In the wake of last year's Davis Fire, which scorched parts of Washoe County in September 2024, a group of local homeowners associations (HOAs) convened on Tuesday at the Club at Arrowcreek for a Homeowner Association’s Community Communication & Collaboration meeting to discuss fire prevention and evacuation concerns. However, rather than outlining clear solutions or proactive measures, the session revealed a troubling trend: more blame-shifting than actual problem-solving.

Today at the Club at Arrowcreek there is a gathering put together by a lobbyist and Homeowners' Associations from some of Reno's most exclusive enclaves for what they've billed as a "Fire Disaster Summit" – though "Fundraising Expedition" might be more accurate.

Why is the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District all but broke? Could it be those boated salaries being paid to upper management at the department, you know, not the boots on the ground fire firefighters? Could it be the large increases approved by Chief Charlie Moore to his direct reports before his departure? How about a little bit of all of the above.

When more than 15 homeowners associations band together to tackle wildfire emergency preparedness, you’d hope for something concrete—like a real agenda, names of the speakers, an expert or two, or literally any plan beyond vague “potential topics.” But instead, we get what appears to be a thinly veiled PR stunt, held at the ultra-exclusive Club at ArrowCreek (because nothing screams “urgent fire response” like catered nibbles with a mountain view and security so those pesky people they don’t want to attend, can’t).

Commissioner Clark frequently reaches out to us at Picon since the other three commissioners give us the silent treatment. As for Commissioner Herman? After eleven years of being ignored on the commission, who knows if she's still engaged or has mentally checked out.

Oh, how delightful. Washoe County Government has once again proven that they can't resist jumping into the social media fray, apparently believing their defensive comments are some kind of brilliant strategic move. Spoiler alert: they're not.

Let's break this down for the cheap seats: These public servants seem more interested in playing digital damage control than actually serving the residents who pay their salaries. It's like watching a desperate PR team try to plug holes in a sinking ship - except the ship is local government, and the holes are their own spectacular mismanagement.

For Commissioner Alexis Hill it is all about getting reelected and she really doesn’t care what she has to say, or do. Hill will spin the facts, she’ll cut people out, because her only mission is to get reelected.

Last year, Hill and Washoe County spun the fact that they had cut homelessness by 50%. Oops that was wrong, but that admission came out from Washoe County only after Commissioner Hill had been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and gotten a whole lot of national attention. Later the county propaganda team spun the mistake as being due to bad data from the Point in Time count. The same Point in Time count County Manager Eric Brown now directs only need to be done every two years. Wait, bad data means only doing the count every two years? Come on Chair Hill do something.