OPINION: Making Reno Great Again! Trump is Draining the Federal Swamp. Here’s How WE Can Drain Reno’s

Donald Trump’s election to a second presidential term was a godsend for America.

The water level in the Federal government’s “swamp” is already receding. Just a few days into his presidency, “47” is eliminating massive government waste, increasing our nation’s safety, securing our borders, and deporting criminals. President Trump is exposing unnecessary bureaucracies and removing corrupt bureaucrats, and he is just getting started. It feels like Springtime in America.

But here in Reno … we’re still in the midst of an entrenched political “winter”: struggling to stay afloat in our local overflowing swamp.

If we hope to bring the same improvement to Reno that Trump is bringing to the Capital, we must become more willing to do what he is doing. We must sacrifice some of our me time and get seriously involved in solving our biggest problems.

Like our nation’s capital, Reno’s swamp consists of a handful of entrenched, individual fiefdoms.

• All of them are dysfunctional and/or corrupt to varying degrees.
• All of them must be “drained” if Reno hopes to duplicate President Trump’s results in our community.

Making Reno Great Again Starts Here! 

Overview of Reno’s Top 6 Swamp Spots in need of immediate attention.

1) Reno Chief of Police Kathryn Nance

If we had to place blame for the explosion of Reno’s vagrant criminal population at just one office door, it would be Reno Police Department’s Chief Nance. She is relatively new and tech-savvy, but she is not  the tough, hands-on crime-fighting leader we need to save Reno’s downtown.

Hiding from the public and crunching numbers in an office does not substitute for confronting crime firsthand and a willingness to jail the hundreds of vagrant criminals that deserve to be there.

We need a police chief who will boost the morale of patrol officers by demanding that the Mayor and City Council turn the cops loose to strongly enforce the law and do the job they were hired to do.

2) Reno Fire Department Chief David Cochran

Is there any other fire department in the nation whose Fire Chief would allow a drug policy that permits firefighters to have up to 5 times the DUI levels of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opioids, amphetamines, et al., and still respond to fires? How about an additional clause that makes drug-testing a suspected firefighter almost impossible and threatens the employment of any firefighter who reports them?

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/06/22/reno-policy-allows-bac-firefighters/11178803/

After years of promises, Chief Cochran is still too fearful to challenge the firefighters union and demand a complete overhaul of this drug policy. If he is unwilling to tackle this problem, what else is he allowing?

3) Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks

District attorneys like to be able to tell conservative voters that they have extremely high conviction rates for the criminals they prosecute. Simultaneously, they placate their liberal base by allowing “homeless” offenders to plea bargain their crimes down to almost nothing. Here’s one example from a few months ago in Reno.

A lifetime-offending vagrant was asked to leave a private property where he’d illegally camped for over a year. The property owner’s manager went to remove the squatter, who refused to leave. The vagrant made multiple threats to kill the manager, and then sent his 3 large dogs to attack him. The squatter then dropped his pants and repeatedly exposed himself to the manager. Following this, he rammed the manager’s truck causing over $20K in damage. Finally, the squatter attempted to push the manager’s truck into a steep ravine with the manager inside.

How did DA Chris Hicks’ office handle this case? It refused to call key witnesses and present evidence in court. They let the vagrant plead guilty to only … PUBLIC TRESPASSING, a misdemeanour ticket!  Washoe County cannot solve its crime problems until a new district attorney is in office who is willing to protect county residents and uphold the laws with appropriate sentencing.

4) Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve

What can you say about a mayor who admitted to directing the homosexual flag to be hung at City Hall during her term, but when it ended up flying on the roof – in place of the American flag – she had “no idea” how that happened?

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2015/07/27/reno-mayor-apologizes-lgbt-flag-city-hall/30733893/

Mayor Schieve equally had “no idea” who told the Reno police officers to stand-down and allow George Floyd rioters to destroy City Hall and vandalize the police station, even though every cop who was privately questioned said the “stand-down” directive originated with the Mayor?

What can you say about Schieve’s success as a mayor who has presided over Reno as it dropped from the “4th Best City in the US” five years ago, to 193rd place in the most recent national report?

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/money/business/2025/01/14/reno-plummets-in-milken-institute-annual-best-performing-cities-ranking-over-jobs-wages-housing/77697260007/

What can you say about all of this and much more?  How about, “Please, Mayor Schieve, resign immediately before your clueless leadership completely destroys Reno’s downtown.”

5) The County CARES Homeless Campus

Adjectives are all you need to describe this red-hot mess:

Violent, 100% ineffective, drug-saturated, corrupt, dysfunctional, dirty, and dangerous.

The CARES Campus continues to incubate more and more dangerous vagrants and send them out to prey on the community. This will not stop until:

• The Volunteers of America, Karma Box, and the federal funding are all terminated.
• The entire CARES property and programs are turned over to a nonprofit alliance of local churches organized by proven successful church groups like Victory Outreach and the Gospel Mission.

6) The Washoe County Commissioners and their appointed Library Board Trustees

The commissioners are completely to blame for ignoring the $75M out-of-control CARES Campus homeless mess. All 5 Commissioners, regardless of their claimed political affiliation, are invertebrates.

The library trustees have stood by and watched in cowardly silence –

• As the Library Director they supervise has made unlimited pornography available in all county libraries.
• Allowed its flagship Downtown library to be patronized daily by 80% derelict vagrants who sate themselves watching pornography on library computers 7 hours every day, taking only intermittent breaks to urinate next to the main entrance, smoke meth just outside the front door, and openly bathe in the same library bathrooms that children can use.

In 1776, patriot/preacher John Muhenberg said, “There’s a time for all things. There’s a time to fight, and that time is now.

Reno Patriots of 2025, now is OUR time to follow “47’s” example and fight for our community and its future … or we’ll soon wish we had.

About the Author

Paul D. White is the Founder of Education Crusade. He welcomes feedback at white.pauld@gmail.com.

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