Good morning everybody. Are we ready, Madame Clerk? Okay. Welcome to the Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Reno City Council meeting. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. And Pablo, where are you? You want to lead us, please? Can we have roll call, Madam Clerk, please? We are calling roll for the Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Reno City Council meeting. Vice Mayor Taylor here. Council member Der absent at this time. Council member Martinez here. Council member Eert absent at this time. Council member Reese here. Council member Anderson here. Mayor Shivy absent at this time. Uh madame vice mayor, you do have a quorum of the Reno City Council. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And um just a quick announcement. It doesn't look like we have Zoom today, but this meeting will be recorded for later viewing. And no YouTube. Okay. We'll move into public comment. Madam clerk, 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 three minutes. For those participating in chambers in accordance with council rules 6.3.11, while in this room, please be respectful. Disruptive behavior from audience members like clapping, yelling, whistling, etc. which impede the meeting may result in a warning issued by the presiding officer. If the behavior continues, you may be removed from chambers. Mark Markel followed by Pablo Nava Duron followed by Ray Hill. Good morning, madam. You're death. Who's talking? You're talking. Good morning everybody. I don't know who y'all are, but thank you for listening to me. I I'm sorry. I'm brain I'm brain injured. I I just I'm just here to warn people and show people what can happen if you get in a car. What can happen if you get in a car with a drunk driver. I know I'm an old man and and I've done this for years, but I feel it's important that people don't drive with drunk drivers because they can I my life's totally been messed up ever since this happened. I was in a car crash. We were doing 100. We rolled eight times and I I got ejected from the vehicle and it landed on my head and it it damaged my brain. But I I just I just don't want people to drive with drunk drivers. Thank you. Thank you for your message, Mark. Pablo Navad Duran followed by Ray Hill followed by Alex Barner. Good morning guys. My name Paul Natan. I live uh I'm a world three resident and a new world resident. Also I'm going to talk to you. It's not such reno se issue but the the school district reszoning policy that will definitely will hurt the community as the most so because because of v because they're resone because they're closing pine middle school the school j are scrambling to reszone uh to three different middle school hers and von the new von middle school and smery could go to the new von middle school and uh also also mean we don't fund the money to wor I hear many resident propose that's so if if you don't know how to add come to 17 upon middle school or sign a petition uh change.org/mrich or slash mis rich if you don't like to go and you don't like a new world resone to wor so my biggest question is the school district uh resone to von Worster were not give up the prospectation to go walk to to Von Worooster and had to stay after you know when they're stay after school join sports or activity to walk home crossing Keski Palm and then and then Moana and then the freeway which is very hazardous for the middle school and high school kids. So, so I know you could you could nothing can do about it, but but if if if a school district were move on to reszone uh those smith rings or near will kids to van and wooster I feel like they they sure have a provided a safy issue make sure have a safy walkable path because on the freeway if you go more a lane there's a lot of homeless over air and I don't want those kid to be exposed to have a drug or have a drug or needles. So to have to think about maybe build a bridge to cross to get to school. So that your job up to to make a a school much safer. So thank you. Thank you, Pablo Ray Hill, followed by Alex Varner. Good morning, Ray. Good morning. My name is Ray and I'm a resident of uh Ward 2 and uh I've been a long longtime resident of Reno. So, um anyway, I want to backtrack for a second. So, I have Parkinson's disease. Hopefully I won't slur my words too much. I'm not drunk. I just slur my words because Parkinson's does that to me. So, uh anyway, um I work for the Rena Bike Project. Today I want to talk about bicycle safety and infrastructure in our city. One of the main reasons people don't bike to work, school, or run errands is because they don't feel safe. The current bike lanes in Reno are not adequate. Simply putting putting simply painting lines on the road does not provide a safe environment for cyclists or people on bikes. Bike lanes often put riders next to moving traffic. where cars go past 30 miles per hour or faster, you're no safer than a pedestrian walking in the bike lane on a bike. If you're pedestrian, it's the same scenario. Basically, you're pedestrian on a bicycle when you ride a bike to work to make Reno a safer actually. Additionally, sherros, which are painted uh bike symbols in the road that ask you to please um share the road. They often get ignored by drivers and this creates tension between cyclists and motorists. Too often bike lanes are blocked by parked cars. Yet motorists are rarely cited for this violation. And let's not forget the danger of during. Dooring is when a driver opens their car door into a cyclist path which can lead to serious injury or even death. To make Reno a safer cycle, a safer city for cyclists, a a simple yet effective change could be flipping on street parking and bike lanes, putting the bike lanes next to the sidewalk, and moving moving parking parked cars to where the bike lanes were. This would create a protective buffer from moving traffic, much like what was done on Fifth Street downtown. However, we need to consider that Fifth Street does doesn't attract a lot of bike traffic because it's not near a large residential area. Something that needs to change. I question why motorist convenience seems to be prioritized. Is that three minutes? I question why motorist convenience seems to be prioritized over the safety of those who want to ride their bikes. Shouldn't our streets be places where everyone can safely get where they need to go by car or by bike? If there's fear, there's no freedom. Imagine what it would be like to safely bike to work with no fear of being squeezed by cars or dealing with impatient drivers. Reno could be a city with real Reno could be a city with real mobility options where biking is safe and viable choice for everyone. Thank you for letting me share. Thanks Ray. Alex Varner. Good morning guys. Guys, I don't even know where to start. December 26th of last year, I suffered a stroke. Ended up in Renown and the other hospital here at St. Mary's several times. Still recovering from it. Where I lived at, I lost my place. The rent was raised. They put penalties on it. This is why I was in the hospital. I went to court here. I filed the necessary paperwork. I filed the necessary paperwork for a stay. They just didn't seem to matter that I'd put on there that I had no heat where I was staying at. They raised the rent. They did. Did Did they give me 60-day notice? No. Ryu's properties didn't care. I came out of the hospital, everyone, in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and my house slippers. I was given 20 minutes to pack a bag. So from there, I was on the streets here in Reno for the first time ever in my life. I worked hard all my life. I was scared like you would not believe because of what I seen out on these streets and I would see a lot of homeless people when I was doing good and I would drive around. I'd go to work. I ended up in Renown that night because my heart was pounding so bad. I was about ready to have a heart attack. I walked from here all the way to Renown. From there, I was released. Where did they send me to? The homeless shelter. You guys take me very seriously. Everybody, please. That homeless shelter is nothing but bad news. People are being hurt. People are being stabbed. I've seen faces busted open. The staff will not do nothing. The staff is sitting on the counters. Give you an idea. For breakfast, you're served a donut. That's your breakfast. Lunch is no better. Dinner's no better. I am fortunate enough, and I won't say where, but I am able to stay here in Reno, and it's not permanent. Did I call everybody in the city of Reno for help? Yes, I did. Did I go upstairs to get help? Yes, I did. Because over a year ago, I asked for help and they helped me to pay my rent because I was in the hospital again. They told me they could not help me. I called every resource here in Reno and nobody will help. Now I can understand. But my main issue is that homeless shelter, somebody needs to investigate that place. Somebody needs to go over there. It's ridiculous what I hear what those people are making every week. I don't even make that much in one month's time on my social security disability. I'm sorry if I sound upset, but yes, to be 60 years old in that position and I will not go back there. There is just no way. But somebody needs to look into this. People are being hurt. I don't know what else to tell you guys. I mean, sir, I would like at least our liaison to follow up with you. I mean, I don't know that you contacted any council members, but is uh she is here. Could you could you just get with her and give her her your contact info? Yes, ma'am. Uh there's no one else registered to speak. For the record, we received eight comments which were general in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to 400 p.m. yesterday. Uh these comments were written correspondence received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our to our office. Copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno City Council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal. Um they were distributed as uh one letter in opposition and seven letters of concern. Okay, we'll move on to approval of the agenda. Ma uh Manager Bryant, do we have any updates? Yes, we do. Thank you very much. The plan today is to pull the items off of the consent agenda and then move immediately to item D1, which is our guest presentation with Judge Burchki. Any pulled consent items will be heard at the end of the meeting immediately prior to H1. Once we finish with item D1, we'll go back to C1 for the NDI office resoning and then move through the rest of the agenda in the posted order. Thank you. Move to approve. Do we have a we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I motion carries unanimously. Uh moving on to item A5, approval of the minutes to approve A51, 2 and three. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Now, Madame Clerk, we will move on to item uh the consent agendum. Do we have any public comment? Uh there's no one registered to speak and we did not receive any correspondence. Okay. Council members will um ask for pulled agenda items and I'll start with councilwoman Anderson. Nothing madam vice mayor. Thank you. Yeah. I have item B14 and B15 which are about the Reno preventative maintenance project. Um, and my purpose in pulling it is I I always uh pull these high dollar things so that our residents know. I'm a little concerned they won't hear till uh very end of the meeting because I don't know that's when our residents are listening, but that's fine. Okay. And then item uh B17. Again, I wanted to highlight that we're making progress on this project. Um none for me. Okay. And I need to pull um item B16. Oh, actually, I'm sorry. One second. I did have B15. Okay, so 14, 15 16 17 and yes. Okay, we'll move to approve all remaining items. Second. Have a motion, a second. All those in favor? I Motion carries unanimously. Okay, we'll move on to item D1. Madame Clerk, there's no one registered to speak. No, sorry. It's a presentation. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Good morning. Hi, I'm Jana Litz, housing manager for the record and I'm here today with Judge Kendra Burchie from Reno Justice Court. We're going to give you a presentation on the H eviction diversion pilot program known as housing court. Um, we're going to talk to you about how it came to be, talk about some wins that we've had and what our next steps are for the program. This one maybe quicker. The alignment with the strategic plan on this item is governance and organizational effectiveness and economic opportunity homelessness and affordable housing. Uh in fiscal year 2024, housing and neighborhood development received an allocation from the last legislative session under Assembly Bill 396. and we were running a rental assistance program that we've had for about 10 years and realized that those households that are applying that have an eviction notice really need to be handled separately from regular rental assistance applications. So, we created an in-house eviction diversion program and last fiscal year we spent about $670,000 on that program assisting 201holds. Then in March of 24, Judge Burchie reached out wanting to create a specialty court and partner with us. And I'm going to let her tell you a little bit more about that process. Thank you. Good morning, Kendra Burchie. For the record, I am a justice of the peace at Reno Justice Court. One of the things that we've learned while doing eviction cases is that there was a significant amount of cases that were before a court just because of non-payment of rent issues where the tenants were had applied for rental assistance and we were discontinuing the cases because the landlords wanted to work with the tenants but it was I'll just say it was a frustration because we didn't have all the information didn't know what the status was and so we absolutely thank you and so we were able to work then with the city of Reno and with nonprofit organizations, including legal aid, to try to provide those wraparound holistic services to the tenants at the forefront of those cases to see if we'd be able to allow those individuals to remain in their homes as well as getting those landlords paid in a more timely and efficient manner. Okay. So, the first cases were heard in August of 2024 and under the program, applicants have to have an eviction notice for non-payment of rent and be under 60% of the area median income. Uh, the city also requires that every participant participant talk to a financial navigator at Opportunity Alliance of Nevada and complete a savings and spending plan to help them build a foundation and break that cycle of housing stability in the future. Since the program rolled out in August 2024, the funding provided by Housing and Neighborhood Development has assisted 94 households through February of 2025. That's 214 people, nine of which were seniors and seven persons with disabilities. Um about 22% of those households were very low income, under 30% of the area median income. We did a survey of landlords that were part of the program and 80% of the participants are still housed in the unit that we assisted and to date we have well not to date but through February we've spent about 420,000 of the 500,000 that we allocated towards the program and it will be fully expended by the end of the fiscal year. Another funding source and partner in the program comes from Nation's Finest, who assists veterans. And they have been a great partner. They've assisted five households so far, all of who remain housed and contributed over $7,000 to the program. Um, again, we just wanted to highlight some of our partnerships. So, as I indicated, we really worked with the stakeholders who were involved in this system. So, we worked with already existing agencies who have been involved in trying to prevent evictions with the goal of keeping people housed. So, we reached out to Nevada Legal Services and Northern Nevada Legal Aid to provide a legal assistance and assistance to those who are filling out those rental assistance applications. We have a self-help center located at the Reno Justice Court with those agencies. So after the tenants provide and file their affidavit, they can walk a few feet and we direct them to access those free legal resources. We also contacted as the Northern Nevada Literacy Council through the Chamber of Commerce to provide some job opportunities as well as some assistance with resume building. Nation's finest as we discussed are also partners uh to provide rental assistance as well as the city of Reno. the department uh Nevada Department of Health and Human Services has been able to provide access to information to be able to uh look for additional potential sources that those tenants may be able to qualify for um some benefits to see if there's other sources in order to ensure that they are sustainable. And then also, Opportunity Alliance, as we discussed, provides that uh information on a savings and spending plan to make sure that those people are sustainable. So the goal for all of these partners is to work with those who already had existing programs to collaborate together to all work together to try to keep individuals housed on the verge of homelessness. And I do just want to thank um the Reno Justice Court staff as well. We've been doing this on a Z budget with just existing resources within our agency. And I can speak for some of those nonprofits. They've done the same thing of donating their time to help to try to allow this to be successful. Thanks. So, next steps for the housing court pilot program are we would love to continue the program after this fiscal year. So, we are seeking new funding sources, continuing the nonprofit legal aid partnerships and exploring case management for participants. Um, also just expanding any resources that we can to partner with other agencies and really help give these households the tools they need to success in the to succeed in the future. And that's all we have. Um, I've got Judge Burchie. I'm here. We also have staff from Reno Justice Court if you have any questions. Thank you. All right. Great job. So nice to see you, Judge. Wonderful. Thank you. You've been here yet? No, this is my first time appearing. Great. I love this program. It is fantastic. Um I also think that um I would love to see this presentation over at Reno Housing Authority. I'm no longer on that board, but I I know Councilwoman Taylor is and she's doing a lot of great work in this space. So, good job. Okay, I'm going to open it up for questions. Uh Councilman Ree, go ahead. Thank you so much, Madame Mayor. Uh Judge Burchie, thank you so much for the presentation. I I suppose I want to say a couple things. One is um for my colleagues benefit uh they may not know you as well as I do and you have been an absolute joy to watch join the bench. So you've just been there now. It's your second year and I think that our community has been made greater by your service. So thank you for your service. It is a difficult and complex job you navigate and it's at that very front line of providing human services. So, the type of programming that you're doing and the other specialty courts that exist within the Reno Justice Court really do give me a lot of hope for the opportunities for equal access to justice. I know that council member Anderson yesterday was able to attend the Camo Reno Justice Court. I had a prior commitment but normally try to attend. Um, I know some of the other courts that are working there in specialty courts. And so, I suppose I would like to just ask how do they interact with each other, right? because when someone ends up in justice court for any reason, I I don't know all the entries and then I don't understand totally all the exits. So maybe you would share with us because it would seem that you know, Judge Ha Stevens uh community court has a role with your specialty housing court. I just want to know how they're all interconnected. Thank you, Kendra Burchie. for the record. Um, you bring up an excellent point of that is one of the issues that we have been working on with Northern Nevada and Nevada in general with in terms of our therapeutic courts. A lot of our different courts have different what I'll call niches with their courts and specialties that they focus on. And if we work together, we're able to then utilize those resources from those different courts to really make sure that we are addressing the right system, the right person in the right system. And so we have really worked over the past year of having a meetings with the the different treatment courts of really coordinating care in order to ensure that the people who are in our courts are in the right courts to get the benefit that they need to be successful. Well, and I think we had a public commenter here this morning with a very difficult story to hear. Um it's always difficult because we sit on this side and we don't have the same lived experience. And so when I hear that, it makes me think, A, we've got to expand the opportunities for people to access these court services. And B, it just troubles me that some people fall through the cracks. So you've got someone who has worked their whole life, finds themselves in a medical issue, and then finds on the other side of that medical issue while they're trying to recover that they are evicted. And so, um, I don't practice in that area of law, so I don't know about a lot of the minutia, but I am interested to know how we might be able to support you as you go out and seek funding. So, um, I know that you are us, right? We are all the city of Reno. Um, but of course, I think a lot of the specialty courts end up being grant funded. Uh, and so please let us know how we can help or give our voice to support you in any of that. if there's letters to be written of support. I know madame mayor has always ventured out onto that pledge. So, let us know how we can help. Thank you. If I may respond. Go right ahead. Thank you. Just for um the council members information is there are currently two legislative bills that are pending regarding rental assistance specifically AB. So, Assembly Bill 475 as well as Senate Bill 283 that are specifically for appropriations for rental assistance, which is what our pilot project was based off of receiving those appropriations. Um, so I I'm happy to work with the council to figure out ways that we can really make sure to reach more people because that's what we're trying to do of we want to try to keep people from falling through those cracks, which is why we took that therapeutic model from therapy courts, the specialty courts, which we've learned actually work and are evidence-based to reduce recidivism, to keep people out of the criminal justice system, and apply it towards this setting to hopefully break the cycle and keep people from uh becoming homeless. Go ahead, Councilwoman Der. Yeah, thank you. Um, well, thank you so much for being here, Judge. Um, you're speaking to an issue very close to my heart. Many, many, uh, people, I don't know how they find me, especially if they don't have phones and and internet and so on, but they do find me and I often um am referring them to our hand project, um, who are very active in trying to help people, whether it's underwriting the assistance or or just connecting them with resources. Um, so my very first question when I was watching this was, well, what about FY next? You know, July 1, what happens? Sounds like we're well on our way to spending all the money that we were given. Is there more money? And I wasn't sure where your money was coming from. It sounds like the legislature had a special appropriation, but was it just for Reno? Did they spread it around? Um, you know, I don't know. And another question I had was, um, you mentioned the how the different courts work together. So, I was kind of curious about you you actually addressed it a little bit, but I was wondering how the handoff. I mean, I assume when someone comes in, they're randomly assigned to a judge and then how do you get them over to the people with the program? And, uh, finally, I just want to say we need to support you at the legislature. Um, we put a lot of money, our ARPA money into home, uh, both homeless and affordable housing. It was our top top priority. We spent over half our funds on that. um to the tune of millions of millions. And here we are talking about the hundreds of thousands, not the millions of millions. And so I'm I'm really concerned about the funding. So the three questions again, how do they get into the right court? How can we support you at the legislature? Is it a letter? Is it a testimony? Um and then um just, you know, h what else can we do really? And I think you were going to answer the first question I asked. Yes. Uh Jana Litz, for the record, I'm going to talk a little bit about the funding. So, with this pilot program, it is a pilot program and we committed to spending $500,000 and helping 50 households. So, with 94 through February, we far surpassed our goal of helping 50 households and we're really pleased. Um, more funding is a priority of ours and the team is actively looking for ways to continue funding through the state and other avenues. So, uh, while we did fulfill our goals of the pilot program, we would like to continue it. And then there's those that are a little above the 60% AMI who are probably just as in need, you know, and I I don't know if you have a hard and firm cut off, like if they're 62% AMI, you know, that kind of thing, but that would be helpful to know. Yes. So, we do it is 60% and below for the whole program. Um but we do refer to other resources that we know of if we can't assist somebody. Okay. And then judge you wanted to Absolutely. So I'll start with um one of your last questions of I share that concern of what are we going to do in with that bridge time of we are going to expend those resources that have been allotted to us prior to July 1st. Right. And so we definitely will need assistance in working towards that to ensuring that we're able to continue this pilot project in order to reach more people prior to receiving that next appropriation if it is approved. With respect to that issue, it is pending in front of the legislature. So, anything that you're able to do to reach out to your assembly members, your senators, uh to let them know that how important this is and getting this appropriation would be beneficial, whether that's through letters or testimony during the hearings. Um I'm not sure how you wish to proceed with that, but any information of contacting those individuals would be helpful. And then did other jurisdictions get this funding too, like Las Vegas? Absolutely. With the last appropriation, it was initially uh written just for Las Vegas and then uh luckily that we were able to include Sparks as well and Reno specifically in that appropriation and there are as indicated two separate bills pending in the legislature right now and the city of Reno is identified in both of those. Okay, great. Thank you. And then with respect to your other question, your last question of transferring courts, in the last legislative session, uh we were able to pass a law that was uh in order to make it easier to transfer to those different courts. So that even though someone has was in municipal court, we could transfer it to justice court in the same vice versa or to district court to make it easier based off as long as they are in a therapeutic court. Oh wow. Okay. Okay. Let me ask you, judge, are you going to testify at the ledge? It depends. Unfortunately, um, as you were all aware, sometimes those meetings are during court. I know. Uh, and so if I am able to, I would might I plan on a hearing. If not, I have wonderful staff who is able to um hopefully provide information as well. I'm going good. Okay. Um, and I'm sure Nick will give us an update, but we really should be following this. I I call it miracle money because it truly does change lives. Monica, I I can't remember. This has been a real priority of the council um rental assistance. What is the total amount? It's several million that we have dedicated to this. Uh yeah, Monica Kirch, for the record, just last year, I believe it was about 3.5 million. Um over the last uh three fiscal years, I think we're somewhere around 10 million. Um, and the the money that we used to allocate towards this specialty court was through the last session through the AB396 funds. Uh, the city of Reno got 3 million over two years and we allocated 500,000 to this pilot program. Right. And obviously we're incredibly worried based on what we're seeing on the federal government side. So, and we are following the the two bills um very closely and working with Nick on those. Mhm. But I also think um obviously this partnership works really really well and we also know what I like about this. This is a big qualifier of someone who really really needs it. Um and so this is where I would say if we get more funding and we can figure out you know where that is allocated uh this is the perfect program. So yeah, it's been very successful and and prior to partnering with the court, we started another eviction prevention program that we were doing in house. Um, and after that, we're like, okay, let's step this up a a notch. And then we partnered with the court and added the financial literacy training just to try to really break that cycle. So it's, you know, evolved into something amazing actually. No, it's fantastic. Just one quick question because I think you would know this answer, judge. Um I was able to get the um grant to start the community court which has really um been incredible as well. But um I'm curious because I think that was through the court. It was the center of inter um what is it the court of inter AOC administrative office of the courts I think. I think so. Um is that a possibility? Are they doing grants still? So they are doing grants Kendra virtue for the record and I have applied for grant funding for this court to allow to incorporate additional resources. Uh one of the barriers is one of the hallmarks of this is to have that rental assistance. And so unfortunately that is not something that the administrative office of the courts is able to provide for. But that is something that we continue to seek grants and to to figure out how we can supplement that as well. Okay. will let us know on the grant side because like I said um I I nearly fell over when I found out that we were going to get the money for the community court and I think we've been really successful with grants. So when you're looking at those please let us know. Um we can obviously support you and write letters and hopefully match too as well. So great. Thank you. All right. Any questions? Go right ahead. Hi. Great to see you Kendra or birdie. Yeah. Um, I wanted to ask a couple questions. Um, so the you heard that public comment just a few minutes ago. Um, are you able to help people in that type of situation or does it have to go into eviction before the courts are able to intervene and and help? Kendra Burchie for the record. Unfortunately, as part of the courts, we do there has to be that eviction case that is started in order for our courts to become involved. There are other nonprofit agencies that are out there who do work with individuals where a actual the case has not been filed. They're still just in that 7-day notice period or the 30-day notice period. And because we're the court, we can't get involved until there has been that legal action in the court system. Okay. So, if that gentleman was to reach out to you, you guys would provide him that information where he could go for assistance. Absolutely. So if um any individual who reaches out to the court who is indicating that they've received a notice of eviction or that they have a contested case, they can come to our uh our court. They would receive information from our court clerks. Our court clerks can't provide legal advice, which is why it's so important that we were able to start and have the civil self-help center based in Reno Justice Court as well. And so we would direct them to walk across the hall where they would be provided with all those resources, not only the free legal attorney, but also the resources that we have that we're aware of with respect to the different nonprofits that are assisting in this area. Great. And do you receive funding from the county and sparks as well or is it um mostly just federal dollars that fund you and city of Reno? State funding for what? um for help with the program just in general like where do you receive your funds for this? Thank you. So Kendra Burchie for the record and I'll have somebody else from Reno Justice Court step in if needed if I don't say something correctly but our funding is primarily in terms of for staff is from the county. Uh with respect to therapeutic courts the main base for our funding has been the administrative office of the courts. As I indicated, we were able to start this program on our end with a 0 additional cost. We used current resources and current staff in order to work this in with our current case loads. Great. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to head over to Councilwoman Taylor. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for this program. It is obviously housing is the number one concern in our community and I'm really appreciative of everything that everybody is doing to try and get people housed. I'm curious um what you used $500,000 last time and it went really fast and it was very successful. I'm wondering what you might be needing to keep the funding going. And then my second question is almost an ask from you guys. I'm also I'm on the Reno Housing Authority board and we are tracking these bills too along with the city of Reno. So I think it's really important that we are working together and having the same unified message when we are working with our legislators. So anything that we can do at Reno Housing Authority, I'm happy to work with our board in that direction, but also if you could keep us posted with what what you guys need too. We definitely need to keep this program going and making sure that we're helping the people that that need to get helped. But it's just it's amazing the lives that you guys are changing. So, thank you. Hi, Jana Litz. For the record, I just wanted to talk about what the program would look like funding wise and what it would need. Um, just a rough estimate, but we had the program running from August through February and we're spending 500,000. We've had to scale back a little bit on our intakes just to make the money last. So, it probably would take at least for a full fiscal year of this program running, it would probably take at least a million, I would think. Okay. And I'm I would um I just have to say Reno is a leader in this. I know we work together with all of our community, but I'm so proud of our hand team and I know Monica, you and your team were down at the legislature two years ago fighting for this money and you really made a difference and um just can't thank you guys enough. So, a million dollars, let's get it. Let's go get it. Thanks. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you so much, Miss Judge Burchie. I know that your um time is valuable and we'd like to get you back to your day, but I I also wanted to see if you would like to introduce any of your colleagues from the court. You know, we are the city of Reno, all of us together. And so, I just want to make sure that everyone got recognized. Absolutely. And if I could start actually with our assistant court administrator of Jeremy Wilson, I'd like to have him provide some additional information uh with respect to the vice mayor's question. Sure. Jeremy Wilson, assistant court administrator for Reno Justice Court. Uh, for the record, uh, to expound upon, uh, the discussion regarding the appropriation. So, I'm the numbers guy. So, we started crunching a bunch of numbers and really looking at penetration rates into this program. And ultimately, based on September, October, November, where we had three full months in full force for these, if we can extrapolate that out, the ask isn't just a million. In order to be continually successful in this program, rather than just allocating the 500,000 that we did, we need about 1.2 million in order for this program specific to eviction diversion. Now, both of the bills that the legislature have uh additional funding that is tied into this um we know that the 1.5 million that the city of Reno received, 1 million went to standard rental assistance, 500,000 to eviction diversion program. when we carve out that specific eviction diversion program in order to have this be sustainable over a fiscal year, the ask would be somewhere around 1.2 million in order to give us the cushion and also to be able to expand services to more families that come to Reno Justice Court with an eviction notice in hand. Additionally, Craie, for the record, uh one of those grants that I mentioned with the administrative office um of the courts is to then be able to hire a case manager. Uh because what we've noticed is we do unfortunately lose some individuals uh from going to the self-help center just even in that short walk. Uh and so having someone immediately being able to provide some additional assistance would be helpful in order to get that information. So we've requested additional services from a case manager through that grant as well as for bus passes in order to ensure that we're able to connect individuals and allow them to go to those appointments um that are necessary in order for them to be part of the program. Additionally, here today we do have our court administrator uh of James Conway. Uh these two individuals have been instrumental in getting this program started from the courts as well as our um civil staff at the Reno Justice Court and our supervisor, Maril Lee. And I'll just note the bench as well has been very helpful with just really ensuring that we have what we need to be successful. Okay. Well, you guys look like babies. You're all so young there, especially for judges. Um I'm so sorry because I missed uh part of your presentation. Just explain to me um quickly someone comes with an eviction in hand. Show walk me through how this works. Absolutely. So the process starts at least currently because there is a bill that's pending in front of the legislature to change this of someone would receive for example 7-day notice of to either pay or to leave their property. Then they will come to Reno Justice Court to where the tenant has to file what's called the tenant affidavit. So that's really what starts the legal process is they file the tenants affidavit. At that point when we see that it is for non-payment of rent, we then screen them to determine whether or not they're eligible for housing court. Even if they're not eligible for housing court, we still provide them an uh direct them to the self-help center for them to access those resources as well as then we connect them if they qualify for what at least we believe they qualify for the assistance through housing court. We'll provide them with a list of all of our resources that we have available. We connect them with the city of Reno or with Nation's finest to get the application process started. We will then set that hearing after the landlord then files their response. Um so when the landlord files their response to that affidavit then a hearing will be set and then it gets set in if it qualifies for housing court it'll get set on our docket which is right now on Monday mornings or if they don't qualify then they'll go on um one of the other eviction court dockets. Okay. Do you I'm curious. Do you follow landlords that you're typically seeing? Maybe you know there are certain landlords where you're seeing quite a bit of these where you could see a pattern. Do you ever do you sort of track that? So we are still kind of virtue for the record in the beginning process for housing court with respect of um tracking cases. What I will say is that I have seen um sometimes the same landlords or attorneys in our court. And what I will say with that is those are generally the individuals who have been working with the the tenants and are so grateful then when we're able to connect them with those resources prior to the hearing so that they have already um the past due rent has been paid and then they're able to ensure sustainability. So that is one of the things that I have seen which I didn't expect to see all the time. That's that's encouraging, but there are some unscrupulous landlords. So, you know, I know, you know, in my office, um, usually I hear a lot of negative. Um, it's just sort of the world we live in. And so, those names and complaints come through my office quite a bit and they seem to be repetitive. And so, I'm just wondering and it would make you, you know, have see a big red flag. So, I'm just curious if you are you guys notice sort of similar patterns sometimes. Jeremy Wilson, for the record, um we have not looked at patterns in that regard to to kind of see any of that. I can't honestly say if we are seeing any of that. uh based on the landlords that are coming through this program. But I do think that it's really important to note that when we initially started having these conversations about starting the housing court, we did meet with landlords and with landlord counsel in order to really kind of help develop what this looks like and build in some of those uh direct pathways as far as assurances regarding payment. Um that was one of the the major challenges in other jurisdictions with landlords waiting too long for payment. Um so we made sure that we brought them in on the front end to ensure that um we're doing this together. So both on the tenant side and the landlord side, everyone's at the table in order to ensure sustainability within our program. Um that is something that you know myself and with your staff here at hand that we could potentially look into. Um, but I don't I don't have any data surrounding that at this point. I I'm saying if there are landlords, you're seeing quite a bit of evictions, the same landlords over and over again. I think in our court, we see all of the evictions. Um, and what we're seeing is an increase in eviction filings and eviction cases across the board. Um, that could be some of the big corporate landlords that have multiple properties versus some of the smaller landlords. I just think evictions generally are just up in our area. Um, and so it I don't know that we have those numbers regarding specific landlords. Um, but I think speaking more to the systemic issue is that we are seeing a lot more evictions than we've ever seen before. Well, one thing that can be very helpful, come to us, let us know how we can help. Whether it's a certain type of ordinance, you guys would know better. But it really helps us identify when we when you see an issue, there are things that we possibly could trigger um to help you. And it because a lot of times people just say, "Oh gosh, if the city just did this one thing, this could really, you know, take us on a totally different trajectory, right?" And so when you guys think of that, we want to know about it because we we absolutely um can help you do that. But I, you know, I I just I see too many landlords that are um predatory and I and I think it would be good just to start keeping a lot of this data and so that we can kind of identify, you know, some of those issues because I do think there's a lot of them that prey on um individuals um unintentionally. So go ahead. Come on up. He's like, I have information. Wait a minute. I thought of something. You guys can do this. Okay. I love it. Go ahead. Good morning. James Conway, court administrator for Reno Justice Court. For the record, uh, one of one of the Reno um, City of Reno staff members did reach out to me for that for some of that information um, a few months ago. The problem is after eviction cases conclude, most of them are sealed. Sealed. Okay. Obviously, those laws to seal eviction cases are really drafted for the benefit of more of tenants, but nonetheless, a sealed case is a sealed case. So it was difficult to provide information regarding which landlords have the most eviction cases because by by providing that information we would have to look into sealed cases and provide information on sealed cases. I think we get a little frustrated Naomi for sure. We've been through this with a few companies and you know we want to try to identify them and try to protect tenants. So Right. And and then just to respond to your um sort of concern generally, it would be very difficult for a court to be placed in the role in any way that would be considered investigatory by nature. You know, we really should be an independent third party. We shouldn't really be investigating um who who who are the good landlords versus who are the bad landlords. Um what we can do is provide unbiased just information. But I just mentioned the the difficulty with providing information on eviction cases just because they do get sealed so frequently and um yeah that's that's the challenge. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. Please please keep us posted cuz um you saw a gentleman earlier that was affected by this and it just it's devastating for people. Devastating. So I appreciate the the work you guys do. Madame Mayor, before they go I had one followup real quick. Um, first of all, I just want to say, you know, I know because I've talked to our staff. They know. They know that question you're asking here. Our own staff do know. They know who they've worked with. They've known um the multitude of cases coming through. They know people they've had to refer to the court. So, I think that's a place we can go. But, no, I just want to make sure all the other agencies that are dealing with some of the issues we're not just Reno. Yeah. That they are on the radar. Yeah. And then secondly, I wondered uh from the judge, who is do these um plaintiffs, these people that are being evicted, do they have legal representation? And is that from either Washa Legal Services or Nevada Legal Services or a third party? How how do they who is holding their hand as their legal uh rep? Thank you, Kendra Burchie, for the record. So, with landlord tenant cases, there's no law that requires or appoints a an attorney to represent a tenant. So, it's not a case like for example, if this was a criminal matter and someone qualifies for a public defender, I have the legal ability to appoint the public defender to to represent them. But we have those partnerships with Northern Nevada Legal Aid as well as Nevada Legal Services where they will provide free legal assistance through that civil self-help center at Reno Justice Court to be able to walk them through the process, explain the paperwork, to be able to assist with filling out applications. I cannot tell you how many people I've referred to the agencies you just mentioned and they seem very belleaguered. You know, they they only have like 20 minutes per case kind of thing. There's so much coming at them and it was mentioned that by by your associate here the increase in cases. So, they're feeling the pinch. And I just wondered that that's another area because I I love that you're asking for a social worker because this is what I've been advocating for is that they need someone, a guide to guide them through this complex world. And how has this man fallen through the cracks that spoke earlier today? Now, I'm sure there's more extenduating circumstances that we don't know and he didn't present, but nevertheless, I've dealt with so many like him that have their story and it's extremely heartbreaking when it's a medical issue. They are just not present. They are in the hospital. They cannot be paying rent. And and what I get concerned on is there's some companies that are very quick. Okay, five day, what is it? Uh pay or quit, five day or you're out of here. Five day and you could still be in the hospital. and now you're out of here. He mentioned 20 minutes to gather his belongings. I mean, these kind of things have to change. And I know the legislator's had bills, you know, and and some have been um turned down. Um but we need to keep trying, you know, and I guess this is a note to our own staff. We need to keep trying to to plug these loopholes and these issues where but for this one thing, they could get some help. But it really it is heartbreaking to me when it's a medical issue in particular. It's not that they're trying to be bad. They're just physically incapable of responding. And maybe it's even the county um what is it? The person at the county that steps in and helps people adjudicate. What is it? The guardian. Maybe it's in the legal guardians office or you know the advocate at the county. I don't really know. A little bit more. Thank you. Yeah. Council member the Jeremy Wilson again for the record. The one thing that I would recommend knowing that cases continue to increase and everything, we have that civil self-help center that is full of legal professionals, it is as needed, people can come and get assistance with any civil matter, not just not just eviction, landlord, tenant, um but in in any civil proceeding. They can assist with criminal, but they can help with any type of civil proceeding or any questions that somebody may have about any legal service without needing to go through the hoops to schedule a meeting or any of that with our partners. I didn't realize that. So, you're saying if they go to the self-help, there's actually legal assistance available right then and there. There's free legal assistance right then and there open anytime that the courthouse. thought it was more paperwork that explained the process or there's that too, but there are actual people stationed at that center that can ask they can ask questions and staff in that center are bilingual. Okay. Thank you. So, please uh as you as you receive those those calls um explain to them that they can come on down to the uh justice center at at 1 south Sierra, go into the legal aid center and ask whatever questions they may have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Kendra Burchie. For the record, I just want to add that that is located on the first floor. So, if people want to uh go there, that is where they will need to head. And we'll follow up by providing the phone number as well as email information and the address again um to uh Miss Bryant, the city manager, so that she can distribute that to everyone because we would love to get the word out more about that as well as um I don't have the numbers, but we've been able to assist thousands of people through that civil self-help center. And the more people who have access to those resources, the better outcomes we'll see. Thank you. So, I do have the numbers. Jeremy Wilson, for the record, uh we are averaging about uh assisting 1300 people per month out of that civil self-help center. Oh my gosh. So, all right. Any further questions? My last question, how are you liking it? Kendra Burchie, for the record, I love it. I love her. She's so professional. You do love it. Yes. Well, I think you're doing a fantastic job. I'm I'm so I'm so proud of you and glad you're there. Thank you so much and thank you for everyone for your time today and I look forward to continuing to partner uh to work towards access to justice and ensuring that we are all working towards the betterment of our citizens. Thank you. Great. Great job. All right, you guys. Thank you so much for being here. Uh go ahead. Uh Councilwoman Eert, I guess. Yeah, sorry. I I'm sorry I had my hand up, but um kind of in the line of Mayor Shivy's questions, do you notice like a cause for eviction pattern? Like I know whoever is evicting them could be um companies that own the homes, could be uh individuals, but are you noticing like are people being evicted because they want to raise the rent? Is it just because somebody um missed a payment or was late for whatever reason maybe in the hospital? But are you keeping track of those kind of trends at all? Uh Kendra Virtue, for the record, we do not keep um track from the court standpoint in terms of the cause. Uh we are we have certain mandates with respect to what information we are um tracking and that's through the administrative office of the courts. just for your information as well as um the general public, you can access all of that information online on the Nevada Supreme Court's website. Okay. Which has for every jurisdiction, the number of cases, they'll specify um if it is a landlord tenant case, which is eviction case, uh as well. Um but it doesn't do the breakdown in terms of the cause. Uh what I will say is just for housing court, it is just for the non-payment of rent cases. So, uh, we only accept those into housing court where it is just where they had that medical issue or they had, um, some form of life circumstance which led them to fall behind in their payments and those this is to help catch them up and provide them with those resources to be sustainable in that housing in the future. Okay. So, if somebody were to be evicted because they want to the landlord wants to raise rent, do are they able to get any kind of services? Kendra Burchie, for the record, not through Reno Housing Court, through our housing court program, but they would still have access to all of those same resources that we've discussed that um they'd be provided information with uh with their attorney as well if they seek counsel from the civil self-help center. And I believe that the city of Reno also assists. Yes. I just wanted to add that if somebody can't afford where they're living any longer because of an rent increase, the city of Reno is the primary provider of rental assistance for the region and we do offer deposit assistance. So, they can contact us and we can help them find an affordable place to live. Okay, great. Thank you. Y Okay, I'm going to get you guys back to work. So, sorry. Thank you. Have a great day. Thanks you guys. Thank you. [Music] All right. Okay. We're going to move right along. Am I correct, Madame Clerk? Are we heading to C1? That's correct. All right. All right. So, um I will now open the public hearing. Madame Clerk, has proper notice been given and any correspondence received? This item was properly noticed. Uh we have no one registered to speak and did not receive any correspondence. Okay. Perfect. Um I'm going to hand you the floor. Perfect. Okay. Go ahead. Good afternoon or good morning uh Madame Mayor, council members. Carter Williams, Associate Planner for the record. Before you today is a request for a uh zoning map amendment or resoning um for a property that's located um just north of the US Post Postal Service Sorting Facility on Vasser. The specific request is from neighborhood commercial to general commercial. From the master plan perspective, the property has the land use designation as suburban mixed use. Um policies uh that support this request including supporting existing businesses and expanding um opportunities for underutilized those businesses and their underutilized properties. So on the screen is the specific um amendment. So the existing zoning is an area brick and commercial which is consistent with that corner but everything around it is general commercial. So this would bring this um into conformance with almost every property um along the uh Kitsky corridor. Um the spec uh this change would expand the opportunity for um general commercial uses for the property from neighborhood commercial. Um what this really means is is it um increases the capacity for some higher intensity commercial uses and some limited light industrial uses. And those light industrial uses are ones that are entirely indoors um and generally they have to go through a separate process for um to um acknowledge um issues that might come from compatibility with adjacent residential uses. The development standards are effectively the same. There is a change to the maximum building height, but because um the general commercial zone requires additional step back or or the building to be pushed away from the property line for each additional foot above 35 ft. So, this this property is pretty small, so there's not really much um change as far as the development standards go. On the screen are the uh findings for a zoning map amendment. Staff was able to meet all the findings and on the screen is the recommended motion. The applicant's representative also has a presentation if it's necessary. Um but otherwise we're we're available for questions both staff and the applicant. Good job. Okay. Anyone go ahead council? I'm ready to make a motion unless other folks have questions. I do question. Go ahead. Um this is just a zoning change right now, but do we know what's going to go in there? What the plans are? The applicant indicated that there would they're looking to um install another building to support a it's for maintenance repair or repair and renovation is the specific use. Okay. Um so that would be allowed that's under GC not under NC but again it's indoor. It's it's um consistent with what's in the area to some extent. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead council member. Someone move to a Oh, yep. Thank you. That's right. Sorry. Go ahead. I'm so sorry, Carl. Take it away. City Attorney Carl Hall. Go ahead. Take it away. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance introduction bill number 7296, case number LDC 25-000033, NDI office resoning. Ordinance to amend title 18, chapter 18.02 02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning reszoning a plus or minus 0.99 acre site located on the north side of Vasser Street plus or minus 430 ft east of its intersection with Harvard Way from neighborhood commercial NC to general commercial GC together with matters which pertain to or are necessary connected there with W three. I move to uphold the recommendation of the planning commission by approving the zoning map amendment and referring to second reading for adoption by ordinance. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion from Councilman Martinez and a second from Councilman Reese. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. I just want to remind council if you would like to speak, the best way to probably do that is just hit your button and then it'll light up green. So, if I look over you, I'll keep looking at your lights. Okay. All right. Moving right along. Madame Clerk, we are going to head into I believe item D2. Um, this is just what? Trusty. Yes. Um, so with that being said, do you have any public comment on this item? Uh, this item is just a presentation. Okay. Good morning, Madame Mayor and council members. I'm Mary Horvath. I'm a senior civil engineer in the utility services department and I'm here. Are you new? Yes, I have heard wonderful things about you. Welcome aboard. Thank you very much. We're excited you're here. Matter of fact, I think she said that you're the one of the best in the biz. That's great to hear. Thank you very much. Yeah, council. So, no pressure. I'll try to live up to my reputation. Okay, go right ahead. Um, I'm here to present on the regional flooding flood mapping update activities that are going on within the city of Reno currently. This is for uh presentation forformational purposes only and there is no um there is no action requested at this time. Okay. So this uh this these activities align with the city's strategic plan for economic and community development as well as infrastructure, climate change and environmental sustainability. So there are three concurrent FEMA mapping activities going on within the city right now. And you may ask why is this all happening right now? First, the city of Reno did not initiate any of these activities, but we are supporting them. We do not have a choice. These mapping updates are occurring because of two FEMA requirements. First, if floodplane mapping is known to be inaccurate or outdated, FEMA requires that the mapping to be updated. And second, for the city to be in in compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program or NFIP. If out of NFIP compliance, the NFIP would not provide federally backed insurance, flood insurance to our community or lowinterest recovery loans to our community post flood disaster. The NFIP underwrites flood insurance coverage only in those communities that are in compliance with NFIP regulations if we meet or exceed those regulations. The updates are also needed because the FEMA mapping throughout Wo County is significantly out of date to uh as a represent as a representation of the 1% annual flood chance or what we call the 100red-year flood plane. The majority of FEMA flood planes were delineated in the 80s and 90s and the technology for both hydraology, hydraulic analysis and mapping has significantly improved over those time over that time since then. The effective or current maps do not accur accurately reflect the flood risk to the city. The updates aren't changing the actual flood risk anywhere in the city. We are just making them more realistic and up-to-date. The three FE activities are shown in the map that's on this figure. First, there's a letter of map provision for Swan and Silver Lakes in Lemon Valley shown in pink. Then there's the physical map provision or PMR for the Truckucky River and its tributaries shown in green. And then there's the flood risk which was initiated by FEMA that's shown in blue. [Applause] So the first one and the most the one that's going the fastest is the Lemon Valley Lomar for Swan and Silver Lakes. This was initiated by Wo County because the recent flooding in 2017 and 2019 demonstrated the mapping inaccuracy. We are supporting the county's efforts because it impacts residents and commercial uh businesses within the city. A full explanation of the map changes occurring because of this LOMAR was were presented to the council in September 2024. The LOMAR is based on updated hydraologic data and methods of and better analysis and topography. So this is a schedule of the LOMAR. Again, we are the furthest along on this. Uh the the WO county started the analysis in 2022 and since that time, FEMA has reviewed and preliminarily approved the mapping changes. The public outreach for the map revisions is currently ongoing. The county had held a public meeting in January of this year and the county and and the city have identifi or have notified all of the affected property owners by by a letter. The formal 90-day review period that FEMA mandates is about to begin and we expect the revised mapping to become effective later this year. The next mapping activity is the TRFMA or Truckucky River Flood Management Authority physical map revision, what we call the PMR. The um this will change the flood plane for the Truckucky River from White Fur Drive upstream of the city of Reno downstream of Vista Narrows and on Steamboat Creek from South Meadows Parkway to its confluence on to the confluence with the Truckucky River. This uh mapping change was initiated by TRFMA but we are supporting it. The main reason for the update is because the Truckucky River flood mapping is out of date and does not reflect the true flood risk uh of the Truckucky River. Additionally, TRFMA wants the existing conditions uh map to be effective prior to the changes that will come about as a result of the upcoming flood. uh Truckucky River flood projects. The TRFMA generated a two-dimensional hydraulic model for the region for their projects and this is what is being used in the PMR update. Here is a schedule for the PMR uh TF TRFMA worked on the data collection and hydraologic and hydraulic analysis for for the last five years. The PMR hydraulic model and initi mapping was approved by FEMA in 2024. The two-dimensional hydraulic model is already being used throughout the community for me for development projects and roadway projects. Currently, the city is working with FEMA's update the flood mapping to include recently constructed development and fine-tuning the map. We will submit the analysis uh reflecting these changes to FEMA next month. The revised mapping should be finalized by the end of 2025 and will become effective in 2026. Prior to the effective map, the city, county, city of Sparks along with TRFA and FEMA will conduct public outreach including public meetings and notification letters to all impacted properties. The last mapping update is the FEMA risk map which is was there's water bodies throughout Washer County where the map is being updated but it through in Reno the most important water bodies are the the tributaries to Steamboat Creek that run through South Reno. The risk map which is short for risk mapping assessment and planning is a FEMA program that identifies and completes floodplane studies for communities to update outdated FEMA mapping. FEMA MA FEMA identified parts of Wo County and the city of Reno for a map update in 2019. The remapping is utilizing updated hydra hydraologic and hydraulic methodology and recently collected topography. So here's the schedule for the South Reno risk map and it's similar to the PMRS. Currently the city is updating the analysis to ensure that the mapping is as accurate as possible and also takes into account recent development. We expect to have the analysis and and revised mapping finalized this spring or summer and the new mapping will should become effective in 2026. Just like the the PMR will be doing will be conducting public outreach to all the impacted properties including letters of notification and me uh public meetings. And with that we we're happy to take any questions. All right. Great. Great job. I'm really happy to see this. I know I've seen several updates on it, but um it's just nice to see all the work that you guys are doing and updating it cuz it's been a long time. Mhm. Long time coming. Go ahead, Councilwoman Der. I I didn't even have to ask. Going right Well, I'm going right to you. Right. Well, thank you again, uh Mary, for being here, for joining the city, uh for bringing your expertise. Um I'm very excited all the way back to when I was state water planner. We're talking '9s, mid '9s. We knew that the Reno flood mapping was out of date. And we advocated even at the state to get it fixed. It was so wrong. It was plus or minus 2 feet. The contour intervals um everything was off. So, it was very hard to predict who would be flooded, who went to that um end. I was wondering since you've taken a hard look at these, do you know in each of the three how many residents and how many businesses are potentially affected? So for the at this point with the draft information, director of utility services, um for the North Valley's um Swan and Silver Lake, we do and we have presented that previously in the city of Reno. I believe we had three affected property owners at Silver Lake. Um and 16 undeveloped properties at Swan Lake. Um again, undeveloped residents, no residents, undeveloped properties at Swan Lake. Yeah. Um and then the three properties at Silverlake, we did meet with them individually and discussed um those changes. There were 50 or 60 other partials that had a dimminimous change across their properties and so they were also notified but really it doesn't affect their flood insurance requirements or not. Okay. And then what about the other two? Sure. So the the physical map provision for the Truckucky River Flood Management Authority and South Reno, we're just not there yet. And the reason is is that we've been provided mapping for um our department's review and we are working on changes and updates to those. Once we're done with that, we will submit it back to FEMA and they will review what we have submitted and accept or go through this process of of working through those changes. At that point, we will know who's in, who's out, how many properties are affected. And again, it doesn't change anyone's true flood risk. I understand. Yeah, I know. I'm just but it changes their money that it changes what they have to pay for flood insurance. And what I recall um is the last time this happened also unexpectedly they descertified a levy in South Reno and about 300 residents in double diamond suddenly were put into the flood plane 100 year and had to pay flood insurance that they never had and it created a huge uproar. 300 residents. They reached out to me in this case at the flood project saying, "Is there any money? Can you help us? What are we supposed to do? Um, can we fix the levy to take them back out?" And um, we I I gave them some ideas. It was my predecessor in the seat that was making the ask. And I I tried to help her get a $5 million uh fund to help restore that levy, update it, but was not successful. But I just wondered to finish out your answer, what about these ones in blue that were the the the third category? Yeah, the the South Reno. Again, these are existing flood planes shown on this map because we are not at a point in the process of analyzing um or adding additional detail that's required. And that'll actually be the next items um on consent that we or sorry D items that we talk about is additional funding we need to finish out those analyses. So we're not there yet, but when we are at that point of knowing who's going to experience some kind of change, we go through a full public outreach process with FEMA and we have to notify every single property that is either put in the flood plane, taken out of the flood plane, has a dimminimous change, all of every single one of those. We do um plan on a very large public outreach program. We understand that you know these residents are going to need to know what's happening and and we will work through that process once we are there. We're just not quite there yet. And if I may, ma'am Mayor, just did you say you need money to do this? I mean, we do. So FEMA comes in, this one in particular is uh what what's called a FEMA risk map. and FEMA comes in and they say to the community, "We're going to go work on your flood planes because either you've had an increased development, which we have in this area since the 80s, um or we know that something is off," which we have, you have just discussed a few minutes ago. Um so they come in and they say, "We're going to work on these. We've been working with them since 2019 on this." They send us their version of the maps. We review it. We find a whole bunch of things that are incomplete, wrong, which affects things downstream. So a lot of the things that are incomplete or wrong are in the upper wershed in Wo County. However, it affects flood planes downstream in the city of Reno. So we're in the process of gathering more information. Oh, the other thing um so FEMA says, okay, we hear you that that this analysis is deficient. However, we don't have any more money. So if you want to make these flood planes better, then you need we as a community need to submit to FEMA any updated changes to that that modeling or mapping. So that's we we initiated that um in February of 24. Um we thought there was a certain amount of work to do. Once we dug in there was a significant more amount of work and that will be items um D3 and D4. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Go ahead, Councilwoman Eert. Take your advice. Hi. Thank you for the presentation. I do have some questions about the Ward 4 area. Um, I know that there's been some shift and I have a lot of constituent concerns specifically around Silver Lake about um the flood zone changing. Do you guys have any um maps to show what it was before and what it is now? Trina Mcun, director of utility services. Yes, we have a website that shows the changes in mapping and you can actually type in any particular address. it will zoom into that area and tell you what the changes are for your particular parcel. Again, this is only first one in Silverlake because we are past the public outreach point, but we do have a website. Um, we can I don't So, does it provide a map or is it just you put in your address and you check address by address? It's a map. Okay, great. Um, do you think that the shift in this has been caused at all by development surrounding the area, shifting where water goes? I know that there's some warehouses that are out there that have been their, you know, ground has been built up, so they're not in the flood zone, but has that shifted it to the other side of the lake or into residential neighborhoods? Is that responsible for any of the shift at all? So we have long sorry Tony McGon director of utility services we have long had regulations that require development to mitigate for their impact and in 2020 20 I believe this body um increased that requirement from a 1:1 volumetric mitigation to a 1.3 to one thereby actually creating more volume and more space for flood waters to go than the actual development would impact. So increasing that um mitigation since 2020. So the majority of this analysis and and on Silver Lake in particular, the water surface elevation did not change at Silver Lake. It's the same water surface elevation. A lot of the changes that we have seen on both lakes is due to topography and better topography than was available when they were originally delineated. Um so that's where you're going to see a lot of changes. At Swan Lake, you do see a rise in water surface elevation. Um, and that's based on a very detailed analysis that was completed looking at many years of photographic um, boundaries, if you will, and a statistical analysis of what that means and what a 100red-year water surface elevation means. So, it was a different type of analysis than was originally completed. And that's how where we are today. It's looking at a better better methodology and better topography. Okay. Um, I I understand the, you know, detention and retention basins. I see them all over my ward around new development, but water flows downhill. So, even though the water that's being displaced, it, you know, kind of is um going to those detention and retention ponds. If those are raised up, there's still going to be water, you know, moving away from that. So, how how do we know for sure that those houses on the other side of the lake are safe? I mean, I get that there's some going to the detention basins, but the lake still does rise and the warehouses are lifted up, but the existing homes are where they're at. Sure. So, there's a difference between detention and retention. Detention detains the water for an amount of time to reduce the peak flow that's going through a system and works well in riverine type of environments. In the north valleys, we require retention because we don't have a a flood that's sort of moving through the community. We have a flood that sits down in the bottom of a what's called a terminal lake. Um so the detention, what that does is it doesn't actually let any flow out. It uh soaks into the ground and replenishes the aquafer. So it isn't actually going to the lake. That's what that's the purpose of those detention basins is that any increase in runoff. So as you an analyze a new development, you develop how much volume of additional flow would run off due to the development and you capture it in a retention basin and then we add 1.3 to that. So we make it three times 30% larger than just a one one and all of that soaks into the ground. It does not continue to the lake. Okay. All right. So, I guess that's part of it, but I still have concerns that it's starting to shift over because of how the um area around there has been raised up for new development. Okay. Anderson, uh before that, hold on one second. I am noticing a lot of young faces in the back here. I thought you guys were on spring break. What? What happened? You are? We are. Are they torturing you to make you come to a council meeting? Yeah, they're torturing us. What are you doing here? Uh, we're college students at UNR were required to sit in on a meeting that lasts around an hour to two hours foration class just to see how communication operates. I love that. Okay, future mayors back there. And then, Dad, are these your babies? Yes, they are. And they are adorable. I have ping pong in my office if you guys want to go play. It's a lot more fun. I'm sure that's after the two hours. No, I # mayor made me do it. Go play. Have fun. It's your spring break. Um, okay. Go ahead, Councilwoman Anderson. Hello. So, I'm the newest here, so I know the least about um flooding, and I'm going to try not to ask any questions that are repeats of what everybody else has asked. Um, but one question I wanted to to ask you is W six. There's a lot of blue there currently. We're very, you know, comfortable with water moving through our neighborhoods in W 6 for the most part. What I'm wondering is when this map gets finalized by FEMA, all the appeals have happened. What happens next and why does it matter to a homeowner? Sure. So, what happens next? Trina McGung, director of utility services. For the record, what happens next is that um property owners, any property owner that is affected, whether they come into a flood plane, go out of a flood plane, or have a dimminimous change, will be notified. And then what that means to a homeowner is that um they are able to buy lowcost flood insurance through um FEMA. And then if you have a federally backed loan on your home, you are required to buy flood insurance for your home. So that's a Fanny or a Freddy loan or what is what does that mean? It's veteran loans. Yeah, veteran probably the Fanny May Freddy Mack. Um I can get back to you on that. I don't know the the full scope of how many um which loans are federally backed and which are not. Okay. And then is it do the insurance companies get notified that that parcel has now been put in a flood plane by FEMA? I'm just wondering where the homeowner is the insurance company going to contact a homeowner. Is the homeowner going to be responsible for the additional insurance and and realizing that they need it? If you have a federally backed loan, you will be notified. Um if you do not, we will notify you of the change through our process, mailers, um public outreach, those types of things. I do not believe that insurance companies will reach out to nonfederally backed um or owned homes if you own it outright. Not required. Yeah, it's not required. Okay, great. Thanks. No, I'm I think I'm good. Thank you. All right. Oh, go ahead. Just a quick update or followup. You didn't exactly answer. You answered most of my questions about the money, but what I'm specifically asking is we're in the budget now. Are you going to be requesting funds to complete your analysis so that you can add adequately communicate back to FEMA our point of view? Yes, those are items D3 and D4 today. The well um well D sorry, hold on. D3 and D4 were um I thought that's about reimbursing the 29%. And that's about um amending with HDR. But what I'm asking is you're doing some internal analysis or have you outsourced that to HDR? We have both done some internal analysis but we are outsourcing to HDR and we have a split. We had an interlocal agreement with the county because as you can see on this map, the black line is uh the city boundary. So part of the analysis is in the county and part of the analysis is in the city. We went into the original agreement with the county to have HDR do the work at 50/50. These updates that we have found, we have determined that it's 70% the city of Reno that needs more tweaking and 30% in the county. So that's why this next agreement that you see um in D3 is a well 29 um 71% split. So that's coming out of this year's budget that we're still in. I was just asking do you have foresee this going into next year? That's what I'm trying to understand. The budget process that we're under now. That's what I'm asking. I do not. Okay, good. Yeah. All right. I'm going to send it uh to city manager. And just for the record, I want to clarify that the funding source is a sewer fund. Is that correct? That is correct. Thank you. Great. All right. Thank you so much. Um, Councilwoman Eberg, go ahead. Yeah, I did have another question. So, you mentioned the flood of 2017 through 19. Do we know the cause of those homes coming into the flood plane? I know you said that that that was an indication that the map wasn't accurate, but what what was the shift on that? Sure. In 2017 we had I don't remember the exact number, but um in excess of 10 backto-back atmospheric river events. So, it was an extremely unusual, extremely heavy wet year that came in. And as those happen back to back to back, that lake just fills up, fills up, fills up. And in 2018, we had a more normal year. And so the lake through evaporation reduced and that's the only way to get water out of that lake is through evaporation. So that lake reduced and then in 2019 we had another heavy although not as heavy year as 2017. However, the lake was already pretty full. So 2019 it actually reached its highest level in 2019. Um, and and really what we saw was floodwaters going into areas that were not mapped because the original mapping was based on a 10-ft contour interval interpolation between really in inaccurate or or low um accuracy mapping. And when we went back and delineated it or the county went back and delineated it in those areas, it more closely refle reflected what they saw in the 2017 2019 flood events. So really it's the better accuracy of the topo that is indicating again it doesn't change who floods. It's just changing the boundary to reflect what is truly happening based on better topography. Okay. So I guess that that's my question is could that same scenario happen at Silver Lake due to changes? I mean it so yes this scenario could happen again. floods happen um in our community just as we you know we've seen over the last few decades uh nearly hundred-year event on the Truckucky River every 10 years. So this can absolutely happen. Can we predict when and where? No. That's you know sort of up to mother nature and and how these atmospheric rivers come in to our community. Um we are looking actively looking at ways to improve for um the county has built up or they've spent about $15 million on um BMS uh pumping mechanisms um Tesco barriers things like that to improve the response should the next when the next flood flood comes and it really is um Silver Lake is response is for the C they they manage that response Sorry, Swan Lake. Silver Lake Reno um manages and we have a flood management action plan for both lakes and we have a plan as as that those flood waters rise where we add Hesco barriers and do different things to protect um those properties around those lakes. Okay. Um yeah, I just again just want to state that I think that the additional development is changing the topography. you know, it's that's that's what we're looking at. That kind of decides where the water goes. Um so just concerned about that. Thank you. Okay. No action on this item, but we are going to head to item uh this is going to be D3D4, and this is FEMA flood mapping action items. I'm going to send it over to Vice Mayor Taylor to give us a disclosure. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor, for um disclosure on item D4. Fellow Madame Mayor, fellow council members and madame clerk, you the interest of full dispar transparency on item D4, I am disclosing that HDR Engineering is a current client of my consulting firm, Tailor Made Solutions. On this matter, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office. I had been advised that I have a substantial and continuing business relationship with HDR and therefore a commitment in a private capacity to the interests of HDR. here. Item D4 seeks approval of an amendment to the agreement with HTR Engineering for professional services associated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood map updates known as risk map in an amount not to exceed 197 197533. As such, I have been advised that the independent uh independence of judgment of a reasonable person in my situation would be materially affected by my current contracts with HDR. Accordingly, I will not be participating or voting on this item today. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for the meeting pertaining to these agenda items. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. With that being said, madame clerk, do you have any public comment on D3 or D4? Uh there's no one registered to speak and we did not receive any correspondence. All right, great. Okay, tell us what you need from us. Okay, so again, I'm Mary Horvath. I'm a senior civil engineer in the um utility services department. Thank you for having me. Um I am here to present on items D.3 and D.4 for approval of an interlocal agreement with county and an amendment to a contract for from HDR to support the FEMA initiated risk flood mapping changes. Again, these um activities uh align with the city strategic plan for economic and community development as well as infrastructure, climate change, and environmental sustainability. The original contract and interlocal agreement with Wo County to support the contract were approved on February 14th, 2024. Additional effort is necessary to finish the analysis, prepare comprehensive reports, and finalize the mapping products to present to FEMA. RIS risk map, as we stated before in the last presentation, short for risk mapping, assessment, and planning, is a FEMA program that provides communities with flood information and tools that can be used be used to better protect their citizens. As part of the program, FEMA identified flood maps in portions of Wo County to be updated because the effective or current maps are out of date. The city does not have a choice in this type of FEMA mapping update, but we do have the opportunity to ensure that the revised mapping is as accurate as possible. The major area of concern of for both Wo County and the city of Reno are the creeks shown in this figure. Um from the foot that flow from the foothills of Mount Rose to through South Reno to Steamboat Creek. It includes Weiss Creek, Thomas Creek, Dry Creek and the double diamond drainage that conveys flows from Weiss Creek and Thomas Creek to Steamboat Creek. And the black line in this figure is the city boundary. So you can see it's it's right on the uh the the the areas of impact are right on the boundary. So HDR as part of the original contract has completed the review of the FEMA produced analysis. Additionally, they have revised the hydraologic analysis to determine the 1% annual chance flow rates or the 100% 100red-year flood for each of the creeks and added significant detail to the hydraologic to the hydraulic analysis, excuse me. As the project has proceeded over the last year, additional areas where detail is needed were identified. Due to the number of changes necessary in the hydraulic model, a project amendment is necessary. The remaining work supported by this amendment includes, sorry, went too far. Um, collection of topography from recently developed regions within the city along with critical hydraulic diversions and conveyance facilities. an update of the hydraulic analysis to reflect recently approved developmentdriven FEMA map revisions or LOMARS and the packaging and submittal to FEMA of the analysis and mapping in order for the revisions to be included in the final map update. Because most of the topography and modeling updates are located within the city of Reno, we are proposing to pay for the majority or 71% of the of the work. One example of an area requiring more detailed topography and modeling is a diffluence of Whites Creek where it divides into four branches. The diffluence is critical to understanding the flow splits between the branches, how it is represented in the hydraulic model greatly impacts the flood plane going through the city of Reno. This figure shows an aerial map of the defluence and the flow splits. And you can see how quantifying the flow splits is critical to mapping the flood plane downstream through the city. This is another uh this is just a a replication of the schedule for the risk map uh the from earlier the earlier presentation. We are currently in the community response phase. The amendments to the HDR contract and ILA will allow the finalization of the analysis and support the submitt of the data and reports to FEMA. And here's our recommended motions. Madam Mayor, I'd like to make the record. Go ahead, please. I don't know if there's any questions from anyone. Nope. All right. Thank you. Uh on D3, I move to approve the interlocal agreement with Wo County for cost sharing for work by HDR and I think she mentioned a 71 29% split. Second. All right. I have a motion from Councilwoman Dur. I have a second from Councilman Ree. All those in favor say I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Okay. And then for D4, um there's no questions, I assume. Um I move to approve staff recommendation to amend the agreement with HDR Engineering to provide updated model and technical documentation to inform the risk map FEMA flood map updates. All right, I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, motion carries unanimously. Okay, good. And our award to residents. Thank you. You made it, Mary. Congratulations. Okay, we are going to head over to Dean Five and this is the strategic plan kickoff. Madam clerk, do you have any public comment on this item? Uh, there's no one registered to speak, but we did receive correspondence uh which has been distributed as one letter in favor and one letter of concern. Okay, thanks so much. All right, you ready? Looks like we kind of dressed a little similar today. day, the trip day, the three of us. I felt like, okay, it feels like spring. Let's dress a little more like spring. I thought the same, but I thought the same. I would wear black every day if I could, but I'm trying. No, spring was in the air, so it's light blue, right? Yeah. All right. Go ahead. All righty. Well, good after. Good morning. I was surprised to come before you. Yeah, before you mean before 9:00 p.m. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I would have done it at 9:00 p.m., too. Uh, but good morning, mayor and members of the Reno City Council. My name is Cararissa Bradley, strategic initiatives manager with the Office of Policy and Strategy for the Record. Uh today I'm excited to uh give a presentation about our strategic plan and go over a couple of things uh with this body about the potential update and just as uh kind of three primary objectives of this presentation. The first is to kind of celebrate some of the current plans achievements. So there's been a lot of really amazing work that this body has led over the past 5 years related to the strategic plan. So, we want to take today to kind of touch point uh what we've achieved already and then I'm going to walk through a little bit of a proposed plan update process. So, uh with that uh open to any feedback from this body of uh things you'd like to see in the current in the plan update. And then lastly, it's more of a a timing issue if anything more procedural, but I'm asking to extend the current plan's priorities uh for the budgeting process. And I'll go over that a little bit more in depth um later on. So, as a reminder, these are the city's uh strategic goals that this body set back in 2020. Uh, obviously, a lot has changed over the last five years. However, this body has led in these spaces. And I want to go over uh two or three major achievements that have been happening under each one. But in your packet, you'll find a more detailed list of achievements and various projects that have have been done. So, first is our fiscal sustainability goal. Um over the past few years, the city's really done a lot of process improvements in the budgeting process. Uh one thing that maybe isn't the most uh talked about thing that we've achieved, but we now have our facility condition assessment report, which helps us to better understand deferred deferred maintenance and maintenance costs of all of our city- owned properties, our art collection, our parks and recreation facilities, and that's a really pivotal piece of our budgeting um process. Now, another area in our fiscal sustainability goal is the successful allocation of all of our state and local fiscal recovery funds. We've also worked to uh secure additional alternative funding sources from federal, private, public uh foundation grants over the past few years. And lastly, the city's really increased its efforts to make the budgeting process more transparent uh for the public and for ourselves. Uh as you can see there, the budget book is, you know, some some 500 pages. Uh but now we have a really amazing digital budget book proc process that helps us to be be better better understand and see from the public's perspective you know what is this department doing what's this fund doing etc. Our second strategic plan goal is public safety. Uh when reviewing the plan we've achieved nearly every stated strategy from our current plan. Some major ticket items were were identified by this body and identified in the uh plan including the public safety center which of course we've opened. Uh we also signed an agreement with the city of Sparks, Wo County, and REMA to implement the regional CAD system, which is going to uh revolutionize the way that we do dispatch in our region. We've also partnered with Vision Zero Truckucky Meadows, which has helped to increase our pedestrian safety um infrastructure in the region and was one of this council's goals. Our third goal is economic opportunity homelessness and affordable housing. Uh since this plan was adopted, the this council has been a true leader in this space. Uh we I want to get this number right. We have this body has allocated nearly $11 million in sewer connection fees and $735 uh,000 in building permit waiverss for affordable housing projects, which I just think is incredible. Uh we've also uh launched the clean and safe team, which does everyday daily walks around the city. um providing outreach to our most vulnerable populations. Uh you can see them there in the bottom left. That team's also been an innovator when it comes to how we deliver our outreach services. So in the middle there, that's actually a prototype app that has been developed with new rocket and service now. Uh really honing in on that public private partnership type of thing. Um that's the drops app, which stands for direct resource outreach and placement service. And that's really helpful for our outreach teams to know um all the different touch points that they've been having with individuals out on in the field. And the last uh item that I'll highlight here, we heard from Reno Justice Court earlier, but our own re R reno municipal court community pro community court programs have been really successful in um recetivism rates and helping people once they are involved with the judicial system to find the resources uh necessary in our economic and community development goal. This is a place where I could probably spend all day talking about the amazing things that this council and this city have done over the past 5 years, but I'll highlight a few. So, you'll remember that you've recently adopted the Title 18 um RMC code update, which really provided a comprehensive cleanup to our uh code. Conflicting regulations were clarified. We clarified a lot of language and we incorporated the 2023 legislative session uh opportunities as well. Also through the restore program, this body's provided over 36 different properties or business locations with just over a million dollars in grants uh to improve both the internal and external uh facade of businesses. And recently the city was awarded uh the love your block program grant which is helping to do many grants to revitalize uh neighborhoods throughout the city of Reno. And the last thing I'll say in this in this goal that I I'll kind of touch upon in later in the process piece is that we've done a lot of foundational work in this current strategic plan to really help ourselves out, help future us, if you will. U those things include the Virginia Street Placemaking study that this body adopted, the uh micros micromobility study which has led to the biggest little bike network. Uh those types of plans are so foundational in helping us uh lead to the next step. Our next goal is an infrastructure, climate change, and environmental sustainability. Happy to report that at the Truckucky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, they've completed 12 capital projects, and there's currently nine in progress uh to improve the plant performance and increase capacity. We also updated uh the city's communitywide greenhouse gas emissions inventory. And then one thing I'll note here is the Reno Sparks heat mapping project. We hear a lot about urban heat island effect in our region and how it we are one of the fastest warming cities in the um nation. Last summer the heat mapping project was an effort collaborated between the city of Reno, the desert research institute, the University of Nevada Reno Wo County, the Reno Sparks Indian Colony and the Citizens Climate Lobby to better understand how the region's urban heat island effect was impacting specific neighborhoods and and things like that. So we're really active in that collaborations piece. in the arts, parks, and historical resources goal. This is another uh section where I'd say we we've pretty much achieved everything that we put in the original plan. Some of those things are opening the Moana Springs Aquatic Center. Of course, we also uh helped to identify funding to construct the Virginia Range Horse Fencing Project and we've also created the River Range Pro River Rangers Program, which is aimed at enhancing the protection of our Truckucky River corridor. And again on the plans, this body adopted a lot of plans under this space over the past five years, which were the parks, recreation, and open space master plan, the public arts master plan, and the Truckucky River vision plan. Lots of plans. So the next goal here we have is the governance and organizational effectiveness goal. Um, we have completed the citywide classification and compensation study. Uh, the relaunch of the Reno constituents institute and we've already graduated 75 individuals and we are on track to graduate another 40 this year. Of course, that is an opportunity for uh community members to better understand what we all do, the city of Reno. It's not just as simple as the government. It's very complex and they get to uh get a firsthand look there. And then last but not least, we were recognized as one of the best places to work in Northern Nevada, which I think we could all agree with. So I I'm going to say round of applause a little bit. Like that's a lot of work. This body has led so much in that in these spaces. Um so why am I here in front of you all today? And um the biggest area is so why are we talking about updating the plan? So our current plan expires on June 30th of this year. And after reviewing all of the stated strategies and our goals, we've achieved most if not all of them and made really significant progress. Um we think feel like it's an opportunity to sort of recalibrate our pri priorities. What's next? What's the next um thing that we want our teams to be able to focus on? This slide is just to as a reminder of sort of why does the city do strategic planning? So strategic planning really focuses on uh providing clear direction and focus to uh this council of course but also to city staff to the public. It's also um you know we find that uh providing more of a clear direction and focus. We all know where where the ship's going, why we're going there, etc. Um I mentioned earlier all the plans that this body has adopted. um strategic planning really serves as an opportunity to see how all of those align and really put first what things go first, what comes next, etc. How do they all align to one another? The third thing here I'll mention is that strategic planning really assists in this decision-m process, whether it's through the budget process, whether it's through kind of hairpin uh policy direction that you all are making. Uh the last the next one I'll talk about is just really confirms our priorities. What are we spending time on? what are we allocating resources to? And the last two are are both for internal and external audiences. It really serves as a communication tool for our teams and it also provides an accountability and performance opportunity. So after reviewing the current plan there staff has identified a couple of areas where we feel like we could make some improvements in the next plan. The first is to have more clear measures of success. Uh I'll give a couple of examples here. So our current plan we have uh se our seven stated goals of course we also have you know five to 10 things strategies that are under that. Some of them are very specific so staff knows exactly when we have or have not achieved them. An example of this is that in our current plan it says that we want to open the Moana Springs pool. Great. We know we did that. There's others that are a little less specific like work regionally with our partners. We do that every day. How do we know if we're working regionally on the right issues? So we think that in the next strategic plan um we can be a little bit more clear in those measures and maybe include some more metrics and more things of that nature. The second area is to be a little bit more specific in our focus. Um given that uh our current situation we feel like now is the best most opportune time to really get clear on what we want our teams to be focusing on uh what we're allocating resources to. The third is to invite in invite the community to engage with this process. So what does the community want us to prioritize and focus on? Uh and the fourth is to identify more opportunities so that uh these priorities can be used in decision-m maybe there's more places throughout the city process that we can include. And the last one is to make this plan more visible and and sharing ongoing process more regularly. May really make this plan come to life. the I I've heard like if you ever see a strategic plan or any planning document that's laminated, it's like the worst case scenario because these should be living documents. We're all kind of, you know, moving things in and out of what is the most important strategy for us right at the time. So, I want to go over a little bit of process overview. So, from now until July, uh assuming that this body provides direction for us to move forward with everything, we're in the gaining insights phase, right? We're asking the community, how do you feel about certain things? We're interviewing this body of course. We're going through all of the various plans to understand what has been achieved, what needs to be achieved, and how do those all align. Uh this is also where we just uh kind of we've already sort of done it through the achievements report. What did we what needs to move forward in our next plan? Uh about the August time frame is when we're hoping to kind of bring back to this body a planning workshop to agree to the priorities. what are the top big bucket of items? From that we would then draft the plan from August through September. Uh publish it, ask for community feedback, ask for this body's feedback. Again, of course, this is your plan. Um and refine various elements to it. And then our goal here is to adopt by the end of this calendar year uh and and share it with the the community. So, one thing I want to go over is why I'm asking you all to extend the current plan. It really boils down to a timing issue. Our current plan expires June 30th of this year while the budget is going to go into effect July 1. So it really helps us to avoid building a budget with an a plan that's about to expire. It's really utilized in our finance department as well. Part of their budget building process is to have a current plan. It's one of their best practices and uh it's part of the government finance officers association award requirements. And not to say we're doing this to get an award, but it's best practice in a lot of ways. So, um, happy to entertain any questions or comments from this from the group. And this is my recommended motion. Uh, council members, let's see here. Questions, comments? Council member Reese. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Uh, first of all, um, outstanding presentation. Always a privilege to have you in chambers. Um I think what I appreciate uh very much is um sort of a review of our past, where we are today and then what it helps us do in the future, right? Because I think that sets us up for the most success that we can have in this process. I fundamentally believe that, you know, failing to plan is planning to fail so that we have the opportunity to do the kind of things that allow us to strategically operate within the um confines of our budget. Right? our budget is really the reflection of our values and so ultimately I believe that when we get to that moment when we're doing the new strategic plan we're going to have lots of great discussions and I always um learn something new in those processes and I learn very much from my colleagues on the dis about their um wards um what their interests are and that I think ultimately allows us to have a longer term vision for the community um sometimes in the ward only model it's very siloed and you're really thinking about your ward to the detriment of a broader vision for the city and I think strategic planning will help us to have the connection across wards to be able to do the kind of things that we need. Uh for my part of course because I was a part of the last strategic plan um I think very much that we haven't gotten so far from the last one that we need to tear down a plan or start a whole new one. Um, for my part, I think many of the things that we've spoken about in the strategic plan, whether that be sustainability or housing or economic vitality, they remain the touchstones of any city, right? Uh, I don't think you're going to find us all saying, "Well, let's chart a brand new path over here." Um, so I think um given where we are um in the budget process, this makes sense what you've recommended here to me. Uh, and certainly would be supportive of that. I think I want also sort of to signal that I continue to believe that our um priorities do remain the same, right? We've always had priorities around public safety, um parks and recreation, pools, you know, all the things that make living here great. Um but I also think there's some processes that are important that we fix and work on those things. So, uh sort of the three Ps for me in terms of how I view the priorities, right? Um, and then last but not least, I'll just say, you know, our budget, um, is a function of a lot of factors that happen outside of our control. And so, um, I think the budget presentation that we've had over the last couple weeks and now your presentation here reminds me that, um, while we, uh, don't have a sort of a intrinsic role in the reason why our budget has flipped upside down, I think we can have a proactive role in how we chart a course for how to deal with those budgetary periods when they happen. And so I I think that's another part of this is that I want the strategic planning to be focused on what do we do in an environment in which there is no growth and then your growth model turns your budget upside down which is the first time it's happened in the time that I've been on the council. So I'm very interested in that as a process question. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Um again great work. um mirroring my colleagues comments, but um what I wanted to say is that um I think that these goals of ours are so broad, so global, they're going to be our goals going forward. Um housing has remained at the top of our list, right behind public safety for over 10 years. I don't see that changing. Um what I would love to see in the future iteration of the strategic plan is that um better more measurements on how we're doing. So I think this could be really helpful to the council. Um you know we won't always be short of money. At some day we will be back in the in the uh black so to speak and we will be able to put some funding towards some additional initiatives. So I I think that in order to make those decisions, we need to have some good measurements, but when we do measurements, I think it's important to provide not just raw data, but in context. So we did 32. We never know how to respond to that. Is that good? Is that bad? Is 32 out of how many we tried? Could we have done 62? Um or is it remarkable and we could have only really achieved 20. Um numbers without context are not that helpful. The second thing I want to suggest is that there's a lot in strategic plans generally, not just ours, that are a lot about feel-good words. You know, very generic words. We should aspire to do this and we should try to do that and we care about this other thing. But are our actions linked to these words in in specific ways? I mean, I know the presentations every day start here's how we're tied to the strategic plan and often they're tied to multiple goals in the strategic plan, but and I'll give you an example just from my own personal. We've done a lot in sustainability. A lot of it is words. We've signed on to a climate action plan or we have professed that we care about a thing, but in terms of specific actions, they're fewer. And of course, they're fewer. They require money. You know, it takes money to do a thing. um signing on to something doesn't require us to put $50,000 down or something. So, what I'd love to do is both um mark the the the words and the policy thoughts, but also mark the actions. And I and I'll just pick sustainability for example. I said, um we've done some really important things like put solar panels on top of the Moana roof. That's incredible. Um or we've started the community solar project, one of the fir well the first in Northern Nevada um to help underwrite lower income residents power bills. Very important. Um we started 10 years ago pesticidefree parks, but we started 12. We still have 12. We we haven't increased it. We haven't decreased it. We we didn't say it's a pilot. It didn't work or or it worked so well. We need to double it. In other words, we we took an important step. also bees. You know, we did bee city, but I haven't in that time seen any more bees on roofs or, you know, the next step of stuff. So, anyway, I'll leave it there because my time's over, but you see where I'm going. Definitely. I think we're doing all the right stuff, but I think we have to narrow in and understand our progress in some different ways. Okay, go ahead, Councilwoman Eert. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Um, I get some questions about, um, kind of in the same vein as council member Derer. Um, how how is the city working on on, um, the environmental sustainability aspect and the heat mapping? What is the city of Reno doing to work towards any kind of sustainability goal or heat map mitigation, things like that? I I kind of like what what what metrics are we using besides we have bird scooters and bike lanes which are great but um you know what else are we doing and how do we prioritize that? Uh Carissa Bradley, strategic initiatives manager for the record. Um I can't speak on behalf of the work that that team is doing, but I know that I could get you connected um about how how they're using measures to track and some things. I know they are are working on an update to their plan that might be helpful um in some of those places, but I I can't speak to the exact right now, but I get you connected. Okay. Well, um I just think that maybe we need to have that more public, you know, that what what we're working on in that that arena. Um yeah, thanks, Council Member. I just wanted to add in Cali Wily, uh director of policy and strategy. I also think that a portion of this conversation that we're going to continue have with you guys is how do we provide better more succinct updates to you so it's not like every three years you're hearing about something but you can see that progress and that's not necessarily a decision for today it's going to take multiple conversations um but that is something um that Carissa has flagged um for for that exact reason I think that's a part of this process right we'll update the plan and we should also have a implement mentation strategy to go with it. So, how do we talk to you more regularly where it's not just coming um the plan isn't just coming once every 3 or 5 years? Yeah. Can we maybe get like a quarterly update or something just to keep us posted on, you know, grants that we're trying to get, grants that we've gotten? Cuz I know something that's been a really big priority to me is the um bank around Virginia Lake. And I know that it's costing more to fix every day. Um, and I don't really see, well, there's arts, parks, and historical resources, but really I think it would be very helpful for us to see updates on, you know, how are we moving towards having more flat fields, what's going on with Pemrick to just, you know,formational only, but let us know how things are going. Understood and agreed. Thank you. It's like you're talking to the right people. Okay. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Um, I agree with a lot of what my colleagues said, but I I have a couple questions. First of all, what is the do nothing option? Um, just why do we need to I again, I don't think our goals are going to change drastically. So, I'm concerned about the time and effort that's going to be put into this based on what our financial outlook looks like. And then for for my part, what I would like to do is say I want to clean and safe downtown. Those are the constituent. That's what I hear from my constituent. Send that to our our city manager. And then you guys come up with how what a clean and safe downtown, how we're going to get there. I know what it looks like for me, but when it comes to measurement, you're going to tell us what we need to do to accomplish that with the tools that we have and the budget, the financial tools that we need, and then we're going to allocate that for that goal. And then we're going to be held to that that um we're going to be accountable in that space. So, you know, like my top three goals from what I hear from my constituents are going to be part of this plan. I'm going to look to the city manager team to implement those and you're going to tell me what you need from us as far as financial and other resources. Is that sort of how we come back into this um with more measurable objectives and and strategies? I guess again I don't think the overall goals are going to change. these are going to be our priorities moving forward. So, okay, Carissa Bradley for the record. Uh, so I'll I'll answer your first question, which is the do nothing option. So, if we if we do nothing, we can, you know, formally extend the current priorities, right? I I agree. I think that the top level are probably going to be very similar if we do go through this process. I the second piece there is a lot of the plan has been achieved in that second layer the the more specific like what we are doing uh what this body wants staff to focus on um so I I will also say we we are handling all of this inhouse there's no additional cost to the city to do this strategic planning process uh we are working to identify those measures right how do we know what a clean and safe downtown is you know, I have some ideas and I've worked with Brian and I've worked with some of the other folks, but we want to I think this process does help us get to where what you're saying. Um, and I'll let Jackie or Madam Manager Brian. Yeah, thank you. That's an that's a perfect example of how this is a living document. What what started as a broader goal or I let me back up. What started as a more narrow goal of downtown focus with the clean and safe team has morphed into a broader perspective over the last couple of years as we have expanded what we think clean and safe can and should do. So those are the kind of things that I think through this next iteration of this living document we can really hone in on especially around those measurables. You know, every dollar we spend, we should be able to identify what we're getting for that. And it should be worth what council has said are their priorities and we have to be limited and how we allocate our time and our resources. We can't do everything. We have to focus on the things that council prioritizes. And this really is part of our daily conversations. We actually operationalize the strategic plan. So if we do nothing, our operationalization of it is stays dated instead of updating our view based upon your feedback. Okay, that makes sense. And um I guess my last comment is I don't know necessarily the the tactics involved of of implementing the strategic plan. I want to work on a level of these are our goals and you tell us what what you need. I'm not going to tell you or or tell Chief Nance what she needs to do in in this space. So, those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Martinez. Thanks so much, Mor. Thanks, Mr. Barley, for the presentation. I think it really gave an overview of where we have been and some of the successes. I think that's where I uh gleaned a lot of my understanding of the project and where you want us to move forward with in terms of the timeline and what you're proposing and extending that out. But it's great to see all of the sub points identified within each strategic plan. And then you even gave specific examples in the achievements. And so maybe tightening some of those up and setting those measurables from the beginning can help us tell the story a little bit better. And I think that's something that uh you and Director Wily have been talking to me about is like how do we better present the story that the city of Reno is already accomplishing and the things that we're working on to the everyday person that lives in our city of Reno. So recognizing that we've set these goals and priorities over the next five years and how are we going to accomplish those things to provide a safe, clean, uh, welcoming environment for folks to enjoy. And so I see our role sort of as a nexus of bringing together what the community is saying, what we're hearing from our community, and helping the city kind of prioritize and get those projects completed. So, I would agree with some of the parties that were already laid out um from the other council members, but just stress that parks and recreation and infrastructure needs um are big in in the ward that I represent and making sure that we continue uh to develop those areas is going to be important uh for the folks in war three. So, that's I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, Council Member Anderson, go ahead. Thank you. Well, I just want to I just want to share how much I appreciate the thoughtfulness and the way that um these plans are presented and even everything on these um city council agendas, how they tie back to our strategic plan initiatives. I just think that as a communicator professionally, that is a brilliant way to keep us all on track and this document is the, you know, kind of um nexus for that or genesis. So, thank you for that. Um to your point, I don't want to repeat what my colleagues have already said, but to your point about measurables, especially around working with our collaborative partners in the region. Um we're going to have some opportunities, if I have anything to do with it, um in public safety to work collaboratively or collaboratively with our partners. And I think that these are great opportunities to track and report whether it's quarterly or when we have significant work that has been established on a project whether it's with dispatch or anything else in public safety. Um we want to track what the issue is what we're solving for because nothing that we're collaborating on is something that isn't doesn't need a solution for right and I think that historically moving forward because we're waiting for the feds to make decisions that we are going to have to make adjustments for. So this the timing on this year and extending this for a year while we re reccalibrate it I think is actually a gift because we're going to need to be nimble this year. Our budget that we present and submit on the 15th is the first round right based on whatever happens. And so some things that I would like to see tracked would be like I said what are we solving for? Who was involved? what costs were um maybe cost savings were achieved and then most importantly operational significance like how did that improve our service to the community. those things if we're tracking them and we're, you know, updating the community quarterly or every six months is going to show kind of why and what we've solved and will also give us a historical background for when people say, you know, in 2025 we made this significant change, we're going to understand why easily everyone in the community. So, thank you for this work. It's really important. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay, go ahead, Council. Um, a followup since we we pretty much all touched on measurement and metrics, but I want to take it just one step further and that is let's take an example like miles of bike lane installed, right? Uh, so I think it was last year we did quite a bit and we had the project downtown and we installed quite a bit and that would have been like a 500% increase because we'd done so little let's say the year before. But there was a time maybe 10 years before that we actually installed also a lot of bike lanes. So in addition to how many miles of bike lane installed that's a metric then relating it to let's say past years that's a comparison or context. I think we also need to know how people feel about that. So we might think we're doing a great job installing all these bike lanes but the biking public doesn't feel the same. they they see that it was a drop in the bucket or maybe they think that we picked the wrong area. They're commuting north to south and we did east to west. You know, it wasn't aligned with their expectations, the residents. And so I'm just saying we could probably do a step further and you've started this because you came to our NAB, we're doing a community survey, but as we develop our community survey and this process, maybe we can link the two so that you have a section in the community survey about our priorities that nudge people to actually be able to respond on the things we think we're working on. And um we could then match, well, we installed, you know, uh 200 miles of bike lane. they were all zigzagged in downtown. So, we really improved that. But the people that are going 5 miles south to downtown or 5 miles from north to downtown didn't have the experience. In their mind, nothing really happened and because their life wasn't affected or touched. And so, I think somehow in this process, we've got to link it with what our residents are expecting and what they are experiencing. They're expecting us to do biking and they're experiencing we didn't really achieve what they had hoped for or we exceeded what they hoped for. They were just hoping for a simple this that and we did far more. So I just all I'm just saying is as we're moving forward someone I think it was council member Eert mentioned the heat map. Well this summer I participated my husband and I drove all over town with a measurement sticking out our window measuring the heat in one of the hottest days in Reno. But and that data was collected with the county in connection with I think it was DRRI but we've heard nothing about it here like that was oh so last summer and here we are almost to this summer and really heard no follow-up. I have no idea did did it mean anything? Did someone apply for a grant? How does it affect what we're doing here at the city of Reno? So just some thoughts on how you know with our collaboration how to bring back to what others are doing and um I I'll just leave it there but you can see that we have you know we can take it to the next level. I hear you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So, we definitely talked about it, but with regard to the updates, maybe we could do them like just pick one of our goals and get an update, you know, every 6 months or once a quarter and just kind of go through the goals so we're not trying to cram everything into one and we can get more detail on, you know, that specific um goal. Um, I also had um a question about collaboration with Wo County. Is this included in this at all? Because I think that if one of our goals are to really um clean up downtown. Um I think that Wo County needs to engage more with the sheriffs. A lot of people think sheriffs are just for unincorporated county, but they're also for our city. And um I just want to make it clear that I want that to be part of our goals, too, is that we engage with them and ask them also to help with the downtown. they're responsible for the CARES campus. Um, I think that they should be, you know, engaging with the unhoused population. Um, and it shouldn't just be on RPD. So, I don't know if that's specifically in the goals to work with, um, Wo County, but I would like that to be part of it. If I if I can, Carissa Bradley, for the record, just so I have this clear on my end. So you're for the planning process like when we go and gain insights and we're hearing all the different input you'd like us to go to Wo County and have a conversation about about things. Yeah. Even though it's our goal, you know, city of Reno is within Wo County, they should be engaging um you know and helping us work towards that goal of cleaning up downtown because that's you know not just a city of Reno issue, it's a Wo County issue. Um so I just want to make sure that they kind of get pulled into that as well. Great. Thanks. heard. Okay. Um I think those are good points and I would imagine all of us are having conversations with um our county representatives. Is that something you guys continually do? Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. Um you remind me so much of Jana and I just love Janet. Does she? I don't know why but she reminds me of Jana. Um great job. How How are you feeling? Were you nervous? This was my first one, so I was a little nervous. I thought you did fantastic. I didn't I didn't think you looked nervous at all or acted nervous. I thought you did a fantastic job. It was the like matching with everybody up there. I think we were like all one team. No, but I can imagine like just being up there for the first time. I would not like it. So, I think you did a fantastic job. So, great. Um, and then also a little birdie tells me to the left of me that you are now Cararissa Bradley Kusak. I did recently I did recently get married. Yes. If anybody knows it's very difficult to change your name or to hyphenate. So I just heard maybe not difficult but it's a lot of paperwork. So I just heard that it's really cuz I asked someone and I know really well. I said why didn't you ever change your and she said have you seen the paperwork? It's like 10 steps. Yeah. So anyway well congratulations. Thank you. Um okay I'm going to send it to you Councilman Ree. Thank you Madam Mayor. I move to extend the current plan strategic priorities for one year to support the fiscical year 26 budget process and direct staff to initiate the strategic plan update process. All right, I have a motion from Councilman Reese, a second from Councilwoman Der. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Unanimously. Good job. All right. Thanks you guys. Okay, madame clerk, let's get back to I think we're at item F1. Hey, hold on one second. Item F1 to be read by the city attorney. Okay, before that, let me just ask you really quickly any uh public comment. Uh there's no one registered to speak, but we did receive uh three comments which were distributed as uh letters in opposition. Okay, perfect. I'm going to send it over to um the one and only Carl Hall. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance adoption. Ordinance number 6704. An ordinance amending Reno Municipal Code, Title 12, Public Works and Utilities, Chapter 12.16, Sewer Service, Article 2, Section 12.16.155, titled Sewer Connection Fe Credit Policy, to delete the expiration date for connection fee credits. Amending section 12.16.420 and titled sewer user fees when vacant, fire damaged, or demolished. And amending section 12.16.430 430 titled termination of charges to remove the provisions regarding demolished properties together with other matters properly relating there too. All right. Thank you so much. I'm going to send it to Councilwoman Der. Oh, all right. Thank you. That sounds great. I see your light on over there. Go ahead. Had my light on from before, but yes, I'm happy to speak. Um you you all may recall that we discussed this at our last council meeting and I had some concerns. Um so did uh Miss Eert and um we set up a briefing in between last week and this week and Miss Turney asked me to kick kick us off and in the briefing that uh we had with Miss Turney um we discussed some different ways to go that would achieve the goal her goal um or let's call it the staff's goal but also retain what we have um as a incentive you know for development and uh we recognize times were tough after 2020 co very tough for a lot of people and so it seems reasonable to extend um the sewer fee credit. So right now it expires in 5 years um and a number have expired, some are still underway. I think most are over 200 are still pending. So, um, we discussed the idea of maybe instead of just doing a blanket, we we, uh, don't even have a sewer credit fee, um, ex, uh, time frame anymore to extend that, um, by our rulem for 5 years and even possibly, um, allow staff to provide additional five-year extension without um, applicants coming to us at council. They'd make a decision. Um, in talking with the mayor, um, she said that she supported that and she can speak for herself, but she added something. Maybe this should be effective as of 2020. So any sewer credits that were active in 2020 could get extended. Those that have already expired have expired before that time. But anyway, um I would recommend that we not do a a second reading today and adopt this, but that we um ask our staff to go back and take a closer look if there's a way to fine-tune this to achieve all our goals, both lean in and help businesses and also retain a development incentive. Yeah. Um, and one of the things I want to point out, I think I I do think that the council should look at them individually after a certain date because you have some that could be brought up from 10 years ago and projects definitely change. Um, we know a few, right? So, I'm going to ask um, Miss Turney to talk a little bit about how we can accomplish something that makes sense instead of blanket. But then I also understand then you would have to sort of um I guess monitor all those sewer credits and I and I get that that's difficult. Um but I also want to be careful of the unintended consequences. So how do we get there? Um I am very supportive of looking at projects and saying this absolutely makes sense because of the housing crisis and shortage. Those types of things. Um, but just kind of help us get there because I do think there's just a few things that we could have put measures in that would make it a lot easier for the council to decipher. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I do believe um, assistant city attorney, deputy city attorney, I don't know her title properly. Uh, Susan B has something. Good afternoon, council mayor. Uh, Susan Broth, deputy city attorney. So um going back 26 years 26 years this we had a connection fee credit but it wasn't codified. Okay. So in other words so that's not a good idea for uh due process equal protection applying uniformally. So in and at that time they never expired. So it was codified in 2000 2011. Okay. And then it was determined to incentivize development to put in that five-year expiration date. More background. Before that, when it didn't expire, they paid a user fee to keep it valid. And that was kind of where we were looking at here. Yeah. Put that back into place. So, if you want to keep it, you pay your user fee depending on the use. So um so with that information when it was brought to me I said okay well looking at it from a legal perspective and the cleanest was just to take it out because in my mind for due process it needed to be applied uniformly. If it's going away it's going away and not because to me that was just the cleanest legalist way. And I guess I want to be sensitive especially to certain projects. Let's say they're affordable housing projects and we kind of have what I believe are not very many tools to help people um get those, you know, up off the out of the ground. Um so I I am very supportive. The only thing with the fee, and I don't mind it, but you know, let's just say I could just see this happening, someone coming in and saying, "Oh, I didn't pay the fee, but I still want these." and then it becoming it's not worth it. Well, and I think it can be bad customer service, especially the person that's having to deliver that message. I I just don't like that. I think it's sort of, you know, cuz what they're going to say is, "Oh, I didn't foresee that we were going to bring this back." You know how that works. And and I just hate that then we're going to be like, "No." And that's why I do think it should really be the council's purview so you guys can look at projects that make sense. Maybe there are some that don't make sense. I don't know. Could there be a scenario like that? Um, Ashley, the attorney, assistant city manager for the record, there could be a possibility that each of these come forward to council. Um, I will tell you I think that that would be burdensome, not only for staff, but for this council. Uh, nearly every single application for housing that comes in inquires about status of sewer credits and what available tools. Uh, one thing that I believe um, Deputy Balroth mentioned to me before we stood up here is the comment about pre2020. U, though I'm not an attorney, I would imagine that if we are looking at extending this to expired credits, it would need to go to either all or none. I don't think that we can just pick a date in time in which they apply or do not. Agreed. Okay, great. Um, so that would be the only caution that I mentioned for council is if we are considering the expiration date removal for the back ones, uh, they would need to go to all of them that we have on file in order to get to the exact point that you're mentioning is I didn't know this was going to come back. Okay. So, it creates fairness there. So, thank you so much and appreciate the clarification. I understand you sort of create classes of people by treating some got an extension, some don't. So, it's fine with me. I mean, I I wasn't advocating a date initially, but I I saw the benefit of it. But, um, and I think in talking to you, Miss Turney, you said there are about 200 active and about 150 that have expired, something like that. I'm rounding. That's correct. 207 are currently active. 158 parcels have expired. Yeah. So, we're really just talking about the expired ones, the 150, right? I mean, that's who would be for your proposal today different than what is introduced. Correct. M and I wanted to ask Mr. Flansber because I'm under under the understanding talking to him that they are paying a user fee today many of them you you said that maybe they were maybe they weren't but could you explain that was that okay just I don't know what's happening today with this user fee and what you explained to me Mr. Plansburg was that if a person wanted to keep their sewer credit fee credit active, they needed to continue paying if it was commercial the lowest commercial rate which is the same as the residential rate. So is that right? Yeah. So for the record, John Flansburg, Regional Infrastructure Administrator, we have individuals accounts that are paying the minimum fee uh for properties that are not currently sewering. Maybe they're just they're they're closed, whatever. But we also have several properties that have demolished and they are not paying any fee at all. Um so in this particular item um I I would just say that if we're going to open up the credits, let's open them up. If we're going to put a time frame on it, maybe that creates a new incentive for people that have expired credits to do something with them, which does benefit all of us. So and maybe if we can't put, you know, do a cut off like 2020, maybe we make it for a shorter period of time. Maybe we extended two or three years instead of five. I don't know. But all I know is I think we could do something very targeted that gets to the goal of extending something to business in particular that that want to keep these active. But at the same time, we're not doing it forever. And I'll just remind the council, those that weren't here, um we had the Jacob's properties come in and they were in fact demolishing things. Um they wanted to keep their sewer credits active, but they couldn't do it past 5 years. So they came to council, they asked for us to enter into an agreement with them and they asked for a 20-year extension, not forever, but 20 years. But the council at that time, which about half of us were here, um weren't comfortable with that. And we extended it 5 years. And I think that this proposal is very consistent with the action that the city's taken before. And I guess I'm speaking um to you know Ashley and our attorney um in that on the one instance that we did a special agreement we extended it 5 years so not not 20 and not forever. So go ahead. So to speak to your point Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record. Uh this council entered into a development agreement which is a separate tool that was available because the credits had not expired at that time. Right. Right. And so we're dealing with people whose credits have expired at this point. So anyway, um I'm just throwing it out there. I would hope we could do something a little more targeted than just a blanket lose the credit or just keep the credits forever. And one of the downsides I think of keeping the credits forever, I think you touched on it, mayor, is that if you keep them forever, we are going to have to track stuff from 2000, 2008, whenever to forever, how much they paid. I think it's a very difficult administrative job. There will be administrative work regardless. So staff is tracking all of these credits now regardless of when they expire or not because we have to track them through that time. U if we were to move forward with a 5-year extension, second 5-year extension, I need to make sure that it's very clear that we do not have the staffing ability to be able to proactively reach out to these parcels to let them know that their credits would be expiring. So that would be something the due diligence and onus would be on the property owner to contact the city regarding their credits. Um so there's there's work either way. Okay. Well, I just I could see like 20 years from now we're tracking credits from 20 years ago. We've been tracking them since 2011. So we're already in that position, right? But I'm talking about even more decades if we adopt a forever kind of thing. So okay. Well, anyway, I you know I'm interested. Um, I want to thank council member Eber too who participated in this discussion with Miss Turney and you know that we just wanted to come back with a positive um proactive proposal. Okay. I go ahead. Okay. Um Oh, great. Now I lost my train. Um, is there any kind of fee associated with this at all? like they weren't paying their their rate to keep it active, you know. Um, do we make them catch up th those fees that they haven't paid as part of this process? Because they weren't utilizing the system is why that fee would not be there. They would pay today's current hookup fees when they completed and then ongoing rate fees. Okay. I thought I heard you say that even if a building was demolished, they would still have to pay a flat rate or or there's a minimum usage fee. And one of the things that uh Mr. Finsburg and I have discussed is on the go forward after if this council chooses to make a change to this section of code one way or another. Um he's going to be reviewing effectively a holding fee. Uh while we want to ensure that we are incentivizing this housing to come along, uh we do want to find tools and methodologies to reduce land speculation and holding uh we've seen that obviously over the last 14 years that this law has been on the books and we've not seen a lot of development in certain areas where these credits have come in and expired. So staff will be bringing forward at a future date um a holding fee of sorts. Okay. So, I guess what I'm getting at is are there people that got a credit, maybe they demoed the stuff, but then they stopped paying that flat fee and now they want to use or you know their credit that expired years ago and opt to stop, right? They would they would have been build. There's no billing. Yes. Okay. So, that's a piece I'm asking about. Are we asking them to get caught up on that flat fee before we give them the sewer credit? That would be a policy decision from this body because they're not utilizing any sewer during that time. But you said that there was a flat fee required there. My understanding there was a minimal usage if there was still a building if there's some credits available. Okay. I thought you just said even if the building was demoed, they still had to pay a flat rate. There is not a flat rate is what I just confirmed with Mr. Okay. So, they weren't supposed to pay anything. Correct. And then utilizing the system and the their credits were from the hookup fee, which is a separate fund than the rate fee. Okay. So, that's why they're bifurcated. And on that note, if I may, Madame Mayor, um, right off, just to understand what I understood for Mr. Plansburg though, let's say they demoed the project 10 years ago and 10 years from now they want to use the credit, the sewer credit connection fee. Well, that's 40 years that the pipe's been underground aging. I mean, whether it's being used or not, it is disintegrating. That's what happens. That's why they have to go and replace the pipes. So I think maybe sort of what you're trying to get out a little bit is that, you know, there's a cost to the system of whether we're just sitting there or using it and someone has to pay for that, too. So I don't know. I I wish I could get a little bit more clarity, but we don't need it today. I think my main goal is to have a little bit more targeted approach that that retains the benefit of an incentive and still leans in and helps businesses, especially over, let's say, the next five years. So I don't, you know, I don't know how the council feels about that. All right. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. Oh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I'm going to provide a different perspective. I respectfully disagree with my colleagues, and I am in support of the second reading of this, and this is why housing is my number one priority besides the budget right now. And I am willing to look at the risk associated that this might cause. And I just want to read something because last time I think there was some confusion that we were giving abatements or something to developers. Is this accurate? This does not reduce, wave, or in any way subsidize sewer connection fees. That is correct. That is correct. That is correct. And we did have a 5-year waving period that was in here at some point. Is that accurate? That there's a current 5-year on the books in which these credits will expire. So, I just don't think that we can um you know, for me, I guess I'll speak for me. I can't say that I prioritize housing, that I pri prioritize development in downtown, that I pri prioritize infill and then not make a decision like this to encourage it. That is where I stand. And there's no is there risk to the city? Is the city losing money? Is the su are we giving developers a free pass or whatever it is? Are we being to me this is being a good partner as to our businesses and to our community and helping to get stuff go vertical which is a good thing and that's a priority of mine. Did I say anything that is out of turn here? Nothing is inaccurate. Uh this is brought forward direction from this body has been to find as many tools available to help with housing. So this is a perspective tool. Okay. That's exactly where I still stand. So, I would just say to my colleagues that I would be on the other side of this. Thank you. Um, I'm just going to pop in here. Councilwoman Anderson, please go ahead. Okay. So, I'm confused. I'm sorry. Well, you should be. I'm confused. Why? Um, and this is in full respect, like this is not in disrespect in any way to this process and the targeted um, option that you and um, Megan or Councilwoman Eert brought to the table. I just don't understand why. I don't if there's no risk to the city and we're not losing anything, why would we be forcing our staff through this fiveyear like this additional five years? I'm just Yeah, I need clarity on this if there's no risk to the city. Thank you for asking. Um, so since 2011, we've had um the the idea and I I didn't come till 2014. So the idea was that if we had a credit and it's much like let's say a tenative map. Tenative maps are good for four years. They expire. Okay? They put a ton of work, ton of money and they expire. they can get a renewal uh for four more years at the administrative level. After that, they're expired. They're expired. It's been eight years. They haven't moved forward on their tenant map. They haven't finalized it. It's dead. It's very similar to this. That is that's in state law. It's in designed to be an incentive to do a thing, not just sit on land and speculate. And if we take away So, it was designed as a incentive. Um, and we don't have data whether it is an incentive or not. There's a presumption somehow that it isn't an incentive, but we don't have data or information on that. So, it's on the books as an incentive. My idea was let's keep it as an incentive. That's the only one I know that we have. We had talked about having a fee for sitting on vacant property, having just property fenced. Some cities do that. The mayor's more knowledgeable about that because she's a more contact with more cities. But the idea was to keep the good parts of what we have but to still allow um an extension five years. Uh and it just seemed right to me. So um you know if you if you don't agree if you you know you haven't been here and I get it to see if it worked or not and I don't have good data on whether it worked or not. I just don't want to lose a potential tool and an incentive. So, um, here's what I'd say because this is where I'm coming from and I think, um, there shouldn't be any insinuations that this has not been top priority to the council. That's You mean housing? Yes. I want to make that very clear. Um, because that was just insinuated. I think what we're trying to get is actually, and maybe it doesn't make sense, maybe it does, but I think you have to create a sense of urgency instead of saying you get them forever. How does that create any urgency if we're really talking about wanting to put projects in the ground? So, that's where I think we're coming from. How do you do that? Where the council can say, "Let's go, right?" Um, I don't want to obviously put in more bureaucracy and red tape. That's really not the goal here. But I want to be abundantly clear that we should have a way to actually trigger it where it could be immediate, not you know, okay, cuz I guess the way I'm looking at if you have them forever, what's the incentive? So, Madame Mayor, Ashley, Attorney, assistant city manager for the record. Um, I believe that that was the original intention when this law was put on the books was it was a hope to spur the development. Um what we're finding as we know in this market conditions change in our community every 3 to 5 years. Uh we have interest rates that increase. We have interest rates that drop. Elections change that tariffs may or may not come in now. We have a global pandemic. And what we're finding is a lot of these properties that are coming forward to the city now that want to put shovels in the ground. They're not the people who bought these properties when they were demolished. They're now a second or a third owner. So, those credits have expired prior to them taking hold and trying to build something. I don't know that it solves all of the housing problems overnight. You may only see a few come forward. Um, but what I can offer is two options for council just to pull us back into where we are today. Can I just But let me just here's here's where I was thinking and this is tough because you have people out there that are watching right now and I don't think they understand the tough position that we have to sit up here because everyone's like, you know, very critical of housing, which we get all of the feedback and stress from this housing shortage. And everyone saw a situation this morning with a man who, you know, when we have less housing, we see we see scenarios like that that are really hard to manage. So, this is a balance. So, it's very hard when people are saying, "How dare you, you know, council, when there are people out there struggling and need and need housing." And the reason I'm saying this and trying to tie it back because I don't want some of my council members to think that we're trying to, you know, slow down the process or create more more bureaucracy. But here's my here's what I would look to a model. And that is a thousand homes inund what 20 days. 120 days. And that was done based on a sense of urgency. Correct. It was I'm smiling, madame mayor, because I tried to convince our legal team that we had an option to do that and based off of how the laws are currently codified, we do not have the flexibility to do that. I don't so um the laws have changed and we can't this is a separate component because your thousand homes in 120 days put the sewer connection fees on the back end and so that was something that was allowed to be done by resolution by this body because in the end it didn't change any of the actual dollar in dollar out. This is different because it's codified that states that it is a 5-year expiration and so therefore we have to bring it to the body for a policy decision that's different. Okay. I just feel I just feel like there's some way to give a carrot to get some of these projects actually going. Madame Mayor, it seems it seems to me, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but both options here are incentives, but we don't have data that proves that the option that we've been committed to for the last 5 years actually incentivized. So both of them are incentives though, right? So no, I I totally agree with you. I think we were trying to get to a space where actually we could actually probably be more proactive when it comes to this initiative. That was the goal. The goal is to find ways to build any and all housing, which has been a very clear priority for this body. It feels like this motion originally that we read in is more equitable across all property owners. That's my second concern here is that um future litigation that we extended sewer credits and then we didn't extend sew sewer credits and then it came to council and it was arbitrary and we got to make a decision or we didn't get to make a decision based on whatever. That feels really risky. All right. This feels clean and has an incentive in it. Councilman Ree, go ahead. Um, my comment is really uh sort of to piggyback on something Miss Anderson said, which is, you know, we don't have data. Well, I I think that's not true. We do have data. It hasn't done anything, right? You had a piece of dirt that has sat there and undeveloped for some period of time. If it was such an incentive, it they would have gone out and done it right before the expiration. So I I don't know how you would find enough data to create a data-driven outcome, but I just think experientially um what we were doing hasn't worked. Airgo some change is is being asked for. And I I'm rather on the fence about all of it. I I think there are good arguments on both sides. Um I don't know that if we do one or the other, we also couldn't then someday go the other direction, right? I I suppose if five years from now what we hope to accomplish never spurred anyone to massive housing development, we could go back the other direction. So it's sort of uh again I'm I am rather agnostic. I do agree with you, Miss Anderson, that it does seem cleaner in the what's been presented by uh legal so far. I suppose maybe Miss Bal Roth, if you wouldn't mind, um what what is the recommendation of legal counsel? Um, we aren't I I am a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer, right? And so I want to make sure that I I'm following good legal advice. Are there is this a clean and and workable schema and should be adopted? What What is your recommendation? Susan Broth, deputy city attorney. To me, what is being presented at this point in time is the cleanest and that's why I drafted the changes this way. as you stated and as we're seeing today, ordinances can always be amended. So, um, but that's my thought. I thought this was cleanest the because of the fact that it just said okay you everybody's on the same page and um as John indicated he was perhaps going to and I don't know if council wants to do that but maybe go back to where uh to keep them alive you pay a a user fee based upon what your usage would be which would help with the infrastructure maintenance. I suppose though that when they come to connect, they're paying the present cost to connect which is baked into that. If correct, if some process or if some parcel is now being uh built upon, but it's got 50-y old pipe in it, the connection fee is supposed to cover the upgrades to the pipe. Correct. Right. So, this argument that Muer raised, I think, is not persuasive to me. they would have paid uh so let's say their current connection fee would be $500,000 and they have credits of $200, they'd still pay $300,000. Makes sense. Um okay, while you're up there, Miss, if I may just pivot or piggyback, um is it also clean though we have a five-year period? What if we just said it was 10 year? I seems pretty straightforward and pretty clear. Um it doesn't involve anything else. It's just it expires in 10 years. It could be 10 years, but again, I'd have to think about how to word it now because again, it it should to me, we it has to be equal due process. I understand. And that's across the board. Yeah. So it would have to be in other words those who are in the queue and could claim a credit let's say they it never expired they they should get to come forward and claim their credit if they can prove it up because remember the ordinance as written requires proof. So to me again I go back I just like getting rid of it for now. I understand the cleanest, but maybe the second cleanest is just to extend it to a different time frame, which is 10 years. And if you're in the queue to get one, you'll get 10 years. If you already got one, you get 10 years from whenever you got it. And you know, we we have done this. Let me just remind you, uh before you leave, we have done this on the um billboard bank. So, we allowed everyone to have credits to to keep them active and then they expired on a certain date. I mean, we we've done this in a variety of other forums. So, I just it's not like we've never dealt with something like this with a new expiration date. During COVID, we made a lot of changes that just applied to certain kind of businesses, you know, to add patios or move liquor around, you know, those kind of things. We're trying to do a good thing here, but we're also trying to retain some semblance of another good thing that we have. So, if we if we don't approve the second reading and you do go back to work on it, that's a different approach that you could bring forward. It's just a different date. Okay. Mayor, if I could, Ashley, assistant city manager for the record. Um, I believe you have two paths in front of you today as a body. What is in front of you is a second reading to remove expiration dates. If council does not want to move forward with a second reading today for adoption, then an alternative option would we bring back a new ordinance um if you want to extend all expired credits to a particular date on a calendar and then identify your 5 years plus your 5year staff choice is what I think I'm hearing from or just something simple. So that I see it as I mean does it really incentivize someone to they're like yeah I'll just sit there for 10 years. Exactly. So I don't I don't think that that I have agree too much but I I I I appreciate where you're going for sure. Definitely. Okay. Am I to understand that if in 10 years we wanted to change what we do on the second reading today? If we wanted to change it, we can we could actually change it at the next meeting. Yeah, we could change it at the next meeting. So that's where I mean I it's probably not that okay. I'm just going to share. you wouldn't want to take away something that you gave. Let's say you extended it forever. There's no expiration date. I think it would be very uncomfortable to take that away like two meetings from now or a year from now or they they got us something and now we're going to it would be a go forward thing. It wouldn't affect the people that Wouldn't you agree with that? Our attorney would agree with that. We wouldn't want to extend everybody forever uh and then like do a new ordinance that says no, you really only have five or 10 years. No, it would be go forward, right? Mhm. And I actually what I'm hearing and maybe maybe I'm wrong, but I think we all have the same goal. Uhhuh. Um Councilwoman I do you have your light on? Is there a reason? I do. Yeah. Um so uh Council Member Der kind of touched on it, but something that we've talked about as a council is how do we incentivize people to to um do something with their vacant lot or their empty lot? And I think that this is a way to incentivize them to to do this. And if they haven't done it by now, you know, are they ever going to do it? And I think that we should be able to say that credit just sunsets in x amount of years. Like you need to use it. Um use it or lose it. Yeah. Use it or lose it by a certain point. Um, but you know, we're we're frequently talking about how do we motivate people downtown and I think taking away that expiration date is a loss in that category. I don't know. Yeah, it it it demotivates people to um move forward. Uh so, and again, I know the economy is not great right now, but we just came off the lowest interest rates probably ever um a year or two ago. And if people didn't start building then I don't know what their situation is but um you know are they ever going to build? So I I just think that they should sunset and then you know if it's a new owner, new project, whatever um are is that credit able to be like applied for in the future? No. Okay. Yeah. I just think that it should sunset. People should feel a sense of urgency on this and uh give them give them a a sunset date on this. So, anyhow, that's just my two cents anyway. Okay. Um Okay. Who wants to give me a motion? Go ahead. I'd like to make Anderson. Go ahead. Wait. So, I'd like to make the motion that we accept the agenda item F1 as as stated up on the screen to adopt adopt ordinance. Sorry, I'm going to I I think I feel like city attorneys are wanting to weigh in. No. Fine. No. Okay. All right. I just see your face over there. Okay. Um, you you made a second. Okay. So, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. opposed. Motion carries. Okay, moving on. Thanks so much. Um, where are we at, Madame Clerk? Oh, we are at appointments. Hold on. I think correct. G1. Thank you, mayor. Um, I would like to recommend Mr. Jacob Williams to the planning commission, please. Okay, we have a motion. I'll make a second. I'm sorry. I just didn't hear the name. Jacob Williams. Jacob Williams. Be my motion. That will be Councilman Reese's motion. I have a motion from Councilman Ree. I will second that. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Okay. We're going to head over to consent. I'm not sure which council member pulled these. So, if you can start with um B14, I guess. Councilwoman Der, is that you? Uh, yes, it was. Okay. Um, and I don't know if the public works staff are here. I just wanted to highlight um the incredible amount of money that we are investing into our community. In item B14, it's 3.2 million and in item B15, it's another 200,000 plus. Um, could you just show us a map of where you're planning to spend this money? Sure. Jonathan Smith, public works for the record. And you just need to rotate that, I think. Got it. All right. So, yeah, this project is uh our preventive maintenance project. It's our yearly project that extends the life of our streets throughout Reno. Um, this project will be slurring 49 mi of road, but we'll be patching on 64 different streets and we'll be doing a mill and overlay on 6 milesi of road. So, a lot of work with this project. Hard to fit 49 mi of road on one map, but we did it. Uh, we have the red and we have the red and orange areas on this map are where we're going to be doing a slurry. So, primarily in the northeast, southeast, and southwest areas of town. And then the green areas are where we will be doing a double slurry. So those roads are just a little bit worse condition. So just say this again. 49 miles of miles and 64 streets. We'll be doing patching. So and then the last uh I didn't hear is a mill and overlay. So we'll be grinding off the top two in of the pavement and then putting it back and that'll be 6 milesi. You called it mill and mill and overlay. Yeah. So we'll mill the first top and then we'll do an overlay. All right. I know how important streets are to our community. It's one of the things that they experience the most. They drive every day most of them or even on buses. They feel the potholes. Uh they feel the cracks in the street. Um when we've done these projects, and I know we did one, a pretty big one. It wasn't in my ward at the time we finished, but it was in my ward when we started, which was over by Virginia Lake West. Um you did, I don't know, seven, six or seven, eight streets over there. Um they hadn't been touched, I don't think, for like 40 years. Um anyway, they were really bad condition and the residents, you didn't only in that case fix the street, but you replaced or installed sidewalk. Is is sidewalk involved here at all? Um there'll be some minor sidewalk improvements and some new pedestrian ramps we'll be doing in mostly in the middle and overlay neighborhood. Well, mill and overlay, but it's only 6, so it's a very small. Yeah. So this is a map that shows the Milan overlay areas. So yeah, very small will be on Montello kind of um near Wedkin and then over by the university on Kodell and are these maps on on our backup for our agenda? Okay. I just want to make sure. Well, I am very happy you're doing this work. I congratulate you both um that are here representing and I'm happy to make a motion on both items if there's no other questions. I had some Okay. questions. Go ahead. Yeah. So, I know we already have areas identified, but I have some streets in my ward that are literally just turning into gravel. Like there I can't even call it potholes anymore. There's entire strips just missing. How do we move those up? Is there a way to work with RTC or something? But, uh, cuz the the sidewalks literally turning into gravel. The road is just beyond washboard. it'd be better as a dirt road at this point. I'm serious. It's really bad. Um, how do we get that fixed sooner? Because I've been told it's it's still years out. Is there any partner we could work with or grants we could get? Um, yeah. So, Jonathan Smith, for the record, the mill or sorry, the sluring that we do is for streets that I'm I'm sure you've heard our pavement condition index score is for streets with a 65 or higher. So they're we're basically trying to keep new streets newer with this program. Um when it falls below that category, it goes into the mill and overlay area which is um where they're not quite gravel. If they're under 40 PCI score, then they fall into our full reconstruction project category. And those are when we come to council, we we rank them based on, you know, a proximity to essential functions, amount of traffic that's on it. So it sounds like that would be kind of one that would be looked at. Um and then we bring those to council for confirmation with the street rehabilitation project. Okay. So is that something that we need to provide um direction on to look at specific areas? Yeah. Yeah. If you want to you can maybe email Khalil or Carrie the director of public works with um the different area we're looking at. Okay. But if it's a if it's a hightraic road it might be an RTC road and then it's up to the You want to jump in? Okay. So, thank you, Councilwoman. So, we meet monthly, you and I do. So, these are the kind of things that we could talk about definitely and I can go into more details on that process. Great. Thank you. Name and title for the record, please. Carrie Kosski. Yeah, you're in the hot seat. You got to tell them your name and title. But plus, I want to keroski, director of public works. Miss Ksky or or either one I think probably can answer this. We'll see. Um, so, and this is just sort of me dusting off my memory banks. When I joined the council, um, one of the first meetings I took was with your team and I learned, uh, I think at the time was Mr. Flandsburg who told me that we have something like a $400 million backlog of street work to do, right? So, just $400 million citywide. And that the project of preservation um, essentially divided the city into three areas geographically. and you went year by year kind of around the circle. So year 1 it's in uh area 1, year two it's in area two, then year three it's in area three. So it's not like each council member tries to jockey to get a specific thing in their ward done and somebody is more like I don't know debate skilled and so they get more. you all just move it around the wheel so that it's fair, it's equitable, and you do that based on metrics like the payment preservation index, right? So, I think these are two different things going on. I Miss Eert has legitimate concerns about a specific street, which I know nothing about, but for which you all should address and help to understand that. I don't know if it's owned by NDOT, the county, city of Reno, Wo County, who um but this is really not the same thing that we're talking about today, which is the moving around the city as we try to chip away at the $400 million backlog. Because again, what I I think is concerning is like somehow um the public misperceives that we can get more for our ward if we're just the squeaky wheel. that that's really not what any West do because then it silos all of us into like competing hunger game style for those dollars. I think it's just better to have engineers and uh science and metrics to measure it and then we move around the wheel as we do. So, um just my two cents worth I I think this is great. Everything you presented outstanding, excellent. Um, I hope we're sharing with the neighbors what's coming after we approve it so they don't wake up one morning and they're like trapped in their driveway because we've torn up their thing, which has happened, right? Um, but we we've gotten better about it. But, and my team does a very good job of of posting this on our website and they keep the traffic road closure website up to date during this pro during the work. So, there's resources for the public to to get to that information. Yeah. and we're appropriate. Let's make sure we're knocking on doors, mailing things. I mean, we we want to communicate with everyone we can. Not everyone has a computer, of course, or is paying attention to the website. Um, and so hopefully we're doing on social media some announcements with our comm's team who are fantastic. Look, your team is the best in the biz. So, I trust you implicitly. They're doing great work. Keep doing it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. All right. I had a question. Go ahead. Um, I just want to say I don't I I agree you guys are great great team. I know you're really responsive, but um I also don't expect you to know the condition of every single road. I don't I don't expect you to do He does. We do. Okay. Okay. But I just want to say I don't I don't disagree on um you know picking the roads that are in the worst condition, but I think there might be areas that's not in where we're shifting around at the moment, but they might be in the most need for repair. And I don't believe that word specifically. I care about all the wards. cuz I bring up Virginia Lake pretty much any chance I get. Um but I just want to make sure that we are taking the um condition of the road, the worst roads, and prioritizing them, you know, wherever they happen to be. And I just happen to know that this one is, like I said, turning into gravel, and I haven't seen conditions like that anywhere else. So, not trying to jockey or move someone around, but I really just want to make sure we're prioritizing the roads in most need. So, yes. Uh, Carrie Kosski, director of public works. We do have a a condition analysis for all of the streets that that the city owns. We have 750 miles of streets. Our team goes around in a three-year every 3 years, we actually go and and put eyes on those streets. So we do know the condition and we and I hear you loud and clear. We do prioritize the worst condition streets for the rehabilitation. We prioritize the streets that are in moderate um condition for preventative maintenance. And that's keeping our good streets good. And we find um when when I came to work for the city of Reno, that was one of my initiatives is to make sure that that those good streets are kept good in good condition so we can get as many years of life out of those. And then I think my team has done a great job in identifying those um with this with the support of this council. Budgets are very tight. We have about uh $11 million I think this year. 13, excuse me, $13 million on this one this year for rehabs, reconstructs, and for preventative maintenance. So, we are trying to stretch those dollars as much as we possibly can. So, your feedback is loud and clear. I hear it. And if there's things that we can add, we will definitely take a look at those. Yeah. And I think that's really great to say and put on the record, too, that we have $13 million. And I think a lot of people feel like we have an unlimited budget to fix the road and it's really important that people are aware of what we have to work with. I know that's something that I hear a lot from people is, oh, the city should do this or city should do that, but thank you for saying out loud what the actual budget is where, you know, can't fix everything that needs to be fixed right now. So, I appreciate that. Okay, you ready? Okay, go ahead. Okay. Um, before I make the motion, just a comment. Um, I'm glad that it's a science-driven or or metric driven process. Um, I still think there's a role for advocacy for our ward members. The reason we're elected is to have uh represent our our constituents. And um, you have been very responsive to those kind of things. And sometime it's the same point I think I brought up during the strategic plan if you happen to be in the room which is that we can do science and we can have metrics but how do the people feel about and I specifically brought up a project you worked on which was the bike lanes we could be maxing it out and yet they don't think we're either focused on the right thing they have a different opinion even though we have an opinion or they think we're not doing enough to to your point. So um with all that said there's probably is a role for us to amplify their voice. I know it happened in Midtown with you and I uh where we got to amplify the voice of the residents to RTC. Okay. So, um All right. Well, with that, I'd like to recommend approval of both item B14 and B15. Um motion to approve. Thank you. I have a motion. Second. A second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Madame clerk. 15 1617 1617. Any public comment? No. No. Okay. Go ahead. Madame Mayor, I have a disclosure on um item B16. Uh fellow city council members and madame clerk, in the interest of full transparency on item B16. I am disclosing that Jacob's Engineering Group is a current client of my consulting firm, Tailor-Made Solutions. On this matter, I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office. I had been advised that I have a substantial and continuing business relationship with Jacobs and therefore a commitment and a private capacity to the interest of Jacobs. Here item B16 seeks approval of a consulting agreement for evaluation and pre pre-esigned services for Jacobs Engineering for the Truckucky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility backup power systems project in the amount of $235,954 with Reno share being $161,93523. As such, I have been advised that the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in my situation would be materially affected by my current contracts with Jacobs. Accordingly, I will not be participating or voting on these items today. Madame clerk, please accept this disclosure and lodge it on the record for the meeting pertaining to these agenda items. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. I think it was I Yeah, I had a question actually about [Music] um this disclosure actually. Um I know council member Taylor is on the Tumblr water board. Is there any conflict with that kind of disclosure and that project happening? Uh no. Um if you're on a public body that's not a um commitment in a private capacity. Just so so. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, thank you. And point of order, Mr. Shipman, aren't disclosures personal to the member? That's been your comment in the past that their disclosures are personal to the member. Yeah, I mean, so not up for debate or comment. Yeah, I mean they are Yes. Okay. I know. I I just don't want to get into us criticizing other council members. I didn't feel like that was a criticism. I just am asking for clarity from legal. It's nothing personal. It's, you know, she just says that she um has to recuse from this project that is specifically being managed by a board that she's on. So, just, you know, that's not anything personal. I think it's a learning thing. Just a learning thing that none of the boards that were on prejudice in any way. It happens a lot like I'll vote on something at Tamwa, but then it's coming back here for a decision and I'm free to vote on it here too. Whether or not I voted yes or no at Tamwa, I can make even a different decision here. I guess more the question was the financial aspect of, you know, this is a client that she's representing and a project that she has kind of say over through the board. Okay. Thank you. All right. Was there any other comment? I can make a motion to approve. So, wait, wait. I'm Wait, I'm I can't remember. Wait, so you pulled that item? Who pulled that? I think Miss Taylor pulled it so that she could do her disclosure. Okay, got it. Got it. Okay. I I was confused cuz I was thinking you wanted a presentation, so it wasn't coming coming from you. Okay, I got it. Now I know. I wasn't I wasn't sure who pulled it. So, thank you so much. I appreciate I'm happy to make a motion though to approve item B16. Second. All right. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimous. All right. Um I did pull B17. Oh, okay. Go right ahead. All right. So, um I see there's a couple folks in the audience and my question was just this is um uh could you whoever's in charge of this project, could you just give us a thumbnail on it? Sure. So, I have a map. Mary Horbath, uh, senior civil engineer with the utility services department. For the record, um, this is, uh, let me get it. Here we go. So, this is, uh, approval of a contract with Jub Engineering to do design and environmental permitting for a project on the Truckucky River. It is bank stabilization uh, between Keystone Avenue and Booth Street. In the 97 event, there was significant erosion caused by the big flood um between the two roads that caused erosion. The city has owns a parcel, city parks has a parcel that's shown in blue on this figure um that is a pathway and there are apartment comp there's an water's edge apartment complex just south of the blue area here. This is an apartment complex and we've got several we've gotten several complaints from the apartment complex and from residents. There's erosion that's it feels like the river uh bank is eroding so much that the the path will be lost and there's a a situ there's a dangerous situation. It's also not good for the river to be that eroded. And you said this happened I think in our briefing back in either 2005 or 2017 or Yeah, it's been ongoing. It it it probably started unraveling in 97 and then it was evaporated by by the by the 2005 and 2017 floods. And here's some photos of it. You can see how close the path is to the eroded bank. So, this contract would to be for the um design and and environmental permitting. We do not have uh identified funds for the construction yet, but we were hoping to go after a grant or And then what is the plan? Is it like rip wrap or are you going to have a vegetative bank or it's it's a probably a combination of rip wrap and vegetation and and soil revetment that would that would be attract we want to first of all stabilize as much vegetation especially the mature trees near the path but um the the actual bank itself will be a combination of rip wrap and vegetation. Okay. And do you know how long this is that previous slide you put up? Oh, is it a thousand feet or is it um did it measure it? I cannot remember off hand. Yeah, it's a couple I think a couple thousand feet. Couple. So, like half a mile. No, quarter mile. Probably quarter of a mile. Okay. Well, I'm relating it back to Virginia Lake. And you know, this is a project that's been on our list of CIP for 10 years. This one hasn't. Maybe maybe this one's been on since 97 and 2005 and 2017. At Virginia Lake, we also have a bank unraveling. We also have infrastructure. We've installed a path and a road. And I'm just hoping we can continue to go after that one just as strongly as we're going after this one. It's essentially the same kind of project. One's the river and one's a lake. Um, but I do want to support it, but I wanted to understand it a little better. Sure. Trina Mcun, director of utility services. One of the reasons we're going after this one right now, again, it was evaluated after the flood of 97, the core of engineers came in and said, "We're not going to pay to fix this." So, we've had this on the books for well, since the flood of 97. Um, the waters edge department has written to us numerous times regarding this. Not only are they concerned about their residents walking out on that path and the steep slope concerns with that, but they are also concerned about the structural peril of their buildings. themselves of sliding into the river. So, we've been actively um well, at least since I've been at the city, measuring that bank to see if it is moving um and because sort of some of the reasons behind why now um because we have the opportunity of the modeling that was done for the Truckucky River and the Riverside project which is across the street, we we are capitalizing on that information to be able to do this design and understand what we need to patch this back up and to be able to respond to the concerns of the apartment complex with not only their residents but potential structural peril of their um building. Well, I have no problem doing it. I want to do it. I'm just saying let us not forget we have other places with similar problems that have also been a problem since 97. Um so we just, you know, I'm glad we're doing it. And I I think you also though Mary said that this is part of where Keystone is and that there's Would you just mention that part because I think it's important. Yeah. So this does not directly tie into Keystone right now. There's a actually people have to go through the apartment complex uh to get to the path if they want to go from Keystone, but it does tie into Booth Street. There is a construction project for replacement of Keystone Bridge by RTC that is currently ongoing and we're hoping well we're definitely going to be coordinating with that project and we're hoping to either u parcel our project for the environmental permitting or um at least coordinate with it so that we can have potentially a tiein to key well maybe even a portion of it could be cost shared because the abutment for the bridge is right there and if the bank's raveling they're going to have to repair that right there too probably I imagine Exactly. Is that true? I mean, yeah. Trina McGon, uh, for the record, yeah, we did ask, um, RTC about their AP and they had already set it. So, it's their extent of environmental review for their project. So, I don't know that we have the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon, if you will, for Keystone, but definitely we want to tie whatever structural uh revetment they're doing under the Keystone Bridge for their abupment with what we're doing and make sure that, you know, we don't have an unravel point. Well, that's it for for me. Thanks for answering the questions. Thank you. Anyone? Well, Miss Horvath or Miss Mcun, let me just share with you something that may not be on your radar screen. So, um and I'll share this uh sort of on behalf of the mayor. Um last week at RTC strategic planning retreat um there was a commitment made by the five members at the RTC of which the two of us served there from the city of Reno um to treat the river environment and its um path as a um a traffic and thoraway meaning it was now going to be more than just a path. It was going to be an actual multimodal uh transportation corridor. So which which the point of that is to say that now uh we will try to unlock federal funds that are related to transportation services along our riverway. Uh what we have is we have a lot of folks playing in that space. We have the county the city of Sparks city of Reno. You have TAMA the Army Corps of Engineers the tribal entities. The GSR is going to um have some issues with the path behind their property. Um we have the mill and McCarron uh flatfields project which the flood authority then will have some uh area to do. Our ultimate goal I think uh during our retreat was to basically say a we think there is intrinsic and vital economic reasons to preserve the river environment and corridor and two is by classifying it as a transportation corridor it allows us to access a different type of funding mechanism and perhaps will be a uniform way to have standards. So I think in the next 6 months um RTC will convene all stakeholders to start talking about what are the standards we would like for a river pathway um and and what would it look like and how might that implicate the various sections of the river as it goes from the California border and exit to us at the outer edge where Wo County ends. And I will just say um that has been Madame Mayor's vision for a long time and and I think it was um there was no one at the retreat so no media there was no public there to comment on it but it was a um what I thought of as a a milestone moment when Madame Mayor was able to um get that policy paradigm shifted for our region. Uh and so I just say thank you to you for your leadership in that area. I know how important the river has been. this particular thing is telling me that we all ought to be focused on that. Well, actually, you were the one that helped push it through because I've been trying for a long time. So, good job. I I appreciate because you made sure it was on the agenda. So, thank you. Is there given what council member Reese said, is there an opportunity to revisit with RTC if paths are now part of the m multimodal uh schema for the city? uh could we revisit them on this issue and potentially get some cost sharing? Trina Mcun, director of utility services, we will certainly coordinate with them. The existing uh multimodal path that the preliminary one that has been identified does not connect to this path. This path that currently is sort of a path to nowhere, but I think it certainly is an opportunity given what was just, you know, conveyed to us that we can take a look at it and see what we can do in that space if anything at all. So, you're saying it doesn't go under the bridge? Does not. It's Well, that would be a good goal is to extend it. Um, so Okay. Well, thank you very much. I I'm prepared to make a motion if there's no one else. Anyone else? No. Okay. Okay. Well, I make a motion on item B17. Okay. Oh, sorry. To Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh. To approve um the contract with JB Engineering in amount of 288500 288,500. Second. All right, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. And I think, madame clerk, probably everyone's favorite motion. Do you want to give me I think we have Oh, no. We have council um comments, updates. I actually have an update. Yes, go ahead. I was actually going to say, go ahead, Brandy. Give us the the final the uh final motion, but that's I'm excited to share that on April 5th, so not this weekend, but the next weekend, that's why I'm announcing it right now, we are having our first um emergency preparedness open house from 10 to 12 at Demani Ranch High School. And so we will be joined by the Reno Fire Department, Reno Police Department, Envy Energy, TAMWA, the National Weather Service, and Wo County Emergency Management. Here you'll be able to learn about the importance of a go bag, what to pack in the bag, um evacuation routes in your neighborhood. You'll learn about fire wise communities, how to become a firewise community, how to be a good neighbor in general, um as it relates to emergencies. And so I hope that everybody will be there. And there will be five go bags that are fully packed with, you know, battery or you know, power chargers and all the things that you're going to need that will be raffled off at the event. So it is a family event. There will be things for children to do there and I hope that everybody can make it. So cool. Yeah, I love it. That is fantastic. Well, our team with everything that they're going through right now, the fact that they just jumped in and planned this event and conceptualized it from the ground up for um yeah, me and our ward and the community at large is just I'm so grateful. They have been working so hard and so quick and I'm excited that it's just around the corner. Well, and thank you, Councilwoman Anderson, for your leadership on this. It's so critical and um you know, we all have our Naomi's got her trees and you have the fire. So, I just appreciate it. And Devin, you have all you have all the business. Oh, yeah. The biggest little business. I love that. So, everyone's got their own, you know, initiative. So, great job. I love it. Okay. Anyone else? Nope. Okay. Um, then I'm going to send it right back to you, Councilwoman Anderson. Give me a motion. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Thank you. Do final public comment. Oh, we have one more. Sorry. Final public comment. Go ahead. Uh, there's no one registered to speak, but we did receive two comments after 4 p.m. yesterday, which will be distributed as letters of concern. All right. Thank you so much. To adjourn. Exactly. All those in favor say I. All those opposed. Motion carries.