Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve has held office for six months.
PHOTOs/ERIC MARKs
H
illary Schieve was elected mayor of Reno in 2014 after serving two years on the Reno City Council. She owns Plato’s Closet and Clothes Mentor. She was an Olympic hopeful figure skater way back when, and she walks around with one of her sister, Amanda Sanchez’s, kidneys in her back. In fact, the result of that sudden need for a kidney probably prompted her first taste of community service, when she started a national organdonation network. Promoting organ activism, on Feb. 11, 1998, she graced one of the best covers this newspaper ever had, dressed as a manic doctor clutching a raw beef heart. Six thousand, three hundred and eighteen days is a long time between covers, and since she’s just celebrating six months in office as the mayor, we thought we’d sit down over some sushi and chat about the machinations in Reno’s halls of power. It’s not exactly Game of Thrones.
Because i thought it was a great idea.
Hill ary ScHieve iS defying expectationS.
[Laughs.] Well, there are so many cool things we can be doing. However, the first time you have a surplus like that, we need to be really watching our house and paying down debt and things like that. That’s all great, but we don’t have an endless supply of money, so I got a lot of negative feedback on that. A lot. I just had to clarify and say, “Look, I want to be clear. I have no plans on touching the arch. I just want to make sure we’re having a conversation.” If there’s a group that’s going to come in and change it, then it needs to be a public process because a lot of people feel so strongly about it. It’s funny the things people care about, when there could be this really big issue versus a smaller issue.
SHE’S THE M AY O R • B r ian B @n e WSr e v ie W.co M
By d. B r ian BU r g Hart
very demanding job, but it’s also an incredible job, too. It’s a great job.
Time flies, right? I can’t believe it. The most frustrating thing ... you’ll laugh. Sometimes, the headlines are misleading—when everyone thinks you want to tear down the arch. I love my job. I feel so blessed. I represent an incredible city. And sometimes it’s really hard for me, because I want to be in 10 places at once. That can be really challenging, because I have a tendency to be a workaholic. I am very receptive because I love people, so I’m always trying to help them, and there’s just not enough time in the day. It’s a
So what happened was, we were going into our budget meeting, and staff came to us, and they presented ideas and said, because we have this $10 million surplus, “We think these are some of the things you might be interested in spending this money on.” Well, one of the items said, “lights for the arch,” and I brought up the fact that there was a group interested in redoing the arch. So I brought that up to staff, saying, “I have some concerns because the arch is so iconic that this should be a conversation that’s done
in public and transparent.” Well, the next thing I know was, “Mayor wants to rethink arch.” People didn’t read the story, they read the headline, and then my phone blew up, and my email blew up, but you know what? Actually, it turned out really well because I’m also really responsive on social media, and I responded personally, and people were surprised. They were like, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re actually responding.” But I think, too, it’s frustrating because people are really quick to assume and to judge.
Speaking of the arch, what did you mean by all that?
So you got a lot of negative feedback on that?
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So you’ve been mayor six months now, right? So far, what’s the most frustrating thing?
it’s amazing, isn’t it? it’s because these smaller issues are easier to understand, so they tend to catch the public imagination because everyone can be concerned, even people who don’t care about police or fire or paying down debt. they can understand that arch is a symbol for them, either a symbol of old reno or a symbol of new reno. You’re right, and the more people are talking about it, the more people get engaged.
Because that’s something you can talk about over
I got a ton of negative feedback.
“ SHE’S THE MAYOR ” OPINION
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MAY 28, 2015
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