All right. Good morning, everyone. Hi. Good morning, Lauren. >> I've already had a long morning. >> Busy busy morning. Um, okay. So, I I do want to um acknowledge and express um our our deepest condolences here at the city of Reno um for our extended fire family, Truckucky Meadows Fire Protection District. And so, um, our hearts and and prayers go out to all of you and and, um, your terrible loss. So, I do, uh, want you to know that the city of Reno is is thinking of you this morning. Um anyway um okay, we have a lot going on uh on this agenda and we have some special guests in the house. AACT, you guys back here, right? >> I'm so happy to have you. This is our our future. You guys are our future. You're our future generation. And so we're grateful that you're here and excited to hear your public comments. Um, city manager Brian, is there anything else I that I need to touch upon before we start um opening up the meeting? Anything? >> No, I think we're good. >> Okay. Feel like I've had like a lot of download this morning, so I want to make sure that I'm staying Wow, look at you. You look amazing. I love it. She looks decked out for the holidays. Brandy, you look phenomenal. Gorgeous. I love it. Love it. Love it. [snorts] Um, okay. So, what we we're going to do is we are going to um open up the city council meeting uh for Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. And we are going to start with uh the pledge of allegiance. And I would love um for Jonathan Shipman to lead us in the pledge. >> Surprise. I als clerk, will you please call the role? We are calling roll for the Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 Reno City Council meeting. Council member Taylor is absent at this time. Council member Der >> here. >> Vice Mayor Martinez >> here. >> Council member Eert >> here. >> Council member Reese >> here. >> Council member Anderson >> here. Mayor Shei >> here. You do have a quorum. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Uh typically we go into proclamations. We did have one this morning but unfortunately they had to leave and that was Plumis Bank. I want to thank them for um their dedication to being local and also they do a big arts initiative. So um they I think they really resonate with the community and being local but also having a culture that you typically wouldn't see from a financial bank. So um just want to congratulate them and thank you um Council Member Reese for doing the honors. Appreciate it. Um I don't believe we have any other proclamations. Okay, perfect. So, I'm going to hand it back to you, Madame Clerk, for public comment. >> Madame Mayor, our first item today is public comment. It should be noted for those in attendance that comments are to be addressed to the mayor and council as a whole. Comments heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the council's agenda. Council may not take action upon any matter not agendaized on today's agenda. When you are called on for public comment, please state your name for the record and begin speaking. The timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded 3 minutes. For those participating in chambers in accordance with council rules 6.3.11 while in this room, please be respectful. Disruptive behavior from audience members like clapping, yelling, whistling, etc. which impede the meeting may result in a warning issued by the presiding officer. If the behavior continues, you may be removed from chambers. If you are an attendee in the Zoom meeting and would like to make public comment, please raise your hand at this time. Lissa Viner, followed by Brandy Vesco, followed by Terry Brooks. All right. Well, I am excited to hear from these two fabulous women. Um, you reached out to my office. I thought it was incredibly impressive what you are doing. Um, it is, in my opinion, there might be parents that disagree with me, but I think it's so it's so needed. Um, especially in today's environment. So, the floor is yours, ladies. take it away. >> Thank you so much and good morning uh city council members. My name is Lissa Viner. I'm a Reno resident, a mom of two Wo County School District elementary students and a registered school nurse. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today about an issue that affects nearly every family in the city. Our growing pressure on children to use smartphones long before they are developmentally ready. I'm here to encourage the wait um for the support for the wait until 8th initiative, a pledge for families to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. This is not about rejecting technology. It's about recognizing what the data clearly shows. Early smartphone and social media exposure carries real risks. Over the last decade, pediatric mental health researchers have sounded the alarm. The Surgeon General's 2023 advisory reported that nearly up to 20 95% of teens and 40% of children ages 8 to 12 use social media and that early unsupervised um use is strongly linked to increased anxiety and depression. In fact, adolescence who spend more than three hours a day on social media have double the risk of mental health issues and the average teen is now spending nearly five hours per day on these platforms. Sleep disruption is another major concern. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that nearly 60% of middle school students sleep with their phones. Yeah. >> And late night notifications are associated with significantly shorter sleep duration and poor academic performance. Cyber bullying and body shaming also grow more severely with early access. National surveys show that one in three teens experience cyber bullying. But children who start using smartphones before the age of 12 are twice as likely to become victims online. According to the 2024 Common Sense uh media study, 82% of teachers say smartphones are a major distraction, and more than half say they interfere with learning every single day. What's more, the social media algorithms are dangerous. We have seen chat GPT under fire recently for assisting in teen suicides. Other examples include Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. The wait until 8th pledge offers families a practical solution by removing the everyone else has one pressure. When groups of parents delay together, children experience less social comparison, less digital stress, and more time for face-to-face friendships, outdoor play, and healthy development. Today, I asked the council um to consider three actions. share our information about the Wait to 8th pledge through city newsletters, social media, and community partners. Support education on healthy technology habits across our schools and youth organizations. And affirm the value of preserving childhood by helping families make developmentally appropriate choices. >> Wow. I I I think it's phenomenal. Um, and here's the thing. We did not have phones and I think we turned out okay, [laughter] right? How many of you, right? Mhm. >> We didn't. >> What happened to like going outside making mud pies and building ant farms? And you remember those, Carl? >> Carl's like, "Yes, I did." Um, well, I would love to see the council really lean into this and help you. I I was just reading an article. It was very alarming. It was What is the eighth grade? Okay. Um, [music] I was just reading an article about fifth grade and how 67% of um, I think it was about 1,600 children that they interviewed, 67% of them said that they um, experienced depression and hopelessness due to technology and having that access. And I think so much of it is because we compare ourselves. I mean, I know how much I will tell you I I did get off social media. A lot of people will say, "Yeah, I know you haven't seen this." And then they'll send it to me and then I can just tell by my anxiety, but I will tell you it was one of the best things that I have ever done for my mental health and I'm an adult and so imagine what a child might feel because they don't know how to cope when someone online is bullying them. And um I always I joke about it, but it's true. I never knew how fat, ugly, and stupid I was till I got online, right? Um, and so I just think this is so needed and and I hope this council um, you know, we would like to be more involved and lean in and figure out how to help you more because I think um, this is just so important for children's mental health, >> you know. >> So, I commend you girls. >> Thank you. >> How's the response been? >> Um, I can probably speak to that. I don't know if I should give my spiel. >> You have three minutes. Go ahead. >> Oh, okay. I have a spiel for you if my three minutes starts now. >> [laughter] >> Okay. >> Um, hi, my name is Brandy Vesco. I'm the mother of a third grader in the Wo County School District and a former education reporter for government technology. In my time as a reporter, school cell phone bans were sweeping the nation. And I came across study after study on the links between youth smartphone use and mental health issues. When my eight-year-old began to ask when she could get a smartphone since several of her friends already had them and she felt left out of their online world, I knew I needed to act. As a reporter, I had come across a parentled movement called wait until 8th, in which families from the same grades and schools link arms and pledged to hold off on giving their children smartphones until at least the end of 8th grade. This works to harness the power of community, making it easier for to delay the smartphone for your child because you know you're not the only family at your child's school who is choosing to do so. I checked out the wait until 8th website and found that while this movement is on fire in other states there, it did not yet have a presence here in Nevada. So, I connected with Lissa and we decided to start one. And that's why we're here. We're looking to spread the word to as many families as possible about wait until 8th Reno Sparks and we are hoping you all can help us find ways to do so. If this can gain momentum, more and more parents will feel comfortable not giving their children smartphones in elementary and middle school or at least begin to think twice about doing so, which can have huge benefits for our entire community and its future. Here's something important to know. The wait until 8th pledge is for smartphones only. Families can still stay connected using basic phones and smartwatches with limited features. To join the pledge, families go to wait until.org, click take the pledge, then enter their child's school name, school zip code, and grade level. You will then receive a confirmation email followed by a group email once at least nine other families from the same grade and school have joined the pledge as well with updates sent weekly anytime another family joins. Once you have joined the pledge, you just hold off on giving your child a smartphone until at least the end of eighth grade. And if possible, encourage other families to do the same. The more families that support this initiative, the bigger difference we can make for this generation of children. Lissa and I will be checking Wo County's pledge numbers monthly and updating them by grade and school on our wait until 8 Reno Sparks Instagram page so families can follow along as this movement hopefully grows and grows. For anyone who wants more information, please visit wait until8.org or our Instagram page, wait until 8th Reno Sparks. Let's work together to delay the smartphone and let kids be kids a little longer. >> I love it. I love it. It's so great and so important. Congratulations. So, how are the parents? >> So, um >> doing with this? Well, to start, we reached out to Superintendent Ernst and board president best, school board president Bess Smith to see if the school district would be willing to help us distribute our this information to all the elementary and middle schools at once. >> Yeah. >> Um, unfortunately, President Smith let me know that would not be possible, but we could approach each principal individually and let them decide whether they want to distribute this at their schools. So, we did contact the principles of all 66 traditional um elementary schools in our district in the past month to find out if they'd be willing to share the information. So far, 15 or roughly a quarter of the schools have said yes. Another five have said maybe um and they're in discussions about it. Four schools said no. And I have not heard back from the remaining 39 after an initial email and followup. Mhm. >> Um the main reason given from principles who said no is that they don't want families who have already given their children smartphones to feel judged. >> Yeah. >> While I understand that, I am more concerned about the families who do not want to give their children smartphones feeling judged and would like to ease the pressure on our elementary and middle school students to have a smartphone in order to fit in. Um, a month ago when before we started this outreach, there were 27 total pledges to wait until 8th in the district. And I'm excited to report that today, one month later, we have 81. >> Wow. >> So, we gained 54 pledges in the past month. >> That's so great. >> We haven't even reached out to the middle schools yet. So, we're going to start doing that. And I'm hearing from parents are reaching out to us on our Instagram page and just so grateful like, "Thank you. Someone finally started this. we're so happy to have this support. And then parents of older kids are like, I'm happy, but I wish this was there. When my son was in third grade because now he's in six and 90% of his friends have a phone. And it's really hard to say no. >> Say no >> cuz that's where they're >> Can you imagine the fight at home? >> That's a real That's a real thing, right? >> Yeah. >> But I also think it's hard because schools don't want to also be parents in that sense of telling you how to um parent your child. Right. And so that is their decision and and you have to [clears throat] respect that. So it's um but I think it's phenomenal. You you women are brave and so let us know. I also think maybe in some ways if children also see their peers or other people that they look up to maybe you get a celebrity that you know they look up to because statistics show that um their influence comes so much from um the people that they're identifying with. So particularly probably, you know, younger generations that they can >> sort of emulate. But thank you so much. I think it's fantastic. >> Madame Mayor, can I make a suggestion really quick? >> Yes, please do. >> Um, are you ladies involved with the Facebook group South Reno Moms? >> And I've posted on there. >> Okay. [laughter] >> We posted uh like a lot of the the big um social media groups and um the library afterchool programs. Um, we've contacted all the pediatrician offices, um, and some of the charter schools, private schools we've also contacted. So, >> okay, great. >> We're trying. >> And maybe, you know, all council members have a neighborhood advisory board that you could come and and speak and just talk about a little bit about your initiative and that if it's something they wanted to participate in, they could. >> But I think that that's great. So, we'll connect you. >> Okay. Thank you guys. >> Randy saying yes. Madame, if I may, Councilman Eert, >> um I have a quick question about kids that already have cell phones. Does this program have any like kind of um uh FAQs about what to do if you've already given your kid a smartphone, but you would like to kind of dial it back? Like, not to shame anybody, like don't feel bad if you've given your kid a smartphone, but here's how you can um you know, take back some of that social media access without a fight with your kid or how to have um conversations with your kid about um taking away that access. just to kind of help parents navigate that if they decide they want to take back some of that um freedom um on the internet. >> Um I'm glad you asked that because yeah, they do. We have a some materials we can give you guys, but there's a specific parent guide on on that and a whole bunch of other resources like how to teach your kid how to text and um what the dangers of sending certain pictures might be. So, this gives you that time until the end of 8th grade to start showing them these resources, teaching them how to be safe. You don't just hand them the keys to the whole internet and go, "Okay, happy birthday." [laughter] >> Yeah, that's wonderful. And then do you mind just sharing the website again just so that people can, you know, write it down if they would like? >> Yeah, absolutely. It's wait until.org. >> Great. >> And then for our um local Instagram is wait until 8 Reno Sparks. And we already have our first series of pledges by school and grade posted there. >> Great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madame Mayor, for letting me speak as well. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. No, stranger danger is a real thing and it's really, really prevalent online because you can hide behind a keyboard. And so, I don't know if people really realize how vulnerable children are when you have access to it is the worldwide web. why they call it that. So >> anyway, thank you guys so much. I I think it's fantastic. Very, very commendable. >> Thank you so much. >> Keep doing it and then we'll connect and figure out um another way to continue to help you spread the message. >> Thank you guys for your time. >> Thanks you guys. Okay, madame clerk. Terry Brooks, followed by Emma Dodie, followed by Sher Papariches. >> Good morning. >> Wait, Terry, before you start, happy birthday. It was his birthday on Sunday. >> Yep. >> Am I right? >> Yep. I turned 73. >> He turned 73. Well, happy birthday from all of us here at the city of Reno. Terry, >> thank you very much. Okay, take it away. >> Good morning. It's me, Mark Twain again. No, wait a minute. Oh, yeah. That's Mark Twain's 190. Terry Brooks [laughter] is only 73. My memor is getting really bad. That's why I wear this name tag so I can remember who I am. Good morning. It's me, Terry Brooks, again. And today, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on aging and memory and what seniors have to go through. Forgetfulness is a problem challenging a senior's health and emotion. It can cause social isolation and decrease abilities to function. The longer we live, the more information is already stored in our brain, which makes it harder for new information to finding room left in our brain. That's why seniors can remember things they did as a kid, but they can't always remember about yesterday and what they did. When I was a kid, I learned all 50 states in the order that they became states. And I learned all the capital cities of each and all those states. I learned the names of all the US presidents of the United States and the order in which they became presidents of the United States. Years ago, I learned the names of all 66 books of the Bible and the order in which those books appear in the Bible. And I still remember all of these lists today, but I rarely remember what I did yesterday. I'll often be writing some silly poem, but suddenly I can't remember why I wrote it. So I'll read what I just wrote and I still can't remember why I wrote it. Sometimes seniors can't remember if they got a prescription, but if they did, they might not remember to take their prescription. Seniors often have trouble trying to remember someone's name unless they look like someone they know who happens to have the same name. That's why I always have a pen and paper to take notes. That's what they're for. But sometimes I forget that I took notes or I can't remember what I took them for. That's why I always write down what I'm going to say when I'm here. Otherwise, I wouldn't remember what to say when I'm here. I would like to thank you all for listening to me today and I look forward to coming back if I remember to write down what I'll say. [laughter] >> I think that's fantastic. You probably also noticed we didn't sing you happy birthday for a reason. [laughter] >> So anyway, thank you so much Terry. >> Emma Dodie followed by Sher Pepperich Hes followed by Amaya Msas. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Um, my name is Emma Dodie. I've been around here before. I advocate on behalf of students at UNR. Um, especially how we are affected by the same scourge of poverty that affects this city. Um, my prepared remarks today um are starting with uh last week's community homelessness advisory board meeting uh which I was present at. I'm very happy to see that be active again. And a presenter at that meeting raised something that I would like this council to hear and seriously consider. [snorts] And that is using evacuation areas as temporary shelters on the coldest nights of the year when CAR's campus, our place, and the Good Neighbors warming center all hit capacity. And I've seen how easily it can be done. This Fourth of July, I was down at my parents house in Carson City when the Sea Hill fire broke out. And thanks to the stellar work of the fire department down there, the evacuations were never mandatory and no houses were ever damaged. But as I watched alerts all through the night, being less than a mile away from this, I saw just how quickly they set up an evacuation shelter about 90 minutes after the flames broke out. And make no mistake, nighttime temperatures in the Reno winter can be just as life-threatening as a wildfire. And unlike wildfires, they can be predicted in advance and accounted for in advance. and the accordant demand at the shelters be accounted for in advance by, you know, checking out the weather report. And if Carson City, with less than a quarter of Reno's population, has the resources to open a building to a potentially large number of evacuees on very short notice, Reno can do it, too. The Neil Road Recreation Center, as was used for the Davis Fire, and the Evelyn Mount Community Center, which was named for a woman who devoted her life to helping those less fortunate than us, are two potentially very good options. And as far as I can see, the only difference between opening up a shelter to people evacuating fire and to people evacuating the cold are that the people evacuating their houses in the event of a fire have houses. I hope there's no question that homeless people's lives matter as much as the rest of our lives and here and are of equal value. So why not save lives? Thank you. >> Wow, I am impressed. Emma, future senator, future president, right? Um, fantastic. Great job. You know, we've done this in in many different scenarios. We did it during COVID, those kinds of things. Um, and you're exactly right. They're pretty standard to set up. So, I think it's a very good model. So, great job. Good. All right. Keep coming back. >> All right. >> Love it. >> Sherry Paparaches, followed by Amaya MSAS, followed by Talia Halverson. >> Hi. >> Hi. Nice to finally meet you, >> Hillary. Thank you, >> Sherry. Go ahead. >> Hi, I'm Sheree Pepperess. >> Sorry, I don't understand. [laughter] >> Go ahead. >> I'm Sheree Pepper Chess. I'm the owner of Jim Play and Music in Reno. I see Jim parents here. Um I'm sure all of you know someone who has benefited from the Jim program. We have um been in Reno for almost 50 years. I have had the honor of running it for 23 and a half years. Chimbery offers essential early childhood education programs in Reno for ages 3 months to 5 years. We are the only program that offers this. We off the classes not only benefit the child but they benefit the parents and bonding with the child as well. We have been in Reno for almost 50 years and I am terrified we are going to lose this essential program. We're having two issues. Um the one issue is we've been forced out by a developer who has purchased our complex. We are not being allowed to renew our unit. We are only one of 14 businesses that have been pushed out. They do not have people to rent the units, but they have grand plans for the units. The second issue is a zoning issue. We need to stay as close as we possibly can to our current location for the convenience of the community. We need to be centrally located. People are coming from Reno, Sparks, Carson, Tahoe, Fernley. So, we need a certain area. The one location we have found happens to be in the flight path. We are currently in the flight path. We have been in the flight path for over 25 years. However, we cannot move within the flight path. [snorts] Um, the issue that we're facing is capacity restrictions were given to us. They need to be we need to be maintained 25 people per hour per acre including staff which is very difficult to meet. What is frustrating is where we're leaving McCarron Marketplace is also located in the flight path. There is no way the McCarron marketplace is currently meeting 25 people per hour per acre including staff. Right now, there is a one restaurant there, Juicies, has 25 tables for employees already. That's going over the capacity restrictions. McCarron Marketplace plans to add at least three more restaurants, making a total of five. They will not be within these restrictions. However, they're not f facing zoning issues. So, we just ask that we are either given the help staying in our home of 23 and a half years or being given the same courtesy of our license being able to be moved into the location that we have found. You know, again, it would we would still be within the flight path that we've always been in. We are not going over any capacity that these restaurants would not be going over. Um, I'm just so passionate about Jimie. It's not about the profit. It's about communities. It's about families. And I'm begging that you protect this essential essential program for all the families of Reno. Um, you've talked about the importance of childhood just today. This is so important and the importance of the future generations. So, thank you. >> Wow. And you finished right on time. Do you know how hard that is? Um, >> it's I want to say Sher, but it's Sheree. It's Sheree. >> Yeah. Sheree rhymes with Jim. >> Yeah. Sheree and Jim. We have been working on this and um I couldn't agree more. Um I just want you to know that I have reached out to your landlord. We have had some conversations about what would be amanable because you've built this business. I know as a small business owner how hard it is to build your business. Um and I think the service you provide is so critical for families right? >> May I add that it is critical right now. you guys know um you know that you even talked about maybe changing like the the difficulty of the child care licensing and permits and right now the first time in 20 years the CDC has lowered early childhood milestones. That's what I focus on is early childhood milestones. Children are not meeting the milestones. It's literally a new pandemic of children not meeting milestones. The CDC had to change the regulations. Um I So just a couple things um to clarify. Wanted to know has your landlord reached back out to you because we've had a conversation. >> He has not. >> So he he knows. Um so I want you to be aware of that. >> Um the other thing is did you say because I thought you had told me that you were not in a flight path right now. >> We are. >> Interesting. >> We are in the flight path and we were prior too. We've been in a flight path for over 25 years. >> Wow. And our clients said they will all sign waiverss. We have hundreds and hundreds of letters of support. Hundreds which I have sent to parts. >> Yes. Okay. Um we are getting Angela is going to come and meet with you. Um she is on her way but I think it's really important because the piece of the story that I that I wasn't aware of is that you're currently in a flight path. >> So the question would be Angela, why couldn't you continue to stay in a flight path area if you were currently in one? So yeah, see she's and this is our expert. She's amazing at what she does. So Angela is going to meet with you and we're going to work on something because that could also be something on the federal aviation side, too. >> And I've spoke with them. They're willing to work with us. >> Okay. Nice. >> Yes. >> Wow. >> Yes. Yes. >> Wow. Okay. I think that's >> it. Has to stay in Reno. It has to. >> All right. Sheree, thank you so much. And then I'll follow back up with with your landlord. Like I said, I have reached out. So >> I so appreciate Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thanks so much. >> Amaya Messias followed by Talia Halverson followed by Kendra King. >> Really? Hello. Um my name is Amaya Mas and I'm a senior at at the Academy of Arts Career Technology. Today I'll be addressing the walkability issue in Reno. The main problem is there are sidewalks that end at random or sidewalks. There's only a sidewalk on one side of the road. Without sidewalks, this leads to pedestrians walking on the streets. Completing the sidewalks lowers the risk of vehicle pedestrian accidents. Sidewalks should help pedestrians go from point A to point B safely. National data supports the correlation between the lack of sidewalks and pedestrian death. Pedestrian death. Prelim preliminary uh national data for recent years show a high percentage of percent percentage of of pedestrians uh deaths happening in locations without a sidewalk. This is not the only problem with the walking issue in Reno. Not only is there a lack of sidewalks, but the ones we do have are uneven or have cracks which can cause issues with those with disabilities. Unseen uneven surfaces such as cracked sidewalks, potholes, or changes in elevation are cited as the most common cause for general slip and fall injuries. The sidewalk should be smooth and useful for everyone, helping everyone get to their destination sa safely. Imagine being in a wheelchair and dealing with the cracks on the sidewalk on your way. For people using the wheelchairs, this is a reality. Uh even a simple crack or change ination such as a quarter of an inch can be a major impassible obstacle. Broken sections for those or those with tilts can make losers you lose control of their devices or get stuck sometimes forcing them to go onto the street with traffic. Not only does this project need to be done, but it shouldn't cost homeowners anything. A few homeowners have already been charged with for the repairs of their sidewalks. Homeowners have already pay pay property tax for that which are intended to co cover the cost of property services and infrastructures including streets, water system and sidewalks. Uh forcing homeowners to pay again for specific repairs essentially amounts to an unfair funding mechanism. In conclusion, I believe Reno needs a safer continuous accessible sidewalks for all residents. Improving sidewalk infrastructure is not just a convenience. It's a safety issue. a disability access issue and a reflection of the kind of community we want to live in. I urge the city to to prioritize the city repairs using public funds rather than the than finan putting placing a financial burden on individual homeowners. Uh our community goal should be create should create a walkable neighborhoods where children see >> you you have time. Oh uh our uh where seniors and people with disabilities with all residents can move safely and confident. Since this relates to the second strategy uh priority of public safety, uh investing in our sidewalks today builds a safer and more connected Reno for the future. >> Very good. Fantastic. Is it Amaya? Amaya. That's that's how you pronounce it. >> I think you did a phenomenal job. I do want to I'm I'm glad you brought this topic up. I want to say um huge shout out to Khalil. I just received a really nice email from um a huge advocate we have for sidewalks. Her name is Dora Uelle. She's amazing. Um and we were just talking about this very very topic. So fantastic. Thank you. >> Were you nervous? >> A little. >> Didn't seem like it at all. >> At all. And you and you were you stopped. >> Yeah. >> But you had 30 seconds. Oh. >> So you have plenty of time. You did great. Thank you. >> Talia Halverson, followed by Kendra King, followed by Ashwin Vidathan. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Um, I am Talia Halverson, a senior from the Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology, and I'm here to address a critical issue facing the city of Reno, homelessness. A recent count shows that about 1,700 to 2,000 people in Reno and Sparks are struggling to find shelter. This relates to the strategic priority number three, economic opportunity, homelessness, and affordable housing. I'm aware that the city of Reno's council passed an anti-amping ordinance ordinance banning the homeless population from camping in public spaces. However, this does not come close to solving the issue of homelessness. I'm not saying there's an easy solution, but there are definitely steps we can take to help. There are a few main shelters in Reno and Sparks, Nevada's care campus with a capacity of of about 600. The Eddie House with a capacity about 50 young adults ages 18 to 24. And our place with a capacity for about 140 women and 38 families. And while it's good that these options exist, that still leaves 700 to a,000 people unsheltered every night. That's 700 to,000 people struggling to stay warm or find food to survive. While shelters offer a bed and a meal, the quality of these environments is far from ideal. After speaking directly with members of the homeless population while volunteering, I heard firsthand what people experience, especially at CAR's campus. Items get stolen, fights break out frequently, and many people don't feel safe at all. Some people, especially women, um shared that they would rather stay out in the cold all night than risk the violence inside the shelter. Um, to me that suggests that this shelter is not being managed well and is failing to meet the basic needs of the people it is meant to protect. One of the biggest steps Reno can take towards addressing homelessness is improving and expanding shelter capacity and shelter conditions. Instead of simply enforcing camping bans, the city the city could focus on making shelters safer, cleaner, and more humane so people feel comfortable using them. If shelters were better managed, more people would choose to come indoors. Improving shelter quality isn't just about comfort. It directly reduces violence, emergency service calls, and the number of people forced to sleep outside. Along with these improvements, we need more shelter space overall. As I mentioned, there are still 700 to,000 people without adequate shelter every night. That's more than half of Reno's homeless population. By increasing the number of available shelters, we would have fewer people freezing on the streets, fewer crisis calls for healthcare and emergency services, and a safer, healthier, healthier community for everyone. The homeless population of Reno are people, human beings who deserve at least the bare minimum to survive. Thank you. >> Fantastic. How'd you feel? >> I'm a little nervous. [laughter] >> You did great. Um, one of the things that I would love to do, um, we could probably set it up through my office is I think you could go and take a tour and really kind of see the programs that they're implementing and putting in place. >> Yeah, I would love that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Because it's also very new to us. We had a shelter that I can't remember, Jackie, how many beds were there at our old shelter? >> Couple hundred. >> Couple hundred. Less than what we have now at the less. So, that's my my point is we're trying to make it have a lot of um services all-encompassing type of campus and it was very fragmented before, but it would be great to get um if if any of you guys wanted to go and take a tour and it really gives you also a very big sense of gratitude. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It was very eye opening volunteering to >> Yeah. >> Um are you from Reno? >> Yeah. >> You are born and raised. Yeah. >> Interesting. Who are your parents? >> Uh uh. >> Who are they? >> Aubrey Halverson and Brandon Halverson. >> Okay. Um cuz I have cousins last name. >> Oh, really? >> Oh, my parents aren't from here. It's just Yeah. So, they were they were raised in South Dakota. So, >> they were raised where? >> South Dakota. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. >> All right. Cuz I thought maybe we're related. >> You never know. Crazy. >> That would be Anyway, well, thank you. You did a great job. Thank you so much. >> I'll come meet with you guys before you leave. >> Perfect. Thank you. Good job. >> She's like, why are you asking me all these questions? But I'm thinking to myself, I really don't know any of my cousins, but the last name is Halverson. So, I thought, wouldn't that be ironic if we were related? >> All right, Madame Clerk. >> Kendra King, followed by Ashwin Vidathan, followed by David Shakar. Okay, Kendra, you ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Good morning. My name is Kendra King and I am a high school student here in Reno. Today, I want to speak about something I think is important to Reno and its citizens. Keeping the Truckucky River safe, clean, and healthy. The river is one of many natural highlights of the city of Reno. It serves as a popular hangout spot for students, young adults, and families, and is overall a large part of our city's identity. Lately, however, the river has felt less cared for with dangerous chemicals polluting the water, trash buildup, and more, causing damage to the river every day. This is an issue because when the Truckucky River isn't protected, it affects our environment, wildlife, and citizens that use the space. The main source of pollution I want to focus on today are storm runoffs that wash chemicals, trash, fertiliz fertilizers, and pesticides from streets and yards directly into the river from storm drains, as well as littering, which is a big problem in the public access points of Truckucky. These are two issues we can counter within the community by being more mindful of our actions and their effects on our city's environment. The city of Reno has already started to fight the this pollution with organizations like KTMBB, which is Keep Treky Meadows Beautiful. But I believe this problem hasn't been heard by all of the community. So to continue combating these issues, more awareness can be given to nonprofits like KTMB to help with them with their efforts to protect the beauty of the Truckucky Meadow River. We could also create more volunteer initiatives aimed at educating the public on ways we can support the health of the river and host cleanups to get the community involved in preserving our beloved environment. Protecting and preserving the Truckucky River is not just important for the environment but also aligns with one of our strategic priorities number five infrastructure, climate change, and environmental sust sustainability. It's [snorts] also about keeping one of Reno's most important spaces safe, clean, and welcoming for all to use and enjoy. >> Wow. Thank you. >> Fantastic. Great job. I know um Councilwoman Der probably wants to weigh in. I always call her the water expert. >> Well, I I'll just a couple words. I think you've identified a really critical issue. Um what happens is especially from these hardcapes uh roads especially where we have oil grease uh tire shreds all get into this the runoff out of the storm water into the and a lot of them are directly piped to the river and they don't have what we would call pre-treatment where we would screen out some of this stuff or or give it a pre place to settle out um and so it's a really big challenge so I really appreciate you highlighting it for all of us >> great job thank Okay. >> Ashwin Bionathan followed by David Shakar followed by Steven White. >> Ashwin, who's your teacher? >> Uh, Miss Howard. >> Howard. Okay. We like to try to connect and tell them that you've now decided to go and take our jobs and we're grateful [laughter] >> the future of Reno. Go ahead, Ash. >> Good morning, members of the Reno City Council. My name is Ashwin and I'm a senior at ACT High School. I've lived in Reno my entire life and one of my first favorite places used to be like downtown. Um downtown Reno is a vibrant aspect of Reno's community. It used to attract residents and tourists alike who wanted to see the rurality and downtown nature that Reno has to offer. Additionally, downtown is filled with murals, sculptures, and artworks that illustrate Reno's cultural identity as a community of diversity. However, in recent years, the streets of downtown have become increasingly desolate as Reno's residents abandon what once was a cultural gathering place for the community. Improving the lackluster state of downtown could be done by addressing homelessness as well as taking initiatives that target culture and the youth. So the city has already begun initiatives that target homelessness, but I think more robust action needs to be taken for the betterment of the individuals actually living on the streets. Improving homeless shelter access as well as the quality of homeless shelters and allocating more funds to feeding and clothing the homeless people so that they don't need to struggle to survive is really important. Secondly, bringing more c cultural initiatives to the streets of Reno, whether it be through music, murals, or community outreach events that promote the arts, could help really bring back a major cultural identity of downtown Reno. The city has murals already throughout it that represent the diversity of Reno and its people. Bringing artists from the community could be the start of further cultural initiatives that would bring life to the Nassau streets. Finally, establishing initiatives to help youth have a more safe and fun environment in downtown would drastically increase the amount of community involvement. The city could work to establish more fun runs that already exist, community events for children, and other types of community engagement to get the residents of Reno excited about visiting downtown again. Partnering with the Pioneer Center, for example, to bring the theatrical arts to the streets of Reno could also help liven the streets of downtown. Ultimately revitalizing downtown by addressing the ever pervasive issue of homelessness in introducing more cultural initiatives that already exist through locally commissioned artists and making downtown a safer and more friendly environment for the youth uh so that everyone can enjoy it can attract more tourism and bring back the residents to the streets of downtown. Uh in addition, most of these initiatives already exist in the strategic priorities of the city of Reno which include homelessness, community development, and the arts. Thank you for your time today. >> Oh, that that was fantastic. Good job. And it's something that we have been having a lot of discussion about and implementation under um the RDA and you're talking about downtown. When's the last time that you were down here? >> Uh I played at the Pioneer Center for an orchestra concert. I think a month ago maybe. >> That's fantastic. Um and then Arttown is downtown for you know 30 days which is really great. And then and the reason I bring this to your attention is that uh we have more events than we've ever had before in decades in downtown. We have done more housing than we have done in I think what is it in over 20 years. Um but there's some really impressive stats that are showing a lot of momentum. And then we hope that you will come downtown and see more of our concert series that's happening. But we love it that you're engaged. It's really important. You're um I think you're spot on. You the things you said are really really important. But I'm also going to have someone um meet with you so that we can also get your feedback and continue to have you engaged, especially since you're passionate about downtown. So, good job, Ashlin. How did you feel? >> Uh pretty good. >> Pretty good. You didn't seem nervous at all. >> I practiced a lot. >> You practiced a lot. Good. I Your parents would be proud. Thank you so much for your time. >> Okay, >> David Shakar, followed by Steven White. >> Good morning, manor, council members, and the always helpful Reno City Clerk's Office. Um, before we start the countdown, could we get a a sound check? I don't know if I need hearing aids or if the microphone needs to be closer. >> Oh, it sounds good. Oh, okay. Thank you. First, Madame Mayor, uh, I owe you an apology for not recognizing you this morning when I was talking to you because when I drew your portrait previously, you had longer hair, you weren't wearing glasses, and you lost a lot shorter. That's all that happened. You didn't recognize me. I just got a lot shorter. [laughter] I thought you were messing with me. When he said, "Who are you?" He looked at me and said, "Who are you?" And then I laughed cuz I'm like, "I'm just a lot shorter than you remember." But we seem tall up here, I think. And then when you see me in person, I'm really short. So, I'm going to blame it on being short. Thanks David. >> Uh, good morning. I'm a fast sketch portrait artist and I'm a painter of female figurative studies. Available by appointment if you text me and not phone me at 7753455332. My name is David Shakar and uh I want to thank the mayor and the council that was here uh in 2014 because art became legal in the city of Reno in April of 2014 and it has literally changed my life. It's improved my health and my wealth. I used to be a major crime investigator until I had an injury and I couldn't go back to that profession. So, I started learning how to do art. I still got a long ways to go. Uh thousands of of more hours to go and I wanted to talk about how it improved my life. But I decided I wanted to change the topic of that. Uh Terry, one of the speakers before me was talking about seniors being forgetful. And there were two people, actually three people, they're talking about homelessness. So here's a story that I want to tell you from my experience how how art can really be expanded and change people's lives. Um, usually what I do in the summertime, I'll set up my easel on the main drag, South Virginia Street, where the Reno uh sign is. It says biggest little city in the world. And soon as I set the easel up, there's nothing on it. And there's nothing more boring than an artist at his easel and there's there's nothing on it. But there's always one or two or more homeless people that are there and they're they're watching. And I found the best thing to get people to realize that they could get their portrait done is I'll ask one of those folks if they will sit and I'll draw them for free. And there were so many things, so many good things that have happened from these homeless people. Um, and I wanted to um I've got I've got a picture here of Well, there actually, let me begin again. Sorry, I didn't uh practice this like I should have. Um, is this the camera thing? Oh, by the way, this is not a homeless person. Uh, I'll draw anybody's portrait for free if you could recognize who this famous Reno person is. I'll give you a hint. If you know who she is, shout out her name. She's she has a doctor and a PhD and she's commonly known as Reno's dancing diva. Does anybody know who she is? This is uh Dr. Um, speaking speak three minutes has gone already. Oh my god. Uh, with your permission, madame mayor, may I extend it for one more minute to talk about how four homeless people are no longer homeless because of the power of art. May I have your permission for that? >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, I have a picture of a person who is no longer homeless. And it's this lady here. Her name is Mia. And she used to weigh 280 lbs. She drank a lot. She was a drunk. She got healed from drinking, lost weight, went to TMCC, and she now is working as a professional dancer, earning a good appropriate living. There were three other people, three other homeless men. One guy uh found out that he liked to do art. He enrolled at TMCC in the art program and he's now employed at IGT as a graphic artist. So when when art is allowed to be free, it causes a lot of freedom to people because they realize it could change their life. It's changed my life. My health and my wealth is better. And the two other homeless people that I know uh have drastically improve improve their lives. Um one of them is still homeless, but they're making a little bit of money. They make these uh uh landscape paintings and they sell them and that gives them a few bucks that improves their lives. Thank you for the extra time and uh thank you Madame Mayor for causing art to be legal in April of 2014 through Reno Municipal Code Chapter 5.14. >> Thank you, Mr. Spar. >> Steven White, followed by Chelsea G via Zoom. Good morning, folks. [laughter] I've been blessed in my lifetime. I've been blessed as an artist, being able to bring beauty into people's lives for more than 50 years through my artwork. But I've been blessed with the ability to do this to change people's lives in a positive way. For the last 23 24 years, I've been working with the city government here, trying to improve the lives of everyone in this community by creating art in the parks. And I'm really enjoying working with Nathan. We're working out the protocol to use these uh mushroom displays that I've made and donated to the city. Uh protocol for using them in the parks and all. And you know, it's a wonderful thing when you can change people's lives. Um, I've witnessed this so many times that bring tears to my eyes. I've seen so many young people's lives be changed in positive ways by simply being able to share their artwork with the public. You know, if you have an artist in your family, I think you can recognize that some people in this world are given this gift from their creator of being able to create artwork that brings beauty to all of our lives, inspiration and and uh hope and all kinds of things, wonderful things to our lives. It's time that we do this. It's time that we celebrate the arts in our public parks. It's time that we give young people a venue and seniors a venue to be able to share their artwork with the public. It's a terrible thing to waste all these artists talent, you know, where they never have a place to display their artwork and share it with the public. You know, it's a terrible thing and it's going on all over the United States where artists are locked up in the closet. They don't get a chance to display their artwork. By creating these venues, these mushroom venues in the parks, Reno was at the very forefront of delivering the gift of art back to your community and every community in the state of Nevada and hopefully every community across the United States. It's time that we do this and I hope that we can have your support as we move forward in this. In the meantime, I want to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and I've enjoyed coming and talking to you all and uh I look forward to the new year and God bless you all for the work you do. God bless you. Take care. >> Thank you, Mr. Right. >> Chelsea G via Zoom. >> Howdy. Are y'all able to hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, cool. Hi. Uh, good morning. My name is Chelsea Garren. I am a new resident of Reno and I live in Ward 4. I go out frequently on walks to get out exercise for mental processing to just to see the beautiful view of the Sierras that we have here. And one thing I have noticed during the hotter months is the tree canopy discrepancy with homes in my area in ward 4 in that I can physically feel a difference between where there are trees providing shade and coverage and where there are no trees. I frequently notice that trees have been cut down due to age, too close to a home, you such, and that they would benefit from having a tree back in their yard. The DRRi, Desert Research Institute, has published a white paper where they studied hotspots both in the Reno and Vegas area. And they did confirm that areas with more tree coverage do experience lower temperatures. And with Envy Energy currently or recently rather increasing their energy rates, that is going to be a pinch for a lot of folks, especially those on fixed incomes like our elderly. And I would really and highly encourage to look into a tree replacement program, whether that's removing a a tree or planting a new tree in the yard of a homeowner who's open to it. And I'm hoping that Envy Energy would be open to that as well. Uh, I understand that there is an Idaho energy company where they worked with the city and homeowners to do an incentive program and maybe even a ward by ward program to do that. And yeah, that's that's my only thing. Thank you. And with that, we have no additional public comment registered. We did receive two comments that were general in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to yesterday, December 9th, at 4 p.m. These comments were written correspondents received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office. Copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public on reno.gov/meings. These comments were distributed as two letters of neutral or concern. >> Um, uh, Vice Martinez, can >> I'm sorry. Hello. >> Yeah, we can hear you, Council Member. >> Yeah. Um, I just wanted to respond to that last commenter if I may. >> Sure. Yeah, go ahead. >> I I just wanted to let them know that, um, I agree with the tree canopy. We do actually have the lowest tree canopy. um in the city of Reno. And that's something that um I'm working on to um get more trees um for the ward. One of the um issues that we're running into is uh not having enough um uh irrigation systems out here. So, um working to get those irrigation systems put in um and trees. But there is a project where we're going to be um putting in uh trees along um uh Silver Lake um going up to Stead right kind of by the O'Brien Middle School. So we are um getting grants for trees. Um but we're just kind of a little restricted where we can put them at this time. Uh just due to water issues if we don't have irrigation for them. Um, in this particular ward, the trees usually tend to die. So, I appreciate um the comment and you taking the time to reach out. Um, but I I want you to know that that's something that I am um working on. Um, so um please reach out to me um if you have any questions or anything or if you have any ideas or or more suggestions to um help with the tree canopy. Um and uh that was all. So, thank you so much for letting me uh speak. >> Thanks, Council Member Eert. Yeah, Madam Clerk. >> Uh we did just receive one additional public comment registration from Precious Burton. >> Did you five minutes? >> Hello. Okay. So, I came last week about my complaint with the public defenders office, right? And Ian Silverberg. And the reason why he told me that he was going to lose his job because he wanted me to take a side deal with um mental health court for his colleague uh Bobby Baker. It's Samantha Baker and him. So, I'm wondering like what's going on because all these complaints, it doesn't do nothing for like the public and it's like Ian Silverberg is able to um still keep his job and um I'm unable to make a court date because Bobby Baker works at the courthouse and so it's like I'm prevented I am being prevented from having a court date and then he tries to um like threaten me with um arrest and say and he says like um I'm going to put a warrant out for your arrest if you try to take Ian Silverberg to court and like I don't have no answers like I don't know what's going on and I'm still waiting for Katherine Nance to get back with me so we can like discuss what's going on but other than that it's like I'm being harassed by the public defenders office so what happens to me >> yeah thank you for the comment sounds like city manager may I have some comments for you, >> Precious, that the city attorney, the city of Reno cannot assist in this matter. Do you have a public defender now? Is it Ian? No, I I had Ian Silverberg as my public defender, but I'm trying to take him to court because he violated my rights and he wanted me to take a side deal at um mental health court, but um that's when he thought that he was a doctor and he said um I suffer from lupus psychosis and I had to school him and let him know there is no such thing as lupus psychosis. >> Okay. So he uh got So when I went for my uh preliminary hearing, uh Judge Scott Pierce dropped the case like that I was going against. >> So well, why don't you let us make a phone call to the public defender's office and and make sure that you have one, but the public defender's office is not within the purview of the city of Reno. >> So who do I talk to? >> So we'll have someone Why don't you go to the back and we'll have someone make a phone call to the public defender's office to get you connected with someone. What what what does the public defenders office do for me? >> We'll talk about that once we get you to the back. Okay. >> Okay. >> Is that the last public comment, Madam Clerk? >> No. Good. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. Thank you so much. We'll go ahead and close that. Move on to approval of the agenda. Before we do that, I'll ask city manager if there are any updates to the agenda. >> None. Thank you. >> Move to approve. >> Before we move, I'm sorry. The only update I had is if we can move agenda item uh G2. We did have a last minute interview. Just wanted to get them on the agenda before we make any appointments to the January appointment. So just asking for consideration to move G2 to the January meeting. >> Yes. Move to >> Yes. >> Thank you so much. >> Awesome. So have a motion a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you so much. With that, we'll move on to um approval of the minutes. Move to approve. >> Second. >> Have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> I. >> Motion passes. Thank you so much. We'll go on to consent agenda items and I'll start to my right. >> Nothing for me. >> Council member Taylor. >> Nothing for me. Mr. >> Risner. Reese. >> Council member Eert, do you have any items to pull? >> Yes. I'd like to pull um B8 uh I'm sorry, B7, B8, B9, B10, and B1. Oh, sorry. Yeah, B11 and and B15, please. >> Okay, with that, can I get a motion for the remaining items? motion to have public comment on this. >> We'll go to public comment before we take a motion. Thank you, >> Jeff Heinen. Good morning, members of council and madame mayor, wherever you may be. Hi, Naomi. My name is Jeff Heinson. I'm a resident of Ward 2. Um, I'm here to discuss uh the consent agenda items B9 and B10, which I'm not sure what just happened. You said you were going to pull them, but I'm going to be here to talk about it. So, um, I'm just questioning the selection process and procurement methods used to spend our valuable dollars on our parks that have great needs for these improvements. Um, personally, I serve on a board for a local little league. We're a nonprofit. We've raised over $600,000 in the past four years for improvements on a city park uh that is maybe 20 years older than Hilltop Park, which is the subject of items B9 and B10. Um the park that we play at is used by three other for-profit organizations that did not participate in fundraising or labor. Uh the Hilltop Park appears to be used by one organization, a smaller one, also a nonprofit. I've been there. It needs the improvements. You know, perhaps uh this project can attract even more organizations to use it. I would hope so. Uh and to be clear, I really hope Hilltop Park gets new lights. They need it. I just hope the selection process is thorough because all our parks are in need. Some parks are used more than others. And I hope the process of selection includes the RSA, the re Reno Youth Sports Association. Now for the uh more troubling agenda item B10, I would like to uh question the procurement methods, especially as we face a $24 million budget deficit for next year. Uh so we had that entire project appears to be valued at $386,000. You had item B9 224,000. It went out to open bid. Summit Line Construction was the low responsive bidder. They're a great company run by passionate community focused people, highly qualified for this type of work. They would and should be on the short list of companies uh that can do this project and I am pleased they are being recommended for award. Item B10, the material for this project, which accounts for about 42% of the value of the project, I could not find a bid solicitation for this portion. Um, I checked the city of Reno's purchasing website, the finance department. Purchases over $100,000 are accomplished by a formal bid process. So, if I'm correct, it appears this material is being soul sourced. Uh, and it if so, does Reno does our city require a uh intent to soul source notice be posted? Uh, I just a question. I don't know. I know other municipalities like Wo County are required to post notices of uh intent to soul source. I'll wrap it up. Um I'm also a lighting professional uh and I can tell you that at $162,000 I figured two fields were being done at Hilltop. It looks like only one field is being done. um other equally uh capable lighting companies uh could supply this material to the city for half the cost. So it's a bit egregious that uh this company Musco is asking for $162,000. Um that's all I got. Thank you. >> Um Mr. Vice Mayor, >> thank you. Yeah. >> Um let me just ask and I'm sorry I had to step out for a moment and I you probably pulled the items for discussion. Did you already vote on the consent or >> We haven't voted on consent yet. >> Okay. So, we're just having public comment. >> Yeah, we're going to vote take a motion for the remaining items, but just for your awareness, items 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 15 were pulled. >> Okay. So, I was planning to pull seven and did you say 13? >> 13 was not pulled. >> Okay. I'd like to add 13. Um, so 7 8 9 10 and 13. Is that correct? 7 8 9 10 11 13 and 15 now. >> 11 and 15. Okay. So, let me just ask. So, it's so 10 was already pulled by someone else. Correct. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that we fully uh research, you know, these challenges and I know there is a build bid challenge process and I don't know that you bid yourself, but um if you're saying that maybe there was an irregularity with our bidding or that something was soul sourced, I want to make sure we get that on the record when the item is presented that those issues are addressed. >> Yeah, we could discuss all those details once we get to the item. Thank you so much, Council Member >> Der. With that, we'll see if we can get a motion for the remaining items. >> Okay. Yeah, I'd make a motion for the remaining items. [clears throat] >> Thank you. We have a motion to second. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Uh motion passes. We have a few folks in the audience. So, we're going to go to item B715, then item C1, and then we'll move to the remaining um pulled items after C1. So, we'll start with uh item B7. Chief Nance. >> Good morning, Chief Nance. For the record, uh so the item was pulled. I don't have a presentation, but I can answer questions and I have some photos and things I can also show. Um, do you want me to start with that or start with questions? >> Yeah, I think council member Eert, you pulled this item. >> Yeah. Yeah. If you can just kind of tell us a little bit about the program and what we're looking to do with it and um, you know, just a little more information about this. >> Absolutely. So, we are um prepared to launch the drone as a first responder program and this is a partnership with uh the Reno Police Department uh Brink and I have Blake here from Brink Technologies to talk about the actual product and Motorola and drone a first responder. I'll show a photo here of what it looks like. Um this is a photo of the um system that would be placed on top of a roof and then a picture of the drone that would be the responder above it. Uh and so we're just looking at doing this in four different locations throughout the city. And the premise behind this really is that once a call for service is received, it's entered into our CAD system and automatically uh this device will launch, has a 2-m radius, and can respond to priority 1 calls for service immediately, faster than we can get through traffic, faster than we can get a person there with a overhead view of what is happening in the moment. So when an officer gets there, they're going to see whatever they see as they first pull up. This is going to be an uh realtime relay of information about what is happening right at that scene. Provides live video feed and two-way communication so we can talk to people on the ground. It is a clearly marked drone to show that it is a police operated vehicle and it has lights and sirens and the capability to talk. When the call is over, the it returns autonomously to the station, lands and recharges, ready for its next deployment. I'm going to put a map on here next. Um, and it shows where they're going to be deployed. So, we're going to start with four sites. Uh, on those four sites, the first two are kind of central ones at the Moana Fire District. Uh, and you can see the circle, that's the two-mile radius of coverage that these uh that they have the capability to respond to. We will put one at the public safety center on the roof there, one at the fire station 12 in Demani, and then the North Valley's one, we are pretty confident we're going to use the water treatment facility, but we do have a site survey scheduled for next week once this um item is approved to ensure that that's the best place to put it and that it does meet the needs there. But we're pretty confident it's uh this is where it's going to go. Um this partnership is really important and talks a lot about what we are going to do next. And I'm going to just talk a little bit about this uh implementation process. We are looking to have these in place by April. And I'm sorry that's crooked. That's going to bother me. It doesn't bother you. It doesn't bother me. Okay. Uh and really this partnership is uh an amazing opportunity for us to have a first year at no cost to us. So from the time we launch for that first year and then the contract is years uh 2 through six with upgrades, future upgrades. So, we will get the new most beautiful drone that I got to see in uh October. It's gorgeous and that'll come in a couple years. This pays for maintenance, installation on all the software updates. And so, we're really excited for this this partnership. We're really excited for the opportunity and really to enhance our responsibilities and times. We've talked uh last couple council meetings ago about what my needs were, about how I do have a low number, low my staffing is always challenged. We're always working through that. We're trying to get people out on the street. How can we get to calls faster? How can we do this better? What is what is our next steps and opportunities and this I think is really the next step not just for the Reno Police Department but in law enforcement. And Blake is here. He can answer questions about the program, about the capabilities and any other things that you have. Um or I can answer those. So, I'll take any questions you might have. >> Thanks, Chief Nance. Council member Eert, do you have any questions? >> Yeah. Um, so is this program being used by any other cities currently? >> Uh, yes. Drone as a first responder is used in other uh communities. Blake can talk about where where they are that his company is. There's other companies that do that um that have other cities that we can pull draw from, but he can talk a little bit about the other cities and the results that they've seen there if you would like. >> I would love that. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. That was also beautifully articulated. Um, so yeah, Brink works with about 700 public safety agencies all over the country. Uh, roughly 15% of the SWAT teams in the United States utilize one of our drones and 50 cities roughly have adopted our citywide 911 response drone technology. And I would say the core reasons why cities are interested in this. Number one would be really fast response times. Our customers are getting eyes on scene of emergencies in about 70 seconds on average, which is really an unprecedented statistic. They're also able to clear roughly one in four incoming 911 calls with drones alone. So, you can think about situations where, you know, someone calls 91 about a suspicious person, but the person isn't actually there or isn't suspicious. With drones, public safety might be able to realize that and then clear out the call because there isn't really a call to respond to. Or another example of that might be like a sus uh like a an obstruction in a roadway where a civilian already moved the obstruction. In that case, maybe the drone is able to communicate that and then avoid dispatch. So that's kind of reason number two. These drones also improve officer safety because they give everyone a live video feed of situations that folks might be walking into before they even arrive, which is tremendously helpful. Uh, and they can deliver emergency medical payloads like defibrillators Narcan personal flotation devices, epipens, lost hydra kits up to about two pounds including water bottles and emergency blankets, trauma kits, including tourniquets, uh, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I did have a a follow-up question to that. So, um, Chief Nance, you mentioned that when a call comes in, the drone is launched automatically. Um, does that mean that the drone has all of these um, supplies on it at all times or does someone load the drone before it's deployed when a call comes in? >> Probably a better question for you. >> Yeah, >> it's probably a better question for Blake on the operation of them. So, because he developed them, so I'm going to let him take that one. >> Yeah, 100%. So with responder, you do have to select one emergency medical payload per airframe that you would leave loaded on, but our next drone has a robotic system to load in whatever payload that you want in a carousel that can contain 16 at a time. And that carousel is actually climate controlled. So you could store medication there like epipens or narcan or whatever is desirable. So literally in a software interface uh you would select hey I want to carry a defibrill you know the thing would load it in and then you can accomplish that delivery. >> Thank you council member I you're out of time we'll go to round two once I go to a round of the dice. I see uh council member Taylor. >> Thank you Mr. Vice Mayor. I am really um excited about this. I definitely see the safety benefits and possibly some costsaving um benefits moving forward. One of the questions that I did receive was, can you talk a little bit about the privacy concerns that some people might have? Um, I heard you say that it was for priority one calls. So, if you could just expand on that a little bit, that'd be very helpful. >> Yes, there's uh a lot of laws in place governing uh our surveillance capabilities and these would fall under those same laws of surveillance that we have. So, anywhere that is publicly accessible or viewable uh we can see. So just um I if we are going to be we can't look into people's houses. So that's not allowed unless we have a warrant or we're in an active scene or a hostage situation or something like that. There is some exigencies that allow it, but we already have um drones in the air. We have pilots flying them currently and we already are abiding by all of those rules. The FAA regulates it, federal government regulates it, and our own attorneys uh you know make sure that we are operating in the way that's meaningful and and according to the law. So we will only be operating these in those public facing situations where you are expectation of privacy is already very diminished because you are already probably being recorded in some other way in exigent circumstances when we have a right to view. So, say it is a uh a a a shooting or domestic violence incident or a hostage situation, we could use this technology to look inside an exigency and anything that would require surveillance would require us to obtain a warrant just like we would in any other situation and we are already following all of those guidelines. >> Thanks, Chief. And Blake, this is a question for you. When I had an opportunity to talk to the chief about this in my briefing, um she told me a little bit about the history. In less than a minute, can you say how you came to develop this? I think it's very interesting. >> Yeah. No, absolutely. I appreciate that question. So, I'm I'm the founder and CEO of Brink. Um, I've loved aerospace ever since I was a little kid. When I was 10, I couldn't build a full-scale fighter jet, but I could build a drone. And that was kind of the origin of my interest in the space. But I grew up in Vegas and I knew people along the strip during the October 1 shooting, which was a Mandalay Bay shooting. And that's what got me thinking about building drones for public safety end users. So, I kind of process this a little bit. Ended up reaching out to Vegas's SWAT team, agreed to have lunch with 18-year-old me, which was good because I was not sure they were going to do that. And that meeting ultimately turned into our our first product and this company as a whole. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate your partnership on this. >> Thank you, Council Member Taylor. Council Member Ree, I think you had a question. >> Yes. Thank you so much, Mr. Vice Mayor. My question is for you, Chief Nance. So during um my read of the staff report and then my questions about it during my briefing, I wanted to make sure I was clear on something and that has to do with the fact that in year one there is no cost. It's essentially a pilot program. >> Yes. >> But in years two and three there is a cost to the city. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> And it's identifying the staff report. It's it's significant because it gets added to the general fund. >> Yes. >> Where does our commitment come? Because I'm a person who says, "Hey, this is an outstanding use of technology. I'm very interested in the application. I'm especially interested in the discussion about uh being able to deliver epipins and defibrills, that sort of thing. And so I'm trying to figure out at what moment do we convert to the years two and three and and and what are our outs if we decide it doesn't work for our city or the winds are too high or it snows too often. >> I'm trying to figure out the financial piece before I make the commitment to go down the road. >> Yes. So, it is a one-year pilot program, which means 30 days before that one year, we can opt out. Um, I plan on coming back to this council. We're going to keep a lot of data, a lot of information about how it's deployed, what time we've served, what the needs are. And then we're also looking at funding sources, either grants, uh, collaborations with other departments, community donations, whatever it is to try and ease that financial burden because I do know that that is important. Um uh but bringing the information back about our success rates and then bringing that back to you to help us uh decide is this a funding source that we need. So we can opt out. That first year is free. We've worked through the attorneys and on the contract and and through many conversations with um Blake and I about how this is going to come to fruition and also the financial struggles that we do face. So we want to be sure that this is a valuable tool. Um, every organization that I've heard has this. They they they will talk about the savings, the cost savings where we're actually saving money and the the actual deployment and increasing our deployment capabilities. So, I think we're going to have those same successes. But if we don't, I need to be able to say this isn't working for us without a long-term financial commitment that isn't something we need. So, we've been very mindful of that and I'm very confident in that happening. Well, that's uh why I appreciate the approach that you've taken because the alternative would have been to come to say, hey, on day one there's this cost and we built in. I think the real-time information center is a gamechanging for our region. I know it is just in the infancy of what it can and and ultimately will be capable of doing. And so I think this is a great additional tool. I I do want to say that during the year I'll be looking for those kind of things too about statistics and updates. I'd certainly like to go out and watch its deployment. I've spoken to friends in other communities um who have this program and so they're very um supportive of it and so as talking with mayors across the country and having those conversation I think it's important you also mentioned of course grants I know that we've gotten a recent uh significant donation from uh Grace Church that'll be on a future agenda for our approval and acceptance is that the kind of money you're talking about like outside monies coming to >> we're going to keep continue we're uh always evaluating what kind of grants that we have we have some money um uh and different things that we think we can apply to this at some point that it matches the needs for. And then um there has been members of our community that have uh had the conversation about making donations uh to see programs like this uh successful and and we will continue those conversations to see how much of it we can get grant funded. Uh there's also capabilities for this to be to to for us to partner with the fire department and if there's reports of fire or different things. So water rescue. So there is opportunities there for us to maybe combine some resources in our budgets, figure out what we can cut depending on what it is and then come up with that money. But really the the bottom line is we have to see success to say that we want to continue this. I am very confident in that. But I'm also um realistically enough to know that sometimes I have bad ideas too just like everybody else. I don't think this is one of them, but if I do, I had to have that that fall back to say, "Hey, this isn't going to work for us." And and maintain our safety in that financial sense. >> Awesome. Thank you so much, Chief. >> Chief Council Member Dor. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, first of all, I want to thank you again for my tour of the public safety center and in fact the real time um information center. Um, you haven't mentioned that Sparks is running a drone out of that office too when someone asked about where there other people using it. You mentioned the ones that this particular provider is, but Sparks is on a different provider, but is it the same kind of drone or are those different? Uh it's a different modeled type of drone but the same type of capabilities. They have different ones. They um opted to use a different provider. We do have our real-time information center as a partnership with Sparks. It has been a phenomenal partnership. Um, I would be remiss not to mention our EOCC and Kelly is here and her showing up and and being part of this also because we are seeing that there are so many uses for that real time center of how we can see what is happening in our community and and be quicker to either solve crimes, stop crimes, or to provide information to officers. So, they uh Sparks does have a drone as a first responder. They have one unit based off of their city hall and they are seeing successes in it. It's a very new program for them. it's maybe a couple months old. Um they did go with a different contract that they already had in existence and used that capabilities. We did not have that option in our contract and and frankly after doing the research I believe that this um and the next iterations of these are going to be far and above uh the abilities. >> So my follow-up question is um as these improvements are made um will they get integrated into our system or is that like three or six years out or how does that work? Yeah, and Blake can touch on this a little bit on what that contract looks like and what the next steps are for the next iterations, but our contract does come with the future upgrades. So, we have anticipated future upgrades of both software and of the of the actual drones. >> And then I was impressed to hear that pretty much they pay for all repairs, replacements. I mean, that's incredibly important because that could really add up, you know, as well if these drones crash or get involved in a fire and or or something to know that we have that sort of I'll call it insurance. The other thing I wanted to ask is I this is uh driven by what you said earlier. Um so what I understood is that this deploys automatically and that you're going to pre-program in certain categories that it would go respond to like a car crash or some shooting or or whatever you choose to set as the base parameters. But would it go with the EP pen on board or would would it have to come back and get something? I was a little unclear about how this would work. >> Yeah. So the original um we will decide what it's going to be on there based on what the needs are. So we can uh deploy that as that step >> the one thing that can be on now. >> Yeah. And then as Blake said that when the next iteration comes it will be able to switch and change those more vigorously. Uh this I I've not heard of anybody having this capability. So >> in other words automatic deployment is different than a human making a decision that oh this time we need a defibrillator. Right? >> So that's a different kind of response than an automatic response. That's something that we're going to have to tell it what to do and take the defibrillator, not the >> EpiPen. Some of these are going to have some there's there's still a human part of this. It's not it's not completely autonomous. So, when they do launch, we have a pilot that's watching the camera that's telling us what's happening, making sure there's no dangers, that knows what kind of response to do. So, it's not just a mechanical response. It also has that human eyes in there so that we can get the full picture. >> Well, I am supportive. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member D. Council member uh Anderson. >> Hi. This is so fascinating. I'm very I'm very proud of you for being a Neadan and being so um so talented and bringing this technology to our community. So, thank you. I'm very interested in how these are identified. The reason I'm asking is there was a search that was conducted in South Reno a couple maybe a month ago. A little girl had gone missing. Raven. I think there were actually two helicopters in the air, but there were multiple drones in the air and it was dark. And it it it would be really good to know and be able to identify that this is a law enforcement drone and not just some random drone. And it might just be the nature of the neighborhood that we live in where there's drones, you know, flying around looking at wild horses or whatever it is. Um, but how do you identify that this is a law enforcement drone? >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I would say one unique thing about our company is we just build drones for public safety. Most drone manufacturers, they focus on the consumer market or they focus on the military market and public safety is a secondary or tertiary goal. But that isn't us at all. And that level of focus on just building the right stuff for first responders has allowed us to develop a whole bunch of features that make our systems very well fit for purpose. And one of those is these things just look like emergency response vehicles. They have red and blue lights on board. They have sirens. We can customize these aircraft with Reno's color schemes, Reno's badges, so it's it's very obvious. They're not some neighbors DJI. And then the drones also transmit their locations over a system called remote ID. So that can be viewed on real-time maps within a real-time information center uh or sent to other people. >> So they're like officers. >> Yeah, 100%. >> Awesome. Thank you. especially they're they're the eyes in the sky of the officers getting there faster than we can get a patrol car there which a much better view because they're seeing an entire picture as opposed to just pulling up in a car and jumping out and only seeing really what's in front of you. >> Thanks so much. Council member Eert, do you have any other questions? >> I do. Um so um I think council member Der touched on a lot of it regarding you know what they can um deploy once they res um respond to a call. Uh but I I had some questions regarding uh data from the drone. So um what kind of data will we receive um from using this? Um like types of calls, what kind of information is collected? I know that there's some concerns about privacy and things like that. So, what kind of information will um be collected by this drone and what kind of information will the city of Reno be receiving from this drone? >> So, the drone itself and the software will collect a lot of data on number of deployments, time of deployments, battery life, anything that we do with it. There there's going to be those types of collection that comes from the actual machine, right? So the the machine is going to have uh information that's going to be drawn from so we can know flight time, flight data, distance, speed, all of that type of stuff. In addition to that, the the data that we're going to start looking at is how many calls did it respond to? How many calls resulted in cancellations? How many of the calls were use of forces that we changed our um response to? Uh what how many arrests were made using this pursuits? Um there's a lot of information that we will keep. Basically, my goal is for every single deployment, us to have some data set that we can pull later to have a conversation about whether it's increase or decrease of uh personnel responding based on the information we receive. So, if we get there and we see that we don't need as many officers or maybe we don't need an officer at all, maybe we need a community service officer or the matters resolved, we stopped so many people from responding. But if we get there and we realize, oh, this is a bad situation. we need more people then these are the ones that we increase the response based on need. Um so all of those data sets any information I can pull I plan on keeping and evaluating and looking at and really trying to translate that into a costsaving measure so we understand how much time which time results in money we have actually saved by utilizing this equipment. So, I plan on keeping everything and then sorting through it and saying this is what this means. And that's going to take a little bit of work, but I I'm very confident in our abilities to do that. >> Do you have anything else, Council Member Iver? It looks like you still have about 30 seconds. [bell] >> So, follow up to that. Um, >> you came out. >> Yeah. >> I beamed in drones. Yeah. Um, so that was kind of uh leading into my next question is will we use the data collected to kind of maybe um [clears throat] tailor the direction that we're going um with RPD? So, if we notice that we need a certain type of uh enforcement, will that kind of drive maybe some of the strategic goals that we have uh with RPD to kind of nip things in the bud or um what are your thoughts on that? >> Absolutely. So, what I envision is we're looking at this launching around April. Um you know, we don't have a hard start date, but uh they've already started building our product. We've already started moving forward on on what that's going to look like. Like I said, we have site surveys coming up. April is also the time of our ship bid. So, it's a really good time for us to start because we'll have like a clean set of data using who are our drone pilots, who's out there, um, you know, responding, where are they deployed, what are our time frames when we have a pilot available to make sure. So, when we start that, I think we're going to really collect that for a few months and then look at how do we deploy next shift bed. So in October, what resources did this provide us that might change how we deploy and staff uh the Reno Police Department patrol section especially? So everybody knows that I'm very cognizant of what we're doing and seeing and how we're putting people on the streets in different uh areas to make sure that we are present and available when needed. This is another added data set that we can put in to say this is how we're going to deploy our resources for our shift bid in October. So, we'll start looking at that day one and and really there is some changes that we can make right away. If what we did didn't work quite right, we can, you know, move some people around and figure it out that way also. >> Great. And will it be an RPD uh personnel that is um operating the drone? Will that have to be a new position that we hire for, or is that an existing position that we have that will operate this or it's just completely automated? It'll just do it. I have uh 19 pilots currently that will be trained in this operation and we are looking at how those pilots will be deployed throughout the shifts and dates and times so that we make sure that we have the best coverage that we can. Uh and if we do need to add additional pilots, there's not a huge expense to that. It is something that we can work on. Um it's a training and a class that we can actually build on. Um right now most of them are sworn. We have one that's a professional staff member and then we're looking at long term. What do we actually need to staff this program long term? Is it a different uh job classification that we can utilize in different ways? Is it somebody that has um maybe it's a part-time employee or an intern? What do we need? Um but we just don't know yet because we haven't done it. So, we're really working with um our counterparts in other cities to see what they've done, but sometimes we're unique and so we want to make sure that we're fitting our unique circumstances. >> Yeah. And would you be able to provide the council data on how many calls officers ended up not needing to go to because you know the drone went and saw you know the person was no longer there or the situation you know just wasn't happening or ended up not needing police response. Will you provide that kind of information? um because I think that's really going to show us um you know saving of personnel time and and and um you know that's kind of a quantifiable thing that we can see the the dollars value. Will will you be able to provide that information? >> Absolutely. I I generally come back in October, November and provide some sort of annual update. We usually that seems to be the new cadence which I I love. uh which is perfect timing because then we'll have several months of data to provide back and this can be one of those talking points so you understand how much we how much time we've saved, how much um personnel cost we've saved and the the really good stories that we're going to see come out of this um and so that that way you're fully prep prepped and ready for it moving into that next budget year. >> Okay. And one last thing you're about double your time check and you do have one final round but I'll just check around the dice to see if there's any other questions. If not, you can continue on with your questioning. It doesn't look like it. So, you're on your final round. >> Um, what happens if for whatever reason we go through our year and we decide it's not for us? Is there a cost to say we're not going to move forward? You know, we give our 30-day notice, but we've had that year at no cost. Is there kind of like a fee for not um >> No. So we have the one-year free so that we can opt out at that 11th month as long as 30 days before the next the start of the next contract. >> Okay. Okay. So no penalty or anything. >> We were very mindful of that to make sure that this program was going to be both fiscally responsible and what we need. >> Okay. >> I'm very confident that it's going to be all of the things we hope it's going to be though. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. I think from my end I just had a you keep mentioning the 30 days before the first contract. Just curious if that's every single year or if it's just for the first year where we have that opportunity um to sort of pull out of this contract. >> There is options to pull out after that if we need to. >> Okay. And then your um site surveys, will that identify any infrastructure upgrades that are needed if at all? >> Uh yes, we're planning on using um the fire stations and the police stations where we think the infrastructure is already there. And so we've been in talks with IT um and our other partners in the city to ensure that we're not putting an undue burden on them. And then we've worked with um Brink to ensure that the way that this is going to be installed is not going to put an undue burden or cost on on what we're doing. There is some ways that it could happen. Um but for the most part, we're going to identify sites where that cost is going to not exist because we can use the existing infrastructure. >> Great. Yeah. I'll just thank you for the opportunity to having to the real time information center um and the ability to bring more support uh for the men and women of our police department to be able to make sure we have the right resources to deploy when they're needed um and being able to support your officers um while they're on shift. They're protecting our city. So, just wanted to echo some of those sentiments that I'm hearing on the DIS. Are there any other questions? Oh, yeah. Council member, >> not a question. If there are no other questions, I'd be prepared to make a motion. >> Perfect. >> Okay. If there are are there any other comments, questions? All right. Well, with that said, >> I I will just >> Yeah, please. I thought you had not. No. And I apologize because I was meeting with our students. Um, but Jackie called, she said, "This young fine young gentleman seems to be a genius." And I I just thought that was so that was so kind. Um, I just want to commend you because I think it it is really clear the cities that evolve and continue to be innovative and look for ways even if sometimes we don't get it right. I love that you said that because I always think that that's when you fail is whenever you stop innovating and trying and all those things. So, I just want to commend you on um looking at ways how we go into the future being prepared and precise and um I I just think technology is going to be so fascinating as as it evolves. And um how old are you? >> 25. >> He's tw he's Ma'am, how sweet is he? [laughter] Well, I thought you were 16. No, I'm just kidding. But impressive. You're You're impressive. You have a bright future ahead. Maybe like an Elon Musk or something. I don't know. But um n nice nice job. It's it's very cool to see you probably doing something you absolutely love and um in ways that make a difference in cities. But I did want to just commend you. So thank you. You know, it's uh this has been an amazing partnership. Um they they've I met with Brink a couple years ago now. It's been a while and and we we talked and we we weren't quite here at DFR yet. And then we've met again a few times and uh I am very comfortable and confident in this partnership because I'm comfortable and confident in both his employees have been phenomenal. Uh always accessible and as a vendor uh sometimes you you get a company and then they think that they have you hooked and then they don't call back anymore. It's this weird relationship that sometimes happens that's very frustrating. But with uh with Blake and his entire staff, they are so responsive and so helpful. And I love that it is exclusive for first responders. It really is a game changer when you're talking about people that that really understand our needs and are willing to adapt their product to meet the needs of our organization. So, it's it's been a great partnership. I can't say enough. So, >> yeah. That's so cool. All right. Are you're Nevada guy? >> I am. >> Even better. Where did you go to school? Um, I I had a I had a weird path for education. >> Okay, good. Me, too. Don't worry about it. But I was just gonna I was just going to harass you if you went to UNLV. >> I did. I did. >> Oh, you did? >> Yeah. I 14. And so I was I was a little young. I was there for about a year. >> At 14. [laughter] >> We need you. You can't judge people. >> We need you. You're amazing. [clears throat] >> You're amazing. Okay. We got to get this meeting on track. Okay. Councilwoman Der was going to get a motion and I think I interrupted her. >> No, no. I was saying if there's no other comments. So with item B7, I'd like to uh make a motion for approval of the contract between the city of Reno on behalf of the Reno Police Department and Motorola Solutions for Brink MSI takeoff program DFR drone as a first responder. >> Second. >> What did he walk out? >> Yeah, you're back out. Never mind. So I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. [laughter] >> I was like, what happened to Miguel? >> Okay, madam mayor, they were gonna um I >> They mentioned that Miguel mentioned when you were out that we were going to do item B7 and B15 >> uh before we go to C1, but I was going to ask if we could also do B10 before we go to C1 because there's several staff and people in the audience for that item. >> Okay, wait. So, hold on a second. Here's um I'm trying to get updated here. >> Yeah. >> You we you have another item for you. Um Jackie, what is that? That's >> B5. >> B15. >> B15 with Chief Nance. >> Okay. B15. >> And then we're going to C1. Is that correct? >> That that was the plan uh between the the council members. They pulled B7, 8, 9 10 11. >> Can we put those on the back end? [clears throat] 17 and 15 if they are not um if they are not um here or >> we can put them all to the end of the meeting. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But I'm saying that we do have people here in the audience and here's staff for B10. So I'd like to >> not have it all the way at the end of the meeting because they don't have all day. They're they work >> um you know. >> Yes, absolutely. I just need to know that. >> That's why I'm telling you I didn't know. >> It wasn't it wasn't on my Thank you. >> It wasn't until they showed up. Sounds good. >> I'm not sure what order we're going in, but item B13 was pulled by someone and there are folks patiently waiting in the off a >> also. So, that is really important. If you're here and you're waiting for an item, will you please let Madame Clerk know because I don't want you to sit here all day long and wait for your item to come forward because we usually put those items on the back end. So, that's how that works. If you're not um here in person, we'll put them on the back end. So, if you are here for a certain item um then please see Madame Clerk and we will get to those items um in a timeline. >> So, mayor, if I can um articulate what I heard so that staff is prepared, we're going to have Chief Nance right now at B15, then we're going to do B10, B13, and then move to C1 and all the other remaining pulled items will be at the end of the meeting. >> Yes. Perfect. >> Sounds good. >> Okay, I think everyone has that. Got it. Okay. All right, Chief Nats, hold on one second. Any public comment on this item, Madam Clerk? >> Uh, no, we already took public comment. >> Okay, thank you so much. Back at you. The floor is yours. >> Hi. >> Um, so this is a donation from Wise Labs to donate 250 security cameras to be used to assist victims of crimes. And, uh, primarily our victim services unit will pass those out to different victims of crimes as needed to help them feel more secure in their homes and surroundings with, uh, extra surveillance videos. uh to help them to prevent them from, you know, any stalking or uh harassment by uh people that maybe that have been bothering them. So, I can answer any other questions about it and or comments or concerns. >> Um I love this. >> Um yeah, can you tell us a little bit about how do you identify who gets them? What can you give me a little bit more background on where this came from exactly? I you know so one of the things that we work on is how our victims can feel more safe. So we already provide cell phones so sometimes if somebody's leaving a dangerous or violent situation uh maybe they their phone breaks or is broken or is taken by somebody so they don't have the ability to call 911. So we have a program already in place that allows them to be given a cell phone uh to help with that for 911 purposes and stuff like that. So, we already have that program, but another area that we saw lacking was that um if they're staying in an apartment or they've moved into a place, they might not have the capability to put a doorbell camera on or a Ring camera. And if they're not feeling safe when they go home at night or coming back, you know, after dark, they can check the cameras to see what it is. So, really, the goal is going to be to give these to people that that have that need, that feel like they are in a threat and then have the ability to sustain a a camera surveillance system. So obviously somebody that um you know doesn't have a place to stay might not benefit from this camera in the same way that somebody that has a residence. So we're going to or if they already have a surveillance system, we wouldn't want to give them this because we're going to want to maintain these for the people that need them the most. So our victim service unit will be primarily responsible for the distribution of these and identifying the people that it makes the most sense for them to have when creating very low barrier to receiving them. >> Yeah. Well, as a female that understands how serious this is and and have still ongoing um a very similar stalking situation, I I commend you for trying to keep people safe in this manner. Thank you so much. Okay, I'm going to send it to you, um Councilwoman Neber. Yeah, I really just wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about this program because I think it's so great that, you know, we can provide this um to people that, you know, need a little extra um layer of safety. Um are these cameras capable of being hooked up to the real time um safety center? >> So, these are do not have that capability because of the type of cameras they are. Uh they we usually utilize the surveillance systems that have more of a less cloud-based. The Wise cameras, if you're not familiar with them, are accessible through an app. Um and they're you can they have some handheld zoom ones and different things like that. So you can move them, but that would not be something that would necessarily be accessible through our uh Fus program and through the realtime center, but they would be eligible to be um uh reported to us that you have them so registered. So people can register their home cameras, their Ring doorbell cameras, uh, Wise cameras, or anything else. And it lets us know that there is a camera on that street. Uh, as you saw when you viewed, there's a an icon that says these are cameras that are registered with the Reno Police Department. If we have a crime there or an incident, we can then reach out to that person and say, "Did your camera capture this on uh our surve on your surveillance system? Can you provide us with that data?" And then we can get it that way. So these would be eligible for that, but they would not link into the fus system. >> Okay. So you mentioned these would connect to an app so people could check, you know, what's happening maybe at their residence when they're not home or if they think something's happening outside their home, they can check in on the app. Okay. Thank you so much. And again, I just really appreciate um you know, the pursuit of this grant and and the extra help that we're giving people that need it. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any further questions? >> No, thank you. >> Okay. What do you need from us on this? >> Make a motion to second. >> Okay. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Nance. Really appreciate you. Great job. Thank you. >> Thanks for coming out to see the real time center. It was great to have you all there. >> Okay. Bye you guys. Nice meeting you. Thanks for coming. We're going to we're going to follow your progress and your your future. We're excited for the partnership. >> All right, take care. Okay. Uh, moving on. Madame clerk, I believe now we are on item B10, >> correct? >> Any public comment on this item? >> Oh, we already took it. >> You already took it. Oh, see, you're way ahead of me. I love it. Okay. Um, Susan, the floor is yours. >> Hello. >> Hello. >> Susan Balro, deputy city attorney. If I may, um, [snorts] can you take B9 as well because they go hand in hand. >> Absolutely. Whatever you need. >> We're just going with the flow today. [laughter] >> So, if you lose us, just yell out and we'll try to get everyone [snorts] back on track. Go right ahead. >> So, just answering the legal question with regard to B10, the purchase of the lighting. NRS [snorts] 332195 allows joiner and you would have to ask the staff chose to use this legal process. It's also allowed per city policy. It's also not sole source park staff to and Nathan can explain why they chose to do it this way be and it's perfectly legal. There's nothing wrong with how it's proceeding. >> Well, let me just clear. So um the a portion of it is to buy materials and another portion of it is to install >> install the public >> and the materials portion which the public commenter highlighted uh was not soul sourced rather it we did a joiner with an existing company or organization excuse me government organization that already had a established contract to buy parts at a certain specified price. So rather than go out for bid, that's what they chose to do. >> Correct. >> Is that it's only for the parts part, >> correct? >> Not for the actual company that ended up being selected. >> That was uh competitively bid and advertised per NRS 338. >> Okay. >> And um no pro no protests were received. There's a strict protest timeline. We have five business days from when the notice is provided. >> Okay. So from a legal perspective, you we're totally in the clear. And then the question is just the decision to go with the joiner versus to also bid out the materials. I guess maybe Nathan would speak to that. >> Yes. Thank you. Nathan Olia, parks and recreation director for the record. um in in this case and I did have the an opportunity to speak with Jeff um and to learn a little bit more about his project product and we'll meet in the future but in this case Musco is something we're trying to consistently install for a few different reasons uh but primarily operational consistency in our lighting systems um to make sure from one phone or from one space we could turn lights on and off schedule it I learned from Jeff today his his product has a very similar ability to do that as well so going to learn more about it and uh and look for future opportunities to to provide >> provide bid. >> And just a side question, I noticed that we did a phenomenal job of putting lights up at the um Plumus Tennis Center. Sure. >> And my question there is I have received some complaints that they still on stay on well into the night. No one's playing. It's middle of winter. Um is this something that can be controlled as you just said electronically or does this have to go and do a preset or how does that work? >> I I believe it is. And actually Jeff and I talked about that too that that that is their product. Um and that we from an operational perspective and from the concession air perspective could could utilize that in a better way. So we're going to look into that and try >> that is great to hear. Okay. Well, my questions are satisfied. I don't know if anyone else I I didn't pull this item initially, so I don't know who did >> who did I. >> It just happened to be in my ward. Okay. >> Thank you so much. >> Counciloman Eert. Go ahead. >> Yeah, I pulled it just because I like to talk. I'm sorry. your word. [laughter] Go ahead. I like to talk about what we're doing in our parks. I know that we have some issues in some parks with slides and different equipment and we don't have enough money to do everything we need to do in the parks and recck space, but we are doing some things. So, I just like to give you an opportunity to talk about what's happening and the different projects we have going on. Um I was not aware that public commenter was going to speak on this today but do we have any kind of comparisons for um you know materials costs or anything like that? >> Well sure just I'm not an expert on source well but in this case uh to council members uh comments earlier this is uh this is something that was bid by another city and then we kind of tag along with it and use the same contract. right uh rates and prices, but it is a a good practice to every once in a while go out and make sure we even bid these types of things, too. So, and that's Jeff and I will talk about that uh in the next week or two hopefully and and learn more about that product as we go forward. >> Okay. So, I guess that's a no then that we don't have any kind of price comparison. >> Yeah, there there for sorry I lost that in the in the comments there, but yes, there is a process for comparing prices for our >> Okay. Is there is there documentation available that says this was you know the price somewhere else and this is why you know we went with this one cuz it's less money or it's a better product or something like that. >> So for this for this process we used the pricing that was available through the source well contract. So in this process we would go with the source wall process that Susan explained earlier by the other government agent. If >> we did go out for bid and comparisons there is a very clear process in how that works. >> Okay. So >> sorry if you can do this better. I just I'm not like certain that that that's really the answer that I'm looking for. Like is this is just for the materials but >> Sure. >> I know we got a joiner but like did they look deputy city attorney? Yeah. The contract you join has to be competitively bid. They went through that process. They satisfied all the legal checkbox. We say yes this is the product we want the pricing is acceptable we want to join that contract. >> Okay. So we we did not do any kind of price comparison. >> Well I what they would do is they would look at the source well contract pricing that was already competitively bid and determine if that pricing was acceptable. Is that the process followed? >> Okay. So, I guess I'm just concerned that, you know, given that our budgets are so tight and we do have things that we need to do in the parks that, you know, when it comes to materials, I would hope that we're making sure we're getting the best price on these things. And I'm not sure that that really happened here. >> Koski, uh, director of public works. So, it's not always about the lowest price. It's all like Nathan said and and Susan said, it is the product, right, and the operations that we have. Does it meet those criteria? So, definitely we take always take a look at the price of things and make those price comparisons. >> Um, one of the things that source well does is it it allows us to purchase those price those products without putting them in the bid, >> the contractor's bid. And with um when we put things in the contractor's bid, you you pay the whatever price the contractor decides to put on those. >> Does that help? >> Yeah. Yeah. I just, you know, in an analogy is like you could get the same TV at like Costco or Best Buy and if it's cheaper at Costco, I'm going to buy it at Costco, right? So, I just want to make sure that, you know, we're making sure our money goes as far as possible. But I I do want to emphasize it's not just the cheapest price. It's the product and our operational needs that we look at. >> Yeah. Yeah. I know I'm I'm talking about the specific product, >> but for that product, we will look at the best price. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> And I had a followup if uh Mr. Reese wants to. Um, yeah. You know, one thing that we really should do, I think it's super important, and I know Jackie is a big fan of it, but we really have to lean in. Um, and is local, right? Local providers. Sometimes those joiners can be really, really beneficial. I totally understand why we do it. Makes there are a lot of times it makes a lot of sense. But one of the things that we should do, which I think it would be really helpful and very cool actually, is have sort of a presentation on if you want to become a provider for the city or you want to bid on on something, you know, here's how you do it. Because a lot of times people say, gosh, I would love to be able to provide our services into the city. How do I do it? Seems confusing. Not to mention, I do think people in the um purchasing department would be really good to have a different set of eyes and also bringing that that money and and services right back into our local community. I think that could be fantastic, but really start to open it up and talk about it because I feel like it's so siloed. Um and then it gives people an opportunity to do business right here in in their homes. However, I will say that joiner process because I've seen it throughout the years um can be super effective, but I think we can also provide another way for other services. One of the things I want to put on the alarm, no pun intended, the alarm here is that um the alarm services contract, we've talked about this for years, is out of state. And I think that that is crazy if there was someone locally that could do it. Now, in the past, there hasn't been, but if there was, and as we grow as a city, there's more and more services that happen that probably we could provide. So, all I'm just saying if there was some way that we can be a little bit more um open about doing business with the city of Reno, it might provide people more opportunities that they're looking for, especially locally. And I know Jackie is a big fan of uh local. And so I I think it would be kind of cool if we had like a day I just saw where Travel Nevada is doing it. They were like, "Hey, if you're an artist, we want to give you grants or how to work with us." It would be kind of cool to say, "How do you work with the city of Reno?" and show like maybe ways in which purchasing um has these new providers so that we can continue to actually keep our local economy local. >> Great point. >> If we can work with some um educational opportunities, we can develop some and offer them. That'd be great idea. >> Yeah, just one, you know, one day. >> I want to just add our purchasing department does we do um we do participate in those sort of things with other uh we have other groups that we bring in and we talk to. I want to tell you that those are great points, Madame Mayor. We're always looking at talking to the local businesses. Um my team when we put out contracts, we call our local folks um when [clears throat] when we're talking about construction contracts to make sure that they know about the bids. Um, and I know park staff, they do this the same sort of thing and and we will keep doing that because we understand how important the local businesses are to the community. Thank you. >> Yeah, thanks. Good, good job, Carrie. But thank you. You you've always been really good about that. Go ahead, Councilman Ree. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is in Ward Five and I thought I might start with Mr. Um, we kind of got dropped into the discussion, but we didn't talk about the project. So, can we start with that? >> Sure. Uh, so this is and actually let me have Karina, our park planner, Miss Mercier, welcome. Always good to see you. It's nice to see you on Sunday, but I like seeing you here as well. >> It was nice seeing you, too. Thank you so much. So, Hilltop Park, um, this residential construction tax project and all of the RCT projects that we're currently working on were approved as part of the regular budget cycle. >> Perfect. So, can we pause right there? I want to make sure that I'm clear and understand what you just said there. One is this council has already approved this project. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> That wasn't in the staff memo, but I think it's important that we all acknowledge that we've already seen and voted to approve this project. So, that's the first thing. The second thing is you said it was from the RCT. So, I want to make sure that people understand out in the public and who are watching on YouTube uh or in the room what that means. >> Yes. So residential construction tax is a special fund for park improvement projects that need to be expended within the boundary where they were collected. So we are restricted in use as to geographically where we can use the funds that are collected. Um and for hilltop parks specifically uh we as a parks department do facility assessments. So we go out, inspect the parks and do a ranking of priorities for the projects that need to be done. This one was identified >> within the geographic area of Perfect. >> Um and this one was identified as critical. Um it potent it poses a potential safety risk for the public. So that's why it's a priority for this year. >> Well, perfect. So thank you so much for the explanation. It just felt like we had gotten dropped into the middle of a conversation without answering the larger question because Miss Bal Roth came up and immediately started to answer the questions that had been asked, I think, both in public comment and by Miss Der about legalities. And so I wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking the fact that your department had done this incredible workup to evaluate all the parks geographically within RCT district 2. This one rose to the top because of the life safety issues. This council previously voted to approve it and today the process has gone through all the legal requirements for how we got here in terms of the bid process joiners or otherwise and then we arrived at this moment where we're simply approving the contracts to approve those bid selections based on the process that was legally followed. >> That is correct. >> Awesome. Last thing I want to ask is when is the project expected to conclude? >> Um John, do you know >> spring? It it'll be in spring of 2026. >> For my part, I've lived in Ward five for almost 40 years. Uh my children played softball at these parks. It's windy as all get out as a parent. You freeze up there. Uh but a beautiful community park. Can't wait to see it and I'll be looking to forward to supporting all the other park improvements in the other RCT districts. >> Thank you so much. >> Y >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, similar to council member Reese, I wanted to talk about the RCT in general and um, that's the residential construction tax. And I wanted to reflect on what Mr. Heinson mentioned that he and a whole team of volunteers worked to uh, renovate Jackie Park, which is baseball. They contributed, I mean, hundreds of thousands of dollars that weren't available. It included getting a restroom in there that was donated. It included um repaving the grounds which ended up being like 10 times more than expected because it was the worst parking lot in one of our parks. Just unbearable. So, here's the challenge and and I want to make sure we get this on the agenda, which is that when we redistricted um we didn't redistrict how we do parks um allocations out of RCT. So, we have six wards. We have four districts or five. There there may be a fifth at um five. And the problem is is that the money is generated by new development. Well, think about W 2 today. It's virtually built out other than the occasional updated site improvements or tear something down and build an apartment complex. Other than that, there's not a lot going on development wise, although you can tell it by how many projects come into W 2, but not not projects that are adding to RCT. And so, I'd like you guys to really look at it hard. If if all the money we ever get in W 2 is based on new apartment complexes in W 2 or whatever it is, then we're never going to be able to catch up. And that is why groups such as the one that Jeff Heinesen's part of, we're we're leaning on them so heavily because we don't have money in that RCT district. And so I just want us to take a hard look at it and think through it and and make sure we have some equity here. You know, I represented South Reno, lots of new development down there, but I could only spend the money RCT on the east side or right side of Virginia, not the left. And you know there were needs on both sides in South Reno regardless of which side of Virginia you were on. So I just >> We appreciate your investments Naomi. >> But I'm just saying um I I I think that it's goes to his comment and question about citizens having to step up to fix a park in one area but money being available in a different area for same kind of thing, lighting for baseball field. >> That's right. And just real quickly on that, RCT is not meant to be a solution to our deferred maintenance. uh it is meant to uh improve parks as a part of development and growth. So we do need those other tools that we're exploring through the park district and things like that and then council prioritizing these repairs. So um we are so grateful for the work done at Jack Thai. They have really kept that thing as you said on on on the track and let kids play there. So anyway, I just wanted to make sure that's clear that RCT is intended for that purpose and as a part of development. I know >> it was new stuff. It was new lights, new restrooms, and it wasn't deferred maintenance, but there were there were >> But there's not funding to your point. Yeah. Because of the lack of growth. So, yeah. >> Okay. Thanks, Councilman, you have your light on. >> Yeah. Um, yeah. Council member Reese and and Derer pretty much went over what I was going to talk about with the RCT. I know there was question by the public comment earlier that wanted to know how we were funding this. It's not it's not general fund dollars. Um there are kind of guard rails around what we can spend it on. Um but I did want to ask about how we identified the specific parks, right? We have a lot of work that needs to be done. This this is chosen by a board. Correct. So it's uh there's as uh Karina rightly identified Nathan Parks and Recreation Director for the record. Um we have a facility index similar to all of our facilities um whether it's a park or a police station or a fire station um that lists the products or the the areas that are critical. This was on the critical list and there was an opportunity to to make a a space here. So we present that to the recre parks recreation advisory board as a part of the budget process. >> Uh and then that comes to council as a part of the approval process. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, okay. Councilman Reese, did you want to give me a motion? >> Uh, thank you so much, Madam Mayor. I'll uh both Yes. I'm happy to make a motion to approve items B9 and B10. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. >> Okay, we're heading to B13 now. Madam Clerk, >> for the record, um, this is John Shipman for the city attorney's office. Um, here to answer any questions about item B13. >> Yeah, thanks. Um, okay. Go ahead, Councilwoman Dur. >> Yeah, I pulled this item. Um, I am supportive, but what I wanted to understand, uh, and by the way, I had also an ancillary opportunity to go out and visit the Apple data center, which was amazing. Thank you, uh, to those that facilitated that. But what I want to understand when we did this before I I I want I just want to understand this point I guess to you Mr. Shipman. I thought we had to have a legislative extension of and and what I remember is we did have the legislative extension but we just didn't extend the operating agreement. Was that the piece we missed? >> Yeah. Just as a quick kind of review. Um and again I just want to distinguish this from like redevelopment. We're not talking redevelopment at this point. We're talking about tourism improvement districts. Um originally the district was created back in I want to say 2009. Um then in 2015 and at the time the the districts were deemed to only last 20 years. Uh and then in 2015 there was legislation that accounted for the fact that there was the great recession occurred right in the middle of this 20 20 year period. And so that allowed those uh districts that didn't um you know have any tax increment during that period of time that first five years to extend the district by 5 years. So >> and can you just say because I was here in 2015 and supported the change which which as I recall had to go to the legislature that part >> that was the le Yes. Correct. But this part where we just didn't update the operating agreement. I I just wanted to make sure the difference between a redevelopment district and a tax increment district. Could you just say that? >> Yeah. So a redevelopment district is a property tax uh vehicle. So it it it is essentially incremental property tax is captured and directed toward projects. Uh a t a tourism improvement district is a similar concept but it's with sales tax as opposed to property tax. Gotcha. All right. Well, madam mayor, those I just wanted to get all that on the record so people knew what we were doing and I'm willing to make a motion. No one else has questions, >> please. >> All right. I would move to uh approve amendment one of the cooperative agreement between the city and the state of Nevada Department of Taxation extending the term of the existing agreement by 5 years for the Tacera district. >> Okay. Thank you so much. I have a motion. I have a second. >> Discussion. >> Oh, go ahead council. Sorry, council. I'm trying to get us back on track here. Go ahead, Council. I wasn't quick enough earlier. I just wanted to say that I also took a tour of the facility and thank you for that. It was um very interesting. Even though I got really lost trying to get there, it was well worth the trip. >> I did get lost. Yeah, >> we'll make better maps. >> Yeah. No, Google Maps had me going to like individual Apple stores or something. But uh anyway, um really great facility and thank you for um giving me that opportunity and also sharing a lot of the sustainability features that Apple is doing, not because they were forced to, but because that's kind of their policy. And I'm really hoping that my colleagues and I can kind of implement some of those um better practices into um our code for future data centers. I just think that's you guys are doing an incredible job with that. >> Looks like >> or Apple is you're not necessarily Apple, but you know. Yeah, >> I helped you with the the tour. I'm Barbara Smith Campbell from the Ferraro Group. All I wanted to say is use Apple Maps, not Google Maps. [laughter] >> I did that, too. >> I love it. >> That was funny. >> That's funny. But yeah, I just it was a great facility with the air cooling uh process and the amount of water that they use out there was really a lot lower than I had expected. So, and it's probably, you know, due to location to some degree, too, that the air remains cooler there at night and stuff, but um really, um I think they've done a great job and they they continue to look for ways to to to be more sustainable. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Uh I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We've worked together for years. Uh we appreciate the partnership. All right. Take care. Okay, moving on. We are now where are we? Um >> city manager Bryant. >> We are at one and then we'll take a lunch break if that's okay with you. >> Sounds good because I believe we have an attorney client. >> That is correct. >> Thank you so much. Okay, heading into item C1. This is um Wo County Emergency Management River Park Defensible Space Program. And who do we have here? >> Hi. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. How are you guys? >> Well, no, now it's good afternoon. >> Glad Glad you're here. Glad the one and only Boston in the house. Even better. Council's much better with dogs. Okay, go ahead. The floor is yours. >> Good morning. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Elena Barry and I'm an intern with Wo County Emergency Management. >> You're an intern? >> I am. >> Wow. >> This is great. Okay. Excited. >> Um I am a recent graduate from Arizona State and um with a bachelor's in public service and public policy with an emphasis in emergency management and homeland security. I implemented this defensible space um program um in a that included many different partners um within our region with the same exact goal of creating a defensible space. Um, this program occurred in about a 12week period. And then we can go through, if I turn it the right way, we can go through some of like the pre-planning activities that were done to get to the point of the program being finished. Um, I went on multiple ride alongs um along with Washo County Emergency Management also creating this website um that you can see a screenshot of and also multiple different partner meetings for participation. I went on three ride alongs with um North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, um Sparks Fire Department, Reno Fire Department, and then we did a um meeting with Treky Meadows um Fire Protection District. On those ride alongs, we did a um researched uh concern areas um within those jurisdictions. We looked at neighborhood demographics. We looked at historical fires. um in those areas. We looked at those demographics of veteran status. We looked at the um socioeconomic. We looked at age as well. From those ride alongs, I decided to take an area on in West Reno. This neighborhood only has a oneway in one way out with multip with a few um historical fires that have encroached on to this neighborhood. to also get out on that oneway one way in one way out is a bridge and then to get to the main road is also a uh railroad as well. Uh Reno Fire and Green Vibe is also doing their mitigation efforts on the outskirts of the neighborhood. So that was pretty awesome to see as well the out the outside and then um we were able to do the inside with the homes themselves. Here is my timeline and then I will go in deeper into um each of these things in the following slides. We started off with the planning, the ride alongs, the research areas and then the kickoff meeting with all those partners to get that participation. We then started with the outreach portion which included door hangers, mailers and community meetings to those residents. We then started off with our full jump in with two feet. Um those opt-in periods, our fire inspections, th that vegetation removal. We then ended with the reveation portion with a um resident survey and then we did a partner hot wash at the end. Okay. So [snorts] day one we start um the community emergency response team also known as C uh distributed the 229 door hangers. I'm sorry. River Park has 229 homes. Um 229 door hangers to all the residents doors there. We had about 14 volunteers and um C was also able to treat this as an um an evacuation exercise as well. So, it was a little bit of two stones. Along with those door hangers, we also mailed postcard mailers to all residences. Um, we had this QR code. This QR code took you to the opt-in um survey. You didn't have to opt into all of the um phases. You could opt into the uh fire inspections or you could opt into interior home inspections. I will also get into that. We then held a community meeting once all the residents were um notified of this program t taking place in their neighborhood. We had this at a local um brewery right down the street and we had about 40 attendees from the neighborhood show up. We had multiple presenters um myself. We had somebody talking about preparedness, smart 911 and go bags. We had a um another person there talking about home hardening and a little bit more of um defensible space in uh education. We had people signing up for the program itself and then we also had people signing up for smart 911 as well. Okay. Then we had the defensible space inspections. We had 39 homes uh opt into this. So about 17% of the neighborhood. We had three a lead agencies um Wer County Emergency Management, Reno Fire and Living with Fire. And then we had a uh supporting team, Team Rubicon that was following behind um the inspectors taking notes for the future process of vegetation removal. This was a two-day project with about 7 hours total. And six properties of the 39 passed um the inspections with no work to be completed. Alongside with the um exterior defensible space inspections, we had interior home inspections done by the American Red Cross. We had 23 homes opt into this, so roughly about 10% of the neighborhood. American Red Cross was able to replace 101 smoke alarms, which was amazing. And also 46 people were served within those homes. Okay. So, after completing those defensible space um inspections, our teams now knew what vegetation needed to be removed from those homes to create that buffer zone between um vegetation and the uh structure itself. We had 24 homes opt into this uh phase. It was a over a two-day period, we had 107 and a half volunteer hours over this two-day period, we had 80 cubic yards of green waste uh disposed of. Very full. And I do want to say thank you to Reno Fire and Waste Management for being able to get this together and being able to have not only our volunteers able to throw away this um green waste, but also these bins were also available for people that wanted to do their own cleanup as well. So they had loose leaves or whatever they wanted to do. So that was also very helpful. They didn't have to make a dump dump run. [snorts] And then our reveation um portion was um Grace um Moana Nursery was able to um donate Firewise perennials. So all the vegetation that was removed um quote unquote like bad vegetation they were able to residents were able to go and replace that vegetation with some fire wise perennials. Um each coupon was good for three perennials and Moana nursery ended up donating 117 perennials. Um and then we also um a part of the reveation we had a little bit of an education piece as well. We had 32 buckets delivered to um homes and these were also distributed by cert. [snorts] Those buckets included um reveation uh supplies. So, kneeling pads, soil, pruners, um, weed erosion barriers, and then also we had links that were on our Wo County emergency website that linked back to U, Moana Nursery for how to plant these plants and living with fire for a little bit more on home hardening and defensible space for those people that were not able to get um, were able to attend that first community meeting. And then I just want to show you guys um, a few pictures. So this is a house that we had done. As you can see, this bush has totally taken over those eaves. It is encroaching on the house >> [snorts] >> um entirely. There is an electrical box behind this bush that you cannot see. But this is a before picture. This is during um as you can see we have now gotten majority of this uh bush uh taken out. We also these res this home these homeowners were great. They were so involved. They loved hearing and talking and asking the questions. Um, so you can see them in th this picture. And then after that bush is completely gone. And then those homeowners went to Moana and they um received their three perennials and then also went and bought three more. So this was a little bit of a as you can see healthier and um prettier too. more colors. Okay. And then we uh Washer County Emergency Management created a homeowner survey for these homeowners to take. Um you did not have to be a part of the program itself to take this survey. You could have just filled it out as a homeowner that was out of town or um to get feedback for future projects. We did get a 100% response rate on um participation. And again, these residents um did like the program and were very interested in it. We also got about a 96% response rate um providing ede adequate education on defensible space and home hardening efforts. [snorts] We have now created a guide book for replication um in other areas of this of the county um to do this again when funding is available. And that is all. >> Okay. Well, um, ghosts on devils first of all, right? >> And Jackie, I think you should be worried. She's going to take your job eventually. >> I would be grateful. [laughter] >> She has to deal with all of us. I know everyone laughs, but it's a real thing. [laughter] >> Anyway, um, I think you did a phenomenal job. Like, >> well, so wait, are you from here and you went to ASU or at what? >> Yeah, I I went to Spanish. I grew up in Spanish. Yes. And then I >> did my first two years here. Finished my last two years in Arizona and then moved back. >> You did such a good job. I am so impressed. Do you guys feel proud? >> Proud. >> So proud. How did this work? Did you say I want to get up there and do this or because most people would like fall apart. >> Give the presentation. >> Yeah. Oh, you just got to do it. >> You just got to actually when we interviewed for the internship position, we had a secondary part that was to come present to us on defensible space. And Elena did such an amazing job that we absolutely had to hire her right away. And then yesterday, she kind of cut her teeth on the board of county commissioners um and really ironed things out before she came to you. >> I am so impressed. >> She did amazing. That's a so well that we are bringing her back on in a different internship position to help us with the evacuation study. >> That is amazing. >> And these this is paid internship, correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. He was like, [laughter] uh oh, I shouldn't have asked that. But that is incredible. I think you're amazing. Absolutely amazing. And obviously they're very proud of you, too. Thank you. >> All right. I'm sure Councilwoman Der has a lot of questions because she knows this space pretty well. So go kudos. Um, this area is actually the far west end of my ward and um, I know the residents were absolutely thrilled to have this participation and it was on so many levels, right? I mean, it wasn't just a screening, but to have stuff inside your house, the smoke detectors outside your house, the reveation, clearing vegetation, I mean, the whole assessment. When do you have a professional come and assess your home? I mean, that could be an expensive endeavor. Um, so I and and then look at the results. I happen to know that this is a quite a fireprone area um from previous work on the council and uh to get this kind of preventative action seems just incredibly important. I I highly recommend you do it again, get these kind of grant funds again if you can. The only add-on I would give is that unfortunately I knew nothing about it while it was going on. And um I think what a fantastic opportunity whether it's in Sparks uh county or the city to engage with also your council member so that they could get to know their residents better. They could be out there clearing trash. They can have for forge a better relationship with the fire department etc. So that's just the one component of outreach I would add to the phenomenal outreach that you did would be to engage people on uh up here uh because I know they would all want to be part of their community in this way. It's such an important endeavor. And again, it's not about Reno. It's wherever you work next. I I would look for who's that council member, representative, county commissioner, whoever it is, and see assess to what degree they might like to be involved in. But uh the results speak for themselves. Uh, and I can't wait to see what you do next. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, Council Re, >> thank you so much. Uh, thank you for the excellent presentation. I I really appreciated uh all of it. I was particularly interested in two points. One was uh Green Vibes role in it. So, might you just share with us a little bit about that? We're familiar with Green Vibe. The mayor had um figured out a way for them to get a $35,000 grant last year through uh the US Conference of Mayors and Walmart. So, Green Vibe was the what did they do? Were they muscle or what were they doing? >> They are working on the um outside of the neighborhood to the up to the fence line that hillside and around. So, >> and like ripping out invasive species and replanting good ones. What were they doing? >> I think they're just clearing up to 30 has a little bit more >> council members. Hi, >> Telina Sky. We have Reina Fire. Um, so Green Bribe was separate from this county project. It just happened to be that they were working in the same area at the same time. >> Perfect. >> So it was really beneficial because not only were they working in the neighborhood, there were also efforts being implemented on the city's open space. >> Awesome. >> So um, the parks department along with myself um, went in and gave green vibe recommendations on how they could create defensible space from fence lines. So I believe they went out for 30 feet from fence lines. um not necessarily clearcaping but just doing appropriate spacing to enhance that defensible space. >> No, I think that's really awesome. I just was grateful to hear their involvement in any of it. The second thing is Moana Nursery. Man, what a shout out they should be getting because they donated so many um I I guess all the trees, some buckets, different things. What was their role in it? because they're a great community partner and I think sometimes um we don't think about them at the first forefront of some of these defensible space acts because we're just thinking about them as a nursery. But sounds really awesome. >> So Moana um only did the um perennial plants um we had an $5,000 to go towards the program and that was paid for um separately. >> Yeah. Awesome. I just think it's great when we can highlight our community partners in such a way. I know Moana has been uh kind of a mainstay of this community for a long time and I think Shider family really helps invest in all of our uh you know beautifification projects. So thanks for that. >> Yeah, they were very they were very very good to work with. >> Hi. >> Go ahead. Down there to my right. >> Thank you for the presentation. >> Sean Anderson, take it away. >> I I'm just so impressed with how all-incclusive the work on this was. Um I was wondering what were the what were the funds that were used? How much was needed to pull off this this whole program? >> So, it was um $5,000 for um the program or to um for like supplies for the program. So, that was the buckets, the soil, erosion, etc. Um and then my time was another 15,000. >> So, $20,000 to pick a And could you >> Is that a 250 home space? Is that could we kind of like say 250 home neighborhood a $20,000 grant would handle that? Could we or does the number of homes matter or is it really the the amount of space? >> Uh I would say that the number of homes would matter because to get to get people out to do um the fire inspections the defensible space if you have a home of a neighborhood of 229 versus 500. I would at least double that time period, but moneywise, >> Kelly, for the record, I think also the density of the homes uh matters. Um we had a lot of volunteer time between the American Red Cross and Team Rubicon. Um that also isn't financially accounted for uh in our reporting. So to keep that in mind, um these homes were a little bit more spaced out. So, there was a lot of driving between homes that had signed up, whereas if it was more of a dense neighborhood, then that might not be uh associated. But, I think 20,000 is it it was a perfect price point for this project. Um, we didn't bite off more than we could chew as far as the size of the neighborhood that was selected. So, if we were to do it again, we'd be looking at something similar, but maybe just a little bit more time to roll it out. >> Great. How did the Red Cross and Team Rubicon get involved? >> Um, so [clears throat] I come from the Red Cross background. Um, and so we always try to loop them in whenever we can. Uh, but was part of starting the smoke alarm pro program in Northern Nevada. So we knew that >> you assembled that team. You assembled the team. It didn't like come package. >> We brought our partners all together. So that included Reno Fire. Um, Team Rubicon was early on in helping us develop the idea for this program. Um, and then we knew Red Cross's capability. So through our volunteer organizations, active in disaster or VAD, uh we constantly are sharing our preparedness programs with one another. So we're not duplicating efforts and we're making sure that we share those with the community as best we can. And so we knew partner capabilities and we were able to bring them all to the table to develop it. >> Great. One last question. Do you have a target neighborhood for your next um your next effort if you were able to have have the funds available? We looked at um Colin Ranch was another popular um area that we had looked up at Deandria was another high-risk um areas by Golden Eagle was also another area that we looked into. So I would say those would be my top um three next uh areas that would be into consideration. I think um to clarify the Colin Ranch area uh inside the loop where you saw Pine Haven fire and Colin fire both have impacts um not to put everything in W 2, but that was definitely an area of consideration. >> She just said it was unequal [laughter] >> in other ways. Right. >> Right. So, >> thank you. >> Good questions. >> Anything else? >> No. Okay, go ahead. >> Yeah, I had a question. um these [clears throat] programs for um removing vegetation and getting um perennials from Moana. These this is citywide, right? Or countywide or are these just targeted uh areas that you're working on? >> This was a pilot program. So, this was >> the very first one. But, um is this something that people can contact you about? like if we have elderly people that need assistance maybe with clearing vegetation, is there um somebody at the county they could contact to get kind of this assistance? I know it's not like um an entire area, but is this something that would be available to people if they reach out >> like ju just by a home by home basis? So it's dependent on the fire department uh and the capability. So um Reno fire um has their own uh system and the energy as well of if you live within x amount of feet uh from a power line then they may be able to come assist you. Um again North Lake Tahoe has their own program as does Turkey Meadows with green waste day. So it's just dependent and I would ask citizens to reach out to their fire departments. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> All right. Fantastic job. I think it's incredible. This is a program that is honestly it's so important now more [snorts] than ever. Mhm. >> Um, and it's the kind of program that when you submit a grant for it, it's something that I think people will gravitate towards because it also, the other thing that you did that you didn't really touch on is bring a community together >> for a like-minded purpose, >> which is super super important. >> And it builds trust with one another. It gets you outside to know who your neighbors are. And so I think there's another human element to this. So I I'm just I'm so blown away. >> So anyway, well, we we hope to see you continue to see you in the future. Thanks you guys. Really appreciate it. It's impressive. >> Good job. Okay. I would like a motion. Um I think did you >> uh just go ahead. That's what I'm doing. >> Okay. >> This is just a presentation. >> I was going to say I think >> Oh, we don't have to make Okay. Guess what? We don't have to do anything like that. Yeah, but um I think there might be another grant through the conference of mayors or something. I'm going to check into this, but I think it's uh it's so worthy and I'm just blown away. >> Thank you. >> I hope Are your parents watching? >> Uh they watched yesterday, but >> they [laughter] are Were they proud? >> Yes, they were. >> They were. >> Okay. Well, they they're equally as proud today. >> I Yeah. Anyway, that's fantastic. Okay. Thank you you guys for having me. >> Thank you. Well, we're honestly our pleasure. >> Thank you. >> Okay, bye guys. >> Okay, we do have to go into attorney client and we will be back here. How about um what do you think, city manager Bryant? >> A half an hour or 45 minutes. >> So, we're going to go uh till 1:30. We'll be back um and see you then. My name is Maria Hernandez Bonce. [music] I am a graduate from the community court and I'm here to share my success story. >> About 5 months ago, you and I sat down for the first time and had a [music] discussion. >> I have something to say, please. What do you want? >> My name is Carly Turetta. Is Brian here? I I got bits of bits and pieces along the way. But >> share what that was like. What what was it like right before I have something to say? What is it like now? >> Well, before you met me, I was going through a very hard time. Um [music] I ended up, you know, having to give guardianship of my son to my brother. >> Um I was trying to recover from drugs and [music] >> here you came, you know, the community court um and yourself. Um, and I mentioned that [music] to you and you told me about all these nice programs and resources that are available to me. Um, and I'm thinking 5 months back like I would have never thought that [music] I'd be here right now. That's for sure. >> Yeah. But what connection did you make in community court that [music] helped you achieve that? >> Well, taking accountability for my actions, you know, realizing um that I had a a problem. [music] Um, step one, you know, admitting that you're powerless and your life has become unmanageable. That's definitely >> very important. [music] >> Um, and then reaching out for help would be the second most important, I would say. >> Nice. >> That's so [music] cool. >> Yes. >> You are the the image of what I want everybody that I meet at Community Core [music] to to accomplish. It's you, >> right? >> Every box I intend to check and rarely do, you do. and [music] you check all of them. >> I originally met Maria on our first day of work. Uh we both had the first same start date. So we got to meet each other there and we immediately bonded. I immediately saw [music] huge potential in Maria. Um she is really great. She's a people person and she [music] she just strives for the stars. >> If it wasn't for Community Corp, I wouldn't be where I am today. They pushed me to get the help that I needed with my recovery. Um, you know, they helped me get my job. [music] They've helped me through every step of the way. >> Community court is an alternative [music] to traditional court. And I in in essence, that's what is different about it is [music] it's it's the alternative approach. Um, I think in traditional court, it's more cut and dry, black and white. You've committed this crime. [music] This is the standard sentencing. Therefore, here you go. um in community court uh [music] Judge Hazel Stevens who I I couldn't say enough good things about him and the way that he is driving this court. [music] It's started with the Nevada Urban Indians. Her counselor Troy um knocked it out of the park with the substance [music] use uh counseling uh Job Connect. Tim is our contact there and he did a great job of [music] working with her. They did the uh the application process right away. They met later that [music] week. They completed all of the online applications, uh, sent out all the information they needed to, who then linked her to the placement agency that got her in here. Um, she also worked with Downtown Reno Partnership, who helped her get her IDs. She wouldn't have been able to get this job without those IDs. [music] And so, it it was several people working together as one to achieve what uh we consider the perfect success with Maria. [music] Hi, I'm Monica Kirch. I am the director of housing and [music] neighborhood development for the city of Reno. The rapid rehousing pilot program is [music] a program that the city of Reno started in coordination with Volunteers of America and the Reno Housing Authority. Programs like the rapid rehousing [music] pilot program are important to volunteers of America because it gives us an opportunity to catch individuals who are otherwise potentially falling between the cracks as far as services go. The Reno Housing Authority assists nearly 15,000 Wo County residents [music] through its traditional housing programs. Yet, we know there are many more who need assistance. The Reno Housing Authority supports [music] the rapid rehousing pilot program in two ways. Uh the first way is through a financial contribution to [music] support half the salary of the service coordinator who works directly with clients at uh Village on Sage. [music] The second way that we support the program is by um ensuring that clients are on one of our HA's weight [music] lists prior to being housed at Village on Sage. >> Program is new and we just started housing people [music] within about the last month. We have several folks now staying at the village on stage working with a service coordinator. >> Partnerships like this give RHA the opportunity to assist more [music] families outside of our traditional programs. And it's these innovative partnerships that create a stepping stone from temporary housing into long-term permanent housing. So specifically [music] this program works with individuals who are on a fixed or low income who can't afford conventional rents [music] and they're eligible for a housing voucher, but they still have to take the time to wait for that voucher. So it allows us to [music] support them in that intermediary time frame so they can stay housed and have access to services. I know um specifically with this program, a lot of our folks are coming directly from the street and haven't had a rental in a very long time. Um, specifically Mikey hadn't paid rent in over a decade and so it was really exciting for him to come to the office with his money um and just celebrate that new experience that he got to have. >> Hi, I'm Mike and um welcome to Village on the Stage where uh Come on, let's go look around [music] this. Yeah. Oh, Harold, welcome. And this is what we get. Um I got a brand new television. It's an element. This is one of the finer finer televisions. Um, you're welcome to bring your transportation inside with you. Uh, nobody cares as [music] long as you keep it neat and tidy. Um, what can I tell you? The [music] doors open, the train's right there, you know. Uh, so if you like trains, excellent. [music] And this is where all the magic happens. This is where the happiness uh, you know, where we come to ground out. [music] This is just where uh you know we can be ourselves. I know it's >> [music] >> Hi, I'm Monica Kirch. I am the director of housing and neighborhood development [music] for the city of Reno. The rapid rehousing pilot program is a program that the city of Reno started in coordination with volunteers of America and the Reno Housing Authority. Programs like the rapid rehousing [music] pilot program are important to volunteers of America because it gives us an opportunity to catch individuals who are otherwise [music] potentially falling between the cracks as far as services go. The Reno Housing Authority assists nearly 15,000 Wo County residents through its traditional housing programs. Yet we know there are many more who need assistance. The Reno Housing Authority supports [music] the rapid rehousing pilot program in two ways. Uh the first way is through a financial contribution to support [music] half the salary of the service coordinator who works directly with clients at uh Village on Sage. The second way that we support the program is by um ensuring that clients are on one of our HA's weight lists [music] prior to being housed at Village on Sage. program is new and we just started [music] housing people within about the last month. We have several folks now staying at the village on stage working [music] with a service coordinator. Partnerships like this give RHA the opportunity to assist more families outside of our traditional programs. [music] And it's these innovative partnerships that create a stepping stone from temporary housing into long-term permanent housing. So specifically, [music] this program works with individuals who are on a fixed or low income who can't afford conventional rents and they're eligible for a housing voucher, but they still have to take [music] the time to wait for that voucher. So it allows us to support them in that intermediary time frame so they can stay housed and have access to services. I know um specifically with this program, a lot of our folks are coming directly from the street and haven't had a rental in a very long time. Um, specifically Mikey hadn't paid rent in over a decade and so it was really exciting for him to come to the office with his money um and just celebrate that new experience that he got to have. >> Hi, I'm Mike and um welcome to Village on the Stage where uh Come on, let's go look around this. Yeah. Oh, Harold. Welcome. And this is what we [music] get. Um I got a brand new television. It's an element. This is one of the finer finer televisions. Um, you're welcome to bring your transportation inside with you. Uh, nobody [music] cares as long as you keep it neat and tidy. Um, what can I tell you? The [music] doors open, the train's right there, you know. Uh, so if you like trains, excellent. And this is where all the magic happens. This is [music] where the happiness uh, you know, where we come to ground out. This is just where uh you know we can be ourselves. I know it's cold out there. [music] It's cold and you don't want to be homeless in high desert. Guys, if you don't have a room, you want to get a room, think about Village on Sage. I know [music] it doesn't look like all that from the entrance way, but you never judge a book by its cover, right? >> The Village on Sage Street is ideal [music] for the rapid rehousing program because we're in a transitional setting. um [music] by means that they're month-to-month unit, so they have their own space where they can find and build [music] their comfort and also build community while having access to a multitude of supportive services. The >> program service coordinator [music] ensures that clients receive the assistance they need as they transition out of homelessness [music] and into village on Sage and then ultimately will help them through navigate through RHA's admissions [music] process. The program also helps clients prepare for permanent housing and the adjustments that they're experiencing as they move out of homelessness and eventually into permanent housing. My hope for the future of this program is that we get [music] folks housed and off of the street and they're into safe permanent housing that they can afford in the long run. RHA hopes that clients assisted through the program can find respbit from living on the streets and ultimately find long-term safe permanent affordable housing. On top of just having the a unit here at the village on Sage Street of their own, they also have access to community resources. Uh those resources include a community fitness room, a conference room, community lounge, a mail room, computer room, on-site [music] laundry, and on-site vending >> unit here at the village. They're 555. So in this [music] instance that somebody is a can afford $300, the program would fill in the $255 monthly and [music] then that would keep them housed until their permanent unit came open that would be subsidized to the amount of money that they make. RHA [music] is always looking for opportunities to fill gaps in the affordable housing landscape and it's a partnership [music] like this where three community agencies came together to do just that. Volunteers America is grateful to have the opportunity to partner with the city of Reno and Reno Housing Authority to [music] run this pilot program and provide additional housing for folks who are um on a fixed income and otherwise [music] waiting for their permanent housing. Community can support this program through donating to Volunteers [music] of America or making donations to the city of Reno. We have had a donation from [music] some of our local housing champions of $20,000 that is going to help extend it a little bit also. So that's those are the two ways that that folks can get involved and make donations to keep this program [music] going. [music] [music] >> [music] >> The community is really going to benefit from the new public safety center in a lot of ways. It's a state-of-the-art brand new facility that's going to allow the public access to us in a way that they've never had before in the city. It takes a lot of people, a lot of effort, and a lot of time. It takes every individual, all of us, on a daily basis to make this project work every single day. >> I grew up in the area. Wanting [music] to make this city great and and keep this city safe was a big part of it. It's a great testament to the city of Reno, too, just that they would have the leadership uh and the guts to go forward with a project like this that's so important to the community. We needed something that was large enough for the uh expanding police department. The the current site that the police department are on would need to be demolished because the building has some real structural problems along with some hazardous materials that need to be abatement. The hazardous conditions that you can find in buildings such as this are things like asbestos, things that um were commonplace in buildings at the time when this was built. You have um old pipes in here. You have old um ventilation. You have dust. They're working in jail cells. The water quality is not good over at the other station. It's important for us in our community to realize that, you know, they're doing a great service for us. They're all protecting us and we need to we need to protect them as well. I have employees that work out of old [music] jail cells on the second floor, which is, you know, pretty much an abomination that you spend your life doing a service to our community in a jail cell. [music] It's got bars on the walls, but we're not able to provide the space that these employees need and treat them with the respect and dignity that they deserve. When you work in a building that has issues, that doesn't show the benefits that you are bringing to the community. We looked at [music] the fact that we could reuse an existing facility. You know, there's a lot of character in the city of Reno and we do look at keeping some of that character. This building being the the Reno Gazette Journal had a lot of history. And I tell you, when I woke when I first walked into this building, I felt I felt the buzz of all of the media. Um, it was just it was really energizing. Justin came over and we took a look at it. We knew that that it would be a big effort, but to reuse the the same building, we thought that it would it made a good fit. There's a lot of a lot of challenges [music] um a lot of work between our architect and our police department on figuring out how to fit in a police department in this building. >> Police departments generally don't visit people on the best days of their lives. They're usually when they're having something going on that's creating uh some sort of trauma or some sort of experience that usually isn't positive. And then to come into a place that's not welcoming and inviting and comfortable and a place where we don't even have private rooms to [music] talk to people currently uh is going to change that dynamic completely when they walk into the new public safety center. First step is is you've got to have an architect. We probably sat down for at least 9 months going back and forth. Is this space the right size? Does this [music] space have enough windows? um how do we get uh access uh for video and surveillance and [music] that sort of thing. They did an absolutely fabulous job putting together a set of of plans for us. >> When I looked at the designs initially, I was so proud that they were already in that space where they needed to be. There were very few modifications that I even had to suggest. >> We looked at [music] a it's called a design bid build cuz we already had the design. So, we put it out to bid to the public. Plentium builders, they were our selected bidder. >> Part of it is that we knew that the city needed this project. We knew this was a was a a community need and we knew it was a challenge and so we sort of looked at ourselves as someone uh or a company that is willing to step up uh and and take on a tough challenge. One of the things that we also looked at in in that time period is funding as as you all know everything doubled in [music] price practically a after co and that was a shock to us. >> The pandemic affected construction uh in so many different ways. All those things sort of you know conspired to go against the cost of the project. Uh so that was a challenge. Uh but you know, I think we did a great job of of uh bidding out the project, getting the right subcontractors on board, vetting the pricing, uh making sure that it was fair and reasonable based on the current economics. >> We sat in a room and we were like, "Okay, what can we do here? How can we provide you the community with [music] the facility that this community really needs?" our project manager, Justin George, he actually came over here and [music] moved his office here and it worked out really well because he had 115,000 square foot to himself. [music] >> One of the the major challenges early in the project is upgrading the the structure of the building. So, this building had to be upgraded [music] from a level two, which is what it was required for when RGJ occupied it, to be a level four risk category building. The upgrades that we did to the structure and foundation make this building able to withstand [music] a a larger disaster and remain operational to be able to provide service to the community during a major event [music] like an earthquake. Some of the elements involved with that upgrade um include upgrading the foundation, increasing the the seismic capacity. [music] So, we had to add larger footings, larger foundations under the columns. We had to add some seismic braces to the building. We reused as much of the building as we can. We salvaged a bunch of steel and a bunch of concrete and a bunch of materials from being demolished and [music] tossed into the landfill. We worked with the carpeting manufacturer to remove all of the carpet in the building and send that [music] off to be recycled rather than, you know, 100,000 square ft of carpet being removed and dumped in the landfill. replaced a lot of the old inefficient 40-year-old um HVAC [music] systems with upto-date um efficient mechanical systems. Not only does it have a backup generator, but it's also going to have solar and a battery [music] system to provide resiliency in this building to be sustainable and better serve the police department and community. So, sustainability is something we're thinking about from the beginning through from design [music] through to the end in construction. we're able to expand our women's locker room areas um and allow for that growth that we're hoping to see [music] in our organization as we diversify and move forward. There's going to be space inside that facility that will allow us to conduct in-house training. We are going to have a much better access to things like a real-time crime [music] center where we can actually see what's happening in day-to-day providing that privacy, that space, bringing people in and then growing our [music] department in a manner that makes sense. moving into that new building and having all that equipment and that ability to do it is going to be uh very important to help those goals happen. I believe that we through our partnership that we have with the contractor, the architect [music] and my team, Justin and and his team, they work together so well that we are [music] going to deliver an excellent uh facility to for this community. It's going to be a generational project. >> [music] >> It is a generational project and I think that our police men and women um deserve better than what they have now. I was very impressed [music] with the team that was on the building team, the design team, um our liaison that's working with the police department. Everybody really had a good working knowledge of what we needed to put into a police [music] department to make it modern but not trendy or flashy. Something that is going to withstand the test of time. I [music] can't say enough about the hard work and dedication that all of the team has put forward and I'm just really [music] excited to see how all their work is going to pay off. >> Feels great to drive by and and be able to point at something like this and say, you know, we were part of that. We contributed. Uh we helped get that over the goal line. >> It gives me [music] goosebumps. It really does. Being a part of a a legacy project like building a a police [music] department, it it makes me proud of the the work that I do and it makes me proud at the end of the day when I can go home and and tell my family [music] about the the things we're doing here. >> I want to provide this city and this community what it deserves for the police officers to come to this project, come to this site, be able to grow with this site, and um a police officer deserves the best of the best. And that's what this building brings to them, the best of the best. I think about the people [music] really when more than anything. I mean, sure, I'm an engineer and that's what I do, but I think about the people and the people that are involved and that's what gets [music] me right here because I think that there's so much heart in this community. I'm a public servant and and I'm going to do my best and my team, they're going to do their best for the public. >> [music] [music] >> One of the reasons why I joined RCI was just out of curiosity to know more about what the city of Reno does for everyone who lives here. It was a very genuine interaction with all of the [music] people that we were able to meet throughout this process. That experience was incredible. >> I'm a small business owner and so I definitely felt disconnected. Um not in a bad way, but in the way where I'm like, "Oh, if [music] I have an issue, uh who do I call?" This seemed like a great opportunity to get a lot of information in a relatively short period. You might touch the street department or you might touch the police department, the fire department for whatever reason, just being a regular citizen. But you wouldn't learn about almost all aspects of city government and how it operates. >> I have never seen a city that has been so peopleoriented. I mean, it really seems [music] like they care and I love that about Reno. I love it. >> This is definitely eyeopening, informative. [music] It's a way to just learn how this city runs and to meet incredible people [music] street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. Getting people connected and, you know, running them through some kind of education and connection, [music] I think, is incredibly valuable. >> You'll have an incredible time. You won't regret it. >> It's a benefit all the way around, I think. [music] >> Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris [music] Payne. We're here this week with Reno Public Safety Dispatch to discuss calling 911. Erin, what tips do you have for the community? Well, definitely it's a life-saving, life-threatening emergency. You need to call 911. Things for immediate police, fire, or medical response. Make sure you know your location to give the call taker. And only use text to 911 if you can't make a voice call. >> Well, this is good information to know. And what should the residents also know about dispatch? >> We do have a non-emergency number for all the rest of the calls that aren't emergencies, 334 cops. Those are things for like a parking problems or graffiti. It's also important to know that our call takers take over a half a million calls a year. So, we get pretty busy, but we're always looking for more dispatchers. If you're interested, go to reno.gov/dispatch for a job description. >> Outstanding information. Thank you, Erin. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. [music] Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here today to discuss community court. Judge Hazlet Stevens, what exactly can you tell us about community court? >> Thanks, Chris. We hold community court each Wednesday here at the downtown Reno Library. It is an innovative approach to the justice system that offers services rather than jail time for our participants, many of whom are homeless. Services needed include those for substance use disorders, mental illness, chronic homelessness, and chronic unemployment. >> This is all good to know, but how does this differ from traditional incarceration? Community courts reduce crime, increase services to victims, reduce unnecessary use of jail, and save money by collaborating with service providers using a problem-solving approach instead of jail. We also recently implemented a treatment readiness program on site. >> This is all great to know. Thank you so much, Judge. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. [music] So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. >> [music] >> Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the dangers of distracted driving. Officer Reza, what advice do you have on this topic? >> Thanks, Chris. Distracted driving claimed over 3,000 lives in 2020. Here locally at the Reno Police Department, we'd like to remind everybody that it is illegal to use any electronical handheld device while driving. Texting has become increasingly dangerous. >> Outstanding. And what other tips do you have for the community? >> If you do need to make a text or make a phone call, simply pull over on the side of the road where it's safe to do so. Once you've pulled over, it is now safe to make that text message or make that phone call. You can even put your cell phone in the back seat, in the trunk, or even in the glove box until you've reached your final destination. >> Thank you, Officer Resa. And dig this. For more information, go to renopppd.com. Also, don't forget to follow the city of Reno and RPD on your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne [music] for the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. [music] Today we're going to discuss making a fire escape plan. Joining us is Chief Mandel from Reno Fire Department. Thanks, Chris. A fire escape plan is essential because it lets everyone in your household know exactly what to do in case of a fire. Seconds matter in the event of a fire, and an escape plan can make a world of difference. Start by drawing a floor plan of your home and marking all possible exits from each room. Then designate a meeting point outside a safe distance from the home. Practice [snorts] your escape plan regularly with everyone in your household, especially children. It's important to make sure that everybody knows how to operate windows and doors. It's also important to teach household members to stay low to the ground and smoke and to feel doors for heat before opening them. Thank you, Chief Mandel. [music] To create your own fire escape plan, scan the QR code on the screen or visit reno.gov/fire. [music] So now you know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. From lab swimming and dropin sports to fitness equipment, the city of Reno [music] offers many opportunities to get active and have fun. You may even be able to access these offerings at no [music] cost. Kayla, what should residents know about insurance reimbursement? >> Thanks, Chris. Our parks and recreation department recently expanded their offerings with insurance companies, offering memberships to them at no cost. >> Well, this is exciting. How does it work and who qualifies? >> Yeah, the program offers memberships through their individual insurance company. The insurance company then reimburse the city of Reno for each visit that they come and use our facilities. The expansion of this program is especially beneficial to our seniors. However, it qualifies anyone 18 or older. You just need to contact your insurance company. >> Thank you, Kayla. And don't forget to contact your insurance company to learn more. Visit reno.gov/parks andrec for more information. So now you know with [music] Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with maintenance and operations to discuss leaves. Tim, with fall being here, what advice do you have about leaf removal? >> Thanks Chris. This is typ typically the time of year we start to see the leaves drop and it's pretty simple. Property owners are responsible for the removal of leaves on their property and we ask them to do this in a timely manner to help from flooding or clogging drains during a rainstorm. >> This is good to know. What other advice do you have for the viewers? >> So, it is unlawful for homeowners or property owners to to rake or blow leaves out into the street. So, we ask them to please place them in their garbage cans or in a bag with the excess waste sticker for garbage pickup on their days. and if they could help out our street sweepers by trimming their trees and removing parked cars and garbage cans would be very helpful. >> Outstanding information. Thank you, Tim. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute. Hello, I'm Chris Payne and it's time for the Reno Minute. Today we're excited [music] to spotlight the city's new rolling recreation center, a mobile recreation center designed to bring fun and activities to [music] communities across the city. Here's Kayla Snow to tell us more. >> Thanks, Chris. Our rolling recreation center is all about making accessible recreation for everyone in our community. Our mobile recreation center travels to various parks following the schedule of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada Kids Cafe Summer Meals Program. This means that not only do kids get free recreational activities, but also a free meal. Our program offers a wide range of activities for people of all ages, including sports, games, arts, and crafts, and so much more. The Rolling Recreation Center is free and open to the public. We welcome everyone of all ages to come out, have fun, and enjoy our city parks. >> Thank you, Kayla. Visit reno.gov/parks [music] andre to find out when the rolling recreation trailer rolls through a park near you. So now you [music] know with Reno. Thank you for watching the Reno Minute. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with the Reno Police Department to discuss the Save Volunteer Program. Evan, what is SAVE? >> Thanks, Chris. SAVE is an acronym that stands for Senior Auxiliary Volunteer Effort. It's a wonderful organization that comprises of seniors and they help the police department with additional resources and through their patrols, they help with crime prevention and observations. >> Outstanding. Also, if someone wants to volunteer, how do they get involved? Basically, anyone in SAVE is 50 years of age or older, we ask that they volunteer 16 hours a month and they can, if you're interested, either call, email, or visit the website for Reno PD. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Evan. And don't forget to follow RPD and the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with the Reno Minute, I'm Chris Payne. Hello and welcome to the Reno Minute. I'm Chris Payne. We're here this week with public works to discuss street rehabilitation and maintenance. Jonathan, what can you tell us about this program? >> Yeah, thanks Chris. Our public works departments were working really hard to improve our neighborhood streets in our community. For instance, we're just finishing up a rehab project in Midtown where we included the replacement of our roadways, streets, sewer, and even out alleyway improvements. >> Well, this is good to know, but how are these neighborhoods chosen? >> Sure, Chris. Good question. The city inspects all our local roadways and calculates a pavement condition index or a PCI score. The streets with the lowest PCI scores are grouped and ranked based on factors such as utility placement or proximity to essential services. If you'd like more information, please visit our website at reno.gov/cap projects. Thanks so much, Jonathan. And don't forget to follow the city of Reno on all of your favorite social media platforms. So now you know with Reno. I'm Chris Payne for the Reno [music] Minute. It's it's [music] very it's very hard living at the shelter. Um it's kind of it's kind of survive [music] if you can uh until you can get out. And and and the thing about uh my situation was [music] getting out was was a was a conduit for me to thrive. You know, once I was once I got out of there, as you can see, [music] I'm I'm doing pretty well. >> Reno Works is a joint partnership with Volunteers of America in the city of Reno. [music] And he was one of the participants that had applied for the program. He was going through some medical issues at [music] the time and staying in the shelter. So, he had a big decision. He wasn't working as much. [music] Um, he's staying here at Marvel Way and when he was getting approved for the housing piece, they were approving him at 60% [music] AMI for the community and he wouldn't be able to afford that. So we had um facilitated some conversation with Marvel way and you know getting him something he can afford [music] and he ended up I believe qualifying for the 40% unit or 30% unit and then um he was still making kind of [music] a decision on whether he would be able to work and you know like maintain housing and I was kind of instrumental [music] in hey you know you need to take this jump you're going to medically you know heal in [music] your own place where you're not surrounded. And there was a point to where he was in the hospital and um he didn't know if he was going to have a bed when [music] he went back. So I'm like, Renie, we can't keep doing this and we need to get into housing. >> It's it's been it's been a it's been quite a journey. And I I think I think if anyone anyone that sees me now that they're like they're like you were you were there last year and now you're here. It's it's it's kind of amazing. I graduated in November. Raley's ended up hiring me and they were one of the partners. So I got a job at Rayley's and I'm working as a courtesy [music] collector over there. Uh I I bagg groceries and push carts. >> The partnership with Reno Works and Raies is amazing. It gives the community a chance to get those unfortunate people a chance to get back on their feet and get their life back together. Rainey builds relationships and that's uh big here at Raies. Um especially with our customers and the [music] team members. Uh once you build a relationship, you build the trust and that puts everything together. The ultimate the ultimate was to get me in here and get me out of the shelter so so that I could thrive, you know, uh and and I have honestly uh I'm doing a lot of raies and I'm I'm working really hard and uh people see that for individuals [music] that are thinking about applying to Reno Works or go for it cuz cuz honestly it'll help you move forward. >> Renie was one of the best participants. Always showed up with a smile on his face despite what he was going through. He um still supports the program [music] to this day. Comes to graduations. He was amazing. [music] >> Do you know how to survive a fire in your home? I'm John. This is Katie with the Reno Fire Department. And today, we want to share some important information with you. >> To survive, you need to know the basics of fire [music] behavior. A fire needs three things to exist: fuel, heat, and oxygen. [music] >> The best way to do this is to keep the fuel side of the triangle away from the heat side. [music] The easiest way to survive a fires to prevent it from happening in the first place. Today, we'll show you some ways to prevent fires from happening. And if they do start, how to evacuate safely. Cooking is the main cause of home fires and fire injuries, and you can prevent them. Here's how. First, stand by your pan. If you leave [music] the kitchen, turn the burner off. Then, watch what you're cooking. Fires start when the heat is too high. If you see any smoke or the grease start to boil, [music] turn the burner off. Another thing to keep in mind is to turn pot handles toward the back of the stove. Then no one can bump them or pull them. Finally, keep combustibles away from the burners. Believe it or not, dogs have [music] turned on burners accidentally while trying to get food stored on top of ranges. >> In our modern world, lithium ion batteries are everywhere. These types of batteries can be dangerous. So, here's some things to keep in mind. >> [music] >> Stop using them if you notice an odor, a change in color, too much heat, change in shape, leaking, [music] or odd noises. Charge and store spare lithium ion batteries away from anything that can burn. Don't put lithium-ion batteries in direct sunlight or keep them in hot cars. This is a fire risk. >> Here are some [music] other things around the house to remember. Keep anything that can burn at least 3 ft [music] from the furnace. oil burner, wood stoves, water heaters, and other heat generating equipment. When it comes to cooking appliances, space heaters, washers, and dryers, they [music] should be plugged directly into wall outlets. Clean lint filters every time you use [music] the dryer and never leave a burning canel alone. Looking at the triangle again, the third component is oxygen. Fire needs oxygen [music] to survive. Progression of fire can be slowed by compartmentalizing your home. The easiest way to do this is to keep room doors and windows closed. The garage typically houses many potential ignition sources and heavy fuel loads. So, make sure the man door between the garage and living space is a solid core door with a fire rating of [music] no less than 20 minutes. Any alterations to this door, including pet door installs, will allow a fire that starts in the garage, to quickly progress into the living space. Many home fires can start outside and spread into your home. So, don't store garbage or combustibles under windows or next to doors. [music] Remove vegetation that is against your exterior walls, especially if it is dead and dying. Juniper brush may look green on the outside, but under the green hides dead needles that can easily ignite. Even with our best intentions, [music] accidents can occur. Always be prepared to escape. On average, you only have about 2 minutes to escape a fire once a smoke alarm sounds. Working smoke alarms are critical. Install [music] and maintain them in every sleeping room and every floor. Test the battery monthly and replace it if over 10 years old. [music] Know two ways out of every room and make a meeting space. If you have children in the house, [music] take time to draw a plan and explain it to them in a way that makes sense to them. The biggest takeaway is to [music] make a plan and practice it. One common mistake we see after fires is that residents will open doors and windows thinking this will let the heat and smoke out of the house. Remember, fire seeks oxygen. Adding air to fire only makes it bigger and spread to those openings. When exiting, close the doors and windows behind you. For more information on fire survival, please visit our website at reno.gov/fire. Thank you. Be safe. Hi boys and girls. My name is John, fire marshal for the city of Reno. Did you know a fire occurs in a house every 65 seconds in our country? That's like every minute. Sadly, this also means many people get hurt. Your ability to get out of your home during the fire depends on early warning from fire and knowing how to escape if a fire happens. Fires can happen anywhere. The question is, are you prepared? Our extreme team is [music] going to help you make a home escape plan. When you are done with that home escape plan, teach it to your family and other members in your household so they can escape fire as well. If you do that, you can be part of the Reno Fire Department [music] >> Extreme Team. >> This is Boston, our fire dog. He's going to introduce you to our fire extreme team. >> Thanks, John. Meet the extreme team. Together, we're making a fire escape plan. This is Sean. He takes care of me every day, and he'll talk about fire alarms. Shel's here, too. Shel will teach us how to get out and stay out. This is Katie, and she'll talk about finding a safe meeting place. And finally, Tina is really excited to talk about why we need to practice our [music] plan. The first part of a home escape plan is a working smoke alarm. Fire produces smoke. Smoke and hot gases move upward towards the ceiling. As a fire gets bigger, the smoke and hot gases move downward towards the floor and superheat the room until everything in the room catches fire. That's why smoke alarms are [music] so important. They detect fire and warn you before the fire gets too big and you can't escape. Because [music] smoke goes up, smoke alarms should be installed on the ceiling or high point of the wall. They should be in every [music] sleeping room, hallway outside the sleeping room, and every floor. Smoke alarms should be tested every month to make sure they work. >> [music] >> Have your parents or older brother and sister help you with this as you may need a ladder. To test the smoke alarm, push and hold the test [music] button for 3 seconds. It should make a loud beeping noise. If it does not make a loud beeping noise, [music] then have your mom or dad replace the battery or install a new alarm. Thanks, Sean. Smoke alarms can [music] be loud and scary, especially if it goes off when you're sleeping and dreaming of chasing rabbits. If I heard an alarm, I will wake up immediately [music] and run outside. But I have four legs and I'm low to the ground. You're human, so you need to be more careful when getting outside. Right, Shel? >> That's right, Boston. [music] Remember, fire produces heat and smoke that travels up. Have you ever tried to breathe in smoke? Smoke can hurt your lungs, especially if it's superheated. [music] If you smell or see smoke, you want to stay under the smoke. If you are in bed, when the smoke alarm activates, [music] don't stand up. Roll out of bed onto your hands and knees. Stay low and go. [music] Always know two ways out of any room. For most people, the first way out is the door they came into the room. That should be [music] your first way out. Remember to stay low. Crawl to the door and feel the door for heat [music] before opening it. The best way to do this is to feel the door knob in face of the [music] door with the back side of your hand. If it is cool, then open the door slightly and look for smoke. If you do not see smoke, go outside [music] to your safe meeting place. [music] If you do see smoke, close the door and go to your second [music] way out. Usually, the second way out is the window. Don't break the window. Broken glass can catch you. [music] Practice opening the window in your room when you get home. If you have a screen, practice popping out the screen with your parents. It's usually pretty [music] easy. If you live on an upper floor, talk to your mom or dad about getting a fire escape ladder [music] and learn how to use it. >> Thanks, Shel. So, if you hear an alarm, don't hide. Get outside. If there is smoke, stay low and go. But once you're outside [music] that's a great question, Boston. Everyone in your household needs to know where to go so when firefighters arrive, they know who is safe and who needs to be rescued. [music] A meeting place should be a safe distance from the building. A tree, mailbox, or even [music] a neighbor's house is a good safe meeting place because they don't move. A car, garbage can, or traffic cone is not because they may not be there when the fire actually happens. Once you're out, call [music] 911 if you have a phone. Now, let's go back inside and answer some questions. >> Thanks, Katie. My first question is, [music] should a person go back inside a burning house to rescue somebody else? >> Once you are out, stay out. Never go back in for anyone or anything. Once [music] firefighters arrive, they are trained and have the tools to rescue anyone still in the building. >> What if I live on the third floor and I [music] cannot get out? >> That is a great question. If you're stuck in your room and cannot get out, make sure your room door is closed, hang a towel or [music] sheet outside your window. This acts as a signal to the firefighters outside that someone [music] is still in the building. We will come get you. When firefighters enter the home, they will be dressed in turnouts and be wearing a mask, helmet, and a tank. This can make them look very scary. The [music] mask they will wear will make a noise like Darth Vader. Remember, they are here to rescue you. Fire can make a lot of noise, so you need to [music] say loud words over the noise to help firefighters find you. Help is always a good choice. >> Now, that's a lot of good information, [music] but now what? >> Well, Boston, now we draw and practice our plan. Pretend you're a superhero flying over your house. [music] From this view, draw a map of your home. Include the [music] rooms and all windows and doors. Now, identify which rooms are used for sleeping and draw a green arrow showing your first way out and a red arrow showing your second way. This candle Oh, you did. Is that what that is? Yeah, that is. >> The other ones are toxic. >> I know. I've stopped. So did So have I. >> So I know. I love it. >> I only do flameless candles now and I stopped using >> Yes. They're bad. >> Hormone disruptors, they say. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> I stopped that about a year ago. Tell me how you Oh. Feels good. All right, Madame Clerk, thank you so much. We're back on the record and we are going to start with item B3. Do you have any public comment on this item? >> Uh, C3 or C3. Sorry, >> Jackie's fault. Not my fault. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. >> Uh, there's I apologize. >> There's no one registered to speak and we did not receive any public comment. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Floor is yours. >> Good afternoon. Matt Taylor, assistant finance director for the city of Reno. Um today we are here to for the annual acceptance of the affer and we have a brief presentation from our auditors up first from Baker Tilly. Um it's partner Amanda Moore and senior Elise Horsley are going to be presenting. >> Okay. >> They're online. Yes. >> Perfect. to hear us. Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. Uh, do we have the ability to share our screen and then we'll start with introductions? >> Yes, you do. >> Okay. Elise, do you want to pull that up? While Elisa is pulling up the presentation, I will introduce myself. Uh I am Amanda Moore. Uh I am a principal with uh Baker Tilly. And uh for those of you that may have not heard, uh we we recently merged with Baker Tilly in June of 2025. So previously you would have heard from us as Moss Adams, but now after the merger, we have taken on the Baker Tilly name. Uh I am a principal here and I solely work with uh governmental entities such as the city and have been with the firm for just about 25 years. >> With that, I will let Ely do an introduction and we'll get started with the presentation. >> Hi everyone, my name's Elise Horsley, a senior manager with Baker Tilly. I've been with the firm for 12 years and I'm happy to be here today. Yeah. So, we're here today to present the audit results for the city. Uh we uh you want to go to the next slide? We'll go through our short agenda. So, what we'll go over today is just some some highle information just to remind you of the scope of the services that we do provide to the city. Uh our audit results, so are the audit reports that we have issued and are included with your financial statements. and then we'll go through some additional communications that we communicate to those charts of governance at the end of every audit and then we'll just conclude with uh your your service team. We'll go to the next slide. So just as a reminder uh the services that we provide to the city uh around the annual audit is that we do audit your financial statements. So your annual comprehensive financial report um in accordance with the auditing standards we follow. There's two mentioned there on the side on the slide there. The first is our generally accepted accounting um or generally accepted auditing standards and we follow these for all of our audits. In addition to that, we also follow the generally accepted governmental auditing standards which means uh we issue an additional report over internal controls. Uh while that report does not express an opinion over internal controls, if we had any uh findings to report, it does get communicated in that report. We also uh complete the single audit of your federal grant programs under the uniform guidance. Uh any entity that spends $750,000 or more and in the not too far future, a million dollars or more is subject to the single audit under the uniform guidance. And then as part of our audit, we're responsible for community uh reporting to you uh our audit plan. So we do that in the uh in our planning phases and we typically do that uh with uh your subcommittee, the FAB. And then uh presenting our audit results, which we're here to do today. And then if we were to have any internal control findings or instances of non-compliance that came out of our audit, we would be communicating those to you as well. The last item there I always like to mention that uh while the city puts together what is called an annual comprehensive financial report uh that is above and beyond what is required under your generally accepted accounting principles. So you follow the Gazsby principles when you put together your financial statements but the the city does put together this act for report that gets submitted to the GFOA for a certificate of excellence. And so we do also review the the ACTER for those additional requirements. Uh when you're looking at your overall ACER, some of those additional requirements include uh the introductory section. So your transmitt letter and some of the information in your introductory section as well as the statistical information in the back. So the 10 years worth of historical data uh are not typically required under the accounting principles. But in order to achieve that award, uh, you have to put together a wellestablished and easy to read financial statement as well as include those additional elements. Elise and I actually both volunteer for the GFOA and we review a number of acers each year uh for that award as well. You can go to the next slide. So as part of our audit uh we issued two of our audit reports. I will talk about the uniform guidance report here in a moment. But so far we have completed our audit. We completed the audit of the financial statements at the end of November and issued our report over the financial statements. We issued an unmodified or clean opinion over your financial statements which means that we were able to get comfortable that the financial statements are materially correct in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles that you follow. So overall really good results there. That governmental auditing standards report. This is the report I mentioned that if we had a binding in internal controls which essentially uh as part of our process we always look at internal controls and if we were to identify some sort of internal control deficiency which is simp essentially means that an error could slip through the cracks. we have to evaluate that and uh if it if we believe that it's important enough to communicate to you uh that would be a significant deficiency or if we had concerns that a material error could slip through the cracks uh that would be a material weakness and it would get included in this report and you can see on the slide there we have no reportable findings to present today. So great news there. The last report that we normally issue is the uniform guidance report. This is the single audit report over your federal awards. you'll see that that's on hold. The the reason for that is the compliance supplement which normally comes out in about May was significantly delayed this year and then uh when it was pretty close to being issued uh the government shut that report which we rely on in order to complete our audit did not come out until after we issued your audit reports over the financial statements. So uh act for to include your schedule of expenditures and federal awards in our audit reports over the single audit. The the timeline was moved up on the financial statements. However, that being said, the the there was a draft of the compliance supplement and so we did complete the majority of our testing already related to the programs we audited. And so now we're just in the wrap-up phase of review and we will issue those reports as soon as possible. Uh but at this and at this point we don't have any compliance findings to report but did want to mention um that it that was much u more delayed than normal and not related to anything that is going on with the city. Um and this isn't Baker Tilly specific either. and no accounting firms or auditing firms were able to complete their single audits until that compliance supplement comes out. So, just wanted to give a little background on why that one's still on hold. You can go to the next slide. And with that, Elise is going to take us through some of our additional communications that our auditing standards uh tell us are important to communicate as part of our audit process. >> Thanks, Amanda. All right. So, these are um the matters required to be communicated with those charged with governance, which is the city council, you. And so, these are some um these are all outlined in the letter that you received. But I'll just highlight a few key points here. Uh one of the first things we do is we remind you of our um responsibility as auditors. And so, we're responsible for forming and expressing an opinion on whether the financial statements have been prepared uh in all material respects in accordance with accounting standards. And so our audit, you know, doesn't really management of their responsibilities, but we do uh follow those standards. And then we conduct your audit in accordance with two sets of auditing standards like Amanda said, the generally accepted auditing standards as well as the government auditing standards. So and then in all of our auditing standards, we have to exercise professional judgment and then maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. So those are some of our responsibilities. And then another thing that we look at like Amanda mentioned or alluded to that we look at your internal controls. We review them to make sure you know they help us in their in our audit planning of of designing audit procedures. Um but we do not express an opinion on those internal controls. So we like to remind you of that in this letter as well. And then like Amanda said also uh we are responsible for communicating any significant matters related to the financial statement audit uh to you all. And so that's what we're here doing today. And then we like to point you to the significant accounting practices used by the city and so we can point you to the ACTR the accounting policies are in in the ACT for in note one and you can uh look at them all detailed there and then the city did implement two new uh accounting standards this year. So that was the Gazsby 101 and Gazby 102 and Gazby 101 is just a unified framework for recognizing and measure measuring compensated absences. And so with the new types of leave that have been coming out just really replaces some older guidance to address evolving types of leave. And then Gazby 102 is a requirement for governments to uh disclose any vulnerabilities related to significant concentrations or constraints. Um and so that was just more um more details on that. And so Gaz 101 and 102 did not have a major effect on the city, but they were implemented and analyzed to make sure that all the requirements were met. And then here's some a list of some items that we do have to explicitly say within that letter and it would have to be communicated to you whether they happened or not. And so uh if there were any significant unusual transactions um or difficulties encountered during the audit, we would communicate with you those and we did not have any. So good news there. Same with the disagreements with managements or any uncorrected misstatements in the audit. uh we would have to communicate with you to you those as well and we did not have any. And then again if management consulted with any other accountants if we had any disagreements about accounting standards or how how it should be tested or how it should be um implemented, excuse me. Uh we would we would mention those in this this letter as well if they consulted with any other accountants and we are not aware that they did. So all good news. Um, I just want to point you to a couple new accounting standards that'll be coming in the next year or so and that's Gazby 103, the financial reporting model improvements and uh Gazby 104 which is a disclosure of certain capital assets. So both um that the Gatsby 103 you may just to take note it may affect the way that your MDNA looks and so um it it if you see some differences there that'll be the effects of that standard implementation and then uh disclosure of certain capital assets it's really just improving improving and giving more clarity to some of those capital asset disclosures. And then here is a a list of our service team. It's not by means not everyone that worked on the audit or was helping with us, but you know, you have Amanda and I here today. And then we have Ashley Austin who is our concurring reviewer. She's sort of an outside person, not involved in the details of the day-to-day part of the audit, but she really helps us with technical items and um can give us like a bird's eye view as we're in the we're in the details of it all. She can kind of be an outside person, maybe see some things that we don't in the details. So, and then Allison Miller is our audit senior and then Samuel and Matthew are some of our audit staff that worked on this engagement. And with that, um, appreciate it. And if you have any questions, happy to take those. Okay. Any questions? Anything you want to add, Matt? Anything? >> I have a few things just to add on to the end. >> Perfect. Go ahead. So, the act is supposed to be accepted by council under NRS 354 and we will be bringing the single audit back probably in I'm thinking in February when it'll be completed and we'll have it back to you. Um the supplemental guidance was issued the same day that we issued our audit report so that's why it's it's off. And then um uh two items to note in the ACT for there were two they're considered violations but they're exempt violations um under NRS. Um it was because in workers comp and the IBNR for workers comp and the um insurance funds both came in in August and when we recorded those those expenses went over budget. So and we are in the process of filling out the paperwork to file for our GFOA award. It'll be the 43rd time that we should receive it if we get it. We are in the process of finishing up our paffer which will qualify us for the triple count crown again for I think the third year if when we finish that and complete it. So, and I wanted to say our team is very good upstairs. They were very adaptable to making changes this year. We're already working on the 26 acter because we have we're implementing new software that's the same that we use for our budget software. So, we should be ready to go with the new Gazsby 103 when when we're ready to go. So, we're planning ahead and we should be good. >> Wow. I What is going on there? I mean, have we've just made it too easy for you or you guys just that >> No, we know how difficult it is that we plan very far ahead. >> That is so good. I mean, I'd like to say, aren't we the I mean, the I guess the most awardees out of any municipality. I don't know if we're the most awardy, but we shoot for all of them. >> Can you find out if we are? >> I I can try. [laughter] [gasps] >> But um I think this speaks volumes to the expertise that all of you bring in your department. It's so impressive. Um, you know, we've had various uh directors of finance throughout the years and it's the one thing um that has not changed upstairs is the team because they know how solid you are and how talented you are. And so I just want to commend you over the years. It's an area that um has had I guess precise um oversight and um just I mean I don't think you could do it any better. >> This was the first year we finished the act for before Thanksgiving so we didn't have to work over the Thanksgiving holiday to get it done. So >> that's right. >> That's right. Every year I forget that while we're enjoying turkey, you guys are enjoying reading numbers. >> Yes. >> Fantastic. Anyway, super impressive. Okay, questions as we move along. No, >> madame mayor, I move to accept the act for uh for fiscal year ending in June 30th 2025. >> Perfect. So, I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Well, that's impressive. No questions, nothing. Just >> on your way. Good job. All right. Thanks, you two. >> You're back to C2. >> All right. We're going to head back to C2 on the agenda. Madame Clerk, do you have any public comment? >> No. >> No public comment. >> Okay. Um, we're going to send it right back to you, Vicki. Take it away. >> Thank you. Uh, good afternoon, Madame Mayor and Council members. Vicky Van Burren, director of finance for the record. Uh today I have a a short update for you, financial update on the general fund. Today I'm going to really focus on uh the general fund and some of the the thought process that we have for the expenditures for this year as we build out next year's budget. This aligns with the strategic plan through fiscal sustainability. We'll be talking about the current year. We're five months into this year and then the working draft for next year's budget. So in the current year, we still have some revenues that we have some limited information on. And unfortunately, these are some of our major revenues. So I won't have a lot of more detailed information for that until January when I come forth because right now we only have one quarter of data for those. Um so it's kind of hard to trend off of one quarter of data. But we have been working on the expenditure side of it up to this point. So I have some more information for you there. CAX, we have three months of that. I have a slide that comes up next that the where we'll talk through um some of the challenges with that and then everything else is really kind of trending um as we anticipate revenue-wise compared to budget. Salary and benefits right now through this first five months of the year are tracking about 2% below budget and then service and supplies are tracking about 5% below budget. So really on spot um where we anticipate for this time of year when you look at consolidated tax um we talked about this last time July and August when I came here last month in October I mean last month in November um we had July and August allocations and those were kind of up and down you know 15% below budget 30% above budget and that's because of the changes at the department of taxation with those distributions and the cycles um they came out in October and said that they were switching back to that modified acrruel accounting system and they were also switching back to a similar cycle as they were on prior to last November, so almost a year ago. Um September should be the first month that we see a normal allocation and I was very excited to kind of see that yes, that appears to be what's happening now because the cuto off times and the cycle appear to be back on schedule again. So you'll see with September on here, I've highlighted that last column out there that shows a 2.1% increase over a prior year. This really reflects what we really anticipated and expected is going on with the economy that we're seeing growth, very small growth, but growth and stability in this space. Um this is the first data point that we've had in a year in this area of this large revenue source that has really confirmed what we think is going on. And so that's kind of exciting here, but we'll know a little more as we get a couple more data points as we go forward. And then we should have the consistency now that they're not going to continue to switch back and forth. At least to my knowledge at this point from what we know now, they're going to continue on this path. So that's good news. When I come before you in January, it's toward the end of the month, I'll have two more data points. I will have October and November at that point. and we'll be able to really give some really good projections as we look at current year and next year um for this really large data source. So, as a reminder, the working budget for the fiscal year 27 draft budget that I brought forward last month, we're looking at about a $24 million deficit. The way we normally build the budget, we had a similar deficit last year when we I came forward. um that deficit was bridged by reducing expenditures by about 16 million and then some one-time funds about 9.5 million. We're looking at some similar things right now working on that expenditure side to see how we can start to bridge that gap. Um what we don't know and is not included in what you see here are any collective bargaining agreements that don't have contracts that are multi-year currently. And so for this case it would be IFFF for the current year and next year fiscal year 27 and then local 39 does not their contract ends at the end of this current year. So they would have a they would be open for fiscal year 27 as well. Nothing has been assumed as far as these numbers for that. So that would be outside of this at this point. So what's next? Last time we talked about this as well refining the budget what it looks like. I wanted to give you some ideas of what we're looking at as far as on the expenditure side on bridging the gap. One of the things that we haven't been doing, we haven't been budgeting for the vacancy savings, that normal savings that occurs when someone leaves a position and someone else comes into it during the year. Um, what we're seeing trendwise over the years, as I look back over it, anywhere from 1 and a.5 to 2 and a.5% for a vacancy rate savings over the year when that occurs. Um, if we start budgeting for that vacancy savings with the 27 budget, what that allows us to do is to recapture that savings within that budget year versus waiting for the year to close out and have the savings at the end of the year. This is normal savings that occurs during throughout the year. And so about 2% uh for a vacancy rate if we do that equals about $5 million. Um so that would reduce that $24 million deficit by the five million if we budget it. The benefit is you capture it in the year where it's occurring. Um some of the cons are that it does decrease your flexibility during the year. So like last year where revenues um unexpectedly declined in some areas, it will limit our ability to flex a little more once we do this. Um but I do think it's the right direction for us to go. We will just have to be very cautious as we move forward and cautious in choosing the rate as well. Um I would not be comfortable around a 3%. Some agencies do 3%. We don't typically even see a 3% vacancy. It's usually between 1 and a half to two. And so we'll kind of narrow that down as we continue to build the budget. But just to give you some ideas of where that's at, um I would like to have that here today. Uh new this year too, we're doing zerobased budgeting. So zerobased budgeting with the departments mean they start from scratch and they have to justify every dollar that they want to spend um and where that's going in the budget and what the benefit is and how that benefits um the community and how it impacts the strategic initiatives by us council. And so by doing that we're going to capture again similar to the vacancy rate capturing some of that savings within the year. So approximately 2 million is my estimate right now. Next thing is uh using some one-time sources for maintenance. So this would be annual maintenance for building maintenance and parks maintenance that we need annually. We have some one-time funds that from projects that closed out from the Moana pool and the public safety center that could fund that for this next year. They would be one time in nature, but it is available as capital money that currently exists. And um I would recommend that we use it in this area just recognizing it is one time. Um, and then lastly under that first little area there, OPED workers comp additional funding. This is additional funding that we've been doing as the city for a few years. Um, it's been suspended last year and OPED's been suspended for a couple of years. Um, it's still means that we are funding these liabilities, but we're funding them on a pay as we go basis. So, we're still paying them annually. This was additional funding that we were doing to try to decrease the long-term liability that was out there. My recommendation would be as we move into this cycle is that we um suspend it kind of indefinitely at this point or at least for the near term until we can balance the budget in other areas because this is additional funding that we are not required to do. But it's it's a very nice to have thing to do. But at this point, um, I would say that would be the first thing that I would kind of, um, draw back on until we can get, um, the other areas squared away. So, if you look between those ones that I just talked about, that's about $12 million. Um, and then reserves and one-time funds, I want to talk about this one a little bit. Similar to the vacancy savings, since we didn't budget for it in the current year, we know we're going to have some savings in the current year. Right now, from the previous slide that I talked about, we're at 2% vacancy for uh vacancy rate for um salary and benefits and then 5% for service and supplies. So, between those two, that's about $8 million. So, in total, that's about $20 million here that we've potentially identified at a high level that will help bridge that gap if this is the direction that council wants us to continue to go toward um as far as budgeting for vacancy savings and such. And um that's really the space where we have the one thing I want to point out here is over half of this money about 13 million of it is um onetime money. So it's really critical to note that one-time funds won't be available as we continue on. So we're still kind of bridging a gap with one-time funds as we're kind of limping along. And so we really need to look at some long-term strategies. So in January when I come back I'm going to be talking more about the revenue side of it as we look out and project those and have more information on those because the revenue side of it is going to be really critical in fiscal sustainability going forward as well as the expenditure. You know it's both items we have to look at. And so um up here I have some information as far as revenues and talking about that as we move forward. Um but right now these are the the general thoughts as we're building out the budget. We'll have detail in January and then um we'll have conversations on priorities and and the direction for council then too. So that meeting will be on January 28th and I'll have extra data on revenues which I need to give more detail as we move forward. I did put a motion on this one just so that as you have your discussions, we could have a motion um that we could incorporate some of your comments and things as we start to move forward specifically like the budgeting for vacancy savings and and such. So that concludes my presentation. Okay, fantastic. Um Vicki, I am so impressed. Uh, I love how you sort of explain everything. If you have not met with Vicki, it's a really good opportunity to do so because she can get extremely detailed, but explain it in a way that it's completely understandable. And I love your vision of saying as we move forward, be a little bit more strategic. Um, because it's very complex, too. You have to you have to really know exactly what you're doing. So, um I think you're incredible just your your background and um and how you know this budget inside out cuz it's not basic and your you and your team's expertise does a fantastic job. So, u it's impressive. Anyway, okay, I'm going to send it to um Councilman Ree. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um thank you so much for the presentation. I appreciated the workup that we got in our policy briefings on it as well. I wanted to share with you a little uh sort of story about a speaker last night during the NAB. So at that presentation last night in front of my NAB uh Miss Bryant made a presentation about sea tax and a very excellent presentation that we've received here and it's I guess it's a touring road show. It goes to all the meetings and one of the uh NAB members very astutely made a comment and I just want to share with you. She said it it's clear that it's not a uh overspending issue. The city just does not have the revenue that it needs. And so I I sort of used that to say uh thank you for the work you're doing because you're basically like as she put it and not my words, you're moving pieces around on the board. Um but you haven't stretched the board or added new money to it. And so that's sort of the concern that I have is that we as council members, each one of us has an obligation duty to pay attention to where the money is spent and we are the ones making the different decision on allocations, but we don't have as much control over the increasing of more new money. And so that that's one of the issues that I um sort of feel challenged by. And so on the in the slide deck presentation, you identify lots of opportunities for us to save money to make sure that we're doing everything we can to put money in the right places. What about opportunities for new money? Is that just the uh one slide that you had? Have we missed something? Are we overlooking something? Like I People often ask me, why am I not doing something? I'm like, well, if we had something we could do, don't you think we would be doing it? Right? It's sort of a strange position to be in. >> Right. Thank you for the question. I appreciate that. Um, as you know, Cax is the number one source in the general fund of revenue and then property tax. Both of those set at the legislative level. And then you have franchise fees. Franchise fees all set at the legislative level except for sanitation, the waste management one. And so that's why I had called out that one because that's really one of the only spaces that you have um an opportunity to make some changes that potentially could impact the budget by increasing fees if that's not available. >> Sparks has increased their franchise fees uh just as in the newspaper uh earlier uh in the week. Um look, none of us are trying to balance the budget on the backs of any of the folks in our community. we're trying to provide the essential services that cities provide in a reasonable way, right? And so that's part of the issue. I think the other comment that the same commenter made at my NAB last night was like, hey, this is a a question that we each individually have to answer for ourselves. What kind of a community do we want? What kind of parks do we want? What kind of police department and fire department we want? To have those things, we have to be able to pay for them. So, I often think that the budget is a reflection of our values. And so I'm so grateful for the work that your team has put in because you really help us to make those prioritizations. Thank you for that. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead, Councilman Dor. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, great job, uh, Miss Van Beern. Really appreciate your simple focus on the budget and how to get through um, and your creativity, which is paramount here. Um, I, um, want to just talk, I guess, about two things. And one of those is how do we increase revenues? I'm going to say something I said at our last council meeting, but I'd like you to what I'd like you to do, what I'd like to see is that you bring forward when you're bringing forward the general fund that you're also bringing forward the RDA. And I know it's a special fund, but it can help us offset general fund expenses within those areas. And um the one I brought up last time was possibly having RDA buy out certain city properties which they then can negotiate on. And the more I thought about it after the meeting, the more I thought that is probably a good direction. Um I know in one RDA, the RDA 2, we have about $10 million or expected to and the other one we have about $2 million. And so in this case, it seems like it would be a simple transfer of the projects that we asked to go out for RFP to first transfer them to RDA, then go out to our R our FP. And the reason is we're still the same council, we still have the same focus and mission. But um the if there's a deal to be made, let's just say that we have a property and we say we'd like it to be an affordable housing project and send out an RFP on that. Well, that's something that is, I think, well negotiated within the redevelopment agency. I mean, part of their issue is to deal with blight. Part of their issue is to deal with economic development. Any project that might come along on city- owned land could be in those districts, just just talking about the land in those districts could be um an economic development opportunity. So, I'd rather just get paid out from the RDA for the appraised value and then have the RDA, which is still us, sitting and debating about what we want to do with these properties that would enhance deal with blight or enhance economic development in the other mission areas of RDA. So, that's one thing in terms of revenues that I haven't really heard you mentioned, so I wanted to mention it. The second requ is a data request. um as soon as possible. I would appreciate if we could get a list of the positions that are held open um that are either on frozen or held open for some reason and what fund they're being um paid out of. Is it general fund? Is it um a specialized fund like um uh RDA or the sewer fund or you know some special category that you know it goes to so that we can get we can start getting educated and have a better picture when we actually hear you on the I think you said was a 28th or 26th in January. Um we can come into it with the knowledge but I'd like to have it sooner rather than later. Like I don't want to get it the day before January 28th. I'd like it to maybe be a council memo and so that we can just get educated and learn about where we are staffing wise. So it would be helpful in this memo if we had how many total positions there are, you know, so we know what the basket is, how many are filled, how many are open, and what categories they're in, you know, which departments or andor which budget funds. Okay, that would since staffing is 85% of what we do, getting that picture would really help. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, any questions? >> We can pull it back up. It was I move to direct staff to move forward with the development of the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget based on feedback received from council. >> All right. I have a motion. I have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. >> Okay. Okay, we are now heading into um and I guess under this I will need to remove >> No, no thanks. >> No, you just resign and then >> I would like to resign. >> Nope. Yep. >> And then in order to appoint someone from this body who can then can we do that right now? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion carries. >> Knowing history. I'm always happy to help if you need it. But >> thank you for the opportunity. >> I think will benefit all of us. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Uh >> G3. >> G2. >> Nope. G3. >> No, we're on G2. >> Martine has removed two already from the agenda. G3. >> Oh, you did. >> Yeah. My apologies. We weren't ready to make an appointment. Uh we made an we had an interview um a few days ago and they weren't able to get added because our application hadn't come in. So, I just want to wait till that happens till we can appoint everybody in January. >> Okay. Good. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. We have two um openings and we're going to make one appointment today which is the reappoint of Darren McDonald. Second. I all those opposed motion. >> Yes. B8. >> We're going to head to B8 on uh the patch program. And this was pulled by Councilwoman Eert. Okay, go ahead. >> Yeah. So, just want to talk a little bit about our budget. You know, we talk about potholes and things like that. And I think people have the idea that we have unlimited funds to fix roads and want to know why we can't just repave everything and and um so just wanted to talk a little bit about um you know how much how much money we have annually to do street repairs. >> Carrie Ksky, director of public works. Um, so just for a a point of clarification, this particular contract uh with West Coast Paving for permanent patch program, that is the the annual project that we put out that covers the encroachment and and excavation permits that we get from contractors. >> A contractor that is is digging in the rightway will have to repair the street. So this particular contract is just for that. And this this contract is for $2.1 million. It's basically a pass through. So the fees that we get from the contractor I mean the fees that yeah the fees that we get from the contractor go to pay this contractor for the work. >> So so that's a just a clarity for that type of work that we're doing. So, this is like when when the road needs to get torn up for uh let's say a new development when they're putting in utilities or sewer lines or or what have you >> or for a property owner that needs to replace their sewer lateral >> um or they're need to replace a gas service or install something new um or you know anything that they would do in the rideway. Yes, that's what that's what this contract is here for today. >> Okay. So, thank you so much for that. You bet. >> All right. I'll make a motion to approve. Sounds good. Okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. >> Okay. We are now heading into what? B1. And this is [snorts] you council. >> Yeah. I just wanted to like the other park um items just like to highlight what we're doing for a park. So, this is for uh Tegla's Paradise Park. Um it's another joiner agreement, but um just want to give Nathan a chance to talk about what's going on there. >> Sure. Thank you, Nathan Olia, parks direct director for the record. Uh we've got a lot of bridges in that park. It's a very it's mostly water it seems like that park and parking lots. Um but uh we are replacing one of the larger bridges on the east side of the park and it's a it's a pre-constructed bridge that we're purchasing and installing. Um and the bridge there that's that's there now is very unique but it's not ADA accessible and it is a key connection point. So thus the improvement needed to be made. >> Great. And this um is this going to be installed by by maintenance and operations or is it going to be installed by the the vendor? There will be a contractor I'm hearing from Terry. Great. So, yeah. >> Awesome. So, thank you. Just again like to talk about what we're doing at our park so it's not just, you know, kind of doom and gloom with public commenters talking about what's what's going wrong. We do maintain our parks and we do make upgrades as we can. So, thank you. >> Thanks for highlighting it. We're Yeah, we're doing our best and support from public works and so thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Um and it's in your ward. I'm sorry. Oh, I didn't mean to take over anything, but that was why I pulled it. So, any other comments or anything? No. Okay, I'll make a motion to approve. >> I didn't know he wants to see because his light is green. >> I'll second the motion. >> I >> All those opposed? Motion carries. Okay, now we're heading into B6 17. Is that you, Councilwoman? >> No, it must be done. >> Oh, we are done. >> You wanted to come and speak. So, come up. Just make sure that you put your name if you haven't done so. So, you can speak. Okay. >> Reach out to you. >> Yes. So, the floor is yours for three minutes. >> Okay. Thank you so much for having me today. I just want to say my name is Karly Tietta. I'm here today on behalf of myself. Um, I just wanted to make some comments about myself. First, um, I have stage 4 terminal breast cancer. Um I am a victim of um domestic violence and my son is currently a victim of um domestic violence himself. He lives up in Washington state. He is 19 years old. He is an adult. He is under um my ex-husband's roof. So he is um he's just he he's getting abused. He's getting beat for everything. If he does anything wrong at work um he gets things taken away. So he can't leave but on his own recognance. So, I can't go up there and try to take him away. Um, he doesn't want to leave. He can't say anything. So, it's unfortunate that we're both going through abuse right now. Um, [snorts] all I have to say is that you guys are doing a really good job with um the police department. I've worked with them every day. They're my brothers and my sisters at this point. Um, I live in a very small apartment. Um, I'm on Social Security disability. I'm a former VA employee, so with the federal uh government, and um I make a small amount with um the retirement as well. So, I can only afford 860 a month. Um that's all I can afford and that's the only thing that's opportunity for me. Um I have roaches in my apartment. I have a convicted felon next door. Um it's not a horrible thing. I'm grateful for the roof that's over my head. Um prior to that, I was homeless. So, this has been a blessing that I've worked this far. um I'm gonna be homeless again, which means I won't be able to care for my son if he's in my care. Um he has the mentality of maybe a 15-year-old at this point. He's been so neglected. Um it's hard for us and myself. So, um the affordable housing has been really good. The government's been really good. Um what's going on is I have the assistance with the city of Reno for the first month's rent and the uh deposit, which is great. you can only have one assistance program at a time. I've [snorts] been on the Reno Housing Authority prior and I had to pull that because of the assistance program at the city of Reno, which is great. So, with that being said, the um Reno Housing Authority, I was on the waiting list and who knows how long that can be. Um so, I plan on getting on the list again, but again, I might I mean, it's not a given that I would be on, you know, it having to be with me. I know there's so many other people on this list and with less opportunities than I am. I'm asking for help. Um, personally, I need a place to live that's better than when I have the opportunity. I need a car to get to and fro for my um my appointments. Um, my medications are with a personal care. It's not through renown. I have Medicaid. My face is broken on one side as we speak. I don't get the care that I need because of my insurance. Medicaid is great. It gets everything paid for, but [snorts] it can only handle so much. Um, they're not telling me exactly what's going on because of the care. So, I need to see an oral surgeon because my teeth are so messed up right now. I can't get that care because of Medicaid. Um, it's things like that unfortunately that happened to us. So, I personally need help with that. I'm going to have abscess teeth because of this situation. Um, it's tough for all of us. I understand. I don't know where to go from here. >> Carly, I'm going to get you. Um, one of our experts in housing from our >> Norma actually is here. She's remarkable. uh because that you know your housing component and also working with RHA and then also um you know your situation with your health is very important and so a lot of times those >> those can qualify as life-changing events where it actually puts you in a different position on a list. >> Um Norma knows all about this. I know you've reached out to my office, so let's continue to stay in contact and make sure that we help you navigate this. >> Excellent. >> Um, and I'm just I'm so sorry. >> I appreciate that. >> I am so sorry. >> We didn't ask for any of this. I mean, any of it. And it happens. I mean, >> do you have family here? >> I don't. I don't have It's crazy with cancer. You know, you get sick, you don't feel good, you lose your friends, you lose your family. So, we really don't have anybody just ourselves, my son and I, to really fall back on. Therapy is going to be very costly for us. I did recently check into a mental health institute and but had to leave due because of uh um hospital visits and such. So, >> okay, >> it's been a difficult ride for both of us. Um >> Okay, >> that's our only family right now is those kinds of needs and they've been very helpful. So, we're going to need a lot of help in the forward future. >> Okay. Well, we're certainly praying for you. >> They're great help. Yeah, thank you. >> Okay, good. And Norma is here. >> She um is going to kind of go through your case, but also figure out the best path. Okay. >> Because we want to make sure that you you're getting what you need. >> I know you guys are low on funds and the police department's done their well giving with um you know, domestic violence as far as putting up folks. They can't do much more. I need a vehicle. I don't I don't have anything to get me any places. >> My little car is done for. I've been to every dealership and they can't donate um because of, you know, they have a bank that they >> abide by with these vehicles. I don't know what to do. I've been to churches and they can't do it. So, I don't know what we could do as far as funding for a vehicle. >> Well, there there are some resources, but I think the one where we need to start to and Norma will get this information. She's going to get this information from you. And so, Norma, the one thing I would want to make sure what um complex bless you. what complex the address that she is living in. >> Norma, so nice to meet you. Thank you for today. >> Norma's really wonderful. So, thank you, Carly. Appreciate you. >> I appreciate your time. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Carly. >> Okay. Um, >> Madame Clerk, >> do you have anything else? >> Um, I'm unclear. Are we in J1 and need to go back to H or >> council comments? >> Council comments. Yes. Okay. All right, I'm gonna hand it down to Miss Anderson who looks so festive. >> Yes, just really quickly, thank you again for the compliments. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Reno Aces and their holiday um, >> event. It is really magical for families. Being downtown on Saturday night was fantastic. There was a show at the Pioneer. We had the, you know, the lights and the holiday event out front um, in the Believe Plaza. And then the aces, just the families that were there. It was the kids were just so delighted. The amount of just selfie opportunities. That's how I was able to lure my kids and their girlfriends to come by telling their girlfriends, you know, you'll be able to take some unique selfies. >> Um it's just it was fantastic and I just wanted to extend my gratefulness to them for activating that space and really doing that around the holidays when people they just need the extra. And I also wanted to shout out um the South Creek Center in our ward. They had their tree lighting this weekend that in the foothill space and it was absolutely packed and absolutely family friendly and focused and the businesses are thriving in there when we have those types of events. And I just wanted to say the more of that that we can find our community enjoying the better. So >> where where did they put the tree? >> I think by the church. >> By the church. >> Yeah. >> Very cool. >> Yeah. Well, we'll have to come see that one. >> Yeah, it's beautiful. >> Love it. Okay, Councilman um or Vice Mayor Martinez. >> Thanks so much, M. I just wanted to highlight two things. I appreciate staff working with um Jim and uh understanding some of the challenges that they're going through there. Given the fact of us focusing on child care and making sure that we provide resources to our youth is important. And so I just want to share my gratitude and appreciation for development services for being willing to meet with the owner of Jimbury and kind of working on that. And then also just echoing some of the um the pledge that folks can take wait until 8th to get kids smartphones. I know um going to consider that for sure. My kids came home with flyers from their school. So I know the school that my kids attend or was one of the ones that ended up uh committing to sharing that with their family. So, I'm hoping that other elementary schools and middle schools will step up uh to also be willing to share the message uh and make sure that we have healthy kids growing up in our region. >> That's so good. Okay. Wait, your kids are how old? >> I have a first and a third grader. So, >> do they want smartphones now? >> Six. And the eight-year-old is already asking for it. >> I also think it's sort of like your kids see you as a parent using one, >> so they want they want to use it, too. Yep. >> Right. >> She sure does. [laughter] >> She sure does. >> I love it. Okay. To the to my left, Council Neighbor, your light is on. >> Yeah. Um I just wanted to uh talk a little bit about the um noise ordinance discussion we had a couple council meetings ago. Um I've received a lot of um feedback personally um regarding um you know maybe my understanding of the situation. So just wanted to um put on the record that um you know I understand the situation a little more and I'm looking forward to future discussions with council and staff for more direction on that in the future. But I just wanted to get that on the record. And then also next Thursday is my neighborhood advisory board uh meeting. So a week from tomorrow and I will have NDOT there, which is um a great opportunity for people to come and um get an update on the uh 395 widening project that's happening in W 4. um to you know ask any questions people may have about um delays on the project um next steps different things like that. So just anything um ND do related um that's your your chance to connect with them and and uh ask them questions next Thursday. Um it's at the Stee airport and it starts at 6:00 p.m. next Thursday. So thank you. >> Okay, perfect. What's the date on that? >> Oh gosh, hold on. That'd be the 18th. >> 18th. Okay. >> All right. Got it. Council Dor. >> Yeah. Similarly, I just wanted to announce that um I added an item to our neighborhood advisory board agenda, which um some of you may have heard about, but there's a proposal. It's called the Lton Communications Facility, but it's basically a cell tower. And the reason that this cell tower's uh risen to needing a permit is that they've proposed a double height. So instead of like 50 feet, it's over 100 feet or 100 feet plus a little more. And it sits in a bowl over by White Fur. And so I've heard from probably at least 30 residents, if not more, uh concerns about the location and the height. And um so they have agreed uh they didn't have to, but they've agreed to come to the NAB. And I think it'll be a great opportunity for the questions to for the residents to ask their questions and them to get addressed by the um applicant. And so I just in casea sometimes we hear about projects in other people's wards and this is one that seems to be gathering a lot of attention. So I just wanted to share. >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you so much. Can you just clarify? Am I correct? Manzanita Park is in your word. >> Manzanita Park. Yes. >> Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anything else? Nope. Okay. Um, I don't believe we have anything else other than public comment, Madame Clerk. Correct. >> Correct. >> And I assume >> we already heard from Carly. Um, but we did receive correspondence. I believe they were uh eight letters. Um, four of neutral or concern, one in opposition, and three in support. >> Okay. I do want to say one thing. I want to commend Jackie and her team because if you've noticed, our agendas are getting more streamlined. They're getting more efficient. They really, you can tell by the times, they're just um I know it's always sort of a lot of moving parts, but great job. >> Thank you so much. Yeah, good job. >> All right. Anything, council member or vice mayor? >> So, I was just going to move to a journ, but >> Oh, thank you. Yes, please do let it get us out of here. Go. >> Move to after. [laughter] I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. I'd love to say if I What about if I didn't take a motion for it? Do we have to sit here all day? Carl, >> we do. See, Carl says we do. [laughter]