From left, Ward 2 Supervisor Maurice White (running unopposed), Ward 4 candidate Lucia Maloney and Ward 4 incumbent Lisa Schuette at a public forum at Brewery Arts Center on Oct. 7, 2024.
Photo by Scott Neuffer.
Incumbent Ward 4 Supervisor Lisa Schuette and challenger Lucia Maloney hugged each other before a public forum Monday night. They serve together on the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission, and Monday they discussed a range of issues, from road funding and development to environmental sustainability, finding some agreement and some points of difference.
Ward 2 Supervisor Maurice White, who is running unopposed, joined Schuette and Maloney on stage to offer his thoughts to the conversation.
The League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada, Sierra Nevada Forums and AAUW Capital (NV) Branch presented the free election forum, one of four co-sponsored by the Nevada Appeal. Monday’s event was moderated by Nancy Scott, and questions were taken from audience members. More than 180 people attended at the Brewery Arts Center, and the debate can be watched on the Appeal’s YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIx5ShRlbpA.
Schuette is seeking a second term. She has been a sheriff’s deputy, juvenile probation officer and middle school teacher, being named Carson City Teacher of the Year in 2013, according to a press release. She also founded Carson Animal Services Initiative (CASI), “spearheading the effort to build and help equip the new animal shelter.”
Maloney has 20 years of experience in transportation and regional policymaking in the public and private sector and runs a consulting business, according to a press release. Maloney was Carson City’s transportation manager from 2017 to 2021 and currently serves on the RTC in a second term.
Following the mayoral race where road funding was an issue, Schuette and Maloney gave their respective answers when asked how to fix roads if two tax proposals on the November ballot don’t pass. One of the ballot proposals is a .25 percent sales tax, and the other is a supplemental government services tax of one cent on one dollar of vehicle valuation collected during registration at the DMV.
Carson City Public Works has estimated the funding shortfall between maintenance needs of deteriorating roads and current funding is $21 million a year.
Schuette said gas tax revenues, which comprise the majority of the city’s current road funding, have remained flat due to more EV and fuel-efficient vehicles.
“And so, my hope with the quarter-cent sales tax and for the government services tax is to include more people in the process,” said Schuette. “There has been a pushback, and I’ve heard it, that we don’t want a GID, we don’t want the board of supes to make a decision to tax property owners, so we’re not. We have put it to the voters to give you an opportunity to fund local roads. It is stated in that one sentence that it is earmarked solely for local roads. So, it is incredibly important that we pass that.
“If we don’t, then it is up to us as a community to decide what we can live with, what level of service we want our roads and how we want to proceed. If you’re talking about reducing the budget within the different departments, then the community will need to decide what services (they) do you not want, and that will be a conversation that is incredibly important, and as somebody who’s willing to listen to the community, I’m eager to hear it.”
Maloney said step one in addressing the shortfall is “getting into the weeds and having a serious technical discussion of what it is that we want to maintain here in this city.”
She gave the example of asphalt maintenance best practices including slurry sealing every 3-5 years, a thicker coat every 10 years and full replacement at 20 years. However, she said Carson soils are stable, with roads deteriorating more slowly than the national average.
“We shouldn’t be surprised that an estimate based on outdated asphalt technology and national best practices maintenance schedules for regions with different soils is $21 million over budget,” said Maloney. “Staff has done their job. They provided the initial estimate, and I was part of that team, and I can tell you how it was come up with, and our staff can too. There is no mystery magic in there. It’s elected leadership’s turn to ask technical questions and constrain the maintenance cost through policy.”
Maloney laid out some alternative funding ideas such as a new increment in room tax for visitors, “an increment available that would still keep us more affordable than our neighbors.”
Schuette said she agreed on finding new means for road funding, adding, “but isn’t because of a lack of willingness to maintain roads; it’s that budget, and we have had a shortfall based on how we currently receive our revenue.”
One audience question was about what actions supervisors would take to address climate change and sustainability at the city level. Schuette noted she had championed eco-friendly infill material – not recycled tire crumb rubber – in approving, unanimously with other supervisors, a design contract for an artificial turf project at the upper fields of Centennial Park. That motion occurred in September and prohibited crumb rubber being used. Schuette favored exploring coconut or walnut derivatives or cork for infill materials.
“So, we can find that balance of a longer playing season, helping our hotels have heads in beds, helping our recreation and our teams, being family friendly for the sports teams and being mindful of the environmental impact,” she said. “I think we can balance it, and I think it’s important to do so.”
Maloney gave the example of her work on the RTC considering compacted decomposed granite for multiuse paths instead of asphalt. She described herself as an advocate for free-market solutions.
“As market demand for sustainable practices continues to increase, we as city leadership have a responsibility to review and understand city codes and maybe development standards that could be barriers to implementation of sustainable materials and sustainable practices,” she said. “We want to make sure those barriers are eliminated, so we can encourage responsiveness to the demand for more sustainable practices.”
Development in Carson City’s downtown core was another topic raised, including whether supervisors and candidates supported 8-10-story buildings in the area.
White said he was hard-pressed “to tell anybody what sort of development they can put on their own private property.”
“I don’t think it’s the government’s business to tell people what architecture, what color, what trees that they can use on their property that they’re developing,” he said. “And I will continue that opinion. That’s what our founders told us is good government.”
Maloney said she supports property rights and zoning and development code.
“I’m a supporter of maintaining our small-town character, of being the most charming, historically friendly downtown state capitol in this country,” she said. “That said, I support administrative processes that would evaluate and potentially approve higher buildings in specific higher-density corridors such as downtown or on William or on S. Carson. However, right now we have an issue with vacant and blighted buildings, and what I’ve heard, and what I’ve personally experienced, is it is nearly impossible to understand what you need to do to open a business or get a building permitted right now in this city.”
Maloney argued for simplifying and streamlining city code to encourage businesses to invest in infill projects.
Schuette said the master plan includes different density levels, with denser zones downtown. She pointed to a recent update of Title 18 dealing with zoning code and the title’s appendix containing the city’s development standards.
“We were receiving a lot of letters about an 8-story parking lot, and that’s not something that has come before the board, so I’m not sure where that is coming from,” she said. “But the conversation was really about how do we maintain the charm and the character, and there was discussion about three stories on Curry Street, four stories on Carson Street. There was a discussion about the different buildings. We have the Capitol. We have the different state buildings. We have banks. We have businesses. We have mixed use on Curry, and so it’s that balance.”
Recently approved by the planning commission and the Board of Supervisors, the updated development standards limit buildings on Carson, Plaza and Stewart streets in the downtown mixed used district to four stories, and they limit buildings on Curry Street in the same zone to three stories.
Existing structures exceeding those limits, like the Ormsby House, would be grandfathered in if a second reading of two related ordinances is approved. A special use permit could be used to exceed the height limitations downtown, but SUPs require a public hearing before the planning commission.
The next election forums are scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 9, and Oct. 14 and 16. More information:
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