Carson City Forums: Mayoral candidates discuss roads, affordable housing, sustainability and more

Candidate forums returned to Carson City last week, and are continuing in the series hosted by Sierra Nevada Forums, the League of Women Voters, the Nevada Appeal, and KUNR.

During the first forum held at the Brewery Arts Center, the two candidates for Carson City mayor discussed a number of topics including affordable housing, sustainability, growth, the master plan, and more.

Mayor Lori Bagwell has served as Carson City mayor for four years and is currently running for reelection.

Her opponent, Jim Shirk, is a former Carson City supervisor.

Opening Statements

In opening statements, Bagwell focused on the city’s achievements. She said that in the 58 years she has lived in Carson City, she has seen the city grow and change, and believes the “community’s brightest days lie ahead” because of the progress that has been made.

“We have clean, sustainable water,” Bagwell said. “We have a new fire station being built. We have new housing for seniors and for families. We have some of the greatest parks and trail systems, award-winning, in our community, and we’ve implemented a plan to address homelessness.”

Bagwell said that, currently, the city’s biggest challenge is road funding.

“There’s no magic pool of money to fix this and no outside group or funding that can foot the whole bill … We’ll find a way to fund our roads or end up with band-aid solutions while the overall system deteriorates. I hope it doesn’t come to that, which is why I’m glad voters have a chance to look at funding solutions on the November ballot. The best solutions come when we work together as a community.”

Bagwell said the local economy is another focus, as Carson City should “always be a place where residents can live, work and play all within our city’s borders,” and have a business base strong enough to withstand occasional downturns.

A major issue facing the business community, she said, is that so much of the office space within the city is owned by the city and can’t be taxed, while other vacant retail space is aging.

“One big idea won’t fix everything,” she said. “A strong local economy is the hard work of advancing dozens of policy procedure changes, pitching hundreds of businesses, and asking them to put their roots down in Carson City, ensuring that thousands of Carson City families have options right here in this town without driving to Reno or Douglas County. Doing all that requires someone who knows both business and government, which is why I’m right for this task.”

In his opening remarks, Shirk focused on citizen engagement, limiting development, and criticizing Bagwell.

Shirk said that his top priority will be in providing opportunities for citizens to be heard because “citizens’ engagement will make our community better.”

He said that the budgeting process is one of the most important things that government does, as the budget “reflects the visions, strategies and priorities for the future of our community.” He said public participation in the budgeting process is something he “highly recommends and encourages.”

Transparency was another aspect Shirk returned to, stating that “the more our government can provide in the way of transparency, the more it increases trust, honesty and integrity.”

One topic he brought up again and again was limiting development and “keeping our rural, small town small.”

“Maintaining our rural small town charm must prevail,” Shirk said. “There is a strong attachment to our pace of life. The needs of the residents who support the community with their hard-earned tax dollars must be our top priority. It is a family first and foremost, always.”

Shirk wasted no time in taking shots at Bagwell.

Shirk said that developers should be charged a flat fee for each new dwelling that will go toward street repairs and said that Bagwell’s claim of securing $16 million in grants for roads should actually be seen as an accomplishment of city staff, not the mayor.

“Yet my opponent will most likely sign one piece of paper to receive these funds, but let it be clear, not one penny of the $16 million may be used for any deplorable Carson City streets. My opponent has allowed Carson City’s deficit to increase to $21 million during her term.”

Shirk did not expand on what he meant that none of the money will be used toward the city’s roads.

The responsibility of the mayor

The candidates were asked what the responsibility of the mayor is, and how they would work through those.

Shirk said the responsibility of the mayor is to represent the citizens of the communities in the “best fashion possible,” and that they must be the voice of the community and of the citizens.”

He said as mayor he would have meetings on an ongoing basis to meet with citizens and find out what their main concerns are.

The role of mayor is also to oversee the board of supervisors and to work with them cohesively to find things to better the community, and not just prioritize who has the best idea “but to work together as a unit to better our economy and our budget.” He said the city needs to get small businesses started, and to look at growth in a “different fashion” and slow down.

Bagwell similarly said that the role of mayor is the head of the Carson City government, the representative of the people, and the chair of the board of supervisors.

“The mayor has the task of protecting the health, welfare and safety of this community. That is a charge that is in the charter that falls to your mayor. If something is going wrong, the mayor would then implement a military law or an action that would be directed to the city manager or emergency manager that falls solely to the mayor, by charter.”

Bagwell said, more importantly, the role of mayor is to be a part of the community, to meet with citizens and find out what they’re thinking and where the city should be going.

“We’re doing an update to our master plan right now, and we’ve had over 21 listening tours that really are asking all of you, ‘What do you want it to look like? Where do you see us going in the future for the next 10, 20 years?’”

How to assist unhoused individuals and increase the availability of affordable housing

Bagwell said dealing with the issue of homelessness is not easy, and that while they did recently adopt a plan for dealing with issues, that doesn’t mean the work is done. She said they recently hired a firm that is experienced in working with the unhoused, and most of the firm’s team is made up of individuals who were themselves unhoused previously. She said the city also works with the non-profits in town that support homeless individuals, which uses donor dollars as opposed to taxpayer dollars.

“That’s where we’re really trying to work,” Bagwell said.

As to affordable housing, Bagwell said she is excited about the new affordable housing project on Butti Way, which will be opening soon to seniors and families.

“(Housing) is just not affordable,” Bagwell said. “So we did 160 units: 80 units for seniors and 80 for families. That’s aimed at helping those to have something affordable they can attain and remain in our community, and not have to sleep in their cars. Your board of supervisors worked really hard to try and make an impact, and (the development) should be coming online in the next month or so.”

Shirk similarly said the non-profits within the community are doing a great job in dealing with the unhoused population, but he believes that supervisors should work to bring the non-profits together to work on “one set of rules, or one application of two best to help the homeless, and work cohesively together rather than independently and separately from each other.”

Shirk said he also believes the city should work more with the sheriff’s office to relieve the “crowded segment of citizens.”

Shirk said that he isn’t “100% in favor” of the Butti Way affordable housing property. He said he believes there’s better alternatives, and that the city can do better, but he did not expand on what he meant by better alternatives.

As a follow up, Bagwell said it’s “fortunate” that the Supreme Court recently made the Grants Pass ruling, which deals with whether or not unhoused individuals have a constitutional right to sleep outside. The ruling returned decision-making back to local governments.

“There was quite a few years there from a case in Idaho and Grants Pass, Oregon that really tied our hands because it said, if you don’t have a shelter bed, you have to let them sleep on your streets,” Bagwell said. “So I’m very excited that the Supreme Court moved that back to local control so we can work with everyone to try and stem that tide and not have them sleeping on our streets.”

Climate Change and Sustainability

When asked what actions the candidates would take to address climate change and sustainability, answers between the two candidates were very different.

“I don’t think the board of supervisors can do much about climate change,” Shirk said. “I really don’t. I don’t think there’s any rules or regulations, whether it’s state or federal or local for that. I’m not sure that’s even within the capability of the city government.”

On sustainability, Shirk said “that’s a tough one,” and said that sustainability starts with citizens, and they should be able to work and live within our community and pay taxes.

Bagwell said that there is an individual within the city government who is assigned duties to look at climate change and sustainability, and said that they have been focusing on preparing for flood damage.

“At one point Carson City did a contract to go through and change all the light bulbs so we could be more (energy) efficient,” Bagwell said. “I think we’ve done a great job in preparing for flooding. We’ve had some horrible floods over the years, and we’ve really concentrated and done a great job to work in that arena. So when you have a climate occurrence, you’re able to deal with it so we don’t suffer as a community.”

Bagwell said that “the most sustainable thing we can do” is to maintain clean water for the citizens of Carson City, and the Quill Water Treatment Plant is an important sustainability project.

“You have to have clean water,” Bagwell said. “Is that not what's going on in the hurricane right now, that everybody is suffering because they don’t have what? Clean water. You have to have it for life. I’m very proud of our board’s work on that.”

Bagwell also said that they recently approved a grant to build a solar panel carport, which did not cost the taxpayers any money, which will be able to cut costs for the lowest income individuals within the city offset their energy bills.

In a follow up, Shirk said he “doesn’t think climate change has any bearing on light bulbs,” and agreed that while clean water is a necessity, “we should have to ask and look for it and look forward to clean water; it should be a requirement from the city government to provide to citizens.”

Regarding the solar panel project Bagwell cited, Shirk said that if “we’re providing it for some persons in Carson City or individuals or citizens, we should provide it for everyone’s ability to obtain the solar panel also, not just certain individuals.”

What are the top priorities for the city, and what changes would you recommend?

When asked what the top priorities are for the city, and what changes they would recommend, Bagwell said that she isn’t ready to make a recommendation for the master plan until she can see all of the comments from the public, which is currently being compiled.

She said that what she sees as potential shifts or changes from the current notes they’ve received are changes to some of the use districts, such as removing “tourist commercial” districts, among other updates.

“That more reflects what our community looks like,” Bagwell said. “But I think you’ll see January through March of 2025, you’ll see us get some final input from the public and we’ll get to work on updating the master plan.”

Shirk said that the biggest priority for the master plan is to preserve the small town rural community.

“We’re going to change the direction the city has been going for the past 100 years or whatever,” Shirk said. “And it’s going to change if more developments (are) going to come to Carson City. If we do not change the master plan to accommodate the wishes and dreams of the citizens who live here, and I really encourage small town rural should be the top priority, not more construction of home development.”

As a follow up, Bagwell said that while she understands and wants to maintain a small town community, she also “firmly believes in the rights of an individual that owns property and their right to develop it.”

She said recently, the city of Las Vegas denied a development in the Badlands Project, and was sued.

“And their lawsuit has ended up with a $280 million settlement against the city of Las Vegas,” Bagwell said. “So while I want small town community, I think it’s all you, the people, that give us that.”

Road repair and maintenance

The candidates were asked what specific road repair and maintenance they believe is necessary for the city, and if they have a recommendation to pay for it.

Shirk said that road repair is an “open-ended question” and he doesn’t believe there will be any solution to fix the roads considering their condition.

“I think we need to look at how we’re repairing the roads,” Shirk said. “We subcontract out, we’re paying wages rather than using the funds that’s collected for road repair. I think some people will, I think the mayor will say, ‘Well, we need to pay the individuals who work in that department.’ I think that should come out of the general fund, not from the taxpayers for road repair. It should stay for road repair, not for salaries. I don’t think we need to hire an outside consultant for a couple of years that brings nothing forward to how to resolve the problem.”

Shirk said they need to look at budgeting, and continue to review it on a regular basis.

“We present the budget, it’s passed, and we move on. We never bring it back. I think the budget needs to be examined at the board of supervisors meeting twice a month. A department head can come there with his budget. We can look at the budget, talk about the budget, and re-examine how they’re spending things.”

Shirk said that every department should have their budget cut by a percentage or two.

“If we can do that, we’ll raise money for road repair,” Shirk said. “That’s the only way we’re going to do it.”

Bagwell said that road repair is definitely needed, and they have held “numerous meetings throughout the community” over the last few years to discuss road repairs.

Bagwell said the way to pay for it is through the two ballot measures currently being proposed, which would increase the Special Purpose Sales Tax by 0.25%, and a government services tax (GST) of $0.01 on each $1.00 of valuation of registered vehicles.

The sales tax is estimated to generate between $4 million and $4.5 million per year, and the GST is estimated to generate about $2.5 million per year.

Bagwell responded to Shirk’s proposal of cutting department budgets.

“Our general fund for 2023 was $103 million,” Bagwell said. “We expended $83 [million], then had other uses of $19 [million] because you have to pay your debt … So then I look and say, ‘What do we spend our money on?’ So if I’m going to give [the budget] a haircut like he’s suggesting, 65% of our budget that’s to the DA, the public defender, the sheriff, the juvenile [services], our [department of alternative sentencing], our courts, and our fire department. Most communities that I know of, they’re never cutting their public safety.”

Bagwell said that, aside from public safety, there is $28 million left per year to spend on health, culture, recreation, and administration.

“I challenge each and every one of you to tell me where I’m going to get $10 million out of that $28 million,” Bagwell said. “We're not going to cut a service 50 percent because I know you'll come ask me for meals on wheels. You'll say ‘what are you doing, Lori? You're cutting the senior center food, right?’ Nothing ever goes down because once somebody depends upon it for their livelihood or their life, it's not going down.”

As a follow up, Shirk said “I didn’t say take money from the budgets that she mentioned in those departments,” but that they need to take a look at the budget and readjust and make cuts.

“I didn’t say cut the sheriff or the fire department or the other ones … this is the problem we have with the administration overlooking our budget. They don’t see things as they are. They look around, through, and upside down.”

Challenges for the next four years

When asked what the candidates believe the challenges of the next four years will be for the city, and how they would approach them, Bagwell said that hopefully they can cross the issues of roads off of the ongoing challenges, and that some of the challenges she sees deal with the school district.

“We’ve seen recently that the sheriff has had to do some interactions with our children [because] they think it’s funny to say, ‘I’m going to harm you.’ It’s not funny. I see that as more and more of a challenge of needing more resource officers potentially in our schools. Public safety is the responsibility of all of us.”

Bagwell said she also believes artificial intelligence will also become a challenge, because she doesn’t believe they can keep up with how it progresses.

“I worry constantly about the privacy of your data and the fact that, do you know what was said was real because people can make your voice and do things. And so I worry that technology is very expensive. We do not buy technology for $10,000 to fix an AI bot. It’s not going to happen; it’s very expensive.”

Bagwell said to address it, the city has to work with IT, conduct research, and find strategic plans.

She said every February the board comes together to discuss how the year is going, what they are missing, and what they need to direct staff to work on next, which is where a lot of the challenges come up.

Shirk said that the challenges for the community are endless, and that they “come and go every day.”

He said that as mayor, he will meet with citizens, community leaders and department heads to discuss their approach on how to move forward as a community and “look at things in a better perspective.”

He said that they can’t do it once a year, but need to do it on a daily basis, monthly or weekly, “however you want to put that.”

“And that is the job of the mayor to really fortify that and make it an effort to really solve the mystery,” Shirk said.

As a follow up, Bagwell said that it’s the job of city staff every day to review their budgets, tasks and strategic plans, and determine if they’re on task.

“It’s their job as a director to come and let the board of supervisors or the city manager know we’re not going to be able to implement this,” Bagwell said. “It takes an effort by all of the people in the city, staff and the board of supervisors, to constantly be monitoring, and we are.”

Building vacancies

The candidates were asked about how to “rescue” vacant buildings like the Ormsby House or the old Kmart building.

Shirk said that the issue is 20-30 years old, and won’t be solved “here tonight in two minutes.”

“It’s not going to go away,” Shirk said. “I don’t care what your feelings are about the Ormsby building. That’s going to exist until the owner of that property sells it or decides to invest money in it, which I doubt she will do … As long as they’re up to building code, they’re keeping the property clean, and they’re paying their property taxes, you can’t force them to sell the property or take it down in any means necessary that you want. It’s going to be there for a while.”

Shirk said that the owner is a “big supporter of [Bagwell] and so many [Bagwell] can talk to her and tell her to do something with the Ormsby House,” but he said it’s not going to happen “in our lifetime.”

“Nothing’s going to change, the Ormsby House is going to look like that forever.”

He said the Kmart building is going to become an RV storage facility, so it is “on the path to recovery.”

Bagwell said the way to deal with vacant buildings is to look to the city code and see if there’s anything that is blocking businesses from coming in because of zoning and use.

“What do we need to do to entice people to come here to move into those buildings instead of making a new building like Sprouts, which I'm thrilled selected us, but where in our code, or is there anything we're doing, that puts up a barrier to be able to deal with those vacant buildings? And you, the public, need to help us when we're doing the updated master plan to say, ‘hey, here's an out of box idea to add into the Title 18 uses in that area because we would like it as neighbors.”

As far as the Ormsby House goes, Bagwell said she would like to see it turned into condos for downtown living.

“That’s been something I think our vision has been there for a long time,” Bagwell said. “I think if we could find someone that had that vision with us, it would be wonderful.”

As a follow up, Shirk said that the city needs to get the chamber of commerce, the Visitors Bureau, and the Northern Nevada Development Authority to “work cohesively together to fill the empty buildings.”

“We need to put an effort forward to have these vacant buildings have owners or renters in them,” Shirk said “So, and I don't think there's been an effort to do this, but I think as your mayor, that's a big top priority we need to do because that would help our community immensely, and I think we just need better direction from the board of supervisors.”

Artificial Turf at Centennial Park

The candidates were asked how much additional revenue could Carson City receive if artificial turf is installed at Centennial Park, which would supposedly create a longer season for tournaments.

Bagwell said that she did not know the amount off the top of her head, but explained how a longer tournament season could impact tax revenue.

She said that the objective of artificial turf is to bring “heads and beds” into the community, meaning visitors who attend or spectate tournaments who would then stay in local hotels, eat at local restaurants, and shop at local stores.

“And let’s please have them fill up their vehicles with gasoline, cause I need that road tax money,” Bagwell said.

She said that she doesn’t believe there was a specific dollar amount attached to the idea, but that the Visitors Bureau indicated they believed it could double their season, so they could have twice as many tournaments.

Shirk said he isn’t able to get that information, and while he has “made some phone calls, he can’t get any headway on that.”

Shirk said he is not in favor of artificial turf, and it can cause injuries.

“[My grandsons] have been injured on artificial turf, but not injured on what we call grass — not the kind you smoke, but the kind you walk on. And we need to maintain that within the city.”

Closing statements

Bagwell said that keeping a city that works for everyone comes down to two thing: listening and leading.

“The real job is knowing the community, listening to everyone, and then helping all of us together forge a path ahead,” Bagwell said. “One of the most important things a mayor can do is bring as many voices to the table as possible on all issues, whether its roads, our economy, protecting our natural resources. We’re smarter together, and stronger as a community when we solve problems together.”

Bagwell said her job is to get things done, and she is proud of her record.

“Clean, sustainable water for our city, a new fire station, affordable housing for seniors and families, award-winning parks, trails, and recreational facilities, a plan to address homelessness … We've made a lot of progress and together we can do even more.”

Shirk said that what makes him uniquely qualified for the mayor’s position is his 20 years of private business experience, his service as a Navy veteran, and the fact that he has previously served on the board of supervisors.

“As a former supervisor, I am familiar with the operation of city government and staff,” Shirk said. “I am the best candidate for mayor of Carson City for many reasons. The top one is to ensure that your voice will be heard. City government should reflect the community values, not those of special interests.”

Shirk said the top issues are roads, maintenance, promoting a business-friendly environment, and becoming “money-wise” with the budget.

“As your mayor, we will reassess our priorities. We can no longer defer making decisions. No more kicking the can down the road. Budgeting is a single most important thing government does as it reflects the visions, the strategies, and the priorities for the future of our community. To achieve this kind of future, we all want our community to be well taken care of, and this action must be taken.”

Check back on Carson Now for more forum coverage.