“Emblematic” of County Manager Eric Brown’s Recent Behavior
County Manager Eric Brown with Chair Commissioner Alexis Hill and former Commissioner Kitty Jung.
Another Registrar of Voters mysteriously disappears, well on a stress leave, but once gone, they seem to never be seen again. What is happening at Washoe County with the ROV’s could be an Agatha Christie whodunnit.
Whose fault, is it? Washoe County will blame it on “threats” but without any producible documentation. We’re willing to take a stab at where the buck should stop and that is on the desk of County Manager Eric Brown.
Washoe County has lost three Registrar of Voters since Brown was hired in September 2019. Deanna Spikula July 2022, Jamie Rodriguez January 2024, and now Cari-Ann Burgess is on a leave of absence.
The timing of these Registrar of Voters departures is equally interesting.
Ms.Spikula who became the ROV in 2017 left in the summer of 2022 prior to the November general election.
Jamie Rodriguez, hand picked by County Manager Eric Brown – heck Brown took her out to the Sparks Water Bar to celebrate her accent to ROV (at taxpayer expense) resigned in January 2024, just as early voting for the presidential preference primary would begin at the end of the month.
Reno Gazette Journal photo of ROV Jamie Rodriguez and County Manager Eric Brown. Article by Mark Robison discussing taking the ROV's office down to the studs.
Now Cari-Ann Burgess is on leave due to “stress related health issues” as reported by Our Town Reno from a Washoe County Press Release regarding the strange disappearance of another ROV.
Burgess’s departure is at the less than six-week mark before the November 5, 2024 general election. Anyone else think something is rotten in Denmark, wait Washoe County.
No bloodhound would lose the scent on this trail. Washoe County is losing these ROV’s prior to important elections, therefore, essentially making Washoe County Manager Eric Brown the de facto ROV. No buffer, just Brown.
How much do you trust Eric Brown, and before you answer remember the preferential treatment his wife Melody Brown received when she was pulled over for a DUI in 2021. Brown’s wife had an interesting outcome in Sparks Municipal Court.
Washoe County veils these ROV resignations and leaves due to stress, death threats, menacing activities such as people looking in windows, etc. Yet, Washoe County has no documentation to produce. You know, show us the Washoe County Sheriff or Reno Police reports.
Picon wants to go on the record, no one should be threatened at any time - but it appears Washoe County is now using “threats” to mask other issues.
Mark Robinson at the Reno Gazette Journal interviewed Deanna Spikula on July 31, 2022, days after her resignation from Washoe County ROV and wrote:
RGJ: You've been quoted as saying you received death threats. Is that true?
DS: We have. There were a couple of incidents. We've had calls where people who have said, “I'm gonna come down there and you're going to be sorry,” that kind of stuff. There was one email that we got saying, “Count the votes as if your life depends on it because it does.”
Picon has requested these records, or any public records regarding threats to the Registrar of Voters and/or any employee or volunteer in the ROV’s office who has received a threat, or acknowledgement of any threat existence. If the ROV received an email that said “Count the votes as if your life depends on it because it does” there should be Washoe County Sheriff’s Department documentation of this death threat. There is not that has been produced to us after multiple public record requests over three years.
Commissioner Mike Clark asked about “death threats” on January 16, 2024 when ROV Jamie Rodriguez went missing. Clark received the response from Washoe County, “Upon discussing this with Human Resources (HR), the Security Administration, and the former Registrar of Voter’s Jamie Rodriguez, there are no such records of Ms. Rodriguez having received “death threats.”
Response to Commissioner Mike Clark from Washoe County.
What is happening in Washoe County? Why are all these employees faced with so much stress. Or is stress also know as the “path” to “lose” a county employee that County Manager Eric Brown no longer finds useful or seems to be gumming up the works? We hear Ms. Burgess was doing a bang-up job but she was taking more direction from Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar than County Manager Brown.
Ms. Burgess had a meeting on September 23, 2023 with two Republican groups who report the meeting was productive, and the ROV was in good spirits, competent, assured, helpful, factual, and they left the meeting with an extremely positive result. The next day Burgess fell apart?
Is there a strategy to lose particular employees?
Case in point Amber Howell the former Human Services Agency (HSA) Director who was removed from her position by Brown in April 2023. Commissioners were told Howell was having some issues, alluding to stress, and hid behind it being a Human Resources issue, so only limited informaiton could be released. After four months it seems Howell was left no option but to resign. This whole mishegoss will be playing out in court with the amended complaint Howell’s attorneys just served the Washoe County this week. Picon can’t wait to read County Manager Eric Brown’s deposition.
This leads one to ponder if this is County Manager Brown’s methodology – stress ‘em out and move ‘em out.