Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to call the meeting of the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners to order on August 25th, 2026 at 10 a.m. And if we could have Chief Edwards do a salute to the flag, that would be great. Thank you. I'm so used to it.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and move to roll call, please. Chair Andreola? Present. Vice Chair Garcia? Here. Commissioner Hill?

Here.

Commissioner Clark is absent. Commissioner Herman? Here. On my phone. County Manager Kate Thomas. Here. District Attorney Mike Larch. Present. And Chief Edwards. You're here. And I'm Jan Galassini, your County Clerk. Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and move to item three, please. Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This morning we have an invocation that is provided by Reno Satanic.

Is this volume good? May thee seek knowledge unfettered, free to discover with curious impulse new wonders of the world, and from understanding gained be released of unneeded fear to lift high a star of compassion, shining bright upon the morn, revealing neighbors plentiful of every color and creed standing together beneath a shared dream united as one in common endeavors we can deny fists of iron their oppressive rule to stately declare let freedom reign whilst making more true and alive visions once written long ago along Atlantic shore. Hold fast thy freedoms and set thy eyes upon what benefits all, lest through self-deceived hearts the bells of liberty and justice fall silent, a once beautiful song absent from the land.

Okay, we are going to now move to item number four, but just for the record, I'd like to share that we are going to, especially given the situation with the fires and the needed attention by Chief Edwards, we are going to move item eight right after his update, so I want to just let everyone know that.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, County Manager, Richard Edwards, Fire Chief, Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue. I thought I'd be coming here this morning, a couple weeks ago, to provide an update on where we were at with the bug in the stallion fires, and I will do that. And clearly, we've had another large disaster with our community, so I'll provide an update on that as well. I know our community is very fatigued. They're tired of the fires and our firefighters are feeling the same effects and our law enforcement partners and everyone. So really just try to appeal to everyone to please be careful in our open space while you're recreating. I mean, part of what makes northern Nevada so beautiful is all of our recreational lands. But when we're not careful, we see the impacts of what can happen. And so we just need to do our part as the people that are visiting these areas and having fun in those areas to be mindful that it just takes one spark, one little bit of heat with the weather conditions that we've had and the fuel conditions right now that are going to continue all the way up until the fall and the winter when we start getting measurable rain. So I please just ask everyone to be extra careful in our open spaces. Almost two weeks ago on Saturday to the date, the bug fire started over in California. It burned into Washoe County and through the northern part of the district. That fire today is at 97% containment, which is great. The incident management team is actually getting ready to demobilize. And then we'll put that back to just local cooperators to manage the continued fire. rehabilitation and restoration efforts at that fire. On August 10th, at 8.50 in the morning, the Stallion Fire started. That fire grew to over 40,600 acres. That fire today is also 98% contained. There's just a little bit of land there to get that one wrapped up as well. So that part of the incident management team, the type three team that's managing both those, those will go back to the regional cooperators to manage those fires, to put those to rest. Sadly, two weeks to the day, the Hawk fire started. So this past Saturday, about 11, 15 in the morning, a fire started up in the foothills right above the community of Somerset. That fire grew rapidly. We saw very extreme fire behavior there as we were under red flag conditions. So The fuels, as I spoke about earlier, were very ripe and receptive to fire, very low humidity. They've been dried out over the last couple of weeks at very high temperatures. And then we added the wind component into that as well. We saw winds upwards of 40 miles an hour on that fire. So it allowed that fire to travel almost six miles in about 18 hours, which is incredibly fast. To date, that fire has burned over 15,000 acres. We're excited. We announced yesterday there's 27% containment. We expect that number to go up later today. So looking forward to that update and we'll be able to share that out as well. There's over 800 personnel assigned to the fire. To date, we've had four civilian injuries, three firefighters injured, and suppression efforts there. But I'm very pleased to announce that there's been no fatalities reported to this date. We were able to get damage assessment teams into the area yesterday. We know that this fire impacted residential neighborhoods. residential, the damage assessment has come back that there's been 32 homes lost residential structures and six more that were severely damaged. And I share that cautionarily as that we know those numbers are going to increase and we'll report updated numbers this afternoon as damage assessment teams continue to work into the night last night as the fires moderated and made it safe enough that we can get our civilian staff in there to look at those areas. Um, because of the area that was impacted by the fire was so, um, heavily populated. Uh, we also brought in, um, canine search teams. Um, and these areas are frequently traveled by our transient. We have no reports of missing people. We wanted to be very sure that anyone else that was just moving through that area was accounted for or should they have been impacted by that fire as well. So also very pleased to note that there's been no hits by those canine teams in those areas. But they're also going to be out in the areas working again today and we'll report any updates that come from that. um do the hard work of the firefighters the last couple of days we were able to open us 395 last night we were able to repopulate several areas um at the peak of this we had more than 43 000 people under a go now evacuation this is an incredible number especially when you consider that there was another 45 000 people under a get-set evacuation. Almost 90,000 members of our community displaced or soon to be displaced. With the changes last night, those numbers decreased significantly. We have about just under 15,000 people under a go-now evacuation, and we have almost 34,000 people under a get-set. And I don't want people to get complacent and that gets that. Sadly, we're going to see increased winds and fire weather come back to the area this probably Thursday and Friday. And so I'm sure folks in the neighborhood saw that the fire was still burning actively up on the peak last night. And so we're concerned about that impacting those perimeter areas and the control lines that have been put in place. And so we're going to do our best to make sure that fire stays within those containment lines. And that's going to be the hard work that's done by those firefighters and our law enforcement personnel out on those lines day in, day out. We do have an incident management team that's coming to help manage this incident because of the complexity and not just for the fire suppression efforts, but the recovery efforts for our community as well. Knowing that so many homes have been impacted by this, there's going to be a lot of cleanup activities that also will coincide with this entire response. I do want to share one last thing that there's been a lot of questions on how our community can help. And I think that's another beautiful part about Washoe County and our neighbors. Everyone comes together during times of crisis. And there's a great opportunity for folks to help out those that have lost or been displaced through this disaster as well. I'd really like to get those folks to go to emergencywashoe.com. There's a lot of lists of other opportunities and partner agencies on there, and we can guide people to the right resources, and that really helps keep the phone lines open. If you don't have access to a computer, you can also call 311, and they'll guide you in the right direction as well. And for those that don't have a couple apps, I really want to recommend to the community, you need to have the WatchDuty app and PerimeterMap.com. That's not an app. It's a website. But if you have WatchDuty, you can set the settings specific to Washoe County. You'll get an alert when there's a fire in Washoe County. You also get updates regularly when evacuations change. And there'll be links into WatchDuty that take you right to the PerimeterMap.com. You can see where you're at. You can put your own address into that map feature. It'll let you know if you're under an evacuation or not. And I think one of the most important pieces of that perimeter map is also the evacuation routes. We become so complacent to how we go and come from our homes or the grocery store, and we always travel the same routes. that may not be the most safe route to get people out during a disaster. And so using that map, our emergency management team, working with our fire first responders and our law enforcement partners identified those evacuation routes that are the safest to get people out the quickest. And having that at your fingertips is life-saving during a disaster. And we really want to make sure people have those tools available to them. That concludes my update right now. We will be continuing to provide additional information throughout this incident. I know there's another press conference scheduled for later this afternoon. We'll provide updated numbers there. Happy to answer any questions.

Well, thank you, Chief Edwards. Certainly, we are all aware of a back-to-back situation. It's great that you brought up the bug fire, and even though it has getting very close to 100% containment, there was a lot that were impacted, and I don't want to lose the fact that our community really, as a whole, has been suffering a lot. And I just want to add a couple other little things. If everyone has an online opportunity, they can go to the Hawk Fire on Facebook, and that also has the latest information. But Washoe, emergencywashoe.com is in fact the best thing. And I just want to do a couple other things. One, long-term recovery is long-term, and so The Community Foundation actually set up this long-term fund that happened at the Davis Fire, and it's only been in the last three weeks that they helped the last person with the Davis Fire. So you can see the long-term recovery is long. So I would really strongly consider, if you're wanting to help, there are a lot of ways, but the Community Foundation Wildfire Relief Fund, 100% of it goes to long-term recovery. And they work with a lot of partners, including the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, and many others. So it is a joint effort in our community to help our community. And lastly, I'll say thank you to everybody and our thoughts and prayers for everyone who's been impacted because this has been devastating, not only to the folks that have been impacted, but to all of us. And I think what makes our community great, absolutely great, is the fact that we do come together. No matter what, and I really have been saying this since the beginning, it's neighbors helping neighbors. If you don't know your neighbor, know them now. And you know what? You don't know what your neighbor may or may not have in terms of need or restrictions, whether they might have sight impairment or some other abilities that they can't even lift, for instance. So let's all work together. And thank you to you, Chief Edwards, for your leadership. Thank you to the Southwest Area Management Team. That was where the bug Fred Mountain and Stallion Fire and now the Great Basin team that's come in. Thanks to Governor Lombardo for signing the emergency declaration. Thanks to Manager Thomas and the leadership team at Washoe County who initiated that declaration without even a blink of an eye. That gave you, Chief Edwards, and everyone else the resources that we have now. And we're hoping that that 27% goes as quickly as it can. Evacuations are really, really a scary thing. And please look at PerimeterMap.com because what has happened and what you might have seen is people... don't necessarily want to leave and if you are in red please leave because there's been some situations that certainly speak to actually leaving could save your life and so i'm encouraging everyone to help each other here and thanks to all the first responders and everyone that has done immense work. You all must be extremely tired and that's why we're gonna move number eight right under so we can get chief back where he needs to be in terms of helping. But thank you and thank you for my colleagues for giving me that time. Do you have any questions? Commissioner Hill.

I don't have a question. I just want to thank you, Chief, for your leadership and also want to say thank you to the chair for your leadership. You have been amazing in making sure that this information is getting out to the public, to your coworkers, you're coordinating with staff, you're doing an amazing job. And I'm just, I know you've been working a lot as well, so I just appreciate your leadership and thinking of the affected families and That's what I love about Northern Nevada. We help each other. And I think there's a great opportunity for us to leverage this compassion that our community has and continue to support each other through these really tough times. So I just appreciate the opportunity to try to support our community. And you let us know what you need, Chief, and thinking about all the men and women who are making sure that we're safe as a community.

Absolutely. We appreciate the support.

Vice Chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I echo my colleague over there for the leadership that you've taken. I also wanted to extend my thanks and gratitude. You know, we've had three emergency declarations in 67 days. We're on the heels of the Hidden Valley flood, ash flood. We've had these devastating fires. We've been under a tremendous amount of pressure and stress. So not to say the same things you all did, but I did want to say thank you to our Washoe County staff. We have our 311 team that has been working just tirelessly to get folks those answers to the questions that are in really difficult scary moments and so good job 311 to our county manager's office everybody putting all hands on deck even delivering food to the EOC and making sure that people are are fed so that they can put in these grueling hours to our community partners like Washoe County School District and RTC who are providing buses. The Boys and Girls Club, community partners like that step up to provide child care and our churches opening up their doors to welcome families in need. I mean, this is really a testament to how beautiful our community is. We are far from being done here, but if you think about what we've endured in the last 67 days, it is pretty remarkable how we've come together. So let's, in the spirit of that, let's just keep moving forward, support law enforcement and fires directives. I know it's really tiring to hear, you can't go home yet. But I did, I get one question over and over again, and it happens in every crisis. And the question is, how come we aren't told how many homes were destroyed or impacted like day one? Why aren't you giving us hour by hour updates? Can you talk to the damage assessment team and why we as a county have to utilize the examiner's office to make those phone calls and what the process is briefly so people know, like we would love to get that information out as quickly as we can, but if you can lean into that for me, please.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a very complicated process and it's very methodical on how we approach this. So as soon as a fire comes through an area, we get reports that there's been impact to neighborhoods or residential structures or businesses, whatever the case may be. That information is transmitted back to the incident command post. Then we work with their emergency manager through the Emergency Operations Center. And the emergency operations center then coordinates with county staff or city staff to bring building inspectors out to actually survey the area. And that's part of that damage assessment, but we can't put those folks in there until it's safe to do so because they're not firefighters. They don't have fire suppression equipment. We're actually providing them with protective personal protective equipment. So. And no mix jackets and helmets and stuff to be able to operate in a very hazardous condition, so they can go in there and do that assessment. Once they get that assessment done they figure out where which parcels are impacted, then they work with the assessor's office the assessor's office helps to get them the contact information. And then, once they have the contact information that information is then transmitted to the medical examiner's office. as their best position to be able to make those phone calls and give that bad news, sadly. And then once those things are all happening or while that process is in place, then we're sharing out the total number of homes that have been damaged or lost. And then what we also do when we repopulate certain areas We make sure those homeowners that lost their homes or had severe damage are let back into those areas a couple hours before everybody else. So they have some time to collect their thoughts. They can go back and see their properties. without their neighbors coming by and taking pictures and all the other things and just being more impactful that way and just giving them some grace through this entire process. And then we'll let everybody else back in. And I know we're working hard on the back end. I'm going to work with the emergency manager's office or the EOC today to talk about you know services for those folks because that was a lot of questions last night the community meeting is how do we get fire reports how do we get the insurance information and all these other documents the assessor's office was there as well so um there's going to be many more questions to come and we'll provide those updates and information as appropriate thank you you're welcome thank you commissioner herman am i on you are

Okay, sorry. I'm not going to take up any more of your time, Chief. I know we need to get rolling here and get you rolling out the door, but thank you for your service and all your employees. I'm so grateful. So I will hang up now and let you go on with the meeting.

Don't quite hang up. No, no, no. I'm going to mute. I'm sorry.

It's okay, I won't. Okay, okay, okay. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Anything else? Thank you, Chief. We are going to close Item 4, but we are... On a very serious note, that gentleman just stood up, and I think that's exactly what we should do. We should be standing up and thanking everyone. Thank you so much. Can I mention emergencywashoe.com? Okay. We're going to move now to item eight. Item eight is convening the board for a joint session of the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District. And Mr. Large, is there anything that you would like to add?

We need to convene this as a joint session of the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District. This board will sit jointly as both. And then I will note that we'll have public comment after this item. And then at the end of the meeting, pursuant to NRS 241.021, we will reconvene as both the Board of County Commissioners and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District to allow final public comment.

Okay, very good. Thank you, thank you. Manager Thomas, is there anything you'd like to add?

No, I would just read the item into the records so we can begin. Thank you. Item 8 is a recommendation to approve an interlocal agreement as authorized by NRS 277.180 between Washoe County, a political subdivision of the state of Nevada, and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, which is a political subdivision of the state of Nevada and a fire district organized pursuant to Chapter 474 of the Nevada Revised Statutes for services provided between agencies outlining the responsibilities, actions, and payments necessary to for the execution of the agreement, which is in the mutual interest of both agencies, for governmental services to be performed in the most cost-efficient and effective manner possible. This is for fiscal year 2027, and the contract amount is $1.3 million. This interlocal agreement replaces the current agreement that was entered into in July of 2012, and then subsequently amended in July of 2016. We've got Dave Siller here, Assistant County Manager, to walk us through what this means.

Welcome, Mr. Solero, also at the EOC. So pretty much everyone is on borrowed sleep.

Thank you very much. For the record, Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager. Just by a little way of background, the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District actually covers all of southern Washoe County, with the exception of Incline Village, up to Township 22. And that runs roughly just south of Rancho Haven area, kind of red rock, up top into red rock. It goes straight across and cuts kind of Warm Springs Valley right in half. And so everything north of Township 22 is actually covered. Fire protection is actually covered by Washoe County, Washoe County Fire. As you can imagine, you know, we don't have fire trucks and those sorts of things. So we do have a couple of volunteer organizations that help us out north of Township 22. But really, this agreement helps Washoe County fire by allowing Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District to assume the volunteer oversight, volunteer fire departments, the structures themselves, all of the equipment, maintain the equipment, and keep all those things up and running to assist Washoe County with, as Manager Thomas mentioned, the cost-effective way of doing business. So Washoe County, not a fire department, trucking meadows fire protection district full fire protection district they really understand all the relationships and everything else i don't know if chief edwards mentioned that there are a couple of fires right now up in the via area so they have actually sent a liaison up there to liaise with the federal government who's managing those fires That's really on behalf of Washoe County. And so there's a lot of things that they know better about fire protection than Washoe County does. And so we'll let the experts do the expert work that they do. On the other side of this agreement, however, we provide services to Fire Protection or to Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District as well, whether it's assistance with human resources or assistance with the district attorney's office. There are services that Washoe County provides. And so this agreement also covers uh the the relationship there on those services that we can provide better than trucking meadows fire protection district so uh as mentioned as uh manager thomas also mentioned this will replace the existing agreement that we have uh that was created in july 2012 when we stood back up the trucking meadows fire protection district so all in all i think this is a really good opportunity for the two governmental agencies to provide effective services for our community. And so if there are any specific questions you have, I'm here to answer those and Chief Edwards again as well.

Thank you. Chief Edwards, do you have anything that you'd like to add?

Yeah, I would just like to add that I think this interlocal agreement really plays upon the strengths of both agencies to create efficiencies and provide more seamless services throughout the north of Township 22. So very grateful for the partnership to bring this before you today.

Thank you. I'm gonna call for public comment. Does anybody have any questions first? Commissioner Herman, do you have any questions? And I'm gonna call for public comment.

I don't have any. Okay, thank you.

We'll go ahead and call for public comment at this time. There's nobody signed in. Thank you. Hearing none. Madam Chair, I just have a quick question for the Chief.

Sure, sure. Chief, if people are interested, I know TM is in charge of coordinating all the volunteer fire services. If people are interested in learning more on how to become a volunteer firefighter, where do we direct them? And if you could share that.

Yes, we're always looking for volunteer firefighters, so you can please visit our website at tmfpd.us. There's a volunteer firefighter link on there with all the information.

Sign up today, please. All right, anything else? So we don't have any further questions. We don't have any public comment. I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Move to approve.

I'll second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chief Edwards, and I'm sure that we'll be in touch. All right, we're going to go ahead now and move to the agenda item as outlined since we I'm sure everybody understands why we did that.

Madam Chair, we are going to close the meeting of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District Board of Fire Commissioners and reconvene as the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners at this time.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. All right. Now that we're convened as the Board of Washoe County Commissioners, we're going to call for public comment, which is Agenda Item 5. Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is public comment, and 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. The Commission will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person. Please make your comments to the Commission as a whole.

First up, we have Gabriel Beck-Davis, followed by Tyler McCormick.

all right good morning good morning my name is tyler mccormick and i'm honored to be able to stand in front of you today and share my experience with the crossroads men's program and i'm here to speak on my agenda item 10 h3 I'd like to start with some clarification about this program. Crossroads is not a rehab or transitional living. It is a behavioral change therapeutic community. This is an important distinction in my eyes because while other programs focus solely on sobriety and getting you back in the workforce, Crossroads goes a little bit deeper than that. This program takes a step past just the drug and alcohol use into the behaviors and life choices that led that led a person to abuse substances. Through peer support and curriculum, we are able to identify these problem behaviors and begin the much needed work to focus, much needed work to change them. This program allows us to have a temporary break from the world to really focus on these issues and take inventory on what led us to a point in our lives that called for a complete reset. Personally, Crossroads has changed my life and the way that I move through it. I've struggled with severe alcohol abuse since the age of 17. I used alcohol as a way to self-medicate and numb myself when faced with difficult emotions and challenging life events. And I was seemingly unable to face the darkest parts of my mind without trying to run away. Through this program, I've been able to stay sober for the longest amount of time since my teenage years. I'm happy to say that as of today, I'm three months and 27 days sober from alcohol and all other drugs. I was able to accomplish this through the structure and processes of Crossroads. I've been able to take that personal inventory, identify my problem behaviors, and I have made substantial progress in making the changes that will help me live a fulfilling life after this program. Along with myself, I've seen Crossroads help so many people make these same positive changes in extreme ways and go on to live amazing and fulfilling lives. There is magic in the Crossroads program, and I have seen it work firsthand many, many times. We build strong lifelong bonds with peers while navigating our time spent in Crossroads to the point that we often say that once a member of Crossroads, always a member of Crossroads. I also want to thank Commissioner Herman for her continued support, and I will hand this off to Gabriel Davis. Isn't that the next speaker?

All right. Good morning. My name is Gabriel Beck Davis, a senior phase and leadership member at Crossroads. I am extremely grateful for the privilege and opportunity to speak here today about Crossroads and Agenda Item 10 H3. First, I'd like to share a little bit about what brought me to Crossroads and my experience so far. Since I was a teenager, I've struggled with alcohol abuse and occasionally other drug usage.

do I keep going okay thank you no I well I will say this I'm gonna ask procedurally what your recommendation is did he sign in for the next or his he's somewhere in the list I think there was just one that signed in exactly so I just I'm gonna ask the legal firm you have the discretion chair to extend time Do you think you might, and not to discount the importance of your message, we all wanna hear it, so I'm gonna extend it, but if you could be succinct, that would be great. Thank you so much. Sorry to interrupt.

No, thank you. The behaviors I developed at a young age resulted in me making this usage a much smaller issue than it truly was. Due to this mindset, I found myself getting into legal trouble and using substance to cover some issues with my mental health and with the way that I process emotions and feeling. I've had several times throughout the years where I would achieve sobriety only to fall back into my old habits. My most recent encounter with the legal system would be what ultimately led me to Crossroads. For years, I had viewed places such as transitional living programs, rehabilitation programs, halfway houses, and sober living environments negatively. I would have done anything in my power to avoid places like this. However, upon touching down at Crossroads, I soon realized that it was not like these other places and programs. Crossroads focuses on the problematic behaviors that fueled my usage rather than just the usage itself, this being why it's called a behavioral change therapeutic community. Through the structure of our phases, the sense of community, the community, or sorry, committee involvement, and the structured curriculum that we offer and the opportunities to give back to our outside community in Washoe County, I was granted the opportunity to truly get my life back on track and work on the behaviors that needed to be addressed. Although today I stand with 562 days of sobriety, it is... Thank you. It is the 167 days I've spent in Crossroads that has significantly changed my life and sent me down the path of a sober, successful future. I see the same impact made on the brothers around me. We moved down this path together as a community, pushing our fellow peers as we climb. Once you are a member of Crossroads, you are always a member of Crossroads. The care and brotherhood will always remain. That being said, Crossroads survives and thrives off of support from the community that we live in. Commissioner Herman, we want to thank you so much for your continued support of Crossroads and we want to celebrate you as you enter the next chapter of your life. It is very clear that you are one of us and we would like to acknowledge you as a Crossroads champion. We as members and staff would like to present you with a certificate making this title official and a Crossroads t-shirt.

So we'll make sure that Commissioner Herman gets that. And I'm just going to ask for just my own procedural request. Would you be so kind to just fill out a card with your name in the back in that way that you would have spoken?

They both filled out cards.

Oh, they did. Oh, okay, good. Oh, well, there you go. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Tyler McCormick, followed by Terry Brooks.

Oh, okay. Oh, that was Tyler McCormick. I thought that was the case. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Terry Brooks, followed by Anika Shatt.

Good morning. It's me, Terry Brooks, again. And today I'd like to share my presentation about culture and housing when it comes to discrimination. A lot of people of the same culture are sometimes like birds of a feather, so they often live in places where they can all be together. And sometimes if people of a different culture try to move there, then they might be discriminated against and then have to move out of there. It could be because of the country that they're from. Some see a different culture as a beat from a different drum. Or it could be because of the language that they use, a language that others don't want to listen to or use. Sometimes it could be because of their religious beliefs, or sometimes it could be because of a lack of such religious beliefs. And if property is owned by someone of one culture, they may not want to sell or rent to someone of a different culture. All cultures are different in a lot of ways, just like all people are different in a lot of ways. But when different cultures live together, the more they each express, then they become more open-minded, and the more they all progress. When people are discriminated against, that's a lot for them to bear. But when people care about each other, there is a lot to share. Respecting each other leads to getting to know each other. And the more people know each other, the more they learn from each other. The more diversity that there is in a neighborhood, then the more knowledge is gained in that neighborhood. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood when you treat everyone like a neighbor. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood when everyone treats you like a neighbor. I'd like to thank you all for putting up with me today and I'll come back to this neighborhood when I have more to say.

Thank you.

Annika Shatt followed by Nurit Stites.

Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Anika Schott. I am a small business owner in Washoe County. I own and operate Anika Schott's Bakery in Washoe Valley. I'm here today because I believe small businesses in this county need a voice when it comes to the way regulations are being interpreted and enforced by the Health Department. I want to make something very clear. I believe in food safety. I believe in inspections. I believe businesses serving the public should be held to high standards. I am not standing here asking for fewer food safety protections. I am asking for regulations to be reasonable, consistent, transparent, and actually connected to public safety. I previously operated my father's bakery, Eric Schott's Bakery in Bishop, California. And moving back to Nevada, I operated my bakery cart with the health department approval. It operated during the 2022, 23, 24 seasons. I have never failed any inspection or permit because I take the safety of my customers extremely seriously. In 2025, I opened my brick and mortar bakery and temporarily stopped operating the cart. I allowed the cart's health department permit to expire because I was not using it. During the approval process of my brick and mortar location, I specifically informed health department personnel that I intended to reopen the cart when I was ready to use it again during the summer months. An employee was present with me during this conversation. The response I received from the health department was, we will see about that. Unfortunately, that statement became a preview of what happened next. When I attempted to reopen the cart that had previously been inspected and approved, I was using this for young children to learn business, faced with additional requirements and ultimately spent a significant amount of money remodeling equipment that had already been approved for operating. I complied because I want to operate legally and safely, but one of the required modification involved the plumbing and gray water system in a way that in my experience operating the equipment actually created less safe conditions. When the sink operates, water can spray from the open gray water connection, which was how I was told to change the system. this is incredibly frustrating for business owners i'm being told that a modification is required in the name of health and safety while i'm watching the modifications create what appears to me to be additional sanitary concerns i have spent money on remodeling equipment permitting compliances i spent hours communicating with the health department and trying to do exactly what has been asked of me and after spending this money and making these changes i have still experienced delays and difficulty simply getting the process completed and paying Washoe County $1,000 for a food.

Yeah, but would you be so kind to talk to the staff and follow up with connecting you? Thanks. Thank you.

Narit Stites followed by Linda Haag.

Good morning, Chair and members of the Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning and thank you for the work you do on behalf of our community. My name is Nereid Stites and I serve on Jewish Nevada's Northern Nevada Council. I'm here today on behalf of Jewish Nevada to express our gratitude for your continued support of Milk and Honey Jewish Cultural Festival. Commissioner Clark, thank you for recommending $10,000 in district funds for this year's festival, and thank you for the commission for supporting this funding. This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate our fifth annual Milk and Honey Festival. Commissioner Clark and the County Commission have supported Milk and Honey each year, helping us grow into an important North Nevada community celebration. Milk and Honey is free and open to all, bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together to experience Jewish culture, traditions, foods, music, and community. This Sunday, August 30th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the McKinley Arts and Cultural Center, we'll welcome more than 70 new and returning vendors and community partners, local and from beyond our region, supporting small businesses and bringing a wonderful variety to the festival. The day will also feature food from Reno Food Group, family activities, Israeli folk dancing, and a live performance by Jewish country artist Joe Buchanan. At its heart, Milk and Honey is about connection, creating a welcoming space to celebrate Jewish culture while strengthening relationships and understanding throughout our broader community. Commissioner Clark commissioners and everyone here or watching today. We hope you'll join us on Sunday milk and honey again is open for everyone. And we would love to welcome you. Thank you again for five years of partnership and support. Finally, I'd like to express gratitude. to our first responders, law enforcement, military personnel, and you, our leaders, for your tireless work and support as they battle the hog fire and continue to do what is most important for our community, saving people and their properties. Thank you.

Thank you. Linda Haag, followed by Leona K. Janoski.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Commissioners. Linda Haag, President and Founder of Adopt-a-Vet Dental Program. On behalf of Adopt-a-Vet, I would like to publicly thank Commissioner Herman for her continued support for several years now to help us provide critical dental care to our low-income veterans in dire need. A shocking 95% of our veterans do not qualify for dental care at the VA because the requirements are so restrictive. And this has resulted in an epidemic of oral health disease among our veterans in Nevada. Adopt-A-Vet now is in its 16th year, and we have helped over 2,600 veterans receive comprehensive dental care so they can eat without pain. chew and digest their food properly for better nourishment and smile once again. Our goal is to get them back in the community working or volunteering. We currently have 187 volunteer dental providers statewide that have donated 12.1 million dollars in services. 98% of all referrals come from the VA, but we receive no federal funding. To our knowledge, there is no program like ours in the United States, and it started right here in Reno. We invite you to visit our state-of-the-art dental facility in Reno that we built a year ago for our veterans. It has been our honor to serve them. Thank you. Thank you.

Leona Kay Janoski, followed by Darla Lee.

Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Kay Janoski. I live in District 3. I think Commissioner Garcia is my representative. I'm here because we're concerned about severe traffic issues and funding needs in Washoe County. And I represent a group of seniors and veterans and others who have signed a petition, some 50, put signatures, and I ran out of energy and time to get more, but we could have had more. But we're concerned and are formally calling upon local and state government entities, including Nevada Highway Patrol, and growing issues of dangerous driving behavior in our region. We're seeing extreme persistent speeding, aggressive erratic driving, unsafe lane changes, Widespread distracted driving primarily due to cell phone usage. We were rear-ended ourselves. My friend was rear-ended. My son had his car totaled last August by a guy not paying attention, running into him in a left-hand turn lane. And the consistent disregard for traffic signals entering intersections under a red light. We know Washoe County population and traffic has increased to a point where traffic loads are routinely exceeding designed capacities and creating serious traffic hazards both to drivers and pedestrians. Unfortunately, enforcement, planning, resource allocation from state officials have not kept up with the pace with this growth, resulting insufficient police presence, severe dangerous imbalance between number of vehicles on the road, and a lack of consequential traffic violations. There's a critical mass now of people breaking laws. And this petition went to the Highway Patrol. It happened, I had an incident and drove by the Highway Patrol office when I went in. I said, what can we do? And he suggested, well, I was given a piece of paper to sign and send in, and they would give it to the governor and to the city and the city people that are in charge. And we got together as a group and said, ah, that's insufficient, it's not going to work. So we developed the petition, and it's gone to the Highway Patrol, and now presenting it to you for your consideration, because we're all part of this whole TRAFFIC SITUATION IN THE COMMUNITY. AND I THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU. NO.

OKAY. AND I'LL GIVE THE PETITION FOR COPIES TO THE SECRETARY. OKAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

THANK YOU.

DARLA LEE FOLLOWED BY CAROL HECOCK.

morning commissioners darla lee for the record uh... it was somewhat uh... baffling to me that we had an opening prayer by a something that is not a religion So I just, I don't understand if I suddenly decided to form a church of the dogs, would you commissioners allow him to come up and bark for a prayer opening? We are a Christian country. We are not in any way shape or form a religion based on satanic beliefs, which is simply a death cult. So do we want to promote life in this county or are we devoted to death? That is a question that I think needs to be answered. And whoever allowed someone that promotes death, even with a bunch of pretty words, is still bottom line deaf. I would like to, in the rest of my time, Psalm 66, shout for joy to God all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Give to him glorious praise. Say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships and sings praises to you. They sing praises to your name. Come and see what God has done. He is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. He turned the sea into dry land. They passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us, you have tried us, certainly this morning. As silver is tried, you brought us into the net. You laid a crushing burden on our backs. You let our men ride over our heads, and we went through fire and through water, and yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. I come into your house with burnt offerings. I will perform my vows to you. Come and hear." All you who fear God, I will tell you what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. Thank you.

Carol Heacock, followed by Cliff Nellis.

Good morning. I'm here today to speak to you and to thank you for all that you're doing for our county, for the people, for our cities. We see all the issues and all the things that are going on, the problems, how it's affecting everyone. But today I just wanted to share with you a different perspective. And I've been praying for our cities for a long time, and I wanted to share God's perspective that he's put on my heart, what he sees. First of all, he has plans and purposes we know for our cities and for our county, for our state, for the nation. But he showed me a long time ago his perspective, and I want to share that to encourage you today. That he said, I see Reno as a land of light. I call Sparks a city of grace. It's my son Jesus Christ that is the light of the world. And the light came and overtook the darkness. The Lord said, I love the city and I have plans and purposes for this city to be victorious, to be successful, to help the people, to help my creation. He also said that it's only through truth and my love working through people that a city, a state, a county can be transformed. So I want to encourage you all today, encourage our people and our county and our city that we need to operate and speak in truth, in love, in what is right and good and just, and not succumb to evil or what is hurtful. So with that, I want to bless you, and I want to thank you, and I would like you to remember God's perspective. Reno is a land of light. Sparks is a city of grace. And Jesus Christ is the light of the world that has overcome. Thank you.

Cliff Nellis, followed by Abby Pike.

Greetings, commissioners. My name is Cliff Nellis. I'm an evangelist. And I'm a resident of this county for 52 years. I have four daughters who raised them here. They were born here. I am highly offended that this commission would have the audacity to call a Satanist to do the invocation. Satanism is not a religion. I'm fine if you want to bring a Buddhist or whatever you want to bring. Orthodox, Catholic, we have a lot of religions in our community. Satanism does not believe in God. Satanism is not a religion. Satanism does not believe in morality like most religions believe. promote morality, which we need in our community. And it's incredible, you know, the previous chair called this two and a half years ago. This guy, his name was Jason, and apparently he didn't show up this time. And he had some guy come and just read off some patriotic thing. And you know what he did last time? He slandered and blasphemed the God of heaven, our creator, and called him evil. Now, a slight improvement here. This guy didn't. But I tell you something. That's exactly what they promote. That's exactly what they think. And what Satan wants to do, he hates God, he hates religion, he hates people, and he's an arsonist. He wants to burn it all down. And I've heard that from like the Democratic Socialists of America, haven't we? They want to burn it all down. And we had, I'm shocked. You know, our fire chief didn't tell us what actually happened. Somebody set that fire on purpose. There was an arsonist, and they flew out drones. They saw the guy. He's laughing as he comes down the hill. We don't have transparency either. My suggestion to the county commission is this, that you reexamine your calling of Satanists to do the evocation and to exclude them and only pick religious people of whatever religion you want. But you have highly offended me and the whole Christian community in this county.

Abby Pike, followed by Danny Cleas.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Abby Pike for the record. I'm here today representing the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension to thank Commissioner Herman for her generous donation to our 4-H youth development program. The youth participating in 4-H work with their peers and adult club leaders to complete projects throughout the year. And while completing these projects, they learn valuable skills including communication, leadership, and resilience. This donation will support our 4-H large livestock and horse clubs and we are excited to use this to provide training and skill development opportunities for our 4-H youth and volunteer participants. Commissioner Herman, we really appreciate your leadership in our community and your endless support for 4-H youth development. I also wanted to share we will host the Nevada Field Day and Agricultural Expo on September 25th from 2 to 6 p.m. It will be held at the Valley Road Experiment Station site, which is at 1000 Valley Road. We're always looking for new people to participate in all of our programs, including 4-H Youth Development. So anyone who is interested in learning more and attending this field day can visit our website at extension.unr.edu for more information. Thank you.

Danny Cleas, followed by Mark Flanagan.

Danny Cleas, 53-year resident of the North Valleys. This Hawk Fire has been a devastating thing for him. Here we go. We've been telling you about infrastructure. You guys won't listen because it's still not done out there. We've been telling you this ever since 2017 when we were flooded, which I was a victim of. We've had three fires out there in the last month, all surrounding my home. Luckily, nothing happened to my house this time. When there's an evacuation, it needs to be put on the TV so older people, anybody watching TV and not their phone, knows which way the evacuation route should go. Programs should be stopped in our local area. It should be broadcasted as an emergency. It wasn't. Updates don't come fast enough. You're going to hear that all the time. We don't need it every hour, but at least every two to three hours would be nice, a little something, or saying there's no update. The freeway being shut down. When you're evacuating people, you don't shut a freeway down. Everybody leaving there went through a dirt road over to Golden Valley. There was backups on Lemon Drive. for four hours that I noticed. And then they started coming down through our neighborhoods just to jump about 12 cars. They were speeding. I have a radar gun for baseball. Fastest speed, 58 miles an hour. Average speed, 38 miles an hour. That's uncalled for. Road closures. We could get out of the valley if we take the dirt road, but we couldn't get back in. My medicine for my diabetes, our store was closed. My pharmacy was closed. I would have to go all the way to South Reno to go get it, and no way home. You guys... One, models of fires that have been around in the area. Well, the Carr Fire is a perfect model of how the weather contributes to the fires around here. This is our area. Each valley has their own atmosphere, I guess, if you want to call it that. They're all different. Two miles away in Silver Knolls, Could be snowing. My house, nothing. Could be sunny. The biggest thing was the freeway.

Thank you. Mark Flanagan, followed by Melanie Sutton.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Commissioners. Mark Flanagan. Precinct 3005, for the record. What a day this is, what a time. I fed over 400 people hot meals at Cares Campus last night. But what struck me recently was the loss of $7.8 million through embezzlement. I'm gonna frog hop through these pages real quick and I'll get to that embezzlement. But folks, please keep that in mind, $7.8 million. And I fed more than 400 people hot meal at Cares campus last night. Mr. Roper was prosecuted and indicted for embezzling $55,000 this year. Ms. Robb, district court judge, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stalking. Mr. Ching, who was the Washoe County Deputy District Attorney, was charged with open and gross lewdness. And if we think about our invocation today, we might consider a connection. Music teacher, Washoe County School District, booked on felony embezzlement October 2025. Tom Robinson, Reno Police Deputy Chief, arrested during a human exploitation operation that included what he believed to be a minor. Reno, chief of police. Satanic invocation. Reno recently placed police chief Catherine Nance on paid administrative leave. The city has not revealed what the violations were. The public is not allowed to know. Mickey Huntsman was removed without cause, but the public is not allowed to know the details. Jeff Scott bounced in April 2025, followed by McKenzie, and she was subsequently fired as the Washoe County Library Director. But we want a satanic invocation to make things better, or to be cool, or to be cute. Mr. Merchant, fired in 2025. Miss Stein, oh, this is a good one. Here's a person who makes $4,000 and $5,000 a week, is not allowed, has been suspended from her duties, but continues to be paid since February. of 2026, your county at work with the satanic invocation. Karma Box, isn't that wonderful Karma Box supervisor chart? Thank you.

Thank you.

Melanie Sutton followed by Jude Hurin.

Good morning. My name is Melanie Sutton. I live in the North Valleys. I want to start by saying I appreciate the firefighters, first responders, law enforcement, and everyone who has been working to protect the community during these fires. I also understand the evacuations. If my home is in danger, tell me to leave, close the roads, protect lives. I absolutely have no argument with that. My concern is what is happening after the immediate danger has passed. Right now, we are living this. When conditions change in a particular neighborhood, no longer in immediate danger, why are residents still being prevented to returning home and moving freely in and out of their own communities? People have jobs, we need groceries, we have families, homes, property, and animals to take care of. I have 40 plus to 100. These aren't luxuries, this is our everyday life. An emergency response needs to change when the emergency changes. If one area is still in danger, absolutely protect that area. But that shouldn't automatically mean every other neighborhood remains restricted when conditions have improved. I wanna know, Who makes these decisions to keep an area closed? What objective criteria are being used? How frequently are those decisions reassessed? And what criteria have to be met before residents get access to their homes? I'm also concerned when I see resources being used to keep residents out of the areas and no longer facing the same level of danger. The firefighters, law enforcement, National Guard are needed elsewhere where people in property are actively threatened. That's where they should be, not keeping people out of their communities. I'm asking for restrictions to be proportional to the actual threat, for individuals, areas to be continually reassessed, and for restrictions to be removed as soon as they are no longer necessary. During emergency, government is given extraordinary, extraordinary authority over ordinary people's lives. That makes transparency and accountability even more important. So I'm asking this commission to conduct an after action review and evaluate the evacuations and repopulation process of these fires. Please look at who made these decisions, what criteria was used, how frequently conditions were reassessed, whether neighborhoods could have been reopened sooner, and how communications with residents can be improved. Because there will be another fire We should be able to protect the people who are in danger without unnecessary restrictions. When you guys hold people away from their homes for no reason, they're not going to trust you, and they're not going to believe you, and they're going to stay in their homes, and they will die. Thank you.

Jude Hurin, followed by Nicholas St. John.

Good morning. Jude here in Withcombo Church. Isaiah 14, verses 12 through 17. How you have fallen from heaven, O shining star, sun of the morning. You have been thrown down to the earth. You who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, I will ascend to heaven. I set my throne above God's stars. I will preside on the mountains of God's far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the most high. Instead, you will be brought down to the place of dead, down to the lowest depths. Everyone there will stare at you and ask, can this be the one who shook earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble? Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a washland? Is this the king who demolished the world's greatest cities and had no mercies on his prisoners? Revelation 12, 7 through 10... Then there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels, and the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon, the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world, was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, and it come at last, salvation and power and the kingdom of God and the authority of Christ. Washoe County Commissioners, I thank you for today. My prayer is that you come to the understanding that allowing a Satanist the opportunity to open in a form of demonic prayer is also granting evil to come into your proceedings, thoughts, and decisions, which will negatively impact the community you serve. The body of Christ will continue to pray that you choose to lean on Jesus, the Son of God, Jehovah, where truth, wisdom come from, and no longer give the devil even one second of your time. Choose Christ and choose life today. God bless.

Nicholas St. John, followed by Veronica Cortez.

For the record, Nicholas St. John, I too oppose the opening invocation by a Satanist. Scripture says, and Jesus warned us, that Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy. Why this commission would ask for an invocation by an entity that's only mission is to steal, kill, and destroy is beyond us. The problem is that when things like this happened where it opposed God, there were serious consequences. One of them that comes to mind is when the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant and brought it into their place of worship at Dagon. The next morning, Dagon statue was face down on the ground. Supernaturally, God put that on the ground. They stood it upright the next morning. Not only was it on the ground, but the head was severed and both of the hands were severed. So, by having Satan come in and give an invocation, you essentially are asking God to bring some kind of wrath against you. If you think the fires have been devastating at this point, I've beseeched the Lord of God Almighty to show his mighty hand and show that this county is turning itself over to Satan and will reap the consequences of such actions. That's about all I'm going to say about this entire thing. Understand that when things get worse, nobody will be blamed but you who invited it. Also, I have petitioned, thank you, Kate, for the conversations we've had with the ROV about the anomalies that I brought to this board. So far, they've had three responses. Essentially, they said, Nicholas, you don't understand. I may have fallen off the turnip truck, but I assure you it wasn't yesterday. So I have a meeting tomorrow to see if we can get answers. So far, they've responded three times with the exact same response. We've responded to your questions, of which they've responded to none of my questions. They say the same thing, we can't change the voter registration party affiliation, and yet I have their transparent databases that show duplicate records with different parties, 518 of them. So while we're talking about transparency, while we're talking about making sure our elections are secure, there is a problem that only has happened in Washoe County. And while I'm sure that you guys care, actions speak louder than words. So I will continue to pursue this until we find out why only Washoe County had almost over 500 people that after they voted, their party affiliation was changed.

thank you thank you veronica cortez followed by barbara smith

Good morning, Commission. It's Veronica Cortez, your favorite lunch lady. It's good to see you guys last night at the meeting at the fire. It's nice to see that we have leaders involved. I wanted to let you know that in Sun Valley at the Buy Right Pizza, we are offering free slices to anybody who's displaced. I do work at Lemon Valley Elementary, so we haven't been back to school. We didn't go the first week. We had four days on, and then we evacuated on Friday, and then we're back to no school. So I have a lot of personal students, my children that I call, I've come down to the restaurant. We give them bathroom breaks. I'm letting them use my personal house. I have a three bedroom, two bath out there. They can take showers. I had five kids stay at my house the other night. The parents would have rather stayed in their car. So this is real life. I'm a lunch lady. I have been fingerprinted background checked by the Washoe County School District. This is how we take care of our community. Everybody who is evacuated and stuck in Sun Valley is welcome to come to Byright Market. We have a place for you to rest. We have a bathroom. We have a house a block away where you can take a shower, charge your phones, and all of that. On a personal level, that's what I can do. offer to you. Something that you didn't know about me is I'm a certified catechist through the Catholic Church. Everybody knows I'm Catholic. I do see some board members there sometimes. So when I saw the agenda item, I was super shocked because I was like, satanic invocation i thought as the united states you know we just said under god indivisible and then we spoke about satan so this is what i do with my students at the church we have a bible here it's a children's bible so i'm just going to read a little bit it says the holy spirit came and led jesus into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights jesus ate nothing at all after that he was very hungry then the devil came and tempted him saying you are really the son of god turn those stones into bread but jesus said it is written Man must not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from God. Next, the devil took Jesus to the city of Jerusalem and stood on the very top of the temple and said, If you're really the Son of God, throw yourself off the temple, for it is written, His angels will not even let your foot strike a stone. But Jesus also said, It is also written, Do not test the Lord your God. Then the devil took Jesus to the top of the very high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and their riches. I'll give you all of these things, the devil said, if you worship me. But Jesus said, go away, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and the angels came down and served him. This is basic. This is what we're teaching our children. And you just went against all the teachings. I'm embarrassed. I'm depressed. I'm sad. I'm disappointed overall. Now, the prayer to St. Michael deliberately says, go against the snares of the devil.

God bless you.

Thank you. Barbara Smith, followed by Jane Swartley.

Good morning. My name is Barbara. I'm a retired flight systems engineer. I'd like to thank the board for all the excellent work that you do. I'm here to ask if we can get the Washoe County Sheriff's Office to report out how many immigrants that ice is holding or brings through the Washoe County Jail and or releasing their names. ISIS flying detainees out weekly from Reno to Arizona, Texas, bounced around the United States, then to other countries. I've been watching the ICE flights leave Reno every Friday, trying to get a head count on the detainees. They're being treated inhumanely, hands and feet shackled at the waist. These are people. They're not hardened criminals. These are our neighbors. Many came here seeking asylum, a better life, and some came as children. They're just people like you and me. Most of the people that have been picked up are hard workers. They're workers. And it's harmful to our community. ISIS is causing catastrophic harm to our neighbors that are losing the breadwinner of their households. Several of these people were becoming citizens, but as of January have no path to citizenship. It's self-deport or they get deported. Air Wisconsin flies detainees out through Stellar Aviation for us. The detainees are sometimes left shackled on planes for up to 82 hours. Can you imagine the pain and suffering that's causing? This is a clandestine operation where lawyers can't find their clients and families can't find their loved ones. We have not been able to get the information on what has happened to these detainees once they're out of the country. Around 400,000 people have been picked up. They have no rights. They don't get a phone call. They're disappeared. This practice is unconstitutional and lawless. They are not getting due process, no habeas corpus. The courts can't keep up. ICE is playing a game of keep away and hopscotch. Hopscotch and detainees around the country before they're deported. I've included some resources here for you to read if you'd like to. And anything you can do will help. But if we can get a head count out of the sheriff's station, that would be good. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Jane Swartley followed by Chris Ormsby.

Good morning. My name is Jane Swartley and I'm here representing Cold Spring Seniors and also the Lifestyle Home Foundation. It's with my sincere gratitude that myself and our foundation thank Commissioner Clark for all the generous donations that he has made to our foundation. Without these donations, we would not be able to provide fresh foods and vegetables on a weekly basis to our seniors. And also, we are able to now already serve 10 or 12 families every week that aren't able to get out of their homes because of their age or their restrictions. Along with the donations that Commissioner Clark has given us in the past, with all of you voting for us as well and we do thank you for that. He's improved lunches for seniors. He's helped our community with our senior community center there in Cold Springs to be able to open it up a little bit more for people to have the ability to utilize the building which would otherwise be pretty much sitting there empty. He's always brought fire and rescue to our homes and tried to help us to educate us on what we need. So as we appreciate this donation, we also wish Commissioner Clark the best and hope that he will continue to advocate this work. Thank you all and thank him so much for everything that he has done for us. We hope that we can continue his goals and his service that he's given to the seniors. And on another hand, unfortunately, I would like to address the need to get the community center of Cold Springs to be open during fire issues or maybe something else that might come about, a flood or something like that. Hopefully we won't have another fire, but I would like to know who I can speak to at Park and Recs about having the ability to get this building open. Luckily, Cold Springs Family Center was able to announce that we would give them free showers, come up and get electricity, have a cold place to stay for a little bit. And even when you gave water for some of the livestock and horses in the area that needed, they're running out of water as well. So, somewhere along the line, if I can find out who I can talk with, it would be really nice that we could open this community restrictions that a lot of them have swamp coolers. They can't use them when there's fire or smoke in the air. It would be nice that this building that sits there could be utilized a lot better. And so I would appreciate it if someone could reach out to me and help me. Thank you.

Thank you. If you could meet with the staff, they'll connect you. Thank you.

Chris Ormsby, followed by Sandra Miller.

Yeah, exactly. I'm with you.

Good morning, commissioners and staff. I felt compelled to come today when I read that a Satanist was going to give the invocation. Jesus said, Therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven. The prophet Isaiah has this beautiful and accurate description of the Lord God. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth. and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. To whom, then, will you liken me that I would be his equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the one who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing. Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might. He increases power. I too would ask you to consider that instead of asking someone who represents the one who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, that you invite a representative of the one who offers life and abundantly. Thank you. Thank you.

Sandra Miller, followed by Scott Drake.

Good morning. My name is Sandra Miller, and I'm going to talk to you about being an American, being a Republican. Sorry, I'm a little bit sick today. First of all, I would like to thank the city of Reno ILEAN, ISABELLA, JENNIFER, ANTONIO, AND ANOTHER FOR THEIR HELP FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. I'M HERE TODAY BECAUSE I HEARD ABOUT SENATOR REPUBLICAN Linsley Graham passing away, and I heard his passing away through Amanda Grace. I don't follow her, but recently I've been hearing her prophecies and what she has to say. And also, I'm a Christian. And this is what I, I've been in politics since I was 17. America is fighting many enemies and dark entities, socialists, communists, Marxists, fascists, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the radical Middle East, dark terrorist groups, people, organization, international, and national. who have their own dark agendas, ideologies, that are not compatible with Christian American values. We are a Christian nation with Christian roots, one God, Jesus. Republican Lindsley Graham died at the age of 71. Amanda Grace gives a prophetic word on May 7th, a warning to the Republican Party making deals with the Democrats, Socialists, Communists. After hearing Amanda about Senator Graham passing away, whom I knew very little about, I happened to open my Bible and this IS WHAT I READ IN JOB 22. I AM NOT UNFAMILIAR WITH READING THE BIBLE. SO WHAT I'M GOING TO READ ON JOB 22, WHAT PLEASURE WOULD IT GIVE THE ALMIGHTY IF YOU WERE RIGHTEOUS? WHAT WOULD HE GAIN if your voice were blameless. Is it for your piety that he rebukes you?

Thank you. Scott Drake, followed by Virginia Wiggins.

Hello. I'd like to thank you for inviting someone else to do an invocation. I would like to call out the Republican terror coup. I would like to remind you guys that, you know, Satan's in your Bible. It's your power struggle in the sky, guys. I don't know why you don't, you're just as much of a believer as they are. Anyways, I'm not into believing myself. I'm into understanding myself. into evidence and i would like to just state that the flock camera system is absolutely and undoubtedly at odds with democracy itself it is also most likely the most real most very serious and grave danger you will ever face This is a matter of national security. And as you probably are all well aware, maybe the people who are usually doing national security aren't so much right now. And I call on you to step up the game, to kind of take the place of what isn't happening. So as you probably know, there's been a track record of communities rejecting these things outright. And I would like to say it's not just flock. It's all mass surveillance. I'd like to make an offer. I would like to offer a removal service. I'd like to make a bid really for a removal service that preserves evidence so that we can actually show everything that we suspect that's going on is actually going on. And we can actually have some lawful follow through so that we make this a permanent change in the name of democracy itself. So I appreciate you guys again for being a little bit more aware that when we say in God we trust, we don't mean your God. We specifically do not mean any specific God. And really, again, I'm here for the flock cameras, but wow, wow, guys, like just it's disappointing. I'm disappointed in some of my fellow community members for not understanding how to embrace others. And that's just not the religious thing here this morning that I witnessed. I didn't expect, but, uh, you know, I'm sure you can see it all around, all around you. So, um, thank you for what you have done and I appreciate what you will do. You're welcome to call me, talk to me.

Virginia Wiggins followed by Cynthia Perrine.

Hi, my name is Virginia Wiggins. It's been a while since I've been here last, since I was victimized at our place by the Volunteers of America. I've let you guys know I'm degreed. I've never had an eviction, never been in trouble with the law. I have rode the churches through rise in the wintertime where I'm walking the streets till 9 o'clock at night and I finally get warm and get some rest. severe medical conditions, they treated me more like humans than VOA ever did. Then I slept out on the sidewalk in front of volunteers of America who want me to sit up in a chair for 10 hours if I don't have a bed. Tell me how that's humane. Tell me how people wheelchairs and walkers who their legs swell up so bad and they can die from it. That's what they offer. You guys have 100 beds, Washoe County, sitting in the resource center that you guys choose not to open only when it's freezing. People are getting ticketed. People are dying. People are going to jail. To that man right there, thank you. You fed me yesterday. I appreciate that. May God bless you. The food that they feed there is poison. I've had 23 major surgeries on my stomach, and when I ate that food, I thought I was going to the hospital, that I was going to die. That food is not poison. have any nutrient value in it. I've seen a man cut and bleed out in front of me over there. I've never been to jail. What is going on over there is more traumatic than anything, which is causing more mental health issues, which is causing more people getting high and drinking because all hope is lost. You guys have no expectation. I asked them what resources. Welfare? I can go to the welfare building by myself and get that on my own. So now you have people dependent on you. They just sit there and do drugs and they walk by and they're smoking dope. I choose not to participate. I will sit there all day long and I choose not to participate. But you're keeping people sick, and counties doing it too, just like the record building. You guys don't fix things when it needs to be fixed because you're lining pockets or not overseeing who is supposed to be doing it, and it's lining pockets, and the buildings are going down. You have one shower at the resource center. The other one's been broken for well over eight months. Choose not to fix it. the water over there in the in the wall smells like mildew i came from construction there's mold growing right there but the water itself i poured on my body to get cold and it smells like sewer and you want me to drink that because i don't matter because i'm homeless because i'm poor Honey, I am a child survivor of stage 3 ovarian cancer, 17. Never got enough into the system to make that money, and my SSI doesn't put a roof over my head. So I'm out there on the street sleeping on sidewalks, and I am nothing. I got a ticket, $88 for sitting down having a sandwich on the street. I've never been in trouble. They're trying to put a misdemeanor on me. I'm almost 54 years old and a grandma. That is unacceptable. All of this is unacceptable. There needs more transparency. And the VOA is not doing their contract. You guys need to look into that because they're in breach.

Can you meet with staff? No. Okay. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I am just going to take a quick break. I'm sorry, but we'll just take a five-minute break. Just going to take a break. Thanks.

by Leanne Chafin.

Good morning. Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak. My name is Cynthia Perrine. I'm a little bit tired because we just got over the evacuation. I am here today to give testimony to what we have seen of the almighty power of God to protect our community with this great omnipotent love, and to protect all of the inhabitants, their homes, and also to comfort all those that mourn their losses today. We have seen a powerful proof of the holy power of God to take care in so many ways that we may never fully realize, of the care and goodness of God through Christ Jesus. That said, I just want to share quickly an experience that we had at 2 a.m. on the fire night. My husband and I were a little late getting evacuated, but there was, as you know, a lot of traffic and no hotel rooms, although we had been offered. places to stay from our friends, but at that late night there was no way I was going to call them and ask if we could come. So we ended up in the Denny's parking lot because 24-7 Denny's is open and it was well lit. And so we were not alone. A lot of people were going to hang out there all night. However, a friend texted me at that moment. I said, well, we're just going to spend the night in our cars there. And she said, oh, wait a minute. So within minutes, I received a call from a gentleman who offered his home at that hour. No questions asked. It was within five minutes of driving, because there was no way that we were in shape to drive anywhere else. We were greeted with open arms at 2 a.m. Our luggage was, some of our luggage was carried in. Our dogs were welcomed. They had a pristine white carpet in their house, and oh yes, the dogs are welcome, and gave us a wonderful room to stay. And we are so deeply grateful to that gentleman. I just have to say that his name is David Filippo, who opened his home to us at that hour. And we are so profoundly grateful. And of course, he happens to be a candidate for U.S. Congressman, Northern Nevada District 2.

Thank you. Leanne Chafin, followed by Corey Bruce.

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and I honor all you guys for your service because my husband was a city councilman for a while in Fernley and it's not easy, is it? So I wanna say my name is Leanne Chapman. I'm a local brokerage owner, realtor, and property manager. I wanna recognize what our Reno, Sparks, Washoe County community has endured during these devastating fires, also in Lyon County. Northern Nevada has faced fire after fire. We hear about acres burned, evacuations. At homes lost, but behind every number is a person, a family, and a story. This is personal for me. I am recently widowed, so I understand how quickly life can change and what it means to experience profound loss. I also experienced the fear of being evacuated because of a wildfire in the hills behind my home in Sparks this June. I personally know a family who lost everything at Davis Creek Fire. I am also grateful they have now rebuilt and moved into their new home. Their story reminds us that even after devastation, there can be great hope, restoration, and new beginnings. A home is more than a structure. It holds our families, photographs, keepsakes, a lifetime of memories. As a recent widow and someone who's spent much of my life helping people with their homes, I understand how priceless these memories can be. My heart and prayers go out to every family affected by these fires. May they find comfort, strength, and hope, and the generosity of our community. I especially want to thank our firefighters, our first responders. When the rest of us are being told to leave because it's too dangerous, they run toward the danger. To every firefighter, law enforcement officer, dispatcher, emergency worker, utility worker, and volunteer, thank you. We see you. We appreciate you. We pray for you and your families. I also want to acknowledge something weighing heavy on my heart. I'm deeply saddened to hear Representative Satanic Temple delivered an invocation today to this body. I recognize that our nation protects religious freedom, including beliefs very different from my own. but as a believer in christ hearing an invocation centered on satan deeply saddens me in accordance with my christian faith i renounce the words spoken in the name of satan and in their place i speak a blessing over this community this commission our first responders our families and all of Northern Nevada, and I pray that every word intended for darkness or harm would have no power here, and that every curse would instead be met by and overcome by prayer and blessing and hope and the love of Jesus Christ. At this time of loss and uncertainty, our community desperately needs prayer, hope, compassion, and unity. So I close in prayer. Our God and Father, protect our firefighters, our first responders, Thank you.

Corey Bruce followed by Cat Olson.

Well, good almost afternoon. I want to thank everybody for your service to the county for what you do. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a leader. I'm chairman of the board of Real Choices Women's Center. We give men and women hope, truth, life, counsel, and we fight against evil every single day in the lives of the enemy who wants to take life from women and men who've been misled. I also serve as a mentor for Awaken, helping young boys whose mothers have been sex trafficked and victimized by men also doing evil. The state of Nevada is complicit consistently being okay with having brothels be legalized in this country. And so why do I share that with you? I share this with you because we all have a code of conduct and morality to do what's right in this world. And we've heard a lot of comments this morning I love the United States of America because we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion. It's an incredible thing. And for those of you who haven't traveled outside this country, I challenge you to do that, to know just how great this country is. But I will say, Veronica made a great comment today. We opened with our pledge of allegiance, one nation under God, while welcoming a satanic worshiping person to do the invocation, which is counterproductive to what we stand for. For those of us that are well-read in the Bible, we do know who Satan is. He was cast out of heaven for his pride. Satan even tried to tempt Jesus and lie to him. We're well aware of that. But I do want to challenge all of you to do better, to be better, as you're serving the kingdom, you're serving us, you're serving all the residents back here, whether they believe in it or not. We're all unified as people and residents. I love being a Sparks resident. I love serving the community. But my expectation is we continue to uphold doing what's good and right in this county. So we pass the legacy down for our kids and our grandkids as Proverbs tells us. I'm not here to condemn or hurt anybody here with my words, but challenge. John 1.5 tells us that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. I'm here to publicly proclaim that I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and all that matters is good prevails over evil. And I hope that anybody in this room today would be challenged with that. that we bring the truth of life and love to everybody here. Thank you, and I hope you all have a blessed day in serving the firefighters in the community and all the public servants who are saving people and friends. I think many of us have had friends whose houses have already gone up, and I hope we can challenge ourselves to do better. And I want to thank you very much for helping provide opportunities for us to have invocations to protect all the public servants and people in residence in Washoe County. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Kat Olson, followed by Penny Brock.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Kat Olson. I live in District 2, and I'm an activist with the Biggest Little Action Group. I'm here to provide a general public comment today, and thank you so much for the opportunity to do so. I'm here to make you aware of the fact that Washoe County's contract with flock safety is in violation of our constitutional rights as Americans. I am requesting for you to cancel your contract with them and ban the use of automated license plate readers known as ALPRs in Washoe County and to put this issue on a future agenda ASAP. Flock Safety is not a company specializing in public safety. it is a privately owned multi-billion dollar company that rapidly built a nationwide ai surveillance network of alprs that collects location data on every single american picking up your kids from school flock knows when and where going on a hike at huffaker hills flock knows when and where for that too going to your dermatologist to get that weird mole removed or visiting your lawyer. Flock knows, you bet, and so does every other local and federal law enforcement agency across the country because they do not need a warrant to access the location data collected on us by Flock. There is a reason why our location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment and why data on our everyday whereabouts should not be created in the first place. It's because there is immense power gained over an individual by monitoring their whereabouts, and it's ripe for abuse. It's also a liability for Washoe County. You know, not very long ago, I used to be employed as an environmental health specialist with my county's public health department. In that department, we were required to log our whereabouts on a shared calendar that was openly accessible to everyone in the office. Everyone knew when I was in the office or doing inspections in the field, when I was working from home or had a doctor's appointment, when I was on leave, et cetera. Devastatingly, my location information was abused by a male coworker who could see when and where I was on this calendar. He used this information to sexually harass me over time and repeatedly remind me that he knew where I was. Ultimately, his abuse culminated in him sexually assaulting me, me leaving my job with a PTSD diagnosis, and my employer settling my legal case out of court for tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. Understand that a similar type of abuse is happening nationwide, facilitated by Flock Safety and your contract with them, where law enforcement officers are abusing location data collected by Flock to stalk ex-wives and ex-girlfriends, all with equally devastating impacts to women and the lawsuits lining up. So I implore this board, cancel your contract with Flock Safety and ban ALP. Thank you.

Penny Brock, followed by Sean Sullivan.

Penny Brock for the record. I'm on the South Valley's cab. I'm not here to speak for the cab, but I am here to speak on behalf of our residents. We need a fire station in Washoe Valley. We have asked for it over and over again. The Davis Fire started out in Washoe Valley, and fire officials will tell you that a fire burns uphill, and that's what happened in the Davis Fire. We have continually come to you and asked for a fire station in Washoe Valley. The one out there was closed. It's not if a fire will start in that area again, out in the South Valleys, it's when. Thankfully, God changed the wind. getting ready to crest to go down into the Tahoe Basin. Many of us were praying, and thankfully God changed the wind out of the east that was blowing the fire towards the Tahoe Basin and changed it to the wind out of the west. Will God do that again? No, we have no assurance. You gave over $1.4 million to the elections department out of the CIP fund. We need that money for our fire station. This is not, you know, this is an emergency for our area out there. We have no assurance we won't see another fire out in our area before this fire season ends. I was totally shocked when I opened the agenda on Tuesday and I saw that the satanic invocation was going to again be given. It was given in January 24 by Jason Miller. And he ended his invocation at that time with Hail Satan, H-A-I-L. Hail Satan. So I was shocked to see that again on the agenda. Things have not been going well for Washoe County since that January 24 invocation. So when it was interesting, when we saw it on the agenda, what did we have happen? Within hours, we had the Hawk Fire. Who's in control of our county? God gets angry. He gets angry, and I think he's showing this to us now because he's in control of the wind, and the wind won't die down. He's in control of sending the rain, and we have not had rain. It's not in the forecast. so i would encourage the commission chairs whoever they are to reconsider putting this on the agenda ever again the cost and devastation has been too costly to our county to our residents to those who lost their lives which enclose our firefighters thank you sean sullivan followed by paul dipmeyer

Greetings, Commission. Sean Sullivan for the record. I wanted to again shout out to the firefighters and first responders and people impacted by the fires. Nobody wants this. We all hope they stop. I personally don't feel that any particular invocation has any effect on the fires unless they're being set by individuals, which has been happening. Anyways, I wasn't going to talk about any of this. I do want to say how grateful I am that we live in America where we have the first amendment that guarantees that we are not a Christian nation. We are not, we came here, the people founding fathers came here to escape an overly Christian nation that was trying to run their lives and ruin their lives in England. So, uh, yeah, I mean in England, that's kind of what it was about. Um, but what I came here to talk about today was automatic license plate readers. Um, they as has been said they violate our fourth amendment uh... it's a seizure of our location data maybe it's a search of our location i don't know but uh... there's very just recently a supreme court case shot tree versus united states june was june or july twenty ninth i think was july twenty ninth very recently uh... regarding cell phone location data uh... and basically the the moral of the story is uh... collecting these large amounts of data and then narrowing it down to an individual after the fact is uh is the part that violates our rights it's the database that violates our rights so what would be legal would be to have all these cameras and you get an amber alert let's say you plug in the license plate of the amber alert going forward you have plenty of cameras it'll ping pretty quick if they're on the road right uh they can't the police are claiming that crime has been going down uh but the numbers of when the cameras skyrocketed, the number of cameras skyrocketed doesn't show any correlation to me with the actual crime data. So, um, and you know, the oversight is kind of scary or the lack of it. Um, there are plenty of documented examples of abuse and yeah, it's an extremely powerful system. So if it were actually being used to do good, uh, the crime would have been noticeably down or we would have seen, uh some significant impacts but uh they're barely uh yeah i mean there are a few cases clearly and we all support these but it can't be done with a database before there's a warrant there has to be a warrant and then you can start tracking people that's that's the fourth amendment and it's been decided in uh the cell phone cases in in carpenter and shotry In the Supreme Court, it's only a matter of time before this huge investment becomes a complete waste when the systems become illegal, confirmed that they're illegal. So I implore you to reimagine axon flock contracts and how that entire system works, ultimately.

Thank you. Paul Dittmeier, followed by Chelsea Gee.

Paul Dittmeier, and I have a handwritten statement to be entered into the record. Thank you.

Thank you.

Chelsea Gee, followed by Adrienne Lowry.

For the record, my name is Chelsea Guerin. I appreciate y'all scrubbing my last name because I am someone who has dealt with domestic violence and being tracked, surveilled by an ex-partner in a different state that I moved from about three years ago. And it is terrifying to have the possibility of being found yet again through Flock Safety Systems because my ex is a database developer. He's a hardware software engineer, and he can access those things. So it is incredibly terrifying to have this database available if you know how to find it. And on that note, Flock and any other surveillance tracking systems are targeting women. They are targeting people who are heavily discriminated against for not being the heterotypical individual in this country, and it's an absolute violation. My original intent of comment was about data centers and that it needs to be agendized for discussion for a permanent and full ban on them. We have multiple confirmed reports coming out of the East Coast, most specifically Virginia, and then a Cambridge study out of the University of Cambridge that is noting the temperature increases average of 2 degrees Celsius 3.6 Fahrenheit to an extreme of 9 degrees Celsius which is a 6.2 degree Fahrenheit increase and what they have also found in this Cambridge study is that they can tell the heat has been increased within a 6.2 mile radius of these data centers. And here in this area, I'm new to the state, but I'm quickly learning fire territory, no shit. And yet we have multiple counties, multiple cities around northern Nevada who are approving projects for data centers to be built, which will increase our heat. We just had DRI come out with a study last year, was it? Yeah, January 2025, confirming we have a problem with heat in this area of it being generated, of it being captured overnight, and how it's dissipated. We need to ban data centers, not just because of the water issue, but because of the heat issue. We just experienced that horrific fire, the Hawk Fire, and a couple other fires prior to that. We are going to make it worse because corporations, people who are paid, are lobbying y'all to approve their plans. I am missing work by two hours now. I work with attorneys and I know they're harassing me for work that is rightfully owed to them. I can't come here. I'm not paid to do this. We need to ban data centers and cancel flock. This is insane. Thank you.

Thank you. Adrian Lowry followed by Tim Miller.

Hello. My name is Adrian Lowry and I'm a resident of Sparks and a member of the Northern Nevada Democratic Socialists of America. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm here to ask you to end the use of ALPR technology in Washoe County. These systems are designed to track the movements of every person in this community without any warrant or probable cause. They violate the rights of every person in this county and have been shown over and over again to lead to abuses, including stalking, racial profiling, and false arrests. I first want to address this on a personal level because members of this body have been targeted by invasive tracking. When a local Republican Party leader paid for GPS trackers to be placed on the cars of Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve and Washoe County Commissioner Von Hartung. Do you remember how you felt when that happened? This is a quote from Mayor Schieve. This kind of invasion of privacy and stalking is incredibly alarming because I don't know what the intent is with this information. I mean, does anyone, does someone want to kill me? I don't know. Another quote, especially for women, it is alarming. I would never want this to happen to someone else. I'm a single woman and we have to worry about our safety, but this takes it all to a whole new level. Now I want to read the quote of the victim of ALPR-based stalking. This is from the news site 404 Media. When Deputy Roman approached, she stated, I knew it was you and asked, does all my information pop up on your screen? And further inquired, how did you know it was me? She stated, Deputy Roman responded, I told you I'd find you and pull you over. She stated, Deputy Roman also stated, and I was hoping your boyfriend was in the car so I can pull him out and give him a hard time. She stated, she responded that she did not think that was a good idea. The police report reads, she said that Roman asked her why she didn't follow him back on Instagram, that she needed to leave and said she would follow him back on Instagram if, but didn't want to text and drive. She told investigators that she said this to get Deputy Roman to leave her alone. She advised Deputy Roman she was late to getting where she was going and repeatedly asked if she could leave. There have been many instances of police officers stalking and threatening women using the tracking abilities of Flock and other LPR systems. Do you have empathy with the women in our county who are exposed to this threat? We all saw it as an invasion of privacy when our local politicians' movements were tracked. Could you see how these tools create an equivalent harm to us? I also want to talk about the legal risks that ALPR technologies present. Many cities and counties are dealing with lawsuits because of them. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Police Department decided to end their contract with Dean GLMS, LAPD's chief information officer, said this to ABC7. This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras. Thank you. Please end all contracts with ALPR providers.

Thank you. Tim Miller, followed by Janet Butcher.

Good evening or good afternoon commissioners. I don't need three minutes. My name is Tim Miller and I live in Incline Village. Apologize if I turn red. It happens when I speak in public. I'm here with a mundane request regarding erosion control and public safety. Back in the 1980s, we thought it'd be a good idea to build gabion walls along the hillside on Mount Rose Highway in Incline Village to prevent erosion and landslides. For folks not familiar with that term, a gabion is a metal cage filled with loose rocks. They protect the hillside behind them from erosion, but they allow the water to pass between the loose rocks. By and large, they've worked great on Mount Rose Highway. Over the past few years, some small sections have collapsed where the wall was leaning over and the mesh collapsed. held it up snapped allowing the rocks to spill down the slope exposing the hillside behind it to erosion i'd say about 99 of the gabions are still fine about one percent have failed so i reached out to the department of transportation to ask if uh you know if they were aware if they could fix them i did not get a reply so i reached out to keep tahoe blue who reached out to the department of transportation or Yes. And they did get a reply, which they sent to me. And long story short, the department would love to fix the failed sections, but they don't have sufficient funding, and the gabions are currently not dangerous yet. So it seems like they don't intend to maintain them until they become dangerous. I was under the false impression when we built these things that they would maintain them. It looks like they don't intend to maintain them until they become a public safety issue. So, um, ignoring the fact that they're now not doing the job they're supposed to do, which is protect the hillside because the hillsides now exposed. So my request is this. Can we as a county find a way to direct sufficient funding TO THE APPROPRIATE AGENCY TO GET THE FAILING INFRASTRUCTURE ON INCLINE VILLAGE FIXED. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

JANET BUTCHER FOLLOWED BY MARK PRITCHARD.

JANET BUTCHER FOR THE RECORD. I'm wearing purple today. First of all, I want to congratulate anybody who travels the road to recovery. I'm wearing purple today. because there are two different awareness days coming up. One is for Alzheimer's and one is for overdose awareness. And they both use the color purple. So August 31st is Overdose Awareness Day and September 21st is Alzheimer Awareness Day. They both cause families to lose members. um i want to thank the firefighters as everyone has done we all love them my condolences are out to the floyd family who eddie lost his wife sharon in the bug fire And I do think somebody brought up an after action, and I think that would be a wonderful idea. When I worked for IBM, we always did a root cause, but this is an after action. What can we do better? I do want to add this note because my husband wrote this. He wanted to give a big shout out to both the Indian colony police, Jared Noon and 311 operator Brooke for helping find a way around the west side of the stead airport. And lastly, I want to talk about going down to two meetings. I sent this email out this morning. I tried to get it yesterday, but it was kind of late, and I thank Commissioner Andriola for reading it. It's about scheduling the meetings down to two meetings a month. As you might remember, I have spoken numerous times about the Washoe County budget and how it is two to two and a half times more than that of other counties across the US that are similar in size and growth rate. I was in support of an increase in the pay for the commissioners as it now is in alignment with those communities, those other county entities. But that being said, you get an increase, now you wanna work less? And I don't know that it's necessarily working less, but it's not giving the community their voice. Because now you're down to two meetings and it's giving less time for people to come because you see this morning how many people came. So anyway, I'm going to enter this. And thank you.

Mark Richard, followed by James Drury.

Good afternoon commissioners. I'm Mark Pritchard for the record live in South Reno, and I'm a member of biggest little action group About a year ago. I came and spoke before this body for the first time in public comment asking you to Intervene with the Sheriff's Department Vis-a-vis their hosting of ice hold prisoners in their jail, how they're treated, and how the county deals with federal authorities on the issue. That's a sphere of direct influence which you as commissioners can speak on and speak directly to the sheriff about. As the sheriff, I know he acknowledges this, he has responsibility for the safety and well-being of those prisoners, and I believe that they are decently treated in our jail. But they are delivered every week to the airport where they board the ICE flights that you heard about earlier. I, too, have been observing these ICE flights and the shackled prisoners that are loaded on them every week. Since their wrists are shackled to the chains around their waists, you've all been on airplanes where they give the pre-flight announcement about the oxygen masks that drop from the ceiling. Well, wearing those shackles, they cannot reach those oxygen masks. So in the event that a plane depressurizes, They're SOL. They cannot reach the oxygen masks. And it has happened on many ICE flights, not that I'm aware of the ones out of here, but on many other ICE flights, this has happened. And there have been injuries as a result. So we know that those flights are unsafe. What liability, what duty does the county have when prisoners or any passengers are loaded onto flights under those unsafe conditions. Now, I know you don't administer the airport. I know that's the job of the airport commission, who, by the way, I believe is scheduled to speak later in this meeting. And I don't think they're going to speak about this. But we will be addressing them. But you as supervisors individually, commissioners, excuse me, can speak out about this issue. Individually, in the press, you can attend the demonstrations such as the one that we had with over 100 people about 10 days ago at the airport asking Stellar Aviation and the airport to stop cooperating with ICE. The county, the sheriff, the airport commission, does have discretion in this matter. Thank you.

Thank you. James Drury followed by Jude Fletcher.

Hello. I'm here on behalf of the members of the Families Crossroads Program. We appreciate the continued investment in serving entire families unit through round two funding for that program. Many of our members have had to depart for work. And in particular, one of our graduates and current community management members, Joshua Shea, who was a primary speaker for today's overdose awareness event was hoping to speak today. I am here on his behalf. Um, I speak on behalf of these members, not myself, because there's stories that your ongoing support have impacted somebody like Josh who fought harder than I've ever seen to both recover from chaotic substance use and get his daughter back in his life. Programs like Families didn't exist when Josh needed it. It would have changed his life, Families would have changed his life, and his daughter would have connected back with her dad much sooner if it did. Josh found another way and now helps lead the Families program as staff to help families like him rebuild their lives with their children. He is an anomaly. For many, it is much harder if not impossible. I am also here for the families who have already graduated the Families program. Those who have been able to buy a house, successfully progressed to their CPS engagement, and now have their children with complete independence. Those who have their children full-time have career-based employment, and those who have even started their college educations. I'm here in particular to represent the dad currently at Families Scared because his infant is just now learning to swallow. And not only can he engage in his recovery, he can now do so with a community of parents doing the same around him, while also helping him learn what every parent also had to learn, often the hard way. They don't give us manuals to raise our kids, but because of your support, our parents now have a community to guide them in a way a manual never could. Thank you.

Thank you. Jude Fledgler, followed by Bill Neal.

Hello, my name is Jude Fliegler for the record. I was here to talk about the fires, but I will start by talking about the satanic invocation at the beginning since everyone talked about it. I also am glad someone talked about the fact that it happened in 2024 because I read about that this morning on the news and it also made international news the first time. I think it's important that we remember these cycles and these news cycles and not have amnesia over them. about what happens. Which is very much how we approach the problem of the fires. I've lived in Reno for seven years and we have fires every single summer. And we have no infrastructure to address it properly. Like someone talked about earlier about the netting on the side of mountains in Tahoe. Fire is a public safety issue and it can be addressed through preemptive measures rather than an emergency crisis. If we practice traditional ecological knowledge from the indigenous people who lived here before the settler government, they used to practice cultural burning every single year when they would migrate up to Tahoe. that was like an annual tradition in order to burn the vegetation that would otherwise burn later in the year prescribed burning is a scientifically proven treatment to prevent wildfires however it has been this information has been suppressed also by the trump administration whose policy in project 2025 is full fire suppression that is their policy my point is that you can't suppress fire you need to just control it and maintain it that is the job of I believe the government right now they send emergency agencies like the police and the firefighters and the National Guard I DON'T REALLY BELIEVE THAT THESE ENTITIES ARE EQUIPPED TO ADDRESS FIRE. A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DIRECTLY FIRE FIGHTING FIRES ARE PRISONERS AND THEY'RE PROMISED JOBS AFTERWARDS BUT THEY DON'T THEY'RE PAID VERY LITTLE TO DO THIS JOB. THEY'RE RISKING THEIR LIVES AND THEY'RE PROMISED JOBS AFTERWARDS WHICH NEVER COME TO FORITION BECAUSE THEY ARE FELONS. I BELIEVE THAT WE NEED TO RESTRUCTURE OUR PRIORITIES. I THINK SOME PORTION OF THE POLICE BUDGET COULD BE DEDICATED TOWARDS A WORKFORCE THAT PRACTICES CULTURAL BURNING, AND THIS WOULD SAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE'S LIVES AND HOUSES. IF THAT IS THE REAL GOAL OF THE GOVERNMENT, I BELIEVE THAT THAT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. YEAH. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

BILL NEAL FOLLOWED BY NATHANIEL PHILLIPS.

I'm not going to say good afternoon. It's really not. It wasn't a good morning. It wasn't a good day for Washington. It wasn't a good day for Reno, Nevada. And it wasn't a good day for our state. I prayed last night, what should I say that I don't bring disappointment to the Lord? It wasn't easy to even think. So I'll let the Lord speak mostly for himself, but I think it's sad that three silly women, weak women, would allow this to happen. We are a Christian nation. We were founded as a Christian nation. Our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution are taken almost directly from the Bible. Yes, our founding fathers were Christians to a man, mostly ministers and pastors and believers. Now, a friend of mine days said, well, the Constitution allows freedom of speech. They have a right to speech. They have a right to believe. They have a right to go to hell on their own. That's fine. But it's a serious, serious breach of judgment to have satanic people give the invocation at a government facility like this. You should be ashamed. You know, it's just, it was absolutely pathetic. I will pray for you, but I think that you're probably pretty lost. Maybe demon-possessed, I don't know. That's maybe going extreme. But it was absolutely... The worst thing that I've seen happen in this country. But know this, hard times will come in the last days, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. For among them are those who worm their way into households and deceive gullible women overwhelmed by sins and led astray by a variety of passions, always learning and never able to come to acknowledge the truth. 2 Timothy 3, 1-7. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Ephesians 6, 12. Most of us know that one. Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6, 7. I pray that God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the white woman, Ms. Frank, did you just want to say something?

Thank you.

Nathaniel Phillips, followed by Dan Gallagher.

Thank you. Commissioners, can I ask what the overlap is during public comment? Like, what is the voice that we hear, the noise? Is it interfering? Is it being recorded properly? You hear it, right?

Yeah, Commissioner Herman is on the line. Thank you.

Okay, can we ask the commissioner to mute themselves while people give public comment? My name is Nathaniel Phillips, for the record. I've been in Washoe on and off for 10 years. Originally from Las Vegas. I guess I have to start as well by responding to the nonsense we just heard from Bill Neal, where he disrespected this body. calling women silly, calling people demon-possessed, and saying that the invocation from the local Satanist group is one of the worst things he's seen in this country. I guess he's not aware that his president is a convicted rapist, or convicted felon, excuse me. and has been found by courts to have raped women. I consider that a much more damning and dangerous thing to our country, and now he's leading us to not actually control fires in a way that the commenter before him said that we should. So I actually commend the commissioner, and let's correct the record. Christians do a lot of reading just of the wrong things. As a reformed Christian, as someone who has been baptized in the holy water, who has spoken in tongues, They're just wrong. You did not invite the Satanist group to come to the convocation. In America, we live in a country where public processes allow anyone of any faith to apply to give the invocation that we heard this morning. So before you come home and take commissioners and the public's limited time, let's at least have our facts and research right about how this actually came to be. Furthermore, they don't actually follow or worship Satan. It's called satire. They use the word for an emotional response, which they got. It's a figure of Satan as against authority. So again, know what we are protesting and speaking about before we come and call our leaders silly women. And before we make the actually dangerous, and someone should follow up with this, I don't support police activity, but dangerous words. that a person on the left, a leftist, a DSA member, someone who might be in this room had anything to do with being an arsonist or starting these fires. That's dangerous and we should call out the Christians for their dangerous fear mongering. And that's coming from a Christian myself. Thank you. So now we've already had someone talk about the fires, an emergency response where the police spend more and millions in money that we get to deploy the National Guard, that we get in overtime to our police. You can't put handcuffs on a fire. You can't tase a fire as there's a great local meme going around. There's virtually no looting that has been reported or that we know of. So it doesn't actually make sense for the military to be patrolling our streets, preventing people from getting their medicine from neighborhoods that are safe and actually not keeping anyone safe because there's no dangerous looter that started the fire that needs to be arrested. I implore us to look at how we're actually spending our money. Thank you.

Thank you. Dan Gallagher.

Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Dan Gallagher. I am a long-time board member of Washoe Little League. I am here to support agenda item 13, awarding the contract forward to the expansion of the South Valley Regional Park, including the construction of a youth softball complex and its first two fields. The project is more than about dirt and fencing and contracts. It's about an investment in the girls in our community. Youth softball continues to grow, and we see that demand locally. Since we established softball at Washoe Little League in 2022, we've seen over 200% growth in registration in softball. More girls and families are looking for safe, local, and affordable opportunities to play. Softball, like all girls sports, gives far more than, I'm sorry, softball gives far more than a chance to compete. It helps them develop confidence, resilience, leadership, teamwork, and healthy habits. It gives them teammates, mentors, goals, and a place where they can learn how to handle success and adversity. Volunteer leagues like Washoe Little League are a critical part of that journey. They're often where a player first picks up a glove, learns the game, gains confidence, and develops a love for softball. For many families, Little League is the most accessible and affordable entry point into the sport. These leagues help create foundations for future high school, travel, and college players, but only if the girls have access to appropriate places to play. That is why equitable facilities matter. Girls deserve quality fields, reliable access, and a community that visibly values their participation. A dedicated softball complex will expand opportunities, reduce barriers, and make it clear that girls' athletics are our priority in Washoe County. Washoe Little League is prepared to be a partner in this work. We are currently actively fundraising to help fully equip the two fields in the scope of this contract with scoreboards, lighting, batting cages, protective nets, and storage. Beyond this contract, we see a meaningful opportunity to work with the county foundation, local businesses, and community supporters to help raise the funds to build the additional two fields that are called for in the master plan, but not currently funded. If anyone in the community is interested in helping our grassroots capital campaign raise the funds to complete the complex, you can contact me at dan.gallagher at gmail.com. The girls of Washington Little League are beyond excited to see this project move forward and to soon have a home of their own to play for the coming years, decades, and even generations. Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all the public commenters in chambers. I do have an email that will be placed on the record.

Thank you. What we're going to do now is move to item 7A1, Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are pleased to welcome Chris Jensen. He is the president and CEO of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority. He's going to provide their annual RTAA executive update, and first we thank him for his patience, as well as his board members.

I was going to say good morning, but I have that on my papers, but I'm going to say good afternoon. I'm actually going to yield a moment or two to our board chair, Adam Kramer, who is actually one of your appointees, and so I'll step aside for a moment.

Thank you, and this was a little unexpected just as we were dealing with the fires here. I just wanted to talk about the work from our team out at Reno Stead and the entire operational staff at the Reno Airport Authority and how proud that Courtney and I, along with the rest of our trustees, are the incredible work of our firefighters, but also our staff. As we talked about earlier today with the bug, Fred Mountain Stallion fire, the amount of aircraft operations that's been going on there has been unprecedented in multiple ways, both from the amount of air traffic we've been supporting out there, which further supports our stead master plan to bring air traffic control out there permanently, but also in the amount of retardant that is being loaded every single day, which we've had multiple days, probably most of the days over the last few weeks, where a single day is more than the previous year of retardant that's been loaded. And truly a testament to the ground operations team that we have there in the partnership with Truckee Meadows Fire, the National Guard, Wildlife Services, BLM, and the Washoe County Sheriff's Office. And then, of course, with the Hawks Fire, They just happened to talk with Chris multiple times. Throughout the weekend, our staff, our entire executive team has been working around the clock to continue to support this. 115,000 gallons of retardant were pumped to date just to support this. And I think one of the important things to flag is we'd shut down general aviation at Stead Airport just to support this effort here. We worked with all of our general aviation team members, tenants, excuse me, to be able to have them understand exactly why we were doing this and very understanding. But, an important part of the firefighting effort as well as being able to make sure we can have that aerial operational support. And I think one of the things that's made the last, especially the bug fire and the hawk fire unique is how close it came to the Stead Airport and using backup generation. And the fact is, is that we were not just protecting the community, we're also protecting Stead as much throughout this and truly a testament to the team that worked around the clock and all of this while we prepare for Burning Man here. But I will hand it back to our CEO, Chris Jensen, and I'll just end with this, is that we're very lucky for CEO Jensen to be here. In December, Darren Griffin resigned a bit abruptly in taking a new position, and we were kind of left in a position as a board about what to do. We were fortunate to have an experienced CEO in our ranks and somebody who's been leading our operations CEO Jensen not only stepped in on an interim basis, but after a thorough national search, which we involved the community members, we had Rosemary Vassiliadis, who used to run the Harry Reid Airport down in Las Vegas for years, participate in. independently brought us to the top five candidates given the way that NRS works and being able to do these public searches and through that process and through community feedback it was a unanimous selection for CEO Jensen so we're excited for him to be presenting here for the first time on behalf of the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority. So Mr. Jensen.

Congratulations.

Well, thank you. So, Madam Chair and members of the Commission, for the record, Chris Jensen, I am the new CEO of the airport. I think I've been in the role officially now just about two and a half months. And oh, what a two and a half months it's been. I want to start by expressing my gratitude to you all. You have appointed two of the finest board members that the airport has ever had. My history goes way back with the airport, so I've experienced a lot of board members. So I really do. I'm not saying that because they're sitting here behind me, but I'm saying that because I watch them and how much they care. And so I just want you to know what a great job they do and how grateful I am. All right, so I'll try to burn through this. Oh, bad choice of words. I'll try to go through this really quick and be happy to answer any questions that you might have. So I first want you to know who your customers are and who our customers are. We don't just serve the Truckee Meadows. We serve all the way over to Winnemucca, north to Susanville, all around Lake Tahoe, into California, Dayton, Carson City, Gardnerville. So we have over a million people that routinely use our airport. And so just bear that in mind as we go through all of this. They're all part of our customers. So we're going to talk a little bit about air service. I think that's one of the things that a lot of people are interested in. Our trajectory has been up. Unlike our friends to the south where they've actually been going down in total passenger numbers, we continue to go up. We'll be over five million total passengers this year. We expect to be by 2032 about five and a half million passengers. We've had solid consistent growth for a very long time and we're very happy about that. It's manageable. but that growth is leading to some of the things that you're seeing at the airport that we need to address and we'll talk more about that in a minute So these are the markets that we have currently. I won't read them to you. The dashed line is seasonal. The solid line is year-round. Great service for a community our size. We're about 25 total airports, and we will continue our 25 total destinations. We'll continue to work on that. In fact, October 2nd, we'll have an inaugural flight to Nashville from Reno, so we're very excited about that on Southwest Airlines. These are just some of the things that we're working on. You'll see destinations south of the border. You'll see destinations north of the border. You'll see destinations on the east coast. This never stops. Even during construction, we're committed to continuing to work to grow our air service. so construction as i mentioned so this is a picture that kind of shows the overall activity of for what we call more our notes over a billion dollars worth of work and i need to mention the fact that that billion dollars is being accomplished without any increase in local taxes were funded uh... through our operations we received federal grants and uh... we have debt and so we've function much like a business we can only spend what we make were very proud of that fact we have a team uh... that's very dedicated to uh... to making sure that we are financially solvent and we have board members that care very much about that as well. If you look at this, you can see all the things that are happening. We're touching just about every part of the airport. Under the Moore-Arnold program, everything is either under construction or in the case of the ticket lobby and the loop road has already been completed. You can see the dates for when these projects will all be finished. So in the next three and a half years, this should all be done. So projects that are underway, this is our new headquarters building and police station. This project will actually be, will move in in just under a year from now. So when you come out to the airport and we host you for meetings, we'll be in this facility. It's going to be beautiful. It'll be modern and it'll accommodate the needs of our staff. So we're very excited about it. More importantly, it'll have a new police station on the bottom floor. They currently live in a place that was designed for airlines, certainly not for a police station. This will be state of the art. It's been designed with modern training opportunities in it, and we're partnering with local law enforcement, including the sheriff, to make sure we offer those facilities to our entire community. This is just a pretty picture of what it's going to look like out on the outside. You may have seen this if you've been out to the airport recently. When you come around the corner, you can see the four-story skeleton of it. It is going amazingly fast. Clark Sullivan is the local contractor doing an excellent job. We're on budget and on schedule. You're going to hear me repeat that a number of times during this presentation, something we're very proud of. I see I have like two minutes, so I'm going to go fast. uh... so this is a grand transportation center this is a public private partnership this is q and d and web core in a joint venture uh... it's going to be rental cars it's going to be uber lifts shuttle buses things of that nature skin give us about six hundred spaces in our current parking garage back for public parking may have heard we have parking challenges because we're growing that's a good thing those are the kinds of challenges we like So this is what it looks like from the terminal, kind of above the terminal. There'll be a walkway. One of the things that we really wanted was a walkable ground transportation center. You don't get on a shuttle like you do at other airports and have to ride for 20 minutes to get to a rental car facility. This will be a very walkable and convenient location. This just kind of shows the magnitude of it all. It's a very large facility. It's going to be very modern, and it's going to be a great customer experience. This is what the terminal concourses will look like at night. Both concourses that you are used to using today will cease to exist when this is done. The new concourses are being built outboard of the existing concourses. And so it's going to be amazing. It'll be beautiful. It'll be modern. It'll have all of the conveniences that you expect in a modern airport. New concessions, great services, great customer experience. So I think, with some help from my friend in the back here, this will be a video of what it's going to all look like. Hopefully this works.

Yay.

And of course, these are the people that are involved in the, I actually flashed past, but I want to make sure that you're aware there are a lot of local contractors that are involved in this. We're putting a lot of people to work. 1% for public art, this was something that was very important to our board. So in all of our projects now, 1% of our budget is dedicated for public art. We're very excited. You may have seen in the ticket lobby the installation above the ticket counters. That was really the first one of those types of projects that we've done. The public art is all managed by local artists and community members, and we're very excited that all of the projects are going to have some element of art in them. This is just real quick, kind of the schedule. Looking at that, 2029 will be a big year for us where we can kind of celebrate and take a break. And so there's a lot happening between today and then, but we have a great team that is doing an exceptional job to deliver all of that. And so finally, I just wanted to end with saying we really do, again, appreciate the partnership that we have with Washoe County. Obviously, the Sheriff and Raven is out at the Stead Airport. This week in particular, there's been a lot of communication with them. Obviously, we have the Steadmaster plan that we're working on, and we've had participation from the county. All of this is so important to us. It's a community airport. It's your airport. It's our constituents' airport. And so it's very important that we recognize and listen to all of them. And so with that, I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you. First of all, thanks for your patience, by the way.

My pleasure.

I'd like to go ahead and ask Commissioner Herman if you have any questions first.

No, it's been a wonderful presentation.

I really have enjoyed it.

Progress, I thought, the other day, and it's pretty exciting looking. So thank you so much.

Thank you. I'll move to Vice Chair Garcia. Thank you Madam Chair. I got to sit next to you the other day in a meeting and I didn't get a chance to ask about the experience you've had under the roof of the Reno Tahoe Airport. So if you wanted to take a moment to share the other roles that you've served and so the public knows what experience you're bringing to the table.

yeah absolutely so one of the things uh commissioner garcia and i both grew up in elko so i think we did okay for a couple of elko but i really started flying when i was in high school in elko and that was where i kind of gained my love of aviation and there's a long story in between there and how i got here but really after i graduated from college i came to work at the reno airport that's where i started my career in airports And then from there, I moved back to Elko, was the director there for a little bit. Then on to Missoula, Montana, where I was the CEO for about 16 years. And then my good friend, Darren Griffin, convinced me to come home in his words, and here I am. But so it's been an amazing experience. You know, one of the things that I failed to mention in the presentation is what an amazing staff we have. And we talk about all of the work we're doing. We're operating an airport in the middle of a construction site. Or is it we're doing construction in the middle of an airport operation? I'm not sure which, but the fact that we have the team that we have that can pull this all off is simply amazing to me. And so my experience here has been nothing but exceptional, right? With an amazing board, that passionately cares about what's happening with the staff that is delivering work that an airport twice our size would probably struggle to do while we're operating at all in the middle of fires or or winter or whatever it might be and so uh... it's been a an amazing experience thank you

Thank you. And I had a question. We know we have a nationwide shortage of the air traffic controllers and that's kind of operated and overseen staffed by another agency. But have we experienced anything over the last couple of years that has impacted any safety airport capacity issues or any delays or overtime issues that we're seeing here locally?

So the answer is fortunately we really haven't since the pandemic. Now during the pandemic, that was a different story because of the pandemic. But since that time, we have been very fortunate that we really haven't had a big impact. We are a training tower for the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration. And so we see a lot of new controllers that come to Reno to learn and move on. And so we have a pretty good continuous flow of of of air traffic controllers one of the interesting side notes is that we're actually looking for a control tower out at the state airport in this last couple weeks is just uh... reinforce the need for that with all of the activity that we have out there with heavy air tankers we have that attack air f fives we have helicopters we have drones a lot of drone activity out there so we're hoping to actually expand our air traffic control operation in the near future but we've been fortunate that we haven't really had a problem

Thanks. Commissioner Hill.

Well, welcome. Congratulations. Thank you. And I agree on your kind words about our appointees. They've been really great to work with on the county side. Whenever I have an issue, they take care of it. And you heard the public commenters about the ICE concern. And your trustee, Young, sent me the letter that we received from the Trump administration. And I just, for the record, want to be clear. FEDERAL FUNDS, FEDERAL OPPORTUNITIES COULD BE LOST IF THE AIRPORT WERE TO INTERFERE WITH THOSE OPERATIONS. THAT'S MY UNDERSTANDING FROM THE LETTER AND IT WAS MADE VERY CLEAR TO THE BOARD, SADLY KIND OF THREATENING THE BOARD IF THEY WERE NOT GOING TO FOLLOW THE LAWS. I know that we're in a sticky situation, but I appreciate you continuing to talk to us, talk to the community, see what we can do to make sure that we are protecting the airport's interests, but also people's civil liberties. And I really appreciate that. Additionally, I really appreciate the grant that you have partnered with the county to make sure that there's a affordable option for folks in Tahoe, especially North Lake Tahoe, to get down to the airport if they don't want to drive. And there's so many seniors that live up there. And I just really appreciate your support of that. And I'm hoping we can continue that partnership. And I have one little nitpicky thing. I've been traveling a lot this last year and I hate when people do not follow the rules and they just camp out in their car out in front of the airport. And that just seems to be accepted now. And I don't know if you don't have enough security staff, but I am like, that we have a cell phone waiting lot. You can call your person and it just feels like there's additional emissions that are also being created when people just sit in their cars like that. So I don't know what can be done or if you are aware of it, I'm sure you are, but I just wanted to say, is there a way we can make sure people start following the rules? Because I remember when it used to be really highly enforced and it's a safety issue in addition to everything else. So That's all I have to say. I don't know if you can look into that, but I appreciate it.

I can and will. And it is an ongoing challenge. I think as we've grown and our staff has other duties now, we've spread them a little bit thin. And so we recognize as well that that is a challenge. And we're working through some ways of maybe trying to improve that a little bit. And of course, the cell phone waiting lot, we would encourage everybody to use that. It's easy, it's convenient. Nowadays, you can see flights on your phone, so you know what time to show up. And so, but thank you for the comment.

Yes, and again, thank you for your partnership. Thank you.

Thanks, I have a couple comments and then a question. Number one, it's really great that you are in the position you are, especially given the fact that we have had some major challenges. And so having that experience is not only welcome, but appreciated. And kind of piggybacking off of that in terms of Mr. Kramer sharing about STED and coordinating with all of the local incident command, I can tell you how much that's appreciated because one thing we're not thinking about is Job Corps had 375 children and staff. Located there and so I wanted to do a big shout out to all the coordination the safety of Ceasing operations for planes was certainly appreciated, but I do feel again. I need to shout out we reminded me of Me being on the phone for hours off for hours and days trying to ensure that Certainly the sheriff and all the folks, including yourselves, were a great testament to not only allowing those 375 kids and staff to be safe, but to also find out that when Governor Lombardo canceled his lithium tour, all of the food actually went to the kids. that we should know that. So I was, like I said, I felt like I was joined at the hip with trying to do what we could. Can you imagine coordinating the evacuation of 375 people? So thank goodness the fires didn't make that happen. I digress, but I'm going to go back to my question. So given the fact, I love that you guys are, you know, under time almost and under budget. That's what I'm hearing.

We are. And I failed. I said I was going to say that throughout the presentation and then I failed to say it. So I'm going to say it right now.

on all of our projects we are currently on schedule and on budget i'm not going to say under because then our team is going to hit nine area but i say that on budget on schedule i i didn't mean to put words in but i i think it's all good but but and then congratulations for that by the way because construction costs and various other costs certainly continue to rise. But I'm wondering when it's all done, and maybe it's done even early before 2029, but when it's all done, what does it look like in terms of what those projections, in terms of not only because of the capacity for the larger planes that now you'll be able to attract new markets that maybe weren't available just because of the limitation of how the airport is devised right now, but also what do those numbers look like and what is the economic impact for that?

Yeah, wow, there's a lot in there, and that's such a great question. I'm going to start with the economic impact piece first. So every airplane that lands at the airport right now, our studies tell us that's about $129,000, so $130,000 in economic impact. We have 100 or so a day that are coming in. So that just shows you the magnitude of the impact. If we continue to grow those numbers, it continues to have that impact. economic impact. We support and partner with all of the businesses in our community that require air service or air cargo. That's a part we haven't really talked about, but it's very important as well. We have UPS, FedEx, DHL all providing air cargo service, so we're here to support them as well. obviously we have business travelers he's my number one frequent flyer actually and and you know they they rely on the airport to be able to get to the places that they need to get to or just as important or maybe more important bringing those people to us so that they experience firsthand our community. So the future looks great. It looks bright. If you think about what's happening in our community, we're a perfect blend of business activity, and we think about everything that's happening out to the east of town and all around us, out at the Stead Airport or around the Stead Airport. And you think about the leisure opportunities we have here, whether it's gaming or Lake Tahoe, the beautiful scenery we have. We're almost an even split of traffic. That's what the airlines really want to see. Those two lines of customers actually support each other. adam pays a premium uh... oftentimes uh... but that helps subsidize that flight so that the leisure travelers are able to afford to test fly as well and so we are the perfect blend uh... and so i would say that we see no reason that the trajectory doesn't continue that we're on today I think we've seen other airports around the country right now that are headed the opposite direction and we continue to buck that trend and so we are so extremely lucky for the strength of the economy and the beautiful place that we get to live.

Great. So the numbers in terms of what that projection, right now there's four point, 2025 was 4.9 million passengers. So what are you thinking? I mean, what are those projections? I'm just really curious because the billion dollar investment, that return on investment, I'm wondering also that when does that happen?

Yeah, so we expect it will be over 5 million passengers this year. I think the slide that I showed in 2032 would be about 5.5 or so. Those are relatively conservative numbers. You know, I think we're under promise, over deliver is kind of our motto, but we feel very good that our trajectory is headed in the right direction. As far as the return on investment, one of the things that we're doing, and I think this kind of came up in an earlier question, is opportunity to expand and develop and attract air service. We were limited, not necessarily by the number of gates, but by the type of aircraft our gates could accommodate. And so when this is all said and done, we'll be able to accommodate all of the aircraft types that want to come and go from Reno. So, for example, we have a 757 daily to Atlanta. That airplane doesn't really fit on our current gates. In the new concourses, it will. And so we'll have the opportunity for bigger aircraft, for more long-haul flying, and those types of things. Our terminal was really designed at a time when you think about regional jets, there were 50 passenger or 76 passenger SEED AIRCRAFT AND SO WE WEREN'T REALLY DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE WHAT THE MODERN AIRLINE FLEET LOOKS LIKE SO THAT'S THE FIRST THING NOW WE CAN ACCOMMODATE ALL AIRCRAFT TYPES I THINK THE SECOND THING IS SUCCESS FEEDS SUCCESS AND SO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU AND OUR GOAL IS WE HAVE A NUMBER OF SEASONAL ROUTES YOU SAW ON THE LIST IT STARTS BY GETTING A SEASONAL ROUTE AND THEN CONVERTING THAT SEASONAL ROUTE INTO A YEAR-ROUND ROUTE And that success then makes the airline look at, okay, that worked. Atlanta worked. Now what are we going to do next? International traffic, we do have customs and border protection here. So we have opportunity there. And you saw on the map we have points both south and north of the border. We think there's huge opportunity there, and so we're in conversations with airlines. And so even during construction, when it might be counterintuitive to trying to grow the operation when we're, you know, again, operating or constructing in the middle of the operation, we are actually doing that as we speak. And again, October 2nd, we'll have new service to Nashville. The future again is bright.

It is it's exciting. I think we'll all be glad when it's done though Thank you so much for your leadership Thank you. Thank you so much. Mr. Kramer miss young for your leadership as Washoe County appointees We're very proud to have you there. We're certainly proud for the entire board that you have that are helping to guide this really big chip, right? It's a billion dollar project, so it's very exciting. So thank you for your time today as well, and your patience.

I appreciate it. I have one last comment, if I could make it. Sure, of course. I failed to mention that you have an amazing staff, and we have had a great experience. They came out to the airport and spent some time with us and toured, and we've always had a really good and positive relationship, but I just want you to be aware of what an amazing job they do, and so Thank you for the partnership to Kate and your team and to all.

Yeah, we would agree. We concur.

Thanks.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Have a wonderful day.

You as well. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. I know that today feels a little bit like we're jumping around because we are. So bear with me. We're going to go ahead and we're going to move now, just for clarity, we're going to go ahead and move the commissioner comments. We're going to do a few business things. So we're going to go ahead and take item number nine with donations next. And I'm going to ask... VICE CHAIR GARCIA IF YOU WOULD BE SO KIND. DO YOU NEED TO READ THAT INTO THE RECORD, MANAGER THOMAS, FOR ANY REASON? I'M GOING TO MOVE THEN TO VICE CHAIR IF YOU WOULD BE SO KIND.

OF COURSE, MADAM CHAIR. TODAY I MOVE TO ACCEPT CASH DONATIONS AND IN-KIND DONATIONS FOR REGIONAL PARKS AND OPEN SPACE. WE WANT TO ACCEPT 50 NARCAN KITS TO JUVENILE SERVICES, ONE MOD POD TO BE USED AT SAFE CAMP AND ONE RIFLE AND SUPPRESSOR FOR WASHOE COUNTY SWAT TEAM. Is that in the form of a motion? Yes.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Public comment. And public comment? There is none. Thank you, Mr. Large. All right, hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. We're going to move now to... actually i'm going to do the consent items and we're going to pull item 10 point but f.5 so 10 f5 we're pulling that'll come back to us at a later time other than that are there any items in the consent agenda that you would like to be pulled or further information on

Madam Chair, I have a disclosure. Sure. Thank you. So there's a couple of items in our consent that are related to the University of Nevada Reno or the Nevada System of Higher Education. So item 10F.3 is related to the street medicine agenda item and 10G.1 is for the child and adolescent psychiatry item. I am an employee of the University of Nevada Reno. I have no pecuniary interest, so I will be voting on this item. Thank you. Would you like to make a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to approve as presented.

Second. We have a motion and a second. I'm going to go ahead and call for public comment at this time, please.

Penny Brock, followed by Cynthia Perrine.

Thank you.

Penny Brock for the record, I would like to ask if possible if item 10L.2 on page 28 could please be pulled for a separate hearing. So under this item is the schedule for the general and early voting. There's several items of concern about, number one, it's not designated what the super centers are for the general election. Number two, for the drop box on the general election is it's two high school locations, Reno and St. Louis. Read, I take issue with that. I feel it's a security issue for our students and personnel. There is security at the schools. Even for a parent to get into the school, they have to go to the office. How is that gonna work for the general public to come into those high schools? I feel that this needs to be looked at again and changed to some other location other than high schools that put our schools at risk. Then for the early voting drop box, it's got the Somerset Living facility on it. The Center for Medicaid Services just changed their policy on people helping seniors and the elderly vote. And if a facility does that, they will be investigated. I don't think when Somerset learns this, they may still want to be a drop box location. So I just bring that to your attention. The other issue is the ROV office is a drop box location, and other counties that I looked at, they always list the ROV. as a drop box. Drop boxes per the ROV's policy is there are to be two workers at the drop box locations, paid workers. Number two, also to be allowed are to be two voter observers. We as the voters have a right to observe. these drop boxes. So I don't know how that works. We weren't alerted to it in time for the primary but we're definitely interested in finding out how that will work. So besides the two county employees observing at the drop boxes, also two Voter observers are to be allowed, and of course they're not paid, it's just volunteer, but that's got to be taken into consideration. Also, because the ROV is a Dropbox location, there has to be, if we as voters want to... Thank you.

Cynthia Perrine. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Cynthia Perrine for the record. I am going to request that item 10H9 be pulled out for separate comment. This move to go from three meetings per month to two meetings could decrease citizens' availability to have their voices heard at these meetings. It may be and infringement of their First Amendment rights to have their voices heard before this board. So it would be appreciated if this particular item could be pulled out for separate comment. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm just going to make a comment. You can also pull that mic down. So if you want. Oh, okay. There's nobody else signed in. Thank you so much. Just to give an opportunity for clarification. Manager Thomas, would you please speak to item 10H9, specifically in terms of the Raftelis recommendation and the great work that they've done and how we've really put the trajectory of what those recommendations are into, quite frankly, the county being really leading in a lot of ways with best practices. And also, could you speak to, even though the two are being recommended, we are going to have workshops and those have had incredible, I have received incredible feedback, those workshops give our opportunity for our community to have a really longer observation and voice and even more in depth discussion that at a business meeting doesn't always afford. So I wonder if you would speak to those, please.

Certainly yeah you're exactly accurate the recommendation to go to two meetings a month was for a lot of reasons one of them being the most effective and efficient use of staff as we look to face budget challenges we want to make the best use of the staff time that we have to bring forward business items we have a lot of technology that helps us be more efficient in the way that we bring items forward we were typically using that middle meeting as a more of a presentation-type meeting. We've switched to the recommendation that we look at immersive workshops to go deep on topics that I would offer would be more beneficial for the public and give them equal, if not more, information and a voice. So we feel really confident that going to two meetings a month solves a lot of things for the Rafthales report and for the organizational effectiveness that we continue to seek. Thank you.

I'd also like to ask for clarification specifically related to Town Hall 2 about the schools and also the Supercenter. So I see Mr. McDonald is here, if that's appropriate, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, am I tired? I'm on. You have no idea what kind of sleep I'm on right now.

Madam Chair, if I may, if you look at that agenda item, the 26th General Election Day ballot locations, there are 18 separate Dropbox locations. The next page, there's two listed, Reed High and Reno High on the first page. But if you continue on, on the second page, there's another 16 Dropbox locations that are identified there for election day voting locations for Dropboxes.

Okay. I think, thank you. I think it was actually just the concern of how the schools are going to work. But thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that staff has worked tirelessly with the school district and others to make sure that these locations were vetted and appropriate. I know a lot of us have looked through this information based on all the information that we know from the heat maps to public safety to accessibility, all of those things. So I feel really confident in the presentation materials that have been brought forward by the Registrar.

okay well thank you not to mention there's no students on november 3rd in the school buildings well that's what i was trying to confirm but i didn't want to say that so obviously i'm letting others speak since i called county manager madam chair so you guys are going to have to help me through this today um If there's no need for additional clarification, I certainly don't have additional clarification. I think the super centers are a term that's just been used. It doesn't necessarily mean anything but a description. But if there's not any need for questions, we are done with public comment. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Herman, do you have anything? I don't want to.

I was concerned about the school issue, too, as brought to us by Penny. Maybe we should take a second look at that and somehow make it satisfied that they would be satisfied if there's a good explanation for it.

I don't know if you heard the vice chair's comment, but there's... Okay, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt.

No, no, you're fine.

There's no school on that day. at all.

Okay. All right. So then those restrictions wouldn't interfere with it? Correct. Well, if that's actually a fact, then I guess it's okay.

Let me 100% confirm that's a fact. Is that a fact? Okay. That's a fact. I just want to make sure you know that I'm triple checking as well. Like, okay. Alrighty. Okay. It has been confirmed as a fact. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. All right. We're going to now move to, um, yeah, the block, but okay. Did you want to do anything with 10D1? That was a special recognition. Okay, thanks. I just wanted to make sure since we were there, that's why I was asking. All right, now we're going to move to block, and I'm going to ask Commissioner Hill if you would be so kind.

Yes, I'm happy to recommend a block vote. And on one of the items, I just had a quick question as well. So I moved to block 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. And as soon as someone seconds, I'd love just to ask a quick question.

I'll second. Thank you, Commissioner Garcia motion and a second. Is it okay if we do public comment and ask your question?

Sure. Okay.

Do we have public comment?

See?

Looks like there's nobody signed in on any of those items.

No public comment? Not on any of those items, no.

And what question? On the item 18, the bond cap, we are giving it to the business and industry folks that the housing group is under in the state of Nevada. Last time we did that, we knew the specific project. It was that Sun Valley Chocolate Drive project. Do we know what this is going to be used for by any chance?

I don't at the time, but we can find that out for you if you'd like to pull and hold the item until.

No, I don't need to pull it. I just was curious because that's how we did it last time. We gave it to them because we had given it to rural housing before, and I just wanted to know what the project was. But if staff could just follow up, that would be great.

Okay, great. So we have a motion, a second, no public comment. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay, so we're going to now move back to item six, which is commissioner's county manager updates. Manager Thomas.

Thank you very much. I got one second, and I will read it in the record.

We are dancing all over.

Too many papers. Okay. This is recommendations, announcements, reports, and updates to include Board and Commission updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas. I have a handful of items, if that's okay. Sure. So as you are all aware, I did declare a state of emergency for the Hawk fire this past weekend. Um, that was around 7 PM on Saturday, um, the 22nd. Um, the way that that works is it's usually called for on the next meeting. Because it was Saturday at 7 p.m., we were not able to get it on this agenda, obviously, but that will be coming before you on the 8th. I'm also letting everyone know on the record that I will be looking to sign the termination of the Bug and Stallion Declaration here in the next couple days as that is deemed appropriate. So I just wanted to put that on the record. I also wanted to call on an item that we approved in consent. I'd like to congratulate CFO Abby Yacobin. for her and her team for once again earning the prestigious GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. So I like to recognize that. I know we do have some staff that are impacted by the wildfires, so we did not have them here today. But I wanted to recognize her, I wanted to recognize the Division Director, Lori Cook, and then of course our analysts, our Patsy and Gohar and Janet and Brianna and Kari. So I wanted to call that out. During item 11 later on your agenda you're going to have updates on a potential bills for the upcoming legislative session. I discussed with the Vice Chair some concern that we've been hearing about insurance items and of course with the fire and people that are concerned so I know Ms. Matevich is going to be bringing up some of the legislative items that she is aware of that are coming in the session so we'll touch base on that for anybody that's interested. We'll do that during item 11. um i did want to mention that there are a couple of board openings and as i usually do we have two board openings uh two different boards that have openings i should say we have the debt management commission that as you may know is the commission that reviews that issuance for local government entities not just the county but also for the school district in our cities we do have two at-large positions that are available Those positions do require at least five years experience in public administration, public accounting, or banking. And then those openings close Friday, September 4th at 5 p.m. So I wanted to get that on the record for people that were interested in that. We also have several openings for the Washoe County Building Enterprise Fund Advisory Committee. That is an advisory committee that reviews the enterprise fund, that issues building permits, barricade permits, encroachment permits. And that has a host of opportunities for representatives, including from residential construction, general construction, commercial development, and employee of local government. So I encourage anybody that's interested in serving on that enterprise fund to check on our website or call 311. That one closes on Friday, September 11th. And then lastly, thank you for your patience, we have two meetings in September, both on the 8th and on the 15th. And with that, I have no further comments. Thank you.

I just have a quick question on the building enterprise advisory. How many positions are open on that?

We have... two three four five that are a lot okay there's a lot yeah i think the way that was originally established they roll out after four years and i don't think that was originally established with a um with a tiered yeah maybe staggered you're right so my understanding is they all may have rolled up and that this is your new composition we may want to think about doing that differently but i think that's a statutorily required thank you so much thank you appreciate it vice chair garcia commissioner hill

I just have a few things. Thank you, Madam Chair. Regional planning has come out with their recommendations for local governments for data centers. I'd like to see that on an upcoming agenda, please. And thank you, Madam Chair, for your leadership on that while serving on regional planning. I also wanted to just see if we changed our policy of allowing props in our board meetings. I don't feel safe when people can bring in very large props to our board meetings. So I'm hoping we can figure out what we want to do with that moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Commissioner Herman, do you have anything you'd like to add?

No, thank you.

Okay great, I have a couple things. One, thank you Commissioner Hill for bringing up the data center. I had actually spoke with Dr. Smith about coming. I also would like DRI to be a part of that. I think jointly it would be great when I spoke with Dr. Smith about that, he thought that too would be helpful since they just recently came out with a study Even though there's some some date, but I just think it would be good to understand they both looked at data centers as a whole But I think that there's a unique opportunity for this commission to get a full breadth of that So is that something you're okay with that's fine.

I just I my paranoia is that someone's going to come in the door with a permit and we don't have a proper way of regulating them per the regional standard so that's where whatever you know however we can do this so we can expedite it especially because you've led the charge of making sure we all have the same requirements so hopefully staff can adapt our codes pretty quickly but anyway that's that's where I'm at on what we can do locally. I know that there's things that I'd like to see the state do, but we'll have to see that during the legislative session.

Well, to avoid Mr. Large counseling me on this not being an agenda item, I'm just going to go ahead and concur that we can have Commissioner Hill's request, but she also has agreed that my request to include DRI, and we'll leave it at that, because if I keep on going, I'm going to have Mr. Large call me out. And rightly so. I really would like to thank the entire staff for holding the community meeting at Hidden Valley. That was well attended. If you read the paper or some of the media reports said there were as many as 250 residents. I will say I don't know if that's right, but I'm going to say it could be because it was completely packed. The level of information and the preparation, I had asked for that meeting as an opportunity for the residents and the constituents that I serve in Hidden Valley to look at what happened two years ago with the flood and the current flood, and then what does the future look like? The presentation was amazing. Every single person that was a part of that is to be commended. I think that there's a great opportunity for some follow-up that I'm going to be working with Mr. Smith on. I'm going to be offering a suggestion. So I just want to commend everyone. That was a lot of time. I had asked for it in July. The flood happened on July 19th, if my memory serves me right, and we had scheduled it for August and it was very well done. So thank you for everyone doing it. I also think that when this is Whenever we're beyond the fire, where we're truly in a place that is actually in the recovery state, I just want, there was a lot of public comment about recommending an after incident. That happens, I'm just letting everyone know that happens. That's part of emergency management. And so that after brief or hot wash or debrief, various terms, that will happen. And that's where you do exactly what was shared. And that's where lessons learned. How can you be better? It just continues to give opportunities for everyone to share various things to be tightened up. And I just thought it was important to share that. And then the last thing I'm gonna share is In terms of the invocation, the invocation is an application. It's an application. So I think some of the comments that were made to infer, if not directly imply, that any one of us or anybody or any staff or anyone actually had any concerns hand in selecting anyone, that's not how it works. So I just feel it's really, really important that we share that when the invocation came up as an item, that legal looked at all of the areas that were important to have been screened to be fair and equitable, to be legal and to be compliant. So for the record, Nobody asked anyone to come, not here or any time. And two, this was all in the compliance that we have to follow, and it's an application process. So having said that, I don't have anything else to add. And so I think in the interest of time, I'm going to go ahead and call a lunch break. And so I'm going to call a lunch break. And is a half hour good enough for everyone, or do you want longer? you okay that's great are you okay commissioner herman with a half an hour is that enough no problem okay thank you so uh well that looks at the time so it's 1 30 we'll recess at 1 30 and come back and convene at 2 p.m thank you okay

Hello.

Hi, Commissioner.

203 p.m. Thank you. And we're going to now move to item 11, Manager Thomas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Item number 11 is an update discussion and direction to staff regarding potential bill draft requests for the 84th session of the Nevada Legislature. There are a number of potential BDRs to be considered that are listed on here, and we welcome Kayden Smetievich to the dais to go through these items for us. Thank you.

Welcome.

good afternoon chair andriola vice chair garcia commissioners for the record i am cadence matievich and i have the privilege of serving as government affairs liaison for washoe county i'm here today to provide you an update from our prior discussions uh we've i've been before you twice and this will be my third update regarding bill draft requests for the upcoming session of the nevada legislature um and so really today mostly um really updates we'll be asking at the very end recommending that you reaffirm your prior direction. And so I will start with the item that relates directly to that reaffirmation. And that is a status update on the bill draft request that would require reimbursement to a county for expenses that that county incurred as a result of errors in a billing file that were submitted to a county treasurer by another local government. As you may recall from my last update, the Nevada Association of Counties considered this bill draft request. It was included in the five recommended bill draft requests from the NACO, is the acronym for that association, from their legislative commission to their board of directors. And that item is on their board of directors agenda for consideration this Friday. And while I can't guarantee it, it looks highly likely then indeed that will be carried by NACO. And so if that is the case, then there would not be a need for Washoe County to submit that. But we do still have the prior direction for your affirmation today that if for some reason NACO chooses not to submit that bill then we would submit that as one of our own. I have it drafted and ready to go just in case something changes but looks very likely that NACO will carry that and it is an item that impacts all 17 Nevada counties and so good to have that association that represents all the counties carrying that bill. An update on just some of the other items that we had discussed. We discussed, I had been working with Assemblymember Goulding on a bill to allow local governments to expedite remediation of significant pervasive public nuisances, particularly on real property where no known owner can be identified or where the probate proceedings for a property had been lingering for many years. She has filed that, that is BDR 219. Additionally, based on the direction from this board, we've been working closely with the legislative committee for the review and oversight of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Marlette Lake Water System and at their work session on Thursday they approved the submission of a BDR that will revise the provisions that govern taxes on transient lodging in Washoe County with the intent being that the revised provisions would provide dedicated funding for public transit to, from, and within the Washoe County portion of Lake Tahoe, and that is BDR 454. Additionally an update that is different from what I had advised you at the prior meeting and Vice Chair Garcia you had specifically asked about whether or not a bill similar to AB 287 from last legislative session that has to do with automatic recounts might be coming back and at that point there was not an indication however since that time the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections has taken action to bring that bill back in the upcoming session. That is either BDR 344 or 345, can't quite tell from the title. The titles of both of those just say revises provisions relating to elections, so don't know which one yet that will be, but those are there. um and then also uh we continue the conversations with the office of the secretary of state to discuss the types of documents that are authorized to be filed in the nevada lockbox and the entities authorized to access those continuing discussions i think as i mentioned at my prior update uh the office of the secretary of state the secretary is entitled to build draft requests and so working with them to see if that can be incorporated into what they might be bringing forward as we head towards the session. So as a reminder, September 1 is the deadline by which entities that are entitled to bills that must be pre-filed. So next week, all of these bills must be in. Right now, 472 BDRs filed. Again, some of the titles are a little bit nebulous, so we don't know what all of them are about, but we are picking up steam and headed towards the legislative session. And under the topic of other legislation that might be discussed under this item, I know Manager Thomas indicated earlier, Vice Chair Garcia, that you had expressed an interest in discussing potentially bill draft requests related to insurance provisions. given our current very challenging circumstances. And so I can share that the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Commerce and Labor did receive a presentation in June from the insurance commissioner and the chair of that committee based on some of the items that were presented and they discussed that day recommended that the committee carry a bill that will be BDR 456. which amends NRS 687B320 which generally prohibits an insurance carrier from canceling an insurance policy except for some very certain specified reasons before the end of the agreed term or one year from the effective date of the policy whichever comes first if the policy has been in effect for at least 70 days And what the bill would do would be to shorten that timeframe. If the policy's been in effect for 30 days for a homeowner's insurance policy, then those provisions saying that they can't cancel it. So shortening that amount of time that an insurer would have after enacting a policy to then cancel it. So it would provide some protections there. And then additionally, the Legislative Commission for the Oversight of Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Marlette Lake Water System also has a BDR that has to do with risks. And this is long. I'm gonna read it to you. I hope you'll indulge me. I wanna get the language correct. So this is BDR 451. Establishing near-term consumer protections for property insurance applications and policyholders facing wildfire-related insurance decisions. And this includes but is not limited to allowing a policyholder or applicant who has been denied coverage to request an in-person property inspection. to require insurers to incorporate specified factors including verified vegetation conditions into wildfire risk assessments, requiring insurers to provide a written explanation for coverage denials including additional detail when the denial is based on wildfire risk, prohibiting insurers from denying coverage based solely on an automated or artificial intelligence space determination. And the last provision is establishing a standardized statewide defensible space certification and requiring that insurers recognize that certification when evaluating wildfire mitigation completed on a property. And so that was also amongst the bill draft request that that committee approved at their work session on this last Thursday. Additionally, Senator Krasner has BDR 17, which is titled revises provisions relating to fires. No additional detail on that as of yet. And then there are five additional BDRs with the very helpful titles of revises provisions relating to insurance. We don't know what types of insurance those bills might pertain to, but they could also relate to property insurance. So certainly as pre-filed bill language comes out in the November, December timeframe, we will continue to monitor those, look at those, and certainly expect that as you did last session, We will have language included in your legislative principles and priorities for the session to support legislation that would help ensure the availability and affordability of property insurance in our county and throughout our state. And so I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have on any of the items that I updated you on previously or any of these items that you had expressed interest in as well.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions, Vice Chair Garcia?

No, I just appreciate the thorough examples. I'm super excited about BDR 219 to expedite the abatement of public nuisances, but BDRs 456 and 451 are music to my ears right now. I think I've heard people just over the last three weeks saying that their insurance has been canceled with no rhyme or reason when they do ask for a process to go to them and say, tell us why. come to our house and look at what we actually have instead of judging us based on some algorithm. It's been falling on deaf ears. So I'm really excited to hear that there's some movement and that our legislators will be able to take the reins on those very important topics that our constituents are really struggling with right now. it's destabilizing our community really like the sense of security given the recent crises that we've been facing there's nothing more scary than losing everything you have and then not being able to rely on the policy that you've been paying into i mean there's nothing more terrifying than that so thank you thank you commissioner hill

great work cadence you're representing us really well and making sure that we have all these opportunities to get our priorities in front of the legislature so thank you for that and i just have to give assemblywoman goulding just a lot of mad props i mean all of these bills are being carried by her or her committee she is working so hard we're very lucky to have her representing us um i wanted to chat about something that has been uh Really on my mind, we have discussed this offline before, but specifically talking about the DA's race that just happened where our community, only Republican primary voters were able to weigh in on the DA. And I'm not talking about the outcome. That's not what I'm talking about. I just have a problem with that. talking to other rural counties, they have the same issue of there will only be Republicans that are running and it is chosen in that primary and not in the general election. So you have a portion of a county not able to actually vote in someone who represents them. And so I know this was a bill that was changed I don't know, in 2017 or around that time. And I'm wondering if you've seen any movement of someone looking at making a change to that law in this session and when, if this board were to consider it, and I don't know where my board members are on this, but if we're too late to be trying to get a county bill on that issue.

Kaden Smeteevich, for the record, through you, Madam Chair, to Commissioner Hill. So I have not heard that discussion from legislators. I know that there has been some community conversation about that. And I don't know if some of the advocacy groups may have engaged with an individual legislator to carry a bill of that nature. I haven't seen a title yet that would that would indicate that doesn't mean that it's not there. And as we've discussed before, many of the legislators, their timeline for submitting bills, they have some that are due early, but they have time all the way into the early weeks of the session to submit bills. So it could be that that is coming forward. From the standpoint of Washoe County submitting that as a BDR, We're not out of time. It would be incredibly challenging, I'm just going to be frank with you, to get that pulled together and submitted by Tuesday of next week. I don't know that we have that I'm hesitating because I don't know that I fully understand it and have time to research it and put together a quality proposal, work with the DA's office and ensure that what we were asking to be drafted by LCB is in fact what this board wants, not being able to vet those details with you today. But certainly I think you have, as we have the agenda items stylized today, I think you could give direction to conduct research on that as a potential BDR and to try to solicit a sponsor for it between now and whenever the final deadlines, excuse me, for BDRs, be they committee BDRs or legislator BDRs. A little full, most folks have their dance card filled out by this point, but I don't wanna say it's not possible.

Okay. I don't want to, that is, it's like a state issue. This is not a Washoe County specific issue. So I'm not necessarily excited about you using a ton of your resources for it, but I will talk to some legislators and see if they have a a burning desire to tackle something like this. Um, but I just, um, I don't know. It just does not seem fair. It does not seem just, um, so I, I don't necessarily need you to research it. Um, right now I just want to, uh, think about maybe, um, how we can make sure that we are represented by folks who everyone has an opportunity to vote for. But I'm not asking for that today. Thank you, though.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman.

Am I on? Yes, you are. Okay, sorry. I just want to let you know what awesome progress you've made. Thank you so very much. I always was trying to figure out a way for tightening up Reno's ability to take county land and develop it in such a, you know, fast, at a fast rate like it has without the infrastructure to go along with it. But I haven't talked to you about it. I'm sorry. So if there's anybody that that's thinking about those things because of the fire and the lack of infrastructure. It just brought it back to my mind and my conscience. So anyhow, just a thought. But thank you so much for what you've done already.

Thank you, Commissioner Herman. So I'll echo the thanks again for all your hard work. I do have just a point of clarification. If the NACO board does, and for full disclosure, I'm on the NACO board, I'm a chair of legislative committee, so better do full disclosure here. But I don't know either what's going to happen. But it does look likely that it is definitely being recommended. terms of the first and I'll specify what I'm talking about I'm talking about the first item that you shared in detail that essentially counties can recoup costs if there's erroneous billing issues that's how I'll describe it if NACO does accept that there's five so what would go and that's in its place In other words, there's five bills that Washoe County has the ability to put in to submit for BDR. So is what's in front of NACO, NACO's not carrying that? They're just going to support Washoe? I'm just trying to clarify.

Certainly. Cadence Matevich, for the record, and I apologize if my indication of the word support, I should have used the word carry. So NACO is the Nevada Association of Counties is by statute entitled to five bill draft requests. That bill that you just, that BDR that you just described is one of five that they will be considering. Washoe County is entitled to two. Oh, okay. And so at this time... Did I specify that I'm tired?

And I know that. I understand. And that's really sad. So let me stop. I'll retract my question. I know the answer. Thank you. You did a great job. Thanks. Okay. So if there isn't any other questions... This is an actionable item. I'm gonna ask if there's public comment. There is none. All right, hearing no public comment, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Move to approve the staff recommendation for the legislative session.

And I'll second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you for your clarification and help. Appreciate it. All right. We're now going to move to item 12 manager Thomas.

Thank you. Item number 12 is a recommendation for discussion and possible action in regard to the reassignment appointment and or reappointment of commissioners to boards and commissions, alteration of terms, for service on boards and commissions where legally permissible and other such action as the Board of County Commissioners may desire to take in regard to those administrative matters. Board and commissions for which possible changes to appointments could be made under this item include all of the boards and commissions listed at the end of this agenda as the various boards and commissions that commissioners may be members or liaisons to. Thank you.

Is there any public comment for this? I would like to share that Commissioner Clark has officially asked that he not be on the boards that he was assigned to, essentially. And I'm gonna make a recommendation for the following, that I serve on the Community Homeless Advisory Board that Commissioner Hill serve on the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, that Vice Chair Garcia serve on the Washoe Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, and that I serve on the Western Nevada Development District. So I'm happy to actually make that a motion, but I'm certainly open for discussion. Madam Chair, I'm supportive of your motion and I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? hearing and all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed motion carries unanimously all right thank you so much will now move to item twenty five this is a first reading it will be bill number nineteen fifty eight if introduced

development code amendments modifying regulations related to equine facilities parking and landscaping requirements and administrative review permit standards was that 1958 yes thank you miss oakley good afternoon i'm kat oakley with washoe county planning here to talk about an item that has been in the works for quite a while now so excited to be here

And this is the equine business code update first reading. So a little bit of background that I'm sure you all remember, but this is one of those items that the board prioritized for us to work on in planning. It is a response to public feedback that we the county have received regarding challenges encountered in establishing an equine business. specifically with the zoning regulation. And so this project is a response to that feedback we received. And it started actually in 2024 when the chair used some of her discretionary funds to fund a consultant to undertake a survey, some workshops and some research around equine businesses. You can see that starting using that information we got, We started some public outreach directly related to the code update this year, did some a lot of public engagement that I'll talk about more in detail later. But brings us now to the public hearing process with a proposed set of code amendments related to this topic. Before we get into what's proposed a little bit on what there is now. So right now in Washoe County code, there's one equine business use type that's called a commercial stable. And in most parts of the county where it's allowed, it's allowed with a special use permit. So that's a full public hearing process takes about three months. It is also a commercial use type, and so that means it must operate from a commercial structure, and that entails having permanent bathroom facilities in a structure. The exception to this is the Warm Springs Planning Area. There are some different rules there and different permitting requirements based on the number of horses per acre. But in general, in Washoe County, that special use permit would be required. And then in addition, it being a commercial use, a business license is required, and then it would trigger all of our commercial development standards. So that would be parking, landscaping, and lighting, like you'd see at a restaurant or a store. That's what would be required for these types of businesses. And so now into what's proposed. And really what's proposed is pretty much an overhaul to how we approach these types of businesses. And starting with the use type definition. So one of the main things we heard from the public was that The current one size fits all definition was really challenging because it means that a very small business is treated the same as a very large business. And so what we're proposing is three tiers of size of equine facilities based on the number of horses. So a small facility would be one through eight horses. a medium facility would be nine through 20 and a large facility would be 21 or more. And what that allows us to do is to also scale the permitting requirements with the size of the business. And of course, with the potential impacts that business might have. And so what you see proposed is that those small facilities in most cases would be allowed by right. The medium facility would be allowed with an administrative review, which is a permit that allows for agency review and conditions, but it is not a full public hearing. And then those large facilities 21 horses or more would still be that special use permit process in most cases because those are the bigger businesses that can have the bigger impact. And so there's a little nuance here that I'll get into in a moment, but that's broadly what's proposed. And then we're also proposing a new article of code, Article 342, to accommodate rules around agricultural uses, which is what an equine facility will be now rather than a commercial use. And what this article allows us to do is have those specific standards that right now, since a discretionary permit is always required, we do it through conditions of approval. So when we're removing that discretionary requirement, we're going to codify some of those things that we're always hitting. And then also, this is where we can establish some more flexible rules for this specific type of business. And so in terms of those kind of baseline requirements, requiring a minimum lot size of 35,000 square feet, which is aligned with the minimum lot size for having more than two livestock on a property in Washoe County, having hours of operation generally from 7 a.m. through 9 p.m., and then excluding livestock shelters from setback areas, so trying to get at those main potential neighbor impacts with those standards. Also, establishing... the allowance for additional review and mitigation for potential impacts to source water or regulated waterways, which would be our creeks. So this is when those businesses are proposed close to those water sources. It gives us a mechanism to review for that. And then we get into some of the flexibility that's being provided that doesn't exist now. So one big one, and this came up from start to finish in this process, is allowing the use of temporary bathroom facilities or porta-potties in place of permanent bathroom facilities. That's, as you can imagine, a big cost for establishing a business. And so we worked with other agencies in Washoe County to kind of carve out that allowance for the smaller facilities. And then also doing some reduced landscaping requirements. So right now it'd be, like I said, normal commercial landscaping, 20% of the site, pretty robust. Getting rid of that 20% requirement, having some buffering requirements when it is closer to property lines and when it's a big facility. So kind of scaling that to be more appropriate with the impacts of the business. And then, as I mentioned before, some nuance with the permitting allowances. So for those really large general rural parcels over 35 acres, allowing medium facilities by right instead of with administrative review, just recognizing that in a big area like that, the impact is much less. And then for low density suburban parcels with less than three horses, allowing it by right instead of administrative review to keep it consistent with how it is now. So we're not for that particular size of business, creating more onerous requirements. And then lastly, some standards addressing compliance with animal welfare regulations and coordination with Washoe County Regional Animal Services. also making some amendments that impact more than just equine facilities and we think will be improvements so for our agricultural parking requirements allowing unpaved parking for uses with 20 or less parking spaces we receive requests for this all the time and typically grant them so that's a sign that it's time to just change it in our code so we're proposing that also modifying parking area landscaping requirements to only require the parking area landscaping buffer along the parking area not the whole shared property line this is an example of JUST A CLEANUP ITEM THAT WE'RE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY TO FIX. ALLOWING DIRECTOR'S MODIFICATION REQUEST TO BE COMBINED WITH ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW PERMITS. THAT'S A LOT OF TECHNICAL MUMBO-JUMBO, BUT REALLY IT JUST MEANS WE'RE TRYING TO STREAMLINE AND COMBINE PROCESSES WHERE THAT MAKES SENSE AND WHERE IT'S POSSIBLE. AND THEN LASTLY, MODIFYING TIMEFRAMES FOR PROCESSING ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW PERMITS. THIS TYPE OF PERMIT WAS CONCEIVED TO BE FOR ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS. WE STARTED USING IT MORE BROADLY THAN THAT. We're wanting to make sure we've given ourselves enough time to consider these projects adequately. So those are the amendments proposed. And I do just want to mention that there are a number of things that came up during our public outreach that are outside of the scope of our zoning regulations. Things like water sprinkler or fire sprinklers, excuse me, water rights requirements and commercial septic. These are barriers that businesses face. And so I want to mention them. Of course, We can't directly impact them. It was discussed in a meeting that the county convened in June with multi-agency stakeholders. And then also to address at least the information side of things, staff has created a permitting guide for equine facilities that outlines all of these requirements, all the agencies involved. And if these amendments are approved, we'll post that on our website to provide people with a source of information. A LITTLE BIT ON PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT, AND I'LL TRY TO GO THROUGH IT, BUT THERE'S A LOT TO COVER. SO IN 2024, LIKE I MENTIONED, THIS IS WHEN IT STARTED WITH THAT CONSULTANT WORK, AND WE SAW A HUGE AMOUNT OF PARTICIPATION AT THAT TIME. ALMOST 1,900 SURVEY RESPONSES, OVER 100 ATTENDEES AT OUR OPEN HOUSES, AND THAT GAVE US A REALLY GOOD BASIS OF INFORMATION TO START THIS PROJECT WITH. AND SO WHEN WE MOVED INTO PHASE ONE OF PUBLIC OUTREACH AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR, WE We really were focused on talking to the proprietors of these businesses. What are their business models? What are their needs? What are the gaps? And identifying that so that we could address it with our amendments. We had about 50 participants in that round. And then we put together a draft. We put it out to the public, had opportunities online, in person, in focus groups to respond to it, got some good participation there, and actually got some substantive comments. And so we made some significant changes and decided to put the draft out one more time Triple, double, triple check. Got a few responses there. And then ended up with the draft that is before you today. There's a summary of all this in the staff report and links to even more extensive summaries of all the public outreach, so you can read all about it if you'd like. But what I want to highlight is that the draft is on a fundamental level from start to finish a response to public input. development code amendment one of the following findings needs to be made the planning commission made all four of them and unanimously recommended approval and so the recommended recommendation today is that you introduce introduce and conduct a first reading and then set the date for a second reading and i am happy to answer any questions thank you miss oakley i am going to open it up for any questions first before i open up for public comment any questions

Well, I just want to commend you, Madam Chair. I know you've been working on this since literally you got elected. And so it's been a few years in the making. Even before, yeah, that's right. Before you got elected. Set the record straight. I know, exactly. I don't want to start any rumors. So I think this is an exciting day. Kat, you really do a great job with these amendments, making sure the community feels heard. Congratulations. I'm very impressed. I'm wondering on the ag, just only ag use or when will we be tackling that change to the code?

Cat Oakley, for the record, could you maybe expand on what change in particular?

We had a meeting where the equine issue seems to actually be very similar to ag use as well if you're in a residential area in the same way that equine is. and they also have cumbersome requirements and i don't know if we ever directed on just that ag change to the code or and you may know madam chair or if you have the professional right okay um cat oakley for the record so one of the things you directed us to work on in the last prioritization meeting was agritourism and so we are working on that and that is coming and then

Some of the changes, as I mentioned here, particularly with the parking, that is a big one. And we're doing that across the board for agricultural uses. So that's kind of what's in the pipeline. And we will be returning to you soon to talk about new priorities. So opportunities for more direction if there is other places you would want us to go in the realm of agricultural regulations.

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

no i don't have any comments okay thank you vice chair garcia i kept wanting to say wow throughout the whole presentation because you know when you think back to the open houses and that we had in 2024 to hear everything that you've compiled from them and i give a lot of credit to the members of the public who just dedicated a lot of time attending those meetings reviewing these drafts and then really sharing these great recommendations with staff and staff of course you beautifully packaged together. It's just very common sense. It helps people save money and really you know, by right giving those small properties, those usages without all that onerous, cumbersome processes. I just think it is going to make a lot of people happy.

And we don't have a lot of agenda items that make people happy around here.

So I'll take it. But chair, good job advocating for this on behalf of this community. I know that you've dedicated a lot of your time in preserving this Western heritage that we have. And this is a big piece of that. And so I think today's a really exciting day. Well done, staff.

So I wanted to give my fellow commissioners opportunity to speak so that I could really say how much I appreciate y'all a lot. Um, you know, 2024 certainly seems like a long time ago, but the amount of work that was done from you and many others really, I think spoke to a lot more than just what we see because you know what it did in my opinion, It allowed people who actually have chosen to enjoy, whether it's just themselves and helping friends have horses, without what I'll call a true business model of generating lots of revenue, who had to make decisions before this change was proposed. Making decision to give up a horse or not help out a friend or do something that they feel that they shouldn't be doing. At several of those meetings, I had a couple people say to me, you know, I have a friend, and this is what they're doing, and I'm sure they had a friend, but they might be very close to that friend. So... It was, to me, a really great opportunity to put Washoe County in such a great light, because it is about preserving our western heritage, but it's also about allowing people the freedom. This ordinance hadn't been looked at in so long that it didn't really keep up, and it's not anybody's fault, by the way. I'm not making this statement in any derogatory way. I'm saying we have a lot to celebrate today. And the amount of work you all put into this is just to be commended. And I will tell you, that stakeholder meeting, I still get a lot of compliments to you and all the folks looking at that stakeholder and putting everybody in the room. And just for my fellow colleagues to explain, when we're talking about stakeholders, we're talking about all of the agencies that touch this. So fire and water state, you know, the state water folks, every single entity that touches that application in any way was in that room representing that particular agency. And what came of it, I think, was people hearing some of, oh, I didn't know that, so to speak, right? The inequity that might be just an unintended consequence, not intentional at all. So I am just overwhelmed with incredible appreciation to the entire Washoe County community that will benefit from the first reading of this. And so I'm going to ask if there's any public comment just to make sure that I've got that covered. There is none. And if there isn't any other comments, discussion items or questions, I am going to proudly make a motion for this first reading. To move to introduce and conduct a first reading of bill number 1958, which is an ordinance amending Washoe County Code chapter 110 within articles 300, 302, 304, 342, 400, 410, 412, and 809, as shown in attachment A, and further to move to schedule a public hearing for the second reading and possible adoption of the ordinance for September 15th, 2026. So really, on a serious note, thank you on behalf of every single person that can now have a friend and we'll see what happens with the second reading because I don't want to put the cart before the horse and that was intended. That was intended. I also want to thank all the agencies who participated this and all of the hours and hours that you all spent I really really appreciate it and for full disclosure it looks like there's going to be two bipartisan legislators who are going to carry a bill to look at finishing this job Because as Ms. Oakley put up, there are things outside the scope of Washoe County's authority or purview that needs to be changed at a legislative level. And what I also will just say in closing is I also learned that it's not just Washoe County. There are other counties that are also running into some of these kind of things. So it's going to be helpful, I think, for the entire state and for those. So thank you again. I'm trying not to get emotional, but I am.

Okay, thank you.

So we're going to close item 25, and we're going to move to item 26. Item 26 is...

if introduced, will become bill number 1959, an ordinance amending Washoe County Code chapter 50, public peace, safety, and morals by revising provisions relating to the discharge of firearms.

Mr. Solero, another one that's gonna be kind of emotional, right? This one's been around for a little bit, too. I'm telling you, I'm gonna be probably a wreck by the time I'm through.

Good afternoon, for the record, Dave Solero, Assistant County Manager. This item is actually, it was brought forward a couple of different ways through the commission, but most recently due to issues we've been having around south and east of Golden Eagle Regional Park in the Sparks area. And so we've been working with the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, Washoe County trying to understand the best way to deal with recreational shooting on our public lands, those conflicts with other users. And so part of that process is still ongoing to identify a location where safe shooting can occur. But the other piece of it is to actually extend the congested shooting area to make it more unlawful, I would say. It's already unlawful, but it's a little bit confusing sometimes to the general public and even sometimes law enforcement when they're out there. And so this amendment right now, what we're trying to accomplish is taking the meets and bounds survey out of our current code. And someone earlier today asked me, well, what is a meets and bounds survey? So I just thought I'd take a really quick detour down that piece so you can see how confusing this might be for people. So that area beginning at the section corner common to sections four and five, Township 21 North, Range 19 East, and sections 32 and 33, Township 22 North, Range 19 East, know that's the kind of thing that is in our current code right now and so it's really easy for someone say I didn't know even though I've got mapping and all kinds of other things associated with that so essentially what you have for you before you is a change to our county code to eliminate all of the meats and bounds and create maps associated with our planning areas that coincide with ENVISION WASHA 2040, SO OUR PLANNING MASTER PLAN. SO THERE WILL BE A SERIES OF MAPS. SO THIS ACTION TODAY DOES NOT CHANGE THE MAPS. THIS ACTION CHANGES THE LANGUAGE AND THE CODE TO ALLOW THE MAPS TO OCCUR BY RESOLUTION. SO WHAT WE'RE ASKING IS A FIRST READING FOR THIS TO COME BACK ON SEPTEMBER 15TH, WHERE WE WILL DO A SECOND READING AND HAVE A RESOLUTION THAT WILL ACTUALLY CHANGE TWO MAPS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS. We learned when we changed the congested shooting last time up on Peavine Mountain was to utilize landmarks more than just fictitious lines on a map. And so there will be a map showing an area near Golden Eagle Regional Park utilizing roadways and pole lines to distinguish a new boundary, expand that boundary to make it more clear on where you cannot be shooting. That's going to help with law enforcement to be able to actually keep people from shooting in the areas where fire starts and a few other things have happened in the past. Keep them from shooting around homes that have been built since the last time the congested shooting area was created. And then also an area in North Sun Valley where we've had some issues at the top of Chimney Drive. So we'll close off an area there. It is already unlawful to shoot up there, but it is confusing when you see the map and it shows red everywhere except for this one area and it shows yellow and everybody thinks they can go up there and shoot. It's still too close to some structures that are up there in the area. So we'll go ahead and close that off. But that will come in a separate item September 15th by a resolution. This will also, the change that we're requesting here today will also make it easier for us to make changes in the future. As you're aware, the process to amend county code takes three times to come to this body. Once for permission, once for a first reading, and then again for a second reading. In the future, if you approve this change by the second reading September 15th, we'll be able to bring changes via resolution to the maps associated with that. So with that, I'll turn it back over to the board for any questions you have.

Thank you. I'd also like to recognize Vice Chair for helping with the chimney. I know that Mr. Chimney Drive, but I know that Mr. Solero is not also probably me in his office since 2024 about the Golden Eagle and this is great. And you were working on that even long before that. So thank you for finally kind of looking at an opportunity to get this kind of squared away. I'll open it up for questions. Commissioner Herman, do you have anything?

Don't have any questions.

Vice Chair Garcia. Thank you Madam Chair. I feel like you know the the population there's the people that want to follow the rules and do right and then there's another segment of the population though there's like the kids they're 12 and 13 years old and they're trying to find any excuse under the sun to not follow the rules and so I think this elimination of the meets and bounds is going to be really helpful by providing those concrete examples Using roads, using those landmarks, I think there's no way to argue around that. But the truth of the matter is this is a very important item. We have bullets that are going past people as they're walking their dogs, as they're hanging out in their backyards, living in their homes. and it's just too close for comfort where we're lucky we haven't had anything happen yet um so i've had this sense of urgency i've always asked dave like his when is it coming forward when is it coming forward i really am grateful that you found a way to expedite any future changes in case our community will not in case it will continue to grow and we need that um easy mechanism and lever to pull when we need to make a change to a map without having to go through that really lengthy process. So, thank you, Dave, you're finding solutions for very complex issues. I know changing the maps is probably not an easy task. So, has that work already happened? Are you now, with approval today, shifting gears to the maps?

For the record, Dave Solero, we do have the maps. The maps are ready. The resolution, we're working through that to finalize the staff report. And I would, you know, I actually have to thank DDA Jen Gustafson for the idea to change it to resolution. That's the way the congested animal area is done. And that makes quite a bit more sense than having to go through and change county code every time we want to add a new subdivision that's been built in. So it was really Jen's idea to do that.

Good job, Jen.

Thank you. Commissioner Hill, do you have anything? Is there any public comment? There's none. So honestly, thank you so much for this. I entertain a motion at this time.

Madam Chair, I move to introduce and do the first reading for bill number 1959 as presented.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Go ahead and we'll close 26 and move to item 27, County Manager Thomas.

Thank you Madam Chair. This is a public hearing and we have master plan amendment case number WMPA 26-0001 which is heat mitigation plan. This is consideration of the Planning Commission's recommendation to amend Envision Washoe 2040 to create a heat mitigation plan and if approved authorize the Chair to sign a resolution to this effect. subject to a finding of conformance with the Truckee Meadows regional plan by the regional planning authorities. Just a reminder, the Board of County Commissioners may adopt the proposed amendments as presented. You may modify the proposed master plan amendment and refer the modified amendment back to the Planning Commission for its report in accordance with NRS 278.220 subsection 4, or you may deny the proposed amendments after the public hearing. And Kat Oakley is back with us to walk you through it. Ms. Oakley.

Welcome back. Thank you. Cat Oakley with Washoe County Planning for the Record. So if you remember the list, the prioritization list, this is another item from that list. So we're blowing through them today.

We'll fill them in behind you.

Yeah, I know. I'm not worried. But a little bit of background on this one. So in the last legislative session in 2025, AB 96 passed. That was a bill that required jurisdictions in Washoe and Clark County to create a heat mitigation plan specifically in the conservation element of the master plan and it did lay out some some items as well that had to be in there so you can see on the right hand of the slide there's that list of items and we already had a number of them in our plan and that's partially because the truckee meadows regional plan actually has some policies around urban heat And then there were some items where there was some room to add. And so what we're proposing today is an amendment to the text of Envision Washoe 2040 to create the heat mitigation plan as required by the new state law. A little bit of general background before I dive into the plan details. So you all are probably familiar with urban heat islands, but just in case, those are areas that are of concentrated heat that are created by impervious surfaces, things like buildings, pavement, that they absorb the heat from the sun during the day, and they release it throughout the day, but particularly into the evening and night, increasing those temperatures. And so that is part of what we're looking at, and we're really lucky because since the adoption of Envision Washoe 2040, there was the CAPA heat mapping campaign in August of 2024, where volunteers actually drove around the Truckee Meadows measuring the temperature three times in a day, And what they found there was that the maximum mapped differential between neighborhoods in the Truckee Meadows was 23 degrees Fahrenheit. So a huge difference depending on where you are. Of course, some of the areas are a bit higher elevation, so there's some other stuff going on there. But you can see even down in the valley, there are pretty significant differences between neighborhoods in the temperature. And so an important finding for us of that study too was that areas with more sparse suburban development and low tree cover can also concentrate heat in the day and evening. just points to the fact that the county, in addition to the cities, also has a role to play in addressing urban heat. And of course, you've heard that Reno is the fastest warming city in the U.S., which is another great reason for us to be looking at this. I do want to mention that urban heat is not the only heat that there is, and our region is warming more generally. You can see this map shows a general departure from normal temperatures in 2025. So this has already happened and Washoe County is about one to two degrees warmer depending on where you're at. And that also has impacts in rural areas. It has health impacts, both chronic and acute. Also other types of impacts like economic impacts, impacts on agricultural, production, social impacts, and so on. And so a lot to cover in this, and we do expect extreme heat events to increase, which again is why it is good that we are planning for it. So with that background, an overview of what's proposed in the master plan. So first we are proposing to reorganize the narrative in the conservation element to create a heat mitigation plan that addresses all those things required by AB 96 and specifically addresses extreme and urban heat. We're proposing to modify and add some policies related to extreme heat mitigation and management We're using a sun icon to mark the relevant policies to the heat mitigation plan throughout Envision Wall Street 2040. And then lastly, we're adding some action items to Chapter 3, which is how the plan, which is a 30,000th of view type plan, becomes reality on the ground. So in terms of the narrative, as I mentioned, we already have quite a bit of information about urban heat in there, so reorganizing that. adding information on extreme heat and its impacts, so talking about air quality and ozone, talking about impacts to community character, the impacts to rural communities, and also indirect impacts on the Tahoe Basin. We want to incorporate that great data that we got from the heat mapping campaign into the master plan, so we're doing that. proposing some more detailed information on tree canopy, which is one of the great and best ways to mitigate heat, and then referencing that network of other plans that are relevant to this issue. So the hazard mitigation plan, climate action plan, and regional transportation plan. As I mentioned, adding new principles and policies about coordination with emergency management, raising knowledge around extreme heat, developing some shared resources with Reno and Sparks, and that's a shared policy that we're all working on adopting, which is pretty cool. Increasing energy supply resiliency, which again has a big impact in a heat wave if you lose power. Increasing shade strategically, targeting where those people are going to be gathering outside or where vulnerable populations are. And then supporting pool building practices.

Also modifying some existing policies.

Just really being more specific, being more detailed, providing, kind of filling in the gaps on where we're going in relation to extreme heat and urban heat. I mentioned we're adding those action items so three of them will be short term and those would be to create some more coding goals related to tree canopy coverage assessing the need for rural focus strategies identifying those areas of the county that are most at risk from extreme heat and then a midterm action to explore incentives for cool building practices in the development code We did two neighborhood meetings for this project, one in person and one online. We had two attendees, but we got more responses to the online survey. And we did make some revisions based on public input that I won't read through, but we did respond to those comments we received. For a master plan amendment, three of the five findings must be made. The Planning Commission voted unanimously that all the findings could be made. And so the recommendation is to adopt this master plan amendment, and I am happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Do we have any questions from the board? Commissioner Herman, do you have anything? I do not. Thank you. Vice chair Garcia.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had a quick question. I know this is related to, you know, updating our Watch the Code master plan, but in terms of what you know in your research as the local jurisdictions compared to one another, I mean, the City of Reno obviously pops to the top of my mind as a jurisdiction that has really promoted policies and they, to my knowledge, have a pretty robust way of being proactive in addressing this issue. How do you feel the county? I know we have some baseline landscaping, you know, language in our code, but are we doing enough at the county? And if not, is that something that we could potentially look for moving forward?

City of Reno they do have an urban forestry program that's something we don't have currently your sustainability managers working on that um there are other I would say there are ways that we can do more to prepare in our code for in the urban environment and in the rural environment I think some of those actions are proposed in in as the actions in chapter three I think that there's also potential to combine that work with some of the other work we'll be doing in the implementation of the master plan. So we do have some standards that do help with heat mitigation, particularly landscaping standards because they provide that shade. But certainly there are many jurisdictions, particularly in the southwest, that have been on the forefront of these heat issues. And they are kind of pioneering a lot of things that local jurisdictions can do to mitigate those impacts.

I'd be interested in seeing some examples from other jurisdictions or maybe if it's a briefing or something down the road. But this issue is not going to go away. This is something that's coming up more as knock on doors or talk to constituents. It's a growing concern, especially for our vulnerable populations. And so we really shouldn't be caught flat-footed. We know what the data says. And I think our policies should reflect that proactively.

And I'll just add that I think a lot of people don't recognize this, but it is the most deadly natural hazard, heat is. It's a pretty serious thing for us to be planning for.

Yeah, especially what we just saw in Europe over the summer. It's a global trend as well. So thank you so much. Commissioner Howe.

Just great work again. And just met with the city of Reno about their tree program. They're making some changes to their code and figuring out that balance of making sure that our public agencies like RTC follow the tree canopy rules when they are doing these projects. And I want to make sure that, you know, as we move forward, that we have enough in code that we can hold these agencies, you know, responsible to make sure that they're following our rules um and that we can make sure projects in the county also have tree canopy so i'm really excited about that as well for the future well do we have any public comment for this item there's nobody in chambers but i do have an email to place on the record thank you

So again, great work. You're all rock stars. You're just knocking out that priority list. If there aren't any more questions for anyone, I'm gonna ask for a motion, please.

Move to adopt the master plan amendment case number WMPA 260001 amendment to the master plan to create heat mitigation plan and authorize the chair to sign as outlined in the staff report.

I'll ask for a second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We'll now move to item 28.

Item 28 is the second reading to adopt a development agreement for Woodland Village Town Center WTM 20-005 to extend the deadline for recording the final map to May 20, 2022, or 2028, sorry. It was formerly bill number 1956.

Does anyone have any questions or want to hear any more information? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Okay, sorry, pulling it up. Move to adopt ordinance number, what was it again? I'm sorry.

1765.

1765, as outlined in the staff report.

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. We'll move now to item 29.

For the record on item 28, there was no public comment. Thanks. Item 29. is a second reading for ordinance number 1766 to adopt a development agreement for ridges at Hunter Creek, TM16-005, to extend the deadline for recording the final map to June 28th, 2028, formerly bill number 1957.

Does anybody want to hear anything? We've already heard it once. Any questions for staff? Do we have any public comment? There's none. No public comment. No questions. I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Move to adopt ordinance number, sorry.

1766.

1766 as outlined in the staff report.

The second. 1766. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll signify by voting yes if you want it to pass. Aye. Here we go. I'm going down. Okay. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. All right, we are now moving to public comment. I am gonna ask DA Large if he would clarify the public comment at this time.

Madam Chair, with your permission, the board needs to reconvene as a joint session of both the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners and the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District jointly to hold so we are in compliance with the open meeting law.

Great. So this public comment will cover both. Thank you for that clarification. Do we have any public comment?

There is none.

All right. We'll go ahead and close item 30. We'll move to item 31.

Manager Thomas. Thank you. This is Commissioner County Manager's Announcements, Reports, and Updates to include Board and Commission updates, requests for information, or topics for future agendas. I do have one answer to a clarifying question that a Commissioner had previously in the meeting. So Commissioner Hill had asked on item 18 whether or not the private activity bond allocation would go to a specific project We did not have it allocated to a specific project this time, but we did allocate it for use for a Washoe County project and there is a paragraph on page 2 that outlines the provisions around that. So I just wanted to put that on the record because that was a question. And then I do have a quick item. We noticed that the attachment for the 2026 general election day locations and the early voting locations, the general election document had I think it was a general election document, had a typo on the vote centers. The first part was vote centers. And then on page two, it should continue to say vote center locations. It inadvertently says Dropbox location name, and then there's another Dropbox item. We have corrected that general election day. LOCATION INFORMATION ON THE RECORD ATTACHED. WE HAVE STARTED TO PROMOTE THAT INFORMATION, SO IT SHOULDN'T BE A POINT OF ISSUE FOR FOLKS THAT JUST ON THE ATTACHMENT THAT THE BOARD WAS GIVEN, THAT TITLE WAS INCORRECT. SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE THAT CLARIFICATION ON THE RECORD.

AND DA LARGE, YOU'RE FINE WITH THAT?

THERE'S NO ISSUE. OKAY.

JUST MAKING SURE. ALL RIGHT. VICE CHAIR GARCIA, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING? COMMISSIONER HILL? COMMISSIONER HERMAN?

No, not a thing.

Okay. Well, I do. I forgot and I apologize. I wanted to, I have two items quickly. I wanted to commend the amazing work that was done with the boards and commission workshop, if you will, or training session on the 14th, and it was a Friday and a Saturday. I attended both of them, not one the whole day on Friday, but the whole day on Saturday. And again, like over the top how staff did an incredible job. that training was so good that it's going to be encouraging to look at maybe replicating that, even for commissioners. It was amazing. The first day, Friday, it looked like approximately 70 people, I think I asked. The second day was a lot smaller, but still, the amount of people who, I didn't even realize there were 53 boards there. And so of that 53 boards, almost I'd say 80% of the people who serve on the boards in various capacities and commissions attended. So it was a really diverse group. And I just want to add one thing that I thought was really interesting that came out of it. is everyone was encouraged to sit with somebody from another board, maybe that you didn't know, and they then learned of all the different boards and what everyone does. And so there was this organic, because I sat with the group, and they were like, oh, you do this, oh, you do that. I mean, just the organic connection and then the unification of all the information, whether it be Jen Gustafson, rockstar on the open meeting law, you know, Alexandra Wilson, Candy Ramos, Elizabeth Jordan, others that I may be missing. Everybody, it was so good. It was that good that at this late stage of this long meeting, I'm still that excited about it, okay? I mean, that's how good it was. So I just want to give a big shout out to the CAB training and looking forward to that continued effort. I do, my second and last item is a formal request for an agenda item to bring back the list of priorities for projects to be put on the agenda to include an amendment for the Planning Commission and the Board of Adjustment related specifically to the provisions that govern the leave of absence. So I'll look forward to that coming before this board for discussion and possible review and approval. All right, hearing none, I think we are adjourned at 3.08, thank you.