Voters Need a Voice in the City of Reno
The Reno City Charter Committee was questioned by Councilmember Devon Reese regarding their “daring” suggestion to have councilmembers elected by the voters instead of appointed by the Reno Mayor and City Council, when a seat is vacated.
During the joint meeting where the Reno Charter Committee presented to the Reno City Council their findings and suggestions Reese had a whole lot of questions as to voter turnout in special elections.
The big question as set forth by the Charter Committee is should there be special elections, in the City of Reno, depending upon the time frame left of the term. Should a subsequent special election be required to fill the office for the remainder of the unexpired term. Picon thinks this is a no-brainer; voters need to elect their Reno City Councilmembers.
Reese harped on the voter turnout in Las Vegas and the change in legislation, signed into law by former Governor Steve Sisolak back in June 2019, it was AB50. Reese decided to chew on this topic for a bit pointing out how off-year elections didn’t work in Vegas. Just to let Councilmember Reese know we all can use the internet; Doug Goodman, executive director of Nevadans for Election Reform, pointed to continued low-voter participation as clear evidence of why odd-year elections must be eradicated in a June 12, 2019, Las Vegas Review-Journal article. The bill also passed due to the cost to local taxpayers of off year elections. No where did we read about “special elections” which is what the Reno City Charter Committee is suggesting.
Reese directs his dais comments to get zingers off at residents, anyone he seems to not feel is not on “Team Devon.” Leading one to question if Reese is part of the problem with lack of interest in local government and elections. Is Reese trying to intimidate people not to engage with government? At the Charter Committee meeting, for example, Reese went on the record, “Our Lieutenant Governor Kate Marshall, she left that job midway, some people would say that is a breach of trust.” What does that have to do with special elections?
We’ve been hearing that former Lieutenant Governor Kate Marshall is quietly announcing her intention to run for City of Reno Mayor in 2026, which would be a breath of fresh air to have someone of Marshall’s intellect and prowess running the city. Marshall and Reese are both Democrats so the support from Washoe Dems will be split and might even learn Marshall’s way.
Reese inquired of the Charter Committee, “Did you analyze the voter turnout in special elections?” We get the direction Reese will be taking the council that voter turnout is low in other states for special elections, hence no reason for Reno to do it. We’d also like to point out to Councilmember Reese, who darn well knows this, that the Charter Committee doesn’t have what the city council members do at their fingertips, and that would be staff. Reese looked at the national trends and commented only 7% of voters turn out for special elections. Picon would prefer 7% of the Reno voters turn for a special election, than the “body of seven” the Reno City Council and Mayor Schieve, appointing our city council members.
Reese worried that a big donor could write themselves checks if they ran or a possible candidate to give themselves a better chance of winning the special election. Alluding to the possibility they would “buy the election.” Say what? You mean like Reese who has big name contributors funding his Ward 5 campaign. With this type of concern, shouldn’t Councilmember Reese be returning checks to a whole lot of contributors he started collecting from at The Elm Estate back in March 2023.
Reese commented, “Fundamentally no one is going to say we don’t like elections,” apparently speaking for the body. The facts however are the City of Reno Mayor and City Council might like elections, but they don’t instruct the Reno City Clerk to hold them, they appoint and have done it four times in the last twelve years.
Reese couldn’t help himself with businessman and former At-Large and Mayoral candidate Eddie Lorton in the audience, he just had to lash out, saying, and all but directing it at Lorton, “Some people have even denied the results of last times election, in this city, they have said those elections are invalid, election deniers, right, conspiracy theorists, right, but I’m not sure we should be taking the advice from those people who have run five, and seven times, and eight times, unsuccessfully, or have denied elections.”
Lorton had made a public comment earlier regarding his support of the Charter Committee’s recommendation for special elections and not to appoint. Lorton had also commented in his three-minutes about rumors Mayor Schieve will step down/resign early before her term ends and Reese is rumored to be anointed to take her place, giving him the gift of ‘reelect’ on his mayoral campaign signs against possibly, Kate Marshall.
Schieve commented during a public comment, at this same meeting, that she will not be resigning. Not happening. Good to know.
Or was Reese lashing out at Councilmember Meghan Ebert, whose father is Washoe County Commissioner Mike Clark who is part of a public lawsuit by the Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar. Was Reese getting a “twofer” lashing out at Lorton and Ebert. Reese must have gone home with a skip in his step.
Councilmember Meghan Ebert said after Reese, “Democracy is very important and the feedback I get from my constituents is there is a perception that elections don’t matter anymore. That voices don’t matter, and I think it is really important for us to prove that perception wrong.”
But then the Queen of Public Comment Lily Baran, the woman who should have been a candidate in the Ward 1 general election, the woman the Washoe County Registrar of Voters disallowed curing ballots to be listed on the November ballot, raised her hand online and said, “I think that, I wanted to address the availability to the public, talking about public engagement, but then try to avoid these long back and forths, if the public is not showing up, council members are also free to come to our meetings and that hasn’t really occurred. We did discuss at length voter turnout – we did compare election results with it and I think it would have been really helpful to have at least one council member at some of these meetings. Sometimes that presents a gap when we are here. In the matter of civic engagement, we do see people go for appointments, and what the selection from council is not necessarily representative of the people who did show up to the meetings. I’m kind of hearing two different things there.
As a matter, to put a point on it, it was very difficult to disagree with people, and that people have long histories together, but perhaps, you know, people stop coming to meetings after they are called conspiracy theorists and they’re called names by the folks on the dais or otherwise. It is important to use a little bit different choice of words, everyone that doesn’t agree with someone is not a conspiracy theorist. Maybe we could have more decorum in the way we engage with the public, so they do feel like they are being heard when they show up to meetings. Again, I understand this, there are some very contagious characters on hand and maybe some are conspiracy theorists, but that’s not always the case, so let’s just try to think about why some people don’t feel like engaging.”