Washoe County’s CABs “juice isn’t worth the squeeze”

CAB presentation from county staff on September 10, 2024. 

Citizen Advisory Boards, we’ve been to about fifty CAB meetings over the years, and often they must be a “pain in the patootie” for county staff, we get it. However, CABs are a more relaxed atmosphere for Washoe County residents to be heard, air their grievances or support of projects and plans being pushed by Washoe County, a forum to meet their neighbors, get to know county staff, and meet their commissioner.  CABs are a good thing for the county to support and ensure they thrive. That should be the marching orders staff is given, “make CABs thrive.”  

“Juice worth the squeze” slide from the Washoe County Board of County Commission meeting on September 10, 2024. 

But not so much. It would seem county staff think CABs are a lot of work and they have little or no return on investment of their time. The county is pushing the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze” concept when it comes to CABs. Don’t residents pay staff to take up their time? One could get the feeling that County Manager Eric Brown and Commissioner Alexis Hill are using staff to get rid of the CABs due to Neighborhood Development Meetings availability, due to a “struggle in engagement” becoming the county’s chant.

History of CABs from the September 10, 2024 Board of County Commissioner’s meeting. 

At a Board of County Commission meeting on September 10, 2024, there was a presentation outlining how staff want to reimagine CAB’s. We didn’t get a lot of reimagination or ideas from staff, just statistics regarding how few residents attend. Could it be that staff would prefer not to attend these meetings at night or on weekends. There are three staff who handle these 72 meetings annually, so about 24 meeting each per year, not a big deal staff - two per month.

Neighborhood Development Meetings are an entirely separate meeting, they accommodate individuals who only want to hear about a particular development, either one or many, they county claims they are timelier for residents, they occur much earlier in the development process, they are not held to open meeting standards, so residents get more time to speak and they allow a deeper conversation with developments. Any residents have a success story from a Neighborhood Development Meeting? We’re going to bet not. The county is chanting to “reimagine” CABs could it be do away with CABs, while keeping the developer friendly Neighborhood Development Meetings. Basically, county staff seem to be on a mission to get rid of the CABs.

The county is looking for “greater and more expansive community engagement.”  They are looking for opportunities for “true engagement.” Staff wants to reach “more people in meaningful ways.” The verbiage is all but funny. How about working on getting county media to push CAB meetings, something the county doesn’t really focus on – they push out to their limited email list, post on the county’s website, and post on Washoe County’s Facebook page maybe once or twice, but we have yet to see the county spend any money advertising a CAB on Facebook.

There was supposed to be a big Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) Reimagination Input Session on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, that has now been cancelled/postponed to a date to be announced. The county first invited CAB members and residents to the reimagine meeting on October 23, 2024 – so why postpone? What too many residents were attending, and the county wouldn’t get the outcome they are shooting for, you know doing away with the CABs. Let’s think, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the county won’t “reimagine” this meeting until 2025.

Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) Reimagination Input Session cancelled by Washoe County. 

Washoe County is making their message loud and clear by Commissioner Alexis Hill cancelling her CAB meeting tonight. The county is going to push the narrative about not enough resident engagement to warrant staff time spent, and after all residents can attend the Neighborhood Development Meetings. The meetings that benefit developers far more than residents.

Commissioner Alexis Hill’s CAB is cancelled with no explanation. 

Washoe County residents you need to make sure Manger Brown and Commissioner Hill don’t shut down another availability for community voices to be heard be slowly removing CABs, by “using” staff to do their dirty work.