Public notified of cancelation 35 minutes after scheduled meeting start

Washoe County’s community homeless advisory board was canceled Monday morning because of the Davis Creek Fire. However, members of the public were not notified of the cancelation until 35 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start.

County spokesperson Bethany Drysdale initially told This Is Reno the cancelation notice was sent before the meeting was set to begin at 9 a.m.

“The cancellation was noticed this morning, and we posted on social about it,” she said. Drysdale sent a screenshot of the county’s 8:11 a.m. Facebook post about the Davis Fire. The second sentence of the post is where it was announced the CHAB meeting had been canceled. 

Emails to those signed up to get announcements about the meeting, however, were not delivered until after the meeting’s start time, which Drysdale admitted was late.

CHAB Chair and County Commissioner, Alexis Hill, said she canceled the meeting because of the fire. “I wasn’t aware of the timing of the notification, but I did cancel it because of the fires,” she said.

Commissioner Mike Clark, who is also on the CHAB, said he was pissed off about the situation, and he was notified when already on the way to the meeting. “I’m hopping mad,” he told This Is Reno. “I live in the area of the fire, and I can make it to the meeting. All the county employees are at work.”

He later posted on Facebook his dissatisfaction with the cancelation while also praising firefighters and emergency personnel battling the still uncontained blaze, estimated as having burned more than 4,500 acres.

“My home is in Washoe Valley, and I stayed in my house during the Davis Fire evacuations,” he wrote. “No power, water, internet, refrigeration, etc. you name it—I camped in my home and took care of my animals.”

He said he was perplexed the meeting was canceled. “I never thought the Community Homelessness Advisory Board meeting would be cancelled, and that was why I was driving to Reno this morning, the only reason I left my house early,” Clark said. “I would have stayed off the road for fire services. 

“County Manager Brown indicated the meeting had to be cancelled because he had to be available for fire planning,” he added. “I asked again what fire safety training he’s gone to, and he told me to go to the CHAB Chair Alexis Hill for clarification. County Manager Brown is not part of this committee so I have no idea why his non-availability would cause the meeting to be cancelled.”

He said the meeting should have only been canceled due to a lack of a quorum on the board, and if so, the meeting could have been done remotely on Zoom. Homeless advocates contacted by This Is Reno also said they were unaware of the meeting’s cancelation.