Copycat Clara & Clark Wants the Truth

Picon was watching the Tuesday, May 14, 2024, Washoe County Commission Meeting, and two items struck us.

First, Appointed Commissioner Clara Andriola cannot help but blow her own horn. Guess no one else will. From her comments at the BCC meeting there has never been a thought Andriola didn’t have first. We get it that Andriola can talk to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo anytime she wants. You, mere voters, can’t call Joe like Clara can. If that isn’t cool enough, she can call Lt. Governor Stavros Anthony too. We guess if one doesn’t answer she can call the other.

Clara went onto thank Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen. Our suggestion to Hansen would be to ask Andriola to never utter her name again, if Hansen is to pull off a reelection.

 We also now know that Andriola knows Department of Agriculture Director Dr. J. J. Goicoechea, does anyone care. Remember Andriola has had “extensive meetings” and “really been involved a lot” – who says that as a sitting commissioner. We mean, REALLY?

Andriola is trying to take “all the credit” for becoming a champion of the equine business community, pointing out “codes really haven’t been reviewed since the 1990s.”  Andriola is trying to ‘ride’ the Washoe County equine community into office. Pointing out she used discretionary funds, and, “I am the only one who used them,” for Washoe County to hold a couple of meetings. Is that a good use of $30K? Now she is asking Washoe County Government to take a “pause on the codes in terms of enforcement, it’s going to take time, and I ask and request we put a pause on the codes.” Andriola admitted it is going to take time to make these changes, AKA it won’t be done by the primary. She wants to be fair and equitable for everyone, no, frankly she just wants to be elected, and she can use the equine community vote.

Can we ask, with all the money being spent, and time being spent, how many equine related businesses are there in Washoe County? We’ve got a public records request going in, but we’re fairly sure Washoe County will stall on the records until after the primary.

Is Andriola pandering to the equine community because of her years on the Reno Rodeo Foundation as Executive Director. This sure seems contrived to us when you know what we know. Could someone ZAP Andriola with a brain wave and wise her up that Commissioner Jeanne Herman has been asking for a pause on code enforcement and unfair charges for equine businesses for the last four year. If Andriola gets a bit of credit for this Picon urges Herman to sue Washoe County for elder abuse, and the first person named in the complaint should be County Manager Eric Brown who is very aware Herman has been asking for this, since she started having lunch when him at  The Lake Bar and Grill.

Andriola went on to talk about sound panels on Pyramid, big whoops, she is still trying to get voters in District 4 to vote for her. This is when Andriola took the time to drop a lot of names again.  Clara has again reached out to Governor Joe Lombardo, and Lt. Governor Stavros Anthony about her sound panels since the Governor chairs NDOT, blah, blah, blah.

Hey, Clara how about reaching out to the Governor and ask why NDOT is doing away with the Golden Valley off ramp when the freeway is redone, talk about something having an adverse effect on the residents of Washoe County. How about championing that? But why would she, that’s in Jeanne Herman’s District 5, and Andriola only cares about pandering to the voters in District 4.

We get it, all you have to do is ask Google why people name-drop, and you receive this: “The motive behind name-dropping is multi-faceted, but at its core, it’s a form of social manipulation. By mentioning their association with influential or well-known individuals, name-droppers aim to boot their image in other eyes.” Wow, that sums Andriola up in a brief paragraph.

Second, Mike Clark vs Everyone Else on the Commission and Manager Eric Brown. We continue to be amused by the ebb and flow of how much Manager Eric Brown and Commissioner Alexis Hill HATE Commissioner Mike Clark. Clark who LOVES to make a comment about the out-of-control spending at the Nevada Cares Campus said, “it was revealed yesterday that we are spending, about, in the last four or five years, $300 million dollars. $300 million dollars, we have a census that indicates we have somewhere around 1600 to 1700 homeless people. Do the math on that divide the 1700 people by $300 million dollars and we have $176,470 per person. With that kind of money that would have been a down payment for 1700 homes.” Clark’s point is well made, give the money Washoe County has been spending to the homeless and they could afford a home.

Due to County Manager Eric Brown taxpayers have dumped $300 million into the Nevada Cares Campus and what the heck do we have to show for it. What success has $300 million gained us? Clark wondered if the public are “numbed out by this,” when he was questioning why residents don’t show up to these meetings and ask why their taxpayer dollars are being thrown into a Washoe County homeless program where homeless/unhoused deaths increased in 2023, and the new 2024 PIT Count shows homeless/unhoused numbers are on the rise. What is Washoe County doing right?

Now Picon would have simply let Clark rant, but County Manager Eric Brown just can’t help himself, and just couldn’t let it go, he said, “The other thing Madam Chair is I would like to clarify, I was at CHAB yesterday, what I heard the consultant say was that the region needs to be prepared to spend $300 million dollars for housing, for affordable housing for the region. I’m happy to bring the staff in.”

Commission Chair Alexis Hill, who hates Clark just a little bit less than Eric Brown had to jump in and say, “I heard the same thing.”

Commissioner Mike Clark had to wait until the end of the meeting during final Commissioner Comments to bite back at Brown and Hill with this, “I was talking earlier, and Manager Brown and the Chair heard something that I didn’t hear and I heard a different number at yesterday’s meeting. I heard $300 million dollars.” Clark then read the Our Town Reno article where they seemed to have heard what Clark did regarding the $300 million spend.

“The number $300 million was talked both for overall northern Nevada spending over the past five years to tackle homelessness, and the needed money for effective future permanent supportive house in a presentation by a non profit called the Corporation for Supportive Housing, bringing audible gasps.” 

Brown nor Hill had a comment or comeback to Clark quoting Our Town Reno.  Then Clark took off on asking for basically every dollar that has been spent at the Cares Campus since 2021 when Washoe County took over the running of the facility.

Picon’s point, if it is $100 million or $300 million that has been spent, our questions is with what success. Show us real success Washoe County. If you do the math, divide the numbers of those helped into the cost, the numbers are not good, per Clark’s example.

It will be interesting to learn what Clark gets from Washoe County because he said he is “tired of playing cat and mouse” with Washoe County on these numbers from the Nevada Cares Campus.

Remember in November 2023, Washoe County cancelled a CHAB meeting so they could have a gathering, in lieu of the meeting. Picon feels they couldn’t jinx the Wall Street Journal article that Washoe County and friends were pitching, so the meeting was changed.

Moral to this story, “less is more” - Commissioner Hill and Manager Brown should have ‘shut it’ and let Clark comment. It would have been done and over, but now the county needs to produce documents, per Clark’s request, and it will be hard for them to avoid some pretty ugly facts about taxpayer dollars being spent on the homeless shelter.