Good morning.

It is happy St.

Patrick's Day, March 17th, 2026.

I'm gonna call the meeting to order for the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners at 10 a.m.

I would like to actually ask Chief Edwards if he would do a salute to the flag, please.

The United States of America.

And she's a very popular for which one nation under Broad Indivisible with Liberty and Justice Roll.

Thank you.

We'll move to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola present.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Herman.

Here.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

Chief Deputy DA Mike Large.

Present.

Adam, you have a quorum.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item 3A1 invocation.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This morning we are joined by Matthew Fisher, who is with the Nevada Interfaith Association and the Reno Buddhist Center to lead us in an invocation.

Thank you.

A Buddhist invocation.

Zhenjohn Joshua.

May the spiritual presence of Amida Puddha Kanon and Seishi Bodhisattvas and all enlightened ones, past, present, and future permeate this hall to send forth wisdom like flower petals falling from the sky to awaken those of us gathered.

When a spirit of wisdom and compassion, we encourage thoughtful and just decision making by the commission gathered here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.

We'll move now to item item 4A1.

County manager, please.

Thank you.

Yes, this morning we have an update and a presentation from Trekkie Meadows Fire and Rescue Chief Eisenhagen, and he's also joined by Don Johnson from the National Weather Service.

They have some slides for us this morning.

Good morning.

For the record, August Eisenhagen, I'm a division chief with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District.

I oversee the wildland fire and fuels management division.

I'm joined by Don Johnson or joined by John Don Johnson.

Can't speak this morning from the weather service.

Some of the work that was done, what we looked at locally and nationally, and then what we're looking at as we move into the 2026 fire season.

So I'll move through these slides fairly quickly.

We gave them at the Board of Fire Commissioners, but these are some of the tangibles from within the division.

It's normally fairly behind the scenes to the public, but the wild or the volunteer program is a subordinate program within the wildland division.

They focus primarily on wildland fire.

These are some stats from last fire season for them.

And then as we get into the 2026 season, these are our operational volunteers at Gurlake, Gurlach, Silver Lake, Palomino Valley, Red Rock, and South Valleys.

I will note this is our big onboarding time of year for new volunteers.

So if anybody in the community is interested in participating in volunteer firefighting, that information is on our website.

They're wildland firefighters by trade.

This is within Truckee Meadows.

But when they're not on fires, they're doing fuels management projects.

So these are some stats from over the last year of their accomplishments in the field.

And then these stats I want to go over because these are definitely more pertinent and centered around our communities, around our civilians.

So during 2025, uh the division treated 91 private parcels, uh improving defensible space.

Of at our green waste uh program, which is hugely popular with the with the public.

All right, I will note our spring green waste um drive, if you will, is scheduled for May 2nd and 3rd.

That information is also on our website.

We had 106 citizens service through curbside shipping.

That program is mainly centered around the elderly, disabled, low-income, the the citizens that aren't able to participate in the green waste program.

We issued over 1,200 burn permits where the public can burn under certain requirements.

Um that's a force multiplier for us because they're eliminating some of those hazardous fuels in and around the homes.

Over 5,000 piles were burnt, or this is self-reporting, I should say.

Should have been burnt this winter for about 6,500 cubic yards of material.

Wildland division personnel performed 340 defensible space inspections and attended 49 community events, and then three new communities in Washoe County achieved firewise USA credentialing, which is a big deal for us.

And then we, through partnerships with Keep Trucking Meadows Beautiful, will recycle just under 800 Christmas trees, so those don't end up on the landscape.

So that's 2025, some deliverables.

When we talk about fire season, um wildland division personnel spent over 1200 days, individual days on fire assignment, and the district overall spent over 1,700 personnel days on fire assignment.

This is in Washoe County across the state and across the country.

We have a national dispatch framework that facilitates uh response across jurisdictional boundaries.

The map on the right are some of our bigger wildland fires within the county.

It was a fairly normal year.

I won't use the term average because we have so much variance uh with the size of our fires, especially way out north.

Um it was a fairly normal year in terms of number of starts and how many of them went, you know, 500,000, 2,000 acres.

But county overall last year just under 5,000 acres burnt, and that's all the way up to the that includes fires all the way up to the Oregon border.

In the state of Nevada, um, just under 400,000 acres burnt.

Again, that's fairly normal, obviously with the map on the right.

A lot of activity in Elko County and then down south in the in the military areas.

Um we do, as I referenced earlier, respond across jurisdictional boundaries.

So pictures on the left are Truckee Meadows resources assisting with those fires in Elko County.

When we look at the Great Basin overall, which we are a part of in terms of uh geographic dispatching, we had just under 2,800 fires, uh, 590,000 acres.

That one's also a fairly normal year.

Again, we can't use average averages because sometimes we'll have one fire that goes 700, 800,000 acres.

National 10-year average, again, and for again for the entire country, there was an interesting trend where we had just under 60,000 fires for about seven and a half million acres.

Um excuse me, that's the 10-year rolling average.

Last year we had 72,000 fires and five million acres.

So that's an interesting dynamic with a 22% increase in starts, but 32% decrease in acreage.

And I don't know the why behind that.

Picture on the right are trucking meadows personnel.

Same thing with that national response model assisting with fires in Washington, Colorado, and Utah.

Turn it over to Don for a weather update.

All right, thank you, Chief.

Don Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service for the record.

So this year we have had a lot of rain, but not a lot of snow.

Uh, this is actually looking at what's known as snowwater equivalent across the eastern Sierra, and normally we like to peak out right around April 1st.

But as you would note here, the black curve shows us peaking in late February and rapidly decreasing thereafter.

So if we look at what our snow water equivalent is currently up in our basins, we're at like 45 to say 60-ish percent across the north, a lot worse, merely a 30% or so.

But if you compare that to how much rain has fallen, we're actually at or above normal for total precipitation.

So by definition, this is a warm snow drought.

Right now we're having an unprecedented heat wave for March.

Um we have actually never been above 83 degrees, and we're forecasting higher than that the next six days in a row.

Um, since 1893, Reno has actually only gotten above 80, 11 total times out of almost 4100 days.

So just to kind of put that into context, how rare this is.

This is like June right now, not March.

And so with that, we're going to be rapidly melting off even more snow.

Uh, the early melt-out that we're seeing in the Sierra is actually unprecedented in the 45 years of snow tell and a snow tell being snow telemetry network.

Uh, they're basically automated snow recording sites that are up in our mountains.

We've never seen anything like this.

Our soil moistures are quite high right now for this time of the year.

As you can see, they're all running well above normal, 100 to 150% of normal.

If you look at the percent of median for our stream flows, so how much water is flowing through our rivers, creeks, and streams right now?

All between about 150 to almost 300% of normal for this time of year.

Again, because we are melting things out so early.

Now, if we compare it to the water year, so again, how much water are we getting compared to normal for our water year?

We're actually right around normal or even slightly above normal across the board.

But if we flip that and look at what our normal meltdown time frame is, so April through July, which is what our typical meltdown season is, that's a very different picture, where we're looking at really only somewhere between 35 and 70 percent a normal because we are melting things off well ahead of schedule.

So that now means that there's going to be a big gap between when the snow is melting off and when water demands are occurring, right?

We have tourism impacts, we have lack of snow for ski season, potential for more severe fire season.

We've had a lot of rain.

That helps with the fine fuel growth in the lower elevations.

We also then have lack of snow up in the mountains for an extended period of time, which then in turn could mean again, we have to have a spark, but could mean more fires in the summer in our larger fuels as well.

Our flood risk right now is almost non-existent, even though our soils are really moist.

We have melted off so much of the low elevation snow that we would have to have one heck of a major storm come in for us to have to worry about flooding again.

And right now that's not on the horizon.

As far as our drought update, western part of the state doing just fine, no drought there, drier out to the eastern part of the state, but Washoe County is all in the clear.

And our summer outlook is for above normal with a near-normal monsoon activity, which is how we tend to get our rain in the summer.

They are not monsoons, they are thunderstorms driven by monsoonal flow, which is just a change in wind direction.

Back to you, Chief, to finish it off.

All right.

Thank you, Don.

Um, so the key takeaways as we go into the 2026 season.

Um, I frequently get asked what's next season look like?

How's how bad is it gonna be?

How bad is it gonna be?

And the running joke is it's always gonna be the worst.

Um, because if we have a wet year, we expect to burn more in the deserts because we get more annual grass.

If we have a dry year, we expect to burn more up on the slopes in the forest because those trees are water stress.

This is the first year in my 25 years in the field where I remember having both scenarios.

We have more water than normal uh for the grass to grow, but it is not in the shape of snow on the slopes to keep the trees healthy as we get into the summer.

So that's the main takeaway.

The the well, I'll also double down on uh what Don said.

It doesn't matter without the starts, and 90% of our starts are human costs.

So key takeaway for the public is it kind of depends on us as we get into this summer how bad the season's gonna be.

Now's the time for home hardening defensible space improvements.

Uh also for the public.

If they have if they want any information on that, we refer them to the Living with Fire website through UNR cooperative extension.

There's a lot of good publications and information there.

And that is the end of the presentation, unless there are questions.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing this.

I was waiting for the um little pictures that you all have on the little emojis with happy, not so good.

I thought there might be a unique one created for this since it's brand new territory, so new emoji to come.

Do any of the commissioners have any questions or comments?

Commissioner Herman.

I just wanted to tell you both thank you.

And I hope we have a light fire season.

As do we.

We need more cows out there.

That does help.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

Thank you for having us.

Great.

We'll move now into public comment.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We are on item number five, 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.

Comments are to be made to the commission as a whole, and virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

First up, we have Terry Brooks, followed by Katherine Snediger.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

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

People who are elderly have not only made less wages, but their income is worth even less while he or she ages.

They might get used to living with a lower income, but they then realize that they are on a fixed income.

At least the elderly may be helped by Social Security, but because of inflation, they have more insecurity.

The elderly have been used to wages that went up with the cost of living.

But now they just can't keep up with the rising cost of living.

Social Security can go up a little at a time, but it doesn't keep up with the cost of living that keeps going up all the time.

And the older you are, the more you need health care, and as the price goes up, it's quite a burden to bear.

Some elderly people can't hunt or fish anymore or grow their own garden anymore.

They have to shop for all their food as the prices as the prices go up even more.

And sometimes, and something else that keeps going up is the price of utilities.

And it keeps going up more and more beyond the elderly's capabilities.

So if they can't take care of their house anymore, then they may find a place to rent.

And I hope I live long enough to come here with more to say.

Oh, and by the way, I'd also like to say I hope you all have a happy St.

Patrick's Day.

Thank you.

Catherine Snediger, followed by Janet Butcher.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You guys are pretty tricky, aren't you?

Talk about the 20 points for a Sierra Reflections.

And suddenly they disappear from the internet.

Gone.

Can't find them anywhere.

I'm sure glad I downloaded them the day before you took them down.

There's several things on there that has not been considered when you were so anxious to give your approval of their project.

One of the most there's two that are very substantial.

One is the development has to blend in with what's already there.

Can you imagine such a thing?

No, you can't.

So you approve 940 homes on a rural area.

Nice little Washoe Valley.

So sweet, so calm.

And now you're putting in 940 homes, some of them on only one tenth of an acre.

That fits with rural lifestyle, doesn't it?

I think so.

Not the other thing is traffic.

You're going to put in these roundabouts.

Fire trucks can't get around the roundabouts.

There's one in Sun Valley that'll show you that.

And the other one is old 395.

I didn't see any plans to widen that.

When you have probably 1,800 more cars on the road, where's this all the traffic going to go?

Can't fit on 95, three old 395.

There's no plan for that.

Those are two very important parts of infrastructure.

Also, I didn't see where they had gone to the Nevada Equal Protection Division for any chemicals and mercury that's on the land to get a permit from them for them to go forward.

Washoe County doesn't have the authority to issue a permit for that.

The state of Nevada.

Look at Spanish Springs.

You widen the roads so that all the businesses could be serviced properly.

People could get in and out with no problem.

And then it goes to a bottleneck.

And it's bumpered above her traffic.

And then you're stupid enough to make the speed limit 55.

I don't go 55.

I go 65 or 70.

Because 55 is ridiculous when there's no cars on the road.

People are coming the back ways through Palomino Valley up past Pyramid Lake.

Because Janet Butcher, followed by Todd Bailey.

Good morning and happy St.

Patty's Day.

Today's agenda number nine contains the reappointment for the Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission.

There was a reappointment set forth on January 20th, 2026, meeting for TRPA.

It was tabled and discussion was undertaken that reappointment policy should be reviewed during the strategic planning meeting.

When will this meeting take place?

And will the policy to automatically reappoint a volunteer be changed to open appointments up to the community?

The TRPA appointment was tabled, opened up to the community, and was later placed on a subsequent meeting agenda.

The person seeking reappointment was not selected.

Today we have a similar situation with a reappointment.

It should in essence be treated the same.

The optics are that the commission is picking and choosing which positions they want to handle based upon the outcome of the appointee.

I hope the agenda item nine is tabled and open to the public.

So in the the reappointment part for uh the TRPA, um it was discussed that it should be open to the public.

So why that one, but not this one.

Do you see the imbalance?

Do you see the optics don't look very well?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Todd Bailey, followed by Ryan Vortich.

Um, good morning, commissioners.

I don't know if you saw in the newspaper over the weekend there was an opinion from some fake news journalists.

And they were they were complaining about transparency in government.

This whole article in the newspaper about how government isn't transparent enough.

They were complaining about a lack of transparency and fees for transparency.

It was really ridiculous.

Now I support the idea.

In fact, I was with them over 10 years ago at the legislature.

And my solution to this was any public official, elected or otherwise, who does not comply with Nevada law on transparency, is guilty of a felony, and the fine will be a million dollars.

Now, everybody in the building laughed because they knew it was true.

Without that level of enforcement, we don't have transparency in government.

But these guys know this.

These fake journalists know this.

Look at how slanted their agenda is.

They were all in on the COVID censorship, right?

Defund the police, open borders for Sanctuary State Nevada.

Should be called the Coalition for Propaganda Transparency.

It's all fake news.

Now I understand, I get it.

It's because their advertisers are the same as some of your contributors, right?

Including last week.

Now I can prove this with one piece of paper, just one.

Through you, madam chair, to the county clerk.

I make the following public information request, number 2603 1701.

Number one, in the election of 2008, what were the election results on question WC number three?

What were the election results?

And number two, please identify where in the policies of Washoe County or the Trucking Meadows Regional Plan where WC number three has been codified or written anywhere at any time.

Because I can't find it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ryan Vortich, followed by Jill O'Leary.

Good afternoon, Chair Andreola and Commissioners.

My name is Ryan Bordish, and I'm the Northern Nevada Democracy Coordinator with Silver State Voices.

We are a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission centers on building a more robust democracy by expanding voter access and ensuring fair and free elections.

I'm here today to speak in support of the recent developments within the Registrar Voters' Office, which y'all will get to hear about during item 7A1.

We applaud the work that Registrar McDonald and his team are doing to ensure or to expand accessibility measures in Washoe County elections.

Not only is the office revamping our polling locations to ensure utmost ADA compliance, but they are also preparing to launch Nevada's first curbside voting program to further expand access to the ballot box.

Their team has been working diligently to ensure that every eligible voter is able to make their voice heard this election cycle, and we look forward to seeing the beneficial impacts of these new initiatives during the primary election in June.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jill O'Leary, followed by Maureen McGalroy.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Jill O'Leary.

I'm here today to follow up on my February 10th request for action to reconcile the county checkbook from budgeted dollars to actual dollars paid.

In addition to payroll, a few other areas of budget also reconciled by the Comptroller using summaries of transactions include investment income on over 800 million dollars accumulated since 2010 from the RTC 5 perpetual gas tax.

1.2 million dollars is summarized in the budget for the whole year as investment income on over 800 million dollars, with no reconciliation of dollars actually spent on any of the RTC five road improvement projects.

The proposed EVT V tax has no basis.

Related to items 8E1 and 8E2, lack of transparency reporting income expenditures and revenue of numerous federal, state, and local grants, such as the 436,000 state homeland security program grant awarded in late 2025.

Washoe was the only agency in Nevada to seek the specific federal grant for immigration enforcement.

Apparently, this grant makes Washoe County eligible to receive Marshall Service Reimbursement of 167 per day for each ICE detainee.

Also not properly documented.

Previously known as competency restoration performed at Lakes Crossing.

This is the state funded grant only Washoe County chose to participate in 5.8 million dollars state funding in April 2024, then supplemented in December 2025 with an additional 9.9 million dollars of this, a 6.2 million dollar contract with NAF NAPH care was approved to provide medical and psychiatric staffing required by the grant for 30 bed facility, specifically for inmates who are found incompetent to stay in trial.

The state is effectively paying Washoe County to timely handle mental care inmates who had reached an average stay of 74 to 122 days.

Current waiting list for these 30 beds is reported at zero.

This grant provides nothing to expedite the cases of 1,100 people housed in general population of which more than half are provided medication.

Washoe County, in addition, Washoe County auctioned 40 properties with a reported revenue of 1.2 million dollars.

I again call for the county manager and this board to oversee the comp prolors providing actual expenditures, revenues, and investment income.

Good morning, Chair Andreola and Commissioners.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

My name for the record is Maureen McElroy.

I'm a native Nevada and a longtime Washoe County resident.

This morning I'd like to briefly state my appreciation of our Washoe County Registrar voters, Andrew McDonald and his dedicated staff.

As election season approaches, it is more important than ever for us, the voting public to feel secure in our local voting processes and in the staff members who handle those.

But it is a two-way street.

We, the voting public, have the obligation to understand our local voting processes.

I encourage everyone who has a stake in our upcoming elections to go to the Registrar Our Voters website, washow County.gov forward slash voters.

To see the work that goes into our county holding secure elections.

Please educate yourselves on what the registrar of voters is doing to that end.

From streamlining and clarifying and clarifying the voter registration process to verifying and cleaning up voter roles to offering convenient, effective voting options, including accessible voting centers and the new ADA curbside voting.

Our registrar, our voters is working focusedly to deliver a safe, transparent, secure, and efficient voting experience for all of us in Washoe County.

So kudos to RLV and thank you so much for this opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and close item five, move to item six, commissioners and county managers announcements.

County Manager Thomas.

Yep, these include reports and updates for boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

I don't have anything for you this morning.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um there were some comments made at our last meeting about uh transparency and uh uh ethics and somebody might have offered uh alleged bribe and and and I take that to heart.

I I'm all about transparency as well.

I I think we need to look into uh that person who was accused of uh of that or uh or at least the investigation about that.

I'd like to add some other names to that.

I'd like to add uh you know, I'm afraid if I say the name out loud here, I might be uh uh having problems with uh open meeting uh law violation.

So I want to talk to the DA about that, then add some other names to that uh request from one of my colleagues.

So why don't you submit those to my office and we will look into those very well very well.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh last board meeting, um, I asked for um some specific data on how we are being reimbursed on our ICE detainees for the jail, and I still haven't received it.

So um just following up on that and hoping to get that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, if you recall Nevada Senate Bill 319 passed in 2025, and that mandated that we conduct a regional fire study um throughout the region.

So uh City Reno, City of Sparks, and Washoe County invite all members of the public to join in on an informational meeting that's taking place uh tomorrow night.

That's Thursday, March, or yeah, I two nights from now, sorry, uh Thursday, March 19th at 6 p.m.

It's gonna be held here at Northern Nevada Public Health in that big conference room that they have there.

It'll be a 90-minute meeting uh in person only, but it will be recorded and available for viewing on YouTube the following day.

So again, this is Thursday, March 19th, not tomorrow night, the next night, 6 p.m.

And in attendance, you'll have emergency global uh solutions, EGS, uh, the three chiefs.

So Chief Edwards, Chief Cochrane and Chief White.

So we encourage you all to attend and um gather that information.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What was the time?

6 p.m.

Okay, 6 p.m.

Thanks.

Vice Chair Herman.

And I really hope there's a lot of Irish celebration that we can enjoy today.

So we'll go ahead and close item six and move to item number seven, 781, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

We are joined this morning by our registrar of voters, Andrew McDonald and two of his staff, uh Reggie Greer and Addie Metter, to give us an update on various initiatives and developments within the Registrar of Voters Office.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair Andreola, Vice Chair Garcia, and Commissioners.

My name is Andrew McDonald for the record, and I am your Washoe County Register of Voters.

As we drive down, make sure our presentation is being as we drive down to the road to the 2026 election.

I want to give an overall update of the Register Voters Office.

Starting with maintaining the voter roles.

As I mentioned, when you voted me in 13 months ago, I made a commitment to maintaining those voter roles for, and it was the department's number one priority.

I think you will see and agree that promise has been kept.

Starting with bulk list maintenance, the month I came in as ROV until present.

Bulk voter list maintenance occurred until recent 90-day NAVRA deadline, which is March 11th, which prohibits my department from performing bulk list maintenance until after the primary election.

In compliance with NRS 293530, our office sends out address verification cards to voters, and they have 33 days to respond, or we will designate them as inactive.

Inactivations mainly come from undeliverable mail ballots being returned, USPS data that the voter no longer lives at their address.

An inactivation voters were canceled as they did not vote in two consecutive general elections.

And those elections would be 2022 and 2024.

There was no disenfranchisement, simply our office following the rules of NRS when voters do not take action by updating the record or voting.

The next slide is another way to represent the data.

Moving on, precinct adjustments.

The ballot and the contest remain the same.

There are no districts changes during this update.

Precinct changes only.

Moving on.

The voter transparency project.

Many of you have heard about this project.

I first want to thank Chairwoman Andriola for providing the vision of this project and identifying the Center for Internet Security as a framework to help guide this design.

We have been working closely with our technical services team and also our business technologists to bring this project to life.

As voter registration is now managed centrally through the statewide system, Washoe County is developing a transparency tool that captures periodic snapshots of voter registration data.

Each snapshot will be processed through a cryptographic hash, creating unique digital fingerprint of that data set.

Both the snapshot and its corresponding hash value will be publicly available.

This will allow anyone to independently calculate the hash and confirm that the file has not been altered since it was originally captured and published.

The purpose of the project is to provide transparent tamper evident record of voter registration data over time.

By preserving those snapshots and their hashes, the county can maintain the historical record of those changes to ensure that any unexpected modifications can be detected and investigated if needed.

A website will follow with future instructions, definitions, and information about the voter list maintenance timelines, including the processes of voter inactivations and cancellations on those on that website.

At a future board meeting, I'll come back with someone from CIS to further explain this project and demonstrate it to you.

Moving on to building of the vote centers for the 2026 primary election.

This coming election will have 22 vote centers with 50 election day vote centers.

Some featured locations.

We will have the Reno Sparks Convention Center for election day.

We can't do elections without our colleges, University of Reno, Truckee Meadows Community College.

We will have Reno Public Market for the first time, I think in a while, if not the first time ever.

And our partnership with the school district is very strong.

We'll have over 22 schools on election day supporting this location this election.

I also came before you many months ago with the heat map.

And this was us working with our GIS division in the county, and we crunched a lot of data with them.

And that data was community data to properly place vote centers in the right areas of need.

What this data really reinforced was we already had vote centers in the areas we needed them, and we weren't that far off.

So I'm excited to announce that super center at the Reno Sparks Convention Center.

When I say super center, it's at least 30 ballot marking devices or more at that location.

We also will be putting a drop box at the CARES campus.

And I'll be coming back in front of the board and asking you guys to approve the 2026 June primary vote centers at the April 14th board meeting.

Moving on to ballot marking devices.

In November 2025, this board approved the purchase of new ballot marking devices.

These devices will allow the voters who vote in person to print and cast a full-length ballot, tangible ballot.

This will be the first election.

The voters will use this new equipment, and therefore I want to give a plug.

Uh what we are showcasing an event at our new warehouse at 655 Longley Lane in Reno from 3 to 7 on March 24th.

It will be inviting the media, the public, elected officials, and other prominent members to participate and ask questions of those devices and of us.

In regards to the warehouse update, this board also recently approved a new building lease for the migration of our existing warehouse and ultimately the move to uh ROV headquarters to that location into the future.

We've taken the first step of starting to move our equipment and will be done by the end of this month.

We will then be procuring additional racking technical installations and a forklift to get going over there.

Regarding phase two, which is a facilities project, a CIP project, the request for proposals are due on the 19th of this month, and a notice of award is set for April 19th.

More on the warehouse to come in the future, but the ROV headquarters, just so we're all clear, will stay here for this election, next election, and we'll be moving in the 2027 time frame.

And that is due to the operational build-out of office space and the actual operations of that new warehouse.

Previous chairwoman Hill, you asked our office to get more involved with the youth vote.

We created a high school program, and since last month we had our first engagement with Sparks High School.

Students were very excited, and participation was actually very high.

Students learned the importance of voting and participated by voting on our new voting equipment via mock election.

More high school events will be coming, uh, likely after this election cycle as we go right into the uh the uh November general right after this.

Um the ADA curbside voting.

Excuse me.

I'm proud to announce that Nevada's first ADA curbside voting program in the whole state of Nevada.

Yes, Clark County has had mobile voting, but they've never had ADA accessible voting.

So how will it work?

An ADA voter will pull into an accessible designated parking spot.

There'll be signage for this voter to call a site manager.

We all have cell phones out at these locations.

The elections official will roll out this complete curbside voting cart.

The voter will validate and check in.

I'm sorry, the elections manager will validate and check in that voter.

The voter will vote from the comfort of their vehicle, never having to leave their vote their vehicle because they had a heart attack, a stroke, or whatever the circumstances may be, they can't get out of their car.

We will bring the vote to them.

The voter will then print their ballot and place it into a secrecy sleeve, and then the election official will cast the ballot on their behalf inside the vote center.

We've had a lot of accessibility challenges, you know, in the last since the last election.

As you probably remember, the DOJ came out to 10 of our 55 election day sites in the primary of 2024.

Unfortunately, all 10 locations failed ADA compliance.

This turned into a settlement agreement between Washoe County and them, where we had to reevaluate all of our vote centers.

The most common issues we ran into was passive travel.

Unfortunately, even this election, fewer than 20% of our vote centers will be 100% ADA compliant.

And trust me, we have been looking.

That is how the ADA curbside voting program was born.

And Title 2 of the Americans with Disabilities Act specifically says that we can make reasonable accommodations if a vote center is not 100% compliant.

And that's what we're doing here.

Some operational improvements, just to name a few.

So we appreciate that.

I think I'm at time.

I'm more than happy to come back at a future board meeting, or if you'd like me to continue, I have a few more slides.

Chairwoman.

Thank you.

Great job.

We went through a lot.

You'd be busy.

Yes.

Would you like me to continue or come back another time?

I've got a few more slides.

Please continue.

Okay, I appreciate the time.

Thank you very much.

Um, automatic signature verification.

This election, we'll be rolling out automatic signature verification software on our mail ballot sorter.

This software is used to compare the signature on the vote by mail envelope with the voter's reference signature in the voter registration database.

If the signature score meets or exceeds the verification threshold, the ballot was automatically accepted and does not require manual review.

However, if the signature score falls below the threshold, the ballot is flagged and sent to trained bipartisan staff for manual signature verification, just like we do before.

How did the sample set go?

We had 13,416 signatures reviewed, and what we used is a sample set from the general, the 2024 presidential general election.

We brought in the city clerks, so folks didn't think that I was making this score up myself, right?

I brought in the city clerks from Reno and Sparks along with my deputy to compare over those 13,000 signatures and then have them recommend a score to me.

A threshold score of 72 resulted in zero signatures failing the audit.

Very conservative approach to signature verification.

Just a reminder: the higher the threshold score, the more conservative or strict it is.

The software is.

The lower score, the looser it is.

So again, there are at least one California county.

I don't need to name the name.

If you need me to reference it later, I can.

They set their confidence level at 45, which is very loose.

We are at 72, a highly conservative number, a number I, the city clerks, and others feel very confident that there will be no signature that doesn't match at that score level.

Moving on, the mail ballot package.

The this board also approved joining the state mail ballot printer recently.

Therefore, the state will pick up the cost for for the county's mail ballot packages going forward.

My office did a little more than that, just accepting the old ways.

We changed the packet to be more patriotic, modern, easier to understand, and more informative for voters.

A plug here too.

If voters want to not receive a mail ballot packet, please sign up and create a mail ballot preference form, signing your name by April 10th, and you will not receive a mail ballot ever again if you let us know.

And that has to be done by April 10th, this upcoming election, and at that point it's cut off, and then it'll be available again before the general.

But a lot of folks are complaining that mail ballots never get voted and they're just hanging out there.

If well, you can do your job if you don't want to receive a mail ballot to give us a mail ballot preference form.

And in closing for the 2026 election, some important dates, I just want to mention sample ballot deadline for us to get these sample ballots out is May 20th, in-state ballots by May 21st.

Early voting is around the corner, May 23rd through and runs all the way through June 5th.

Election day on June 9th.

And as this board probably recalls, usually we do canvas of the vote would be on June 19th.

That's Juneteenth, federal holiday, therefore we'll lose one day, but we're asking you to canvas the vote on the 18th.

And with that, that's my presentation.

And I'd open up for any questions you may have.

Thank you so much.

Thanks to you and all your team for all your hard work.

Thanks for always looking at continuous process improvement.

You know, you're gonna, I don't know if our OVs have six Sigma certification, but I bet you would probably pass flying colors.

Any questions by Commissioner Herman?

Vice Chair Garcia.

No questions.

I just uh wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your leadership in a very short amount of time.

I remember uh this body sitting in a uh workshop back in January 2023, and we established elections as uh a priority of ours.

So that's many years ago.

Um, but we as a group committed to improving the infrastructure, the technology and the staffing that your office has so desperately needed.

Uh you've taken all of that and just run with it.

I am so impressed by your ability to bring such an innovative idea to Washoe County with the ADA curbside voting.

Um you're humble, and so you'll never give yourself the pat on the the back for that.

But that is really impressive that you could not only bring an idea but be on the forefront of designing the cart itself.

Um that just speaks volumes to how committed and dedicated you are to this process.

So thank you for thinking outside the box on that.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Commissioner Clerk.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you for your presentation.

Uh got a couple of questions.

Um we in a and inactivated 55,501 uh ballots or people, voters, I guess is the right word in it, and it activated their their voting status.

And then we also canceled 25,000 and 12.

Um how what percentage of that was was uh uh the the uh voter roles that you thought were inaccurate.

Do you think that we're 100% now or high high high 90s on uh on the number?

What what percentage do you think we have with accuracy now that you've uh uh scrubbed those roles with with those those numbers?

Yeah, I think we're extremely accurate at this moment in time.

Um March 11th, like I had mentioned, is the last day we could do bulk list maintenance to inactivate and/or cancel voters.

So as you know, when people move into this county or change their political party or pass away, et cetera.

Um, there's only so much we can do uh at that point.

We can no longer do bulk list maintenance, but if a someone does move out of the county, we can uh update their record.

If someone passes away, we can update that record.

But we can no longer perform bulk list maintenance.

But I believe we are extremely high.

I believe the undeliverable mail ballots um will be much less than it was in the um last election, unfortunately.

Um, but yeah, I I think we are in a very good shape right now, but I do expect some undeliverable ballot mail ballots because between now and the election, we cannot take uh bulkless maintenance.

Sure, sure, and I understand that that's the nature of the beast.

People move and people move on, and the many different circumstances would lead to that.

But uh, there was a point in time, I believe last election cycle that we had some 45, 50,000 uh ballots that were returned.

And uh, you know, that was a major expense as well as is a lot of time, a lot of money, and then the whole idea of of uh getting these roles scrubbed is is to save that and and you get some accuracy and make sure nobody's disenfranchised by getting their ballots sent to an address where they aren't and getting their ballots sent back, and and then discovering later that uh it's time to go vote and maybe have some difficulties uh getting uh getting that done.

Uh the other question that I have was uh the three uh 312,000 uh uh registered voters at this point in time in the county.

Do we have a breakdown by district on on that?

Uh how many are in district one, two, three, four, five.

Is it do you have those numbers or can you get those numbers?

I can get you those numbers for sure.

Okay.

Then the next question, and again, I don't expect you to have right at your fingertips, but you created uh a number of uh new uh precincts.

Again, I'd like to understand where and when what districts those are, what part of the counties that you might have created new uh precincts is just to have a uh a better understanding of um the county.

Absolutely.

I can get that for you.

Very good.

Thank you.

That was my question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you.

I just also want to commend the team.

Uh, it's been uh so impressive to see how seriously you take in the elections group audit that this board wanted to see, you know, put into place, and that now uh you put in all of those operational recommendations that made sense for our county.

Um, the fact that we're pursuing this um warehouse.

I wish it could be online this election, but obviously we have tenant improvements and all of that.

And uh it just um I I just feel for you and the team because you're gonna have to do all this ballot scanning in a tiny, tiny room, yet again, this election, and there's gonna be a ton of pressure from the state to report out the numbers.

And so um, you know, we just I I think that there needs to be some understanding and also some pre-work on PR, just letting the community know like we're gonna process these as quickly as we can, we're gonna report um, you know, and be very transparent about what how we're doing this and you know, why it's taking longer, uh, you know, and and as we're receiving uh ballots in the mail and in drop boxes and at uh voting sites and how that looks.

And I just think it's really important, especially because we have now internal communications embedded in your department that we really get that word out and let people know that you know we need to be patient.

Democracy takes time, and we wanna make sure that we um are accurate with that reporting.

And I guess the other thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is if uh voter ID goes into place after this election, how that is going to change our mail and ballots and what that will look like and any exemptions we can find for seniors.

I really worry about seniors being dis disenfranchised with the requirement of having those IDs.

And so the other question is we've had a lot of talk from the executive uh branch of the federal government about uh requiring birth certificates and passports and uh nationalizing elections and just getting people really riled up.

So I I appreciate that we're cleaning up the that you cleaned up the website.

It's easy to find information, but have we looked into making sure that we're working with our security team and the sheriff's office on um making sure that people feel safe um during elections as well.

The sheriff is actually uh extreme, uh very amazing partner of ours.

They actually follow us every day and we go pick up mail ballots from the USPS.

Um they have they escort us with a team of two, uh, either motorcycle or uh cars.

Uh so yes, they are very involved.

They have a plan, we have a plan, we'll be meeting soon.

We meet with Ben West to go through security.

We will uh still have panic buttons just in case something were to happen at a vote center.

Um, but we don't plan on using uh those.

So, yes, we have been engaged in conflict de-escalation processes, around hide fight uh videos and trainings will be coming.

So we're doing the best that we can.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And we just wanna get in front of any misconceptions and keep that website updated.

So I'm sorry, there's more work to be done, but we really appreciate the work that you're doing and getting kids involved.

Thank you for trying to do that or doing that mock election at Sparks High.

That's so great.

And I know we as a state have done it through girls state and boys' state that they can well, at least this is that's how old I am.

But like last when I was in Girls State, we would vote on ballot machines for people running for office.

And so you actually got that opportunity to you know use it, feel it, touch it.

It's familiar.

Um, I think if we can continue to do that, and of course, after the election, um, if your team has capacity and we have a good partnership with the school district, I just really appreciate you making these kids realize like this is a fundamental part of their job as citizens, and we want to make sure that they're alchemated and ready to go when they're 18 and able to vote.

Yep.

Agreed.

Thank you.

Thank you for turning us on to that.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I just uh have a question um based on the audit and you sharing that the um fulfillment of all the recommendations and requirements have been completed.

But you had on the bottom of the slide that the standard operating procedures, those SOPs that 43 were approved.

I remember that SOPs were a major part of that.

Um those findings.

And I'm wondering if there are additional SOPs where you're at in terms of actually it is an ongoing process, right?

As you build things and you have to update SOPs or create new SOPs to keep up with um whatever that particular action is.

But I'm wondering where you're at.

Is that 100%?

You're caught up or where are you at?

Yeah, I mean, this really was to close out the elections group audit.

So even the 43 was more than the election group audit asked for.

Um, yeah, and you're right, it's a work in progress, uh, always refining and we're going to have to evergreen these uh each year.

So we're also relying on the state.

A lot of this was the uh voter registration system, and it's never done either.

It's constantly uh in flux and being uh made better each each uh election in each year.

But no, we we have more to do.

Um I would say there's probably at least 10 to 20 more that we'd like to get done.

Um, but we want to document as much as we can.

If I go away, these smart people next to me go away.

We don't want the county to fail.

We want it to live on and actually uh have someone come and take over and have all the documentation they need to to move elections forward.

I appreciate it.

I really think it's great that you do have that matriculated into your everyday process because I think that was one thing that was pretty glaring.

And so thanks for sharing that.

I didn't remember the number, but it seemed like a lot.

So at least you're going to have that be an ongoing standard update versus catching up.

And I realize that there's a lot always going on in your office.

Um, I also certainly want to thank you for the Center for Internet Security.

Look forward to continuing that transparency and our dedication as a county to commit to building continual trust in elections and having that process, I think is really uh one step closer to actually really having that transparency and as everyone understands that more to come with your presentation.

But I do really want to thank you and the team and the Center for Internet Security as well for uh essentially um looking at adopting Washoe County as a county in the entire United States for this process.

So I'm very, very appreciative for everyone's hard work.

And then lastly, you've already heard it, and and it's really not that I'm minimizing repeating what many of my colleagues have shared.

But really great job, sir.

Great job.

And and great job to you and Addie and Reggie and to the entire team who have put this at what I would call an accelerated but planned and efficient way to get things done.

And I am so excited because you know that I have been calling for mock elections and transparency and inviting the public and they can do hands-on.

So um that March um March 24th from three to seven, I think is a great opportunity and the great start.

So really appreciate that.

And also even the the ballots, people can see the ballots and they can put them into the scanners.

And I think that we um have that wonderful opportunity as well.

So thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

And I guess we better let you get back to work.

Thank you for your time.

I really appreciate this.

Thank you.

Great.

We'll go ahead and close out 781.

We'll move to 7B1, Manager Thomas.

Thank you so much.

We are now joined by um BLM Nevada State Director John Raby and Carson City District Manager Kimberly Dow, who are here to discuss our recent federal changes to specific federal lands and impacts the ranchers on public lands.

So welcome.

Thank you so much, and uh good morning, uh Chair Andrew and uh Vice Chair Garcia Commissioners really appreciate the opportunity to provide updates on Bureau of Land Management efforts in Nevada as well as nationally and also in uh Washoe County.

Yeah, welcome.

Thank you.

Um, and I'm joined by Kim Dow, who's our district manager in the Carson City district.

I have a few folks uh here on my right, your left, uh Lisa Ross, who's our public affairs officer, and Matt Magaletti, um, who's our new field manager for the Sierra Front Field Office in the Carson City uh district?

So thanks again.

Um real quick, a few things on Nevada.

Um we're pretty unique in the Bureau of Land Management.

Uh we have 48 million acres of the 71 million acres that is Nevada, about 68% of the state, very large footprint, about 59 million acres of federal mineral estates, six district offices, 11 field offices, again, very local uh management uh focus for us.

We have 20 federally recognized tribes we work with, 28 tribal communities, and about 9.2 billion in economic output for the state.

Uh we also have about 38,000 wild horses and boroughs, 83 herd management areas, that's about half of the agency's total.

Um we have several of the largest uh special recreation permits in the Bureau, including Burning Man and Vegas Torino.

Um we also have over half of the uh mining claims in the Bureau of Land Management, and that's at about 280,000 with across the state.

Um my priorities for Nevada are first and foremost to support a local communities and economies, a focus on public and employee safety, workforce development, uh, energy and minerals development and infrastructure that includes um more traditional uh energy as well as uh solar and geothermal is a big focus.

We have a little bit of wind in the state, but by and large, 92% of our energy produced and that we permit in the state is coming from solar and geo and geothermal.

Public access to public lands if the public cannot access their public lands and it's not really their public lands, so we want to make sure we provide that access.

We have an overall focus on sound effective resource management, which includes, and I'll touch on this, our rangeland management efforts to make sure that we're supporting again focused uh efforts on the ground that benefit rangeland resources.

Um fiscal responsibility because every dollar that we get is a is dollars that are coming from taxpayers or through contributed funds from uh either companies or proponents that are doing business with us, and then finally support for tribal nations.

Partners in Nevada, we have 17 counties.

Um, of course, strong partnership here in Washoe County.

Um, the federal government, we do not pay taxes within the state.

Um, but what we do pay is um payments in lieu of taxes or PILT payments.

We paid uh 28.1 million uh in 2024.

Washoe County received about 4.2 million in uh 2024 in payments in lieu of taxes.

We don't have 2025 numbers yet.

But all that's to say that's generally considered to be you know, probably not enough as it should be.

Um, but it is um how we uh cover our our our share of at least um uh the payments in lieu of taxes.

We have a net uh Nevada Native seed partnership, which includes um the county as well as state uh agencies to help develop um uh a seed bank that we use uh for post fire recovery.

We heard earlier from Chucky Meadows Fire about their work on fire suppression.

We have to do work post fire to make sure we stabilize lands, and that partnership is incredible for us.

Um we have military partners with um Naval Air Station Fallon as well as Nellis Air Force Base.

Um we're implementing the efforts that uh were uh provisions in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act for expansion of Naval Air Station Fallon and working out the details on on all of that to transfer that um final the 600,000 acres to in support of their training uh mission for military readiness.

Um, energy and minerals.

Want to talk just briefly.

I know there's a lot of words on this slide, but talk about um emergency permitting for a minute.

Every project that we have to go through permitting requires National Environmental Policy Act review.

Emergency permitting processes require um uh streamlined uh effort for review of environmental assessments, which is 14 days, 28 days for an environmental impact statement.

They still have got to complete um the work that's necessary for uh a final application or a fully completed plan of operations.

So that doesn't mean we're shortcutting process, it does mean we're streamlining process.

That also includes uh provisions under the Endangered Species Act as well as the National Historic Preservation Act to ensure we're compliant with Section 106, and we have a great relationship with the state historic preservation office on that.

Our minerals program, again, I mentioned um we have uh 264,000 active mining claims um across the state, 48 and a half percent of all mining claims in the nation.

We have the largest gold mine in North America, um Cortez Mine, um, which is uh a tremendous producer.

Um, in 2024, uh permitted mines produced um over 3.4 million ounces of gold at a net value of 8.3 billion.

We have uh 4.6 million billion in reclamation bonds that make sure that um the efforts uh when mines are have finished their life cycle that they are fully um taken care of through reclamation.

We have a model permitting process in Nevada.

Um we actually are are half the time than um than is required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Um we have a uh requirement to do uh environmental assessments in six months under the law.

We have 12 months to do that.

Um, and then for environmental impact statements, 24 months, but we do it in 12 months just because of the relationships we have and the pre-permitting requirements.

Recreation, big thing here in Nevada, and of course in Washoe County, um, five 152 million in direct BLM economic contributions, about a six billion recreation and economy in Nevada.

I think my friend Denise Peroneo would probably say that might be a little bit low.

Um that's uh that's uh again uh we're we have a lot of pride in in what we do for hosting Burning Man, the Reno Cattle Drive, and then off highway vehicle races, including Vegas Torino and Stead Motor Cross Track.

Grazing.

I'm gonna touch on this uh briefly, and then I'll uh turn it here to um Kim here in a second.

Um we are working right now on regulations to update uh our ability to streamline grazing permit renewals and to um allow for uh turnout earlier in the season or later in the season, depending on the the weather conditions we're experiencing in any given year.

We heard again previously on the fire situation.

Um, livestock grazing can help mitigate that with reduction in fine fuels, grassload, and so when we have a big year like this year, we can turn out um earlier under the new regulations, again, with still the same environmental protections and ensure we have that flexibility that's needed.

We're also looking at applying new technologies, um virtual fencing um and that sort of thing.

We have a great relationship with the Nevada Cattlemen's Association that helps us get things done we otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

Resource programs touch on this, um, great uh Greater Sage Grouse.

We have a new plan that we're implementing right now that uh was finalized in December of 25.

We have training sessions for not only our staff but for cooperating agencies, including counties that are coming up in April.

So we're gonna extend that invite um for the first and the third week in um in April.

Uh we work hard with uh our other federal and state partners and the tribes on the Haunt and Trout um Cutthroat Trought Recovery, and then we touched on the outcome based grazing that includes um work with uh University of Nevada Reno.

Again, a lot of innovation going on there.

Touching on horses, um, what I'll just uh highlight here is that our FY uh 26 gather outlook.

Um, you know, we're going in the right direction.

We have half the population.

Um we are going from uh we've gone down from 49,000 to 38,000.

Um we have about 7,000 animals we're looking at gathering this year.

We have three holding facilities between Palomino Valley, Fallon, and Paradise Valley outside of Winnemucca, and then the Northern Nevada Correctional Center give a big shout out to them.

Our friends there help us adopt 60 to 90 uh horses every year, and since 21 have generated over 851,000 from adoptions.

Fire.

Um, I'll just highlight here that we have um the newly consolidated wildland fire service for the Department of Interior.

We're gonna be working through what that looks like for us.

They no longer report in my under my chain of command, but they report to a new chain of command.

So we're gonna be working out to make sure that they um will continue to provide the same level of services and we'll be obviously ready for fire season this year.

And then law enforcement.

Just uh want to give a big shout out here to um our great partnership with uh Sheriff Darren Balam and the Washoe County Sheriff's Department um uh the work we do to provide for public safety and resource protection.

We have 30 uniformed officers, five agents.

Um that's less than you know, one officer per million acres.

I mean, that's a big territory for folks to cover.

So um, so we absolutely need the help from um the sheriff's offices and thank um Washoe County greatly for that support.

Okay, I'm gonna turn it over to Kim, and I know we're running a little bit short on time, so we'll do our best to be efficient.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna quickly go through some of our um specific projects that we're working on in the Washoe County area.

Uh so the lands and realty, we have a really robust lands and realty program in in our district.

Uh we get 200 to 300 uh applications a year for lands actions.

I'm just touching on two of the the more interesting ones here too to many of the constituents.

The Lemon Drive Road Realignment.

This is of high interest to folks that live out in that area.

Uh, we are working with the county to move uh 2.5 miles of roadway outside of the floodplain.

Um, that's a really important project for those constituents that live there.

Uh, 16,000 vehicles a day by 2050.

Um, and and they're very impacted when that road gets flooded.

So that uh we are currently uh working on the NEPA, and we will have this um that NEPA completed in the next month or two by May.

Um construction for that is anticipated to be completed by fall of 2027.

The other big project that we have going on in Washoe County is the Dodge Flat 2 solar project.

This is um just outside of Wadsworth, uh, really close to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation.

Um, this is on 151 acres, 500 of that is public.

The rest is is private.

It'll be a 200 megawatt megawatt solar project with a 200 megawatt battery storage center.

Um this is adjacent to the existing Dodge Flat 1, uh, which is all on private land.

Um, this one we are currently in the final stages, the final EA and RMP amendment is out for comment right now.

And the governor's consistency review is also occurring right now.

And this project uh we'll have a decision by this in late May.

For our range and wild horse and borough specific to the Washoe County area, we're working on the flannagan allotment grazing permit renewal.

You can kind of see on the on the map there, it's it's just west of the pyramid of Pyramid Lake.

Um, in July of 2025, we finalized the land health assessment, and then in December of 2025, we uh published the draft standards determination document.

Uh we identified several things that needed to happen in the in the allotment to improve the grazing out there.

Uh and so in fall of 2025, we completed some fencing repairs, and we worked with the permittee to install pipeline and trough to protect it from the wild horse damage, uh, the sheep springs.

Um we anticipate having a final EA and proposed decision in June of this year.

Um, in that same area as the North Complex wild horse gather plan that we're working on.

This is actually a complex of uh um three herd management areas the flannagin, the dog skin mountains, and the granite peak.

This is actually a complex of three herd management areas, the Flanagan, the Dogskin Mountains, and the Granite Peak.

The horses, the wild horses in this area move back and forth between the three herd management areas very frequently.

And so we're treating this as a complex, um, trying to get that gather plan in place.

This will also help the permitte for the Flanagan allotment and the Winnemucca ranch allotment.

Um that um preliminary EA is anticipated to be published in June of 2026.

For fuels and restoration, I have quite a bit up there on the screen that we've been working on for our current and completed efforts.

We have a lot of seeding projects, fuels reduction projects, and fuels breaks.

Um, you can see in the Winnemucca Ranch, Antelope Mountain, and Paiu Canyon allotments.

We've done 5,000 acres of inventory, 500 acres of treatment and 500 acres of monitoring.

Um, our our fuels team is amazing.

They're just getting a huge amount of work done.

Um, the future efforts, the gold fire, um, which is in the golden eagle area.

Um, they're gonna be working on the fuels and herbicide treatment there.

They also have a really big project, the Northern Virginia Mountains fine fuel reduction and restoration project is a is a really big project with our shared stewardship um program uh where they're working on reducing that fine fuel and then restoring the area with some native species and important brush species for our um you know our big game species.

Um there's also the North Reno wild and urban interface fuel reduction, which is another shared stewardship program, um constructing new and maintaining prior um fuel breaks.

So all of this um is to protect the the urban interface that where we have all the homes.

Uh recreation and public access, this is really important to us.

This is also a big program in in our district.

Um we recently just received a grant for 305,000 from the Nevada State Parks to improve our OHV areas.

Um a good portion of that money will be spent in Washoe County, um, specifically at Jumbo Grade and at the North Reno recreation area, which most people refer to as Moonrocks.

Um so right now we're in the planning phase.

Now we just received the the um word that we got that got the grant.

So now we're working on on identifying those projects and really putting the details into that.

We're also working on a target shooting project with Dave Solero and he what a great partner.

I it's just this has been really fantastic.

Target shooting is a really important part of the recreation program for especially for us.

Responsible target shooting is something that we want to see continuing, and we need to identify a safe space for that to happen, especially in the urban interface.

So we've been working really closely with Washoe County to find that place where that responsible target shooting can safely occur.

Um, and so we'll keep working with Dave Solero.

He is a champion of this and uh really appreciate all of his support.

And then this is my last slide here.

Um, the Nevada dumping and abandoned vehicle mitigation, another great partnership with Washoe County.

Um, AB 415 recently passed, uh, and we are already seeing the improvements.

We we are seeing it um it happened really quickly that um this what this um what this law did is it allowed for some more flexibility to remove abandoned vehicles from the landscape uh a lot faster.

It allows the tow truck companies to be part of that solution.

Um so those protections are still in place to make sure we're not removing abandoned vehicles too quickly before owners are allowed to claim them, um, but but they don't have to sit on the landscape for years.

And we're seeing a lot of vehicles coming off the landscape quickly, which is really important because when you leave those those abandoned vehicles on the landscape, it becomes a dumping area and the problem just exacerbates quickly.

So this has been fantastic.

Um, I really appreciate the state for for passing this law.

Um, and then the scrap metal market right now is is really high, and so we're seeing a lot of vehicles coming off the the landscape, which is great.

We've also identified some um some other opportunities to to help with the trash.

Um, I know Commissioner Garcia, we've talked with you a lot about this.

Um thing that we've done is that we've identified some funding opportunities for large dumpsters for the major cleanup.

We have some great partners, keep trucking meadows beautiful.

You know, they do a huge amount of work to get dumpsters and cleanup operations out there, but we often find that the dumpsters get filled quickly.

So we've identified some funding where we can put our own dumpsters out there to help support that.

Um, also for the smaller cleanups, um, we do have an opportunity to uh to if there's smaller groups that want to go do cleanups on the landscape, we can provide a voucher for them to dispose of of the trash at the at the landfill for free.

So um that's another great program.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

I'd like to thank Commissioner Herman for actually asking for this item to come before us.

Um and I'd like to also, it's nice to see you, Mr.

Um, and I'd like to also, it's nice to see you, Mr.

Reby.

The last time I saw you, you were in a presidential designated role and welcome home to Nevada.

Good to be home, thank you.

Thank you.

I will turn it over to Commissioner Herman, considering that she asked for this item to come before us.

Okay, now we're we're on.

I'm just so excited to have you here.

I I've asked for you to come and all of you from BLM are just amazing people.

I I don't know how you get all the things done that you've been talking about here.

It's just it's just amazing.

And uh I'm very grateful that we have such fine people working at BLM, and we're very fortunate.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Commissioner, for all your support and whole board of commissioners' support.

It's a it's a true partnership, and again uh couldn't couldn't be luckier to have a group like you to help us out in doing what we need to do.

Thank you, Vice Chair Garcia.

Just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful partnership and keep up with the good good work.

Thanks for coming today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you for your uh report.

Very interesting.

And uh, you know, let's face it, we're surrounded by BLM here in the state.

It's uh you can't uh make a right or left turn and go very far without running into some property that you manage.

So thank you for that.

Uh I'd like to hear a little bit more about what you're planning on doing uh by jumbo grade at that's in my district, and uh here a bit more about that.

Maybe we can get together and and have a meeting and and share that with me so I can share that with the folks in my community.

Like to like to uh set that up if we could.

Thank you.

Again, thank you for your report.

Thank you.

Uh I too would like to actually thank you for actually the administration for looking at streamlining and and updating um the process.

I mean, the NEPA process, I saw this at a conference in DC recently, and it was uh wonderful to be able to celebrate what was a two-year process for NEPA to now be 28 days.

So think about that.

So to Commissioner Herman's point, you're busy if you're actually you know having that process and and looking at regulations and what we can do to streamline.

I also want to um thank you about the Dodge Flat and it's my understanding there were seven to nine projects that went through.

So um thank you for all of that as well.

And I really also want to thank uh assistant county manager Dave Solera for the target shooting.

And I know he's in the audience, and I'm glad that he is continuing to work on that.

I have been um pacing my time going by his office asking about this because this is in my district and and really asking for what we can do.

So if we could actually use this same process of two years to 28 days, I certainly would appreciate it.

Just saying that right, Mr.

Silero.

Yes.

Um and again, thank you for all you do.

I I hope that we can see lands freed up, those public lands.

I I certainly would welcome, I know we all would.

I know um sitting on NACO and the vice president elect of NACO.

We're really hoping that we can see that actually streamlined and get some land actually opened up.

Um we are the number one state in the nation for public lands.

And uh when I heard that, I thought, oh, I would have you know put down Alaska, you know, thinking Alaska, but we are the number one state for public land.

So uh we certainly would like them back.

But I know you're gonna work hard on that.

I don't know if you can do it in 28 days, but we certainly welcome that opportunity.

Thank you so much for coming, and hopefully you can come to NACO too and give us an update.

I'm planning on it, it's in Las Vegas, right?

Yeah.

It's my place.

We'll hopefully see you then.

See you there.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

I'd like to um, in the spirit of having um not only uh Sheriff Balam here, but Mayor Shevy.

Um, I'd like to, if it's okay with this board, move item 11 up to the next agenda.

If anyone has any objections, okay.

I'm gonna go ahead.

Um manager Thomas, please.

Item 11.

Thank you, madam.

Uh Madam Chair.

Item 11 is a recommendation to approve an interlocal agreement between the City of Reno and Washoe County for the Washoe County Sheriff to designate as an acting chief of police for the city of Reno and authorize the Washoe County Sheriff to designate members of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office staff to serve in other capacities.

And we will kick it over to DA Large to set the tone for this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michael Large, Washhoe County District Attorney's Office for the record.

On the weekend of March 7th, my office was contacted by the Washoe County Sheriff regarding a request for the City of Reno to enter into an interlocal agreement regarding the appointment of a chief of police by the Washoe County County Sheriff due to ongoing issues involving senior staff with the City of Reno police department.

Working in conjunction with the Reno City Attorney's Office, my office will work to draft an interlocal agreement pursuant to NRS 277.180.

On March 9th, the interlocal agreement was entered into by the Reno City Manager and the Washoe County Sheriff.

As noted in the interlocal agreement, because the potential cost could exceed 25,000.

That sets the stage.

Thank you.

Sheriff Balam and Mayor Shevy, I don't know if you'd like to come up as well.

Thank you, Sheriff Baum, for your leadership.

Appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Madam Chair, Sheriff Balam.

Hi, good morning.

Thank you for having us.

Absolutely.

So as Mike Large said last weekend, we were contacted and requested to provide some services.

And as this board knows, uh, some of the authorities of the sheriff, um, I have jurisdiction throughout the entire county, not just the unincorporated county, the entire county.

Um, and that is 248-090, and that's to preserve the peace and keep the order, uh, quella rights and insurrections in Washoe County.

So, with that said, and one of the oaths that I take is to represent all 500,000 citizens within Washoe County and keeping them safe and protecting them and the men and women of both law enforcement, the sheriff's office, and in this case, Reno Police Department.

So, when I was asked that request, it was an unprecedented senior management was uh placed on leave.

And so we made sure that we stepped in with under Sheriff Corey Solfreno, which we made acting chief, and he is over there right now.

That is the only member of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office that is over assisting Reno Police Department as they navigate these waters.

And the key of that and why we did that was uh for the safety of this community.

We wanted to make sure the men and women of the Reno Police Department had what they needed day to day as we go through this, so that they did not have any, we had uh continuity of services and safety for our community.

That is our number one priority.

That is my number one priority.

Uh and since then we've been working in hand in hand with uh manager Bryan and the mayor in providing services over there, uh, as long as that uh goes for, and as Mike Large said in 277-183 F.

Um, I can enter into an ILA.

I have that authority as an elected official, uh, up to 25,000.

We don't know how long this will go.

Um, those facts are coming out now, and so the city of Reno put in there up to 2 million dollars, and so that is why we are here now under 27182A uh for the board, and we will go to the city council next week to make sure that's ratified.

And I think for the community, what they need to hear is we were asked, we stepped in.

That is what we do every single day.

We make sure every single day, Reno, Sparks, and Washo cover each other on calls for service.

We are there side by side in making sure that we provide those services that our citizens expect and that we keep them safe, and that every men and women of all those departments and agencies and offices come home safely.

And so in this case, that is what we did, and I opened up to any other questions.

Thank you.

Um, I think we all appreciate your efforts in representing all of Washoe County, and I know that we can count on our jurisdictional partners to step in in the fact if something that we need, that's what we are.

We are one community.

So thank you so much.

Mayor Shevey, welcome.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Um, first of all, I just want to say that we are so fortunate to have the support of all of our regional partners.

I think um, quite honestly, it has been so refreshing to work so well together and understand that we represent one region, and so I just want you all to know we're so grateful for your partnership.

I'm so grateful um for everything that you are doing for us.

I know it's very unfortunate circumstance.

I want everyone to also know under the charter provision, um, there are two areas in which it triggers under the an emergency.

Uh the mayor has the ability to uh work with the governor and with the sheriff.

And obviously, because um I felt the support of this body for many years and our regional cooperation, that it seemed like a natural fit, and not to mention uh we've worked side by side for many many years.

Uh so I just I can't thank you enough um helping us during this very very difficult time.

Uh we don't know how long it will take, but we will continue to come back and give um everyone updates and also you know, many of you represent the city of Reno as well.

So I want everyone to know that that is important.

Um, you have citizens too that uh want to see great services along with what my city of Reno residents want to see.

But I think um when we do it together collaboratively, it is much more successful.

So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the partnership and all the collaboration, whether it's fires or other initiatives, um, the CARES campus, that's so many things that we get to work on together.

Um, this I really see no different that I know you guys are partners um in what we do at the city of Reno, and please let us know if there's anything that we can help you with, vice versa.

But I just I want you to know I wanted to come today and say thank you so much uh for allowing us to work so well with this gentleman right here.

So um, we're just really grateful.

I also want to make sure I recognize our city manager Jackie Bryant, she's here, and our wonderful attorney John Shipman.

Uh he's here as well.

But Jackie, I know feels the same way.

We're really grateful for your collaboration during this difficult time.

Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership.

And thank you to all the Reno Police Department, all the and the sheriff's office, everyone collaboratively as a priority, as you said, Sheriff.

It's public safety, and we can count on everyone working together and to help each other.

We are one region.

So appreciate it.

And thank you for your leadership as well, manager Brian and um Mr.

Shipman.

And we also can't neglect Manager Thomas and certainly uh DA Large for everyone's help.

That's what we are.

We are growing, and we uh had people say that we should probably change to the biggest little city, the little biggest city because we are definitely growing, but we really are one community, one region.

So appreciate it.

Do you have any other comments?

Does anyone have any questions?

Any commissioners have any questions or comments?

I do.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, you know, uh what got my attention, and I think it's got all the public attention, is is what uh you know, nobody knows what's taking place.

I mean uh who had the oversight or I don't want to get into the details of it, but somebody in your your municipality had the the oversight over what was taking place at the it's your police department, and uh it's almost like uh you know, lack of planning or lack of supervision on your uh entities uh part creates an emergency on our entity's part.

So I mean it's just trying to figure out what's taking place.

Nobody seems to know what's taking place.

I mean, the the counties had our own experiences with with this kind of thing.

We we're one of the few uh uh organizations that had the federal uh agencies come in and close down one of our law enforcement uh duties that we have.

So so we're we're familiar with this.

We still don't really know what's taking place with that.

So I would it's just a peculiar way of of uh doing business with an emergency call on a Saturday, and and uh we've got to we've got to get somebody over here.

I'm just wondering isn't there anybody else in the in the police organization that couldn't have arisen to the occasion and manage the the police department?

Well, what you know again without telling us what's going on, because I'm sure we're not gonna hear that, but you know, this is a major catastrophe, an emergency.

No one denies the fact that the sheriff has jurisdiction over the whole county.

No one denies the fact that the sheriff can enter into contracts, he does that with other counties, other states.

So we know that that can happen, but just the way this was handled just seems uh odd to me.

And and I'd like an explanation about that.

Okay, thank you so much.

I I really appreciate that.

Uh, first of all, let me just say um that I can understand how you feel.

Um, but I also need you to know that I have worked really well with your chair and the sheriff um every step of the way.

You can always pick up the phone and call me whenever you feel very disconnected.

You know, I've always had an open door um policy, so I just want you to know that.

I also think you know, we are not um part of the investigation as well.

So there are a lot of things that we can't answer.

So I hope that you can understand that.

There are also things during an active investigation that you cannot share.

And so we hope that you can also understand that.

When we have answers, we will bring them to you.

It will be transparent.

Um, so if you have any concerns at all, I would ask that you just pick up the phone, call me.

We can have those conversations.

Obviously, this happened very quickly, but we just felt that it was important to continue to move forward in the department to have separation from inside the police department.

We think that that needs to be very transparent, and also we need to continue to have the trust in our department.

And that means bringing in someone outside that can do the work objectively and be a partner in this.

And someone that's not within the department.

We also um we're very limited on our resources.

So that's another I uh thought that you should know.

Very limited, as Jackie knows.

Um so that's unfortunate.

But you know, we felt very comfortable, certainly I did because of my relationship over the years with all of you and how well we collaborate.

So I didn't see that being a problem.

I'm sorry if if you did.

I hope that's not um how it came off.

But we want you to understand that we truly believe in in the partnership that we have with each other.

So I hope that you always feel like you can reach out in any capacity.

So I just typically tend to work with the chair directly, whether it's Alexis when she's the chair, or whether it's Clara or Mary Luce, so that um you guys can all be on the same page and we're not playing telephone.

It's typically the easier process to go through uh when you go directly to the chair, and then she or he can share that information with each other.

Um, I don't want to convolute things, but as you know, my door is always open, always.

And I appreciate that.

And you know, what we're doing now is backfilling, because it's already it's a done deal.

It's we just haven't voted on it yet.

It happened, it's there.

But but and me calling you, that's fine.

I appreciate that.

But the public wants to know what the heck's going on.

Well, you know exactly what's going on.

We just called you.

I'll tell you, we don't know, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you what how it started for me.

I get a call on a Saturday, and I get a call and says, I'm giving you a call because the mayor asked me to give you a call, and I don't know what the call's about.

And and I'm thinking, well, why'd you call then?

Why bother?

I just uh tell me later when you know something.

Call me to tell me you don't know anything, and then I'll I'll tell you later, maybe, you know.

That's and and then and then from that the rest of it unfolds, and then we hear about it maybe on the news, and and uh you know what we're let you mentioned your limited resources, we are as well.

Well, we we're we don't have unlimited sources here.

Uh you know, the city, your size of your city is uh is uh an issue.

Uh anyway.

It's your city too.

I want to make sure you represent the county.

So I don't want to say I don't want to split hairs with you.

I want to do that.

I'm a county guy.

I I represent the county, okay.

The but I don't I don't get a vote at your your your city council meeting.

So I don't represent your your city.

I represent the citizens, but you know, I don't want to split hairs, but you have there's uh there's lines on a piece of paper called a map that has jurisdiction jurisdictional lines that are define the city of Reno.

Uh the city of Reno, which easy word to say, short word, but we know we've got an extra hundred and uh eight uh square miles that's the city of Reno.

We've got a population of about 280,000 people there that now we're going to incorporate into uh the the our uh sheriff, and and I think the people need to understand what what's taking place uh you know, any time nobody can clone themselves.

I I when I said did your meeting of the the best and brightest, I think of that of uh Mr.

Silferino, and I think that about the sheriff.

They're do an excellent job for us, but nobody can clone themselves.

Now we've got extra work that may detract from the work that they're doing here.

So if I may, commissioner, uh a couple things, and I know that this board knows it, so does the citizens um like any investigation.

Um, they can't say that because of the bill of rights 289.

So that limits in any investigation on any commission person law enforcement in the state never at a 289, they cannot reveal what those investigations are for.

So that is why, like in any other time that we've had these issues in my office and the other police departments around the state, that that limits what you can give the public while the investigation is going because those deputies are officers, in this case officers, they have rights.

Uh, secondarily, and I want to reassure this community.

The one thing that the mayor and Jackie and all of us, because Jackie uh works so closely and came from the county is every single day we work together in regional teams.

So I have upper management overseeing some of those regional teams, just like Reno Sparks has upper management overseeing those regional teams, and so that is what as we look at why we can loan individuals over there, uh they are doing that.

And I can tell you, Jackie's been working with Corey because he's keeping me apprised.

Um, they have plans of elevating some of those supervisors, so they are working on that right now.

Um, but I wanna reassure this community no matter what.

Uh that was agreement all three of us had as we had this discussion.

We will never jeopardize the safety of my office or the Reno Police Department, and most importantly, of our citizens.

So I will not stretch my staff thin, but I will also not allow men and women of any agency to go out into this community um without making sure that we we have proper um oversight to make sure they have the needs and uh your resources needed, and so that when we respond to active shooters um one of jinx us OISs or any major incident that's occurring across the nation, that they have the same type of upper management executive coverage that we do.

And so right now, uh Corey and I are working, we're working all three together.

So that is what I want to reassure this board.

I will reassure the council next week, and I will continue to reassure this uh community.

We will not jeopardize your safety one bit.

Thank you.

Um, I also just want to clarify really quick, if I could just clarify a point that you made that I do wanna thank uh Mayor Sheavy for calling me, and as I've already mentioned once, but I'll mention it again.

I felt as the chair it was my immediate obligation and professional courtesy to call each one of the commissioners to let them know that there was going to be a uh uh press conference, and that the reason, and I I do know that words matter, that the reason that I didn't have all of the information is because we didn't have the information.

I think one of the things that's always um prevalent that is consistent amongst anything is whether it's an emergency or whether in this case it was a course of action, that the authority was within the purview of not only the mayor to contact Sheriff Balam, but Sheriff Balam is an elected official.

He has the authority over the Washoe County Sheriff's Office.

We are going to support you, sir.

We are going to support you and our region, and we know that we can count on you to support us.

That's what we do.

So I think the uh point of splitting hairs is really um better said by saying thank you.

Thank you for everyone stepping up.

Thank you for having the community feel absolutely that our community is not in any jeopardy.

And thank you, Sheriff Balam, and for under Sheriff Silferino, and for all of the police officers, whether they're City of Reno, City of Sparks, or the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, for everything you do every day to protect us.

So thank you.

So unless Commissioner Hill.

I'm ready to make a motion.

Okay, I have to call for public comment though.

I guess I was thinking, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

No, no, I wasn't done talking.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I had some other comments I wanted to make, but but rather than gavel me down, you can't.

I didn't gabble you.

I didn't know I said rather than gavel me down.

You just started talking.

So let me finish, please.

Sure.

Thank you.

So I'm gonna support this as well.

Don't get me wrong.

I I just didn't like the way it was handled, as is the way it was presented.

I think the people uh the rest of the folks that aren't in the city of Reno need uh need an answer about this.

And uh, you know, um that's where I'm going.

Uh and and and I and my next question, I think is a legitimate uh straightforward question is is this gonna lead to, and I hope it does, because I would support that, a regional regionalization of law enforcement here.

I'd like to see, I'd like to see the sheriff be the entity over the whole the whole county at all times.

So I'm not anti this.

I didn't like the way it played out.

I think it would have been played out smoother uh for the public and the other elected officials.

So before everybody gets her hackles up that Clark's against it, I'm not.

In fact, I'd take it even a step further.

I'd like to see this permanent.

Yeah, and uh the my only question would be how would it be funded?

And uh that's what I'd like to see.

So take it away.

Any other questions?

Is there any other questions?

Mr.

Commissioner Clark.

Okay, just making sure.

Okay, any other comments or questions.

I we do have to call for public comment on this item.

There's no one signed in, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

So, Commissioner Hill, I believe you said you wanted to make a motion.

Yes, move to approve the inner local agreement as outlined in the staff report, and thank you for the sheriff's leadership on this matter.

Madam Chair, second.

All right, we have a motion and second.

Any further discussion?

Harry Mann, I'll call for the vote.

All those in favor, go ahead.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you again to everyone for your all of your service.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Shipman.

All right.

We're going to now go back where we left off, which is item 7 C1.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is a recommendation to acknowledge a presentation and possible direction to staff of the Washoe County financial outlook for fiscal year 2027 and the budget.

This overview includes a mid-year 2026 review and economic revenue and expenditure trends, the Board of County Commissioner Strategic Goals, known cost increases, unquantified and outstanding cost impacts, and a general outlook for fiscal year 2027 and budget.

We have uh Miss Laurie Cook here today to present for us.

Thanks.

Okay.

Looks like the handout.

I was gonna walk this over earlier, but I didn't want to get involved in that item that we just had.

So um for the record, Lori Cook, uh division director for budget.

It's not this is a financial update.

This information is not necessarily new, it's not new topics.

Um updated as as much as possible.

Uh majority of this information we did cover in the commissioner briefings last week, so should not be a lot of surprise coming down.

So as with prior months, when we look through the end of February, we don't see emerging issues concerns based on the trends.

So that would be if all of a sudden we saw expenditure spiking, we weren't anticipating or revenue not coming in as anticipated, either way.

Um, we would look at those and then um make recommendations or bring them forward as necessary.

So uh if you decide it's not specific uh specifically called out in here, but if you're ever interested and you look at the states uh the local government revenue statistics through the department of taxation and you're looking at year over year comparisons, just remember that now when we look at year-to-year comparisons, we're looking those year-to-year comparisons are going to compare November 2024 distribution, which is fiscal year 25.

It's also going to include the November 2025 distribution, which is current year.

November 2024 was about a half of the distribution based on the change of the state system.

So if you're looking at those numbers of what have we what are we looking at year to date as far as increases, I will have more detail when we come forward with the recommended budget.

You're not necessarily looking at apples to apples.

The same thing with the taxable sales data.

So just as a if you look at it, oh my goodness, it's a 15% increase, it's not really a 15% increase.

So we have to account for that outlier.

Um just when we look at fiscal year 27, what's changed?

This is related uh to information as presented to the board on January 27th.

So at the uh budget workshop.

So we did get CPI data coming in.

Uh just read some information this morning that this CPI might be a little uh optimistic, or does it hasn't seen the impacts of that license item on that list, which is the uh what's going on in the Middle East right now.

So we potentially could see some additional CPI increases as we uh move forward uh into the calendar year.

Fed rate, still uh no additional cuts uh as um identified in January.

Uh there were rates are stable, so no additional cuts.

The GDP growth, um, we had a 1.4% Q4 quarter four of 2025, which is calendar year.

I also read this morning that they're they might be updating that to as much as a 0.7 percent increase for quarter four.

So that's the adjustments that uh get processed or um go through.

And so it's not huge increases, uh, but also there's a lot of other things that go into into the GDP.

Unemployment, we have seen a slight downtick when it comes to the Washaw County and the Nevada rate, about well, Nevada rate is or Washoe County rates about flat Nevada rate down about 0.1%, um, as long as uh and then the national rate from 4.3 to 4.4.

So fairly flat on those, which um for intents and purposes in the low fours is considered full employment.

Um, but of course, that doesn't take into consideration the different industries and what's happening and what jobs are replacing other and what types of jobs they are.

Uh we also obviously there are going to be potential impacts.

We don't know what that looks like from um administrative perspective or any of the um items uh that came out of the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs, and then of course, the what those impacts might be related to the Middle East conflict.

So those are just some updated and some updated information from about six weeks ago.

When we look at the 27 outlook, the message is the same.

The comprehensive fiscal, what our situation looks like is still having growth of costs, outpace growth of revenue.

So not that there's no growth.

Those growth rates, they're I think I showed the crossing of the lines, but they're not in the in the same direction.

We did receive requests from departments for general fund support or additional general fund support of almost 46 million dollars, including additional full-time equivalents or additional positions as well as shifting positions from restricted or other funds over to the general fund.

So based on our conversations and based on what we know and the and the forecasts, it's not it would not be sustainable to approve all of that.

So we are working through those requests, working with management.

We've had some higher level, not every in general ledger detail item with the board.

But some of the themes and feedback regarding Washaw County services is when we we have the I don't know what those are, triangle type bullet points.

Looking at expectation service level service delivery, so what our internal and external expectations are in uh correlation or uh compared to our available resources, personnel, right?

So if we can't add additional head count, what do we do to maximize uh recruit retain our the best employees that we can and then uh investment for infrastructure and technology?

So again, if we um can't or shouldn't, and you know, um if we're not gonna add head count, then how do we do more work, right?

There's more work.

So how do we go about moving forward with leveraging that's my word exploit?

I don't it can be negative in connotation, I don't look at it as a negative term, but how do we fully exploit technology solutions, whether they're internally generated or not?

Um we're gonna have some at the next presentation.

We'll have some high level or overview and examples of things that we've already done as a county related to uh efficiencies and and implementations and new ideas on on just maybe how to deliver service differently.

So those um, and then these topic areas, these key items uh the board will discuss over the next few months with the strategic planning uh meetings or those meetings that are focused on strategic planning.

So from this part is you know, the takeaways are focused on fiscal sustainability and budgeting best practices.

So we have been formally recognized twice over the past few months, um, and that's later in the presentation for additional information uh if the public um has not had the opportunity or does not know about what those are, what those recognitions are, enhance and expand uh fiscal transparency and communication, and so we've implemented we can always improve.

That's just not even a question, it is given, and how we do that and how we actually provide information from a transparent perspective and not what I what I find this is just my personal experience is that sometimes trying to increase all of this transparency and increase the information sometimes can muddy the waters.

What does it actually mean?

You can have 20 pages of something or two pages of something, and sometimes the two pages of something are is is a better way, and it's more transparent to convey information.

Recognize the challenge with traditional budget process and adjust as able.

So um, looking forward to we've already made some changes in the in that regard, but what we can do going forward to make that a better process, and then when we look at our next steps.

So we did it's I say final tax projections is the pro forma that we get from taxation.

It we will get that on March 25th.

That's a statutory deadline.

Uh we did get final projections, but they don't have the pro forma, which has other information that's not included with the with the final numbers.

Then we'll come forward with the recommended budget, um, get that information to departments before we're presenting to the board.

That's our commitment to the to the departments and elected officials, and then come back to the board again based on conversation feedback, anything we might need to change.

And so, right now that's on schedule for May 19th.

Again, those that's a statutory deadline, so we have to we can't hold that hearing any earlier than the third Monday of May, and it has to be submitted to this approved by the board, submitted to the state by June 1st.

So effectively we have till the end of May.

So we have a short time frame for that that final piece.

Um, so do anything that we can in the interim and in the meantime to make sure that we all understand and um are on the same page as far as what's going to be recommended or what's going to be going forward.

So it's a little anticlimactic.

Um, in one way, it's good that there haven't been a lot of changes, and in another way, sometimes it's not so good.

So very from that perspective, um, what we anticipate or what we've been seeing is stable.

This just talks about the formal budget process, the things that have happened.

So today's presentation is part of that schedule.

Formally, we're looking at April 14th and then May 19th for the tentative and the final budget presentations.

So before we get to um supplemental or addendum information, if you oh see, good timing.

If there's any questions, jump a little bit.

There's two other two, well, two additional slides.

So we talk about GFOA.

So we were in government finance review.

So this is nationally, so this is a nationally recognized of creative approaches to service provision.

We are in that.

We are highlighted, it's an article about Washoe County, and there's information in here related to this, but that uh that link will take you to that article in that uh publication, the online publication.

I have a hard copy at my desk.

And then the GFOA, the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, the staff report still needs to come forward, um, but we submitted, and that has been um awarded to Washoe County.

It's the 24th year, and um obviously there's some reasons why does it matter?

Um, it's best practice, it's you know the document serves multiple purposes.

So that was the have you heard this information's been distributed uh through the board brief, but also um so the public, if they're interested, can see it as well.

And now I will go back to questions.

And I think I I think I got pretty close to 10 minutes.

Thank you.

Does anyone have any questions?

Commissioner Clark.

I'm sure we do not just all my questions the other day, so thank you for making this a public uh report.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

I appreciate the presentation as well, and thank you for a great briefing.

And I I look forward to continuing to chat about the budget uh and our structural deficit, which is just the reality of local government in Nevada right now, and we're not alone, so there is that.

Um I don't think you hit on is uh the building permits that you had said were we're we're not looking at the same amount of growth or um do you mind just kind of outlining that for us?

Sure.

Uh for the record, Lori Cook uh division director budget.

It's related to new development.

So new development that comes onto the roles, of course, comes on at you know full value, right?

So we're not looking at abatement or an abated value at that point and um speak in.

I'm not want to speak on behalf of the assessor, um, but we did meet with um the assessor and um our staff and the treasurer, and that rate of growth of what we're seeing of it coming onto the rules and what that increased percentage is say two years ago, if it and I'm throwing numbers out there, so don't imprint on these.

Um, but say if it was three percent.

So we saw three percent growth like two years ago, now we're looking one and a half, one point something.

So we are seeing it.

So it's very similar to when we explain consolidated tax or other revenues.

They're growing, they're just we're just not seeing as much.

And I there are a host and a bevy of reasons why, and I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna step into where I'm not the subject matter expert, um, but that is what we've seen when we look at um the value of new development and how much of a percentage that is in our increase of assessed valuation.

Right.

So that's just a reality that uh folks need to also know about that we're just not we don't we aren't able to grow, honestly.

We're kind of hitting where we're at um as far as what we can do in the Trekkie Meadows, but um that obviously affects our budgets long term and is another thing that the community needs to know that weighs in on these budget disc decisions and discussions as well.

So thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman.

I just thank you very much for great presentation.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Chris.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh Ms.

Cook, thank you for the briefing for the presentation today.

Um, you know, when we look back at the budget workshop we had earlier this year, we had you know laid out some of the national trends that we're all wrestling with and trying to understand and and see what's gonna happen with affordability with housing with all the inflationary effects.

Uh, forecasting projecting is like the most difficult thing in the world that you have to do for us.

I I just wanted to make a quick comment that I appreciate you folding in what we're facing with the geopolitical conditions and um the tariffs.

I think you know, we we stayed very national, but there's it's clear that there's some international things at play that are gonna impact us here locally.

So thank you for including that on your slide.

Thank you.

I actually want to commend the two uh recognitions, right?

For the um CFOA, and I thought it was really interesting.

You had in your presentation that um, you know, looking at traditional budget process and maybe looking at that differently, and then looking at efficiencies, looking at obviously new ideas, and considering that the award, the one of the awards highlighted being creative approaches, I thought was really applicable as we move, and I know I've had this discussion with you, and I bet you know where I'm going in terms of priority-based budgeting.

And as we move towards that, I think um it will help everyone to appreciate what that looks like, and that it is a model at a national level.

The priority-based budgeting is actually accepted now.

Well, it's always been a I'll say a base of best practice, but looking at counties and being involved with NACO, for instance, and seeing at a national level that that is not, we're not immune.

This we're just a microcosm of other counties and what's happening.

So I really look forward to what that looks like.

And thank you for the briefings.

I think giving briefings to all the commissioners so that we are really informed is again the commitment by Washoe County to always be informing all commissioners of everything that they can inform them on.

Um, but also I believe that your um opportunity to look at that budget workshop and hear what was said and then matriculate that in, I think is going to be helpful too.

So thanks to Ms.

Yacobin and to you and the team and to the leadership by Manager Thomas, because we are not facing good times.

And with that, that means all of us are gonna have to look at how we look at things differently.

And so I really appreciate everyone's openness to looking at collectively using an opportunity with, for instance, the um budget congress and having all departments understand that it's important that we look at things again differently.

Um we have a responsibility to you know provide essential services, but we can only do it with the limited resources that we have, and so that priority budgeting really helps.

So more to come on that is what I'm hearing.

But thank you for your hard work and thank you for your presentation.

We look forward to the future, and uh yeah, we'll see how it all pans out.

Anything else?

Thank you.

All right, great.

We're gonna go ahead and close that item and we'll move now to consent.

Um, if I could have no, that was no, that was just a presentation.

So um I'm looking at consent A8, A1 through 8E2.

And I'm wondering if anybody wants anything pulled or any further discussion on any of those items.

Hearing none, I'll um actually I'll ask for public comment.

There's no one signed in on these items.

Thank you.

I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Move to approve consent.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second motion by Commissioner Hills, second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call for the question.

All those in favor signify by saying aye or yes, any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

So we're gonna close out the consent item eight and move to block.

Commissioner Herman, would you be so kind?

And this would affect uh number nine and ten, and it is in the form of a motion.

Thank you.

Are there any questions with anyone?

Do we have any public comment?

All right, we'll call for the motion.

And I'll second it.

Oh, yeah, we have a second by by Commissioner Herman.

Thank you for your motion.

We have a second by Commissioner Hill.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

It's on your screen.

Great.

We'll move now to item number nine recommendation to approve the reappointment of Miles Kinsler.

Manager Thomas, is there anything you'd like to add?

Oh, you oh block.

That was in the block vote.

Guess what?

We're gonna move to item 12.

That was a test.

That was a test, and this is a long one.

So I am going to introduce it as a discussion and initial direction to staff regarding potential bill draft requests, which we call BDRs for the 84th or 2027 session of the Nevada legislature.

I'd invite Ms.

Matevich up to walk us through the items that are listed on your agenda as potential BDRs for the county.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the commission.

For the record, my name is Caden Smithievich, and I have the privilege of serving as government affairs liaison for Washoe County.

As Manager Thomas said, we are here today to discuss potential bill draft request items, BDRs as they are known, for the upcoming 2027 session of the Nevada legislature.

Hard to believe that we're here already, but indeed here we are.

So you have a detailed staff report that contains uh quite a bit of information about the items that we'll be discussing to you.

Um but madam chair, I do have a present brief presentation to help walk us through each of the items and provide uh some high-level overview information uh for those who perhaps have not had a chance to fully dive into the staff report.

Um so just high level BDR authority uh NRS 218D authorizes Washoe County to submit up to two requests for the drafting of legislative measures for each session.

Um so we are authorized, we are not required to submit bill draft requests, um, and various other entities, legislators, chairs of standing committees, um, joint interim standing committees, the governor, um, the Nevada Association Counties, a number of other folks have the authority uh to submit bill draft requests as well.

Um, one important note uh section seven of Article, excuse me, section 17 of Article 4 of the Constitution does require that each law uh be embrace only one subject.

So you won't see, you know, sort of kitchen sink BD BDRs, they do need to be germane.

Doesn't necessarily mean they can't uh pertain to more than one chapter, but they do have to pertain to a single subject.

So our process for bill draft requests actually began back in the fall.

Um, and uh all of the county departments, uh, including those departments that are headed by our elected officials, uh, were solicited to prepare and submit uh their topics for consideration uh for BDRs.

Um the internal due date for those was January 30th, and between then and now um we've done some initial research on those subjects, and so we're here today to have an initial conversation.

Um, this will not be our last conversation.

Um, I will be before you at least one more time uh in the summer, and perhaps uh two or three more times uh before we get to that deadline of September 1st, by which we have to have our bill draft request, if any, submitted to the legislative council bureau.

Um, all of the pre-filed BDRs, so all of those entities that must submit by September 1st, those BDRs are pre-filed and published by the legislative council bureau in December.

So that will give us a preview of what we're going to see in the upcoming legislative session, and then the uh 84th session will begin on February 1st, 2027.

So, as I mentioned, when we receive the proposals or ideas for consideration from our department heads and from you as elected officials, we consider some things.

Um, first and foremost, does the does the bill draft request subject align with your strategic plan?

So we want to be sure that we're aligning with uh you know economic impacts, fiscal system, fiscal sustainability, supporting vulnerable populations, all of those things that you have said are your priorities, we want to be working in alignment with that.

We want to think about the political feasibility.

Um it's a heavy lift to get a bill passed.

And so are we presenting things that we think are indeed feasible?

Um is the idea legally sound?

That's not to suggest that some of these things don't need additional legal research and that we won't continue to work through them, but on their face, uh, are they legally sound?

Um are there resource implications for the county?

If we were to request an item, do we have the resources to carry it out?

Um some things that might sound like great ideas in concept, um, could end up being an unfunded mandate.

So we look at those kinds of things, which we look for opportunity for collaboration.

Will we have um partners in supporting these BDRs?

Uh are they good for our entire community?

Do they impact other units of local government?

Um, and then finally our ability and capacity to implement them.

If it's carried out, will we in fact be able to carry it forward?

And so today I have three proposals for you.

Proposal number one was submitted by your county treasurer.

And probably the circumstances that led to the suggestion of this won't be a surprise to any of you.

But but what the circumstances that we experienced in this last billing cycle revealed is that we have a risk.

And that risk is that if we receive, if the county treasurer receives a billing file from another local government entity that the county acts as the ex officio treasurer and the tax collector for, and there's an error in that billing file, that that creates a liability for the county.

And that liability really belongs with the local government entity that created that billing file.

And so what the proposal would be is that to require any local government that does in fact submit an erroneous billing file to reimburse the county for any expenses incurred by the county due to those errors.

Because this is an item that would affect all 17 Nevada counties, the recommendation today would be that we submit this to the Nevada Association of Counties or NACO for consideration as a NACO BDR.

We'll have the opportunity to do that.

NACO has a legislative committee that meets monthly.

And so if you are in agreement with this recommendation, then I would do that at the next LACONACO legislative committee.

And then, as I said, when I'm back in the summer, can report back to you as to whether or not that's been selected, and you could make a determination at that time if it weren't selected if you wanted to move forward with that as a Washa County BDR.

So that is proposal number one.

Proposal number two seeks to amend NRS 244A.7645 to allow up to 3% of the revenues from a surcharge imposed by a county for enhancement of the telephone system used for reporting of emergencies and purchase and maintenance of event recording devices, it's commonly known as the 911 telephone surcharge, to be used by the county to pay the costs associated with the administration of the surcharge revenues.

As this board may know, Washoe County counties are the entity in statute that are authorized to impose these surcharges and to administer them.

In our county, we administer the funds, but the recipients of the funds, due to the structure of the 911 system in our community where we have multiple public safety answering point agencies who are eligible to receive these funds for Washa County, City of Reno, City of Sparks, the school district, our fire districts are all eligible recipients under the uses that are authorized in 244A.

But we, the county currently bear all of the burden of administering these funds.

In looking at what that level of effort requires across the various departments that support this, so from the district attorney's office to our technology services department to budget to the comptroller, it equals out to about a full-time equivalent.

And as we are in circumstances where our budget is constrained and we are trying to be resilient and innovative in looking at these things, this was an opportunity to seek to use some of these funds to cover the cost of administration, particularly since we are doing that on behalf of all of our regional partners.

So this would be one that I would recommend that we seek sponsorship from an individual legislature or submit as a Washoe County BDR.

There are other counties in the state who have elected to implement this surcharge, but due to the circumstances in their counties where they have consolidated dispatch or those other things, the burden of administering is less so because there are far fewer agencies that are receiving distributions, and so it is more streamlined.

So this would be one that I would recommend that this board consider as our own or to ask that we seek an individual legislator or a committee committee sponsor for.

And in the next two slides, what I'd like to illustrate is why we believe that there needs to be the issue of equity needs to be addressed.

And I want to be really intentional in that as I'm pointing this out, it is not intended to be reflective of the places where the legislature has granted authority.

Those are important things, but really to point out where they haven't and to and to try to address that.

So this table will show you in the six transient lodging districts that exist in Washoe County, the legislature has authorized a per room night surcharge to support tourism serving facilities in four of those.

The two areas where they have not granted them are in unincorporated Washoe County.

And so the recommendation would be that we submit a recommendation from this body to request that the legislative committee for the review and oversight of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Marlett Lake Water System considering this issue of inequity in these in these revenue sources that are available to local governments to support infrastructure and in our case the need for public transit in a key area of tourism in our community.

Again, not at all intended to be a comment on the value of those other things.

Indeed, where those monies are going are very important assets to this community.

But you see there that we don't have it in another key component of our community.

Similarly, um, Washo B is the transient lodging tax district that makes up Incline Village and Crystal Bay.

On the right hand side of the table, there is how the 13% room tax that's authorized by the Nevada legislature is distributed.

So of that 13%, 3.3125 goes to the RSCBA.

3.3125 goes to Travel North Tahoe, that is granted to them through the RSCVA by statute.

RSCVA is required to grant that portion to them.

2% goes to the RSCVA to pay for the debt on the Reno Tahoe, or excuse me, Reno Sparks Convention Center.

1% goes to the City of Reno for National Bowling Stadium debt, 1% goes to Reno and the RSCVA for the city for city and civic civic center, easy for me to say.

Again, very important purposes and facilities in our community, but what is not coming from that revenue that is collected directly in an area of our community that is in unincorporated Washoe County and is a highly highly tourism-driven area is any portion of that that's available exclusively for use for public transit in the basin, which is a significant need.

The recommendation here would be that we submit to the legislative oversight committee to amend Chapter 432 to require that the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority grant to Washoe County a percentage of certain taxes that are collected to be used exclusively for paying the cost of public transit to and from within the portion of the Lake Tahoe Basin in Washoe County.

Last time we had uh named a specific room night surcharge, and we had named a certain percentage at this point in the process.

I think from a strategic standpoint, um, my recommendation to you is that you not give that specificity that you make the recommendation that this be studied, but that you let that committee and the stakeholders work together to arrive at whatever uh that dollar room night and and change in that distribution of the sales tax that we work through the process for the remainder of this interim and arrive at those.

And so that is the proposal there for number three, so kind of two parts there.

And I thank you for your time and stand ready uh to answer any questions that you may have or to receive any other items uh that you uh this board may wish to direct to have us look at again before I come back to you this summer.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you for the update and being so succinct.

And just I'd like to just make a comment, and that is that not only are you amazing in terms of all of the research, but the respect that you have not only with other partner organizations like NACO and others is to be commendable because when you're at the legislature relationships, trust, integrity, and really doing your research is the utmost importance.

And you, my friend, really do a great job.

And I'd like to thank you for that.

Thank you, Matt.

I'll open it up to questions.

Yep.

Commissioner Hill.

I I don't have questions.

I just want to say thank you for including.

I I think all three of these BDRs are very worthwhile.

I'm happy to go with your recommendation on who should carry them.

Um and I'm really I'm glad that the treasurer is uh getting some um clarity in the law and requirements in the law because that was the pushback with If Gid just to call out the elephant in the room.

Uh and so we just want to make sure we're following the law if we're gonna bill another entity.

So he's doing it.

So good for him.

And um I know just for my board, you've heard me talk about this at length and at nauseum.

We have a real problem in the Lake Tahoe Basin area.

We do not have the money for public transit.

RTC actually has stepped up more for public transit than they ever have in the Latahoe Basin, and we still cannot close the gap because it is so expensive, and there is no way that we can uh get additional gas tax, for example, for public transit, which is what we get down in Reno because there's very few gas pumps in Lake Tahoe.

We've like looked at every single potential revenue source, and this seemed like the best way to go about it.

And I even tried just to the board's edification.

When I served as our liaison on RFCBA, I tried so hard to get RCA to just willingly give the money, they were not interested in it, not interested in supporting um making sure that we do not have um truly uh during the summer an emergency on our hands when it comes to traffic issues.

So I think that this is the best way to go about it.

Um my understanding is that the chairwoman, well, and from watching the uh the um committee uh legislative subcommittee meeting that uh cadence represented us so well at the chairwoman of that committee, um, assembly member Goulding was open to looking at these revenue sources.

So um I think that it's something that's worth pursuing.

And um again, we have funded microtransit up in Incline Village until the ARPA dollars ran out, and so there is no microtransit.

It's the only, it is the only um part of the lake that has no public transit except for um the Placer County um uh route uh that goes through um to to pick up incline village folks and take them back to the California line and also um to the East Shore Express.

But we have no way to get folks around the basin and can connect the folks to other parts of the basin, which we really need to do.

So thank you for um considering that.

I know uh I I want to leave it up to other folks to talk about their BDR requests, but I I wanted to just plant some seeds for um uh cadence on two things that came up at the CHAB meeting.

Um was I yesterday?

Yes, yesterday.

Uh is I know we talked about this last session, and you had thought um as Matevich, okay, uh let's not get aggressive with other counties and say, you know, that they've got to pay Washoe County for community members who are dropped off at the CARES campus or whatever the case may be, but there's gotta be some sort of um support from the state for the CARES campus and the work we are doing for other um less urban counties in our region who truly are using that as a resource, and again, um we as a CHAB board don't disagree that we want to help folks and they're Nevadans at the end of the day, but I think there's an opportunity, and I don't know if this is a BDR request or if this is just really of a conversation because we've tried to have it both at NACO, League of Cities.

No one seemed to want to recognize that this is a real issue for Washoe County that we have documented that we have back, we we have the uh background info on.

And so I just wanted to pitch that as like is there some other way we could tackle that?

And then the other piece is permanent supportive housing.

I know that the um county has been chosen as a grantee to receive um support for our 50 units on the CARES campus that um the state has given us, which we are so grateful for, but we have just such a gap of need for housing.

And so um I understand that the Nevada Housing Coalition, they're gonna come up with their bills.

There's other legislators who are gonna come up with their bills, but just as a uh pitch from this commissioner, I want to see how Washoe County can take a lead to really see how the state can continue to help us with the need.

We have about 1100 units we need online, and the this is for seniors.

Um, this is for disabled folks.

Uh, and we've got to figure out how to get them out of the CARES campus and get them stably housed.

So those are my other two pitches from the CHAB meeting, and I don't know how they would come together, but I wanted to make sure that I um chatted with you about it.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you for uh your information and the discussion.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm supportive of all three um with the direction, the recommendations you have provided.

I want to commend uh Commissioner Hill for all of her advocacy for a region that obviously has been facing some serious inequity.

So I'm very supportive in exploring that as a possibility.

Of course, the permanent supportive housing is something that I would really like to dig into as well.

Um this isn't like it doesn't rise to the top as like a huge priority for me, but I did want to ask you for a follow-up.

Um in 2024, we considered submitting a BDR on the automatic recounts.

And you know, AB 20 uh 287 was sponsored by Assemblymembers Gonzalez and Monroe Monroe.

Um, and it moved forward.

This body took the official position to support AB 287.

However, the outcome was that it failed.

Um, so I just wanted to know it's saying that nothing as of this month is showing that this is gonna be a potential BDR for the next legislative session.

So I just wanted to ask you if if you think, and I know you don't have a crystal ball, but are you hearing any rumblings that somebody will take this up again in the next session?

Thank you for the question, Caden Smithievich for the record, through you, Madam Chair to Vice Chair Garcia.

Um I don't have specific word that any individual legislator or that um a committee will be taking that matter up.

Um I would say I think from a policy standpoint that bill was supported.

I think where it got hung up was where the costs would come from.

Um, and um, you know, not unlike this session, last session, um, and perhaps to a more acute degree this session funding is limited.

And so um I think to the extent that it would have been um a place where something else in the state's general fund budget would have had to be cut was the reason that it didn't move forward.

Um, I am happy to inquire with the chair and vice chair of the joint standard joint interim standing committee on legislative operations and elections to understand if that is something that they intend to take up during this interim period and report back to you when I come back.

And and if not, um that would certainly be something that this board could request again.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um I again would like to thank Treasurer Taylor for um putting this forward.

I don't know what other counties um have actually incurred, but I think it's something that being ahead of it and not waiting for something to occur, which we all experienced.

So I'd like to do a shout out.

I do think that there's maybe further discussion.

I know that I have brought it up at NACO in terms of um what that might look like with other counties that are using the services that we provide.

And I think that there might be some opportunity at NACO to continue continue that dialogue.

I think the fact that the uh CHAB meeting um actually used the um actually it was created not just for the Spanish Springs CAB, but um really spoke to the Hope team and spoke to permanent tenancy support and the success as I shared with Judge Walker even when he did his presentation.

There's not much you can say has a 93% success rate.

That is a 93% success rate, which means that we're helping folks that are going to essentially not have a burden of constantly looking at taxpayer support.

And so I think that that might be an opportunity as well.

I don't know what NACO may have on that, but I think I might know someone that I could ask.

And I just wanted to put that out there that I do think it's really important that we have that dialogue.

So when we do have the call, you'll probably hear me bringing this up.

And I just wanted to make sure that my colleagues also heard that I am going to bring it up at NECO because I do think it's important that we look at everyone paying their fair share.

I don't know how else to say paying their fair share.

And I I also think that a lot of people don't really understand, even which is why I asked for the Hope team to come here and understand uh the success that they've had and and how um even according to Judge Walker, we're talking millions and millions of dollars have been saved by the sequential intercept model.

So I think that what we're doing in Washoe County collectively with a model and actually being a national, um, even taking the national best practice and then moving that forward is um is something that I I believe the other counties I know have visited um and and and are looking at what we're doing, but whether it's asking for a BDR or asking for other entities like NACO to look at paying their fair share.

I think it's really really important that we do that because it's um I I I have just for my own colleagues' sake, certainly brought this up many times in our meetings.

Um I keep on sharing that we'd love to, I'm happy to pass out invoices at the board meetings.

Um so I might do that, but that's another for another um discussion.

I am gonna support all three of these as well.

And so um I'll go ahead if there isn't any other questions, I'll call for public comment at this time.

There's no one signed in.

Yes, hearing no public comment, I'd like to entertain a motion.

Uh I I move to move forward with all three BDRs as outlined in the staff report, plus investigation of some of these other things that we brought up.

They may not be BDRs, they may meet be more internal discussions, but um, as you find it appropriate.

I know we have a great legislative committee of the chair and vice chair, and maybe we just get we'll we'll be getting updates on these, right?

Uh Caden Smotevich for the record, uh, through you, Madam Chair to Commissioner Hill.

Yes.

Um, certainly uh I'll I'll be as I said, I'll I'll be coming back.

Um, you know, go out based on your direction today, have conversations with the three items that you've that you've specifically given direction on, see uh what progress we make in um in finding sponsors in submitting to the legislative committee, and then um having discussions with other entities and partners and and NACO on these subjects um and determining uh, you know, in there there is no shortage of BDRs um and bills during a session.

So if there's opportunity for collaboration with another entity that's already bringing something forward, um, I you know I would hesitate to recommend that you bring a duplicative BDR.

So I can come back, I not can, I will um come back and report to you this summer.

Um and what that may look like is that ultimately uh through the fall, as we develop our legislative principles and platform for the upcoming session, um, that I incorporate your desire to see support for these policy areas into that, and that those are areas that we really um advocate for, partner with if there is someone else that's bringing a bill forward on things like funding for permanent supportive housing and tenancy support, that we lend our support to them rather than submitting a companion or what could be compute can conveyed as a competing BDR.

So uh I appreciate the direction and the focus area that you've given.

Um, and I will work over on those over the coming months and report back to you this summer on those items.

Thank you.

Okay, so that's my motion, Madam Chair.

Can I say I feel sorry for who I asked to write that motion?

Um uh we have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

We have a second.

Oh, we have a second by Commissioner Herman.

Thank you.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call for the question.

All those in favor signify but or press the button and signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you for all your hard work.

Keep up the great job.

Madam Chair, at this time, may I um make a recommendation that we reopen uh item number 7C1 because on the uh I missed it.

Um it is labeled for possible action.

And thank you, Commissioner Garcia, for for letting me know.

Um, but we do need to open public comment on that item.

Great um to see if there's anyone signed in for opening options.

Great.

I'll ask for if there's any public comment for 7C1.

There is nobody signed in.

Hearing none, then we're going to call for the question.

All those in favor signify, or I need a motion.

I'm guessing.

There was there was no uh action taken.

Well, that's what's throwing me the it was it was typically typically we're late.

Our presentations are for discussion only, but because there could have been possible uh guidance.

Thank you, Vice Chair Garcia for the detail.

Thank you, Mr.

Large.

All right.

Anything else?

All right.

So I'm gonna close item 12.

Remove to item 13 public comment.

Thank you, madam chair.

We are on our final public comment 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.

Okay.

First up, we have John Kellaran, followed by Janet Butcher.

Welcome.

Thank you very much.

For the record, I'm John Killeran, and I'd like these comments put on the record.

I'm speaking today solely as a 46-year resident, including the last 28 years in district two of the county as well as ward three of the city.

I'd like to speak to you about something that I took in while attending the uh last week's commission meeting.

And it wasn't the main event, it was actually a 10-minute and 41-second off the cuff and prepared statement rant that went on during commissioner's comments, and it dealt with the item 11 that you dealt with earlier, and that was the ILA that was entered into between the sheriff's department and the Reno Police Department, and it was chronicled earlier how it was done so in a legal responsible manner.

That's why I go back to the comments made during commissioner's comments by my district two commissioner calling that effort a side hustle.

It was anything but that.

It was responsible management by the sheriff and the city of Reno to engage in an emergent situation crisis that needed to be dealt with immediately.

Our sheriff did so responsibly because he is elected by the entirety of the county, not just the unincorporated voters, also those voters in every city and every town throughout Washoe County.

That's one thing.

In Balam's, we do trust.

That's why this sheriff is running again for a second term unopposed.

But what came to me as more of a theme throughout that 10-minute and 41-second rant last week was this notion that there is some kind of division between those who live in the unincorporated part of Washoe County and those who live both in the county, which we all do, as well as a city ward.

You know, I'm an old sports broadcaster.

I know there is some mythical magical line somewhere around Tonopah that divides north and south.

And if you live north of it, you wear the silver and blue of the wolf pack.

And if you wear red down south, you vote for the running rebels.

I did not know until last week there was such kind of division between the unincorporated parts of Washoe County and those who live in the county, as well as city wards.

That was last week.

Because I do live in City Ward 3 and County Commission District 2.

So the concern is how many of the folks who voted for Mr.

Clark three years ago live in City Wards 3 and 5 who like me just got defraned disenfranchised.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Janet Butcher.

Janet Butcher for the record.

Um I don't know how these block votes are decided ahead of time.

I guess somebody determines this, but I am very disappointed in all five of the commissioners for not listening to the fact that you are inconsistent, totally 100% inconsistent in your reappointments.

It's quite obvious that the TPRA was selected out because it needed to be.

Optics are important to the public, maybe not to you.

And then I'd like to address the um the sheriff and the the um city manager or city um police department.

The problem there is out on social media, you should hear and real read the rumors that are going around about what it is.

No indication, no idea whatsoever of what the problem is.

There might be people in the public that could offer information, and they don't know.

There's a um in Virginia, there was a 19-year-old illegal male enrolled in high school who was groping young ladies, and the school board or the school administrators kept it under wraps until finally one person talked about it.

Then they found out there's something like 17 young ladies that were groped by this illegal male.

And so, how do we know what what the problem is?

There might be some person out in the public that might have knowledge of and be able to help in any investigation, but how would they know?

Because we don't know what the investigation, we don't have an inkling of what the investigation is.

I've heard three to four different ideas.

So anyway, thank you for your time, although it doesn't matter.

Thank you.

There's nobody else I did.

Thank you.

Um, this item includes reports and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

I will just remind everyone our next meeting is the 14th of April.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

Vice Chair Garcia?

Commissioner Hill?

Commissioner Clark.

Nope.

Well, hearing none, I'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 12 43.

Thank you, and happy St.

Patti's Day.

May you have a log.