City Council - Regular Meeting

Good, good morning everyone. Uh we're going to get started here in just a minute. We have a few council members out sick, so they're probably going to be online. Um we have a just a few different things happening. So, as soon as we get a quorum, uh, we'll get going. Okay.

All right. My mom is okay. All right. Good morning. How are you? Good. It's sh out. Isn't it? I'm excited about our walkers.

Yeah, I love that. Madame clerk, good morning. Good morning, Madame Mayor. Good morning. Are you ready? We're all set.

Okay, good. I know we have um several people on Zoom. I do want to acknowledge um Katie Simon Holland. It's so nice to see you. Beth Smith and Kaitlin Evans. Uh you're the president of I believe WA. Yeah. Good morning, you guys. Thank you so much for being here. It's nice to see you. Katie, would you like to lead us in the pledge? I know you've done it a million times, but it can feel like old school for you being back here. of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Good job. All right, Madame Clerk. Um I am going to send it to you to call the role. Thanks, Madam Mayor. We're on item A2, roll call for the Reno City Council meeting on Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. Council member Taylor here. Council member Dor. Vice Mayor Martinez here. Council member Eert here. Council member Reese here. Council member Anderson here. Mayor Shibi here. Council member Der is online but has not stated present. So we'll mark her absent at this time. You do have a quorum of the Reno City Council. Okay. Thank you so much. Um Oh, there she is.

And this is Naomi. And my my voice cut out for a minute. Sorry. Gotcha. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, madam clerk. All right. We are going to head right into um special proclamations and I believe that is why you here are here today. So, we're excited to present um educa educator appreciation month which is so important. How many of you remember that teacher that made a difference in your life? Maybe bad or good. No, I'm just kidding. Let we all have No. Um, how many of you raise your hand? This is why teachers are so important, right? I'll never forget my first grade teacher. Never, ever, ever. I I remember some boy stole my lunch money and um she said, "Don't worry about it. I got you." And I'll I'll never forget her kindness um and the lessons that she taught us. So, happy um educator week or month is what they call it, but teacher appreciation week is my favorite. So, uh we'll have you back for that. You want to come on up? All right. It's all you. Okay, friends. I get the honor of coming off the dis to read a little bit about this and then I'm going to turn it over to Beth Smith who is uh one of the most incredible leaders in our community and Kayn Evans also. Mayor Shivi, like you said, we all had that one teacher who made a difference in our lives. I think we can all point to someone. I was very fortunate. I'm the product of Wo County Schools. All of our kids were educating the Wo County School District. So, I know firsthand what it means to be one of those kids. And so, I'm going to turn this over. I'm going to read the first one and then I'm going to turn it over to these two fine folks to read the rest

of it and we'll get going. So it says, "Whereas educators play a fundamental role in shaping the future by educating and inspiring students to achieve their highest potential." And Beth, if you pick up with that one, we'll go. Educators dedicate their time, energy, and expertise to fostering a love of learning, critical thinking, and personal growth among students of all backgrounds and abilities. And

whereas educators often go above and beyond their professional duties, serving as mentors, counselors, and role models who provide guidance and encouragement beyond the classroom. And whereas the impact of a dedicated educator extends far beyond a single school year, influencing students for a lifetime and strengthening the entire community. And whereas educators have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and adaptability particularly in the face of challenges such as techn technological advancements, shifting educational standards and unprecedented unprecedented circumstances affecting the learning environment. And whereas

it is fitting that we recognize and express our deepest gratitude to the contributions of educators in our community. Now therefore, I I Hillary Shei Hillary Shei of the city of Reno, Nevada, do hereby declare May 2026 educator appreciation month.

All right. Congratulations. You can you can tell they're educated. They went back and forth and that means there's a break and so you tend to listen much more intently. So there there's a method to that. Um you you both have very difficult jobs. Very. I want to say thank you so much for your service and your dedication. I I don't know how you do it. Um I just have a lot of gratitude for you and for Katie and the work that you guys do and um it really means a lot and I know it means a lot to so many children too. So um don't let them get you down. Just keep going. So um do you want to say anything?

Oh um yeah, thank you again for the record. Kayn Evans, president of the WSO Education Association, and we represent all the certified professionals in the Wo County School District. And I just want to always appreciate when we look at educator appreciation month versus just teacher appreciation month. So, so kudos to the the city on that because while of course the teachers, right, the foundation of what we do in education, we have amazing amazing professionals in our school district, our counselors, we have social workers, um right, we have our all of our special education specialists, we have occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists. I mean, we really run the gamut of services for students and they all uh play a tremendous role in making sure that we are um elevating all of the students and especially our those that are the most at risk. And so I just want to say thank you for the uh opportunity to speak with all of you today.

Yeah, thank you. That's incredible. Good job.

And thank you, Mayor. So, in the spirit of your question, for me it's Mr. Carter, my third grade teacher. He told me that I wrote well and that really set me on a path to be a communicator um as my profession. So that's who touched me. So the WO County School District is so honored. We have over 8,500 educators within our district and what you're doing right now to lift them up is incredibly important. Education makes absolutely everything possible and this proclamation is not performative of your council. Your council has been incredible partners of the school district and our educators, including the $1 million worth of flashing lights that you've installed all across the city and the work that these members of your own council have done currently on the capital funding protection committee, Vice Mayor Martinez and also Council Member Ree and then of course Council Member Anderson, one of the original champions of WC1. And the reason why I point that out is just as President Evans said, protecting and uplifting education and our educators is the work of our community. And we appreciate the partnership of this council. Thank you.

Well, we appreciate your kind words. Um, it's so true. Educators come in so many different forms, right? I didn't think about I mean, what a ripple effect. Amazing. Thank you for recognizing them. All right, you guys have a great day. Okay, next up we have we have one more. We have to do this one because I know that it it embarrasses them. It's professional municipal clerks week and I think that um they deserve a lot of recognition. I know you have a tough job, especially whenever I pass by you on the second floor and um people are paying their parking tickets and they're so you're so nice and they said, "Wow, this was painless." So that means you're doing a good job if someone is paying a parking ticket and uh they say, "Wow, the service was really exceptional." So that that's really nice to hear. Um but I thought you must get yelled at a lot down there. So I said, "We've got to recognize you." Do you have someone on your team you'd like to come forward?

Lauren, hi you guys. Good morning, Madame Mayor. Thank you for the the words of kindness. We do actually have uh members from the Reno Municipal Court here as well since they are clerks of the court. So, we are sharing the honor this morning with um the Reno Municipal Court. Well, it's nice to see you. I know our other building over there, we don't get to see you guys enough. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having us. Thank you. So, do you guys all know each other? Is it like a clerk? Sort of like a club? We are. This year we are joining forces so it's been really nice. Um we are getting to know more of each other. So

Okay, that's good. I think you have to stick together because you probably all know how it feels to be front and center. You you're actually the face if you think about it. You really are. I just thought of that. You are the face of the city and the court. Impressive. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Take it away.

Okay. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this proclamation, Madame Mayor. All right. Whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk, a timehonored and vital part of local government, exists throughout the world and is the oldest among public servants. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens, the local governing bodies and agencies of governments at all other levels. You want to get in here or here. Whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering equal service to all. And the professional municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and community. hand. Whereas professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and the annual meetings of their state, provincial, county, and international professional organizations. hand.

Okay. Whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk. Now therefore, I mayor of the city of Reno, Nevada, do hereby declare May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 professional municipal clerk's week. Ah, congratulations. Are you picturing what do you get to do this week? Do you have parties? Do you do you get to do anything fun? Part of trying to celebrate lots of food and fun hopefully. So, games in the plaza, breakfast, lunches. So, wow. We did taco Tuesday yesterday and then they're hosting our team for a pancake breakfast tomorrow.

Oh, that's very nice. It's good culture. Yeah. Is your hair natural? Yes. You pay millions of dollars for that. Yeah. Whether I like it or not depends on What do you mean you don't like it? Wow, we're all the straight hair girlies are going, I want to be you. We always want to be. It's beautiful. Embrace it. Embrace I All of you have great hair. Is that a requirement to be a clerk? It is now. It is now. Okay. All right, you guys have a great day. Thank you so much for being here.

Oh, we're going to do one quick picture. We are a small group up here. I'm I'm feeling lonely. But yeah, you're all you're all the way over there alone. Get in here. Get in here. Come on. Thorn among roses.

All right. Here we go. On the count of three, smile for good hair. Okay. Ready? One, two, three. Okay, here we go. This is exciting. How many of you this morning listen to music? That is not enough. That is definitely not enough. Um I I am such a big believer in music therapy and um just anytime that you hear a great song like I'm now, you know, in the 80s and I'm like I remember when we did this, right? But what about you in the 70s or the 60s? Do you remember? I was just listening to the Jackson 5 the other day. It was incredible. Right? So, we want you to listen to more music. Um, I think especially in a time when things are tough, when things are tough, it's the one thing that I try to turn to is music. It just does something to your heart, you know, something. Maria, who's your who's your favorite artist?

Queen. Oh, they just rated um him number one voice. They just rated him number one voice. I think Madonna came in at three, but um everyone thought that uh it should have been Whitney Houston. Who would agree? Whitney Houston, raise your hand.

Uh Freddy Mercury, Queen, raise your hand. Okay, then they probably got it right. Anyway, well, we're excited because um I really want to have more music. If you know anyone um in our community that's doing music, please invite them here. Uh and we'd love to we'd love to start out our day with something that I think makes us all feel good. We have this Sierra High Notes choir performance and um we're excited that they're here and they have agreed to perform for us. So come on up. We're excited you're here. Are you going to sing some Queen for us? We'll do that next time.

Next time. Okay, good. As long as you you you do that next time. All right. Well, why don't you um before you begin, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do, why you do it, and what makes it special. No problem. My name is Eric Gao. I am the music director for the Sierra High Notes, and we are a community choir of 40 singers and I just have a small handful of my choir members here today. We just a small handful. Just a small handful cuz we all have um our jobs and our busy lives. So, for those who could make it today, um I am grateful and we all grateful that they are here. Just tell them tell them, "Sorry we're late. Hash mayor made me do it."

Yes. Yes. I already I already sent that permission slip to everyone. Good. All right. Um Yep. So, what we're going to present for you today is a simple home meanings Nevada. It's a song that we all know and that we all can sing to. So, if anyone's interested, please join us. Okay. So, everyone join in because I know each and every one of you. Wow. I see this woman over here who I know very well. You talk about educators. This woman was a longtime educator in our community on organ donation. Can I Can I This is Devon Reese's mother over here. I just I just noticed this rockstar woman. We We go way back. Yeah. Well,

you're amazing. You're amazing. So, we're excited that you're here.

Okay. where the wind blows wild and free. There's a lovely spot, just the only one that belongs home to me. If you follow the old car trail meets the hills. Oh, you certainly will agree with me. It's the place of a thousand thrills. Home means Nevada. Home means the hills. Home means sage and the pine out by the chy silvers out where the sun always shines. There is the land that I love the best I can see. Right in the heart of the golden west. Home means Nevada to me. Where the sun at the day all the western sky. Oh my hearts to the desert gray and the mountains staring high. And the moon beams in the shadow with the spotted dawn and all night is the lon. Home means home means the hills. Home means the sage and the pine silvers.

where the sun always shines. There is a land that I love the best, fairer than all I can see. Right in the heart of the golden west. Home means Nevada to me. Right in the heart of the golden west. Home means the bad to me.

Okay. How do we join you? Is like a secret. How do we If anyone wanted to join, what's the requirement? We don't have You definitely don't want me join. Requirement. We have uh anyone who's just interested and wants to sing, they're welcome. We've got singers who um are all oral or oral learner learners, so they learn by ear, those who can read music. So, we have a wide spectrum of singers in different um skill levels. Okay, that's an impressive. Where do you where do you do all this? We rehearse Wednesday nights. So, tonight at 7:00,

and we're at the uh LDS church off of Kings Row in Wyoming. That's where we rehearsed. We're preparing for our uh patriotic performance on June 13th over at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Sparks. And we have um your Battle of Him of the Republic, Johnny Comes Marching Home. We've got uh Salute to Armed Forces to support the veterans. And that's our main performance. I love that. How about uh July 4th for the 250th parade? So that one

we would love to see you there. We are we are booked with the uh sorry we were working with um the group over at the Sparks Marina, the Veterans Memorial. They are Oh, good. Okay. Well, then that's okay. We'll give you a pass. But you must be in high demand then if you're booked. We we're we're grateful for that. um because we've got um the Northern Nevada Veterans Homes off of Battlebor Way for Memorial Day and then next Saturday with Sparks Legion Post 30 for Armed Forces Day. I love this. Well, thank you so much for spreading the arts. Really important in our community. And um come back whenever you practice your queen. Maybe Oh, we will.

Should we do bicycle? Let's do bicycle. Bicycle. Okay. I love it. Okay. Well, we'll see. Thank you so much, Madam Mayor. Can I just say something really quick? Yes, please do. I just wanted to to share that I've seen I've been in the audience of your singing um maybe three or four times now since I've been elected and I just wanted to thank you for sharing joy and being able to be vulnerable enough to to sing in public. I know how terrifying it is to have a microphone in front of me and how terrifying just being able to use my authentic voice

in leadership and the fact that you go and share this authentic joy and talent with our community is really special. So, thank you for all of the performances that I've been in the audience for and for the, you know, just future opportunities for everybody to sing with you. Thank you. I love that. Well, okay. Um, do you guys want to get a quick picture? Oh, that would be great. So, at least you have proof that you actually really were here in case you do need a in case you do need a note. Thank you. All right. AJ's gonna do the honors for us.

Mama Reese, good morning. Nice to see Wonderful. One, two, and three. I will.

He wants to. We love you. There are already.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Our first item today is item A3, opening public comment. It should be noted for those in attendance that comments are to be addressed to the mayor and council as a whole. Comments heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the council's agenda. Council may not take action upon any matter not agendaized on today's agenda. When you're called on for public comment, please state your name for the record and begin speaking. The timer will begin when you've stated your name and you will be afforded three minutes. For those participating in chambers in accordance with council rules 6.3.11. While in this room, please be respectful. Disruptive behavior from audience members like clapping, yelling, whistling, etc. which impede the meeting may result in a warning issued by the presiding officer. If this behavior continues, you may be removed from chambers. If you're an attendee in the Zoom meeting and would like to make public, please raise your hand at this time. Our first public commenter today is Mark Markell, followed by Terry Brooks, followed by Tammy Holtzill. Morning.

Good morning. This is here. Good morning, s I'm glad to see you're wearing a helmet. What? I'm glad to see you're wearing a helmet. They're so important. Brought for me. Well, that was nice. And I've had a lot of We could all wear helmets to be honest with you. I got Look, I got I got hit by a a car. I still made it to the meeting. Oh, anyway. Was that today? No, it was couple of days ago.

But RPD didn't do anything about it. Well, I'm going to have someone meet with you, Mark. I want to get information. It's not okay. I'm glad you're you're okay, but I'm glad you're wearing a helmet. Yes. and good morning s Marie. Will you um bring the microphone down for him? Thank you so much. No, that's better. Perfect. Okay, there better. Okay, go ahead.

Manager, I gota say hi to all you. I My name is Mark. I'm here to warn you people about getting in the car drunk driver and here to show you what can happen. See, I I the the latest thing I' I've fallen and hit my head bund times, but the latest thing um is uh this hit run a thing. See, nobody cares about me. They just they just hit me and drive off. Anyways, I'm here to warn you people and show you people what can happen if you get in the car with the front driver. Back in way back in 89, I was the passenger in a drunk driving crash. We were doing a 100 and where we rolled eight times and that car landed on my head and and I just want I just wanted maybe I just want to show you people and one of you people driving with front I'm Uh, you're still missing. Take your time. You have plenty of time.

I make my path. Okay. But I I that's I want to show you people and warn you people what can happen if you get in the car with drunk driver. Thank you. All right. Good message, Mark. Terry Brooks followed by Tammy Holtz followed by Adriana Villa Lobos, Colton Lawrence, and Lorena Perez. I love it. More art. Right, Terry? more art. Poetry is an art.

I'm glad you said that.

Good morning. It's me, Terry Brooks again, and today I'd like to share with you my thoughts on senior centers and what seniors go through. There are several senior centers here locally that we know in Warso County, in Sparks, and in Reno. In these senior centers, seniors get to meet each other and get to spend a lot of time getting to know each other. There they all get to share a lot of social interaction and they get to do so with a lot of satisfaction with a lot with a lot of satisfaction. Yeah. And many of those senior centers, various meals are served and are sometimes free to seniors because they're welld deserved. And again, at these meals, seniors get to know each other. And while eating such meals, they can share their thoughts with each other. And at some of these senior centers, seniors get to play various games where they not only compete with each other, but they also earn a few nicknames. And while playing any games, they not only get physical exercise, but in competing with each other, they get mental exercise. And in some of these senior centers, they get to And in some of these senior centers, seniors get to enjoy entertainment. And sometimes seniors even get to be part of that entertainment. Yesterday at the Ninth Street Senior Center, I entered a talent show and I was surprised that I was picked as a finalist for the finalist talent show, which will be in two weeks. Each of our senior centers are a wonderful place for seniors to get together and see others face to face. When seniors get together in any way they could, it makes each and everyone feel mighty good. Every time that you go to a senior center, it makes you feel really good as soon as you

enter. I would like to thank you all for listening to me today and I look forward to coming back here and feeling good here that way. That's great. Okay. Do what was your talent? Was it poetry? Yeah, I guess. Uhhuh. I'm glad you call that a talent. It is a talent. Um, not everyone can write. And um, and there's all different kinds of poetry, right?

Yeah. I've had the I've written these series of poems about situations where I encountered this old man who claims to be Mark Twain and I I write a poem about that and then when I start reading him at a talent show, that old man who claims to be Mark Twain just shows up out of nowhere and tells his side of the story too. Ah, clever, clever. I love it. Okay, when is it? When's the talent show? Oh, it's uh May 19th at the 9inth Street Senior Center from 1 to 3:00. Okay. May n 1 to 3. Okay.

Thank you. If my schedule allows it, I'm coming. All right. Thanks, Terry. Good job. Tammy Holtzill, followed by Adriana Vilobos, Colton Lawrence, and Lorena Perez, and Alexander Milum. And she's a um candidate for Commissioner what? District five. District five. Okay, take it away,

Tammy. Holo candidate for Wo County District 5. While I was out canvasing, Terry walked me right into it, so it works out really good. He talked about senior centers. Do you realize that in your planning there is nothing in the master plan for senior citizens? You worry about elementary schools all the way up to high school, but you don't think about the seniors. Well, when I was speaking to a couple of the seniors in the north valleys, they're very upset because they can't get an RTC ride in to Reno to come to the senior centers. And that is very frustrating. It's something that in all of your growth, which is going to go into my next thing, you guys have not paid attention to all of your infrastructure again. So, now let's get into the infrastructure. First of all, last time I was here, I gave you this pamphlet that had different things. It had an A2 Alliance article regarding data centers. It has what our water is like in the north valleys. Precipitation. It also has in here this which fell flat. So I am bringing it back to you again. Wash out county including your city. There you go. The one you just received, the Wo County citizens, which means city of Reno and the city of Sparks voted that they wanted this policy in the regional plan, which talks about the fact that you were not to outgrow your water sustainability resources. And this is not in the regional plan. This is not anywhere to be found. In fact, in my research, I have found that where um Tommo talks about doing in 2011

an NRS that muddied the whole thing up and made it so that this is gone so that you guys can keep developing and take all of our resources away so that we cannot be sustainable. It's time for you that are on the boards of RTC on regional planning board on Truckucky Meadows Water. You need to start asking these questions. It's your responsibility. Why are we not following this? Why are we not doing what needs to be done? This is why I am running for Wo County Commissioner because nobody has listened to me. So now I'll have to do it another way. I wasn't planning on running, but I do not like the way government practices have worked. Yeah. So, it's time for me to step in and try and do it a different way.

I love that. See, that's how you make change, right? Good job. Thank you. Good job, Adriana Villa Lobos, Colton Lawrence, and Lorena Perez, followed by Alexander Milum, followed by McKenzie Nelson. Hi. Hi. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Adriana Vilovos and I'm here with the 2026 Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce leadership program. We've been asked to come and speak um and make a comment just as part of a project. Um and I also wanted to thank all of you for your support um and all that you do for our community.

Uh my name is Colton Lorettes. I'm also in the leadership program through Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce. Um so we're the 2026 cohort of that program. I just want to thank you all uh for everything that you do, your your staff, everybody that's involved in the the city uh process. Oh, thanks for coming. Yes. And this is uh Lorena Perez for the record. Um also part of that cohort. Um it we wanted to introduce oursel to a public body and we chose this one. Um it's also known as the best class ever. So um but thank you for your time. Um, h last name. Who are you related to? Uh, probably Colin who you're familiar with? Yeah. Wait, Colin. Colin Lorettes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Small world. Are you guys How are you relate brothers? Yep. Okay. I've known him for many years. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's so funny when you said that. I'm thinking there's not many of Yeah. There's not many Lat. Yeah. Right. That's so cool. I love that. Will you please tell him I said hello? Absolutely. That's great. You guys are enjoying the class. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone loves that class and many of you go on to do really amazing and exciting things like run for Congress and run big companies. And so I know you guys are enjoying it. I mean, it's a it's just a great opportunity. And I know Ann always feels like a proud mama. So, um, she's making you guys do the rounds, huh?

Yes, she's great. Okay, good. All right. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming. Enjoy you guys. Thank you so much. Alexander Milum followed by Mackenzie Nelson, followed by Paul Lonard. Oh, got it. Hi, good morning.

Good morning, Mayor Shivi and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Alex Milum and I'm with Northern Nevada DSA. I'm here to urge Reno City Council to terminate its contract with flock safety and turn off the city's flock cameras as soon as possible. Flock cameras infringe on the privacy of every Reno resident and visitor who drive past them. They enable warrantless searches and surveillance, and they're rife with potential for abuse. We've already seen multiple cases nationwide of law enforcement abusing these cameras to stalk and harass private citizens, including a police chiefs in Kansas who used them to stalk his ex-girlfriend and a police lieutenant in South Carolina who used them to spy on his wife. I would like to particularly highlight our concerns that Reno's flock data may be used in immigration enforcement. While RPD lists immigration as a prohibited use on their transparency portal, there are multiple ways this data could be accessed for immigration enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies in other municipalities have conducted thousands of immigration related searches of Flock's nationwide networks on behalf of federal agents. This is particularly concerning because RPD shares flock data access with hundreds of other law enforcement agencies across the country and over 40 of these agencies have 287g agreements with ICE. Other local agencies in other states have found out after the fact that federal agencies had backdoor access to their flock networks for a period of time. We are also concerned that RPD's data could be used by outofstate actors to surveil people who seek abortion care. In 2024, a Texas sheriff's department used Flock's network of cam cameras to conduct a nationwide search for a woman who had a home abortion and were able to pull data from cameras in two states where abortion was legal, Washington and

Illinois. Local governments across the country are starting to reconsider and end their contracts with Flock because of these safety and privacy concerns. We are asking the city of Reno to join this growing movement against mass surveillance by ending the city's contract with block safety and turning off the cameras as soon as possible. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good comments. McKenzie Nelson followed by Paul Lonard followed by Bahar Jazami.

Good morning. Good morning.

Uh my name is Mackenzie Nelson. I'm another representative of Northern Nevada DSA. I'm also speaking in opposition to the city of Reno's contract with Flock Safety. I encourage the city to opt out of renewing their contract in this December and to deactivate the cameras throughout the city as soon as possible. If you drove here by car this morning, your image was captured by one of more one or more of 45 automated license plate reading cameras. These cameras identify your car like a fingerprint and create a database of your daily activities, which is searchable even if you have committed no crime. Though a criminal investigation is technically required for law enforcement to search flock records, audited reasons for database searches can be as vague as protest, which was used in Carson City. This data on our daily activities is available not only to local police but law enforcement agencies nationwide. I can think of no reason for police in Louisiana and North Carolina to be able to see where I get my sandwich for lunch. Flock cameras are ripe for abuse from law enforcement officials within the city of Reno and across the nation. Vulnerable to hacking and unauthorized access from malicious actors and willful you misuse and misconduct by Flock themselves. The Illinois Attorney General found that Flock was giving camera data from Oak Park, Illinois directly to federal customs and border control in contravention of ill Illinois state law. And in Dunwy, Georgia, Flock employees showed live footage of the inside of a Jewish community center as part of a tech demonstration for potential clients without the community cent's knowledge. Though Flock has apologized for these actions, it's clear that they operate on a model of ask for forgiveness rather than permission. This is a dangerous precedent to set when dealing with the private data of every single citizen in this city. It's imperative that this city council take action sooner rather than later because Flock Safety is updating their contracts to give them even more access to customer data and erasing safeguards on their own activities. All while making it more difficult for local governments to cancel their contracts. Updates made to the standard flock safety contract in

February of this year allow Flock to use all footage and data in perpetuity and for whatever purpose they want. These changes allow Flock to sell our daily movements and habits to third parties without hiding our identities while moving arbitration out of Nevada into into the state of Georgia and limiting their own liability even in cases of their own gross negligence. The first two years of this contract were paid for using a federal grant. That grant was not renewable. So allowing our contract with Flock Safety to renew in December would cost the city nearly half a million dollars when we are in a structural deficit and would meet increasing funding for a police department whose administration is on leave under investigation for charges that have not been made public. I urge this council to turn off flock cameras, exit our agreement as soon as possible, and get Flock out of Reno.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Paul Lonard followed by Bahar Jazami followed by Amika Star. Yeah. Good morning. Speaking of artists, uh you also do poetry. Well, from time to time I've been a poet. Yeah. Uh very good.

Unfortunately, in current circumstances of this country, this city, and the world, it's very difficult to feel poetic. My name is Paul Leonards. I am a resident of Ward 6. It's pleased to meet you, Miss Anderson. I'd love to talk to you sometime. Greetings to Madame Mayor and the other members of the council. I rise in opposition to the further intrusive surveillance of American citizens by whatever means under whatever pretexts. the current administration in Washington DC and its justice department. I do not want them to have access to my movements. Americans have always jealously guarded their privacy and their freedom of movement. I am happy to belong to a church to a congregation with a long history of defending freedom of conscience, freedom of movement and democracy. All of those are currently under attack at various levels. I do not wish to see yet another tool placed in the hands of wouldbe tyrants who will use it to restrict our area of liberty, participation, and input to what used to be or actually well was in some respects promising to be a democracy. I agree with my DSA comrades that this is an present danger, a clear

and present danger, especially within the context of the larger danger going on, which is the proliferation of artificial intelligence data processing centers, which will be used for the storage of information on citizens with the ability to individually identify them by face to track their movements and to be used against their interests. I have seen the results of this sort of thing in Chicago when the co-intel program of the FBI and the Chicago Red Squad killed Fred Hampton in 1969. I hoped that there had been some reforms since then, but every day I wake up and I look out my window and the world has gotten worse, not better. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Bahar Jazami followed by Amiga Star followed by Marine Tapen. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Hi, my name is Bahar Jazani. I'm a graduate student at UNR. Um, I'm not here to talk about data centers or surveillance, but I agree with everything my comrades just said. I think you should listen to them. Um, but I am here like many others today to discuss the city budget. We all know that Reno's budget is in trouble. Earlier today, I read an article by the Nevada Independent interviewing a few of you, Kathleen Taylor and Devon Ree, and we all agree that there are a lot of nice toes that the city could do away with. For instance, in that article, Kathleen Taylor stated that Reno's Fourth of July parade that costs $105,000 should not be something that the city prioritizes. And I agree. Why are we spending over $100,000 on a single day event? Um, and when allocating the budget, we need to ask simple policy questions like, what is the outcome? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? And is it worth the money that we're putting into it? All of these questions also apply to the funds that the city government allocates towards the police department. It's been suggested for there to be a $9 million increase in the police budget despite the budget deficit that we're already in. So, we need to ask ourselves, what is the outcome of increasing the police budget? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? and is it worth it? To answer these questions, let's look at an investigation conducted by This is Reno into how RPD is currently using funds trainings, a vital part of any police academy. This investigation hints at the falsification of training records. For instance, records show that Chief Katherine Nance and other officers completed 6 hours worth of trainings on New Year's Eve, but the surveillance footage shows that they were only at the training location for less than an hour. Former law enforcement officers say it's literally impossible to complete these trainings in in a single hour. And they said, quote, "At best, it's dodgy. At worst, it's fabricated." The trainings RPD officers supposedly fabricated that

day are very important trainings. Also, they're titled Less Lethal Weapon Proficiency, Arrest and Control Tactics, Use of Force Police Review, and Firearms Proficiency 1 and two. Now, let's look at the effects of these trainings being falsified. Officers shot and killed an unhoused man, Michael Johnson Jr., on the Wells Avenue Bridge on February 3rd, just a month after the less lethal weapon weapon proficiency training was fabricated. Is this a is this a surprise that he was murdered? Given that the less lethal weapon proficiency training is not being completed by officers, we need to ask ourselves, is it worth it to be increasing the police budget knowing that the funds being used currently are not being used correctly as RPD officers and Katherine Nance herself are fabricating training data. Um, to conclude, I'm asking that the city council does not increase the police budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Let's think more critically about where our money is going. If we don't want funds going towards a $100,000 parade, maybe we shouldn't have funds going towards a police force that murders innocent black people and fabricates trainings. Instead, we can fund community programs and services that prevent crime in the first place. Thank you.

All right, good job.

Am Star followed by Marine Tapen, followed by John Tapen. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is Ama Star. I am a resident of Sparks, born and raised in the Reno Sparks area. I'm here today to express my strong opposition to the city of Reno's contract with Flock Safety. I beg the council to cancel this contract, immediately turn off all Flock cameras, and refuse to renew the contract in December. I believe that the 45 automated license plate readers tracking over 600,000 vehicles and costing $450,000 is a gross imposition of mass surveillance. I graduated from the University of Nevada Reno with a degree in political science and I'm currently a graduate student studying the violent impacts of mass surveillance systems. Hundreds of critically researched and peer-reviewed studies prove that these systems are designed to stalk, track, harass, assault, and endanger our communities. To give one example, Dr. Simone Brown, PhD of sociology and educational studies from the University of Toronto and professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin writes in her seminal 2015 book dark matters about the historical continuities between our modern security state and chatt slavery. She demonstrates that modern security technology such as cameras and biometrics are similar to the systems of surveillance used on slave ships and plantations against black people. Another academic and activist, Dr. Jasper Pawar, PhD of ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and professor and director of gender and women's studies at Rutgers University, similarly writes that seemingly mundane and everyday acts of surveillance turn the lives and humanity of our

communities into data. Data that is then collected, sold, bought, stolen, and abused by corporate and state interests. I fear that flock safety, which uses AI to automatically capture all vehicles driving by and storing that data in 30-day national databases, is a mode of mass surveillance that harms and threatens Reno and Spark citizens. In other states, it has already been used by ICE agents and police to unconstitutionally search and arrest people without warrants, violating their Fourth Amendment rights. In some cases, police have threatened citizens at gunpoint who have been incorrectly identified by Flock's unreliable AI technology. I believe that Flock can and will be used by the Reno Police Department erroneously and unconstitutionally, and will likely result in the increased surveillance, harassment, assault, and murder of our communities, especially black and poor people who the RPD already has a proven record of unfairly targeting and killing. As such, I strongly oppose the city's contract with flock safety, and I beg the council to end the contract immediately and turn off the cameras. Thank you,

Ama. Thank you,

Marine Tapen, followed by John Tapen, followed by Cath Kathy Fitzgerald. Good morning. I am Moren Tapen, a Nevada realtor for 46 years and a South Reno resident since 1979. I am here regarding TGO Grid LLC and their plan to place 256 Tesla magpacks just 445 ft from the recently approved Talis residential valley complex. TGO Grid is an outofstate LLC with zero daily staff on site. This is a ghost facility managed by remote executives from Eolian Energy. When a disaster happens, there are no employees to p pull a kill switch. Reno Sparks local fire crew crews will be the ones walking into a toxic zone while the owners watch it on screen from a thousand miles away. This isn't just a battery site. It's an industrial risk being managed by remote control in the middle of a high density residential area. Across the United States, there are now over 150 active moratoriums on battery storage facilities. Our neighbors, Lion and Lander counties, are part of that movement with Lion County requiring a onem set back from the facility to any streams, roads, and residential development. Why? Because they have seen the data. On the projector, the site map shows a onem setback as well as a two-mile evacuation area from where this requested South Reno site would be located. The battery fire in Boulder City in September of 2025 proved that you cannot put out a best fire. You have to let it burn and off gas. In South Reno, letting

it burn means releasing flammable and toxic gases such as hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen fluoride into the lungs of thousands of residents within the two plus mile radius. In Sacramento last April, a toxic vapor cloud from a single Tesla car crash traveled 300 ft and sent five firefighters to the hospital with permanent lung and heart damage. Four of those men are still unable to work today. If a single car can do that from 300 ft, what happens to the thousands of people living within the 1 to 2 mile plus radius of this 200 megawatt facility? You may remember last August the single Tesla semi-truck fire on I80 near Truckucky, which required 50,000 gallons of water just to keep the heat from spreading and closed I80 for 17 hours. This isn't just about green energy. It's about public health and safety. In conclusion, if this council is considering a moratorum or time extension on the data cent's vote, I would implore you to consider the same for this best facility. As the safety issues are very similar, including water needs and the potentially catastrophic fires and toxins from these facilities. We need much more information and questions answered before this project is ready for consideration. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'm going to leave this map up here for the next two. Yes, please. Leave this for you. Yes, John Tapen followed by Kathy Fitzgerald followed by Matthew Wilkkey.

My name is uh John Tapen. I'm a resident of Hidden Valley and a retired architect who worked on projects in Reno for the past 30 years. Um, I'm here because I'm I'm within a two-mile radius of this facility. Um, the city of Reno has wellestablished development codes and standards, but battery energy storage system facilities best facilities are new and unprecedented. that is there is little or no experience with the magnitude and type of risk these facilities might pose. The city is actively working on regulations on data centers even considering a potential moratorum. That caution reflects the risks involved particularly because data centers also rely on lithium iron phosphate batteries and some have experienced fires. The scale of this proposed best facility is far greater. A typical data center might use around 200 batteries. The this project is expected to include more than 2 million batteries. That difference in scale significantly increases the potential risk and underscores the need for clear safety standards and oversight. Is this city council vote the final step in the approval process? If you vote in favor of the annexation today, will the project move forward without specific regulatory standards or safety provisions tailored to a facility of this type? Will this facility be subject to the new 2026 versions of NFPA 855 and UL 954A? Do these new standards apply? and take

into account the latest fire and toxic boom events. I respectfully urge you to postpone this vote until the city has sufficient information from the applicant and has established appropriate regulations to ensure the safety of the community, nearby residents, first responders, and firefighters. This facility should be cited with that in mind and not just the convenience of being adjacent to an Envy Energy substation. Thank you. I was born in Hidden Valley in a little apartment in Hidden Valley. So, I know where you live. It's beautiful. Thank you so much. Good comments. Very good.

Kathy Fitzgerald, followed by Matthew Wilkkey, followed by Trisha Ceden.

Good morning. I'm back.

Good morning. My name is Kathy Fitzgerald. I've been a resident of South Reno for 35 years. I'm a registered civil engineer with a doctorate in environmental science and engineering and over 40 years experience and risk assessment, including recent work on best facilities in Southern California. I wanted to address some of the specific risks associated with this project. The applicant claims that Tesla mega pack technology will not result in a fire or thermal runaway. However, lithium iron phosphate batteries are more prone to toxic off-gassing and emit higher concentrations of hydrogen gas, which is both flammable and explosive. There have been at least 36 fires at best facilities in the past 5 years, including six involving Tesla Megapats. I'm going to submit additional information on these fires, but here's an example of the fire that they were talking about in Boulder City. Um the applicant states that fires will not spread between units, but this has been proven false. In Boulder City, Nevada, um in 2025, a fire spread to an adjacent U megapac unit, and this was at a remote site in the middle of the desert with residents over a mile away, unlike the proposed location for this facility. Um the proposed facility relies on cooling systems to prevent thermal runaway. However, one of the documented fires was caused by a coolant system that led to a leak um electrical arcing, battery failure, and a fire. And in multiple cases, fires have spread between mega packs units. Um raising concerns about whether the spacing between the units is adequate, especially on a windy situation like we have here in Reno. In San Diego County, there are three operational best facilities and there have been three fires. As a result, the

fire protection district there has enacted stricter safety regulations than it what is required by the current regulations, including a 100 foot setback from property lines, um increased spacing between units, plume modeling, hazard mitigation plans, all prepared by licensed fire protection engineers. None of this information has been provided for this project. So, I am also submitting these guidelines for your consideration in the record um as what San Diego County is doing. So, I have three questions for the applicant. One, who is Trigo Grid LLC? Um why have they not participated in any of the hearings and do they have a presence here in Reno? Two, who will construct, operate, and maintain this facility? Since a facility is unmanned, who will respond in the event of an emergency? Where is the operation center located? And third, has a community health risk assessment or plume modeling been conducted? I'm not opposed to best facilities, but I'm very concerned about the proximity to residential areas um and the lack of critical safety information. So, I urge you to postpone a vote on this matter until these questions are answered and the safety of the community can be ensured. And I'm also submitting for a record information on best facilities that you might be able to um take into account and get more information on. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you,

Matthew Wilkkey. Followed by Trisha Ceden, followed by Vita Gomez. All right. Very good morning, Madame Mayor, Madame Manager, members of the council. I'm here today because every month gets harder. Rents go up, utility costs go up, and the city keeps increasing fees that make it even harder, not just for people who already live here, but for those trying to move here without needing six roommates and a tech salary to survive. At some point, we have to ask ourselves, who exactly is the city being built for? because it doesn't feel like it's being built for regular working people. We keep hearing about growth and investments and opportunity, but regular residents are being squeezed from every direction while this council appears to bend over backwards um for developers and corporate interests. And meanwhile, people who actually live and work here are being told to just accept the higher costs and lower quality of life. I continue to be deeply concerned about this city's obsession with expanding policing and surveillance while basic community needs are going un underfunded. We are talking about increasing police budgets while the department is already facing lawsuits in investigations and growing public distrust. At what point do we stop throwing money at the same system and expect different results? Isn't that the definition of insanity? Y'all are insane. Not us. You are currently talking about reimagine Reno. Well, reimagine if we even took a fraction of that police budget towards parks, recreation, youth programs, housing assistance, um mental health resources, Madame Mayor, that you speak so highly of community development, and keeping public spaces alive and accessible. Imagine investing in people before investing in more cameras, more monitoring, and a larger police footprint. I also want to address the ongoing attacks on boards and commissions like the community homeless advisory board. If any member of any of this body does not believe in a mission of any board or commission that they sit on, then respectfully do not sit on that board. Let somebody else sit on that

board who actually values public input and community advocacy. Trying to dissolve boards because you don't like what advocates say sends a very clear message that disscent is inconvenience and that voices representing the struggling residents are disposable. And honestly, at this point, some of the comments and votes on the dis are starting to feel like you really don't care about poor people. So, just go ahead and say it. Um, when you prioritize community subsidies over affordable living, surveillance over services, and policing over community investment, people notice. We notice every single time. I'm asking this council to start choosing residents over special interest. Choosing water over data, choose neighborhoods over surveillance expansion, and choose community investment over the endless police increases, and choose the people barely hanging on before more of them are pushed out of the city that we call home. Thank you. All right, thank you so much.

Kisha Ceden, followed by Vita Gomez, followed by Daniel Jenkins. Um, hi, my name is Trisha Ceden and I did not come prepared with anything to say. We have a lot going on, right? The cameras, the the police fund, the homeless board, advisory board, all of this coming up, and you're going to see me at every single one. Um I promise you. Um my my heart actually is is on the homeless. Um, and I'm disgusted and horribly frightened that what we're here to talk about is raising the police fund because we just had somebody killed the other day. You have a police chief, a rogue police chief that nobody's paying attention to. You're smiling at me, which makes me furious. I just witnessed a couple weeks ago a sweep where an officer literally literally told a person to push their their van to the other side. They were in sparks to the other side of the the city line and maybe Reno wouldn't see it for a couple days. It would buy him some time. This didn't happen. That vehicle was towed. The whole parking lot was towed. Great. That parking lot's cleaned up. Um, a whole crapload, a shitload of people are on the street now. Literally on the street. There's been rain this last week. That's where my heart's at. So, I would hope that you guys would put people first and and really listen to what we have to say. Since I don't know

if you put this pick anything, anything, choose anything, but not the police. Okay. Thank

Vita Gomez followed by Daniel Jenkins followed by Christian D. Brown. Hello, my name is Vita Gomez. I'm co-chair of Northern Nevada DSA and I'm a union organizer and a working-class citizen of Reno. Uh myself, I have made uh my life's work for the better part of last decade listening to the concerns of working people. Um what I see in this budget proposal is insufficient in helping the working people's needs. There's not enough done to allow the people of the city to afford to live here. And I would be remiss to not mention Mayor Mandani and his efforts to transform NYC into a city that people can afford to call home. What doesn't help people stay here or have a place to even call home is an increase to a police budget. Another police officer doesn't build a home. More expensive training centers don't give a child shelter from the elements. And the corruption we have witnessed here only reveals that RPD has no true concern for the working people of Reno. The budget increase to the police is tantamount to a reward for a poorly done job. Uh, are we to award violations of our laws? If if if I knew that when I was younger, I would have I would have been a much more uh difficult person. Um, the police should be made to make do with what they already bountifully have. We are in an era where our federal and state government has failed to deliver adequate living conditions for the people. We are in another war. A war that has skyrocketed our gas prices and made us less financially secure. Millions are now at risk of homelessness as their d as their dollar buys less entering in food security as thousands are kicked off SNAP. And on top of an expensive and everinccreasing surveillance state, these deteriorating

material conditions will lead to desperation. But what the people of Reno have look have to look forward to is an increase in corrupt police presence in their lives as they weigh how they will feed themselves and their family. As our gas prices increase, public funding and transportation initiatives will go a long way to lower the average demand for us, the people of Reno. Not to me uh the for us the people of Reno, not to mention less cars on the road, decrease in traffic. That's a pretty uh you know, I think that would be common sense, but apparently that's not a thing anymore. We require bold reorientation of our pri priorities and actually uh fund affordable lowincome housing to keep our neighbors in their homes and out of homelessness. We do not need more luxury apartments or expensive single family homes. And we do not need any more data centers or parking lots. all of this. Please,

Vita, tell um the folks what DSA stands for. Democratic Socialist of America. Okay, thank you. Daniel Jenkins, followed by Christian D. Brown, followed by Marie Rodriguez. Okay, I have to um step out. Uh Councilman Ree, can you please take over? Sure. I'll need a motion, Miss D. Yeah, I'll make a motion for uh Council Member Ree to be the temporary acting chair. Okay, I have a motion. Any questions or discussion? I second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Go ahead.

And just so you know that we can hear you in the back room as people step off the dis madam mayor still hearing you.

Perfect. Uh good morning, Mayor Shivy and Reno City Council. Thank you for the chance to speak here today. My name is Daniel Jenkins and I'm here regarding the flock safety contract that is set to expire this year. I'm going to have to gloss over a lot here, but I'd be happy to talk with any of you in more detail afterwards. I have degree in unmanned aircraft systems, which are a surveillance technology. I've worked with nearly 100 organizations to build drone programs in private security, public safety, agriculture, and public infrastructure. This has included MASDOT, ADM, Envy Energy, and the Reno Fire Department back in 2019. Excuse me. I also wrote an FAA approved advanced drone operations waiver for flock safety back in 2023 where I first started learning about their technology. The views expressed in the statement are solely my own and do not reflect the views or opinions of my prior employers or other organizations I've worked with in the past. Folks who talked today about many specific issues of abuse with these systems. I want to explain the inherent risks with surveillance technology that the city has accepted. Some of this is based on research published by 404 media and Ben Jordan. My broader statements on surveillance technology are based on my personal expertise. I strongly recommend you all watch Ben's video called We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in Under 30 Seconds. Council member Reese, hopefully you've already seen this video after our discussion back in January. Based on the vulnerabilities demonstrated in that research, we must assume that a bad actor can access flock safety cameras with minimal investment. So what can they do with that access? With just a single camera like the ones right outside, that bad actor can get the license plate number of a target. Due to other data breaches, that license plate number can be used to identify that person's home address. But what we're really talking about here is a network of cameras, not just a

single camera, or wide area surveillance. Wide area surveillance allows a bad actor to then determine routes and times of travel. The ability to establish target patterns, allows for targeted attacks. This allows the bad actor to choose the place and time, and shows them where blind spots are in that system to avoid getting caught. As part of a state in the top 10 in human trafficking in the nation, we should be especially concerned about that risk. Outside bad actors are not the only risk. Multiple officers have been charged across the country, has been mentioned earlier, with the exact same abuse. And the name Tyler Bear should be enough to connect the dots on the risk here locally. Wide area surveillance systems are fundamentally dangerous. They place those surveiled at risk and they place the city at heightened risk of cyber attacks by those bad actors that want access to the data. With the massive ransomware attack on the state in September costing over a million dollars, my confidence level is not very high with city cyber security. So now that you can see some of the risks involved in this system, I urge you to not continue this contract with flock safety. Thank you for your time. Christian D. Brown, followed by Marie Rodriguez, followed by Assa Kennedy. Uh yeah, good morning everybody. Uh my name is Christian D. Brown and I'm here to also advocate for a change to uh the police budget and generally changing our policies for the future or our priorities. Uh what is Reno's future? How's this city going to change and look in 10 years? Uh, do we want to see flock cameras at every corner of the street and police drones constantly flying over our heads? Uh, do we want to see our parks diminish and our vulnerable populations become more marginalized than they already are? Um, the city of Reno is already in a 24 million bud

deficit and instead of protecting our parks and community, we're deciding to give another 9 million to policing and to policing our communities instead of building them. Simply put, I believe that if the city and its population are struggling, then the police should share that burden and learn how to work with what they got. Uh we live in a time of high stakes, uh where our rights, our future, and the land itself is at great risk from billionaire and capital interests. Um if we want a better future, we're going to need to start shifting our priorities into investing our community and our land first. We need to step up and get ourselves into s sustainable practices and protecting what's important. Uh to bring it back, it feels like we're rewarding our police for their negligence when you factor in the training mishap that we currently have the chief and five executive officers on paid leave for non-compliance with peace officer standards and and training and then also for the tragedy of Michael J. Johnson Jr. We don't need seven armed militant officers to do a wellness check on a man suffering and mental health response. We need community workers trained in deescalation and public health. Um, I want to see money put back into our land and infrastructure, into our neighbors and friends, into our land and community care. Um, I want to see a Reno become a city of tomorrow that can tackle the problems of today. Uh, we don't need a 75% We don't need 75% of our budget for police. Uh, we don't need flock. We don't need more corruption. um we really just need to sit down and plan for our future and have plans that work around, you know, all these agendas that are against us. Um yeah, that's all I have to say, guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brown. Marie Rodriguez, followed by Assa Kennedy, followed by Nathaniel Benjamin.

Hi, Marie Rodriguez. for the record. Um, I'm actually going back to the arts and music and things like that that we were talking about earlier. Um, I just wanted to invite um RLE City Council to uh here we go to our second annual bookfest which is being um hosted by the Sierra Arts Foundation and the Sierra Arts Literary Community. As some of you may know, I am a local author and a bunch of my peers and I are having this book festival in downtown Sparks. I know we live in Reno, but our authors are from all over Northern Nevada. So, I will be inviting the city of Sparks and our Wo County commissioners as well. It's free and open to the public. And if you guys didn't know, at the um Sparks Depot in Victorian Square, we actually have a bookstore that is a local author bookstore and we're very proud of that. So, just we're wanting to bring um the literary arts to the community. We believe it or not, we started out with a handful of authors when the Sierra Arts literary community began and we have grown to have regular meetings every month. So the invitation is for all of you. Hope to see you there and um that's all I have for today. Thank you.

Thank you. Marie

Assa Kennedy followed by Nathaniel Benjamin followed by C. Mcomes. Good morning, council. Uh, my name is Asa Kennedy. Uh, I'm a concerned citizen and I've come this morning in peace to express the problems that are plaguing this city, many of which have already been mentioned by speakers previous to me, and to offer and discuss solutions to write this sinking ship. We have an opportunity to move forward in this city and community to grow and strengthen bonds within the social fabric. Firstly, we need to recognize that law enforcement is historically and categorically a militarized force purchased to guard the interest of the wealthy and the ruling class. This fact is evidenced nationwide by the actions of ICE destroying community soiling our social fabric under the guise of public safety. This is mirrored by the undisiplined and poorly trained Reno Police Department. We are only beginning the second quarter of 2026 and already the RPD is in continued hot water with the chief and highle staff members on paid leave in the aftermath of a citizen murder of Michael J. Johnson. This is not public safety. This is a murder with perpetrators on paid leave. When people talk about feeling unsafe downtown, this is more a feeling of discomfort, not safety. It's inconvenient to walk around humans with with less existing with less than the bare

necessities required to live. Law enforcement does not help mend these wounds. They monitor the bulldozers sweeping the camps. Imagine everything you had taken away in 10 seconds flat. This is not protection or service. This is intimidation and a flex of power, which is a toxic trait and should not be rewarded with an additional $9 million. That money should be divested into the community. The community mends these wounds. Mutual aid mends these wounds. Citizens who feel plenty safe in the company of humans without life necessities help mend these wounds. There's no reason to spend $60,000 to surveil the river under the guise of public safety and cleanup. That money was already provided to river justice to clean these rivers. All you're left with with a surveillance system is a license plate and a facial recognition image. The pile of trash still exists. It still needs to be cleaned up. There are people within the community cleaning this up. Reinvest in the land stewardship and water protectors. Reinvest in our community. Nathaniel Benjamin followed by C. Mcum followed by Steven White.

Hi everybody. Good morning.

Um, thanks for your time. Um, my name is Nathaniel Benjamin. I'm a local artist and uh, I saw that a couple weeks ago y'all decided to rent giant security cameras to protect the river. Uh, it struck me as an odd choice to make. Um, I had understood the money you were using was supposed to be for the river and you guys said that somehow security cameras were the answer to that question. It kind of seemed like an out ofthe- blue thing because when I think of the river, security cameras aren't even on the list of options for how to make it better. Um, so I was thinking it seems like there are conversations happening behind the scenes where there are things being suggested that just don't really make sense as solutions if the goal is to make this a better place to live. Um, it seems like some of the things you're being told are actually making this place worse. And maybe the people suggesting these solutions don't actually have our well-being in mind and are actually just trying to get into your pockets. Um, I don't think you guys wake up and think to yourselves, how can I make Reno more dystopian? And I don't think you step out the door wondering, "How can I make this place a little more like a police state?" Um, I don't think you guys are the villains. Villains these days wear it on their sleeves. Jeff Bezos looks like he's actually trying to look like Lex Luthor from Superman. Um, y'all don't look like that, though, so I want to assume you genuinely care about this place. Uh, however, given that y'all are not actually villains, putting 9 million more dollars into the police budget is a confusing choice for you to make. Uh, I think there are problems you're trying to address, and it seems like the answer you're coming up with is brute force. Um, it's like you see a bunch of homeless people on Fourth Street and you have business owners coming to you wanting help. So, you get so overwhelmed that you feel like you should just put people out there who can get away with punching and kicking them away, maybe

even shooting them if they're black. Um, I think y'all are smart enough that after this you'll probably want to look into different options. Um, look at downtown. There's plenty of opportunity to put money into that space. Um, so far put it, pouring money into the police hasn't accomplished anything aside from more deaths by police. Uh, and how do you think that makes you guys look to people like us? Um, I hope you listen to what you're hearing from everybody here today because we are all here because we really care about this place and we hope that you do, too. Thanks,

C. Combmes, followed by Steven White, followed by Terara Tran. Hey everyone, how's it going? Good.

Um, wanted to ditto everything. I think pretty much everything that's been said so far. Um, so I'll get started. My name is Sema Mcomes. You may know me. Uh, I'm part of a group that has been uh here for years and years advocating for measures to make the city safer. Uh, for some context, we brought 200 people here to tell you not to push through that sitting ordinance. Um, and for further context, there was four in support of that. Um, we brought hundreds to fight against the uh web data center because it was a bad fiscal and environmental decision. Uh, yet you pushed it through. Uh, we have organized hundreds, if not thousands of your constituents to come down here over the years, and they have all bravely addressed this body. Yet, you don't listen. The city is insolvent, yet you don't listen. $21 million in a deficit, yet you sit before us talking about an increase to the police budget by $9 million. You're not listening. $9 million to RPD. The same RPD that ignored legally mandated AB236 trainings. That training was mandated after the police murdered a black child, Micaia Lee, in Sparks in 2020. These were deescalation trainings, mental health trainings, and you promised they would do it. They didn't hold up their end of the bargain. And as as a result, a community member, Michael Johnson Jr., was murdered in a historically segregated area. And I also want to mention, they shot each other in the process. Now we, the city, are paying millions of dollars for nine officers on leave. Who holds them accountable? Is it you, Devon? Is it the police union's lawyer?

They are dangerously incompetent and you're offering them a $9 million bonus. If your goal is to reduce crime rates and that hasn't happened with each budget increase, why do you keep increasing the budget? This is not rocket science. Other cities like Baltimore have reinvested in measures like keeping the community centers and libraries open later and they have increased public safety. block, which is building lasting outcomes of community care program, would cost 118th of the proposed bonus you promised to the RPD. This program, which you rejected for not having enough money, would dispatch unarmed community first responders that actually follow legally mandated ordinance and connect people to the resources they need. Please have a meeting with Lily Baron. Please discuss block with them. 118th of the proposed bonus that you're offering RPD could go into this program. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Steven White followed by Tara Tran followed by Serene. Good morning, folks. Boy, I'll tell you, sitting here last hour and a half makes me glad I live out in the country. Um, actually, I came here this morning to meet with Nathan about art in the park and I have a gift for uh for uh Naomi over here, a little magic mushroom. You know what we're doing on a positive note this morning. What we're doing is working on the art in the park program that we're going to start the end of this month. Uh oh, by the way, my name is Steven White, notorious defender of your first amendment right to be an artist in this country. Um, you know, this is a wonderful program we're starting here. This is going to bring a lot of beauty to the world. It's going to bring a lot of beauty to your city. And it's also coming in at a time when it's most needed. There's a lot of people that are financially hurting right now. A lot of seniors especially. And this will give them a way to maybe not only bring beauty to the world, but also, you know, make a little extra money. I hope also we're hoping to uh get a lot of young people involved in art in the park as well. Uh when I leave here, actually, I'm going to take a drive up through Sparks and hit the North uh high school up there. And I'm also going to go to the Pyute Reservation and I'm going to invite the high school kids here in the Pyote Reservation up at Pyramid Lake. But anyway, I thank you all for being supportive of all this. And Naomi, thank you for helping to fund this whole program. And that's why if I can, I'd like to give you this.

I think to the clerk. Yeah. Who Who can I give it to? Here, let me show you what it is. It's a little mushroom and a dew drop. I don't know if you can see it. Beautiful. It's a little glass mushroom in a dew drop. And it's kind of fitting that Naomi, you're helping to fund this. So, you deserve a little mushroom in a dew drop.

Thank you much for your time and thank you for your support. You know, what we're doing here is planting a seed that's going to grow all over Nevada. We're creating a program that we can turn around and hand over to every city and town across the state. Maybe bring a little bit of beauty to the world in this time when we most need it. Thank you much folks. Cara Tran followed by Serene followed by Audrey Bcola.

Hi, it's me Tada again. Um, I didn't write something out because I feel like I am pretty practiced at this. First time I came to city council um was in 2016 after um I was part of a group of uh protesters just taking a picture under the bridge uh asking for um Columbus Day to be recognized as Indigenous People's Day. and uh a racist drove his car through the crowd and I got hit by a car and I we asked, "Hey, can you recognize indigenous people's days?" And and you didn't. Um I've been here for a long time asking for support for our our neighbors that are experiencing homelessness. I was here a lot when you guys were demolishing the community assistance center on record street that you guys let uh degrade and mold in vacancy until you had no choice but to sell that land to a developer and you were going to sell it to your friend, I remember, for um just the uh amount that you were going to have to pay back in in grant money because it was no longer affordable and you're going to just sell it for that amount. So it's essentially getting it that property for free and stood here for a long time. He went to a lot of meetings asking you to not do that. Um uh we asked uh you know I've been here for data centers. I've been here for a long time. Just asking you guys to not put putting more money in your pocket over the needs of the community um in a in a lot of different issues. I mean, it was inc I was really happy to see people here speaking out about this TGO grid project. I hadn't heard about it. People here talking about the Flock camera contract that you have the opportunity to not renew. And obviously here to talk about the proposed $9 million increase to the police budget. Um, which by the way, back in March, there was supposed to be budget

workshops through April and May. Is today one of those budget workshops? Does that count? Okay. Was there one in April? No. No. Okay. So, you guys are short one, so maybe delay it a bit because you're supposed to have multiple instances. You you promised three instances for public input and and we're we're at two and you're you're looking to decide it next time, right? So, um we're tired. We've been here and asking and and begging for for you guys to care about the people over your own self-interest for so long. You know what I'm asking for? Everyone's already said it. Don't increase the police budget $9 million. Put it into block. Put it in to parks. They're talking about cutting hours of community centers. You say that you can't fund the lear part of our incredible history because you don't have enough money. Um right now that money's in the air. Put it anywhere else. I'm I'm tired of of begging. Thank you. Serene Audrey BCola, followed by Deborah Gall uh Galllet via Zoom, followed by Cat Olsen via Zoom. Hello, my name is Audrey Bcola. I'm a citizen of Reno. I'm a resident of W 2. I'm a churchgoer, an artist. Uh I agree with those who spoke earlier about cancelling flock contracts. Uh but what I'd like to talk about today is proposed changes to the budget and our priorities as a city and your priorities as a council. I am strongly opposed to the proposed expansion of the police budget by $9 million when those same cops fake their training and spend their time

robbing and killing the homeless. And when our city is in deep debt and we have practically no services for anyone in need, so many of our neighbors languish in the streets hungry and cold. And that this council has spent its time criminalizing homelessness and welcoming outofstate developers rather than offering any shred of compassion for these poor people is callous and disgusting. The idea that 37% the idea of 37% of our budget going just to RPD is ridiculous. Please give money to housing, to parks, to child care, to unarmed mental health response, and to pay off our city's massive debts, not to more toys, bullets, and paid vacation for our killer cops. Thank you,

Deborah Glette via Zoom, followed by Cat Olsen via Zoom. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Great. Hello, council. Thank you for having me. My name is Deborah Galet and I'm a concerned citizen who wants to talk about the city budget and how it relates to the contract the city of Reno has with flock safety. I am specifically asking the city of Reno to end the contract with flock safety and reallocate the money somewhere more useful, such as maintaining library hours, housing initiatives, or a myriad of other needs that need to be met here in Reno. Instead of using ARPA funds for things that we actually need, the city thought it was in the best interest of its constituents to use $450,000 for a pilot program under the guise of public safety. Unlike traditional traffic cameras, flock cameras are very easily used to spy on and track people. For example, as we've already heard today, the police chief in Kansas used the flock safety system to track his ex-girlfriend and her new partner 228 times. The potential for misuse to track and arrest people is truly unsettling. Each of us has the right to privacy and freedom of movement. The potential to turn this tool into a tool for stalking and surveillance is almost too easy. After taking a look at the contract that was signed in 2024, there is a help center section that provides links to FAQ articles for things such as, "How do I search camera footage? How do I add a car to my hot list? How do I enable browser notifications? How do I get text alerts?" You can start to see how incredibly easy it would be for someone with ill intent to use this service to search for and set up notifications to track someone. Does that make me feel safe? Definitely not. I don't want law enforcement or anyone else to be able to access data about my whereabouts without my consent. I'd also like to ask the council here today, has Flock Safety provided any

concrete data to show that crime went down? And can they prove that flock was the cause of crime going down or can it be attributed to some other factor? Before this contract kicks into auto renew, I would highly suggest you hire an outside scientist who can prove that crime went down significantly due to Flock. Where is the data to back up Chief Nance's assertion that Flock will help RPD solve unsolved crimes? The Wo County Sheriff's Office has said they hope the cameras will lower burglary rates, but they quote don't want to intrude on the private affairs of people end quote. I would unequivocally say that the 24/7 tracking and surveillance of people's movements is intrusive. Everything the police and sheriff's offices have said Flock will help with so far has been pure conjecture with absolutely no concrete data to back it up. If flock safety cannot provide this data and a scientist cannot confirm it, why should our city funds go to something that provides no discernable benefit to the community? With the city with the city running a $21 million deficit and a possible $9 million budget increase to RPD, I think I can think of a million other ways to use this money. Thank you, and I hope you'll end the contract with Flock Safety.

Cat Olsen via Zoom, followed by Jaden Stevens, followed by Jordan Stone. Hi, can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can.

Thank you. Uh, my name is Cat Olsen. I'm a resident from Ward 3 and an activist with the Biggest Little Action Group. And thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment today. I'm here to make a couple general comments. First, as I'm sure Reno City Council would agree, it was absolutely incredible to witness literally hundreds of people caring enough about their community to show up last Friday on Mayday with the demand that Reno City Council balance their budget in a way that actually supports community services instead of investing in the police. I was proud to march in solidarity with my community and as our elected representatives, Reno City Council needs to listen and act in accordance with those demands. It seems like you need a reminder that you work for us and we need investments in community infrastructure that actually keeps people safe like housing, like clean air and water, like child care, like so much more. We do not need an increase of the police department budget whose officers just killed a man experiencing a mental health crisis. Second, I am extremely concerned about the increase of surveillance technology in Reno, including but not limited to the widespread use of FLAC safety ALPR cameras. I literally can't drive anywhere in the city without these cameras collecting information about my vehicle and the Flock AI database analyzing my travel behavior for potentially quote unquote suspicious patterns. This concerns me because there are seemingly endless examples of both local police agencies and ICE abusing their authority to target people that are not breaking the law, but that they deem to be suspicious, including protesters, women getting abortions,

immigrants just going about their day. I don't feel safe knowing that a private company is collecting information on me that can be exploited so easily and violate my rights. Because of these risks, I am requesting for Reno City Council to immediately turn off all contracted flock cameras, cancel your flock contract, pass regulation to ban ALPR cameras in Reno, and start hosting some public meetings to discuss what other forms of camera AI surveillance is being used on us. With the half million dollars that you'd be saving by decreasing surveillance on the Reno community, you will have some savings that can be reinvested in programs that actually support the community.

Thank you, Cat. Jaden Stevens, followed by Jordan Stone, followed by Jacob Kamacho. Madame clerk, I'm not sure I heard any of those. Jaden Stevens, followed by Jordan Stone, followed by Jacob Kamacho.

Uh, hi, my name is Jyn. Um, I'm a Nevada resident like all of you. I've lived in uh Nevada for about 10 years. I've lived in Reno for about six months, seven months. I've been uh you know and even when I lived in Carson City, I did most of my work up here. But uh you know, I'm here to talk about Flock. Um and uh you know, I I just want to ask like you know, what's the endgame for you guys, right? Because you guys aren't going to be a part of city council forever. You're not going to be a part of uh you know, you're not going to be mayor forever, right? So like the decisions that you guys make right now, for example, putting more cameras that can surveil everything, that can track your license plate, whatever. What happens when we get someone like Eddie Lorton as mayor, right? You know, a a Trump crony who wants to go ahead and do political violence. I mean, for sake, we had, and excuse my language, but we had uh a lunatic, not not only a couple years ago, break into Nancy Pelosy's house and bash her husband skull in with a hammer. And we want to go ahead and we want to do more surveillance. What happens when these people come after you guys? Because at the end of the day, it's not just about the homeless. It's not just about queer people. It's not just about protesters. These people want to come after your rights. They want to come after your rights, Devon. I know you're an openly gay man. They want to backslide us so back that they get rid of gay marriage, right? They want to come after your life. And they will use whatever AI technology that they want to be able to affect that. They want to come after women, right? They want to like this has been a thing that has been ongoing since the end of the Civil War. they have been wanting to go back to slavery, right? Don't give them the tools. Do not give them the means to make that easier for for

them. Do not give these fascists the ammo they need today. It might just be the little guy right now. But they're coming after all of you. And that's the problem with flock. And if you cannot see that, if you cannot think that far ahead and think about even your own well-being, then I don't know what else to say. So that's all I got to say. Jordan Stone, followed by Jacob Kamacho, followed by Stevie Applewhite. Hello, Council. Uh, Jordan Stone for the record. I'm going to be reading a comment from a friend of mine who was unable to be here today, but uh rest assured I share the same exact sentiments. I am sick and tired. For the record, I could talk about the mysterious 5.5 million in the police budget every year that goes to the fleet fund. Something that is impair apparently impossible to break down into how it's even spent. Or the three and a half police cars per officer. or the fact that they spent more on pract practice ammunition than all other training. They spent more time teaching officers to shoot than teaching how to deescalate, how to assess, or even know the law. And why would we offer more training, even more training, when officers don't even intend, like Chief Nance? Or I could talk about the corruption, the pedophiles, the trafficking, the criminal actions of Chief Nance and other executive officers. I could talk about how Councilman Ree is clearly biased because of his affiliation with the police union as their lawyer. I could talk about how more than 200 people showed up to protest your proposed budget increase

because it feels like giving uh feels like giving your money to a gambling addict. I could talk about how if you continue to mismanage the budget, the state will take over control of this financial operations of the city. I could talk about how some of you think that you're fit to be mayor when you aren't even able to balance a checkbook. I'll just focus on this. We all know that the police don't need more money and that they dodge the trainings they ask so heavily for. They're a bottomless hole to throw money in and see no positive impact. A wishing well that only delivers bullets to the back. We all know this. Don't increase the police budget. They can't even pass an audit and you already give them an absurd amount of money. Invest in evidence-based programs. Cops aren't even evidence-based at lowering crime rates. Addressing social determinance does that. Cops with guns don't. Please let us present to you the evidence-based project block, an unarmed mental health first response program that already has the support of the Larsson Institute. This will be a program that saves lives and will keep our communities safe from violence and connect them with the services and help that they actually need. This program is going to happen one way or another. Either you can be a part of making the future or you can be a stick in the mud who will only be remembered in that way. Even at your memorial service, don't increase the police budget. Thank you.

Jacob Kamacho, followed by Stevie Applewhite, followed by Nicole Anagapasis via Zoom. Come on. All right. I lived here my whole life and I've seen the police budget increasing. But you know what I haven't seen? I haven't seen our problems get any better. You make antihomeless laws and spend more taxpayer money to brutalize and kill the people struggling in our community. The $75 it takes to throw someone in jail for sleeping on the streets could have bought them a night in a motel. It could have fed people. Could have saved someone's life. It could have funded a program that actually helps people. It could have save it's very clear to us all where your where you stand, where your priorities stand. It's very clear that you value profits over the people. And we'll remember this, especially come election time. The flock system needs to be cut out of the city's infrastructure entirely and immediately. It is a net negative for the community. Not only is it another way for the pigs, I mean police officers to be creeps, but surveillance equals data, and the AI systems flock flock runs on require servers, which create the need for a massive influx of data centers. I've already made my stance in the data centers clear, and I will again soon. I'll see you on May 14th. Stevie Applewite, followed by Nicole Anagapasus via Zoom, followed by Jeffrey Alan Carter.

Hi, my name is Stevie Appleite. Um, I'm a resident here in Ward One and a lifelong Northern Nevada. I was born here in Reno. I'm a proud union member and I am here to ask that we do not use or sorry not not use also not a great public speaker. Oh, you're doing great.

Um but we do not go forward with the flock contract. Um I do not want to see anybody on any cameras, especially not my nieces or nephews when we go eventually to Wingfield Park when it reopens. I don't think anybody should be surveiled in advance or in the past. Um, it just it's a violation of one of our most fundamental rights to privacy and it's wrong. We need to also not put any more money towards RPD. RPD is continuously being funded and funded and funded. We're not seeing any results. um rather I would like to see this money potentially go towards an audit of RPD or any of all sectors because we clearly can't handle our city budget correctly. That's all.

Thank you.

Nicole Anagapus via Zoom followed by Jeffrey Allen Carter followed by Chelsea G via Zoom.

All right. Um hello everybody. Uh, my name is Nicole Anagaposis for the record and um I once again couldn't be to drive all the way to city council to speak for 3 minutes to have you folks not listen. I see that a handful of you are also uh appearing via Zoom. So, you're all kind of feeling the same way. Um, I'm here in opposition of further inflating our police budget. Um it's very evident here that people here are deeply deeply upset at the idea of throwing more money at RPD. Um I I saw a comrade of mine who was moved to tears about how frustrated they are showing up constantly in front of you and asking you guys to do the right thing. Um throwing money at RPD has gotten us nowhere. It has not gotten us safer. Um, it does not make us feel at home in our communities. Uh, they make us feel unsafe. I feel deeply unsafe when I see RPD showing up to any sort of crisis situation. Um, they escalate things. They murder people and they fail at their most basic tasks all of the time. I mean, it's a joke, dude. Um, so yeah, don't give them more money. I know you're going to Don't give them more money. Oh, and uh the flock cameras until they limp.

Jeffrey Allen Carter followed by Chelsea G via Zoom. How are you? Uh, I have not actually attended very many of these meetings since I had to sit sit in one years ago um to get a privileged business license. Uh, I'm Jeffrey Carter. I moved here 21 years ago. Um, small business owner of the past decade. Uh, board treasurer for Kwink Radio. Uh, prior to that, I was a wildland firefighter for six years for the feds. Um, I also am not great at public speaking. Uh, great.

I've seen a lot of budgets over the last decade of bookkeeping. Um, the easiest answer when one's facing a deficit is not to increase a budget for a department that already has 35% of the money. Um, it's to audit them and just cut their funding. I could speak about the numbers all day and I could bore everyone into sleep and I'd rather just voice my overall disapproval of increasing the police budget and leave with a short anecdote. Over the winter, a houseless individual was sleeping on my business patio after hours when my business was closed. He was almost always gone by the time that I or anyone else showed up. He harmed no one and just wanted a table to sit at when it wasn't being used. Uh the times that I did actually come in contact with this individual was he was eating a sandwich on a table and my business was not open. Uh I never called the police. I never have any reason to. Um, I was mugged outside of my business I think a couple years into opening. Uh, the only reason we called the police was to save the other person's life. Um, I'm not being it's not it's doesn't matter. Code enforcement was anonymously called in to handle the issues which resulted in police responding multiple times. That's just the chain of issues that they throw out there. It didn't solve anything. The police show up, they say, "You need to leave." Um, facing fines from the city, I took the easy route and removed the patio entirely. This was not the solution that I wanted or nor I aim for, but businesses are given almost no options when the threat of thousand fines is held over their head on nothing other than anonymous calls from anonymous neighbors. Uh, I don't know who made that call. If someone did did frequently make those calls, that someone was that they were scared of a black man sleeping outside in the winter when it was raining, then I would just go and talk to them in person. That is my solution. That is what society's solution should be to

these problems. It is not to make all these surveillance. It's not to make people essentially red scare themselves. Uh, also when I worked in wildland fire, we had over 80 hours of annual critical refresher training every year and we did not carry guns. Thank you.

Chelsea G via Zoom followed by Gabriel Pullman. Howdy. My name is Chelsea Garren and uh this I guess is about um being tracked. I have firsthand experience with being tracked by an abusive ex I was with for 6 years back in Texas. Um, it scares me as someone who has experienced domestic violence with an intimate partner that I could be tracked and I'm not even in the same state. Sorry, that's hard. My ex was a um computer science developer. He's very well-versed in accessing and developing computer software. And I I feel so much better not living in the same state and living in the same city as him. I'm not scared to see a Ford F-150 driving around because that was his vehicle. We have seen multiple news reports where it is us women who are being targeted, watched and tracked by these new surveillance systems. It is us women who are frequently killed by abusive exes when we are attempting to leave, when we are pregnant and attempting to leave and or when we have filed for divorce and he kills his family if if there's more than just the wife.

There is something drastically wrong with the surveillance technology and how it has been proven to be used. the amount of audit or searches and audit logs that we have seen and not just looking at gymnastic courses with kids, but tracking women for whatever reason that they have. And I have direct experience with domestic violence and it's very scary. That's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you so much. Gabriel Pullman.

Hello. I'm uh Gabriel Pullman and this is my first time speaking in front of y'all, but I know many of my neighbors have slept in front of this building and they've died in front of this building. And I just wanted to bring into call that the flock cameras and the data center and the police budget are all part of the same problem. It's you misdiagnosing what's wrong with our city and how to solve these issues. And like whenever Michael J. Johnson Jr. was massacred by local police, it was a block away from my home. He just as easily could have walked into my doorstep and I would have fed him. But that's not what happened. What happened was he was murdered because he was having a mental health crisis. And if you put more flock cameras in our city and you increase the budget for our police who are already murderous, all you do is contribute more to the same issues and more neighbors will be lost and we will lose the opportunities to grow as a community. And it it's heartbreaking because again, this is my first time making public comment in front of you all. And it's because it's not worth it to me personally, but it feels worth it now. And it only feels worth it now because I'm pissed off and I'm really hurt. And I think you all should be too. And whenever we talk about the police budget, Deon Reese smugs and wipes his face in like discontent and like He's their He's the police union lawyer. Like, it's a conflict of interest and you all need to be taking this as seriously as we are. You're getting paid to hear us. We came here on our days off. This is very important to us. That's all I have. Please

reinforce our community where the money goes to us, where it goes to housing us, and it doesn't go to shooting us in the back. Yeah.

Thanks, Gabriel. All right, Madame Mayor. With that, we have no additional public comment. For the record, we did receive 17 comments which were general in nature and not directly associated with an agenda item prior to 4 p.m. yesterday, Tuesday, May 5th. These comments were written correspondence received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by emails to our office. Copies of these have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public on reno.gov/meings. Okay, thank you so much. Um, before we even get into uh the approval of the agenda, I'm just going to hand it over to our city manager. Do you have any updates before we approve this? If before we approve the agenda.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Item G1, that's GOAT one, will be removed from today's agenda. After consent pull, we'll move right into item D1 and D2, regional road impact fee items. Then we'll go back to pulled consent and the agenda will be in the order as posted following that absent any changes by the mayor. Okay. Thank you so much. Madame Mayor, I'll move to approve the agenda as posted with the changes as noted by the manager. Second. Thank you so much. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously.

Madam clerk, mayor, item A5 is approval of minutes on A51. I'll move to approve the council meeting minutes for April 8th, 2026 as posted. I have a motion second. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. I um do we still have Kathleen Taylor and Megan Eert on the phone. I'm not hearing them, so I just want to make sure that you're recording their uh votes. Okay. Um let's see. Uh at this time um consent any items you would like to pull? Nothing. Thank you. No, Madame Mayor. I have item B14 to pull.

Okay. I don't have any. All right. Anyone on the phone? I'm good, Madame Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Thanks so much. Okay. I'll move to approve all remaining items other than B14. All right. So, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. I don't know. All right. Uh motion carries unanimously. Madame Mayor, on item B14, I have a disclosure. Go right ahead.

Okay. Madame Mayor, federal silly council members and madam clerk, in the interest of full transparency, I'm disclosing that my mother, Virginia Reese, is a member of the Sierra High notes. I sought guidance from the city attorney's office has been advised that I have a commitment in a private capacity to the interests of my mother. I have been advised that the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in my situation would be materially affected by my mother's participation in the Sierra High notes organization to warrant abstension under NRS 281A423. Madame clerk, please lodge this disclosure on the record. I will not be participating.

Okay. So, hold on a second. Council one. So, on B14, we're looking for a motion to adopt. All right. Uh, I need a motion. Yeah. Motion to adopt B14. Okay. Second. And I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Hello, Musty Bert. Hi. Okay. Uh, now

Madame Mayor, we're moving on to item D1 and D2, the regional road pack road impact fee item. Okay. Um, item D1 and D2, any public comment. We do not have any public comment registered on this item and we have not received any correspondence on item D1 or D2. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. The floor is yours. All right. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the council. For the record, Lauren Knox, senior planner with development services. All right. So, the items before you today are in regards to the 8th edition update to the regional road impact fee program and include an updated general administrative manual and capital improvements plan. I'm going to provide a brief

I don't mean to interrupt you. Madame Mayor, would you mind opening the public hearing? Oh, sorry. Yes. At this time, we will now um open the public hearing. Was proper notice given and any correspondence received? Proper notice was given and no correspondence was received on items D1 and D2. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. See, this is why I have her. Keep me on the straight and narrow. Okay, go ahead.

So, I'll provide a brief overview and then I'm going to pass it off to RTC staff. So, as part of the impact fee process, the Rift program is reviewed and updated regularly. Per NRS278B.290, each local government is to hold a public hearing to review and discuss the revisions. This item is agendaized as such. And then additionally, the RIFF items are to be adopted by ordinance. So this is also an ordinance introduction. And then lastly, state law recently changed and requires a business impact statement for any impact fee, including this one, um, which is before you today as well. So for reference, council adopted the seventh edition RIFF program items in early 2022. RMC 1804 1205. So that's our annexation and land development code. Establishes the regional road impact fee and that's been in play for about 30 years now. The city council has designated the planning commission to act as the capital improvements advisory committee. And on April 15th, the CIA met, reviewed the material, and recommend that council do adopt the eth edition items. And then furthermore, the RIFF program is established through an interlocal agreement with Reno, Sparks, and Woe County as well as the RTC that takes a lead on the majority of this work. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jeff Wreck with the RTC to provide a presentation on the program as well as the proposed updates.

Thank you very much, Lauren. Uh, Madame Mayor and fellow council members, my name is Jeff Lrech. I work with RTC WO and I'm here to give an update on our process of updating the RIFF um 8th edition. So, to start off kind of what is the road impact fee program? Uh really it's a funding tool that we use to pay for regional road impact fees. So as new development comes online, impact fees are paid and we can use those fees to pay for uh new capacity improvements to our roadway network. The program itself has some advantages and limitations. Um the advantages really kind of looks it's a program that allows development to pay its fair share. Uh the program itself has been in place since the mid90s and it's viewed as an equitable system and it's been supported by our community throughout this time. The program does have some limitations. Um fees collected through um the development process. U these impact fees cannot be used for operating costs. They can't be used for maintenance expenses or non-capacity related improvements on our roadway network. As Lauren uh described earlier in her um intro, the program has lots of layers of kind of um oversight and administration. It's governed initially through NRS 278B as Lauren described your um local the city of Reno Sparks of Washoe County have all entered into um you have ordinances I'm sorry that allow impact fees to be enacted. Uh and then there's an interlocal cooperative agreement that Reno, Sparks, Aasho County and RTC have all entered into that um identifies roles and responsibilities of how to jointly um implement this impact fee system. At the program level, there's really two main documents, and this is where I kind of started to get into acronyms, and I'll do my best to keep them straight. Um, but there's a general administrative manual and a capital improvement plan. The general administrative manual really is the document that we use to um give guidance and direction on how the program is administered for staff um for the um development community and and the those paying the fee. Uh the capital

improvement plan identifies those capital needs and identifies the the process in which we um assess and calculate what that fee is to fulfill those needs. So we're here to do an update um as identified in the cooperative agreement with Reno Sparks and Wo County. RTC is responsible for doing that update. Um we start with the long range PL travel demand or sorry the longrange plan that RTC planning puts together which is the 2050 RTP. The 2050 RTP identifies the list of capital improvements that are attributable to new development. And then we work with a region uh a rift tac or a technical advisory committee that includes members of your staff, the planning commission of Reno Sparks and Washoe County as well as members of the private community and development community to kind of come together and make sure that we're um organizing and putting the the fee structure together um appropriately. This is a flowchart that kind of identifies the process that goes in the development of the fee itself. So kind of the main takeaways from this uh flowchart are the red is the team RPA and we're using their land development model. uh we use that model in our RTC's um planning group and our uh regional transportation plan and starting to understand the growth on the network and then we apply that planning level um analysis into the RIFF program which is the blue color to identify the 10-year plan which is the capital improvement plan understand the cost of those improvements and then get that to a fee schedule for understanding what cost uh new development is directly attributable based on that land use or um development type. So, TMRPA, they have a predictive growth model that understands and identifies how growth in our area is occurring. It looks at the consensus forecast. It looks at um what is vacant and what is um available to be developed, what um final maps and tenative maps have been approved and kind of where they're at in their development process. Really to get to an idea or a model that identifies

like what is the future housing in our area, what is the future employment, and how is that um growing over time. Once we understand the growth that's kind of starting to occur, we need to translate that into a a unit that's measured um for our um impact fee process and for the purposes of the Rift program, we use VMT, which is vehicle miles traveled. Vehicle miles traveled is a unit that combines both the length of the trip and the number of trips into a single unit um that we can then use in the Rift program to understand how those trips are um managed and grow over time. We have a RTC has a travel demand model that looks at all the trips being generated out of similar zones and how they go on local roads, regional roads, freeways uh to their destination. We aggregate that all together to get a a growth projection of what are the new trips on the network um to understand in the impact fee process what is then attributable to the new development. The travel demand model flows into the regional transportation plan. The regional transportation plan is the document that identifies all the regional priorities where growth is occurring. Um and then uh has a list of projects in the back of the the document and really it's the capacity related improvements and those specific that are occurring in the first 10 years of the RTP are what we include in the um RIFF CIP. The RIFF program also requires that we have um service areas. uh NRS wants the fees collected in certain service areas to be spent back in those service areas. So for the Rift program, we have a north service area and a south service area and that's really separated by Interstate 80. And so through all that kind of planning an analysis done by TMRPA, the uh RTC and then in the Rift TAC group, we get to this kind of simplified table with identifies the total share of capital costs attributable to new development. We understand how that's distributed between the north service area and the

south service area. And then we understand the VMT growth in each of those areas to get a dollar per VMT, which is kind of the the general unit that we're using in this next slide. Um, and I apologize this is very busy. I don't want to go into all the details or I'm not intending to, but really what I want to help highlight here is the different development types and then attributing or applying that capital cost per VMT unit to these different development types. So we can all understand that different development types generate different types of traffic. And really what this table does is helps the implementers of the program and the you know fee payers understand how a different development type pays impact fees into the program. So for example a single family house paying roughly $6,000 is different than a new restaurant or something else that pays a different amount based on its um development unit. Uh to kind of provide a quick comparison. So the last update that we did was back in 2022. We do these updates every four years. Um and the there's these two columns. The differences or the changes that are being proposed with the eth edition from the seventh edition is really there's about a 2.5% decrease in the average fee uh between the seventh edition year four indexing and this proposed eth edition. Um we also identified that the capital costs are increasing between the two um editions and the growth that's occurring. We actually uh model the slightly reduced growth that's occurring in our region um in the 10-year model horizon. The proposed changes to the general administrative manual is really just kind of updating it to help um administrators and users of the manual um understand roles and responsibilities so it's just clean and clear. Um we also updated the land use definitions to be specific to how our community is growing and the the terms that are being used. So really logistic centers, data centers, those are kind of newer terms. We want to make sure they're captured in this document. And then we also align just terminology just to make sure all these documents are kind of nicely

talking to each other so it's not um confusing when referencing one another. Um also, as Lauren described, uh we had to do a or we um performed a business impact statement um that was required by the recent legislative session via Assembly Bill 444. Really the purpose of that is to help um those who may be affected by this fee change um be notified and become aware of it. We identified potential economic impacts on businesses um and whether those were direct or indirect. Uh the two main findings out of the BIS were that um the eth edition update is not expected to impose a direct or significant economic burden on the businesses. So this is a long-standing fee that's been in place for a long time. um and the changes that are proposed are are not very significant. And then the second main finding was that while some um types of development are going to experience modest increases, others also have slight decreases. Um kind of emphasizing the findings in the first point actually. And so the next steps so I've already gone to your planning commission and the planning commission of the city of Sparks and Wu County for their recommendation of approval who also approved. And then now we're at city council and we'll go to city of Sparks and uh Tawasho County for their review and approval. Um following the last approval, which will actually be city of Sparks um sometime later in June, we'll actually have an implementation after a 30-day notice period. And I apologize, it should be July of 2026 is when uh we expect these new fees to be um implemented pending your approval. And I want to thank you for your time and um here's the recommendation for the motion. and I'm more than happy to answer any questions that the you may have.

All right. Thank you so very much. I appreciate it. Um any questions? No. What about um online? Councilman Martinez, Councilwoman Taylor. Good for now. Thank you, Madam Mayor. No questions. Member. Okay. All right. I'll make a motion. Oh, go right ahead, please.

Okay. Uh I move to accept the business impact statement and enter a finding that the business impact statement was prepared in compliance with NRS237.080 and 237.090 and that the proposed ordinance to adopt the eth edition regional road impact fee program does not impose a direct and significant economic burden upon a business or directly restrict the formation, operation or expansion of a business. Um oh was I not supposed to read that? Was that supposed to be legal? No, it's all good. Okay. Um, it's all good. All right. So, that's the statement and then the motion. Better to overshare. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Um, so do I just do the

Yeah, I move to refer bill number what's the bill? I have to read that. Okay, you do it. So, Carl, you finish. Save me from myself. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Now I'm going to hand it over to the one and only Carl Hall.

Ordinance introduction bill number 7333. An ordinance to adopt the eth edition of the regional regional transportation commission RTC regional road impact fee general administrative manual and capital improvement plan including the associated land use assumptions and fee schedule. This includes a presentation by RTC staff on the regional road impact fee program and a public hearing pursuant to NRS 278b.290. All right. So, I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Thank you so very much. So, just just for clarification. Yeah. I Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, we need D1 and um

So, now now we need a motion to D2. I'm going to send it back to you. Yeah. Just for clarification, this is John at the city attorney's office, but I that was a motion for for D1. D1. So now D2 and now that's been read. Yes. So now you need a motion for D2. Thank you. Okay. I move to refer bill number what's the bill number? 7333 for a second reading and adoption. All right. Thank you. I have a motion. Second. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

Motion carries unanimously. All right. Thanks you guys. Yes. Um, we do have I just want everyone to know we do have a um attorney client I believe and I it's now 12:30. I need you guys to get up, get something to eat and go to the restroom. And so, um, I think it's a good time to do that before we head into and then hopefully we can get other council members in person. So, um, how long do you think, Madam Amanda? 45 minutes. Okay. So, let's come back at what? 1:15. 1:15. Okay.

All right. We'll reconvene at 1:15.

Okay. Thank you everyone. Pay for the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the dangers of distracted driving. Officer Reza, what advice do you have on this topic? Thanks, Chris. Distracted driving claimed over 3,000 lives in 2020. Here locally at the Reno Police Department, we would like to remind everybody that it is illegal to use any electronical handheld device while driving. Texting has become increasingly dangerous.

Outstanding. And what other tips do you have for the community? If you do need to make a text or make a phone call, simply pull over on the side of the road where it's safe to do so. Once you've pulled over, it is now safe to make that text message or make that phone call. You can even put your cell phone in the back seat, in the trunk, or even in the glove box until you reach your final destination.

Thank you, Officer Resa. And dig this. For more information, go to renopd.com. Also, don't forget to follow the city of Reno and RPD on your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're going to discuss making a fire escape plan. Joining us is Chief Mandel from Reno Fire Department.

Thanks, Chris. A fire escape plan is essential because it lets everyone in your household know exactly what to do in case of a fire. Seconds matter in the event of a fire, and an escape plan can make a world of difference. Start by drawing a floor plan of your home and marking all possible exits from each room. Then, designate a meeting point outside a safe distance from the home. Practice your escape plan regularly with everyone in your household, especially children. It's important to make sure that everybody knows how to operate windows and doors. It's also important to teach household members to stay low to the ground and smoke and to feel doors for heat before opening them. Thank you, Chief Mandel. To create your own fire escape plan, scan the QR code on the screen or visit reno.gov/fire. So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. From lab swimming and drop-in sports to fitness equipment, the city of Reno offers many opportunities to get active and have fun. You may even be able to access these offerings at no cost. Kayla, what should residents know about insurance reimbursement?

Thanks, Chris. Our parks and recreation department recently expanded their offerings with insurance companies, offering memberships to them at no cost. Well, this is exciting. How does it work and who qualifies? Yeah, the program offers memberships through their individual insurance company. The insurance company then reimbursed the city of Reno for each visit that they come and use our facilities. The expansion of this program is especially beneficial to our seniors. However, it qualifies anyone 18 or older. You just need to contact your insurance company. Thank you, Kayla. And don't forget to contact your insurance company to learn more. Visit reno.gov/parksandre for more information. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute.

Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with maintenance and operations to discuss leaves. Tim, with fall being here, what advice do you have about leaf removal? Thanks, Chris. This is typ typically the time of year we start to see the leaves drop. And it's pretty simple. Property owners are responsible for the removal of leaves on their property and we ask them to do this in a timely manner to help from flooding or clogging drains during a rainstorm. This is good to know. What other advice do you have for the viewers?

So, it is unlawful for homeowners or property owners to to rake or blow leaves out into the street. So, we ask them to please place them in their garbage cans or in a bag with the excess waste sticker for garbage pickup on their days. and if they could help out our street sweepers by trimming their trees and removing parked cars and garbage cans would be very helpful.

Outstanding information. Thank you, Tim. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're excited to spotlight the city's new rolling recreation center, a mobile recreation center designed to bring fun and activities to communities across the city. Here's Kayla Snow to tell us more.

Thanks, Chris. Our rolling recreation center is all about making accessible recreation for everyone in our community. Our mobile recreation center travels to various parks following the schedule of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada Kids Cafe Summer Meals Program. This means that not only do kids get free recreational activities, but also a free meal. Our program offers a wide range of activities for people of all ages, including sports, games, arts and crafts, and so much more. The Rolling Recreation Center is free and open to the public. We welcome everyone of all ages to come out, have fun, and enjoy our city parks.

Thank you, Kayla. Visit reno.gov/parks andre to find out when the rolling recreation trailer rolls through a park near you. So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the Save Volunteer Program. Evan, what is SAVE? Thanks, Chris. SAVE is an acronym that stands for senior auxiliary volunteer effort. It's a wonderful organization that comprises of seniors and they help the police department with additional resources and through their patrols they help with crime prevention and observations.

Outstanding. Also, if someone wants to volunteer, how do they get involved? Basically, anyone in SAVE is 50 years of age or older, we ask that they volunteer 16 hours a month and they can, if you're interested, either call, email, or visit the website for Reno PD. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Evan. And don't forget to follow RPD and the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute, I'm Chris Payne. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with public works to discuss street rehabilitation and maintenance. Jonathan, what can you tell us about this program?

Yeah, thanks Chris. Our public works departments were working really hard to improve our neighborhood streets in our community. For instance, we're just finishing up a rehab project in Midtown where we included the replacement of our roadways, streets, sewer, and even out alleyway improvements. Well, this is good to know, but how are these neighborhoods chosen?

Sure, Chris. Good question. The city inspects all our local roadways and calculates a pavement condition index or a PCI score. The streets with the lowest PCI scores are grouped and ranked based on factors such as utility placement or proximity to essential services. If you'd like more information, please visit our website at reno.gov/cap projects. Thanks so much, Jonathan. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Do you know how to survive a fire in your home? I'm John. This is Katie with the Reno Fire Department. And today we want to share some important information with you.

To survive, you need to know the basics of fire behavior. A fire needs three things to exist. Fuel, heat, and oxygen. The best way to do this is to keep the fuel side of the triangle away from the heat side. The easiest way to survive a fire is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Today, we'll show you some ways to prevent fires from happening, and if they do start, how to evacuate safely. Cooking is the main cause of home fires and fire injuries, and you can prevent them. Here's how. First, stand by your pan. If you leave the kitchen, turn the burner off. Then, watch what you are cooking. Fire start when the heat is too high. If you see any smoke or the grease start to boil, turn the burner off. Another thing to keep in mind is to turn pot handles toward the back of the stove. Then no one can bump them or pull them. Finally, keep combustibles away from the burners. Believe it or not, dogs have turned on burners accidentally while trying to get food stored on top of ranges.

In our modern world, lithium ion batteries are everywhere. These types of batteries can be dangerous. So, here's some things to keep in mind. Stop using them if you notice an odor, a change in color, too much heat, change in shape, leaking, or odd noises. Charge and store spare lithium ion batteries away from anything that can burn. Don't put lithium-ion batteries in direct sunlight or keep them in hot cars. This is a fire risk.

Here are some other things around the house to remember. Keep anything that can burn at least 3 ft from the furnace. oil burner, wood stoves, water heaters, and other heat generating equipment. When it comes to cooking appliances, space heaters, washers, and dryers, they should be plugged directly into wall outlets. Clean lint filters every time you use the dryer and never leave a burning canel alone. Looking at the triangle again, the third component is oxygen. Fire needs oxygen to survive. Progression of fire can be slowed by compartmentalizing your home. The easiest way to do this is to keep room doors and windows closed. The garage typically houses many potential ignition sources and heavy fuel loads. So, make sure the man door between the garage and living space is a solid core door with a fire rating of no less than 20 minutes. Any alterations to this door, including pet door installs, will allow a fire that starts in the garage to quickly progress into the living space. Many home fires can start outside and spread into your home. So, don't store garbage or combustibles under windows or next to doors. Remove vegetation that is against your exterior walls, especially if it is dead and dying. Juniper brush may look green on the outside, but under the green hides dead needles that can easily ignite. Even with our best intentions, accidents can occur. Always be prepared to escape. On average, you only have about 2 minutes to escape a fire once a smoke alarm sounds. Working smoke alarms are critical. Install and maintain them in every sleeping room and every floor. Test the battery monthly and replace it if over 10 years old. Know two ways out of every room and make a meeting space. If you have children in the house, take time to draw a plan and explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them. The biggest takeaway is to make a plan and practice it. One common mistake we see after fires is that residents will open doors and windows thinking this

will let the heat and smoke out of the house. Remember, fire seeks oxygen. Adding air to fire only makes it bigger and spread to those openings. When exiting, close the doors and windows behind you. For more information on fire survival, please visit our website at reno.gov/fire. Thank you. Be safe. Hi boys and girls. My name is John, fire marshal for the city of Reno. Did you know a fire occurs in a house every 65 seconds in our country? That's like every minute. Sadly, this also means many people get hurt. Your ability to get out of your home during the fire depends on early warning from fire and knowing how to escape if a fire happens. Fires can happen anywhere. The question is, are you prepared? Our extreme team is going to help you make a home escape plan. When you are done with that home escape plan, teach it to your family and other members in your household so they can escape fire as well. If you do that, you can be part of the Reno Fire Department

Extreme Team. This is Boston, our fire dog. He's going to introduce you to our fire extreme team.

Thanks, John. Meet the Extreme Team. Together, we're making a fire escape plan. This is Sean. He takes care of me every day, and he'll talk about fire alarms. Shel's here, too. Shel will teach us how to get out and stay out. This is Katie, and she'll talk about finding a safe meeting place. And finally, Toina is really excited to talk about why we need to practice our plan. The first part of a home escape plan is a working smoke alarm. Fire produces smoke. Smoke and hot gases move upward towards the ceiling. As a fire gets bigger, the smoke and hot gases move downward towards the floor and superheat the room until everything in the room catches fire. That's why smoke alarms are so important. They detect fire and warn you before the fire gets too big and you can't escape. Because smoke goes up, smoke alarms should be installed on the ceiling or high point of the wall. They should be in every sleeping room, hallway outside the sleeping room, and every floor. Smoke alarms should be tested every month to make sure they work. Have your parents or older brother and sister help you with this as you may need a ladder. To test the smoke alarm, push and hold the test button for 3 seconds. It should make a loud beeping noise. If it does not make a loud beeping noise, then have your mom or dad replace the battery or install a new alarm. Thanks, Sean. Smoke alarms can be loud and scary, especially if it goes off when you're sleeping and dreaming of chasing rabbits. If I heard an alarm, I will wake up immediately and run outside. But I have four legs and I'm low to the ground. You're human, so you need to be more careful when getting outside. Right, Shel?

That's right, Boston. Remember, fire produces heat and smoke that travels up. Have you ever tried to breathe in smoke? Smoke can hurt your lungs, especially if it's superheated. If you smell or see smoke, you want to stay under the smoke. If you are in bed, when the smoke alarm activates, don't stand up. Roll out of bed onto your hands and knees. Stay low and go. Always know two ways out of any room. For most people, the first way out is the door they came into the room. That should be your first way out. Remember to stay low. Crawl to the door and feel the door for heat before opening it. The best way to do this is to feel the door knob in face of the door with the backside of your hand. If it is cool, then open the door slightly and look for smoke. If you do not see smoke, go outside to your safe meeting place. If you do see smoke, close the door and go to your second way out. Usually, the second way out is the window. Don't break the window. Broken glass can catch you. Practice opening the window in your room when you get home. If you have a screen, practice popping out the screen with your parents. It's usually pretty easy. If you live on an upper floor, talk to your mom or dad about getting a fire escape ladder and learn how to use it.

Thanks, Shel. So, if you hear an alarm, don't hide. Get outside. If there is smoke, stay low and go. But once you're outside, where do you go? That is a great question, Boston. Everyone in your household needs to know where to go so when firefighters arrive, they know who is safe and who needs to be rescued. A meeting place should be a safe distance from the building. A tree, mailbox, or even a neighbor's house is a good safe meeting place because they don't move. A par, garbage can, or traffic cone is not because they may not be there when the fire actually happens. Once you're out, call 911 if you have a phone. Now, let's go back inside and answer some questions. Thanks, Katie. My first question is, should a person go back inside a burning house to rescue somebody else?

Once you are out, stay out. Never go back in for anyone or anything. Once firefighters arrive, they are trained and have the tools to rescue anyone still in the building. What if I live on the third floor and I cannot get out?

That is a great question. If you're stuck in your room and cannot get out, make sure your room door is closed, hang a towel or sheet outside your window. This acts as a signal to the firefighters outside that someone is still in the building. We will come get you. When firefighters enter the home, they will be dressed in turnouts and be wearing a mask, helmet, and a tank. This can make them look very scary. The mask they will wear will make a noise like Darth Vader. Remember, they are here to rescue you. Fire can make a lot of noise, so you need to say loud words over the noise to help firefighters find you. Help is always a good choice. Now, that's a lot of good information, but now what?

Well, Boston, now we draw and practice our plan. Pretend you are a superhero flying over your house. From this view, draw a map of your home. Include the rooms and all windows and doors. Now, identify which rooms are used for sleeping and draw a green arrow showing your first way out and a red arrow showing your second way out. Draw your safe meeting place and circle it with both colors. Now, the important part, practice. Sit down with all the family in your household. Identify where all the smoke alarms are and test them. Practice rolling out of bed and crawling to the door and then the window. Practice escaping from your door and out your window and meeting at your safe meeting place.

That's great. So, to make a great escape plan, start with a working smoke alarm. Have at least two ways out of every room and meet at your safe meeting place.

That's right, Boston. Now you have the knowledge to join our team. Let's get to work. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. It's back to school time and we're here with Officer Johnson from the Reno Police Department to discuss some great reminders on how to keep our students safe. Hey, thanks Chris. Here at the Reno Police Department, we want to ensure a safe school year for every child in our community. And so we have some important tips and reminders for drivers. Slow down in school zones. Always adhere to posted speed limits. Stop for school buses. It's illegal to pass a school bus that is stopped to unload or load children. Yield to pedestrians, especially in school zones and residential areas. Avoid distractions such as using your phone while driving. The Reno Police Department will be increasing enforcement in and around schools this summer and fall to help keep all of our students and pedestrians safe. Thank you, Officer Johnson. And don't forget to follow City of Reno and RPD on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know we're with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're excited to spotlight the city's new rolling recreation center, a mobile recreation center designed to bring fun and activities to communities across the city. Here's Kayla Snow to tell us more.

Thanks, Chris. Our rolling recreation center is all about making accessible recreation for everyone in our community. Our mobile recreation center travels to various parks following the schedule of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada Kids Cafe summer meals program. This means that not only do kids get free recreational activities, but also a free meal. Our program offers a wide range of activities for people of all ages, including sports, games, arts and crafts, and so much more. The Rolling Recreation Center is free and open to the public. We welcome everyone of all ages to come out, have fun, and enjoy our city parks.

Thank you, Kayla. Visit reno.gov/parksre to find out when the rolling recreation trailer rolls through a park near you. So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. If you're looking for a career in a fast-paced environment, perhaps becoming a Reno police officer could be for you. Let's go inside and speak with Officer Hunter Mccurio and find out more.

Thanks, Chris. The Reno Police Department is on a continuous hiring basis. If you're interested in finding a career in law enforcement and finding a job with purpose, come join us today. Also, being a Reno Police Officer in Reno makes my city not just livable, but lovable. Every day looks completely different and you're normally going to somebody's worst day. But you get to be that opportunity to make a change in their life and hopefully better their day. If you're interested in becoming a police officer, go to the city of Reno jobs page and apply for the police officer recruit position. If you have any questions about becoming a police officer, want to come do a ride along with us, you can reach me at recruiter reno.gov or you can reach me at my phone number 775-4370043. Thanks. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we turn our attention to motorcycle safety. a crucial topic for our roads. Joining us is Officer Chris Johnson from the Reno Police Department.

Thanks, Chris. One concerning trend that we're observing is an increase in speed related incidents involving motorcycles. Another issue we're facing is lane splitting, which is illegal in Nevada, but unfortunately still occurs frequently. Speeding reduces the rers's ability to react to unexpected situations. Increasing the likelihood of accidents and the severity of injuries. Lane splitting, besides being against the law here, is dangerous because it puts motorcyclists in a close proximity to other vehicles, increasing the risk of a collision. We also urge vehicle drivers to be aware of their surroundings, including motorcycles. Check your mirrors and blind spots often, especially before changing lanes or making turns. And remember, always give motorcyclist plenty of space on the road.

Thank you, Officer Johnson, for sharing these important insights. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. We're here today with Reno Fire Inspector Telina Sky to discuss wildland urban interface or WOOI and how you can protect your home from wildfires.

Thanks, Chris. The wildland urban interface or WOOI is the area where urban development meets wildland. These areas are at increased risk of wildfires. The city of Reno has implemented several initiatives to help residents mitigate wildfire risks, such as creating a community wildfire protection plan, which outlines strategies for reducing wildfire hazards, fuel mitigation projects such as goats and Rosewood Canyon, and residents can also participate in our dumpster program where they can dispose of green waste to enhance their defensible space. Residents should keep their home in the first 5t non-combustible and ember resistant.

Thank you, Tina. For more information from the Reno Fire Department, visit reno.gov/ /fire and follow RFD on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. I'm Jamie Peak with the city of Reno. I'm a housing and neighborhood development and I'm a housing coordinator. And I met Michael um with the clean and safe team. They were really instrumental in getting Michael into kind of like in contact with us. but we've helped him uh with some rental and deposit assistance and some private funding for a motel stay while we're trying to figure out his next moves.

My name is Michael Jean St. Clair. I'm a Reno residence here in Reno, Nevada. I'm sharing my story about how outreach helped uh me and my family out over the last year. My wife passed away about a month ago. So, sorry. It's hard. It's really hard.

This is uh my wife and my three kids, Michael, Tish, and Reeba. My kids, they're they're my life. And I guess it was them that kind of made me help me realize that I needed to get out of this one situation about being in living in the RV and getting a place of our own. Well, we were staying with some friends and then uh this landlord found out they were staying there. So, I got my RV out of storage and uh we me and my family, we stayed in it for about 3 years, I believe. Three, maybe four. And living in the RV, it was rough. It, you know, five people in a small area. And then my RV broke down. They put a sticker on it for to be towed. And one morning I woke up and the tow truck was there and said that we had they're going to tow my vehicle. They wanted to give me a chance to move it. They notified these people from the state and they helped me get into, you know, put me in put me and my family in a motel until they found us this apartment. It's good to have family and friends and people like outreach to help out. I I'm glad there's people like them out there to help. Just don't give up. You know, there's people out there that can help and if they offer to help, take the help. Rise. Well, especially the outreach is mostly compiled of lived experience outreach specialists like myself. if I was in a tent 3 years ago. So, we understand what it's like to have that desperation and we just try to meet people where they're at.

Just got tired of living the way we were living. I mean, we only had my wife's check and my daughter's check and we're trying to find a place, but you know, it's it's hard trying to find a place when everybody kind of looks down on you, you know. I appreciate the outreaches, you know, and my goal is just just uh stay here. Um provide for my I made a promise to my wife that I make sure the kids were always had a roof over their heads. So that's my goal. My outreach would like to do anything we could to assist you in doing so.

Yes. And like I said, I appreciate all your guys' help and and it's all good, brother. Yeah. Glad we could help and I appreciate it. Oh, yeah.

I used to come for the station. I used to come here and enjoy the hotels and go down to the river and and I was familiar with the automobile museum, but I never in a million years thought I'd be working here. My name is Philip McDougall. I'm the president of the National Automobile Museum. The history of the National Automobile Museum goes way, way back. So most people know the name Hera from the casinos, but they don't know the story behind it. Mr. Hera, he had a collection of 1,400 of the most unbelievable cars. And when he passed, he didn't have a will. The community got together and they said, "You can't sell all these things. This is part of our community. It's part of our identity. We need to keep them here." They raised money to build the museum. The city said, "We're going to contribute the land if you get the money to build it." And then the holiday in who purchased all the assets of Mr. Harris collection said if you do all that then we're going to throw in 175 cars of the total collection of 1400. So all those things came together because the community thought it was important and in 1989 the museum was opened up. We wanted to be a community partner and we are great. We have events. We have older cars, newer cars. Elvis's car, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future. We have a brand new children's educational activity center. 3,000 square feet of technology for those kids and adults to get hands-on experience on how cars work, how next generation of technology was created. We wanted to be different. We wanted to embrace the community, be a community partner. We did a complete renovation and then we went out with an active campaign, not in that car mode, not museum mode, but outdoor concerts, speakers, parties, birthdays, and a whole new selection of cars. I think the biggest change is that we have a new exhibit every 60 days. It really is fun to watch how a family can come in and they'll just go in five different directions because we have something for every generation. It's not just a building. It's not just the cars that are in there. It's the people. It's the livelihoods of everybody that's around

this town that keeps us going. The downtown partnership has been a lifesaver for us. Just helping us overall in the day-to-day challenges we have. Like any business downtown, we can't make it without the security issues addressed, without the communication addressed, and it's all one big team down here. So, the restaurants help us, the uh businesses help us, everyone here. We all kind of depend on each other. And that's what we're trying to bring to the equation is another partner can help us all be a little bit stronger and a bigger community partner. Uh, I see a greater emphasis from the downtown partnership, from the elected officials, than the community leaders to get together and say, "If we really want to succeed, we have to succeed as a group. No silos. The restaurants, the businesses, uh, the the gas stations, everybody that's here has to get a common bond. Otherwise, we're not going to succeed. It's the storytelling. It's the camaraderie. And we had that not only with us and the museum, but all the local businesses downtown here. We have the same common bond and passion. Downtown Reno is the place to be. It's a family place. It has something for everybody. Come to the museum. Go to a local restaurant. You're going to feel safe. You're going to have fun. And you're going to be 15 minutes away from wherever you live. My name is Robert DS. I'm a field specialist with Rise. And this experience with Bonnie Pace and the Pathway Pilot has been awesome and tremendous. And I'll never forget it.

I'm free. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Let's see. 3.

What home means Nevada to me is is just that it's always a place that I find comfort and soulless. We travel a lot. We camp a lot and I just love coming home. Home means Nevada for so many reasons. My name is Scott Dunce and I'm the owner of the Home Means Nevada company which was formerly Reno Envy. I grew up in the Bay Area and I went to school at UNR and my thought was that I would spend 2 years in Reno and then I would go back home. But after the two years, I just fell in love with the place. I love the people, the community. It's just been awesome. I was talking to a friend. I was giving him my address and so I told him, "Scott Dunya D Reno Envy 89523." And he's like, "Reno Envy?" I'm like, "Reno Envy?" So it was kind of at that moment, that was our aha moment where I realized that the state abbreviation for Nevada, envy, sounded like the word envy. So that's where it all started from. Think what's great about the downtown Reno community is that, you know, people believe in Reno. You know, we have something here. People really love this community as much as I do and and people really resonated with the idea of having like a local brand. Uh downtown Reno honestly has has been a challenge, but we're a small business and we've been down here since 2008 and honestly, if we can do it, you know, there's a lot of opportunity out there and we kind of wanted to prove to people that retail works. in 2012 rebranded ourselves and we went from Reno Envy and renamed our our brand the Home Meats Nevada Company. Kind of try to support the local artists in the community by bringing their products in and selling them on on their behalf. We have all sorts of great stuff. We have coffee from Glory Cloud. We have local honey. It's important for us to collaborate too with local celebrities. Christa Palmer is an Olympic athlete and we had the opportunity to partner with her and create her own authentic Christa Palmer Battlebborne t-shirt.

My name is Christa Palmer, Nevada's Olympic diver. This is a really special company to me because my roots are in Nevada. I grew up down in Carson City. I truly feel this connection between home meanings Nevada and my story. This has been a really cool partnership that I've been able to develop over the years with Scott projection of Reno downtown. I really see it opening up more doors for people to continue to get outside, continue to take their dogs for a walk and enjoy the Reno River Walk to be able to have space to enjoy those lovely afternoons. I think that's where I kind of see the progression of Reno going and for more people to enjoy what Reno is. It's truly a treasure here. People believe in Reno and we believe in Reno. There's so much opportunity and so many different types of people in downtown Reno. And the city of Reno has been great with this partnership with the visitor center. The RSCVA has been great. The collaborations that we do with the community, with the university, with Crystal Palmer Olympic athlete. It really is about a community that kind of binds us together. If we didn't have that support, we wouldn't be able to survive in downtown Reno. I've always felt like Reno's been kind of our little secret and we love to share that secret. We love to see Reno grow and prosper. Great for shopping for friends, great for gift giving. So come on down, visit us, check it out. It's been a while.

Come visit downtown Reno and see what you're missing. Do you want to make a difference in your neighborhood? The city of Reno's six neighborhood advisory boards are your chance to shape the future of your community. From parks and public safety to development projects, your voice matters. Joining an NAB is easy, and it's a great way to connect with neighbors and city leaders while making Reno an even better place to live. Applications are open now. Visit reno.gov/nab to learn more and apply. Get involved and help make Reno not just livable, but lovable. Hi, I'm Reno Fire Chief Dave Cochran. It's an honor to connect with you as we look back on 2024, a year of innovation, strong work, and unwavering dedication to protecting our community. The Reno Fire Department reached incredible milestones, overcame challenges, and made a real impact on the biggest little city. Let's look back at 2024 and the achievements and highlights of the Reno Fire Department. 2024's wildland season tested our region with incidents like the Gold Ranch, Davis, and Callahan fires straining resources from across the West. Although these fires happened just outside Reno city limits, our firefighters stepped up to assist while ensuring our Reno community remained well protected. In 2024, RFD deployed 264 resources to more than 100 wildland fires, contributing over 65,000 hours of work. These efforts brought nearly $2 million in reimbursements back to the department. Right here at home, we

responded to 51,737 calls for service, an increase of over 2,000 from the previous year. Our commitment to service continues to grow along with our community. The safety and training division saw impressive growth in 2024, paving the way for a stronger, more skilled team. We proudly promoted 11 captains and eight operators, hired 25 new firefighters, and welcomed five single roll EMS personnel. This year we ran two three-week fire equipment operator enginemies, one two-eek fire equipment operator truck academy, and a two-week acting captain's academy. These intensive programs help sharpen our skills and prepare our teams for any situation. We also expanded our monthly company level training sessions, introducing specialized active shooter training and wide area search exercises. And through partnerships with surrounding fire departments, we enhanced our response capabilities for wildland fires and hazmat operations. Additionally, we upgraded the training facilities at station 11 with new technology to improve the delivery of our programs, ensuring our team is always ready to meet the demands of our city. The Reno Fire Prevention Bureau experienced significant strides this year in 2024, starting with the appointment of a new fire marshal, three fire captains, and three new fire inspectors. Our team saw great success in our arson investigations, achieving an impressive 80% conviction rate, and completed over 6,000 building inspections to help keep Reno safe. For the fourth consecutive year, we hosted our dumpster program thanks to a grant from State Farm. This program helps neighborhoods in the wildland urban interface clear dry vegetation and debris, creating defensible space. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped reduce wildfire risk in our community. In 2024, we were also thrilled to receive nearly 245,000 from FEMA's fire prevention and

safety grant to develop a community wildfire protection plan. This comprehensive framework will prioritize wildfire mitigation efforts, improve emergency preparedness, and ensure long-term safety for Reno's residents and infrastructure. Keep an eye out in the coming months for ways to get involved. We're excited to collaborate with you in 2024. We work closely with our community partners to update the regional hazard mitigation plan. The plan assesses the potential impact of all prioritized hazards to the region and provides mitigation strategies and actions to reduce such risks. The update ensures the plan remains effective in addressing the evolving needs of our communities. We also prioritized firefighter health with initiatives like our fourth annual cancer screenings and the introduction of the coronary calcium scan. These proactive prevention programs are vital in detecting early markers of heart disease and cancer. Critical steps for firefighters facing heightened risks associated with their profession. Additionally, we launched a groundbreaking pilot program with the Epic Brain Center exploring enhanced mindbody performance treatments. This innovative approach supports firefighters dealing with PTSD and other mental health challenges while empowering them with improved executive function to perform at their best.

2024 was a landmark year for the Reno Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Division with 30,649 calls for service. Collaboration played a key role in 2024 as we joined forces with regional partners to strengthen our unified response to medical emergencies. We were excited to welcome our new EMS management assistant and expand our specialized training for our single role program. Ensuring our EMS team is always prepared to meet our community's high demand for advanced emergency medical services. We conducted division level training on new medical equipment, including cuttingedge video luringoscope blades that are vital in life-saving situations and new medications that can be used to treat various patient presentations by our mid and advanced level providers. We also implemented a new medical charting platform, further enhancing patient care.

Reno Fire Department's support services division achieved significant milestones in 2024. enhanced vehicle maintenance and repair, increased apparatus safety, and equipment modernization. Through our apparatus replacement program, we added two new brush trucks designed for firefighting in rugged terrain and a state-of-the-art ambulance, ensuring our fleet meets the diverse needs of our community. We also enhanced operations by refining the use of fleet cameras throughout our vehicles. These systems capture critical moments during incidents, training, and daily operations, providing insights that improve safety and support crew education. Our logistics team continues to push innovation forward, adopting advanced battery powered tools on our fire engines and ladder trucks, and improve personal protective equipment. These enhancements extend equipment lifespan, improve functionality, and prioritize firefighter safety. Looking ahead, we're excited to introduce a new heavy rescue apparatus in 2025. The first of its kind for our department since 1986. As an all-risk fire department supporting many different types of incidents, this addition ensures our crews are ready to respond to any emergency, no matter the challenge.

As we reflect on 2024, Reno Fire Department has much to celebrate. from our interlocal agreement with the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority, enabling us to assume firefighting services across all airport properties, and our partnership with Truckucky Meadows Fire and Rescue, which now provides automatic aid to ensure the closest resource response to emergencies, no matter the jurisdiction. We're building the foundation for continued growth and excellence. I'm pleased to share that we also received the keys to 455 East Second Street, our future central fire station. We're excited to begin serving you from this state-of-the-art facility in 2027. At RFD, we believe that being part of the community is just as important as responding to emergencies. Whether it's hosting fire safety programs, participating in local events, or building relationships with residents, we strive to be more than the first responders. We're your neighbors, partners, and advocates for a safer region. None of our work would be possible without the dedication of our team and unwavering support of our Reno City Council, state, and federal representatives. Their commitment ensures RFD is always ready to serve and protect our community. On behalf of the Reno Fire Department, thank you for your trust and support. Together, we accomplished so much in 2024, and we look forward to an even brighter and safer year ahead. Thank you for standing with us. Grab a slice, hit a ride, get a rush, and roll the dice. Step into a world where Nevada's northern lights shine bright and last calls are rare in a city that never sleeps. Where the spirit of the Wild West lives on through daring rapids and rocking out goes beyond the crowds. Founded on the rebels of resilience, we aren't what you expected. We're what's coming. We don't just embrace downtown. We infuse it with

life. We are a convergence of adventure, art, and taste. It's not just our city, it's our identity. The mighty Truckucky, our lifeline, and the Nevada sky as our backdrop. Downtown Reno is a tribute to our roots and a leap into the future. Discover 110 blocks of stories of residents, entrepreneurs, creators, and masters of their craft coming together in the spirit of discovery and progress. In a city that never ceases to reinvent itself, we are the unexpected. Been a while. Downtown Reno invites you to rise with us again. What's your story? Grab a slice, catch a ride, get a rush, and roll the dice. Step into a world where Nevada's northern lights shine bright and last calls are rare in the city that never sleeps. Where the spirit of the Wild West lives on through daring rapids and rocking out goes beyond the crowds. We are the unexpected in a city that never ceases to reinvent itself. Been a while? Downtown Reno invites you to rise with us again. What's your

YA? We are the unexpected in a city that never ceases to reinvent itself. It's been a while. Downtown Reno invites you to rise with us again. What's your story? The Pioneer Center is a nonprofit performing arts center located in the heart of downtown Reno. We are in an absolutely gorgeous one-of-a-kind historic building right on the banks of the Truckucky River. Our building was constructed in the 1960s. So, we have been open and operating as a nonprofit performing arts center for over 56 years now. I'm Denise Su. I'm the CEO of the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. One of the amazing things about being a community performing arts center is that our historic stage is the very first performance opportunity for so many young children in the area. Aspiring young musicians and dancers will perform their first recitals here on our stage. There is an incredible magic when all of those children come into this professional theater for the first time. The feedback we get from those children and from their parents is that it's literally life-changing for them to have those first experiences on our stage. And we know that many of those people choose to stay in this community and build their lives here in Reno as they grow. And they remember those first experiences and what it meant to them. We are quite literally in the bedrock of downtown Reno and we're not going anywhere. And we really have seen and felt a tremendous improvement since business district has created the downtown Reno partnership. The work of the ambassadors to uh provide casual folks on the street with directions, with assistance. Uh they are the friendliest, most helpful people out in the community. The name is well-earned, Downtown Reno Partnership. We really do feel that they are partners in helping to make downtown the place that we all see in our hearts, that we really know it is. They've just been an incredible asset to downtown and we've been really

grateful to work with them.

My name is Adam Kates and I am the director of community engagement for the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. The Pioneer Center is the hub of the performing arts in our region right here in downtown Reno. We are the home to some incredible organizations from the worldclass Reno Philarmonic Orchestra to Arttown who brings in incredible performances from across the world and AVA Ballet Theater who present the annual Nutcracker, a tradition for so many families in Northern Nevada. The Pioneer Center is the place to come for the best of worldclass performances. One thing that I love is the way that the bar and restaurant scene has just exploded over the past decade or so. And many of those incredible restaurants and bars and establishments are right here in downtown Reno. They're right across the street. They're right down the block from us. And it's been really wonderful to have a central gathering place like the Pioneer Center that is also able to engage with many of the restaurants and bars in our region. As the footprint of the city continues to push outward and more incredible folks learn about and want to be part of and want to live here, the heart of Reno remains right here along the river in the core of downtown. This is that unique identity of the city and arts and culture have that unbelievable ability to weave into the fabric of the identity of a city. It's through bringing so many different folks together for so many different kinds of experiences. All authentic, all genuine, all designed to bring you together and uplift each other and to explore what it means to be human together through the arts. There is no limit to what that can do to change people's lives and to enrich a city well into the future. So, whatever the future has in store for Reno, arts and culture are a critical part of our identity. They always have been and they always will be. We at the Pioneer Center, together with all of our friends throughout the arts and culture community here, we will continue to evolve and adapt and explore new ways of making connections. And all of that will

continue to happen right here in the heart of downtown along with the other amazing organizations that make up this area with us. Downtown Reno is where the best of the performing arts live.

Downtown Reno is alive with arts, culture, and entertainment. My name is Par tools and I am the CEO and founder of Tools Development. I grew up in the Bay Area in the middle of park and I moved to Reno in 1994. Met a pretty girl and chased her down and uh got married and decided to put down roots here and uh ended up being a really vibrant place for us to not only do business but grow a family and it's been a a wonderful decision. I've always had the desire to start my own business and in 2016 started to development company with the goal to focus on all product types of real estate but with extra effort downtown. We bought a portfolio of office buildings with the uh goal to redevelop those buildings and really try to push downtown Reno into its next level. We also did that with Midtown. We bought a portfolio of retail buildings, turn that into what is now a very vibrant area. People always ask me, Reno the next Portland, is the next Austin. My response has always been, we're Reno. We have this really interesting quilt. I love the fact we're not trying to turn it in somewhere else, but that we're allowing it to evolve in its own really unique way. Private investment in downtowns. It's hard, but it's also incredibly rewarding. Downtown Reno's really got a nice platform for additional mixeduse development. We have a good foundation of retail, good foundation of office, good residential, arts and culture. We have a river that runs through it. It's important for us to move where the market is telling us to go, but also to be more than just financially worthy. I

think it's important to take a longerterm view when you're redeveloping and trying to obviously not only making returns for your investors, but also making more social returns for the community itself. I think we have a collaborative culture here. We're part of the fabric of this community. These businesses are our friends. You know, we don't have big commutes. People want to be together. We'll never leave Rita. this office portfolio and the Midtown portfolio right before co I've seen the vibrancy of downtown. It hasn't been hurt as bad as it could and now we're prepared to continue to move it forward with with good development. It's easy to stay in suburbia, but it's certainly not as fun. And you haven't come to downtown Reno yet, please come visit us. I promise you, you will make it your Friday night date night. It is one of the most vibrant special cities on the west. I can't wait for you to experience it if you haven't done it yet. Hi, I'm Monica Kirch. I am the director of housing and neighborhood development for the city of Reno. The rapid rehousing pilot program is a program that the city of Reno started in coordination with Volunteers of America and the Reno Housing Authority.

Programs like the rapid rehousing pilot program are important to volunteers of America because it gives us an opportunity to catch individuals who are otherwise potentially falling between the cracks as far as services go. The Reno Housing Authority assists nearly 15,000 Wo County residents through its traditional housing programs. Yet we know there are many more who need assistance. The Reno Housing Authority supports the rapid rehousing pilot program in two ways. Uh the first way is through a financial contribution to support half the salary of the service coordinator who works directly with clients at uh Village on Sage. The second way that we support the program is by um ensuring that clients are on one of our HA's weight lists prior to being housed at Village on Sage. program is new and we just started housing people within about the last month. We have several folks now staying at the village on stage working with a service coordinator. Partnerships like this give RHA the opportunity to assist more families outside of our traditional programs. And it's these innovative partnerships that create a stepping stone from temporary housing into long-term permanent housing. So specifically, this program works with individuals who are on a fixed or low income who can't afford conventional rents and they are eligible for a housing voucher, but they still have to take the time to wait for that voucher. So it allows us to support them in that intermediary time frame so they can stay housed and have access to services. I know um specifically with this program, a lot of our folks are coming directly from the street and haven't had a rental in a very long time. Um, specifically Mikey hadn't paid rent in over a decade and so it was really exciting for him to come to the office with his money um and just celebrate that new experience that he got to have.

Hi, I'm Mike and um welcome to Village on Stage where uh Come on, let's go look around this. Yeah. Oh, Harold, welcome. And this is what we get. Um I got a brand new television. It's an element. This is one of the finer finer televisions. Um, you're welcome to bring your transportation inside with you. Uh, nobody cares as long as you keep it neat and tidy. Um, what can I tell you? The doors open, the train's right there, you know. Uh, so if you like trains, excellent. And this is where all the magic happens. This is where the happiness uh, you know, where we come to ground out. This is just where uh you know we can be ourselves. I know it's a it's cold out there. It's cold and you don't want to be homeless in high desert. Guys, if you don't have a room, you want to get a room, think about Village on Sage. I know it doesn't look like all that from the entrance way, but you never judge a book by its cover, right?

The Village on Sage Street is ideal for the rapid rehousing program because we're in a transitional setting. um by means that they're month-to-month unit so they have their own space where they can find and build their comfort and also build community while having access to a multitude of supportive services. Okay, madame clerk, we are back. I appreciate everyone. Uh that was a very long update. So

all right, madame mayor. So we're reconvening at 1:39 and at this time we have council member Eert and Council Member Taylor absent. Okay. Uh, I know Councilwoman Eert is coming, so um, but we do have a quorum, so we're going to move on. I believe Miguel's on the phone. Okay. Um, Madame Clerk, do you have any public comment on this item? We do have public comment on item C1 from Bradley Carlson.

Okay, perfect. Come on up, Bradley. Um, Bradley Carlson for the record. Um, I just turned out of my role on commissioner on the Historical Resources Commission. So, so I got I got to wait for a year now, but I wanted to to thank the uh council for the privilege of serving on that commission. Um, and uh, I wanted to talk today just uh, some of my thoughts on followup after the April 8th city council meeting on the for the RFP on the LER. Um, to keep things in perspective too with regard to the city and the LER, I was just noticing that the LER has been on the city register of historic places since August 17th of 1999. Um, I I filled a vacancy on the Historical Resources Commission plus my two terms and I think we've been talking about it for eight years um to get where we are. Um, from my uh background as an architect and in developing commercial um projects, I just wanted to advocate for a uh deliberate and and purposeful process as we go forward. Um, I know there's been a lot of discussion and you guys probably have a better idea. I'm sure you have a better idea of what's going on than I do. I'm coming from a point of ignorance a little bit but just um some of my uh thoughts on process on this and this actually I recently submitted for a a project at the university an RFQ and their process follows an RFQ and then RFI process the the the point being to develop a short list of qualified um submitters before you get to the RFQ process. So I'm kind of coming from that. So um what I would do with on on development of any uh happens to be hotel projects or projects that I've been involved in is we would always have the owner uh or um you know develop a short list of qualified um submitts and and so my suggestion would be to um do a first

step as an RFQ get that short list so it's kind of pointed of who's qualified just to kind of keep us steered in the right direction. Um I would highly advise as I would any of my clients to commission an independent feasibility study uh viability or or market study as you will um to uh rely on a submitter of a proposal to provide that. It's kind of a conflict of interest and not the value is kind of questionable. Um I would recommend on a development project that the owner commission that which in this case for the lear would be the city. Um but just to uh that was uh I think one of the comments or suggestions of the historical resources commission too. So we might be going full circle on that a little bit but that um that would then am I down to 20? Counting down. Okay. So that would inform the RFP process and uh make a more targeted approach. So I would request that the RDA budget proposal allocate oh also allocate some funds to reform basic structural and security measures to protect the building and ensure its stabilization and protection. And um I would uh I think to take all this to account, I would request that the RFP process be timed, if not delayed, on issuing that pending discussion and input from the historical resources commission and future city council meetings.

All right. Thank you. Thank you so much, Katherine Schmidt via Zoom. Okay, Katherine.

Hello. Thank you. Um, I'm just here to comment on the priorities reflected in the proposed budget for the city and to encourage council to rethink where we are headed with this proposed budget. I've been involved in community efforts across the city for the last couple of decades. Um, Lake Park, KTMB, we know what works to build community and it is common goals, respect and engagement. It is not policing and flock cameras. That does not make us safer. And you all know that. I'm shocked that the leadership team of the Reno Police Department is out um at home today doing whatever they want on our taxpayer dime and you're considering giving them $8 million more. I think there are better solutions. Um bringing the the community together. You've heard dozens of comments today from people who are already involved in making our community stronger. Why not bring them together and let's do some real problem solving before we continue to throw good money after bad. Uh armed police response to mental health crisis and flock cameras do not keep us safe, but they imperil this entire community. I would rather see community values um Reno strong really reflected in this budget and as it is proposed it is not. Um I appreciate your your time. Sorry,

with that we have no additional public comment. Thank you, Madam Clerk. May I ask as a point of order and maybe through the manager to you? Um I'm not u are we opening the RDA budget at the same time? No. No. Okay. Thank you so much. I I was confused about what the comments were. Sorry. That's why I'm over here. I'm just making sure we're going through. Look at you, Madame Mayor. Well, no, cuz the last gentleman brought it up and I was like, are we still going by this? That's what I was trying to figure out. So, RDA will go in. No, no problem. It happens. I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Thank you so much, madam clerk, the floor is yours.

Thank you. And for the record, we did receive five comments directly associated with this item. Two letters in opposition and three letters that express neutral or concern. Okay, Miss Van Beern. Miss Van Beern, as you are getting ready, can I just ask um normally um your budget presentations tell us when to pause or stop so that we aren't jumping into you too soon. Do you have that or is it shorter than that? Today I have 23 slides. Boy, that's a lot of slides, but we'll see if we can't hold on and maybe the mayor is coming back over. So, thank you for being here. A lot of this information you've heard before. Okay. Thank you so much.

It's going to be highlights. So, we ready to go? We looks like we are.

Okay. Perfect. Um Vicky Van Beerren, director of finance for the record. Um Madame Mayor and council members, um it's my pleasure to be here today to present to you the tenative fiscal year 27 budget. This is the manager's recommended budget. Um, and I will be highlighting any material changes from the March 4th workshop and because a lot of this you've seen, we've been talking budget all year long. Um, most of this is just the finalized numbers as we continue through this and I will highlight any of those changes as we go. And again, I have 23 slides and I'm just going to highlight a few things on the slides and then turn it over to you for the discussion. So this aligns with the strategic plan and the budget is uh aligns with the strategic plan by allocating the resources to put those priorities into action. The budget is the tool that actually does that. And I do want to note on this strategic plan as you look at this for next year, fiscal stewardship is the base of this triangle and it's really that foundation for building the budget and really implementing your plan. Fiscal year's 27 tenative budget overview. This slide shows uh the overview of the appropriations for the year. By appropriations, I mean expenditures. This slide uh shows expenditures. It does not include ending fund balance or cash balances. So, as you notice on here, the total citywide expenditures are $749 million proposed. This is different than how I've normally presented this because normally you see a slide there. It says total budget of a billion dollars and that's because that includes the fund balances or cash balances. I wanted to provide something a little different here um to look just at the expenditures. The general fund proposed expenditures

are $335 million and it's an increase of 4% over the current year budget that was adopted. The special revenue funds fluctuate year-over-year due to the funding sources. CDBG is in there. Um, also street fund is in there and that's a special revenue fund. Capital projects fluctuate year-over-year. And so that's going to depend on that one to see that change as you look at that. Debt service funds are fairly even year-over-year. Although new debt was issued in April for the advanced purified water project facility, those funds will be drawn down as the project proceeds. So, we didn't take out the whole amount. Now, as that project builds over the next three-year period, we will draw down those funds. So, that full um payment, we won't see that probably for three years. Once it's fully drawn down, the enterprise funds consist of the sewer funds and the building fund fund. And the major difference from the prior year is that American Flats project the APWF because it was fully budgeted in the current year and the budget that money will be encumbered for next year as we move forward after this budget adoption. Internal service funds the city has four workers compensation risk medical and fleet. And the increase year-over-year here is a combination of some things. Uh funding for the fleet program, the fleet replacement program in fiscal year 27. That was one of the things that was cut for 26 in order to balance the budget. So that's now in 27. There are some anticipated increases in medical and workers compensation. And then we're budgeting for the IBNR claims in those areas as well. So that's really creating that difference there. Full-time positions citywide are proposed at 1,495. Of that, 1,22 are general funded positions. 71% of the general fund positions are

public safety. So that's police, fire, and dispatch. Changes from what was presented on March 4th at that workshop include two new positions being proposed. A network analyst and a systems analyst. Both of these would be for the IT department to support infrastructure and cyber security needs. One would be funded from the street fund and the other from the sewer fund. The network analyst in the street fund would be supporting the traffic network. This environment is a high risk critical infrastructure with heavy impacts to citizens if disrupted. And then the systems analysts uh in the sewer fund would support the stead the stead wastewater treatment system and the lift stations and overseeing the operational technology network. This position would configure, secure, maintain and troubleshoot core infrastructure. These positions will provide ongoing monitoring protection and effective in incident response for the operational network. There was one other thing I wanted to call out on here. There was a correction to the total on the grant positions. One positions was inadvertently missed at the last presentation. Should have been on there. Um it's one that exists and should have been on there. And then one previously frozen position is being proposed to be funded with CDBG and hand funds. So the overall result is no impact to the general fund. Balancing the general fund budget included a combination of things. reducing expenses including freezing positions, budgeting for normal occurring vacancies and increasing revenues, sanitation franchise fee, and then using some one-time funds. So, it was a combination of many things to get to where we are today in fiscal year 27 in the general fund

revenues. This slide, I apologize it didn't come through correctly on this version, I think, of PowerPoint. um proposed for fiscal year 27 $335 million. We're proposing use of onetime funds of $4 million from fund balance to balance that remaining little gap. Cax and property tax make up the bulk of this uh these revenues. Franchise fees are 12% of this total and that does include the increase for sanitation that starts that started April 1. general fund revenue overview. When you look at this one, I wanted to give you an idea of what what's been built in as far as what we anticipate for next year for growth. For property tax, 4.6%. These are the final numbers that came from taxation at the end of March. So, they weren't at the beginning in the early workshops, but these are the finalized numbers that we have for revenues. So, 4.6 six for property tax growth, 3% for consolidated tax, and that's based on what we see in the economy, what we see in the current year. We're actually trending a little bit higher than that that we've talked about. Um, and we think 3% for next year. Business licenses trending at 2.7 that in similar alignment with consolidated taxes as well for spending. And then franchise fees up 15% and that's because of the franchise fee increase for sanitation charge for services and other sources. Those vary and it's based on reimbursements, grants, interest income, fire strike team reimbursements. So those are going to vary year-over-year. So looking at that as a percentage increase or decrease um becomes harder when you compare actuals to um the budget proposed. You look at general fund expenses um for fiscal year 27 again a balanced budget

$335 million in expenses we've got here by uh reducing expenditures doing zerobased budgeting budgeting for 2% vacancy savings and salary and benefits there are 35 frozen unfunded positions uh using some one-time funds for capital and foregoing additional contributions to workers comp and oped things that are not addressed here are local 39 supervisory and non-sup supervisory collective bargaining agreements. Those are currently open and in negotiations and then we have an ongoing FLSA analysis that is in the works of being completed here soon as well. So again 80% of the budget in the general fund is uh salary and benefits. So what are the priorities when you look at that? Well, 66% of the general fund when you look at total budgets for the departments goes to public safety. So that's police, fire, and dispatch. Um the remaining departments are shown here. General funding, general government includes a lot of your support departments. So when you look at public safety as far as a priority for council as a safe community, public safety can't exist without fire, can't exist without finance, um city manager's office, HR, civil service, all IT especially, all the things that really support them. So really that number is a lot higher than just 66% because all your support departments are shown there in general government. So in total, $221 million just between police, fire, and dispatch. But as I mentioned, a lot of support departments go in that as well, and that's not included in that number. So when you look at general fund expenses, $335 million. Um, again, the balance budget. This is the same information, just a different shot of it. So, you can see uh a different

graphic to show you what different pieces of the puzzle look like as far as how much is police, how much is fire compared to some of the other pieces. Strategic priorities. I like this graph because you can look at the priorities of fiscal stewardship, the balance budget. You can look at the safe community and you can see where that's represented. You can see where infrastructure is represented, natural spaces, parks, um quality of life. You can really look at the budget between these pieces and really relate it back to where the priorities are from council. As we look out for the general fund uh fund balance on the 10-year forecast model here, uh we anticipate ending the year around 16.8% 8% in general fund balance for the current year and then we're budgeting for almost 15% for next year. That equates to the 15 to 16% equates to about a two months of operating expenses and that's the working cash that we need for daily operations as we go through each day here at the city. When the cash goes below that 10% mark, that's when we start to have cash flow issues uh paying bills as they come due each day. And then um the interest minimum is the 4%. Obviously, we don't ever want to be near that, but we've clearly made some progress from where we started back in November where I showed a chart similar to this where it kind of fell off the cliff. And so, we've really done a lot to get this in an area where you have some runway space to figure out um these challenges as we continue to move forward. So, really, this slide shows us we're okay right now, but we still going to h we're still going to have challenges as we move forward. and we're going to continue to work on this. So, you're going to continue to see this as we we talk about this capital improvement projects. There are 142 million of capital um improvement projects that are proposed with the budget. The biggest pieces of this are

in the sewer and the street funds for those infrastructure projects. General capital projects are $8 million. That includes facility maintenance, parks maintenance, and the fire apparatus program, as well as $2 million for the ERP system to start that process. Um, CDBG is now finalized. In the March workshop that we had, we had an estimate in there. CDBG numbers are now known. So, this number is now $1.6 million. I'm calling that out. Um, room searchcharge. This is your $2 charge. Fleet fund. This is the replacement program that I mentioned that was not funded in the current year to balance the budget, but we are funding it for fiscal year 27 or proposing it. It um is a little bit more than we normally fund because we're catching up a little bit. It's not something that you can forego very long because um most of of your people that are out on the streets doing the real work out in the community, they need um a vehicle in order to do that work. Um, the residential construction tax, the RCT, that is restricted for parks. The last one on there on the fee schedule, I'm just calling out the notable changes from the works from the workshop. There's really only two um that I have noted on here. The building valuation table, we don't get that until February March time frame. So, at that point, we didn't have that updated. that is now updated in your packet um with the international code council recommendation for fiscal year 2627. That is a normal process that we do. And then for police, there is no change. Originally, there was a change um proposed for the residential parking permit fees and bodywn camera reduction fees. And we're actually saying um we're not proposing a fee to that right now. The main reason is because every 5 years

we do a full uh fee study analysis. And so it looks at what the fees are on the fee schedule and how much it actually costs to do that particular service and what are we charging. And so every five years we bring back to you that information so that you can make those policy decisions on whether you want to do full cost recovery or whether you want to subsidize subsidize some programs like in parks. Um, since we are due to do that full fee schedule and we're actually kicking it off right now. We will be doing that this starting right now up up until fiscal year 28 budget process. That will be part of that process. Um, we're not proposing this change right now. We're just going to do it along with all of the others. I think it's a better fit to do it with the others since we're due to do it anyway. Debt summary. So, I want to talk about debt a little bit. We haven't talked about that as we've moved through the budget process itself. Um, this shows your outstanding principal that the city owes um year-over-year starting back in 2009. We're at about $620 million of outstanding debt in 2009. And the debt has been paid down and restructured over the years. And you can really see this. We often get this question, is the city paying down debt? And yes, this slide really shows that. And I really like this slide. Um because of that fact, you can see that we paid down debt up until 2017 and then we started doing projects again where you'll see it increase as we do projects and then pay down as we go along. If you go out to fiscal year 26, we have a tiny little bar out there and that tiny little bar shows $428 million outstanding in fiscal year 26. I did go ahead and put the APWF project out there. That's $70 million. So you can see it's still around $500 million uh once you add that. But that will be

drawn down as that project is built and it doesn't really show up right now, but I just don't want you to forget that it does exist. It's not currently outstanding because that project we just closed on it and we'll just start to draw it down over the next three years. So debt outstanding, again, this is principal. same information, but I wanted to show it to you by project. And I wanted to show it to you in a way that really shows you where did where did all the debt go and what was it used for. And you can really see that 93% of the debt was for major projects. The retra is 46% of the debt we have outstanding. Event center, national bowling stadium, and the ballroom are 24%. the public safety center, the Moana pool and the fire design for the new uh fire headquarters 13%. And then sewer projects are at 10%. Again, this one does not include um the American Flats advanced purified um water facility one because it's not currently outstanding. We haven't drawn it. Um but really those four areas, that's where our debt is. it doesn't really um span much outside of that and it really shows the dedication to build major projects, impactful projects that are long-term for the community. Uh another slide to show you debt by project. This one the really intent behind this is to show you the original amount of issuance. This does not include any prior issuance issuances because sometimes these have been restructured over time to get better rates. Um, but it really shows you the funding source and how these are being funded and paid for. So, in total, there's $32 million of debt service payments between principal and interest that are included in the fiscical year 27 budget. Most of that is paid through other funding sources dedicated to just

pay the debt. The only one that you see on here that has general fund all by itself and no other source is the fire apparatus program. That's almost toward the bottom. That's the only one when you look over at funding sources. All the others have special assessments, room tax, sewer fees, um partially paid by police impact fees, um a dedicated sales tax. There's lots of other options that we have to pay um this debt. And so it's not a burden technically on the general fund. So that's really the point of this slide. Uh I do want to point out the final payments on some of these are coming due. So the clean energy bonds that we have, those actually are mostly paid out of the general fund. We do apply some energy rebates when we receive those throughout the year to that. Um but those actually pay off in fiscal year 27. Uh the Lear Theater actually pays off in December of 27. what it'll be fiscal year 28 on that one. Um and then Cabela will go away as well. And that's incremental sales tax. Again, that that one um is not paid um by the city. It's managed by the city, but we are not responsible as the city for that. The incremental sales tax comes in to pay that. And then if you look at debt service, just giving you this on a slide and kind of a visual so you can see what's paying for what as far as the $32 million that we have uh budgeted for debt service principal and interest. Only 5.7 of it comes from the general fund. The ones that are highlighted in green, that's the areas that are coming for the from the general fund for 27. The blue areas all come from other special revenues or dedicated sources to pay for that debt. I put a slide in here to show the bond rating. The bond rating currently is at

um the double A3. We're in that high-grade AAA region for the bond rating. Can you say that again? I don't know if people understand what a bond rating is. Yeah, it's similar to your credit score. as a as a individual, your credit score, the better your credit score, the better you can go out and find money when you need it to borrow for a house or borrow for a car. You don't get if you're on the brink of, oh my gosh, the sky is falling. So, there's been like this massive narrative out there. Oh my gosh, your budget, your budget, your budget. No, we doing great. There you go. That does not happen defaulting or in trouble or

so. Thank you. know 10 years ago we were at if you look at down standard imports if you go down to the A minus A3 that's where we were about 10 years ago we've increased in ratings that much in 10 years the last uh couple rating increases were in 2021 and 2024 and the significance of that it shows that we're stable we're growing we're economically diverse um and it enhances the city's ability to borrow for money when you want to do big projects Um, so the sky is not falling. It is not falling. Can you remind me again? It's not negative bubble. It's not falling, but we, you know, we still have a lot of work to do because

we always have work to do. That I'm not going to deny, but I do want people to understand. Yeah, that's a very, very, very good rating. Many cities don't have a bond rating like that. So,

it's great. Um, so next steps, this is one of my last slides here. the today's presentation. Um the outstanding items that I marked from the March 4th workshop that I would like um additional direction on today if you want to do something different than what is proposed in the budget. The land use appeals fee um had a lot of discussion from different um members over the last few meetings. Right now it's $1,200. We did not change it was not changed in this proposal. Um, that's what it would be unless you want to propose something different. And then the sanitation franchise fee, US council approved this on February 11th, that increase. And with the increase to the 14%, it was also approved a CPI adjustment each April that would take effect. And I think there was some discussion on that, whether you wanted it to have a CPI on it or not. But those are the two items that I really marked that I would like some

clarity clarity today on so that when I come back on May 20th um I can do that incorporate that plus anything else maybe that comes up from the discussions here today and work with manager Bryant on that. Um so for the motion I just put on here move forward with the budget and the fee schedule as presented with the following changes and potential maybe the appeals fee or sanitation and potentially you have some others that you're thinking about as well. But with that, that concludes my presentation and I'm glad to answer questions.

Okay. Thank you so so much. Okay. Walk us through um I want you to walk us through why the budget is so challenging in the state of Nevada. The state of Nevada is the only state that does this. And one of the reasons why many states and cities can pay for um a lot a lot um which is really remarkable about Nevada how they fund things is through their property tax and if you we have one of the lowest property tax and that was by design but what happens is it doesn't continue to keep up with inflation and cost of living and all those things. So th that equals services. So that's how cities, am I right?

Absolutely. Pay for those services is through property tax. Now we're very very lucky because we have low property tax. However, it makes it challenging unlike Nevada is the only one that does it and this is where the property depreciation conversation comes in. So, I think that Reno and I maybe it's just an election time, but I think that um that Nevada or should I say Reno or these other cities um get a bad rap where I don't think people understand how difficult it is especially as time goes on because things do change and they are more expensive and the cost of living because of what's happening nationally it affects all of us. Correct.

Yes, absolutely. Okay. However, what the you don't hear this from the south part of the state and why because gaming is such a big monster and so they don't typically have the problems that we have up here in the north because they've got gaming revenue all over the place. We have a very small handful. Am I right? Is that why the north and the south are different? Well, we don't get gaming revenue as the city. So, the state does, but they get a lot of tourism related to it, but do but that's the difference that they have an advantage

over. They've had a lot of new growth, too. They had a a big broom of new and adding a lot of properties to the role. So, that's really helped them. Um, we've had new growth as well, but they've had a lot more. So, it hasn't impacted them as much. You know, you've seen Henderson and some of those areas really grow and boom over the last 10 years. Um, new areas kind of popping up. They're booming versus, you know, we have what we have and we're growing, but it's not at that rate. And so, um, depreciation does impact that because the older homes, they continue to depreciate up to 75% of the value of the, um, built structure.

It It's critical. I mean, it's a a great benefit for citizens and everyone who lives here, but as a government, it's very hard to balance a budget on based on that. Okay. I I just want people to understand because they don't they when we sit down, we talk budget, they're like, "Wait a minute, I don't understand." And so, um, it makes it really, really, really challenging. And I remember Naomi and I and uh remember paying down the budget by $200 million.

Um so we've come a long way. I just want to highlight I know how difficult it is under these circumstances. I do hope and pray that that changes at the legislature, but to make sure that it obviously doesn't affect those that are in their homes, especially our our seniors, they can do that on on resell. So, I think there's a way to do it. Everyone probably agrees um because I I I think it is important for our seniors to be able to not ex, you know, have that burden, right? So, that's one of the reasons why they did it. It's confusing. I just wanted people to know. No, that's why it's so challenging

and what we have to manage

to get through it because it's one of the things where I just this is the time of year where I always feel like oh I feel sick to my stomach because I just know that other cities other cities I mean when I tell other mayors they're like what? They have no idea. No one knows. They have no idea. They're like what are you talking about? So I this is where I do feel sorry for myself every year where I'm like anyway um but I do think um I have hope I will keep hope uh like I have for the last 12 years that the legislature will do uh something for um people uh in the state of Nevada anyway. Okay. Uh go ahead Council Der.

Yeah, thank you. Um appreciated that update again. I heard the whole thing even though I had to step out for a minute. Um, I just wanted to re respond to your questions really quickly from my perspective. No, the one you had up on the motion. Oh, the motion. Okay,

you were at the right place on the appeals fee. I would really like to go back to the $100. We have had zero appeals and I think the point of it this year is even though we've had controversial projects is that the $1,200 fee is um um I'm looking for the right word, but it basically um dampens people's interest. Maybe that was the goal. But I also don't want to um cut off their rights to appeal something they feel is egregious or unfair. It may not be right, but they should have their opportunity. But if they can't afford to come in front of us, then we've really failed in our mission to get public input um and to write something that might be wrong. um in the interim period since we last met. I um talked to the Truckucky River, sorry, the Truckucky Meadows Regional Planning Agency and uh they end up with some of the biggest projects for appeals, you know, because those are the biggest ones that have to get a master plan change and maybe a tier change. They charge no fee, zero. And um I know three of us ended up voting no on the budget last year just because of this issue. We felt so strongly. I've never done that before, but this particular one hit at a philosophical level. So, I would love to see the appeals fee go back to the $100. I think it was $104. Um, the last time before it was changed on the sanitation franchise fee, CPI, I'm the one who actually made the motion. I almost asked for a recall because some of our colleagues were not happy. Um, they said that it already um increases and I uh buy CPI. In other words, waste management fee already increases. therefore our fee increases. So I had asked for um to be potentially be considered for reconsideration back then and the manager assured me, oh we don't need to do it. We but but I'm uncomfortable because council took action and so I feel like council has taken different action to have a a

different result. And so um I would be supportive of repealing the CPI in this budget on the waste management free knowing that it already is on CPI. Okay, it already is. And then thirdly, and this one was harder for me. Um I I gave a example at our last budget meeting about um when we had a um business owner cut down 79 trees that were required by city permit to be there, only it had been decades before. And uh they either didn't know or lost track or whatever they did. So they cut down 79 trees. They were supposed to have 119 on the property, but by the time they bought it, there was only 79. So, what happened was we issued a $100 fine to that property. And that is is not consistent with the damage that was done whatsoever. And we did not charge per tree. We just charged per site. I could not find where that $100 fee is and I looked through the whole fee schedule. I could not figure it out.

It's not actually in the fee schedule. That's actually a fine. a find and that's through RMC. So that would be a different process. Okay. Um for that one. No wonder I couldn't find it. Yep. I couldn't find it either when I went looked for it. You went looking to Okay. Well um perhaps we can have a quick RMC process to reset that um fine. You said it's a fine. Yes.

Would be, you know, the the purpose of a fine is to dis to discourage an act, an illegal act, and to know there's a consequence. It's just like a parking uh traffic ticket, you know, we don't want people to speed. We issue traffic tickets. We we want that to be a warning to not do it. And the traffic tickets go up if you keep doing the thing. Um so I'd love to revisit that and thank you for clarifying it's not in the budget. Thank you. And then I also I want to just add in there and you might have mentioned it. I I'm sorry. Yeah, if you did, and I'm repeating it on the fees, we were also looking what other cities were doing and it's the same fee at the county. Yes. So, I didn't mention I just mentioned that had come up before. Thank you, mayor. And um that was the rational.

I don't want anyone to think you just pulled some number out. We didn't we didn't pull a number. You based it on the county fee and we could have based it on Truckucky Meadows regional planning fee. Uh I mean, which is zero, but I would like to see it go back. Probably some of my colleagues would like to see that too, but they'll have to speak for themselves. Okay, thanks so much. Okay, Councilman Ree, thank you so much. Can I start with uh slide number three, Vicki, because I have a lot of questions. This you said was a new way of reporting to us. What am I to take the 6.25 decrease? Is that a difference between um 2026 adopted and your 2027 tenative?

Yes. So we have a decrease of about $50 million. You do, you know, you have to really

I know it's related to the other funds. Well, it's related to that and it's also you have to look at especially since we're not we're in a space where in the current year we make certain cuts in order to balance this budget and then next year the we haven't had some consistent data over the years just because the fleet program in the current year budget fiscal year 26 didn't exist because we didn't fund a fleet replacement program. We're funding that this year. Um, we had a PERS increase that impacted fiscal year 26, but not in fiscal year 27. It's the same. So, you're going to have some of those variances that are going to make things look a little different year-over-year. You also have vacancy savings that we budgeted in the current fiscal year 27. We didn't do that in fiscal year 26. So although it gives you a good look at last year's adopted and this year, you still have to kind of take some of these other things into consideration as you look at it.

Okay. Thank you for that. I wanted to ask about slide number four. You've identified uh proposed positions and I wanted to sort of respond to a concern raised by a number of people in the public this morning. Are we increasing um persons full-time equivalent persons in the police department? No, we are not. Okay. So, why the increase in uh police budget? How do how do we arrive at a $9 million increase for our police budget? I think it's related first to to the fleet.

It is it's the the increase is related about 50% about 53% to the collective bargaining agreements. So, we have those legal contracts with those collective bargaining labor unions. And so, that was applied and that's about 50% of the increase that we're seeing in the budget. And then the other 50% of the increase, most of that is related to fleet because we did not replace any vehicles last year. We are doing kind of a catch-up this year to replace vehicles. That's an essential fun function for police. They have to have vehicles. They have to have a fleet in order to do their jobs. And so can't forgo that more than a year at a time.

And is there four and a half million dollars worth of fleet replacement needs next year? Most of that is in that um I want to say like 90% of that 50% of the number you said and then like 90% of that you know 50% was salary and benefits the other portion of it mostly was fleet like 90% of that piece um is fleet and the other pieces are contractual agreements that we have as far as other agencies or contracts for services that go up annually each year with um contract increases that we don't really control. Can I ask There's not really anything new. Can I ask about slide number eight? Of course.

And I apologize, Madam Clerk. I don't think I've been speaking for five minutes, but I think the time might be off. Oh man, got the chop. Um the uh slide number eight. Um this expenditure reduction part I think is part of what I have focused on here. And I think the mayor was more artfully than I was saying was talking about some experience over the number of years that she's been on council, but also in sort of election season, people get sort of silly about misunderstanding the budget and people who are candidates. And I think I saw one here earlier uh Vanessa Valpel was here in the off uh the chambers, but I think it stepped out. I think it's always good for candidates to be in chamber because it shows you that you're paying attention to the work that you might someday do. Um, but I think the mayor's point was in talking about like understanding the budget. Is there some magic lever that we are not pulling that would make it so that we would audit our way to financial stability or we would find no bid contracts or we would do a thing that would change the economic forecast that is the economy at large. Mhm.

You know, I we're doing everything that we can think of and bringing forward anything you know we can think of to you as council to look at. The the real issue is everything costs more for everyone. Not just for the city, for every business, every every year things cost more. We have inflation and our revenues just don't keep pace with that for the things that mayor uh mentioned earlier. the property tax and sea tax, the largest sources, just don't keep pace with the cost of inflation.

Well, and we spent a fair amount of time this year um collectively and you and the manager have gone out to Rotary Clubs and the Seroptimus and the uh old folks homes talking about the way in which property tax really sets us up to fail. This is a whole other conversation, but for our part, you believe that we have done the things that one would do maybe in my own personal life if I didn't have enough month to meet my paycheck. I would tighten the belt. I would hide. I mean, I would close positions. I would hold positions. I would do those kind of things. That's what was related to the other slide, right? This slide number eight. Okay. And that's for this time around, Madam Mayor.

Yeah. I I just I was trying to think to your question and um I'm trying to think how long have you been here, Vicki, now? Almost 10 years. Have you been here? 10 years. Almost. Wow. Oh my goodness. And look at you. You look 10 years younger. I'll transfer. Okay.

Interesting. I'm glad you are because tell me because I've been here almost 14. And so with that being said, I can't remember any uh budget that was different than what we're looking at today in the sense of like what we're doing all the you know I mean sometimes we have a surplus sometimes we don't but I don't remember anything that has changed dramatically. Something new has taken place cuz I feel like you know it's a really good talking point to say the budget the budget the budget. So, I just want to again to I think Devon's point, I don't remember anything being different than what we're doing.

Not much. I mean, we certainly haven't had any windfalls since I've been here. Yeah. Clearly, and we still have a lot of unfunded liabilities that we're trying to fund, OPED, workers comp. Yeah. A lot of things. But we're making a lot of great progress. You saw debt debt paying down. Um, and a lot of great progress has been made on OPED and workers comp, but now we're kind of dialing it back again because it's a little tighter now, but there's really never been a windfall since I've been here. We're not talking, we're still talking the same numbers, same stuff. You have workman's comp. You have all these things that you're required to do that you have to fund and everything costs.

You just have to fund. There was a gentleman today in public comment. Did you hear him? He said, "I can barely pay my rent. I can barely pay my food. It's a real struggle for people. It's a real struggle. These, you know, honestly, I go to the grocery store and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, how do people how how do they do it?" So, you have to have compassion for them. And, you know, prices are going up so quickly. We can't even keep up with them. Imagine. Absolutely.

We can't. So imagine, you know, individuals and especially younger people and seniors, the most vulnerable. So I think people forget that. It's it's also something you have to be very um I think just very comp um sympathetic, very sympathetic to because it's very very real. That's why I do love our rental assistance programs, things that make different a difference in people's lives. And they really really do. Um and the waiverss, our sewer assistance program.

Yeah. The sewer assistance program, all those all those. So, um, and I, and I, you know, anyone that's listening at home, I mean, some people might disagree, but reach out because we have a lot of waiverss if you cannot afford um, a city service even from we also made sure that those were in for seniors so that they could continue to go to the senior center, those kinds of things. So, we will um, we will, people are like, Hillary, don't say that. But I want everyone to know that we have waiverss for everything. If you cannot afford it, it's important um that our citizens know that, you know. So, okay. Um but I think

I'm going to head down to my right. Councilwoman Anderson, go ahead. Thank you. And then I'll go down to Councilwoman Eber.

Thank you. Um so this budget process, this is my second one and I just I appreciate from past budget processes that I've gone through in the private sector. Um Vicki, I feel like you have managed this at that level or beyond in terms of um educating your audience and stakeholders about what you're doing, handholding us monthtomonth on how it's changing, preparing us for potentially the headwinds that we're going to be seeing, but not overreacting. And um I just want to thank you for that because coming into this position, the budget was, you know, the big bad stormy cloud above everything. And it's really not that. It's it's about cash flow. It's about decisions that we make every year and whether or not we're going to be able to grow some programs or whether or not we're going to be able to live with some programs moving forward. So, it's really um a priority and um and really establishes what the priorities of our community are on behalf of our constituents. So, thank you for the way that you've been managing managing us and this.

Um okay. So I what I wanted to understand, Mr. Ree, I share your um concern and just hearing about the um the concerns from the audience about flock cameras, policing surveillance in general. I want to know um with this budget that we're discussing today with the leadership change with um just kind of what we're going through with RPD with the leadership that we have. How how much exposure has Mr. Fino had in the operating budget and how confident, you know, are we that the decisions that he inherited are the decisions that he would have moved forward with and how flexible is that for him moving forward if he needed to make changes.

I think Chief would have to respond to that. Is he Did Chief Serino step out? Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't respond as far as what he sees operationally. I couldn't respond to that. Um Yeah. Okay. But has he's been involved in this process. Yes. I just want to make sure that as a council if we make these decisions from a policy perspective that chief has the ability to execute those decisions based on the policy decisions we make with the budget today. Absolutely. Okay. So we can just move on and when the chief gets back I can use my time then. Thank you.

Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Um I know this is still like workshop and I have a lot of questions about different fees that um I'm not going to go into every single one, but there's some for um development services that I think that we should review a little bit. Um, there's some fees that are going up at a very small rate and I know we've increased some fees like drastically. I'll use the example of the um appeal fee again, but when I look at the fee for an annexation, it went up by 2.88%. Went up $95. A master plan amendment went up by 284% or $224.25. I feel like those kind of um cost increases are like a drop in the bucket for what they're doing versus the fees that were increasing on the public in the services that they're paying for. And there's other ones, too. Zone change, it went up by 2.9%. Um, you know, that's something that can have a huge impact on planning, on communities, all of that. So, I'm just not understanding why um some of the the fees are going up by such a small percent um and others that the community pays seems to be a a steeper jump. Um also, you know, minor amendment application to PUB or SPD, it it's got a $7.50 increase. Like that's like practically nothing, you know? So, how did we land on that? Um, a 1.78% increase.

Chris Pingri, director of development services for the record. Um, all of our planning fees are we've done we've done fee studies over the years. We did one about three years ago to compare our fees with the region for entitlement cases. Um, and those fees were within the range of everyone else. And with that, historically, we just raised those fees by CPI every year. And that has just been consistent over the years. we're still within the range of our our sister organizations to where those fees um are pretty standard across the region and therefore we just raise those by CPI every year moving forward on our um hardcost land entitlement fees. Okay. So is the CPI different for each one of these categories like annexation master plan amendment?

CPI is the same but the number of where it got rounded up or rounded down to would have been the difference of of where it ended up. They're all pretty consistent in that 2.35 to 2.66. Um,

yeah, there's the 1.78% and some that are, you know, 1.9 or 2.9. So, just I I don't know what the other regions charge for these things, but it it just feels like some of these increases maybe should have another look at them. Like $7.50 50 cents is so small compared to other fee increases. Um there's another one for minor modification. Um it's four a $4 increase. Um cannabis establishment zoning verification letter $1525 increase. Time extensions nonadministrative has a $22.50 increase. like I'm just maybe interested in seeing some other areas fees for these things and seeing exactly where we fall. Um especially considering you know we're having some um revenue constraints right now. Um just to make sure that we're in alignment with where we should be

just for this council's awareness the fee comparison study exactly starting January that's what I was thinking gave me the date. So as of January, we launch back into our process of the fee comparisons within the region. And we do that throughout the entire department of every fee that it is charged. Okay. And those are compared within all of our jurisdictionals, you know, all six, seven jurisdictions within the region. Okay. Okay. So that will be coming back in front of you here in January.

Great. Cuz like business license review for homebased business, the fee went up by $1. Business license review for commercial or other than homebased went up by $2. like I it just feels like there's some some opportunity here to um you know review some of these changes. Okay. Um I think that's it for me for right now. Just want to make sure that we're comparing where we stand with other regions. Thanks. Okay. Counciloman Anderson, can I just quickly I feel so bad. You're

It's okay. Nobody's getting me sick over here. I'm fine. I'm fine.

Chief, I I should repackage how I was asking my question. So, I'm glad you weren't here to hear me fumble through that. I just wanted to make sure that you um were able to provide feedback on what your experience has been in um overseeing this budget in the time that you've been with us. Do you feel comfortable? Um I know that the a lot of people in the audience this morning were concerned about the percentage of increase. I think we've had that explained that a large portion of that is because of you need fleet vehicles to be serviced and we've kind of been limping along for the last year because we cut that the year before. I just want to make sure that you've had enough exposure to the the budget process where you feel comfortable in a policy position. So, if something were to come up here where we act on anything that we hear, whether it's a vendor change with flock or it's a um procedure change or maybe it's a we would like you to look into another program, do you feel like you have the flexibility within the budget as it's presented that you would be able to move with policy?

Uh for the record, Corey Selfrino, um madame manager, madame mayor, members of the council, uh yes, I do. uh for lack of a better term, I've heard the public's concerns. Uh and I'm going to rinse and repeat what we do at the sheriff's office. You know, I manage $170 million budget up there. We're looking for efficiencies and as the cost of technology and the cost of doing business does go up, uh obviously how can that be augmented with boots on the ground. People get hurt, people cost money. Obviously, you saw our salary and benefits are a significant portion of that budget. So, how can we use technology to augment that and look for efficiencies across the board as we're looking for our new CAT RMS system? Are there efficiencies there when we come online with that that allow us to remove personnel into technology space and reduce that benefits package? So, yes, I do feel that Christina and her team have done a wonderful job of getting me up to speed in the short nine weeks that I've been there. Uh, but I know where we're going. I've got good direction. Uh we're working on regional collaboration so we can use the full force of the police department on the street and then where we have regional abilities to collaborate with teams and initiatives and space uh to cut down the costs of our budget, we will do so.

Okay, great. And I saw motors were out in W 6 last week and the community noticed and appreciated it. So, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. We'll be out again this weekend. Um go ahead, council.

Oh, thank you. so much, Madam Mayor. I just figured since we had Mr. Sulfurino, Chief Sulfino here that um I could put him on the hot seat a little bit. I didn't know that we were going to have this conversation today. But you heard some of my conversation earlier about the percentage of increase above the last year budget that we are allocating or proposing to allocate towards um policing. And so part of that is the concern raised by the community about whether that's justified or not. I think this is another question, but we heard that it was mostly in the fleet and so I'm not expecting you to know everything about fleet. Um, but do you believe there are fleet replacement needs that we must have in the next year that require that level of spending?

Sir Cory Selfrino again for the record through you mayor to council member Ree. Uh, yes sir. uh as we're looking at vehicles when whenever we pause to play catchup and then do again, we're looking at a 7% increase just based on fleet technology in the vehicles and everything. I believe right now we're about on a 5-year replacement schedule for marked patrol units and about a 10-year replacement for unmarked patrol units because our patrol men and women are out in the community because we run out of a centralized location and we don't have substations all over the place. that is where most of their business and most of their work is occurring. So their office

their office 100%. So when we try to keep a uh reactive not a reactive style that's a poor choice of words when we're trying to use crime reduction strategies and we're using evidence-based practices I take that to heart. So, we're putting our people where our business is. And we're trying to do community oriented policing by being out in the public and knowing the businesses, knowing the infrastructure, knowing the people that are out in the community, but also using our hotspot policing and understanding where crime is happening to treat that area, to displace that crime to tie people to time, place, and distance. So, when we do have crimes that are reported, we do have maybe somebody that was leaving the area that was stopped for speeding, and we can start to parallel uh the investigation and identify what's happening in our community. So uh long

no I appreciate the thoroughess question short in the reader digest version. Yes. Uh every time that we put that on hold for last year now we're playing catchup. So that big hit to fleet management. If we can look to a 5year or sixyear replacement cycle because the cost of vehicles and the technology and outfitting of them is going up exponentially.

If we can get more bang for our buck and spread that out over another year that there there's an opportunity to look at there for efficiencies. But we're this is a catch-up year. Well, and and let me now transition to a different topic. Miss Anderson sort of hinted at it. I want to be a little bit more direct and and say you heard a lot of conversation this morning about flock technology, ALPRs. Um I think this is an area of emerging technology. There are concerns being legitimately raised about privacy concerns and the misuse of those kind of technologies. I know madam manager is working I think on bringing we've asked for a policy, right? It's sort of a unique thing where we have the technology is out there and we are now kind of being um tasked with having a policy after the technology has already been used. So I suppose I'm not asking for an answer completely because I think we're in the budgetary process, but I think some of those budgetary things are part of equipment or or however we would operate. I had the privilege of going to the real-time information center and seeing firsthand what the work is actually happening and how it's being used. But it is chilling to hear people talk about the abuses of the system and and of course none of us including you want to see abuses of those system but it's that unknowing that we don't really know. So I think my point to talk with you about it is to say it's not going away. The people on this council will have difficult and honest questions and we expect honest answers from you and also in the budget process we want to be able to make sure that we can say to the people that we are using the resources that we have to keep the community safe. Um, and so, madame manager, I hope you're also hearing me that those are my expectations that that policy decision is coming and we'll have to have those conversations.

Madame Mayor, through you too, Council Member Ree. Uh, absolutely, sir. I mean, obviously there we've got some business to do. We got some work to do. Yeah.

Um, there's things that have happened uh in the community that have violated the public's trust, and that's what we're here is we're we're here to earn it back. And if we misuse the technology for nefarious reasons, then we shouldn't be using it. So policy decisions are absolutely necessary to make sure that we're using it for good, which we have used and currently have used to uh affect three arrests this year and homicides that have occurred in our community through the use of that technology. So I think that goes hand in what we're trying to do as a community for the safer um purposes. When you look at nationally what's happened with some of the vendors that have been named in here today is you've seen a a misuse of that data sharing where we scrub the data after 30 days. We hold it. We use it for purposes of investigatory tools, not for nefarious reasons to go spy on individuals and then it's washed. Uh you have seen other agencies across the country not hold to those policies or those standards. And I think that's why you've heard a lot of the public come up and question what has happened uh here today. But as we move forward, our policies will be forward- facing as we start talking about these technologies and what they do and what has happened in other communities. cuz I'm focusing on what's happening here and that's the one that I have to answer to each and every one of you and to all of our citizens for using. So I understand the weight and gravity of that situation and uh we'll be prepared to answer.

Council Dur.

Yeah, thank you. Um I have two areas and you're you are the first. Um I had the very very same questions that my colleagues had but in a little different spin. So we heard earlier that 50% 53% of the $9 million increase was due to collective bargaining. That means it's our staff 350 I think we have something like that and their different pay rates over a certain period of time. Then it was mentioned fleet. Totally get that. Um we did put a hold on fleet last time. Then it the the the word was contractual and I have to believe that includes the drone program, the the um the cameras on poles that are like license readers, that kind of thing. So what I want to understand is just to get a few more details following on my colleague here. Do you know and maybe it's a Vicki question, what is in this budget related to um surveillance or cameras or flock or whatever term you want to use? Do we know how much money? You don't know or

I don't have You don't have for this year's budget. It is my understanding I've pulled the contract for the drone program and there is zero dollars affiliated with the drone program for year one. We have a 30-day option to opt out of that contract without any financial responsibility by the city or the police department. We're evaluating that technology as we move forward. But I believe for z for year one there is zero dollars affiliated with that and that's with the vendor um that we actually had him come and give a presentation. What what's the name? Brink. Brink. Okay. So is there anything in our budget this year titled flock? I do believe that we have some PTZs and LPRs that are affiliated with that.

I don't know what a PTZ or hand tilt zoom camera. I I I apologize to the entire council. I'm a police officer for 27 years and I use acronyms. So, uh, Flock uses a pan, tilt, zoom camera at strategic locations throughout the city and the county. And then there's also ALPRS, which is automated license plate reader, right? The same technology that you would see in the Bay Area on any FastTrack lane that they use to capture toll fees. It's the exact same technology, right? I've gone through those in Florida and lots of toll roads. They automatically get your license plate. Correct. Okay. So, do you have an answer? the gal standing behind you. We can look for the budget to see what is in. I'll introduce Miss Christina Rodriguez.

Hi, Christina Rodriguez. For the record, um the administrative services manager for the police department. Uh we actually will have an agenda item coming forward later this year for our fiscal year 27 software. So, I can tell you that it's a little over half a million dollars. It's 530,000 would be what we're asking for for all the different investigatory software platforms that we utilize. Um and that would include flock and some of the other things that you're asking about.

So my I I'll try to wrap it up. So pri prior to you being here chief uh it was committed to us that that because this was months ago we had had a discussion about having a policy about use of these cameras and the retention of the data. So and and it was still to come to be developed. I know we had the 30day um disposal policy, but we didn't really have policies on how it would be used, the purposes for what it would be used in a policy format, right? Is that correct? Um it's correct with my recollection that you were asking for all that to be

and that is correct, Council Member Der. And that request was made by the body and the team has been working on it. We're actually going to have a meeting on Friday to gather all that information and finalize that policy and then bring something back to this body uh for discussion and input from the policies. And then finally on this um my question really has to do with the misuse of the equipment by you know bad guys, people that are are hacking it, using it for nefarious purposes or unapproved purposes. It could be in our police department, but it could more likely be outside our police department. And what I want to make sure is that we have some kind of system in in place to capture that and deal with that

100%. Madam Mayor, through you too, Council Member Der. Uh everything's tracked. You log in, it shows what you logged in and what you did. And all of our data systems, no different than this key card access shows every

point that I went into. Anytime you log into the system, it shows what you logged into, what you searched, what you entered. From a data breach standpoint, we would be made aware by our vendor if there was any data releases just like you would if your credit card information was compromised and they would send you an information. So to my knowledge, we have not had any data breaches and the entire system is recorded that has a administrator rights to be able to look in and see who's accessing it, what they're searching, what they're entering. I think that that is a big part of the um public's concern almost more than misuse by our police department is misused by others and the fact that the right um protections and protocols are not in place and I think there maybe there's a perception that flock in particular is more subject to these or maybe flock is more widely used so therefore it has more breaches all I know is that when you come back we really need to understand this better okay and that we need to adopt as the the kind of um policies that we need to and we also need to audit those policies and make sure they're being followed.

Now, Madame Mayor, I have a a second question on the budget. I can wait for a third round. You know, I have one more topic. Is that okay? Go right ahead. Go right ahead now. Okay. Want you to Okay. Get whatever you need.

Okay. Well, my topic I've already brought it up at a previous budget meeting and it really had to do with our clerk and where I'm struggling. Um, we're constantly restructuring in the city, right? We combined groups. We We just did it. We combined code enforcement with licensing. We combined I just learned that we combined our um liaison with Christiey's office and and Jennica's no longer there. You know, there's lots of restructuring going on and I think we're at a point I'm in my 12th year that this is an area that I think needs some review. Um, and I know that per charter the clerk reports to us, but that's confusing because the clerk doesn't do the job herself, just like Jackie doesn't do the job herself. They both have staff to do their job. And this isn't for you. I'm sorry, chief. You're still standing there. This is

what do I have in with this? I'm not asking you this question. So, what I would like I'm really interested in a potential reorganization to move the clerk under the city council. Um, and that's what I'm interested in. I think it's it's worth a trial. We pilot a lot of stuff. We try a lot of stuff. Um, I think this is something that deserves a look um for a little bit more cohesiveness. It's weird to supervise one person out of a unit and not the rest of the unit. It's just very weird and I don't know how to effectuate. I don't know how to properly manage Mickey and hold her accountable if the staff is not reporting to her but reporting to our manager. I'm just not sure. I'm not sure that uh so the clerk does report to you, right?

No. Yes. And then the the what is the next? What did you ask for? You said what I asked is that the clerk doesn't do the job herself. Correct. She has some staff just like you have staff. And we want to hold her accountable, but I I don't know how to hold her accountable if we don't have all parts of her job together. That's that's my question. And I don't have the answer. Okay. This is more I just want to make sure the premise is the same. Uh I do not interact with the clerk staff. Well, I I hope you I mean somebody has to be supervising them. It's the clerk. Okay. Okay. Okay. What you're talking about in the budget? I am on the budget. The budget. Oh, I understand.

The budget. So, in the budget, we have an org chart. It's a part and parcel. 85% of our budget is staff. I understand what you're saying. And every year when we adopt the budget, we adopt an org chart. That's part of it. And what I'm saying is I would like to see the ortar changed in a way that would have the clerk and her unit reporting to council. Um I just think you know look lots of people brag about what their background is or what their expertise is and all of this. Right. We can do that. We can put that slide down

whether it's legal, he's not even here or PR or data assessment or whatever it is. Okay. Mine happens to be public administration, right? Have an advanced degree in that. And when we come to this topic of budgeting and organization and personnel, that's sort of my field. And I've never said that before in 12 years, but I'm saying it right now because I'm proposing a a structural change. And I think that you should know that it's um well-intentioned and where it's coming from. It's coming from um bandwidth and holding people accountable. And I feel like um if we if if the clerk comes to us and says I want to reclassify somebody and I think there's a reclassification group here at the city that reviews things. I think the clerk has to follow all the administrative procedures.

Correct. And that is appropriate. But I think that we have to be in a position of making the final decision. If we're going to hold her accountable, then we need to be able to So two different things. You're asking that budget oversight over the clerk and her office shift to council. certainly something that the body can do. You'll need to go through the charter committee, do a charter change and a legislative change. Okay. Maybe. I don't know because I read the charter and it doesn't really speak to that. It speaks to the clerk reporting to us, but it doesn't speak to um the rest of it, you know, just uh so it's a question I wish I had more answers. I think I have a gut feeling of what I would like to try, but um that's it. I don't know if

is that do they do that? Um like is that do we do it different? You know how like I feel like we always do things different. What's that? I I I was just thinking that we it seems like we always do things a little differently. So I'm just curious is that standard practice? Well, I guess I would look Yeah, actually well we Madam Clerk, you would know better than anyone. Is that standard practice? The our current structure is that standard practice? I think that the structure varies across the country if you look at kind of what the model is. Um sometimes it falls under the manager and sometimes it falls directly under council but Oh, okay. I just was want I there's different ways to do everything. I don't think there's one best way.

Yeah. But but currently budget authority is rest with the city manager. If the council wants to change that, it's certainly something that can be done, but that requires a charter change. Okay. And then my request to you is if we could have legal look at that and see if it does actually require or if it's something that we can do just like we don't have to get a charter change to move code enforcement in with business licenses. Of course not. Right. Okay. So I don't know. That's where where I'm going and I would like to see it but it's done different ways and I'm I just think it'd be worth a try. I do. Um Madame Mayor that's what I have to offer. All right. Great. Thank you so much. Okay. Council Neighbor. Yeah, go ahead.

Hi. So, um, back to some other fees here. Um, under the notice of violation as written in municipal code section 1.05.215, fines for administrative citations. There's no um proposed increase on these fees for first citation, second citation, third or fourth. But it says in the notes that this is determined by Reno Municipal Code. Is that something that we would change in in this or would we change that in another area if we wanted to increase the fees?

If it says it's determined by Reno Municipal Code, then you can't change it here. You would have to change it in the code, which then it would change. Okay. Okay. And then um hold on there's a section here about um parking permits. Those also did not have any fee increase. Is there a reason why we're not increasing the parking permit fees at all? Um the parking permit fees did have an increase for the residential that was proposed but the others um either they were CPI or they were remain the same.

Okay. So this one says residential parking permits for six month uh difference from adopted to proposed is $0. That's the RPD one that you explained earlier that you're holding on. I'm sorry. Yes, I am sorry. That is the one that we are holding on. that was originally proposed, but we're going to do roll that out along with the um comprehensive fee study that we do every five years. Okay. What happens is we do CPI in between the years and then we do a full study every five years and then try to bring it back in alignment because CPI doesn't normally keep pace. It may or it may not, but that fiveyear study really tells you where you're at.

Okay. And then there's another section here for um stop, stand, or park on a sidewalk. Stop, stand, or park in front of a public or private driveway. Stop, stand, or park within an intersection. Is this for people just stopping and standing in front of these locations? Do you know? Is it a car or a person? That I wouldn't know. Which section, what page are you on? This is it's under proposed fees and changes for parking enforcement, but it just says stop stand or park. Um it's on page 35

35. So that would be under um parking enforcement. That's the department. So that would be under police. Do we have someone here that Christina? Could you address that? Each department goes through their own fees and they're the experts kind of in those. So, yeah. Great. This one.

Hi, Christina Rodriguez for the record again. Um, I'm not entirely confident that I understand all of those parking enforcement fees because parking enforcement uh just joined the police department and um maintenance and operations had done a deep study into those last fiscal year for their fee study and so we just accepted the CPI on them. So for that one in particular, I can't answer those questions, but I can find out and we can get back to you. I don't know that it's even for parking. It looks it might be for persons because I know we have an ordinance regarding that. Yes, Ashley Fernie, assistant city manager. For the record, I'll jump in.

Um, I believe the question you're asking about is it talks about parking standing. Essentially, this is a fine for illegal parking. It's to use different terminology in different parts of the country. So, you'll see something that says no standing. This is in reference to a vehicle parked somewhere. Okay? So, this is just the same thing as if you park your car in the middle of the street, that's illegal. You can't do that. If you stop in the middle of the street, also illegal. So, it's fine for that. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Because I wasn't clear when it said stand. I was like, it seems like it's a person. Um, you find this regionally, this is a term that they use a lot more on the east coast than the West Coast. Uh, but we've used that language here just to ensure that it's consistent so everybody knows don't park your car in the middle of the street.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, I did want to call out um that it's only has a $2 increase. want to make sure that we're keeping tabs on that. Um I know you said you're just kind of getting into it. So, um we just Sorry, Christina Rodriguez, for the record again, we adopted the CPI recommendation, so that's why it's the $2. Okay. All right. Um I think I had a couple more things real quick. Hold on one sec. Yeah. So, are all are all the proposed uh fees for parking enforcement um reflective of the CPI recommendations? So, everything on here? Yes.

Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah. I just feel like some of they're so low. Like a $2 increase for for different things is is very like I I feel like we should review that further. um parking meters. It says um if you deface a parking meter, it's $159 for a fee. Is there a way to change that to make it be the cost of the repair of the thing plus a fee?

Yes, I believe uh that's more of a legal question, but I believe you have the authority to change a lot of these as you see fit. Um, for reminder to council, you may recall a few years ago, the reason why these are so low is we just pulled them over from code. These used to be in the Reno Municipal Code and they had not been updated in 20 years. So, the first attempt was to bring this forward to council, put it in the fee schedule so we could at least start increasing by CPI, but it's my understanding that you have the ability as the body to increase these as you see fit. Okay. Okay. So, if you'd like to change that to actual cost plus a fine, I believe that we could convince Carl to think that that's all right along the way. Would this be meeting be the time to say that or need a motion or

included in that would be helpful for Vicki and then Vicki knows what you'd like to see on the Yeah, we don't need a motion, Council Member um Eert. We would just need to know how to delineate it so the body to consider it and we'll call it out during the vote at the next meeting. Okay. So just right now just say we understand your concerns. We'll work with legal to see if we can't get something drafted for the body to consider on May 20th. So I was I was clear on good enough. If not, we'll give you a call.

Okay. Thank you. And I think I just had one more thing here. Um Oh yeah. Uh gym rental. The fee for the top range of gym rental increased by $175. Do you know why that's so steep in comparison to other fee increases? I Vicky Van Beern, director of finance for the record. I do not offh hand that would be in the parks department. I'm going to look over to Lindsay to know. Lindsay, do you know because I don't see anyone from parks in here. Okay. To answer that one.

That's all right. Okay. Thank you. I'd love to follow up on this fee thing for just a sec. You said earlier that the fine for not following a permit condition like plant these trees um is in the code, but you just said that you brought all these fines out of code and put them in here so we could modify them. And I was under the understanding that we were also going to bring that fine or fee, whatever you want to call it, into administrative code so we could, you know, amend it as needed, not go into a regulation change. And you're telling me we brought a whole bunch out of ordinance and into this fee schedule.

It was my understanding at that time it was just the code enforcement ones that were brought over. And that was my understanding as well. But that doesn't mean that we can't begin the process to do any others. Yeah. Well, I think this is in code enforcement like the code, you know, the permit requirements are the permit requirements and the failure to follow them has to be dealt with somewhere and it would be easier to deal with it in the budget in the fee schedule. So, and that was the concept from initially. So, we'll we'll circle back with you to get a plan. I just missed it. It could be. Thank you for flagging. Okay, that's it. Thanks,

Madam Mayor. I just have two brief things. And Miss Van Beern, I I wanted to sort of lean in to Miss Der's comments much earlier, and I know we've gone in a thousand different ways, but there were two specific asks. One was related to the appeal fee. Um, and uh I I suppose I don't want anyone not to be able to sign on to this several, you know, it's a billion dollar budget over the appeal fees. So I am uh someone who would say if that is something that needs to be changed in order that my colleagues will support the budget then I have no question about that. Um I I know that we took it from a very low number to a higher number. It was supposed to be consistent with other jurisdictions. Um but it it is something that at least three of my colleagues felt so very difficult about. And it looks like Mr. Pingri is going to come up and tell me how that worked. Chris Pinger, director of development services. Um, with a question, can you

Well, we started at some number. We raised it last year to the higher number, I think $1,200, and now I think we are still below a couple of our colleagues regionally. Um, so just remind us what the numbers are.

So, last year for the 26 fiscal year budget, we proposed a $250 um appeal fee at that point in time. And we've showed the comparisons of the different jurisdictions within the region where um Washoe County is $1,200 for their land use appeal fee, Douglas County 956, Lion County 750, city of Fley 750. City of Sparks does it a little bit different. They charge part of their application fee and then they charge an hourly rate once you run out of that that net dollar that you paid for your for your um application fee. Once you run through that money, then they charge you an hourly rate to where it today we're set at $225. Today we were at $1,200 even equal to Wo County today.

Okay. And so I'm going to leave it to my colleagues to define what the parameters of their acceptable limitations would be. Um the sanitiz sanitation franchise fee CPI. I think that was just a misunderstanding of how the CPIs were compounded upon an increase. And so again, I think Miss Der has flagged an issue. we knew it was an issue beginning, so that should be resolved uh in favor of reducing that fee. Um and so those are just my comments. Look, what what I do want to say, Miss Van Beern, is um this is my eighth or ninth budget, I can't remember. Uh your 10th apparently here in this building. Um every year is a little different and we are getting better each year. We've changed different acral and accounting methods. We've reacted to the state's challenges. We've been cash basis. We've done zerobased budgeting. We do a lot of things. At the end of the day, what I want to do is say thank you for the work that you have done. Your team is phenomenal. Um they far exceed expectations in every way. Um we're getting closer. Um these meetings are are difficult because the budget is large and numbers um that were not clear to us on one meeting might become clear to us on another or we have time to dig into some section of it and then we have um questions all over the map. I learn from that process every time. So I'm grateful for my colleagues for highlighting it. Um for my part uh you have answered the questions that I had in this presentation except for one and I'll leave you with it and that is on the bond rating slide you show us at being the AA3 and the AA minus but what you didn't show was where we might have started from like I hear people talk about the days when we were like junk bond rated and now here we are in this highra area. Where have we come from to where we are today?

You know I don't have the the whole history on it. I know 10 years ago when I came to the city we were at if you look down standard imports to the A minus A3 on the Moody side of it. That's where we were. I remember us being when I came to the city. And so we've increased from that position, you know, several different grades there to get up to where we are now over the 10-year period. I do know that during the time when the the retract bonds were done for that project, we were in the bees area and that's why those bonds have been refinanced over the years because at that time we couldn't get the best uh rates when we went out to market to try to borrow for that and so we got what we could get for it and then we had to refinance it as we got better ratings.

Well, and we have changed our bond rating terminology over time, right? So, a junk bond in 1980 was different than a junk bond in 1990. I I get it. But thank you for that. Okay. Go ahead, Councilwoman Anderson.

Yes, Madame Mayor. Thank you. So, just to follow up on my colleagues um requests, I support removing the CPI from the waste management um franchise fee. So, thank you for bringing that up. Um, Councilwoman Door, also I was prepared to support a $250 land use appeal fee last year and the conversation went in a different direction. So, I am prepared to support $250 at this time if that is what the will of the body is for or is in agreement for. Um, I do want to make an emphatic um, statement about bifurcating the future of potentially bifurcating the budget process between the city the clerk's office and the city manager's office. That is a recipe for disaster. And um, with all due respect, Mr. or um moving forward, we need as much focus and um we need our departments working together towards a common goal. And so I don't think changing the budget process and having two competing budgets and philosophies and policies is the answer. I think it's continuing to work together departmentto department to get to an ideal and optimized policy as we have financial resources that allow us to make those changes. So I will not be supporting any separation of the budget process moving forward. I just want to make sure if we're going to be wasting time on that. You guys know where I'm where I stand and that I that would be slowing us down, not improving our outcomes in my opinion. Thank you.

I'll just respond. Listen, I could live with a 250. I recommended 200 myself last year, doubling from the 104 to 200. Uh the manager had told me that she was thinking around 500. Chris just said 250, which was actually news to me. I don't recall that number being discussed, but I'm not opposed to it. I I mean, um now I don't know how uh we haven't heard from in this whole budget conversation, we haven't heard from our colleagues online. um uh from Mr. Martinez or Miss Taylor and I think um Miss Eert had thoughts about it too. So, I'm just telling you I could I could live with that. Okay. I think that's a reasonable increase. Um I'll just respond to the other as far as the clerk's office. Um I'm looking more at accountability. Like if I'm saying we are saying to Vic Mickey, hey, we want this or we want that and she's not performing that and she says, well, my staff got frozen or I I couldn't do this other thing or or I moved the parking over to police or whatever the issue is, I don't know how to she's the only person we're holding accountable for some measures other than the manager. But I I totally respect your position. And there's different ways about going about things, but I it's not it's done in many cities. I'm not trying to break something. I'm trying to align something. Like if I'm holding a person accountable, I want to hold them accountable and know that they have the resources under their control to be held. So we can have a different perspective, but I'm just telling you what is prompting it for me.

Yeah. I think it's leadership development, not a budget process is what I'm trying to say. Gota neighbor. Yeah. And then um just and then I'm going to go to Councilwoman Dur. So this will be our last round. Just I wanted everyone to get their comments out there so that we can send it back to you and you can come up with a budget that makes sense and we will have a balanced budget for you with everyone can support on May 20th. Okay. All right. Counciloman Neighbor, go ahead.

Yeah. So, another fee I wanted to ask about is electric vehicle charging per kilowatt. It says 30 cents, but there's no increase on that. Is that something that's dictated by some law or anything? It doesn't say there's NRS there. Is there a reason why we're not increasing that fee? Is it something to do with Envy Energy or something? I'm not sure on that one. I would have to ask. Do you know that one? Suzanne question. I don't know if it's a contracted rate but through Envy Energy.

That used to be through maintenance and ops is someone here. Oh, Lindsay looks like she It's Lindsay and Spencer actually worked on the fee schedule together with the departments. And so some of these really specific ones, they'll have that information. And to answer your other question, um Spencer popped in a minute ago and he said that the market rate determine that gym fee. So they increase that one gym fee based on what others are being charged. Okay. To be at the market rate.

Okay. I I do have a problem with that. I think that's really steep considering it's just public use and everything is so expensive now. And I think people, you know, we want to encourage people to use our our public resources we have available for them. And I think to just say that's what other people are are charging is not really a good enough reason for me, frankly. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. No, no need to apologize. the um the gym fee we increased the scale.

So it doesn't mean that if you're trying to do a youth basketball practice that it will be 275. What we were seeing with the gym usage was um we were priced at a market rate if you were going to play basketball, volleyball, what you would typically do in a gym. What we started to see our gyms used for was um dinner engagements, large large activities that had a lot different impact in the space. And so that's where it was outside of market rate. Whereas if you compared it to California building which is closer to that 250 an hour 275. So depending on the activity it gives us flexibility to price with what makes sense for the activity and the impact on the facility and to not undercut our other facilities that don't have that flexible use. Okay.

So it's it's not going to be a a situation where if there was a AAOU basketball team practicing basketball 3 days a week now they're all of a sudden paying $275 an hour. Okay. Uh they would stay they would stay around the same rate. It's just the scale increases to give us so it's based on usage then types of use. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Great. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Thank you. Thank you.

Um also Okay. So, this is uh under fees for alcohol beverage permit. We have a $10 increase on that. Is there a reason for that? Is that it? It looks like it's higher than CPI, but I feel like we could maybe increase that more than $10. Sound permit only went up by $8. Activity administration fee didn't go up at all. It's a $10 fee. Like that's that seems really low to me. And cancellations and refunds uh 20 to $250, but there's no increase at all. No. Lance, for the record, are you are you referring to events fees?

Yeah. Well, uh it just says departmentwide is the header on this. It's under proposed fees and charges for parks and recreation. Okay. I'm I'm sorry, but could can you repeat the specific to the alcohol permit? Yeah, it says alcohol be beverage permit. It's um a $10 increase. So, it went from $65 to proposed $75. Um the sound permit had a $8 increase. Activity administration fee has no increase. It's only $10. um and cancellations and refunds um has no increase. So So why some and not the others? Yeah.

Is that okay? So um on the alcohol and sound permit fee, it's it's to try to help us recover. We're adding something in our permit or in our special event space where there will be somebody on site to make sure that everything's working correctly. This is surprisingly something we weren't doing. Um so it's helping us to recover some increased costs for staffing. We didn't increase the other fees because they're they're primarily um uh hopefully a deterrent from people not following our cancellation policies and things like that. So, if we have to if we have to use staff time to get in the system because somebody waits for 2 hours prior to a swim lesson and that means someone else didn't get to do the swim lesson, it's just a little bit of a deterrent to say, "Please cancel so we can let somebody else use it." And so, it's not specific to a cost that we're adding.

Okay. So, why would the increase only be $8? like that feels like kind of an odd number and maybe it should be more. I'm not I'm not sure how we landed on $8.

Yeah. And t typically we don't want to um even if we find out that we were maybe um I don't want to say negligent, but we we should have been slowly increasing the fees regularly at a smaller amount. We don't want to make a huge jump all at once and get into a space where like I just did this last year and now my fees have gone up four times in this area. What's going on? So we do try to make a little bit smaller and incremental fees uh increases and so uh you might see another incremental increase in the next year uh just to try to get us closer and closer to sustainability and that space and Nathan Olia parks and director director for the record. Sorry. Thanks. Resolution.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't I also wanted to make comments about the um uh fee for filing an appeal. I know that um there's been comments about um a willingness to drop the fee to $250 and I really appreciate that, but I I really need to stress the um economic difficulties happening in my ward presently and um it's very difficult financially for people in my community. Um, and I think that even at $250, that fee will be uh a financial hurdle that people will not be able to overcome. And uh again, I've mentioned many times that W four is going to have the largest impact with development, particularly we've had a lot of um spot zone changes that I feel like maybe weren't the best fit for the surrounding community and these um residents that live in that area are not able to pay a fee to file an appeal. So, um I just feel like it's it's taking away um people's ability to um have some due process and I know nobody is intending to do that, but just as that community's representative, I need to let you know that, you know, uh the majority of of my ward leaves every day to come south into Reno to work. You may have noticed the price of gas has gone up a little bit. like we're getting squeezed out there and um we're also feeling the impacts of these again spot zone changes the most and they can at least afford to file any kind of appeal. So I just would like to remind everyone of that and I'm hopeful

that we can reduce the fee further or get it down to where it used to be maybe at $100. But even at that, I know it will make it so that some people just can't afford it. So, just want to remind everyone like we are public servants. We are here to provide services for people. Um there's some things that I think we should have fees for, but I think that we need to make sure that we're um letting everyone in the community have their opportunity. And going back, I would also stress people can apply apply I can't speak apply uh as well for a fee waiver. Um well I

No, I'm not saying that's the alternative. I'm just saying just remember that anyone that I mean that might be a lot of money for some people. $250. Yeah, exactly. And I don't know if people would even inquire further to be frank. They might not. I'm saying you as a council member of course could say I also would you know suggest you do this as well but um you know a lot of times people just don't push it any further. They they see that they can't afford it and just you know Yeah. totally

it's very frustrating. Um, and you know, I have constituents that have had developments go in in their their neighborhoods that um have tried to sell their homes after to leave and and nobody wants to buy a house next to um what's happened in their neighborhoods. So, it's just a very frustrating situation out there. I I understand. I think this would be a good step in the right direction and maybe further thought could be applied. Okay. Um I'm sorry to cut you off. I'm so sorry, Councilman Martinez. I apologize. I apologize. I apologize. Um because you've been waiting patiently. So please, the floor is yours. Go ahead. Oh, good. Thank you so much for recognizing and

and I'm so sorry. I hope you get well. I know you're very, very sick today. Crummy. You feel crummy. So, um anyway, I just want I want you to get better, Miguel. And thank you for for not coming, actually. I appreciate that. You know how many people come to work sick? Don't do it. Um, but thank you and uh go ahead. I I apologize that I've completely skipped over you. All good. No worries. Thank you so much, Madame Mayor. And yes, I would not want to share um these terms with anybody there um and make you all feel the way that I felt the last 24 hours.

But I did have a couple of comments and then a question at the end um just to sort of wrap up uh my thoughts and what I am been hearing. I am supportive of the land use appeal fee going to 250 if if that's what we could settle on um as a body removing the CIP uh or the I always get this mixed up CPI um from the sanitation fee. Um and then my other question was on slide 11. Uh director Vampirn if you know foregoing uh economic downturn worse than what we're already experiencing are do you think we're on track still based on the forecast that you have here in 10 years? I think part of the reasoning of why the sanitation fee was increased uh was to avoid that NRS minimum of 4%. Um, and this obviously gets us to the lowest in TW fiscal year 32 at 7.2% and just making sure that you're still comfortable with where we're at there. And if there's anything in the budget that you think we should be looking at to ensure that we don't get closer to that 4%.

Vicky Bamban, director of finance, for the record, thank you for the question. Yes. Um, Council Member Martinez, this um, forecast does take into account, you know, normal factors as we go out over the years. It obviously can't um, predict a recession if a recession were to occur in this space, but it really predicts normal growth in the revenue areas that we've seen, normal growth in expenditure side, um, to give us an idea of what that outlook is over the 10-year forecast. And so with that, it's a very good tool for us to know that what we're doing is working. It will work in the future outside of a recession or other big impacts that potentially happen like CO or things like that that we can't really control. So if we're going to have normal years, yes, this is what it looks like. If something major were to happen in the economy, that would obviously change this model.

Okay. And then in in the presentation at the very end in your supplemental slides, there is a slide that deals with the room tax fund and there's a line item in there for about 125,000 being dedicated to the Lear theater. I'm curious what that money is going for there. Thank Thank you for that question. That lear theater, that's the payment for the debt service. So when I go I'm just going to scroll back to that slide right here. debt service payment, that principal payment uh for the LER, that's 125,000 that's being made from the room tax fund.

Okay, perfect. Yeah, that helps clarify that it isn't necessarily any capital projects or maintenance or operation, but just to pay off the debt um in that space. That's correct. Okay. I don't have any other questions at this point, but appreciative of the conversation. And hopefully my comments help direct where we're thinking about with the fees. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Did you want to Okay, fine. Uh, Councilman Dor.

Sure, I'll give it a shot. Um, so I move to direct staff to move forward with the budget and the fee schedule FY27 as presented with the following changes. And I'll do my best make sure I understood from everyone. Uh in terms of the appeal fee, we would reset that to $250. Not ideal, but an improvement. Um in the uh sanitation franchise fee, we would eliminate the CPI with the understanding that we're going to have a policy discussion on surveillance technology at a future meeting. So, I'm not going to address it here. And if we want to make changes, we could address it then after we get the full picture. Right. Is that right, madam?

That is correct. Okay. So, I'm not going to say anything about that here. Um on the uh reorganization of the clerk's office with the council, etc. I'm going I think it could happen by a resolution, but what I'm asking I'm not going to make put it in any motion, but I'm going to um ask that um yourself, madame manager, our legal team, the clerk, possibly myself if you want a third, you know, a council member involved, uh discuss the pros and cons of such a move, what it would take if we wanted to do it, is it a charter change, is a resolution, and then we can have a separate policy discussion on that. And you know, you do reorgs throughout the year. Oh yes. So

reorg is not an issue. That's that's the reorg's not the problem. So what I'm saying is we can address it at a future date. We could absolutely. Okay. Are there any Let me ask my colleagues. Are there any other changes? I have two that's really not part of it's not the motion piece, but I just want to for tracking purposes make sure we capture it that the tree cutting fine and RMC uh we need to have a conversation about increasing that amount. Right. So that's on the list and possibly moving it to the fee schedule as well as the fine out of code to the fee schedule. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And we don't need to include the parking meter, right? We do not. Okay. Thank you. How how was that resolved though? If they harm a parking meter, are they going to repair or replace it?

We're going to have to look into that. I'm not sure we have an answer. Okay. We have a list of questions also um that the body has asked. Okay. And that we will get answers to in the form of a council memo to track that as well. Fantastic. A real quick to Vicki. When did you say you're going to get the information on the um the fee schedule from other places there? You said there was a study. We distributed a comparison to other jurisdictions. We distributed that back in January to council with a council memo. We'll bring that to the top of your inbox. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Let me ask my colleagues, including online, is there any other change that you meant to say or wish to see in this budget motion?

Okay. Hearing none, that's my motion. Second. So, I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. I. Motion carries. Okay. Um, C2. We are now heading into C2. So this is strategic plan safe community.

Well, hello. Hello. Nice to see you. So good to see you, too.

All right. We go. All righty. Well, Chrissa Bradley, Office of Policy and Strategy for the Record. Uh, today's item is uh the next section of your strategic plan for FY27 through 29. Today, we're going to be focusing on the safe community section of the plan. And today's item is positioned to help uh confirm that the items that were being recommended today are in alignment with council's priorities and council's vision for the next three fiscal years. Um, and it really is that gut check to make sure from the information that we have gathered over the past year or so to develop this plan is in alignment with with you all's uh focus and what you want us to work on. So, without further ado, as a reminder, at the October 29th uh council workshop, council and I have had a conversation about setting these priorities, and this is how we've we sort of positioned the priorities into our pyramid. Um, as you see on the screen, as a reminder, uh, fiscal stewardship is the number one, legal obligations, safe community, well-maintained city infrastructure, and access to natural spaces. Thus far in in this body, we have discussed fiscal stewardship and legal obligations. And today, we're going to be focusing on that safe community section. Uh, the yellow trapezoid is what we call our our focus. Those are the places where council had directed uh my team to to come up with more specific goals or what we're calling major opportunity areas. Those places where we want to put some concerted effort to improve over this time period. Uh the quality of life and government effectiveness are still priorities as those are things that the our organization does dayto-day. Uh but they won't have those more specific goals associated. Uh I sort of explained this just now but just so you can visualize it in a different way. Today we're down at that bottom level of major opportunity area.

And what is a major opportunity area? It's essentially our goal. It's a 1 to threeyear time frame of concerted effort that tries to answer the question of what will we achieve by the end of FY29. And then there are places where there's going to require coordination amongst council, our departments, or maybe regional stakeholders to help those targeted improvement areas. And not to reiterate myself too much, but those those projects that are really transformational in the way that we deliver our services to the community or might be areas where we have some um improvement areas. So again, to break that down even further, uh we've talked about those areas in green uh in March. Today we're talking about this section, safe community. We have three recommended major opportunity areas for safe community over the next three years. And those are the first would be to continue coordinated fire services, which I'll go over in the next slide. The second would be to focus on our coordination uh of how we address nuisance crimes and activities. And the third is coordinated dispatch services to continue advancing that uh major project here in our region. So, starting out with coordinated fire services, the the information here is really in alignment with our uh regional fire study that was granted by the legislature through SB319. That study is well underway. And we may we have recommended this as one of these goals over the next three years to a finalize that study and b use the information that is um generated from it to determine council's next steps and strategic direction when it comes to fire services and EMS in our region. The future state of this would be to of course finish that survey u collaborate with our regional stakeholders and partners but ultimately it's to improve our service delivery structures regardless of it means this type of governance structure or this other type. We wanted to maintain some flexibility for council in the the approach uh but

wanted to make sure that this was top of the the priority list for us and for council of course. The second is nuisance crime. So improving our coordination around how we strengthen our prevention, enforcement, and ultimate prosecution of applicable laws and ordinances with the real goal here of reducing those incidences over time. Uh the city has many different ordinances and laws on the books and we have many different departments who are responsible for the enforcement or prevention of those activities. Those range from the police, code enforcement, uh clean and safe, uh security, and our park staff. And so over the next three years, we're recommending that we bring all those folks together and really understand how we improve that coordination to ultimately reduce the number of incidents uh year-over-year. This could be through a variety of different avenues and ways. uh and we hope that that group will in the the quarterly presentations to this body will we'll share some of those places that we're seeing um successes. And the third uh recommended major opportunity area is around coordinated dispatch services. This conversation has been happening for many years now and we are well underway with the implementation of the hexagon CAD system. This major opportunity area though takes that to the next step and thinks about how we bring on other regional partners such as the school district, airport police, and others who are currently using different dispatch software. It's also thinking about how we standardize the training uh element when it comes to our dispatch staff. looking at ways to ultimately reduce the number of call transfers and make sure that when you call 911, we have a person there as soon as possible and that response time is is quick as we can be. And that does it for my presentation. Our next steps are to bring back the remaining sections of the plan,

well-maintained city infrastructure and access to natural spaces. I have a little asterisk here that they'll both be brought on June 10th, actually. Um, and then once this group uh agrees to that, we'll bring it out to community review over the summer for any uh feedback. And then post councsil break is when we have scheduled for you all to do full adoption. Um, and as I mentioned, today's item is really just an opportunity for for the body to discuss and and provide any feedback to me and our team so that we can make sure that these major opportunity areas are from a language perspective in alignment with what what you are expecting from staff to work on over the next uh three fiscal years. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much. All right, Councilman Anderson, I'm going to start down there since I've been starting to my left. How about you? Yeah, I just I wanted to kind of do a deep dive on what we're doing for safe community here, but for fire um not only prevention, but um you know, preparing for the season ahead. I'm hearing a lot in the news about um we're not doing enough. But as I know, I mean, as we all know, we're in this regional coordinated fire services study. We're also doing the wildland, I don't know exactly what it's called, um the region wild or regionwide wildfire um preparation or protective plan.

And um we're also launching very significantly the firewise um programs within the community. And so, um, I just wanted to make sure that as we move forward with these strategic, um, areas, I want to make sure that we're constantly reminding ourselves of where we are working in these priorities so that it we know it's not just the study. It's not just this plan. We're not just studying and planning. We're also actively doing the work in the community um, with other priorities. Does that make sense? That makes a lot of sense, Chrissa Bradley, for the record. So I will um we we wrote this one more

one really focused on the study because we want we can adjust these I think after the study comes out because I think that will start to show what the next step is and I think at that point if I can I would recommend adjusting this a little bit more not just focus on that. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we were walking and chewing gum at the same time and we're not just focusing on the plan. Yes. Okay, thanks. Absolutely. Cuz my eyes are so bad. Okay. Um, Council Marissa, go.

Thank you so much, Miss Bradley. First of all, thank you. I know that you continue to sort of dazzle and amaze with the work that you're doing on the strategic plan. Um, and I think sometimes it gets lost that this is where the actual work gets done to create the backbone for the activities we're going to take. I wanted to look about the specific slide that you had about regional dispatch. Yes. Okay. So, I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Shadel and I have been having some sort of ongoing conversations as a chair of district board of health because this issue sort of lays on top of a bunch of things that are going on and I feel like I know a lot about this topic, but every time I get into it, I figure out I know very little. Um what I want to make sure is clear and you can help us and maybe we'd have a discussion here is um and the easiest way for me to describe it is the way that u Madame Mayor has always phrased it which is when someone calls 911 for whatever reason that it gets to the first person and then is dispatched however they triage it and assign it in the most efficient and quickest manner. And my understanding is that because we have three different agencies plus the state, highway patrol, probably other entities, I'm not including like North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, all these things that we have. And then you have even within those agencies like we're on Sprint phones, but they're on Motoras and this agency is on a radio, but this one's on a computer. I am tired of trying to figure out what should be a very fundamental and basic thing which is that when someone calls 911 and they're going through the depths of the most compelling crisis that they may have ever faced that they are getting the appropriate resources dispatched to them in the most timely manner. So what does this slide tell me about how much closer we are to that? um because it feels like we have been saying a lot of these things and then we

talk about hexagon which is now something different called and we aren't closer but yet I keep hearing that it's just next week and just next month and now it's September where are we

um Carissa Bradley for the record so my my understanding is that the hexagon CAD system implementation project is back onto the track that was the most recent. I'm looking to JW for confirmation because he would know a lot more of those small details uh to the presentation that this body received. I think it was in April or March. Um I will say functionally with the strategic plan, one of the benefits and the improvements that we're making with this one is that council will begin receiving more regular updates about these initiatives. So you'll see presentations. So you're not just getting telephone if you if if I could. Uh you'll have a a structured approach to getting that um update whether it's through a presentation here or or a report that I put together with those teams and to make sure that we aren't just saying the things anymore. We're showing council the progress.

Well, and and your slide sort of posit still a 2-year off moment in time and I don't totally understand that. And so maybe Mr. Haj has got to come forward and talk about some technical things only because what you are working on today and what we're talking about is strategic plan. I understand that part of it, but the mechanics of it are what is really concerning to me because we cannot continue not to have the functionality of communication even between different agencies. So we we either are going to have to like speed it up or I don't know what to do.

Totally agree. JW Haj for the record. Council Reese, to your point, I think there's a there's a lot of things happening at the same time and there's different buckets. There's technology, which is hexagon or octave, which you're talking about, they recently changed their name, and that is one tool that we're creating to have one regionalized CAD, but there's also ongoing conversations between REMA and the sheriff's office and city of Sparks on how do we bring the centers together and the people together in a meaningful way that we can do exactly what you're saying. I will say right now 911 calls are being answered. Things are happening. The system is not broken. What needs to happen is we need to evolve in our policy decisions and make sure that we're processing calls in the way that makes sense for the region. And that is a broader picture that you're that you're mentioning. How when a call comes in, how do we get the first person to process that call and start sending resources? I will say it happens a majority of the time very well. Right now we are layering on new tools and new relationships to make it better as we move forward. Always the oneoffs are the most concerning, right? I agree with you that in principle when people call 911 they should know that we are rolling, right? We're doing the thing,

but it's there's like there's one in a hundred cases which something happens oddly or off and those are the ones that we have to worry about. Right. When you say CAD, tell us the public what you mean when you say CAD. Sorry. That is a computer aided dispatch system. That is the technology of the information that they're entering the information into. Okay. And right now we have both technology issues and siloing issues is which is what you said right we have different dispatch centers um that is correct county city rema uh Sparks North Lake Tahoe and HP right the Reno and Wo County are colllocated together

when you say they're colllocated they're not they're in the same center and they're operating on the same computer aed dispatch system They look at each other through a a glass wall, right? Literally stand this close to each other. Okay, that's a advancement. No wall between them. Great. Maybe a chair.

Well, we had dispatch, right? We had dispatch week, right? And we were feing our dispatch personnel who are working hard and long hours. Um, so, um, if we were going to boil down the work that's being done in this area into just some bite-sized ways for the community to understand it, where are we headed, not only in the strategic planning, but in the actual work to get us to it cannot be fiscal year 29. I I don't understand totally that element of it, but where are we, Mr. Hajj, on making this a priority for our community? I would say it's the one of the main conversations that I'm having every day with our local fire chiefs, police chiefs, the sheriff, and there are there's a lot of work currently underway. Even Chief Edwards and I are meeting next week to discuss thoughts he has on how we can reframe some of that. So, there's a tremendous amount of work that will get us a lot of things done before fiscal year 29.

And what is the timeline now today for um Octagon? Octave. Octave. Uh we're supposed to get an update tomorrow afternoon from Octave's leadership on I would hope that we get an update shortly thereafter. Um I'm going to keep pressing on this issue, Miss Bradley, because through the strategic plan, we're expressing our desire for public safety to be forefronted through the work that you're doing, Mr. Hajj, among intra and inter agency work. We're expressing our desire that those things happen more quickly. Obviously, are limitations about again I think there are technology issues and silo issues. Um, and your statement to me is that we're on the right track.

We are we are on the right track and there are a lot of people trying to move down that same track. No, I I have not run across someone in the region who does not want who wants to keep it the way it is today. Everyone's moving in the right direction. Thank you. Okay. Um, JW, I probably should not have let you leave. Um, please tell me that I was not hearing something else because we had talked about September for um, dispatch. Yeah, we did hear. Am I hearing something else? We're going to find out what we're hearing tomorrow from Octave leadership. So, September is what they promised us when they stood here and they were supposed to come to us tomorrow and tell us if that's different.

Okay. Well, you know me. I'm going to lose my ever loving mind. So, I'm trying to be calm right now. Staying calm. Staying calm. Trying to All right. Can you know how I feel about this? It gives me anxiety. Major anxiety. Go ahead. I was going to ask JW something, too. I'm so sorry. Don't get comfortable. Don't leave.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I was reading through some talks, so I'm so sorry if you mentioned this already, but are you having like weekly project management calls with them to check on status updates and finding out what the issues are? Are you like how how often are you communicating with them? So, we have a project our project manager is Cody who works with Eric from the county. The county is the lead project manager. They meet more than weekly. Okay. And then uh the project manager from Octave meets with us weekly and then they're bringing in their executive leadership team to talk to us tomorrow as well. So there's meetings all the time.

So do you have access to like a a list of the issues that they have going on that they're trying to bugs are trying to fix or um known issues? Like do are you able to see what they're trying to fix to make things work? Yes. Because they're what they refer to them as as blockers. There's multiple blockers on the list and we see them every day because our our staff and our teams are working to address them to test them. They're in the testing phase right now to say if we enter this call type does it work? Okay. If we add this thing does it work? So our team is entering and doing all submitting a ticket to them like this is a bug. It's not work blocker. It's not working.

They're working side by side with their developers so they recognize it when it's not working and then put in a ticket to get it fixed. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to understand a little more how that is working, you know. So, thank you. Of course, not going to get tricked again.

Sorry. Um, I'm just sorry JW. I don't know if it's just because I'm not sleeping, anxiety, all these things. Um, but um I'm having such a hard time understanding this. Could you do me a favor? Maybe we need to have a special meeting. This is going to be my last six months in office. Special meeting. Special meeting. I want special meetings um just because I really don't think they understand when they stood before us what they committed to. This is the safety of our citizens is so personal um on so many levels. So, um I don't know. I I love because he stood right here.

He did and made this commitment to the community. Well, he and it to be fair, he stood in all in front of all three bodies and the county is the lead project manager on it. So he's really accountable to them through contractual obligations and made those commitments. So the county is taking this very seriously as well. And um when you say the county, who who over there? Uh well all the way down from the county manager's office through their technology department through Bazad. Okay. And through Eric Wil and the project management team and the sheriff.

Okay. All right. Thank you so much. And I just I do want to commend um the county because you know um back in the day they never wanted to partner with with us and now um things are much better and relationships are much better and the services are much better. I would agree in our community because of the um camaraderie and respect and I greatly appreciate that. So very helpful very very different day. So, see, even though I get frustrated, we also have to be thankful for the things that are the good things. So, I'm Thank you.

I'm trying trying not to Okay. Yeah, we're all trying, right? We're just trying. Thank you. Okay. Um, what do you need from us? Uh, Madame Mayor, my item today is really just to have this dialogue as a as a group um and make sure that the the things I hear today we can incorporate in the final plan for for you all and um I feel like the one you can't control. No, I'm just here to facilitate. We do need a vote. All right, we need to take a vote. Um so I'm going to hand it over to motion

to uh Councilwoman Anderson. Go ahead. I move to approve the major opportunity areas for safe community and include them in the draft strategic plan for community review. All right. Thank you so much. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Okay. All right. Uh we are now heading into item F1. Councilman uh Martinez Ward. Madame Mayor, um before we get started on this, yes,

I would like a clear understanding of what our options are on this item to potentially um continue this second decision because there are a lot of very important I think location questions that haven't haven't been answered and I don't feel comfortable taking the second vote. Is there a way to continue this and get more information?

I I do want it on the record. Who Nathan, is that you? Are you supposed to I want to ask you something. Um I think Councilman Anderson's makes makes a great idea or great great suggestions. Um because here's what I would say. I want a separate uh I think it would be beneficial to get a a separate agenda item. Obviously, you know, Jackie, we throw a lot of stuff at you. Um, I don't know when, but we need to come up with some policy where we're going to I think you're right about like zoning where they should be allowed. Um, I don't know if people really realize how problematic uh the lithium batteries are and where they where they're located. Um, the fire problems that they do have. Um, and so I think there are things that need to be addressed. I I also I will tell you I was frustrated because we've been talking to um the fire department about or maybe not the fire department but the chief certainly about lithium battery fires and there were a lot of public commenters and they were spot on and so not Nathan I'm sorry he's just standing up here but um I wanted to ask you who was the applicant for for this

uh the applicant's representative was Wood Rogers. Uh the organization is Treygo Grid, I believe. And who who is that? That was another thing. Um maybe is is we do have uh Come on. Rogers Casey Wood Rogers. Thank you. And you've sat here all day long. Thank you so much. Okay. Tell me who your client is. Uh so the client is is currently Koval. Um this this application came in under the TGO grid and so now Koval is the one who would be taking the project forward. What's the name? Who? Koval. Koval. Yes. Who is that? C O V A L.

Yep. And so they they do this um all over the country, right? Battery energy storage systems. Okay. But tell me what um how do they explain um sort of I mean they sent you here as the representative. What did they tell you about uh the problems with lithium battery uh fires?

Yeah. So um what we're going forward for right was the conditional lease permit that was that has been that has been um adopted and then this is for the annexation of that. And so when we did the conditional use permit, there was a lot of concerns from the what we heard at the NAB. Um when we went to the W three NAB um and then after it was approved by the planning commission, we had additional concerns. Uh Brandy re reached out to us and we came to the W six NAB as well. Brandy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Go thank them for

So we have um and I believe there might be somebody that is um that is on the line if they're still there. uh the representative from this company who can address some of these uh safety concerns because you know this isn't this isn't common to just this project. This is a new project for this area but they are definitely um they are definitely have a bunch of different safety and monitoring things that go on there. We did we went into detail um on those for the conditional use permit approval and that was uh something that we we did and so we would we're also um you know this was reviewed we went to we met with the city prior to going to uh prior to going to the application and uh had a lot of conversations with fire. That's why we incorporated those uh dry biles throughout the area as well as those fire hydrants um to kind of address some of those concerns. Um also with the conditions that are in there, we'll um we'll have to have do a lot of brush clearing and make sure that we're really compliance and everything like that. So, this was something that was really looked into uh for the conditional use permit and we we did have a lot of public meetings on it, but because this was the annexation, uh we didn't really get into that the last the last meeting.

Okay. I understand and you're in a tough place, but also, you know, the water is a problem. I understand it takes a lot of water to put out a lithium battery fire. I mean, it actually they can't even be put out by water. Did you know that Jesse Cor and that's not water? But I'm just saying I just wanted to What I'm specifically concerned about is the um location. Why does it need to be this close to the homes? That is the thermal lane is the number one question that has me my hair on fire. Yeah. No pun intended. I tried not to say that. I mean, it's true.

Yeah, understood. And so the the location for this is because it needs to be adjacent to the substation because it will be tapping into that substation and then drawing power from that um during the off peak hours and then putting it pushing it back into it. So they they typically need to be adjacent to a substation or close to one. Um there's been examples that they have done all throughout where they're surrounded by homes um because it is a safe um a safe practice. So, um this isn't uncommon to be near homes. There's there are other examples that we brought up to um of some that are even closer to homes and um because of the technology that you know from the previous models that that were known to catch fire, right? They have been able to get safer and safer with each product that they've they've created. But I think as technology evolves, I think we're learning more and more, right? We don't always get it right. Of course, we don't look I mean, we're seeing things being placed in that didn't even come to the council, whatever. Okay. But my point is is that technology moves fast. Things change and we have to look at them and we also have to learn from our past mistakes. And so this isn't something like where you're just like, well, you did it in the past. Okay. So, we got to move. We got to learn from that, I guess, is my is my point. And I want to make sure that we are putting things in place that are going to exactly to Councilwoman Anderson's point, mitigate, especially in, you know, the residential because I was looking at the map where this was going. Totally unacceptable. Um, and I think that's where the council has some discomfort.

And that that substation, it feeds a specific line or I'm sorry, I don't understand power. So, so the the battery energy storage system itself will will help with grid stability for the entire South Reno area. And so the substation because it's you know from what I understand right converting the electricity from AC to DC and everything like that that is where where it needs to tap into.

Okay. So is it just needs to be close to the substation for optimal cost to be able to transfer the energy to the battery like facility or can the energy still be stored in the battery facility farther away from where it is right now from the substation? I think that's the primary concern is this thermal lane and the the the amount of space there is between a potential possible fire and those homes and the ability to actually put it out right

with whatever whether it's toxic chemicals or water the ability to put it out in a way that doesn't endanger the community. That's I think that is how far away can you can you get I I on that property on that I don't know. Okay. See this is this is what I'm talking about. You're sitting here saying I don't know I don't even know this company. Um and obviously someone out of town. How many jobs do they provide? Um for this one specifically they they are going to have about uh full-time employee about three three four from what I understand. Okay. Okay. Um All right. That's that's for on

Okay. What What do you need from us? Um I'm going to ask our city manager because this like is making no sense. Well, madam man, can I ask a question? Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. I'm just

You're okay. Um so, Mr. Gilbert, I understand that um this may all come um as a shock shock to you because we're in ordinance adoption today, which means previously we introduced the ordinance and this is step two in that process. for my part and I tried to pull up the last um the original uh introduction um meeting and I couldn't find the staff report so maybe I'm just having technology problems but we have annexation findings that we have to make in order to annex landed in the city of Reno and I'm not sure that any of us who voted during the two weeks ago period about the approval for the annexation understood the implications of the project being proposed there. So I maybe need to have a reset. So for my part, I'm not ready to adopt an ordinance today, which means by its effect, it would not move forward because we won't have done the two steps to get it to adoption. Right? That's why we do it in the two-step process. So for me, it's not even like I'm saying extend it by um you know, a motion to table or something like that. If we don't adopt it, we don't adopt it. It doesn't go forward. What are the annexation findings?

There's quite a few actually. And see that's the problem is that because they're not in this because we're at the adoption stage and theoretically we would have done the annexation findings on the front end on the first meeting. I cannot make those findings today. So mine would be legal findings based on the location the understanding of the project being proposed. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered for me because again I think it was like it was explained to us as an annexation which is a land determination but now what it's really about is the way in which a project will be laid there and must be annexed in for the purposes of our annexation um our program of annexation if we had one. We don't have one. I don't think that's current.

This is a voluntary annexation which was a condition of approval uh for that that we made. But who who made the condition of approval? Was it administratively made? Was it No, that that went to the planning commission. It went to regional planning commission and was approved. The outstanding condition that needs to be met, which is where we are today, was that the Has it ever been here for our approval to require that condition? No, the conditional use permit um went straight to the plan. I totally understand. That's And we're on the same page. It's nothing that you've done wrong. Please understand. I'm not mad at you or saying that you've done something. I that's why I always feel so bad when we're like frustrated up here in Port's like you guys I did nothing.

Well, but this is sort of the same reason why I have heartburn about the and again it's related but not related but it's about this process by which a thing comes but never makes it here.

The Keystone data centers example it had administrative approvals. It went to planning but it never came here. And the same thing is true for this this annexation because it was voluntary came through the NAB process went to planning they approved it. It never came to us. I have not seen this project. I could not appine about my concerns about location fire hazards whether we have the ability with our fire folks who are here and I may have questions for them about being able to put out a fire of Tesla something or other battery walls. I don't know enough about it. We were told originally that it was an annexation decision. We could we thought about it from the land annexation policy, not about the project and that's why we're all concerned. Does that make sense?

Have a comment to I just want to orient one second. Go ahead. Let me level set what's happening and make sure and one we can continue this item until you have an opportunity for additional information. It must be 45 days from the date of publication. So, if someone can quickly tell me what date that is, that would be helpful. Um, number two, the project's been approved. Um, this the planning commission, the project has been approved and there was no appeal. So, the decision before the body at this moment is do you want to annex this land into the city of Reno or do you not? And again, given the um constrnation and questions, I would highly recommend that you continue this uh within the 45day

of tax revenue. No, that would be the answer. And so then if something bad happens, uh then it's going to be in the city of Reno. And then you talk about the resources and the lives that that could be lost if something if a fire were to happen. And also, I'd love to understand how are they going to mitigate these fires? There should be a whole fire plan. I would like I would like to ask you, you are our um you're a fire marshal. So please mayor before we if I could I mean just um just for open meeting law purposes again what is in front of the body today is an annexation right

application it is not the project it is not the place to talk about all that that can probably be done offline um but again for open meeting law purposes I would just caution everybody that we're going down a path that we're not we don't have we're not agendaized to be talking about the actual project at this point. Can I just ask if we don't annex it, do they need to then go to the county for approval? No. No, they do not. The the project is done. Annexation, the only thing that you're being asked is do you want the tax revenue for it? Yeah. And if the answer is no, you can vote down this. It'll remain in the county. Okay.

And they go on their way and we go on our way. Even though it's in the county, they don't need to approve it. No. the C. No, we approved it because of the and under influence. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're the project is done and it's really just more of a question of do you want the tax? Yeah. Understood that part. Okay. I would I I would love to speak then. That's fine. I'll make the motion. Okay. But I would love to speak for just a minute. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you.

All right. I I just want to also level set way back when I was getting a briefing on this project at some point. I said I'm very uncomfortable and I you know this Nathan doing the annexation after the project. Okay. I said and they go oh no we do it different ways different times. I said but so many times we bring the annexation either with the project the project comes with the annexation and this time it was approved out of our site and out of our review and then we're being asked the annexation. I said but how do we know if we want to annex it? We we haven't seen a project. Normally we would marry these things up and even the council would weigh in on the cup master plan all those things in one place. I mean that's the recommended process. So that's the first thing is that at every point on this project I have objected that we're doing an annexation after a project like we should have first said no or yes we want this kind of facility here or not and then the second thing is on the lithium batteries are is it ion or is it lithium metal do you know

lithium do you know sir it's actually what is lithium sorry is it for the record fire marshal johnbeck it's actually lithium phosphate are the most current mega packs which is a different chemistry than the lithium ion that's in EVs right so it's more like the lithium metal in terms of it's putting out the fire I'm not I'm for the record I'm not a I'm not an engineer but okay well what I understand on lithium metal is to some people's earlier point you cannot use water it causes a violent reaction and you need so that's that's correct yeah you need to use some kind of fire extinguisher materials that are not water.

In most cases, it's let it burn out and we stand by and make sure the fire doesn't extend beyond the actual I think that's really where um Miss Anderson was going. We don't want we don't want to place something near our people, let it burn out, put out toxic fumes, and potentially affect the people. We heard earlier some testimony that some cities require these a mile from residences, right? And we heard that today and and other towns. We have not. This is really the first one I know of that's come before us. Maybe there are others. Maybe we didn't review them because they didn't need annexation and No, I think I would I would have known. You know, I watch over this and I that's absolute no last time. No.

It's not been approved. It sounds like Oh, it's it's in early stages still. Right. So anyway, a I think at a minimum we have to sync these up so that it's such a different kind of use that we need to sync this up and get council weighing in on this kind of use. Second, we might have this concern. I just want to remind you we brought up this concern um Councilwoman Eert and I did there was something with fire suppression. What? Yeah. So you had I

Yeah, I have something you know specific. Well, a lot of things, but one being, you know, we used to use that PAS foam to put out certain types of fire. And we have PAS contamination in Reno, and there's a concentration of it in my ward where the former um fire fighter training facility was it and it's seeped into uh the ground. So, the groundwater, all of that. Um so, I have a concern about using these new foams to put the fires out. I understand that they are new. They don't have PAS in them and I understand that they don't have anything, you know, toxic in that same way, you know, at this time. But we don't know in the future if we'll find out that there's something really horrible in them. So, I'm really concerned about the cleanup of whatever is used, what whatever chemical is used to suppress a fire. I don't want it getting into the ground because I don't want to find out 20 years later it makes kids be born without arms or something, you know.

Why did I think you But we were tied to lithium in your word. Is there used They were talking about doing a lithium battery factory in the stud airport, but it didn't happen.

Okay, maybe that's what we were talking about. Sorry, it's been a while, but I we were concerned about it anyway. But I do I do really have concerns about just you know the cleanup of this. All of this if it goes wrong has the potential to have longterm like kind of hazardous effects. So I just want to make sure that um you know everybody's safe in the long term too because you know if we would have known the PAS was bad we wouldn't have been spraying it everywhere you know however long ago that was right. So um I'm just I just want to be mindful of that too. Madame Mayor. Um, sorry. Thanks.

Okay. So, I am responsible for getting us off on track or off track on this. So, I just want to take responsibility for that. I want to clarify.

Well, I just want to clarify that this this conversation has been very helpful for me because I learned a lot from Miss Door about the process and where it comes in at what range and what time frame. So, because I got us off track, but I learned something. Um, with that said, I would be in support of the annexation with also moving forward, we need to come up with some type of a subcommittee that monitors these types of um, you know, investments, facilities, making sure that we're always on top of what is going on there, what we're using to fight those fires. It doesn't sound like at this point we can stop the build out of this facility, but we need to be experts in this area and have every tool we have or that is at our disposal to be able to manage anything that breaks out in any of these facilities.

Um, Council Ree,

thank you so much. Um, Mr. Gilbert or Mr. Shipman, I'm looking to know what the annexation findings are. Is there a checklist? Normally, we have one. Um, and I just don't have one to to be able to operate from. I I like Miss Anderson am sort of now understanding that we did not see the project in front of us and Mr. Shipman has made that very clear. Um, we all have some concerns about the type of facility, but perhaps based on what has been said that ship is sailed. My question on the annexation will be and this is something perhaps to Chief Cochran is once we annex it into the city of Reno, our firefighters are the ones who are going to respond or the is there a county resource that's quicker? Like why I understand the tax related implications of annexation, but I'm asking why do they voluntarily want to come into the city? Is it to get access to our fire department and their capabilities and avoid the county TM? What's going on? Council member, I'll take a stab at that.

Yeah, great. Yeah. So, again, this property is in this the city's sphere of influence. It's not part of the city. Uh, Reno Police and Fire don't don't respond to it, but we have land use authority, right? So, when the planning commission approved this conditional use permit without annexation, you know, it's it's kind of like approving it and say, "Well, here you go, county. I hope you didn't have any concerns. Right. It's an island. We create these things out in Verdi a lot, I think, and have done it in other places in the sphere of influence. Who who is going to respond if there is a fire in the Trigo grid uh compound? If annexed, it would be the city of Reno.

And if not, I correct me if I'm wrong, Chief. I believe it would be I know we have mutual aid and over We do. Thank you. Dave Coff from Reno Fire Chief because of the proximity to station 12 which is a southernmost station we will we will be responding either way to fire either way whether you annex it or not.

Well well so ultimately that's why Miss Anderson has already arrived at the conclusion which is that annexation is probably the right policy choice but it's not one that I really want to do. Um, I think it's um from an annexation standpoint it makes sense, but maybe from a project standpoint, which we're not supposed to be talking about today, it does not. So, I'm going to be looking to Miss Anderson. This is her ward. Um, and

it's actually a Miguel is he is he I know he's been sick. Um, and and maybe he wanted to weigh in on it, but okay, you've answered my question about who will be responding. Uh, station 12 is um, you know, some of the best folks are there. Um, are you prepared to respond to a fire in a um, Tesla battery pack environment? We are prepared for any fire anywhere in our jurisdiction. Okay. And are we using I qualified that with we could always use more people, more equipment, but we all understand that. So I'm not here for that reason. And you understand that it can't be put out with water. It has to be some other thing

that let me clarify. So I was back at the National Fire Protection Association headquarters just outside of Boston back in October and the guidance on these kind of fires has evolved as the mayor has uh pointed out. It's been special extinguisher. Throw a blanket over it. Let it burn. The current guidance is water, plain water. Um a lot of it though, right? A lot of it. Absolutely. And is that going to change? Probably. Um but right now guidance far more than normal. far more. Did you hear that? Far more than normal.

And and Madame Mayor, I think he um he knows you know our concern, Chief Cochran. Um you're hearing each one of us express reservations about what could happen there. None of us opined on the project. It will not matter to the citizens of this community if something bad goes down there. They they will not distinguish between a planning commissioner and a city council member. We will own it. Um and this is why I'm asking madame manager to come back to us to figure out ways in which these loopholes have now happened to us essentially twice. Um

uh already requested um policy and meeting changes I mean policy changes in a meeting on that. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um Councilman I was going to go to um Councilman Martinez. Okay. Do you want to weigh in? I can go after. Okay. Yeah. Councilman Martinez.

Yes, Madame Mayor. I um appreciate the conversation and where we're at and the comments specifically from our fire departments and uh want to thank our attorneys for reminding us of where we're at. I get the concerns. I understand that there are, you know, hesitations when it comes to uh fire mitigation efforts or ex extinguishing fires that may come in this, but I I also see the benefits. Um I know we're not supposed to talk about the project. So, I'll just mention that and say that we heard that regardless the city of Reno Fire Department is the one that's going to be responding to this. So, um I I am a little bit hazy because I'm sick. So, I'd appreciate if um Council Member Anderson could take the lead in making the motion based on what she said in her past comments, which I would be supportive of. So, I'll just leave it at that for now. Thank you.

Okay.

Yeah. So, I was just reading over some um EPA guidelines for these types of facilities. Um, and one of the things they specifically say is to um work with um the local fire departments and come up with a specific plan. So, I don't know if you guys are already in talks about that, but um I hope that you guys do come up with specific plans. Um, and then also, manager Brian, I think you might have said something about this, but um, I think we've come to notice some holes in our processes of late with this not even coming to council and the Keystone data center. Like, it's been Thank you. It's been um you know, one right after another it seems of things that um

yeah, didn't really come to us and and frankly it's it puts the county in a weird position too if we were to say no to the annexation. They've been given something that they didn't approve. So, um I'm just a little worried about process if that's something we can look into to make sure that maybe there's certain types of development that require um a review by council. I I I agree. I hear it. Um I think technology has moved a little bit faster than our policies in a few cases and that that happens sometimes. So, we'll look at it and we'll bring something back for the body. Okay. Thank you. All right, Councilman Martinez, I'm going to hand it to you.

Sorry, Madam Mayor. Before we do that, we do have one public comment. And for the record, we received one comment in opposition of this item. So, we have Marie Rodriguez. Okay. Thank you.

Hello. Hi, Marie Rodriguez for the one of our own. Take it away. The floor is yours. So, this place is less than two miles from my house. Um, and so we've already gone into a whole lot about the the fire situation, the potential for hazmat material. Yeah.

Um, we had a wonderful, beautiful lightning storm yesterday that could have been a disaster if this place were built there. Um, so in addition to that, other concerns that I had because this did come before the nab that I sit on was noise. This is less than 500 ft from the closest house. 500 ft. I used to drive a semi-re. Those trailers are 53 feet long. So that's only like 10 trailers away from the closest house. That's not very far. Mhm. That's less than the distance I would walk across a truck stop.

And the noise that it makes is similar to an ongoing air conditioner in a large home.

And it would be going and going and going and going. And who wants to listen to that? There's not going to be any people manning this thing, but people living in the neighborhood are going to be hearing that noise constantly, and so is the wildlife. My concern is also how is this going to affect the wildlife that lives along Veterans Parkway. We have a lot of horses, we have eagles, we have geese. There's it's going to affect their habitat and it's going to affect their behavior and it's going to affect their motion. We don't know where these animals are going to wind up when we have acres of humming noise on the land that they live on. I've also been taking classes at UNR and I have been studying about um what happens when we have tech trash. There are places in India that when it was new technology put in solar panels. There was no arrangement for what would happen to those solar panels once that technology became obsolete. And now they have all these solar panels all over these places in India. They have hazardous waste that they can't get rid of. I'm concerned about what's going to happen when this becomes obsolete technology and it we have acres of this stuff sitting on our land. Um, remember those big satellite dishes? Where did they go? I still have two satellite dishes on my house because the satellite companies don't come pick them up when you cancel this the the subscription. This is the same situation. So, there's more than what's going to happen if there's a fire. We're looking at hazardous material. Who's gonna take it away when it becomes obsolete and what's it gonna do to our wildlife? Things to think about.

All right. Good job, Marie. And you sat here all day to say that. Yes. Yeah. I invite you to. You're so sweet. Thanks. Okay. Madam Clerk, do you have any more public comment? We do not have any additional public comment. Okay. Um, then I'm going to send it to uh Councilman Martinez. Oh. Oh, sorry, Miss Anderson. It's you. I don't know what I'm thinking other than it's been a long day. Well, I don't know what I'm doing on this. So, isn't this usually something that the our legal motion to adopt? Okay, here we go. Um,

before we do that, I'm I'm going to go ahead and read it before Yeah, actually, we got to send it to What happens? The one and only Carl Hall.

All right. F1 ordinance adoption ordinance number 6737 case number ANX26-0000001 TGO grid annexation ordinance annexing to and making part of the city of Reno certain specifically described territory of 153.49 acre parcel of property generally located 0.23 miles northeast of the intersection of Rio Wrangler Parkway and Antler Ridge Road north of the Envy Energy Miraloma substation. Upon annexation, the site would have a single family three units per acre SF3 and unincorporated transition 10 acres UT10 zoning designations together with matters pertaining to or necessarily connected there with W three.

All right. All right. Um I move to adopt ordinance number Can you repeat it, Carl? 6737 6737. All right. So I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. discussion. Go right ahead.

Okay. Since the last time we heard this project and now there there is a reason we have a two-step process. Okay. It isn't just by chance. It it gather additional information. Some cities do it differently. They they um introduce it at the first meeting and then they have the deep discussion on the second meeting. Sparks does it that way. There's no right way, but we do it the way we did. But the reason we have two is you you could learn more information and you could change your mind. I voted yes the first time to annex, but I learned a lot and it gave me great concern and I was able to pull up the findings for annexation and I wanted to share them with us to see if we can all meet these findings. Location of the property to be considered is one of the findings. Well, many of us have expressed concern over the location. The logical extension of boundaries of city limits. I think you could meet that one. It is logical. Um, the need for the expansion to accommodate plan regional growth. Well, I don't think any of us were thinking a battery factory or battery, excuse me, storage facility was perfect right there. Um, the location of existing and plan water and sewer service. I don't know anything about that in this case. Community goals that would be met by the proposed annexation. Well, I assume it would provide some additional support to the power grid in that location. You really didn't answer the question that Miss Anderson asked about does it need to be close like within 10 feet? Could it be 100 feet? Could it be half a mile away? I mean, is there a reason to have it right next door? Do do you know, Mr. Representing Woodajers? And while you're coming up, um fiscal analysis regarding which we've discussed whether Wo County has adopted a community management plan for the proposed annexation area, whether the annexation creates any islands and any other factors uh deemed appropriate for consideration by the council. My biggest

one here is location, location, location. So is there to answer my question? Yeah. So, all I know is these go hand in hand with with the uh substation, right? And so, you're going to want to get as close to the substation as you can. Okay? So, substations, the whole purpose of them is to provide an ability to move energy across the planet, right? From from the power generating facility to another place to another place, right? Do they basically give it a boost, some energy to move the energy? Is that what the substation does? Yeah. So I'm not sure exactly what the substation itself does, right? But the battery system itself will but it's supporting the substation. It's storing the energy, right? The energy. Yes.

But there's there was there's not one there today. There is not. No. Right. So it's been existing for years without a storage. Yes. But this is to help meet the increased demand from the development that has occurred in southern California.

Well, I just wanted to share I don't I I understand where we are. I don't know that I can support the motion because I don't know that I can make the findings. We've had this happen before where something was proposed to come into the city be annexed. We weren't happy about it. Um the project was going to go to the planning commission. We decided not to annex it and so it did bounce back to the county because it was already in the county and the county said, you know, we're not real happy with the project. So it just died in that case. really don't know the extenduating factors here, but I know that I can't meet this finding on on location is is not appropriate of this type of facility near these homes for me. But that doesn't it's not criticizing anyone else or saying how anybody else should think.

Okay. I'm just sharing Miss Do the the reality here is though that the project is approved and we don't have control over that and our fire department is going to be responding to this fire and so therefore we should collect the property tax to pay for the fire service that they're going to be providing. So that's we're talking about the tax revenue here that's going to support actually putting these fires out if they start. All right. Well, mulling that's over. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, Councilwoman Eert. Nothing. No. Okay. Anyone else? No. Okay. So, all those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed.

I. No. Miguel. See. I heard an I. Did you hear an I for Yes. I heard an I. Yes. Yes. For approval. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Um I think it's 42. I think madame clerk maybe roll call vote. Yes, please. Okay.

Council member Taylor is absent at this time. Council member door. No. Martinez. Hi. Eert. Yes. Reese. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Shivy, I was a no the first time. I'm a no again. Nope. All right, motion passes 42. Great. Thanks so much. All right, moving along. Um I would like to move up um I want to move up um where are we? RDA. Yes, I would like to move up the RDA and then we'll come back to these um other ones. Can we take a quick break? I was going to just say uh I want everyone to get up maybe for what 10 minutes?

Yeah, please get up for 10 minutes and just walk around. It's been kind of a long heavy heavy day, so that's a good idea. Everyone get some fresh air. Thanks. Do these.

Hi, I'm Monica Kirch. I am the director of housing and neighborhood development for the city of Reno. The rapid rehousing pilot program is a program that the city of Reno started in coordination with volunteers of America and the Reno Housing Authority.

Programs like the rapid rehousing pilot program are important to volunteers of America because it gives us an opportunity to catch individuals who are otherwise potentially falling between the cracks as far as services go. The Reno Housing Authority assists nearly 15,000 Wo County residents through its traditional housing programs. Yet we know there are many more who need assistance. The Reno Housing Authority supports the rapid rehousing pilot program in two ways. Uh the first way is through a financial contribution to support half the salary of the service coordinator who works directly with clients at uh Village on Sage. The second way that we support the program is by um ensuring that clients are on one of our HA's weight lists prior to being housed at Villa Jones. program is new and we just started housing people within about the last month. We have several folks now staying at the village on stage working with a service coordinator. Partnerships like this give RHA the opportunity to assist more families outside of our traditional programs. And it's these innovative partnerships that create a stepping stone from temporary housing into long-term permanent housing. So specifically, this program works with individuals who are on a fixed or low income who can't afford conventional rents and they're eligible for a housing voucher, but they still have to take the time to wait for that voucher. So it allows us to support them in that intermediary time frame so they can stay housed and have access to services. I know um specifically with this program, a lot of our folks are coming directly from the street and haven't had a rental in a very long time. Um, specifically Mikey hadn't paid rent in over a decade and so it was really exciting for him to come to the office with his money um and just celebrate that new experience that he got to have.

Hi, I'm Mike and um welcome to Village on the Stage where uh Come on, let's go look around this. Yeah. Oh, Harold, welcome. And this is what we get. Um I got a brand new television. It's an element. This is one of the finer finer televisions. Um, you're welcome to bring your transportation inside with you. Uh, nobody cares as long as you keep it neat and tidy. Um, what can I tell you? The doors open, the train's right there, you know. Uh, so if you like trains, excellent. And this is where all the magic happens. This is where the happiness uh, you know, where we come to ground out. This is just where uh you know we can be ourselves. I know it's a it's cold out there. It's cold and you don't want to be homeless in high desert. Guys, if you don't have a room, you want to get a room, think about Village on Sage. I know it doesn't look like all that from the entrance way, but you never judge a book by its cover, right?

The Village on Sage Street is ideal for the rapid rehousing program because we're in a transitional setting. um by means that they're month-to-month unit so they have their own space where they can find and build their comfort and also build community while having access to a multitude of supportive services.

Program service coordinator ensures that clients receive the assistance they need as they transition out of homelessness and into village on Sage and then ultimately will help them through navigate through RHA's admissions process. The program also helps clients prepare for permanent housing and the adjustments that they're experiencing as they move out of homelessness and eventually into permanent housing. My hope for the future of this program is that we get folks housed and off of the street and they're into safe permanent housing that they can afford in the long run. RHA hopes that clients assisted through the program can find respbit from living on the streets and ultimately find long-term safe permanent affordable housing. On top of just having the a unit here at the village on Sage Street of their own, they also have access to community resources. Uh those resources include a community fitness room, a conference room, community lounge, a mail room, computer room, on-site laundry, and on-site vending

unit here at the village. They're 555. So in this instance that somebody is a can afford $300, the program would fill in the $255 monthly and then that would keep them housed until their permanent unit came open that would be subsidized to the amount of money that they make.

RHA is always looking for opportunities to fill gaps in the affordable housing landscape and it's a partnership like this where three community agencies came together to do just that. Volunteers America is grateful to have the opportunity to partner with the city of Reno and Reno Housing Authority to run this pilot program and provide additional housing for folks who are um on a fixed income and otherwise waiting for their permanent housing. Community can support this program through donating to volunteers of America or making donations to the city of Reno. We have had a donation from some of our local housing champions of $20,000 that is going to help extend it a little bit also. So that's those are the two ways that that folks can get involved and make donations to keep this program going. Hello and welcome to On the Agenda, a semionthly podcast by the city of Reno that quickly updates you on actions taken at the recent council meeting and checks in with various departments to keep you up to date with happenings within city hall. I'm AJ from the city of Reno's communications team and with me as always is Reno city manager Jackie Bryants. Hello, Reno City Manager Jackie Bryce.

Good morning, AJ. We are on the eighth episode now. Are you Are you feeling good about this? Are you feeling like we have an award-winning podcast? Well, I don't know about that, but we have a podcast. We have what one council member described as great background noise. We do background noise. Something to do on your ride to work. Exactly. Yeah. Um so before we begin today's topic with our guests uh we are going to look at a few action items that were taken at the June 11th council meeting which is um the last one now for I believe a month because they're going to be on a on a break for um a few weeks. Correct. Is that

very precious? One of the reasons why I joined RCI was just out of curiosity to know more about what the city of Reno does for everyone who lives here. It was a very genuine interaction with all of the people that we were able to meet throughout this process. That experience was incredible. I'm a small business owner and so I definitely felt disconnected. Um, not in a bad way, but in the way where I'm like, "Oh, if I have an issue, uh, who do I call?" This seemed like a great opportunity to get a lot of information in a relatively short period. You might touch the street department or you might touch the police department, the fire department for whatever reason, just being a regular citizen, but you wouldn't learn about almost all aspects of city government and how it operates.

I have never seen a city that has been so peopleoriented. I mean, it really seems like they care and I love that about Reno. I love it. This is definitely eyeopening, informative. It's a way to just learn how the city runs and to meet incredible people street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, getting people connected and, you know, running them through some kind of education and connection, I think, is incredibly valuable. You'll have an incredible time. You won't regret it.

It's a benefit all the way around, I think. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with Reno Public Safety Dispatch to discuss calling 911. Erin, what tips do you have for the community? Well, definitely it's a life-saving life-threatening emergency. You need to call 911. Things for immediate police, fire, or medical response. Make sure you know your location to give the call taker. And only use text to 911 if you can't make a voice call. Well, this is good information to know. And what should the residents also know about dispatch?

We do have a non-emergency number for all the rest of the calls that aren't emergencies, 334 cops. Those are things for like a parking problems or graffiti. It's also important to know that our call takers take over a half a million calls a year, so we get pretty busy, but we're always looking for more dispatchers. If you're interested, go to reno.gov/dispatch for a job description. Outstanding information. Thank you, Erin. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here today to discuss community court. Judge Hazlet Stevens. What exactly can you tell us about community court?

Thanks Chris. We hold community court each Wednesday here at the downtown Reno Library. It is an innovative approach to the justice system that offers services rather than jail time for our participants, many of whom are homeless. Services needed include those for substance use disorders, mental illness, chronic homelessness, and chronic unemployment. This is all good to know, but how does this differ from traditional incarceration? Community courts reduce crime, increase services to victims, reduce unnecessary use of jail, and save money by collaborating with service providers using a problem-solving approach instead of jail. We also recently implemented a treatment readiness program on site.

This is all great to know. Thank you so much, Judge. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the dangers of distracted driving. Officer Reza, what advice do you have on this topic? Thanks, Chris. Distracted driving claimed over 3,000 lives in 2020. Here locally at the Reno Police Department, we would like to remind everybody that it is illegal to use any electronical handheld device while driving. Texting has become increasingly dangerous. Outstanding. And what other tips do you have for the community?

If you do need to make a text or make a phone call, simply pull over on the side of the road where it's safe to do so. Once you've pulled over, it is now safe to make that text message or make that phone call. You can even put your cell phone in the back seat, in the trunk, or even in the glove box until you reach your final destination. Thank you, Officer Resa. And dig this. For more information, go to renopd.com. Also, don't forget to follow the city of Reno and RPD on your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're going to discuss making a fire escape plan. Joining us is Chief Mandel from Reno Fire Department.

Thanks, Chris. A fire escape plan is essential because it lets everyone in your household know exactly what to do in case of a fire. Seconds matter in the event of a fire, and an escape plan can make a world of difference. Start by drawing a floor plan of your home and marking all possible exits from each room. Then, designate a meeting point outside a safe distance from the home. Practice your escape plan regularly with everyone in your household, especially children. It's important to make sure that everybody knows how to operate windows and doors. It's also important to teach household members to stay low to the ground and smoke and to fuel doors for heat before opening them. Thank you, Chief Mandel. To create your own fire escape plan, scan the QR code on the screen or visit reno.gov/fire. So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. From lab swimming and drop-in sports to fitness equipment, the city of Reno offers many opportunities to get active and have fun. You may even be able to access these offerings at no cost. Kayla, what should residents know about insurance reimbursement?

Thanks, Chris. Our parks and recreation department recently expanded their offerings with insurance companies, offering memberships to them at no cost. Well, this is exciting. How does it work and who qualifies? Yeah, the program offers memberships through their individual insurance company. The insurance company then reimbursed the city of Reno for each visit that they come and use our facilities. The expansion of this program is especially beneficial to our seniors. However, it qualifies anyone 18 or older. You just need to contact your insurance company. Thank you, Kayla. And don't forget to contact your insurance company to learn more. Visit reno.gov/parksandre for more information. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute.

Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with maintenance and operations to discuss leaves. Tim, with fall being here, what advice do you have about leaf removal? Thanks, Chris. This is typ typically the time of year we start to see the leaves drop and it's pretty simple. Property owners are responsible for the removal of leaves on their property and we ask them to do this in a timely manner to help from flooding or clogging drains during a rainstorm. This is good to know. What other advice do you have for the viewers?

So, it is unlawful for homeowners or property owners to to rake or blow leaves out into the street. So, we ask them to please place them in their garbage cans or in a bag with the excess waste sticker for garbage pickup on their days. and if they could help out our street sweepers by trimming their trees and removing parked cars and garbage cans would be very helpful.

Outstanding information. Thank you, Tim. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're excited to spotlight the city's new rolling recreation center, a mobile recreation center designed to bring fun and activities to communities across the city. Here's Kayla Snow to tell us more.

Thanks, Chris. Our rolling recreation center is all about making accessible recreation for everyone in our community. Our mobile recreation center travels to various parks following the schedule of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada Kids Cafe Summer Meals Program. This means that not only do kids get free recreational activities, but also a free meal. Our program offers a wide range of activities for people of all ages, including sports, games, arts, and crafts, and so much more. The Rolling Recreation Center is free and open to the public. We welcome everyone of all ages to come out, have fun, and enjoy our city parks.

Thank you, Kayla. Visit reno.gov/parks andre to find out when the rolling recreation trailer rolls through a park near you. So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the Save Volunteer Program. Evan, what is SAVE? Thanks, Chris. SAVE is an acronym that stands for senior auxiliary volunteer effort. It's a wonderful organization that comprises of seniors and they help the police department with additional resources and through their patrols they help with crime prevention and observations.

Outstanding. Also, if someone wants to volunteer, how do they get involved? Basically, anyone in SAVE is 50 years of age or older, we ask that they volunteer 16 hours a month and they can, if you're interested, either call, email, or visit the website for Reno PD. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Evan. And don't forget to follow RPD and the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute, I'm Chris Payne. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with public works to discuss street rehabilitation and maintenance. Jonathan, what can you tell us about this program?

Yeah, thanks Chris. Our public works departments were working really hard to improve our neighborhood streets in our community. For instance, we're just finishing up a rehab project in Midtown where we included the replacement of our roadways, streets, sewer, and even out alleyway improvements. Well, this is good to know, but how are these neighborhoods chosen?

Sure, Chris. Good question. The city inspects all our local roadways and calculates a pavement condition index or a PCI score. The streets with the lowest PCI scores are grouped and ranked based on factors such as utility placement or proximity to essential services. If you'd like more information, please visit our website at reno.gov/cap projects. Thanks so much, Jonathan. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Do you know how to survive a fire in your home? I'm John. This is Katie with the Reno Fire Department. And today we want to share some important information with you.

To survive, you need to know the basics of fire behavior. A fire needs three things to exist. Fuel, heat, and oxygen. The best way to do this is to keep the fuel side of the triangle away from the heat side. The easiest way to survive a fire is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Today, we'll show you some ways to prevent fires from happening. And if they do start, how to evacuate safely. Cooking is the main cause of home fires and fire injuries, and you can prevent them. Here's how. First, stand by your pan. If you leave the kitchen, turn the burner off. Then, watch what you are cooking. Fire start when the heat is too high. If you see any smoke or the grease start to boil, turn the burner off. Another thing to keep in mind is to turn pot handles toward the back of the stove. Then no one can bump them or pull them. Finally, keep combustibles away from the burners. Believe it or not, dogs have turned on burners accidentally while trying to get food stored on top of ranges.

In our modern world, lithium ion batteries are everywhere. These types of batteries can be dangerous. So, here's some things to keep in mind. Stop using them if you notice an odor, a change in color, too much heat, change in shape, leaking, or odd noises. Charge and store spare lithium ion batteries away from anything that can burn. Don't put lithium ion batteries in direct sunlight or keep them in hot cars. This is a fire risk.

Here are some other things around the house to remember. Keep anything that can burn at least 3 ft from the furnace. oil burner, wood stoves, water heaters, and other heat generating equipment. When it comes to cooking appliances, space heaters, washers, and dryers, they should be plugged directly into wall outlets. Clean lint filters every time you use the dryer and never leave a burning canel alone. Looking at the triangle again, the third component is oxygen. Fire needs oxygen to survive. Progression of fire can be slowed by compartmentalizing your home. The easiest way to do this is to keep room doors and windows closed. The garage typically houses many potential ignition sources and heavy fuel loads. So, make sure the man door between the garage and living space is a solid core door with a fire rating of no less than 20 minutes. Any alterations to this door, including pet door installs, will allow a fire that starts in the garage, to quickly progress into the living space. Many home fires can start outside and spread into your home. So, don't store garbage or combustibles under windows or next to doors. Remove vegetation that is against your exterior walls, especially if it is dead and dying. Juniper brush may look green on the outside, but under the green hides dead needles that can easily ignite. Even with our best intentions, accidents can occur. Always be prepared to escape.

Madam clerk, when you're ready, we're going to start. We're going to start with the ordinance adoption. The smoke alarm sounds. Okay. So, with that, we're moving on to item F2, Frank 2, to be read by the city attorney. Okay. Mr. Hall.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Ordinance adoption. Ordinance number 6738, case number LDC 26-000031, Ridge Park zoning map amendment. A request has been made for a zoning map amendment on a plus or - 1.57 acre portion of an overall plus or minus 13.22 22 acre parcel for multif family 14 units per acre MF14 to general commercial GC. The remaining plus or - 11.65 acres of the parcel area are currently zone GC. The site is located northwest of the intersection of Vista Null Parkway and Sky Vista Parkway and has a master plan land use designation of suburban mixuse SMU. Ward 4. Miss Heert, I'm looking for a motion. Yeah. Motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any other additional questions or comments at this time? Can I just have a motion to adopt? A motion to adopt. Sorry. Uh, any questions or comments at this time? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item F3 to be read by the city attorney's office.

Ordinance adoption. Ordinance number 6739, case number LDC 26-00003, Clearacre Commons master plan and zoning map amendments. Ordinance to amend title 18 chapter 1802 of the Reno municipal code entitled zoning reszoning of plus or - 10.47 acres located on the south side of Scottsdale Road south of Reno Vista Drive and west of Clearacre Lane and north and east of uh US Highway 395 from single family residential three units per acre SF3 to mixeduse suburban MS together with matters which pertain to or necessarily connected there with W 4.

Miss Eert. Yeah, I just wanted to say really quick that I'm just really um happy about this project and happy to see it moving through. Um it's it's um hopefully going to work out smoothly with some affordable housing in this area. So uh I'll uh make a motion to adopt. Second. Okay, I have a motion to adopt along with the second. Any additional questions or comments at this time? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item F3 to be read by the city attorney. I think I'm sorry. F4. Yep.

Ordinance adoption. Ordinance number 6740. Ordinance amending Reno Municipal Code Title 12 public works and utilities chapter 12.16 sewer service article 2 sewer service charge regulations. Specifically section 12.16.120 dwelling unit or residential unit 12.16.130 industrial commercial discharging 12.16.20 2000 search charge rates to increase the rates effectively July 1st, 2026 together with matters which pertain to or necessarily connected there with sewer fund. Thank you so much. Colleagues, does anyone have questions for Mr. Flandsburg? Any uh public comment offered on this item? Madam clerk, we have none registered. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Miss Der.

All right. Um I make a motion to adopt this ordinance bill number 7332 relating to sewer service charges. Ordinance number 6740. 6740. Yeah. Um and I have a motion by Miss Der, a second by Miss Anderson. Any other questions or comments at this time? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Opposed. Motion carries with one um opposed. Okay. Um Madame Clerk, I think item G1 was already removed. Item H1 then is council comments. and let's roll through this and then we'll open RDA as a separate item. Is that how you want to do it? Sounds good. Thank you.

Okay. So, H1 would be council comments if any, Miss Anderson. Yes. Um, quickly, I just want to tell everybody about the 10-year anniversary celebration for the passage of WC1.

It's next Friday at Debbie Smith Elementary from 3 to 5:00. It's going to be an incredible panel of, you know, where we were, what has happened in the last 10 years, and really talk about as a community how we pulled that off and what else we want to do um together in the future. So, I'm just inviting you all to um come. I know that you've received an email um RSVP please or RSVP please because the culinary and everything is going to be provided by W. Smith CTE um students. It's going to be pretty fancy and amazing. So, please attend if you can. So, you said next Friday and that is May the 15th

and then you said 3 3 o'clock to 5:00 at Debbie Smith CTE Academy over on Sutro. Okay. Okay. Um I'll come to you Miss Der. Do you have any announcements for good about it? Miss Eert, do you have anything today? Not at this time. Thank you. Okay. Uh it would be remiss if I didn't uh embarrass my good colleague uh Miss Der who has celebrated a birthday this week and so I just want to say happy birthday from all of us to you. I know we passed it. Uh if we had it on your birthday you would have me singing to you but you don't have to endure that this time. I know this showed up at my seat. I know. I think just who I Well, I think Madame Mayor may have had a hand in that. Yes. Well, it could be more perfect.

It is. It looks like you. A beekeeper's hat indeed. Thank you. Uh, happy birthday. Of course, um, Mr. Martinez, I want to make sure I don't omit you. I don't have anything on my end. Thank you. Okay. And of course, we have Mother's Day Sunday. Uh, so to all those who are mothers, happy Mother's Day. Okay. We'll close out item H1. We don't have items in the eye calendar tonight here. Uh, but we do have closing public comment in this meeting. Or do you want to jump over and then come back to that?

If we can come back just in case something comes in between now and then. That makes sense. So now, um, Madame Clerk, I'll let you start and I'll say that we are opening the redevelopment agency agenda for, uh, today, May 6th, I believe. Thank you. We will call roll. Uh, member Taylor's absent at this time. Der here. Martinez here. Eert here. Reese here. Anderson here. Sheavy absent at this time. You do have a quorum of the redevelopment agency board. Thank you, madame uh, clerk. Do we have public comment today for the redevelopment agency? We do not have anyone registered for public comment for the RDA. Thank you so much. Any public comment submitted online or that you need me to know about?

We do not have any hands raised. Thank you so much. I'll look now for approval of the agenda which is item A4. Any questions about the agenda? Okay. I have a motion from Miss Anderson, a second from Miss Der. Yes. Any other additional questions or comments at this time? hearing none. I'll call for the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item A5 is approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion? Motion to approve. Okay. Miss Anderson on the first, Miss Der on the second. Any additional questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor, please survive saying I. I. I.

Nay. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Um, I will also note for the good of the order that item Charlie 1 will be removed because we don't have a presentation or update on Charlie 1. Um, and so we'll go now to the main item which I think is our last substantive item of the day. Um, that is item B1. Madame Clerk, do we have any public comment on item B1 stand alone? We don't have anyone in the audience. We do not have any hands raised. Um, and for the record, we did receive one comment submitted that has been tied to this in favor of this item.

Okay. Thank you so much. Let me now um ask Miss Van Beern, are you making the presentation or Miss um Okay, Miss Van Beern, this is your presentation. And um this is a very large slide deck. Um so I don't know where you want us to pop in or not. Did you There are stops in here. I'm just going to lead in a little bit and then I'll pass it off. and there stops in the corner like you're familiar with. Yes. I just want to make sure and call it out to my colleagues. Um you always keep us on track. Um thank you so much Miss Van Beern.

Thank you Vicky Van Beern, director of finance. For the record uh today before you is the redevelop redevelopment agency FY27 proposed budget. It includes programs and capital improvement and that's really where the focus is going to be today as far as um staff presenting that. I'm just going to go basically back through the presentation that I gave at the prior meeting regarding the overall status of the budget and where the numbers kind of line up and some of the requests that were uh requested at the last meeting. I've updated some of the slides just to be a little clearer. So, I'm going to go quickly through them and then pass it off so that you can get to the real meat of today's information. So, redevelopment area one again is the pink air is the yellow area, I'm sorry, in the middle. That's the downtown area. And the the kind of pinkish purpley area, that's redevelopment area number two. Redevelopment area number one expires in 2043 and area two expires in 2035. Um we are proposing that both uh bonds that are associated in both RDA1 and RDA2 be paid off in fiscal year 27 and that will free up the both of these areas to be debtree after fiscal year 27. So the tax increment projections and this is based on the known projects coming online that we know of as of the time of this report going forward and projecting what that tax increment is going to look like in the future. The green area is RDA1. Um the blue area is RDA2. And then the red line at the bottom that's the debt service uh contractual obligations and contractual obligations which are the ballpark. So you'll see debt service pays off in 27. And then going forward from 20 fiscal year 28 that's just the ballpark. I did put numbers on the top of these bars so

you have an idea what the total increment between these areas um is anticipated to be. again based on known projects that we know about. Now, one of the requests uh switching to this slide was to kind of split them up, put RDA1 with its own bar and RDA2 with its own bar so you could really see them separately as you kind of move out in the future. And again, I put the dollars on each of those out into those years as well. So you could really see um RDA1 starting at 5 million for fiscal year 27 with the same projects moving forward would have $18 million in fiscal year 43. Um RDA2 11 million for fiscal year 27 and then when it ends um it would have 23 million

May is that per year or per year? So is that you're not showing us the cumulative total per year. So if we were to add up all of that over that period of time is that like u it's a lot. It was like it's a lot and it's going to change too because as new projects this is only projects we know about now. So as new things come on that's going to continue to change and grow. Yeah. So like 200 million if if we just said 20 million a year and then potentially I don't I didn't add them up that way but yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of money for sure.

Um proposed positions, 8.8 proposed positions for um RDA1 and RDA2 and those are allocated 30% to RDA1 and 70% to RDA2. And this is again based on the fact that RDA1 is just now starting to really kick off increment. RDA2 has increment and has the ability to do more projects. As RDA1 continues to come online, this will probably get um more like 50/50 or depending on the projects for those years as depends on what they're working on. This is a total altogether. I showed this previously just to give you an idea of what the total operating summary is for both RDA1 and RDA2. So you could see increment coming in um for both areas other revenues that are present in those areas. And then what are the total operating expenses and we talked about previously total operating expenses being around $3 million. Those are split really between you know 3070 that same split. If you were looking at a one-year reserve, that would mean keeping one year of uh $1 million in RDA1 and two million in RDA2. Um programs and capital that are currently proposed and what RAB has recommended um are included on here. And then I one of the requests that came forward from the last meeting was that we put the pro that I put the programs on one slide so you could kind of see tiff consultants the tax increment financing consultants the difference what's being proposed in RDA1 and RDA 2 and then a total in total for those different activities. Some of them don't have um proposals for a line. Like the parking gallery only exists in RDA1, so it has something in RDA1. Um site pre-development activities is shown in RDA2. There's nothing in RDA1. So it's

just lining that up so you can kind of get a better gauge as to what each program what that allocation is between RDA1 and RDA2. They do have um this this same slide they're going to present as they continue to talk about these programs because they're going to talk about what each one of these programs are and they have the same slide set up in there so you can continue to compare them. But I wanted to show you that we've provided that and put that in here so you have a better look at that. Uh RDA1, same slide that I showed last time. Uh this is the proposed fiscal year budget on the right hand column there. The proposed programs are those two million almost $2.1 million and then capital projects of $2 million. There's a remaining fund balance of 3.8 million. If you chose to do the one-year reserve, you potentially could spend another $2.8 million in here if you chose to. RDA1, uh, the debt service fund. This is the bond that pays off. We're going to use the bond reserves to pay this debt off in fiscal year 27. This will be debt-free in RDA1. In RDA2, uh the proposed programs in there are $2.3 million with capital projects of $10 million with a remaining fund balance of 19.5. If you do a reserve here of the $2 million for the one-year reserve, that would leave 17.5 in additional funds that you could also allocate if you wanted to, or you could save it. you you could um choose to do any number of options there. Redevelopment agency 2, the debt here pays off in 2035. And so uh this debt we're proposing to pay it off in fiscal year 27 because we've accumulated enough funds over um the years that this has been out there. It is callable with a

30-day notice. Um and the balance on it is about $400,000. So we have enough money to do it and to go ahead and do it and then the whole agency one and two it will be debtree after 27. So with that if there's questions here I'm glad to answer them or I can turn it over and you can talk programs.

All right, Madame Chair and board members. Thank you so much. We do appreciate you wearing your other hat today as you transition into your RDA role as we know that it is a different mindset as you've walked through your council day today. Ashley Attorney, assistant city manager for the record. Um, as director Van Beern mentioned, this is a rather lengthy slide deck in front of you today. However, it has been developed based off of these very specific requests from this body at our last couple of meetings. So you'll see things like every single CIP project being listed, extensive information on your programs. This is all included in your packet as well. We wanted to discuss the program rationale and why the programs have been brought forward to you today. Uh these are all based off of adopted reports, plans, and studies that this body has adopted either by way of your RDA hat or your city council hat. things like the RDA status report that re-energized your agency back in August of 2024 with a participation program, the Truckucky River Vision Plan, which is newish funded through ARPA money, the Virginia Placemaking study done with thousands of input points from the community, the downtown action plan, which the Reno City Council adopted in 2017, the public art master plan that you adopted just last year, pros plan that you also adopted last year for the future of your parks, and the redevelopment plan, which is really our guiding light which was established in 1990 as required by law to help guide all of the goals and provisions that you have as an agency. Uh we also brought these programs forward based off of your redevelopment agency advisory board. Your RAB board has been very involved in all of these programs and weighing in. As I mentioned previous council direction and then ultimately these all have to come to the surroundings of NRS 279486 which are the findings within the redevelopment law. This law states that you have two specific findings that you need to make every time that you are expending redevelopment funds. Anytime you spend

increment, you need to decide and determine that. The first is that there's no other reasonable means of financing available. This is what we often refer to as the butt for test. Um, everyone is but is subject to the butt for test including the city. The second one is that you have to determine that these projects and the expenditures of money are a benefit to the redevelopment area. And the way that you do that are through these seven provisions that are found within the law. Determining that it's encouraging the creation of new businesses, creating jobs, increasing local revenue, increasing human activity, possessing attributes that are unique, something that is specific for qualified labor, and the last one is that it demonstrates greater social or financial benefit for the community. This is something that you will see on every program that comes forward. As we discussed, there are different redevelopment goals. Originally, I say this body, we know it was many predecessors before you adopted the 1990 plan. There were originally 22 goals in that plan. And with the re-energizing of the agency in August of 2024, the consultants helped to take those 22 goals and refine them down into six areas of expertise. The first one states that we want more businesses. The second one says that we want more housing. The third one says that we care about microobility and transportation. The fourth one identifies the importance of public art and community spaces. Fifth one identifies that we care about cleanliness and overall outdoor space. And the last one is that we are focused on preserving our historic assets when we can. As Vicki mentioned, we have the same slide. You're going to see this and this was a request from the body last time. These are the overview of all of the programs. Uh these are the recommendations brought forward by the redevelopment agency advisory board. This is the RAB. So the items in front of you today are the RAB's recommendation to you. Again, as the body, you have the final determination and staff is anxious and excited to take your feedback so we can help to finish

that budget process for you. I'm now going to go into each one of these programs. We've discussed the parking gallery. The parking gallery aligns with multiple plans. You'll see this again. We'll identify each plan as we go. This was identified in the original redevelopment plan as well as the downtown action plan. the importance of parking for folks who live downtown as well as our businesses and transportation is needed. The agency owns this asset with 592 spaces and four current tenants in the downstairs area. Uh we're renegotiating some of those leases currently and we have a property manager that manages this asset for us at this time. Uh we identified that there was a need for an operational assessment which we are in the process of doing with reform coming online which is the old movie theater as well as 118 west the previous Ross Manor. We know that downtown is changing and the needs of parking are changing as well. The RAB recommended funding this at $900,000. Ultimately this runs as a break even asset for the downtown. Cost us 900 grand to run. We earn about 900 grand to have it. Uh the benefit to the agency is one the physical asset has value and then secondarily we have a direct arm in helping to develop parking and opportunities downtown for businesses. The next program in front of you is the activation pilot and again I should note I apologize the last one is funded at FY26 our current year as well as the go forward. This is also currently approved in the current FY26 budget. This is adding on to the original success that we found with the ARPA program of pilots downtown. U this body gave very clear direction that you wanted more activation and your underutilized public spaces and Rachel McIntyre placemaking manager performed bringing 76 new events into the downtown core over the season and we heard the feedback from other areas that they would like to participate in this too. So this program helps to bring additional activations into the Riverwalk into Midtown and then

into the Brewery District and other neighborhoods. Uh currently we opened applications. This went to the RAB in February of 2026 for their feedback. We opened applications. We have 11 new activations that are planned and programmed with this funding of FY26. The RAB recommended the funding at this level of 150,000 for RDA1 and two. The next program to highlight is something that we are identifying resecure. This is currently funded in your current FY and recommended again for next year. This aligns with the downtown action plan, the redevelopment plan, the Virginia street placemaking plan, your Truckucky River vision plan, and then the reimagine Reno master plan. This program heavily focuses on the importance of safety in the redevelopment areas through a program that we identify as SEPTED. This is crime prevention through environmental design. This is something that's really integral to how businesses can operate in the space. They work closely with code enforcement and the Reno Police Department to identify physical attributes of their building that can help to reduce crime. This is a matching program as a reimbursement up to $5,000 for small businesses to be able to apply for things like cameras to tie into fuses. Um, roll up windows and doors to avoid vandalism on windows, changing landscaping so that there's not issues hiding next to businesses. Um, additional lighting so things are brighter. The thing we're excited about this, this just launched for this current fiscal year. Applications are open. So, anyone who is watching who's interested in this program, please go to our website and consider applying. Uh the RAB recommended that you continue to fund this program at $50,000 for RDA1 and 50,000 in RDA2 knowing that we can help at least 10 businesses in each area with that fund. Next is Restore. This aligns with the downtown action plan which originally said we should have a tenant and facade improvement program back in 2017, but we had no funds to do that until the gift of ARPA. We started with round one and

then as we transitioned into round two using RDA money, we made a lot of very specific strategic and thoughtful changes based off the feedback from the RAB and this body. This is a matching reimbursement program for facade and tenant improvements for buildings up to $50,000 inside and outside. Current status of the FY26 program is we have awarded 28 new storefronts and 11 new businesses are coming in with these funding. Uh what we found is that the $1 million of your investment is returning a $9 million investment from the public uh excuse me from the private industry. So 9 to1 on your money this year is not a bad return on your funding. The RAB recommended an increase. Last year you funded this at 500,000 in RDA1 and two. They recommended increasing RDA2 to a million dollars. It should be noted we had a million to give away and we had $3 million in asks and the application period was only open six weeks. The next program, another blight mitigation fighter is small walls. This is a program that came directly from the city council's public art master plan that was adopted last year. This was a program that was identified as a way for local artists to be able to scale up their abilities so we could help refine their work and get them larger projects. There's no means of financing available for this on the city side and so the redevelopment agency with your support decided to fund this at $50,000 in RDA1 and $50,000 in RDA2 for this current fiscal year. This went to the RAB in March of this year. We opened applications. Uh at this time we have awarded 90% of this funding in RDA 2. Again the applications were only open about 6 weeks. Uh to date we've not received any applications from anyone in RDA1 and that's open. So, we are excited and willing and hoping uh that we get some of our downtown businesses that would like to have a mural on their building. This is again a match program. We understand that this is something

that also helps to reduce the blight and the activation. We know that murals will create less graffiti along the public spake and it gives people things to look at. Uh the RAB recommended same funding allocation for next year as you currently have 50,000 in RDA1 and 50,000 in RDA 2. The next one is the vacant storefront activation. This will be the only one that the redevelopment agency may not know all the familiarity. Uh you granted this money this year of $150,000 and sent task to staff to figure out how do we deal with vacant storefronts specifically in Virginia Street is where it was me mentioned from the Virginia Street placemaking study. But this is not a new issue. Uh this was actually something that was identified in the 1990 redevelopment plan is identifying ways to fill these vacant storefronts. Uh through this process, there's currently $150,000 funded in this current fiscal year. The RAB recommended continuing that funding level. We took this item to the RAB on Monday. They had a lot of feedback and we're very excited about this program. Uh ultimately they gave the recommendation that the redevelopment agency should enter into a master lease and then sublet out a building or space. This program in its totality will come to you at your May 20th meeting so staff can receive more direction from you on the future of what you'd like us to research and look into. Additional programmatic expenses. You'll see this again in your packet. Site pre-development activities. As Vicki mentioned, there's $200,000 set aside for RDA2. Uh this body gave the direction to staff to move forward with the assistance in relocation of the Arena Sparks Gospel Mission pursuant to legislative direction. uh this is the process to start. We have to identify what the cost will be for appraisals and consultants. So this is the set aside for that. Next one are the tax increment financing consultants. This is identified based off of expected and hopeful future projects. Studies and analysis. This is split at the 70 and

30%. This body has mentioned a few things that you feel you have a need for. You've identified that you would like to have a strategic plan in the upcoming future. You have also indicated that you would like staff to look into the financial implications of an extension of RDA2. Uh this funding will assist with that. Uh lastly, updates to the downtown standards. Currently, we have them. I've mentioned this before, but they do not cover the entirety of downtown. Some of them are expired, some of them are very old. So, this will create some standards of new development coming in. Next program is Love Your Block. you're familiar with this is this was a grant originally that came in from Bloomberg that is administered through the housing and neighborhood development team. They found a way to stretch their money as far as they can and their assistance from Bloomberg is running out next fiscal year. And so they came to the redevelopment agency and said we believe that we can make this money stretched further. They've requested $25,000 in RDA1 and 100,000 in RDA2. Last item is the code compliance assistance. We have a dedicated code officer in RDA2 that is in the general fund and then the redevelopment agency reimbures this cost. All right, you're very com comfortable and familiar with this slide because we keep showing it to you, but it's to identify again all of the funding. This was a direct request from you. And you will see there is the caution stop sign in the corner. If you'd like to chat about individual programs, I'm happy to take feedback or questions now or we can transition to the capital projects portion.

Okay. No, we're good. Um, can you explain since the RDA is relatively new? Um, can you explain how um how the RDA is formed? Why it's formed? Um because it's interesting. People have said to me, why all of a sudden is there um sort of this new energy to um be able to do projects downtown or how are you guys being able to do that? Especially like whenever you're seeing um you know just some of the budget talks, they don't understand the difference is whatever what I've noticed some of the conversations that I'm having. So, I I'd love for you to explain um the RDA, what the purpose is, and you and it's it has a specific need attached to it. It's designed for that need. Um so, maybe you can talk a little bit about that.

Yes, happy to, Madam Mayor. U in 1983, the Reno City Council passed a resolution that identified that they needed to create a specific agency to emlarate blight in the downtown core. It's the exact language. Uh not a term that we use very often. these days, but it was to deal with a lagging and sagging downtown. Downtown actually used to be the retail epicenter of Reno until 1967 when they built Parklane Mall. And so in 1968, they developed a committee to help fix downtown. And we've been trying to figure out different methodologies and strategies to refilling and helping with the vacancies and other blight issues. So ultimately the redevelopment agency's core function is to deal with blighted buildings and to redevelop areas that are underutilized and bring them up to a higher property level value. As you mentioned, madame mayor, this is not general fund. Uh when the redevelopment agency was established in 1983 for RDA1 and then 2005 for RDA2, the property values tax levels are frozen for all taxing entities, the city, the state, school district. Any new property tax that comes in is set aside to go to the redevelopment agency for reinvestment. So the redevelopment agency should be looked at as an investment tool. We can't use it for potholes. We can't use it to do the same functions that you do with the city side because you wear a different hat. You have different obligations and you have narrow confines in the law. As we mentioned those two findings, is there another way to pay for it? If there is, that means you can't do it. And then does it benefit the area specific to those things in the law? So the answer of why now we haven't had any money. Um so during the downturn in 2008 we know that property tax started falling. Reno was hit harder faster and longer than almost any other city in the country. Our property values dropped more than 54% in RDA1. We had debt during that time and property tax

continued to fall to the point we actually went below the base. And some of you who are here, Madame Mayor, you were you may recall that we actually had to ask for approval from the state legislature to be able to borrow money from RDA2 to pay our debt. Yeah. Um so the answer why now is because we are finally clawing out of it based off of our regressive property tax structure in the state of Nevada. It's actually taken us near 17 years to get back to the same level that we were in the '90s. Yeah. And you're getting out of debt because of the discipline of this body. So, you'll be paying off your debt this time because we've been disciplined. You have been disciplined. We've had no money to spend.

You have had no money and you've made good choices up until this point. And so, you are in a place where you are finally paying off your debt. The redevelopment agency will be debtree for the first time in nearly two decades. That's incredible. It's incredible. It's the work of this body. So, thank you for making those choices to help get us to the point to where we can bring forward these programs that help the community faster. Well, thank you so much. Um that that helps. Okay. Do you need to tell us anything else? I don't, but I would like Dan to say some things. U next we're going to bring up is Dan Tresley, project manager for the redevelopment agency

and he's going to go through each of these as this was a specific request from council. Uh this is in your packet. So if you decide that you have seen enough, you can wave it down and he will click through some slides, but we will give him the opportunity to go through the capital project list with you.

Okay. Hello, Dan Tresley, project manager for the record and I will go through the RDA capital improvement plan. Now, so how did we get these projects identified? We looked at agency board briefings and we listened and spoke with you guys. We went through the RAB briefings and listened and took notes there. We reached out to our partner agencies and heard some of their needs and wants. We reached out to the city departments and we spoke with them on their needs and wants. And then we also took a deep dive into the adopted plans um to identify some of these projects. As Ashley just said, NRS279486 um does pertain to capital improvement projects. We must also does it create a measurable benefit for the area and is there no other way to fund these projects without RDA's participation? So, a little bit of timeline. Um, in December of 2025, we had briefings with this board on the CIP. In 20 or January of 2026, we reached out to all of our partner agencies to um discuss our CIP plan. January 8th, we had our CIP briefings with our RAB. In February 8th, we um we had all of our project proposals were due into submittable. On February 20th, we put together a scoring committee and they were um required to review all of the projects. In February at our RDA um board meeting, we had a CIP update briefings. On March 2nd, all of the CIP um findings and scoring was presented to the RAB. And on March 4th, they had the recommendation for FY27 budget and CIP to the RAB board. April 22nd RDA board discussion on the FY27 budget and CIP.