Mayor Schieve Boards a Plane While Seniors Got Diced.

Another photo from the U.S. Conference of Mayors with Mayor Hillary Schieve and Assistant City Manager Ashley Turney. Looks like they are having fun in Tampa.

While Reno’s senior citizens were being quietly kicked off the city’s funding bus, Mayor Hillary Schieve was boarding an actual one a few weeks later — or more accurately, a plane bound for sunny Tampa, Florida, for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

You might remember on May 5, 2025, Schieve claimed she wasn’t going to “die on the hill” defending Reno’s $15,000 annual membership in the very same mayoral conference. But guess what? She didn’t die on the hill — she flew right over it. Business class, anyone?

On May 5, the Reno City Council held a special meeting to discuss the 2025–2026 budget. The theme? “Mission Critical.” Which is government-speak for we're about to slash everything you care about, but we’ll pretend to feel really bad about it. The Neighborhood Advisory Boards? Suspended for 90 days. The Senior Citizen Advisory Board? Also hitting pause.

Apparently, what’s not “mission critical” is $40,000 Reno’s seniors activities. There was a lot of talk about a senior cooking class - is that seniors only activity the city provides. Councilmember Devon Reese didn’t find it important, so poof — it’s gone.

And while the seniors’ budget got diced like an onion, Reese was busy celebrating the “huge value” Reno gets from its $15,000 membership in the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That’s a curious definition of “value” when the mayor hops a plane to Florida while her own city’s senior programs are being euthanized on a whiteboard, and Reese is aiding the proces.

We’re surprised Councilmember Devon Reese didn’t hold a sign supporting the ‘huge value’ the City of Reno gets from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Let’s also not forget the National League of Cities — which Schieve has claimed delivered “millions” in grants to Reno. That sounds great. Now could someone please name ten of those grants? Picon will reach out to the National League of Cities, but they are far better at press releases, than actual records.

To make things even more farcical, some councilmembers solemnly declared they’d dip into their discretionary funds to help the seniors if necessary. If necessary? Translation: “We cut it from the budget but don’t want bad headlines, so maybe we’ll Venmo money to something seniors want to do.”

We hope Mayor Schieve spends her time in Tampa — gathering “best practices” in how to abandon basic local services while still racking up flyer miles.

So what do Reno’s seniors get for their troubles? Maybe a postcard. Maybe a souvenir magnet. Maybe a free sample of Spooge. Or maybe just the knowledge that while their programs were deemed expendable, the mayor and assistant city manager found time, funds, and justification to go mingle in a ballroom 2,700 miles away.

Mission critical, indeed.