Reno

Citizen estab May, 1995

The Reno Citizen takes no responsibility for views expressed by its writers. But we would if we could!
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DEAR READERS:

Staff members thank all citizens for their loyal support... as The FREE Reno Citizen magazine enters its fourth year of publication (3 years on the internet). We continue to dedicate this magazine to reporting on improprieties throughout local government... Reno Airport, Reno City Hall, Washoe Commissars, Reno Redevelopment Agency, and the plethora of other guilty agencies.


DOG & PONY
RENO AIRPORT GOVERNMENT STINKS - "SIT DOWN & SHUT UP!"
Sam Dehné
Nevada Law demands that citizens be allowed to monitor the critters who run the scandal plagued Reno Airport... to make sure they don't do stupid things. Monitoring this mess is a full-time and very difficult job. That's because these airport "trustees" are constantly looking for ways to run roughshod over the citizenry and ignore their pleas for the airport to stop making knuckleheaded decisions that kiss up to fat cat Special Interests.
Lately the Reno Airport top brass (led by rookie chairman Geno Menchetti who doesn't even live in Reno and who has tremendous conflicts of interest) are stepping further outside the bounds of good government and violating the laws of Nevada and America.
At the Public Meeting of 12 August, 1999 Menchetti (with the board and executive directors acquiescence):
1. Refused to allow me to make important observations about agenda items. They instituted an illegal technique of "selective" adherence to the U. S. Constitution's 1st (Freedom of Speech) and 14th (Equal Treatment Under the Law) Amendments. They decide "selectively" whether they want to hear from friends or foes. Guess who will get heard.
2. Ordered the police to remove me from this Open Public Meeting simply because I was standing in the back of the room and would not sit down at his illegal command. No law precludes a citizen from standing.
3. Violated their sacred oaths as they shamelessly selectively ponder who they want to listen to and who they don't want to listen to. "Trustee" Richard Hill even goes so far as to believe that he has the fortune-telling power to decide whether he, with some sort of infinite wisdom, "thinks" something a citizen might say is important... to him.
Selective observance of the 1st and 14th Amendments, and other premeditated perversions such as these, are blatantly gross violations of honorable government... akin to Nazi Germany's "Peoples Courts"... where citizens (mostly Jewish) were herded into prostituted courts expecting justice. We all know what happened there.
The negative ramifications of allowing this despicable precedent to continue are stupefying. Public Officials who attempt to quash and stifle the citizenry are not to be tolerated. This anarchical behavior must be stopped in its tracks and the perpetrators of abhorrent government must be removed from this board immediately. These despots are called "trustees". Nothing could be further from the truth!
The 8 Public "trustees" are appointed by Reno/Sparks city council (4/2), and Washoe county (2). They "serve at their pleasure"... which means they can (and should) be removed. Two years ago the Reno mayor participated in these appointments and the very next month he was given a lucrative kickback contract from these appointees... who suddenly became his bosses. But that is a whole different story about a local scandal... deserving of its own report.
(Please note that this is a synopsis of one of many complaints filed against the Reno Airport brass with the Nevada Attorney General.)


Reno Airport Puts the Cart in Front of Its High Horse
by Sam Dehné

The Reno Airport, headed by its brand new carpetbagger czar, is adding its own twist to the ubiquitous plots that are devastating Reno. Thet want to create a preposterous polluting postal hub. The law, however, plainly says that an airport must consider the negative results (noise, danger, pollution, blight) before it can expand into areas of operation that are harmful to citizens and the environment.

This technique of listening to, and obeying, outraged citizens is called a "FAA Part 150 Study". It is supposed to allow citizens to point out the folly of airport decisions, with the FAA supposedly listening; and refraining from throwing (more) tax dollars at dimwitted plans.

Ah, the FAA... that lethargic, apathetic, and paralysis-of-habit-infested organization. It is a government body that is both judge, jury, and executioner. It presumes to both monitor and supervise airports and at the same time appease and placate them. This is virtually impossible to do without endangering residents and the traveling public somewhere along the way.

The ongoing mess at the Reno Airport is a perfect example of this feebleminded theory of "governance". The FAA throws $$millions and $$millions of citizens' tax dollars at Reno's airport (promoting expansion) and then presumes to monitor it... but instead urges the airport to expand without regard for the noise, danger, and pollution it is causing. The FAA turns a blind nose into the air.

Recently the new airport czar went on a jaunt with the man posing as mayor of Reno (flying 1st Class again?). This "mayor" just happens to be in the trucking and import business... and 2 years ago received a lucrative kickback contract from his cronies at the airport to oversee 2,000 acres of Foreign Trade Zone land at the Reno airport. Immediately after returning from this excursion, the new czar unilaterally overturned a long-planned movement of the Nevada Air Guard. And instead announced that the airport was going "Cargo". Her vision: Reno's new destiny was to become a cargo distribution center for the west coast... starting with a plan to go "Postal" with USPS. Incredible!

An attack against the citizens of Reno of this magnitude must by law be analyzed to determine just how devastating it will be to the community. And it also requires a change to the beloved Master Plan. Honest adherence to these studies would put a quick stop to this perversion.

The czar is ignoring this law and doing things backwards... telling the privately run United States Postal Service to... get it on. According to the scheme, the airport would provide a temporary (taxpayer funded) hangar and ramp facility for 3 years. And in the meantime the airport would continue its policy of ethnically cleansing the innocent citizens in the Rewana Farms concentration camp area of Reno. First the scheme is put into action - then a the study to determine if the scheme is legal. Backwards boneheaded bureaucracy run amok!

Consider some perversions they are trying to get away with:
It is numskull government to go "Postal" without an Environmental Impact Study and a Part 150 Study.
Going "Postal" and "Cargo" as a premeditated scheme to change the economic landscape of Reno is bad news. These types of operations will have severe negative impacts on the community from the standpoints of noise, danger, pollution, blight and it will damage the tax base with low-paying jobs. A classic "lose" - "lose" situation.
USPS plans to fly its middle of the night flights with old "Stage 2 1/4" 727s that make ear-shattering noise.
This plot to go "Cargo" will eventually add more middle-of-the-night noisy cargo flights.
Remember that Griffin Transport will (unless stopped) have an ill-contrived monopoly on the Foreign Trade operations at the airport and is once again guilty of the sin of Conflict of Interest.
The lives and property values of 1,000s of Reno (and Sparks) citizens will be ruined.
An analysis must be done BEFORE this scheme is perpetrated... not after.

The new czar refused to buy a home in the area that is being devastated... even after being advised to do so on several occasions. And most of the other top brass that "runs" the airport does not live in the areas being destroyed. Why?

A project of this Draconian magnitude must go to public referendum vote. The Reno Airport should not be allowed to be a dictatorship... run by a carpetbagger who came to town just a few months ago.
Click back to The Reno Citizen

RENO AIRPORT GOES "POSTAL" - CITY HALL JOINS IN

Sam Dehné (4/16/99)

Czar Bart, the Reno Airport's brand new rookie executive director, has taken the ethnic cleansing of Rewana Farms to a new level. After setting the Nevada Air Guard up as dupes in its plot to take land away from these innocent Rewanians, the airport has changed direction. This sudden direction change came after a recent jaunt to Texas with the man currently posing as Reno mayor... who is also one of her bosses.

Now the fat cat mouthpieces at the airport want the Rewana concentration camp to be converted into postal operations... with any land left over being dedicated to cargo... a special "deal" for the "mayor"... and some of his rich buddies in the warehouse business. This will result in the "bombardment" of dozens of 1,000s of innocent Reno citizens by noise pollution and "regular" pollution from dozens of cargo flights - all night long... and into the mornings. Thus the term "going postal" is taken to a whole new nasty level.

Let's not forget that the Nevada Ethics Commission, as noodleheaded as most of its bogus decisions are, has warned this "mayor" that he is not to interface with the airport. Why? Because of his kickback contracts.

Using the well-honed ability to prevaricate and deceive (perpetrated by its $$$million dollar publicly funded propaganda machine), the airport has apparently now duped the U. S. post office into canceling its plans to move its Oakland operations to Phoenix. Instead the post office will funnel (more) huge sums of corporate welfare dollars into the Reno Airport's already bloated coffers and help build a cargo ramp and hangars... on land the airport does not (yet) own... and may never own.

The post office had originally chosen Phoenix Airport for this operation. But it doesn't seem to care that Phoenix already has the land and the infrastructure to make a move there a turn-key operation. When it is "free" federal tax dollars in the greasy hands of shameless bureaucrats, the sky is the limit. For those of us who resented paying taxes yesterday, now we know why.

Czar-Bart, who refuses to live amidst the blight she is creating, has taken it upon herself to join in the frenzy to turn Reno into a dismal mess.

One public official who continues to benefit enormously from participation in this mendaciousness is the "mayor". You see, he owns a trucking/distribution/customs business. Do you think he is having a hard time sleeping... counting the money he will bilk with the Airport Foreign Trade Zone customs monopoly his subservient airport cronies have bribed him with?

Why object to this inane pork barrel project? There are a myriad of reasons; here are just a few:
1. It is outright wrong and diabolical to steal land from innocent citizens for this Special Interest boondoggle.
2. The Reno Master Plan says the Moana Lane extension road is going through the land next to the airport... so the post office won't fit there.
3. The noise, danger, and blight engendered by this stupidity make an even bigger mockery of a government going further and further out of control. The scary noise of cargo planes literally flying through bedrooms all night long is just what Reno citizens don't need.
4. It is wrong to waste federal dollars on civilian pork barrel projects. Duh!
5. The negative impact to the community in and around the area will drive property values down and denigrate livability.
6. Several members of the Airport Board have deep rooted conflicts of interest.
7. The man posing as "mayor" is in violation of a plethora of Nevada Laws pertaining to nest-feathering by Public Officials.

This is second grade stuff:
Don't steal.
Don't lie.
Don't tromp on other people's lives.
Be nice.
Stay tuned there is more to come from this iceberg tip...

MEMO - SAM DEHNE
(775) 825-1398

Postmaster General, William Henderson
475 Lenfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20260-0010
23 April, 1999
Subject: A Postal Hub in Reno Is a Bad Deal for the USPS

Dear Sir,
This week the citizens of Reno were told without warning that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is joining forces with the Reno Airport brass to try to start the process of building a large W-NET postal operation in the middle of our town. This is a cataclysmic event that demands that the will of all adversely affected citizens be sounded... and honored. Citizens have rights.

Reno is not a good place for a USPS hub... for dozens of reasons... including the following:
1. The Reno Airport does not own (and may never own) the land it proposes to place your permanent operations on. This fact alone is enough for this deal to be canceled.
2. Reno is one of the very nastiest locations for an airport relative to noise pollution and environmental pollution and danger. And to premeditatedly go out of the way to exacerbate an already intolerable situation will make the dozens of thousands of citizens around the airport even angrier. And believe me, all one has to do is attend a Noise Panel meeting to see that there is anger... that is getting more heated all the time.
3. The Airport probably has not told you; but right now there are official plans to have the extension of one of Reno's major streets go right through the middle of where the airport wants your operations to be. Thus there won't even be room to get the planes in there.
4. In speaking with Phoenix Airport personnel, it has been determined that they have almost a "turnkey" operation. This would provide for a much less expensive and much more citizen-friendly operation.
5. Due to its location in a "bowl", Reno is a lousy place for any type of cargo and trucking operations.
6. Latest reports portray that the air traffic control system at this airport is antiquated and thus potentially dangerous and inefficient.
7. In order to follow through with this plot, the airport is attempting to condemn land away from innocent citizens. And everybody knows it is un-American to force citizens out of their homes for private greed... such as that being perpetrated by this airport. The citizens are fighting this diabolical scheme in court.

These are just a few of a myriad of examples why this incredulous action should be canceled.

In other words, there are many negatives to this fraud that is being perpetrated against you by Reno Airport brass, and that the smell test is once again being severely tested. A win-win decision would have the USPS placing this operation somewhere else.

We trust that you will begin to understand the folly of the post office's participation in this repulsive plan. And we are willing and anxious to discuss the matter with you as soon as possible; so that you will be aware of the other side of this fabrication. The truth!
Sincerely,
Sam Dehne, a concerned Reno citizen
297 Smithridge
Reno, Nevada 89502
cc Senators Reid and Bryan
Congressman Gibbons
Governor Ken Guinn
What do you think (click here)?


Sam Dehné Tries to Save Reno Airport
Recognizing the abject folly and potential danger of a huge debt burden, the Reno Airport Board of appointed fat cat surrogates finally came to its senses and canceled the numskull plan to build a huge military base in the middle of Reno.
The brand new Reno airport executive dictator, relying on the exact reasoning that Sam had been "preaching" to the airport Board for over 3 years, decided that the Reno airport would quite possibly go bankrupt if it continued to spend money helping move the Nevada Air National Guard.
Latest estimates in current dollars had the move projected to cost some $80,000,000... far too much for the Reno airport to afford without its usual pork barrel assistance from Washington... which did not appear to be forthcoming.
It is more than irritating to note that had the Reno airport listened to Sam in the beginning, it would have saved well over $3,000,000... of wasted tax dollars... that the taxpayer must now eat.
The new Reno airport executive dictator received numerous kudos and an official commendation. Where are the commendations for Sam... and Jackie Decker... and Gil Weikel? These were the real forces "driving" the Reno airport Board to its senses. Without their patriotic guidance, the Reno airport might have been "driven" to financial disaster.

Reno's Rewana Farms Concentration Camp Remains Under Attack
Thanks to the determined dedication of a small cadre of citizens, the Reno Airport has been forced to cancel its noodleheaded scheme to build a huge military complex in the middle of Reno. Unfortunately, the noodleheads continue to perpetuate their perverted plot to confiscate land away from the innocent citizens in the already devastated Rewana Farms concentration camp area.
For several years the Reno Airport plotted to move the Nevada Air Guard onto the ill-gotten land... but has apparently found that there is not enough $$$$ pork in that barrel to feed this corporate welfare scheme.
The Air Force refused to belly up to that trough any more.
Thus far the airport has confiscated many homes from Reno citizens by using "free" federal Noise money obtained under false pretenses. Citizens have been forced to spend their life savings defending themselves against the fat cat debauchers of democracy.
Sadly this comes after 8 citizens have given their lives in defense of their homes during this onslaught.
It is now beginning to look as if the Reno Airport brass might have been using the Nevada Air Guard as dupes all along. Letting them be the scapegoats for all the bad publicity and wrath that has been generated in the community against bad government run berserk. If this is true, it is not nice.
Will there ever be any honorable accountability at the Reno Airport or at the Reno city hall that controls the Reno Airport? Maybe... when pigs fly... out of that pork barrel.
Sam Dehne

Will Reno Airport Dedicate Its Taxpayer-Funded Golf Course to the Hearing-Impaired?
Noise, danger, pollution, blight, and integrity are words the Reno Corporate-Welfare Airport has difficulty comprehending... or giving a dingaleedang about.
In one of its most brazenly perverted propositions yet, the Reno Airport and its brand new executive dictator want to build a golf course on land that was taken away from innocent citizens... because the FAA and Airport "demanded" that it was too noisy. This hideous landgrab of the Home Gardens neighborhood was paid for with YOUR TAXES. And now the airport wants to further bloat its coffers and pocket outlandish profits.
The golf course will be within a football field's length of the end of the main runway.
Airliners and cargo jets taking off and landing will be just a couple of hundred feet above golfers... spewing out polluting fuel residue and blasting innocent golfers with up to 130 decibels of brain-shattering noise. The jets will come within a few hundred feet of the heads of the golfers as they try to line up for a putt.
And of course the airport (with the concurrence of their partners in devastation - the notoriously misguided and often confused FAA) would perpetrate the preposterous postulation that there is no danger to the innocent golfers.
With the terrible noise all around, it is only logical that only hard of hearing citizens should be allowed on the course. And for those who aren't hard of hearing when they step foot on the golf course, they will be by the time they finish a few rounds.
And since these hearing-impaired citizens won't hear the jets, they presumably won't be aware of all the danger and pollution around them. And, as the Reno Airport probably figures, what they don't know (or hear, see, smell) won't hurt them. All that counts are the greedy profits... an abject insult to the hearing-impaired community.
What do the 100s of former homeowners who were forced out because of "noise" think about this?
Reno citizens were told that the new highly-paid "boss" at the Reno Airport was supposed to bring more talent, more integrity, more morality to the airport operations. So far, just the opposite is happening. The secret meetings, the collusion with big special Interests, the coercion of innocent citizens is escalating the chaos at an alarming pace.
All citizens should deplore the funneling of taxes into airport boondoggles like this.
Sam Dehné
When in Reno, Don't Breathe the Air!
Proposal for Truckee Meadows Prosperity Authority (TMPA)
Sam Dehne
The mission of the Truckee Meadows Prosperity Authority (TMPA) is to encourage the continued bloating of the coffers of the elitist special interests... at all costs.
Membership shall be only open to business and community "leaders" who agree with and support the mission of the TMPA.
Funding for administration of the TMPA shall be by membership fees and tax funding from the City of Reno, and other government entities. (These "taxes" will not be called "taxes". They will be called "grants"... in order to try to circumvent the spirit of the Nevada Open Meeting Law.)
In spite of receiving public funds, the TMPA shall be a private corporation not subject to governmental controls nor to observance of the Open Meeting Law.
The TMPA shall be a power unto itself... such power used to serve the special interests of its members, especially its elitist ruling clique.
The TMPA shall encourage local elected officials to (a) serve in positions of TMPA leadership to the end that the political influence of such officials may be employed to further the interests of TMPA members, especially its elitist ruling clique, and (b) invite the false public perception that the TMPA is an agency of government with all powers and mystique pertaining thereto.
The TMPA shall make efforts to:
* serve and protect those elitist special interests that now control the Truckee Meadows,
* maintain the positions of power now held by political lackeys of special interests,
* divert public funds for the promotion of special interest profits, and
* propagandize citizens and voters into thinking the TMPA is concerned with the common good.
One of the TMPA's first projects will be to create a new "planned" community (with no less than 5,000 homes & apartments, some Gambling Saloons, and a Business Complex). It should adhere to This Week's "Master Plan". Government operation is to be patterned after Reno city hall; with the following initial guidelines:
1. Reno taxpayers should pay for the construction of the housing units for casino workers and low salaried employees "recruited" by super-secret government organization EDAWN... although the Special Interests and their cronies should own such housing and reap fat profits.
2. Minimum wage casino workers (complete with all the stress problems that go along with not making enough money for minimal quality of life) should be compacted into apartment complexes with hundreds of units. The walls of units should be made of cardboard to save costs.
3. Taxpayers should subsidize the Gambling Saloons' profits by paying for such things as medical care, food stamps, and a city-wide bus system for casino employees. Otherwise, the casinos would have to pay their employees a living wage and profits would suffer.
4. The Gambling Saloons should be exempt from paying a livable wage to their employees. As an alternative, casino employees should be paid directly from the City of Reno's general TAX fund.
5. All salaries and benefits for members of the Reno City Council should be paid for directly by their chief employers, the casinos. Reno taxpayers should pay for the capitalization and construction of all future casinos, convention centers, and theater projects in Reno.
6. The Reno City Council should proclaim a "Nevada Ethics Commission Recognition Day" to reward these bureaucrats for their continuing support of noodleheaded government.
Sounds kinda "jigeee", doesn't it? However, not far from "business as usual" in local government.
Keep in mind that this proposal is subject to the changes in Next Week's "Master Plan"... or the Next Week's "Master Plan".
CITIZEN WATCHDOG Sam Dehné
Cancerous growth is out of control. Reno needs more police... so the perpetrators of crimes are either thwarted or apprehended. The RPD could enlist an entire department just to keep tabs on the 1,000s of trucks and cars that violate the pollution, noise, danger, and nuisance laws of the city.
What are those noisy, polluting city buses doing driving around all over the place... empty most of the time? Who is paying for that?
And what are those giant 18 wheeler dirt hauling trucks doing driving up and down residential and school zones... endangering citizens and their children? A tragedy waiting to happen...
The ever-increasing size of SUV monster truck-cars is a problem that is out of control. Drivers of these vehicles have an unfair advantage in accidents. If the vehicle is longer and higher than a standard 4-door car, drivers should have to prove they have a "need" for such a dangerous "weapon"... and take a rigorous licensing test.
Reno Gazette business reporter-editorializer, John Stearns, writes articles that are well researched, close to being on the mark, but are almost always punctuated with some sort of comment defending the self-serving agendas of the fat cat Special Interests.
He recently commented (or was it "reported") that: "... (Sam) Dehne's delivery sometimes leaves a lot to be desired..."
He probably must have meant to say that: "The fat cats think that the content of Dehne's delivery sometimes leaves a lot to be desired..."
He is a clever writer... The bowling stadium investment (by RSCVA) was a gutter ball...
A basic starting rule for all govt workers who handle citizens' money (taxes): Spend it the way they would spend it... as if it were their own money (that they had to work for). With this concept firmly inculcated into their brains, subsequent decisions have a slightly better chance of being safe from fraud, waste, and abuse...
What if Reno gave a Convention and nobody came? Most citizens who own homes in Southeast and Southwest Reno would rejoice. What authority gives the RSCVA the right to reek havoc upon entire neighborhoods with its ignorant numskull decisions... that perpetrate cancerous growth with no analysis of the horrible negative impacts?
Up and down Virginia, Moana, McCarran, Peckham Streets it looks like a devastated refuge evacuation zone. Double trailer 18 wheelers tearing up the streets and diesel vehicles of all shapes and sizes polluting the air hour after hour. The Atlantis gambling saloon construction chaos blocking off streets and blasting dirt into the air that citizens have to breathe!
When flight after flight is added at the Reno Airport, nothing is ever said about the cost to 10,000s of nearby residents who lose sleep due to the all-day, all-night shriek and thunder of jet engines. What about the lower property values for suburban Reno and Sparks homeowners in the airliners' flight path? And what about the destruction of entire neighborhoods?
The Washoe county commission is getting ready to create its own Community Relations (propaganda) machine. How long until it grows to the size of the $$$million dollar behemoths that Reno city hall and the Reno Airport have? At the instant of creation it will (already) have 3 people and an unknown budget... thus far focusing around some smoke and mirrors bean shuffling.
The Juvenile Justice Blue Ribbon task force wants a larger facility to hold minor offenders - to replace Whittenberg Hall. Where to get the money? There is a simple solution. Go to the culprits that are creating the need for a bigger building. The developers, the casinos, the businesses. They are bringing more kids to the area. They are called "Impact Fees"... to pay for negative aspects that are attached to cancerous growth policies... the need for more police, road repair, fire and police protection, jail space... and space for juvenile delinquents. "Incarceration" is becoming one of the biggest businesses in Northern Nevada.
One reason there is little interest in fire department consolidation and its potential tax savings... is that city hall will just waste any tax savings on another of its pet pork barrel projects; like the huge Propaganda Machine it has created... or give themselves more huge pay raises.
Would they return saved taxes to the taxpayers? When pigs fly.
So Reno's impostor of a mayor (he continues in violation of section 1.080 of the city Law) is going to "testify" for the U. S. Gambling Commission. "Hey, Mr fox, how are the chickens doing out there in Reno?" will he tell them about how gambling has helped pollute the air, and ruined the roads, and made Reno government a disgrace to democracy? Will he tell them that gambling money bought his way into the office he is (wrongfully) holding? Don't hold your breath waiting for pigs to fly...
A slap in the face. Reno city council appointed one of its surrogates to head the Northeast Neighborhood Board. However, he does not even live in the Reno! It gets worse... when the city tried to annex his property (into Reno), he fought tooth and nail to stay in the county. Another negative indictment of Reno city hall by their own appointee.
The outlandish Atlantis gambling saloon and the bank that is financing its grotesque cancerous expansion... are now starting a full-prong propaganda attack (tv, newspaper, radio, ads)... to force citizens taxes to pay for expansion of the convention center (with no parking available)... to fill Atlantis's new rooms... and thus pay off the Atlantis "private" debt. THIS IS CLASSIC CORPORATE WELFARE.
The Convention Center boondoggle gets "worser" and "worser". The casino-stacked RSCVA wants to double the size of the building; at a cost to the taxpayer of some $110,000,000. What Reno project has ever come in anywhere near budget? But that is not the only berserk blunder in their number crunching. Those geniuses forgot to remember that there will be no parking available for conventioneers unless RSCVA spends maybe another $110,000,000 buying land and building a garage. Does anybody have a hand on the throttle? No!
Businesses, Casinos, and Resorts (and government) should not be allowed to profit off of the misery and grief they cause regular citizens... from the noise, danger, blight, and pollution they create and exacerbate. Super-secret government blightster, EDAWN, is perfect example. So is the Atlantis Saloon and its outlandish sprawling expansion. There should be a "tawdriness tax" levied against all these tawdry fat cats.
The lordly fat cats sit in their posh homes up on the Reno hills... and watch the citizen-proletariat grovel in the blight down below.
BUILDING PRIDE IN RENO The Things Left Out, or... Hooze Fooling Hoom?
Prepared by Staff
In one of its "regular" newspaper editorials, city hall left a few things off of its list of "good things to tell" about Reno... that city hall thinks it can be proud of.
Here are just a few things it "forgot" to mention:
Lousiness of the air,
The sound (and smell) of those 18 wheeler diesels driving up and down neighborhoods,
The proliferation of secret government contracts to and between city hall cronies,
The ever-increasing magnitude of the tax-funded city and airport Propaganda Machines... that have quickly grown to cost over $1,000,000 each,
Apathetic (25%) voter turnout... and prostituted Voting Machine,
Body Snatching (aka kidnapping... aka annexation... aka sphere of influence meddling) of 1,000s of citizens who want to be left alone; and want nothing to do with Reno government,
Taxpayer funding of the Atlantis Saloon expansion,
Window dressing of government meetings... when knowledgeable citizens recognize that major decisions are made before they are "discussed" at Open Meetings,
Camouflaging of public meeting agendas,
Cancerous traffic congestion... everywhere that the peons live,
Ongoing proliferation of cronyism,
Ongoing proliferation of conflicts of interest,
Taxpayers paying for a boneheaded trench for the railroad... and for casinos... and of course for the construction industry,
Strange concern about railroad noise... but total disregard for Reno Airport noise that is far worse,
Confiscation of homes from innocent citizens; so that a huge military complex can be built in the middle of Reno... destroying the quality of life for dozens of 1,000s of citizens,
Property tax revenues that have escalated at 18% per year for 4 years in a row,
Continuing low grades for government ethics,
A bowling stadium that does not pay for itself,
Streets and roads that are still a disgrace,
Funneling of huge sums of Public Money into the private elitist Mayors Conference,
Funneling of huge sums of money by casinos and developers to the mayor's campaign... and subsequent "payback" by the mayor,
EDAWN's (a huge tax-funded body of cronyistic elitists) that continues to have secret meetings and make decisions that devastate Reno,
Never-ending Rubberstamping of each blight-infested development... as long as the developer has greased city hall,
Continuing failure to sound and honor the will of the people via referendum votes for big issues.
We don't want to bore you. Do you get the point?
To sum up what they failed to report; there are the endless clandestine machinations by Reno city hall to serve and protect itself and its members against the interests of you the People of Reno.
Kind of gives you a warm itchy feeling, doesn't it? For Internet reports on more mendaciousness, click here to read about The Banana Republic of Reno... to be included in next month's issue.
Comstock Bank's Report Full of Holes
Sam Dehné
The Comstock Bank is "mouthpiecing" for the casinos when it says they should not pay their fair share of taxes.
The direct and indirect negative impacts and added costs that large gambling saloons have on the communities is INCALCULABLE. Here are just a few of the costs the citizens pick up:
*subsidized busing for low-wage gambling saloon workers,
*schools for the low-wage workers' kids,
*extra police protection,
*extra fire protection,
*Medicaid,
*extra staffers for the INS,
*homeless shelters,
*added costs that good political candidates have to pay... to overcome the payoffs the saloons give to their bureaucratic flunkies,
*subsidizing huge Convention Centers and Bowling Arenas... and the huge salaries and perks for secret publicly-funded government agencies like EDAWN (Economic Devastating Authority of Nevada),
*citizens having to put up with the never-ending expansion blight of the casinos,
*citizens having to pay for repair of roads devastated by the saloons' out-of-state patrons,
*citizens' taxes subsidizing the Reno Airport so it can bring gamblers in to be drugged and then fleeced,
(Interneteers see http://www.renocitizen.com/banana.htm for many more.
*oh, let's not forget citizens' subsidizing gambling saloons that want to hang, and let elitists look at, Wynn's pretty pictures.
Whenever in doubt as to who is right and good... follow the money. When you find it... that is who is not good.
The next tax "invaders" to be exposed should be the "other" big Nevada Corporations... that pay NO Corporate Tax!!!
LAS VEGAS IS A POLLUTERS DREAMLAND... AND LOUSY HEALTH FOR US Ken Mahal, Las Vegas Senior Press
(Note: Construction pollution like this is getting worse and worse in Reno every day. Advice to all citizens if you must stay in Reno: Don't breathe the Air! )
In a ten-year effort to see some progress in cleaning up our filthy air, we finally got the attention of the Federal EPA San Francisco office. We did have a meeting with them, Dr. Kwalick, head of the Clark County Health Department and Michael Naylor, head of Pollution. Robert Hall, Rick Neilson, Jim Sohns and myself did have an opportunity for the first time to vent our concerns in front of all three parties involved.
We had a two hour session and covered it all from dirty industries, to dirty diesel trucks, dirty diesel construction equipment, uncontrolled dust at every construction site, unmarked and un-permitted construction sites, unmarked construction equipment, unmarked pick up trucks and more. There is something very strange about the operations of this one sector of the construction industry in this valley. Is there a hidden ownership that controls it?
We speak of the sand and gravel pits, concrete mixing plants, rubbish trucks, gravel trucks etc... plus all the on site heavy earth moving equipment, graders, front end loaders, and you name it on the construction sites. This sector of the construction industry, it seems, has a "be as dirty as you like pass" to pollute, to violate the regulations and to be just a lousy community citizen.
They receive not much more than a pat on the head from the people in charge of protecting our health and well being. This bunch is the worst I have seen in my fifty years in the design construction industry, nationally and internationally.
Their diesel engines on the trucks, dirt haulers, earth movers, front end loaders, graders, Cats etc. are either worn out or need tuning, or are detuned on purpose to give a power surge when they put the foot too the pedal and spew out about 25% of their fuel in black lung killing plume. I agree with Jim Sohns that the dirty diesels in this valley are a far worse health hazard than carbon monoxide from cars. Have you noticed how many arrogantly use our streets with their big rigs with no license, and no identification?
We also pointed out the constant dust plumes in the air at 95% of the construction sites and the filth on the black top roads from site track out, at just about every site in the valley.
Even down the Strip where all the casino construction is taking place, the black top is filthy from all the dirt tracked out. You can see this at just about every construction project in the valley. On average the Pollution Department has about 1400 active permits issued for some sort of facility expansion, earth moving etc.
They have only about a dozen inspectors in enforcement. A few of them split up their time to sniff the gas fumes at the filling stations; but do almost nothing about the spewing grease laden air from the restaurants and fast food operations.
Did Reno Airport Executives Meet with the Mayor in Violation of Ethics Commission Orders?
by Sam Dehné
In early 1999 some Reno Airport Executives (including the new executive director and some trustees) were reported to have traveled with their boss, Mr Griffin (currently posing as Reno mayor), ostensibly to discuss American Airlines' plans for its new acquisition, Reno Air.
The big problem is that on 29 May, 1998 the Ethics Commission ordered Griffin to keep away from the Airport because he had been investigated about questionable dealings between his private company and the Reno Airport. On top of this, the new executive director had also been forewarned twice about the implications of the Ethics Commission decision.
It, therefore, does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that Griffin certainly must not discuss these matters in semi-clandestine meetings with Reno Airport officials.
It gets worse. Because almost immediately following that trip, the executive director changed course 180 degrees and canceled the long-planned movement of the Nevada Air Guard to Rewana Farms. This came as a shock to several members of the Airport Board of trustees and the Air Guard top brass... as well as the community.
Instead the airport executive director is suddenly plowing full-steam ahead to place cargo operations on the ill-gotten land. This sudden change in direction came right after she and Griffin were together on that trip to Texas.
Cargo operations such as those being concocted will quite likely provide a lifetime guaranteed income for Griffin; as his company will receive various types of recompense from any goods flown in from overseas that are subject to customs fees. To capsulate:
* Aug, 1997 - Reno mayor Griffin gets a plush contract from his appointed subordinates at the Reno Airport under clandestine circumstances.
* May, 1998 - Ethics Commission orders Griffin to refrain from dealings with the airport.
* Jan/Feb, 1999 - Griffin defies order and travels with airport executive director and others to Texas.
* Mar, 1999 - Airport executive director suddenly decides that air cargo operations must be expanded and placed in Rewana Farms. Most Reno Airport trustees shocked. Griffin applauds her efforts.
Many poignant questions beg answers. A few that should be asked under oath.
Call me old fashioned, but there must be an honor code of ethics for government. If these reports are true, this honor code has been broken by some Reno Airport trustees and one of their bosses, the man posing as mayor in Reno.
Cargo and warehousing operations are the worst kind of business Reno could ever dream of... low paying jobs, noisy and dangerous, polluting trucks and airplanes, and the fat cat owners don't pay state corporate taxes.
Say "No" to Trucks In Your Front Yard
by Sam Dehné
The massive increase in 18-wheeler big rigs in and about Reno's residential neighborhoods is another reflection of the secret kickback contract that Reno's pseudo-mayor, Trucker Griffin, has with various fat cat cronies. These attacks on quality of life throughout northern Nevada are not only condoned, but promoted, by your public servants... from the elected officials down to their highly-paid bureaucrats who are (mis)running many of Reno's departments.
Private investigations have exposed that this never-ending ubiquitous quagmire of cronyism includes Trucker Griffin, super secret government organization EDAWN, RSCVA, and the Reno Airport... to name just a few.
Section 6.14.160 of the Reno Law specifically says that big trucks must use designated truck routes.
(3) Streets, other than truck routes, shall not be used as through routes from one truck route to another unless pickup, delivery or essential use is required enroute.
(This section also prevents 18 wheelers from parking on YOUR cul de sac in front of YOUR house... which I am sure you would not want to happen.)
There are many reasons for this... a few: Danger, Irritation to residential areas, Danger, Pollution, Danger to children, Noise, Blight, Damage to streets not designed for heavy loads, Danger.
Surely there should be no permitting of this kind of crap. Truck deliveries.. fine. Truck contamination of neighborhoods... no!
Reno/Sparks Contaminating Authority Aristocrats To Travel in Posh Style... at Peons' Expense
by Sam Dehné
From now on whenever Mr Griffin (currently posing as the mayor of Reno in defiance of city law) travels somewhere, there is a strong possibility that citizens' taxes will pay for the luxury of plush First Class seating for him... and his wife. All he has to do is find a Convention taking place anywhere he wants to go, call his subordinates at the elitist RSCVA, and tell them to book him First Class... extra wine and caviar please.
With no compulsion toward lack of humbleness, Mr Griffin (currently posing as mayor of Reno in defiance of city law) squeezed a new amendment into the already liberal Travel Policies of the RSCVA... which will now allow him, and wife, to ride carte blanche on the government-trough... willy-nilly at will. He must, by the new RSCVA rules and guidelines, weasel his way to at least one mandatory Convention somewhere in the world every year... with no upper limit on the number of these boondoggles he and wife can attend.
Will he take advantage of these aristocratic trappings? Just peek at his track record.
There will be no way for citizens to track down his abuse of this newest noodleheaded scheme. And besides, he has friends in so many high places, that he will likely thumb his caviar-stained fingers at those "sniveling malcontents"... all the way to the First Class toilet.
This time though, even Mr Griffin's "friends" should be outraged.
Oh, and what about the posh free hotel rooms, bloated $$$per diem, and other lavish amenities for the "rich and infamous"?!?
Ad seen in the newspaper: WHITE FEMALE, AGE 40, great shape, loves to travel. Looking for RSCVA executive to marry. Contact Sparks.
(This story is not an April Fools Joke.)
ALERT FOR ALL RENO CITIZENS: DON'T BREATHE THE AIR!

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