The following are highlights from today’s Washoe County Board of County Commissioners meeting:
1. Board approves temporary staffing measures for 2022 elections: The Registrar of Voters ramps up temporary staffing in election years to assist with the increased workload for the operations and administration of the elections. Today the Board of County Commissioners approved contracts with two temporary employment agencies, My Next Career Path Staffing LLC and A&A Associates, the only two agencies to respond to the County’s request for proposals (RFP). Washoe County may only contract with an agency through the RFP process and cannot sign a contract with an agency that does not respond to the RFP and win the contract. The Registrar of Voters may use temporary agencies for which Washoe County has a joinder agreement with the State of Nevada.
The agencies will provide temp employees to conduct customer service, voter registration and list maintenance, poll worker recruitment and training, ballot processing and various other election-related duties.
All election employees – temporary or otherwise – must be Nevada residents and registered voters. Those wishing to work the elections should visit the website and learn about the available positions and minimum requirements.
“This is the ability to hire the temp firms that will be able to employ those who want to work the polls. We use temporary agencies to do that because these are temporary jobs, not Washoe County jobs,” County Manager Eric Brown said. “This is the more fiscally responsible way to conduct these operations. We do not hire workers outside the state of Nevada, and the vast majority of our election workers are Washoe County residents.”
The contracts in total are not to exceed $322,000 and will provide staffing for both the Primary and General Elections this year.
2. Board revises pay for top Medical Examiner staff to compete with national market: In an effort to recruit and retain the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner and Assistant Medical Examiner, the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office requested an increase to the salary range for these job classifications, which the Board approved today. Historically, these positions have been extremely difficult to recruit for with a very narrow market pool of qualified candidates. The heightened competitiveness generated within the market due to the narrow candidate pool has made it increasingly challenging to attract qualified candidates. The most recent Assistant Medical Examiner vacancy remained unfilled for approximately one year due to these challenges, and a current Assistant Medical Examiner recently resigned.
The Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office investigates cases of sudden, unexpected, natural, and suspicious death. State and County laws mandate that certain categories of sudden death be reported to and investigated by this office. The department also provides full postmortem examination services and assistance with death investigations to 19 counties within Northern Nevada and Northern California.
3. Special District Funds allocated for numerous projects and nonprofits throughout the County: Commissioners approved numerous projects in Districts 1, 2, and 5 from the respective Special District Funds for these districts.
- $1,000 to the Nevada Interfaith Association to support the 2022-23 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Memorial Celebration (District 1)
- $5,000 to Our Story Inc. to support and market the Northern Nevada African American Firefighter Museum (District 1)
- $15,100 to the Tahoe Transportation District to support staffing costs for a deputy district manager and advance transportation development (District 1)
- $34,752 to the Washoe County Roads Fund to purchase two cattle/horse guards to be installed at the end of Toll Road/Ravazza Road to protect the Virginia Range Horses and keep them off of Washoe County roadways (District 2)
- $5,700 each to the following nonprofits: Awaken, Mustangs Wrestling Club, Boy Scouts of America Nevada Area Council, Forever 14, Adopt A Vet Dental Program, Friends of Washoe County Library (all in District 2)
- $5,748 to the Nevada Department of Veterans Services’ Capitol Hill Clinic to support housing assistance for U.S. military veterans (District 2)
- $10,000 each to Eddy House, The Greater Reno Community Ice Skating Association (District 2)
- $500 to the Human Services Agency of Washoe County for purchase of photography equipment for the Family Resource Center (District 2)
- $14,780 to Awaken, a nonprofit working to eradicate commercial sexual exploitation (District 5)
- $10,000 to The Salvation Army to support its human trafficking survivor program (District 5)
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