New director’s selection was in the cards

A deck of playing cards dictated the final makeup of the new Board of Directors for the Truckee Carson Irrigation District.

With current chairman and director Ernie Schank retiring this year, three candidates filed for his position. After elections, a tie emerged between Abraham Schank and Roger Lambert, and Dan Ward was the third candidate.

“We thought about a special election but decided on cards instead,” said District Manager and General Counsel Rusty Jardine at Tuesday’s monthly TCID meeting.

By consulting Nevada Revised Statute 539, which governs the irrigation district, and the provisions that govern an election, Jardine and the directors looked at different ways of selecting a new representative.

They finally decided on cutting a deck of cards.

“The candidates were OK with the process,” Jardine said, “and that’s what we thought we’d do.”

The candidate drawing the highest card would be seated.

So, Jardine ordered a State of Nevada deck of cards from the Legislature’s gift store in Carson City. Then, to make the process fair, TCID asked Sheriff Ben Trotter to officiate by shuffling the cards, cutting the deck and then having Schank and Lambert each draw a card.

Schank won with the Queen of Spades, and Lambert had a seven of Spades.

Both Jardine and Ernie Schank called the election between the two tied candidates historical.

The TCID board consists of seven members, each representing a district. Lester de Braga, Eric Olsen and Wade Workman ran unopposed and automatically were declared the winners after voting closed.