William Mantle, 35, who moved to Reno for college in 2005, and has since worked as a victims advocate and at the District Attorney’s office as a Family Support Specialist, is at it again, running for mayor, after finishing fourth in 2018.
“I really care about our people here and I want them to have as good a life as possible, as high quality of life as they can get. I think we haven't been getting the best deals that we could for our city in terms of planning, transportation, and certainly affordable housing,” he told Our Town Reno during a recent interview.
He says since his run four years ago, he’s been dismayed to see motels torn down and the number of unhoused grow. Like others, he says he’s been “appalled that our city is engaged in a development agreement with Jacobs Entertainment, a multi-billion dollar national corporation that wasn't held to any standard other than I think it was a 64-unit condominium. Like you would give over an entire swath of a city to a corporation and millions of dollars of our financial support for some condos. I mean talk about a bad deal.”
Mantle views the Cares Campus response to help the unhoused as a failure. “We're only addressing symptoms here. You know … a massive shelter … it doesn't help anyone actually transition from that life into a solid, steady life. The only way we can do that is by having enough places for people to be in a home.”
Contrary to popular opinion, he says there should be checks on unbridled growth. “Everyone thinks more companies is better for a location, but you have to allow time for infrastructure and for the resources that support a community to grow before you solicit more people to come here. And that seems to be a completely foreign concept to our leadership,” he said.
He says current Mayor Hillary Schieve who is running again “is passionate about improving the city economically,” as a small business owner, but he believes she’s “missing” some of the human element. “I don't think she's uncaring or heartless or anything negative like that, I just think she's missing it. I think maybe because I've been on the front lines, helping people as an advocate, I've seen it firsthand and it's so personally affected me, that it's a singular driving force for me. I just really would like to get someone in there who would prioritize people first instead of economy, because the economy is not doing well for the people.”
He says he recently heard of security guards saying that after their rent increased by several hundred dollars they couldn’t afford to live within city limits anymore. Mantle says more aggressive policy could be pursued at the local level, including limiting rent gouging to prevent this from happening over and over to working class citizens.
“How can we allow these things to happen to our own citizens? I mean the people have lived here for decades,” Mantle said. “Like what is Reno, but its people. So my push is to really use the legislation that we have available to us. I completely disagree with the city manager and the city attorney that we can't actually address rent gouging. That's their position, but I read the exact same laws that they have. And I see no exception. I even reached out to legislative consultants at Carson City at the Capitol and asked them questions that, you know, they can't give legal advice because they're not attorneys, but enough to make me feel very certain that we should at least give it a go.”
He says his run in 2018 was a “real David versus Goliath” scenario, where he ran a “bare bones, grassroots campaign.” He laments that so much money is spent even on local elections.
He says he spent just $250 on his last campaign and still finished fourth in the primary, with over 1,500 votes, behind Schieve who got about 20,000 votes, Eddie Lorton with about 6.000 votes and Azzi Shirazi who only got about 70 more votes than Mantle, even though candidates ahead of him spent in the six figure range.
“I’ve got, you know, people signing up to be a volunteer now with me, which is fantastic,” he said of his current run, which includes a website called Mantle for Reno [above], with a tagline of “Clarity. Accountability. Transparency.”
“So I can have more people, more boots on the ground to knock doors and direct people to my website where hopefully they can convince themselves. I’m not going to over promise and hopefully not under promise, what I hope to do for the city,” he said. “I think we definitely need a change because I don't know anyone who's enjoyed the trajectory of the city in the last 10 years. And I haven't heard anyone arguing that it's better for the average citizen today than it was 10 years ago.”
This mayoral election has 11 filed candidates, including Lorton and councilwoman Jenny Brekhus, often at odds with Schieve and the rest of the City Council.
“A lot of individuals say that they would like to support me because you know, I'm not a part of that organization right now,” Mantle said. “I haven't been a part of the failed years that have created this rental crisis and this affordability crisis. I'm not a part of the status quo. I'm not beholden to anyone period.”
Mantle calls him “unabashedly, unapologetically, absolutely” progressive, even if that can create challenges. “I think there are some misconceptions about what progressivism is and means. I’m pushing for whatever policy can lead to the most benefit for the most people, simple to say, not easy to execute. I would urge everyone to really examine their reality in this city and see if they like what has happened to them over the last 10 years. If it's not gotten better for you, then I would strongly consider them to look at my website, see if they like what I've got to say and think about supporting me. Because that's what I'm pushing for. I'm pushing for a very different Reno than what we've gotten and what we can expect to get from the exact same people that have given us this reality. I really encourage people to think about what they want instead of what they have and that's the kind of candidate I'm hoping to be,” he concluded.