Commissioner Clark, you ready?

Okay, thank you.

Good morning.

I'd like to call the Washa County Board of County Commissioners meeting to order on June 16th at 10 a.m.

Thank you all for being here.

Mr.

Brooks, would you be so kind to lead us into the salute to the flag, please?

Thank you.

We'll now move to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola.

Present.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Herman is appearing by phone.

Are you here, Commissioner Herman?

Yes.

Thank you.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

Here.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Large.

Present.

And I'm Yvonne Strickland, Deputy Clerk.

Madam Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move 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.

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 Donna Dawson Schwant, followed by Pam Dar.

Is this one?

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Good morning.

My name is Donna Dawson Schwartz.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today to introduce myself and to let you connect a face to my application for the Washoe County Library Board of Trustees.

I would like to be one of the library's trustees because I would like to have an active role in supporting our library's system and its continued success.

You've read about my background in education and civic involvement, but today I would like to share something that I think demonstrates my skills in leadership and problem solving that can be beneficial to the board.

During my last year of teaching, I was asked to take on the task of producing my school's accreditation report to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

This would involve bringing together the various stakeholders in my school, faculty, teach uh parents, and students, and guide them through an evaluation of their efforts in meeting the goals and mission of our school.

As you can imagine, each group could list many proud examples of their successes.

But my task was also to guide them through the critical exercise of evaluating their weaknesses and creating plans to remediate those weaknesses.

At times the process was challenging.

The groups found that listing their successes was the easy part.

But although they agreed on the goals and mission of the school, each group often had different opinions about how those goals should be met.

Through my own example, I guided them through the activities to actively listen to each other while respecting differing points of view.

We worked on consensus building by focusing on commonalities rather than differences.

We kept returning to our shared goal of not only accurately depicting a school that was worthy of accreditation, but also of creating a blueprint for action to continue to grow and improve.

The members often needed to compromise, and my job was to encourage patience and while being persistent in our tasks.

Thank you for letting me share that little anecdote with you.

I hope it shows how my practical experience will make me an effective member of the Library Board of Trustees.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Pam Dar, followed by Earl Ravid.

Good morning, Commissioners, Chair.

I'll start from the beginning.

The first time I got in front of this board, I'm a precinct captain and knock on doors, that's what I do.

And I'm in precinct 641.

A lot of the neighbors are used to me going to their house and some areas.

There's new people, and it's kind of neat to listen to them.

This time around, I was shocked.

How many active voters have moved away already?

One example, I went to a house, six names, three different couples.

Someone answered the door, which sometimes you don't get.

Two of the couples already moved away, and the lady who answered the door said, We're leaving soon.

There's six active voters that are getting ballots.

Live ballots.

And that's a concern.

I went to another house, 97-year-old lady.

I was excited to meet her, knock on the door.

Lady answers the door and says she passed away in 2018.

So this is something I think is important for people to get out there and kind of canvas their area if you knock on doors.

I mean, these are concerns.

We have a lot of businesses coming into this area.

Which is making the town very transient.

People moving in, moving out quickly for concrete work, steel work, any portions of these businesses being built, and they're back to Kentucky or Tennessee, somehow touching base and getting registered to vote.

And you got live ballots going out.

That should be brought up in front of the legislature somehow.

If you're going to do this, it should be clean as possible.

But that is a big concern as transient as our state is, especially with all these businesses.

Wanted to bring that to your attention.

I was shocked.

It was, and I've been doing this for six years.

So it was kind of it stood out.

And that's a small sample.

I didn't even do my whole precinct.

The wind was in very cooperative.

It was like hurricane winds out there this time around.

The second thing I want to bring to your attention.

LA had a lot of issues with homeless nonprofits, NGOs.

One stood out because MSN with the New York Post has an article four days ago about money.

It's our tax money being given to nonprofits and NGOs.

And these were advantage advances that were supposed to be paid back.

And the worst three listed on this article four days ago was volunteers of Los Angeles, Volunteers of America, Los Angeles.

That kind of jumped out at me.

I don't know the connection.

I've been kind of busy.

But my point is I don't want to be a headline.

Every penny spent should go where it needs to go.

And if they make a commitment, they should step up and be able to do a good job.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad news about the homeless industrial industry, and I don't want our Washoe County making any headlines.

I hope more is done to find out what they pay individuals, and we hold them accountable.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Earl Ravid, followed by Bill Moton.

Good morning, commissioners.

My name is Earl Ravid.

I'm applying for a seat on the Washoe County Library Board of Trustees.

I want to speak briefly, not about my resume.

You could lots of examples in there that uh explain what my history is, but more about what this why this matters and what we can accomplish together.

Novata law is pretty clear about the purpose of a public library to meet the informational needs of all citizens.

That's a deceptively simple uh statement because after all, all citizens in Washoe County today means something very different than it did 10 years ago, and it's going to mean something very different 10 years down the road.

Uh we're growing steadily, and the people arriving here are bringing with them diverse backgrounds and interests and needs.

But growth alone does uh does not tell the whole story.

There are longtime residents, um seniors, for example, who may not have uh uh reliable internet access at home, working families who depend on the library for more than just books, uh, young people who need a quiet place to study, and there are communities within our county uh where the library's presence and relevance could be stronger.

So none of that's a criticism of what the library system is built.

I want to be clear about that.

It is an honest recognition of what is possible.

So with two openings on the library board of trustees, the question before you as commissioners is what kind of vision and leadership do you want to add to maximize the impact of the library system in our communities?

That's a pretty tall order.

I I kind of view decisions as like the rudder of a ship.

It determines the path and the destination of a vessel.

Um so here's what I envision a library system that uses every tool available, traditional books and periodicals, digital holdings, online resources.

I mean, I I find the library very helpful for me because I I read a lot, so it's it's wonderful, uh, especially digitally.

Uh and uh also online resources and and and community partnerships.

To reach residents uh where they are, not just where the buildings are.

So many people in this county, especially new residents, don't yet know what the library can do for them.

I found that out when I came by just that's that's something you I've been here for about 10 years.

Uh that's a communication problem, and it's solvable.

We should be telling the story loudly and clearly in neighborhoods, in uh schools, and at community gatherings.

So I also believe there's an untapped opportunity to engage our region's growing technology center or sector, rather.

Uh private businesses have expertise and in many cases, genuine interest in community investment.

Um a well-governed library board can open these conversations about technology infrastructure, digital access, and expanding the holdings uh in our libraries in ways that benefit residents without uh placing the entire burden on the public budget.

Not radical ideas.

So uh thank you.

Bill Moton, followed by Heidi Soper, uh first of all, let me apologize for my scratchy voice.

I'm just getting over something cold.

So hopefully I don't uh create too much of a difficulty for you to hear my message.

Uh my name is Bill Moton, um, and good morning to the chair and commissioners.

Uh I'm a candidate for the library uh board of trustees, and like to take a few minutes of your time to give you a little bit of an idea of my interest and my qualifications.

I'm uh I'll start off by saying I'm a grandfather of five children, grandchildren.

I've got three grandchildren that live here in Reno.

And I'd say it wasn't, and then they're about from eight to fourteen years old.

The oldest one was maybe three or four when we started taking them to the library.

And we found that that was a wonderful resource for parents and grandparents to take their children to, because you just not only have the books, but you also have little play times, uh craft days, and all that kind of thing, which has really been appropriate uh great for for children across the board.

Um but over the years I found that libraries are really a critical education asset for the communities that they serve.

Not only do libraries augment our schools, um, but they also provide important educational outreach services uh to all ages uh groups from say preschool to seniors, of which I am one of them, obviously.

Um I'm also a scout master uh for a local Boy Scout troop, and we take advantage and leverage the public community spaces in the libraries to teach merit badges and rank advancements and those kind of things.

Um we found that that's very useful for us locally to share our education with uh with the with the with the scouts uh and help them along move along their way.

Um and if you've ever been to a senior the senior library center here, I think what you'll find is that it's a place for not just reading books, but also provides a way to exchange ideas and information.

So the libraries really to me have turned into also community hubs and centers, and that's something that I really really appreciate uh in the area here.

Uh with limited budgets and staff running uh library system, I imagine requires some very thoughtful strategies, some detailed planning and operational effectiveness.

And the reason why I'm really here today is I want to pay forward, so to speak, to volunteer my life, uh learn skills to help Washville County residents get the most out of the uh library system.

So, what are those qualifications and skills?

Um, although I've been retired since uh 2021, I've worked previously for a large international high-tech corporation for 42 years, uh, working around the world as an engineer, uh, advanced technology programmer, first line, second line manager, project executive, AI application, cloud infrastructure.

All that really means is the one thing I had to learn every day, every time I engage was what you Soper, followed by Terry Brooks.

And um, Heidi has documents to be distributed to the board.

Well, I heard yes, I have brought pictures.

Yes, it's me, Heidi Soper again.

Good morning to everybody.

I'm the chair of the Sun Valley Cab, but I want to speak with you today as a 38-year citizen of Sun Valley about agenda items 30 through 34.

I'm asking that you confirm the complaints alleging a public nuisance regarding properties at 320 courts, 260 GERTS in District 5, Slope Drive, and 179 East Fifth Street in District 3, all in Sun Valley.

They have all turned into dumping grounds for old cars, motor homes, and any other kind of trash and debris you can think of.

They are a blight on the neighborhoods, and I'm sure a public health problem and fire hazard as well.

If there are squatters on the property, they need to be removed.

I don't have a picture of East Fist Street as people were standing in the middle of the mess, and I didn't want to take their picture.

And courts drive pictures are not good as there were two massive dogs chained to the front fence.

If the property owners or LLC are alive or working, they need to be required to clean up the property within a specific time period, or have Warshow County take them to court so they can explain why this has not been done.

If the owners are deceased, then Warshall County needs to take action to assume ownership at the appropriate time and then ensure that cleanup is done.

These problems are a constant complaint at the cab meetings, and the problems must be dealt with and then eliminated all together.

As you know, 520 carnes is supposed to be in process, but please check the picture.

I'm not really sure.

I don't know.

Again, I ask that all of you please confirm the complaint so that we can stop or at least slow down the problem.

I know it all takes time and there are lots of people and departments involved, but let's get started now.

Please, thank you.

And incidentally, when you go to lunch, this is National Fudge Day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Terry Brooks, followed by Amy Owens.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

And today I feel the responsibilities to address discrimination in employment when it comes to disabilities.

If employers quit discriminating, they might actually find that some jobs could be done a lot better if they're done by people who are blind.

People who are blind and have lost their sense of sight, have better senses of touch and hearing and can use them to do things right.

And if employers quit discriminating against the deaf who cannot hear, they might learn that such employees will likely better persevere.

Deaf people who cannot hear have a better sense of sight.

So there are some jobs that they can always do just right.

And if employers decided to hire both the deaf and the blind, they can get a lot more done when all of their skills are combined.

And if employees quit discriminating against people with physical disabilities, they might begin to appreciate those people's capabilities.

Those people may have lost the use of some parts of their bodies, but have learned to do such things with other parts of their bodies.

And if employers quit discriminating against people with mental disabilities, they might begin to appreciate those people's capabilities.

Those people may have less use of some parts of their minds, but have learned to do all kinds of things with other parts of their minds.

And if employers decided to hire people with both physical and mental disabilities, they could all learn even more from each other and expand each other's capabilities.

Some employers have learned to accommodate the disabled people as workers because they have learned that the disabled make very good workers.

The more diversity that there is when it comes to occupation, then the more everyone can learn from each other in such a situation.

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

I look forward to coming back because I've still got more to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amy Owens, followed by Amy Pulver.

And we are switching to a manual timer right now, so TS can run an update.

So there will be a timer running.

It's just going to be facing the other direction.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Amy Owens for the record.

I was hoping to speak today about my wonderful experience with the Washoe County Leadership Academy and all the things that I have learned, but instead, I'm here speaking to you today about pedestrian safety on Sun Valley Boulevard.

Last Thursday, two people were hit in the crosswalk on Sun Valley and Fifth Street.

Six months prior, someone was hit by a car and killed in that same intersection.

In March, someone was struck by a vehicle about a quarter mile down the road.

And in April, a pedestrian was struck and killed on a scooter in that very same area.

This is five people hit by vehicles on that boulevard.

Three people killed, three families who lost their loved ones, and many others affected by the aftermath.

That is only from December of last year until this month.

That's six months.

I know that we have a major project in the works and to add pedestrian improvements, and I'm not the only one that feels that this cannot come fast enough.

For years, the county has ignored our community, and now its needs and upgrades for pedestrian safety are screaming in your faces, and we need you to answer that call now, not years down the road when we have major funding.

Pedestrians should be able to walk down the road safely without fear that they might be struck by a vehicle.

We need sidewalks, but we'll take uh reflective, flexible delineator posts in the meantime to separate the roadway from the bike lane and the shoulder, where alternate modes of transportation are happening all of the time.

We need pedestrians to be able to cross streets without any cross trap cross traffic happening to ensure that they make it to the other side safely.

And I want you to sincerely think about how we can make that even safer.

Perhaps brightly painted crosswalks or roadway flashers for the nighttime.

One thing I will say about being in the leadership academy was that I was able to see that every cent of our tax money is spent in earnest with the various services provided by the county county, and we need some of these dollars to be allocated to the Sun Valley area.

I have already made contact with Washo 311, RTC, City of Reno, to get this ball rolling.

Did you know that NDOT, RTC, and City of Reno all have jurisdiction over those spot uh those stoplights depending on what you're doing with them?

That's a mess to figure out who to contact.

But besides the point, I'm here to ultimately ask for your help to make this happen.

No one else should have to die on this incredibly unsafe stretch of road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amy Polver, followed by Cody Finney, good morning.

Uh, my name is Amy Polver.

I'm here to comment on agenda items 18 and 19.

Item 18 is to appoint two people to the Library Board of Trustees.

Full disclosure, I am one of the applicants.

I want to thank Commissioner Andreola for her time and effort in reaching out to each applicant to ask us a series of identical questions.

I am not here to advocate for myself.

I reviewed all of the applications and am pleased to see so many well-qualified applicants.

I'm here to advocate for the criteria I'd like to see you consider as you choose from the pool.

Having attended all library board meetings since November 2023.

It is clear to me that not all trustees have fully understood and embraced the duties of the trustee.

Nevada State Library Archives and Public Records offers both trustee training and an outline of trustee roles and responsibilities rooted in NRS 379.

I hope you will appoint trustees who will commit to taking the trustee training, and who will take the six responsibilities seriously.

They are set policies, hire and evaluate the director, plan for the future of the library, submit budget and monitor finances, monitor the overall effectiveness, and advocate for library in the community.

We've hired a new director.

The board must now develop a performance plan with specific metrics on which to fairly and objectively evaluate her performance at relevant intervals.

Washoe County HR can help with that and ensure compliance with county rules.

Per the state library, advocacy for the library includes developing relationships with the commissioners, partners, the overall community, and current and potential funders.

And it includes being a defender of intellectual freedom and of an individual's right to information.

Ethics, as outlined by the state, includes that a trustee should not be critical of other board members inside or outside board meetings, use the library for personal advantage, discuss confidential proceedings outside of meetings, promise how they will vote on any given issue, or interfere with the duties of the director, or undermine her authority.

Knowledge of and continued advocacy for library funding is an ongoing responsibility of each trustee.

Each of your appointees should be expected to do all of these things.

Item 19 involves appointing a county commissioner, one of you, to serve as a liaison with the library board.

I am strongly in favor of this.

Having a commissioner responsible for maintaining a close relationship with the board would help heal some of the deep wounds within the board and between the board and the community that have developed over the last three plus years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cody Finney, followed by Maureen McElroy.

Good morning.

My name is Cody Finney, and I have also applied to be on the Library Board of Trustees.

As of last June, I retired from state of Nevada service after 27 years.

And since then I've been looking for ways to uh re-engage and participate in the local community here and use my experience to serve the local community.

I'm a graduate of Reed High School, and I grew up in our libraries, and I raised my kids on our libraries.

And it's a critical resource that we have to protect and keep.

And I believe that there are libraries are the foundation of education access and a pillar in our community.

It's one of the few places where we can participate in public and not be expected to spend money while we're doing it.

And we can't lose that.

So my experience was serving at the public the division of public and behavioral health in the Department of Health and Human Services.

And during that time, it was I spent lots of time working with and serving on public bodies.

I, in the last two years of my service, was able to participate with a wide array of stakeholders and succeed in coming up with a plan for the state with two major programs, one in Washoe and one in Clark County, and a new facility in Clark County and help get all the funding for all of those things.

It was an extremely exciting experience.

And last week I was invited to participate in the or to attend the ceremonial groundbreaking of that new facility that we got the funding for that's really going to improve Nevada's ability to serve mentally ill criminal offenders, which was desperately needed.

My point is that I think that experience could be useful in making sure that the library gets appropriate advocacy and help improve a system that's already uh wonderfully serving our community.

So I'd be honored to put that experience that I've had to work benefiting the library system of Washoe County, and I thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Marine McElroy, followed by Doug Jalen.

Good morning, commissioners.

Chair Andreola, and thank you for this opportunity to speak.

My name is Maureen McElroy.

I'm a Washoe County resident, a native Nevadaan, and I am honored to say a retired Washoe County Library employee with 24 years of service to our community.

I'm here today to speak to agenda item 18, which is the recommendation to appoint two candidates to fill two vacancies on the Washoe County Library Board of Trustees.

I'm here today to speak of the importance of that to our community and to our future.

Library Board Trustees serve an essential role in steering our public library system from guiding operations and services to advocating for funding and community support to working in concert with the library director on budgeting and the library system's strategic plan.

We need our trustees to work diligently towards the success of our library system.

These past few years have been very hard for Washoe County Library system for its staff, its community, and for our board.

Our library board has struggled not always successfully in fulfilling this enormous task.

That is why I'm asking you to be cognizant of selecting future trustees who are informed and engaged advocates.

Trustees who understand that a healthy public library system serves all elements of our diverse community.

Trustees who understand our library system is a place of education, enlightenment, discover discovery, and sanctuary, and that it is obligated to offer a wide variety of services, materials, and perspectives.

Trustees who will champion a budget that allows all of these elements.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Doug Jalen, followed by Deborah Jalen.

Good morning.

I'm a precinct co-captain.

We received the list of registered Republicans from the ROV in the April-May time frame for two precincts.

320 postcards were sent to registered Republicans with the addresses provided by the ROV.

In this bag, I have 141 postcards returned with insufficient addresses, nine returned, non-deliverable addresses, a total of 150 returned, or nearly 47% of the total.

When checked with the post office asking about the insufficient addresses and not deliverable as addressed, the post office responded that the unit number lacked the proper numbers of digits, some did not have the unit numbers at all, and some unit numbers were incorrect.

Going back and looking at the addresses provided by the ROV, it was the information provided by the ROV that locked lacked the correct information.

How many bellots were returned with incorrect addresses?

How many voters were disenfranchised by this?

Do the county commissioners find this level of incompetence acceptable.

If this is not normal, is the ROV specifically targeting majority Republican precincts for disenfranchisement.

Due to their lack of transparency and incompetency, the ROV lacks any credibility and needs to be a complete and total overhaul to try to restore voter confidence that we have honest and fair elections.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Deborah Jalen, followed by Alicia Lindsay Dietrich.

I'm not sure what there's a right here.

Can I just practice for a second?

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

My name is Deborah Jalen, and these are a few of my takeaways from observing this election.

I've observed other elections, but this time was a little much different.

I'm just going to concentrate on a few things.

On election night, there were no high chairs in the ROV lobby to view the tabulation room.

And in a standard chair is not high enough for anyone to see into the tabulation area.

Their observers who have physical challenges cannot stand for any length of time.

It's not conducive to their health.

One observer asked a staff member for a higher chair, and the request was flat out denied.

In previous elections, there have always been the higher chairs in that area.

That same afternoon, an observer made two verbal requests to please turn the lights on in the tabulation room.

The room is dark and there is a glare from the window, so it is difficult to see.

Staff again denied these requests.

At 4 30 p.m., I contacted Ryan Gustus, and that's not something I would normally do, is go up the chain, but it was important.

I asked for the higher chairs and the lights to be turned on in the tabulation rooms.

Both requests were granted within just a few minutes, which I was appreciative of.

At 7 30 p.m., George Guffrey came into the observation room and notified us that the intake was going to be held out in the garage.

That was much different than it ever happened in the past because it was always in front of us about eight to ten feet.

I asked Mr.

Guffery when was this decided, and he told me then that it was he told an early observer.

I'm not sure who that was because everyone I asked in um hadn't was told that he that was never brought up.

That was the first they'd heard of it.

I again spoke to Mr.

Guthrie and asked him specifically who, because I wanted to see if it was anybody that I knew.

Um the people I checked with flat out denied that he ever brought this up.

So intake observers had to stand to stand 50 to 60 feet from the intake area, and it was only allowed for three people to stand there.

Yes, you can see by this.

Okay, none of us could see what was happening, and if protocol was being um followed.

There was not enough lighting at all to see any of the invest in the intake, the intake staff had laptop computers.

Staff is, and we found out then I found out earlier that and found out previously staff is allowed to take the Washoe County owned laptops home.

For what reason, I'm not sure would like to know.

Um, and we witnessed staff at this time also taking their laptops home.

Uh, there's not enough cameras in the um processing room.

We need them.

The tall shelving in the cage, the observ observers cannot see what occurs.

And what struck me the most is when outside of this room, there's three inlays in the flooring as you enter.

Stating integrity, effective communication, and quality public service.

Washoe County Register of Voters does not follow these service values of you as you've heard today.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Alicia Lindsay Dietrich, followed by Roblin Williams.

Good morning, uh, Madam Chair and Commissioners.

I am really grateful to be here today to share a couple of quick thoughts with y'all.

Um, first of all, um, my name's Alicia Lindsay Dietrich, and I have been uh Washoe County resident for almost 30 years.

Can't believe it.

So exciting.

Um two quick comments.

First of all, I wanted to speak in support of the Washoe County Leadership Academy.

Um I was part of the first cohort a few weeks years ago, and the program connected me to the community and local government in really wonderful ways, and I'm so grateful for that experience.

Um, I hope someday that more citizens will be able to participate, and I would love to see the program expanded to school age kids too, so they can see um you know how the county works and get to know the um employees and the staff and the team here um like I did.

Um, it was amazing also to see how much our county council members and all the employees at the various agencies work so hard to make Washoe County a good place to live.

Um, so I am very grateful that you supported the program in the past, and I hope that you'll continue to do so.

Um, also, since you're considering candidates for the library board, I'm here to champion the importance of keeping our library collections diverse and ensuring that our libraries receive the generous funding that they need.

Um, libraries are essential places where we can freely express ourselves, and strong, inclusive libraries are a sign of a healthy democracy.

Our founders understood this important free speech um issue, and they made it a part of the bill of rights right up at the front.

So I think we should, you know, keep that in mind.

Um, I'm particularly hoping that the commissioners will consider candidates uh for the positions who have a good understanding of the challenges that the um the library has faced in the last few years.

Um, and then also that they have experience serving um in nonpartisan boards and roles of leadership, and that if possible, they're educators um with expertise in library management.

Thank you so much for your time.

Have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

Roblin Williams, followed by Julie Hogan.

And just wanted to note for the record that Commissioner Clark left at 10 38.

Thank you.

And Miss Williams has documents to distribute to the board.

Oh, right.

I need the overhead too.

It's on the name's Roblin Williams, and I'm interrupting.

I think you just wanted to make sure you're displaying what you want.

Don't touch it.

Okay.

My name's Ron Williams.

Um I am a disenfranchised voter.

I want to say that in this, the most transparent Washoe County election ever in the history of the city, which I've lived in most of my life.

Um, and even having an NGO, which I'm not sure who funds, but is here to tell us this is the most transparent.

Let me talk about some things.

I'm going fast.

Uh, there's a life of a ballot.

You guys will have a packet explaining there is some very important uh parts of this where the red arrows are.

These are our parts that are so important, so sensitive to fraud, takes two people to watch.

This one shows a picture.

This one shows a picture of the back area with desks and computers that this the senior staff works at.

Zero meaningful observation.

Uh, by the way, the one to the left, I witnessed that staff member literally take her laptop, which she carries in and out of the room, in and out of the building, in and out of her home, and literally plug it in with a cord into that computer.

The next station, go okay, you're good.

Go.

The next station, uh, this is tabulators right behind.

I've explained the sensitivity of those.

That's from the observation booth.

You can see there's two of them, but you can't see them.

The next one uh shows scanning.

These are three heads of three scanners, those scanners uh input the votes of people.

We cannot see those people.

We don't know what votes they're entering in, but the one time I could see, and they were working right at the counter for every one Republican that came through, and these were handmade votes from ease and out-of-country and military ballots that they made at duplication.

There is one Republican ballot, probably for every 15.

No meaningful observation.

The next one, the next one.

Uh this shows the back where ease ballots, electrical val, electronic ballots, digital ballots, military ballots come in that back computer there, where you see that gentleman's head under the clock.

No meaningful observation.

By the way, he had his laptop there, and although there's no meaningful observation, I suspect he had it plugged into that computer, possibly, and wasn't working on that screen.

He was there 45 minutes.

That is where she's where you put in stacks of ballots.

There's no observation anywhere around that area.

You don't know what's behind that area.

There has been accusations in other counties of boxes of ballots being inserted.

We would know there's no meaningful observation.

This shows the uh 2026 view.

You will see the 2024 box.

Thank you.

Julie Hogan, followed by William Bates.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners.

My name is Dr.

Julie Hogan.

I am the Washoe County Leadership Co-Chair and a professor at UNR.

I just wanted to take a moment during public comment to thank each and every one of you, as well as the large um Washoe County staff that provided the funding for the Washoe County Leadership Academy.

Some of the highlights we experienced this year included emergency response systems, water facility systems, animal services, library systems, public health services, our class project, which you'll hear about later, and more.

So on behalf of the 2526 cohort of the Washoe County Leadership Academy, thank you.

And please do all you can to continue this valuable program.

William Bates, followed by Bobby K.

Clark.

All right.

I'm a landlord in Sun Valley.

I'm impacted.

You're doing cleanup, and this is like a merry-go-round.

You guys remove somebody from a piece of property, they move to another property, you move them from there, they move to another.

I'm here to I want to say, I want a designation for zoning as non-habitable.

That allows the landowner to put up a sign, non-habitable.

This is roadway easements, even a lot that could be habitable, but there's no services on it for sanitary.

You post this, code enforcement comes out.

He's also got the county plot and says, non-habital, sheriff's officer, remove these people from this land.

They don't belong here.

We don't go through process, court, uh judge signing an order, all of those things doesn't set the problem, and it the landowner doesn't get beat up.

You guys don't want to beat up the landowner, but the process as it stands, you say hire a lawyer, uh, they move, and a week later, somebody else is back by posting and big sign, non-habital, media sensitive suburban.

You plot yourself here, code enforcement shows up.

I've got two trailers.

One's leaking all over, another one is doing his business and depositing it in a hole and scraping some dirt over it.

People saw him drop his pants and do his business right there.

And the low landowner is 89, I believe he told me, he's been sued and lost a million and a half dollars.

He's scared to death that he's gonna go out there and violate their rights, and he's gonna get sued for more money.

So non-habitable designation by you, they can slap up a sign and says, Milney Toe will be out here to get you in an hour.

Get off my property.

Simple as that.

No big involved process, no.

I've miss Garcia's got my phone bouncing on her thing.

Uh look, there needs to be a pathway for the owner to do this like eviction.

All right, it's not a 24 hours, not seven days, not 30 days.

Uh, my renters have a generator running under their window 24-7.

These people could afford, if they're running a generator 24-7, they can afford a place somewhere.

Uh, they have a lot of two-minute friends.

And they have a steady line of people showing up there.

But you mentioned that I don't know they're dealing drugs.

Maybe they are, maybe they just have two-minute friends.

But we've been two months, Adam, two months trying to get these people gone.

And uh, and if they're gone, they're gonna tell me it's gonna start all over again.

Thank you.

Bobby K.

Clark, followed by Penny Brock.

That good.

Okay, can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

My name is Bobby K.

Clark.

I am a retired teacher with the Washoe County School District.

I've taught all grades from kindergarten through 12th for 33 years, and it just warms all of the corners of my heart to hear all the people coming forward who are so concerned about the library appointment.

We all love our libraries from all walks of life, and I am no exception.

Uh, as a public as a teaching for Washoe County School District, I served on so many committees.

I honestly thanks.

Um, I I honestly don't remember how many committees I've served on, and I know you're going to appoint somebody to this very important library committee.

And there's several things I've learned about serving on all of these committees.

And number one is the people who are on those committees need to walk in as experts.

So they need to have a degree in what they're doing.

So while it might be lovely to have a degree in zoology, really, somebody with an education degree, a literacy degree, or a library sciences degree, is should should get uh more choice, you know, could should there they should receive more weight than somebody who just has a big heart for libraries.

Please consider the experts first, truly, they matter.

They're their their voice, they can get more done much more quickly.

The second thing is I really and this is one thing I learned on those committees.

My gosh, if you have somebody who is emotionally immature, they slow things down, and that's so hard to test for.

And so what I learned, my litmus test was do they have empathy?

Please look for empathy in these people.

And my litmus test was always if somebody asks you to shrink who you fundamentally are for their emotional convenience.

Those same people will gobble up time in a committee, and you won't get a darn thing done.

So please, please, please choose for experts and for empathy.

They really, really matter.

And by the way, as somebody who served on many, many boring committees.

Thank you so much for what you do.

I really appreciate you.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Penny Brock, followed by Perry Sisko.

Penny Brock for the record.

Please put my comments in the public record and the minutes under public comment per NRS.

I have been observing.

We have been observing since May 15th.

It will continue through tomorrow, and that will be the end of it.

Many of us are very, very tired now.

It's been grueling on election night.

I left it.

1215 a.m.

on Tuesday morning, and three of our other observers were still there.

We take this very seriously because we've got a lot of integrity issues in our elections.

The observers were disenfranchised and could not do meaningful observation.

We had to, if we had a question, we had to fill out a form and wait 72 hours for an answer.

Often it did not arrive within the 72 hours.

Often the answers were spun incomplete, and some questions were not posted on the website, even.

It is to process 39,000 ballots an hour, and verify signatures of those 39,000 ballots in an hour and sort into 400 different precincts.

Really?

Well, they seem to have a problem with that sorter.

So we this uh we we're not getting our money's worth out of that sorter.

Many strange things happened.

It appeared there were key players, the ROV, the assistant ROV, there's two of them, um, the PR person, um, and two others.

Um there's a problem.

We have more red um, we have more male ballots sent out than active registered voters.

321 active registered voters, 322,168 male ballots sent out, more ballots than voters.

That is huge.

Then we have online voting.

The ROV generates a ballot for the online voters.

We have no way to verify these people are even Nevada citizens.

They can just go online and register, uh, cast their vote through the Secretary of State, then he sends them to Washoe County who generates the ballot.

Who are these voters?

Um other issues are the Dominion Voting S and the ballot marking devices, which, as I've addressed several times, those are there with illegal contracts because the required solicitation of bids for NRS was not done.

So that puts into question our uh the ballots came in from election day and early voting.

Oh, I guess I'm well, I'll be back later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

Um, I came to date the lucky information about this hostile takeover from a water company and Black Springs who attached falsified documents to my tax bill.

And as a senior, I'm having a limited budget.

I don't know how I'm going to pay all of it, and they're gonna take over my land after 20 years.

And I don't know how to save my property.

And I'm I'm a senior, and I'm not doing well, my health is bad.

And no one at the treasure board is looking into the amount of the bill or anything or the amount of the months or anything.

And I'm going to lose everything I have.

I have a dog and have a family.

And I'm going to be homeless if I don't figure it out.

If they won't help me, someone needs to look into it because I can't figure it all out.

That's all I wanted to say.

And then I was trying to develop my property into an EV station for diesel trucks for the you know for clean energy.

And they're gonna take it all away from me.

And I have an offer for development on my property that's gonna be useful for everybody, you know.

And I can't get to that point because they're gonna cut me off.

And I'm really sad, okay.

That's true.

I thank you for your time, everyone.

So, Mr.

Cisco, um, you can talk to staff in terms of how to connect you in various ways for various points that you just made.

Okay, so when you leave, you'll I see somebody standing up right now.

Thank you for your time.

I'm sorry.

Okay, thank you.

Make sure you have that conversation.

Thank you.

William McAuley Jr., followed by Veronica Cortez.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak and uh to participate in our our government at work.

Um I've been I'm responding to item 18 on the agenda.

I I am not a candidate, so uh what I wanted to share is that um I I've been attending the Library Board of Trustees meetings for some time regularly, and I want to share some observations that I think might be useful to you as you make your decisions about uh who the new trustees will be.

One thing that I've heard discussed in the trustees meetings regularly has been more interaction with the business community for for the library system, and I think this is an interesting idea.

It could it could uh bring some some new new things to the table.

As you know, with our current current uh board of trustees, we have access to a business owner and we have access to someone who's integral to the chamber of commerce as well, but I don't see, and and I'm not privy to the internal workings of the library system, um, but I don't see anything really happening there.

So, one of the things I'd like to suggest is it might be wise for uh the board of trustees to include someone who is more entrepreneurial because we know entrepreneurs can be very energized about their ideas, and they tend to be people who can make things happen, and I think this would be a great asset to the uh the library board.

Um the library board should be representative, and uh it should be representative of the library, but it should also be representative of the community.

And one of the things that I I've noticed is that the diversity of geographic representation on the board of trustees has been a question for some time, and I would like to suggest that it would behoove the county and the library board of trustees to uh have a wider geographic representation, and while we're on this subject, Washoe County is not one community, it's many communities, and I think uh it's a problem that our library board of trustees is increasingly homogenous across a number of axes.

Um we we need a more representative uh board of trustees, and they can't because they can't fix what they can't see.

Only one trustee has any direct experience with a library.

I'd like to suggest that somebody with a working knowledge of libraries be a member of the board, and I would suggest that somebody with a working knowledge of this library system would be a great uh choice.

So I would like to say, I hope that you will please please consider carefully Marcus Nesbitt's application, because as far as I know me to all of the thank you, Veronica Cortez, followed by Laura Wetherington.

Good morning, everybody.

Nice to see all the commissioners, everybody who could make it to this meeting and actually stay through the whole thing, very appreciative.

First and foremost, I just wanted to be transparent in regard to email that I did receive from um Commissioner Garcia.

I am in District 5, as you know, longtime resident of Sun Valley, been out here a long time, but I guess there was like a one mile amendment made um in 2004 where uh somebody could appoint uh a commissioner could appoint somebody within a one mile uh radius into the the cab.

So apparently that's how I was appointed.

So just to clarify and be transparent, I was appointed by Mari Luz Garcia.

Thank you so much.

We worked on a lot of projects in Sun Valley.

So when I come with concerns, I'm not coming at anybody.

Mari Luz Garcia has done a lot of good things in Sun Valley.

She has a brought a lot of the Hispanic communities together, and I'm very, very grateful for that.

Um I did also want to mention that I was at the meeting, uh, the June 4th meeting where we were the where they did get approval for the food trucks.

Now I have been out there talking to the food trucks.

Um, as many of you know, I have a business out there and I depot five different food trucks.

I'm also part of the cab out there, but right now I'm just coming as a concerned citizen because I had mentioned at this meeting when I took my public comment that about six months ago, Rob Pierce, who's the vice chairman on the planning commission, actually requested an agenda item clarifying the desired pattern of growth in the Sun Valley area.

We're six months later, and I know he's super busy on his campaign, but this is what's happening.

We're losing people where we're trying to enjoy our services, our togetherness, our pride.

We can't because half a block away, somebody's getting runned over.

And like Amy said, somebody lost their life there not too long ago.

The same night that that lady lost her life on a scooter.

There was also a kid that just lost his life a couple days ago because they decided to pull.

Well, they didn't decide, they had no choice.

He's been on life support the same night that the lady got hit on a scooter.

This young man rolled his quad and has been on life support in a couple days ago.

They took him off.

The same night there was a DUI junk driver, you know, killed somebody a block away from my house.

So this whole public safety issue, we've got to rein it in, we've got to look into it.

We've got to work together.

I know you're on a lot of boards.

Please let's work together.

Okay.

Let's work on public safety instead of public image.

Okay, God bless everybody.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Laura Wetherington, followed by Janet Butcher.

Sorry, Laura Wetherington for the record.

Uh, thank you for your service and for the opportunity to speak.

Um, I'm gonna speak about the library.

I respect my neighbors' right to hold whatever belief system they hold, whether or not I agree with them.

I also cherish the library's mission of reflecting the whole of our community and their outreach, their services, and their materials, whether or not I personally approve of all of it.

The governance of the library must maintain the democratic value that the library is for everyone.

I implore you to only appoint trustees to the library board who are willing to undergo training for library governance and who understand the basic tenet that the library is for everyone in our county.

In a recent strategic planning workshop, your digital communications and accessibility manager in talking about the Washoe County website, categorize success as quote, making sure every single resident, not most residents, not as many residents as we possibly can, every resident has access to information, programs, and services in an equally effective way.

This should also be the governance uh approach to the library.

Please do not take your eye off the ball here.

I respectfully suggest that my neighbors who would argue that the library should be financially restricted or closed altogether, as some have argued, because of the programming or materials available, those neighbors are missing something essential in a county that, according to the most recent available data in the Nevada Report card, has a 47.9% English language arts proficiency in elementary school and a 44% elementary math proficiency.

The library is an essential partner in the education investment of our kiddos.

Our new library director recently talked about a correlation between third grade reading rates and the future demand for prison cells.

Investment in the library is an investment in Washoe County's future leaders, security, and fiscal outlay.

Please appoint people who will be cheerleaders for the library's mission to serve everyone in our community and who will advocate for, fundraise for, and train for our pluralistic public good.

My child is depending on you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Janet Butcher.

Janet Butcher, for the record, I not only um voted, um, I observed and I also took time to call those people that their ballots were rejected.

Various different reasons.

Either their uh signature didn't match.

Um, one person that I talked to said that she didn't even receive a ballot, so no wonder they're her signature didn't match.

Um, hopefully she made it to the ROV to get it corrected.

There were more than one of those people.

Um a lot of people said my husband passed away six months ago, six years ago.

So somebody had to have signed their ballot.

Um, so anyway, there were there were a lot.

I'm trying to compile and haven't had a chance to get it done yet because I'm data driven.

Um, as to what were some of the reasons why uh how many different ones, and most of them seem to be signature didn't match, signature swap, or no signature at all.

One of the first questions that I when I was in observing and uh what they call the fishbowl, um, I had never done that before.

I had to I had done other observations, but never in the fishbowl.

And um one of the questions I asked was, you know, were all the votes tabulated the night of election.

And Reggie kindly responded to me and said no, that there was a significant volume and they didn't have time.

So what what would that tell you as people in involved that maybe we should go to the legislature and say, let's get rid of these mail in ballots?

If we can't handle it, we need to do something different.

Um I'm going to submit a lot of my questions that I asked into the menace because I think it's important that you get them ahead of time and you take a look at it and take a look at some things that um because uh somebody said, Well, do you get the information ahead of time?

I do believe you do, and hopefully that people can that you can look into these things and really take a good hard look at are our elections really fair?

Are they are people really getting counted?

No wonder people don't vote sometimes.

They figure what the heck?

So, and this last one, the one that I have up here was a single person on Sunday sitting there, right?

It looks like they were handling ballots, and uh and I wonder why one person alone was handling ballots.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have nobody else signed in in chambers.

I do have an email to be placed on the record.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and close public comment and move to item four, commissioner and county manager announcements.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

These also include reports and updates, which include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

I don't know if do you have anything.

Commissioner Hill.

Yes, good morning, everyone.

I just wanted to say thank you for coming in to do public comment.

Those of you who submitted e-comment, these are all very important topics to all of us.

Um we have a lot of unsung heroes in Washoe County that work day to day in all the various departments, whether you're working in law enforcement or the courts or health and human services, but I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge um all of the workers, temp workers, and volunteers in the registrar of voters' office.

It's a tremendous lift.

Uh, I don't even know what the total head count is, but um, I know that you know there's ideas and and and always ways to improve, and we're all ears for that.

But I just um we know how many hours they put in, and it it's a grueling schedule.

So I hope they're listening.

We thank you for your service, and um, it is such an important aspect of what we do here at Washoe County.

Um, I also wanted to say thank you to those who spoke up so passionately about the issues we're facing in Sun Valley.

I represent more than Sun Valley.

I have Reno and Sparks, but when I first was sworn in, it became very clear that um there was a lot of love and attention that needed to go to this part of the unincorporated.

And um, you know, with the great colleagues that I have, uh, we've been able to help prioritize some of those issues.

So for those addressing the blight issues, thank you.

Uh agenda items 30 through 34 today are the first public nuisance items that I've seen as a county commissioner, and I believe the first public nuisance items that we've seen since 2018, if I'm correct.

So that is a huge significant move.

I know it's painfully slow at times, but we're making some strong headway.

And again, for those of you in the room who don't know the loophole that we're trying to tackle, is we have deceased private property owners who are not around to hold accountable.

And so that's creating a lot of um confusion and disruption with code enforcement, Washoe County Sheriff's Office and the Hope team.

So we have a lot of um eyes and ears on this issue, and I I'm really confident that we will be able to tackle that.

Um, the next uh um comment that came up was about pedestrian safety.

We all agree uh if we could have a magic wand, we would get that 25 million dollars in remaining funding that we need.

This is the first time that RTC, ENDOT, and Washoe County have come together to pull together money and resources for this Sun Valley Boulevard Improvement Project.

Thank you to my colleague um uh Alexis Hill, who sits on the RTC board with me.

She's the chair of the RTC board.

We've been able to prioritize this as our number one federal priority.

I don't think that's probably ever happened in RTC's history.

So we've been able to help shine the light.

Amy, I wish I could do that, all those things you said, but it's not our jurisdiction.

And so we have to pull together the right uh people to the table.

We're hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that that grant funding comes through.

And if so, I'm gonna be optimistic.

Construction is anticipated to begin in fall of 2027 and continue through fall of 2029.

That's gonna hurt in another way, but it just needs to be done because we can't go another 70 years where NDOT turns their attention onto another priority.

So thank you, um, Commissioner Hill.

And then the last thing, you know, uh, we had a public commentary talk about the desired pattern of growth, and that really comes down to economic development.

And I believe this is also the first time on today's agenda item six F1 that Sun Valley Boulevard or Sun Valley Economic Study is going to be conducted.

I used my discretionary funds, I prioritize that um this year so that we could start to see if we can incentivize um different economic opportunities out there, bring in more services.

We've been without a grocery store for several months now.

Uh we don't have a brick and mortar bank, all we have is the ATM.

And so I hear you loud and clear, but today is actually a really monumental day for this part of unincorporated Sun Valley, and this can't be done alone.

I have amazing colleagues who have been supportive.

I have amazing, you know, folks in the district attorney's office, code enforcement, law enforcement, and of course, our county manager.

So I know that was a lot, but I just wanted to acknowledge the hard work that has been done, and we still have a lot to do.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um I'll just say that I was gonna say that I thought that one of the themes of today's uh agenda is Sun Valley.

And um it really has been led by the vice chair and um as the chair um supporting that, and I know all the colleagues for this entire board are supporting what needs to be done in Sun Valley and the loophole and the closing of the loophole.

That has not ever been addressed.

And I have ridden myself on many um ride-alongs with the Hope team and has seen the pictures that were displayed and seen firsthand.

And so to move that needle in a quick way, especially with government who has a tendency to be glacial, is really a monumental day today as we get through this agenda.

And I do want to thank the county manager as well, but really I would like to thank DA Large because you were given a task of let's make this happen today, not tomorrow, today, and you pulled it off and it's on our agenda.

And so I really want to make sure that you're acknowledged.

I also want to just bring up that when Mr.

Bates spoke about um again, Sun Valley and the struggle with some of what we're seeing and the loopholes that are being um hopefully they'll be closed today.

But I wonder if we could follow up manager Thomas with legal on I don't know if a non-habitable sign can be put up, and then that automatically triggers an effective way of not having some things happen.

It's certainly be appreciated, and I know that we all would appreciate that if it's possible.

So hearing no other comments, yes.

Oh, Commissioner.

Yeah, but I'm making sure you're you don't have anything.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

No, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, we'll go ahead and close item four and now move on to um presentation 5A1.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is a presentation by the 2025-2026 Washoe County Leadership Academy participants, and it's on their class project, which focuses on wildfire mitigation and a home hardening project uh pilot project.

We are joined um today by Dr.

Julie Hogan, Ida Packard, and Jesus Lopez, if you don't mind coming up and letting us see what you've been working on.

Thank you.

Well, good morning again, madam chair and county commissioners.

I'm Julie Hogan.

Hey, Suz Lopez.

And Ida Packard.

We'd also like to ask members who were able to join us today, uh, given work schedules and travel plans from existing and past cohorts to please stand.

Thank you very much.

So the academy has really been a life-changing experience for many of us.

We've received a fabulous, deep, engaging education, and we're able to choose from a number of different presentations on the very first day about problems facing Washoe County.

After voting, discussing the committee and the full academy decided we would focus on wildfire mitigation and an adaptation pilot project to ignite preparedness, not wildfires.

Can you change the slide, please?

Thank you.

Oh, oh, got it.

Okay, thank you.

So the Washoe County Leadership Academy selected the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District's presentation on the need for wildfire safety and preparedness.

And doing all that, we created a number of committees.

Our first committee created a decision brief aligned with the following bullets.

The first was to identify a problem area, looking at wildfire risk and the lack of engagement in home hardening in Washoe County.

The second was we need to develop a geographic lens to identify a high fire risk community where we could start something that eventually we can replicate and sustain.

And the third was our overall project goal, which was to increase awareness and access to a realistic home hardening actions.

Yeah.

So wildflowers, wildfliers are a risk, and there's no question about it.

It seems like every year we're hearing about another devastating fire, specifically happening in the on the west coast of the United States.

So longer fire seasons, bigger fires, uncontrollable, and they're destroying properties.

So it is a huge risk for us here in the West, and specifically here in Washoe County.

So it's not just a fire department issue, but it's an issue that affects every single one of us in our homes.

And specifically, we decided to focus on Sun Valley.

So we chose Sun Valley, not only because it was a high risk for uh wildfire wildfire, but it's also a community that faces other barriers.

So historically, Sun Valley has been uh an area of focus for uh for uh what do you call for wildfire um what do you call coordination?

Yeah, but there hasn't been a lot of headway made mainly because of uh language barrier and a lot of people don't have the means uh to start uh home hardening their homes.

So we uh yeah, we decided to uh you know help Sun Valley and uh get in there and uh provide resources and uh help out the best that we can.

Following our initial meeting with the Trek Meadows Fire and Living with Fire folks, um, the research and uh impact committee presented three options for us to consider uh in a decision brief and unanimously across the three committees.

We wanted to do all three, which was um perhaps ambitious.

Those three things were outreach to elementary schools, home assessment, and home hardening um within the community, and then providing educational resources to the community in the community where they are.

Several us several of us attended the Fire Adaptive Nevada Summit and came away with this understanding that it is a collective effort of residents who take action that can prevent um fires and protect their homes and their neighbors.

So we wanted to educate both the residents and the next generation of residents about the dangers of wildfires and how we can adapt to them.

In order to conduct these home assessments and um eventually home hardening, uh we first needed the homes.

So we presented at the Sun Valley Cab where we collected homeowners' names, and then one of our members was trained on how to provide the assessment.

Thank you, Nina.

And she and another member went out with Spencer from the Living with Fire folks and did the assessments.

This all seems like a lot.

However, luckily, thanks to some existing resources and partnerships, we did not have to start from scratch.

In addition to helping with the assessments, Living with Fire at UNR's Cooperative Extension provided us the educational materials pertinent to our goals, and Trekkie Meadows Fire provided us the training on home assessments, um, and we'll also be helping us as we move forward into the home hardening portion.

This next slide, hopefully, uh, shows us some of the impact from our outreach.

So we uh with cooperation with Washoe County School District sent activity books to uh fourth graders.

There was 355 sent out across the 16 classrooms in the four schools.

We distributed materials at the dive into summer event.

We attended last week's food truck event, and we'll be attending the next two as well to share those same um materials.

And then we recommended two homes for hardening, and we are now working.

We have turned that over to Brett with Truckie Meadow Fire to sort of move on to the next set.

And our hope with that is that a PSA can be created for people across not only Sun Valley but our entire county about how to hone how to harden their homes and give them examples about what to do to hopefully protect both their homes and our communities.

So we have a number of next steps and recommendations that we would like to make for your consideration for sustainability of this project.

Following the research and work of the project, the Academy feels that in order to scale up this important work across the county, it's important to do a number of things.

The first is to continue engagement with existing partners.

Understand that we did not create something new.

What we did is we leveraged existing resources with what we had.

Also to consider redirecting funding to fire mitigation and adaptation to address the reduction of Washoe County extension funding for fire mitigation and adaptation activities.

They were a crucial partner, but there's some changes that are happening there.

The third is to build upon this knowledge, obtain from this project and expand this work in the future.

We call it starting small, growing tall.

We'd also like to contemplate using future Washoe County Leadership Academy projects as an avenue to expand beyond this pilot phase into other areas of the county because let's face it, we're all facing fire problems.

And finally, to build upon successes and replicate this around the county.

To give you an idea of some of the academy membership engagement, we thought it was important to let you know how much we've been doing this year.

We've attended the fire adapted Nevada Summit.

We presented at the Sub Valley at the Sun Valley Cab meeting, where 11 residents expressed interest in home assessments.

Jesus made that presentation, so we thank him.

We've had many members become trained in home hardening.

We conducted home assessments with cooperative extension partnered on nine homes in Sun Valley.

We made a massive distribution to fourth grade Sun Valley classrooms on literature.

We engaged with community members at the GID Dive into Summer Event.

We participated in the UR UNR Washoe County Day, and we volunteered at the Washoe County Emergency Management Pollinator Gardening Day.

So we've been everywhere.

And yeah, we just like to thank uh the commission, the board of commission for allowing us to be a part of the Washoe County Leadership Academy.

Uh, we may have all joined for many different reasons, but we're all leaving uh with so much appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes and what gets done for in the day to day.

So we just want to express that to you all and uh and finally we just wanted to um show some of our project partners and give special thank you to the Sun Valley General Improvement District for allowing us to participate in the dive into summer event.

We also appreciate all the leadership and knowledge from the Truckee Matters Fire Department, living with fire, and the Nevada Cooperative Extension.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Great job.

I would absolutely be remiss if we didn't recognize Dr.

Wright, um Marlene, and I'm not gonna pronounce your name Purpori correctly, but I really think that you should stand up and take really the accolades that you deserve because I think you've been in every facilitation for WCLA since its conception.

And um, Commissioner Hill should get recognition for coming up with this idea long before I got here, but um, I think we should so it definitely is a collective effort to the staff as well and um the county manager for your leadership.

But I do want to take a moment because you picked a really important topic.

Not that the others aren't important, but it's an important topic.

How many um students were in, how many participants were in this one?

Do you know?

How many?

26.

So if you all tell 10 people about home hardening, right?

And have those 10 people tell 10 more people, maybe we can get through the community to understand how important it is to be preventative, right?

And so um, I'm pretty familiar with this topic, so I'm I'm certainly um hoping that maybe that 10 could maybe be 20.

So there's a challenge to y'all, and I love the sustainability piece.

I think the PSA and doing public announcements, but it starts with advocacy with you first.

So there's my challenge to you.

Any other comments?

Okay, here we go.

Commissioner Hill.

She said, Oh, yeah, when I asked great work.

This is so impressive and very important.

I need the gossip on what is happening with the funding on um extension.

So someone needs to get me that information.

Oh, I can help you with that.

Okay, right.

I can tell you it's federal budgeting.

No, it and it's in good shape.

Okay.

Um, but it's really what we need to do is a block by block approach, and that's what you are looking at is seeing how neighborhoods can come together and advocate for each other and ensure that good decision making and investments are being made, and that we have all the the right people at the table.

And because it is it takes a multi-pronged approach to get this done.

And I think it's really important that everyone understands what their local government does.

And the fact that you all took the time to do the deep dive.

I know this is not um an easy time commitment.

The fact that your employers let you do this and that you care about this community and you want to invest in it, and you found a project that you care about, and um you're giving us an opportunity to see how we can leverage your work for future classes and also future work at the county.

I just admire it and really appreciate your commitment to this area and uh continue the good work, stay involved, um, stay in touch with us if you need anything.

And um, it's just really exciting to see um people who really um genuinely want to get involved in government and make it better and come up with solutions.

So we can't do it alone.

It does take all of us, and we'll see what we can continue to do to invest in your work and uh invest in ensuring that our community is safe from wildfires, which starts with us, all of us individually.

So thank you very much.

I'm very uh impressed with the team.

Yeah, great job.

Thank you, Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you.

If I could just bottle up all of the uh intelligence, the hard work, the amazing motivated people that are sitting right here in this corner of our chambers.

It's incredible.

I mean, I'm looking at you all, and you're running nonprofits, you're helping with the tribal communities, you're involved in the community and education in so many walks of life.

You're involved in the community and education in so many walks of life.

It really is inspiring to see you all come in.

Um, I know it was a commitment to do the WCLA because you've got to provide for your families and pay rent.

So the sacrifice that it took for you to successfully complete the program and then not only do that, but deliver such a quality product.

We are living with fire, and we had a fire Sunday night.

That you know, I was just like, here we go.

We're here in a presentation.

Like how timely is this that we had um that incident on Sunday night, and you're doing this work in Sun Valley.

It's so needed, and um, I can't thank you enough for that.

So um, they were also at the food truck event.

So you didn't you forgot about that engagement.

You really are everywhere.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Um, again, thank you so much.

I'm gonna do one more.

You guys deserve it.

So thank you.

Now it's up to 30 people.

Yeah, we can do a picture.

Yeah, we can do a picture.

So we'll take a moment.

I think you really want to do a picture.

No, I'll just do a little bit more than a little bit more on the side.

Okay.

One, two, three, more, one, two, three, audio.

By the way, not participants.

All right, great.

We're gonna go ahead and close item 5A1, and we're gonna move now to consent, um, which is item six A one through six I one.

Do any of the commissioners wish to have any additional information or anything pulled for that group of items?

Hearing none, do we have any public comment?

We have nobody signed in.

Thank you so much.

I'll entertain a motion at this time, please.

So moved.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Second, second by Vice Chair Garcia, and is Herman available still.

Commissioner Herman, are you still with us online on the phone?

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and call for the vote of this time.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll move now to block and commissioner Hill, just to help Commissioner Herman, since she's online.

Would you be so kind?

And before you do, I I do want to point out that item number nine in that group is really I think a big testament to Washer County and the hard work that they've been doing.

It is, if you haven't seen the agenda item, it's a real property purchase and sale agreement between the county and Lenar Reno for the acquisition of plus or minus 13.325 acres at Lear Boulevard in the amount of $500,000 funded by previously accepted State of Nevada Division of State Parks Land and Water Conservation Fund.

And Manager Thomas, I don't know if there's anything else you'd like to add on that item, but I think it is something to highlight.

Yes, thank you.

No, just kudos to staff.

Um I know that there was a lot of work that went into this one.

I know it's being considered in block vote, so thank you for calling it out.

Yep.

All right.

To entertain a motion.

All right.

I move that we block seven, item seven through seventeen, and then block items 22 through 25.

Great.

Do we have any public comment on any of these block items?

We do have Penny Brock signed in.

Okay, great.

I'll go ahead and call for the public comment at this time.

Thank you, Miss Brock.

Thank you.

Got ahead of myself almost.

I was running a little.

Thank you.

I'm commenting on agenda item number seven for approval of a multi-year contract with government tax advisors.

Because I was in the observation most of the time, I didn't get to look over the agenda nor look at the attachments, but I have concerns about this.

My question is was the required solicitation of bids per NRS contract law, chapter 332 done for this uh for this agenda item for approval of this government tax advisors, whoever they are.

Um so that is my concern and question about this agenda item.

Was the required solicitation of bids done?

And if so, who were the other vendors that submissive that submitted solicitations?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have any additional public comment?

We have nobody else signed in.

Um manager Thomas, is there anything you'd like to address on that particular item?

Item seven.

No, we can get the information for the public speaker.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

So we have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item 18.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is a recommendation to appoint two candidates from a pool of applicants that are listed on the agenda.

There are, I think 25 of them, so I'm not gonna read them all.

Um, these are to fill two vacancies on the Washoe County Library Board of Trustees.

This is pursuant to state law.

This is for four-year terms beginning on July 1, 2026 and ending on June 30th, 2030.

And we've got Alexandra Wilson here from our office to walk you through how the selection for those candidates will go.

Uh good morning, members of the commission.

Alexander Wilson for the record.

Um, so before you do have quite a few candidates for the two upcoming uh vacancies for the board for the library board of trustees.

At this time, we'll have the ballot passed around, and you will select your top three candidates for the top for the two open uh positions.

And then with Commissioner Herman being online, she will confirm her selections verbally, I believe is what we settled on.

And then from there, we'll whittle down the applicants to your top two until we get the top two candidates to be voted on.

Thank you.

Um, I would just like to make a couple comments.

One, um, it's not um, I feel it's almost a repetitive comment, but district four has not been represented in quite some time, and I'd certainly encourage my colleagues to think about that.

Um with um one of the trustees um who will who is dropping off, if you will, from the appointment, that leaves district three open.

District five is not represented.

So I think in the future, just heads up.

We're not gonna do it right now.

It's not agendized, but I think um you won't be surprised with me maybe looking at exploring having representation by each district, but that's for another topic.

I also want to share what an incredible group of applicants.

I mean, seriously, there were 25, and all of them had incredible um insight and um some of the themes I just want to share the themes really quick.

The themes for the library that were recommended included promoting an outreach of what the libraries do, and independent of each one of the people who were the applicants, I there's a lot.

I bet you there's at least 15 out of the 25 who said that's similar in some way, shape, or form.

And spreading the great news that the programs that are offered, but also that it's more than books.

And I thought that was really, really interesting.

There was uh also a theme about focusing on literacy.

And I'm gonna just repeat a term that I thought was really um inspirational, who said that they really felt that the libraries were really a magical uh opportunity, whether you're a child, a teen or an adult.

And I wrote that down when the person said that, and that they create everything that can bring joy, and that's what they're hoping that the library board of trustees with this appointment can actually bring.

And I'm gonna echo that.

I think that we're all wanting to bring joy to the library for all the great things that the library does.

So I'm sorry to interrupt your ballot um initiative in the process that we're gonna undertake, but I really wanted to make sure that I shared that and thanked every single applicant for applying.

So with that, I guess we'll get our ballots.

Can we do put a comment for that?

Yeah.

You want to do we can do public comment.

We'll go ahead and call for public comment at this time.

Thank you.

Yeah, first up, we have Lori Nazer Martin, followed by Tara Day Kieras.

Good morning, and thank you.

Um thank you especially um, Chair Andreola.

Thank you for reaching out to each of us and asking us those significant questions that we were able to respond to.

And thanks to all of the commissioners for your care and consideration for these important positions.

Um and the applicants have as you have shared.

Wow, reading through all 25 applications, resumes, and so much care, concern, experience, and qualifications.

So thanks to you all.

I'm sure many of you are here today.

And just to address what you're looking for, appreciation of libraries.

Um, I've been a library user since childhood and now sharing with my five-year-old grandchild.

Um, libraries are so important as vital centers in our communities and experience with libraries.

I'm a K-12 teacher, worked for Tahoe Trucki Unified School District for 20 years, and so appreciating school libraries and community libraries and other work experience.

Um, I was elected to the Tahoe Forest Hospital Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, and spent eight years in that role and have done other volunteer opportunities around the community.

Um, most significant working with Food Bank of Northern Nevada, doing bridges out of poverty work.

So I'm really committed to assuring that our libraries are inclusive, welcoming places.

And I live in District One, so I want to thank uh Commissioner Hill for all that you do for us, and just say that I know you're looking for representation across the county, but I think for some of us, we travel the county from downtown to Incline to Sparks to Girlach, and just appreciating every district in this amazing county.

Um the importance of the libraries, I think this is such a tremendous time of growth.

Listening to NPR yesterday, they said this time and the information age is like building the transcontinental railroad.

And I see that libraries really lead in this time of people trying to navigate and understand AI and what's happening with the media, and to appreciate the primary sources that we have in our libraries, the archives and um all that we have represented in our libraries.

And I just uh again want to say thank you and ending with a quote from Albert Einstein.

The only thing you need to know is the location of the library.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Tara Day Karras, followed by Andrea Tabner.

Tara Decados, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um I'm a library super fan, and I have attended all the library board meetings since December of 2023.

Um, maybe I just need to find a more relaxing hobby.

But after seeing what happened at that meeting and several other sense, I've been afraid that the library board is a runaway train that's going to drive the library system off its tracks.

Um, this current board has overseen some pretty major derailments, including loss of secure funding, loss of programs beloved by the community, and loss of key personnel.

But today you have the opportunity to make sure the train gets back on the tracks.

So I would ask you to appoint trustees who have a deep knowledge of and love for our library system.

After what the library system has been through over the past few years, it only makes sense to appoint someone who has been engaged throughout this time period.

Please choose a candidate who have either worked in the libraries or who have attended library board meetings and been active in supporting staff and supporting the library system.

I'm hoping that today you can ensure that the library board will have a majority of trustees who can be trusted to support the library and who will let the staff use their expertise to work with Director McClure to run the library excellently, as they've done for decades.

Once that happens, myself and the other library advocates might start spending our third Wednesday evenings doing something more relaxing.

Thank you.

Andrea Tavner, followed by Ann Pettigrew.

Good afternoon.

Thank you so much for this opportunity for the record.

Andrea Tavner, I'm an applicant for the Library Board of Trustees.

I am in commission district number four.

I'm really hopeful that my resume, cover letter, and letters of recommendation will speak for themselves about the love of my love of the library system and where I'd like to see it going moving forward.

What I would like to highlight is why I love the library system and how I first started being an avid reader.

When I was nine, um, all of my friends were in the summer rec program.

I had two older brothers who were tasked with babysitting me.

I'm you can tell how that probably went over.

So during the summer, every week the mobile library, which was about the size of an ice cream truck, would pull up in front of my house, and I was able to enroll in the summer reading program and select books.

And I thought that librarian who was so helpful and so proud of me when I turned in those logs was my fairy godmother.

That has continued with me this entire time.

I do love reading and I do support the library system.

And I have, even after I retired in 2022, I still advocate for and continue to attend library board uh meetings.

The other thing that I wanted to mention, as a single mom, when I first started the library, I used to bring my seven-year-old son in, and he participated in a third grade outreach program.

He would stuff bags with suckers and books and uh the summer reading log, and uh the library used to be able to attend all of the schools, all of the third grade classrooms to encourage kids to sign up and to get a library card.

Unfortunately, in the downturn, they eliminated that program.

I'd love to see it go back.

I know that the director mentioned that um during her uh most recent library board uh meeting.

Um, the other thing that I wanted to highlight, um, I'd be remiss in not commending the staff over the last two years for everything that they have endured.

They are dedicated, they want to help people, and I can't say enough great things about the staff.

One of my top priorities would be the fiscal side of things and the strategic plan.

Um, the strategic plan is overdue and it has to be turned in by December 31st of this year, or they will lose federal and state funding.

So I look if I'm fortunate enough to be the one of the appointees, I would definitely um work with stakeholders, the community, the director, and staff on developing a strategic plan moving forward.

So thank you so much for your time and attention.

And I appreciate the difficult decision that you have before you today.

Thank you.

Ann Pettigrew, followed by Sean Sullivan.

My name is Ann Pettigrew, and um I volunteered to serve on the library board because I have a lifelong love of reading.

When I was a child and I read Pearl Buck and the Good Earth, I would put on my Chinese sentence slippers to do so.

As a teenager, I hid in the walk-in closet to read.

As a young mother, nap time was my favorite time because while the children slipped, I made a pot of tea and I read everything Tolstoy ever wrote.

Uh, you know, Trollope, Zachary, you name it, uh, Jane Austen, etc.

And then in the 80s, I discovered audiobooks.

So when I was picking up my kids, I was listening to books at the same time.

I'm grateful to writers whose time and talent enable us to engage in the creative activity of reading.

Uh reading helps us to conjure up images in our mind rather than being spoon fed images over the internet, uh, social media and the movies.

And there's been a real decline of reading.

So if I were on the board, I would want to take several different actions to increase our customer base by getting more people to uh love reading, particularly young people.

I understand that there are high school students, even college students who've never read an entire book.

They spend all their time on TikTok or or other things.

So increasing and fostering a love of reading among young the rising generation of young readers would really increase our customer base.

As a board member, I would listen and learn about operations of the library that I'm not familiar with.

What I have used in the library are the DVDs, the books, and the audio books.

Um my qualifications are that I'm a member of Fibeta Kappa, a member of the State Bar of California, and uh for many many years I worked in high tech and telecom in Silicon Valley as in house counsel.

I also, for the last 10 years before I retired, taught Spanish, French, Italian, and English as a second language at the high school level and at the adult school level.

Um I uh also read in Spanish, French, and Italian and listen to books in Spanish, French and Italian, but I keep a dictionary nearby because they are not my native languages, so I'm always increasing my vocabulary.

Um I moved to Nevada in 2015.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Penny Brock.

Penny Brock for the record.

Um I was glad that Chair Andreola brought up uh for proper representation on the library board for district three.

Uh I'm not sure what other districts she said, so I would as for clarification on that.

I think it was four and five, maybe, but um, if you could give additional clarification, um, that would be great.

I when I looked last, we did not, I'm in district um five, I'm in district two, and I didn't think we had anybody on our library board, so that did concern me.

So if you could just clarify that, thank you.

The other thing I thought it was interesting that Andrea Travner brought up the federal funding has to be applied for by the end of the year.

Our concern is that President Trump and it has said if states or counties do not follow election laws coming down, he will cut off the federal funds.

Secretary of State Aguilar has said he's considering this.

But I've mentioned this before that if we do not follow federal election law that's being handed down, not only by executive order or Congress or the Supreme Court that we will lose federal funding.

So that's very important for the commissioners to follow and consider as we move ahead over the next months to the general election.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Janet Butcher.

Um, I hope that.

Um, I know that uh Commissioner Andreola has said in the past that she talks to all of the applicants.

I hope that's true this time.

I don't know that any of the other commissioners have.

Um, but I do want to set something straight.

The library is fully funded.

Um, because WC One was not passed, did not mean that the library would not be funded.

I do believe that you have voted on and are fully funding the library.

It's just that that certain amount of money is no longer just automatically for a 30 year period of time.

30 years now is different than 30 years, 30 years ago.

Things are happening at such a rapid pace that locking in something for 30 years was probably the biggest reason why it was voted down.

And I've attended a lot of the board meetings in the last four years.

And a lot of the chaos is not from where you think it comes.

That's the chaos.

People coming in pretending like they're German um photographers.

That's chaos.

Picking on one particular trustee, uh UNR is horrible about that.

Calling them out for things that they don't have the full story.

But that's what happens a lot of times.

We've seen we saw this in this last election in a couple different umfices that that people tell a half truth.

A half truth is not the truth.

And so anyway, I really trust in that you will hopefully diversify the people on the board.

People who are, I mean, we all have grew up, most all of us grew up in the library.

I can give you stories about my reading habits.

But um the fact that we do not have a representation across the whole county.

Um we really need to take a look at that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

We do have an email to be placed on the record.

Thank you.

So I guess we'll look for the ballots.

And just for clarification, we have two people serving right now from district one.

We have one person currently serving from district two.

We have no one serving from district four, three, four, or five.

So we're doing three, our top three.

Your top three.

Thank you.

Commissioner, do you want to ask for Commissioner Herman's vote vote verbally?

Yes.

Can you give me can you give me a minute?

Give me just one minute, and I promise I will.

Thank you so much.

Well, I could do it.

Commissioner Herman, would you like to um offer the three candidates you would like to see appointed, please?

Okay, and can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, so that would be Andrea Tavner, Denise Meyer, and um Brandy Trip Russell.

Thank you.

I'm slow.

I got three, right?

One, two, three.

Okay, for round one.

Um, Chair Andreola voted for Karen Hayes, Denise Meyer, and Andrea Taverner.

Commissioner Garcia voted for Lizeth Lizeth Lechuga Gomez, Marcus Nesbitt, and Andrea Taverner.

And Commissioner Hill voted for Marcus Nesbitt, Amy Pulver, and Andrea Taverner.

Great.

So it looks like, and you're needing two, so it looks like Andrea Tabner made it.

Am I missing someone else?

It looks like we might have to go for another vote.

So that's how I see it.

Just making sure.

I see Andrea had three, Marcus had two.

Yeah, is that enough?

I don't know.

Actually, Andrea had four.

Andrea had four, yes.

Andrew had four.

That's okay.

Denise Meyer had two had two.

Okay.

Is that enough to carry?

No, because that's what I'm talking about again.

So I'm just being transparent, working through the process.

I think we need to do it one more time.

Is that right?

So there we go.

So now we're going to choose.

Between um Andrea Taverner, Denise Meyer, and Marcus Nesbitt are the top three.

Yeah.

So if you choose your top two from those three.

Exactly.

So we're gonna choose two.

Correct.

Just making sure.

So are we getting another ballot?

Or are we doing the but I Andrea Tavner?

It sounds like it has unanimous support.

So we don't we just need to figure out who our next person is.

So the tiebreaker.

Yeah.

It is.

Well that's what threw me because three, and it's four.

So I don't know why we would vote for that again.

We can so who who are the two?

Just for the record.

Denise Denise Meyer and Marcus.

But we aren't constrained.

You are constrained.

Okay.

But you're saying choose one, right?

Choose one between the two.

All right, two.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Now you got me confused.

I should drank more caffeine this morning.

Are you suggesting that we can choose whoever we'd like?

The top two.

Is that I'm making sure I'm hearing that.

Okay.

And we need two.

Okay.

Madam Chair, if I can clarify, it sounds like 100%.

Please.

There's some confusion on the board.

So you have in front of you two options, which the board can decide which one to go with.

They can either it looks like for Andrea Taverner, she received four votes already.

So if you'd like to move her on to the next round and not include that in the remaining two, you can do that and only select your top one between Denise Meyer or Marcus Nesbitt, or you can continue and continue with Andrea in the top three candidates and select your top two out of the three, but it's up to the board to decide which one they would like to go with.

For simplicity purposes, Andrea Tabner got off four.

That's unanimous.

So I'd like to enlist my colleagues feel differently.

Andrea Tabner is gonna move on with the proper protocol with the vote.

Okay.

So we are choosing two from the remaining list, excluding Tavner.

Well, there's only two.

Um if I can clarify two listed, so it would be just the one individual from the two.

Okay, that's what one.

We're choosing one.

Choosing one from either Denise Meyer, Denise Meyer or Marcus Nesbitt.

But I just asked for clarification.

Perfect.

I'm good.

Thank you.

This is what happens when you have a lot of great candidates.

So Commissioner Herman, would you like to share your selection, please?

Denise Meyer, please.

Thank you.

Okay, for round two.

Chair Andreula chose Denise Meyer.

Uh Vice Chair Garcia chose Marcus Nesbitt, and Commissioner Hill chose Marcus Nesbitt.

We got time.

Round three.

So with round three, if I may make a suggestion, you tell me what you want, madam chair.

Should we open it up?

Yes.

Because it sounds like we're at an impasse.

Exactly.

And I asked clarification before, but I went with it.

If we cut could open it up the last time, and it was yes.

So let's go ahead and follow DA's recommendation that I asked for clarification that we could have opened it up the last time, but in respect for our colleagues, I went with just those two, knowing that or thinking it may end up this way.

Now we get to open it up.

That's my understanding to the slate, excluding Andrea Tavener because she's moving forward.

Is that right?

And how many would you like us to choose from this list?

Given that we have a tie.

I'm just thinking.

I'm I'm really just thinking.

Maybe two.

Your top two.

Because if we choose one, we may end up in the same situation.

Sounds good.

Just thinking out loud with you.

Okay.

So we're gonna choose two.

Thank you.

Didn't the last time we do this?

We got like round five or something.

I I'm not sure that we want to beat that record.

I think we might be short and two.

What's that?

That's what happened last time.

I know.

It went on.

And I could keep on doing that because we have an even number of commissioners.

Chair or vice, she's not vice chair anymore.

Commissioner Hermann, would you like to share who you have selected the two that you've selected?

Okay, Dennis Mayer.

Amy Paul.

Thank you.

For round three, uh, Chair Andreola chose Billy James Moton and Denise Meyer.

Vice Chair Garcia chose Lizeth Lechuga Gomez and Marcus Nesbitt.

And Commissioner Hill chose Elizabeth Cadigan and Marcus Nesbitt.

Are we in round three again?

Here we go.

I don't see how this is going to break.

All right.

We you have a couple options.

You can keep doing this until this is why boards don't have uh even.

This is why we don't have either.

That's exactly right.

What I would recommend is you have one candidate that has been um, and I would make a motion make a motion to appoint Andrea Tabner as a unanimous selection, and then I would table the selection.

Um, I don't want to do that either.

I I'm not gonna table it.

Let's all think about who we voted for.

Let's all think about the last round.

Let's all think about the importance of the library, the balance that we need on the library, all of the hard work we've done in vetting all of these candidates.

So thank you, DA, for your suggestion.

But I would like to just go one more time.

We we did five the last time, so we're not at five.

And we have five rounds, I believe, last time.

And I'm not trying to break a record, but I love that you're so always on it.

Like what options can we?

And I would also like to note that district three uh represented on this slate is Marcus Nisbet and Lizbeth.

Uh Lizette Lechuga Gomez.

That's a good point.

Thank you.

We're choosing two.

Correct.

Right.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman.

I will have the same two.

Okay, thank you.

I think it had Denise Meyer and Amy Pulver.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so for round four, Chair Andreola chose Denise Meyer and Marcus Nesbitt.

Vice Chair Garcia chose Lizeth Lechuga Gomez and Marcus Nesbitt.

Commissioner Hill chose Lizeth Lechuga Gomez and Marcus Nesbitt.

All right.

I'm ready with the motion.

Are you ready?

Yes.

You sure?

Yes.

I uh I move that we move forward with uh Andrea Tavner and Marcus Nesbitt.

Do we have a second?

Second, I'm so happy.

Yay, we didn't get to five.

Any further discussion?

Hearing then, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

And thanks to every single applicant for putting in the time.

Some of the applications, if not all, were amazing.

And so if there's ever an opportunity, I hope you consider not only the library board but other boards and commissions, because there was a lot of really well-qualified and wonderful people.

So thank you.

I, in the interest of just taking a 10-minute break, would like to take a 10-minute break if we could after that.

Let's do it.

Get recalibrated and come back for the next item.

We're gonna call this meeting back to order at twelve twenty.

Thanks, everyone, for a quick little break.

Well, we're gonna go ahead and close item 18 and we're gonna move to item 19.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is a discussion and possible action to appoint a county commissioner as a liaison to the Washoe County Library Board of Trustees with no term.

The liaison role is intended to allow the commissioner appointed the commissioner appointed to serve as a bridge between the appointed library board of trustees and the elected board of county commissioners.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman, would you like a clarification from staff on this?

Okay.

Um sure.

Let's do it.

All right, let's do it.

Good afternoon.

For the record, Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager.

Um, this item uh before you is actually a request of Commissioner Hill a few meetings back to get a liaison to the library board uh from this board.

Uh the last time the board actually voted on a uh commissioner being a liaison to the library board of trustees was in 2015.

It was a one-year term uh for Commissioner Jung.

I couldn't find anything in the meeting minutes uh after that that even mentioned the library board of trustees uh liaison, and so uh I think it's very very nice that uh we bring this back.

I do know that uh some of the other boards and commissions that we have liaisons uh from the board of county commissioners really do appreciate having someone involved from the appointing authority uh to understand a little bit more intimately what what is happening.

And so um I'm here to answer any questions that you may have, but uh as I say, this has not been filled since 2015.

There's been nothing in the record uh as to why it did not continue on after that.

Uh but I have certainly been filling this role uh as at least liaison between the manager's office and the library board of trustees uh for a number of years now.

So uh with that I will turn it back over to the board.

I don't think there's a provision that removes you of that opportunity.

With all due respect, I was just I don't know that you the way that you exited out of that was pretty smooth, but you know, we we are on the record, and I'm not sure that that re relieves you of that wonderful opportunity.

So I would be around for that.

That's right.

Commissioner Herman, do you have any questions?

No, I just I'm sorry.

Okay, great.

Do you have any questions?

I don't have a question, Madam Chair, but I just kind of want to kick things off a little bit.

Um, I wanted to thank your public comment Commissioner Hill for bringing this idea forward.

I think um, you know, it's it's important because at least for me, uh, I feel a little bit of a disconnect between the library system uh because we don't have an elected official on that body, and so uh unless it comes from Dave or our county manager uh or unless we attend the meetings themselves, it can feel like there's a lot happening over there, and people come to us thinking that we have the control, and there's been a lot of miscommunication over the last few years.

So I'm very supportive of the idea.

Um, second thing, uh my sister, as many of you know, is an employee of the library system.

That does not prevent me from voting on library-related ideas, but I did want to make that disclosure.

She's been in the library system for a long time.

We've seen a lot of these appointments come through, and so I will be voting on this item.

And uh number three, we have you know, I sit as a liaison for parks, and we've got senior, and so this isn't like a brand new idea.

Uh for those of you who don't know our um every January, especially this year, as we will have uh a couple new commissioners swearing in, maybe three if I don't do well.

Um, we uh will be able to kind of look over the boards and commissions that everybody is in charge of.

So every single January you have that opportunity to clean the slate if you need to to uh shed some things if your schedule or um you know thing life happens and if things change, you're able to make those modifications and adjustments every single January.

So there's that.

Um but those are my three cents, not two cents.

Um, and that's all I have to say.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Do you have anything for staff?

Any questions?

Okay.

I'll call for public comment at this time.

Janet Butcher.

Janet Butcher for the record.

I would like to see Dave remain, but maybe he wouldn't want to.

But um, anyway, as far as commissioners are concerned, I've always wondered why why there haven't hasn't been somebody that went.

Having attended for the last four years almost every single library board meeting.

But I did see Mike Clark there probably four or five times sitting in the back.

And I've often wondered why not even the layers on who will be appointed today there.

Why aren't the board members a little bit more involved in what in the library?

And another thing too, and this has to do with with the trustees.

In fact, there's there are some that maybe get beat up pretty bad.

Um by some of the news outlets in our community, stepping into areas where they don't even again half truths.

They don't know the whole truth, but they throw out a story and they think, oh, okay, this person's really bad and causing chaos.

So anyway, um, I would hope that unfortunately Miss Garcia, I think that having your sister um as a librarian, that kind of walks into a an area that um you know, I mean, I'd stand up for my sister.

So um, anyway, um, good luck.

Thank you.

We have nobody else signed in.

Great.

Um, I do want to reiterate what the vice chair said.

Um, you certainly came up with the suggestion, and I wasn't aware of the 2015 um gap, if you will.

So um, but again, for the record, Sisson County Manager Solero is still here, so just saying.

Um, I also want to reiterate the point that the vice chair made that in January we all look at the boards and we all look at, I think there's an opportunity to think about when we cross that bridge of others possibly stepping in just so we all have um uh uh an exposure to the library board to be um involved as well.

We all serve on various boards, and um it takes some time to really get your feet wet, if you will, um, on any of the boards.

So I I think that um this is really appreciated.

So I don't want I just want to end this by saying it's not like a permanent um appointment, all appointments essentially rotate, and um I'm looking forward to the rotation for for this uh when when the time is right.

So having said that, we have any other questions.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

No, okay, great, thanks.

I'll entertain a motion at this time for an appointment to the liaison.

Madam Chair, I move to appoint Commissioner Hill as a liaison to the Washa County Library Board of Trustees with no term limit.

Great.

Do we have a second?

I'll second myself.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll look forward to reports during commissioner comments on that.

Thank you.

Tag team.

All right, we'll go ahead and close item 19.

We'll move now to item 20, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is discussion and hospital adoption of a joint resolution of intent to participate in the governance of the housing authority of the city of Reno as a regional housing entity that will be known as a Trekkie Meadows Housing Authority in furtherance of Assembly Bill 103 of the 83rd session of the Nevada Nevada legislature.

I will note for the board that this is a resolution that has been also heard before the bodies of the City of Reno and the City of Sparks, um, who adopted theirs on June 3rd and June 8th, respectively.

So we are third in line for that, and then we have a companion piece uh following on the next agenda item.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Do we have any public comment on this item?

We do not have anybody signed in.

Thank you.

Is there any questions or discussion at this time?

Madam Chair, uh happy to discuss this item.

So uh Commissioner Garcia has already been appointed to what was known as RHA and has already gone to a month, right?

Um a meeting and has been trained at.

Uh, and so I think we need to keep that continuity.

And I would like to request in the same way that you were talking about how boards circulate and change over, and this is a board that we all care about.

Housing is like number one um for the board of counting commissioners, but I'd like to respectfully request that um I'd be able to sit on this board.

Um we have a major project coming up in Incline Village in partnership with the Reno Housing Authority.

Well, formally known as Reno Housing Authority, uh the Truckie Meadows Housing Authority.

Um and I want to reassure my district that I will be engaged on this project, and I think sitting on that board while we get that RFP out after the federal highway administration approves uh this joint use of housing and transportation up in Incline, that would be um my request, and again, happy to share the love.

Um, and um happy to look at other um uh board members who are interested in this in the future.

Madam Chair, if I might um the one we're on right now is to approve the resolution to form the entity item 21, which is immediately following this is where you're a selector board members.

Great.

And the great news is that she just teed up to the city.

I just I did not want to interrupt, but thank you, Manager Thomas, because she yeah, opening.

This is just approving the resolution and the second item will be more applicable to comments.

So on the resolution, um, if there aren't any questions, I'll entertain a motion.

Um I ask for public comment, right?

There's no public comment making sure.

So I'll ask for a um motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I move to approve or adopt the joint resolution as presented.

Great.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

We'll move now to item 21.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you so much.

This is the recommendation to appoint two board of county commission members to serve on the newly just just newly formed Trucky Meadows Housing Authority with one member appointed to initial two-year term and one member appointed to an initial three-year term in furtherance of assembly bill 103 of the 83rd session of the Nevada legislature and the joint resolution of intent.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment?

There is no public comment.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill, do you have any anything you move to uh to appoint commission vice chair Garcia and Commissioner Hill myself, if the board will be so willing.

Thank you.

And I will just add, um, not that it has to necessarily be amended before comment.

Well, I'll wait for the second, then I'll do a comment.

Madam Chair, if I may.

Um, are you can you designate which whose should be appointed for the two-year term versus the three-year term?

Yeah.

Um, well, given that Vice Chair Garcia actually was appointed.

I'm gonna defer your preference.

Um, Madam Chair, as uh Commissioner Hill stated during my onboarding um with Dr.

Lopez, who's here in the room and can talk more about the history.

So correct me if I'm wrong, Dr.

Lopez, but my understanding is that Commissioner Hill had served as a Washoe County liaison um informally over the past what two years-ish, um, in alongside another Spark City Council member.

Um, so I would like to uh I acknowledge her involvement with the organization.

And um, given that she has some institutional knowledge, I think my onboarding last month, along with what what she's been able to uh acquire over those years, I think uh I would I would like for her to take the two-year term if that's something of interest um given that she does have some priorities that she'd like to see follow through with.

And and just for public record, um again, I'll defer to Dr.

Lopez.

We didn't really know how long this, yeah, you can come on up.

Uh I'll tee it up for you, Dr.

Lopez.

Uh, my understanding from you and um chair um gosh, Taylor Taylor Taylor.

I'm so sorry.

Um, Chair Taylor was they weren't sure how long this resolution process would take.

And so they moved to fill this initial position pretty quickly.

Chair Taylor reached out to me.

I had uh a meeting with uh Dr.

Lopez, and that's how the ball got rolling because um, and you can speak to more to that.

So I was happy to um you know acknowledge and and I was very grateful for the opportunity, but I'd like to continue uh serving in that role as well.

So go ahead.

Is this I think so?

So uh for the record, uh Dr.

Hilary Lopez, executive director of the Reno Housing Authority.

Hilary Lopez, executive director of the Reno Housing Authority, and just to also clarify for the record that the resolution will be heard by our board later this afternoon.

So we'll be the fourth party that will be considering this resolution for adoption, and then once it's fully adopted by all four entities, then we'll begin the process of um appointing all of the members.

So the other jurisdictions still need to appoint their members, and then once all members are appointed, we'll begin the process for the transition to Trekkie Meadows of uh housing authority and then seating of the new board.

Um, and then what had happened was in the last legislative session.

There was some language in the uh state bill that unfortunately was challenging from a HUD perspective, and so the joint resolution was kind of an interim um fix until we could go back and have the language changed during the next state legislative session.

Um, and as uh Commissioner Garcia had mentioned, we weren't sure how long that process would take to get the joint resolution in place, and so appointments were made through the current process in that interim period to ensure that we had a full board and were able to conduct our business with a quorum and those types of things.

Um we do anticipate at this point in time that um the new board will be seated either late summer or all early fall, probably by September, but we'll still bring it back next session to have the legislative language adjusted.

And so there's uh appointment of one member in the interim for a two-year term and another for a three-year term, so that we'll have staggered terms as we move forward, and then uh any um subsequent uh terms would be for a four-year appointment or running with concurrent with someone's um appointed term.

Thank you.

And madam chair, I'll defer to Commissioner Hill on what term she would prefer.

I was just like to give her priority.

Sure.

I just wanted to give um Commissioner Herman or or Commissioner Hill an opportunity to ask Dr.

Lopez any questions for clarification.

Commissioner Hill, do you have anything you have for clarification?

No, Commissioner Herman, do you have any questions for Dr.

Lopez?

No, thank you very much.

Of course.

So thank you, Dr.

Lopez, for navigating, you know, all of this.

I appreciate it.

So it um I'll respect Vice Chair's deferral to your approval.

Yes, I mean, as the motion maker, I will accept uh Commissioner Vice Chair Garcia's um amendment of the two-year term.

Okay, for me.

Thank you very much.

And then Vice Chair will be a yet one year for clarification.

Is that how it's working?

I'm seeing um there's a two-year term on the table and a three-year term.

Three years.

Well, that's why so you're doing two, and you're doing it.

I'll do the two-year, you do the three-year-old.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, okay.

So the additional year.

So all right.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item 22, Manager Thomas.

Oh, yeah, that is 26.

You know what?

We're gonna move to item 26, Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing and possible action to one consider a report of each property delinquent on its utility charges and the amount of each properties delinquency along with any objections to the report.

And two, after considering the report and the objections to it, determine whether to adopt the report and correspondingly adopt resolution 26-043 to collect certain delinquent utility charges on the tax roll.

All assessor parcel numbers of afflicted properties are listed in resolution 26-043 accessible as a linked attachment on the agenda on the county commission's webpage.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing, so I'll call for any public comment at this time.

There is nobody signed in.

Thank you.

Do any of the commissioners have any questions from staff or any clarification they need on this item?

Hearing none, then I'll call for a motion.

Thank you.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have second?

Second.

Second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Do I have to call for public hearing uh public comment after the public hearing?

Some boards do that.

So I sometimes I serve on so many boards like some of you.

You can do it at any time during the hearing.

Thank you.

So we'll go ahead and close item 26 and we'll move to item 27.

Okay, this is a second reading.

This will be ordinance number 1759.

Amendments establishing a density incentive for small dwelling units under 1200 square feet.

This was formerly bill number 1948.

Thank you.

Does anybody have any questions for staff on this?

Do we have any public comment?

We do have Pat Davison signed in.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Andreola.

Commissioners, my name is Pat Davison.

I'm a resident of District 5.

I did provide substantive comment at your May 12th meeting, and only ask again that you support this change as your planning commission did back in April.

As a side note, though, wanted to share with you that May was affordable housing month, and June is national home ownership month.

I didn't find this out until recently, but wanted to get the two months on the record now, so maybe we could recognize those special months next year.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have nobody else signed in.

Thank you.

All right.

Um given that no one has any questions.

I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I move to adopt ordinance number 1759 as presented in the staff report.

And I'll second.

We have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

Motion carries unanimously.

We'll move now to item 28.

This is also a public hearing.

Okay, this will be ordinance number 1760.

Amends Washoe County Code Chapter 110 development code in Article 336 housing incentives to create density bonuses for the development of attainable housing and attainable senior housing and to establish a minimum period of affordability.

This was formerly bill number 1953.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment?

We do.

Pat Davison.

Hello again, Pat Davison for the record.

I did provide substantive comment at your May 26th meeting and respectfully request that you affirm the findings of fact as your planning commission recommended and that you adopt this ordinance.

I want to end with a more general statement about the work that has been done over the last two to three years.

It has been my honor and pleasure to be involved in all these changes.

You gave marching orders to county staff and Kat and Eric marched forward with a commitment that is exemplary.

County staff exhibited creative out-of-the-box thinking with a multitude of solutions to increase our supply of attainable housing.

Wow.

That's a success story in its own right.

Approving these changes could be one of the most important and influential things you do as decision makers.

You may never know how many individuals and families you directly affected in a positive way.

And the ripple effects are positive also.

Helping someone find a safe and permanent place to call home is indeed knowable and honorable work.

I hope you are proud of the team efforts under your watch.

Yes, I was repetitive at times, beating the same drum over and over, but recognize that sometimes I was speaking to our audience who may not know how extensive the local housing shortage is, or how difficult it will be to turn the tide.

Our housing shortage affects almost everyone, whether they know it or not.

I do support Commissioner Garcia's suggestion from the last meeting that an implementation report be given in six months or one year from now.

I also think the county should be actively promoting the package of changes to the respective audiences.

You have something of great value and benefit that deserves a giant spotlight.

It's been a great trip through the world of housing policy.

Greatful thanks to Kat and Eric for their patience and understanding as I was hanging on for the ride.

In my opinion, it's time to celebrate.

In that vein, I promise to bring the sparkling line.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think that we should be sharing that with you too, though.

Really?

Thanks for all of your hard work.

Any other questions?

Or is there any additional public comment?

Yes, thank you.

Kelly Mullen.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Commission Kelly Mullen Planning and Building Division Director.

I just wanted to come and provide public comment to celebrate the two housing items today, which are the culmination of over two and a half years of work focused on housing and affordable housing in the unincorporated county.

You had originally prioritized this work back in FY24 in that strategic plan.

And since then, there have been, I believe, nine packages focused on bringing a broader range of housing types to county residents as well as facilitating seniors aging in place.

And this work, I just want to summarize in a paragraph.

This work includes making it easier, cheaper, and faster to establish accessible dwelling, excuse me, accessory dwellings in the unincorporated county, reducing minimum sizes for manufactured housing, modernizing standards for multifamily housing, reducing barriers for middle housing, and making it easier to establish a broader range of housing types in the county.

And finally creating density bonuses for senior housing for smaller units and for affordable housing.

And this is a lot, and it's very important work.

So I want to take a moment to acknowledge the staff who've made this happen.

We had a whole team of folks who were involved in these amendments and those spearheading the efforts.

I think you're aware.

Planning manager Kat Oakley, senior planner Eric Young, senior planner Chris Bronzik, and then also providing support where planning managers Trevor Lloyd and Chad Giesinger, senior planner Courtney Wikey, planners Jolene Bertetto, Tim Evans, and Julie Olander, along with our admin team who always kept us on the straight and narrow.

And that was Kathy Emerson, Irina Wilcox, Adriana Albron, and Brandon Roman.

And I'd also like to acknowledge that very dedicated member of the community, Ms.

Pat Davison, who has come to every single one of these hearings in support, which we very much appreciate.

And of course, I also would like to offer thanks to the planning commission and to you, board for having the vision and determination in making housing a priority within the unincorporated county.

There's been a tremendous amount of pride and passion and work that has gone into this, and we're very glad for your support.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Well, I think all of you should get like a huge.

Including you, Miss Mullen and the county manager and assistant county manager Solero, who's going to be the library ladies on still, just in case someone forgot, Mr.

Crum.

Thank you all very much.

Any other further public comment?

We do not have anybody else in chambers, but I do have an email to place on the record.

Thank you so much.

If there aren't any other questions for staff, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I proudly um move to adopt ordinance number 1760.

And thank you, Ms.

Mullen, for summarizing the culmination of such important work.

And I'll go ahead and second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Great job, everyone.

Thank you.

And the work is never done.

Give it a one minute.

But I'm I'm very excited.

Let's just say the work is never done.

Oh my goodness.

I'm just celebrate for one moment.

Okay.

We're going to close item 28.

We'll move now to item 29, which is also a public hearing.

Okay.

So this is a second reading.

This will be the first one will be ordinance number 1761, an ordinance amending the boundaries of Washoe County, Nevada, District Number 24, Groundwater Remediation.

This was formerly bill number 1951, and we do not have anybody signed in to speak.

Thank you for letting me know that.

All right.

Does anybody have any questions of staff for this item?

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

So moved.

I have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a second?

Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

Um item 29 requires two votes.

There, it's it's consolidated into two public hearings.

Okay.

So we have item number 1761, which just board just passed.

Then we have resolution 1762, um, which deals with um the ordinance imposing a fee on the parcels of land in Washoe County in district number 24.

Thank you.

Move to approve the resolution.

Thank you.

Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion, a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

And there was no public comment, just to verify.

Right.

Correct.

Thank you.

We'll move now to item 30.

And I am going to ask DA Large to talk about this item, if I could.

Yes.

Madam Chair, this is the first of uh some public hearings that we have regarding public nuisances.

It's been a while, as pointed out earlier.

Um since we have done one of these, I believe 2018 was our last uh public nuisances.

Um item number 30 is a complaint alleging a public nuisance case under NRS 244.360, Washoe County Codes Chapter 50 and 125 on property.

This is involving um several APN numbers um dealing with a public roadway and on quartz lane.

Um the alleged public nuisance generally consists of the accumulation and or dumping of junk vehicles and other debris on the property.

Um this board's uh task is to determine whether or not a public nuisance exists.

And if so, um we will adopt the board can adopt an ordinate or adopt an ordinance, a resolution declaring it a public nuisance direction will be then given to the property owners that they have five days to clean it up.

And at that juncture, if they do not, Washoe County um will move in and do that and then reassess the properties for the uh lien on those properties for the work that has been expended.

Um background on May 12th, this board um acknowledged a receipt of public nuisance complaint received by code enforcement from Washoe County.

We set a hearing for this date.

Um that uh public hearing was noticed in as required by law by publication in the region Reno Gazette Journal on May 17th and May 24th.

Um additionally, the district attorney's office, uh, my office um provided notice both by certified and regular mail to the last known owners of the property um pursuant to Washoe County uh property records.

Um, and that is how we will introduce Leroy has um a presentation.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Dave Salero, assistant county manager.

There should be a presentation for this in a series of items.

Uh here we go.

So this item uh is specific to three parcels owned by uh some deceased individuals in Sun Valley.

Uh the Board of County Commissioners has actually had a public nuisance hearing on this uh this series of parcels before uh in 2018-2019 time frame.

Uh Washoe County staff uh performed an abatement.

We've been keeping track of the information related to costs associated with that abatement.

Um of the pictures you're you're gonna see are older pictures, uh they're from the initial abatement or prior to the initial abatement.

Uh but this has been a series of parcels that over the years since that initial abatement have been evaded at least two other times.

Uh the Washoe County Sheriff's Office Hope team uh most recently has been out uh taking care of some things uh associated with this parcel.

Um you have heard uh from the community in the past the uh squatting that has occurred on this on these three series of parcels.

Uh they interfere with the actual use of the roadway.

Uh they make it very difficult for the people to uh while they are private roadway uh piece parcels, it makes it very difficult for those individuals to access their properties, which are further uh up.

So there have been uh multiple, like I say, multiple uh attempts to try to uh take care of these properties, uh but they can just continue to be uh problematic.

Um so again, these are three parcels on Quartz Lane in Sun Valley.

Uh they are half width of the roadway that is up there.

Uh interestingly, they are created as separate parcels uh across the street.

The uh roadway access is actually an easement uh through the the uh full-length parcels that go to the middle of the roadway.

So again, these are pictures, uh older pictures uh uh that were prior to the first abatement that we did.

Uh but this is chronic nuisance material that occurs over and over on these parcels.

Again, um I have not been out there uh this week or last week, uh, but uh, you know, this continues to occur and we continue to go out and clean these parcels up.

And so that's why we wanted to bring this item uh before you specifically for these parcels so that we can get direction from the board again, hopefully to consider these as nuisance parcels so that we can go ahead and continue to clean them up.

Um, unfortunately, we are having to use public funds to be able to do this.

Um, and but uh that's uh you know what the community has requested from us.

So that's what I have for this item uh specific to these courts lane parcels for a public nuisance.

Thank you.

Does anyone have any questions for Mr.

Solero?

Madam Chair, I was just hoping that um either DA Large or Mr.

Solero can talk about the long-term solutions or possible long-term solutions for these very complex segmented roadway parcels.

So that's a really good question.

Uh and we continue to look and try to determine what the best course of action is for these orphan parcels.

Um, this is the first step in at least getting them cleaned up.

But you're right, this is something that was specifically with these three parcels, and then we have another series as well.

Um, there are some options for Washoe County to take ownership of these parcels.

Uh it really puts us in the same place where we are today of cleaning these parcels up.

Uh, we have looked at um options to dedicate the parcels to neighboring uh property owners.

Uh as you will see coming up soon, we have a neighboring property owner that we are also requesting this be a nuisance.

So not so sure how well that's going to work specifically uh parcel by parcel.

I do know the district attorney's office is doing a lot of research to really understand what is the end result.

How do we do this?

Uh again, this is an area of the county that was created with these easements and property pieces.

Uh the roadways were dedicated on maps.

They were not brought to county standards, so the county never uh took ownership of these roadways.

That seems to be an area where we have a really difficult time in enforcing anything to occur on these properties.

The Hope team is fantastic at going out and moving people along.

Uh, again, this is all a big portion though of all of the all of the strategic initiatives that you've set in place related to vulnerable populations and homelessness and mental health and all of those things that we're trying to work through.

This is one small piece of that as well.

And so I don't have a great answer for you today, but I do know that the district attorney's office, Washa County Community Services Department, and others are trying to figure out the best long term.

Uh, we had at one point looked at defensing this property, but that again causes causes the same sort of problem where if it's a fence or if it's stuff, it still impacts uh the uh the use of this roadway for other parcels.

So I don't know if district attorney at large has any additional.

I'll add in as the commissioners well aware, or advice chairs well aware.

This is property is extremely each of these parcels is separate and unique, and it is difficult to go in through and do one size fits all.

I heard Mr.

Bates speak earlier in public comment.

Um, and I went out and spoke with him in the in the lobby.

I do think that there is need to be um meetings with uh interested parties in terms of dealing with this long term because I feel like we are doing whack-a-mole because it is literally you you essentially clean one up and another one explodes.

We need we need a comprehensive solution.

One of the things that Mr.

Bates brought up that is I think is a very good idea is um streamlining the process, empowering property owners that have the that have the ownership of this, not just Washoe County, to essentially let us know how our rights are and what we can, what we as a county can do in passing ordinances and changing code to allow an expeditious um way to deal with these nuisance properties and get cleanups and get the law enforcement and co-enforcement out there in a quicker manner.

Um there's no reason why it should take this long.

It is it is a difficult situation, and you know, our heart goes out to the neighbors that this affects on the daily basis.

You know, it's one thing to sit from you know, uh, you know, our you know, Ivory Tower and try to, you know, dictate what happens on the individual properties, but getting down there in the weeds, and that's why we thank the code enforcement and especially the Hopes team in these cases in terms of being out there and trying to work with our community partners to try to expedite this.

Our office is working diligently to try to get a handle on what we can do, um, but each of these parcels is gonna have to be handled separately and so not one size fits all.

Thank you.

And I would just say, you know, my preference is that the county doesn't take ownership over all these little you know, rectangles throughout the unincorporated part that we create a streamlined accessible process for, you know, if you pull up the map on courts, the you know, APN ending in in 2 3 and 2 2 across the street, um, who you know have a history of maintaining their own property, are are good actors in the in the neighborhood, um finding a way to invite those adjacent property owners, like in the example of Mr.

Bates earlier, one of his rentals touches or a couple of his rentals touches the retained rectangular roadway parcel.

He's interested and has made his own steps to try to reach out to the to the owner who's elderly and lives in North Valleys and didn't even really realize he still had these that he was responsible for these.

So that would be my preference.

I I don't think Washoe County is in a position given the long-term maintenance and road, you know, structural deficit we have with just maintaining our our other roads.

I I would really look for and advocate for um the neighbors to help you know raise their hand and sign up and say, Yes, I will take this, it will be absorbed somehow into my existing APN, and I will be responsible for calling code enforcement if and when someone sets up shop.

I I appreciate that.

And if I may, just uh to add on, you know, in the coming months you will see some code changes associated with chapter 125 and 20 uh 50 uh that kind of hit at some of the struggles that code enforcement has had with some of these other uh parcels as well.

So again, it's it's it's all of these little things put together trying to get to the solution.

Uh I you know, uh I've got some other things running through my mind, and and we'll we'll talk about those at future date.

But I do think that there are solutions for this.

Uh it's just gonna unfortunately take some time to get the ball rolling and uh but uh you know, at your direction, staff is working diligently trying to trying to understand and figure out the best solution for Washa County and the residents of the county.

Just one more comment.

Um, you know, we're approaching another legislative session.

If there's a way for us to strengthen the public nuisance code to specifically address deceased property owners, we've got to put all solutions on the table, and I feel like this is our opportunity.

And we can I I mean, quartz was just cleaned up, and people don't know how many thousands of dollars were spent to get that cleaned up, and within a month, it starts accumulating again right next to the parcel ending in in one one.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Well, I know we already said it, but I feel it needs to be said again.

Like, thank you for your leadership and for I mean, like lightning speed compared to some other things that maybe we would like lightning speed on everything, but I think the fact that we all recognize that this loophole has just really had a domino effect, and it's not just Sun Valley, there are other areas in the community too.

And so I think that's important, but I do want to again acknowledge DA Large for literally moving that needle at lightning speed.

So you know, you've set a precedent.

So just saying.

All right.

If there aren't any other questions about this, I'm gonna ask for public comment at this time.

We have nobody signed in.

Thank you.

All right, I'll entertain a motion and madam chair.

Move to adopt a resolution declaring a nuisance under NRS 244.360 and Washoe County Code chapters 50 and 125 declaring that a public nuisance exists on private property located on courts.

Um, the APNs are listed in the staff report and ordering the person or persons responsible for the nuisance to abate the same.

Thank you.

I'll entertain a second.

Second.

Have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries unanimously.

And I I do feel I need to also recognize Ms.

Soper too for the cab, the Sun Valley Cab and the involvement of the entire community.

So thank you.

We'll move now to item 31, DA Large.

Item 31 is a complaint alleged in a public nuisance case under NRS 244.360, Washoe County Code Chapter 50 and 125 on property property on slope drive, APNs 0085091, 0951, 0952, 0953, and 0954 in Sun Valley.

Um, once again, these are roadway parcels um located on Slope Drive.

Uh they have a various uh separate owners.

Um again, a code enforcement provided a complaint to this board on May 12th.

It was published on May 17th and May 24th in Reno Gazette Journal.

Um service was provided via certified and regular mail to the last known owners of the property on May 14th by the district attorney's office.

And I believe code enforcement has a presentation in regard to the thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair, uh Board of County Commissioners, Gag Easinger, uh planning manager for the code enforcement program for the record, and I apologize for being late on that first item.

I did prepare these presentations, and so I will go into um the next subject parcels.

So just for the history on the court code enforcement violation history um dating back to 2019 in this particular area.

Um initially there was some confusion over who should handle these cases because it is an actual roadway.

Uh it's dedicated on the parcel map.

Um, but that case was transferred uh to the sheriff's office and then back to code enforcement recently.

And so we have been working this property, and there was a recent um mass uh cleanup of the property actually.

Um 17 vehicles were towed, and RV was rendered.

Um but like some of these other parcels, the property owner is deceased.

It was William Eccles who subdivided many many of the properties in Sun Valley back in 1975.

Um there's there's no responsible party currently to send the penalty notices to, just like on courts.

Uh as I mentioned, the roadway parcels were dedicated by track map 1531, but not accepted or improved, as Mr.

Solaro had just mentioned.

Uh they essentially have no taxable value, so it's difficult um to even put pressure on the properties in terms of the lien process.

Uh nobody um is stepping up to claim the properties as is common with these other roadway parcels.

Uh, there was also an EHS open case for trash and and sewage uh on these parcels.

Uh and then as I mentioned, we were just conducted a um a cleanup, but um as has been mentioned, the the stuff usually comes back in fairly short order.

So just some photographic evidence of what we're looking at here in the highlighted area on the left, those are the subject properties along Slope Drive, and you can see uh some of the materials uh that were there prior to the cleanup.

Some close-ups.

Yeah, various trailers and registered vehicles and an RV being lived in there.

You can see it's clearly inoperable.

You also tend to accumulate a lot of building materials for whatever reason, various other items.

No bathrooms present, obviously.

Uh completely junked, um torn apart vehicles.

And that'll conclude that presentation.

Available for any questions.

Thank you.

Any questions?

No questions.

I just wanted to again thank code enforcement, thank Washoe County um uh hope team.

And there was an arrest on this particular incident, so um, everybody came together and did excellent work.

It looks amazing.

So thank you for the cleanup.

Well, I'm gonna definitely go out because I think those pictures do not do it justice of how bad it is.

Yeah, you can't do that.

And I've seen it firsthand and several times.

And um, I'm gonna look forward to going by and seeing it cleaned up.

Any other questions?

Do we have any public comments?

We do not have anyone signed in.

Thank you.

I'll go ahead and entertain a motion at this time, then uh so moved.

Okay.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a second?

Second, second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

Motion carries unanimously.

We'll now move to item 32.

DA Large.

Is the public apologies.

This is the public hearing alleging a public nuisance case under NRS 244.360 and Washoe County Code Chapter 50 and 125 on property on private property at 320 Quartz Lane, APN 08530-11 in Sun Valley.

The alleged nuisance generally consists of the accumulation and or dumping of vehicles debris on the property.

Um, if a public nuisance is determined to exist on the property, options may include pursuing administrative enforcement to include abatement, directing the commencement of a civil action for abatement in the courts, or non-judicial abatement of a nuisance.

Again, this board received a public nuisance complaint on May 12th and said this for hearing on June 16th.

It was published on May 17th and May 220, May 17th and May 24th in the Reno Gazette Journal.

And on May 14th, the district attorney's office uh sent a serve by served by certified mail and regular mail a letter regarding the public hearing at this place and time.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment on this?

Uh we do.

Rose Stewart.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time on this hearing.

Something that needs to be made clear.

Yes, this is my son's property, and yes, it is a mess.

But he has at least one trailer and several vehicles that are not his that have been dropped there.

He has tried to get them removed.

And he has not gotten anywhere with it.

So like I say, I agree with you that property is a mess.

If there was some way to work to get the trailer off specifically, because there are people living in that trailer.

And yes, there are messes on the street, and I will agree with you 100%.

My husband and I have cleaned it in the past, but at our ages now, we cannot.

If you could see your way clear to help us some way, then I'll be more than happy to pick up the tab for people to go out there and work on a day-to-day basis.

Other than that, my hands are tied.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any other public comment?

There's nobody else signed in.

Do you have anything that you'd like to add?

I will I will state you know, in terms of the public presentation with regard to the nuisance that a nuisance you know exists on the property.

I'm happy um to have myself and code enforcement work with um Miss Stewart and her husband and their son, but in turn and in exploring their legal options to get rid of the certain vehicles that are not theirs and to remove any unwanted squatters or individuals that are staying on the property without permission.

Um, you know, I know that can be a difficult situation, but um we're happy to work with them to try to do that.

Appreciate that.

So if we do end up having a motion, then hopefully the person who makes the motion would include that statement.

If there isn't any questions about this, I'm gonna go ahead and entertain a motion unless you really want to see.

Do you want to see anything more?

Do you have any questions for staff?

Madam Chair, I do have a question.

Um, this was the last public nuisance that was declared prior to my election, if I remember correctly.

I believe it was a portion of 320 um property.

I believe it was the roadway section of this.

Okay, so not this particular APN.

Not this particular APM.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, you know, while I have um our constituents here in the room, you know, this the I saw with my own two eyes what it looks like when the Washa County Sheriff's Office goes in, removes the trailers that you're mentioning, cleans up the debris, um, the human waste that accumulates over time.

And after the last cleanup, it came back within a month.

I started to see uh additional things.

And so um, while you are not the owners of this property, uh I don't believe you are listed on it's your son who is the legal owner of this property.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay, I would just really emphasize that when you do work with county staff that we look at a better systemic solution to this because it is a magnet for what occurs on the roadway parcel as well.

So, you know, in a perfect world, we get those roadway parcels cleaned up and and um abated, but we also need your son to play a significant role in this uh to ensure that that his behaviors don't spill out onto the roadway parcel in six months, um, because we've also seen that to be true as well.

So respectfully, let's work together on this.

I'm not the commissioner representing this district, but I get phone calls about court's lane all the time, and it's becoming so significant in deteriorating the quality of life for district five constituents out there, and I'm very concerned about the public health concerns that continue to surface year after year.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Hearing none, um I entertain a motion at this time.

So moved with the DA's um uh addendum.

Thank you.

And I'll second it.

Second, and vice chair will second it too.

So we have a motion by Hill and Commissioner Hill and a second by uh Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

We'll go ahead and close item 32.

Move to item 33.

DA Large.

This is again a complaint alleging a public nuisance case under NRS 244.360.

The Washoe County Code 50 chapters 50 and 125 and a parcel 260 GERDIE's Avenue, APN 506021 21 in Sun Valley.

And again, for the record, uh the code we rec this board recognized a code enforcement um complaint on May 12, 2026, set it for hearing on this place and time.

It was published in the Reno Gazette Journal on May 17th and May 24th.

And the owners, the last known owner was served via certified mail and regular mail on May 14th by the district attorney's office.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

Would you like a presentation on this one?

Yes, please.

There we go.

Again, Chad General Planning Manager for Code Enforcement for the record.

This is 260 GERDIE's.

This is our longest running code enforcement violation case dating all the way back to 2010.

Again, it's junk, junk vehicles, debris, trash, and RV living, all the typical things.

Again, the owner is deceased.

There is a relative living on the property, but the property has not gone through probate.

So it is still in the deceased owner's um name.

Uh they are they are current on taxes at the moment.

The property does have taxable value.

This is not a roadway parcel.

This is a basic fee simple parcel.

Um we have recorded liens.

We've used pretty much every tool in the toolbox available to us under chapter 125 up until this point.

Um they're at the record of the record of 53 penalty notices and 22,000 dollars in fines.

Um in past years, there have been some toasts conducted from this property.

Uh most recently in this year, I believe seven vehicles were towed because it was getting to the point where you couldn't even drive down the roadway.

So we had to do that for public safety reasons.

Um code enforcement has coordinated some dumpsters in the past.

Um, the the current resident there, Rex, who is the son of the deceased owner has um on and off cooperated with code enforcement with various cleanups.

We had it kind of close to being cleaned up at one point, at least from the public view standpoint.

Then all the stuff came back again, and there's three other individuals living on the property.

We don't know what's going on there, but they seem to be the uh cause of a lot of the junk at this point, and then again, as is common with these properties, environmental health services also has an open case for trash and potential sewage.

And then here are some uh photos depicting the property.

So you can see it's uh quite the mess.

Uh but the stuff out there on Gertie's ab is of particular concern.

Another view of that numerous RVs.

Um the one at the bottom there is actually being lived in by an individual who is fairly responsive.

So we're trying to work with them because that that that RV actually looks like it can be um moved.

Uh here's some more of the junk.

Couches and debris.

Trailers tend to accumulate things like this.

More unregistered vehicles.

Got a boat on this one.

Boats are particularly difficult to get rid of, they're under endow's jurisdiction.

And that'll conclude my presentation.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, on this one and on the next agenda item.

And I believe this is a situation that also happened on Carnes, is where um the son or daughter of the deceased are the ones squatting on the property.

But it's also incredibly challenging for these parcels in the middle of neighborhoods next to churches and schools to be squatted squatted on by the heirs of the deceased, and then us not have a mechanism to or a lever to bowl to keep these safe and clean.

So I don't know what the solution is if that's another legislative, you know, exploratory task we need to go down, or if there's something that we can do at the local level.

But in I know that um carnes is not on today's agenda, but that Carnes, Fifth Avenue, and GERDIES all have heirs who are the ones who are squatting.

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

When we get when we start talking about squatters, and I that that's a that's a term that gets thrown around a lot.

Property, the heirs of properties have property rights.

They are they are the heirs of these property, you know, and if they went through the probate process and being forced to do that, whether or not there's a legal mechanism to do so, um, not in the probate code that I have that I've reviewed.

Um, that may be a legislative change that would be helpful for a lot of these problems.

Um, in terms of squatters themselves, squatters we usually typically use in the phrase that they do not have permission to be on the property.

If an heir gives permission for someone to stay on your property, just like you can invite a house guest to live at your house.

Um, it's when we refer to squatters, we refer to them as living there without that permission.

Um, so that's what we had on Carnes, but where there was no one um that was on those properties.

That was this is uh you this is why we'd say property is unique.

Every one of these situations is a little bit unique.

We don't know a rec where Rex stands if he's invited these people to live on his property.

Um, and you know, as we heard from the last hearing, we don't know if um that owner has allowed people to live on his property or not.

Um so we have to delve into it, and that's where code enforcement works tirelessly when they get these code enforcement things to come in to try to sort these out.

Um, and they're very unique.

But we run into these situations where these become prolonged problems um that just are not being resolved, and we need to deal with it in a more expeditious fashion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would say um this is a complaint I hear a lot, and I was thinking it was more of a recorder's office issue, and you're right, it's not that it's actually that we cannot require descendants to go through probate.

And I think that that may be a worthwhile thing too.

Um tackle, I'm not sure if other counties are dealing with the same issue, but um, neighbors are dealing with blighted properties knowing that the descendants are living there not doing anything, and it's yeah, it's a major issue.

So I would support you in that, and um uh happy to help anywhere we can.

Yeah, I'll just add I was thinking as um the various unique um each item has its own unique, I'll use the term flavor.

Um and it makes you wonder I think this is a perfect item to bring to NACO and see if I to be honest with you, and I'm happy to share with NACO.

Um, there's some other things that you know I'm trying to work on too.

So I'm not suggesting that be the only, but one of the things I will say is that I think if the um current interim um CEO is uh amenable along with the um current president of NACO, it might be helpful to actually have a presentation to NACO to talk about what this how this works so that all the commissioners that are on the board representing the other 16 counties or all 17 counties can actually have um a real understanding of the legality, and so I'm not necessarily volunteering DA Large and maybe Mr.

Geisinger, but I I might might know your phone numbers.

I might call you.

I certainly vice chair Garcia, I'm happy to include you in that as well.

But I I just think it's a perfect place to have the entire state of all counties understand these um real unique situations, and I'm sure we're not the only county that has this.

So I just wanted to throw that out.

Any other questions or comments?

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

Madam Chair, I moved to adopt a resolution um declaring 260 GERDIE's a public nuisance as outlined in the staff report.

I'll second.

So motion by Vice Chair Garcia, I made the second.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

And do we have any public comment?

I'm not showing any public comment, but I'm gonna ask.

We do not have anyone.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we're gonna move now to item 34.

DA Large.

Item 34 is public hearing complaint alleging a public nuisance case under NRS 244.360 and Washoe County Code, chapters 50 and 125 on proper private property, 179 East Fifth Street, APN 085-830-24 in Sun Valley.

Again, for the record, this was a complaint came in from code enforcement on May and this board recognized on May 12th, 2026, set a public hearing for this date and time.

It was published in the Reno Gazette Journal on May 17th and May 24th.

And on May 14th, the district attorney's office uh contacted or served the last known owners of the property via certified and regular mail.

Um and this is the hearing time and co-enforcement has appeared for a presentation for you.

Thank you so much.

Dark for me again, commissioners.

Jag Eastinger, planning manager of code enforcement for the record.

This is 179 East Fifth.

This is actually started with the property in front of it.

Which is I believe is 175 East Fifth, which we which we do know the owner.

Um, and we did code enforcement on that one.

That's the one that actually uh butts the street in this area along fifth.

Um got that cleaned up, but it all just got moved to the adjacent property that's behind this one, which is 179 East Fifth.

And now there are numerous people leaving on that property and it has significantly degraded.

Um, and this case was just opened in April of 25, so it's not as long running as the previous 260 GERDIS case, but it it has even more junk if you can imagine that on it at the minute.

Um multiple RV living scenarios.

Uh again, the owner is deceased, but it has not gone through probate.

We have been in contact with the brother of the deceased owner.

I believe he lives in Oregon.

He doesn't really have the means to deal with the property.

They were initially going to try to pursue some kind of court action.

Um to try to get um control of the property and evict people.

Um, I don't know if uh where it's at currently in that process.

I don't I don't believe any progress has been made.

So again, various unknown squatters.

Uh they do not have permission as far as I'm aware based on the interactions we've had with the brother of the deceased individual.

Um the property does have taxable value, like 260 GERDIES.

Um we are sending penalty notices to that last owner of record and have recorded the liens and used all the tools like on 260 GERDIE's.

Uh it's on the 10th 10th penalty notice to date, $3,500 in fines, and then EHS also has an open case, and they have um provided a lot of the pictures I'm going to show you right now and are actively working the case, but they have um even less leverage when we do.

They basically have to go criminal uh at this point once once they've you know administered warnings and so forth.

So here's how it looked a while ago, and now it looks worse than this.

This is uh from the aerial photography from from a year and a half or two ago.

But here are some of the current pictures, uh just open garbage of equipment of all kinds, everything you can imagine.

Um junk vehicles, living scenarios, appliances, um yeah, no way to collect sewage or anything like that, no no obvious um you know, uh pumping or anything like that occurring on these RVs, various dilapidated structures, um just open garbage, um unknown if there's added materials or not, have no idea could be again obvious, obviously, people living in here concluding my presentation.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Just a comment, madam chair.

Um, this one really makes my blood boil.

I'm just gonna get on my soapbox for a moment.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

This one has concerned me for months and months and months.

The last update I had gotten back in October, just to give you an idea how quickly this deteriorated.

You know, back in October, I counted 11 trailers and 20 people and four docs.

It's more now.

And it looks like a complete war zone.

And the neighbors surrounding this parcel, uh, their neighborhood has been hijacked from them.

They're scared, they're they're fearful of retaliation, and that's why my blood boils.

Because I understand, you know, people have mental health issues, and you know, people may not have the resources to keep their properties clean.

I completely understand that.

That's why we do some of the proactive cleanups.

But this to me is just a disaster.

And I just, you know, for those who are listening, because I know you you're scared of retaliation and you would never come into a public setting to tell me or tell us why this agenda item is so important to you.

I just want to know that we're we're almost there, that hope is on the horizon.

We are going to get this cleaned up, and we are going to communicate with Mr.

Wilson, who lives in Southern California and is interested, an interested party.

He is the brother of the deceased in not only cleaning up his property, which he tries to keep clean, but cannot.

It's physically impossible because it the revolving trailers change by the day, literally.

They come at night, they come in the middle of the day.

It's just nonstop.

So I know he's interested.

I encourage the DA's office to resume contact and communication with him.

He would be uh a great person to take over that middle parcel and um we'll see what he plans to do with those once it's in his possession.

But this has got to stop.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I too saw that.

And when I was writing with the Hope team, we saw a trailer that we think was coming in.

And because there's even this trailers that are being sold under there's all kinds of things that I'm sure you're well aware of.

It's well, we're here today.

So thank you again for helping with all this.

Any questions?

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

So move.

We have a yep.

Okay.

Do you have any public comment?

I didn't see any.

We have nobody signed in.

Thank you.

Um, we have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia.

We have a second.

Second.

Second by Commissioner Hill.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Um, I just have one little question.

And I know you may not have an exact answer because each one of these parcels again have their own unique situation.

But what do you think the time frame is from a cleanup perspective?

This is a from the legal standpoint.

We can we're gonna issue because the resolutions have been passed, we will notify the owners and that they have five days to clean this up on their own.

And if they fail to do so, then Washoe County has permission to move in there to pursue an abatement action pursuant to county code.

The question of when these properties, they're gonna have to be a matter of prioritization and resources.

There's gonna have to be a great deal of community um uh coordination with all of the different actors because you can't go into some of these properties um without the sheriff's office, code enforcement lobbying the resources from all of these issues.

So there's going to it'll it will take a little bit of time.

Um, and we are gonna leave.

We have thankfully we have a great uh county managers and um co-enforcement that can coordinate all of this.

I appreciate it.

And I know that I think the outpouring from organizations like KTMB and Green Vibe and many others, um, if not the community itself, um, given the safety aspects that they can come and help, but I do think it's really gonna take a lot, a lot to get this cleaned up.

So thank you.

And thank you again, Vice Chair Garcia for your leadership.

Thank you again.

DA Large.

All right, we're gonna go ahead and close item 34.

We're gonna move to item 35 public comment.

This is your final public comment and comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person per person.

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

Please make your comments to the commission as a whole.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment?

Penny Brock is signed in, but I do not see her in chambers, and that's it.

Well, we have called her name, so I don't see her either, but thank you.

All right, we'll go ahead and close public comment.

Move now to item 36, commissioners and county manager announcements, reports, and updates.

Manager Thomas.

Um, I do have one item that you asked me to follow up on during the meeting.

Item number seven, which was the assessor's uh multi-year contract with government tax advisors LLC, and the process was the subject of the question today.

I wanted to note that this is a professional service, which is exempt from the competitive solicitation requirements for NRS 332 that governs purchasing in the state of Nevada for local governments and the company at note audits personal property accounts to help ensure accuracy of personal property assessment.

And I will note that this service can only be provided by a company that holds a valid appraiser certificate in the state of Nevada.

So I hope that answers the question that was brought before the board today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing that.

Commissioner Hill, do you have anything?

Chair Garcia.

I just wanted to express my immense gratitude to staff, our DA's office, our staff, our constituents who came in today, and most importantly to my fellow commissioners.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We tackled some pretty big stuff today, and it was a great meeting.

So thank you for your leadership.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything you have you'd like to add?

No, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Obviously, today really was concentrating on closing these loopholes, and there's more to come.

But I do think that there are some other loopholes, even and I'm going to use the term squatter if you want to call it that, or those folks that are in encampments that I'm in discussion with the sheriff's office and his government liaison to look at what we can do now that we've had the camping ordinance in place, and then what things they're finding.

And just for full transparency, a lot of this came out of the write-alongs from the Hope team and with the sheriff's office.

So there may be more to come, but I just thought I'd add that because as we are all responsible for public policy, and um we all do the best we can, but sometimes things do evolve, and we're seeing, of course, uh a magnification of that today with some of the things that passed, but I do think that there's some other places that we can help in the community, and I'm hoping that we might be able to see that policy come when the time is right, and certainly work with not only the DA's office and and um DA Large, but the county manager as well and the appropriate staff and the sheriff.

So having said that, uh I'm going to go ahead and close this meeting and adjourn at 1 37.

Thank you so much.