Reno City Council member Miguel Martinez last week posted online that he wrote a check to the City of Reno for $1,844.70, which he said was to reimburse the city for travel expenses. The check, dated Feb. 28, was provided to the city six days after This Is Reno’s report that Martinez was reimbursed for more than he spent on city-related travel.
“I call myself a ‘humble’ public servant, and I will live that here. I was wrong,” he wrote in a post shared across his social media accounts. “I am the one who signed the paperwork and turned in the receipts for reimbursements that were incorrect. It was not intentional, but still, I should have paid better attention to detail.”
The details Martinez refers to are travel expense reports submitted and approved by the city, including reimbursement for a $742 plane ticket city records show he didn’t pay for. The flight was purchased on Assistant City Manager Ashley Turney’s city credit card. Martinez was also reimbursed for a $183 dinner in New York City that was included in hotel room charges while also getting reimbursement for meal per diem for the same day.
Martinez said the amount he returned to the city includes “some airfare, a meal and some incidentals, and an upgraded room charge.” It’s not clear how he calculated the reimbursement. The airfare and dinner totaled $924.96, leaving $919.74 for reimbursement of other expenses.
Among other travel expenses, Martinez spent $915 per night for four nights for an upgrade to a premier executive room at the Omni Hotel in Dallas, Texas, during the National Recreation and Parks Association conference in October 2023. The conference site listed 23 hotels as options for the conference, many of which regularly offer less expensive rooms.
The amount was at least $700 per night more than generally approved government rates for hotel rooms that time of year in Dallas.
This Is Reno reached out to Martinez by phone and email with several questions, including how he came to the $1,844.70 amount and whether he completed and reviewed his expense reports before signing and submitting them for approval.
Martinez, in an emailed response, did not provide specifics on how he arrived at the total he paid back to the city, instead pointing to his social media post for what expenses it covered. He added, “I am human and I made a mistake during a time of flux. I own up to those mistakes and have done my due diligence alongside our finance department to correct the issue.”
While some applauded the council member’s action, others said he did so only because he’d been caught in This Is Reno’s 10-part investigation into how Reno’s council spends its discretionary funds. That investigation showed Council member Devon Reese spends a significant amount of his discretionary spending on training for himself. Other council members use those funds for city initiatives, and city rules mandate discretionary funds be used for the benefit of the community.
Some suggested Reese and Mayor Hillary Schieve also reimburse the city based on This Is Reno’s reporting on their spending.
Schieve was called out for spending $400 on executive car service by “Presidential Limo” to and from the airport in Washington, D.C. She said she needed the limousine service because of “inclement weather, logistical efficiency, safety and punctuality.”
Reese’s spending includes a laundry list of expenses, including extra room nights and meal charges on days he spent sightseeing.
He did not respond to a request for comment on whether he had also reimbursed the city for any of his travel expenses. However, he applauded Martinez online, writing, “We all have an obligation to admit when we are wrong and to seek to be better.”
This Is Reno continues to be stonewalled by city leadership and members of the City Council but has requested additional public records from the city to identify any other reimbursements that may have been submitted following our 10-part investigative series.
City officials refused to respond to dozens of questions about council member spending and why their purchases appear to violate generally accepted government accounting standards, as well as the city’s own rules.
