Commissioner Alexis Hill’s Private Restroom and 57 Questions

Written By Picon Press Staff

Remember the Seven Magic Mountains $500,000K ARPA Funds

Picon received this forwarded from Commissioner Mike Clark last week and we just got a chance to review it.

This transcript of the August 15, 2024 Distrcit 1 Community Forum in Incline Village is wonderful to have received, since the audio on this community forum on YouTube between Commissioner Alexis Hill and former Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler sounds like they’re talking underwater so we had all but given up listening to it.

While we found it interesting Commissioner Hill demanded a private “candidate only” restroom we enjoyed even more the “chosen” questions that Hill must have approved out of the 57 submitted.

Picon wants to know when both candidates will be available to answer all 57 questions. We will happily host a community forum for you, we’ll even provide beer and wine for the audiance. Believe us when you finish reading Commissioner Hill’s responses you’ll need a drink or a gummy.

Hill’s handlers should have advised her that “less is more” while patting herself on the back for the last 3.5 years. The body of commissioners is five, not one. Hill prefers you think all the county has accomplished is due to her participation. It made us wonder if she is a only child. We checked she’s not.

Review away readers.

From: IV-CB Community Forum <ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 5:43 PM
To: IV-CB Community Forum <ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com>
Subject: WC Commissioner Candidate Forum Recap & Questions

 

WASHOE COUNTY COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE FORUM August 15, 2024 Incline Village High School Auditorium Marsha Berkbigler Two things I want to start off with… one is, I am highly allergic to pine and lots of other little critter things that run around

WASHOE COUNTY COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE FORUM 

 

August 15, 2024

Incline Village High School Auditorium

 

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Two things I want to start off with… one is, I am highly allergic to pine and lots of other little critter things that run around in our neighborhood. And when they catch on fire, I lose my voice. Unfortunately, they caught on fire this week out in Verdi. That smoke popped right over my house for about 2 ½ days, so if I lose my voice, that’s why.

 

My name is Marsha Berkbigler and I am running for Washoe County Commission District 1. As many of you know, I was a previous commissioner. The other thing I would tell you is that I never talk off notes. I don’t know how to do that. I always talk off the cuff. But this time I brought notes along because I know there are a lot of issues that are really hot and heavy to everybody. So I wanted to make sure I brought some notes along that I could cover in my first opening statement.

 

Incline Village and Crystal Bay as well as the valley have a number of issues that need tackling, a number of things that we need to address. I’m not going to bore you with a laundry list of those things because you guys are going to ask questions that you’ve been writing down, and our lovely Ronda is so effectively going through them and bringing them out, so I know those questions will be answered here. So let me just tell you this. Why am I running? Why did I decide to get back into this crazy political game that we are involved in? There are a lot of reasons, not the least of which is… I’m not very smart. I grew up in politics. So I don’t know what else I would do with my life if I weren’t doing politics. But aside from that, I want you to know… Here’s my take.

 

I believe that government should handle our hard-earned money for services for the constituents, and nothing else. I believe that those services should benefit the constituents in a lot of different ways. Some of us may disagree what those services are. Some of us may disagree on the point of what services… but regardless, those tax dollars belong to you. They don’t belong to the government. You pay them in the form of taxes and fees. That’s your money and you should be able to have a say in how it is spent. I don’t think politicians should throw our taxpayer dollars on their pet projects. I’m totally opposed to that. I think that doesn’t even need to be discussed, because you shouldn’t be doing that.

 

I think commissioners need to be supportive and respectable….er…  (We’d like to be respectable wouldn’t we?) … I think we should be respective of everybody’s issues, not just the issues for people who agree with our vision. In other words, across the board, if you’re a commissioner, you need to look at the broad-based issues, and you need to follow those broad-based issues. And I would just say that some of the current commissioners are not meeting those standards. And I think we need to look at that as citizens of Washoe County about why they aren’t addressing those things.

 

So, let me tell you what you need to know about me. I’m honest. I’m straightforward. I don’t have any hidden agendas. I have no games that I’m playing with anybody. I’m totally legit. I have integrity. I am completely honest and totally transparent. So, if you want to know what’s going on in my world, you’re going to know what’s going on in my world. I think transparency is such a key and important issue to all of us.

 

You know… as a matter of fact, some of you who live in Incline Village will remember there was a little problem with your taxes. And your property taxes were overcharged. There was a long time that Todd—nice to see him in the audience tonight—that Todd worked very hard with members of this community trying to get it resolved. And I’ll tell you what I did. I went to bat. I worked with Todd. I worked with Mike Clark. And we got it resolved and you got your money back. You not only got what you overpaid, but you also got the interest that you deserved to get back.

 

So, let me just close by saying why I am running. I’m running because I think that government should be about the people, for the people, and with the people. And I don’t think there is an exception to that. I want to bring back the concerns and cares that I dealt with when I was commissioner before. I want to bring that back to the forefront. And I want to see Incline Village get the things that it wants. You know one of the things I’m… I’m going to quickly just tell a story then shut up and let Alexis take over. One of the things that happened when I was a commissioner is that I got a lot of questions from seniors who live in Incline Village—and unsurprisingly there are a lot of seniors in Incline Village—and I got a lot of questions from them about a Senior Center—a Community Center. So we went to bat and set it up at the old library. I left in 2021, and the Senior Center went by the wayside. So it never… The excuse was COVID, which I think is a fair excuse. But COVID is over. And don’t the seniors in Incline Village deserve the same services that are provided to every other senior in every other portion of Washoe County? My answer is yes. It’s time to reestablish that Senior Center and bring it back as a Community Center and a Senior Center for the benefit of the people.

 

I want to tell you how much I appreciate you all being here tonight. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. Thank you.

[Applause]

 

John Crockett

Alexis Hill, please go ahead.

 

Alexis Hill

I’m so thrilled to be with you tonight and I want to thank the Incline Village forum and the IVCBA for hosting this and making sure that community members can learn who the candidates are and why we’re running for office. I am Alexis Hill. I have been working in Public Service my entire career. I have been committed to this community.

 

I grew up in the City of Sparks. I used to walk to school, and on my walk to school we did not have proper sidewalks. This really irked me and bothered me as a community member even though I was quite young. And I went to the City of Sparks and I asked for a sidewalk. I learned later—and the city council was nice to me, but obviously they weren’t ready to do that investment quite yet. But I learned later that is actually a requirement that we should be doing on developers. We should be requiring developers to put in sidewalks if they are going to benefit from establishing communities in our jurisdictions. When I learned that, I grew a strong passion for serving our community and seeing how can we make our lives better. So, that is a value that I hold as your county commissioner. I think about the decisions today, and how they’re going to affect us tomorrow, because as a politician, as an elected official, it’s a sacred duty, and it’s a duty that means that you have to make difficult choices. You have to make difficult decisions for the community. And I take that very seriously.

 

I went away for college, but I came back to the community. I worked at the City of Sparks as a planner. And I worked on those sidewalks. If you go up this boulevard, you’ll see that there are sidewalks on both of those streets. I moved to Incline Village and Crystal Bay. I worked at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival after that. And I ran a nonprofit called “Kids and Horses” that was established in this community by the Waldman family, and supported special-needs children with equine therapy.

 

I was missing government as I was finishing up my Masters degree in Public Administration at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR). I wanted to get back and serve the community. And a position came open at the City of Reno. And I was so thrilled to be hired by the City of Reno. And I worked on community-building activities. I worked on arts and culture. I worked on special events. I worked on economic development. And I feel like I have been part of the renaissance that you have seen in the City of Reno.

 

And all the while I was working in local government, I was watching decisions being made on the county commission level that I disagreed with. In 2012 there was an opportunity for the county commission to enact a tax to rehab our schools including Incline High School—all schools in Washoe County—because all our schools at that time were falling apart. The county commission decided to vote against that initiative. It was called AB 46. And 4 years later, the voters brought that to the community in the form of WC 1. We’re about to invest $1 billion in our schools, in our community. And in 2012, if you’ll remember, that was the depth of the recession when we had the largest unemployment in the entire nation. And just think what an influx of money could have done for construction workers, and all the ancillary benefits in our community to invest in our students.

 

And that bothered me. It brought me back to being a kid and feeling so helpless because I didn’t have a sidewalk when walking to school. I thought… “Wait, county commissioners are humans. I can run for county commissioner.” And that’s really where my journey to run for county commissioner started. And serving you as county commissioner the last 3 ½ years has been the joy of my life. I love this community. I lived in this community. I know the difficulties that this community faces. And I am willing to invest in this community. I have worked so hard for public transportation in this community. I’ve worked so hard to see how we can get workforce-housing solutions online. I’ve worked on lake clarity issues. I’m a strong sustainability and conservation advocate. And I am continuing to see how I can support you with fire prevention. And see how I can ensure that we are connected as a community so that there is public safety on our roads… that our sheriff office feels supported. So I feel like I’m just getting started with the work I’ve been able to do for the county commission. And I can’t wait to continue the journey with all of you. I pride myself on being transparent, on listening to community members, and on making tough decisions, because I think that’s our job being in this position.

 

Thank you so much for letting me serve you. And I hope that you’ll continue to allow me to serve you as we move forward. And I can’t wait for the dialogue tonight. Thank you.

 

John Crockett

We will pause on collecting questions for now, and you’ll have another chance to submit questions after the intermission or during the intermission.

 

The first question for you Alexis is, “Both of you have represented Incline. Alexis, you’re our current commissioners. Marsha, you served as District 1 commissioner from 2013 to 2021, and you both have a good idea of what the issues are here in Incline Village. What issues do you believe the county can and should do more to address, and what are the issues that you know to be beyond the scope of the county? Is there any… Do you have any role in those cases?

 

Alexis Hill

I think that the county, since I’ve been elected, has done so much more to address the issues of Incline Village and Crystal Bay (IVCB). And I’m very proud of the projects we have done to invest in the Washoe-Tahoe Transportation Plan. We’re actively looking for funding. On the question of what we can’t do, I will be addressing that as I go through each piece. But we are looking for grant money to see how we can connect your trails, to see how we can build a trail from Crystal Bay to Incline Village, because that is where some of the major public safety issues are happening on that highway. And we’ve invested in your Main Street program to see how we can create a community and reinvestment on Highway 28. We are working very hard on fire prevention work, as I highlighted in my last piece, we are investing in an evacuation study that we’re working on getting funding for. And I’m really proud of the work we’ve been able to do for the microtransit in this community. Before I began, there was zero way for you to get around town unless you called the [?] or Uber, and that took forever. Now you have five vans in town. They go around, they pick you up. You call them or you use the app. And it’s free to this community. Washoe County has been investing in that. We are committed to seeing how we can support all of Washoe County. We are ensuring how we can see or how we can support more of your plowing services using Artificial Intelligence (AI) so you can better reach your plow and see where they are at. And… supporting the community where you really need the support. So, seeing how we can use resources at Washoe County to invest in IVCB. I look forward to hearing about more of the concerns or questions that folks have. But I think Washoe County has done more in this 4 years to invest in Washoe County than we have ever seen. And I have heard that from many community members who are very excited about our investments. I will add workforce housing solutions as well. We can dive into that a bit more. And van pools. We had zero vanpools coming up to this community. That’s folks who live in Reno coming up to work in IVCB. We now have 21 vans that come up to this community and serve this community with workers. So, we’re trying to meet you where you’re at and see how we can provide those solutions.

 

John Crockett

[Applause]  Please hold your applause, thank you. Marsha, go ahead.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you. Well, I disagree totally with Ms. Hill, which is my right to do and her right to disagree with me. But I will tell you that since she took over as commissioner, what we found was some changes were made to the Tahoe Area Plan that we worked so hard as a community to put together. The changes that were made end up being changes to the main draft where now instead of businesses and the potential for workforce housing, you will see—and we’re already starting to rebuild—very large condos. Actually, they’re not large, they’re very small condos but for a very large price. And that was done for purposes of development. Development is a great idea. I’m a firm believer that “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” So, of course we need to be developing, but we need to be developing smartly. And affordable housing in this community is a difficult, difficult thing to do because the price of land is so expensive. So that becomes very, very difficult. But certainly changing the Area Plan so that the Area Plan now allows on the main drag for people with a lot of money, to come in and buy up whatever offices or whatever’s on that main drag area—which is called Area 1 by the way—does not benefit this community. It actually hurts this community in the long run.

 

The other thing I have a problem with, when I left, when I was on TV when I was a commissioner, when I was on, when I left the commission, what I did was I said “I don’t support the “transportation” or the “mobility hub”—or whatever you want to call it—in the center of town.” And the reason I don’t is because that’s not a good location for it. There’s too much traffic there already. And what are we going to do about parking? We’re going to put a parking lot there, so we’re going to bring in more tourists. There’s too much traffic in this community right now. If we put mobility type things on there like e-bikes and e-scooters or whatever else has been discussed at TTD at several of the meetings I’ve sat in on, what are we going to do about widening the sidewalks? We have people who are seniors. A lot of seniors are getting run over or knocked down or whatever because they are on the sidewalks, and the kids come in on these little e-scooters and take up the sidewalk. That’s one of the things that absolutely needs to be addressed. And it needs to be addressed by the county, not by the community. It’s something the county should take the lead on and it should take the lead on it immediately to make sure from a safety perspective, we have plenty of sheriff deputies up here. But we don’t have parking meter maids or whatever the heck you want to call them… We don’t have those up here. We have lots of sheriff deputies and they do a great job. But we don’t have enough, especially in the summertime.

 

And I’m very concerned about fire. I’m very concerned about fire and how you’re going to get out. The current plan only addresses how citizen residents are going to get out. It doesn’t say anything about the people who come to visit. And this population approximately doubles in the summertime. So fire escape is a very key issue.

 

John Crockett

[applause] Please hold your applause, thank you. We have a couple of questions in the Washoe County sphere. So another one… Marsha, please take this one first.

 

Washoe County Commissioners recently approved a $1 billion budget. I believe it was $1.6 or $1.16 billion for 2024-2025. What are your views on the county’s current level of public debt?

 

Marsha Berkbigler

It’s awful. It’s way too high. One point… I think it’s actually $1.4 billion, but whatever it is… a billion dollar budget. I did some research around on other counties of the same size as Washoe who had billion-dollar budgets. And frankly, there are very few—a couple in California and one in Texas. But Texas—their taxation program is way different than ours—or California’s. The State of Nevada has a billion-dollar budget for a county with 500,000 people in it. That’s a lot of money. And what is that money being spent on? Is it being spent on more policemen— higher salaries for our policemen who definitely need higher salaries? Is it being spent on a better fire district? Is it being spent on transportation that will come up and down Mt. Rose highway to benefit the people who live in this community as well as the people who live down in the valley and want to come up here? No. It’s being spent on the homeless. A large percentage of the money that’s in that budget is going to the CAREs Campus. Although I firmly believe we have to have a CAREs campus, we don’t have to spend the kind of millions and millions of dollars that we’re spending. Do you know… I don’t know… I can’t remember the exact number for what’s going to the CAREs Campus, but it’s somewhere in the $100 million range. Do you know how much we’re spending on seniors in this budget? $9 million. We’re spending $14 million on dogs. Now I own three dogs, so I’m totally happy that we’re spending $14 million on dogs. But don’t you think seniors are a little more important than animals? Just a little more important? Why aren’t we spending more money on seniors throughout this county? And that needs to be addressed.

 

John Crockett

[Applause] Would you please hold your applause until the end? We’ll give both candidates a round of applause then, but holding your applause will help us answer more questions. Thank you.

 

Alexis Hill

Thank you very much. I respectfully disagree with my opponent. The $1 billion budget the county has is actually very low for the size of our county. We are a very low-tax state, the State of Nevada. And it makes it very difficult for us to provide services. So I’ll go to the CAREs Campus. We spend $14 million a year on that to house our most needy community members. These are community members who are homegrown, have mental health care issues, have addiction issues. And it is unacceptable for them to be on the street. I believe in that investment. It’s about $63 a day to house someone at the CAREs Campus, where it’s over $1000 in the hospital, and even more than that—I think it’s 6 or 7 times more—for the jail. So, it is the right program. We’re housing people every month over our goal, which is 50 people a month into permanent housing. We get there some months, but it’s in the 30s range. And I’m very proud of that program. That was another reason I ran for county commissioner. I saw the county decide not to deal with our most vulnerable population, and pretend it wasn’t there.

 

I think what is very interesting is the county has to be everything for everyone. So, we work on your snow removal. Obviously, we provide more snow removal for IVCB than any other part of the county. We do that because we are meeting you where you are at as a citizen group.  We provide different services for all different people. We have 600 people in our care, 600 children in our care for foster adoption, meaning a foster family or adoption. The county needs to provide these services to our most vulnerable people. That’s something that I’m so proud of and I stand by because I think that’s something that we need to do.  All the while we’re continuing to pick up part of the tab for microtransit in IVCB, supporting your Main Street program, ensuring that we can connect your trails and your roads to make them safer. I think that all of those investments make sense, because that’s our job. That’s our job to invest in community and make this community better. Government’s job is to make sure we protect our most vulnerable. How else can you find an issue such as homelessness where you’re both saving the taxpayer money and doing what is truly right for our fellow man?

 

So, I’m very proud of the work we do at the county and I’m going to continue to fight for more resources for this community. One of the things I’m looking to do is we’re working with the Lake Tahoe-Marlette Lake Legislative Committee to see if we can get more of the room tax that’s generated in this community that goes down the hill to stay up here so we can invest more in transit and connect this community better to Reno. Thank you.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis. We’ll ask you to start with the next question. Do you believe the county will or should invest more public funds in the Incline area?

 

Alexis Hill

I actually had our CFO do an analysis on—when I first got on the county commission—because there were a lot of folks in IVCB who said, “The property tax that we pay goes down the hill. And we pay a higher percentage of property tax that then we subsidize the City of Reno or not the city but the rest of the residents in Washoe County—both the Reno residents and the City of Sparks residents.” So I had the CFO do the numbers on that. And it turns out that, no, we are actually subsidizing IVCB larger than the property tax you bring in. But that’s fine. Again, I think that is the role of government… because of all the snow service that we provide. Plus, with the ARPA dollars—those American Rescue Plan Act dollars that we received from the COVID crisis that we had in our region or in our country—we were able to invest even more in this community.

 

When I first started… when I first moved up to IVCB in 2008, it was difficult as a professional to find a home to live in, to find an apartment to live in. And now it’s nearly impossible. I know it’s a real crisis up here. And so, at that time my understanding is that a workforce housing study was done but it was shelved. When I started as a county commissioner I made sure the county paid for a workforce housing study to see what the issue is. We now have a roadmap on how we will move forward. We will be doing a ‘place-mate’ program which will be incentivizing owners of short-term rentals to turn their rentals into long-term rentals because that is the thing we want to see more of—long term rentals for workers in this community. So there are so many more investments that we can make. I’m very proud of the Federal investments that have come to IVCB because I’ve been part of the group to fight for that. I heard President Sandoval yesterday at the Lake Tahoe Summit say whatever Lake Tahoe asks for, ‘you better give it to them.’ And I agree. Lake Tahoe is a gem. It’s such a special place, we want to make sure that we keep lake clarity. And I’m doing everything I can to ensure that we follow that and make this a great community to live in, to visit, and to work in every day. Thank you.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis. Marsha.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Well the question is do I think the county should put more money into IVCB. Without question. We need senior services up here. We need more food services for the shut-in people, that group of people who are not getting the same kind of care that they’re getting in other portions of the county. 

 

It is actually true that you actually lose about 10 cents, actually about 8½ cents unless that’s changed since I left. But when I was commissioner, you were losing about 8 ½ cents of every tax dollar you sent down to the valley. You missed getting 8 ½ cents back of every dollar you sent down. It’s about the same, but it’s not exactly what you call right.

 

And should the county put more money into the area up here? Absolutely. One of the things we need to do is some serious fire prevention work. We need to make sure that we provide the fire department all the services that are available in the lower portion of the county for fire suppression. That’s one of the key issues that I heard from a lot of citizens up here. And transportation for people who want to go or have to go to the valley for medical care needs to be done. We need to get transportation up here so that people have the ability to get up and down and do whatever they need to do when they’re in the valley.

 

I’m very concerned about the constant increase in traffic up here. I think the county needs to add some money to that type of a review also to see what they can do to maybe widen the streets… I don’t know. I don’t know if we can do that. I don’t know if they can do that, but I said they need to look into what they can do to make sure that we are resolving part of the traffic problem.

 

Parking is a serious issue. Parking of boats… I see them parked everywhere… in a lot of places they’re not supposed to be. That is a serious issue. So, those are just some of the little things I think that need to be done here in Incline Village. And yes, I believe the county can put some more money into this area and they should.

 

One quick thing on that billion-dollar budget, where is the money going to come from to fund that now that the ARPA funds are gone? That’s an issue that everybody needs to think about. Because tax increases are not a good idea and cutting existing services is an even worse idea.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha.  So we touched on Marsha’s concern that a lot of residents have is balancing tourism and effective evacuation during a potential wildfire, and of course lake clarity and taking care of Tahoe. Could you explain what role the county has in balancing business and tourism and the concerns of residents in IVCB?

 

Marsha Berkbigler

You know the RSCVA gets much of the money that comes from rents or short-term rentals (STRs) or the Hyatt… They get a big chunk of the money. It does go down to the valley and much of it stays there. That’s not under the control of the commissioners other than there are commissioners who sit on our RSCVA board. I think it’s just one person who sits on the RSCVA board. It is the Reno-Sparks Convention Visitors Authority. So basically we bring tourism in, we tell everybody how wonderful tourism is, how wonderful this area is, and you need to come in and do tourism. And when you come in and stay in a hotel or you stay in a STR vacation-rental or stay in a motel or whatever, part of what you pay goes to RSCVA to do that advertising.

 

When I was still on the commission it was an issue of not getting enough advertising for the lake area. There were a lot of people who were concerned about that. They wanted more for the lake area. They were very ineffective—they being the commissioners who sat on the RSCVA at that time—they were very ineffective in getting the overall RSCVA to agree to make those changes. Obviously, it’s not just elected officials who sit on the RSCVA board. There’s a public sector. There’s a casino person there. You know, there’s a bunch… I think there are four other private business people who sit on it. So that’s a factor that has to be balanced.

 

And in answer to the question regarding fire… that is something the county can do.  The county can work with the fire district up here —which is fabulous… the fire department up here. You guys are very blessed that you have a really good fire department. But the county can assist them by working with them to really work on how are we going to get people out of this area. The fire that just happened that caused my throat to be as nasty as it is, happened because a car driving over the hill overheated. He pulled his car off and set the brush on fire. He burned down a very close friend’s house. Fortunately, the fire department in Reno was so good that they kept the fire from burning any other houses and buildings. That’s because they’re very good. That’s the kind of help they can get and work hand-in-glove, and the county should be responsible for doing that. So I think that’s something that’s really key. I think I answered all the questions regarding it.

 

John Crockett

Thank you. Yes. Alexis please.

 

Alexis Hill

I think we all want a thriving community wherever we live. We want our small business to survive. We want to make sure we have traffic that flows well… that public safety is being taken care of. I know there are community members who have told me, “Alexis, if you build it and they will come.” But they’ve always been coming to Lake Tahoe and I’ll tell you they’re always going to come to Lake Tahoe. Anyone who lives here is so blessed. This is truly paradise on earth. And if you have over 100 F weather in Sacramento or Reno or Carson, they will come. They will come up here.

 

And, so for me as a policy maker and an elected official, what I want to do is see how I can mitigate this issue. Because I think tourists are important to this community to keep your small businesses open. I speak to a lot of your small business owners, and they want a functioning transit system, they want tourists to come up here, because they can’t survive otherwise. I remember living here in the shoulder season, and it’s tough. Everyone is just kind of getting by. So I think it’s finding that balance; and ensuring that we mitigate the issue of tourism. I would say I differ with my opponent. The county commission can do something about that money that is going doing the hill for TOT – your room tax money. We did do something, We just moved forward a request to see if we can redirect the funds that go down to RSCVA to IVCB for public transit. That’s something we really believe in doing. The county commission approved that unanimously. It has to go to the Legislature. We only have so much control. But certainly we want to see more dollars stay up here to mitigate the tourism issue.

 

I think there’s a misperception that the county isn’t calculating for visitors who are coming into the region when we do our evacuation scenarios. So, we are going to do … We’re going to work with a consultant to tighten up those numbers to see how we can get people out. And show how all of the exits leaving out of town would work with different scenarios. And public transit is actually a piece of the puzzle for getting people out of a disaster. When the South Shore Candor fire happened, we used… TTD used buses to get people out. So public transit is a way that we can play a role to get tourists out of the area. We need to make sure that all of these pieces are working together. You are blessed to live in this community. I was blessed to live in this community for a short time. And we have to share it with everyone, because Lake Tahoe is all of ours. It’s the entire worlds’.

 

When I speak to elementary school kids who don’t have access to Lake Tahoe, who live in Reno, and live in Sparks, that breaks my heart. And I’m fighting for them too. I think that is a very important part of the job as a county commissioner—is to look and see how we can fight for everyone.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis. There’s a question on the role between the county managers and the commissioners. Do the commissioners work for the county manager, or is it the other way around?

 

Alexis Hill

Well, we have a strong manager form of government. In the East Coast, many communities have a ‘strong mayor’ form of government. So when the mayor is elected they’re actually the executive. The county has… We hire… the county commissioners hire a county manager. That manager manages the executive functions of the county. Now there are five county commissioners. We all have a different vision on how we see our jobs in the county… What we’d like to see happen in the county. We have to come together sometimes two, sometimes three times a month and decide how those visions align, how we can work together to get things done. The county manager’s job is to execute that vision. Our job is to stay ‘high level’. I would never dare to tell staff what to do because that’s the county manager’s job. But you better bet I’m talking to the county manager a lot on the phone because he is the executive and I want to see his perspective on some thoughts that I have. So, it’s a partnership. I think the county manager needs to protect the executive function of the county. And I think the county commissioners need to ensure that we are staying high level, and looking at the policy issues happening at Washoe County. It’s a balancing act to ensure we respect each other’s roles. But the county commission… the one person we get to fire and we get to hire and that we get to review the performance of every year is the county manager. So that person, bless Mr. Brown, he has to report to five of us as well as be accountable to the community, and to all of the 2000+ staff at Washoe County. I think he does a really admirable job. I really enjoy working with him and doing the work of this community and finding the balance between working with him and working to make sure our policy goals are met 

 

John Crockett

Thank you. Marsha.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Yes, the county manager does report directly to the commissioners, and the commissioners can hire and fire that position. The only other position they can hire or fire would be the Fire Board, which is also the county commission, and that would be the fire chief. So those are the only two positions—when you talk about positions—that the county commissioners have the opportunity to control. So here’s what needs to happen, and here’s what has historically happened. The chairman and the vice chairman always work directly with the county manager. And the county manager works directly with all members of the commission, because all members of the commission are equal. The chair does not hold a ‘higher’ position. The chair’s first job is one thing, and that is to run the meetings and set the agenda. So the chair needs to work directly with the other commissioners also. And that’s one of the things… that’s another subject… but one of the things that’s not going on right now. The commissioner…. Our manager Brown is an effective manager who has had lots of experience, but he’s not listening necessarily to all the commissioners, and that could be a real serious problem for a lot of aspects of business in Washoe County. Manager Brown is a close, longtime friend of mine. I used to work for him, actually. So I would not say necessarily anything negative about Manager Brown. But I would say that his role as working for the commissioners means he needs to work for all the commissioners, with all the commissioners, and make sure all the commissioners’ issues are being advanced at all times. And I don’t believe that’s happening right now.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha. We have many questions about zoning and development so I’d like to turn to that. I’m going to start with this one. ‘I’ve noticed that TTD and TRPA are working to reduce vehicle traffic to the lake. But the county is rezoning portions of Incline Village for development—changing from single-family residences to condos. This will of course increase vehicular traffic to and through Incline Village. Would each candidate give your opinion of this apparent conflict? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?’

 

And to add onto that, we recently saw Zone 1 in the commercial core of Incline rezoned for a particular project. What are your thoughts on that rezoning: why was it done and what do you think the effects will be?

 

We will start with Marsha.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

I think the effects of it are dangerous. And I don’t think the rezoning should have been done for the entire corridor. I understand that the developer who had the issue felt he wasn’t accurately informed by the county staff that the area was actually zoned for affordable housing. And he wasn’t building and isn’t building affordable housing. So, the zoning needed to be changed for him and his project. And I’m not sure that I would oppose that project necessarily.

 

But, I think changing the zoning for the entire corridor was dangerous. And I think it’s dangerous because that makes that parcel, that land, premium. This community is in fact a community that everybody wants to come to. So I don’t know exactly what’s happening in this guy’s development. But I know he’s building-- 50-100 or something like that—condos. And they’re small but they cost $2 to $5 million. But they’re small—1,000 to 1,200 sq ft. Something along that line. Very few who have that kind of money are going to buy those to live in themselves. They are buying those for vacation rentals. There’s nothing wrong with using your property the way you want to use your property. So I’m not opposed to vacation rentals. And I don’t think most of us are opposed. But if we’re going to do this in this community, we need to put really strict rules on what STRs can do and how they can do them.

 

One of the things, for instance, is traffic. They need to make sure they aren’t adding any more cars. They need to make sure they are following the rules that are set out. And that means the rules need to be set out. The cost of doing an STR in this community needs to be increased. Look at Douglas County. The difference between what it costs to do an STR—to get the license as an STR—in Douglas County, and what it costs in Washoe County is phenomenally lower in Washoe County. Fine… And first off, there needs to be a system for who’s the one doing the fining. I mean who’s doing things that are wrong, and who gets fined. Currently the fines in Washoe County are very, very, very low. One of the things I recommended when I was actually talking to a group of staff on this issue, was that thy bifurcate STRs in the basin versus STRs in the valley. Because, that’s a big issue. They don’t want to put rules on the people in the valley on STRs, because there’s… what is it…. Like 95% of STRs in the county are up here in Incline Village. So, the rules should reflect the needs of this community, not the needs of the valley.

 

And transportation becomes a very key issue in all of that. So that’s really one of the areas that I’m concerned about.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha. Alexis, please go ahead.

 

Alexis Hill

To address the question on Special Area Zone 1 and the controversy surrounding that, the Washoe County commission approved that unanimously—that change to add condos, which are attached homes, to Special Area 1, which is your town center, which is Highway 28. That request was brought by a developer. I’ll tell you going back to county resources, I’ve been trying to fight for a county planner to just work on Tahoe issues so we can constantly update the Tahoe Area Plan. But, sadly, we have not been able to do that because we are limited in our resources. But so many of these amendments come from developers. And what I’ve learned, and I think that it’s very important for a county commissioner to learn and to grow. When I first heard this, I thought… And I will say just very quickly there is no such zoning as affordable housing zoning. There’s multifamily zoning whether or not you allow condos. I wish there were areas where we could just require affordable housing, but that’s not how the zoning code works. It looks at density and uses. But looking at this particular request by this developer for Special Area 1 plan, I thought, “Oh now, we can’t have more condos in Incline Village.” But the more I learned about it, the more I learned that this community wants to see redevelopment on Highway 28. This community tells me all the time we want to see beautiful new buildings. We want to see a corridor that we can be proud of. So many of the developments that you see in this community are decaying because it’s so difficult to develop in this community.

 

And so part of the reason I pushed through the Area Plan when I was elected, which sat while my opponent was commissioner for 8 years—did not do anything with it—was because I saw there was a need to make changes to that Area Plan so we could look at redevelopment on Highway 28. The Natural Grocers that you now have on Highway 28 is because of that area development. And after talking to investors and developers in this community, they said, “Alexis, The only way we’re going to be able to redevelop the Highway 28 corridor is if we add mixed-use, if we allow for condos, because that subsidizes the commercial development.”  The commercial corridors throughout this country are going away because we’re all buying things on Amazon. And I think that it’s really important to listen to the people who are going to be developing in this community to see how we can reach those goals. And I will say that in the 947 Incline Village project, we are going to see 4 workforce-housing units deed-restricted coming out of that project. And if they choose to do offsite workforce housing, there will be 20 required by their Special Use Permit that TRPA required. So, that is the first time that TRPA has ever required inclusionary zoning. So that is one of the things that I am working is constantly trying to achieve goals and making sure that we find a balance of what can be attained.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis.

 

And during the planning process with a lot of projects, communication is something that the community brings up. Name three things you would implement to improve the communication between the commission and the community regarding new projects in the neighborhood.

 

Alexis Hill

I am so grateful that IVCBA exists in this community now. I give Linda Offerdahl and so many of the community members who work at IVCBA a lot of credit because we needed a community organization in town so that we could gather people and listen to your feedback. And that is what IVCBA is doing tonight, and that is what IVCBA has been doing since they were formed. They have been doing the Welcome Wagon for new community members. But also, many of you may not know, they are working on workforce-housing solutions. They’re working on the Main Street program, beautification in your roundabouts. All of the events that you see throughout the community, IVCBA is responsible for doing. So, we needed to find that community conduit to have those conversations. And it has been such a blessing. I feel so thrilled.

 

And I will say technology has allowed for better communication from Washoe County to Incline Village. When we have any sort of issue of import for IVCB, we make sure that they can tune in via Zoom at the library. And so we’ve increased access because that did not exist before to ensure that we can hear your feedback. I am very accessible. I listen to community members and want to hear your feedback. And one-on-one has been really helpful for me to understand the needs of this community, but ensuring that we work with organizations and the community forum to hear what you need from us has been a very important step in this time. And now we’re going to work with IVCBA on our Tahoe Area Plan amendments where you’re going to see changes for workforce-housing standards because TRPA….  I’m very proud of the work that we did to adopt standards that will help for workforce housing in this community. As you all know, you’re very limited in how many units can actually be built in this community because of the [TRPA] Compact. But it’s very important that we make sure that we get folks who are professionals and also folks who serve this community to come and work here. So that is another thing that we’re doing with IVCBA. So that’s the constant communication I have enjoyed with this community, and I look forward to continuing.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

I agree IVCBA is really very important, and Linda and her team are doing a superb job and have been doing a superb job for some time with keeping this community together. But I think the question was—and correct me if I’m wrong—but the question was communication between the commission and up here and how that can be improved. And one of the things that I had proposed and actually proposed at the end of 2019 at the request of residents up here is that the commission hold once a quarter a meeting here in Incline Village. So, the people here in Incline Village could see all the commissioners and talk to all the commissioners. We were working on that in 2020. And then COVID came and that germ sort of sidetracked anything else that we were doing. I think that’s an issue that the commission needs to go back to. They need to look at—at least a quarterly meeting in this community so that you’re not having to run down to the valley every time you want to do something. We need to ensure that we can communicate directly with you. And that we as valley people need to know what the issues are up here just as you guys need to know what the issues are that the other commissioners are dealing with in their communities. And one great way to solve that problem would be to bring quarterly meetings up here.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha. We’re going to take one more question and then we’ll take our intermission. Another major concern in the community is the Old Elementary School property purchased by the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) for the potential site of a mobility hub, and currently sitting vacant. What is going to happen when the school is torn down next year? And do you see a different purpose for that property other than a bus hub? Marsha, this Is your question. Thank you.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it when it is torn down. I know TTD bought it with the intention of making it a bus… mobility hub. Not a bus stop. Not a bus … a kind of a transfer station. That’s what they were originally really looking at. Not a place to store buses and things like that. At the time, I was sitting on the TTD Board and I questioned what the citizens of Incline Village wanted. And you can go back and check all of this. I probably have the documentation somewhere. I requested repeatedly for TTD to hold public hearings and listen to what the citizens wanted. Did they in fact want to add additional parking, additional housing… What did they want to do with that piece of property? And I think that’s an issue that still needs to be considered.

 

 I don’t have a problem with parking out there. I know that Miss Hill made the statement that she was ‘not going to lose her parking lot’. I don’t believe it’s her parking lot. I believe it belongs to the citizens of this area. But regardless of how you word it, I understand her being passionate about that issue of parking, because parking is an ugly thing up here. I come up here a lot, and trust me, parking is an ugly thing. I know you all know that already. But a parking lot there shouldn’t be a parking lot for visitors. It should be a parking lot for residents so residents aren’t parking on the street, which is what’s happening right now. Lots of residents who live in the apartments right across the street from that particular location, are parking way down the street because they have 2 cars and they don’t have a place to park their cars. So, designate that for residents and maybe STR people; but don’t designate it as a location for visitors to come in, park their cars, and get on whatever transportation might exist—which is news to any of us to think that transportation actually exists around this community. Whatever transportation money exists would just put tourists and more tourist- parking in this community. And that’s the last thing we need. So, set it up as a parking lot. That would be a great thing to do with it. Set it up as a parking lot designated as Incline Village residents only. That might include people who are staying in STRs. But there needs to be protection for the citizens that live here in Incline. And the way this is coming right now, you don’t have that.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha. And Alexis, please.

 

Alexis Hill

I actually agree with my opponent that parking and traffic are issues here. When I first got elected, that was one of the biggest complaints about STRs. And I am very proud that we were able to do a code to require STRs to get permitted while I’ve been a county commissioner, and I have continued to tighten those codes, hire… increase the fees, increase the penalties, and invest in that program. But, yes, I agree parking and traffic are issues, and the only way to deal with it is to invest in parking for tourists and for this community, and invest in transit. Right now, the reality is, Incline Village is between Reno and Sand Harbor. Sand Harbor is the most visited state park in our state, and it is seasonally open. So that will tell you how popular that park is. So looking at how do we mitigate the concerns of the traffic of these tourists… That is the issue we need to look at… not pretend that it doesn’t exist. We did that for a decade plus, plus. We need to actually deal with it.

 

So, my vision for the mobility hub after doing a lot of public input and creating a local Mobility Hub Committee, after having a lot of conversations with community members who still have concerns about the mobility hub location and use… I’m not saying that they don’t. It is to find ways to use the resources we have.

 

And I’m so proud that the TTD board bought that mobility hub… well, the future site it may be, although a mobility hub at the Old Elementary School from the school district so we as a government entity invest in this community. And that wouldn’t become condos. And that could become a community asset. I’m very proud that I bought… that I was part of the vote to purchase that.

 

So, after doing a lot of study, looking at alternative locations, talking to so many property owners in this community, we found that there is no better location—because folks don’t want to give up their property or the property isn’t big enough. So, what we found when we spoke to the FTA is they love the idea of co-locating a mobility hub with workforce housing. And they want to do grants for those types of projects. They see that public transit is connecting communities and connecting workforce. And that is something this community has told me they also want. Reduce the traffic. Reduce the parking issues. And help us with workforce housing. We can do all of that at that lot if the TTD board decides to proceed. And we have designs that show a parking garage that is flush with Highway 28 where buses will enter into the mobility hub site, and not use Southwood. So, I know that was a major concern we heard from the community of buses entering onto Southwood as well. So, there are no perfect solutions in government. But I will try my darnedest to make sure that I am fighting for you with every decision that I make. And that I’m realistically looking at the issues and how we can solve them.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis. Okay, folks, we are going to take a 5-minute break. We’ll resume at 7:10. And if you have any new questions to submit, please do so. Thank you.

1:02:01 [Break]

 

Folks, we’re about to get started. Thank you, folks. We’re going to get started with some more questions. We have time to get through several more, with about 45 minutes left. Then we’ll ask for closing statements at about 10 minutes of.

 

Alexis, the first question for this round is for you.

 

Many residents of the IVCB communities feel their community does not receive anywhere near the fair share of tax revenue back in services and improvements. We touched on that. As both of you likely know there’s an effort ongoing—which could be voted on as early as Fall 2025—to incorporate the IVCB communities as a new city. If elected, what would you as county commissioner do to either support this effort or persuade the voting public that the county will do better at providing services and improvements than it has in the past? And would you commit to doing so if elected?

 

Alexis Hill

Thank you. As I said previously, I had the CFO at Washoe County do the analysis. And we do subsidize the services … Washoe County residents outside of IVCB subsidize the services to this community. Again, we’re happy to do it because we subsidize services for all sorts of communities. I’ll tell you that the grass is always greener… I think that may be some of this effort of wanting more local control, but with local control, it causes additional costs. And so, while we may subsidize the services for snow removal in IVCB and you may not have any homelessness in IVCB, we all share services. And with that there is cost savings. We share services for public safety, with our social services, and we share staff services. As part of the city requirements, you’re going to have to do a lot of analysis and show that this is something that can pencil out. And I’ll tell you, any incorporated city in this state, they pay higher taxes than unincorporated counties. Period—end of sentence. That is the truth. So you will eventually have to pay more taxes if you were to incorporate as a city.

 

I also question if you can keep IVGID if you become a city. Part of the magic sauce you have with IVGID is that you can keep your beaches private. And if you were to incorporate as a city, it’s a question as to whether you can do that. So, I think that the community needs to have some realistic expectations when this proposal goes before you. Because you will vote on it. As far as Washoe County’s job to see how we can help or not necessarily hinder, but how we can look at this issue, we will sit on a Board of Examiners and lay out the financial picture of what it will cost to become a city. And for me, I’m all about more services, less bureaucracy. And honestly, if you become a city, you will have duplicative services, you will contract out for all the things that Washoe County provides you. I’m not saying Washoe County is perfect. And I will tell you many residents tell me all the things we need to fix. And that’s the joy of the job, because I get to get in there and see how I can make things better. But I will say there are a lot of great efforts that we make to make sure that we take care of every part of this diverse county.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you. This is a really interesting question—one that’s been on the table for a long period of time. And I’ll just say up front, I totally support it if that’s what you want to do. I worked with the City of Fernley when I was a contractor handling a number of contracts. I worked for the City of Fernley when they did the exact same thing. As a contractor, I didn’t work for the city, but I was a contractor with them. And when they did the exact same thing and spun out as an independent city away from Lyon County… I’m getting old and I guess I don’t remember all my counties anymore…but Lyon County. And I know there are a lot of costs associated with it. And I have total faith that you guys will review the entire thing as you walk through this process. I know some citizens will think it’s a bad idea. Some citizens will think it’s a good idea. My position has always been—I support what the citizens want. So if I were your commissioner, and you brought it to me at the commission, I would fight in favor of it if that’s what your citizens want.

 

You have to put it on the ballot. It has to go on the ballot after you get the number of signatures and you get the plan all together. You have to go through the state and local government, forming a committee, and all that. There’s a whole lot of work. It’s not going to be happening probably… certainly not in the next 5 years… maybe in the next 10 years. There are a whole lot of factors to it. But my position has always been, if the constituents want it, they live in this community, and they get all the information they need from the people who are trying to put this together, I will support it and I will do whatever I can as your commissioner to make sure that you get what you want on this program. That means working with you to make sure that the costs are lower. Yeah, there are some additional costs. State law would require you to have your own police department, or you could contract, I think, with the sheriff under the scenario of contract. But you would have to be responsible for that if you would not stay.

 

But as I understand the way it works here, you own the beaches, not IVGID. I know IVGID wants to think it owns the beaches. But the truth is, the citizens own the beaches. I don’t know whether the state… I’ve not looked into that issue frankly, because of course it wasn’t really an issue until [ ] beaches out there. So, I never looked at it. But I don’t recall off the top of my head anything in state law that says your private ownership would change from being your private ownership as citizens. And there are a lot of factors though that would change. And, certainly you would have to look at all of those. And I would be surprised though if the team that is looking to put this together doesn’t consider all those factors before they bring it to you.

 

John Crockett

Thank you. Marsha. We’ll start with you with the next question. Coming up with early voting in October and the election day in November—is a momentous election this fall, as I’m sure you know. So we have some questions about the county’s role in voting. “What are your thoughts on the role of county commissioner for the management of the election system? What improvements should be made? Would you have certified, or did you certify the primary election results and why?”

 

Marsha Berkbigler

My personal opinion is that the county did a study and there are a whole lot of things that need to be changed according to the study. So my personal opinion is that the county needs to apply itself to making the changes that were proposed by the county contractor who studied the issue on their behalf, and studied the voter register on the county’s behalf. So the county needs that on the agenda. In fact, I’ll tell you very frankly, it should already have been on the agenda. It should already have been in the process of discussing it. It should already have started. Because when they said, “Yes, you’ve got to take it back down to the studs and rebuild it,” that tells you something’s wrong with it. That’s my interpretation of what they said. That’s not exactly their words. But essentially that was the point they made—that it needed to change. 

 

Would I have certified the vote? Because I did when I was a commissioner. I’ll tell you very frankly, one of the things I know is that several of the people that I worked with on a routine basis said, “You’re a commissioner. You set for election. And you’re voting on your own certification of your election.” That has historically always been done in every county in Nevada. I don’t believe there is any county that the seated commissioner is asked to recuse himself from that vote. I could be wrong on that because I haven’t really looked into it in depth. But I don’t think there’s any. Would I have certified this vote? I don’t know because I wasn’t privy to all the information that was provided to everybody in the county. So I don’t know if I would have certified it or not. I might have taken the same position Jeanne Herman took and said, “I don’t know if I can certify this.”

 

But I will tell you this, I actually wrote an article to the newspaper, and it’s being printed in several different places about the request of Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar to the Attorney General and then to the Supreme Court to look at whether or not a state legislator under any form of law has the legal right to tell a duly elected official of the local government how they have to vote. I know in Nevada we’re a Dillon’s Law state. There’s no time now to talk about a Dillon’s Law state. I know that in Nevada we’re a Dillon’s law state and that’s the argument that has been made to this point. But I’m going to tell you right now, why do you need the county commissioner if the state legislator is going to tell him how to vote? [applause]

 

Alexis Hill

Well, I’d like to first start and say I would certify and I have always certified the elections. My opponent, when she was a county commissioner, had every opportunity to make the Registrar of Voters (ROV) office a 21st century office, and ensure that she invested in the staff and the technology. That’s what I’m doing. When I saw the mistakes that were made—although not to the point of having a problem election—printing errors and omissions and spelling errors—I asked the county manager to do an audit… not an audit of ‘is this a free and fair election’ but an audit of how do we reinvest in this office? So what did the county commission do? We doubled the staff for the ROV’s office.  That was the number 1 recommendation. You cannot run a mail-in-ballot election with so few staff.  What did the county do? We put in procedures and rules. And yes, not all of those are done yet, but if you go to the county manager’s website, you can see all the things that have been done on that audit, and all of the follow-up that has been done on that audit. I tried to bring that audit to the audit committee, but the audit committee ruled to not hear it. So that’s why it hasn’t gone to the Board of County Commissioners. But it’s transparent. You can check it out. You have access to it.

 

And you know, I believe in Federalism. That is the rule of the law in this country. And that means the Federal government is the boss of the states, and the states are the boss of our communities. The county commission was created by the state legislature. So the state legislature and the Secretary of State and the Attorney General’s office can tell us if we’re not following the law. And thank God they can. We need rule of law in this country. And so I actually think that it’s great that the Supreme Court may be looking at this issue… when the county commission chose… I certainly didn’t… but when three board members chose not to certify the recount, because there are real consequences to not doing that. You sow the seeds of distrust. You make sure people do not believe in our election system. And that is wrong. That is not the role of leaders or of government. It is to uphold the rule of law and make sure we can make things better. I’ve been committed to doing that since I started with the county. And our elections are free and fair. And I’m so proud of our ROV office. [applause]

 

John Crockett

Thank you. And a follow-up question regarding elections: two questions on opposing sides:

1 - Will you support the free and fair election results without a hand recount? And if not, why?

2 - And the opposing question: What is your position on hand-counting to dispel any controversy over the results?

 

Alexis Hill

Well, I’m the bank teller. And I’ll tell you how the county does is that it messes up your drawer sometimes. And that’s why you see when you go to the bank, they count all of your money with an electric money counter. And it’s because humans are prone to error, especially on very complicated ballots… when you’re voting for different things in different parts of the county. I would never advocate for a hand count when we have the technology that we have in Washoe County. What was the second part of the question?

 

John Crockett

Basically it’s asking your opinion on hand counting. Would it help dispel controversy of results? Would you support a free and fair election without a hand count?

 

Alexis Hill

You know, the controversy that’s being created is by elected officials who know better. They are creating the controversy. They are making sure you don’t have trust in your election system because they lose. They don’t like the outcome, so “I’m not going to certify the vote.” So that is not the role of a leader. Again, you heard my thoughts on Federalism. Yes. That is the way that we run our country. So I’m saddened that people have distress in our election system. We are working so hard at Washoe County to dispel myths. And you’re going to see a big campaign before the election to show how the election system works. Because so many people do not understand how it works and how important it is to make sure all of your votes count. I think we can all agree all of our votes should count. When you decide not to certify, when you decide not to certify an election, you discount all of your votes. That is not the American system. Our job is to elect… is to go to the ballot box every 2 years and elect the person that we want to elect and accept the results. And since Trump has gotten elected, he’s decided in this country we don’t want to accept the results. That’s what his leadership has done. [Boo.] It has gone down to our local community members and local officials who are part of this MAGA movement. They are trying to take away the rule of law. [Boo.] They’re trying to take away representative democracy. [Boo.]

 

John Crockett

Hold your comments, folks.

 

Alexis Hill

They’re trying to take away representative-democracy as we know it. This is something that’s very serious and scary. And you should take it very seriously. So you should listen to the answers of folks who represent you and how they want to move forward with elections, because it is all of our elections that matter. It is the governing of this community, of this country, that matters; and I want to see it done free and fair. And I don’t think that it’s right to create chaos in our election system. [Applause.]

 

John Crockett

Thank you. Marsha, the same question.

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you very much. That’s an interesting question but I would tell you that when I lost the election to Ms. Hill in 2020, the election was certified in December, and I certified the election that I lost. I did not come forward and say, “Well, there’s no way I lost. She cheated. Or they cheated. Or somebody stole this from me.” I didn’t do that because I do agree elections are important. And we need to make sure everybody’s heard and everybody has the right to speak.

 

I don’t think that’s the real concern of what happened in this particular issue. I personally think that certification of elections is important. I think it is. But so is the feeling that the constituents are being heard—the voters are being heard. And I think that was the point. And I’ll tell you very frankly, I probably… had I been sitting in that chair, I probably would have certified the vote originally because it is my nature to just kind of fix things that way.

 

But here’s what happened. When it went to a recount— that’s not certifying an election—that’s certifying a recount. And those people who paid for this with private money—not your money, not taxpayers’ dollars, not fees from any of you—but private money—came forward to pay for a recount, they asked one thing. Please hand count. And there’s no law in Nevada that says that can’t happen. Now there is a law that says that ‘as the vote is passed, so must the vote be counted.” And that’s why the machines. But what about all those people—like me—who wrote on their little ballot and took it in? That was not cast by a machine. That’s cast by hand. And if you want to get technical with the words that are in the law, you’ve got to look at all the words that are in the law. And that’s what didn’t happen.

 

We could have solved this whole problem of all those hearings and those people being upset and probably we could have solved the problem of this going to the Supreme Court. Although personally I think that’s a good thing because I think we need to have the answer and get rid of.… We need to have the answer as to why Nevada is one of only three states in the nation that still have any aspect of Dillon’s Law. And Nevada is the number one user of Dillon’s Law. I don’t remember the third state, but the second state is Arkansas. And I always never wanted to compare our state to the State of Arkansas. But, okay. Arkansas only uses it for the purposes of a militia. They maintain that Dillon’s Law applies if you want to start a militia. So, in other words, a local government can’t start its own militia for whatever reason in its city. But in Nevada, it’s much more broadly applied than that. And that needs to be answered. Because it goes back to the point I made before. And that is, why do we need all these different layers of government if the State Legislature is going to tell these commissioners how they have to vote—even when they see problems and they want those problems fixed? [Applause]

 

John Crockett

The next question for you, Marsha… We have a couple of questions regarding the recent proposal for the professional soccer stadium in the park land area of South Reno. The first question is: “How do you see what was intended to be public lands being used for private or commercial use? Do you support or oppose that in Washoe County?”

 

Marsha Berkbigler

I support it if the deed is that it passes to the county in the first place… is in fact supportable. But that’s not the case in this particular issue. Because the daughter of the owner who deeded it, the owner of the property who deeded it to the county, has said, point blank, that her father would have been unhappy with this particular issue. Secondly, that’s probably not a really good place to put a 10,000-seat—and I believe that’s the number of seats—a 10,000 seat stadium right off Mt. Rose Highway. So, you want to talk about traffic problems in Incline Village? Yeah. If you have traffic problems, you won’t believe… as soon as people start coming over from California and realize it’s a lot closer and a lot faster to come over Mt. Rose highway than it is to take the freeway to get to the soccer games.

 

And soccer is very, very important. We all know how much people like soccer. Soccer was played at the Aces stadium for a while, and they really loved it. They actually got more people to visit soccer than they got for baseball, which maybe is why soccer is not played there anymore. I don’t know. I didn’t talk to Mr. Simon about why they removed soccer. But, regardless, that is probably not the appropriate location. And already there’s another location in Reno. It’s out… off of… somewhere… Parr Boulevard. I’m sorry. I think it is Parr Boulevard. Somewhere off of Parr Boulevard where there’s a lot more transportation available, a lot wider roads, a lot more people getting in. And they will come over the Interstate 80 because that would be the best way to get to the stadium instead of going through the little village of IVCB.

 

So I don’t support it. I freely admit to you guys I haven’t delved into the entire thing. But just from the comments I received from a number of people who were in that area, I would not support it without some really serious digging into figuring out how they’re going to make it work for that community, how they’re going to widen the roads so the traffic doesn’t get crazy, and whether or not the citizens who live in that area support it. And my understanding from the one CAB hearing that they had is there were numerous people—over a hundred certainly—and no one supported it. That’s the thing I go back to, and I tell you again, I support what the citizens support. It isn’t the job of elected officials to tell you how you have to live in your community or where you have to live. As long as you don’t tell me that, I promise you I will never tell you that. It is the job of elected officials to make sure you guys are getting what you want. And there are a lot of citizens in that community who are unhappy about it. So a couple of things: you have to look at the deed to see what the deed restrictions are and there are deed restrictions on a lot of parks that were donated to the county, a lot of land that became parks. So you’ve got to look at the deed restrictions. That’s extremely important. And then you’ve got to ask the citizens what do they really want. Thank you. [Applause]

 

John Crockett

Thank you. Thank you. Alexis, please.

 

Alexis Hill

Just to give a little bit of context, the county has a lot of properties that have been donated to us from families or from different sorts of property acquisitions and they are not fully developed. So the South Valley’s athletic area is not fully developed. And why is it not fully developed? [because…] The county does not have all the money in the world to develop all of these different recreational areas. Actually there was a private proposal that came through in that area for ice-skating. And that has been very popular for the community. That was a public-private partnership to develop that.

 

Regarding the specific question on this soccer field, it’s not going to go to the Board of County Commissioners. If the Parks and Open Space Commission give its blessing and has a full review of this process, then we’ll see it when that comes before the board.

 

I would say the bigger issue and the issue you should be concerned with as community members, is, “Why isn’t the county able to invest in our parks?” Why are we not able to invest in our open space, or connect trails? Why do we not have the funding to do those things? Why do we have to do these public-private partnerships? And it’s essentially that there is not enough money to do all the things even though we need more soccer fields for our kids, we need swimming facilities all throughout our community. People deserve to be outside. People deserve to recreate. I would like to see how we can create a Regional Park District with Reno and Sparks, and try to find some revenue to ensure that we can invest in our parks. Because otherwise these proposals that are coming from private interests that may have a “community good”… My understanding is that anything that goes before the Parks and Open Space Commission for the use of public property needs to have a “community good.” They’ll continue to come because we cannot invest in our own properties. And this is the broken system that we have in the State of Nevada. I believe we need to ensure that all kids in our community have access to recreation.

 

John Crockett

Thank you. We have several questions about evacuations. And this is what I’m curious about as well. We never know the numbers or the statistics. What is the capacity of IVCB on a given day? What is the number of people that could be evacuated in an emergency? And I know there are a lot of factors that fold into that. But it often seems like further development in different projects are to bring more people into the basin. And of course we want to do that to support businesses and encourage tourism. But where is that limit when it comes to evacuations? What is the capacity of the area in terms of wildfire evacuation?

 

Alexis Hill

Well we know that TRPA has already put a cap on development for the whole of Lake Tahoe. It’s true that we don’t have a way to ensure that a certain amount of people come into this lake area. And that is a difficult thing for us to manage, especially in peak times. I know you’re all feeling it. I think there’s an opportunity for the county to study this, which is why I discussed the evacuation plan that we’ll be investing in to ensure that we’re really meeting the needs of the community and hearing the community. But our emergency manager at the county—and the county is in charge of emergency management—has worked very closely with all of the agencies, all around the lake, to ensure that they are all communicating. And believe it or not, that has not always happened. The left hand did not know what the right hand is doing. I think that it’s really important that we invest in our public-safety resources, which I have done as a county commissioner. And the North Lake Tahoe Fire Department (NLTFPD) is allocated property tax through IVCB to ensure that it is such a great district. Additionally, we have done so much work, that I will tell you, all the development in southern Nevada is paying for all the forest thinning that we have been able to do in this community to do fire prevention as well. I think there is a question on how do we manage a natural resource that should be a national park but is not; that has private interests in it. How do we do that? How do we ensure that we all have access to this incredible natural resource? How do we protect this natural resource? These are the questions that I am asking all the time as your commissioner.

 

I think that one of the ways we could manage it and also pay for public transportation is a basin entry fee. I’ve been very open about being in support of that… in an op-ed that has actually run in Reno Gazette Journal. Because I see that as an opportunity to see how we can control folks coming in and make sure there’s better planning before people get into the basin. And use those revenues to pay for public transit. So if you don’t want to drive; if you can’t afford to pay an entry fee, you can use public transit and access it. And we’ll actually have a public transit system that is paid for by the visitors. That’s the vision. So there are many different steps on how to do this. And there is a risk in living in this community. You are in the urban-wild interface. We are trying to do everything we can at Washoe County to ensure we get people out—but also to plan for the future.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Alexis. Marsha…

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you. That’s an excellent question. I don’t know who presented it, but that’s an excellent question. It really goes to the fact of what we’re doing here today… what we’re talking about here today. It goes to the fact that we have a community that …  without question, and I completely agree, is a national treasure. People in Europe think that Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places in the world. They know Tahoe. They may not know Reno. But they know Tahoe. And they come here to visit. So, we have a responsibility as an elected body—who has this beautiful national treasure in our back yard—we have a responsibility to see how we’re going to protect the people who come to visit, as well as how we’re going to protect the people who live here.

 

I don’t think TRPA has come up with a clear number of what the impact was. Although I did see that the number of visitor trips per day is like 200,000 cars throughout the whole lake in a week, during the shoulder season, not during the heavy season. It’s much higher than that during the heavy seasons. I don’t remember all the numbers, because frankly I didn’t look at that. But I do think putting a fee on people who come into the basin is dangerous. I think it’s dangerous because how is it going to impact people who live here? Are we going to say you only have to pay if you’re a visitor? How do you do that when you’re going through a fee station?

 

Go to Texas, and ask anybody in Texas how they drive down all those beautiful highways—that you paid for because you’re a resident—and only the tourists have to pay fees. Trust me, it’s not true. My sister lives in Texas, so I know for a fact that everybody who goes through one of those counters pays. So, how are you going to fix that?

 

And what’s it going to do for Incline Village? Where’s the bus system? How is the bus system going to work? Are we going to incentivize RTC to come up here? We tried that before. And what they said was, “We’ve been up there. We used to run a bus up there. But nobody gets on it.”  How many people in Incline Village want to give their cars up and jump on the bus just so they can drive down to the trails? It’s not going to happen. How are you going to incentivize citizens who live here to say, “Oh, I don’t want to ride a bus so I’ll pay for it by paying a fee if I drive my car?” Either way, it’s just not a system whose time is ripe. It needs to be way further investigated. I don’t think we’re anywhere near the opportunity to investigate those kinds of things right now.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha. We have time for one more question before closing statements. Marsha, please start us off. What has been a difficult decision that you’ve made as an elected official that may have been unpopular or controversial but will bring the biggest benefit to Incline Village or Washoe County as a whole?

 

Marsha Berkbigler

The biggest issue I have dealt with was arguing with Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) when they wanted to buy that land in the first place and put a mobility hub or bus station or transfer station or whatever. I think they called it a transfer station. Whatever it’s being called now doesn’t matter. The biggest issue was to fight with my own team at the TTD, because I knew from talking to the citizens here in Incline Village that they didn’t want it. They didn’t want it anyway. They don’t intend to get on buses. When the consultant at a TTD hearing, a consultant that TTD hired to discuss this, said “Well, we’re going to push you all on bikes and we’re going to push you all on electric scooters, and one of the seniors raised their hand and said, “Most of us up here, or a lot of us up here are seniors. We’re not going to get on bikes.” And he said, “You need to move.” [Groan] Sorry, that’s what happened. And I have it on the record. So anybody who wants to see it, you’ve got my number, call me. “You’ve got to move.” That’s wrong. That doesn’t… that’s not saying to the citizens “We have your back. And we’re going to do what you want done in your community.” And there’s a lot of things that need to be done up here. Transportation is just one of the many.

 

I appreciate the work that Linda and her team have done, because they are really working very hard to unify and bring a lot of things together. I appreciate the work that TTD has done around the lake. But what is the benefit for the citizens who live in IVCB? I keep going back to that question, and I don’t get an answer. So that’s my biggest concern. That I had to go against my TTD team who really thought it was a good idea. But it wasn’t a good idea whose time was right. Thank you.

 

John Crockett

Thank you, Marsha Alexis….

 

Alexis Hill

Well, I actually am most proud of purchasing that land. Because there was significant pressure not to do that. And I believe that having the Old Elementary School kept in government hands ensures we can do a public process to ensure that we can fulfill the needs of this community… It’s a difficult decision. There were many people who were very concerned and upset. But I believe it was the right decision to invest in this community. I have not been scared or shied away from difficult decisions. If you can imagine, when we asked for a redirect from RSCVA funds to come back up to IVCB, there are people down in Reno who would have a major problem with that. That’s a difficult decision.

 

As chair of the County Board of Commissioners I am faced with difficult decisions every day. I am so honored that I get to make them for this community and the whole of Washoe County, because that is my role. And that means that sometimes in order to meet the goal, in order to ensure that we have, for example—using the mobility hub as an example—we have less traffic, we have better parking, we have access to our incredible Lake Tahoe for everyone, to ensure that people from this community can get on Highway 28 and go to Carson City if you need to instead of being stopped by all those vehicles that are parked on the side of the road which will be moving to US Forest Service lots as part of our plan for the extension of the East Shore Trail. These are the goals. We’ve got to do something with the resources that we had and the political will that we had at the time and the opportunities that we had to actually make a move and do something right. And that is what I promise I will do for you every day as a county commissioner. I try to see what your goals are and try to make the best decision I can for you with the resources we have and the opportunities we have before us. 

 

I ran for office because I saw so much inaction. I am continually having to clean up a decade’s worth of inaction, because it may be unpopular. I feel like that’s wrong. That’s why I ran for office. That’s why I love serving this community, because I believe in the 3 ½ years that I have been serving this community, I’ve done more for this community—and I’ve heard this from many community members— And I’ll tell you the community members—I don’t just listen to the loudest voices in the room. I hear from community members who are too intimidated to come to events like this because of the rumblings you hear, the intimidation that is created at public events. I listen to those voices too. And many people want to see a mobility hub in this community and they see it as a solution. Thank you.

 

John Crockett

And thank you to both candidates for answering all these questions. We have many more and hopefully we can type these up and make them available to you. Now it’s time for a 5-minute closing statement. And Alexis, would you please start?

 

Alexis Hill

Thank you. I find especially in this time of so much uncertainty and so much anger and so much worry in our communities and our country, that people can become quite cynical about politics. And they think it doesn’t matter if I vote. It doesn’t matter if I show up. I’m so overjoyed that you all took the time to listen to my opponent and I tonight, because I think you can see a stark difference in the way that we govern, the way that we lead in Washoe County. That is why I have been working so hard since I was a kid to make this community better. I’m invested in this community. I loved living here. And I’m not going away. I’m committed to making sure that I deal with the difficult questions and solve your problems the best I can with the resources I have.

 

But as a county commissioner—and our president will tell you this—…when he was a county supervisor, he said it was the hardest job he ever had. It’s because they know where you live and they want you to solve all the problems. I love it, though, because I do think there are so many opportunities as county commissioner that I can lift your concerns to our senators, to our state representatives, and see how we can get things done by working together. My slogan is “Better Together” because I do believe that. I believe that working together we can solve problems. And I think in the 3 ½ years you’ve seen me govern as county commissioner. We have done so much work for our vulnerable populations. We’ve done so much work for connecting communities with trails, connecting communities with multimodal infrastructure, investing in communities, meeting you where you’re at on the ground. That is the role of a county commissioner. It is difficult, but it is a joy because service to the community you grew up in—there’s nothing that you could want. I love doing it. I hope you’ll give me an opportunity to do 4 more years so I can finish all of these projects that I’ve been able to do for you. And we can work together and continue to solve these problems, because we’re not going to solve them by just doing what the loudest person in the room tells us what to do. We’re going to solve them by collaborating and working together. And I am committed to doing that. [Applause]

 

Marsha Berkbigler

Thank you very much for being here tonight and taking the opportunity to sit and listen to—I think—two very diverse ideas on how government should work. In that respect, I totally agree with Ms. Hill.

 

I believe that government should be controlled by the people—not by the elected officials. I believe that the chair of the committee, the chair of the commission should be respectful of every other commissioner, because each of those commissioners has the same authority and the same right that the chair has. It’s not the chair’s job to audit what they do, to interfere with what they say, or to try to preach the law to them. And that’s the kind of thing you’ve been seeing for the last 2—for a little more than the last 2 years—since Ms. Hill has been chair.

 

I also agree with one thing she said, and that was, that the loudest voice in the room shouldn’t control. But what I don’t agree with is that the loudest voice in the room is always from the people on the right. A lot of times it’s the people on the left. Sometimes the two of them are yelling so loud that the rest of us in the middle of the world don’t have the ability to know what should be done. That needs to stop. I do agree that that’s true. One of the ways to make it stop is to stop catering to it. Stop bringing the group in in their little green shirts and their little pink shirts or that group out in the back. Stop letting them intimidate and threaten the commissioners, because that’s what’s going on now. And that’s wrong. These commissioners have a responsibility to you, the citizens—not to you, the person who wants to stir up trouble. And again, I say that’s what’s happening on the left and happening on the right.

 

One of the things I would tell you is that when Ms. Hill and I debated 4 years ago—we had a forum here 4 years ago—she accused me of being in the pocket of developers because of the developers supporting me. Historically, developers generally support the incumbent. I have Ms. Hill’s contributions report, that’s reported to the state. And if you want to see where the big dollars are, look on here. If you want to see where the developers are, look on here. So, if I was in the pocket of the developers 4 years ago, I guess that means Ms. Hill is in the pocket of the developers today. And also, I agree that the developers and the people should work together for the betterment of government along with the elected officials. I do not believe it’s solely the developers. The citizens have to have a right to express their opinion. And they shouldn’t be shouted at, threatened, or intimidated because their opinion doesn’t agree with the leadership of the commission. And that is a serious problem with this commission.

 

I did some research on commissions in Washoe County. And frankly, I never ever found another chair who did what this chair has done to these commissioners. I never found another commission as dysfunctional as this commission is because they are so busy in-fighting and arguing with each other, and creating havoc for everybody else that nobody really knows what’s going on at any given time. And that needs to change. If you want good leadership, you want good government, then you need to elect somebody who is going to stand up and say no, we are not going to behave like 2-year-olds as we sit on the commission. We’re going to behave like adults. And we’re going to make a difference for our citizens. So please, I ask you this—elect me. I commit to you I’m honest. I’m straightforward. I’m going to give you the straight soup. And I’m going to listen to everything you have to say, just like I did before. 

 

One other thing I would clarify before I get kicked out of here, it isn’t true… Ms. Hill indicated that in the 8 years I was there I did not do the Area Plan. That’s not true. Actually, we passed the Area Plan in 2019. She amended it. She didn’t draft it. She didn’t create it. We passed it in 2019 at the request of the citizens to have it done the way it was done. And there were some things that didn’t get done that they wanted done, true. But we still did it, because the citizens matter.

 

I want to thank you again. I appreciate you all being here. I hope you have a great night, and please be safe going home. [Applause]

 

John Crockett

I want to thank both Alexis Hill and Marsha Berkbigler for being here tonight. I also would like to thank the volunteer crew from IVCBA and the Community Forum—Denise Davis, Ronda Tycer, Linda Offerdahl, Julie Malkin-Manning, Jonathan Goldman, and Kathy Slocum.  Thank you so much for your time and for putting this together. Be sure to vote. Early voting begins October 19th at the public library as well as other locations in town, and continues through November 1st.  Election Day is November 5. We’ll see you at the polls. Thank you, folks. Good night.

 

The candidate forum video:  https://youtu.be/VJ0Vwd9UmhE

Transcribed by Ronda Tycer, Community Forum Recap Editor

 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED AT THE FORUM:

 

1.              Is it a correct statement that you do not know either…:

                  1 – the total potential number of persons or vehicles which will need to be evacuated from IVCB or

                  2 – the time it will take for such an evacuation?

                                    And, if you believe you know these numbers, please tell us what they are and the source of                       your information;

                                    And whether you believe this evacuation information is relevant when making decisions

                  to approve further development in IVCB;

                                    And if your answer is no, why don’t you think it is relevant?

 

2.              We have an estimated 1000 short-term-rentals in our village of only 4000 fulltime households; and workforce housing is half of what it was just 5 years ago. If elected, what will you do to put a cap on STRs’ in IVCB?

                 

3.              If a vehicle miles tax within the basin is proposed, will you vote in favor of it?

 

4.              Why do you oppose that which Incline Village residents propose that would assist North Lake Tahoe/Washoe County in being a viable, livable community: STR Regulations; Airbnbs, Workforce housing, parking, etc.?

 

5.              With the recent recount requesting for a hand count of three primary races, what is your position on hand-counting to dispel any controversy of the results? What is so controversial with hand-counting?

 

6.              Why is there no accounting for the expenditures at the CARES campus? (Shouldn’t there be? It’s public funds).

 

7.              Would you favor moving the virtual Incline Justice Court into the Reno Justice Court to save $400K/year on security and use $200K/yr of savings to fund a community center for all ages in the Old Library building?

 

8.-10.     [missing questions]

 

11.           Marsha Berkbigler said she would do a forensic audit of the CARES campus and contracted Karma Box project. Why do you feel this is necessary and why has Alexis Hill not done this already?

 

12.           I would like to ask when both of you were first made aware of the issue with Karma Box project owner Grant Denton.

 

13.           On May 20th 2024, a woman came forward with allegations regarding Grant Denton. The commission voted the money through with an extremely limited investigation. Now the people continue coming forward. What would your next plan of action be to protect your women constituents?

 

14.           Many residents of IVCB feel that their communities do not receive anywhere near a fair share of tax revenue back in services and improvements. As you both likely know, there is an effort ongoing, which could be voted on as early as Fall 2025, to incorporate the IVCB communities as a new city. If elected, what would you as County Commissioner do to either support this effort or persuade the voting public that the County will do better at providing services and improvements than it has in the past?

 

                  Follow-up question: Would you commit to doing so if elected?

 

15.           What city//county ordinance or statute allows the county commission to enter into a contract to develop or donate public use property into private/for profit commercial use? [Claudia Fisher, Reno]

 

16.           missing question

 

17.           What requirements are you going to have developers build for community developments? Provide 2 or 3 things such as roads, sewers, etc.

 

18.           Would you support the construction of a professional soccer stadium in South Reno by Wedge Parkway Library?

 

19.           Travel North Tahoe Nevada’s organizational mission is to support a vibrant economy, enhanced community character, and environmental stewardship. What efforts and results have both of you as our District 1 commissioner supported and accomplished during your term?  Thank you both for your commitment to our community.

 

20.           What was the primary purpose of rezoning our business corridor?

                  How do you think the end-state of multi-use buildings and more high-density housing affect the fabric of our community?

 

21.           missing question

 

22.           Why does County Manager Brown’s wife drive drunk with no consequence after being arrested? Why does he still have a job?

 

23.           What is your perspective on the Washoe Land Bill giving away more of our state to the Federal government?

 

24.           Given that the evacuation plan for our area lacks statistics on how to safely evacuate, and the number of people already here, aren’t the programs that bring more people into the area a little ‘over their skis?”

 

25.           missing question

 

26.           Reno-Washoe holds America’s record for the largest heat increase in temperature since 1970 (7.7 degrees annually and 11.1 degrees in summer). Climate science has shown conclusively that this is due to global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. What is your plan for reducing carbon emissions in Washoe and adapting to this increase in heat?

 

27.           Can you each please describe your vision for our community as a commissioner?

 

28.           What are your thoughts on the role of county commissioner for the management of the election system? What improvements should be made? Would you have certified the last election, and why?

 

29.           Marsha Berkbigler: Will you support the free and fair election results without a hand recount, and if not, why?

 

30.           Can you summarize 3 top accomplishments you achieved during your term for our community?

 

31.           missing question

 

32.           Alexis Hill: What is your stand on election integrity?

 

33.           Alexis Hill: Discuss why you ignore the residents of Incline in their concerns on traffic, overload on tourism, no effective fire evacuation, and lake integrity.

 

                  Explain, in view of your destructive practices, why anyone in Incline should vote for you.

 

34.           Why are you pursuing a ferry on deeded Incline beaches when you know they are restricted and do not service the public?

 

35.           Alexis Hill: The good folks in Incline may not be familiar with the recent ‘canvass reversal.” Could you elucidate on that weird process? Thanks.

 

36.           What is your position on cannabis “smoking lounges” in our village?

 

37.           Do you support a hand-count of the paper ballots and voting machine tapes to verify the accuracy of the voting machines and for recounts?

 

38.           Alexis Hill: Please explain to the taxpayers why you refuse to audit finances for the CARES campus, especially in light of the numerous overdoses and deaths that have occurred there.

 

39.           Alexis Hill: Please explain how shutting down public comments, canceling county commission meetings, and allowing a satanic invocation while simultaneously taking offense to a symbol, lends to our constitutional right of free speech to the public at large.

 

40.           Alexis Hill: Please address the dire issue regarding our seniors, who have poverty-level living; and senior centers which are being shut down instead of improved? Why are millions being allocated to illegals at the Cares Campus instead of to seniors?

 

41.           Alexis Hill: Please explain how it is acceptable campaign practice to take the county email database and use it to fund raise.

 

42.           Washoe County has sanctuary cities, which welcome illegals who are dangerous and given taxpayer dollars –more than our seniors get. Why is allowing this acceptable on any level instead of legal immigration?

 

43.           missing question

 

44.           Alexis Hill: What has been your most difficult decision that was controversial, but has or will bring the biggest benefit to Incline Village?

 

45.           What can we do to remove trash and AT&T wires from the lake?

 

46.           What will you do to clean up the voter rolls?

 

47.           How will you fix the emergency evacuation plan?

 

48.           Will you certify elections that don’t meet Federal requirements?

 

49.           Why are elections being certified when a record number of violations are being logged with the Secretary of State?

 

50.           How will both of you determine which items are prohibited from the agenda from your peers—fellow commissioners?

If constituents want items to be heard, how do you decline those items?

 

51.           Each commissioner has $100K per fiscal year to award as they choose. How about saving WC taxpayers half a million dollars per year by getting rid of these commissioner discretionary funds, and then we can support the groups and causes we choose to.

 

52.           The people of Washoe County have written, posted, and voiced objection to the county giving public land that it received by donation to Damonte for our ???—or any other for a stadium at South Valley Park. Why have you not assuaged their fear and said, “No.” Will you now say, “No—no stadium at South Valley Park”?

 

53.           Why not have the parking lots for tourists outside the Tahoe Basin? People who bring their cars up here are not going to want to leave their cars in a parking lot and get on a bus.

 

54.           What have you done so far and what are your ideas for permanent funds for micro-transit?

 

55.           Alexis Hill: Why won’t you go on the record regarding a South Valley soccer stadium in South Reno?

 

56.           Travel along SR 28 towards Sand Harbor is miserable in the summer due to right turns into the park blocking the entire road and also parking along the road. What is being done to address this issue?

 

57.           Would you favor moving the virtual Incline Justice Court into the Reno Justice Court to save $500K/year on security, and use $200K/year of savings to fund a community center for all ages in the Old Library building.

Picon Press Staff
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