News

Apple accused

Apple Inc., which is considering putting additional facilities in Nevada, is facing discrimination claims and a possible U.S. Department of Justice probe.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Iranian American Bar Association, Council on American-Islamic Relations and National Iranian American Council, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook drawing his attention to incidents when IranianAmericans and speakers of Farsi were allegedly denied purchase of iPads and other merchandise by Apple store employees in recent weeks.

The letter asks that the company publicize its supposed antidiscrimination policy and train its workers on that policy and on export controls. It also asks that specific incidents be investigated. Spokespeople for the rights groups said they are waiting to see what corporate officers do in response, but that they also brought the incidents to the attention of the Justice Department.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Apple said, “Our retail stores are proud to serve customers from around the world of every ethnicity. Our teams are multilingual, and diversity is an important part of our culture. We don’t discriminate against anyone.”

Apple has a small Reno facility that qualifies it for tax breaks and is planning to increase its Reno presence with the help of more tax breaks (see News, this page).

Moody’s: Casinos in decline

Moody’s Investors Services has warned that legal gambling is facing a downturn.

“The improving trend in gaming revenues in place since the middle of last year appears to be stalling,” the company said in a prepared statement. “Momentum started slowing in March, and then in May gaming jurisdictions reported outright declines in gaming revenue. … Casino operators with significant near-term maturities or highly leveraged capital structures such as Caesars Entertainment Corp, Revel Atlantic City, LLC , and CityCenter Holdings LLC are at greatest risk. … While declining gas prices and low interest rates have boosted consumers’ disposable income and could arrest this decline in gaming demand, Moody’s points to a sharp decline in consumer sentiment, coupled with still-high unemployment and fear of contagion from the European debt crisis as troubling signs for the sector.”

Moody’s is noted for underestimating the subprime mortgage crisis and in 2010 failed to complete a contract with the Nevada Legislature for a study on the state’s tax structure.

Obama targeted

The American Energy Alliance is spending $325,000 in Nevada to attack Barack Obama’s energy policy.

According to Source Watch, an organization that monitors political front groups, the Alliance “was founded in 2008 by Thomas Pyle, who previously lobbied on behalf of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association and Koch Industries.” It stated goal is to “create a climate that encourages the advancement of free market energy policies,” particularly oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge and in U.S. coastal waters.

The Alliance calls itself the “grassroots arm” of the Institute for Energy Research, which according to Source Watch “advocates positions on environmental issues including deregulation of utilities, climate change denial, and claims that conventional energy sources are virtually limitless.”

—Dennis Myers

Deception

Should public officials give their allegiance to the public or to Apple?

If reader comments posted on news sites are an indication, some members of the by public think the city and the state cut a Dennis Myers crappy deal with Apple. “Trade out 89mill for 16mill just for 241 long term jobs!” wrote one reader. “Say just for fun, 241 jobs at 100,000 per year per job is only 2.4mill a year. 20.4mill over ten years in wages.” “Yea, that’s JUSTwhat Apple needs—tax breaks.” “Of course the City Council is only friendly to the big guys. Small businesses get picked clean with taxes, fees and regulations. I know, I used to own one here.”

“There should be ample opportunity for time for the public to review our staff reports.”

Jessica Sferrazza Reno City Councilmember

Readers across the nation joined in: “Reno, if you think your tax structure is right why would you do this?”

Local reaction might have been otherwise if the state and city governments had leveled with the public about what was going on. But there was a careful effort by both state and local officials to deceive the public by withholding information.

The deal provides tax breaks—an overall 79 percent reduction in the normal tax load—to get Apple Inc. to build two facilities in the area in a billion-dollar investment over a decade.

The news about the Apple deal did not become public until the county released a document about it on June 22, and that document did not contain the kind of information needed to know what was going on. It did not even mention Apple, which—given the mammoth corporation’s reputation for raiding taxpayer treasuries—would have set off all kinds of alarm bells.

The city released data even later, Councilmember Jessica Sferrazza said. “We didn’t get the staff report, like I said, until Tuesday—or late Monday evening. … There should be ample opportunity for time for the public to review our staff reports. That’s why our staff reports are put online.”

That staff report was posted online, but it concealed more than it revealed. It was in a non-searchable form and did not mention the word Apple, instead using a code term— “Project Jonathan.” Depending on how the term was used, it may represent a whole new kind of open meeting law violation—inserting false information into public documents in order to mislead the public.

At the state level, Sandoval administration officials said they did things by the numbers.

“This was not sprung on the elected officials or staff,” state economic development director Steve Hill told the Las Vegas Sun. “All along the way we have talked to the city of Reno and their staff, the school district and their folks, the county and their folks.”

It was sprung on the members of the public, and some of the elected officials Hill named, say it was sprung on them, too.

Nevada economic development director Steve Hill spoke with reporters at an event earlier this year.

“I was made aware that it was Apple last Friday [June 22], when I met with a representative from Apple,” Sferrazza said. “[That was] the first I had heard about the project or any detail about the project.”

Some people who voted on the tax breaks didn’t have even that much notice. Sferrazza’s colleague David Aiazzi told the Sun he was not informed until Tuesday, when the Reno councilmembers were given the staff report on the deal. That gave them one day to absorb all the information and decide how to vote.

Hill also said, “I think the place to have that debate [on transparency] ... is at the Legislature. Once those tools are in place, I think then they have been provided for those who are elected, and those who are appointed to use those tools to really carry out what they’re intended to be used for.” That assumes the tools provided by the legislature were complied with. State law reads that meeting agendas must be “clear and complete” in describing the matters before a public body. The code term was used to keep the public from understanding what was going on.

The Washoe County Commission, Washoe County School Board and Reno City Council all posted agendas whose “clear and complete” wording is doubtful—Apple was not mentioned in any of them, and taxes were mentioned only in the county agenda. They were worded carefully to exclude information and to mislead the public:

Washoe County Commission: “Discussion and possible action on application for endorsement of an application to the Nevada Commission on Economic Development for abatement of one or more taxes imposed on personal property and sales taxes for a new business to be located at Reno Technology Park, an area eligible for Community Development Block Grants and therefore qualified for such an application—District Attorney/ Finance. (All Commission Districts.)”

Washoe County School Board: “5.11 PROJECTJONATHAN - CONSIDERATION OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTAND WAIVER IN CONNECTION WITH REIMBURSEMENTAGREEMENT WITH CITYOF RENO.”

Reno City Council: “J.11 Staff Report (For Possible Action): Discussion, direction, and potential approval of Amendment No. 1 of the Reimbursement Agreement dated June 8, 2011 by and between the City of Reno and Northern Nevada Urban Development and Management Company.”

The Nevada open meeting law allows information “which relates to proprietary information” to be kept secret—but the name of the corporation and public tax breaks hardly fall under the category of trade secrets. The law also says documentation can be kept confidential, but only until Apple decides to relocate into the county. There would have been no votes on tax breaks unless Apple had made that decision.

One state legislator said, “I’d like to have public employee contract negotiations opened to the public, but how do you make that case after this?”

AReno investment counselor said, “We’re essentially paying Apple to create jobs, and paying them more than the jobs are worth. This deal should have been better. They [city and state negotiators] were in over their heads. This is Apple, which is at the top of the game in tax breaks. Making it public would have made it possible to dissect it before it was voted on. Alot of people in the business community could have chimed in.”

Apple has a reputation for having built its success as much on corporate welfare as on its products. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported, “Apple, say former executives, has been particularly talented at identifying legal tax loopholes and hiring accountants who are known for their innovation. ... Without such tactics, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A. Sullivan.”

Against such expertise, were locals able to cut a good deal? And were elected officials given enough time to answer that question before they had to vote? The headline on one website that monitors Apple activities was, “Reno City Council unanimously approves 79% tax break for Apple data center” (MacDailyNews).

Sferrazza argues that the Reno deal is not yet firm, that there is a 30-day period before it becomes final. But any new information or public opposition would require elected officials not just to vote against Apple, but to change their previous votes in Apple’s favor, an awkward stance for politicians. Normally, the public debate on an issue takes place before elected officials vote.

In the end, the final decision was that of the members of the county commission, school board and city council, who went ahead with the votes scheduled by their staffs. Nowhere was it required that they vote immediately. They could have delayed the votes to give themselves—and the public—time to know what they were voting on. But out of 19 members of those bodies, not one proposed delaying the vote to give the public more time. Ω

Rescue

The Sierra Street Bridge was jammed, and traffic backed up on June 29 as emergency workers rescued a boy from the Truckee River. He and his family were downtown, and he was playing in the water with a plastic inflatable float when the rushing water pulled him into the current. Fortunately, the river was low, and he was caught on a gravel rise that had emerged from the river under the bridge.

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Geothermal heats up Nevada

It’s no secret that geothermal is one of Nevada’s hottest natural resources, one that the University of Nevada, Reno is encouraging scientists to tap into by hosting the second year of the National Geothermal Academy. The academy is an eight-week intensive course that started in mid-June and will last until Aug. 10. Sixteen out of the 44 students are from other countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Kenya. Students take classes about geothermal geology, energy utilization, geophysics and geochemistry, power plant design, and environmental and business policy, among others. Professors from universities around the country are also in attendance to help teach and advise the students. Participants will travel to various locations throughout the west to study geothermal geology and power production up close, including places like Long Valley Caldera near Mammoth Lakes, Klamath Falls, Ore., and geothermal sites like Rye Patch outside of Lovelock. Nevada geothermal projects Ram Power, Geothermal Development Associates, Ormat,

ElectraTherm, as well as the academy, are finalists in the Geothermal Energy Association’s 2012 GEA Honors. The winners will be announced on August 7.

Bike lanes gaining speed

Although the RTC 4th Street/Prater Way Corridor Study was a step in the right direction for bicycle activists in Reno, the fight isn’t over for other areas in the city (“Changing lanes,” June 21). The Committee for Bicyclists on 4th Street sent out an email last week encouraging bicycle lane advocates to show up for an upcoming meeting, tentatively scheduled for July 10 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, which will address a road diet on Plumas Street. According to the email, sent by committee chairman Scott Hall, “We need to have all bike advocates attend and speak about the safety and community benefits of having a complete road diet, down to two lanes of traffic, for the mile stretch between Moana and Plumb Lane. RTC will present a step-by-step description of their analysis, timeline and results that show overwhelming evidence that the corridor is excessively dangerous due to traffic speeds, and a road diet will solve all these problems without causing gridlock or increasing commute times.”

RTC’s application for the TIGER 2012 federal grant was denied, which means that “they have to work harder during the next year to find the initial $10-15 million to start construction” on the Fourth Street bike lane project, the email went on to state.

As of press time, no time or date has been confirmed for the Plumas Street RTC meeting. Check the RN&R Green Facebook page, www.facebook.com/RNRGreen for an update.

—Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

Tahoe-Reno catering company Moody’s Catering hosts Dinner in the Barn on July 14 and 15. The dinner is a fourcourse meal using farm fresh produce harvested for the meal. Participants will dine inside a historical rustic bar overlooking the Sierra Valley Farms in Beckwourth, Calif. Reservations required. Call (530) 587-8687 or email info@moodyscatering.com.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/ RNRGreen for more.