Democracy Schmemocracy: When 'No' Means 'We'll Find Another Way

WC-1 results from Washoe County website.

Well, well, well... What do we have here? A masterclass in creative interpretation of voter will, starring the Washoe County Library saga. After voters rejected the $4.5 million library funding measure, some folks are playing a fascinating game of bureaucratic Twister.

Picon got a whole lot of feedback from our article regarding WC-1 – Washoe County Library Tax Ballot Initiative, and its ballot failure. The voters said “no” to the $4.5 million being used for funding the Washoe County Library. The library director and staff were overconfident WC-1 would pass and now along with many residents they want that vote to be overlooked, overruled, and to keep the $4.5 million in funds.

Picon Press Media Facebook page comment regarding our Washoe County Library article. We received this same information from many residents this was the only brave soul who posted the plan.

The latest plot twist? According to 27 confident messengers (one articulate Facebook poster and 26 enthusiastic emailers), there's already a wink-wink-nudge-nudge deal with Commission Chair Alexis Hill. The cunning plan? Just wait until July 1, 2025, when the money bounces back to the General Fund. Then - presto! - the libraries can "advocate” funding like any other department. See? They're not "overruling" the vote; they're just... creatively redistributing funds.

But hold onto your library cards, folks. A "Don't Overrule WC-1 PAC" is brewing, and they're not playing around. They're talking Las Vegas lawyers and individual commissioner lawsuits faster than you can say "late fees." Remember the Village League to Save Incline Assets lawsuit that dragged on longer than a Russian novel? This could make that look like a quick read and cost Washoe County Taxpayers way more than the Village League that former Commissioner Bob Lucey refused to settle during his days on the Board of County Commissioners dais.

Commissioner Mike Clark, apparently the only commissioner willing to chat with PIcon, paints a picture of a commission where Jeanne Herman reads block votes like she's following a script written by County Manager Eric Brown, who's following Chair Hill's lead. Clark is particularly steamed about Herman's selective memory regarding her Election Integrity Resolution and her apparent amnesia about Brown's revolving door of Registrars of Voters (we're up to number six, if you're counting).

Mike Clark, and he said “they have the votes, and half the time they have Jeanne Herman’s vote. Just listen to Jeanne read through the block vote as “they” have directed her to read. Half the time I don’t know if Jeanne has read the agenda, she just does whatever County Manager Eric Brown tells her to do, and he’s being told what to do by Chair Alexis Hill.”

Clark went on to say, “Am I fighting mad at Jeanne you bet. She’s being trying to get an Election Integrity Resolution heard since 2022 and I’ve been supporting her since day one. The guy who messed it up in 2022 was County Manager Eric Brown, he even apologized to Jeanne at the commission meeting. Yet Jeanne still supports pay increases and $34,000 bonuses for Brown. Jeanne was gushing at the meeting about a new candidate to be our Registrar of Voters. Guess she’s forgotten that this would be the sixth ROV if you count the “interim” ROV’s since her “beloved Brown” took over the county in November 2019. Yeah, Jeanne might vote with Hill, Garcia, and Andriola to overrule the WC-1 vote. Who knows?”

Clark said, “I’ve had about 400 or more emails from residents worried about Jeff Scott and his staffs comments about library closures, employee layoffs, less services, less books, and more threatened cuts and I think it’s unfair to be using scare tactics on the residents. No one and I mean no one wants to take the libraries away. I’ve tried to respond to every person who has reached out to me. I want the library trustees to be able to see prospective cuts, budgets, etc. and I’m hearing they are waiting for Scott to hand documents over.”

Library Director Jeff Scott's doom-and-gloom prophecies about closures and cuts have sparked thousands of Washoe County residents, but here's the kicker: the Library Trustees are still waiting to see the actual numbers behind these apocalyptic predictions.

Democracy in action, folks. Just not quite the way the voters imagined it.