consider how they can say say this a cul-de-sac, it's a dead end road.

Okay.

The um the there is like I said, there is no lighting, and I just worry about the safety of anybody living there.

Um us living there.

And really, that's all I gotta say.

It just it's just terrible for the character of the neighborhood to have a commercial building put right there when we all want it residential.

You know, I can I wouldn't mind having a 15,000 square foot home there.

I imagine they will not have a hundred and fifty-four parking uh driveway.

So I mean, I just it's just insane.

So sorry, and thank you for your time.

Michael Rodriguez, followed by Clyde Cordova.

Uh Michael Rodriguez, uh 37-year resident in Golden Valley.

Uh I'd like to speak about traffic versus parking versus safety.

Uh the standardized ITE traffic generation manual spoken of by the staff at the B uhOA hearing, estimated 50 peak run hour trips on Sunday for 4,000 square foot feet of gathering space.

That's the pews.

Uh compared to the 154 required parking spaces for Washwell County Development Code, Article 410, and that's the page right here.

Uh on that page, uh, it states uh that's page 4103, one parking space per three seats or 72 linear inches of pew space plus one parking space per 300 square feet of additional parking space.

That's where the 154 required parking spaces came from.

That's Washwa County.

I don't know how they're gonna reduce it.

You're requiring that much, but they're only saying that there's a uh 50 um trip uh out uh peaks.

Uh I'm sorry.

To that, I will affirm what the gentleman said.

They meet on Sunday for two hours, and they also meet Tuesday and Friday, also two hours each.

So even if it were just the 50 cars, they would still be bumper to bumper when they try to leave or try to come in at the specified times.

Not possible.

Um the only divided road there is Golden Valley.

Spearhead is not a divided road.

It's dry.

Uh dishes on both sides, rolling ridge is also dry ditches on both sides.

If there's any event, such as a wedding or even a funeral, there'll be overflow parking.

They won't make it, especially if they reduce it to the 130, whatever they said.

I apologize, I didn't write it down.

Um there is something to be said about the amount of people.

Uh I did a search on the 4,000 square feet of pew space.

That can see the 150 to 300 people, depending upon aisle space layout with a 10 to 20 square foot per person being standard estimate for church seating.

You can also see theround 200 to 400 people with 12 to 417 square foot piece uh feet per person as an option, and still be with an uncomfortable uh worship.

Uh property owner you uh pastor uh and Abner Lopez did state that right now they roughly have 150 parishioners, and they have less than 4,000 square feet in which they're gathering.

The whole the whole lot they have is 4,000 feet.

Thank you.

Clyde Cordova.

Clyde Cordova for the record.

Uh I live two lots down from where they're gonna build.

And I was gonna go through all these findings, but I already did, and I don't want to be redundant.

So I'll get a little personal here.

I have people pulling into my driveway constantly as it is now.

They come down, they see the little cul-de-sac there, they flip U-turns in my driveway.

Adding 124 cars in there, I'm gonna have a traffic in my driveway, which I'm gonna have to repair after time.

These roads were not designed as commercial road.

It's not designed as a suburban road, it's designed as rural.

It's got about I think four to five to six inches of base and about three to four inches of pavement.

There's no sidewalks, no gutters, none of that.

So if you can picture this in an emergency, especially in today's world, accurating 124 cars on that small road.

You got the police coming in, you got the fire department coming in to stage, you got ambulance coming in, and you got 124 cars panicked, trying to get out of there.

It's a it'll be a mess.

We have to pull over to the side of the road when we pass each other, as is UPS comes in, they pull in my driveway to back out and turn around.

Uh it's it's a constant problem.

So my time here.

On findings too, this is redundant.

This design is intended for light rule traffic, single family homes, uh, farm vehicles, low density.

I would like to bring up though, uh, Mr.

Young put a uh plot plan up there.

And it appeared that the road went through, and there was a road that went around the church and out.

That's an easement.

That's where we take our horses through that easement to get across Golden Valley Road to get up on the mountain behind Sun Valley.

With this this uh commercial building going in, it's gonna be a hindrance.

It's gonna be a problem.

We're the only other way to get our horses across Golden Valley is to go down Spearhead or down Rolling Ridge Road to Spearhead across Golden Valley Road, back up Golden Valley Road, and then up into the mountain.

That's the only route.

The other problem I see is um I had another point, so I'm winging it.

But anyway, uh thank you for the time.

Appreciate it.

There's nobody else signed in, but I do have several emails to place on the record.

Okay.

So um is there any comments from thank you, madam chair.

Um, while I appreciate the congregation wanting to build a new home and um staff's time and expertise in working with the developer, I I just can't get there to find um number four, which is issuance not detrimental.

And I tried, I come at these things with an open mind.

Um I listen to both sides of the story, but after watching the meeting, reading the emails, listening to public comment, I could not make finding number four.

Um the safety and welfare of the residents and parishioners is uh I believe could not be sustained with this type of use at the end of this road.

Uh the road is too narrow, there's no secondary emergency access, and even with the developers' conditions of um, you know, adjusting the height of the structure, adding, you know, going from metal to the siding with the rock veneer and you know, adjusting the height of the light posts.

I just don't think that it will fit with the character of the surrounding area.

And um again, I apologize to the congregation who is looking forward to having the opportunity to grow and find a new home, but I just uh I can't get there, and so I would like to affirm the BOA's um decision to deny the special use permit.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, you know, it was very clear at the staff presentation.

Thank you, Dr.

Young.

I will always call you Dr.

Young, and I think everyone should acknowledge you are Dr.

Young.

But we really only have three.

I wish there was four.

We can we can affirm the BOA, we can deny the BOA's decision, or we can remand it back to the BOA.

And the fourth one I wish we could is table this and have the developer meet with the um residents to actually work out what I think are some misunderstandings.

I too watched the entire uh BOA meeting, and um recognizing that today, for instance, you move from the 154 to 120.

I was a little bit confused as well because staff during that meeting made it clear that the way that they got to the parking was a formula and a guideline, and so it was confusing to me about how that changed, and that's okay, but is it okay?

And I feel compelled to share that the inference that the second um uh secondary access was just based on influence by the um the applicant.

I I just feel um professionally um compelled to share that that staff really works hard to make sure I's are dotted and t's are crossed.

That's their requirement.

That is what they're required to do.

If they fail to do that, and whatever the course of this happens, it can continue to go through a judicial review, and if staff did not do their job, then there would be a course of a decision by a judge, and so all of this is taken very seriously.

We take it seriously, the BOA takes this seriously, the app the applicant takes it seriously, staff takes it seriously.

But I will share that again.

I watched the old two hours and 17 minutes, I believe, um, and and read the emails, and I think even when staff presented and used the word cul de sac, shared that it isn't necessarily what we would consider a traditional cul de sac.

I think the um gentleman, Mr.

Cordova, I believe, who actually spoke about, I don't know if it was you, but who spoke about the vehicles going into the driveway because there isn't a way to turn.

Um that was clear in terms of confirming what you were saying and looking at this.

Uh we are required to uh state on the record if we are going to choose to affirm the BOA's decision or whatever it might be that a commissioner does, but I am going to affirm the BOA's decision based on finding number four, and I wish we didn't have to do that.

I wish that we could have the developer, and in many cases, um, and I'm not being really funny, but I it was interesting that this is a church, and I was like, prayers might be helpful because the church does great things, and it's really hard when we know that it isn't a traditional commercial building, there isn't a commercial activity.

This is allowed, it is and it does meet the findings of the master plan.

It does, and so those that had done a lot of work, some of the presentations and materials we received, a lot of time was spent on this, and um the reality is that we have to uphold the record, and we have to state why, and I'm going to state that I believe again it is item number four, it's the finding number four, and it literally has to do with the detrimental character of the surrounding area and the concern in terms of maneuvering that many cars.

It was 154, now it's 120.

It went from 400 seats, there was even a 367 during the meeting.

So there's a lot of numbers that change from the meeting to today, but it doesn't change the character of the plot of the land.

And so I think it's clear to me that although many of you have spent a lot of time, this is your home.

I hope you also realize that we have a responsibility to ensure that we're being compliant.

And um we've spent a lot, I've spent a lot of hours on this, and so this isn't a decision that comes lightly, and it isn't a decision based on emotion.

And even though it's emotional for all of you, this is the subject that we have to deal with that creates the most emotion.

But we cannot use our own personal opinions.

We have to use fact.

So again, I hope for the record I've clearly stated why I am going to affirm the BOA's decision.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Commissioner Clark, do you have anything?

And I am ready to accept a motion.

Sure.

I'll move to Oh, I apologize.

Um I move to affirm the decision of the Board of Adjustment denying WSUP 25-0013 Sanctuary of God based on the inability to make the findings required by WCC section 110.810.30.

I'll second.

We have this removed and seconded.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Item 21.

Okay.

Item 21.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Item 21 is your public comment.

Final public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda.

A news time may not be allocated to other speakers, and comments are to be made to the commission as a whole.

First up, Elena Tabor.

As we ask, can you please be quiet?

This is still a public meeting that's going on.

Good afternoon.

Oh my gosh.

This is so there we go.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

I hope you're all having a great day.

Um my name is Alana Debor.

I'm currently a high school senior at AACT, and I want to bring up the issue of homelessness in our community.

Um, especially with our harsh weathers.

We have freezing cold winter.

Oh, sorry.

We have freezing cold winters and like scolding hot summers.

And so this is a huge concern for me.

Um I drive through Virginia C Virginia Street at least four times a week.

And each one of those times I count a significant number of homelessness on each corner, each gas station, and every intersection.

There are about 2,000 people, ranging from men, women, children, and veterans that are accounted for via the homeless management information system alone.

And that means that there are hundreds or even thousands of homeless that aren't even accounted for.

Um along with that, according to the shelter census dashboard on the official Washoe County website, there are only 700 beds combined throughout the shelters in Reno in the Reno Sparks area.

And as of currently, there are only 20 empty beds between the three shelters that are shown on the Washoe County website.

The process of getting into these shelters is also concerning.

Um require contacting the shelter through a phone call in advance or being put on a wait list for an unknown amount of time.

And along with that, most of these shelters limit who can apply.

For example, some shelters require you to be 18, while others are women only, which makes the process for these shelters even more restricted.

Many of the population who are starving and fighting for survival on the streets are people who cannot afford rent or are living with disability, for example.

Um I know youth that were kicked out of their homes because of how they identify.

And they do want to change their lives, but it's hard to get out of the school they're in because of the cards they were dealt.

And sorry for the emotion.

This is like a huge issue for me.

Um I recognize there are already many initiatives in the Reno Sparks area that help towards this issue.

And I also recognize that it's unrealistic to abolish homelessness.

But regardless, for now, um, we can take a look at actions that will make an impact rather than a temporary solution.

In Washoe County strategic plan, one of the goals issued is to enhance facilities for for vulnerable populations, and so I respectfully urge for more beds, more shelters, and just in general, more safe places for the for people who need it.

Um I also am urging for a more reformed process into getting into these shelters to prevent high competition and give better chances for those who need the resources, and along with that, even doing something as simple as establishing um education for the public on this very complex issue would make a huge difference.

These people don't need more judgment or false hope.

They need shelter, food, empathy, and a second chance.

Thank you so much for your time.

Holden Grant All right.

Um ladies and gentlemen, uh I'm from AACT as well.

My name is Holden Grant, obviously.

Um I'm also speaking to you guys today about the homelessness situation.

Um basically anywhere you go, many people can be seen wandering we know um with nowhere to go, right?

Like again, I I'll get off like any intersection, any I'll go off of like 395, I'll get off, and I'll just see homeless people just waiting, just sitting around hoping for you know little to nothing.

And that's all they can do because no one really helps them besides like the camps, but again, that isn't enough.

But again, that isn't enough.

Um many pay people do get into homes, but this is a different case, especially during the winter when there's a lot more competition and way less availability for them.

Um for example, um they were barely 2,000 homeless people recorded um in 2024.

And some areas and some areas have shelters that can fit over 900.

However, that is like one building like and it's um like the one by the governor's ballpark.

Um I believe that we need to put a higher priority on the homelessness epidemic.

We don't need to find ways to prevent them from sleeping on benches.

We should have houses we should house them so they don't have to find a bench to sleep on.

I believe focusing on big facilities in Rome is wrong.

Instead, we should have many homeless shelters all over the place.

Um like downtown, wells, etc.

And focus more on adding more homeless shelters because although centers for homeless people should be everywhere.

It is especially important to have more centers that have for areas that have more homeless people.

Um good shelters can also help with clearing addictions, which is a main reason why homeless people stay homeless, unfortunately.

Um and they practice safe um ethical like drug practices, so they'll have nurses on standby, they'll have like obviously non um non-leased drugs in general.

So, and in case someone does overdose again, we have nurses on standby to help them.

Um get jobs, help you make more income so you can have an apartment of your own, so you don't have to stay instead homeless shelters.

I believe that homelessness doesn't have to be a permanent lifestyle, it can be a per it can only be a period of a person's life.

They can move on and make real changes happen with your help.

Thank you for your time.

No one else, no one else is signed in.

Thank you.

We are on to item number 22.

That is our commissioners and county managers announcements, reports, and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

And I don't have anything for you right now.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I just want to thank the students from AACT for taking time out of their days to come down and be engaged in the public process.

So I know it takes a lot of courage to get up to the podium and speak.

So I commend you for that.

Thank you for your engagement.

Um before you leave, I'm gonna commend them too, and I'm going to point you to a place that I want to give credit to Washoe County.

And I really appreciate when you uh meet with commissioners manager Thomas that you take some of the recommendations that I'm sure you receive to heart.

Uh Washoe County has a site called Housing and Homeless Outlook, and there's a newsletter.

And in it, well, first of all, that site has lots of information.

So I'd encourage everyone uh to know about it, but there is um newsletters that are coming up.

Um there's one that was actually published in October, another one published in just December, and that has a lot of great information.

There's also a place that you can sign up to receive the housing and homelessness outlook newsletter.

Um so that way you can stay informed on all of the things and the resources that Washoe County offers.

So I wanted to um just throw that out and thank you to the staff for uh standing that up and for uh the information that is extremely extremely helpful.

So thank you.

Um I am not going to read the to move to the next request, but I would like to request that the item that I addressed on item um 9F3, I believe, if my memory's serving me correctly.

I'm purposely taking a little time.

You want me to keep on going because maybe I'll get till three.

Yeah, we have one in the pool, I thought at two o'clock, but it looks like we're gonna go past that.

But keep in mind we have an attorney waiting for us upstairs, and we'd like to get to her because it's true.

Yeah, so you stretch it out however you like, but I'm don't blame it on me.

I'm I'm not going to do that.

But the point is that I I do want that on the record.

So thank you.

I've got it on my I've got it on my list.

Thank you.

We are adjourned.