good morning everyone thank you so much for being here I know we're waiting on a couple of council members Madam clerk you ready good morning Madame mayor give you give us just a second to get everything running and we'll be ready to go sure does me you're good okay close to [Music] being you love Hedgehog huh do you have one uh I used to you used to are you going to get another one like to take care of all right Madame mayor if you're ready to go we are ready to rock and roll um Jackie can we use your uh microphone this is Jackie she's our city manager she's the big cheese she actually runs everything even people think blue means it's off green means it's on turn it on when you're [Music] ready good job all right good morning everyone thank you so much for being here um to kick off the meeting I am very excited I have a very special guest mayor for the day lily Blackburn nice to meet you um and many of you probably know Chaz in our community he does a lot of work in hospice and I was fortunate enough to meet Lily at an event and I looked right at her and she was so incredibly intelligent and kind and I said you look like a future mayor but may future President right girls can do anything yes okay so you go to Von Middle School yes you're 12 years old and I hear that you actually like a funny animal what animal is that um I don't think I don't think they're funny they're definitely um exotic but I like hedgehogs I used to have one you used to have Hedgehog yes his name was cuddles cuddles okay I love that what else do you like to play soccer um I don't do any sports but yes I do like soccer oh you do you do like soccer okay well good I'm excited to have you um and then you are going to end up leading Us in the pledge so at this point um Madam clerk is there anything you need to uh do before I lead us in the pledge nothing okay great all right ly guess what you get to lead us in the pledge so we're going to stand up take it away I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all wow good job well done all right Madam clerk I'm going to send it to you thank you Madame mayor we're calling rooll for Wednesday November 13th council member breus absent at this time D here Martinez here eert absent at this time Taylor here Rees here shivi here vice mayor for the day Blackburn will you call that again vice mayor or mayor for the day lily Blackburn here thank you Madame Mayors you do have a quorum of the Reno City Council okay thank you very much all right I'm going to send it I think we have a couple of proclamations correct Madam clerk we do have some proclamations today and I'm not sure if you wanted to invite um Lily's dat up to say a couple words about mayor of the day that's also you're also welcome to do that as well I actually am um I thought we would read proclamations and then we can meeting over to Lily council member Ebert is present online and council member Taylor if you'd like to take it away for your Proclamation today it's all yours thank you vice mayor would you like to join me at the podium go for it the acting mayor or the vice mayor I'm sorry the oh thank you was lots of responsibility there Lily don't worry about it not a stressful job at all okay we didn't rehearse this so we're we're on the Fly here if I read this one can you read that one okay whereas National homeless youth awareness month was designated by the US Senate in 2021 with November being the time to the 2.5 million youth per year across the United States experiencing homeless and and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development found that on a single night in 2023 more than 34,700 people under the age of 25 experienced homelessness a 15% increase from 2022 and whereas homeless youth in Nevada are particularly vulnerable world to countless dangers including physical and sexual assault mental and behavioral health issues and a heightened risk of trafficking and whereas the City of Reno is committed to addressing homelessness throughout comprehensive ensive initiatives initiatives that include Outreach services and resources to support Youth and families facing housing insec and whereas the Eddie House in Reno served 511 youth provided 16,48 bed nights and provided 1,20 counseling sessions in 2023 and is Nevada's only nonprofit dedicated specifically to ending youth homelessness by providing any young person the support and Life School skills necessary for sustainable Independence and and you can say your name what you say now therefore now therefore I I your name Lily yes Blackburn um mayor of the city Areno of the day um do you hereby declare November 2024 National Youth homeless Awareness Month Yay good job job that is fantastic we have the folks here from the Eddie house and they incredible director you want to say something yes I will uh for the record my name is Trevor Macaluso and I'm the chief executive officer of the Eddie house and we are so appreciative um of what the City of Reno is doing uh support Eddie house and to uh Mark November as National homeless youth Awareness Month uh we look forward to Future opportunities to partner together um for example the City of Reno supports us with their cdbg grant funding and so I think that you guys have been great partner with us for many years and we can always find more ways to partner together we are so appreciative of what uh this means for us today and for the hundreds of homeless youth that were're serving each and every day thank you Trevor thank you so much how's the project going looks incredible yeah we are ahead of schedule and under budget which is amazing and are set to hopefully have a ribbon cutting this spring so we're very excited awesome under budget and on time is amazing it's always amazing good job thank you [Applause] thank you thank you thank you all right Madam clerk sending it back to you all right Madame mayor if you're ready for general public comment we can move into that oh you know what before we do that we have Lily's father here and I would love for you to come up and say a few words because you do a lot of advocacy and work in our community that's incredibly important and I'm so grateful for your service so and then also tell me are you proud of your dad yes yes you're proud of and I hear you volunteer with your father tell me I do you do tell me a little bit about that um sometimes I volunteer at good Shepherd's close closet which is a nonprofit dedicated to that's the pen I give you for good shephers um it's dedicated to um giving people not just homeless people but like lowincome families like clothes and like some other stuff it's wonderful wonderful are you proud dad I I'm extremely proud and I just want to thank you Madame mayor and the city council of Reno for having Lily it's so imperative that we show our youth that young ladies can do anything they set their mind to that we break party lines and it's about the causes and those we're trying to serve who are vulnerable in our community and I couldn't be prouder to be your father Lily and I just want to encourage you keep being the change keep loving people and being the difference and show your friends and together we have a bright future with kids like you oh thank you I love that uh wow do you want to cry no yes I want to cry I want to cry that was so incredibly kind okay we're going to go into public comment you ready all right Madam clerk thank you Madame mayor thanks you guys for coming thank you our first item today is opening 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 meetings https coland SL l i n k s period re n o period G oov SL c u n c i l 1-en 13 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 3 minutes per person and may pretend matters both on and off the council's agenda Council may not take action upon any matter not agendized 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 state your name and you will be afforded 3 minutes for those participating in Chambers in accordance with Council rules 6.3.1 one while in this room please be respectful disrupt a behavior from audience members like clapping yelling whistling Etc which impede the meeting May result in a warning issued by the presiding officer and if the behavior continues you may be removed from chambers if you're an attendee in the zoom meeting and would like to make public comment please raise your hand at this time and for those making public comment the microphones will pick you up you don't need to adjust them um to hear you our first uh public commenter today is Chaplan Chaz Blackburn followed by Andrea pelto followed by Terry Brooks well good morning I'm chaplain Chaz Blackburn and i' like to just address about some of the causes uh we have a really exciting announcement I'm the vice president of the circle life hospice Foundation which opened up the first hospice guest house in all of Nevada on June 9th we've now served a uh as a records for October 29th 17 families we've had to turn away 94 at that pattern uh we have about 372 families that need to be served at end of life in the most critical need uh and so we are launching under the advisement of the northern NADA Community Foundation our uh campaign buildout uh plan which will allow us uh once we raise it to have 10 additional beds and a firstof its kind uh grief and Trauma Resource Center by the circle of life that we've ever seen in this community a lot of addiction and suicide rates and mental the Mental Health crisis there's a lot of roots of loss and so this will have every demographic parents who've lost children children who've lost parents and we'll also have hybrid options so we can serve all of Northern Nevada but in regards to this we need the support of the city council of Reno as well as Sparks and Washo County uh we are excited to be doing a uh radiothon to start to raise money in February at good Shepherd's closed closet we would love for every single one of you to come and interview this is a affecting a lot of renoit uh this provides 24-hour Care at the Circle life guest house and uh truly a community aspect when we open up the uh buildout we will turn the uh original pilot that's in front of that land that we're currently using into a pediatric Sanctuary for families who are losing children to get that 24-hour support in a different way that we've never had in our region we will also be able to serve the majority of the 352 seniors in their families that are in critical need I'm also the president of good Shepard's clo Clos I know that executive director Dave came out and spoke uh we partner with Eddie house we partner with uh many organizations like bristle cone and Reno Works uh we also need some support for that organization I know that councilman ree had said he would like a tour I would love for every single one of you uh to come and get a tour this is affecting a lot of people in Reno and these are nonpartisan issues uh and so we have to come together and now that the election's over we all need to work together for Northern Nevada in these causes and uh lastly I just wanted to say that the great Bas and chapl cor has expanded to 33 teams ranging from law enforcement fire human trafficking uh recovery teams and we are excited to partner with new partners like the waso county uh and different other organizations and so there will be more press releases about that but again thank you for the honor to be here thank you for the honor for Lally be a part of this and be able to see the great work that's being done the tough work that's being done but the necessary work that's being done and I thank you all thank you so much for your service it is tremendous what you do absolutely incredible incredible Andrea pelto followed by Terry Brooks followed by Paul White good morning everyone my name is Andrea belto and I am the treasurer of the circle of life foundation and so I just want to you know Echo what Jaz said about you know the needs for the for the guest house you know the this the people that I've met and the stories that I've heard you know we had a a 97y old woman who was abandoned by her family um and she had nowhere to go her family just dropped her off at a urgent care and said she's your problem now and so we were able to to take her into the guest house and you know and and give her you know know lots of love and and caring you know for her final days you know we also had you know the the age range was from this woman down to a 47-year-old archaeologist whose family lived all over the country and uh I had a conversation with his mom and she was so thankful to be able you know to be at the guest house his sister was able to put up a cot and stay with him 247 for his last few weeks weeks and the mom slept on the couch and the uncle slept in the recliner and the whole family was able to be together so uh cuz the mom said everywhere else we checked they said Oh Come you know 8:00 you guys have to leave and you know you can come back tomorrow morning and you know that's not the way we operate that's not the way you know we want people to spend their their final days so um on Thursday March 20th from at 300 p.m. so we will be holding our um Guest House ribbon cutting and we would like for all of you to come and attend our ribbon cutting it will be held at the Reno Public Market oh so uh and again we need to get the word out and we need to get everybody to work together you know caregiving we Supply 24-hour caregiving Services which runs almost approximately $30,000 a month and so you know we really need everyone's support and buy in to to keep this going yeah absolutely andrean I know you have just been such a champion and you the work that you guys do is unmatched because I don't think people realize many people that you take care of have no family left so you give them a lot of dignity and love and it's just such a sense of Pride I'm so grateful for you guys please please count on us to be there your radiothon however we can help you um we're just a lot of communities don't have anything like this so we are just very very fortunate but Andrea thank you for being such a champion you have been for a long time and you do it um very quietly so you're very humble and we appreciate you are you proud yes see you got a lot of good people in your corner huh yeah thank you so much thank you Andrea thanks so much good Terry Brooks followed by Paul White followed by Connie silviera good morning it's me Terry Brooks again and today I'm addressing discrimination against some people because of their ways of communication some people discriminate against others because they don't appreciate how other people might tend to communicate different people use different gestures when they communicate but some people are offended by some gestures that they may wrongfully Mate different people when they are speaking use different facial expressions but some people see some of them as ways of aggressions some people when they speak refuse to ask other people questions while some people when they listen refuse to answer other people's questions some some people when they speak will not look people in the eyes that's a common practice for some while it's one that some people despise some people with hearing problems read lips and stare you in the face while some people do not like it when others look them right in the face some people speak with a high pitch While others speak with a low voice why discriminate against either one that is their own choice everyone communicates in their own special way so it may come out different in what they say I have often been criticized for the way I speak in rhyme that's just the way I want to speak so I just do it all the time I have often been made fun of because of my accent but when I am I just smile and then I exaggerate my accent everyone has sounds like you Jackie everyone has a different voice and different Expressions too the more you pay attention to others the more they will pay attention to you the more we are willing to speak to each other and also listen to each other then the more all of us will learn from each other I would like to thank you all for listening to me all the time and for not discriminating against the way I speak in rhyme I love that Terry I love that you know I don't I think I've ever asked you where where you are from because it's not a Nevada accent yeah I'm from Boon County Missouri I liveed there for 62 years until I moved out here nine years ago wow how did you choose us what's that what how did you end up choosing us uh I had just gone through a divorce and I was in a wreck and was kind of messed up physically and mentally and couldn't do my job as a librarian anymore uh so I retired from that and my mother had passed away I'd been taking care of her for some time and uh the weather is a lot better out here than it is in Missouri so and do you have friends out here uh my sister and her family have lived out here for since the 1980s wow okay that's good to have family and friends here yeah but we're glad you're here thank you so much glad to be here than you don't they say Missour Missour theyi well I know but there's like a little accent sometimes they throw in there like noin is that of New Orleans it's noin yeah all right thank you so much Terry love it where are we at on our chapters uh this is chapter 42 and just so you know I've only got four more chapters to go okay for this book and then I've already then we got to start a new one yeah okay thanks Terry Paul White followed by Connie silviera followed by Joseph Schmidt Paul white it's unbelievably ironic to me this morning that you'd seek to profess your interest in supporting children who could be in danger of being trafficked the law you're refusing to enforce on homeless being able to live by the river and just in camps anywhere I don't know of a camp where there's not miners being trafficked if you care about that you don't need to give a proclamation you need to tell allow our police to do their job and arrest the ones who are out there illegally camped and again so there's a somebody's not telling the truth there's not an officer you can talk to who will tell you that they're not restrained from enforcing the law by the councel or mayor whatever they'll say depending who you talk to I it's hard to believe that our police chief would just go Rogue and decide she wasn't going to enforce the laws also in terms of the children as we sit here this morning is anybody aware that in every High School we've got this morning they're in there right now and in many of our middle schools we've got girls anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen per school being trafficked it's gone on this way forever and in fact the council cut the funding back from the police that was helping to try to track that down a little bit but the thing to finish with is in several conversations with the mayor and the police chief over in Sparks and if anybody hasn't gone to the GSR and simply looked across to the water plane plant from our side and looked at our side from the water plant what's wrong here you almost don't see any homeless in Sparks you certainly see none on the river coming down from Center down past the library this morning there's so many so many homeless guys ready to get in and just take over the library today no parent in their right mind would go in there this beautiful little Plaza right out here is just packed already with guys who would keep anybody decent from hanging around there all day and so what's Sparks doing they're just enforcing the law and they care about them they offer them help if they don't want it they say we care but we're going to ticket you and you'll end up in jail and I don't talk to a homeless person who doesn't respect and actually like the Sparks people the cops for how they treat them I don't meet one sadly because I've got a lot of cop friends in Reno I don't know one homeless who doesn't hate the Reno cops because all they can do is yell at them they can't tick at him they just performed a cleaning service the other day on our side they just went over told him to leave took all their garbage out and then they could come back after the cleaning session last thing I'd leave with you mayor Lawson said he's invited every one of you plus our police chief to come over and do a ride along with his police who handled the homeless and see how they do it as invited every one of you and I asked him how many of you had taken him up on and he said none please consider doing this this thank you Mr White I'm happy to meet with you I will make sure that we do that I just want to remind you there are no services in the city of Sparks so they all come everyone brings um their people that they interact with over here to the City of Reno to get services so I want to remind everyone of that that we are the ones that are providing services not the city of spark so this is where they get help well I I so thank you we we do need a talk I would call you you have to call me because your number's not list Ed well that's a good thing probably no no for as a mayor a mayor absolutely it is list it is listed by law you have to list everything it's all on online yes anyway um this is council member Ebert can I make a comment hello go ahead oh I was just going to say that um I I have taken a a police right along in Reno and I've seeing how our police officers interact with the the NH house in our area and I've seen the um you know they they treated them with dignity um I've seen the inous refuse Services um we are not going to um haul people away against their weal um and I personally have not received an invitation from U mayor Lawson so um he has my phone number I have his I'll call him and speak with him but I have taken police ride alongs in Reno and um I'd be more than happy to do it in Sparks um but I just want to reiterate I have not received an invitation from mayor Lawson and um yeah so thank you all right thank you so much and I don't think any of us actually received any no invitation all right moving right along thank you Connie silviera followed by Joseph Schmidt followed by Joe mcvickers good morning thank you for letting me speak today um I believe you all have my handouts uh uh just an update again on the parks I know the Wilkinson Park is slated to be redone next year and we're really excited about that but just a reminder this is what it looks like meantime and this is what the kids in that neighborhood have to play with and so if anything perhaps when the scheduling starts coming up for this park if the playground could be the initial beginning of it so that could kind of get moving the fastest uh the neighborhood would really appreciate it and again the update on pigot Park I talked to Nathan ulot and he informed me that the parts the uh pieces are on order what concerns me is that when I started this process uh with Liston Park the parts were on on order for well over a year and so I just want to make sure that I keep reminding you you know if there's any way to expedite these parts or get them moving that would be great because this has been like in this condition for years and on that same note I'm sure you all saw this uh news article recently in October where there was a shooting at picket Park and like I keep saying if we let them in disrepair the homeless do move in and uh that's a whole another problem so I just want to remind everybody that the importance of getting this back on track as soon as possible so the families keep coming and uh not that it fixes the any of the homeless problem but you know it's something to think about and so I just wanted to um update you on that make sure it's still freshen your mind in case you're in a meeting and anything comes up and on on a last note I want to thank you I know you were all instrumental in our Hot August 's parade being reinstated and that was just wonderful uh we really appreciate it the community appreciates it and but on that same thing I noticed that you guys had a special meeting planned for that where you would discuss all of that stuff and I was hoping to come but it got cancelled so I'm just hoping that it's still res you are reschedule it it fell on um a weird time with other uh special events districts and so none of them could be here so we really wanted to make sure that we chose a date that is good going to get a lot of attendance okay well I'll keep watching the schedules for that because I definitely want to come and see but again thank you we really appreciate it um if you could just provide your email address I will make sure Brian reaches out to you when we reschedule it okay um and thank you so much first of all I don't understand why it takes a year to reorder a slide Nathan maybe you can help us with that that seems crazy but I don't know if some of that stuff you know if every municipality is ordering at the same time or how that works but I would also think we should remove the one that are broken because a it sends a really bad message but what if someone uses it and gets hurt it's dangerous so Nathan maybe a little update here yeah thanks for the opportunity um the the challenge with our system and I I don't want this to be an excuse but the challenge with our system is they have to be fabricated cuz our playgrounds are so old that they don't carry them in stocks they have to literally be fabricated and printed off and then shipped out schematics of yeah and so when we close a playground and Connie I want to check in with you like we always do but when we close it if we take the slide off then you have these post sticking out of the ground so we try to board it up at the top and so that that's one of the challenges but we'll we'll work on getting them off and see if there's a way to to make it safe in the meantime without having the slide be an attractive nuisance where a kid would climb up and maybe slide back down so we'll work on that see some entrepreneur out there should invent something that goes over the slide so then it becomes sort of a new Surface like they do like with bathrooms or something it's a good idea yeah there's there's an idea for entrepreneurs thank you so much I appreciate you so much keep coming back these updates are really good all right thank you Joseph Schmidt followed by Joel mcvickers hi I'm Joseph Schmidt and I'm here today because I got uh appointed by the uh City CFO Vicky ban VN to serve on the financial Advisory Board and so I just want to come and introduce myself um I just recently finished the Areno constituents Institute where I learned about this program uh it was a wonderful program thank you for having that I've lived in a lot of different cities and I've never heard of any program that takes you behind the scenes and so I spent 12 weeks with about 35 of my community members going behind the scenes meeting with the different uh organizations that help run the city all the great people doing great work and so I learned of this opportunity and I immediately wanted to get involved um so I moved to uh Reno in 2019 I'm from the Midwest originally uh I'm a bit of a nomad I've traveled around a lot in my life but as soon as I moved here I love the place and I I feel like it's the land of enchantment and I immediately bought a house and call this place my home and so I started getting involved in some of the community organizations uh bees for vets uh which takes uh First Responders and Veterans with TBI and and traumatic brain injury uh helps them to learn beekeeping to get through their uh their challenges help save the bees Foundation yeah which is also involved in the community um and so um that led me to again the Reno constituents Institute and just opened me up to the City of Reno and all the great things going on and I would be honored to serve the people of Reno on the financial Advisory Board and uh thank you for your time I love this thank you for coming and introducing yourself and I'm so glad you did RCI you know it's hard to get into RCI it's got a wait list and it's it's been so popular and at one time right before I was elected the city wanted to get rid of it and I'm so glad that you came and you recognized it because the people that put it on and the staff that show you around at all departments and the inner workings a lot of people really don't know and I think it's a really great opportunity to show exactly how the backside of a city works and I'm super grateful that you came to recognize that because um I don't think the people that are putting it together get enough praise but they love it and um so that means you got to run for office next oh well one step at a time yeah there you go but thank you to to noi she you know no great yeah she did a wonderful job of managing the program and I really do commend you guys on having it and you know it gives you a good insight into what it takes to run a city and it's not easy and so all the emergency responders uh the fire department the police department the waste management uh the new you know we get the tour of the new Moana pool which is beautiful a beautiful facility and just so many great things going on here I'm just honored to be a part of it and I thank you again for the opport opportunity well we're honored to have you thank you thank you appreciate it thank you Joel mcvickers followed by Lacy Shay good morning my name is Joel M Vickers I'm here with my lovely wife Loretta and uh she supports me uh and I want to complain about the sewer bill we're senior citizens on a fixed income and just got our bill $700 a year for this it's way too high I feel seniors should get a break and N that but could put meters on the sewer that would help us all on that we do have meters on the um other businesses and they get a break and uh I want to thank you all for your time and I say this is my first time here so well guess what you did a great job and I have good news for you that you can qualify for a break oh how' I do that we are gonna get um who jenica right there is GNA come over and tell you how to do that oh thank you very much you're welcome we all have a wonderful day and a good week well thank you so much we appreciate you coming thank you happy Marine Corps birthday too this last week appreciate your service yeah all right Lacy come on up hi guys hi I've been shaky and cry for a week so I'll try to you're you're going to do just fine just take your time and my name is Lacy Shay and I wanted to come address you guys all personally about the incident that happened on November 1st that was um traumatic and I hope that nobody else has to ever I hope that nobody ever has to go through that I have 3 minutes to speak here and um Less Than 3 minutes that man came in with a knife like this big and S the knife uh into the table and by the time he had ran off it wasn't even 3 minutes that he had murdered people um I don't know what I'm asking for I'm just asking for um kindness and support for you guys of what I should do um just for a safer Community I will be proactive and my part to do whatever is needed that's why reaching out to council code La we're here to support you yeah and um you know it's so so unfortunate and it could have happened anywhere and so I and I know you have this tremendous feel of guilt and all those things and we just want you to know you know we support you our police department has really um Sayang your praises and and I'm grateful for that you just let us know I I also think there are some services that we can help you with cuz mentally I bet it's so hard um it's so hard my employees definitely need some grievance counseling and whatnot cuz it was our employee Hing party but um witnessing that is um horrendous and I like I said I'll be proactive and what do I have to do to work with you guys code or this you know um police I don't know if I'm asking for more police presence in Midtown just so maybe I could have ran out and flagged somebody down or I I'm not sure what could have changed the outcome but um I'm just asking for I've known you for a long time Lacy you have been a tremendous Community supporter and and business advocate so we want to be able to help you get whatever you know it takes because I I'm sure that it's been so hard it has been and um I just appreciate you guys and I'll do whatever to work with each and every one of you to do whatever my part is in the community whatever is needed that's bless no I'm sorry you had to um go through that thank you thank you thank you Lacy um okay Madam clerk thank you madam mayor with that we have no additional live public comment no hands are raised via Zoom for the record we did receive 16 comments which were General in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to yesterday at 4 p.m. November 12th um four letters in favor two letters an opposition and 10 letters of concern those have been distributed to the Reno city council and are part of the record they're also available on reno.gov meetings so with that we're moving into item A4 approval of the agenda all right uh thank you madam Clerk and let me turn to our city manager and ask if there are any items that she's recommending we withdraw or move around there are not thank you okay thank you Madame vice mayor I'll move to approve the agenda as posted all right Mr Reese and second second second from Mr Martinez all right all in favor please say I I I any opposed I all right motion carries unanimously and now we're on to the approval of the minutes and we're looking at the Reno city council regular meeting from September 25th 10: a.m. and I'm looking for a motion on that moved second okay uh this time I have um council member ree with a motion second by council member Taylor um any comments on the minutes before we motion we vote seeing none all in favor please say I I I any opposed all right motion carries unanimously and then on to A52 which is Reno city council regular meeting of October 9th at 10:00 a.m. and again I'm looking for a motion motion to approve all right second second all right I have a motion from council member Taylor a second from council member Martinez all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries unanimously and we're moving on to the consent agenda and uh let me go around the room if there's uh any disclosures you have or any items you want to pull off please let me know and I'll start with council member Martinez I don't have any that time no thank you okay thank you council member Taylor nothing for me m mad Vice uh council member Reese no how about you council member Ebert yeah B7 uhhuh B8 D9 um B10 um just one second here I believe yeah that's um b14 and that's it okay thank you and I have none so would that make it a I'm sorry was there someone else online okay uh with that may I get a motion to approve the consent agenda uh the items that were not pulled motion to approve second all right so I have a motion from council member Taylor second from council member Martinez all in favor please say I I I all right any opposed all right motion passes unanimously now we're going to move over to the items that were pulled and and uh the first item I have that was pulled was B7 by council member Taylor no by Ebert I'm Sorry by council member Ebert excuse me good morning and I have a council member Ebert did you have questions for staff just if we can get a presentation on on what these this Benefit Plan covers just want to make sure that this is considered a a qualified plan um just in case you know we have employees that are um enrolled in our plan that turn 65 that maybe are not um signing up for Medicare because they're enrolled in City of Reno plans I just want to make sure that this is qualified coverage so that if they retire from um City of Reno that they won't have any penalties for joining um Medicare later um so just want to make sure that um you know this is a a qualified plan and kind of get it overview of what the plan kind of um does for the City of Reno okay good absolutely and um I do have a presentation today so um for the record my name is Angela Davis and I am your benefits manager here at the City of Reno so thank you for having me um so when we have it come up okay okay what I'm here to speak with you about today is the renewal of our maxer Plus Pharmacy benefit manager uh contract we have been with maxor Plus for our Pharmacy benefit since 2019 and so it is my pleasure to bring you this renewal today um it is from our self-funded medical plan and I can say right up front it is credible coverage so uh at age 65 that would be credible coverage part D coverage um all right let's see can I okay so uh I'm sure you all had the opportunity to review the staff report and so with the potential of significant savings this uh renewal does align with our strategic plan under fiscal sustainability imperative and so our Pharmacy benefit manager is maxer plus this is carved out from the health plan and so when we say carved out it's kind of separated out so we can better utilize the expertise of of this particular benefit manager to fulfill some of our top priorities which is compliance with the FDA regulation as you know a lot of Pharmacy benefits are covered by FDA regulation and all of our adjudication of Pharmacy claims would be performed by our per our Pharmacy benefit manager in compliance with those FDA regulations they also um provide other services which include working with Pharmacy companies to obtain rebates refunds pricing which keeps our cost low for our folks they do some patient facing activities but really give us that expertise to manage the pharmacy benefit and the Cost Containment that we are looking for as we know cost for pharmacy is going up and that's one of the fastest uh climbing costs of our medical benefit plan so this renewal does not change any of the plan parameters it's the same Pharmacy plan as before and so um we're really uh happy to not have to amend any those plan parameters and reduce benefits to M maintain that Cost Containment for our folks um it is the same benefit we get additional cost control with maxer plus we have seen savings year-over-year we went from uh the 2223 fiscal year looking at a spend of $6.9 Million last year we saw a spend of $6.3 million so we're seeing seeing that cost control alth those those prices are going up and then with this three-year contract they are estimating our savings overall will be about 500,000 per year so um quite an opportunity for us I just ask um do you the questions that um Miss Ebert asked were related to uh I don't know that she needed to see everything but I she specifically asked whether this also carried a designation as a qualified plan and I don't know if that just applies to the regular plan versus the pharmacy plan could you just address that absolutely a as previously mentioned it is credible coverage for Part D is that the term credible coverage versus qualified plan and then the second thing she asked was um what if someone at the city um you know do they need to sign up for Medicare if they pass 65 or or can they continue on this plan yeah as an active member we would be the first payer okay so um in in that regard they can postpone signing up for Medicare as a active member as a retired member they would need to sign up for Medicare okay well my understanding on that though is that they still have to register with Medicare I think it is within six months before after they turn 65 I think they do to avoid that penalty right to avoid a penalty but I just want to get that out in the public public that you still need to sign up but you don't need to carry that coverage this is qualified this qualifies okay and then um Miss eert was there anything else that you wanted address on this uh yeah just um want to ask for the record will this help with the City of Reno to keep the um premiums that the city has to pay kind of managed cuz I know that healthc care costs kind of are are increasing almost exponentially in some cases so will this help the City of Reno with that absolutely with that 500,000 um dollar savings estimated savings each year that makes a significant difference in our ability to contain the costs associated with the plan and contain the costs associated with premiums U we did not raise premiums again this year and um I attribute that to great plan management through our finance Department through human resources and through the work of of our employees as well all right and it looks like on this slide that all the plans got very high uh favorable ratings for coverages and then is there more you want to share with us a absolutely um we were recommended to initiate a benefit survey and so we did uh initiate an anonymous benefit survey for this plan year although it is still open it is trending with favorable Co favorable ratings for all of the coverage five was being the best so medical was at of 4.5 dental coverage 3.75 out of five vision coverage 4.75 out of five and our Pharmacy coverage 4.5 out of five so very high ratings as well well I don't want to cut you off but here we are at the motion and let me ask council member Ebert did you have any other questions or at the motion um on the slide no and I just want to say thank you for the quick turnaround time on doing the survey for the employees um I appreciate that and thanks for giving us the um I remember hearing that request so thank you thank you Miss Davis did you have a motion for us U Miss Ebert sure oh wait I'm sorry before we get there ask one question yeah Miss sh mayor shivi yeah um thank you so much you have been amazing to work with I absolutely love and adore you you are just so responsive and I think and you seems like you have incredible passion for what you do and it makes such a big difference so thank you thank you um let me ask you this uh because we go with a pharmacy benefits manager correct do we have the option to not have a pharmacy benefits manager we do we do um best practices is uh that we do carve that out just because of the level of expertise required so they go in there and act like they are a negotiator right it they do negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies yeah and then they have their own Specialty Pharmacy as well which adds but they always say the rate goes up with Pharmacy benefit managers why is that do you know you know we have we have seen the opposite with our Pharmacy benefit manager and if you have a good one that's um very transparent in their practices and prudent in how they're um putting together the formulary how they're structuring any of those past pass I can't say that pass through refund um then you're going to see those savings the big Takeaway on the pharmacy benefit manager is definitely the compliance with FDA regulations so and as we see marketing efforts and different types of drugs coming out their ability to maintain that compliance with FDA regulations it is so important those change almost daily now okay I appreciate it I just worry because I think there are a lot that prey on companies and individuals and I'm not a big fan um but I'm going to uh you know I guess I'm going to listen to your expertise um on this because you know the space much better um I would just say in the past I've been super critical so whoever we are using um you just got to keep cracking the whip they are um excellent to work with I can't say enough about how smoothly they take care of things if everything clicked along as well as as his benefit and we would would be okay all right well that's good to hear that hasn't been our experience in the past and since you've gotten here it's really been a huge difference so good thank you well you're welcome all right M Davis I wanted to thank you to um at our briefing myself and council member eert um we discussed challenges that we'd had both with the pharmacy side but also with the medical uh on our insurance Y and I just wanted to thank you for jumping right in there I don't know the resolution on my personal case I'm not asking for that now but I know that you are available to our employees to help Wade through all the paperwork the bureaucracy and help get the claims paid and I think that's super important so thank you oh you're very welcome all right is there a motion from Miss Ebert yeah I'll make a motion to uh approve okay and is there a second second all right so we have a motion from council member eird and a second from council member Taylor any final comments or questions see none all in favor please say yes or I and any opposed motion carries unanimously all right back to you mayor and I we're moving on to item B8 okay thank you so much okay we have to say goodbye to Our Guest because she actually has to got she's got to go to school oh my right you need to go to school huh I would love it Lily do you want to say some parting words um thank you guys for this opportunity and hope you guys guys all have a good rest of your meeting a well thank you very much let me ask you one question CU I try to ask everyone this question if you could change one law what would it be um which we don't make laws here but if if you could um I'm not really familiar with law I guess I should be you shouldn't be very honest just think about that in the future if you could change anything what would what what would it be okay all right well thank you mayor for the day we appreciate you everyone give Lily a huge round of applause thank you Chaz thank you thank you very much all right I have got gifts for you all right mad thank you madam mayor we're moving on to item B8 pulled by council member eert if you have questions for staff member Ebert do you have questions for staff yeah sorry about that um yeah just if we can get a presentation on this please certainly Madame mayor Rion city council my name is Matt Smith I'm the senior civil engineer with utility services department today I'll be presenting on item B8 which is the Tahoe Reno industrial General improvement district or Tri GID affluent rate setting agreement this aligns with our strategic plan through the INF infrastructure climate change and environmental sustainability as well as F fiscal sustainability so first let's start out what is the tri GID Pump Station in the pipeline well there was an effin agreement which was approved in September of 2017 it stipulated that we established this rate um and we decided to to do a rate study as well for that rate um the tri GID constructed and funded all the infrastructure to build the pump station and the pipeline and uh this benefits the cities for eim disposal it's it's a good use of the effluent as well as and then additionally a portion of the infrastructure is operated in maintained by trucky meows Water Reclamation facility or torf uh specifically this pump station and then the pipe that is on tomor property so this is just an image of the pipeline it's about 16 mil long it's it's uh it's pretty massive but the majority vast majority of this pipeline is maintained by the tri uh G so what this item is today it's a rate establishment between the City of Reno and Sparks and tri GID uh again this was stipulated in the original agreement that were required to provide a rate um it is a rate per a th000 gallons the rate is based on is uh at cost so it's to maintain and operate the physical infrastructure it includes a percentage of a full-time employee uh electrical costs to run the pumps and then um a life cycle cost for all the equipment this is not a construction project because all this has already been built uh it's not a cost of the city it's not a commitment to any future funding uh and it's not a revenue source as I stated before it's uh at cost so our recommended motion is to approve the the agreement um let me just ask if there are any questions I do have a question so at my briefing I brought up that I was having hard time understanding what the actual rate is and I know that you have appended the study but can you summarize for us what the rate is certainly so um and I kind of said it in in uh the presentation said it was at Cost but but what is the rate yeah it's $1 15 per 1,000 gallons and that $115 is comprised of the electrical cost per kilowatt hour a percentage of a full-time employee just to do routine maintenance on the pump station that's anticipated as well as the life cycle cost of the pump station and then in the memo you talked about um increasing you you said we have increasing costs I think you said 2.9% um is that embedded like is there an inflation Factor embedded in this rate um I'm actually unsure about that I know that what the rate was made through was the American Water Works Association best practices for water supply and distribution um I think that the agreement gives us the um opportunity to renegotiate at a later time well in your memo you say the tmorph labor portion of the rate increases annually by 2.9% commencing July 1 2025 and so I wasn't sure if every year the rate will go up to 2.9% or what you were trying to get out there Trina mcon director of utility services for the record yes you are correct that is an inflationary rate okay so it will go up 2.9% and then The Briefing we also asked you to provide um information which was provided to I think it was at Western Regional Water Commission about the number of plants I think there are five that are providing reclaimed water and you were going to tell us where they were and what the rate structure was because what we discovered is that and let me make sure I'm summarizing this correct what we discovered is that in South Reno so the portion that's operated by Washo County um distribution effluent is free there's there's no payment for cost it's basically embedded into the cost for sewer that's paid by all residents that are getting that sewer service from wasow County so let me make sure that's correct there's no individual cost to a golf course or someone who wants reclaim water so is that correct that is my understanding that is a Washo County system and we are working with was County and our uh the city of Sparks are other users to come up with a memo to give you all of that information we're still Gathering some of that still Gathering okay well we were informed there's five plants and and different prices and what we were concerned about at Western Regional and we're the one who's the rate setting body here is that some people are getting reclaimed water it appears to be free some people are getting a direct charge in this case a at Cost charge and then some people like the golf course in North Valleys um is apparently being charged a rate and they feel singled out so we just want equity and parity and an appropriate cost model so you're going to provide that to us later yeah we will provide a model of what we are charging to our current customers okay um currently at um we asking for all there's only five and Western Regional did it already and then lastly will you just tell us where when when you come back is there an update to this rate other than the automatic 2.9 will we ever review it again that's my question do we have a plan to review it again I think that the agreement I I'll have to get back to you um when when we like is there a ter is there a of completion of this agreement directors it's at the discretion oh discretion of the directors okay okay in the agreement it's at the discretion of the directors to reevaluate the rate okay all right thank you and then uh council member eert I know you pulled this item did you have any questions yeah I mean I have a lot of questions regarding this I mean one um I I guess this isn't really qu question so much as a statement is um I don't necessarily support the rate just going up um without review um and it's my understanding correct me if I'm wrong that the water that the Nords Valley Golf Course is using is purchased from Washo County that Reno is collecting the payment but it is actually Washo County water that was County setting rate for the record John flansburg Regional infrastructure administrator um so uh council member eert uh the gulf course belongs to waso County uh we don't charge the golf course we charge Washo County Washo County then carries that rate or charges the golf course what they charge them uh in the beginning of how this all came together Washo County was able to save their portable water rights in North Valleys which were very valuable they were able to take those water rights and because we were using effluent they did no longer needed to use the portable water rights they were able to sell those water rights part of the sale of those water rights went for things like the improvements in the North Valley Sports Complex that we have today uh and other uses that was County used that for they entered into this agreement with us the money that we receive for the effluent in North Valleys actually doesn't we don't really charge we're not making money from this situation we are only trying to make sure that we can replace the infrastructure so we can keep the purple pipe the pumps everything that goes into it so we can continue providing that resource uh for the golf course on into the future didn't the golf course pay at least for a portion of the purple pipe uh the golf course did pay for a portion of the purple pipe and uh as did some of the developers uh in North Valleys uh but we also have to recover we have to we don't we were trying to make sure that we can recover the cost of the future replacement and that's why we we collect that now it would be um if didn't do something like that then we would end up with a large Capital project in the future that we'd need to fund and we would we wouldn't have the money to fund it or we'd have to incorporate it into the rate uh that that the sewer users are using it was decided long ago that we wanted the purple pipe system to pay for itself and the sewer system would pay for itself that isn't the model that wasel county has moved to in the last couple years in South rookie Meadows so give me a second here um what funding source what fund would be used to replace the infrastructure when it is time to replace the infrastructure in North Valleys um it would be the sewer fund so uh we collect the money the money that we charge waso County for the affluent water uh that does go into the revenue as Revenue into the sewer fund so that will be the fund that replaces it what is the sewer fund balance currently um sewer fund balance I and and then after this can we wrap up um council member Ebert we can come back to you once we get the answer here okay but what's the answer um you don't know or um it's uh it's around $100 million at this point okay but we also are doing a rate study right now and we have tremendous amount of capital projects and so that that is going to deplete um a lot you know it's going to go down quite a bit with those projects we'll be bringing something back to you in the next couple months to or in the spring to talk about the rates anyone else I saw a council member Taylor did you have anything Miguel did you have any questions Mr Reese no no questions uh mayor no but John I appreciate you and Trina so much you guys should be really really proud because you're doing incredible Innovative projects and the awards and accolades that you guys got and you're so humble both of you are like no I don't want to say anything our staff is doing tremendous work but you just need to know that it's very much recognized and thank you so much good job yeah and then I have a follow-up question John why you're still here I think it's you um I just want to I think that at Toma we do review the rates periodically so I'm also uncomfortable with just a rate forever and it's up to the directors I do think that on a some return frequency whether I think at tomwa that might be three four 5 years I I do think it would be good to bring it back let us know how it's working um I'd like to see that in the motion frankly is that the a that there's a periodic reporting back to the council with an opportunity to review the rate if I may could we make a slight adjustment to that and ask for that reporting to go to the Joint Coordinating Committee which a council member is a member of U would that make more sense since we're keeping this cost center within the trucky Meadows Water you give it to us both because we're the ones setting the rate not the Coordinating Committee understood just just wanted to where you might want to have that made good point yeah but anyway that's what I'd like to see is just I mean we don't want to have things forever we just we want to take a look at it and make sure just like we do at Tuma that it is appropriate it's keeping track uh that we don't need to increase it or decrease it I I I think a periodic check-in would be very helpful um are there any more comments ouncil member Ebert yeah I do have comments um I'm not going to support this because I feel like we have a large sewer fund balance right now um I I can't support just an arbitrary uh rate increase without having projects coming forward our balance hasn't been depleted um I'm not sure if this is going to um you know tie into any kind of storm water um infrastructure stuff that um you know projects that are are coming down the pike but we you know voted to improve some bonding for the American Flats project um I'm not sure if this rate is going to be an increase for um the north Valley's golf course which is already struggling to um make it as it is and as I've said many times this is one of the few recreational resources that we have in North Valleys um and uh I I don't want to put them out of business they're not a privately um owned golf course it's not like a Country Club um it's it's a very rare Affordable Golf course there's five they all charge rates I'm sorry no we're we're listening okay um so I just I can't support this okay um I also you know just kind of in a similar vein I had many constituents reach out to me about their sewer Bills going up um and I know it's tied to CPI I have I just have an issue with things going up um and us not having the ability to stop it or change it I mean if we don't need the money um you know and it's at the discretion of the director to to change it um I just don't feel like uh I can support that especially considering we have $100 million sewer fund balance um I I don't see the necessity for this at this time okay Madam vice mayor I move to approve the agreement with the city of Sparks and Tahoe renew industrial General improvement district to establish the rate to provide treatment effluent from the trucky meow's Water Reclamation facility to the Tahoe Reno industrial General improvement district second um and then I'd like to see a um a report comeback this isn't affect the termin uh timeline of the agreement to so that we can check in on the rate everybody's nodding their head so that would be a best practice I guess so is that fine that's fine okay does that need to be in the motion or you all are fine with that we understand the direction and we'll effectuate accordingly thank you and just to clarify that the rate we set rate correct and then so we are not doing that obviously right now but no we are oh are we are we're setting the rate at a15 per th gallons and to our Point earlier the there's five plants and they all have different rates and so we want like at tomwa we have 12 different rates and they're all based on the cost to serve and so in this case our staff have set the cost um the rate just to recover our cost not to get a profit and uh but they did say it's going to go up almost 3% every year automatically and so what we're asking for is rather than that's what council member Ebert was getting at rather than having it just go on forever we should review it and and make sure it's working and Susan B Deputy City attorney just for the record this is not anything that customers of the City of Reno are paying so that it's with regard an agreement negotiate agreement with the industrial center okay that's exactly what I wanted to know so what you're telling me that it does not affect it doesn't affect the citizens it affects us at the city no it affects Story County story count Story County that's where the industrial center is I think it's naive to assume that a bill increase at any payer is not going to be uh passed down to any consumer um you know including my as I was sharing my golf course out here they're either going to have to increase the fees to to a point where my constituents can no longer use the golf course or they're going to go out of business I mean that's just a matter of fact so I I just acknowledge that that this will likely put the only outdoor Recreational facility in for four out of business so I just want that on the record Madame mayor I made a motion which was seconded I will call I've asked to call for the question so can I I'm calling we're um going to vote discussion on the motion we we have discussion we're now voting thank you so much all right okay well we're going to cut off discussion at this time I mean it was the mayor that asked the question ahead so um all in favor please say I I I any opposed opposed okay so motion passes five to one okay and so thank you and mayor back to you I think we're on um item B9 Madame mayor we're on item B9 it was pulled by council member Ebert does she councilwoman take it away get a please uh B9 B10 and b14 N B10 and b14 all right um Madame mayor for youo city council hello again Matt Smith Senior civil engineer Utility Services Department today I'll be also presenting on item B9 which is the tum Warf dewatering building semr selection and preconstruction services agreement this aligns with our strategic plan through the infrastructure climate change and environmental sustainability as well as fiscal sustainability so what dewatering is is where we have sludges at the plant which are full of liquids and solids and we're trying to separate those two out um our existing building which is highlighted in red on this slide uh is old it's too small for what we have right now and it we can't modify it without bringing it up to new seismic codes and it's a lot of money to expand or improve that one so our green box here shows a rendition of what perhaps the new dewatering may look like uh dewatering building may look like so we've gone through pilot testing and evaluation we've looked at the existing building and uh the improvements that it would take and then we went into a pre-design and at the 10 that was to get to 10% design and at the 10% design they recommended a new building uh We've now we've also gone forward with a detailed design which is going to get us to about 100% plans and right now we're at the semr onboarding uh project status so we've gone through all these milestones we started with uh a council approval to pursue a semar back in August and now we're here today on November 13th for the semar selection and preconstruction contract award what this item is is it's a selection of the semar which is in this case PCL Construction uh it's an approval of the pre-construction services agreement it's uh taking the plans and working with the engineer to go from 30% to 100% uh it's going to give us cost estimates along the way so that we can verify and make sure that we're budgeting accordingly and then it's going to get a GMP development which is a guaranteed maximum price uh what it's not this is not a construction project award this is just for pre-construction services agreement for PCL Construction so our recommended motion today is to uh approve the selection of PCL Construction for the uh prec constru to select them as a cart as well as approve the seem our pre-construction services agreement it was council member Ebert pulled this yeah I I don't have any questions I just wanted a presentation if anyone else has questions okay all right great you I can give you or you can do you have a motion um council member Ebert yeah I'll make a motion to approve all right I have a motion I have second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries all right all right Madame mayor item B10 pulled by council member Ebert if she has questions Council Ebert can we get a presentation please hi Nathan oot Parks and Recreation director for the record uh thanks for the opportunity to share what we have going on with the river Rangers and to thank the county for supporting the process so and thank you all for your uh intergovernmental work to to help bring this forward so um what this item is is a funding agreement uh with the county to bring $200,000 of arpa funding into the Reno River Ranger program to fund an additional position um over the next two years um so just briefly there's a some agreement details the was was County agrees to provide 200,000 of funding it needs to be expended as as you probably well know by now by December uh two 2026 uh it allow us to have one additional River Ranger added to uh our team um and then reporting for this position will include reporting of non-compliance along wo County property so um just having eyes along the river and Recon along the river to support um the entire River Corridor through these positions as as the county property goes in and out through our contiguous property um you can if you're watching the pictures on the right this is our our River Rangers getting in the water there um removing a looks like one of those race car carts that the kids love at at Home Depot um so some of the key performance indicators are service request response uh how quickly we can respond to them and also how many that the Rangers put in to hopefully identify issues before the public has to identify them for us U making sure that the areas are uh looked at and um observed as they should be uh rather than uh items that need to be corrected um engagements positive and corrective will be tracked uh including what warnings citations and exclusions are needed service referrals and then debris removal uh it's a good match as as the river goes through the county and everybody uh in Reno is is also in Washo County so it's it's a good Regional uh partnership to continue to support a program that has been effective in the spaces along the river um and with additional resources could be more so so with that there's a motion all right any questions go ahead councilwoman Ebert yeah I was just going to ask for a little more detail about what the position will do I know we saw that that picture but what what exactly do the river Rangers do sure so the river Rangers have authority um 350 ft on either side of the river um to enforce civil infractions um and also enforce our uh Park regulations so from an enforcement standpoint they do that um they're also uh River Rangers are are ambassadors downtown helping get people connected with Services helping helping visitors get connected with programming opportunities and things like that um this additional Position will allow for a double up on the on the weekends um to allow for even greater support during our event season um and and just to provide more of those services in in a space where we didn't have them and do we have like um data or numbers on how um successful the Rangers are with getting um people into Services sure it's it's included in the downtown report from a from a river perspective um it's very similar in in other areas where it's uh they have to accept the services but they are offered every time they're engaged where there is a uh a a perception of need we offer services to to connect them so as far as Effectiveness that's not really their main purpose it's just a part of their function their main purpose is to provide a positive experience in our parks and in our downtown in the river Corridor so uh we do offer services but that's not a key indicator for us um on that side we just want to make sure we're supporting the overall mission to get people connected with Services okay and has there been any kind of discussions um for the longterm um of keeping this position I know we're funding with arpa dollars now but those um you know are not going to last forever um do you think that there's a need for this to be a long-term position is there any discussions on how to keep this position I I think this is an opportunity this additional funding gives us an opportunity to show that the program works and then that decision um frankly will have to be made as a part of the budget process by this body um if we want to keep it after this funding goes up we're also looking at other grant funding sources that are a little more stable to include including Tuma and our partners at turfa so there may be a greater opportunity to fund through those resources in the future do you think that the county will continue to partner def fund this position I I I really can't answer that I hope that we show success and I hope there would be a desire to but um that's that's our job is to show that this works and that we keep going okay so how many oh okay sorry I'll I'll come back to you okay uh councilwoman Taylor go ahead thank you Madame mayor um I just would like to say thank you so much to Nathan and to my colleagues um vice mayor and councilman Martinez I know this was a huge effort with Washo County and our partners and as somebody who walks the river every single day what an amazing treasure it is and it looks so good um your team is amazing those River Rangers and all of the people that we have working down there I think it takes everyone and I know I think it's Garrett that's new yeah just it's a it's a phenomenal resource that we have and I know everybody's worked really hard to get so thank you much gratitude and thank you all for supporting with those resources that's really given us a chance to be successful thank you all right anyone else I just go ahead want to give kudos too I mean this was uh hardfought too at the flood project and then we got this commitment from wasow County to put in their funds and I'm certainly going to be one that'll be working towards helping get this did you get funding from flood yeah we it was 20% of seven positions is that how it structured yeah it's it's 20% of the entire program which currently funds one if we can get to nine then we get a whole another position so then we would have two but this is a good step in the right direction and it's yeah we would have liked it a little different but that's what they wanted to do so we went with that right M well I'm going to hold my tongue for a minute and then I'll weigh in on that um go ahead councilwoman uh Ebert Council woman I was I'm sorry I just had to come off mute um so how many River Ranger position positions will we have with the addition of this one so uh we're we will be up to seven total uh Ranger positions and five of them dedicated River Rangers and how many completely funded by arpa is it just going to be the one this would be the only position funded by arpa okay okay I don't have anything else right now okay thank you um Nathan let me ask you this any support from Sparks um I I think in in some of the feedback from turma and council member dur and Martinez can share I think at the at the turma board meeting last week where we gave our first quarterly report on that funding um I think the feedback was positive even from mayor Lawson about that they're seeing a difference and that the problem is is and you heard it with there was another public commenter the problem is is that they take their hope team and they push them into the City of Reno and we provide the services which that is completely fine but they also don't really partner with us in any capacity I want to commend the county for stepping up and actually saying what you know they they dedic they really I think they dedicated this to show their partnership but we will never ever get the ri River to the capacity we want it in if it's fragmented I'm I'm not you know yelling at you Nathan but I'm frustrated because this has been an ongoing Challenge and then you know I hear it you know this sort of strange bizarre funding mechanism that you're doing over there well I want to remind everyone there are two Representatives that from Sparks that sit over there that actually stopped um I think had a big part to do with actually coordinating along the river so I get very very frustrated so I guess my big rant is um and and gratitude for the county for actually stepping in and saying we want to be part of the solution I also think the river is such a huge asset that we need one person dedicated to looking at the funding the Partnerships and maybe that's what it is like it it tends to get fragmented that way but the city of Sparks is known for a long time I would I would really like their partnership and support and it's very very disappointing because they con constantly say well you know look our site is so so wonderful well that's because you're pushing them into our side and we have to work together to make it clean and safe and a place that everyone wants to recreate together not siloed so I'm I'm super frustrated so I guess the the biggest message thank you to the county thank you all right any other questions oh I do have one more one of the things um and Doug brought this up a while back so I wondered where we were sort of at I was a little confused on parameters like what what the areas are that they because here's what I'd like to see in my view I want them all along the River going up and down interacting with residents recreators tourists um residents because they all deserve services along there doesn't matter you know what you're doing but also you know it really is something where we can be proactive we have an opportunity to be proactive instead of reactive and then we get into trouble because we're you know cleaning it up and that takes a lot of resources time and money so I want an idea of what does that look like I mean I think you get one River Ranger that's dedicated to a specific um you know part of the river and then it goes like this so there is coordination and it's making sense what does that look like now because I had heard that they were also sort of scattered in our parks and that was not the intention so give me an idea so all all of the um dedicated River Rangers there there will be five of them when they're all hired up we currently have two we're literally extending offers today to two more so that'll take four and then this would be the fifth one along with the two existing Park Rangers who they all Focus along the river only the park rangers will respond to service requests that aren't on the river so only two positions will respond outside of the river the rest are completely dedicated to patrolling the river um identifying and responding to issues before they gain footholds and part of that will be as we get to five will be more effective there um but there are five that are completely dedicated to River Patrol River programming River um stewardship and and um ambassadorship along with our other downtown resources that's awesome is Landon part of this Landon is is working on the Tuma uh Grant which opens up in January so we can apply for that and hopefully that could be additional funding I know that that's should have been yeah it should have been don't get me going there okay well we're going to get going on it than tell them tell them thank you that's what I was looking for Landon's jumping in okay is thank you so much okay quick question before you go you showed some really amazing pictures at the flood sure which were the before and after of your Rangers work do you happen to have those or I I have them but I don't have them display I'm happy to share that though yeah we'll send them to us or whatever they were really great befores and afters and uh anyway I'd be happy to make a motion on this item if you're looking for that Madam mayor please I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries you all right thank you Nathan all right Madame mayor we're on item b14 and just for the record I'd like to State this item was properly noticed and um was this pulled by Ebert this was pulled by council member Ebert okay councilwoman Ebert actually pres pleas there you are hi I'm all like this where are you can get a a presentation please um Mike Michelle engineering manager I do not have a presentation um if you could put the overhead up please I'll walk you through it in a nutshell I'll just give you the abbreviated version here um about three and a half years ago there was an irrevocable offer to dedicate additional rideway along Golden Valley Road in anticipation of a certain um a certain project coming in since that time the RightWay configuration has changed changed which necessitates a revised offer a dedication so really is what we're doing today is we're getting rid of the existing irrevocable offer and replacing it with a new one based on a re revised design um just want you to know nothing's been built nothing's maintained there are no utilities here there's no cost to anybody here it's just we're replacing uh the existing with a new one based on revised designs happy to answer any question I don't have any questions I just wanted to see okay could you give me a motion yeah motion to approve I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries May moving on to downtown all right we Madame mayor we're moving on to item D1 the September downtown update perfect this is great all right any public comment on this item Madam clerk we do not have any public comment register for this item okay Brian it's all you take it away well thank you good morning Madame mayor council members Brian McArdle revitalization manager we're here to give the September monthly downtown update um I will be giving the presentation today on behalf of most of the city departments although they are in the audience if any any questions come up the efforts being done uh in multiple City departments kind of touch all the Strategic priorities for the city uh down to having a safe and vibrant downtown uh Economic Development Public Safety arts and culture Etc when and you'll see the presentation is a little bit different from what we've uh done in the past but when we talked about defining what is our downtown there's a few different boundary lines between the Redevelopment areas and the police service areas as um as well as different uh zoning districts and so as a group we decided that the downtown business improvement district is the best boundary line to use when we're talking about what is the the boundary of our downtown and that is the area in red and so most of the reporting metrics going forward will be based on things that occur inside this red boundary line and we've reformatted to highlight three strategic areas that all these efforts sort of putting them into three buckets the first one is strengthening economic conditions second one is improving the built and natural environment the physical environment of that area and as well as enhancing the experience that people have when they go into that area and so everything we're doing sort of funnels into these three strategic priorities and so the first one is strengthening economic conditions and so this is the City of Reno and its Partners we're actively creating initiatives to help attract new investment uh engaging Property Owners building more housing as well as creating jobs in the downtown core pretty much the downtown economy and what we would like to see as a desired outcome in the future is re-energizing the Redevelopment agency which we've already done increasing street level activity by attracting more business activity in the area increasing downtown residential activity which we'll get to in a minute as well as the amenities for our residents in downtown and then increasing the property owner and business owner Outreach efforts um so we're actively reaching out not only to business owners and future prospective business owners but also the current property owners as well and so to update these metrics for the month of September um I'm not going to go through everyone but I do want to call out a few of those and the first one is we've had two new businesses open uh that is tolls development project at Downtown Crossing teraki Manis and Planet Smoothie have both opened in those retail units that are right up on um the freeway up there and so some new business growth and I also want to con um call out the the growth in residential units in the area just this past month alone we've added the Ballpark Apartments in September that was 369 units almost 500 new parking spaces uh as well as the Vintage at Washington Square which is a senior affordable housing project that was 205 units and so I want to call that out is in one month we've we've grown 574 residential units in our down town that has doubled the growth in a single month over what we've seen in the last decade and so in one month we've doubled the growth over what we've seen in the last 10 years in downtown that will start to have uh tremendous effects throughout the downtown cores we see more people moving in walking around frequenting businesses Etc the next one is improving the the built-in natural environment these are the things you you feel see touch this is the the infrastructure of the area and so these are physical improvements to make downtown better connected and accessible to not only uh recreational activities but also travel and leisure activities so what are we doing to make investments that increases that and so the desired outcomes there is to improve the built environment through infrastructure upgrades this is micromobility this is Plaza improvements develop Place placemaking initiatives to create vibrant public spaces this is our activation program continue to provide regular highquality proactive maintenance this is also done through the city as well as our partner the downtown Marino partnership implement the the Chucky River plan uh that was formally adopted I think two months ago and then Implement proactive code enforcement uh to prevent not only um making sure that downtown is vibrant but also making sure that these properties down there don't further deteriorate into an even worse situation so we want to make sure that we're actually um holding the property owner's value in in context so that we make sure that their property isn't falling behind and so some things I I'd like to call it on this one is uh we've completed two restore projects in the downtown area if you've gone by the National Auto automobile museum you'll notice all brand new Landscaping as well as some trees that were planted in the area that was a restore project and then dud ringer bar on Four Street did some sound improvements as well as a ton of ADA access for their space uh they put awnings outside of their buildings and so that was the second restore awarde we still have a few more coming online uh in the next few months birdies will be opening uh some projects on California Avenue um so we'll continue to see those in the future we did apply for one Grant uh even though this wasn't downtown specific this is a grant for potential pedestrian bridge from Dickerson Road to Idol wild park although it's not in downtown that bridge will directly have an impact on how people utilize the river for the benefit of downtown so we called that out and I will note that proactive enforcement went from 30 in a August down to 3 uh this is because we did proactive code enforcement fairly hard the last two months and our code enforement officer has been working with those cases to get those remediated um so this month has been September has been focused on working with the property owners to uh solve those current Cod cases and I will say 16 service requests from m is actually a healthy uh good number uh that's kind of where we want to be and having our service requests taken care of and the third category is enhancing the downtown experience how people feel when they go to the area what they do and so this is improvements to make downtown more welcoming safe and active envirment and so this desired outcomes are increase the acceptant rate of services from our homeless Outreach efforts promote year year round activation of public spaces maintain a visible presence of Public Safety officers and River Rangers and then support the downtown Reno partnership ambassador program to maintain a safe safe clean and welcoming downtown so couple that I want to C out on this one is you'll see an in increase and this is what we wanted to see is an increase in people accepting social services and the reason why it went from 20% to 40% in the last month is that with Karma box doing 5 days a week as well as increased City walks as well as having a greater presence um they're starting to build some rapport with these people and people are starting to accept city services or services in general as well as the river Rangers are starting to be part of the solution as well so they're connecting with people in buildering aore and so you saw that went up to about 41% so a good good Trend there uh four new events occurred in downtown these are events that were part of our Plaza pilot activation program and that is flicks on the bricks Harmony on the river uh off the rails concert series as well as dancing on the river and so they uh I believe a few of the few of these will be included in October's report but that event season has has um Sunset and we're already planning next event season and with that I would like to invite neoma jardan from the downtown re partnership to give a brief update on what they are doing okay thank you Brian of course thank you I love the new speakers by the way you don't have to bend over and they Pi your voice up it's fantastic um thank you very much I'm here just to give a quick update and have a little video to show you uh we have launched at the downtown Reno partnership we have launched our um security ambassador program finally we have contracted with Allied security and we currently have five licensed security guards that are out patrolling the public realm of downtown Reno that is not something that has occurred with any regularity in the public realm spaces uh in downtown to my memory um security guards will protect private or public properties but they aren't necessarily patrolling the alleyway the Riverwalk um the sidewalks and that sort of thing so we have launched them in some of our hotspot locations and they are out there um doing their good work right now so if you see them say hello to them um we are so excited thank you council members for the new trash cans that are on order in about two months you will see in downtown two to two and a half months um I'm stealing the Thunder from the staff who is working on this but um double the number of trash trash receptacles in downtown that currently exist I know everybody talks about the important of infrastructure and you can't have a clean downtown if you don't have the proper infrastructure and receptacles for the trash and so just imagine on Four Street you can go from Virginia to Keystone and you will see currently one trash can one you're going to see that quadruple so we're so excited to have that and we'll be able to Brand them by their districts with some creative art to make them an art piece as well as a functional recepticle uh we did a lot of great work with the City of Reno RPD I know you're housing uh folks with the displacement of the individuals from the lake aill lodge that was not something that was planned I know it was um planned as in the results of the inspections but it required a number of different entities to come together to help relocate the IND individuals and we um helped to drive individuals to shelter and other housing opportunities um we have have definitely noted at the downtown Reno partnership in the last about month and an increase in police presence and cooperation and collaboration with all of our ambassador staff just this morning on the way here I had some of our ambassadors go we're really seeing an increase um we always want to see more foot traffic and walking police for sure and we're starting to see some of that but definitely the response to calls the collaboration the uh shortened response time we are and our 28 ambassadors are definitely noting an an increase in that um we've also noticed with the river Rangers the instances of really large volumes of trash and encampments is reducing that's reducing because there are eyeballs and presents that are keeping things from sort of establishing on the front end um and and having those cleanups not be quite so Monumental um I know that's a work in progress and we're excited to see that come to fruition also our second building at the 40 East 4 Street location we're almost completed with our tenant improvements where we can expand our ambassador services and our presence in those buildings um why is this important it allows us to increase uh the space for our ambassadors we're going up to about 36 ambassadors with our security Personnel so that's a big deal and we will move our administrative offices into the Pavilion b space which is also the retail and invest attraction Center for downtown so when we're looking for those retailers that grocery store those things we want people to invest in downtown we actually have a location where we can meet and show them all of the properties what the zonings are what the lease uh what the lease options are we actually will have a space to do that so we're very excited to have that open and um again we're so excited to have the dedicated River Rangers um on board they're making a difference already and I can't wait to get all five on board so with that I think we have a video to show you we are launching our positively downtown campaign and to just in a in a nutshell what this is there are many amazing things that are happening in downtown Reno there are districts that are thriving there are businesses that are really doing the good work there are people that are making a positive difference in downtown sometimes that can get lost in some areas that still have areas of improvement and growth we're not naive to those things that need to be improved on we're all sort of swimming in the same direction on that but there are a lot of good people doing good things in downtown Reno so we launched this campaign in collaboration with um design on edge and this is an opportunity for the people who love invest in live in students employees to tell their stories about what they love about downtown so here's a little video um as he's loading this in if you go to downtown Reno partnership on the YouTube channel you will our YouTube channel you will see a number of videos about all the great things that are happening downtown just a little sample of some people that have already told their downtown stories we had Scott dunse with Home Means Nevada told his story we have the Pioneer Center we have the automobile museum president sandal did a video for us and it really is so all of you who have a business live in love downtown and are doing the work to improve it we want you to tell your stories if you can't tell I'm [Laughter] stalling questions while we're waiting May um when did the Ambassador security start they started about two weeks ago okay they started about two weeks ago and we're calling it a soft lunch because we don't have the full complement of them yet some of them are still going through some of their um licensing but they're out there and they're working they're 247 so they are out in the in the public realm you'll see them uh in some of the hotspot areas maybe it's Fourth Street might be Virginia Street might be the the area of Mill and Lake Street and we will move them around based upon where we're seeing activities uh depending on the day and the and the different things we're seeing and they really are already acting as just a presence and a deterrence to uh unwanted and and you know activities okay all right we found I think you got it right grab a slice hit your ride get a rush and roll the dice step into a world where Nevada's northern lights shine bright and last Halls are rare in a city that never sleeps where the spirit of the Wild West lives on through daring Rapids and rocking out goes beyond the crowds founded on the rebels of resilience we aren't what you expected we are what's coming we don't just Embrace downtown we Infuse it with life we are a convergence of Adventure art and taste it's not just our city it's our identity the mighty trucky our lifeline and the Nevada sky as our backdrop downtown Reno is a tribute to Our Roots and a leap into the future discover 110 blocks of stories of residents entrepreneurs creators and masters of their craft coming together in the spirit of Discovery and progress in a city that never ceases to reinvent itself we are the unexpected been a while downtown Reno invites you to rise with us again what's your story I love it your presentation at the automobile museum was phenomenal and so um we probably should schedule that for a council meeting so that everyone can can see it it was it was absolutely you got R reviews um a packed house so good job this comes with a whole digital tool kit it has U about 15 more phases to this entire launch and it really is a homegrown sort of uh effort that we want everybody to be a part of so this is just the very beginning of it and we will be happy to do a full presentation um I like to call it the road show anybody that will have us we will come and give the full presentation provide the collateral and the things that uh will help us all to help downtown Reno rise again okay awesome thank you thank you thank you thank you any questions for um I will always call you councilwoman Jordan any questions for uh Miss Jordan nothing okay all right anything else Brian any more updates nope sorry nope we covered that part so uh just some next steps is that so we're we're achieving reporting on these metrics things are moving in the right direction but we're lacking context on on an annual or quarterly basis how we're achieving these things and so what we expect to see in the future and put in some work is sort of looking at these things quarterly to seeing if we're hitting our internal goals some metrics we set for ourselves as well as some targets and then putting in progress indicators to see if we're sort of red you know red yellow green if we're exceeding in areas if we're falling behind on others so those are some changes you'll see in future presentation oh I like that good and that is it all right thank you so much only the only thing I would say I would really like to have Zach come and talk a little bit about code enforcement you know it's something that I've been focusing on um pretty regularly and I'm seeing improvements and I'm really grateful for the properties that are cleaning it up but that we have some people that are not cleaning it up and that's very problematic and they've had plenty of time to adhere to the rules of code so um I think Zach should come uh at our next update and make him a regular part of what he is working on and how he's doing that because he's actually very enjoyable very nice to work with um does a very very good job and so I'm a little perturbed at the at the uh businesses or buildings that are vacant that um have not moved much and that's a problem so next time that would be great to hear from Zach so thanks so much all right uh councilwoman Taylor thank you madam mayor um I'll be very brief I see all the different departments here and um divisions thank you very very very much I love that you guys are working together um something my colleague said earlier the ARA money is going to run out so I would encourage you and challenge you guys to keep working and researching new tools and things that you need down in the future to make sure we can keep the momentum going and just like you revise the presentation here for us just keep keep looking for ways to improve and let us know how we can help you because this is really really exciting and I will say um I was skeptical of our rolling River Recreation vehicle at Barbara Bennett Park and it is phenomenal I can't tell you how awesome it is to see kids in that Park coming down it's like a a recreation center on Wheels and just really downtown what a place thank you you everybody very very range okay thank you uh I moved to accept staff okay go ahead actually yeah I'm not sure who these would be for and this is just kind of I maybe more so on the the way the DRP functions does does a DRP like handle all the services downtown that the City of Reno normally would do because I know it's it's funded through a special um tax assessment so does that kind of um take the place of what the City of Reno would do for like maintenance and operations and and things like that down there or is it an additional level of services yeah uh thanks for the question so it is downtown receives a base level of services just like much like the rest of the city does it so this um business improvement district area in the assessment is to do additional augmented services for and the board decides where to put to allocate those services but it is above and beyond what the city is currently doing okay so this doesn't mean that that area is getting any less attention from City of Reno for me inant operations uh police patrol or anything like that this is an addition to regular Services okay and then um is there any kind of like do does any of these fees go into any Redevelopment um funds like we're going to be talking about um Redevelopment projects nope so the Redevelopment area is a is a tax increment District that was created in 1983 um the business Improvement dist district is much like a special assessment and so the property owners in the area uh did a petition and essentially agreed to to assess themselves to pay for some services that they wanted to see in that area and so they get the funds created from that special assessment and they get to decide how it is how those funds are deployed okay and then what kind of audit are done of the DRP like what kind of auditing requirements are there and what kind of reporting do they specifically need to do to the city yep so they do do audits I think I attended their last meeting and their auditor was there given the the report do you mind if I answer thank you very much uh we get audited full audit every year and we have had clean audits for the last six years okay so do you guys do any kind of like audit report to the people that have this tax assessment or is that just something yes you guys do yes uh to clarify it is not a tax it is a property assessment um it is uh yeah it's not a tax and yes we provide um annual reports every year which summarizes everything that the DRP does uh in addition we put out quarterly reports on the statistics for the ambassadors to all the property owners and actually right about now they should have uh already been receiving a postcard which has the link for our annual report okay so they don't like get a packet in the mail they get a postcard that has a link that they can access it okay okay and do we how do we get that postcard do we just mail one to every address in the to every address in downtown I think there was there can be multiple people at a specific address it used to be at sometimes the the postcard would go to the property owner but often times that property owner might be someone that's out of the area and and actually someone who uh is more related to the address might be the one who would benefit from the information so we did change it we send it to everybody I think we sent out 3,000 something postcards okay all right thank you you bet all right any further questions Council all right uh I'd like to move to accept staff's monthly downtown update good job second all right I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries all right back to you madam clerk thank you thank you Madame mayor we're moving on to item F1 ordinance adoption okay do we have any public comment on this item we do not have any public comment and have not received any corresponded okay I'm going to send it over to the one and only Carl Hall go ahead thank you Madame mayor ordinance adoption ordinance number 6686 and ordinance authorizing the issuance by the City of Reno Nevada of its General obligation limited tax Capital Improvement refunding bonds additionally secured by pledged revenues series 2024 and the maximum aggregate principal amount of $26 million for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding obligations of the city and providing other matters relating there to all right thank you so much any questions from council members on this I just want to compliment our staff really good fiscal move I believe they're saving something like um well I'm sorry um I'm sorry this is yeah this is about refunding the ponds and my understanding is they're saving something on the order of $500,000 but our uh that's correct and so I just these are the opportunities we look for this is good fiscal management our staff should be complemented our Council should be complimented for pushing our staff to continue looking for these opportunities so Kudos all around all right I'd like to make a motion thank you yeah I'd like to approve item F1 uh the refunding of uh approval of an ordinance authorizing issuance by the City of Reno uh of its General obligation cap Capital Improvement refunding bonds um in the amount of $26 million okay thank you I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries okay uh item F2 do we have any public comment on this item thank you Madame mayor um on item F2 we do have two public commenters that have registered okay Greg Morrison and Tracy Wilson Tracy Wilson's gonna go first good afternoon Madame mayor and council members my name is Tracy Wilson and I'm the Nevada state director for American Wild Horse conservation I also volunteer with Wild Horse connection and I'm assistant supervisor with ltc's technical large animal rescue team this has been by far one of the most difficult and frustrating developments I've worked with regarding Virginia range horses due to the water situ situation first for VR horses are beloved by the community and an integral part of our Region's history as witnessed recently by the overwhelming support in community donations for securing the safe release of the South Reno 25 to Wild Horse connection after the horses were removed by the NDA for this project and donating for the upcoming fencing project which is currently ongoing you have heard that NRS 533 503 forbids providing water for horses you will also hear that that interpretation is incorrect you will hear that sunny Hills has worked with The Advocates I have had emails ignored for months I've been accused of things I've never been accused of before Wild Horse connection asked for permission to do diversionary feeding for Public Safety on a completely separate parcel that was held over their heads in exchange for other things never to be granted however on Monday of this week we were asked to talk which we did yesterday um until yesterday The Advocates were not asked how can we help how can we work together but yesterday we were asked if there was a way to help so I sincerely hope that that was genuine and that things are improving you have heard that horses don't go to slaughter that it's illegal fact horses removed from the range that are not adopted by Advocates can and will be sent to the livestock auction and sold to kill buyers to be shipped to slaughter in Mexico this happened in 2012 it will easily happen again I personally own a horse from the 2012 Fiasco I don't really care if anyone has a letter assuring them that the removed horses were going somewhere safe there's no adoption program outside of wild horse connection and no market for adoption for horses in large numbers I have materials here from the NDA 2014 it's legal to provide water 2017 it's not illegal to provide water 2019 it's not illegal to provide water we originally asked Sunny Hills to provide an alternative water at this point we're simply asking for a place for Advocates to put an alternative water source all kinds of wildlife use water sources regardless of where they are some horses were able to be moved to the north to the new water access at the creek horses in that area also lost their unrelated water source so that opening could not have come at a better time the temporary water the remaining horses were using worked perfectly the horses walked down drank turned and returned to the hills they didn't linger near the water they didn't come into the neighborhoods they've stayed up that is what we all want mostly I'm saddened that this is where we are as a community that allowing animals to drink water has become a hotly debated topic both at the local and the state level and that we are questioning this basic right to life instead of being able to apply basic Humanity there's a lot more coming our way as a city south Meadows Crossing Steamboat Creek is just the beginning I've seen the plans for the development up the hill and I'm sure you have too whether five 10 20 years ahead I ask you not to allow a precedent to be set saying that we can't provide basic life sustenance of water to animals as development creeps further into their habitat thank you Greg Morrison hi thank you I'm Greg Morrison I'm an attorney at Parson Bay and laimer here in Reno my practice focuses primarily on Nevada water law um that means I spend a lot of time reading interpreting arguing about NRS 533 um I've watched video from previous uh meetings with Council for the developer standing here telling this Council that the law is quote crystal clear those are his words and and and I agree uh that the law is pretty clear pursuant to NRS 533 503 it would be unlawful to try to get a stock watering permit for the Virginia range horses what NRS 533 503 says is irrelevant it has nothing to do with what's being discussed here any discussion of NRS 533 503 by either the NDA or the developer is a red herring what's being proposed here is using Municipal Water for mitigation to replace water sources historically used by but lost to Wild Horses as a result of this development what is proposed is turning on a hose and filling a trough with water from the Tuma Municipal Water Supply it's a short-term solution intended only to last until a long-term solution is viable that use of water doesn't need a standalone permit it's already permitted it's permitted by the state engineer in accordance with statute and it can be used by Tuma customers within its Sur service area for their chosen purposes whether the water is placed into a trough by the developer or my client or placed by a third party into a trough on private land or land adjacent to the project it is Tuma water paid for by the end user I want to refer you and urge you to carefully consider this November 12th 2024 memorandum provided by City attorney Carl Hall uh it provides it's a perfect articulation of the applicable law I wish I could say it better than he did I can't the water permits we're discussing or not discussing here are tumas and the decision of how to use the water provided by Tuma is up to the customer who pays Tuma for the water but the NDA and the developer here continue to point to NRS 53350 which they say makes watering Wild Horses unlawful it doesn't it provides criteria for the state engineer to approve a stock watering permit there is no application for a stock watering permit under consideration here councilwoman dur clarified at the October 23rd meeting what the purpose of 533 503 was and I urge you to defer to her knowledge of that statute putting Municipal Water in troughs is not pumping water under a stock watering permit nor would it require a permit for the app for the developer to do that thank you for your time I've got a couple more things to say um all right uh I assume both the developer and the NDA know that 533 503 has no relevance here both are relying on it as a pretext because in a vacuum it can be shoehorned to seem to apply but it doesn't nothing else in NRS chapter 533 precludes this proposed use Nevada water law is clear and Nevada a water law allows putting water into troughs for horses thank you appreciate that it's nice to have someone that's an expert in that field appreciate that okay good job all right Madame mayor for the record we also received five comments directly associated with this item prior to 4m yesterday November 12th three letters in opposition and two letters of concern those have been distributed to the Reno city council okay okay what are we doing here I think they're making a presentation I don't think so no this is the second right this is the second reading and adoption so Mr May I'll make a motion if that's where we're at I have questions yeah comments go ahead yeah Madame mayor um members of the council since our last meeting and in preparation for this second reading um I reviewed the minutes in the video of the last time we were at this point on Bell Vista the last time we were about to do an ordinance adoption the second reading and there were many questions and I have many of the same questions um the result of that deliberation which was the second reading was that the um ordinance was denied um for the members here um you Madame mayor myself council member Reese and council member breus all voted to deny that permit why we voted on the record because we had there were many questions the motion was made by coun council member of Delgado and this is what he said he said um where is the thirdparty Mercury assessment that was brought up by Miss rhm if you remember a lot of concerns you were particularly concerned Madame mayor uh there was a question about the wildlife mitigation plan to be in concert with our master plan there are seven policies in our master plan that speak to the need for this and there was no Wildlife mitigation plan this was brought up by Tina nappy and council member Delgado agreed there was um a discussion of a horse watering plan plan and our um attorneys had recommended that that be outside the permit but um still take place a coordination between um the applicant and the wild horse in the five years since then that has not occurred um in the last three weeks you asked Madame mayor at our last meeting that the applicant work with the Wild Horse connection and they did not get an invitation to do that until Monday and I think they met on Tuesday I don't know the outcome of that um meeting but I understand nothing is result D and then finally two final points um at the last time we discussed this there was an offer by the applicant for a $500 per home contribution to the um affordable housing trust fund and I haven't heard anything about that yet I was right on the record I um by the previous owners and then finally you just heard uh from a representative from Parson's Bailey uh about the inapplicability of this NRS 533 503 to put that to bed um tomwa was very concerned when they heard our attorneys uh seemed to say that that was correct and we had a meeting uh I'm chair of tomwa so the uh representative tomwa their attorney Gordon deoi I'm their internal counsel um our two attorneys here all met on Monday or sorry Tuesday and um I believe Mr Shipman has provided a a revision memo uh to that policy and I'd like to ask him to speak to it and what what is really going on here and then I'd love for our staff to respond to the points I brought up about um where is the $500 where's the horse watering plan outside the permit where's the wildlife mitigation plan and where's the Mercury assessment all of those were um asked for last time um and that is why the application was denied last time so I'm hoping progress has been made on those so if those questions could be addressed I'd appreciate it okay you want to come up thank you yeah good afternoon Madam mayor members of the council for the record my name is Leah picatti and I am an associate planner with the City of Reno development services um thank you for your questions I um okay first question was about the Mercury issues and there was a thirdparty assessment done and the answer is yes it was done in August of 2020 it is Exhibit C of the Planning Commission packet and it is in your packet see it let me just mention that was by the applicant and this what was requested was an independent third party assessment that was after that date I will or did that occur um that was after the hearings that was the third party assessment okay excellent thank you yes and then um Wildlife mitigation plan uh absolutely um however this application is a zoning request this is for a PUD handbook we don't necessarily have any development associated with this at this point so when I sent this to endow they didn't request uh Wildlife mitigation plan they'll end up probably requesting it when we send them the tentative map they want to look at the development that's going to occur before they require that and then once that's required that'll be a condition of approval on the tentative map and the applicant will work with endow on that Wildlife mitigation plan and then the um horse watering plan and the $500 a home um I'm not sure about the horse I mean the horse watering plan we we've been over that was recommended to be removed and be an outside agreement right what hased since then I'm not I'll defer to the app on that and in terms of the $500 um home contribution to the affordable housing trust that was a recommended condition of approval um between the previous applicants and the council and so it didn't follow forward onto this because we have a new applicant okay well okay and then Mr Shipman if he may address the last point about the water yeah just uh for the record John Shipman the city attorney's office and again um after the last meeting there's followup and clarification um council member derer and we appreciate that um we went back and touch bases with Tuma um on kind of the water side of it and with the distinction of that probably wasn't understood at the time between appropriating water um under the um 533 503 provision which is kind of the statement of NDA and the statement um but again what what that refers to is the actual appropriation of water for live stock um but what is actually being was being discussed here was use use of Municipal Water to do that and in consultation with Tuma we um understood their concerns we went back and we uh circulated another opinion I think it was just published this morning morning November 12th 2024 then you should be part of your um material there that yes in fact you know to the extent that we're talking about um Municipal and Industrial use water um it's not the type of um that wouldn't fall under the NRS 533 53 prohibition that's been cited by uh Department of Agriculture to date so uh that's in your packet that's Clarity um so Jonathan is that um so is that so you're saying it's Tom water who has the water rights not the developer the developer doesn't or how how does that work yeah let me and again this sorry yeah not being a a water right attorney I I will do my best to do go ahead um but but essentially uh I mean what it is I mean if you were to pull if you wanted to like water livestock and it was outside of the Tuma service area uh you would have to go and go through the water appropriation process that's outlined in NRS chapter 533 503 um and then you would have to say this is what we want to use the water for and then that would trigger you know potentially um that would make it difficult potentially for for a person to um water feral livestock which is and I'm using these terms as I understand them um that are owned by the state and that so potentially the state engineer could not issue a permit for that water um alternatively if you have a situation where the um you know the Tuma boundary is extended to provide essentially you know water for a project um and and then the owner of that project or the property owner wanted to fill as was discussed a trough with water um for the the horses the wild horses to drink from that is you can do that I mean there's no there's no requirement not I mean there's no prohibition against doing that and and the fact that it's Municipal Water doesn't trigger the 533 503 process um again I just want to be clear though it's still the position of the city's attorney's office that we cannot require the developer to do that um and and if there were to be that sort of arrangement that would have to be outside of the um land use um uh entitlement that is being granted today okay thank you appreciate it Mr Gordon your turn hi madam mayor good after good morning still good morning Council uh a couple issues first of all uh G Gordon on behalf of the applicant um two issues here number one you just heard from the city attorney we agree with them you can't condition us to water FAL livestock owned by others that would be a taking and not legal so we agree no additional condition should be added on the other side and being a good Community partner yes uh Madame mayor you asked me to reach out to the organization I did uh we had a zoom call thought it was candid open honest productive they sent over a proposal I sent that to my clients to review I asked if we could have a follow-up call later this week uh to discuss access um water other issues outside um the purview of this handbook amendment I put you on the record we'll continue to work with them try to find Solutions the big thing though is myself as a property owner representative and Tracy's group we're missing someone at the table who owns the horses NDA We can't agree to do things of for horses that are owned by a third party so we need to bring NDA in and have a conversation with them as well which I commit to you will'll continue doing but for purposes of today it's a second reading we'd ask that the application move forward as is um let me ask you this the um NDA are they easy to work with like can you get a hold of them I mean is there something that my office can do to facilitate that uh in my experience um they have been easily accessible but if not I'll work through your office to make sure we get the right people in the room yeah okay so that and then the other thing um I think there was an offer at one time and we've done it a few on a few projects of um putting into the affordable housing fund I do think Jackie that's something we should bring back to talk about what those things look like but I would say in this instance it might be helpful that that's dedicated to the horse side of things particularly because this is such an issue with the horse with the horses um that could be a separate agreement but I'd love to see you continue because you've got to work with Tracy and the horses or it's just going to continue to get harder and harder for developers in those areas to do projects so um I appreciate you reaching out um I know you want to do the right thing that's really really got to happen this one is really hard because it really weighs on your heart when you're such you know animal activists animal lovers um I don't I don't it sounds so simple yes like let's water them and then I hear from other experts well when you do that they become reliant on it and then whenever it stops that's whenever it becomes really problematic and then also I also hear that it's not good to have them you know in our developments um because it's dangerous to humans and to them right we've seen those horses abused by by humans as well um so I get these very conflicting um messages from both sides I I just I don't know I I just don't know but we've got to have the developers working with us because it's going to be very hard for Council to approve um as we move forward so I I think we should I don't want to use your project as an example because this has sort of been ongoing we need to really get to a place where the developers know before they even get here in front of us that this is what you this is what is required of you and you will not even come through those doors until you have this down so that's got to happen Leah and you've been you've done a really good job maybe we could um maybe do a special meeting on this or something like that but I think we have to have better Clarity because then I think you get in the crossfires because you're doing everything right and then all of a sudden you become the bad guy I've seen some of the stuff on you know that's been sent to my office and the social media on both sides and it's become so adversarial and that's just not good and it's not good good Community Partnerships and especially for the horses um but we have to have compassion for our animals we just have to um or livestock whatever people want to call them but they are you know they're breathing living um animals and so we need to we need to do what we possibly can you know you're an animal lover I mean do you feel the same way like it's a it's a tough situation I do it is tough It's hard to thread the needle between the needs of uh the developer the community for housing uh the animals the activists and the law I've asked staff to go ahead and get us something scheduled so we can have a broader conversation about it and come up with some solu that will be known to all yeah absolutely um and I appreciate your expertise coming to the table because that would be more helpful to have someone with the water um rights expert and I would say Mr Gordon reach out to this man here um you guys all need to collaborate I think we can come to a solution I know this is the handbook piece and we're not there yet but I would say get ready because we're going to want you to do something that's going to work uh for the livestock that's in that area absolutely I make sure to work with everyone thank you so much really appreciate it Madam mayor yes thank you so much and then in my second um comment I just wanted to say um you know you made some really important points that this is really not about horses per se this is about wildlife in general and to your point it's inhumane to cut off animals from their last major water source and we have seven separate policies in our master plan that speak to that and I think uh Miss picotti mentioned in future permits which attentive map that this is the opportunity to begin to address the wildlife um issues and come up with a wildlife mitigation plan there may be a separate uh discussion of horses but any tank um that is used for horses is also used for all wildlife and that in we have pictures of horse tanks being used by Bobcats big horn sheep and all the animals that are in the Virginia range so I don't want to lose sight and and get too hyperfocused on horses and NDA we're we're talking about a much broader topic which is cutting off the last um 4,000 I guess feet of access to Steamboat Creek so I want to just say location location location that's the prime directive in real estate um Sunny Hills knowingly acquired land with the last existing private developer access to water along steemo Creek and habitat for wildlife in general and in the previous iterations of this permit that was recognized um that was deleted from these uh Provisions but I don't think permanently I think that there's hope in the tendon map um last meeting I asked for what um uh Miss Brian has offered to do which is to begin to address our master plan in more detail and our ordinances in more detail so we can lay out a clear path um but I do think even given the existing um Provisions in our policies that the uh lack of a wildlife management plan at this point or mitigation for loss of habitat and water is a glaring Omission um it's also been mentioned that our fencing Provisions have forced the developer to kill horses in other words we required them to fence them out and therefore they died somehow that's our responsibility um they you're not supposed to come to a um in a contrary um conclusion the the fencing requirements are designed to protect horses they are not um designed to hurt horses so anyway uh the bottom line um is that um I don't believe at this point just like the last time we reviewed this 5 years ago that I can support this um ordinance uh because of the omissions when um Oscar Delgado made his uh motion he asked that the applicant work with the the councel and our staff and they were out of time um they had 45 days to do the second hearing and they were out of time so he uh motioned to deny the permit we're not out of time but I want to um BAS basically reiterate what the mayor's saying is that when you come back for further applications whether that's sus tendon Maps or whatever um that you be prepared to discuss these issues in some detail so thank you Madame mayor I just I am not in a position to support this I didn't support the first reading but I appreciate being able to um lay out my concerns but I also think you you and um um our leader Miss Bryant have laid out some Pathways to the future or just is not there yet thank you thank you very much okay um and by the way I like your idea of applying a $500 for home um it would be in my mind for wildlife generally not just horses it would be for all wildlife and I think we could set that up at the Community Foundation just like we set up the trust for affordable housing and um it could be used in various places whether it's elk or mu deer or horses or mountain lions or whatever the issue is there would be a beginning of a fund yeah and in fact um on the fencing project on the pit uh the owner of the pit is already dedicating $10,000 and he is prepared to put that into this Wildlife uh Community uh fund to get the fund started okay that is fantastic yeah 10,000 good I love that okay definitely want to do it okay um where is this going Madame mayor we need uh the City attorney to read the ordinance all you Carl go ahead take it away City attorney thank you madam mayor ordinance adoption ordinance number 6687 case number LDC 24-31 bellista Ranch Phase 2 PUD Amendment ordinance to amend Title 18 chapter 18.02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning to change the text in the plan unit development PUD handbook to a reduce the amount of non-residential from plus or minus 178,00 ft to 117,000 612 ft B increase the maximum dwelling units from plus orus 575 units to plus orus 69 units and C modify the allowed land use uses design standards development standards and Street design standards SCH with matters which pertain to or are necessarily connected therewith all right I um I have a I have a motion do I have a second second I have a second all those in favor say I hi hi all those opposed no all right motion carries all right and then Jackie I would just ask that we don't look at any more projects until we've got this straightened out thanks all right um item F3 uh Madame clerk thank you Madame mayor on item F3 we had one letter of Correspondence which has been included in the record in favor and with that we have no additional public comment okay thank you so this is another ordinance adoption ordinance number 6688 case number LDC 24- 000016 Calvary Chapel zone change ordinance to amend Title 18 chapter 18.02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning rezoning a plus or minus 2.16 Acre Site located on the east side of Edison way plus orus 728 ft south of its intersection with street from industrial commercial IC to mixed employment me together with matters which pertain to or are necessarily connected there withth W 3 all right thank you so much I'm going to send it w three move to adopt second I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries um let me ask our city manager Jackie CM Jackie um do we need to take a attorney client lunch or no what are we doing we do not need an attorney client lunch we have a we can uh do we need to take a break no no I don't believe we do I think we're um we can move right through if you guys don't mind all right Madam clerk thank you madam mayor we're moving on to item G1 which is an appointment to the Civil Service Commission um I think is this councilman nebert this is your recommendation Madame mayor um but I think are you the Lea on over there yeah okay so it's my appointment but um I didn't know that but you guys know I always let you guys um have perview over those things whenever you are the liaison so go ahead Council woman Eber I'm going to um give you the privilege I'm sorry can we continue this second um I have a motion in a second and I would just say someone that is on here um Just for future reference uh uh Crystal Monera um would be excellent okay thank you okay so just to be clear would you like it on the first meeting in December yeah that'd be great thank you okay great okay uh moving right along item G2 that's your appointment G2 is an appointment to the financial Advisory Board well we only have one person on here so it's gonna be Joseph all say I yeah before I vote um Mr Schmidt was actually in the audience and he spoke today I think he believes that he was already appointed by our um Finance director but oh that was the gentleman here got it okay and so um it sounds like she's recommended him so there you go great okay uh all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries all right item G3 item G3 is to the renos uh as the Reno citizen representative to the TRC okay of Kathleen temp how did we spell her or say her last name temper second tner all right tner hm okay um I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries item G4 this is W for uh NAB yeah um I'd like to appoint Ernest uh berck and Kelly or at this time okay I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries all right item G5 uh is election of vice mayor I would like to appoint um councilwoman second I have Motion in a second go ahead I wanted to make a nomination for Miguel Martinez okay I just think he's he's really been invested and been a great um you know Community representative so I just wanted to make that nomination all right um go ahead councilman yeah I appreciate the nomination I'm GNA uh support council member Taylor in this endeavor and wish her the best the vice mayor thank you so much uh I have a motion and a second all those in favor say say I all those opposed motion carries all right item G1 uh any boards and commissions uh upcoming local community events any updates from Council no okay uh Madame clerk public hearings at 6m I don't see anything on here we do not have any public hearings and so for our closing public comment we do not have anyone registered we did receive two letters after 400 p.m. yesterday um either not directly associated with an item or just late and so those have been included in the record is two letters of concern so with that we're on item k a motion to adjourn okay before we do that I do want to recognize Brandy Anderson sat here soon to be councilwoman Randy Anderson sat here all day with us I can barely see her over there she's kind of hiding but thank you for coming and we're excited for you to sit in one of our seats up here for w six it's very um um it's going to be a great great addition to the council so thank you thank you very much all right um I think we had a motion to adjourn we did all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries by the way Brandy that's one motion we can always all agree on thanks everyone awesome so but um wasn't sure I wanted to make sure I got it right for