The following are highlights from today’s Washoe County Board of County Commissioners meeting:
1. Board approves purchase of ballot marking devices, extends contract through 2030: The board approved Registrar of Voters Andrew McDonald’s request to purchase LibertyVote ballot marking devices (BMDs), transitioning Washoe County elections toward vote-center-based printing and scanning of ballots. The $1,764,619.70 purchase is to be funded through an already allocated capital improvement fund.
With the BMD purchase approval, the Board also extended the LibertyVote annual software license and support contract for hardware and software used by the Registrar of Voters Office through Dec. 31, 2030.
Registrar McDonald addressed the Board’s questions on the benefits of the new devices. “It is more transparent for the public,” McDonald said. “Giving the voter more confidence in the election by holding that tangible ballot before they cast it.”
Additionally, the Board approved utilizing the Statewide Ballot Contract. This shifts the fiscal responsibility of eligible mail ballot materials from the County to the Nevada Secretary of State.
2. Board approves contract with new county manager: The Board approved a two-year contract for County Manager Kate Thomas effective December 1, 2025, until November 30, 2027. Thomas was appointed on October 27, 2025, and served as interim county manager since July 1. Her annual base salary is to be $338,988, a 10 percent increase over her assistant county manager base salary, and 1 percent less than the prior county manager.
3. Board hears recommended budget for Library System and provides direction: The Library Board of Trustees (LBOT) was tasked to review library operations and recommend a budget for FY27, which begins July 1, 2026, that will be entirely supported by the county’s General Fund. For the past 30 years, the Washoe County Library System has been funded through a combination of General Fund appropriations and a dedicated Library Expansion Fund. The Expansion Fund was not renewed by voters in the 2024 election, so while the 2-cent property tax is still levied, it is not dedicated to the Library System, and its use is at the discretion of the Board of County Commissioners.
The LBOT is presenting a budget equal to the current year’s budget, which is just over $17.6 million, and as the library’s 12 branches are primarily in the business of providing service to our residents, approximately 83 percent of the budget is personnel-related. The LBOT has held several public discussions on the budget and how to best proceed without the dedicated Expansion Fund, including scenarios that offer differing levels of service at different locations, providing programs that are most impactful and in the correct locations, or changing the operating hours to best serve the community.
“I am in support of what the library has proposed,” Chair Alexis Hill said. “I’m glad they’re going to look strategically at where it’s best to put the staff for the programming but keeping it the same as the year prior is the smart move.”
4. Board conducts second reading of ordinance to dissolve Department of Alternative Sentencing: On October 21, 2025, the Board of County Commissioners conducted a first reading to repeal Chapter 11 of the County Code, which established the Department of Alternative Sentencing (DAS). Today the Board took the next step to conduct a second reading and public hearing, and voted to repeal Chapter 11.
There are four operational functions that will be moved or addressed in other ways, and 20 positions that serve those functions that will be moved to other departments. A staffing and budget report will be presented at the December 16 meeting, with a full dissolution of the department completed by the beginning of 2026.
“If we do something and create something on a fresh canvas and move forward with this and it isn’t quite right, we have the ability to tweak that any way we want,” Commissioner Mike Clark said. “I have confidence in the county manager to do that, and I have confidence in the county commissioners to agree to that as well. We want this to work.”
County Manager Kate Thomas commits that she will gather data and continue to communicate with the Board and stakeholders in order to monitor any issues that may arise so they can be reassessed.
5. Board hears update from Nevada Housing Coalition: Maurice Page, executive director of the Nevada Housing Coalition, presented an overview of the organization’s objective to address the housing crisis in Nevada. Nineteen percent of renter households are considered extremely low-income, and Nevada is short nearly 78,000 rental homes for those in that category. Several key bills were passed in the 2025 Nevada Legislative Session to address the problem of affordable housing.
- AB366 – Nevada Supportive Housing Development Fund: Redesignates the Nevada Supportive Housing Development Fund from a special revenue fund to an account in the State General Fund.
- AB62 – Transferable Tax Credits for Affordable Housing: Improves the administration and effectiveness of Nevada’s Transferable Tax Credit (TTC) program for affordable housing development.
- AB475 – Eviction Diversion Program: An act making appropriations to Clark County ($15 million), the City of Reno ($5,250,000), and the Nevada Rural Housing Authority ($750,000) for eviction diversion programs.
- AB540 – Nevada Attainable Housing Act: Establishes the Nevada Attainable Housing Account with an initial $133 million appropriation and adds a new “Tier One” category for those earning 30% AMI or less.
“I got really excited when I heard about the ‘missing middle,’ the exciting part about AB540 that I think we need to keep pushing for. There are a lot of families who don’t want to live in a single-family home that would prefer a townhouse, a condo, a cottage, a duplex, triplex, and making that easier for county and cities to provide the housing variability,” Commissioner Mariluz Garcia said. “I know that here at the county we’ve been working really hard to take away some of those barriers and promote ADUs. Looking at the diversity of our housing stock is a great place to stay in that lane.”
6. Board approves allocation of District 3 Special Fund: The Board voted to approve Commissioner Mariluz Garcia’s allocation of $2,500 from the District 3 Special Fund to Born 2 Ball Basketball Academy. This will support bringing affordable competitive basketball opportunities to youth athletes in Reno and Sparks.
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