Just the Facts, Chair Hill

At the Special Meeting of the Washoe County Commission, the Washoe County Canvass of the Vote on Friday, February 16, 2024, we were surprised that there was no ‘early’ public comment on the agenda at the start of the meeting.

The moment it was established County Manager Brown had nothing to say to an agenda item and before Chair Hill was to open the meeting up to commissioner comments, she hopped on the microphone to let us all know the following:

“Before I lead into the other commissioners there has been talk out there, um, online that the county commission removed public comment from the beginning of this meeting or that I, as chair, did that. That is not the case, since 2020 and maybe even before, but we KNOW that since 2020 we have not had public comment before our Canvass of the Vote. It is a one item meeting. We look forward to hearing your public comments. I just wanted to clarify that.”

Picon was amazed County Manager Brown, Commissioners Garcia and Andriola just sat there smugly and smiled. They didn’t jump in and tell Hill she was wrong, meaning they all just flock behind Hill and Brown.

Isn’t Appointed Commissioner Clara Andriola always telling residents how much research she does?  The only voice on the dais was Commissioner Mike Clark who was asking questions, commenting that early public comment should have been on the agenda and talking about the possibility of the USPO processing of mail being moved to Sacramento, but he was tied up being gaveled down by Chair Hill since she felt he wasn’t staying on topic. Hill interrupted Clark to ask Assistant District Attorney for a clarification if she could in fact shut Clark up. Deputy District Attorney Nathan Edwards stayed as neutral as possible, and Clark was allowed to finish his statement.

A lot is on the plates of the Assistant District Attorney’s who work with the Washoe County Commissioners, and so we wondered who did the fact checking into Hill’s statement. Had early public comment been removed from the Canvass of the Vote since 2020.

We have attached the agenda from June 19, 2020, and November 16, 2020, and clearly early public comment was on the agenda. So who made the error? Will the county be pointing the finger at the District Attorney’s office. Will heads roll as to who did the research? Who wants to wipe the egg off Commissioner Alexis Hill’s face. Or did the county, and Chair Hill simply trying to avoid early public comment and thought no one would fact check? Either way Washoe County should fess up and admit their mistake.

At the November 2022 Canvass of the Vote, early public comment was missing from the agenda. When we checked with one of our county sources they told us it was due to former Commission Chair Vaughn Hartung removing it because he didn’t want his buddy former Commissioner Bob Lucey to have to sit though public comment and was concerned it would take hours. We’re surprised County Manager Brown didn’t remember the removal, since we were told he was at the meeting with Hartung and Lucey.

In reading the State of Nevada Commission on Ethics website this seems like a possible ethics violation. More so because this is involving balloting/voting. Chair Hill’s brazen statement leads one to wonder was she attempting to remove attention or did the county just really screw this up. Ethics complaints seem to keep elected officials on their toes and lead to more fact checking before blanket statements are made from county or city meetings.  If interested, here is where you file a complaint: https://ethics.nv.gov/Forms/Home/