This is the office of the mayor. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, emergency management and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and the public health, high quality of life, well-being of the people of Reno, Nevada and Whereas these infrastructures, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are federally mandated first responders and the engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems. public buildings and other structures and essential facilities for our citizens. And whereas the city of Reno's maintenance and operations, public works, and utility services, and regional infrastructure departments collectively maintain 775 mi of paved roads, 800 miles of sanitary sewer pipes, 600 miles of storm drain line, 300 sewer 30 sewer lift stations, and more than 200 buildings, 850 vehicles, and 315 traffic signals. And whereas 2025 is the 65th annual national public works week and citizens, civic leaders and children in the biggest city, biggest little city should seek knowledge, maintain interest and understanding of the importance of public works first responders and public works programs in their respective communities. Now therefore, I, Joseph Kashman, on behalf of Hillary L. She, mayor of the city of Reno, Nevada, do declare May 18th through 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week. All right. [Applause] Do you think we could try and get all of you guys up here for a picture? These are the people that make the city rent. Hey, how are you? [Applause] [Music] Yeah. Wait. and Lily, are you going to come up and read a proclamation about skin cancer awareness month? Welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Hi, my name is Sarah Groki. I'm filling in for Lily today. Okay. Um, you'll have to bear with me. I'm kind of reading off my phone. I wasn't aware. You're fine. Read the proclamation. So, okay. Skin cancer awareness month, May 2025. Whereas skin cancer impacts Neadans across the state and increasing prevention, screening, and awareness of the risk factors can help reduce the number of cases and improve outcomes for those diagnosed. And where Oh, you got it here. Oh, thank you so much. And whereas in Nevada in 2022, the latest year for available data, there were 859 cases of melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers with thousands more basil and squamous cell cases non-reported. And whereas basil and squamma cells are unreported as they are often not deadly, but still negatively impact quality of life. And Nevada is one of the most at risk states environmentally for skin cancers based on the number of annual sunny days and higher elevation. And whereas skin cancer impacts all Neadans regardless of skin pigmentation or color and disparities exist in the stage of diagnosis among persons with skin of color due to lack of awareness. And whereas agencies and people across Nevada are working together to increase awareness, provide education, encourage prevention, and provote promote accessible health care to reduce skin cancer throughout the state. Now therefore, I, Hillary Elshi, mayor, city of Reno, Nevada, do hereby declare May 2025 as skin cancer awareness month. Great. Thank you so much. [Applause] Did you want to say a few words? Yeah, I can say. Yeah, this is this is what I actually prepared. So, perfect. All right. Good morning. I'm Sarah Groki, community engagement manager for the Nevada Cancer Coalition. Thank you so much for the city's acknowledgement via proclamation of the importance of sun safety and skin cancer prevention and early detection. As you noted, May is skin cancer awareness month, an opportunity just ahead of summer for us to remind our community about the importance of sun protection, including sunscreen, shade, hats, and sunglasses, and of regular skin checks to find skin cancers early when they're easiest to treat. The latest data shows our county has among the highest rates of melanoma in the state, higher than sun soaked Las Vegas, even. We're at a higher elevation. We love our outdoors, and we love our sunshine. the perfect mix of conditions for excess exposure to the sun's UV rays. We appreciate the city's continued support of sun safety. We've had sunscreen dispensers at local pools and soon we'll be educating the area's lifeguards on the importance of sun protection. We appreciate all the trees across our city that provide shade and protection from the sun. Thank you to city council member Derer and urban forester Matt Basil for being such great champions of our tree canopy. And we also encourage the city to encourage uh to explore ways to build sun safety into our community through natural and built shade, community education, and greater access to sunscreen. Thank you again for your support of Sun Safety and of the NEA Nevada Cancer Coalition. Thank you very much. Very important message. Thank you so much. And our next proclamation is from Dr. Karen Higglesome. I think I messed that up with TMCC and Councilman Martinez is gonna read the proclamation. Thank you. It's my honor as an alum of TMCC to read this uh dual proclamation on behalf of the city of Reno and the city of Sparks. So whereas Trek Meadows Community College plays a vital role in our community providing high-quality education in the liberal arts, sciences, and workforce development. And whereas TMCC is recognized as a Hispanic serving and minority serving institution reflecting the diversity and strength of our region. And whereas for the past nine years, President Dr. Karen Hilgerson has led TMCC with a steadfast commitment to student success, sustainability, and accessibility, ensuring opportunities for all in the Reno Sparks community. And whereas under her leadership, TMTC has expanded its impact by forging strong partnerships with local employers, creating the institutional advisory council, and increasing graduation rates. And whereas Dr. Hilgrim has overseen the creation of 81 new academic programs. And whereas her dedication to sustainability led TMCC to achieve 100% greenpowered energy. And whereas recognizing the importance of student well-being, Dr. Hilgrim championed the return of athletics at TMCC, launching men's and women's soccer, and overseeing the construction of the sports and fitness center. And whereas following the pandemic, she continued to drive progress leading expansions in academic programs and facilities. And whereas beyond TMCC, Dr. Herson has been dedicated community leader serving with the Rotary Club of Sparks, Edon, Ice Accelerate, and PBS Reno. And whereas after nearly a decade of transformative leadership, Dr. Hilgusen will retire in June 2025. Now therefore, I, Councilman Martinez, on behalf of Hillary Shiv, mayor of the city of Reno, Nevada, and Ed Lawson, mayor of the city of Sparks, Nevada, do jointly hereby proclaim May 9th, 2025 as Karen Hilgusim Day. Congratulations. Congratulations girl. Yeah, of course. You want to say a few words? Well, first we'll do a picture. How about that? Do Are we doing it? Are we doing one right here? One. Oh, two. Three. We'll go over there. Awesome. Yeah. Let's do back here with you guys, too. And then we'll have you say something. Is that okay? Pick up. Okay. All right. I love the green. Yeah, I love the green. I love to color coordinate. It's my favorite. Okay, wait for Miguel to get there. Okay one two three. Perfect. Thank you. [Applause] So, I I do want to say thank you. I am so grateful for this. It was just such a a delightful a delightful uh gift to help me transition out of a almost a 40-year career with community colleges in this in this great country of ours. I am also so appreciative of the fact that my successor uh Dr. Jeff Alexander had to really vive for the position. It was a national search. I'm so glad he prevailed because I think he will bring TMCC to yet another plateau and I'm and I think he's going to do amazing work including in partnership with the city of Reno. So thank you again and I'd like and maybe Jeff wants to say hello but and I want to thank you too Miguel. Uh, not only is Miguel a TMCC alum alum, but he worked for TMCC. So, he really has a a heartfelt knowledge of our students and our students are incredible. And I want this community to really understand this that we do amazing work with some very motivated, wonderful students and and we are your community college. So if you've got children, parents, grandparents who want to avail themselves of a great affordable education, we are here for you. Thank you. What comes next for after retirement? Oh, I'm traveling the world. Oh, you don't want to come join our public works team? Uh, I'm traveling the world. I will also say I will continue to serve on a national board which is the board second nature which is the voice of higher education around climate action and sustainability. So, I will continue to do some things like that because I'm very, very passionate and that passion will never end. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'd just like to thank the mayor and the members present and celebrate uh Karen's tremendous accomplishments over the last nine years. We're so lucky to have had her and we know that she'll be looking out for us and visiting frequently as she will carry on living here in Reno. We're very excited about that and we look forward to working with our fantastic team to take the college to the future and to even greater heights and thank you very much for any support you can lend along the way. Thank you. Welcome. [Applause] And next up we have our very own Emily Kidd to talk about internal audit month. Thank you. Good morning everyone. Uh we have a proclamation today for internal audit awareness month and we sure do need it out there sometimes. So whereas internal auditing is an independent consulting function that is insightful, proactive and future focused adding value to both public and private sector organizations. And whereas governing bodies and senior management rely on internal audits for insight and objective assurance that existing internal controls are adequate to mitigate organizational risks, that governance and risk management processes are effective and efficient and organizational goals and strategic objectives are met. And whereas internal auditing is increasingly sophisticated and a complex activity requiring specialized knowledge, training and education. And whereas we recognize the important role of internal auditors and the positive impacts of the internal audit profession in promoting efficiency accountability effectiveness, and organizational success. Now therefore, on behalf of Hillary Elshibi, mayor of the city of Reno, Nevada, do hereby declare May 2025 internal audit awareness month. Do you guys want to grab a picture? That works. Okay. One, two, three. Thank you. Okay, Madame Clerk. I think we are done with our um proclamations and we can move into regular public comment, please. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Our first item today is public comment. Members of the public may hear, observe, and provide public comment virtually by registering through the following link, which can be found on reno.gov/meings. https colon slash slashl i n ks period ren o period go ov slash c o u n c i l05-21. It should be noted for those in attendance that comments are to be addressed to the mayor and council as a whole. Comments heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the council's agenda. Council may not take action upon any matter not agendaized on today's agenda. When you're called on for public comment, please state your name for the record and begin speaking. The timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded three minutes. For those participating in chambers in accordance with council rules 6.3.11 while in this room, please be respectful. Disruptive behavior from audience members like clapping, yelling, whistling, etc. which impede the meeting may result in a warning issued by the presiding officer. If this behavior continues, you may be removed from chambers. If you're an attendee in the Zoom meeting would like to make public comment, please raise your hand at this time. Our first public commenter today is Terry Brooks, followed by Jerry Miffs, followed by Richard Brong. Good morning, Terry. Morning. Good morning. It's me, Terry Brooks, again, and today I'd like to share with you my thoughts on going back to work and what seniors go through. To many seniors, the idea of retirement is something they have long desired. But when they do so, then some regret that they actually retired. They may find themselves alone and not as socially active, and they may realize that they are not as physically or mentally active. And on top of all of that, they experience inflation. And then they finally decide to return to some occupation. But when they finally find an opening they have desired, they also find that because of their age, they're less likely to be hired. Even though they had worked for a long time at a certain job, employers would rather hire someone younger for that job. The older that an employee is, the sooner they'd be retired and have to receive retirement benefits, so they're less likely to be hired. And the older that they are, the less able they are to work. And with age comes poor physical health, and they may not show up for work. And the older that they are, the less they know about modern technology. While most jobs in the market today depend more on knowing technology, most seniors have worked at a few jobs and gradually rose to higher levels. But once you stop working, you'll find yourself dropping to lower levels. Before I retired, I gave it a lot of thought. And living a lowcost life was something that I had already self-taught. So at least for now, I'm glad I retired when I did. But I hope I don't find myself in a situation where I regret that I did. Retirement is something that we all look forward to, but we need to plan for it so we can enjoy it, too. I would like to thank you all for listening to me today, and I look forward to coming back if I don't have to go back to work that day. Thank you. Jerry Myths, followed by Richard Brong, followed by Jody Bennett. We need to turn up the volume on these things please. My name is Jerry Miffs, aka Jerry the Pizza Man. Good morning, city council. Nice to see you all. Um, I'm dedicating today to my future first grandchild. Maya Grace, will come in in October. Um so Maya, you're going to see this city council meeting many years from now. You may or may not know your grandpa. Um, I know uh holding you this coming October will change my life. From the moment I heard that you're you're coming into this world, it's changed my life. But I'm at a city council meeting and my example of let your voice be heard in the public forum if you have an opinion is so important. Honey, um I love you. Um I I met Brandy this morning and she gave me some tips on um what to get as as a grandfather. Um so thank you. Secondly, we have a Vietnam vet here in the room. Whenever you see a Vietnam vet, walk up to him, thank you for your service, and say, "Welcome home, son." They never heard that 50, 60 years ago when they came home from a war. Okay. Right across from here is the biggest little city cafe. You need to go there and buy some food. Buy something from if you're just getting started. I was in the restaurant business for over 50 years. Get something from this little guy over here. He's trying to make a living. So, a sandwich. Buy a sandwich or something. Uh, second promotion is for the parks department. We have here that guy that works in Ascot all the time. Nathan Ult. I have to practice saying his name. Nathan is in charge of the parks. We have a 100 parks. What Nathan needs is more money. What Nathan needs is more staff. What Nathan needs is the support of the city council. So get him some more money. Give him a raise. For God's sakes. He wears an ascot. Who wears an ascot anymore? Anyway, um the parks are an oasis for the middle class which is slipping away. We have to give a place for them to go to the middle class now. And after they work so hard, that middle class is slipping away. We have them to thank. And the seniors, look how many seniors you see here. We're still here and we're not done yet. Right. Right. Anyway, nice. Congratulations. Richard Brong, followed by Jody Bennett, followed by Tammy Holtzill. Good morning. For the record, Richard Brong. Uh, I'm here on behalf of the Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce leadership class of 2025. I wanted to acknowledge Mayor Shivi online, council members online, and the rest of you here, and thank you for what you do for our community. Also did want to give uh just a voice of support for item B9 on the agenda today about the uh California Avenue Mural Public Art Project. I do believe that uh those projects are wonderful for our community and wanted to voice my support for those for those as they continue to come and appreciate what they do for our community. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Jodie Bennett followed by Tammy Holtzill followed by Ursen Whitten. Hello, I'm Jod Bennett. Um, Madame Mayor Shivi and the Reno City Council members, I am seeking to be appointed to the finance advisory board is on today's agenda G2. So, I thought I'd introduce myself. Um, I'm a second generation native Nevadaan. I graduated from Ao County High School many years ago. I attended uh the University of Nevada Reno for my undergraduate degree and also for my mers in finance. And I also um worked as a practice manager for a local pediatric office for 18 years. I am interested in serving on the finance advisory board to gain a deeper understanding of our city government and to contribute to the board's meaningful work. I believe that my background and experience equip me to provide valuable insight and support to the board. Thank you. Tammy Holtzill followed by Ursen Whitten followed by Steven White. Tammy Holt, still the crazy lady. As the staff has called me many times, including to the lieutenant governor's staff recently, I have submitted to you guys a packet. I hope you take advantage of reading that packet. It is very important to the people on the council that are on the uh committees of Tamwa and RTC for Lemon Valley. RTC and TAMWA have a very important role in what's happening out in Lemon Valley. And with it being only 50 feet, that water that affluent being only 50 feet from our drinking water, if RTC punctures and contaminates our drinking water with what's on top that surface affluent, we will damage our drinking water. So, it has become apparent that there is a major issue out there and it needs to be addressed. I am not crazy. I am not stupid and I don't appreciate how the staff has treated me on that. I have been before all of you before and I have talked about this since 2017. Now I am asking you please to take care of I know some of you are very new at this and have not heard about it as much but the others that are not here currently and are on Zoom do know about it and they have should have taken care of it and didn't and I hope they are listening and understand how I feel about this. I am also talking about D4. D4 they should not be changing their PUD. They have not they you have city the police, fire and high school. Nothing should be changed because of the fact that if you're going to be bringing out more people and you're going to be creating more work and more traffic and congestion, we need fire. We need school. We need police. There is no reason to be changing a PUD without there having all of that stuff included in it. And so without doing anything right, you haven't done it right yet so far. It has been proven by what's happened in Lemon Valley that nothing should be changed in any PUB until it's done correctly. So quit destroying our valleys. [Applause] Ur Whitten followed by Steven White followed by Amanda Mullholland. Good morning. My name is Ursen Whitten. I am the co-founder of Soulful Seeds with my wife D. Schaefer Whitten who happens to be working today. I came here today to acknowledge and express gratitude for uh the support of the council, especially uh Kathleen Taylor, Brandy Anderson, and earlier uh Councilman Martinez. Your support with with uh discretionary funds for us is very important. We are a 501c3 and basically we raised the funds through various sources to make this project this project work. For those of you who may not be familiar, we are located on the corner of Galleti and Glendale and we service people throughout the community. For example, we provide free food to the food pantry in Sparks, the food pantry in Reno, to the Women and Children's Center of the Sierras, and other groups as well. We are continually expanding our reach in the community, for example, just a couple of weeks ago. We had members of the Second Baptist Church off Montel here in Reno to really enjoy themselves. Even though it was raining, they planted a lot of things that they will be consuming later on in the in the year as well as other individuals. Normally when I'm here, I go over time. So I gave myself an outline and basically uh wanted to highlight a couple of items. First of all, one of our missions is workforce development for soulful seeds. And this year, we initiated a same day work and pay process. As of now, 39 individuals signed up. They actually work a normal day in the garden under the direction of the farm manager and they walk away with a debit card with $100 on it. That agenda is full. Whenever we post um this opportunity, we get folks from the community, from our place, from the CARIS campus. People want money and we are fortunate to be in a position to do that partly as a result or mostly as a result of the grant from the Department of Agriculture that we received last year. We are continuing to grow. We will uh produce probably two to three times more food that will be delivered free to the community. Is it over already? Free to the community. This year we've expanded the area to include the entire three acres and you are certainly invited to come out and take a look. We really appreciate the uh council members who have uh adjusted their very busy schedule to come out and take a look. that is more inspiring. We can talk about it all day, but until you see what's going on and see people uh being rewarded as a result of your support, we appreciate it. So, thank you again and have a great day. Thank you, Mr. Whitten. Steven White, followed by Amanda Mullholland. Good morning. I'm back. Little history lesson. I've been a working artist for 53 years. There aren't a whole lot of us old artists around anymore that can give you a history lesson about the arts here in America. I spent 40 years on the road in an RV, literally painting my way around America. I've done shows in every venue you can imagine from California to Florida to Maine and back again. You know, 50 years ago, 53 years ago, when I started as an artist, fine artist did fine art shows. You never found crafts people in a fine art show. And certainly, you never found found buyer or seller vendors in a fine art show. And there was a reason for that. And about the late 1970s, the festival industry started to take off. And city governments were handing out permits for special interest groups to hold what they called arts and crafts festivals. This is the first time fine artists found themselves in a commercial mix alongside of commercial vendors. And it didn't take long for everyone, for city governments, for city attorneys, for the general public to come to believe that an artist was no different than a crafts person if they were both selling their artwork. By golly, they were commercial vendors and they had to have licenses and permits and fees. And artistic freedom was lost in America. Artistic freedom in this country has been lost for more than 30 years. As artists were thrown under governmental licensing controls and literally run off of public property and then if they wanted to do show their artwork, they were told, "Well, you can be a part of one of our festival industries." And they find themselves set up next to people selling t-shirts and sunglasses. and it has literally destroyed community participation in the fine arts in America. Reno has a very unique opportunity here. You are the one city in the whole country that has experienced a federal lawsuit on this matter. Law to me, but you also have me helping you to explain this and everything. But you have an opportunity to create art in the park and do it in a way that is manageable and that everybody can, you know, benefit from it. And you become the educational example for every other town and city across America. Now, you all know now that it's state law that artists are allowed to sell their artwork in every public park in Nevada without a license, without a permit, without paying a fee. But how do you do that? You do it with that paper that I gave you the last time I was here, the art in the park rules. You have to understand what the rules are and how do you how do you deal with the whole thing? But you have this unique opportunity. You can literally give the gift of art back to this entire country if you follow through on this. So I hope you will. Brandy, I left 25 copies of this at the art and cultural center. Would you be sure that all the seniors get it? They're in the art show down there. I'd appreciate it. Thank you folks. Amanda Mullholland. Hello. Um I am Amanda Maholland. I am here to speak on behalf of Keep Truckucky Meadows Beautiful. Um and uh B17 on the agenda. Uh thank you so much for your donation to Keep Truckucky Meadows Beautiful. Um we do uh for those of you who don't know who we are um we are a nonprofit in the area that believes in creating a more sustainable region. Uh we promote education uh uh we do cleanups with the community. Uh and we are a small staff of just nine people and the only way we're able to get as much work as uh we are able to do done is with the support of the community. Um we're very thankful to have that. Uh just last year we were able to remove over 300,000 pounds of trash, green waste, invasive weeds from our region uh in 291 cleanups. Uh we also uh just recently completed our cleanup on May 3rd um where we were able to remove well over 200,000 pounds of trash uh and you know, weeds, green waste, whatever. Uh also including over 200 tires. Um it's really amazing what we're able to do with the support of the community. Um in I think what was it 14 of our parks that we worked at on May 3rd where City of Reno parks. Uh we engaged in a ton of amazing projects uh such as our Northwest painting project where we had volunteers from uh district council 16 which is the local paint pain painters union uh who did a beautiful painting project there. All of the uh baseball fields and everything are nicely uh covered in paint. Again, a lot of graffiti was covered up there as well. Um, we also do community cleanups, which are one-time cleanups with, uh, different neighborhood organizations, uh, groups, volunteers. Um, recently we did a cleanup at Hilltop Park, uh, with IBW Local 401 where they removed over 200 pounds of green waste from the park. Uh so this uh donation will go far to helping support your local parks, keeping them beautiful, engaging your local community members. Um and you know, just really promoting our mission of creating a more sustainable and beautiful region in the greater Reno Sparks area. Um we're really thankful to Ree uh for his donation um and just the city of Reno in general. Uh you guys are all so awesome to work with. uh from Kayla Snow to Nathan Ula, it's you guys are all just super great to work with. So, we're really happy to have you guys as uh supporters of Keep Trucking Meadows Beautiful. So, thank you very much. Thank you. I know we're happy to be a partner with you, another great organization. Madame Mayor or Madam Clerk, do we have any other public comment? We do not have any additional public comment registered at this time. Um for the record, we did receive 13 comments which were general in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to 4 p.m. yesterday. uh May 20th, 2025. These comments were written correspondents received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office. Copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public on reno.gov/meings. Four letters in favor, three letters in opposition, and six letters of concern. Okay, thank you very much. At this time, we're going to move into the approval of the agenda. And do we have any updates from Manager Bryant? Thank you, Madame Vice Mayor. We're going to start today by pulling items off of the consent agenda. Depending on the number of items pulled, we'll either hear them immediately or move straight to item C1 for our regional fire presentation. After that, we'll hear item C2 and then follow with C3 to finish out the department items. Later this afternoon after the break, we'll open the RDA board redevelopment board to hear Reno City Council item D1 with redevelopment item B1 for FY26 budget adoptions. Following that, we'll move through through the rest of the agenda in the posted order. Items D4,5 and six are related to Stonegate, and they will all be opened and heard together. Okay. Thank you, Madam Manager. We have a full day. Do we have um any questions on the agenda? Can we get a motion? I just go ahead about consent right now or No, we're gonna um we're going to go through consent, see what has been pulled, and if there's a lot pulled, then we're going to hold it and go to regional uh presentation. If not, we can work through the consent. I'll make a motion. Madam Vice Mayor, I move to approve. Okay, we have a motion and a sec second by council member Reese. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Um, let's move over to the consent agenda and I'll start with my to my right, Council Member Anderson. Yes, I don't have anything to pull. I was originally going to pull item B13 and this is the donation to Nevada Peer Support. Um, they aren't able to be here today. So, they wanted me to um let you guys know that they were out on the Wadssworth fire last night. Um, that's why they're not here today. They used the ambulance that Reno Fire donated to them to get out there and support those men and women that were fighting that fire and they are working today to mop all of that equipment up. So, they would have liked to have been here, but they were doing their job. So, thank you. Thank you, Councilman Martinez. I don't have any items to pull, but I'll just mention that there kudos to staff for all the arts murals, the military sports camp subrant that we're getting, and the upgrades to Wilkinson Park. Fantastic. Um, Council Member Ree, do you have anything on consent to pull? No, madam vice mayor. Thank you so much. You bet. Council member Derer. Uh, nothing today. Thank Thank you, Council Member Eert. Yeah. Um, B4, B5, B6, B7, and B11, please. Okay, we're going to um Thank you. Um, Madame Mayor, are you on the call? Madame Vice Mayor, she's not on the call. Okay, we are going to pull those agenda items. Can I get a motion to pres uh approve the rest of the Madam Vice Mayor? Just for the record, if I could, we did receive one letter um of correspondence for the consent agenda items and it was a letter of opposition that has been distributed to the Reno City Council. Okay. And Madame Mayor is present in chambers at 10:44. Thank you. Welcome, Madame Mayor. Did you have anything on consent that you wanted to pull? No. Okay. Motion to approve. Second. All those in favor? I I I All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Madame Mayor, we have um I think four items pulled on consent. Do you want to hear those or do you want to move into regional? Um since we have people here for the regional presentation, I would say that we can move into the regional presentation, then we can circle back to consent if that's okay with everybody. Council member Eert. Yeah, that's fine with me. I don't have a lot. I just kind of want to have some further a little discussion on these items, but I'm totally fine with waiting to do them till later. Okay, perfect. So, we're opening item C1, the joint presentation by Truckucky Meadows, Reno Fire, and Sparks Fire. Good morning, Madame Mayor, members of the council, and city manager Bryant. I am Dave Cochran, Reno Fire Chief, and I'm here to well, I'm going to give you a little run of show. I'm going to present on the regional fire collaboration efforts. And then we, the mayor, at the mayor's request, we are going to do a presentation on evacuation planning, and I have Chief Ancho behind me who will be presenting that. And also want to make the council aware that I do have representatives from Tama and Envy Energy in the audience. So, if you have any questions, they're live and in person at your disposal. Happy to happy to help. Absolutely. So, starting with regional fire, as you remember, we met you met collectively with the other jurisdictions on February 6th and gave direction to the managers to work on building better, developing fire, making us more efficient. Ultimately, if we can get to a regional um consolidated fire department, that would be the goal. And I emphasize consolidated because one of the things that we started off, we formed a manager group. The fire chiefs are part of that group. And one of the things that we started off talking about was this continuum. It's not like all or nothing like we don't cooperate or we cooperate 100%. There's a continuum there. And we wanted to make sure we defined what the terminology meant. And a consolidated fire department in the way we're using it is a single fire department. That would be under one umbrella ideally under a um dedicated funding system, financial system. But beyond that, if you don't get all the way there, you're looking at mutual aid and auto aid and other things on the continuum. So we've talked about all that and that would be more of a regional approach. So regional versus consolidated. I mentioned the working group that we formed with the managers and the fire chiefs started meeting in February and have basically met every week with maybe one exception since then. Emphasis on collaboration and like I said improving the system. How can we be better with what we have but also with what we will be? And by that I'm referring to the hexagon CAD system that you've heard so much about. That's going to be coming online hopefully later this year. Um I do have Cody Shadel from Dispatch here if there's questions about that as well. And just a spoiler alert on that. Cody will be presenting a full uh update on the CAD system. So that's not really the purpose of this presentation, but that will be coming to this body. So the milestones since February 6th, we talked about regionalization versus consolidation, transparent public updates. Of course, that's what we're doing now. We're here and that's why I brought the whole team so that you could have all the information you need, get all your questions answered. We're working on drafting regional operating guidelines. The Senate bill that you're familiar with, Senate Bill 319, that is currently before the legislature. I'm going to talk a little bit about more little more about that later, but that's been introduced and I have an update current as today's headlines for you in a minute. And then we are working on an RFP for the study. As you know, study and the idea of a study, I think the bodies want to do it regardless of the bill, but the idea of a study is also incorporated into the bill. So, I'll talk a little bit about what that looks like as well. And by study, I mean, of course, that whole spectrum of what fire service is and what it can be. The operational priorities, we've talked about it. We want the closest rig to go to the the appropriate rig to the appropriate call at the appropriate time regardless of jurisdiction. That's the goal. We're upgrading the CAD. That's the hexagon system that I talked about. Working towards collate colllocating dispatch centers. You'll see dispatch, that word come up a lot because that really is the key to all this, colllocating and having a single dispatch center that handles all fire and EMS in the Truckucky Meadows. We're working on standard operating guidelines. Um, again, the regional response model. We don't care what jurisdiction is. We want the closest appropriate resource to go. And then the most effective and efficient call routing. And that ties back to the caller experience. Personally dialing 911. We want them to have the most effective, most efficient service possible. We've also now incorporated an operational chief subgroup that is basically the second command to all the fire chiefs in the region. They've been meeting on a weekly basis as well. We're focusing right now on training and standard operating guidelines. We're that's going to move out to actual operational implementation in the field. We made good progress there and I'll talk a little bit little bit about that as well. The standard operating guidelines what we chose what we looked at there we started with safety the top five that we believe improve safety for the region with this regional approach and I'm pleased to report that we have four of those completed and the fifth one should be done today maybe tomorrow. So that would be regional guidelines that all of us can work off of focusing on safety. Did I mention that? That's we're talking about RIT and Mayday and things like that that have firefighter and public safety at the forefront. 319. So you can see what has that's the history of what's going on there. The bill is on the assembly agenda on the floor today. Could be they could get a vote today. So it is moving right ahead. I did talk to Senator Daly on Friday. He's very optimistic that it's going to move forward. So, we can look forward to that coming out of the legislature. I hope, knock on wood. The um thing I want to put a pin in though, earmark for you. That bill directs the jurisdictions to appoint two people from each jurisdiction to be basically the working group, the working committee that's going to manage the study. So, just have that in mind. I'm not asking you to do that today. We're not there. But this group is going to have to appoint to the county and Sparks. So, they they will issue the RFP. The idea would be we'd issue an RFP for a consulting group to do the study. They would manage the study and the consulting group would report back to that committee. So that's coming. And then here's our next key steps. We're going to continue to develop those operational responses, a region regionalized approach. Oh, I didn't I skipped over. We have it that says we're going to next steps engage labor groups. We have engaged labor groups. We had a joint meeting with all the labor groups and the working group. It was very productive. That was about two weeks ago. So check, we've done that. Um we are working on the RFP. So when that committee is formed, we're going to have a draft of something for them to work off of. They can then put out to get that consultant to do the study. Um that'll be up to the committee to to finalize that RFP. And then we'll continue to monitor 319 as it moves through the legislature. That is the end of my portion. Now, Chief Ancho, who's behind me, is going to give you an update on evacuation planning. All right. Good morning, Madame Mayor and council members. For the record, I'm Andy Ancho and uh today I'll present be presenting a quick update and overview of evacuation preparedness that the city of Reno's been doing since the 26 meeting and we do ongoing throughout the years. Um, let's see. Figure this out. Okay, few things I'll go over for our evacuation preparedness is public education and then uh evacuation route or route analysis, risk analysis, whatever you choose. And then the two funding sources that we are using to do that those studies on the risk analysis of the evacuation routes. So, community outreach and readiness. What we're doing right now for the public is we're encouraging residents to first of all make an evacuation plan. And there's a handful of things that go into that. It can be super indepth, but we're focusing on like four or five top things. And all of this is included in our renal.gov website under the fire department fire prevention and wildland urban interface. Tons of information on there. So, the first thing we encourage residents to do is sign up for emergency alerts and notifications. We do that through Smart 911 for rave alerts. As you know, there are many ways that alerts are sent out through EAS, WA, social media, email, texts, and voicemail. And through that platform to sign up for the alerts, you can choose your preferred method. We also are encouraging the public to get familiar with per the perimeter platform. So, Perimeter is web-based. It's a mapping software program that allows regional partners and responders during a major incident to enter real-time information such as incident location, evacuation areas, evacuation alerts, directions, also map out road closures. Um, and then they can we publish that so the public has instant information and it's real-time information throughout the incident. it's updated. So, the public does not need to sign up for an app for this. It's actually a website, but you can get an app as well. The the agencies that use it rely on the app for the platform to share information. So, that's the number one thing that we'd like to get them to do. Additionally, we want them to prepare go bags and complete evacuation checklists and then prepare their home and family for an evacuation. So, those are the main things we're we're trying to get the public to do starting off is create that evacuation plan. We enforce that and we back that up through public engagement. What do we do there? We do community events, presentations and forums. We do tableabling at a lot of events where we hand out uh pamphlets, all the information on how to create that evacuation plan plus many many other things for fire pre prevention, preparedness and also preparedness for other emergencies that can happen within the region. We do media campaigns and last year we we created a dedicated evacuation preparedness video and that video was born out of the same concerns that we're all experiencing now after the LA fires. If you remember, we had the Cowdor fire that caused South Lake to be evacuated, right? the public had these same main concerns and so the regional partners all met together with multiple meetings and put together this evacuation video that really streamlines and lets the public know this is what you need to do to prepare and this is what you need to do during evacuation that also is on our website and all this stuff's um also hosted regionally in the Wo County website uh additionally about a month ago a fire prevention team sent out 10,000 cards to residents within the WOOI neighborhoods, wildland urban interface neighborhoods that contained information in a QR code to our website that also hosts all this information for evacuation preparedness and many other things. So moving on, we talked about on our second topic would be evacuation route risk analysis. So this very important information that hasn't been done in this depth I'm not sure if ever. So there were two major funding sources that have been secured to do this type of study. The first one is through the community wildfire protection plan the CWPP. Some of you may have heard of that. Um so a third party vendor or facilitator has been hired. This was a grant-f funed project through the fire prevention and safety grant is about 244,000 I believe. And part of this plan includes what's on there risk assessment, vegetation mitigation, evacuation planning, public outreach strategies to support readiness. But the major part which we're really interested in is this data-driven GIS evacuation planning information. So through the CWPP, this is a Reno study only and part of that study includes these part of that plan includes these two studies. Number one is a route risk analysis. This evaluates road conditions connectivity and neighborhood density. Super important information when you're talking about evacuations. Additionally, it has an entrapment risk analysis study which is going to assess the fuel loads and potential fire behavior along key corridors. We're going to be sending people to these major uh evacuation routes, which are major freeways typically in the McCarron Loop. We want to make sure that the vegetation and fire um hazards aren't high and prevalent along those corridors to make the evacuation a failure and more risky. The second one was born out of the 26 meeting that we had the regional meeting. Not long after that, a private donor addressed the county and said, "We would like to fund a countywide evacuation study on the same things that I discussed, route analysis, fire modeling, and evacuation modeling. So, the county reached out to both cities, the city of Sparks and the city of Reno. This will be a WO countywide study, including both cities. Um, Wash County accepted the private donation approximately $185,000 I believe. And currently today at the Desert Research Institute, there is a wildfire resilience working group or workshop which I would normally be at. Um, but we sent Telina Sky, which is a wonderful representative from our fire prevention bureau, so we could be here today. Um what's happening there today is a lot of stuff, but regarding the countywide evacuation study, they're going to be creating a working group of subject matter experts uh throughout the region to steer and evaluate the study of these routes, right? And then also we'll be selecting a vendor and then reviewing the work that's being done on this study. It should have a completion within a year. Um the main theme is to ID the top five areas of concern within Wo County regarding this topic and that's what I have for you guys today. Thank you for your time. So thank you. Um we are now all at your disposal for questions. We also have Chief Way from Chucky Meadows here. Chief White from Sparks um is trying to get out of a meeting. He he knows about the meeting. trying to get here, but we'll give him a pass. Thank you, Chief Way for being here. Really, really appreciate it. Um, okay. Um, thank you, you know, all of you for coming and addressing this because it's something that gives me massive anxiety. Um, I definitely want TAM and Bergeny to come up here. I have questions for them. Um, and one of the things I need to know, Chief Cochran, is that where can we find evacuation plans? Where do we find Reno evacuation plans and where do we find um county regional evacuation plans? If I am a resident and I need to know where those are, where they exist, where would I find them? So, Chief Anch is going to speak to that specifically. Okay, I can answer that, mayor. So, um we have the I wouldn't call it a luxury, but the privilege of being able to work on these plans regionally. So, in two weeks, we're going to be bringing the hazard mitigation plan up for adoption by the city council. That's a 1300page plan. Um, the evacuation plans aren't quite that large, but we work together regionally um Wo County, city of Reno, city of Sparks, and the tribals to develop these plans. So, the bulk of them are all housed on Wo County's website or through web EOC. Okay. So, hazard is that different than wildfire? You said hazard. It includes within there. So, That was just kind of a segue to say we work because these plans are so big and and labor intensive. So, are those plans up there now? Yes. So, we have an evacuation plan for the city and for the region. Countywide. Okay. Yes. And we need to make sure that everyone understands where they can find that. Um, and how do you how do you notify the public that it's um that it's in effect when when we have an incident? How do you let the public know this through emergency alerts? All those um avenues that I explained before, the EAS, the WA, WEA wireless emergency alerts, what you get over the TV, right, and radio is emergency alert services. And then you have social media, uh text, you're just using regular communication and then perimeter as well. So perimeter now has been adopted by nine or 10 counties throughout the state. The idea is that the whole state and that's that is actually the appetite as well from the other counties. It's just a matter of getting them trained on it and to get the platform is that everybody's going to operate off perimeter because it is a real-time thing that is constantly keeping up with the incident. It has to be one hub because in the last fire it wasn't. It was all through um you know I think other channels and I think it needs to be messaging from all three jurisdictions. This is where you go. So there is not any confusion. Next question. This might be for Chief Cochran. In the event um of a massive fire, tell me how um you communicate with another jurisdiction if you if you are needed. Tell me what triggers that. So there's a couple different ways that we can trigger that. Locally, we'd work through dispatch each through our uh respective dispatches, Sparks, TM, and Reno. But isn't it at the discretion of a of a chief? The discretion in the sense that yes, we make a judgment call. Do we need help? Do we need additional resources? And we make that request. It if the question is is it automatic? No, that does not happen because we are separate jurisdictions with separate dispatch systems and separate communication systems. Yeah. Um, that's one thing that I think does delay service and time and we need to make sure that we're all working because I know in a in on every in every jurisdiction it tends to be um whenever you know at someone's discretion that leaves a lot of room for time and and air to get to people quicker and to get to homes. It it does. And if I could add two more points, because we're a small community, we all have each other's phone numbers. So, we do shortcut some of that. That is not ideal. I'm not saying that's a solution. Um, but that is something we do because we've worked together so often. I say we're on different communication platforms. We are, but we have shared communication. So, when we're on a fire, we are talking to each other directly. I I guess my my point is where I get nervous is sometimes those fires move much quicker than people humans anticipate and we've seen that happen and then there is a delay in service and so unfortunately uh the region is not getting the best possible fire service uh collectively and that is a problem and it puts people's lives at risk um you know and then there's I think a lot of conspiracy out there about oh you know the city and their finances. They just that's why they want to merge. Everyone better wake up because this is a wakeup call. This is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And it is very serious. Um, unfortunately, people are going to be in that situation where they'll take it seriously when they lose a loved one or their home burns down. So, anyone want to refute me on this? Come right ahead. Come at me. No way, no how. I know this system too well inside out. I know what happens um in the event of a fire. Um I know when we have even a massive fire, I am your mayor and don't know until way into uh the situation that's happening. And that tells me we have a very broken system. Now, the good news is I believe with Chief Wei and uh Sparks and Ancho and and you um we have much better relationships. It was all very very political before. I think it's gotten much better. It's getting better and I believe you gentlemen and uh and also women that are at the helm want to do the right thing for the citizens. So um I will come back and ask uh because I'm going to have Envy Energy and Tamwa um put uh some comments onto the record. That being said, Councilwoman Taylor. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have two questions. The first one is um sort of it's on SB 319. So, you know, I love a good study. Don't we all? What actually happens in this study? What are the goals of the study? Because there was a previous study by the blue ribbon committee. So my first question is can we use any of that information um to sort of make things more efficient moving forward and then what are you expecting to get out of the study and how are we going to move forward after the study and actually who is leading the RFP process because you said we and I wasn't sure if that was the group or Reno or Wo County and then my second question which I might have to um talk about a little bit in my second round is probably for emergency management the CWPP P study that you were talking about. Um, you had said that it's only within Reno. Um, so I'm going to ask a couple follow-up questions on that and how we work with Wo County in that space. I think Fire Marshall Beck who's here will be able to answer that. Okay. So the the study going back to that the way the bill is structured, it directs the jurisdictions to form an interlocal agreement to enter into an interlocal agreement to conduct a study and that interlocal agreement will be shephered by two representatives from each jurisdiction. So those six will put the RFP out. What we the working group are trying to do is get that RFP in place so that we can give it to the committee and they can look at it. We like this add that why isn't this here? We are trying to streamline it or target it is a better word as much as possible towards the things we haven't studied. I mentioned dispatch. You're right. There's been many studies. They all say put dispatch in one place. We don't need another study to say the same thing. and we probably need to look at costs and and finance and governance are the things that we think are the biggest hurdles and that's where we want the focus to be. Okay. So, yes, find out the goals of the study as we move through it with this working group. It's not necessarily defined yet. Yes. Okay. Um, perfect. Thank you so much. And then on the CWPP, my question was I thought I heard Hey, good to see you. For the record, uh, John Beck, Reno Fire Department, Fire Marshall, Council Member Taylor, thank you for, um, the question. And please, um, so I was curious, um, I thought I heard that the community wildfire protection plan was only to study within Reno, and I'm not sure that makes sense to me. How do you study wildfire just within Reno? And is that going to be in conjunction with the countywide evacuation study that is going on? I'm just wondering how you merge those two. So, basically the um current city of Reno CWPP, we actually had one in 2003. Um and this is actually way more robust and it's and it's officially updating um for the for the jurisdiction of of the city of Reno. When we applied for the grant for the CWPP grant, it was it was specific about the jurisdiction. So, we we couldn't capture the whole entire region. Um, essentially, um, that's exactly how the the grant the the FEMA grant was written. Um, additionally, there's there's an incind match, uh, cost that's borne out of that, the 5% for that grant, which was which was wholly funded by us. So, we bore the whole cost and and it's specific to the city of Reno. Okay. I'm out of time, but I'll ask again on my on my next round. I'm just wondering we we need to be cons we need to be thinking about the county in that too. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and this is a document that while it's it it's it's just for the city of Reno per se, it's something that's going to be used for the community as well, like our neighboring jurisdictions. Um I believe that that there's other jurisdictions that are in the process of trying I believe Sparks is trying to um use what we have to help them. It's it's a model for the other jurisdictions to to use to to be able to create similar documents. Once that's complete, um I believe that we could we could entertain having a collaborative regional um like a regional CWP. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councilman Martinez. Thank you. Thanks so much, Madame Mayor, and thank you, Chief Cochran, and everybody for the presentation and the information. Um the progress you're making is awesome. I think the study is going to help us further define and figure out how we work better together. I think my first portion of questions I want to start asking about some of the information that you provided in terms of the emergency preparedness. I think I was looking online and trying to download, you know, the perimeter app and trying to make sure that I stay informed, but it looks like there's some caveats to get into the perimeter app or maybe I'm not looking at the right one. if you could just provide me with more. Yeah. So, the public information doesn't have to sign up for the app. You would just go to perimeter.com and follow and that's where you can see Yeah. So, the the people that are going to have access to the app would be um someone like myself and all regional partners in certain positions that can add that critical information and it's vetted and then before the last person sends it out, which is usually one of the emergency managers, we know that that information is coming from the right sources. So pretty much nobody else can get that app with that that kind of um clearance or security I guess you call it. Yeah, that makes sense. So if you're a member of the public, what you want to do is maybe bookmark that website and make sure you have it handy in case anything does happen. And then for the Ravvesmart 911, is that something you have to sign up for as well? And how would you do go about that? So again, you go to the website, our website has a link to it. So does the counties for alerts and notifications and that'll give you a QR code or direction to get to that website. So you guys may have remembered it used to be code red, now it's rave. So it's just a different platform doing the same things. It's just a different name that um we switched to rave recently because we thought it was a better platform. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I know there has been a couple uh workshops I think that council member Anderson has collaborated with to have go bags and make sure folks are prepared. So I just want to give kudos all around for all the preparation that the city is doing to make sure we stay safe. Thanks Madam Mayor Anderson. Go ahead. Good morning gentlemen. Okay so I think the number one thing we need to do is make sure that everyone in in the region knows about this rave um alert system. So, if we kind of like 911 or stop, drop, and roll and all of the different tips and tricks, we need to start getting that out into our city communication and into the media as much as we can because I haven't heard about that yet, and that's kind of freaked me out. Yeah, I mean, we we do it with all our tableabling and we had it at your event as well. Um, there's a going to be a big push regionally to do exactly what you're requesting because at a certain time frame within a year since we switched from code red. The people that are signed up for code red um automatically are going to get the rave alerts, but after a certain amount of time, they'll be dropped off. So, we want to make sure that everybody gets the memo that rave now is the platform emergency for emergency alerts and notifications and code red is no longer. Okay great. Um, so for incident issues, so there's an incident in the community. You're saying that the perimeter website is the number one most updated and consistent information for a community event. That is the idea. Yes, we want everybody on board on perimeter. Okay. So, the reason I'm asking is that I want to know what tips and tricks we can give the community to be more prepared this summer. And we've already gone over the first four, but one of the things that we noticed during incidents last year was that people that are well-meaning and have great intentions and want to help, they go towards an event and they get in the way. They in inadvertently cause issues. So, is there also a centralized regional website that we either have or that we could create that has that reminds people of all of these different resources when so that website is the first one that they go to and hopefully maybe has a link to the perimeter site, right? The second thing is is um oh gosh, I just lost my train of thought. things. We could have resources like what was developed for my preparedness summit. That video that we had for children. If that was on that website and we created a community hub where it was like, okay, we've got maybe police presence or we've got fire presence. You go there, you can figure out what potentially you could do to help or not help. Sometimes oftentimes not helping is the best way to help, but that could be like our community update system communitywide. Is there a way that we could get something, you know, brought up Yes. quickly this summer? What you're talking about, it it exists out there through our website, through the county's website. There's emergency preparedness, there's under the fire websites. I just need one website, though. I'm asking about one collective resource in the community. This the information we have on there isn't just specific to Reno. It's a link to everything regionally. The same with the county and I believe Sparks is doing it as well. What I would say is that I think we can draft a memo to city manager Bryant with how to get to all these different areas where we have this information and if if what you guys are looking for is not in there, then we can improve from that. Well, I get I'm looking for one resource. I'm just looking for one site that could be a community resource where we're not that's all we just have to get there. Council Member Anderson, I I hear you and we're going to work on that. Okay? And so give us about two weeks to come up with a plan and we'll schedule some time to meet with you to make sure we're addressing your concerns. But I I think I understand what you're looking for. And I think it exists, but I want to make sure of you. So Okay. Counciloman Der, go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, a subject of great interest to most of us. Um, I have a number of questions, so I'll try to sort them a bit. And I just wanted to acknowledge we we do have John Zimmerman here, head of Tamwa, and um, I think he's going to be prepared to talk about water issues associated with fire. But I wanted to start first with um Chief um you mentioned earlier in your presentation something about well they'll either have mutual aid or auto aid but at our collective gathering we virtually all of us said could we go to full-on automatic aid I mean and not not partial automatic aid not in certain portions of Reno and it seemed like a good step even before either regionalization or whatever our buzz word is currently. Um, so can you I I just want to make sure about the auto aid and that that's a direction we're going to because that's like lowhanging fruit compared to fullon consolidation or regionalization. We are we are doing that. U Dave Cochran, Real Fire Chief, we're doing automatic aid. The distinction I was making there is that we don't have automatic aid with remote jurisdictions like Carson City or Story County, right? That's mutual aid, right? So, okay. But within But within this region, let's call it the um Reno Sparks metropolitan area. Yes. We already do or we're working towards No, we have that in place. No, but when you spoke at our regional summit, if you will, you said we had it in place in certain sections. Maybe it's downtown or maybe it's somewhere else. And and all of us said, "Yeah, but we would like full automatic aid." To to the mayor's earlier question, waiting to call people. Now, my understanding was it was going to be tied to when the um the new equipment was installed in September. Okay, I understand I understand your question now. The hexagon, the new CAD system, right? Yes. So that is that is what we're targeting and in fact the operations group the operations chiefs that I mentioned have been working on that because right now with the different systems and different communication systems trying to go too deep into auto it's already very clunky as it is it is um and trying to go too deep just complicates it but that new system is going to be the tool that enables us to clear that path. So is the new system and these are the the thing where I I forget the name the vehicle automatic locator AVL the AVL that goes on each vehicle that that's already in place. The new system we're referring to is the CAT the computer rated dispatch system but is is that expected to be online in September? Um I don't think we're on Yeah. Cody can speak to the timing on that. All right. Well, we'll come back to that because let me just get a few questions out there and then people can come up. Number two was I I had the same exact perspective as Miss Anderson, which is that there are all of these places to go, but we really do want a centralized place that's well publicized. And what I wanted to make sure in all the places to go, do they all direct you to the same information? Like are there maybe there's 10 or 15 apps, but are they all saying the same thing? Like for example, the mayor's question earlier about evacuation. Are they all do they all have a consistent message at this point about who needs to evacuate when no matter which app you're dialed into? I think that's what we've committed to working with manager Bryant on to make sure that we're getting you what you need. We believe that exists because it's on our website and not everybody has the same ask. Somebody might need to find shelter for their large animal. Somebody might need evacuation information. Somebody might need information about how to or temporary housing. So, we have that centralized we believe on the Reno Fire Department website. Now, it's going to direct you to different locations depending on what your ask is, right? But I mean, so just for the interim, are we supposed to check in with the Reno Fire Department, everyone in our region or I mean, what about the rave? What about the previous code red? I I'm just trying to follow the bouncing ball. Those are different apps that are going to contact you. They're going to reach out to you. Um, I have signed up, but sometimes I get notifications, sometimes I don't. And maybe I'm not signed up with the right app. That's what one of my worries. So, I'll just leave that. It sounds like we're going to have a followup. And I'd love to hear the answer to the question about the we were assured um at our regional meeting that we would come September when the final thing was done with the CAD that all would be well and we could go to full-on mutual aid. I mean auto auto 8. So maybe Cody could address that. Well, the Cody can speak to the time the timing. Yeah. Um and in in February, we did believe it was going to be done in September. I think that's pushed back a little bit. Um the automatic aid does take we can't dictate. It needs to be a collaborative effort between everybody. So we need everybody to be on board with that plan. Speaking for Reno, we are 100% on board with a collated dis co-located dispatch and full automatic aid. But that's the problem, too. If you're not, then guess what? Guess who suffers? The citizens. That's what's hard about that. Could Cody just address the Yes. Cody, come on up. How are you? I mean, this is our Happy dispatchers weekary. I always feel like it's dispatchers week every week. I don't know. It seems like it, at least for me. Cody Shadel, for the record, director of public safety dispatch um on the project itself. So, what Chief's alluding to is we are having some scheduling push back. We're trying to identify what things need to be done and in what time frames. Our goal is to put out a system that is correct right out the correct and working right. Um and so we've identified some things that need to be done before we go live. So right now we're still working with our vendor to determine what that new go live looks like. As of the schedule today it says the end of September, but we're expecting up to 90 days. So I'm going to come back once we have that finalized. We'll probably end up sending a memo out to explain what that push back is. And then following that memo, I'll be able to come in and actually give you an update on the project and show the key milestones, what we've accomplished, what we intend to accomplish. Um, additionally to what Chief is saying about automatic aid, we are having those discussions now about how to make sure we're building auto automatic aid correctly and we are working with that operations chief's group with our implementation group to make sure that when we do go live, we are able to do automatic aid in in a meaningful way. Um, and I think when chief says we have AVL now, what he's saying is each of our jurisdictions has AVL or automatic vehicle locator equipment on all of our rigs. It's feeding into our CAD systems, but our problem is our CAD systems don't communicate. So even though we have AVL today, we're it's not in a centralized source. The system and a dis a single dispatcher can't look at REMA equipment or TMF equipment and make those decisions. One followup. You said scheduling, but that's so generic. I don't know what scheduling means. The scheduling problem. So there's a lot of things that need to be done between now and then. Right now we are still configuring our dispatch accord. We're still configuring the CAD system. Configuration has to be complete. Then after configuration, we have to test it. And then once we've test it and we feel that it's that we are confident in what it's doing, then we actually have to train over a thousand users of how to use it. And so all of those things are going to take months. And so with with the configuration pushing back, we now have to take all of that testing and all of that training and we have to push that back as well. So all these things are kind of dependent upon each other. And that's why the schedule has to be adjusted. I hope that answers the question. I'm I'm out of time, but I appreciate it. I might have followup. Yeah. Okay, no worries. Um, Cody, I assume that you meant you're going to push it back three more months, 90 days. Initially, that's what we're looking at right now. Yeah, it's not optimal. It's not optimal. Why is that exactly? Is it because of humans? Is it because it's really the system? Because a lot of times humans get in there and make a mess of things. Yeah. I mean, when we started this project, we looked at it and we wanted it done as quickly as possible. We were telling vendors, "Hey, can we get this done in 12 months?" And they kind of laughed and said, "You're not going to get this done in 12 months." They came back and told us how about 18 to 22 months. So this is an initial contract signing. We agreed to 22 months initially 18 to 22 months. Um and what we found is that with 17 independent agencies or individual enduser agencies involved in this system and with so many users and so many things we really have a complicated project that we're trying to do. We have 46 independent vendors that we're trying to integrate into this system. Things like when we're talking about Rave Smart 911, how do we get that information into our CAD system? How do we make it relevant to our dispatchers? And so trying to get 46 outside vendors to say here here's your information. Here's you're going to integrate. Those are things that are complicating this process. Okay. And so that's one of the things that's that's leading to it. Okay. It's not the other jurisdictions. No. Everyone's getting along and doing what they need to to get there. Okay. I just want to make sure. No, I'm really impressed with the way that we've worked together. I mean, yes, at times there are disagreements, but we're in a room together and we're figuring those things out in lifetime. something as simple as we're gonna call this engine engine 36 and Reno agreeing to saying okay well we're going to call it Reno engine 36 and you're going to call it engine 14 or sparks engine 14. Those seem like simple things but on the back end those change the way we send resources and so being able to resolve those in real time with regional working groups is huge. Okay. All right. Thank you so much Cody. Great job. Um okay this is for Envy Energy. How are you? Um, I did Oh, go ahead, Councilwoman Eert. I'm so sorry. Yeah, thank you. I did have some questions. Thank you. I know um in the sky right now, but um so I had some questions. I have met with some of the different um labor unions regarding regionalization for a while now, just because it's kind of been a topic at least for the last couple years that I've been around. I know from hearing from the mayor and other council members that it's been a topic for for a very long time. Um, and something that I've heard from everyone that I've spoken with on the um, the labor side was that there has already been several studies and the results have all kind of been very similar in that they the results point to we need to all be on the same dispatch system first. that there's not going to be any kind of um regionalization without getting on to one dispatch. So, I'm curious as to um why we're not looking to the results of any of these previous studies and going into another study. Um like is there a reason why we're not looking at any data? I mean, I believe the last one was as recent as 2019. I know it was a few years ago, but it's my understanding we're all kind of in the same position with our fire departments as we were then. And um the other part of that is is there any issues um with contracts that we have with REMA um being part of the dispatch process in other areas maybe Sparks Wo County that would kind of cause a um hurdle for us to get to a point where we can regionally truly be on one dispatch before we can even actually start the process of becoming a regional fire department. Thank you for the question, Dave Cochran, Reno Fire Chief. So, you're 100% correct that u message was communicated loud and clear by labor that dispatch needs to be consolidated among all the jurisdictions and you've heard me say that this morning. Um the other studies have recommended that the and one of the points I tried to make and I'm hoping we can direct with the RFP is to take dispatch as a given. We don't need to restyudy that we know that's a goal and look at some of the other challenges we have like governance and finance. Um as far as rema there's no barrier there to consult to incorporating them. In fact, the plan is to incorporate them into the system so that it's seamless between the three fire jurisdictions and REMA. Okay. So, there's no problem with Reno Fire, Sparks Fire, Wo County Fire being on one dispatch because of any kind of contractual obligations with REMA. No, the goal that's actually the exact goal is to have everybody including REMA on one CAD system in one dispatch. Okay. So, it will be regional with Wo County, Reno Sparks, and REMA. Yes. Okay. So, just wanted to make sure I understood all that. The other piece is I know that Senator Daly is kind of spearheading this and moving this along um this legislative session. What um input did he have from you before kind of taking this down to Carson City and getting the ball rolling on this? Because I know that I didn't have any meetings with him. He didn't reach out to me for any input um from me. I'm not sure if he spoke to any other city council members. Um I I inquired with City of Reno staff. They said he didn't speak with any of them to inquire about what um kind of input city of Reno would like to have on this um bill draft. So, I'm just curious what if any input did he um get from from you on this before um initially submitting it to the legislature? He did not have any input from me on that BDR prior to introducing it to the legislature. I think his direction came from the February 6th meeting. I think the mayor would like I would like to weigh in. Um he did he did reach out to me. He reached out to Mayor Lawson and Chair Hill. Um we had a meeting right before he went into session. Literally like days before he went into session. and none of us had asked him to um or any legislator for that matter to address fire in any capacity. He came to us and when a legislator does that um you know it's not something that we can stop only we can do is weigh in on things that we think can be helpful. oftentimes, no disrespect to legislators, but we do this every single day. So, we kind of know the issues that we have to face on a daily basis or how these systems work. And I think he's genuinely trying to help. Um, but also I think, you know, it's very complex. Obviously, you know, it's taken a long, long time, but he did reach out to us and we had um conversations. I asked the fire chief to please be there in case he could weigh in on anything that he thought was beneficial and it was just very premature um and we were already right at session. So I don't think that he had any ill intention. I think he has the intention to bring the community and the region together and also wanted to get I think he really wanted to explore how our relationships were. In the past, our relationships have not been good between the jurisdictions. That has changed dramatically. And I think he wanted to be very respectful of some of those severed relationships. And I think he was um very pleased to see uh Chief Wei was there. Chief Cochran, he was very um and I can't remember, was the fire chief there? I know Sparks was there, but I can't remember. He was um my own. And I just think that that's how that came to be. It was a nice meeting. So, we wanted to be respectful and give him the time to have that meeting. My concern with that though is it is, you know, something designed to help us regionally and he should have come to the subject matter experts on this problem, which should have been Reno, Sparks, and Wo County. and to check in with you, Chair Hill, and Mayor Lawson the day before is that's very courteous, but we should have been more at the driver's seat is what I'm getting at if this is truly looking to help us as a region provide a better level of service. Um, our fire departments, our leadership are the subject matter experts. Okay. and I appreciate his um willingness to take this on. Um but it feels a bit rushed and it feels like um there was not necessarily enough um input from the people that that know the region the best and know what we need the best. And that's that's my hesitation. That's my concern. All right. Thank you so much. I just will reiterate you did have subject uh experts there. Are you at all three fire chiefs? And um any concerns, you can address them with Senator Daly. All right, moving on. Um go ahead, Councilwoman Taylor. Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a quick question um for Mr. Ancho. Clerk, can you put up the I I'm going to be real simple here about the alerts and stuff. I know there's a lot of stuff going on. If I go to this website and I scan this code and get these alerts, am I signed up for alerts? Yes. Am I if there's a fire, if there's a if I need to if something happens, am I going to get alerted if I go here? Well, this will answer this question and Miss Der's question. You're not not everybody's going to get the alert. The people that are in the evacuation zone are going to get the alert because you have to put your address in. It pinpoints your address. It's GPS. So, this is the place that I go for right now to sign up for evacuation or alert information. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's my only question. And I and I have a quick go back for you as well regarding the CWPP if I could. Sure. Um you're were curious about if there's collaboration or if it's just the city of Reno only. I just wasn't sure how you stopped at like the city of Reno line and not go to it doesn't. But FEMA guidelines require it to be a jurisdiction. However, once we were accepted for that grant, we reached out to the county and said, is this going to be a duplication of efforts or can it add to more evacuation analysis? So we did team up collaboratively but not through the same grant. That makes sense. I understand you have some reporting things that you probably we're actually working together so that again we're not doing a duplication of efforts and that we could we maximize what areas of concern that we're going to study because Reno's in this you know Wo County so we don't want to do the same area. I just sometimes I think you I people get in their mind like you walk across the street and you're in Sparks and that's where it's going to stop and I imagine you guys aren't working that way. No. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you madam mayor. Okay. Um, Envy Energy, come on up. State your name for the record. You've done this a few times. I'm sorry. It's okay. Was that round two for a fire? Because I did have another couple questions. Okay, we'll get back to you. Okay. Um so uh, sorry. Um, okay. One of the things that has changed dramatically and I don't feel like there has been a lot of communication on this. All of a sudden, um, we can have major power outages. Um, not well, um, I guess deliberate outages or sort of mitigation uh, outages. Correct. Maybe I'll take a moment to explain that. So, first off, um, thank you for the question, mayor, uh, city council members. A pleasure to address all of you today. My name is Jesse Murray. I'm the senior vice president of energy delivery for Envy Energy. Uh I oversee the operations and maintenance of the state's electric grid. I also oversee the gas distribution utility here in the Truckucky Meadows and I oversee our power safe NV program uh which is our natural disaster protection program uh that we implement statewide including here in western Nevada. So, okay, regarding regarding uh what I would call emergency deenergizations or planned deenergizations, we actually have two programs that we implement. One is our public safety outage management uh program. That is a program that has existed since 2019 and was a founding required uh part of our natural disaster protection plan as implemented in state law. That is when we have extreme hazardous weather conditions that are moving into the region. We will proactively deenergize the electric grid prior to those hazardous weather conditions impacting that grid with the intention of uh eliminating the opportunity for our facilities to ignite a fire. So that's the first program that we've had now for several years. The second program is what we call our emergency deenergization uh program. So the emergency deenergization occurs after a fire has started. And so now what we're worried about is potentially starting secondary fires that could make the initial fire worse or more cumbersome to fight. And then secondly to protect the first responders standing behind me uh as they move into the area to fight the fires because our facilities can present a hazard to them as they move their equipment and manpower into the area. So those are the two programs that we implement. One is weather driven and the second is when the fire is already present. Sure. So tell us how you communicate with our teams regionally. Y um how that how that works because I get residents now listen they could be at work and then they come home and whatever. Um but the communication aspect because here's what happens is people absolutely have to know whether they're on um oxygen or they're in a gated community and you know the gates don't open. I mean there's a lot of different factors, right? And I think that we're in a place where the public needs to know it's a possibility at any time um for any fire. Yeah. So how are you working with our teams? because I get people, you know, blowing up my office and saying, "Well, why is our our power out and we are not in the affected area?" Um, and so how tell us how you're you're accomplishing that. Yeah. So, we we collaborate and cooperate very closely with the regional fire agencies. Right. I'm here at the invitation of Chief Cochran. We work with Chief Cochran. We work with Chief Wade. We work with Chief White all throughout the region. We actually have contracts in place with 11 different fire agencies throughout the state. Uh we participate as a critical member of the emergency management teams regionally. Uh we work with um um administrator uh Echaria uh at Wo County. So we are very much a part of the fabric of the emergency management response. Now to the specific question about communications for our PISON program, we have a very robust communications plan uh that we start implementing several days before we think that hazardous weather condition could potentially impact our state's weather system. We encourage all of our customers to sign up for their my account information so that they can receive texts and information from us in real time, emails. Uh we also do uh robust media communications. I'm often the person uh talking with our various media outlets about upcoming PEOM events that may be occurring in the region. So we try and get the the information out there. Um you referenced Green Cross customer program, what we call green cross customer. These are these uh medically sensitive customers that require life sustaining equipment. Uh we ask that they register with us so that we can identify them as a green cross customer. uh and in in instances where we have power outages or poms uh we reach out to those green cross customers to provide additional help for them. So those are those are those programs. Now on the emergency deenergization program that happens instantaneously if a fire starts we don't have the time really to communicate in advance because the fire it could potentially be impacting our facilities. In that case we will send out texts through my account to the extent that outages begin to occur as they're occurring. And then we will also um uh implement our our public communications plan with the media also so that we can get that information out while also coordinating with the emergency management individuals that are running that uh running that incident. Okay. I think that's a big one that we have to start messaging hands down uh even before a fire that listen now we're all um in living in a region where you could lose power at any time due to any event even if it's not um you know right next to you or your own backyard. Um so I want to really make sure that people understand that because even I I was born and raised here. It's just been recently that all of a sudden, you know, power is um deactivated, right? And so, and we're like, huh, what's going on here? And so, I think if we can just keep messaging and messaging, this is a possibility at any time. Um, then we need to do that. Um, I'm going to move on, but I am going to ask you about uh power lines. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, Councilman Ree, go ahead. I don't believe you, um, have had a round. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I I'll try to be brief, but I have a couple things. One is I want to thank Chief Cochran, uh, Chief Ancho, and Mr. Shadel for the presentation. I I know there's a great deal going on here, and I want to make sure you have first my sincere gratitude for and appreciation for the work that you're doing. It is complicated and I think Mr. Shel, you pointed out the number of agencies that are involved, the number of vendors. Uh what I want you to hear our council saying and what I think you understand is happening here is that we are all not fire people. Right? We have a considerable amount of information that we have gained over the years of service and sometimes because we have a particularized interest sometimes born out of tragedy. Um but that we cannot substitute our judgment for yours. We also can't always often speak the language that you speak. And so, um, you may sense some not frustration, but just simply like a a desire to get an answer. Uh, and so I'm hopeful that, um, when you go back to the drawing board about some of the questions that my colleague Miss Der asks or even the questions that I might ask, you just figure out or think through the ways in which just the everyday regular Joe and Jane Q public thinks about fire. They don't really think about the PAP, the um all the acronyms involved. They don't care who is responding. They just want the safety of knowing that their loved one will be taken care of when they have an emergency and that the fire engine will roll when they have a fire. So, um and so again, my thanks to you. think about how we communicate with the public and and I I would say don't let our desire to see um a particular path dissuade you from uh planning for our future and making good choices. So that's the first thing. The second thing is um I think it is um I don't know if it the right word is naive or it's just maybe a lack of understanding but this question about regionalization and and why a state senator might be taking up a bill on this topic is really um one that has been born not out of any one moment in time but it's every day since our initial divorce from our prior regional fire effort uh to today has been on the minds of electeds both here locally at different bodies and then certainly statewide. Uh we aren't the first people to consider a regionalized fire approach or a consolidated governance. uh that is what the province of the state legislature involves themselves with whether that's thinking about metro in Las Vegas or what we're doing here because it it is really about governance and how do we operate as governing bodies and so I think it's um certainly true that we have a role to play in it I think it's um anathema to believe that we are the only people who should have a role in it or that we as electeds have some greater privilege of knowledge that should drive that conversation. I am grateful to Senator Daly for the work he's done. I I don't know what the outcome will be in Carson City as we carine towards the end of this legislative cycle, but I know that he um cares deeply about the region. And madame mayor, you and and Mayor Lawson and Chair Hill uh think in ways that are uh very complex and and perhaps are unknown to me. Uh but I for which I support because I believe ultimately that we're trying to find the best way forward for our regional governments uh our regionalization efforts. So that those were my comments for now, Madame Mayor. And I may have other questions in round two. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, I'm going to head down to Councilwoman Anderson and we'll go back this way and around. Um, and then I just want to remind everyone that um, I have not been following time on this topic because I think it's one that really um, deserves uh, to be heard and make sure that all your questions and comments are on the record. And Madame Mayor, before we begin the next round, do you want to hear about you asked the water folks to be here? Yes. Well, I'm gonna That'll be my next question. I got you. Okay. Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Councilwoman Anderson. Thank you. I just have one question for NV Energy on this green pro um cross program and this is probably a really silly question, but do you guys already proactively partner with senior living residences and things like that where you go out and you make sure that they're all part of this green cross program? So, so that's a good question. I'm not aware of specific outreach activities that we do uh with senior housing as an example, but I think it's a great suggestion uh and one that we can take up potentially to get the message out uh that we have that program. Um we do as part of our wildfire messaging. We talk a lot about the green cross customer program. We think it's a very probably one of our most important aspects of when we shut the power off, we need to know where those medically sensitive customers are. all of our customer service agents are trained to help those customers through the process. So, I'll take that as a a great recommendation that we can uh potentially use to drive that message further. Okay. I think it would be I mean, if we could somehow get it into protocol when people um become, you know, sign leases, if it's part of the process when they sign a lease that they become a part of that program would be really helpful. Just take one more thing off of their plate that could potentially save their lives. That's all I have for you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. My next question is for Fire Marshall Beck, please. Good morning. Um, I was so impressed with this board that you and Telina had to display at the Emergency Preparedness Summit and it had to do with all of the different types of um vents for housing that would be really really helpful to harden a home that was in a WOOI area. So, first question is, is it pretty obvious that you live in a WOOI the wildland urban interface area? And if it isn't, how would you find out other than these postcards that have just recently been mailed? So, that's a great question. Um, right now we're actually currently I the meeting I came from right before this was with um one of the members in this building who helps us build our GIS maps. So, as we're going through this code adoption um process, we're we're currently building a map that is going to be an adjunct to the CWPP map um when that's actually finalized. So, the the current the current uh map that we're using um is is available to the public. Um, but it we're we're building a map right now where you you can actually plug in an address and it'll automatically take you directly to like if you put your address in, it'll take you right to um where your region is. And we're going to we're going to include that map link into um we sent out 10,000 postcards um into all the the the wildland the buoy areas uh for the residents which we're going to forward. going to keep um periodically sending those out maybe annually to make sure we just remind the the public that link is going to be located at that page so you can and directly say hey do I live in one of those areas now obviously if if you're in a WOOI area that postcard means you're actually in one but it but it'll also help you figure out okay well am I in a in a light hazard or am I in a moderate hazard or am I in high hazard so it'll give you further guidance as far as what specifically um area in in within the WOI that you live. So, you can actually do some of those home hardening um techniques and and and um applications that that we're trying to push out to the public through a lot of those contacts. Perfect. That's a great segue because the point the reason I'm asking this is people need to know why it matters. Why should they care if they're in the WOOI interface? And why it matters is you have the opportunity to make your house safer with really small changes like these um different vents that can be purchased and reinstalled in your home, sealing off different areas where embers could get in. So um just making sure that our postcards are going out and they understand why it matters that they understand if they're in a wooi area. Um, tell me some other things that fire prevention or your department could help consult with if somebody finds out that they're in a WOOI area and they want to figure out if they can create a more defensible landscape or um property. How else can your department help them? So, that's um that's actually part of um Inspector Tina Sky. She's she came to us from Truckucky. we kind of poached her from Truckucky Fire um because part in part because of of a lot of the qualifications that she had because she she had all the certifications and also that specifically the expertise coming from um a high hazard extreme hazard buoy area and what she's done is she's brought a lot of that knowledge base and what we've been doing um together her and I have have been aggressively reaching out to HOAs um we had a um former fire marshal Trey Palmer just conducted a a large evac drill up in Somerset and Sierra Canyon last Saturday that we attended. And so what we're doing is is we're we're recognizing there's actually a couple components to it. How we construct the new homes, but the majority of homes that eventually when our city is built out are not going to fall under what's left the you know the available buildout you know properties. So instead of just saying, "Okay, well from for the remaining homes that are going to be home hardened, realize that we actually need to to tackle all of the the existing homes in the city of Reno." And and to your point, there's small little um steps that you can take that make an extremely huge difference in the outcome. Uh most most of the people in this room might not know this, but but of the 10,000 homes in in um the uh uh the big fire we had down south, the Palisades fire, they burn from the inside out. And so in the wind driven fires, um it's the embers that can blow way beyond the actual WOOI areas into other areas that are technically not in the WOOI. And so we're not just targeting merely the WOOI um homes, but specifically every home in Reno. If you want to to make your own home hardened, I mean, you can have a fire in your backyard and um the the the embers can blow into your vents with just a single fire in your backyard. Yeah. I think that the more information people had about the ability to very pretty low cost with really great um safety improvements on these vents and things like that. So, um that's great. And I'm I'm assuming that all of this information is available as well at our website. It is indeed. Okay. Thank you. Thanks so much, Madam Mayor. And I think I'll invite uh Mr. Simmerman uh with Tommo if you can come up. I have It sounds like that's some of the concerns or questions coming up to you. So, just invite you up and as you get situated, I'll just set the stage and if you, Madam Mayor, council member, do you have any questions, feel free to hop in there and take the time. Um but I want you to sort of set the stage for us a little bit and talk about some of the work that you're doing proactively. I know just being a new member on your board, I know you're working on getting generators out and making sure that we have power in case that it becomes an issue during uh wildfires, but if you could maybe talk about the pressure zones and give us a crash course on that. I know it's dense topic, but just kind of want to lay that out there for you. Sure, I'll do my best. Thank you, Councilman Martinez, and thank you, Mayor Shibi, for inviting me here today to speak. So, Tumbla has a very resilient water system. this community. You know, our predecessors built a very resilient system, but it's also a very complicated system. We have, you know, over several hundred pressure zones, each with different sources of water going into them. We have over 118 pump stations, you know, 86 wells, over 387 pressure regulating stations. Those all take power. And so, over the last 10 years or so, you know, we've installed more generators. And it's somewhat of a paradigm shift with the public safety outages um for for electricity and then also the emergency deenergization. We have to have generators on standby that we can roll out to some sites and then other sites that are critical facilities, we have permanent generators ready to go. And just to kind of give you a little bit of perspective on how Tama operates in a fire, we're often some of the first ones to know because our operators are watching our tanks and they can they can tell when they're dropping um more quickly than normal and so we're in touch with the fire agencies. We're making sure that all of the tanks in an area that has a fire are as full as possible. Um and then we're also working with our regional partners and collaboration. We're investing in emergency management. We now have an emergency management team and an emergency manager on staff um who's also here today if you have any questions for him. Um and then just working with our local partners to make sure that um as Mayor Shibi said, we have the contacts. We know the people on the other end of the line. Um we know who to call and and what we need. We're also inviting the fire agencies over to test um to do testing at our facilities because they can they can practice there and get to know our facilities and our team a little more. We're bringing them over to give them tours of our system so they know what happens during a fire and and how they can help us and how we can help them. Same goes for Andy Energy. Um and then lastly, I'd like to just point out that we also maintain all of the public fire hydrants in the city of Reno, the city of Sparks, and Washington County. And that just makes sure those fire hydrants are operational and ready to go. Um the one thing I will say though is that a municipal water system is built for is built according to the international fire code. It's built for smaller structure fires. um commercial buildings, industrial buildings. It's not meant to uh provide water to a catastrophic wildfire when it becomes a natural disaster um over a sustained period of time. Okay. Um I'm glad you I'm glad you said that because that's a $64,000 question. In Los Angeles, everyone said, "How dare they?" you know, we were trying to get water out of those sort those sources and it still has not been put on the record. If we had an incident like um they had in Los Angeles, would would water come out of all of our fire hydrants? Yeah, and that's a good question and it's it's any any of you experts behind him feel free to weigh in on this and this needs to be put on the record and your citizens need to know this risk. So I'll just uh give the Davis fire as an example. So our team was was running putting generators ahead of the fire and in those pome areas. We were prepared if the fire did a worst case scenario and went to McCarron like the projection said it would. You know, in my opinion, I I back my professionals and I think we would have done whatever we could to make sure we didn't lose water pressure in that system, but I couldn't guarantee it. It would it would be possible to lose pressure because in that in that zone that could have lost power, there are about 29 pump stations. Some of them could have been destroyed or impacted by the fire. Some of them um could have been deenergized um and the generators were damaged. So, it's a possibility. And I would like someone from fire to come up here and address this situation. One of the reasons we were told in Los Angeles, um Chief Cochran, is that you over there? Please come up. Um sorry, you sit behind everyone. and I can't see you. Um, stay up here really quick. I also want to know uh one of the things that we heard and I need you to confirm or deny when everyone else because what happens a lot of other um residents start to water down and hose off their own homes or areas. Correct. That's correct. And because of that, it also lowers um the supply or you know the pressure. Um you need to confirm that because that's another message I have not heard in this region very much at all that during an event everyone everyone not just people in that fire area need to be very aware of conserving water if they don't need it. So, but we even see it, you know, in different jurisdictions where people are like, "Oo, you know, cuz and I get it. The wind could come up." So, you need to put this on the record. And I want you to um confirm, Chief Cochran, the possibility of water not coming out of um a fire hydrant is possible. Dave Cochran, Rio, Fire Chief, thank you. And you're exactly right. everything that draws off the system and John can speak to the de to the specifics the engineering everything that draws off the system whether it's an individual trying to water down their yard their home or a home that burns down and now has open open pipes just flowing water that is going to draw from the pressure and as I said as we said the event that you and I spoke at many months ago backed by the Davis fire there's no municipal system that exists that could be sufficient to handle the Davis or I'm sorry not the Davis fire the Palisad Can you repeat that? There is no municipal system that exists that can handle the type of catastrophic incident that was the Palisades fire. Okay. Um and yes, your points about watering um the homes or trying to protect your own home, the pipes that get burnt through and melted through and leave water running, that all detracts from the pressure of the system and makes it exponentially more difficult for John and his team to maintain that pressure. John, is that something you have been messaging out um to people? I've been having a monthly public safety briefing um with media and so um maybe we need to start inviting you, but are you guys pushing out that information? So, John Zimmerman, for the record, so on the Davis fire, we asked for conservation during ahead of that um ahead of the Wednesday or whatever day it was where we thought it might run to McCarron. But yes, and we're working with the fire agencies to let people know when you leave your home in an evacuation, don't leave your hoses running because it doesn't help the firefighters. It doesn't prevent the fire. It's just a drain on the water system and you're taking away water from the firefighters. But that's part of, I think, our messaging with the fire agencies and have it coming from them that it doesn't help to do that. Just so residents know, don't do that. What is the backup plan when we don't have enough water? What happens then, Chief Cochran? What do we do? I mean, like I like I said there there are alternatives. They're probably not sufficient for something of the scope and magnitude of a Palisad fire because we have water tenders that we can draw on from like Chief Ways Department. They have water tenders. The Air Guard has water tenders. But when you're looking at the amount of water that you need, those are designed, those can help with a single structure, maybe two, not 10,000 that that system is addition. Chief Weey, can you come up here and address this? Would you agree? Agree. I'm sorry. Dale Wei, did you hear my questions? Um, as far as municipal water supply, yes, I agree with everything Chief Cochran said. Okay. There is no municipal water supply out there that when you have 8 to 10,000 single family dwellings that are on fire and fire spreading through them that you're going to be able to hook up to hydrants and draw off of every hydrant in the last fire. Were there pressure issues? Thank you, Mayor C. I could speak to that. No, there were no pressure issues. And and I should have referenced to it goes back to the, you know, we had the Gold Ranch fire, the Davis fire, the Callahan fire, and then prior to that, we had Pine Haven, Colin Ranch, and the Sullivan fire. In none of those fires have we lost pressure. So, we do have a resilient system, but there's limitations. Okay. And Chief We just really quick, and I'm going to move on. Um, what is your solution whenever we don't have enough water coming out of those fire hydrants? There's not much of a solution. I mean, water is the source that fire departments have used traditionally for hundreds of years, right? Fire hydrants, water supply systems are developed and our water tenders, even when they run out of water, you've got to go back to a hydrant to fill up or a pond or or something and that has to obviously be close by. Yeah. That's why I think, you know, we wanted this presentation. We all want to know evacuation plans. We all want to know communication and I'm just going to be really honest. Hearing a lot of these um questions and comments today, it seems there things are fragmented a little bit and so I really hope um that we can do um I I think we're doing a much better job than I've ever seen in the past. Right. Um but it's this should make everyone nervous because we also have to protect our firefighters. Not just our community, but the firefighters that we send in there every day. Um, but I think the public needs to know and be a little better informed because everyone assumes that water is going to come out of those fire hydrants and it's it's absolutely frightening. And that's where the communication between both jurisdictions needs to come together. And this is not to any of you. I'm also going to ask um city manager Bryant in in um our next council meeting. I'm going to ask for all three comm's departments uh to come because I want to know what that communication looks like. To be honest with you, I was told stay out of stay out of our event. It's not yours. And it came right up to the city of Reno. I look at us regionally and so I have a real problem when someone tells me to stay out of a fire event that we actually had predictions that was coming into seven miles of the city of Reno. And that's where um you know, I want to be honest and transparent that it's not pretty. But I do want all three comm's departments here talking about how they communicate with each other and um and the electeds because um I was really disappointed. It wasn't any of you, but I was really disappointed in how those communications were handled and I know on the back end that it's not going to help any citizen to have those sort of disconnects. Anyway, um okay, Councilwoman Der. Yeah, thank you. Um I just want to switch switch gears a little bit back to evacuation if I could. Um and that is that um a couple things. Um one last night we had a community forum for W 2 and one of the questions came up about um that we're in the summer season and it sounds like we're about to start um a brush clearing process that's spearheaded by the fire department. So, one of the questions came up. Is that just for the WOOI area? Um, and I'll give you an example. So, when the Column Fire happened in 2012, um, I figured there was about a thousand homes between me and the Column Fire and I I while I got prepared to evacuate, you know, we weren't used to a concept of seven miles of having to evacuate. And uh, but I thought, my gosh, this would have to burn a thousand homes before it got to me. But what it really did was it went down it jumped over McCarron, went down a canyon, burned three houses at the bottom of Pioneer, jumped over Pioneer, and in a moment it was on my street across the street from my house without burning through a thousand homes to to everyone's previous points about how fire behavior occurs. But in terms of the priorities for brush clearing, what I was being asked by um some of our residents last night is well, but to to the point, the fire might start in an area that might be considered a WOOI area, you know, up in Colin Ranch or something, but it's coming down ravines down into closer to town. And we all have ravines there, too. Many areas, Suseline and other areas in those areas. And I just wondered their a question to me is are they eligible? Can they request these programs? That's my first question. And the second question is about evacuation. I want to understand the key elements of the evacuation. When you say an evacuation plan, what what are we really talking about? Sounds good. Um I know that they just did an evacuation plan for Ranchera, which they communicated to the residents where the exits are that they have a gated community that they would put up the arms. um where the people to go, you know, how it would work. But is that what's in these other evacuation plans? And as a adjunct to that, I heard and I'm not sure maybe I got the information wrong, but that Somerset recently just a weekend ago did a full like evacuation like where they actually evacuated like a drill. A drill. Yeah. And I wondered how that went. So my question is basically priorities for brush clearing or how communities can get be part of that program and then on evacuation what are the key elements we're talking about and how did this drill go? So I'm going to just make a couple comments and then I'm going to turn it over to fire marshall Beck. We do have a green waste program funded through a state farm grant that is available not just in the city of Reno but to council member Taylor's point Sparks and the county. Right. John will speak to how you prioritize the requests there and I would just add that Sparks has also been awarded a grant for a similar program that they'll be implementing shortly. Then John can speak to the drill and the evaluation of those requests. Yeah. Good. So um thank you very much for your time. I appreciate the opportunity to speak about uh would you like to to talk about the drill first or whatever you however you want to tackle. So, so the way the drill worked was um the former fire marshal uh Trey Palmer reached out to me and and with the chief's blessing, we we didn't spearhead it, but we actually supported the back end of the drill. So, what he did um he's he's working up there um consulting essentially in in the Somerset area. They had won a grant um it was $1.5 million. It was a it was the first grant of that size that an actual private HOA had actually landed. And how much was it? Did you I think it was it's like 1.2 to 1.5 million. And included with that grant was a was an actual evacuation drill, right? And so what they did uh what what uh former fire marshal Palmer did is he reached out to me saying, "Hey, this is what this is what we're look thinking about doing." And so we we we collaborated together on what we could actually support with because we do have a finite amount of staff. We do have our workload as well. And so when they when the drill went down um last Saturday, I went to the to the the brief beforehand when he briefed the um the community, they had a they had an HOA meeting at the um Del Webb um clubhouse and then about two weeks prior to that and then they kicked it off um it was it was uh a two-hour window and they had all of what they did in that HOA was they identified all of the different evacuation routes. One of the challenges of of where do I evacuate to is we we don't know where the fire is going to be at, right? So, we can't necessarily say there is not a one-sizefits-all like, okay, if you live here, evacuate there. And and that's one of the one of the the educational there's a lot of education to that that we're really aggressively trying to to put out to the public. Um because those are those are hard questions to to to ask and and and answer. And so what they did was um a notional fire that would be most likely a large event would be coming from Verdi, right? And so each of those um each of the the those areas within Somerset, those evacuation areas, he had um his community say, "Hey, look, find the most likely route out and it might not be the main road and use that and see what that's like." And then and then um we we had everybody meet evacuate to Billinghurst uh elementary school or I'm sorry middle school because at the time most likely would have been um uh the high school uh why can't I think of it uh uh McQueen McQueen thank you because that was already there was already another event going on there so we wanted just briefly I I don't want to take away time but what I want to know is like how many people participated was it successful where you know what was the takeaway So, so it's approximately 500 people would be um in that region and I would say approximately 2 to 250 people showed up and performed in the drill. So, um it was it was very successful. They got some education um from us. I mean, they all got in their cars and left. I mean, they physically drove. They drove and Yep. And then and then they would Did they tune into a channel to find out how it's safe to come back or what? No. So, so the way it was briefed was when you get to Billing Hurst, that's going to be Finex. That's going to be finished exercise. Okay. And is this something you would recommend for other communities? Um, that that's that's a a challenging question to answer because um there's over there's over 500 HOAs in this community or uh in the city of Reno, I'm sorry, the region and I don't know exactly how many are in the wild and urban interface areas, but it would it would be logistically challenging if we would be running these every weekend potentially. So, and um that that would be a hard Right. So, we can't really support that, but um getting information about the evacuation like they did at ranchera. They didn't practice a drill, but they did go over the plan, what to do, where to go. Absolutely. And that's a valuable exercise, right? That and so that can be done at the HOA level, right? And that's what we do have the staff um depending on how many HOAs want to participate and that reach out to us to be able to say, look, this is this is kind of the boilerplate script. find your exit exit routes um and then and then know them and learn them. So the other question I'd asked was about the priorities for the brush and how people can apply and get the get the work done. So, as the chief mentioned um and just briefly touched on, so we have our green waste um program that we're in our fourth year now and we've collaborated with Waste Management and State Farm and what we what you you just the public signs up and it's essentially first come first serve in the in those areas of priority that we that we're targeting and and we we use all the money till till it's spent and and at the end of that we're looking at ways and this is the first year we've actually opened up to for the region. So now Truckucky Meadows and Sparks were those those uh jurisdictions can sign up for that program. Where do they call or sign up? Is it on the web or um that would be through our website I believe? Okay. Well, I just I have people that want to sign up but they don't know any of what you're telling me like that it's first come first serve or you know they don't have to be an HOA or whatever. So I can get you that information. Okay. After Yeah, I think we could all use it. So, if you want to distribute it to all of us. See, I can I can send it to um city manager Bryant. Right. Okay. Great. Thank you, Councilman uh or uh Councilwoman Eert. And then we'll go to Councilman Reese and then we're going to wrap it up. Thank you very much. So, um I had some comments and questions regarding um a lot of my community members that are in the rural area. Um, I know that you or it was mentioned that there's postcards that go out and there's QR codes that can be accessed to find out about different resources and paths for um evacuation. But I know firsthand of um residents in in my community out here that don't have cell phones, uh they don't have internet um because they simply can't afford it. They have landlines. Some of them are um kind of have limited mobility. They live in this area because financially what that's what they can afford, but they're in a position now where they can no longer physically keep their um properties clear of weeds and and things like that. And they have um started reaching out to me for help with clearing their property for fire safety. Um, so I one I want to know how I can connect them with any resources that would be available to help them with that if there are any. But two, what are we doing to help people in that situation? Is there any like doortodoor outreach going on? Is there any landline um help or or assistance for these people? because I think it might be the only ward that has this kind of interface with that uh more rural territory where um we have people that really kind of um are on the outskirts and I I spoke with a woman for quite a while yesterday and and she told me I have permission to use her name whenever I want so I'm going to call her out. She'll get a kick out of it. Her name is Barb and she um just doesn't have the ability to get around. she will not receive text messages regarding evacuation or fire safety because she can't afford a cell phone. So, I know of people in that situation. What kind of backup plan do we have for people like that? And I know it's not a huge population, but those people matter, too. So, is there a fallback plan for people that we're not going to catch with a QR code or with a text message? Thank you for the question. Dave Cochran, Reno Fire Chief. We have not looked at that subgroup of people who are u a challenge to reach in terms of communication but I will represent to you that I will commun I will work with collaborate with our communications experts here at the city and figure out how we can do that outreach and get the message out to them. Great. Great. And that might be something too, like just thinking it out through out loud with you right now is maybe if if we could get a representative to come to um a community forum meeting just to kind of get that word out and we can help um contact those people that we know in the community that fall into that category so we can help um at least compile the information um for you to find out who falls in that category so you're not literally um figuring out how to go doortodoor. Maybe we can help kind of close the loop on that a little bit. It's pretty um tight-knit out here when you start getting in the rural area, but there's some people that just kind of are a little bit on an island, particularly some of my um retiree community members. So, just want to make sure that they're not kind of left behind um literally in the case of an emergency. Very good. I will work with our communication experts and we'll get that done. Thanks so much. Okay. Oh, oh, also too, just wanted to follow up. Is there some some resource that I can um help or find to help um elderly people that need assistance with clearing uh dead vegetation away from their homes, away from property lines, things like that. Um, I know that I volunteer as well, but are there community resources that I just am not aware of? Not specifically for that. The only thought I have that comes to mind is maybe working through the senior center and they might have at the county for those resources or access to those type of resources. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. And Councilwoman Eert, maybe it would be a good idea for you to host um just regular, you know, fire um emergency meetings uh for our seniors. And you can invite any of these um gentlemen here and rotate so that they get information um from different jurisdictions and different perspectives. That's a great idea. I would love that. particularly out here. It's hard for for people up here to come down. So, if you guys would be willing to come out to like um the Westbrook Community Center out here in um Black Springs, I'm sure you're familiar with it. It's right next to that um fire museum. Um that would be probably an easier location for some of my seniors to get to as well. We could absolutely make that happen. Thanks so much. Okay, Councilman Ree. Madame Mayor, I've had my questions answered. Thank you so much. Okay. Um All right. That's going to wrap that up. We don't have to take any action. I just want to say thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate this. It's sort of a a new day. I think citizens should be um hopeful uh that we can all work together and make the system much better. But I also need it to be very clear and transparent what we can and can't do, what our limitations are. Um we don't talk about that enough. I know it's not fun and it can be um very concerning, but we have to be very very honest. I mean, I cannot tell you how many people if we went out there and surveyed 10 people probably in the park, they would absolutely think that water would be available when we turned on those hoses. And we just we've got to message and be I mean, I hate to say it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And everyone should see the patterns that are happening and see, you know, it the wind has been unbelievable. I've never seen wind like this. And I've lived here my entire life. Um I mean, and look it just two days ago, we had thunder and hail. And I mean, we have a very extreme weather pattern, right? Matter of fact, we all probably heard that big crash. We all thought our homes were like, "What's going on up there?" But we really have to be honest and we really have to communicate to everyone in our community. I want to um commend Councilwoman Anderson. You brought up something that we don't talk about enough in a fire. Uh we do talk about the elderly. We need to talk about them more. But you brought up children and we even saw in the Los Angeles fire there were children home with their brothers and sisters and the parents were at work or you know on an errand whatever. But we don't talk about how we communicate fire to children enough. And many times actually there was um a brother and sister that were calling their dad saying, "Hey dad, we're concerned. We're seeing, you know, smoke over here." And the dad was like, "Really?" And then he couldn't get back into their neighborhood. And I mean, it's just, you know, one of those things. So I think that would be another great way. Um and I appreciate uh Councilwoman Anderson is doing an amazing job. she's sort of my um co-pilot in in uh fire concerns. Um and so it would be great maybe we put together a coloring book and some you know host some children's events for fire safety. So materials that they had were amazing and I just wanted to just put one point on what you had said which was all so important. There are a lot of things that are possibly out of our control and there are a lot of different variables, but there are also the good news is there are a lot of things that are in control and things we can do individually to prepare ourselves and be in better shape when these emergencies break out. So, if we can focus on both of those things, we're going to trust you brilliant folks to get, you know, the counties and the cities together doing the right thing and then we will take the helm at communicating what individuals can do to prepare themselves. Yes. So, thank you for all of the energy around this. Thank you so much. Um, and lastly, I am going to say Councilwoman Eert um did bring up something several council meetings ago, and I just wanted to let Chief Cocker know um that we will put it on the agenda for a broader discussion. And one of those other areas of concern are lithium battery fires. We are seeing a lot of those in the media lately. And obviously with those uh batteries, they are becoming much more popular and very problematic to put out. So, Councilwoman Eert, am I correct? Yes, that for a lot of reasons. I know there's a potential um factory at the said airport, which is completely out of our hands at the FAA um airport land, but you know, there's lithium batteries and all kinds of things and it's a new um type of fire that we're going to have to just or not me personally, but our fire departments are going to have to um deal with going forward. So, I think it is important that we talk about it and that the community feels safe because there's so many scary videos online. I get tagged in them. I don't know how to respond to them because I'm not a subject matter expert on it. So, I think it would be really great if we um could get a little more information from our team on on how those are being handled, what kind of strategy you guys have, and and if there's any kind of holes in what you guys need, we can fix that. But also, um, Madame Mayor, I'm sorry if I missed it, but was there any comments on how we're making sure we have water at our um, fire hydrants? Like, is there a mitigation plan for that? Um, you must have missed it. I'm sorry. I heard you bring it up several times, but I couldn't I couldn't remember if that is something that is in the works for what the county is working on or is that a timeline? I'm going to call up Chief Way just really quick to reiterate. I'm so sorry. I'm I missed out. I do call you saying it several times, but I can't remember what the answer was. You hear the question, John? Sure. John Zimmerman for the record. So, um, as I stated, Tumbla maintains the actual hydrant mechanic, the mechanical structure of the hydrants for Reno Sparks in Wo County. Um, in all of our pressure zones, we make sure that when we have a critical pump station that we have backup generation. So the event of a POM, a public service outage or deenerg deenergization that we have um water supplied, all of our system is supplied by um tanks and in those storage tanks there's a certain amount of water that is for fire flow. It's not for just normal customer demand. It's for fireflow. So if we were to have a major event, as discussed earlier, that would be enough to meet all of the demand that we would have. So like I said in past fires we have been able to maintain water pressure when it comes into when a when a fire becomes a sustained enduration and becomes a natural disaster that's when potentially you know if we had pump stations that were taken out by the fire or deenergized and generators were damaged. Um that's where it would be speculative but it's it's possible to not have water pressure in that zone. Okay. So, I guess that was the piece where I didn't I didn't remember if you said that we had like backup plans or contingency plans for a long-term event like that where you know if there wasn't enough pressure at a pump that we could you know reroute water or not yet? Yeah, that that that's a great question and you know I'm not the expert in it but I can tell you the reason I have confidence in the TUMA staff is because when we do have those emergencies we do have ways to valve and and push water into different areas. We have people going out on standby mechanics to make sure water water can flow in different areas if we have a main break or a pump station that's out and so that that's how we've been able to sustain water pressure in those previous fires. Okay. Okay. So I think that was just the piece I was missing. I did hear that and that you you guys usually know where there's a fire first because of the water pressure um shown at the tanks and things of that nature, but I just wasn't sure if there was an actual plan in place to address the mayor's concerns because that would absolutely be catastrophic. Thank you for Huh. Without water, there really is nothing you can do. There is no plan. There is nothing. Nope. So, yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for um thank you for addressing that. Thanks so much. And madame mayor, on this one small point on this water, John has been briefing the TAMWA board on the fact that we really he mentioned it, but he kind of brushed over it, which is that we really didn't have these generators um at all of the places that we needed them. And often they could be at risk, right? They could either have be either um affected by the fire or routes to them cut off by the fire to even operate the generators because they need people right to operate. It's not an automated system. Yeah. Quite a few of our generators are automated and we're working to make more of them automated so that our folks don't have to go into those areas. And this I think another point on just the catastrophic fires is the firefighters are also pulling from natural water sources and so that is you know part of how they're attacking the fire. Well, I was thinking that when the mayor said, "How are we what are we doing if the fire hydrants aren't working?" And all I could think about is maybe we're going up to Wo Lake and Lake Tahoe and dipping buckets on top of homes instead of on top of burning forest. I mean, is that a thing? Yes, it's actually happened in the past and could certainly happen again. I mean, you mentioned tenders and such, but I was thinking those buckets carry quite a bit of water. Yeah, there was a famous air tanker drop here back in the 40s, I think, on the Golden Hotel. It was It's a thing that could happen. I've been golfing on Hole 15 at Lakeidge when Raven came down and filled a bucket in that lake. Yeah. Um but we should also identify those water sources because that was another thing in the Los Angeles fire. You know, they had um areas that were dry and you know there's just a lot of this. Let me just tell you like in a catastrophic fire event um and people have been complaining, oh, you know, the money, the money, you know, the city, like I love how you have some residents that are just saying, oh, this is about, you know, their budget. Give me a goddamn break. Give me a break. And let me tell you why. Because if we don't spend the money for infrastructure and invest it now, you will pay on the back end. Look at what the cost is to that Los Angeles fire. Look at the cost. So you think it's going to cost you a lot now to put in the proper resources, infrastructure work together. You'll be sadly mistaken when you look at the money that they is going into Los Angeles. And I will also remind everyone there will be a massive massive investigation into every department. your department, Envy Energy, yours, mine, we will all be on the line. So, don't overlook a damn thing. Not a thing. Because I got to tell you, I am up at night with anxiety thinking about it because I also live in a very fireprone area. I know what it's like to try to get out of there, the traffic, all these things that we all got to be prepared for. We got to be prepared to evacuate those to-go bags. To go bags, just so you know, were not really pushed or a thing uh a year and a half ago. Not to the extent that we need them today, but I just want to put everyone on notice. It will be all of us that is going to be in big trouble if we don't do the right thing. Put politics aside, invest in our in the people that fight fires because I love how people think, "Oh, it's fire trucks that put out fires." No, it's men. I want a fourman engine crew. You might not, but I know what the aftermath of a fire looks like and um the death of someone in a fire. So, don't tell me. And if there's anyone that wants to refute it, bring it on to my office. I would love to hear from you any day, anytime. But that's the problem that I have with this is I know it firsthand because I've seen what happens behind the scenes. So, politics has got to be set aside and we all have to do right by this community regionally, right? And if it doesn't get done, then you know, I can say that I tried. I did everything I could. I left it all at the table and I'm sorry that we couldn't get there. And sadly, your region is not safe. And that would be the end of my discussion. So, thank you, gentlemen. So, I'm going to make you report back. So, you're going to take away some of um the questions and some of the things you heard today, and I'm going to ask you to come back um in two months. We really need a regional meeting with both of our jurisdictions, our partners, uh, to make sure we're still on the same page and moving forward. Very good. That sounds good. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You bet. Okay. Moving along. We are going to head to Councilwoman Eert. Thank you everyone for your patience on that. I know it took much, much longer, but um, it's information we need to have on the record and everyone needs to be aware of. So, uh, Councilwoman Eert, am I correct? You pulled some consent items. Four, five, six, seven and 11. Yeah. And 11. Okay. 11. And then I am going to pull B9. I'm going to have to make a a reconsideration to pull B9. Madame clerk. Um, may I get a motion? So move. Second. Bring back B9. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those um opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay, heading into item four, B4. Come on, Chief Nance. Hi. Nice to see you. Good to see you. Yeah. So, I always just kind of like to give Chief Dian a moment to shine and just talk about what RPD is doing um for the community, city of B at large to hear what's going on and what we're doing and just kind of a little bit of um public discussion and um you know just explanation about what uh force metrics is and what it does. Okay. Uh, Chief Nance, for the records, forcemetrics, it's a tool that allows officers to access information that combines multiple databases um with including geographic mapping and keywords um to enhance uh our ability to evaluate situations, look for trends, and to determine if uh there's patterns or uh people that we're looking for, actions we're looking for in one consolidated place. as opposed to going to multiple different platforms. Okay. So, it helps you kind of do the law enforcement research faster. Is that like an accurate assessment? Uh faster and more accurately. Yes. Right. Right. So, this is um an amendment. What's the amendment specifically? Um this is for the contract that we have with them. We launched it as a pilot program and this is to extend our contract um for multiple years. Great. So it's been a successful program then. Are you happy with the results so far? Yes, very good. Is there anything specific like you want to share with us about a success story that you feel like was a result of using this new tool or just kind of is it just generally overall the the uh RPD is running more smoothly? Uh generally overall it's just an additional tool that provides u uh more efficiency in our workspace. Okay. Well, thanks so much. I you know, like I said, I always want to give you a chance to shine because I know you're doing a lot of things. There's a lot of firsts that you're bringing to RPD and I appreciate the work that you do. So, thank you very much for coming up and talking about this. I don't know if anybody else has any questions or comments on this. I don't think so. I think we're looking for a motion. Great. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. We are moving on to item B5. Council member Eert. So this is uh award awarding a contract to resource development company DBA far construction corporation for the Truckucky Meadows water reclamation facility irerration take uh 1A rehabilitation project and the amount not to exceed well it's it's almost $5 million not quite with Reno share being um a little over three million. Can you just kind of explain where this tank is going in and kind of why this cost share with Turkey, how we came to this split? Certainly. Matt Smith, uh, senior civil engineer for utility services. I have uh an exhibit here to help explain. Great. Thanks. A few exhibits here. So, this is at the existing Truckucky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility. You'll see this center section here with these uh tanks, individual tanks that we have five of them. And this is aation tank 1A. Um this is at um this treatment plant. Aation tank 1A was built in 1964. It's had some upgrades since then, but there's a lot of equipment inside these tanks, such as what's shown here. This is the aeration diffuser grid. Uh this is below the water surface. So you're usually not able to see this uh infrastructure down here. This is responsible for injecting air into the treatment system. And this um these pieces of equipment in particular need to be replaced on a 7-year basis. And these have not been replaced for well past that. We're coming up on maybe 19 20 years now. Um, so yeah, this go ahead. I don't mean to interrupt, but just a quick question. Does that have any implications for like water quality or safety to have it in use out much longer? We it's it's an efficiency um of the treatment itself. So when these get old they get fouled and then they are not able to transfer as much oxygen to the water. Um but by replacing these you're basically you know bringing it back up to where it's supposed to be operating. We'll also recognize some power savings as well because the uh equipment that pushes the air through these will have less resistance and so we'll utilize less power as well. Great. And this is how we get carbonated water in Reno, right? This is That was a joke. That was a joke. I apologize. I smiled. Yeah, I got that. Yeah. No. Um, so just curious because you said this was put in was it in the 60s? It was originally built in the 60s. Um, this diffuser grid was installed back in 2006 along with some other improvements. Do you know just because I'm curious about inflation what this cost in the 60s just like a comparison and if you don't like it doesn't matter but just I'm curious I don't know off the top of my head but just um to share a little bit more about the scope of this back then they were building the tank the concrete walls everything we are going inside and just replacing the guts of this tank and also repairing and rehabilitating the concrete rete structures um as well because we don't want to build a new tank. We want to retain our existing infrastructure. Yeah. Council member Eert, do you um do you want to get to a motion? You just or you have more questions. I'm sorry. Am I over my You are you're you're at three. Okay. Well, is it all right if you finish this uh presentation? Yeah, we just have a we have a long agenda today. So, I'm wondering if maybe you want to set up some time to talk privately. No, actually I just would like this for the public's benefit. I'm aware that I can schedule meetings privately with anyone on staff. So, thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Would you like to continue your presentation? Um, certainly. So, just th this equipment is in need of uh replacement. So, we're recommending uh to replace that. We have our contract with uh resource development company. And um yeah, this is going to be budgeted out of the sewer fund. Uh, and one of your original questions, forgive me, I I forgot. Um, the cost split, the 31.37% reimbursement from city sparks is based on the interlocal agreement between the two cities. Uh, it's based on the ownership ratio of the plan. 68.63% is borne by city of Reno and 31.37% by city of Sparks. Okay. So, it's not being split with TMA. It's a split with Sparks. That's correct. It's uh just cities of Reno and Sparks. Great. Okay. Well, that was all the questions I had. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you. Uh, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve. Second. Okay. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor? I I Motion carries unanimously. And Council Member Eubert, you are up again with item B6. Okay. B6 is approval of a consulting agreement um with engineering services during construction uh to Corillo engineers uh Inc. for the Truckucky Meadows water reclamation facility uh aation take 1A rehabilitation project in the amount of a little over $500,000 with Reno Share being um about three $350,000 from the sewer fund. Is this a part of the um the project that was just explained to us on item B5? Matt Smith, senior civil engineer utility services. Uh that's correct. It is uh tied to that construction project. Okay. So the last item was like the cost of the materials and this is the cost of the construction company or the engineers. So the item B5 is for the construction uh of those improvements and so the contractor will order all the materials and then construct those improvements. This agreement is for Corollo engineers and it's for special inspection because when we're doing structural things uh we need to have buyout from the building department. We have to have special inspection. This is running the meetings and any coordination or design clarifications that need to occur during construction. Okay, great. So, uh and this split is this also uh split between sparks correct? Yes. Okay. All right. And this just is this also based off of usage between Sparks and City of Renown. Correct. It's uh uh through that interlocal agreement that was mentioned previously. Great. All right. So, that was it for me on this. Um I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve unless there's any questions. Second. We have a motion to second. All those in favor? I I motion carries unanimously. And I think we're at B7 with council member Eber again. Yeah, actually I was going to kind of ask and we did the regional um discussion with fire earlier, but I was just going to ask if this was part of any of those discussions. This is for Wo County's P25 radio system interlocal agreement of June 2020 for public safety radio communications and annual payment to Wo County for the city of Reno's proportional share of infrastructure and operational costs in the amount of 700,000 U dollars and um has a breakout by fiscal years um from the general fund. Is this something that will continue on if we are to get onto a regional dispatch? Um, is this something that will kind of be linked into the conversation about regionalization or is this a separate thing that we'll just have to continue paying to Wo County as something that, you know, it's a service that they provide to city of Reno? Uh, Craig Frandon, IT director for the record. Um this yeah this this proguh project won't sunset. Um these are for handheld radios, apparatus radios, incar radios, dispatch consoles. Um it's a regional uh project including county school district for example, Wo County, city of Sparks. So yeah, this is with us um for the foreseeable future. Okay. So on the um agenda it says for public safety radio communications. What what is the definition of public safety radio communications? I brought some subject matter experts. I'm going to let Cody maybe answer that. Great. Cody Shadel, director of public safety dispatch for the record. Um, our public safety radio system is one part of the way that we communicate from the citizens to our first responders. So, public safety is going to be any of your firefight firefighting departments, your um, police departments, marshall's offices, anybody that's providing a public safety function within that system. We do have some other entities that support public safety that operate within that system as well. So under the city of Reno, we have users um like our park rangers. We have other people com, you know, managing public safety functions that live under that. And then this here provides us the ability to operate over the radio within that system. So we do have a regional dispatch system, we operate a radio system, we operate a CAD system and a telephone system. This is one of those three legs of kind of that public safety system. Okay. So Reno pays into that, Sparks pays into that. Washer County School District pays into that. Is that kind of how that works? So we all pay to use it or how does that work? Yeah. Yes, that is correct. All users actually pay into the system based on their usage in the system. Um and we do have an administrator here from Wo County who helps to administrate that that system and they're happy to answer those questions as well. But yes. Great. Well, I think that's it for me. I just kind of wanted to know what exactly was being um you know, what was that system being used for and if it had any kind of um link to the regionalization and if it would be going away or or anything um you know even adjacent to the regionalization. So, thank you so much for answering those questions. Does anybody else have any questions? Okay, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve. Second. I Hey, Megan Burner. Thank you so much. Hey, good afternoon, Madame Mayor, City Council. Megan Burner, arts and culture manager for the record. Okay. Um, I wanted to pull this item. It says that um I assume Why don't you tell me how we got here because I assume I know we have kind of vaguely talked about this California project, but how did we get here that it's this? I assume that there's already art that they have submitted. How does this give me an idea how we got here? Sure. Okay. Um yeah, so council allocated the funding for this project um out of room tax in last year's or this current fiscal year. Um and so that went to our arts and culture commission who created a call for artists um and our public art committee. Uh we put that out for submissions, received 57 qualified submissions from artists. The public art committee reviewed all of those thoroughly um and made a recommendation for this. It's an art group based of two artists um Sell Suie and Trent Thompson. And um that went to the Arts and Culture Commission for their approval and recommendation to council. Okay. And then am I correct? So are these gentlemen together as artists? Yes. Okay. Which is awesome. But how here's Okay. So I've had issues with this before. How many people submitted for this? How many artists submitted? 57. 57. And the council has is not seeing one. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. The way our process works is it goes through the public art committee and the arts and culture commission for their recommendation to you all. Yeah. I do not like that at all because at the end of the day when there is a piece of art that goes up, do you know it's every council member that has to wear it. Um I think that the process is broken. Not to mention um the people on that board were not elected um to make those decisions. Quite honestly, I want their input, but I want a better process um cuz I think that's problematic. Um, and then the next question that I'm going to ask is, are these gentlemen local? So, they have ties to Reno. Um, do they live here? They do not live here. Okay. So, again, Arts and Culture Commission selecting people outside of the area. Correct. That is correct. Yeah. So, that's why I also think our boards and commissions need a massive overhaul. Um because my blood is kind of boiling right now because I think there should be a conversation with the council if the council at the end of the day says I don't want to. But we've got to give our local artists um a seat at the table and a shot. We really really do. And I bet these men are totally um amazing and qualified and all of that good stuff. But I think those are things that should really I mean come to consideration. Not to mention there's not like four or five artists on here. There's one or one group, right? And um I just think that that is um because it could be very different than what the council sort of envisions. I I've felt that area has been really hard for me to look at because it's um it gets graffitied a lot. And when those kids come out of that high school, it's one of the first things they see. What about if they saw something of words of inspiration or you know a saying that was super inspirational that spoke to them or something to that capacity, right? So, so I'm just saying like they might have had those conversations, but we're so disconnected from what they do. And you want to know what's embarrassing is when we send it back after you bring us for someone forward and we're like, no, we did that with the bowling stadium. Remember, we were like, uh, not great. And I don't I don't want that to happen. I just think I'm going to ask city manager, is there a better way we can figure out um some of the process? I I think indeed that there is and um our uh clerk Mickey Huntsman will be bringing forward June 4th uh a broader discussion about parks and wreck that we can seek council's input not parks and recck sorry boards and commissions. We can seek council input about what are you looking for? Where do you feel like you've seated control? Where do you feel like you'd like some back? Um and how does that look for you? So that is on the agenda for the next council meeting. Yeah, that's great. The other thing I do want to point out because I think this is problematic too is when you put an amount into a project, they will go above and beyond and over. And that also is always concerning. Think about like when someone says, "What's your budget?" And you're like, "Oh, my budget's like, you know, $3,000." They're going to use the $3,000. It would be really nice actually because I think you could do this project very minimal to make high high impact leaving more money on the table from this room tax to do more art. And that's the other thing is I think they, you know, we put a lot of money into one art project when we could be spreading it over whether it's arts in the parks or children or people, you know, I mean, I see so many areas that could be great potential by um elementary schools for kids to paint some of, you know, our beginning muralists, things like that. So, I feel like um there's a big disconnect from this board uh to the council. That's just my thought. Mayor, can I just interject here because I have been the leaison at least for this project and um one thing that I have observed that I think would be interesting if we do have um a desire from the council to make local artists, you know, more prevalent in the in the discussion or the evaluation is just in making sure we're including that in the rubric. Yeah. that we're including, you know, points for certain things, whether it's if somebody can come in if they're, let's just say it's a budget, it's a $100,000 budget. If maybe they get rubric points, if they think they can come in under budget, there's ways to score this by, you know, layering in these values, including messaging if they're like that is such a prominent piece in in Reno. So, if the council were to um put the message like we want to make sure that this art piece inspires x feeling in the rubric like when we come in and and like ask for applications. I think that would be smart. So, I think there's opportunity there to really look at how we're evaluating them. But I will say that it was very robust this discussion on this project and the evaluation of these artists. I was very impressed with how many people were at the meeting virtually or in person and how much time they had spent with the the artists what the information they had at least um applied with. So well thank goodness you didn't already select the art which is a good thing because I've seen in the past where Mayor Kashelle was not having it after they selected the art. You remember that? All of you sitting here probably remember right at the bowling stadium. So, uh, okay. Yes. Go ahead. I just want to make sure I understand um just because recently California Avenue's come into my ward in November, but I'm really not familiar with this project. Is which part of California Avenue is this? So, this is at the intersection of Keystone and Cal retaining wall. Yeah, I think that this would be, you know, such a big piece of art in my ward and I I have no knowledge of the project. I didn't know it cost 100 versus 20 versus 200. I didn't know what kind of directions that you had given. I I think that's another thing is that um no matter if it's in my ward or any ward, I think somehow um as we're reinventing this process, I think it is good to include, you know, I don't I would have known about it if I served on the arts and culture commission, but I don't anymore. Um, so I'd like to know about it before we just get out there painting, you know, and I don't know how to make that. It does come to you all in an annual work plan that was approved earlier. Yeah. But I mean, in an annual work plan, I know for just this year or whatever, but I can't say I studied that with a fine tooth comb to know that this $100,000 project's coming in two. Okay. I'm just sharing unless you reach out to me. Absolutely. Oh, so I'm just saying I I I I don't know if that's part of your perspective, mayor, but I'm just saying it would be good. And I don't know some of the projects we do on murals are um inclusive, for example, might include children, might include other multiple artists. Um it doesn't sound like that's this one. This one is one artist, two, right? Or the two I mean a team. It is. Yes, it is a team of artists. We did put in the call um that we would like to an opportunity for a local artist who has not as much experience to get mentored through the process. And so that is likely to be part of this project. And the artwork has not been selected yet or designed. And so part of the process is once the artists are on board to have them engage with the community um including you all. If you would like to give input on what that design looks like. Well, what we did before when we had as remember uh when Virginia Lake was part of my ward, which it is once again, um we actually had you come to the ward to NAB, um we had all the members of the NAB and the whole community come and weigh in on the project and actual mayor vote, the larger community, not not just the people in the public art committee. And we ended up with a good selection. I mean, the the dragonfly ended up being really really embraced. we had a special event to introduce it to the community. So, I'm guess I'm wondering would we envision something like that for this one where if they might come up with some designs and and maybe we could get some input from the community. That's exactly how the process will go. We've done that for several of our previous murals. Just been a while since something in W 2. Um quite a while, I think. So, that's I just want to say that that's on me. I should have looped you into this being the liaison in the future if it's in any of your wards. I'll make sure that I give you a heads up. So that that's an opportunity for me to improve. Well, no, but I let's be honest. Listen, people on that committee were not elected, right? And especially a ward member, you are going to have to explain how that happened. How embarrassing to say, I didn't know anything about it. I don't know how that happened. And and so I don't think that that's on you. I think the process um quite honestly is is broken and then also how we you know set up boards to make those decisions and then it comes right before us and how embarrassing to say I mean I don't I don't want to have to vote against this. I'm sure these artists are amazing and they're talented but um I just I think it's broken. It doesn't work. Well and and let me just say this. Eventually we would have found out. It sounds like Megan had You would have found out after it was on the wall. No, I hope not. It sounded like we were the NAB process was very effective for this and I had a huge attendance. I would say at least 45 people were there to participate and select the art and we had a sculpture proposals from I mean 30 artists 25 artists anyway and they it was only by one point but I was really pleased with what they picked but but I just want to make sure you know that we're integrated and and maybe that was to come but I just didn't know it was coming and I don't know we don't even have nabs right now and so I'm I'm just trying to figure this out what process good thing to look at when We assess the NABS and that stuff. So, I'll make sure that you know what the community engagement plan is on this and so you can participate. Yeah, that'll be perfect. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. I'm going to then I will make a motion reluctantly to approve. All right. Second. Um I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I'm so sorry. I did have something to say and I I I'm sorry I wasn't quick enough on the mute button. Can you hear me? Oh, um yes. Okay. So, go ahead. I w it didn't affect the vote. I just had um Okay. something to add to the conversation. So, I have been reached out to by some um artist groups uh that are local that have said that they would love to do some murals in Reno just because they're artists and they want large canvases. The only thing that they need help with is paint and having a space to paint. So, I know that there's groups out here that want to do art for not a lot of money. Um, but there's definitely a disconnect in the messaging because we have artists in Reno and I know the call for artists is not excluding anybody. If we have people coming submitting from other areas, people from Reno could obviously submit. So, there's kind of a breakdown there, too. And I don't know. I'll reach out to these people and see like if they're aware of these calls for art. But I just wanted to kind of throw that out there that um when it comes to murals, I know several people that are like, "Yeah, I would love to do that. I just can't afford to paint and I don't have a wall space. Like, I'm not going to go out and just paint somebody's wall without their permission." So, um I understand the the position Megan is in. she's following the rules that and the guide guidance that she was given and and trying to find the be best person that um applies. Um but there might be a better way that we can do outreach and get more Reno um centered art for less money so we get more of it too. So just wanted to say that real quick and just wanted to say thank you to Megan for all the work that she's done. Um I know um art's subjective so she probably gets a lot of negative feedback and um I just want her to know that I appreciate the work that she does. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that so true? You might love something, someone else might dislike it. It's really interesting. I do want to just touch on Councilwoman Eird's points here because how I felt for so long and Megan and I did serve on the Arts and Culture Commission and the reason I got off really fast and it's it um is that it's a group of individuals that are going to select the process in your city and if they don't if they're not receptive to maybe beginning artists or or um and you know just certain different demographics in art or types of art. they are going to dictate the process and I think that that is um I think it's a slight to our local community like you know what we're seeing now and it's been a problem for a long time and so I think those boards have to be looked at how we be careful because again then what happens it's a small group of people that are putting the process in place of what that looks like and it needs to be really open to the community and generalize to everyone because we need to have the message that we want our local artists. I hear them all the time saying they feel slighted. They, you know, see art here and that was created by someone else that doesn't even live here. So, that's all I'm saying is like we've got to do a better job. Art in the park, art everywhere. We should be screaming art everywhere and spending the money on our local citizens, especially our artists because they starve the most. So again, it's subjective, but I just I think the the way that our boards are set up doesn't doesn't work for us. So, thanks so much. Okay, say what's next? Go ahead. Okay, confirming. Did Did we do item 11 or No. Oh, we need a motion. Oh, I thought we did a motion. We did a motion. Okay. Yeah, I just item. Where are we? 11. We're on item B1 pulled by Council Member Eert. Okay. Yeah. I was just looking for more information. So, this is resolution in support of the city of Reno applying for a grant from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection for the the Rivermount neighborhood septic to sewer conversion project together with matters which retain or are necessary necessarily connected there too. So, will this grant. Um, if this grant is received, will this funding only go to city of Reno for this area or will it also go to any residents in that area and help them get off of SUDIC or how how will this work if the funds are received? Um, good afternoon, Kayla Garcia, management analyst with regional infrastructure for the record. Um, yes, the city of Reno would be the applicant for this grant. So, the award would go to the city of Reno and if we are selected, it would have to come back to this body for approval. So would any of the funds like city of Reno gets it, but would any residents be able to like submit an application to receive funds from the city of Reno for help to get off of septic or would this be strictly for city of Reno to use to um you know take septic out of the area and put in sewer. Um the grant would be for construction costs of septic to sewer conversions. Okay. But not only for city of Reno's expenses. No help for residents in the area. It's not like when we get money for um uh housing assistance for people that live in the area where we help and give people money. If this grant is received, this money is only going to go to city health. Uh Carrie Ksky, director of public works. Let me just help with a clarification. So if we do, if we are successful in receiving the grant, the money will go to the installation of the sewer mains, which is a direct benefit to the property owners. They will be able to connect. They will have a sewer main to connect to. So that's that's that is the benefit for the uh property owners. Okay. But they will have no assistance in whatever fee is associated with them hooking up to the new uh sewer line. Did you say they would have no fees? No. No. They would have no assistance. Oh. Covering the fees to connect to the new sewer line. Not that would be that correct. not with this particular there's no additional assistance to the property owners but we are working with NDP to look at um other um uh ways that we could put in for a grant so they could get additional assistance to hook up from their homes to the main Okay. Are you aware of any federal dollars that are available for um residents to apply for for assistance with this to hook up to sewer? Just this grant here. Um there is there is an opportunity with this one here. It's the only one that we know of at this point. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. That help. Uh, any other questions on this? Okay. All right. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 30 minute break. All right. We are going to take a 30-minut break. I need everyone to get up, go to the bathroom, and also eat something. And then I want to let everyone know madame clerk we are gonna jump to item D4 five and six. Okay. When we come back. So when we come back everyone just be prepared. Thanks. All right madame clerk, for the record, it is um 10 to two and the meeting is uh back in session. Hold on one second. This is item D4. Madame Mayor, we're reconvening the meeting at 1:49. And at this time, all members are present. Council member Reese is on um virtually, and we're going to open items D4, D5, and D6. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, at this time, do you have any public comment on this item? We do have public comment on this item. Our first public commenter, people are still rolling in. Do you want to do a staff presentation so we can let the public continue coming in before we do public comment? They can do uh public comment on the back end then. Sure. You want to do that? Yeah. Why don't we do that and then I'm going to head into disclosures. Okay. Do any council members need to make a disclosure? I do. So, um I'm going to start with mine, Madame Clerk. Uh fellow city council members and madam clerk, items D4 D6 involve Stonegate land use approvals. Josh Hicks, an attorney from McDonald Corono, represents Stonegate in this matter. In my private life, I have retained Adam Hosmer Henner, a partner at McDonald Corono, on a civil matter of a GPS tracker that was placed on my car. Um, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office and have been advised that I may have a commitment in a private capacity to the interest of McDonald Corano pursuant to NRS 281A. That said, this item has nothing to do with my civil case, nor will it impact what um nor will it impact uh McDonald Corano or the services I receive in return. To the best of my knowledge, any action I may take today on this item will not have any impact on me or McDonald Corano. To reiterate, I will be participating in this item. Madame clerk, uh please put this disclosure in the record. Okay. Any other council members with the disclosure? Um I'm going to ask legal if I need to disclose this. I've met with the um applicant and gone to several community meetings and had discussions with several uh residents regarding this um agenda item. Is that something I need to disclose? That's something you certainly put on the record. So I appreciate that. Okay. You can still be fair and impartial. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we're going to head into staff presentation and then we are going to go um we will take public comment on the back end. All right. Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you, Jeff? It's this one. All right. Good to see you. That number. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Jeff Foster, associate planner for the record. Today I'm bringing you LDC 24-51 which is the Stonegate Hines Ranch master plan amendment and zoning map amendment request. The project site is about 1767 acres generally located north of US 395 west of White Lake Parkway and south of White Lake and US 395 in Cold Springs. The site has been used for ranching since the mid 1850s and is largely vacant except for ranch buildings. The requests before you under consideration today, which cannot be conditioned, are a master plan amendment and a zoning map amendment from stonegate planned unit development to a mixture of industrial, single family, 5 units per acre, general, commercial, and parks, greenways, and open space. The project is also a project of regional significance. It should be noted that review of the zoning map and master plan amendment is based on findings which focus on the following. conformance with the master plan, compatibility with nearby land uses, the provision of public services and utilities, and conformance with the Nevada Revised Statutes. In terms of zoning, the applicant is requesting to dissolve the Stonegate Planned Unit development and to return to standard zoning designations. Their emphasis is on industrial zoning, similar to what existed prior to the Stonegate PUB reszoning in 2018. Regarding land use compatibility, uh the applicant's proposed commercial land use designation in the northeastern portion of the site here is adjacent to major roads and industrial. The proposed residential development in the southern area of the site here would be separated from resident sorry from industrial uses by railroad tracks and open space buffers in the area there. The industrial in the center of the site would also be adjacent to existing residential uses and zoning in Wo County. The applicant has proposed a formal 100 ft wide parks, greenways, and open space uh buffer which was reviewed to the satisfaction of Wo County Community Development. Turning to the project of regional significance, because this is a request for a zoning and master plan amendment and does not specifically include a development plan, the applicant is asked to provide assumptions on development to help determine if this will trigger trigger a project of regional significance or PRS. Based on the overall proposed land uses and acreages, the applicant has prepared various studies and analyses to demonstrate compliance with the PRS requirements for conformance. The information that they provided is shown on the table on the screen and will be further vetted uh and reviewed by regional planning. Please note that initial review by the Truckucky Meadows Regional Planning Agency did not identify any potential conformance issues regarding future development. Again, as mentioned earlier, the master plan and zoning map amendment uh cannot be conditioned. However, the project site has several constraints, including topography vegetation year-round streams, and existing easements. As a result, future development is subject to building permits and public review entitlements for issues such as steep slopes, cuts in fills, disturbance of major drainageways, and residential adjacency. Also, specific industrial uses would trigger an entitlement review and the residential use will also uh trigger a tenative map review. In all cases, these required entitlements would allow the city and other reviewing agencies to ensure that any future development meets title 18 standards and that all potential impacts to the general area and surrounding neighborhoods are addressed and properly mitigated. Turning to master plan conformance, the proposed master plan amendment and zoning map amendment requests present four major themes supported by numerous master plan goals and policies. To start off, a mix of over 1300 residential units combined with jobs. Next, zoning to support a variety of commercial and industrial uses. Third, buffering between residential and industrial uses. And lastly, a significant amount of designated open space acreage. Here are the general review criteria that all applications are subject to. Note that some of these are to be determined uh with future development plans. Here are the recommended findings for a master plan amendment. Staff can make all recommended findings. Here are the recommended findings for a zoning map amendment. And again, staff can make all recommended findings. The planning commission heard the requests on April 2nd and discussed a variety of issues. Three planning commissioners cited concerns related to quality of life and incompatibility of uses. The planning commission vote resulted in a technical denial recommendation to council. Therefore, before you on this on the screen is the motion forwarded by the planning commission. However, staff initially recommended and continues to recommend approval. Therefore, on the screen is an alternative motion for your consideration and the applicant will now be making a presentation. Okay. Thanks so much. Hi. Hi. Good afternoon, uh, Madame Mayor, council, for the record, Andy Derling with Wood Rogers representing the applicant. Um, I think I have 10 minutes, correct? So, just want to walk you through staff did a fantastic job of giving an overview, but just to pro provide uh a little color commentary to their their playbyplay. Um, as as Jeff mentioned, this project has been or this property has been privately owned since the 1800s. Uh it was a ranching activity until uh actually most recently uh in 2006 this area was uh annexed into the city of Reno uh and master plan primarily for industrial uses uh with a mix of some limited uh residential and construction. Uh on the map there is that 2005 2006 annexation boundary. Uh all told within there, you know, this the the Stonegate property back in those uh you know, 20 years ago um was the jobs uh creation uh uh land use for the Cold Springs uh valley in that annexation area. About 10,000 residential units were also included in that overall annexation area. Um fast forward 2016, Stonegate PUD was uh submitted uh changing it to predominant predominantly our residential land use. Uh that was approved in 2018. The development team continued to work very diligently to to build that master plan. Uh that residential master plan. Uh up until 2021, they had about 95 overall approvals, permits, um easements, rights of way, you name it, they were shovel ready with uh three bid packages that went out for for bidding. Those bids came back and and ultimately the upfront infrastructure costs were just um far too high uh in 2021. Obviously, inflation was hitting a lot of construction projects very hard. uh we were anticipating those would come down but here we are um you know four or five years later and they still haven't. So we had to pivot uh and look for an alternative land use that would be more feasible uh essentially because that that uh that residential PUD just was in economically infeasible to develop. So what's requested now is uh a mix of uses about 923 acres of industrial 54 acres 55 acres of general commercial 386 acres uh of SF5 5 unit per acre zoning uh and about 404 acres of parks greenways and open space. Um just by um basics here it's master plan amendment a zone change um because we're using utilizing straight zoning it will be beholden to uh Reno municipal code and zoning code going forward. uh even as it as it changes. So as you know things evolve obviously in the city uh and codes change we would have to change with it. Uh and then as Jeff mentioned we are a project of regional significance. So just want to lead you through um our analysis of the master plan and zoning uh as they conform to reimagine Reno your master plan as well as uh the land development code. Just a reminder the findings that have to be made for this uh master plan amendments have to be found to be substantially conformant with the master plan. Um there are essentially three components to your master plan. There's guiding principles or which are kind of the overarching uh principles for the city. There's area specific policies uh and then there's a growth and reinvestment framework. So I'll lead you through how we're comp complying with those. Um we have to prove that there's re reasonably compatible with nearby land uses. Uh and we have to uh show that public services and facilities can be provided in accordance with the concurrency management system that's in your master plan. Then the findings for the zoning map amendment is that it's a you basically in in compliance with uh Nevada revised statutes and uh in in conformance with the master plan. So looking at conformance with the master plan again those overarching guiding principles um all the different you know 10 eight sorry eight guiding principles here uh resilient local economy we meet eight um uh responsible and well-managed grow growth we meet 11 goals thriving downtown doesn't obviously apply vibrant neighborhoods five goals we meet um well-connected city we meet five goals um safe healthy health healthy and inclusive communities we meet three goals quality places and outdoor recreation we meet 11 goals and effective government we to meet one goal. Um, furthermore, jumping into then the area specific uh elements uh employment areas and logistics areas u with the industrial use that we're proposing obviously very much aligns with those part portions of the master plan. Interestingly um the reimagine Reno uh the image that's shown on on the right of your screen there straight out of the master plan this area is still identified as an industrial logistics and employment area. So it very directly aligns uh with that goal. uh outer neighborhoods, foothill neighborhoods. We meet uh a number of those goals as well as design principles for sustainable development. And lastly, the third kind of uh leg of the stool of the master plan is this growth and reinvestment framework. Um it supplements those guidelines uh and essentially calls for a mix of land uses throughout the city. We still have a mix of land uses within this development. Um it's not just industrial, it's industrial and still a substantial amount of residential about 1350 homes that we're anticipating uh could still be built. Uh it just is built in a different phasing to where the the residential is actually feasible uh because the industrial is going to bring that infrastructure there that's needed. And so that leads you into um you know the concurrency of infrastructure and services water sewer flood management transportation public safety, parks, greenways, and open space all are able to be concurrent with the development of this project compatibility. Um your second finding for the master plan uh amendment uh we're creating a live work opportunity here. Um so because we're uh largely an employment-based land use, uh it's attracting employment to this area. Um so it's actually we'll share on some other slides here. It's it's keeping trips keeping people within the north valleys. Um still proposing that land that mix of land uses as Jeff mentioned we have buffers uh and transition zones incorporated. Um those have been agreed to um by Wo County as well. Um we are supporting u multiple transportation opportunities. Um this location right off the freeway is ideal for for industrial. We don't have to have trucks going through any of the neighborhoods. They'll be utilizing um uh the freeway, you know, for for easy access. We have rail access. A rail spur goes through this property uh and and a future trails system uh opportunities as well. Uh we have an opportunity to improve storm water management. Um there's currently some flooding issues, especially across 395. Um, so with working with NDOT already and and the permits we have in hand, we'll be upgrading uh their their culverts going under the freeway which will help with the flooding issues as well as uh creating additional capacity in White Lake for additional storm water. Uh, and we're able to demonstrate that we have available infrastructure. What's interesting here is, you know, when we look back to when this was annexed and and originally master planned by the city of Reno in 2006, um, this is very similar uh to what was approved previously. So, when you're looking at it from a compatibility standpoint, the city already in their own actions um determined that this was a compatible land use mix for this property. What we've improved upon, what we feel like is adding in open space areas where they're appropriate. Um so, this this plan, if you look at it, has actually more open space than what was previously um in the annexation plan. So, some of the regional benefits we want to highlight, um, traffic, uh, overall, uh, industrial land uses and the mix of land uses we have with that industrial generates far less traffic than what the 5,000 homes in the Stonegate PUB generated. Uh, in addition to that, those trips aren't uh are a little bit different, right? Because um, with an employment based use like this, um, folks are are likely to have more of a live work opportunity. they're living in the north valleys and they'll be able to work in the north valleys uh rather than currently what you see, you know, the north valleys is largely a bedroom community. Those folks are having to leave the valley uh in the mornings and and come back in the evenings which exacerbates kind of those commute hours on 395. Um so it helps balance the trip distribution throughout the day. Um some of the benefits to the north valley's uh jobs housing balance, more traffic remains there and more traffic remaining there is also beneficial to just kind of this broader economic um growth within the valley as well. Um when you have more employment based uses uh in close proximity there folks aren't leaving during the day so there's more propensity for things like u restaurants uh additional retail um medical dental office things like that services um that are that are definitely needed in the north valleys. Uh some of the traffic improvements that are planned uh about two two and a half billion dollars is currently slated in uh the regional transportation plan for projects specifically in the north valleys. The map there on the right hand side of the screen identifies the near-term projects that are either under construction or will be in the next couple of years. Uh we will also have then phased improvements as part of the development. Uh already have an agreement with NDOT for um improvements to the interchange at White Lake Parkway and 395 as well as those drainage improvements I mentioned earlier. Uh and then uh widening of White Lake Parkway is included in the RTP as well. We also reached out to RTC and worked with them on including Cold Springs in their future transit planning as well. Uh water uh significant reduction in the water demand. So the PUD required about 200 acre feet. The reszone requires only a,000 acre feet. Stonegate themselves own 1700 acre feet on site. So that is they're able to now serve themselves essentially. um that will be served through Great Basin Water Company, uh who's a water purveyor in Cold Springs, uh which is a really great thing for Cold Springs as a whole that they'll have additional water resources here that'll be built and dedicated by the development. Uh I mentioned the opportunities for employment here. This this is an interesting slide where it looks at the uh comparison of Ward 4 to Ward Six. If you think back to Ward 6, uh it started with the South Meadows Business Park, largely an industrial development and then double dime and other residential built later. Um right now about 12,000 folks in Ward 4 are leaving the valley for employment every day. Uh whereas W 6 is gaining about 14,000 people during the day. So that's you know additional population that helps um you know those restaurants and things. The second part the graph there look at you know what the uh uh employment labor force is in each of those wards. that's about the same. Uh but largely those folks in the ward four are having to leave the valley. So the the land uses that we're proposing here are giving opportunities for W4 residents to work within uh their ward. Madam Mayor, if I could just have a couple more minutes, I'm getting close. Uh so increased employment uh is going to lead to uh opportunities for additional drivers for retail, restaurants, things like that. Um so just kind of in summary a little bit here um some of the increases creating thousands of permanent and construction jobs, new parks and trails, uh new diverse housing stock, uh access to o open space as well as public lands, uh new services, grocery, eating and drinking establishments, as well as establishing new um revenues, uh and and higher revenues than than the residential that was originally planned here. We also have decreases we feel are positive. Decreases in traffic, decreases in water use, decreases in sewer, decreases in flooding, um decreases in school impacts because there's less students uh generated and decreases overall in public service costs. So just in summary with your with your findings, um we do feel you can meet uh all of the findings. Uh there are uh literally hundreds of guiding principles within the master plan that support this. Uh it is reasonably comp compatible with nearby land uses uh as it was found previously in 2006 uh by the city uh but improved with this proposal with buffering and transitional zones. The mix of land uses and the live work opportunities as the north valleys have grown since then. Uh and then public services can be provided both from infrastructure as well as u parks, roadways uh and storm water. And then the zoning map amendment findings as well. Uh we are uh in conformance with all of those as well. And I'd be I know I'm over time, so I'm willing to elaborate on any of that uh during Q&A. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you so much. All right, Madame Clerk, do you um want to go into public comment? I know that I still have to open the public hearing. So, why don't we do that? Perfect. Um okay. Um at this time, I will open the public hearing. Madam clerk, was proper notice given and any correspondence received? Madame Mayor, proper notice was given on items D4, D5, and D6. Correspondence was received as six comments um six letters of opposition. Those have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public. Okay, thank you so much. All right, we'll move into live public comment. We have um I'm so sorry, Marty Mitchum, followed by Taylor Adams, followed by Dan Morgan. I have to get up. I have question. Good afternoon, Mayor Shivy and and members of of the uh council. My name is Marty Mitchum with Martin Harris Construction. Uh to speak to support in support of Stonegate Project, not only as a builder, but as someone who's understands the vital role these projects like others play in long-term economic stability. Uh I personally have lived here for about 35 36 years. Uh 30 of those years in upper in north valleys and Spanish Springs. So I'm a resident of those areas. So I understand how it works. This project represents years of con consistent work for local construction crews, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment, you name it. Stone stonegate is providing a pipeline for well well-paying stable employment that will last through multiple phases of the development as explained previously. And when we hang up our hard hats at the end of the day, the job opportunities that this community project presents will last much longer than any of us here in this room today. Um, Stonegate isn't just a construction project's economic engine that kind and thoughtful and is exactly what sustainable economic planning should hold. Martin Harris is a proud to be a building um partner, something that supports a stable and prosperous future for Neadans in this area. I've been following that property for about 15 years and everything that's gone on with it. When you look at what they're presenting and what they're proposing is probably the best wellthoughtout plan that as a planner and a builder myself has seen go into that area up in the Cold Springs area. Uh I strongly encourage the approval of the Stonegate project and thank you for your time today. All right. Thank you so much. Um, Vice Mayor, I have to get up um and tend to something. So, the meeting's all yours. I will be back. We'll move. Looks like Mr. Taylor Adams is up. Taylor Adams, followed by Dan Morgan, followed by Victoria Edmonson. Good afternoon, Mayor, and now Vice Mayor, members of council, and manager manager Bryant. Uh, for the record, I'm Taylor Adams, chief executive of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada. I'm here today to express our support for the Stonegate project and to speak on the long-term economic impact it will have on the north valleys and the region as a whole. At Edon, we work to ensure that growth in Northern Nevada is not only strong but balanced. Stonegate is a critical step in that direction with thoughtfully planned housing, long-term job creation, retail, and public spaces. Stonegate gives the North Valleys an opportunity to evolve steadily and sustainably. We're not talking about rapid change. We're talking about sustainable growth that brings with it amenities and resources closer to the closer to home for the thousands of residents in this part of our city. With direct freeway access and a large parcel of land zoned for commercial and industrial use, the Ward 4 area will be well positioned to attract highquality businesses just like we've seen in other parts of our city. Stonegate what we believe will generate new tax revenue, require fewer city services per capita, and help create a sustainable future for our city. Ation, we believe Stonegate represents a rare opportunity to shape the North Valleys into a vibrant, well-balanced community that continues um contributes to the region's long-term growth and prosperity. With that, again, we ask for your support. Thank you so much. And next time, I'm going to tell my team bigger print so that I can put it down here and see it. Dan Morgan, followed by Victoria Edmonson, followed by Gary Overhalt. Good afternoon, Madame Vice Mayor, members of the council, madame manager. For the record, my name is Dan Morgan. I am the CEO of the Builders Association. Established in 1956, the Builder Association represents more than 700 member companies and and home as 700 member companies engaged in all aspects of residential development and home building throughout Northern Nevada. Our mission is to promote quality housing, responsible growth, and economic development by supporting policies that foster a sustainable and accessible housing market. We are here today to express our support for the proposed master plan amendment planned unit development and zoning changes related to Stonegate and the Hines Ranch project. The proposed blend of industrial and commercial and residential zoning represents a thoughtful approach that will bring jobs, infrastructure, retail, and housing to the area. We all know that there is a housing supply issue in Northern Nevada and our limited housing supply translates into increased home prices. By facilitating the investment in critical infrastructure and jobs, this proposal creates an opportunity for home building to build homes, eases supply side market pressures, and provides more opportunities for our citizens to live close to where they work. The approval of this master plan, PUD, and zoning amendment change is a meaning meaningful step in that direction by enabling the construction of a blend of industrial, commercial, and new housing. This project will expand housing choices and help meet the needs of Northern Nevada's growing population. We respectfully urge your support. It is a balanced, forward-looking solution that contributes to our shared goal of ensuring Northern Nevada remains a vibrant, livable, and economically resilient region. Thank you for your time and consideration this afternoon. Victoria Edmonson followed by Gary Overhalt followed by Brian Arman. Good afternoon. Um I don't know all your names but anyway, city council. I am Victoria Edmonson and I am a um citizen of Cold Springs. I happen to live on um the in the uh Aspen area. I'm on a well and a septic and um I have um carefully reviewed Stonegates um the new proposal and I see that they have slipped in wording to allow data centers in their industrial uses. Um, I don't know if you know much about data centers, but they have um they use a tremendous amounts of water to cool the enormous amounts of electricity that they use. Um, a midsize data center might use 300,000 gallons of water per day, which is the equivalent to the water usage of 100,000 homes according to my according to NPR on my very quick Google um search. Obviously, where all this water is going to come from in our arid closed basin is problematic. Um, and they're saying that, you know, it's they've got they've accounted for that. Um, not only that, but this water that they use, um, they add chemicals to it to make it more efficient in their cooling process, which makes the water unsuitable for drinking farming watering and livestock purposes. So, I want to know where they're planning to dump all this water. Um, and it very much concerns me because um, I'm on a well and I'm very concerned that my wellwater is going to be contaminated and my septic is going to become unusable and I'm not the only one out there on the well and septic. Should that happen, what is their plan to compensate me and my neighbors for the loss of our water rights which come deeded with my property and my neighbors properties. Of course, the industry is working on developing ways to use less water and other ways to cool their buildings, but they're not there yet. I urge you to strike from their plan the words data centers from their proposed usage in um industrial uses. Thank you very much. Please look at Arizona. They are regretting allowing data centers. Gary Overhalt, followed by Brian Arman, followed by Rebecca Flannry via Zoom. Gary Overhalt, fourth ward. Um, good morning or excuse me, good afternoon, city council. Um, I'd wish to speak in opposition to the Hines Ranch Stonegate um, planning change. Um, I'm a resident of Ward 4 and I've seen the impact caused by these massive concrete eyes or warehouses throughout the that are going on throughout the area, not just Ford. Um, with the original master plan, there was supposed to be room for schools, police station, and a firehouse. That's this is all gone in the new proposal. The spa the statement that took place in the planning commission was we need to keep up with Reno Industrial uh complex and the city of Fernley. I found that find that ridiculous. Uh the shell game the developers are proposing is obviously a move to enhance the return on investment. Understood with disregard to the residents of Cold Springs area and the citizens of Reno as a whole. Amazon has already announced that they will be moving from its current location in the north valleys which will leave yet another unoccupied warehouse to the existing overburd of overburden of available warehouse space to add to the warehouses that are currently under construction. To add to this, excuse me, warehouses are currently under construction north of the Stee airport and along the uh North Virginia corridor. How many warehouses does re Reno need? Or should we just call it the city of Industry East because that's what it's turning into. I have firsthand experience with the light, noise, and industrial pollution that come with these massive concrete eyes. having one 810 ft away from my our bedroom. Okay, we have to listen to air horns, backup alarms, trucks coupling uncoupling from trailers, lights, unbelievable lights, like a Vegas downtown show. Um, this goes on 365 and it goes on, you know, 24/7. Might I suggest they change a plan to maybe a horse property, something like um, Bridal Path or Pebble Creek, you know, and that would be more conducive to the surrounding area. So, I'd like to thank you for listening to me. I have neither the money or the influence with this uh council. I only have my voice. Thank you. Brian Armen, followed by Rebecca Flannry via Zoom, followed by Liliana ooa via Zoom. Good afternoon, city council. My name is Brian Arman. I'm with NAI and I'm speaking in support of the requested change at Stonegate. I lead the NI Alliance team focused on advanced manufacturing and logistics and we've been very fortunate to work with many of the global companies that have relocated or expanded into our region. Most of these companies have been forced to locate their facilities east of town in an area that has very limited if any labor. Expanding development opportunities will attract worldwide pro companies that provide high-paying long-term employment opportunities at a time when the US government is working to increase demand for more manufacturing right here in the United States. This property is welllo immediate freeway access to US 395 and does not bring unwanted traffic through neighborhoods. Expanding land development opportunities will drive demand for retail, restaurants, and other commercial businesses, offering more amenities to a north valley that has been, let's say, without those or or lack of those historically. The project is estimated to create 8,800 permanent jobs with higher paying jobs through an addition of manufacturing and assembly facilities. The resoning will generate significant tax revenues for the city of Reno and reduce the flight of property taxes and revenues east of town while reducing city service costs and providing additional funding for essential services that will benefit all residents of the city of Reno. Stonegate's proposal reflect responsible forward-thinking development that comes at a time of growth in Americanbased manufacturing. Thank you for your time. I hope you support the project. Rebecca Flannry via Zoom, followed by Liliana Ooa via Zoom, followed by Anton Leard via Zoom. We can go ahead and state your name for the record and begin speaking. Rebecca Flannry for the record. Okay. Um, I live in Cold Springs. Many of us moved out to Cold Spring so that we could have some peace and quiet and be away from the city life and the lights and the noise. And we do not approve of any of these warehouses. Um I can't really tell you anybody in Cold Springs that approves of this. So um basically in a nutshell, we were told originally that we'd have some homes, a school, some shopping, and now they want to destroy our land with data centers and warehouses. My first concern is our water. Um, originally they were going to be hooked up to Tamwa and now they want to change that and use the underground water and Great Basin Water Company. Then the people who live over there on that side are on wells and I feel fear that this development will create issues for their wells. My second concern is electricity. Our power goes out quite frequently out here sometimes for days and so how does Stonegate and Envy Energy plan to mitigate the already erratic power grid that we have? My next issue is that this development as per your master plan does not sustain our quality of life. Uh we already have limited fire services and police services. We do not have the city buses that go past Stead. Our crime rates already increasing and one of your al other parts of the master plan is also public safety. So we're not getting any of those um amenities with this development. So, uh, I also know people on the other side of 395 over there that have had to evacuate quite a few times because of fires. Um, we have a very, uh, good echo chamber chamber out there because, you know, it's pretty quiet. So, if you got semis making all this noise day and night, it's going to echo through the whole valley. Plus, it's also going to kill our star view. We like it dark. We like the stars. It's beautiful. Um, we also need homes. We need homes. It's not favorable to have 2500 homes built over there, but the cost of living here is atrocious. We do not need more jobs, unless you want to put a grocery store out there. We do not need more warehouses. The city is overflowed with empty warehouses. So, why do they want to come out and ruin our beautiful land with more? Um, we also have to worry about the tax burden that this is going to cause us and our tax rates to go up, our water bills, our power bills. Um, how is this going to affect our bills? So, how does that improve our quality of life? We do not want warehouses. We do not want semi trucks. We do not want the lights. We want our peace and quiet. So, uh most of us in Cold Springs do not agree with this development. Um so, um if we need jobs, I mean, if they're going to bring these for jobs anyways, where are these people going to live? 1,400 apartments or homes. That's still not enough to keep up with the city of Reno and data centers that they're proposing hire like seven to 10 people. So, that's not even giving us jobs. So, um all in all, this is a very very poorly thoughtout plan um that the people of Cold Springs do not want. And uh maybe we can bring some shopping out to Stead or something and have just a few homes because warehouses is not what we want. So, thank you guys. You have a great day. Liliana Ooa via Zoom followed by Anton Leard via Zoom. Hello. Uh my name is Liliana and I spoke in person at the last commission meeting on April 2nd, 2025. After researching the updated Stonegate Hines Ranch plan, I remain opposed to this project, including myself and the residents of Cole Springs, we moved here to escape the noise and the congestion of the city and to enjoy a quiet area without traffic, warehouses, or shopping centers, which are exactly what the Stonegate Project proposes. Cole Springs has a lot of history, and I believe that we should not remove a piece of history to build anything that is unnecessary, that does not benefit our community. We are seeing an increase of traffic in the North Valley's area, which takes residents, including myself, to get up at least 1 to two hours early to go to work, especially during snowtorms, which even takes 2 to four hours to get to our destination. This growth in the North Valley has also given a lot of wildlife into Coal Springs, raising concerns about the impact of the future development. This project may possibly hurt a lot of residents, including myself, due to the rising utility costs such as water, energy, and trash services. I would like to mention from the previous meetings, we brought up the industrial plans for warehouses being added to Cole Springs. We're seeing several warehouses being built in North Valley that remain empty or being vacated by businesses like Amazon. Instead of constructing new warehouses in Cole Springs, why not repurpose existing buildings in the area? This will save money and prevent further damage to our community. I would also like to add anyone who is listening in person or virtually to take an hour of your time to visit Cole Springs at night, especially during the summer to go stargazing. Since Cole Springs is known for stargazing, you'll be amazed by how free of light pollution that area is. The project of stung will take advantages of the beauty of driving north and south of 395, stargazing, and the wilderness. To me, this project seems driven more by profit than by genuine concern for the well-being of residents communities. Thank you so much, Anton Leard via Zoom. Anton, if you would unmute and state your name for the record. Yeah. Am I unmuted now? You are. Can you hear me? Okay, awesome. Yeah, my name is Anton Leard. Um, I'm a resident of Cold Springs. I've lived out here for over 10 years. I worked out here for eight years. Um, my dad's been out here for 20 years and my mom's been out here for about five years. We love this community. I I personally believe um it will truly negatively affect this valley and this community. Um, the housing that you look that they have for it is going to cause like apartments and smaller things and you know those aren't necessarily bad things, but we're in dire need of homes and pe and people who are becoming home owners. We don't need popup apartments. We don't need data centers. We need places for people to live. It was originally designed with a beautiful uh you know community and thing and it would work great. But now what what we're going to see is something that's going to cause problems. They say it's going to be less traffic. That's not a true statement. It's going to cause more traffic and it and it will continue to cause problems. It will negatively infect affect this community in a faster time than anything with houses. And those houses would have been built in sections and zones and it takes time. That's what this this needs. It needs slow growth and built out correctly, not fast stuff. We don't need stuff that's going to cause problems and and affect this area in a negative way. Thank you. All right, Madame Mayor, with that we have no additional live public comment. For the record, we did have um two public commenters in the audience that did not wish to speak but are in opposition and one in the audience that did not wish wish to speak that just expressed um concerns for the project. All right, we're okay. I'm going to send it over to the one and only Carl Hall. Go ahead and read the ordinance for us. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance introduction, bill number 73000 for possible action, case number LDC 24-000051, Stonegate, Hines Ranch, MPA, and ZMA master plan amendment and zoning map amendment. Ordinance to amend title 18, chapter 18.02 02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning reszoning plus or minus 1,767.3 acres generally located partly north of US Highway 395 and west of White Lake Parkway and partially south of White Lake and US Highway 395 and Cold Springs from Stonegate Planned Unit development PUD to plus or minus 923.3 acres of industrial plus or minus 385.7 acres of single family residential 5 units per acre SF5 plus or - 54.6 acres of general commercial GC and plus or minus 43.7 acres of parks, greenways, and open space PGOS together with matters which pertain to or are necessarily connected there with ward 4. Thank you so much. Okay, I'm going to start um over with you, Councilwoman. It's your board. Yeah, go ahead. So, um I mentioned at the beginning that I've had several meetings with the applicant. I've also had um several meetings with residents of the community of Cold Springs. I've taken a tour of the location with um uh one of the applicants uh who showed me the site. It's a beautiful location. Um I am grateful to be able to see the location from, you know, um from the site itself. Um, I will say that um, the overall feedback I've received from the community as there was a lot of thought um, put into this PUD and there was a lot of care put into what the community wanted, what they viewed as a benefit, what they wanted to see out there. And um, I know it was a very timeconsuming process. There's people on the council that spent a lot of time and energy on this and um I think that the overall response I've received is people want to see that PUB be honored. And I understand the sentiment from the applicant that that's no longer financially feasible, but for me to have um this come forward with a a request to get rid of the PUD and go to straight zoning knowing that um unless there's a um project that comes in that would trigger a conditional use permit or some kind of you know disturb disturbance of a drainage way. Um there could be some pretty significant um developments built that would have very permissive use. So allowed to operate 24/7 with industrial zoning and there would be kind of no oversight from council or planning commission with regard to um setbacks, landscaping, noise mitigation, buffering, um light um mitigation, any number of things. So, I as the representative of the community out there, um I just need to um make sure everyone's aware that I expressed these concerns to the representatives that I've met with and took a tour with and asked if there could be any kind of middle ground met where it was a less intensive use requested, where more housing was kept, where some of the um infrastructure that was required um in the PUD um was um carried forward. Um and I I have to say I was disappointed when I had a follow-up meeting with the application that there was no changes at all made off of the feedback that I provided. Um I that's probably a first for me to see um no changes at all um based off of feedback provided from both communities during the the at least two community meetings I went to with more than 40 people at each meeting. There was one prior that I did not know about that I wasn't in attendance at and um meeting with myself also. So I do have some questions later. I'll I'll come back to you. All right. Um, Councilwoman Der, go ahead. Sure. Before I start, um, Madame Clerk, could you put up the, uh, cover sheet for the applicants presentation? Thank you. All right. Um, I asked for this to be put up because I think it's an excellent picture that shows the area for people that might not have had a chance to be out there. On the right, uh, I am assuming is Silver Lake and to the left is the is the Hines Ranch property. Um, and you can see the setting. It is just at the base of um, uh, Peine Mountains, that whole range in there. As a council member, I spent an enormous amount of time on this PUD and I ultimately voted to support it. Why? Because they had very thoughtfully gone through and addressed all the issues, the storm water, endangered species, wastewater, where they were going to get their water, u energy issues, transportation, we talked a lot about the rail, um buffers recreation. Um then once this process was over, which I spent an enormous amount of time, I think I went on three visits uh with the applicant out to the site to understand uh for example the tree canopy out there and how they were going to preserve it. Um all of that was addressed in the PUD. All of it. And that is what gave me a comfort as a council member to vote for this project on 1700 acres. They were asking for 5,000 homes. They were asking for industrial, commercial, the whole suite, schools. It made sense to me and it was very thoughtful and to my knowledge it was the first PUD of its nature that had been proposed in at least 20 years and it may have been the first ever and I I don't I can swear to that but it was unique from that perspective that like South Reno which I had been representing which is full of um PUDS which take into not only what I just mentioned but actually fencing design, sidewalk design, landscape design. there was an opportunity to sort of change the narrative and the direction of development in the north valleys. Stonegate subsequently came to us and asked for $38 million support for SAD. Um we considered this at probably six meetings separate that they wanted to use a bas basically essentially our bond rating um sell these bonds. We wouldn't be responsible for the repayment. The applicant would or the residents of the applicant would. but we decide to lean in and support that. So we have a history of supporting this development over and over and over again through all the hearings and through these special requests. So when this was proposed and here we have in front of us a development that has none of the protections. It does not address the issues. It is just straight zoning. We've been advised by our staff over and over. We cannot condition zoning. Um that gives me great pause. how much time not just myself and the mayor but the rest of the other five members of council spent on this project and we leaned in and we want to support it and I still want to support it. However, I it is difficult to support it in a in the way it is being presented with all of the protections and the advanced planning being stripped away. I have specific issues. Um, I'll address those in round one, round two. But I wanted to lay a lay a foundation to understand we are dealing with a very special property. It was touted as that by the applicant, very unique, untouched former agand, and we had an opportunity to do something amazing and I think if we move forward with this, we're losing that opportunity. So, thank you. All right. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Taylor. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, Jeff, could you come up? I think I think maybe we're not understanding some of the some of the moving forward process here. First of all, I don't see any master plan or zoning designations in here that haven't been before. There's nothing new that is being proposed or being taken away that wasn't at one time in the 20 years that this has been going on part of this development. That's correct. Okay. So, can you maybe clarify what the process is going to be for approvals moving forward? by going to zoning, it doesn't mean we get rid of all of our approval processes, right? So, so if this project is approved or if the if the MPA and the ZMA are approved, uh first of all, uh the MPA would need to go to the master plan amendment would need to go to regional planning sometime in the next several months to get uh conformance review. But then after that, once that's ultimately approved, if and when it's ultimately approved, then subsequent de actual development on this site uh in the area shown on the screen here would likely require conditional use permits, major site plan reviews. Um any number of entitlements that would be triggered by cuts and fills, disturbance to major drainage ways, things like that. So, um, this is not the last bite at the apple, um, in terms of being able to condition, uh, the project in terms of addressing noise, lighting, any traffic, any This is not the last time we're going to see. This is definitely not the last time. Um, it wouldn't come to the council. It would come to the planning commission, um, unless it came to the council on appeal. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, madam. All right, Councilman Martinez. Thanks so much, Madam Mayor. Um I think the question that I want to start off with is uh the one of the findings that we have to make is providing safe environments and as this project is phased out and built out just making sure that that has been taken into consideration. I don't know if that's a question for the applicant or for Mr. Foster but understanding what you're doing in terms of sidewalks, trails, bike paths, anything like that that they may be included. And I know it may be further down the line, but just in this master plan amendment, zoning map, I want to get an idea of what you're thinking there. Uh, thank you again for the record, Andy Darling with Wood Rogers. Uh, yes. As far as uh, you know, sidewalks, trails, things like that. Sidewalks, obviously, you know, because this is straight zoning, it's going to be um, beholden to the city zoning code as well as public works design manual. So, what the city requires of public work design for streets, including sidewalks everywhere in the city, would be the requirement here, right? PUDs just kind of tend to tweak uh the the cross-sections a little bit. Uh one of the other regional benefits that we didn't get to, you know, because uh my time is limited on um on this uh as far as safety is um access to public um public lands and access to open space. So, one, and I know this says sewer service, which sounds funny, but uh one aspect, the off-site sewer that we're we would have to construct as part of this, uh the yellow line going around the east side of White Lake there, um that is a corridor that is all privately owned. Uh it's all private properties. White Lake is a pri is all privately held. It's not in any type of public open space or public holding. Uh, and so we already have the easements and rights of way around that lake in the yellow that you see to to build that sewer off-site sewer infrastructure, but along with that, you would build a maintenance road that could double as a multi-use path. Uh, so half the lake then is going to have uh, you know, a multi-use path that's off of White Lake Parkway, connects to the existing Cold Springs Park. We would then be constructing another park at the south end of that. In addition to that, we have access to public lands which currently don't exist. Uh which you know in you know access into the the peine uh forest service areas as well. So long answer to say yes everything would be incorporated. It's just going to be incorporated using the city's um standards. I think you mentioned this during your presentation but there was some public comment about you know water infrastructure and water rights. Do you all have the capacity to meet the needs for this development that you're proposing? Yes. So, I I know I went fast by this, but uh the water service options um the PUD, which again predominantly residential, 5,000 residential units with a mix of a little bit of industrial and commercial, required about 2500 acre feet of water. Um reszoning it to the mix that we have now and kind of flip-fpping um to, you know, more of an industrial and then the um commercial and residential is on the you know, is is lesser. Um that requires only about a thousand acre feet of water. So, we're cutting our water demand um by about 60%. Stonegate then owns on-site resources of about 1,700 acre feet that have been perfected with the state engineer. Um so, those will be dedicated to Great Basin Water as a water purveyor. Um they'll develop wells and and other water resources there. Right now, Great Basin only has wells on the north side of White Lake. Um so, this will give them more redundancy in their water service to the broader Cold Springs area. So, we feel that's that's definitely a positive for the community at large. That's all I had for now. Thank you. All right, Councilwoman Anderson. Andy, sorry. Um, my my question is just related to housing for now. Um, I I couldn't find the slide from the the presentation earlier, but I think it said that when we originally annexed this property, it was annexed and assumed there will be about 17,000 homes. Is that the number I saw up there? Yeah, I don't mean just Hines Rants. I I just mean the entire north valleys. So, I I had shown kind of that annexation area from 2005 2006. Um, it was about 10,000 homes that was anticipated. And so, this is a little bit more granular on that. Um, and so interestingly, you know, in Wo County, right, that's been the residential growth. And you see in the red there, that's Woodland Village Lifestyle Homes has been constructing that for, you know, 20 plus years. That's been essentially all of the residential growth in Cold Springs. There's one house in Cold Springs that's in the city of Reno, and there's been one house for the last 20 years. There's been no residential development in the city of Reno's jurisdiction. looking at what the lot supply is of undeveloped lots. Um, you know, there's a number of properties, larger properties that are already zoned and there's about 10,000 um zoned units in including what we're asking for now, which is about 1350 residential units as part of the this new Stonegate development. Okay. So, you're just lowering it by about 3,000. Yes. Okay. Um, on the residential piece of it, I know that that's in a later phase. Are you anticipating or can you even speak with any confidence yet whether or not those are going to be um mortgageable properties? Is it going to be neighborhoods or is it going to be more multif family apartments? Yes, great question. Of the 1350 homes that we're anticipating, uh about 900 or so 950 is in the SF um jurisdiction or designation SF5 which is on the south side in the yellow there. That is in the later phases. Um, we do anticipate. So, in the on the north side there in the pink, the SMU, which is suburban mixed juice, that's our commercial zoning. It's it's more commercial zoning than we would need to build the, you know, shopping centers and support commercial. Uh, and so there's land left over for um, you know, town homes, multif family apartments, things like that. So, that that's what makes up kind of the bulk of the 1350 that we're anticipating. the stuff on the north is is in nearer nearer phases um because it's going to be you know infrastructure is more readily available on the northern sides of this property and then it will get constructed as this builds out to then service the single family on the south. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. All right, Councilman Ree, I don't know if you're Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um a couple of things maybe and then I may have a question for Mr. Mr. Derling, but um I I wanted to first address sort of the concerns about the history of the project. Miss Der, like you, I served on the council during the last two times this was in front of us. And like you, I spent considerable men of time with um the board member then Bonnie Weber, because at the time I was also the atlarge member and so had reason to be supportive and lean into these things. And so what I recall was sort of a general consternation by people about any development of any kind on this land. Meaning um I I'm not sure that there's going to be anything that's put here except for open space that we would have people coming in droves to council to support. And so it's always been a balancing issue for me. Uh we we did put in a lot of work. Um and and yet that work has proven to be uh something that the builder or the owner cannot develop. And so I don't think it is in you know my position to uh hold people to uh old PUDS or otherwise. Oftent times we're making reszoning decisions uh with some frequency at this body. And if we just said well whatever it was the last time I touched it is what it should always be. that is not consistent with our master plan. And so for me, I'm looking at the the very specific findings that we have to make in the master plan. I'm looking at um sort of the community benefits that are created by a change in use because of course this was at one time planned for largely industrial like commercial kind of stuff and then it became a mixed it really shifted much more to housing but still had a fair amount of that and what I see is um sort of decreases in traffic in the new zoning decreases in water use which we've all agreed need in a in a desert is an important part. Uh decreases in sewer usage and flooding, school impacts and public service costs. So all of those things are reasons why we as a city should want to have um you know someone who is going to come in and be able to build. I I do think there are lots of unanswered questions about, you know, what will be the impact of various developments when they are ultimately set to paralize any of these areas or break ground on these areas. And I think those have to be thoughtfully taken up by our planning commission um as they come. Uh I'll also say that I I think that uh our uh friends in the Sierra Club are on to something uh which is sort of the idea that um this should not be the next location of a bunch of uh evaporative cooling data centers. Right. I I I'm not sure the data center question has been answered uh to my satisfaction and I know that we'll probably have to take it up in another uh time. Uh Mr. Derling, can you tell me a little bit about what the um the vision is for this area? I mean, you've parcelized it in such a way that it suggests you believe that there are certain areas that are appropriate for industrial and other areas that are appropriate for residential. So, when I look at the map and you show it on or you have the proposed next to the 2006, that's the map that I'm focused on. I think it's your slide 10. Yes. So, Council Member Ree, Andy Derling, for the record. Yes, I have that up on this in the screen here in Chambers as well. And to give you kind of just, you know, pull back the curtain a little bit on on why, you know, these areas are are chosen for that, right? It's it's land suitability. Um, and so this industrial area has the the uh less lesser slopes on the property. Obviously, no no property is completely flat. Um, but that that area that we have identified as the flattest portions. the single family is a little bit steeper and so you know smaller footprint of a single family home is a little is a lot easier to fit in in topographically constrained areas than than like a a larger you know manufacturing building for example. Um you had asked also about you know this this topic of data centers. Um we are like we said we are going straight zoning with this and so we are beholden to what is in code. Code currently requires a conditional use permit for all data centers. as the council or planning commission makes changes to code in the future, we would have to also then be beholden to whatever those standards are as well. Um we don't think data centers are going to be a big portion of this. Um there may be some smaller ones um uh incorporated. Um but we we don't feel like the power is is the the power uh is available to have any large scale data centers. Um we are focused on manufacturing. there is ample power for manufacturing type uses. Uh as as Mr. Taylor from Edon mentioned um you know this region right we we oftent times when when um new businesses new large businesses are looking for a new home um are are coming to our region they kind of pass by unfortunately the city of Reno for those large manufacturing uses because we don't have the land supply to to do that um and they end up in Taho Reno Industrial Center because they do have the land supply but they don't have the labor so this is an opportunity we feel like for the city of Reno know, uh, in particular to have a large land mass of industrial land that can be, uh, home to, you know, major employment, um, that the region, you know, so desperately needs. Um, looking back in time in 2013, the regional planning agency did a industrial lands needs assessment and came to the conclusion that at that time, right, we were woefully short of larger tracks of land that could house these types of uses. Fast forward, you know, obviously we've had some industrial growth and things like that over that over that time, but we're kind of back to that situation where there aren't large tracks of land to to attract a large employer to our region. Uh, and so we feel like this is a this is a benefit for the city. Okay, Madame Mayor, my time is up. Okay. Thank you so much. All right, Councilwoman Eert. Yeah, thank you. So, um, I had somebody reach out to me last night, so I'm still kind of as we're going reading through this report that is the most recent report that Great Basin, the water provider for the area, submitted to the public utilities commission, the PUC, for the water resources available in that area. And I've been taking notes. I haven't gotten through all the wells, but I'll just give you the highlights of it. So, we have several wells that are providing the water for that area for Great Basin. Um, well, one, like I said, just the highlights, built in 200, 429 ft deep. original um um original strat of water was uh static water level was 7.8 ft below ground level and it is currently of course I didn't write this one down. This well is currently 25 feet uh 20 feet 25 ft below ground level. So it went from 7.8T 8 ft below ground level to 25 feet below ground level. And that's the well that was built in 2000. Well 2 was built in 1971 was um originally had a static water level of 45 ft below ground level. Um but uh the pump has not been in use for several years now due to um the capacity and the length of time it took the water to reach the pump, but also the Wo County Health District prevented the well from being placed into service due to the high density of domestic septic systems near the well. Well 2 is 53 years old as of 2024. While it continues to be used as an observation well, this well has reached the end of its useful life and is not expected to be placed back in service. Um, it also went from, you know, um, you know, being in use to not in use anymore. Well, six drilled in 1979. Um, 315t deep. Um, the original static level was 79 feet below ground level. Um this well also um it's it's been rehabilitated because it was having problems but now this well is um hold on a second static was that I believe it's now 45 ft under um the below ground level. So, I'm just kind of trying to read through this and listen to everything everybody is saying, but there's a consistent trend in every well on this public uh PUC report for um Great Basin Water that says that the wells are either not working due to health reasons, due to proximity to um septic systems, or they are their ground level is reduced significantly. So um there was a reason why there was a condition in the PUD to hook up to Tumbla water and the picture is developing to me rapidly here with this report. You might have groundwater rights, but they the water might not exist in the basin. And that's not something that like you can explain things to me, but this is a report off the secretary or off the state's website from Great Basin regarding the utility availability of water in this basin. So, okay, I'm gonna let Andy answer that. Okay. Yeah. So, actually, Madam Mayor, um Andy Andy Derling for the record, we actually have J James Een with Great Basin Water Company here. Uh he's the general manager and he can answer those questions. Great. I'd love to hear it. Okay, come on up. Good afternoon. Uh James Een for the record. Easo N. Um, Councilwoman Eert, thank you for your questions. Um, I have for any other board members, so um, I'm I'm open. I'll be here through the presentation. Um, I'll start with I'm the representative of Great Basin. Uh, I don't know if you know the history or background. I can go into that or I can start directly with your questions. Councilman. Yeah, I would like to know with every well that is currently listed in this report as servicing the residents of this basin um having a significant decrease in the water level. How do you um plan on being able to provide additional water resources given the trend that the water table is decreasing significantly? and we've had two very significant um winters very recently, high uh amounts of precipitation and snow melts. So to have this trend after, you know, very significant weather events tells me that um there is more water coming out of the basin than we can probably accommodate now. So to say that we can also hand out another thousand plus acre feet to me based off of the numbers that I'm seeing from your own report submitted to the public utilities commission it doesn't look like that's accurate. Okay, great. Thank you for that clarification. First, I want to start with you are welcome anytime. I'll give you a tour of our system to go through the report and do a kind of your own evaluation. And that's to all the council members. Um, the report you're referring to, I believe, is a 2024. Yeah, it's March 2024. It's the most recent report I can find on the state's website. If you have a a 2025 report that gives me a more uh rosy uh out outlook on on all the wells that are providing water for that area, I'd love to see it because there's there's currently a large uh population living there now on wells. So, I have a lot of concern for the people that are already there. All of this stuff aside, I I have concerns about the availability of water for this community. Okay, let him answer. Go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. as we do also. So, I just want to set that tone right off the get- go. So, the report that you're referring to is what is called an integrated resource plan that we are required by law every 3 years to file for all of our water systems that we serve here in Nevada. So, there was a prior report which was 2021. There's a rep prior report the 2018 and then there was a prior report that was done in 2016. um since 2018 to right now we have filed consolidated IRP statewide. So if you pull that report you'll see the systems that we serve in southern Nevada and NY county in eastern Nevada and Elco County and then what we call our sister system here in Spanish Springs. Does that bring water over to this basin? No, it does not. But let's look at the basin and let's talk about the basin. And I think that's critical in this. So, as other council members said, they were around when Stonegate came and talked about the PUD. So was um Great Basin, right? And initially Great Basin was proposed to serve this system. And um due to changes and I I believe Councilwoman Dur, you brought up the um said there were other benefits that were part of this project. We're aware of that. We backed off. We did change the actual rightaway coming into this basin. We turned it over to Tamwa um to move forward with that project. And we also had safeguards to address those questions. And I'm going to do this kind of in a reverse order because our biggest concern is water importation into this basin. Um the lake that we saw, White Lake, is an ephemeral lake. fills up during the high times with snow snow runoff or rain and during the summertime goes back down. Silver Lake does not do that anymore and neither does Swan Lake and our sister basins to I guess you would call it kind of the northeast of us coming into Cold Springs. So we as a utility operator are very very concerned about that. So we have been working whether it's with Tamwa the developer stonegate in this case Wo County to figure out how do we balance the water in this basin because there's a lot of people that we need to serve and we need to make sure that we can serve for a long time. So in these studies that we have worked on and we have worked with and also with DRRI and the state engineer and looking at this basin, this basin has been adjudicated. They determined that there was more water in this basin than the original reconnaissance reports demonstrated back in the 60s. So that's a big change and we're all we've all been watching this. The other concern that I have, and I'll go into where our wells are located, and I would love, like I said, to take you all out there, and we could do a field trip, and I can show you where we pump and where the water's treated at the end of the day and where it returns back into the basin. So, I want to start with your well one. Um you're you're correct that static water levels 7 feet um when it was originally drilled. It's going to change goes from 7 to 10 on that static water. We have a draw down of 25 ft. I think if we were to compare that to other wells around the state, people would be very very excited that that's all your draw down. Um well two, you spoke about well two. Well 2 was one of the original wells that were um developed for the original Cold Springs system way back in the day. Um that well as you pointed out, you're correct, is surrounded by septics, rising nitrates. Um that is an issue in that particular area. We did do a test and exploration well to see if we could drill past the nitrates and that water would not be impacted. I want to real quick actually just circle back. So the original uh water level at well one was 7.8 ft below ground level. It's currently 25 ft. No, that's the draw down. I think that you read it says currently the static water level in the well is 25 ft below ground level. I don't have a great sense of imagination. I just read things. No, that's great. And I would subject to check going to the IRP. I don't have that in front of me, but I do know those water levels adjust all the time. Okay. So, um, we're very happy with that well. Um, that is an, as you pointed out, a well that was drilled in 2000. That well had a rehab that was completed in 2017. We are on between a five to a 10-year rotation for the rehabilitations of our wells in all of our systems. So, um, I just wanted to point that out. the well two that you referred to, well two was part of the development for Woodland Village. Um they needed to provide additional pumping for their new development. Um that location did not work well too. We've left it in service as a nitrate monitoring well because we all benefit with that data collection. So that new well that we developed to replace what you refer to as well 2 was the Van Dyke well. That well was drilled once again in 2016 and has been online and it is part of our rotation and will be coming up and doing a well rehab here in the near future. Um we also Okay, I'm going to cut you off. I'm sorry. Um I'm going to send it to Councilwoman uh Der. Um, sure. And just so everyone knows, every council person gets three minutes. I try not to cut them off because everyone thinks that I'm playing favorites. I'm not. I'm just trying to get the information out there, but I just wanted to let everyone know it's three minutes and I just gave Councilwoman Eert six minutes. So, I appreciate and I appreciate that knowing the rules, too. This is my first time before and I don't mean to and you're doing a great job, but I don't mean to cut you off, but just so you know, that's so everyone um has equal time. Thank you. Okay, go ahead. I don't have questions for you, Councilwoman Der. Sit down. Um, yeah, I wanted to just follow up. You I don't have any questions. I hope so. Um, I just wanted to follow up on the water thing for a minute. I want to also address housing and recreation and also uh Mr. Reese's comment. First, Mr. Reese's comment. The reason uh I didn't to to the mayor's point, we only got three minutes. So, I laid a pref uh a baseline, which is why a PUD is important. What I would like to see is a PUD continue to be in place with a change of the mix of industrial and residential to increase the industrial, modify the commercial and possibly decrease the residential, but not to the extent of which it's planned. And the reason that I think this makes sense is that we get to address issues like water. Right now we are required under the zoning map amendment findings we are required to uh be confident that under a that we are preserving the quality of air and water resources. Well the way we did that met that finding was in the PD which then addressed the water issues and in this case um said let's go with Tomwa. Why did they say that? Well, um, some of you may know I was a former state water planner for seven years and I'm also currently the chair of TAMWA. And in both of those positions, interconnection of water resources is very important to provide stability in the water and to be able to have a looping system. So if something happens out in Cold Springs, they have backup from Tamwa and if something happens in Tamwa, they have a backup from uh the Great Basin potentially. But in this situation, we don't have that opportunity because it's straight zoning. But Tomwad did write a letter back in October and I had nothing to do with this. They do this independently. But what they say is that these developments have generally relied these meaning this kind of development have generally relied solely on groundwater and have proven to have issues with water quality and quantity. Tamwa has concerns about future water quality and water supply being developed by small fringe water systems that ultimately may be incorporated into Tamwa's water system. And we've seen this over and over at Tamwa. I've served on there over 10 years. We have encouraged TAMWA to buy out small water systems to um bring the small water systems up to a better standard of water quality. An example is the boom town. We wanted to facilitate development out uh towards the Verdai area with Meridian and so on, but we wanted to make sure in an area that had declining water wells that there was a plan forward. Um so what they say is that um they want to require they would require improvements or additional investments to ensure a reliable highquality and sustainable water service to those due to the lack of upfront investment in sustainable water supply. Often these impacts are shouldered entirely by customers of the small water systems. Bigger is a little bit better in water and in this case I think it makes sense. But if we were doing a PUD and we could provide asurances that all of these issues are met, that would be a different story. And Madame Mayor, I am going to either ask for a little bit time over or a third round. Go right ahead. Okay. Um, one of our other findings has to do with supply of housing. And item L to is that we want to ensure the development of adequate supply of housing for the community, including the development of affordable housing. Well, many of you may have uh read in the media that both at the federal level, they're wanting to sell federal lands in Nevada to provide additional housing and Governor Lombardo wants to sell state lands to provide affordable housing. Here we have a 1,700 or 1,800 acre parcel that had planned 5,000 units now going down to,400 units. And at the same time, they're talking about 8,800 jobs. What I'm worried about is you have 8,000 jobs, 1,400 homes. Even if if you had two people in each home, and even if every single person that lived there went to work for some place right here, we'd have a great imbalance of housing as compared to the industry. That is what has happened at Trick. They don't have housing out at Story County to support the many, many, many jobs. Thus, you have this great amount of transportation. So, that's something I'm concerned about. if we had a PUD where we could look at that, that would give uh us greater confidence. And then the last issue, Mr. Foster, you showed uh me during a preview, if you could put up your PowerPoint, you showed me that um this development was planning some 400 acres of public green space, open space. But then during the review, it became apparent that half of that, roughly half of that is actually out in the middle of the lake. And I have to question, and here's a good example. The area of green is Whites Lake, but the but the area of the ownership extends into Green Whites Lake. And that green area is included is the majority of in fact based on this picture, the majority of the open space. And I'm worried when the presentation is 400 or some acres of open space. We all think that's places that people can benefit from. But unless they're going boating in Whites Lake or some facilities are being developed, I'm not sure. This seems a little like something we need to straighten out. This does to me does not um is not an appropriate amount of open space for any kind of development. It's again something we could address in the PD. So I want as I wrap up I want to be clear. I want to support this development. I am open to a different mix of industrial and residential. What the beauty of a PUD versus incrementalism which is what's been proposed which is each development each new unit will come in. That's a very um fragmented way of developing a property such as this instead of having an overlying PUD. So, thank you, Madame Mayor. I appreciate the time. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Go ahead, Councilwoman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to bring this back to a land use discussion. Um Jeff really quick from my time on Tamwa or my time on Tamwa, my time on planning commission. If there isn't water, you won't get a will serve further down the road. That's going to be handled that way, right? Okay. That's correct. So, back to land use real industrial. Was that improved before? Was that use approved? Ind industrial. We're asking for for industrial. What are we asking for? Right. So, Jeff Foster, associate planner for the record. Um, so as Mr. Derling's presentation showed with the sidebyside between 2006 and the current proposed Can you bring that up? I mean, all of those uses again have been approved, right? So, industrial was approved before. We're asking for the zoning mostly came in as industrial. Correct. Yes. Okay. And the master plan amendment all of the things have already somebody already a planning commission or council already went through all of those land use designations and said yes we can make the finding for those right at that time. That is correct. Yes. Okay. So is my again I'm going to ask the question is there anything new that has not been approved that we're asking for today? All of the uses, all of the zoning, all of the master plan designations have already been approved. All of those were approved and only went away when the PUD was approved in 2018. Okay. So, how would we say that we can't make the fine and nothing has been done to this piece of property, right? No, you know, no, it's still I guess I'm having a question, a hard time understanding why would we say something could be approved as industrial before nothing has happened and say that it's can't be we can't make the findings for industrial and that was um respectfully that was part of staff's analysis was that this was an approved uh land use model prior to the PUD coming in place and and replacing most of the industrial with residential. So part of staff's analysis was contingent on it was approved before. So we're getting rid of from the PUD the large lot neighborhood. Is that correct? Large lot neighborhood use zone. What? I'm sorry. What was that? The the PUD. We're removing moving forward. They're asking to remove large lot neighborhood. Is that correct? So the uh yes. So you can see on the left you have the master plan designation for large law in the uh single in the uh area to the south which would now be proposed to be single family neighborhood. Okay. But single family was approved before as residential. Correct. Yes. Okay. So from a land use perspective again is there anything that's being presented here today that has not already been approved before? No. In in from a a larger perspective, the same uses are proposed now as were approved prior to the PUD. And in fact, some of the uses are less intensive when it comes to traffic, water, other sort of resources that we have to use. The information provided by the applicant suggests that all of the uh potential impacts, water, sewer, traffic, all of those issues would be reduced with the current zoning versus sorry, the proposed zoning versus the current PUD, which can be tied back to the findings of the master plan and zoning. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay. Um, Councilwoman Anderson, nothing. Okay. Councilman Ree. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I wanted to ask Mr. foster. Um, my understanding is that the PUDS from 2018 required 2500 acre feet of water and the rezone needs a,000 acre feet of water. So 1,500 less acre feet of water. Is that correct? Those are the numbers that the applicant presented. That's correct. And Stonegate owned 1,700 acre feet of water on site. Are those acre feet with Great Basin? So they have been adjudicated and perfected with the state. They have not yet been dedicated to Great Basin. Correct. That is correct. I see that makes some sense. Um that's the questions I have on that topic. I wanted to ask about um well I I guess I want to ask about the traffic improvement slide for Mr. Derling. So, all of the uh traffic improvements here are ones that have been planned uh and executed and they started well, let's just say I think the oldest one on here actually predates my time on council. Um and then they run through the current RTIP um through 2050. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. So, RTC recently, I think earlier this year, adopted the the new 2050 regional transportation plan. In that, obviously, it it has a number of projects that are slated over a number of years. And looking at the North Valley specifically, there's about two and a half billion dollars worth of planned projects in that planning period from 2025 to 2050. Um, the exhibit that we have shown on the screen is the near-term projects that are in the next, you know, kind of five pl, you know, five years or so. And a lot of them are actually under construction now. Well, and am I correct that your projected uses for traffic decrease is there similar to the water demand decreasing? Is there a a traffic count? How how are you making that claim? Sure. So, this this uh and forgive me, I don't know if you can see our screen, but um in in Okay. Um so these are the this to demonstrate this this is this is again relative to the project of regional significance but I think it gives you sort of the justosition of what's approved in the PUD the 2018 appro approved PRS and what's uh estimated. So um with regard to traffic and Lauren Chilson with GCW is here he can speak to any specifics but uh he did both reports. So the PUD estimates about 60,500 uh average daily trips generated by the 5,000 homes and the other mix of uses that gets decreased to um just under 50,000 about 40,700 or 40 49, uh 800 about uh average daily trips with the change to industrial. So just on its merits, right, industrial generates a lot less traffic than single family homes do. Well, isn't it also the case that fewer people will be having to leave the area? So, it's reducing the traffic outflow out of the north valley. That is also correct. So, uh in the study also, which if we go to that slide, uh estimated about 9% fewer trips when compared to the PUD would actually be having to commute down 395 into the south. And that's representative of about 9% of the trips that would be staying within the north valleys. So, it's it's not only is it it's it's kind of a double whammy of a positive impact of less overall traffic generation and because of the use type that it is, you have more people that are going to work in work and live in the north valleys and not have to commute down 395. So, it has a double positive effect in that regard. And with regard to the proposed um project or the proposed zoning uh areas, where do you anticipate services being located? Are they in the SMU? Services as far as like retail, restaurants, office, like an Olive Garden, a Black Bear Diner, uh that kind of thing. Yep. No, absolutely. So there's um yes we have general commercial zoning uh which obviously allows for those but actually in the industrial zoning you are allowed to have those similar types uses in the industrial zoning as well. And if you think about it right some of the you know business parks that we have around town they would have maybe near the freeway um you know some of those services that would be you know convenient for folks um to um go to on their way you know home from home home from work you know to home. Well, and I'm sort of thinking about what I see in other parts of Reno where they have like the little bear swim school in there and a cheerleading gymnastic school in the sort of we'll call it industrial light industrial commercial areas. Okay. So, I I think I understand. Thank you so much. That's the questions I have. All right. Um, someone go ahead. Yeah, I'll try to be really quick because I know it's a lot, but I appreciate you letting me go through this because it's my ward. Um, so real quick, um, did the developer confirm with RTC that there would be public transit to go to these um potential industrial buildings? Um, for the record, Andy Derling again, uh, no, public transit is not necessarily guaranteed to go there. Well, we had the conversation with RTC is that really looking out to the Cold Springs area valley right now, um there is no reason for them to extend a bus out there because I only have one with the employment with the employment. Um then it it actually helps them maybe justify it into the future. Is it going to be a fixed route bus? Probably not. But I think what you see in some of these out outerlying areas, North Valley, Spanish Springs, is they have this flex ride service which is kind of like an Uber style. Yeah, I'm very familiar. So we would anticipate maybe that over time or and definitely so sorry to cut you off but I have limited time. So my concern is this would be a zone change. We don't know what would go in if it's a project that doesn't require um a review by the planning commission unless there was an appeal wouldn't come to us. It could be a logistics place that is just a distribution center. These are jobs I'm aware of because they're in my ward I see going up and down North Virginia. Most of these people are taking public transit to and from these jobs. Those jobs are not offering employment opportunities. They allow people to buy homes. So, these people might be taking uh uh commutes into the valleys to work, but they're certainly not going to be buying homes in there. So, that hole that we've all identified in this community that doesn't have people around to buy lunch and shop and all of that, that type of development isn't going to fix that hole. Another comment I've heard made a few times with regard to this was here before. I don't know what the problem was. There's been a lot of things that have changed and I can think of a vote that happened a few months ago regarding a nightclub that wanted to go back in the same place and the council decided the environment has changed there and they shouldn't be allowed to have a business license anymore. This is a much more significant change than a nightclub going into an entertainment district. So to make a comparison with this used to be this way, this had incredible community feedback to change things. And I think that's really kind of um oversimplification. This council's been supportive of you when you wanted to create um parking passes for public parking. Um are you okay? I noticed your glasses aren't on. And um this is what the community has said they've wanted. And I think it's really kind of petty and disrespectful of council members to act like it's a frivolous um complaint to want things to change and evolve with the desires of the community as a community evolves. It absolutely happens. You've wanted that kind of support in your ward. I'm asking this council to show the same support from my community and my ward. Okay, council member, I'm going to cut you off and I'm going to add um I don't know what you're referring to, but I do want to go back to something that she did say and that is that she met with you. I don't know who Andy, I assume it was you. No, it was Am I right, Councilwoman? I met with um Yeah, I don't want to say people name. I don't know if they like to be put on the spot, but I You met with someone from this project. You gave them feedback. Mhm. And what was the outcome? Um, it was, you know, a very pleasant interaction. I I I find a person to be very pleasant, but there was I guess what I'm trying there was no give outcome. What did you um recommend or want to see or tell us a little bit about what your res to have more commercial, more of an integration of restaurants, potential commercial development, those types of things with, you know, dance lessons, swimming, things like that, but keeping more of that residential component of it. And there was no willingness to kind of work on that at all. I had also asked if we could just modify the PUD so we could be more comfortable with some of these changes. Um, and there just wasn't any kind of willingness to show any um, you know, willingness to work together or show any assurance for um, providing these services that they say they're going to, but there's there's no real tangible commitment to provide these things. Um, at the end of the day, this is a zone change. This isn't a project plan. This is a step away from a PUD. Um, Mr. Durling, do you want to address this? Yes. And just maybe to clarify, right, zoning, PUD is zoning, right? A PUD is just a specialized zoning for a property. It's not a a plan that specifies individual businesses, right? We don't have that um crystal ball. Um, but we did hear feedback from Council Member Eert. We definitely took that to heart. Um and actually we have Tim Cro Cromwell with um who taking her feedback on hey I want restaurants I want commercial I want these things and we dug deep into that to see what could be done and I don't know if you want to come up and and discuss um he's an economist uh and a market researcher uh and provided a lot of information to her to be able to um okay help understand better. Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, Tim Cornwell with the comp Cornwell, not Cromwell. A lot of people make that mistake, but in any case, um, yeah, you know, look, this is it's a complicated situation for sure. Um, you know, when we look into the numbers, of course, you know, this has been sort of tangentially uh represented throughout a lot of the conversation today. But at the end of the day, you know, when we look at the challenges around running a business, especially a small business and those that create, you know, the restaurants and retail that we need to make vibrant communities, the reality is we need to have, you know, what is effectively a long-term population, right? A population that is there for many hours during the day. And when you see, you know, the amount of outcomute on a net basis that's occurring out of Ward 4 today, right? The challenge is is that you know you have um you know real issues supporting you know those kind of retail and restaurant establishments um that can make it such a vibrant community right and so I think in the end you know it's all about the economic multiplier and the flywheel it's about you know more and more people in that community every day it's about you know more time that they get to spend in their own community and not have to be commuting on you know to jobs on 395 that allows you know those spending dollars to stay in the community, right? The dollars that have to get spent or or want to get spent from every household to stay in the community. Um, and that ultimately creates a situation where, you know, we have the best chance to create the retail and restaurants in those commercial zones uh that are so important to, you know, really making a place and anchoring your community, right? And so from our perspective, right, obviously if you deliver a very heavy residential uh community, you're going to be faced with some of the same issues that we have today, right, which is so much of those spending dollars are going to be leaving the north valleys and be spent um you know, in other parts of the community and even beyond. Um whereas if you can kind of create more of an 18-hour environment within those locations spending that happens in multiple meals in a restaurant um it's ultimately you know ballgame in terms of their own feasibility. Yeah. Well thank you. I appreciate it. Um, I just wanted to I just wanted to find out um because now you know for me this whole wlyonly voting thing has made me very sensitive and um so I want to make it clear that when you're working with a council member it's really important um that they are heard uh because we see that a lot of times it's really easy to say well you know I can go get support over here but at the same time um not listen to their wants and needs and to be honest with you we all want um projects that are better and um I think when it is in your board it does affect you and when you don't have the support um to see those to fruition it's it is frustrating. I will say with this project, it's been long and it's been up and down and it's been tough and so I completely, you know, sympathize with where you've been because it's been a lot. Um, we did work a lot on the PUD as you know. Um and then obviously that did not um you know come to fruition because you know we're saying that things have changed or haven't changed and actually um I think in some ways they have changed. I mean we had a lot of people here with data centers and typically that's where they would go. So there is some change I think in some dynamics whether that works there you know to make a project go or not right. Um, you know, going back to the the economics, but one of the things I just want to touch on, and Andy, you usually do a really good job. I'm not saying you didn't on this one, but I'm saying you do a really good job of community outreach. I need to know a a lot about what that looks like because I'm going to start asking that we have more community forums um that people come to city hall and talk about what they want to see and see if we can get there because this is a project that I truly truly want to support. But it's also um you know it's kind of hard to get there uh because I don't feel that we've put every I guess amenity and um I um I guess quality of life. There's a lot of things that we have here that I feel like the North Valleys has not been able to accomplish. And I I just think that it is important to them and a lot of people feel very very strongly out there. It's been a very controversial um project actually for this council and this council has been very supportive and don't think that that has not come without controversy and bad headlines. But I also am a big believer in mixeduse developments in housing uh all those things and the same quality of life we have in Reno for your residents, Councilwoman Eert. believe that, right? You deserve that. But I really think that there's a broken system here in how we do this. And I would love to see um everyone at the table working towards because I really can't grasp my head around what everyone really wants at this point. And that's really unfortunate because I want to be very very supportive. I have been in the past. You know that. But explain to me a little bit um about maybe how we can do a better job of sort of this outreach. Sure. So um I can speak about what we did for our outreach. Um and so because it's a master plan amendment, we're required by state law to have a neighborhood meeting. Um so we conducted the neighborhood meeting. We get a list from the city. Um it had about 200 notices went out to 200 property owners and we only got about 10 people show up. Uh and so that wasn't good enough to the developer and so he wanted to cast a wider net. Um uh so what's kind of listed here May 13th we had a community meeting about 10 people showed up. Uh went to the ward for NAB. Um you had a community meeting where here no no in out in the north valley. Okay. Yep. Uh and then we went to the Ward for NAB and then had two additional community meetings. Uh and because we didn't have a great turnout at the first one, cast a wider net. We set out 700 notices uh and had about 30 40 people that showed up uh a lot of couples, right? Maybe, you know, 20 households or so that showed up. Um and yes, there were concerns, right? But, um my experience a lot of times in those situations is it's fear of the unknown, fear of change, right? Change is always uncomfortable and unfortunately I'm sort of a face of change in these situations. Um, and so I don't envy you sometimes when you walk out the door. A lot of that age, but I walk out that door, too. So, I've I've called a lot of names over the last few years. Um, but yeah, I mean, we try it's it's we really try to be educational, right? It's like, here's what it is. Here's what we're trying to accomplish. Here's why. You know, in this in this case, the big why was that the 5,000 unit uh single family homes were not feasible economically. We couldn't get we couldn't pencil the infrastructure to get there to build the first home. and and and have any type of return until like the last phases of it. It just it did not pencil. And so this, you know, recrafted plan allows for a much lower infrastructure burden up front because the industrial is so much less intensive than the residential. And so that gives us an opportunity to bring that infrastructure to the site, develop the infrastructure so that the that the housing we do have still can come to fruition in the future. And so you do actually get the mixed juice over time rather than you kind of get nothing right now. Yeah. So what you're saying is it's the chicken before the egg kind of. Yeah. I got to um you also did say there were other things you wanted to put on the record. I would like you to do that now if you would like to. Is there anything you want to put on you? So yeah, I think we had you know with regard to you know water um infrastructure. Yes, the PUD had a lot of that um in it. Um, one of the items was, you know, the importation of water into the into this basin was a huge cost to, um, that was, you know, one of the bigger impacts of why that uh, PUD could not be constructed. Looking at it forward, it doesn't rule out that TMA would be some sort of wholesale water purveyor in the future. Great Basin and Tumbla have had those conversations for years. Uh, we had very a lot of meetings with Tuma and so we anticipate that, you know, it's a multi-phased uh, approach to the water. Um, if I can get back to my slide to remind me here. Um, to where in phase one, the the lower bullets there. Phase one, the developer will build uh and dedicate their on-site water resources to Great Basin, connect into the broader Great Basin water system, and then future integration of Tamwa if needed is still there, right? We've because of the work they did, the ride ofways there, the easements are there for the tanks and the pump stations and everything. Um but I think there was a fear of you know if it were completely all tunnel water that were being imported into this area um the water balance and drainage concerns and it creates other issues um in that lake that I think we can avoid by the approach that we have now. So what you're telling me is you were trying to be extra thoughtful. Yes. and go outside the general uh process I guess of not process but the general um path correct and I guess maybe to say it a different way just because it's not in a PUD doesn't mean we don't continue to work with the agencies that work still has to be done regardless of whether it's in a PUD or if it's straight zoning we still have to go through the same processes yeah to vet out infrastructure needs um to prove that out with your city staff and other you know in this case case Wo county um as well. Right. So, there's a lot of um a lot of cooks in the kitchen that will continue to make sure this is done correctly. And I and I really appreciate it. Your job is like AR. You cannot win. You will be the big bad developer and I will be the corrupt politician. It's a just, you know, we're this is the world we're living in. I'm really grateful that you explained that because I don't I don't think that I think that's what's gotten lost here. Um that I wasn't even aware of to the magnitude of saying this just doesn't work. We've tried uh transparency here is much better than I think people think oh you know it's a fast one we you know those types of things but I think it's really important to tell the story of why you are here. This has not been an easy project. hasn't been an easy project for the um council to approve either and we really wanted to get there with um and had a lot of hope. I always have said I believe the North Valley should have the same beautiful amenities that um the other great projects have in our city. So, thank you for explaining that. I appreciate it, Andy. Okay, I'm going to send it um to Councilwoman Der. Did you you have your light on, but I'm going to send it to um it's Councilwoman Eert's ward. So, I'm going to send it to you uh to make a motion, Councilwoman Eert. And uh we'll go from there. Um I did not have enough time to go through everything but I will you know again ask for um support of counsel to um you know support uh the community and me as a representative for this community and um um when I make this motion um I am going to make a motion to deny this request because um I am not able able to make the findings due to um uh the water resources based off of the public utilities commission report that states the water table level is declining. Um and further information within their report from Great Basin says that Toma will be responsible for providing water to Stonegate. So just based off of information available at this time, I cannot make the findings to approve um this requested change to the um PUBG. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Um I'll second. Okay. So, I have a motion from Councilwoman Eert. I have a second from Councilwoman Der. Go ahead. Discussion. Yeah. Um, you know, I struggled further with the findings, not just the water issue, but um, the fact that I don't think there's significant open space, which has to be one of our findings built into this development. Um, consumption of energy. I met with applicant as well and I said if you're going to build this amount of flat rooftops that are industrial what can you do to uh reduce the energy consumption and many groups we've had other um groups come in from north valleys and they've offered a paniply of offsets to their buildings but I even suggested a development agreement or some way to address it the pud is the best way and that was there was silence so I can't make uh a finding that they've reduced reduce the consumption of energy by encouraging the use of products and materials to maximize energy efficiency. We're not hearing that. Um provide for the recreational needs. That's FH is timely, orderly, efficient arrangement of transportation and public facilities. Well, in the previous project, as I recall, and I don't have the specifics right in front of me, but part of the PUD was they were going to work on uh Virginia Street as a alternate route while improvements were being made to 395. and they were going to take that on. So, I don't see that being addressed um with the straight zoning process. Um the adequate supply of housing is not being met. We are repeating the challenges that Story County has had. We are building building industrial without people to live nearby and work nearby instead of uh having to do from North Valley something like a 15 20 mile commute. Um M protection of existing neighborhoods and communities. I don't see it. I found out there was a 100 foot buffer between these industrial buildings and the county residences. Well, typically we have 300 foot on almost every project in north valleys where you have residential and industrial near each other. We've talked about a 300 foot. Staff shared with me there's a 100 foot um that the county signed off on. That's not good enough in Reno. And then the last two are um uh sorry, the last one was to promote systems which use solar and wind energy. There's no commitments there. There's no commitments because there's no project. There's no PUD. And just to my colleagues uh who have asked what is changing? What is changing is the percentage of industrial zoning. It's going from this much to this much. And the percentage of housing is going from this much to this much. And I have no problem with some mix. I want a mix. Commercial. What I would love to see is professional office, manufacturing, light industrial. So, because I would love to see a mix and a real community evolve out here, I can't make the findings. I've listed about eight of them that I cannot make. So, that's why I am seconding this motion. Okay. All right. I'm going to cut you off. Oh. Um, I'm going to Sorry. Um, Councilman Ree, thank you, Madam Mayor. I will not be supporting the motion. Uh, it is clear to me that this is a challenging area. Uh evidence of that is suggested by the fact that it has had three representatives over the last 12 years. And in the last goround when I represented this area, the representative of that ward came alongside and said, "Support me. I want to do this thing." And so of course we all leaned in to the best of our ability. Uh but here you have a project which proposes to decrease the traffic into the north valleys decrease water use decrease the taxation on our sewer system flooding our schools and public service costs and yet we have colleagues who think that that doesn't meet the master plan. I can make all findings relative to the master plan and for anything related to the zoning map amendment. Uh as obviously we'll have to have conformance review. Um, but it's just a curious thing, Madame Mayor. I think you hit the nail on the head. The ward only voting has really skewed what happens in the ward. Um, and of course, I've never heard from the ward member about this project. I I don't know anything about uh her desires to see this project not come to pass. And so, all I can really do is rely on my own best judgment, which says decreasing all those things is a good thing. We we need fewer um cars on the roadways. We need more services. We need greater access to open space and public lands. Uh we need new parks and trail systems. And of course, it creates thousands of permanent jobs and construction jobs when it's to be created. So, I will not be supporting the motion. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments from council members? I do have a quick comment. Um wait, we're in we're in the middle of a motion. You can't do that by our rules. Any other current comments? Go ahead, Councilman Martinez. Thanks so much, Madam Mayor. I think for my part, it's a little challenging just because I lived out in the North Valley for about 21 years and understand sort of, you know, the needs and the desire out there. There does seem to be some conflicting viewpoints depending on whether, you know, there should be more of this rural take or it should be developed with some of the amenities that are found in town. And just based on the impacts and lowering the intensity of usage, the considerations for water, bringing in new uh employment opportunities and having some mixed um zoning in this area seems to me like a good route to go. And if the PUD wasn't working out for this development, which uh it sounds like isn't going to have come to fruition if it is in place now. Um I'm having a challenge supporting the current motion that's on the table um and coming around to that. So I'll just put that on the record. Okay. Thank you so much. Anyone else? Councilwoman Anderson? Nothing. Okay. So I have a motion. I have a second. Uh I will give you one minute. Okay. Go ahead. One minute for discussion. Wrap up. Yeah. I I just want to say that, you know, I am I am the ward representative and and council member Reese, you were the at large and unfortunately you didn't accept any of my meeting invites to come and take a tour or meet with any of my council me or constituents or come to any of my NAB. So, I'm a little bit blindsided by those comments. But what I'm saying and doing is just a reflection of what my community wants. That's my role as a council member. That's what I'm saying up here. And to um make a statement like that without talking to the community um when when they have said loud and clear what they want with regard to amenities, what they see as building a community versus building warehouses, taking land that could be homes in the midst of the senator and the governor trying to take federal land, state land, and turn it into housing and at the same time take this nice parcel of land and turn it into industrial is just a huge conflict for me and I think it's just kind of willful willfully ignorant about the reality of the situation. All right, I'm going to cut you off right there. One um one of the things I want to remind my council members sometimes we have to do this. I don't uh appreciate the pot shots period. If I hear one more, we will be going into recess. And if I hear another, we'll continue to go into recess and then I will make sure that we um are going to step out and we can reschedu this meeting. So, everyone can decide how long they want to sit here tonight or they can get moving with regular business. So, I'm going to make that very clear. All right. Uh but we do have a motion on the table. Um and I just want to point out I did give everyone ample time on this item. So, I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? No. Nay. Okay. Uh, motion fails. I'm going to send it back to you, Councilwoman Eert. Would you like to try another motion? [Music] Um, would it be possible to have a continuence to try and work out some of these areas that are of concern to the community and to me personally regarding water resources? I mean, this is a legitimate concern. um to deviate from a requirement to hooking up with tunnel water. That's something that is literally in the the report from Great Basin from 2024 saying that Stonegate specifically. It's item 3.3.1. They say Stonegate by name will be serviced by Tamwa. So, um it is a very legitimate concern that um this project, this deviation from this, um specific condition, it can't be supported. So, um I'd rather have a continuence and try and work out some of these areas that are legitimate concerns. And I'm really concerned about this habit of treating the master plan as a suggestion. Our master plan was adopted in 2017, right? The PUD was 2018. So after that, there are things in there that are supposed to be our guidelines. And we're acting like it just doesn't matter. And it does. So I would rather have a continuence and have the applicant work with us to try and accommodate some of these. Okay. Thank you so much. And I understand where you're coming from because I want to be very supportive of this project. So, I appreciate you actually being open. Um I I do appreciate that. Councilwoman, did you ever I was going to second if that was a motion. That was your motion. So, is that your motion? But before we can do that, we actually have to uh look at um the party and ask them, I believe, for legal reasons. um we have to make sure if that's something that you're amunable to. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Andy Derling for the record of representing the applicant and no, we would not be in favor of a continuence. We feel like okay, uh our testimony has provided ample uh evidence that this could be approved and the findings can be made. Okay. All right. So, I have a motion. Um I have a second. Well, I guess we can't even make a motion on that because you did not confirm or you did not um approve. So, that motion is dead. Correct. Shipman, give me a give me some lead. You can make the motion, but again, I to the extent that the applicant hasn't concurred with it, there is, you know, potential exposure for that. So, yeah. What? Sorry, Jonathan. It wouldn't be recommended. I mean, you could take the motion, but, you know, it's not a good idea. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm going to send it to Vice Mayor. Would you like to make a motion? Um, yeah, Madame Mayor, I'll try and make a motion. Can you bring up a Let's see here. Um, in the matter of case LDC24-000051, based upon compliance with applicable findings, I move to overturn the recommendation of the planning commission and approve the master plan and zoning map amendment. And I can make all of the findings for the master plan. I believe it is in substantial conformance with the master plan priorities and policies. Um, I believe that the land use I can make the finding that the land use is pro reasonably incompatible with nearby land uses and facilities are in accordance with the master plan concurrent management system with public services and facilities. Do you want two different uh motions for the master plan and the zoning ma amendment? Yes, please. Okay, so that's the first one for the master plan amendment. Okay. Um, and you want them separate, Jonathan. Yeah, please. Is that for D4? four you want do you want separate separate yeah so so the way I understand it right now you've made the motion for D4 so yeah we could vote on that that'd be great yes okay so I have a motion do I have a second second okay so I have a a second discussion mayor go right ahead yeah I can't support this motion on the um on the compliance with the findings I've listed the ones on the zoning map amendment but the ones on the master plan for me was um uh I didn't find it compatible um that the activities and development allowed by the proposed land use will be reasonably compatible with nearby land uses. And the second one was that um plans are in place to provide public services and facilities um in accordance with the master plan concurrency management system. The road is crap. We are talking about giant big trucks again on the road. So, I don't know how I'm supposed to make the finding about the facilities and the public services. So, I just wanted to add that um to my inability to make the findings. Thank you. Okay. Um anyone else? Uh I have a question. Go ahead. Yeah. If the surrounding area does not have adequate water, are we subject to any kind of lawsuit for approving something like this knowing that there's not enough water in the basin? Um, the matter in front of you doesn't have anything to do with water in the sense of um making a guarantee or representation that water's available. as we had testimony in the record that that's up to the developer to ensure that um the project has water with a will server letter at some point in the future. So, thank you. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Opposed. Motion carries. Um and now I'm going to send it back to you, Vice Mayor, for um a second motion. Okay. Okay. In the matter um item D5, master plan amendment in the matter of case LDC24-000051. I move to adopt the resolution subject to conformance review by the regional planning commission. All right. So, I have a motion um from Vice Mayor. Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion? Go ahead, Councilwoman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I just want to point out that um, if this passes the way that it was just written and the next one passes, I just want to go on the record as saying I'm deeply disappointed. I feel like we have a tremendous opportunity working with applicant to address the issues that have come up. They know what the issues are. They worked with us and they have a tremendous opportunity to be a fantastic player here and not just bring in industry without mitigating the impacts, without providing sufficient housing. having a shortage, having three times more jobs than we're providing housing. I just I mean people have made a comment that um there's a reduction in this and a reduction in that. But point of fact is that the the right guard rails are not around those reductions and there's no assurances that we're going to see that. If a data center or two come in in a minute, the water use will not just be equal to the previous housing, it'll be 10 times as much. So, I think it's incredibly important to take an opportunity to lead um to be careful for the north valleys to have an opportunity to do the best development. The applicants own the land. They have they know what the issues are and they have an opportunity to really uh do the right thing. And here it's here it's about commercial is easy, right? We just build stuff, but we don't worry about the people so much. So, that's my concern. So, thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Any any other comments? No. Okay. So I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. Opposed. Uh motion passes 43. Okay. Give me um the final motion. Okay. Um wait, I'm sorry. Who is the third? Nay. Me. Oh, and that would be D6. D6 zoning map amendment in the matter of case LDC24-000051. I move to refer the ordinance for a second reading and adoption. Okay. So, I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a second. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Um, any Councilwoman, you have your light on. Oh, I apologize. I've said Uhhuh. All right. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? Opposed. Uh, motion carries. 43. I didn't. Yeah. Okay. Um, okay. Madame clerk, anything else? And I'm and I'm just also going to tell you where I'm at. Um we've done a lot of work here. I totally respect um what you guys are trying to do. We look forward to working with you. Um because I think there's a lot of potential here to Councilwoman Dur's point. Um and I know that it's been challenging. I will tell you this is where I get incredibly frustrated and I wish everyone would understand and hear what's going on here when we talk about board only voting. So when you don't like how um it turns out, you can thank that to be quite honest with you. And I'm probably going to say this um continuously until I leave office um so that people understand how detrimental it has been to our city to truly plan some of the best um community that we possibly can. The good news is you have a very good expert over here who does care. Um, I think you brought up some good points, Andy, today about going above and beyond the path into other waterways and um, those things and so I appreciate that, but not everyone is nearly as thoughtful and respectful as you are and that's unfortunate. So, thank you so much. Okay, uh, Madam Clerk, sending it back to you. We're gonna Let's open the RDA. Okay, we are going to open the RDA. Uh that would be and then uh D1 D1 and Reno City Council for RDA. We're gonna do budget for both of them. Where is that? Why am I Why is that under RDA? Because we have RDA budget and we have city bud. Oh, different. Okay, I see. Reno City Council. Here you go. Okay. Do you want me to do it? Yeah. You're going to send it to city manager Jackie? We're going to do um item D1 in the city council and we're going to do item B1 for the RDA. So, if we can go ahead and open the RDA. We're going to open the redevelopment agency board meeting for May 21st. I will go ahead and start with um we've already done the pledge of allegiance. So, I'll do roll call. Do you want We could do the pledge of allegiance if you'd like. We could. It looks like Brian would love to do Looks like Brandy would lead us in the pledge. She's on what? I knew she wasn't paying attention so I'm Brandy, would you like to lead us in the pledge? No. So, we're calling role for the redevelopment agency board. Vice Mayor Taylor Der absent at this time. Martinez. Eert here. Reese here. Anderson here. She here. You do have a quorum of the redevelopment agency board. Item A3 is public comment. We do not have any registered and have not received any correspondence. We're on item A4 of the redevelopment agency board which is approval of the agenda. Uh I may get a approval of the agenda. Motion to approve. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Um clerk. All right. So we're opening item B1 on the redevelopment agency board and item D1 on the Reno City Council meeting. Okay. Good. We're going to open both of them. I think I need to make a disclosure before we jump into um both of those or at least I think this is the time I could put it on the record. Correct, John? Is that okay with you? Yeah. Yeah. There's uh probably multiple disclosures regarding the um the city and the the adoption of the fee um schedule. So, yes. Okay. Thanks so much. Hold on. Give me one second. Okay. Here we go. Okay. Uh, madame clerk, I'm going to give you my disclosure. Uh, fellow city council members and madame clerk, item C1 involves adoption of fees scheduled for the city of Reno for FY26, including business license fees. In my private life, I own a resale um business. The nature of my business requires that I um obtain a retail business uh license in the city of Reno. The proposed fee increases are minimal, not significant, and will not financially impact my businesses in any material way. On this matter, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office. While I have a significant precinary interest in my businesses, the resulting benefit of or detriment acrewing to me from this item will not be greater than the acrewing to any other member of any general business, profession, or occupation within the city. The fact that I'm a business owner will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon the particular agenda item. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure for the record uh for this uh for this meeting and subsequent meetings pertaining to the agenda item. Thank you. Okay. Any other? Madam Mayor, I have a disclosure. Okay. I'm gonna do you last. Um sorry, we're laughing over here. That sounded really weird. Um, I'm gonna come to you last. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm gonna go to Councilwoman Taylor. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Madame Mayor, fellow council, council members, and Madame Clerk. Item D1 involves adoption of the fee schedule for the city of Reno for FY26, including business license fees. In my private life, I own Tailor Made Solutions. The proposed fee increases are minimal, not significant, and will not financially impact my business in any material way. On this matter, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office. While I have a significant pecuniary interest in my business, the resulting benefit or detriment occurring to me will not be greater than that occurring to occurring to any other member of any general business profession or occupation within the city. The fact that I am a business owner will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon this particular agenda item. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for this meeting and subsequent meetings pertaining to this agenda item. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. All right, Councilwoman Anderson, go ahead. Madame Mayor, fellow city council members, and madame clerk, item D1 involves adoption of the fee schedule for the city of Reno for FY26, including business license fees. In my private life, I own Push Consulting. The proposed fees increases are minimal, not significant, and will not financially impact my business in any material way. On this matter, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office. While I have a significant pecuniary interest in my business, the resulting benefit or detriment acrewing to me will not be greater than that acrewing to any other member of any general business, profession, or occupation within the city. The fact that I'm a business owner will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon this agenda item. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for this meeting and subsequent meetings pertaining to this agenda item. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Uh, Councilman Ree. Thank you, Madame Mayor and fellow city council members, madame clerk. Item D1 involves discussion and potential direction to staff regarding the fiscal year 2025 2026 tenant budget and fee schedule, including business license fees. In my private life, I am a partner at the law firm of Reese Ring Velto. The proposed fee increases are minimal, not significant. It will not financially impact me or re-ring BelvelTo in any material way. On this matter, I've sought guidance from the city attorney's office with regard to the business license fees. I have significant pecunary interest in my employment with Reese Ring Velto, but the resulting benefit of data to me and my employer will not be greater than that occurring to any other member or any a general fan business, profession or occupation within the city. The fact that I have a partner in race delta would not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon this agenda item. Madam clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for this meeting and subsequent meetings pertaining to this agenda item. Okay. Thank you so much. Um I'm going to send it to Go ahead, Councilman. Uh Madame Mayor and fellow city council members, u madame clerk, uh item D1, and we are on D1, right? Yeah. The budget, um involves adoption of the fee schedule for the city of Reno for FY 2026 and including business license fees. And in my private life, I own two businesses that are licensed in the city of Reno. Desert Pacific Exploration and Main Quest LTD. The proposed fee increases on both businesses are minimal, not significant, and will not financially impact my business in any material way. On this matter, I've sought guidance from the city attorney's office, and while I have a significant pecuniary interest in my businesses, the resulting benefit or detriment acrewing to me will not be greater than that acrewing to any other member of any general business, profession, or occupation within the city. The fact that I'm a business owner will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon this particular agenda item. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for this meeting and subsequent meetings pertaining to this agenda item. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. All right, Jonathan, is there anyone else? Did we forget anyone? No. Okay. Um and the only reason I was asking is I see Councilwoman Eert's um light is on. Councilwoman Der, will you turn that off? Yeah. I didn't know if she had a disclosure. Okay. That being said, um any public comment, Madame Clerk? None, I assume, madame clerk. All right. No, no public comment and no correspondence was received. All right. Thank you. Um, Miss Van Beern, take it away. The floor is yours. Afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor and Council members. Vicky Bamburn, director of finance for the record. Um, this is the public hearing. I don't know if There we go. Oh, I will now open the public hearing. Madame clerk. Perfect. Has proper notice been given? Any correspondence received? Proper notice was given and no correspondence was received. Okay. Thank you. Go right ahead. Thank you. This is a public hearing for the budget uh for fiscal year 26 and the fee schedule. I have 15 slides for you today because you've seen most of this material through the workshops and throughout the financial briefings that we do. So I just want to hit some highlights for you and then I have four slides at the back of it included within that 15 to just briefly go through the debt which I think I've provided some information that um has broken it out in a way that's makes it more manageable to really look at the debt as we look at what that is for um the future years. So this aligns with the strategic plan the budget does uh by directing the funding to the priorities. When you look at the total budget for fiscal year 26, it's a billion dollars between all the funds. This does include RDA on this slide as we've done in previous years. The general fund is the largest fund at around $350 million. These do include um the ending fund balances that we have in these. So, this is everything included on these slides. So it may not relate somewhat to some of the later slides that just talk about the revenues themselves because this slide does include the ending cash balances or fund balances. Special revenue funds are the funds that are dedicated for a specific purpose like streets or room tax. We have capital projects, debt service. Enterprise funds are your building and your sewer enterprises. And then the internal service funds are the fleet workers comp risk and health insurance. Um this is the summary by the type of the funds and all of these funds are really feeling the impact of rising costs, the inflation supplies of supplies going up, contracts, labor costs, increases in retirement and then construction costs as well. All of these things we're seeing inflationary impacts on. The problem is is the revenues aren't growing at the same pace as the expenditures just to do the same thing that we're currently doing. And so even though all of these are impacted by this, the biggest impact is being seen by the general fund at this time. It is the most challenged right now. And it was the most challenged to get to a a balanced budget for this adoption. For that reason, no new positions are being recommended for any of these funds in the city. Um because they are all experiencing some challenges with inflation, especially the general fund. In the general fund, we are actually recommending not budgeting or actually freezing 20 positions as well. So, not only not recommending freezing 20 positions as we move forward. The RDA space redevelopment agency is an area that's seeing s significant growth and so two positions are proposed here to manage the projects as we move forward with those in the general fund. The chart here I just want to reiterate you know we're seeing that flat or minimal growth in some cases um in the revenues in on this chart. So from consolidated taxes over to your right, all of those um areas are really seeing very minimal growth or flat growth. Property tax is the only one that's really seeing growth year-over-year with that stepping. And even that is slowing down for next year to 6% from what we've seen in previous years. So I just wanted to kind of highlight that again because that will remain a challenge as we move forward. So for the 26 general fund revenues, we have $321 million in revenues coming in. This chart does not include the ending include uh beginning or ending fund balances. So that's the difference from the original one that I mentioned. Um this chart does show that um there are two ways that we have been able to balance this budget for next year. Those two ways are using one-time revenues, which you see on this slide, and then the next slide will show you additional cuts to expenditures to bring it into balance. So, the one-time revenues include $9.5 million to bridge that gap or a part of that gap. It includes property sales that have already occurred this year. Um, special assessment district excess funds that council already approved to be saved for this. capital projects that are not moving forward. So, they're not going to be funded and they were initially on the books and then fund balance for the difference on that. On the expenditure side, you'll see the balanced at the three $321 million, but this is the second piece of the puzzle and you have to reduce expenses to get to that that point. And so $16 million of reductions have been identified in this budget and they include 5% in service and supply budgets for all the departments in the general fund. Eliminating contingency and annual capital funding, reducing the fleet replacement workers comp funding, and then again freezing 20 positions. So those positions are currently vacant. They just will not be budgeted for next year or funded. This would leave the ending fund balance in the general fund at $ 38.5 million anticipated and that's 12.6% is where we're at. It's a difference uh between the current year that we were in it was adopted at 15% which we've done for the last couple of years. When you look at the general fund by function, this is the question about what does the budget reflect as far as uh what are council's priorities and does it show the priorities. These are the proposed um areas where all the funding goes. And council has reiterated and reaffirmed at the various workshops that we've had this year and the and the financial updates that public safety is a top priority and along with that the wellness of the community is a top priority. as part of that. And so I really listed here what that really includes. You're not just looking at police, fire, and dispatch. You're looking at wellness. That includes infrastructure parks recreation judicial, and community support. And then on the actual graph itself, you see general government. And that includes um information technology, human resources, civil service, finance, um all of the support departments that allow all of this other stuff to go on. So they don't exist all on their own. We have um the support infrastructure that makes all this go. So I think this chart is really good at showing that this is the priority of this council. last workshop that we had on May 5th, we showed uh some department presentations that gave you a lot of the detail of what's included in the capital projects. There's $239 million in capital projects. The largest piece of that is in the sewer fund and the largest project in there is that is the advanced purified water facility. You do have an item coming up later today for the ordinance for the first reading of the bond for that project and that would be for next year's budget. The street fund includes the neighborhood streets and then the remaining ones are the general capital projects that's includes $2 charge um adorum capital tax the roll forwards of the maintenance money that we were using. You have RDA and then uh regional construction tax. That's the park districts that were discussed at the last workshop. On the fee schedule, the changes from the last workshop, um the appeals fee has been changed from $500 to $200 and that uh was a part of the motion on May 5th and so that is incorporated in this. And then um the other items here, utility services on the administrative fees, there's no change from the fiscal year 25 adopted on those administrative fees because um CPI we had it originally on there increasing by 2.5%. But actually that is governed by Reno Municipal Code. So that was just an error correction. We can't do that. So we corrected that for this round. And then on development services, there was a duplicate recordation fee that we removed because it actually it actually resides in code enforcement. It shouldn't have been in both spots. We cleaned that up. Other administrative changes that we made to it were just kind of clerical typos, wording, updated some of the notes to be a little clear, made sure the referencing of the years is correct. It's a very large document, so we've had eyes on it a lot trying to make sure we capture any of those. um items. This part is new. We didn't do this during the workshops and I did mention at the last one um Council Member Taylor has requested this in previous years and we over the years we've had some requests to look at this debt a little differently and try to get a real grasp on where the city's debt is and how it's handled over the years. And so the um this is a chart that you've seen in the past. We kind of changed the colors on it, but I like this chart in the way that it shows you that there are five main debt types. So we have retract in the dark blue area. Shows the history of that redevelopment that that's that little gold area. Other debt is in that grayish area and that's mostly going to be the event center, the national national bowling stadium, and the ballroom in that space. And then the blue, the lighter blue area toward the top, that's going to be the sewer debt that we have. And then the orange area on the top of that is general obligation debt. And at this time, it's mostly the Moana pool um and public safety center bond that's outstanding and the fire apparatus bond that's outstanding. But this gives you an idea by types of debt and how they've kind of trended down. They were had they were at a high in 2009 of $625 million and at the end of this current year, so June of this current year, they'll be at 472 million outstanding for principal. I broke did a breakdown by um based on the conversations that I've had on how can we look at this and understand debt a little better. And so I broke it down by project type. And I think this really helps um understand really where all the debt has been issued and what it's for. And so you'll see the projects on the left hand side. You'll see the outstanding principle kind of toward the middle. And then the funding sources because this does come up quite often. How do we pay for all this debt? Why do we have all this debt? What is it paying for? How are we paying for it? And so I've broken it down on here for you and I'm going to kind of walk through each one. to spend a little bit of time on this. The dark green highlight you'll see on here that's paid for from the general fund. The light green highlights on here potentially have general fund as a secondary, but they have other funding sources as well. And then the other things on here are all paid for other um funding sources that are dedicated just to this debt. So, um, when you look in that funding sources column, you'll see a lot of different sources applied to these. Um, RET track, for example, has, I believe, five issuances of debts structures that, uh, roll up to this, but we've rolled it up onto here just for purposes of being able to comprehend what the debts for and how much it is. So you'll see retra is about $219 million of the $272 that is outstanding um as of the end of this year. So it's almost half of the debt that we have outstanding is for retra and that is supported by a countywide half cent sales tax that was done just to support this debt room tax and special assessments. We have the event center, the national bowling stadium and the ballroom. That one's the other big one on here and it's $106 million outstanding. It's supported by a 1% room tax special assessments and then C tax is secondary. So in the event that those revenue sources are not enough to pay these bonds, C tax would come in as secondary and this did occur during the pandemic because we didn't get any room tax during that time when casinos and hotels were shut down. The next one is the pool and public safety center and fire. That was the $60 million bond that was taken out for that one. We do use a portion of the police impact fees to pay a portion of that debt because of the um size of the facility was expanded due to the increased need and growth in the area. So, it supports using a police impact fee to use to pay a portion of that debt. So we do that first and then we apply the remaining balance to the general fund. We have sewer debt on here and that is paid for by sewer fees and that does the infrastructure at the sewer. Cabela's cabelas is a star bond and so it's paid for by incremental sales tax generated by Cabelas. That one ends in 2027 and will be off the city books at that point. We'll be done with that one. The city is not obligated to pay that one if there are not funds coming into it. It just ends at that point. Police equipment. This was the Axon agreement that came forward a couple years ago. It's the body cameras, dash cams, and tasers that um contract was done. It was a 10-year medium-term obligation and it ends in 2031. We are paying that currently for the fiscal year 26 would come all from adorum capital funds that qualifies for that. Those funds are spec have specific uses that you can use them for and so we use that to pay this. If there are not enough funds to pay this then we use general fund as the backup to pay that. But for next year adorum capital funds are covering this whole thing. Isn't that required by law too? The cameras. Yes. Yeah, it was a mandate that came out. It was a mandate just so everyone knows. Okay. I believe it was pretty sure. Um clean energy. These were bonds that were done to do some special projects that were clean energy projects at various facilities. That one pays off very soon in 2027 as well. We do get sometimes some energy rebates and we apply those first to pay this bond and then anything in excess the general fund pays for. Fire apparatus. It's the only one on here that's a solid green. That one does come directly from the general fund. Special assessment districts come from special assessments. We have the Lear Theater. That was a 7-year medium-term obligation. It comes from room tax and it does end in 27. And then we have redevelopment on here. Those large bonds end in 2027 and then there will just be a very small one about 400,000 that will continue on from that point out to 2035. So you'll see on that final payment column a lot of these are coming up very soon to kind of roll off as well. So there's not although there's some green on here, most of this is paid for by dedicated sources. So this is um I did this slide just to kind of show you where the principal and interest is coming for from for next year fiscal year. It's the same information I just discussed but gives you kind of a visual of where the general fund is having to contribute to any of this debt. So you'll see the pool in the public safety center uh in the fire design that bond is $3.6 $6 million is the payment. Any portion of it, that little blue area, is being paid for by um the police impact fees. So, as we can put those toward it, we do. And then the rest goes from general fund. Police equipment. That one is listed on here and it's a light green because it potentially could be general fund or other mixed. And so, that one is being paid for next year out of um Advalorum capital tax completely. So it is actually not a green bar. And then clean energy is completely paid for out of the general fund next year because we have not received um the energy rebates um to apply to this. And then fire apparatus again from the general fund. So really you can see the big areas of debt that we have are debt that's being paid from dedicated sources that is was dedicated just for these debts. And this is my last slide that I have here for you today on this. The this shows the debt history. Often they I hear conversations about um have we paid down debt? Have we been responsible with debt? Um and so I think this is a really good even though again it's the same information but when you show it on different slides in different ways it really stands out in a different way. And for me on this slide, it really stands out that in 2009, the debt was $625 million. You can see it was paid down, continues to go down all the way to 2020 to 2017. At that point, the retract um bonds were restructured. So that's why you see that little bump in 2018. Again, paying down to 2021. The bump up is the public safety center and the pool going out. So really that you're seeing from the point the high point and the payown of the debt. Now you're seeing a healthy cycle of pay down and then take out new debt for large projects. That's your normal healthy cycle out there going on. And I think it really demonstrates to the community that US council are really made this a priority to pay down debt over all these years. I do have out there on fiscal year 26 just so that you can see it the balance at the end of June is that 4 and let me get it in front of me $472 million before you today again like I mentioned is that ordinance coming forward if that's approved today and and move forward with that that will be for the advanced purified water facility that blue piece that's $70 million to fund that it would come from the sewer fund, the sewer user fees to pay that, but that would be in next year and really it wouldn't come all online like that because it's a draw down from the state. So, most likely it would occur over a three-year period as that project is built. But for purposes of looking at the debt, I wanted you to have it on the slide to see it. So my last slide here, I just want to mention that we did present the budget to the financial advisory board last Thursday on May 15th. The board approved a motion recommending the fiscal year 26 proposed budget to move forward um to you as council for consideration. So with that, I'm glad to answer questions. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Any council members to the right? Thank you, Madame Mayor. I I really appreciate Vicki. Thank you for the presentation. I don't think anything's changed drastically since the last time you came here. So, my my comment really is on the debt. At the last um meeting, I had made some comments and after looking at it and researching it, talking with you, I think um this is is an accurate picture of what has been happening over the last, you know, 20 years. And um things have been moving forward very responsibly. Um, and I think it's important to sh to show the picture and the discipline and the different funds and where it's coming from. So, thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Uh, Councilwoman Door. Yeah. Um, I want to thank Council Member Taylor because um, could you go back to that last slide? Um, I think No, this one here. I I have referenced this material many times to show how very um thoughtful and responsible the city council has been over the years prior to me joining and since I joined and the mayor joined um you can see a steady downward from what was the top here 900 some 950 million 625 million I can't quite read it 625 down to closer to 450 million and and then maintenance of a level of about 500 which seemed like an appropriate level to your point. We go we get down and then we can go into debt to do what we need to do and then we go down and we can go back into debt but we're not getting back into these levels that were in the 2009 phases and we're not going into crazy instruments where it's these floating market rates and interestonly loans and I mean all kind of things that are questionable from a city finance perspective. So, I really appreciate you asking for this, Council Member Taylor, to see it. And then what I'm reassured by is this blue that even if we go into debt for the advanced purified water, we're still staying within that 500 million approximately which has been deemed responsible. And then the previous slide, if you wouldn't mind going back. I think this one's really interesting, too, because what you're showing here is these green, those are the general fund, but the blue, correct, are revenue bonds. Uh tell me again. Yes, most of those are most of them are for sales tax or room tax or other they're all other funding sources in the blue and even some of these green the lighter green areas have partial payments from other sources as well. So it shows that we really have been careful to not put our general fund at risk where we have gone in on our general fund. It's been smaller dollars and and I just think it shows again a very responsible pattern with our debt. And I think if you could go back one more I think Yeah, this one I think this you showed a different way where you colored a green. What are the debts that were involved in and when is their final payment? And I think you'll see some of them are relatively soon. I see a 2027, another 2027, a 2029, and so on. That means those are done and those are great. I mean, and some are longer. We've got some 2040s and 50s in there, but I I really think it speaks to the fact that um you know, we're being very responsible for debt and I really appreciate the research that you did to be able to present this material and I appreciate the um information you provided on the budget. I know it's a repeat from last time. I don't think you're I mean I saw the small changes you're making, but those are more corrections, right? Yes. And then did you show a final number on the budget? Like what's our ending fund balance once all is said and done? I didn't capture that myself. For the general fund, it's $ 38.5 million and that's 12.6%. Which is not too bad. We shoot for I think 14%. 15 is where I like to stay. And that's the last couple years we've been at 15, but we did use a portion of the fund balance to balance this. Right. And then it's a decent amount of money. 38 million. So, is that correct? How much is it's It equates to about month and a half. Yeah. Of operating expenses. So, it's not lovely. No, two months is where I feel comfortable and that's 15%. Um, but certainly we can work with this. 12 and a half is what we're at and given the year we we're shooting for about to be in seems reasonable. So, thank you. Sorry, Madame Mayor. It's just technical difficulties on my end. Um I want to say thank you um uh to you um Miss Van Beern. The the debt picture is I think always the piece that um is both the most alarming and also the most elucidating. I understand that we are working on a budget, but it helps us to understand the choices we make from year to year relative to the kinds of investments that we're making. And so I appreciate um the fiscal stewardship that has occurred in the past to pay down debt obviously because we're we're in a different kind of cycle relative to our growth pattern and I have been watching all the financial updates that your team has been providing almost on a daily basis at this point. I am grateful to know that you know sometimes we have to um you know pay down debt dramatically. Other times we're spending right. We've made some key investments in our community with the public safety center and the pool. Um I think we're going to be in an interesting position for the next several years where we're really going to just have to focus on belt tightening across the board really trying desperately to figure out how to deal with a very flat growth pattern. And so um I I thank you for your work in this area. I I don't have a lot of um issues or questions because it is uh relatively the same. Uh, but I'll be looking forward to your next financial update. Okay. All right, Councilman Anderson. Nothing. Your your light is on. I turned it off. Oh, okay. Um All right. So, I would like to make a motion, but there are a couple things that I'm um sort of looking at and um I don't point of discussion, but concern. Um, one of the things that has gotten us into trouble is not right siding up some of the fees. I think we have and I was surprised to see the um fee. I think they should uh the appeal fees. I think they should be in line with the other jurisdictions. I think um the county has a separate fee than what a a higher fee. It's part of the problem is that we keep subsidizing. And what I would prop propose for council members that want to push back on this, I would propose that you should offer um to pay for those out of your contingency funds because working in your ward is really really critical now more than ever with ward only voting. I'm going to sound like a broken record. You're going to be so sick of me. Can't wait for me to leave. Um but I really would like to see so I would like to approve the budget. But the other thing I want to look at next year and I want to make this also clear. A lot of our contingency funds do go to nonprofits. We also pay um to we fund some other nonprofits um out of the general fund as well. Part of the problem is that we end up picking winners and losers. And you have nonprofits that come to us that say, you know, why wasn't I selected? and it gets really difficult and challenging because they're all super super worthy. Um, and I think that might have been great back in the day when we had the financial ability to do it. It's fantastic. But I think it's also one of those things where council members get to pick and choose from your contingency funds. So, I'd ask that we don't drop contingency funds um because I think we're going to be doing more with them than less. But I think moving forward, not in this budget. I'm just saying as we move forward into next year's budget when we start this process over again, because it wasn't a conversation that we had, but I think it's something that we should have those types of conversations. I think there's other ways to move the needle. We could get really, really, really, really tight on some of this budget. So, I the only thing I would like to change um and by the way, Vicki, you did a fantastic job because the conspiracy theor theorists out there will say, "Oh my god, they're you know, $25 million in debt." What would you like to say about that? I thank you for that, Madame Mayor. I I think these slides speak for themselves. You know, we've really, you know, followed your direction as far as paying down debt, and so I think that these slides speak for themselves. And I want to do I do want to go back because the only time really the city had any real real money to do something that was outside the box quite honestly was during um the CARES Act and the ARPA dollars. And if you look at the pattern it saves and I'm just throwing the number out there but I would say we saved around $10 million a year for the last 10 years. Correct. Councilwoman, I didn't follow the I'm just 10 million for the last for like the last 10 years. I I could do the math, but I'm just saying on the debt. Uhhuh. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So, I think this council has been very responsible. So, when you go out there and you spew conspiracy theories or how dare this council because there were a lot of things I would have loved to have done as mayor and this council would have too and uh previous councils would have loved to. We never had the money and we really said no, no, no. We're going to make it a priority. So, I just want to say thank you so much, Vicki, because you have one of the hardest jobs in this city and we really appreciate you. And then I would just say to the naysayers that say, "Oh, we shouldn't fund our people." Your people are your biggest asset. They are what makes your city um thrive and shine to every um aspect of what we do. And I believe you should invest in them and and they're worth it. and it sends a message to them that we value what you do every single day. Uh listen, I know they probably take a lot of heat from constituents on on the second floor because when I walk through there, I see I see you guys there and I take heat. So, and I'm just walking through. So, I know if you're staying there all day long that you take a lot of heat. But I want to say um most of you, well, not most, but all of you that I interact with have done a phenomenal job. And so I'm really proud of our team as well. So Vicki, thank you. I want to make a motion to approve the budget, but I want um those fees to mirror uh Wo County uh th the ones the fee. Yeah. Yes. So that's my motion. What I have a question. What is the fee that Wo County charges for an appeal? I believe um where Chris, can you tell me? Chris Pingri, director of development services. For the record, I do want to clarify this is for the land use appeal. There is a separation between the land use and the administrative appeal. Um, we were talking specifically for the land use appeal itself. Um, yes, you caught me 100% off guard. Sorry. Um, and then also maybe sparks too if you have it. Please hold on. I'm so sorry. We could come back. We come back to pull up real quick. Yeah, I was not start with Mr. Mardle. Yeah, we'd start with Mr. Ricardo. I had talked with manager Bryant about this because this has kind of been like um a sore spot for myself and I know council member Derer as well with raising these fees. And I know in my ward in particularly um we have a lot of people that are um maybe on the lower income side. Um, so I had asked if maybe we could do like some type of fee waiver or, you know, if we can contribute, but I I had asked if there would be any kind of issue with a council member paying for an appeal, if it would appear to be uh make the council member impartial, so they wouldn't be able to um vote on any kind of appeal hearing. So, I'm wondering if we would have to like create an account and contribute to this account. Everyone could create an account or would we need to create a separate one or could we just create a joint account and you can contribute to it and people like in any ward could apply to use that fund or yeah would you prefer that each ward has their own because I feel like that's kind of like maybe what would you suggest so that legally it's a separate fund. What do you think? I mean, we could have a separate conversation about I mean, there's different things that are going on there in terms of is the council appealing, the council member appealing. Is it just a fund that is being used that if if somebody applies for it and they meet certain characteristics, they can have money that goes towards the payment of the the appeal. So I think there needs to be logistically like what the logistics are back then to have the conversation that there would have to be a conversation on the council level to determine what what you would want that to look like and then we bring it back. Can you bring that back please? In the meantime this gets approved until we have that discussion this new fee counts like I if somebody reached out I would not be able to give them council discretionary funds because in my understanding it would be viewed as like I'm biased. I'm supporting an appeal against a development. You know, I we'd have to look at the code, but I think right now currently the code's written that a council member can appeal. Yes. Yes. So, yes. So, I mean, you personally could appeal. Would I be able to then like No, you wouldn't be able to vote on it, but you would be able to have the matter and you'd be able to present your your case. Well, I don't necessarily want to personally appeal. I just want people in my community that, let's say, you know, are living on food stamps and other kinds of financial assistance that maybe now are going to have a large warehouse going in across from them that doesn't need to go to city council, be able to file a um appeal if they don't, you know, if they want some changes made. Okay. And I'm all for like fee waivers, those types of things. Yeah. And I just don't know if that needs to be a part of this, you know, if if it's in this section that we talk about it because I just want to make sure it doesn't fall through the cracks. One of the reasons why I want to look at this because when we're talking about the budget and we've talked about this one for a long time, Council Member Der knows that, right? And I like um citizens to have access as well. But the amount of staff time that goes into when we do appeals um is astronomical for one. Um and I think that um I think there is a way to do this to where you can pay for their fee for sure. Um which is you know I think that that's also an amunable way to doing it. But I think we got to right side all of our fees all of them to match. Matter of fact, this one gets me. Um, and I know that I'm gonna get like a million emails whenever I say this. So, um, but do you know how affordable it is to get a a liquor license in the city of Reno compared to California? Why don't you I I don't have that fee schedule in front of me either, but I I'll go back to the wash county just to put on the record. a $1,200 land use appeal. Yeah. Thank you. So, you want the land use appeal fee to be $1,200. Well, I want it to match with the other jurisdictions. Okay. So, um I'm just saying that all of the city of Reno fees should be in line with what everything is regionally. That's where I think we should be. And then that because, you know, I always hear, oh, well, the county they do it this way, the city of re Reno they do it this way. Like it's just we're so all over the place. And I also think to right side the budget, the city of Reno has subsidized a lot of things that quite frankly we shouldn't have had to um in a lot of ways. So that's what that I that's what I'd like to see. I thought we were changing those um to be reflective of that and uh that's kind of where I'm at. I know it's hard. I know it's tough, but you have the ability to pay for it. So that would be Yeah. I I I just want to make sure that I also don't lose any impartiality so I'm you know not removed from voting on it. Like that's another layer of complexity and or if we can have just a waiver like this matters. This especially matters to my community, people having different access. Um so so you just yeah just to be clear today you're voting on the actual fee. Um if a council member wants to, you know, um have have a text amendment that will, you know, to initiate a text amendment to initiate kind of a waiver component for the for the fee or some other alternate mechanism to decrease the cost on the appealing party. That's a separate item. You can do that. You just can't do that here today. Today it's either whatever the $90 is or whatever them the amount of money that you the 1,200 or whatever you want. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, madame mayor. Um, last meeting, uh, the reason that the motion's like this is that I made the motion and I requested the fee to be doubled from $100 to $200. I I wasn't aware. I just saw it up there. I'm like, what's going on? I'm just explaining. It was unanimous to my recollection. Um the the reason that um it's such an important point to me is that it really has a lot to do with access to justice and access to the council to um make your point. Often people that appeal things other than the applicants are people that are sitting along having their home having their life when something is proposed and the the potential impacts of that thing that are being proposed haven't been addressed by our staff or the final result. maybe the planning commission. And what I've seen is that this council then has often modified conditions or said, "Oh, we didn't realize that was a concern. It's a shadowing issue or whatever." And we make a change. That change would not have occurred unless they actually did appeal. Um, what I had said, uh, is that I had we we already doubled it from $50 to $100 last time. I said I was fine with doubling it again from 100 to $200, but I wasn't comfortable with increasing it by 500%. Your suggestion is to,200%. And I'm really not sure that either Wo County or Sparks has it exactly right. Um, and you know, Manager Bryant used to manage uh, I think a lot of attorneys and judges, and she said they debated this a lot, um, how to be reasonable with fees and yet not um, uh, unduly restrict people's access to their government. And so, if you really want to do this, my suggestion would be to incorporate the $200 fee. It's a 100% increase from 100 to 200. work on this new system, whether it's a waiver, a council donation, whatever it might be, but work on it and and at least we have a fee in place that's twice as much as it is today. And then we have an opportunity, you know, to either adjust it mid year or adjust it in the next budget cycle uh to what seems appropriate. And and that would be my recommendation. I would not want to put a lot of ownorous requirements. Well, I'm still in my time. I wouldn't want to put a lot of owners requirements on what how do you prove you're really poor? I mean, even council member Eert testified. She would have a hard time making that. She makes a decent salary, but budgets are tight all around. So, that would be my recommendation. Okay. Thank you. Okay, Madame Mayor. Point of clarification before you get a second. Um, yes. Go right ahead. I'm sorry. I I'm always Where are you? I know. I'm so very sorry. I'm in DC. That's Go ahead. I just I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Council member, you go ahead. Reese seconded my motion. So, yeah. Yeah. Madame Mayor, um I'm this week uh for your benefit. I'm in Washington DC with RTC and so we've uh just been working on a lot of uh transportation related issues. So, I'm sorry I'm not there in person today. You know, I don't like to miss counsel. Um, but madame mayor, one I wanted to make sure that I understood your motion was that we both uh raise the fee, which I understand the logic that you proposed and I certainly am supportive of it. Um, but also that it would mean that we would not reduce our discretionary budgets this year. Is that correct? Because that's how we ultimately might pay for these fee waiverss. Okay. Yeah. So, I I'm happy to second that. Um, and we'll Sorry. Yeah. Okay. I just want to clarify too, I think council members should have the opportunity to pay for it. And so, um, and that way it can get paid for. So, if if someone really um or if you, you know, if you don't want to pick and choose who can afford it, um, there is always that option there and you shouldn't have to. And I think council members should also there there should be a fund that does that that pays for it so that people do have access. I see it the other way around. This is a conversation though. The reason why I feel it's um important is we've been having this conversation every single budget and either we want to make those decisions or not that align with the other jurisdictions or we don't. And that's fine. I I'm I'm fine either way. Um, but I just feel like it would be much better um if there are funds set aside so people actually can, you know. Anyway, um I'm curious, Chris, what's what's Sparks? Chris Pingry, director of development services. Sparks has an odd um formula to how they calculate that. um they have a not to exceed price when you submit for a land use um application and that is the hourly rate is tacked on to the end of the project if you have not exceeded their application fee. It's very tough to track um we don't quite have that system set up in place um but they're in our region all over the map from um 250 to 1,200 uh just depending on the jurisdiction. Yeah. No, thank you so much. And then this way again um you know I know we spend a lot of staff time and hours and hours and hours um sitting here. And the other good thing is when you have those really controversial ones you have a lot of people here and a lot of people that feel the same way that sort of come in together. So it does it is helpful. But I also think the council could pay for it. There's no reason they can't. Let's reshuffle the way that you use your contingency money and and do that. that actually gives people more opportunity. So anyway, that's just my motion. So, um, so I had a motion. I can I just clarify the motion? So, is it land use appeal being changed to $1,200? Yes. Thank you. And what what is the council discretionary funds in? I'm sorry. There was just so much back and forth. I apologize. They were just whatever it was last year. Yes. They were deducted. No, we moved them down. This proposed budget for FY26 proposes reducing them to $20,000 each. And they were and that starts January 1. No, July one, I'm sorry. July one. That's what I meant. Correct. Um, okay. So, and the new fee starts July 1. July 1, too. Can we please agenda some type of account or fee waver? Everybody's got it on the agenda. So, we will I've already sent that text. They're going to put it on agenda. So, the motion, just to be for the record, the motion is the budget approved as presented, which includes $20,000 per member for discretionary with the change from 200 appeal for land use from 200 to,200. Do I have that right? Thank you. I have one more question. There was other fees too. Um, Mayor Shibi, you said you wanted all fees to match Woo County. I think we we should really be in line with what everyone else is doing. That was a discussion point that was part of the meeting added in. Correct. Okay. Okay. But maybe next budget cycle. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, have like a side by side. Sorry, Megan. Um, I was listening up here. What did you say? I just said I think it would be great to have a side by side so we can see regionally if Sparks, Swo County, and Reno. I know you have a ton going on right now, but maybe next to that. And it is really common practice. I'm just going to say like when we look at city manager um salaries or uh clerk salaries or whatever, we always want to be in line with what they're doing regionally and we're really not. We're really and so then we also look at okay well how much you know is this costing? Right? So that does help when we're all on the same page and it gives us a sort of a guidance of um where we should be too. So it's not like we're just hey we want to do this you know but um anyway okay did you say something Councilman Ree? Yes Madame Mayor I I sought to clarify my second because I understand your motion to be different than the manager. Uh the M madame manager has proposed that it's a uh combination of two things that it is the $1,200 fee on the appeal side but also you and I discuss and my motion was the second or your motion was based on the idea that we would not reduce the discretionary funds of council members in the next fiscal year in order that that would we would use that money to pay for it if we needed to. So that that's all I'm saying. I I thought you had made a two-step motion and madame manager has described it differently. I just Well, I was leaving that to council discretion. No, I just for the record, the budget as presented includes a reduction of $25,000 per member and the mayor has made a motion to change solely the land use appeal fee from 200 to,200. If that's not correct and the motion includes adding back that proposed $25,000 per member, Vicki is going to have to figure out where to pull that money from. Well, Madame Mayor, I'll leave it to your discretion as to what your motion was. I understood it differently and I'm happy to second either motion. Um, no, I'm just Listen, that's my motion and I'm sticking to it. So just for clarification, madame mayor, the motion I have on the table is to adopt the resolution with a modification to the fee schedule to increase the land use appeal fee to $1,200. And council can still with our cons discretionary funds, we can all put a set aside for to pay for people's um appeals if that should be and we'll come up with the process so that we can wave those fees for them. Sound good? Okay. Madame Mayor, can we just have a second? Uh, Council Member Reese, just affirm his second on that. My second is a second. Okay. Discussion. Go ahead. Yeah. Um, Madame Mayor, I explained last time that I really can um, vote for the budget with this $500 fee. Um, doubling it, even, you know, increasing it from 500 to 1,200 is is really something that I can't swallow. I think that the county has far far fewer land use um approvals in the first place. They they have told me my gosh the amount of land use that's in front of you as compared to us is very different and um I really I think this will affect a lot of people and will discourage participation in our government and I'm I'm not comfortable supporting it. I was willing to start with 200 which is again a doubling of the price work this year might take two months it might take six months to work this out but it's not worked out now and and every from July one on people are going to have to pay this we're not going to have a way to wave it or pay for it um without maybe being conflicted out and I just want us to work out the details start with 200 work out the details and maybe come up with a system that works why don't we meet in the middle of 500 well That's what I already told you I was really struggling with, but I appreciate where you're going. But I I I mean, I had testimony from both my constituents, Megan's constituents, that this would make them not come in front of us. And I think there's been great value in them coming in front of us and sharing their stories and I would agree with that. But I also think everyone can do a set aside to pay help people pay for it. I offered less time to do that, but we don't have a system. And until we do, I'm just I feel like we're all just It's very theoretical. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. So, I have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Um, yeah, I'm I'm also in opposite we I totally understand. But we will bring back the process and then we can make sure it's something that everyone can live with. But now, guess what? Every single resident has the ability because council's going to do a set aside of funding and that will be available to anyone that wants it. And I think that's the better way and it's fair and now anyone can use it. So that's what my goal was. So and then we'll come up with a good process. Thank you. All right. Um thank you so much Vicki. Okay. Go ahead. Come on Brian. I think it's your turn, right? And I am so sorry. I am going to the dentist. I had a really rough few weeks. So I apologize. I'm going to have to leave you. But you're in good hands with Councilwoman Taylor. Excellent. Right. Okay. Thanks so much. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, council members. Brian Mardo, revitalization manager. I'm here to give the redevelopment agency fiscal year 26 budget. Let's see. So, just to cover the existing fund balances, um, fortunately, our redevelopment agencies have been spitting out tax increment where we're now above the base and we do have funds to spend. Uh, we have four funding buckets. They're the redevelopment agency's general funds for both RDA1 and RDA2 and then also the debt funds for both of those areas. Um we are proposing a balanced budget this year meaning the tax revenues that the redevelopment agency receives. Uh we have budgeted out for agency operations and capital improvements within both area 1 and area 2. But as you notice here there are some um funds remaining in those uh existing funds. In RDA1 general fund um it's about $5 million. We will clear that out this year and propose the proposed budget that's in front of you. The RDA1 debt fund. Mr. Can I stop you for just a second? Of course. Mayor Shivi, can you open the public hearing for the RDA as well? Yes, I can. I'm sorry. Um, at this time, we will now open the public hearing. Madame Clerk, was proper notice given. Any correspondence received? Proper notice was given and we did receive one letter of concern. It has been distributed to the Reno City Council. Okay. Thank you so much. Any public comment? No public comment registered. Okay. Thanks. Perfect. All right, go ahead. Okay, you can take that. Um, the RDA1 debt fund, uh, there is $5 million in there, but that is being reserved for our bond reserves that we need to hold, uh, for, uh, maybe a year's worth of agency operations as well as some reserve for our parking gallery that is within the RDA1 area. So, we keep those reserves in that fund. Um, the RDA2 general fund is what really has um, expanded in the last few years. Uh that fund is will be in this next fiscal year up to $26 million. We're proposing uh about $10.5 million in operations and improvements. Um there are some encumbered funds uh currently encumbered funds for the police station demolition design and hazardous uh materials removal. Um and we'll retain some of those funds and that fund for a future capital improvement plan. So any remaining funds uh in those budgets will um we'll have a plan for those in the future. And then the RDA2 jet uh debt fund um as Vicki had mentioned uh there is a Cabela's bond. It's about $50,000 a year. So that's that's why that debt fund is is so small. Um there are 10 and a quarter positions proposed inside the redevelopment agency. Um it sounds like a lot. Two of those are currently unfilled and then this fiscal year we're proposing adding two more positions. So it's actually six and a quarter positions at the moment. Um we are in the process of hiring a management assistant as well as a project manager. Uh but we are requesting um two management analysts uh in this new budget and this is that balanced budget in between the revenues received from taxes and uh advalorum tax through the area as well as parking gallery revenue. Uh we do get some motor vehicle privilege tax and some interest earnings. Um but really the the other column the operating expenses is the staff for the agency. Uh we are prop planning we are planning to propose um a capital improvement plan a rebrand of the agency as well as a five-year strategic plan. Um we have travel supplies some indirect costs but really we do have some bond service debt service left. um that is to pay the bonds down uh that were taken out or refinanced in 201718. Um we are proposing $7.6 million in capital improvements inside the RDA2 area. Most of that is property sales and about $1 million in capital improvements uh in the RDA1 area. Uh because RDA1 is starting to create some increment uh when it was extended there was a set aside for county school districts. So they do get 18% of any new funds created above the base in that area. And then we do have the cost to maintain that parking gallery. So this is the balanced budget of $16.2 million. Um I do have a a summary of the capital improvements, but this is the motion in front of you and I can certainly go to that next slide and discuss some of those if you'd like. Um are they the same capital improvements that you brought forward last time? Correct. Most of it is restore funds and and property purchases. Okay. I'll ask the council if we have any questions and I'll start with council member Eert. Uh, no, not yet. Thank you. Council member Der. No. Okay. Council member Anderson or Okay. Council member Reese, do you have any questions or comments for Mr. Nothing, Madam Vice Mayor? Okay. Does anybody wish to see the capital improvement project list? Okay. I guess we're looking for a motion. No. Can I see the list? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. So these are the capital improvements proposed in both RDA1 and RDA2. We only have a million dollars to do in RDA1. Uh we are proposing um doing another half a million dollars towards restore facade and tenant improvements. Um and we're also proposing doing the same in RDA2. And I will say that restore funds last year were paid through ARPA. So we gave every district and commercial corridor within the city the opportunity to do that program going forward because it's RDA funded. those applicants will have to be located within RDA1 and RDA2, but we'll see facade and tenant improvements and business um and uh empty storefronts be fulfilled through that program. Uh both districts do have some funds for um arts and murals in coordination with the arts and culture department. Uh and RDA1 um we're proposing since we have so few funds available doing some fixes to the Amtrak historic rail depot so we can separate the spaces and can and decide what how we want to use that historic rail depot space in the future. Uh we're proposing improving our banners throughout downtown and in RDA2 most of the funds we're doing restore. We are proposing a four street district uh revitalization plan that'll pretty much be all the way to the university through the river. Um, with the property plan that was brought before council, it was recommended that the redevelopment agency purchased from the city. Um, the properties along the retract that are within that four street corridor. I have a quick question on that piece. So, if the redevelopment purchases that piece, who are they purchasing it from? The city itself or from the city? It would be a transaction from the city and the redevelopment agency. Okay. So that's not an action that takes something off a tax role or puts anything on a tax role. It's just kind of a transfer. It is a transfer. Correct. Okay. Is there anything that could kind of result in something going back on the tax role? I know we still have a lot of bonds on different different projects and things, but I will um I will add that we want to purchase those properties and sort of help dictate their future. And so the redone agency would purchase the properties from the city. We would have a four street revitalization plan for that corridor and then we would entertain uh either improvements on those sites. Possibly the operators of the businesses on those lands would purchase it then from the redevelopment agency that would put them back on the tax. Okay. That's what I'm looking for is that kind of path to get them back on the tax ro. The other question I have and I'm so so glad to hear about the art kind of incorporation into that. It just kind of makes sense to link those together. Um, is there any um um kind of overlap with that placemaking study that we did? There was so many great ideas and suggestions in there and I feel like this is kind of the tool to accomplish some of those ideas. Is that kind of being incorporated in this at all or is that something that we could do or is that a direction that council needs to give? because I think that we could really do some great things, you know, for the public um using this. Absolutely. I'll mention that both the placemaking plan, the Truckucky River plan, as well as the public art master plan all recommended that from an economic development purpose, we work with the arts and culture department to fund more art throughout the river and Virginia Street and the area. So, it's supported by three different plans. But there was some things where it was like, "Oh, they recommended a shade structure, but it was too expensive." And benches and planter areas to kind of encourage people to congregate or whatever. And maybe put up some of those kind of like um those metal kind of like corrugated whatevers that you could put up for um retail um for, you know, selling food or whatever. Um, can we kind of incorporate any of that kind of stuff from the um, placemaking study, the more permanent aspects of it? Art should also kind of be permanent, but you know what I mean? Kind of more of those um, architectural pieces that that kind of make a space. Absolutely. So, to answer your question, um, these are the funds we have available, but we do have some funds in reserves and then next year we have more funds. So with that capital improvement plan, we look we expect to look at all the plans that have been done, all the recommended improvements and shade structures and art and based on the budget over the next five years and prioritizing all the improvements to pretty much plan those out. Okay, great. To get more art to get more shade structures. That's kind of what I was looking for to see if that would kind of be like our starting point and we would just kind of check things off because I know we all really wanted stuff on there and this is kind of the way to do it because ARPA money's gone. So, I'm just hoping that that would kind of be our our square one and that we would work down that list hopefully. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions, council members? I think we're looking for a motion. Oh, sorry. Motion to approve. We have a motion to approve. I I need a motion to adopt the resolution. Motion to adopt. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion, a second. All those in favor I I motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Brian. Of course. Um, now will we move on? Can I have one more resolution adoption for RDA2? Oh, don't leave. Okay, one more motion. Okay. Can we I would like to make a resolution to uh for RDA2 budget. The budget for RDA2. We have a motion. That's in my motion. Second. Motion. Second. All those in favor? That was the same one that we just saw. There was both of them. Okay. Yeah, they're blended. Um, yeah. All those in favor? I motion carries unanimously. Okay, we'll move on to mayor and council comments on the redevelopment agency boards. Questions and comments. Council, council member Eert. Did you want to say? No, I was just waiting for when we like vote to adjurnn. That's okay. Uh, we'll take a motion to adjurnn. Yeah, we don't have any more We don't have any council comments, right? Okay, great. We have do we have to ask for public comment? So we're going to do closing public comment on the redevelopment agency board which I have none registered. Okay. So I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Motion in a second. All those in favor? I I I. Motion carries unanimously and um we'll just make a quick announcement. We can get up and I believe there's food in the back and we're going to try and power through. So, make sure we have a quorum and we'll move on to item C2, which is the Nevada Nevada legislative update. Hold on. Oh, do we have any public comment on this item? If you want to stay right now, why don't you go ahead and we'll see if we have any public comment on the end. I'm so sorry. We do not have any public comment on this item. Okay, great. Nick Sakone, government affairs manager for the record. Thank you very much. mayor uh vice mayor and council um representing uh the office of policy and strategy. I'm here to give you our update on the legislative session. So, as you know, uh the city council had adopted a platform, but we also try to use the strategic plan whenever we're making decisions down at the 83rd legislative session. Uh key dates and milestones, today's day 108, that means there's 12 days left. Uh the next major milestones uh will be uh the second house passage, which will be this Friday. And then June 2nd is siny die um where they will um wrap everything up for the legislative session. So major themes with local impacts we've got land use planning um house housing and homelessness public safety and criminal justice as well as workers comp and employee benefits and then some other bills of interest. I just decided to highlight because I think that they're of importance to our community. So given some uh recent attention to Senate Bill 48, I thought it'd be important to go over this topic in depth. Um based on the feedback that I had received at the January 22nd Reno City Council meeting um and based on the platform that the uh Reno City Council had adopted unanimously, uh we look oftent times for amendments to bills to look for additional power or uh ways that uh local governments can govern their communities and have that conversation with their communities. At that meeting, I also had been told or directed um from individual city council members that they would like to look at some of the language related to co-erminous planning commissions um and h co-terminous planning commissioner terms as it relates to Clark County. So, um when we presented the bill or when when we had worked with um our partners over at the city of Las Vegas, we were looking for three specific changes. We're looking to change the reporting date um for some information we send to the regional planning agency. That helps a little bit with our data policies. Currently, we have to send it on a calendar year. We were just changing it to a fiscal year. Um that would make it so that we don't have to manage two different data sets. Uh second thing uh would be to allow counties and cities to pass an ordinance to align planning commissioners terms with the members that recommended them. And then third, it would allow cities and counties to pass an ordinance whereby planning commissioners serve at the pleasure of their appointing authority. So again, as I discussed at January 22nd, I was given that feedback from council and the legislative platform is what we used to kind of have that conversation. Since then, we had identified and worked with um the city of Las Vegas. They had a bill that was related to master plans and zoning, and we asked them if we could amend their bill. Um at that time, uh they were looking to change some things that only impacted southern Nevada. Um but over the course of the legislative session, they had uh determined that their bill would no longer move forward. And at that time they had offered um to allow us to present the bill on the amendments that we were seeking um as a standalone portion of the bill. Um at no time did we ask them to delete their portions of the bill. Uh they had offered that after they had conversations with other stakeholders. Um further furthermore we um have presented that bill with those changes at a public meeting on April 9th. Um at that meeting we had support from I think five or six different individuals. There was no opposition in the Senate. Um, I apologize. I have the date wrong there. On April 11th was the first house committee passage deadline. Um, so we were up against the clock in order to present that bill and then we presented it and were able to get it out of the first house. Um, then on April 23rd, I gave another update to city council and informed them of uh the information and the the fact that we were moving forward with the bill as our own since the city of Las Vegas had determined that they no longer wanted to move forward with that port their portion of the bill. On April 30th, uh I presented Senate Bill 48 again in a public meeting where anyone could come and provide their feedback. And at that time, uh we presented the bill and we had heard some uh concerns from legislators following the uh the presentation. Um I do really want to hone in on the fact that uh this bill had no impact um or changes to the Reno City Council or our process when it comes to planning commissioners. and merely gave every county outside of Clark County the ability to have that conversation with their local community. Um, if we were to uh explore that opportunity, then it would require an initiation of a title 18 text amendment, which would be a publicly involved process. Then that process would be reviewed by the planning commission. After that, it would go to an ordinance uh first reading and an ordinance second reading. And as you know, there's public noticing that goes out to the community and our newspapers whenever we u make an a change to our ordinances. Um based on the feedback that we had had from um some legislators, we looked to um take that feedback and they wanted to make sure that we were not impacting um any planning commissioners at this time. So they asked that we push out the effective date to July 2029. Um and they also asked that we remove the portion that Clark County uh has the authority to use which is that uh planning commissioners serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. Um again we made those changes based on the feedback that we had received. We submitted that amendment as the city of Reno and then we move forward with the bill. Uh the next steps in that process would be for the assembly to vote on the uh amendment. Uh the electronic system that the legislature uses was down yesterday, but I believe they did adopt the amendment. So, the next thing they need to do is vote on the uh assembly floor. Then the Senate will decide if they want to accept or deny the amendment that the assembly had made and then it's sent to the governor for his signature. So, that's my presentation on Senate Bill 48. Now, I'll go over some of the other bills that we're following. AB96 requires that we put in heat mitigation element in our master plans. We supported that bill. AB131 was one of the bills that told us how we have to write our ADU ordinances. Uh that bill has been completely overhauled to just provide for a property tax exemption for ADUs if they're used for affordable housing. Uh Assembly Bill 185 that initially had taken out our ability to zone or put conditional uh uses for uh childcare facilities and neighborhoods. Uh that was entirely removed and now just prevents HOAs from uh not allowing for child care facilities. Uh we supported that bill in the second house after they accepted the amendment that I had submitted to them. Assembly bill 241 requires cities to pass an ordinance setting standards to allow for mixeduse residential and commercially zoned parcels. Um, working with the sponsor, we will able to amend that bill twice and in with those amendments that we had submitted to them, it makes it clear that although we have to pass an ordinance, we get to set the standards for how we would do that. Um, and because of that, we have moved from opposed to support on the bill. Next bill would be AB 396. That bill uh is another prescriptive ADU uh ordinance requirement. that bill had been substantially amended based on uh the conversations that we had had with the bill sponsor. We moved from opposed to neutral after they had taken our amendments. It still does have some requirements, but they align with the conversations that we've already had with our community, including but not limited to not restricting uh or making sure uh that we could provide for require uh that the um developer or the homeowner provides for an additional parking spot um if the city council so chooses with our ordinance. Next one would be Senate Bill 303 that removes immunity the immunity shield the city has for recreational uh activities on city property. That bill has been amended to address some of our concerns, but it still is taking a bite at the apple for the uh recreational immunity that we currently have and use um to make sure that we can provide parks and recreation to our community. Uh next one is Senate Bill 320 that makes changes to how close someone can park to a a crosswalk. We supported that bill after they took an amendment from me just making it clear that um if there was curb cutouts uh there wouldn't be a different distance requirement it would still be 20 ft for um across the board. Assembly bill 62 expands the state tax credits for affordable housing. Uh we supported that bill AB 103 uh renames the re uh has the council of the city of Reno, the city of Sparks and the border county commissioners pass a resolution in order to change the name of the Reno Housing Authority to the Truckucky Meadows Regional Housing Authority and it also changes the board composition. AB 366 makes changes to the supportive housing grant fund. It just changes it so that money would roll over and not revert to the state fund. Um, the important thing with this one, and we did support it, is a lot of that money is coming back to northern Nevada as there have been less applications in southern Nevada. AB380 makes uh changes mobile crisis response team. We supported that bill. Um, the way that it's written, we could potentially bill Medicaid if we have an officer or um an EMS personnel there. AB475 would uh would um give the city of Reno $7 million in rental assistance um to provide uh regional um rental assistance to our community. So for WO Sparks and the city of Reno. AB540 is the governor's housing and Attainability Accessibility Act. That bill we also supported and it would have some rental assistance dollars although it is not specific on how much or who that would go to. Senate Bill 228 allows for creation of a tax increment financing district for affordable housing projects. That's back in the Senate and it looks like it'll be on its way to the governor uh for his signature. Senate Bill 283 is another uh affordable housing bill. It would give $6 million in rental assistance to the city of Reno. AB102 is enabling language to allow Northern Nevada Public Health to license EMS personnel if they choose to take on that responsibility. Uh we supported that bill. It was in ways and means. Uh we did respectfully disagree with the state's fiscal note that they had put on the bill uh because there's no guarantee that Northern Nevada Public Health would even decide to take on that responsibility. Assembly Bill 168 changes to allow bikes to yield instead of stop and stop signs. Uh that bill died and did not make it past the second house committee passage deadline. AB 402 is a pilot program to allow for automated traffic enforcement in uh work zones. Uh that bill is in ways and means I believe on Friday, but we support it and we'll continue to monitor it. uh they took a favor amendment just to clarify some things for us. AB503 makes it a a crime to uh steal copper wire. Um very similar to the catalytic converter bill from last session. You would just have to prove how you had gotten that copper wire, especially when you're selling it or if you have a bunch on your person. Senate bill 189 creates guard rails for the use of AI for generating police reports. Initially that had um created a wholesale prohibition of us using AI for police reports. We still oppose it given that it is um impeding on our ability to use AI and it would be another requirement on local government to continue to involve the state in local government decisions. Senate bill 208 increases the allowed funding ending fund balance for the E911 searchcharge account. We supported that bill. Initially there was a prohibition of using E911 funds uh for body cameras in that bill. They took our amendment um when we had submitted it and now it does not have that which would have had a large fiscal impact to the city of Reno. Senate bill 319 I won't belver the point as fire chief Cochran had already gone over this bill that but that's Senator Daly's fire bill and we'll continue to monitor it. Senate Bill 415 was the more wholesale automated traffic enforcement bill and that bill had died. Um it got a hearing uh but it did not move forward. Assembly Bill 93 uh expands workers compensation for hard lung to marshals uh and fire investigators. Uh we have no position on this, but I do just want to uh inform the council as these three do have a fiscal impact on the city. I will say um over the course of the legislative session, our initial fiscal impact um for the next fiscal year from the state's laws that they are creating was about $5 million. Um through our amendments and through working through the legislative process is about a $1.2 2 million uh unfunded mandate for what we were able to calculate. Um so they've been great to work with. They made some changes to these three bills. Um but we did not take any position. We just submitted information letting the legislature know how much it was going to cost the city. Other bills of interest, AB197 would impose civil penalties for failing to redact nonprofit information for public records. Uh they accepted the amendment that makes it clear that um someone would have to willfully fail to redact that information um as opposed to accidentally. AB 256 creates uh the regional rail transit working group. Assembly bill 444 uh changes to business business impact statements. Um overall we're fine with the idea of the bill. It wants uh the bill sponsor wants us to notify um individuals uh through a business impact statement process when we're going through an impact fee similar to the police uh facility impact fee. Um but there's one portion in that bill where he changed an and to an or. And I know it's very silly, but uh we have to oppose the bill because basically we would have to put a business impact statement out for every single ordinance the city ever does uh based on that change. So we want to make sure that that or goes back to an ant. Um Senate Bill 145 would make an appropriation to the Leer theater contingent upon matching funds. We support that bill. Um but given the state's uh budget situation, there's no guarantee that they will provide that money. And that is my report. Wow. I'm so impressed with you, Nick. Great job. Thank you. Um I'm going to start to my left or I'll start to my right. Council member Anderson, do you have questions? I don't. Okay. Council member Martinez. Yeah. I appreciate the update. Thank you for representing us down in Carson. Nick, um I know we it wasn't on your list, but just curious if you've heard anything about AB 191. I know it's not necessarily within our jurisdiction. I'm looking at your bill tracker now, but it's the revisions relating to collective bargaining within the Nevada system of higher education, the graduate students. Yeah, I don't know if you've heard any thing in I believe I know which one you're talking about, but I definitely don't have the information. No worries. Yeah, I just wanted to see if you heard anything. If you think of anything, let me know. I appreciate it. Thank you. That's all I had. Council member Der, um, just on that last bill, could you go back to your last page? So I didn't recall but maybe just advise us what what was the le what was the matching fund? Is it one for one or I didn't recall matching one for one correct? Okay. All right. Okay. That's all. Council member Eert. Um so can you go over the one about the planning commissioners again? I know there were some changes. I know there was kind of a lot of upset a little bit about it. I I was kind of okay with we with us appointing our planning commissioners kind of like how we do our NAB board members, but can you let me know kind of where that landed specifically? So ultimately the conversation led uh to these changes. So the the bill only does two of the three things that we had initially requested. Um the the more important thing the important thing there too is that uh we would not be able or the city council or any city council outside of Clark County would not have the authority to actually pass this ordinance until July 1 of 2029. Okay. That was to address some concerns um that legislators had brought up about impacting um our local planning commission. Okay. So this wouldn't actually be the ordinance. This would just give us the ability to create an ordinance in the future if we wanted. That's correct. And in working with stakeholders, our process would actually be different than Clark County in that we have to have a public conversation with our um public before we could even pass that ordinance for Clark County. That is already in statute and we could have just changed the population cap, but that is not the route that we Okay. Okay. So, when you say there has to be a conversation, does that mean agendaized in a council meeting? Uh have a separate meeting like a community forum? That's correct. The c this Reno City Council would have to provide direction to staff to put together an ordinance with whatever requirements they would like to have. Then the planning commission would be able to review it. Then the ordinance would come back as it was drafted and after the planning commission had looked at it and then you would adopt it. Okay. And the planning commission would be like an advisory board at that point, right? They wouldn't have a determination. They would handle it the same way that they look at any other title 18 changes. So like the sign code update that's okay on the agenda. So can you just in case people don't know what are what is the length of term for a planning commissioner right now? Currently it's four years. Okay. And if it was co-terminus with the individual that appointed them it would also be four years. It just could never overlap. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So and I think some people don't realize that you could have a different um planning commissioner. I know when I got in office, I had um a planning commissioner that was appointed by the former council member uh Weber and um he was on for like two years and then he turned out and then I appointed one. I think people don't realize that it's not on like you appoint one when you get elected and could be off cycle and things like that. So, um I know there was a lot of push back on it. I don't necessarily understand all of that, but um thank you for your work on that. I know it was kind of like um surprise um it blew up on you a little bit. Thank you for your work on that. Thank you. Could I could do a follow up on that? Oh, okay. Um Nick, you said something I didn't understand. You said that Clark County doesn't have a process of Could you just explain what that is? So, in statute, Yeah. based on a state law change that happened in 2003. It set their process in statute, meaning that they did not have to adopt an ordinance in order to have co-termous planning commissioners. Oh, it's just on this one. That's correct. Oh, I thought you were saying in general the Clark County Planning Commission doesn't have to follow a process like we do to change title 18. I'm just talking about section two. Oh, I see. I see. So they just said like this part that's crossed out that it's at will, they could just they don't have to like have a hearing and stuff. They just say you're not serving anymore and appointing somebody else. What I'm saying is in state law, yeah, it says that they in Clark County, they serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. They Clark County did not have to adopt an ordinance in order to go through that process, whereas the city of Reno, if we so chose, would have to adopt an ordinance. And where where's that section that says we would have to adopt a section? I mean, what is that? I think that's NRS278040 or something like that. It's just we on this just on this, not on just on that. That's just the one part of I got you. Okay. Thanks, Council Member Reese. Do you have any questions? Yes. I I have a couple of comments. First of all, thank you, Mr. Sakone, for your work in the legislature. I I think I want to focus my comments on the planning commissioner bill just for a moment. Um I think a couple of things. One is um it seems very undemocratic to me uh that planning commissioners are not elected, right? And so this concept that somehow um people who are appointed could be removed by um an elected member meaning the people who are elected the city council just seems very anti-democratic. Now I understand why the concerns were raised by various planning commissioners who I believe testified uh in front of the legislature in their individual capacities but not as members of the planning commission. I I just don't understand what is undemocratic about elected officials removing unelected appointees. Have you been able to ascertain that from our assembly members or senators? No, I have not been able to ascertain that from our assembly members. That is a constant practice. It's a practice at the state level. It's a practice at the local level. It is something that um has been in practice specifically for planning commissioners since 2003 in in Clark County. So um no I have not been able to ascertain that. Well, and and I'm thinking very specifically for example, we have a ward one planning commissioner who was recommended for appointment by a former colleague and then subsequently that ward was redrawn to facilitate the creation of a sixth ward. um which then meant that ward sixes and W two boundaries were red were redrawn to include ward one which means m the ward one planning commissioner represents a ward that functionally no longer exists and was appointed by someone who's no longer on the body similarly um as my colleague from ward four has indicated um she when she came onto the body had to wait a significant amount of time to appoint a to the planning commission. So I I I guess what I'm trying to get at um and maybe if you can correct me if I'm wrong is it just seems that the co-terminus should absolutely be the case. Um each of us are elected by respective members of our wards and we should have the ability to appoint a planning commissioner that represents the vision that we have been elected to have. Second thing I'll say is I I don't totally understand um why they wouldn't be removed the same way that they were appointed. I'm not saying anyone should be removed. I I don't believe that I've ever had a conversation with any of our planning commissioners over anything in front of them or anything that um they've voted on. Nor have I ever called to say, "Hey, you you made a wrong vote there or you should have voted this way." We want them to be an a-olitical body. We don't want them to be engaged in the politicking that we often have to be engaged in because it's not the role of the planning commission. I I get very frustrated when I see planning commissioners writing op eds and sending out newsletters. All those things seem very political to me and I I just think that we've gotten away from the planning function of the planning commission. Now, would that constitute a ground for the removal of those persons who are engaged in that activity? I I don't know that it would. Um I think it is true that if a sitting council member who has made an appointment of a person to a non-elected body should desire that that person step down, they should be obligated to agree to that. Um and so I I think we've just let um a very small um uh self-righteous group of people tell us about democracy. And functionally, I think they've gotten it wrong. But for my part, I'm happy to see the bill move forward even on the limited basis that it does because it preserves the democratic principle that once elected, each of us has the ability to have a member. Here's the thing that I worry about, and maybe you can address these two scenarios. One is is that um a person makes an appointment of a planning commissioner on the last day they're in office. Let's say Miss Der who is, you know, coming towards the end of her term. should decide to appoint someone on the last meeting of her time in office. That person would then have four years to serve beyond Miss Der's term. And I think that that's wrong. Um the second scenario that I think is concerning is what happens if a planning commissioner commits a crime? What if they um you know injure someone in a bar fight? Um would we be in a position to remove that person um from the planning commission under the current framework? I don't know that I can answer that question. Doesn't it say right in there? I think uh manager Bryant has an answer. Yes, it does allow for cause we can remove a planning commissioner today. So we have to have a hearing and like go through the presentation of evidence meaning and the reason why that does not sit well with me manager Bryant. Is that the answer? Let me just say that first. That is the answer. Yeah, this does not make sense to me. We all pay a high level of deference to one another. I have never voted against anyone's appointment to any board or commission because I believe that my colleagues are um have been given the mantle of elected democratically elected persons and that if they wish to appoint someone to the planning commission or civil service or any of the other boards of commissions that we're reviewing that I should pay them the respect of that appointment. Similarly, if any one of them should want to remove a person, I think that is also the same kind of concept. And so we don't vet these people. It's not like they're going up for Secretary of State and we get an FBI background check on them. We don't know these people, right? Relying on our colleague. Council member Reese, you're about three minutes over. I Oh, I'm so sorry. Nick is looking at us like, "How do I answer this question?" I know. I'm so sorry. I guess that would be the last question I would ask is um I I I just want the public to understand I have no qualms about the planning commissioners. They all do. They're volunteering their time. They're working so very hard. It's difficult work. What we want for them to not do is be influenced by political pressure. And that's why they're supposed to be separate jobs. And and unfortunately, those lines have been blurred recently. And I think this bill would have gone a long way to resolving some of those things. And it still has the ability to impact it positively uh in the co-minus aspect. I don't know why it has to wait till 2029. I think many people are about to either term out or maybe will not be reappointed, but it is what it is. So, I thank you so much for your time. Council members, any other questions for Nick, Council Member? Yeah. Um, so how are things going with uh Senator Dy's bill? Is there any on that any new stuff? I know there were some new updates we got today, but are you working with him at all or how's that going? I don't have any updates that Fire Chief Cochran didn't share. Uh it's on the assembly floor and should be voted out either uh well they uh adjourned for today, so probably tomorrow. Okay. So when when is it end of session again? Like about a week and a half. June 2nd. Okay. Okay. So 12 days from now. It's still going, but it could potentially not. Uh I I can't speculate on how the legislative process will unfold, but at this point, it's like it's not a a guarantee. We're still kind of waiting to see if it'll actually go through. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um Oh, yeah. Can we just scroll through them again really quick? I'm sorry. Um maybe not as quick. No, I was I was going to the beginning. Yeah. um the heat mitigation element in master plans. Does that mean that we would need to like do an amendment in our existing master plan? That is correct. It would require an amendment to our existing master plan. Uh for that bill, we supported it specifically because they changed the effective date um from an amendment that I had submitted. The bill originally said that we had to amend our master plan by July 1 of this year, which is next to impossible. Yeah. So, I would have to be July 1 of 2026. Okay. All right. So, we need to get working on that then, too. Um Okay. And is there any kind of outlines for that or it just says, you know, go forth and it's not super prescriptive. It just talks about urban heat islands, tree m uh tree canopies, heat mitigation, etc. Okay. Okay. And then just real quick, if you could go over the ADU's part again too, just because that's kind of like a hot topic like what if this ADU um ordinance goes through or um I guess it's not an ordinance. If this goes through, would this kind of um eliminate the need for the city of Reno to come up with any ADU ordinance? No. So, um, AB131 won't have any impact on our conversation we're having related to ADUs in our local community. Um, it only impacts that property tax exemption for an affordable housing, um, ADU. AB396, uh, the bill sponsor worked with us extensively. Um, based on the feedback that I've gotten back from development services, uh, it should not substantially impact the conversation we've already been having with our, um, community. I will say out of the five big cities, the city of Reno is the only one that does not allow for ADUs. So, in that way, the legislature was looking to force our hand to address the issue. Um, and so if if we don't abide by um the requirements that they've outlined, and there's only like five in there, uh then um our ordinance would be void. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I believe we're looking for a motion. Motion to accept the report. Second. We have a motion in a second. All those in favor? I I thank you. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And I believe we're moving on to C3, public engagement practices presentation. Madam clerk, do we have any public comment on this item? Thank you, madam vice mayor. We do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence on this item. Great. Welcome, Cynthia. Thank you for um continuing with us a couple weeks later. Of course, there was quite a bit of engagement that meeting and I think that really highlights how engaged our community is, whether it's a policy issue or a rainbow bridge. But to get started, uh Cynthia Esarza, director of community engagement and services for the record, I'm going to wait for my slides. Cynthia, give us just a second. No worries. All right perfect. Well, item C2 is really uh a conversation that we will be having uh providing a high level overview of what community engagement looks like at the city of Reno or public engagement I should say. Uh we have a robust number of options available uh to engage with council and government the public. Um, and we're certainly committed to providing meaningful, impactful public engagement methods in which we do that. Um, I'm really excited to present this because I think it's something that we've been talking about for some time. How are we engaging? What could we do better? Are we meeting people where they're at? Um, but most importantly, I am presenting quite a bit of information. We're not going to cover everything, but it's really work that is being done across the city of Reno by multiple departments. So really want to highlight that the work is happening um seven days a week and it's being led by multiple departments and really when we talk about this work it's about impact meaningful conversations constructive dialogue and that will ultimately impact okay quality of life. I also want to highlight that today's uh presentation is focused on public engagement. There will be a separate presentation on June 4th presented by city clerk Huntsman that will discuss boards and commissions and what that process will look like. So with that being said, as as far as alignment, this certainly impacts all of our strategic priorities, but for this uh conversation focusing on organizational effectiveness and fiscal sustainability. When we talk about public engagement, I it's not a checkbox activity. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it's really important for whatever process we have in place. And when we look at this cycle, there are multiple components that play into this. Uh when it's done effectively, the uh the cycle before you really is ongoing and provides ways to improve in any uh in multiple ways. One is building trust and providing transparency to our community. The second one would be supports decisionmaking which prevents delays and also ensures that you all have the information before you uh before a decision is being made. Access and inclusion remains paramount to everything we're doing ensuring that all members of the public have access to information and opportunities to provide that input. We're also through this process will assess what our community needs are. What does a community need today that may be different from last year? And the last one, of course, the service delivery. Through these various pieces, the information we collect will provide staff with tools, ideas or approaches to improve our service delivery as well or also potentially identify gaps that we had not identified throughout this process. As we began assessing what community engagement looks like today, we categorized our engagement approaches in these following categories. Whether it's in person or virtual, one-way communication that connects the community to information, a project updates digitally, and of course that includes social media as long as well as our website um or through mail. There are multiple ways that we are currently doing this. These are all avenues that we push and pull information. Some certainly um provide information more of as an informative way of sharing. But then there are also other methods that we engage in conversations and have dialogue. The first category that I mentioned is council engagement. This is engagement with you all as a body. This happens at city council meetings via public comment. But it also happens uh via regional boards and commissions throughout the community. These are all meetings that are open to the public and provide access to direct input before a policy decision. Council memos is also something that we incorporated here in 2023. Council members council memos were added to reno.gov gov as a way to provide updates to the community on sensitive topics, important issues that are happening or general updates. Those are all accessible on reno.gov as well. And last but not least, our communications team sends out weekly city hosted events and activity notifications. Um, so there are multiple ways to connect even outside of city hall. Whether it's a press conference, an event being hosted by parks and recreation, the fire department, police, these are all ways to connect. And when we highlight metrics, you'll see these throughout the presentation. One of the metrics that we did want to highlight for this section is that last year alone, there were nearly 4,000 online public comment submissions for public uh city council meetings. This does not include any of the boards and commissions or regional boards uh but just council meetings. Moving into council member engagement. When we look at one-on-one interactions, constituents have the ability to connect with council members individually via traditional channels, calling, email. Uh but there are also a couple digital avenues as well. The first one would be uh word pages. These are on reno.gov. These provide a space for council members to present information, highlight an event, uh share a message with constituents and can be updated as well. And the second one are the quarterly ward newsletters that I believe launched earlier this year or maybe last year that provide an opportunity to send a ward newsletter directly to your constituents. I'll highlight a little bit more um information about the newsletter system, but that is quite a robust system. Um and these letters go far and wide. The other one I did want to highlight are the I think this is one of the newest additions, the biggest little council connects. These are council opportunity to gather in a public setting. I think most of these have been at coffee shops where you could connect with your constituents directly in a much informal way, more conversational, not so structural such as a council meeting per se. And I would be remiss if I did not mention that the recent community forums would fall within this model of engagement as well. When we looked at 2024 engagement metrics, uh the new system that was it's not that new, it's relatively new. Our scheduling team implemented a request uh form that the community could submit meetings, invitations, etc. And last year alone, over 1,900 submissions were provided to council. These are all engagements, meetings, and opportunities to connect with your constituents. The third area are what we are calling direct constituent services. These are two of the ways residents can connect with staff to share an idea, discuss an issue, get assistance or a resource or problem solve. And these are via Reno Direct and also our non-emergency dispatch. When we talk about Reno Direct, last year alone over 60,000 calls were made to the system or to our staff and then re the dispatch um over 180,000 calls. Dispatch, of course, is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reno direct is available during business hours, but there is always an avenue to provide input online as well. On this topic, I would also like to highlight that the staff members that are on answering these phone calls are also the ones uh delegating and providing referrals, connecting people to resources as well. So even if something is not within the purview of the city of Reno, they'll get connected to the according um resource or organization that provides that as well. I call Reno direct gatekeepers. Um and I'm sure dispatch serves in the same way, right? Just getting people connected. Um moving into digital engagement, this is split up into two um different platforms. One of course is online, whether it's Reno Direct or social media. These are ways that people could connect with government on their devices, on a computer, uh any time of day. This is a way that we are meeting people where they're at. This is regardless of the time of day where you're at, you can access this information. When we looked at social media platforms, collectively, there are over 340,000 subscribers across all five social media platforms. And these platforms of course inform the public about what's happening in case of an emergency. That's an immediate location to get updates and it also provides the public to provide input. And as staff as it's it's easy to see what's happening, what what's trending through these spaces as well. Additionally, if we are launching a survey, this is a great way to share that information. A meeting, it's posted on social media as well as reno.gov. And last year alone, reno.gov had 3.3 million views. Um, doing a little bit of this research and talking to staff, I learned that webcams are very popular and um, when you combine all the webcam pages, they have the most views, more than the homepage, if I'm not mistaken. Lastly, when it comes to social media, I would also like to highlight that it's a platform that is cost-effective. is relatively low barrier. Mobile devices have become a lot more accessible over the years. So really the entry point of access and information is low barrier. Um and there are also avenues that have been implemented to ensure that information is available in different languages. Moving on to the second part of digital engagements newsletters. We have a system in place that provides newsletters on a variety of topics. Residents do have to opt into this platform and there are currently over 33,000 newsletter subscribers. Last year alone, 216 letters were sent out as well. And this is actually a system that is being evaluated as part of this process. What topics are missing? what topics could use a little updates. Um, in addition to that, staff is also looking at building in texting capabilities with this platform, which again is going to elevate what engagement looks like on mobile devices. Excuse me. One of the newsletters I would like to touch on uh because it's sent twice a month and it's uh pretty well um people say engaged this way. It's the current development projects that is sent out uh bimonthly by the development services department. the these highlight the uh most recent applications for development including corresponding details, applicant and staff contact comment forms and planning commission information as well. So understanding that this is a hot topic, it's important to the community development services uses this method as a way of getting information out twice a month. what I call very traditional mail. Uh so notices and mailers are still sent out by the city of Reno. Some things need to be mailed such as sewer bills. When sewer bills are mailed and if we have a project such as the sewer rate conversations, inserts were added to those mails just to add another layer of engagement for the community. Uh, I know city-wide initiatives, this is another great example, redistricting, there were two mailers that were sent out citywide for that. There's certainly a cost associated with it. Uh, but as staff and we when projects come up, we will evaluate the necessity of sending out a mailer versus a newsletter. And again, this is all part of the process that we're undergoing right now in this space. I would also like to highlight that um the department that sends out the most notices is a development services. Last year alone they've mailed out 45,000 uh notices. And I would also like to highlight that the notice that is mailed out includes a courtesy notice that is not mandated. Uh mandated notice for a development application 10 days before the public hearing. And another layer uh I had seen these signs around town but now I understand why they go up. uh these are something a process that the city of Reno has implemented the public physical public notice on a site. So regardless if you do not receive the initial courtesy notice, the 10day public hearing notice, if you drive by this intersection on your day on your daily basis, uh whether it's for work or dropping your kids off at school, these signs are pretty visible. So it's providing the community an additional way to stay engaged and know, hey, there's something happening here. Let me see what I could find out. So, u these are pretty prevalent. All right. This was I I can't I'm a little biased. This is my favorite form of engagement. This is engagement with the community in multiple ways. It's engagement in their neighborhoods. its engagement in city hall such as the Reno constituents institute or at a city facility where people are able to engage with director's leadership understand the inner workings of the city. Uh it also includes community forums. Uh multiple forums have occurred in the past couple weeks. I will highlight one of the um forums that we've been partaking in that's really going to develop into something else. uh parks and recreations, the park rangers program. Those are out in city parks, but it's not only providing access to information about parks, but also what park rangers are doing, how to stay engaged, and provides healthy ways for the community to engage with government in a familyfriendly environment as well. Community and special events, of course, these are always ongoing. Uh it's going to be a busy summer downtown. workshops and town halls. These have been very helpful recently with business meetings, having stakeholders come in and problem solve as a group. Um, and last but not least, public uh safety engagement, whether it's a police symposium or uh an academy that is held with in partnership with regional organizations. These are all avenues that provide one-on-one engagement. They're organic. They're welcoming. they are conducive to dialogue uh and are not as again intimidating as some of the more formal settings. So really looking at different ways to engage with people because one size does not fit all. And the program I did want to highlight for 2024, we had 10 plus business partnership meetings with multiple groups along Fourth Street. This was in partnership with manager Bryant myself Chief Nance. Having those conversations in the corridor really led to productive conversations and development of stakeholders, partnerships, um but again problem solving which is core at the core of a lot of these pieces as well. Finally, I want to highlight a couple of the recent initiatives that launched just this year alone. So, the biggest little connect, I was correct, it did launch this year. So, the January of 2025, those were offered to council. Uh in March, the on the agenda podcast launched. These are podcasts that are produced twice a month provide uh an overview of what happened at city council in a way that is very digestible because a lot of the terminologies that are used um are not as accessible or uh it's not language that we use on an everyday basis unless you're in this space. Uh in addition to that, there was a community survey that launched in April of 2025, which I think a lot of the findings from that survey will help inform this process as well. And there were over 3,000 survey uh submissions uh through that process. And again, this was all online survey. There was outreach, but that's a pretty significant number. Secondly, in May, we're still in May, uh the planning commission pre-lights and highlights launched. So, mirroring what council pre-lights and highlights look like. These are also now added on social media. We will go into the community engagement survey that is launching next week. And last but not least, there is also work uh in in place to develop a development services education program. So, how do we uh further share information about development uh to the broader community? So, what does this look like? I I shared why we're doing this work. Um, it's it's overdue. Uh, we are also in a budget situation where we may or we will have to do a lot more with less resources. So, really the time to do this, it's it's it's perfect. It's a time to evaluate what is working, what's not working, what gaps exist, what opportunities may be out there, what technology are we not utilizing, um, and see what best practices are out there as well. This will help us prepare to stretch resources creatively optimize our output and drive impact for today. It's an introduction, initial input. We will also be be following up with internal stakeholders. So individual one-on-one meetings will be scheduled with you all in addition to connecting with internal staff to understand what everyone's doing, what's working, what resources are needed. Secondly, uh phase two will include engagement with our external stakeholders. This will include boards and commissions of course and community groups. During these two phases, uh the community survey will be available for anyone to partake in that will be available online. Followed by that those phases we will look at all the findings assess best practices. Uh this will include research to see what frameworks exist that we could adopt as an organization to provide structure for engagement citywide followed by your input as well. So we will take that back to council um and of course finalizing an engagement framework and guidelines to guide us into the future. So, it's going to be a busy couple of months, but we're very excited and um we have a great team to help with this. And I think that wraps up my presentation. Thank you, Cynthia. Um I think I want to start with Council Member Ree just to make sure we still have a quorum. Of course. Do you have any questions, Council Member Ree, or Well, I I have a couple of questions. First of all, Mrs. Barza, thank you so much for the presentation. Uh quite frankly it was um illuminating and I think it highlights for me the important thing and something I I have really learned from you quite frankly and that is um each one of us desires meaningful and robust uh communication with our constituents. Um we all want to hear from people. Uh I think what we struggle with is in 2025 the question is what is the most meaningful way to get the most engagement right and and what are the ways in which people are communicating and engaging differently today than they did you know five 10 years ago maybe even a year ago. I think the pandemic laid bare a lot of things about how we communicate and how we coordinate our efforts at communicating our messaging. So, you have really put a really fine point on all the things that we're doing which appear to me to be innovative in many ways. Um, it's not that I um have a strong opinion about the NABS or any of the boards or commissions. I think they've all and they do continue to serve some function, but I'm just trying to figure it out with you and with your help. So, what I'm hopeful that you'll do is during this time that we have had the pause really necessitated by our budget is you'll have the ability to figure out what really does work. Um, because I I know that there is no set of circumstances under which we do not want our citizens to feel connected and engaged to us. Um, each one of us, I think, does everything we can on on sometimes it's social media, it's phone calls, it's emails, it's meetings and coffee shops, uh, it's forums, town halls, connects. Um, but yet some people feel like they're not getting enough. So, how do we strike that balance? What what can we do? I mean, there are certainly people who believe that eliminating the NAVS or these boards and the commissions means we don't want to hear from people. How do you respond to that claim? Well, I think that will be part of the multiple conversations we will have. There will be work and outreach conducted with boards and commissions. I will also be working closely with city clerk Huntsman on this process. Uh because those are important conversations. People do want to have a way to connect with government to provide input directly to you all and there are multiple ways of doing that. So through those conversations, we hope to put a fine tooth on that. Well, and and again, I mean, Mrs. Esparza, you are um highly educated. Uh you have multiple degrees in sort of the type of engagement that we're talking about. You have advanced certifications from the Harvard Kennedy School. Do you personally desire to see us engage with our community? Absolutely. Do you think it is um uh best practices to review how that engagement is done? I I I think absolutely I I agree 100%. I also think that as an organization we need to have a framework and a structure in place and this will get us there. Well, and and I hope that people understand that um this is not I look, I think each of the agencies, the county, the city of Sparks, the city of Reno are all going through the same thing. We're all asking ourselves and saying, is this the best we can be? Ought we get better? What ways can we be better? And that's what I'm looking forward to is to see how this evolves over the next 90 days. And and I think the clerk will have a role, too. So, thank you so much. And I might have a second round. Okay. Uh, Council Member Anderson. Yes. Hi. Thank you for the presentation. Um, I mean, as a communicator professionally, I texting is really the only hole here that I can see that, you know, we're that we would have to add to this mix. And you brought up that we are looking into bringing on a process for texting. So I was just wondering if you had a little bit more detail or maybe that's coming in future meetings about how you intend to use those push notifications. That is something that we are currently exploring. Um I know Rebecca Venus is here. That's something she will be assessing with the system that we have in place which is constant contact. Uh I will say that with that process people do need to opt in. So again, we really are looking at this holistically and as we get input, we will consider all those points as we develop the next steps, but most importantly, do we need to update our systems and how we are collecting information? Do does the community know how to engage and how to even opt into these platforms? So really, it's it's almost like a cleanup just big picture and identifying those opportunities. Yeah, 100%. So, when you're out working with the the community on and asking them these questions, I know that um in my professional experience, asking somebody to opt into texts is usually pretty sus, you know, suspect. So, um are we asking the community in the next in the coming weeks like what they would be willing to be texted about? That could be part of the survey. So, we are as I'm speaking staff, we're we're looking at the survey developing that tool. We are definitely asking about would you be interested in a text messaging system and we can certainly put a finer point on that and identify what topics would you be interested in receiving text messages for. Okay. Thank you. Does that help? Council member Martinez. Thanks so much Vice Mayor and thanks Director Sparza for the presentation. And I think one thing I definitely got from your presentation just the amount of ways that people can get engaged during the announcement and when the memo came out. I think there was a lot of heartburn from folks, excuse me. Um regarding, you know, public engagement and and the ways that people can get involved within the city. As you've mentioned throughout your presentation, there is a desire from our community to stay engaged and continue to voice their concerns, their vision for the city of Reno and be engaged with their local representatives. And so I appreciate you kind of taking a step back. I do want to highlight the on the agenda podcast because I've been enjoying listening to that while um I'm doing other things around the house or getting a workout in. So, it's been nice to kind of hear AJ and city manager Bryant dive into some of the topics and give more information than what's provided. So, just wanted to give that highlight as well. Great, Council Member Der. Yeah. Uh, thank you. Um, first of all, I think most everybody knows how much I do deeply care about public input. it's sort of um seinal to my even being in office is to be a conduit for helping people express how they feel about what we do or programs we want to enact or developments that we're considering. Um I had my community forum yesterday and um that was in place of the NAB and so before I go to that I I didn't see you mention at all the NAB even though they it's been a longstanding process. I saw you mention boards and commissions. I saw you mention council meetings for council engagement, but I view the NAB as one of I almost have called them my kitchen cabinet because I try to appoint people from a very wide swath of uh uh demographics, you know, in every which way that I possibly can. And so then I rely on them and I ask their opinion, but I don't see it here listed at all. And then on um uh other sections of your um presentation, I didn't see it listed either. Was it a conscious omission or just inadvertent or just? So when we talked about public engagement, the the focus today was on the just very holistic. Yeah. Boards and commission, specifically the NAVS would be a discussion on June 4th. Sure. Boards and commission really truly are one piece of what engagement looks like. Okay. Well, I just want to share that I view the NAPS as very very different than boards and commissions. So, I've been a liazison to almost every board and commission that we have at the city over my 11 years. And um they do different things. They're very focused on a specific thing. Uh the members are often called or selected based on their um experience or knowledge of a particular thing and the agendas are very focused on something you may mayor brought up earlier about the arts and culture when she said the boards need a deep look. Well, that may be true, but some boards are probably working. And so that brings me up to next point is I I would be remiss if I didn't express my concern that while we're engaging in this process, we decided to pause. And I'm just going to be honest. Um it didn't feel right. Boards and commission members reached out to me, NAB members, they thought suddenly they didn't matter. And I'm sure that was not the intent. So it was I think just a misstep in my opinion. Now, um I'm just I'm just saying I I think we've created a barrier. Now there you mentioned some important things. You mentioned early on trust, access and inclusion and community needs along with some other things. And so I got a lot of that feedback because last night was my first community forum in place of my nab. And one of the things that happened was some of the people left angry and I went outside and I said, "What is going on?" They said, "We came here to share how we feel about a development project and in particular we want to know if we're going to if you're going to have that development project." And I said, "Yeah, I expect to on my next community forum." But they they then said, and this is for my colleagues and all of us, the mayor's brought it up like five times today about word only voting. But what they said is we are angry that we don't feel heard and and that is specifically about whether it's development or we're going to be discussing signs or the ordinances, those kind of things that affect future things. Um they they they were yelling at me, okay? and and I said, "Well, I supported you in particular. I didn't know these people. I'd not met them personally, but um I supported and they said, "Yeah, but the rest of the council didn't hear you." And I I don't have an answer for that. So, what they what what also came up at my community forum was they specifically said, "How can we get the NAB or whatever replaces it, the information that goes to the planning commission, the planning commission to pay attention?" And then they said, "How do we get the council then to hear us as well?" So when council member Oh, sorry. Council member Dor, I'm gonna ask you to wrap it up and we'll go to council member Reese afterwards and then another round. Oh, sure. When when we're doing this process, I I hope we get to address that question of how do the residents better communicate with their individual council member and be heard, the planning commission and be heard, and us as a body and be heard. that that was repeated over and over at my forum. So, I wanted to share it with you and I will have a second some other thoughts. Thanks, Council Member Ree. Did you want to go on a second? Yeah, I I I think I just wanted to say a couple of things. Um, one is, you know, unique for me because as the atlarge member, I did not have a NAV and then when I came on to being elected in November, you know, we were elected and and got to be then in seated in November, mid November. So then you had the holidays also because um there was some thought that the redrawing of the lines meant that the ward one member who had previously served as the ward five member was not going to be there that there weren't a bunch of appointments made to ward five during that sort of the leadup to the election. So then that meant when I got there there weren't people there which made total sense to me. I understood the thinking behind it and then we hit the holidays and then I was traveling and so by the time I got to even have ward or nab members they were appointed but have never gotten to be seated. So these are good people who I've some of them I've known for a long time who are saying you know gosh is it about me you know did I offend someone and ultimately it's just a timing issue. I think Cynthia, for my part, I want to make sure that we are communicating effectively to all of our boards and commission members who each are volunteering their time, whether it be on parks or urban forestry or arts and culture, that we value their opinions, that they shouldn't shy away from sharing their opinions with us, even in the interim while we're not meeting. Uh they of course can reach out to us by email uh or phone or set up a meeting that we we aren't trying to shut anyone out. The other thing I'll say, Miss Der, your comments really resonate with me, but I go one step further and just remind myself mostly that just because we don't agree with the folks who appear in front of us doesn't mean we weren't listening. Right. You you've taught me a lot about effectively trying to lean into the listening part. And so I don't know if it's a matter of the members not believing that we because we don't agree with them that we weren't listening. I I don't think that that's a anything you've said, of course, and not characterizing it that way. And then the last thing I'll say is I had the experience of holding a community forum last week. I thought it was really good and very engaging. It's not easy to do because you just don't know what questions will be asked and you have to be prepared on a lot of topics. So that may not be as easy um you know for example for a newer member who isn't familiar with all the intricacies of being in the government for as long as you have served Miss Der um but I did think it was a good experience. I will say Cynthia for my part I want to look at the numbers because I when I looked at who was there the night of mine I think there was maybe an artificially higher number of people at mine there for one particular topic and um and that was the good folks at the good neighbors warming center all really great people good advocates they had the benefit of coming over from the Tuesday night um u they do an outreach opportunity on the bleed plaza So, I wonder if if you took those people out of the mix, if they didn't show up at mine, I I wouldn't have had that many people. And again, that's what I'm worried about is the numbers. And of course, I also had all of my uh NAB members who have been appointed but not held one there. So, if you took them out of the mix, I might have only had like three people there. So, that's where I worry that we're not hitting the mark. um if only three people are showing up, I'd rather just do one-on- ones with those three people. Um and that that's sort of what I'm worried about. And and Miss Der has cultivated a long history in her wards where there's a lot more contentious development projects where 50 people show up. So, I don't know if it's going to be individually thought about um for each individual member based on their demographics and and who is showing up. I know council member Martinez for a while was having trouble getting a quorum um and maybe the attendance was wasn't as high. So I don't know what other people's experience would be but I that would be my question for my colleagues is are people going to these robustly participating. Thank you Council Member Ree. Um we're going to move on to Council Member Anderson for her second round. Just for a point of discussion, um, Council Member Ree, I'm in your same position where I haven't had a NAB yet, but I have seated a NAB. And I just wanted for the benefits of my colleagues to, um, chat with you about some of the things that I have implemented or, you know, discussed with my individual NAB members that have been open to it is, um, because they're all very excited to serve and they're all very excited to be a part of, um, the business that we do at the city. And so they've been really creative about, you know, kind of listening to social media, reading news articles, watching council meetings, giving me feedback on different issues that they think we could be working on. Um, one of my NAB members who hasn't been seated yet, but he has been really helpful in monitoring social media on some of the ebike issues that we've been having in South Reno. Um, and it's been it's just been extremely helpful. And maybe it's because I haven't nothing's been taken away from them, you know, exposure and they haven't been seated and they haven't had that experience yet, but I've been very grateful for the fact that they've been so engaged to be involved regardless. And so there are a lot of different ways that we can engage them and I um encourage you guys to get creative. Council member Martinez, thanks so much. Yeah, I'll just add to the conversation and mention that most of the MA NAP members came to the community forum and I'll just give some kudos to city manager Bryant for tackling a lot of the questions that came up. I know we did also have a lot of folks from the good neighbor uh program that you talked about, council member Reese, but we also had a lot of members from other NAPs that attended that community forum because they hadn't had the opportunity to attend the NAP. So, I think it is a different format that we have to get used to and if it is what's best practice and what's needed for a community engagement. I'm excited to see what comes out of the survey and your different phases of your project and evaluating what's the best way that the city can collect all of that information from our constituents. And so um it is a little bit more informal and less uh structured and rigorous than a NAB meeting. And I think that's one thing that I heard from the NAB members that it did allow for more of a free flow of ideas and exchange of ideas during that community forum as opposed to following Robert's rules of order and open meeting law. So I'll just mention that too. Thank you. Um, I I just want to share my my experience with this moving forward. And I I'm really I'm really optimistic because we we were met with a challenge and the management team didn't just say we're going to stop. They got creative and we started thinking about new ways to engage with people and it's really been successful in my ward. Um I would say our fourth street meeting was or group was really really successful and the great thing about that was we were able to work with that group specifically on a topic that impacted them and get them solutions a lot faster. I think the other thing that um I'm I'm seeing in manager Bryant is you're out everywhere. So that isn't something that we've I've seen before. You're doing a lot of engagement. So I think in the the time that we're the space that we're in, we all need to kind of work a little bit harder or do a little bit more um on our own. So I've been going to like my meeting people where they are. I've been going to the HOAs in my ward and that again that those are people that are already there or they're already talking about things that are important to them. But the the council connects and the community coffee, I think they're great because a lot of the feedback that I have received from the NABS, I mean, people are excited to be there, but the number one thing they go to see is the development projects. Um, and I think we're doing some things in the development services that really almost engage people more and get more feedback. Um, but I had my constituents saying that the three minutes they really couldn't get anything done. They felt like they didn't have an opportunity to talk. it wasn't um it wasn't really a conversation and they didn't feel like they were being heard. And again, I don't have 10 years of this history of um of nabs, but I'm I'm just I'm trying to be excited and um um optimistic about the things ahead in the new ways that we can communicate with people. I'm excit I would be excited about text messaging, too. I think that would be really um a great I do that in my business and I've seen engagement go off the charts. Um people really really enjoy it and that you can communicate with people a lot faster too if there's a need. But um Council Member Eert, you just joined the conversation. Do you would you like to weigh in? Yeah, sorry I was in the back. I was um listening. I was in the back for a minute. Um so I just wanted to kind of weigh in too. I had my community forum last week and mine got kind of heated. There was a lot of people there um for a development that they were not happy with. It was again turning residential land. The request is to put in um industrial space um on a parcel that's currently zoned for for residential that is surrounded by homes. So that's just kind of like the theme of W 4. But um people were really upset and um it kind of got a little tense for a while there. We had to kind of intervene and and remind people while why we were there to hear the presentation from the developers and try to find a way to work together and to make some changes. And when we had that like moment of realization that this is an opportunity to try to make things better because regardless of what I say up here and how I represent my community there, this board will likely just kind of approve whatever comes through for my word. I'll just be frank. So, I my reality is I have to provide my community an opportunity to meet with these developers to try and get some um accommodations made to make these industrial spaces in their literal backyard a little better. So, if I can get a developer to agree to put in more trees or a sound barrier or something like that prior to it coming to council because I likely won't get support here. Um, that's important to me. So, I really need to have some type of meeting where my community members can meet with developers and see what's coming down the pike. Um, my board is also workingass. They don't have time to come to the meetings during the day. It's easier for them to come at night. Um, you know, I had a list of people that I spoke with before the um meeting today regarding Stonegate. um none of them could come because it had worked today. Um so it's so important to me that we find different solutions for different populations because it's a different fit for different people. And I'm glad that the coffees are successful. That was my little thing I started back in December and I know that it was great so people ran with it. But I'm not doing them anymore because my people are at work. It's better if I do an evening thing because people can't go and have coffee in my neighborhood, in my ward. It's just not the demographic. So, I really need to have a focus on meeting people where they're at, where they can meet me. If we don't call it a NAB, that's fine. Although, all my NAB members showed up also except for one. Um, so that's incredibly important to me to give the community opportunity to have that interface with development. Uh, Council Member Dor. Yeah, thank you. Um, I just I hadn't finished quite reporting on last night. Um, one aspect of last night that was very successful was um, Manager Bryant's presentation. Um, she was very, um, honest and forthcoming. I think that the attendees really appreciated it. Um, and it was really speaking to the point of getting her out in the community. um you know, she's very well spoken and um she's a great ambassador and it is part of the manager's job to be out in the community and she does it very well. So, I think that those opportunities, not just the podcast, but being present at different things. I mean, we talked about this before she even took the job and I'm glad to see her doing it and getting out. I I wanted to circle back to a couple things. So, I personally love town halls. I I thrive in them. I I actually enjoy them more than even NAB meetings or other venues because I get to be one-on-one. And the closest I've gotten lately is when I had my NAB MA meeting here and it was an open form about a development project. Um or when I've facilitated online, for example, about the wild horses. This is an environment in which I really enjoy and I thrive. So, one of the things I think is important is to fine-tune whatever this communication is to the individual members. A lot of times our staff have said, "Well, this is the way it's going to be done. We're going to appoint the people on this day. You can only have this many people. They have to be arrayed this way." And I understand because it's a formalized process. And to Council Member Eert's point earlier that it was a little rowdy. And I heard that it was more rowdy than she even said. um that the people the developers that presented, at least it was reported to me, actually said they would have preferred to present an app because there is structure. And I want to share that at my NAB, they're not limited to three minutes. Um, there's discussion amongst the NAB members, there's discussion with the audience, there's discussion between the audience and the NAB members. And I just try to give it a round so that if somebody speaks, somebody else gets a chance and we'll go back. And so I think that's a a beauty of the NABS, but I'm not saying that they're great for everything. Um, some of the members at my um event last night recommended some type of review council. I'm not I am not that enthused about having a yet another group that would be uh below the planning commission that would be a formal group that review all developments. I still don't think we'd get the right level of public um participation. So on the on the discussion about town halls, one thing I'd like you to explore is something called a teley town hall. That's where we actually call the people in a ward. We let them know we're going to have this. we might text them ahead of time. We let them know um we're going to have it and then they can decide to join or not. We ring them and I've held a couple um that I have personally paid for and they were super successful. Um it's nerve-wracking. I mean it's very timesensitive and you have to fit yourself in a certain box. You have to be prepared for any question on any topic. But I guess again I kind of thrive in that environment. It's almost like a challenge and um and I'm very honest. If I don't know an answer I'm not going to answer, right? I tell them I will get back with them and I get their information. But a teley town hall is a whole different way of communicating. Um and I I know I'm out of time but I had one more thing to say and that is that um we you mentioned another survey. Okay. And we just did a community survey. So I would like to get the benefit of the input from the community survey before I take many more steps. And the second point is that I really think we have to professionalize our survey process and many of us at the city have gotten an MPA including me and and in that process you learn a bit about surveying and I told the manager that I would get her the name um I I have it it's called infosarch. So Tamwa has hired a professional firm to do the survey for like 15 years in a row and so they have comparable results. So, I just advise us to not I learned last night from some of my community members that they declined to take our community survey because they felt that the questions were somewhat prejuditial expecting a certain answer. It wasn't intentional. I'm sure they maybe the person that wrote the question didn't have that kind of experience to write a more impartial question, but I think if we could professionalize our survey taking, it would end up really being more representative of what the community is thinking. So, I want to share that. Thank you. Great point. Um, council member Eert, you have one round left. Okay. Yeah, just, you know, same comments. You know, that I need to have some type of um meeting space with developers coming in to do projects in my ward outside of regular business hours, preferably 6 PM. I don't particularly care if it's a NAB or community forum. I just need an opportunity for projects to be presented community to provide feedback in person. I don't think I necessarily need to have it um online too like a Zoom version of it. Also, I don't think I have a whole lot of participation that way. Um it could just be in person, but um I just have to have that access there. I think my community is just kind of a different um different than the rest of the city, you know. So, yeah, that's all I have to say on that. Cynthia, do you think you have enough information and feedback from Do you have anything else? I think I do. I think some of the themes I'm pulling, texting, that's the next I think that's the future, frankly. I get a lot of text messages on my phone, but that's how I stay engaged. uh time of day when the meetings are and something else just from hearing everyone speak topic specific meetings. Uh maybe that's a direction so we could definitely get feedback on that if it's a a general board meeting or if we want to have topic specific discussions. Okay. Thank you so much for being here. Madam Vice Mayor, I'd like one more or 30 seconds more if I Okay, let's do a minute. Yeah. I just wanted to share that um in contrast to my colleague here uh people were incredibly appreciative of doing the hybrid at my community forum I got all kind of things not not everyone participated but they said oh my gosh thank goodness it's it's just expected in today's world we're five years postcoid um they want to be able to we keep saying meet people where they're at well a lot of them are in their kitchen at 6 pm and they still want to participate and I do want you to get teley town halls on your list it's a whole new thing we haven't tried tried. But I will tell you, I got more participation than that than any NAB. Uh 65 people here, 65 people at my NAB, hundred people. I've done the HOAs, I've gotten a hundred people there, but the teley town hall, I've probably had several hundred. Great. And so it's just a it's just a whole different way of thinking and see if we can do it. Sounds good. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move question. No, just one quick question on that note. Was that like just over the phone or was it Yeah, actually I'll give credit to Congressman Amade because probably 15 years ago, 12 years ago, I got called on a teley town hall from him and he's in process and they called my number. Do you want to participate? Sure. I jumped on with him. He answered several questions and it was very he was the only um elected at the time that I knew was doing it and he's consistently done it and so I decided to try to do it and it do you understand you're called and you go oh yeah I don't have time for that you hang up or you go yeah I'd like to hear what they're talking about so okay council member Reese did you have a question I did one last question or maybe it's a comment I I think I don't know anything about Teletubbies um but what I will say is uh the texting platform forms are very useful. Um, but of course we've got to think through all the issues involving preservation of records and and the messaging, you know, what it would be or how you would do it on, you know, that sort of thing. So, I just want to make sure that we're thinking through all the logistics on the texting platforms. After the when the pandemic first happened, I did a lot of that, but I was having to do it on my own, basically paying for it to do it because I was just worried about people getting goods and supplies and diapers and all that. So, we just used it to get people what they were needing. Um, so, um, but I do think it's a good idea. Okay. One thing I'm going to add one more. I'm so sorry. I just want to look at it being additive. Okay. So, I want to add ways to communicate more than take away. And I just think if we understand that we're looking to expand it, not contract it or restrict it, that you know, as long as we continue to get that message out and um I think we'll we'll be in a good space. And again, I'm very committed to this process of, you know, process improvement. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, we are going to move on to item D2. Um, let the record reflect the council's opening the public hearing on item D2. Madame Clerk, was proper notice given and any correspondence received? Vice Mayor, proper notice was given on this item. We did receive correspondence as four letters of opposition. Okay. And um do any other council members besides myself have disclosures? Okay. Um I do. Madame mayor, fellow city council members, and madame clerk, I serve on the board of directors of the downtown Reno Business Improvement District, the DRP. Item D2 involves the DRP's annual assessments and public hearing for objections. City Council appointed me to serve on the DRP board of directors. So I have a per se commitment in a private capacity to the interests of the DRP pursuant to NRS281A.0656. In addition, I am a bid rateayer and I have a pecuniary interest in the assessment. The DRP provides clean and safe services that would otherwise fall to the city to provide because the DRP's interest, goals, and operations closely align with the city's interest, goals, and operations. My commitment in a private capacity to the interests of the interests of the DRP would not clearly and materially affect the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in my position to warrant abstent absentation under NRS 281A. 4203. While I have a pecuniary interest in the assessment, the resulting benefit or detriment acrewing to me will not be greater than that acrewing to any other member of the bid in a similar rate tier. The fact that I am a rate payer will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon the agenda items. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for this meeting. Thank you. And I believe um we will move into a presentation. Thanks Brian. Good evening, madam vice mayor and council members. Uh Brian Mardo, revitalization manager. So, the item before you is a resolution to dispense with any protest, complaints, or objections on the assessment role for the downtown uh Reno Business Improvement District. I will say that we did receive 10 eligible hardship requests uh for that. And so part of the resolution is to uh accept some of those hardships if this body so chooses. Um and I'll ask if you do want a presentation on this item. Council members, do you want a presentation? Yes, please. Council member, yes, she does. So the assessment process every year uh for the business improvement district is um that a public hearing is held to hear any complaints process or objections to the assessment role. Uh there is an ordinance that this body passed, ordinance 5385, that does allow hardship applications and the process not only for this assessment but for any assessments throughout the city. Uh I'll get into how that process is run. Then we introduce a resolution uh dispensing any of the objections, granting the hardships, ratifying the assessment role, sending it to the county recorder, and when the county assessor finalizes the assessment role, the assessments are are sent out. Uh this is a three-step process. It's a little bit different. It's actually gotten a bit more streamlined due to some legislation that was passed. We no longer need two public hearings. We just need one. And we no longer need an ordinance. We just need a resolution for this. On March 12th, the downtown Reno Partnership came and presented their annual budget um which this council accepted that that operating plan and budget. Uh on April 23rd, we um got a preliminary assessment role uh asked this body to uh accept that assessment role and file it with the count with the city clerk and set a hearing date for the public hearing for the assessment. And that brings us to today uh the public hearing on the assessment and the resolution to ratify that assessment role and send it off to the county recorder. The area we are dis um talking about is the business improvement district. Uh that is the area in red. There are three service levels. Everyone within the business improvement districts pays for a base level service. That's um sorry not base level, standard services. Uh the areas in yellow pay for a premium. That's just for additional extra services they need. And then premium plus pays for daily services like pressure washing, um, graffiti removal along the Virginia street corridor. I will add that the city collects the assessment, but we give that assessment to the downtown arena partnership. They manage those funds. Their board decides if the boundary should expand, if that assessment rate should go up or down every year. Um, but our role is to actually start the assessment process and get it to the assessor. A reminder of what the bid business improvement does and does not do. Uh, they do not provide standard citybased services throughout the area. Um, the downtown area should receive the same level of service services as much as the rest of the city does. But what this business improvement district does is adds additional services. And so I said the standard services are the clean and safe program. Those are those ambassadors that are walking around. Uh they do provide some leadership of the area and economic development. And they do marketing communications for the better betterment of the area. That premium rate allows for um trash removal, graffiti, uh public cleaning, things like that. And then the premium services gets daily maintenance along Virginia Street. And we contract with the DRP to administer those services. I will al also add that the business improvement district contracts back to the city uh to our maintenance and operations team for some of those maintenance needs. The Downtown Arena Partnership Board has chosen not to raise or lower assessment rates this year. They left them flat. Um those are the rates above there. They did lower the fee by 5% the rates by 5% last year, but this year they left them flat. And that brings us to a proposed assessment rate of uh and this is with the hardships included [Music] 3,961,961. That is a 2 and a half% increase over last year. That is due to property values increasing, not the rate increasing. We did receive four written objections. Those are in your packet. Uh we did receive 22 hardship requests. 10 of those um were people who already applied. So when they do get a hardship exemption, that applies for five years. So some of those people reapplied not knowing that their hardship lasts five years. Two were denied because they weren't eligible based on income or they didn't provide proof of income. And so we had 10 eligible hardship applications totaling $4,68 and change. The hardship criteria is that they must it must be their principal residence and they must per HUD designations be at or below 50% the average median income. Uh they do submit their income and they do submit an affidavit approving that and then once approved they do get that exemption for five years. I will add that it's not a total exemption. It's actually a deferment uh for five years. The annual assessment does get tracked by the the treasurer on their properties. So eventually when the property does sell, somebody will have to to pay those fees, but the owner themselves do get that deferment for five years. So correction, so after that hardships granted, the number is actually 3,957,893. And so that is a a long motion, but is essentially accepting the resolution and it if you approve uh accepting the hardship exemptions. Thank you, Brian. Uh, Council Member Anderson, questions. Council member Martinez, Council Member Ree, no ma'am. Council member Eert? No. Okay, then we're looking for a motion. Council member Anderson. I'll make a motion. I move to approve the resolution of the Reno City Council dispensing with certain complaints, protests, and objections made at the public hearing on the assessment role for a city of Reno, Nevada neighborhood improvement project, otherwise known as the downtown Downtown Reno Business Improvement District, ratifying the cost of the project, and confirming set assessment role and the assessments therein, including the 10 hardship exemptions to authorize the recordordation of the properties to be assessed in the office of the county recorder together with other matters properly relating there too. Second. We have a motion to second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay, Madame Clerk, uh we are going to move into item D3. Let the record reflect that council is opening the public hearing for item D3. Madame Clerk, was proper notice given and was any correspondence received? Um, proper notice was given and we did receive uh correspondence. It was 20 comments that were distributed as uh one in favor, 15 in opposition and four concerned. Okay. Thank you. And um legal Carl or John, will you please read the ordinance? Yes. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Ordinance introduction, bill number 7301 for possible action. Case number TXT23-0000002. Title 18 signs ordinance amending the Reno Municipal Code. Title 18 annexation land development spec specifically in chapter 18.02 zoning districts. Section 18.02.602 entitled general overlay districts. Chapter 18.05 signs. Section 18.05.103 entitled location of permanent on premises signs. Section 18.05.107 107 entitled permit required. Section 18.05.108 entitled exempted on premises permanent sign. Section 18.05109 entitled on premises signs prohibited. Section 18.05.112 entitled removal of abandom on premises signs. Section 18.05.113 entitled permit on premises sign regulations by zoning district. Section 18.05.14 entitled additional regulations for animated signs. Section 18.05.115 entitled non-conforming on premises. Section 18.05.1 entitled alteration enlargement or relocation of on premises signs. Add a new section 18.05.123 entitled content neutrality and substitution 18.08 administration and procedures 18.08.602 entitled minor site plan review and chapter 18.09 09 rules of construction and definitions. Article 4 entitled all other terms defined in order to remove the sign regulations from the gaming overlay. Amend the on- premises sign regulations and exemptions for more clarity and consistency among allowances. Allow for animated signs associated with schools. Address content neutral neutrality. Address the relocation of signs related to public projects. and amend and include certain definitions related to science together with matters which pertain to or are necessarily connected therew with words one 2 3 four five and six I'm sorry I didn't get that could you repeat it I'm just going to um council members do we have any disclosures okay I do not see any now we will move to a presentation from Miss Knox welcome thank you for being here thanks good evening madame mayor vice mayor and members of the council. For the record, Lauren Knox, senior planner with development services. This item is an ordinance introduction for a text amendment to title 18 related to sign regulations. So, first in terms of alignment with the strategic plan, this item addresses economic and community development goals. And first, I just want to highlight the very iterative process used to create a vetted draft of proposed changes. So, we held multiple rounds of public feedback opportunities. Each one was used to refine the draft ordinance that we're bringing forward to you today. We discussed the overall changes with council last in December, but I'll give you a brief refresher on the process, the overall changes, and a couple of key issues. So, first, council initiated the text amendment in June of 2022. We held initial stakeholder meetings to gather input used to make the draft changes to our current code. Feedback was incorporated into that first draft red line that was then distributed publicly. We held public and stakeholder meetings. We brought that to the planning commission, the city council for feedback. And then we also held some specific stakeholder meetings for downtown businesses. We developed another draft based on the feedback that we received. And then we distributed that draft publicly earlier this year. And in February, we had some public engagement opportunities with that draft. And then we got feedback from that to create the draft ordinance before you tonight. We brought the draft ordinance before planning commission on May 8th. and I'll touch a bit on their input later in the presentation. All right. So, in terms of overall proposed changes, the draft ordinance included with your staff report indicates the changes made, includes annotations describing why each change was made. But I'm going to provide you with just a general summary of that. And again, we mo went through most of these items back in December. And before I jump in, I just want to say that in terms of these overall changes here, we had very little feedback and much of it was actually positive. There were a few changes requested which we incorporated into the draft where possible. So first there were some overall clarifying issues addressed throughout the code. That's pretty standard. And next council provided feedback to amend the unlimited signage to be for non-restricted gaming facilities only. This is a key issue. I'm going to touch on this later in the presentation. We included some exemptions for certain onremise signage generally related to official or government signage. We made the triggers for entitlement review consistent. We included the allowance for schools to have digital signs. Again, that's another key issue that I'm going to touch on later. We addressed the need to move signage for public projects. We included a statement on content neutrality to deal with some federal regulations regarding free speech. We modified and added some sign related definitions. And then a bulk of the changes were to table 51 to try and make it a bit more consistent and clear. All right, so let's talk about that first key issue that's unlimited signage. So, you may remember in our previous conversation, we had a significant amount of feedback received on this item. Just to provide some quick background, currently code allows for unlimited signage within the entire gaming overlay area. Initially, staff proposed to amend the standards to align with the initial intent to be as similar to previous code as possible. So, that was allowing for unlimited signage only in the mixeduse downtown entertainment district as well as for casino uses. And based on the negative feedback that we received and we also held some downtown stakeholder meetings, we reviewed that downtown signage and recent permits and found there to be no strong expression of need to keep that unlimited signage for the downtown uses other than those casino uses. So, we brought these findings to council in December and council's feedback at that point was to remove that unlimited allowance aside from allowance for casinos, which is what is in the draft before you this evening. So the next key issue is digital signage for schools. So at that same December meeting, council also directed staff to work with the Wo County School District to create standards for schools that allow for digital signage and that was based off of a desire expressed by the school district. So we did work with the Wo County School District and also with Scenic Nevada and the proposed amendments in the newest draft include this allowance along with some specific requirements to try and mitigate those impacts to neighborhoods and neighboring properties. We had multiple meetings to try and come together and develop something that all parties could agree to or at least live with, but unfortunately we couldn't get all the way there. Many of Scenic Nevada's recommendations were addressed and were included in the requirements, but not all. So overall, again, we attempted to balance the school district's needs with the public concerns that were expressed. So let's talk about some of those specific requirements. So, first we attempted to mitigate uh impacts to neighboring properties by limiting the hours of operation of that sign from 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Limit the net, so that's the brightness measure of that sign to 150 between sunset and sunrise. So, when it's dark, limit that animated portion of the sign to 32 square feet. Um, having a content hold time of at least 8 seconds and not allowing video flashing or blinking. These signs must also follow animated sign standards that already exist. Aside from needing to go through a discretionary review for residential proximity as we've included the mitigation measures that you see up there um in place that would generally be conditioned through that process. Washer County School District is supportive of the draft language. However, Scenic Nevada has some concerns and would like to see these requirements be further restricted. More specifically, they'd like to see the hours limited to 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. the signs turned off when school is not in session. limiting the signs to one sign per campus and content hold times to be at least 15 minutes. I also want to point out that we did receive some positive support and feedback in this realm during our engagement process. So, the planning commission discussed this item at their May 8th meeting. Ultimately, they recommended that the council approve of the draft ordinance with their recommendations. The recommendations were not specific in nature and were provided to you in a memorandum included with this item. I also want to make sure it's clear that there wasn't consensus regarding the recommendations, but each commissioner provided their comments. I want to point out that there were no concerns expressed over any of the other changes, those overall changes to sign regulations. Aside from the digital signage for schools, generally these comments related to the potential for distracted driving and attention going to digital signage. Some of the commissioners recommended that the number of signs be limited, that there maybe be some distancing um requirements or distancing from crosswalks. Um they asked that the council consider reviewing that content hold time, that 8-second piece. Um including some exception languages language for emergencies if needed, and limiting the operating hours potentially also to only when school is in session. Again, this is a summary of the discussion and a more full picture of the recommendations were included in that memorandum. All right, to sum it all up, we had many points of engagement throughout the process to bring you a refined ordinance. In terms of overall changes we discussed, we had very little feedback. Much of it was positive with a few minor alterations that are included in that draft before you. We discussed two key issues. Again, the unlimited signage concern is resolved in the draft before you for deliberation. And we tried to balance the school district's needs with the concerns expressed during the engagement process for those digital signs for schools. Also, you've been provided with the planning commission's recommendations for consideration. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions and I have a motion for you overhead. Great. Thank you, Lauren. U Madam Clerk, we'll move into public comment. Do we have any public comment? We do. Our first public commenter is Mark Ray, followed by Lori Ray, followed by Leah Sanders. Okay. Hello. My name is Mark Ray Wy. I represent Scenic Nevada as its proono attorney. Um, Scenic Nevada has been an organization officially since May 14th of 2001. In the year 2000, Scenic Nevada sponsored a ballot initiative at which 57% of the voters of Reno agreed to ban billboards in the city of Reno. So, this is not our first radio, a rodeo on signs. Uh, signs is something that we've been before this body on many, many times, and we're here tonight to express our concerns. We hope that you take them into consideration as we do represent the people of this town's view of signs. Uh we know that because of what happened in 2000. The state of Nevada is not opposed to digital signs for schools, but we are opposed to almost all of the staff's recommendations for digital school signs because they will allow too many signs in residential neighborhoods with messages flipping every 8 seconds until 10 at night, 365 days a year, whether school is in session or not. Currently, any school that wants one of these digital electric signs in a neighborhood, a residential neighborhood, has to get a special use permit. Meaning, there is public engagement to use your terminology. People get to respond to the fact that a sign's going to show up electrically blazing messages at them 365 days a year. With this text amendment, there will be a blanket approval of all these signs for all these schools. There will be no notice to anyone in the neighborhoods. There will be no public engagement. they will just put up a sign. Now, some of the most egregious things that we have to deal with is the 8-second flip signs, which is for commercial enterprises, 6:00 a.m. to 1000 p.m. at night, meaning long after school is closed and except for events and in the morning before it starts. But we need to understand that what Recini Nevada is trying to propose is not to eliminate digital signs for schools. We don't want someone to have to go out there in the snow, which is what they told us, having to change the little letters by manual changing the letters on those little school signs. They want to do it on a computer. Okay, fine. But make that sign something that the neighborhood can live with is what we're trying to say. Let's protect the neighborhood because now is the time. We can't protect neighborhoods in the future. Once this passes, all the neighborhood people, anyone who has a problem with the sign is going to be told they can do it. That's a matter of right. Um, the Reno Municipal Codes that I would like you to be aware of are for signs 300 lineal feet from a residentially zoned district for a billboard. Animated signs 750T. This is to give you an idea of how far away from a resident you should be for one of these signs. And finally, 150 nits is in the code for any commercial sign. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Glad to have had this time with you. Appreciate it. Lori Ray, followed by Leah Sanders, followed by Karen Mson. Um, good evening. My name's Lori Ray and I'm here on behalf of Scenic Nevada. First, we want to thank staff for the work done to clean up the sign code and we appreciate the changes made to the proposed regulations concerning unlimited signage downtown which had caused so much community concern. So, as we told the planning commission on May 8th, we aren't opposed to digital school signs. We just want decent regulations that protect the neighborhoods. We've sent you a letter with our reasons. You saw a part of that on on Mark's on the overhead uh for opposing staff's regulations along with our suggestions that would allow the schools to change messages frequently without being a nuisance to nearby houses or become a traffic safety problem. We hope you had a chance to read that letter and there should have been approximately 60 others that you should have received from the community as well. Back in 2014, when the city was adopting its digital sign standards for the first time, Scenic Nevada was there participating in meetings and public workshops. When it came time to vote, the council took a more simplified appro approach. They tossed the staff's regulations and rewrote different ones on the spot to appease businesses, but also included protections for Mount Rose Highway, the Truckucky River, and the neighborhoods. for the neighborhood. For the neighborhoods, the council said no digital signs would be allowed within 750 ft of a residentially zoned property without a public hearing and a conditional use permit. And though we were very disappointed, it turned out that that one requirement protected the neighborhoods from digital signs um because of the expense of public hearings and the uncertainty for the sign um applicant. Since then, a fast food change in gas stations asked for ex exceptions from the minimal digital regulations that Reno has, and Scenic Nevada work with staff and proposed compromises that were eventually accepted by the city council. Now, schools are coming forward asking that they be exempted from the 750 foot rule from residences, demonstrating what a slippery slope this is. Next will next will be neighborhood commercial businesses and who knows what else. We're very concerned with the impact all these potential dig digital signs will have on neighborhood um aesthetics, traffic safety, and preserving the tranquility and quality of life for residents, not to mention their property values. Neither uninorporated county nor Sparks have such liberal regulations as the ones proposed today. They may have an 8-second flip time, but they also have parcel size limits, distant requirements from residences, and distance between digital signs. Those existing regulations will limit the number of signs in neighborhoods there, diminishing the negative impacts in those jurisdictions. Please consider our suggestions for the sake of Reno's neighborhoods to limit digital signs to one per school. the flip time to every 15 minutes unless there's an emergency with an instantaneous change and that's important and it's not included. The height to six feet, the hours of operation of 6 to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. unless there's an event and only while schools are in session and maintain the proposed size of 32 square feet with a 150 knit nighttime brightness level. Thank you very much. Leah Sanders followed by Kyle Chisum followed by Karen Mson. No, she good evening um assistant mayor and council people. Um I am Leah Sanders. I'm a Reno resident and a member of Scenic Nevada and I concur with my colleagues um of Scenic Nevada and the letter that was written to you by Scenic Nevada. Um we don't question digital signs. This is the Mount Rose sign taken on May 14th. So um it hasn't been updated. It says have a great spring break when they're back from spring. So, I I think a digital sign is okay. Maybe it'll up keep them up, but it is far back from the street, only covered by all the advertising banners. But, uh, research, I didn't hear a whole lot, but I did a little anecdotal research, very small sample, but I did ask people. Many pe many parents like the reminders signs provide when they drop their children off and pick them up, especially if they have children at different schools. Nobody liked the idea of flipping sign verbiage every 8 seconds or signs lit outside of school hours. Some question the need for signs cost and some pointed out that presently many schools do not post current notices uh on signs using emails phones tea what what is it tell town hall telet town hall which I've participated in with renown please um please realize that we do not need fast flipping digital signs in our elementary school in our schools. If the signs are for so if the signs are for school information, they should be restricted to being active only during school hours and unlit and static when school is not in session. A 15minute rotation allows time for the message to be read without any traffic hazards and uh keeps driving safe. Special signs for emergencies. Absolutely. Uh sign should not become advertisements for businesses thanking them for donations. Um school only needs one modest sign. This one's lovely. Very classic. Uh schools exist to be part of a neighborhood, not an exceptional standout, annoyance or traffic hazard. Schools should be a model for little pollution and responsible for energy consumption. And um you know, if somebody proposed painting a school neon pink so that it stood out in a neighborhood, I don't think we'd be before the city council approving it. Um so why are bright signs okay and reasonable regulations are possible. I want to compliment Lauren on such a great summary she did of the different um oppositions. Um so number of signs and placement should be limited. present proposal regarding signs need better rationale and research and I refer you if you haven't read the May 18th letter by Lori Ray of Scenic Nevada with the tables it's priceless thank you Kyle Chisum followed by Karen Mson good evening madame mayor or madam vice mayor and council Kyle Chz I'm with county school district. Um, first I'd like to just say thank you for your support to get this far. Um, we've been working hard with and appreciate staff's time and expertise in working with the school district to find try and find a reasonable solution to allow for digital signs at schools. Over LA, excuse me, over the last few months, we've worked with city staff and other stakeholders to try and come up with common sense regulations that address actual impacts such as brightness and while also achieving a modernization of the current code. What staff has carefully crafted and what planning commission made a unanimous recommendation to approve allows both schools to have digital signs consistent with virtually every other jurisdiction within the state of Nevada. Um, and while also minimizing any perceived impacts to residential areas. Now, while there is no perfect solution that will satisfy every concern or provide perfect consistency with other local jurisdictions codes because they're very complex, we believe that staff's proposal contains a fair and thoughtful middle ground that will have very little impact on our communities where schools are located. Again, the school district appreciates your support in this endeavor to modernize the code and to allow our schools the ability to communicate with their communities and another tool in the tool shed so to speak for engagement. Um, thank you very much for your time and service. Um, I just would like to that was a prepared statement. So, I'd just like to add since I have a little time left, um the uh many of the code requirements, we've we've had multiple meetings with Scenic Nevada and attempted to work with them. As Lauren stated, um many of the code proposed code amendments um actually came from them. We conceded, we made many concessions. Um we including the 150 uh nit brightness level which is about 50% of what Sparks and uh the county allow. Um there are many many other things in there that are very consistent with the rest of the state, the the county and Sparks. Um so to say that it's inconsistent is not true. As a matter of fact, I would go a little further just to say that we tried to look at this from an impact level um rather than having, you know, maybe arbitrary requirements in there um to look at what are the actual impacts, brightness, hours, um you know th those types of things. So, appreciate um all the work that's went into this thus far and we hope that you'll support it. Thank you. Karen Mson. Good evening, madame vice mayor and council members. Karen Mson with Yesco. Um been here before back in 2015. and I was here um talking about signs and when when we had those changes adopted just like then staff has done an engaging fantastic job uh not only engaging stakeholders throughout this entire code cleanup process but throughout these changes that they've tried to work with. Uh we fully support the sign ordinance text amendment as presented. These updates and clarifications will benefit both stakeholders and staff. There have been several instances where senior staff members had to intervene in permit application reviews due to confusion stemming from unclear messaging and language in the existing code. Given the dedication that staff brings to their work every day, we want to ensure that the time is used efficiently and effectively as possible. Regarding the allowance of digital signs for schools, we frequently almost monthly receive calls from principles, administrators, boosters asking for digital signs have to be the ones that say no, you can't have it. Well, they have them in this city and that city. Why can't we? And so, we have to explain that to them. You know, it's our understanding that the demand is driven for the ne necessity to communicate important messages to the communities of the school, such as reminders of picture days, early releases, upcoming school events, as well as potential opportunities to recognize students for birthdays, awards, and team achievement. Again, staff has done an outstanding job in involving all relevant stakeholders in this process, including Wo County School District, Scenic Nevada, and industry representatives. As to the proposed lighting standards for the animated signs, u Mr. Ray was somewhat inaccurate. This is the current code that says that animated signs can be 1,500 knits. The 150 comes to um gas stations. And so that's 10% of what the standard sign in the city of Reno is required. And so limiting that, you know, we see it as very excessively restrictive. However, we can support those limitations because we can understand um the needs to mitigate any mitigate any potential impacts to the nearby residents. As far as timing, school is out. You know, I don't know about you, but my grandchildren, they go to school. they have events after school, 8 9 10:00 at night they're getting home and to drive by their schools and see what events are happening is important. Lastly, regarding flip times, a term coined by Scenic Nevada, we recommend that the language for digital signs remain consistent with the terminology already used in the current code in motion flashing or video. We support the proposed 8-second hold time um as this has already been adopted by NDOT. Um many and let's see and one other thing that I did here too is the lights and sounds from sporting events at high schools are far more disruptive to many more people than those who may be directly impacted by those in the in the neighboring homes. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. We have no additional public comment. Okay, I'm going to bring it back to the council for comments and questions. Uh, start to my right, Council Member Anderson. Um, yes, I am prepared to support the ordinance, but I wanted to chat a little bit about why. Um, I wanted to make it clear that I've read all of the letters that I've received about this. Um, and if I don't agree with those letters, it's not because I haven't heard you, it's because I don't agree. Um, I don't know how long it's been since you all have had children in school, but there are a variety of reasons that I have pause um, in interrupting a school's ability to communicate anything that is happening at the school. To be honest with you, um, I think that people underestimate how much activity is happening on school properties every single day almost of the year. um even when school isn't in session, there are programs that are happening in session and um some parents might be much more organized and put together than I am. But any opportunity that I have to be re-reed about what's going on at school, making sure that my children are or were prepared and ready and um just to remind me of my own responsibilities was really really helpful. Um, and I also do agree with Miss Mson that um, you know, people put up with a lot when they live in and around a school. Um, very rarely is a school just plopped into the middle of a neighborhood these days. It's been pre-planned and pre-prepared. And I live very close to Brown Elementary. Actually, I live about 12 blocks from Brown Elementary and I can hear their bells every single day. And in a way, sometimes it can be annoying, but it is also a reminder that you're part of a community. and there's a lot of pride around that and these signs can be a really big um opportunity for community pride and community engagement. Um but most importantly it's safety. So um I just wanted to put that on the record about why I will be supporting the first reading of this ordinance. Thank you Council Member Martinez. Thanks so much. I'm just wondering if I could take a second. Looks like from the memo that was provided from staff that there are some questions that we received from our planning commissioners about why the school district is wanting school signs. And I mean I think you've already made the case and so has one of the public commenters, but just to reiterate if you can for us why does a school in this district need digital signs at their schools? Sure. So the big point is really efficiency, right? So, those manual changeable signs, they take a lot of time. You you can't always put all the messaging up that you maybe need to put up. It takes someone going out there, making sure that it's correct, making sure someone didn't mess with it and change out the letters. Um, so a lot is is that efficiency factor, but also it's modernization as well. A lot of schools, this is what they're implementing now. This is kind of the new the new technology. It also helps sometimes too to be able to use those messages for say there's an emergency, say there's a lockdown at a school, say there's something going on, you can program that to be able to also display that information. So, it's another kind of public safety piece as well. And then I there was a comment from the public as well about maybe um you know, overseeing what is actually produced on these digital signs. I know in the past it wasn't a school sign, but the sign that's on California and Virginia caused a lot of heartburn for folks. And so is there anything within the ordinance that you have that sort of regulates some of the content that is in these on these digital signs? So per federal law, we're not allowed to regulate content. We can look at time, manner, place. Um so we can look at location based. That's how we're able to talk about off- premise advertising, things like a billboard versus on premise advertising. But we can't say you have on premise advertising and we can't dictate what you put on there per federal law. And then I'm having issues sort of imagining what 32 square feet looks like. Um is the picture on slide seven of is it North Branch Elementary? Is that sort of So I don't have the specifics on that sign. I would say it's probably right around that that square footage. Basically 4x8 would be 32 square ft. um to the size of that front. Yeah. That desk. Yep. And I'm assuming they would be more They'd be longer than Yeah. generally they are generally they come kind of in this if you look at that second picture down, they're a little bit longer and a little bit shorter to help with the messaging piece. Awesome. Yeah. And I think the only other point I'll make in the time I'm have remaining is I understand the fact of wanting there to be maybe some restrictions on the amount of time and being more flexible during emergency operations, but sometimes educators are responding to the emergency themselves and it's difficult to try to put a a message out um on these signs if you're also adding that to the list of items that they have to complete once a emergency is in place. And so, um, I'll just put that on record for now and then I'll do it in the second round after this. Council member Der. Yeah, thank you. Um, you know, I've had the benefit of many, many sign conversations and, um, I totally get why schools want and need digital signs. I support it. In fact, I made the motion last time on the signs to include signs uh, digital signs for schools and to go back and work with people. You know, earlier today we said that all our rules should be the same as the other jurisdictions. And that's why I really appreciate this chart that um Scenic Nevada put together. And so going on the understanding that I think these are good things, but also I question why would we adopt different standards than Wo County and Sparks. And let me give you an example. At Wo County and Sparks, they limit the signs to six feet tall, but ours we do not. We just say whatever zone you're in. Um, and because over in Reno and Sparks, they put all their schools in in something called public facility and we have schools in residential zone and public facility and industrial. We have them everywhere and it's not consistent. And that means that the sign heights can all vary based on what zone they happen to be put in. And so I guess I question why we wouldn't want consistency uh with the other jurisdictions. So an example is six feet tall. I'd like to bring it into consistent with six feet tall. I think that's reasonable. Um let's see another another area. Um distance from residential zone property. Wash county has 200 feet. Uh Sparks is 300 feet. We have no feet. You can be right next door. So I ask I challenge our colleagues like what's best like is there a best? Is Wo County better than ours or Sparks or ours? Um both Sparks and Reno uh sorry both Sparks and Wo County say one sign per site. both both of them. Why should we not have one sign per site? Like what what is wrong with that? Um let me go on. Um they all they all allow 8 seconds. I don't particularly like the 8 seconds because I've gone through this whole digital discussion and it is very quick. You know, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 we're flipping. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 we're flipping. I think the proposal is very very reasonable. But but hey, if you want to be consistent with other jurisdictions, it's 8 seconds. Um the nits is uh is is a little higher in sparks and wash but we did go over this extensively. I spent many meetings on how bright these signs should be and the to the point about the gas stations 150 that was something the whole council we have been over and over and over this and then um uh you know I'm a little confused about the transition time. One has instantaneous one is 1 second one is none. I guess I really challenge why we should all be different. Why if get especially it sounds like the planning commission uh and uh seem based on your your um overhead here recommended a lot of these things the one sign per school the flip time the height and the hours of operation. So do we want to diverge from the planning commission? I I'm I'm ready to do what they say. Again, I want to Okay, we're going to we're going to be I'll wrap up, but we'll come back again. Support the digital signs with some reasonable restrictions. Thank you. You bet. Yeah. Um I also agree with um wanting the residents to have some kind of notice if there's going to be a sign going in that, you know, could potentially be on until 1000 p.m. at night. I have little kids in school right now. I receive text messages and emails regarding things at school and um their school is an industrial area, but they're building a brand new Stead Elementary School literally in a residential neighborhood that was there first. So, this residential neighborhood could have a very large digital sign just get built that will literally be shining in people's houses until 1000 p.m. without any kind of public input again in word for our party over there. But, um I think that we need to have some more um guard rails on this. I think that the community should have some say. I think that um you know 10 p.m. is a little bit late to have a sign on. I understand wanting to be able to communicate, but you know, if we can't have a nightclub open in the entertainment district past 11, I can't really understand why we would need to have a school sign on at 1000 p.m. at night. I just in a neighborhood that seems counterintuitive to me. So, um I agree that there should be um more setback. I agree that there should be notice to the residents. Um I think that I agree with Council Member Der's point that it should be consistent in the size and limited to six foot. And um I just really truly as a parent of two children, I have an adult son as well that I went all the way through high school with. Um, I don't see the necessity for the 10 p.m. sign. Um, I think if it's not in a residential neighborhood, you know, it's a different story, but it could be. And that's why you would need to have that kind of community outreach and opportunity to um make modifications. Oh, also agree with um you know, having one per site. I it just [Music] um it's too much especially it for the locations that it could be in. So those are my thoughts. Thank you, Council Member Ree. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. I I suppose I want to start by saying just generally speaking, I appreciate the length to which the public engagement happened. It sounds like from the presentation that um there was a lot of robust dialogue and and certainly the folks who have testified in um there tonight uh Mark and Lori Ray um have obviously made an impact on our sign code over the years. Um but I do think it's important to point out that uh so much of the iterations of the sign code came out of that work product and I think that's really good. Um I wanted to ask first Mr. Hall or Mr. shipment. Either one of you, I didn't understand. We got something in our inbox maybe a week or so ago about a lawsuit in which Scenic Nevada had sued the city over the Jacobs Entertainment wayfinding signs and it had to do with standing. And so I I don't totally understand. Do folks from Scenic Nevada have standing to sue the city on this particular topic here that this school signage issue? they they can file a suit and then we would, you know, challenge their standing to, you know, determine whether or not they're actually an agrieved party. Um, you know, if they want to bring a suit and challenge the validity of the code, they can do that. Okay. I I I didn't totally understand what the impact of that is because we haven't had a briefing on it. I I did read the opinion of the Nevada Supreme Court uh which found in favor of the city of Reno and so I just didn't know if that implicated our discussion here tonight. Um look, I I fundamentally believe that our planning staff uh and has gotten it right that this is the work of months and months and in fact a year of compromise. Sounds like uh 99% of what the folks who had objections to these signs asked about they got. I'm happy to see where we are. I I do trust the school district to be good neighbors. Uh they will build and place them and use the WC1 funds to make these improvements at each school site. I suppose the only ones I'm concerned about would be like where someone puts a charter school right next to an existing elementary school. like how would you know whose sign is which? Like that seems an odd thing, but I know in W four that was done um you know charter school right adjacent to a school. Um but I think that's not the same as asking whether or not a single school might have two signs. Uh so for my part, I'm going to be supporting uh the uh planning staff's recommendations and supporting the school district and believe that they uh should know best, you know, how to place them, how large they might be, how often they can be changed. I I don't think we're going to see, you know, uh you know, advertisements up there, mostly like PTA meeting Thursday kind of stuff, but I'll leave that to them. Thank you, Council Member Ree. I'll look to my right. Any other comments or questions? Council member Derer. Um, sure. So, I I have an unanswered question to my colleagues. We we just made a pitch that we should all be the same on everything and I'm just I'm still struggling with that. I you know, I was outvoted on that issue that we should maybe be different. So, it you know, I would like to support the the things that are the same in Wo County and Sparks. Why should they be different here just because we have an artifact of weird zoning? So, um, I'd like to Miss Der, I can answer that question for me. Are you asking me? Sure. Yeah. Well, the the reality is is we don't control the elected bodies in other cities and jurisdictions or why they've arrived at their reasoning, right? We can only control us. And so, because those signs will only be the ones that are in Reno, we got to do our best yman's yo person's effort, right? And you even noted that the nits requirements were higher in other places than our place. So, you weren't saying we should go to the higher knit or I probably was. I'm looking for consistency, that's all. And thank you for responding. I don't think that Well, I'm just saying I don't think there has to be consistency. It just has to be what we think is the best issue. Again, I think the school district is the one who has said what they want to do and that's good enough for me. So, the school district, just to respond to that point, is has the school district focused, but we have the job of planning our community and setting regulations. That's our job. we have different jobs and so I want to make sure we do our job and Kyle used to work here and enforce our regulations. So um you know now he is basically advocating the school would like as much as many wherever as few restrictions and we hear that and I respect it and I've already said I support it. I support them having digital signs but I also have to balance right the neighborhoods, the brightness. These are all issues that our staff have juggled and what they brought to us is some things they couldn't quite get across the finish line in concert with all of the groups you were talking. So, you bring it to us to kind of uh cut the cake or or um you know, make the final decision. And what I would like to do is be as consistent as we can. Okay? not if it's not uniform, but they also make fees, which we just made an argument that our fees should be identical to their fees, even though we have different processing costs here. I mean, I have many arguments about that, but that's not what we're talking about here. So, um, we also heard from our planning commission, who I do respect, and they suggested some things. I'm just trying to lean in, make sure we do the best that we can and we can let's say we say one sign per school and two years from now someone comes back and says, "Wow, we'd really we think two signs per school is better." We can re-evaluate that. But I don't think in our first pass to allow these, you know, if if people can agree on one, I mean, Scenic Nevada's agreed on it. They they want it at all the schools, why not start there? That would be I I don't understand, you know, is is three, right? I mean, I just think let's start with one. Let's get some experience under our belt and uh you know, I'm prepared to make a motion when we get there. Thank you. Can I can I just respond to also just answer the reason on the on the consistency here. I don't think it's apples and apples. I don't think that the fees being consistent with other jurisdictions are the same there. It's not apples to apples. Our team has done a year and a half worth of very very significant work for Reno sign code and I don't think it should be thrown out with the bathwater just because we want to be consistent here and I definitely don't think that you want to increase the knits here. I mean people have worked really hard to get to these to these areas and as it relates to number of signs and what needs to go on the sign and size of sign and things like that. I personally want to give the trust and respect to the school district to make those decisions on their school's behalf. And so that that is my position on that. Just just to answer your question. Yeah. Thank you. I I didn't know how far it went that we should all be the same. I really didn't. And I didn't see him that different. So I appreciate that. Council member Eertton, do you want a second round? Yeah. I mean, not to just kind of spiral on this, but I mean the same could be said about our finance team today. you know, they put a lot of work into trying to figure out how to um set up a fee schedule and then it was asked that they um match with other areas in the region. And I don't think that um their work should be taken lightly either, but um there's been an interest expressed by this body to keep things consistent across the region. Um, I think that something that council member Derer and I um are struggling with is just kind of the lack of consistency um with the board. Um, so um I think I've already kind of made my opinion known about this. Um, I think council member Der has as well. I agree with her that we should kind of try and stay consistent. Um, I think people should have a right to know if a big sign is going to go across the street from their bedroom that could, you know, be shining light into their bedroom until 10 p.m. at night or their kids' bedroom until 10 p.m. at night. And I think it's a lot easier to um mitigate problems like that on the front end, then try and claw things back on the back end once they become a problem if they do. Um, so, um, yeah, I'm just not comfortable, um, with this ordinance as it's written based on on those items. Um, but I do very much appreciate your work. That is not in any way a dig at you. That's just, um, my hesitation and wanting to protect the, uh, surrounding residential communities around these schools. Great. I think we've had some really good discussion. Um, I will say I worked at a gas station many, many years ago and besides cleaning the bathroom, changing the signs were the worst thing with that big pole and the wind blowing and the numbers going out into the street. Um, so I think there was lots of community engagement. You watch County School District had to give some, staff had to give some, scenic Nevada had to give some. we're in a different age. As council member Anderson said, I lived across the street from a school and um you know the sign was there and I think one of the one of the commenters brought up a sign that says, you know, spring break was uh still in session. I've seen it. I I understand where we're we're moving with this. I will um I will try a motion for discussion and see where we go from there. Um I move to refer the bill for a second reading and adoption. Second. We have a motion and a second. Further discussion. Um well I I wanted to see where the council was and how far they were going to apply this consistency thing because it was really a first time I've heard it today. And it sounds like we can apply consistency when it seems right and then when it doesn't, we want to make our own rules. And I'm okay with our own. I I have been there for making our own rules for a really long time. But I also have been on this topic of digital signs. And in some of our uh zoning districts, we have allowance of 12t high signs. Well, that's not really I don't think that's neighborhood friendly. Just because that site happens to be zoned that way doesn't mean that we should have 12 foot high and then the sign. I I don't agree with that. So, I would love um Madame Vice's Mayor if you'd consider uh this at least six foot seems to be supported by the other two just jurisdictions. Um I'd love to see a six-foot limitation on ours. Um is that something that you know just that you could consider? Um so do you want me to answer or do you want to I'm going to go forward with the motion at hand in the second and then if it fails or we'll see what happens and we can try another one. Okay. And then um the flip time is very reasonable. I mean, they're not flipping on these static signs for months. I think we're talking 8 seconds. I think every 15 minutes is very reasonable. The planning commission weighed in. Uh we've had what 60some letters um from various members of the public that advocate for those things. So, I'd love to see the flip time reduced to some I mean, does is there a reason that they have to flip this fast? I I don't understand. You want to address that? Sure. So, again, for the record, Lauren Knox. So the 8-second flip time comes from the Nevada administrative code and that is specific to billboards. So it's not not a perfect changeover, but again that is what the other which we've eliminated um billboards. Yes by ballot initiative. Yeah, it's a different section of code. Um but yes, so it's not perfect, but it is what is consistent with the other the other jurisdictions is that 8second piece. So, um, and then finally, um, this timing, do to Council Member Eert's point, I mean, do we need to have bright signs at night at 10:00 at night in the dark? I I just don't really understand. I understand all day long. I believe me, I support this concept. All I'm trying to do is just kind of have a uniform regulation. We're going to add like 70, 80, couple hundred more signs. So, let's just make them reasonable. Right. Sure. And the reason that we looked at this, you know, the 6 to 10 pm piece was because we did put in that that more dim knit requirement. So that 150 nits is kind of that that it's very limited. So just kind of looking at comparable things, for example, a residential street light that when you when you calc it out, it's about a thousand knits. So we when factoring in this adjacency piece with residentials and the the time frame, the idea was that that knit limiter actually really limits that to be well since my time's up. I just want to say guys, I want us to work together and I want us to be responsive to the public and I want us to help the school district and all I'm trying to do is come up with the a compromise on the issues that are outstanding and I just wanted to be understood in that context and that we can lean in and work together with both our residents and our school district in this case, but it could be someone else in another case. So, you know, I don't want to vote no. I want to vote yes. I just want to get to a better place. That's been my whole thing, the whole time, darn time I've been on council. So, thanks. Okay. Well, let's see where this vote goes. Uh, we have a motion and a second. Vice Mayor, I have commentary on the motion. Council member Ree, thank you so much, Miss Der. I I want to make sure that I am hearing your concerns and understand that just because I don't always agree with you doesn't mean I'm not listening to you. But please understand um every one of us on the dis tries to take the information we have and synthesize it to the best of our ability right and we aren't doing it to thumb our nose at you or someone who disagrees with us oftent times we know that we can make better policies by finding compromise but oftent times what I see is you doing the exact same thing that you want us to not do on this issue on other issues right you have a particular idea about whatever it might be, insert trees or or some other issue and you are very passionate about it and we just don't necessarily see the same thing that you do, right? And so we don't go that way. So for example, you've said consistency. Now, Miss Knox said, well, to be consistent, here's the ordinance. It should be 8 seconds, but you don't like that, right? So here you are being inconsistent. No, no. I I said I was willing. I I I think I have the floor and so I'm just trying to point out to mischaracterize. Yeah. I I I would never seek to mischaracterize you. You are a dear friend and I love you dearly. So, but understand what I hear when you say that is you wanted something different than what was being proposed. And when it was said to you that that thing was different because the state regulated that way, you were okay with being different there. Right? So, you're using consistency as like a sword and a shield, and that's where I have to draw the line. Miss Anderson had it right when she said, "We trust the school district. We believe they will make the best decisions for their school sites, for their neighborhoods, for their children." Why would we tell them artificially, "It must only be this way." I I don't know what's best for McQueen school site versus what's better at Brown Elementary. And I think we have to trust that our elected officials and other bodies will make good choices for themselves rather than me saying I want it to be thus height. I want it to be these many knits. I want it to be consistent here but not there. That therein lies the rub. We each see it differently because we are different human beings. Not because we don't want to lean in or or work hard or do the hard questions. We all do that every day. And when you say it in the way you have, it makes it suggest to me that you don't believe we do the same thing. And so again, much love to you. We just are disagreeing on a principal and that principal is that I trust the school district to make those decisions. So I appreciate Okay, we're going to move into a vote. I would like to respond. We're going to move into a vote. Um yes, vice mayor. I my um um council member do we are going to vote now can you please do a roll call co vote please? I'm sorry. I I do want to discussion. Vice Mayor Taylor, yes. Der, no. Martinez, yes. Eert, no. Thanks for letting me vote. Reese, yes. I Anderson, I. She be absent. Vote passes 42. Okay, we're going to take a 10-minute recess. Thank you. Okay, Madame Clerk, are we ready to resume the meeting? Yes, Madame Vice Mayor, we can reconvene at 7:52. At this time, uh, Mayor Shivy and Council Member Eert are absent. We're moving on to item E1, which is an ordinance introduction to be read by the city attorney's office. Okay. Um, Mr. Hall, will you please read the ordinance? Yes, I will, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you. Ordinance introduction, bill number 7302 for possible action and ordinance authorizing the issuance by the city of Reno, Nevada of its general obligation limited tax sewer bonds. Additionally secured by pledged revenue series 2025A in the maximum aggregate principal amount of 69,599,200 and series 2025B in the maximum aggregate principal amount of $400,800 principal forgiveness for the purpose of financing the American Flat Advanced Purified Water Facility APWF sewage project for the city providing the form terms and conditions of the bonds and other details. and connections there with and providing other matters relating there too. Okay. Thank you very much, madame clerk. Do we have any public comment? We do not have any public comment on this item. Okay. Do we have any discussions or questions from council on this? I'll make a motion. Okay. I'd like to move to adopt uh this ordinance introduction E1. Do you need me to read this whole thing or what's the story? Just a motion to refer. I think a motion to refer. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Motion carries unanimously. Moving on to item E2. Council members, do we need a presentation on this? No, but I have a question. Okay. Okay. I thought u Mr. Pingry did a really great job. Um he sent us a memo that highlighted the changes uh from the previous ordinance. I mean I asked him to do it, he did it, he presented it and it was really well uh easy to understand. Um the one thing I didn't get a qu answer to and that was years ago years ago um I asked Mr. Pingry when we were going to adopt the there's a southwest um convention on um implementing EV charging. Okay. and he had told me at that time the next code update and what I'm not sure is is it included. This has come out from the Southwest Energy Project and I didn't know Chris, thank you. I didn't even know you were here. Um I didn't know if this ended up did we end up since it's part of the electrical code, did we end up incorporating anything about the charging stations? Sorry, Chris Pingry for the record. Um can you repeat that question please? So, a couple years ago, you and I uh talked about the EV charging stations and you said like the country was different places on it and I discussed the Southwest Energy Project I think it's called and they have a model code that Denver's adopted and other communities have adopted and years ago I asked you when would we be adopting it and I thought you said the next time we updated the code and I just didn't know if you there's so much in this code I didn't know if it was buried in there somewhere. It's a it's a great question and yes, we did have that conversation and the region and to stay consistent with the state of Nevada, the EV charging is all incorporated into the appendices of both the inter international residential and international building code. Okay. To where those appendices are basically guidelines for departments uh building departments throughout the the the country or in our case the state to use those as a professional document. So if one is to install an EV charger in a in a residence or a commercial building, that gives you the guidelines on how it's done and how it's done safely. Okay. Um so we have not nothing in the uh in our regional amendments or in the international residential code or bu building code requires um EV charging stations, but it gives us the tools in the appendices to install them safely and how they would be wired. All right. Thank you. I I think it's probably a two-part process. One is the how and then the other is a policy question of should you. And um in the Southwest Energy Project, they recommend cities do adopt a policy that um says if you have X amount of parking spots, which is usually in our building development code, if you have X amount of parking spots, a certain percentage of them should be two different ways. One would be um EV ready. That means plug-andplay. And another would be uh well I might have the terms but the other one would be the cables run if the developer later wants to put it in at least the cables put in with the concrete. You don't have to tear everything up to put in a EV charging station. So they've got the panel correct and the conduit correct. So we're not there yet but we are with if you is th [TRANSCRIPT TRUNCATED DUE TO EXCESSIVE LENGTH TO PREVENT PROCESSING COSTS]