Only in Reno do you cancel a hybrid meeting—yes, hybrid—25 minutes before it’s set to start because of “no quorum.” Think about that. Residents showed up in person, people were ready online, and yet somehow the City of Reno couldn’t round up enough board members to click a Zoom link or dial in by phone?

Ward 5 residents dutifully schlepped downtown, navigated parking headaches, and wove through City Hall’s sidewalk homeless scene just to be greeted by a notice of cancellation. The message? Your time is disposable.

Duncan Golf Management is selling the idea of a shiny new “golf resort” at Lakeridge. On paper, it sounds like something out of a lifestyle magazine—pickleball and tennis courts, a swimming pool, dining, a spa, a non-gaming hotel, and meeting spaces. But here’s the kicker: they won’t give residents any numbers.

How many guests would a 100-room hotel bring in daily? How many cars? How much noise? What kind of water demand are we talking about for pools, courts, and lush resort landscaping? What developer, anywhere, floats this kind of sweeping project without running the numbers—or at least sharing them?

Is it appropriate for media to laugh themselves silly at a Reno City Councilmember’s social media post? We don’t know. But we did.

After nine long months of blissful indifference, Ward 5’s very own Devon Reese has suddenly fallen head over heels for his Neighborhood Advisory Board. The same board he barely mentioned since being reelected in November 2024 is now the talk of his Facebook feed. He’s appointing members, hunting for alternates, and celebrating that they “hit the ground running” with discussions of two Ward 5 projects.

So why the sudden civic passion? Could it be… he’s running for mayor? Oh, absolutely.

Recently, Reno’s Ward 1 and Ward 3 councilmembers held community forums—but don’t bother asking for a recording or meeting notes. There aren’t any. That’s right: no recordings, no transcripts, no official records.

These forums are pitched as chances for residents to connect directly with their elected officials—sort of like NABish meetings, but stripped of any formal accountability. And without documentation, what’s discussed simply vanishes into thin air. No public record. No follow-up. No way to hold anyone to their word.

Apparently, it's still 2020 for Councilmembers Devon Reese and Miguel Martinez, who are hosting virtual community forum meetings. Either they’ve forgotten the world reopened… or they’ve finally accepted that no one’s showing up to their in-person events. We lean toward the latter.

Let’s be honest: when a councilmember holds a community conversation and the only attendees are a Neighborhood Advisory Board, someone from AARP, a couple of seniors and one other under 50 it’s probably time for some self-reflection. But instead of asking why nobody shows up, Reese and Martinez have decided to dodge the answer entirely—by going virtual.

When your city is drowning in a $25 million deficit, every dollar counts—except, apparently, when it comes to conference travel.

Mayor Hillary Schieve jetted off to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa, Florida, leaving Renoites to wonder about the city's spending priorities. While residents have been told the budget crisis is so severe that neighborhood advisory board meetings—those pesky forums where actual citizens get to voice concerns—had to be axed to save on employee time costs, somehow there was still room in the budget for a Florida excursion.

Eliminating citizen input while brewing up council coffee klatches at the City of Reno.

The City of Reno has discovered a brilliant new approach to public engagement: eliminate it entirely under the guise of fiscal responsibility. The city's moratorium on Neighborhood Advisory Board (NAB) meetings represents a masterclass in democratic doublespeak—claiming to save money while simultaneously launching a replacement program that serves the same purpose but with far less citizen input and accountability.

The official line is cost savings, but the real savings appear to be in avoiding the inconvenience of actually listening to residents who might have opinions about how their neighborhoods are managed.

Attention Ward 5 and City of Reno residents. While Ward 5 Neighborhood Advisory Board meetings seem to have mysteriously vanished from Councilmember Devon Reese's calendar, he has managed to find time for something truly essential: Community Tennis and Pickleball Day.

Yes, while your concerns about the Lakeridge development, ADUs on your lot line, and that charming Jiffy Lube proposal for Mayberry and Hunter Lake, you can rest easy knowing your elected representative is perfecting his backhand. Sure most of this, except the ADUs are not in Ward 5 but activist citizens have been using their voices at NAB meetings and should have the right to equally be heard in Ward 5.

Congratulations. The City of Reno has unveiled its latest performance art piece: a citizen feedback survey carefully engineered to gather the information the city wants to feature, not what is truly concerning to residents.

This City of Reno survey is the municipal equivalent of asking "how are you?" while already walking away. Reno officials have mastered the art of claiming "residents don't care" while ensuring exactly that outcome. Their latest online survey represents strategic disengagement disguised as outreach.

Are Ward 5 and 6 residents getting the silent treatment from Reno City Council? While Wards 1, 2, and 3 have been actively discussing hot-button Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), meetings for Wards 5 and 6 are mysteriously missing. (We'll take the city's word that Ward 4 actually met at the far-flung Stead Airport—who's driving all the way out there to verify?)

Today, the City of Reno agenda includes appointing residents to the Ward 5 and 6 Neighborhood Advisory Boards. But is this just for show? A quick check of Reno's April calendar reveals no scheduled meetings for either ward—this month or next.