What the Hill? Washoe County Chairwoman Removes Initial Public Comment Period, Again

In her first meeting since her reelection to chair the Washoe County Commission, Democratic Chairwoman Alexis Hill (she/her) has removed initial public comment from tomorrow’s meeting. Last month, Republican Commissioner Clara Andriola bypassed her Republican colleague Commissioner Jeanne Herman for board chair in support of Hill.

Starting tomorrow, public comment will only be allowed at the end of the meeting, after the Board of county commissioners “Canvass the vote.”

As per Nevada statute, “Canvass” means a review of the election results by the Board of County Commissioners, by which any errors within the election results are officially noted and the official election results are declared. The canvass shall separately note any clerical errors discovered and take account of the changes resulting from the errors discovered, and the results declared must represent the true vote cast.

As soon as the Board declares the results, the Registrar of Voters shall certify the abstract of the results, which must contain the number of votes cast for each candidate, and enter it in the record of the Board. The Board shall order the Registrar of Voters to transmit a copy of the certified abstract, as well as a mechanized report of the abstract in accordance with regulations adopted by the Secretary of State, to the Secretary of State.

Hill received backlash last year when she unilaterally removed the traditional and initial public comment from board meetings. At the time, Hill told the Reno Gazette Journal, “I made this decision to ensure our agenda items would be heard in a timely matter, instead of asking our very busy community members to wait sometimes six hours for their public comment to be heard on agenda items.”

Following six months of protest, Hill reinstated the initial public commenting period calling her decision a “compromise.”

Initially, Hill’s unilateral decision drew criticism from Vice Chair Jeanne Herman and Commissioner Mike Clark. This recent unilateral decision is also drawing criticism.

Commissioner Clark told The Globe, “Yet again, Alexis Hill has unilaterally taken away public comment. This is outrageous. Shouldn’t we hear the public comment before we vote? Why would anyone care what the public comment is after we voted. There are 500,000 people in this county and she is basically saying, “I don’t want to hear from you.”

Attempts to reach Alexis Hill were unsuccessful.