Opinion

Judy Whites letter about John McKenna's job at Access TV is right on the money. John MckEnna was the teasurer on the Board of Trustees for the Carson Access Television Foundation when over $500,00 dollars was embezzeled by Craig Swope. I remember this story now because I was so outraged that Craig Swope got a slap on the wrist while any Joe Smo would have got years in prison. The president of that Board was Tom Baker. Mr. Baker had been in office longer than the by laws permitted.

By Guy W. Farmer

After Carson Nugget President Steve Neighbors accused me of basing my opposition to the Nugget Bailout Project (aka the City Center Project) on “conjecture and false innuendo” in last Tuesday’s Appeal, I asked former mayors Ray Masayko and Marv Teixeira for their opinions on this dubious project. Both Masayko and Teixeira, who were political rivals in recent years, raised serious questions about the $80 million project, which would put nearly $40 million tax dollars at risk during an economic recession and
impose an additional one-eighth-cent sales tax.

Boy Mr. Farmer and Mr. Joiner must have struck a very sensitive nerve with Mr. Neighbors. Steve Neighbors had a commentary article a week before Guy Farmers article telling us how concerned he is for Carson City's future. He proceded to tell us who he would vote for if he lived here. He endorsed Williamson and Abrowd (both for the Nugget Bail Out Project), but did not list any other issues (School Board candidates, School Bond, Governors race ect). Keep up the Good work Farmer and Joiner in making Neighbors accountable for all the facts not just the facts that benefit the Nugget.

Rarely has a Nevada senatorial race received the nationwide attention this year’s has. Of course, there’s the old pro versus the new pro — Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. Both have been around the barn a number of times, she in the Nevada Legislature and Harry in all kinds of jobs, most currently, of course, Senate majority leader.

Seems a lot of Nevadans are unhappy with Harry, mostly because he is now an insider, carrying out President Obama’s programs as any majority leader would be forced to do if it’s his party in the White House.

I'm a taxpayer who has lived here for 20 years and my dream is not the same dream Mae Adams and her trustees dreams are!

I have a problem with a Boise, Idaho resident like Steve Neighbors telling me what's best for Carson City. We are already in the NEGATIVE with other projects (Pony Express and V&T). We have experts say that in this economy it might not be the best thing to start a new project. I kind of would like to see the "pay as you go, and if you cant pay, then don't go" theory when it comes down to tax payers footing more projects.

By: Lee Kennedy
http://www.faithfamilyandfreedom.com

Dear Editor,

Several negative mailers featuring Assembly candidate Pete Livermore were sent out recently to Carson City homes.

These ads were sponsored by the Nevada State Democratic Party, which hired an outside firm to produce the pieces. They claim Livermore got a "sweetheart deal" from the city when it purchased land he owned in order to widen Clearview Drive.

(Editor's note: The following was presented to the Carson City Board of Supervisors during public comments at the Oct. 7 meeting by Star Anderson, General Manager, Carson Nugget)

The east side of Carson City got hit with quite the big rainstorm this afternoon. It was coming down so hard that at one point I spent about half and hour diverting water from around my garage. Afterward, I drove over to the west side where it floods anytime there is heavy rain, but it didn't look like they got too much over there.

CarsonWeather.com is reporting almost an inch of rain has fallen today, with more expected tonight.

The middle class in jeopardy
By Todd M. Koch

Questions you will never see on Jeopardy: What country holds elections where one side can force all voters to listen to all its campaign speeches and propaganda? What country allows bosses to threaten the jobs of workers who don't vote the company way?

The U.S.A.

It’s hardly a surprise to those living in Nevada that the unemployment rate is high, 14 percent more or less depending on who’s counting. The state is in a hole because of poor tax structure, decreased tourist visits and encroaching California Indian casinos, among other things.

And all the experts are predicting a slow growth and return to the basic 3 or 4 percent unemployment.
The Obama Adminnistration in Washington says we’re on the track to recovery and if we can just control the lunacy that is the New York Stock Exchange and others we’ll be all right.

Yeah.

There is an interesting discussion going on over at the Nevada Appeal site concerning the Nugget Project.

The story begins two week ago when Guy Farmer wrote a rather harsh column that slammed the Nugget Project. In response, last week there was a guest column by Michael Douglass criticizing Farmer's take on the subject.

It's a bit of a challenge to follow the story out today about what's happening with the Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

It starts out saying that Nugget President Steve Neighbors is "encouraged" by the response from the governor's office, after meeting with them to discuss their concerns about the state's role in the project. Those concerns were expressed in a letter from the governor's Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick last month.

But later on in today's story, Hettrick said the same issues about providing sufficient space for the Department of Health and Human Services and parking remain. I detailed how this affects the project here, and ran the numbers to show how the state office component of the plan doesn't pencil out.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong sent Carson Now his response to Guimont's comment that was posted after a gang-related shooting incident two weeks ago. Carson Now contacted Guimont and verified that the comment did in fact come from him.

By now, you have probably heard about the fiasco in Bell, Calif., where city officials were being paid outrageous salaries while cutting services and raising taxes.

When the manager of a city of 36,000 residents takes home almost $800,000 a year, that's going to raise some eyebrows. And how did he and other city executives get these salaries? The elected officials in Bell gave it to them, along with $100,000 annual salaries for themselves, for their part-time jobs.

Elizabeth Crum / Nevada News Bureau

Here are my most recent National Review Online blog items, Dear Readers:
http://www.nationalreview.com/battle10/state/Nevada
Headlines:

After yesterday's revelation that Gov. Jim Gibbons' office doesn't like the numbers they are seeing about the Nugget Project, what's next?

What the letter from Gibbons' Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick was responding to was a newly completed study from Meridian Business Advisors that looked specifically at the feasibility of moving three state agencies to the new Carson City Center Project, AKA Nugget Project.

There are about a million people who know Kenny Guinn better than I do.

But it's that fact that makes the interactions I had with him so interesting.

As a political columnist, I took my fair share of shots at him, on issues like Yucca Mountain and his big tax rebate program. Besides sending his nuke dump point man out to counter my criticisms, he never held those against me.

There was a disturbance near the Legislature Building Saturday afternoon in Carson City. A woman who was apparently angry at some political signs, allegedly threw rocks at three demonstrators.

The news that came across the scanner this July 3 afternoon was that there was a fight involving "protesters" in front of the Legislative Building. Given the political climate these days, it was worth following up.

Despite the efforts of some citizens to get the Nugget Project to be put to a vote of the people, you won't find it on the ballot when you go and vote today.

But the results of this primary election might tell us a little about the public's sentiment concerning this project.

Out of the nine candidates running for the two open seats on the Carson City Board of Supervisors, only one — Karen Abowd — has expressed full support for the Nugget Project. The rest are either skeptical or outright opposed.

I saw this last week but didn't get a chance to do anything on it. The Nugget Project has a new name: The Carson City Center Project.

Why? It seems the Nugget name was getting in the way, as people focused on what it will do to help the Carson Nugget. It should be noted, however, that it was the city who deemed this the Nugget Project.

But do you think a new name will really change the perceptions about this project? Do you think the name will stick?

Obtaining leases from three state agencies has been cited by the people pushing the Nugget Project as a critical piece to its success.

But, there's been more than a little skepticism that the State of Nevada, staring down the barrel of a $3 billion deficit in its next budget, has any appetite for spending money it doesn't have to.

Early voting opens tomorrow at the Carson City Courthouse. And while I voted on the first day last election, I'm waiting until June 1 this time. That is when the campaign finance reports come in. It will be interesting to see who is funding which candidates. We will be posting those reports on Carson Now when we get them for everyone to see. Also, before you vote, check out Our Town, where we have interviewed most of the candidates.

Last week, I sat down with Joe McCarthy, head of Carson City's Office of Business Development, and he provided some details about the Nugget Project that I hadn't heard before.

The biggest nugget is that the city is pursuing a 30-year, lease-to-own deal for the proposed library/discovery center and the land it sits on. McCarthy said that is the way the deal with P3 Development for the building will be, and that they are working to get the same deal for the land from the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation.

While the Carson City Board of Supervisors are on track to ante up $75,000 this week to move the Nugget Project to the next phase, I'm finding that the more I dig into the details, the more the numbers don't seem to add up.

Specifically, I'm looking into part of the project that calls for getting three state agencies to lease space in this proposed 177,000 square foot development in downtown Carson City. I use the word "proposed" in a very loose sense here, since it's likely to change once P3 Development begins the real process of feasibility planning for this project. In fact, as I am writing this, there's a new story out from Northern Nevada Business Weekly quoting the developer that the office portion would be 175,000 square feet, with an additional 50,000 square feet of retail space, to go along with the 60,000 square feet for the library/business incubator/digital media lab portion of the project.

The developer chosen for the Carson Nugget Redevelopment Project will be on hand tonight to answer questions about the project.

Rick Oshinski, CEO of Sacramento-based P3 Development, will appear before the Carson Nugget Development Advisory Committee tonight in the Community Center's Sierra Room.

Carson Now plans to show live video of the meeting, as well as hosting a discussion forum.

Many questions are sure to arise, concerning the details on the project and its scope, as well as the developer and how the company was chosen.

As I've been talking to people about this project, I've collected a number of questions, that I put together below.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors yesterday voted to proceed with investigating the lease or purchase of the Fireside building (or another similar structure) for the purpose of creating a business resource center. (You can replay the live blog of the meeting here.)

The Nevada Appeal has uncovered a few new tidbits about Nugget Project consultant Mark Lewis.

Following the piece I wrote on Lewis this week, the Appeal found a grand jury report dealing with Lewis' big project developments as city manager of Stockton, Calif. The report showed that costs associated with development of the the Stockton ballpark and events center swelled from an estimate of $75 million to more than $120 million, and placed the blame for this on Lewis and the lack of oversight by the city's elected officials.

Today's Nevada Appeal has a story about how a developer has been selected for the Carson Nugget downtown redevelopment project.

The story mentioned that the developer, P3 Development, built the $64 million Stockton Events Center while Mark Lewis was that city's manager.

But that understates the ties between Lewis and the developer. Looking at the projects listed on P3's website, a large part of their work seems to stem from the City of Stockton, and happened during Lewis' tenure.