WHICH ONE OF THESE IS FAKE NEWS?
HINT—IT’S NOT THE TELLER
- GARY HAMES REMOVED AS HEAD OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENTThe Storey Teller April 21, 2019
- THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STAFF HAVE BEEN TRAINED TO HIGHER LEVELS AND SO WE NO LONGER NEED THE SERVICES OF GARY HAMESCommissioner Marshall McBride May 21, 2019
- GARY HAMES OVERCHARGED US ALL $326,257The Storey Teller June 25, 2019
- GARY HAMES CLAIMS WRONGFUL TERMINATION
The Storey Teller July 3, 2019
THE COMMISSION AGAIN DELAYED THE APPROVAL OF REPAYMENT OF THE EXCESS CHARGES MADE BY UNAUTHORIZED FEE INCREASES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DURING 2018-2019 UNDER GARY HAMES
COMMISSIONER MCBRIDE CALLS THE STOREY TELLER’S ACCURATE REPORTING OF TESLA’S NON-PAYMENT OF FEES OWED AND LACK OF RENEWAL OF THE EXPIRED 2018 SERVICES AGREEMENT FAKE NEWS….OR INACCURATE…OR A LIE BY SUGGESTION…..WELL, HE JUST DIDN’T LIKE IT AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS ANYMORE….
By Nicole Barde
bardeblog.com
You can find the agenda packet HERE, County Manager Austin Osborn’s summary HERE and a recording of the meeting HERE.
This was another mercifully short meeting and Austin’s summary covers all of the procedural things.
Right off the bat, Austin announced that Tesla is current on all of its payments owed to the county. That they are paying a lesser rate than in previous times since they determined that the activity at the factory would be less since the buildout was slowing down. He also said that the 2018 Government Services Agreement has not expired and that he is working with Chris Riley at Tesla to redo it.
During this update Commission Chair Marshall McBride said that there is a lot of fake news out there and apparently when you’re online you can write anything you want.
SIDENOTE– Uh…….First of all…SOMEONE is a liar. Yes, I said it..LIAR…LIAR….LIAR!!
If Marshall can say it when he’s wrong…. I can say it when I’m right
The services agreement has not been renewed for pricing. It was put into place and had to be approved by resolution in 2015….It went thru till 2018. When budget time came in 2018 there was still no new agreement so then County Manager Pat Whitten lamented at the May 1, 2018 meeting:
“….That the Service Agreement negotiation meeting with Tesla was cancelled by them and will need to be rescheduled ASAP. He said that they need to sit down soon since the Ordinance giving them reduced fees on a number of items expires with this budget year. Pat said that since Tesla’s current Service Agreement funds 2 people if they don’t reup that the supporting headcount in Community Development goes from 3 down to 1 and that will bring them to a standstill”
There were at least three more times since that meeting that Whitten lamented that there was still no agreement. So….was Whitten lying that the GSA had expired? Or is Austin lying that the GSA has not expired? Then of course , per Whitten, there is the fact that Tesla had refused to take any meetings to hammer out the new agreement since 2018. Hummmm.
A few weeks ago Sam Toll, editor of The Storey Teller, wrote the article stating that Tesla has owed the county money for several quarters and that there was no GSA in place. When Marshall basically called him a liar…again (read about the first time HERE)…. Sam responded with the timeline of events and the actual data that the county gave him in his research into the Tesla deadbeat Article. You can read it HERE.
Tesla STILL owes the county money based on the calculations from the county’s own records so I don’t understand how Austin can say that they don’t. What’s going on over there?
Who is putting out fake news?
Way more digressions ahead….Adelante
Austin followed the Tesla update by saying that based on the significant uptick in Public Records Requests (PRR) that he is going to have to hire a full-time or part-time person to handle it. That he had gotten 7 PRR’s that morning alone. That the DA’s office told him that they spend 20% of their time handling requests instead of giving legal counsel.
SIDENOTE– You had to be there but Austin was a bit terse in his delivery of this tid-bit and based on past allegations….the implication wafted towards Sam Toll as the unique cause for this.
Uh….NO.
First of all….being in a snit because you have to provide a legally required service just isn’t going to cut it Austin. People wanting to know about TRIC generate PRR’s, all of the employee issues that the county has had generates PRR’s, the legal issues that the DA’s office handles generates PRRs’, Gary Hames’ lawsuit with the county generated a ton of PRR’s, the constant PR about “the richest place on earth” generates PRR’s, random acts of residents being pissed off generates PRR’s.
The cost of growth and doing business means having to add people to meet service needs….you do it in all other departments who have volume growth…so this is just another growth area….figure out a way to be efficient at it because the requests will not be going away. Suck it up Austin.
Additionally, blaming and naming ( only 2 ) people for this “problem” in the hopes of deterring their requests or in the hopes of getting residents to stop reading what they write because it’s costing the county money is just stupid , another LIE and another weak showing by the supposed brain trust of the county.
During Commissioner comment at the May 7th , 2019 Commissioner meeting, Commissioner Jay Carmona stated that recent public record requests have cost the county $100,000. On the VCH chat list Carmona said that Comptroller Hugh Gallagher gave him the information and said the requests came from “essentially two people”. He later named the two vexatious culprits as Sam Toll and Nicole Barde.
I talked to Hugh about this and he said no, that it was not me and Sam…it was two other vexatious people.
Commissioner Carmona also said on that chat list:
“I’ve already requested a list of 2018 & 2019 requests which will include the names of those who made the requests. I will be happy to publish it once I receive it.”
NOTHING….NOTHING was published…no one made any retraction or apology to me or to Sam.
Bottomline when Sam or I publish anything that the county doesn’t like or doesn’t want to see the light of day we are called liars…or fake news. It’s tiring, but mostly they must think that the citizens should swallow whatever they say , blindly at all times without question or challenge. Arrrrrggg.
….onward
The Audited Financial Statements were presented and accepted by the Commission. There were a couple of issues but the auditors said that the County passed the audit “ with flying colors”. The recurring theme in the report, as in years past, is that the Comptrollers office doesn’t have the staff to do their own financial statements. They ask the auditors to do them. This is not unusual for an office of this size and the auditors noted that almost all of the rural counties that they audit ask for the same thing. The new accounting system while a bear to implement will go a long way to help the Comptrollers Office to do the financials as well as do a month-end close of the books….which was one of the issues.
The agenda item to refund $71,266 of “ excess funds paid for community development permits” was postponed until February 4th. Recall that under Gary Hames as outside contractor he increased the fees by 10% without Commission approval.
Despite the full audit report contained in the agenda proving the point, this item was postponed because Commissioner Carmona wasn’t ready to make a decision. He said that he had just gotten some information from the DA and wanted to study it. Both Marshall and Commissioner, brothel owner, TRI principal, former BLOCKCHAINS worker, aspiring hemp grower and new best friend to the city of Fernley Lance Gilman were ready to approve.
SIDENOTE– Gary Hames was walked out the door abruptly for increasing those fees without commission approval when a whistleblower reported it to the County and to The Storey Teller. The Teller had an article about the issues on April of 2109. In May of 2019 ,in response to why Hames was no longer there, Marshall said that Community Development was doing so well that they didn’t need a manager anymore…which was FAKE NEWS. In subsequent articles the Teller provided all of the details and then Gary Hames sued the county for wrongful termination in July 2019.
In the June 18, 2019 Commission meeting this very agenda item to refund the overcharges was also on that agenda. Commissioner Carmona said at that time that he wanted to study it more before voting. In THIS meeting he said he wanted to study it more before voting. How long will it take Jay to make up his mind in the face of all the damning evidence that proves that Gary, his close friend, in fact ran over the Commission and increased the fees?
- The audit by independent auditors proves it
- The research by the DA into authority proves it
WHY the delay? Reading more stuff won’t make the fun fact that Hames had no authority to increase the fees and that they need to be refunded any less true. Is Jay in some way still trying to clear Gary’s name?
…..and so it goes here in the richest place on earth…..