[0:04] Good morning, everyone. I will call the Swashow County Board Accounting Commissioners meeting to order. It is August 26, it is 10 o one a.m. and we will start with a salute to the flag and I see that John Plansberg from the city of Reno is in the audience if you could please lead us.

[0:41] Thank

[0:45] you very much. Madam Clerk, if we could please have the roll call.

[0:50] Alexis Hill chair here. Vice chair Jean Hermann is absent.

[0:55] Commissioner Clark.

[0:57] Commissioner Garcia.

[0:59] Here. Commissioner Andriola.

[1:00] Present. Assistant County Manager Dave Solara.

[1:04] Here. Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Large.

[1:09] Thank you very much.

[1:11] We'll now move into our public comment with ACM Slerow because please lead us into that.

[1:18] Item number three is public comment.

[1:19] Comment heard under this item.

[1:21] We've limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to manage both on and off the commission agenda.

[1:25] Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers.

[1:28] Commission will hear public comment during individual action items.

[1:31] With comment limited to three minutes per person.

[1:33] comments are to be made to the commission as a whole and virtual public comment maybe

[1:37] taking one facility is available. We will also have virtual public comment in Incline Village

[1:41] on Act 16 as well. Thank you so much Madam Clerk. First up we have James Stewart followed by

[1:49] Terry Brooks.

[2:06] Good morning commissioners and staff. My name is Jim Stewart and I'm one of the

[2:12] candidates for the open space and parks commission and it was suggested I come to this meeting to introduce myself to you.

[2:20] So, hello everyone.

[2:22] I decided to apply for this position because I'm a renonative and just have so many great memories of the times spent in our parks and really countless hours over my lifetime.

[2:33] Recreating and parks and on the trails and open spaces as a child and as a adult and with my kids and now with my grandkids.

[2:41] And as a result of that, I've become very passionate about our incredible parks and trails

[2:48] and open spaces.

[2:50] And I believe I can provide a pretty unique perspective because of my in-person use of so

[2:57] many of the parks in the area and in trails.

[3:00] And I would love to play a more formal role in preserving and enhancing what we have.

[3:07] I live a two-minute walk from Manchester and fell and I use that part daily for a variety

[3:15] of reasons.

[3:16] I take my dog every day, year round to the pasture, offly sherry, that's really non-negotiable

[3:22] in my house according to my dog and I write my mountain bike through the park to access

[3:28] the trails up on P-Bine and we attend numerous events that occur in the park over the years.

[3:33] And sometimes just at the walk through that arboretum in those areas just to clear my head.

[3:40] I also have grandkids that play soccer throughout the valley,

[3:43] everywhere from Lazy Five to South Valley.

[3:46] So I get a pretty broad perspective of what's going on in our park system.

[3:51] And I read somewhere, and I'm really paraphrasing this,

[3:55] but I truly believe this, that the quality of community can really be judged by the quality of its parks.

[4:01] And I think that's very true and I think we should be very proud of our parks and trails in open space of what we have here.

[4:10] I also like to think that my many years on this planet have given me rewarded me with a certain sense of common sense and of activity and ability to analyze and solve problems and come up with answers to issues.

[4:28] Just to close, I would be really honored to serve on this committee.

[4:32] I would love to help try to meet the challenges and to maintain and improve our magnificent parks and trails and open space.

[4:42] And thank you very much for your time and consideration.

[4:44] I don't know if it's appropriate to have questions or not, but if it is, I'm more than willing.

[4:52] Again, thank you for your time and consideration.

[4:54] Thank you.

[4:56] Thank you so much.

[4:57] Terry Brooks followed by Steve.

[5:09] Good morning, it's me, Terry Brooks again, and today I came here to face the act of discrimination

[5:17] when it comes to health and race. When people who own a lot of housing discriminate against

[5:24] people because of the race, then a lot of people live in worse housing because of the race.

[5:30] And because a lot of schools were once segregated by race, kids then lived with less education

[5:36] because of the race. And because they had less education because of the race, they wound up getting fewer and lower paying jobs because of the race.

[5:47] And because of lack of employment, many also lack healthcare. So they wound up living most of their lives without having any healthcare.

[5:56] But now things are somewhat better. And healthcare workers don't refer to race. They use the word ethnicity instead when referring to a case.

[6:06] The true meaning of the word ethnicity is a subcultural group with in a multicultural group.

[6:15] And by using the word ethnicity not only is it more accurate but it has much better publicity.

[6:22] So by using such an accurate word, such healthcare workers see humans as they are.

[6:28] Instead of using the words that the discriminators say they are.

[6:31] Health care workers do their work to keep people alive so they do their best to help everyone survive.

[6:40] It's true that some ethnicities are more susceptible to some diseases,

[6:45] so instead of discriminating by race helping all ethnicities please us.

[6:51] Helping people of all ethnicities to recover and stay alive eventually helps the whole human species to recover and survive.

[7:00] Well, I started anthropology in classes at the university. One thing I learned about evolution was the value of diversity.

[7:09] I would like to thank you all for listening to me today and I look forward to coming back if I'm healthy enough to be here that day.

[7:16] Thank you, Mr. Brooks.

[7:18] Steve Dolan followed by Marine McElroy.

[7:36] I think it was on. Do you see the red button?

[7:40] There you go.

[7:41] Thank you. Madam Chair and fellow commissioners, I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

[7:49] My name is Steve Dolan. I've lived in inclined village on the North Shore for

[7:54] 33 years raised both my children there. And I'm the director of the Friends of

[8:10] on the North Shore.

[8:14] We are not in favor of the item 16, amending the Washington County Code

[8:24] at chapter 1-10 to update articles to 20 Tahoe area and to 20.1 Tahoe area design standards.

[8:36] I fought the Oakland Fire Confligration in 1991, and the insurance company, evaluation of

[8:48] that fire, stated that it was in most part caused

[8:56] by high density housing on narrow hillside

[9:00] streets. Can you say Tahoe Basin? Can you say ADUs? Can you say higher buildings? And

[9:10] no off street parking requirements? That's what you'll be voting on today with item

[9:15] 16. That's pretty scary, specifically in item 16. You want you to provide for the reduction

[9:25] in parking minimums, and that means no off-street parking for condominiums and things like that.

[9:37] Modify minimum setbacks, making them smaller, crowding the streets again.

[9:43] Modify encroachment for the crowding the streets.

[9:49] Modify standards for accessory dwelling units, allowing ADUs on less than one acre.

[9:55] Chair, you once told me you weren't going to touch that about four years going.

[10:00] 21, 21, apparently, we're touching it now. Then there's a legal speak involved in this, which basically

[10:09] says the owner must hold harmless this board, because your lawyers have told you to say that,

[10:16] because you know and they know how dangerous these changes in this amendment process will

[10:23] for North Shore. It's already dangerous, and this will make it more dangerous.

[10:30] The buzzwords for this are TAP, the TRPA provided for a Vegas North concept that's 20 years

[10:38] down the road. The monetization efforts are identified by the thank you.

[11:06] Thank you

[11:26] for this opportunity to speak, I appreciate it.

[11:33] For the record, my name is Marine McElroy.

[11:36] I'm calling on our commissioners today to agenda is a discussion of the use of our county

[11:41] in its support of ice enforcement.

[11:46] Before, Sheriff Bailem's approval request for the Homeland Security grant can be considered,

[11:52] there are still many unanswered questions that must be addressed for instance.

[11:57] How are ice detainees logged into the Washington County Sheriff's Office booking System?

[12:02] We need clearer data that confirms Sheriff Bailem's statements about immigrants,

[12:06] with criminal charges versus immigrants without criminal charges who are detained in our county

[12:13] jail.

[12:14] How is information about inmates being shared with ICE by the Washington County Sheriff's

[12:19] office?

[12:20] Other inmates are logged in such a way that the public can view or access that is at the same

[12:26] for ICE detention.

[12:29] If not, why not?

[12:31] If ICE detainees are in our jurisdiction, how can we ensure that their families can confirm

[12:36] their presence in our facility. Also, there are some questions about discrepancies between

[12:42] booking report numbers. What ICE reports and what has been heard anecdotally from the public

[12:49] about ICE detention and ICE holds. In early May during the expanded ICE operation in Northern

[12:54] Nevada, although the Sheriff's Office announced publicly that the Jail held 45 people detained

[13:00] by ICE, a Homeland Security ICE press release stated that there were 53.

[13:06] But the Washington County Sheriff's Office booking reports for the same days did not

[13:11] add up to the same amount.

[13:14] This raises the question of how those brought into the jail are booked or locked in.

[13:20] Is there a separate booking system for these ICE detainees?

[13:24] If so, how are these booking, how are those bookings tracked and recorded?

[13:28] These discrepancies in data are distrust and doubt in the veracity of the data and the

[13:35] stated commitment to transparency. This is why I ask the commissioners today to have

[13:41] an agendaized conversation about these questions before they consider approving, Sheriff

[13:46] Baylem's Homeland Security Grant approval request. Thank you.

[13:51] Thank you.

[13:53] Patrick Gubbins, followed by Pam Dar.

[14:02] I'm sorry, commissioners.

[14:04] County manager and county professional staff.

[14:07] My name's Patrick Gubbins and I've been a resident of

[14:11] Washington for 19 years.

[14:13] I've applied for the open space and regional parks commission,

[14:16] which I think is a wonderful opportunity,

[14:18] and I'd like to give back to our community.

[14:21] I'm an outdoor recreation enthusiast.

[14:24] I camp, backpack, snow shoe, and ski.

[14:29] I also mountain bike ride when I have a bicycle that

[14:33] hit doesn't have two flat tires.

[14:35] I've also enjoyed a very, very wonderful career as a parks

[14:40] and resource manager.

[14:43] I've worked at various levels of our government, including

[14:46] county state federal and a special parks and recreation district in Colorado.

[14:51] So, during my career, I've been responsible for human resources, financial resources, cultural

[14:58] and natural resources.

[15:00] Services, fire management, public safety programs. I've been on many teams and enjoyed them, and I've been

[15:08] on many partnership teams, which I really think partnerships and I really, the way to

[15:14] we problem self taken a team approach of self problems. I'm all about that, which is another reason

[15:21] why I want to join your commission. I started my career as a partnership with Boulder County Parks

[15:28] an open space in Boulder, Colorado.

[15:30] And I retired from the National Park Service in 2018

[15:35] as a deputy superintendent of Lake Mead National Recreation

[15:38] area.

[15:40] I've also had a wonderful career with BLM.

[15:43] And as I shared with you, I have worked with multiple agencies

[15:48] at all levels of our government, county, state, federal,

[15:52] and a special recreation district.

[15:55] I would like to give back to our community and I want to thank you for your decision and

[16:02] considering me for this wonderful opportunity.

[16:05] Thank you very much.

[16:05] It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you have a wonderful day.

[16:09] Thank you.

[16:10] Pam Darr, followed by Mark Prychard,

[16:19] good morning, Pam Darr, precinct 64-11, it's almost

[16:22] that time of year.

[16:23] Come in.

[16:24] Anyways, I want to be knocking on doors, so I didn't plan on being here, but something happened

[16:29] last Thursday morning that I want to bring to everybody's attention. I think there's a big responsibility sitting right in front of me to address this issue. And this is the homeless.

[16:37] There's a lot of work being done and I get it. But we are missing something. We're not preventing the possible attack on individuals with people on the streets.

[16:45] We can send a team out to address it. Maybe after the person's hurt or killed. I almost witnessed that Thursday morning at 430.

[16:52] Down the street for more I live, what two women were trying to stock their business.

[16:58] They were so shook up, they were standing there numb, I'm trying to call sparks PD.

[17:03] It was very upsetting.

[17:05] I know that people are working hard to address this, but we can't have a monitoring

[17:09] around dangerously willing to attack somebody.

[17:11] They were very verbally attacked.

[17:13] The person walked away and came back and verbally attacked them more.

[17:18] So this is something we have to get ahead of it.

[17:20] It's dangerous.

[17:21] I've heard stories of friends, daughters, and midtown being chased by the homeless.

[17:25] No one needs to live like this, and no one wants to be hurt.

[17:28] If they're taking a bad chip, they can hurt somebody.

[17:30] That's one thing.

[17:31] I have three minutes.

[17:32] I got two more issues.

[17:34] I read with a governor stands with the, he wants to shake the label of a sanctuary state.

[17:40] There's a lot of responsibility in front of me on that also.

[17:43] What are we going to do to address that?

[17:45] We only have so many resources.

[17:47] There is such a thing as Clyward and Piven, which we are being stretched in the middle

[17:50] class is being stretched. And we can't take much more. People can't afford to buy houses.

[17:55] By husband bought a house at the age of 22. I understand it's at the age of 33 now. I also

[18:01] understand that you can't buy a house nowadays unless you're in your 30s. How do you start

[18:05] a family? And we have more rentals than ownership in the state. We're going in the wrong direction.

[18:11] I have two cats in a turtle. I'm worrying about your children and the children of the people in

[18:19] I've been around the block a few times.

[18:22] I'm gonna, you know, the last portion of it.

[18:24] My last thing, these are reviews very much needed.

[18:29] I almost got run over by an SUV at Trader Joe's

[18:32] because certain countries, you have to look out for the car

[18:35] and they don't have to look out for you.

[18:38] Imagine walking into Trader Joe's, an SUV passes you by,

[18:41] throws it in reverse and backs right into you.

[18:44] If that was grandma or a little kid,

[18:45] Poppy would have been dead.

[18:47] Think God, I do work out.

[18:48] I'm pushing back on that SUV screaming at the top of my lung, she yelled at me wondering why I was there.

[18:55] So these are the concerns of us trying to be safe out in the community.

[18:59] With all this fast growth, with all these people coming in, we're supposed to be a melting pot,

[19:03] not different little divisions, a melting pot, where we assimilate and be safe,

[19:08] and be happy and enjoy this wonderful place where we live.

[19:11] Thank you for your time. Have a good day.

[19:13] Thank you. Mark Pritchard, followed by Bo Walker.

[19:20] Good morning, commissioners.

[19:22] Mark Pritchard for the record.

[19:24] I'm an organizer with biggest little action group.

[19:28] Thank you for your service as commissioners to this community.

[19:32] I'm speaking today in response to the Nevada Current Story

[19:35] about the presence of ice in the Washoe County jail

[19:40] and the agreement and the grant that the county has applied

[19:44] for with respect to making the jail facilities

[19:48] more hospitable to ICE.

[19:51] You know, when the public sees through videos taken by citizens on the streets, about the behavior.

[20:00] And what they're doing on orders from above to the immigrants in our country. I think the general impression

[20:11] is a revulsion at the tactics of ICE. I believe they bring a shame upon our country. And that should

[20:20] lead us to question wherever we encounter them, including in our county's relationship with them. So I'm asking

[20:29] a particular question, which is, I know that every relationship with the federal government

[20:34] has an degree of obligatory parts and discretionary parts.

[20:41] And I would like the audit of their relationship with our county to include that question.

[20:46] How much of what the Sheriff's Department and the jail does now with ICE is discretionary?

[20:53] I would like that to be visible on the audit.

[20:56] Thank you for your time.

[20:59] Thank you.

[21:00] Bo Walker, followed by Frank Wright.

[21:11] Hello, commissioners.

[21:12] Staff, thank you very much for allowing me to speak today.

[21:14] I have applied for the open position on the Parks and Open Space Committee.

[21:18] And I just wanted to get in front of you guys and give you a little bit of background about me.

[21:21] I was raised here in Northern Nevada in Washington County.

[21:25] I'm a graduate of Washington City School District.

[21:28] I spent a lot of times on parks and fields growing up.

[21:31] kept me out of a lot of trouble.

[21:33] I say I came from a non-traditional household

[21:35] as kind of a free-range child.

[21:37] And I needed those spaces to kind of teach me the lessons

[21:39] of life.

[21:41] I received a bachelor's degree from the University

[21:43] of Nevada in secondary education.

[21:46] I received two master's degrees, one

[21:47] and athletic administration in coaching

[21:49] and one and educational leadership.

[21:50] I spent 12 years in the classroom, teaching government civics

[21:53] and APUS history.

[21:55] Three years is the dean of students working

[21:57] in student relations, and currently serve

[21:59] as the athletic director at a local high school.

[22:03] I have a strong background in youth engagement and work in recreation and athletics, which aligns

[22:08] very closely with the role of parks and open spaces in our community.

[22:12] I have experienced leading and collaborating with very diverse groups, schools, families

[22:17] and community organizations.

[22:19] I am skilled in long-term planning, policy implementation and stewardship of our community resources

[22:24] I have done throughout my career.

[22:26] The first job by Reheld is working for a city of Reno Parks and Rec.

[22:30] I was lucky enough to work on the Moana Baseball field, which unfortunately no longer exists,

[22:33] but I have some great memories doing that.

[22:35] I also worked at the Idaho wild fields and at Monroe Street Gym.

[22:39] Again, it gave me a place to kind of get away from my household and experience athletics

[22:43] and learn a lot of the lessons I've learned to have taken professional

[22:46] and learned on those fields.

[22:49] I have a deep lifelong connection to Reno and Washington Park System

[22:51] and appreciation for the impact they have on the community, especially on my life.

[22:55] I'm the proud father of three daughters, all are very active in sports, which gives me a really

[23:00] first-hand perspective on the importance of accessible parks for our community.

[23:05] And I'm committed to ensuring equitable access for all of our residents.

[23:09] I'm going to have it outdoors, I'm going to enjoy hunting, fishing, and hiking, most of

[23:12] which I do in Washow County, Northern Washow County, has some of the most beautiful areas

[23:17] in the Western United States, and I love to spend time up there with my family.

[23:21] I believe in sustainability and protecting these open spaces for future generations dedicated

[23:27] to promoting respect and honor and community service as I've done throughout education

[23:32] and in the park system.

[23:34] And then I went back and read some of the past meeting logs.

[23:36] I see there's a problem in South Reno where I live.

[23:38] I live right by White's Creek Park with a place to run your dogs.

[23:42] And I've really struggled with that.

[23:43] And I've illegally run my dogs and at White's Creek Park, which maybe I shouldn't say here.

[23:47] But I understand the importance of needing a space for my active dogs to get off leash and in South

[23:51] Reno we really struggle with that. So I was complaining to my wife about it and she said

[23:55] why don't you get off your rear end and go do something about it. So here I am. I look forward

[23:59] the opportunity to potentially serve you on that committee and thank you so much for your time.

[24:03] Thank you. Frank Wright, followed by Lynette Cardinal.

[24:12] Good morning. Frank Wright, I'm a resident of Incline Village. I'm here to speak about an

[24:19] legal tax fee that is being assessed to all the property owners.

[24:24] This fee is greater than some of the property owners at VORM taxes.

[24:29] I've talked to your district attorney about this.

[24:33] We need help.

[24:35] This is an illegal assessment that has no statutory limit.

[24:40] The amounts that they're charging this year has put a lot of people in financial harm.

[24:46] It's willy-nilly, there's no assessment background for it.

[24:50] They don't go use any kind of financial need.

[24:54] They just make up a number, whatever they can think they can get.

[24:57] They go for it.

[24:58] The money doesn't go to anything that helps.

[25:00] The people that are living there, it's just horrible. It's something that I think the county needs to really, really get involved in for your benefit.

[25:12] I say that you guys are collecting this fee that makes you the getaway driver for a robbery because they are stealing money.

[25:19] I went before the if-good board and I asked him, give me one thing that this was providing my property and my family, nothing, not one thing.

[25:28] They collected, it's not assessed evenly, it's not distributed among the community evenly.

[25:38] One parcel has most of the poor residents in our community, 75 motel or apartment units.

[25:46] They have 75 rec fees and they pay over $105,000 in this rec fee for these people who live

[25:54] there and they can't even enjoy most of the amenities of this thing supposedly as paying

[25:57] for across the street, there's 400 units on one parcel.

[26:03] Both of these are on one parcel.

[26:05] 75 on one, 400 on another one.

[26:08] The one with 400 only pays one rec fee.

[26:13] How can that be?

[26:15] And a system that we have for Edvoir and Taxes

[26:18] where things are assessed by value and have a benchmark

[26:22] understanding.

[26:23] This has no benchmark.

[26:24] This is just thrown out there.

[26:26] It needs to be addressed if it is under fiscal watch by the State to Board of Taxation, the Committee

[26:33] on Local Government Finance, their books are cooked.

[26:36] Everything is screwed up up there.

[26:38] We need help from the county by collecting this tax, you're a eating and a bedding, this

[26:44] collection.

[26:45] It's not right.

[26:47] There are other people that are looking at this as you're probably well aware of by now.

[26:51] And this is not something that's going to have a happy ending.

[26:53] You can be ahead of this and get ahead of this and take care of this or you can ignore it and let it continue.

[27:01] But it will be taken care of in that couple years. I guarantee it. Thank you.

[27:05] Thank you.

[27:06] Lynette Cardinal followed by Ed Powell.

[27:19] Hello, Lynette Cardinal. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.

[27:25] I've been a resident of inclined village since 1992 and I've seen it changed in a direction that is

[27:33] is really not acceptable to the parcel owners.

[27:36] As Frank Wright said, the rect fee has become uncontrollable.

[27:41] We are not a cohesive village anymore.

[27:44] Since COVID-19 people have moved in that are new to the area.

[27:49] They've been propagandized by the, I believe, the board that is in the seats at the moment

[27:59] into thinking other than what incline village really is, we were a cohesive village for parcel owners to maintain the equity for all people that live there.

[28:12] And now this rectee has been outlandishly applied to people who are there living on a fixed income, raising families, and do not have the opportunity to enjoy all the amenities that they are forced to play.

[28:28] And therefore, I feel that it is destructive to the continuity and the vitality of inclined

[28:36] village that is supposed to be a loving and caring community.

[28:41] The trustees have not taken into consideration that they are in fiscal watch.

[28:46] They have added a new building at the beach house for, I believe, 11 between 11 and 12 million

[28:55] dollars without public input.

[28:57] They have raised the rect fee that is unbelievable about 400% on each parcel owner that has

[29:08] has to pay it or they will get a lean on their home.

[29:14] I'd like to bring for you what kind of fee would bring a lean on another person's loan that

[29:21] is not considered to be a tax.

[29:24] It is absolutely abhorrent to the people of incline village.

[29:30] We go before the board, they just do not pay attention, they go, aha, aha, aha,

[29:36] and actually classify the residents that are few as demonized as the ones that are holding

[29:43] back to the community when we were the foundation and the grassroots of that community.

[29:49] It is not a cohesive experience anymore, nor a good experience, to live there under that type of tyranny of government, having...

[30:37] My name is Ed Powell, modifications to the Washow County Detention Facility Funded by an Ice Related Grant need to continue to be topical over the next several months.

[30:50] My current concern is over current ice tactics. I am not sure if these tactics are common in Washow County, but videos from elsewhere in the United States are common.

[31:00] These tactics include masked kidnapping with excessive force, often without a judicial warrant and leading to the disappearance of the subject.

[31:12] I would like to ask the Washer County Board of Commissioners as our elected representatives to pass on to Sheriff Bailum, another affected official elected official.

[31:22] and the Washington-A district attorney also are concerned,

[31:28] displeasure, and revulsion, and such tactics.

[31:32] Please request a statement from the sheriff as to his department's support,

[31:36] or non-support of such tactics here in our county.

[31:41] It would be useful to have such a statement sooner,

[31:43] rather than later, given the apparent criminality of these tactics.

[31:48] Thank you very much.

[31:49] Thank you.

[31:53] Joe Blake's plea?

[32:00] Madam Chairman, members of the Commission, Joe Blakely, speaking for the

[32:05] coalition from Nevada's Wildlife,

[32:09] speaking to the wild horse issue today, which is later

[32:11] on the agenda.

[32:15] I just want to make you aware that we've got a resolution going out to the

[32:19] Congressional Proporation Committee to follow the wild horse and burrow program, specific to

[32:27] Our county, we support a fencing project for public safety to keep the wild horses in

[32:35] Washington County off of the roadways and out of the neighborhood.

[32:40] With that said, we understand that it's a band-aid approach and doesn't solve the underlying

[32:45] population of overpopulation.

[32:49] For instance, the Virginia Range's appropriate management level is 300 to 600 animals, and

[32:55] currently at 4,000 fatality controls likely to be brought up, but that's not a solution.

[33:04] It doesn't reduce the current overpopulation by one single animal.

[33:09] Even if you could do it, it doesn't reduce the population.

[33:14] I mean, if you've got 4,000 animals out there and have a couple of more mirrors, how are

[33:18] you going to get close enough to dark 2,000 mirrors, how are you going to tell which ones

[33:23] I mean, you know, one Bay Horses from another Horses, you know.

[33:32] There are 938 species of wild animals that share the ecosystem.

[33:39] There are 3189 plants, species out there that deserve to have consideration.

[33:45] 39 of them are endangered.

[33:49] Our habitat is being destroyed because we're ignoring all these other plants and animals

[33:55] that deserve recognition over one species that dominates the rest of them.

[34:01] If I had 40 dogs in my backyard, I'd probably get a call from animal control.

[34:09] If I let my real estate become in fester with rats and have some of the water turned

[34:14] off in the rest of the leaking, I'd probably get a condemned.

[34:19] That's what's happening to our public lands.

[34:21] We need to deal with this.

[34:28] Jenny and I did a presentation at NACO last week.

[34:31] There are seven counties in the state that have adopted

[34:33] resolutions of ecological disaster from these animals.

[34:40] The idea that these horses should be wild and free.

[34:42] Sounds great on paper, but it makes a bad as a month since.

[34:46] It's letting mice and rats run wild and free in your kitchen.

[34:50] In closing, please support the fencing for public safety and consider joining the other counties in a resolution of ecological disaster.

[35:00] What's your county has the most animals of any one in the state as far as I know?

[35:05] Thank you. Jenny Lucia, followed by Ronda Ticer.

[35:17] Good morning, Madam Chairman. Other members of the commission.

[35:20] I thank you for allowing me to speak on not only item one, but some federal issues as well.

[35:27] I've got over 18 years of professional experience regarding range land management.

[35:32] and focused mainly on wild horses,

[35:34] feral horses, history horses, whatever you want to call them.

[35:39] I am speaking on behalf of four NGOs.

[35:41] That's the coalition of Nevada's wildlife.

[35:44] Coalition of health, Nevada's land, Nevada wildlife,

[35:48] federally federation, and range land wildlife,

[35:53] wild horses, LLC, in addition to range land scientists here

[35:58] at UNR.

[35:58] We represent tens of thousands of members of members of this county.

[36:05] We absolutely support the continuing fencing project dealing with public safety not only

[36:11] for people but for those animals themselves.

[36:15] We will work closely with the Department of Act to ensure that that continues to be made.

[36:22] Having said that, we also ask that the horses on the state park, park, bird nesting area

[36:29] on the East Side of Washow Valley plus the 100 plus horses in your

[36:33] Andrews Lane that I passed by this morning right next to 395 and also

[36:38] other urban residents and hidden valley, demonic ranch that we talk about

[36:44] relocating those animals once that then seen as completed.

[36:48] We ask that you also prioritize all of the nearly over, as Joel said,

[36:54] There are 2200 species of plants, 39 of them endangered, and also over the 900 species

[37:01] of wildlife that are also affected by the gross overpopulation of these stray horses.

[37:08] We ask that you also be transparent and working with not only the parametribe, but also

[37:14] be a lemon forest service to pay attention to those horse populations that are also increasing

[37:19] that people don't even talk about yet.

[37:21] Those are in cold spring, Spanish springs, those areas, and actually are now being stated that

[37:28] they're part of the Virginia Range, which if you look at the map they're not.

[37:33] Finally, we asked Washow County on the federal level to focus on what Joel spoke about,

[37:40] or at least have a discussion, there's seven counties here in Nevada that have proclaimed

[37:45] an ecological disaster on the federal level due to the gross overpopulation of wild horses.

[37:53] Washington County, you guys, I think you understand, this isn't just about the Virginia

[37:59] range or even the federal horses you've got the pyramid leg and you've got eight herd

[38:04] management areas that are managed by California that those 3800 horses are not even being

[38:10] So this is the time to do at or pass that point.

[38:16] Thank you again.

[38:17] Thank you.

[38:19] Ronda Ticer, followed by Doug Flyherty.

[38:30] Good morning.

[38:32] Today I submit to you the petitions of over 260 inclined village and crystal bay residents.

[38:40] Each of these 260 plus signatures represents a life.

[38:48] They're not just names on a page.

[38:52] They are employees and fathers and mothers and grandparents and retirees.

[38:58] The able, the disabled, the aged and others.

[39:03] They're all who make up our small village of Lake Tahoe.

[39:06] As your constituents today, we are asking for your consideration, and yes, even your compassion.

[39:17] We're asking you to see our faces and feel our concerns.

[39:23] You see, no matter how diligently we create defensible space around our houses,

[39:29] and no matter how thoroughly chief summers and his crew's create defensible space on our public land,

[39:34] The stark reality is that any wildfire that starts in our near incline village of Crystal Bay will force an immediate evacuation.

[39:47] And all of you have heard the same newscasts we have, and are as informed as we are.

[39:54] There's no reason to think we would fare any better than those in love.

[40:02] We all know sudden evacuations are at best, difficult, and dangerous, and at worst deadly.

[40:11] But what you commissioners may not truly get, is that allowing dozens of more residences to be built,

[40:18] and hundreds of more residents to reside, along one of our only two evacuation routes,

[40:25] could very well result in many residents' deaths.

[40:31] Planners' contention, that these tap amendments,

[40:34] increasing affordable housing, will contribute to the health

[40:36] and safety of our residents, is nonsense.

[40:40] Hundreds of thousands of residents burning,

[40:42] or suffocating to death, is as much greater health threat

[40:45] than the poor mental health and physical health

[40:48] of some residents who can't find affordable housing.

[40:52] Inclined villages, geography demands special planning.

[40:55] planning, so I asked you on behalf of not just these 200 signatories, but all our residents

[41:01] to please wait for the IVCB evacuation study now in process and do the proper EIS and evacuation

[41:10] timing and analyses. Get the data to realistically assess the likely effects of the tap of

[41:18] amendments before adopting them.

[41:21] We implore you to wait for the data.

[41:25] It's the right thing to do.

[41:27] And thank you.

[41:28] Thank you.

[41:30] Doug Flerty, followed by Lisa O'Sullivan.

[41:47] Doug Flerty, representing myself as an inclined village resident

[41:50] and Tahoe Clean Air.org.

[41:54] I'll just combine the comments.

[41:56] They're similar.

[41:57] The proposed development code master plan

[42:00] amendment findings and desired outcome is listed within the amendments, our speculative,

[42:06] arbitrary and capricious and created in a manner to, you have unsubstantiated,

[42:13] deference to Warsaw County and TRPA's misleading housing ideology at our highly unlikely

[42:20] to achieve their stated purpose. Moreover, these amendments are highly controversial and do

[42:26] not reflect the community's interest as demonstrated by the approximately as of this morning

[42:31] 262 citizens' petitions and they're still coming in and we only started this last Thursday.

[42:39] These petitions represent significant new substantial evidence citing public safety wildfire

[42:46] evacuation concerns.

[42:49] No government agency, including the TRPA.

[42:54] Worship County has the right to mandate code amendments upon the Worship Tahoe citizen

[42:59] rate, or Worship County, which will make it harder for Worship Tahoe residents to safely

[43:05] evacuate during a wildfire.

[43:08] Based on consistent and substantial public comments, new substantial evidence since the 2021 Tahoe

[43:14] a plan revision including consistent public concerns about traffic congestion and wildfire

[43:19] evacuation risk within the inclined village towns center and surrounding inclined village

[43:25] crystal bay neighborhoods and new significant substantial evidence in the form of approximately

[43:32] 262 petitions we're talking about to be at our being submitted today in opposition to the

[43:44] the new substantial evidence of the independent like Tahoe, based in wildfire evacuation analysis.

[43:52] Any reasonable person may conclude that the proposed amendments are likely to exasperate

[43:58] already unacceptable public barrel evacuation times in and around in line village.

[44:04] This is currently estimated by Worship County to take six hours.

[44:07] The Worship County Constrained Railway System compounded by public parallel effrated interceptions around about choke points, as well as dramatic increases in north and east shore and basin visitors within an adjacent to inclined village town center, as well as crystal bay, significantly heightens public safety evacuation risk, this by degrading current public parallel evacuation time.

[44:32] Thank you. Lisa O'Sullivan, followed by Liz Lord.

[44:45] And thank you for the opportunity to speak.

[44:48] I am here to talk about the negative impact

[44:51] that this fence project, the Nevada Ag fence project,

[44:54] has brought to our valley.

[44:56] I live in Steamboat.

[44:58] And nobody is talking to me.

[45:00] About the added fire danger. The horses have historically been there. They graze, you know, we have very tall, rocky mountains. These horses have done an amazing job over the years, eating down, knee high, flashy fire fuels and obnoxious weeds. The first thing that many of us realized when they put the fences, because they didn't do it on the BLM border that borders the homes.

[45:26] they ended up putting in three quarters of the way up on this big hill.

[45:31] So that leaves 250 acres of BLM land that no longer gets grazed by these horses.

[45:38] It also leaves hundreds of private land.

[45:42] So there was no thought at all to the fire danger that they added.

[45:47] We have target shooting ranges all up above us.

[45:51] On June 7, there was a scanner fire that started at one of them.

[45:55] were just really lucky that it was in a windy day

[45:59] and it was a rocky backdrop, but there's many other sites

[46:03] that people shoot the big metal targets.

[46:06] So we are very concerned and we are asking

[46:09] for help to get a revision to this fence.

[46:12] We want the horses and to do their job.

[46:15] And we also think it's really cruel and inhumane

[46:18] to block them from every water source in our area.

[46:23] South of the fence they can graze, but they're not going to.

[46:27] If there's no water source anywhere around, I don't see how they're going to block them

[46:32] from little washow because this BLM fence went across many our UTV roads where people

[46:40] recreate and they just throw them down.

[46:42] People are not happy that the fence is there.

[46:45] And they open it, they go through, and they don't get out to put it back up.

[46:49] So that allows the horses in.

[46:51] But I just think that, you know, so many of us in the Valley are already worried about

[46:58] fire danger and that this added, you know, this added so much more.

[47:05] I have 19 acres.

[47:06] I have taken down fences and I've seen it firsthand.

[47:10] In April, I can't even walk out on my property by August, they've cleared it and I can

[47:14] actually use my land.

[47:16] So if they're talking about overpopulation right now, they are in our valley, but

[47:21] as soon as the city fence comes in, they won't be able to be there.

[47:25] There are actually 62 on-roads road in the pasture, not 100.

[47:32] And they did an amazing job taking where they're eating down.

[47:35] Last October, a power line came down in there.

[47:38] And thank God they ate it down because there could have been a major fire.

[47:42] It was a very windy day.

[47:44] And luckily it was just smoldering and the fireman came.

[47:48] But thank you.

[47:49] Thank you.

[48:05] Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

[48:08] My name is Liz Lord.

[48:09] I'm a concerns citizen.

[48:11] I'm here to speak about the wild horse situation in our area.

[48:15] One of my main concerns is the wildfire danger that the horses are eating.

[48:22] A few of the range which can help mitigate this.

[48:25] My other concern is the fact that we have been star wild horses from their normal water source.

[48:30] I spoke personally with Governor Limbardo a few months ago, and he said they would be

[48:35] trucking water up to the range for these sources.

[48:38] As of now, I have not seen one sign of this, I hike up in that area.

[48:43] The lakes, they say, are they're in available form or dry at this time of year.

[48:49] If you really love a horse, which a lot of people in here supposedly do, but they have

[48:56] ever seen a horse die or an animal die of dehydration,

[49:00] it's a horrible, horrible death.

[49:02] This is a travesty to these horses.

[49:05] What happened to Nevada's bills protecting our wild animals,

[49:09] which should include the horses, have we become California?

[49:13] Have we done, do we not care about our wildlife anymore?

[49:17] I've heard stories about hunting horses now.

[49:19] People going out and allowing people to go hunt horses.

[49:23] I hope that's a fallacy.

[49:25] A bill to fund overpasses to protect people and the wild animals or accidents is being held up in the Senate, I believe I could be wrong about this, but this is what I understand.

[49:39] Please help our forces. They were here a long time before we were. If you look into the eyes of a horse and you will see their beautiful soul, you would not want to destroy them and the fertility program is working.

[49:52] Thank you for your time.

[49:53] Thank you. Penny Brock followed by Richard Miner.

[50:27] For the record, as you know, Nevada has been investigated by the Department of Justice and some other federal government agencies for 2020 elections.

[50:40] I believe it will trickle down into Washington County and in this presentation I will show why.

[50:49] Think about what is already known about local elections in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and West Constant.

[50:56] And all of the voting manipulation was done on a county and local level.

[51:01] Maricopa County Arizona was a key focal point in these exact voting issues during

[51:06] the audit.

[51:08] Now consider when the HISS says exploitation of these dominion voting system vulnerabilities,

[51:17] what require physical access to individual image-caused X devices access to the election

[51:23] management system or at the ability to modify files when they are uploaded to image cast

[51:31] x devices. We have all of these in our elections department down the hall. We can check

[51:37] each of these three points affirmally to know what is known about voting manipulation. Yes,

[51:44] local election officials had physical access to these devices. Yes, local election officials

[51:50] had access to the election management system.

[51:54] And yes, local, our local election officials

[51:57] have the ability to modify these files all through these

[52:01] apply to our elections department down the hall.

[52:04] When you recognize the already alarming efforts

[52:06] of local election officials to manipulate the outcome,

[52:11] what the CISA advisory is factually stating

[52:14] is that the system has been built in vulnerabilities

[52:18] that permit local election officials to modify the voting outcome on electronic machines.

[52:28] That is exactly the claim that it's been made of all the election integrity groups

[52:33] who have been raising the alarms along the around the country.

[52:39] This notification is affirming the local election officials can indeed manipulate the electronic voting machine outcomes.

[52:49] How is Nevada Washow County involved in this?

[52:54] Well, out of this article, which CNN published,

[52:59] it shows that Washow County, right here.

[53:02] This is a picture out of Washow County.

[53:05] A ballot tabulator using Dominion Voting System

[53:08] has seen as a Washow County voting register gave press,

[53:13] a press tour of their facility and explain the process

[53:17] ahead of the midterm elections April of 22.

[53:22] Thank you.

[53:24] Richard Meiner.

[53:37] Good morning commissioners.

[53:40] Later today, under agenda item 16,

[53:46] you will be given an opportunity to vote on approving

[53:50] or not changes to the Tahoe area plan for

[53:55] for Washow County,

[53:59] but in addition to voting yes or no, you have a third choice, and that

[54:06] would be to table your decision until the evacuation study for which the county has already

[54:16] received over $170,000 in the donation to run its course.

[54:26] That study is expected to take about a year from now to be completed.

[54:31] And will be the first really comprehensive publicly supported study of wildfire evacuation

[54:44] from the Lake Tahoe Basin. To me, and probably most common sense observers, it's a no-brainer,

[54:54] to table or otherwise postpone your area.

[55:00] Plan revisions until this study can be completed. The lives of hundreds of North Lake Tahoe residents and thousands of visitors could be in your hands.

[55:16] Thank you for thinking seriously about postponing that decision today. Thank you.

[55:23] Thank you. We have nobody else signed in and chambers. We do have emails to be placed on the record.

[55:32] Thank you. All right. We will now move into item four ACM Slero. Good morning. Item number

[55:40] four commissioners, county managers and announcements reports and updates to includes boards,

[55:45] commission updates request for information or topics for future agendas and I do have just a couple

[55:49] for you. As I mentioned earlier on item 3, item 16 will be a virtual public comment available

[55:57] in incline village. If anybody would like to take us up on that. Just as well, a reminder

[56:03] that the incline village general improvement district general manager will be here on September

[56:08] 16 to provide a report to you all. And then the final reminder is that we will have a special

[56:14] presentation on the state of the county on September 2nd in this chambers. The event is called

[56:20] wash-out work serving our community and will be a series of videos highlighting key areas

[56:25] of the strategic plan. The meeting is noticed to begin at 11 a.m. which will be immediately following

[56:30] the Board of Fire Commissioners, a meeting allows to excuse me, have public comment and then we'll

[56:37] go into recess for a two o'clock showing of that where all of the commissioners will be in

[56:44] So, again, we will also have ARPA funding recipients out in the lobby.

[56:51] So, if anybody from the public really wants to understand where the ARPA dollars have gone to help our community,

[56:56] some of those organizations will be available to provide that information.

[56:59] So, that's what I have for you today.

[57:00] Thank you very much, Commissioner Garcia.

[57:04] Okay.

[57:04] Commissioner Andrea Dreola.

[57:07] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[57:08] I want to share one of the actually two of the public commenters already shared this, but I am on the

[57:19] NACO board along with Vice Chair Herman, and during the one of the committee's public lands and there was a presentation that was

[57:34] coalition for Nevada's wild life is considering and asking the 17 counties on those 7 counties

[57:42] of already signed on to look at a resolution declaring a state of emergency resulting from

[57:48] noncompliance with the 1971 free roaming wild horse boroughs act is written and amended.

[57:54] And there are, and I'm happy to provide this to staff, but there are over 120 organizations,

[58:02] including the seven that were already noted, and I would like to ask that we look into this,

[58:08] and we look at having this agenda is for consideration by the board to adopt this resolution,

[58:17] and so that's a request, a agenda request.

[58:23] And then I almost feel like I can't go without sharing Christmas and August.

[58:30] So yesterday, as if everyone doesn't know, I will share that the State of Nevada has been chosen by the Forestry Service to have the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree.

[58:45] There's been a lot of activity including ornaments and each county made a tree skirt and that's been turned in.

[58:52] But yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Service,

[58:57] along with Nevada Lieutenant Governor Stavros, Anthony,

[59:01] and the Division of Outdoor Regret Recreation announced

[59:06] a fourth-grader essay contest for Nevada fourth-graders.

[59:12] The details are available on the Forest Service website

[59:16] And the due date for this mission is September 15th.

[59:22] The lucky fourth grader who wins the essay contest will be flown to DC and be able to light the Nevada Christmas tree.

[59:32] This is the first time that Nevada has been chosen in the history since the 1960s of a state being chosen to be represented at the US Capitol during the holidays.

[59:42] So I want to make sure all fourth graders and their parents as well and schools

[59:49] I've sent this to all the schools that you could imagine and I'm hoping that we can continue to spread the word

[59:55] So again Christmas and August. I love it. What an incredible it is

[1:00:00] It's been amazing. And if you want to see all the activities throughout Nevada, you can go on to the social media site, U.S. Capitol Christmas tree, and you'll see all kinds of different activities of the entire state of Nevada coming together to represent the Silver State.

[1:00:17] That's so great. Commissioner Clerk.

[1:00:20] Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I'll be brief this morning. I just want to thank everyone that comes down to our county commission meetings and offers a public conversation.

[1:00:29] opinion. It's very important for us to hear what the public is thinking about all the issues.

[1:00:36] Sometimes we don't like what we hear, but sometimes we need to hear things from the public.

[1:00:42] So thank you for everyone who has made public comment today.

[1:00:46] Next, I would like to talk about a phone call I got early this morning from a board member of the Senior,

[1:00:58] board, letting me know about certain seniors are kind of afraid to go into the senior center

[1:01:06] of right across the parking lot here. They drive up, they get out of the car, they walk in,

[1:01:10] they see some activity that they don't find appealing and leave. So our seniors are being forced

[1:01:17] out of here and the allegations are folks from the homeless folks are taking over the senior

[1:01:23] center and as we've been reported to many times that a large number of the folks at the senior

[1:01:30] center or at the CARES campus are seniors and I'd like the county to explore putting in senior

[1:01:37] activities at the CARES campus. So the seniors that are housed there can have activities

[1:01:43] right there on their campus versus coming around across town to come over here. So again I'd

[1:01:50] to ask the county to look into that,

[1:01:55] and then lastly, there was an article in one of the

[1:01:58] local publications, Pecan Press this week, which was supported by a county documents,

[1:02:04] which I shared with the press about our meeting last week when we donated money to the

[1:02:20] phone call and threatened all the commissioners and also threatened to run over people that

[1:02:25] they saw on motorcycles. I'd like to ask the county to look into that further, both the

[1:02:29] sheriff's department and the DA's office and find out if they sent us threat electronically,

[1:02:36] let's find out who sent that threat and send somebody out from the law enforcement community

[1:02:43] and talk to these folks because when somebody makes a threat that they're going to step on the

[1:02:50] cycle.

[1:02:51] I think the public needs to be aware and understand that this may or may not happen,

[1:02:57] but so many times when we hear about acts of violence in the country, people have talked

[1:03:04] about it in advance, people have shared what they are going to do, and then later on

[1:03:09] they are involved in some type of mass violence situation.

[1:03:13] So I'd like to have the county take charge of this and find out who this person is and

[1:03:19] If I know what their agenda really is, so please, if we can have that looked into.

[1:03:25] Thank you.

[1:03:26] Thank you very much.

[1:03:28] And I just wanted to point out to members who are concerned about the use of the detention

[1:03:34] facility and the county's relationship with ICE.

[1:03:38] We will be having a presentation by the sheriff on his quarterly report of the detention

[1:03:45] facilities so that will be September 9th and it will be a presentation so if you want to tune

[1:03:52] into that meeting please do and if that is it then I just found out from the clerk that we

[1:03:59] somehow missed a public commenter from Geralach who has been waiting at the library so I'd like to

[1:04:05] bring them back for item three and then we will move into our presentations. Thank you very much

[1:04:12] Madam Clerk.

[1:04:16] We have Christie Evans and girl lock.

[1:04:20] Hi, everyone.

[1:04:21] Can you hear me out in there?

[1:04:22] Yes, we can.

[1:04:24] Awesome.

[1:04:24] So for the record, Christie Evans, I'm a resident out here in girl lock.

[1:04:28] I really appreciate you taking my comment.

[1:04:31] I just wanted to join in this morning as you all know, it is burning man time out here.

[1:04:37] And we have been in touch with our county commission support team about an agenda item for

[1:04:44] upcoming citizens advisory board meeting and I just want to make the commissioners aware

[1:04:50] because we're going to be requesting some additional support in the future from the county out

[1:04:56] here specifically in circumstances where

[1:05:00] Whether like rain closes the play at access in the town of Gerlock is under pretty stressed situations with people around here.

[1:05:10] And the main issues that we are addressing is traffic management and sanitation.

[1:05:16] We simply don't have enough restrooms out here to handle the influx of hundreds and possibly thousands of people who are stuck.

[1:05:24] So, we understand, and I just want to say for the record, I'm not against burning

[1:05:29] man, it's a very important economic driver in our community.

[1:05:33] But what we are going to be looking to is additional support from the county when these

[1:05:38] often predictable situations arrive like rain.

[1:05:42] So I just want to make you all aware, and hopefully at least Commissioner Herman and maybe

[1:05:47] some others of you can attend our cab meeting on September 11th, because we definitely want

[1:05:52] to get more of your support in the future.

[1:05:54] And that's all I had.

[1:05:55] Thank you.

[1:05:57] Thank you, Ms. Evans.

[1:05:59] Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[1:06:01] I mean, I had meant to say we're going into our proclamation

[1:06:04] and then our presentation.

[1:06:05] So we'll now move into item five for proclamation.

[1:06:09] This is five A1, Mr. Slayer.

[1:06:11] Item five A1 is a proclamation to proclaim

[1:06:14] the month of August as the emergency management

[1:06:17] awareness month.

[1:06:18] Looks like commissioner Garcia will get on and read the proclamation.

[1:06:21] and we have the team from emergency management here

[1:06:23] are small but mighty team to accept that.

[1:06:32] Thank you for being here today.

[1:06:38] Whereas, Washow County has committed

[1:06:39] to the safety security and resilience

[1:06:41] of his residents, businesses, and visitors,

[1:06:44] and whereas emergencies and disasters

[1:06:46] whether natural technological or human cause

[1:06:49] can strike at any time requiring coordinated preparedness,

[1:06:52] response recovery and mitigation efforts.

[1:06:55] And whereas the Washow County Emergency Management

[1:06:57] and Homeland Security Program in collaboration with local, state, tribal, and federal partners,

[1:07:02] please, a vital role in planning for and responding to emergencies that impact our community.

[1:07:08] And whereas emergency management professionals work tirelessly to build community resilience,

[1:07:14] educate the public and ensure that critical infrastructure and essential services are protected

[1:07:18] and restored quickly following a disaster. And whereas public awareness, individual preparedness,

[1:07:23] and community engagement are essential components of a strong emergency management system.

[1:07:28] And finally, whereas recognizing August as emergency management awareness month provides

[1:07:33] an opportunity to highlight the importance of preparedness, honor the work of those in emergency

[1:07:38] management, and encourage all residents to take proactive steps to protect themselves, their families

[1:07:43] and their neighborhoods.

[1:07:44] So on behalf of the Washingtonie Board of County Commissioners, we hear by proclaim the

[1:07:48] month of August as emergency management awareness month.

[1:07:51] Absolutely.

[1:07:52] Thank you for your great work and we'd love to hear from you if you have anything to say

[1:08:00] All right, thank you county commissioners

[1:08:03] Emergency management is one of those professions that is often behind the scenes, but we just appreciate the recognition to share awareness about emergency management

[1:08:13] So just thank you so much and your name for the record. I'm sorry for the record just got them folks. Thank you

[1:08:20] Well, thank you so much

[1:08:22] Do you want to say anything else?

[1:08:25] Okay.

[1:08:25] All right.

[1:08:26] Wonderful.

[1:08:27] Thank you so much for all you do and be prepared.

[1:08:30] Make a plan, right?

[1:08:32] Okay.

[1:08:33] Yeah.

[1:08:34] Stay informed.

[1:08:36] Thank you, team.

[1:08:37] Okay.

[1:08:38] We will now move into our presentations.

[1:08:42] Excuse me.

[1:08:43] Proclamations.

[1:08:44] We need to make a motion on that.

[1:08:47] Commissioner Garcia was that in the form of a motion.

[1:08:50] And I'm looking for a second.

[1:08:51] I'd like to thank you, Commissioner Andrew.

[1:08:53] Madam Clerk is there any public comment on that item.

[1:08:56] There is none.

[1:08:57] Okay, we have a motion and a second.

[1:08:59] All those in favor, please say aye.

[1:09:01] Aye.

[1:09:01] Any opposed, please say nay.

[1:09:04] And that motion passes unanimously.

[1:09:06] Thank you very much.

[1:09:07] Now we'll move into six A1, Mr. Slayer.

[1:09:10] All right, item six A1 is a presentation

[1:09:12] and a possible discussion with the Washoe County

[1:09:15] and Cessor, Mr. Chris Sermon.

[1:09:16] So, do you know what I mean?

[1:09:17] Welcome.

[1:09:18] We've been looking forward to this presentation.

[1:09:20] Good morning, yeah, okay.

[1:09:25] Chair Hill, commissioners, staff, good morning,

[1:09:27] yes, wash accounting, assessor Chris Sarmann.

[1:09:30] Happy to be here today, so thank you for the opportunity.

[1:09:33] I certainly think as an elected official

[1:09:34] that it's important that we can present to you

[1:09:37] the state of our office and to the public as well.

[1:09:40] I think with ongoing discussions of expenses revenues,

[1:09:44] ultimately budgets, that we have a small discussion

[1:09:47] on the dynamics of property tax.

[1:09:49] So that's what we're here to do today as we move forward.

[1:09:52] So as you know, our office is foundational for the funding

[1:09:56] of essential services.

[1:09:58] So we'll start there.

[1:10:00] The assessors office is essential, right? Washington County was established in 1861. The Washington County assessors office, 1861. Before we were a state, our office was created.

[1:10:12] The Nevada Constitution adopted in 1864. Of course, we're article 10 within that constitution. So again, being defined by those provisions of Nevada law, we believe, you know, we are an essential service that was enacted to support essential services.

[1:10:27] We know that 52 percent of the revenue from the General Fund.

[1:10:30] It stems from our office.

[1:10:34] Because of those interest, we have, we're involved across the state, right?

[1:10:40] Not just with our county, but because we're defined by statute, because we're essential.

[1:10:45] We're working not just within the county or municipalities, but across the state,

[1:10:48] Department of Taxation.

[1:10:50] We're working with the Tax Commission, of course, legislation.

[1:10:55] As we look at legislation, let's look at what we are bound to do by statute.

[1:11:03] If you guys want to go through our book, this is our Bible.

[1:11:06] I know I only have 10 minutes, so we'll get through one page if you want to do that.

[1:11:10] But it's big and so let's just summarize that for you.

[1:11:14] Our deities to discover list and value all property that's objective taxation unless it's

[1:11:19] otherwise exempt and we can go through some of those exemptions hopefully.

[1:11:22] We are to provide for a just valuation with the uniform and equal rate of assessment.

[1:11:27] We want to be fair and equitable.

[1:11:30] So, stemming from that mission is our, that's, that's story, duty is our mission.

[1:11:34] We want to efficiently produce the managed fair and equitable values that are built upon

[1:11:38] accurate property records by an impartial transparent and courteous staff.

[1:11:42] A lot of awesome and important words within that mission.

[1:11:45] One of the, I think some of the best words there are courteous staff.

[1:11:48] We have an amazing staff that does a lot of things.

[1:11:51] So let's talk about that.

[1:11:55] As we meet that mission, as we meet that duty,

[1:11:57] as our staff performs the work that they're doing,

[1:12:00] we have some really, some big numbers here, right?

[1:12:03] So we have 192,000 parcels in which we are performing

[1:12:08] the discovery listing valuation process upon,

[1:12:12] as a result of doing that.

[1:12:14] We are producing and managing maintaining an asset base

[1:12:18] of about $95 billion.

[1:12:20] It's a big value. It's taxable value. This year we threw our re-a-paisal process. We put on about

[1:12:27] $1.7 billion. That's just through the market variables that exist in a

[1:12:32] praisal. Another $1.8 billion that was through our discovery process, whether

[1:12:37] that was through permits, whether that was through our error review. In total,

[1:12:41] it's about $3.5 billion that we added to the role as a new taxable value. It's a big number.

[1:12:47] jump it into our personal property accounts or business accounts. We have about 30,000 of those and that doesn't really fluctuate a whole lot

[1:12:53] year over year, which is kind of interesting

[1:12:55] but overall it's about $5 billion as well. The $1.9 billion that you see that that's a little

[1:13:02] deceptive, a business's come, businesses go, new assets are rolled and so it does represent the amount of work that our staff is doing but

[1:13:10] it's not necessarily your over year that you're seeing that additional value.

[1:13:15] So, what does value mean in terms of revenue?

[1:13:17] Let's look at that.

[1:13:18] So, the treasure billed about $811 million this year that stem from property tax.

[1:13:25] This year, when we looked at that 1.7, and that 1.8, that 3.5 overall,

[1:13:29] billion resulted in about $54 million of new taxes added.

[1:13:35] That's number, of course, doesn't represent it of the

[1:13:38] pavement set up in this year.

[1:13:39] The exemptions set up in this year.

[1:13:41] And those are some big numbers as well, right?

[1:13:43] We've got about $244 million that's been abated.

[1:13:47] We have about $128 million that's been exempted.

[1:13:51] We'll go through that hopefully.

[1:13:54] So, in arriving at those numbers, how are we doing that?

[1:13:58] Well, when we talked about that appraisal process,

[1:14:00] when we talked about those market values,

[1:14:02] we're reappraising every year on an annual basis,

[1:14:05] the $192,000.

[1:14:07] That's where that's coming from.

[1:14:09] When we're looking at that new value,

[1:14:11] We're looking at new processes that were created about 1700.

[1:14:14] We evaluated 24,000 permits, 23,000 parcels records that we looked at through our review process.

[1:14:23] We did audits, 260 of those resulted in big numbers as well.

[1:14:29] And so as we're doing that, we defined a lot of what we do is in the success of doing that,

[1:14:34] through our appeals, and if you look at 139 appeals across 180,000 parcels, across 30,000

[1:14:42] accounts, it's a 0.07% we're doing a fantastic job, we believe. So it's something to be proud

[1:14:50] of for our office. Some other big numbers, the 25,000 transfers that were processed, that's

[1:14:55] sales transfers, right? So we, our staff looks at the ownership.

[1:15:00] Legal descriptions make sure that that's all accurate. It's not the recorder, but our office that's doing that.

[1:15:05] And then our presalt team is looking at what the market value of that is through those cells.

[1:15:10] 800,000 visits to our website. That's a big, big number of people love our website everywhere I go, everywhere I talk to, they love the website, right?

[1:15:17] We get a lot of hits on that.

[1:15:20] At the big number, 255,000 mailings, we all know how expensive mailing is, are right now.

[1:15:27] There's a way to eliminate that, let me know.

[1:15:31] We can talk through it.

[1:15:32] All that work is being done by how many people, 63 full-time employees of our office.

[1:15:37] That's down from 85, which is prior to the recession.

[1:15:41] 59 employees in 2012.

[1:15:43] And so we're doing a lot of work with relatively small amount of full-time employees.

[1:15:49] But we're proud of that.

[1:15:52] At the top of our org chart, we put the public first, we work for them.

[1:15:56] Of course, coming off to that, something from isn't about a law.

[1:15:59] We're administrators of that law.

[1:16:01] I'm an elected official who is a ministry of that law.

[1:16:05] Following down through that chain of our org chart,

[1:16:08] there are organizations we've divided that into two sections.

[1:16:11] It's really kind of defined here for us and statute.

[1:16:14] We have our appraisal sections,

[1:16:16] and then we have our support services that come from it whether it's mapping and then of course

[1:16:21] exemptions of baby and so kinds of things.

[1:16:24] And we have our own tech team, our sister tech team, that's our department programming

[1:16:28] costing, they do a lot for us as well.

[1:16:34] What's it cost for that staff, our budget's 9.4, 9.5 million dollars, it's interesting in

[1:16:41] our office.

[1:16:41] I've heard that you guys have the discussions about 80% kind of being the number of labor

[1:16:46] cost and our office is about 91%. So, 9% of it is left for, you know, paper, pencils, whatever

[1:16:52] dust, everything computers, right? Well, we have some tech fund for that, but ultimately,

[1:16:57] we're at 91% of our total cost is tied to labor.

[1:17:04] What's it all mean? From a different

[1:17:06] lens of, I guess, business model, right? We know what our investment is. We know that our

[1:17:12] budget is about $9.46 million. We know what the benefit is. We put $54 million on to the

[1:17:18] role as year-to-year new taxes, I want to point out that that is a human effect, too, right?

[1:17:24] Dictionary, that's going to be 108 million, and it's built and built and built.

[1:17:28] So when we look at that ROI for our office as a whole, it's about 4% and it's a nice number.

[1:17:38] We're still doing more or less, obviously that's the direction we've been doing since I put

[1:17:43] up there established in 2012 because we really have, you know, when back to the recession

[1:17:48] And then what we had to do when we've done to come forward with that is a lot.

[1:17:52] This year, we've restructured our office a little bit.

[1:17:55] We've had a lot of retirements.

[1:17:56] A lot of institutional knowledge has been lost.

[1:17:59] So we've been able to fulfill those positions with some really

[1:18:02] calls by people's knowledgeable skill sets.

[1:18:05] We're doing a lot of cross trading.

[1:18:07] And obviously with technology that advances, we're still trying to do a lot of training.

[1:18:12] And we might still see some of those reclassifications going forward as well.

[1:18:16] The technological developing programming, I just want to point out that you guys are aware that

[1:18:21] our tech services team, well, we had won the National Award or took there or something

[1:18:26] like that for the digital service, a lot of that we believe, apart of that anyways,

[1:18:34] it comes from our team, we built, we're looking at AI, we're doing some really cool things

[1:18:38] with AI, we're streamlining processes, we're automating, and we got a lot of work to do

[1:18:43] that. And it's some pretty exciting stuff as we move forward. Ultimately it's automation

[1:18:50] right we're trying to get to that. And it doesn't take away from the duties of our office

[1:18:56] or necessarily eliminate, but it does kind of change I think the skill sets. So more to

[1:19:04] come on that as we as we go. Something I think is really cool because we have to. We built

[1:19:10] some internal ways on teams, so that are, you know, for example, we have a technology

[1:19:16] liaison team, that's not necessarily their title, but allowing our assessor tech programmers

[1:19:24] to actually program, we have, we utilize certain people in our office that are tech savvy to be able

[1:19:30] to help people that computers and phones that sort of thing, same thing with communication, right,

[1:19:35] as things come down from other departments whether it's language accessibility, something like

[1:19:39] that we have built this communication liaison team to kind of help with that.

[1:19:45] So, trying to build relationships always, I guess.

[1:19:49] I'm Chris Armin.

[1:19:51] Doing more of the lessons going forward.

[1:19:53] We're still trying to build out an appraisal team.

[1:19:56] We're trying to build an internal audit team.

[1:19:59] We think the other-

[1:20:00] There's actually some really good ROI with that. I mean, you've already seen what it looks like as an office as a whole.

[1:20:06] So, anything that we're requesting, I think, really, we could look at that and say, okay, what does that look like in terms of revenue?

[1:20:12] We don't want, obviously, we need to stay within the realm of our statutes, and we still need to remain fair and equitable, but there are still some opportunities I think that exist.

[1:20:23] We're still going to be developing deploying new technologies that put up here.

[1:20:28] It's expensive, right?

[1:20:30] I mean, we can't get away from the fact that technology is expensive.

[1:20:33] And I just want to point out, I've always said, and I'm going to continue to say, I think

[1:20:38] that for every convenience, sometimes there's an equal and opposite inconvenience, right?

[1:20:41] And technology sometimes does that.

[1:20:43] Sometimes it's open up to this window or you've got to have more training or whatever it might

[1:20:47] be.

[1:20:47] Technology is really cool, but in a lot of cases, it creates inconvenience too.

[1:20:51] So just to think about legislative changes, I just want to point out AGR1, I mean these are these are the types of things that can really impact our office from efficiencies are new laws, right?

[1:21:04] And this year every year their legislations in place we're looking at maybe watching 30, 30 bills, maybe it's a confidentiality bill, maybe it's a senior exemption bill, maybe it's something.

[1:21:16] This year we had HDR1, which is a reset of depreciation, I know a lot of people support that from that look from our office.

[1:21:23] There has a lot of questions and concerns, especially with deficiencies.

[1:21:28] Just because it becomes more complex.

[1:21:30] But AB3-77 is one that did pass, and I want to point this one out.

[1:21:36] This one is really cool.

[1:21:39] Ultimately, we have a famous in our office that people can apply for a 3% primary tax cap on their residence.

[1:21:46] at the stands and stats you, they need to apply for that.

[1:21:50] So a lot of times we go by a house,

[1:21:52] they go through the whole closing process,

[1:21:55] they go through title, they get a piece of mail from our office,

[1:21:59] they throw it away, they don't look at it,

[1:22:00] and then 10 years later they say, wait a minute,

[1:22:02] hey, I'm supposed to have to count.

[1:22:04] So what AB 377 does is it's removed that burden

[1:22:07] from that taxpayer, and now we're putting

[1:22:10] out on the declaration of value.

[1:22:12] So now they're going to be sitting there,

[1:22:13] closing, they can actually fill that form out on that declaration of value, we don't have

[1:22:18] a record of that, and it saves us from having to send out 20,000 mailers, which saves us

[1:22:23] money, right? So it's a win, win, win for everybody, and I think there's all sorts of different

[1:22:29] ideas that could still apply in that fashion. So just wanted to point that out, I think that was

[1:22:33] a really cool one, where we got, I don't know where I'm out in time, but if you take a ways in the

[1:22:40] Of course, again, we're essential.

[1:22:42] I think investments will improve returns.

[1:22:46] We've always been physically responsible.

[1:22:48] We're doing more with less, changes the only constant.

[1:22:50] And as we work through these changes,

[1:22:52] we just ask for your support when we come in front of you.

[1:22:57] She goes, I want to talk about abatement exemptions.

[1:23:00] I've kind of outlined that here.

[1:23:02] There's all sorts of different kinds of abatements.

[1:23:03] Don't be confused by just the tax cap.

[1:23:06] That's just one abatement.

[1:23:07] There's other abatements for energy and lead abatement,

[1:23:10] economic abatements.

[1:23:11] It's the same thing with the exemptions.

[1:23:14] You have some personal exemptions, whether you're a veteran, blind, or surviving spouse, government

[1:23:19] exemptions, of course, airports one, though, that we should probably talk about at some

[1:23:24] point in time whether it's the city of Reno or us or somebody, but when you're looking

[1:23:28] at the airport land, it's its own taxing authority by statute, and they're not actually

[1:23:34] taxing the buildings that exist there, whether it's the FedEx building or something

[1:23:39] that nature, right?

[1:23:40] I think that maybe there's an escaping attack station,

[1:23:43] that could be looked at.

[1:23:43] I mean, they're at least in the land, of course.

[1:23:45] But just certain things like that,

[1:23:46] and I don't want to go into too much detail.

[1:23:50] But, in the West, there's non-profits

[1:23:52] and economic exemptions as well.

[1:23:55] So that's it.

[1:23:55] Thank you.

[1:23:58] Any questions?

[1:23:59] That was a great presentation

[1:24:01] and your office seems fascinating.

[1:24:03] You do a lot of history and planning and development

[1:24:06] and investigation, and you've got people out in the field, it seems really interesting.

[1:24:13] And I have a few questions, but I want Commissioner Clark to start because he used to be in your shoes,

[1:24:17] and I know this is a passion of his, so Commissioner Clark.

[1:24:21] Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for your presentation. It's a long overdue of my opinion.

[1:24:26] And I think a lot of folks don't really realize what is taking place in that department of years.

[1:24:33] You know, we've got seven elected positions here in the county, county-wide positions, the district attorney, the sheriff, the public administrator, the recorder, obviously the assessor, the treasurer of the clerk.

[1:24:48] I mean, you could go through life if you're real lucky and not have any interaction with the sheriff.

[1:24:54] And not have any interaction with the DEA and not have any interaction with the recorder or maybe...

[1:25:00] In the clerk, but everybody, and I mean everybody in this county has some interaction with the assessor's office, and folks that don't even live in this county have interaction with the assessor's office.

[1:25:13] If somebody gets in their car today and drives from Chicago and makes it out to Washow County and stops and has a flat tire and gets their tire fix or stops and buys a meal or stays overnight in a hotel.

[1:25:26] All of those folks are having an interaction with personal property and or real property, landlords, tenants,

[1:25:36] everybody, business owners, people who go into store and buy something.

[1:25:41] All of those personal property, the store fixtures, the tanning booths, the pizza ovens, the forks, the shot glasses,

[1:25:49] the flat screen TVs, the bed spreads, the pillows, every single thing in this county is subject

[1:25:56] to taxation.

[1:25:58] You know, it rolls off the ton real fast when you say it, but if you really dissect what

[1:26:03] you said here, we're here to discover, list and discover, make a list of and value all property

[1:26:12] that is subject to taxation, unless exempt, and that's probably this building would be a good

[1:26:18] sample of that and government and schools and police department and sheriff's department.

[1:26:24] There are things that are exempt, but everything else, people don't realize forks and

[1:26:28] knives and everything that you use in a restaurant is subject to taxation.

[1:26:34] Everything.

[1:26:35] And that casket's passed along to the consumer somehow or another.

[1:26:39] And so that's what I mean by everybody's connected with this.

[1:26:42] Next year department values all of this and it ends up, you know, once it gets distilled

[1:26:50] and processed and worked through the systems, through the treasure's office, you're responsible

[1:26:56] for 52% of everything that the county is able to pay for.

[1:27:02] And it's important to note, and this presentation you talked about, the added value, I keep

[1:27:10] I'm harping about that. I'm hearing people look at me like I'm making this up, but if you look at this,

[1:27:15] the numbers that you bring in with new construction and properties that are permitted,

[1:27:23] and properties that may be somehow another, something escape taxation, maybe they put it in a new fence,

[1:27:30] maybe they put it in, maybe they drilled a well, things you can't even see from with the naked eye from above ground,

[1:27:36] You're still involved because it's an improvement to the property, the number of properties,

[1:27:42] and how you're able to manage all these properties for about $50 a piece.

[1:27:46] We talked the other day about how you had time and time again, big corporations come into

[1:27:52] this very chamber and to the board of equalization and trying to get their values reduced.

[1:27:58] And sooner or later, you need to get an outside company to come in and do an appraisal, so

[1:28:04] It isn't just you versus the big corporation.

[1:28:07] You told me about Walmart getting one of their,

[1:28:10] just one of their buildings of praise folks,

[1:28:12] costs $30,000.

[1:28:15] Is that correct?

[1:28:15] Is that right, number?

[1:28:17] Yeah, correct.

[1:28:18] Spanned upon that, or yeah, there's $30,000,

[1:28:21] so Walmart is everybody's familiar with Walmart.

[1:28:26] They've appealed their values for the last 10 years.

[1:28:30] And we've had a lot of success

[1:28:31] upholding our values at the state and the county level

[1:28:33] for that. This last year had at state, those values were reduced and right. So we had to look

[1:28:40] at it from a standpoint of, okay, now this has been established as a big box retail type

[1:28:46] building. There's value being lost out of revenue, right? And so from a fair and equitable

[1:28:51] ability standpoint, we had to make that stand. So we got that vehicle done. Had we not

[1:28:55] done that, we would have seen the Costco's, the Home Depot's, all those values would

[1:29:00] came down, which is a cost to the counties.

[1:29:03] So we hired outside consulted to make this point,

[1:29:06] and as a $30,000 bill, right?

[1:29:09] So when you look at the work we're dealing,

[1:29:11] we're not charging $30,000 a property,

[1:29:14] if that's where you're going out with that.

[1:29:16] And I wanted to public to understand that for $59 or $52,

[1:29:21] whatever shows on your side, we need to divide your budget

[1:29:23] over the vast number of properties that you're in charge

[1:29:29] of praising, I mean, just a residential appraisal these days, or we'll put $1,000, and so

[1:29:35] if you had to reappraise all of the 192,380 parcels, I mean, that's a serious, that's billions

[1:29:45] of dollars just to have the data that you have at your fingertips, and to be able to do

[1:29:51] with the staff that is less than before the COVID and less than before the great economic.

[1:30:00] Turnedown, and yet the size of the percentage is grown by what's the percentage of the growth

[1:30:07] here in the last seven or eight years, 10 years here.

[1:30:11] Well, I could tell you that from the asset, we're looking at 95 billion. I know that back in 2012,

[1:30:17] now economic components tied to that, but that was about 50 billion. So we've doubled the asset base over

[1:30:24] over the last, basically, 10-plus years.

[1:30:27] So double the workload.

[1:30:29] Yeah, double the amount of valuation, probably.

[1:30:35] And with the same amount of folks

[1:30:37] and so I'm trying to appealing to my fellow commissioners

[1:30:42] and to the other folks at the budget of departments here,

[1:30:46] when you need an extra two or three people

[1:30:48] to keep everything running smoothly,

[1:30:51] this isn't just building an empire.

[1:30:54] this is something that is needed, the workload, I mean, there's a point in time where people

[1:30:59] get demoralized if they have to work too much, and you need to have staff that can fill

[1:31:04] in.

[1:31:04] And the return on investment, their paycheck versus what they bring in, is Bill, hundreds

[1:31:10] of millions of dollars if you have the extra couple of folks.

[1:31:14] I'm trying to help you get ready for the budget season with that, but you're doing a great

[1:31:19] job.

[1:31:20] And I think the public, and everybody in the county and everybody who benefits from anything

[1:31:26] that the county does should look at the foundational basis of it.

[1:31:30] One of the original offices created, when this county was created, was the sheriff, the

[1:31:36] assessor.

[1:31:38] And when we was the other one, those two start to treasure the treasure, the assessor,

[1:31:50] and

[1:31:50] for the county to have a good health.

[1:31:54] So I appreciate the good work you're doing and this report should be available to everybody

[1:32:00] to understand what's really taking place.

[1:32:03] So thank you for the good work and Howard and Tony, Laura, thank you for being here.

[1:32:09] I'll do a great job and manage a lot of property and do a great job of it.

[1:32:15] And they don't want anybody to pay more than they need to.

[1:32:18] we've had that happen in the county before.

[1:32:22] This is everybody who needs to be treated fairly.

[1:32:24] This is when you want to be in number.

[1:32:26] You don't want anybody to pick on you

[1:32:28] because who you are, just be a statistic and get treated equally.

[1:32:33] And I think you do a good job of doing that.

[1:32:35] Thank you.

[1:32:37] Thank you, Mr. Commissioner Clark.

[1:32:39] And Commissioner Andrew Laugh.

[1:32:41] Thank you.

[1:32:42] Thank you for a great presentation and thanks to your entire mighty

[1:32:48] small but mighty workforce. I hope it might be like that. You can use that if you'd like to.

[1:32:54] I'm still in here. I do want to congratulate you. I was accepted the award that was your

[1:33:02] award only because I was at Nathan National. But it was a National Recognition and you should be

[1:33:09] very proud of that, the National Association of Counties meeting had a special presentation

[1:33:17] by the Center for Digital Government and Wash of County took third thanks to you and

[1:33:23] the team.

[1:33:24] So, congratulations on that.

[1:33:30] So, I know I've had this discussion with you, but I'm very, we're all clear now that you're

[1:33:42] staffing level is 2012.

[1:33:45] Even though I think that technology always comes into play as it evolves, it becomes more

[1:33:51] efficient and effective and every, but it uses it in various ways for various reasons.

[1:33:56] But the reality is that to assess every parcel that needs to be assessed from a mathematical

[1:34:04] perspective would be at a hundred percent and I'm wondering what the percentages that you're

[1:34:10] able to reach, is it 80% of the 100%, or are you reaching the assessment of the 100%.

[1:34:18] So, it's a great question, actually.

[1:34:22] So when it comes to reappraisal, the appraisal process, we are doing a 100% every year.

[1:34:27] We're mounded by just statute to do once every five years.

[1:34:31] Now, if we do that, you're absolutely talking about loss, valuation, loss, revenue, right?

[1:34:36] You're also talking in about errors and lawsuits that we don't want to bring up again, right?

[1:34:44] Inclane. That was a big thing. We don't want to talk about that and we don't want to go there again, right?

[1:34:48] So it's it's my opinion. It's super important to absolutely hammer home annual

[1:34:53] Reapraisal every single year to capture market as it swings. Okay, so we are doing that 100% but to your point

[1:35:00] When we're looking at accuracy and property records and picking up some of these things that may not have been permitted or things that were skipped or things of that nature, there's lots of value there.

[1:35:12] As you can see, it was like 1.8 billion.

[1:35:17] We're not reaching that goal of 20%. We're only reaching about 10, 15% every view.

[1:35:23] So there are opportunities in that regard.

[1:35:26] When we're talking about personal property,

[1:35:30] the audits that we are doing right now,

[1:35:31] they're tied to a contract that we have with TMA.

[1:35:35] In fact, we'll be to the table with you guys on that this year.

[1:35:38] Again, the returns on that are phenomenal.

[1:35:41] But what we're missing with the TMA audits

[1:35:43] is that they are doing big, large-scale casinos,

[1:35:49] things like that in nature, right?

[1:35:50] So we're missing is that upper tier that we, if we had that auto team, we could build that out a little bit differently, so zero percent on that.

[1:35:59] So there's opportunities for sure.

[1:36:03] But yes, as far as the reappraisal were bound and statute to do it, and we're reaching that out a hundred percent, which is good.

[1:36:10] But that appraisal value is tied to CAP value, right?

[1:36:14] because as market variables, the value is my double,

[1:36:17] but you're still cat, the three percent, eight percent.

[1:36:22] But the real value that you're seeing

[1:36:24] is through that new discovery process,

[1:36:27] that new that's being added to the role,

[1:36:29] whether it's through permits or a review

[1:36:31] of something in that nature or so, new assets, we find so.

[1:36:35] Well, given that we are all going to be,

[1:36:38] I'm having robust discussions about the budgets

[1:36:42] and some of the constraints that are going to be discussed in the future, I think it's really

[1:36:50] helpful to create a business plan in terms of what do you need in additional resources

[1:36:55] and what is the ROI look like?

[1:36:58] And so I would just ask that that be incorporated in the preparation so that we have the

[1:37:04] facts.

[1:37:05] It's really interesting when you're talking about government and essential services.

[1:37:10] because we don't think about funding in the sense of it being a revenue like a business, but

[1:37:16] if there are opportunities that we are leaving on the table, I think it's really important

[1:37:24] for us to look at the expert that you are and your staff in putting that plan together.

[1:37:29] And I think that's really essential and providing that information.

[1:37:33] So, I would ask that you put that together if you see fit and it sounds like you have other suggestions too on the last slide.

[1:37:43] You talked about shared services and I think that there would be a great opportunity to look at what does that look like.

[1:37:52] It was the highlight in yellow.

[1:37:54] Maybe it wasn't the light.

[1:37:55] We asked for the support of our office.

[1:37:58] What?

[1:37:59] Okay, we asked for the support of our office as we continually navigate changes at various levels of state county cities and of course our own office and so

[1:38:08] what I'm saying is that if there's a way to leverage the services of all of the elected officials, you, you and I spoke about that for full transparency, maybe that wasn't the right one.

[1:38:19] So I think this slide is right there

[1:38:22] of sharing resources.

[1:38:23] Sharing resources.

[1:38:25] But the point is that if I think putting something together

[1:38:29] with that would be really helpful too.

[1:38:31] What does that look like?

[1:38:33] And I think that we all have to start thinking differently

[1:38:36] just because we've done it in the past

[1:38:38] doesn't mean we're going to do it in the future

[1:38:40] as we're looking at significant constraints

[1:38:43] that are budgetary and everyone's looking at that.

[1:38:47] So I think we have to look.

[1:38:48] said this before for the quarters in the couch. Except you have an opportunity, your quarters

[1:38:55] are more than quarters. And I think that if we're missing those opportunities and leveraging

[1:39:01] inefficiency and looking at what that is, if you could build that, that would be helpful.

[1:39:05] We can do that. I would really appreciate it. I would really appreciate it. Thank you. But anyway,

[1:39:11] thanks for all your hard work and congratulations again on your national award. Oh, thank you.

[1:39:15] Yeah, Washington is a word, but we can try to get it.

[1:39:21] Commissioner Garcia.

[1:39:23] Thank you so much.

[1:39:24] No questions.

[1:39:25] I'm really glad the public got to see and hear the wide breadth of services that you and

[1:39:30] your team provide.

[1:39:31] Not only in terms of your skillset, but the geographical area that you cover, it's incredible.

[1:39:38] I appreciate your scrappiness and trying to find those opportunities and just leveraging everything

[1:39:45] possibly can because you are absolutely right the ROI of this office is tremendous.

[1:39:50] We couldn't do the work that we do in providing these essential services to our constituents.

[1:39:55] So it is a really important discussion that we had today and congratulations on that.

[1:40:00] On your hard work. So I guess I do have one question though. You've been in the struggle for three years. We talked about change as the only constant. What do you anticipate your office is going to see in terms of change in the next three four years?

[1:40:13] Well, we really went under God. I mean, since taking this position, obviously, we had a lot of changes with regards to corn, ferry in this, and then we just really recently had about 15% of the turnover in our office at high level positions in our leadership roles that turned over right.

[1:40:27] And so navigating through that, getting those reclassifications and that work chart

[1:40:34] reconfigured was a first step and that now obviously that institutional knowledge

[1:40:40] that has left with that we still have people that are coming in with that knowledge

[1:40:44] right but communication channels right and how that looks and how we're communicating

[1:40:48] going forward and how we're building ourselves out of the team and as you looked at

[1:40:52] like building out liaison things with their own office I think you have a lot of new

[1:40:56] professionals that are coming in with skill sets that are above them beyond what they used to be,

[1:41:01] right? So, a lot of them are very technologically advanced. And so, we have an assessor

[1:41:07] tech team, but within a lot of the stuff that we're looking at with building out programs and

[1:41:12] applications and things like that, that skill set and building that and understanding that and communicating

[1:41:17] that is going to be a big challenge, right? And not necessarily a challenge but something that

[1:41:22] have to stay on top of this far as what's out there, what's this person doing, what's

[1:41:27] that person doing, bringing that together and honing that in. I definitely, as far as

[1:41:33] like valuations from our office, one of the big changes too is just, we need to get to

[1:41:40] the field, right? And so we're doing a lot of the work online, which is great. But we also,

[1:41:46] we had to look at, there's a lot of times when we have to be out in the field, it's like building

[1:41:49] inspectors and that sort of thing right so what we see and kind of change in that

[1:41:53] regard is that we're one person might go out now it maybe takes two for safety

[1:41:57] standards and things of that nature so just trying to deploy that from I still

[1:42:04] feel strong about our region as far as a place to want to be obviously there's

[1:42:09] still demand here people want to live here it's affordability right and so

[1:42:15] It's still common we're still growing.

[1:42:18] I don't see personally at decline necessarily in that growth

[1:42:23] and revenue is going forward, but I don't know.

[1:42:26] Did I answer the question?

[1:42:28] I'd just sometimes I ramble.

[1:42:29] So, okay.

[1:42:32] Well, thank you so much.

[1:42:34] Yes, we are so impressed by you and your team and really excited to hear your future plans

[1:42:40] and how we can support your office.

[1:42:42] and I agree with the board on put together that proposal on opportunities for missing revenue

[1:42:51] with those audits.

[1:42:52] If folks are not disclosing their home improvements, then getting more staff out in the field,

[1:42:59] that's essential.

[1:43:00] I know when I was a planner, that was something that you have to do.

[1:43:03] You have to go out and see what's actually happening on the ground, so we want to support

[1:43:07] you and your team to do that as well.

[1:43:09] And I'm curious, on the abated and exempted properties, I know there's like a lot more to dial in on that information, fascinating information, and I think people forget that some of these abatements are also green energy abatements and have, you know, an investment long term for the community as well.

[1:43:36] But I'm wondering in that big book, you just showed us,

[1:43:40] are they detailed out in there?

[1:43:42] I'm just curious, like, and I don't want to give you

[1:43:46] any homework if this exists somewhere, but in a pie chart,

[1:43:49] that 244 million abated, and then the 128...

[1:43:53] Words were allocated to.

[1:43:55] Yeah, you could do those allocations for you.

[1:43:57] We should be able to do that.

[1:43:58] Fascinating, because I'm curious of the 128 million

[1:44:06] exempted how much of it, that is that economic, you know, a

[1:44:11] statement and then a government religious, all those things.

[1:44:14] Yeah, how that's broken out.

[1:44:16] And then I think you bring up a really good point with the airport.

[1:44:20] And I think that's going to be a very interesting discussion for the

[1:44:24] community to have moving forward because there's a lot of

[1:44:27] redevelopment that's happening in that sphere.

[1:44:30] so we need to have a good discussion because of that 128 million exempted properties,

[1:44:40] they do come back on some of them, do come back on the roles because they're a 10-year-of-a-bit,

[1:44:48] a 20-year-of-a-bit, and like what we saw with Tesla and Story County, they're...

[1:44:52] The wind fall over there. Exactly, they've got their first abatement coming back to them and

[1:44:57] and some of these properties.

[1:45:00] We will never see come back on the rolls, and yet they are impacting government services and the quality of life in wash-o-county.

[1:45:08] Yeah, some of it is very big value. Exactly. So yes, I'd love to see a detail of that not to give you homework, but if you've got it available, that would be so interesting.

[1:45:20] And really looking forward to continuing to work with you and your team, and thank you for your commitment to wash-o-county and your service.

[1:45:28] Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

[1:45:31] Yeah, I'm so appreciate it.

[1:45:32] Our pleasure.

[1:45:33] Okay.

[1:45:34] We will now move into presentation six B1, Mr. Sler.

[1:45:39] Now item six B1 is a presentation on the unaudited.

[1:45:42] This year 2025 year in general fund budget

[1:45:45] to actual revenue and expenditures.

[1:45:47] And Ms. Cook and Ms. Hill are here to provide this presentation.

[1:45:52] Welcome.

[1:45:55] Now we can talk about what we're doing with the assessor's work.

[1:46:00] Yeah, we're kind of the downers in the room sometimes.

[1:46:03] So, good app, morning still, commissioners for the record,

[1:46:07] Lori Cook, Washington County Budget Manager,

[1:46:09] just putting a disclaimer up front.

[1:46:11] We're still closing out the fiscal year 25 books.

[1:46:14] This information is dated as about as 21st and it does change.

[1:46:18] You'll get the audited financials by I think December,

[1:46:22] and so we'll have the final numbers final information at that point.

[1:46:28] So, what we are looking at is a familiar, most familiar for me, the sources in use as an

[1:46:35] analysis of the general fund.

[1:46:38] The consolidated tax that is in the orange, as of today, we do not have our finalcy

[1:46:44] tax distribution from the state.

[1:46:46] They had a change in their financial system, and they've experienced some challenges, and

[1:46:52] we can't get really get any information right now based on what's going on at the state.

[1:46:56] so we can't really get a lot of updated information

[1:46:58] on financial systems with their shutdown.

[1:47:01] So, but right now we're trending at lower than estimated.

[1:47:05] The SEC or TAB14 is a separate,

[1:47:09] it's a supplemental city county tax relief.

[1:47:12] And we get that separate and it is,

[1:47:15] we do have all of our distributions related to that,

[1:47:18] unless there is a final final trope,

[1:47:20] but we do have two June distributions.

[1:47:23] So those are the variants as right now

[1:47:24] That are material variances when we look at where do we think we were going to be and then where are we as of you know, last Thursday at the 21st the other item to and and the next slide to have some taxable sales information.

[1:47:40] But the other item in here that shows as a source that shows in our revenue is the URGL so that's unrealized gains and losses that is a it's a book value.

[1:47:50] it's an accounting, it's not cash.

[1:47:54] So when we see a positive number, it basically increases,

[1:47:58] reflects an refund balance as an increase.

[1:48:00] If it was a negative number, which we have had,

[1:48:02] it depends on the market, it'll show as a negative number.

[1:48:07] And then we have transfers in.

[1:48:09] So total resources or sources at year end

[1:48:13] as that 501 million, which is slightly different

[1:48:16] than the estimated, but we still have,

[1:48:19] And I'll just say sea tax is approximately 32 percent of all general fund revenue and we have

[1:48:26] about a 12th of that missing right now.

[1:48:28] We also had a distribution at the end of January, which was the November distribution.

[1:48:33] And it was about 60 percent of what we would have anticipated, and a lot of that has to

[1:48:40] do with the states change in their system.

[1:48:42] So it was a $7 million distribution we would have expected something around 13 million.

[1:48:48] So we and we don't know we can't get reconciliation taxation is indicated that's not something that they're going to provide that as they reconcile that and get things fixed.

[1:48:57] We'll just it'll just trickle in with our other distributions.

[1:49:01] So that's kind of where we are related to sea tax.

[1:49:04] The reason this is such a challenge is trying to project where we're going to be.

[1:49:08] So when we look at wash of county taxable sales and this is through May, this is available online through the Department of Taxation.

[1:49:14] they have at local government page and have revenues statistics, so this is publicly available.

[1:49:20] If we look through May, we see that wash-out-canny taxable sales. The prior years are the entire year.

[1:49:26] So through May, when we look at 2025, is that 11.4. So taxable sales in wash-out-canny are actually

[1:49:32] up 3.9% based on the state's data. Our distributions are down to percent total,

[1:49:41] But that includes an offset, we have seen an increase in government services tax, so that's the registration comes through registration of the Department of Motor Vehicles and real property transfer tax.

[1:49:51] So those properties when they get sold or they go on the books, that tax that's associated with that.

[1:49:56] When we look at the, and I'm sorry for the acronyms.

[1:50:00] The BCCRT, which is the basic city county relief tax and a supplemental city county relief tax, which are part of the fair share, the AB104-1991-1993. If I remember, those could be wrong dates.

[1:50:15] So those were implemented. But what we see with those distributions, when we go through May, is that it's down from prior year at 3.2%.

[1:50:23] So, really what we're looking at, if we're trying to do, it doesn't always follow exactly

[1:50:28] there, timing issues, sometimes there's refunds issued and the taxable sales gets adjusted

[1:50:33] in a different time period than the distributions. But what we're really seeing is an increase

[1:50:38] in taxable sales, but a decrease in taxable sales distributions. So, it is a challenge we are

[1:50:44] doing our best, having conversations with our partners, our local partners, and we are not the

[1:50:50] only agency that is having concerns issues, challenges related to this, of course, is the entire

[1:50:56] state.

[1:50:57] So it's not a social county alone, but this does impact, you know, the city of Sparks,

[1:51:01] the city of Reno, trekking miles, fire protection district, gets a sea tax distribution.

[1:51:05] So this isn't just us, but it makes it very difficult to, where do we think we're going to be when

[1:51:11] we're looking at estimates or what's happening locally with taxable sales and how do we address

[1:51:16] that when we plan for resources, when we see this kind of disconnect between the

[1:51:20] information not available to us.

[1:51:22] So again, I'm not throwing anybody in the bus, I'm just saying, this is what we're seeing.

[1:51:26] So this is where we are as of, for man taxable sales, but also may on our distributions,

[1:51:32] we should be getting one more distribution.

[1:51:35] The other half, to when we talk about where do we end the year, and what do we look like,

[1:51:38] especially compared to our estimates, is when we start talking about expenditures and uses.

[1:51:43] And for that, I'm going to hand it over to Kathy.

[1:51:45] So,

[1:51:49] as Washow County continues to wait for its final revenue sources, currently like Laurie said,

[1:51:54] we, this is through August 21st, we are still working at closing the book, so expenses are still coming in.

[1:52:00] For the uses, right now, based upon the budget, the estimates complete that was used.

[1:52:07] We are over budget in salaries and benefits for Washow County, slightly over than what the estimates complete was looked at,

[1:52:16] And then for services and supplies, we are under.

[1:52:20] So there is the benefit there.

[1:52:22] However, the final number, the ETC that was anticipated

[1:52:25] and using salary savings that were not recognized

[1:52:27] was using anticipating using $12.9 million

[1:52:30] of fund balance.

[1:52:32] Currently as of August 21st, we are at 13.7 million

[1:52:36] use of fund balance.

[1:52:39] Hopefully that gets better.

[1:52:41] That's where we're at as of August 21st.

[1:52:50] There we go, there's just reiterates the use of unbalanced, not the goal of the county.

[1:52:55] Do that, obviously, to try to minimize uses of unbalanced next presentation.

[1:53:00] Hopefully we will have August close.

[1:53:01] We will still be going through the other process.

[1:53:04] These numbers are unaudited and are changing daily.

[1:53:07] And the final audit should be presented to the board in December.

[1:53:14] And well, any questions?

[1:53:15] Thank you very much.

[1:53:17] Oh, it is a bummer, but it's good to have that information.

[1:53:21] I mean, we knew we were going to be using fund balance this year,

[1:53:25] and as we have been using fund balance because our expenses

[1:53:29] cannot keep up with our revenues, but that is interesting

[1:53:34] about the C tax piece.

[1:53:37] And please let us know what this board can do to support your work and

[1:53:42] bring together the counties and cities on this issue

[1:53:46] because we, you know, I'm hearing the same thing

[1:53:49] from trucking meadows fire.

[1:53:51] They're very concerned as well.

[1:53:53] And I know that the rest of our communities around the state

[1:53:56] are having the same issues.

[1:53:58] So I'm not, has the state put together a plan

[1:54:02] about how they plan on addressing this with the county?

[1:54:08] We have not had any, we're seeing anything concrete

[1:54:10] from the state.

[1:54:10] We are waiting with Bayden breath, understanding that they

[1:54:14] have some challenges that they're trying to work through there.

[1:54:16] It does affect all the entities of the state, and I'm sure they're aware of the sensitive nature of that.

[1:54:21] In conjunction with that, there's also a rule for financial reporting that you can only go 60 days past the end of the year,

[1:54:28] so we're hoping to get these numbers in many August 31st, which if we don't, it'll change our financial reporting landscape for sure.

[1:54:37] And there isn't any precedent for asking for an audit of the state, certainly, the county can't do that.

[1:54:45] I'm just curious.

[1:54:46] The state is audited the same ways the county is.

[1:54:49] If you want to do a specific financial audit, whether it's a fraud audit revenue audit,

[1:54:55] I don't know the course of action to take on that.

[1:54:59] Fair enough.

[1:55:00] Commissioner Garcia. Okay. Commissioner and Drulla. Commissioner Clark. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[1:55:08] I've got a couple of questions, but this issue of, I guess, late payments, I mean, are getting this money out distributed to the rest of the county.

[1:55:19] This is a statewide issue. This might be a good, yes, is it?

[1:55:24] Commissioner, yes, my understanding is a state issue.

[1:55:27] We, the state, when they distribute the consolidated tax,

[1:55:30] it's basically the same time.

[1:55:33] We have, from, I guess it's an advantage in a way,

[1:55:37] that the real property transfer tax that is collected

[1:55:39] by the county recorders.

[1:55:41] So when those properties and then that goes into a due to the state,

[1:55:44] it goes to the state and they get it back to the counties,

[1:55:47] as well as the government services tax is recouped

[1:55:52] collected by the DMV, and then comes back out. So we haven't seen the delay or the backlog

[1:55:58] when it comes to that, but those are not the material, I don't say they're not material. They're

[1:56:04] important. But about 84% of our C-text distribution is directly related to those items that we're

[1:56:10] still waiting on. So yes, it's across the entire state. Last week, we were notified that the

[1:56:17] attention was to get us our final distribution by this week, mid to late this week, but I'm

[1:56:22] not quite sure with the state shutdown and their issues right now, how that is going to work

[1:56:29] as far as what information they would have available. We'd be willing to take a check,

[1:56:34] then don't have to do like an electronic electronic transfer. We'll take a check. I'll take it to the

[1:56:38] bank or we'll just didn't. We'll get that put in, but I don't know how that's going to work.

[1:56:42] Sure, we go back to the slides. I think it was a second to that one. Well, we'll go forward.

[1:56:49] It's the one with the scale on it.

[1:56:53] That one. I'm looking at that and I'm seeing expenses are outweighing income.

[1:57:00] And that's a real problem that we need to focus on.

[1:57:03] I mean, it's a cute little picture, but the reality is,

[1:57:08] expenses are exceeding income and it's something that we need to look at.

[1:57:13] It's again a nice graphic, but the real story is how do we write that.

[1:57:19] Again, going back to this, I took some notes down, so you said that the C taxes are up, but the distribution is slow.

[1:57:28] Taxable sales are up and the distribution is slow.

[1:57:33] So I mean, if I was a candidate for running for governor,

[1:57:37] I might use that as a campaign speech,

[1:57:39] something to stump with about getting this straight.

[1:57:42] Now, with the state and about,

[1:57:43] I would say the state and about,

[1:57:44] I need to do a better job of doing what they're doing.

[1:57:47] I know as a department head in the past,

[1:57:50] where we had the Department of Taxation

[1:57:53] in an irregular basis auditing what we're doing.

[1:57:57] Somebody should be looking at what the state's doing

[1:57:59] and make sure that they're paying these money

[1:58:03] out of the time we fashion for the City of Reno, the City of Sparta, Fire District, all the counties

[1:58:07] that this is a real problem, we've got obligations that we need to take care of as well.

[1:58:14] So this is a problem and others might know how we can get that addressed to the powers of

[1:58:21] be down in Carson City and see if we can speed up the process, so thank you for your presentation.

[1:58:28] Thank you very much. We really appreciate your time and your work and service to wash

[1:58:33] County and we'll just continue to work on building next year's budget together. Thank

[1:58:38] you. Okay, we are going into our last presentation.

[1:58:43] 6C1, Mr. Slero.

[1:58:44] All right, item 6C1 is the director of the State Department of Agriculture. Mr. Goetheya, here

[1:58:51] to discuss the Virginia rain choices, not to be held accountable for the Department of

[1:58:55] I just want to throw that out there.

[1:58:57] We also have representatives from the city arena

[1:58:59] who just got a little bit about a project

[1:59:01] that they are doing as well.

[1:59:03] So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Poetchia.

[1:59:09] We're on.

[1:59:11] All right, thank you.

[1:59:13] And Director Goetchia for the record

[1:59:15] of out of Department of Agriculture.

[1:59:17] Can you manage your salero?

[1:59:18] Chair Hill.

[1:59:19] Thank you very much for approving

[1:59:20] in the agenda that puts a state agency immediately

[1:59:22] behind that presentation.

[1:59:25] We are from the state, but we are not here to help

[1:59:28] with C Tax Distribution.

[1:59:31] I spent three terms sitting where you are,

[1:59:34] so I can understand that.

[1:59:35] I appreciate that very much.

[1:59:36] I do have Deputy Director Doug Ferris here with me today.

[1:59:41] Thank you for accommodating us.

[1:59:42] We will be brief.

[1:59:43] I'm sure there may be some questions on this

[1:59:45] and definitely value your time here.

[1:59:47] We do have to get back and see if we can't

[1:59:49] re-light some of our agency and get moving forward with that.

[1:59:53] So real quick updates on Virginia Range,

[1:59:55] and Australia Horses, what are the Virginia Range Horses?

[2:00:00] So, it's commonly referred to as veari, Virginia, range, astray. And how we got there in 1984, the BLM declared

[2:00:08] to Virginia, range, wild, horse, free. So, what's that mean? You've heard about the 1971 wild, free-roaning

[2:00:15] wild horse and burrow act. These horses do not fall underneath that as actions taken in 1984 by the BLM.

[2:00:23] Those horses were at that time deemed astray horses. There was a large ranching operation in that area

[2:00:29] for many years, and a lot of these horses are actually descendants that came from that ranching

[2:00:34] operation.

[2:00:36] So they are managed under NRS 569, which we have the sole authority in the state and the

[2:00:42] Nevada Department of Ag does to manage federal and a straight livestock.

[2:00:47] And that does what these horses are.

[2:00:49] They've migrated there over time before fencing was completed in some areas, and they've

[2:00:53] also just reproduced from those original horses that were there from that ranching operation

[2:00:58] that were not claimed, and those forces that were there in 1984, we also do know that horses

[2:01:03] are continuing to be turned out on that Virginia range, and they do fall under our jurisdiction.

[2:01:09] Now I want to note that anywhere, we manage animals, livestock, everywhere in the state

[2:01:13] in Nevada, all 17 counties.

[2:01:16] The stray animals everywhere else, we pick them up, we advertise them, can we find the owner

[2:01:20] if not, we sell them, we place them at that point, that's what we do.

[2:01:23] We are managing these differently, number one because of the number of them and historically that is what has been done.

[2:01:32] So where is the Virginia Range?

[2:01:34] The North boundary is interstate 80 as it runs through the canyon.

[2:01:38] One of our favorite, I guess, transitory pathways.

[2:01:42] We will call it at this point.

[2:01:44] East boundary, highway 95A, along by Furnley at the South boundaries, US 50.

[2:01:49] and the Northern Outskirts of Carson City to exclude those residential areas, West

[2:01:54] boundary, East Lake Boulevard, Old U.S. 395, and Veterans Parkway. Now East Lake

[2:02:00] Boulevard was always fence-dough, and that wash-a-lake, the scripts, those sensitive

[2:02:04] areas were fence-dough, that fences and disrepair, and we'll get into a little bit here

[2:02:09] in a minute of what Nevada is as a fence-out state. So as we started looking at this and

[2:02:14] we knew we were having public safety concerns, the one thing we knew we could not do, was

[2:02:19] put that East Lake Boulevard fence back up.

[2:02:21] That was just going to provide a place for horses

[2:02:24] to congregate, and that is a very busy roadway

[2:02:27] as you all know anymore.

[2:02:29] The last thing we can do is have horses standing

[2:02:31] on a fence with the traffic that is on that road.

[2:02:35] So how do we manage these horses?

[2:02:37] There is no general fund money for these horses,

[2:02:40] and we manage those from programs

[2:02:42] in the division of animal industry.

[2:02:44] That includes brand recording fees, brand inspection fees,

[2:02:48] and astray livestock fees, so the livestock industry are what funds this program that we

[2:02:54] managed to be resources with, no other money that comes into that on a day-to-day basis.

[2:03:00] We were fortunate enough to get some money a few years ago through USDA, AFIS, our partners

[2:03:07] there.

[2:03:07] We did get some air-mark money out of Congress, and we have spent that money and most of

[2:03:12] that 75% was spent on public safety,

[2:03:16] fencing and continuing investment on where we need

[2:03:19] to do additional fencing to protect the public safety.

[2:03:22] We monitor welfare, relocation and fertility control.

[2:03:25] We have great cooperating partners that we have agreements with,

[2:03:29] and it is their responsibility, we work well with them.

[2:03:32] If we have horses on roadways or they don't belong,

[2:03:34] we have horses on properties where they don't belong.

[2:03:37] We contact those entities and they can remove those horses

[2:03:40] and put them in a safe place.

[2:03:41] we do put a lot of horses, adopt them into homes through that as well, and then our fertility

[2:03:47] control is being done by another one of our cooperative partners, and that is across the

[2:03:51] range, and we do have another one of those agreements in place at this time, we'll run through

[2:03:57] September and October of next year.

[2:04:01] So I talk about public safety and how that is bordered

[2:04:04] by four major highways, all kinds of residential areas. In 24 alone we had 36,

[2:04:12] Police reported and it's actually 37 now reported vehicle collisions.

[2:04:17] We had to update that from going back through our data and 23 we had 42 reported crashes

[2:04:24] in 22.

[2:04:26] They were 24 and 21 or 27 and in 2020 we had 46 reported crashes.

[2:04:32] So when I first came to the agency back to the agency as a director we heard you and we

[2:04:37] heard the city arena loudly.

[2:04:39] We have public safety concerns.

[2:04:41] we actually received a letter from the Chief of Police of Reno that we can't do this.

[2:04:46] Our officers are responding or continuing to see these collisions and some of these are higher speed

[2:04:51] roads and they're in congested areas. So we took that very seriously and that's when we started

[2:04:56] looking at how can we make this separation between those conditions?

[2:05:00] Just at areas, and these forces to protect our motoring public, to protect our children and our parks and in our own

[2:05:05] vacuards and front yards. And so that is why we went the direction that we did. I think it should be

[2:05:12] important to note, had the census numbers in 1997 or 413 horses on the range. In 2002 there are 1274,

[2:05:22] 4, 2008, 1448, and 14, 1959, and 1829, 1951, and 22, 3567.

[2:05:35] So we have a lot of horses, and that postage stamp that they are living on is shrinking

[2:05:39] with continued development.

[2:05:41] We know that it is, and again, we don't want to see any animals suffer.

[2:05:47] We don't want to see any animals that are impacted on our highways and more importantly,

[2:05:51] want to protect our public. We do need to know it is illegal to feed and water the horses

[2:05:56] they are a stray livestock and the statutes are clear. We cannot take up livestock. We cannot

[2:06:01] feed and water the livestock that are out there. If you have them and they are there, give us

[2:06:06] a call. If you need us to remove them, we will work with our partners. We can do that if they are

[2:06:10] in an area that they do not belong or if they are causing concern for public safety.

[2:06:17] Nevada is a FinS out state, as I said in our S5-69-431 is clear what a legal

[2:06:22] FinS is and it's up to that property owner to FinS that out.

[2:06:25] You know, we hear a lot of talk, well that's BLM out there.

[2:06:28] Again, that's a horse free area, it's been deemed horse free, the BLM doesn't have any horses

[2:06:33] out there.

[2:06:34] We are thankful we have a good working relationship with the BLM, should the Bureau of Land Management

[2:06:38] decide to and trespass the state in Nevada?

[2:06:41] For those horses that are out there, that happens everywhere else in the state.

[2:06:44] if there are a stray and feral livestock that do not belong there, there's a trespass order

[2:06:49] and those animals are gathered. So thankfully it has not come to that, but they do not

[2:06:53] have a right under the 1971 act to be there. So yes, we are in the process of repairing and

[2:06:59] constructing areas of fencing along the Virginia Range. We started at Jumbo and worked our way north.

[2:07:06] Jumbo has many of you know, sure all of you know, in the washow Valley area, we'll work

[2:07:14] They had a fencing project. I know some of them are here. We'll let them speak here in just a second on what they are doing.

[2:07:19] We tied our fence in early this summer into where we agreed to to await the terminus of their fence in that same area.

[2:07:27] So again, we can better secure South Reno and those areas that are very, very congested.

[2:07:32] So we want to thank them for their partnership and that they have been great to work with.

[2:07:36] As we told this is where we're going, where are you going? We've adjusted our lines to make sure that they do come out in that same place.

[2:07:42] We don't want to leave a funnel. We don't want to leave a gap. We don't want to leave corners

[2:07:46] where we can trap livestock. That's the other thing. You can make a lot of crazy fences and a lot

[2:07:51] of corners and you end up with horses standing in corners where they shouldn't be livestock normally

[2:07:55] do not like fenced corners. So I'm almost at a time and I promise myself I had to be done so we will

[2:08:02] stop here for questions. We just have a little flyer here that our group had put together. He'd

[2:08:07] I'll let you read that for yourself.

[2:08:10] You guys can all read.

[2:08:10] You don't need me to read that to you.

[2:08:12] So if there are any questions, deputy director Ferris and our happy to ask for those.

[2:08:16] Or do we want to go on to to the city of Reno?

[2:08:20] Any questions?

[2:08:21] Well, director Gokuchi.

[2:08:23] I thank you so much for taking the time and being so patient for this item to come up.

[2:08:27] I'll have open it up to the board to see if there are any questions right now.

[2:08:31] Midway through Commissioner Clark.

[2:08:33] I just want to thank you for your presentation.

[2:08:35] It was a lightning exactly what's taking place, and I think if the public really understands

[2:08:40] what's taking place as far as what your responsibilities are that what the states

[2:08:45] responsibilities are, they'd have a different viewpoint on what's taking place.

[2:08:49] Also, I'm going to point out item 7 E3 on our agenda today.

[2:08:55] I'm donating a discretionary fund's $5,000 to the prison for training Mustang.

[2:09:02] So I think, you know, fencing is one part of it, birth controls another part of it, adopting

[2:09:10] these animals out to another part of it, let's put all these pieces together and see

[2:09:15] if we can get this problem at least reduced because the population that you just read

[2:09:20] through and how it's growing, we get a 10,000 horses here in a couple of years if, you

[2:09:31] safety reasons, car crashes,

[2:09:37] costs to the municipalities for having emergency vehicles show up and

[2:09:44] just so many different levels and there's got to be a better way to do this and somebody

[2:09:51] has said earlier that people are shooting them and that's not the answer rounding them up as

[2:09:56] Maybe not the answer, but maybe a birth control, adoption.

[2:10:00] Fencing, water, whatever it takes to solve this problem. Thank you for your hard work.

[2:10:07] Thank you for Commissioner Clark. We are committed to continue to work through that with all our partners.

[2:10:11] And I should know that we're here with you guys today, but we also have conversations regularly with Lion County.

[2:10:18] We have conversations with folks in Carson City. You're not alone in how we're doing dealing with this.

[2:10:23] And we've had a lot of conversations with the city of Reno2. So we will continue to work on this. That's one thing I'm hard at it. I don't give up.

[2:10:29] Great and commissioning a drill I I don't really have any questions. I just want to say thank you and I'd be

[2:10:35] Remest to not also thank you for bringing back the state fair for everyone's dates June 10 through the 14th

[2:10:43] If I got those dates correct for our member, but I do really want to thank you

[2:10:48] I know that you're doing a lot with pretty much nothing, right in terms of no funding and

[2:10:55] And the livestock fees don't necessarily cover everything that you need.

[2:10:59] And I think it is a collective effort and thanks to the city of Reno and to everyone who's

[2:11:04] doing what they can to resolve a big situation that's occurring.

[2:11:10] So thank you.

[2:11:12] And I love the nay acronym that's great there, it's a very clever work and I want to get some

[2:11:22] of those flyers out to our communities.

[2:11:24] So that's really great.

[2:11:25] we will have those sent over.

[2:11:27] Thank you so much, we appreciate your time

[2:11:29] and we'll bring up the city of Reno to hear

[2:11:31] about the partnership.

[2:11:37] Good afternoon commissioners for the record,

[2:11:38] Garth Oaksill, with JUB engineers.

[2:11:40] We were hired by the city of Reno to help them out

[2:11:43] a number of years ago with the interaction

[2:11:45] of the wildlife, specifically wild horses

[2:11:47] and the urban environment.

[2:11:49] So going back, like I mentioned, almost five years ago,

[2:11:51] we started having some preliminary conversations

[2:11:52] and at that time it was more of kind of what can we do,

[2:11:55] what needs to be done.

[2:11:56] We recognize that through community growth, both with the city of Reno and Washington County that more developments were coming and some of those developments namely in the south medows area for real rainbow parkway

[2:12:07] We're potentially going to limit access to water to the horses along steamboat creek. So one of the first things we did was took a look at oh yes, is it the next one day? Thank you

[2:12:18] So one of the first things we did is we took a look at how can we maintain access for the public while also keeping horses away from the urban area

[2:12:26] One of the things we really wanted to do in Commissioner or the Vatter Department of Ag mentioned was to kind of reduce that dependence on human compliance.

[2:12:34] Not only legally, we're there out there watering and feeding them, but also just how can we keep the horses in their more natural habitat.

[2:12:41] So we took a look at where we had gaps, if you will, where can we do implementation of wild horse fence?

[2:12:48] We start off with two phases.

[2:12:50] So what I was mentioning there with the water,

[2:12:52] if you can see the red line kind of in the middle

[2:12:54] of the image there, just south, or the bottom,

[2:12:57] where that red line ends, is where some new development

[2:12:59] is being built.

[2:13:01] So we recognize that that was going to be closing off access

[2:13:03] to water.

[2:13:04] So what we did there, and the north end of the project

[2:13:06] is we opened up approximately 3,000 linear feet

[2:13:10] of creek, a steamboat creek, that horses

[2:13:12] can now have access to the water.

[2:13:14] If you're driving on Veterans Parkway there

[2:13:16] and you go up and over the little bridge over Alexander Lake Road

[2:13:19] and you look off to the east, you'll see them there almost all the time during the day.

[2:13:24] So that was an opening that we created as part of this project.

[2:13:26] The fence line, continuing on up north to Mirrolemo, was in very poor condition.

[2:13:31] In my time as the project manager for the Southeast Connector, I walked that entire fence line

[2:13:35] and knew that that fence was in bad condition and renal recognized that.

[2:13:38] So we removed and replaced all of that fence in that location.

[2:13:42] And as we move further south, and we get into where the developers are, it doesn't show up very well in this image, but there's a little red dot kind of in the upper right corner, if you will, this image.

[2:13:53] That was a location between two developments that was happening as a drainage ditch, and that was acting as a funnel of the horses were just coming right down to real Wrangler Parkway and getting hit on.

[2:14:04] That's the remote parkway.

[2:14:06] So we closed that off or in the process closing that off here in the next couple of weeks.

[2:14:10] And then as we move further south there, that is around that aggregate pit that you see down there in southeast Reno.

[2:14:17] Again, fence was in various stages of repair.

[2:14:19] We worked with the property owners there.

[2:14:21] It came up with a solution that was good for all parties involved.

[2:14:23] Fenced around the backside of that aggregate pit.

[2:14:26] It came back down around and tied into some of that existing toll-brothers' fencing that has been recently built.

[2:14:31] and they were conditioned to put in as part of their process

[2:14:33] with the city of Reno.

[2:14:35] As we move further south, then we get into the Virginia Highlands.

[2:14:37] This is the area we're currently working on right now.

[2:14:40] And the green line that you see there is what

[2:14:43] Nevada Department of Ag put in in our meetings with them

[2:14:46] of tying together, where the purple and green meet

[2:14:49] on the right hand side is where we had the conversation

[2:14:52] that this is our common spot to where we can meet up

[2:14:54] in partnership.

[2:14:56] So we're working our way through that we've got your grade.

[2:14:58] we also did.

[2:15:00] We're in agreement with Nevada Department of Transportation to install a caligard on

[2:15:04] Geiger grade in a location that made sense from a public safety standpoint.

[2:15:08] That was a big issue of a concern in there, as far as we need to straighten off section

[2:15:13] of road for a caligard.

[2:15:14] We didn't want to have interactions with motorcycles and issues on caligards there, especially

[2:15:18] as we enter the street vibration.

[2:15:20] Time of year, we know we get a lot of motorcyclists on Geiger grade, so that's why the

[2:15:24] as Commissioner Goguchi, I mentioned, or Director Goguchi,

[2:15:28] excuse me, the kind of corners we put in there,

[2:15:32] that was just a lot of negotiations with different

[2:15:34] property owners, different concerns, different future plans

[2:15:37] they had there.

[2:15:38] We unfortunately couldn't do a straight line.

[2:15:41] We did have some property owners that were just unwilling

[2:15:43] to put a fence on their property, understandably,

[2:15:45] they like the open space.

[2:15:46] So that is the alignment we ended up with on there.

[2:15:49] When all this is complete, the overall goal of eliminating

[2:15:54] opportunities for wild horses, namely, any wild life really, to get into the urban environment.

[2:15:59] We hope that this is really rectified that issue and we won't have the issues of the

[2:16:03] number of strikes that were mentioned there on the case in the one year almost one week.

[2:16:07] When you looked at those numbers and averaged them out. So, at that point, I was asked to be brief

[2:16:12] with this. We have a lot more pictures and other things to discuss with this project, but at that

[2:16:16] point I'll conclude my presentation and be happy to answer any questions. We also have a city of

[2:16:23] Great. Wow. The city of Reno has been doing a lot of great work. Commissioner Clark. Do you have anything?

[2:16:29] No. Thank you for your report. It's a very informative thank you.

[2:16:33] Thank you, Commissioner Andrew. Commissioner Garcia. Well thank you so much. I know that this is a major concern for

[2:16:40] constituents and Commissioner Clark's district. So hopefully this information was enlightening and we'll continue to

[2:16:46] I'll try to work with the city of Reno and the Department of Ag and see how we can, you know, best collaborate and ensure that we're keeping people safe and also not harming our wildlife so we appreciate it.

[2:17:00] Thank you.

[2:17:02] Okay, we will now move into our consent items and Commissioner Garcia, I was hoping you could point out if you're also comfortable making a motion on consent.

[2:17:13] the donation, we also have in consent.

[2:17:17] Yes, Madam Chair. So the donation item is a 7B1.

[2:17:21] It's a recommendation to approve a cash donation from several sources of $5,681

[2:17:27] for the regional parks and open space programs and facilities.

[2:17:31] And with that, I approve the rest of consent.

[2:17:33] Thank you, and I'm looking for a second.

[2:17:35] Second, thank you, Commissioner Hadriel.

[2:17:37] And Madam Clerk is there any public comment on consent?

[2:17:39] There is nobody signed in. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Do any board members have anything that they want to pull or questions on consent

[2:17:47] I'm not seeing anything all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Please say aye.

[2:17:55] And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And our vice chair is not here. So I will take a stab at the block vote and hopefully I can get a second.

[2:18:07] I am going to propose that we block 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15, and looking for a second

[2:18:21] on the block.

[2:18:22] Oh, second.

[2:18:23] Thank you.

[2:18:23] Commissioner Andrea Dreola and Madam Clerk.

[2:18:25] Do we have any public comment on those items?

[2:18:28] We have Penny Brock's signed in for item 18, or item 8.

[2:18:32] Sorry.

[2:18:32] Thank you.

[2:18:45] Penny Brock.

[2:18:45] So, we just heard the state of Washington, he finances, you're in the red, it looks like.

[2:18:54] So, on item eight, the CARES campus is asking for almost $600,000 a year.

[2:19:06] They sent out a contract to clean.

[2:19:09] Did they do three RFPs?

[2:19:12] Plus, they're going to get an automatic, that's a three year agreement, then they'll get an automatic one, two, one year renewals.

[2:19:26] Plus, in addition to this, almost 600,000 a year, they can get cost for callbacks.

[2:19:34] So, we, the taxpayers, don't really know how much is being spent to clean the CARES campus.

[2:19:43] We don't know we're not getting a staff report evidently.

[2:19:45] We don't know how many square feet are being cleaned by the CARES campus.

[2:19:51] Does this include the safe camp?

[2:19:54] What does it include?

[2:19:56] We don't know.

[2:19:59] So, in light of the

[2:20:00] Budget problem. Perhaps this is an agenda. They're already getting $88 million a year for the homeless.

[2:20:11] Is this included

[2:20:12] in the $88 million or is it over and above the $88 million for the homeless? So as usual, we, the taxpayers,

[2:20:23] have got a lot of question about the homeless and the CARES campus. I would ask you that you would table this

[2:20:29] to get additional information, thank you.

[2:20:32] Thank you.

[2:20:33] We have nobody else signed in.

[2:20:35] OK, we have a motion on block and a second.

[2:20:38] Any questions from the board on that?

[2:20:40] Seeing none.

[2:20:42] All those in favor, please say aye.

[2:20:44] Any opposed, please say nay.

[2:20:48] And it's on your screen.

[2:20:55] Commissioner Clark?

[2:20:56] Yeah, I did the sign in.

[2:20:59] I was right at the end, so I apologize.

[2:21:03] And maybe they cheered and see that.

[2:21:06] to the last public speakers comments, I'm looking at that at number eight as well, and I wish

[2:21:15] we had a little bit more time to work with that. Ideally, if I had a magic wand, I would

[2:21:21] take that in-house, have the county manage that, and find some folks that live at the CARES

[2:21:27] campus, and see if anybody wanted to be hired there and make some money and be save us some

[2:21:33] I think there's other ways to do this rather than just awarding this massive contract to clean that.

[2:21:43] I think there's some able-bodied folks there who might like a job,

[2:21:46] and I think we should be looking at exploring other opportunities versus just hiring outside contractors.

[2:21:52] Sometimes outside contractors make sense, and other times they may not make sense.

[2:21:57] We've got six or seven, 800 people living at the Harris campus.

[2:22:02] There's got to be 30 or 40 of them that's able body

[2:22:05] who would like to get a job.

[2:22:09] So I would like to see eight pulled from this.

[2:22:12] I'm not going to support this at this point in time.

[2:22:14] Thank you.

[2:22:15] Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

[2:22:16] We have a motion and a second.

[2:22:19] Would you like to hear a little bit of background on this

[2:22:24] from the staff?

[2:22:24] Sure, I think that we do have some other needs.

[2:22:27] My point is still going to stay the same.

[2:22:30] Lots of able-bodied folks there who might actually want to make some money

[2:22:34] versus sitting around doing whatever they do during the day.

[2:22:38] Thank you.

[2:22:40] Welcome.

[2:22:41] Thank you.

[2:22:41] For the record Aaron Smith, CSD operations.

[2:22:45] So this is a award of custodial contract.

[2:22:49] We're handling it as a high security contract, as we do at other facilities.

[2:22:55] Currently, the contract is awarded to vendor.

[2:23:00] We don't have those resources in house to do them within facilities.

[2:23:05] But we'd have to talk to operations in order to accommodate any use of our attendees or

[2:23:12] the people at the campuses to clarify this award is going to be for our place, as well as

[2:23:19] Thank you and I think Commissioner Clark brings up an interesting idea. I'm sure it requires

[2:23:26] equipment and probably some legal liability but I mean I think it could be potentially something we look at in the future

[2:23:34] and so Commissioner Clark did you want to add anything?

[2:23:39] Well yeah you know it's it's almost answers its own question.

[2:23:45] We talk about high security cleaning, but these folks are living in this high security situation, so aren't they clear to be there just by virtue of their residency there?

[2:23:59] Do you see where I'm going with this? So we've got high security people to clean this particular environment, but I'm suggesting the folks who already live there should be considered to be hired.

[2:24:10] And we've got other county staff or volunteers of America or whoever else we're contracting with.

[2:24:17] They're allowed to be on site.

[2:24:18] This isn't just picking people off the street.

[2:24:21] I'm suggesting we hire folks who actually live there and put them to work.

[2:24:27] And also, we've got other employees there that could probably supervise this to the commissioner.

[2:24:33] Chair's point, we might have to, you know, buy some extra rooms or buffing machines or trash cans or

[2:24:39] same janitorial supplies, but that's that's very small amount compared to this. So again

[2:24:47] I can't support the whole package I support the other items and I know the first and the

[2:24:53] motions been made and it's been seconded, but I'm just opposed to this. Can we get a month the month contract with this

[2:25:00] This firm to continue doing what they're doing until we can explore other opportunities and other avenues to do this. That's the question I'm throwing out. Thank you.

[2:25:09] Through the chair to answer the question, so the current vendor is who's recommended for award is the vendor that's currently doing this.

[2:25:18] We can explore a month-to-month ideally we would execute an award a bid for cost savings and to hold the vendor accountable, but we can explore that.

[2:25:31] Well, and it says, you know, we've only had one responsive bidder.

[2:25:36] I mean, this is an opportunity for the county to take this in-house.

[2:25:40] Give some job training. Give put some money in some people's pockets, and maybe save a couple of bucks.

[2:25:46] But somebody could get on the payroll and decide

[2:25:50] they actually like to work and when maybe go on

[2:25:54] and become successful and an outside situation.

[2:25:57] But giving people an opportunity to work,

[2:26:00] and guarantee there's a small percentage of folks

[2:26:03] that may not want to be involved in this at all,

[2:26:06] but they're probably a percentage of the folks

[2:26:08] that live there who would welcome an opportunity to work

[2:26:11] in the place where they live.

[2:26:13] So that's what I'm suggesting.

[2:26:14] Thank you.

[2:26:15] Well, thank you for the background information and you work on this.

[2:26:21] You know, per our rules, we've got a motion, we've got a second.

[2:26:24] Let's see if we can move forward with this.

[2:26:28] If we can't, we'll have a discussion on that.

[2:26:31] But then we'll go from there and I think Commissioner Clark,

[2:26:36] this is something that I'm sure the team at homeless services

[2:26:41] would be happy to sit down and chat with you about.

[2:26:43] I just toured the CARES campus with the city of Salt Lake City.

[2:26:51] No, the city of South Salt Lake City yesterday,

[2:26:56] and we still have a significant portion of the people

[2:26:59] who live there that are disabled and seniors,

[2:27:02] but certainly an interesting concept.

[2:27:04] So we have a motion and a second on the block.

[2:27:09] Any other questions or comments from board members?

[2:27:11] Thanks.

[2:27:12] Seeing none.

[2:27:13] All those in favor?

[2:27:14] Please say aye.

[2:27:15] Any opposed?

[2:27:16] Please say nay.

[2:27:17] Thank you.

[2:27:25] The motion passed three to one.

[2:27:27] Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[2:27:28] I appreciate that.

[2:27:30] Okay.

[2:27:32] We are now going to move.

[2:27:34] And so just to keep folks to to help folks understand the agenda.

[2:27:41] We're going to go into item 11 and then we'll take a brief lunch break and come back

[2:27:47] for our public hearing that I know a lot of folks are in the audience or waiting online

[2:27:51] to hear.

[2:27:53] So, Mr. Slayer, if you can help us with item 11.

[2:27:56] Sure.

[2:27:56] Item 11 is a recommendation to approve the appointment of one candidate to fill a partial

[2:28:00] term beginning on the date of appointment and ending on June 30th, 2027 for the Washington

[2:28:05] E. Open Space and Regional Parks Commission.

[2:28:08] And Ms. Wilson is here to walk you through this item.

[2:28:15] Good afternoon, members of the commission, Chair Hill.

[2:28:18] This item is for a partial appointment for the Parks Commission.

[2:28:22] You have 25 candidates in front of you of which you'll select your top three.

[2:28:26] Then from there, if we have a clear winner, we will vote on that.

[2:28:30] However, we can go into subsequent voting if needed.

[2:28:32] Thank you so much.

[2:28:35] Of course, we can do public comment.

[2:28:38] Yes, absolutely.

[2:28:40] Of course.

[2:28:40] And Madam Clerk, if you can help us with some public comment.

[2:28:45] First up, we have George Jostlin, followed by Austin Lorenz.

[2:28:56] Good afternoon, everyone.

[2:28:59] Originally, I had good morning, but a little longer than I had expected.

[2:29:06] My name is George Jostlin.

[2:29:07] I want to thank you for allowing me to stand before you and share my interest

[2:29:12] in filling the open position for the regional parks and open space board.

[2:29:18] I have had the great pleasure of living here since January of 2007 when I accept their

[2:29:24] promotion to become the regional director of government and fairs and public relations

[2:29:29] for charter communications.

[2:29:31] Don't hold that against me.

[2:29:33] Reporting directly to Mani Martinez with a dotted line to your former colleague, Marsha

[2:29:43] I am an avid sportsman. I've played baseball, bowling, hockey, running, and, of course,

[2:29:51] golf throughout my life. I grew up in upstate New York when the college and

[2:29:59] the play.

[2:30:00] Major of living in Southern California for over 20 years. Having lived here for the past 18 years, I've come to love Northern Nevada, the giants,

[2:30:10] Cipe and Crook, Hall of Famer John Miller, our beloved Aces, and of course, the Silver and

[2:30:18] Blue.

[2:30:20] Additionally, I'm a proud Silver Circle member for a beloved PBS Reno, although I still

[2:30:27] call it K&PB, and Count station manager Kurt Messia is one of my good friends.

[2:30:33] With regards to my role on the board, I believe it is important to protect the open beauty

[2:30:39] we call Northern Nevada. However, while understanding the need to support growth, I believe we need

[2:30:47] to do it in a controlled manner so that we don't lose the beauty of our area and why we all live

[2:30:53] here. Keeping our current and future facilities stay to the art will also help with that growth.

[2:31:01] Having recently retired, I now have the time and felt the urge to serve my county and my neighbors,

[2:31:08] which is why I have placed my name into consideration and I stand here before you today.

[2:31:15] I thank you for your time and rarely am I under the time I'm all outed.

[2:31:21] Thank you.

[2:31:22] Thank you very much.

[2:31:24] Austin Lorenz followed by Jennifer Uvira.

[2:31:40] Thank you commissioners.

[2:31:41] It's great to be here today and to be considered for the open space and regional parks commission.

[2:31:47] It's an honor to be among some great candidates.

[2:31:51] I wanted to share a little bit about myself,

[2:31:54] and why I want to join the board when I can bring to it.

[2:31:57] I remember when I first decided to move to Washow County.

[2:32:00] I was hiking down at Mammoth Lakes and I met a doctor there,

[2:32:04] and we were talking about recreation,

[2:32:07] and he told me about how Washow County was a secret gem

[2:32:10] that had almost every recreation opportunity that you could imagine

[2:32:14] nearly a year around. And from then on, I knew that I wanted to move here.

[2:32:20] When the time came, my wife was looking for PhD programs, and she chose UNR. And when

[2:32:26] she graduated, we decided to stay here and raise our family here because of the outdoor

[2:32:30] recreation opportunities. Professionally, I'm a scientist. I specialize in spatial analysis,

[2:32:37] and have worked for the last eight years as a civil servant with the USGS.

[2:32:41] Over my work focuses on wildlife conservation, improving hunting and recreation and wildlife

[2:32:48] on wildlife refugees and other public lands. In that role, I've discovered a passion for

[2:32:52] brain diverse groups together to seek common sense solutions. I'll work with everyone from

[2:32:58] private landowners, NGOs, state, federal governments, and international governments.

[2:33:04] Science is not what you just see data as an opportunity. Through that lens, I see many opportunities

[2:33:09] to bring new voices, people, and funding to our parks and open spaces.

[2:33:14] And preparing for this meeting, I set out on some wonderful examples across the country

[2:33:17] to keep recreation high and improve revenues for our parks and open spaces.

[2:33:22] It has been an honor to serve, it would be an honor to serve on this committee and share my

[2:33:26] expertise as an outdoor enthusiast, parent, and a scientist, and to support all the people

[2:33:31] of Washington County and enjoy our parks and open spaces.

[2:33:34] Thank you.

[2:33:35] Thank you. Jennifer Yuvira, followed by Matthew Daymartini.

[2:33:51] Hello. Good morning. Chair Hill and commissioners. My name is Jennifer Yuvira, and I'm

[2:33:57] applying for the Open Seat on the Washow County, Open Spaces and Regional Parks Commission.

[2:34:02] I'm honored to have the opportunity to share a little bit about myself and why I'm seeking to

[2:34:07] serve on this board. Though my background is an environmental engineering, I made a career transition

[2:34:13] and to start running clean up the lake.

[2:34:15] A lake Tahoe based on profit that scuba dives

[2:34:18] to collect submerged litter.

[2:34:20] In other words, I am now a glorified underwater trash collector.

[2:34:25] In this role, I utilize my skills

[2:34:27] in project management, community engagement,

[2:34:30] and technical problem solving.

[2:34:32] My work has involved coordinating large teams of volunteers,

[2:34:36] fostering partnerships with local governments

[2:34:38] and businesses and ensuring projects are carried through.

[2:34:41] from planning to completion.

[2:34:44] These experience have strengths and strength and my ability to balance long-term vision

[2:34:49] with data data details.

[2:34:51] Skills I believe would directly benefit this commission's work.

[2:34:55] I know this commission is already tackling important initiatives, including the Trucking

[2:34:58] Meadows Trail Plan.

[2:35:00] The open space and natural resources management plan and the park district exploration. This one

[2:35:06] especially resonates with me because I've seen how long-term planning and dedicated funding can

[2:35:12] make or break a community's ability to care for its natural spaces. It structured well, a park

[2:35:18] district could provide sustainable support for trails, facilities, and conservation, while giving

[2:35:24] residents a stronger voice and how their resources are managed, sorry.

[2:35:30] If elected, one area I would like to focus on is expanding youth engagement in our

[2:35:36] parks.

[2:35:37] Education is the only way to create real lasting change.

[2:35:41] When young people are given the tools and opportunities to connect with nature, they don't

[2:35:45] just participate in programs.

[2:35:47] They develop a sense of ownership and responsibility to those open spaces.

[2:35:52] I have first hand, I've seen this first hand in DAO, how students in young volunteers light up

[2:35:58] when they get the opportunity to dive, to hike, to take part, and hands-on stewardship.

[2:36:04] By fostering these relationships early, we can inspire long life-long stewards and ensure

[2:36:08] that the values of conservation and community carry forward for future generations to come.

[2:36:15] Thank you commissioner, thank you chairhill and commissioners for your leadership and for encouraging

[2:36:19] my perspective. I would be grateful for the opportunity to bring my background energy and commitment

[2:36:25] to this board in the service of the Washow County's open ceases and parks.

[2:36:30] Thank you. Matthew Day, Martinie.

[2:36:47] Good afternoon, madam chair and commissioners.

[2:36:51] I'm one of the applicants for the Washow County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission. My name is

[2:36:55] Matthew D. Martini, just a brief background.

[2:37:00] I've been a Washow County resident for over 40 years

[2:37:03] all my life. I currently live in District 3.

[2:37:10] I work for a local engineering company here in town.

[2:37:15] On my free time, I'm a runner.

[2:37:18] And so I'm out there running 40 miles a week in the community.

[2:37:23] It's been a lot of time in the open space and parks and so forth.

[2:37:29] But I also realize that the parks and open spaces that we have here in this community are

[2:37:35] not just the trails, but they're also some great historical and cultural resources that

[2:37:40] they provide.

[2:37:42] And I think I align kind of with the mission of the Parks Commission in preserving and making

[2:37:52] those resources available to all community members

[2:37:56] and some of the just great resources that we have.

[2:38:02] I recently did in the 2024 cycle ran for the City of Reno City Council.

[2:38:08] So as part of that I got to get out in the community

[2:38:11] and really talk with thousands of members

[2:38:16] of the community or interact with and see kind of,

[2:38:21] realize just how important our parks and open spaces are to members of the community and access to this.

[2:38:29] So I think I'd be a good fit for the commission and thank you for the time and if there's any questions,

[2:38:36] I'm happy to answer that. Thank you. We have nobody else signed in. Do have emails to be placed on the record.

[2:38:42] Thank you, Madam Clerk. And so we are being asked to choose our top three and what a difficult decision

[2:38:50] this is going to be for this board. I mean it's such a bummer we have amazing people

[2:38:56] applying for this. So thank you. Do you have a question? This staff report didn't list

[2:39:02] what districts are in the existing appointees and I'm wondering if there's any districts that

[2:39:10] aren't being represented. I couldn't find that. Ms Wilson, not to put you on the spot. I don't know

[2:39:16] if you know that information.

[2:39:19] No worries, Alexandra Wilson for the record.

[2:39:20] I don't have the information rarely available in front of me at the moment.

[2:39:24] However, for the Washow County Open Space and Regional Parks, it is not district specific.

[2:39:29] Although, in speaking with our director for our community services department,

[2:39:34] they do try to get a good mix of the district.

[2:39:37] So while you're voting, I can pull those and I can send those to you guys.

[2:39:39] Thank you, and maybe just for the future we have that listed just so if that's something weighing on, you know,

[2:39:49] I'm sure is mine is when looking at these applicants go ahead.

[2:39:52] I appreciate that.

[2:39:55] I do know just in looking at this before that Mark Newman,

[2:40:07] Okay,

[2:40:12] thank you very much. Any other commissioner comments before we get this ballad in? Thank you, Miss Wilson. Okay, thank you everyone.

[2:40:21] Okay,

[2:40:55] for round one,

[2:41:01] Commissioner Garcia voted for Austin Lorenz, Jennifer Uvira,

[2:41:07] and Sophia Hydric,

[2:41:13] chair Hill voted for Austin Lorenz, Jennifer Uvira, and Bo Walker,

[2:41:24] Commissioner Andriola voted for Matthew Damartini, Bo Walker, and John Henderson,

[2:41:30] and

[2:41:34] Commissioner Clark voted for Jennifer Yvira, John Henderson, and George Jostlin.

[2:41:43] Okay. I see three votes for Jennifer Yvira, am I correct, Madam Clerk? Okay.

[2:41:53] If the board is ready, I'm looking for a motion on Ms. Yvira.

[2:41:58] I'm trying to move to approve.

[2:41:59] Thank you very much, Commissioner Garcia, and I'll second that.

[2:42:02] Any questions or comments on the motion from the board?

[2:42:05] Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

[2:42:08] Any opposed, please say nay.

[2:42:14] And that motion passes unanimously.

[2:42:16] Congratulations, Ms. Yvara.

[2:42:18] And honestly, what an incredible group of candidates,

[2:42:21] please continue to apply for opportunities at Washow County.

[2:42:25] We really are so lucky to have such talented people in our community.

[2:42:29] And there are many boards and cabs, citizen advisory boards,

[2:42:36] just please stay involved as well as our leadership academy. So what we are going to do is take a,

[2:42:44] I'm going to give us a half hour break. We will come back at 115 and we'll go, we'll do our

[2:42:53] public hearing item 16. Thank you everyone and we'll see you in a few.

[3:17:15] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I will call this Board Accounting Commissioner's meeting to order. It is a 118. We are now moving forward with our public hearing and if Madam Clerk could help us with this and I don't know if you have to read every single piece on this long agenda item. Here you go.

[3:17:38] This is the second reading.

[3:17:41] This will be ordinance number 1743.

[3:17:45] A men's wash-of-counting code,

[3:17:47] chapter 110, development code,

[3:17:49] to update article 220, Tahoe area,

[3:17:52] and article 220.1, Tahoe area design standards.

[3:17:56] This was formerly bill number 1934.

[3:18:00] Thank you very much, Manil Kirk.

[3:18:02] And if we could have a brief staff report on this item,

[3:18:10] Welcome, is Oakley.

[3:18:14] I have a brief version of this if you would like that and then if there are any questions,

[3:18:21] of course I can go to more detail on any topic.

[3:18:23] That sounds great.

[3:18:24] Okay.

[3:18:25] So this is the 2025 Tahoe area plan update and it does contain two different items.

[3:18:33] Application types that you will be considering action on today.

[3:18:36] So first is that second reading and potential adoption

[3:18:38] of a development code amendment.

[3:18:40] That is the most substantial part of this area plan update.

[3:18:44] But there is also an associated master plan amendment.

[3:18:47] That's making text changes to the Tahoe area plan,

[3:18:51] which is the master plan for Washow Tahoe.

[3:18:54] That NPA and the development code amendment

[3:18:58] both have been approved by the Planning Commission,

[3:19:00] which is why they have come over across your guys' desk.

[3:19:04] So, to provide some highlights of what's included, one of the most significant elements of

[3:19:11] this update is the Tahoe Regional Plenty Agency or TRPA Phase 2 housing amendments.

[3:19:18] And what those are are incentives for affordable moderate and attainable housing targeted

[3:19:23] at town centers, which is basically your downtown kind of incline village area, and then

[3:19:29] So similarly in Crystal Bay, and then also areas

[3:19:32] zone for multi-family.

[3:19:36] These amendments were adopted by TRPA in 2023,

[3:19:40] and when they adopted them, they adopted them

[3:19:44] as a mandate to the local jurisdiction.

[3:19:46] So what they said at the time is, we've

[3:19:48] adopted these incentives, local jurisdictions

[3:19:51] by the end of next year, either adopted them as we've

[3:19:55] written them, the incentives that we've created,

[3:19:57] or you can propose an alternative that

[3:20:00] But you can demonstrate, has an equal or greater effect on essentially decreasing the cost of building data shifted housing.

[3:20:08] And so, this is a piece, but not all of this area plan update. We did quite a bit of public outreach.

[3:20:15] This is the topic we heard the most about. And so, we did explore an alternative with TRPA to adulterative to these phase two amendments.

[3:20:25] Ultimately, we received feedback that that alternative would not be accepted because it

[3:20:31] didn't demonstrate that kind of really financial standard of lowering the cost of affordable

[3:20:37] housing. And so those amendments essentially as written are what is included in this

[3:20:43] package. Now I do want to just highlight that we did to the extent that we could add some

[3:20:50] things in to our code package to address the concerns that we did here, again, to the extent

[3:20:56] that we could.

[3:20:56] And so the big thing to mention in that realm is creating a process and standards for review

[3:21:03] of a parking analysis to request a parking reduction and making it very clear that we

[3:21:09] wash a county have the authority to approve or not approve that request.

[3:21:13] And so that's something important that we added as part of the overall package.

[3:21:18] And there are other development code amendments included in this package.

[3:21:22] There are some cleanups that were in Proofins that we've identified since the adoption

[3:21:27] of the Tahoe Area Planning 2021 that we want to take this opportunity to make, and also

[3:21:32] a proposed change to expand allowances for accessory dwelling units.

[3:21:35] So those are kind of highlights of what is included.

[3:21:40] I do want to just address as well that the fees to amendments and all the amendments in

[3:21:47] In fact, if they don't impact TRPA's growth management system, and that is their system of development

[3:21:52] rights that requires that, basically, anybody constructing any sort of housing unit or

[3:21:57] other type of construction has a development right to build that unit, and there is a limited

[3:22:02] number of those.

[3:22:03] And that number, the number of total units that can be built in the Tahoe Basin, it's not changing.

[3:22:09] The intent of these incentives is to direct that development to the extent possible to be

[3:22:15] and to address the affordable housing issue in the basin.

[3:22:19] And so that is something that is not changing with these amendments.

[3:22:27] And I do also just want to mention that this is one of those prioritized items

[3:22:32] that the board kind of listed for us to get to work on.

[3:22:38] So this is one of those items and it's before you today for a decision.

[3:22:41] So those are kind of the highlights.

[3:22:44] We can talk about the last thing I'll mention is,

[3:22:47] since it is a mandate from TRPA, they've kind of said,

[3:22:52] you know, you can adopt these.

[3:22:56] And if you don't do so by a certain date,

[3:22:58] we TRPA have the power to adopt them for you.

[3:23:01] We are past that date.

[3:23:02] They've been working with us because we

[3:23:03] have been working towards adopting these phase 2 housing amendments.

[3:23:08] But I do want to mention that if we don't or are not making progress in that direction, they do have the authority to adopt them for us at that regional level.

[3:23:18] So it's something to keep in mind.

[3:23:20] And that's that's the short of it. So I'm happy to answer any questions you have at the same.

[3:23:24] Thank you so much, Ms. Oakley.

[3:23:26] And I wanted to commend you because we received a lot of public comment giving you accolades for listening to the community and trying to incorporate

[3:23:37] community concerns as part of this package and I still think that parking

[3:23:44] allowance and ensuring that Washington County has the final sign

[3:23:48] off as a win as well. So I just wanted to say thank you for really digging

[3:23:54] in and doing so much work on this project. I will start with Commissioner Garcia

[3:23:59] see if you have any questions. Commissioner Andrea Drilla and Commissioner

[3:24:03] Okay, thank you for that, and now Madam Clerk, I'd love to hear from our public commenters.

[3:24:11] First up, we have Jack Dalton, followed by Stephen Dolan.

[3:24:32] Jack Dalton, Enclined Rosenford 10 years, 11 years, and this has been a long morning.

[3:24:40] And the part that I am opposed to, in a strong way, that it has to do with incline,

[3:24:49] vis-à-vis the vertical sprawl, and vis-à-vis the evacuation, and vis-à-vis the affordable housing,

[3:24:58] which doesn't exist in this.

[3:25:00] So let's first start, let's first start about affordable housing. I have a house, big house. I don't need that. I can put up an ADU.

[3:25:13] Well, I can live in the ADU and I'll live out there, but then I can make an STR of my house. That's done, but that's going to be permitted.

[3:25:21] I wanted an ADU that is STR of prohibit STRs, and that's not what you're doing.

[3:25:32] The place is already overpacked.

[3:25:34] You should take a look at the summer.

[3:25:37] It happens in the summer of the population.

[3:25:42] None of the evacuations have talked to yet about the summer population, which is huge.

[3:25:48] So how are we going to get out?

[3:25:49] We're not going to get out.

[3:25:52] This is a very challenged area, as far as evacuation.

[3:25:56] You're not going to be able to do it.

[3:25:58] The town is already packed.

[3:26:00] You've got to go through.

[3:26:01] And you should see in the summer, go to Crystal Bay.

[3:26:04] You can't get out of the half hour to get out of Crystal Bay on a summer.

[3:26:10] There was a very nice opinion article, the Reno Gazette.

[3:26:14] I was by Pamela, I'm sorry, but I know she's here, but I pronounce it wrong, but at any rate,

[3:26:23] how many people have come here each year, 15 million vehicle traffic, 75% are out of the

[3:26:32] base. So that's not going to be. Now let's talk about, let's talk about people that live there.

[3:26:39] The homeowners insurance and one of the condominiums has increased $8,000 in the last three years, so there's people moving out because of that.

[3:26:53] This isn't going to address any of that kind of stuff. Now let's talk about the fire.

[3:26:58] Well, we don't have the U.S. Forest Service five days ago, since there were 350 lightning strikes,

[3:27:08] eight fires.

[3:27:10] And the last fire that we had over here came pretty close to going over the mountain.

[3:27:14] If it goes over the mountain, we're going.

[3:27:16] So I'm opposing any of the stuff that has to do currently with employment and personal

[3:27:25] bay.

[3:27:26] Thank you.

[3:27:26] Thank you. Steven Dolan, followed by Roxanna Dunne.

[3:27:43] Thank you Commissioner Hill, Chair, and other commissioners.

[3:27:48] I appreciate the opportunity.

[3:27:50] I'll pick up kind of where I left off this morning.

[3:27:55] I'll remind the group that according to the insurance industry analysis of the fire in Oakland,

[3:28:06] that it was caused and created by high-density housing on narrow hillside streets, and that

[3:28:15] is a definition of incline village, and Crystal Bay, and most of the communities around

[3:28:20] the lake for that matter.

[3:28:25] TRPA is big in this,

[3:28:29] and as an alternate on the board of governors and as a member of the board

[3:28:36] of governors for the T.R.P.A., I'm sure you understand these terms better than most,

[3:28:43] but they are manipulative terms.

[3:28:47] The first one that's the toughest is continuity.

[3:28:50] That's one that usually starts in California and works its way around until our 80 use

[3:28:56] are changed in Nevada.

[3:29:00] Workforce housing.

[3:29:01] real great buzzword, really doesn't get applied to in an appropriate way within

[3:29:09] these rules that you're being asked to authorize change for. The others and the

[3:29:20] most absurdly defined is achievable housing. This is not low-income housing. You

[3:29:27] have heard all the chatter about what it really is on the boards for the TRPA. You know what it is

[3:29:34] and how it really doesn't approach anywhere near taking care of housing for people who earn

[3:29:43] very little money.

[3:29:49] So it really is the changes you're making are actually going to kill

[3:29:54] the business down here in Reno and Sparks and Verde and these areas.

[3:30:00] Because it's really setting up to increase and monetize North Lake Tahoe.

[3:30:06] And so there you're going to have all of the gambling money, all these things going up there as opposed to your own districts.

[3:30:13] So I think that should be a concern for you guys as well. Thank you very much.

[3:30:19] Thank you.

[3:30:22] Roxana Dunne followed by Christina Hill.

[3:30:30] Tenure resident of inclined village and chair of the incline village cab.

[3:30:36] I'm spoken with each of you about our evacuation dangers.

[3:30:40] So you already know that I agree with some of the speakers this morning

[3:30:45] that that's a factor.

[3:30:47] But I want to make a different point today.

[3:30:49] And that is that these amendments has structured

[3:30:51] are not going to provide the kind of housing that our workers need.

[3:30:57] Ten years ago when I bought my house in Incline, I was about $1 million short

[3:31:02] of being able to buy a house that has a view of the lake.

[3:31:07] But in the 65-foot high buildings allowed by these amendments,

[3:31:11] I'm pretty sure that the fifth and sixth stories

[3:31:13] are going to have pretty nice views of the lake.

[3:31:16] And we're going to put workforce housing there.

[3:31:18] I don't think so.

[3:31:21] Every one of those units is going to be developed

[3:31:23] under the achievable category that has no limit

[3:31:27] on price for the seller, no limit on income for the buyer,

[3:31:31] no limit on the size of the unit.

[3:31:35] Our workforce doesn't need multimillion dollar condos

[3:31:38] with a view.

[3:31:39] They mostly need rental apartments.

[3:31:42] Look at our workers.

[3:31:44] We have a lot of seasonal workers

[3:31:46] because of the nature of the area.

[3:31:48] We seem to attract a lot of people in their 20s who are spending their last carefree years and

[3:31:53] a fun place. On Saturday, I was talking with a guy who is a slow groom or a diamond peak.

[3:32:02] And he said, I really shouldn't sign your petition because I'm about to move out of the area.

[3:32:08] Turns out he and several of his buddies are moving to Scottsdale because they can no longer

[3:32:13] for it to live in in-cline.

[3:32:17] We have many foreign workers who are here on temporary work

[3:32:20] feces and then we have our more permanent workers

[3:32:23] but who work in lower levels jobs that will never allow them

[3:32:27] to purchase a home but they would like to live where they work.

[3:32:33] Now we do have an example of something that works

[3:32:35] and that is the sugar pine housing complex,

[3:32:39] down in South Lake that was developed under the auspices

[3:32:42] of the St. Joseph community land trust. I'm a fan of land trust. I think this is the only

[3:32:49] thing that's really going to work in our area, and I'm disappointed that TRPA went with

[3:32:54] these amendments instead of pursuing that approach. We want workforce housing, but I don't see

[3:33:02] any way that these amendments are going to result in anything other than high-priced condominiums

[3:33:08] for purchase by people who do not work in the area and probably are may not need assistance.

[3:33:16] So please to vote no, I have 11 seconds left and I would like to use that to commend

[3:33:23] the folks that we have worked with in the planning department, Dave Kat, Courtney, Trevor

[3:33:29] and Eric have all been wonderful.

[3:33:31] So thanks to them.

[3:33:33] Thank you.

[3:33:34] Kristina Hill, followed by Alexander Sigdenus.

[3:33:43] Good afternoon.

[3:33:45] Commissioners, my name is Kristina Hill.

[3:33:47] I've spent over four decades in Lake Tahoe

[3:33:50] Environmental Planning.

[3:33:52] As a TRPA planner, chair of the

[3:33:55] Washow County Board of Adjustments and Consultant.

[3:33:58] I am here today because I believe these

[3:34:01] proposed amendments for the Tahoe area plan

[3:34:04] posed a serious threat to the integrity of our region.

[3:34:07] The amendments contain misleading housing labels.

[3:34:13] The amendments promote workforce and achievable housing, but in reality, the enable

[3:34:18] market rate condos.

[3:34:21] There is no enforceable mechanism to ensure income-based occupancy of these units.

[3:34:28] A achievable housing, which is considered workforce housing, is

[3:34:35] concludes multi-million dollar units, hardly affordable.

[3:34:39] If you want affordable housing, you should limit STRs in

[3:34:44] Washow County, which is only in the Crystal Bay Incline Village area,

[3:34:50] to allow for more workforce housing.

[3:34:53] The amendments create negative environmental impacts.

[3:34:57] 100% land coverage is proposed.

[3:35:00] With no clear plan for storm water treatment, run off from impervious services is a major contributor to lake degradation.

[3:35:10] The only environmental analysis that was done for this plan to amend these code was done in 1987.

[3:35:21] that was 38 years ago. The world has changed substantially since then and I can't believe

[3:35:28] you're using 38-year-old data to say all the roads will be great, the population will be

[3:35:35] great, everything will be fine. The Lake Tahoe Basin has changed since the pandemic working

[3:35:43] from home in the agency supports more attractions to accommodate more tourists visitors.

[3:35:51] such as the Eshort Trail.

[3:35:53] People come from all over the world to go on that trail.

[3:35:59] And you know, it's just that the amendments

[3:36:03] will create further water quality decline.

[3:36:06] Nureshort water quality is deteriorating.

[3:36:09] Harmful algae blooms and microplastics are increasing.

[3:36:14] Trash accumulation and wildfire evacuations are worsening.

[3:36:18] The Lake's ecological capacity has been exceeded, as confirmed by the state of the Lake report.

[3:36:26] TRPA has shifted their mission.

[3:36:29] It's moved from an environmental protection agency to development promotion.

[3:36:35] Scientists have been replaced with PR professionals.

[3:36:42] They have inferred.

[3:36:49] Thank you.

[3:36:52] Alexander Sikdynis followed by Ann Nichols.

[3:36:59] Alex DeGennis of Washington, who's constituent,

[3:37:02] these amendments are meant to solve a lack of workforce housing

[3:37:05] by dramatically rezoning Tahoe Town Center areas

[3:37:08] from a low-rise rural Main Street model

[3:37:10] to a vertical urban walkable city model,

[3:37:13] two major issues for your consideration.

[3:37:16] First, the Tahoe Basin of Washington,

[3:37:18] do not have a dire shortage of housing units.

[3:37:21] We do have a shortage of housing units available

[3:37:23] to residents who seek to live and work here.

[3:37:27] Anybody anywhere planning a Tahoe vacation

[3:37:29] can choose from more than 5,000 licensed short-term rental listings in the basin,

[3:37:35] in between 800 and 1,000 in Washington, Tahoe, and many more that are unlicensed.

[3:37:40] Adding STR limits would improve housing availability,

[3:37:43] without moving dirt providing tax incentives or subsidies

[3:37:46] or requiring costly changes to infrastructure.

[3:37:50] Ironically, county tax payers now subsidize the administration of Washington's STR program from

[3:37:55] its general fund, doesn't even pay for itself. Note that annual tile visitation is soared

[3:38:01] by some tenfold from two to twenty million over the past twenty years. It's now two times

[3:38:07] of the nation's most visited national park. More transient occupancy tax from STRs only goes

[3:38:14] promoting more tourism, not to work force housing, or improving the infrastructure it runs

[3:38:19] down. These are reasons why communities nationwide have captured restricted as STRs, including

[3:38:26] an Airbnb's corporate homeless San Francisco, where only permanent residents are allowed

[3:38:31] to be STR hosts. Second, this proposed high-density housing requires no parking that assumes

[3:38:37] new residents with ill-defined achievable incomes will not have vehicles. Yet these residents

[3:38:43] are likely to work and landscaping construction or service jobs for which a pickup truck

[3:38:47] or a car itself is a tool of their trade necessary to get to changing work sites.

[3:38:53] Or they're likely to be dual income couples who work in different places.

[3:38:57] Next, in Washington, no drops by the foot in the winter.

[3:39:01] The county struggles to keep our roads clear, let alone our sidewalks and pathways where

[3:39:05] they even exist.

[3:39:07] It's not walkable for half the year when most street parking is illegal.

[3:39:11] Finally, how would non-vehicle owning town center residents be evacuated in the likely event of a summer wildfire?

[3:39:19] So here's why you should vote no to these zoning amendments.

[3:39:22] They will level our existing town centers and price-out current businesses,

[3:39:27] enable a taxpayer subsidized short-term rental program that can continue to remove long-term housing units from our communities,

[3:39:33] create new and costly tax funder, taxpayer funded issues around parking, infrastructure, snow

[3:39:40] removal, etc. Exacirbate wildfire evacuation and basin over capacity issues. And eventually

[3:39:47] they'll most likely end up being just more vacation rental apartments, which nobody asked

[3:39:52] for. Vote no on this poor public policy as would your washow Tahoe constituents if this were

[3:39:58] public referendum.

[3:40:00] We can do much better. Thank you. Ann Nichols, followed by Pamela, Mahoney, sickness.

[3:40:14] Good afternoon, Ann Nichols, North

[3:40:15] Tau of Preservation Alliance of Warsaw County Property Owner, lived here 54 years. We strongly

[3:40:24] oppose these amendments. You know, they don't,

[3:40:31] it's just, it's unlawful. And short, you know,

[3:40:35] It feels growth without true affordability, without wildfire, and evacuation planning, and without

[3:40:42] the environmental review required by law.

[3:40:46] A thorough analysis has to be done.

[3:40:49] This is the reasoning of the entire Lake Tahoe Basin piecemeal through each county.

[3:40:57] It's huge, and you're all pointing at each other, OTRPA made me do this, or we did save

[3:41:05] of money for the developers.

[3:41:08] This group think from TRPA that's being forced down your throats started in 2012 and it was

[3:41:16] this great idea about will go higher like they do in Portland.

[3:41:21] It's not the same at Lake Tahoe but TRPA and you guys are treating the whole base in the

[3:41:27] 65 feet in height, 100% coverage, unlimited density, and no minimum parking.

[3:41:35] This is hubris.

[3:41:36] It's just, I can't believe that this is happening, and it's been peace milled out,

[3:41:42] oh, this public outreach, well, you had this meeting at the Paris All Building phase three.

[3:41:48] By the way, it's going to increase all the bonus, it's going to increase the, that's

[3:41:53] what they're pushing.

[3:41:53] And don't you want to see more available housing?

[3:41:56] Don't we have to fix this?

[3:41:57] Let's increase our minimums the cap on development.

[3:42:02] Let's increase it.

[3:42:02] That's what they're doing right now.

[3:42:04] But they piece millet.

[3:42:05] They push through one, phase two, now phase three.

[3:42:08] And each one is worse than the other.

[3:42:11] And you're just being dragged into this.

[3:42:13] And I don't think it's defensible.

[3:42:15] You have new information that's not being analyzed

[3:42:19] from Tahoe Clean Air has done this analysis.

[3:42:22] fire evacuation analysis that's going to take six hours to evacuate in

[3:42:27] Klein village. There's nobody knows how long it will take the whole

[3:42:31] lake to evacuate. But go ahead, push this through, rush it through, no

[3:42:37] discussion. It's shameful. Really, I can't believe this is happening. And I

[3:42:44] appreciate Commissioner Clark and Herman's, you know, I love that he goes, if

[3:42:50] Lake Tahoe was a building, it would be unsafe, and it would be out.

[3:42:57] Thank you.

[3:42:59] Pamela Mahoney, sick Dennis, followed by Pennybrook.

[3:43:06] Good afternoon.

[3:43:07] As you know, I'm Pamela Mahoney, sick Dennis.

[3:43:09] I'm a full-time washow Tahoe resident.

[3:43:11] This is my first time in Chambers.

[3:43:14] I would have normally taken the time to go to incline village, but this is the library.

[3:43:18] but I think this is so important I want it to be here in person.

[3:43:23] Your vote today will be one of the most consequential in Tahoe's history.

[3:43:29] I'm here to ask you to oppose the amendments.

[3:43:32] Development code, this far reaching engraved,

[3:43:35] should be backed by significant environmental analysis,

[3:43:39] comprehensive traffic research,

[3:43:42] visitation data, and evacuation impacts.

[3:43:44] We have none of that information.

[3:43:49] You have the power to request it.

[3:43:53] From the beginning of this rezoning process,

[3:43:56] the public has consistently voiced serious concerns

[3:43:59] about the clear and present danger that extensive development

[3:44:04] in a geographically constrained basin

[3:44:07] will pose to Tahoe residents, visitors, and workers

[3:44:11] not to mention the lake itself.

[3:44:13] These amendments are a naked attempt to serve growth at all cost developer agendas.

[3:44:22] They will also endanger the public, residents, workers, and visitors alike, we're all

[3:44:28] going to be competing to get out.

[3:44:31] As one of my fellow Tauho residents wrote to you, history has shown us time and again that

[3:44:37] when officials ignore risks disaster follows and so does regret.

[3:44:42] We cannot afford to wait until after a tragedy to act.

[3:44:48] Our country, our county and you, our leaders, must proactively address fire and evacuation concerns

[3:44:55] before approving such major development changes.

[3:45:00] You have the tools and you have the authority. What remains is the will to act responsibly. We ask

[3:45:09] and please encourage you to require comprehensive evacuation modeling. Require a comprehensive

[3:45:17] environmental impact study that analyzes the risks and harms to Lake Tahoe. Explore changes

[3:45:27] to the short-term rental ordinance to unlock existing housing.

[3:45:32] Approving these amendments today, without the necessary knowledge of the impacts they will have,

[3:45:39] we'll jeopardize the safety of every person who lives, works, and visits.

[3:45:45] Be an advocate for public safety.

[3:45:47] Please be an advocate for the lakes, clarity, and health.

[3:45:52] Oppose these amendments before you today.

[3:45:56] Thank you very much for your time.

[3:45:57] Thank you.

[3:45:59] Penny Brock, followed by Jim McNamara.

[3:46:08] Penny Brock, a resident down in the valley here.

[3:46:13] So why do I care about this?

[3:46:15] Because our county commission is responsible.

[3:46:18] To protect late Lake Tahoe,

[3:46:22] the gem of the Sierra Nevada's inclined village

[3:46:24] where people from around the world dream of vacationing.

[3:46:28] We need to protect the lake, we need to protect incline village.

[3:46:34] There's a word called moratorium, and when you have limited land,

[3:46:41] that word needs to be implemented to maintain what we have in Washington County,

[3:46:48] like Tahoe and incline village, we need to preserve the charm of incline village.

[3:46:54] We also have another issue, your emergency management team is undergoing a study for fire evacuation.

[3:47:04] That includes incline village.

[3:47:08] I'm the chair of the cab in District 2, South Valley's Washo Valley.

[3:47:14] We went through the Davis fire.

[3:47:17] As chair of the cab, I'm concerned.

[3:47:20] How do we evacuate not only the people in the valley along Mount Rose Highway, an air

[3:47:26] creek, but also those that will pour down from inclined village should that fire that

[3:47:33] almost went up the mountain into the Tahoe basin? How do we evacuate? I think it would be wise

[3:47:43] on your part to table this, number 16 before you, until the Washington County Emergency Management

[3:47:52] Study comes out and I'm glad to hear that in-cline has their own study being done.

[3:47:57] Maybe you need to wait for all kinds of reasons your job.

[3:48:01] Number one job is to protect life and property of the citizens you were elected to oversee.

[3:48:09] Please, table this number 16.

[3:48:15] Thank you.

[3:48:16] Jim McNamara, followed by Ellie Waller.

[3:48:28] Good afternoon.

[3:48:30] I am your appointed representative on the

[3:48:36] TRPA Planning Commission.

[3:48:39] I'm also representative for

[3:48:46] of an incline. I've tried my best to get a good handle on their concerns on everything

[3:48:54] from insurability to evacuation and housing. And I want to say from listening to everything,

[3:49:06] I support what Washington County is trying to do in the area plan. I've gone to the meetings

[3:49:14] were residents, not these particular residents, but some of them show up and explain their

[3:49:21] needs as far as housing goes.

[3:49:24] We also have people who come up and talk about evacuation and what their concerns are.

[3:49:31] We've had multiple multiple meetings with the fire chiefs, emergency management, sheriffs.

[3:49:38] And they've learned a tremendous amount over the last 20 years.

[3:49:42] everything from the Angora fire to the Davis fire, it's a learning curve and we've got

[3:49:48] people up there that have been in emergency management and fire positions for 34 to

[3:49:52] years. They are very capable people. They understand that what we're trying to do is not to do

[3:50:00] Developed new cities up there and add thousands of people. We're trying to change what's up there. The rampant

[3:50:07] development that occurred in incline and crystal bay in the 60s, 70s and 80s when boys at cascades

[3:50:14] started this. We would not allow that kind of building these days at all. It would be too unsafe.

[3:50:29] It

[3:50:29] exist all the way up through incline, old places, Jupiter, Apollo, Jennifer,

[3:50:38] upper-tiner, those are going to be fire traps.

[3:50:41] And the homes that are up there now are not defensible because of terrain and other factors

[3:50:48] where they're sighted, what we're merely trying to do is redevelop a small area of the

[3:50:56] It's not only give protection, but people could actually shelter in place, but we could also

[3:51:03] add some housing that right now, people can't afford to work up there.

[3:51:09] I mean, share of firefighters, teachers, necessary essential workers, without them we're not

[3:51:17] going to have a community up there.

[3:51:19] So we can't just dismiss that idea of providing, we're not providing housing, we're trying

[3:51:25] to make it buildable for them.

[3:51:28] Thank you for your time.

[3:51:29] Thank you all for your efforts.

[3:51:31] Thank you.

[3:51:32] Ellie Waller, followed by John Epilita.

[3:51:40] Good afternoon.

[3:51:41] Ellie Waller, Douglas County resident.

[3:51:43] The by state compact charges TRPA with establishing a regional plan for the Lake Tahoe Basin

[3:51:48] as a road map to achieve long-term environmental goals, thresholds for the region.

[3:51:54] There are three primary growth management strategies to preserve Lake Tahoe's unique

[3:51:58] environment, limiting development, public land acquisition, and conserving natural areas.

[3:52:04] The Washington-Earrier Plan proposed amendments do not address any of the growth management

[3:52:09] strategies.

[3:52:10] Thus cannot make the required findings vote no, oppose the amendments.

[3:52:15] The TRPA compact does not address housing periods, so why is TRPA leading the way, pushing

[3:52:21] local jurisdictions to adopt code amendments that have not been thoroughly analyzed through

[3:52:26] and a comprehensive environmental impact study.

[3:52:30] The individual area plans were not analyzed

[3:52:33] in the 2012 regional plan.

[3:52:35] TARPA is kicking the can to the local jurisdictions

[3:52:37] while regional and local impacts go unchecked.

[3:52:41] Open your eyes, lawsuits thus happen at the local jurisdiction level.

[3:52:46] The TARPA codependent requiring adding phase two incentives

[3:52:50] do not guarantee a single unit will be built.

[3:52:52] In fact, continuing to allow in-loop

[3:52:54] programs, land donations, et cetera, further pre-clude the actual units from being built.

[3:53:01] The continued failures of incentive-based code allowances along with not requiring new

[3:53:08] proposed developments to actually build the much needed real affordable housing is clearly

[3:53:13] evident in recent wash-up approvals, requesting additional perks of height increases less

[3:53:19] parking 100% coverage and town centers create cumulative impacts and unbittigated growth that

[3:53:26] have not been evaluated in the regional plant and must be.

[3:53:30] These impacts go unchecked.

[3:53:32] Furthermore, adding unmitigated population growth with short-term rentals and regional

[3:53:37] growth and renal, carcass and cities, Sacramento, etc., is completely ignoring base and

[3:53:42] wide jurisdictional issues.

[3:53:45] The short-term rental program has resulted in loss of affordable housing by owners kicking out

[3:53:51] renters in favor of financial gain by renting to tourists.

[3:53:55] Be reminded to those of very unique environment and cannot and should not be compared or

[3:53:59] modeled after any other location.

[3:54:02] For the health and safety of the residents and tourists alike, I request you reject these amendments.

[3:54:07] Thank you.

[3:54:09] John, John Appelito?

[3:54:23] Hi.

[3:54:23] I'm John Epilito, I've been a real estate broker in Lake Tahoe for 27 years, both in Nevada and California, and that's on the North Shore.

[3:54:33] The TRPA governing board, when they voted to approve these new area plan to whatever it is, the highest ranking elected official on the TRPA governing board,

[3:54:47] Secretary of State's Cisco Aguilar voted against these things that you guys are going to vote on today.

[3:54:54] And what he said was, you have to start listening to the community.

[3:54:59] We haven't seen that.

[3:55:00] Start to happen yet. We had a bunch of people in incline that came up with a low moderate income housing area in the middle of town.

[3:55:09] And unfortunately, a developer bought one of those parcels by mistake, so he came to Alexis and he was able to get the zoning change to you guys from low income housing to build two to five million dollar condominiums. Then he decided, now I'll just sell it. Now it's for sale for nine million dollars.

[3:55:26] I don't know who's campaign. He's going to contribute to. I agree with people that already spoke and only have limited time.

[3:55:35] Pam, you did an excellent job. Thank you very much. Christine Hill, Super.

[3:55:40] Ann Nichols, she's the one who got me understanding what's going on.

[3:55:45] Ali, Alex, thank you very much for your comments. I agree with what those people said.

[3:55:49] My biggest concern is getting out during a fire. I think most people know by now you can't evacuate us.

[3:55:55] All these fires we've had around the country, and most of them don't have near as much fuel

[3:56:00] as we have in Tahoe.

[3:56:02] Here's one evacuating Tahoe could take twice as long as projected simulations indicate.

[3:56:09] Here's one from the Reno Gazette Journal.

[3:56:11] It will not be survivable.

[3:56:13] Lake Tahoe fire could be a death trap during major wildfires.

[3:56:19] Here's one.

[3:56:20] Future wildfires could trap tourists in Tahoe.

[3:56:24] Here's one that firemen, retired, and former fire department, professional assigned about how

[3:56:29] unsafe it is, and we can't get evacuated.

[3:56:32] This is what we should be focusing on.

[3:56:35] And here's one I think this is one about Cisco Aguilar, who's protecting Tahoe regulatory agency

[3:56:40] enamored with developments as critics.

[3:56:43] Yes, when I first came to Tahoe and when I first started selling real estate, I used

[3:56:48] to all clients TRPA, her Lake Tauvases

[3:56:52] never going to be overdeveloped because of TRPA,

[3:56:55] but now that they've lost their way

[3:56:57] and gotten into the development industry,

[3:56:59] please put a breaks on this.

[3:57:02] Don't know, make the TRPA do what's right.

[3:57:05] They cannot get us out during a fire.

[3:57:07] I'm going to give these to her for the record.

[3:57:09] Thank you.

[3:57:11] We have nobody else signed in and chambers.

[3:57:14] We do have virtual public comment and incline village.

[3:57:17] First up is Stephen Johnson, followed by Helen Neff.

[3:57:28] Hello, my name is Steve Johnson, I'm a 25-year resident up in

[3:57:33] in Clant Village. I wanted to address two specific issues that we've been

[3:57:37] talking about today and really highlight them. The first one is parking. Since

[3:57:41] the creation of inclant and village there has never been an

[3:57:44] intelligent assessment of allocating sufficient parking spaces on the

[3:57:48] you were owners actually reside. Any casual observer can clearly see this issue by driving by any

[3:57:54] the many existing high-density condominium developments in the evenings when the residents are home

[3:58:00] from school and work. Cars and trucks are parked all over a public streets as they're a totally

[3:58:06] insufficient number of spaces with the associated parcels where these people live. During the busy summer

[3:58:12] months, the shortage is compounded by the addition of trailers, boats and RVs. For units that do

[3:58:18] function as short-term rentals, as many as five or six additional vehicles end up on the

[3:58:23] streets, sidewalks, and in public parking.

[3:58:26] There's also a huge issue during the winter with public parking restrictions, which is

[3:58:32] our winter is six months long up here when vehicles are illegally parked all on the streets

[3:58:37] day and night, preventing the proper clearing of snow from our roadways.

[3:58:43] The vehicles end up parking literally wherever possible, including many illegal spots, creating

[3:58:48] chaos in peating snow clearance and promoting the erosion of soils which

[3:58:52] washing to our late Tahoe. When I first moved the inclined village 25 years ago

[3:58:56] the county did issue parking violations for impeding snow removal. No longer,

[3:59:02] ticketing cars and trucks would be impractical and a serious imposition on our

[3:59:05] low-income, hard-working residents living in the condo units. The plan says that the

[3:59:11] current minimum of one to two parking spaces per unit. Well that's that's

[3:59:18] in an exaggeration. The authors of the plan fail to recognize that the currency occupancy rates

[3:59:24] of condos and other affordable housing units far exceed the intended rates. Many condos have

[3:59:30] more than one family residing in them with multiple adults who all own vehicles. The truth is

[3:59:36] that if we had additional high density housing, these units will also have many more residents

[3:59:42] that were originally planned for. I believe the plan proposes to reduce parking requirements

[3:59:48] to 0.7 spaces per unit. That's crazy. It's completely unworkable. We need more parking spaces

[3:59:56] not less. Please drive down southwood Boulevard.

[4:00:00] Northwood Boulevard, any time to see the problem, especially during the winter months when illegally parked vehicles, they're buried in snow when the clouds attempt to clear our roads.

[4:00:09] It's an unsafe situation that would only be worse than by increasing housing density and reducing parking requirements.

[4:00:16] A second issue is on bicycles. It would appear that the authors of the plan believe that providing parking spaces for bicycles,

[4:00:22] such the tubes for needing parking spaces for vehicles and if

[4:00:27] residents have parking spaces for their bikes, they won't drive a car.

[4:00:31] That might work during the summer months, but you know,

[4:00:34] that's a total non-started during the winter season, which is up here

[4:00:36] for about six minutes.

[4:00:38] There are six months.

[4:00:39] Helen Ness, followed by Scott Taish.

[4:00:44] Thank you.

[4:00:51] Hi, Helen Ness.

[4:00:52] Thank you.

[4:00:52] with residents.

[4:00:54] The proposed amendments to the towel area plans for

[4:00:57] incline-villaging Crystal Bay do not reflect the safety

[4:01:00] values and needs of our local residents.

[4:01:03] The key issues raised by our community are clearly

[4:01:06] stated in the staff report.

[4:01:08] First and foremost, wildfire evacuation and in an area

[4:01:12] already highly vulnerable with limited evacuation routes.

[4:01:17] Second impacts on our community character with a proposed

[4:01:21] dollar buildings altering the Tahoe landscape.

[4:01:24] Third, reduce parking standards that ignore the needs

[4:01:27] of essential workers who depend on their vehicles

[4:01:30] for their livelihood.

[4:01:32] Fourth, the definition of achievable housing,

[4:01:34] which lacks income requirements,

[4:01:36] and instead creates incentives for market rate projects

[4:01:40] rather than affordable apartments.

[4:01:42] And finally, ongoing concerns about

[4:01:44] de-breastric shin enforcement, which is historically

[4:01:47] been weak and lacks transparency.

[4:01:50] Many of these same objections were voice last fall to TRPA, yet they were largely dismissed as a face to amendments advanced through committees and were approved by the governing board in December.

[4:02:02] This disregard for evacuation safety and a one-size-fits-all approach to told a code of amendments ignores the vast differences between Tahoe's northwest and south shores.

[4:02:13] To be clear, we strongly support affordable housing for our workforce, but approved amendments

[4:02:19] to allow taller buildings with reduced parking under the banner of a achievable housing

[4:02:23] will not deliver what is needed.

[4:02:26] We strongly support public safety, which includes evacuation planning and transportation

[4:02:31] safety changes to our roads, both areas that require priority attention before approving

[4:02:38] amendments that allow taller buildings and higher population density.

[4:02:43] Community trust depends on transparency, responsiveness, and collaboration.

[4:02:49] Stronger outcomes come from listening to those most impacted, not handing down pre-determined

[4:02:55] solutions.

[4:02:57] I urge you to listen to residents oppose these amendments and advocate for a process

[4:03:02] that truly respects local input.

[4:03:05] Thank you.

[4:03:08] Scott Taish, followed by Lynn Wittstone.

[4:03:13] Good afternoon, my name is Scott Teach.

[4:03:14] I'm from Moody, Cripple Bay in 1980.

[4:03:17] Please pardon my prepared statement.

[4:03:20] When you land at the Reno Tower International Airport,

[4:03:23] the giant sign says the future of Reno is more.

[4:03:27] Notice it doesn't say incline village is more.

[4:03:30] Reno gets the future incline gets the more.

[4:03:34] Vote no.

[4:03:35] Incline is, once again, Washington is big, beautiful and new, and is our district one commissioner fighting for us, doesn't look that way.

[4:03:44] Looks like peace making with fellow commissioners keeping a political clear on track, a political career on track, and leaving incline village on the hook.

[4:03:54] I voted and contributed for that. I stand a snucker.

[4:03:59] We're told the TRPA is forcing Washington to adopt this community plan.

[4:04:04] Come on, Washington can think for itself, can it?

[4:04:07] Don't rubber stamp a plan that wrecks your own backyard.

[4:04:11] Unlimited growth, undefined housing, no parking requirements, Bay Area Style traffic with restricted infrastructure.

[4:04:21] The fantasy that families with kids, dogs, skis, coolers, and bikes are just going to

[4:04:26] hop on the bus, you know, right.

[4:04:30] What about evacuation?

[4:04:31] Everybody knows it's not if, but when.

[4:04:34] There is even a clear plan for today's run in it.

[4:04:41] None disclosed without threatening national security, of course.

[4:04:45] What about our security?

[4:04:46] So, the solution is, add thousands of more cars, genius, or gas on the fire, pun intended.

[4:04:55] Inclined village and North Power will be changed forever, not for the better, vote no.

[4:05:00] Thank you very much. Lynn Wettstone, followed by Tim Delaney.

[4:05:07] Hi, my name is Lynn Wettstone, and I live in a

[4:05:09] Paula way in which is on the north edge of town. It's an area that was labeled by a previous speaker

[4:05:17] as indefensible and a wildfire. My primary concern with these proposed amendments is wildfire of

[4:05:25] And I want to bring to your attention some recent developments, which should be yet another cause to reject these amendments at this time.

[4:05:33] As you're aware, a major partner to local government in the event of a wildfire is the Lake Tahoe Base Management Unit, which is part of the U.S. Forest Service.

[4:05:42] Recent position reductions in layoffs, FFF4 service have been well-publicized.

[4:05:50] More recently, on July 24, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced a reorganization

[4:05:56] plan, which includes further reductions and will change the management structure of the

[4:06:01] forest service.

[4:06:03] There are currently, there's currently regional office in Vale, California, which manages

[4:06:08] all of the Forest Service units in the Sierra. And there's also one in Oregon. Both of those

[4:06:15] will be closed. I'm assuming the LCM BMU will report to the nearest office, which will be

[4:06:22] in Salt Lake City. There will be a significant loss of management knowledge of wildfire and

[4:06:27] environmental issues in the Lake Tahoe basin. And the Sierra in general. This will further harm

[4:06:34] the LCBM use ability to respond effectively to wildfires appear.

[4:06:40] As long-term government executives for the state of California, when we purchased our home

[4:06:45] in 1997, we believe we could rely on government to help keep us safe.

[4:06:51] We have lost protection by the TRPA and are losing confidence in the LCBMU.

[4:06:57] We're scared, particularly after the called our fire and last year's day this fire, which

[4:07:02] for miles from our house and was mentioned earlier. We are looking to wash a county as the only

[4:07:08] entity which is currently in a position to keep things to be getting even worse. Please reject

[4:07:14] and propose planet amendments. Thank you. Thank you. Tim Delaney, followed by Aaron Vanderpool.

[4:07:24] Hello, Tim Delaney. Nice to hear all of you again. Fabulous public speaking here that I'm hearing.

[4:07:31] I'm going to my apologies. I'm a little worn out. I got on the road at, I think, five in a morning or something like that.

[4:07:39] I drove out of the Santa Cruz Mountains to feed a path up here.

[4:07:43] You're trying to figure out why folks have their thumbs on my stack of cash.

[4:07:51] So I'm going to give a little bit of a leg up here to wealthy people in climb village that might be afraid to speak

[4:07:57] Because of all these obelords, you know, it's the buzzword Brigade, right?

[4:08:03] You want to make them feel bad.

[4:08:05] Well, they can all point to me and say, well, what about Tim?

[4:08:09] You see, I'm part of the lower caste system.

[4:08:13] That's right. I worked from the very bottom up.

[4:08:17] And to see the thing is here as a kid,

[4:08:20] my childhood was enormously difficult.

[4:08:22] And yes, I was in and out of jails and my best friends and life were combat veterans in my family and

[4:08:30] extirled to my family and law enforcement officers. Interesting huh.

[4:08:35] So the thing is is I climb out of all of that and I get a

[4:08:41] Pelbramp funded injuring physics degree and I've looked at all this and I have an American society here

[4:08:47] That will not listen to me

[4:08:50] So, you hear that word group thing, right?

[4:08:53] So you remember that little episode over was it South Korea, Japan, everything and everybody

[4:08:58] was like throwing up that colored dust in the air and they thought it was a good time and

[4:09:03] everything?

[4:09:04] Well, do you think, if I was in that society speaking to those people, that somehow I can

[4:09:10] convince them and tell them to look with my life experiences and all my industrial work,

[4:09:15] that's not a very smart thing to do, you say?

[4:09:18] That's what you're doing here right now with incline village.

[4:09:23] I don't like what you're doing, Alexis, you're going to destroy my town and have a bunch

[4:09:29] of big structures here that are above the trees and what help me out in life as structures

[4:09:35] below the trees and seeing the wind blowing those trees back and forth in the snow, it gave

[4:09:42] me a reason to live.

[4:09:44] All right, you need to think about all that.

[4:09:47] When I was a young man, I actually had about 15 officers,

[4:09:52] half of them pointing guns at me.

[4:09:55] Think about that.

[4:09:57] And think about what I climbed out of.

[4:10:00] I climb out of that, and I ended up with that engineering, because it's agreein I did a lot of good work for our national government here.

[4:10:06] So, I climb out of that, I buy a piece of property, I save all my little beans, and now people have their thumb on my cash pile.

[4:10:16] I don't like that. That's evil. It's wicked. It's disgusting. You need to get out of my town with your genders.

[4:10:24] All right? Thank you. You take it easy.

[4:10:29] Aaron Vanderpool, followed by Stephen Ross.

[4:10:37] Yeah, Aaron Vanderpool, that was nice to follow by somebody else that grew up here and is in a class that I am and also an academic that turned into academic.

[4:10:49] I grew up here, I spent over four decades here and I'm here to tell you that what you're doing is destroying the future of everybody that can hear me.

[4:10:57] I've sent a letter. I'm going to bullet point four points. Well, you're doing may increase short term and it's all short term thinking and might make things a little bit affordable for short term.

[4:11:07] But one, ADUs, significant degree increase wealth inequality. If you put an ADU on a piece of property, you're increasing that value way above out of reach of a single family home that I would like to buy.

[4:11:21] Two, building more doesn't work in the system where we keep giving more money to the wealthy.

[4:11:27] You know, when how many parcels does David's Fieldon, L.S.N.

[4:11:31] You know, all these people behind their other LLC names that are buying up everything.

[4:11:36] Is there something in the stockmark called low flow?

[4:11:39] When small amount of people own and lock up all the stock, then it's very volatile and usually just goes to moon way above what the value should be.

[4:11:47] 3D restriction. If you did restrict my neighborhood next to an undead restricted neighborhood

[4:11:53] of the wealthiest people in the world, it turns a slum of renters that eventually is just

[4:11:59] controlled and owned by them. It doesn't make sense how you're restricting the poor, you're unrestricting

[4:12:05] in the wealthy.

[4:12:08] Here, P.A. said, the D restriction rates more regulation, more bureaucracy.

[4:12:14] We have spent more tax dollars.

[4:12:17] You can't, D.P.R.A. said at the Affordable Housing Workshop, they can't, they don't

[4:12:23] know about funding, continued funding for these programs like Placement, which gives $7,000

[4:12:28] of our tax dollars to a wealthy empty homeowner.

[4:12:32] Why are you taking my tax dollars given it to the wealthy not taxing them that their homes are sitting empty?

[4:12:38] You know, I somebody's point out to me,

[4:12:40] Incline Village has 9,100 population, I guess.

[4:12:45] So why is it we can't find people to work at our post office?

[4:12:49] You know, these houses keep getting bigger and bigger.

[4:12:52] You know, I was lucky that my mom and I bought a condo.

[4:12:55] We spent every dime that we had into it.

[4:12:58] That's only reason I'm still here.

[4:12:59] I don't think I'll be able to afford to be here in the future because the H.O.A.

[4:13:03] prices keep going up.

[4:13:04] We can't get fire insurance.

[4:13:07] You know, even owning a home, I don't see a future for me here.

[4:13:10] This is ridiculous.

[4:13:12] I'm dumbfounded by what is going on here.

[4:13:14] You're destroying my future of living here, even in this condo.

[4:13:18] Nobody wants to be in a condo with H.O.A. fees.

[4:13:20] We want a single family home.

[4:13:22] I can't afford that.

[4:13:24] I have lots more to say here.

[4:13:26] I'm running out of time.

[4:13:27] You know, we've outlawed STRs in my HOA, we have workforce housing like more normal people, you're welcome, you know, why aren't they doing this?

[4:13:37] This is, this is out on herd of

[4:13:41] Stephen Ross, followed by Niam Sorin Udys.

[4:13:50] My name is Stephen Ross, I live here at Infine Village, and I would like to say to the commissioners, please stand up, stand up for the people that live here in Infine Village in Crystal Bay.

[4:14:02] stand up for what you probably know is what's right, not right for the developers, not right for those that are going to make money off of this plan.

[4:14:11] Stand up for the people that live here and have to be able to be evacuated in case of an emergency.

[4:14:18] So stand up, do what's right for the community, not what's just right for those developers.

[4:14:24] stand up for what's right for the environment, what's right for the lake itself, we want

[4:14:31] to maintain water quality. We drink our water from this lake. It's not appropriate for

[4:14:38] us to continue to pave over the community so that there's increased runoff into the lake.

[4:14:45] It doesn't do us any good and it certainly harms our water quality. So please stand up and do

[4:14:52] So let's write for the community. Thank you.

[4:14:55] Thank you.

[4:14:57] Now I am so in units.

[4:15:00] Yes, followed by John police. Hi, my name is Danielle Sturmurutus. I have lived here full-time since 2011. I live in the

[4:15:10] upper time area where previous people discussed about fire evacuation. I live on one way road. And if I

[4:15:18] had to exit, I don't know how I could escape the fire. It's pretty scary. And I think the amendments

[4:15:25] will cause lots of environmental problems to start with fire. Water quality will decrease and the

[4:15:33] traffic will increase more and sewer will be worse and parking space will be problematic.

[4:15:40] And I would like to give an example of for example, I think it was in 2023. I was stuck on

[4:15:47] 28, 20 head from Infin Village to Crystal Bay, not very far. I would say two miles, but I was stuck

[4:15:52] because there's no way out with it. There was a gas leak and construction work was going on

[4:15:57] on the road and there was gas leak and the whole road was shut down and there was no way to get out

[4:16:02] or get to my home and I think you even get worse if this amendment goes through.

[4:16:09] And please vote against these amendments in the hyper-recall sprawling,

[4:16:12] any kind of militant crystal bay and keep left to help pristine and safe for the residents.

[4:16:18] Please take care. Thank you.

[4:16:19] John Feliz, followed by Rhonda Taser.

[4:16:25] Yes, a John Feliz family property owner since 1987 in inclined village.

[4:16:33] The workforce housing section in this amendment is written and will not be supporting the true housing needs of our workforce in our community.

[4:16:41] Housing for workers is an all-time low, and this proposal is not even coming close to addressing that.

[4:16:47] And especially how will the pricing structure even be enforced

[4:16:51] since our current short-term rental violations are not monitored or enforced

[4:16:55] with occupancy volumes and parking restrictions that are continuously overlooked.

[4:17:01] Traffic congestion and our safety continues to grow, problems continue to grow,

[4:17:06] and a solid emergency evacuation studies and plans continue to be ignored

[4:17:11] or approved and planned as well, comments concerning original growth of incline housing in the 60s and 70s is valid.

[4:17:23] How about by the tarpa representative for our community?

[4:17:26] However, and perhaps not what we should be doing today, but it is what we have and what we need to respect and not add to over development at this point.

[4:17:36] These amendments have strong potential to add loss of life to the and lower the quality of life in Lake Tahoe Basin, and will be devastating for many.

[4:17:46] Please show your constituents and the children of our future that this will be stopped here and you choose and to support and make good governance for the future of our late communities and help eliminate blood on anybody's hands.

[4:17:59] Thank you for your time.

[4:18:01] Thank you.

[4:18:02] Ron DeTicer?

[4:18:12] Good afternoon, commissioners.

[4:18:14] Ron DePicer in Kleinville, age I've already

[4:18:16] handed to you.

[4:18:17] The 260 plus petitions signed by our community members.

[4:18:23] Asking you to sparkle approving the TRPA mandated amendments.

[4:18:32] Until you've studied the situation here for fiery evacuation,

[4:18:37] You're in process of doing that, so I just repeat that, please.

[4:18:42] But I have something else I want to share, and that is something about ADUs.

[4:18:50] As you know, I have been protesting ADUs because of our crooked streets and because of

[4:18:59] our small deformed locks.

[4:19:02] And now I'd like to tell you that I know you think you're under the gun from the state to

[4:19:07] do this. But I have something I'd like to read. AB396 enacted this year by the Nevada legislature,

[4:19:17] mandates that wash of county enact ordinances authorizing ADUs on residential property.

[4:19:24] And if such an ordinance is not adopted, ADUs are authorized by state law on any residential zone property without restriction.

[4:19:36] So you needed to adopt an ordinance, you think, in order to have any control of the issue.

[4:19:44] But there is a provision in the law, and in the bill that appears,

[4:19:48] it says that an ordinance is not required in a region in a county or city in this state,

[4:19:55] or which there has been created by interstate compact, a regional.

[4:20:00] Planning, agency. And since the only regional planning agency of which I'm aware is TRPA, it means

[4:20:10] that the state mandate for county ordinance as it relates to 80 use does not apply to incline

[4:20:18] village. So I'm asking you once again, please do not crowd our acreage with additional housing

[4:20:27] that we overuse our water supply and our electrical lines and our water lines and so on.

[4:20:36] To say nothing of crowding the streets in the case of evacuation.

[4:20:41] Thank you again.

[4:20:42] Thank you.

[4:20:44] We have nobody else signed in.

[4:20:46] There are emails to be placed on the record.

[4:20:48] Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[4:20:50] And before I open it back over to the board,

[4:20:52] I think it would be good to get some clarification from RDA Mr. Large on some of the statements

[4:21:02] made about the requirements of adopting this and kind of what that would look like.

[4:21:08] I think it would be helpful to get your read on this.

[4:21:12] Michael Large for the record, Washington District Attorney's Office.

[4:21:16] Thank you, Madam Chairman.

[4:21:20] This is the complicated issue, and I understand the passion that is driving a lot of this.

[4:21:25] From the legal standpoint, we've heard, as Ms. Oakley said, during her presentation, and

[4:21:31] we've heard from a number of the public commenters.

[4:21:34] These are TRPA mandated amendments.

[4:21:39] TRPA's housing amendments preempt local regulatory authority.

[4:21:42] We don't have a choice.

[4:21:43] Whether we vote no or yes on this item today.

[4:21:46] The housing amendments will go into effect.

[4:21:50] A no vote will essentially mean that the TRPS had still go into effect.

[4:21:54] The practical effect will be that the proposals by staff that we did get the carve-outs that

[4:21:58] we did were able to obtain will not go into effect.

[4:22:02] And neither will the cleanups for our, the other major issue is, if we're in jeopardy,

[4:22:09] to make any changes in our area plan.

[4:22:13] TRPA can assume control over all planning,

[4:22:16] in incline village in Crystal Bay,

[4:22:18] and Washington would have no input

[4:22:19] until we pass those housing amendments.

[4:22:23] The way TRPA is structured,

[4:22:25] the compact went into effect.

[4:22:27] TRPA, they have the ability to pass their own code of ordinances.

[4:22:31] Those ordinances are binding on us in this area.

[4:22:34] Our staff worked as reflected in the staff report

[4:22:38] to try to get some of those things that were points of concern from our staff that we're reflecting

[4:22:45] from our community, and we try to reduce some work around with that.

[4:22:49] Those were rejected by TRPA.

[4:22:52] So we're left with the choice between passing it or not passing it.

[4:23:01] It's going to have the same practical effect, the housing amendment will go into effect, whether

[4:23:06] we like it or not.

[4:23:06] whether we're not, we can keep control over our planning and T-R in the Inclay village and

[4:23:13] Crystal Bay Area.

[4:23:14] That's the question.

[4:23:16] Thank you.

[4:23:16] And I think, you know, the cap can speak to that more closer, more better than I can.

[4:23:21] But that would be by two cents on that.

[4:23:23] Thank you very much.

[4:23:25] And Ms. Oakley, do you have anything to add?

[4:23:34] There it is.

[4:23:35] Okay.

[4:23:35] Catalogally, Washington, he planning.

[4:23:36] Mr. Lodge covered it.

[4:23:39] The kind of bottom line is that T-R-K-A does have the authority to determine whether or not

[4:23:42] are area plan and the implementing regulation as they would call it as we would call it

[4:23:47] to homotifiers or in conformance with their regional documents and if we end up in a situation

[4:23:54] where we haven't adopted the face 2 housing amendments obviously we're not in conformance

[4:23:58] and that would have potential implications on us being able to exercise the local regulatory authority

[4:24:06] that this area plan enabled us to have around other issues as well.

[4:24:12] So that was kind of the last point he was getting at that I think is important to our maintaining that that local authority.

[4:24:21] So far as we have it over the Tahoe basin.

[4:24:24] Thank you. All right.

[4:24:26] Madam Chair, may in what I'm going to say please up there as well.

[4:24:30] An evacuation study is not going to impact CRPA's housing amendments, the housing mandate.

[4:24:36] the idea of tabling this until a later date that is brought up, and I understand that that is,

[4:24:44] they require, TRPA is required to make certain incentives, and that mandate does not include criteria regarding evacuation.

[4:24:53] And so the TRPA housing amendments would not be influenced by anything that that plan would come up with.

[4:25:00] Subsequent to that evacuation plan coming out, there may be changes, and that may TRPA may want to address,

[4:25:07] hopefully that we can improve potentially evacuation scenarios. But in terms of these housing

[4:25:13] minutes that are for you today, that evacuation plan wouldn't go into effect. And as Miss Oakley mentioned

[4:25:19] earlier, the deadline for this was in December of 2024 that we were to implement this, because we've

[4:25:29] to you, I'm just going to make the decision that they are not going to impose these housing

[4:25:35] amendments without our support.

[4:25:38] Thank you.

[4:25:39] Thank you very much.

[4:25:41] All right.

[4:25:41] I will open it up to the Board.

[4:25:44] Commissioner Garcia.

[4:25:45] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[4:25:47] You know, it's tough starting with the legal because of all the public comment we receive,

[4:25:52] the emails, the e-comment, the signatures on the petition, and it's hard.

[4:25:57] you know when you see this outpouring of concern and you raise some very valid points and we fall

[4:26:05] back on at least I do the legal advice of our county and unfortunately this one is really

[4:26:11] complicated and I first wanted just to validate your concerns and thank you for speaking out.

[4:26:17] This is a tough one but I also wanted to share what the county is also being done.

[4:26:22] Item 16 doesn't talk about fire, doesn't talk about fire evacuation, but if I had a dollar

[4:26:28] fair retirement came up just today or in the emails we received over the last few days.

[4:26:32] It is a major concern for you all.

[4:26:34] And as you know, we are all fire commissioners for trekking metters fire protection district.

[4:26:39] It is a hat we wear regularly.

[4:26:41] It is a lens that we look through all the time.

[4:26:44] And as somebody who lives in a part of unincorporated wash of county that has only three entrances

[4:26:50] And three exits is three ways in, three ways out,

[4:26:53] and we're surrounded by mountains with 20,000 people.

[4:26:57] I feel your concerns, I hear you loud and clear

[4:27:00] that this is something that is real,

[4:27:02] and that fear, there's nothing that we're ever going to say,

[4:27:04] or do that's going to help ease that stress.

[4:27:07] So I did want to take a moment, if I could kick it over to Dave Solero,

[4:27:11] just to give us a quick update.

[4:27:12] So we know that we're working on it,

[4:27:15] and we are looking forward to making progress

[4:27:17] in this very important area.

[4:27:19] I appreciate that for the record, Dave Solaro, Assistant County Manager, and as earlier we

[4:27:25] proclaimed August Emergency Management Awareness Month, I think it's important to understand

[4:27:30] that Washington is always working through emergency management needs and issues.

[4:27:35] We have 13 identified hazards in our area, and so fire is one of those.

[4:27:40] All of the studies and everything we do actually takes into effect, what do we do when all

[4:27:44] of those things occur?

[4:27:45] And so I think it's really important to understand that while February 25th, 2015,

[4:27:49] in 2025, we accepted a donation to create an evacuation study, really what that's to do is to

[4:27:55] identify the most vulnerable locations in our communities, whether it's incline village,

[4:28:01] or Colin Ranch, or the city arena, depending on where it is based on all of those hazards,

[4:28:06] so that we can identify what needs to occur in those areas when it comes to mitigation of the

[4:28:12] possible evacuation needs. We have heard from public comment today that there's a lack of

[4:28:17] locations in and out. I think that can be actually said for a lot of locations within

[4:28:21] wash of county. If you look at cold springs as an example, there's two ways in and out.

[4:28:27] One less than what the incline village area has. But when you take a look at the fuel

[4:28:33] loading and all of the different things, the mitigation, all those things that they're going to.

[4:28:36] That's really what we're studying to really identify those vulnerable locations within

[4:28:40] wash of county so that we can create the plan to make sure that we are doing what we need to do.

[4:28:44] And as Council large mentioned, this may change what we've got to do with our planning and things in the future.

[4:28:52] But it really has no effect on this Tahoe area plan as it stands today.

[4:28:56] So I hope that's the information that you were looking for.

[4:28:59] And I'm glad you asked Mr. Slayer about that evacuation study.

[4:29:04] Do you know the timing of that by any chance?

[4:29:07] So again, for the record, Dave Solaro, I do know that we are working through putting the RFQ

[4:29:12] out.

[4:29:13] We've met with stakeholders from all of our citizens advisory board meeting or, sorry,

[4:29:18] citizens advisory boards with other, you know, the fire districts, all of those people

[4:29:22] to put together the scope of work, not only for the actual study itself, but also the analysis

[4:29:28] of the evacuation routes and all of those other sorts of things.

[4:29:31] So it's pretty, pretty involved study, and again, it goes all across,

[4:29:35] Washington County and to include city renown city sports.

[4:29:37] Great, thank you.

[4:29:38] Commissioner Adrian Drillett.

[4:29:41] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[4:29:43] I too would like to echo a lot.

[4:29:45] What was already shared in terms of Commissioner Garcia,

[4:29:50] this is the part of being a commissioner that quite frankly.

[4:29:56] If you look at the can book of the duty.

[4:30:00] Please have a commissioner part of it defines a hearing much like this that creates a judicial framework.

[4:30:09] So even though we are not judges and we're not attorneys, we have to depend on legal counsel to give us guidance.

[4:30:18] And we all have the opportunity, I'm sure, to have met with staff prior to this, and one of the questions that I wanted clarification was what if we do vote no.

[4:30:34] Without even hearing anything and your concerns are valid and your concerns are concerning.

[4:30:38] If we put a moratorium, the TRPA would ignore that and put in already what's going to be

[4:30:46] put into place.

[4:30:48] And in fact, if we did the right thing and stand up to voting no, TRPA would put it in place.

[4:30:56] If we actually created a condition of saying we won't do this, we're going to vote no,

[4:31:06] or vote yes with conditions to your P.A. doesn't have to abide by those.

[4:31:12] And the reality is, as I've December 24, 2024, to your P.A. could have put all of the

[4:31:20] conditions and the outline of these amendments as they wanted them, but what's your

[4:31:27] any staff worked on things and listening to you.

[4:31:32] So as an example, when I met with staff, it was clear of parking.

[4:31:38] You know, everyone is very blessed to have a beautiful jewel that many of us know and you all

[4:31:46] enjoy in our backyard, but we all know about parking.

[4:31:50] And Washow County actually reduced the parking that was already recommended by Terrapay and made it actually and reduced it.

[4:31:59] So there are provisions at Washow County put into place that much align with some of the things that are concerning,

[4:32:06] not only to the folks that are here but the folks who shared their comments from Incline.

[4:32:14] And the reality is that I don't think it's prudent to restrict wash-o-counties ability to

[4:32:26] have a say in the wash-o-county master plan that governs in clean villages, as an example.

[4:32:35] If we vote no, TRPA will actually take that authority, essentially, away, and create, we

[4:32:43] be constrained to whatever they say, which could be worse in this case. I'm giving the example

[4:32:49] of parking that made things better. If we say no, TRPA is going to do this. I don't know, I don't

[4:32:57] know how else to make this any clearer. And I really appreciate, you know, Chair Hill, you asking

[4:33:06] for clarification on that because I think it's important that everyone hears this. Do we want to

[4:33:13] override the TRP on various things.

[4:33:18] Well, we don't have that ability to do it.

[4:33:22] And the extension that was given from December of 2024 to now

[4:33:29] allowed some of those provisions, as I've already mentioned.

[4:33:33] And so as tough as this is, I think some of the energy should

[4:34:10] Also, for all of the residents that are concerned about the

[4:34:10] as an example. In this case, we don't get to override TRPA. We were given the opportunity and

[4:34:17] thanks to staff for actually working as best they could. And the TRPA for giving staff the ability

[4:34:26] to work through those. I'm sure those weren't necessarily the easiest meetings either.

[4:34:32] But they were trying and that's where we landed. So I just need everyone to understand this is very

[4:34:40] difficult. It's very, very difficult to uphold the compliance of what we're required to do.

[4:34:47] And I know that it seems that you don't believe us, I think, and so I don't know if I should ask

[4:34:53] council again to repeat what he said because I'm seeing some folks shaking heads as if.

[4:35:00] That council is not giving us correct advice. And if that is true, then there's challenges that could be made, but we have responsibility to listen to council.

[4:35:12] And I'm going to listen to council. And I'm going to think against staff for going through this process. And in doing the research, this has been going on since 2021, essentially.

[4:35:22] And the research I looked at and all of the meetings, and I also would like to thank

[4:35:31] DRD large for being really clear on what authority we have, and what the governing authority

[4:35:40] that TRPA has over Washow County.

[4:35:44] So it is important that your voice is heard, but only to the extent that we can legally act.

[4:35:50] I'm that's the constraint that we are faced with.

[4:35:55] So, I know that's hard.

[4:35:58] It's hard listening.

[4:35:59] There's concerns I have to believe that if the evacuation

[4:36:04] study does reveal various things that need to be changed to accommodate the public safety

[4:36:13] that the TRPA will actually take that into consideration.

[4:36:18] I spoke with legal counsel about that very point to ensure that if that has any provision

[4:36:27] of, or more than one provision that puts people's safety in jeopardy that the TRPA that

[4:36:35] Washington can bring that to the TRPA and exercise as best as it can accommodations to

[4:36:41] address whatever needs to change and that can happen but the ultimate authority falls

[4:36:48] with the TRPA. I lived here for 38 years and one of the public commenters I believe one

[4:36:58] made it very distinct and saying I really never worried about anything that was concerning

[4:37:05] about where I lived because of the TRPA and it has changed is what I remember the public

[4:37:13] comment or addressing but that was true and if it has changed I think again there's opportunities

[4:37:21] for you to look at how you can actually at a high level look at having that change but we can't

[4:37:28] do it here. We don't have that authority. So again thank you for sharing all of your concerns

[4:37:37] which are valid and I too am going to be eager to learn what the study is going to

[4:37:45] reveal as well. And I hope if there are concerns that those again are exercise for serious

[4:37:52] review by the TRPA. So thank you so much. Thank you. Commissioner Clark.

[4:38:00] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[4:38:03] We've had public comment this morning. We've had public comment this afternoon.

[4:38:08] Ron DeTicener shows up with 260 names that oppose this Steve Dolan spoke twice this afternoon and this morning.

[4:38:18] done flanity, made his comments, Richard Miner, Jack Dalton's, against even

[4:38:26] olden, Roxanna Dunn, Christine, and a hill, a former, I believe she said to

[4:38:31] he was the chair of TRPA, so she gave some insightful information about their

[4:38:35] position, water quality, lots and lots and lots and lots of reasons.

[4:38:43] If there was a sports book here, and we had a place of bad, how do you

[4:38:47] I think this vote's going to go, okay, all right, so think about that.

[4:38:53] We've got a situation now where the big bad wolf, the boogie man in the room is TRPA.

[4:39:02] I wasn't voted into office by anybody at TRPA.

[4:39:06] I was voted in the office by the citizens of this county.

[4:39:10] The citizens of the county expect the folks on this dius to stand up for what they're looking

[4:39:15] for.

[4:39:16] And that's not going to happen.

[4:39:18] What's going to happen is we rationalize

[4:39:20] if we don't do it, whether they're going to do to us?

[4:39:23] Well, here's what our American would do.

[4:39:26] They would stand up to TRPA.

[4:39:28] And we would say, this is what we want to do.

[4:39:31] This is what our citizens want to do.

[4:39:33] And this is what we should be doing.

[4:39:35] And so you as citizens don't have much of a voice,

[4:39:39] even here in this county.

[4:39:41] And you even have less of a voice with TRPA.

[4:39:43] But maybe just maybe wash-o-county commissioners could have a voice at the table with TRPA and get some things straight and out there.

[4:39:52] So that's going to be my position on this.

[4:39:54] I'm going to oppose this and I'm going to support the people because the people...

[4:40:00] Of the one paying the freight air, paying the taxes, keeping this county running, and we want to make sure that our constituents are happy with the service we provide.

[4:40:11] We want to be the voice to TRPA to stand up and say, we don't like this. Our citizens don't like this. So this stuff of if we don't do it, they're going to do it to us, who we, this is America.

[4:40:23] You know, Americans don't, you know, laws and rules are made by men and women and laws and

[4:40:30] rules and regulations can be changed by men and women and that's what I'm suggesting.

[4:40:35] We stand up as a group and stand up for our citizens and go to TRPA and get this figured

[4:40:41] out.

[4:40:41] To me, this is all about public safety, narrow roads, high density, all of this stuff

[4:40:49] is public safety, so from a public safety standpoint and a public safety standpoint only we

[4:40:57] should be supporting the folks that live up there and have to live up there and deal with

[4:41:02] this.

[4:41:03] The people are paying some of the highest property taxes in the county I want to remind everybody

[4:41:09] and stand up and support those folks and go to TRPA and say this is what our citizens want.

[4:41:17] not what you want. We voted in by the citizens of this county, not anybody by TRPA. Believe

[4:41:25] me, if they had a vote for me, I wouldn't be here. I can assure you that. Okay? And

[4:41:29] the same for the rest of them. You know, this is not about what TRPA wants to do. This is what

[4:41:36] the citizens want us to do on their behalf. So I won't be supporting this. Thank you.

[4:41:41] I

[4:41:49] appreciate everyone's comments today.

[4:41:52] I know that there are concerns in the community and evacuation is something that is very important to this board.

[4:42:03] We have been pushing staff to get this evacuation study done.

[4:42:08] It's moving forward and we're really excited to get the results of that.

[4:42:13] I know that I also just don't want to discount our emergency management team who works with

[4:42:21] our fire departments and our sheriff's departments and other agencies all around this area

[4:42:28] to do exercises and evacuation work. And so I think to make any claims that there are no plans

[4:42:40] on if there's an emergency and incline villager crystal bay, I don't think that that is

[4:42:46] a appropriate thing to say and I must say on the record that our team is working on those things

[4:42:52] all the time working on exercises tabletop and also physical real evacuations all the time in the

[4:42:59] community and take that very seriously. I think that when we're talking about the environment,

[4:43:08] And we also need to remember that vehicles are an major contributor to Lake Clarity as well.

[4:43:16] And having folks live in the community that they serve is very important.

[4:43:22] And I've told stories of many people and in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay community

[4:43:27] who aren't here, they can't come to these meetings.

[4:43:31] But they would love to live in the community that they serve.

[4:43:35] I talked to the principles of the schools in town.

[4:43:40] I talked to the hospitals.

[4:43:42] I talked to the grocery stores, as well as the bowling alley

[4:43:46] and all of the different amenities in the community.

[4:43:50] And they would appreciate having better public transportation,

[4:43:54] which obviously occurs with higher densities.

[4:43:58] And then also they would like to have their employees

[4:44:01] who would like to live in the basin and to live there.

[4:44:03] I don't think realistically, this is going to be you're going to see some sort of Manhattan

[4:44:14] like Project and Incline Village, there's very few parcels that this could probably

[4:44:19] happen on and these need to be deed restricted.

[4:44:23] I think that the point about Washow County working with TRPA on deed restrictions is a good

[4:44:32] fair point, and something that I have been talking internally to the Washow County staff on,

[4:44:38] and I think that there's some work to be done there, but TRPA has done a really good job on

[4:44:45] really managing those deed restrictions. So I think that this is the right move for Incline

[4:44:52] Village and Crystal Bay, and I know it's difficult, but I think that it's going to improve quality of life.

[4:45:00] For everyone, and ensure that we can have a workforce in the community.

[4:45:07] So, I am prepared to make the motion. If there's no other commissioners who have comments,

[4:45:12] I'm not seeing any that do. And so, I move to adopt ordinance, number 1743, which is an ordinance

[4:45:22] Mending Washow County Code Chapter 110 with an article's 220, the Tahoe area, and 220.1,

[4:45:30] Tahoe area design standards, and attachment B, and connected where there are two subject

[4:45:37] to finding the conformance with the Tahoe Regional Plan and adoption by the Tahoe Regional

[4:45:43] Planning Agency, adopt the Master Plan Amendment case, WMPA25-001, which is an amendment to the

[4:45:52] as provided in attachment C. Exhibit C1. I am looking for a second. Thank you Commissioner Garcia.

[4:46:00] We have a motion and a second. Any questions from the board on that? All those in favor? Please say aye.

[4:46:06] Aye. Any opposed? Please say nay. Aye.

[4:46:16] All right. That motion passes three to one and Commissioner

[4:46:20] Clark is in the negative. So thank you very much everyone for your time on that today. We are now

[4:46:27] going to move to our final public or public comment, Mr. Slero.

[4:46:32] Item number 17 is public comment.

[4:46:34] Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may

[4:46:37] pertain to matters both on and off the question agenda.

[4:46:40] Unused time may not be allocated to other speakers and comments are to be made to

[4:46:43] the commission as a whole.

[4:46:45] Thank you very much.

[4:46:45] Madam Clerk.

[4:46:48] Katherine ERT.

[4:46:49] Followed by Pennybrock.

[4:46:55] You've been waiting a long time.

[4:46:57] You know, I wasn't here planning to speak.

[4:47:00] So, yeah, thank you for this.

[4:47:03] My name is Katherine Yarté.

[4:47:04] I was actually planning to speak the wild horse issues

[4:47:07] when I came to hear.

[4:47:09] I obviously have a heavy background in horse management.

[4:47:13] My husband and I have been horse trainers for the last 10 years

[4:47:15] and we've trained well over 100 Mustangs

[4:47:17] in our time, at least two dozen of those being for

[4:47:21] junior-range horses.

[4:47:23] I say all that to say that I also have history

[4:47:25] volunteering with the BLM and doing

[4:47:28] management doing adoptions and that sort of thing. One of the issues that I just

[4:47:34] like, kind of my little soapbox, sorry, I didn't prepare comments on a little

[4:47:38] scattered, and that was a lot to go through.

[4:47:43] Is the biggest issue with the Virginia

[4:47:45] resources because they are not under the federal protection. They live in this gray

[4:47:51] area between livestock and wild. And it's a disservice to the horses and it's a

[4:47:57] service to the community. The reason they're overpopulated is there is no management.

[4:48:02] There is no amount of birth control. There's decades of research showing the birth control

[4:48:05] is ineffective on multiple ranges. And the history of the horse population's growth shows

[4:48:12] that. That birth control is ineffective even in smaller ranges. It's been proven. So I just

[4:48:19] say that to make sure that there is a lot of concern, I think it's really valid that at least

[4:48:26] for getting the feds thing done, but this will continue to be an issue until the actual

[4:48:31] issue is addressed, which is classifying them somewhere between, they can't live in this

[4:48:35] gray area, between livestock and wild animal.

[4:48:39] If they're wild animals, they need to be managed as wild animals, not providing them food,

[4:48:42] not providing them water, but managing them, whatever that means.

[4:48:47] As a horse lover, I don't love the idea of calls, but I also recognize that what they

[4:48:51] are living under right now is not sustainable for anyone.

[4:48:54] And if they are livestock, then they need to be managed as livestock, which is going to be

[4:49:00] rotating them off the range as controlling population in areas, where there is not enough

[4:49:04] forage.

[4:49:04] They are degradating the land, any animal that's that overpopulated will degrade the land

[4:49:09] that they're on, and that is something for the horses welfare that needs to be addressed.

[4:49:16] Additionally, while there are non-profits that do manage the horses on the range, it's

[4:49:21] very selective management, and one of the things that we see not so much in

[4:49:26] wash-o County, but there's a very dense population in silver springs where

[4:49:30] the horses have genetic defects such as club feet that are incredibly painful,

[4:49:35] and those horses are allowed to continue to breed.

[4:49:37] If that's a genetic flaw, those horses will continue to create even more on healthy

[4:49:41] horses.

[4:49:42] So proper management means healthy range lands for all animals on the range,

[4:49:47] not just the ones that we feel special about.

[4:49:49] And, of course, this cannot continue to live in a gray area successfully for the people or for the animals themselves.

[4:49:56] That's all I got.

[4:49:57] Thank you.

[4:49:58] Thank you.

[4:49:59] Penny Brock.

[4:50:00] Followed by Pamela, Mahoney, sickness.

[4:50:12] Penny Brock for the record. As you may know, yesterday, the state in Nevada got a cyber attack that came out later in the day. It was a cyber attack.

[4:50:22] As a result, this article says Nevada government shut down, after cyber attack did it.

[4:50:28] Washington County. I only know from the elections standpoint, because our elections department

[4:50:36] feeds into the state of Nevada, our voter registration feeds into Nevada. Also, the DMV

[4:50:44] and they do voter registration. So what does this mean for elections? One of the concerns is as a result

[4:50:52] of the Department of Justice investigating the state of Nevada elections from 2020 and moving

[4:51:01] forward is that the Secretary of State, this started in June.

[4:51:08] At the same time, the Secretary of State, Adagular, said that Dominion is, they are updating

[4:51:14] the Dominion equipment and that election data will be lost.

[4:51:20] Your job is to preserve our records, our voting records for five years.

[4:51:28] I would, and you are responsible for the election's department, not the intern county manager,

[4:51:36] but you are elected county commissioners.

[4:51:39] So I would ask that you investigate this.

[4:51:43] you find out have our voting records from the last five years, which includes 2020, did

[4:51:51] those disappear? I sent a public records request and ask about this. What I got back said,

[4:51:59] well, Dominion was last updated in 2023, but they did not update this 2025 update happening

[4:52:08] By the Secretary of State, in every county that has dominion, well probably ES and ES, 15 counties have dominion.

[4:52:17] Two counties have what's called ES and ES, which is just as bad as dominion, but I assume those two are also being updated.

[4:52:26] Those two counties.

[4:52:27] But my county, our concern is about what's happening in Washington County.

[4:52:32] So I would ask you as the commissioners who oversee your responsible, the Department of Justice

[4:52:39] will knock on the commissioner doors about this, probably the county manager also, but

[4:52:45] not to the degree of the county commissioners, because legally you are responsible.

[4:52:51] So I would ask you to find out if our voting records from the last five years have been

[4:52:57] destroyed or will be destroyed.

[4:52:58] But this is supposed to be done, I think, by the end of August, this update.

[4:53:02] Thank you.

[4:53:04] Thank you.

[4:53:05] Pamela, I'm Mahoney, Siktenis, followed by Roxana Dunn.

[4:53:12] This has been an exhausting day, but it's also been an exhausting several years.

[4:53:19] A few of the commissioners mentioned that we should be looking at the TRPA and the state.

[4:53:25] Well, guess what?

[4:53:26] we have vent. The difference is all of us who have routinely showed up at TRPA meetings

[4:53:35] at the state legislature giving comment, doing research, begging and pleading for

[4:53:42] our public servants to do what's in the best interest of the public. We looked at every

[4:53:56] So I just want to make it very clear.

[4:53:58] This is not our first attempt.

[4:54:01] You're our last resort.

[4:54:03] And we look to you today to stand with us.

[4:54:07] I want to point out your mission,

[4:54:09] which is to work together to provide and sustain

[4:54:12] a safe, secure, and healthy community.

[4:54:16] Your vote today, by the way, thank you, Commissioner Clark,

[4:54:20] for standing up for the citizens.

[4:54:22] Just proved you need to just scrub out that mission,

[4:54:25] because you're clearly not upholding it.

[4:54:30] Does council pay your salary?

[4:54:33] I don't think so.

[4:54:34] Just TRPA pay your salary.

[4:54:37] I don't think so.

[4:54:38] We pay your salary.

[4:54:41] The cowardice demonstrated on this diet today

[4:54:45] takes my breath away.

[4:54:47] Honestly, you all should not be in public servant roles

[4:54:51] if you're not willing to do the hard work.

[4:54:54] The hard work is figuring out what the needs of your constituents are and

[4:55:00] Doing what's right by them. Otherwise, stop collecting your salary. I am just stunned by what I've witnessed here today.

[4:55:09] We came to you looking for help and you turned your backs on us. I hope you can live with that.

[4:55:19] Brexit and it done, followed by Alexander,

[4:55:22] and Sidonis.

[4:55:27] Sorry, a little more abuse.

[4:55:29] An earlier draft of the comments I gave regarding the TAP amendments,

[4:55:35] ended with, I know this means a fight with TRPA.

[4:55:40] I hope that you are up for it because I know we are.

[4:55:45] I took it out, because I thought it was a little too contentious.

[4:55:48] I now realize that being contentious is exactly what we need here.

[4:55:55] We are selling out the bigger issues of evacuation danger and luxury housing in the

[4:56:01] guise of workforce housing for the crumb concession of parking.

[4:56:07] Hiding under the blanket, TRPA made me do it.

[4:56:13] Well, I'm sorry, that's extremely disappointing.

[4:56:16] Thank you, Commissioner Clark, for standing up.

[4:56:22] Alexander Siktenis, followed by Doug Farty.

[4:56:31] I'm sad to hear some of the remarks on the DS on the Tahoe Plan amendments, except for

[4:56:35] from the far end.

[4:56:36] What I heard is that this vote was almost about expedience, not about doing what's right,

[4:56:41] and that's really sad.

[4:56:43] In addition to being retired military officer, I spend a good two decades in corporate

[4:56:47] communications at two global 50 companies, have written more testimony to the U.S. Congress

[4:56:52] in the EU Parliament that I can recall. What I can share from that experience is, with all

[4:56:57] due respect, Council might edit or comment on policies, but not dictate them. That's

[4:57:04] the sole responsibility of corporate officers and the public officials as the case may

[4:57:09] be. Finally, if this commission is truly concerned about workforce housing, revisit your

[4:57:15] on STR policy and implement restrictions in a cap.

[4:57:21] Let's make our available housing units available to workers,

[4:57:24] instead of ever more tourists.

[4:57:26] Thank you.

[4:57:29] Doug Flerity, followed by Ellie Waller.

[4:57:37] What happened here?

[4:57:39] Doug Flerity, resident, and fine village.

[4:57:42] So what happened here today didn't make me mad?

[4:57:47] I'm not more concerned when I came in, but I am disgusted.

[4:57:53] I grew up on the other side of P.Vine Mountain out here when Stead was an Air Force Base.

[4:57:57] I went to Stead School.

[4:57:59] My stepfather was a turn of the century Nevada Cowboy, Leathermaker Carpenter,

[4:58:09] Horsebreaker,

[4:58:10] he did whatever he could to put food on the table.

[4:58:14] Old Nevada was alive then, you people up here except for Mr. Clark, shame this state.

[4:58:23] Really, the rodeo, the red cross, no, no, I didn't, I didn't state a name, Alexis, don't address the full board.

[4:58:32] I am, I didn't say a clear as name. I just said, please address the full board.

[4:58:38] Alexis, you shut down my right to speech many, many times. What are you scared of?

[4:58:45] You're scared of the truth. You're scared of shining light.

[4:58:50] This is why we have court systems because, obviously, this board is not responsive to its constituents.

[4:59:02] I'll finish my bio, I was part of Reno ski school.

[4:59:09] Stead School would, you know, we come up here and catch a bus and we go up there.

[4:59:14] In the 1960s, when our Olympics, they took us up to Swah Valley to learn to ski.

[4:59:20] My roots go deep here, and for anyone to soil that is disgusting.

[4:59:30] Thank you, Mr. Clark.

[4:59:33] Too bad we haven't got four more, just like you up here.

[4:59:38] Elliott Waller, followed by Ann Nichols.

[4:59:44] Good afternoon again.

[4:59:45] Elliott Waller, Douglas County resident six years, Placer County resident 20 years.

[4:59:50] I go to Placer meetings.

[4:59:52] I go to Douglas meetings.

[4:59:53] I come to you folks.

[4:59:54] T.R.P.A. High Jack, the entire session of...

[5:00:00] Legislative Oversight Committee. We begged several times for a citizen's day and were denied by Senator

[5:00:09] Daily. Thank you, Commissioner Clark. We do our best to raise the awareness that the public is not heard.

[5:00:19] We are thanked for coming to meetings. We plead with our commissioners and supervisors at what

[5:00:28] expense of our personal time. We're not elected. We come here because you get elected. And

[5:00:36] we are trying to say you're not doing enough to listen to the people. You acknowledge that you

[5:00:43] want to listen to the people. I think your DA's comment was a little conflicting and confusing.

[5:00:54] you can challenge TRPA. We're going to go to TRPA about this whole thing again. This meeting

[5:01:01] made me feel irrelevant because you made a statement that you have to listen to legal

[5:01:07] counsel's clarification which I don't think is entirely correct. You can say TRPA no. TRPA

[5:01:16] We will say we brought this phase to housing nonsense forward and they didn't listen to us either.

[5:01:25] Our only recourse is to carry that stick called lawsuit.

[5:01:33] Why are we expected to have to challenge everything when you should be helping us challenge these things?

[5:01:41] Again, Commissioner Clarke, thank you for your outright approach to the opposition to this.

[5:01:52] We hope to see a lot more opposition to phase three.

[5:01:57] Yes, there's going to be more nonsense.

[5:02:00] That's going to be dumped into this.

[5:02:02] TRPA put you, and I've said this to Douglas County and to Placer County.

[5:02:07] You in a position to have to challenge, and you should thank you.

[5:02:14] And Nichols, followed by John Epilita?

[5:02:21] Yeah, can you hear me?

[5:02:22] And Nichols, Natal of Preservation Alliance.

[5:02:24] I'm very confused.

[5:02:25] At the beginning of the meeting, up there on the board, it said,

[5:02:29] what you were approving was attainable housing.

[5:02:34] When I asked Kat what you were approving, she said,

[5:02:37] know it's TRPA's down a definition achievable housing.

[5:02:42] Well, that's confusing to us.

[5:02:45] It sounds like it's confusing to you and to your staff planner.

[5:02:50] So I don't know what did you approve.

[5:02:57] It was on the board.

[5:03:00] You know, I watched this stuff.

[5:03:03] And maybe you guys staff needs to be more clear.

[5:03:07] So I asked Kat, I said, what was the deal?

[5:03:09] She goes, oh, no, it's TRPA's definition

[5:03:11] definition of achievable. That's a different. That's no income gap, attainable, which is

[5:03:16] Governor Lombardos, is a 150% of average median income. I think that's a pretty smart definition

[5:03:23] personally, but TRPA of course isn't that smart. Our representative on TRPA Ms. Hill, Mrs. Hill,

[5:03:31] really is our only representation, which she's never done not, she's never gone against any

[5:03:38] this stuff. But anyway, figure it out. You guys before you vote for what is it that you voted for.

[5:03:44] It's really important. This is super important because if it's achievable, there's no income

[5:03:49] cap. So what is it that you did today here? Cat said, it's really achievable up there. It's said,

[5:03:57] attainable. So thanks. John Appelito.

[5:04:12] Hi, John Appelito. Commissioner Clark, thank you very much.

[5:04:17] It was very disappointing to see you guys.

[5:04:20] You don't know what TRPA would do if you said no.

[5:04:23] If you challenge them, you really don't.

[5:04:25] You make it sound like, yeah, well, we care.

[5:04:27] If you cared, you would have been with Commissioner Clark.

[5:04:31] It's just disappointing.

[5:04:32] Alexis, you're supposed to be representing the residents of Incline Village.

[5:04:36] You haven't done that in a long time.

[5:04:38] And I think most people see that now.

[5:04:40] At least people that are watching these meetings.

[5:04:43] Pam, gosh.

[5:04:44] Thank you very much.

[5:04:46] excellent. They said it way better than I could. There's one thing that I can talk about is a real estate broker.

[5:04:53] And that is fire insurance. Right now we have some complex as an incline village, condo complexes.

[5:05:00] That are not fully covered with fire insurance. So what's going to happen if we do build a bunch of 65

[5:05:06] story, or any 65 story, new buildings close to them, it's going to make it even more difficult

[5:05:12] for the old properties to get insurance. And right now we don't even have it in some of the

[5:05:17] condo complexes. You guys should stand up to TRPA. We have been trying this for a long, long time.

[5:05:24] You were our last resort and you let us down. You, especially, and you've been letting us down

[5:05:29] for a long time, and I did spend time in Carson City,

[5:05:32] and I saw the blah, blah, blah, and the lies

[5:05:35] that happened with the TRPA.

[5:05:38] Just say, no, they don't pay you.

[5:05:41] They don't control Washow County.

[5:05:43] What you said is BS, you can decide what you want

[5:05:48] and see what TRPA does.

[5:05:50] I don't know how well where he went to law school.

[5:05:51] I know my daughter's in her second year,

[5:05:53] number one in her class.

[5:05:55] I have no idea.

[5:05:56] I only spent one weekend in law school.

[5:05:58] You're not supposed to be representing the RAPA. You're supposed to be representing us and you failed today, except for you.

[5:06:05] Thank you, Mr. Clark.

[5:06:08] We have nobody else signed in.

[5:06:10] Thank you, Madam Clerk.

[5:06:12] Now we will move to item 18, Mr. Slair.

[5:06:16] Item number 18 is Commissioner's County Management's reports of dates to include Board's Occasionate dates.

[5:06:22] I request for information or topics for future agendas, and I have nothing left for you today.

[5:06:26] Okay, thank you, Commissioner Garcia.

[5:06:29] Okay, Commissioner Andrea Dreola, Commissioner Clark.

[5:06:31] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[5:06:32] Very disappointed in what took place here today.

[5:06:35] We're supposed to stand up for the citizens, our constituents.

[5:06:40] Nobody can predict what TRPA is going to do.

[5:06:43] Everybody's saying what they could be doing and what they might be doing.

[5:06:47] And at the end of the day, we need to do what we need to do to support our people and stand up for our people.

[5:06:53] and go to this TRPA and tell them the citizens of this part of TRPA are not interested in doing what they want to do.

[5:07:02] So, come up with an alternative. Don't threaten the county commission and have us shaking in our boots.

[5:07:09] The TRPA may do something. If TRPA does do something and we didn't agree to it,

[5:07:15] then we can blame them if there's a disaster in the future. But now we're collaborators.

[5:07:19] We're in collusion, we're in cohoots with them, and I'm not in cohoots with them.

[5:07:25] So I hope the folks at District 1 understand my position.

[5:07:29] I didn't think that this went the way that it should have gone for the citizens.

[5:07:33] I only wish that everybody got better.

[5:07:36] Thank you.

[5:07:41] It is 309.

[5:07:42] Thank you, everyone, for a great meeting.

[5:07:45] We are adjourned.

Board of County Commissioners

Agenda

Transcript