Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'm going to call the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners to order on May 26 at 10 a.m.

Please join me in saying goodbye.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. We'll move now to roll call, please.

Chair Andreola. Present. Vice Chair Marieluz-Garcia is absent for the moment. Commissioner Hill. Here. Commissioner Clark. Present. Commissioner Herman. Here. Manager Thomas. Here. D.A. Large. Present. And I'm Jan Gala, Senior County Clerk. Madam, you have a quorum. Thank you. We'll move now to Item 3, Manager Thomas.

Thank you. Item 3 is our invocation, and we have this morning Monique Jacobs from Catholic Charities joining us to lead us through the invocation.

Good morning. Elie Wiesel, child prisoner of Jewish descent during the Nazi regime, wrote many books during his lifetime in order to share the horrors of what victims of the Holocaust suffered. In one of his books, Night, in that book he says two things that remain with me. Never allow anyone to be humiliated in your presence and be a blessing. Entomologically, the word for blessing in Hebrew is deeply connected to the word for knees. We bend our knees when lifting something heavy. Being a blessing both lifts us up and allows us to carry heavy burdens. In so many of our cultures and faith traditions, blessings hold a place of importance. In the Catholic tradition, some blessings may only be conveyed by clergy, while others can be a gift given by any person to another. So what is a blessing? A blessing is a kind of circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The blessing and the beauty of it is a belief that it can affect what will unfold. To be in this world is to be confined by limitation and difficulty. When we bless, we are enabled somehow to go beyond our present frontiers and reach into the source. A blessing awakens future wholeness. We never see the script of our lives, nor do we know what's coming toward us, nor why our life takes on particular shape or consequence. A blessing is different from a greeting or a hug, a salute or affirmation. It opens a different door in human encounter. One enters into the nonlinear territory that belongs to a God who transcends time and space. our longing for a better, more whole and healed world and kindles our imagination to bless. Regardless of how we configure the divine, the human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, a place where everything comes together, where loss can be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise. All blessings from one human to another are inspired and have come to fullness first within the heart of God and are an expression of God's continual, gentle cultivation of our healing and wholeness. To invoke a blessing is to call some of that eternal wholeness upon a person or person in front of us. So I want to offer a blessing for you now. How's that for a long prelude, right? But I ask that the God that I know and love to extend a blessing to each of you today for assistance in the burdens you carry, for compassionate discernment in decision making, real joy manifested in your service and commitment, and that the hope which animates your heart would be sustained when that hope grows thin. When we never allow anyone to be humiliated in our presence, And may all be well with your soul. Go be a blessing today. Thank you.

We'll go ahead and close item three and move to item 4A1, Manager Thomas.

Thank you. This item is a general update from Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue Chief Richard Edwards, who is here this morning for an update. Thank you.

Richard Edwards, Fire Chief for the Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you this morning and share some updates on the district. May is Wildfire Prevention Month, and across the West, that message carries more urgency every year. As May comes to an end, our attention to wildfire prevention remains steadfast. Here in Northern Nevada, we know wildfire is not a distant threat. It's a year-round reality that impacts our neighborhoods, our economy, our watersheds, and most importantly, the safety of our residents and firefighters. What makes Wildfire Prevention Month so important that it reminds us that the most effective wildfire is the one that never starts. While we continue investing in suppression capabilities, interagency coordination, fuel mitigation projects, and emergency response, prevention remains our strongest and most cost-effective tool. The vast majority of wildfires are human-caused. That means many of them are preventable through education, awareness, and personal responsibility. Simple actions matter. Properly extinguishing campfires, maintaining equipment, avoiding parking vehicles in dry grass, ensuring tow chains are stowed properly, adhering to burn restrictions, and creating defensible space around homes. Last week, we experienced a six and a half acre fire in the O'Brien's Pass area in the North Valleys. This fire began along the roadway at several locations, likely caused by a vehicle, a fire that could have been prevented. I also want to recognize the tremendous partnerships that make prevention possible. Our firefighters, prevention staff, local governments, state and federal agencies, utility providers, and community organizations are working together to reduce risk before fire season intensifies. These efforts include vegetation management, public education campaigns, community preparedness events, and ongoing work in our high-risk wildland urban interface areas. An important part of that community partnership is our volunteer firefighters. The Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District began as a volunteer fire department in 1972. We have a proud tradition of volunteer firefighters at TM, a legacy that still exists. Today, more than 40 men and women play a critical role in supporting emergency response, wildfire preparedness, and community resilience throughout our region as volunteer firefighters serving from Gerlach, Red Rock, Palomino Valley, Silver Lake, and Washoe Valley. For community members looking to serve in a meaningful way, becoming a volunteer firefighter is an opportunity to directly protect their neighbors and contribute to public safety. Anyone interested in serving can contact the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District at 775-447-4017 to learn more about training requirements, station opportunities, and the application process. Information is also available on our website at tmfpd.us. Wildfire resilience is truly a shared responsibility. Every resident has a role in protecting their home, their neighborhood, and our community. As we move into the summer months, conditions across the region are already reminding us how quickly fire danger can escalate. This month serves as an opportunity not only to raise awareness, but to encourage action. As I wrap up, I'd also like to invite everyone to next week's America 250 event at the Washoe County Courthouse, where Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue has the honor of being June's local champion of democracy. Please join us on Wednesday, June 3rd at 8 a.m. out on the courthouse steps for a fun patriotic event celebrating our nation's birthday. And that concludes my update.

Thank you. I hope everyone can come out on June 3rd for sure. And thanks to everyone, especially the volunteer firefighters, right? So any questions or? Well, thank you, Chief Edwards. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and close item four and move to public comment. Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is public comment, and comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person, and it may pertain to matters both on and off the Commission agenda. Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers. The Commission will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person. Comments are to be made to the Commission as a whole, and virtual public comment may be taken when facilities are available.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment? Yes, we do, Madam Chair. Prior to that, I would like to state for the record, Vice Chair Garcia did show up at 10.01, so right during the roll call. The record will reflect that. So first up for public comment, we have Tammy Holtzstill, followed by Val White. And I do have documents to distribute for Ms. Holtzstill. We'll get the overhead going. He's working on it. There we go.

TAMMY HILT-STILL, FOR THE RECORD. THERE'S TWO DIFFERENT THINGS I WANT TO TALK ABOUT. THIS CORRELATES WITH ITEM NUMBER 26. BUT AS YOU CAN SEE RIGHT HERE, permit, I have contacted NDEP regarding your Washoe County sewer facility and they do not show it being renewed. You are in violation of NAC and NRS for this sewer facility in Lemon Valley. On to item number 26 that you're doing a second reading of today. You just received some information. I would recommend highly that you go through it before you make a decision, even though I'm pretty sure you'll just rubber stamp it. But it shows right in here that one of the things that they're looking at is wanting an extension because the BFE hasn't been figured out yet. Well, your staff is not... the appropriate staff to be doing a BFE. They are not qualified to do a BFE, per what the information I just gave you. Also, you will find in here that you will be violating, if you change the BFE, you will be violating 27802073, approving the RTC to move Lemon Drive up to the berm and reduce down our access points to Lemon Drive, which is part of the approval for this process, is RTC. So there's a lot of different moving parts to this number 26, but they've already had eight years and they want to go to 12 years. But per NRS, after four years the first time, they should have had a final map to the Washoe County, and there was no final map. And that's per NRS. But yet, they got an extension for another four years, and they still didn't do a final map. So why are we going to extend this again? when they're not following through with their final map, they're not following the NRS, and neither is your staff when they keep recommending that you approve these plans without having all of the paperwork done properly and in a timely fashion. These are the things you need to be looking at You need to have your staff answer the questions. You need to understand the NRSs to know that things shouldn't be just approved to be approved, whether it's pay to play or anything else. You need to follow the law just like the rest of us citizens do. And we expect that developments would be the same way also. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up Val White followed by Brianna Forezowski and Ms. White does have documents to distribute.

Thanks.

I've observed Washington's ballot processing department for at least five elections with four different registrars of voters and over 500 hours observing. Here are some observations I can share. One, cell phones are being used everywhere in the elections department, including the tabulation room, which is also called the EMS room for election management system. McDonald, Andrew, is an IT specialist and the registrar of voters who allows staff, vendors, visitors, and the media to use cell phones anywhere in the department, including the tabulation room, what should be the most secure room in the department. Harvard's Kennedy Center and other experts strongly advise that all devices capable of wireless communication be prohibited. Why? Because any wireless device can be used to intrude data or code and extrude data from the election system. McDonald is knowingly weakening the department's cybersecurity. A Department of Defense expert's brief assessment of the department concluded that it is a complete and total cybersecurity failure. More cybersecurity failures. Experts state that removable storage devices like thumb drives and SD cards should only be used once and only carry data in one direction. Instead, McDonald established a procedure to transfer data in and out of the tabulation room by repeatedly reusing a single thumb drive throughout the entire election because the drive was reformatted. That's like using a condom over and over again because you rinsed it out. The thumb drive isn't secured between uses and leaves the EMS tabulation room unscathed. leaves it in the staff's pocket and at risk. Where does the drive go every day? McDonald knows you're not tech experts. He's not telling you that he's disregarding established IT cybersecurity best practices. The entire department is cybersecurity Swiss cheese. Next, the cage where ballots are stored. It's a jumbled mess. Ballots that have already been scanned are not sealed to prevent mixing with ballots that haven't been scanned. Scanned ballots sit in open trays where a bad actor or careless temp worker could easily mix ballots, allowing them to be scanned multiple times. There's no visibility in the cages organization. It's not visible in person, not visible on the video cameras, and shelving labels aren't visible. No meaningful observation. Last, another power outage. We have one almost every election. Will McDonald again disconnect the backup generator like he did in the 2024 election when the entire system went down? Call me. I've got lots more. Thank you.

Brianna Forzowski followed by Terry Brooks.

I have been observing our primary election at the mail and ballot processing center and tabulation room window in the ROV lobby. I've spoken to you during past elections about security concerns within the ballot processing and tabulation room, and these security concerns continue. It has been confirmed and observed that employees that work in the processing room and the tabulation room are issued laptops with access to Total Vote, Nevada's voter registration and election management system. These laptops would access our voter information. It has been confirmed by the public information officer that these laptops continue to travel away from the processing room and out of the county building. Once a laptop leaves the processing room, it can be subjected to removable media or devices that can bridge air gaps. The Secretary of State's Election Procedure Manual states, Nevada election officials have a duty to safeguard voter data. Moving laptops in and out of the processing and tabulation rooms cause great risks to the security of our election. Theft of laptops is a risk. Hewlett Packard wrote an article in October of 2024 that stated approximately 1,800 laptops are stolen daily in the U.S., and 80% of data breaches involve stolen devices. The most frequent scenarios include vehicle break-ins, workplace thefts, and home burglaries. We have experienced at least two major cyber attacks in our state this past year. A couple weeks ago, UNR experienced a ransomware data breach incident of their Canvas system that exposed student information and disrupted education during finals week. In August, Nevada experienced a devastating ransomware attack. Agencies and critical services were impacted and the hacker gained access to more than 24,000 files. I have made numerous requests since 2024 for a live stream camera view of the tabulation room where all votes arrived from voting machines on external devices. I emailed all of you about this recently, and only Commissioners Hill and Herman responded. Commissioner Hill contacted the public information officer and asked him to reach out to me, but it was Commissioner Herman who responded personally to my email and asked to meet with me. I'm disappointed that I didn't receive a reply from my county commissioner, Our entire county's ballots and votes are tabulated in this room. Not one single security camera monitors that room. No security monitoring for equipment, employees, or our votes. If someone falsely accuses staff of theft or wrongdoing, you have no camera footage to protect them. The camera views on the processing room live stream lack meaningful observation. And finally, could you please leave the lights on in the processing and tabulation rooms? Live stream camera views are dark at night, and I've asked for the tabulation room lights while I'm viewing that window during the day, and my requests are ignored. Thank you.

Thank you. Terry Brooks, followed by Robbie Williams.

Good morning, it's me Terry Brooks again, and today I feel the responsibilities to address discrimination against people with mental disabilities. There are a lot of different kinds of mental disabilities, some of which will make it difficult for certain capabilities. But the impairment of some capabilities can actually increase the focus on some other capabilities. If someone finds it difficult to focus on one thing, it might direct their attention to focus more on another thing. If someone finds it difficult to focus on what they hear, it may be easier for them to focus more on what they see. Or if someone finds it difficult to focus on quality, their attention might be focused more on quantity. Everyone experiences a different possession of a variety of all kinds of obsession. Some people are obsessed with what their mind occupies, of which it is easier for them to memorize. So when such a thing at the time applies, it is easier for them to recognize. And in some cases, that really simplifies the situation where such people supervise. Some people are obsessed with things being alphabetized, which can wind up making an inventory more organized. Some people are obsessed with things that rhyme. That could or could not be a waste of time. We are all different in our own mental ways, though we are all valuable in a variety of ways. I would like to thank you all for putting up with me today and for listening to me talk in my own obsessive way. Thank you.

Robbie Williams, followed by Oscar Williams.

Hello, my name is Robbie Williams, and I would like this in the record, please. I'm here to respectfully ask, is this the level of transparency our community deserves? Transparency, in 2024, a live stream monitor was placed in the lobby so citizens could watch ballot processing in real time when we are not in what we call the fish tank. In 2026, that monitor has been removed with no plans to bring it back. When we discovered 151 preloaded thumb drives in the tabulation room from the lobby election day 2024, we were only able to monitor them being counted and secured because we were watching that live feed in the lobby. If we had to be let into the tank, we could have been refused. Transparency, true bipartisan observation is essential and I believe legally required. The colored party badges are difficult to distinguish on live feed. Red for Republicans, blue Democrats, yellow independents, green for others, including the Communist Party of America, Socialist Party of America, Marxist Party of America, even the No Party Party. During my 26 hours of observation so far this year, Republicans were extremely rare in the processing room. On many occasions, there were zero Republicans present. Several Republicans have told me they applied to work in the processing area, but we're told all positions were already filled. Instead, we see a lot of expensive county staff, overwhelmingly Democrats, using huge amounts of overtime. We also see a few independents and also the other parties. They're doing the tasks. And what we saw was things like sorting rubber bands by high-ranking staff, vacuuming, Things like that. Instead of citizens that want to be part of the process, is that transparency? Visibility remains a serious problem in 2024. Ballot sorting was done by a single person far back in the inside cage in 2024. We discussed it, but it was later blocked by a bookcase. Even now in 26, large areas of the work tables are not observable. Transparency, we have also seen over 9,000 undeliverable ballots return this cycle, even after removing more than 10,800 inactive voters and canceling 397 between January and March this year, just 10 weeks ago. while still paying Eric for additional back-end cleaning. Why? Why are there so many undeliverable and unknown ballots? Transparency, is that what we have? Finally, regarding the new election center on Longley Lane, why has there been no request for input from citizens who have logged over 100 hours observing just in 2024 alone? We have serious concerns that the proposed design will not allow for meaningful observation overall or proper ADA compliance.

Commissioners, we truly want confidence in our elections, which is what you're asking for.

These are the things you should ask us, and these are the things we need.

Thank you.

Oscar Williams, followed by Laura Weatherington.

Good morning. Hello, Oscar Williams for the record. I'm here to put on the record that late in the day on Friday, I delivered to the county a civil and voting rights complaint regarding the sample ballot. I have a copy for the clerk and for legal counsel right now.

Thank you.

So I will briefly explain what it's about. It's actually very simple and clear. And then I want to talk a little bit about voter trust and the data transparency with all due respect to what Robbie Williams said. By the way, no relation to me. You know, what we could benefit from would be a countywide citizens advisory board regarding elections. I think that's what she's asking for. It's been bounced around. Maybe now is the time for that. But let me get to my complaint, and then I'll follow up with that. So, most people know that voters have a right to an accurate sample ballot. It's in our constitution, it's in our statutes. Also, the statutes say that the sample ballot must be mailed to or for his or her precinct. That concept goes around the sample ballot that is mailed is reflective of the ballot that you will be casting. That is memorialized, if we go back to just the 2022 primary, if I can get this on the overhead. Okay, it might be hard to read, but right here it says, it is a sample of the ballot you will receive when you vote, okay? That was the standard in 2022 primary. Now we go to the 2024 primary. And we've got the really nice, the really nice colored pullout, but it's party-wide. It's not party in precinct. So, it changed in the 2024 primary, okay? But then we get to the 2026 primary. Well, there's no pullout. There's no pullout, right? No pullout. There it is. But we get to go online, right? Here's the QR code. We get to go online to get our actually accurate sample ballot. Here are the problems with that and where federal civil rights and voting rights come involved. Not everybody has access to the internet. Not everybody wants to use the internet. Not everybody has the tools, computer, cell phone, printer, to do it. And so tens of thousands of people in our county are not, they're being denied their accurate sample ballot, which is supposed to be mailed to them by party and precinct. It's that simple. It's just that simple, okay? So I've got a nice big fat complaint that I followed, delivered to the county on Friday for each of you. to the county manager, right? Registrar of Voters got a courtesy copy, also sent a copy to Eric Neff, the acting director of Department of Justice Civil Rights Voting Section. Damn, running out of time already. And U.S. Attorney Sehgal Chatter. Sorry, I'm running out of time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Laura Wetherington, followed by Haley Hayden.

Laura Wetherington, for the record, thank you for your service and for the opportunity to speak. I believe this Board may soon have the privilege to appoint new trustees to the Library Board, and today I encourage you to do two things. First, to work with HR to develop substantive onboarding for new appointees so that trustees are prepared to carry out their duties. At minimum, they should understand open meeting law, Robert's Rules of Order, and the NRS statutes pertaining to ethics. and two, to assign a commissioner as a liaison for the library board. To illustrate why I'm suggesting this, I'll share a portion of my comments to the LBOT last week. To the library board of trustees, I said, I want accountability and I urge you to provide it. Imagine there is a member of the community who comes before this board and says, I am here on behalf of group A to ask that 25 books be censored. Imagine, too, that the chair of that meeting is also a member of Group A, something the board chair admitted in two public places outside the board. But rather than disclosing this or recusing herself from the vote, she says she'd like to change the format of the meeting so that Group A and their supporters can speak for an unlimited amount of time. If you do not usually agree with what I say when I stand up here, then imagine the person I'm talking about is me. Would that feel right? then imagine that there has been no public accounting of these actions by this board. Avoidance for me is not a sufficient response. While I now understand that a board member can only be removed for missing three consecutive meetings, I also think that this board could take other actions to clarify how they would like to deal with conflicts of interest going forward. Here are three possibilities. For your next meeting, this board could put on the agenda, one, an action item recommending that the LBOT bylaws be amended to define conflicts of interest and require trustees to publicly disclose potential conflicts before casting votes. Two, an action item recommending that the bylaws be amended to require trustees to complete the Nevada State Library's trustee training. Or three, an action item to collect questions for the BCC to consider with potential trustees, including asking if candidates belong to groups who may bring matters before the library board and how those candidates intend to deal with those situations. I hope this doesn't feel like an attack on a single member. I imagine anyone with strong convictions and without much prior public service could make a similar mistake. And that's why I'm asking this entire board to take a stand for honorable leadership now before the makeup of the board changes. Thank you, and thank you.

Thank you.

Haley Hayden, followed by Sandra Miller.

Good morning. My name is Haley Hayden. I work with Donor Network West as their community engagement and partnership development specialist. And I'm actually a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Reno Spark Chamber of Commerce leadership class for 2026. And one of the assignments that we were given was a civic engagement project where we are supposed to come stand before you all and give a public comment. So I am just here to say thank you for everything that you do. I have worked in the nonprofit industry in Northern Nevada for the last eight years across a couple different industries, from children's literacy to animal welfare, and now in the organ donation space. And I have seen many of your faces at events, not only ones for organizations I've represented, but for other organizations that I've worked with. And I just appreciate everything that you all do. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Sandra Miller, followed by Ashley Mugway.

Good morning. I have two issues here. I have an issue with Social Security Administration and landlords. It's getting out of hand with landlords where they increase the rent. I was working here, and I know that I have a history of strokes. So when I moved in here, my son had been here like 12 years. So I decided to follow my son here. And just coming up here, I had a stroke. I went through social security for disability. I went three years living with my son in a one-bedroom. They denied me. They had all my medical records. They denied me. So I decided they, you know... They said, you can redo the whole thing. I said, what are my chances of winning? I said, so I'm going to take my chances of working. So I worked with the state of Nevada. I put my two worthless cents into Social Security Administration, and I had no car, okay? And I worked midnights. And sometimes I worked from Atlantis to my home. It was very dangerous at times. but I was full-time for four years. So when I was working for Walgreens, I had my first stroke. I had to save my money because I knew that I had a stroke, that I had to recover two months, and that's what I did. From Walgreens, then I went to Atlantis, and I was getting good pay. Then from Atlantis, I got my own apartment, and I live close to my son, the same building. And then from there, I had to recover. And I think it did more damage when I was at Atlantis, I guess the stress and all that. So when I went to work for the other casino, I can't remember because my memory, you know. But anyway, they were training me for three weeks. Usually I'm a very intelligent person, okay? But when you have a stroke, it's almost like having an earthquake, okay? You have to rebuild everything. And sometimes it doesn't come to you, you know, the memory. My speech changed, everything changed, okay? They don't understand that. So when I went to, I was going to apply for disability because I knew they were going to deny me again. So in 2024, when they had to let me go, because I couldn't remember things, I couldn't even open a register, and I'd been working in a register for a long time, and money. The first casino that I worked, I counted their money. Their money. Yes, my memory is gone, but, you know, I recovered. Social Security is denying me by saying that... All right.

I think hopefully staff can connect you with some resources. So thank you for coming and sharing, but make sure on the way out that you stop and have a conversation so we can see what we can do.

Yeah.

Because they're not that honest.

I hear you.

They have no integrity, no honest speech, honestly.

I hear you. Yeah. Thank you.

Next up, we have Ashley Muckway, followed by Heidi Soper.

Hi, I'm Ashley Muckway. I'm with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada. And like Haley, I'm in the 2026 Reno Sparks Chamber Leadership class, best class ever. And I am here for my civic duty. Through the course of the last, I don't know, six months-ish with the organization, I really saw the inside of how you all operate and what you all do for Reno and the greater area. So I just want to say thank you. as Haley did, and do a little plug for Big Brothers Big Sisters, that we always need more qualified adults to volunteer for our programming. Right now, we have 150 kids on our wait list, and if we open that up, it'd be thousands of kids. We know that. Our youth, they're facing a multitude of challenges nowadays. I can imagine we all put ourselves in their shoes sometimes with technology, the economy, education, all the things. And so we're always looking for qualified adults to volunteer their time. It only takes four hours a month and it is really fun and you can do whatever you do as your free time with them. My boss goes to Costco with his little and they talk about shopping and healthy habits, and then they celebrate with a hot dog. So it's that simple. If you are interested in volunteering, visit BBBSNN.org. And thank you all. I know some of you have been involved in the organization before, but thank you, and that's all.

Thank you. Heidi Soper.

Good morning. It's me again, Heidi Soper. I'm currently chair of the Sun Valley Cab, and I'd like to speak on number 20 and 21. Commissioner Garcia is going to think I've lost my mind because I spoke with her this morning and said, oh, no, I'm not going to talk because when I read. the enlarging of the Sun Valley Camp to include all of District 3, I thought I had lost my mind. And I wanted to speak with her first to make sure that what I was reading was actually accurate. And after speaking with Commissioner Garcia, I think it would be a wonderful idea and hope that you guys all approve enlarging the districts that we have. It would help us hear and help more people. We would be more diversified. We could represent a larger population give you better and more information concerns and ideas. Um, I do think that we're going to need to kind of reorganize a little bit so that everybody's included. Um, I, uh, advertise our meetings extensively for sun Valley. When I started going to the cab, we had six people. Our last meeting we had 39. So I'm gonna have to figure out how to let everybody in District 3 know when our meetings are so that they all come and they're all heard. On number 21, the bylaws, I read through those and voted when they first came out and they're all wonderful. It's basically the same thing, just reworded. We did mention one thing this morning when we spoke about leave of absence, which I do agree with. So I'm hoping that you will vote yes on 20 and 21. And if you vote yes on the bylaws, I'm encouraging that copies be made and every cab have a copy. I know when I became chair, I had to fight for one. And I think that should be something that's automatic.

Okay.

I went too unorganized. Thank you. Thank you.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and close public comment and move to agenda item number six, commissioners and county manager announcements.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This includes reports and updates for boards and commission updates, requests for information or topics for future agendas. I have a quick reminder that early voting started on May the 23rd. It goes through June the 5th. and of course election day being june the ninth so encouraging everyone to get out and vote uh... also encouraging folks not to wait to mail in your ballots if you're intending to vote in that fashion please get those into us so that we don't get a big rush of those on election day uh... the earlier you get that in the more we can uh... manage the the election day traffic with voters as well as those ballots so that's my i know the secretary of state has been saying that too so i felt it was worth repeating so thank you and uh... Thanks to the Leadership Reno Sparks people that were here. I'm class 2006, 20 years ago. Best class ever.

Who's counting? All right. Commissioner Clark, do you have anything?

Yes, I've got several comments and then some requests for information, so thank you for asking. I want to address... kind of what took place last week. It's been on social media and folks have been talking about it. Last week we had a budget meeting. We sat down here in the pit here in front and went on a long time. And I was never opposed to anything on the budget. I understand that, you know, over 80% of the budget is probably employee benefits and salaries so a lot of things on the budget but none of them rose to the level that I was unhappy with so stepping out of the room was strictly to go to the men's room. I don't know how to address this, and I don't know if that rises to the level of the media attention that it got. I want to make sure that the media understands that the Washoe County chair does not speak for me ever on any issue. She can speak for the county and the other commissioners, but if anybody needs to get an answer from me, they should reach out to me directly. That goes the same with the... Public information officer for the county does not speak for me ever about anything. If anybody needs to talk to me, they can talk to me directly. Folks know that they can reach out to me. But I want to find out what the exact protocol is if somebody's here and they need to use the washroom. Do we have to ring a bell? Do we have to blow a whistle? Do we have to get a note from our doctor? How do we resolve that? I had to step away. I watched the video of that. The chair said that she was going to ask me when I came back in about the vote and has yet, a week later, has yet to ask me about that, either publicly or privately. I just want to show you the hypocrisy that we continue to have here at the county. Lots of folks ask me, you know, why are you commissioned? Why do you do this? And part of the reason is, you know, I like to study hypocrisy. And I see it here on a regular basis. And I'm going to give you a good example. You know, as the assessor, and assessor is just another word for appraiser, valuing things, making comparisons and contrasting. Last election cycle, we had the county manager take off right in the middle of the election season for about 30 days. That didn't get the scrutiny that me walking to the men's washroom got. That's some real hypocrisy. We had the county manager take 30 days off right in the middle of the election season. And he might have had some health issues, fair enough. But several days later, he was filmed and witnessed in a bar drinking. I mean, was that self-medication for his whatever we might have had? But we didn't get the same scrutiny that I got for walking to the restroom. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing that other commissioners go to the restroom and it isn't called out, the chair doesn't enter into the public record, the chair doesn't make a big deal out of it, the chair doesn't have interviews with local media about this if somebody else goes to the restroom? That's some real hypocrisy. So that's my comments, and now I've got some questions. Because thinking about the hypocrisy here and how that rose to the level of the scrutiny that it did, I've got some questions that I'd like some information about that I think are real news stories, and I'd like the news media to maybe look into this. I want to start off with... an investigation that the county paid for. Keep in mind the county has probably at least 100 attorneys on staff. We've got an HR department that is very, very well paid. And when somebody needed to be investigated, For whatever reason, I'm not going to mention their name or what the investigation was, we hire an outside investigator. I'm looking for highest and best use of county funds, highest and best use. We paid $55,000 to investigate the former head of the CARES campus. and i'm not going to get into all the allegations that were there but whatever it was fifty five thousand dollars that isn't the best and highest use of the county's funds as far as i'm concerned when we have uh probably at least a hundred attorneys working for the county and or paralegals and or other folks that work at the legal department for the county. We've got an HR department, and yet we spend $55,000 for this investigation. Could we have got it cheaper? Why did we have to use the same law firm that always does the county's investigations? Why do we have to pay these kind of most people would think are outrageous dollar amounts for an investigation? So I'd like to know... I'd like the information I'd like to have is how much, how did we determine that that was the best company to use? How did we determine that was a fair price? Who did the negotiations? Who asked if the dollar amount of what it might cost to do this investigation before it happened? And did anybody negotiate to try and get a better deal for the citizens? That's number one. Number two, I want to talk about the CARES campus. We've hired, the county has hired somebody and pays them $100 an hour to give tours of the CARES campus. How did that get approved? I've asked the question, who brought that to the county's attention? Whose bright idea was that? $100 an hour. If you Google how much the average pay is in this county, it's about $36 an hour. So why would we pay somebody $100 an hour? Again, is this the highest and best use of these funds? Could we have used that money for people actually housed at the CARES campus? I know the Chamber of Commerce does a great job with getting folks their GEDs and and financial literacy and other things, and I've contributed my discretionary funds to that. Maybe the money that we use for the tour guide should have been used to help the people that are there. The county's got several thousand employees. If we need a tour guide, let's use somebody who's already on the payroll. So that's my question. How was that determined? Who decided to hire that person? How did the dollar amount come up? And how was that determined? And who actually voted on that? That's the second one. The third one I want to talk about, this one is just... This one is just beyond belief. We've got a non-profit here in town. And again, this is something that should be investigated by local journalists that really want to cover something besides potty breaks. Okay. We've got a non-profit here in town that's got two million dollars in the bank, they claim. They needed another almost million dollars to finish their project. The county gave them $980,000. As soon as we gave them the $980,000, they spent the $2 million. They spent the money that we gave. The project didn't get built. They've over encumbered the property. They have liens against the property. They haven't paid their sewer bills. And how did this happen? And the most egregious part of this particular story was this is opioid funds. opioid funds people suffered people died big pharma gave the money to try and help people and and we failed we did not help people we gave money to people who didn't handle the money properly and our real question is that two million dollars that they used as bait to get the county to give us extra money Where did that money come from? This is a nonprofit. So did they get money from Sparks? Did they get money from Reno? Did they get money from the state of Nevada? I think the $2 million was also gone missing, and we need to find out how come that took place. Who's overseeing that? Did we have any financial records on these people? Did we have background checks on these people? Did we have credit reports on these people? How does that happen? And another weird twist of fate, the same person who is the chair or the leadership in a leadership position in this nonprofit is also one of the leaders of the data center group. Can you imagine that? We've got somebody who's a spokesperson for the data center coalition of data center builders. And that person was the same person that was in charge of this. So, you know, you got to follow this. Commissioner Garcia mentioned a few weeks back about if they catch bad actors working at one massage parlor and then they show up at another massage parlor. Well, I think the same thing should apply to these nonprofits. If we find somebody doing something wrong at one nonprofit, we should find out and not let them work for other nonprofits and use that same criteria. And so a lot of money, a lot of people were addicted to drugs, a lot of people suffered. That money didn't just come from nowhere. Big Pharma gave it because of what they were accused of doing and harming the community. And we should have used that to help the community. And we didn't. Next, I want to talk about, this is something just, this is something that it's just horrific. Just came out in the news the other day that the district attorney is going to file the death penalty against that mother and father that killed their daughter on the North Valleys and your districts out there in the North Valleys. I asked a question over a year ago when the little girl was first killed, and at that particular time, I asked how many interactions did the county have with that address, and it wasn't disclosed. They wouldn't tell me. They said the case was closed. Since we've learned of this death, neighbors have reported it time and time and time again to the county, to the sheriffs and others, and it went unheeded. And the little girl's dead now. And so my question again, so request for information. When did we know that this was taking place? How many times did the individuals report this was taking place? How much involvement has the sheriff had? And how much involvement is the district attorney's office going to have in this case? So those are my requests for information. And again, I think all of those potential stories certainly rise to the level much more important than who got up and went to the restroom for three minutes. I think any prudent person would agree these are much more interesting and much more to the point of what we need to hear to do things better around here to prevent this kind of thing happening. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I would just like to go on the record. I never spoke with any media or anyone about that. Just want to make sure that you're aware.

Did you ask me when I came back in the room as you said on the tape that you were going to?

I said on the tape, maybe we should ask, just wondering. So I wasn't inquiring. It was more just an inquirer. But I never spoke with anyone. I never spoke with the media. I never spoke about it. So...

just for the record. That's my impression. I'm not going to back down from that. Can you tell us the protocol when we go to the restroom? And can you also say why you call out when I go to the restroom and you don't call out when the other commissioners go to the restroom? Let's get that on the record, please.

I will say that I have called if people have not been present during the vote. So it wasn't just calling out you. It was calling out just because of the record reflecting that. That's number one. I don't think it's appropriate for me to establish exactly what the protocol. I can tell you in the over 20 plus years that I've served in public bodies, both governor appointed and other aspects, anytime it's governed by open meeting law, there's always, I think, an opportunity to share with the chair that you're going to leave. I know that. When it was the previous chair, I would always let her know if I'm going to leave, especially with something where we know that the vote is happening. But in terms of me representing protocol, I don't think that's appropriate at this time.

So then I'd like to make a request that we put that on his agenda item on what the proper protocol is to be excused to go to the restroom. Do we have to say, mother, may I? How do we get to go out of here without being ostracized about it?

Well, I don't think that anyone was trying to ostracize you.

I said can we put it on the agenda. That's all I'm asking. Thank you.

Oh, I thought you wanted clarification. But thank you for clarifying. So, thanks. Commissioner Hill.

Thank you. I wanted to address the public commenter who was talking about the recommendation on the library board and I do believe that we're going to have agendized a liaison from the board of county commissioners on the library board in June. Am I correct, Madam Chair?

That's my understanding.

Okay, great. I just wanted to put that on the record to make that clear that that's been something that I requested but I know other board members have wanted to see that as well. So That will be good to have that. And then on the other protocol of training up all of our boards and commissions, I think that is a goal that we have placed on our manager. So I do I hear that public commenter loud and clear. That's an issue that we've seen throughout the county. And Manager Thomas is focused on that program and looking forward to seeing that move forward. So thank you for those. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Garcia. Vice Chair Herman? Thanks, I'm gonna echo, I know that I've been asking, and I certainly know the commission support staff, and I know the county manager, and I know Ms. Skepsenson, in terms of really training, not only for the citizens advisory boards, but all boards, because it's very important that everyone understand the parameters to which they're serving, And I think we've become better for it. And I'd like to thank the county manager for actually taking that initiative and seeing that we actually are putting things in place and being very prudent and efficient and dedicated to that. So I think we'll all be better for it. So thank you again. All right, we'll go ahead and close item six and move to item seven.

Manager Thomas. Thank you. This is a presentation and update on the Washoe Opioid Abatement and Recovery Fund projects, and we're joined by Lauren Beal, who is our Grants and Community Program Analyst.

Good morning. Hopefully everyone's doing great. Well, I appreciate you all. Oops, sorry. It's working. I'm making noise. That's the good news. I appreciate you all letting me speak a little bit today. I know in December, after I presented the most recent needs assessment, there was a request to have me talk a little bit more about how the funding has been spent, what's been going on. And so I'm gonna try to do this in 10 minutes. And I believe in myself and I hope you believe in me. So here's our timeline so far. We started this back in 2023 when funding first started coming in. That's when the county did the first needs assessment in response to the state saying in order for the county to get funding from the state, the county needs to have a needs assessment conducted every four years. This needs assessment was to cover 2023 through 2025. Then we did a notice of funding opportunity in early 2024 and launched our first awards in September of 2024. Those will be ending on September 30th of 2026. In 2025, we spent a year doing a needs assessment process. I brought that to you all on December 9th, and it was approved as well as our funding plan. And we have then now been in process of working on our next set of awards for our notice of funding opportunity, which will hopefully be coming soon. in next month. And so a little bit more detail on all of those things. That's kind of the big overarching where we've been, how it's been going. So our current snapshot, although we just found out today that another 93,000 was wired over from the state, so this number is a little wrong, but we have received 11.43 million of the over 40 million we're expected to receive. And we've allocated just over 5 million to grants since July 2024, and 2.97 million of that has been spent so far. So our 2023 needs assessment had five top priorities. We wanted to make sure that we were getting access to care for uninsured and underinsured Washoe County residents. We wanted to make sure that our emergency departments were providing buprenorphine in emergency settings. We wanted to make sure there was outreach and education on overdose prevention. We wanted to have child welfare best practices for supporting families impacted by substance use and increase access to detoxification and short-term rehabilitation. So on our website, there is this very detailed dashboard. And you can get to our website. If you just Google WOARF, it is the top finding usually because not a lot of things are called WOARF. But it has all of the things that we've funded so far. It's got all of the money we've received each year from each different organization. pharmaceutical company or distributor that was sued, as well as project descriptions. And you can click on buttons to see things dialed down more. So this page just kind of has an overview of what that original needs assessment included, as well as some of our initial awards. And then there's another page that shows a little bit of how that funding was spent and what it went to. So nearly 900 people have been connected to treatment or services by our grantees. We've had over 5,000 doses of naloxone distributed. We've had participants connected to peers to help them in their recovery, as well as making sure that people are moving from being contacted and connected in community to going into treatment. These are kind of the big level performance measures that we have multiple different projects looking at, but we also have additional details from each project talking about how the differences they are making with our community look.

Went too fast.

So our first priority was making sure that uninsured and underinsured folks were getting access to treatment. And here's a little story that was shared with me about a client with OUD coming in having recently relapsed and were experiencing a significant financial loss due to their treatment. co-occurring gambling addiction, and they had lost $20,000. The client was connected to their behavioral health walk-in clinic through the justice system, allowing for rapid access to care without additional barriers. Following this initial connection, the client was enrolled in medication-assisted treatment and intensive outpatient program services. The client remained actively engaged in treatment throughout both of these different services. They graduated in March of 2026 with perfect attendance, and the client only had one no-show, one same-day cancellation across all of their behavioral health appointments. So they have now obtained employment and successfully maintained their job while participating in their services. And they've had some unique services provided to them as a result of there not being enough gambling counseling services in the community that they were able to kind of start building this track around this person and recognizing that this was an ongoing need in the community. And the client is now transitioning out of transitional living and into permanent housing. So this is just one aspect of how having rapid access to treatment can really impact somebody's life. Our second priority was emergency department, buprenorphine, and care navigators. We didn't actually have any interest from the emergency departments initially on this particular priority, so what I've been doing subsequently is meeting with our different emergency departments, trying to build connections and get a little bit more buy-in to this and see if they can fill this need on their own within their own models. Overdose prevention and education, we funded two different projects. One person in particular was impacted by our outreach navigators within this who were able to connect them to a recovery housing program and he was able to graduate from that program because of interacting with some of our outreach people who originally just were trying to make sure that this person didn't die. It went from we're going to make sure you don't die to we're going to make sure you thrive. So it's a really important kind of in-between pathway to make sure that people are able to connect into further services. Our child welfare best practices, this is our Crossroads Families Program. So this is expanding the Crossroads model to a family unit. And somebody's response here was, we've been able to facilitate the reunification of a father and infant child. With the supports we provide, he was able to transition to living at families and into an at-home safety plan with CPS. He is set to close his safe baby CPS case in July of this year. His child is now with him 24-7. He is a single dad, and he is learning how to balance his responsibilities and bonding time with his baby. Without Families Crossroads, there would have been no option for him to maintain his recovery in a supportive environment while pursuing reunification with his child. And then we have the Briscoe Family Resources. Construction on a detox facility was our fifth priority. We've also provided capacity building and training. So we had a lot of requests for support from both grantees and community partners. So wanting to learn more about how to support pregnant and parenting people who use substances in a holistic manner, wanting to make sure that peers can get free of charge training to become peer recovery support specialists, as well as making sure that we have scholarships to local conferences that are relevant to the services and programs that people are doing. So that's kind of where we've been, and I'm trying to be cognizant of time. I presented on our funding plan and our needs assessment for the 2026-27 funding plan, 2026 through 2029 needs assessment. And we had two of the priorities that we wanted to continue as well as five new priorities that came to the top. And so we wanna make sure that we're doing outreach and connection to services, housing services, mobile healthcare, overdose prevention, child welfare best practices, program evaluation, and peer-led mental health supports for behavioral health workers. There are a ton more details on what's in that funding plan, what's in the needs assessment, again, on the website. It's 200 pages, but there's also little synopses at the top of each one that are much easier to read than the full 200 pages. So our current amount of funding available is $5.6 million, almost $5.7 million. We're going to have a specific line for capacity building and community sport, and we have 5.5 that we made available to the priorities going forward, as well as this Emerging Needs Fund to make sure that if there are things that are coming up in between our funding plan cycles, that we're able to meet those needs and identify and bring funds to them immediately. In December, you approved a million dollars towards the Human Services Agency Housing and Homeless Services to do a request for proposals and contract out outreach. I think that came up at the last board meeting. I'm getting a nod from Manager Thomas. And so that's been moving right along. We're currently in our Notice of Funding Opportunity process and our RFP process to do a program evaluation of Crossroads as well as provide additional services. We would hopefully be seeing those awards begin on July 1. We had a reapplication for the Crossroads Families Program because it has been extremely successful. And that is... My time. Wow.

Ms. Beal, you did that.

Thank you. Thank you.

I need you to hold down your enthusiasm. You know that? I'm telling you, like, you are a breath of fresh air. And to handle everything that you're handling and juggling is just to be commended. So thank you. I'll open it up to questions at this time. Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to be very clear about this. If my intensity level in Commissioner comments was at about 70, this will be about zero towards you, okay? I think you're doing a great job. I'll take my intensity level to 100% to the folks that, in my opinion, knew what they were doing at the time they did it. And I think that you got hoodwinked on this. So I have no... animosity. So I hope you don't feel that. But if you could go back to that bristle cone slide, we're going to get into this a little bit. So this is the project that I was talking about, folks. This particular project and I'm going to ask you, tell us a little bit about this. Did these folks claim that they had several million dollars, $2 million in their bank, and they just needed a little bit more money from us to get this project finished? Is that the story? Madam Chair, can we take five minutes?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Large. We'll go ahead and recess for five. Thank you. I think that's quicker than five minutes, but I'll open the meeting back up from recess. Thank you. Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So these are, at this point, allegations, okay? So let's frame it from that standpoint. It has the appearance of monies were used as an inducement to get the county to add to their funds to do something. Is that a correct statement?

Yes.

Okay. So, and it didn't materialize. Is that a fair statement?

Yes.

Okay. So what I'm trying to get across is not particularly this particular case, but I want to make sure that there's safeguards in the future with the county. So this poor lady doesn't get in the situation. I'm trying to protect her and the county. This may sound like I'm attacking, but there's a reason for that. But the reality of this is I want to make sure things are in place that we don't get into this kind of a situation again. So the money, the highest and best use of this money was to help people. And if it vaporizes, it doesn't help people. That's the point I'm trying to get across. So I hope it's taken in that spirit, is how do we protect her, let her do her job to do the good work she wants to do with this money, and make sure that, you know... This kind of stuff is happening all over America, okay? California money's evaporating. Minnesota money's evaporating. Let's not have money evaporate and vaporize in Washoe County. Let's put some safeguards in place that protect this. At the end of the day, we're trying to use this money to help people who are addicted, people who've suffered from that, families that have lost... loved ones over this. And to have other folks get this money and not use it for the purpose it was intended to be used for, that's my outrage. And I hope folks can understand that and not think I'm just trying to pick on people and snipe at this thing, but how do we put that in place in the future so this type of thing alleged type of thing doesn't happen again that's all i'm trying to get across here and i hope i hope you understand that and you don't take it personally because it isn't meant to be that way so thank you yeah and we have changed a lot of our protocols um for this more recent round of funding uh and i i do sincerely hope and believe that this won't happen again thank you One last comment. People have to understand, whenever there's people and money involved, this is one of 10,000 other kind of things. I mean, ask the people who run casinos. Ask the people who own stores. Ask the sheriff's department. You know, you plug one hole and other ones pop up. So let's put some safeguards in place before it ever has an opportunity to morph into some other kind of a thing like this. Thank you.

Any other, Commissioner Hale, do you have anything? Vice Chair? Yes, thanks.

Thank you so much, Ms. Beal. First and foremost, to the folks that are involved in this world, prevention, treatment, recovery, thank you for all your hard work. Our community wouldn't be the same without you. And Ms. Beal, you've been able to connect so many dots with so many different organizations and build those long-lasting, trusting relationships with folks. So you've done an excellent job. We all know that substance use disorders, they intersect all across society. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, if you live in a good neighborhood or not. It doesn't matter what you do for a living. It impacts families across the board. Settlement dollars really are a second chance for people to get back on their feet. And I think the most beautiful thing about this is it's nonpartisan. It doesn't matter. It shouldn't be politicized. Substance use is impacting communities throughout the nation, especially in Washoe County, and we see it. touch our child welfare system, our jail, so many different aspects of what we do here at the county. So this is really critical work. I have a question about how you collect your data. So on this slide where you had the pie chart and you said 900 people are connected to treatment or services by grantees. Can you remind me how you collect that data, what your communication is with the different agencies? I know the dashboard is alive and well. But if you could talk to me about more of the nuances there with the data collection, that'd be great.

Yeah, absolutely. So each grantee is required to submit a quarterly report alongside any funding reimbursement request showing what they've done each quarter. And that includes a narrative piece telling me a little bit about how things have impacted people, what the stories behind the numbers are. And then in addition, we created a spreadsheet dashboard for each grantee that has their, they have to put in the different people that they've served, de-identified, and then answer questions about them. That then calculates out how many people were connected to services, how many people stayed in services for X number of days. We have a lot of different things that we're looking at within that. And it's a little unique to each program because they're not exactly the same service, right? You can't ask the exact same service of somebody who's providing medication assisted treatment program as somebody who's doing outreach to vulnerable populations to connect them to services. They have different needs. So the big things that they all do, we try to have the same exact measure and then we kind of do some more nuanced stuff for each project. And then we look at that with them and say, okay, how are you doing on your performance measures? Where are we going? Are we meeting them?

And make sure that if there are things that they need to be doing or adjusting to meet those performance measures that we're having those conversations proactively I Think my follow-up question is at what point maybe this is a question to our manager Well, we as commissioners know how far we're moving the needle in particular areas. Like for example, we had a presentation from our medical examiner a few few weeks ago talking about the emphasis on upstream services and you know preventing these things from happening and And she gave us some statistics on overdoses in Washoe County. So where along that process in the data collection will we be notified or will the community know if we're decreasing the amount of overdoses that we're seeing in Washoe County? And same point with child welfare or the jail, if there's other key indicators besides the quarterly report.

That's something I'm definitely working on, building out an additional dashboard page of kind of what these community-level measures are. Where are we moving as far as, you know, number of people who are overdosing? We are seeing a reduction. I know that Emmy talked about that. But also other questions. We want to be able to partner with our emergency departments to see how many people, we're doing this mobile health work, how many people are we diverting from the emergency department? and providing care and community instead of this high-level, highly expensive care. So we're building that out, especially now that we have a new set of priorities and things that we want to focus on to kind of have performance measures for each one, and that will have its own dashboard. And I would hopefully have that for you in six months so that it's time for the new projects to onboard in July, and then we'll have some initial data by that point.

Thank you so much for all your hard work. And it's nice to know that we can actually put dollars behind recovery, which hasn't always been the case.

Thank you. Commissioner Herman. Well, thank you. We're looking forward to seeing. I actually had that same kind of question in terms of seeing where the needle's rising or decreasing. And again, thank you for all your hard work and for everything that you do. We know that you're a small but mighty team, and I think the results of the collaboration in the community shows. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

So we'll go ahead and close that item and we'll move to 7B1.

Manager Thomas. Thank you. This is a presentation and program updates by the Washoe County Sheriff's Office, Human Services Agency, Pretrial Services Division of the Second Judicial District Court. This is on the Pretrial Services Post Sentence Supervision and our Support in Treatment, Accountability, and Recovery, or our STAR program. We're joined by several members of our staff. They'll introduce themselves, but for the record, it's Abby Jacobin, who is our CFO, We've got our pretrial services manager, Angie Wienke. We've got Lieutenant Jason Phillips here, and I think Cara Paoli as well.

Ready?

Thank you. Yes.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the Board of County Commissioners, Abby Yacobin, Chief Financial Officer, here to give with our experts a quick 10-minute update on the dissolution of the Department of Alternative Sentencing and where those three new functions, those three functions have gone and how those programs are going. So this is an update for you. And if I can, here we go. If I can just give you a quick agenda here, I'm going to set the stage with a couple of points so that they can get really into the meat of things, because these really are our experts here. Two points that they wanted me to make are, as we dissolve the Department of Alternative Sentencing and move the employees into the different departments of the Second Judicial District Court, the Sheriff's Office, and the Human Services Agency, there was natural staff turnover. The teams have worked seamlessly together to keep those three services, the pre-trial services, the post-Senate supervision, and the STAR program going. So they are to be commended for that, but there were some turnovers and some new training needed. In addition, and this is something that I forget myself sometimes, as we were dissolving Chapter 11 and putting those functions into their new areas, we learned that the funding for the personnel portion of the STAR grant was removed. So this team has lifted mountains to keep that program up and running, working with all stakeholders, to keep the STAR program as successful as it is. And so now to keep time, I'm going to turn it over to Pretrial Services Manager Angie Wenke for her portion of the presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to briefly update you on the status of this transition.

Let's see.

As you can see from our slides right here, pretrial services moved intentionally in accordance with the vote of this board and Reno Justice Court's administrative order filed December 31st, 2025. The task of integrating the approximate 400 defendants that were from the DAS caseload onto the pretrial caseload was daunting. To ensure that we were prioritizing community safety, and the correct energy, putting our energy in the right place. We took that 400 person caseload and we broke it up into three different groups. So we were using our energies accordingly. Since we've onboarded the original 400 people, you can see that our caseload is essentially doubled and we're still adjusting to that new increase in caseload. Shifting to how the transition affected the jail team or the assessment team, since December 31st, we immediately started executing release acknowledgements for all defendants released from Reno Justice Court. That, too, essentially doubled the contracts that we would originally be completing for stakeholders. In December 31st, to be exact, into January 1st, we started working immediately with stakeholders, including booking staff to help them transition into this as well. It was a fast and furious transition that we had to make changes for including adding new release documents and new systems in place. Which brings me to my initiatives. We've worked very hard with all stakeholders, council, booking staff included, to ensure that we are creating efficient systems for this transition. And we continue to have productive and cooperative meetings with Reno Justice Court to really grind down those systems and ensure that we're being intentional with those. One of those initiatives that we were working with with Reno Justice Court is completing the DUI Rant or assisting with completing the DUI Rant at the earliest stages of the process. and hope to facilitate a meaningful conversation with them on what metrics of data they're interested in in the future. We continue to remain open to meeting the needs of our stakeholders and the needs of this board. Thank you.

Jason Phillips, Lieutenant Walsh County Sheriff's Office of the Record. January 1st, the Washoe County Sheriff's Office absorbed seven commission personnel to include two sergeants, five officers. During the transition phase from DAS, we didn't absorb any case managers. Since that time and beginning January 1st, we began getting the commission staff specifics training for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office in accordance with our policies. And that's also to include specifics backgrounds for them. All while the officers and the sergeants were completing this training in these backgrounds, they did continue to service the community through the probationary methodologies that we could afford at the time based off of the number of officer hours and their limited capacity to be in the field. One of the things that I do would like to commend, much like my counterparts, is the cooperation between the different agencies, the courts, the Second Judicial Court, Angie Winkie, Reno Justice Court, Judge Birchie. They have all been instrumental in this process due to the aspect of the Sheriff's Office having to develop an entirely new program based off of some of the past practices that may work for us. Upon assessment and evaluation of things that we'll need moving forward, we're currently working on hiring one full-time intermittent staff to assist with administrative investigators and also to include a funded position for fiscal year 27 for a case manager. This is going to allow us the opportunity to have the civilian staffing doing the case management, as well as reporting with the courts, doing follow-up with community programs, and this will alleviate the responsibilities for the commission staff to return to the fields where they need and they'll do their best work. We've also been working with AberHealth, which the other entities with their stakeholders have been utilized for testing. We're hoping to open up regulatory testing for the field of the probationaries that we have now. As a result of the transition for the seven personnel we have, we're also looking to fill two positions, or correction, fill a commissioned position for what was lost during that transition. That will also alleviate some of the burden of the caseload that the officers have. Currently, we're at an average of about 267 probationaries. With the four officers that I have assigned to me, that breaks it down to about 66 individuals per probation officer.

Good morning. I'm Kara Polly. I'm a division director with Washoe County Human Services Agency. And our portion of this presentation is about the STAR program. And that stands for supportive treatment, accountability and recovery. And that's exactly what it encompasses is that diversion program, to give individuals a chance to become productive and to be part of a community and to hopefully give back in many different ways as they move forward. Currently, we have three people in the STAR program and we have really been focusing a lot on coming together as a team and to come up with new policies and procedures and really be focused on the fidelity of the model of the program. So that's our team who's here today. in the back has been really diligent on bringing this together and we have lots of partners in the community that we work with and we continue to meet with them and maintain those relationships that were put in place originally. Our two grants that we have switched over is Fund for a Resilient Nevada and the Bureau of Justice grant that has been put into our under human services agency. So we are now working with them to get all the budget and grant notifications and modifications in place. And let's see, I'm making sure I'm not missing anything. I think I covered just kind of the basic overall updates for human services. So we are ready to go to questions now.

Thank you. Commissioner Herman. Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you so much. I have a question on caseload size. You said 66 per probation officer. How does that compare to what we see nationally? Is that within the realm of an acceptable caseload size? Are we high or low?

What's been afforded to me with sister agencies, specifically our counterpart down in Las Vegas who oversees, they do oversee pretrial and probationary clientele, much under the same management system that we do, they have a very large staff population that narrows it down to about 24 to 26 per probationary officer.

Okay.

And then in terms of the number of folks that are participating in the STAR program, how many participants do we currently have to date?

We have three to date and they're staffing another one this afternoon so we're growing steadily and want to make sure all of our standard operating procedures are working well and so intentionally not moving at top speed but want to be intentional about how we bring them into the program and make sure they have the supports they need.

Okay, just to clarify, I thought when you said three that that was like staff. That was working with the STAR program, but those are actual clients? Those are actual clients, yes. Okay, thank you for clarifying that. Appreciate it.

Thanks. Commissioner Hill.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and great work team pulling a very big feet at the end of the year. So thank you so much for all the efforts. I was curious, as a judge who decides to go through ensuring that someone is under supervision how does what are the steps that now I know what happened before but what are what are we doing now and is there any issues with communications I know there were concerns from Reno Justice Court as well as Sparks Justice Court about making sure that those connections were being made.

I'm sorry are you referencing probation or pretrialment?

Probation.

So what we're doing with working with the courts and in cooperation with them, we understood that our staffing level is going to be limited as it relates to be able to monitor those individuals. So we are working together with the courts to adhere to recommendations on what sort of monitoring, what sort of supervision needs to occur. But ultimately, the orders that the judges send us very much put the ball on our court as to how those individuals are going to be supervised. My team utilizes an assessment and orientation tool to basically determine on what level of supervision they need based off of risk to the community and being a reoffender.

Great, great. And for the drug testing, what are you hearing from our participants? Because that was another concern that was brought up.

There has been some significant challenges with the testing due to the circumstances that DAS formally did all of their in-house testing, which created massive cost challenges with them. One of the assessments and the evaluations that needed to occur with that was how we were going to best fiscally manage the amount of money that it was going to cost for that testing. Based off of that assessment, we've come to the assertion that we do need to outsource through AverHealth to get that regulatory testing. One of the biggest challenges that the officers in the field have with spot testing and of the like is that whenever they are making home visits or they're making these contacts, very often they are by themselves. This creates massive safety considerations for them as it relates to them making entry into the house and standing by while the testing's occurring. So with that, we've discovered that our best option now is to outsource that testing so that there is a regulatory amount that happens throughout the week, every single week for the participants as our assessment needs them to do so.

And it's... Is AverHealth, for the timing of testing, I'm trying to remember all the issues that the judges brought up to us, but if a judge wants them to test at different times, is AverHealth able to accommodate that right now?

Currently, AverHealth has a similar model to how DAS was previously, that the individuals won't have to have a specific time that they have to show up. And I believe AverHealth's open Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

But not... Saturday, Sunday, right? No, they are. Okay. So they are open all the, okay. Just want to make sure. Uh, and then, uh, let's see, I, I guess Kara, you kind of touched on this on the star program, but we, do we have a waiting list for the star program? I'm assuming that a lot more people need to get into that program than what we're serving right now.

There's no waiting list per se. I think we're just trying to take it slow to make sure we have everything in place that is needed and all the appropriate contracts put together. I think that the rate of bringing people into the program will increase as time goes on and we're sure that we have everything that we need.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I think those are all my questions. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Commissioner Clark. Madam Chair.

I just want to thank you for allowing me to speak. I just want to thank the different divisions and departments for working together and trying to make this a very smooth and quick turnaround. So I think you've done a great job. I think you've had a good forward momentum on this. And any bumps that you might run into, I think you'll be able to solve those problems. So thank you for the good work.

Thank you. I really want to thank you all for being nimble and pivoting. And figuring it out, right, as you go along. But more importantly, being cognizant of the previous stakeholders, current stakeholders, and any future stakeholders, and that transition. Because I think the STAR program is a great program, and I think DAS and all of the work that you do, that's really important. And so a lot of the questions I had had already been asked, and so I'm not going to repeat other than to say that... We recognize that that transition had a history. And so Ms. Wienke, as an example, you know, you and I met in changing the forms and looking at that and, you know, looking at the STAR program and looking at how you administer the testing. Those were all concerns that had come up on how this seamless transition would end up being. playing out and it looks like you all delivered. So thank you very, very much. We appreciate it. And I did have one question on the Avra Health. Is there anything that you need in terms of additional, I know that you spoke about additional staff, but is there anything that you need besides people and money? No. Usually people and money, but I'm just curious.

Currently, we have gotten a quote from AberHealth for the prospective clientele that we'll be sending to them. Once we have assessed that through our fiscal and our accounting, that's our next step into that process. I fully suspect based off of The number of individuals that even each respective court is sending to AberHealth based out of whatever funding that they have, that what presumptive number that I can come up with, it may change. So I would just prepare you for that in the event that it does happen.

Well, that's what I was wondering because if you're going to add it, there might be some additional items that we might see again. So I'll leave that to you all. And Ms. Wienke, I did have a question in terms of how is the process going with the forms and just some of the transition that occurred from how it was to now how it is. I'm just curious how things are going from that perspective.

I think they're going very well. Great. And I think that it's all a shared opinion. My staff is probably watching this going, huh, because they've been working so hard. I do think it's been going very well. And I think that as you said, Commissioner Clark, the bumps that we've encountered, we've been able to overcome, but we have had bumps, continued communication problems that the court versus what does this mean to your court versus what does this mean to Sparks Justice Court for which we were working at and we continue to have those relationships with their clerks, with their admin, with their judges and then communicate that to both my supervision staff and my Well, thank you.

Great. Well, I think also the benefit of this is that everyone has learned a lot, right? And so the streamlining, I think, is the good outcome that's come out of that. So thank you to Manager Thomas for your leadership in this transition. And we're very, very glad that we're here. So thank you. All right, we'll close out item 7B1, and we'll move to item 8, Manager Thomas.

Thank you. These are your donations.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Today I move to accept a $4,000 donation from Russell Horning to support travel expenses for training staff from the Children's Advocacy Centers of Nevada and move to accept the equipment donation from the Washoe County Honorary Deputy Sheriff's Association valued at $36,235.11. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Do we have any public comment?

There's no one signed in.

I'll entertain a second. I'll second it. We have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia, second by Commissioner Hill. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We'll go ahead and close item eight and move to item nine, which is consent item. Does anyone have any consent items they'd like pulled or questions on? Manager Thomas, is there anything you'd like to add with consent items 9A1 through 9J3? I do not. Thank you.

Yep. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a quick disclosure on item 9G1. I just wanted to put on the record that I am an employee of the University of Nevada Reno. This is in relation to a five-year cooperative program between UNR and Juvenile Services so that the students can earn college credit, and I have no affiliation or procuratorial interest with that agenda item. So I'll be voting on it. Thank you for your disclosure.

Do we have any public comment? There is none. All right, I'll entertain a motion at this time. Move to approve consent. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Hill. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Vice Chair Garcia. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We'll close item nine and move to the block. Commissioner Herman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And this will be in the form of a motion. There's a lot of them. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, and 24. Thank you so much.

Madam Chair. Yes. With regard to item number 22, I would like to thank Ms. Grosnick for pointing this out to me. When there's a line in the motion and in the thing that discusses the reallocation of funds to the PD paralegal, it should be the alternative PD paralegal program. And I want to thank Ms. Grosnick and Ms. Hickman for bringing that to my attention. So if we're going to do that, I would modify the motion to include that change.

Commissioner Herman, are you okay to modify the motion? Thank you. Do we have any public comment?

Surprisingly, there's no public comment on any of those items.

Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Herman. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We'll go ahead and move now. We'll close the block and move to item 17. If I could have the introduction and first reading read, please, and whatever the number is, I suppose.

This is the first reading. This will be bill number 1953. Amends Washoe County Code Chapter 110 and Article 336 housing incentives to create density bonuses for the development of attainable housing and attainable senior housing and to establish a minimum period of affordability.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment? We have nobody signed in. All right. Does anybody have any questions about this? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for bill number 1953.

Madam Chair, I move to introduce and conduct the first reading of bill number 1953 as outlined in the staff report.

Thank you. All right. We'll go ahead and close item 17 and move to item 19, introduction and first reading of the ordinance.

I'm sorry. We did have a public comment on item 17.

Okay.

For the record, I asked though, right? I know. I'm sorry. That's okay.

I just want to make sure, but you know what? Being human is tough and you know what?

It's okay. Thank you so much.

We'll go ahead and then reopen that item and then ask for public comment, please. Thank you.

Pat Davison.

Amen.

Good morning, Chair Andrea and commissioners. My name is Pat Davison. I'm a resident of District 5. This is kind of strange doing it without the staff presentation. Thanks to Dr. Young for coming up with this approach on density bonus that is simple yet consequential. It does not apply to the rural and low density suburban zones, but it does apply to the other residential zones and three commercial zones. it allows flexibility for the developer with housing types and makes the bonus calculation easy for the public to understand it is voluntary but has strings attached. It hits up to the 150 percent area median income level, but may depend on above market rate units to subsidize it. It doesn't require rezoning paperwork, but it does require additional impacts to be analyzed and addressed. Offering the bonus as motivation starts a process to consider added traffic, noise, parking drainage, and other elements for a parcel with development rights. Adding units may come with a hefty price tag. If the added price is not offset by the remaining 20 percent of market rate units, the bonus will probably not be utilized. So, what may have looked appealing at first glance becomes a hard no. That is why I said at the Planning Commission meeting that this tool deserves a place in your toolbox, but may not be used very often. The deed restrictions on qualified household income are guarantees of attainability for county residents. In my opinion, the nine-year and 30-year timeframes are fitting and reasonable in exchange for the upzoning gift we give to developers. If we get units built, a desired outcome and balance has been achieved. This significant change is being proposed as the county appropriately responds to the lack of attainable housing. Doing the same old thing will not get us where we need to go. Please take this bold step and support the proposed code amendment before you today. Thanks for listening.

Thank you. Do we have any other... We don't. That's everybody. Thank you so much. So... We had a motion by Vice Chair to introduce the first reading, and we're going to go ahead and I'll close Item 17 and then open Number 19.

Okay, this is the first reading. It will be Bill Number 1954, an ordinance amending Washoe County Code Chapter 5 related to employee service awards. And we have nobody signed in for this one.

Thank you. All right. Does anybody want a presentation or have any questions? Okay, great. I'll go ahead and entertain a motion at this time. I'll move to introduce 1954. Great. We have a motion to introduce by Commissioner Hill, and we have no public comments, so we'll go ahead and close item 19 and move to item 20. Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a recommendation and possible action to adopt amended resolutions for the Citizens Advisory Boards, better known as CABs, to reaffirm the creation of each CAB, specify the specific purpose for their creation, set the number of CAB members and the categories of their membership, and define each CAB's geographical area of responsibility as required by Washoe County Code. We are joined by Jen Gustafson today.

So before we get started, can we take down the date, time, and place? Because this is a momentous moment that we are now after almost, what, a year and a half here. And so I really want to commend you, Ms. Gustafson, for all your hard work and everyone who was a part of this. So certainly would love to hear the resolution.

Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Jen Gustafson for the record. I do have a short PowerPoint on this first item to kind of walk through the changes that we're making. We have two items related to Citizens Advisory Boards on your agenda today, and yes, as Chair Andreola mentioned, if you remember last year, we did some code amendments, and this is kind of a continuation of that process, that multi-step process to update the documents pertaining to the CABS. The CAB resolutions are the documents which create the individual CABs. And last year, we updated Washoe County Code, specifically Section 5.427, to require the resolutions to specify the purpose for the particular CABs creation. to set the number of cab members and the categories of membership and to define the cabs geographical areas of responsibility, which of course is done through GIS mapping. Um, there are currently nine cabs on the books. We still have nine cabs on the books, no changes there. What we're really doing here today is just updating the resolutions to make sure that they're in compliance with county code as amended last year. So the first thing you'll notice the resolutions, there is an amended purpose section, which has been included in the resolutions. That's consistent with the general purpose of the cab set forth in county code. And you can see the language is summarized on the slide up there. which has now been the general purpose or specific purpose of the CABS that's in the resolutions. Since 2021, the CABS function is to act as general advisory boards rather than being limited to a specific topic. And so the purpose section here is intentionally written fairly broadly, fairly inclusively to reflect that. These CABS are essentially general purpose advisory boards, unlike some of your other advisory boards like animal services advisory boards, senior services that are focused more on specific topics. The next item pertains to cab membership. The resolutions have to specify the membership and categories of membership. So we've added to the resolutions that there are five regular members and not more than two alternates. And my understanding is that is the current status of what's going on with the cabs. So really this is just to align the resolutions with county code. And then finally, the cab boundaries have been adjusted where needed, so that each cab is located within a single commissioner district and that's required by your code. I do want to thank Ellen from tech services. She put the new GIS maps together in conjunction with the commissioner support team. So she was really vital to making that happen. And the illustrations of the cabs of the maps are now attached to each relevant cab resolution as you can see in your packet. If the board approves the new resolutions today, then those detailed maps will be displayed online in Washoe County's regional mapping system. So if you're looking at precisely where the boundaries are, if you want to type in your address and see what cab covers your residential area, then you look online at Washoe County's regional mapping system. And so just real briefly, we'll just kind of do an overview of the maps. In general, the maps are now designed so that there are not pockets of residential properties that are not covered by any cab. So essentially the cab boundaries have been expanded to make sure that all residential properties in the county fall underneath a cab boundary. Saying that, when you look at the District 1 map, you can see that there's this area that's not covered by a cab. I have been informed that there are no residences in that area, and so that's why we didn't go through and change the boundaries for that specific area. But you can see up there for District 1, you've got the Incline Village, Crystal Bay cab, and then the West Truckee Meadows Verde cab, which is largely as it is today. The main changes for Districts 2, 3, and 4, those districts, the CAB boundaries have now been expanded so that they are district-wide. And in conjunction with doing that, if you look in the resolutions, there has been some slight name changes as well, just simply adding the district number at the end of the name of the CAB to reflect that that's a district-wide boundary. So, for example, in District 2, it's the South Truckee Meadows-Washoe Valley District 2 CAB. District 3 is the Sun Valley District 3 cab, and then District 4 is the Spanish Springs District 4 cab. So same thing for each of those districts, cab-wide boundaries. And then finally, for District 5, there are four cabs in District 5. Those boundaries have been expanded to encompass the entire boundaries of the district, so you still have the Gerlach Empire, North Valleys, Warm Springs Rural, and the East Truckee Canyon cab on those maps. So that's just generally the update related to the resolutions, and of course, if there's any questions, let me know.

Thank you. Again, I don't know if everyone remembers, but I certainly do, learning that this hasn't really been looked at since 2021, not in any bad way other than it just hadn't. And learning that as people were applying, they weren't eligible because they were in pockets. and these pockets really even though they were in the district and so realigning those maps to the districts I think is really important to give the entire community that is represented in that district a voice and be able to participate and I think that was a catalyst for why I had brought this up because learning about somebody applying and then not being eligible just because of this now I think gives I know it warms my heart that everyone now has an opportunity and thank you for all your hard work. I'll open it up to questions or comments. Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you Madam Chair for your leadership on this. I had several I call them islands in District 3 that were not they were unincorporated neighborhoods. inside either the Reno side or the Spark side of District 3. But those residents wouldn't have had an opportunity to participate on the only cab that I have. Bless you. So El Rancho Drive, Wedekin Road, Isle of the Sky, and Ponderosa were some of those four islands that were identified. So thank you to our GIS work to uncover those. And also just to refresh the public's memory, I had advocated that we include a one-mile amendment Last year, which was really critical, I know not only to my district, but there are little neighborhoods that are really part of the fabric of that community. For example, Commissioner Herman's most southern point of District 5 that touches Sun Valley is Sun Valley, really. Those residents carry the same concerns and concerns. SENTIMENTS THAT THE FOLKS IN MY PART OF SUN VALLEY DO AS WELL. SO ANYBODY WITHIN THAT ONE MILE RADIUS, LIKE FOR THOSE LIVING IN HIGHLAND RANCH, WOULD BE ELIGIBLE TO SERVE ON THE SUN VALLEY CAP. SO I'M REALLY PLEASED WITH THIS. I DID HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE COMMUNICATION SIDES OF THIS, AND MAYBE THIS ISN'T FOR YOU, BUT MAYBE SOMEBODY FROM OUR COMMS TEAM. Chair Soper brings up a really good point. I mean, she kind of goes above and beyond in terms of what chairs do to advertise, which is great because she's able to bring so much engagement to our cabs. But what are we doing moving forward if this is approved today? What's our game plan for rolling out the communication to the larger districts for Clark, Andriola, and my district-wide change?

Candy Ramos, for the record, with our commissioner support team, our team would work closely with our communications department to ensure that everyone throughout Washoe County knows that they have the opportunity to have a voice and participate on our cabs now that we have these expanded districts and where the new boundaries align. So that's email, email blasts? Email blasts, social media, anything like that. So we have opportunities to communicate via Facebook, not only on the Washoe County page, also the Spanish-speaking pages. And our Nextdoor pages, which are much more targeted, as well as email blasts.

Okay. And as new board positions come about, as commissioners, we're able to kind of advertise larger things. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA.

I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. WE'RE ALSO IN THE MIDDLE OF WE'RE ALSO IN THE MIDDLE OF PRODUCING A NEW VIDEO TO PRODUCING A NEW VIDEO TO PROMOTE OUR CITIZENS ADVISORY PROMOTE OUR CITIZENS ADVISORY BOARDS WITH OUR SOCIAL June 1st CAB meeting in Sun Valley and we're going to be explaining how people can get involved so in addition to attending CAB meetings we want people to consider applying to be on the boards but we're going to be communicating through press releases as well so just different ways that we can get everyone involved and we do have a new social media platform COORDINATOR AS WELL SO WE'RE DOING A LOT MORE OUTREACH THROUGH ALL OF OUR DIFFERENT AVENUES WHICH ARE NOT ONLY BROAD BUT THEY CAN BE QUITE TARGETED AS WELL. GREAT.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. COMMISSIONER HERMAN.

Because I've had so many people that are in the cabs or would like to be in the cabs. And over the years, I have begged and tried to get this part of cabs back, and we haven't quite gotten there yet. And that is about developments. and bringing the developers for every development that comes before the county that's in an area that people should be able to comment on or advise their commissioners on. So that's the missing link here for me, but the rest of it's pretty good, so thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman. In every CAB meeting, we also do point out our Neighborhood Developer Hub. So we hope that people will have the opportunity to get involved earlier in the development process. So I do know that we also, any development that wishes to attend a CAB, they are always welcome to come and join us if they would like. and receive input not only from the CAB members but from the general public. And if that is something that the board wants to entertain, revisiting, bringing development back to the CAB, that would be up to the board of county commissioners as a whole.

I missed somewhere along the line also the number of meetings and who decides the number of meetings a year. Okay.

So I believe, again, Candy Ramos for the record, I believe it's up to each cab to determine how often they would like to meet. If it's monthly, every other month. Currently, I think four of the cabs meet every other month. And some meet 10 times a year and some meet 12 times a year.

And just for clarification, this particular item, Commissioner Herman, is on the maps in the resolution for that alignment. The next item, 21, actually goes over the bylaws, and so there's a little bit of depth in the bylaws that is more applicable, and I don't want to take you away from not answering the question, but I think 21 will give that opportunity, if that's okay, unless you want to get into it right now, Ms. Gustafson.

No, I was just...

speaking as a commissioner sure sounds good representing the people who are in the camps sure and i think that's the biggest point is having these maps align is great any other comments or Well, I am going to ask for a motion and I'm going to deliver it because I have been working so hard on this. I feel like I'm going to get a tattoo. I don't have a tattoo, but if I do, it'll only be three letters. I don't know how bad they hurt, but CAB, I mean, but... I really, I worked really hard on this. So I'm going to move to adopt amended resolution for the Citizens Advisory Board's CABs to reaffirm the creation of each CAB, specify the specific purpose for their creation, set the number of CAB members and the categories of their membership and define each CAB's geographical area of responsibility as required by Washoe County Code Section 5.427. And I'll entertain a second.

I'll second that.

I have a motion by myself and a second by Commissioner Herman. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. So we'll close out 20 and now we'll move to item 21. Manager Thomas, do you want to introduce it?

Madam Chair, before we move on, just for the record, was there any public comment on that item?

There was not.

Okay.

See, we're even, my friend. Now we're even. I forgot.

Thank you. Item 21 is a recommendation and possible action to adopt updated Citizens Advisory Board bylaws and general provisions in accordance with Washoe County Code Section 5.431. We're joined again by Jen Gustafson.

Good afternoon, Commissioner. Jennifer Gustafson for the record. So this next item is related to the cab bylaws and general provisions As you are very well aware the cab bylaws and general provisions prescribe the standard operating procedures for the cabs and the cab bylaws were last updated in 2015 and they very much need to be updated to reflect current functions current processes of the cabs and A draft was put together and the commissioner support team posted it in an online portal that was created specifically to elicit feedback on this document. And I would just note that if the board has any questions about the public input process, I would refer those to Ms. Ramos, who is much more equipped than I am to answer those types of questions. But my understanding is that we had a really great, robust response from the public. You can see the verbatim responses are attached to your staff report. There were lots of good specific comments from what I understand to be 84 different individuals who took time out of their day to comb through this draft bylaw document and provide comments Which is amazing and I really want to thank everyone who provided comments. We got some really really great feedback on on the bylaw document. I do want to note that we are hanging on to those responses. Some of the responses resulted in changes to the draft that initially went out in that public portal. You can see the red line version is attached to the staff report as well. And that red line version is the changes that were made after the public process. So that's essentially like draft two in front of you. And then there's a clean copy of that attached to your staff report as well. Other responses I would say are more appropriate for reference and inclusion in updating the CAB handbook. So that's the training manual for the CABs. And that's the next step in this multi-step process is to work on those CAB training documents and CAB training materials. As far as the specific provisions in the bylaws, I have included a summary in pages two, three, and four of your staff report. So I won't go through all of those at this time, but you of course have the draft in front of you and you have a summary in the staff report. So if there's any specific questions about the language, about the provisions, I'm certainly happy to answer those.

Thank you. Well, I'm going to, again, thank you for all your hard work and everybody's hard work. And I read all 80... What great comments. Some of the comments were truly spent with time and... Thought and and how to make things better and it really was It was a great experience in terms of seeing how everyone really values the cabs how important they are and so I'll open it up to questions Commissioner Herman, would you like to address your question to the bylaws?

Okay, okay vice chair Thank You madam chair, I have a question on article 9 the budget and I've never asked this, but these aren't free, obviously. These are taxpayer dollars used to pay our staff there. Do we pay for space, or are all of those spaces given to us in kind? You know, I'm not sure.

I'd have to ask Ms. Ramos to come up and answer that.

Thank you. Candy Ramos, for the record, most of our events, cab meetings are held at our libraries, our public libraries, and we do hold two outside of our libraries, actually three, one at our Gerlach Community Center, which is free to us. We do hold one at Hobie's Casino, and they've kindly allowed us the space for free, and the third at the Stead Airport, and they also provide us that space for free. So we do not pay for any of our spaces.

Okay. And, um, We do not have a budget for food or beverage or anything like that anymore due to the budget constraints, correct? Correct.

We don't spend money on food or beverage, but we do obviously send staff, and there are very few hard costs, so just printed materials.

Okay. With the budgetary constraints that our other local jurisdictions are facing, I haven't been following up on the City of Reno. they've resumed since they were paused, right?

The NAB program is underway and we've been working closely with them. We will now have a standing item on each other's West Truckee, Meadows, Verdi, their NAB and our CAB because there is so much crossover. And so we now have one member that sits on both the CAB and the NAB and they're going to be providing updates.

So those are still going underway. Great. And then remind me what City of Sparks does for their citizen advisory boards. Is it quarterly or it rotates quarterly?

I'm not 100% sure about what the City of Sparks does, but they do have community advisory boards.

I might be able to help. We used to sit on that, actually, in the day. They actually have consolidated their board to be one, like their senior services, their CAB. So they don't have a distinct CAB. They have a general, I'm putting the words, I don't know if they call it that, but more of a general purpose CAB. Okay.

It's great to know.

For the community, like a community cab encompasses a lot because the cab, as you know, doesn't have a specific topic. Like some of the others have some real clear boundaries and topics, but they decided to keep it all as just one.

Great. We house the budget under the county manager's office, but it's just important to know that we are prioritizing these forums and opportunities and increasing the access across the board and working in collaboration with other jurisdictions. So that's great. Thank you.

And one thing I do want to add, we are spending some budget toward advertising the cab so that we are spending the time to hold these meetings. So we really want people to know that they're taking place. So we are spending a small portion of our budget on that promotional video I mentioned earlier. well as I'm advertising them through various means. Thank you. Commissioner Hill?

Commissioner Clark? Well again this is a lot of hard work and it's really the fact that you're revising the CAB training to an earlier comment about training I think is really really important so thanks for doing that. If there's not any other questions or discussion, because this is so near and dear to my heart, I'm going to make the motion again. So I'm going to move to adopt the updated Citizens Advisory Board bylaws and general provisions in accordance with Washoe County Code Section 5.431. And I'll entertain a second at this time. I'd be happy to say. Great. So Commissioner Herman, I made the motion. Commissioner Herman made the second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Do we have any public comment? Do we have any public comment? There's nobody signed in. Dang. Two strikes.

Okay.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. That is what happens when you're so excited about a couple items. You're just so excited that this is getting done. This is so exciting. Okay, I will stop. All right, we're going to go ahead and close item 21, and we're going to move to a public hearing, and it's item 25.

This is a second reading. This will be ordinance number 1756. Amend section of Washoe County Stormwater Drainage and Flood Control Service ordinance number 1552 by modifying the amount of the stormwater management fees. This was formerly bill number 1950.

Thank you. Is there any public comment on this? No. Great. I don't know if anyone wants to see this again. This is the second reading. Hearing no request for that, I'll entertain a motion to approve at this time, ordinance number 1756. Move to approve. 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. Any opposed?

motion carries unanimously and thank you mr smith as well for that we'll go ahead and close item 25 and now move to 26. this is also a second reading this will be ordinance number 1757 to adopt a development agreement for prado ranch north wtm18-002 to extend the deadline for recording the final map to september 9th 2030. This was formerly bill number 1947. And there's no one signed in.

Thank you. I'm loving the teamwork. So we have already heard this. Does anyone want to request a presentation again? All right. I'll entertain a motion at this time. We have a motion by Vice Chair Garcia. Second. Second by Commissioner Hill. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay, so we have a motion by Vice Chair, we have a second by Commissioner Hill, and we have a nay on with Commissioner Herman. It still passes four to one. Thank you. We'll move now to item 27.

This is a second reading. This will be ordinance number 1758. Amends the Regional Road Impact Fee, RRIF General Administrative Manual, GAM, and the RRIF Capital Improvement Plan, CIP, with revised fees. This was formerly bill number 1949.

Is there any public comment? There is not. All right. This is a second reading. Do anybody want to hear presentation or any questions? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion at this time. That's ordinance number 1758 as outlined in the staff report. We have a motion by Vice Chair. We have a second. Second. Second by Commissioner Hill. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We'll go ahead and close item 28. We'll move to, excuse me, close item 27, move to 28. Manager Thomas.

Thank you. This is a master plan amendment case number WMPA 25-003. and Regulatory Zone Amendment Case Number WRZA25-0004. It's consideration of Planning Commission's recommendation to accomplish four things, which I'll read into the record. One, adopt a series of Master Plan text amendments to bring the Washoe County Master Plan into conformance with the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan. Two, adopt Master Plan map amendments to the Cold Springs, North Valleys, Northwest, Southwest Truckee Meadows, and Verdi Master Plan land use maps in order to apply the Open Space Master Plan category. to 40 parcels which were released from the city of Reno's sphere of influence. Three, subject to final approval of the associated master plan amendment and a finding of conformance with the Truckee Meadows regional plan by regional planning authorities, adopt regulatory zone amendments to the Cold Springs, North Valley, Southwest Truckee Meadows and Verdi regulatory zone maps in order to apply the open space regulatory zone to a subset of 20 of those above reference parcels, including parcels that are located outside of the adopted Washoe County regulatory zone map areas, and for, if approved, authorize the chair to sign a master plan and regulatory zone amendment resolutions to this effect. The 40 parcels proposed to receive the open space master plan category are assessor's parcel numbers as listed on page 25 of the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Dr. Young.

Thank you. I recognize that's a bit of a mouthful.

You can almost read it again.

Thank you for your patience as staff is pulling up the presentation.

See, there's so many parcels. It's taken a while to load.

Oh, boy.

I think so. Right. You know what the big question would be? Can you name all the parcels by by memory? Okay, okay. I was gonna give you an opportunity. Sure. You bet. So let's take a five-minute recess. Thank you. I'm going to call the meeting back to order at 1227.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Eric Young, Senior Planner, Washoe County Planning Program. This was quite a mouthful to get through the introduction. We are doing a variety of things today. We are doing master plan text amendments. That will bring our master plan into conformance with the regional plan. We're doing master plan map amendments that will provide designations to 40 properties that the city of Reno released from their sphere of influence. And then 20 of those properties will require a zoning designation as well. So those are the three different things that we're looking at today. The master plan text amendments also come in two flavors, so to speak. The schedule amendments are amendments that are requested upon an update of the county master plan. So when we updated our master plan a few years ago, they gave us a list of amendments that they'd like us to take on when we had time and as we were doing these types of amendments. Then there are some new policies that the regional plan adopted since we adopted our plan. That includes some new tools that they would like all the local jurisdictions to adopt. So the schedule amendments are usually minor things. As you can see here, they range from language about the resort services area to removing references to the Reno Stead Corridor Joint Plan and other smaller things that are almost maybe called in cleanup. items that we are bringing for these five items as scheduled amendments as requested by the regional planning agency. There are some new policies as I mentioned. There's a natural resources consideration areas. These are is a pretty good tool developed by the regional planning agency to help developers and staff understand what the natural resources are in any given area and if any of those resources have special designations associated with them. There's a policy associated with the Truckee Meadows Regional Trails Plan. This is the ongoing attempt by all the jurisdictions to make sure our trails might actually align with each other and have a true regional trails network. So this requirement and tool will help us do that. And then there is a policy for source water protection and watershed management to include the integrated source water and watershed management protection plan in our review of development items. The amendments that are associated with the release of the 40 parcels are from the Renosphere's influence, just to Make sure we understand what a sphere of influence is. That can be a little confusing sometimes. It's an area into which a city plans to expand within the next 20 years based on population projections and capacities for growth. An SOI cannot exist outside of the Truckee Meadows services area. A change to a city's sphere of influence constitutes a regional plan amendment. So what this is telling us is that when the sphere of influence, changed when the city of Reno determined that they did not want to annex any of these parcels any longer. There had been a plan to annex them in the next 20 years, therefore they were in the sphere. After consideration, development, and growth, the city of Reno determined that these parcels should not be in their sphere of influence and release them from the sphere. So that creates a regional plan amendment. It also means that we no longer have, there's no longer a master plan designation So Washoe County is now responsible for establishing that master plan designation. So the 40 parcels that are planned to get this new designation are all owned by the federal or the state government. Most of them are owned by BLM. There's a handful that are for service and there is one that's owned by the state. They are spread mostly throughout the north of the river, so to speak. There's a handful south of the river, but most are in the north. Because they are scattered around, it's difficult to provide a single large map that shows where they all are, but there are individual maps provided in your staff report to see where they all are. There are 20 parcels that will also require a zoning designation along with the master plan designation. These publicly owned parcels, and one of the reasons they've been released from the city of Reno Sphere, is that they all have significant development constraints, mostly slopes. They mostly have very significant slopes. Not all of them. Some of them have other development constraints. The determination by staff is that all of these parcels should have an open space designation. Not only an open space master plan designation, but actually an open space zoning designation as well. And this determination comes from just simply looking over our definitions of open space master plan and open space zoning. This is what our code and our master plan says those designations are for and why we should use them. natural resource, scenic preservation, sensitive area protection, flood control, cultural resources, recreation, energy production, and federal land management. The federal government does not intend to dispose of these properties. They haven't been discussed of in terms of disposing. So they want to continue managing and want to manage them as open space. So an appropriate designation by the county would be open space. The master plan and zoning amendments for the regional plan conformance are varied. We have within our Within our own master plan, we have several items that discuss that these are appropriate designations and that these tools that we're being asked to utilize by the regional planning agency will actually help further our own goals and policies that exist in our master plan. I have provided a variety of motions for your consideration for both the master plan amendments and the zoning amendments, but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have before we get to there.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Do we have any public comment? There is none. Thank you. Well, I'll entertain a motion at this time, please.

After finding all the required findings for the first part, I move to adopt master plan case number WMPA250003 as outlined in the staff report. In addition, the second item moved to approve as outlined in the staff report with the required findings. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and close item 28, move to 29, public comment.

Manager Thomas. Thank you. Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person. It may pertain to matters both on and off the commission agenda. Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers, and comments are to be made to the commission as a whole.

Do you have any public comment? We do.

Robbie Williams.

Hello, Robbie Williams. For the record, I just didn't have enough time to address transparency in a time when we want the most transparent vote in this county ever in history. So, many of us observers have felt ignored, made fun of, and dismissed, but let me tell you another instance about transparency, and you guessed the trend. In 2022, if we had a question, we simply went to the desk in the lobby of ROV, said we had a question and either Jamie or Heather would come and answer it. In 2024, in the middle of the general election, we were told we must write our questions down and someone would come and answer them. We assume the same day, which is mostly what happened, almost always, until we noticed that there was a scanner missing from the ballot counting room. We think we turned our question in somewhere around 11 a.m., but we can't remember now. It's been a while. And the question went unanswered all day long. This is a ballot scanner in an active count of our ballots. So we just waited. We wanted to know what happened to it. It took the very end of the night that they made us wait. We didn't appreciate having to wait, I think, 11 or 12 hours, I'm not sure, to find out where the scanner was. We had to wait until we were able to find Andrew and Kate leaving the building at the end of the night to ask them, what happened to scanner number 11? Where did it go? So there was no advance notice, no observation, no cameras. The building on Rock Street was unsecured. Traffic, we were photographing going in and out because we had someone out there. So is this an improvement or a block? Transparency, now in 2026, we now must submit questions and they have 72 hours to answer. If there is an action in real time and we have this question, they can take 72 hours, yet the live streams are removed every 24 hours, both live stream and on YouTube, making our questions hard to look back. Is this better transparency? Now we have to go in and jump through hoops just to get questions answered. And if something's happening and we don't understand it, and there is no meaningful observation that is mandatory, we can't get an answer right then and there. Is that better transparency?

Thank you.

Thank you. We have nobody else signed in. Thank you.

Okay, we'll close public comment. We'll move to item 30, commissioners and county manager announcements, reports, and updates. Manager Thomas.

These are reports and updates to include boards and commission updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas. I don't have anything for you.

Vice Chair, do you have anything? Commissioner Herman, do you have anything? Commissioner Hill? Commissioner Clark?

Just a couple of quick items. I think that the information that Ms. Williams brought forward just a moment ago should be looked into. I think questions that can be answered in real time should be answered in real time and not answered at a later date. I think it's imperative that we try and build the trust with the citizens and answer questions as they're asked. if it's at all possible. So I make that comment. And the next comment I have is I'd like to request a meeting with the county manager and Mr. Large from the DA's office as soon as possible after our meeting today. Thank you.

Thank you. I would just like to, in the future, maybe look at the annexation process as it relates to the cost impact when, for instance, another jurisdiction annex based on the sphere of influence not only to, and I know this isn't the Board of Fire Commissioners meeting, but as it impacts public safety costs from a funding mechanism and how that impacts us and what are the legal parameters to which that works. So I think that would be helpful to learn more about that at the appropriate time. All right. Hearing that we have no other comments, we'll go ahead and close the meeting at 1241. Thank you for a great meeting.