Photo/Dennis Myers
Shortly before being sworn in, Washoe sheriffelect Chuck Allen greeted an infant constituent.
Good and bad news Nevada has been called the third most dangerous state in the union. That reading came from 24/7 Wall Street, an investment site that issues occasional quality-of-life rankings of the states. It has previously ranked Nevada’s education system second worst in the country and in a health ranking, it found that “In general, the likelihood of not having health insurance is much higher for those without a high school diploma. In Nevada, due to a poor graduation rate, the chances of this happening are significantly worse.” In the current ranking, 24/7 Wall Street used the 2013 FBI Uniform Crime Reports, the most current. Though Nevada’s violent crime rate dropped 2.9 percent between 2012 and 2013 to 591.2 incidents per 100,000 Nevada residents, other states saw more rapid declines, which left the state in third place. The FBI report has been under criticism during the current spate of interest in police killings for the inadequacy of its numbers.
GOP two-step “An interesting joust between Republican leaders is being played out in advance of the Feb. 2 start date of the 2015 Nevada Legislature. On Dec. 2, the Republican members of the Nevada Assembly met to sort out the changes after Washoe Assemblymember Ira Hansen announced he would decline the job of speaker, to which he had been nominated by an earlier GOP caucus. With Hansen reportedly holding enough proxies to determine all the posts up for election or nomination, John Hambrick was designated as speaker, and Michelle Fiore was elected Republican floor leader. Note that we used different terms for Hambrick and Fiore— designated and elected. That’s because speaker is a public office, and floor leader is a party office. Thus, the Republican caucus has the power to elect its floor leader, but the Nevada Assembly elects the speaker. Hambrick is a nominee for speaker who has not yet been elected, but Fiore assumed her post immediately. Jump ahead a few steps. After wrangles over whether Fiore, whose private business has had chronic problems with the tax people, should be chair of the Assembly Taxation Committee, Hambrick claimed to remove Fiore as floor leader. The problem is that Hambrick wasn’t anything except a member of the Assembly yet. Fiore was both a member of the Assembly and floor leader. It’s not clear where he would get the authority to do anything, much less remove her from her party post. Fiore was elected by the Republican caucus, so presumably it would take action by the caucus to remove her. She sent him a letter: “You need to know that a sizable portion of the members of the caucus still consider me the majority leader, as do I. … Your reasoning that you can remove me as Majority Leader is faulty to say the least. Following that reasoning to its logical conclusion means you could remove Assemblywoman Kirkpatrick as minority [Democratic] leader.” He responded in his own letter, “That is absolutely not a logical conclusion! The minority leader is the leader of the opposition party. The Speaker is the leader of the majority party. The majority FLOOR leader garners all of its responsibility at the will of the Speaker.” Hambrick’s problem is that he is not yet speaker. That election won’t be held for another month. Fiore, on the other hand, is already Republican floor leader. Even if Hambrick were already speaker, that would give him authority over Assembly posts like committee chairs but not over party positions. Those would still be elected by the GOP caucus. So Hambrick, who is not yet speaker, has tried to remove Fiore as floor leader, a job she already has. She refuses to go. Stay tuned.
—Dennis Myers
8 | RN&R |
JANUARY 8, 2015
A morning of democracy There’s little news coverage where it still works In the state capital, a governor’s inaugural emphasized cooperation and good will while Republicans and Democrats circled by each other with suspicion, plotting Dennis Myers partisan advantage. In Reno on the same day, however, the swearing-in of new local officials was less formal and more genuinely friendly. Chuck Allen, a Republican, was on hand to take the oath to replace Mike Haley, a Democrat, as Washoe county sheriff, but the party thing hardly mattered, Allen said.
“In general, we have worked really well.” Kitty Jung Washoe County commissioner “We’ve been working with Sheriff Haley and his staff members since Nov. 17,” Allen said. “We’ve been provided our own office, and the transition’s worked very, very smoothly.” That was all the more heartening because not only was Haley of the opposite party of Allen, but Haley had also endorsed Allen’s opponent, who was Haley’s undersheriff. But then, Allen was bucking the local establishment, both Republicans and Democrats. Allen and his opponent, Tim Kuzanek, were both Republicans
and when Kuzanek got into the race he already had the support of Haley, the mayors of Reno and Sparks, the county district attorney, and two former sheriffs. Allen overcame all that firepower. Among those being sworn in at a county commission meeting in addition to the sheriff were judges, public administrators like the county clerk and assessors, local improvement board members, and members of the county commission itself. The meeting began as it always does—with statements from community activists who attend every county commission meeting. It’s a form of informality that wasn’t seen in Carson City. The first activist to speak, as he often is, was Sam Dehne, who then informed the incoming officials of his record of accomplishment. “See that clock up there?” he asked. “When I arrived there was no clock.” He was referring to a three-minute countdown clock that keeps the activists to their allotted time. In case the officials were not impressed by his getting the clock installed, Dehne further informed them, “I have brought Tesla to Reno.” One of the activists complained that the local oath of office was longer than the presidential oath (43 words longer, more than twice the
length of the presidential oath) yet it never pledges loyalty to the public, only to institutions. Once that part of the meeting was completed, an assembly line of officials were put through their oaths. Nevada District Judge David Hardy first swore in three county commissioners—the newly reelected Kitty Jung and newcomers Jeanne Herman and Bob Lucey. Then the agency heads like Allen were sworn in. Following that came members of local governing boards like the Sun Valley General Improvement District. Their campaigns rarely get covered but they have to run for election like all the others. When the ritual was completed, Jung took Herman’s hand and led her to her seat at the commission table, a gesture that helped establish a feeling of friendliness.
Climate Jung, like Haley, is unusual in being a Democrat. Most Washoe sheriffs and most county commissioners are Republicans, and Jung has been the only Democrat on the commission. She said this has sometimes led to friction but not the level of dysfunction seen in Congress and Carson City. In addition, she said, things got better two years ago when Republican commissioners Vaughn Hartung and Marsha Berkbigler were elected. They shared some of her community values and concerns. “They came in with open minds and very supportive of what you would call traditionally Democratic values such as extending library operating hours, which we had cut severely, expanding parks and recreation, which we had also cut severely. So while sometimes it is difficult … in general, we have worked really well.” She said a good example was medical marijuana, which the commission implemented without calling a moratorium on the program first, which many other local governments did, much less outlawing the voter-mandated program, which Lyon County did. However, the cooperative attitude of those Republicans has spurred rumors that doctrinaire Republicans might target the two commissioners. While the dysfunctional brand of partisanship may not have reached the local level yet, that doesn’t mean it can’t. It
