e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e to you e for for for you have well Mr clerk I think we're ready to begin if you are we're ready on our end okay thank you so much I'll call to order the Reno city council meeting for Wednesday August 9th 202 23 and we'll start off with the Pledge of Allegiance Dr Ariel can you lead us in the pledge this morning I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you Dr Ariel I understand we also have some uh Boy Scouts in the house so we may have them come uh and say hi to us a little bit later but they're not here just yet uh Mr clerk let's start with the roll call thank you uh calling roll for the August 9th 2023 meeting of the Reno city council council member breus here der here Martinez here Ebert here Taylor here vice mayor Reese here M um mayor shiv's absent at this time uh vice mayor you have a quorum of the Rena city council thank you so much let's move on to public comment item A3 thank you our first item today's 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 the council may not take action upon any matter not agendized on today's agenda when you are called on for public comment please St your name for the record and begin speaking the timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded 3 minutes members of the public May here observe and provide public comment virtually by pre-registering using the following link and that link is us06 web. zoom. uswear SL register slw in like Nancy Henry z o l Like Larry x p c g s like Sam 6 y l j d like dog P like Peter i x like x-ray B like Bravo 84 RG if you are an attendee in the zoom meeting would like to make a public comment please raise your hand at this time and 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 and our first speaker is Caesar Monera Pastor Mana good morning welcome good morning vice mayor ree how are you doing sir good morning everyone as usual I'm here just to do some prayer if I could read just one passage of scripture it's uh out of Psalm 24 and it says the Earth is the Lord and everything in it the world and all who live in it and that is why we come to pray so that God can bless our city our region and everyone that lives here if you would like to join me in prayer please do so heavenly father in the precious name of Jesus we thank you for our elected officials we thank you that for everyone that serves in this city council and we pray for them for their families for their children for their health for their protection and for everything that they do to serve this community father we pray for everyone that is in government starting with our governor and everyone that is in authority and we pray for our community as a whole for our schools First Responders everyone that lives in this community our children people in hospitals and just like Psalm 24 says the Earth is Yours and everyone that lives in it so father we declare this region as being yours and everyone that lives in this place bless our region bless everyone that lives here we declare this region yours in the precious name of Jesus Amen and amen thank you have a great day thank you our next public commenter is Ron Trevor followed by Tom Green good morning good morning Ron my name is Ron Trevor and I'd like to thank the council for allowing me to speak to you today I'm a representative of Save which stands for the senior auxiliary volunteer effort that works for the Reena Police Department today I've got the Recaps from second quarter 202 three save currently has 66 active volunteers and during the second quarter there was a total of 4,269 hours volunteered by members of save this represents a savings of $121,600 to the City of Reno some of the key areas that we've covered are as follows citizen contacts we had 4,954 48 hour notices placed on abandoned vehicles 1 121 School Patrols 701 permit and handicap parking checks 1,329 handicap violations and now the newly added charging station citations we had 308 pardon me I misspoke we had 38 the uh electric vehicle charging station citations 33 just started stolen vehicles and fictitious plates located there were 13 that's what I have today any questions Ron no but thank you so much for being here and and certainly our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family thank you sir thank you our next speaker is Tom Green followed by Ron Ariel good morning Tom Green for the record and I have a video that i' like to be played um and and you know looking at some of those CN reports that was Tom Green that has nothing to do with Tom Green's upright investigation firm yeah he is a well they used him in other instances on this guy he is his own oneman show I don't even know if he knows I'm sure he does know Tom I mean we actually all is he from Reno is he in Reno yeah M we were all in undercover units at the same time yeah so there's a possibility that our paths have all acrossed I didn't recogniz this guy and I worked in the same I worked for CSU and did he work for Reno no he worked for tret and Carson um but it's just it's like a dop unit task force and then um and of course uh Tommy green was in Haack appear here so um my point is is quite honestly um I think they put it on Mary luc's car um who ran for County Commission and then the story came out that she was you know with Oscar Delgado you know and that they kept trying to use you know all of our personal lives to um you know help discredit the elections but um I mean he said things like I got pulled over for a DUI um but I got let go because I'm the mayor I don't even hardly drink and I would never drink a drive um but Benjamin Franklin said it takes many Good Deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it after serving this County as a deputy sheriff for more than 26 years working with senior citizens during Co running my own Pi business where I've located families loved ones at no charge because they didn't have the money to pay me I think I've established a good reputation during the last 10 months I've been questioned about tracker gate by the rgj the Nevada Indie and kunr as to my involvement as you've learned from the video which was hard to hear I have just I just played by the city clerk the Sparks Police Department who were the law enforcement entity assigned to investigate cleared me of any involvement and mayor shivi is clearly aware of my non-involvement since she was in the room with Sparks PD in December of 2022 I'm frankly tired of the C character assassination in attempts to purge my good reputation mayor shivi I'm not involved and as you're aware I've become fed up with the inferences you continue to make to my having a part in placing a tracker on your car I did not if I keep hearing this mentioned by you or the vice mayor and my name being taken in vain I'll be left with no course except to take legal action if anyone would like a clipped copy of the video clearing my good name and reputation by the Sparks PD you can send an email to me Tom tomgreen the4 wow.com I'd be happy to send you a copy frankly I'm disappointed the mayor's not here I don't know if that's by Design but uh I think it's clear I had nothing to do with putting a tracker on the mayor's car and I keep hearing it I'm running for office and when I talk to people they continue to say you're that guy that put the tracker in the mayor's car I didn't do it knows that and I'm sick of it so I want it to stop please and thank you have a good day next we have Ron Ariel followed by Terry Brooks good morning to members of city council and thank you for your hospitality I'm Ron Ariel i u run the ALB Ariel Foundation named after my late mother and reason I'm here today is because city council has kindly um agreed to consider a proposed donation of $2,000 to the foundation and I'm I'm very very appreciative of of this uh generosity and kindness from the city council um our fellows are making a lot of progress um Claudia Sanchez Herrera is within a few days going to take her enlex the national uh nursing licensing examination and she's very well prepared for it I anticipate she will pass she has a job offer and uh within a month or two she'll be working as a nurse in in either our area or nearby in California and uh she's her journey has been one of courage and perseverance and extremely hard work and some frustration but um I'm I'm really proud of how how far she's advanced in just two short years um and Mariana Lopez bayz is uh this summer was uh interning with uh athletic trainers and she's looking for I think she's switching her career goals to uh becoming an athletic trainer and wants to go to graduate school and she's uh entering her senior year at UNR doing very well uh and um I couldn't you know I couldn't ask for more out of her um we have Elizabeth Vega Lopez who is in the middle of a graduate program in psychology she is a a te Certified Technician and implied behavioral analysis um graduated with in on the dean list for the last four four of her semesters as an undergraduate and I anticipate she will earn her master's degree uh next year or uh or 25 possibly um uh and um her her instructors have nothing but praise for her and uh we have jiselle uh Cruz who is uh preparing right now she's entering the Honors College at UNR studying computer science and um was straight A AP class student at Reno High School uh um and so we we have uh we have four years uh of her on our on our you know on our support list and uh we'll be following her closely through her career and I'm incredibly very proud of her um and we have one more who's entering senior high school so um I want to thank you very much for for all your help you will this this will help us um to pick up a new fellow uh I'm still working on that I'm still doing some fundraising for that uh and I'm anticipating adding a new fellow Within a few months uh possibly two and so I just wanted to thank you very much for your kindness and support and I certainly hope that this uh item is voted on thank you very much Dr arel thank you and your mother would be very proud of the foundation thank you so much next we have Terry Brooks followed by Abby D good morning it's me Terry Brooks again and today I'd like to render on the act of discrimination when it comes to health and gender women have had to go through a lot of discrimination especially when it comes to the fields of occupation and when so many jobs have been less available to women that means that access to health care is less available to women men are more likely to suffer from accidents while women are actually less likely to suffer from accidents but when women are more likely to suffer from abuse while men are less likely to suffer from abuse women are more likely to suffer from sexual abuse while men are less likely to suffer from sexual abuse and some child birth and since childbirth is only experienced by women even more Health Care is really needed by women and women usually spend more time taking care of their children while men usually spend less time taking care of their children and having children can be quite the burden to bear so it is usually women who need even more health care so all in all when it comes to Health Care women usually receive less even though they usually need more they usually receive less and because women need more but wind up receiving less that ws winds up putting women through even more stress and when such mothers go through a lot of stress it can put their children in situations of such stress situations such as these still continue to grow healthc care has improved a lot but we still have a ways to go I would like to thank you all for listening to me today and for putting up with even more such uncomfortable things that I say thank you Obby dump followed by Lawrence Miller uh hello uh my name is Abby damp I'm here on behalf of Urban Roots uh speaking in support of b26 uh donation from council member Martinez and Reese um so just to give a little intro about what Urban Roots is is we're a nonprofit Urban teaching Farm uh located in downtown uh we do a lot of programming uh for the community of all ages um so we have workshops we do uh Farm camps um in this summer so those are educational SE totable programming we do [Music] um down we do a program uh called gardening for all so that is where we uh the community can apply to have us come and plant a sustainable garden um we do this at homes we do this at uh other business businesses and we do this um no we don't oh we don't and we do this at um schools and so another program that we have is that teachers in the Washo County School District can apply to have uh to come for a field trip D being um to come and do a field trip at the farm so this is also additional to our Nevada um native Nevada plant uh curriculum that we do here no we don't okay well done um yeah and so uh we really focus on equity and accessibility I want to tell you something well I only have two minutes so everything you're talking about is not that okay um and so we offer about 30% of uh scholarships to our participants so that's a big Focus for us uh we have a lot of events coming up this fall so if anybody's interested in kind of checking out the farm we'll have open Farm hours this Saturday from 8: to 10:30 um we're located on East 2 and Gold Street um you can check us out at Ur dc.org or our socials at um Urban Roots Envy awesome thank you Abby who is this future mayor that you have with you this is uh my daughter Harvey fabulous well Urban Ro Roots is really an incredible place I had the opportunity to visit with you now it's been about 2 or 3 months and I know that number of my colleagues have also been there over the years if you haven't been of course I think you should go it's pretty exceptional to see it happening right in the heart of downtown Reno it is incredible what you're doing with the resources you have and I think that as you continue to grow you will grow your programming in a way that'll be meaningful to generations and including this little nugget so thank you so much for being here you thanks guys next we have Lawrence Miller followed by Dana Miller Lawrence Dana welcome thank you is this overhead awesome I will probably just set it there and the clerk's office will adjust it they've got to be able to take a picture of it oh maybe we should go this way h apologize for that okay apologize technical difficulty that's okay do I need to shuffle it no it looks like something came out unplugged it's all my fault we're having some issues with it earlier all right hello my name is Lawrence mcnut with Team SOS we are a technology company based out of Reno and we focus on public service and we focus on small business security and optimization of business process flow you probably know us from other things we'll talk about those in a bit um we came here U I have a I I wanted to share this with you is what prompted this today is twice a year I have an opportunity to go back through my business plans look at my past presentations and that's when I have my corporate meetings and I fly all my staff in from around the country um that happens to be yesterday and Friday so as I was doing that I looked at what was my plan in 2019 as I was thinking of moving my business and myself personally to Nevada which ended up being Reno and I am one reader so I read through this reimagine Reno and it was compelling I was not moving to Reno I was moving south of here that was my plan um so some of the things that that just kind of struck me as I read through this is in the plan the master plan we would be day-to-day actions and short-term decisions would be based on this plan you guys wrote a great plan and I think every one of your names is in the beginning of that plan as a contributor when I looked at that plan I said this is perfect I'll bring my business here over here it's regional economy we can bring in you know plan was to have a 100 or so employees in this area um in in the greater area Focus again on take some of our skills in public service rural Broadband bringing I've met with most counties throughout the state um of how we can bring uh connectivity into rural areas helping the economic development of those areas grow and then we stumbled upon something else which is what most people know us about which is called the river in and that was strictly an accidental purchase so to speak or unintended uh Dana found me a beautiful home in Verdi up on the hill brand new great and I said you know I want to be on the river and we ended up buying the Old River and if nobody knows if you don't know what that is I'll show you a picture in a minute so these this then created the opportunity for us to look at public private Partnerships to develop an area along the river that initially we thought would be for us but we realized it was for the community it was bigger than us and that is our Vision so that goes to the public private partnership again I'm looking through your plan because this is what enrolled me to coming here Ino so I've always been interested in public private Partnerships in other with other states other counties and uh there's the perfect opportunity to do that here um I was reading through a couple of things the last couple of days about the challenges that we're seeing in Nevada and in Reno well I'm talking long okay I'll leave it over to you after that so we're seeing a lot of challenges with small businesses it's difficult time for businesses with the economy whoops inflation and the economy growing or growing getting worse it's challenging we need help I'm a small business in Reno I'm a bigger business in other areas but Reno I'm small I need your help okay so I'm looking for the support of this of this Committee of the city how can you help us bring more employment over here how can you help us get networked and I'll leave it to you data say whatever you want and next we have Dana Miller good morning um I'm Dana Miller and first I just want to say thank you for um accepting my invitations out to the river in to come and see us um we're always happy to have people and show people around so we appreciate that um Megan Ebert I am so sorry that um we had some scheduling comments and so I um also would like to re-extend my invitation to you and I can email you again if you're still interested because we would love to have you out and to meet with you um I wasn't really planning on speaking on this part of the thing I knew he would run out to time um but one of the things that I'm really passionate about with the river in is that because it's along the river of course it's just got a beautiful it's a beautiful area it's the it's one of the beginnings of Reno it's where people get off on uh the Old Highway 40 4th Street and they see us first um it's also Fourth Street is not known for being a very Pleasant Street sometimes and so we would like that to change and that's one of our Visions in bringing the river in U certain parts of it back to life um because we own both sides of the River There's an opportunity to connect trails from the county to the city and bike trails and we know a lot of bikers do ride down four Street which can be very dangerous um and it would probably also by putting a trail across um the river would maybe make other people want to actually ride their bikes along there and connect with the Mayberry trails and things like that so that's what we would like support with plus there's fishing there's I mean there's a countless number of things that uh the public would actually like access to and they have told us over and over again through uh social media and such so um pretty much that's what I have to say right excellent thank you Mr clerk do we need to get copies of those are we able to get screenshots um do you have copies you can provide for us and we'll distribute them or if we can take that we can make copies um yeah we also did a master plan Dana you'll have to come to the microphone you still got a few seconds I just want to make sure that we had what you'd submitted and you wanted to make sure it became part of the official record um we also have a uh master plan that we kind of presented to the city uh a while ago and I'm more than happy to also email you all of that to show what we presented for our vision so I think I've seen it thanks for sharing it with me but appreciate it okay John Eric Johnson I think you're up next that's correct thank you got you Mr Johnson welcome Vice May re members of the council um thank you for giving me this opportunity and thank you in advance for considering my remarks today uh my name is Yan Eric Johnson I'm a founding member and past vice president of Reno freethinkers a community group for atheists and agnostics I'm here on behalf of our president Richard Evans who could not be here today I am representing our group in his absence I'm also a former Reno fire captain now retired running two businesses I have a very old and dear friend Rajan Zed who is an Interfaith leader and whom we've worked with before on where we have had common cause for example I and other leaders from our group stood side by side with Raj and other faithless Leaders with the seek Community after the horrible attack on one of their temples years ago most recently I was honored to be one of the guest speakers at a reception for chief Nance by religious leaders welcoming her to our city it was at this event that I caught wind of a letter that you were about to receive from several clergy leaders in our community urging you to start City Council meetings with an official prayer on behalf of Reno freethinkers the 25% of our population who identify as non-religious and all those who support our constitution I would beseech you to not pursue this ill IED course however well intended it may seem we would also like a seat at the table of any discussions considering it the problem with letting religion into government is that the question then becomes whose religion our founding fathers answered this question nobody's this is why they enshrined the separation of church and state into the very first sentence of the Bill of Rights as James Madison said the purpose of the separation of church and state is to keep forever from these Shores the ceaseless Strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries some cities have done an inrun around this by saying they will include all face favoring none in line with case law involving this issue this approach would mean that if the Church of Satan applied to open a council meeting with the prayer to the devil this Council would be required by law to allow them to do so if any of the clergy who are signatories to that letter wish to come up and use their three minutes of public comment and write to free speech to offer a prayer they may do so as the gentleman did earlier and if anyone were to say otherwise I would be among the first to stand by them to defend that right why do they not just do that because make no mistake what they seek is not just inclusion but endorsement this is not to say a city government can't work with the religious community I think the fact that Chief Nance is establishing a good working relationships with the faith community is a very good thing during my decade as a fire captain I use the services of chaplain Arvin as much if not more than other company officers as City Council Members you get to hear a lot about what the city does wrong real or perceived I'm here to tell you that this is one of the areas where the City of Reno has been doing it right you've provided Outreach and support without endorsement you've come up to the line of Separation church and state without Crossing it you're to be commanded for this as it can be a difficult balance to keep the proposal to open Council meetings with an official prayer would upset this balance and cause Division and strife in our community let sleeping dogs lie and continue to focus on the business of the people thank you next we have Pablo navad Duran followed by Mara leer hello hello hello C member my name pul nwan I'm I here for the with dis meeting so I have a question for you is uh what happen if what happen if you apply for a neighborhood advisor Community like for example War I and then someone someone moved to someone Pro and move to war six that mean like they had to reapply for the for their new war after after 2024 election and then and then the second question is um is so I know the the pre number is a beginning one so for examp one two three four five for example if you live on prey begin with one you live War one so if you if a guy's create War six and I I know you see a SP using six numbers so uh what Happ been so we going take the six from Sparks to move over here to create six war and See Spark will have to change the number to seven or eights um so thank you thanks Pablo next we have Mara L followed by Rose beer with the Scout Troop Mara sorry we butchered the last name I think we just couldn't read it over there but welcome thank you hi I'm Mara Langer for the record and I am here today to say thank you I um would like to thank all of you for this opportunity to speak but also to thank um council member Reese and council member derer for putting um our milk and honey program Jewish Nevada milk and honey program in um section B24 to receive funds for this year's event for those of you who don't know um milk and honey is a CommunityWide event that Jewish Nevada puts on this is going to be our second annual event at McKinley arts art and culture and um it's going to be September 10th everybody is welcome to attend and we hope to see everybody smiling faces there we're going to have Israeli dancing where I actually have a food truck that is going to provide falafal and um we're going to have CC Gable as a jazz um musician we're going to have lots of opportunities for kids activities um and and different um ways to engage with each other as a community and um to learn about Jewish culture and Heritage so I just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of you and especially to council member um doer and to council member ree thank you and Mara what time is the event start on the 10th oh thank you it's September 10th from 12: to 3:00 p.m. thank you so much thanks thank you Miss Langer and now we have rose beer with the scout troop followed by Carla Sanchez hello I am Lucy beer here representing troop 7 7322 um where which both boys and girls can attend Lucy tell them where you go to school I go to school at Roland Melton Roland Melton so they're visiting us today at City Hall we've had quite a tour and um they asked me a few questions about um how big my office was and if I always had Donuts in my office what do you think I know the answer to the second one a no I don't think the mayor eats donuts but how big was the office did you get to play ping pong up there uh no we wanted to we counted murals we did right all right well we wanted to say hello and um they were excited to meet you and we they wanted to address the entire Council and we talked about public comment what it is why why it is and why it's important freedom of speech right all right well as the mayor is fond of saying it's um future Mayors right these these are our future Rand Melton what a great school our kids attended Roland Melton to and Scouts a great program thank you for being here Madam mayor thanks for being such a gracious host can we get a picture with all of them yes let's do it really quick let's do it you got to come up around here and take a picture Mr copen will help us out okay ready one two three May one more hold on one two three thank you future Governors Luc got sign guys a we had a great time thank you next we have Carla Sanchez followed by Bill shrimp we have Carlo Sanchez okay let's move to the next speaker uh Bill shrimp Mr Shrimp welcome good morning hello good morning thank you so uh good morning everybody thank you for being here uh again work you do day in day out that nobody sees and all that kind of stuff really appreciate it and that kind of energy coming through City Hall with the kids I know it seems like a pretty regular thing that that happens I think that's a great thing so I hope uh that continues and and becomes more and more of a thing I think I think it's really great um something that I wasn't really thinking about talking about was but hearing the lady from Urban Roots uh it reminded me of something that came through the NAB not too long ago and it had to do with um farming within a person's own parcel and it had something to do with water use and honestly I don't have my notes from that meeting in front of me so I don't remember all the details but there's some sort of ordinance that prevents people from farming in their own parcel even when it's kind of Allowed by right and Zoning there's something going on there so it's kind of an issue so I don't know if there's something that we can look at revisit some ordinances so that people can be a little more self-sufficient within their own property uh particularly if they're not bothering other neighbors and they're paying for their water anyway and using it as food that seems like a good use um but really the main reason I came here today was to say thank you to not just you guys but to remind you that the folks sitting over here and the folks that sit behind them upstairs and everywhere else they are they're really pretty great um and I think it needs to be said um I'm new to interacting with the government about a year I guess and felt like I was hitting some roadblocks initially but since then um I can honestly say that the folks over here have been very welcoming very helpful very informative uh sometimes I feel like a toddler I ask why why why why why or how how how and they do a great job answering these questions and helping me out and um just giving me some general understanding I don't always agree with what the how or why is but at least I understand it and that I can appreciate and respect and so for the council you know just want to reiterate that to something that you probably already know keep up the good work with the staff in the city and thank you thank you Bill make sure you connect with county commissioner Mike Clark he's the D looking gentan blue he may have an answer for you about the urban gardening issue roosters that kind of thing so make sure you follow up with him thank you that concludes our commenters registered live in the room we do have one attendee uh via Zoom alexandros Mikus go ahead and unmute and begin speaking when you're ready can you hear me yes we can okay great thank you so much um good evening council members and mayor uh my name is alexandr mcis and I'm here representing Delta plan systems we're a biotechnology lab located in Koga Park our vendor number with LA county is 212 392 our lab's work is centered around water conservation and eliminating irrigation and fertilizer runoff we are currently uh working with the parks excuse me currently working with the Parks and Recreation Departments of the city of Glendale as well as city of Redwood in those cities combined Delta plan is installed in around 30,700 Square ft of grass and several trees with our technology we were able to reduce irrigation by 50% while maintaining the green mass and eliminate all Associated irrigation fertilizer runoffs in those locations Delta plane is a hydrogel soil additive that is diluted in water and topically sprayed it is a one-time application that remains active in the soil for five years and does not need reapplication we are also 100% non-toxic and biodegradable there's a lot of Science and information behind our work uh so we would like to be connected with the appropriate contract for the city so that we may schedule a meeting excuse me uh with them along with the city parks integration team to see how we can collaborate together to keep City's public uh spaces green while conserving water with which is essential in California's and Nevada's current climate a Delta plan would choose to protect our environment with every step we take thank you for your time and consideration together we can make a positive impact on our planet for generations to come thank you so [Music] much thank you Mr vice mayor that concludes our inperson public comment for the record we did receive seven comments which were General and nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to 4 p.m. on August 8th 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 they represented two in favor two in opposition and three concerned in addition we had uh two voicemails transcripts of which have been provided to city councils which represented two concerned comments and that concludes our opening public comment okay Mr clerk I'm going to buy you a little moment of time to see if this is a public comment Mentor coming in now by pointing out as I'm told today is National Rebecca day Rebecca Venus national day to celebrate the Rebeccas in our lives as I understand it Rebecca it comes from the Arabic and uh Hebrew word meaning to connect firmly and I certainly think that Rebecca as our comm's team director and doing all the work that you do you are knitting our community together so congratulations to you and happy Rebecca day uh certainly an important one sorry to put you on the spot there um let's see Mr clerk do we have additional public comment at this time we do we appreciate the extra time we have Carlo Sanchez ready thank you so much welcome make the road is a great organization we're always happy to have you in Chambers hi pull that down and talk in yeah there keep going it moves all the way around you don't have to strain to get in there thank you thank you um hello my name is Carla Sanchez and I'm an organizer with make the road Nevada um I wanted to go ahead and um say that I in strong support of map a because it keeps our communities together and ensures our representation make sure that our voices are heard and valued um I also wanted to let everybody here know that we do have um an immigration Forum this Sunday at our office at 11:00 a.m. and we're going to have um a senator there and we're also going to have some lawyers to um talk about know your rights for immigration and our community um so we would like to invite everybody here that's going to be at 11:00 a.m. at 690 East Plum Lane thank you thanks so much for letting pointing that out Senator Flores I think had sent it to me as well so it'll be great to have you there and we do have one more final comment from Omar Neoga great thank you so much Omar welcome thank you r graas could you help me yeah um I am trans translating for Omar he says hello my name is Omar I am the immigration um organizer with make the road Nevada I just recently moved here to Reno and I wanted to show my support for Matt Bay that ensures that our community stay together thank you that's all thank you thank you and that concludes our public comment okay Madame mayor the agenda is yours all right thank you so much okay at this time I'm going to send it to our city manager do you have any updates to this agenda I do we need to postpone item B16 which is the TPA contract we'll bring that back at the next meeting we've got a little diligence that popped over last weekend and we want to run it down so that we are best able to answer any questions that might come up okay that was item I'm sorry could you repeat what you said I just I didn't hear you B16 and why because we have a little diligence that popped up over the weekend and we want to run it down so that we're best able to have a complete ation at the next meeting okay so the staff report will be updated uh if the staff report needs to be updated it will okay but the will the contract be updated it's not a contract issue it's different type of diligence okay approve it says approval of a contract with UMR Healthcare I'm on B16 right that's right so was I thought there was a was there a I thought I read it um all right well we won't hear that item today and we'll bring it back and you'll update the staff report if need be perfect thanks thanks so much okay at this time um any further updates Mr city manager nothing no Madam mayor okay thank you so much okay at this time I'm going to ask for approval of the agenda I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay moving right along thank you and up next we have A5 approval of the minutes all right I have a motion do I have a second I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you and we are ready for our consent agenda Item B okay thank you so much Mr clerk um do you have any public comment on this item we do have one excuse me two uh people registered in the room uh first we will hear from Gary Cecil followed by Richard biset all right Gary come on up good morning good morning Madame mayor council members uh Mr city manager it's really hard to follow a wonderful blessing an adorable child and a bunch of great Scouts but I'll try um I'm here this morning just to keep the spotlight on an issue that downtown residents are always concerned about H and that is the impact of sometimes poorly run downtown bars and nightclubs on the quality of the life of the permanent residents and to some degree the reputation of Downtown Arena but be whenever I speak about this topic I feel it's necessary to give you a disclaimer I don't expect downtown to be a Monas I came here largely because I love the entertainment opportunities and to walk around to them My Hope though is always that the bars and nightclubs be considerate of Resident neighbors but if they're not that the city helps us to make sure that they can a new night club causes a form of what I would think is PTSD amongst some of our downtown residents and I think that's reflected in the public comments the written comments that you might see before you I just want to S uh just significantly say that this time the Montas HOA board submitted a letter of concern because the new bar and no disrespect to the perspective owners has a very historically problem problematic number of issues our Ward five council member mcy met with us also recently to uh review a survey that we did of all the Montage residents that's about 400 different people and Far and Away and it surprised me the number one concern was quote security issues around the Montage and in downtown Reena several Montage residents have also reached out to Mr Welsh and Miss Luper Eden in the spirit of being good neighbors and we I think we all had a very very positive conversation so I really look at that as a good sign that said considering the recurring record of crime and code infractions of earlier businesses at Eden's location a short paragraph from the Montage HOA board's letter I think actually aptly captures their concerns they wrote We wish the New Perspective operator nothing but success what we want to ensure through writing this letter is that he not only wants to be a good neighbor but that the City of Reno takes all possible measures to ensure he actually behaves like a good neighbor in closing I respectfully ask you to consider two actions a couple years ago former Council council member Jordan started the bar car I know if you remember that it's a we found it to be a very effective after midnight tour to operate inter intermittent but regular RPD enforcement in downtown however when the grant ended it ended if there's any way you could please consider restarting it I think we'd appreciate it secondly please ensure there are many opportunities for residents to have input into the planned overhaul of titles four and five covering licenses and permits of the administrative code Lance Fado has been extremely helpful sincerely and I hope he will strongly support his efforts I know redistricting is front and center today but uh thank you very much for your attention I do appreciate it thanks Gary and our final speaker on this item is Richard betet we have Richard betet in the room okay that concludes our in-person comments for the record we received six comments which were directly associated with the agenda item prior to 4m on August 8th these comments were written correspondents received via reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office and copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting porter portal excuse me they represented three in favor two in opposition and one concern from the following individuals Brandy Smith Ron Ariel Kristen deela Kevin Gordon Eric lude and Robin Palmer and that concludes our public comment on this item all right thank you so much I appreciate it okay at this time I'm going to ask council members uh to pull items off the agenda I'm going to start with you councilwoman Ebert [Music] um b 14 and 15 councilwoman der I have none vice mayor Reese no ma all right councilwoman Taylor B3 please councilman Martinez uh b19 and 20 sorry that was 19 and 20 yes sir thank you all right Council M breus thank you Madame mayor I'd like to pull um items uh B uh 11 B13 and B18 okay and Madame mayor I did have one sorry uh B22 Madame mayor my apologies what was was item B18 pulled by Miss breus yes it was okay thank you so much okay so let me just uh run through these b14 B15 Council Ebert B3 councilwoman Taylor b19 and 20 is uh councilman Martinez b11 B13 B18 councilwoman breus and B22 councilwoman derer did I leave anything out move to approve all right thank you I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay we're going to start off with item B3 councilwoman Taylor thank you Madame mayor hi Lance morning based on the public comment that we just heard in some of the stuff that we received earlier I am wondering if you could tell us a little bit about this application and what we have done um from a city perspective to um provide some Assurance to the residents and the neighbors of what we're doing as a city to make sure that they are safe and that we're going to be du do our due diligence in making sure that this business complies sure good morning Council uh Madame mayor council members Lance Fado for the record um the the basis of this application hinges on a special use permit uh this special use permit was issued in 2014 um it's it's gone with the parcel since then there's been a couple owners that have gone through um basically what that entails are requirements sub uh to to noise uh mitigation there are uh security measures no trespassing signs uh making sure that the area is clean outside the business um that there are cameras around the property and internally also that there are lighting measures taken in the in the alleyway and the parking lot um and then some some other uh code enforcement standards that would be applicable to something like this but um we've had the discussions with the applicant uh they are in compliance to the best of my knowledge with with all of these items at this time um they uh the expert on the special use permit would be code enforcement um obviously today uh code enforcement and PD are here to answer questions if you have them um as well as the applicant um but those are the those are the items that are in place that are are going to be used as guide rails to keep to keep this under control so did the applicants pass their background checks yes ma'am they did okay thank you and then the other question I had is just because we've heard of some of the other things that have happened at the site with previous owners is that um a reason to deny this application based can we deny an application based on other people's actions that were there before I would say no um that's more of a legal question but I think it's hard to hold the uh previous tenants to any sort of expectation of the new tenants um again that's probably more of a legal question though thank you and then I guess my next question is either for U I think I see DC Miller and code enforcement um this has not been this business has not been an operation for at least five or six months there's been no business activity correct that's correct there's been no business activities since approximately late October early November and there still has been calls for service in the area based on some of the other activities yes ma'am I don't have specifics but I'm sure PD could get into that if you if you'd like to know some more okay and then I would just say so for full disclosure I've been working very closely with the owners and your team and code enforcement and the residents and um we also met with neighboring businesses to go over the security plans and address their concerns so appreciate everybody's time and work on this um Mr Cecil talked about some of the things that can be done in title four and five is there anything that you're aware of that we might be looking at in the future you know uh thank you for asking that that's um it's going to be a combination between title 18 standards in title four and five but obviously we we have the ability in the privilege license section to make some more guard rails some more conditions on on uh items like this so it's going to be something that we think through um that we hear from the public that we hear from you that we hear from internal staff code enforcement PD and try to wrap it all up together and there will be opportunities for public input many opportunities okay one of the comments that we heard and I'll wrap this up was the opportunity to measure and I'm going to get this wrong not just the sound in debes but the beating the beep beep beep beep so I would ask that if we take a look at that when the time is appropriate it would be much appreciated thank you may all right thank you so much uh I do have a question um I think this is really important because I'm very familiar with that block because of the previous um issues that we've had um you have some really strong uh business owners over there and residents and so I guess and this might be a question for the applicants um what is the working relationship with the other businesses next door because you guys have to be really good neighbors and that was something um that did not happen and I think uh that was very very challenging so if maybe um you have any idea or you could speak to that because I think that's going going to be how you're going to have success I can only speak through through what I've heard from them but I think they would love to to address that okay yeah please [Music] hi guys how are you guys doing um so Jessica and myself have spent quite a bit of time going around to the neighboring uh businesses to try to create those same relationships that we're talking about um Kathleen also helped us kind of mend a little bit of a broken relationship between us and the members of uh the bar that we share the block with um they had a lot of concerns about what we were going to do in terms of safety just because of the previous interactions that they had not just with the previous business but the business also before that um we spent a lot of time trying to go over ways that we can all help each other as a community um we've made great relationships with owners managers security staff um all up and down that block we spent a lot of time getting to know them um so they know our faces we know their faces and we know what what has worked for them um as they've been in operation and you know what also hasn't and how we can come together and unite to battle some of those things to make the whole area safer um to make the businesses Thrive and to make sure that we're constantly achieving all of our goals okay all right I really appreciate that because I think that's going to make the difference from what wasn't there before and unfortunately you guys are sort of getting pegged with some of those previous issues absolutely and so we look forward to you being a good neighbor and to the other neighbors um in that area that's really important but it's always exciting to see new um venues and entertainment come to the city so We Wish You A lot of luck but also we it's really really important that we're all working together to keep also the residents down there um you know safe and not only uh respectful so 1,000% we've made ourselves readily available to any and anyone that wants to weigh in on any of the decisions that we're doing just so that they can have the same peace of mind they can understand what we're doing why we're doing it and how we're doing it so that you know everybody's feels safe and feels like they're being heard all right thank you so much and for our records would you mind stating your names and titles yeah my name is Wolf Gang Welch I'm coowner of Eden Jessica Lupo coowner of Eden okay thank you any questions from Council Members Madame mayor just briefly go right ahead first of all thank you for being here today I think that's an important element of our relationship together right yes um what we want to do is ensure that all of our businesses in the city of Reena are successful and so our goal of course as a council is to allow our um administrative staff to work with you in a way that is Meaningful to you and when that is not happening you certainly are happy to let us know about it I want to thank my colleague council member Taylor for working so diligently on this particular location I don't think it has anything to do with the two of you in my interactions with you you've both always been very professional and very kind so I thank you for that um but I do think it behooves all of us to really dig in to the areas within our city where we have had some historical experience that leads us to believe that things can be repeated uh I would encourage you to both recognize that privileged licenses are are really that they're a privilege to have and and there is a great deal of scrutiny going on with our privileged license um uh format and and area because we we do want the best for the city as I think you do as well so again my thanks to the mayor for leading in the discussion space about the importance of downtown and the privileged license uh space our staff for the work that they've done and council member Taylor for the Excell work in looking at um this from the perspective of all of us so thank you thank you guys all right thank you so much okay Council and Taylor please give me a motion motion to approve all right thank you I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously congratulations good luck okay moving right along next we have item b11 pulled by council member breas all right council member breus go ahead yeah can we get a stop report on this city attorney's office can you make a presentation yeah um for the record John Shipman city attorney's office don't have a formal staff report um other than just what we did was take the direction given by council at the last meeting and we um memorialize that in the agreement that's uh included in the packet so if there's any questions about that um I'm open for questions yeah okay not a presentation but it was not the last meeting what meeting were maybe two meetings ago perhaps okay I think it was was it June 20th and this item just to characterize is um the reinstated and third contract with our city manager yep okay and um I had some questions about that and I'll I just I was not at his evaluation on June 20th um I have read the minutes and I did submit my own evaluation um but there is a Vision in there that enhances the severance pay that he would obtain and I think that came up a request he made when he first started was for a year Severance and I think we looked at some um norms and a year was a bit much I think the icma approved six I I don't know if anyone remembers that that was my recom elction so I did go back and read Mr uh Reese's discussion about a severance payout and I've read the severance section and and um it's it's very generous it's very extensive and then it links to certain ways in which the city might not pay Severance and I think those are in page five um removal is and this is paragraph D um uh a through H and um in particular uh f is use of possession of illegal drugs drugs or violation of the code said forward in 281a which if you cerence that that's NADA rebi statutes related to ethics ethic commissions and we know a lot about that because we we uh have a lot of impact interaction with the ethics commission but then our own Municipal Code 2.2 code of ethics for public officials which seems to pertain more to City Council Members than it really does anyone who's in the workforce to not an elective so I get that but then when I read section 2.24 in our um Municipal Code um and it's not referenced in a reason for removal under which Severance would be due there's 2.24 says if a result of the investigation the city council determines that the mayor uh city council member City attorney um uh a city council member City uh there's also a reference to the city manager up above but can be um will be subject to it's actually 22470 if a result of the investigation the city council determin that the city manager city clerk subjected an employee or cover person to unlawful and discrimination harassment or retaliation the city manager Clerk and there I'm exerting the city manager clerk will be subject to discipline up to and including termination of employment so I want to understand how that section reads with the severance privileges that that are given uh benefits that are given to the city manager because at the time the council reviewed him um the city manager to my knowledge was and is under investigation councilwoman and that's an investigation counc breus you're over three minutes hold on okay I'm cut off right now have him respond and then we'll keep going around if if I could just clarify it so like two two points number one we're not agendized to talk about people at this meeting um oh we're not no we're not doing a contract don't you usually have I mean can't if with the contract's on can't we talk about the contct the contract yeah that's the sole thing that's up for discussion today is that the contract and the provisions that you're talking about have not changed so um you know that's again um we can have a conversation offline about that but um you know I don't think we're agendized to talk about that or to talk about yeah um you know particular character competence of individuals well I want to understand because there is knowledge and I have backgr that investigation was okay hold on hold on one second cuz you know we have 3 minutes everyone gets minutes and we keep going around so everyone gets the opportunity to weigh in on the conversation so it doesn't get dominated by one person all right any um other comments on this item no okay sending it back to you for three minutes okay so this 2.24 okay it's it's in the code it says if you council is doing an investigation and the inv investigation finds wrongdoing the city manager may be terminated okay I want to know how that works with the employment contract related to a severance yeah so on that huh I can get you a memo on that no no I want to know right now yeah I'm not prepared to opine on that currently at this well so that's fine now I'll ask another question it's just um the benefit of the six months um P per purchase up to 6 months P purchase is that still solid included in there yeah that has not changed did you have a did you cost that out I did not cost that out no you don't know do you have a guess um it would be about 30% of the annual base salary under the normal okay so that's on top of the costing okay I I think unlike con cbos you're not supposed to show all the costs but because it's buried in the Second Amendment I didn't know well um I am a opposed to this provision of the enhanced Severance with full knowledge that the council knows and I know because I've been interviewed by an investigator about violation of retaliation and I was the one who requested it here's a public Le letter about it that my attorney sent in May of this year the council I believe is aware because the investigation is ongoing and with that knowledge it appears to me that the council enhanced up to a year a severance buyout I find that fiscally irresponsible now the investigation's ongoing I believe and I mentioned it in June 22 with his evaluation that there was wrongdoing improper government action and retaliation I brought it up in my interview in the 22nd I mentioned it several times here I finally had to hire an attorney to call upon that because the retaliation has ramped at so much over the last year an investigation is undergo and at the same time investigations undergoing for pooper government actions the city manager by this council is getting a an increased benefit of oneyear salary for severance payment I just want that to be a public note because there's another side of the story I believe to what's going on with that Severance and the City attorney will not answer whether or not that 2.24 that discuss this termination by the council how that relates to this severance package so no and again um Madame mayor just to to clarify the record I'm happy to answer that question I just am not prepared to do it at this point in time so if we we can come back and get you a maybe we should hold off on this then well the only thing is I think um these would have been really good questions had councilwoman breus been in his review and then we would and then I would think you would have been able to provide those this is the first I'm hearing of these um so maybe um city attorney's office can get whatever she needs and then we'll come back cuz it sounds like we're not prepared or your your office isn't prepared today okay Madame mayor yes go right ahead councilman um coun Reese vice mayor go ahead Madam mayor a couple of things for the colleagues and for the folks watching at home number one um Mr Thornley you've done an exceptional job running this city and I commend you for it we live in very difficult times where both the right and the left of the political Spectrum have made the job that you do and the job that we do very difficult it's unfortunate that council member from W one uh continues to behave in the manner that they do um but this is not unknown to you uh certainly the public is a part of our uh uh discussions and and certainly is aware of some of the items raised by um the council member from Ward one however what what I want you to focus on Mr Thornley is uh that concept of behaving like a goldfish you just have to have a short memory uh Miss breus uh was narrowly elected in her last term she represents a very minority position in this community and the allegations that have been raised are false and so you have to let some of that go uh the item before us today is really related to a contract extension which was approved by this body I think unanimously um at the time it was raised as well as the terms and conditions of it so I thank the city manager's office for working with the city attorney's office to bring us this restated contract of course the contract includes Provisions that are designed to um make it harder for you to leave us quite frankly because we have decided that um being run out of town by all measure of things as perhaps some of our previous managers have been uh by the the misbehavior and antics of one member of this body is not acceptable so there's a risk versus a reward we we want to make certain that our community has the leadership that you have brought to this building and has that leadership for a number of years and in doing so um the provisions of the contract and the performance valuation recognize your incredible contributions to the organization and so for my part uh we'll be supporting this uh extension and believe that the uh spurious and um false allegations raised by one of the members of this body have no uh truth or bearing on that truth and certainly believe that it's a continued pattern and practice of harassment that this particular member has engaged in with many members of this city council and with members of the staff over a course of 10 years and that tyranny will soon end thankfully um but in the meantime we have to focus on on the work that this body will do and does do each day to improve the community and the lives of this community and in doing so I think this contract reflects Our concern that a you've done a great job and B we would like you to stay here for a long time so I thank you Mr manager from the uh truly from an intellectual perspective at the bottom of my heart it is a difficult thing to have to do this in public Nevada law requires it and so here we are so thank you for the work that you do uh thank you for continuing to be a positive in transforming this community and our organization and uh of course we'll be supportive okay thank you so much councilwoman der go ahead thank you um I too just wanted to register my support for our manager um I was very supportive of him during the review um everyone has room for improvement me included he included but the issue is we're always trying to do better and bring our community together and lead with kindness and intelligence and so those things I have seen demonstrated and I'm very supportive of uh the contract that we approved so just want to go on the record thank you so much anyone else councilwoman e go ahead I I'm just blown away by the comments about people's election results so completely unnecessary so completely uncalled for especially considering we have two people on this body right now that were appointed I don't see the relevance of calling out people's election results from two years ago and talking about when somebody's going to be gone and how relieved you'll be about it unbelievable childish uncalled for I'm so disappointed and frankly disgusted so those are my comments thank you okay thank you okay hold on first of all um no one likes to air their dirty laundry ever um I don't think this is a particularly good look for the council but this is the politics we're living in today that um people you know disagree with you and um then it becomes really challenging we're living in times where it has never been more uh divisive in politics I know firsthand I've been tracked and stocked um and you know my privacy has been invade invaded I mean we're at that level now and so um it's very very concerning to me so it's unfortunate that we have um gotten to this point I I will say Doug I have been very hard on you um our our city manager I have been very hard on you um and you have done your job with a lot of um grace and mercy and and respect so I I have to say um I've been impressed with your performance um because you know I do hold you accountable um I I just wish councilwoman breus would have been uh part of the review process cuz I think you know these are always important conversations I like to be a body that has consensus I think that that is important it builds a solid team and as a city that's what you guys deserve you deserve that whether you agree with me or not or my politics but guess what we all live here together if something tragic happens in this city I hope that we're there for one another maybe you're my neighbor and maybe you know something you know a horrible accident happens I'm coming to save you because you're my neighbor I don't care about your politics and at some point we have to set that aside we're human beings we all have to figure that out at some point sometimes we're Our Own Worst Enemy our absolute Own Worst Enemy in this country when we should be looking at other countries as Our Own Worst Enemy instead of ourselves right we live in a wonderful wonderful country the best but let's all get along to make this country better our cities better each other better this isn't going to help anyone I want the city to be better not bitter so anyway okay we're we're going to move on and I apologize everyone for being dragged through that I that's embarrassing but we're going to move on and um Madame mayor Mr Martinez has oh go ahead councilman thank you so much just trying to get my mic on I appreciate um the conversation I will say that we hashed out a lot of these things during our a previous Council meeting and so this is the first time that we're seeing some of this information and um although I appreciate the input from all of our members we're asking we're being asked to consider something that's a speculation and not a result of an investigation which is clearly stated in Ren Municipal Code SE subsection AB section 2.24 070 so um I am in support of this item and I until there are affirmative results of an investigation then we can have that conversation at that point thank you okay thank you so much one more minute under no council woman we already went through our time I can't have one more minute under our rules we cutting me off could be depriving me of somee process we already went through our rounds councilman breus okay Madame mayor you misrepresented the record on on the valuation and I want to set the counc breus hold on a second you can have your time to speak hold on one second just give me a minute because you know how this works we're going to come back to you okay go ahead councilwomen Taylor oh sorry Madame Mar I was just prepared to make a motion okay hold on before we do that go ahead and then we'll go into discussion um motion to approve item B18 all right I have a motion and we're going to head to discussion Council and practice go ahead yeah thank you Madame mayor um like you I'm the most senior member on this board and I have a very I I'm very proud of my attendance record I did not attend the evaluation due to a a very important family Landmark occasion but unlike what you referenced I sent in my evaluation it was a written document yours is not of record okay okay so I never I never do that I do it in person that's fine okay but mine is of record and it hearkens back to my June 21 record uh evaluation where I provided imperson and on written outlined the incident outlines the retaliation and since that time the retaliation ramped up to the degree in May I felt I had to hire an attorney at this point the only question I'm asking is one putting into the record the fact that there is an investigation ongoing stating that I've been interviewed by an investigator and two how this enhanced Severance works together with a part of Reno Municipal Code that my colleague just mentioned 2.24 that talks about removal of the city manager uh as a result of Investigation is this enhanced Severance go with that or not because there seems to be a conflict between the contract and the Reno Municipal Code the City attorney cannot give an understanding and answer of that that's disappointing that office failed to investigate back in 21 so you know there I think they're falling down on some of these issues but with that I'm ready for the vote and um I'll just reference all to the written record of the last two years evaluation and the letter in there and the contract which raises these questions thank you and I'll be voting no okay thank you so much all right all right so I have a motion in a second any further discussion all those in favor say I I all those opposed opposed motion carries all right moving on thank you uh moving on to item B13 also pulled by council member breas Madame mayor before we get into B13 with Mr pwt I it would be my recommendation that we open 13 14 and 15 in conjunction with one another uh they're effectively the same item they are slightly different groups but for context rather than doing it three times I I think it's appropriate to just open them all together 13 14 and 15 yep okay thank you so much hi good morning how are you I'm good thank you how are you doing okay go right ahead mam May and Council Jesse PW labor relations manager for the record I'm here to present to you a comprehensive benefit resolution for the represented unrepresented hourly mid-management and management employee groups first though a little bit of the history behind the benefits for these groups they're detailed across 20 peacee resolutions that date back as far as the 1980s so some 40 years ago uh in some of these cases they defined benefits such as automobile allowance for the Management Group uh sick and vacation leave deferred compensation matches holidays and insurance all defined via resolution across these these 20 years so uh resolutions benefits for these groups however have fallen behind the negotiated benefits of bargaining groups um as well as our local labor market looking at at Sparks and looking at waso County we have individuals as a result of this that are working in the same classification but in different benefit groups who are earning for for example different vacation ACR rates a program assistant in the city attorney's office will earn a different vacation amount than a program assistant out at say public works this organization has done a good job of building and maintaining a robust and healthy organizational culture and I think that's evidenced by being nominated as a best place to work in Northern Nevada um twice we have some 200 employees in these groups and in order to maintain that momentum uh staff is recommending that we true up the benefit resolutions for these three groups the first ask from staff is that we create one comprehensive benefit resolution for each group so that we don't have to go through all 20 to figure out what we need to maintain or or update this makes it easier to update identify and maintain uh the benefits for these three groups we're also including clear definitions of classifications within each of these benefit groups this is ultimately to provide parity and Equity with bargaining group counterparts add contemporary language to these resolutions and also to provide parity and Equity with Sparks some of the benefits that Sparks and wasow County uh have for their their employees as well this also corrects some compression issues that we've noticed we have individuals who are working in say local 39 or RPG those those two benefit groups that aren't promoting into positions um that are in like the unrepresented group or mid management or management because they take a a hit a decrease to their fringe benefits this AIDS in retention at the highest levels of this organization by uh increasing these benefits for these groups um some of the highlights or increasing acral rates in cats Cash Out opportunities holidays reimbursement education incentives and Longevity to match that that is found in the the bargaining groups and in Sparks and was County the total cost for all three items is $1.11 million and that's been considered for in the budget that this group had previously uh adopted earlier this year on this final slide I just have some recommended motions for each items and I would be happy to take any questions okay thank Mr breus you pulled item 13 so I'm going to start with you yeah you know I am having a challenge talking about broad brush um benefits you know we just exception the city manager we're buying six months of purs um when we did the bargaining groups for the police last time um the and I supported that but if I had known what I had knew then I I probably would have they were provided um they were moved into the 457 plan but that historically if you go back into those bargaining was always something that they weren't going to get because they got something else so in bit by bit you know there's there's pad padding on and the padding on I think most recently showed itself with us throwing out the window some of our financing and budgeting principles related to opep when we did not fund as we had planned when we you know started out with budgets so I'm I'm getting nervous about that and that's why I feel I need more information about where we're at who's in each group and obviously we've got a big workout on the groups because we've run into some Civil Service um and um problems with the charter but uh you didn't provide the list of all the positions and what's filled and unfilled for each of these did you no um but I can give you a quick rundown of of the types of positions that are in these groups okay well because we cut off so much time here I don't want to um go there my my other bigger question that I do want to hear response is I recall letting out a contract and budgeting for um an overall compensation study we were going to do that was called what was the company that we were using we're using public sector Personnel Consultants what are they called public sector Personnel Consultants pspc okay and how much was that contract I don't have that number off the top of my head it was pretty involved though it's looking at everything do you have those results back yet we have we do have the raw data back and we're sending something out to employees today to discuss or to to inform them of where they stand in the market with comparison to their their base salary and their total compensation yes um so we do have the the raw data back yeah that's what I have been and I think this came forward before one of these said we need to bring in the experts and and and bring it in forward you know and look at it more minutely particularly because last time we went out and did a class and compensation study the manager and I don't even think it was this manager threw it out you know and that was the other company you know just said we didn't like the data and there is risk to the organization budgetary wise if we don't work from a place of knowledge as we get into this budgetary situation where we're basically not doing other things that we said we were going to do like pay for some of our you know Park money aside for our retirement benefits so um I am struggled um with this decision now why the HR department um is bringing this forward in advance of the study you're doing because you mentioned the market you know place and that's what I thought it did yeah well and a lot of this is based on internal Equity as well these groups have have these benefit resolutions that have not been updated in some cases since the 80s so they're they're benefit are falling far behind what their bargain for counterparts are receiving so the intent is to bring them up to parity with those those bargaining groups on the benefits because we've been moving up the base salaries yeah with with cost of living adjustments yeah well I think we also move the scales yes okay M perus I'll come back to you Mr I'm sorry for interrupting you Mr Mayor but Mr PE could you describe for the council please the challenges that we're seeing in terms of advancing people through the various um career trajectories that we offer here at the city and and why this is a practical change you alluded to it uh just a moment ago with respect to the internal equity and and and parity but I think um some more specific examples might provide better context for these items sure and I think I probably touched on too briefly during my presentation uh however we we have employees that are in say local 39 who are not promoting into into taking positions that would otherwise be a promot motion into for example the unrepresented unrepresented hourly or the mid-management um groups because they're taking a hit to their fringe benefits whether it's uh vacation acrs or or a cash out or something to that effect or somebody from RPG and those groups that have longevity that aren't promoting into these positions because again they're taking a hit to their their benefits and losing out on that that Fringe benefit compensation and so is the is it correct to say that in some cases the net result of that condition is that irrespective of base pay between the positions the fringe benefits and the benefits package uh make their total compensation less and so that we're we're having trouble moving people into management positions because of that situation that is correct yeah and and that is is an internal and an external problem as well we're we're we're talking about attracting and retaining Talent those are really the kinds of things we have to hone in on thank you okay let me come now to council member eert did you have um items for discussion here yeah and I I might have missed part of this I apologize um you said some of these benefits haven't been updated since the 80s correct okay so is this something we're going to keep tabs on and and update you know as part of our budget and when we're updating um other employees going forward so that this doesn't happen that's the ideal the the resolution process in and of itself makes this delayed um but the the ideal situation is every year we bring something forward that that cheers up these benefits for these folks okay so that's going to be part of the process going forward yes okay okay that was I think my main question thank you Mr first of all thank you so much for the presentation uh excellent work I think I wanted to ask primarily about um the work that has been done with these various groups to um bring them along to the discussion meaning I I make an assumption that we have gone out and had conversations with folks in the affected groupings or maybe they've raised those issues with us so could you first speak to that sure so we've worked with departments and with individuals in some cases uh in these groups to kind of get a pulse on how employees are feeling and this is a a direct response to some of the not only requests but concerns that we've received from folks in these groups well I think it's counil member Ebert wisely points out not having the policy updated since the 880s doesn't make a lot of sense right well we want to have our policies that are consistent and are reviewed with some regularity so that when they are they need to be tweaked for whatever reason that they are so I view most of this as being related to that let me also ask um when we have the class and comp study completed is there uh a possibility that any of these particular uh groups would have to have adjustments related to that meaning we are free free to vary these um from time to time and I suppose we could come back to them at that time if that was necessary yeah that's entirely possible we're still working with management and our labor Partners in the labor groups for for what that would look like and when you talk about unrepresented persons meaning you're speaking to people who are not covered by Collective barwing agreements is that correct correct but they are covered by the protections of civil service is that correct in some cases yes the civil service delineation is defined by Charter and uh and are there lawyers who specialize in in doing this type of work on the employee side meaning are there people that we encounter with some frequency as it relates to these particular types of groups or I mean who would those be I mean have they been involved ultimately is what I guess I'm ask oh yeah we we've included attorneys from the city's attorney's office okay perfect thank you so much I'm ready to make a motion hold on one second looks like we've got council member taylored way and Miss breus would like another shot thank you Mr vice mayor thank you Jesse just a couple questions um I I say this a lot I am not the expert in HR but I believe you are qualify as an expert in HR so I will ask you the questions um I think it's fair to say this this was budgeted for before for right correct all of this all of these items have been budgeted for and approved correct yeah so these these items were included in in the budget that this body approved earlier this year okay and then my next question is maybe more of a statement but um through the staff reports and the information that I read and that you presented this creates Equity stability and also sort of lends itself to retention within the organization would you say that's a fair statement correct yes okay so um I'm going to be very supportive of this thank you for your hard work Miss breus yeah I mean while I appreciate that it was budgeted this FY um there was also in the staff report compound in issues going forward and those seem unaccounted for and that's where you know we have to mix with our other obligations and we pulled off of one of our obligations this budget so we're working with a compromised budget in my view you said some since the 80s what is a benefit that the 80s has been static because the biggest benefit I would presume is the employee health care and they're not stuck in the 80s healthcare plan they they move into the iterations of the healthcare plan that's correct and in in that case with the the healthcare I believe that resolution has been around since the 80s but that language has remained stagnant and hasn't been updated to be contemporary to fit um the city's needs or or reflect the city's current health plans as it as it relates to um current law or regulations or anything to that of that nature and this really gets into item D2 that we're going to do a little bit later um you said that we're seeing people in the bargaining groups not want to move up into the these groups groups um because of the benefit package but um I mean what evidence do you have on that I mean we're about to discuss shoving some of those people who did exactly that back down into um different groups because um you know the number overextended what's allowed in the charter and so um I I'm seeing it a different thing I'm seeing that there's a politicalization of the unrep of this these two classifications and it's putting people at risk and uncertainty on their job security um as you know now and everyone look in the in the um envelope I saw yesterday or the elevator there's a there's a um Civil Service meeting to go on voluntary demotions and transfers you know that's a scary time for the workforce and those that's applied to these people in these groups who took that and they're getting shoved down because of management issues not necessarily you know other issues so what EV the question to summarize is what evidence do you have that people are saying I'm not going to go into the unclassified I'm happy in local 39 or wherever what I mean do you do surveys or it's largely anecdotal in nature but we've heard from employees that they don't they aren't interested in moving up Mr Mr Pew actually if I could um so I I think Mr Pew has described the doal evidence with respect to uh what we're seeing in terms of people promoting through the the various career trajectories that the that the City offers I do think it's fair to say uh that the positions we're talking about right now are more at risk than our civil service uh positions they are not entitled to the same protections and so there are certain benefits that the vast vast majority of our Workforce has that these groups do not enjoy um I think you have in fact hit the nail on the head with respect to um these positions are more tenuous than our civil service positions um and that and that feature or that condition uh I think particularly over the last few years has been exacerbated by the the political climate that we've been talking about at length in this meeting in particular well that's yeah okay and so um you know the updates and the cleanups that Mr peff described are in my view entirely appropriate to make sure that we have that internal parity that internal Equity within this organization it is something that we've focused on a great deal over the last 3 years to make sure these things are right sized and we're a competitive employer in the market place and I think the talent of the team that we've assembled reflects that but then why did we do a class and comp study to have that outside look we do a class in comp study we did a class in comp study so that we could be better prepared to enter into labor negotiations here in the next few months that information is being shared with individual employees with respect to their individual positions today via email they are going to be directed to the website with respect to the raw data and the entirety uh of the organization and they'll be able to see all the positions and where they shake out both with respect to base wages and total compensation Mr thorney thank you for the explanation I'm going to come now to council member derer yeah thank you um I am so glad you brought this to us because I think it's incredibly important that if your position is not in a represented Group which has collective bargaining um you should not left be left behind and as you move through the organization and take on increasing management responsibilities such as the mid management and management employees you should not be penalized for doing that you know you shouldn't have to suffer the job is challenging already uh that you're taking a step up to do you shouldn't also have to sort of um bear some negative challenges with doing that so I'm very glad we're evening things up uh like uh Miss Ebert I want to make sure we St stay up and throughout my tenure here I thought we were trying to stay up I thought each year we actually were um I know you talked about the awkwardness of a resolution but I know I've been here several times where we have adjusted uh the benefits for these three classes in the last nine years so it's not that they do go back to the 80s maybe the language does but substantively they're not in an 1980s medical plan um Etc you know so I don't I I'm sure that the language needs to be updated but the the substance um I think is pretty relevant up to the last time we approved the resolution right and do you know when that was I don't off the top of my head but I know that the this body has approved some iteration of those peac meal resolutions through we have maybe we haven't done them all at once you know we've tackled one or the other but anyway I am prepared to make a motion if there's no further conversation looks like eer has a question before we do that and then I'll come back to you this is in regards to uh manager Thornley maybe um you said there was a comp and benefits study done and this compared um our employees compensation and benefits to other City staff in cities with comparable size yes what we did was we designed a study um not necessarily based on comparable size but based on um who are predominant competitors in the in the marketplace were so of course we've done it regionally with par in waso County but it extends down to Sacramento it extends to Las Vegas it extends to Salt Lake City um I'm missing some I believe it's a collection of eight municipalities against which we we ran our numbers and and compared um okay and is this something that we'll do annually as part of this kind of true up as well comp benefits I don't know that we'll do it annually it's certainly relevant information as we negotiate um with our labor groups and of course every labor contract is going to be open here in the next few months okay it has it had not been done or done well recently and so it was at least time to get a baseline understanding of where we stood in the marketplace and I I believe we've achieved that that information is being communicated today um there's been a considerable amount of Outreach with our labor partners and with employees on an individualized basis it's a lot to take in I expect that there will continue to be more questions um but you know we're moving through that in uh in general I think that that we're doing okay in that space okay I think M council member Ebert as well I've heard that the county has recently done a similar kind of thing as well as city of Sparks so my experience has been that we have not done one in at least the five years that I've been on the council it it doesn't happen every year but it is good to do it with some more frequency than maybe we have done it in the past yeah okay council member der I'm going to come back to you for a motion yeah I'm prepared to make a motion may I ask one more question okay um you know I really do want to see the benefits of that I I I'm having a hard time going here and and maybe you know because the issues I've mentioned about uh that have risen to the level of investigating the city manager I'm not getting the briefings when you know I get maybe a paragraph and so this is a really in-depth thing and there's not a red line to the current benefits that I see there's not a listing of the people but I want to ask about paying the Medicare until 65 or older because there's been changes does this enhance that benefit no this is a a similar benefit this is the same benefit that was in the previous resolution for that okay so what is an what is an enhanced benefit in here I'm going to defer to an example might be the acral rate for uh vacation yeah uh the ACR rate for vacation is is being enhanced we're adding education incentives for Mid management andun employees um longevity is longevity coming in so longevity in my understanding was always something that wasn't going to come into these groups because they got Deferred Comp do they have Deferred Comp they do uh many of our bargaining groups also have different so we're upping those but the the the payment the payment for um and that that you know comes with the ticket it comes with the ticket that can't fix a park or pay for the opab principles but let me ask about the Medicare so the Medicare how how does that operate for this group now I'm G to defer to Angela Davis our benefits manager yeah in human resources to answer that question Miss Davis welcome and good morning oh sorry I'm we see that you are good morning for the record my name is Angela Davis and I serve as your benefits manager um I I guess I'm a little confused on your question regarding Medicare payments we don't pay Medicare for our folks well no I'm sorry once they've left service do we pay amount for them up to when they become Medicare eligible some depending on when they were hired there are retirement subsidies for some folks those are outlined in those resolutions and then for some folks at age 65 when they become Medicare eligible then they're responsible for their full premium and how do these group work on the Medicare payments on the payments before their Medicare when they've left service and Medicare eligible how how much do we pay it it depends on their higher date which which group they're in so and then it has some ofid has any of that changed in these resolutions no it's the same amount okay thank you Miss breus Miss der I'm going to go to you now for a motion sure um I'd like to move to approve the resolution that amends the benefit related resolutions existing resolutions under items b113 b14 and B15 have a motion by council member do or second by Mr Martinez any additional questions or comments at the time Miss breus yeah you know I was cognizant that we were um you know during budget we were coming in on budget on this but I also understood and made points then that I wanted to see the class and comp before we um you know did this for this group because we don't go to the table with them and there is this cascading effect I'm seeing throughout the organization of benefit enhancement I talked about it with the manager five to a year on Severance we're buying purs the police and Public Safety um got Deferred Comp in addition to the other benefit that they had now this one's getting longevity in addition to Deferred Comp it is cascading and I have talked over the years with people on past bargaining you know our our sides and and they say we really are up we are taking steps out of line and so I really wanted to see that and uh I don't see it here and even though it's in the budget for this FY I need to see some background comparatives out of the class and comp and I think it should raise everyone's concerns I'm glad people talked about it but the fact that the last one was thrown away you know and and this one is is lagging we need to get that before we do anything more in my view because these do have Cascade these do have out-year issues and I'd hate to see us sit at the table next year and bargaining and and again disregard our OPB um budgeting principles it's hard decisions but you know that's what we're here for thank you so I vote no Mr Pew again thank you for theid presentation and the work that your office has done you've got a great team uh for my part I want our employees to understand that we value their service that the City of Reno is a collection of people who are doing good work uh that we want for them to enjoy the benefits of both the work uh but also the benefits that come with working here it's not easy work that they do uh sometimes it's more challenging than others and circumstances create challenges Beyond uh the everyday Norm but for my part I thank you for making it a a priority to get these revised and updated realigned with our our values as a city obviously the budget was part of it right that allowed us the space to know that we were going to come forward with this at a later time and and now that it's here uh it's a good thing so again uh thank you for the work that you've done and and I hope our employees who uh are listening know how very much we value the work that they have done and continue to do and of course we like Mr Thornley said I think we want to be a competitive employer we want to be a place where people desire to work they would not only come here to start their career but maybe they would end their career here um we've got some good examples of that in all of our departments and these are the kinds of things that will help employees to make careers here uh and to make the the commitments that they want to make so that we can benefit their families and and certainly they benefit our community long term by their service uh being a Public Employee is not easy and so uh again I think your uh resolutions and the modifications to them help us to consistently provide the Equitable path for them to continue to serve and while also making it clear that we value what they do so thank you for that uh any additional comments or questions at this time Madam mayor yeah just really quickly um I want to commend you and I want to commend uh the whole HR department it has changed dramatically you have done a phenomenal job I don't know if nor Norma's here but you girls are right here so you should be very very proud because I have seen a major difference it was an area that caused me to have great concern for years because and the reason I know that is whenever HR becomes the mayor's office you got problems right um so I want to thank you and your team and also working on this I mean now more than ever it is really important to invest in the people that are investing in you um and the other thing too I think um we also forget that this will end up being a reflection on um how we also treat people in our community and what I mean by that is you know I always say if you have unhappy police officers on your streets or firefighters you can only imagine that that's going to be the outcome of you know sort of the the work and the community that they engage with and so I think it's really um important that and I do believe this because I've heard this from so many of you that I get to work with every day that you look at your job as as service but also in I've heard a lot of gratitude um for you know the benefits and the pay and how grateful many of you are and as a result we end up keeping you much longer and that makes a difference because and I what's the there's a price on it like $3500 every time you go through an employee oh much more way higher than that okay so okay or I was just no I know what it was they were paying people $3,500 to quit that's what they were doing um but my point is turnover is incredibly high and to have a a bad culture also is not particularly helpful for anyone in this city um so I want to say thank you so much I think you guys have done a phenomenal job and I'm so so grateful so I don't think we've been able to um tell you how much we appreciate what you've accomplished in HR I have seen a massive massive difference and it hasn't been overnight it's taken time and so I appreciate your your hard work so thank you and Madam mayor there's a reason if if I may be Rec there's a reason that I wanted to um make this motion and I I said it in few words but um I have had a chance to delve into the details of this and as I said before it's incredibly important to invest in our employees and I think both of you um have made excellent points about turnover the cost of turnover to the organization the loss of institutional memory the ability to do a good job for our residents you know to be here be knowledgeable and have the continuity I think is incredibly important and when I hear that our um policies and systems are disadvantaging that not supporting that that has to be fixed um we have to be Equitable we have to support our employees um we have to respect our culture we have to always be improving our culture so it's with great pleasure to have made this motion thank you okay I have a motion by council member du or a second by council member Martinez all those in favor please signify by saying I I any opposed opposed motion [Music] carries you our next item is B18 pulled by council member breus okay go ahead Council breus yeah i' just like a presentation on I think was there B7 though wanted oh 17 goes first nobody pulled 17 that was not pulled oh I'm sorry 18 sorry did you want to pull 17 Council no no okay could I have the overhead please was mis labeled on my agenda good morning Mike Michelle engineering manager for the record what we're here this morning to talk about is two agreements for the the installation of a storm drain pipe under Union Pacific Railroad associated with comto Cottages Phase 2 development you've seen these agreements before in January of 2021 you approve similar type agreements for the installation of a uh sanitary sewer line under Union Pacific we see the storm drain in Orange and what you previously approved in green is the sanitary sewer to orientate ourselves this is the intersection of North Virginia and Talis North Virginia and um North Virginia and McCaron is down here and as you drive up North Virginia off to the right you will see the existing University Ridge Development what is being built today is Mountain View Estates perhaps you see that it's the same developer who's developing Mountain View and comto Cottages you'll see the Rail Road between North Virginia and the University Ridge subdivision com comto Cottage Phase 2 is outlined here they're required to put in the sanitary sewer um we're involved with this project because Union pafic will only deal with a public entity that being us so that's what we're here to talk about today approval of these two agreements I recommend that you approve them I'm here to happy to answer any questions thank you so much I'm going to start actually with councilwoman Iber I believe this is your ward go ahead and then we'll go to councilwoman breus I don't have questions at this time I know that this is part of something that needs to happen for this development um but I don't have questions for this item at this time okay thanks so much did you I thought you pulled it no no NOC breus go ahead councilman breus sorry so I saw in the staff report that this is governing this is needed for a subdivision correct and the subdivision uh came in for an extension it did in June of this yeah a couple months ago and that was administratively um approved it was an administrative two-year time extension that was approved so um but what is the lapse of getting this job done getting of of doing this work I'm I'm I'm sorry could you repeat that when do they when are they what is the timing there's something in here about a year if they don't do something in a year um well they they in order to have a final map they have to have this design done design for a final map okay it has to be designed and it there has to be security posted for it so security posted so it'll be bonded for okay and are they in for final map they are they are correct okay so they're in for final map and you're getting a bond for this work we will yeah and the nature of that the bond covers what it will cover the it will cover the public portion of the installation of this storm drain so everything that will be installed called under the railroad RightWay which is 100 ft in width will be bonded for okay so if they get their final map and they disappear cuz we're at that point in the development cycle where projects are disappearing the first sign is they're coming in for extensions and this one's already come in for an extension we will have a bond that we can call in to fulfill the obligations in these agreements correct is that add value to us to do this or is it only needed for the project well this particular Improvement is needed to accommodate the development and this development is obligated to put in this storm Trin now if they let's say they go away and there is nothing built then there's no need to put in this storm drain and we don't have any obligations to perform to the railroad or anything we will have obligations to Union Pacific pursuant to the pipeline Crossing agreement subject of this Council action so even if the project doesn't go we're still on the hook to do this to Union POS specific to have this done no if this project again if this project doesn't happen there's no need to put in this Crossing and there's okay the agreement Pacific can't back come back to us and say you know you defaulted we would the Improvement would have to be installed in order for them to quote unquote come back okay the reason I ask these questions is because when you get to a certain point like this when projects are faltering um bonds sometimes are not of the caliber you need and then the city's on the hook and I'm trying to understand the protections that we have um to perform if we have a contract with Union Pacific in my thinking when that administrative extension was granted that would have been the time to put some due requirement onus onto them to not make us in this complicated relationship with Union Pacific and that's why I was a little concerned that we're extending it out when they're not performing already this isn't just a run-of-the-mill um subdivision this is a run-of-the-mill subdivision that involves a lot of work with the Union Pacific on behalf of us and and um that that is of concern and the final map is it for all the units in the phase or is it the final map would be all the units within the phase two project which is okay 196 and where's phase one at it's it's under construction phase one is down here and that is in for final map as well okay and just so you know well I'm up here yeah uh in another month or so you will see me again yeah I remember that because down here yeah because down here we will have another pipeline agreement just a pipeline yeah uh no we will also have a we will also have a AC rate surface Crossing agreement and reimbursement agreement yeah and that will be for improvements to the actual railroad crossing itself yeah that that outgrow railroad crings are a big concern to mine so um and I think I did support it at the time because counc breast you have one minute left you're going to well I'll wait ex wait till we get to the outg grade railroad crossing item in a couple months because that's a very big one you certainly don't want to be hanging out within with um that you know if a project does not go so thank you all right any further questions go ahead councilwoman Eber so I just want to clarify this project is already approved correct I mean the comto the 10 the tenative map is approved yes okay and we've already issued one extension because we're waiting for the Union Pacific to complete their project we you uh it the two-year time extension was granted primarily because it is taking longer than anticipated to get the final map there are complications with Union Pacific okay so it's not it's not the fault of the developer or the the plans or anything um I would not characterize it that way no okay so this is something that we would need to do for the development to finish correct we have to do this for the development to move forward okay so that was all my questions thank you all right any other questions Council breus yeah um go ahead I don't have it up on my computer let me let me just oh it was B18 and can you bring up the motion the suggested motion I guess it's just motion to approve the agreements there are two agreements in this one agenda item okay okay so is that your motion councilwoman okay thanks so much all right I have a motion from councilwoman Reus a second I believe from vice mayor Reese all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you so much good job Mame mayor next item is b19 and due to its similarities recommend opening b19 and 20 together yes we are opening b19 and B20 for the record thank you okay take it away all right um have a quick presentation just give them a sec all right uh Madame mayor members of the board Mr city manager my name is Roy Flores and I'm a senior civil engineer with the utility services department before you today are two items uh with respect to the dery and North Dakota lift station replacement project the first item b19 is with a Construction contract with kg Walters Construction company and the second item is for a construction management uh contract with lumison Associates both items are included in the fiscal year uh 24 approved uh Capital Improvement program budget and will be funded from the sewer fund program or sewer fund all right just a quick refresher so what is a sanitary sewer lift station uh traditionally uh sanitary sewer systems are designed to flow gravity so think about uh going downhill and there's points in the system where there's low points and so at those low points we have a pump station or lift station that collects the waste water where it is pumped or lifted to a higher elevation and continues to flow gravity to its end uh destination which is a treatment plant so project overview so this item before you today is for two lift stations we've combined them together uh so the first one is a dery lift station located in ward 3 that lift station is approximately 34 years old and has reached the end of its useful life typical lift stations are designed for 15 to 20 years with corrective proactive maintenance you get 20 plus years so we've reached the end of our useful life of this lift station and has been identified in previous uh assessments to be replaced the second lift station station is the North Dakota lift station it is in W 2 that was that lift station is approximately 37 years old and is also reached the end of its useful life and is recommended full approval or full replacement so recomend why it's recommended so replace outdated infrastructure both lift stations have reached the end of their useful life uh while we're doing that we're going to improve safety uh for maintenance and operation staff and we're also going to bring the lift stations up to current industry standards and with that I have the staff recommendation up on the screen and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you all right thank you so much great job by the way it's nice to see you we don't get to see you that much okay um any questions all right seeing that there none councilwoman derer yeah to make a motion all right to approve this item if I mean did you want to go ahead she called for the motion Oh I thought you I was second your motion all right I you yeah okay I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries all right thanks so much take care okay moving right along final Mr clerk consent agenda is B22 yeah this is mine um I pulled this item because I wanted to say a very special thank you to council member uh breus and that is um all of the donations are incredibly important and I support them all I mean I voted for them and I support them and I'm even recommending that I make some but this particular one is um some funding for Community cats and yesterday had an opportunity to speak with the Nevada Humane Society and the animal services uh group together and they both identified incredible challenges with feral CS um that uh are shelters are running out of space they they have many many cats in them and they really need to depend on Partners such as this group Community cats uh to help with the Trap neuter and release concept so the idea is that we trap the um animals we neuter them so they don't reproduce and then we release them so that we don't have to uh pay for their upkeep we don't want to keep them in a basically a little prison for the rest of their life they're they're meant to be outdoors um and that's where they live so um this money will be incredibly helpful to those programs and helping our shelters um empty and so thank you councilwoman breus I just really wanted to acknowledge this and I hope to do something similar um later in the year with my own funds um so I just wanted to highlight this and uh I want to encourage everyone um I'm going to now do a PSA about our shelters which are very full and the City of Reno has taken an active role in helping reduce the population in the shelters we have uh for example worked with Nevada Humane Society to actually open up the shelter so that people can once again walk through and see the animals that are available for adoption and get invested an animal that they might not otherwise have chosen and we've already in the one week since this happened they already report a significant increase in adoption so I think our efforts there were well founded um they've also done some other things improved the front desk staff uh reduce the onerous application process uh to adopt an animal uh still requiring that this these are good people that are wanting to adopt animals but not in an onerous way so again thank you council member uh breus for doing this it's very important to our animal community so thank you yeah I'll just T if I may Madam mayor yeah I was going to just ask you Council andreus um I think you had this on a previous agenda before didn't you I I think you did but I do want to say I think councilwoman dur is right I would just encourage other councilmen members cuz I think this is a very very good initiative and I I believe it says um programs in W one yeah um and I want to acknowledge um you know our liaison help us on this and Tyler Shaw really helped me uh trying with this one um and it falls out of the constituent work that my office does um because we we heard of we have we have belief that there are two real hot spots in W one um kind of not close to each other other spread out and um and we're hoping to provide that they will have the resources um and they said they have do to uh do the leg work to focus on those two hot spots if not you know that's okay but um but yeah we hear about it a lot from so it comes out of constituent Services work yeah and it's a problem in search of a solution so that's what um we're hoping it can be replicated yeah well and so I just want to put this on the radar for other council members and the reason being is you can see properties sometimes that are very problematic because of this situation and and we can prevent so much of that kind of problem if we're doing work like this so I would just encourage everyone for your wordss um to you know really look into this and Tyler I'm sure you'll help all of us all right okay thank you so much mam mayor I am not familiar with uh the community cats um group uh but Mr Shaw is also my liais on and so I would also like to be able to support them and Miss breus is good work uh so hopefully we can make that get to a future agenda uh I think I have $1,000 doll in discretionary funds that I'd also allocate to the same program so and I love that is Rita we used to call her Rita cats is she still part of that no I know it was it's a small organization but they do big big work but I I remember because my sister was a big big supporter so um good afternoon mayor and Council Tyler Shaw community liais on for the record uh thank you for pulling this item because now we get to talk about cats and do you think Tyler is a cat person I am for the record I am a cat person um but Community cats is a great organization that's been operating in the community since the 90s they're registered 501c3 nonprofit and I've been working with their executive director Tracy Dean and she has been spectacular and with council member bre's donation we're going to be able to do two trap neuter and release programs in W one and with Vice May Reese's donation I'll work with um people to identify some different spots where we can do some more work yeah let us know please we want we want to help you and um this is why I love you because you're a cat guy all right thank you so much I have a couple questions goad I'd like to know how many cats you have I have two you two I only have two goose and moose goose and moose oh I love it well thank you Tyler really appreciate it the and these are initiatives that you a lot of people don't think of and it's really good to have them on the radar because they really are important cuz otherwise they can it can get very challenging and out of hand and then you have residents that don't know what to do this is a really good proactive approach so um you let my office know we want to help okay thanks so much can I get a motion you councilman breus yeah I'll move uh to um approve the resolution second all right I have a motion in a second M mayor I have a question any discuss go ahead just I I want to know from maybe it's legal's perspective can we amend the uh thing to include the donation or that has to come back a separate time has come back okay sorry about that I'll support okay so I have a motion in a second I'll those in favor say I all those opposed and thank you so much uh motion passes unanimously see no one was caddy all right we're gonna I had to say it I had to say it considering today's today's council [Laughter] meeting you know me I'll say it in my out loud voice I'm going to tell you always what I think just off off the top of my head huh now you can come back with a poem right I want a poem next time my friend okay um where are we at Mr that concludes our consent agenda okay thank you so much I appreciate it we are actually going to go and take a break um I need people to get up and uh reset that first half of the meeting was um awesome was awesome and long no it was uh something where I think everyone needs to get up and and take a break but also get some lunch and um and then we'll be back what let's see where are we at we're at 12:30 about so can we get back by uh 1:00 Mr clerk yes that sounds good we'll come back at 1 okay thank you so much we're going to go into recess thanks everyone e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh sure oh okay okay let's go m Mr clerk M mayor okay all right Mr clerk uh get us back on track okay we are reconvening the Reno city council meeting and we are on item D1 presentation by public works okay thank you so much at this time uh before we have them come up to the podium do you have any public comment on this item uh yes we do okay let's go into public comment first if you don't mind absolutely uh we have no in-person public comment but we did receive four comments which were directly associated with the agenda item prior to 4m on August 88 these comments were written correspondence via reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office and copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal they represented three in opposition and one concern from the following individuals Lance sanco Craig madole Michael goth Hutchin and Larry de venzi and that is everything for comments okay thank you so much appreciate that um at this time I believe we are going to take a disclosure councilwoman Taylor go ahead yes thank you Madame mayor um Madame mayor fellow Council city council members and Madame clerk m u Mr clerk in the interest of full disparen transparency on item D3 D1 I am disclosing the essency is a former client of my consulting firm approximately 3 years ago I completed a three-year Consulting agreement with snc which included supporting rtc's Outreach efforts on the Virginia Street bus rapid extension project here item D1 involves discussion and potential direction to staff regarding options to address the existing rise Center Median on South Virginia Street the RTC constructed as part of the project on this matter I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office today I can confirm that snc is a former client not a current or future client I am not currently under contract with snc nor will I have any contracts with snc in the foreseeable future as a result I do not have a pecuniary interest in the outcome of item D1 in light of these facts the city attorney's office has advised me that I do not have a substantial and continuing business relationship with snc nor a commitment in a private capacity to the interest of smnc as a result I may participate on this item today Madam Clerk or Mr clerk please accept this disclosure and launch it on the record thank you all right thank you so much any other disclosures okay seeing that there are none then we are going to go into presentation good afternoon Madame mayor and council members khil Wilson assistant director of Public Works I'm here to talk to you about Midtown medians since the completion of the RTC Midtown project the city has heard some complaints from business some business owners that the medians were strict left turns and propos a solution to remove the medians I'm here to ask Council today if the public if Public Works employees should re prioritize time and resources in order to work on Project work from other projects in the community to evaluate Alternatives in the Midtown Corridor to attempt to address the express concerns RTC completed a Midtown project in 2021 using Federal grant funds of $40 million the goals of the Midtown project were to lower speeds to increase safety create a more workable environment maintain parking and provide high frequency reliable Transit a post construction study was performed by UNR after the completion and confirmed that the uh the goals were achieved with lowering the speed limits from 30 Mi nrow to 25 the study showed that the majority of vehicles were traveling at or below the lowered speed limit crashes head-on and left turn crosses were reduced by 85% a narrow road the narrowed roadway provided a shorter distance for pedestrians to safely cost Virginia Street The Wider sidewalks invite greater pedestrian Mobility activity the parking spaces were utilized and the rapid Virginia line is the highest used and best performing Transit Corridor in the city with a significant number of ridership from the University RTC used federal grants to build the Midtown to roads the terms of the grant require no changes to the road until March of 2026 if the city removes the medians before March of 26 the city would need to repay $40 million of the Federal Grant in addition the city would need to pay for engineering design fees and costs associated replace the sidewalk and roadways these these fee these costs are not budgeted within the current CIP there will also be an indirect cost associated with the business on the mtown district to close the street for construction which would take approximately 18 to 24 months in conclusion of my presentation I'd like to ask Council if staff should reallocate time and resources to evaluate the Alternatives what's constructed today in the Midtown Corridor thank you and I can answer any questions you may have all right khil thank you so much can you repeat the last I think maybe last two sentences of your presentation what what did you say about completing something in 24 mon can you so there would be an indirect cost to the the business owners in Midtown to in order for us to complete the construction of the work the dis to if we were to remove the medians okay I I guess I'm getting mixed messages here because one message I hear that we can't do that based on federal guidelines because of the money that's attached to it the other thing I would like to see is um and and I want everyone to remember and and khil I'm not directing this at you at all in any way so don't take it personal cuz it wasn't you and it was n even um the current team over at RTC um everyone has left but there is some confusion because we're told that it's attached to federal dollars and I'd like to see an accounting of all those dollars and then I'm told there is a surplus of these dollars where are they where are they going you're not RTC so khil I'm probably addressing the wrong person um I will you know send an email I'm I'm on their board as well um but I I think it's a little difficult cuz those people are no longer there but we still have to kind of go back and figure it out but you're telling me that why would we even give that option if it was tied to this Federal piece that wouldn't make any sense to me because one minute I'm hearing we can't because of that and now we're hearing that there's a cost if we did so I just feel like there's a lot of misinformation and I have to tell you I have major stress when I see those emergency vehicles go down and back and I've heard from fire and police that it creates a hardship for them and the businesses and I hate to say this I'm not talking to you khil so I'm just looking straight so okay forgive me but I will tell you this and I was very vocal about this project beforehand um it you know it was so funny because they had a lot of focus groups with businesses but they didn't listen to a damn thing that those businesses wanted those businesses wanted diagonal parking we went through this we went through this and I just you know here we are today and they said oh don't worry mayor we we can take out that medum because I figured that medum was problematic and I'll tell you you know I I think you presented some good statistics but I have some concern when we see the same four you know the same four businesses where cars are going right into them and then literally if you have an emergency you can't get past them the businesses I were never never on board with this this design ever and RTC did it anyway and so that is what's so frustrating to me they really weren't those businesses were never listened to and it was the same reason matter of fact a lot of us on this Council went hey and RTC has a long history of just doing what they want when they want how they want um thank goodness it's turned over and we've got new board members and new leaders ship and so I look forward to that but let me tell you that's exactly what happened and basically they plated all the business members and this Council quite honestly so um that's I'm just going to say my piece um but I just there's confusion of really what is this tied to and I'm going to ask um you know if we have a representative of RTC here I don't think we do but um where I want to know the accountability of all all of that uh money so thank you okay I'm at my 3 minutes I'm going to send it to councilwoman dur go ahead yeah thank you so much and I'm I'm so grateful that you put this agenda item on uh because I lived this dream I lived the dream I heard the businesses as you said not be supportive I had to fight tooth and nail a council member at the ground level to get trees lining the sidewalk to get art to have art considered in the waste baskets and the seating uh never mind uh uh some SE Standalone art piece um I raised concerns about the um divider the what are you calling it The burm median median yeah uh at that time conrete um at that time and um they said because of concerns they would not embedded in the street they would more like lay it over the street and it could be removed as we got more experience with the road um so I have a few questions one um I didn't hear maybe you did address the roundabout because my did you address it and I just missed it no I did not oh okay well the roundabouts been a great deal of concern and the reason it gets so much use is because it's so difficult to turn uh there's so few openings that people end up having to do Drive the entire length South and North to get to where they're going um when we were going through this project we had RTC bring in maps uh we put them on the walls outside in the lobby we put them up in the council uh conference room we went over them with RTC block by block by block I mean in detail every block where is every median where's every cut through where's every tree and um I remember at that time I recommended two more cut-throughs is what I recall now Dale um over at RTC said he was pulling that data to to get a refresh us all and um another thing I want to clarify in your presentation is that um my understanding talking to our staff including you and Carrie and Doug is that the um prohibition about changing the project ends in March of 2026 in other words at that point if the sponsoring agency the Reno uh wants to make a change the money is not at risk and could you clarify that that is true the money that that that that the the terms of the agreement ends in 2026 right I would say that would also say that the you know the the the chance of getting future dollars may be at Jeopardy as well okay even for a slight change like two openings in the median y like so I've never been one to Advocate to take out the entire median I want to make that clear but I have been advocating to follow up on what RTC promised which was to evaluate it after it was built both the roundabout and how the whole system was working for the businesses for everyone for the people traveling through and to make sure that it was good so um in summary I would be supportive of you doing some additional work yes not drop everything and especially given the time frame frame that we wouldn't want to do anything before March of 2026 so there might be a time frame maybe two years before that 2024 where you might want to think about doing some work because it takes a quite a bit to do a study and it takes quite a bit to get to the point of building a something or taking something out and lastly you mentioned closing the road for 18 to 24 months I think it could easily be done in sections and I any kind of small changes without having to close the entire Road for two years I I just see that so those are just some my summary comments I don't want us to do anything to je raise money I want to make that super clear but do want us to continue evaluating the functionality of the road thank you you want to weigh in I do go ahead so the context of this is that this item is on the agenda at the request of who populated this agenda item the mayor I put this on the agenda item or on the agenda remember we had some businesses that came and so we had talked about it and I have always felt strongly about it always that's not a secret I've been very vocal about it uh but the Midtown business owners came in public comment I think you'll remember and that's how we ended up here okay so I have represented this area the the west side for 11 years I was at the table I think only two of my other colleagues were when the design was approved it was not the design I voted for Mr Bob Zen who sat here and I voted for a different one that was a community based one called the Great Street streets project um and I still haven't gotten things that were supposed to be implemented in that which was a two-way cycle track on Forest Street because the vote the pivotal Choice was whether or not we were going to put a cycle track on bike lanes that was lost but other things that the project progressed like the median were installed and agreed upon and part of the design and I support those the only person I have heard have a problem with that median is a tenant who signed a lease I think in 2019 well after the project was done um on Martin Street I haven't heard from anyone else now the mayor is saying and others are saying the business is businesses well I want to represent the interest of the residents in that area because west of Virginia up to plumis is a neighborhood and then plumis where we have the plumis park and then over there we have two schools all the way to Arlington it's a walkabout neighborhood and the interest of these cars to make these turns into this one bar owner's property I think would um counter have counter effects to the neighborhood walk-in traffic and enjoyment because it's going to create cut through traffic situations which we have policies against and so I have stood fast and told that person I'm not going to entertain your idea I'm not going to bring it to the council I've heard that the project Works people are happy in the neighborhood with the fact that cut through traffic is not an issue any longer now so to cut come in and cut this median in and the bar owner gets better access to his parking lot which everyone is pretty accustomed to using you know circling around there's a good alley system um is going to have this impact and I just I find it unreasonable that we are entertaining this at this time um and and frankly in sensitive that's a walk-in neighborhood and you know the cut through traffic concerns are just like not even an issue with other people so that's number one number two is I've got a lot of traffic priorities in W one there's a there's someone who has had their house plowed into on cashell who needs some some improvements there's Virginia Street there's things up in Colin Ranch there's things out in Dickerson Road that haven't been done the fact that we want to relitigate a road that's spent so much time is just it's insane to me because no if I could just conclude conclude it's insane to me it acts like there's not other Transportation neighborhood priorities we have three minutes so everyone gets their time on the record so it doesn't get monopolized can you give everyone else minutes and I will come back to you I promise I will come back to you like I always do I always do Council one breus okay all right any other go ahead thank you Madame mayor for my part um I was not on the council when this project was originally designed or I suppose in the very early days when it was being implemented and there was you know a variety of different opinions about it I think sometimes people are reluctant to change I I want to thank the mayor for continuing to listen to the public when they come and raise issues of concern I think it is incumbent upon us to figure out what is the issue why is it paining this person that they're taking their time out to come we we always appreciate being responsive I think too that there are always competing traffic issues I mean there's a business in Midtown that's been run into three times like Miss breus is talking about a home there's a business that's been run into three times um at the roundabout yeah at the roundabout and um have you seen the pictures where the bus has to go up into the the island so just be careful CU if someone's walking on that island the bus will take them out it doesn't fit the bus yeah there there's a lot there there I I for my part I am appreciative of the folks who came before me that created Midtown as this really eclectic and interesting area where people are now really want to be there was a period of time uh you know not too long ago in the memory banks where it was not an area that people desired to be in and some good Business Leaders including Madame mayor and our the folks who own junkie really established Beach heads there which allowed people to see what could be transformed to become and and that is a reminder that we are always looking at the history of a region but as it relates to just sort of the pure traffic issue in front of us I certainly am not a traffic engineer I don't know all the proclivities or ins and outs of of what is going on there I would hope that if there were traffic issues our folks like you uh khil would be there working on those issues and addressing them um I am concerned like council member der said about whether or not we would be putting in Jeopardy federal funds um and whether we would be putting as you've said in Jeopardy potentially future funds including the unspent dollars that have not been spent and the mayor's right we've got some um auditing to do of those funds which we will hopefully take up at the RTC we sit here today in a capacity as Reno city council members but of course the mayor and I serve on the RTC so again multiple layers to this um it's not as simple as saying should we or should we not remove a median I just think there's more to it than that your proposed next steps are ones that I'm not sure I'm interested today but I'm interested to hear my colleagues they often will help me to crystallize my thoughts on it and I think that's kind of the importance of an iterative process that we can hear the various competing concerns one member can talk about uh their neighborhood concerns another can talk about safety and whether not Public Access and emergency vehicles are being limited and all those things help us to reach a conclusion I'm not sure today as I say here that I could be supportive of directing staff to allocate time to it uh but I think that perhaps in the future we'll be able to do that so I'm I'm interested in listening to my colleagues and happy to be a part of the discussion all right go ahead councilwoman Taylor thank you madam mayor thanks C I have a question um in the recommendation that it's asking us to allocate time to study more so in the information that I received I think we all did there is a study attached to it by the RTC that was performed after the the improvements or the design and the construction was complete right that's correct and in the study I mean there's 6775 pages and it goes over safety crashes Vehicles pedestrians vles yeah it's from UNR um in the memo from RTC it basically sums it up and says specifically the medians have reduced the number of severe angle crashes potential clashes crashes um the roundabout mitigates effects and supports vehicle throughput so parking appears to be adequate all of the things that we would maybe ask you to go look at what is not in this study that we would be asking you to go study if it's already been studied well essentially more openings in in the median but does this study take into consideration of that you want me to take a try so um what's going on here council member Taylor is that the funding store Source here the primary funding source the small starts Grant um is predominantly in place to Prov to provide that extension of of the bus route from the University to the South um and one of the conditions of that funding was that 10 minutes of Headway on average be maintained between the the buses right so in in Lay's terms that buses show up at the bus stops every 10 minutes um for lack of a better descriptor the safety aspects of it that are um provided by the median aren't necessarily I mean they're they're nice and they're part of other smaller component parts of it and they're important I think to the community um but what we would be studying is as Mr Wilson indicated um whether or not adding those additional left turn movements in any way impacted the ability of those buses to arrive on time and if we design a street that accomplishes some goals look at transit in in the study the study does not look at the transit the study looks at the safety aspects of it it says Transit writers ship the funding source is tied to that 10 minutes of Headway for bus service and so we can't put things in place that will delay those buses arrival at the sites that they need to be and that's what we would study we would study whether or not we can amend that design and not run a foul of those terms so what I would say it just oh go ahead Council Taylor I'm sorry that was no I just I guess I don't understand if there it looks like it it looked at Transit and the line in the study so are we going to be studying the transit stops and or would RTC do that what what are we asking as far as what are we going to asking you to study more left turns which essentially yes all right your your three minutes is up Council Taylor um do you want to answer that did you I mean I think in an Ideal World we would work in conjunction with RTC if we were going to spend time doing this our question to you today is we don't have a project in front of you that our Engineers can evaluate we can't give you a good answer on you know whether or not changing the design of Virginia Street in this space um will affirmatively run us a foul of the of the funding conditions um and so what we wanted to know today was how much time do you want us to spend um chasing this down right now knowing that the challenges prevented presented by the specifics of that funding source um I don't want to say expire I don't know that that's the right term I think Mr Wilson described it well but yeah um they are significantly diminished or less severe in May of 2026 so I would um say this that I don't remember and maybe Council woman dur remembers but I don't remember them ever harping on saying we have to have this bus time we have to have this bus time um we were very unsettled at this council with the design and what was happening and then we were told cuz that was my big fear I said because other businesses were bringing it up and um residents in the area and and I'm sorry that councilwoman breus doesn't think that the business owners in her District are are important because they really are Midtown is the reason it is the way that it is today why it's walkable and it's thriving it that was a very long time and it took a lot of um personal Blood Sweat and Tears from a lot of businesses who are also large job creat and allows a lot of people in that W to walk to work and so forth so I'm very proud of that but there are also I will tell you this there are also many residents that don't agree with that because they tell me that the traffic is now pushed into their neighborhoods now councilwoman breus might know that if she accepted meetings from people um in that area but I understand that she's not and that's unfortunate so I want that on the record um but I would say this no one wants to do anything where it's going to Je jeiz this Federal funding that it's attached to I would like to see that um cuz I don't want to I don't want to waste any staff time until that is clarified I think RTC needs to come here um and or or whoever it is that attaches that funding because I think that's important I just want to say this was my original a lot of us had issues with this but we were told hey we'll study the street and if it becomes problematic then we will take it out councilwoman doer remembers and we were told it will even be put in there temporarily we won't put it down with concrete exactly and so for councilman bre is to say how disingenuous this is or offensive I don't remember the word that she used I find it offensive that we just allow streets to stay um you know problematic that's what's instead of we just move on and start doing other streets that's not acceptable but this Council was lied to I want to make that very clear that's exactly what happened so just for the record again C you've been so great you're I mean poor guy you've been taking all the punches and I don't mean it to be that but also you know what RTC should have been here today I'm going to call that out uh I you know I figured they would send a representative so um we'll send an email my my three minutes are up but thank you for being such a good sport khil all right um go ahead councilwoman doer and then uh we'll go to councilwomen breakfast I I wanted to talk about streets generally for a minute um to your last point Point Madame mayor and I was going to make this point anyway let's take a different place in Midtown like South Reno it's not that you just build the street and then you're done we since I've been on Council we've revised many streets in South Reno that were built 10 20 years ago even five years ago we found out oh my gosh we have to do with something at a lane at a turn lane uh change the timing of the lighting all of those things I think that's a sign of good management is to make iterative decision-making based on changing conditions so the the course of action I would recommend in terms of your proposed next steps is to um maybe not do anything in the next one year except find out about this federal funds limitation that shouldn't take a lot but I would recommend that we bring it back in a year from now August 2024 uh which would still give time a year and a half prior to the supposed expiration of the federal contract um and with RTC and um then reconsider whether we need a study at that point and then time it so that you could do the analysis analyze the traffic movements are the uh timing of the lights good do we need a stop sign somewhere do we need to change the circumference of the roundabout do we have to put in ballards so we prevent these accidents at the roundabout I just think that's good management you know we built us something it was kind of a new thing we haven't built 20 foot wide sidewalks before anywhere in Reno to my knowledge um we haven't built um that kind of roundabout with that kind of art we haven't put in 80 trees or whatever taken down overhead power lines so I just believe that that is part of our road building process is to build it evaluate it make changes as needed um would they take away funding if we change the timing of the lights put a ballards to prevent accidents I kind of doubt it you know that's proactive um but I really think you have to look at what's happening with Rema um I understand the fire engines can navigate the median but maybe the the Rema trucks are having more challenges so maybe we have to put in some cut throughs just to speed up REM a response time you know uh every three blocks they can make a turn no they drive over it and then that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars okay well anyway what I'm saying is evaluate the whole picture that would be my recommendation to not follow this recommendation right now but to put it in um maybe in the budget process for 20 starting 2024 for July um and consider an evaluation of the road at that time that's just where I'm at so yeah thank you so much I appreciate it okay um councilman breus and then I'm going to go to councilman Martinez well I think I've had a chance per your rules already I defer to him Mr Martinez are you okay with that yeah that's fine go ahead Council yeah look the statements the mayor made about me and who I will you know those are unsubstantiated and not worthy of addressing and I don't issue those sort of statements about her but so I want to call that out but you know the policy decision Road building is about tradeoffs and it is a legitimate policy discussion what trade-off to make um I don't endorse the trade-off of cutting into that median and then priorities are legitimate I don't endorse going back and revisiting I think it was a $50 million project when you bring all the transit it's time to move on um that's what I hear from Ward one residents all the time they want retrofits they want the traffic calming po program that basically has been sheld for two decades reworked they want other things from RTC too I I don't understand how this body can sit and say this is our transportation priority right now when so many other are not being met and a lot of the answers come from the Traffic Division we don't have the time we don't have the focus we can't do that we don't have the funding here we are going back in if that's the priority of this body fine I accept that but uh you know it's also an answer to a lot of folks when they ask about why this isn't getting done in their neighborhood and the answer is because the council wants to go back and look again at a radway that they spent $50 million on which to be honest I've only heard from one person one bar owner who opened up his business in 2019 or so I have not heard from anyone else in that area and you know that's really where I live my life because I am a resident very close there so I I can attest to the council this is not a hot button issue out there and all the First Responders they were fine with it and the reason another thing and this is theory is you know you crank it down and if and there's an acceptance by First Responders to go a little bit slower because when you crank it down speeds are speeds are lower and that's better for everyone and so um you know police and fire and everyone had their chance to say and I don't think the the um configuration is deficient on those end so um I think this is really about one isolated bar owner wanting a median cut into thank you go ahead councilman Martinez thank you so much Madam mayor khil thank you so much for responding to you know all the inquiries um and question and providing some of those Graphics that I had reached out um to and you know trying to get a better understanding of what those left turns are um and just for confirmation if you're traveling south southbound you're able to turn on Stewart and Cheney correct yes and then if you're going northbound you're able to take a left turn on Taylor St Lawrence and California Avenues that's correct okay I just wanted to make sure that I was reading the graphic that you sent me um well with that and the speed that counts member um the impacts to the behavior and driving and speeding in that area um I would sure suggest that we don't spend a lot of Staff time on this issue and I do want to be sensitive to the business owners in that area but as a consumer um of that area I know when I'm trying to visit that there is going to be some increased travel times to get into those locations and anecdotally when I speak to constituents they understand that when they're going to those businesses it's similar to going to downtown where there may be a special event and some of those roads are closed off and so allotting for time to walk bike take a bird scooter to get to their destination is something that's included in their thought process already um and so I just wanted to share those thoughts um today okay okay any go ahead prepared no no sorry um councilwoman Ebert yeah I I have a question I'm sorry if I missed this um I read in the staff report um the number of accidents from 2013 to 2017 um there was quite a bit it was um 329 crashes and there's you know different types there's uh one fatal crash 147 injury crashes 181 property damages blah blah blah sorry I don't mean to be disrespectful but I'm not going to go through all the different kinds I don't see anything in here though about um what type of accidents or the number of acci accident since the median was put in do we have any numbers on that I will try transfer that to my traffic engineer to let you know uh good afternoon Kurt dri for the record traffic engineer um so when that uh state was commissioned um it was actually commissioned right after the completion of the project so unfortunately there wasn't a lot of after data to really compare so what uh staff did is they compared uh uh two years a data prior to construction and then post and we found the reduction so um when looking at uh the median specifically uh we threw out uh parked vehicle crashes in rear ends and we just um pretty much looked at uh left turn and u-turning um crashes and so it did go down within uh that two years uh before and two years prior do we have those numbers out I mean if we're we're going to vote on something like this I feel like that's extremely relevant data I mean this is if we're talking about safety and First Responders why would those numbers not be included in this so the uh the numbers uh that we actually pulled uh for the median crashes we had seven uh relevant crashes before uh construction the two-year period prior and then one after the two years post okay so we don't have any injury crashes we don't have any property damage crashes since we put the median in is that what you're saying um so the one crash uh that we had after let me take a look at that real quick here uh that was um actually a a U-turn crash U but I don't have severity so I'm not quite sure if that was in so you're saying we've only had how many crashes since we one crash one crash one reported crash so we've gone from 329 crashes down to one now um this the post period is a two-year period so I think um the uh the crashes are reported in that UNR study is a is a long a greater period than the two years that might have been 2013 through 17 so um so yeah looking at durations we're going from 7 to one okay that's still pretty significant though like if we extrapolate that out that's that's a significant decrease right would be significantly safer if we're looking at it just from a public safety standpoint that's a huge drop in traffic collisions right of all kinds absolutely that represents an 85.7% reduction okay that's huge so I think that's something really important to take into consideration here I mean not just impact of businesses um First Responders but um just in public safety that's something that we really need to consider thank you thank you um go I think I'm ready to make a motion but I have a question I just want to ask uh Mr clerk where we at I think we've done two rounds I have two rounds from yourself and council members der and breus and one from eert ree Martinez and Taylor okay anyone else no okay I I just um want to take everyone down memory lane because I It's All Coming Back to Me Now does that sound like a song um so Dion but I do I so this is what's so interesting about this this is a little um Story down memory lane for everyone do you know the reason I'm sitting here today in the seat is because of Midtown because all of us business owners I remember when we were starting out and it was really tough and Midtown didn't exist it was very seedy and not even considered a place you'd want to go and this was about 15 16 years ago and I remember there are five of us Brian McCardle I think was even with us Brian where are you you remember these days and they said Hillary you're going to city council and asking for street lights remember how dark it was and so they made me come to city council I'd also been here like a couple weeks before that and the city wanted to charge me $5,000 to move my sign to feet I was like that is outrageous what's going on at the city they were not supportive of businesses at all but so they made me there was five of us again that made me come to city council and ask for some street light improvements and sidewalk improvements cuz it was bad it was really bad well I remember the experience it wasn't good and the city didn't listen to me uh then and I don't think the city listened has listened to me now but I'm glad that I am sitting here today and advocating for a community the business owners the residents because they do reach out to me many of them reach out to me and I'm happy to forward them to the ward representative um but it's just ironic here we are today that it's come back around full circle and it's kind of unfortunate that again here the business has worked really hard to make that part of the city um Thrive and also it happened in the recession Whenever there was not a lot of hope I don't know if everyone remembers but Midtown was the Big Driver of Hope because we were all small businesses struggling and we worked with property owners and those Property Owners worked with all of us businesses and we came together and we made we made it work we had partnership and we put art in we put culture in that kind of like started a lot of what happened here today in Reno and so the fact that it gets overlooked for the contributions that it's made I think um and especially you know here I just personally feel this is just government just running you over no pun intended but quite honestly so it's ironic that I'm here today I'm glad to see that it has improved but we were lied to with with that median and I think streets should be planned by urban planners not concrete planners and I said that during the process we were all very very vocal we were very vocal and it's interesting those people that lied to us today are not here today and poor khil he's taking all the hits for for these people that uh have not had the courage to show up here quite honestly and um I thank you so much um anyway all right moving on go ahead council do um I'd like to use my one minute to make a motion uh before I do so I want to thank council member eert because she's put a highlight on something I think is incredibly important in all of our decision- making and that is the data so where I'm concerned is that we haven't reported crashes from around the roundabout to your point only crashes about left turn lanes and what we've done it at uh the Midtown project we've done a number of things that enhance safety we not only put in medians we slowed the speed down to 25 miles an hour we um essentially have very few if any bikes we put in wide sidewalks and that meant that the crossings were narrower so you have fewer pedestrians in a AC crossing a street for a shorter amount of time that's a saves on crashes um so all of those things it's not one thing it's not the medians or no medians I just want to make sure that we're looking at the whole picture we time the lights you you know we did a bunch of things we put bul outs okay so what I would like to recommend as a a motion is that um we have staff evaluate a work program for inclusion in the next year's budget that if it's approved by this council at that time uh would take effect July 1 2024 and they would do that work program if the council does not approve it they don't approve it but at least you put forth a proposal and what I would like to see as part of that work program is a full analysis of the data not just a select analysis of left turn Lanes I I think it's important how many parked cars were crashed into how many cars or people were crashed into or businesses on the roundabout all of the data all of the crashes let's look at as a whole not just one thing because we are not evaluating just one thing which is a median we are looking at the whole safety of the whole Road and and we are just looking at fine tuning and I'm going to make my point from before nothing we build stays static we're always you know I'm working with khil and putting a sidewalk in on um plumis and urban hasn't had a sidewalk there in since it was built 100 years okay so there's always a moment to improve and I just think we've had a five-year time frame if not more it's time to do a study see how it's working a very effective study um that we can all see the data all the data not just some of the data and make a reason um decision at that time if the council wants to move forward or not so that would be my motion is to bring back work program as part of the uh 24 25 I guess it is budget all right is that okay okay I have a motion from councilwoman do do I have a second for discussion I just so I'm understanding so this is to kind of put this off until we have more data is that this is to uh incorporate it into next year's budget okay a work program that this Council may or may not approve at that time okay you have a decision time once you see what's involved in the cost and the result yeah okay okay I'll second okay so I have a motion in a second for discussion the other thing I I should clarify here because I know that um you know I I have been um probably incredibly vocal about this not everything in the project is bad not everything by by any means there's some great things love the sidebox there's a lot of really good things about this project I don't think it's the entire median where I you know that whole it's the whole strip of concrete I don't think that is so much the issue where that roundabout is really really scary uh poor Bad Apple vintage I think it's been four times now Chase like it's been about four times and then the other if you go down there and you watch RTC literally runs over the island it is so scary if someone were to go onto that island and the bus were to come around around you would get hit and killed you absolutely would get taken out the builds have been at least yeah so I think to councilwoman D's Point like we need to be looking at that in the study of the data like I'm good with that and listen I am all about safety this isn't about um Aesthetics in any way because guess what we can paint those we can put art all over them and that's actually a very cool thing to do if if if people are saying it's Aesthetics that's not the issue and not the issue at all it caused me great great concern to watch our emergency vehicles go that down and back a matter of fact this is just my observation when I see it people jam through there to get to the other side faster right like they're speeding just to get to the other side faster um and then the other thing I'll say you know to be honest with you I just you know there were concessions made for certain people on that street so if it was really about the median then why' you make concessions right it just none of this adds up or um makes any sense councilwoman do remembers you know I'm not buying any of this none of it but um and it is all about safety first and foremost and those sidewalks needed to happen and I'm so glad to see all the people that get out every weekend and and during the days and weeks to enjoy that part of town but small business is the heart of your of your City without those small businesses you don't have jobs you have no jobs how do you live in a city with no jobs very hard to so I just want to say I am a huge advocate of the district still and especially all those small business owners kudos to them thank you for making our city better anyway okay so I have a motion in a second go ahead councilwoman breus yeah I'm I'm not going to support this you know it's a resource and focus issue of our strapped um you know traffic engineering Division and I really wish you know another issue had raised up to the level of council consideration and that was the report that this body asked for by end do at the Harvard and Plum Lane intersection where Worster student was run over and killed when she was going to school one morning I have that study it's the oldest item in my inbox how come there hasn't been interest in that because she's not here to talk to us about her issues like this bar owner I mean why isn't that a priority you know it's not I mean it's not it's not a priority and that's my problem is what the priorities have been well then Council breus Bring It Forward we'll entertain anything you want that's how this works here no madame mayor it doesn't because I've been excluded from putting items on the agenda for a couple years now and so I just want to let you know that this priority is not the priority that I see coming out of Ward one I see tackling that issue where woster student was run over going to school and there's some very hard challenges uh that came out in that endot report we have the data we have the information that hasn't come forward okay and we've got you know I could sit here for an hour and go about five or six other problem areas kidy okay West Fourth Street what this is not the priority in my mind and it really is symbolic of why we are not doing well out on the RO roads with our with our public so I won't support this motion for this Focus thank you well first of all I don't think that that is a fair assessment one over the other I think they're all important any road should be looked at for safety and the one I'm most proud of for 12 years the city tried to get it uh tons of different lawmakers was the one up on Bonanza there were 12 deaths over 15 years and um you know we got what was almost impossible up there to get that street light in to save those lives and there hasn't been one accident since those are the kinds of things that we should look at I always Advocate advocate for that matter of fact that was my initiative anything you think is problematic Bring It Forward that's our job all right I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed no n motion carries all right thank you Madame mayor we are moving to item D2 direction for ordinance amending RC title to for appointment positions [Music] hi all right Madame mayor members you have been here all day you get the star you all right take it away it's all you thank you um so Madame mayor members of council Jill Atkinson I am the Assistant Director of Human Resources and I'm here to present item D2 which is seeking support from Council to bring forth a bill that would amend title two of the Renown municipal code when we reference title two of the Reno Municipal Code more specifically we are talking about two individual sections these sections fall within title 2 chapter 2 Article 2 um and they are sections 2.0 6.35 and 2.6.5 the first section is the designation of the appoint of employees within the organization and that designation occurs by listing those employees classifications by title within that section of code the secondary section is the section of code that contains the outline of the minimum qualifications for both the appoint of employees who are listed in the prior section as well as the appointive officers of the organization this action is in Conformity with the Reno City Charter section 1.09 and the last time both of these sections were updated they were updated separately the first time in October of 2018 and the second time in April of 2020 at the time of those updates those updates were intended to realign those sections of code with the current organizational structure in place at that time the recommended updates that staff has outlined in the staff report would be the material changes We Believe are necessary to bring those sections of code back into alignment with the organizational structure as it exists today and unfortunately as you saw with some of our benefit res Solutions capturing things like this in ordinance is just one of the unique things about how this organization is structured and operates and so the ordinance does not evolve as the organization evolves which necessitates us bringing forward these amendments after the fact I think it is important to highlight specific things that this action does not do um because of how intertwined all of these things can appear to be so first and foremost this action would not change any provision Within Charter very specifically any provision in Charter that details the formula used to calculate the number of positions uh for point of employees available within the organization or any of the delegation of authority within that section of Charter it does not expand the authority of the city manager nor does it increase the number of positions that are within the budget that this body previously approved essentially this is an administrative maintenance function with within the organization the recommended changes staff has outlined within the staff report serve a multitude of purposes that I will review at a high level but essentially the revisions to section 2.0 6.35 which is the appointive employee classification listing seeks to modify um delete and add the titles of a point of employee classifications and then the secondary section would just be the up of those minimum qualifications when we're looking at classifications for a point of employees as well as those minimum qualifications the cleanup that would be brought forward um first is housekeeping we are going to reconcile any of the discrepancies that exist between those two sections because as I mentioned they had been brought forward separately for amendments in Prior years we will also be looking to capture titling changes that have occurred as a result of operation AAL Evolution within the organization to reflect the current titling conventions for those positions we will be looking to capture new classifications that have resulted as a as the organization has evolved and are necessary for the operations of the organization as it stands today we will be looking to remove obsolete classifications and by obsolete classifications I'm referring to classifications that were previously utilized by the organization but due to the evolutions in organizational structure these Standalone classifications do not offer continued utility to the organization which is why they have become Obsolete and then lastly we are looking to remove represented classifications from the appointive employee list the inclusion of represented classifications within the appointive employee list creates conflict between the nature of an appointive employee which is at will and the represented status of those classifications if action is taken to amend these sections of Reno municipal code and remove those classifications from the point of employee list those positions would fold back under the city civil service system and we have been working in close collaboration with our labor Partners as well as civil service who are both in support of this action moving forward and with that the recommended motion is up on the screen and I am happy to answer any questions you may have all right good job good job I was listening to you out there okay um go ahead councilman breus uh no I didn't raise my hand yet okay councilman Martinez I'm going to go down this way thanks so much Madame mayor um I think I asked during the briefing but just for the record um just making sure that with these changes to this um to the code that none of the currently employed um staff members are going to be removed from their position it's a just reclassification um of their positions correct that is correct so none of the individuals who currently hold any of the classifications that would be um removed from the appoint of employee list and then folded under the Civil Service umbrella will be adversely impacted the action we are recommending is in the best interest of both the organization as well as the employee and there will be no change in their classification their compensation or their benefit structure as a result of this change and I'm sorry I have to jump in reclassification has a technical meaning and we're not doing that correct we are not doing a reclassification we are simply converting them from an appointive status to a civil service status so the position and its represented status remains constant thanks for clarifying that that's all I had Madame mayor all right Council Taylor thank you madam mayor thank you J so just quickly I think I heard you say this doesn't change the charter doesn't change Authority it doesn't change civil service or the process of how people become hired and it doesn't change the amount or the number of appointed employees that we have it stays the same yes that is correct this is cleanup so if you had to describe for me exactly what this is in layman's terms what exactly is it I would call it housekeeping okay we updating the language perfect thank you all right thank you yeah councilman Reese yeah thank you madam mayor uh Miss Atkinson thank you for the presentation I think always a privilege to spend time talking with you about these important things a couple things I want to ask about and maybe uh the first would be about the charters requirement that a certain percentage of the overall organization full-time employees uh are limiting or a limitation on the city manager's office to make direct appointments is that correct correct so Reno City Charter contains a provision that identifies the number of slots um that would be available but again that is not the only governing provision it also then relies upon the city council's adoption of a budget for the number of FTE for the city manager to have available funding and headcount to use one of those slots and so the current percentage which is called for by the charter is 4% it is 4% of the total positions within civil service is one of the formulas that is specified within Char okay so it's not the percentage of the total FTE it's the percentage of those covered by Civil Service correct and the theory behind that is that it it relies upon the assumption that we value the concept of civil service right and at least our legis in their Infinite Wisdom determine that that would be an advisable portion of our Charter correct correct so Civil Service serves a function for the organization which is a merit-based recruitment and selection process to ensure that we have the most effective and efficient Workforce to serve this community the appointive slots allow flexibility within the organization to more readily adapt and respond to emerging needs with in our community well I think that's the area where I wanted to think about the way that direct appointments have been used by this city manager's office and so I think about things like our Liaisons I think about um some of the uh a management level positions that have been hired uh there's an economist an urban Economist which I think is a very interesting and and novel idea has quite frankly worked out very well for us um the person in that position has turned out to be brilliant and helping with a lot of you know data driven assessments but um those are how I'm balancing this issue right it's this concern that we all have for the Civil Service process which is proven to be an effective way to ensure that we get both a diverse and a well qualified group of folks to be employed here but at the same time there are certain positions that are outside of civil service that really have to that have value to the organization and I think that that what you've presented is a cleanup that allows those things to continue in that balance but gives no more Authority than we have already given to our city manager's office so I think as you said it's housekeeping uh I understand the function of it and so I'm broadly supportive of the action that you've brought forward today thank you thank you go thank you um so you mentioned that the the number of appointed positions is 4% of the total Civil Service cor so how many is that today's world so presently I believe it is 50 two 3 53 53 so it just counted up on your list that was your other attachment to this item where it said uh or chart and I I think it downloaded it showed all of the positions and there were only 33 is are there 33 or are there more so we are well below the number of allotted slots I unfortunately off the top of my head could not tell you what that actual number is if your chart's correct it's 33 there are more than 33 so the chart is correct with respect to the appointive officers and and a handful of the more um visible appointed employees um but in general we're talking about department heads city manager the assistant city managers the Two Chiefs in the appointive employee in the appointive officers list and then we have the appointed employees and well all I'm asking is how many we have do you know that too prior to any of these updates I believe the number is 49 I think that's right so close to the 53 but not 33 that I was asking so they're not all shown on the or chart they're not all I would like to see a full list even if they're not in or chart format of who these people are okay there is a list in the staff report okay so maybe there is a full listing that is filed annually with the city clerk's office of all of the appointive employees within the organization as well as the appointive officers okay I have the staff report and it's talking about new classifications and that was my next question um a point of officers a point of employees uh 2 4 68 okay so that's all of them uh Mr manager we covered them all in this memo I'm assuming we did I am assuming that we did as well but it is possible that the staff report and the memorandum have um okay only the changes the memorandum that is filed with the clerk on an annual basis is complete and is accurate as of today this one says that pursuant to city council uh the uh we can exceed 40 full-time equivalent appointed positions or the 4% so the 4% is more is that what you're saying 40 or 4% whichever is greater whichever okay so my other question was about the memo the presentation where I got confused was let me just open that up again uh the last page on the memo okay uh which or second to last it talked about um recommended update represented classifications remove represented classification I want to make sure I understand what this means so a Parks manager that's not the parks director right that's the parks manager and earlier you all told us that these mid-level managers of which I have to assume Parks manager Recreation manager engineering manager are all in that mid-level management position they are not they are not no they RPG and you've stumbled into the confusion that is created by this situation okay so what I'm unclear on is when you say remove what what do you mean for these people so the action of council would be to remove those classification titles from the appointive employee list that's what we would par the recreation the engineering traffic only five maintenance and operations correct they would go to be represented they would remain represented they would remain represented but they would go under civil service so as I've mentioned we have been working in close collaboration with the impact Ed individuals as well as civil service to ensure that when those positions are removed from the appointive list they can seamlessly and without a lot of consternation on the employees part be converted under civil service and Civil Service Commission has recently adopted a rule that outlines the process for the return to civil service right that these individuals have as specified in Charter well one more question my time's up the would they still be appointive no they would both they would be civil service appointive and they would leave um rep they wouldn't be represent it says they would stay represented but they would no longer be app point of well it says remove represented classification that's what it says okay it's a it's we would like to remove the represented employees from the appointed employees list they would stay represented by their labor groups yes okay that's where I was getting very confusing maybe I still am but bottom line these people that are mid-level managers in my mind and they were not they're touched today because they're unrepresented or they are represented they are represented okay so they were not touched today and what we did today earlier correct but they and they would stay classified and leave appointive correct it's only these five positions correct okay I think I've got the world I'm not 100% sure which is part of what we're looking to clean up because it is inherently confusing confusing this is the very reason we're here because it is and I even like briefed on this I like thought I understood this so all right Council Eber hi um so just a few questions um when was the last time this was done so both sections were updated separately the first in 2018 and then the second in 2020 okay and what triggered at this time or is this something we just do every couple years so these were specifically identified um through some of the work as of the class and comp study that is underway um and as we were looking in more detail there were numerous cleanups that were necessary to realign these sections of code with the current organizational structure and so we have brought forward all of those elements of cleanup to realign these sections okay so um is this something that will happen like annually or anything like that because we have other appointed positions that maybe change over time so this is something that will be you know ongoing process or will we just do it when we do a comp and benefit review it should be updated when there are material changes to either of those sections so either the minimum qualification component or the listing of the appointive employee classifications and so for instance if we go out to recruit for an appoint of officer and the minimum qualif ifications stipulated in the section of Reno Municipal Code are Divergent from what is currently an acceptable Norm in the marketplace for that type of position we would likely bring back an update to that section of code to realign that with what is the standard qualifications for that type of position in the marketplace so while you're trying to fill the position this would be part of the assessment that's done before we look to advertise the position because these are the minimum qualifications anybody we would seek to hire would need to possess okay so I'm talking about somebody that's currently appointed right now none of these changes would adversely impact any current individual there are sections within Reno Municipal Code particularly as it relates to the minimum qualifications that acknowledge that if those minimum qualifications are updated in a way that is Divergent from what the current incumbent has that that incumbent is not impacted by that update okay so sorry I understand they won't be negatively impacted okay but let's say we have an appointed right now their role changes and they should be covered under civil service but like we're not doing a comps and benefits study um will they just remain an appointed or let's say their roles and responsibility shifts will they just remain appointed until we do some kind of comp and benefit study no so the the two are not a causation um like I believe the two are suggesting council member Ebert the two are more indirectly related uh the organization undertook the classification and compensation study to take a very holistic look at the structure um of how we classify the work so how is work currently being done titled do the job descriptions reflect the work they're actually doing um and then the compensation side was how does our compensation for those positions compare to what is the going rate in the market these are things that ideally are done by organizations on a periodic basis um somewhere between a 5 to 10 year interval based upon the number of changes that have occurred in an organization um so those things happen at a far more infrequent interval then perhaps changes to the Reno Municipal Code title two sections would be because if we rely on historical data about every two years it appears that an update is brought forward to amend this section of code which is more frequent than a classification and compensation study okay so let's say somebody's appointed right now the rules and responsibilities change in a month then they could technically be in a position that should be civil service for maybe two years before this process happens again so the other part of this I think is where you were headed which is the ability of the city manager to manage the employees of the organization and so when we're talking about a position whose duties and responsibilities have changed which perhaps make it no longer appropriate to be an appointive position um then the city manager has the ability to identify that classification under the purview of civil service for the Recruitment and selection process okay so okay I'm going to cut you off hold on you're a minute and a you're a minute 20 over oh sorry um I'm going to head down to councilman breus go ahead yeah you know a lot of good questions by my colleagues and you know as benign as this is stated and I wrote titling conventions uh housekeeping cleanup it really is not and there's an understanding in the organization of what has happened and where we're at and it has undermined the Integrity of our organization our merit-based manner of filling the workforce and it is covering tracks and it is wrong what's happened and I brought it up for 3 years now I think it happened about 6 months after Mr Thornley started when someone was hired to a position that did not exist no not in the classifications anywhere not even a job description that was the chief Innovation and experience officer if it's an appointed position it should have been in the ordinance and those positions started happening happening happening there were other things going on too and I'll bring that up outside of budgetary authority and now you know we're hearing some some speak that well we will um you know simultaneously uh you know update these and and do it no you do not go out to create fill a new position under the appointed classifications if or or the under the appointed if it's not in the ordinance you come back to the council and you do that and you also come back to the council to make sure you have budgetary authority for that position I've mentioned this at this table dozens of times I mentioned it to the Civil Service Commission I expressed it privately to him and what is the what is the byproduct right now you know some people who came out of the classification system went up into this you know politicized hiring environment are now getting shoved down and that's why in the elevator there's a little flyer that civil service is coming with come launches learn about you know voluntary demotions and I can't remember the other language on it transfers this should not have happened okay the council needs to put the bar guard rails on and that's why you know for the first time I finally voted against the budget because I wanted to see the Departments lined out I wanted to see the staff in compliment and if he wants to and sometimes there's good reason to repopulate it has to come through our Authority both budgetarily and in ordinance this is ordinance violation okay first and foremost and it really creates a whole you know plethora of other problems now I want to address a little bit more since I have 35 seconds first of all this doesn't impact Public Safety Public Safety is very cured and very integrated into Merit and it the Chiefs are the only ones okay so this is everyone else in the organization but another thing is the department heads and the assistant directors are Beyond those number heads so how many departments do we have that's why I keep asking where are the department is and all of a sudden we had all these assistant directors all you use you and case in point you are hired as a labor relations manager in what what month and date I technically was not hired as a labor relations manager I was hired as the training and development manager July of 2021 and you became an assistant director how many months later within a year um I believe six months later six months later how were you hired was it advertised was it internal promotion I went through a competitive selection process through a competitive selection process but that wasn't in the budget that wasn't and there's other examples of assistant director over please will you just have respect for everyone else up here I'm and I'm going over on everyone else so that they can get their questions in but it it is a fair process and the reason we do it is so that other council members get their questions and concerns on the record or otherwise it's the record is just all one council member and it needs to be fair so I just want the public to know that councilman ree Madame mayor thank you so much a couple of concerns the first is really not to miss Atkinson but to our legal council we've had some uh recent issues with Council related to conflicts of interest and I'm concerned that the council member Ward one has not disclosed that her lawyer uh that is currently involved in litig against the city is also involved in this issue in the Civil Service context and so I want to make sure that we're prepared to move forward today on this issue because I I'm concerned that what's happening is someone is using their position of authority to benefit a broader and implicated legal issue so I just want to make sure that we have addressed that issue and we're prepared to move forward without the conflict waivers being entered into I think on this particular item we're fre go forward on this issue without a conflict waiver from Council Members okay thank you so much Miss Atkinson I wanted to ask really about sort of that last line of questioning that has to do with um the way in which a person enters the organization so you've described two different ways one is through the traditional Civil Service concept route which is there is a position posted there's a job description which includes minimum qualific vations it includes the pay ranges that's one route correct that is correct and then there is an entirely different route and that is the appointive route correct correct but I do not believe they are as divergent as they have been portrayed I I agree with that which was ultimately my question you've sort of anticipated with it no that's okay um I think we're sort of trying to get to the same point help me understand why you do not believe that there's a Divergence between those two things meaning there's not some deep dark cabal by the manager's office to take people out of obscurity and place them in the position of authority I mean help me understand where our idea aligned so both civil service and appointive employees serve an important function for this organization both functions rely on a designation of minimum qualifications for the individual coming into that role when it relates to Civil Service those minimum qualifications are approved by the commission as a relates to the appoint of employees and officers of the organization those minimum qualifications are captured in title two of the Reno municipal code and so when individuals are brought into roles that are identified as either appointive employees or appointive officers within the organization they are still required to meet a meritorious principle of those minimum qualifications and I think this is ultimately perhaps the way to identify why we have agreed here although unknowingly doing so is the example is the Innovation Chief Innovation off and experience officer there certainly are qualification standards that surround that job and it couldn't be that Mr Thornley could you know install his you know nine-year-old child right I mean and and this is where the rubber meets the road right we want to ensure that the people who come to us are qualified and skilled to do the work and that it's not some kind of Nefarious nepotism going on behind the scenes and so you've balanced those competing concerns and and basically said there are guard rails already in place so In fairness I just want to make sure that the public understands that it's not the civil service is a difficult concept to comprehend if you have never worked inside of it it certainly is not the case that anyone's being shoved down I understood why the Flyers were up in the elevators come have pizza learn about these various aspect because people come and ask you about that right with some frequency either transfers or voluntary demotions out of one category into another and want to make sure that their rights are protected along the way absolutely and civil servic has started offering those training sessions to achieve just that yeah helping folks understand what pathways are available for them within the organization even if that pathway may not always be linear and upward in nature understand thank you so much quick question is uh the it looked like the community liaison those are our Liaisons right correct they're changing name to council Relations Specialist is that like a different thing I mean they're not changing their job just the title correct the titling okay so part of the titling recommendations are both the evolution of how the work has been distributed within the organization but also stems from some of the recommendations that have come out of the class and comp study as our consultant looks at what are these conventions in the larger Marketplace okay so anyway you think these are all better titles um more reflective of what they do um I'm not really sure digital experience manager what what that person is frankly but um I get what a person that manages our social media I don't know what they're called okay is that them no um this would be the individual that manages the forward-facing web applications for the city so like this reno.gov website okay okay all right well I basically understand it so I appreciate it I do think somewhere Doug there should be a complete list and you said it's in the ordinance right so annual the annual listing that goes to the clerk right is the place to look for the complete list that is accurate as of the time of filing okay good but it might have changed since you filed it with the budget it has not changed since we filed it this year gotcha okay thanks um Mr clerk can you put us back on track here cuz I I was letting everyone go over absolutely I have uh two rounds from Council Members der vice mayor Ree and then one from Martinas Taylor Ebert and breus okay thank you so much um councilwoman breus go ahead okay and then I'll come to you okay okay go ahead um so and I'm sorry if if I miss this um what requirements are in place besides percentage of uh employees can be appointed are um in place for creating appointed positions so there's a couple of Provisions that govern that um you have of course section 1.09 of Reno City Charter and within that section it does outline this action by Council to identify the appoint of employees by title within Reno Municipal Code it also stipulates the necessity of an outline of the minimum qualifications for those classifications as well as the appoint of officers there is a section within Reno municipal code in title 2 which actually proceeds these two sections which is an intent statement and it is the acknowledgement that council is taking action to include the subsequent sections whether or not those positions exist at the time of adoption okay and who creates the job description is it HR comp benefits or is it the city manager themselves or is it a combination thereof um it is a collaborative effort so certainly we would nhr would start with the framework that is customary for all of our job descriptions we would then rely on feedback and collaboration with the person who will supervise that position to ensure the specificity of the job duties is indeed accurate okay and then um do we get an updated list as city council member uh if there is a newly appointed or is this something we only get annually and is it just given to the clerk or do we get a copy like a memo or anything annually you got a memo this year we distributed it as it was filed with the city clerk um the requirement in the charter is that it be filed with the city clerk uh at this level when we make changes you hear about it okay so if somebody were appointed next week we would get an update like hey they okay um and then I think that's it for right now okay right brece yeah so I want to clarify and I hope everyone knows that outside of the 52 and the 53 which is a percentage of our civil service that don't have to be merit-based city manager can just call someone up you know and and and and invite them to join our Workforce the department heads and the assistant department heads are outside of that 52 and 53 but they are not through the Civil Service P process correct those would be the appointive officers okay so what has happened in the last three years is all of a sudden we have a lot of those and it's very unclear what's a department and then under that we have an assistant department head we didn't have an assistant Human Resources Director six months later after she was hired to be the training manager we had one and I counted the 22 to the 23 changes or the year to the 22 however you want to count the fiscal year and I noticed like and and I could be wrong because I don't think that it's been presented transparently about eight or nine of those populated just in that one year so what's happening is you know a lot of people are getting upgraded to be assistant directors so they can be non you know non-merit based or non um Merit based hiring and it also has budgetary implications that's why I've been another is I've been bringing up I know we're not talking about the budget we're talking about the framework but just like hiring a third City man assistant city manager that we didn't budget for all these assistant directors to have this larger pull of body of of of Workforce that doesn't go through the Merit based is it's very convenient to make a program like um you know uh a program like I don't know and I don't know if it's true or not code enforcement is now a department but what's a department how many departments do we H heads do we have under the city City manager's office I don't have that information readily available I think we have how many people do we have in the city manager's Office 100 it would again kind of depend upon the parameters you're defining if it's the people who report up through the city manager there's about 1,600 yeah no no the city manager's office was always department but now it has department heads under there and assisted department heads and that's how this the workforce has grown beyond the 53 that's the point to the council because we have Department heads who used to be program managers and ass and then now they have assistant directors so we have a larger than then just this 53 and it has all been done outside of budgetary authority there's catchup at the time of the um augmentations and I've brought that up for for several years now in the last few minutes I just want to say the council has not put guard rails around this it seems to be fine with it and that's that's that's fine they Endor the manager and doing it this way we're cleaning it up we're attractiv he clean up that's fine I believe in the bureaucracy I promoted twice through the Civil Service Commission as an employee a long time ago and I know within there the power of culture is very important and if someone calls you from the 15th floor maybe your mid-level Junior and says hey come up apply for this job you know we'll take you up and it's if it's too good to be true it is and I think the people are getting pushed back down and having a little unsettling and it's been very uncertain to them are reflective of that so we I think people will know there was a time and place where a lot of people were getting a lot of promotions but losing their Civil Service um classifications and politicizing the environment and the whole reason okay thank you mayor I'll I'll just all right we're we're done here we're done here you guys know like the rules and I want to be respectful of everyone so and I hate to have to cut you off so if we can just pay attention to the time that would be very helpful I'm also very uncomfortable moving forward right now uh the last meeting we had to make disclosures we have to make disclosures a lot and now more than ever um especially in a time where people continue to file uh frivolous complaints um I apologize profusely but I'm going to um I'm going to ask for a motion to recess this meeting and I would like an attorney client meeting um immediately okay okay motion to recess the meeting all right I have a motion in a second discussion all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries all right thank you so much and you're doing a great job by the way you're doing awesome thank [Music] you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e she do have Happ um yeah speaking good you're doing a get got bodies okay Madam or Mr clerk Madam clerk Mr clerk thank you you just um I was just asking you how many rounds everyone's had two rounds a few have had one I think and I've had one a few have had one okay on on the bottom of that it has the tally that's right Mr Martinez and c and uh Council mom Taylor do you want to weigh in on this no okay thank you so much I appreciate it and I um I know we're going to go into a motion I would just say um I am very supportive and just because one of the reasons why I get so frustrated with government is that it can be a whole list of red tape let's just put it nicely there's a lot of red tape and it's very hard to streamline something and and I've watched the Pains of the ups and downs trying to bring on people cuz I'm always hearing oh we don't have enough people we don't have this we don't have that because I want everyone to remember because we might forget but in 2008 we laid off about 700 people we never even got the chance to bring them back in full capacity so we've been playing so much catchup so bottom line for me is I find it like I said so painful to wait for these positions to come on and then everything gets pushed back and then it gets forgotten about so I'm a big proponent of streamlining this process I'm actually glad you brought it um even though you know there might be some comments to there's always some conspiracy comments um or you know some some other reason why you're doing this and uh you know I just that is absolutely crazy and um you know there's always some reason behind you know and and it's very popular to hate government so we can all sit there and go yay but as a as someone that comes from the private sector and not to mention I'm not a party I'm not a DNR uh but I want my government to work um faster and more efficiently and process sometimes is incredibly broken because guess what the laws have been in place and are very Antiquated uh like I see in Civil Service had frustration there for a long time and um so I really am supportive and I appreciate everything that you've done and like I said I think HR has just done a phenomenal job cuz it's been painful for a long time so I'm I'm a proponent of your of government um getting things done much quicker otherwise the process is so painful it is so painful anyway okay okay go ahead just a clarification up on the screen it seems to be talking about the motion to recess and that was made by me and seconded by council member ree so I just wanted to clarify before we have an error in the minutes than you we make sure that's correct may I mam mayor may I speak no we've had we've all had two rounds we're going to make a motion I thought the rule said we get one then one minute afterward your discretion at my discretion so we're going to move your discretion okay so I'm ready to make a motion um and I want before I make the motion I'm just going to make a cautionary note I really appreciate your work here and I'm going to advise our manager and you you're the keepers of this list to keep the list and if somebody wants to make a change make the change in ordinance before we get the person hired or change a title or do whatever right just fix this first and then bring us the other action okay cool okay so with that in mind I'd like to move to direct that a bill reflecting the recommended updates outlined by staff to amend Reno Municipal Code title 2 chapter 2 Article 2 uh sections 2.06 035 and 2.06 point0 be brought forward for introduction second okay I have a motion in a second uh discussion breus yeah I mean I recognize we have to fix what happened and it is so undermining to the organization I'll just take the urban Economist since that position is here in this building if we didn't do this if we don't adopt this that person has no job that person has no job anyway we can't hire outside of what's in this ordinance and that happened time and time again and that undermines the organization to have people in this no person's land that was really wrong and then to go over the numbers and have to take people and tell them they have to go down that's wrong too and I don't see any guard rails on how the council wants to identify parameters in this ordinance revision for the mechanics of the manager I mean to me it it really doesn't need to be in the ordinance because the manager should not be hiring that's not inside the ordinance and I was here I was the liaison to the Civil Service Commission on an off during the 2018 during the 20 when we went down to the legislature and changed and so I've been involved with it for the whole time and I'm just really sad to see what happened and I'm sad also that the council kept being told things were going on things were going on and and rectified it through the augmentation and you want that flexibility if a Senior Management analyst leaves retires and you want to underfill in a management analyst that's fine if you want to move someone from one Department to other that's fine but be transparent about it for the workforce and that didn't occur and I'm really I think and I know that what I'm saying is resonating with our staff who's you know some of them may show up to this lunch and I've discussed this with Miss arrian too I'm very sad about what happened and I don't see the council holding anyone to measures to prevent it so if this motion had a resolution bring a resolution forward that can be very specific Direction but the the nice ask that Miss um derer put onto her motion doesn't get there for me doesn't undo or correct or prevent this from happening again so I'm not going to support but I'll keep an open mind when I see this ordinance but if it's just the title changes I don't think anything's happening procedurally to prevent this sort of overreach again thank you so I have a one minute on my motion um and that is that it was my intent to put guard rails to remind our HR department that you're in charge of this you're in charge of policing it and holding accountability that's what you do and it's not just you it's Norma the team and we're counting on you to do that just like we count on the finance people to keep us straight with finances so I'm I'm I am in my mind placing that burden on you and the manager to follow your direction and that's that's all that goes with it it's a very important if I could offer a couple of observations we have never outstripped our hiring ability I agree not ever no um we have never crossed the threshold with respect to how many people we can hire on these a point of list we have been exceptionally mindful of staying under that number and staying within those parameters um the urban Economist in particular for I don't know the fourth or fifth time in the last months is a Senior Management analyst it is a working title what oh yes right his classification is a Senior Management analyst oh The Economist yes okay all of our Senior Management analysts gotcha are app point of employees all of them where does working title exist in ordinance I think the working title exists in terms of Recruitment and attraction it frames what the people do I mean if I were to tell you I am a Senior Management analyst I think that that would promote more questions than answers yeah um and so it is something that a modern Workforce utilizes to better describe what they perform for what function they perform for the organization an informal working title so yeah it's what's on his business cards it's not how he would be shown in in a payroll report gotcha um it is probably how we'd show them in the YK chart so that you can see what that functionality looks like um okay but with respect to staying within the guidepost of these rules we have not saying you they are the people that are in charge what I want to say is sad quite honestly we're talking about what's really sad that whenever the city manager is a proponent of something that streams line the process makes it better internally that there is you know quite honestly there's a lot of lies that are told and we hear them at the dis and it's kind of sad because then the public starts to believe that yeah and that's really what's going on here and I don't know if anyone's watching or witnessing you can clearly see I mean to me it's very evident right it's very easy to see you know um and that is frustrating so I I want to apologize because you know we um talk about attacking people's character and those types of things and again I'm going to apologize uh for this Council or at least for a council member and um I just think it's really interesting anything that you're a proponent of of the city manager is a proponent of um that you are going to have push back for multiple reasons Madam mayor if I could I think it's retaliation that's just me but if I could have just another minute of indulgence um yes please if Miss ainson could step aside and we could have the chief examiner come up for a moment um mentions been made a couple times about the flyers regarding voluntary demotions and transfers and of course that is a thing that happens um not often but with some regularity with in the Civil Service framework and I think it's appropriate that uh Chief examiner Akerman describe why we're having that luncheon why that tool is important and underscore both for the community and for our organization that it is not a tactic or a thing that um we are asking people to do correct so Barbara akran Chief examiner with the Civil Service Commission um thank you for letting me clarify that because this is actually something we're super excited about um we're going to be able to provide some opportunities internal movement within the organization which that we hope in the long run will help us to retain this amazing Workforce that we have and there's opportunities like jel was saying where people you know they move up you promote you want to grow your career but you can grow your career in a lot of different ways and some of those ways are backward sideways and all over the place the really cool thing about working for the city is that we do a lot of things so there are numerous career paths and the entry point of a person isn't necessarily going to be the place that they're always going to want to stay and what we've seen in the past is that people when they start looking for career changes start looking outside of our organization and we thought that this was a great opportunity to say like no look internally and we want to be able to provide them with the information and support to allow them to look at those those opportunities to feel supported provide protections to them and so we are developing a quarterly lunch and learn series to invite employees to learn more about their opportunities within the organization and we're excited to be able to share that with them so it is a positive thing and something that we're extremely um looking forward to wait can you repeat that it's a what positive thing okay it's a positive thing everyone I want regardless of what you've heard up here today it's a positive thing it is very posi Culture Your Workforce and for allowing them to move up and Advance that's how those things should work yeah so can you imagine I can't even imagine I very cool I'll just throw that go ahead go ahead well I made a motion well I was going to comment on your motion before you did Miss acan thank you for being here here we are talking about the Civil Service like it's this ethereal thing out there and uh your providing context is very gracious I know that it is a um you know it's a historically used tool and some cities have eliminated Civil Service all together other cities more are inclined to go back into the Civil Service world it's an interesting thing in Labor uh and employment relations that falls in and out of favor right it's an odd thing when some people use it as both a sword and a shield to me and I've been on the other side right and so I understand that but I I appreciate you providing context especially about the um Flyers because I saw them and I thought it was a positive thing and and you've described it as a positive thing at the end of the day your office um serves an important role and and is unique among the organization and I think we don't see you often enough so that's probably the unfamiliarity with it what I want to ask sort of ultimately in conclusion is just to say that you have reviewed um what's been presented to us today and have no uh profer objection to the actions or the proposals that are being raised so correct and we've also been informing our commission so they're aware um of this and have actually worked with HR and myself to create some rules that provide a cushion for those employees who will be transitioning as a result of this ordinance change so there we' we're really supportive the commission's supportive and we' like to make sure that we can help facilitate that in any way possible well I appreciate your expertise because I think Miss ainson described well the interplay between hr's function and civil services and now you've kind of combined the two of them thank you for that you're welcome okay so we have a motion oh go ahead Council woman uh Ebert I did just want to say um I do support these positions being transitioned into civil service but I do also have concerns about if a person is appointed and they were never in the Civil Service um designation initially and they were not hired through competitive hiring process that if if they want to get transitioned into civil service that they will have to go through a competitive hiring process and I'm sorry I don't mean to open this can of worms but I didn't know we were going to be done with our questions when we came back from the recess yes go ahead so so currently in within our rules there's a lot of different Provisions that um account for these different scenarios and how somebody can get into civil service so if a position is blanketed into the classified service from somewhere outside maybe it's appointed or it's Grant funded then there's certain Pathways depending on like whether a competitive process was used or whether it was approved whether somebody was previously in civil service and is returning and so there's a lot of different Pathways within our rules that provide for that movement to occur if somebody had not been through any of the merit-based processes and their position was being um blanketed or converted into the classified service then there would be a competitive element that would be in place yeah that's the part that concerns me is you know this person has been doing the job and then their role you know should be reclassified into cival service because that's what's appropriate and now they have to go through competitive hiring process to retain a role that they've already had been doing I presume um you know adequately so that's my only concern with this process um is that true though so it and it depends so like in this case of the people currently in the positions that are going to be affected by this ordinance they have all been through some process that they will just move for these specific people but other people that are appointed so there are times when like something a position is filled within the organization let's say it's it initially is Grant funded and so that Grant funded position is filled and then over time that it's recognized that you know this is permanent work and we want to fill it and so it will get budgeted um accordingly and then that position will be blanketed in and so then at that point there's like kind we have to determine what the correct pathway is for that person and there is sometimes potential for that person to have to go through a competitive process and compete again for that um in the last few years I've been working really close with HR and they've been very helpful in helping us to identify the potential for that to happen so we're doing those competitive processes UPF front today so that on the back end we don't have to do that so we're kind of eliminated that from happening um as much as it might have in theast but I don't know that that's this the you know true for everybody that's currently appointed now if their role is to change you know did everybody that's currently appointed either come from civil service or go through competitive hiring process that's just my only concern for people that are already appointed that you know that's great that these rules are changing so that hopefully that nobody will fall into that scenario but there might be people that are currently working here in an appointed position that this could happen to so that's a concern for me so yeah there there is some potential for that like I said we're trying to eliminate that as much as possible Madame mayor if I could I'm I'm going to support just because I know we're in a jam and it was allowed to happen to get these positions on um without the titles I you know working title is not really something I've ever heard I I I don't really know where that exists but it needs to get fixed I'll look for the ordinance and I apologize to the people who are getting you know blanketed down I was involved in the charter amendment when we had that broad language you know that we got in there about way to blanket them down but there are outstanding questions that I still worry about for those people in terms of them and other people in their classification when based upon seniority as someone who sat here and saw layoffs occur in this organization and how seniority was calculated for that so that's another issue that I I think really creates problematic situations when you have to blanket people down and you have this hiring that is not in concert with the ordinance and but really I'm going to be looking when this ordinance comes to see how the Departments are called out because I don't know departments and department heads are above and beyond the 52 and it seems like departments are not defined and they seem to pop up and there's sub departments and there's that is something I'm looking for in this ordinance um Clarity too um who's a department head what's an assistant department head I'll be looking for that Clarity in the ordinance too so I'll support the go-ahead at this point and I'm ready for the vote can I can I clarify something yes will you please thank you I just wanted to clarify that the movement really isn't like a downward movement it really is just a kind of a sideways I think she used shoving I think that gave everyone a perception of something shling and and I don't CU I don't want people to think that being in the classified service is degrading in any way so because it's not so they're going to remain in the same classification same pay there we we created things within the roles to preserve their seniority and different things like that so there really wouldn't be any impact to them um yeah exactly anything else all right okay okay good job anyway okay I have a motion in a second we got to move on I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I all those oppos motion carries unanimously if you can believe that good job thank you I know I know it's hard for you guys to get up here public speaking is one of the uh what is it the three Umar biggest fears in your life I think it's flying the dentist and public speaking so you did a fantastic job I couldn't tell if you were nervous at all thank you okay m Mr clerk we are moving in to item E1 regarding Ward boundaries to incorporate a Sixth Ward uh this is an ordinance introduction to be read by the city attorney's office and we do have public comment on this okay thank you so much let's go into public comment okay we have three speakers registered in the room for public comment first we'll hear from noi arasco followed by Pablo Mara Duran great we have no arasco in the room thank you yes we do hi hello good afternoon honorable mayor and City Council Members my name is Noel Rosco I am the program manager at Silver State voices which leads the nevadans count Coalition the coalition's goal is to ensure that all nevadans respond to the census and participate in the redistricting process that follows our Coalition was pleased to see that the City of Reno Incorporated some of the recommendations we provided during the previous previous redistricting process in 2021 notably these recommendations included hosting Community meetings for each Ward and Gathering Community input before the creating the creation of any draft Maps coupled with previous practices that the city Incorporated such as having drop in sessions these measures collectively ensured that the community was placed at the heart of this process as the body as this body already knows Census Data plays a pivotal role for redrawing district bound boundaries yet it's imperative to recognize that census data does not show the priorities or concerns communities have through the seven Community meetings City staff and the consulting firm gained valuable Insight at the priorities and concerns of the of the city's communities redistricting is seen as a nuanced process was a a nuanced process with jargon Den terms engaging in this process twice in the span of three years is no easy Endeavor on behalf of the coalition's 20 plus Partners I would like to commend is Cali Willy FL flow analytics and City staff their diligent efforts to integrate Community feedback deserves recognition although the Coalition does not endorse any specific map we believe that the body should approve WS that adequately reflect Reno's growing diversity with this aim our Coalition is leaning towards option A some minor improvements could enhance this option but we recognize the timeline that this body has for approving the maps thank you next we have Pablo Mora Duran followed by Bill shrimp right good morning uh good morning counc woman um coun person C member my name p Na danan and um dear council members I know see win C 64 beginning of a 2020 after a 2024 election so I'm here for this meeting talk about I'm support option A as a b offs because of uh Compass all all the map that cre good job so give it to I give a credit to Kelly uh Kell Wesley and his team to work on with this how to make sure Nimo have a similar identity keep it to yourself so I know map is not perfect but this is the most compatiable uh yet so so if if I make an adjustment like maybe like for example like newly Wars uh one map over here towntown T all the way to nor e REO and not include a mown Reno then having mown United in War III that will be fine but I think like we could switch it to uh switch it uh have a Midtown to move to war one as and a half for noro area because that area have a simmer uh same problem as as we does as CH Martinez does so and so and I do like the the Berkeley and uh LM streets to mooving to War I instead of of divide multiple War have with war one and two so moving to War I have one war have a War 3 because that area is the most Hispanic community in all South West Reno so makes sense to Res makes sense to move it to War I as a Miguel Martinez because they have a similar a similar problem as we do and I'd like and and also I want to and uh and I want to have a wor sex in South Reno should have an own ex problem instead of divid two and three and I don't like option Z as well but I do like it but not the soua Divide South that will delute delute the V of a current War I map World War I voters out there and um and the last thing and we want to fix the the I8 freeway all the way you see the the North Freeway they say that that going be War Two M War I like this movie to war five and then that will be perfect makes sense so I know this is not perfect because we have no solution for for instead of the device sou Viria so you divide to the pumis street and divid FIA leg so I think that should be Tak care of it and on that I think I support option A as adapter option A come back revise make assessment for the uh for the line and vot on August 23 so here here we go thank you and lastly we have Bill shrimp hi good [Music] afternoon it's it hasn't been boring right right yeah I'm glad there's metal detectors out here um so first of all hows off to C and your team um there were several late night meetings that they hosted crunched tons of demographic data and Al like the the layout of all the public comment that they Consolidated like tremendous amount of work and hats off to her team and all that they did uh generally speaking I am excited to see Reena moving to six Wards I think it's good for the Democratic process for the City generally I'm suppor of maps that have two or more represent representatives in the downtown area and separate you and are in downtown from each other some degree and trying to keep South Reno uh kind of in one in one Ward down there um moving forward I Council open the door I'm going to walk through it uh I'm glad the six Ward eliminates your position and with any luck your Terminus body will also end soon the way you uh treat people and and that don't agree with you or dress differently is deplorable I'm going to give you a few numbers these are all dollars 9,700 9,700 4500 9200 9700 25 Grand 28 grand 82 Grand those are all fines and fees the Nevada real estate division levied against agents and property managers in May and June of 20123 it's really important stuff but less impactful than violating laws Rel at ated to public officials the highest elected official in this state violated Nevada law over 30 times he received a fine of 20 grand compared to the wrongdoings of public officials real estate agents accountability for violating Nevada ethics laws is a paper tiger it's ineffective we all know this and some people behave accordingly people on this body uh people on this body or who have recently served on this body have violated ethics laws and received various poultry reprimands when this body directed staff to start the redistricting and public engagement process two members of this body wanted to make a public promise on the record that no back channeling or influence would be placed on staff due to a clear conflict of interest two other members of this body at that time who also live in what is now W five dismissed This Promise as unnecessary and basically scoffed at the suggestion not to diminish the work of the redistricting team they certainly have a hard job but it's concerning that the existing W five boundaries were largely left intact with every single draft that was brought to the public and refined through the drafts that you see here since one of the members of this body has received some sort of reprimand from the NADA of Ethics commission for what is essentially back channeling or conflict of interest these maps are concern particularly given the fact that previous reluctance to affirm no back channeling will occur through the public comment period in the redistricting meetings several people brought up unfair campaign fundraising advantages that some people have the same members I'm referring to had an Ethics reprimand raised approximately seven Grand in campaign contributions in the first quarter of this year and occupies a seat that will be eliminated Council this is your information please treat it accordingly thank you have a good day and Sir could you please state your name for the record uh Bill shrimp thank you so much that concludes our in-person public comment and for the record we received 36 comments which were directly associated with the agenda item prior to 4m on August 8th these comments were written correspondents receive via AR reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office and copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal of the 36 comments seven showed General concern while all others showed support for one or more maps which are laid out as follows there were 16 in support of map a 10 in support of map B three in support of map C and 13 in support of map D and that concludes our comments on this item so much okay your turn come on up oh before we do that I'm GNA actually send it to uh our City attorney you can read the ordinance now and then we'll have her present thanks so much car super thank you Madame mayor ordinance introduction bill number 7243 ordinance to amend Title 1 chapter 1.2.10 of the Reno Municipal Code titled Ward boundaries and official city map to change the City of Reno Ward boundaries and create a Sixth Ward on the official city map as required by section 1.050 of the Reno City Charter and providing matters properly relating there too all right thank you so much the floor is now yours Madame mayor mayor and members of council for the record C Willy I'm your director of policy and strategy thanks for having us here this afternoon I am joined by Kimmy shatani who's with me um she is uh with Flo analytics who is our independent data analytics firm who is Consulting on this project for the city so today we are in the Final Phase of the 2023 redistricting process as the city prepares to move from five Wards to six awards for the past several months we've been working with the community to draft and revise Maps and it's led us here today there are four map options in front of you for your deliberation and discussion today we're going to outline what that public engagement process looked like and the differences in some of those maps that you see before you action today is to select a map and introduce the ordinance um and as a reminder per Charter that action will require a 57s vote if Council provides direction to revise a map today we would return at the next meeting in two weeks to repeat the ordinance introdu ction and schedule adoption in September maybe thank you so just a quick reminder about why we're here and the effect of this process this process determines which neighbors neighborhoods and communities are grouped together for the purposes of electing a council member our city Charter requires we transition from 5 to six Wards in 2024 this was a recomend recommendation of the citizen appointed Charter committee back in 2016 and their goal was to increase responsiveness by reducing the number of people each person represents who sits on this body the Nevada legislature passed that law in 2017 and now we are here implementing that change in addition to moving from five ws to six WS the composition of this body will shift at the end of this process when the Sixth Ward will be added the atlarge position will go away so so let's talk about the timeline because there is a transition here our immediate timeline is really about redistricting and and what the maps will look like uh the Washo County registar voters has asked us to get them to get that office the maps by September 1st and this is driven by deadlines associated with the new presidential primary process in Nevada and their deadlines to draw precincts change voter records and make sure all of their requirements are done it will also allow individuals to determine if they are running for all purposes necessary to carry out the election the maps will go into effect in January this will allow for accurate candidate filing in March as well as uh accurate voting uh by our population in the 2024 general election the transition will be complete when the ward 6 council member is sworn into office following the 2024 general election that's when the maps will go into effect for all other purposes as we dive into the redistricting process our commitment has been to be have a transparent process with our community that's Community informed and data driven we have three fundamental components to our approach the first is being driven by redistricting principles that this body adopted we are using uh the use of data and analytics uh is another fundamental component and it's informed by our community through a comprehensive Outreach and engagement process as with the reward redistricting process in 2021 the city partner with flow analytics the independent GIS firm to help take Community input and draft the maps according to the legal requirements back in May you adopted a series of principles adopted by the Reno City by this body uh we have we talk about those as the musts and the shoulds so all of the maps that you will see in front of you today meet these requirements but when we talk about the musts all the maps must be in compliance with local state and federal laws including the voting Rights Act the amounts must be nearly equal in population and there is mathematical uh requirements in our city Charter that we will talk a little bit about we will talk more about in a minute the Ws must be geographically continuous the Ws must retain the current council members with existing terms that extend beyond the 2024 general election for us that is Ws two and WS four we must solicit Community input from uh uh during this process you're going to hear a lot about that today and we're going to use the 2020 Census Data as our data source when we talk about the shs and here's where a lot of the give and take goes is we should try to preserve neighborhood integrity and communities of Interest as much as we can we should also use existing naure boundaries as much as we can for us that is often uh streets sometimes it's the river um but uh Street uh trying to use those natural boundaries as much as we can and we should be as compact as possible this process was driven by a significant engagement process over the last two months it started by sending 154,000 postcards to Residents and businesses throughout this community it's the largest Mailer in our City's history we really wanted to make sure our community knew about this process and we invited them in we worked with the community in three different phases during phase one we asked the community to identify communities of interest and help Define neighborhoods we used that information to create six draft scenarios and asked for the community then to review those Maps what did you like what did you dislike how could we make them better we use that feedback then to revise and create the four Final maps that are in front of you today the community has been encouraged to continue to participate by providing public comment at today's meeting which we heard a little bit about already this has been a major undertaking for our community or for our community and our organization um for the City of Reno we really focused on boo boosting access to this process um you're seeing some of those stats on your screen today but we had input options that were both in person and online we had simple tools like surveys and more complex tools like distor that allowed individuals to experience the challenges of drawing the maps themselves we offered bilingual materials and support we hosted a meeting in Spanish we offered support in American Sign Language at one of our in centers we ensured the maps that were posted online could be read by e-readers as well this huge effort uh we had a huge effort to continuously inform the public throughout this through media social media and a direct newsletter that was sent to more than 23,000 subscribers so before we go on I just have to thanks uh quite a few members of our our organization from the comm's team our equity and Community relationships team Reno Direct Our IT team and Christy Smith who's my partner in crime over there uh who really focused on the community engagement process to make this happen it was not possible to carry out this work without them and also a huge thanks to our community who engaged in this process there was a lot of work done in the last two months so based on that let's talk about what some of the key issues were here's a high level of summary of what we heard about in the six draft Maps excuse me we heard a strong preference and priority towards visual compactness where WS were stretched we received comments that uh uh people were concerned about that and skeptical of why they were drawn out across the city the conversation about downtown had multiple perspectives should downtown be represented by one Ward or multiple wards individuals who supported multiple Wards said they felt that all Reno residents were impacted by the downtown area especially as an economic driver of the city and all should have a voice in the downtown area individuals who supported one Ward said that with more people moving downtown it was viewed more like a neighborhood and felt one represented would provide a more cohesive approach to downtown issues combined with the compactness comments more support leaned towards one Ward downtown another point of feedback is the varying definition of uh which way and to what degree downtown should stretch um and this will be represented in several of the maps that you see today we also received quite a few comments about the university area noting that the university area is broader than just the university property we received comments about Connections to neighborhoods to the north the South the East and the west of the University another key issue that we'll compare today we received comments on communities of interest in neighborhoods all across town we talked about residential areas in South Reno the North Valleys large puds like Somerset and Colin Ranch and smaller neighborhoods like country club Acres individuals also noted that they liked the idea that a ward should have similar issues and needs as an example a person spoke about parking issues and explained that parking issues up in the North Valleys may not be their primary concern but they are around the university and the downtown area comments also expanded how individual neighborhoods interact with one another such as Donner Springs Miraloma and the Neil Road areas identifying as one community of Interest Lakeridge ranchera and the Delonte area kind of coming together as one Community is just based on the issues in that area overall the draft maps that represented downtown as one Ward received a higher median score on our last survey and scenario 2 was ranked the highest of the maps that represented multiple touch points in the downtown area the four highest Maps were used in the creation of the final options that you see before you and that complete public input log is available in your meeting pack packet as well as the redistricting portal so as we talk about the four different options today it's important to note that there's no perfect map and compromise as a part of this process this chart compares the four map options and identifies whether they are able to address the issue raised by the community during the engagement process remember these issues are under the should category of our principles and we tried to accommodate as many requests as possible in the options a yellow star represents when the map is able to maintain the community of interest and X means it does not accommodate that request I do want to make a note that we did notice two technical issues in the map and you received a memo on this yesterday in B and D um that's why you're seeing B1 and D1 there was a in the drafting there was an island still created oh no conspiracy theory oh no so it is updated on our website and it is updated for you for the conversation today uh to ensure that all four Maps meet those contiguity uh requirements and while we be we will be comparing some specific feedback points today so the differences become C I also think it's important to note that all four Maps were able to accomplish quite a lot of community feedback the list on the screen highlights communities of interest that were maintained in all four options and so now I'm going to turn it over to Kimmy who's going to talk about the the analytics part of it and the four different options that are in front of you good afternoon I'm Kimmy shikatani with with flow analytics and we assisted cie and Christie with this project so let me just thank you for being here by the way thank you um so let me start off by talking about a little bit about the process that we went through and so the process really begins with data collection we use the 2020 census and then the most recent American Community survey data for demographics next we developed scenarios and got input uh from community members and from other folks and then it sort of became this iterative process where we take the input we create some maps we go back and get more input we create different maps and we start making those adjustments based on all of the input that we received until we've reached the final four Maps we do recognize that the final map will probably not be beloved by every single person in Reno um and that's fine in redistricting there tends to not ever be a perfect map there tends to be the map that are the most acceptable to the majority the key to this process however was that it be as transparent as possible and I think that that goal was achieved I do want to pause really quickly and just say that as the consultant working on this project with Cali and Christie um they absolutely went sort of above and beyond what we typically see in cities and so I just do want to let the council understand that that was really a commendable effort and that the input that was received was tremendously helpful in designing these Maps so the fundamental piece of redistricting is around population and so in Reno's case you have about 44,000 per Ward and I would note that generally speaking um most the generally accepted deviation is 10% or less um for a map in total and Reno under your Charter you have a 5% um requirement for deviation and we've met that requirement in all four Maps so to dive into the maps a little bit the first final option is option A and this is a combination of draft scenarios five and six which as CI noted were well- liked by the community it does have a deviation of 4.9% so we're still under that 5% threshold W one has a slightly higher pop population with W two being a little bit lower on the scale um I won't dive into the race and ethnicity piece because it's in your packets already um and in the interest of time we should um you might want to look at those so this is one of the maps that shows the downtown area as one Ward and so in this map it stretches to the eastern most part of Reno to include the Fourth Street Corridor Northeast neighborhood including AI Wells Montell and the Paradise Park areas it goes east of the downtown core and south of the trucky River using Liberty Ryland and Mill as the boundary the university is included in the downtown Ward however Midtown is not included in the downtown ward in this example when it comes to the university area there are Connections in all four directions Northeast South and West as reflected um as something being important during the community engagement process it also includes a above mcaren that includes Talis way and so the Socrates area which we heard from residents that they felt a stronger Connection in those areas to the university than to the farther north parts of the North Valley it does include student housing in the downtown core and in the Valley Road residential area and it captures some of the residential area to the West up to Washington Street and as Celly mentioned there are trade-offs in any map and so a few highlights from option A the Donner Springs Mira and Neil Road neighborhoods are kept together in this option as the comments that we received reflected similar issues such as adjacency to the airport we did adjust the boundaries through the South Virginia Corridor to accommodate several communities of interest and ensure overall deviation could be met these communities included Midtown connection between limberry Street neighborhood and the East Grove Street neighborhood and on the flip side this map does split the Virginia Lake area also in this map South Reno sees a little more cohesion maintaining the Lakeridge ranchera and Delonte areas in one Ward and combining all of the South Reno residential areas into one Ward this option does split up the old Southwest at Plum Street um and as I had mentioned the East and West sides of Virginia Lake um and it does not resolve the cutout above I80 near Rob drive and May so final option map B1 as derived from Scenario 2 um the overall deviation is 3.6% um and the table that uh refers to the deviation uh we missed updating that table when we updated the maps but the deviation is 3.6% this option represents multiple WS intersecting in the downtown area um the original draft scenario 2 had F five ws intersecting in the downtown area an option map B has three Wards intersecting in that area it does address the visual compactness concerns we'd heard about in the comments and it also fixes concerns related to splitting sections in the North Valley and West Reno that had been previously drafted in this option WS 1 two and three converge at Sierra and six those three Wards include the various communities of Interest we heard that should connect to downtown however with multiple WS converging in one area it does make having one downtown a little bit difficult for cohesion purposes as for connections to the university this option includes residential areas north of McCaron in the downtown core and toward Valley Road however the ward with the university does not connect to Northwest neighborhood west of Sierra Street in this option many of the communities of interest in central Reno are maintained including Midtown Old Southwest Virginia Lake keeping the connections between the Yori and Grove in brinkby limberry neighborhoods ward 3 contains the university and the Northeast neighborhood and then stretches down to the north to the neighborhoods surrounding the airport on the flip side the neighbors of Donner Springs Moma and Neil Road are not represented by the same ward which was identified as a rer community of interest in the input the new Ward six would Encompass South Reno and stretch up the east side of the Southern portion of Reno the map does not provide a connection between the Northeast neighborhood and the East Fourth Street Corridor it does keep the lak Ridge and ranera area combined with Delonte so for map C this is a version that originated from draft scenario one and this is a s in a this particular map um when surveyed folks commented they liked this version the most because it most reflected the current Ward boundaries and was perceived to have less change overall even with the addition of the sixth boundary this map has an overall deviation of 3.4% this option is another one that represents one downtown Ward and in comparison to option A the downtown Ward drops South to include the old Southwest and generally uses the river as a boundary on the Southeast side for the university area on the North side we were not able to capture the Talis way area but we were able to keep Socrates conect Ed to the university the downtown Ward would capture more of the residential area to the West using Keystone as the boundary this option includes the connection to the housing in the downtown cord and toward Valley Road South Rino looks similar as to how it is today um we do capture Double Diamond Ranch into w three so as to not break up that particular community of interest but Damonte Ranch and Damonte Foothills would still be split as that was needed to accommodate the population requirements Donner Springs miroma and Neil Road areas are split into three different WS excuse me Midtown and the old Southwest uh which only goes to Mount Rose are split as well um but connections between neighborhoods such as yoring Grove and Brink be limberry in the Northeast neighborhood and East Fourth street are maintained so this is the final map this is option D1 this represents the option with the lowest deviation at 2.2% and provides another look at how a downtown Ward could look we did hear from some that the downtown Ward should stretch as far south as Taylor Street in order to keep the Wells Avenue area together to the boundary drops to Plum Lane on this side it also includes a connection to Midtown and the university in regards to the university similar to option C Keystone is used as the boundary on the west and on the North McCaron is the boundary and the neighborhoods just north of that would remain in W for um we were able to maintain six of the communities of interest that we've been identifying throughout this um but there were three that were not able to be accomplished in this particular option and with that I will turn it back over to Cali [Music] so when comparing these final four Maps staff is recommending final option A today while there's no perfect map there are pros and cons in each option that we've walked through a represents a downtown as one Ward which was preferred overall and comparing the different communities of Interest option A keeps historically underrepresented communities together such as the Yori Grove and Northeast uh neighborhood with the east four Street area something we heard that was important for the community so a reminder as we talk about the motion that a selection of a map today and introducing an ordinance requires 57 vote if that occurs adoption would occur at the next meeting if Council provides direction to revise Maps today we would ask for Council to be specific about the changes that they're requesting and we'd bring back the map on August 23rd and agenda ordinance introduction again we would then adopt in September uh I would provide the maps to the registar in between the first and the second readings adoption of the ordinance must occur at a regular meeting of this body and based on the options and Analysis provided staff again is recommending option A and a proposed motion is on your screen uh both Kimmy and I are here to answer any questions you may have thanks so much all right thank you so much Callie how was it I I just got a lot of feedback you know I always say the mayor's office here's everything right everything bad and good um but I just got a lot of feedback that uh and everyone says us about you that you're just so wonderful to work with and you listen to everyone so um all in all how do you feel the process went I think the process went really well I'm um I enjoyed a lot of the conversations that we had with the community this is certainly a challenging process um It's Complicated um there's pros and cons there's a lot of different perspectives um and so it was a challenge not the truth but I do think that the community um engaged in the options in front of you reflect different variations of that input yeah okay well anyway I just wanted to tell you I got excellent feedback about you so okay um I don't have it up on my screen so I'm going to just start uh to the right of me Council my May before we have discussion we had one public commentary you're right thank you so much problem perfect I do want to hear that public comment before we go into uh discussion of the body perfect we just have one remote uh attendee Donna Keat who's raised her hand okay perfect hello Donna I want to go ahead and unmute and begin speaking when you're ready Donna can hear us I don't think Donna we show you on mute if you can there you go we hear you thank you there are just too many different buttons to push to get in anyway for the record my name is Donna Kei um as the mayor just said um call you were fantastic and your team was fantastic and if you you know read through the public record Law I mean log I have a lot of comments and they responded promptly and well and there's a lot of compliments in there for the job that the team did I sent each of you a letter on Monday by email which I hope you have had an opportunity to read because I went through these Maps very very carefully and um I am supporting option b for a whole mess of reasons um which hopefully I don't know can anybody give a nod that you read the letter so I don't have to repeat myself I did I read Miss Keats okay well uh all right so it has lowest deviations it's the most compact it has the largest non white population in ward in w three is an option D Ward one is the most compact Old Southwest the heart of old Reno is maintained as a coherent entity and it stays connected to Midtown and to the Wells Avenue neighborhood and if any of you have lived here long enough you know that whole General blob used to be old Southwest and I think it's important that we not split Old Southwest and we not be so focused on Midtown not being connected to Old Southwest and then Wells Avenue same thing as it developed into its own neighborhood plan it's all connected Virginia Lake area needs to stay together what you may not know with all the discussion about the Yori Grove and the brinkby limberry area is that the people who live on the west side of Virginia Lake who are largely white have been incredibly active over the years in making that one of the best public Parts in the city and in helping to protect the brink be lyberry everything South to Moana and to help those neighborhoods developed as well as to help the neighborhoods develop on L on lyberry between lyberry and Virginia Street so taking as an option A dividing that area along limberry you're actually going to lose a whole lot of vocal support for everybody that lives in the Yori Grove area I guess that you're trying to connect or something so I think people should know that that drawing that based on basically racial characteristics we we really strong on multif family smart development of multif family not anti U multifam anyway I think those things are really important but the new neighborhoods in South Reno get to stay together with option D as opposed to option A which I think no option A does too if you should choose to go with option A at per staff recommendation um my thought I could live with that easily but I think it's the same problem in that in that part of War I needs to be pushed back to Virginia Street and not be separated on on lyberry around Virginia Lake because the the the power of speaking in front of council is going to be lost for those people I mean if we if I no longer care about them because they're run in my ward I'm be coming in front of you to talk about what happens when those things are developing and maybe the new council person for w 3 doesn't want my help that's always possible but we've been pretty active and that boundary line should be pushed back to Virginia all the way to McCaron because all of those things are connected the Moana pool needs to be connected to the neighbors all right thank thank you okay you're 15 hours read my letter if you can oh we did or I did thank you so much all right thank you okay any F no more comments on this item thank you thank you so much and I apologize I'm up and down because I'm having hip hip issues this is what happens when you get older older so little pain over here um okay I'm going to start uh with Council breus I'm going to assume this is a very important obviously issue and I am going to assume that everyone probably has some comments or something they want to weigh in so I'm going to just start with councilwoman brickus go ahead thank you madam mayor for calling on me I just uh would like to thank department head director wiy and her Department of to uh for the work that they did all right and those who assisted them and all the public who participated okay thank you councilman Martinez thank you so much Madame mayor um I also want to take thank director wiy and all of her work um to make sure that the voices were captured from our communities and that we were able to you know try to keep the communities of interest um uh in intact um and making sure that those workshops you know were provided in multiple languages and that e e-readers were available um to read the screen which is very important um for those community members that need um that assistance so um I do um acknowledge that we are on a short timeline and we do have to get this over to the um County clerk's office and so hopefully uh through this conversation we can have come to a consensus and make sure that we get this over there in time I think that's all I have for now maybe more for round two thank you okay thank you so much um councilwoman Taylor thank you Madame mayor and um of course Cali team thank you so much appreciate all your very hard work I do have a question um you mentioned something uh you said historically underrepresented communities keeping those together so in one of your slides I think it was um you showed it twice the one what the Stars I want to understand what that means between the difference of map a and I guess option D so when we look at the communities of interest for a you have Old Southwest Virginia Lake uh rob a man for a and then on D you can obviously see the other ones that you have Yori Grove Northeast Lakeridge what does that represent as far as when we're talking about historically underrepresented communities keeping those together absolutely so uh what you can see on um your screen is again that comparison and um as we um as an organization have focused on diversity and Equity it's one of the lenses that we look to make uh policy recommendations through um and so uh oftentimes we have certain neighborhoods that are just historically underrepresented um and that has come kind of come through through some of the community input and so what you'll see here is you can see yellow stars on a for Yori Grove and brinkby limberry and the Northeast neighborhood um and East Fourth street that connection between those two um is what we heard um if the the question was specifically compared to D you'll see the Red X there so it split up those neighborhoods uh or those communities of those neighborhoods um historically underrepresented neighborhoods that are not included in mapd of course are included right because they are in the City of Reno and it's not like we cut out any of the neighborhoods uh but what we're saying here is that connection between Yori and Grove and Brink be and limbury um is maintained in a but it's split up in D so is Yori groven a historically underrepresented neighborhood so there is no particular definition oh around like depending on kind of the context of that um these neighborhoods are the ones in which um we tradition we we've heard that um comment from different communities so why is your recommendation a why so I think there's a couple things one we've seen uh I I do think that there was a clear direction from the community that downtown should be represented by one word um in this one when we talk about the different I'm just going to work my way down University neighborhood it had connections to the north the South the East and the West um and then comparing those different communities of Interest right there uh is why our option a uh for us Rose to the top there are certainly multiple perspectives here um I'm not saying I am right I am not saying I'm wrong I don't think it's right to look at maps in right or wrong I think that there are trade-offs in all of them thank you I'll just save my questions for the next one right Vice May re thank you madam mayor I have a couple of questions maybe first for Miss shikatani that would be helpful to me I suppose um I've heard some concerns raised by public commenters both today and in email one was about um why we haven't included Cold Springs so cold springs is an area outside the city of Reno's boundaries it is in an unincorporate part of Washo County but it's adjacent to us are we allowed to take in unincorporated parts and include them in our maps and draw awards that would represent them I would defer to your City attorney but the answer generally speaking is no okay thank you I agree with the answer but I just want to make sure that we're addressing some of the concerns that were raised the second thing is sort of a geography question I think as I watch the entirety of this process unfold which has been fantastic your uh colleagues and you have been great uh to watch I haven't had any direct contact with you but I want to say that the work you've done has been meaningful I've seen um the presentations made in public and different kinds of uh Power points that were part of the work product that your group produce and and uh I know Miss wilsy even as a director of a small department and of course directorships are not based on how many people are supervising you or how many number are there you're doing an excellent job and thank you for the work that you've done but as I watch unfold there are some Geographic constraints about our city right the northern part of the city is very isolated from the rest of it and so there was also a member there so every map had to basically start at the top of that Ward and come South till you hit a property uh threshold that was related to the pro the number of people in it right and you drew a line great that's one Ward resoled out to the West the ward where I currently reside I live in the Far Western Edge of the city that also has some Geographic isolations and so the the ward that had to be drawn whatever Ward it was had to be drawn from the western edge of Reno going east in some configuration is that a fair statement yes so we wouldn't have divided like Mogul and Verdi into two different Wards in any map correct because every map looks the same to me in W four and what is proposed here in the W I live in correct so the nature of so the geography of the city um does not lend itself to multiple Wards on the Far West District and the far North District um when we talk about terms of contiguity and compactness and so well and if the city were a circle we might draw it like a PI right the C it's not perfect in it configuration so that makes sense now when I look at the map what I see on map a and maybe we'll focus there for a minute is I see sort of an elephant looking shape and I see lots of strange and hard edges so I want to just understand those are related to census tracks and census blocks correct those are voting uh Precinct I guess also so they're group of people right we aren't putting one block into a Ward and one block out of a ward because of geography necessarily it's also about the size and number of people in those Geographic locations right so we use in the redistricting process we use census blocks um not precincts generally speaking and sorry okaying um so we use census blocks when we build out the maps and so typically speaking we balance the wards based on population so the number of people within any given census block can range from very small to very large depending on the size of the block so that's how the maps and to put a fine point on this point about Rob and mayanne the area north of I80 if you look at map a it's like an elephant with a fly on its nose right it's got a part above I80 which I think in the last round of redistricting there was some discussion about whether that should be put with the w five representative or the W one representative and the reason why in this map it's where it is is not because someone decided to gerrymander but it's because the census block is quite large and the people in it are large so if you put it in the one above you've got to take away from somewhere else or if you put it in the one below you've got to take away it's there's a cause and effect of moving those blocks of numbers correct absolutely and the other thing we were considering also was community of Interest testimony from the public well and for my part map a seems to be the recommended map it's also the map that is reflective of all those things and so I'm interested to hear from my colleagues and believe that map a reflects my vision right now for what the word should look like all right Council M der yeah thanks um I too want to start out with a huge thanks to you with flow analytics and even Huger thanks uh to Cali Wilsey what she did and what you did was truly phenomenal I believe in public Outreach and public input everybody knows this and I think you exemplified that in your work um you also added a mapping component that I think we've never seen before the distri and it gave lots of people opportunity to do geography and mapping and that's a very current technology um you have given us over this time 10 options six in the first phase four in the second phase all of them meeting the criteria so I think the takeaway from all of that is that there are a lot of ways to achieve the goal and not just one correct way and I think Cali said this too and that nothing's perfect so at this point I think we're down to preferences compromise and coming up with something everyone can support um it's also important to me that we hear each other and are sensitive to each other's perspective um we Council are not a rubber stamp you know you have proposed something but we have a job to do too and that is to fine-tune it in my mind it may be adopt a map whole cloth it may be adopt a map with some tweaks that reflect especially what our constituents are telling us um so the mayor council member beus and I are the um only ones for which the decision we make here today does not affect us personally uh where all three of us are termed out and um I just want people to know that any recommendations I make here today are based on the input that I received from W two residents um and what I think is best for the long-term Health award too but the city as a whole as well um to create a six Ward the other Wards had to lose about 10,000 people we all had to take out 10,000 people to create another ward of 40,000 or 45,000 but in the case of w two and me in particular what it all of the options three of the options meant that I lost about 40,000 people not 10 so the the South End Ward is about 35,000 to 40,000 people it's about 80% of the people that I've represented for the last nine years um last um I'll let that sink in for a minute 40,000 it's a big change okay where you could keep Contin contiguity in Word four and word five not case for w two um and frankly losing South Reno and the three options um in areas around Bartley Ranch including ranchera it would be very hard for me I'm just going to be honest I've built a lot of Rapport and relationships there and I love being their Advocate um so last time W two was also sliced in dice quite a bit because we're in the middle and every time we had to make a move um we went there and I voted for the map reluctantly um with the goal of remedying issues that I saw on the map this time I knew that it was likely we were going to be here so here we are um that said I do support the formation of a downtown Ward and I do support um a South Reno District even though it' be hard for me I think it would be ultimately good for the residents down there um given the situation many of the W 2 residents wrote in especially recently uh to support mapd which had the cleanest lines for ward two and um it keeps um the central part of the ward intact um we all have preferences So based on their input in my perspective my choice is map D um because it's not about me it's about the residents um mapd works well for most of the wards it has the lowest deviation it has the highest representation of Latino uh votes uh within Ward three but I also am hearing from you that there's a recommendation to do map a and I heard from my colleague one or two that there's a a leaning towards mape um I'll just say one more thing and then I'll I'll finish on round two last time we did this a year and a half ago again I compromised significantly and uh this time I hope my colleagues will do the same for me and we'll come back um and to that end I just want to say that I can compromise again and live with mape if a small change is made to avoid breaking up an important community of interest to my constituents thank you all right thank you go ahead councilwoman Ebert Okay so so um again thank you guys for the presentation it was great I know this was a lot of work and I'm sure you guys had just a lot of people coming at you from a lot of directions so thank you so much for all of this um I have a lot to say so I've been very vocal about I want the community to make this decision I don't think it should be up to the council to to decide uh with that being said looking at these Maps um and looking at other um Community Resources um I think it's important to me to advocate for my ward and call out that um my ward has the least amount of parks as it stands with the maps as it is right now um we also only have one Community Center um regardless of what map we go with we will lose our only Community Center we'll have none um the only map or the best map for my ward um with regard to losing the least amount of parks is map D if this city cares at all about Equity um sharing resources providing equally to the residents who all pay the same taxes I'd like to remind everyone map D comes the closest but it's still Falls very short um we will still lose Parks we will still lose our only Community Center so again I think it's important that the community picks us but all of these Maps there's going to be a loss for my community we will lose our Parks we will lose our only Community Center and that's a loss for me and I'm sorry that I'm emotional Megan wait a minute that's just means that someone they'll go into another Ward you won't lose them my ward will lose them yes your W well you as a representative will lose them as a representative yes I think people are thinking you're going to lose that we're already short on and we'll have a a presentation later about our P Parks will you will see how underserved we are with our parks and we're going to lose some of them regardless of what map we go off of and mapd is the one where we lose the least amount of parks it's just going to come out of your board into a word is exactly exactly which is important where we want to talk about communities and being Equitable and where we're planting fruit trees and food deserts and things like that and we can only plant them where we have parks and designated food deserts we have very few parks in my area so if we can't plant trees in parks where there's food deserts well do we have parks in those food desert areas in my Wards and we are desperately lacking in parks and we are desperately lacking in community centers and we are going to lose more of those in all of these maps and again map D will be the the least impactful in those resources for my community which will you know again have an impact for the constituents that I represent so I would be remiss for not calling that out so I'll will support map D all right um thank you thanks all right Council M Reus we're back down to you round two yeah I'm sorry was that map b or map D was D is David yeah so um I did not this did not go how I wanted it to go I didn't want staff to drive it and staff is driving it and whether or not they you know how that communication went with members of the body I don't know I wanted a committee so his hands off and an up or down and now we're you know saying how it works you know Miss St said well you know Miss breus the mayor and I are the only ones that doesn't matter to personally and then she talks about a relationship representing certain people so it kind of does if you follow that that's how I heard it um and you know I've been on a long time I ran at large so I've you know campaigned differently too and it's all good for me you know I like it I like getting new neighborhoods I like exploring exploring new neighborhoods um so it's all good and I do I do get how people identify places and and um you know I have a specialty in that with my City Planning background so I understand that the one standard that I am really stuck on is that we do not delay this process anymore and that's why I was so outspoken about that F failed effort to change the law and not do something that we knew we were going to do back in 2017 and go through that whole effort down in the legislature and delay it because there's people who want to run and they don't know where the lines are going to be and that's been unfair and it's given other people here an advantage and so I don't want to see if it's even more work um one more one more you know run on these Maps I think that's wrong I think the public deserves to know where these maps are and those who are interested in running and launching campaigns get to do that just like Mr um Reese did and and I don't know about the others I know you know I'm not but um I I think that's been unfair I think it's it's been very unfair what we did down in the legislature this year that failed run because even though it it it C stayed the course of the w six it had a delay factor that I think worked against other people who want to pursue um campaigns so I'm I won't even you know I do not want to see a reintroduction we're here prepared to do an introduction read it and adopt at our next meeting and and I don't want to kick that off the another meeting so because I did hear Miss Stewart say with modifications so I don't want to modify it's fine okay councilman Martinez thank you madam I appreciate it um Kelly I wanted to see if I can ask you a quick question I know one of the comments that we received in the packet talked about some of the renal Sparks Indian colony tribal lands and I'm just wondering if you can address some of those comments that Mr Shoemaker made uh yeah absolutely no thank you for bringing it up because we did have multiple conversations uh last week the renos Sparks Indian colony contacted us uh uh with some concern that their their Pro their uh properties that are held in trust uh by the federal government for the Indian colony were included in our Maps um and we had a conversation with them about that um and were prepared to kind of uh uh pull them out if that was the right thing but I had a conversation with their um uh I think her title is the community development director over there sorry Candace if I got that wrong um but uh we had a conversation about the ward maps and what that really means so when a parcel goes um in trust uh the federal government puts a land in trust for the Indian colony what that means is uh there are changes to taxation as well as land use Authority but not representation so they should still be included in the ward map and the city boundaries so that is um and they sent a follow-up email that it is in the record saying they were no longer seeking those choices so we we clarified that with the Indian colony thank you so much for making that clear for the record I appreciate it um I tend to agree with um council member breus to where we should follow the timeline that we've talked about and make sure that one of these Maps ends up going through we've heard from the public that map a seems to be the preference we've hear from staff that map a um is the preference and along the comments that um council member Ebert made um if you look at map a all of northe tlea Paradise Park uh Fisherman's Park John Champion Park picket Park are all moving outside of War II were we to adapt uh adopt map a and so everybody is losing certain parts certain populations that we've been working with even if it has been over the past year that I have been in this um office um I do just acknowledge that the impacts are you know tremendous and even though we do talk about a a lot um about map D I think the reason why I personally think map a is a little bit better is the compactness that you keep referring to in this map and just the way that um the neighborhoods feel um in that map compared to map a and I do just want to point out that we did have make the road One apia Nevada Silver State voices definitely mention their support of map a as well so thank you okay coun thank you madam mayor um I I guess this is what consern or uh compromise and Team Building looks like it's really good I guess I will just say I'm I'm also in in favor of at map a um I like the comments that I heard about a time frame I think um Callie one of the questions I have for you did everybody have an opportunity to provide an input was we received I think over 40 comments and I think I just heard that map a had 16 comments in favor so is there anything that you heard or seen in public comment that would make you change your mind um based on the shs and based on the mus that you outlined uh comparing the four options that you have in front of you um as drafted uh no okay so I guess um I I'm prepared to make a motion whenever the body is ready for a without any revisions okay I'll um come to you in um after we have finished our second round okay I'm sorry I I had I think I had like 20 more seconds but regarding the par Parks no Parks go away right they all stay within the City of Reno it's just going to be a different or community centers they're not going anywhere they all stay geographically where they are the people in W for currently still have access to those community centers and the parks and they're staying put right that is correct okay thank you Madame mayor think I sort of understood um council member Ebert's concern and and her passion is evident and I appreciate that you know for my part I think the North Valleys has long been underserved and there has not been a focus on the kinds of Park improvements that we would like to see uh it's certainly I think why mayor's Park was you know a thing that Madame mayor you advocated for a long time I think it was really the first Park that I toured when I came onto the body and it was just um it was not right ultimately I think in the North Valleys I myself would advocate for someday to see a pool up there another Community Center obviously I understand that the parks are not disappearing and I don't think that was my colleague's um thought process but just that when you're representing a particular Ward your heart is invested in those Parks areas where they are so I I totally understood the argument and and or not the argument but just the passion um for my part I think that identified so an I isolates that none of us work in a vacuum obviously um parks are often functionally paid for by cdbg funds which are determined by the way that eligible blocks of census are provided so that a lot of the money that we've directed at our Parks has been through cdbg and will continue to go there wherever the arbitrary map lines are drawn so ultimately I think that that is something that can be um worked through but also Council something mayor you said and even miss breus is is absolutely right about trying to uh vote a map up or down today and not delay but it's more important than that you ran once at large I obviously ran at large I think Miss der and Madame mayor obviously have run at large um we are still one Community we're we're one city where all of the parts of the city sort of operate together and and so if we're rowing in the same direction especially when it comes to Parks I think that's a good example none of us should be so tribal about the particular Ward where we live because we all have to make votes on this dis that impact rightly or wrongfully all the other parts of the city so there are no perfect Maps I think I've if I'm not mistaken I understood there to have been thousands of online submissions in the map uh Builder application um I you know I didn't look at the application but I understood there were lots of them uh so ultimately because map a uh does include the Yori Grove brinky limberry area the Northeast neighborhoods and East Forth Street and keeps those in um really in harmony with one another I think that's the better map for our future ultimately these Maps will outlive all of our time on the Das um and we have to really think about them really divorced from where we sit or where we live or what we're passionate about because it's really about the community moving forward and so the reason why I mean A and D for the specific Ward where I physically live are almost identical but option D does not include I think the historically under represented and marginalized communities whereas option A does that so my vote will be for an option A without modifications okay thank you councilor yeah thanks um I I left off last time saying that last time that we did this I um compromised significantly to make a unan animous vote for a map and it was hard for me and I'm asking my colleagues to lean in and I would ask that uh our clerk before I even begin if you could stop the clock if you could bring up the map that I asked you to bring up so if you can enlarge it please um I am offering to compromise again off of mapd which my constituents whether it's 1613 um largely supported um and I could live with mape and if you could even enlarge it a little bit more if a small change is made to avoid breaking up an important community of interest to my constituents they want to preserve the very core of w 2 and not split up if you could enlarge it some more the Moana plumis McCarron kitsy Center of current War I and keep the business district intact and associated with War I so that when changes come up um that affect residents they will be reviewed by the War I NAB people that wrote in about this are Susan Lynn Mark foray former head of Tuma John Ferrari uh head of Atlanta Donna who you heard from Carmen Gage and many others this would mean simply keeping two apartment complexes and the commercial core of the ward including the Atlanta C Convention Center if we don't fix this it will be like breaking up the wells Corridor in my mind it is doable we have the power to do it um I have run it by the Consultants to make sure this would work um and they said that it actually results in a smaller deviation um than map a unamended which map a unamended had 4. 99 this is 4.4 um since this change would primarily impact Miguel's uh w three and my w two I sought his input and he said in the spirit of compromise he could live with the change it's not his preference but he said he could live with it and given its importance to my constituents I know it means initiating the ordinance two weeks from today instead of today but here's my final Point given that we are making a change that will affect our individual residents lives at their homes unlike any anything else we do for the next 10 years I think waiting two weeks in order to get it right for all of us is a reasonable compromise and that is what I'm asking today and just to point out on the map I don't know who has a pointer again if you could uh scroll en larges just a little bit more um the main change is right where the hand is um right there um they have a green area coming down right next to Moana Springs so that Moana would be on uh Springs Park would be on one side and the Atlantis parking lot on the other side uh the businesses that are now part of w two um whether it's the Redfield Center the convention center um the Lowe's all of these would be compiled so that when new casinos come in like has been proposed that they will be reviewed by the people that will be impacted by them the most people that live right next to that area um uh I included the Atlantis in that that's at yellow triangle there's no people living there um that's why this drives down the deviation and then to compensate up by the white which is the Indian colony lands so up on the White and the green if you could put your cursor up there um there are two little parcels and uh could you put your cursor up there um by that little white tea um right there there are two parcels and that is all the change that would need to be made to this map uh to balance out the small amount of population in the area I'm talking about um every my the chair of my NAB called me and said that this is something she supports she is a business in that area um she does not want to see this area leave Ward too I'm trying to be very respectful of what has traditionally been done and also recognize the fact that my ward has been sliced diced and managed and I would at least like to keep a community of Interest together that people care about so with that Madam mayor I'm I'm asking my colleagues I understand their desire to have one more map up or down but that's not we're not here to just repr stamp we get to think and analyze and understand each other too okay thank you thank you go ahead councilwoman Ebert uh I am aware that parks are not disappearing I do realize that they're static they're not leaving thank you for pointing that out to me um however um my constituents are very aware that we do not have an equitable dispersement of resources um if you look at our packet or when we look at our packet going over Parks later you'll see that your area has plenty of parks Kathleen my area doesn't so um when we disperse funds for different areas um my ward will get less funds because we have less Parks just right out of the gate so it's not an equitable dispersement of funds for parks and resource other recreation centers um and we'll get less funds for those Wards um or my ward because we'll have less of those areas so it does matter it does matter to my constituents because we already are lacking we're going to have less so that means we'll have less funding that's just the way it is we're going to have less parks there and I'm representing the people that elected me you might have that chance later but right now hey um let's I'm representing my people and we are underserved and I'm standing up for them to say that mat provides us the most resources for my constituents okay that's the only one and even at that we're still losing parks and we're still losing our community center so I I respect everybody else's communities I I don't so want to make this a big deal but we don't have equitable distribution of resources and I don't have a problem with voting for the median and resources to go to that and funding and things like that but I don't see anybody else voting to give funding to create new parks in W 4 I don't see anybody else standing up and saying hey W 4 needs another Community Center since we're losing it there let's get some uh grants to put fruit trees in at mayor's Park I don't see any other council members saying that and we're losing more stuff by by changing these word Maps I understand it needs to happen I get that but map D is the has the least impact and all of these maps are going to negatively impact my community so I I respect everybody's neighborhoods and and their particular streets but I have an entire Ward that is going to be losing things and losing funding for for parks and things like that because we simply just won't have as many okay just facts all right mayor um no hold on a second go you still have 48 seconds okay uh just again you don't have to take it yeah I mean seriously we we have less roads we only have seriously three lanes connecting the entire North Valleys to the rest of Reno proper I'm not calling that out when we're talking about medians and funding we only have a few Parks compared to the rest of Reno we talk a lot about things being in the central area of Reno well guess what North Valleys is not anywhere near Central Reno and we also have the least amount of bus routes okay so we have all these people with three lanes to get to Central Reno with no bus routes okay so let's talk about what's Equitable let's talk about what's good for communities it is not cutting up and making us less uh Equitable with our parks and our community centers so council member if I might the reason that the maps are designed this way is because under the Voting Rights Act when the doj starts to look at whether or not we did a good job or an adequate job with this it's not about bus routes and it's not about parks and while I appreciate that that's a particular frustra I understand but if I want to be attacked for talking about oh these things aren't going away I understand they're not going away and being called out for saying oh it's all in Reno we're representing all I understand that let's talk about serving my as well let's bring my w to the rest of know how about that for once Council Ebert please I'm I don't know what's happened with this meeting today but it has been one of the most uncomfortable and I I usually this Council works well together we might have a difference of opinion but not okay everyone needs to get along for for to make Reno better and I you don't have you can have difference of opinion but you can't I cannot have people attacking each other and just the backbiting and the nastiness that is not going to work for me and if that's the way we're going to start operating then I'm going to start going into continual recess and we'll get up and we'll take a recess and everyone can cool off and then we're going to come back and we'll keep doing that throughout the day and then we can be here all day and all night until we can all get along and work together you don't have to agree with each other but you're not going to disrespect each other that's not going to be okay and guess what you're going to do actually what my mom used to make us do when we were arguing you we put you in the other room together you can fight it out and then you can kiss a makeup because that's what we're going to do the City of Reno deserves a council that works together not attacks each other and again you I'm all about disagreeing I agree I disagree immensely on this issue and I have spoken out numerous times I even went to the legislature about this issue this is a very very big hot bed of an issue and a matter of fact councilwoman Ebert you just stated the case the very reason thank you very much why you should have every single person up here represented at large yes you should have a war representative but all of us should be represented at large so each and every one of you are held accountable to help everyone around the city and to vote exactly like you're saying um Parks needs to be Equitable through our budget I agree with that but can you imagine if we're all elected at large we're all going to care about the same Parks we're all going to care about downtown we're not going to have these kinds of issues I mean I'm lucky if I get a council member to show up you know when we're kicking off a new business it used to not be like that this is created exactly how councilwoman eert has just demonstrated how it's created um you know uh whatever Ward whoever is going to scream the loudest or you know kick and scream the loudest is going to get the most attention it shouldn't be that way all of us should care about this entire city and some of the comments I will say whether you were advocating for for uh this way or not what I noticed whenever I would ask you I would say hey why is that and you what I found out what was interesting is they were advocating to get rid of the out llarge member because they whether they liked or or the Ws they would advocate for whether based on whether they liked the council person or whether they didn't like the council person because actually you should have more representation because as you can see sometimes you have council members that don't see eye to eye how is that how is that CU then you have no consequence how you vote downtown or like to Megan's point when she said she has less Parks everyone should care about the parks in Megan's W to your point we've had an at large for I don't know since Reno's been around and if if they really did that if they really cared about all the Ws we would have equal parks in war all of us should be we were all we were all voted at large when I got here yeah so the process is there this inequity then we've had this at large position this entire time why did we get to point inity us representing at large all of us should be I know so we've had an atlarge why do we only have seven parks in the North Valleys um the North Valleys didn't exist when Reno was built Reno existed along the river bank now it exists along river bank M there were Parks built along the river and in that environment before the North Valleys existed this is a budget conversation it's not a redistricting conversation know true I'm not so sure can I may I speak go ahead councilwoman bre I I recognize a lot of attachment and emotion people have to this um and I you know not everyone felt good going away you know two years ago I know Miss D didn't and um and you know the way it turned out uh that Virginia lake neighborhood cuz had a project halfway done where all the meetings had held and everyone was going and then that project you know for the first time ever that reconstruction project sewer you everything you know lasted over a winter it became my you know my top you know wasn't necessarily maybe it was something that kept me some from some business openings but it sure kept me talking to Virginia the lake neighborhoods for nine months residents and I was happy to do it I love that neighborhood I'm very very attached to it um but I think Miss Ebert is making a practical argument and I want to explain that um and I know this history of the development up in the North Valleys very much and our colleague Miss Weber used to say it's where they decided all the growth was going to happen and I said one time no it really isn't because the infrastructure didn't get there and in the last six or nine months we had someone coming up with apartments and we were counting up all the apartments like where's the parks the parks department oh we don't have any going so there are conversations that need to occur up there on Parks alone because you can't can't just shove that many residents multifam in there and expect them all to use their little tot Lots in their in their area and the problem is and I think she nailed it on the head there's nowhere to have those conversations everyone in Ward one knows time and Memorial the W one conversations are held at McKinley okay and we need those City facilities to have our community conversations and it's the neighborhood that probably needs to have more conversations than anywhere and if they can't have their Nab in a community building up there or they have to borrow something from the county or something it's problematic and think about it one of the wards is going to get the nice police station with the community center and another one's going to get the Moana Springs with the community center and then oh by the way dman Ranch fire station doesn't that have a community spot to meet well I know the mo the Mayan fire station does so I would think very hard about pivoting over you know staying with that a and not going to the D on virtue of the fact that there is not a city facility in that area that can be a forum a place practically for w 4 to meet and if the one I think it is it's it's Evelyn Mount which is open a lot so you don't have to have special Staffing considerations like we do on McKinley it's open a lot there can be night meetings I think it's a good choice Maybe to allow Ward 4 to go and have that facility because otherwise they they don't have anything and they're the one that needs a facility to have a place to meet more than anyone so that is pretty compelling to me um and uh yeah I'll just I'll just leave it at that um thank you thank you all right we've been through all of our rounds are you ready to move forward I think you threw out a you wanted to throw out a motion motion I I I did and um okay I I guess I want to ask Callie something really quick um well no we've been through all our rounds never mind I guess I'll just try a motion I move to select final option A and refer bill for second reading and adoption okay I have a motion and a second discussion any any discussion here okay all those in favor say I I I all those opposed oos opposed okay motion doesn't carry so I can throw out another motion okay you go ahead all right I would move motion to move forward with mape with the um slight amendments that I've made um which are extremely minor they improve the deviation and uh I think at the end of the day it's a good starting point all right so I have a motion from councilwoman de do I have a second I'll second for any discussion I have quick discussion go ahead if you um actually it's a point of clarification with this C we have to it what does it do to the timeline that I thought I heard was important to people so what we would do on a revision we would bring back the changes that council member derer has proposed next meeting for ordinance introduction um you guys would adopt on on this first meeting in September I can't remember the date um but what we would do is we would send the maps after introduction to the waso county registers of Voters so they can begin their work on Precinct drawing by September 1st okay so we could we could still meet that September 1st deadline that's correct okay okay all right so I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I all those opposed I'd like to make a motion Madame mayor okay you go right ahead I moved to adopt at map D you move to adopt map D okay D is in David D second okay so I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I I I all those opposed n no nay we start doing roll call there's like seven it okay sure okay on that last um motion I've uh I'm going to start with Council Ebert uh yeah I support uh matd I do n Nay n nay yay thank you all right Madame mayor go right ahead um I would uh again in the spirit of compromise like to um Pitch that with a very small change we could get to map a which the groups uh at least four people seem to prefer and um I appreciate the support um I've heard from my colleagues that they understand the issue and um I I I would ask them to lean in in this Spirit of compromise which is why we're here um I want to get a map approved today and uh bring that back for an introduction so okay so you have a motion um and then I'll second for discussion okay yeah my motion and I'll just change it slightly um so it's different um it's uh what was shown on this map which you if you could put it up please and there's a very slight change I'll add um where plumis goes uh the original map a had um cut it off in sort of an alley and I recommend um that we curve it maybe you could point that out Cali I don't know how to do that on here um but it's a little bit of a different motion so instead of running into a dead end on California it curves around and and meets where it meet it's like a 18th of a block but it's better okay great if you use the map that would be great Kelly council member okay describe again sorry okay so where the top of the yellow is and I'm adding this in um right there that little quarter of a block I just think it the road goes that way I drive it almost every single day I would um add those two changes that I suggested earlier uh which are to include the business district that's currently in W two the entire Atlantis um property which has no people um keep going up um this little curve on plumis right there and um the two properties over by the white would go into Miguel um it again it has a 4.4 deviation which is better than our current it is a very minor change but it's very meaningful five people six people wrote in about it um and others called me about it and I'd like to introduce it and I think it works and it doesn't offend anybody and it actually by the way has even a slightly higher Hispanic um or Latino representation in w three so I think it's kind of a best fit and I'm sorry if it's a compromise I I just hope we could try to think about getting there so just a quick question council member D when what I can't remember is when you asked us to run run version of this map did it include that change yeah it already did yeah so we've already when you asked usun my first my first motion didn't include that it was a 4.2% deviation I think yeah so can we take a five minute break so that we can get the information and put it on the screen in terms of the balance and Absolut else just so that I think your numbers are right there so we will we will pull up the cons the consultant report that we ran based on this to make sure that there were no Islands no errors and the the the total deviation okay give us five minutes we'll pull it out thank [Music] you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e sorry I'm gonna yeah yeah I'm missing the mayor yeah we're not I said we're not no but you're making an for yes yes correct e e I'm not going to use that e e [Music] okay Madame mayor we are ready to move forward whenever you are Madame mayor we were kind of mid motion I was wondering if I could restate the motion now that the staff have um done their homework so what I was proposing is first of all before I even get in back into the motion I want to just acknowledge my colleague Megan eberts uh council member Ebert's Um passion as some have said about a ward um I've been representing a ward for a long time I also was elected at large uh to represent the whole city and I've carried that with me and it's a it's sometimes it's a tough balance but I hear her and some of the things that we have within our power whether it's through the budget process or through the um you know the council donation process I've donated a lot of money to relief Reno without caring where it went and I'm going to recommend that um relief Reno the next several tree plantings be up in North uh valleys I have a hundred volunteers coming in about a month to help us plant trees or help us clean parks and I'm going to rep recommend that they do one or both a award for uh because I don't care um I want to support the entire city um but I think we all heard her and uh when we come back to the budget we're all going to be have to be very finely attuned and I saw some of my colleagues talking to her probably reiterating the same sentiments that I have anyway I'd like to State the motion that I'd like um the council to consider um and cie if you could turn the areas a different color as we go there's an area between Moanna Lane and McCaron that you have um highlighted here and uh it's mostly businesses there's two apartment complexes and to sever those two apartment complexes from the people across the street um I think is really does them a disservice as residents um uh so here's the business district and just like there's a wells in a Midtown here's this business district and there is also two apartment complexes so that's one change and then if you could go north Kelly um also in yellow I would recommend this tiniest sliver because that's how plumis goes and it's very hard to make these you know to tell somebody no it's an Alleyway or whatever so there would be another little change I don't believe there's any people there so it doesn't change anything and then to compensate for the few people there are in those areas I'm recommending over by the Indian colony which is in white that we um um have two Parcels only uh go to green green um some people have said well is that Renown no Renown if you could point that out C Renown Hospital is to the left it still would be in W one um and so did you get those correctly the two yeah I you got them so there's a couple hundred people there so the net as I understand it um would be a 4.4 deviation instead of 4.9 um it would be slightly very slightly more Latino representation in w three very slightly not less I know we're not talking a lot about that but um it's like 0.1 change and uh it would certainly satisfy um the people I've heard from in uh word two so thank you you had the motion I second yes okay and then and then let's ask Callie does it meet the criteria yes why they took the break the other thing I do want to point out because there was a comment made up here that is absolutely false and not accurate um and it was really important for me because I you know obviously I feel very strongly about the at llarge position um but I also felt strongly we needed to have a consultant that brought that perspective um so I want to make sure because it wasn't St staff driven we needed you guys to be at the table to take all the comments and to work with them so I I just want to clarify that all right go ahead tell and to the question elaborate yes uh the uh proposed changes that council member dur um has presented to the body would uh meet the legal the requirements um and the overall deviation would be 4.4% okay Madam mayor all right so there was a motion in a second yeah I think I I mean I have questions yes go ahead so I see an ID up there that 9106 91906 where did this map come from I brought it up on redistrict her is that the same one that's on I sent it to them when did you send it in um last week Thursday I think okay after we got the maps and I got the comments okay so she was unsatisfied with the four or the five four ABC D four and it's problematic to me in a couple ways is you know her satisfaction to represent not even people but places now there's people if I could but then make it up by throwing some apartment dwellers for the numbers you know who you know um I just don't think he right I think it's it's two Hands-On I think it's callous to those other people she wants Place businesses but she's you know laded with just get a count and move them over here and again it puts us back two weeks so I'm not going to support or one week no two weeks cuz we meet I'm not going to support but I think it's important to know the origin of it and she has played it well you know because we went through a series of votes and has moved us you know we have a high burden here at 5 and she's played it well to get what she wants and that's how it works it's fine no it's fine Madam we've had I know I just want to ask you cuz you hate it when when people reference you personally so please don't do that to her I'm just saying can we all just get along if it closes us up at five votes or six disagree that's that's fine it wasn't what was advertised you know how it was going to be and to me it it does two things it pushes us off two weeks that's not right that's not fair to the people are sitting on the sidelines and have been while we did our exercise down in Carson and two it puts the individual interests of one person further in than a more hands-off process that we did of bringing forward with four and staff recommending so for those reasons I won't support um maybe I'll take another look at it when the map is drawn and and vet it a little bit more because maybe the public will reach out to me and they'll be fine but at this point I'm not going to support because it you know brings up a delay and it's not as hands off as I thought we had landed on thank you okay thank you so much Madam mayor all right go ahead uh councilman re I just I do want to point out we all started off by saying hey nothing's perfect and no one's going to get their way and you know yes compromise is is very important I can already tell if you've been sitting here long enough you can clearly see we are not going to get any place without any compromise and I don't think that that is a bad thing um I'm willing to support the Council on on any do I think a is the best I absolutely do but again um I think to move things forward you know that's going to it's like I said I think um to move things forward I think that's important we we've got to do that so anyway all right coun go ahead look I began this process by saying I was happy with the work that was done by flow analytics and the staff uh because it was the culmination of weeks and weeks months and months of thousands of touch points of people who were in the community who brought their concerns forward uh like council member breus my preference was for a map that was not modified meaning as we began these discussions but then um you know one of my colleagues wanted to prioritize a building over people and so then I lost that part of the vote right so sitting on this dis the way in which we make um legislative actions is been described in other forms as watching the sausage be made no one likes to see it be made uh it's a very public process but we do that because sunlight is the ultimate disinfectant right and so what you've seen is people grappling with big Concepts about parks and Equity um issues involved in constitutional questions surrounding the Voting Rights Act and interest communities and so um again my preference was for a map up or down but I also understand more uh perhaps better now than any time uh council member der thinks incredibly thoughtfully about these things uh of all the people on this Das she is the least involved in sort of Jerry rigging or Jerry mandering or trying to make a play or a plan I don't know exactly what the word was used to describe her efforts just does not happen she's a woman of Integrity um and tremendous tremendous love for the city um and and started off by saying hey I I I respect what you all have said but I still think there's room for compromise you can tell from the votes which were a series of failures that sometimes that's what happens before we finally arrive at a place um with that in mind and because I believe strongly that council member doers interests represent truly a pure heart I am going to support council member Do's motion and look for the support of my colleagues uh a and with a incredibly slight modification is still um the best map that we can draw today um it reflects the common interest communities that were identified by this map keeping those historical patterns uh and practices at the Forefront and and ultimately because the groups that have supported that map are have reflected the diversity of this community uh the small modifications that have been made are I think minor in the course of our time on this body and will impact negatively no one in fact I think they will um represent folks that Miss du has historically represented and perhaps did not represent in the last drawings but again um miser's uh thought process is uh Beyond reproach her efforts are to be applauded her desire to see us move forward and compromise is something that we all uh can get behind and and for that reason I will support my colleagues uh minor modifications to M all right um any further comments for discussions if there are not I am going to do a roll call vote okay Ma Mr clerk sorry appreciate that thank go ahead Council Taylor I just Cali can you um one of the public com ments we heard earlier was from Pablo about what happens to the nabs would you mind talking to him afterwards after this process of course thank you yes go ahead just in the last moment look this small modification to a isn't everything I would have lik to see I would have lik to fix council member uh Reese's area where I'm crossing I 80 that is very weird to me but I'm happy to live with it because it gets us where we need to be um I would have lik to fix the rest of Virginia Lake frankly can't do it um um there's lots of things that if it was up to me I would draw a different map but we've got a map a and this is just a small compromise to uh um I think round it out a bit so thank you council member ree I really appreciate your comments and I like that you said that too because one of the things about councilwoman dur is that she will go into other Wards to help you get things done and that's what I do love about you um and I don't see that from everybody where that criticism came from ever so thank you you bet thank you thank you okay all right um Megan want to say something that's um are we ready for a roll call are you gonna no I wanted to thank you Naomi for your comments about the trees I appreciate that um I did also if we could just see the final version of the map okay so um again I just take issue with the bottom border of the map um the city of renoo has 83 Parks this map will um make it so that W for has five okay just want to call that out five Parks out of 83 it's I can't support this I cannot support the bottom border of this map even in map D I'm not crazy about it but I cannot support this map giving word for five Parks out of 83 it's just not even close to Equitable I'm sorry I can't support it but thank you for your time okay we're going to start with a um roll call vote okay okay uh Mr clerk counc member no Martinez yes Taylor yes uh shibi here or sorry I've been here all day but I'm so tired I've had like three hours of sleep um yes thank you uh Rees derer yes and Eber no all right motion carries motion passes okay thank you appreciate it Mr clerk I'm going to have you get us back on track okay not a problem we are moving into item F1 regarding Carville Park Senior Apartment this is an ordinance adoption to be read by the city attorney's office okay thank you I'm going to send it over to you Mr Carl Hall thank you Madame mayor ordinance adoption ordinance number 6658 case number LDC 23-56 Carville Park Senior Apartments SPD ordinance toand Title 18 chapter 18.02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning rezoning a plus or minus 4.53 acre side for multif family residential 14 units per acre mf14 to Carville Park Senior Apartment specific plan District SPD site is located on two Parcels on the south side of Carville drive plus or minus 110 ft east of Sutro Street site has a master planed designation of mixed neighborhood MX W 3 all right thank you so much I'm going to send it over to councilman Martinez thanks so much Madame mayor if there are no questions from the body I'd move to approve staff recommendation all right I have a Motion in a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously all right sending it back to you um city clerk thank you uh that brings us into item G1 right and this is a a reappointment or appointment of up to five individuals to the ward to now okay Council endur take your away thank you I'm going to move move to reappoint um Mimi strickler and um I'll leave it at that for now and then I'll be bringing it back um I'm I'm uh now that we're know where we're going with the map it will help me uh figure out these you know perhaps more people will apply so that's what I'm thinking so I'm making one appointment today and I'm leaving the rest open okay fantastic so I have a motion second I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously good job okay okay moving on I believe Mr clerk to item G2 you're correct and uh this is for appointments to the senior citizen advisory committee looking at these names wow all of them are fantastic uh councilwoman Ebert you have a tough decision so I'm going to send it to you to make the tough decision yeah I'm actually not going to be filling all the seats today there's some other um applications that were not included on this CU we pulled it before then it came back as it was before so we're going to need to bring it back and I'm sorry manager only I forgot to tell you before the meeting we're going to have to bring it back but um so today I would like to appoint Terry Brooks okay thanks for staying old day Terry uh oh uh I'd like to reappoint uh reappoint uh Barbara divers and Stan dowy love them and um the rest of the appointments I'll do um when we can bring this back up with the rest of the applications on okay sounds good excellent SE uh selections okay so I have a mo from councilwoman eer second I have a second from councilman Reese all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously good job all right now we're going to head to item H Mr clerk um so I'm going to start with you councilwoman breus do you have any updates NOP NOP okay councilman Martinez nothing on my end thank you all right thank you uh councilwoman Taylor no councilman Reese no councilwoman D no councilwoman Eber no all right um then we are going to head to um public comment Mr thank you we do have one person registered to speak in the room okay great Scott me come on up Scott yeah feel like the game show come on down yeah so Scott Meyer here I'm a little shocked at what I saw I've been here all day and I'll tell you what yeah kind of embarrassing you know the way not all of you but some of you are acting so uh I'd like to express my uh my agreement with councilwoman Ebert's sentiments earlier today concerning councilman Reese's earlier remarks and Mr Reese's reprimand of Mrs breus for her for her election um you know bringing up that she was barely elected and stuff what does that have to do with anything today nothing that was really out Aline okay I'd be happy to meet with you afterward and explain my position so we can take that up afterwards that definitely needs some explaining um I find Mr Reese's Behavior to be unprofessional and I'm becoming of AO city council member additionally I observed um mayor shivi nodding an agreement while Mr Reese was uh was spouting this which I believe also displays not the nodding part but just in agreeing it's it's unprofessional it's just you know you're berating each other we don't want to see that we don't pay you hold on let me don't take my time right I said we don't want to see that we don't want to see that we don't pay you for that and please don't take my time I POS a question to Mr ree is Mrs breus breus uh not a duly elected official in contrast to certain council members who were appointed these appointments exclude voters from the decision-making process and possibly create a scenario where appointed council members are more accountable to fellow council members than to the electric the electric excuse me electric think about that because that's that's a fact I know it does because you know you guys appoint them and then you know get the old side eye they're going to help you out um you know eventually they have to they have to answer to the public but not in the beginning they don't so it's really it's not cool and I brought this up before when when these things came up um let's see these these appointments excluded the voters from the decision-making process and possibly create a scenario blah blah blah the perception that Mrs breus is being marginalized by certain council members is evident and her intent to seek answers delve into matters uh in is palpable shouldn't our person our purpose in convening here revolve around such inquiries isn't that why we're here to hear Miss breus and anybody else who wants to I mean this whole thing there's nothing wrong with bantering around back and forth that's what we're made of that's what this country was founded on there's nothing wrong with that if you people if the council people can't handle it or the people behind me you know especially the council people that's what you're hired for you got to be able to handle it it's not that tough um in reference to Mr ree my recollections suggest you sought uh Avenues to influence legislators to potentially reverse their decision on adding a new Ward six this is what I heard anyway I don't know if it's a fact but I heard it the motive appears linked to concerns about your own seat indicating a desire to manipulate voter decisions on this issue thus I question your credibility in addressing matters related to elections which arises concerns to the conduct befitting a council member thank you Mr Meer yeah all bet it is all right sir what Ward do you live in who asked that I did council member ree the vice mayor three word three and next we have Pablo naad all hi hello my name is p pan I want to say thank you for all the support for all map so with the modication so I think that we will come back at next meeting hopefully get the B map and then hopefully hopefully hopefully that map will turn to the vo of vation so my bigger question is uh for the pr number we have one two start one two three and four and five so we have all five I'll see weo if we have six war and See Spark all have number six what you got go to do you go ask the C SP to steal it from six and put a six war or or ask to see your a county kerk to remodify the PRC change so uh so hopefully you have a rest of your day and goodbye all right thank you so much is there any more public coms we did have one remote attendee raised their hand so we'll hear from Donna Keats Don hi Donna go ahead and unmute and speak when you're ready we're still showing you muted Donna can you unmute there you go all right I think I've got the rest of it well um I have to say uh the person who just spoke before Pablo hope you're listening because um I was watching almost this entire meeting and in the inet have watched this entire meeting meeting and I've expressed to my Council on more than one occasion that you behave badly and I'm here to say that again you've all behaved badly and uh almost all of you have behaved badly some of you more than others some more consistently than others and I'm really disappointed and I participated heavily in the 2021 redistricting I saw this the same meeting that happened in 2021 I saw what happened then I thought surely it couldn't be any worse than it was then but it was and um I'm very sorry that I I witnessed it that I know about it and uh I sure hope you guys can get it together because it's it really is making me feel like I have a dysfunctional city council and I've always believed in my Council and I have really been losing faith in my Council okay and today you've confirmed that for me so take that for how you will all right thanks Donna thank you thank you that concludes our in-person public comments all right um for the record we received 10 written comments for voicemails which were General in nature or not directly associated with the AG agenda item after 4M on August 8th okay these comments were written correspondence via phone or reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office copies and transcripts of these comments have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal which represented six in favor one in opposition and three concerned and that concludes our closing public comment okay can I um make a public comment absolutely thank you so much so a couple things today was not our best and how I I I think I said that um one of the ways I think we will handle that is that we'll just continue to go into recess until um we can all do better up here like um Mr Meyer said you know that's our jobs he's exactly right um so but also you know when we leave here it's been a long day I mean you guys have sat here all day thank you so much because it's not easy um so go home be with your families that's what matters most the things that you love and um give you a lot of Joy so that's first and foremost I do want to clarify a couple things um Mr Meyer you mentioned that Mr Reese went to the legislature I think that was actually me um so I just wanted to let you know um well you guys no no we not at all not at all I have just felt so strongly be because you want to know why I felt so strongly because when I first got elected the council member at large couldn't work with anyone and so we were always having he he wasn't he sort of checked out so he didn't work with anyone in his Ward so I I wanted to become the atlarge member for that very reason so um that is one of the reasons so I did want to let you know no I did I went down there why would you want to change what the voters have done well no the voters didn't have nothing to do with it to do with the legisl no no not this no about the about the at llarge position so and by the way sandal um vetoed that bill several times and it started about 10 years ago when councilman breus called me into her office and said hey we I want a six Ward and so it really started with this very big um Democrat pushed the Democrats were really pushing this 10 years ago and so I've been involved in this process the whole time and that's why I went uh to voice my my opinion but it wasn't uh Mr Ree and I and also like I just feel that we should everyone I do believe everyone should be represented by their board representative but I also think that we should be um um elected at large so we're all responsible um and that you you don't um hold someone else's hostage because you have no interest in it and and I see that that happens up here and it's unfortunate so that's why but I wanted to let you know it was me it wasn't um Mr ree I went so and I appreciate you bringing up but I did want to just let you know so you can be mad at me okay so that's why I tell you anyway thank you I appreciate it and if there's nothing else we're looking for a motion to adjourn all right I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I uh all those opposed that's the one thing we always agree on thanks you guys