Plagiarism and the Ph.D.
Picon has been waiting since May 2023, the official “Older Americans Month”, for a public records request and it has finally been fulfilled by the county. Picon sort of “gets it” and realizes the county is trying to take their sweet time with our public record requests hoping the story will be too cold once we receive the records, or we will move onto another topic or grow tired and lose interest. News flash, we are beholden to no person or corporation. We will not waver.
In regards to Commissioner Mariluz Garcia, who denied a personal private relationship with former councilman Oscar Delgado for eighteen-months, then suddenly, when faced with a possible ethics violation due to a Washoe County Board of County Commission agenda item, Garcia was forced to make the disclaimer Delgado is her man. Wow, in the 2022 election cycle Garcia was able to get a man, a commission seat, turn her residence into an Airb&b while moving into an apartment downtown, what a busy bee. Now we know why Delgado did some heavy lifting for Garcia’s campaign, reportedly calling his City of Reno fat cat friends, raising $149,271.88 for her campaign.
Garcia has gone on the record with local media claiming the 2022 campaign caused her PTSD due to all the “attacks.” Most of the “attacks” were due to Garcia’s refusal to admit to the affair with Delgado. Garcia was also “attacked” for not living in District 3 at the time of her filing in 2022 (remember she needed to reside in District 3 thirty-days before filing). We await when the whole story comes out as to where she actually lived and where she continues to live, and it may come out much like Garcia’s relationship with Delgado.
It all comes down to words and meanings with Garcia who has a Ph.D. and tries to twist words and the truth to her benefit. At the Tuesday, July 11, 2023, Washoe County Board of Commissioners meeting, Garcia almost matched one of Commissioner Mike Clark’s rants. She missed the point since Clark rants to support the residents of Washoe County and Garcia was only worried about herself and how mean people had been to her. Garcia was reflecting on her six-month anniversary as a Washoe County Commissioner. Garcia commented she has been yelled at, screamed at, accused of things she has not done, “attacked” with her children, and commented on her theatrics at the June 27, 2023, commission meeting when Garcia appears to have stormed off the dais as Valerie White was giving public comment, and part of that public comment was calling Garcia out. During Garcia’s July 11th rant she ‘claimed’ people were cheering when she returned from a bathroom break at the 27th commission meeting. All residents need to do is watch the YouTube video of the commission meeting and it is clear it was not a bathroom break, and Garcia caused her other three commissioners (Hill had left the meeting at noon for parts unknown) to sit and wait for her return. Storming out is never a good look for a commissioner.
We are asking the Sheriff, who has yet to respond to our requests, why two deputies were posted in the back of the commission chambers. We are told these deputies were sent when Garcia claimed she felt threatened. They are not always present, seems as though they only stand around when conservative issues are on the agenda, and some of the smelly Wal-mart shoppers might be commenting. At least Garcia wants cops to protect her, Mr. Lucey told the Sheriff to send cops to the courthouse as part of a county-wide effort to prevent Clark from running. How did that work out Bob?
Looking back to May 2023, Garcia took credit for writing an opinion that was published in the Reno Gazette-Journal. Garcia went on the record at a May 2023 commission meeting she penned the opinion about seniors in Washoe County for Older Americans Month. Garcia’s only stumble was to thank Washoe County Human Services employee, Ryan Crane, for his help. Garcia’s comment caused Picon to question why would Garcia need help, she’s a Ph.D.? It turns out Washoe County was very involved in this opinion by Garcia, according to public records we received late in June 2023. The county staff provided Garcia with all the statistics in her penned piece. Picon would love to have a team of researchers who feed us stats and then we could take all the credit without doing the work.
Indiana University Bloomington offers writing tutorial services where they say, “we give credit where it is due.” Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information, this includes any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings – any pieces of information – that are not common knowledge.
We wonder why Garcia didn’t give Washoe County employee Ryan Crane credit and put him as a co-author of the piece. That would mean Garcia would have shared the spotlight. Plus, would the Reno Gazette-Journal have published the opinion since it was not solely Garcia’s? It would seem she needed the county’s help to have an opinion.
Garcia holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in counseling, and Ph.D. in education, and she is currently the Executive Director of the Dean’s Future-Scholars program for UNR’s College of Education & Human Development. Read her dissertation, it is really interesting.
But hold the press folks, the lack of ideas Garcia had, but took credit for, doesn’t stop at the plagiarism level. Garcia’s apparent lack of humility carries on to why Older Americans Month sponsored events booklet were printed in Spanish, and the events were also in Spanish on the website. One of Ryan Crane’s staff “worked very hard” to get all the event descriptions translated. We remember Garcia at her “Coffee and Connect with a County Commissioner” in May 2023, taking all the credit for the booklet and events being in Spanish. Garcia had nothing to do with it, public records aren’t plagiarized.
Picon also cannot pass up the irony and evilness of the statement on her coffee flyer, “In an effort to combat senior isolation” when we look back at how the county abused their powers during COVID. How rich, the county is now worried about “isolation”, when that is exactly what they did for over a year. For the elderly, a year can be an eternity. Imagine not seeing your newborn for a year and then multiply those times decades for some of our seniors. They couldn’t bury their loved ones, could not attend church, could not see their loved ones on holidays or at the retirement home, and could not be visited in the hospital while end of life care occurred. Let that sink in.
Makes one wonder what the N95 mask was for? maybe a virtue signal while the county forced your loved ones into lockdown. Photo credit Nevada Globe.
Picon wonders on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, why Mr. Crane neglected to advise Commissioner Mike Clark, who represents Washoe County on the Senior Advisory Board, that senior events were added in English and Spanish. Crane seems to have only let Commissioner Garcia know.
Commissioner Garcia also ran her ‘opinion’ by Bethany Drysdale and Nancy Leuenhagen the Media and Communications Team at Washoe County getting their suggestions, changes, and thoughts. Bethany Drysdale wrote, “I can submit it to the RGJ on your behalf. We would love to submit this to Spanish-language outlets as well. Would you mind if we pass this along to our translator? Would you want to tweak it for the Latinx audience?” Apparently for Commissioner Garcia to write an opinion piece it not only takes ‘a village’ but an entire county staff, and at what cost to taxpayers.
Our final question is does Commissioner Mariluz Garcia even have an opinion?