Three-quarters of a million dollars per year doesn’t buy what it used to, if you’re talking about Washoe County administrators.
Education Crusade recently had personal meetings with 3 of the Washoe County administrators primarily responsible for the CARES Campus.
The value of their combined compensation packages is over $750,000.
That includes:
• Kate Thomas – Acting Washoe County Manager
• Dana Searcy – Director of County Housing and Homelessness
• Ryan Gustafson – Director Washoe County Human Services Agency
What came out clearly as a result of these meetings, is that the actual value these 3 top leaders provide county taxpayers is zero.
Purpose of the Meetings
Requested by Education Crusade, the purpose of these meetings was two-fold.
• To see if any of the administrators actually knew anything about the complete failure and violent dysfunction of the CARES Campus.
• To determine the administrators’ feelings regarding Education Crusade’s proposal to hand-over complete control of CARES to a nonprofit coalition of County Churches who have proven success with programs like this.
Did the County CARES Administrators Know Anything About How Out-of-Control Their Mega-million dollar Program Is?
NO!
They didn’t have a clue.
Not one of the administrators we met with knew anything about the out-of-control CARES situation.
• Their ignorance of the program’s ineffectiveness didn’t bother them in any way.
• They offered no apology to taxpayers for receiving years of inflated salaries to accomplish nothing.
• Complete ignorance of the CARES program did not prevent top-ranking County administrator, Kate Thomas, from enthusiastically proclaiming it as “GREAT!” without citing even ONE reason for believing that.
All of the Administrators we met with support the CARES program.
None of them have informed taxpayers how dangerously dysfunctional this program is.
How Bad Is It?
• The CARES program has allowed ongoing violence, credible death threats to staff and clients, periodic rapes and sexual assaults since it opened years ago.
Staff and clients have consistently reported the following.
• Unlimited drug use and an abundance of lethal weapons.
• Drug sales to clients by staff, including fentanyl.
• Constant theft, no requirements for clients to be respectful, employed, or even clean up after themselves.
• Verified busloads of vagrants being sent to the CARES Campus from other cities.
Worst of all, the 3 administrators we met with proudly support a program that after 6+ years, thousands of clients, and over $100 million dollars of funding has still not produced even ONE legitimate success story!
“Success” being defined as a man or woman living in UNsubsidized housing, working an UNsubsidized job, and living clean and sober.
Dangerous Disinformation
The most dangerous information presented by the County is the manipulated statistics released this past month by Dana Searcy, the Director of County Housing and Homelessness. In a report to the County Commissioners https://mikesrenoreport.substack.com/p/washoes-homelessness-plan-are-we
• Searcy’s “new way” of crunching homeless growth listed last year’s homeless population increase at 4%.
Since 2017, using the same Point in Time counting method used nation-wide, Washoe’s average homeless increase has been over 250% each year!
• Searcy said her new data showed only 14% of all CARES Campus residents were from out of Washoe County. Numerous long-time CARES workers and residents consistently confirm the number of out of area vagrants living off Washoe taxpayers as 85%.
Searcy was confronted with both these counter-statistics at our personal meeting. She sat silently and did not dispute them in any way.
Meanwhile, the only people who know less- and care less about this disaster than the administrators, are the administrators’ Bosses – the Commissioners themselves!
The County Commissioners’ complete indifference to the CARES campus failure is harming our community. It is incubating a future social services disaster for Washoe County.
• Commissioners are wasting buckets of taxpayers’ money-overpaying everyone connected with the CARES debacle. Of the 3 top County administrators we met with, all 3 of them are grossly overpaid, relative to what their value would be in the private sector. And every time you turn around, the Commissioners are giving the administrators (and themselves) pay increases!
The public deserves – and must demand an ASAP agenda item on the County Commissioners’ next business meeting.
The item would provide details regarding the benefits of handing-over the entire CARES Campus to a non-profit coalition of local churches, who actually have successful experience with similar programs.
This presentation would detail not just the money that would be saved, but also how this move would reduce the homeless population and vagrant-related crime by over 60% almost immediately.
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An August 5 event offered all the proof you need for why we can’t afford to delay in taking the CARES program away from the County.
At 8:30 a.m. that morning, the county officially opened the newest mega-million addition to the CARES Campus.
This new facility will offer an opportunity for 100 more addicted/criminal vagrants from all over the U.S.to come to Reno to live/sell drugs/commit crimes with no consequence, receive free food/housing/clothing for the rest of their lives – and contribute NOTHING to the community.
And what’s on the County Commissioners’ list of “next” projects? A duplicate but LARGER version of the facility that just opened on August 5.
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