Timeline

Commissioner Alexis Hill Facebook Page - September 7, 2024 Northern Nevada Pride Festival. 

Last Saturday, September 7, 2024, was a big day. The Great Reno Balloon Race took to the skies, and the Northern Nevada Pride Festival and Parade, with the carnivalesque gathering in Wingfield Park after the parade only increasing every year.  

It was also the day the Davis Wildfire ignited between 2-2:30PM Saturday afternoon. It was apparent this wildfire, due to the location, and the winds, was going to be bad.

On Sunday, Mayor Hillary Schieve went on Facebook, Instagram, X, and any other platform she could be hosted on warning about the fire, and urging residents to stay diligent, and evacuate when prompted to do so. It was the most mayorly action we have witnessed Schieve take, kudos to her.

City of Reno Facebook Video post. 

We pondered why then the Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill didn’t take the wildfire as seriously as Mayor Schieve.

Schieve has been Reno Mayor for ten years and served as the At-Large Reno City Councilmember from 2012 to 2014, (oops, isn’t that 12-years and in November 2024 won’t Schieve have surpassed the City of Reno’s charter for how long an elected can serve, but that’s a story for another day).

Schieve has learned her mayoral craft and knows how to get in front of a camera and convey a message to Reno’s residents when disaster strikes. It is something Schieve excels at, she is an attractive woman, that the camera loves, and she has great on camera delivery.

The City of Reno Public Relations team failed during the 2020 riots.  Picon believes Schieve learned a lesson from that fiasco, stopped listening to her handlers, and other voices, and has really stepped up over the last four years.

When we first witnessed Schieve do Reno’s State of the City address back in the day, heck, we were in the audience cheering her on, she’s got great delivery and defines positive spirit.

Commissioner Alexis Hill, not so much. Where Schieve can look flawless and does not need to read a message from her cell phone, Hill hasn’t mastered any of those skills, and what’s with the bright red lipstick, even in times of disaster?

Commissioner Hill was walking in the Nevada Pride Festival Parade and celebrating in the park from the many photos we’ve been sent, but hey, let’s just take the photos from her very own Facebook page.

Commissioner Alexis Hill on Facebook - September 7, 2024 - Northern Nevada Pride Festival. 

She was posting updates from Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District on her “public figure” page on Saturday about the Davis Wildfire, but no video as Schieve produced. Opportunity missed, and a gaping error by Commissioner Hill.  

On Sunday as the wildfire raged in South Reno, and Washoe Valley; more evacuations were taking place, Commissioner Alexis Hill in an attempt to get reelected was out “canvassing the vote” with Erica Roth who is running for Assembly District 24.

As smoke billowed into the Reno sky from the Davis Wildfire with little or no containment the gang supporting Hill and Roth were walking and talking to residents. We wonder if at any of the doors they knocked, voters inquired “why canvass during a wildfire?” Evacuations were forcing residents from their homes, but not in Hill’s District 1.  There are some interesting faces in the canvass crowd, we’re fairly certain we’ll be using this photo in two years to remind a few of them of their insensitivity this day.

September 8, 2024 - from Commissioner Alexis Hill's Facebook Page. 

We’ve been leaving the Assembly and Senate races pretty much alone because we thrive on public records, but when penning this article, we took a gander at Ms. Roth’s Nevada Secretary of State Contribution and Expense Reports to see how it compares to Commissioner Alexis Hill.

We were perplexed by a contribution from Las Vegas’s Scott Leedom. Director Of Public Affairs for Southwest Gas on November 18, 2023, of $500 – appearing to be a personal donation. The only personal donation Mr. Leedom has ever bestowed. Oddly he has not given personal donations we could find to Southern Nevada candidates. A contribution of $2,500 a few weeks later came from his employer Southwest Gas, December 14, 2023. We pondered what impressed Mr. Leedom to give his own funds to Ms. Roth. We learned that Ms. Roth lobbied at the 2023 Nevada Legislature so perhaps that was the catalyst for the donation.

Ms. Roth, an attorney, has had to file two amended C&E Reports, they are not that difficult.

Fast forward to Monday morning, and there was Commissioner Alexis Hill inadequately prepared, reading a statement from her cell phone, obviously written by not herself, she fumbled. Strangley, the commissioner who represents District 2 was missing from the press conference.

Commissioner Mike Clark Facebook post from Monday, September 9, 2024. 

Picon reached out to Commissioner Mike Clark to learn if he was unable to get to the press conference because he had traveled to the Washoe County Complex for the CHAB (Community Homeless Advisory Board) meeting scheduled for 9AM, only to learn the meeting had been cancelled by Commissioner Hill and County Manager Brown something he had documented on his Facebook page. We share Clark’s frustration, since Washoe County didn’t let any of us know the CHAB meeting was cancelled until well after the scheduled meeting time. Hill and Brown forget to alert the pesky press, homeless advocates, and residents (the folks who foot the tab for their salaries) after all they were busy preparing for a press conference.

Image posted on Mike Clark's Facebook page - Monday - September 9, 2024. 

Clark informed us he was not invited to attend nor made aware there was a press conference regarding the fire in his commission district Monday morning.

Commissioner Hill needed her fifteen minutes of fame addressing the residents of Washoe County without her nemesis Mike Clark in camera range. This chick really wants to be reelected.

But wait, more fame awaited Commissioner Hill when Vice President Candidate Governor Walz showed up and toured the wildfire area getting an update on how the firefighting was going. So a Governor from Minnesota knew more about the fire than the commissioner Nevadan’s elected to represent them. How much does Commissioner Hill hate Mike Clark, come on, it’s a valid question.

Commissioner Hill looks as if she got a “glam squad” together to gussy her up a bit from the morning press conference to early afternoon when Governor Walz hit town.

Photo from The Nevada Independent of Governor Walz's tour of the Davis Fire with Commissioner Alexis Hill and others. 

What we learned, Commissioner Alexis Hill really is more a party planner, you know her old job at the City of Reno, and a whole lot less an elected official.

Hill just didn’t seem to get the optics of a disaster and the effect it had on Washoe County residents. You can still go to the Pride Festival and canvass voters, maybe just omit to post it, while Washoe County residents are fleeing their homes.

Picon thinks Mayor Hillary Schieve did a great job pulling the community together.

What we really came away with is Commissioner Hill really is a Cruella de Vil (oops, Hill). Someone needs to find this woman a heart.