“Surprise, surprise, the staff-directed process under the direction of the City Manager [Doug Thornley] who reports to the incumbents don’t match any incumbents up against each other. Surprise, surprise,” council member Jenny Brekhus said drily Wednesday as a final map with six wards for Reno elections moved closer to being adopted for good in September.
“The fingerprints of staff doing work for the incumbents … that’s what I see,” she alleged.
Appointed member Kathleen Taylor lives in the new Ward 1, while the also appointed for sudden replacement purposes Miguel Martinez stays in the new Ward 3. At-large council member Devon Reese, first appointed and then elected, lives in the forthcoming Ward 5.
Council member Naomi Duerr, who stays in Ward 2, called it an “elegant solution.”
Reese said it was “not correct” that it had staff-driven “fingerprints,” calling the drawn out process consultant and community driven.
The new map called Map E passed 5-2 with Ward 4 representative Megan Ebert joining Brekhus in voting no.
Ebert reiterated disappointment her ward would be losing its only community center, Evelyn Mount, and will only have five out of 83 of the city’s parks. With the new map, Ward 4 loses areas around UNR, which have lots of progressive voters.
Ward 6 in south Reno will have no incumbents, making that the most open ended race in the next cycle.
Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 will all be up for election in the 2024 cycle, with Ebert and Duerr staying on in their redrawn wards until 2026.
At the previous City Council meeting, Duerr had asked for several modifications in Ward 2 which she obtained. Brekhus called those additional changes “distasteful,” “playing around with people … like monopoly pieces” and a “callous way to do redistricting.”
The City of Reno released this summary: “Council voted to amend Title 1, Chapter 1.02.010, of Reno Municipal Code titled "Ward Boundaries and Official city map," to change the City of Reno ward boundaries and create a sixth ward on the Official City Map as required by Reno City Charter. Council chose Map Option E as the next official map for Reno. According to the Charter, the City is required to transition from five to six wards in 2024. Staff and the City’s independent data analytics consultant completed a comprehensive community engagement process between June-July 2023 to draft several ward map options for Council discussion and deliberation. Council must vote on these ward boundaries choice for a second time at the next City Council Meeting on September 13, 2023 for the map to become official.”
Mayor Hillary Schieve had previously wanted to keep the at-large seat but her efforts failed in Carson City during the last legislative session to reverse a prior change to go to six wards.
Schieve said there would be a new era of what she called “hunger games,” with representatives advocating solely for their own wards, with “different parts of the city up against each other.”
“You can’t cry over spilled milk,” she also said. “Let’s all move forward together.”
Our Town Reno reporting, August 2023