Running for a Reno City Council seat, Ward 4, that has see-sawed in the past, Meghan Ebert likes her chances in November. She says her message of working for the people of North Valleys is starting to resonate with would-be voters when she meets with them.
“We don't feel like we're heard out here,” Ebert told Our Town Reno, during a recent sit down interview at a locally owned coffee shop on Golden Valley Road, Superstitions Java.
“We don't feel like we have a voice. And that's one of the reasons why I'm running. I want to … make sure that we have a seat at the table. We pay the same taxes, but we don't always feel like we're treated the same,” she said.
The incumbent she is facing Bonnie Weber is a long-time office holder. Weber previously served as a Washoe County Commissioner, and won the Ward 4 seat in 2018 against then incumbent Paul McKenzie. But Weber has lost the seat before, in a 2014 election against McKenzie. Last year, Weber also faced scrutiny from the Nevada Commission on Ethics into lunches she organized. These were attended by developers, herself and staff, and paid for by prominent North Valleys development companies, including one hired to provide water to the 5,000-unit Stonegate project.
The panel ultimately concluded Weber didn’t break the law but called on the City of Reno to come up with new rules to adequately address similar situations, during which city staff work at closed-door events organized by an elected official.
Ebert is proud of endorsements she’s gotten from Reno firefighters, Planned Parenthood, the Nevada Central Labor Council , the Northern Nevada Building Trades and the Sierra Club, which she says reflect her values and beliefs. “I’m very pro-union. I think that they do a great thing for wages and quality of life for workers. I'm very supportive of our first responders and our firefighters. I feel like they need more support as well and funding and, we need more first responders up in the North Valleys for sure with all the development happening out here. We're not keeping pace with the number of first responders that we have in the area.”
In light of this, and recent endorsements (see above postcard), Ebert feels confident, having garnered 1727 votes to Weber’s 2279 votes in the primary. The third place finisher Dennis Owen got 1358 votes. During his campaign, he spoke out against uncontrolled growth without proper infrastructure, a message shared by Ebert.
“I like to remind everybody that more people have voted against the incumbent than for her,” Ebert said of one of her campaign strategies, while going door to door, holding coffee talks and attending advisory board meetings.
“I think we have a master plan that we're not currently following,” she said of managing local growth. “Why aren't we following that? If it doesn't work, then we should be adjusting it. If it does work and we're just choosing not to follow it because developers would like special use permits, we need to reevaluate why we're doing that. We need to look at the big picture here. Are we going to be a cohesive city, or are we just putting in warehouses wherever there's open space? I think we need to look at how we're developing. Are we developing smart? Are we building communities or are we just kind of filling wherever we can with whatever we want without much concern for any kind of plan.”
Ebert has concerns about available resources including enough water and infrastructure. “You know we need to take that into consideration and also take into consideration the impact to the people that live here … you know, the increased traffic that comes with increased development, what are we doing to make sure that we have infrastructure to keep pace with the development that's happening.”
A mother of three, Ebert has concerns for the future.
“Because I'm a first time candidate and I don't have any kind of developer ties, I don't have those conflicts of interest,” she said. “I’m doing this purely because I care about my community and what kind of legacy we're leaving for our children. I don't want to raise my kids in a neighborhood surrounded by warehouses. I don't think it's safe to put in thousands of houses without increasing our numbers of firefighters and police in the area. I think we're going to reach a tipping point where we're going to start having property losses, probably loss of life and damages because we're not taking into consideration the people that live here. And that's why I'm running because I really care about my ward. I care about my family and I care about everybody else's family out here.”
Last year, the City of Reno finally reached a $4.5 million agreement to conclude litigation related to the 2017 Swan Lake flooding in Lemmon Valley, a terrible occurrence which affected her friends and family, and also prompted Ebert to get into local politics.
“The people that were impacted had water from the Reno Stead sewage treatment facility flood their homes. The city of Reno had an opportunity to settle with these residents to give them funds to fix the damage caused to their homes. And the city council voted against that, not everyone, but in particular, our current representative. That to me is unacceptable. These are her constituents that are affected by this, and she voted against doing what was right and fixing the damage caused to their homes,” she said.
She doesn’t see that situation as a done deal either, saying there still needs to be better treatment of the Reno Stead water facility. “It's still not considered safe for humans to be around,” she said. “I mean, you can use it for livestock feed crops, but you can't use it in your vegetable garden. It's not safe. We need to look into how we can treat that water to a higher quality, so that water becomes usable. We're living in a desert and we're pumping this water into a lake. It's just dumped into this area to evaporate every day. And last I checked, we're dumping over 2 million gallons of water into this lake every single day.”
Ebert says she’s a pro-environmental candidate. “We have beautiful areas of Sagebrush and forest around us. And how do we embrace that? How do we build, or put in trails so we can enjoy these areas and treat them as the asset that they are and appreciate them, and, and not just level them to, you know, put in whatever development that it comes along.” Other ideas she would like to see more include covered parking areas with solar panels above them.
As a professional benefits analyst who does data analysis, financial reporting and audits, Ebert says she would also bring much needed scrutinizing to proposals under discussion at Council.
“I would definitely ask a lot of questions, make sure that we've thought of everything, you know, as far as traffic studies, when we're doing road construction, financial impact,” Ebert said, adding she would continuously seek resident and expert input. “We definitely need somebody in there that can look at the numbers and analyze the data. And, and again, like I said, just look at the big picture and find out, what's really going to be the best and not just appease developer money. Sometimes things look great on paper, but when you really come down to, you know, the impact to the community, it's not so great. So just really digging deep into that data and not just looking at superficial presentations.”
Ebert has never run for office, and hopes people who themselves feel marginalized, and who say they’ve even given up on voting will consider voting for her or get into the process themselves.
“That's why I'm running, so many people in this ward are very eager to express their displeasure, but their names aren't on the ballot. So if you are unhappy with things, it is up to you to be that change, or it's not going to change. It will be business as usual. So I urge you to step up and take on that challenge,” she said.