As Washoe County Manager Eric Brown prepares to step down on June 30, 2025, a growing chorus of questions is beginning to echo across county hallways—and among local taxpayers. Is this a planned retirement… or a quiet retreat ahead of legal, ethical, and administrative scrutiny?

Brown, who took the reins in November 2019, leaves not just a high-paying position—with an annual salary reportedly over $330,000—but also a storm of controversy in his wake.

In a move that’s raising eyebrows and red flags, Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill is now at the center of an amended complaint/lawsuit that suggests a troubling breach of ethics — one that may have compromised the independence of Washoe County’s elections office during a pivotal election cycle.

If there’s one position more unstable than a Nevada slot machine on dollar night, it’s the Registrar of Voters in Washoe County. And once again, the revolving door is spinning—with lawsuits, cover-ups, whispers, and one very quiet County Manager in the eye of the storm, who just was missing for a month.

Since County Manager Eric Brown took the reins in November 2019, he’s burned through four registrars. Four. At this point, you’d have better luck keeping a cactus alive in a snowstorm than holding down that job under Brown’s management. And what’s the excuse? According to the county, it’s “threats” against election officials.

When did selecting a Registrar of Voters become a classified operation?

County Manager Eric Brown has turned what should be a transparent process into a closed-door affair, complete with non-disclosure agreements. Let that sink in: A committee filled with county employees selecting someone to oversee our elections are being sworn to secrecy.

Just when everyone thought the Registrar of Voters carousel might stop spinning, Commissioner Jeanne Herman assured us all was well. The hand-picked candidate would be "wonderful." Take a deep breath, relax - the drama's over, right?

Plot twist: It's Andrew McDonald. Yes, THAT Andrew McDonald.

esterday we inquired why panic buttons are being deployed by the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office, Deputy ROV Andrew McDonald, for the general election.

While we were watching the October 22, 2024 meeting and listening to McDonald’s updates we thought let’s send his presentation to a network security professional whose job it is to find holes in systems. Remember our publisher is retired from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Picon literally laughed out loud last week when Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar came out with his “Electioneering” Memo – how about way too little way too late. We have simply been to busy this week until today to get to this story.

For weeks there were signs outside polling location that were printed with “Vote for Democrats” and no one was turning them in, people were posting photos of the sigs on social media asking where they were coming from but no one was getting them taken down because they seemed not to know who to complain to. Next time folks go to the Washoe County Registrar of Voters.  

Another Registrar of Voters mysteriously disappears, well on a medical leave, but once gone, they seem to never show back up. What is happening at Washoe County with the ROV could be an Agatha Christie whodunnit.