When Cookies Can't Sweeten the Bitter Taste of Government Opacity

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 Washoe County Board of County Commissioners Meeting.

As Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras enjoyed her retirement sendoff of cookies and flowers from Commissioner Clara Andriola at Tuesday's Washoe County Commission meeting, one question hung in the air like stale bureaucratic smoke: Will her departure make accessing public records easier, or are we about to discover based on an old saying, that the devil we knew was preferable to the devil we don't?

Kandaras has overseen public records during both transparent times and the current era of stone-walling that would make Fort Knox jealous. Kandaras is actually quite nice to work with. But here's the thing: Kandaras isn't the architect of the county's current hostility toward public disclosure.

That distinction belongs to County Manager Eric Brown.

The timeline tells the story. Public records were accessible—even reasonably easy to obtain—until Brown arrived on the scene in November 2019. Then during COVID, suddenly, simple requests began requiring legal briefs, routine documents became state secrets, and the public's right to know became the public's right to wait indefinitely.

Kandaras may have been the face of records denial, but the fingerprints on the obstruction playbook belong to Brown. She was the messenger; he was the message.

Which raises the uncomfortable question: Are we writing about the departure of someone who was merely following orders from above? While Andriola distributed cookies, perhaps she should have been asking harder questions about why public records became so difficult to access during Brown's tenure.

The "better the devil you know" principle applies here in spades. Kandaras, for all her gatekeeping, at least represented institutional knowledge and established processes. Her replacement will likely inherit the same marching orders from Brown but without three decades of experience navigating the system. And the million dollar question is, ‘Where is Washoe County Distrcit Attorney Chris Hicks.'‘

So will records access improve? Don't hold your breath. Unless Eric Brown experiences a sudden conversion to transparency—about as likely as Washoe County voluntarily reducing its budget—the new public records officer will simply be a different face on the same stone wall.

The real test won't be who replaces Kandaras, but whether County Manager Brown continues his policy of treating public information like classified intelligence. Until he changes course, switching personnel is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic of transparency.

Kandaras deserved her cookies and flowers for thirty years of service. But what the public really needs is a county manager who remembers that "public records" means exactly that—records belonging to the public, not Eric Brown's personal filing cabinet.

The devil calling the shots remains firmly in place.