A tip to a friend? Why did Commissioner Lucey send a confidential court study to someone at CBRE within an hour of receipt?
In March of 2016, Washoe County engaged the National Center for State Courts to produce a space needs assessment for the court complexes located in and around 75 Court Street. The “Old Courthouse” located at 75 Court is a conglomeration of buildings, retrofitted and added onto over the years. The oldest portion of the existing court is from 1911, with additions in 1945 and 1965. This building, by any measure, presents challenges for technology, facilities, and security in 2022.
Picon Press obtained emails from a public records request surrounding another matter and stumbled across these interesting emails, which should be shared so the public understands how graft and corruption may play a role in many projects around the Truckee Meadows.
Following the space needs assessment, the report was distributed to the Sheriff, Court Administration, and County Management. On June 30, 2017, then Court Administrator Jackie Bryant, emailed the confidential report to Bob Lucey and Judge Hardy. This occurred at 10:39 a.m.. Later that day, at 12:56 p.m., Commissioner Lucey forwarded the confidential report to David Woods, a first vice-president at the largest commercial real estate firm in the world. Now, one might ask, what does a goliath firm like CBRE have to do with a space study at the local court house? Well, we will try and make this simple to follow, even though it involves complex ideas.
To help us understand why Mr. Lucey would share the report, we reached out to the current Court Administrator, Alicia LeRud. In a records request from May 2022, Picon asked about the dissemination of the space needs assessment completed in 2016. In response, Ms. LeRud provided Picon several documents, including a July 01, 2017, agreement between Jackie Bryant and GSD Nevada LLC. This agreement was dated just a day after Commissioner Lucey sent the email to CBRE, is that a coincidence?
Ms. LeRud also confirmed the space needs assessment contained confidential plans, even though the County released this to us on a separate public records request. What we did not expect in the response from Ms. LeRud, was a more recent study of the court facilities with photographs of the garage roll-up door and judge parking at 75 Court Street, the very same views she refused to release when we exposed Commissioner Lucey’s Sheriff Deputy escort into the courthouse. In that request, Ms. LeRud refused to provide any snippets showing how Mr. Lucey gained entry into the courthouse, even with evidence of a camera that captures public areas on the ramp to the garage. Ms. LeRud said, “disclosing these images would be akin to the disclosure of an individual’s personal identifying information such as a personal address or phone number.” The images contained in the July 12, 2019, Master Plan Update seem to cut against her argument.
Additionally, sometime between June 30th (the email Bob sent to CBRE), and July 12, 2017, the County apparently engaged a large law firm based in Oklahoma called FDLaw to proffer a roadmap to a private-public partnership (P3) in order to plan the build out of an estimated $77 to $100 million new court facility. The engagement letter from FDLaw, indicates the county agreed to pay $8 million in “retained cash” along with the potential of nearly $3 million from private foundations. The P3 project development model would allow the county to finance the project over 30 years, while occupying the space and making payments. No matter the details, there is bunch of money on the line for lawyers, consultants, architects, and developers. And this brings Picon to the burning question, why did Bob Lucey send this report to someone at CBRE and did that connection generate what would later become a proposal from a law firm in Oklahoma? We can tell our readers, CBRE has a whole team devoted to these P3 projects around the nation. We also find it very odd that the agreement signed by Jackie Bryant for the services of GSD LLC is never mentioned in the firms letter, authored just 11 days after Jackie Bryant engaged GSD LLC.
The engagement letter poses a question as to whether the County would need to do a full RFP or could they engage “select developers” to submit proposals. We hope the County and Commissioner Lucey will offer comment, especially given today’s agenda item regarding the purchase of the land for the CARES campus. Who benefits and were there back-room deals made with the good-old-boys? Picon is digging deep, however with $324,888.89 in reported contributions since 2014, there are many stones to look under.