Good morning.

I'd like to call the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners to order on June 23rd, 2026 at 10.04.

Thank you all for coming, and we appreciate your patience and us being just four minutes late as we just finished one meeting and now moving into the next.

So thank you.

Well, Mr.

Brooks, we're starting a tradition.

So would you like to do a salute to the flag?

And to the Republic, for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Thank you.

We'll now move to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola.

Present.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Clark is absent.

Commissioner Herman, are you on the phone with us?

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

Here.

County Manager Kate Thomas.

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 go ahead and close item two.

Move to item three.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Item 3A1 is an invocation, and we are joined this morning by Heather Perkins, who is the Director of Communications for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our beloved Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be here today in this setting with all of these good people.

We are thankful for the many blessings and tender mercies that thou dost bestow upon us as thy children.

We are grateful for thy beloved son Jesus Christ for his infinite atoning sacrifice that allows us to repent of our sins, to be comforted in times of need, to be strengthened when we are weak.

We pray that thou might bless all of us here today that we may feel of thy love.

We are so grateful for this beautiful world and for all thy creations.

We're grateful for these public servants who are willing to share their time and talents to serve and bless thy children in this county.

And we say these things in the name of thy beloved son Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is a general update from our Trucky Meadows Fire and Rescue Chief Edwards, who is here.

And I know we're looking forward to hearing information on the incident that occurred over the weekend.

Welcome, Chief Edwards.

As I begin today, um our region has started to experience an increase in wildfires.

So our fuel levels or the fuel moistures are starting to decrease.

Our humidities are really getting low.

We've had some wind.

We've actually had a couple of fire weather uh warnings already issued for the region.

And so yesterday, in alignment with our state and federal partners, we adopted the first level of fire restrictions uh in the region for the season.

Um these restrictions include uh the following activities are prohibited until further notice or until these restrictions have been rescinded.

Smoking outdoors, welding, or operating in acetylene or other torch with an open flame, operating a chainsaw, or related equipment powered by an internal combustion engine without a spark arresting device, operating or parking a vehicle or other motorized equipment over or on top of dried or cured vegetation.

In addition, uh building, maintaining, and attending or using a fire using wood, charcoal, or any other material, campfire or stove fire, except a portable stove using gas, jelly petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel outside of a developed V campground or picnic area, except by permit, is also now prohibited.

A barbecue on private property and an established barbecue or campfire ring, clear of final vegetation is still currently permitted.

So your backyard barbecues are still okay.

And a big reminder as we come into the 4th of July holiday, all fireworks, all tracer ammunition or exploding targets are illegal year round in Washoe County.

Please continue to follow our social media sites for updates on wildfires and more fire restrictions should they change.

Our website, TMFPD.us also has an updated list of these restrictions.

And I really encourage all of our residents to get the MySmart 911 app.

This is the best way for us to communicate with you about emergencies, and then also know about perimeter in our social media feeds as we put out incident information.

We'll also provide information to perimeter, and perimeter shows you the outlines of where those emergencies are occurring, evacuation routes, shelter information, and so forth, which are extremely important during time sensitive emergencies.

I also want to touch on an incident uh manager Thomas referenced uh last Friday, uh, a unique incident for our region.

Um on Friday, June 19th at approximately 4 p.m.

Um, we experienced uh a unique thunderstorm event in the region.

Um and the neighborhood of Hidden Valley was inundated uh with a significant amount of rainfall in a very short amount of time.

Uh that downpour resulted in very large dislarged uh dislodged boulders.

Um, a significant amount of mud, water, and vegetation that overfilled uh catch basin at the top of that hill, and then used Pembroke and the neighboring streets as kind of a river to guide all that mud and debris throughout the entire neighborhood.

Um initial 911 call was placed for flooding.

Uh, initial arriving engine company from the city of Reno arrived on scene and recognized this was something much larger than just a flooding call, um, and then upgraded that to a full first alarm rescue assignment.

Uh, that also brought units from Sparks, NTM, our water rescue teams, and so forth.

Um this was quite a significant incident.

Um, fire companies rescued a family from a home with an active gas leak that uh their meter had been dislodged during the debris flow and they were trapped in their home.

So firefighters actively rescued uh those folks from their home and got them to safety.

Um the initial priority through this entire emergency was life safety, um, and that really focused on search and rescue, making sure that we could account for all the residents, uh, make sure they were out of harm's way as quickly as possible.

Um miraculously, I'm happy to report that no human injuries or deaths occurred as a result of this incident.

And if you saw the pictures, that is a miracle.

I mean, there was uh a lot of opportunities for people to be injured or or killed in this incident.

Um sadly, one cat did perish in this incident.

Um this was truly a team effort uh in the response to this emergency.

No one agency was going to be able to mitigate this on their own.

Um so we're very grateful for our partners at the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, their search and rescue teams, uh, the Washoe County Emergency Management, NV Energy, REMSA, Washoe County Regional Animal Services, and Washoe County Community Services Division as well.

Um, and for more updates, it's important for folks to continue to watch and monitor emergency washow.com.

And at this time, I'd also like to invite up um Kelly Echeveria from the emergency or emergency management administrator for Washoe County to provide uh a brief update on the recovery efforts in response to this emergency.

Thank you, Chief Kelly Echibaria for the record.

Um I was able to respond to the incident uh directly on Friday afternoon, and I think you know, our first responders have a tendency of being modest in their efforts, and um there's no doubt that lives were saved because of both fire and law enforcement that day.

So grateful to be working around uh and next to such amazing responders.

That being said, um recovery is both short and long.

Um in the short term, CSD crews are out in the field uh every day, have been including Father's Day, and have removed 4,600 tons of rocks and mud uh from the neighborhood.

They've done safety assessments, completed emergency access clearing, and are working on uh right-of-way, mud and debris removal, infrastructure integrity checks, and restoration of that infrastructure as well.

Um, in addition to the impacts that we saw in the Hidden Valley neighborhood, there was also some movement of land and rocks into the Truckee River at Vista.

So the river right there is about two-thirds of the way blocked from what it normally is.

Um separate from the river activities, um, we've activated our BOADs, our volunteer organizations active in disaster.

The Red Cross was out um in the neighborhood on Saturday, handing out cleanup kits, doing damage assessment, um, talking to residents of the community and making sure that we're accounting for their needs, and we can try to fill those needs.

Um, as far as damage assessments go, um our first responders did windshield assessments, which is the very first step.

Um, they passed those over to emergency management.

Red Cross went in the next day and did a more little bit more detailed uh damage assessment, and we married those numbers.

Now we have our community services division out um adding additional information from someone who's an engineer, and so they're able to add that uh additional detail uh up to the level that FEMA's looking for.

And we've also put in a request for the state to send their damage assessment teams, which is just the process.

Um so far, we've identified one home destroyed, six that have major damage, uh seven that have minor damage and nine that are affected.

We have put in a request with Team Rubicon to come and assist our community members with clearing the mud and rocks from their homes.

We're also working with Belfort and TMCC and a number of other partners to get the residents what they need to be able to clear out their homes and properties.

It was significant and it will take a long time.

I I asked the community that if needs arise, please call 311.

They're forwarding those requests to emergency management, and we're coordinating, uh helping to fill the gaps that the community needs.

And I think that is the end of my report, unless you have any questions.

Thank you.

Well, I definitely want to thank you and the entire team, Truckie Meadows Fire, along with public safety law enforcement and others, but really collectively, how quickly you stood up the shelter, Kelly.

You stood that up right away with the American Red Cross.

And so I'd like to make sure that you and everyone understand when you have an emergency, and we're you are the professionals in it, but it is manage chaos, but it is really a testament to what you do in the training before and how you have the relationships and the communication and be able to activate just like that.

And that's what happened at Hidden Valley.

And I can tell you I know because I was getting calls and and certainly involved in doing what we could.

And I do also want to give huge kudos to the collective communication from everyone.

It was a very managed communication that appeared um honestly in a very effective way because sometimes in emergency situations you get conflicting information, and that's really difficult for to discern as a resident.

So I really was super impressed with the level of um the expeditiousness and the response from CSG.

Um I shared at an earlier meeting, and I'll share it today again.

That the response from residents from Hidden Valley have been extremely appreciative to how quickly you moved, how quickly CSD was out there pushing mud, getting rocks out of the way.

Um there is still work to be done.

And so, yes, your request, Kelly for uh those to go through 311.

There's a few.

There's a few that I know I have initiated, and many others, I'm sure.

But thank you.

And it's not just hidden Vista, also really that took another surprise.

And I I think it's also I know um Commissioner Hill and I both serve on the Turkey Meadows flood, and what we're doing at Vista is amazing, and what that long-term hundred-year flood will see to prevent, not necessarily hidden value or some of these things that happen, but in the bigger picture with that Vista Narrows project, there are millions of millions of dollars that are happening.

So there's even plans that are outside of just what we're talking about that are long term to help our community in the long term.

And so thank you again for everything.

I I really want to do this because you guys are amazing, really.

Really, everybody was amazing.

Thank you so much.

I'll open it up to my colleagues.

Vice Chair Garcia, do you have anything?

Yes, just echoing the tremendous work and coordination that happened.

Um, you said one home was damaged.

What what structural issues happened that would classify that as a total loss versus the other ones that were impacted?

Yeah, one was destroyed.

Um that was about three feet of rocks and mud that um broke through the back doors of the home and went all the way through.

Um it's it's according to the FEMA designations of water levels um and debris impact.

Wow.

What a nightmare.

I mean, that's horrible that they had to experience that.

Very traumatic for the families and the neighbors and everybody that had to witness that.

I was reading, um, and again, for those of you who didn't tune in to our strategic workshop.

Um, the WW dot emergencywasha.com is amazing.

It has the maps, it has all the things on it, and if you click the updates tab, it gives you um a very concise uh informational tool that you can use to disseminate information.

On there, you had mentioned that you know, because we're limited on what we can do on private properties.

Can you talk to us about who the team Rubicon is?

I think that's what they were called.

Yeah, absolutely.

Team Rubicon is a group of volunteers that used to make up just primarily retired military, uh, but they've expanded their force and they can come in and muck out it's called removing the mud and dirt.

Um, and we've partnered with them before um when we did the defensible space project over by the old Patagonia warehouse um for vegetation removal.

Um, it's what they do and they love to do it.

So getting in and getting dirty and helping people.

And it's all volunteers.

Yes.

All right.

Well, thank you to our volunteers as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

No, just a great big thank you to everyone that was involved.

Thank you.

Thanks again.

Appreciate it.

All right, we'll now close item four and move to item five 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.

A news time may not be allocated to other speakers.

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

Please make your comments to the commission as a whole.

Thank you.

First up is Catherine Yarte, followed by Terry Brooks.

Is it on?

Oh, it is okay.

Good morning, Catherine Yarte for the record.

Um, I'm actually going to be speaking on item 21, so I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time to get all my thoughts out, so I did both.

Um I do think it's a great plan to get something on the record to capture the lost revenue for electric vehicles that were not getting via fuel tax.

I and I think this is a good start, but I don't think it's going to capture enough.

Um, doing it via registration is going to eliminate the opportunity to capture the income from the transient population that travels through Washoe County and through the state.

We are a drive-through state.

We are a tourist state.

And so only attaching it to our registration misses the opportunity to capture that additional revenue for our roads from other people from other uh counties, districts, and states and cities that are coming through Nevada.

So, what I would like to suggest is that we consider doing it the same way we do fuel tax per gallon on gas and diesel.

Could we do a fuel tax per kilowatt on charging stations in order to capture that transient traffic?

That would also apply to those who live and have their own charging stations at home.

There could be a way to meter that in order to tax it at the same or similar rate.

With the 250 dollars per year, that's a significantly smaller amount based on an average, and many of these people are driving significantly more than other people with a gas or diesel vehicle.

So the bigger issue is making sure we don't miss the opportunity to capture the revenue from those people traveling through Nevada as tourists or um simply just driving through and ensuring that we capture as much revenue as possible to make up for the loss that we're currently experiencing.

So I'll probably add to that on the other one.

I don't want to go overboard here, but thank you.

Thank you.

Terry Brooks, followed by Kyle Sundland.

Good morning.

It's me, Terry Brooks again.

And today I feel the responsibilities to address discrimination and politics when it comes to disabilities.

Some politicians want to do what they can to help the disabled in any way.

But some politicians don't care about the disabled and just want them to go away.

Some politicians have done what they could to help the hearing impaired, and they helped to do such things because they've really cared.

But those who continue to discriminate against the hearing impaired won't explain why they do so because they haven't really cared.

Some politicians have done what they could to help those who are blind, and they help to do such things because such caring stays in their mind.

But those who continue to discriminate against those who are blind cannot explain why they do so.

They just need to change their mind.

Some politicians care about the physically disabled who are in a wheelchair.

So they help to get ramps in places when the disabled need to go there.

But others haven't supported such ramps.

They said it would be a wasteful expense.

They waste their own time saying such things because they don't make any sense.

Some politicians have supported a lot of mental facilities as a safe and comfortable place for those with mental disabilities.

But others didn't support them back in the 1980s and shut down such mental facilities and force the residents out on the street who have mental disabilities.

The best way to help and treat people with disabilities is to let them have a safe place where they can learn to deal with their disabilities.

And we all have the responsibility to care for one another.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kyle Sundland, followed by Oscar Williams.

Madam Chair, Commissioners, my name's Kyle Sunland.

I'm the vice president of behavioral health at North Nevada Hopes.

I'm here to talk about line item 22, the Wharf grant, and I just wanted to extend our appreciation for this opportunity.

Hope Springs is unique, and especially as an FQHC, which is a federally qualified health center.

We have a real opportunity to combine medical and behavioral health and really go for stability in housing.

And at Nora Nevada Hopes and especially with Behavioral Health, we're really developing a program with our transitional living program of Hope Springs to really create that stability for our unhoused and at-risk population.

So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone, and we really appreciate this opportunity.

Thank you.

Oscar Williams, followed by Jeff Church.

Good morning, Oscar Williams here.

Um I want to sort of break out a little bit, but I'll bring it back to item 14.

Uh I'm concerned about protecting the public purse, emphasis on elections.

Um excluding the cost of the new warehouse and the full extent of the lease, uh, and along with the remodel, I think there's probably 15 million or something budgeted for that.

The remodel three million something, the life of the lease, I don't know, eight, 10 million or something over 20 years, whatever it is.

Uh, our tax dollars.

Um, I want to give a rough estimate of the capital improvements on elections from 2023 to 2026, would appear about 15 million.

I mean, that's a really loose estimate.

But that's just for new equipment software training, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

Um, not even the actual cost of conducting the election, just capital improvements, excluding the warehouse and remodel, which is another 15 million or more.

These are our tax dollars.

I have limited disposable income to you guys to continue to tax to spend like drunken sailors.

You have an unlimited uh uh insatiable demand to spend.

There has to be something in the middle that makes sense, and I wish to ask you a couple questions to help define that better so we can all be on the same page.

And I know you can't answer these questions, but they I shouldn't have to even ask them.

It should be publicly available.

And it goes like this.

What is the cost per ballot counted?

Does anybody in this room know what the cost is per ballot counted for the primary that we just went through?

Anybody?

I don't know.

That's why I'm asking.

I'd like to know.

We should know.

It's a common business management metric, but we don't have that information.

Um I'm also concerned about uh statements by the rest of our voters regards to the time to process a mail ballot.

Uh he claims it takes 10 to 12 hours to process a mail ballot when we have the finest state of the art of equipment that can do tens of thousands of ballots per hour, and when in fact he's been quoted in the news is saying he could do 15,000 ballots a day.

He's got all the early voting to count the mail ballots, he's got all this great equipment and multiple stations for envelope ours and and for tabulating, and yet we can't seem to get all the ballots done in time.

There's always a thousand or something that are not processed.

Um, the results come in late or uh not consistently when we're supposed to get that you know updating of reporting after elections.

Um my estimate two to three hours.

You want to do you do you you estimate it in a batches of a hundred to be nice, rounded.

How long does it take to do a hundred ballots?

Mail ballast from intake to counting, sorting, storing, printed, done.

They can't do it in three hours.

There's a problem.

We've got the state of the art equipment state of the art equipment.

Now, in regards to item 14, um, I simply at this point I ask you table it until we have more input of observers.

So we're gonna get the bank for the buck that we deserve and demand as observers.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Jeff Church, followed by Lindsay Harmon.

Okay, I think this is where I put this.

Is that correct?

It is.

Good morning, Jeff Church.

I run RenoTaxrevolt.com.

Uh it's a pleasure to be here.

I'm not here very often.

And I want to speak on RTC five, but I will mention uh very briefly that I agree only in part with the first speaker that if you are gonna tax the uh public charging stations are the right place to do it for EVs.

Also want to comment on the chair's comment on the Vista Neros.

Flood is one of the best agencies I've ever worked with as part of Reno TaxRevolt.com.

They're very responsive, and they're getting it done, even though the voters said no to them for no new taxes.

And that's a point that carries over to what we're gonna talk about.

RTC five, the annual index gas tax, it goes up with no public vote, no public input hearing, nothing, goes up every July one this year, 4.2 cents.

Call it a nickel.

Diesel, 4.7 cents.

The total tax based on my math for Washoe County is a dollar fourteen a gallon.

Congratulations, you're number one in the country.

That is the highest gas tax anywhere in the United States.

Prove me wrong.

Ask staff, prove me wrong.

I'd love to stand up here and tell you I was wrong if you can find some other county with a higher gas tax.

That's federal, state, and local, a dollar fourteen.

I'm thankful that we're gonna have a new DA who maybe is gonna give a fresh set of eyes on this on how we legally can address it.

I want to point out there are legal issues.

I'm not gonna litigate it here in a minute and 30 seconds, but if you know me, on behalf of the public with no personal interest, I have litigated before, I have won.

Some I lost, some I won, some were settled out of court.

But I'm not afraid of litigation.

So let's try to head this off at the past and discuss pre-litigation, how we can resolve this and how we can maybe do something so that people don't go to Carson City like I do to buy our gas.

I have a hybrid, and it comes up later today.

But I go to Carson City, I shop, my wife and I, we go down, we have lunch with friends, we shop, we buy gas.

All that money that we spend goes to Carson City in the state.

You don't get a penny.

So it's a regressive tax.

It's called the loffer curve.

There reaches a point where people go, I'm not gonna do it.

I'm not gonna pay it, I'm gonna go elsewhere.

Once again, uh, when I go down to Carson City and buy things, I pay a sales tax of 7.6.

I bought my car in Carson City.

Sales tax here, 8.26.

Just like Oscar said, you're spending like drunken sailors.

There's got to, you've got to be able to live within your means.

More more taxes is not the answer.

It's a credence clear water.

When they come to your door door, the only answer is more.

And that has to be an exception to the rule.

Great little cartoon.

I'll hand it to the clerk later before I'm done today, but it says everything.

Renotaxrevolt.com.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lindsay Harmon, followed by Adrienne Alcala Moss.

Hi, I'll Lindsay Harman for the record.

I'm here today in support of agenda item 21.

Um, this is a common sense solution to uh ask electric vehicles to pay their fair share to support the infrastructure that we all desperately uh need improvements on and rely on every day.

So I am in full support of uh agenda item 21.

Thank you.

Adrianne Alcala Moss, followed by Eileen Eckland.

Good morning, uh Madam Chair, Commissioners, TA.

Uh thank you for the great name pronunciation.

I appreciate that.

Um, so I am a nurse practitioner.

I work for the Life Change Center.

We're an outpatient opioid treatment center with three sites across uh Reno, Sparks, and Carson City.

And uh we were recently selected to be uh part of the WHE grant with in an outreach and engagement project that we're very excited to get going.

And um, I'm a fairly new Nevada.

I've just been here just over a year and uh was looking for ways to get involved, and it's very exciting to see your civic engagement process this morning.

So I thank you for your time, and we just really want to express our gratitude and excitement uh to be able to get this project going to to help our community help engage folks, get them into treatment, get them moving on with their lives.

And um, John Sederland here, he's our our peer support um lead, and he's the lead on this project.

And I he may speak under item 22, but I'll just uh give over.

Like she said, I'm John Sederlin.

I'm the peer recovery support specialist supervisor for the Life Change Center at all three sites.

I manage the peers there.

Uh I also want to say thank you so much to all of you for this opportunity with the Coke grant and funding like WORF, because of opportunities like these are why I'm sitting here today with 25 years in recovery.

If we can get this program to just touch one individual's life, that's going to be generational addiction touch, not just that one individual.

So if everyone in this room and everyone in this community were to touch one person, we would be able to reverse the effects of fentanyl in our community.

So thank you again for considering us for this grant, and we look forward to uh executing it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Eileen Eklund, followed by Wendy Coburn.

Hello.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

Okay, microphone permanently now.

We can hear you.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

All right.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Eileen Etlin for the record.

I live in Sparks, and thank you once again for the opportunity to speak.

Today I just want to say thank you.

I want to thank you for your efforts on behalf of our libraries.

I was away last week and missed your vote for the new library trustees, but I want you to know that I'm encouraged about you by your choices and believe that the new trustees both have special knowledge and skills to bring to the library board.

I'm also grateful to you for appointing Commissioner Hill as liaison to the board, which I think will be really helpful in improving communications between the two boards.

When I first began attending meetings of the library board and this commission, I was like many Washoe County residents, frustrated and worried about the future of our library system and the conflict that surrounded it.

So far this year has been a breath of fresh air.

Our new director seems to have hit the ground running.

Her reports to the board indicate that she has a firm grasp of the challenges we face, as well as great energy and enthusiasm for tackling those challenges head on.

She understands how important it is to invest in our libraries and ensure that they remain central hubs in our communities.

With this new director, two promising new trustees, a new library board chair and vice chair, and a new liaison.

For the first time in quite a while, I feel hopeful that the library system can get back on firm footing and move into the future with the resources, staffing, and support it needs to succeed in these rapidly changing times.

Thank you, Commissioners, for your help in opening up what will hopefully be a new chapter for our Washoe County Libraries.

Thank you.

Wendy Colburn, followed by Laura Wetherington.

Good morning, Chair Thomas and members of the commission.

My name is Wendy Colborne, Chief of Staff for the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada.

And I'm here regarding agenda item number 21.

We generally support requiring electric and hybrid vehicles to contribute to road funding.

Our roads are critically underfunded, and all vehicles should pay their fair share.

That said, our preference would be for the Nevada legislature to act on this statewide and if ideally through a vehicle miles traveled structure rather than a flat registration fee.

We're also concerned about what happens if this question goes to voters and fails.

A no vote in Washoe County would make it significantly harder to get this done at the state level.

However, we're not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

And if this question does go before voters, the building trades will support it.

Better road funding is better fund remote funding, and we support this mechanism for moving us in that direction.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Laura Wetherington, followed by Jane Fox.

It's really too small.

Sorry.

Laura Wetherington for the record.

Thank you for your service and for the opportunity to speak.

I want to thank Chair Andreola for asking additional questions of the LBOT applicants and Commissioner Hill for joining the LBOT as a liaison.

Your stewardship of the library system heartens me.

I'm here today to ask you to amend future library board of trustee applications to include a question about the applicant's home library.

I heard you discuss last week that in the future, appointments to the library board will be considered by commission district.

And I'm curious about that and want to think alongside you for a few minutes, two minutes and 27 seconds.

I want to understand the fullness of the reasoning because I suspect there's a lot of thought that's gone into it.

Of course, the most immediate reason that comes to mind is having people within each district feel they're equally represented on the LBOT and for this board to feel represented on the board that you appoint.

And I understand and support that.

But as I've continued chewing on the discussion about over or underrepresentation by commission district, I started to wonder how many libraries are in each district.

So I went home and mapped it out.

And I saw that some districts have more libraries, and perhaps this is one factor in the overrepresentation.

Frankly, I don't know.

But this led to another thought, prompted by the new director's recent report, where she spoke about each branch as a hub of a different microcommunity.

I had known before that each library within our system is unique, but her explanation that each library's microcommunity has a different set of needs and therefore offers different hours, materials, and events.

It opened my eyes as to why.

And so I'm not convinced of where I've landed now, but I wonder if fairness is a part of what this board is aiming to do by appointing by district.

Might it make sense to not only consider the districts that this board represents that this board represents, but also the library microcommunities that the LBOD represents, you know, like library jurisdictions.

If district one is overrepresent overrepresented, I think this is one that you all named last time.

Um are all the recent candidates coming from the same branch.

I would hate for the commission to overlook incline or verde, verde, sorry, applicants, two widely different branches and communities because Sierra View has been historically feeding the board.

Um so this is an open question for me, and something that I hope that this board will have a dialogue about as you prepare for the next set of applicants.

And one last wild idea.

To shore up the library board for the longer term, you could run a program like the Washoe County Leadership Academy, perhaps equally ambitious but smaller in scope and budget.

Such a program would work with the library system to develop outreach to potential LBOT cohorts, either through each library branch or by targeting specific microcommunities.

I heard Sun Valley was the theme, you know, last week.

Maybe this could be a theme, right?

Underrepresented branches or areas of the county now represented by the bookmobile.

Hear me when I say train the whole community in library trusteeship.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jane Fox, followed by Penny Brock.

Good morning.

Thank you all for um helping us here today.

Um I am Jane Fox for the record.

I'm the director of the Larson Institute at the School of Public Health at UNR, and I am the lead for our street reach project.

So I'm here today to express our sincere gratitude for all the money and the effort and the support that you are giving to our street reach project.

Uh as you know, some of you know, but I'm gonna remind you all again.

Uh Street Reach is this collaborative UNR effort uh between the School of Public Health Larson Institute, Orvis School of Nursing, and several community partners.

We provide street-based health care to individuals who are unsheltered in our community.

And currently we're offering nursing assessments, wound care, blood-borne virus testing for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and then linkage to community services, um, particularly health care services for those that test positive.

Um, we are working in the Fourth Street corridor three days a week right now.

Uh and since launching in April, 12 weeks ago, man, it's it's been a whirlwind.

Um, we've engaged more than 450 individuals out on the street.

We've enrolled 128 patients into our care.

We provided wound care to over 35 individuals and tested 103 individuals for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

Through those testings, we've identified 16 past hepatitis C infections and eight current hepatitis C infections.

And so that's about an 8% positivity rate, which is higher than the general population, of course.

So beyond medical services, we connect individuals to primary care, prenatal care, women's health services, behavioral health support, and crisis care.

We've also helped people access housing, employment resources, and then basic needs such as food, clothing, shoes, showers, and really at its core.

Street reach is meeting people where they are and responding to their most immediate needs.

This financial investment will significantly expand our reach and build upon the recent transfer of the mobile health and action clinic that you um so kindly transferred to us, um, as well as the provision of space that we are working on at the CARES campus through both our street-based and our mobile health and action clinic.

We'll be able to serve more areas around Washoe County, and we will be expanding our services.

Um, those services will include a psychiatric nurse practitioner, chronic disease management, preventive care, and then also oral health screenings with referrals to community dentists.

So we really deeply appreciate your support, your partnership, and your trust in our work.

This investment enables us to provide high quality, compassionate care to individuals who are too often left without access while advancing our shared goals in serving the needs of these uh people who are unsheltered in our county.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Penny Brock, followed by Verona Cortez.

Penny Brock for the record, addressing item number 14.

Let me tell you a story.

Observing all those hours, the subject came up.

What was planned for an observation area in the new department elections location.

I requested a meeting with assistant manager Ryan Gustafson for observer Robbie and me to meet with him and Andrew McDonald to find out if there were floor plans.

And if uh so we would like to see the floor plans.

It took two weeks, but it happened on June 16th after the commission meeting.

It was two o'clock to 245.

Only 45 minutes for that meeting.

Robbie and I arrived, but no Andrew McDonald.

Mr.

Gustison confirmed there were floor plans, but did not have a copy.

Chit chat talk click the clock was ticking to 245 when the meeting would end.

Andrew McDonald finally arrived, showed up late with no floor plans, clock ticking.

I asked Andrew where the floor plans were.

He said it was not legal for us to see the floor plans.

That was shocking as Nevada law under Nevada Law Public Records Act and our S239.

The Washoe County Elections Department is required to disclose existing compiled plans and records regarding space remodels and implementations.

I told Andrew that the floor plans were public information paid by taxpayers, and we had a right to see the floor plans.

Mr.

Gustison agreed.

More waiting, clock ticking to 245 meeting deadline.

Reggie Greer from the ROV office finally appeared with no floor plans, just a small copy.

We could hardly make out what the difference areas were we had to observe and where the observation room was.

It was pointed out the observation would be made from a long hallway outside the ballot processing room with work areas blocked by walls, which which meant lack of transparency, and also observers would not have chairs or counters for notebooks, binoculars, water bottles, and so on.

We would have to go from window to window to along the whole long hallway.

We expressed concern that observers and other stakeholders had not been included in the input on these floor plans, and there was no assurance, and we did not think there would be meaningful and trans transparent observation of the ballot processing room.

This is mandated under federal and state law.

Robbie and I both said the layout of the of these floor plans was unacceptable.

Then the elections manager attacked Robbie.

A heated exchange occurred.

It was shocking that behavior by our manager.

Was unprofessional to have him yelling and making false actions.

Thank you.

Veronica Cortez, followed by Donna Klantz.

I'm gonna set this here.

Good morning, Veronica Cortez for the record.

The lunch lady running for assembly district 27.

I brought my little book because we talked about the rodeo a little bit.

If you look down here, 1983, my dad used to get box seats ever since I was a child.

In fact, when uh I went to Virginia Palmer, that's my elementary school, and I was citizen of the week.

They asked me what did I want to be when I grow up, and I said, a cowgirl in a rodeo is my really only dream that I wanted to do.

And uh my dad never let us join any organized sports because you know we're ranchers and you want to run barrels, go to the field, or you want to go rope, we'll go rope in the field.

But you know, we did.

I did enjoy a lot of Reno Rodeo, and then I did become a barrel raiser with the Sierra Nevada Jim Kenneth Club.

So I do have my belt buckle that I proudly represent.

I did have a barrel horse, she passed now, but I did use to sell the programs outside the Reno Rodeo to raise money for our organization, which is a great organization.

You can get your kids in it, they can learn how to rodeo from a young age.

Um, and there's gonna be a kids' rodeo this Thursday and Friday at Rancho San Rafael, completely free.

It's gonna be hosted by the Valley Amigos, which is my foundation.

Um I realized that it goes from Jim Kenna to uh you got your junior rodeo, then you got your high school rodeo, you got your amateur rodeo, then you got your pro rodeo.

So I was actually amateur rodeo right before Pro, but broke my arm, had some stitches and a leg, and then I had a baby, and I was like, Well, maybe God wants me to just stop.

So I stopped with that.

But there was a group of kids that wanted to always join organizations and learn how to rodeo, and they just couldn't afford it because it takes a lot of money to do stuff like that.

So I founded the Valley Amigos, and proudly I can say that the top writer right now on the mutton bus and is from Valley Amigos, and we were training about a week before Mutton Bus.

And so Parker Cortez has a 96 right now, so very excited about that.

I do advocate for some valley, so I'm gonna talk about that a little bit.

Uh a little over a year ago around Mother's Day.

I had put a post out on Facebook and said, you know, we should really get rid of these ambulant vendors on the side of the street because we could collect money for them.

I mean, all our books are in the red, SVG ID, Washoe County.

Did do them a day permit for like a couple hundred bucks.

They have the money, then we got more money coming in.

I got backlash from the SVG ID, then I'm just creating problems.

I'm not gonna say who else was thought it was a terrible idea that I mentioned that.

Well, I'm not sure if you know, but there was a lady selling flowers on flat on Father's Day in Sun Valley.

Man walked up and shot her, and then shot himself right in front of the fruit truck, right outside the Mexican store.

Now, this is the second time that I'm advocating for Sun Valley about the unsafety of it.

It's not safe, and we want to hold these huge events.

The first food truck Thursday, people got mowed down in the crosswalk.

Rob Pierce on November 4th said, we need an agenda item clarifying the desired pattern of growth in Sun Valley.

Please get us that agenda item.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Donna Klantz.

Followed by Monty Turner.

Good morning, County Commissioners and County Manager.

My name's Donna Claunce, and I do a lot of work with our senior community all over our county.

I wanted to talk about a couple of things on your agenda today.

Uh, number 20, uh, the Hope Landing development that is uh listed there is something that we desperately need, and more of the same.

Homelessness is a major issue in our in our county because so many folks can't can't afford uh to pay rent or to even uh buy homes, uh, which is even harder to do.

About half of the folks who live in the CARES campus today are our seniors.

60 and up.

Um, it's close to that at all times.

Many of our seniors uh are living on fixed incomes, they've retired, they're not working anymore, and today's costs are rising, uh, and they're in trouble financially.

And so some of them are a paycheck away or a retirement check away or a social security check away from not being able to stay where they live right now.

And so they end up on the street.

So this this housing project is a wonderful thing, and I'm hoping to see more of the same.

Um the second thing I'm here to speak about is this uh is number 21, the uh ballot question on um uh asking folks about putting taxes on EVs and hybrids.

The uh ballot question on um uh asking folks about putting taxes on EVs and hybrids.

Um, my husband and I are recent owners of a hybrid.

Um, I think it's great that we start collecting some some funds for to keep our highways up for folks that are uh not buying much gas or not buying gas at all anymore from them from the gas tax.

I like the idea that earlier speakers talked about of finding a way to also um uh find a way to to get some income from folks using our roads that are just passing through that might not uh be uh paying taxes here in our community at all.

And um last of all, I want to raise something that we've talked about many times in the past.

Since 2009, I think the legislature gave our commission the ability to uh impose a supplemental um general services tax, GST of one percent uh per dollar on all of us just by a vote of our board.

It hasn't been something that our our board of commissioners have wanted to do, but it would allow for for um collecting.

I think the last time math was done, it was 15, 16 million dollars a year that could be used for any service or need that our county has.

It wouldn't be just roads or housing, it could be whatever the commission believes are are the greatest needs, and so I I ask you all to take a look at that again.

It's something that you have the power to do, all five of you, and I'm hoping to see that happen soon.

Um, we have such needs in our county for services to support all ages of our folks, whether it be our our school district kids or our seniors at the other end of the age continuum.

So um thank you.

Monty Turner, followed by Matt Bueller.

Okay, Monty Churn, for the record.

I live in Sun Valley, I've been around my whole life.

Now, this gas tax thing is really bothering me.

So the other day, I have a big 85 Peter built, holds 250 gallons of fuel.

I drove to Middlegate the a couple weeks ago, come back.

It was 300, 300 to drive the middle of the gate and back.

Uh, and it's an antique truck, it doesn't haul anything, it does, it just does shows.

So one of the things I'd like to propose, we need to can this because the other night I got a phone call, lady in Susanville, her horse fell.

They couldn't get anybody else to haul it.

So I had to race from Reno in the middle of the night at four o'clock in the morning to Susanville to grab this horse, drag it into a vet to basically put it down, grab her trailer, take it back.

I felt so sorry for 900 this morning.

900.

Uh, there's no relief.

So I can't afford it.

Nobody, I mean, most retired people here can't afford it.

So a lady down the street ran out of gas.

So I had some gas from my generator, gave it to her and ask what happened.

She can't afford gas.

She can't afford to go get medication.

She can't go for anything.

Nobody will come to her house.

You can't you can't get any deliveries or anything anymore.

It's crazy unless it's a pizza.

So what I would propose is let's do an alcohol tax.

Let's do gaming tax, let's do taxes on other things and forget the gas tax.

Ditch it.

I mean, the dollar something would be a lot to me right now.

But just ditch it.

And that would make total sense.

I mean, everybody comes here and drinks.

So the big thing I have is everybody talks about Tesla's and everything else.

What about the guys like me that drive out of town?

19 miles, I paid road tax.

The rest of it was out of state.

That doesn't work for me.

That doesn't.

We're gonna go to trucky.

I mean, I have to I pay road tax in California all the time.

And I'm paying it out in Nevada.

Does it make sense?

I'm I'm getting fuel here and I'm coming back getting fuel here.

So I don't understand why I'm paying the taxes both ways.

And there's no way to ditch that.

And I'm like look at these other trucking companies, the dirt haulers that have to run to California, get cobalt and stuff like that, and bring it back in, other things.

Then the other thing I need to change subjects real quick.

We got a bunch of apartments coming in behind my house, and we like to have a wall put up because these people we're already dropping rocks.

I wash a truck ten minutes later at three o'clock in the morning.

You couldn't even tell I washed it.

It's that bad.

My wife took her car down, had a wash it, drove it in, sat there for 10 minutes, you can't tell we washed your car.

The dust is horrible.

It's just horrible up there.

It's not safe to breathe or anything else.

And we have we have commit Commissioner Garcia knows about our fire hazards around there.

For the last week, we've been smelling smoke all around my house.

So we think the neighbors got something going on with his trees where it's getting to be spontaneous combustion.

The guy down below me is there's smoke coming up from his house.

That catches it's game over.

We're gonna lose a whole neighborhood right now.

There's nothing nobody can do.

My house is gonna burn with my truck and everything else.

Nice, right?

Thank you so much.

Hopefully, this gets to somebody.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Matt Bueller.

Good morning, Commissioners.

I'm Matt Bueller, a retired 22-year career Air Force veteran, 30-year legal resident of the great state of Nevada, and a 19-year Washoe County resident.

I'm here today to ask this commission why they certified the 2026 Washoe County primary election results when there were so many egregious irregularities.

I understand that 15,000 or more legal residents did not receive their ballots in the mail, as is mandated by the NRS.

How uh could any um how could you deny excuse me?

How could you deny so many for that matter any legal writer voter the right to vote in this election?

You may say that they had the opportunity to go to the polls.

However, didn't three of the five of you dictate through your political affiliation that every registered voter in Nevada receives a mail ballot unless they personally opt out.

You made the rules.

Now you want to step them back after the fact when the results are not in your favor.

As a veteran, it is an front to my dedication and service to you, this community, Nevada, our great nation, and indeed all who have honorably served.

It is wrong that these taxpaying citizens were denied the opportunity to participate in this election under the rules that you enacted.

May I propose that these disenfranchised citizens file a class action lawsuit against the three of you, Washoe County, and the state of Nevada to have their property tax waived or perhaps paid for by you for the 2026 through 2028 election cycle, as I think this to be a better alternative than to dumping tea into Virginia Lake or the Sparks Marina.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have no one else signed in.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we'll go ahead and close public comment and we'll move now to item six, commissioners and county manager announcements.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

This is item number six, and it includes reports and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

Do you have anything?

No, thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Okay.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Commissioner Herman.

Do you have anything?

I can't uh, I'm not sure if I'm on.

I can hear we can all hear you actually.

Okay, fine.

Okay, good.

I don't have anything.

Okay, thank you.

Um I'd like to ask Manager Thomas if you would be so kind to talk about the announcement given in terms of the emergency declaration that we'll soon be um hearing specifically in relationship to the activity that occurred in terms of presentation from the Board of Fire County uh for Board of Fire Commissioners earlier, and what we heard from Chief Edwards at the beginning of this meeting.

So appreciate it.

Sure.

Yeah, um, just by way of information, we formally the county I signed it, the clerk signed it.

You'll be ratifying.

Uh we declared a local emergency in response to the impacts of the flash floods that we experienced on the 19th of June this year.

The severity of the incident exceeded our local response and resource capabilities, and so in those instances, um, we do when conditions continue to pose a significant threat to the safety and the health and the welfare of our residents.

We formally declare an emergency so we can seek um retribution for those resources.

So we will be hearing the ratification of that item on Friday.

But we thank you.

I'll we'll put that on the record.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, hearing.

Did you remember?

Okay, Commissioner Hill.

I I remembered.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh I I did want to just make sure that the board knew in the community that we have another appointment for the library coming up.

Um, that we have a resignation.

So we'll be, I'm not sure when that will be agendized, but I think we're just gonna use the slate that we already have received, and um, I just wanted to make sure the community knew that we'll have another appointment coming up.

So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, hearing no other announcements or comments, we're gonna close item six and move to item seven presentations.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

We are joined this morning by Taylor Adams.

He's the president and CEO of EDON, the Academic Development Authority of Western Nevada, and he's here to give us an annual update.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh good morning, Madam Chair, members of the commission, uh, manager Thomas, and and all those that are with us today.

Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the commission, manager Thomas and all those that are with us today.

It's so uh it's so great to be with you.

Um let's see.

I think we have a presentation that the team submitted.

Yeah.

Well, while we're there, I will I'd like to uh if I could take a quick moment of liberty.

Uh and also, by the way, for the record, my name's Taylor Adams.

It's for the clerk, but uh, and I'm the chief executive of the economic development authority of Western Nevada.

But uh, but before we get started, oh here's our presentation.

I do want to acknowledge my good friend Bill Thomas who sits on our board and and uh not that we take uh we take position, we do see a great deal of merit to what's coming uh coming before this commission later in the day.

We think that the that uh that all of our public systems require everyone's support.

And so we we we appreciate your consideration of what's coming and think that uh uh certainly on behalf of our organization, we think there's a lot of com common sense in making sure that we're able to care for our infrastructure going forward.

Um as we look forward uh for the members of the community that are with us today that may not know what we are.

What is the economic development authority of Western Nevada?

We're we're a public-private partnership.

We were we were established uh just over 43 years ago.

Um the uh most recently uh in the Sandoval administration, our framework was somewhat changed.

And so in the present, uh I like to say about 30 percent of our revenue comes from public agencies.

This year it's 26 percent.

Uh it's important to know that Washoe County is a contributor to that uh through a services agreement that we that we negotiate every year.

The majority of that funding comes from the governor, where we do the we do our work by contract with the governor's office of economic development.

The rest of our revenues are raised in the private sector every year, and that that represents the 70 percent that you see on the screen.

And we are committed to growing um and maintaining a vibrant and sustainable economy in northern Nevada.

Um our team, business attraction is what most people know us for.

It's actually about about 23 percent of our work this year.

Uh business expansion and the retention of our existing businesses, that is the majority of our work.

That is where we work with with uh with northern Nevada companies to ensure that they are able to grow here and expand here.

What I like to say is if the promises that we make to the companies that we're bringing here aren't also true for the companies that are here, then all of our systems are broken.

So we spend a lot of work trying to ensure that our existing businesses have the resources they need to succeed, and then also entrepreneurial development.

We think that we think that that our free markets uh in many ways are dependent on entrepreneurial activity, but more importantly, it's the it is still the gateway to living the American dream for so many of our families, and so we want to make sure that there are vast opportunities for uh for creating and growing businesses here here in in northern Nevada.

Now, often get questions about who do you work with?

Well, EDON works exclusively in the commercial and industrial economy.

We don't specifically work in in retail.

Our friends at the chamber do an exceptional job of caring for that community, but we work in the commercial and industrial economy.

In addition to these teams, obviously we have we have operations functions and investor relations and marketing and then in operations.

What did the last year look like?

So um, and and also you'll recognize this format.

I want to, if I can take a quick moment, I want to commend our marketing team.

We're always trying to make things look a little better and a little more interesting for you.

And so this is this is the first time we are rolling out this version of uh of our work.

And so um, which you can see here, I always like to start before we show show charts with with with just a listing of of the data behind it.

So the these are companies that chose us last year, along with the jobs they brought and the capital investment that they're making in our region.

Um as we continue, and and this is by the way, this is this is a combination of all three of those uh of those buckets that we showed you a minute ago of an of it of uh investor attraction or excuse me, business attraction, retention expansion, and then entrepreneurial development.

What does that look like by industry?

You can see here 12 projects in advanced manufacturing.

For us, that's really important because when when we talk about advanced manufacturing, and really also for uh for logistics and distribution, we're talking about employee heavy functions.

And so what's great about this, these are companies that are creating jobs for our community that are tra creating opportunities for our citizens.

It's interesting.

If you look back just 15 years, uh about I think the number at that point was five out of every 10 uh sort of uh group of young people that that finished their education here, left Nevada to have the career that they wanted.

Because of the expansion of manufacturing and logisticians and things and operate, and I was I was so glad to see uh to see our our uh um to see our trade groups represented earlier.

Obviously, uh the 4,000 members of the uh of the uh International Brotherhood of Electricians and Welders 401 make up a healthy portion of our economy now.

And so what's wonderful is now we fast forward to the present.

We want to we wanna see that number get to 10 of 10, because these are our children and our grandchildren.

But uh, but obviously the incremental work here matters, and we see that in manufacturing and logistics and distribution.

We're all we're also seeing that we're becoming a location for tech to locate.

Now, everybody thinks what is that that means data centers.

Important to know I am not talking about data centers.

Um, certainly data centers are finding their way to northern Nevada, but that is not what's represented here.

What's represented here in the tech and IT space are great companies, and I'll I'll back up companies like Send Cut Send uh as well, uh Future Forum Manufacturing, Ampersand that's on this list.

These are great manufacturing companies that just happen to be in the tech space.

And so uh, and and what's what's great in the case of one of those companies uh uh just achieved a billion dollar valuation this year, and that's right here.

And so what's what does that mean?

So we got a company in America with uh or really anywhere anywhere in the world that achieves a billion dollar valuation is called a unicorn.

In the entirety of our history, we had one of those prior to this year.

That one, of course, was Tesla when they came here in 2017.

We we had two homegrown companies achieve that this year, Positron being one, and then the other being SENCUTSEN.

So an incredible step forward for our economy and the maturity of uh of our economy for our community.

As we look forward, one of the things I I hear a lot is well, everything, every every company that's coming here is coming from California.

There's no doubt California is a big part of our pipeline.

We um if you were if you are a tech manufacturer in Silicon Valley, it's really difficult to uh to scale and expand uh in those communities.

And that's not meant to be a political conversation, that's about the cost of real estate and all of the inputs that go into development decisions.

We find we find that the cost of our real estate, our our low tax environment, um our uh our appropriate and responsible regulatory environment allow us to be a preferred destination for those companies because we also happen to be closest to them.

And so as a result that we still see uh inbound traffic in the industrial space from California.

But it's important to know if you look every every state that you see on this map that is that is shaded in as a place where we have seen a deal come to us from in the last two years.

So important to know that Nevada is not just a preferred destination uh for uh for companies west of us.

We're a preferred destination for the throughout the United States, and you can see here in that second bullet that we had companies from uh from three different continents pick us last year.

So really excited.

We're a preferred global destination as we look forward.

And I went and I'd be remiss if I didn't thank uh uh Madam Chair and members of the commission, um, you for your role in ensuring that we continue to be that.

So thank you so much for continuing to ensure that we're we are a great place to locate uh a business and to hire people and employ people.

Um looking at our performance, this a little this just a little bit of granularity about what what we showed you in those three books in those three buckets and business attraction.

We closed 17 projects last year, just over 800 jobs, 500 million um plus in capital investment.

That was off of 2008, 284 leads, 155 site visits.

What does that mean?

There were 155 um companies, more than 10 a month and all-time high for the community uh that visited uh northern Nevada while trying to make a real estate decision around growing a business here.

And then thanks to the to the great work of our real estate developers, we saw just less than five million square feet of new industrial space delivered to our region.

So an exciting trend, because that five million that five million square feet, that of course represents tax base, and that is how we're able to continue and uh continue providing um for the for the needs of our community as we look forward in business retention and expansion.

We work directly with 385 companies last year, and that's why I say this is the vast majority of our work.

Uh, this is new, this is sort of a new area.

We we've always been in this in this space, but we really expanded our focus.

When I got here three years ago, we were we were we had two people doing this work.

We we were seeing about 140 companies a year.

Problem is there are about 700 uh companies as as in RS defined them as primary companies in our region alone.

So we set a goal to get from that number to uh two six hundred.

So we and uh in my first year, we did two fifty this past year that we we're closing out our fiscal year right now, just as you are.

Uh we'll do four, we'll do just over 400 this year.

Our goal for next year is 500.

And then as we work into the following year, we're gonna see we're gonna we're gonna set a trend of seeing of meeting with 600 uh Nevada uh Northern Nevada primary companies every year.

As you can imagine, that's good.

That's that has revealed a great deal of work for us.

The 385 that we work with directly this year, uh we were able to um uh to organically add, or uh, or excuse me, we were able to assist them in adding uh 800 and 877, so just less than 900 jobs.

And when I say that assisted jobs, those are jobs that will be added um in the coming year or 24 months.

687 jobs that were created organically.

We think this is a great number because this is these are companies that we didn't really help.

Uh it's impossible for not everybody needs our help, but we want to make sure that the great stories that happen in northern Nevada are told.

And so what's great is almost an equal number of jobs were created by companies just from their own success, which is a tremendous story, and it really speaks to the strength of our economy that just less than 700 jobs that that we found were just created by businesses that were growing here and finding success.

Uh and then collectively, what we saw is about 200 million in new capital investment from our existing industry.

That's a really powerful number.

Because you got to remember if they're in that if they're in our existing industry, they've already made an incredible investment in our community.

And so to double down on that investment and do it again and to pick us again over every other community in the world is a really powerful thing for our economy, and it's a really aspirational moment for us that I don't want to miss.

So thank you again for your support, ensuring that we were successful delivering that.

And entrepreneurial development, maybe the best year that we've ever.

Doug Irwin, who who you all know, who leads this group, uh, senior vice president that leads entrepreneurial development for us, is working to quantify this for me right now.

When we saw these numbers, I said, Doug, this has got to be the best we've ever seen.

He goes, I think it is.

I said, Well, you know, we we we need to know.

And so Doug is is is shoring this up for me as we speak.

Like I say, this is the first time we're running with these numbers as we're at the end of our fiscal year as well.

But 950 million dollars in venture funding coming into our economy in a single year.

That's not an that's not a multi, that's not a multi uh period number.

That is this year we saw that kind of money get invested in our startups.

What there's I promise you, New York City would like to have that number.

There is nobody in the country that uh that wouldn't love to have a billion dollars in venture capital flow into their community in a year, particularly if you population and your population adjusts that.

I mean, this it's that is a really special year for us.

This group, uh the three employees that do us, they worked in addition to everything which you that you've seen on the prior slides, worked with 300 founders to uh to help them start and live their version of the American dream.

We saw 18 of those startups funded.

That's the that and so if you spread the 950 million out, that's spread over just 18 companies.

It's really really, really exciting.

There were 46 startups that we saw created through one through through either you know the funding that we're talking about there or uh just families that were just bootstrapping it themselves, living the American dream.

And then 89 jobs were created around this activity.

Um and and here's what I love.

I I wouldn't let the 89 jobs think, well, that doesn't sound like much.

You got to remember on these are young companies on day one, it could be it could be a couple that are that are that are just getting started.

It could be this could be two founders that have been working out of a garage like like Microsoft did in the early days, who got some money and now have two jobs.

What's great about this, these are the companies that will create the future for us.

And more importantly, it is it's kind of our best future because it is definitively for it, it is for us by us.

This these are the businesses that embrace the cultural pillars that that make up the greatness of northern Nevada.

And so these 89 jobs in a single year could likely mean thousands of jobs 10 years from now, because these are folks that are just getting started.

So really excited.

We uh really really, really happy with the way that this that this year played out.

So what's next for us?

Um, we're if you look, we're we're we're in the space, uh, we think that this next year includes a lot of uh of advanced manufacturing opportunity.

That is what we're seeing in our pipeline.

Energy generation is really important.

Why is it important?

I mentioned data centers earlier, and I and I I want to say um we think that compute and data are a really important part of the future of our community because um because data centers are like digital parking lots.

And and and if you think about why do we build parking around our businesses?

Because parking unlocks opportunity around it.

So we believe that that's true of data centers as well.

We've seen that play out across the country.

However, you will see our organization be the first to admit that nothing should happen without some, there's no use that should happen in any community without some regulation, without full understanding of the impacts that that industry has on the surrounding uses and more importantly on the resident base that's there.

So where we fully support this industry, we e we equally and with full threaded support believe that it's important that we have common sense regulations that governs its use within within our jurisdiction and really throughout the entirety of the state.

That said, one of the things that we do know is we do know that compute uses are energy intensive.

And so we don't want to wait for us to figure out what the right set is.

Our organization is actively working to bring new generation into our communities now, uh that is appropriately located so that it's not adversely affecting our our residents, but so that we can so that we are an active participant in safeguarding uh the uh the electric rate and and more importantly the uh the the cost of living for our community.

So so when you see energy generation, I spent about half of my time right now uh working on that to ensure that that we're that even before regulation comes down the pike, that we are doing what we should responsibly be doing to get to be a good community partner for this jurisdiction and for all the others that we serve.

We feel the same about water.

I mean, uh we're so fortunate to have great partners in uh uh a great partner in John Zimmerman at Tom Wall.

I know that many of you serve on serve on his board, and we're and we're we're also fully read into the work that's being done done there to ensure that we're safeguarding water uses as we go forward as well.

Tech is the last thing I'll mention here.

Forgive that little that little bit of a ramble, but um but tech is the last thing that we're working on and and and why tech?

Because tech and manufacturing we're finding are coming together and touching in in northern Nevada right now.

Most of the manufacturing that we're seeing has a high tech component, and this is really built off of the success that we had from Tesla from Redwood Materials and many others like them that have come over the last 10 years.

We're now we're now focusing to ensure, as we now have a critical mass of uh of employees in our region that know how to work in these companies, that we're continuing to provide great opportunities for uh for both uh employment growth but also career growth for our resident population as we look forward.

That is all I have.

I thank you for the time, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

Well, I wonder another stat that might be interesting is you're a small but mighty team.

I wonder what per person you all generate in terms of the benefit to our community.

That's amazing.

Um I've only been here close to 40 years, and I can tell you these numbers are off the charts.

Thank you, madam chair.

We're actually so one of the things my team, I it was not quite ready for today.

We we saw a draft of it, but we it wasn't something we could fully defend as we're still sort of fact-checking ourselves.

But one of the things that we will be um uh bringing to you all and and sharing is um some true fiscal impact data based purely on on net new real estate tax generated in the jurisdiction.

We think that's a powerful number to bring you.

I wanted to have it for today, but we weren't quite there yet.

But but in the next two weeks, uh I hope to provide it.

But thank you for that.

Thank you so much.

Of course.

Well, we'll be looking forward to it.

I'm gonna open up to questions.

I have a couple, but I'm gonna actually go first to Commissioner Herman.

Do you have any questions, Commissioner Herman?

No, just a wonderful presentation.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Great.

And then I'm gonna open up to Vice Chair who sits on the EDON board.

So I'd like to make sure that you're recognized for that as well.

Those are some early meetings, Taylor.

Yes, they are.

They're great meetings, and thank you again for your annual report and your leadership.

Um, I really would like to go back to the entrepreneurial development slide.

Uh, you really leaned into the statistics on that, but I think this is really such an exciting slide that often gets overlooked when we talk about the impacts and the um the change that EDON is having on our community.

And the reason why is you know, we know that the US is among the top countries in the world for innovation and entrepreneurship.

That's what we're known for.

And I think EDON leaning really into that with that small and mighty team of yours.

Um have just generated such tremendous results in such a short amount of time.

I remember when the the board, the commission approved 150,000 um ARPA grant to EDON for startup week, and uh we recognized early on, I don't think we were on the board, it got um implemented.

I think my first year that I was on the board, um, but we've been very curious and interested in helping bolster and strengthen that entrepreneurial spirit that is happening here in in our county uh because we know when we invest in the pipeline in the workforce and we we put dollars and support behind that innovation and entrepreneurship, only amazing things will happen when we create that healthy ecosystem.

So is there anything else on the horizon in terms of this team and what they're doing?

And uh, I mean, they've knocked it out of the park already, but what is their long-term vision?

Um, as we start up so many startups, what's the sustainability of that small team in in making sure that those startups continue to have resources, or do you have a community partner that you kind of hand them off to, or they just kind of incubated here and then let to fly away.

So uh so first uh uh commissioner, thank you for the thank you for the question.

Also, thank you, uh thank you for your service on our board.

Uh we we and those are early meetings, and but but I have to tell you I I especially love it uh that and and the community may not know, but uh uh Commissioner Garcia's children enjoy my meeting, and I don't know why or how, but it's but it's uh it's wonderful uh when uh uh you know a a few times a couple of times a year if they're not in school that that they will come to the meeting just to hear the conversation.

It's so great to have them there.

So thank you.

And and thank you for acknowledging entrepreneurial development because also it's important to know this is by a long shot the most diverse group of business owners that we work with.

And so we and so when I talk about the American dream, I can't uh we really mean it.

I mean, we mean it across all of our work, but it's so applicable in entrepreneurial development because this is where we see opportunity for so many of our citizens who maybe haven't had it before.

And so this is this is uh uh as we look forward, we and I'll quote Doug with this.

So uh Doug uh who has built our this part of our portfolio uh on day one, uh I think he's been with us 14 years now.

Wow, started with an entrepreneur first mentality, and we built all of our program around that.

And and Startup Week's a great example.

What we what we've learned about Startup Week is it's more than we can do by ourselves.

So this is maybe the most inclusive part of our work.

And so this is where we work with a broad consortium of community resources as you know, to ensure that we can put the right resource in front of the right founder in the right moment.

The College of William and Mary for the city of Richmond, Virginia in 2011 did a piece of research that first defined an entrepreneurial ecosystem, or that first defined the cyclonic effect of uh of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that showed a founder standing on the ground with like a a cyclone above them and all of these inputs.

Access to capital is uniform, uh, but uh but acts whether it's access to capital, mentoring, joint venturing, you know, initial opportunity, um, is it uh connection to to um business process outs from by that I mean an outsourced five uh sort of finance function or HR function or things of that nature.

And it's our our job to sort of try to pull the right pieces out of the cyclone and get them to the to the founder in the moment.

And so it's important that this is this is already work that's bigger than just the our team.

And uh as we look forward, we think that we'll see more of that.

What's really exciting in the present, we uh we're seeing a lot of young companies coming to us and c or a lot of young founders coming to us from California to and from other parts of the country to sort of grow and scale.

Secondarily, uh there is an abundance of of wealth that is finding its way to the Nevada side of the lake, and I'll just place that there without making a with without making a further statement.

We're what's interesting is we're finding that that wealth has fairly broad expertise in tech and is willing to invest in our community when those opportunities are in front of them.

And so we we believe that tech uh and tech manufacturing will continue to be the healthy portion of what we're seeing in entrepreneurial development.

We've got a little work to do on the employee side of that.

Right now, we don't have enough people in the region working in these specific places today to add adequately staff up without pulling from other parts of the country.

So we're working with the University of Nevada right now and Truckee Meadows Community College and the Washoe County School District, many others to sort of ensure that we're shoring this place up.

But we or um but we believe if we can solve the employee side of this, that there's fairly vast opportunity ahead ahead of us in in tech startup tech funding and then tech scale.

Yeah, the the quote on your website, a small town feel with the big city benefits rings true to what we've built here.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you.

Great presentation.

Thank you so much.

Uh I mean, I commend you and your team.

The rest of the state is having a hard time, and Northern Nevada is booming, and that's a lot of the work of the team and just relentless work uh to ensure that people want to come to Nevada.

I'm just curious when you're talking to the folks who choose not to locate here, even though we have a lot of benefits to come here, um, economic development benefits in our state.

What do you hear from them uh specifically, like what are the top three reasons that they choose not to come to Washoe County or Story County?

Sure.

So um so the most common reason that we lose is um we we lose to uh to bigger communities um that have that have a little more uh I'll just say that have have a little more capital to throw at a deal.

So and and and by that I mean and actual cash instead of yes, that's that's right.

And and and this really isn't isn't even about abatements and incentives.

This is just the the reality of sort of um when you look at communities in the southeast.

Um so uh I'm compete I'm competing with Huntsville, Alabama right now.

It's gonna we're there's a great deal that we really we really want to finish.

It's gonna be Huntsville or it's going to be us.

What's interesting there is the uh the community there and and recognize there are the way that that these types of incentives are calculated is you you add up all the taxes that the company would pay, you project them out over 10 years, and then you give a piece of them back.

The thing about Nevada is we can't give you a tax that doesn't exist.

And so uh so it's important to know when when I say that that people are throwing cash at a deal, what they're doing is they're basically giving and it uh call it an advance against taxes that that company will pay.

In our state, those taxes don't exist.

So in the place where we can where we can help the company understand, hey, yeah, that's right, they're gonna give you they're gonna do a little something for you for 10 years.

But here, that levy doesn't exist.

You're never gonna have to pay it.

We win.

The the challenge though is sometimes a company needs that that cash to secure to make their deal financial, because oftentimes it can count as equity with a bank.

And so this has been a this has been a reality of the last two years where rates have remained high and uncertainty has remained high in the market and and other inputs.

I mean, we I think I think we have to acknowledge the fact that that we thought we thought fuel and the 10-year treasury was on a downward trajectory.

Um you know, a little incident in Iran has put all that on pause.

And uh, and as that's wrapping up, we hope that uh we hope that I mean we're seeing fuel, we're trying we're seeing oil try to retreat retreat now.

We're hoping that trend continues.

We would love to see the 10-year treasury now fall in line with it as well.

It's an important thing to know.

Um, that's also gonna be a critical part of of seeing new housing starts and seeing people start buying homes again, is we need that 10-year treasury to come down because that's where mortgage and that's where mortgage rates are locked.

So one, I'm I if I lose I lose on that, too, is um I I lose on people because we're uh because we've not had nearly as much churn in uh particularly in owner-occupied housing as we as as we would have liked to have had.

We've not seen as many housing starts as we would have liked to have had.

Now, I want to say in defense of our residential development community, um, the market has not been right for that given given the stickiness in the 10-year Treasury and and the Fed holding rates high as long as they did.

The Fed is trying to lower where again because of this war, we're hearing they may have to raise raise rates again, which could which would create a pause on that.

But I mean, it's important to know the uh the Federal Reserve was on a trend to lower rates.

The 10-year treasury didn't move because of uncertainty of the market.

But we do, as we look forward, we do see the market in the coming in the coming quarters returning to its normal tr trajectory.

And at that point, we we believe we can solve this too.

Uh the the third one would just be we're we a lot of the communities we we compete with are are close to other large or you know, sort of dense urban areas.

And we are not, which great.

We we're sort of a state with we're the standalone community that is self-sustaining, which is which is incredible for us.

But if you are if you are shipping goods anywhere, um dependent it can be a long run to get them there from here.

Uh if if you're on the east coast, you can access 70% of the United States population by one day's truck from wherever you are.

We don't we don't have that kind of density.

However, we are the preferred place to basically to access the other 20%.

And so I do think you'll see is as companies continue to expand and continue to grow this way.

I think we will continue to win.

This is just where we need to make sure that we've got our eye on the ball so that we continue to be competitive with more ahead of markets like uh like Salt Lake, like Boise, and like some of our colleagues south.

Thank you.

That was a great explanation.

Very interesting.

I didn't even expect that.

And then um I think other than that.

That's it.

That's all we got.

Thank you.

Well, thanks.

Well, this is what happens when you have wonderful colleagues you serve up, because they asked all my questions.

So I was gonna ask about barriers and wanted to highlight the startup week.

And um, but I do really appreciate you uh coming.

It was a great presentation.

I really am hopeful to look at that fiscal impact and what that looks like, not only what you've done, but also what those projections, especially with you looking at the visits of 600, right?

And trying to really reach uh a stretch goal that you've established.

And so I think it would be um really helpful to keep us informed and we appreciate all of the hard work and you do have a small but mighty team, so please thank them as well.

I certainly should have thank you all so much for the time today.

It's been wonderful to be with you.

Thank you.

All right, we'll go ahead and close out item 7a1 and move to 7a2.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you.

We are joined today by the Washoe County Public Guardian, Tracy Bowles.

She's here to discuss updates to the public guardians department data, innovative solutions to current challenges and department successes.

Welcome, Ms.

Bowl.

Thank you, Manager Thomas.

Uh, good morning.

Madam Chair and members of the commission.

I'm here to uh give you our annual update and just share a few facts.

Um I had no idea that I had so much in common with EDON.

That uh metaphor with the cyclone just circling above you.

That's kind of how I feel for our staff.

We get protected persons who come in with a cyclone of information circling above them, and it is our job to pull all of that out of the ethos and organize their lives and put it back on track.

So uh that was a great metaphor, Mr.

Adams shared.

Um so we do have a presentation too.

I'm uh stalling for time, so it gets up there.

Uh, but I'm here to, we'll have just our normal facts and figures that we'll kind of go through.

Um, as you know, Washoe County has a mission of a safe and healthy community, and the public guardians office is just a small part of that.

We currently serve for about 300 individuals, and our mission is to uh be appointed by the second judicial district court for individuals who lack capacity.

Um, those individuals can be from the ages of 18 all the way up to however they can, however long they can survive.

So um our oldest person with us currently is in her 90s, and uh, we have had some individuals in their 100s recently um in the last year.

So it looks like we're loading.

There we go.

That is me.

This is our mission that I just told you about.

We do a provide uh do provide a variety of services that look a lot like case case management, but they're quite different in terms of the fact that we are mostly making decisions for our protected persons.

Um we are a staff of 20, uh including myself.

We have three fiscal staff, we have three administrative staff, we have 11 guardian case managers, and we have two guardian supervising case managers who supervise that work, and our authority is gained under NRS 159 and 253, and then um anything contained within titles 12 and 13 of the Nevada revised statutes.

Uh we do follow a guiding principle of the standards of ethics that are created by the National Guardianship Association.

Um I spoke to you last year about these different standards, so I think you're kind of versed on some of those things.

One of the things I also wanted to point out this year is that we also uh the Center for Guardianship certification is a certifying organization that certifies guardians in their individual work.

We have six certified guardians.

Uh, we used to have one, um, which was the public guardian in the past, and then our supervisors would become certified as well.

So we added those to our ranks, and in the last couple of years, we've incentivized promotion in our department by being certified.

And so we now have three additional certified uh case managers in our department, and I think that is amazing.

The Center for Guardianship is also looking at an agency certification as well in the future, and we are in discussions with them about the benefits of agencies actually gets getting certified nationally.

So a few uh these are some of our um where our referrals come from.

Uh these are the ages of our clients, excuse me.

Um, most of our our clients, as you will notice, are over the age of 65.

We do have kind of that growing portion of our clients that are still between 40 and 65.

Those are our really very difficult to place.

Those are individuals who come with a lot of housing challenges, and for the most part, come into our services um being homeless.

So that's something I always like to highlight for the commission.

We didn't have an uptick in our new cases over the last year, but what we did notice was that we had a lot of our folks are surviving a little longer.

And so the overall caseload increased this year.

So it went from 277 to 302.

And I mentioned, I think last year while I was here or earlier in the year, I mentioned that this is our the highest caseload that we've actually ever seen in our office at the public guardian's office since its inception.

As you know, we haven't added any more staff, so those caseload ratios are just climbing.

And due to some other things like FMLA and things like that, some of those individual caseloads then continue to go even higher.

So our average right now is about 30 cases per person.

As you can see, these are our caseload numbers across.

I just wanted to compare from last year in June 2025 to this year, June of 2026.

You'll see that those case numbers have dramatically increased.

So we were even the numbers on the side there.

So some of our case managers are carrying almost 50 clients, but I want to tell you about why they're carrying more cases and what we've done this year.

So before you get too alarmed.

These are our state management numbers.

If you've you'll notice that these have actually gone down in the last year, these are in large part due to us finding other practitioners in our community that can take cases where there is a lot of money.

Those don't need to sit with the public guardian's office if there are funds that can provide for other guardianship services.

We are finding partners in our community community and making those referrals and going to court and asking for those guardianships to then be served by somebody else.

So I think that helps us limit the liability in our county when we can find those cases that have that wealth that can then pay for itself, those services.

And so I bring those to you today.

And our inventories, those have gone up in terms of timeliness.

This you'll see has come the inventories are actually improving because of the structural changes that we've made within our agency.

But our reporting time frames are still quite challenging for our annual reports.

And I'm going to talk to you about a project that we explored this year to perhaps help with this as well.

So these are things that we asked for last year.

We we talked about these challenges that we had considered considering our budget, considering the fact that we're not adding new staff.

We try talked about we wanting to streamline reporting and paperwork burdens, and we talked about wanting to work on those terminations and getting those out of our office as quickly as we can.

We talked about simplifying policies and procedures to make it easier for our staff to negotiate their work, and we we talked about fostering more teamwork in our office in order to get the job done.

And we also talked about engaging private providers and family members to take over those guardianships.

So I've already shared with you kind of the outcome of our engaging private guardians in our community, and we're gonna talk about how we've achieved many of these things in the projects in these upcoming slides.

So in July last year, we set about doing an internal audit in our department.

We really dug in very deeply to find out where are our strengths, where are our challenges, who's doing the work, who's struggling to do the work.

And we so we got some really great data on our department in terms of how we're doing overall.

Unfortunately, some of that data also said we were really struggling.

We were struggling to manage the work that we are tasked with on a daily basis.

And as a result, we we talked about that internally, and I had two senior case managers who came forward and wanted to propose an idea about how we could change how we do the work.

And I am one of those people that I believe good ideas come from everywhere and really encourage that.

So we sat down, we had conversations about how that would look, what challenges that might bring, what we would need to do to make this successful to kind of change the organization of our office.

And we wanted to give it a try.

So we entered into a pilot program for the year.

Uh, we decided we would, after we did this audit, we would do some shutdown work, we would clean up, we would try to get our business in order so that moving forward, people were faced with more clean slates to do the work that we're doing.

And we hoped that the outcome of this project would have would strengthen our documentation and our reporting, and which helps strengthen the accountability of the public guardian's office.

We hope that it would streamline the work efficiency of our case managers, and we hope that it would enhance teamwork within the office.

People would be working more together.

And we hoped that we would be able to provide a similar level of service, despite the rising caseloads that we have.

So we separated our work.

Normally our work is done, a case manager is assigned to a single person.

That case manager does a lot of investigative tasks at the beginning to try to get to know who that person is.

And then they meet the person, they go out to the person, they follow them, they set them up with resources, they uh do a lot of things that help them to meet the needs of the protected person, but they're very different tasks.

Some of them are very financially driven tasks, and some of them are very um are very people-driven tasks.

And so what we decided to do is really separate those tasks.

Let's give our people-oriented people, people tasks and our more investigative, financially oriented people, financial tasks, and investigative tasks.

So we decided what individuals would do, and in this way, we hope that that workflow would be very uh would be would be different in the sense that the investigative and the financially oriented staff are mostly in the office.

It is mostly desk work.

They're sitting there making phone calls, returning phone calls, and doing that work.

But our people-oriented tasks are in the field.

And so it's really challenging to have to stop what you're doing to find resources to pay for a placement, but also go out and see your person and make sure that they're safe and okay and getting everything that they need.

So we separated these tasks, we defined those boundaries for each of our staff.

We worked throughout the year, updating our policies and procedures to make sure that staff had clear information.

We had multiple meetings to find out how it's going, what's working, what's not working, and we kind of pivoted and made changes when we felt like those needed to happen based on our staff feedback.

So the outcomes of this project, we really feel like we have improved documentation consistency and compliance.

We are auditing these monthly, and so we know exactly when the documentation is getting in and who is doing the work and how quickly it's getting in there.

We have reports of faster completion of priority tasks, those marshalling of resources, which are critical to pay for services, to obtain placements for individuals, um, to marshal their assets more quickly at the forefront of a case and get those benefits in place Medicaid or Social Security, those types of things.

Those are getting in place more quickly.

We have reports from our staff of stronger collaboration internally, that there's clearer boundaries, people understand what their job roles are.

Um, and there is increased transparency across the department where people really know what work is being done and where there is need for somebody to kind of pick that up.

Our staff have also experienced more positive workflow impacts.

Um, I've had some individuals just say there's a lot of psychological pressure that has been lifted from the staff to do their work.

They're not worrying about things because they know that there's other staff members that are doing it, and because it is pretty transparent, they know they're doing it, they can see it being done.

We feel like this has created a more positive workflow, and we feel like there's a lot more time for some person protected person and that that personally oriented work that needs to happen.

So we are planning on continuing this pilot.

We are gonna make some refinements, we're gonna continue to tweak it a little bit, but we're gonna continue this.

The other thing that we've done this year is we've been exploring AI, which is really scary to me, to be perfectly honest, right?

Um, and so, but we thought we would look at this as a potential option to offset some of the mounds of paperwork that we read.

We are not psychologists, we're not internists, we are uh not uh we are not cardiologists, but we read all of their notes.

We read all of their paperwork, and it is our goal to understand what it says and gain, glean from those reports what our protective person needs.

Excuse me.

So we also write a lot of our own reports.

Every month we go out and see our protected person, we write a lot of reports about how they're doing what they need, how we're following up on those, and we have that administrative staff and fiscal staff that is also following up on things that we're doing throughout the year.

At the end of the year, we have to report all of that to the court.

So our project is looking at initially uploading all of our internal reports and our external reports that we're using that are safe and secure behind our Washoe County firewall, but they're also not visible to the AI team either.

So they're very all of the information that is is being uploaded is seen only by my staff, the in fact the person that is putting it in.

Then the AI helps us to read those documents to formulate formalize our annual report and give us a product that we can then look at that is annotated that we can check that we can fact check that we can edit that we can change and that we can adjust until we're happy with what it looks like in terms of our reporting to the court.

Now this is still in its testing phase.

We have not released this, we haven't started it ultimately.

Um but it is looking promising for us.

So we are going to be presenting this idea at our national conference in October for other guardians to take a look at.

They're asking a lot of questions about AI.

Um, and I've already spoken to several groups across the country about this project and where what we are seeing, and so we look forward to being able to present that in Washington, DC in October.

Um we also had a very successful intern program again this year.

Last year I talked to you about our bachelor's degree students that were came from UNR social work program.

This year we invited a master's student to come.

She actually works for us, which added an extra layer of challenge because when you do that, you really have to separate the job duties from the internship duties.

And so we set her to work on some policies and procedures in our department.

Um she has created a document and a system for reviewing our policies and procedures with our staff using that collaboration so that we can better improve our standard operating procedures.

She was able to complete our guardian of person standard operating procedures during her work, and we were super happy to have her because it was really getting her out of her growth zone.

But she's one of our newest case managers as well in our organization.

So she learned a lot about guardianship in the process, and she learned a lot about policy making.

And she also learned a lot about behavioral health during that process.

That's her passion, and and maybe one day she'll go and work in that organization.

But until then, I'm super happy to have her.

Um we also I told you last year about our internal training academy that we were very proud of.

Um this year, I just wanted to share with you that we were able to present that at the national conference last October.

Uh Sue Weill, our public, our deputy public guardian, was able to present that in Oklahoma City.

And she was invited to speak in Washington State, and some of her feedback is on the screen, which I thought was pretty amazing.

Um they would love to work with her.

I'm super happy that I get to work with her.

Um she's really a gem in Washoe County, so super glad to have her.

And then plans for fiscal year 27.

We hope to have some outcome measures for our AI project.

We hope to be talking to you about that next year.

Uh, we also help to implement a comprehensive communication plan.

We've already met with our communications team here at Washoe County.

They've come up with some great ideas for us that we'll be implementing soon.

And um, I'll be speaking at a CAB, the North Valleys CAP next month with our public administrator.

So that's one of the things that came out of that.

And um, continuing that forward progress on our SOP and then hopefully implementing our peer audit program.

So that is all for me.

Do you have any questions?

Thank you.

It's always great to see you, Miss Bowles.

Like every time you come, there's another improvement, another way to try and do what you can to make your organization, the community, and the folks who serve better really.

Thank you.

We're we work hard over there.

Another small but mighty team.

Um, I do have some questions, but I'm gonna open up to my colleagues.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

Maybe I'll come back to Commissioner Herman Advice Chair.

Do you have anything?

We're looking at looking forward to our visit to the North Valley Cab.

That'll be wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

Nicole and I are excited to come out there.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, great presentation.

I learned something new every time you come in.

And today, my attention just went into the amount of reporting you all have to do.

I pulled up all the NRS.

It's crazy.

I had no idea.

You've got to report, you know, when people move into a different long-term long-term care facility and what's happening with their estate accounting and you know, the death and termination, all those things, it's incredible.

My question to you is I know we're locked in with NRS and you have to do these reports.

Um, are there waivers like you can apply for?

Like in uh when you have circumstances when your caseloads are that high.

Is there an ability for you or us to advocate for you to push pause on some of that reporting so you can get caught up?

Yeah, in NRS, there's not a ton of pause buttons for the public guardian.

There are the court has been kind enough on certain occasions when we go every three years to do our annual reporting for our protected person if they don't have an estate.

We do go to court every year if they do have an estate over 10,000.

But every once in a while, and if it's close enough in the reporting period, we ask for our role report to be accepted for our our written report, and that is most often grant granted by our court.

Um we have done some, we we have to report every time a person moves, not just into long-term care facilities, but every time they move.

Um we used to have to report uh in NRS when they went on vacation and their location changed, but we were able to um we were able to get that changed in statute.

Uh there is what we have been doing is um, you know, I've been really working with the staff to write the report in terms of what is necessary.

You know, there's there's a lot of my staff that care so much about the protective piece people that they serve that they could write pages and pages, and um we really encourage them to be concise and just what is important for the court.

But you're right, we have to not only are we writing a lot of reports, but we are also asking for a lot of permission.

So we have to go back to court for permission to sell a home, which I think you should, but we also have to write a status report for that.

If we need to invest money for a person, we have to ask permission from the court to invest that money for the person.

And those are those are things that are necessary for the oversight and the protection of the protected person.

Uh, but what I really like to do is find a pause button for the public guardian's office so that we could perhaps not accept a case or that we triage the cases that we accept.

I think that that's the place in which um there needs to be a different answer because we don't have a pause button to say, I'm sorry, I can't take seven more cases today.

Uh we just get seven more cases.

We there's in statute, there's not a lot of language that allows us to um to to argue against the guardianship, but we do advocate for that when it's necessary.

We go out and meet our protected people in advance.

We don't think that they need a guardian.

We will argue that in court.

If we find family members, which that's the first thing we always do, is we look for family members and then we educate them about what being a guardian is like.

There's a lot of myths out there about being a guardian.

Um some of those myths are perpetuated within our community, and it's really important that people know that it you don't have to have an attorney in order to become the guardian for their person.

You don't have to have put out your own money to support the person.

You don't have to be a caretaker for the person.

You have to make decisions.

And so I think a lot of people are scared about stepping into that role because there's a court involved.

Uh, but we do try to reach out to family members and help them understand what guardianship truly is, and they'll get better information from our office than maybe at the bank or at the hospital or um sometimes even in an attorney's office because we're actually out there doing the work and we really understand what it takes.

So I I admire your question about looking for a pause button, and I want to find something like that for my staff.

And um, and if you think on it and I think on it and we come up with something, I'm really happy to implement it because it is a lot of burden to get case after case after case.

Um, we want to do a good job.

We are not people in my office that like to fail.

So we want to do it really well and um with a lot of integrity.

And when we get those caseloads that are high, we worry about that.

Understood.

And thank you for you know, engaging the pilot, the operational changes you've made.

Uh, I really commend you and your leadership.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

I know I uh you and your team are just tackling really difficult um cases and just appreciate the work.

And sadly, government, we don't get a pause.

We have to take care of everyone.

And I do love the idea of figuring out how we can better educate family members to understand what that role is and why maybe government shouldn't be doing that.

But I know there's so many people that don't have anyone out there that we are needing to support as well, and um just figuring out ways to advocate for our county to have more resources.

That's what we've got to do so we can support the work.

But um, I'm loving that you're continuing trying to improve and especially after the audit and yeah, I mean, since is Madison AI a closed it is closed, right?

Yeah, so that's why um I think that that if we're gonna you know implement AI that it's that closed system and um that we have that preparatory um uh usage of it.

That's that's great.

So I can't wait to hear the next update and keep us posted, and thanks for working with us on seeing how we can continue to provide housing for vulnerable people, because that I know is just I can't imagine being a staff member knowing that you know you're you're dealing with a homeless person, you cannot find them the proper housing, and I know that that's happening on in all of our departments in Washoe County.

So we'll we'll continue to fight as well.

But thank you for your work and your team's work, it's hard work.

Thank you.

So thank you again.

And I just also want to commend you for uh really creating a culture.

I think it speaks to the leadership characteristics that you have, and everyone collectively, how can we do things better?

Embracing Madison AI and looking at technology, which sometimes may be a little scary or an unknown uncertainty, but um, as Commissioner Hussein says it's a closed loop, you can also have it be open loop too, but in terms of what you're talking about, and I also think that really aligning um with measurable outcomes, it will be interesting to see how as this progresses and then creating those relationships and the educational components.

So anyway, thank you so much for all your hard work and thanks for all you do, and for all your staff as well.

I think is really commendable so that people can concentrate and feel that they have a road to accomplish, even though that road and path may be bumpy, but it doesn't put that additional pressure on them.

So thank you for your leadership in that as well.

Thank you.

We'll see you soon.

What we're gonna do is take a quick break.

So it's twelve oh one.

We're gonna take a ten minute break and we'll come back just calling for a short recess.

Thank you.

Hello again, it's twelve eleven.

I'm gonna open the meeting back up, and what I'm going to do is ask that we move item twenty-one to the next agenda item.

Um I don't know if there are any objections from commissioners.

If hearing none, we'll go ahead and move item twenty-one to the next item.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is item 21.

It is discussion and possible adoption of resolution R26-25 as the twenty twenty six streets and highway funding advisory question resolution, thereby approving a submittal of an advisory question to the registered voters of Washoe County at the general election on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, considering the need for new fees to be imposed on electric and hybrid vehicles to pay for roadway construction and maintenance as requested by the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County.

And we are joined by Bill Thomas.

Mr.

Thomas, welcome.

If you would indulge me for one moment and just um share with everyone, there's been a lot of um public comment and and maybe some folks that are even watching that maybe don't understand the the authority that RTC has.

And I wonder if you would be so kind to share what that authority is.

Thank you.

And I would be remiss to not recognize um two members of RTC, Commissioner Hung and Vice Chair Garcia.

And I really want to thank you for that clarity, because although there have been a lot of solutions, a lot of discussions, the legislature is really the place that may have some additional opportunity for some of the creative items that have not only been mentioned today, but have been mentioned for quite some time.

But I think the more the public sees this and understands it, I think the um wiser we become as a collective community.

So first, um, I would suggest that infrastructure is really what's critical to quality of life and our ability to function as a society.

So in the case of roads, if you think about it, everybody used the road to get here today.

Even if you didn't drive and you took a bus or you took an Uber or whatever, you had to use a road to get here.

So that's just the necessity of our life is we have to have infrastructure like roads.

And the key question, which a lot of people maybe don't recognize, is how do we fund these roads, not only construction, but maintenance.

And so we did this little chart just to give uh order of magnitude of what this subject is about.

So you can see that the voters of Washoe County with the RTC five tax did decide the tax themselves in a manner in which we can provide, we believe very well for not only the maintenance of roads, but also our ability to address some of the concerns in the community as we move about in terms of widening roads, making roads safer.

And this graphic just gives you kind of an order of magnitude of what we spent in the last five years.

So I would suggest to you any conversation about how much cannot really be answered until you say what do you get for that amount of money.

So jumping off at that, I wanted to pull up a couple recent projects that were completed that um likely either couldn't have been completed or would have been delayed if we didn't have our local revenue source.

Uh and those are very significant projects.

Um that I would talk about the Mill Street Capacity Project, which was opened last week, that not only had some capacity for people getting on and off of Mill Street, but also makes it much safer.

So that's the part too.

When we talk to people, there's a constant awareness about safety when it talks about transportation.

And so the money isn't just for building wider roads or just for fixing asphalt.

It's also to make sure that that interaction between the public who are walking or biking is as safe as it can be when they're dealing with roads that have cars that are coming in large volumes and at high speeds.

Um the other one is Arlington Avenue Bridges.

Again, a very impactful project that without the help of our local fuel tax, we wouldn't have been able to complete.

So we have this is just a smattering or a few of the larger projects.

And as you can see, I guess I would point out to you the order of magnitude of some of these, which generally the public wouldn't know.

You know, Mill Street was a almost a $34 million project.

So those aren't inexpensive projects when we do them.

And so it does we are challenged by the fact that those prices continue to escalate, just like everything else in our life right now.

The other part, which is probably more of the daily interaction of the community, is really the quality of our roads.

And so this is just a reflection of what we have to maintain.

And you can see there that annually we take care of between 150 up to 200 lane miles of roadway.

And as we all know, the roads is the minute they're completed, they start degrading.

So what we have is a system here in Washoe County that our uh fuel taxes allowed us to create, whereby we have the philosophy of keeping good roads good.

Uh instead of chasing the worst roads and spending all the money on a single road, we look at and analyze um every year the quality of all of our roads.

And we do this through a nationally recognized process, which is called um uh pavement condition index.

So that's a national standard for what's the quality of your road.

And we are um essentially at an 80, which means that we're um we're good and we're generally smooth with minor cracking and where an ideal uh and where.

And so it's an ideal preventative treatment situation, which is we we are optimizing the spend for the public tax dollar by making sure we keep roads right at that point where we don't have to spend huge amounts like that 41 million dollar to rebuild, um, and we can cover more lane miles so that at the end of the day, the public experiences throughout their drive a um an acceptable roadway condition.

So the challenge we're talking about today is one that you will hear.

I think it's true of all of our lives now, is the resources don't seem to keep up with the needs.

And that's the public policy question that uh brought us to this point, which I would say we've been talking about for more than six years.

So this is not just a fluke that we're sitting here today.

This is a culmination of many years of conversation, not only with RTC internally and with our regional partners, but also at the legislature.

So two graphs that will show you kind of the magnitude of the problem.

This is the vehicle miles traveled in our community.

You can see um, not only because of the increase in population, but also just the nature of people's travel that we're driving more.

So it's not static, it's growing, which means of course more wear and tear on the roads and more demand for congestion relief.

At the same time, the source really, it's not the single source, but it is the primary source.

And without the fuel tax, we wouldn't be able to do what we do, is declining.

And that's declining because the actual amount of gallons consumed, which is the direct relationship to how much money we have available to maintain and build our system is going down.

So we are in this trend now where the demand's going up and the resources are going down.

And that really was the genesis of the conversation that led us here today.

And so we did some research and looked at what is going on.

A lot of this should be intuitive, but I don't think we can do a good public policy without doing the research.

And what you see here is the trend going back to uh June of 2022, not only in EVs, but also hybrid vehicles.

And the trend is that those are continuing to be a larger and larger percentage of the fleet.

So while all cars generally are tending to get more efficient, we do have a sector, particularly the AVs that are paying nothing towards the fuel tax.

So we quantified what does that mean in Washoe County?

And you can see here between the two.

Um, and this is compared to what people who have internal combustion engines would be paying.

So if all these vehicle vehicles were the same as the rest of the fleet, um, we would have had about 15 million more dollars to spend in our community.

So that gives you a sense of the order of magnitude of dealing with this issue before it gets to a point basically where it's a crisis.

Now, before we came forward with this, the first thing we did is we actually went out and said, let's find out what the answers are and what the options are.

And you heard some of that in the testimony today from some of the public is what are the choices and what things can we do.

So we engaged the uh Gwen Center, which is a nonpartisan public policy group that focuses on coming up with public policy based on true analysis.

And the three methods, which I'll touch on briefly, um vehicle miles traveled, is essentially the ultimate replacement for gas tax.

In other words, everybody would pay based on the amount of miles they drive.

And that's one that's been under discussion for many, many years.

It is probably the most complex and difficult.

And um the cost of implementation is probably um astronomical because you're really talking about going to a whole new way of collecting data and billing people.

The beauty of the gas tax or the fuel tax system is everybody pays incrementally when you buy gas.

And so the bill is really charged to the wholesalers and not the individuals, is baked into the price.

So you don't have to do like you may be at a retail store where somebody has to calculate the tax and you got to pay it incrementally that way.

Um this is a very simplistic tax.

The other one, which was mentioned, is the charge on kilowatt hours.

And what we found on that one, and it's not just our research and Gwynn's research, but a lot of people across the country have been looking at this.

That also is a very complex um system because you're talking about a whole different energy source delivered in a whole different way, and figuring out how to charge that.

And think about it just in your own house, you know, finding out how much of your energy is actually for your vehicle versus everything else you use your energy for, and then reporting that back to a system that could then assess you and levy the charge against you.

So I would say neither of these um alternatives are really out of the picture, they're just not a near-term solution.

And that's why the um Gwen Center suggested that we would do an enhanced registration fee.

So we are not the only ones that have and are considering this.

If you look at this chart, you can see that we're one of only 10 states left in the country that hasn't already done this.

And I'm sure it's the same reason um that we're dealing with now is all of these states have found the problem is one that has has to be addressed.

And so the uh most economical, most efficient method is really the registration fee.

So we're not we're not cutting edge here, we're basically following what the other states have done.

To get a sense of how the community feels about this issue, we did a poll in December of last year, and we went out and we asked a whole bunch of questions to 800 registered voters who are likely voters in Washoe County.

And the reason we did this was um, you know, we've done this analysis, we've looked at what other states have done.

We asked the Gwen Center, but the part we haven't really done is what is the community sentiment.

And so uh you can see here that the feedback that we got from this poll was that um six in 10 people feel like yes, there should be a fee on electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.

And so that was our first touch point to say what is the community sentiment.

And when we did a little uh deeper dive into their comments, this is essentially what was behind that position.

And I would use the term uh paying their fair share is really what we heard from people.

This was not something that we plugged.

This is what they told us why they supported it.

So we did a second poll giving um all of the national issues that have gone on related to huge increase in fuel, um, the Iran war, uh, a lot of things that that would certainly one would think would influence people's opinion between December and now.

And so we've completed our second poll this month, early June.

And um what we learned was people still have the basic same position on this, which is six and tense a it seems like the right and fair thing to do.

And so they did support an advisory question.

And I would point out now what we're talking about today is not a tax, it's not a fee.

It's a question about the sentiment of the people in Washoe County in terms of this being a viable and reasonable solution to plug the gap, if you will, on our um shortfall for transportation improvements.

So, in conclusion, just to summarize, you know, why this matter really is important.

It's necessary to keep our roads good, as I mentioned earlier.

If we don't invest in our roads, and they will start falling apart, and we'll be in a place where we're chasing very bad roads at a very high price.

And I don't think any of us are gonna like that because it'll become a question of whose road falls apart while someone else's road gets fixed.

Um, as I mentioned, other uh the other big issue is safety improvements.

This is our one source to do major uh transportation improvements, like again, going back to Mill Street, where we installed the traffic signal so people could cross safely Mill Street at Golden Lane.

We couldn't do that if we didn't have this revenue source.

And then last, um, but the most important one when we pull the public is congestion.

This really is our one tool to be able to widen those roads or add in new traffic signals or do some of the newer um high technology uh measures we put in in our intelligent transportation system so we can make streets work more efficiently.

That concludes my presentation, and um I am here as well as the team that helped me get to this point to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.

I would just ask for one more piece of clarification if um we could.

It's very clear this is an advisory question.

This is not for the body of the Washoe County Commission right now to impose any tax.

It's a question to the people who will decide.

But can you share what those next steps, if in fact it does go on the ballot and what the timing of that is, and then what is that full process?

Um, yes, great question for people to understand.

So we have no ability, as I said earlier at RTC to do any fee or tax.

Washoe County um is limited, as you all know, with what the legislature allows you to do.

So you know you have no ability right now, if you wanted to to pass a law to tax um or charge a fee on EVs.

So the next step after the uh ballot, the advisory ballot question is administered on the November ballot, and we get the results back.

Our plan would be to go forward to the legislature in the 27th session with a bill for Washoe County, which would um implement what we're hoping is the will of the of the community.

We would then present that to the legislature, and um while we don't control it, obviously, we will lobby very hard for um the needs of Washoe County.

My um assessment is that this issue um is one that has been talked about the last two sessions and will likely be talked about again, but we will certainly be an advantage in Washoe County because we'll have the sentiment of the public, and we'll also have a specific bill on what our needs are.

Thank you for that clarification.

I think sometimes there's always misunderstanding about what various agencies can do, but I think one thing is clear the legislature has the ability to they're they have a wide scope of opportunity.

All right, I thank you so much for the presentation.

I actually am going to um open it to public comment first and then go to the commissioners for any questions.

So I'll call for public comment at this time.

Thank you.

Catherine Yarte.

Good afternoon, Catherine Yarte for the record.

I'm glad I kept the second one because I did miss the point in my first.

One of the other points that I did feel that was missed and requires addressing is many people are registering their vehicles outside of Washoe County to avoid the taxes altogether.

So ensuring we find a way to capture that.

And again, not capturing the travel through the state of people that don't live here is a big loss of revenue for us.

Additionally, um for commercial transportation businesses like Amazon, UPS, and those that have fleets in this state, many of those are registered outside of Washoe County and outside of the state.

So if we're not going to, if there's an opportunity to potentially propose requiring that they register in the state if their fleets are going to be based in Washoe County, or have them pay a fee into this to help contribute towards the roads.

I just hope that we have the ability to see it through to ensure that we are maximizing the revenue for this community so that we are not left behind.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jeff Church Thank you.

I'll put that little cartoon up again.

Jeff Church, I run RenoTaxRevolt.com.

I strongly disagree with some of the statements made about the Gwynn report.

I read that.

If you give me an extra 20 seconds, I can explain that, but I disagree 100%.

Mr.

Thomas also failed to mention that if you did take a taxi or bus here, those are exempt from RTC five.

So maybe you should start by taxing them.

Momo more taxes is not the answer.

I'm opposed to any new ballot measure that would even suggest that we raise taxes on EVs and on hybrids.

None of that mentions clean air.

You have a air resource board that some of you may sit on right next door.

And we reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

I really have to ask hypothetically, would it make you happy if I traded that in because you're gonna raise my taxes and bought a Honda Civic that burns gas?

Is that accomplishing anything?

Doesn't take any more cars off the road, that's for sure.

And along that line, if you really want to look at this, you're gonna look at light rail.

That's what we need.

And RTC is totally opposed.

But I do have an EV.

So is that going to be retroactive or am I hosed?

There's legal issues there.

There's also legal issues with the wording of what you propose.

I don't want to lit.

I litigated one of the most recent ballot measures, and I won successfully out of court, but I won.

So let's not litigate this.

I'll be happy to sit down with the attorney and at least point my views out, and he can tell me if I'm right or wrong before you go ahead.

You've got till the 14th of July to do this.

And I want to talk about uh George Washington when he was referring to some of the enlisted troops.

He said they were cunning and beared considerable watching.

As the first speaker said, we're cunning as taxpayers.

I go down to Carson City.

That's what Mr.

Thomas didn't also mention.

You're blaming EVs for the reduction, and it's actually not a reduction.

You're making more money than ever, 110 million, but you're blaming EVs when in fact you can blame me, because I go down with the gas car and I fill up in Carson City.

It's not the EVs, it's the fact that most of us are smart enough to go to Fernley or to Carson.

And the more you raise taxes, the more we're likely to do it.

On the uh issue of need in the what you have there, that's not a statement of fact.

You haven't established there's a need, it's an option.

You're opening yourself for legal liability there.

And again, I want to point out light rail is probably the answer.

We just had a fatal accident a couple days ago during that rainstorm by USA Parkway.

People die repeatedly, they die on USA Parkway area from accidents, almost a daily occurrence or accidents there.

Light rail is the answer to that.

Raising taxes on EVs doesn't take a single car off the road, except those people are gonna sell them.

And again, legally, are you gonna make me pay retroactive?

I pay my fair share, and I could prove that if you give me an extra 20 seconds, which you won't.

Thank you.

Veronica Cortez.

Hello, Veronica Cortez for the record, advocate for Sun Valley.

Um, what I'm holding here, it's a network plan survey.

Sorry, what a network plan survey.

Now in November, RTC, you can see this is their document came came out and did a presentation to about 10 people, and they asked us to fill out these, you know, how do you feel?

Uh it's a network plan survey about how you feel in Sun Valley.

So I'm just gonna read some of these.

So, for example, this person walks daily a few times per week.

They don't feel safe at all because they said there's lack of sidewalks, crossing the street does not feel safe.

Too much traffic or vehicles are too fast.

Um, and it says, how often do you make a trip on a bicycle?

Rarely never.

And it says, how how safe do you feel riding a bicycle or scooter in your neighborhood?

Not safe at all.

It says rate the condition of keywalking and biking features in your neighborhood in your neighborhood.

New or expanded facilities are needed for sidewalks, crosswalks, street lighting, traffic signals, bike lanes, and past separation from traffic buffers or barriers, bus stops or transit access.

It says, where do you go or where would you like to go by walking, biking, or using a scooter in your neighborhood?

Number one answer, grocery store.

People want to be able to walk to a local grocery store in Sun Valley.

Right now it's impossible.

Why?

People are dying daily on our streets because safety, and also we don't have a grocery store.

So here's some information.

Maybe you can work off if you want to get that vote.

60% for me is not a winning vote.

I say, let's find the all the ballots that got returned to the ROV.

Let's ask them how they feel about this measure on the ballot, because they're not having a say in it because they couldn't even be contacted.

So I have various of these.

Um they're talking about too much traffic, having wide ditches, again, crossing the street doesn't feel safe, and that's already been proven at the last food truck Thursday that we had, you know.

Um people got run over, unfortunately.

One was a kid.

But you know, you want to get some more money.

What about all those off-road vehicles that are always driving all over the streets?

They're driving right in front of the sheriffs.

We defunded our police, but we didn't defund our taxes, and now everybody can do whatever they want in Sun Valley.

All the off-road vehicles are coming up, they can just go down to the gas station, fill up, and then go home or go off to the hills or go wherever they want.

They don't have registration, they don't have entrance, they're tearing up our streets more.

I don't know if you know in Sun Valley, we have half streets.

Ever been down mineral, you're gonna go half paved and then half dirt.

We have three agencies that's in charge of our roads out there.

RTC, SVG, and SVG ID, and Washoe County, and we can't get it together.

We should have the money for this.

Why would you want to tax us?

We can't even afford it.

We have people walking to the gas station to get one or two gallons so they can get their family to the doctor to the grocery store.

No more taxes.

60% doesn't want it.

Zero percent wants no more taxes.

Did I say that right?

We don't want tax.

Sorry, we don't want taxes.

Thank you.

I have these that you're interested.

Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Okay, I'll open it up.

Um, Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

Any questions for Mr.

Thomas?

Okay, there we go.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Um I'm still trying to figure out what the public really need.

And so I'll know when I go to vote.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Garcia, do you have anything?

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, Mr.

Thomas, uh for those of the board members who are not part of the RTC board.

I know you mentioned the Gwyn study report, but can you also talk about some of the other votes we've taken at the RTC board um and some of the other reports that we've seen that have led us to the point we are here today?

So we um we've been talking about this issue um at least for six years since I've been in this position.

And it really comes about when we look at um in the past, we presented to the board.

Um you know what our future looks like in terms of the ability to keep up with growth and as well as the state of the roads.

Um we've done research um, I guess in preparing for bills in the past.

And we've also um engaged our lobbyist, Mike Killer Bews here, um, to bring forward legislation um working with the legislature the last two sessions, and we haven't really seemed to be able to get off center.

So that's why the board asked for us to go look at this issue specifically, bringing in the Gwynn Center.

Um if there's another study that we did that I'm not thinking of right now, maybe you can help me out.

The regional maintenance, the the big Oh, yes, okay, certainly.

Um, I'm sorry, I forgot all about that one.

And not surprisingly, and I don't have the number off the top of my head, but we came back that um we are getting further and further behind in terms of the ability to maintain roads.

Um so that was another piece that we had, not specifically to look at this issue, but also to quantify what is going on with the future now, but also the future.

And really, um, in spite of the fact that I don't think anybody likes paying for fuel tax, it really is necessary for us to maintain our roads.

And I do know we get a lot of complaints about the roads from the general public, and so do all of you.

So um, regardless of what type of vehicle it is, it uses a road.

And when you use the road, you damage the road.

So this is fundamentally a question do you want to have safe, well-maintained roads?

If you do, then it's gonna cost.

And really the question is here, you know, probably nobody wants to pay, but this is really about fairness.

That's really what this question is.

Is there a subcategory of of drivers who shouldn't be paying their fair share?

And I think that's why you get the 60% support is because um we've heard that from the public is they think it's a fair way to deal with the issue.

Yeah, it's not a final solution, it's it's basically what we have today.

Yeah, I think the the historical context is important.

Um Commissioner Hill is the chair of the RTC board.

So we we see and hear presentations that the public may not be aware of if you're not following the RTC board meetings.

And so, you know, rewinding the tape sometimes and providing that context is really important.

Our board did see the maintenance study, then we saw the Gwynn uh Center study.

We reviewed both of those in public meetings.

Um we've received the updates on poll number one.

Um, you all, in my opinion, went above and beyond to take poll number two.

You didn't have to do that, um, but you did provide those results to us.

And uh, you know, for the record, our our RTC board unanimously approved this item to come before us.

And so again, this isn't about you know what it is or how it's going to be implemented or how it's gonna look.

It's really just putting the vote to the people.

And for me, there's nothing more important than that.

We are gonna take another litmus test, if approved today, to see what the sentiments are of the people who voted us into these positions.

And I think that in and of itself provides the greatest amount of transparency and accountability for elected officials because we're really just taking the feedback of the people before we decide to make policy recommendations and moving forward with anything.

So I'm very comfortable with the process.

Um, it's an exciting time.

I wasn't here back in 2008 when the uh fuel tax was approved and then the indexing was approved after that.

Um, those must have been some challenging conversations.

Uh, but we're sitting here today, and I am fully in support of hearing from the voters in November about what they think on this fairness issue, because for me personally, I believe it is it boils down to fairness.

Uh, we know uh riders uh drivers and and um people are driving more, but if they're not contributing to our roads, it's not sustainable.

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

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Thank you, madam chair, and uh thank you, Mr.

Thomas, for your work to the community and uh for pushing this initiative forward and uh helping RTC lead the way.

I think just all I would say to the community on concerns of Washoe County and getting their fair share of this.

This is why we're doing it, because we we have been waiting for action from the legislature on this issue.

And due to inaction, we have got to advocate for our community.

We have the studies, as uh Vice Chair Garcia pointed out, that show that we we need to invest in our infrastructure.

Not only do we need to invest in our infrastructure to ensure that we have a safer community, but we have got to invest in our infrastructure because it also creates great paying jobs in our community as well that are private jobs.

And so I think that um understanding how RTC works and how well we've been able to uh steward the taxpayer dollar, and I think Bill pointing out those projects, thank you for doing that because uh we have been on the team at RTC has been on overdrive getting great projects online, and we are looking at uh rail to trick.

It's two billion dollars.

That's just to get it up and going.

And we are thinking about how we're gonna do it because we also think it's a priority.

So we're looking beyond roads, but uh I just I I think this is the right thing to do.

I've been around the state the last nine months, and when I point this um inequity out, people are pretty horrified that uh especially that we don't have uh EV fleet paying their fair share um on the road.

So uh I think that we'll we'll see what the voters have to say, and um I'm looking forward to supporting this as well, both in uh the ballot initiative and uh the um or advisory question, excuse me, and also personally voting for it as well.

So thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Um thank you again for taking the time and thanks to both of you for serving on RTC and the entire RTC board and the uh depth to which you went on this item is um over and above.

And so I just really want to thank you.

And I I uh know the last time it's been a while since you actually came and were talking about EV in terms of your entire presentation, and I'll I'll mention it again.

I am an EV owner and I do not pay, and my vehicle is heavier than most other vehicles that are comparable to its size.

So every day I'm going and traveling around, I am not paying my fair share.

And I certainly believe that this question, as the vice chair stated, and as we've stated again and again, this is gonna go to the voters to decide.

This is not a tax.

EV owners are not paying now.

That's the bottom line.

They aren't, and the systems in terms of registration and capturing travel and all of that, the complexity to all of that, just the cost.

I remember at the legislature, they were talking about just changing the system to accommodate various options was millions and millions of dollars to actually change the system within the DMV to collect it, just to collect it.

And even if they had the funding at that time, it was going to take years or several years to actually implement it.

So you're still losing that.

So I commend the RTC board as a whole for doing um their due diligence.

I professionally want to thank you for the second survey.

I really appreciate that.

And I think this will be an educational campaign that is in need of this.

Is not a tax.

This is a ballot question, an advisory question, and thank you for also sharing what that next process will be if this were to um go through.

So we've done public comment.

All questions, any other comments or questions by this board?

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

Move to approve the resolution as stated in the staff report.

I think we have um 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?

Okay, we have we have uh two vote or three votes in uh yes and support of this non-taxed item, and we have one nay.

So thank you.

The motion carries.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you again, RTC, for your presentation.

We're gonna move now to uh item eight.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, madam chair.

Let me find my spot.

Sorry.

No, that's okay.

Today I move to approve three different donations.

Uh $3,500 from the Reno X Elks Lodge number 597 for district courts, veterans treatment courts, 11,255 and two cents in monetary donations and supplies to the regional animal services and a pass-through donation of $3,000 from the Rocky Mountain Information Network.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment on these donations?

There's no one signed in.

Okay, is that in the form of a motion, Vice Chair?

Yes, ma'am.

Great.

Second.

We have a we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All right, hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Commissioner Um Herman, I hope you're okay just in terms of the logistics.

I'm gonna ask Commissioner Hill if she would do the consent item, please.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Uh I don't want to pull anything on consent.

So do you want a motion on it?

Yeah.

Okay, move to a pull anything really quick.

Okay.

Okay, great.

Motion to okay.

Do we have any public comment?

We do not.

Okay.

I just don't have the numbers or that's okay.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

All right.

Okay, great.

So just to stay on track.

This is the consent item.

981 through 9G1.

I apologize.

Um problem.

Thank you.

All right.

Is that okay with the motion for those items?

Is that okay for the second?

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Now I'm gonna do the block.

And so Commissioner Herman, I'm gonna have Commissioner Hill do the block just in the spirit of logistics, if that's okay.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Very wise.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh block um recommendation from uh we would like to recommend 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25.

That is in the form of a motion, madam chair.

Thank you.

Um second.

We have a motion, a second.

Do we have any public comment?

We do.

Thank you.

And then I'll do it.

For item 14.

Penny Brock.

And Miss Brock has documents to be distributed to the board.

Thank you.

Brock for the record.

This agenda item is to approve the remodel to go ahead.

There's great concerns about these plans for observation, as you heard earlier.

I am surprised.

I looked at the attachment to this agenda item, and I did not see the floor plans.

That is a great concern.

How can you approve this remodel to begin without seeing the floor plans or even approving them?

I would ask you to please table this agenda item until you are provided with not only the floor plans, but floor plans that have been revised, so that there can be true observation.

Sitting in a long haul is not going to provide, it's going to be even worse than it is now.

That breaks federal and state law.

These floor plans have been kept a secret.

I mean, Chair Andreola's concern is for transparency in our elections, which includes all data.

This is data.

Why can't this agenda item be tabled?

There is time for consideration for the architect to come in and get input by the observers.

So this floor plan can truly reflect that there will be true observation and transparency in the ballot processing room during election.

The other concern is the funding for this project.

Which over the term of the lease is over is almost seven million dollars.

I would ask was the required solicitation of bids done as required by Nevada contract law chapter 332.

Capital funding.

This was done in the May budget.

A 3.4 million.

Previous design plan funding from COVID funds, 1 million dollars.

Now the remodel over 3 million dollars.

Was there a solicitation for bids done for any of these items as required by Nevada contract law, chapter 332?

For that reason alone, this agenda item should be postponed so things can be done according to the law.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

I did not hear 14.

Um when I heard the numbers being put in.

Um I wanted to have that taken off today.

To the table it.

Okay.

So you're asking to remove 14 from the um block.

From the block.

Is that what you'd like to do?

Yes, I would.

Okay.

Is are you okay with removing 14 since you made the motion?

Well, I'm not okay tabling it, but I'm okay discussing it, certainly.

I'm only um yeah, happy to remove item 14 from my motion.

Uh madam chair.

Okay, great.

And are you okay with a second?

Second.

I just for clarification, we're just pulling the item.

Okay.

Okay, thanks.

Any other public comment?

Uh JS McElheny.

I don't know that they're here.

Um, and then for item 22.

John Satterland.

Does not appear to be here either.

That's everybody.

Okay, great.

Is there any further discussion on any of the items excluding item 14?

Madam Chair, if I may um do a quick disclosure for agenda item number 22, and that's specifically for the grant going to UNR Street Reach Mobile Health.

Um, as you all know or by now know that I'm an employee of the University of Nevada Reno.

I will be voting on this item.

I do not have any precurity interest in it.

So just wanted to put that on the record.

Thank you.

All right, hearing no other discussion, we have a motion, a second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Now we'll go ahead and open up item number 14.

There are any questions about item number 14, and then I am gonna ask for clarification from DA Large.

Um, would you like me to open up public comment again for item 14?

I believe Michael Large for the record.

Uh I believe that was all public comment.

Yes that was received.

Yes, yeah.

So, in terms of whether or not we want a presentation from staff or just a presentation of the item or specific questions that need to be answered.

No, I appreciate it.

I just wanted to make sure on the public comment, just want to make sure I'm fair and giving everybody an opportunity.

Does anyone do you all need a presentation on this?

Okay.

Oh, I was just gonna ask um the county manager to clarify this item in terms of uh the process, and also um our responsibility as policy versus actually operations and and some of the detail, and then I I am going to um follow up with a comment.

Thank you.

First, I'll read the item into the record if that works.

So we're on item number 14.

Sorry, I'm also that's so this is a recommendation to authorize the guaranteed maximum price one or GMP one agreement for the Washoe County Registrar Voters, Longly Lean Remodel GMP1 project with Clark Sullivan constructors, including doing business as Clark Sullivan construction and the construction manager at risk, CMAR and the amount of $3.1 million effective on July 1, 2026, and to approve the installation of tenant improvement, which include demolition, concrete and fencing, carpentry roofing, insulation, metal framing, drywall doors, hardware finishes, lockers, signage, metal racking, fire protection, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical systems.

So now that I've read it in the record, just for further clarification, um, I there was some concern from the speakers about the observation, uh meaningful observation.

And first of all, I think I'd like to clarify that in the past you've approved many projects, all of which don't include floor plans.

You haven't seen them.

That is not you're approving in essence, and the DA can correct me, but you're approving the not to exceed for the general work that's going to be done, knowing that a lot of these plans are still being bedded.

Um, we're happy to get together as we did to talk as staff with folks that are interested in providing public input.

We will continue to do that.

This item is larger than just the public observation area.

As you know, when you approved it, this is a nearly 50,000 square foot warehouse.

It's a giant open space.

When we talk about ballot processing rooms, there aren't rooms.

Um, the whole intent of what the plans outline, and I will joke with our ROV who called it the the um corridor of democracy because I know in discussions and putting these plans together, his whole intent was to make that observation experience as transparent and visible as possible process uh possible.

That being said, instead of rooms, there's chain link.

There's visibility um throughout the entire project, I can assure you that because I've been part of those discussions.

Additionally, what this contemplates is the result of a very um transparent list of pre-approved subcontractors and vendors, and in the staff report, it clearly outlines that the CMAR provided transparent access to all bids and is awarding the various work packages to the appropriate responsive and responsible better.

So, as far as the procurement question is is put out there, I wanted to address it.

That is in the document that's out provided to the public.

If there's anything else that can help answer, um I will I just commit to the public though that we will continue to sit down and work through questions or suggestions on increased public transparency and uh meaningful observation, as that has always been the intent and will continue to do so.

I really appreciate that.

Um that was going to be my comment in terms of just continuing to engage.

And um, I think it's always hard when you look at a floor plan.

That is a huge building.

Walking through that building, it's just such a huge one.

We all went on tours, and I know the public um has seen it, and and I commend um ROV McDonald and the leadership for all of the work making changes, staying as tight as you possibly can within some of the budget constraints.

But I do think that there is an opportunity through public awareness and feedback on how things are going to work.

So, for instance, I've heard a request for chairs, and I've spoken with the the county manager about you know, can we have chairs?

I believe ROV McDonald also um, you know, is amenable to those conversations.

I think the fact that we have heard um countless um feedback about what is called this fish fishbowl, um, which is not, I don't think an official name, but everyone uses this fishbowl and even the constraints and the remodeling that happened a few years ago to try and accommodate as much transparency as possible.

So I think the county is absolutely committed.

Thank you, Manager Thomas, for your commitment and RV McDonald's as well, to actually look at what we can do the best we can to have everything be um available for full transparency, because if there are those who want to look at everything, there's nothing to hide.

This is all to be transparent.

And so I think well welcoming those opportunities, just like with any feedback, um, take those things are taken into consideration and have to be balanced with the project as a whole.

So I really appreciate Manager Thomas for you helping with that and for the ROV as well.

So Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

I just wanted to make some comments.

Sure.

Sure.

Really having a chance to do that.

Um it just seems like we're in an awful rush to spend this amount of money, which is a lot of budget type.

Um, this is a comment from some of the folks out in the public.

Um we have elections every two years, and we're putting an awful lot of money into a least building, including a roof.

We bought a uh building with bad roof, it sounds like um, and we've got a thing.

Um, there's a lot of changes proposed coming down the pike, and that'll affect our need to reduce our physical requirements.

I have a feeling.

I I don't know quite why.

Um we are the first election that this will be taken care of will be the 2028.

We need to concentrate on on having a very good uh improved election for our general on the 20 this this year's election.

And I just I just feel concerned for the people that are so concerned about it, and I'm concerned for them because I represent them, and uh so these were questions I had, and that's why I wanted to take that off.

Uh you know, for except for discussion.

Well um what can I say anyhow?

This is kind of serious, and uh and uh so we want to be careful because we don't want to money that we don't have.

All right, that's my comment.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Commissioner Herman.

I think we all agree we're trying to live within our means, and where things can be cut, they'll be cut.

So, and if there is any legal requirements that come down, we'll have to adjust.

We'll have to follow the law.

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

Um, I will just remind the board that we consolidated two warehouses, and the location here that we've consistently heard for years is too small, not very visible into a larger, more accommodating space where the public can see all of the things instead of three separate locations, and by moving this operation, it allows us to make some improvements in this building for ease of um transparency, public safety, um, staff safety, things like that.

So I I applaud the the board for making the move, and I know it's gonna increase our ability to perform safe and secure elections in the future.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Well, we've taken public comment, we've deliberated.

I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I move to approve the guaranteed maximum price one as outlined in the staff report.

We have a motion by vice chair.

Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

All right, we have a motion by vice chair, a second by Commissioner Hill.

Any further discussion?

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

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll look forward to also maybe hearing how things might be going in that direction.

I'm sure there'll be more to come.

All right, I'm gonna go ahead and close item 14.

We're gonna move to item 15, and this is an introduction and first reading, and I believe the clerk is going to be helping us with this item.

Dr.

Young is here too.

This will be bill number 1955.

1955.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

An ordinance amending the Washoe County Code at Chapter 110, Article 408 by applying the findings that reference site-specific characteristics only when those characteristics are present on the parcels in question to ensure the design flexibility and associated public benefits inherent to common open space development is potentially available to all subdividable parcels.

Thank you, Mr.

Young.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Commissioners.

Eric Young from your planning staff.

Today we're asking you to consider uh an update to an amendment you made just last year to Article 408, which is commonly referred to as common open space development.

So what we did last year was to add some findings to this article prior to April of last year.

Uh there were no findings required to approve common open space development.

I think you're you're all familiar with the concept of finance.

We the planning commission, the board of adjustment.

Um most of our boards are are asked to make findings when they make a decision, but our common open space development did not require any findings at all.

And so in April of 2025, uh a series of five findings were added to the article.

Um, and as part of that uh addition, the requirement was that all five findings had to be met in the past year.

We've we've recognized that two of the findings are uh very site-specific physical conditions referenced in.

And so the proposal that we're asking to consider is to uh require three of the five listings, uh listed findings always be met, but that the two findings that reference very site-specific physical conditions only need to be met when they are actually exist on the site.

So that's a step back so I can think about what is common open space development.

408 um exists in order to provide significant flexibility to a landowner, but also in order for us to as a community uh achieve some goals that we may not uh be able to get, but we we often desire.

So the purpose of the article is set forth regulations to permit variation of lot size so you get smaller lots generally, uh, in order to preserve or uh provide open space, protect natural and scenic resources, achieve a more efficient use of land, minimize road building, and encourage a sense of community.

All of these things uh uh benefits to the community that we we often seek.

And so, in order to get those, we provide this this opportunity uh to vary lot size.

Can't be used for anything.

Um, of course, it can't be used for uh uh your roads or if you propose to give us a the give the community a park or a school.

Um that doesn't count, it can't be used for your necessary facilities like ponds and drainage facilities.

It has to be a bona fide uh common open space.

So, what are these two findings that we've discovered don't exist on on every parcel?

Uh right now they're labeled as A and B, provide uh open space, protect natural and scenic resources.

So the first one uh uh specifically references references areas with steep slopes, development constrained areas, heavily treed areas.

Um exist on on every property, clearly.

Uh the next finding development identifies and protects natural and scenic resources, including but not limited to ridgelines, waterways, large diameter trees, and habitat for special status species.

If those exist, we clearly want to protect them.

But the fact is sometimes there's not a lot left in Washington County, but sometimes you just have a nice flat parcel, and you want to take advantage of minimized road building, uh creating a sense of community, um, just being a more efficient development.

The other things that we we agree are are benefits to the community.

But if these two things don't exist on your property, then you don't qualify for 408 um uh development any longer.

The other findings that are non-site-specific, uh achieve a more efficient use of land, minimized road billing, incurred sense of community, all of these things are are often achieved to a higher sense when we um apply the article 408 common open space development.

So what we are proposing, this is the specific change, um, is to simply say that uh articles eight uh findings A through C have been satisfied, um, and that D and E have been satisfied when their reasoning applied to the parcels in question.

You'll notice that we have um changed the order.

Uh that's simply uh uh an editorial chase choice.

It seems like the two that are uh that may apply from time to time should be the last two, and then three that always apply should be the first three.

So the lettering is changed, but what this accomplishes is language that that clearly says um you have to do all five if they exist.

Um but when um these two don't exist, you still have to do A through C, but you can qualify.

So that is the uh uh the entire amendment that we're asking to consider.

This is an update, uh uh a betterment, uh refinement of an amendment we made just last year.

Um, if you have any questions, I'm happy to talk to you about that.

Um here is a potential motion for you to consider.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Is there any public comment?

There is not.

Okay.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, madam chair.

I just have a quick question.

Thank you for recognizing the unintended consequence of what we passed last year and finding an easy solution.

The order you mentioned makes a lot of sense to me.

I just had a quick question about um if this impacted any of the projects that went through the public process in the last year and two months, and if so, how how is that uh remedied?

No.

Okay.

Once you're through, you're through.

This is for anything that comes through the door or right, the anything that has not been processed yet.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Commissioner Herman, do you have any questions?

No, thank you.

Well, thank you again for updating this.

And this is a first reading, so I'll need a motion.

Madam Chair, I move to introduce the first reading of bill number 1955 as outlined in the staff report.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Young.

Appreciate it.

We'll move now to item 26.

We'll close 15 and move to 26.

And this is to conduct a second reading, public hearing and public and possible adoption.

And uh Madam Clerk.

This will be ordinance number 1763.

An ordinance amending Washoe County Code Chapter 5 related to employee service awards.

This was formerly bill number 1954.

Thank you.

Does anyone would like to request a presentation?

This is a second reading.

Hearing none, do we have any public comment on this?

There is nobody signed in.

All right.

Hearing no requests, I'll entertain a motion, please.

Move to adopt 1763.

Great.

We have a motion by Commissioner Hill.

Do we have a second?

Second by Vice Chair Garcia.

Any further discussion?

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

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and close item 26, move to 27, which is public comment.

Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

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 might not be allocated to other speakers.

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

There is nobody signed in.

Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and close public comment at this time and move to 28.

Commissioners, County Manager announcements.

Manager Thomas.

This includes reports and updates to the board and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas.

I do not have anything.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

No, ma'am.

Thank you.

Commissioner Hill.

Vice Chair Garcia.

I don't have anything.

This meeting is adjourned at 116.

Thank you.