Photo/Dennis Myers
Belinda Martinez at her Sparks child care business.
Martinez deposed in safety case A trial date in four months has been set in a lawsuit against Washoe schools superintendent Pedro Martinez. The suit by Elkhorn Consulting names Martinez and the school district as defendants for interfering with contract rights. It will be heard in Nevada District Judge Connie Steinheimer’s courtroom unless a motion for summary dismissal succeeds. One such motion has already been denied. Elkhorn’s suit claims that in the midst of contracted school safety projects, Martinez directed several contractors on the project to “immediately cease their contractual relationship” with Elkhorn. The suit says Martinez knew contracts were in place and that his action was “intended to do harm” to the company and did cost immediate losses of $100,000 and possible forthcoming business. Martinez and school district capital projects director Mark Stanton were deposed in the case on Sept. 16. Elkhorn originally received contracts for work at all Washoe middle schools, plus Lemmon Valley, Mt. Rose, Booth, Corbett, Elmcrest and Hunter Lake elementary schools.
Shootist II A sequel to The Shootist, the John Wayne movie filmed in Carson City, might seem unlikely since the title character played by Wayne died at the end of the story. But the son of the author of the book on which the movie was based has written a sequel, anyway. The 1975 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout was basis for Wayne’s last movie. It told a tale of an aging and terminally ill gunfighter, John Bernard Books, who travels to Carson City to consult a doctor and end his days. In the case of The Shootist, the screenplay was written by Scott Hale and Miles Hood Swarthout, the author’s son, who has now published The Last Shootist. SPANISH SHOOTIST POSTER This portrays Gillom Rogers, a boy who idealized Books, as taking Books’ guns off his body and planning a career of his own as a gunfighter: “He now possessed J.B. Books’s matched Remingtons! Gillom Rogers slowed his walk, wondering where he would get a double-holster rig to house these legendary nickel-plated Remington .44s. Or should he have a silk vest made like Books’s, with leather holster pockets sewn on either side of the chest, angled forty-five degrees inward for a crosshanded draw? Too late to get J.B.’s.” Rogers, portrayed in the Wayne movie by Ron Howard, then follows a predictable path of spurning his mother’s college plans for him, getting into gunfights, meeting a beautiful dancer in Arizona, maturing under the influence of a good woman, and reconsidering his career choice. The elder Swarthout’s short stories and novels were the source of at least four other movies—7th Cavalry, They Came To Cordura, Bless the Beasts and Children, Where the Boys Are. His son has written several screenplays, including the 1978 teleplay of his father’s story, “A Christmas Gift AKA The Melodeon” (filmed as A Christmas to Remember starring Eva Marie Saint and Jason Robards).
—Dennis Myers
8 | RN&R |
OCTOBER 16, 2014
Money talks A once-popular ballot measure is now in doubt Tim Healion became one of downtown Reno’s better known business owners during the years that his by well-remembered Deux Gro Nez Dennis Myers coffeehouse operated on California Avenue. Now he manages another restaurant, this one in Midtown, and he is founder of Reno’s Tour de Nez race. These days, he has taken on another role, too. He’s been speaking up for ballot Question 3, which would create a 2 percent tax on business revenue in excess of $1 million.
“Nevada law lets the legislature divert education funds to other uses.” Question 3 opposing ballot argument Ballot Question 3, and other ballot measures, can be read at http:// nvsos.gov/index. aspx?page=1309.
“It’s an opportunity to invest in education,” Healion said. “That’s what this tax is about. And with the state being at the very bottom in per-pupil spending, I think that’s a good idea. My daughter’s in public education. You know, we get—as a businessperson—we get five calls a week over different charities and different opportunities for us to donate money to stuff. So here’s an opportunity to donate to education. It’s another way to look at it. And get the calculator out. If it’s not 2 percent of your gross, don’t worry.”
After the better part of two decades working for child care centers, Belinda Martinez went out on her own about six months ago, opening Itsy Bitsy Learning Center in Sparks. “I have a capacity for 80 children, and I have 40, so I have half my capacity, and I love this.” As a new business owner working toward a larger customer base, it might be thought that she would not invite any more expenses. But she does. She is backing Ballot Question 3. “I’m supporting Question 3 because I really think education is the key to success. It worked for me when I was younger and I have my own business now.” She said as a mother she has an up-close view of local schools. “I have two kids in Washoe County, and I see the classrooms. They don’t have enough materials. The teachers have so many kids. I think education needs more money.” Alex Sabogal is a partner in Credo Computers. He said he considers Question 3 an investment: “We as small-business owners are helping students on tight budgets, donating computers, supporting whoever wants to learn, and we welcome people into our business daily to try to teach the skills, attitude, ethics and integrity that are so important. … Better
student performance attracts businesses, better education is better income for households, better education means better health.” Given how many businesspeople—particularly owners of small businesses who hope to grow into the million-dollar bracket—are supporting Question 3, it’s surprising how little communication there has been between the two sides. The measure is sponsored by the Nevada State Education Association, a teachers group. It is being opposed by business groups such as chambers of commerce and the Nevada Taxpayers Association. But the teachers have not engaged in a very vigorous program of trying to convert business owners—who would be the most effective supporters in campaign commercials—leaving business outreach to an allied volunteer organization, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Opponents have engaged in very little dialogue with the teachers. When town meeting-style presentations were put together for business groups on the measure earlier this year, they did not include supporters of the proposal. Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association said there was no interest in hearing from the other side, that leaders of the opposition effort were solidly opposed to the measure.
Money talks Question 3 seeks to raise about $700 million a year for schools and dollars have had enormous impact on the race. The Coalition to Defeat the Margin Tax Initiative raised over $4 million this year. Most of that money has gone to a heavy schedule of anti-3 television ads, outspending opponents more than two-to-one. Almost exactly one year ago in a Harstad Strategic Research survey, supporters of the measure led by a margin of 57 to 38 percent. Money turned that around. Today, under the pounding of the television campaign, a Survey USA survey commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed it losing 40-37, with nearly a fourth undecided. Supporters have raised less than a million dollars, though they have exceeded that in expenditures of about $1.5 million. One of the big issues that divides supporters and opponents is whether or not the money from the
