OPINION: Washoe County Leadership Has Sunk to a New (and Evil) Low

January 16, 2024 was the day Washoe County officials, led by Democratic Commissioner Alexis Hill and County Manager Eric Brown, kicked off the monthly board meeting by inviting a satanic cult who believes there “is only one right way to live one’s life” to lead the opening invocation. Jason Miller of Reno Satanic was invited to kick off a County meeting with a satanic ritual as attendees were forced to remain silent and “listen to this crap.” Miller ended his invocation with “Hail Satan.”

Reno Satanic refers to itself as a “non-theistic Satanic group unaffiliated with The Satanic Temple or the Church of Satan.” Their website features photos of scantily clad people, sinister black snakes, and “toolkits” for satanic rituals. Is what Washoe County has become? A playground for non-theistic cults and dark occult practices?

But was this kickoff really a “religious invocation” or was it something more?

It might be worth noting Reno satanic and Jason Miller partner with Reno’s Karma Box Project, the same entity which Hill Washoe County paid over $349,000 from July 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 over a period of  nine months.

Here’s snapshot of what was witnessed in front of Washoe County DA Nate Edwards:

• Citizens connecting Washoe County Manager Eric Brown to public corruption. Will Washoe County DA Nate Edwards take immediate action or will citizens do the investigating and reporting for him?

• Against public dissent and alerts of illegalities, Washoe County leadership unlawfully selected an unqualified Registrar of Voters to lead an already-broken elections system, instead of electing a qualified candidate with years of tenured experience.

• One commissioner shared that contracts are being intentionally hidden from board members, preventing them from speaking to constituents about the contracts. Are off-the-record contracts are being issued?

• The public watched lobbyists, who partner with County Commissioners on various local boards, speak favorably for their preferred agenda items without identifying themselves as lobbyists, and fostered false narratives of “violence” against citizens who advocate for free, fair, and transparent elections.

Commissioner Hill previously claimed that public meetings are cumbersome due to lobbyists failing to identify themselves in order to accomplish a goal for those they work for. Despite already having lobbyist policies in place from 2012, Hill cherry-picked this agenda item and wasted several hours to develop Ordinance 1707 on Sept 29, 2023, that fined lobbyists $500 for failing to disclose their lobbyist ties. The vote was supported by Commissioners Androla, Garcia, and Hill.

Hill could have focused time on vetting a qualified Registrar of Voters, but instead, she hijacked valuable time from the public at large to focus on business which had already been addressed.

During public comment, Jennifer Willett of All Voting Is Local spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. All Voting Is Local is a progressive, far-left lobbyist arm who partners with DC-based American Constitution Society. All Voting Is Local and ACS are partners funded by George Soros’ The Democracy Alliance. Willett spoke about elections and the Registrar of Voters selection without identifying her lobbyist ties, which goes against Hill’s $500 lobbyist penalty rule. Willett was not silenced, was not questioned, and was not fined $500 despite the public noting her lobbyist ties during the meeting.   

Another speaker at the meeting was attorney Eric LeRude. LeRude praised former Registrar of Voters Jaime Rodriguez, although millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to fix her and Eric Brown’s mismanagement of the County’s election system. LeRude then praised the mysterious Cari-Ann Burgess as Washoe County’s new Registrar of Voters, without having any evidence of her qualifications or experience. He then closed out his remarks by attacking members of the public who champion free, fair, and transparent elections by falsely accusing them of “harassment” and “death threats,” further fostering a false narrative of violence. It would seem an attorney would know better than to be this careless and irresponsible.

LeRude is a also a Board Member of the Reno Downtown Partnership which is a part of Reno Economic Development where LeRude sits alongside Democratic Commissioner Mariluz Garcia–who also praised Jaime Rodriguez and voted for Cari-Ann Burgess. Only two Commissioners, Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark, voted against Burgess’ nomination.

Instead of “Hail Satan” being preached during a public meeting, Washoe County needs a Hail Mary in the upcoming November election to rid the county of political, partisan cronyism and public corruption that has protected and enriched a selected few and infected the County Commission under the leadership of Alexis Hill.