oh now i can see everyone nice imagine what glasses will take all right we're ready to call this meeting to order all right thank you so much i appreciate it all right i've got vice mayor to the left of me now good okay all right sounds good all right hello everyone thank you so much for being here we appreciate it so we're gonna start the meeting um i think councilwoman weber will be here shortly so we are going to start with the pledge allegiance and i would love for my good friend donna klontz to lead us in the blood i pledge allegiance law of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right madam clerk thank you madam mayor we'll go ahead and call roll for the thursday august 25th special city council meeting council member brackets absent this time doer delgado weber absent at this time rhys chibi here madam mayor you do have a quorum of the reno city council okay thank you so much i'm going to send it right back to you for public comment thank you our first item today is general public comment it should be noted for those in the audience that comments are to be addressed to the mayor and council as a whole comments heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the council's agenda please note that council may not take action upon any matter not agendized on today's agenda when you are called on for public comment please state your name for the record and begin speaking the timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded three minutes if you're an attendee in the zoo meeting and would like to make general public comment please raise your hand at this time lastly while in this room please be respectful warnings will be issued by the presiding officer if there is disruptive behavior and you will be asked to leave chambers if the behavior continues our first general public commenter today is donnaclons and your first step are we on yes morning madam mayor mr city manager and council my name is donna klonce i live in ward 5 and so i'll be doing a little public comment later on on your agenda but i wanted to talk to you about two other things that are really important um to our senior community i've given the clerk a handout every one of you should have one about the first items about paradise park and we the senior community is really concerned that the city might lease that that activity center building to a non-profit that building has been senior recreation premier for many many years ever since i've lived here and i've been in reno since 1999 and so there will be a bunch of public meetings where we're rallying seniors we had about 90 folks at the park and rec commission meeting about it who all almost all there was there was just one person who really spoke up about supporting it almost all said please don't do this we have 1500 seniors low-income seniors that live right there nearby who can walk and they would be hard-pressed to get on buses and have to go to anywhere else no other places that have been been suggested are actually feasible and usable by the seniors so i'm i'm just alerting you the issue is is out there you may be hearing from the community if you haven't already and we're looking forward to having a conversation about all of this stuff second of all i wanted to just talk to you briefly about the age friendly activity that we've been involved in and thank you to the council for getting us started back in 2018 with our reno age friendly and it's grown to sparks city of sparks has now got an age-friendly activity that's just getting started and washable county will be creating one soon so all three entities will be working on age friendly activities together the age friendly group that that meets these days is about 140 people and we talked about the paradise park situation and we agreed in consensus that we would support keeping paradise open continuing to attend these meetings getting as many community members as possible involved so that you can hear from everybody about this so um age friendly group is supporting keeping paradise um and increasing it the second part of that issue around paradise park is that i think all of you are aware that paradise park has got its problems in terms of safety it has become a place that there are many aggressive homeless there that cause issues to the folks around it there's drug issues that have been in the past since and i hear continue um there's um there's just a feeling of of uh it's not a safe a safe place to take a walk or take my kids into to play at the playground or go there for a picnic and it's time we change that i am i am setting up meetings with reno police department about their community policing to see if we can organize the community around working on getting paradise park back to a place that we all can feel safe in and welcomed in so that people will come back to paradise activity center who are afraid to go out there i've heard this from many of the folks that live around there that they just don't like to walk there or be around it because they never know what's going to pop out and it's not been good so please be aware we're working on that we look for your support on that one as well so thank you so much for your time see you later thank you miss klonce also is friday the close of the senior games friday night oh that's what i'm yes next friday is closed this is beanbag baseball thank you so much and you'll be happy to know that we are going to put in a bid to host the national senior games absolutely great followed by james fleming via zoom and megan o'farrell via zoom good afternoon honorable mayor members of the members of the council my name is charles aglabot i live at 543 on morningstar drive in northwest reno i live in ward 5. i'm here to provide publicly my support to mr elliott mailing he is one of the many many distinguished and very very qualified candidates for the opening for for ward 5 council member position i've known mr malin for a really long time and i know him to be an upright and moral man and and his ability to stand up or his ability to stand up for what is right and ability to go across party lines and and collaborate about issues and about things to to to do to address those issues is very very it's going to be very useful to the city council it would help the city council to go further in the right direction and lead the city to to succeed and he has been involved in a lot of community events he has been involved in a lot of community organizations that give back to reno and and he has a lot of experience that goes beyond the city um he has a lot of experience with the state so i just want to i just want to implore the members of the committee or the council who's going to pick the finalists today i think to highly consider mr mainland thank you thank you so much james fleming via zoom james please unmute state your name for the record and begin speaking okay we're going to go to our next commenter in the meantime which is megan o'farrell oh never mind oh sorry uh it went back to me um i'd like to follow up on a june meeting that the council did when they uh revised chapter 18 which um has to do with development in reno and i i think it's a followed alarming trend it's been going on in reno um you guys probably have noticed that the jacobs development is not going very well still mostly dirt patches and parking lots where there used to be some affordable housing there's a reason for that it is the 1966 highway legislation there's not allowed to be development large signs other than housing or like gas stations fix-it shops within 500 feet of the lincoln highway and as that is a currently it's an existing road that was paid for by the federal government and that's why reno is the way that it is it's motor lodges with the exception of like his sails and golden silver which uh predate the legislation i mean um gold dust west kind of uh exception that proves the rule because it's so far back from 4th street so you see what i'm saying and that has never been addressed that they can't develop on 4th street everyone's just kind of sneaky about it and i think that the 45 million that we're planning on borrowing for bond issue for flood prevention is the same thing i don't think it's going to do i don't think it's gonna save lockwood next time there's a 1997 flood type flood and i've noticed that the big equipment like the de water fires um or the water purifiers that are part of that big project around the truckee those are instantly being privatized that's in the new chapter 18 documents that you don't have to take my word for it and who owns that land where it will be privatized of course jacobs um and so now we're back and um i think uh we're better than that um [Music] thank you our next public commenter is megan o'farrell hello can you hear me we can please state your name for the record and begin speaking thank you my name is megan o'farrell for the record and i'm calling in today to request that the city council use their best discretion to help select a candidate for our ward 5 council seat position it's unfortunate that we were not able to have a public special election to be able to allow the community to vote for this position ourselves but in that place you're in a position to be able to select a candidate for us that reflects what we are looking for in terms of support for our community and there are many people on the list of applicants right now who are pillars in our community who are working as inclusive and diverse members to support how we move forward and they would be great additions to our city council and so i would highly encourage everyone on the council today to please take the consideration of the public commenters both here today and through digital inserts to be able to ensure that you're listening to the community uh as they're asking for this support and so i personally would love to recommend and i apologize if i mispronounce anyone's names tara webster jacqueline duran ersten whitton and zela lem bogal all of these folks are people who are pillars again in our community and come from a wide range of backgrounds and are in service to our community and would be wonderful additions to our city council so i hope you consider them in your nominations thank you madam mayor with that we have no additional general public comment so we're moving into item a4 approval of the agenda you know what madam clerk before we start because i want to make sure i follow a process um and maybe they should go under public comment i so what i want to say is that i think many of us really wanted to have a special election because we thought the timing was so close to this election that we just thought no-brainer that you could have it on there and then we found out it was eight months and that's quite a long time to leave that seat uh vacant and especially there's a lot of work that's happening and we all serve on countless boards and commissions and so um i just think you know it makes sense to do this process um i would also like to say and i don't know madam clerk if if it's possible but i really think that i would love to have councilwoman breakfast participate in the process um you know many of you guys know we disagree a lot on various things but i think it's important as a body for all of us to weigh into this decision i sh you know she was part of the process when we selected councilman bobsien and councilman reese i think they were both your top picks and then we also went through a judge's appointment which um you know my candidate didn't get selected and sometimes you know that's just the way it happens and so just because you know you might not have um you've lost one vote we still would you know love to see the body participate in in the process and you know i value her input greatly and i don't know if it's possible if you could you know get her on the phone um you know i just i really think it's important mayor are you asking to call a recess to see if we can get yeah absolutely i absolutely would okay so we will call a recess at 12 23 and reconvene hopefully in about five minutes okay thank you so much all right all right madam mayor madam mayor madam clark thank you so we will reconvene at 12 31 with council members absent i was unable to reach her by phone email and text message so at this point we can choose to proceed okay or continue this meeting thank you um and you know that's too bad because i really i do i value her input um so the other thing i kind of want to say is that i think we forget like with word only voting and it's something that i honestly haven't supported because i think we all have to be rooting for reno and then a lot of times what happens is like oh that's not my word it doesn't make a difference and i it and matter of fact if you think about it at times you know maybe you live in ward one but you have a business in ward five and still the things and the decisions that we make affect all of us so um i would just you know remind my council members and even sometimes i'll show up to ground breakings and i get one council member and it used to be where all council members used to show up and participate and i just you know i just have this philosophy you all have to be rooting for reno even if we disagree at times you know so um so madam clerk if she should happen to ping you i absolutely welcome her participation thank you okay all right so where are we at we are on item a4 approval of the agenda okay i have a motion from councilman reese a second from councilwoman weber all those in favor say aye all those opposed motion cares unanimously thank you so we're moving into our item of the day which is discussion and potential direction to staff regarding the finalist selection process and the selection of finalists for the ward 5 city council member vacancy we'll start today with public comment on this item with which we have quite a few so i'll just remind those in the audience when you step up to the podium please state your name for the record and we will be in the timer we do have several commenters today so you will be getting three minutes and please remember to be timely when the timer goes off please step back for the next individual alex goff is our first commenter today my name is alex golf for the record good morning mr manager madam mayor members of the council it's an honor to be considered as an applicant a lot of really good people on that list so i look forward to seeing who will come out um today when i was coming in i took down the stairwell and i saw a sign said you are enough and there was a lot of time in my life where i didn't believe i was enough i'm the oldest of three raised by a single mom we had domestic violence in our household started around the time that she got married to my stepfather i was like nine years old so i could see nine year olds today and i can imagine uh i would always try to get really big uh to try to protect my family um and so um a lot of my mom made a brave decision divorce my stepdad when i was a teenager which made me the the oldest and i'd help out around the house had to get a job to help out with the finances because she could provide the basics she went to school to become a nurse which now she's a travel nurse and a lot of people say education was their pathway out education wasn't my pathway out i graduated the bottom of my class and that was after five years so and finally when i did graduate i knew people who didn't graduate who had higher gpas than i did but maybe they didn't have enough credits um marine corps changed my life i had the opportunity to join when i was 19 years old i traveled the world uh served in iraq i met my wonderful wife rebecca and then we moved to northern nevada first we moved to fernley because we couldn't afford to live in reno we saved up enough money in 2017 we finally moved to reno and uh fortunate enough to have had opportunities to serve this community i currently serve as chair of the city of reno's human rights commission i'm a graduate of the reno citizens institute uh which uh i'm also really involved with the democratic party but i learned about the importance of nonpartisanship going through that there was a presentation from the public works department where they showed how they repair pipes and i don't think you could repair pipes or in a partisan way so it's important that this work remains nonpartisan also yesterday i wrote in my application about opportunity in the city which is why i signed up and there were so many presentations yesterday about opportunity judge hazlet stevens gave a wonderful presentation about opportunity through the community courts i first met judge hazlet stevens when i was a volunteer mentor for the city of reno's veterans court which is a diversionary court program i was assigned a veteran from the vietnam era and i think that we had the opportunity to learn so much from each other and i was thankful for that experience lastly though i said i struggled in high school i ended up i just graduated with my master's degree from cornell and i was asked to speak for our cohort and so i actually as part of that speech read from my statement of purpose which 30 seconds i'll read the last line of my statement of purpose said if i'm admitted when i finish this program i'm not sure the exact direction i would want to go in i have ideas but what i know is that it will be centered on my community service is important to me and i believe this program will allow me to be better in service to that goal and so service is something i've always sought out recently i ran for the assembly and i lost in a primary and the last thing i would like to say with 10 minutes is that losing a race doesn't make you a loser it doesn't make you a failure but i think that it's important to continue to find opportunities to serve and i know if that this isn't it that i will continue to work with you all to find those opportunities to serve the community thank you thank you for your service wow you eloquently stepped away he was very graceful i love it additionally if there are members in the zoo meeting that would like to make public comment please raise your hand at this time phil shikoloni followed by mike gibbons followed by gary cecil good afternoon for those of you i don't know in the room my name is phil shikoloni and i spent my entire adult life working for the reno police department where i finally retired and i believe that experience plus the fact that i lived in ward 5 for 42 of my 50 years on this earth qualifies me to speak about uh that vacant position and my endorsement of jacob williams furthermore i spent my last 12 years as a robbery homicide detective where unfortunately i was on the task force of the fbi to investigate several high-ranking city arena department heads and council members none of you guys relax before your time but that uh that unique journey gave me insight into the world the council and what you guys do and how you affect this community in a positive way that's why i believe jacob is a perfect fit for this council uh he's a retired my time didn't go off by the way it's right in front of you yeah it's not going off yeah well jacob is a retired law enforcement officer with a proven track record of honor integrity fairness level-headedness and i believe he'd bring that to this council i've served with jacob the last two years on the somerset board of directors and i can tell you this jacob's a doer he's a go-getter he's been our liaison to the our ward 5 councilwoman he's tackled several major issues in our in our community that involved the county commission and the state he's got positive results from those just a few of the things he spearheaded on our committee and brought to fruition several million dollars on projects to include a much needed wildfire abatement and prevention process water conservation and rights deals he's brought numerous flashing crosswalks and signs and major capital improvements to our uh swimming pools golf course and resident facilities predator jacob being our vice president dissed us on the back burner for the last eight years jacob's a great board member he's a very loyal engaged member of our community he's a dedicated father and a great neighbor like i said i've spent my my entire entire adult life dealing with the worst reno has to offer and i believe jacob is one of the best things we have to offer that's why i'm endorsing him and i'd like to thank you guys for your time and you'll see me back here at a later date to endorse ali miller for chief of police because he's an incredible homegrown talent and i would follow ali into a burning building anytime so keep that in mind thank you yeah we got fire guys here that's gonna be tom's job um thank you for your service you look too young to retire we mike givens followed by gary cecil followed by chuck walker hello my name is mike givens i don't speak in front of groups very often so i'm going to go ahead and go with this one uh i'm here on behalf of jacob williams as well i'll give you a little bit of history of myself i'm a fifth generation born and raised in reno nevada very rare family uh very long family history i'm a local real estate agent in reno um i got the opportunity to meet jacob when he reached out to me to find him and his family a home my first 30 minutes on the phone with him i clicked with him instantly i got to learn more about jacob through the process of purchasing a home through there i learned that jacob is an amazing family man his support as far as his commitment to law enforcement um i got to learn that he is truly there to help others and there's no one that i actually respect more than law enforcement firefighters in our medical field through that process as soon as we had got a home i myself am a resident of somerset i frequently do join our somerset board meetings of which jacob was awarded a position on our board since then i have seen a tremendous change in our somerset community um in general he's done an amazing job the way that he communicates with the people the way that he listens the way he takes into account everything that people have to say and then when he comes up with results there always have been positive sides i could say being a fifth generation born raised here i deal with a lot of people in our community that are from here have lived here 20-something years and in the period of time that i've known jake i could actually tell you that he's more nevadan than most people i've ever met so thank you thank you what did you say your name was michael gibbons michael gibbons g-i-v okay thank you gary cecil followed by chuck walker followed by james cooper hello gary good morning madam mayor good morning council members um several of you last week reached out to the public for engagement you actually asked us to participate with the selection of a new ward 5 council member and a group of residents did work together to answer your call we came at it from a different route rather than recommending one person we did we first of all like you no doubt we read individually through each of the 36 applications clicking clicking clicking and we made our personal choices kind of in our own echo chamber then on monday we met and spent several hours actually multiple hours sharing our opinions sharing some of the personal knowledge that we have of the candidates confirming what qualities we wanted in our ward 5 resident and then we voted and here's the tally sheet it was a very interesting experience my opinion was changed a few times and i think i changed a few people's opinion our collective preferences are in your agenda packet and on behalf of sunny allen carly borchard jill flansreich ken mcneil pam mcneil art wrangle and me gary cecil i hope you'll give them your attention by the way this list includes three with ward 5 nab experience a belvedere hoa board member three members of the montages community affairs committee an advisory board member for tmwa the chair of the wtm verdai cab and a member of the verdai community council our group has residents of downtown verdai and somerset i hope you will agree that our group volunteers significant time to our community and that we have considerable skin in this selection game our group is committed to participating in every step of the appointment process up until your final decision on september 7th and for the next two years leading up to the november 2024 election we will be working and in the next two years we'll be recruiting more resident participants and finally and just speaking for myself now i'd like to make one further request there are very powerful interest groups in ward 5. i've seen them leverage their power at many planning commission meetings please choose a ward 5 council member who will have the backs of the residents so we always have a proxy seat at the table and if we can be of any help to you in the selection process please let us know we're glad to help thank you gary i was so impressed when you came back with that i actually think that should be part of the process moving forward we would be very much like to do that very very very appreciative [Music] chuck walker followed by james cooper followed by erston whitten mayor shivi and members of the council my name is chuck walker since 2006 my wife and i i'm sorry is that better since 2006 my wife and i have been residents of somerset when i retired i'm a graduate of the reno citizens institute and for a period of time i served on the reno financial services financial board committee subcommittee i care about the community from some of the services i've provided with city and other local activities i believe it's important that the candidate that you choose for the ward 5 replacement is knowledgeable of what's going on in ward 5 and mirrors who the voters would select if they had the opportunity a candidate should demonstrate a clear understanding of ward 5 issues first and foremost they should understand differences between collaboration and compromise be non-partisan and non-beholden to any special interest group which would stand to gain from their voting position on the city council in reviewing the candidates two candidates stand out to me the first kathleen taylor has an impressive resume but i also see some red flags in her her presentation during her time as a member and chairman of the planning commission multi multiple controversial decisions have been made focused in support of developers short-term construction employment enhanced tax base rather than focusing on the long-term value for the residents of reno kathleen taylor's filing shows she's also only been a resident of ward 5 for a very few months when we moved here it took me over a year to figure out what's going on in northwest reno so i don't believe a person in four or five months could really grasp all the issues that are going on in our area of the city of reno her focus is on planning skills working in developments with minimal dealings of safety police fire recreation public works or other agency relationships which you your council members all serve as as members of boards on should be she would to me in my opinion be a greater value as a member of the planning department of the city and work on a longer term all-encompassing plan to the benefit of the city the second candidate is jacob williams he served the last two years as vice president and board member of somerset when he was elected the organization was somewhat dysfunctional he's brought ideas and creativity that has not been seen on the board prior to that time he has actively and aggressively work toward a positive position and collaborative results which have benefited both somerset and the residents of the area he works with city fire police public works recreational departments has been successful in making things happen in our community this year alone he saved us over a hundred thousand dollars and come up with some creative ideas for increased enhanced productivity he's worked with councilwoman jordan and i believe that he would benefit you members of the council as a additional member to your team thank you for your time thank you very much and you're right on time good job thank you next up we have oop i lost my scroll here uh james cooper followed by erston whitton followed by donna klontz good afternoon uh mayor shivey and members of the council my name is james cooper and i'm here today to provide a brief introduction as to who i am and why i've applied to be appointed to serve as a council member for ward 5. i'm a native nevadan born in fallon i've lived in reno and in sparks since 2004 and my wife joy and i bought a home in ward 5 just this march and we feel incredibly at home here we share our home with my seven-year-old son calvin and our pandemic pup penny petunia i'm currently a manager and senior inspector for an environmental construction services company i have a background in construction management with an environmental focus helping builders and developers maintain environmental compliance i truly get to save the environment here locally a little bit every day and i love that why am i here today asking for this appointment historically i have not been involved in local government or politics but i'm very interested in reno's future and i believe i can make a positive impact for ward 5 and for our community as a whole for the past four and a half years i've had my finger on the pulse of local construction and development visiting job sites throughout reno and beyond weekly and sometimes more often i've seen the development of ward 5 and the city up close and personal over the past several years and i believe this experience to be unique and invaluable to this council should i be appointed i have a knack for reading and digesting large complex data and do so often such as environmental permits contracts etc and i'm quite comfortable reading and understanding civil and architectural plans i feel i'm an excellent reader and listener and i'm prepared to provide a very thoughtful analysis and do the necessary research for whatever topics are brought before me to ensure i make the best choices when participating with the council and any commissions or boards i may be appointed to volunteer for lastly a lot of folks in our community want to see someone outside the inner circles appointed to this council i'm a regular guy i'm not in any special interest groups i'm a long time reno resident who loves reno and i believe i have the skill set to learn how to best represent my ward in the city so i appreciate your consideration for my appointment to serve as council member for ward 5. thank you great job kirsten whitten followed by donna klontz followed by jim pilsner good afternoon you've all seen me before um i'm erston whitten a little bit of background you have my resume so i won't go through all of that uh i've been in reno for 15 years uh nine of those years in ward five and uh i came here from chicago after having spent 31 years in the insurance industry the last three of which was heavily involved in expense management managing a 500 million dollar budget from planning to tracking through the course of the entire year and then adjusting as the business situation changed so i have not run for an office before in my life other than in college but i see an opportunity here give you an example for the past four years my wife and i have been involved in growing healthy food for individuals and we are now on a project to give individuals the opportunity to learn how to grow food themselves to learn how to be more self-sufficient to learn skills so they can add value to the community as a member of this group i would have to do a few things one is listen to the constituents bring their concern to the agenda topics at various meetings that occur here to work with members of the council individual individually and or as a group to come up with mutual mutually agreeable solutions to the various problems because those problems are not simple there is no one answer and it includes more than just the ward 5 which includes as you all know i'm not going to repeat that here but it includes the entire city and we have to work together to do what's best for the city that's going to require require compromise it's going to require a collaboration it's going to require sharing ideas that you may or may not agree with but yet the ultimate goal is doing things for the benefit of the city i give you a couple of things that were not in my resume when i first came to reno i was the safety manager for the build out of the women's shelter downtown on record street it was a shell of a building then and we actually building solutions was a was the company actually built the entire inside of that i was also the safety manager when the veterans center built an emergency room and so that was that kind of got me involved briefly i've been on the food court board for seven years five as the chair and i've been on the nevada women's fund for the last three years so i've been heavily involved in this community i will continue to do that whether you accept me or not but my goal is to make this a better a better place for people to live in a location where individuals want to come to and really enjoy their life thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts thank you excellent donna klontz followed by jim pilsner followed by jacob williams morning again madam mayor mr city manager and council my name is donna klontz i have lived in ward 5 since 2019 so it's it's been a long time i live in the area near the northwest library which is kind of center of the of the complexes and the homes and so on that are out there saw the summerset development get built and one of the things that our ward has needed for a really long time is a senior center we have our lovely library but we'd love to have that happen as well i've become an advocate pretty much most of my time now for our senior community so i i would like to support folks that will listen to everything that's going on but our senior community is seems to be getting kind of out left out of things these days and i'd like someone who could take take an active role in that we have a lot of seniors living in that somerset development as and they have a lot of their own resources but there are a lot of other folks that are in the lower income places and apartments and small homes around there that could use the council's attention so i'm advocating for that i i have um names in mind alex golf i met um when he was campaigning for the assembly and i i know from talking to him and getting to know him that he understands what it would mean to sit on the seat here in the council and to campaign actively and be out there willing and ready to listen to the constituents that have their comments and he's got the skills to to go through all of the tremendous paperwork that you all have to read and to analyze and then make decisions on mac rossi i've known forever he is someone who knows the community up and down he has served on almost every community board that that exists with the city of reno i was chair myself of the northwest nab aboard five nav for several years along with mac and then served as this as the chair of the reno senior citizen advisory committee and continued to do that in at washoe county i'm looking for someone who has experience and would support someone who's got experience with the city who understands the give and take that is needed has the capacity to you know make those those complicated decisions and to listen especially to the people that they represent in in the city of reno it's hard i know to stand up to some of the the um heavily financed groups that are out there that really want their um their decision to happen so people need to be able to listen to that and and also listen to the people so um there's an there's an um albert rogers on the list if that's the al rogers who was the manager of reno rec and then washoerec is it because i didn't get all the way through all the names i would love to see him be one of your finalists i've known him forever as well and i know from the work he's done in the city of reno and at washoe county that he's got the capacity to do all of those things and then i just heard about um jacob jacob williams today from his supporters and i think he would be outstanding so those are the four that i would put forward and i'm not sure how many you were going to narrow down to today but i thought it was five to ten so thank you for your time thank you jim pilsner followed by jacob williams followed by dolores shaffer whitton mayor city council members my name is jim pilsner i live at 2110 b-vine creek road i know some of you from the past i'm uh i think i've been aren't almost 40 years probably 25 of which i lived in ward 5. i've participated in much of the development of ward 5. i know much of the background you've got a great group of people here my thought and i didn't put the application in until i think three o'clock friday i thought about it prayed about it had anxiety about it but i thought i offer experience i offer tremendous community knowledge um i thank god i owe nothing to nobody i sold my business two and a half years ago just before covet i think god looked down on me for that i got out of there so i'm here for answering any questions i love reno um i was born in detroit i lived i grew up in detroit but rain was my home my hometown uh i'd be honored to serve with you i'd really be honored to serve for renu if you have any questions i'm here to answer thank you guys all right thank you and you you did serve on the council at one time what right i don't know a lot of people you had no idea you did well thank you for your service i was looking it was impressive nice job jacob williams followed by dolores schaefer whitton followed by sorry sheila pisho hi good afternoon everybody honorable mayor and city council my name is jacob williams and i'm here today to ask for your opportunity to represent the now vacant ward 5. let me first begin by opening the congratulating former council member iniomajaran on her new position in the downtown reno partnership as an extremely passionate advocate for our award she's going to be truly missed her work was smart dignified and most importantly collaborative and our award very much benefited from it my first introduction mr ardron was completing the newly built west park located in somerset it's a wonderful addition to the city parks and has a large open space playground two dog parks and a community garden and according to her it has the best view in all of the city our community was heavily involved with the design and the completion of that park thanks to miss jordan she gave us every opportunity possible to make it what it is today from then on from then on our interactions became more frequent as i believe she came to understand how much i care about this community we went on to collaborate on many projects including the celebration of a permanently fully staffed fire station 19 a city-sponsored art project in which our residents of the community were involved in selecting a giant metal hot air balloon showing honor to our great reno balloon race we worked on off-road issues in our community pedestrian safety problems which now resulted in new flashing crosswalk signs speed related issues in partnership with the reno police department that improved public safety mrs jardin and her staff have been some of the greatest examples of civil servants i've ever experienced it is those qualities i want to continue to deliver while her shoes will be impossible to fill i i submitted my application to complete which ms jardon started with the same values ethics and pride in ward 5 that she had because that's what the people of ward 5 overwhelmingly voted for every time she ran for office i'd also like to congratulate and thank all the applicants that signed up for this position it's very hard in uh in these trying times of political division and they should all be applauded thank you and thank you for your service thank you see chp yes ma'am yeah okay appreciate it yes ma'am so polite and sweet thank you good job dolores schaefer whitton followed by sheila pachow followed by elliott malin mayor and council members uh thank you for having us here today and i am here to talk just a little bit about my husband arsene wooden who has applied for the position in ward 5. you know we started soulful seeds three and a half years ago and we thought we were going to do small community gardens but three and a half years later we're now doing a 2.6 acre garden on the our place campus that's not a very old not-for-profit and i have to tell you in order to make that happen you have to have somebody who can truly collaborate can create partnerships believes in the partnership between governments individuals businesses and looks out for the welfare of the community and i can tell you there's no more any more committed to that i just want to give you an example the our place campus is located on state land it was leased by the city or by washoe county it's in the city of sparks so you can imagine how many players we had to deal with in order to make this project a tuition and that would never have been done without erston he is passionate about this community he is a passionate about this community is his legacy we've lived in ward 5 and we're not planning on going anywhere so i would urge you to truly consider erston i think he has the knowledge he has the capabilities i also think that he has the abilities to create collaborations not only within ward 5 but throughout the community as well so thank you for your time nice job thank you sheila pachow followed by elliott malin followed by megan o'farrell via zoom good afternoon my name is sheila pacho for the record mayor cheevy city manager members of the reno city council fellow citizens i'd like to thank you all for your time and civic participation in this process i'd like to take just a moment to introduce myself i always say some people are lucky enough to be born and raised in reno the rest of us just have to feel lucky that we landed here so my family moved to reno seven years ago after living everywhere we've lived in paris we've lived in washington dc we've lived in cairo egypt and we just feel so fortunate to be here because the people here are just so warm and welcoming and i mean let's face it we live in heaven right it's just so beautiful here my career began as a peace corps volunteer and as a as a civics instructor in washington dc after 20 years in higher education i've retired recently from unr to dedicate myself to a different aspect of public service i would be so honored to be able to serve my home community in this way if appointed this serving on reno city council would be along with raising my family will be my full-time job ever since we moved here my children have attended washoe county schools and were active in athletics and the arts both my children are scouts and i'm hoping to set an example for them that civic participation means more than just voting every two or four years it means showing up for your neighbors every day every week and every month here's what you'll get by appointing me as ward 5 city council member you'll get a listener you'll get a thinker you'll get a collegial communicator someone who'll be constantly looking for common sense and innovative solutions to just making things work in our city my vision for reno is dynamic vibrant equitable and beautiful thank you all again for your time and consideration thank you to everyone who stepped up to be part of this process i'm honestly so chuffed just to be part of this distinguished pool of candidates and i'm really looking forward to this process all right great job all right next up we have elliott malin followed by megan o'farrell on zoom followed by joel a santos it's the right height first time in my life i know story of my life uh elliott malin for the record um i wasn't initially going to speak uh but then i got to hearing everybody else and i thought how lucky we are not just myself as a candidate for this but to have so many 35 other people that love this city that love this award um i moved to reno from vegas i grew up in vegas uh it was all 12 years ago 11 of those 12 years i have spent in ward 5. i started a non-profit in ward 5 that focused on giving opportunities for students to express their culture their heritage and their religion i brought another nonprofit to northern nevada to service the jewish community throughout our region and as well as expanded the anti-defamation league up here um i love this city i like to say that i fell in love in reno twice one with the city and then once my wife if i didn't add that caveat i get in a lot of trouble and the couch is not as comfortable i have a very unique skill set and i know most of you and i know a lot of the people in this room i think i have that unique skill set that brings a lot of diverse people to the table with the relationships that i have having worked both statewide at the legislature with you all having amended reno municipal code working on sups zoning variances with various groups to help them out and a lot of the time that wasn't for personal profit that was just so i could do the right thing and that's my goal here with the city council and the city of reno is just continue to do the right thing i lived all over the world at the university i was in asu-1 once upon a time a very long time ago that was the only other time i ever quote ran for office and i've never put my hat in the ring i've been asked multiple times and i always said that's not right for me there's somebody better to do to serve in that role from statewide office to the assembly i've always said there's somebody better when this opportunity popped up i had a lot of people call and encourage me and i was very fortunate to have some of our statewide electeds call and offer their encouragement and their support and so for the first time i'm actually doing this because i love reno i love being here i love collaborating with all of you and working in a cohesive environment to do what's best for ward 5 and the city of reno and at times i've been the only person in this audience listening to the budget so good luck today thank you and we'll see what happens thank you so much all right next we have megan o'farrell on zoom followed by joel a santos we're pulling miss o'farrell over right now hello uh my name is megan farrell o'farrell again for the record and i'm calling in again to just encourage varsity council members to please make some uh decisions today about the candidates that they choose that are based around helping create a more equitable space for our city council we have a lot of diverse people on the candidate list today and many of which are representing folks on a more grassroots and community level somerset is not the only part of ward 5 that's represented and so it would be really helpful to have people in these spaces who also represent the community as a whole and can come with a diverse amount of backgrounds our city council could definitely benefit from having access to a new person who has grassroots level engagement with our community who's working directly with the people and again i'd like to endorse four folks that stand out the most to me again apologies for saying their name wrong if i did tara webster jacqueline duran erston whitton and zelelem bogalo i think that these folks have a great range of qualifications that stem from organization and community advocacy all the way to the justice department and supporting our community through that space as well as food sovereignty and equitable access to food so i encourage you to remember that while we are picking a candidate for this ward that we're also choosing folks who are more reflective of the community around us thank you for your time thanks megan thank you next up we have joel a santos followed by patrick smith on zoom and jackie duron on zoom good afternoon mayor councilman mr city manager my name is joel santos and i think you guys have a very very difficult decision to make because as i'm sitting here i realize wow i'm with a lot of people from reno that really really want to see reno continue to move forward so i'm just i'm glad i put my application in because i was able to see a wide range of people that really really love this city right being being born and raised in reno it makes me feel really good knowing that people have that feeling of reno needs to continue to move forward so usually i'm not the one that people think about any in a type of political office that's usually my younger brother corey but it was kind of odd because i i woke up and i said well you know that positions open i started thinking about it and then i got a text message from corey saying hey i just heard that there's an opening on the city council are you in ward 5 if you are you're crazy if you don't apply so i decided you know i i'll give it a chance and see what happens i love reno i want to see reno to continue to move forward i i know there's a lot of issues out there and i want to help you to give you my best to try to solve those issues my position is kind of odd in that i'm kind of a magnet in that a lot of people will call me up and say joel there's an election who are we supposed to vote for will you come meet with us there's a friends of my parents bonnie and bill they they live up in ward 5 and they'll call me up will you please come over and meet with us we'll kick you dinner and go over this and we probably disagree on just about every uh political office but we end our conversations with each other we love each other and uh i may change their minds once in a while but people will come to me and they'll ask me you know i've got this problem what should i do and i think that because i seem to attract that kind of attention for some reason i'm not sure why i think that will help me to listen to what the people of ward 5 want and need and are concerned about and on a final topic i'd like to say which is outside of what i'm here i hope that i think was mrs clark i hope that you guys will seriously consider putting in a senior center up in that area because my mom used to teach water aerobics up at the northwest pool and the people loved it she had a very devoted class and it was very important to the people up there thank you all right thank you so much and i was so fond of your father he'd be very proud up next we have patrick smith via zoom who we will bring over shortly followed by jackie duran on zoom mayor shivey city manager counselors and everyone participating in this meeting today you each have my application packet so i'll keep this brief i'd like to take the opportunity to acknowledge everyone participating in this process to give up work or personal time to be here to go on public record on in support of your chosen candidate and put yourself in the public eye are all challenges that you've taken on for the betterment of our warden city sincerely thank you for investing yourself in this city thank you for your time all right up next we have jackie duron from unzoom hi folks can you all hear me yes we can you may start say your name and please speak great um hi everyone hi mayor sheedy and city council members you know is jackie duron or jacqueline um i am a citizen of ward 5 and a member of the reno sparks community i really bring in the reno sparks uh perspective here because um i grew up in sparks my parents moved from california when i was two years old so reno really is my home i graduated with honors from sparks high attended the university of nevada reno um and all in that time i've lived in sparks in ward 3 of reno in ward 5 uh of reno then back to sparks and um most recently moved back into ward 5 of reno um as a young person i experienced houselessness uh when i was 17 when my mom can no longer afford the two-bedroom apartment that we had right across the street from sparks high and so i moved between friends houses around the area um and my older siblings um houses when they were when they had more than one bedroom which was pretty rarely um and so i bring in kind of that perspective of being someone who is from this area maybe hasn't grown up in ward 5 but does understand the nuances of the folks most impacted by the decisions that the city of reno makes and so i put in my name for the vacancy on the council because i truly believe that we need to listen to the folks who are most impacted most vulnerable in order to truly give the resources to our community where all of us can thrive this is all about ensuring that our families have the resources that they need to make decisions for themselves so that they can live in safe and healthy communities and that starts with the most vulnerable and that leads to folks who have access to stable housing have access to money and making sure that we're bringing in their perspectives but without compromising the humanity and decency of folks who don't have access to some of these resources in this care um and so as someone who is from this community uh works deeply with folks around healthcare and access to reproductive health i say as the vice president of the board of the wild west access fund of nevada which supports both nevadans and folks traveling into the state and to access an abortion i know what it's like when folks need more than just one resource i know what it's like to make sure that our folks have a holistic view and holistic uh care from their community and so i hope you'll consider me um for a final list of board five and i want to thank all of the other applicants um and you all for your time and with that i do not see that we have anyone else signed in in the room i do not see any hands raised on zoom i will disclose at this time that for the record we received 43 comments which were directly associated with the agenda item prior to 4 pm on august 24th 2022. these comments were written correspondence received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office copies of these comments have been distributed to the reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal 41 of these were in favor and two expressed concern we do have a series of voicemails i believe that we will now play my name is adam webster i'm voicing my support for tara webster the ward 5 member of city council i moved to reno in 2015 when i took an engineering position at mb energy i met my now wife tara a few months after that she was completing her master's degree in biology at unr which she earned in 2016. tara is a dedicated and passionate member of the reno and northern nevada community her professional experience and education have evolved around lifting up and advocating for her community this includes having been an instructor at unr for the wise women in science and engineering program whose mission includes enrichment and retention of women beginning their engineering college education tara's postgraduate area of research focuses on incorporating political and non-technical considerations into engineering curriculums also has extensive personal experience in creating our vibrant socially aware and empathetic community she volunteers in many aspects of our community she's a poll worker for elections cook food weekly for our homeless and fundraising she also does fundraising for these programs her work in the community is a labor of love that is central to her daily life she cares deeply about the work and the people it supports the office of the mayor and city council have been doing a great job defining a vision and mission for the city and then implementing that mission the current council has extensive and impressive legal administrative and planning backgrounds as a candidate for ward 5 tara webster will bring a perfect perfect complementary background and skill set to the council she's a lifelong resident of the arena community her professional and personal experiences have a focus of crossing disciplines which helps to mesh a community together her cross-discipline and cross-department skills are exactly what the council and our city need to implement the majority of the tier one and two priorities laid out i'm eric shivey and city council thank you and i appreciate your time and hearing my support for carl webster as my ward 5 council member hello my name is antonia quintana and i would like to show my support for tara webster for ward 5 city council member she would be an asset to this community and it would be um uh wonderful if she could represent my ward which is ward five um to in the in for reno city council i'm not sure if i'm supposed to second the nomination or advocate for whatever it is but the point is tara webster would be wonderful as ward 5 city council member thank you i am calling in support of tara webster for city council ward 5. i think she would be a great fit and would be a voice for the city my name is christian fassbender is jamal 775-247-1430 and i am calling in regards to my support being given to miss tara webster yes tara webster is running for a seat i think ward 5 for city council i have known her for a number of years she is a ideal educator um as well as a citizen and activist in this area so once again i am calling to put on record my name is jamal tarkington i am in support of tara webster the city council for ward 5. thank you hi my name is katie chandler i am a resident of reno and i'm calling in support of erston witten to fill the ward 5 seat if not him i also strongly support tara webster thank you very much hi my name is krista wanafried i'm leaving a public comment at 10 a.m on august 24th for the august 25th special meeting regarding the replacement of the ward 5 city councilor i would like to voice my support for tara webster as a resident of ward 5. please take my comments into consideration since this has not been made open for a public vote thank you bye-bye my name is talia hershway and i'm calling in today to advocate for tara webster to represent ward 5 on the reno city council tara is a childhood friend of mine and a lifelong resident of reno i can attest that she not only has the education acumen achievements and responsibility necessitated for a role in our city council but she's also a person of integrity tenacity and above all empathy as an educator with a background in biology tara not only knows how to identify the needs of our community but she also has a special understanding of how to teach people about those needs so that we might rally our neighbors around a common goal she's a person of principle which is evidence through observable action in her spare time she volunteers to feed at-risk people in our community or work at the polls during election season in support of our most sacred democratic right she's one of the most meticulous and organized people i've met and she leverages these qualities to make meaningful changes on a personal note tara is a talented diy expert who has customized many elements of her home with this extraordinary skill while mentioning someone's hobbies here may seem irrelevant there actually is something valuable here to be unearthed if tara can't find the tools she needs to reach a desired outcome she will build one herself to get us there without reservation she has my highest recommendation for this post thank you for your time with that madam mayor i believe we are done with the public comment that is signed up for this item okay thank you so much i'm gonna now send it send it to madame clerk to give us a presentation hello madam mayor members of the council mickey huntsman city clerk for the record no presentation today um just a brief discussion so that you all can start to move into your deliberation period so we have two discussion points and things that you need to decide on today and the first is how many applications you would like to refer for consideration as finalists and then the second once we have done that i would ask if we could take a brief recess while we distribute your score cards i'm sorry backwards i'm going to distribute your score cards or your selection cards for you to then go ahead and make your selection on your finalists at that time once those have been completed i'll ask for a brief recess with the body's permission so that we can go ahead and tally those selection cards and then at that point we would go ahead and reconvene and announce the votes and then take a vote on the confirming those finalists so the first question today is how many so that's your first discussion point all right thank you so i would like first of all we know how hard this is i gotta tell you i am so impressed um especially with the speakers that got up here today and i got to commend each and every one of you because it gives me a lot of hope we when we sit in these seats you're criticized constantly you know you're sort of damned if you do damned if you don't we're living in this time where i've never seen so paul seem politics so just angry and neat mean and nasty and so partisan too that's another thing that's gotten so out of control right um so i just want to first of all commend everyone for doing a tremendous job and really so thankful because you're giving me hope that good people want to serve because i was getting to the point where i was thinking that people don't want to do this job anymore and it was really hard on my heart actually to decide to run another term it was really hard and and especially i think when social media is is just it can be such a wonderful thing but yet at the same time it can be really damaging and especially for your mental health so that is the good news that i think it's given me a lot of hope that there's really great um candidates out there and i would say please um you know when i got elected i brought back the nabs and i really wanted to open the doors at city hall for people to come and participate and there's a lot of times i get you know will hear a presentation and you kind of think in your mind that you you know how you feel about it and then someone will come in public comment and say something and it makes you completely think and feel something else because they have knowledge you might not have had right and that's what i love about this process and i would just say we've got to get more people engaged so all of all 36 of you um i wish there was a seat for every single person these are always very hard but i also would say many of you i i think would be great mayors senators even governors today i was like way blown away um and i would just say i think every single one of us would say reach out to us because we only have one seat and but please stay involved get on a board or a commission we need good people to serve in every single capacity we just so need it now more than ever and i don't care if you're a democrat or a republican um so it's very very hard but i kind of remember i'm trying to think if we're going to talk about the process and moving forward because it's it's tough i want to put like 35 people on my list to be honest with you so in past appointments the city council's generally chosen between two and five candidates to refer for the finalist interviews so also those were for four at-large positions where the pool of applicants was two or three times larger than what we have in front of us today right so i would like just because um i think there are so many and it's so hard it really is it's hard to choose from but i this is my recommendation and happy to have discussion on this but i would like to go with five i think the council should choose up to five and then we could do the top three get interviewed but then i remember when we did the judges selection you remember councilmember we had ties in there and i think that um you know we should give them some deference so what what what is the well all of the body yeah all opine um this was an incredibly hard to sort through especially because i was so sensitive to this issue because it is representing a ward and so i was looking for that outreach i was love i loved hearing the comments today uh many of the candidates reached out to me directly i tried to meet with as many as i could so i could get just a personal feel because frankly they weren't as known to me personally as maybe some in the past i did the same with the judges i interviewed the mall and zoom before i we were in covet before we got here to this day so i was able to get to a top ten and then i was like how do i go from ten to three was the proposal from you and that was very very hard so yeah yes to get to ten i was i was pretty comfortable and many of those people have been spoken about here today to to narrow it to three was virtually very very difficult for me so i i i came prepared with the top four top five top six um just in case depending on the will of the body but i would like a little bit more than three i would personally um and i think five's a great number and one of the things is that when we add you know everybody's unequal status it's not that we do ranking in other words we don't give like our top candidate five points and our next candid four points so everybody so far in our council deliberations have got one point and then um we're basically saying they're all on equal level and then um what we've done is we've seen how many points anyone got and could be six or two one many people get a one there might be somebody that i prefer bonnie prefers whatever that might get a one that nobody else really picked out of the group but what there usually is sort of a natural divide that sort of separates itself so that takes some juggling to your point madam mayor so i am totally fine with five i think it's a good idea i came in thinking three but now that we have one person missing i think we would owe it to ourselves to absolutely go with five sorry about that so i do i do think that sorry you're over there laughing on ranger right now somebody wants sorry uh madame i think five would be great i think five with ultimately is it cranking down to a three is that what we're saying yeah so five and then five take our top five we do a calculation put on a spreadsheet come back with three is that what i'm hearing and i think did we do that last time yeah we did okay perfect let's do it all right do we you don't need a motion do you i do not need a motion okay so we will looks like date the um selection cards here in just a moment hand those out to you so you guys can do that if you'd like to take a recess while you all fill out your cards hold on one second i i apologize i skipped over vice mayor nope so he thought sitting here in the vice mayor's seat he was going to get recognized he's actually like who's that i'll learn to kick you under the table sorry mysteries thank you madam mayor for my part i want to start at the beginning and that is going back a little bit about the process that brought us to today obviously our friend and colleague mr dawn has left the body and under our charter that required us to make a very initial determination about whether we would do an appointment which is how i originally made my way to this body and how we have conducted vacancies for the last 30 years or whether we would do an election and so it was a difficult choice that the body had to make in order to decide that they wanted to prefer the appointment process and that was really largely related to the timing of the november election the inability of us to hold a special election in november and then the costs associated with that and then i suppose at the end the length of time that a person might not be able to be on the body leaving a vacancy you can see also when one person is not here and then one person chooses of their own volition to in my opinion violate their oath and not be here we now have a body of five right so the city of reno is really disserviced certainly the members of ward 1 are disserviced by it but that's the process right so then the next thing is i want to say thank you to all the applicants you know i spent an entire weekend and many sleepless nights i i think i haven't slept well since the process was announced but each one of those applicants you know took the time energy and effort to put a little piece of themselves out into the universe and that's not easy so for those who are here or on zoom or thinking about this elsewhere really i appreciate that a functioning democracy requires a lot of moving parts and as a result you get different views you get different people's opinions on who should be in and who should not be the process is an interesting one because i've been changing my opinion throughout this morning i mean um you think you come into it with some preconceived notion about what people are like on this stack of paper and then you meet them at coffee or you talk to them on the phone and you think well that's a person sounds great and so the idea that some have posited in the community that somehow it's it's already baked it's already been chosen is just flat out wrong and that's unfortunate that people would sort of foment that kind of i'll call it anti-democratic some might call it trumpian logic that's just not what's happening i have been proud to serve on the body my colleagues are great people we don't get to connect as often as i would like to but it is a joy to serve with them and so for my part i'm looking for a colleague it's a job interview this is not an election it's a job interview among the folks that are sitting here trying to figure out what is the best and i'll say too that i'm the at-large member so i represent all of the city of reno although i live in ward 5. so i live in somerset and so i have a bit more familiarity with that ward than elsewhere but i think i've lived in every ward in the city in my lifetime i'm happy to go along with a five-person selection i do think there are natural breaks when it happens that you'll figure out that maybe there will widow it down to the top two or three people but that won't be decided i don't think until after we've made those selections so again congratulations to all that put the energy into this process it really doesn't happen without all of you we're a part of it obviously too and so i'll look forward to the conversations my colleagues will have the madam mayor okay go ahead yeah i'll just take uh just a moment um i wanted to echo some of the comments from both from all my colleagues but i wanted to be clear many of you weren't here when we were having to go through this discussion about an election versus appointment and i would say quite a quite a few of us including i was probably very outspoken on this about wanting an election why i thought we had the time i thought was perfectly lined up and number two i didn't want to substitute my judgment for the the voters award five but we are here and i i am i'm part of this process and i voted to do it um because i believe i mean certainly one of our roles and so i too want to thank everyone it is hard to put yourself out there all of us sitting up here know this we have been through this this screening this analysis these debates the discussion the presenting yourself i mean it is a tough process to get elected and whoever would move forward has got to think about that either way pro or con whether you want to do this we've had many people historically in our region that have gotten appointed and then not chosen to run and i think that's perfectly fine they find out that while they appreciate serving maybe running for office it's a whole different skill set isn't for them so i'm going to echo the mayor that um you know we can only pick one of 36 so that means 35 people don't get picked but please stay engaged there are so many places you are needed and so whether it's writing in a letter serving on a nab staying engaged in an issue that ward 5 residents care about that's what you need to do because 35 of of the applicants will will be in that position and i want to speak to the majority here um of those folks so thank you madam mayor and not to mention i also think you know it was just interesting how all this happened because none of us knew that councilwoman jardin would be leaving right and i absolutely want to thank her for service one of the speakers got up and really commended her i thought that was really classy and um i i just you know it was just very special to get the opportunity to serve with councilwoman jordan so you know that's another thing because i think there's been sediment out there oh you know um it was that you know this like you i think like you mentioned that this was already baked and no one had any idea that she was going to be leaving so we find ourselves in a position that um we've been in before and i would also say the selections that we made were good selections and then the voters had the chance to decide after we selected them so whoever we do select obviously if you don't care for them or they don't have your views or whatever it is you look for in a candidate then you you will get the opportunity to um to have your vote heard if if they decide to run if that person never wants to run because to your point many times um it's not something that people really want to put their selves out there it's tough i mean they will say terrible things about you they will tell you you're corrupt i mean some of the most horrific things and it's not an easy job and now more than ever quite honestly at times it's been dangerous it's been a dangerous job and people sometimes don't want to put their families through that so all of you again i really commend your strength because you had the courage to put yourself out there so yes go right ahead councilman or vice mayor rhys well i i thought also given the structure of how we communicate with one another from the diocese i would share some thoughts about what i looked at in qualities because what's going to happen now for the public is we're going to receive i guess the ranking sheets or the choice selection sheets we will mark them and then they'll go back to the clerk who compiles them and then they'll come back and i don't think it'll be somewhat anti-climatic after that because the big reveal will happen and then we will hear some public comment and then we will go into recess again or the meeting will be over so i just want to share a little bit of my thoughts with my colleagues and the community about the selections that i think i'll be making although between now and when we get into the back room on recess some things could change in my mind so first i really do appreciate a number of the applicants who have some experience already in some facet of city life now that could be a a nab a board or commission of the city there are so very many of them it also could be sort of related community work right many of the candidates have really excellent resumes and they're all very impressive in their own right and some focus on you know reproductive health justice some focus on food security or insecurity uh each one of those of course are important topics to me but so i had to sort of think about what are the things that make for a good colleague and so i did prefer some of that the second thing is is that not knowing how many people would you know we would be able to select as a body i took the entire 36 person packet and tried to get down to my top ten i think i ultimately ended up with the top 12 and then i had to go in that packet of 12 persons and then i had to say kind of high medium and low even within that and again that's just explaining a little bit about my process because i think there will be several persons who could be really capable and qualified of filling that role it's not like there will be one person that you know the light shines down from heaven upon i don't think at least doesn't for me and it's you know of course there's other factors that i've had to think about have they run for public office have they expressed a willingness to run for public office maybe some of my colleagues will say they don't want someone who's interested in serving another you know time on the body they're just sort of a caretaker role so a lot of different factors that gone into it but i'll also sort of close by saying i'm also looking for a colleague this is difficult work at times it's the honor of my life to do it but you really have to be able to communicate with one another effectively you have to be able to leave the diocese and even when you disagree you have to see people for being friends colleagues we don't all get to spend a lot of time with each other off this diocese but i'd certainly like to so those are my thoughts madam mayor bye wool yeah similar to you mr reese i had went through a very similar process getting 10 was sort of a placeholder it could have been 11 12. um but i was looking for things um and i'm gonna just list down my list um i started with their background i looked at community service and preferencing city but also looking more broadly to our whole community because it could have been for the county it could have been for sparks it could have been for a social justice cause or a non-profit i looked at um balance balance amongst us you know we are all very different i don't know if you all know that but we we come to the table and we're often very uh different thoughts um and like you i was looking for a colleague i could talk to frankly um or or seek advice from or who would bring a different perspective and i will tell you this was one of the hardest it was harder than the judges frankly yeah it was harder it was harder than almost any selection i've had to make up here so far um so i just wanted to to say that and that there's no perfect if if if someone out there is not on my top five that doesn't mean i don't respect them or think they're phenomenal person because it was just that we had to make a choice and there we go so thank you go ahead councilwoman thank you so much um i too came to the table today to uh with with some names and and and my little list and then when i hear from the people speaking this is how it always is when you hear from those that are interested and have spoken today it just makes the list get longer because truly some of you i have not met before some of you i know from being in the community and working in the community but hearing folks speak here to me was very important and um and even the phone calls um so i really appreciate that i like listening to uh the folks that supported other other of the candidates and why they did i think it's really important and one thing that i think we also need to think about is from here i think we need a little explanation of once these people are selected i think we need to have someone talk about what's going to happen that for the public to be able to come in and speak with the candidates that we select yeah and making sure that the candidates understand that that's what we're doing the process at where it goes and i believe madam clerk is prepared to do that i was planning on doing it after but if you'd like me to do it before i'm happy to do them i think it is important well madam mayor i think one of the reasons why it may be important is because the component of it that requires us or that we've chosen allows for some public engagement and i will just say the more people you have into those settings the less public engagement happens with one on one because i have been through this process and of course as you said it was at large and so there were i think 146 applicants it got winnowed down to four four is a lot of people in a small group setting for anyone to get enough time with the members to know so i'm just again this i think it'll be sorted out when the the selections go up and we see what the breaks are that may help guide us but that is part of my thinking about why i think it should be fewer rather than more does that make sense and i think a portion of accommodating that similar experience we had in the last time last time was the first time we did the meet and greet so that was new to us in your appointment process uh vice mayor rhys so this time to to accommodate even more we're going to do two sessions for our meet and greets so next week on tuesday and wednesday from five to seven we have two meet and greet sessions for our finalists to engage with the public we have put out a call to the ward 5 constituents and also the city to just say what questions do you have for these finalists what things are burning what kind of desires do you want to know about these individuals going into this appointment process so on august 30th and august 31st which again is next tuesday and wednesday from 5 to 7 we have two meet and greet public meet and greet sessions on the 30th which is tuesday we will be doing a hybrid meeting here at city hall so if constituents would like they can join via zoom that website or that link has already been posted on reno.gov and then on august 31st which is wednesday we'll be holding an in-person only meet and greet session from five to seven at the fire station on rob and man okay good this other one would be more of a q a is what you're saying like the candidates would sit up both of them will be q a sessions they're both curated i will be asking questions of the individuals um likely they'll be the same questions it just depends on what kind of community outreach we receive so both of them will be a period of time where they're being asked questions directly provided by the public and then there'll be a portion of time where they can walk around and meet and greet with the individuals that are present that's great okay all right so each of you at this point have been provided with your selection card so if you would like to go ahead and place x's by the top five which is what we have decided today then we will go ahead and collect those and take a brief recess while we tally the numbers okay i appreciate it the other thing i do want to remind everyone um and it was so hard because i tried to meet with as many people or call people on the phone as possible um but i i want to remind everyone that we have a lot of boards and commissions that are opened here like from the airport to arts and culture there's a lot finance board so if you really want to be involved it's such a great way to really sort of get your finger on the pulse and i believe we're bringing back the citizens institute yes we are which is really really good you will really enjoy that so whatever you do just please be part of the process and then um mr whitten i think you said compromise and collaboration wasn't that you sir and you you couldn't be more spot on it you know it's not always um you don't always agree with everyone but when you walk away we really should respect each other you know and compromise is not a bad thing and i just loved your your sediment very much so thank you and i you i hope you reach out because i think what you're doing is phenomenal and we don't know each other well enough and we need to get to know each other i love to um come and see exactly what you're doing because i've heard just phenomenal things about it all right [Music] i feel like we should have um the jeopardy music you know it's too quiet too quiet so jackie what do we have to do what does that mean you're just you're gonna put your name oh okay okay madam clerk do you want us to go into recess okay it sounds like we'll officially okay yes all right then we will be in recess at 155 for uh until the votes are tabulated ten minutes maybe ten minutes or so okay all right this special meeting of the reno city council is reconvening at 2 23 p.m with all council members present except for council member breckis okay thank you i'm clerk all right madam mayor so um my office has had a chance to tabulate the votes and if you would go ahead and share them on the screen for us now all right so as you can see here we have tabulated per member and then at the bottom right hand corner we can see that there's a total of 25 just so that we can all confirm that there are five members here present five votes each a total of 25. so our top three receiving four votes each are kathleen taylor elliot mallon and alexander goff jacob williams received three votes i'm going to mess up z's name zelem bogle received two votes sonia guerrero received two votes albert rogers two votes thomas peterson stan marks jacqueline duran and erston whitten all receiving one vote so at this point i think the decision of the body is how many of those would you like to proceed with as your finalists so i think we said the top three um you know last time we had a tie in the fourth place so um how does council feel but madam mayor i think yeah i mean again i think as i said before i would wait to see how the totals broke out i think what you're referring to is in some prior ones we had some ties lower down in the section so it made sense to advance them so i would just advance the top three persons and that'll mean they all advance to the public community engagement forums and then we'll figure it out from there but i do think it's worth saying all the candidates again were fantastic you can see that we on the body have quite a divergence of thought about it and um you know i just think it was a good process so thank you and obviously my selfish side you know that candidate was also someone i chose so i want to stay fair to the process just okay see these are always so hard okay what would you like us to do madam clerk so i would just i'm seeking a motion for i think the named candidates that you would like to move forward into the finalist position so i need a motion um with the names okay so i will hand it over vice mayor madam mayor for the process of selecting the ward 5 member i would move to advance uh in no order kathleen taylor elliott malin and alexander goff second i have a motion and a second all those in favor say aye all right all those opposed promotion carries unanimously yes go ahead councilwoman i just want to say for the others that got any number of votes like kudos to you because you impressed us in some way fair form or fashion and i was very impressed by what was said here today and i think all of those that we're not going to interview should we're going to third time we're gonna say please get involved with a city thing right a community you're already community activist otherwise you wouldn't even be on these lists so you know you have an opportunity to step it up perhaps and uh i'd love to see that all the folks are you crying bonnie but we feel like i feel like i know i was nervous the whole time so uh okay madam clerk what would you like us to do now sending it to mr clerk i believe that is it for that item and we are going to move on to item c which is our final public comment okay we do have uh tom dunn signed up uh good afternoon madam mayor mr city manager members of the council for the record tom dunn representing the reno firefighters association first and foremost i'd like to thank uh former councilwoman uh neomin jardin for her dedication her commitment and the fine work that she's done for the city of reno in our community as a whole like you guys i was i was completely surprised when we saw that she was resigning her position and everything so we wish her all the best in her future endeavors and we hope to see her around our community uh over the last year i've had the privilege of representing firefighters at the local level here at the city of reno at the state level at carson city at the at the legislature in washington d.c at the federal level and also this summer in canada at a firefighter's uh conference there and i can tell you that the issues that you guys are dealing with are across our country there is division of politics there is division of community there is division of ideas and one of the things i wanted to say to everybody in the audience here today all the candidates everybody watching at home and on the news tonight is we cannot move our community we cannot move our country and we cannot move our neighborhoods forward until we get a place where we can we can reach consensus and we can we can find a place where there's things that we can agree on regardless of the politics at hand regardless of the division at hand we cannot move forward as a community we cannot move our our state forward our region forward until we find what that common common threat is and i think what we see today that common thread is there are like you guys said there is a phenomenal amount of talent in this candidate pool and i echo the comments of council today is get involved and if you and if you're already involved stay involved you know and those at home those in our community we need we need volunteers we need people that are willing to step up for our community at all levels it's the city council level it is the boards and commissions level throughout local and regional government it's in our schools we need people to volunteer in our schools we need people to volunteer on committees at the school district level too so on behalf of the reno firefighters association thank you for to those candidates or congratulations those candidates that are moving on and for those candidates that did not move on today thank you for your commitment to our community and we would love to see you out there as well thank you great job tom awesome so that is all we have in-house i don't see anyone raising their hand on zoom and i'm going to shut that up right now we did receive 10 comments which were general in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item after 4 pm on august 24 2022 these comments were written correspondence received via the online public comment form or by email copies of the comments have been distributed to the reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal nine were in favor one was expressing concern and in addition we do have three voicemails that we were going to play oh we just had someone raise their hand on zoom if you'd like to take them and their name is dorley martinez okay i think she's my appointment because i'm like yeah dora hello hello mayor chibi can you hear me we can hi good afternoon mayor sheepy thank you so much this is dora martinez um i'm represented about a disability peer action coalition and i just want to say you know i'm always want to give where credit is due and i always appreciate you um and the council members but especially you because you are sitting at the rtc commission and the many others but the things that come to mind is the raac meeting and you always included people with disability um and and that's where i come in i'm you know we want to our city to be included and equitable and and transparent for all and you are doing that and i appreciate all of you we just had a meeting earlier today and devin reese um i hope he doesn't mind that i share this he was doing audio description for himself and all this time mayor sheeby i as i said i'm blind i thought he was african-american and he's not so um it's a little laughing matter it's a blind person you kind of think they are and they're not so i appreciate all of you guys and i'm so grateful and glad and and and for alex cough um he sits on the uh hr as he said the um and also the book rehab council for people with disabilities and i hope the fire station is accessible because i am bringing friends to speak and also i'm so grateful for your clerk she always goes out of her way to help me get connected and have zoom opportunity for people with underlining health issues and people with disabilities that cannot get out of their apartment so bless you mayor sheeby i absolutely wholeheartedly support you and i'm i'm kind of getting in tears but i appreciate all that you do thank you now well you are very kind thank you so much i always say that's not what my email says about me but um dora let me ask you is that your first meeting because you're my appointee on access is that your first yeah okay yes okay good oh good because i want i want to find out how everything's going and um help with the initiatives you want to see so i look forward to it and thank you so much for your service i'm i'm very grateful and and mary sheeby you do bring in the you know nothing about us without us um sort of like a terminology that people with disability do because you know you are incorporating um diversity and equity i'm sorry i'm just give me a minute a diversity and inclusion for all look at all the audio uh pedestrian signals um i walk and a lot of not just me uses but some other folks who can't uh read or see the light across the mccarran they feel the arrow and it vibrates and they go so um the aps and all the white sidewalks and we just appreciate you and hopefully the moena the new pool uh recreation will have the same idea including us when we're baking the cake so we sort of incorporate it into it rather than trying to put the flour after it's already baked so i think that's so true and we will absolutely at moana but you you are absolutely spot on so thank you so much and we still have a lot more work to do and i look forward to you spirit hiding that because you're on access so thank you so much thank you mayor right you're you're the best and we'll do a take two on the voicemails now as there's no one else with their hand raised hi i wanted to take a moment to make sure that y'all heard about tara webster i heard she is running for the reno city council ward 5 position and i don't know tara incredibly well on a personal level but we've worked together for a couple years as a phd student and from what i know of her and our interaction she is an incredibly passionate person for reno and doing what is right for our community i know she has always been the first one to volunteer or to speak up when she has seen some sort of wrong that can be righted in our community and she is so selfless with her use of time and her energy and resources and in her current position which is not in the city council she's already gone above and beyond do what is right for our city i can only imagine how that would be magnified tenfold if she was given a position in activity council to help do what's best for our group so i think she would be just an incredible candidate for this position and i really hope you consider her have a good day hello good bye so i know it's late for kara webster in ward 5. i definitely would love to comment that she is a beautiful person strong-willed and has a very desire to help others and really engage in community activity and would definitely be definitely definitely be a value to your organization thank you hello mayor and city council for the record my name is henry patilla i am a local criminal law lawyer who serves as a reno miniscule court appointed attorney i am also assigned to reno municipal court specialty court i am the judicial candidate for arena municipal court department 4 the community court i want to congratulate everyone that applied to serve as the next ward 5 renault city council member i am the 25 year ward 5 resident myself and i am hopeful that the appointment process will be open transparent and representative of a dedication to the public good and most importantly will result in deployment of the person most qualified and committed to represent the citizens of northwest reno i want to personally invite all of the applicants to familiar familiarize themselves with the arena municipal court and learn more about the good work our teams are doing there you can contact me directly to serve as your liaison for this purpose thank you for your time and for your service to the reno community madam mayor that does take us to the end of public comment and i think all we're looking for now is a motion to adjourn all right i have a motion a second all those in favor say aye all those opposed motion carries unanimously again i always say what if we did not approve that emotion can i just keep you here no oh okay all right thanks everyone