Washoe County, Let the Rumors Begin

Is it Jeanne Herman’s time? We understand Herman is seeking to be the chair of the Washoe County Commission at the January 16, 2024, meeting.

It is rumored, Commissioner Alexis Hill, after her disastrous removal of early public comment in 2023, has been advised by her team to step away and hopefully voters will forget her poor choice to silence their voices for five months. Before people call us out, reminding us there was public comment available at the end of the meeting, we want to remind you, residents had to wait up to six or seven hours to be heard. How is that serving the residents of Washoe County?

Herman had been swept to the side by two former Commissioner’s Bob Lucey and Vaughn Hartung over the past eight years. They stopped her from being on many coveted board appointments, keeping them greedily for themselves. Since the defeat of Bob Lucey in 2022, and the departure of Hartung in March 2023, Herman has blossomed, and found her voice. While her constituents will tell you she has always been heard, it was her fellow commission members who didn’t listen.

At this point, Herman is the longest serving commissioner, heading into her 10th year. Hill was elected in 2020, Gacia in 2022, Clark in 2022 and Andriola was appointed in April 2023 to fulfill Hartung’s term. We are hearing Hill has ‘hand-picked’ Garcia to be her ‘chair’ replacement and the question really comes down to how ‘Appointed’ Commissioner Clara Andriola votes. Andriola is in the Commission District with the largest number of Republicans, with Red Hawk being a stronghold. A Republican (Andriola) voting for a Democrat (Garcia) over a Republican (Herman) for Washoe County Commission Chair would be interesting. Will Andriola commit possible political suicide?

Many moons ago, in 2014, there was a race for commissioner and the pundits all thought they knew who would win and little attention was paid to the Washoe County Commission District 5 race. It was all but set in stone, and then it wasn’t.  A little known, not at all political, realtor, who sold a whole lot of horse property in District 5, Jeanne Herman won.

Commissioner Herman didn’t make a lot of waves, she is quiet, in fact you can barely hear her, there are a couple of medical reasons for that, but she doesn’t like to talk about it. Herman grew up in Alaska, and her grandfather was a judge, and there is a lot of water under the bridge, and Herman doesn’t like to talk about that either. Herman is a simple gal, who attended a whole lot of Citizen Advisory Board meetings for her area while helping her clients who had purchased ranches and horse property in District 5. Often she bled over to Neighborhood Advisory Meetings, when the property was not located in unincorporated Washoe County, and frankly Herman was a grassroots activist who would never, ever call herself an activist.

Herman raises her own cattle and butchers them on her ranch. Every summer she has a huge garden and has been raising French radishes for years and can’t believe any of those ‘city folk’ would pay $6.00 for a bunch of those fancy radishes, when you could just ask Herman and a basket will be at your doorstep.

When Herman was running for commission in 2014, she would mosey up to the podium, wearing jeans, a shirt, a Western belt buckle almost too big for her frame, hair in braids and say, “I was born on the 4th of July, so my daddy named me Jeanne with the light brown hair.” Picon’s publisher, Larry Chesney, actually purchased a couple of pieces of property from Herman back in the day. Chesney said, “Everyone purchased their horse property from Jeanne, she knew the area, and could get things done for you.”

Back in 2014 Herman would have been in her early 70s, she doesn’t like to talk about age either, and she was disarming. While her opponents would be talking about government, Herman would take them to task and say, ‘we’re not going to have none of that.” No one even knew what it meant, but how could they call her out, it would make her detractors appear they were picking on their mom or grandma. Chesney said, “Hell I gave money to Jeanne’s opponent in the primary, no one thought she would win.”

Picon had several of the people we interviewed for this article, all of whom refuse to go on the record say, “we didn’t know if she was faking it, if she really didn’t get it, or if she was crazy smart, but you couldn’t call her out because she was old.” Herman landed on the Washoe County Commission.

During the election, while opponents and residents didn’t want to make it appear they were ‘picking’ on Jeanne Herman that did not extend to the Washoe County Commissioners from day one. While Commissioner Kitty Jung and Marsha Berkbigler ping-ponged between kindness and frustration that was not the case with Commissioner Vaughn Hartung and Bob Lucey.

We’re not going to take the time to go over the last nine years but suffice to say at one meeting Lucey was waving applications in the air and screaming at Herman to pick one. There was an opening on the Board of Adjustment and Lucey didn’t want the person Herman had chosen to serve via the District 5 seat and all but exploded in flames trying to get Herman to choose someone, anyone, just not who she wanted. Herman remained unphased though the debacle and simply kept saying the same name, which caused Lucey to become far more infuriated. We questioned why County Manger Eric Brown didn’t step in at that point, since Lucey was teetering on elder abuse.

During COVID Herman was an anti-vaxxer and believed the county should be opened for business. Commissioner Vaughn Hartung demanded to have his commission seat moved, he was next to Herman on the dais, but no other commissioner would trade seats with him, so he was stuck. Hartung spent the better part of a year, after the commission returned to chambers, not turning in his chair in the direction of Herman. You need only watch meetings starting in September 2020, Hartung kept it up until he was able to move seats.

When Commissioner Clara Andriola was appointed by Governor Joe Lombardo in April 2023, it became quickly apparent that these two horsewomen were not sharing the same range. Andriola assured Herman; she would support her for not only Vice Chair but the County appointment on RSCVA. Herman got half of that promise since Commissioner Alexis Hill anointed herself with the plum RSCVA spot. Is Andriola just too much of scaredy-cat to stand up to Alexis Hill, we’ll know on Tuesday, January 16th.

Now, here we are, on the preface, waiting to see if Commissioner Jeanne Herman will finally have her day. Since Herman has been on the commission each of the five commissioners, she has served with have all ascended to the ‘throne’ of chairmanship. Former Commissioners Kitty Jung, Bob Lucey, Vaughn Hartung, Marsha Berkbigler, and Alexis Hill have all been chair of the commission during Herman’s nine years serving the residents.

Commissioner Herman represents the fastest growing commission district in Washoe County. Former Commissioner Bob Lucey tried to get rid of Herman with redistricting prior to the 2022 election, and that failed. Lucey and Sheriff Darin Balaam hand-picked Wendy Leonard, who went down in flames after spending $61,554 in the primary to Herman’s $23,421. Bitter from the loss, Wendy Leonard, attended the June 21, 2022, commission meeting, made public comment, slinging an obscenity at Herman, “Please remove Robert Beadles’ hand from your rectum long enough to stop being puppeteered.” What Picon found interesting when you watch the video, Commissioner Alexis Hill, who was chairing, didn’t stop the meeting or threaten to have Leonard removed, she instead gaveled and ask Leonard to direct her comments to the body. We wonder why County Manager Eric Brown did not step in, nor did the District Attorney. Commissioner Alexis Hill didn’t ask Herman if she might like a break. Herman sat with her usual pleasant smile.

Commissioner Hill where was the decorum? Hill now demands at ALL county commission meetings. Apparently, Hill sees no reason to extend decorum to Herman.  Since Commissioner Clara “Thin Skin’ Andriola’s appointment residents have made comments directed at her during public comment and the meetings have been stopped, more than once, and the commissioners take a break, so Andriola might compose herself. The same has happened with Commissioner Mariluz Garcia. These breaks are basically to punish the residents, who dared to disagree with a commissioner. On June 21, 2022, however, Hill had a ‘rectum’ comment directed to Commissioner Hearman and kept the meeting going, why the difference?  Picon ponders that Washoe County and the commissioners have chosen for years to treat Hearman as a ‘lesser’ elected.

Herman’s constituents adore her. For years when Jung, Hartung, and most of all Lucey refused to get back to residents in their Districts for one reason or another, Herman did.

Is this Herman’s time, she has worked tirelessly for Washoe County and choosing anyone else would raise questions of it being a political move on the part of Hill, Andriola, and Garcia. Garcia is in a public/private relationship with former Reno City Councilmember Oscar Delgado, something Garcia denied for twelve months during and after her campaign. If the ‘fix-is-in’ and Garcia were to ascend to the chair who would be running the county Garcia, Delgado, or Hill?

This ‘chair’ vote on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, reminds us of the final scene in Thelma and Louise, when they are getting ready to drive off the cliff as a final act of defiance against patriarchal society. Hartung and Lucey had boxed Commissioner Herman in for years, Washoe County needs to finally give Herman her time. It is about time.