Good morning.

I'd like to call the meeting of the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners to order on May 12th, 2026 at 10.02, please.

Welcome everyone.

Mr.

Brooks, would you be so kind with a salute to the flag?

Indivisible with liberty and justice properly.

Thank you.

We'll move to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola, present.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Commissioner Hill.

Yeah.

Commissioner Clark.

Commissioner Herman here.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Larch.

Present.

And Amy Von Strickland, Deputy Clerk.

Madam Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you.

We'll move now to public comment.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers, and 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 is Tammy Holtz still.

Tammy Holt still for the record.

This primary ballot.

I am live, I live in unincorporated Washoe County, as you know.

And my ballot as a sample ballot is showing the city of Reno and the City of Sparks, on top of what I should be voting for.

Now you talk about trying to confuse people.

As a candidate, one of the things, if I do not make it in that seat, I am going to be working on because I understand now that the voter registrar both for Washoe County and Clark County has been changed from being something that is voted on, so there's an oath of office to do the right thing and make it come out correctly.

It needs to go back to that.

Every other county votes for their voter registrar.

And that's not what's happening here.

Also, the fact that in the umfices that are nonpartisan.

It used to be as you see, like these right here.

And it's not that difficult, but yet it was dropped.

Elections, everybody has said there's been an issue with Washoe County elections.

I can see why there's so many issues.

Just with this piece of paper, I got.

If they fall in one because they are blind, then they really have a fear of being left behind.

But just like other people who have lost one of their senses, the blind have learned to make good use of the rest of their senses.

Even though they're blind and they don't have vision, they can use their sense of touch with accurate precision.

They can use their fingers to read things written in Braille, and they learn to do so with extraordinary detail.

They have learned to use their really good sense of touch because they can't see, they depend on it so much.

When they hear someone's voice but can't see them with their eyes because they're depending on their ears who they hear, they recognize.

Thank you.

Heidi Soperation.

Good morning.

Um, my name is Heidi Soper.

I'm chairman of the Sun Valley Citizens Advisory Board, but I'm here today as a 38-year citizen of Sun Valley and would like to discuss item 13.

As you are all aware, we have a terrible problem in Sun Valley with unauthorized occupants and illegal dumping on vacant lots that have either absent, uninterested owners or deceased owners.

Warshow County Code Enforcement has issued a complaint on the conditions of such lots on Fifth Street, Quartz Lane, and Gerds Drive.

These lots are in such terrible condition, they look like a war zone.

They are a public and a health nuisance as well as a major fire hazard.

Incidentally, Sunday on Courts Drive, there was a fire.

And I don't know if it was on one of these lots or not.

They are greatly impacting the quality of life in these neighborhoods.

These lots are definitely noticed by the public and are a constant complaint in the public comments at the Sun Valley Cab meetings.

Courts Drive and GERS Drive are in District 5, and Fifth Street is in District 3.

I'm asking on behalf of Sun Valley that you acknowledge the complaint and approve setting a date for a hearing so that you can all see the pictures and hear the complaints by Code Enforcement Division and any property owners that may want to try to defend themselves.

I'm hoping that the meeting date will be published so that all interested citizens can attend and voice their opinions and concerns.

We are all working so hard to eliminate unauthorized occupants, illegal dumping of trash tires and cars throughout the valley, and this problem on specific properties has to be eliminated as well.

As far as item 8 B1, we are all thankful that the county now owns 520 Carnes Drive, and the unauthorized occupants will soon be removed and the property will be cleaned up.

I know this all takes time and cooperation of many entities, but we are getting there, and this is just a start.

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

Steve Letty morning.

My name is Steve Letty.

I am vice president of the Field Creek Homeowners Association.

I'm here today on behalf of the homeowners and the tens of thousands of residents who have endured the failure of the Arrow Creek Soundwall.

And to thank the Warshall County Commissioners for approving the repair of this eyesore.

The repair of the Arrow Creek Soundwall after 20 years of being ignored, cast aside by previous commissioners, is now complete.

So again, thank you.

I especially want to thank Commissioner Mike Clark, who saw a wrong that needed action.

He stepped to the plate, and in his own words, we are not kicking this can down the road anymore.

He listened to his constituents, he understood the facts, and he simply went to bet for the people he represents.

He is the essence of what we as residents want from our elected officials.

Again, Commissioner Clark, thank you for your efforts in making this happen.

Second, and he's not here, he went back upstairs.

I would like to thank Dwayne Smith of the Warshaw County Engineering, who over the last four years has worked to provide research facts, meetings, discussions, and finally an in solution that to my understanding came in under budget.

I have worked with numerous public officials over the last 50 years in construction and multiple jurisdictions, cities, counties, and states.

Dwayne Smith has proven to be one of the finest I have ever worked with.

He is an invaluable asset to Warshaw County.

And last and maybe most important, Candy Ramos, whose single action of reaching out started the ball rolling and moving forward and constantly kept the parties well informed.

Without her, this would not have happened.

Thank you, Candy.

Thank you, all of you.

Cynthia Cooper.

She has documents to distribute to the board.

Good morning, Commissioners.

I'm Cynthia Cooper.

I live in Reno.

Commissioners, an investment in the libraries is an excellent investment in our community's public health.

To make this salient, I'm going to compare what the library does for your brain versus what data centers and AI do to your brain.

For brain health, reading books helps to improve focus.

And focus is important for slowing and warding off dementia.

Surfing the web develops bad habits in the brain because people only spend mere moments on any internet content before they surf again.

Increasing numbers of people are reporting having trouble focusing.

For relationships and socializing, the library offers events like playing chess, book clubs, craft workshops, games and activities for teens.

All these events provide opportunities for people to relate face to face.

People who are more social are less likely to commit suicide.

For reasoning, the library has vast stores of authoritative books and access to vetted research databases.

Search engines track a person's time spent on search result websites and learns what keeps a person hooked.

This is a technique similar to how casinos keep gamblers gambling.

This business model results in internet amplifying extreme, outrageous, vitriolic, and divisive content.

Think how all this affects our children's developing minds.

The FY26 library budget is 17.6 million dollars.

The expansion fund you will be considering under item 11 is less than half a million.

For the sake of comparison, data centers in Nevada are getting an average of five million dollars in a tax abatement each.

Thank you.

Cliff Nellis.

Cliff Nellis, uh resident of uh Washoe County.

I have a lot of things to talk to you guys about today.

Um let's start with number 11.

I agree with that lady about AI data centers and 5G and 6G.

Um, but I disagree about the libraries needing more funding.

We we we made a vote we didn't want that any more funding to these libraries.

And that was an extension of the um the tax increase there.

And the reason why as a resident is because it's run by a bunch of LGBs, Marxists, and lesbians.

And they won't get these filthy books out of the library, they won't get them out of the schools.

Uh we actually probably should consider shutting them all down.

If you can't get the filthy books out of there, and then on number 12.

Um they're not homeless, they're derelicts.

They're vagabond brigands.

Okay.

Oh, I want you to learn those words.

Those are the words of true.

A vagabond is someone who doesn't want to live in one place, and a brigand is a thief.

And they're running around robbing our neighborhoods, robbing our businesses because they refuse to work.

What we need to do is we have a different program instead of a waste of five million dollars on this thing.

We need to have uh to arrest them and have a work program where they maybe can clean up the river, clean up the city with some, you know, some of these fine gentlemen might behind me watching them, maybe with a chain on them.

It's called a chain gang.

Put them to work, make them sober up, and and that will that's that's a Christian thing to do because you're gonna to help them see.

We you you people act on your your kindness and your emotions, and really you do it's the worst thing you can do for these guys, because they they need they need discipline, they need chastisement, just like a small brat child, they need to be brought in line so they can be productive citizens of our society.

The other thing, too.

I got a ballot, and the ballot it wasn't even a sample ballot.

What's wrong wrong with your ROV down here?

It's not even a correct sample ballot.

I have a set I live in Washoe County, have a city arena thing on there.

Um this is a huge mess.

Um like Tammy Holtz still said, maybe we need to elect our our ROV, but right now, and I've said this before, we need a hand count of the paper ballots.

I talked to Sheriff Bianco about or um Sheriff Bayelum about that.

Sheriff Bianco down in Riverside County.

He he took the paper ballots and hand counted them.

And I don't know what the result of that is, but I'm sure it's gonna show that they don't match the machine count.

That's what I was asking you guys to do in 2022.

I mean 2024, you refuse to do it.

There's no transparency, you can't see what goes on inside the machine.

Everything else is great on the outside.

What we know in those machines, it's fraud.

It's fraud.

Our whole vow voting system is fraudulent.

Thank you.

Marine McElroy Good morning, commissioners and Chair Andreola.

My name is Maureen McElroy.

I appreciate this moment for public comment.

My comment is regarding agenda item 11, which is a recommendation by county budget to approve augmentation of the fiscal year 2026 library expansion fund budget in the amount of 457,956.

These dollars will increase spending authority for our library system for the purchase of materials, including physical and electronic titles.

You and the library board of trustees have heard public comment after public comment about how deeply valuable our library system and its resources are to our community.

These additional dollars will give our Washoe County Library Collection Development Department a much needed infusion, allowing them to continue materials purchases that meet the ever growing needs of our diverse community.

These additional dollars will give our excuse me.

Pardon me.

On a related topic regarding the two upcoming library board of trustee vacancies due to be filled by the BCC this June.

On a related topic regarding a two upcoming library board of trustee vacancies due to be filled by the BCC this June, I also urge this board to be sure to select candidates who truly understand the mission and the impact of a vital library system.

Even with your library expansion fund infusion, our public library system is well below the 10 to 15 percent materials budget threshold.

The American Library Association suggests a public library's materials budget should be.

Oscar Williams.

I'm here to lodge a complaint against Andrew McDonald for breaking three laws.

First one is NRS 293-2546 clause seven.

Our right to an accurate sample ballot.

You heard Tammy talk about it, you heard Cliff talk about it.

It's a big deal.

This is the sample ballot from a booklet and sample ballot from the 2022.

Okay.

This is from the general.

And this is the pull out, right?

This is what you call the sample ballot.

See, it looks in size and form, it looks like a real ballot, right?

It just has sample as a watermark on it and a little notch right there.

I don't know if you can see the little notch on it.

But otherwise, it looks like a real ballot.

Um it says official.

But that's not what we got in the mail, did we?

No.

No, we got uh, gee, I'm in district, I'm in district twenty-five, I believe, but then I got district 40.

Two assembly districts.

Can you see that?

Two assembly districts.

There we go.

Two assembly districts, two county commissions.

I'm in district five.

I'm a genie's.

But do I now get to vote for Mike Clark or John Billow?

Is that what I'm allowed to do based on this information?

I'm confused, and that's why we have to have accuracy.

We need to fire this guy, arrest him and then fire based on this alone.

But there's more.

There's more.

He has us voting on a precinct tabulator scanner.

We vote on the machine, we get our ballot, it's pre-filled ovals.

We're bringing it over to the tabulator scanner and we stick it in, it goes to the ballot box, right?

That's an illegal process.

It violates NRS 29365, sir, which says the counting board shall count the paper ballots before all ballots are accounted for.

Ergo, you must have the paper ballots to do that.

To to uh become um compliant with that law, they have to have the paper ballots, not a digitized ballot that the voter scans and tabulates before the ballots are even closed.

There's no provision in law that dictates that a voter should do that.

Okay, it's an illegal process, and not only does it violate NRS 29365, it violates the voters' bill of rights again, 2932546 clause 10 to a uniform statewide standard.

You go to the polls, and the mail ballots are in a ballot box, the revisional ballots get a ballot box.

In fact, my ballot gets a ballot box, your regular ballot, but it's got to go through that little scanner thing first.

That's not a consistent uniform statewide standard of counting votes.

It's illegal.

Three laws broken.

Get them, guys, take them off the jail.

Thanks for your time.

Laura Wetherington.

Hi.

Uh Laura Wetherington for the record.

Um, thank you for your public service and for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

I'm a Washoe County resident and am here to urge you to vote in favor of augmentation of the fiscal year 26 library expansion budget.

I value being fiscally responsible, and I know that we are facing a budgetary cliff in the coming years, and that's why I support bolstering the collections budget while we still can.

This is like squirreling away some nuts in preparation for the lean years ahead.

Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners.

Thank you for the opportunity.

My name is Ithni Marie Barton.

I am Arena resident, and my home library is Cierra View Library.

Regarding your consideration of resolution number R2609 to augment the fiscal year 2026 library expansion fund budget pursuant to provisions in the NRS and the NAC in amount of in the amount of 457,956.43 cents to support library services in our community by June 30th, 2026.

Please, by all means approve this resolution.

What a wonderful way to welcome our new library director, Lisa McClure, and to assure her support of our library system is strong in Washoe County.

A bit of history regarding allocation of collection funds.

According to a library staff report from November 2025, Nevada's minimum public library standards for collection spending require each library board to annually select one of three options in laying out the budget for acquisition and library collections.

Way back in August of 2015, the Library Board of Trustees selected the third option as a long-term goal for the library system with an aim to reach the 10% minimum standard, meaning the library system would meet or exceed 10% of the adjusted total operating budget spent on library materials for collection funding by fiscal year 2017-2018.

Here we are nearly 10 years later, as we approach our fiscal year 2026-2027, and we have yet to meet this standard.

Based on our current fiscal year 2025-2026 budget, the allocation for materials of $764,720 falls far short of that 10% goal and currently sits at 4.51%.

With your approval, this res of this resolution, we can close the gap and work to achieve the goal laid out by our library board of trustees in 2015.

Your approval sends a strong message and reflects our community's broad support for our Washoe County Library system.

Thank you so much.

Marie Rodriguez.

Actually, if you go to the Barnes and Noble here in Reno, you'll find several of my books on the shelf.

And we have pretty much been trying to support and promote the literary arts in the northern Nevada through the Sierra Arts Foundation.

We actually have a group now called the Sierra Arts Literary Group, literary literary community.

And this June is our second annual book fest, which will happen in Sparks and is free, open to the public, and will feature many local art um authors and poets, and will have activities for the family.

So I'd just like to invite everybody here to this event to support it, to support the literary arts in the area.

And there will be a wonderful raffle.

And hope to see some of you there.

Thank you.

Penny Brock.

On my sample ballot, Assemblyman Rich Delong was left off.

Yes, he's the only Republican running for the primary, but I noticed throughout the ballot, others uh were on the ballot where they were the only one there.

So why was Rich DeLong left off?

Secondly, I take issue with agenda item number 14.

McDonald is going to do a presentation to discuss the data transparency project.

Why aren't we allowed to speak after his presentation?

There was no attachment for us to know what he's going to talk about.

What is a data transparency project all about?

We already know, based on the elections since 2020, we do not have data transparency.

Nothing has changed.

There is not going to be any true data transparency with this election.

So why is he taking the time to be on the agenda and what's it all about?

Secondly, you heard me speak about the drop box at the CARES campus.

I've learned additional information.

There were 23 voters from that area in 2024.

Why are they getting their own drop box?

It's not a polling location.

That's an issue, too.

The voters in that area can mail their ballots.

It's a prepaid envelope, even.

So why should we be spending thousands of dollars to have a drop box at the CARES campus?

Who are going to be the observers?

The residents of the CARES campus.

Are they even going to be registered voters?

Well, I'm sure McDonald makes sure they're registered.

But this is a huge issue.

It's on safe, it's fenced, and it's homeless.

Look at the picture around the CARES campus.

This is not changed.

It's not a safe area.

In the law about a drop box, it says it must be placed in an accessible and convenient location at a polling place in the county.

The CARES campus is not accessible.

It's fenced.

You have to show an ID to get in, yet you won't have to show an ID to vote.

Think about that.

Made available during hours when the polling place is open.

Well, the CARES campus is open 24-7.

There will not even be a dedicated camera on this drop box 24-7.

So Dora Martinez.

Excuse me for a minute.

Okay.

It would say, click this link for an accessible agenda.

And when I click on it, I think it's an image.

And my phone or any screen readers with us who are blind, um, cannot read scan documents or picture or image.

So just because 2022, we worked with Jason Backl and Joshua and Andreas, I think, to make sure that the agendas were accessible.

Um, and I don't know what happened because now it's not.

And so now I'm just speaking on uh for general public because I didn't know it was on the agenda.

So with that said, um, back in the 81st legislative session, I advocated for the NVEs, the Nevada effective absentee system for election for people who are blind and disabled, and and that's when the uh pandemic started.

So senior citizens who had the skill to vote online were able to, because that bill passed.

And I'm grateful for that because here in America, people should have should vote securely and independently.

I don't want to go in a poll and have somebody hear my voting when I'm casting my vote because of um not uh adequate equipment, but I want to thank you all and whoever hired Scott Young's through the Americans with Disability Act program with the Nevada Center for Excellence and Disability because of him and others in your team or in this Washa County staff.

Um, it's becoming more accessible.

People who are American Sign Language users can vote independently and securely because I checked out your machines and they even have their tactile, different shape, and somebody told me their color.

Um so people who um you know can use the colors, they can choose their who they're voting for.

Um, I also want to thank George and his last name escapes me, and Mr.

McDonald's for their cooperation in making this possible.

I know we get a lot of stuff saying it's not secured or something, but all I care about is that I can vote, we can vote.

My husband and I, and other people who are disabled who are scared to come because of retaliation to voice out that they do appreciate that they can vote securely and independently.

Um thank you so much.

Thank you.

We'll follow up on that as well, Jill O'Leary.

Good morning, commissioners.

My name is Jill O'Leary, Washoe County resident.

Today I'm commenting on voter transparency.

I've come across something that baffles me.

No public record request is available to allow a voter to access their own voter history, among all the other things going on with the ballots being improper and how the machines are changing.

The registrar's office needs to be required to provide individuals or voting history and a public records request.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

We have nobody else signed in.

Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and close public comment and now move to commissioners and county managers' announcements.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is Commissioner County Manager's announcements, reports, and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for topics or future agendas.

Um I do have two quick things, if I may.

We have uh, as this is the meeting where we announce our open member or um seats that people can fill with their applications.

We have the Board of Equalization, and then we have the deferred comp committee.

So the Board of Equalization is seeking two regular members to fill vacancies that begin in January 2027 and are set to expire December 31st, 2030.

They're also looking for an alternate member with the term that begins in January 2027 as well.

It's set to expire on December 31st, 2027.

Those county board hearings are held from mid-January through February and one day in April each year, and members are required to appear in person.

Virtual participation is not allowed.

So the deadline to apply for those three open positions is 5 p.m.

on Friday, June 5th, 2026 this coming June.

We do have an open open seat for the Washoe County Deferred Compensation Committee, which is a pretty specific um appointee that they're seeking.

You have to uh it's you have to be a retiree, so you're you need to be a Washoe County retiree participating in the Washoe County Deferred Compensation Plan, which is our 457B plan, and or the Washoe County 401A plan.

So you can do either or or both of those.

The appointment is a two-year term and it begins on the date of appointment.

So this board, the DCC convenes on a quarterly basis, meetings are open to the general public, and the deadline to apply for that one is 1159 p.m.

on Tuesday, June the 30th of this year.

If you have any other questions or concerns on these, please contact Washoe 311, or you can dial 775-328-2003.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now move to Commissioner Comments.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have no comments this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanted to recognize that May is National Foster Care Month, and I want to recognize the county team.

I forgot our last meeting to give them major kudos for our foster parent appreciation evening.

It was a beautiful evening.

And I think that many people think that foster care seems like too much work or maybe something that they um a scary experience, but uh Washoe County is a place where we will help you through the process and we'll make it easy on you.

And there are so many kids who deserve a loving family, and there's so many people who have uh space in their homes, who have capacity in their lives.

And uh I just ask that they consider um bringing in a a kid into their lives.

Um you can also mentor these kids if you think that foster is too much, but um, I just ask that folks um consider this because this is such a need in our county and our state, and um I think that the county has really stepped up in the way that they support our foster parents, and I give uh major kudos to our manager who has um made sure that we can um really make sure that anyone who is part of the county's foster system is part of our big family.

And so that's my only uh push for this month, and um, and I just appreciate all the people who do foster.

And um, and I just appreciate all the people who do foster.

It was great to make meet many foster parents at this event, and they're very inspirational.

And uh and they don't have all the money in the world.

These are people who just want to help kids.

And so if you're if you're thinking about it, considering it, reach out to Washoe County.

We will make it easy on you.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you.

Well said.

Um, I wanted to wish everybody a happy Mother's Day, including in that are our foster moms, our adoptive moms, and moms that have informally taken kids into their homes.

So thank you for teeing that up.

I do have another thank you and one request.

Um, a special thank you to Code Enforcement, Washoe County Sheriff's Office, uh, Hope Team, DA Large, and Manager Thomas for agenda items eight B1, um, the forcible detainer on Carnes Avenue, and an agenda item number 13 for the public nuisances listing various APNs.

Um, these are very complex issues uh with owners that are deceased.

Um, they're not easy to tease out.

There are multiple touch points.

I think the assumption is that the county doesn't care or that we're turning our back, and that's not the case because if you look at any of these parcels, they've had multiple complaints, multiple warnings issued.

In many cases, a lot of intervention has taken place already with removing vehicles and and cleanups, but you just can't tell.

Often cases, these are so bad that those efforts go unnoticed.

So I just wanted to publicly acknowledge all the hard work that goes into addressing these, and we're we're off to a great start.

So thank you.

And then my request is um a couple of months ago, the city of Sparks adopted some chamber, uh, some changes to their chapter 5.6.5.

It was in relation to the massage parlors and services.

Um, so I I pulled up what they had passed, and um, you know, they they had strengthened things around you know, revoking licenses, inspections, um, living or sleeping quarters.

I pulled up our Washoe County code 25.239, and ours looked pretty strong already.

You know, we had already prohibited living and sleeping quarters.

It had um outlined grounds for revoking business licenses and grounds for denial.

So all of that was in place um in regard to our um managing our businesses uh that are related to massages, but I was hoping um that we can strengthen the grounds for denial and revocation for those bad actors who have found the loopholes.

And so interesting, um, Sparks was able to kind of identify, you know, folks that uh utilize a spouse, a partner or stockholder to apply for these business licenses.

Um, they sometimes uh will apply on the same physical address and complex, even though they've uh had their license revoked.

Um they would use you know the same ownership name and lease agreements when they've already had issues.

Um, and we I would like to see um us denying anybody that's been previously employed by any of these bad actors.

So just looking for um some continuity across the jurisdictions because as you know what we enforce the sparks then can trickle into the different jurisdictions.

So I just wanted to put that on our radar, and if we could um open up uh Washoe County section 25.239 for just further review.

Thank you.

Thanks, and thanks for your hard work on the property and trying to get everything cleaned up.

And I think um the sober, what you were talking about is exactly what the vice chair is talking about.

So thank you.

Commissioner Herman.

I'm going to repeat what's been said about cleanup and thanks to any help we can get because it sure has it's been worked on by our sheriff department for years and years and by this board and uh so I appreciate you following through on it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have um a couple things.

One, manager Thomas, would you address the sample ballot?

Um there was several folks during public comment, and if you could please help clarify.

Sure.

So thanks to folks that came forward with that um information.

The sample ballot is booklet is not unique to precinct.

So that's by design.

Um so, for example, those that live in unincorporated Washoe County um have all races that are showing in their party.

We do have a very cool um spot online that uh when it came out, I jumped on there just to kind of see what my ballot would look like.

It's a specific race to you.

If you go online to washow county.gov backslash sample ballot, you can see what your actual ballot will look like with all the races that pertain to you.

So I apologize if that was confusing, but we certainly have information for you.

And I know Registrar McDonald will be here later this afternoon, and he can certainly address that as well.

So I hope that helps.

Thank you.

Uh, the only item I have is that on the 15th of this month will be the deadline for any feedback for the citizens advisory boards bylaws.

That's been a process that's been um worked on by a lot of staff, so thanks in advance to all of that.

But uh, all the folks that have been working hard to hasn't really been looked at since 2021, and so bringing it up and uh recalibrating and and putting it as a priority, obviously, for all the citizens to have a voice is important.

So I hope everybody can go online and offer their feedback.

Last I checked, there were like a hundred and twenty-three, I believe, people who have commented, so that's pretty good.

Hopefully, we can have everyone look at it.

So, hearing no other comments or um, oh, go ahead.

Madam Chair, if I may.

Um, I wanted to mention um an ongoing effort with um, as I mentioned last week at the board meeting in regard to correcting any legal issues during public comment, as I mentioned at the end of last meeting.

Um, there seems to be some ongoing confusion regarding um the location of drop boxes and whether or not they're required to have um be at ballot locations, they are not pursuant to NRS 293.269921 subsection three.

While each polling place must have a drop box, the can the ROV may establish a ballot drop box at any other location in the county where mail ballots can be delivered by hand and collected during the period for early voting and on election day.

There's no requirement that those other places be uh ballot locations or yeah, be ballot locations.

Thank you.

All right, we're gonna move now to proclamations.

The first proclamation is going to be Commissioner Herman, and it's a proclamation for the week of May 10th through the 16th, 2026 is all police week, and I think we have some folks here that Sheriff Balam and Company.

The Board of County Commissioners made this proclamation, which is signed by our um chair.

Whereas, and I want to compliment before I start on whoever wrote it because it's really well written, and I agree with it.

Whereas each day, public safety officers rise to meet a calling greater than themselves to protect to serve and to stand as a shield between danger and the innocent, they do so with unwavering resolve, knowing full well the risks that they face and the sacrifices they and their loved ones may be asked to make protect our communities to uphold our rule of law and ensure our neighbors neighborhoods remain safe and secure, and whereas Washoe County stands united in deep admiration and eternal gratitude for the brave men and women of law enforcement.

We honor their extraordinary courage, their steadfast commitment to justice, and the ultimate sacrifices made by those who laid down their lives so that others may live in peace and safety, and whereas while we can never fully repay our law enforcement officers for their selfless service, we must continue to provide them with the training, the tools and support necessary to carry out their duties so that they may return home safely at the end of each shift to the families who hold them close in heart, and whereas Washoe County owes a deep debt of gratitude, not only to those who wear the badge, but also to the families who stand behind them, offering unwavering strength and support when officers are injured or lose their lives in the line of duty.

When officers are injured or lose their lives in the line of duty, it is our solemn responsibility to care for their loved ones and honor their sacrifices.

And whereas during peace officers memorial day and police week, we reflect on the bravery and dedication of our law enforcement professionals and express our enduring appreciation for their service.

We mourn those lost.

We stand beside the families who grieve.

And we lift up every officer who continues to walk the path of duty.

Let us never take their service for granted.

And let us always remember that the peace we enjoy has been hard-won by the bravery of others.

Now, therefore, the board of county commissioners does hereby proclaim the week of May 10th to 16th as police week.

And as I said before, Clara Andreola, our chair has signed this.

I appreciate the commission for all the support that you guys do throughout the year for the men and women of the sheriff's office and in our entire region.

And for those that didn't give their ultimate sacrifice, um, thank you for acknowledging those families as we go back to DC, and we have a little contingent back there this week, uh recognizing them, and not just our minimum, but everybody across the nation.

So thank you for your support.

Um, and with that, we're gonna end, and I will let the commission know we have a tragic incident at a school, no threat to other kids, but we are all headed there, so uh we will make sure we get the community information out, but want to let you know since we're standing here.

Thank you.

And can I also say thank you too for this celebration, the remembrance celebration at the sheriff's office last week?

It was really beautiful to actually see not only um all the families that were there, but even the candles and the representation of those handmade candles.

It was really moving.

So thank you for that.

And thank you for everything you do.

Better let you get to work.

We'll move now.

Oh, was that in the form of a motion?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

All right.

We have a motion by Commissioner Herman and a second by Vice Chair Garcia.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

We'll now move to 5A2, which is a proclamation for the month of May as treatment court month.

And Judge Bersky is here.

And Commissioner Hill will be reading the proclamation.

Can you see that?

So you open me up by that.

I saw that.

It's a big on punch.

The Board of County Commissioners proclaim, whereas, according to all rise, treatment courts are the most successful justice system intervention in our nation's history for reducing crime by addressing substance abuse and mental health disorders.

And whereas treatment courts save an average of more than $6,000 for every individual they serve.

And whereas treatment courts provide a range of significant economic benefits by reducing court and incarceration costs, saving taxpayer dollars, promoting family reunification, reducing the foster care placements, and decreasing victimization related expenses.

And whereas treatment courts combine accountability with evidence-based treatment, and whereas, according to all rise, treatment courts significantly approve substance abuse, mental health disorder, treatment outcomes, and prevent fatal overdoses.

And whereas local treatment courts refer more than 1,500 people each year to life-saving treatment and recovery services while facilitating community-wide partnerships that unite public safety and public health efforts.

And whereas treatment courts facilitate community-wide partnerships, bringing together public safety and public health to enhance compliance and community safety.

And whereas treatment courts demonstrate that when one person rises, we all rise.

Now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners does proclaim the month of May as treatment court month dated this 12th day of May.

And this is signed by our chair.

And I will have Judge Birchke come up and tell us a little bit about her treatment court.

Good morning.

Kendra Birchie for the record.

And I am a Justice of the Peace in Reno Justice Court.

And I have the privilege of presiding over our co-recurring treatment court of our CAP Court, as well as our newly formed STARM court, which we have all been working on together, and I appreciate the county's support with that.

Just for some basic information, your county has done an excellent job of if you haven't listened to the Washo Life podcasts.

We have several podcasts that explain a lot about treatment court.

So I would encourage people to learn more information about that program there.

And again, just to thank all the county commissioners for how you have been working diligently at implementing the SIM model.

Treatment court is specifically one of those intercept models.

And so I just want to acknowledge that, and just for the record, that is the sequential intercept model.

This year it is the first year that I'm really excited to say that we have had every single treatment court in Washoe County to be able to join in on this proclamation.

And so I just wanted to make sure that you all were aware of our coordinated effort that we are working with within the county.

I am so grateful for members of different agencies and different courts who were able to be present here today.

I know that there were other judges who unfortunately were in their treatment court or had other courts that were not able to be here today, but also wanted to thank the county for your hard work in ensuring that our needs are met with this within this county to ensure that we are actively working at best efforts to address the substance use issues, mental health issues, and ensure that victim rights are protected and that our community is safe.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you do.

We appreciate it.

And did you get oh, she's there.

I was like, did she have a picture?

In the form of a motion, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

So we have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a question?

I'll second.

Second by Vice Chair.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

By day, a judge, and in the evening, a professor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item 5A3, which is a proclamation for the month of May as educator appreciation month.

And we have Warmer County Manager, Miss Holland.

Oh, come on up.

Come on.

Yes, you gotta come on up.

And before I start, I would just want to extend my profound gratitude for these two incredible women for your dedication and service on the Washa County School District Board of Trustees and also former county manager.

So thank you for being here today.

All right.

So this is a Board of County Commission's proclamation number two or number three.

So whereas educators play a fundamental role in shaping the future by educating and inspiring students to achieve their highest potential and whereas educators dedicate their time, energy, and expertise to fostering a love of learning, critical thinking, and personal growth among students of all backgrounds and abilities.

And whereas, educators often go above and beyond their professional duties by serving as mentors, counselors, and role models who provide guidance and encouragement beyond the classroom.

And whereas the impact of a dedicated educator extends far beyond a single school year, influencing students for a lifetime and strengthening their entire community.

And whereas, educators have demonstrated extraordinary resilience, add up to adaptability, particularly in the face of challenges such as technological advancements, shifting educational standards, and unprecedented circumstances affecting the learning environment and whereas.

It is fitting that we recognize and express our deepest gratitude for the contributions of educators in our community and beyond.

And whereas, we're almost there.

The Washoe County Commission proudly honors and expresses profound appreciation for the educators in our schools, the educational institutions, acknowledges their invaluable contributions in shaping the future of our community, commits to supporting initiatives that promote educational excellence, and encourages residents to express their gratitude and support for educators' ongoing efforts to foster acknowledged creativity and leadership among students.

So now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim the month of May as educator appreciation month.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Christine Hull for the record.

I am the trustee for District A, which is South Reno, Incline Village, Washoe Valley, and Hidden Valley.

But more importantly, I am an educator.

I have wanted to be an educator since I was five years old, and I was so blessed to have my own kindergarten teacher swear me in as a trustee, and that tells you just how important a teacher is for every single student, every educator and every person who works in our buildings.

And I just want to thank the commission and all that you do to support our schools and our teachers in this community, especially several of you serving on committees that help us do our jobs and do better for our students in this county.

Um and I just uh also wanted to to share a spark of an idea from my very good friend Katie.

Um that this is a great opportunity.

May is very, very intense in schools.

And so this is a great opportunity to pay it forward in our community.

Just say thank you to a teacher.

If you have an educator in your family, just let them know that you're thinking about them and that you appreciate the work that they do in any way that you can.

A quick simple message, a text, a phone call, they appreciate it.

So I I encourage everybody to take that just little step to thank them, especially in this final month of school as we wrap up the school year and head into summer.

So thank you so much for this proclamation, and I will be sharing it later at our board meeting.

And I too have to go because our board meeting starts early today.

But thank you again for this.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I move to approve.

Thank you so much.

We have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia.

Do I have a second?

Second by Commissioner Herman.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Madam Chair, before we leave item five, can we open that for public comments?

Yes, we can.

There's nobody signed in.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll move now to item six, six A1.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is a presentation and an update on the fiscal year 26 third quarter status report of the Washoe County Regional Detention Facility to include security of the jail, conditions of confinement, staffing, and medical care of inmates house at the Washoe County Sheriff's Office.

We have Captain Stewart here with us today.

Thanks for having me, John Stewart for the record, captain over detention services at Washoe County Sheriff's Office.

Our third quarter uh report for fiscal year 2526.

Um go through our medical refusals at 56, grievances at 71, complaints at 111 ER referral is at 134.

Something to note before we get too far into the stats is that as spring picks up in summer, we have the expectation that we're gonna have more population in our care and custody at the jail.

Uh that just tends to happen with the weather.

Uh, people are out and about and doing different things.

Um, and we we've always seen a rise in MA population during the spring and the summer.

So oftentimes, whether it's medications, whether it's grievances, all of those will go up a little bit as well.

And then we see see them come back down in the fall and the winter.

Uh, a couple of things that I wanted to talk about specifically was um we'll get to the slide in a minute, but this will go through our dental visits.

Nothing in here is out of the ordinary.

If we see that, I will absolutely bring it to your attention.

And we will start looking into why something is an anomaly or greater than than usual.

So this is ADP, which is our average daily population.

So we use a lot of acronyms, so I will try and break those down for you.

So our average daily population actually went down in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.

We'll see here in a minute.

So that final that final number at the bottom right is 15.91 days on average per inmate that we house.

When I look this morning, we're currently at 1,217 inmates.

Um, and so on average you'll spend about 15.91 days there.

Um then it goes through our total average daily population for each one of the months, so you can kind of look through there.

Our bookings and our releases.

Our bookings have gone up since the second quarter.

For reference.

If we read left to right for total bookings, we're 1327, 1192, and 1287.

So, like I said, when we see the rise in the spring and the summer, that's expected uh due to the weather.

And our releases are keeping up just about with our our total bookings.

So that's good.

I did see Judge Birchy and uh court administrator Alicia LaRude, and I gave them a kudos because I believe the courts are working more diligently or getting through more cases, and that's why we may be booking more people, but we're seeing a decrease in the average daily population or the or the average length of stay.

And so here's for our quarters again.

Second quarter, we're at 16.3 for ALS or average length of stay, and quarter three, we went to 15.91.

And obviously that all that all uh converts to how many people we can house, so it's it's better if we can do an average length of stay that it that it that is smaller.

Some of our stats of battery by inmate.

Um so we're up from 21.

Uh, typically when we're housing more inmates, our spacing is less.

Uh our goal is to get the inmates out as much as they can to whether it's programs.

I've seen a lot of you guys at the programs and seeing what we're doing in there, or to even get out and be on the kiosk to talk with their families, watch movies.

It keeps that stress level down.

Uh, I don't think anybody enjoys being there, even though the food's really good, as Commissioner Clark has talked about before.

Um I don't think anybody enjoys being there.

So we do try and get them out as much as we can.

But the limited space that we have and the growing population, especially in the spring and the summer, can often create more stress, which sometimes leads to a little bit of rise in fights, which we're seeing here.

Uh, inmate first staff, the exact same.

And the fights averted, went down about about five.

Um 204 were placed on suicide watch.

And we intervened in 21 of those.

And what what that means is that somebody was actively trying to do something, whether that's a torn sheet that they're tying around, you know, making into a noose or whatever they may be doing.

That means that we interacted prior to them being able to do that.

Uh the suicide watch placements could just be somebody verbalizing that you know, they they want to self-harm or they want to they want to harm themselves, and then we place them on suicide watch to be sure that they can get the medical needs uh to counteract that.

So it's the IAP program.

Um jail days saved through quarter three is five thousand three hundred and fifty five, which comes out to about eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars, um, which is good.

So these are all the resources and programs working with the courts, whether they get into Salvation Army or whatever that may be.

I don't know if I've gone over it before, but specifically in IAP, we saw in the past, if we released an inmate out onto the streets from the jail and said, Hey, you gotta go to this program, you've got to go report to it.

There's about a 70% failure rate from when they walk out of our facility and they don't make it to the program that they're approved for.

And so, what our inmate assistance programs started doing is they actually transport them, they physically transport them.

So they actually put them in the car and make sure they get there.

So there's some cool things that we're trying to do.

I think they did last year somewhere around 600 transports.

So they're they're they're moving and grooving.

And that's all I have for the slideshow at the moment, and I'm open for questions.

Thank you, Captain Stewart.

Commissioner Herman, do you have any questions?

No questions, just thank you for what you do.

And uh thank you for your report.

Really enjoyed it.

Nice chair Garcia.

Commissioner Howe.

Thank you.

Thank you for your work in the jail.

I know that you have a passion for helping inmates, so thank you for that.

And I think that leadership, I see it when I go down to the jail of um that care and understanding that these are our neighbors and that mutual respect and making sure that um everyone in the jail is successful in whatever they choose to do.

So when they come out, they're ready to be productive members of our community.

I was wondering two things.

Um the RTC bus situation, we have uh gone back and forth on, and I know that we now have a system where um when inmates are um uh able to be released that we call the um uh hotline and you get a microtransit bus there.

And I haven't heard any complaints from neighbors or property members um nearby that I was receiving complaints from of inmates who are walking in the middle of the night and looking lost and being cold and all those things, but I just want to make sure that the system is still working, or if there's anything that Commissioner Garcia and I need to know as RTC board members that we can continue to support you with.

Ms.

Ma'am it appears to be working well.

Um they the officers call when we're doing a release party um for that for the I think it's a flex ride.

Yeah.

Is it yeah?

Okay, and uh, and they come there and if if they need a bus out of there, if they don't have somebody picking them up or meeting them across the street, oftentimes they'll go across the street.

They want to get stuff at the convenience store coming out of the jail, and then they have their family members pick them up out there.

But yes, um, we are still working with that program.

Okay, good.

We'll just keep us posted if there's any problems or any issues you're running into.

And then uh last time um you came.

I I still am waiting for the information on ICE detainees, the costs that we received, the reimbursement we received from the federal government and the real true cost to the Washoe County residents, and I still have not received that information.

Yes, I I was under the impression that the chief and the sheriff, as we were working through some of those numbers, it's very intricative as far as when we went through that contract with the feds with the federal government with the marshals.

They took into account all kinds of different pay all the way up through the ranks because a portion of that is attributed to what the cost of uh the jail would be to include you know the the food or the central control people running the doors and stuff like that.

We can't find a more finite or accurate way of figuring out that number than that.

Um we went through taking some of the budget line items and dividing them by how many inmates and how many days and everything else, uh, but that's not a true and accurate picture, in our opinion.

Uh the one that we utilized with the federal government, we actually went through a summer rule law group, and they do that for many jails across the country because so many things are taken into account to figure out how much cost per day is.

Um so we can keep trying to find a better way to do that, but that's gonna be in our opinion.

That's the most accurate number that we came up with uh in that contract as far as the cost per inmate per day.

Sure, and I just want to see something.

I have literally received no information on my request, and I asked in January, and so I just I think there's an opportunity that whatever you've got, I think it it's helpful to share.

I constituents have concerns about this, so I just want to be responsive to them and make sure we're being transparent to the taxpayer.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Clark.

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

And it's good to hear that the food is still good at the jail.

Thank you.

Thanks for your good work, good work there.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

I just have one quick question.

When you had mentioned the um IAP and that obviously before the transportation opportunities were offered, that there was a 70% um decrease, if you will, and in folks actually going to various places.

And so, have you seen an what what is that percentage now?

Well, I'll have to get with my uh detention services unit sergeant uh to see what that is now.

I just know that there was a 70% failure rate of them getting out of the facility and getting through the program.

So only about 30% were actually getting to the program at the time.

It might be interesting just to see if that failure rate actually improves in terms of them you offering that, whether it's ride share or or whatever other means you're using.

That would be helpful.

And then I just really want to thank you for your presentation.

I think it's helpful.

I also um appreciative of you talking about why the numbers were higher because that's what I was gonna ask.

Why are the numbers higher?

So thanks for being proactive in anticipating that, and also to everyone, you and Judge Bersky and the entire community, Washoe County, the CARES campus, our place, and really implementing the sequential intercept model and seeing the success of that.

So everyone in an intrical way is making things better.

So really want to thank you for that.

Yes, ma'am.

Yep, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll now move to donations.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, madam chair.

I move to approve a generous donation of 18,500 to support Rancho San Rafael from Paul and Gwen Leonard Charitable Foundation.

And also move to approve the monetary donations, food and treat donations, and various goods to Washoe County Regional Animal Services.

Uh with special thanks to our uh to serving our communities foundation for a generous $15,000 donation and $885 from PETCO Love Stipend donation.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment?

We have nobody signed in.

Thank you.

So we have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia.

Do we have a second?

Second by Commissioner Herman.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call for the vote.

All those in favor, you can press or say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move to the consent items.

Um I do want to highlight 8B1 in terms of the Vice Chair and also DA large and everyone's hard work on this.

Um thank you for doing all of that.

Appreciate it.

So if anyone has any questions or wants anything pulled, I'll entertain a motion for the consent items 8A1 through 8.

I one.

So moved.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a second?

Second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Is there any public comment?

There is nobody signed in.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yep.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like the uh DA to give us his opinion on how long it would take to uh to initiate the forcible detainer action.

What time frame are we looking at before we can evict whoever might be occupying our property?

Uh I Michael Lars for the record.

Um great question, Commissioner.

Um, I before I left the office today, I had my staff start beginning the process of drafting the forcible detainer um notices that will be sent to that will be given and served by sheriff deputies on all squatters that are on the property at 520 carnes.

Um they will have five days to initiate a judicial proceeding.

If they do not do that so within five days, then um we take the next step of being able to get them off of the property.

Hopefully, that all of them will vacate the property at that juncture.

If they do initiate a judicial proceeding, it may take a few weeks to a month to finish that up, but those have um expedited review.

Um, so we're hopeful that we'll have them off before the end of June off of the property.

So the slow wheels of justice, but what when do you think your office will have your paperwork filed and served and we will have it ready to go by tomorrow, and we will have it to the sheriff's office by either late tomorrow or the next day in terms of service.

And do we have any contacts there?

We can expedite this uh to the sheriff's department.

Yes, we uh we'll be we'll be utilizing the hope team who has been instrumental throughout this entire process.

Um, this project um in terms of all the public nuisances and um this item would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Washoe County Sheriff's Office uh Hope Team and uh Vice Chair Garcia.

This is um been a lot of moving parts, but we're very hopeful this will be an expeditious process.

Good work.

I salute everyone that was involved in in getting this uh moving forward.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

So we have a motion, we have a second, we have no public comment.

Um, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll now move to block commissioner Herman.

Commissioner Herman, I think your mic no, that's okay.

Um, and thirteen, and that is in the form of emotion, but motion.

Thank you.

So any questions on any of the items.

Um, we have a motion by Commissioner Herman.

Do we have a second?

Second, second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Madam Madam Chair.

Yeah, with regard to item number 13.

Um, pursuant to Washoe County code, we need to set a date for the hearing.

Okay.

Um, and I believe that um with the noticing requirements um which are gonna take, we have to publish twice, and we have to provide personal notice to all of the owners um that June 16th looks like a really good date for um those public hearings and with the the clerk and the chair's commit approval.

Um, I'd like to make the notices of that for that date.

Great.

Commissioner Herman, will you modify your motion to include what DA included in terms of date at this point for June?

Yes, I appreciate it.

And I'm guessing, Vice Chair, you're okay with that.

Thank you.

So any other further discussion?

All those in favor signify we do have public comment.

We have public comment.

Thank you.

Penny Brock.

Thank you.

June 16th.

June 16th.

16th.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Penny Brock for the record.

I am confused.

You've got your consent block, and then you've just blocked 11, 12, and 13.

So I had filled out a card to address both 11 and number 13.

So am I now to address just one of the items?

If you would mind, that would be lovely.

Could you or do you start restart the clock because I need a clarification?

Thank you.

So just quickly on number 11.

I strongly object that you block that.

This has to do with an item that we the voters voted on pertaining to the library.

It was defeated.

And now you're gonna fund it.

This is not right.

Okay, number dealing with number 12.

I'm also shocked that you blocked this, because this deals with this uh safe camp contract.

Um, now to be under rise.

We don't even know who these people are.

Um, I don't know that they're here to give a presentation.

I guess not, because you've blocked this and there won't be any.

Um, there's a lot of it uh problems with this in 2023.

You gave safe camp $1,693 and 132 dollars.

We as taxpayers came forward, and on all these ARPA items that you funded.

Our concern was once the funding ran out, you were gonna put the added burden on the taxpayers forever.

So this is what we see happening with the safe camp.

With the safe camp, we do not understand why the volunteers of America are not overseeing safe camp and the resource center and everything.

Why a separate contract?

Also, where is Grant Denton going?

Um, is the RISE group a front for Grant Denton?

We don't know where he's going.

You can't tell me he's just gonna go away.

I found that he does have some kind of a contract with Sparks, the city of Reno.

But where's Grant Denton going?

So the problem with Safe Camp is there was a huge blow up in 2024, over nine women coming forward, they'd been abused by Grant Denton.

There's been other problems with issues at the safe camp staff.

What's also coming to light is that these homeless shelters are now being investigated for fraud.

We as taxpayers have asked for an outside independent audit of the CARES campus and the whole homeless funding issue.

Supposedly, there's only 1,400 homeless in Washoe County, and yet we as taxpayers spend millions for that population.

That population is increasing, not going down.

So it appears that the priorities that you set down for the homeless issue is not going away.

It's not getting better.

In fact, it's getting worse.

So we would like to know how the safe camp, how are they helping with this issue?

Why are they living in their individual little pods or whatever you call them?

Do they pay rent?

Do they eat the food at CARES campus?

We don't understand.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

Um Manager Thomas, just for clarification, would you please clarify on item 11 that that is not new?

That is an accounting function.

The library is not an expansion.

It's actually an accounting function.

So would you be so kind?

Yes, yeah.

This item is uh simply an augmentation that moves the funds to the appropriate location so that we can allocate those resources.

This is not what was purported in public comment.

Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate it because it is not any new money essentially, it's existing money, it's an augmentation to the budget, it's an accounting function.

Um, could you also share just in terms of clarification that the um uh guidelines that are in place procedurally for um all bidding and item 12 and why that was um met those requirements?

Sure.

So this resulted um, as you know, per state law, we are required when contracts um end, unless there's an extenuating circumstance, we do an RFB.

And so the county issued an RFP for the operations of the safe camp and through a competitive bidding process.

The Reno Shelter for Reno Initiative for Shelter Inequality was awarded that.

They run our crossroads program currently, have run our place.

We've had a long time affiliation with RISE.

So I hope that's helpful.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Any other questions or discussion?

All right, we have a motion.

We have a second.

We have no further public comment.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Or pressing appropriately.

Any opposed.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

And thank you, Manager Thomas, for the clarification.

We'll move now to item number nine.

And if I could have that read, please.

This is a first reading.

This will be bill number 1948.

Amendments establishing a density incentive for small dwelling units under 1,200 square feet.

Thank you, Ms.

Oakley.

Morning.

Good morning.

I'm here today to talk about one of the last in our series of housing related development code amendments, and this one focuses on a density incentive for small units.

To provide a little background on why we are looking at the topic of unit size and incentivizing units of a smaller size.

So we've seen that the trends in housing supply, the units that are coming on the market and in household size have been diverging for quite some time.

If you look from 1970 to 2022, uh house housing unit size has gone up consistently.

And just using the medium density suburban or MDS zone as an example, in that time period, it's gone from 1,266 square feet to 2,231 square feet.

So that is almost a 1,000 square foot increase.

And in the meantime, in the United States, the mean household size has decreased from 3.14 people to 2.5 people.

So we're seeing smaller households needing to move into or try to afford bigger houses.

And so there's a mismatch there, right?

And if you look at how Washoe County households right now, 63% of our households are one or two person households.

So these are folks who are needing to pay for more than they need in some cases.

And so that's why we're looking at the need for a larger variety of housing types and specifically looking at that issue of unit size.

We expect this trend to continue.

Again, we've talked about this before, but that figure on the right shows the household different types of households that make up the United States.

And you can see that that traditional nuclear family, two parents, a kid or two, uh, that's a minority of household types out there, 20%.

And in the much bigger groups are single people living alone, couples, um, as long as as well as adults sharing with it other adults.

So that could include multi-generational family living arrangements or roommate type arrangements, and then uh single parent families as well.

So a wider variety of types of households, but not necessarily a variety of housing units to serve those households.

And then looking into the future with the Washoe County consensus forecast um up to 2044, we expect the percentage of households that are um headed by seniors to increase or the number of seniors to increase to make up 20 about 21% of our population instead of 19, as they do now or in 2024, and then a person increase of 30,000 people in in the senior population.

So 30,000 more seniors than we have today in 2044 as age increases over a certain point, average household size decreases.

So again, we expect this to contribute to a continuing trend of smaller household sizes.

So we need to make sure that on the market there are the housing units to serve those folks now and into the future.

So that's why we're proposing a small unit density incentive to create more of those affordable by design rather than by deed restriction or other mechanism units on the market.

How are we doing this?

As you all know, we recently activated Article 336 for housing incentives in the development code.

And so we're proposing to add a new section to establish this incentive.

It would specify a 25% density increase for units under 1200 square feet.

So that's that kind of traditional three-bed, two bath starter home that really is not being built at this point in time.

Um allowing that to be used in our suburban, urban and commercial zones outside of the Tahoe Basin.

So this would not apply to our rural zoning districts in those areas of the county that do have more large lot type development patterns, but looking at our suburban and urban areas.

We're also establishing the needed regulations around the use of this incentive.

So specifying that that maximum unit size must be met at the time of the initial certificate of occupancy, specifying that any approved tentative maps or specific plans that wish to use this incentive would need a new approval so that we would be able to assess and account for potential impacts from that change.

And then specifying that no variants can be requested to the section.

So somebody could not, for example, ask for variance for a 1,400 square foot maximum unit size instead of 1200.

So there's some other um provisions as well that I'm happy to get into more detail on if the board requests that.

But in terms of how we came up with this number, of course, the goal here is to increase affordability.

And we're looking at again that market side.

And so the the intent of this incentive is to create more affordable by design units.

But we also wanted to make sure that we were considering and accounting for impacts from that incentive in an appropriate way.

And so we looked at a couple of those key impacts.

One of those is traffic.

There's a bit more detail in your staff report on this, but in general, we looked at three different kinds of model neighborhoods.

One would be a 100-unit average Washoe County neighborhood that reflects average Washoe County statistics, and including as it relates to household size.

And then two small unit neighborhoods that are receiving this 25% density increase.

So there's 125 units in each of these neighborhoods.

And because of that unit size, we use different types of census data to estimate what the average household size for those units or for those the units in those neighborhoods might be.

And then from that, the overall number of residents.

Again, I'm happy to dig into any of this as needed, but essentially we came up with those estimates and then used two different traffic generation techniques to try to understand the potential traffic impacts.

One of those was the ITE resident-based traffic generation estimates, and then also information from our recent 2024 RTC household trip generation survey.

So some good local data from that to compare with.

And in all cases, we found that we would expect a small unit neighborhood, even though it has more units to have in lesser, potentially lesser traffic impact.

And so this is again the intent here is to get that affordability benefit, and that's what we're pursuing.

But trying to also be mindful of potential impacts, proposing a number of 25% that is more conservative than the most conservative of those traffic estimations to make sure that the impact there we think will be negligible.

Also worth noting that any proposed development using this incentive or not using this incentive would be required to conduct traffic impact analyses based on our standard practices.

That is the case now and will continue to be the case for these developments as well to make sure that we're requiring appropriate mitigations for traffic impacts.

We also wanted to look at building bulk as a potential impact when we're allowing more units, and that's in this case we analyzed it on the basis of the overall square footage, right?

And so looking at again that small unit neighborhood, since there's a maximum home size in that neighborhood of 1200 square feet, we're going to assume that's the average 125 units, and that gives us a total building bulk of 150,000 square feet.

If you compare that to some average neighborhoods, um, looking at the average MDS home size for homes built between 1970 and 2024, that's 1,865 square feet.

And so you get a total building bulk for a 100-unit neighborhood not receiving that 25% increase, right?

Of one hundred and eighty-six uh thousand square feet about.

Um, and similarly, if you look at just those newer MDS homes, so what's being built now, a much bigger average home size of 2,261 square feet.

Again, for 100 unit neighborhood, you find um over 200,000 square feet of building in that neighborhood.

And so for this, again, we find that a small unit neighborhood would have a much lesser impact in building bulk.

So they're gonna be there'd be more homes in these neighborhoods, but visually they would be much less impactful.

It would be much just much less building out there.

And so that's how we kind of got it considering the impacts and thinking about this incentive.

We presented this proposal to the planning commission in April.

They voted unanimously to recommend approval and can make all four of the findings.

They only needed to make one.

It's also worth mentioning that we did a couple public outreach meetings before going to the planning commission.

We had about eight folks attending those meetings.

All who attended were um supportive of the proposed incentive.

The planning commission's recommendation is to introduce and conduct a first reading of this ordinance, and I am happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Anyone have any questions or comments from us so go ahead.

Oh, thank you.

This is uh I don't even know what package this is that has come before us.

Eight.

Eight.

Oh my gosh.

And we started this journey, I think, in three years ago.

Three years ago.

Yeah, amazing.

Um, thank you for continuing to uh move the needle on this issue.

And did you get um inspiration on this density bonus from other communities?

Um are we knowing sparse doing this?

Um category for the record.

So Reno does have a similar type incentive specifically for multifamily housing and with um focused on average unit size, so not a maximum but an average, which works well for multifamily, but not so well if it's a single family development.

But really, um, this is a from my research, a pretty unique approach to this issue.

Reno is really the only place I've seen it.

But um, the reason we thought it was worth pursuing was again because we're seeing just the fundamental disconnect between what's happening on the ground and what people's needs are, and so um this was a way where we could try to get directly at the issue that we're seeing.

So it is a bit unique.

Um, but we are optimistic that it it might yield some positive results.

Absolutely.

And your development, I know you have a little uh group of developers that also give you advice on what it looks like and penciling these developments.

Uh, did they say that this was something that would make it a little easier for them to pencil?

Yeah, we so this idea, we actually started talking about it a couple of years ago now, um, and talked to some some developers at that time.

And yes, they are interested in it, partially because since there is not that age restriction element, there's not that kind of administrative overhead needed.

Um it's a market rate type environment which appeals to more developers.

So there's we've heard some interest in it.

You know, when it we'll see when it comes down to a piece of land if people choose to use it, but the impression that I have gotten is that the developers I've spoken with are optimistic about being able to use this.

That's great.

And we heard at CHAB yesterday about a project in the city of Sparks that is about to be done, a permanent supportive housing, and they had to go through a master plan amendment um through the Reno Housing Authority, which took it and made the process longer, and it's quite an expense, as you know.

And I'm not uh saying that you need to fix this, but it's just something top of mind for me and for the board just to think about of you know how can we reduce the barriers when we're these are the these are the housing pieces and products that we need to ensure that we get uh special needs people housed, or like you're saying, this missing middle housed and why we make our development community jump through hoops and you know take additional time.

And I think this is just like a really creative way of going around those regulatory uh requirements, but doing it in a sustainable way in a thoughtful way.

And so as you move through this process, because I'm hoping that this board the our board is continuing to be supportive that you just let us know if there's other barriers that we can reduce as well on that piece.

Thank you.

And I'll just mention there's one more package coming your way very quickly.

Package um it really gets at exactly the issue that you've just brought up.

So I won't give any spoilers, but uh yeah, keep your eye out at a future meeting.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you, madam chair.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you.

Um, all these housing related amendments throughout the years have been, you know, just so inspiring that you've thought outside the box.

And what I really like about your presentations is you're always basing these ideas and suggestions on population growth projections.

You're looking at what's actually trending right now in terms of our American households, and I think that's really important that we have codes on the books that reflect the reality that our constituents face every single day.

So I always get a lot of um, I get really excited when you come in and you've made so much progress.

I was gonna piggyback on what Commissioner uh Hill was saying, you know, the over the years to increase availability and um affordability uh with our senior housing, missing middle, small lot and infield, ADUs and now you know the small unit um and density incentives.

So there's been a tremendous amount of work you've done.

And so into the future, I know you said we've got one more package coming forward, and we're expecting to be kind of closing this housing chapter.

Okay.

Um, my request in the future would be if once things are all implemented and and on the books, if we could maybe six months or a year from that date, if we could get uh an update on how it's going on the implementation side of things, I'd be really curious to see how um these things that we've passed uh are helping move the needle, and just a little bit of a uh recap or an update from your team would be really nice to have in the future.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Um, I too want to thank you.

I think it's great.

I think um how you know looking at this next past year, whatever the surprise is, but the reality is is that this really speaks to the governor's initiative with AB 540.

That's what this is about.

This is about what we can do to address the housing crisis, not only in Washoe County but in the state, but also looking at streamlining.

And I too am aware of you meeting with groups in terms of soliciting feedback, soliciting ideas and looking at creative ways, and this is a reflection of that.

So I think that as we can continue to look at how we can streamline and how we can have um it be um not only targeting like you're doing here, which is great.

I I think it's also interesting.

Again, I I bring up NACO a lot because NACO does talk about housing and some of the crisis.

It's everywhere, it's everywhere.

I mean, I've been here almost 40 years.

Like, who would have thought Elka would have a problem other than when they did when mining was taking off and and people were shipping mobile units so people could workers could stay, but this is not about that.

This is about a permanent solution to a crisis that we have.

So I really want to thank you and the team, and really um that continued effort of feedback of what what we can do to possibly modify things, especially on the streamlining, because I do hear a lot about that, and I think as um this becomes more um implemented more.

I think we'll actually learn a lot as well because it's great as you're talking and to vice chair's point, looking at it coming back might be uh helpful for us to be able to be nimble and thanks for being nimble.

That's that's not something government does, so thank you very much.

Um do we have public comment on this?

We do.

Pat Davidson.

Ms.

Davison.

How are you?

Housing and Davidson, I think they go together.

Thanks for that.

Well, it's true, and thanks for all your hard work and uh always helping the county be the best it can be.

Good morning, Chair Andreola and Commissioners.

My name is Pat Davison.

I'm a resident of District 5.

Happy to see this new incentive for small units come before you today.

A small unit neighborhood envisioned by this incentive screams first-time home buyer or senior empty nester.

The demographic background provided by staff is revealing houses are getting bigger while households are getting smaller.

That means we need more units to adequately house the same number of people when compared to years past.

Kudos to staff for the traffic and building bulk analysis.

Not only is a brilliant move to inform the public and decision makers, but it proactively addresses some of the major concerns usually voiced by a project's neighbors.

Keep in mind that any project with this increased density will still have to analyze impacts.

There is no get out of jail card with this incentive.

This incentive is another in a series designed to be as flexible as possible, taking a somewhat free market approach without compromising quality of life.

The count county's residents get what they need while a developer gets needed return on investment.

I was expecting a deed restriction to be part of this package to limit occupant income or size, but can support the proposed change without a deed restriction.

If we get some cottages or duplexes or other units which are attainable for buyers or renters, then the flexibility is worth it.

Something is better than nothing.

This small unit incentive could be the one that will get a developer's attention and result in some units being built.

With that goal in mind, I strongly urge your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thanks for your education on how it really works.

A lot of misunderstanding about that.

Any other discussion or questions?

This is a first reading, and I'll entertain a motion at this time for bill number 1948.

Move to approve.

Is it 1948?

It's 1948.

1948 and uh schedule for the second reading.

Great.

We have a motion by Hill, and that is all we need for that item.

We'll move now to item 10.

If we could have that read, please.

This is a first reading.

It will be bill number 1949.

Amends the regional road impact fee general administrative manual and the RRIF capital improvement plan with revised fees.

Great.

Does anybody have any questions about this?

Oh yeah.

Oh, Commissioner Herman.

You know, I get okay.

Yes.

Um, I get confused sometimes, even after all the years I've been board.

Um what when we have a award like first along with reading.

What constitutes a first reading?

Is there is there a law?

Is there a description of it?

Yes.

Yeah.

Michael Large for the record.

Thank you.

Michael Large for the record.

I may bungle this because it's been a little while since I reviewed it.

What you've done right at this point with an introduction is to open the case.

You've instructed staff to open the county code and set a hearing on this.

So they've come forward with this.

You've you you now get designated with a um uh ordinance number, and therefore you've introduced this, then it gets set for a first and a second reading down the road.

That's how we introduce code.

Sometimes we do a first introduction and a first reading at the same time.

Um, and that can bypass it, but on stuff like the housing, we've been doing it with the introduction and then the first and second reading.

And then they're treated differently.

They're treated differently.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

On this one.

Can you give me where to find it so I can absolutely thank you?

Yeah.

Great.

Any other questions?

Hearing none.

Is there any well?

This is actually a first reading, right?

I got I was so listening to you, Commissioner Herman.

So this is bill number four 1949.

So we have uh motion.

Move move to approve 1949.

Okay.

So we don't Mr.

Smith.

Should we ask you a question?

Just I don't know.

Do you want to offer any uh words of wisdom?

Came all the way here.

Might as well.

And you got huge accolades a little bit ago, so we should give you the floor.

Uh good morning for the record, Dwayne Smith, Director of Engineering.

This is a standard item that comes before you in the cities of Reno and Sparks.

Um the last time we were here, I think it was in 2021.

And so periodically, RTC uh along with us through the interlocal agreement, updates the general administrative manual and the program of projects for the regional roadway projects that are led by the Regional Transportation Commission.

These are funded and paid for through RIF fees, regional road impact fees.

And so again, periodically we go through, we update the manual, we update the projects, we bring those to the board and to the commissions uh to the commission and to the councils for review and approval.

This time it's just a little bit different in that we're also um bringing forward a business impact statement process.

So the last legislative legislative session, uh, believe AB 444, uh place that additional uh requirement on us to go through a business impact statement.

I think this is good.

It gives the community insight and transparency into the processes of selecting which roadways how that funding is applied.

And so uh I uh certainly appreciate your support in this item.

Great, madam chair.

I was um hoping that we could just amend the original motion to include and set a public hearing for possible adoption for May 26, 2026.

So moved.

Okay, so uh motion was amended.

That's all we have for that item.

Public comment.

Is there any public comment?

I don't see it lit.

Is there any public comment?

We have nobody signed in.

No public comment.

Now that's it.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a break and come back at one.

So I'm gonna recess at 1151.

See you at one.

Yeah.

Chairs in the back.

I'm gonna mess up

Good afternoon.

I'd like to call the meeting to order back to order at one PM.

Thank you all for indulging us for a quick break.

So we are now on item fourteen, which is a presentation by the registrar voters, Andrew McDonald, to discuss the data transparency project.

And if I could, um, I'd like to take a moment just to have an opening remark to this.

Um and in the beginning, really thank everyone for all the hard work that's been put into this project.

But with each election, we see claims of fraud and unfairness.

The election industry has not provided a reliable way to judge whether the many components of our election system are performing as they should.

Please note I did not say voting machines.

It's more than that.

We now have a complex system of electronic components coming from dozens of vendors performing a lot of unrelated tasks, working all year long.

And there's been no reliable way to monitor and prove what they are doing and to further prove there's been no tampering, no fraud, no regularities.

With that in mind, I'm anxious, and I think we all are to hear what the Registrar Voters through the leadership of Andrew McDonald is doing.

Mr.

McDonald has been leading the development of an election security pilot project called Project Plainsight.

It's ready to launch this week.

I'm very excited about this.

It's about a year and a half in the works or more, because it will start to answer the problems that I also laid out here in terms of the claims and actually not having proof.

Imagine having proof, proof of performance.

And it will lay out the groundwork for greater confidence in future Washoe County elections.

So with that, I welcome the Registrar Voters.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Andreola, Vice Chair Garcia, and members of the county commission.

For the record, my name is Andrew McDonald, and I'm the registrar of voters here in Washoe County.

I'm joined today by Ira Victor, president of Discovery Technician, a Nevada Digital Forensics firm.

And he's a Nevada ambassador for the Center of Internet Security.

Justin Warren, the ROB business technologist, is also here, and Josh Franklin Cybersecurity, senior cybersecurity engineer with CIS.

In partnership with the Nevada Secretary of State's Division, Washoe County's Technology Services, and the Center for Internet Security, our team has developed a public-facing voter data transparency pilot tool, otherwise known as Project Plain Site.

With Washoe County's voter registration now centralized under the state's top-down system, the question really is how we ensure continued public confidence that Washoe County's voter roles remain accurate, complete, and free from errors and unintended additions.

This tool is doesn't is designed to directly address that question.

Enhancing transparency, enforcing election integrity, and strengthening public trust by enabling independent public validation of voter data.

Before I turn the presentation over to Ira, I want to acknowledge Chairwoman Andreola for first raising and encouraging the concept of this project, which my office took seriously and worked to develop.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

With that, I'd like to turn it over to Ira.

Thank you, Mr.

McDonald, for the record IRA Victor.

And due to the constraints of time today, I am going to uh be reading my statement.

Uh thank you very much, Commissioner Andreola, for the privilege to be here today.

I've been in the data security field for over 31 years.

If you told me two years ago that a county government would launch this kind of pilot program, I wouldn't have believed you.

Kudos to Andrew McDonald and his team.

Going forward, the Center for Internet Security will be here to help.

I'm the Nevada ambassador for the Center for Internet Security, and I want to emphasize that it is a 100% volunteer position.

If help is needed, I'll I am the local helping hand.

And I'm doing this because I have experience with the Center for Internet Security Controls, and I believe in them.

I know there are questions that have not that will not be fully answered in the 10-minute presentation today.

If anyone in the room wants to know more, please follow us uh out into the hallway after this presentation, and we'll stay as long as we can to answer questions.

Finally, I want to acknowledge Commissioner Andreola.

She studied the election problem.

She found people that could help her understand it.

Then she took the initiative to push for this pilot program.

I hope she gets the credit she deserves.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ira.

When we sat down to design the project plain site, we anchored the work in.

Can you just state your name for the record?

I apologize.

That's okay.

My name is Justin Moore and I'm with the Registrar Voters.

Okay.

Thank you.

When we sat down to design project plain site, we anchored the work in three pillars.

Everything you'll see in the next several slides is built to serve them.

The first is accountability.

We are publicly committed, committing to a verifiable record of what our voter roles look like day to day.

It's meaningful commitment and the kind of commitment a citizen is able to hold us to.

The second is data integrity, and we're giving the public a mathematically sound way to confirm that the record they're examining hasn't been unexpectedly altered by anyone at any point.

And the third is public trust.

There's an old principle in security work trust but verify.

It's not a cynical phrase.

It's a recognition that durable trust isn't asking the public to take an institution's word for it.

It's giving them the means to confirm it for themselves.

That's what the first two pillars exist to support.

Accountability says here's what we published.

Data integrity says, here's how you can prove it hasn't changed.

Together, they turn trust from something we have to ask for into something that the public can independently verify.

With these three pillars in mind, let's look at how the portal actually delivers them to you.

When you visit the Project Plain Site webpage on our office's website, you'll see three core components within the record section.

The first is the date of record.

This tells you exactly when the snapshot of the voter role was captured.

Every snapshot is date stamped, so there's no ambiguity about the date the data reflects.

The second is the SHA hash, I'm sorry, SHA 256 hash.

I'll explain what that means in more detail in just a moment, but for now, just think of it as a digital fingerprint, which is a string of characters that uniquely identifies the snapshot.

And third is a download is you can download this snapshot.

The data itself contain or I'm sorry, excuse me, the actual data file itself.

And it's made available to anybody who wants to download it on demand.

So it's actually in the snapshot.

We give you your voter ID, your name, first middle, last, as well as your suffix, a political party code, county ID, your jurisdiction, which in this case is your precinct, your status as well as your zip code.

I want to be very clear.

I'm sorry, voter information secure and safe.

So in practice, how do you use it?

To begin the voter, the registrar voters office.

We capture a snapshot, a point in time export of those 10 fields from our voter registration system.

We generate a SHA 256 hash of that exact file, and that hash becomes the file's fingerprint.

Finally, we publish both the file and the hash on the project plain site page along with the date of the record.

These are the components that will be used by the public to verify the snapshot.

And next let's look at how the public might verify that snapshot.

So to start, you're gonna access the registrar's page.

That's where you're gonna actually see all the content and the instructions.

Next, you locate the records, the snapshot file and the published hash for the date that you're interested in.

After that, you're gonna download the record, meaning the snapshot itself.

Once done, open a command prompt or terminal on your computer.

Every modern excuse me, every modern operating system has this tool available to you.

So you should be able to just use it with Windows, Mac, OS, or Linux.

Excuse me, once opened, you'll generate the hash yourself by running a command.

We'll dive into what that looks like in just a second, but you're gonna run that hash command on the file you downloaded.

And last, you're gonna compare those values to each other.

So you'll take the locally generated hash that you generated and compare it to the registrar of voters hash that was generated by our office.

If they match, the file is genuine.

If they don't, that's how you know something's wrong.

I'll tell you what each of those outcomes means in just a moment here.

So here's how you're gonna actually hash it.

On Windows, you're gonna utilize the cert util function, which is gonna allow you to use SHA 256 to essentially do math against the rec the snapshot that you downloaded.

Alternatively, you can choose to use Mac or Linux and use the SHA sum command.

And finally, if you would prefer a graphical GUI uh solution to run the SHA check, you can use gtk hash.org.

That's when we've tested and verified that it works well and is reliable.

So if you prefer that type of tool, you can always reach out and grab that.

So here's what the hash looks like.

You'll notice there's a slight difference in these two values.

There's a zero X on that published value.

That's just indicating that this is a hexadecimal value.

But after the X, you'll see zero E, C C, et cetera, et cetera.

And then the last five characters of this are A, B B3, 2.

I've double checked.

This entire string matches one to one, and that's the goal of this project is to make sure that this number matches what the registrar of voters has published to ensure that the record has not been altered.

So what do you do with the results?

There's two possible outcomes.

First is there's a match that confirms data integrity in every character of the file you have on your computer.

It is identical to the file that the ROB published.

You have a genuine unaltered copy of the official record.

Otherwise, there's no match.

That tells you something's been changed between the file we published and the file you're holding, whether through modification, corruption, maybe the download didn't complete, whatever the cause, doesn't matter.

It's not a valid copy of the official record anymore, and you should not treat it as such.

Instead, you're gonna want to report that to the registrar voters' office.

You can do that via phone or form.

We're gonna be adding a form onto the website.

It unfortunately has not been finished yet, but we will put that towards the bottom where you'll be able to submit a form to our office, and we can hopefully provide some evidence of what you walked through for the check.

And we'll be able to verify maybe where the breakdown happened and communicate with our uh communicate the breakdown there.

This is the part of the project that delivers on all three pillars at once.

The public can independently verify the record, and if anything ever looks off, there's a clear path to bring it to the ROV's attention.

With that, I'll hand it over to Josh Franklin from CIS, who's gonna walk you through some of the security perspective.

Thank you so much.

Howdy, everyone, my name's Joshua Franklin.

I'm a senior cybersecurity engineer at the Center for Internet Security.

Um yeah, it's been uh wonderful to be a part of this project and definitely appreciate everyone uh letting us participate.

CIS is a nonprofit based out of Albany, New York.

Um we own and operate the CIS controls, which uh are a list of best practices um organizations can use to just make themselves safe and secure.

Um, in any country, they're typically from you know the most popular to like the third most popular framework.

Um, you know, hospitals use them, uh, you know, you know, schools, nations.

Um, so yeah, for this effort, we are basically applying the CIS controls to project plain site.

Um, it's been very interesting.

We've been you know focusing on things like device hardening, vulnerability scanning.

Also, just uh since CIS has been involved since the inception of the project, just kind of um, you know, just making you know uh good cybersecurity decisions and good uh decisions about network architecture, that sort of thing.

Um yeah, uh for some of the types of decisions we were sort of working on was basically like the types of information that we are pulling or not pulling from the voter registration system.

Um, you know, the need for having some sort of uh double store for the infer information that gets posted to the website, and then there's a cryptographic need and or question, which is the sh this, you know, SHA hash that Justin was just talking about.

Um I'll stop for a second and say that we have been here on site to do an assessment of the system and some of its documentation, but we haven't actually done like hands-on hacking.

I didn't bring hacking tools in my in my backpack or anything.

I don't know what TSA would say about that.

Um, so uh I was asked to talk a little bit about SHA 256.

This is a bit basically it's just a mathematical equation.

Um, and you put data in and you get a digital fingerprint out like we were here in earlier.

This is you know standardized by the US government, uh NIST, they the they're the same folks that do like voting standards, but also Kevlar vests.

Um the toilets on the ISS, uh space station, peanut butter.

I'm not joking, you can look it up.

Um there's no known uh tax against the SHA algorithm.

So it performs well, it's you know widely known to be secure, and it's built into most modern operating systems.

Um it's free and it's out there, and everyone can just use it.

Um I'll just say it's awesome that Washo is you know, doing the whole building security in from the outset versus tacking it on afterwards.

That's the uh approach here.

It's absolutely awesome.

I am done.

Well, thank you.

Thanks for traveling here to come and do this presentation.

It's probably great to meet everybody in person that you've been it's been months.

Speaking with online in various capacities.

Um I'll open it up to questions, Commissioner Clark.

Commissioner Herman.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for your leadership and bringing this forward.

We're always looking for innovative ways to improve the services and the transparency and the communication we deliver to the public.

So thank you for thinking outside the box and and for you all convening and and the miles that it took for you to get here.

So I, you know, I'm looking at CIS as a world-renowned best practices um kind of hub.

Um, this is the first county registrar office uh to partner with CIS, correct?

On this sort of project, yes, ma'am.

Uh, we've we have like the uh the EISAC, which is a group of election offices that kind of work together to disseminate election best practice, but we've never done anything like this.

It seems absolutely novel to me.

Great.

And you know, it kind of has remnants of the checkbook a little bit, you know, it's uploaded every day, and you know, it's easily accessible, public facing.

Um, and I I regret kind of not asking about the costs associated with that when we rolled out the checkbook because inevitably there is time, there are staffing um that is required, and the maintenance of this uh new infrastructure adds yet another item to your plate, Registrar Andrews.

So I just wanted to kind of ask, you know, CIS at looking at your website.

Um people can purchase and and subscribe to certain services you provide.

That's how you make money, right?

You bring in revenue.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

So is this going to cost us something?

Thank you for the question, uh, Vice Chair uh Garcia.

No, this is there's no cost to the county.

Um, there are some infrastructure, as you mentioned, some servers, uh, but this really is just staff time that needed to get the project off the ground.

CIS was phoned out here on their own dime.

We did not pay for them.

Uh we have not paid them a dime for any work they've done on this project, and we will not pay going forward if they need to consult with us.

Great.

And then this will live like on the registrar voters website, I imagine, like on a separate tab.

It is on our website today, right now, yes.

Okay, and how do we access that?

I see results dashboard, register to vote, voting, election workers, elected offices.

Oh, more.

Okay.

It should be a section.

We have a lot of stuff.

Okay, so you click more and data transparency should be an option in there.

Data print transparency.

And that should bring you to the web page.

Okay, thank you for for showing me that.

I do want to apologize that we didn't do a live demo.

It's just in case technology wasn't working.

We wanted just to do some screenshots.

Yeah, no, I understand.

Great.

Um, so back to my question to you, Mr.

Andrews, is you've got a small but mighty team.

You're in the middle of an election year.

Um, you juggle a lot.

You've brought on brought on new initiatives like the curbside ADA voting, you're moving into a new building, you're collapsing, and and there's a lot of moving parts going on in your world.

Um, so from your perspective, it sounds like this is a worthy effort that you are 100% behind, that your team's behind.

And I just want to make sure that you have the capacity and not overextend yourself moving forward because we're not in a position to be adding new programs or you know, adding new staff.

Um, we just can't, budgetarily speaking.

Um, so I just wanted to ask you on the record if if you're okay with this.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Andrew McDonald, for the record.

Um, yeah, I mean, we pushed the boundaries now in Washoe County and uh Redshire Voters Office.

Uh innovation is part of the mission statement.

It's the last word in the mission statements.

When I came here, I wanted to push the boundaries of making sure that we could give the public what they needed, confidence in the election process, integrity.

And this tool, they can actually go out and do the work themselves and verify it.

So, yeah, while it tax on a little bit more, um, I think it's worthwhile every every cent.

Yeah.

Great.

And then what happens if the system goes down?

As we've seen with the live stream cameras, that has created some issues for us.

So how do you plan to handle that knock on wood?

Hopefully nothing happens.

But how how would you address a potential uh incident like that?

Yeah, I mean, if the system goes down, uh, we would obviously need to put something on our website stating, you know, what happened and and that would be part of just the overall coup planning, if you will.

Uh, we have backups, right?

Uh, and uh maybe the architecture, I don't know if we have a backup of the backup, but can you speak to the yeah?

Yeah.

The way excuse me.

The way it's been constructed is there's a immutable ledger that we are constantly writing to, and that cannot be modified in any capacity.

The only thing you could potentially do is delete it in its entirety.

Okay.

That's how we get the uh reassurance that the data that we're gonna compare to, say someone finds a some malicious action or something like that in the data.

We would compare that to our immutable ledger so we can identify why, and that's the main thing.

Let's say also we have an outage instead to your question.

We have scripts that are running automatically.

You for specific days, if it is down, we will not be able to capture data for that day because we will not capture it literally on let's say the ninth we had an outage for 24 hours.

We would effectively have to skip that day.

The next day, we will take a snapshot as soon as service is restored.

And that's literally the best we could do due to just due to the availability of that database.

Okay.

Thank you, councilwoman.

Hi, Revictor for the record.

One of the important elements of the Center for Internet Security Controls is that it is built by a consensus of people that work out in the field in information security.

And one of the three key pillars of information security is availability, that those who are authorized to access a resource or allowed to access a resource can access those resources.

And therefore, woven throughout the entire book of protocols for the Center for Internet Security are elements that make it less likely a system goes down.

I have been using these protocols and its predecessor had a different name, but it was the same family of protocols for over 25 years with my clients.

And I can tell you from my anecdotal experience, it makes a dramatic difference.

Either there are no outages, or if there are, they're minor, they're short term, and they come back up.

And so that that will have a meaningful uh impact on the ability for this uh this area of the website to stay up.

Okay.

And then I'm so I'm asking so many questions.

I'm so sorry.

No, it might be directed to somebody else.

And so I can't remember who said it.

If if there is a discrepancy between you know, day one and day two, there's a form or a chat you said that uh a constituent can reach out to the registrar voters and it and then can you talk to me about what that communication looks like?

Is that email communication?

Is it a phone call?

Just so we can know what to expect.

It's gonna be so it'll be a Microsoft form, actually, which will come directly to the registrar voters' office.

We're gonna have an email group that that's attached to, and many people will be monitoring that.

So once you send that in, that email group will get notified that there's been a new submission.

We'll review it if it's bad, good, whichever direction.

But that's how we'll become aware, and then we're gonna ask you to provide contact information or whatever means we might want to get a hold of you.

Uh, that'll allow us to communicate with you in case you did find something bad.

So we can give the public reassurance that individual whom is worried now, some reassurance that the problem is or is not apparent.

Okay.

So both modes would actually work email or phone call.

Yeah.

This is Andrew McDonald for the record.

Great.

I think you know, with you can have the best intentions when you bring innovative ideas forward.

And I I've seen in the last three and a half years where really good ideas have you know the holes poked into them, not relentlessly.

And the registrar of voters happens to be one of those departments that undergoes a tremendous amount of scrutiny.

And so I'm trying to ask the questions in anticipation of some of the um the fears or the concerns.

I mean, you're bringing forward this platform, this public-facing tool.

Um, but at the same time, that unfamiliarity of rolling something new out, um, can kind of do the opposite.

It can create more distrust.

So I'm asking these questions on the record today, and and I don't want it to sound like I'm not supportive of it, but just in anticipation of another tough year, especially.

Yeah, thank you, uh Andrew McDonald for the record.

I do want to say it is a pilot program.

Okay, right.

And nothing's perfect in the beginning, right?

We're we wanted to escalate this project and get it done even faster, many months ago.

But I wanted to make sure if I'm putting my name on it, even though it's a pilot project, that it's as good as it can be at the time.

We know there it can get better and it'll get a bit more refined, but I do want to say again, it is a pilot project.

If it doesn't make sense for the public, it doesn't make any meaningful impact, then uh we'll disband it in the future.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

I think that's all the questions I have.

Great presentation.

I'm very supportive of this.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Um, I hope that doesn't happen.

I'd hate to end on that note where you know, uh, because the Center for Internet Security has a long history of actually the protocols and the controls that give assurance of proof.

It's not buying something, it's not adding another layer onto something, it's not another machine, it's actually controls and standards that are globally, if not here in the United States, recognized by those folks in various capacities in terms of not just elections, but anything that has to do with really assuring validity, credibility, and if there is a cyber attack or hacking, that it can be identified and the anomaly either can be explained or addressed in some way.

So I think that's really important to clarify.

Um I also really want to thank um Bazaar.

Oh, there he is, Bazad and his team for helping to contribute to the project as well.

Um, I really honestly would like to thank the county manager for the support of understanding how important this is, not only for elections but for the county as a whole.

So, really thank you to everyone.

I'd like to go on record with this prediction that I truly believe that Washoe County is about to change the course of history.

Election security challenge in this country are never solved because every attempt to solve them has failed.

The attempts have failed because they've lacked something critical.

Proof of performance for election systems as a whole, and a focus on process and people and not products and not products.

You just can't throw money and then expect to have a result because then there's another layer of a need for protocols and controls.

The election industry has hundreds of products to sell hardware, software, subscriptions, gizmos, gadgets.

But Mr.

McDonald's project is putting our eye on process-oriented monitoring and reporting.

It makes so much sense.

So I want to thank the Center for Internet Security for their help with this project.

I'm grateful for their involvement and very grateful for how much I've personally have learned, not only from them, but about them and about data security, and everyone understands the need for protecting data and cybersecurity and attacks seem to be in our everyday almost discussion in one way, shape, or form.

So I said earlier that Mr.

McDonald and his team are laying the groundwork for greater confidence in the future of Washoe County elections.

But I truly believe, and I mean this with my heart, when this pilot has been proven, and when it's been extended beyond just this pilot phase, and when it's been applied to the entire election system, this project will echo all over Nevada and across the entire nation.

I believe we've started something here that will have a huge impact.

So thank you, Mr.

McDonald.

Thank you for the team.

Thank you, Bazad.

Thank you for your team.

Thank you for Ira Victor.

Thank you for the Center for Internet Security and really officially adopting Washoe County as a pilot program.

So thank you so much.

And that is all we have, unless anybody has anything else they'd like to say.

Nope.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna close that item and move to item 15.

And 15 and 16 are gonna be read.

Evidently, there are two items, but it's gonna be read in one motion.

Is that right?

No.

So 15 is gonna be read as a first reading of the ordinance.

So the notes, I'm just reading notes.

This is a first reading.

It will be bill number 1950.

Amend section of Washoe County Stormwater Drainage and Flood Control Service Ordnance Number 1552 by modifying the amount of the stormwater management fees.

Great.

So does anybody have any questions about this?

Or any details?

We've heard this already.

This is a first reading.

So I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Allow some happening.

Oh, sure, of course.

Yes, please.

So what we're planning on doing eventually with this is lowering the cost.

And at the time we got into a big argument about the price of this.

You know, 931.

I kept saying way too much money, way too much.

And that was right.

So someone say that.

Well, it's lowering.

When we go through the official process, but um, is there any public comment?

There's nobody signed in.

So I'll entertain a motion this time for bill number 1950.

Madam Chair, I move to hold the first reading of uh bill number 1950 and set a future hearing to uh or possible adoption on May 26, 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and move now to item 16.

So this one is the item that has the two readings.

Thank you.

Um you're on it.

You're on it.

You're good.

This will be bill number 1951.

All right.

An ordinance amending the boundaries of Washoe County, Nevada, District Number 24, ground groundwater remediation.

Great.

So the and part of this is going to come later.

Right after the motion or after the introduction.

Is there a public comment?

There is not public comment.

Okay.

Does anybody have any questions about this?

All right.

I'll entertain a motion for the first reading.

Madam Chair, so move and um set the second reading and possible adoption on June 16, 2026.

Great.

Now we'll move to the second part.

Okay.

So thank you.

This will be Bill 1952, an ordinary ordinance levying a fee in Washoe County, Nevada, District Number 24, groundwater remediation, ratifying action taken by county officers and providing other matters related thereto.

And there is no public comment for that.

Thank you.

Any questions?

I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Uh so move as presented in the staff report.

Great.

So we'll go ahead and close item 16 and then move to item 17, which is a second reading.

Okay, this will be ordinance number 1755.

Amends Washoe County Code, Chapter 110 development code, and Article 302 allowed uses and Article 406 building placement standards and establishes new Article 403 to allow multifamily residential use types in commercial regulatory zones and to prescribe requirements and development standards for such projects.

This was formally bill number 1946.

Dr.

Young is in the house.

Good afternoon, Chair Commissioners.

As the clerk described, this is public hearing for a second reading of another development code amendment related to housing.

Uh a series of housing related code amendments per year direction and in the strategic plan and the Washoe County Master Plan.

The progress on that entire series is updated on our master plan.

You can go to a section on our master plan on the planning homepage called Master Plan Implementation and see where we are on all of these housing amendments.

I think as uh was earlier mentioned today, there is uh you you saw one of them.

Uh and then there is another one coming after the one you heard today in this one.

This particular one.

Uh is that was that your direction to explore the possibility of allowing residential uses in commercial areas?

Um that was part of the original housing direction to staff, and that is consistent with our master plan to allow more flexibility and zoning land use regulations.

And what they determined to do was to require all of local jurisdictions, counties and cities, uh, to allow residential multifamily and mixed use in uh commercial zoning by right.

So a lot of the thoughts that staff was pursuing and and and mulling through in the development of something uh to bring forward at your direction, uh this really uh focused what we were able to do by the state's requirement that all of these uses, multifamily uh uses be allowed simply by right and without a requirement for a mixed use component.

We are allowed to have mixed use.

Um and uh so we want to wanted to make sure that that option is available in our uh in our proposal.

Our proposal uh had to establish some densities since we had no densities for uh our commercial zones except for neighborhood commercial, which was a really a kind of a single family uh uh density and required a special use permit, which we wouldn't be allowed to do anymore.

So we uh put some thought into what the density should be, and we decided to tag the neighborhood commercial density to our high density suburban residential.

Um we looked at our commercial and tourist commercial and decided that those most closely matched on average are low density urban uh designation.

So that's how the nine units per acre for neighborhood commercial and 14 per acre for GC and TC came about.

I think it's important to know that we didn't just make those up.

We also established some minimum percentages for commercial use types in mixed-use projects.

Uh the the reason for this, um, and I believe the planning commission uh uh concurred on the importance of this is um you you're not required uh by the state in our new code to have any commercial component.

You're not required to do mixed use.

But we're concerned that if you do do it, you should make an honest stab at it.

You should make an honest attempt at it and not devote too small of a portion of your project to commercial.

So we wanted to establish a minimum percentage in order to um uh uh really give that commercial component a more viable uh chance to make it.

Uh, one of the concerns in mixed-use projects is that one or the other component doesn't make it.

Uh, we also established uh that you can do civic.

Uh we think that certain civic use types may be appropriate, but we put a maximum percentage on how much can be devoted to civic.

Of course, we had to develop parking and landscaping standards.

Uh at the direction of the planning commission, we established a maximum height of 35 feet for residential and mixed-use projects without a special use permit.

Uh, the neighborhood commercial, all the commercial districts have uh a higher um height limitation than 35 feet.

So the planning commission wanted to make sure that um in residential projects and mixed-use projects uh that they are capped out at 35 feet.

Uh this is the 35-foot standard is something you may be familiar with uh from Sun Valley and some places where the county is established that as a maximum height.

Then of course, we have a requirement for municipal and water and wastewater services.

This is what it looks like.

If you go and look in the new code, it's uh simply removing any references to not allowed or special use permits and putting in that it's allowed.

Here's what it looks like when you uh look to see what the allowed densities are.

Uh thank you.

That's what I have for you today.

I can answer any questions you might have about uh uh this new uh proposal.

Um and in the meantime, I do have a motion for you uh to consider if you'd like.

Thank you.

Does this satisfy then 241?

Is this the last step for AB 241?

Yes.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I I know we're required to update our development code according to AB 241.

Um, but I do I didn't want, you know, during the first reading, I didn't bring this up, so I just wanted to bring it up in the second reading and put it on the record that when this legislation was being discussed during the last legislative session, um, the county uh with the help of our legislative affairs uh gal, uh Cadence Matevich had raised some concerns that the by right multifamily option could diminish or even eliminate uh real essential uh services in our unincorporated neighborhoods and communities, and that is still a fear of mine.

And as I was talking to Ms.

Mullen, thank you, Ms.

Mullen for answering my question.

It's really as a commission, we don't really have any guardrails or anything that we can lean on to prevent you know us losing another grocery store, losing you know, an important restaurant or any other service that our unincorporated neighborhoods need, but the only thing that's kind of saving us really is that anything triggers, you know, above that 35 foot will trigger a special use permit, which then has to go through the public process.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, it's still a concern.

It is what it is.

The county try to raise and sound the alarm back during the last legislative session.

So thank you to staff for um elevating that.

It kind of fell on deaf ears.

Um, and I'm just hoping that again, this is a well-intended uh piece of legislation that could have negative impacts on our unincorporated communities.

So I hope that's not going to be the case.

Um, I know it's out of our control, but I just wanted to put that on the record.

Any other questions?

Do you have a public comment?

There's nobody signed in.

Thank you.

If there isn't any further discussion, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I did not get the ordinance number.

1755.

Okay.

I move to uh adopt ordinance number 17 55 as presented in the staff report.

Do we have a second?

Commissioner Herman, thank you so much.

Any further discussion?

Harry None, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much, Dr.

Young.

241's behind us.

One more package.

What will we do?

What will we do?

Thanks for all your hard work.

We'll now move to public comment.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is your final 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.

Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers, and comments are to be made to the commission as a whole.

Penny Brock.

Thank you.

Agenda item number 14.

I find some humor in this when ROV McDonald wanted to discuss the data transparency project.

And yet there was no transparency by putting an attachment for his PowerPoint presentation.

I find that really strange.

Talk about lack of transparency.

So we've got some huge issues with this.

First of all, the Save America Act is pending in Washington, DC.

83% of Americans, that includes all voters, independent Democrat, Republicans, want the SABEC passed.

They want paper ballots.

As you may remember, I hope, when the uh it came up in November for you to approve the ballot marking devices.

That had been prepared, I don't know, two or three years ago by a group out of Berkeley.

And what they found with the ballot marking devices is they are not secure.

We already know the dominion voting system is not secure.

So when you say that this cis proposal transparency project is going to bring confidence to our Washoe County elections, I'm here to tell you no.

It's just adding another layer on the poor voters.

Some of your voters don't even have access to the internet.

A lot of them don't want to be bothered by this convoluted whatever it is.

So this is just a bunch of nonsense.

And if they thought this was a great idea, you can be assured they would have adopted this.

We know that McDonald's background is IT.

He loves anything IT.

He's just wanting to put more and more IT nonsense on the voters.

All we want to do is go vote with a paper ballot and hand count and have the election results by the end of midnight on election day.

We don't get that.

We get extended voting for seven or eight days.

Trump won Washoe County in 2024 on election day.

And yet when they kept voting for seven or eight more days, he lost Washoe County and Clark County.

Something strange went on.

So I will do more research on CIS.

I know I've read a lot about it.

And I will be back to talk about SIS and why this is a really a bad idea.

Thank you.

We have nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

We'll close public comment and move to agenda item 19, Commissioners and County Manager announcements.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

These announcements include reports and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

You don't have anything.

Commissioner Clark.

Commissioner Herman.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Well, I only have one thing I wanted to just mention.

I don't know if everyone is aware, but in April, I don't remember the exact date of 2026, so recently, um, the MIT actually always do research on elections, and uh Nevada as a whole move from position 13 to position two.

So I thought that would be something else that you might find interesting, and that's again independent MIT.

So I don't have anything else.

If we don't have anything else, I'll go ahead and close the meeting at 1 48.

Thank you so much.