Good morning.

I'd like to call the Board of County Commissioners meeting on February 10th, 2026 to order at 10 a.m.

And I'd like to first welcome everyone.

It's great to see everyone.

And I'd like to have Mr.

Brooks lead us in the salute to the flag, please.

To the Republic for which it stands.

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

Thank you.

We'll move to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola.

Present.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Herman.

Here.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

And District Attorney Jennifer Gustapson.

Present.

And I'm Jan Gallisini, your county clerk.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move to public comment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We're on item number three, which is public comment and comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person, and it may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda.

A news time may not be allocated to other speakers.

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

Please make your comments to the commission as a whole, and virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

We have several people signed in, so the second name, please cue up and be ready to speak.

Marcy Mansfield, followed by Ivy Elliott.

All right.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Marcy, and I appreciate this opportunity today to express gratitude for Grace Church on behalf of the Crossroads Program.

I entered Crossroads on December 31st, 2025.

It was the perfect way to start the new year.

I have experienced a strong sisterhood of love, encouragement, and support, as well as caring supportive staff who stand by us every day, challenging us to change and cheering our growth.

It is a very effective environment for those of us who want it.

The number of women who have come into this program in the last month is impressive.

I've seen that it is the generosity of Grace Church that makes it possible for Crossroads to take in and help so many of us, for them to run the program the way they do, by providing homes for women progressing in the program, houses like Jane Aubrey and Hope House, and providing the Hope Cottages for mothers reuniting with their children.

And they do so much more.

They've made close friends with other kids in the cottages, and I've made some amazing friends as well with other moms.

It is said that it takes a village.

With Grace Church, we are proof of that.

They have been a significant member of this village, and what helps set Crossroads apart from any other program available to women and mothers in this community.

From all of us in this village, we thank Grace Church for being a continuous blessing to our recoveries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ivy Elliott, followed by Gabrielle Batson.

Hi, my name is Ivy Elliott, and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to thank Grace Church for their help in creating the Hope First Cottages.

The women's and children's program saved my life, and I'm now able to have a strong foundation for my son and I.

Gabrielle Batson, followed by Raya Baker.

Good morning.

I would like to start off by thanking the council and Grace Church for having me today.

My name is Gabrielle, and I am one of the many women in Crossroads program.

I'm so blessed to be standing in front of all of you today.

I'm extremely proud to be speaking on Crossroads behalf this morning.

I would like to thank the council for funding for the renovations of River House, Serenity House, Cottages, and the two beautiful homes.

All of these places has given us women a safe and solid place to live and allow us to be reunited with our children in a stable environment.

Not only am I internally grateful, but so is the rest of the Crossroads family.

Upon learning the connection between Crossroads and Grace Church, I was pleasantly surprised because I was a part of the Grace community when I was about 12 years old.

Learning this fact made me feel that this was the path that was meant for me, and I can't put into words how much this church helped me escape when I was a child.

I have some of the best memories going here.

One of many core memories that has stuck with me was going to summer camp.

It was one of many times I felt God's presence.

Another one I would say is getting baptized.

And now Crossroads is helping me build a solid foundation for myself and family.

I'm so honored to be a part of this program and building a strong sisterhood with all of these women.

None of these things would be possible if it wasn't for you.

Thank you for all of your time and support and all of the hard work you put towards Crossroads.

Bless you all with love.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Raya Baker, followed by Terry Brooks.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Raya Baker, and I'm here today on behalf of the women and women's children's crossroads.

Um, it's truly I'm truly honored to have the opportunity to express our gratitude to Grace Church this morning.

For many of us, um, the women, uh, the women and women's and children's um women at Crossroads support.

Okay, let me start over.

For many of the women at Crossroads, support isn't just something nice to have, it's the difference between feeling forgotten and feeling seen.

Grace Church chose to see us.

They chose to believe that women and children in recovery are worth showing up for.

She takes the time each week to come attrieve us women and children to attend church on Sundays and also celebrate recovery on Mondays.

Each one of these services has tremendously grown my faith, um, my confidence in my recovery, and a place to have peace, fellowship, um, and support, and also love.

I'm so thankful for Grace.

Having an amazing team of people who greet you with smiles every time you walk through their doors.

Thank you for giving me a space to fellowship with my sisters in a healthy environment.

Because of Grace Church's generosity and commitment, Crossroads has been able to provide safety, consistency, and hope to provide uh consistency and hope to families who are rebuilding their lives from the ground up.

Their involvement has also helped create an environment where healing is possible, where children can experience stability during one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.

On behalf of every woman finding her strength again, every child who now feels safe in every family given another chance.

Thank you, Grace Church.

We are deeply grateful for your continued belief in the mission of Crossroads.

Um, I also want to um thank for the one.

It's an amazing program that Grace has.

And um, I just think it's so commendable and courageous for them to take the time out to also um go beneath their walls and go out into Reno and help mental health um recovery is personally has helped me a lot in my life and my sons as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Terry Brooks, followed by Katie Dillon.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

And today I'd like to engage in the topic of discrimination when it comes to employment and age.

Because elderly workers who have worked somewhere for a long time usually get paid more.

Then when the place is overstaffed, the elderly get laid off more.

But then when the elderly people looked for a job they really desired, then they were less likely to wind up getting hired.

But if they found a job they liked and even did get hired because of their age, then they are more likely to get fired.

And another reason why they may not get hired is because it wouldn't be long till they decided to be retired.

And because the elderly people are probably less educated and less knowledgeable of the modern technology, they're more likely to be terminated.

But one good thing about being older is they're less likely to be absent.

While their younger co-workers are more likely to be absent.

Most elderly workers are seen as being a lot more stable.

So as far as showing up and doing their job, they are seen as more reliable.

The elderly seem to be more careful at work and have fewer accidents.

Unlike their younger co-workers who have way too many accidents.

And elderly people are considered to be more committed to their job much more than younger co-workers try to be committed to their job.

Older employees practice more social interaction with all their co-workers and are known to share helpful advice with all of their co-workers.

So even though some employers won't hire elderly workers because they don't think they're worth it.

All in all, considering the work environment, the elderly are certainly worth it.

They may be a little slower at getting some things done, but the elderly are very determined to eventually get everything done.

I would like to thank you all for listening to me today.

And because I'm elderly, I'm determined to show up on time the next day.

Oh, I'd also like to thank Grace Church for all that they do and thank all the people here for admiring them too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Katie Dillon, followed by Carrie Ballard.

Hi, my name is Katie, and I stand here today full of gratitude.

Gratitude for second chances for healing and for Grace Church.

When I entered the Crossroads program in December of 2024, my life felt broken beyond repair.

I had an open termination of parental rights case with CPS, and I was facing the reality of losing my two youngest children.

I was overwhelmed, ashamed, and afraid that my girls would grow up in someone else's home without me as their mom.

But because of the generosity of Grace Church and the donation of the cottages at Crossroads Women's and Children's Program, my story didn't end there.

It began.

The cottages gave me something that had I hadn't had in a long time, a safe place to heal, rebuild my life, and become the mother my children deserved.

It wasn't housing, it was hope.

It was stability, it was the foundation for reunification with my children in a supportive environment.

My girls were reunited with me at the cottages, something that once felt impossible and I truly believe would have never happened anywhere else.

And as of December 30th, 2025, my CPS case was officially closed, and my daughters are now home with me full-time.

That moment was restoration, proof that healing is possible and families can be rebuilt.

Today I am blessed to give back in a way I never imagined.

I get to watch the magic of what the cottages did for me, continue to change lives and restore families.

Grace Church doesn't just support a program, they help rebuild families, they help save lives.

Beyond Crossroads, Grace Church has given my children and me a place to continue healing and faith to stay connected to recovery and to live with purpose.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to Grace Church for believing in second chances and helping families like mine when we need it most.

Thank you.

Carrie Ballard, followed by Robert Listener.

Good morning, commissioners.

I don't even know if thank you feels big enough for what Grace Church has done for Crossroads and for women like me.

When I walked into Crossroads, I was pregnant, I was scared.

I didn't know what my future looked like.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to give my children the life they deserved.

What I didn't know was that I needed safety, I needed stability, and I needed hope.

The generous contributions from Grace Church helped me find that.

The cottage, the cottages they remodeled are not just buildings, they are sanctuaries.

They are the reason I was able to bring my daughter home to a safe, clean, beautiful space.

They gave me a place where I could become a mother in recovery, not in chaos, not in fear, but in peace.

Today, because of that foundation, both of my children have a mother who is present, healthy, and fighting for their future.

Grace Church did not just renovate structures, they restored dignity, they created an environment where women who have lost everything can begin again, where mothers can tuck their babies into bed at night, knowing they are safe, where healing can truly happen, and they didn't stop there.

Grace Church donated vans that helped transport women to meetings, appointments, jobs in court, removing barriers that so often stand in the way of recovery.

They also provided additional homes for single women, expanding safe safe spaces for those who are rebuilding their lives.

They did not just invest in one building, they invested in generations of an entire community of women determined to change.

And my story is just one.

Because of the safety and stability I found at Crossroads, I did not just rebuild my life.

I built a career.

Today I have the honor of working at Crossroads, walking alongside other women who are exactly where I once was.

That is the ripple effect of Grace Church's generosity.

Grace Church did not just give walls, paint, and flooring.

They gave stability, they gave hope, they gave transportation, they gave single women a safe place to start over.

They gave mothers like me a foundation, literally and figuratively, to build new lives on.

Because of Grace Church, my children have a mother in recovery.

Because of them, families are being restored.

Because of them, cycles are being broken.

From the bottom of my heart, and behalf and on behalf of every woman whose life has been touched.

Thank you, Grace Church, for seeing us, believing in us and helping us change the trajectory of so many lives.

Thank you.

Robert Listener, followed by Thomas Daly.

Good morning, Commissioners.

I'd like to first of all thank you for the sacrifices you make to serve the public.

And I know it's frequently uh a thankless job.

And uh I just wanted to say thank you.

Now I have applied for a position on the Carson Tahoe Water Conservation District, which I understand mostly is protecting the Truckee River.

And I'm mostly retired.

Uh the previous spoker spokes, the previous gentleman said I might be elderly, so here's an opportunity for you.

But whatever elderly means, why in my opinion, my legs still work, my brain still works, and I end up with a lot of time that I spend volunteering.

Um, in particular with the Reno Police Department, which is why I'm dressed up in this uniform for a shift that starts at 11.

Uh I'm looking for more volunteering work.

You can count on me to be prepared for the meetings and to attend to the meetings.

I uh I just live in Reno, I don't go any place whenever that meeting is, I'm gonna be there.

Uh so I know quite a bit about water rights because we've been defending our non-truckey river water rights for about 25 years.

I have no financial interest in anything or anybody that has Truckee River water rights, except I do count on my shower working every morning, as does everybody else around here.

And if Tomwa was to ever hold up a close sign, we'd all be in trouble.

So you can count on me to be knowledgeable and to defend the people of Washoe County as instructed by the Washoe County Commission.

Uh thank you.

Thank you.

Thomas Daly, followed by Ashley Rayburn.

Thank you, Commissioners, and good morning, Thomas Daly for the record.

And I would ask that my comments be entered into the record today.

Uh, later in this presentation, you will hear from the hexagon project implementation, which is the countywide dispatch system.

And reviewing those PowerPoints, I noticed there were several things missing.

First, there is no mention of the multiple change orders which have plagued this project since its inception in 2023.

There's also no mention of the 1.9 million dollar cost overrun from the 7.5 million dollar budget established in 2023.

We are now at 9.4 million dollars.

There's no mention to whether the contractor or the consultant will share in the in any of the cost overruns or whether all of that cost will be borne by county taxpayers, county and city taxpayers, excuse me.

And it's in terms of the delivery date, which is now it's September 26.

Why would you trust that when the contractor has missed five deadlines which they established?

And why in the last three years has a county auditor not been tasked with auditing this 10 million, almost 10 million dollar contract?

It's not important that I know the answer to these questions, but it is important that you know the answers to these questions, and that the public eventually gets the answers to these questions.

Taxpayers don't want to be treated like a financial pinata, and that is what is happening with this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ashley Rayburn, followed by Stephanie Schutz.

Good morning.

My name is Ashley.

These are my sisters through the Crossroads Program.

Sorry.

Um, Cheryl and Leanna.

Um, we are up here to share firsthand the impact of Grace Church's contributions to the women and children of the Crossroads Program.

Their kindness and generosity have made a lasting life-changing impact directly on us and our children.

I entered into the Hope First Cottages with my newborn baby boy Jameson in 2022.

We showed up defeated, vulnerable, and so scared.

Our life felt uncertain and stability felt far out of reach.

I was desperate to learn not only a new way of living, but a new way of parenting.

Because you see, I also have two now adult children, Dylan and Jordan, who did not get the privilege of growing up having a mom.

Being able to live in the Oak First Cottages gave me the opportunity to be the mother they never had and to rebuild our damaged relationship.

For my family, these cottages weren't just housing, they were safety, warmth, and comfort.

We learned what it was to be a family again together.

Something that could have never happened without the cottages and all the love and support that we're that we were surrounded with in the most vulnerable time of our lives.

For me, it meant the space to heal.

Having a safe, stable home allowed me to focus on my recovery without the constant fear of what tomorrow might bring.

It gave me the chance to begin the hard work of rebuilding my life again.

Grace Church's generosity has created more than just a place to live.

It truly has created hope for many women.

It created room for healing, growth, and second chances.

Because of Grace Church, my future, Jameson's future, looks different, stronger, and brighter.

Thank you for believing in women and families and in the power of transformation.

What you've given us is something we will carry us carry with us for the rest of our lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Stephanie Schutz, followed by Stephanie Myers.

Good morning.

Thank you for allowing me to speak today.

My name is Stephanie.

I'm a former participant of the Crossroads Program, and I now serve as their community coordinator.

I'm here to recognize Grace Church and to share what their support has meant to me and to families we serve.

Because of Grace Church's generosity in Crossroads and the Hope First Cottages, I was able to give birth to my son sober.

I was able to bring him home with me and was able to work on myself without being separated from my child.

I didn't have to choose between recovery and motherhood, and that changed everything.

The Hope First Cottages are more than housing.

They are a place where mothers heal while staying with their children.

Crossroads is the only program in our area that allows families to reunify so quickly and live together in their own space while still meeting the expectations of treatment providers and community partners.

Today, as a community coordinator, I see this impact every day.

I watch mothers unify, reunify with their children.

I see families stabilize.

I see what happens when recovery and family preservation are allowed to happen together.

When we talk about funding programs, this is exactly what it looks like in real life.

Because of Grace Church, my son's first days were safe.

My recovery began when with hope instead of fear.

And now, because of the same support, I'd get to help other families begin their stories in the same way.

On behalf of the families of Crossroads, past, present, and future, I want to say thank you to Grace Church.

Your generosity has changed lives, strengthened families, and created a lasting impact on our community.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this morning.

Thank you.

Stephanie Myers, followed by Steve Schroeder.

Good morning.

I'm nervous, and my name is Stephanie Myers.

I am a graduate of the Crossroad Crossroads Women and Children's Program.

I am here today to express gratitude for Grace Church and their generosity.

The quick version of my background is that I am a mom of three beautiful children who has almost three years in recovery now.

I spent 15 years battling opiate addiction, trauma, and a variety of mental health struggles.

I had attempted nine different rehab programs in the surrounding areas and in this community.

I graduated four of them successfully.

And finally, until I got into crossroads or sorry, two different lines, and finally achieved stability through the Crossroads Women and Children's Program.

There are many things I could say today to paint the picture of what Crossroads does for people, battling substance use, parenting, and mental health struggles.

The main thing I want to say is I not only achieved recovery through the program, I regret regains my humanity, mental clarity, and the peace in my heart that I chased for many years.

In my role today, I get to be a homeless outreach specialist, guiding and assisting others on their journeys from ground zero.

And I walk through my days every day strong because of the tools and skills that I gained through this particular program.

It is a very unique program.

It is designed to create the pathway that invokes internal change on a deep level instead of briefly on the surface level.

Once these tools are gained, participants are then able to put them into practice without having the external pressure of sinkerswim.

I'm so passionate and emotional right now about this.

A program with this magnitude of impact could only do so with the same magnitude of generosity and support from Grace Church and our community.

Thank you, Grace Church and Crossroads, for not only positively impacting my life and my children's lives, but as a result, also positively impacting the lives of those people that I encounter every day that are still in pain.

Thank you guys.

Thank you.

Steve Schroeder, followed by Jill O'Leary.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Steve Schroeder, owner, founder, uh, event organizer for Reno Street Food, a wonderful company that puts together community gatherings.

I'm gonna go with the theme this morning, which is gratitude.

Um it's great to hear such good news.

Um good news today.

I'm I'm speaking in behalf on behalf of an agenda item that'll be up this afternoon.

Uh Commissioner Garcia um reached out to me back about October, November, and said, you know what, I want to do something for the community.

And that's what we do.

Uh, we love to put on something that is one of our three pillars of our company, which is a community gathering, creating a place for our community to gather.

So the plan is to uh put on a community gathering for the citizens, the community of Sun Valley uh coming this summer in the month of June.

We'll do a couple events.

And you know, when I think of one of the great ways for people to come together, when you get together with friends and family, what do you do?

You eat.

So what we'd like to do is put on something great for the community and people in Sun Valley to bring some food trucks together, excuse me, bring the community together.

Um, and I'm gratitude that Commissioner Garcia reached out with this plan to do something great in her community.

Um we're looking forward to it.

We're looking forward to bringing the food trucks up to Sun Valley.

Uh, we're looking forward to how this process is going to go and um a great partnership relationship between uh government and industry to put together something that's great for our community.

Uh be working with uh Sun Valley GBID.

Is that it?

T G I Drough them in coordination with those that know that part of the community so well to put on something so great that just brings smiles to the people and a gathering.

And I think that's it.

Uh right, no question.

I'm so used to getting questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

And uh as the mayor of Idle Wild, my nickname, um, I'm very proud that I've been tasked with this and uh be able to be a part of something so great for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jill O'Leary.

And I will distribute her documents.

Good morning, commissioners.

My name is Jill O'Leary.

After reviewing the budget workshop presentation materials, I'm here to address concerns in Washoe County's public checkbook and the need to reconcile it before the upcoming budget is approved.

The checkbook was created to show residents how taxpayers' dollars are actually spent.

Yet it relies heavily on budgeted authority, especially in payroll rather than actual dollars dispersed.

When up to 20% of budgeted staff positions are vacant, payroll could appear fully spanned on the checkbook, even though significant funds were never paid out, and those unspent dollars are not shown or reconciled.

This checkbook issue extends beyond staffing, maintenance, capital, and operating categories.

Also rely on budgeted numbers that do not clearly reconcile unspent balances.

A transparency tool cannot function when it displays theoretical spending instead of real transactions.

Washoe County should meet the same standard.

As you prepare to approve the upcoming budget, I respectfully ask the board to direct the comproller to reconcile entries since April 2025 with actual payroll and expenditure dollars and to publish a checkbook using the state's reporting categories.

Budgeted authority cannot be the basis for evaluating spending or forecasting future needs, aligning the checkbook with actual spending will ensure the checkbook actually accurately reflects what has been paid, what has been saved, and what remains available for the sake of fiscal accountability and public trust.

This reconciliation should occur before the board finalizes the upcoming budgets.

I provided a one-page action summary for your reference.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, we'll close public comment and now move to Commissioners and County Manager announcements.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

We're on item number four, commissioner and county managers announcements, reports, and updates to include boards and commissions, updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas.

I do not have anything this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Do you have anything in a minute?

Commissioner Hill.

Yes, thank you.

Uh some community members are um a little worried about just um an update on progress of um how we're getting ready for our upcoming elections.

So do you could you um let me know when we're having the ROV present to us again on an update?

I know I'm meeting with that office to specifically talk about polling locations, but just with all the talks about elections and but I know they're also doing cleanup on website, and so just all of that would be a great opportunity for the board to have that.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair.

First of all, I want to thank all the public speakers uh telling their stories and letting us know what it was like before and what it's like now, and I want to certainly uh thank Grace uh Community Church for for their help uh uh helping these folks and really doing the heavy lifting and uh not only talking the talk but walking the walk and helping helping these people uh achieve what they need to do to uh feels feel uh like they're contributing to society.

So thank you for your hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman is on 7B2 in our agenda.

I believe that would be district three, not two.

That's all I have.

I'm sorry, 7B2.

Are you wanting I just wanted to make a note that the district that was mentioned there was two, but I don't believe that that oh gotcha.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for correcting that.

Appreciate it.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Well, I too would like to thank everyone.

I am gonna probably do something that maybe I don't know, wouldn't it be the first time we've done something for a first?

But I'm taking a picture of you all right.

So here we go.

So everybody needs to smile.

Here we go.

So we're like to be on the picture.

If you don't want to be on the picture, go ahead and move now.

I'm gonna give everybody an equal opportunity.

And we even have weaving in the back.

That's gonna be fun for the incredible opportunity to hear the success of everyone.

And so I would like to just take one extra moment and say thank you to everybody for everything.

The strength and what we all felt with each story is really, I think recognized of where that came from.

And I appreciate it.

I know we all do.

So keep up the great work.

And I love the paying it forward, right?

That's what life's about paying it forward.

If there's not any other announcements, um, I'm gonna move uh to recognitions and ask Vice Chair Garcia uh to do a recognition of Grace Community Church.

Shane Marks, if you would be so kind to join the vice chair along with Karen Durst, Dan Frank, Russ Rose, and Kelly Singleton, if you're here.

I was up there looking for a box of clinics and I couldn't find one.

I had to actually get up and move and find the clinic.

Thank you for sharing your stories, and I'm honored to present this recognition with you today.

Grace Church of Reno has demonstrated sustained philanthropic leadership and a deep commitment to serving underserved and vulnerable residents throughout Washoe County through long-standing community partnerships.

And whereas through its Hope First campaign, Grace Church has invested more than three million dollars in financial property and in-kind contributions, supporting substance abuse recovery, homelessness services, child welfare, housing stability, and family reunification, while also providing emergency shelter assistance, welcome kids, transportation support, and facility improvements that strengthen essential human services.

And whereas Grace Church's partnership with Washoe County has been instrumental in expanding the crossroads recovery programs, including the acquisition and rehabilitation of six recovery homes, now providing 93 beds for individuals seeking safe, sober environments for healing and recovery.

And whereas these investments have significantly expanded access to treatment to supportive services for women and families, resulting in measurable outcomes, including increased capacity, successful family reunifications, and 99.5% clean drug and alcohol test rate amount among Washoe Crossroads program participants, which I believe deserves a 99.5% through collaborative philanthropy, including support provided in conjunction with the community foundation as a northern Nevada, Grace Church is for the one initiative, which has a focus on mental health, has contributed to the development of the Washoe County Children's Behavioral Health Center, advancing a continuum of care for children impacted by behavioral health challenges, neglect, abuse, and adversity in alignment with Washoe County strategic plan to support vulnerable populations.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners hereby recognizes and thanks Grace Church for its extraordinary generosity, leadership, partnership, and commends the church for his lasting contributions to the health recovery and resilience of our community.

And it's dated today, February 10th.

And thank you again for everything.

And you're welcome to come say a few words if you like.

So thank you for this recognition, but I have to say this honestly is we do not we don't do any of this for recognition.

We do it because we want to be a part of the solution.

And we see the problem in Washoe County as uh larger than any of us.

And so we want to just contribute to that.

And so we're grateful to be a part of that process.

And I just want to say one last thing, and then I'm gonna turn it over to Shane.

Shane is our our lead pastor now.

I'm the founding pastor of Grace, he's the lead pastor now.

Uh it's personal to me because I lost a son in the streets about three years ago.

And so this uh this process is huge, and so I am grateful to be a part of the process.

So, Shane.

Yeah, I first wanted to thank you, uh, commissioners and people of the county.

And I was a little thrown off, I wasn't ready for this today, and to hear these stories, and I just want to say these are the superheroes of the program.

They're the ones doing the work.

100%.

I notice on the wall of your building here it says working together.

And I just appreciate you allowing us into that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else want to make a comment?

Anyone else would like to say anything?

If not, we're gonna break for just a quick moment.

We're gonna take a picture.

All right.

Well, that's a great way to start a day.

Uh I also just want to mention, just for those that may not be aware, but uh our next meeting will have uh the invocation by Grace Church.

So I thought you'd find that.

I don't know if that was planned or not, but thank you.

We'll move now to presentations six A one.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We have with us today a presentation by our own Judge Monjara Sina to discuss current projects and her vision.

She is with the Incline Village Justice Court.

So great to have her following such a powerful morning.

Good morning.

Yes.

Okay.

That is hard to follow, but also really so inspiring and appropriate for what I want to talk to you about today, which is sort of what we're doing up in the Incline Justice Court and what we're hoping to do.

So I am Melissa Manjarasena.

I took the bench last January, so I have just uh over a year under my belt, and I am the judge in the Incline Justice Court, which is actually the Incline Village Crystal Bay Township Justice Court, but that's a mouthful.

So we refer to it as the Incline Justice Court because we're located in Incline.

And for those of you that haven't come up, please come visit us.

We're next to the library in Incline Justice Court in the Incline Village Community Center.

We are uh open Mondays through Thursdays, nine to four or eight to four, depending on our court calendar for the day.

And we are a small but mighty team.

Um we have myself, my court administrator is full-time, and then we have the rest of our staff as part-time, making up apart from myself, four full-time people running the court in Incline Village.

Um we do everything uh together, we're a really good team.

All of us have lived in or live in Incline, and all but two of us have three generations living in Incline.

So many of us were either raised there or have raised our kids there or all of the above.

We have a couple of non-court staff, we have a deputy sheriff who works as our bailiff, and we were, thanks to the county able to get a security guard uh this past year, which has been really, really wonderful.

Uh so we are a court of limited jurisdiction.

If you've ever seen the show People's Court, think that, but we try to be a little bit more well behaved in our court.

Uh, but really what we do is we address any of the issues arising out of the local community.

So those would be civil issues, criminal matters uh arising in or out of Incline Village or Crystal Bay, Nevada.

The civil matters that we hear tend to be the smaller civil matters, so small claims cases up to 10,000, uh civil cases up to 15,000.

Recently, the legislature changed a lot of our traffic infections infractions so that they're civil rather than criminal in nature.

We hear those.

I handle protection orders for stalking and harassment, and we do a lot of landlord tenant disputes.

So, same as the justice courts down here in Reno and Sparks.

Uh the criminal matters are rising in and out of Incline and Crystal, they all come through the Incline Justice Court.

So all of the different types of cases, misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and felonies start an incline with warrants for arrests or for search and seizure, uh, bail hearings, 72-hour hearings, arraignments, and then I hear misdemeanors all the way through trial and gross misdemeanors and felonies.

We have what are called preliminary hearings to determine if there's enough evidence for them to be tried in district court.

If so, then I find it over or send it to the district court.

Uh, because we are up and over the hill, it's hard for us to access drug and alcohol testing.

So we actually offer that in-house, both for the defendants that are in our court on criminal cases in the incline justice court, but we also offer it as a courtesy for defendants who are in court in Reno Sparks, South Lake, Truckee, sort of all over the place.

Um, if they live in Incline or Crystal Bay, they're able to come and test at the Incline Justice Court.

So when I was preparing this presentation, I realized that over the last 13 months, I've had a lot of comments made to me about what people think about Incline Village.

And there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what life is like up over the hill.

So I thought it would be worthwhile to address some of those myths and misperceptions and debunk some of them.

So here are the most common ones that I hear.

First of all, everybody in Incline is rich, right?

We all own 20 million dollar mansions on the lake.

Wouldn't that be lovely?

Um, also there's no crime in Incline.

Uh life in Lake Tahoe is paradise.

It's easier up there than it is down here over the hill.

Um, Incline Village and Crystal Bay aren't rural, they're so close to Reno, right?

How could they be rural?

And people could just go to Reno for services.

So we're gonna take each of these in turn.

How many of you have have ever heard Incline referred to as income village?

I certainly have.

Um turns out that's not really the case.

Yes, there are beautiful homes on the lake.

Yes, they cost many millions of dollars.

Um, but there is also a service community serving those millionaires, those billionaires, and of course, our huge tourist um population that comes in uh pretty much year-round at this point.

We don't really have an off season anymore.

So, in preparing for this, I looked up some of the stats, and one of the most surprising ones was that 65% of our elementary school students are on free or reduced lunches.

Um, and when I think about the defendants I'm seeing in the criminal cases, it's not surprising me because the vast majority of them qualify for a public defender.

We have a very, very large service population that is really struggling to make ends meet up there in Incline right now.

And we have a lot of folks that are really facing a lot of housing insecurity.

Those affordable housing units since COVID are now gone.

And the few that remain have three generations living in a one-bedroom apartment.

And you know, we we hear a lot of the times there's no unhoused population.

Well, they might not be sleeping on the streets because it's too cold, but there are a lot of folks sleeping in their cars.

So that's one myth.

Another is uh we don't have any legal issues.

So I've been on the bench just over a year.

I've had three murders.

I've had more domestic violence cases than I care to count.

Uh DUIs are obviously off the charts in a tourist town, so that is just simply not correct.

We see anything and everything.

Um, and that is because life in Tahoe is not easy.

Lots of research has been done on ski towns showing that mountain life is hard and there's actually a disproportionately high suicide rate in mountain towns because of the hardship, because of the job instability, the housing instability, tourism-related stress.

Um, we are isolated and rural.

We have four stoplights between our two towns.

We have no sidewalks, we have very small school systems, and we have really limited local resources.

Uh, and because of where we live, people cannot simply just go to Reno for their services.

Unfortunately, I wish they could, you know, if we were birds as the crow flies, it's not very far away.

Um, but we don't have public transportation out of the basin.

We do, if to get out of the basin, you need a reliable vehicle, and in the winter it has to have four-wheel drive.

And just many of the folks that I'm seeing in court do not have that.

Um, we also have just really different types of challenges over the hill.

And so it's really important to have resources and providers that understand what it's like to live in a mountain ski town.

So I found this picture because uh I commuted over the hill for many, many years, and while this was obviously before my time, um, I have driven over the hill many times when it's looked like that in the winter.

Unfortunately, not this winter, right?

We don't have a whole lot of snow right now.

Um, but that is the reality in many winters, and so I shared this because I think it's important to understand that we're not very far away, but in some ways we are living in a completely different world, especially in the winter months.

So having our local court has been really exciting for me.

I've spent my entire legal career trying to get resources up to the lake, and I'm now in a position where I feel like I'm able to help sort of wrangle the different providers and really work with our community.

And speaking after these the speakers from Crossroads is just really inspiring for me because that is my vision as well, is to make sure we're providing similar services up at the lake to the people that need them.

Um, so we really having a court up there is so important to have a local court that people can access.

They don't have to drive over the hill.

They can come in and resolve their local matters quickly, efficiently, they can get the drug testing, the services that they need, and we are constantly working on expanding this right now.

So, just a couple of quick um quotes from folks that we reached out to to ask if there was anything they wanted to share today, and what we found was that they felt like they had been treated with dignity, respect, and compassion, even though they were involved in a criminal case.

Um, another individual stated that it was so helpful to be able to test in Incline Village and not have to lose miss work to comply with the criminal case.

And these are just the types of responses that we get over and over and over when people are coming out of our criminal programs.

So I'm gonna have to speak really quickly.

I have one and a half minutes left.

Um, so what are we doing uh to continue to increase access to justice?

So in my first year, I worked really hard to make sure that we were increasing access to justice in the quick and easy ways we could do that.

So I built a new website.

Um, we got a new security officer, which is really helpful.

Everybody feels a little bit safer.

We've increased our interpretation access both at the clerk's window and in the courtroom.

Um we installed air conditioning, thanks to you guys.

We really appreciate that.

It was actually very needed.

Um, I partnered with the neighborhood mediation center to implement mandatory small claims mediation, and that's been really, really powerful.

I've implemented a pre-prosecution diversion program for nonviolent first-time offenders trying to address the issues, bringing them into the criminal justice system and keep them out of the criminal justice system, um reducing that contact that brings them back in.

Um, all of these ideas are really just working with our community members, our stakeholders trying to get all of the services in place.

And you can take a look at my plans moving forward because I believe I'm out of time.

That was well done, but I don't want to deprive you if there were any particular items that you missed based on the clock ticking so quickly.

Okay.

These are the last two slides.

So thank you.

So along the same lines of sort of bringing community members together, I did implement a mandatory status conference for criminal cases, which requires the uh district attorney to meet with the defendant or defense counsel prior to trial to try to get everybody looking at the case a little bit earlier, working together if possible.

We modified our schedules so that the public defender is present for all stages of the criminal proceedings.

Previously that wasn't the case.

And we worked with an online program to offer online classes for individuals who can't make it over the hill for classes.

And then in terms of where we're going, um, we have a lot of really great ideas.

Uh, we are too small to have our own um mental health court or domestic violence court or veterans court, but we have the need.

So, what my hope is and what my desire is is to create a problem-solving court that would address all of those different needs under the same rubric of identifying what the challenges are, what's bringing this person into the criminal justice system and how can we surround them with resources to reduce recidivism down the road.

Um, we're already collaborating with legal services providers.

They came up a couple of weeks ago, they're gonna start doing an educational program up at the lake, sort of similar to the lawyer in the library that they have here.

Obviously, they won't be able to be there every day, um, but they're trying to increase their presence up at the lake.

Um, and we would love at some point to replace the loss of DAS with an in-house uh social worker case worker that could help us with those pre-prosecution diversion, and then if I do implement some sort of a problem solving court, those types of cases down the road.

So that is it.

Thank you for the extra time.

I tried hard to get it into 10 minutes.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, does anybody have any questions?

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming and presenting to us.

Uh, I'm so excited about your term as judge.

I think you've done incredible work.

So thank you so much.

Um, and being so transparent to the board and you know, really opening up your doors to the community, it's amazing.

Um, I just wanted to let you know the county has funded a program called Placemate, which is supplementing um uh folks who may not rent their house and it may be empty or may want to change from a short-term rental to a long-term rental.

Um, and we have money still in that account, and we just are having issues connecting with landlords or these owners who want to do this program.

And so if there's any way you want to help us on the ground with that, I can connect you with that program, knowing that it's so hard to get housing for our workers up there.

Um, it was an initiative that this board wanted to take on for Tahoe, especially.

So if we need to connect on that, let me know, please.

Absolutely.

And I think um bringing the legal services providers up, and they're gonna be doing education on landlord, landlord tenant issues and other areas.

Um, so I can connect you with them for sure, and then with the stakeholders in Incline who are the most visible, I would be happy to do that.

So you and I can if you want to reach out to me, let's connect.

Yeah, let's do that.

That'd be really helpful.

Reno Housing Authority also can help you with some trainings on landlord tenant stuff if you need that, and they're helping us with the placement program.

So yeah, let's let's connect on that.

And the I'm glad you brought up the um transportation issue.

We have been funding as a board, microtransit up in Incline Village, but do not have the federal funds to do so anymore with the new administration.

And so sadly, it was a program that we couldn't piecemeal together because we were passing the hat to different agencies begging for money every year.

And um, we want to get that program back online.

I'm working with the visitors authority to see what I can do.

Also, we may potentially want to do some legislative fixes to see if there's funding we can keep in the basin for transportation that's generated by room tax.

So that will be a discussion our board will have, but I just want to keep you updated that we we believe in this transit.

We want to see how we can get it online.

It's just it's so tough with the funding and um trying to, you know, uh make sure that we can support all these different things, but it's still an initiative of this board, and um we'll we'll stay in touch as we move forward with that.

So thank you for that.

Losing the TARC Connect was a big loss for our town for sure.

And there's never been transportation over the hill.

No.

Since I moved there in 1998, it's been an issue the whole time.

So yeah.

Exactly, absolutely.

And our TC WASHO, which Commissioner Garcia, Vice Chair Garcia is also sits on.

We talk about how we can better connect the region as well.

And so we're trying to figure out best ways to do parking rides and you know, where these things are being discussed.

It's just it's all about the money.

But you know, we we do want to make it a more connected community, and incline is part of that.

And it also helps the environment, it turns out, and the workforce and the economy.

So thank you for your services, Judge.

We we appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Um, I would just like to share that we did receive an e-comment um commending the um Incline Village Justice Court and specifically the people who work there.

So I thought it was really fitting to be able to share that with you, and also to thank you.

And it's great, like it's the energy we can feel it in terms of your innovation and trying to leverage resources and how we can all work together to help.

So keep on asking, because if you don't ask, you know, then people aren't aware as well.

So thank you so much.

Thanks for a great presentation.

Well, thank you.

And um, careful what you wish for when you say keep on asking.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

We'll move now to 682.

Thank you.

This is Downtown Reno Partnership, and we're joined by the direct uh executive director, Neoma Jardin to discuss their services, recent recent enhancements and statistics from their 2024 and 25 annual report and any future updates or improvements planned for the organization.

So welcome.

Well, good morning.

Thank you very much.

Uh very interesting to be on this side of the dais.

I don't think I've been in this forum on this side of the dais.

Well, welcome.

Well, thank you, thank you.

I'm just gonna jump right in here and I how do we click forward?

Oh whoops.

Good job.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Neoma Jordan.

I'm the executive director of the Downtown Reno Partnership, and we are the business improvement district for downtown Reno.

Here to give you a brief uh summary of what we do in 10 minutes about the downtown Reno Partnership, its ambassadors, its services, what it does, why it matters, and uh what we've got going on.

So, what is the downtown Reno Partnership?

We are a 501c6 nonprofit, and we were formed in 2018 after years of people coming together and saying downtown needs improvements.

It needs more of all the things that downtowns need.

They are more complex, they have more issues with our homeless population, more trash attention, more visitors, et cetera.

So the community got together, the property owners got together and said we're gonna do a self-assessment, and we're gonna fund a business improvement district to assist with some of these expanded needs.

Uh so it's again funded by property assessments, and they pay for cleaning operations, our ambassadors, our security guards, marketing, and economic development.

And again, this was private sector led, and it's under NRS 271.

We have our ambassador team, which we'll get into that too, but we also have uh our assistant executive director is here with us today and marketing manager, as well as Nathan DeGange.

Yeah, he's our economic development director.

Uh, our board is made up of 17 members of your community members.

They represent a cross section of downtown, whether it's residents or businesses, small and large, and elected individuals that represent uh all the 110 blocks of downtown in our business improvement district.

They wouldn't all fit on one slide, so I had to do two.

So, what do we do?

And what is our boundary?

We are uh we were formed out of two special assessment districts that existed prior to our existence.

And they uh came together and said we want more services, we need expanded services, and the properties got together and the leadership and said we're going to set what the boundaries are, and we're gonna form three different sections standard, premium, and premium plus.

And basically that means if you're in the standard area of our business improvement district, you uh are provided throughout the entire district, safety on-demand spot cleaning.

Of course, you call us 24-7, we respond to your needs and addressing our homeless population.

And then as you move toward the center of downtown, your assessment changes slightly, and you get added patrols, you get heavy concentration on littering your feeding, and then as you get to the premium plus section, which is Virginia Street, they pay the most, they get the highest level of services.

Uh, and that is how our bid is formed.

So before the bid was created, if you were spending any time downtown, this is a very common site.

Um, graffiti was on almost every surface, uh, and there were our houses population was not consistently tended to.

So downtown had a very negative reputation.

There was no strong sense of community.

Homeless individuals uh, you know, were not certain of the services available, how to get them, uh, how to get transport to them.

And our police were inundated with nuisance related calls.

So you can imagine the volume of calls that they get on a daily basis and how much of their time was being consumed by these things.

So again, best practices.

Everybody went out and said, what are the other communities across the nation doing?

And there are some 1,600 business improvement districts across the nation.

It's not new.

We are not alone.

We're the only one in the state of Nevada, but there are 16 across the nation.

And ours is relatively new.

Many have been around for decades.

Ours is new.

So what are our ambassadors and our security guards do?

They are out there patrolling.

They're the boots on the ground, the eyes and the ears of downtown.

They are patrolling all the areas of the 110 blocks of downtown.

They patrol mostly on foot, and that is because our assessment payers and the community says we want to see you on foot.

The best way you can determine what's going on is on foot.

They go into businesses, they check with the patrons, what is happening, what are you seeing?

What are your needs?

They have use of three vehicles to do cleaning transports, and we have two uh four-wheeled kabodas, and they patrol 24-7.

Security guards, we launched this in late 2024.

This is in response to we're a 24-7 town.

We don't get to go home.

The calls keep coming, the problems and the issues arise, and the community demands that we provide services on a 24-7 basis.

So we also augmented with our security guards because we hear from the community, there is this sense of unsafety or ease sometimes in downtown.

The stats will tell you crime is down significantly in downtown, some 20 plus percent.

Um, but still there is this sense in this feel.

So we put we uh launched our security guard program.

They patrol the public realms, they patrol the sidewalks, the alleyways, all the public spaces, really to drive up the sense of security and safety in our business improvement district, and they assist our ambassadors uh in situations where they may need some security assistance.

Um RPD, since security guards have deployed, there has been a uh fairly substantial decrease to RPD.

We try to not engage our police officers unless we absolutely have to.

They're busy.

Um, so what wanted to give you some stats just to see.

We track stats on anything and everything you can imagine.

If you go to our website at downtownreno.org, you can find all sorts of information there.

But I wanted to give you, we pulled out these stats because they are fairly substantial.

So if you look at the first one on the left, our ambassador team over the last year picked up over 468,000 pounds of trash.

This isn't trash in trash cans.

This is loose trash, this is dumped trash, this is trash along the rivers.

This is this is trash that would still exist in large part were it not for the work of our team.

And if you want a visual of that, if you stood in Mackey Stadium, the trash would be five feet tall.

This is what they're removing off the streets every single day and year.

They removed almost 960 pieces of graffiti, these are tags and graffiti that get removed almost instantly.

If we see them, they get reported, we are on it, we remove them.

If we can't, we coordinate with other agencies and entities to get it cleared.

And then we also do a ton of power wash, and you call us, someone didn't clean up after their dog, there was a mess left.

We come and clear that along with standard cleaning areas.

Shopping carts recovered, lots of shopping carts.

Why does it matter that we recover these?

If you have a shopping cart, you can't get into a single service.

If you you can't get into the DMV, you can't get into Social Security, you can't get into any shelter, you cannot access any services.

Also, these carts are generally stolen.

You don't want another charge of something or a charge of having stolen property.

So we have a program where we will help individuals, we give them bags to transport their items, but we get these shopping carts back, and with a partnership with the city of Reno, we get them back to their rightful owners.

Um, and then 955 rides to shelters and services.

Uh we go to about eight or nine different locations, all your great shelters and services we transport individuals.

And we do all the street level assessments to see where they need to go.

I just gonna throw run through some before and afters.

This is a uh normal day at the downtown Reno Partnership.

We see it, we clean it.

Uh, railroad tracks used to be a really significant mess, definitely much improved.

Uh, some park areas, you can see some of the issues here.

Again, by the river, we get very creative on how to haul some of the trash out of these areas.

And then we also coordinate with city and all of the agencies to ensure that we have everybody working and rowing in the same direction.

Particular shout out to your staff at the county, uh, Katrina Peters and Sabrina Suite.

They have been incredible to share information with us so that we're all working together.

And also your animal control, you can imagine.

We engage with animal control pretty regularly.

So good to them.

And then finally, your assessor's office has been phenomenal.

Lots of changing things uh uh around the assessments and property values and just things in general.

They have been very good with information, so thank you.

This is some of the other things we do.

Uh we do some uh aside from the ambassador work, we do some beautification and things in downtown.

We helped to secure more than double the trash cans in downtown.

So there's 198 of them now, and they have these wraps on them, which has um some information on there about where you are in the district and some sites, and then some soft scape.

We did some planting and other things to help make it a little more inviting downtown.

Again, some more equipment.

We have some gebodas, you'll see them along the river walk and under the bridges cleaning.

We do marketing.

Uh, we do tons of small business updates.

We have them come on to some TV segments we secured, we promote their businesses.

We are screaming from the rooftops how amazing these businesses are.

We really are trying to assist this the small businesses and to to be successful.

If you follow our socials, you'll see this is a big part of what we do.

And then before you uh and in your packets that we handed out, we have a state of downtown.

This never existed before.

This has every stat you could want for downtown from the economy, uh economic makeup of the different businesses to where we're heading with housing.

This never existed other than two years ago we started this project.

It's a wonderful baseline so we can better track where we are and where we're going.

Uh, we share this with brokers, with realtors, and we really try to sell downtown.

And the thing we often hear is show me the data.

So now they have the data.

We do blue carpet treatments.

We roll out the blue carpet for expanding in new businesses in downtown.

We find any reason to celebrate.

Literally, it's a blue carpet we roll out.

We have one coming next week.

Uh, lots of new businesses in downtown we're excited about.

We're for every special event.

I'm running through this, I'm running out of town, out of time.

Uh, we help with all the special events.

There's so many going on downtown.

We track all the foot traffic that occurs in downtown.

So we can tell you coming out of COVID, what is what is it looking like?

Um things are looking pretty good.

We can tell you if you're a small business and you're holding some special event, we can tell you how things went.

Where did they come from?

Where did they go to after your event?

You just uh we are a trove of data information.

And then we track all the development.

Uh these pictures when we first took them about a year ago were um about a year and a half ago were dirt.

Now you can see a lot of great developments from the business building to some residential properties are are now vertical and open.

And then we track the crime in downtown.

I alluded to it earlier.

You can see from uh year over year within half mile of the Reno Arch.

We use that as kind of the baseline for our bid boundaries.

Crime is down some 19.7%, but it's down across the city, even as you uh go out from that ring, you can see where the reductions are.

But again, this is uh pretty good stats that we track as well.

And then there's our DRP socials.

If you don't follow us, please do.

Um, lots of great information.

And again, thank you to all of your staff.

Kate, you're incredible with the information you helped share with us.

And thank you for inviting me, Commissioner Garcia.

Thank you.

Do you have any questions?

Ms.

Jordan.

No, no questions.

I just commend you and your team.

I go downtown a lot, walk my with my family and our dog, and it is uh I could see a marked difference with the cleanliness.

And um, so thank you so much uh for your commitment and the redevelopment work that you're partnering with the city on is incredible.

And um, I wish you had more resources to do it because I think there's so much potential with our downtown.

So thank you for your passion and for just continuing to serve our community.

It's amazing.

You and your team are great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our ambassadors are the backbone of everything.

They're incredible.

Well, I'm gonna do a shout-out too, because uh I think that uh your point in terms of being the only BID in Nevada is really commendable to you and the research that you did and bringing a solution, a viable solution, best practice, and not just looking at the great work in Nevada and the great work in our area, but looking at what could work here that hadn't been thought of.

So I know it's called the downtown partnership, but it should be called the downtown Naomi Jordan Partnership.

Um, to be honest, and uh, do follow you on social, and if you don't, I would encourage because encourage everyone to do so because you really get to see the actions and the dedication of volunteers who are working really hard every day in the community.

And I think the more that we partner as jurisdictions to address various commonalities, the better we can be to everyone that we serve.

And so um, thank you so much for the presentation, and thank you, Vice Chair, for recommending um Ms.

Jordan come.

And we'll be looking at all the stats and the packet and really appreciate it.

And you had 30 seconds left.

Is there anything?

I mean, you had 30 seconds left.

I was watching that timer.

Um thank you very much.

And and you are correct there.

I I have to say this.

We might be the only one that has fully uh established as a business improvement district.

As I understand it, there are about five other cities uh in the state in Lake Tahoe that are looking at forming bids because I think they've seen the success um of what's happening downtown and and they want to replicate that.

So that many of them have been in touch.

They just haven't quite pulled it together yet.

That's okay.

They have a great model to follow.

Oh, thank you.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you so much for coming today.

I I was talking to Manager Thomas, you know, after the security guards had been implemented in in the fall of 2024, I thought, you know, maybe it was time that the commissioners receive an update because I think that was a um pretty significant shift in in the delivery of services that your organization provides.

So thank you for coming here today.

Um it's an honor to serve on this board.

I appreciate your leadership ship so much.

And what I like is that you can just uh grab me after a meeting or send me a text or a call and say, hey, commissioner, we're having this issue, or we ran into this barrier, you know, whether it's uh, you know, finding wheelchair access, ways to transport folks, folks who are wheelchair bound and getting them to their resources.

That's a simple example of of a phone call I got from you, you know, and county would uh graciously step in and try to find those solutions.

So I really appreciate the ongoing back and forth communication.

And I also really appreciate your perspective because you know, you're not City Arena, you're not Washa County, you're not RPD or Washoe uh County Sheriff's Office, but you see day in and day out how things play out in real time.

So I just wanted to ask you well, two things.

Um, since we made the policy shift at CARES campus where folks are now allowed to um engage in programming and stay on campus, has that been beneficial to you and your ambassadors from your perspective?

So that was fall of last year, right?

20 or summer of 2025.

Have you seen a difference in in what's happening in terms of activity downtown?

We have.

I think there is a couple things that have shifted.

Um I think there is a more robust communication and cooperation across jurisdiction lines with entities, individuals, et cetera.

I think there are standing meetings with the boots on the ground uh from all the entities and agencies that really, unless you're down there doing it, it's hard to understand the complexities and and what happens on the street on a daily basis.

So I think we work through those and we work through them collectively and together, which I think that has made a big difference.

And I think the fact that you can have offerings on the campus to uh assist the individuals, but have them not maybe negatively impact the surrounding businesses in the area, that has made uh a difference.

That has made a difference.

There are still some other activities in downtown that I think are still contributing to some of the things that we'd like to see some improvement on, but there the changes that have been made over the recent months, I think we are seeing an improvement on that.

That's great to hear.

And while we've got you, because you've you have so much experience as a former city council member and now in this role.

Um, uh in terms of like the security guard law enforcement realm, if you know if RPD, Washoe County Sheriff's Office and the County were all perfectly aligned today in terms of this the safety, the security, and the cleanliness, what would we see tomorrow that we're not seeing today?

Can you explain to me what you mean by perfectly aligned?

So if everything, all the enforcement was buttoned up tight and everything was just flowing really well because it's a multi-jurisdictional nightmare, as you know, working with the city of Spark, City Areno and the County.

Um, what would you like to see implemented that could help streamline or improve communications?

I'm I'm leaning on you as somebody that has a lot of experience in this world, and if there's any ideas or insight that you may have that we could perhaps consider or implement um as we talk to the other law enforcement agencies and as you're working with your security guards.

Um, I think it's starting to happen now.

I think there was, like I said before, there was some silos that were going on and there was some jurisdictional uh stuff that is starting, those boundaries are starting to break down, and I think that communication is great.

I think what we see is sometimes a pushing of an issue from one area to another, which doesn't really help resolve the issue, it just kind of moves it around.

Um so I think that making some headway on that.

But I think collectively all of us working together to understand that our some common things we could work together on to improve.

I'll give you uh an example of that is Union Pacific Railroad and some of the concerns with their properties and the patrolling and cleaning of their private properties.

That needs to be a unified voice from all of us saying they need to do better.

Right.

And because we have seen all of our resources being expended to um securing and cleaning things on their properties.

I don't think that's right.

I've I've been very vocal on this issue.

Um so I think that is these are the things that unless we're all in the room talking about it, because everybody individually is saying it.

We need to come together and work with our delegations, which are already in tune to help us um improve this issue.

Great, thank you.

Thanks.

Well, hopefully the discussions can continue because I do think that there are some lines that can truly be blurred and not even be able to ever be seen.

And I'm hopeful for that day to happen sooner than later.

And so I'm gonna welcome the opportunity to maybe have a further discussion.

And it sounds like we all might be calling you, but I certainly uh welcome any of the ideas.

But really, congratulations to standing up this program.

You know, 2024 was not that long ago.

And to see the success, it's kudos to everyone.

Yeah, we started in 2018, but it really has the security guards have kicked off.

If you ever want to come and spend some time, uh we we you can walk on foot and have a day in the life of an ambassador.

We have the Komodas, it's a four-wheeled um off-road vehicle that you can tool around in and just kind of see.

Uh, how much things have improved?

The river is one of the main ones, many improvements there, but you'll also see some of the common problem areas, which would be like, okay, we need to all focus in on this one to solve.

So it might have been born in 2018, but I don't think you were there in 2018.

Were you?

No.

No, no, exactly.

So I'm I'm gonna keep on saying that you really were the catalyst to drive what needed to be done.

Because I remember when that concept started.

So kudos to where it's at now.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Let's keep on talking.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So we're gonna close out 682 and move to 6A3.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is a presentation of the Hexagon Unified Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Suite Software Replacement Project Update, presented by Ben Ernst, who's the vice president and general manager of the North America Public Safety for Hexagon Safety Infrastructure and Geospatial Division.

But here to kick us off is our own Eric Willrich.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Manager Thomas.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning and provide this update to you.

My name is Eric Bullrich.

I serve as a technology coordinator with Washoe County under uh technology services.

We're here to provide an update on the current status of the project and to help uh help us all better understand the critical next steps needed to achieve project completion.

The regional partnership with HexCon will bring massive improvements to public safety service services for the communities represented in in your districts.

Some of these improvements include improved response times, technologies interfaces, never combined with the current system, and overall uh efficiencies in the processes.

At the time of cut over, the on-call products, we will be we will welcome in a new and improved era of public service technologies to provide a deeper look into the project conditions.

I'd like to introduce Ben Ernst, Senior Vice President of North America for Hexagon.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Sorry.

Thanks.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Uh and uh to all the uh commissioners as well as the other uh county officials that are here.

I appreciate you allowing me to be a guest in your meeting today.

Thank you for the opportunity for the handful of slides that I'm gonna discuss.

Um I would be remiss though if I didn't at least take 30 seconds to comment on the impact of the first 30 minutes of this meeting.

Um, as a father of a 22 and a 20-year-old uh females, um, I can only hope that they live their life with the strength and courage that was on display at the beginning of this meeting.

I am going to be sure to show them the recording of that of those first 30 minutes.

I was very impactful.

And so I'm uh I'm always aware of if you keep your eyes open, you see things that impact you, and that impacted me personally today.

So again, thank you for allowing me to be a guest in your in your meeting today.

As Eric said, I'm here to talk about the the transformative initiative that the respective agencies took on a couple years ago and provide an update.

Um by way of background, I think many of you know this, but I just thought I would at least have a slide just to kind of introduce the uh the the discussion.

Uh we entered into agreement with the uh the respective agencies in September of 2023 that really came with an implementation or a timeline of approximately 27 months.

We worked collectively with the various agencies to try to accelerate that, and we're targeting to go live in a 24-month time period, which you see at the very end of that slide, which would have been September of this past year, 2025.

We were unsuccessful in doing that.

Um, and and what I you know want to talk about today is kind of where we're at with the initiative, as well as um some contractual things that I want to make sure I communicate uh as it relates to kind of our path forward.

Um, as I said, we have a delayed schedule.

We we did not meet the February go live that was uh communicated and and targeted by the respective groups, hexagon included.

And then, you know, now as as was mentioned, and you see in the slides, we're preparing for a go live in the fall of 2026.

So, in in a handful of months from now, uh and what's going on right now is issue remediation as well as finalizing some of the integrations with the third party systems in and around the county and in other state systems.

Um I just wanted to present a high-level timeline.

Obviously, there's layers of details underneath of this, but right now we're in the uh kind of final stages of testing.

And once that is complete here in the next 30-ish days, we will start an elongated 90-day training program, and that's really for the ultimate users of the system.

And so that includes uh the men and women that are inside the communication center answering and fielding the calls, as well as those uh first responders out in the field who are using kind of the mobile technology as they respond to those calls for service.

So that's a 90-day training period as defined within our agreement.

Um and then we'll, you know, I have the go live listed in the fall time period, and then there's a 90-day reliability period that's listed that again is on the out outside after we actually moved into production in the systems being used, both from a 911 call experience as well as the police law enforcement record system.

Then, in terms of of critical next steps, this is a little bit duplicate duplicative, but just thought I would mention it as we're in the process of completing the system readiness, executing the end user training.

Let me talk about the contractual alignment for just a second, because I think it's important.

Uh today, uh uh we've had um only five change orders to the project, which is had an impact of approximately less than two percent of our contract value.

And what I also wanted to point out in this is that as part of the delay, I've been in multiple conversations, some verbal, some written over the course of the last couple weeks and been made aware of some unplanned expenses that the county and some other uh the other agencies have incurred.

Um, and we are in discussion to try to make uh everybody whole, if you will, in terms of those unplanned expenses.

So I've been working with the agency coordinator coordinators as well as the CIOs from the respective agencies to make sure that we um don't leave anybody empty-handed, if you will.

So I believe we have some framework numbers that have already been exchanged, and I'm confident that that we'll be able to reach some sort of conclusion on that that is uh amenable for all parties.

Um, and then of course the project go live.

So um I think that that's really my last slide.

I I wanted to kind of get through the content rather quick, provide a uh a very quick update, but maybe more importantly, give you all an opportunity to ask me questions or provide feedback or comments.

So I'll pause and really turn it over to you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Questions.

Commissioner Clark, do you have any questions?

I do.

Uh thank you.

Um I'm concerned with uh some points that were brought out by uh public commenter Tom Daly about uh cost overruns.

Uh he claims somewhere about 1.9 million and cost overruns, late dates, five late dates.

Uh I think there's a questions that need to be addressed.

Uh you know, we're looking at this.

I'm looking at it number one as a financial uh obligation for the county, but I'm also looking at this as public safety.

The longer this is prolonged, uh the longer the public doesn't have the advantage of using superior software.

And and that's what this is all about.

At the end of the day, we can talk dollars and cents, we can talk time frames, but if if this goes on uh you know another who knows how long before it's fixed, because we all know once it's up and running, then that's when the rail bugs show up.

And and when is this going to be suitable for uh public safety purposes?

And that's what this whole thing is about public safety purposes.

How when and how and how much more and and when might the public uh be able to uh utilize the uh so supposed superior services that your company's offering?

Yeah, so I'll I'll try to address you know most of your comments, and if I miss any, please feel free to come back.

Um as it relates to some of the comments that you were referring to made earlier in the meeting.

I I don't I don't know what the five missed deadlines is.

I I can't speak to that.

I I do acknowledge that there was an intention, as I said in my my comments, to to try to accelerate the go live to uh I think it was September of 2025.

We were unsuccessful in meeting that accelerated timeline, and then kind of the 27-month timeline would have been February this year, and we were unsuccessful in doing that.

So I can speak to kind of those two.

I don't know where the number five came from.

Um as it as it speaks to the cost overruns, um, again, I I think things that that I'm aware of at least um account for less than two percent of hexagon's contract value.

So again, the I think it was 1.9 or 1.7 number.

Um, I I would have to better understand the details of that, but again, as it relates to our contract, I don't I don't see those same numbers that were mentioned earlier.

Sure.

So you know, I'm not here to put a fine point on it, but that's at this point in time, that's part of the public perception.

Those and the public are even aware that this is happening, and those that are kind of watching it, that's that's their perception of what's taking place.

And I'm not here to uh argue their point or or defend your your situation, but that's the perception that we have in the uh community.

I've talked to the fire chief more than once about this.

He thinks there's a lot of uh a foot dragging on uh not necessarily on your part, but throughout the process.

So I think there's a way that uh that people need to get together and and see if we can speed up the process because again, at the end of the day, this is this is supposedly to help uh the public have faster uh service and and and more uh professional service and and and faster service and and everything else that the public thinks that they're getting or not getting because it's still bogged down and and whatever it's bought.

I don't know exactly why it's bogged down, but it it apparently is bogged down, uh, and you'll have to admit that.

Uh and how can we speed this process along and what's it gonna take to get this project across the finish line so the folks that are live in our community will have the ability to uh uh see good results from this software problem that we're we're purchasing on their behalf.

Yeah, yeah.

I think one one kind of major change that we've done in the last couple months.

I think we started this in November of this past year, is we have several people who actually are on site working with the respective agency coordinators and team members as opposed to working in a more remote fashion.

So we've brought people who are here every week working knee to knee with the members of the various agencies to try to accelerate the resolution to some of the challenges we've had.

So it is one thing at the encouragement of the uh various leaders of the of the municipalities that we've done differently to try to accelerate uh and get things done quicker moving forward.

Sure.

And again, I uh I talked to the fire chief, Chief Edwards.

He's concerned about this.

I'd like somebody from your organization to meet with him and and get the details of his concerns and and see if those can be addressed as well.

Fair thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Well, um, I'll have Commissioner Garcia go before me because uh she may be asking similar questions, and then I'm happy to do that.

I I have I have a few questions.

Thank you so much for being here today.

I when we see these agenda items, I always go back and kind of refresh my memory on on where we've been.

So where we've been is this whole process began in 2019.

We had a concurrent meeting in 2022.

Uh the BCC presentation happened on August of 2025, and you weren't here, but a hexagon project manager was in attendance that day.

And during that meeting in August 19th of 2025, you know, we were told that the go live date would be September 9th of 2025, and they went into the key accomplishments, the hardware and software installations, the system build and configuration, third-party integrations, and the just disaster recovery and backup.

So during later, we find out that the go live would be February 23rd, 2026, which is in a in a few days.

And um during that meeting, we were told that things were on budget, that we had the right staff in place, that additional resources from the vendor were already in place so that we wouldn't have to suffer more delays.

So that was what was told to us at the last meeting in August of 2025.

So I came in with an open mind, but I looked at the last five minutes uh five months of data on the open tickets and the closed tickets for hexagon, and the five-month data is concerning to me, and I'll tell you why.

The open tickets are ranging between 330 to 400 open tickets um each month.

And so this data goes back to September of 2025.

And the line is flat.

It is just not going down, it's not going up.

It is just consistently within that 330 to 400.

And then if you look at the closed ticket data points going back to September, those started off high, then they've kind of been zigzagging, but they're actually trending downward.

And we need to see the closed tickets trending upward and the open tickets trending downward to show progress.

I'm very concerned that we are not seeing that just in those two data points.

So what you just said, you know, we brought people on site to accelerate the process, but if these data points aren't showing progress over the last five months, I'm not feeling very confident that we're gonna get there.

Yeah, I think you know, as it relates to the overall ticket count, and I'm not disputing the facts, the facts are the facts.

I do think there's a subset of the three or four hundred, as you mentioned, that are um I'll call go live critical.

There are several things throughout projects that get filed in terms of enhancements.

Um they want the product to do something differently or they want it to be displayed in a different way, but we look at those as really more long-term kind of roadmap fixes.

I think where our attention has been has been on those items that we call go live critical.

You also hear the word blockers maybe in the slides.

Um, that's really where we focus our attention to ensure, as as Commissioner Clark said, that once we do go live, that the um the system is operating in a way that allows the public safety professionals to use it in a way to do their job.

And so while I don't dispute the larger number, our focus has been on the go live number, and I think that's hovering somewhere in the 30 to 33 range as of a couple days ago, and that's where our kind of focus is as it relates to the go live.

Okay, well, I only talked about two of the trend lines.

I'm looking at the blocker line, which is also provided to us over the last five months, and there seems to be other structural issues there because it is declining slowly.

So these are the larger um structural issues that your team is encountering, but those are just declining at a very slow rate.

So again, to you and your team, what is gonna provide us with some confidence that we're gonna start to see these monthly metrics in a positive trending way?

Yep.

I think you know, the the one thing we can do on a daily basis, which is what we're doing is deploying more resources and attention to try to, if it requires, since it's software, if it requires software coding changes, that we do that in a more rapid way.

And so the best thing that we can do, and I think we're doing it is deploying more resources to have those trend lines move in a positive direction.

And so that's what we are doing.

Commissioner Herman.

Commissioner Hill.

Uh I this is super controversial, I guess, but talking to the chief, I I think his concern is should we be separating out law enforcement?

And at what time do we do that?

And I don't know what that does to our contract.

And this is a multi-jurisdictional contract, and you know, I I worry that we in government think, okay, we've put a lot of resources into something and we can't re-evaluate, we have to continue going down the same track.

And I just don't want to be that way if that's not the right way to do it.

And I know that you have been putting a ton of resources.

I will give your team credit.

Like that's according to the chief, and um certainly our manager who um weaved tasks to really dig in on this um to make sure that you know we are keep we are being kept informed.

But um, and I appreciate that.

And I I think you're committed to the project.

It's just um that's my concern.

And you know, with Commissioner Garcia's kind of going over the history and seeing that the trend lines are not going great.

Um, and you know, this is a very complex project, and I'm wondering like uh are we kind of a guinea pig for y'all, your company and like the rest of the nation, or have you have you achieved this in another community that you can give us some hope, or do we need to start looking at other options as a region on what what we need to do next?

And do we miss this next deadline that you promised at the end of this year, and then we make a change, and it's just tough to um as policymakers to really have um feel like we're making that right decision for the region and the right financial decision, and especially as a region that has had a hard time coming together on a project like this, like this project is kind of monumental for our region, and then the fact that it's even delayed is like it's it's even more painful for us to try to continue to collaborate as a region.

So any thoughts on on those questions would be helpful.

Yeah, maybe just uh an awareness statement based on your last comment, that um kind of regionalization um has been impressed upon me pretty strongly by the various agencies and the leaders, and so certainly well aware of the several years of of progress that maybe are at risk, if that's the right way to say it.

And so um I'm certainly aware and and that's been impressed upon me pretty strongly.

Um just as it relates to, I think one of the questions in your comments was around are we a guinea pig?

I think I might be paraphrasing your words, but I think that's what you said is so just by way of background, you know, and I'll get maybe more specific to your question, but you know, Hexagon has been in the public safety software business for almost 40 years.

So we've been helping agencies, cities, counties, states kind of go through large scale replacements of mission critical systems.

I think as it relates to the version of the software that we're implementing here, that is much newer.

And so across the United States, we've implemented across the United States and Canada, we've implemented, I think 21 go lives now since since the incorporating fire and public safety.

Oh, and private EMS questions.

So in that in the history of the company for certain, yeah.

As it relates to the 21, um, that is where, as we've kind of graduated up from small agencies to consolidation of agencies, uh, we continue to grow that.

Um, just recently you may have seen a public announcement from Hexagon.

We went live with Arlington County, Virginia, um, which is uh multi-uh police fire EMS, um, albeit just dispatch only, right?

This includes dispatch and the law enforcement records and field reporting side.

So I do believe that um you're not being a guinea pig that we have, again, as I mentioned, going live with the system in uh 21, I believe is the right number, and uh I'm confident that we'll get there through the steps that we're taking.

Okay.

Uh so that was one of my questions.

And so I I'm just gonna ask you directly, because I want to make sure I'm hearing you.

I appreciate the 21 and I appreciate you understanding the capacity that um and the risk.

There is so much been put on hexagon in so many ways, and the working group all has um, you know, my understanding, given as much as they can at in an expeditious fashion to address any of those questions or whatever that comes up.

So it it it's my understanding, and so I'm just gonna ask for confirmation that this is the first that truly integrates the first project that truly integrates fire, EMS, and public safety completely integrated as one package without APIs, without just fully integrated.

And I just I want to make sure if if there is something, that's great.

But my confidence too has waned.

Um whenever there's a delay, and I'm sure it's hard, and again, commendable to you to have boots on the ground here and really looking at how how helping to accelerate that.

My next question is going to deal with some fiscal questions, but I'll stick with this first one.

Okay.

So have you have is there a project that's gone live that truly integrates those three provisions without any other factors with you know APIs, but truly as a standalone product, if you will.

Yeah, for um, let me make sure I answer the question directly of the of the 21 that I mentioned that incorporates both the dispatch, the police records, and the field reporting, if that's the integrated solution, uh, then on the new version of the software that is what's being implemented here, then the answer to your question is no, there is no other that are currently live with all three of those integrated components.

I appreciate that.

And the mobile field reporting as well, um, and that's being um addressed in and and what is your track record with with that and that integration.

Yeah, so we we have been and have mobile field reporting solutions with many of our customers.

The mobile field reporting solution that we're rolling out here is a new product and um would be uh the first agency in North America using the new product.

We have mobile field reporting solutions in in many of our other customers.

Well, I think that what you're hearing is a sentiment that's clear.

And the fact is is that there's a lot of other items which aren't on you in terms of hexagon and delivering the product, but are on you because everyone is looking at Hexagon to deliver the product, so that we can actually move in the direction that we need to in terms of looking at regionalization or other options um and being more efficient and being um streamlined, and more importantly, to be able to be more the most efficient we can in addressing life and death issues.

And I don't have to tell you, being in the product that you're in, that this is life and death issues.

And um it's concerning because it's not just Washoe County, it's it's the entire region.

And the cost of this, I think, and that was going to be my second question is what provisions in the contract allow for um what I would call um this new adventure, even though you have experience in that space.

And I appreciate your candor and and sharing that this is new.

So all jurisdictions, in fact, all 17 counties across the entire state of Nevada, which is not hexagon's uh concern, but just to put this in the context, are are having you know budget constraints.

You know, Washoe County proudly is in a good position in various ways, and we have a talented team that'll take us through.

But all three jurisdictions are putting the resources into this.

And so what provisions do we have contractually with you that takes into consideration these what I'll call um a closed ticket, one closed ticket, and then four get open five get open.

That means we're on the plus of four again.

So to Vice Chair Garcias and to uh Commissioner Clark and Commissioner Hill, you can hear the sentiment.

And and we're not here to um do anything in terms of um hopefully you leaving, understanding that we're looking for, at least I am, provisions that that's not on us.

These cost overruns are not on us.

Change orders of a request that's outside the scope of the contractual contract as defined, that's a different story.

But cost overruns in terms of delays are not on us.

And I believe that there should be two things that I'd like to see you come back with, and that is this.

One, what is the contingency for a plan B to Commissioner Hill's point and to your clarification of having this integrated system where all three are talking, if you will, in one and one solution is my understanding hasn't really been accomplished.

So if it can't be, what can we salvage?

What does that plan look like?

What is the timeline?

What is the cost?

And maybe there's a phased approach.

We look at this pullback and we look at some contingencies, and then we actually look at the financial piece for the contract that you signed.

So if in fact you're able to deliver the full product in its entirety as designed and as a scope of work was outlined, then we can maybe look at the phase of it.

But we can't do we cannot afford our community.

This is life and death issues.

Our community cannot afford to wait any longer.

And so I know that we can't necessarily um make something happen overnight, but because of the 40 years of experience, because of the 21 go lives, because of all the things that you bring, the experience that you have shared with us, that's why you were awarded the contract.

We're looking now.

I'm I'll just speak for myself.

I'm looking for contingencies, and I'm looking for you to come back and share what that is.

Okay.

Is that fair?

Yep.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Well, I'm glad you were here for the first 30 minutes.

No, I'm glad I'm here for the whole meeting.

You know, I I really I really don't want you to feel that we are um doing anything but our responsibility to this community and our responsibility to ensure that a lot of decisions that have that hexagon is not responsible for, but are on everything.

Every everything that we have, it's when hexagon says, when hexagon, with hexagon, everything, everything.

There are big things that are happening.

There's the legislature who put on on all three jurisdictions contingencies for for a fire study that is due on December 31st, 2026, complete, which is not you, but guess what?

Everything is in that hexagon.

So I don't know if we should look at again how we can salvage what we have done, how we don't compromise the delivery of the product to the safety and the community and the responsibility that we have, and maybe a phased approach if it can't be done in in the way that we originally thought in order to get this live to make it reliable and to do the job that it can.

So I think you have a lot of smart people, a lot of creative people, you're committed to coming here, and we hope that we can see you soon with what I hope is um some additional plans.

Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, along those lines, and maybe this is directed to our county manager.

Um, when will we get an update on what they are going to do?

Hexagon to reduce the open tickets and and the blockers before the end of the year rolls around.

Um, what's the communication going to be looking like?

Because we haven't seen or heard from Hexagon.

Um, and even on that day, the hexagon uh wasn't even the one that presented, it was uh I believe somebody from the city arena.

Um so I'm just looking forward to the communication that we will receive or expect to receive.

Thank you.

Yeah, we will ensure that we have a regular update to the board.

I'll work with staff to make sure that we get on the calendar today to schedule something in the future um in the next couple of months.

And if I may, I just want to state we were just talking about this last night, and and thank you, Mr.

Ernst, for being here.

But as local governments who are steward of the taxpayer dollar, we are experiencing the frustrations with um vendors that are overpromising and underdelivering.

Um Miss Gustifson and I are sitting in another mediation session with another vendor.

So unfortunately, you're hearing that frustrations are high, and and um, so I'm sorry for that, but we will look forward to you know keeping everybody accountable and moving forward.

So we'll work with you to get those updates.

And then I would be remiss if I didn't recognize or give recognition to the teams at Washoe, Reno, Sparks, and Remsa, who have been working really, really hard internally.

This is an extremely complex project.

You all have have noted that.

Um, we know it's gonna have a life-changing impact to the community by lowering public safety response times.

And so I just want to shout out to the staff that have been working diligently on this.

We're all very hopeful in this community, um, especially the Washoe County Sheriff Staff and Um Sheriff's Office staff and those that have been working diligently.

So I didn't want to leave their work unrecognized.

So thank you.

Thank you.

More to come.

All right, appreciate it.

Thank you for the comments and conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

All right, thanks.

We'll move now to donations.

And if I could ask the vice chair to help with that, please.

Of course, madam chair.

Um, we have three donation items today.

So I move to approve cash donations and in-kind donations for supports to our parks.

Thank you to the Washa County Honorary Deputy Sheriff Sheriff's Association for a 20,055 donation for tire deflation devices, and 25,000 generously donated from the Sun Valley GID for the removal of abandoned vehicles.

Before I call for a second, I'm going to actually ask for public comment.

There's nobody signed in on these items.

Thank you.

Having no one signed in, I'll call for a second.

I I will second, and I do want to thank Moana Nursery because they helped us with um all of our tree replenishing from the Davis fire, and they've been an amazing partner for this county.

So um, thank you so much uh to our community partners.

We can't do it alone.

Great.

Well, we have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia, a second by Commissioner Hill, and the vote is on our screen.

Vice Chair Garcia.

If I it's not shown up on my screen, sorry.

Okay.

But I'm I'm guessing you're made the motion.

There you go.

That motion passes unanimous unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and close out the donation items and move now to consent.

And um, I'm gonna ask the vice chair if she can help with that too.

Well, actually, we're gonna move to consents.

AA 8A1 through 8G1.

Does anybody have any questions or anybody want anything pulled?

Um, I just have a quick question on 8A2.

I don't think we need to pull it.

I just see Duane in the audience.

I know we've seen these before.

Um, can you just I I could couldn't get a ton of clarity with that's the application and staff report about what the water is being used for, and I know it's a temporary request, but could you just uh clarify this request here before the board?

Yeah, absolutely.

For the record, Dwayne Smith, Director of Engineering and Capital Projects, and through the chair to the commissioner.

Thank you for your question.

Yes, we do bring these intercounty transfers from time to time uh to the board as part of the NRS requirements.

This is a non-binding recommendation to the state engineer to allow for things like changes of point of diversion across county lines or across basin lines or for those uh changed uses.

In this case, uh this was a uh uh a water right that was secured and used for irrigation of for ranching support, and it was in Pershing County, and now the application for a one-year basis is asked to to allow the state engineer to uh approve the use within Washer County.

So, again, this is a non-binding recommendation that's made to the state engineer.

The state engineer takes in the county commissioner's recommendation and makes a decision uh based on that, and of course, other factors.

So we'll see this again uh periodically.

Um if there's anything contentious, if there would ever be any issue, certainly I would appreciate the opportunity to bring that to you and point that out.

These are these are pretty standard and uh customary type of actions by the state engineer that you need to be aware of.

And what is the LLC using it for in Washoe County?

It's based on the application and based on my comments with our questions with staff.

This is for ranching for livestock irrigation.

So still ranching, ranching and ranching, but in Washington, it's just a different location.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

So move.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

We have second, second, second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

I'm not seeing it up on the screen, so I don't know if it's going to come up.

So I'll call it.

There is no public comment on this for the record.

Thanks.

Perfect.

And this is consent, so you just take the vote.

Thank you.

So we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll move now to the block.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I recommend that we block items nine, 10, 11, and 13 today.

Any questions on that?

Is that in the form of the motion, Vice Chair Garcia?

Yes.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Do we have any public comment?

We do.

On item 11.

We have Trista Gomez.

Welcome.

Thank you.

I um still gonna be around.

I when I so I'm not going anywhere.

I will still be here, probably all the time, maybe more than you hope to see me, but here I am.

I'll just keep coming.

On this particular agenda item, my I have some concerns about the behavioral health hospital.

No doubt we need it, no doubt it would be an asset to the region.

No doubt that these things are are the community would will does need this hospital after uh West Hills closed down.

So that is not a question.

The question becomes um, there are a lot of federal insurance changes.

There is a lot of federal money that's not coming in.

There's a lot of um changes to Medicare reimbursements, and with that, with those changes, will this how is the commission hoping to sustain this in the event that those insurance reimbursements don't come in?

So I see a smile.

Maybe there's a great answer for it.

I don't know.

Um, and is this gonna be end up being an added burden to Washoe County taxpayers if in fact these insurance reimbursements don't come in as they were expected to when this whole project first started to be, you know, come forth.

So that really is the question.

Um we've seen a lot of and and this is coming out of the general fund, and I know that that it's gonna be a reimbursed.

I'm looking at that if there's other funding sources that come in, but now we're you know, obviously there's already a huge deficit.

There's already a lot of um competing interest in the community.

We're already a regional center for a lot of different behavioral um things, and with that, if the reimbursements for insurance don't come in with this, what is gonna happen to the facility?

How is the community gonna maintain these costs?

These are real issues, and I'm just wondering what the answer to that is.

Any other public comment?

There's none.

Thank you so much.

So we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries unanimously.

There's on our screen so we can confirm what we just did verbally.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item number 12.

Thank you, madam chair.

Item number 12 is a recommendation to one approve the guaranteed maximum price number two construction agreement with plenty of builders and the authorized construction manager at risk for the Washoe County Behavioral Health Remodel Project not to exceed 20 million 325,158 dollars, and two to authorize a project allowance in the amount of five million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the sole use by Washoe County to support and deliver the project to include items such as furniture, fixtures, and equipment, security equipment and systems and other components necessary for the project.

And three, if approved, offer authorize your county manager to act on behalf of Washop County to execute and deliver any and all instruments to enter into modifications or amendments to the project documents and agreements.

I will mention that we have uh Mr.

Smith here today to walk us through this process.

He would likely also touch on the previous items action on item number 11, and we will do our best to address um either I can do that or others may um the questions that our public have in our head.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

It's gonna be enlightening, I think.

Um we just want to make sure that we know that um Commissioner Herman, who had uh has an appointment left at at noon, straight at noon.

So I just want to get that on the record.

Mr.

Smith.

Good morning.

Again, for the record, Dwayne Smith, Director of Engineering Projects.

It's morning somewhere.

Thank you for that correction.

Well, I I appreciate um spending able to spend a few minutes with you and and kind of walk you through this item number 12.

And again, as Manager Thomas identified, this this item is a construction uh agreement.

It's um got three very critical and primary pieces.

First of all, it's to authorize our second guaranteed maximum price agreement with plenium builders, our CMAR partner uh for the delivery of this project.

It's also to authorize $5.35 million dollars in project allowances for the support and necessary for this project.

And that third item, as manager Thomas was was identifying, is to uh allow the board to give manager Thomas the ability to authorize any and all amendments and project modifications uh to help us facilitate the delivery of this project.

This is the second and final GMP to deliver the Washoe Children's Behavioral Health Project uh Center project.

Uh the first GMP was brought before you and approved in August of last year, August 2025.

And that really got the ball started, right?

It allowed us to get into the facility, demo the facility, and and preparate uh prep the facility to allow us to then go through the uh completion of design and the competitive bidding processes for this second and final GMP.

This final GMP is is designed to deliver all those required elements for this successful project.

Um it really focuses um by uh allowing us to deliver the project uh in a timely schedule.

So instead of delivering it through multiple GMPs, guaranteed my maximum price agreements.

We are able to consolidate this and work with both the design team, the construction team, and certainly our internal service, our internal partner, uh human services agency to really collaborate, bring that project schedule uh to a short as possible.

Why do we do that?

Well, that's to allow us to really maintain and manage cost escalation.

So the shorter the time frames, the approach that we've taken will help us manage and maintain cost escalations.

But these are projects of that are complex, a lot of moving pieces.

So to help us further manage these cost escalations, we included a separate request for a $5.35 million allowance.

That $5.35 million dollar allowance, um, and certainly giving Manager Thomas the ability to authorize and sign those elements will allow us to work in parallel with our CMAR contractor and give human services agency the ability to make those final decisions uh as needed for things like furnishings for the facility fixtures and those elements that are necessary to complete that project.

So we typically you might see a project where we include the FFNE in that GMP or that series of GMPs, but to allow for the most effective way to manage the cost, manage the schedule, and have some um basically uh uh parallel work done.

We've asked for the removal of this, and we've put this 5.35 million into the separate allowance request.

These are not options, these are elements that are necessary for the project.

So I just want to be very clear with that.

I think for this project schedule is key.

Um, the community expects and needs these services.

And so with your uh consideration today, um, we're going to move with an administrative notice to perceive uh proceed uh by this Friday.

Uh proceed uh by this Friday.

So typically bonds and insurance and those types of things take time.

Uh but we've been working again with plenty of builders, our CMAR contractor, our competitively selected CMR contractor, I should say, um, who's really committed to helping advance the schedule as well.

Uh you're probably wondering uh when the scheduled completion of the construction work is, and that is July 2nd of 2027.

So that's a very advanced pro uh schedule to let us get through this complete renovation reconstruction.

Uh all elements will be included in this final product to bring this facility up to both the needs of the project and also Washoe County's facility expectations.

So I just wanted to uh quickly uh give you some information about the project, identify some of those key elements within this request that are a little bit different than what we might bring to you uh typically, and certainly want to thank um county management and also our our our partners and our clients, HSA to allow us to get to this place.

So if you have any questions, we we certainly have a team here to answer those questions.

Thank you.

Any questions for Mr.

Smith?

Do we have any public comment?

There is none.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you.

So hearing that we have no public comment, I'll call for a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I move to approve as presented.

Do I have a second?

Yes, and I'll second and with a tiny baby discussion.

Madam Chair.

I just want to go for discussion.

I want to commend you, Madam Chair.

Uh you've been um really working so hard on the fundraising campaign for this, and I know it's been a huge initiative that the staff have undertaken, and you have been leading, and um I have uh every um confidence in your ability to get us to where we need to get with this, and um, and so I just appreciate you getting us to this next phase.

I've been telling everyone it's opening in 2027, and it sounds like it's going to, so that's awesome.

Um, so thank you so much.

This is a really exciting day for Washoe County, mental health, our children, our community.

This is real leadership.

We're stepping up in a place where uh most counties are not because they can't, and really um I I think it shows that we really are trying to care for everyone on all levels, and so it's an exciting day for Washo.

Well, thank you.

I I'd like to accept that, but I would be remiss to actually accept it because it really is Ms.

Ratty, Manager Thomas, the entire team, and everybody in the community who recognizes that this is an important hole that has been uh vacated and needs to be filled.

So it's all of us, but thank you.

So we have a motion, we have a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, it's on your screen.

Madam Clerk, mine is still not working, so I'm a yay.

Thank you.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

We'll move now to item 14, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This item is a recommendation to nominate at least two candidates from the list of applicants, which include a whole host of individuals that are listed on your agenda under an item 14.

We have Alexandra Wilson here to walk us through the selection process.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, members of the commission.

Um, I did want to note that this um appointment is slightly different in that it is a nomination to the governor's office who makes the final appointment.

Um, so per NRS, you are to make at least uh two candidates for nomination from the list of five individuals, um, and we'll pass around a ballot to pick your top two individuals.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This feels a little deja vu.

We have four again.

No deja vu.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill's nomination is for Danny Clark and Robert Listener Commissioner Clark, Robert Listener, Jacqueline Russell Chair Andreola, Keith Hayes, and Robert Listener.

Chair Andreola, Keith Hayes, and Robert Listener.

Commissioner Garcia or Vice Chair Garcia, Hayes and Listener.

And so we're selecting one.

You're selecting two.

Thank you.

Hayes and listener guys.

Hayes and listener.

That's what I'm hearing.

That's what I wrote down.

Are you confirming that?

I'm happy to make a motion that we recommend Mr.

Listener and Mr.

Hayes.

Great.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Vice Chair Garcia, a second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Is there any public comment?

There was none.

That I forgot.

Hearing none.

Um it sounds like we're not gonna get we don't get a screen on this.

Well, let's just can we vote by verbal.

Is that all right with you?

That's my I want to make sure.

Okay.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Voice motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll move now to item 15, which is public comment.

Thank you, madam chair.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person.

It may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda.

A news time may not be allocated to other speakers.

And please make your comments to the commission as a whole.

We have Tristan Gomez.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Tristan Gomez for the record.

I uh I I don't know if you know or don't know.

I'm not gonna be running for commission district three anymore.

I'm gonna be running for legislature.

I've been asked, had been asked for months.

It was a hard decision to make.

Um I didn't really it was sad a little bit, but I just basically told them, hey, I I don't really want to do this if I can't be involved in community politics anymore.

And the the proverbial they said that it would still be okay if I came in, hung out every week and talked about community issues, and so I'll still be still be here.

The thing I'm gonna talk about right now is the CHAB meeting that was canceled, and just the incredible, incredible disappointment.

And um, I mean that it just inconscientable really that that would be canceled over something so preventable.

It was it was a preventable thing that could have kept it on, I guess.

I am hoping there's a lot of interest in the CARES campus budget.

There's a lot of interest in general in the amount of money that is being spent on things that other regions in states or close by regions aren't spending on because they're expensive and they're a burden to taxpayers when they're not handled well and they're not handled um in a way that makes that is that is a benefit to everybody.

And when I'm looking at those numbers for CARES campus, which I'm trying to be careful with, because it's an important, but also we are missing some really key pieces in that CARES program, things like residency requirements, things like um time restrictions, time requirements, things like possibly sobriety requirements, things like um there's 630 beds.

There's not a facility, that's just in one of the places.

There's not a facility that exists like that, I think until Denver.

These are huge costs to taxpayers, and when you're looking around, and when I'm talking to people, it's questionable about whether or not we're even doing a good thing for some of these people.

Really, what we used to be, what we used to call it is enabling.

And so my suggestion would be, and I have I'm gonna talk about this in in more length, but it was really disappointing that that meeting got canceled, and I think people would really like to see and hear and have a lot more understanding and uh barriers or goalposts about how that program runs.

And so I'll talk about that more later, but it's a sensitive subject, and I think it needs to be handled carefully, so I'll handle it carefully.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

We'll move now to Commissioner and County Manager announcements.

Manager Tomps, you have anything to announce?

I do not, thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair.

I just want to announce that we are going to have a uh CHAB meeting, community homeless advisory board meeting on uh March 16th, 2026.

So we'll have that here then.

Um and then I want to uh comment about uh Dwayne Smith came to our uh my uh cab meeting the other night, our cab meeting for the South Counties and did an excellent job.

Uh and I didn't get a chance to uh thank him when he was here, but I want to get it on the record that he did a great job at the at the meeting and answered a lot of questions for for the constituents there.

And lastly, I want to uh comment that uh I appreciate uh fellow commissioners asking tough questions about the uh hexagon contract.

I think that this is a situation where where we need to be unified and all of us asking the same type of questions about when is it going to be delivered?

Are we a guinea pig?

How much is it gonna cost, and and when, if ever, is it going to be implemented to serve our our community?

So thank you for all the other commissioners' tough questions today.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Vice Chair Russia.

Well, I would just also like to thank the Sparks uh Hope team and the uh Washoe County Sheriff's Hope team who came to the Spanish Springs Cab.

Who it was amazing presentation and uh really spoke to the outcomes and how we are really saving a lot of taxpayer dollars and and the program and how it works.

So we're looking forward to having uh continued conversations with all jurisdictions to uh see if we can certainly come together.

But I I really appreciate it.

I want to thank everybody for a great meeting.

Um, it was really a wonderful thing that I know I'm gonna take away, and to know that Grace Church is going to be doing the invocation next at the next meeting is something I'm gonna hold on to.

So I hope everybody has a wonderful day.

Appreciate it.

We're gonna go ahead and close the meeting at 12 17.

Thank you.