Nevada legislators visit Winnemucca to discuss upcoming bills and local concerns

Nevada Senator Ira Hansen and Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen (Dist. 23) visited Winnemucca in person on Jan. 24 for the first time since COVID. They were joined by fellow colleague, Assemblywoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong of Clark County (Dist. 6). 

The trio teamed up in efforts to represent a bipartisan platform for Nevadans, according to Senator Hansen, who also visited Dist. 6 (West Las Vegas) previously with Assemblywoman Hansen. They had a busy day, meeting with the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners, the Winnemucca City Council, and the Humboldt County School District Board of Trustees (coordinated by local resident Lewis Trout).  

Humboldt 

County Board of Commissioners 

During their time meeting with the Board of Commissioners, the legislators discussed important concerns that the Commission and the public.

Water was mentioned many times and Senator Hansen assured that water, or the lack of water Nevada has, is and will continue to be an important issue in the legislature, but the ability of water right holders to transfer their rights to wherever they want is unavoidable. He also explained that with an influx of residents moving from Calif. to Nev., the problem may continue to get worse. 

Many people brought up concerns about the safety of Highway 95 and asked the legislators to be aware of the growing number of fatalities. Although Highway 95 is the responsibility of the Nevada Department of Transportation, Senator Hansen assured that Highway 95 is of great concern to Nevada legislators. 

Humboldt County Commissioner Ron Cerri brought concerns about major mining projects conducting their own environmental studies when the Bureau of Land Management fails to do so. Commissioner Cerri proposed a possible fund that would help residents of unincorporated communities conduct third party environmental studies. 

Humboldt County Commissioner Jesse Hill explained his concerns about the County’s lack of mental health resources. Director of Juvenile Services Pauline Salla also raised concerns regarding mental health and explained that certain legislation makes it hard for mental health professionals to stay in Humboldt County. She explained that she has to send mental health interns hundreds of miles away in order for them to complete their certifications because Humboldt County’s Juvenile Hall is unable to provide the full range of requisites to them. 

Humboldt County Manager Dave Mendiola raised concerns about $100 million in funding from the state that was promised for a Wastewater Treatment Facility for the Grass Valley area that was pulled by Governor Sisolak for a drought resilience conservation initiative.

Senator Hansen inquired with Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s Chief of Staff Ben Kieckhefer at the meeting through text to see if he could help sort the possible funding. 

Winnemucca City Council 

Winnemucca City Manager Alicia Heiser presented three major concerns to the legislators regarding municipal constraints on Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) for those operating large vehicles for the City, inaccuracies and unreliability in the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) broadband map, and a cost threshold on public works projects that causes difficulties for rural communities. 

Inaccuracies in the FCC’s broadband map disqualify Winnemucca from services because, according to the map, Winnemucca is already served adequately. Without necessary changes, the City will continue to lack broadband in important areas. 

According to Heiser, the City has a hard time enticing employees to spend the required eight weeks in training hundreds of miles from their families in order to attain their CDL (required by legislation). Senator Hansen and Assemblywoman Hansenmade made note of the issues and discussed possible exceptions that could be presented. 

Winnemucca Police Department Chief Mike Rangel brought up decriminalization of carrying smaller quantities of drugs and its effect on the community and the overdose rates. 

Rangel explained that the rates of overdose in the community have skyrocketed since the laws became more lax on the quantity of drugs an individual can carry before they can be convicted to jail. 

A member of the Concerned Citizens of Orovada group of Orovada, NV presented an idea to create a fund that would help small communities conduct third party environmental studies (like Commissioner Cerri’s) that was seen favorably by the legislators.  

Humboldt County School District Board of Trustees

Senator Hansen, Assemblywomen Hansen and Summers-Armstrong were joined by Assemblywoman Erica Mosca (Dist. 14) also of Clark County (East Las Vegas). 

“I wanted to do my best to see all 17 counties and talk to every superintendent, because we know issues are so different than what I knew in East Las Vegas,” said Mosca at the meeting. 

Staff from all schools were present to appeal to the legislators, many of which wanted to increase pay to teaching staff and make reforms to bills passed that have had many unintended consequences (Restorative Justice and Net Proceeds of Minerals) to teachers and their classrooms. 

Senator Hansen explained that in order to increase education funding, the money has to come from somewhere and the only industry “not paying their fair share” is the gaming industry. 

Senator Hansen spoke of a “backdoor” deal made between the Culinary Union (a major benefactor of the gaming industry) and the Teacher’s Union in Clark County to shift a tax from gaming to mining, thus sweeping all of the net proceeds of minerals from Humboldt County and other mining laden counties into a big pot, distributing it on a per pupil basis, which is favoring of larger counties, such as Clark.

Senator Hansen also explained that a question to shift the tax to the gaming industry (backed by a petition with 200,000 signatures) was removed from the ballot (through approval of the Attorney General), so many Nevadans did not have a say in the matter. 

“You need to understand the funding in Nevada is lower than other places because our main industry in Nevada, which is gambling, pays substantially less into the revenue pool. We had a chance to correct that, but it was removed from your ability. It should have been on the ballot,” said Senator Hansen. 

Brian Lamb of the Nevada State Education Association (present at the meeting) explained that education budgets were frozen for 11 different counties in Nevada, some for as many as 60 years with current legislation. Humboldt County’s budget will be frozen for a projected seven years, making any increase in pay for teaching staff impossible presently.  

Teachers and school staff spoke against the Restorative Justice Bill that was passed in 2019 and how it is damaging their classroom environments. The bill denies schools the right to suspend students younger than 11 for behavioral issues. Senator Hansen was the only Senator to vote no on the bill. 

“What are we teaching students by not having consequences? I feel like us middle school teachers are in a unique position here. We have some students of age to face serious consequences, but we have others who are not of age, and they know it…No teacher should be worried about having their room destroyed, or especially our other students getting hurt,” said Middle School Teacher Leslie Enochson.

Assemblywoman Hansen explained that 2020 was an extremely hard year for legislation, as many things happened over zoom and under the guise of COVID restrictions that should have never happened. She appealed to the teachers and others present at the meeting to “please come and join us in the legislature. Write to us and watch these hearings online because it is important that you have that input.”