JERI DAVIS
CITY SCRUTINIZES NV ENERGY NV Energy’s gas and electric franchise agreements with the City of Reno are receiving scrutiny by the Reno City Council. A recent audit raised some issues. “The biggest issue in terms of compliance … is the audit that was completed,” said Bill Thomas, assistant city manager. “It was discovered that they pass the franchise free through to the end-use customers,” an auditor noted. “NV Energy treats the franchise fees that are received from customers as a liability, rather than revenue, and remits these payments directly to the City.” An attorney general’s opinion, however, had city staff recommend no further action on this item. The law supported NV Energy’s approach, city staff said. But whether NV Energy is in compliance with the franchise agreements has yet to be determined, according to City Manager Sabra Newby. Miscoded addresses led to NV Energy owing the city a quarter of a million dollars. The reason: The city’s property annexations created a disconnect between the city and the power company. City staff said, “We may have an issue with our documentation. The miscoded list of customers was provided to NV Energy so their system could be updated to prevent this error in the future.” NV Energy still had to pay up but without penalities. “This came about as somewhat surprising to me,” said Councilmember Jenny Brekhus. That’s not all. Councilmember Naomi Duerr had other concerns related to trees, removal of old poles, banners on street lights, community solar and payment for electricity for street lights. She said she made attempts to get information from NV Energy. “The reason that I’ve supported initiating these conversations was that I have tried for two years to meet with NV Energy on how they trim trees—something very simple,” Duerr explained. “They had set meetings. … It’d be on the agenda, and they wouldn’t show. … We did this over and over, probably eight times in two years. “I have received a lot of concern and complaints from my constituents,” she added. Fires in California prompted a higher degree of concern, Duerr added. She said she received conflicting information from NV Energy. “Even within NV Energy there seemed to be a disconnect with certain information about certain key issues that have been important to the council,” she said. “This is the magic moment where we have an ability to have that conversation. The company’s response: “NV Energy values our long-standing relationship with the City of Reno,” said the utility’s spokesperson Kristen Saibini. “We will continue to provide them with information as we work through the franchise agreement process.” Saibini also noted that the City of Sparks had its council meeting this week and unanimously approved gas and electric franchise agreements for the next five years. The city’s agreement with NV Energy expires later this month. Duerr directed staff to bring back to the city council how NV Energy is addressing the council’s concerns. This article was published in partnership with the news website ThisisReno.com
—BOB CONRAD
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10.17.19
Volunteers showed up to Pickett Park to distribute supplies to the homeless on Oct. 12 in response to a planned citizen’s arrest event by local nonprofit QOL-Reno. PHOTO/JERI DAVIS
Who ‘really’ cares? Planned citizen’s arrest provokes divided community response “To all Illegal Squatters in Pickett Park: We love and care for you enough to citizens arrest every one of you who is found in violation of the City of Reno laws,” read a flier circulated last week on the internet and handed out to homeless people living in the aforementioned park near Renown Regional Medical Center. The flier came from Quality of Life Reno, a nonprofit group that describes itself as “a group of Reno residents working together to improve issues affecting Reno’s quality of life.” The flier also said the group intended to carry out its planned “arrests” on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 12. In addition to detailing the “what,” “when” and “where,” the flier went on to describe the “who” and “why” behind the planned citizens’ arrests, noting that participants would be “community member volunteers” working with QOL and that they were motivated by residents’ “present situation; lying around in filth, drugs/alcohol, crime, and—where it applies—avoiding seeking treatment for mental illness.” Its release caused immediate outrage on social media and spurred
the creation of a competing event scheduled for the same time and location called “Bring some love to Pickett Park,” with hundreds of locals signing up to bring food, clothing and hygiene products to the homeless population there and in other parks around the valley. The day before the events, however, Reno police officers arrived at the park to advise people staying there of QOL-Reno’s intended citizen’s arrest activities. Most opted to clear out of the park, one woman with the help of a representative from the Reno Ambassadors group and Reno City Councilmember Neoma Jardon. In response, QOL-Reno announced it had canceled its planned activities, saying on its website, “RPD proved conclusively that they can keep our parks free of garbage, human waste, drug use, and criminal activity when they want to. QOL-Reno will continue to monitor this improved situation at Pickett Park and report on it to the community.” The organizers of the opposing event chose to hold theirs anyway.
“The [homeless] population opted to leave, and, when they left, the city had to clear out their belongings, which is really unfortunate,” said organizer Alex Alcantar, during an interview on the morning of the event in Pickett Park. “But just because QOL is not coming down, we wanted to make sure that we kept the momentum.” Hundreds of volunteers gathered that morning to pass out clothes, food, bags of toiletries and other supplies in Pickett Park and other nearby parks. Amid the bustle, many discussed QOL-Reno’s flier. “We saw the flier online probably Wednesday,” said Kim Barghouti, director of market operations for local nonprofit Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality, which works to provide food and housing to the valley’s homeless community. “We were appalled, quite honestly. We were struggling really to know exactly how to help. I did come out Thursday and talk to the people who were living here just to make sure they were aware this was going on—and to see if there was something we could do for them.” For Alcantar, the hope is that the event he organized might spur the community to more regular action. “I don’t know how that works, but I’m all ears, and I want to get engagement from people and make sure that we can … do this better,” he said. “How can we not lose this steam?” And for groups like RISE—which, among its other work, hosts a free dinner with supplies distribution for homeless people three Saturdays a month—continued momentum would be helpful. “I struggle every week to get enough donations, and so when I see all of these donations it’s kind of a mixed blessing,” said Barghouti. “I’m like, ‘Yes, this is great. Distribute it,’ and ‘Gee, I could use this next week— and the week after and the week after.’ It’s 52 weeks of the year.” In the meantime, RISE has additional issues on its radars. “We created a new petition asking the city and the county for safe camps, just some ground, some place where people can camp without worrying about this kind of vigilante stuff going on—and one that will provide basics services, so toilets and that kind of
