I finally had a week when I was not traveling coincide with
a Bonanza/SNC Candidate Forum, so I was able to attend the Q & A session with
the two candidates for Washoe County Commissioner District One. Unfortunately I
was one of the few IV/CB residents who did. If you subtract the press and
moderators as well as the IVGID candidates who were there, it was less than 20
people, a poor turnout indeed for information about an office that could have a
major impact on our community in the months and years to come.
District One is huge – it stretches from the Washoe County
line on Route 28 down the hill to Lakeridge, north through Caughlin Ranch to
the North end of Reno. While much of the area of the District in the valley is
within the City of Reno, the County Commissioner represents those areas in
matters to do with the County as well as representing the unincorporated areas
of the District, which includes us. There are over 56,000 registered voters in
the District, with about 7,000 of those voters within the Incline/Crystal GID.
In other words, our community accounts for about 1.8% of the registered voters
in the District.
One of the main points made by those present at the Forum
and in questions submitted to the Bonanza in advance was the need of our community
to be represented. As you’d expect, both candidates hastened to reassure us
that they would represent us and not neglect us in favor of the rest of the
district. Both acknowledged that (a) this community is not like the rest of the
District due to altitude, weather, the Lake, etc., (b) IV/CB residents rightly
feel that we don’t get enough of our tax money put back into the community
(i.e., we’re subsidizing the rest of the County), and (c) we have in a number
of instances not been treated equitably by the County (cf. the tax revolt).
All that is well and good, and both candidates said the
right things. The execution of those promises may be a different matter,
though. Let’s say that our only real competition for the Commissioner’s
attention is the unincorporated areas of the District – maybe then we get up as
high as 10 or 20% of the population, maybe higher – I don’t know how to
calculate it, but even if, of the 49,000 voters not within IVGID’s area, 30,000
live in Reno, we are still 9,000 out of 19,000, and I think that figure is
likely to be generous. It’s going to be very difficult at times for whomever
gets elected to stand for our interests when they conflict with those of voters
down the hill.
This is important because the TRPA Regional Plan Update has greater
local control of community character as one of its mainstays. For a community
like South Lake Tahoe, this means the city government. For us, it means the
County, and if history is any indicator, that’s not good news. Again, both
candidates said the right things – they think we should have more local
control, but it was clear that this was an area where neither had done
extensive homework – both were very sketchy on the TRPA plan, and seemed more
or less ignorant of what has already been tried with regard to gaining a greater
degree of independence for the community. By way of refreshing everyone’s
memory, early efforts to form a county were stopped in the Legislature, and
there is little to suggest that today’s Legislature has much more of an
appetite to form a new county than did the Legislature under Governor Miller.
Analyses of the possibility of incorporating as a city don’t pencil out
economically, and two years ago voters rejected becoming a town, which would
have only expanded the purview of what is now IVGID, but still would have left
us subject to the County as the final word on most things.
So to paraphrase Princess Leia “help us, Washoe County
Commission, you’re our only hope.” Our last two Commissioners did a pretty good
job of keeping up on our concerns and representing us – hopefully whichever
candidate gets elected will also, but it will take close vigilance on our part
to ensure that they do. Of the two, Andrew Diss seemed to me to have the
greater grasp of important areas and less prone to predetermined solutions, so
I’m going to give him my endorsement.
Most of all, vote. It’s important.
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