Washoe County's "Checkbook": A Transparency Mirage
Commissioner Clara Andriola has been taking victory laps around the county building for her revolutionary brainchild: the Washoe County Checkbook. This digital wonder promises to unveil the mysteries of county finances to the masses.
On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, we'll all be treated to a special tutorial where county staff is suppose to be showing all of us how to use Checkbook.
We say “good luck” if you think you’re going to track down how much has been spent at the Nevada CARES Campus or on other county projects. Sharpen your pencils and dust off the abacus. We've spent hours navigating this labyrinthine "tool," and it's about as helpful as a chocolate teapot. Try tracking actual expenditures on the CARES Campus, and you'll find yourself in a digital shell game where money magically teleports between departmental buckets.
Andriola's self-congratulatory opinion piece in the Reno Gazette Journal deserves a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Mission accomplished indeed—if the mission was creating an illusion of transparency.
Sure, Checkbook works splendidly if all you want is department-level budget figures, conveniently scrubbed of those pesky details about where the money actually goes. But for anyone seeking the "nitty-gritty" of county spending, you'd have better luck deciphering hieroglyphics while blindfolded.
To get the information we were looking for we resorted to the "Pre-Andriola Method"—filing public records requests. When we asked for the Top 100 highest-paid county employees, what did we get? A delightful data dump of 3,080 employee records. How thoughtful! It's like asking for a glass of water and receiving a fire hose to the face.
Meanwhile, the City of Reno managed to provide exactly what we requested: the Top 100 highest-paid employees. Remarkable how following simple instructions works.
The county's approach to public records ranges from denial to delay to data-drowning. Are they hiding Blackbeard's treasure map in those protected files? Or just the embarrassing reality that their payroll has ballooned to unsustainable proportions?
2024 Washoe County Top 100 salaries - read it and weep.
A quick glance at those top salaries explains the $27 million budget deficit. One has to wonder: Is Washoe County paying premium salaries because they've exhausted all other recruitment options, or because someone in HR finds actual talent hunting too taxing?
So go ahead—explore the Washoe County Checkbook. Just don't expect it to balance. All you have to do is look at the Washoe County Top 100 salaries and you can easily discover why they are $27 million in the hole.
Washoe County Salary 2023 Sorted by documents on Scribd
Washoe County Salary 2024 Sorted by documents on Scribd