PUBLIC COMMENTS BEFORE THE WASHOE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

BY GARY R. SCHMIDT,

VICE-CHAIR WASHOE COUNTY BOARD OF EQUALIZATION

JANUARY 17TH 2006

  

Bonnie Weber [County Commissioner-Dist. 5] and Katy Singlaub [County Manager] last year made an effort to have me removed from the County Board of Equalization for reasons that were not clearly stated and were charged often throughout the three hearing process.  In an e-mail from Singlaub to Weber,  she stated that I had obstructed the hearing process so that no appellant could get a fair hearing.  A claim that in essence was a fabricated lie in that they could not get even one appellant to come forward to support their outrageous and inflammatory accusations while hundreds of appellants sent e-mails and letters in support of and praising my performance on the Board.  Related articles are available on line.

This Political and personal vendetta was initiated by Weber and Singlaub and blindly supported by Larkin [County Commissioner-Dist. 4] and Humke [County Commissioner-Dist. 2] in a feeble attempt to influence my decision and vote on the Board of Equalization on a matter that might negatively impact the income stream of the County from Property taxes and as retribution for my criticism in public forums of their failures to follow the Open Meeting Laws as well as my exposing of an attempt by Singlaub to sneak through on the consent agenda a sweat-heart lobbying contract of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for her “big-sister society” buddy—Mady Schipman just four days after Shipman retired from the County.

Ultimately Weber, Larkin and Humke voted not to remove me from the Board but to censure me instead with mandatory training, which I still anxiously await.   I am anxious to teach such a trainer a thing or two about the law.  Humke, Weber and Larkin rapidly retreated from their unscrupulous attempts to remove me from the BOE when they were faced with thousands of outraged citizens that saw immediately through their thinly veiled attempt at persecution of me for personal political reasons and I again thank the Public for their support.  I also thank Commissioners Galloway and Sferrazza for their immediate recognition of the witch hunt—kangaroo court that Weber, Larkin and Humke were attempting to conduct.

Now, two District Court Judges have vindicated further my service on the BOE and in essence vitiated and indirectly condemned the acts of Weber, Larkin, Humke and Singlaub in that both Judges have independently ruled that the Assessor’s and District Attorney’s Offices were in error and failed to follow the proper regulations and processes in regards to appraisals in the Incline Village area.  My question to Weber, Larkin and Humke, is now, “are you going to continue to goose step march off a cliff for the Assessor’s and District Attorney’s Offices?  Are you going to somehow attempt to remove Judges Griffin and Maddox from the bench like you attempted to remove me from the BOE or are you now ready to apologize, reform and take responsibility for your mis-doings and illegal acts?”

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