Read ‘Em and Weep
At the Washoe County Board of County Commissioner Meeting on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, while Commissioner Alexis Hill was busy meeting President Joe Biden at the Reno Tahoe International Airport, the residents of Washoe County who were attending the commission meeting, were allowed to listen to about 45-minutes of public comment.
Commission Chair Alexis Hill and County Manager Eric Brown cut Herman off from actually chairing the meeting and only allowed her to chair the early public comment portion of the meeting which lasted the 45-minutes. Herman followed Hill’s rule and once public comment ended, as ordered by Chair Hill, there must be a break until 11AM. The announcement was made that Commissioner Hill was rushing back from hanging out with President Biden, and she would be no more than 10-minutes, which stretched into 23-minutes. Hill doesn’t care about residents, she only cares about power and running the commission based on her rules.
If Commissioner Alexis Hill had been doing her job and not hobnobbing with President Biden, she would have heard Valerie Fiannaca take her three-minute public comment and read from some of the 3,400 public records she had received from her attorney’s request from Washoe County regarding the Washoe County Library, Library Director Jeff Scott, and his staff. From what Fiannaca was reading it would seem Washoe County Library employees were questioning if Fiannaca was trying to poison them? If that was true then why didn’t they call the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Washoe County Human Services Director, or the press.
Fiannaca offered to bring the commissioners copies of the emails via a thumb drive. The only commissioner who showed interest was Commissioner Mike Clark who asked for a copy. Commissioner Herman had said she had already had access to the emails and read through many. That must mean that Chair Hill, Commissioner Mariluz Garcia, and Appointed Commissioner Clara Andriola think everything is ducky at the library. Nothing could be further from the truth, once you wade through these emails.
Commissioner Clark reached out to our publisher asking if he would like to read any or all of the 3,400 hundred emails. Larry Chesney said, “Let’s put all 3,400 on the Picon website and let the residents, media and whoever else would like to read them have access to them.
What Picon found along the way is Washoe County was tricky and they built in an auto reply, basically to see who opened all of the emails. We are wise to their games and have created fake email accounts so they might be surprised who is opening the documents, but it really is Picon. Gotcha ya.
Does the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office know that Washoe 311 is backdooring an auto reply? Is Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks approving of County Manager Eric Brown’s shenanigans. Where in the Nevada NRS Code regarding public records is this backdoor trap allowed? Fear not, you can look at the emails on Picon and you will not be tracked.
Wading through these emails Picon was shocked. Some of the library staff have been turned into library private investigators and report on the people that have dared to voice opposition. They all but shadow them throughout the library. In the downtown branch we wondered if they hide in the plants and took photos. Really, our taxpayer dollars being used to have library employees follow and report on residents back to Library Director Jeff Scott. These emails have made Picon terribly uncomfortable, and that takes a lot.
Library Trustee Gianna Jacks was hosting a series of ‘meet the trustee’ coffees at Swill Coffee and Wine, and it would seem library employees were sent to the gatherings to report back. Taxpayers are paying library employees to have coffee and document what they heard and saw? Where the heck is Washoe County Director of Human Resources? Why should any of this be considered a library employee’s job.
When these public records were released, they had to be perused by the Washoe County District Attorney’s office Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras which caused us to be even more perplexed, shouldn’t Kandaras bring some of these questionable emails to the attention of the County Manager Eric Brown or Director of Human Resources & Labor Relations, Patricia Hurley.
In reading through these emails, it would seem the hatred that is being spewed from ‘one side’ is being matched with equal ‘venom’ from within the library. We have no idea why it would seem internally staff might be purposely causing irritation, frustration, and even a little bit of chaos. The pot just keeps being stirred and it seems like a concerted effort to push residents’ buttons.
Who is the cunning individual who keeps this mess going, one can but guess, but we can’t ‘name them’ due to County Manger Brown’s special $150,000 account for employees to receive legal and public relations assistant. In cases “where employees are unfairly publicly attacked, harassed, or disparaged by members of the public or by political organizations as determined on a case-by-case basis.” Picon questions if this account was established in 2022, making it possible for employees to get away with questionable actions and stopping anyone from being able to question their actions for fear of being sued.
Take the time to read some of these 3,400 emails and you’ll be scratching your head. No business in the private sector could be run this way.
The backdoor the county put on the thumb drive is as questionable as what is going on at the library.