Washoe County Just Can’t Get It Right …
Our favorite whistleblower Phil Tenneson is who broke the information about Eric Brown’s new job at VOA. Hey Phil, VOA have always avoided any conflict even though they have made some questionable moves over the years, they barely speak to the press unless they are pushing something out. Our Town Reno is who broke the story to the residents of Washoe County so we can know a guy, Eric Brown, who taxpayers paid over $300,000 a year to run the county. One of his duties was the Nevada Care Campus that he failed at improving anything and his only answer was to pour taxpayer money into the homeless and now VOA/Volunteers of America hired him to run the Cares Campus - really how stupid is that. Yeah, we used the word stupid, and we’ll stand by it.
If you ever wondered how far failure can take you in Washoe County, allow us to present Exhibit A: Eric Brown.
Because apparently, running the county during a time when homelessness wasn’t exactly being solved is no barrier to your next big opportunity. Running the Cares Campus were you failed the taxpayers of Washoe County.
Let’s not forget—under Brown’s watch, the Nevada Cares Campus became less of a success story and more of a spin exercise.
Remember the grand performance in front of the Nevada Legislature with Alexis Hill? The one where we were told homelessness numbers were improving?
Until the media checked the math.
And suddenly, it wasn’t that the numbers were wrong—it’s that we didn’t understand which numbers they meant according to the propaganda princesses spinning away the narrative for Brown.
Classic.
Fast forward—not even a full year later—and Brown lands at Volunteers of America as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer.
And where is VOA operating locally?
Oh, nowhere important—just running the very same Cares Campus and Our Place.
So the guy who couldn’t make a dent in the problem from inside government now gets a second shot… from the outside… funded by the same taxpayers.
That’s not irony. That’s a business model.
And if this feels familiar, it should.
It has all the same energy as Neoma Jardon sliding from the Reno City Council into the Downtown Reno Partnership—because nothing says “public service” like knowing exactly where the money is right before you switch sides.
And let’s be real—Brown didn’t just “work” at the county.
He ran it.
He knows the contracts.
He knows the players. (Remember Brown is a supporter of Grant Denton and Karma Box Project)
He knows where every dollar is buried.
And now he’s negotiating from the other side of the table.
Totally normal. Totally fine. Move along.
But wait—it gets even better.
The person who previously held Brown’s shiny new role at VOA? Now working at Washoe County. Seems like a convenient move to allow Brown to slide into the spot.
So if you’re keeping score at home:
County → Contractor
Contractor → County
Round and round we go.
Nothing to see here… unless you’re a taxpayer.
And then, let’s not forget, there’s Dana Searcy.
She disappears from her role overseeing housing and homeless services in September 2025—no real explanation, no transparency, just gone. Remember she was touted daily by Eric Brown, but soon after Brown’s county departure Dana went missing.
Now she pops up at Madison AI—a company that openly admits it was essentially built with Washoe County.
You can’t even parody this stuff.
A county-connected company.
A former county official.
Zero clear answers.
And when asked? The response is basically: “We don’t know who works with our vendors.”
Comforting.
So let’s recap the Washoe County playbook:
Can’t fix the problem? → Rebrand the numbers.
Leave the job? → Land with a contractor.
Know the system? → Profit from the system.
Questions asked? → Confusion and silence.
At some point, this stops being coincidence and starts looking like choreography.
A well-rehearsed routine where the same names keep showing up, just in different chairs—while the public gets stuck footing the bill.
Washoe County doesn’t just have a revolving door.
It has a VIP entrance.