Brown Naps While Candidates Skip the Conversation on Homelessness

Former Washoe County Manager Eric Brown in the audience at the CHAB meeting today.

There was an interesting sight at today’s meeting of the Community Homeless Advisory Board.

Former Washoe County Manager Eric Brown — yes, the same Eric Brown who recently exited county government and is reportedly looking for his next professional chapter — made an appearance in the audience.

According to those present, Brown didn’t exactly make a splash.

In fact, from what Picon has been told, he may have made himself a little too comfortable. Word from the room is that Brown appeared to fall asleep while sitting in the audience. He used to do so at the county commission meetings so nothing new.

Which raises a question: was Brown attending as an interested citizen… or scouting for potential employment opportunities in the region’s ever-expanding homelessness industry? And, yes folks, homelessness is an industry.

Because if there’s one thing Northern Nevada has no shortage of these days, it’s committees, boards, programs, task forces, advisory groups, consultants, and nonprofits all focused on the same issue.

But Brown’s unexpected appearance wasn’t the most notable absence at the meeting.

The bigger question is: where were the mayoral candidates?

This meeting centered on one of the most visible and pressing issues facing both Reno and Sparks — homelessness. Yet according to those who attended, not a single mayoral candidate from either city bothered to show up.

Not from Reno.
Not from Sparks.

For candidates who frequently campaign on solving the region’s toughest challenges, that silence — and absence — speaks volumes.

Perhaps they already have all the answers.

Or perhaps they simply don’t view a working advisory board meeting as a worthwhile place to listen to frontline discussions about the crisis affecting their cities.

Either way, it’s hard not to notice the contrast.

On one side of the room: a former county manager quietly catching some shut-eye.

On the other: a collection of empty seats where the people hoping to lead Reno and Sparks might have been.

If homelessness truly is the defining challenge local leaders say it is, then one might expect the people asking voters for the keys to City Hall to show up and pay attention.

Because if the candidates aren’t even willing to attend the meetings where the problem is being discussed, it leaves residents wondering something simple:

When exactly do they plan to start taking it seriously?