Three candidates for the Fernley City Council and three running for mayor participated in a forum hosted by the Fernley Republican Women on May 19 at the Fernley Senior Center.
The top two candidates in each race will advance to the general election, unless a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
City Council Ward 1 candidates Ryan Hanan and Debbie Skinner, Ward 3 candidate Roy Edgington and mayor candidates Alexis Colosi, Tim Bickerton and John Barchie participated in the event, and the moderator read a statement from Mayor Neal McIntyre, who was unable to attend because of a flat tire.
Each candidate was allowed 30 seconds to introduce themselves to begin, then each candidate was asked the same three questions. After the questions, each candidate was given two and a half minutes for a closing statement.
CODE ENFORCEMENT
The candidates were asked what safeguards they would support to prevent overreach while still maintaining neighborhood standards.
Colosi said she believes code enforcement is necessary, but said the city needs to involve residents. “Keeping it with the residents having the power is the crucial aspect to make sure that we do not have that overreach from government,” she said.
Bickerton said he believes the city’s code enforcement needed work, but it should have begun with what the city already had and not copying code language from other cities. “We’re going to have to rely on our people, our supervisors, on our city council to see that code and vote on it properly and not exactly the 50-some odd pages that’s been distributed to everyone else, and then we’re going to have a code, I believe, that people can live with, that’s fair for every property owner and that’s fair for every person that has personal opinions, that is not just nitpicking,” he said.
Barchie called proposed amendments to the Tile 16 Nuisance Ordinance in the Fernley Municipal Code “a self-inflicted error by the council” and said the city needs to slow down and make it right. “The Judge Dredds that think they’re going to enforce it are going to be digging trenches in the back 40 and that’s flat out what’s going to happen if I’m mayor and draconian codes get passed,” he said. “If they’re not draconian, of course we need codes, and we’ll do the right thing by Fernley.”
Skinner said code enforcement needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis. “It needs to be remembered that Fernley is an agricultural community, we grew up with farming, and we should be able to park on gravel driveways,” she said. “I’m not opposed to it, but I think it needs some work.”
Edgington, who served two terms on the council and one as mayor, said he’s been through the issue three times with the council, and it was contentious every time. “I’ve always contended the city council should have the final say, but you have the right to go through due process as individuals,” he said. “You have the right to appeal if the code enforcement is not handled correctly, but you also have the right to live in a neighborhood that’s safe. So it’s a balancing act.”
Hanan said the city will be hosting two public workshops in the first week of June and encouraged residents to attend. “I think we’re all in agreement that we need healthy code enforcement, but overreach is something that I’m interested in and I don’t think any of the other candidates here are.”
NORTH LYON FIRE STAFFING
With North Lyon Fire facing staffing challenges, the candidates were asked what specific steps they would take to recruit, fund and retain enough personnel to meet current and future service demands.
Bickerton said this is one of the most important things facing the city. “The idea that we’re putting public safety at risk over some financial difficulties that, in my mind, should not exist, is absurd to me,” he said. “We’re going to have to go to Lyon County and make sure they understand we need that and make sure they will give us what we need to finance that.”
Barchie said everyone in the city is at a personal safety risk because of not enough people in the fire department. “If I'm here, probably one of the first acts I do is I will declare an emergency and the governor will get involved,” he said.
Skinner said the fire district should get some assistance from the city but said it’s not the sole responsibility of the city. “It is a county district, and it is operated through the county budgets,” she said. “Until we can figure out additional revenue sources that can maintain staffing, that is something the county has to work with along with the city.”
Edgington said when the city was formed, the fire district went to the legislature and chose to remain separate from the city. “They have their own elected board, they’re not connected to the county,” he said. “But when they did that, the county told them, ‘You’re not going to get enough revenues.’ The city barely has enough money to run what it has, so I’ve said for years, you have to fix it.”
Hanan said under the current structure, the city can’t finance the fire district. “We’ve discussed should we merge? Should we have REMSA do the emergency service here?” he said. “We have to look somewhere else.”
Colosi said the solution is an interlocal agreement. “They’re wanting to have access to our mechanics to help fix their trucks. They want access to our lifts, and they don’t want to have to double pay for things,” she said. “And as we build a relationship, get an interlocal agreement in place, we can start looking at funding for staff.”
COUNCILMEMBER CONDUCT
The third question asked of each candidate was how they plan to mitigate the bullying and personal attacks made by the city council on citizens and fellow city councilmembers.
“It’s something that requires personality, like me or somebody, to come in and say we can’t do that,” Barchie said. “Transparency, civility, fire, water and sewer are the main things I’m worried about. Bullying is not part of the mission. I will enforce the mission with the council.”
Skinner said bullying should not be tolerated. “I think the calling out and calling people’s integrity and competency to the peers as well as to the general public, is unacceptable,” she said. “If we can set a precedence as a city council, it will reflectively represent to all of the departments and the department heads.”
Edgington said he ran for the council the first time because the council was dysfunctional and he said it is dysfunctional again. “If there’s an issue between council members, the mayor is supposed to stop the meeting then and there, go to the back, and have a discussion with them. You can actually tell the councilman to leave,” he said. “We need to enforce the rules we have as a city council.”
Hanan said the rules of decorum are often not being followed and he said the councilmembers all need to be held to the same standard. “This is not the good old boys where we treat one person different than everybody else,” he said. “We all have constitutional rights, and I’ve stood up for those rights, and I’ve made those rights known when I made my motions. The other folks have done things that we were told not to do and I’m proud to say that I haven’t.”
Colosi said the mayor is supposed to act as the leader. “And as a leader, you need to hold your subordinates accountable, to include they need to be prosecuted for punching construction workers,” she said. “So as mayor, if it is in the middle of a council meeting, it should be paused and it should be removed. If it is a legal issue, it should be prosecuted.”
Bickerton said as mayor, he would have an opinion instead of not having an opinion. “I think the public needs to have belief in the mayor and if the mayor doesn’t say anything, they don’t have anything to believe in,” he said. He also said he would remove the ability to have anonymous agenda items attacking the public and other officials, and that the city needs integrity and ethics on the council.
CONSOLIDATED TAX
The final question asked of the candidates was what steps they would take to change state law or negotiate a larger share of the Consolidated Tax.
Skinner said while the city could use the C-Tax, she doesn’t think it is achievable because of the way ordinances were written when the city was created. “I think we have the ability to use the developments that are coming into town to be able to generate other sources of revenue,” she said.
Edgington said when the city was formed it was agreed upon that the Sheriff’s Office would do law enforcement and the city would not get C-Tax. He said the laws are specific about what services cities are required to provide in order to be eligible for C-Tax: fire, police, parks and roads. “We don’t do police,” he said. “It’s like the chicken and the egg. How can you put on a police department if you don’t have money?”
Hanan agreed that the city would have to have a police department to get C-Tax, but said the city and residents are satisfied with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office and no longer feel pressure to form its own police department. Instead, he said the city is working with industrial partners to build a power plant that could generate franchise fees estimated between the mid-$20 million range and $30 million per year. “I'd love to do a contract with the sheriff's department at some point if we could, so that would be my goal. C-Tax is something that's not going to happen until we start that process, and I think the franchise fees from the power plant are a way to get there.”
Colosi said the city needs more funding before it could start a police department. “Interlocal agreements are another option, but before we can get to that point, we do have to generate some more revenue from other sources and other businesses in order to get a way to get C-Tax brought into the city,” she said.
Bickerton said the city has other directions to go that would generate as much, if not more, than the C-Tax. “We need to embrace the future, the money coming in from other directions and quit blaming everything on the C-Tax, because the C-Tax losses are not our problem. And being attainable? Most likely not.”
Barchie said his administration would not even pursue C-Tax. “There are things we can do to generate revenue now,” he said. “We’re going to increase the franchise fees to the maximum allowable by law. We’re not going to worry about the past; we’re going to the future.”
CLOSING STATEMENTS
Skinner highlighted her community service and said she chose to run for the city council because city government needs to change. “The stuff I have experienced the last two and a half years alone in my business was enough to make me sick,” she said. “If they’re picking on an established business, then that is why we are seeing the lack of small businesses coming to town.”
Edgington said he is running for the council because he believes in the community. “I also understand there’s a need and I know we’re growing, and there’s no way to stop that,” he said. “But we can control where we go and how we get there and make sure that everybody pays their fair share.”
Hanan said he has listened to everything that every constituent has told him. “This is not a part-time job. This is not a job for the weak. This is a job for the strong that are going to stand up day after day, no matter if they succeed or they fail, and continue down that pathway for the citizens of Fernley,” he said.
Colosi said she is a veteran and a nurse and is running for mayor because she wanted to see change. “I want to help our community grow and I want my kid to grow up in a community that is thriving, that has public service, that has the education and resources that he will need as he gets older,” she said.
Bickerton said the most important change the city needs in the mayor’s position is leadership. “And that is not to say that there is anything wrong with our mayor right now, there is just a lack of leadership,” he said. “I want to pull back the curtain on the city government that has existed in Fernley for so long, and all the things that have been kept behind closed doors and I want to open all that up to the public and I want to make sure you all have confidence in our council and you’re not reading about something that is embarrassing.”
Barchie said he fled Silicon Valley in California and doesn’t want Fernley to become like Silicon Valley. “You’re halfway there,” he said. “You are San Jose, 1989. It’s ridiculous. Don’t go down the road the current council has paved.” He said he will slow down growth until the basics are covered. “We’re going to charge full franchise fees. We’re going to make sure that our roads are paved, that our fire department is fully staffed, that we have enough police officers, and we’re going to cover the sewer. These are simple things that we should be doing.”
Fernley Republican Women Campaign Committee Chair Vida Keller said McIntyre had a flat tire leaving Reno on his way to the event, and she read a statement from him which read in part:
“I'm running again because Fernley is growing, and I believe we need steady leadership to keep moving in the right direction. Over the last four years, city council, staff, businesses, and community organizations have worked together to lay important groundwork for the future of the community. We focused on improving services, supporting responsible growth, and keeping the character values that make Fernley special. Growth brings challenges, but it also brings opportunity. I want to continue the progress we've made and follow through on the strategic plans already underway to help ensure Fernley remains a great place to live, work and raise a family.”
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