Sam Dehne (click for larger picture)
Reno Airport-Gate, Chapter 88
Sept, 2000
Sam Dehne (click for larger picture)
INNOCENT RENO CITIZEN FOUND INNOCENT - DUH!
1. Some 45 days after he was kidnapped by the Reno Airport, SAM DEHNE, was found innocent of the bogus charges the scandal-plagued Reno airport weirdos trumped up against him.
2. On 14 Sept, 2000 Sam was ignominiously hauled off to jail for having the audacity to speak out against the Reno airport's massive corruption and double-dealing corporate welfare schemes. He was then charged with bogus offenses in 2 different courts... an obvious affront to the U. S. Constitution and honorable government.
3. "Charges" were dropped.
4. It is somewhat relieving to see that somewhere in the bowels of "the system" there are a few honest and sensible district attorneys and city attorneys. The key word being "sensible"... because at last count there were 27 different stand-alone reasons why the Airport was in deep trouble for its cowardly and heavy-handed tactics.
Just a few:
Despite deep-rooted animosity by airport top brass, the District Attorneys office could not find a single witness anywhere who would say Sam Dehne did anything wrong. Not a single person!
6. Are those 2 airport cops who hauled Sam off relieved that this will not be going to trial in those 2 local Courts? You can figure yes!
7. Is Sam relieved?
"In a way, yes. But on the other hand, I was looking forward to questioning those airport critters under oath... and exposing the truth about THEIR crimes."
"It was a nasty ordeal in the meantime... with citizens looking askance at me and wondering what sort of evil person I must be... to have been thrown in jail and stuck with not 1... but 2 trials."
"I am sincerely thankful to the multitudes of citizens, who recognized that these abuses of power were designed to silence me, and who offered their prayers."
When Sam was wrongfully removed from the airport meeting, the RGJ made it front page news... with numerous distortions describing the event... including a front page picture of Sam in a rogue's gallery.
Where do you think any belated retraction report will be stuck? Maybe page C-5?
Read the Truth about this mess... and the Federal Lawsuit that was filed and ordered to Trial by the 9th Circuit Court in a vote by those judges, 25 to zero. (click)
To: Reno Gazette Newspaper (10/27/00),
Where's your apology for trying to make Sam Dehne look like a crook??? He's
been exonerated by those who tried to muzzle him; but then realized what would
happen if they tried to press charges.
This should be a front page story. That's where you put the story of his arrest.
What a sad, sick, gutless little journal you are. Why don't you move to some
dictatorial country like Vietnam or Iran, where you'll be right at home
kissing the butts of those in charge?
Colin Richardson
305 Norwood Ave
Satellite Beach, FL 32937-3151
321-777-2117
The Facts and Background
It is a well-known fact that the scandal-plagued Reno Airport has had a long-standing multi-year documented history of cowardly antagonism against Sam Dehne. Anybody who follows Reno politics knows Sam Dehne as a model citizen who has dedicated his life to monitoring and exposing evil government bureaucrats in northern Nevada.
* The boneheads at the Reno Airport have attempted to suppress the First (Freedom of Speech) Amendment whenever Dehne has objected to the airport's crooked activities. Those airport freaks even have 3 armed guards at meetings specifically to try to intimidate Dehne.
* But it is the Fourth Amendment that was most recently mutilated:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Or... worded specific to Dehne's kidnapping:
"The right of Sam Dehne to be secure in his person against unreasonable seizures shall not, but upon probable cause, be violated."
*The Fourteenth (Equal Treatment Under the Law) Amendment is also given short shrift relative to Sam Dehne virtually every time the Airport board thinks it can get away with it.
Friendly fanny kissers are given freedom to kiss the airport board's fannys at will and ad naseum.
On 14 Sept, 2000 the Airport's double-dealers stepped over the edge and descended into a whole new level of citizen-molesting when they ordered the criminal abduction of Sam Dehne from their meeting.
With no legal authority to do so, the board chairman with the acquiescence of the rest of the entirely male good 'ol boy board of aviation amateurs, told 3 fully-armed airport policemen (who are ordered by assistant czar, Krys Bart, to be at these meetings to intimidate Dehne) to get him out of there. This was an order reminiscent of 1930's Hitler-led Nazi Germany. You probably remember the scenes; where the stormtroopers would blast into a citizen's home and drag him and his family off to some unpleasant place for no justifiable reason. Those Reno Airport guards who abducted Sam abdicated their rights and authority when they shirked their duties and failed to obey the dictates of the U. S. Constitution... which they had sworn under oath to defend. Their wrongful actions had no force under law. And Sam had no "duty" to obey their illegal request that he leave the Public Meeting.And there certainly was no law ordering him to "Sit down!".
Sam Dehne proved once again beyond a doubt that posting these guards at Public Meetings is not appropriate. (Most of the guards don't even want to be there! It's a gross embarrassment to what they are supposed to stand for.) Even though everybody would say Dehne had justification for struggling for his rights, he once again proved that he is no physical threat at these Public Meetings. Although he was being shamelessly abused by illegal orders from cowardly potentates, he just stood his ground steadfastly in passive resistance and took the illegal assaults... choosing not to fight back one iota. He stood his rightful ground until he was finally overpowered and criminally abducted from the Public Meeting.
He was standing up for the constitutional right (and duty) of all citizens to challenge evil rotten government.
If a Watchdog like Sam Dehne can be wrongfully suppressed... then the average citizen has NO CHANCE.
You can like him or not personally, but if you are worth an ounce of salt, you have to respect Dehne's passion for the defending of the Constitution and those things that used to make America great. Washington, Henry, Revere, and the Colonial Revolutionaries would have been at Sam's side.
Anybody who has seen the Public Television playing of the video tape of what happened at the Airport board has to know that what happened was a travesty of justice beyond even the typical perversions of local government.
Even though critical parts of the illegal Airport Public Meeting were "doctored" from the video tape, it still clearly displays crimes by the cowardly board that led up to the felony abduction of Sam Dehne.
It's as simple as this:
Hill told Sam to sit down (an order he had no authority to give).
Sam stood his ground... He would not give in.
Can you imagine England's King George III telling the Americans at Bunker Hill and Valley Forge; "George, Patrick (Henry), Paul (Revere) Sit Down!". What if they had obeyed?!?
The Reno Airport's entire case evolves around their bogus charge that Sam is a "threat". They feel the dire need for "escape routes", "special training", "special code words", "panic buttons". They already have 3 fully armed and highly paid guards (with 2 more on immediate reserve) at every meeting... JUST FOR SAM!
Folks, where does this yellow-bellied insanity end? All of this hysteria because the cowards are afraid of Sam... a 155 pound 60 year old citizen... who has never hurt a flea.
IS Sam "threatening"?
Only Sam's WORDS are threatening because he speaks the TRUTH... and the TRUTH threatens their evil empire.
D.A. Must Arrest and Prosecute the Real Criminals at the Reno Airport
(This letter was hand-delivered to the District Attorney and the Reno Police Chief)
Dear District Attorney,
Criminal Sanctions must be immediately brought against the Washoe County Airport Board (AAWC).
On 14 September, 2000 I was illegally removed from a Public Meeting by the AAWC, arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail. There was no "probable cause" for this wrongful "seizure".
The AAWC is guilty of criminal abduction of a citizen.
1. NRS 241.040(2) says:
"Wrongful exclusion of any person from a meeting is a misdemeanor (crime)."
2. NRS 241.040(1) also says:
"Each member of a public body who attends a meeting of that body where action is taken in violation of any provision of the Open Meeting Law, with knowledge of the fact that the meeting is in violation thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor (crime)."
The video tape of the Public Meeting of 14 September, 2000 plainly shows beyond a scintilla of doubt that there was no justification for my being kidnapped by the AAWC. Each and every member of the AAWC and the executive director willingly stood by and acquiesced and did nothing to attempt to stop these crimes that were happening right in front of their faces.
Part of the video tape of the Public Meeting has disappeared, but there is still plenty of evidence of the crimes that took place.
And to exacerbate an already terrible disgrace, the chairman of the AAWC is a charlatan. He was not legally empowered to be running that Public Meeting and handing out nazistic orders. Chapter 474, Statutes of Nevada (Airport Authority of Washoe County), Sec. 7 [Board, Selection of officers] has no provision that allows the AAWC to split the chairmanship into two 6 month terms... which they did. And it also does not allow a chairman to be elected by a cut of a deck of cards... which was done. These and other evil rotten actions by the AAWC eradicate their right to have control over the lives of thousands of innocent citizens. They are guilty of numerous violations of NRS 241.040(1) at virtually every single Public Meeting.
This is my official citizen's request that you follow the dictates of your oath of office and arrest these individuals and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law for their egregious actions. Did you not somewhere along the line swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution?
Furthermore, any other Public entities that are participating in the Reno Airport's disgrace against honest government are guilty of "misprision of felony", and must also be prosecuted as accomplices during and after the fact. Enough time has passed for all agencies involved in, and overseeing, the aspects of this mutilation of justice... to recognize that the wrong man is scheduled for trial... TWO TRIALS. All counterfeit charges against me, the victim, must be immediately dropped. Period!
I am prepared to offer testimony against these evil rotten people. Massive sums of federal taxes are involved, and thus the FBI will also be made aware of these crimes.
Signed,
Sam Dehne, Lt Col USAF (ret)
297 Smithridge
Reno, Nevada 89502
GET OUTTA HERE!
Subject: Reno Airport Chairman's Resignation Demanded (Open Letter)
To: Richard A. Hill, Chairman of the Reno Airport Board
From: Sam Dehne, Advocate for Honest Government (18 Sept, 2000)
Mr. Hill,
First, I call for your immediate resignation. Your shameless actions at the Reno Airport are transparent proof that you are not fit to hold a position of public trust. Period!
Second, your arrogance and paranoia led to my wrongful detention on 14 September during a Public Meeting at the Reno Airport. This wrongful detention amounts to felony abduction.
While seated in the audience, I made a casual remark in a normal tone of voice to a gentleman seated just behind me. You permitted yourself to believe that you heard me say something which I most definitely did NOT say... although I had every right under the Constitution's First Amendment to have said what you thought you heard.
You took it upon yourself to interrupt the proper course of the meeting in progress to wrongfully accuse me of having said something which you subjectively felt offensive. You are the person who is guilty of disturbing the orderly conduct of that Public Meeting.
When I justifiably demanded an apology from you for your error, you ignored me. Instead, you tried to intimidate me into backing down from my stand against your intolerable behavior... a clear demonstration of arrogant tyranny on your part.
When the day comes that American citizens begin backing down from the arrogant and illegitimate commands of pompous APPOINTED potentates, then this country's greatness is doomed.
Without legal justification... because of YOUR blunder... you ordered me to sit down. Your improper order to sit down was obviously a backhanded attempt on your part to have me accept YOUR stupid error... and accept YOUR arrogant refusal to apologize.
When I did not sit down... when I did not give in to your improper order... you instructed armed guards to eject me from the meeting room. You were in error when you accused me of having said what I did not say. You refused to apologize. You then abused your powers in having me ejected and subsequently arrested.
Third, as a former Air Force officer, I more than once put my life on the line for America's ideals. You are an enemy of those ideals. You are an enemy of what America is all about. On 14 September, I was personally obligated as an American to challenge your cheap, sinister attempt to suppress political dissent by a
community watchdog.
Political dissent is at the heart of defending and preserving the American Vision. In my military career, I faced threats from enemies who were outside and inside America's borders. I was not intimidated by them. And I am most certainly NOT about to be intimidated by a third-rate APPOINTED politician
like you. You are a sorry excuse for a government administrator and decision-maker. You are an insult against open, honest, respectable government. You are a classic bureaucrat.
Fourth, you are asked to answer the following questions, in writing:
1. Why were you never officially publicly sworn into office as a member of the Airport Board; as is required by law?
Doesn't that make you a charlatan... and all your actions thus null and void?
2. Is your illegal list of "Public Comment Rules" at meetings not a clear offense against the 1st and 14th Amendments... and Nevada Revised Statute Laws?
3. When were your new illegal Public Comment Rules approved by Reno, Washoe County, and Sparks?
4. Prior to attempting to enforce your unilateral Public Comment dictates did you consult with any competent Constitutional attorney? (Airport counsel does not qualify.)
5. Why should you not be charged with causing my felony abduction?
6. Why should you not be charged with abusing your political and police powers?
7. Did you discuss, or have anything to do with, the disposition and/or doctoring of SNCAT video tape of the Public Meeting where I was abducted before, during, or after the meeting... including during your illegal recess?
8. Do you think a fully-informed jury (which I will demand) will let you get away with mutilation of the Constitution when my wrongful incarceration goes to trial?
9. Why should you not be charged with failure to obey the Laws of Nevada when you illegally confiscated homes from the innocent citizens of Rewana Farms, Reno?
10. Why wasn't your selection as chairman conducted in keeping with Nevada Law?
11. Why did you not apologize to me on 14 September... rather than play the role of a pompous potentate and have me feloniously abducted?
12. Do you know the legal penalties for wrongful removal of a citizen from a Public Meeting... and for felony abduction?
13. Why should the other Reno Airport Board members... of all male, good old boy, aviation amateurs... not be charged with complicity and collusion in your offenses?
Mr. Hill, much of what you have done during your years as a member of the scandal-plagued Reno Airport Board has been moronic, deceptive, and downright cowardly.
Again, I call for your immediate resignation.
Signed,
Sam Dehne, Lt Col, USAF (ret)
P. O. Box 50093
Reno, Nevada 89513
(775) 825-1398
PS
Where do I send the dry cleaning bill to clean up my blood that your guards got all over my new sport coat? My blood that was spilled while I was defending the U. S. Constitution against your shameless and cowardly machinations?
AN OPEN LETTER TO RICHARD A. HILL, CHAIR
AAWC BOARD OF TRUSTEES
21 September 2000
from Guy Felton, 828-6282
Mr. Hill,
Americans are obligated to challenge arrogance, tyranny, injustice, and
corruption in government. To disregard such obligation is to renounce the
divinely-guided armed revolution that gave birth to our nation under
Washington and his fellow Patriots. To disregard such obligation is to spit
upon the graves of all Americans who have given their lives for our country
and the sacred liberties it represents.
In final analysis, you are a lowly public servant -- a lowly APPOINTED public
servant. But you see yourself as something else. You see yourself as a
public master. And this perception MUST and WILL be corrected in upcoming
Federal litigation having to do with your causing the felony abduction of Sam
Dehne on 14 September, this year.
You accused Sam of having said something he did not say. He demanded an
apology. You refused to offer an apology. Sam continued his demand. You had
Sam physically removed from your meeting room; he was subsequently arrested.
You have no comprehension of the magnitude of your crime, do you? You also do
not comprehend that even if Sam had said what you mistakenly thought he said,
he had clear right under the Constitution to do so.
There is now talk of strengthening security measures during meetings of the
Airport Board. This is amusing, Mr. Hill. Are you planning to accuse more
citizens of saying things they will not have said? Are you planning to have
more citizens arrested when they demand apologies for your tyrannical
stupidities and abuses of power?
How will security measures be strengthened? Let me suggest the following:
Have armed Gestapo persons sit or stand by each and every citizen who attends
any Airport meeting. Have a dozen, snarling, attack dogs present in the
meeting room. Dig escape tunnels behind the chairs of all trustees. Provide
trustees with ejection seats in place of their regular chairs -- such ejection
seats to be propelled through a trap door in the ceiling. Have escape
helicopters standing by on the roof with their rotors turning. Have a flight
of F-18s circle the airport as a security umbrella. Install a 5-inch-thick
glass partition between trustees and lowly citizens.
Of course, the simple and inexpensive alternative would be to just provide
open, honest, intelligent, democratic government. Government that doesn't
manufacture irate citizens. But this is beyond your comprehension, isn't it,
Mr. Hill?
...
......................................................
I was reading a recent editorial in your journal which supported a local
judge because he is speaking his mind. The editorial indicated that more
citizens should do the same.
You do have one citizen, Sam Dehne, who does speak his mind, and he is being
persecuted for it. But, I don't see your paper standing up against the
injustice being done to a citizen who differs with the local authorities and
is willing to tell them so.
The history of the development of free speech is replete with these types of
persecutions, but it is also replete with courageous newspaper people who
spoke out loudly and clearly against injustice. Where are they today??
Where are you, Sir??
Colin Richardson
305 Norwood Ave.,
Satellite Beach,
FL 32937
(USAFAcademy Class Of 1962)
I hoped with Sue Clark's leaving that real journalism would poke its head
out. My hopes were for naught. I'm referring to the recent article by
Faith Bremmer about Airport Security. It is unfortunate your reporter did
not make an effort to contact Sam Dehne' for comment. I've always found Sam
easy to get hold of, and he ALWAYS returns my calls. Even from his website
he ALWAYS responds to my e-mail. When we were political opponents in the
last several elections he was always courteous and a gentleman, and never
failed to return a call.
Did your supposed 'reporter' even call Sam for a comment on this article
which so liberally used his name?
If you folks want to do some real journalism (that's between I and K in the
dictionary), then why don't you investigate the missing minutes of SNCAT
tapes which would quite elegantly let us ALL know firsthand what occurred
during this "inflammatory" meeting of the airport board. You might
investigate WHY they are missing.
I'm ashamed of you. You're doing us a disservice.
Craig O. Bergland
e-mail cobslots@aol.com
Your story about Sam Dehne implies he is some type of serious physical threat
to the airport or to meetings. On you ramble about new security measures,
training for employees, etc, etc, etc, as if a terrorist attack had just
occurred. What hogwash!
The obvious truth is that you are part of the group trying to muzzle a
citizen who is only attempting to bring out the truth. As a news reporter you
should be defending Sam's rights. For the moment, you should hang your head
in shame!!
I hope Sam wins the biggest lawsuit in the history of Reno. What a poor,
sad, sick city you have out there.
Colin Richardson
USAFAcademy 1962
From Las Vegas Online Magazine, "Jonnymo" (click)
The 'officials' anxious to
implement new security
measures - notice the
references to 'code words and
panic buttons' among other
things - following Reno Citizen
Sam Dehne's arrest at one of their meetings brings to mind the thought
attributed to Thomas Jefferson: when people fear their government,
you have tyranny; when government fears the people, you have
liberty. Perhaps the paranoid proposals evolving from this incident
amount to one of the best possible testimonials for that endangered
specie: citizens activists like Sam. And because he's also active on
the Web, you have the benefit of reading Sam's own words on the
matter...
Sam may be outspoken and abrasive, but other than any undesirable
impact on the interests of the entrenched due to the thoughts that he
expresses, we find it impossible to describe him as 'dangerous'.
Dear Scott, 9/25
1. SNCAT TV (828-1221) has the tape of the criminal abduction... part of it, that is.
2. You can get the first 1/2 hour of the meeting for $5. I have to save my copy for the trial.
3. What is MOST CRUCIAL about the tape is the "missing" 60 seconds... the 60 second "gap" in the tape... the missing segment where I was being kidnapped. They "claim" they turned off both of the cameras at the exact instant the armed guards starting grabbing me. Anyone with an IQ over 50 knows that is pure hogwash!
4. The trial in federal court will bring out the truth... they can't all stick to the same lie... there are too many of them and one of them will "break" under oath... already I have a few leaking information to me anonymously.
5. Thank you for recognizing that there is evil rotten government in northern Nevada.
6. kidnap: "to seize and hold or carry off a person against his will usually by force or fraud, often for ransom." (the ransom in this case being my silence)
Signed,
Sam, a 155 pound 60 year old citizen [Lt Col, USAF (ret)]
Sam,
I'm interested in seeing the video for the airport meeting. Was
there one made? Again the Airport has stepped over their boundries by
doing this. Keep up the good work. I hope to see a day (in my
lifetime) where we will not need someone to keep such a close eye on our
government, but until that time please keep up the work you do.
Thank You Sam,
Scott Underwood
Here's the judge Kosach Editorial by the Reno Gazette
(sounds like they are talking about Sam Dehne):
Tirade in court: Go get ’em, judge
Reno Gazette-Journal
Sunday September 17th, 2000
So District Judge Steven Kosach storms off
the bench, confronts a convicted rapist and
multiple felon and gives him hell right to his
face?
Go get ’em, judge.
Sure, it’s not decorum and it’s not dispassionate and it’s not ordinary. But
sometimes a man’s got to say precisely what he feels. And if there is this guy
with 10 felony convictions on his record, and he has now been convicted of
robbing a young couple, forcing the boyfriend out of the car at gunpoint, raping
the girlfriend four times and trying to run over a policeman who intervened, and
he’s sitting there stonefaced and not looking the least bit sorry, sometimes the
only right thing to do is to tell him just what a miserable human being he is: a
“filthy, cowardly predator” who faces yet another trial on yet another rape charge
of yet another young woman, who like the first one says she was terrified and
abused and scarred irretrievably way down in the soul.
You suspect that the judge’s tirade might not have gotten through to the
defendant, who still showed no remorse and was defiant going out of the
courtroom. But if it ultimately was not beneficial to the criminal, it certainly felt
beneficial to society.
The problem, you think, is not that a judge gets furious, but that the rest of us do
not get furious enough. When we see evil actions, we accept too many excuses,
we get bowled over by too many rationales, we try to be too even-handed and too
humane and too judicious. We would serve society and justice better if we called
evil what it is, without compromise and without clarification. When something is
thoroughly rotten, just say so.
Even the Reno Gazette now agrees with Sam's crusade to clean up Reno!
Internet Version (click)
The latest story from the world of the scandal-plagued Reno airport. Just when you thought it was safe to breathe again... those cowardly yellow-bellies come up with another knuckleheaded scheme. Now they are having special meetings to figure out how to further beef up security (to go along with the 3 armed guards they currently have at their all their meetings) to "protect" them from 155 pound senior citizen Sam Dehne. The real evidence is overwhelming! Sam has never been arrested in his first 60 years of life. Sam has never made a threatening statement or gesture in 6 continuous years of attending and lecturing at their meetings. What a wonderful place this would be with an honest newspaper to challenge the mouthpiece for the airport fat cats Reno Gazette... a newspaper that would at least attempt to level the playing field of dishonor at the Reno Airport. (Among a plethora of lies in their "report" of 9/19/00 they claim that Sam "continued to scuffle with officers as they drove him to the county jail". SAM WAS IN THE BACK SEAT SEPARATED FROM THE FRONT BY PROTECTIVE BARS... AND HIS HANDS WERE CUFFED BEHIND HIS BACK! SCUFFLED?!?)
Sam is one of the very few citizens willing to fight and expose the embezzlement, landgrabbing, and other sundry citizen-molesting perversions at the Reno Airport.
They think they need special employee training and escape routes for airport personnel... in case the 3 armed guards aren't enough to handle Sam's oratory!!!
Next the cowards will want to put this 155 pound "gorrilla" in a steel cage at the meetings. Maybe then the airport criminals will feel safe?!?
Attention:
(1) Madelyn Shipman (Assistant District Attorney), Counsel
Washoe County Commission
(2) Robert H. Ulrich, General Councel
Airport Authority of Washoe County (AAWC)
Re: Compliance with the Airport Authority Act for Washoe County
(Chapter 474, Statutes of Nevada 1977, 1999 Printing)
Let me draw your attention to Section 7.1 on page 23 which states:
"The board shall choose one of its members as chairman and one of its members
as vice chairman, and shall elect a secretary and a treasurer, who may be
members of the board. The secretary and the treasurer may be one person. The
terms of the officers expire on July 1 of each year."
As a freelance writer and concerned citizen, I ask you to respond in writing
to the following questions:
1. Is it your position that the AAWC Board of Trustees had a legally-empowered
chairperson on 13 July 2000 who conducted an election of officers within the
letter of Nevada law? If so, what law(s) supersede(s) Section 7.1 above to
justify your yes answer?
2. Is it your position that the AAWC Board of Trustees chose ONE of its
members on 13 July 2000 within the letter of Nevada law to serve as
chairperson until 1 July 2001?
3. Why does the Agenda for the AAWC Board of Trustees meeting for 13 July 2000
clearly display Geno Menchetti as Chairman -- when, by Section 7.1, his term
of office expired on 1 July 2000?
4. Is it your position that the AAWC Board of Trustees is somehow empowered to
disregard Section 7.1 when it feels it convenient to do so? If so, please explain.
5. Is it your position that ALL actions taken by the AAWC Board of Trustees
since the end of June 2000 should NOT be declared null and void due to the
incontestable failure of the Board to comply with Nevada law?
Your timely reply will be appreciated.
Guy Felton
1220 Salem Place #5, Reno, NV 89509
usa-1@usa.net
RENO GADFLY KEEPS TABS ON
GOVERNMENT By D. Brian Burghart
Every city has them, those hyperfocused
critics of government the media call gadflies.
“Rugged individualists” is one term that pops
up. “Nuts” is another.
Depending on whom you talk to about which
gadfly, these men and women can fit either
description. Often, gadflies are interested in
only one issue, such as fluoridated water or
historic preservation, but occasionally the
scythe of their interests cuts a wider swath.
Sam Dehne, 60, of Reno is a gadfly with a
broad scope.
“The amount of corruption in this town is just
mind-boggling,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”
A perennial candidate and a rabid
government watchdog, Dehne is like the
Energizer Bunny. He’s been going and going
to every Reno City Council meeting since
1995, a record that
betters any elected official, the retired Air
Force pilot said. Nor has he missed a
meeting of the Airport Authority of Washoe
County in the past few years.
He’s also a permanent fixture at the meetings
of the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors
Authority, Sparks City Council and Washoe
County Commission.
Dehne’s critics say his attack mode of
speaking at public meetings – raising his
voice, fingerpointing and name-calling – often
gets in the way of his message of clean
government.
“It’s not just that I’m less than thrilled with
his presentation,” said Reno City Councilman
David Aiazzi. “He calls himself a watchdog,
but a watchdog only barks when there’s an
intruder or something to bark about. A dog
that barks all the time – like when a leaf falls
outside – that’s a poodle. And, to me, that’s
the difference between Sam Dehne and a
real watchdog. He’s been hoisted up in the
media as doing something for this
community, but he’s not.”
Dehne said it’s his message that fuels his
critics’ anger.
“If they don’t like what you’re saying,
they’re never going to like how you say it,”
he said.
His vitriolic behavior recently landed him on
the wrong side of the law. On Sept. 14,
Dehne’s participation at an airport authority
meeting ended with his arrest for obstructing
and resisting police officers and disturbing
the peace. The charges were dropped Oct.
26 for lack of evidence.
Dehne’s acrimonious relationship with
government goes back to 1994, when a plan
by the Nevada Air National Guard to
replace its F-4s with F-16s appeared on his
radar screen. Dehne thought the F-16s were
too dangerous to fly into an urban airport like
Reno-Tahoe International Airport, because
the plane’s one-pilot, one-engine design
lacked fail-safes.
Since that time, Dehne has fought the
government’s plans to establish a U.S. Postal
Service hub at the airport; private meetings
among City Council members; building a
parking lot on convention authority property;
and a contract between Reno Mayor Jeff
Griffin’s cargo business and the airport
authority.
To further his causes, he’s run for Reno
mayor (1995), Reno City Council (1996 and
2000), and there was even an aborted run
for U.S. Senate, although he denies trying to
win any of those seats.
“The reason I signed the paper and paid my
$25 to be in those races was to get a bully
pulpit to express my views, but it doesn’t
really work out that way,” Dehne said. “You
know who shows up at those candidate
forums? Other candidates.”
Dehne’s views may have gone unheard in
campaign forums, he said, but they can
always be found on his Web site,
http://www.renocitizen.com.
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D. Brian Burghart is a free-lance writer
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