WFA (Work From Anywhere)
It has been a year since the RGJ’s special reporter, Mark Robison, authored an unusually probing piece about Washoe County’s unique computer guy. On December 22, 2022, Robison tossed a grenade into the county's lap when he reported on the fact their top computer man lived in Southern California.
Apparently, Washoe County was incapable of hiring a local with the ability to run the county's information technology section, referred to as “IT.” Behzad Zamanian has actually worked for Washoe County since January 2021, and the county subsidized his travel to Washoe County where he was reportedly working one week a month on-site.
Government is funny; we sure did not see the Nugget Hotel Casino rise to greatness without John Ascuaga on-site every day. We would bet Don Carano spent most days on property as he grew the El Dorado and eventually built the Silver Legacy. Don Weir, he spent all of his time at the Reno Dodge Dealership, building it. Bruno’s in Gerlach, hell the man slept in his bar. I think our readers can all think of dedicated and successful leaders, none of whom lived 500 miles away. Government employees need supervision, they need leadership, and they are evaluated annually. Can anyone explain how a remote leader does that?
We have former county employees who regularly contact us, and several have told us how strict and limited remote access for county computers was. The county had real fears about data breaches, theft of data and viruses. Apparently, in the past few years this has all but subsided because the county reports 75% of the IT employees do not even report to work.
As we struggle to comprehend how one of the county’s top executives works remotely, we did some looking at Mr. Zamanian’s history. Mr. Zamanian was the top IT guy for the City of Huntington Beach, California prior to coming to Washoe County. Oddly, his 17 years of employment ended following a controversial email search claim and a sexual harassment scandal just before Manager Brown hired him.
In 2020, Mr. Zamanian was embroiled in a scandal in Huntington Beach with the city manager, where Zamanian accused the city manager of asking him to do an inappropriate email search. Apparently, Zamanian’s refusal prompted the manager to seek his resignation. Zamanian accused the city of forcing him to resign early and of age discrimination. Picon is unaware of the final outcome, however Zamanian was hired in early 2021 by Washoe County.
While Picon is far from critical of Mr. Zamanian’s bonafides to run an IT department, we are curious about his future plans. He does not own property in Washoe County, and we think his place in Huntington Beach is worth a pretty penny. We are pending a records request; however we also hear that his California residency costs taxpayers in Washoe County more money than a local employee in the form of insurance costs. On top of that, he is not paying Washoe County property tax, grocery tax or gas tax, yet we residents are paying his salary.